Fantasy Baseball Today - Who's That Baseball Player? Five Prospects and Their MLB Comps (04/30 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 30, 2020

Welcome to our live podcast stream, which featured the debut of "Who's That Baseball Player" (4:34). This player might be 40 years old but is still a contributor! ... Our second player was great in five starts last year before he tore his ACL (10:40). He's known for his beard and his splitter. ... Our third player hit 31 of his 40 career home runs in 2019 (15:26). He also had two minor-league seasons with 29 or more home runs! ... Our fourth player posted career-highs in home runs (30) and steals (9) in 2019 (20:11). Most of his damage was done before May! ... Our fifth player is an oldie but a goodie (24:55). He was the first overall pick in the 2005 draft! ... We're answering your questions during the stream and revealing our favorite sleepers past 200 ADP and late-round targets in OBP formats (32:00). ... Scott and Chris reveal their MLB comps for five impact prospects in 2020 (39:40). ... Email us at [e-mail]. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @CBSFantasyBB, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday 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/ Download our printable Draft Kit from CBSSports.com/draftkit! 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

Hey, everybody. The podcast you're about to listen to was a live video stream that we did on our Fantasy Baseball Today Facebook page last night. We ran into a few issues with our audio, so if this episode sounds a little different to you, that's why. Thanks for listening, enjoy the show, and make sure to join us for our next live stream. Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. I drive, center field. This is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com.

Get ready to win your lead. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott, Chris, and Adam. There he is. That's Chris Towers. Scott White. Frank Stamphill here. We are live on the fantasy baseball today. Facebook group. A little bit of technical difficulties, you know.

Chris is still kind of figuring it out. We're all kind of figuring it out. But Chris is actually the man behind the madness right now. So we're happy to be here. We're happy that you are here with us as well. answering some of your questions throughout the course of the show. Scott, long time no see. We did a podcast earlier today. Has anything changed since earlier? In my life, no. Nothing's changed. Including my attire here, I was wearing this fine baseball card reference shirt earlier, rated rookie.

Of course, that was a staple of the Donra series. And I'm still wearing it now. I'm no rookie, though. I'm no rookie, but if I was, I'd be rated. Highly, highly rated. Highly rated. That's Scott White. I'm also wearing a brewer's shirt here. I'm going to kind of leave it a mystery as to who the name on the back is. I also texted Chris earlier before we started to wear the most random player shirt or jersey that you can. And to no surprise, I have no idea what you're wearing, Chris. So this is my love of Abbott's Field Flannels is well known. Ebbs.com. They're not paying me. I just, I'll do it for free of it, just sponsor the podcast. This is a Sienfuegos Elefantes.

I am the whitest Hispanic person in the world, and so that's how I pronounce those words. But, yeah, it's a Cuban baseball team that Martin Digo played for way back in the day, widely considered one of, if not the greatest Cuban-born baseball players of all time. So, but to go even more random, I'm not going to unbutton it, but the shirt I'm wearing underneath this is a Miami Heat Chris Quinn jersey. I don't know if you guys remember Chris Quinn. I don't know much about Chris Quinn. I believe he's an assistant coach for the Miami Heat.

He was a Notre Dame point guard, I think. And I just, you know, fan favorite, Chris Quinn. So I bought his jersey back in college, and that's what I'm wearing underneath this. So I doubled up on random. And comment right there. Chris Towers reminds me as someone who has guitars, but can't play them. I can play my guitars very, very poorly, but I can play them. Yeah, the eye of the beholder.

That's what we'll go with there, Chris. But if we're referencing what we're wearing, that's because we're live streaming. If you are listening to this podcast on demand, we thank you for listening as well. Today we are going to tonight, today, we're going to play a game. We're going to play, guess who's that baseball player? I wanted this to be kind of, Chris, I know you're a gamer.

Scott kind of deduced that you've played video games, especially some early ones back in the day. Yeah. I am a huge Pokemon fan. So they used to play, they used to do, who's that Pokemon? So my idea was who's that baseball player. I have a sound bite ready to go. the problem is my board is not connected right now so we can't use the sound bite we will still play

the game and then we're going to get into some prospects a little bit later on what i really wanted to do with this was first of all interact with you the viewers so we will definitely get to some of your questions a little bit later on but i wanted to talk about players that we haven't talked about enough on the podcast maybe you guys talked about them before i joined but if not we're going to get into them right now so we're going to going to play the game. We're going to start off with, uh, with that, who's that baseball player? Are you guys ready? Oh, absolutely. I am going to crush this. I want to win. So I'm going to give you guys random player facts, statistical facts, uh, and basically each fact after, you know, each succeeding fact

is going to bring you closer to hopefully guessing who the player is. So player number one, who's that at baseball player. I was originally a fourth round draft pick by the Chicago Cubs. Just feel free to blurt out answers whenever you might think. I don't know who it is fun. If you blurt out an answer too early and you get it wrong, the other person just gets to wait as long as they want, right? That's the rule.

I was just hoping that it's madness and you guys just keep blurting out answers nonstop. All right, yes. Madness. There's got to be some structure to this. Madness. What do you want to do? Chris, you want to go three three guesses each?

Look, you're the host. All right. First clue here. I was originally a fourth round draft pick by the Chicago Cubs. I have played for nine different teams in my career. Oh, wow.

From 2008 through 2015, I pitched a total of 182 in the big leagues. Oliver Perez? It is not Oliver Perez. Since the start of 2016, I have a 3.00 ERA, a 1.08 whip, and I am averaging 10.6Ks per 9. Rich Hill.

It is Rich Hill. Look at Chris. See, but that's the thing is I shouldn't have gotten that one because I had already blurt it out a bad answer. And Scott didn't even get a chance. Well, the point of the game is to blurt out as many answers as quickly as possible. So I would just say you were playing the game better than me. It's like when you're playing taboo and you're the guesser, right? You don't just wait for your one guess.

You just keep going. Just keep going. You know, he was a doctor and then you say, I don't know, Egon Spangler or Egon Spangler or something. I've never played Taboo. You've never played Taboo? I also don't know Yvons Spangler. Egon Spangler from Ghostbusters. Oh, okay, okay.

I haven't seen Ghostbusters. Scott, this is something we talked about before the podcast earlier today where there's just a bunch of of things in my mind that I know of, but I just don't remember them. Like, I haven't watched a Ghostbusters since I was a kid. Like, obviously I know of it, but no idea who that name was. A little movie. Yeah, obviously. Taboo.

Shame on you, Chris, for not playing taboo. But Rich Hill is the correct answer. So, Chris, you're up 1-0 here against Scott. I just want you guys to blurt out as many answers. The other clues that I had was my ADP is currently 429, and I am the only pitcher in MLB history to have had a perfect game broken up by a ninth inning fielding error and the only pitcher in MLB history to have a no hitter broken up in extra innings by a walkoff home run. Yeah.

That's Rich Hill. Okay. Oh, okay. But- I don't know if it would have helped me anymore. This is pretty obscure information and I'd be impressed if anyone at home is guessing them all. Well, Rich Hill, guys, give me your analysis because it seems like ADP 429, he was, expected to return in June.

Seems like the delay. This is one of the main beneficiaries here. Seems like Rich Hill is going to be there for opening day. The ranks, the numbers that I mentioned, the ERA, the whip, and the K per nine. They rank sixth, tied for seventh, and ninth since 2016. Rich Hill. Rich Hill's an ace when he's on the mound. I don't really think there's any question of it.

He doesn't, there are times when he doesn't quite give you the ace workload every timeout, although I don't think that was an issue for him last year, if I'm remembering correctly. I think he pitched pretty deep into games pretty regularly. But part of the problem with doing a podcast recording while people can comment on it is sometimes you read the comments and get distracted. Thank you, Sean Nugent. Not sure I can say that on the podcast. It's an alternate name for Rich Hill. He's really, really good. He's definitely an ace. I think he's very, very very unlikely to make it through any given season without getting hurt, let alone the season in which he's coming back from like a new, weird kind of untested version of Tommy John's surgery

that allows him to come back earlier. So, I mean, you're not investing anything. It doesn't matter. He's so cheap. You know, don't even wait until the last round. If you can get him in the the third to last round of your drafts coming up, he's going to be a steal. Unless he's just, his elbow just doesn't hold up and he gets shut down right away. But it's low risk. Scott, top 40 starting pitcher in Roto and head-to-head points. I mean, just the ADP is free. I just, I don't know that enough people realize how good Rich Hill is when he's on the mound.

I've never been a Rich Hill guy because I would always wait until he would get hurt. Somebody would drop him and then I would pick him up and reap the rewards once he would return. but I mean at 429 it's just it's free so yeah I don't have him ranked especially high of course I've moved them up a lot now that it doesn't seem like you know provided the recovery goes well it doesn't seem like he's going to miss any time at all but it could it it could be the payoff could be huge if everything breaks right because unlike we were talking about earlier today or yesterday if you're listening to the podcast version of this we were talking about how Jesus Lazzardo even though the season's shortened.

I don't know that it necessarily means he's going to pitch deeper into games, but Rich Hill, who's already shown the ability to throw six innings plus with consistency and it's 40 years old. I feel like the twins would just ride him as hard as he's capable of being ridden

and maybe end up pitching like a true ace. What an incredible story, Rich Hill's been. It's out of the weirdest stories. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. That's the right words to describe Rich Hill. Baseball player, who's that baseball player? Number two, are you guys ready? Scott? I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm most confident now. These are really obscure clues, but, you know, we're supposed to be professionals here.

I mean, I got it. I know you did. All right, number two, I went undrafted in the 2008 MLB draft. Any guesses yet? No, okay. A long time ago. I made my debut on September 15th, 2013. In 573 and 2 thirds major league innings, I have a 381 ERA and a 119 whip. I only made five starts last season, but in those starts, I had a 157 ERA and a 087 whip. Oh, oh, oh, oh.

Oh, I can't I think of them. What's his name? He's a left-handed shamaniah. Wrong. Oh, come on. Based on my last name, you might think I'm a competitor to Nike or Reebok. Competitor to Nike or...

Sean Adito. Matt Shoemaker. Yes. Matt Shoemaker tore his ACL in a rundown last season. I read you the numbers last year. He was great. It was only five stars, extremely small sample size.

The 446 X-FIP, not pretty. 51% ground ball rate 13% swinging strike rate that's pretty good ADP 317 SP 97 Scott you are the victor anything to add on Matt Shoemaker

I think he's a bit of a deep sleeper I have been excited to draft him late not as excited as I would be to get Rich Hill because I do think there are bigger questions there but it's still mostly theoretical what Matt Shoemaker could possibly be to fantasy owners. A couple years ago,

he started throwing his splitter close to 50% of the time, and it's a great pitch. It didn't really lead to a big uptick in strikeouts, and he didn't strike out many batters in those five stars last year, as good as they were. But it seems like it should,

and he's a fantastic control pitcher. With the splitter, he gets some ground balls. It seems like there's the potential here for him to succeed in all three of those FIPP measure which could be a great outcome overall, but he'll need to stay healthy and he'll need to deliver right away because he's at an age now where he's not going to get many second chances if he's just, you know, he's mediocre.

I don't know if Marty Tallman in the chat here is telling the truth or not, but he said, I went to grade school with Matt Shoemaker and I caught his ball during dodge ball and got him out. Just saying. Yeah, so not not. quite the hurler now that he was then or he's better now is what i'm saying yeah a little bit better now chris any love for match youmaker his a dp is 317 he's going right in that same range as Alex wood and Nate avaldi and i love all three of those guys they're like frank faves yeah i'm a fan of all of those guys as well um i think i probably like Alex wood the most of those

three followed by Nathan Avaldi, followed by Matt Shoemaker, but all three of them are, I think, very good late round sleepers that you can look at. And, you know, I don't think there's going to be necessarily much like star potential among the three. But Nathan Avaldi was very good in 2018 before, you know, the Red Sox kind of ran him into the ground in the postseason. I think that probably explains the issues that he had staying healthy in 2019. Yeah, all three of those guys in Rich Hill, I mean, they're basically a huge, you know, group of, they're great when they're on the mound. I'm not, Ovaldi hasn't been great all the time, but he's shown flashes.

So, definitely interested in some of those guys. Yeah, new curveball for a Volta. Yeah, that's, okay, that's what the pitch he was working on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there was a, there was a jump in strikeouts at the end of last season and a bigger jump in the abbreviated spring training. So we'll see where that goes. Obviously not a lot of data there yet, but it seems like there's real enthusiasm.

And his problem has always been, like, oh, as hard as he throws his fastball, he doesn't get whiffs because there's not good enough off speed pitch to go with it. And that fastball is just straight as an arrow. Straight as an arrow. That's exactly what I was thinking. I remember watching him when he was with the Yankees. Guy throws like 100 miles per hour, but there's just no movement. It's, you know, straight as an arrow.

As Chris mentioned, who's that play? Number three, are you guys ready? You're tied up. Scott one, Chris one. Are you ready? I'm ready. Let's do it. Clue number one, I signed with the Oakland A's as an international free agent at 16 years old back in 2010. Oh, young guy. I had two minor league seasons with 29 plus home runs. Oh, oh, I think I know who this is. It's Renato Nunez. He's good. Scott's good. It is Renato Nunez.

All we needed was two clues. Chris, you're getting pummeled right now. That's ridiculous. Yeah. You gave him the answers before the show. We all know it. You guys conspired against me about Mark Pryor.

You're conspiring against me here. I just know my athletics prospects. That's all. His his prospects. The other clues I had for Renato Nunez of my 40 career MLB home runs, 31 of them came in 2019. I was a better Roto player than Reese Hoskins and Eric Hosmer last year. My ADP...

That's a lot of guys, man. My ADP is currently 265. So Renano Nunez, someone yesterday in the Facebook group, I'm sorry, I apologize, didn't write down your name. They asked us to deep dive Vernado Nunez. So I figured we'd give him a little bit of a chance to shine here on the pod. He does exactly what you want someone in Camden Yards to do. I mean, 46% fly ball rate, exit velocity isn't terrible.

It's not great, 67th percentile. Definitely better against lefties, but hit 18 of his 31 homers against righties. Scott, nobody really talking about Renato Nunez, the unfortunate news with Trey Mancini likely to miss the entire season. I mean, the playing time for Renato Nunez, it's pretty safe. Yeah, it is. And for a guy who showed good power, I mean, over 30 homer. runs, that's good power even in today's environment.

He has the kind of batted ball profile for it with extreme fly ball tendencies. He really doesn't strike out much. He doesn't, looking at his batting average versus his home runs, you would expect him to be somebody who strikes out more. Now, I don't think there's a lot of upside there with the batting average because, you know, the fly ball rate that makes him so good at hitting the home runs, it counteracts the batting average. But I do think it maybe gives him a higher floor than, uh,

than most people are presuming. And like you're saying, the Orioles, that lineup, it's not like there are going to be a lot of guys pushing them out. At some point, Ryan Mountain Castle is going to get involved. Maybe with expanded rosters, it'll be at the start of the season. But he's, they could find a few different places for him to play, or for Nunez to play, for that matter. Pretty much any corner spot, any of the four corner spots would be an option

for both of those, not to mention D.A. Chris, any love for Renato Nunez? I mean, he's a cheap source of power, and there's nothing wrong with that. Sorry, I want to apologize. I was looking at my phone. I'm trying to send out a tweet if you guys want to retweet that with the link to the group. That'd be great. I want people to join the chat.

Sean Nugent said that you were texting the ladies. That's what you were doing. I'm happily married. No. So the problem with Renato Nunei, is is the best case scenario probably sees him as someone who's probably a slight negative in batting average, even in a best case scenario, and he hits 35 homers, maybe 38. And that definitely has value. I don't want to downplay that. But it's not, I don't know, he's not someone that I want to,

that I make a point of targeting latent drafts just because by the time I'm in that range, I'm usually just targeting upside pitchers. Right. And look, he's like your prototypical corner infielder in a roto league late where you just need to grab some power. You kind of, you forgot about the power a little bit earlier on and you need to kind of shore that up. I mean, I just think that he's like a classic example of that.

And he goes so late, 265 ADP. So I wanted to shine some light on Renato Nunez. Who knew? One of Scott's favorite players. He only needed two clues. All right, Chris. I didn't know he was one of my favorite players. I didn't know either.

Got the biography memorized. Chris, let's get this to a rubber match. Let's get this five players deep. I chose five players for a reason so that you can have the epic comeback. So player number four, who's that baseball player? Let's go. I was a fourth round pick in 2015. I made my MLB debut on May 28th, 2017, and went on to hit 25 home runs.

I finished second in the National League Rookie of the Year voting that season. I am one of just 15 players in all of Major League Baseball to play in 159 or more games last season in 2019. Oh, wait a second, wait a second. What round pick did you say? Fourth round pick in 2015.

Oh, no, I want to be him then. Never mind. I was going to say Josh Bell, but now. Reese Hoskins. Not Reese Hoskins Through April last season My OPS was 1010

Wait wait wait Trevor Story No This was 2016 From May 1st on It was 701 Ooh okay So Great April and then he was terrible

Chris What do you say Tight it up Paul the Young Ah Yeah that makes sense I keep looking on the fan Gengrafts leaderboards and it automatically sorts by war.

And he was like the 35th best player in baseball last year according to war. And I'm like, it's shocking to me because he wasn't good. But I guess he had an awesome defensive season. Yeah, he's a really good defender. That's Paul DeYoung. Tied it up. We're going to the rubber match here. But I did want to talk about Paul DeYoung just for a second.

I mentioned, you know, that hot start that he got off to. What was the biggest difference? And in that first month of the season, his batted ball data, 27% line drive rate, 29% ground ball rate. From May 1st on, his line drive rate dropped to just 15%. So, I mean, you nearly cut that in half, and his ground ball rate went up to 40%. And before last season, his line drive rate was consistently over 23%. So I think if he can get that line drive rate back up, I mean, you're looking at a guy that can hit $250,

260, 30 home runs. He slated to back cleanup. He was having a monster spring before things got shut down. Scott, are we forgetting about Paul DeYoung? I feel like we haven't talked about him at all. Yeah, I'm reluctant to make a heavy investment in Paul DeYoung to play the optimist on Paul DeYoung in part just because it's unnecessary at shortstop. There are so many good things available.

And by the time I get to a point where I can even think about Paul DeYoung, either the drafts already over or I just have, you know, I've already filled my shortstop position twice over. So why would I, why would I grab a third one there? But I do see a scenario where things go really right for Paul DeYoung. To me, the kind of what you laid out there with the bat at ball profile from month to month, it strikes me as a guy who got, got kind of Homer happy and got away from his strengths because of that, you know, that getting off to the ridiculous start he did. I'm not exactly, sure where the upside is for Paul DeYoung, but I do think his best season is yet to come. And it's it's possible whoever does invest in him late is going to get really good value out of it.

It's possible he'll be replacing Paul DeYoung before the end of the first month too, though. So it's, you know, him versus Dansby Swanson, because I think they tend to get drafted around the same point. I feel like Swanson has both the higher floor and higher ceiling. I could be wrong about that. So it sounds like you're kind of out on Paul Dionchus. Yeah, like Scott said, I just don't see much of a reason to go after him. I don't know if the upside is much better than like a low-end starting shortstop or a decent middle infielder.

And like Scott said also, I totally agree I'd rather have the Braves guy whose name I'm blanking on even though I just say. Dan's B Swanson. Dan's B Swanson. How can I forget Dansby Swanson? He sounds like a butler. I don't know Danesby. He's the only Danzby I know of personally.

Yeah, Dansby, you're not going to find a lot of those. Not in baseball. Not anywhere, really. So apologies to any of our Dansby listening audience out there. Sorry. I just don't know any Danesbies. All right, it all comes down to this. Two for Chris.

Two for Scott. Who's that baseball player? Number five. This is it. I made my major league debut on August 2nd, 2007, at just 19 years old. 19 year old who made his debut. Come on, those are few and far between. 2007, that was so long.

I've played for five teams. I'm a four-time All-Star and three-time Silver Slugger Award winner. All right. Probably wrong, but Nelson Cruz? It is not Nelson Cruz. Okay. I had a 30-homer 20-steel season back in 2011 when I was 23 years old. Man.

All right, this one might give it away, so be ready. I was the first overall pick in the 2005 draft. Justin Upton. That is correct. Yeah. He was 19 when he made his debut. The victim earlier. The only time I've ever gotten a reaction while heckling a baseball player.

was Justin Upton. It must have been in 2000. I guess it was 2007. It was his rookie season because I was still living in South Florida at the time. We went to a game. We're sitting out in the fish tank out in Joe Player Stadium. And we started going in on Justin Upton all throughout the first inning. First ball that gets hit to him.

It would have been the third out of the first inning. He just completely misplays it. And starts yelling at. at us after the play is over. And that was one where we were just like, well, we'll sit somewhere else now. You're proud of yourself. You proud of yourself heckling the play?

I actually have a similar story with Vladimir Guerrero. Oh, how could you heckle Vladimir Guerrero? Oh, Chris. I don't even want to say that because, like, Justin Upton seems like a fine guy. There was no reason to heckle him. We were just jerks.

Yeah, well, us too. And I was sitting, we were sitting behind the right field fence at Turner Field. Vladimir Guerrero played for the Expos at the time. He was their best player. It seemed like it seemed apropos to heckle him. And you know, our heckles were pretty sophisticated. We weren't, we weren't vulgar or anything like that.

But, you know, he turned around and acknowledged us a couple times as it was going on. And then a ball got hit to right field. He just completely misplained. It just rolled under his glove and he had to chase it to the, wall. And as he was walking back to his position, you know, obviously we were, we were going nuts. He was walking back to his position. He just looked back up at us and shook his head. Oh, man. How dare you? How dare you? Vlad, probably my favorite player of all time. And here you go. I had the jersey. Justin Upton, what is this? 2011 All-Star Game Jersey. It's so

random that I have this. But Justin Upton, fun fact, one of my favorite players. Not really a fun fact. Just a fact. It's not that fun. Justin Upton, though, look, ADP-191, outfielder 54 off the board. He's 32 years old. According to GM Billy Epler,

he's in the best shape of his life. The final clue that I had for you guys was that his average season from 2016 to 2018 was 32 home runs, 87 run scored, 94 RBI, and 10 steals with a 258. batting average. Last year, derailed by knee injuries, if he's healthy, I think there's a chance for Justin Upton. Yeah, I was looking at this, I think it was just yesterday. It wasn't just a knee

issue. There was the turf toe at the beginning of the season, which is... The turf toe was the more significant one. He missed like the first month and a half or two months of the season, and starting in spring training. But did the knee require surgical intervention? I want to say it did. Could be wrong about that. But yeah, I mean, he was banged up all year. And I don't know, for whatever reason, that makes me a little more hopeful

that he's going to get back to being the Justin Upton we've known for so long. It's obviously a star-studded lineup that he's in. So there's a lot of, yeah. It wouldn't be a fantasy baseball today podcast, even at night, even a live recording. This is Scott getting a text. This is actually a text from Frank Stamphle from 47 minutes ago that I just got.

So that probably would have been some crucial information for us starting on time. But I just now got it. So thanks for that. I can't blame you, Frank. I'll blame something else. I'm not sure. I live in a basement, so it might be my service down here. Yeah, well, my service could be better too.

But anyway, Justin Upton, like if you're going, if you're looking, if you're looking for late power. Renato Nunez versus Justin Upton. I think you go for Justin Upton because I think I'm confident enough. Even saying Nunez, I think his

downside is being overstated. I'm confident enough that Justin Upton, maybe confident isn't the right world. I'm hopeful enough that Justin Upton will get back to being who he was at 32 as consistent as he's always been from year to year, not so much within us.

But from year to year, that I'd rather take the chance on that, especially in that lineup. I mean, he could be 90 plus runs in RBI. It's a great lineup. Obviously, he won't be because the season will be shorter. But that kind of pace. Had to catch myself a few times with that. I think it's going to be like five ninths of a good lineup at least. Yeah.

Maybe two-thirds. I mean, yeah, sure. Lestella could be good that would add to it. But just thinking in terms of Trout, Rendon, Otani. Yeah, and he'll be right in the middle of that. He'll probably bet fifth in that lineup. So lots of RBI opportunities. A little bit older now.

One of my favorites, not really a fun fact. But Justin Upton, just kind of keep him in your back pocket, contributes close to double-digit steals. I don't know how much you can actually expect anymore. He's had some knee issues. But Scott, you are the winner, man. Congrats. Our first ever edition of Who's that baseball player.

I wish I had my sound bite to kind of drop it in here. But, you know, maybe we'll play this game again on the podcast at some point. But congrats, Scott. You are the winner. Chris Towers, no more beer for you. I only had one, all right? I just want to, like, I just want to point out. I had one beer with dinner.

I had a little bit extra that I finished. Now I've got a glass of water as well. And, you know, I, because you can't, you can't have steak with just water. Oh, no, you can drink as much beer as you want. I mean, I was just taking it away. from you because you lost. I was taking away your beer privileges because you lost. I thought I was being, yeah, okay, I thought I was being called out.

That's fine. All right, let's answer some of the questions in our Facebook group page where you guys are watching us live. Thanks again for tuning in. Who is your guys favorite post-200 player, I guess ADP? Markana probably is not. Is he past 200? He hasn't been the last few times I've checked.

That's the easy answer for me. I am stunned. He is still going that late. He's 209, according to fantasy pros. Yeah, I've been, I guess I've single-handedly been trying to elevate him, and it's kind of a condemnation of whatever voice I think I have within the industry as a whole. But I'm sure people are bored of hearing Marcana for me. I'm sure they're bored of hearing Gio Orsella for me.

So outside the top 200. So one, I am going to name that I don't talk. talk about as often is Avicel Garcia. In part, it doesn't matter whether he's in Milwaukee or the Cactus League venue that the Brewers play in. It's going to be a great venue for him at a time in his career where I think he's best equipped to take advantage of it, elevated that fly ball rate enough that he's starting to see some power production.

And I think in a smallish park like that, just park overlays sort of back it up. uh he could be he could be a surprising contributor in home runs while delivering his usual above average maybe even high batting average depending on how high the home run pace ends up being so i think uh i think the brewers could make a star out of him as they've done out of a lot of hitters in recent years chris do you have a deep sleeper in o bp leaks Oh man, I was So I was preparing to answer the previous question I was going to say Will Myers

Will Myers Will Myers pretty good But not a great OBP league option So we'll not go with him Yeah just going down the list And looking at some guys Brett Gardner

Not a bad OBP guy late I think there are going to be concerns About how much he'll play But I think he'll play about as much as he did last and I think he'll be a pretty valuable option. You kind of put me on the spot here because I don't play exclusively OBP League, so it's not something that's totally on the tip of my tongue,

and that's why I'm just... Matt Carpenter, 332, great OBP League sleeper. There you go. That's the one I'm going to go with. There's a chance that Matt Carpenter bounces back, and if he does, even if he doesn't bounce back to all the way to where he used to be, he's going to be useful. He's going to be above average and on base percentage if he bounces back even a little bit.

I'll give you three OBP sleepers. Andrew McCutcheon, Cesar Hernandez, and Trent Grisham. Trent Grisham had a great walk rate in the minor leagues as well. So those are three that I think make a lot of sense as well. You can tell who prepared for this segment ahead of time and who didn't with those answers. Honestly, I'm just going through the chat and then I'm like scrolling through ADP and seeing who sticks out in my mind. Danny Jansen, there you go.

If you need a catcher in OBP leagues. You can say Joey Vado, right? Joey Vado. If you think there's anything left in the tank, if he's going to make the Hall of Fame like Chris and I think he is, he's going to need to bounce back. I don't think he is? Do you have him to?

Scott, why do you hate Joey Votto? Nobody ever pays attention to what I do. I pay attention to both the year guys' tweets, all right? Sometimes a little too close attention to Chris's tweets. I feel like you guys never see my tweets. Never. your tweets occasionally. Justin Smoke.

That's another one. One of my favorite players who will benefit if MLB institutes a universal DH, which at this point seems like if we play baseball in 2020, it's going to have a universal

DH. Yeah. Eric Cosmer, not Eric Cosmer, Justin Smoke is who I meant to see. What about Mark Kana? I'll be Seriously. Yeah, I mean, he just fits every category.

You said since he became an everyday player last year, he was a lot like Chris Bryant, right? So we like... Well, I mean, his season long OBP was 396. So I feel like we have to mention him. Shinsu Chu's always been a great on-day-guer-old. But Justin Smoke, just to great park, whether it's Cactus League or Miller Park, it's going to be a great park for him to play in. He was one of the biggest ex-Woba underperformers last season.

He hit the ball incredibly hard. walks a ton I think I don't think Justin Smoke is a one-year wonder especially if he gets every day or close to every day at bats playing in the Brewers lineup

To quote Mortal Kombat Where there's smoke There's fire This next question is from Jesse Burrell You guys ever play baseball And if so, what position And how good were you guys?

I didn't play a lot of organized baseball When I did, I was a catcher but I was more of a I I played hockey actually that was the that was the sport I focused on as a kid I played a hockey for about eight years I didn't play I didn't play baseball of any but the closest I came to playing organized baseball was intermural softball in in college and I played co-ed I played first base and in fact I Okay. That's a tough position to play. I abandoned my old team to start my own, specifically so that I could play first base,

because I thought every other position I was bad at. And first base, I was actually good at. And it's a position where it's important to have a good player. So, yeah, it's, yeah, I enjoyed that. But that's the closest that game. And it's, Yeah, it's a knock on my street cred, I guess. I played all growing up, I played, I took some time off,

and then I came back and played in like junior year of high school. I was a center fielder. I might have mentioned this before. I was like a good defensive player, not a good hitter. I think I got hit by a pitch when I was like a kid. And ever since then, like I just was scared of the ball after that. So it wasn't really a great hitter. but I guess like a Jackie Bradley type center fielder for what it's worth.

But, you know. That's great. In high school and batting like, let's say below 200. That's probably where I was at. So solid defender couldn't hit. I still suspect you're probably the best athlete on this podcast now. Adam Azer included. That's just a hunch of mine.

Yeah, I mean, one, Adam Azer included doesn't mean all that much. he's not even here to defend himself well there's no defending it you know yeah I would guess you're probably the best athlete on the podcast yeah that means you're young

you don't have these old you don't have these 30 year old bones youngish of us yeah no you're you're definitely the best athlete among this oh well thanks guys I appreciate it we'll get back to your questions keep sending those in there's a lot of questions here

I did want to talk about some prospects and who their MLB comps might be. You know, you guys might have talked about these prospects at some point, but I haven't really talked about these guys with you all that much. So MLB comps for prospects is like a fun exercise to do. I find it fun. Some people are like, well, you can't do that. You know, half these guys are not going to make it to the big leagues and they're not going to turn out to be anything.

But it's still fun. We're all adults here. We know that. All right. We don't need to preface it with that. We don't need to say, I think maybe in the most, you know, the, the, like, 90th percentile outcome for him is going to be this star player. Like, we know.

I feel like Scott is impersonating me. That's exactly what I thought, too. I was like, that sounds exactly like Chris. I feel very attacked. I was not meaning to single out Chris. And I don't think Chris feels that way anyway. I think, I think Chris is with me that, like, you know, a best case outcome isn't necessarily. an irresponsible one if you're if you're if you're if you're talking to responsibly minded people all right so

let's start with carter key boom because he might be the only name on this list that is likely to have a starting job if when baseball starts up former first round pick um you know hit 303 with 16 home runs in triple a last season did get a chance in the majors small cup of tea 39 at bats he hit just 128. Here's another probably not so fun fact for you, but in an NFBC league last year, I spent over 30% of my fab budget on Carter Key Boom, and I thought I was never going to forgive him for that, but now I'm right back in and I want all the Carter Key Boom. So Chris Towers, what is your realistic comp for Carter Key Boom, and give me a best case scenario

comp as well? So this is one that I actually have done this exercise for when I did about 12. prospect profiles earlier in April, and he was one of the guys I did get to. I plan on getting back to it once football stops being crazy, which might be next week. So I think a fair 2020 comp would be, and this might sound underwhelming, but he actually had a better season than you think, Brian Anderson. You hope for a better batting average than the 261 average that Brian Anderson had, but 342 on base percentage, 468 slugging.

The runs in RBI obviously weren't great, and you would think batting in the Washington National lineup, he could pace somewhere closer to like 175, 180 combined runs in RBI, rather than the 123 that Anderson had. But that seems like a pretty good comp, and it's not a star. But like I said, that's the medium scenario. If you want to really think big, you know, something like what Chris Bryant has turned into isn't out of the question. You know, good but not great batting average, good but not great power.

He's not going to be an elite power hitter, but, you know, a 30-homer best-case scenario isn't out of the question for him. Maybe a better batting average than Chris Bryant. You know, maybe he could push 290. But that seems like a pretty good one to me. Yeah. I felt like Anthony Rendon might be like a best case scenario for Carter Key Boom. Man, I mean, maybe like the pre-second breakout version of Anthony Rendon. Like not last years, Anthony Rendon, like two or three years ago.

The version of Anthony Rendon that was underrated for like the last six years before last year, that one makes sense. But last year, Anthony Rendon was... The best case comp I came up with Kiboon... Kibom! was Xander Bogarts actually. Okay. I think the hit tool, like,

the hit for average tool is a little better for Kibum than it is or was for Chris Bryant. And maybe the power ceiling is a little less. And, you know, I'm thinking more like 25 Homer version of Bogarts, more than 35 Homer for 35 Homer version of Bogarts. But that's like, that's like the most questionable part of Kibum. skill set at this point is looks like he has a good hit tool

looks like he has good on base skills where is the power going to end up and that's always been difficult to predict I feel like for prospects is where the home runs top out it's become especially difficult to predict in this environment I have a really hard time putting upper limits on that for

anybody but that's kind of the best case I'm thinking for Kibum someday maybe he'll be Xander Bogart's like what I have for the more likely outcome is Hunter who I understand doesn't play the same position, but I think that's where if you're, if you're drafting Key Boom now at the place he's going, that's what you can reasonably hope for. And then you can just hope he blows away your those expectations with something, you know,

more like an All-Star would deliver. Although I do like the Brian Anderson comp, Chris, just because I feel like Brian Anderson is an easy 20-homer boring 20 Homer corner infielder comp to make. I actually have him as my comp for a player later on this list. Yeah, so let's move on to Spencer Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies. And he's maybe the other prospect, if there is one that can potentially start the season with the Phillies. I know that they didn't entirely rule that out. It was something that they were talking about in spring, a 203 ERA 0.8,000.

whip, 94 strikeouts to just 16 walks over 71 innings pitched last season in the minors. The problem is he dealt with like some dead arm. He had some injury issues last year. So I don't know how aggressive the Phillies are going to be. Big fastball, big change up. Slider is developing. Scott, when it comes to Spencer Howard, what do you think? What are some comps you have for Spencer Howard?

Combs for Spencer Howard Maybe like Denelson Lamett I don't know This is the one I didn't get to in my pre Control should be better than that Okay all right who you got Chris I didn't have a chance to prep for

I have names ready for the other ones This is the one I didn't have a name ready for I will point out that his control is like a 50 grade At least according to MLB.com So you know You haven't really seen that reflected in the numbers because when you look at Spencer Howard's minor league walks per nine, they're not really all that bad,

but they don't really give them a lot of credit for his control. How about this? Somewhere between the good version of Trevor Bauer and the every year version of Trevor Bauer besides the one good year. A lot of strikeouts, worse control than you might hope for. And, you know, pitching in that park, it could be tough to keep the ERA, but, you know, you know, it's especially hard to do the

comp with pitchers. Partly because there's not like a mid-level pitcher to compare him to right now. It's, right? It's like if you're, if you aim much lower than to Nelson Lemet, you get into like, Miles Michael is, okay, that's clearly not him. Mitch Keller, okay, am I saying he's going to have a seven ERA? Right? Mitch Keller's the one who needs his own comps right now. I mean, like, I don't know, maybe what you Darvish did last year, probably not as many strikeouts.

But the hard thing is like, it's really hard to do, like, because the upside for basically every pitching prospect is, well, he's a top five starting pitcher because something happens that turns into it, which is, can happen for anyone. You know, Luis Castile was literally not a prospect anyone cared about. I don't even think he was a top 20 prospect. when the Marlins traded into the Reds in their bad farm system. So it's really tough. But yeah, I think like mid to high 3SRA, strikeup per inning or better is probably what you're hoping for for Spencer Howard with upside. Yeah. Really big fastball. Still sorting out that secondary arsenal.

And how it gets sorted out is going to have a lot of say in what he ultimately becomes. But, you know, 203RA. 0.83 whip in the minors last year injury shortened though it was there's a lot to be excited about and like the Phillies, they were sounding like they wanted to give him the job already. Usually

clubs are kind of dancing around the idea even if underneath deep down you're thinking that's what they want to do. They usually don't put it in the sort of terms the Phillies were talking about Howard. Well Scott, if you were a GM or the manager of the Phillies and you had Zach Eflin and Vince

Velasquez as your SP4 and your SP4 on your SP5. You'd probably want Spencer Howard in there as well. Right. And I mean, 71 innings last year, he should be able to go over 100. How far is 100 innings going to get a pitcher in a hundred game season? Pretty far. All right, Scott, you mentioned that you prepped for all the names that I had on this list.

We're not going to get to all of them. Oh, come on. So I will let you choose which one you want to talk about, which one you think your MLB comp might be most accurate for. So which prospect would you like to talk about here, Scott? I, I, yeah, maybe AJ Puck, although I think, I think Nick Madrigal is the most interesting one here. See, I was, I almost talked about Ryan Mountcastle. Let's just give our comps without giving a bunch of commentary, just because that would be fun, right?

I think Ryan, that's kind of boring. All right. That's who my, that's who my Brian Anderson, you know, reasonable comp was for Mount Castle. but the best case comp I've been using for Mount Castle is Nick Castianos. Which, you know, compared to some of the best case comps we've been giving, it's pretty boring. But, you know, if he becomes Nick Gastiano's, he's obviously going to be a fantasy asset. Yeah, I mean, if he's a 280 hitter with 25 home runs in Camden yards, you know,

in the ELEs, there's some good ballparks there. I mean, you know, Nick Castiano's playing in Campiards would be a heck of a player. We sure think so anyway. But yeah, it's I'm thinking in terms of like Can't find a defensive home Not really good anywhere Like Nick Castiano's

Mostly a line drive hitter like Nick Castiano's Really bad walk rate like Nick Castianos I don't know I think it I think it works for Mountcastle Chris what do you thinking about Nick Madrigal What kind of comps do you have for him You said he was someone that you're excited to talk about He might be Insofar as

the phrase most unique can mean anything and you know as an editor things are either unique or they are not unique you can't be the most unique Nick Magical might be the most unique player in baseball he struck out

he played 120 games last season and struck out 16 times and that is not a typo from my mouth he also only had four home runs he stole 35 bases he has played a hundred 163 games in his minor league career and has struck out 21 times with 43 strikeouts.

So there's just, there's no modern era comp for him. But go back a little ways and you get into, he probably doesn't have a stolen base potential of a Juan Pierre, but maybe the number two hitter on the 2003 Marlins, Luis Castillo. Walked a ton, good on base guy, had zero power, had a bunch of like 30, I think he had a 23, RBI season in like 153 games or something like that. But good stolen base source, great batting average. That would be, I think, a pretty reasonable... I mean, it's kind of close-ish to a best-case scenario.

But, yeah, I like that one for Nick Matricle. I was going to say a speedier Luis Arias. Yeah. Yeah, I think that makes a lot of say. I mean, D. Gordon, probably not going to be as fast as D. Gordon, but someone that can hit for a high batting average, 30 stolen base contributor. I think that that can make a lot of sense for Nick Madrigal.

Scott, real quick, did you have something you wanted to add on, on A.J. Puck? So my reasonable comp was going to be Robbie Ray, which seems like kind of a high reasonable comp, but that's kind of the issue I was running into a starting pitcher where there's not much of a middle class to choose from. So, yeah, a guy with a ton of strikeout potential but has some command issues to overcome. I think the best case would be something more like Blake Snell, if he can curb those walks up to a certain point. I think you're talking about a potential Cy Young contender in A.J. Puck.

But regardless, he should deliver a ton of strikeouts. It's just how much can he keep from being his own worst enemy? Yeah, I mean, it's like Oliver Perez or Chris Sale. right like that's kind of that's that's kind of the two pole i mean really the two poles are like annual cabrera and chris sale but that's probably not nice yeah there's uh that's that's that's quite a volatile outcome for for a j puck it's an incredibly volatile profile right right uh all right so there you go those are some prospect comps that we have uh who they might be able to turn into i want to do like a rapid fire answer your questions here

to end out the show. So, guys, try to keep it short and sweet. Scott, this one's for you. How long till Luciano is the best shortstop in baseball? I assume they are referring to Marco Luciano, the shortstop prospect for the Giants. He is just 18 years old. Yeah, 18 years old, and he has a lot of shortstops to overcome at this point.

That position has been revolutionized with studs everywhere. Look, how long until he's in the majors? three years I could see maybe less if he continues to crush it at every level the Giants don't have much standing in his way but I think the comp I've made for him

actually in a few places is Carlos Correa and so you know that would put him in the conversation for best short stuff in baseball but like I said he'll have a lot of competition for that title Chris does Kyle Tucker play with a shortened season under Dusty Baker? I don't think the Dusty Baker thing really matters.

He'll play the better player. I don't think he's more or less likely to not play a prospect than, you know, A.J. Hitch. Yeah, he was the guy who was managing the Nationals when Harper came up, right? Or no, was that, no, that was, I'm sorry, that was somebody else. Yeah, that wasn't, that wasn't him. But either.

Well, like, I just, I don't see much read. Like, I know people like to make fun of Dusty Baker and just say he's going to do the wrong thing. But I think it's, like, that organization didn't want to play him last year. AJ Hinge already didn't play him. So, you know, I think it's going to come down to if Kyle Tucker hits, he's going to play. And, you know, with maybe a condensed schedule, it probably increases his chances of playing

because the Astros actually do have a couple of old dudes. at first base and in the corner outfield spots that they can certainly use Kyle Tucker to spell. Scott, this question comes from Omar. Have you ever grown a beard? Have I ever grown a beard? No, I don't think it's physically possible for me to grow a beard. I get it. I can get around the mustache area here, kind of the whole like goatee area. I could get that, but it's just too, it comes in here along the cheeks, but it's just too sparse to really like, form into a beard. It would be way too scraggly and gross.

And nobody wants that. At least of all, my wife. By the way, Davy Johnson was Bryce Harper's manager when he first got called up his first two years, actually. And it wasn't until his fifth year that Dusty Baker came aboard. So, yeah. Yeah, I think I went through Matt Williams

Williams in between, right? Yeah, Matt Williams. I love that Chris and Scott are like the antithesis in terms of facial hair. They're like the opposite ends of the spectrum. here and then I'm kind of just like in between so I don't have the as full of a beard as Chris I don't I don't have nothing like Scott so it's just like if you're looking from left to right or right to left however you're watching us it's Scott no facial hair me some facial hair Chris the most facial hair and speaking of Chris this question's for you forest Whitley and brent honeywell

for I assume this is Matt Boyd and Brendan Rogers a 20 team six by six for us and Honeywell, Matt Boyd, Brendan Rogers. Man, that, I would go with the Boyd Rogers side. I really like Honeywell. I really hope he figures it out because I'm always going to root for a guy who throws a screwball, but it's been a really tough road for him. And it's been a really tough road for Boris Whitley. All of a sudden, he does not look like a can't miss prospect.

I'm not sure I want to rather have Rogers straight up than Whitley, you know? I think, you know, if, I mean, God, the Rockies need to play him. Well, they need to figure out their organization. But if he gets the chance to play in course field every day, he's going to win a batting title at some point. All right, Scott. That took it a little far, I think. But, okay, I like the enthusiasm.

It's like night, man. I had one beer. He had a beer. So he's fired. up. You never know what kind of takes you're going to get from Chris post beer. Scott, more games started in the outfield. Dylan Carlson, Tyler O'Neill, Tommy Edmund. I think Edmund is the safe answer there. That seems like the position he's going to be able to play most often. However, I do think we will see all three to varying degrees. And I think it'll somewhat depend on performance

who ends up getting the most. Edmund, you know, even if he doesn't end up playing a lot of the He'll get some time at third base and second base. And I think he'll be okay in terms of playing time. His playing time will range from okay to every day. The other two, O'Neill and Carlson, it's mostly going to depend on how they perform. All right, last one's for you, Chris. Do we see Nate Pearson in 2020?

Do we see baseball in 2020? How about that? Well, yeah. And with baseball comes Nate Pearson. This is actually something we're going to have to get into. not at the 57th minute of a podcast someday, but it's much more likely we see big-time prospects start the season with their major league clubs this year.

There's already been talk of expanded rosters. I saw a tweet from John Hammond that basically said there's no chance minor league baseball gets played this year. Yeah, I don't see how... I mean, you can have extended spring training, but I don't think the Blue Jays are. are going to view Nate Pearson throwing against, you know, the B squad from Dunedin as the same thing is actually competing in competitive games. I would think given the need for expanded

rosters, you're going to need more arms, given how weird everything's going to be in general, if we have a 14-team playoff, which I also saw today, which I'm not quite sure how the math works on that, but that is part of the latest proposal as well. I mean, if you're the Blue Jays, you can be one of the 14 best teams in baseball right now. Let Nate Pearson go out there and throw 70 innings. I think it's a hundred percent chance we see Nate Pearson, unless he gets hurt, you know. Yeah. Yeah, Nate Pearson, I could see because, I mean, he was the, the prospect, pitching prospect or

prospect overall, probably getting the most attention in spring training. And it was mostly just they got to. figure out how to distribute his innings, but that's now that that's out the window, I just think, I don't want to go overboard with the prospect thing because I think they're really going to have to know that a guy is ready

because if they don't know, like, how easy is it going to be to get a replacement for him, if it's somebody they have to send down? So I kind of feel like they're going to use those extra roster spots more on journeymen types who they're more confident in what they're going to be able to deliver. It does

sound like maybe maybe there could be some kind of like prospect camp that they could have going on at the the spring training sites you know maybe not even divide it by different levels class a double a triple a all of that maybe just here's here's our organization's 30 best prospects they're going to start playing games against other organizations 30 best prospects but that that gets really like sticky with uh you know financial considerations of all of that. But it does seem like there will be a pool to call players up and send them down. And the prospects who they just don't have room for aren't just going to fall into atrophy or anything like that. But I do think it's going to be more difficult. And so they're not going

to be as willing to gamble on a player that they're still thinking probably needs some seasoning. So like McKinsey Gore, I'm really not optimistic we see him right away. And if we don't see him right away, I'm not sure what that means about whether we see him at all. Fair enough. Guys, great time. Really enjoyed this. Facebook live. We did our podcast there. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening on demand. Guys, any guesses as to who's on the back of this Brewers player shirt, by the way? Brewer's. Hmm. Justin Upton, nope, he didn't play for them, even though he's one of your favorite players.

I'm going to guess it's Jeff Jenkins. It's not Jeff Jenkins. Too bad. Chris, you got anything? Travis Shaw. I've got a name. Not Travis Shaw. Played on the same team.

Yeah, played on the same team. Hmm. No, it's not. That's not who I was thinking of then. Who was that guy who got at Bats? Like, he was like a super utility guy, and he had this one really good. He would have been a good one.

for the one hit wonders. I can't think of his name. It's like Ben Gamble. It's clearly a Ben Greve jersey. It's not Ben Greve. It is someone who is currently on your Miami Marlins, Chris. Jonathan Veer.

Oh, I thought it was Hazard. Okay, I thought it was going to be Hazardt. That's true. Good of thin. Either one. I want to know who that guy is I was thinking of now. All right. It's the second basement.

Scott's going to figure that out. Chris is going to figure out the second basement. Chris is going to drink another beer. I might drink a beer myself here. Thank you all for watching and listening on demand. We appreciate it so much. We will talk to you again on Friday. Bye-bye.