Fantasy Baseball Today - Undervalued Targets! Brent Rooker, Bo Bichette & More! (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 podcast)

Episode Date: December 21, 2024

Download and follow Fantasy Baseball Today in 5! You can find FBT in 5 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the Audacy App and wherever else podcasts are found. Brent Rooker and Marcell Ozuna are two UTIL-only bats who are undervalued early on. Are people sleeping on Sandy Alcantara? Bo Bichette is going 100 picks later than he was last year. Evan Carter seems forgotten early on. To display your continued support of the show, please vote Fantasy Baseball Today in the Sports Podcast Awards in the "Best Baseball Podcast" Category https://www.sportspodcastgroup.com/sports_category/best-baseball-podcast/ Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 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/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 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

Happy holidays. Let's hand out ADP Gifts up next on Fantasy Baseball today in five. Welcome into FBTN-Five on Saturday, December 21st. I am Frank Stamphle, joined by Chris Towers, and we are giving you ADP gifts, ADP presence, undervalued players right now in NFBC ADP, and we will start with the top 100. Chris, who do you have? So I do want to do an honorable mention to Marcus Simeon, who Scott talked about on the full episode of the podcast. You should check that out. fantasy baseball today. He's super undervalued,

but I'm going to go with Brent Rooker, and this kind of brings together two theories that I'm working on this offseason that will apply for the 2025 season. I think both players who don't steal a lot of bases and UT only players are specifically being undervalued right now. I think speed is easier to find than it ever has been. I think we're maybe overvaluing the early round guys

who do steal bases. But with Brent Rooker, specifically, he actually stole 11 bases last year. So he might not be a zero there. And he was a top 10 player in 2024. His ADP right now is 74.4 in the month of December. I get being skeptical of what he did last year. I get the strikeout rate was still 29%. That's still very high. There's a lot of variance there. The bottom could fall out. I think even if he returns to being a 2023 level player, there's still a lot to like about what Brent Rucker is going to bring to the table. And the point about UT only players being undervalued is there's Shohei Otani.

There's Brent Rooker. There's Kyle Schwarber. There's Marcelo Zuna. There's a couple other lower end guys like John Carlos Stanton and Cal Monsardo, who I think are quality starting caliber players when they're healthy especially, that you look at it in a 12th team league. Half the league might be starting a util only player in their UT spot. So I get the concern about the lack of flexibility and how that can impact your team building. Except Brent Rooker might play outfield pretty regularly in 2025. He missed a lot of time, or he didn't miss time last year, but he stopped playing the outfield around the end of May,

dealing with a forearm injury. He had surgery on it. He put up those numbers while playing through that forearm injury. But they've already said they expect him to play more outfield this season. So I think there's a chance we're talking about Brent Rooker three weeks into the season, having outfield eligibility. And all of a sudden you're concerned about, oh, your lack of flexibility.

That's out the window. Brent Rooker could be an outfielder who might have deserved to be going 40 spots ahead of where he's being drafted. I think you can legitimately make the case. I have him ranked about 20 spots higher than his ADP, and even that I feel like is being conservative. I'm right there with you with the undervalued utility only players because mine is Marcel Ozuna,

whose ADP is 69.8. he has finished as a top 30 overall player in Roto and a top 30 hitter in head to head points two years in a row. In that span, 39 plus homers, 100 plus RBI, 900 plus OPS in each of those seasons. Quality of contact was elite,

expected stats, back everything up. I understand that he has had lots of inconsistency in his career. He's turning 34 years old, but a player that's been that good two years in a row that's going this late. Anytime I see him outside, the top 50, top 60, and he's available.

I'm pretty much going to jump on Marcel. The concerns are baked into that price already. You know? Yeah, absolutely. Let's move into the 101 to 200 range, Chris, another undervalued player. I think Sandy O'Conter is being weirdly forgotten. I know, you know, he missed all last season recovering from Tommy John surgery,

so he was a little bit out of side out of mind, and then he wasn't very good in 2023, although he was still a must start pitcher in 2020. especially in the second half. He had an inflated ERA in the first half of the season, but in the second half, it was more like 310, which is what you're looking for from him. I think the problem is you're not expecting the 220 innings that you got from him in

2022, probably not the 200 plus that you got in 2020. And we know he's not an elite strikeout guy. So you're getting held back a little bit there when you draft Sandy O'Contra. But at 161st overall, when you're talking about like the guys being drafted around him, Rinaldo Lopez, Robbie Ryan, Ryan Pepio. Okay, more strikeouts per inning than Sandy Alcantra, sure.

But do you think any of those guys are good bets for 140 innings? I don't really think so. I think Sandy Alcantra, as long as he stays healthy, he's going to get to 180. You know, I don't think the Marlins are going to limit him. So I think he's a really, really nice rotation filler at this discounted price for Sandy Alcantra. On the full-eighth podcast, I gave out Tommy Edmund as my underwent. valued player in this range. I do like him.

The ADP is 190. I'm going to steal Scott's player and talk about Bobichette. This one's pretty obvious. His ADP is 144.5. His ADP last year was 37.6. So he has dropped over 100 spots year over year. And don't get me wrong. He was awful. He hit

225. He only had four home runs of 598 OPS. That is truly awful. Entering last season, he was a career 299 hitter, 826 OPS. He's entering a contract year. He's 27 years old. I don't believe that he just forgot how to play baseball, right? So I don't think he gets back to

this elite level player, but a good batting average, 280, 20 to 25 home runs, a bunch of runs, eight to 10 steals, batting in the middle of that lineup, and a contract year. I do think that matters because players in contract years tend to stay healthy, and they do run a little bit more in contract years. So, yeah, I do, I do. I do. I do, see a pretty big bounce back and some profit here from Bobauchette. Chris, back to you, 201 to 300, an undervalued player. Yeah, let's go with a guy who fell even further than Boba Shett last year. Evan Carter, whose ADP is 278.4. Last year was around 115. And look, like Boba Shett, he had a very bad 2024 season. And unlike Boba Chet, Evan Carter does not have the five years of

high level production before last season. He had 38 good games or whatever. It was. wasn't in 20, 23 if you include the playoffs. So like there's a lot more reason to be skeptical about Evan Carter. But actually, the profile might not be that different for these two guys. Evan Carter might be a little more of an on base guy than a batting average guy. But the fully figured out version of Evan Carter could hit 20 homers, could steal 20 plus bases, could score a ton of runs at the top of what I think will be a better Rangers lineup if he's healthy.

And I'll take the discount. You know, still, I know he dealt with a back injury last year. I don't know how concerned we should be, but at 278, I just don't care. The downside has been totally priced in at that point. I don't think the upside has been accounted for for Evan Carter. For me, it's going to be Spencer Arrogetti. 219.4 is the ADP. Full season statistics are more predictive than partial season statistics.

But young players can also get better. They can make progress. And that's what we saw from Arrogati over his last 15 starts. 331 ERA 118-WIP, 11K per 9, 3 walks per 9, and a 12.9% swinging strike rate. He has three pitches with a whiff rate over 37%. He's got a nasty curveball. He's got a nasty sweeper. He's on a good team.

There should be run support. I trust the Astros in terms of their pitching development. They did a great job with Kukuchi when he got traded there. You saw Hunter Brown turn it around in a big way last year. And we just saw Arroghetti get better in the second half. So I don't know if it'll necessarily be this good, but I do think they're continuing to find progress with Arrogati. And I think the stuff is real.

So, you know, at 219.4, I think that is a great bet to make on Spencer Arrogati. All right. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball today and five, and we will be back again next week. Bye-bye. Mount Podcasts.