Who Is This Year's Breaout Players?

Lucas Giolito and Rafael Devers broke out last year. Who can be this year's versions? Gregg Sussman and Frank Stampfl will try to answer those questions, as well as finding the crappy closer you can rely on!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, thanks for downloading the podcast. If you want to
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Enjoy the show and thanks so much for listening and

(00:21):
listen to me. This is the Fantasy Football Best Friends
Forever show. Start listening to us or suffer the consequences. Yeah,

(00:55):
right now, Welcome her Friday from uns my God, Rob Say, Francis,

(01:17):
Prae Stap All ladies and gentlemen, your hey. With that,
we don't be inside of Studio thirty four. This is
the b f S. He is Frank Snample, I am

(01:38):
Greg Souman. What's happening, Frankie? Greggy? Happy Tuesday to your bud.
Lots to talk about a lot of injuries already taking place,
Like what does what do these guys do in the
off season? If they show up to spring training and
they can't even walk around without hurting themselves, Greg, what
do they do? Honestly, I don't even have an answer
for you, man. I I'm scared to figure out what

(02:00):
you do on the weekends. What what I do on
the weekends. It's just basically been watching movies. I haven't
really done much, just like lounged around doing nothing, eating terribly. Yeah,
if that's what we're doing and we don't get injured
just walking around, Greg, what the hell are baseball players
doing in the off season. I feel like if we
like try to work out like do like the work
acts they're doing, we would be injured like immediately. That's
probably true. We're also not professional athletes now we're not. No,

(02:23):
we're not. Wait, don't hear your bodies like professional athletes either.
In January you did? Yeah, in January you did. I
didn't eat any avocado ice cream, a lot of the
TV twelve diet, but everything pretty close to that, pretty close,
pretty close. Did you just leave last night? How did
I sleep pretty well? Nice? I haven't had an issue sleeping.
He's gone very well. How about you sleeping well? I

(02:44):
slept poorly, but not my phone. You probably probably dreaming
about like Alex Sano calling you on the phone. Now,
Judy was up all night, like what are you doing?
I'm trying to sleep and She's like, I'm stressed out
on what work? Like, Hey, you wake up and be
over come on you go out out there, read your
book like love like that you like this date. Sports

(03:12):
Grade news update. I'm Sean Gloss. No, I'm Alex Facano
with your sports Grid news update here on the Fantasy BFFs.
Thank you for that intro, Greg new Year, another Denny
Hamlin win in the Daytona five hundred, and Joe Gibs
still has the team to beat In NASCAR. Hamlin won

(03:34):
his third day to five hundred on Monday, becoming the
first driver since Sterling Marlin to win the Great American
Race in consecutive seasons. His margin of victory of point
zero one four seconds over Ryan Blaney was the second
closest in race history, after only Hamlin's win over Martin
True Junr in two thousand and sixteen. Monday's triumph is

(03:56):
the third four Toyota all one by Hamlin. On the
other side of the track, Ryan Newman has barrel rolled
and slid across the finish line in a crumpled heap
of metal, sparks flying as his car skipped to a halt,
and fuel pouring onto the track. Frightening lye close to
the flames. Fans gasped as track workers placed large black
screens around Newman's car and worked to get him out.

(04:16):
They had two hours until they got the chance to exhale.
NASCAR's officials announced that Newman had non life threatening injuries
and was in serious condition at the Halifax Medical Center.
Reports will follow with more updates and in Major League Baseball,
sports books are expecting the Astros hitters to be targeted
often this off season. Some sports books set the over
under on number of Astro's players to get targeted and

(04:38):
hit at eighty three and a half. In the past
five seasons, only nine teams have been hit by pitches
more than eighty three and a half times, But with
anger over the science stealing scandal glooming, there is plenty
of reason to believe the Astros will be targeted frequently.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Robert Manfred said that Sunday, independent
of the Houston situation, he has been planning to increase
the disciplinary ramifications for intentionally throwing at batters, and we'll

(05:02):
meet with managers this week to discuss the issue and
really quickly. In the NFL, drew Brees will play in
the two thousand and twenty NFL season. The New Orleans
Saints quarterback in the NFL's career passing leader will return
and say, quote, make another run out of it. Breeze,
who turned forty one in January, or scheduled to become
a free agent in March, but he is ready to

(05:23):
play with the Saints yet again. He holds the records
for career passing touchdowns, passing yards, and completion percentage. I
am Alex Passano and this has been your sports grid
news update. Now back to the fantasy b f f's
issues on that particular off date. Frank, I don't know
you called it, but number one first issues by me,
all right. I threw it to Shawn, not Alex. It

(05:44):
was Seawan Guasta, Alex Pasana was my fault. A lot
of NASCAR in there. A Nascar. Someone argued a top
three most popular fantasy sport in the nation grade. I
don't think that's arguable, you know, I don't. I don't
think you can make that case. Well, the King used
to make that case. I'm sure Angle would disagree with
the Angles might but the BFFs don't. So if we

(06:07):
could leave NASCAR out of the updates. My NASCAR knowledge
goes as far as me as me when I was
with Serious XM is like, I don't know what the
heck you call it highlights in turn, Yeah, I used
to log highlights for NASCAR. Imagine that logging highlights for NASCAR.
I can't think of any things worse. Actually, in the
south Park episode, you ever seen a Craig You're not

(06:28):
a South Park guy. Right when I was younger, I
was they have they have a NASCAR episode, tell us
about your strategy about today's race. Well, drive straight making, lift,
drive straight making? Are gotta be too poor to drive
NASCAR as well? And all that? Anyway, point being, we
don't need any NASCAR updates. Yeah, I mean there was
you know, some eron Judge news that came out that

(06:49):
might have been out definitely shouldn't be part of the
fantasy BFF news uptake. Greig, we're the NASCAR and that's
a crush, your crush, your hopes and dreams, they're out,
my hoologies. They were the top stories. It was a
pretty big they were. They were the top stories for
a sports program that cares about NASCAR. There was something
that he got that Ryan knew and is okay. There
was something that he did mention in there that I

(07:10):
wanted to talk about real quick, Not Martin Trurex Jr.
It was the Astros hit by pitch. This prop is
probably the easiest money you'll ever make in your life.
Eighty three and a half three teams got plunked eighty
four or more times last year. The Astros themselves got
hit with sixty six pitches last year. You're telling me
they're not going to get hit by pitches eighteen more

(07:30):
times this upcoming season. Also, I know that friend of
the program spitting speeds, Dave Martinez friend has been trying
to figure out what do you do with the twenty
six man? Did you have a specific skill set designated
to the twenty six man, maybe a really fast runner
and athletic type runner who could come in and steal bases.
I say no, no no, no, no, no, no no no
no no, no, no no. There's gonna be harsh penalties

(07:51):
for people who are throwing at the Astros twenty six man.
You designate that player to plunking the Houston Astros. Whenever
you play the player isn't isn't a picture? As we
hit her. Oh well, then that doesn't make sense. I
thought it was a great idea, but I was like,
come on, you could just use that person to get
suspended all the time, and they'll just continuously hit the

(08:13):
Houston Astros. Everybody wants to do it anyway. I think
it was Ross Stripling who already came out and said,
oh yeah, yeah, we're gonna hit him. Oh yeah, there,
everyone's gonna do. They're going to be hit once a series.
That's a lock. Yeah. I like the over there over
eighty three and a half. We'll see. We'll see what
kind of penalties Uh these guys ultimately yet, um, all right.
The big news that Alex did not mention that was
the fact that Aaron Judge is not swinging or fielding.

(08:36):
We're hitting, or or doing much of anything Yankees can't
right now? Whish I could be Aaron Judge. You want
to be George car Stanton, Just hurt all the time, nothing,
get paid a bunch of money seems nice, right anyway.
So Aaron Judge is hurt with shoulder soreness and an
m R I recently. Shoulder has been sore for weeks
and MRI recently no changes it's still sore. As a

(09:00):
Yankee fan, Frank, I can tell you here we go again.
This is what happened previously and it went terribly Yeah. Look,
this is this has been an issue for both Aaron
Judge and Jehan Carlos Stanton, and we have spoke to
Virginia Zaki's many times about this of inside injuries, that
these guys are almost too big for their own good
when it comes to being a baseball player. Yes, it's great.

(09:22):
You can put out all these hype videos of you
flipping tires and swinging hammers and whatever kind of crazy
workout video you want to do, but when it comes
down to it, they're almost too jack for their own good.
Like you need to have flexibility, and you hear a
lot of players talk about that nowadays, that they've done
more yoga and they're trying to improve their flexibility so

(09:43):
that you know, when they're swinging the bat, they're not
developing any core ishes core injuries and no oblique injuries
and trying to avoid back injuries. And you know, Judge
has now dealt with shoulder injuries to both of his shoulders.
He had left shoulder surgery after the seventeen season, and
now he's dealing with an injury to his right should
there last year he missed fifty games with an oblique injury.
So look this, this is why I wasn't targeting Aaron

(10:06):
Judge outside of a head to head points league. If
you were drafting with the first overall pick. I hope
you watched the white board series yesterday, but I wasn't
targeting Aaron Judge mostly because he has not shown the
ability to stay healthy greg and there are other players
going in that range who have shown us that who
can also do a little bit of everything. Whether you
play in a rod A league, when you're playing a

(10:27):
head to head points league, I just can't depend on
either one of Judge or staying to stay healthy at
this point. You know what it reminds me in football
where we talking about points per target a lot, right,
where that's not a thing. It's not a category. You
don't get a point or target. And I made fun
of you in regards to players like Mike Asecky right
or um loved Mike. Who's the dude on the Bills
that everyone was hot for Duke Johnson, not Duke Williams.

(10:48):
I was like this guy sucks. What's the guy ever done?
I think you're gonna go with Dawson knock you with
Duke Williams. Ye spoke about Williams like one week, well,
there's always kind of our CFL star, by the way,
is always guys like this people talk up and Aaron
Judge is obviously better than those types of players. Well,
when he was being taken and even by me, like
I'll call myself out on this, when he's called out

(11:11):
for we're sorry being drafted in the first round, and
I make the case like Aaron Judge is better than
these players. I'm right he is. But now he's been
a hundred and what twelve games, two games twenty nineteen,
he has his shoulder store in his now these things linger,
and the biggest question mark was his durability. It's not

(11:32):
even February nine. He's already hurt. This is why you
don't avoid Aaron Judge. The guys that are going ahead
of him, along ahead of him. But then you're talking baseball.
When we come back sports grid dot Com Betting insights
and Entertainment at your fingertips as our team covers the
most important topics in sports wagering. Real time, odds, predictive

(11:56):
betting models, expert picks, and more want the edge than
get on the grid. Sports grid dot Com speaking about
in judge eminently uh spooky a camp today and he
said it's something he can do. Greg Nice. He said

(12:16):
that the Astros should vacate their title, players should be punished,
and the players on that team will never be looked
at the same again and doubts that they were clean
in Well, he's not wrong about that last part for sure,
and if you ask Rob Manfred, he would agree. Apparently
that is enough punishment for the Houston Astros, Greg, that
they have to live with this embarrassment for the rest

(12:37):
of their lives, that they shouldn't have to be punished.
M hmm. I love the comments from Nick mar Kegis
earlier today. Did you see that I did not see
your tweet from comments? Yes? I didn't see if you
No, No No, I didn't tweet anything about sad he wants
to beat all of their acts. Yes they did see
those comments yesterday. Yes, that's great. I love it. Let's
go Nick Markegs. I gotta draft him in one of

(12:59):
these draft chain being draft. I love you, Nick Marcuse.
Let's go, let's make it happen. How many that's what
we gotta said? Over under. How many brawls happened with
the Ashrows this year? A bunch man, it's gonna be sick.
I got more. I got more. This baseball season is
basically slug fest. I love it, so I got more
on Aaron Iroon Judge quotes if you don't mind, may
read them quickly. Aaron Judge, he was pretty man, pretty

(13:22):
upset about the Astros cheating and being prevented from playing
the seen World Series of Cody Bellinger. I agree with
a lot of things, he said. Says he believes the
punishment of players was weak for a player driven scheme.
Judge that it bothers him that the Astros didn't show
enough remorse. People lost jobs, people lost money. As far
as driving the Ashes of the World Series title, he
said a quote, it wasn't earned. I couldn't sit up

(13:42):
here in lie but it's always gonna be the back
of your mind. Josh said he doesn't think access the
replay review room should be restricted in the future because
it's helpful for his own swing and defense during games.
Joke they should add more officials just in the ongoing
revelations where the Astros continue to make him stick to
his stomach because it reflects poorly on baseball. He even
called the most recent Jose to Bay incident tattoo gate. Judge,
you finished second m VP voting. Deleted Instagram post is

(14:06):
all season congratulating out to Bay on his award because
they cheated. That didn't sit well with me. That post
doesn't mean the same anymore. He's not wrong about anything
that he said. It was just a matter of time
until to tattoo gate became a thing here. Greg, And
what I will add to that, and I've heard other
people mentioned this before, for everybody who's out there making comments,

(14:27):
and you should look if you're clean, if you're Cody Balinger,
if you're Aaron Judge, and you guys are clean as well,
say whatever you want. I'm just saying nothing better ever
come out about the New York Yankees or the Los
Angeles Dodgers, because if that's the case, you are going
to get crucified ten times worse than what's happening with
the Houston Astros right now. So I have no problem

(14:49):
people players speaking their mind, Greg and and roasting the
Houston Astros right now. But if it ever comes out
that the Yankees, Dodgers, anybody else was doing something similar
to this, which other people have already speculated, that this
is not the only team in baseball that's doing this,
then those players are going to be absolutely roasted as well,
and they would deserve that. So, look, if you're gonna

(15:09):
point fingers and you're gonna call people names and say
all this kind of stuff, just make sure that you're
clean as well. That's all I've got to say on
that matter, Absolutely, no question, no question about it. Okay,
let me um get into what we're talking about on
today's program, where we were trying to figure out we
do this every year and we get it right sometimes
not like perfectly right. If I feel like we've done
better in football and base but it's perfect, Greg. That's

(15:32):
what's the ratio. They usually say. If you're sixty to
sixty as a fantasy analyst, that means you're doing your job.
You know, you give me like five percent. I feel
good you have. Greg. Let's let's set the bar a
little bit lower here, right. Nobodyould listen to me if
you're not wrong anyway. So the idea of day show
was to try to figure out who is this year's Blake, meaning,

(15:54):
who is this year's freak out? Kennedy, it's your hitter,
who's the guy that you can rely on? Like, that's
the point of Today Show, Tomorrow Show. We're gonna do
it from a more negative perspective. We're like, all right, positive,
drafted this guy, he sucked last year, We're not gonna
get caught again on you, Joey Voto, right, things like that,

(16:14):
but today much more positive. Right, So let's start with
a guy that we were very upset with last year, Frank,
and that was Raffael Nevers. In fact, I think we
did a whole show last year on who is this
year's Raffael Devers? Because he really made us very angry
two years ago. We're both in on him, we both
loved him. We made sure we drafted him everywhere, and

(16:36):
he was very very bad last year, very very good.
Robail Levers was amazing last year. Before we move on
and find out who is this year's Rafael Nevers, Frank,
I wanted to ask how good could Raphael Never's be
this year's I think that he can come close to
what he did last year as well. I mean three
eleven batting average might seem a little bit optimistic, but

(16:58):
you look at this guy's minor league track record, the
prospect pedigree that he came with, his electric backs, bat
speed as well, no mookie bets in that lineup, might,
you know, bring the counting stats down a little bit.
But I think coming close to thirty home runs, hitting
to three hundred with hundred runs and RBIs is all
well within the range of possibilities. He also stole eight

(17:20):
bases last year. I believe all eight of those came
in like the first three months, and then he was
like caught eight sealing the rest of the way. So
I wouldn't expect much in that department. Maybe he gives
you a five stolen bases, but this is an electric player,
greg who was being drafted in the second round right now,
and it's hard to argue with anything that he did
last year. So I don't really have a problem with

(17:40):
where he's going. If you wanted to take an Anthony
Rendon just because you felt he was a little bit safer,
I think that you can make that argument. But on
the other side of the coin, I think you can
also argue that Raphael Devers is upside is probably still
higher than Anthony Rendon's as well. Yeah, I think it is,
and I'm back in as you have to be a
Rafael Devers. It was a crazy thing for him. Is
he's twenty three years old. Like when we were upset

(18:01):
what we were set by him two years ago, he's
twenty one. It was a twenty one year old season
and we crushed this kid last year. He came in
and you're twenty two and just put up mystical, more
mythical numbers in all honesty, with over thirty runs, almost
a hundred and thirty runs, scored a hundred and fifteen ribbies,
eight stolen bases, and he got caught eight more times,
which means you have a good chance of getting those
double digit um there's double digit steals this year. Sure,

(18:24):
the babbitt was way higher last year than it was
a year before, but if you go back two years
ago what we thought were three years ago when we
thought he could break out, it was even high that right,
So you look at rathfaeld Evers this year and this
is a guy that I think you can make a
case is a first round pick that next year he
will definitely be a first round pick. He has all
the tools that he could do everything, and he has

(18:47):
la Rofie Devers. Yeah, and there's a chance that he
just gets better than where he was a year ago,
which up seems crazy, but yeah, like he did this,
He did everything that you just said, Greg thirty seven
thirty two. Him runs over a hundred and twenty runs,
scored a hundred and fifteen RBIs with a thirty seven
percent hard contact right. The biggest thing for him Greg contact,

(19:08):
that keyword. He lowered his strikeout rate by seven percent
last year. His plate discipline is not great. He swings
in a lot of pitches outside the zone. And I've
learned to kind of give players the benefit of the
doubt because if this is who they are, this is
who they are. I tried to doubt Javier bia Is
a couple of years ago, and boy, that guy made
me look foolish. And now I've done a complete one eighty.

(19:29):
I'm gonna have him on basically all of my teams.
But Raphael Devers is similar to a Javier Bias, where
you know, he chases a lot of pitches outside the zone.
But look at his oh contact percentage from sixty three
point six percent up to seventy one point nine percent.
That's how often did he make contact on pitches outside
of the zone. He raised that eight percentage points last

(19:49):
year and that was a big part for him cutting
down those strikeouts and improving that batting average. So now
it's trying to play a game we like to call
who is this year's Raphael Devers? Uh huh? All right,
so that's I love the animation. We some music under

(20:12):
it would have been great. Awesome job by Sandro here
who is this year's dot dot dot? And then a
great picture of Rafael Devers mug right there. Greg. Maybe
we get some music for for next segment, Seawan if
we can make that happen. But great, do you want
to start with? Who is your? Who is this year's
version of Rafael? So I'm not gonna listen, I'm not
gonna I'm not gonna lie to the people. You know,
I'm an honest guy and I love why don't lie

(20:36):
to them? You this is one of the second ninetews
that you came up with, and you know, listen, I
want to figure out who this year is Rafael Nevers is?
And to me, like, I think that guy's Corey Seeker,
and I was like, damn, Like, Corey Seeger is one
of my guys. I've been very high on Seeger ever
since he came in the league, Like I owned him
that first year um in one of my leagues, and
when he got hurt, like I stuck with him, And
obviously it was very, very frustrating. He's very frustrating to own.

(20:57):
Last year. You never really got healthy, it seemed, and
he was a player you wanted to bring up. So
I'm not gonna take the credit for that. Obviously it
was your guy. But why are we both back in
on Corey Seger this year? What positive size do you
see from him that he could have a massive breakout
potentially like Devers. So let's kind of preface this with
what we were thinking on who is this year's Raphael Devers?

(21:19):
It was a former prospect that is being underappreciated in
fantasy drafts this season, who can break out maybe becomes
a top three four round pick in next year's draft drafts.
And I think Corey Seeger fits that mold. He's dealt
with a lot of injuries. He had hip and elbow
surgery in the off season last offseason, going into the
twenty nineteen season, and I think you saw that early

(21:42):
on in the season here, Greg, he got off to
a really slow start through the month of April two
thirty six, three thirty three three sixty four triple slash
with an eighty nine waited runs creative plus just two
home runs, nine r b i s percent strikeout rate
with a thirty seven percent hard contact rate. From May
one on two eighty two, three thirty five, five seventeen

(22:05):
slug a one twenty waited runs created plus seventeen home runs,
sixty four runs scored, seventy eight ribbies, a seven percent
walk rate, so that actually came down a little bit,
but a seventeen percent k percentage. That dropped four percent
as well from the first month of the season and
then raises hard contact from thirty seven percent in April
to forty three point six percent the rest of the way.

(22:26):
So when looking at Corey Seeger, he is someone to me,
Greg that can hit two eighty plus this year, hit
twenty five to thirty home runs, and I think that
he can approach or even exceed one hundred and one
hundred in the runs scored in one hundred RBIs. Look
at the lineup that he's in. They have two m
VP candidates in Mookie Betts and Cody Bellinger. They still

(22:46):
have Justin Turner, they still have Max Moncy. All these
guys are gonna get on base. Corey Seeger projected to
bet fifth six, right in the middle of that lineup,
maybe even move up a little bit there. I think
that Corey Seger can get back to the player we
were expecting him to be the one not on him Greg,
And it doesn't really matter because where you're getting him, Uh,
you don't have to depend on stolen bases in that
range of the draft. Really, you want to draft stolen

(23:07):
basis early on if you can. Is he gives you
nothing on the base pats, what can he be? A
four category contributor good batting average, home runs r BIS,
run scored. I think the answer is unequivocally yes, we
lot more on Corey Seeger in a moment. Another player
as well coming up who Frank thinks could be the
next Rafie Devers. We have other players we want to
get into as well, including a break up picture and

(23:28):
even a steady closer. You know it's not sexy, but
we'll talk about that too. It was really in the
closing tears at some point, Frank, because I haven't gotten
there yet and I'd like to know who the good
closes are this year, So we'll do that at some point.
But alright, going up the BFFs, roll on more Corey,
Seeger and who else could be this? Use Roff Devers,
we'll tell you next. Sports grid dot Com Betting Insights
and Entertainment at your fingertips seven as our team covers

(23:50):
the most important topics in sports wagering, real time odds,
predictive betting models, expert picks, and more want the edge
than get on the grid sports grid dot Com. Frank
and I currently arguing whose King Tomas? When this comes?

(24:11):
I don't know that we would call it arguing, Greg,
And you know it's crazy. You get to bring up
Jose Kintana, right, who's outside the top three b C
A DP When I bring up some obscure player that's
going super late in draft ah ah, I believe, I
believe I did that with just Justin Upton. It's exactly
Andrew McCutcheon. But you're allowed to bring up Jose. You're

(24:32):
allowed to bring who you want. You can, but like
you could react however you want to player, you said
when I wrote up, I would say Katana is not
dissimilar from Justin Upton and Andrew mccutche. In fact, both
of those hitters are going to be better than Jose Katana.
That seems false. That's fine. Listen, you can Why do
you like Jose Kantana? Gregg tell us, I just think

(24:54):
he's currently undervalue his u His A was very high
last year. Want was right hi last year because all
of its high. He stinks it's been bad for like
three seasons. I tried to do the Josecontana thing like
it was way lower. All right, what was it? It
was probably still four and a half. The picture that

(25:18):
I'm gonna talk basically the breakout picture I'm gonna give
you later on may or may not have had a
four xfit last year. It's bad. Let you decide fair enough, alright,
what else you got mean? Of course you're here? Uh look,
I think we hit on most of it. He did
raise his launch angle last year as well. It was
the highest of his career with a fourteen degree launch angle,

(25:40):
So he started to lift the ball a little bit more,
started hitting more flyballs. He did struggle against left handed pitching,
which I didn't like when I looked into the profile.
But every other year he actually had been better than
he was last year against lefty, So I would expect
him to regress a little bit back to where he
has been against left handed pitching recently. And I just
think everything about him from where he's being drafted to
team context just makes a ton of sense. He's going

(26:02):
pick one in the month of February in NFBC, A
d P which is right around Kyle Tucker has a
men's upside. Don't know if he has a job or not.
David dal another one who might actually fit this description
of a raffie Devers but can't stay healthy either. He's
working right around Hector Nerris, who should be the closer
for the Phillies. Gavin Lux. Gavin Lux has im mense

(26:24):
upside as well. That's the You know, Corey Seeker is
going to be in the lineup every single day, So
I'm glad you brought that up, because I don't know
if that's true, right Corey seeger in his I guess
one of his breakout campaigns A hundred and fifty seven
games since then, sixty four last year, but he finally
had a healthy offseason. Greig, he didn't hold any surgeries.

(26:46):
Just totally totally get it. But we know the Dodgers
and we know how they want to rest people to
move people around. Is Corey Seeker now in that kind
of rest rotation? Like I get, he's only twenty five
years old, twenty six and April. He shouldn't be He
should play single day. I just don't know that he will.
I hope he does. But like Chris Tayler, Glas Short
stopped for this team now Gavin looks. That's what's nuts

(27:07):
to me. They're going back to back a DP wise
because Gavin looks isn't gonna guarantee the starting job. That's
the annoying anything. But this is this is the motto
man Randy Savage right here, Greg, the cream always rises
to the top. And a lot of people are excited
about Gavin Lak. I just can't justify it. I spoke
James Anderson of Rotal Wire on FFC and he said
he had a hot take that Gavin looks out produces

(27:30):
Louis Robert this upcoming season. I don't think at least
Robert is going like the fifth sixth round in NFBC Draft. Well,
when we wrote up Louise Robert going there, I asked you,
if he does that, he has to be Ronald Acuna.
Is Louise Robert Ronald d Cunia? He said no, No,
I don't think he is either. So I think there's
more holes in the swing than I'm not gonna own
any Louise Robert this year. Yeah, okays, based on where

(27:50):
he's going, move on course here because there's other places
we want to get you on today's program. Um and
that leads us next to another player even high and
you talked about him a lot that you think could
be this year is Robail Devis and he is. That
would be Miguelson O Greg to the surprise of no nobody.
I love Miguelson. This is one of my guys that
I just can't quit. Similar to Justin Upton. I saw

(28:11):
Miguelson O come up through the minors and it felt
like he was someone I was stashing everywhere that year
where he first kind of burst onto the scene and
kind of took the league by storm and ended up
hitting eighteen home runs and eighty games back in and
ever since then, he's just been my guy and look
at what he did last year. It's hard to argue
with the production. It's just a matter of health, right, Like,

(28:32):
how healthy is Miguelson no gonna be? How many games
is he gonna play this upcoming season? The guy had
thirty four home runs and seventy nine ribbies. Who you
know for most players if you asked him, that's a
great full season in a hundred and five games. That's
just insane. And I really like the fact that Nelson
Cruz joined the Minnesota Twins last year. I thought that
he could actually have an effect like this on Miguelson. Know,

(28:53):
to have that veteran leadership at a presence in the
locker room, someone that frankly is similar to to mcgilson, know,
a bigger body type, a master, someone who hits it
for a lot of power as well, And ultimately I
thought that it ended up helping mcgils snow. And if
you look at his stat cast page, Greg, if you
pull up his baseball savant, it's just a sea of red.
It's just red everywhere. The guy just matches when he

(29:16):
makes contact. One percent barrel rate that was percentile in
baseball last year four point four mile per hour average
exit velocity percentile. When he makes contact, he makes really
good contact. Greg. So everyone's looking at Pete Alonso in
the third round range and they're looking at Matt Olsen
in the fifth round range. Who's to say that if

(29:39):
mcgillson know plays a hundred, just give him a hundred
and thirty games, Greg, a hundred and thirty games that
he can't hit two fifty with forty to forty five
home runs. I think it's definitely doable. It's just a
matter of him staying on the field. We'll see has
the ability to stay on the field this year. He
has not shown that capability yet, has never played more
than a hundred and sixteen games. We'll see if they
can do it. He strikes out a lot too, now, Man,

(29:59):
he strikes out a lot. Like we talked about Aaron
Judge striking out thirty two percent of the time, and
that's a lot. Miguelson no career thirty six percent strikeout rate.
The batting average is not going to be good. He's
a career to forty five hitter. I would expect between
a two forty and two fifty batting average, but I
don't think that that's that far off from guys like
Petter Alonso, guys like Matt Olsen. And if you ask

(30:21):
me to name the players who have the potential to
hit fifty home runs this year, Greg, you could probably
count them on one hand, maybe two hands. Miguelson Know
is one of those players. I think. I think that's
completely reasonably when Gilson Know has the abilities potentially because
this he's Robbie Deverage. Let me move on, Frank to
the picture here. I want to move on to this
year's Lucas Gilito, where last year's a four top prospect

(30:42):
who people really kind of broke down right. They told
you all the reasons why Lucas Gilto wouldn't be good
and that he wasn't as great as National has made
him out to be. When the White Sox acquired him
as a crown jewel, um, you know, big trade with Washington.
They it was for not like the Nationals news something
when training Giulia Gilidu away and he debuted, it wasn't good.

(31:04):
And last year well it was all great. He blossomed
before our eyes. Can this year be as good as
last year for Lucas well? First of all, he has
to get healthy because he's someone who's also dealing with
an injury. Last week it came out I had some
uh sore rib cage. I think he had a muscle
strain in his chest as well. So Lucas Gilio first
and foremost has to get healthy. But I absolutely think

(31:26):
that he can repeat what he did last year Greg,
and potentially even build off of it and get better.
He changed his mechanics up. He has a new pitch
mix that he uses. His fastball change up combination is
deadly fifteen percent swinging shrike rate last year. That was
a career high. That was sixth among starting pitchers last year.
And I really like what we saw in the second half, Greg,
where he started to give you length go deep into games.

(31:49):
In twelve second half starts, Greg, he went at least
six endings pitched and eleven of those. So I really
like that aspect of Gildo and grand Dolla joining this
team is going to help their entire Petre staff. He's
one of the best pitch framers in all of baseball,
so you're gonna help Lucas Gilto someone who has struggled
with command at times in his career. Steal strikes because
of pitch framing. Sign me up, man. I love where

(32:09):
Gilto is going this year. I like getting him as
an as an SP two ideally if you can in
that third fourth round range, or potentially SP one if
you wait a little bit. But I do like Gilto.
I just want to see him get healthy here for
spring training. Greg, I like Gilo as well. I think
the breakout was real last year. It was double digit strikeouts,
freaking awesome all season long, and obviously going deep into

(32:30):
the game a second half of the year makes you
feel like he's in a good spot. This year. I
think Lucashilo can certainly build on what he did last season.
And I'm in on Gilto here in twenties. But question
isn't about Lucas Gilto. It's about who can be this
year's Lucas Gilto. So let's not to play a game
we like to call who will be this year's Lucas Gilda.

(32:55):
Who can it be? Now? Who will be this year's
Lucas Gilo? Frank, we turn it over to you. Who's
your guy? All right? So stick with me here, Greg,
You're you're ready to give us Jose Kintana and I'm
going to give you a Tyler Beaty of the San
Francisco Giants within Greg, this guess is the NFBC a

(33:15):
DP please in the month of February. We're gonna go
with four. But think about where Lucas Gilto was being
drafted last year. He I don't actually if you want to,
if you want to google, you could. If you google
twenty nineteen fantasy basically you'll probably find somewhere. But I
know in fifteen team leagues, Greg, where I was playing

(33:36):
last year, he was undrafted in those twenty nineteen still
just gives you alright, So maybe it's not as easy
as I thought. But I played in fifteen team leagues
last year, mixed leagues where Lucas Gilto was not drafted anywhere,
and he was a waiver wire pickup and ended up
emerging and he was great, and most people had basically
written Lucas Gilto off. Tyler Beatty kind of fits that

(33:57):
mold as somebody who is a former top prospect of
the San just Go Giants. People have basically written him off.
And I want to give a shout out to Michael
Ayato of Picture List because he did a fantastic breakdown
of Tyler Beatty, and he wrote about it at picture
list dot com. Going Deep Tyler Beatty has flashed some
promise is the name of the article if you want
to check it out. Mikey Ayato p L on Twitter

(34:19):
is the author of this article as well. Great Tyler
Beatty was one of five pitchers last year who had
three different pitches with a fifteen plus percent swinging strike
create on three different pitches. The pictures that he joined
Ritt Cole, Noahs, synder Guard, Zach Gallen, and who you
guessed it, Joe must Grove. Of course he joined that group.

(34:41):
That's some pretty good company to be a part of
their UH and last year he made a pitch mix,
a change to his pitch mix. He started using a
slider and from July second on, with that slider incorporated,
he has a fastball, a curve and a change up
he uses as well for FO two year a not
great four to six x fit over eight case nine
right around two walks for nine. So vastly improved command

(35:03):
from Tyler Beaty UH and he improved his first pitch
strike percentage up to sixty five percent. He has a
spot in the rotation. Gabe Kapler's raving about him right now. Greg,
we could talk about him more when we come back,
But I think that Tyler Beaty is someone who fits
the mold of a Lucas Gilito as a former top
prospect who people are forgetting about to the t. All right,

(35:23):
we'll have more on Tyler Bride. I'll get an other
name you don't want to forget about on Draft Day.
Stick around more of the way with BFFs next sports
grid dot Com betting insights and entertainment at their fingertips
as our team covers the most important topics in sports wagering,
real time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks, and more.
Want the edge than get on the grid sports grid

(35:46):
dot Com, It's back here on the BFFs. We try
to discuss who the next Luguslo is. Frankie, you're you know,
Tyler Beatty Santrancis, good giants and your boy Gave Kathler,

(36:07):
Gabe Kathler, not my guy. Definitely your boy, not my guy.
Because here we go again with the closer carousel, with
the go here we go, Here we go again. You're done?
Is that the latest Jonas Brothers song? Like ten years ago.
All right, well close enough. No, I like Tyler Beaty

(36:27):
are also awesome. I think he fits the mold of
a former top prospect who people are forgetting about he
and rightfully saw. I mean, he hasn't been good at
the major league level. He hasn't been good in the minors.
He struggled with command for most of his career until
last year. Again, from July two on, we saw him
up over eight case per nine, right around two walks
per nine. The first pitch strike percentage was improved. The

(36:48):
swinging strike rate, as I mentioned earlier, on three different pitches,
was very good. Started incorporating a slider, changed up his
mechanics last year as well. That all sounds a lot
like Lucas Gilto Gilio changed the mechanics last year, started
using fastball, change up combination more. He did see increased
velocity on the fastball. Did you lead a last season?
So that's something I'll pay attention to throughout the spring

(37:11):
with Tyler beats he uh, you know if he is
improving in terms of velocity, greg But I think that
he fits this mold, and especially pitching in San Francisco
in the Oracle Park it's a good pitchers park to
pitch in. Uh, if you're playing an and only league
or in one of these deeper fifteen team mixed rural leagues,
I think you take a shot at the end of
your bench one of your last round picks on Tyler Beatty.

(37:31):
For me, I'm not gonna go far in looking at
the replacement for Lugas g lead On the replacement, but
the next Lucas de lead up I looked kind of deep.
I've had some older guys, I kind of like Garrett Richards,
with San Diego being one of them. Dylan Bundy in
Atlanta kind of or at right, and I'm kind of
like that. I like Dylan sees a lot too for
Chicago White Sox and very similar right, the Lucas de

(37:54):
lead On, top prospect for this team gets called up
for the Struggles, his first taste of the majors and
the biggest bug of who when Dylan cease last year
and really his entire minorly career. From being honest with you,
it was the walks. He constantly walks batters. He's walks
for nine last year was ungodly four point three two.
But if he can get the walks down. Always saw

(38:17):
the control issues with Giulio two years ago. If he
could get the walks down, I think Julie dylan't cease.
I think he can find some success with the White Sox.
I know, Frank, you were already counting him out. Think
he might go kopec I will come back and just
take his rotation spot. We're likely going to take Geo
Gonzalez his rotations, but he signed Zalis. I can't promise
you that, but he stinks. But Dylan sees in his

(38:40):
last three starts allowed a grand total of reruns last
year reruns in his last three starts. Now one of
those stars. He only went three and third innings because
he walked five guys. That's an issue. Yes, it is.
The deer as he went into a game was seven
innings last year. That's a bit frustrating. But the strikeouts
can either his cape or nine last season was nine

(39:02):
point nine nine basically at ten game or nine. If
the walks should come down a little bit, Frank, and
again we haven't really seen that as minor lead profile
that the waltks are you going to come down? But
if they do, I think you're looking at somebody that
could be a really nice fine that doesn't cost you anything,
that has a top prospect pedigree. I agree with you.
I like this call a lot when it comes to

(39:22):
Dylan Seas and basically free in draft right now. His
a DP and NFBC in the month of February is
two eighty nine, so it seems like people are writing
him off a little bit too early. He fits that mold,
Greg of like a Mitch Keller as well, someone who
people are writing off way too early as a former
top prospects who struggled with his first taste in the major.

(39:43):
Same thing with someone like Griffin Canning as well, although
there are some injury concerns when it comes to Canning.
I think Dylan Seas this call makes a lot of sense, Greg.
He has four different pitches that he uses. It throws
like nineties seven miles per hour. Oh and by the way,
Yasmani Grandal, someone who struggles with command and you know,
walking too many batters, you know, being able to steal
strikes with a pitch framer like yas Monty Grandal is

(40:05):
going to help all the White Sox uh And specifically
I think it's really going to help someone like Dylan
sees a veteran catcher who's in there to help one
of these young starting pitchers. I like this call. I
think you know at the end of your drafts, Dylan
sees Tyler Beaty. I think these are two names that
do have a decent amount of upside. Just be somewhere
they're going, Greg, They're free, They're absolutely free. And the

(40:26):
problem is for me, Frank, there's a lot of these
guys that I like. You just need a whole bunch
of them. We went through the break. We need to
slow up your whole bench on like all these guys
do that. Yes, and I think it's something that people
should be doing. Is a g S team move for us? Yes?
And I'm sure Michael Florio is not going to dispute that.
Problems loves taking quality over quantity. Here's a problem. You're

(40:47):
gonna want all these like old veteran hitters. Well, look,
you have to you have to counteract the median age
on your team. Greg. So if you're gonna have all
these young starting pitchers, you gotta have a few just
enough and Andrew Cutchins on your team as well. Greg,
all right, we only have about five minutes ago in
the show. So we wanted to go and figure out

(41:09):
who is going to be this year Shane Green. I
don't need Shane Green rejections for this year because he's
not the closer in Atlantic stinks and he stinks, but
he instinct for Team BFF. Over the last two years,
he was my guy. Frank, I always try to find
one of these, like crappy closers. You're the closer, whispered.
There's no doubt about with the crafty guys. With the
crappy guys, I don't care who they are as long
as they get a saved. Shane Green has been our guy,

(41:29):
but no longer. He's not the closes anymore. So we
need to figure out who this year's version is going
to be. So let's do that in a game. We
like to call who is this year's Shane Green? Who
is this year's Shane Green? That's a question, Frank, I

(41:49):
don't have my answer. What's your answer. I'm gonna go
with Kona Kella of the Pittsburgh Pirates. And when we're
asking who is this year Shane Green, it's a later
round closer who has the potential to be traded by
mid season. Maybe they give you a fifteen to twenty
saves before they get traded around the MLB trade deadline.
My pick is going to be Keyona Kella, who has
flashed some strikeout upside in his career, averaging over eleven

(42:12):
case per nine. Also has a career three two three
e r a a one eleven whip. It looks like
he's going to be the closer for the Pittsburgh Pirates
to start the season. How about this Greg Last year,
everybody is mashing the ball, hitting the ball extremely hard,
raising the average exit velocity. Kiona Kella just a twenty
seven percent hard contact rate, so did a great job

(42:33):
in terms of limiting hard contact, even for a pitcher
who throws nine seven miles per hour. I like Kiona
Keller this year as someone who maybe gives you fifteen
to twenty saves before he gets traded, and if he
doesn't get traded, you might even give you a thirty
saves this year. Why not. Kiona Kela has has closing
experience with people. Lolling in to that in a second.
With Pittsburgh, we'll see what Kella can be for me.

(42:55):
My guy, Frandon Kinsler with the Miami Moleans this is
a team that doesn't like to spend that that much money.
Bruce Sherman whatever went out, said that we're all the
right things yesterday, and a lot of people really like
what Sherman had to say. But one of the things
that Don Mattingly has made clear is when they signed
Brandon Kinseler, he's our closer. He's our guy, and just
having knowing that even if you're on a bad team,

(43:17):
bad teams win games too, right, Even the worst teams
in baseball win sixty games, give or take, and most
of those games are pretty close. If you have a
guy that could be the closer all year long, there
we'll see if kids gets traded again. But if you
have a guy that can be the closer, has the experience,
actually performed well in the in uh the previous opportunities
he's gotten that role, that could be a real fine

(43:38):
for you. My guy is Brandon Kinseler the Miami Marlins. Yeah,
and I don't have a problem with Brandon Kinsler. I
think the Miami Marlins might surprise people a little bit
this upcoming season. I'm not saying that they're going to
compete in the National League East. It is a stacked division,
But I think that they do have some talent on
this team, and he has closing experience. He has forty
nine career saves, a two six eight e r A

(43:59):
last year with a one oh four whip and Craig Miss,
co host of Fantasy Sports Today, spoke with Brandon Kinseler
and kids are kind of joked what I'm saying. Yeah,
I'm gonna say forty games this yere. He knows that
he's gonna be that. It's not a joke. I hope
that you're correct, Greg, and I have no problem taking
Brandon Kinseler as my third closer in a Rhodo draft.
I don't know how you like to break it down, Greg,

(44:20):
but in a Rhodo draft, you take nine pictures. Um,
there's no designated titles. You don't have to take like
a set amount of starting pictures, set amount of relievers.
But I like to go with six starting pictures in
my lineup and usually three closers, two closes that I
feel pretty good about, and then maybe someone who you
don't know if they have the role for sure, but
you just kind of plug in there and hope. I
think Brandon Kincler fits that mold as the third closer

(44:42):
that you just kind of throw in there. You hope
that he gets you. However, twenty saves in your case
forty saves, Greg And I agree with you. I think
he's gonna be the guy for the Marlins. Yeah, I
think Brandon Kinseler. I don't say trust him. You don't
trust that third closer or the like Marlin's closer ever
so strongly. But I think Hella fits the bill too.
You just want to find a guy on a bad
team that's gonna hold on to his job. And it's
a great point that you bring up about closers on

(45:04):
bad teams. Look at Curby Yates last year, forty one saves.
He led baseball and saves last year. So the Padres,
who won like seventy seven games to think about it
before that, right, so Curby Rates, we all vote into
Curby Yates. Before that San Diego, it was Brad Hand.
He was the best closure in baseball for a little while.
Now that's Curby's playing for a terrible Padre's teams. Felippe,
a vascas terrible person, got a bunch of saves with

(45:27):
the Pittsburgh Pirates. They stunk last year too, reliable was
really big baskets. Kella could be that reliable this year.
Um yeah, So I think both of these guys fit
the mold of what we're looking for. Who's who has
replaced Shane Green in Detroit's still Joe him and he
was viewed to be the closer of the future. That's
a blast in the past. Love the beard, the beard

(45:48):
on jewels in mind, that was a good one. Everyone's
very good. Joe Menez is probably part of this mix
as well. I would say he's probably less likely to
be traded away though he's probably going to remain with
the Detroit Tigers. He's young, he's controllable, so does that
Nealy should bank on him rather than our guys. The
problem is he's probably he's just not gonna be as

(46:09):
good like his the r A and with is going
to be worse than than players like Keona Keller and
likely Brandon Kinseler as well. But he was someone who
was thought to have upside to be the closure of
the future out there in Detroit, and as of now
it looks like he has that role getting back to
Brandon Kinseler, who is really going to push him for
that Closer's job. You know, they brought up Jose Urania,
who has been in and out of the rotation in

(46:31):
his career, hasn't really lived up to his expectations. To
have Ryan Stannic, who they traded for with the Tampa
Bay Raised last year, who was used as an opener
at times. He's shown us a little bit. But Brandon
Kinseler has that experience. I believe they brought in Brad
Boxberger recently out on, but he hasn't been good. So
I think Brandon Kinsler's job and his role is pretty safe.

(46:52):
I feel good about it. I think about Kinceler, I
feel god about Koona Keller because the manager is both
Don natingly Uh and his manager Derek Shelton, first year manager.
Usually the manager guy too well. Derek Shelton and I
Manning will come out and said, these are our closers.
When you're getting that in February, you feel really really good. Now,
if only we can get that with the St. Louis Cardinals, Greg,

(47:13):
because your guess is as good as mine, I think
if you could give me Diegos, if you can give
me like the rotation in St. Louis, that would also
be helpful. Speaking of the Cardinals, Yeah, they're bad. Not
the team is not good. I looked at that roster.
The lineup is outside of Goldschmidth not great. Pitching, very bad.
Yeah any Wayne Rights like your third starting pitchers have
no good players. I'll tell you about more players that

(47:35):
are gonna be bad on tomorrow. Show up. NeXT's Coast
Coast Scott Farrell thanks to Seawan Alex Dowstairs. He's Frank,
Oh Greg. We'll do it all again tomorrow. We sports
grid dot com betting insights and entertainment at your fingertips
as our team covers the most important topics in sports wagering,
real time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks, and more.

(47:58):
Want the edge than get on the grid. Sports grid
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