Fantasy Baseball Today - Top Outfield Prospects & Jeimer Candelario to the Reds! (12/7 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: December 7, 2023

We're breaking down the top outfield prospects, starting with Wyatt Langford (4:10)! ... How early should Jackson Chourio go in redraft leagues (14:28)? ... Dylan Crews has huge power-speed potential (20:08). ... Evan Carter was awesome down the stretch but is he being drafted too early (29:12)? ... Jasson Dominguez had a whirlwind of a season in 2023 (34:50). ... News (37:27): Jackson Holliday could be up on Opening Day! ... Jeimer Candelario just signed with the Reds mid podcast (42:25)! ... Scott is bullish on Erick Fedde's return to MLB (54:10). ... We wrap up with the rest of The Welsh's top-10 outfield prospects (1:00:17). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up, and welcome into Tampany Baseball today on Thursday, December 7th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris, the Welsh. Today on the show, we are looking at the top 10 outfield prospects entering 2024,

including the top proximity names that you need to know for redraft leagues next year. And we do have some news to get to, but you won't hear any of our thoughts on Juan Soto and that crazy trade and Craig Kimbril, Eduardo Rodriguez, because we've already done an emergency podcast. So if you're looking for that, go check it out. You'll find out all of our thoughts. If we're being honest, we're kind of working double duty because, we just wrapped up that live stream.

Now we're starting up a new podcast, but here we are. Welsh, obviously the outfield is loaded with tons of prospects, amazing players. We could have done a top 25, a top 50, but like we do with all these, we'll limit it to 10 outfield prospects. Great position. How about this? We didn't get outside of my top 25 overall prospects with 10 outfielders. That's how far we didn't go and how deep the position.

should be, by the way. If we're going to play so many, we want so many good ones. There is an interesting kind of break in the tiers of these guys where, I mean, we're talking like elite elite players at this tippy top. We have five of these names are also inside my top 10. The talent pool kind of, it alters a little bit, but all the way through the top 100.

I think I'm doing rough math here on how I have this on my sheet. Around 34 outfielders, 35 outfielders in my top 100. obviously the pools kind of change but you're talking from high-end AFL big performances to young players that are waiting for big breakouts to just overall huge production.

It's tons and tons of talent and like shortstop. Two things you can feel comfortable, don't worry about your own. I don't have a catcher on my prospect dynasty. I don't have a second bit. Who cares? Have short stops and have outfielders. And maybe a pitcher or two. And you're good to go and you can figure it all

out later because there are lot of great players. And there are quite a few players that have real, real legitimate chances in this spot to play not just next year, but like opening day. Yeah. And I was going to surprise you and just tack on some other outfield names. But to be honest, once we get outside of your top 10, I mean, there's a few others in there. But the deeper you go, it's a lot of names that are like farther away. Like we're talking like two, three years away. So I think it's fine to kind of omit those names for now and as they get closer to the bigs, that's when we can start talking about them. Let's start up top with your number one ranked outfield prospect. That is Wyatt Langford

from the Texas Rangers. That's right. The rich get richer because the Rangers just won the World Series and they are about to add this guy. I mean, as soon as opening day, which is crazy to say, Wyatt Langford was the fourth overall pick in this year's draft. He just turned 22 years old in November, and he only got 44 games in. It's a small sample, I get that. He destroyed. He destroyed at every level.

360 batting average, 10 homers, 12 steals, and 1157 OPS. He had more walks than strikeouts across four different levels. He got five games in at AAA. Well, so we're looking at a potential five category contributor, and maybe as soon as opening day, based on early ADP, his ADP is 164

since November 1st. I mean, people are basically drafting him like he's there on opening day. Do you agree? Yeah, I mean, he is being baked in for that because,

but here's the thing. It's being baked in of like, yeah, we trust that he's going to be up soon. If we were given the announcement that Wyatt Langford was making,

making the opening day roster, we are back into old school Bobby Witt where I was like, remember I was like, oh, It's going to be top 75, blah. Wyatt Langford would 100 be going inside the top 100, probably in the 60 to 75 range.

And I'm not saying, I'm not trying to argue if that's right or wrong, but it's a little bit different than like the Corbyn Carroll or Gunner-Henderson situation because we haven't seen it happen at the major league level, but we did see the ultimate press of what teams are going to give us in the minor leagues. Jackson Holiday, four levels. Wyatt Langford, four levels. He was able to push all the way through, all the way up into AAA.

He actually skipped A ball. I was actually at his debut, which is pretty cool. You can go see it on my timeline on my Twitter. You can search it. I was at his first and third game, and you can see the hard hit. He hit 300 at least at every single level in like barely over 100 games,

or I'm sorry, 100 at bats, like 160 at bats. He ended up having double digit homers and stolen bases. And Prospects Live has some of the AAA stack cast data. He hit a 11.5 max EV just in AAA, which is pretty great. 95th percentile was almost 108, which is pretty crazy. Barrow percentage wasn't up there, but just remind you, this is just a dude that barely got here. And the power speed combo, the way he approaches the ball, it's advanced. And the team has said they're going to give him every opportunity, which might be at DH.

So yes, he's baked in, but he's baked in of like, yeah, we're pretty sure. if it was affirmative, he will go inside the top 100. So if you're doing early drafts, you kind of have to make that concerted effort. And, you know, Frank, you and I were talking about this in your,

what was it called? The dominator, terminator. Existentialator. That's a gladiator draft. The gladiator draft. Like, you have to like make the choice here.

And you were like putting me to the test with some of these. And I'm like, listen, I think Jackson Churio makes it. I think Wyatt Langford makes it. And I also think a guy like Jackson Holiday. I think those are three guys that these teams have to consider, A, for the play,

B for the positional openings they have, and C, for the extra compensation. So yes, Wyatt Langford, ADP, it does make sense. And if you're a little bit of a risk taker, you're actually not going high enough. Scott, I get that White Langford was the fourth overall pick. So obviously he has that pedigree and he crushed. It's also a really small sample size.

So there is a bit of skepticism here for me that, you know, a guy has played 44 games in the minors. We're taking him at picks 164. It sounds a little crazy. What do you think about that early price tag? Yeah. You know, I'm actually going through my outfield prospect rankings right now. This is the first of these prospect podcast we've done where I'm actually somewhat caught up. I've actually studied the position to a degree.

I haven't actually finalized my rankings, but my initial inclination is to put Jackson Chorio ahead of Wyatt Langford. And I know on a previous podcast, Chris, you said that you view White Langford is the number one overall prospect. So ahead of Jackson Holiday. No, no, I do not. That's actually a lot of people do feel that way. I don't.

I'm Jackson Holiday. And I just want to agree with you for a second. I think White Langford and Jackson Churio are neck and neck. The sheer magnitude of what White Lankford did with those hard hit numbers, excelling at every level. And by the way, I didn't even mention, he walked more than he struck out. And he did not strike out a whole lot.

You take every element of that on a World Series team, you go and throw him and you let him hit five or six. It's absurd. But Churio is also kind of this other beast with the strikeout numbers and stuff. Some people think there's a tier difference with Wyatt Langford. I don't. I think Holiday Langford and Churio are a clumped tier of incredibleness that I'm not going to kill you if you go in one different direction. And I don't think it's crazy for you to say you would prefer Churio over Langford because there's also a bigger track record.

And I kind of think Junior Combinero is in that group too. But getting back to Wyatt Langford and, you know, why? Why my, again, my knee-jerk reaction is to put him behind Jackson Chorio still. And I'm trying to decide why I'm doing that. Like, is it just, I've been hearing about Jackson, it's been salivating over Jackson Holiday and Jackson Chorio for so long that it just feels like, it just feels rash to put White Langford ahead of them? It is only 44 games.

Minor league samples are always pretty small. And it's 44 games where at every single level, Wyatt Langford dominated. So it's not like he was hot for two weeks. And then they moved him up to tougher competition. And he cooled off. And it just didn't reflect in the numbers yet because he didn't get enough time at that new level.

He, like, everywhere he went, Wyatt Langford was a monster. His slash line, 360, 48677. It's a video game. he did steal 12 bases he actually had more steals than home runs but I'm also not totally confident that's going to be a part of his game it's a big big guy you look at him and you don't see a player that is going to steal like 20 bases it's really actually hard to process when you see him in person

and he didn't he wasn't a big base dealer in college so I don't know like I don't know I mean he he he he he's seen It seems almost too good to be true. You know, I just want more data. So before I commit to Wyatt Langford as the number one overall prospect, I think that's all it is. Because, you know, if I make this move of putting him ahead of the Jackson's holiday and choreo, and he doesn't, like he does come crashing back to Earth, like I'll feel like I should have known better, right? If it turns out he's better than those two, I mean, just good on him. They'll all probably be great.

I don't know. That's where I stand with Wyatt Langford. I'm not trying to take a negative stance with him because he's an amazing prospect. He should have a strong fantasy impact in 2024. But I don't know. I guess since we're kind of talking about number two on the Welsh's list here, Chori, I'll get into this a little bit. He just signed that eight-year, $82 million deal with the Bruce. which in my mind virtually guarantees he's on the opening day roster they want that draft pick they want the chance at the bonus draft pick which they can only get if he's on the opening day roster and they don't have to consider surface time issues because he's already you know locked up his salary for the eight next next eight years so I think it virtually guarantees it and with that news in in my redraft rankings I moved jackson choreo up to 21 in my outfield rankings I still don't have white lankford anywhere close

to that, in part because we don't actually know if he's going to be on the opening day roster. If we find out, he'll probably move up quite a bit as well. So my, like I'm thinking of that hypothetical, if we did find out, okay, White Lankford's on the opening day roster, if we found that out tomorrow, would I move him up as high as 21? I don't think I would. And so what does that say about how I should rank the two comparatively, just as prospects? you know, I don't know. I feel like Langford should be behind.

Last point on Langford, if you take the steamer projections and just pro-rate them over 600 plate appearances, they have him hitting 262 with 23 homers, 14 steals, and an 809 OPS. I mean, that is already a productive player in his rookie season. So just to put some perspective around Wyatt Langford, Welsh, last question on him, is he your number one player in first year player drafts ahead of Yoshi Yamamoto? Yes. Dynasty hitters over pitchers always. Yamamoto might be more productive

this year, might be more productive next year, might, I think is a big question, but when in doubt go with the hitting prospects here, Points Leagues might be a tiny bit different, I suppose, but I like Langford, and it took a lot for me to put Langford over Dylan Cruz because I like Dylan Cruz more than most other people, because I think he is a great pure hitter, even though his debut wasn't

as magnificent, but answered yes over Yamalo. If we're going to bring up points leagues, I mean, Wyatt Langford, it seems like that would be his format. Yeah. The exceptional plate discipline.

So maybe that's a scenario where you do go Langford over Chorio is points league specifically. Yeah. OBP two, OBP leagues. Yeah. Your number two ranked outfield prospect, no surprise.

And already mentioned, Jack Centurio with the Milwaukee Brewers. Scott and I have talked about him a lot recently because he signed that eight year, $82 million extension with its incentives that could max out at $140 million over 10 years. This season as a 19-year-old at mostly AA, Jackson Churio hit 282 with 22 homers, 44 steals,

and an 805 OPS. Brewer's GM, Matt Arnold, said that Churio will have a chance to make the team's opening day roster. It sounds like I would think that's pretty likely at this point. There have been three NFBC drafts since TRIO, since the extension was announced late last week. His ADP is up to 142, 30th outfielder off the board. Welsh, what do you think about that price tag for Jackson Churio?

Yeah, I mean, again, we're pushing the limits, but I'm open to taking a little bit more risk in the later rounds. I think the upside is great in that mock that we did. A credit to me, fifth outfielder, Jackson Churio later, no big deal. But you're not getting them at this price now. outfield is a weird spot. At 140, there's scenarios where he can be your outfielder two,

which you don't really love because I think there's inherent risk. Outfield of three is a better spot. Listen, I love Churio. I'm not, even though I'm saying, I'm on record saying, like, I think Jackson Churio breaks camp.

Pat Murphy, it's kind of a hardo. Like, I love him. He was a coach at ASU for a long time, but he, like, they asked him about it. And he's like,

I told him he has to earn it. He's like, he's number 94 to me. He's like, I will put that number 11 jersey that he wants to wear in my office and he can stare at every day until he earns it. I'm not saying that's going to do anything. The organization is to be like, hey, cool, Pat, that's great, but we want a first round pick. So I don't care what you think.

That's a possibility because this is a magnificent talent. But, you know, he is definitely still a young guy. Strikeouts aren't any type of crazy problem. Walk numbers. I'll be very curious, like where that ends up going long term. Jackson Turyo put a big heart hit numbers in a very short sample size in AAA, around 57% according to Prospect's Lives data, which is nice, but 40 plus stolen bases, the 20 homer marker.

It's everything that you want. There's a big aggressive upper cut swing that he puts into a lot of this stuff. Poll rates probably need to improve. He kind of lowered as he went, ended at 43% in AAA. So I'd like to see that go a little bit higher. And the ground ball rate was 52% at AAA. So I think that's also about his approach. And I think that's what the teams have to come to terms with.

Like, how advanced of a hitter do they believe he is now playing in the Dominican Winter League is a great thing? Junior Camerro is dominating. They get the second most homers in the Dominican Winter League. And I think Churio had some time there as well. So it's all positives. I'm not trying to be negative. It's just like we're pushing ish the limits on the 140 range. And I know I kind of'm like, hey, Linkford's going to go inside the top.

100, he'll go around 100 and maybe even a little bit further with those stolen bases if they give a guarantee, but I don't think you're going to get a guarantee. So you've got to take a risk. I like the risks. I'm willing to do it around the 100s. I don't know. It's a little bit dicey. So you mentioned the strikeout rate for Jackson Chorio not being such a problem. And I got to say, that is the improvement he made with the strikeout rate this past year is a big reason why I'm so optimistic about Jackson Torrey. I was kind of a skeptic with him prior to that. He struck out in 22

lower levels of the minor still, he struck out 27% of the time. Pretty high. Pretty scary against mostly fastballs because he was in the lower levels. Moved up the latter, obviously this past year, spent I think most of the season at AA, spent more time at AA than anywhere else.

So the biggest leap you can take from one level to the next in the minors facing a wider variety of pitches, more off-speed stuff, more breaking stuff and he cut that 27% strikeout rate from 2022 down to 17.8% like drastic improvement, even as he was facing a much higher level of competition. And so I think that that's when I, that that's when now I'm all in on choreo. Now I'm all on choreo just based on that. You talk through it. You know, interesting too that there's such a small sample size to look at

anything. But the AAA hit a like under 9% swinging strike percentage, which is pretty impressive too. You could think that might be a place where you unload a call. Again, it's like six or seven games or whatever, but you might think, yeah, we're going to unload some swings here. That didn't happen. Churio easily can, I can foresee him doing the things that we saw from like Corby and Carol. I don't think he can beat Corby and Carroll necessarily.

I think it could go more the path of Gunner Henderson. I think there might be an adjustment period that he will get back through. and I think it is highly likely he could touch. Maybe it's similar to like that first Bobby Witt season. 2030 seems within the realm of possibility if they are committed and you'd love to see them maybe move a little bit of that outfield because I don't want them to feel, I don't want them to be tempted to do something else. I want them to be all in on Churio.

The contract is one piece, but I want Pat Murphy to be all in as well. I was watching some highlights too. The power for Churio just, Feels like it comes so easy. Like all field power. Like, yeah, he can, you know, he could pull it. He could go to the opposite field. I saw home runs to all over the park.

So obviously that's going to play pretty well out there in Milwaukee as well. Your number three outfield prospect is Dylan Cruz for the Washington Nationals. The second overall pick in this year's draft turns just 22 years old in February. He got 35 games in after being drafted. And he hit 292 with five homers, four steals in 844 OPS. but did struggle quite a bit in 20 games at AA. Obviously, it's a very small sample size. I don't think we care too much about that.

But this is an elite college bat, known for power and speed. I think on a very clearly different timeline here than Wyatt Langford. A, because Langford was just so ridiculous, even better, obviously, than Dylan Cruz was. And B, the nationals are nowhere close to competing yet. So it just doesn't really make sense to push him. Welsh, your thoughts on... Dylan Cruz and I guess the timeline. Is there a chance?

I don't know. Maybe he's like a second half call up, August, September, something like that. Yeah, see, that's a tricky thing. Though, you know, the one thing I would argue with some of these teams like this, yeah, sure. You don't bring these guys up because you're nowhere away, blah, blah, blah. But like, if you have a guy that could net you that compensation pick, you should consider it.

Think about like you will have teams not trade really great players because, oh, well, we can get the compensatory pick if they signed somewhere else. It's like that's more valuable than trading him for blah, blah, blah. All right, well, now put that into perspective of a player that can help you now and can be up from day one and get you a compensatory pick if you feel he's ready. That's my argument in that. I'm not sure he proved that because he did struggle a little bit at the end. This one, not everybody will like because obviously we haven't said Evan Carter yet.

He's next. And Evan Carter has proximity. I think there's still some power questions. And I think he had like one total extra base hit the entire season against lefties. So, I mean, you know, there's a little bit of platoon struggles in there on him. I think Dylan Cruz is a monster of a hitter. And I actually think this is very reminiscent of like that first Bobby Whit Jr. year. Bobby Whit Jr. was very mediocre.

Batting average and kind of striking out in rookie ball. Like he was okay. He was fine. And he was even older for the competition. Dylan Cruz was fun. You know, he won game at rookie ball. Get him the hell out of here. Go to A ball.

Dominate. Gets to double A little bit more struggles. He jumped over high A. That's the thing to point out, by the way. His struggles came when he jumped the level to A ball. It's a big ask, but he is a hard hit opposite field type of guy. I put up like 107's opposite field on MaxEV. He can pull the ball, has a great, again, this is one of those big pull generated swings.

He can run. I think this is 25, 25 on the low end, hitting in the middle of an order. I think he's a five category player. I love the talent of Dylan Cruz. and I'm betting on that regardless of recency results. We get very focused on like, well, this is what this guy did now. And it's like, okay, well, Dylan Cruz has been maybe the best college player for years. And he's coming over and he's going to get back there outside of maybe the national screwing things up because their development seems wonky.

Well, coming out of the draft, I think the consensus was Dylan Cruz is even better than Wyatt Langford. And it was just the disparate performances between the two that now have Wyatt Langford. as the top guy over. I had Cruz over him. You're 100% right. I think it's hard to deny where Langford is, but I think the gap

as far as some people have it. Yeah. I got to ask. So in the Scott White Dynasty League, uh-oh. You have the number two overall pick in the minor league draft, which is more or less

a first-year player draft, at least the beginning of it is. You have the number two pick. I have the number three pick. Let's say, White Langford goes one overall. Don't tell him, Welsh. Don't tell him.

Are you taking Paul Skeens or are you taking Dylan Cruz? Who are you leaving me with? See, and that's interesting. Yeah, I might have to make you sweat because that's Points League. And Paul Skeens is a bit more interesting. It's a 2014 points league where people never have enough pitching.

And this guy over here, I have struggled in the building of this team, which I do have Otani. And I do have quite a nice outfield of Corbyn, Carol, Luis Robert, and someone I'm not thinking of right now, and I sure struggle with pitching. So I don't know if I quite have an answer for you there, Scott,

but maybe you might be able to line in where I might be going. I've been counting on getting Dylan Cruz at number three. Yeah, I think it's really hard. It's hard to pass on a guy like Dylan Cruz. I mean, the format of your league, specifically in 24. There's no way you'd pass on them at number three. It's just, it's just, is somebody, is one of the two people picking ahead of me,

one of them being you, going to go for the big pitching prospect. The number one overall pick in the draft last year. The bigger question is, can we get the number one person to take Paul Skeens? Or Dylan Cruz, can we do that? That's RJ White.

He's, he's smart. I don't think he's going to go against the White-Langford consensus. Yeah, just pitching in a 2014 points league is really hard to come by and having like really high-end pitchers.

And for me to have like Max Meyer and Paul Skeen, coming up here very shortly is probably pretty tantalizing, but it's a very good question. And I do just think that like Dylan Cruz is underrated. He's underrated. And I think there is a possibility that midway through this year, we're like, man, can you believe that Dylan Cruz was in a completely another tier from

Wyatt Langford? I'm not saying it's going to happen. You're saying underrated, but he's still going to be a consensus top 10 overall prospect. Yeah. Yeah. Underrated in that like, everyone's like, Dylan Cruz, what are you talking about? Give me Yamamoto, give me Langford.

Maybe give me skeins. Like, they look at him as like, well, this is what I had leftover. And I just don't think Dylan Cruz is leftovers. I think he's, I think he's a meal. Your third outfielder, by the way, in the Scott White Dynasty League, Masataka Yoshita. That's it. Who is amazing in a points league.

So, yeah, Corbyn, Carol, Luis Robert, and Yoshita, that's pretty, pretty good outfield. I need some bitching. I got Otani as my DH. I'm doing all right, but pitching stinks. It's hard. It's 24 teams. Let's cut some people out. Relegate them.

Get rid of them. All right, let's take our first break when we return. We'll get to Evan Carter. We'll talk about Jason Dominguez. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in and let's get to the rest of the Welsh's top outfield prospects. I love that during the break, Welsh, you turn the hat around and now we see the Savannah bananas. There you go.

Shout out to the Savannah bananas. Hook your brother up. I'm a fan. I'm supporting. the hat. I love this hat and the backwards might be the most ridiculously awesome part of this hat that I can flip it back. So come on the YouTube over here on Fantasy Baseball today and check out my official Savannah Banana's hat. If I heard correctly on MLB Network recently from Jake Peavy, he said that the Savannah bananas are going to play some kind of, I guess, exhibition game in Fenway

Park. And Jake Peavy was lobbying to pitch in that game. I think he pitched already for the Savannah bananas in a game. Virginia last, like it was like April, they were coming here to Phoenix. They were playing in surprise six weeks out. I was like, that's great. I'm going to get tickets sold out. I mean, they are a sensation. It was weeks and weeks and weeks sold out before.

So shout out to my boys, the Savannah bananas. It's like the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball. That's how I explained it to my mother-in-law. That's exactly how I explained it. The number four outfield prospect is Evan Carter from the Texas Rangers. He just he's just 21 years old. doesn't turn 22 until next August, and we saw what he did when he came up late in the year for the Rangers.

Played only 23 games, but he hit 306, five homers, three steals, and OPS over 1,000. What did he do in the postseason? He hit 300, only one homer, but he still ran quite a bit. He had three steals, 917 OPS in the postseason. By the end of the World Series, he was batting, what, third, fourth in the Rangers lineup. Lots to like here, Welsh. The problem, this early price tag,

it's a bit prohibitive. I mean, we're talking about a 126 ADP. People are excited. I do share some of the concerns that you mentioned. What kind of power do we get this year? He has struggled against lefties in the past. I love him long term. Don't get me wrong.

But like, this season, I don't know. We might be pushing him a little bit too fast. Yeah, I think I even got ahead of myself. I mean, because this was a guy I was like, we already got our rookie of the year, early candidate, Evan Carter. And I don't think that necessarily goes away. I mean, you hit three and four as a rookie in the world series for the Texas Rangers with, you know,

hitting behind Corey Segar and Marcus Simeon. That says a lot about what that hit tool is. But ultimately what the big impact is, I think that's still open for interpretation. You know, five homers, it is impressive in the 62 games. He hit 300 at the majors. I don't want to take anything away from that, but, you know, there are worries about like how, how great of impact will the power be. He hit, 420 at Bats. He had 13 homers in the minors.

He stole 26 bases, which is pretty good. So, you know, 18 homers, 29 sold the bases on the year. I just wonder if he's more close to like a 15, 20 guy. And he hits for a high average, probably good runs in RBI. And, you know, I'll throw it to the next guy. This is definitely injury related. I love Jason Dominguez. If Jason Dominguez were completely healthy, I might have him at three.

That's how highly I think of just the impact and how he's changed his game. I mean, you want to talk about hard hit. It probably starts. with Wyatt Langford and then Jason Dominguez, too, and then I think probably bigger, harder hit numbers with Jason than with Churio. But I'm very dicey about this injury with Jason Dominguez. I'm concerned about, like, how is that going to hold him back?

So these are two, in theory, proximity guys. And I think of all the players we've talked about, and I'm adding Jason into this piece of the conversation, five outfielders, I think Evan Carter has the highest likelihood to be the worst counting stats player of all of them. The extremes I just, and again, Corbyn Carroll was able to do it. I don't think Evan Carter is in that same like general, you know,

vicinity. I was laying out like the ISO was this and pure power. Evan Carter is not the pure power guy. I think he's a capped 20 homer type of player. And if the stolen bases go up, guess what? He is Kyle Tucker. So maybe that is the upside of him being Kyle Tucker. I'm just not sure because he can't hit lefties right now.

And that's going to be a problem. and they have a lot of options. White Langford being one of them for potential platoon. So I got Carter at four. Some people might want him at three, but I could legitimately with just a not-injured Jason Dominguez have him at five. With Evan Carter, I was going to, forgot what I was going to point out.

I was going to point out something on Evan Carter, and now it is escaping me. But if it comes back to me, then I will remind you of it. I had serious doubts about his power potential when they called him up. readiness and his power potential because, you know, he was only 21 years old, had played only eight games at AAA, looked underdeveloped physically, still looks underdeveloped physically. I just didn't think there'd be enough punch in his swing. But he surprised me, you know, five home runs in 23 regular season games, one home run and 17 playoff games, but also

nine doubles to go with that home run. And, uh, that's just, show to willingness to run I don't think the upside is in the same vicinity is Dylan Cruz so I'm

with you that there's no need to rank Evan Carter ahead of Dylan Cruz the best thing Evan Carter has going for him

is on base ability which is more valuable in real life than in fantasy unless you're talking to points league or an OPP

League in which case maybe bump Evan Carter up a little but still not ahead of Dylan Cruz so I think he's

perfectly fine here. And hopefully he continues to continues the trend of maximizing his power projection. I got it. Sorry, I just was to add 46% hard hit rate. 10% barrel rate was actually really impressive, low launch angle. And I would be probably future paying attention to how do those pull numbers look? Because that's the type of 10% barrel rate with 40 mid-40s hard hit.

If you pull the ball, he might step himself. into 30 like a Kyle Tucker would. So like that's where things are open. He just doesn't have that same hit tool. So sorry, Frank. No, no, it's all good. I mean, I think that's a good point. Uh, he did pull the ball a lot in his small sample. So me, he might be able to pull it off in kind of, in Alex Breggmanie type way where he can get to like 25 home runs if he just pulls the ball a ton. I did want to point out. I think he might be even better in a points league too because his, while he does strike out quite a bit, his walk rates have been great. He has an amazing eye at the plate. I mean, it's almost like I just said that, Frank.

Oh, gosh, darn it. All right, well, the number five outfield prospect is Jason Dominguez. So let's talk about him. A whirlwind of a year for Jason Dominguez. You know, I was just thinking the whole time, what was I going to say? What was I going to say? And I guess I forgot. I was supposed to be listening to Scott.

Well, anyway, Jason Dominguez, a 20-year-old, I might add, as well. Just, again, whirlwind of a season, got off to the slow start in the minors. It got to July. The dude just flipped a switch. The overall numbers, he actually wound up. of picking them up quite a bit. He hit 265, 15 homers, 40 steals in the minors, and then got called up to the Yankees in September. His very first swing in the majors, he hit a home run off of future Hall of Famer, Justin Verlander. It was just like losing my mind at the time. He only plays eight

games with the Yankees. He had four home runs. He stole a base. He had a 980 OPS. And then he's diagnosed with a torn UCL in his right elbow. Surgery on September 20th, expected recovery is nine to 10 months. So I think there's a chance we could see him post All-Star Break, or maybe not, because there is this report that came out just recently that Aaron Boone is not guaranteeing Jason Dominguez the center field job post-recovery. Maybe it's just coach speak, whatever, it's the winter meetings, they need something to talk about. I mean, you bring Verdugo and Grisham in, too, to go along with Soto and Judge. And it's like, this year, that might be what he's talking about this year. Yeah. So, I mean, I do kind of worry about there's a chance the Yankee just,

kind of hold them down, and then we're looking at 2025, Scott. So what do you think about? Does Dominguez actually, I don't know, make any impact this year? I mean, he was such a bombshell when he got called up. Did so much good in that short span of time that I'm sure they're going to be counting down the days till he returns. He's better than Alex Verdugo. I feel pretty confident saying.

And, you know, who knows? Like, we're talking three months into the season, at least. like who knows what's going to have befallen the Yankees lineup by that point. I think we're going to see plenty of Jason Dominguez in the second half. And how stashable is he in the meantime? Obviously it depends on the depth of your league and how many IL spots you have to play with. I don't think he's going to, I don't think he's must draft even in all five outfielder leagues. But I think you're going to want to keep.

a close eye on his progress if he is sitting out there on the waiver wire all year. All right. Well, we hit on all the big moves that happened in our emergency podcast. You can go back and listen to that. But we do have some other news items to quickly run through here on this podcast. Orioles manager, Brandon Hyde, said that Jackson Holiday will be given, quote, every opportunity to make the team's opening day roster. And the early NFBC ADP is at 206 for Jackson Holiday.

Scott, if we do get that any inclination or if he's hitting well in spring training, how high does this climb? I mean, does it get ahead of like a churio and Wyatt Langford? What do you think about holidays potential ADP? Well, I have him ranked pretty high already. I'm pretty optimistic he's going to make the opening day roster. I think I understand this is only, I guess, the second year. The second spring that this new, is it the second or the third that teams are incentivized to have their top prospects make the opening day?

This will be the third because the first year, remember it like you thought the winners in the NL like Strider or Michael Harris both didn't qualify. So no one was able to take advantage of that. And then I don't remember the AL situation. Julio. Julio got it. Julio got it. Yeah, yeah. And Julio. Julio was the only one that came through with it.

That's right. So it's really complicated the way this works, which is why I never give the full explanation. But a team has a potential to earn bonus draft picks if a prospect of theirs is on the roster for their entire rookie season from opening day to end of the season and then goes on to place high enough in different awards voting so for the first few years of their career. But the key to it all is they have to be on the roster from the beginning and remain on the roster. And I wasn't sure that that would matter more to teams than extra control and that it would really stop service time manipulation. But early evidence suggested it has in a major way and that teams are much, much, much more willing to put their top prospects on the opening day roster. And Jackson Holiday, the way he basically scaled the Orioles entire system, leads me to believe he's got the inside track

on winning that job this spring because he's going to be up at some point next year. Are they going to hold them down all the way until August so that he retains rookie eligibility until next year and has a shot? I doubt that. I doubt that. This is his year.

This is going to be his rookie season. And so if that's the case, if you're the Orioles, wouldn't you want a shot at draft pick bonuses by just having them there from the beginning? I would think so. I would think Jackson Holiday is going to be good enough in spring training to justify that. So I have him already, I think he's my 14th shortstop, which overall would put him,

I'd need a minute to open it up. Overall, it would put Jackson Holiday. I have him 159th. So about the same ranges we were talking about with some of those other guys. The thing I want to just add to that, I would watch. is we speculated on the other part, the emergency pod we did where I said, like, listen,

I think this is where the Orioles make their move. Like the Orioles, they got Kimbrel, they paid a bunch of money, make your move now. And they have such a glut of great talent in their minors. If they go and trade, let's just for arguments sake,

say they go and make one of those big moves. And they trade maybe a Kobe Mayo, which probably would be a mistake, or Heston Kerstadt, or Connor Norby or whatever they decided to do. They deplete the system. even more reason for them to have Jackson Holiday up so you can replenish it,

even more reason that you can go make that trade when you have a potential front runner to win rookie of the year and get what is essentially a first round pick. I mean, I think a trade all but is a precursor to Jackson Holiday breaking camp because this team has won compensation for Gunner and they very likely could do it again.

So I think that would be something I'd watch for if they do deplete that system. a little bit. All right. Angels GM Perry Manassian said that Mike Trout will not be traded this offseason. Didn't say anything about in-season. White Sox reliever Gregory Santos might not be ready for the start of spring training due to a right elbow injury. Some names to pay attention to at the back end there. Garrett Crochet. Luis Patino maybe hasn't really worked out as a starter. Maybe back-end bullpen type reliever. They could sign a veteran. I mean, maybe like a David Robertson, Dylan Florotype or Gregory Santos might just be healthy by spring training.

So we'll have to wait and see. Frank, before you go any further in the news, I don't know if you saw my comment in the chat. Oh, oh, yeah. This is the one. This is why I scoffed when you were like, we got some news to talk about. I was like, I can't even believe this one still. Jamer Candelario. Jamer Candelario to the Reds.

To the Reds. To the Reds. Of course, when you think, who needs a question? corner infielder, you think, phew, Cincinnati Reds, the guy that, oh, India's going to play first, Spencer Steer, we'll find a spot. Christian and Carnotian Strand,

Candelario is there to play, presumably first base. Third base, I know he's third baseman, but what are you going to do? You're going to put Matt McLean at second, Elliott short? Maybe that is the move, by the way. It's a mess. No, no.

It's a mess. Like, we already thought the Reds were overloaded and they didn't have enough of bats to distribute between all those young infields. and now you add Jamer Candelario. I mean, look, good news for Candelario. Like, going to the most Homer-friendly park, he hits a lot of doubles.

You got to think some of those doubles are going to turn into homers. And, you know, might verge on must-start status in fantasy in Cincinnati, provided he's playing every day, I presume he is. Spencer Steer, though. Right. Like, I've been worried about Spencer Steer losing playing time already.

That's kind of been one of my, one of the reasons I've been ranking Spencer steer unfavorably is because I thought he just on pure talent he might get pushed out of that mix. Noel V. Marte, I thought, was a really opened my eyes last year in his stint with the Reds. And I thought, you know, I thought he might be one of the favorites for rookie of the year based on the way that stint with, assuming he was going to be the Reds everyday third basement.

I don't know. Somebody suggested when I was tweeting about the St. or Candelario signing that maybe they're gearing up to trade a couple of those infielders for Dylan Sees or somebody like that which is a possibility and Jonathan India has been rumored to be trade bait for a while now

and they just missed out on Eduardo. There was a rumor that they were one of the teams that was in on Eduardo Rodriguez who signed with a diamond back so yeah you start penciling some of those things in maybe you have a trade they've got tons of young pitching apparently the rumor was that the

White Sox had asked for Rett louder, who is one of their top pitching prospects, they probably don't want to do. But maybe you move a steer or maybe you move an India and pitching prospects or steer and India with, I mean, it's going to take a lot for C's to happen, but they just gave themselves flexibility. If they're, I don't think this move to me, this isn't the precursing move to like, okay, well, now we can trade India. I don't think you need it to do that. This screams to me something bigger of like a strand or a steer and steer does kind of seem like the guy that's working his way out for whatever reason. But let's presume that doesn't happen.

Who are you lowering based on this? I think in Carnacian Strand. India. He's the one. India for sure. Yeah. Like without question, he doesn't have a home. They said they're going to play in that first base here.

So there's no home. But I think steer and Strand seem questionable to me without any clarity. Like, what is Strand the everyday DH? or is he just the versus Ritey's D.H? What about Noelvie Marte, you think? Yeah, where does DeWelvie? I mean, well, in this scenario, if he's playing, if Candelario is playing first,

Nueli could still play third, Ellie is still short, and Matt McLean is second. Okay. That's what the early roster resource has is Candelario at first, Matt McLean at second, Ellie De La Cruz at short, Nelvi Marte at third, and Carnacio and Tran Tran at D.H.

And Spencer Steer in left field, which he did play some outfield last year. Jonathan India is on the bench. That is what they have right now. And there was a report recently that India could play some first base or DH. It's not happening. I mean, with this move, he's just, to me, he's completely on the outside looking in. And maybe that's not fair to him.

Maybe they try him in an outfield spot as well, something like that. I think India for sure is part of some kind of trade either for, even if it's not for a big name starter, it's probably for a starting pitcher. I think that that probably happens at some point. this off season. Yeah. I mean, White Sox just lost

him Anderson, just thrown out. So, yeah. All right. So interesting stuff there. It's great news for Candelario, by the way.

I mean, his ADP is going to jump up. I mean, he's probably still a corner infieler, but he was really, really good this year, and now he goes to Cincinnati. So I don't really want to

discount that for, for Candelario. I will give you the expected home run number. I just went to go look at that. I would say, we have to look at what the expected number is here.

It's the only thing we care about. You know, we were just missing. I'm going to lose it. If it goes down, I'm going to lose it. We were just dismissing the legitimacy of the expected home run number when we were talking about Juan Soto on the emergency podcast. So, you know, take this with a grain of salt. But if Jamer Candelario had played every game in Cincinnati last year,

according to Stackast, he would have hit 30 home runs. His career high is 22. It's the only park that gave him 30 home runs. Every other park was close to in line to 25 and 34. great American ballpark. You know, I love Stackass. I totally buy it. I'm totally buying Chamber Candelario

entering 2024. Man, it's a good problem to have. We'll see what the Reds do. I have a feeling they're going to be wheeling and dealing a little bit here. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I got to come up with this. I got to come up with this.

Where do I slot them in my third base rankings? All right. Well, do I move them ahead of Noel V. Marte, who I love? I have Noel V. Marte 13th. I have Junior Commonero 12th. Both of those might be a little optimistic already. Spencer Stier 11th.

Do I stick him there right behind Stier? Because currently I have Candelario 22nd. He's got to move up a lot, right? I really think Stier is getting himself into a platoon. I don't care if they list him at left. I think there's maybe they make it work out totally, but I probably ding Stier before I ding Marte. Okay.

Who do you have just behind Candelario? I mean Caminero. Okay, so third base is pretty crowded. So I have just behind Commoneros, was noelvie Marte, just behind him Max Muncie. Max Muncie or Candelario? Ooh, Max Muncie expected. A bad average.

That's close. I don't want to do the Will Myers thing we did with Candelario from a couple of here. I'm a little afraid of that. Yeah, but... I'll say Muncie. I'll say Muncie too. Jake Burger or Candelario. Ooh, I'm going to go to burger.

I like Burger, man. And then I have Josh Young. I know I'm down on Josh Young. I have him behind Burger. So I assume you guys would go Josh Young over Candelario. I might go Candelario over. Some big strikeout numbers with Young. Okay, so you're a downer on Young like me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Brian Hayes or Candelario? Candelario, but is that the sweet spot? I think that, yeah, I think right around Burger. So he's still, he's still going to be like, if that's a sweet spot, he's only 17th into third base rankings, which I think is, for me anyway, which I think is a testament to third base more than anything else.

Maybe clarity he moves up a little bit more. Like once we get some, just a tiny bit more clarity. Like, what does this roster look like? What are they doing? I'm not saying that you sign Candelario to not obviously play him every day. But there's just a lot of people. There's a lot of mouths to feed there. And it seems muddy.

And like I said, I have a little bit of that Will Myers taste in my mouth from last year where we're like, oh my God, he's going to be such a 2020 guy, blah, blah, blah. But, I mean, obviously Candelario has. I mean, Will Myers was barely playing prior to joining the Reds and Cantilario in a different state of his career. Yeah, I suppose. All right. Well, Jammer Candelario to the Reds.

Let's take our final break. I have some other news items, some other prospects. It's been a long night. We'll do all that right after this. You know, I don't want to complain about moves happening because I'm happy that they're happening for baseball. But did they really all just have to happen in one night within like a two-hour span? There's so much happening.

We're going on like a record. You know, we're almost doing like a, like, it's just a 24 hour podcast. Like we're just never going to end. People don't probably realize how long we've been going. We're just going to keep going. We're going about to end the show. And then it'll be like, by the way, show here, Tony. And we'll just never be able to end this.

Don't even, you know, you're going to speak it into existence. Where do we leave off? Astros GM, Dana Brown said that Chas McCormick will be an everyday player in 24 and the team is committed to Jake Myers getting the bulk of starts in center field. The Marlins plan to stretch AJ puck out during spring training as they consider him for a rotation spot, which hasn't really ever worked out in the past. Apparently the Rangers, Yankees and Astros are all interested in reliever Robert Stevenson, who turned into a brand new pitcher after joining the Tampa Bay raise in June because that's what they do. In 42 games with

Tampa Bay. Robert Stevenson had a 235 ERA, a 0.68 whip, 14K per 9, 1.9 walks per 9, and a 28.7% swinging strike rate. That's unreal. I really would like Robert Stevenson to go somewhere that he could be a closer. I don't know that it will happen. The Rangers, I guess it could happen. The Yankees, it could happen. Astros, probably not. Other Yankees news, Aaron Boone said, Oh, I talked about this already. Jason Dominguez is not guaranteed to immediately step in as the team starting center fielder when he returns to full health. Boone also said that Nesser Cortez recently began a throwing program, and Cortez was limited to just 12 starts this past season due to a left shoulder issue.

Anthony Rizzo is expected to be fine for the start of spring training after dealing with post-concussion syndrome this past season, and DJ LaMayhew is slated to be the team starting third baseman. And there's more. Smaller moves, Eric Fetty signed a two-year $15 million deal with the Chicago White Sox. Fetty is returning from the KBO where he just won the MVP. He went 20 and 6 with a 2.0 ERA and a 0.95 whip. And I don't know he's a name that will, he's not going to be drafted every league to start, Scott. But like Eric Fetty is probably going to be a streamer at some point.

He should. I'm bullish on Eric Fetty. He was the MVP. He was the Cy Young. that even two ERA, struck out 209 batters. This is the league, too. I mean, Korea, you know, it's considered even lesser than Japan. But, you know, that's where Merrill Kelly revitalized his career

with much, much worse numbers, I will point out, that the ones Feddy just put up. And even more than, okay, he went to Korea undominated, where the changes he made in the offseason prior to going to Korea, where he went to, you know, he joined. one of those facilities, push performance workout facility, and remade his mechanics,

remade his entire arsenal, picked up the sweeper and split change that Logan Webb throw. This is coming from Brian Bannister, the White Sox pitching advisor. Logan Webb, of course, is known mostly for his extreme ground ball rate, led all qualifiers last year

with the 62% ground ball rate. Eric Fetty's ground ball rate in Korea, 70%. 70%. And like I said, he had well more than a strikeout per inning in a league where strikeouts aren't as common. So given the history there

with Merrill Kelly, the comp to Logan Webb, the incredible numbers, the extreme ground ball rate, on the emergency podcast, we were talking about Eduardo Rodriguez signing with the Diamondbacks, and I was kind of meh on him. I think I like,

like Eric Fetty more. I think I need to rank him as a top 60 pitcher for me next year. Scott is in. My God. Wow. Hopefully he has a defense to help him out. That's true. Ground balls. He needs some fielders. I love that ground ball rate. I don't know who's going to be getting those outs, but you know, Nikki Lopez is good. Yeah, Nikki Lopez and Paul DeYoung up the middle. What could go wrong? What we've always wanted? But no, definitely some interesting notes there on Eric Fetty and my guess is that he will factor in as a viable pitcher in fantasy

at some point this year. The Rangers signed Kirby Yates to a one year $4.5 million deal who turns 37 years old in March. He was solid this past year. First year back from injury with the Atlanta Braves and I think there's at least a chance that he could factor into the Rangers closer mix. He does have experience

in that role. So we'll have to watch that closely, Kirby Yates and obviously Jose LeClerc in the back end. of the Rangers bullpen. The Braves quickly turned around and shipped Marco Gonzalez off to the pirates for cash considerations and a player to be named later.

The Astros signed Victor Caratini to be their backup catcher behind Jiner Diaz. The Astros also traded for reliever Dylan Coleman, who throws hard, but has no idea where it's going. The Angels signed reliever Luis Garcia for a one year $4.25 million deal.

The National signed. Juan Yippez to a minor league deal, and he'll have a chance to compete for their first base job. Turns 26 years old in February. Took a step back this past year, but he was also in the minors in both 2021 and 2022. You know, I think that could turn out to be a sneaky one. If Juan Yippez is a starting first baseman for the nationals, he might matter. I don't disagree with you. You know, it's interesting.

The 2020, all this season, 2020 off season, he goes. got really sick in the Dominican Winter League and lost like 20 or 25 pounds. And he was working back through that. And I think as weird as it is, I think a lot of that kind of set back some of that training regimen and maybe even some of those big hard hit numbers that we knew. He just didn't seem right this entire year. I wonder if a fresh off season,

a fresh start and fresh opportunity maybe opens up because we've seen some big offensive numbers from him. So yeah, I kind of agree. The nationals did interesting. didn't mention it because there's a million things, but Rule 5 draft just happened today. And the Nationals actually took someone from the Arizona Fall League, Nassim Nunez. And that means they have to keep him on the roster. And he's just really high in defensive shortstop who makes actually some pretty good contact.

And it's like, okay, maybe they're going to put out a roster with guys like Juanio Piz and Nassim Nunez. You never know what's going to end up happening. A couple of interesting Rule 5 guys out there, he was the one of the ones that stood out. They also drafted, the White Sox drafted, I think, Shane Dronin, who was one of the top picks who could be a rotation piece as well when we're talking about the White Sox rotation. So just a random thing to throw out there as far as oddities of the rule five. But the nationals are going to give some opportunities and players. So don't sleep on you, Pez. I actually saw that the Guardian selected Davis and De Los Santos formerly of your Arizona Diamondbacks.

Well, a speculative thing out there is, first off, why the hell would they do that? It's a AA hitter who's been, you know, trying to find. his hit tool and defensively is maybe struggled the tiny bit. I think he's massively talented, but not to the level where he would make the majors. Some speculating, maybe that's something that they could try to work out at the major league level to manipulate some service time of another first baseman we're aware of in Comanzardo, because there's a lot of lefties out there that, I don't know if that would happen, but I saw some insider guardians people speculating the same thing.

That was the weirdest of all of them, the young Davis and De LaSanto, who is not ready being selected. Yeah, some weird Rule 5 stuff. All right. So this is normally the time when we wrap up the podcast. We have talked about five outfield prospects. I will leave it up to you guys.

What do we do? I'll hang up and listen metaphorically. I'll still sit here. But if you just want the Welsh to breeze through these next guys, like I'm fine with that. I don't want to have to devote another podcast to Elfield Prox. Why don't I just give the last five?

And if there's any note that you want to do, here, Franker, you know, you could obviously give the last five or if you want to throw any notes on it. And I can editorialize. But James Wood was six. Pete Crow Armstrong, seven. I like Spencer Jones with the Yankees a lot more than other people. Chase at eight, Jaystallauder, who we saw in the AFL at nine and 10 Walker Jenkins from this draft. And there is a really kind of big swing of these different players.

Pete Crow in the majors, Walker Jenkins, the farthest away from the majors. DeLotter would make sense now, but James Wood is the most polarizing of all of those players, and he's kind of lost a little bit of that pedigree that everybody was super excited about because the strikeouts just got exponentially worse this past year, but he is a, he's really a 30-20 potential player. I just don't know how the development of the nationals ends up going.

I can't tell you he came out here and trained a little bit out here in Arizona. He's best friends with Jackson Merrill, and they were hanging out a bit. So I get encouraged of, you know, hopefully that training. I think he was even maybe training with, a little bit. So maybe that's outside of the nationals. But I'm still optimistic, but he is the biggest strikeout risk.

And I think we talked about this a long time ago, someone I brought up like, hey, who is the prospect that could most resemble a guy like L.A. de la Cruz? And it's like, well, from so many points, it's James Wood, physicality.

The pure raw tools are there. There are strikeout issues. I just don't know if he'll hit for average. He has definitely got into points with that. but this bottom five is massively talented with a lot of different types of players, though speed is pretty pronounced through the majority of it, except for Chase DeLauder, who we just saw on the AFL Frank. And that, I think, is one of the most poised hitters out there.

It's just going to be when they're ready for opportunity. So those are still top 25 prospects in that entire group there. But James Wood is probably the most prolific. All right. I think I'm just going to kind of power through each of them and maybe give you a quick question on each. You talked about the strikeouts with James Wood. Similarly with Spencer Jones, I mean, they're both a similar size. They're six foot six.

They're over 230 pounds. These are big dudes. You mentioned how much you like Spencer Jones compared to, I guess, the rest of the prospect community. Yeah. He also strikes out a lot. 29% strikeout rate. How much does that worry you? Yeah.

Any strikeout rate worries me, but I see 40 strikeouts from a 240 pound six foot six outfielder. And I'm like, okay, when we can do something with this. I don't think he's even tapped into the pure raw power. He hit 16. He had 29 doubles, though, in 117 games. He is super, super fast. You're still young enough in this game. I'd also point out he was a two-way player in college at Vanderbilt.

He was a pitcher. He was a very highly regarded pitcher. So that hitting might still be a little bit behind. I think he's crazy, crazy tooled up. I saw a rumor, by the way, at one point that he was going to be involved in this Soto trade. And that did not end up happening. But I like, you want to talk about, again, skill set. Spencer Jones, he is, I'm probably overrating him to what the market feels, but he's a dude.

All right. Pete Crow Armstrong, we did see him for a very brief cup of coffee with the Cubs in September. Played 13 games. He had zero hits across 19 played appearances. Modest power definitely has speed. He's known mostly for his 80 grade glove. Will he hit enough? And is he up on opening day? What do you think about PCA?

Opening day, I'm going to at this moment say yes. And I think he hits better than most people believe, but I am questioning the power. I'm a little worried he becomes like a Nico Horner type, like almost similar profile. He's got better power projection, but maybe he's a, you know, 10 to 12, the Homer, 35 stolen base guy. I think he will make a big impact. But yeah, it might be a little too soon. This year might not actually be it. All right.

Chase DeLater, we saw him out in the AFL so poised. The plate discipline was awesome. looks like he has power and speed. The problem is that he's kind of been limited because of injuries so far in the minors. Only 57 games this past season. Do you think we see him up at some point this year with the Guardians? 100%.

100% we see him up. I'd love to see him earlier. I don't think that's the case. I think they're going to challenge him a little bit more. AFL was pretty good. It wasn't phenomenal. 57 games. Those are his pro games this year.

So I think it's just too soon. But we will see him up this year. He is massively selective with incredibly, incredibly big raw power. He can run too. He was running in the AFL. It'll just be curious to see like, people are going to hate a swing.

He's got this Mike Trout, more pronounced Mike Trout stop, you know, right off of contact type of swing, and that gets people weird. But he makes it work. He makes it work with huge raw power. I love Chase the Lutter.

Last one on Walker Jenkins, your number 10 outfield prospect. He was taking fifth overall in this year's draft by the Minnesota Twins. Where is he in your first year player draft rankings? Yeah, he's in the top five. Him and Max Clark, they're a really tough thing. Max Clark had a really bad pro debut and quite a bit smaller.

Walker Jenkins is an Adonis type of dude, six foot three, two 15, six stolen bases hit 362 in his pro debut, rave reviews out of rookie ball. Walker Jenkins, I can tell you, he has been going in some instances as the number three overall in first year player. And the cheap plug I just did, you guys both took part in it, my first year, my, I call them the P180P moks where I get a bunch of different drafts and I make a prospect ADP out of them and I put them on my Patreon at In ThisLeague.com and I'll have that up probably in the next week or so. Walker Jenkins was going like 12 in a league or two overall. So Walker

Jenkins is the hype player right now. Yeah, raise your hand if you took Walker Jenkins in the second round. Oh, Frankie. I didn't get them. Let's go. All right. So let's quickly recap the top 10 Outfield Prospects entering 2024. This is via the Welsh's prospect ranks. Wyatt Langford up at number one, followed by Jackson Churio, Dylan Cruz, Evan Carter, Jason Dominguez, and then James Wood, Pete Crowe Armstrong, Spencer Jones, Chase to Water, and Walker Jenkins. Can I ask about one more who I'm sure would be in a lot of people's top 10? Sure. Roman Anthony of the Red Sox. What do you think? He is. He is in a lot of those. He was a very, you're going to be probably shocked when I get the ADP together.

I like Roman Anthony. I just don't like him as much as everybody else. Good numbers, 14 homers, 16 stolen bases. He hit 272. He was able to move the three levels, which you love. And he did that fun little I got better across the board. But I think he's, he's, I don't call him, he's fringe to this conversation. He belongs in that 25 to 40 overall range.

And I think he's somewhere between, you know, 11 and 14 as far as outfielders go. Like, if you liked him more than Lizarro Montes or you like him more than Kevin O'Conra, yeah, that's fine. He might be a better hitter in some instances. But I'm not as enamored as everybody else with Roman. I think if you like exit velocity and you like plate discipline, then you like Roman Anthony. Yeah, 86 walks and 106 games. So, like, this is going to be big. And 400 OBP.

OVP push for sure on Roman Anthony. Yeah, he just got up to AA, played 10 games at the AA level as a 19-year-old. So he is moving fast. Again, that's Roman Anthony. Outfielder with the Boston Red Sox. And very quickly, your top five proximity prospects to know for redraft leagues. Obviously, Wyatt Langford, Jack Centurio, Evan Carter, Piquor Armstrong. One name we haven't mentioned yet, Heston Kirstad, with the Baltimore Orioles for now.

We'll see if he gets moved anywhere in a trade. Former first round pick from 2020 was a second overall pick in that draft. Has definitely dealt with a lot of stuff in the minors from injuries, myocarditis. But he just played his first full season in the miners. And he was awesome. He hit over 300, 21 homers, 904 OPS. He is ready to go. He was up late in the season.

It's just about finding playing time. Where is he going to play? If he gets moved in like a Dillon Seas kind of trade, then yeah. He's probably playing for a team like that. Wherever he gets moved, he'll probably be an everyday player. Definitely an aim to know, Heston Kierstead. We're going to wrap there for Scotty and the Welsh. I am Frank.

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