The Industry’s Favorite Players For 2026 | Live From First Pitch Arizona (Ep. 1142) - FantasyPros - Fantasy Baseball Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
What's up, friends, and welcome into Fantasy Pros. This is
the Fantasy Baseball Podcast live.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
From First Pitch, Arizona Aircross. Can I get a clap?
Live shooty audience here? Thank you very much, thank you
very much.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Completely new experience because if you ever watched the Fantasy
Pros videos that are out there, you see it's like,
you know, the cool overlays and I'm over here and
Arico's in another country or something like that.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
But this time I can touch and feel.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Very appropriately though. Joe Rico here, we're live in person.
We've got some great people here. We've got some great
guest schedule to.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Come on with us.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
We're not going to say the guests because things get
crazy here and let's just pray that they find their
way into into our panel here into our live podcast recording.
I'm Chris Welsh. Thank you guys so much for hanging out.
And I'm joined by the very very pocket full Joe Rico,
who if everybody a no took down an NFBC playoff contest.

(01:04):
We don't need to say the exact number, but he
might be like twenty plus thousand dollars richer.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
I'm just gonna put your business.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
That's everybody knows. Thank you, my friend. It's great to
be here. This is my fourth year coming out here,
and every year it's a slightly better experience, and just
like I'm doing more every year. Is my second podcast
of the day. A great time golfing, great time catching
up with everybody, And we have a hell of a
show plan for everybody tonight.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
For our I think it's seven or eight thousand members.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
Studio audience here tonight, so it should be should be
a great show for everybody here.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah, we're just like, it's totally not convenient that we're
not panning the camera behind so we can see the
thousands and thousands of people behind us.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Just trust and just believe you can hear it here again,
can I get a here? You can hear them.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
So what we're doing on the show today is we
are tackling targets, and we're more importantly tackling industry targets.
And what a better place to do it than how
about the biggest baseball industry conference here at First Pitch, Arizona,
brought to you by Baseball HQ, where we have got
wonderful and awesome industry people here that are going to
walk us through who some of their favorite targets in

(02:10):
drafts are. Has anybody done any drafts or is prepping
for any drafts this weekend? In here?

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Just curious?

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Can I get fake Paul spor to come up here?
Please come right over here, role real quick. If you
guys don't know what we're talking about, yeah, you actually
know what's it right there?

Speaker 2 (02:25):
That's perfect.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
You can sit there, so this is not Paul Sporer.
If you are watching Paul Spores over there, actually it's
a very scary situation. If we can get a camera
cueue over to the real Paul Sport it's a Spider
Man meme, and then we come back here.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
I asked the question, what is your real name?

Speaker 4 (02:43):
My name is Andy.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Fake Paul Spores a little bit better, but but Andy,
we'll do that. You've done a drafts, You've done a draft.

Speaker 5 (02:52):
I'm actually well, I'm prepping for the Best Ball Draft tomorrow.
You know, I've been doing rankings. I've been pouring over
the eighty data. So yeah, this is wonder I'm in
the mindset.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Okay, this is what I want to know that, Yeah,
this is what I want to know. Then, real quick,
what is the step.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
What is the thing for you that identifies someone as
being a target?

Speaker 2 (03:16):
What like it could be a simplistic process or it
could be a deeper process.

Speaker 5 (03:19):
For me, what I look for is basically, I look
for guys. I look at the a DP and I
just I try to find guys that I think are
mispriced right now, and the press has changed a lot,
but I just look for guys that I just some
guys just stick out to you, like.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Brian.

Speaker 5 (03:43):
Brian wu is one of them. I think he is
not only one of I think a he has one
of the best fastballs in baseball, but he was on
the rise all season last year, and if you look
at the way he finished the season with his K
minus wackerate around thirty percent. I just think he's like

(04:04):
a bona fide ace and he's where he's being drafted
at right now. He's like in the fourth round. It
reminds me of Garrett Crochet of last season. So like,
that's a guy right now that I think, you know,
you can go three hitters and then take Brian who
as your ace, and you might you might be ahead

(04:24):
of the game at this point.

Speaker 6 (04:25):
In the draft season. So like I look for guys
like that.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
That's just an example.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
That's perfect Andy. I didn't actually think you were real.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Fake Paul's for but you talked as much as Paul.
That was amazing.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
You did a great breakdown that I thought we were
gonna get a quick answer from.

Speaker 5 (04:40):
I'm also targeting Gavin Williams, and look out for.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Me, lookout for he really is he's still going. He's
still is still going.

Speaker 4 (04:49):
Okay, you know what is actually?

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Thank you and thank you fake pallor thank your.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah yeah yeah, and the end, I'll I'll tell you
Gavin Williams might come up a little bit later. Air Cross,
just real quick? Can I get you? Can I get
you to come up real quick? I've ran a plus
for air Cross. Eric is not scheduled to come on
the show.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
We just got in the term industry.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
You can always be kind of thrown around, but I
wanted to get someone that was hanging in here, an
industry guy in the drafts. Can you just give me
a quick summation, like, even if it's one thing, what
is the identifier for a target for you? How do
you target a player? If I was asking you on
here your target a player? What's the thing that jumps
out to you that is going to make that person
because it can become ADP. It could be last year's production,

(05:40):
the miss price. Like what is an identifier for you
for you for an industry target for yourself.

Speaker 7 (05:46):
Yeah, I think it all comes down to, you know,
I'm always trying to find, you know, a positive return
on investment, whether that be you know, it's always it's
harder to do it in the early early rounds.

Speaker 4 (05:55):
But you take guys, so.

Speaker 7 (05:55):
HI have a when you get in the two hundreds,
that's where you really fine. All right, what guys can
I get like pick two fifty that might be able
to even be like a top one fifty guy.

Speaker 8 (06:04):
Doesn't have to be like a massive you know, top
fifty guy, a massive breakout, but just guys that can
give me positive return on investment, Like one is a
name thrower name out there, you know us being prospect guys.

Speaker 7 (06:15):
I love Dylan Bievers at his early ADP, which is
right around pick three hundred. Guy that can hit for average,
get on base, you know, some home run, steal some bags,
and should play close every day with Baltimore. So him
going around pick three hundred could be a top one
fifty guy this year.

Speaker 9 (06:29):
So that's kind of like what I look at, can
this guy?

Speaker 7 (06:31):
You know, not every pick will be a positive ROLI,
So Dondres like, I need a fill a position. This
guy will get me, you know, give me what I need.
But I think it's a lot of those guys in
my draft where I'm like, all right, this guy could
really help produce and give me a positive internament.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
That's perfect, that's perfect across everybody that's thankful. So the
point of that just to get some other opinions. I
don't necessarily know if we're gonna have anybody you'll go
through like the definition of like you know, this.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Is what the target is.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
But we're going to have people give you all the
reasons throughout. We've got multiple guests that have picked a
couple of their favorites, a hitter and a pitcher that
they are targeting and love this year, and then they
are going to break through all the stuff and maybe,
as Joe Rico's maybe going to do here in just
a second, is going to answer some of those questions
on maybe helping you figure out what those identifiers are.
Whether it's someone like Joe Rico who's a big NFPC

(07:25):
champion in the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
If you didn't hear, you know they're winning.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
Nature picking a player that's as simplistic enough for you,
or if it's going to be a bigger breakdown, or
we're going to tell you one stat sometimes it's you can.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
I do it all the time.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
I fall in love with like one thing about a
player and I'm like, Oh, that's the guy. Let's build
on all the rest. So we are going to have
a couple of great people coming up here in just
a minute. But Joe Rico and I have both picked
out a few of our targets. We've got a hitter,
We've got a picture for this upcoming season that we
both love. So Joe Rico, why don't you kick us
off here. You've got a player, We've got a hitter
and a pitcher. You get to pick whichever one you

(07:57):
want to do. Let's hear the breakdown your targets for
twenty two twenty six.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
So I think we'll start with the pitcher and we'll
go pitcher hitter. I'm going with Cole Ravens, and my
hitter will be a little bit deeper down the well,
I promise. But Cole Reagan just stands out because of
how seemingly cheap he is, and now he's not free
or anything like that. He's the SP sixteen seventeen and
so far in early rooms. But the stats last year,

(08:22):
we're just eye popping the era. Yes, on the surface,
four sixty seven is awful, every single one of the
ERA estimators was incredible, and two sixty three expected ERA
at two fifty five two fifty.

Speaker 6 (08:35):
Four x FIP.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
The strikeout minus walk rate blows you away thirty percent
thirty eight percent strikeout rate, seven point eight percent walk
rate one point when a whip in a bad year
for Cole, Reagan's really stands out as well, and he
ended the year healthy with a couple of fantastic outings
his second to last outing five innings, two are in
runs and ten strikeouts, and he finished the year four
and a third shout out ball.

Speaker 6 (08:56):
With eight strikeouts.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
So Cole Reagan's is the SP sixteen feels like a
streaming value right now. He feels like a top ten
starting pitcher and my rankings will reflect that going into next.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
I think help is sometimes one of the bigger questions
we have, like the development of what happened with the
Royals was huge.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
He has the upside and that's sometimes the play.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
So that's like a top five SP that you're getting
a little bit of value on. You understand the value.
I'm very much into that. I'm very much glad you
picked him as well, because we have a very e
collected group of players from the high end to the
much deeper plays for you guys's targets. Because again, the
idea of like a draft target can be like, oh,
I want you know, the second round player or as
many of the industry people are going to pick a

(09:35):
fall in love with someone that's in like the two hundreds.
I got to have them on all my teams, and
you get the choice of having them Reagans, maybe not necessarily,
but at the cost you kind of can't, especially in
the like SP market where you might be going up
and down and maybe passing on them for a little bit,
maybe not going the first four or five rounds. Reagan's
could be one of those sneaky guys that can lead
your rotation. All right, hitter. The funny thing about the

(09:56):
hitter is Joe Rico strike one, strike two. We hit
on it because great minds think alike. He unfortunately picked
my guy, and then he picked one of our guest guys.
So this is the third take on great players and
great minds. So who is your hit or your target
in this year? Yeah, you put me through my paces
with this one.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
But I ended up going with Alec Burlison, who actually
won a Silver Slugger the other day. It's kind of
funny to go through the National League silver Sluggers. No
shaded Alec Berlsson. I love him, I picked him. But
it's funny to look at all the lists of these
juggernauts and then you see a guy who you're not
really expecting with the Utility Silver Slugger Award. He improved
across the board last season, and you wouldn't really think
that because he went from twenty one homers down to

(10:36):
eighteen seventy eight ribbies down to sixty nine.

Speaker 10 (10:39):
But I the.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
Strikeout rate was twelve percent to fourteen percent. The swinging
strike rate actually went down though, from nine point four
to eight percent. Even barrel rate went up from six
and a half to nine point four percent. Heart hit
rates slightly trended up. He was chasing less, he was
making more contact.

Speaker 6 (10:55):
In the zone.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
I liked everything about Alec Burlson. He's multi eligible first
and in the outfield, and he is really inexpensive so
far going after pick two hundred in just about every draft,
I believe to this point, if you're looking at first base,
when he's the nineteenth off the board, and based on outfielders,
he's the fifty second off the board, so really inexpensive
dual eligible player who showed improvement across the board last season.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
Blue guy love glue guys like you can take some
shots on, you know, some big categories if you want,
Maybe you can take some shots on whatever the batting average.
You're geting a strikeout guy, and then you get these
glue guys that just build your teams. I absolutely I
love that one. I've got two. I'm definitely here. I
know you love my hitter. I'd be curious that the
pitcher and the pitcher actually came up in another one

(11:38):
of the live shows our dear friends over at CBS
Fantasy Baseball today, we might talk with one of those guys.
This player came up, and my ears perked because my
pitching target for the year probably not a shock to everybody.
I love prospects. I don't pick a ton of prospects.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
This guy is still holding onto eligibility just a little bit.
It's Nolan McClain. I love Nolan McLain.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
This year, and I don't love the ADP's getting into
like a little bit of a space.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Chris Towers was kind of talking about.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
We've talked about the y Savage versus McLain ADP's changing,
but the ADP aside, I love the stuff.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
So here's some stuff I've got for you.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
Obviously, this year forty eight innings, eight starts, rolled out
of two point zero six era, ridiculous one point zero
four whip, fifty seven strikeouts, thirty percent k percentage with
an eight percent walk rate. But also throw this out
to people. I don't know if everybody knows Lolan McLain
was a two way player. This is a guy that
has not been pitching at the same rate a lot
of these other guys are. Here's a prospect eligible guy

(12:33):
that came into this Mets team dominated, didn't have a
point where he didn't dominate, and he's still learning how
to pitch. He's he's an absolutely ridiculous dude. Sinker sits
at ninety five. He's got a great sweeper, curve, change cutter.
From August first on, McClain had the six best stuff
plus of all pitchers in baseball. The CBS guys talked
about Cam Schlitzler from the second half, Nolan McLain was

(12:56):
right in there.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
The six pitch repertoire. This was stupid as well.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Every one of his pitches, all six pitches, had a
one hundred or higher stuff plus.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
I mean, you don't see that often, as.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Well as three of those pitches going one thirteen or
higher on stuff plus.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
So those are just dominant pitches.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
The crown jewel, though, is the curve, which registered a
one fifty one stuff plus, the best of any pitcher
if he qualified.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
So that is a dominant strikeout pitch.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
That pitch alone had a zero point seven to four
batting average against a fifty percent with rate.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
And this is another thing I really liked.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
It's a higher k percentage than the whiff rate sixty
seven percent, the six sixty.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Seven probably No, I'm sorry, I'm a dad. I'm a dad.
I've been blamed for dad stuff. I lost the audience.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
I'm sorry, all right, let me see, all right, I'll
see if I can get you back.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
I'll get you back with the hitter.

Speaker 4 (13:50):
I know.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
Have you even hear the boost the moment? The movement
grades are elite.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
He had a thirty two percent RPM on his curve
twenty nine and the sweeper it's I mean, did all
this stuff.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
It's e linked movement.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
And then if you look at some of the early
Steamer numbers, I thought was really interesting. One hundred and
sixty three innings projected, which is like a really aggressive
egaent for a player that was a two way guy
and a three seven four eer. I think they're underplaying
his strikeouts. His ADP is kind of showing some of this,
but I think it's absolutely elite stuff. So I love
Nolan McClain. I wasn't really quick about that, and I
did lose you guys. Let me see if I can

(14:23):
get you back, my hitter. I have a history with
this player. I see some faces in here that we're
here with me, like four or five years ago. I
fall in love with some guys in the AFL. Sometimes
that gets me crushed. This player was held against me
for quite a few years, and I have not mentioned
this player outside of podcast.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
In the last month or a couple months I've done.
I haven't talked about.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
This player a lot, but point it feels good to
be back me and him. Jacob Marcy, Jacob Marcy, Yeah yeah,
Can I get cheers for Jacob Marcy In my take here,
I sat in a room, a prospect panel many years
ago with a Padre scout in the audience, kind of
being like as I was talking about Jacob Marcy and

(15:06):
I loved him out here, and he went through it.
You guys all know it's back. Jacob Marcy has looked
awesome batting average this year. He hit two ninety two
five homers fourteen stolen bases in like two hundred bats
in the majors.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
It was supported.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Baseball Savant look at his expected batting average at two
eighty three, pretty respectable forty one percent hard hit.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
Rate and eight percent barrel rate.

Speaker 1 (15:28):
It looked like he could have gone in the direction
of like a Luise Raise Jacob Wilson type. But the
hard hitting barrel rates they give you a pretty good
promise for some potential like hitting hard hit profile that
we could see more power than those other guys.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
He had an eleven degree launch.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Angle and if qualified would have had one of the
bigger launch angle sweet spot, and sweet spot's like a
weird thing. Baseball savant does the thing. I always kind
of note to it. It's like a Mookie Bets stat,
Like Mookie does a really good job in LA, which
is really friendly to right handed hitters, gets the ball
in the air, floats out and gets homer. And that's
something that like Jacob Marcy is starting to show. Overall,

(16:04):
he was relatively average against fastballs if you look at
like his overall profile, but he was well above average
against like breaking and off speed stuff. He was hitting
over three hundred on off speed and breaking pitches, and
maybe more interesting looking at every single pitch type, he
hit two seventy three or higher against every single pitch
type against except forcing fastballs.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
That was it.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
And that's like the most movement throughout the year in
seasons of what you can end up doing. Seven percent
zone contact rate, hit both right e's and lefties. Well,
I guess I could keep kind of going on, but
he looks like a really really big time hitter and
Steamer projections has h third and stolen bases this year.
He is not far off from being a fifteen to
forty guy and his ADP is outside the top one hundred.

(16:47):
So I love me some Jacob Marcy. You also love
some Jacob Marcy. Anything you want to add on my
love of the.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Player that I did steal from you first.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
I have been in love with Jacob Marcy, not quite
as long as you, because you follow these players all
along than I do about the minor leagues. But Marcy's
played discipline data was ridiculous this year in his first
cup of coffee, nineteen percent host swing and ninety percent
zone contact. He doesn't chase, he makes a ton of
contact in the zone. The swinging strike rate is only
seven percent. There's a lot to love here. No arguments

(17:17):
on Marcie. The only thing I'll push back on with
McLain and we talked about him a little bit earlier
on Sleeper in the bost and the one thing that
kind of stands out is.

Speaker 9 (17:24):
That he's already so expensive.

Speaker 6 (17:27):
He's already at.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
One eighteen to one twenty five range in drafts, and
we were a little bit worried that where is he
going to go from there? If he goes up to
sixty seventy, that's a big problem. And even where he
is right now, he's already like an SP three, so
you got to have a lot of confidence in him.
And you do have a lot of confidence I do,
but not to the same degree where I would want

(17:49):
him at this price.

Speaker 6 (17:50):
I think if you're playing in.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yahoo, ESPN, some more home league style, more casual formats,
he'll be a lot more of an appealing pick.

Speaker 6 (17:58):
People will still be interested.

Speaker 3 (18:00):
But I don't think he'll be a top one hundred
pick on YAO the way he is on the NFBC.
So if you're a more casual league player, normal, Clain's
a big target. If you're playing in high stakes leagues
a couple of hot spring training starts, he's a top
fifty pick.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
Probably let me ask you a question, Nolan McClain or
Tray is Savage no reason? I'm asking that Blue Jays fan,
not asking for any particular reason.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
But Trey Savage or Nolan m clay.

Speaker 3 (18:21):
Your Savage is forty five picks cheaper. I'd probably take
you Savage given the price difference.

Speaker 6 (18:30):
Guilty, guilty, he's a good price.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
He's a good price.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
You're not going to lie about that, is guilty mcclan
or who or Chase Burns, Nolan Clain, I mean, but
also I mean Chase Burns stuff is like looks phenomenal.
But I think you can consider like ballpark is fa
I mean his worst ballpark, good ballpark, offensive support. I mean,
like Nolan McLain could kind of fall. There's an absolute

(18:53):
chance he could fall apart. But the thing he did
differently than some of these other guys, maybe specifically like Bubba.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
Chandler, he didn't have a rough patch.

Speaker 6 (19:00):
Worries you.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Maybe he didn't, you know, what's the rough hatch going
to look like? But stuff is ridiculous. The stuff is ridiculous.
So those are our guys.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
Those are targets, two pictures, two hitters.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
That we both love. But we're not here to just
talk to you guys.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
We have got a set of guests that we're very
excited about, and let's bring him up. We've got a
hitter and a pitcher and we're going to start with
the one, the only Frey Stamps.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Let's do it.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
By the way, if anybody would like to go track
down Ino Sarah's that would be awesome.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
Just okay, I'm not saying he's coming on the show,
but if anyone would like to go track him down.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
That would be sweet, em though, you know he's man
of the people. Frank standful from CBS Fantasy Baseball. Today,
we very stupidly got some Mexican food that did not
sit well with us earlier we drove down here.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
We not a rough day, but we're gonna make it
a little bit better.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Frank, you guys did a great show that everybody should
check out.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
You obviously do a great overall podcast.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
And I'm very excited that you are hanging with us
to give us your hitter and your pitcher that your
targeting this year.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
So I'm setting you up.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
Who is your hitter that you are targeting for the
twenty twenty six season.

Speaker 11 (20:18):
First, I do have to offer my heartfelts condolences to
Joe Rico and the Blue Jays for losing series.

Speaker 9 (20:25):
It'll be okay, Yankees. I deserve that.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
I deserve that.

Speaker 9 (20:31):
But yes, Yankees, blue Jays, we go at it. We
have some fun.

Speaker 11 (20:34):
Let's start with the hitter here and shout out James Anderson.
I think he's gonna like this one. Sal Stewart of
the Cincinnati Reds, yes twenty one years old, made his
debut late in the season, very very small sample size.
I will reference some bigger sample things that he did
in the minors, but only eighteen games with the Reds.
He hit five homers, eight thirty nine ops. The stackas
stuff was insane, ninety five point four average eggs of

(20:57):
blossy one, twelve point six max eggs blow, seventeen and
a half percent barrel rate, pulled the ball in the air.

Speaker 9 (21:04):
Like crazy at thirty percent.

Speaker 11 (21:05):
There he understands what he needs to do to get
to power hits in an amazing ballpark, to get to
that power playing in Cincinnati, great American ballpark, obviously really
impressive in the miners what he did this past season
one hundred and eighteen games, hit three h nine, twenty homers,
seventeen steals.

Speaker 9 (21:22):
Nine to seven ops. Don't know how much I buy.

Speaker 11 (21:26):
The speed completely, but really what you want here is
the high batting average, the potential for like a four
category contributor. Maybe he chips in like ten to twelve steals,
ten to fifteen steals, something like that.

Speaker 9 (21:38):
And I love that he makes so much contact too.

Speaker 11 (21:40):
It was just a fifteen point six percent strike out
rate in the miners this past season. I love that
the Reds Nucleus is also a bunch of other young
hitters too, So these guys are growing together. I mean,
they're really a young team all around.

Speaker 9 (21:52):
They're pit their pitchers are pretty young as well.

Speaker 11 (21:54):
But we've got Ellie daylor Cruz, We've got Nuwelvie Marte,
we got Sal Stewart. These guys are all kind of
growing and figuring things out together. I guess the one
flaw in his games that he is very aggressive at
the plate, and he does chase and he does swing
quite a bit, so he might not walk all that much,
but just in terms of making contact, hitting for batting average,
hitting ball extremely hard.

Speaker 9 (22:16):
And where does he play defensively? That is another question
for him.

Speaker 11 (22:20):
But I think he's just gonna hit so well that
they'll find somewhere to put him as a DH is
a first base. Yeah, the bat will play so well
that they will find a way to get him.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
That's what I was going to ask you, is and
it's not fair to do this, but is there any
Christian and Karnacion strand fear of, like us, anointing someone
with a position.

Speaker 11 (22:37):
I'm sorry, I'm not but we're trying to have fun.

Speaker 9 (22:39):
We're trying to we're having a great time.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
We're having a great time, Frank, but getting down to
brass tacks, like they have a lot of guy you
did say, You're like, hey, they got a bunch of
young nucleus that Cam Collier is out here working at
first Base.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
They had to strand they got steered. They've got a
lot of guys.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
You feel confident enough that NFC adp early on is
like just outside.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
Two thirty, so it's like pretty palatable. But like just
as a quick follow up, are you you feel calm
and he's gonna be able to hold down the spot.

Speaker 11 (23:01):
Look, it's always a possibility with any prospect. I mean,
you know more than anybody that you know, someone could
come up and fail. And you know someone Christian Etcarnaccio
and Trend that I also liked quite a bit so
and another similarly aggressive hitter in Sal Stewart. It's always
a possibility. But I just think that he is going
to hit so well that he's gonna put himself in
position to have a spot. I don't really buy Spencer Steer,

(23:23):
although he's squeezed as much out of that bad as
he possibly could. Ao that was kind of weird, but
he Yeah, I think between first base and DH Sty'll
find a way to get his bad time.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
There's like a cryptoconference here, so Sal Stewart coin is
going off right, Yeah, very excited.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
We're not screaming.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
You guys probably can't hear that, So all right, there's
the hitter onto you, Joey Rico.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
Yeah, so Frank, we are going to hear about a
picture Ian Seymour. And there was actually kind of like
not a controversy today, but Bob Seymour was DFA by
the Rays and some people thought it was Ian Seymour,
so there was kind of like this controversy back and forth.
I don't think it was actually Ian c Moore because
that would be ridiculous after what we saw from him
last year.

Speaker 6 (24:04):
But walk us through why you're interested in Ian seymore pay.

Speaker 7 (24:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (24:07):
So he finally made his debut with the Rays this
past season, and he looked really good. It was nineteen
games he got five starts in at the end of
the season, three sixty three ERA one a team with
just over ten k per nine walks, a little high
three walks per nine this past season, but twelve percent
swinging strike rate. He doesn't throw hard, but he's got
this funky delivery. He's got an awesome fastball change up combination.

(24:29):
I think his cutter does a good job of inducing
soft contact. He doesn't use his sweeper much, but when
he did, thirty five percent with rate, So perhaps we
can see that pitch a little bit more from Ian
Seymour put up big numbers in his minor league career.
I mean just across his entire minor league career. It's
a two to fifty three ERA one O two with
four hundred and twenty two strikeouts over three hundred and

(24:51):
forty five and the third innings. And I'm looking to
buy back in on all raised pitchers this season because
they're headed back into Tropicana Field, and Steinberger feel like
they played in this past season.

Speaker 9 (25:03):
The strikeout park factor for that was middle of the pack.
It was fourteenth. Tropicicanda Field the strikeout.

Speaker 11 (25:08):
Park factor from twenty twenty two through twenty four the
fourth best among ballparks during that span. And we know
that Tropicicana has a way of helping stuff play up
and just getting more strikeouts there.

Speaker 9 (25:19):
It's a little bit tougher to see the ball in Tropicana.

Speaker 11 (25:22):
So I'm looking to buy back in on any discount
we get on all race pitchers. I think Seymour is
probably going to be the cheapest, right I think he's
going outside the top three hundred in ADP right now.
So just a true deep sleeper, like lay round flyer type.
I don't even think you have to draft him as
one of your starters, even in a fifteen team league.

Speaker 6 (25:40):
He's probably like.

Speaker 9 (25:41):
One of your bench pitchers. And I love taking a
shot on his upside at.

Speaker 3 (25:44):
That point, do you want race pitchers? It's a really
good call. Yeah, I like it a lot. He's one
hundred picks cheaper than McClanahan, and as of today, I mean,
give me seymore. I still don't trust them. I mean
maybe you could trust him, but I trusted him last year.

Speaker 6 (25:58):
I mean last year was disaster. It was such a disaster.
You know, you can't fool me.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
You can't get Yeah, fool me once for me once
you can't get fold again. That's fine, But I still
like me some Sea. Mcclann also like some frank stamful
Frankie stamps. We're buying Frankie stamps. Coin to the Moon,
Thank you, brother, all right, from one legend to another.
He's one of my dear friends. I love him deeply.

(26:23):
He is into Sirius from the athletics.

Speaker 4 (26:29):
We talk about somebody else.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
Freights and Barrels, all the podcasts, you know, Sarahs, you know,
everybody going, you know you're coming.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
By the way, if we could have, I would have
just taken his bat speed talk he was doing and
bat metrics and just made that part of our show.
But we can't steal, okay, can't we steal? Okay, Well
then let's start to steal then, my friend. You know,
it's great to see you. You know, you're always the
talk of the town here. Everybody's always looking for you.
It's always a great time to spend time.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
You know, is the life of party.

Speaker 11 (27:00):
Man.

Speaker 4 (27:00):
I love this. We again, it's so much fun.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
These are my people, well, and you're one of ours
and we love talking with you. And you've got two
really really fascinating names on this list. When I started
to curate these from everybody, it was so interesting to
see the eclectic different versions of players, because sometimes I'm like, please,
don't everybody pick like Elliet of the Cruz and Bobby
Witt and everybody who's just went so far, I would
never expect that from you. But transitioning right into what

(27:23):
you talked about, this is definitely going to speak to
this player.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
I was about to give it away, but I don't
want to give it away.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
Your hitter that you're targeting this year is going to
open some eyes because the only thing I'm going to
say this is probably the player with the worst production
from last year that we're going to talk about on
this list, But you're going to sell it to us.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
So you know what you got?

Speaker 12 (27:42):
Well, you know, I think a lot of the work
that we do is in camping.

Speaker 4 (27:46):
You know, we.

Speaker 12 (27:47):
Are looking to understand things through the lens of oh
a guy like.

Speaker 4 (27:52):
He has a slider like this guy, or he has
a fastball like this guy. So if I could.

Speaker 12 (27:56):
Tell you that I have a guy that has the
exact same swing, the exact same bat speed, the exact
same plate approach as Junior Cameriniero and he that's what
you were going to say, Would you like would.

Speaker 4 (28:10):
You like a junior Camerandiero? Would you like another junior Caminero.
It's from the left side, and we do have.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
One listener that yelled at me.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
This year the Fantasy pros listeners, a guy came on
a live stream and he went in the chat and
he stopped the chat and he said, you know what,
he's like, I got a problem. Welsh forced me to
draft Junior Camenaro this year and I was like, what
are you talking about? Forty three later, I felt I
feel pretty good about Yeah, we were, we worked out.

Speaker 12 (28:38):
So the guy I'm describing as Jack Cagnam, and you know,
I think that you know, it wasn't a great debut,
and I'm not saying that he doesn't have anything to
work on. I think particularly it's refining the plate discipline.
He when you have like so much to give and
you're just a like a little puppy and you just

(28:58):
you just want to show.

Speaker 4 (28:59):
Everybody you can do.

Speaker 12 (29:00):
And you've got this amazing bad speed, and you've got
really good at ball, like handed ball, Like.

Speaker 4 (29:06):
You think you can hit anything, and I think he did.
He hit mostly everything.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
Can I answer me real quick? To do it interviewing
some of those things, so you keep going. But last
year in the AFL, he was here. Uh people probably
know some of the story. He I got this video.
It was ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
Homer looked like he hit it a mile And this
was at camel Back Branch, and the stockcast data ended
up telling us it was like twenty or four twenty
five or something like that, and I was like, there's
no way.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Nobody moved.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
I saw him two days later and I went to
him and he said, Jack, like, there's no chance that
Homer was four twenty five without hesitation, he went five
h three.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, he said, he's like.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
I went in the dugout and I confirmed that was
over five hundred. So just to your point, like this
puppy likes him along ball and he wanted to correct
me immediately that the data did not have it, but
they're in dugout stuff, and so I just wanted to
add that little anecdote.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
But keep going.

Speaker 12 (30:00):
I mean, like you can do it with numbers that
aren't his fancy as the bat speed numbers and stuff
if you're not not as into those.

Speaker 4 (30:05):
But like MAXIV, he hit a ball one hundred and fourteen.

Speaker 12 (30:08):
The only people who've hit the ball more than one
hundred and fourteen of unqualified here's Lad Greer Junior, Aaron Judge, Ghanahau,
Sam kylesh Forward says, you can show him time.

Speaker 4 (30:16):
It's like, okay, I want to be on that list,
and he does that.

Speaker 12 (30:20):
With a I think really good you know, bat to ball,
and I think we have some numbers that suggest that,
like you know, his minor league swing decisions were better.
And then if you just look at Kevin Nyiro himself,
Kevin Yiro's debut was not amazing and he kind of
did the same thing. We swung at everything and he
didn't show the same power. And if you look at

(30:41):
Ken and Yiro's own decisions and Chase decisions, they improved slightly.
I don't think these are things like you can't change Havi.
Your bias is you know, Chase rape, you know, completely
over his, you know, but you can with.

Speaker 4 (30:54):
Young players sort of dial it in.

Speaker 12 (30:56):
And so I'm just asking, you know, swing it, you know,
two or three fewer ball outside his own a game,
you know, and it's just going to really unlock and
for what is worth, Like he hit seven homers, like
it wasn't that bad at the debute.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
So also it doesn't feel like it, but twenty two
percentage like that, he feels like I think he feels
like Spencer Jones to people if you follow the prospects
like Spencer Jones, like loud Homers, and he.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
Hit two seventy, but he struck out like this.

Speaker 4 (31:22):
Forty here, like Spencer Jones.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
It's like it is like, so it's really interesting and
compared him to the player we just talked about the
Sala Stewart two thirty one ap so they're right next
to each other, so you can play on the underlying
stats that really jump in.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
I thought that was one of.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
The most fascinating names on this list as an industry
target for someone that you know, someone like you that
is targeting into drafts this year.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
But the hitters maybe even outdone by the pitcher Joe.

Speaker 10 (31:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
I have a theory that Wells chose me to select
the pictures so that he didn't have to try and
pronounce this name and maybe the first time you guys
are hearing this name.

Speaker 6 (31:56):
So I'm going to let you know, break him down
for you.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
Why don't you get a shot? All right, Yeah, let's
hear it. Let's hear it.

Speaker 6 (32:02):
Tuyama.

Speaker 9 (32:04):
I think that's it.

Speaker 6 (32:05):
Yeah, there you go, regular Tim.

Speaker 4 (32:09):
I have a real hard time which show says last name.
For some reason, I just I get the whole emphasis
on the wrong Salavo all the time.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
So yep, that sounds right.

Speaker 4 (32:20):
That sounds like something you might do.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
That sounds that sounds right, That.

Speaker 6 (32:22):
Sounds like something.

Speaker 4 (32:23):
But EMI a little bit easier last name to handle. Again.

Speaker 12 (32:27):
The comp for me is, you know, Joe Ryan with
ninety five oh, and he touched one hundred, so sitting
ninety five touching one hundred, he could actually come here
and sit nighty six, sit night seven. He has a
twenty degree arm angle, which would be in the bottom

(32:48):
ten percent of the league right away. And if you
take his his vertical numbers from from Japan and you
compare him only to people with his arm angle, he
the comps are Joe Ryan and Luis Castill, And if
you do it with all the comps in it, it
would be a one.

Speaker 4 (33:03):
O two stuff plus fastball.

Speaker 12 (33:05):
So that doesn't sound amazing, but just having an above
average fastball. And then oh, his splitter is is really good.
It's the year of the splitter. We're going to go
splitter crazy this year. And he throws the y Savage
reverse slider.

Speaker 6 (33:20):
So I don't know.

Speaker 12 (33:21):
If that's necessarily a good thing, because it's a weird thing.
It's the slider that has armside movement instead of glove
side movement, but it is like a low slot y Savage,
So it's something like a low sloty Savage or a.

Speaker 4 (33:35):
High v low Joe right.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
Which most interesting about that to me is what's the
biggest knock on Roki Sazaki this year?

Speaker 2 (33:45):
Fastball stinks. Fastball stinks. That's the problem.

Speaker 4 (33:48):
It doesn't really have that problem, and.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
That you're selling us on a guy with with splitter,
reverse Savage and a plus stuff plus on a fastball
twenty seven years old, touches into the high nineties, had
a one in Japan last year one hundred and sixty
three innings as well, so I mean we can stack
some innings.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
It's a really fascinating.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
Name who at the time of us recording it has
not signed a lot of the guys you're posting right now.
But I see why he's a target, and he's actually
going inside just inside the top three hundred of NFBC
drafts right now, So imagine when he signs.

Speaker 4 (34:19):
I think that number will keep going up.

Speaker 12 (34:21):
Yeah, it's one of those situations where I think there'll
be more value actually in earlier drafting holes. Well, you
can get him now and he might start scraping overpriced
by March.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
What is overpriced.

Speaker 4 (34:37):
Right now?

Speaker 12 (34:38):
I have n't thirtieth sps in all sps. Wow, So
there's a lot of room left. But if he starts
going ahead of the Schlittler, you savage guys that we've
seen pitch in Major league ball games in America and
have great success, then I think it's too far.

Speaker 4 (34:57):
Like if you're taking him over Miserowski or something, I
think you've gone too far about Nolan McLean. Yeah, I
think I have all those guys ahead.

Speaker 12 (35:06):
So I have all those I have like a hype
seven Okay, it's like you know, it's basically like twenty
three to thirty and then E might is like the
end of the hype sevens.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
I do not get hype listened to, you know, talk like.

Speaker 4 (35:19):
But I mean there's the other things that that im
I did.

Speaker 12 (35:22):
You know, there's some command concerns early on in his career,
but if you look at his walk rate, it went
from fourteen percent to eleven percent to ten percent to
seven percent. I'm going to buy that as growth and
legitimate growth. I guess there's if there's risk that one
is the risk is is some walk right regression, and
then just the risk of the guy who's never played

(35:42):
in base in mejor league baseball.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
So hey man, we've.

Speaker 12 (35:45):
Seen so many guys come over from Japan and it
can go and port right over that.

Speaker 4 (35:50):
I'm pretty excited.

Speaker 12 (35:51):
Maybe maybe my rank will go down when I'm when
I keep looking at it and playing around with the names.

Speaker 4 (35:55):
But that's where he's right now.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
I was just throwing, like, when you're tooling your teams together,
what do we talk about before?

Speaker 2 (36:00):
Glue guys. Glue guys are great. Guess what glue guys
get allow you to do do stuff like this.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
They led to allow you to take some chances on
cagne own or am. I like, I'd like that. That's
the way I want to construct stuff. I want to
have some some big shots, and I want to have
some guys that kind of protect me from when I
get crazy.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
I get crazy with.

Speaker 4 (36:16):
The yolo yo yo.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, yoyo.

Speaker 13 (36:20):
I like that.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
I like that.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
Into says from the Athletic Bach and Barrels. Going from
the live show to live in Stadium to tell you
about our presenting sponsor, hard Rock Bets. All of our
episodes are brought to you by hard Rock Bet, where
you can bet five dollars and if you win, you
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Speaker 2 (36:44):
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Speaker 1 (36:44):
They're available in a ton of places, just like here
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(37:21):
one hundred gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, in New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
You know, you know, all right, we're not done. We
still got a couple more here. I'm gonna let Joe
introduce our next because Joe might have a little connection
with this guy.

Speaker 6 (37:35):
Real Paul's four? Please stand up?

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Is that the real line?

Speaker 6 (37:44):
Prove it?

Speaker 4 (37:44):
Ok I identify myself.

Speaker 3 (37:46):
How can you prove that you're the real we?

Speaker 2 (37:54):
Okay, I know how to prove it? What is the
average amount of hours? Thank you? Actually that could What
is the average amount of.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
Hours if I were to text you it would take
to get a return text?

Speaker 9 (38:06):
Just just take it.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Just take a guest, someone in the audience. Would you
like to take a guess? What would you say? Okay,
that's a real pulse for that is a real pulse
car That is exactly him. Paul, I love your brother,
Love you brother, man. How many chepsticks do we have
with us? Three?

Speaker 1 (38:24):
That's just a real pulse for that's there here all right.
You guys already did the show earlier today. Paul sport
sleeper in the bus kind of a big deal, great mustache,
a graded and you got some players for us, and
what is special about this He also stole one of
Joel Rico's players. So me and Paul are the sandwich
of stealing the players that he wanted to talk about.

(38:47):
So I'm gonna let you jump into this hitter. I
think he's going to be a high rising name, very
popular player. Absolutely love this pick. This entire side of
the table loves this guy. So why don't you hit
us with your draft target for twenty twenty six?

Speaker 10 (38:58):
Addison barger Man just kind off that hot playoff which
I really did, like, you know, you have a strong
debut two forty three average, one oh seven WRC plus.
They don't jump off the page, but they're solid. Twenty
one homers, seventy four ribs, sixty one runs, four steals,
and five hundred and two played appearances. Bunch of numbers,
but all pretty good in about five hundred play appearances.
And then the sixty eight excellent playoff plate appearances including

(39:20):
that huge lefty lefty Grand Slam that comes after an
ugly August and September. And so while it is the
sixty eight plate appearance sample, I mean not like August
in September is a huge either. So if we're gonna
get mad at him about that, I love seeing him
on the biggest stage, pop off there and kind of
end the season on a high note.

Speaker 9 (39:37):
Dual eligible third now field. That's a nice little convo there, and.

Speaker 10 (39:41):
Just loud skills, not just with the defense, which I
do think helps on a fantasy perspective because it guarantees
them playing time, but just blood red on the bat
speed and hard hit power, power drives everything, right, That's
just a great foundation. It's it's the velocity of hitting,
you know, and so it just kind of builds in
a level of quality for him.

Speaker 9 (40:01):
I think he should be at least the starting third
basement or right fielder.

Speaker 10 (40:04):
We got a pencil in at third base right now
as the resident Blue Jays guy.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
Is that where he's going to be here? Or does
he have a chance to be in the outfield.

Speaker 6 (40:10):
I hope that we signed so many players that he's
relegated in to avenge role. I hope that's fine.

Speaker 3 (40:16):
I think as of today he's probably platooning third with
urn In Clement.

Speaker 10 (40:20):
Yeah. Probably, And in fact that leads me to my
next point. Well done, some platoon risks there for sure.
I mentioned five hundred and two played appearances. I think
that's covered in the price though. It was the third
sixteenth to third basement off the board with an adyp.

Speaker 9 (40:33):
Of two to eight for Barger. And listen, this is
kind of where.

Speaker 10 (40:35):
The platoon crushers go carry Carpenter's two six and frankly,
if he just repeats Carpenter's twenty four, which you know
was player Raider one to nineteen or twenty five, excuse
me this season that carry Carpenter just had which was
worse than Barger's, so I think Bargar could be worse.
And it was only four or sixty four played appearances
for Carpenter. So if he basically just emulates him at

(40:57):
that price point, that's fine.

Speaker 2 (40:59):
And that's a downside there.

Speaker 10 (41:00):
Again, that was player Rader one to nineteen for Carpenter
this year, the hitter, So you got to add in
pictures there and it would be around that that ADP
that'll kind of return your value. I like a guy
where having kind of a mediocre output there would just
kind of get up my draft price back.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
I think there's a ton of upside here.

Speaker 10 (41:16):
I think he's got forty home run power if you
can figure out anything against left.

Speaker 9 (41:20):
He's not figured them out, but be like a high.

Speaker 10 (41:23):
Six hundreds, low seven hundreds ops as opposed to low
six hundreds.

Speaker 9 (41:27):
But even as just a carry Carpenter type, he can chase.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
Thir That's exactly that's about to salesman, what's the worst
case scenario. He's just Toronto's Kerry Carpon copenter their.

Speaker 10 (41:35):
Base outfield, h chase down thirty and we'll hold and
we'll see where it goes from there.

Speaker 9 (41:39):
The prece is honestly shockingly low.

Speaker 3 (41:41):
He's going below Dalen Lyle, Anthony Soon, Matt McClain, David.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
Lyle, I almost you know, I almost picked Dalen Lyle
to be on the show, So we can't have.

Speaker 6 (41:50):
That's until I don't like him. Barger is hitting grand
slams in the World Series off. Okay, Jason Dominguez is.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
Going, We're not going to have any Dylan Lyle. I'll
uh slander anything. Let's kind of put that out here.
There's some I don't understand some of them.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
I agree that's a great spot.

Speaker 10 (42:06):
I think there is probably some room to move up
if there is some helium there. But I don't know
how Hyatt's going to get everyone's going to stress to
put two and risk, which again is a fair point.
There are reasons stacked against him because there aren't a
bunch of flashing numbers.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
It is really just kind of wrong power.

Speaker 10 (42:20):
It's okay, played skills, he's like just below average and
walks to strikeouts at point three point three eight is
le average there. But I just think that you kind
of bet on the couns sometimes, right. It doesn't take
a lot of adjustment here. Just be a little bit
better for Barger and he can have a huge season.
If he hits thirty, you're loving everything you're getting. But again,
even if he only hits twenty and is pretty decent,

(42:42):
you pay pick two hundred.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
That's fine.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
Yeah, I'm not a big craps guy. So the reference
was first, I'm not a big craps guy. You know
you got a picture?

Speaker 2 (42:50):
What do you got?

Speaker 10 (42:51):
Oh? I got a lot of pepio and my step
held is what I got. He essentially repeated his strong
twenty twenty four season sixteen percent stragout minus walk twenty
first among qualified starters as one hundred and sixty two
innings one inning per game, and that's despite Saint Pete's
he's actually better on the road if you believe that.
You know, everyone's worried about Saint Pete's, and I know

(43:12):
we're excited about guys going back to the Trump, and
I totally agree with that with regards to Ian Seymore
and all the race pictures, but it might not benefit
Peppio that much if he doesn't fix up the road
a little bit. That said, he has a one oh
seven whip at the Trump, one twelve at Saint Pete's.
I'll take that extra five points there all day. One
fifty six ADP another price point that I'm just a
little bit shocked.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
Being that low.

Speaker 10 (43:33):
He's Pitcher sixty nine, which is pretty nice. I didn't
count sp versus RP.

Speaker 9 (43:37):
Hey, Greg Ambrusch, just can we get that split?

Speaker 2 (43:39):
Dude, what are we doing?

Speaker 9 (43:39):
It's twenty twenty five, Give me a break anyway.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
He's just.

Speaker 10 (43:45):
Sandy Sandy on guitar, Tredy Savage, Shane byberging just ahead
of him, and then Ivaldi, Horton and Edward Cabrera going
behind him. Like that's a pretty good spot to be in.
I think he's just as good as the three going ahead,
and I think he's definitely better than Eavalde, Horton and Cabrera.
I think they all have merits of their own. That's
not down on them. Again, that's just because again say
it with me. Got a lot of Pepio in my

(44:06):
Stepio put.

Speaker 2 (44:06):
It on his shirt.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
Cost relative to you, Joe d and Seymour or Pepio
how much you cost?

Speaker 6 (44:15):
What was it again?

Speaker 2 (44:17):
Around thirty free.

Speaker 6 (44:19):
And Pepio one fifty four.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
I probably would take.

Speaker 3 (44:23):
Seymour just because he's essentially I'm not gonna I'm not
gonna say he's free.

Speaker 6 (44:26):
It's too early to start saying people are free in
November already. He's very inexpensive.

Speaker 3 (44:30):
Pepio is as well, but he also had kind of
a poor finished Pepio which might it doesn't.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Wear me a ton, but given that huge.

Speaker 6 (44:38):
Price discount, I would take seymore of that one.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
You'll put Pepio in a Stepio on an OTP card.

Speaker 9 (44:43):
Yeah, I gotta get broad away and make sure for me.

Speaker 3 (44:45):
Okay, let's get it exists already like that, there isn't one.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
They're just gonna be spraysed up this year.

Speaker 6 (44:51):
Your stuff.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
He's super creative. He just did this. Joe, come on, hasn't.

Speaker 6 (44:55):
It been a thing from me? It was you.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
Guy.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
It's ericson Special, from the uh, from the fake, from
the fake puls for to the real, real pull for
Sleeper in the bus. We're getting out of the live
show to get back in the game here and we're
telling you about the MLB Draft Wizard, mock Draft in minutes, projections, tools,

(45:22):
and guess what if things get really tough, We've even
got Coach the AI tool that can help you in seconds.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
We've got it all and here's all you gotta do.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
Sink your league today and start getting in those monks,
start taking advantage of those tools. Do it today at
fantasypros dot com slash MLB Draft Wizard. That's Fantasypros dot
com slash MLB Draft Wizard. We're gonna get back to
the show before I get hit by a baseball. We're
working on twelve hour techts next time. Between the twenty
four hours, we we've got one more great one. We're

(45:51):
gonna bring down the house with Bubba and the bloom Out.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
Oh my god, is that did his music just hit?

Speaker 4 (46:06):
Shadow Boys?

Speaker 1 (46:07):
Casey Bubba in the Big Golf Tournament. The Big Pie
is kind of a superstar run. Herew the golf going?

Speaker 2 (46:13):
Did you win? No?

Speaker 6 (46:14):
No, no, my Coast.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
Bloomfield Yeah, the Bloomfield Invitational pretty bad?

Speaker 2 (46:20):
Yeah all right, Bubba.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
Uh, this is funny because this is a this is
a full fan It's a great way to end it
because this is a full Fantasy Pros run.

Speaker 6 (46:27):
Because September.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
Yeah, the I mean I should be out of it because.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
That's how it worked this year.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
These two the yeah, yeah, the September hosting. We do
have a piece of relative here with a September hosting
on Fantasy Pros. Bubba and the Arico as they call it. Bubba,
you're going to give us two names. You kind of
you You were going off script too on this one,
so this should be interesting.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
I did not expect we were gonna have.

Speaker 1 (46:52):
Two Marlins on the must draft targets out of the
industry this year.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
But shout out to Chris Towers.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
You are going to go down that road and you're
gonna go with the Marlins going inside the top one
one hundred, So break us out with your hitter that
you're targeting.

Speaker 15 (47:06):
I was kind of mad it was the top one hundred.
I felt like to be a little outside of the
box here. But for those that no catchers matter. So
we're talking goose up in here, a Goostin Ramirez. Everyone
used to love jtr JT real Muto because once he
do steells base is he hits for average?

Speaker 6 (47:23):
This guy doesn't, but he is for power. The goose
is good.

Speaker 15 (47:27):
He's legit a twenty twenty upside catcher, Like we haven't
seen that in a long time. In one hundred and
thirty six games, you get twenty one humbers and install
sixteen backs he had through thirty one. Yes, not desirable,
but hear that while striking out less than twenty percent
of the time, Like, that's really impressive for young ballplayer.

Speaker 9 (47:41):
His first standing the pigs, twenty three years old, not
striking out.

Speaker 15 (47:45):
Still crushing baseballs, which is what you want to see.

Speaker 4 (47:49):
Again, it's a high ADP.

Speaker 15 (47:50):
But if you're talking about a guy that can help
you across the board eleven percent barly forty seven percent hard,
he's doing everything you wanted to play. You just hope
that that two point fifty three babbit and get closer
to it as normal like say three hundred bat of
Now you're talking about a two fifty hitter that's gonna
hit twenty twenty, and that's just elite. Elite from the
catcher's position. We've heard a lot of talks to this
week already talking about the NFC Paan. We talked about,

(48:12):
you know, you don't want dead weight at any position.
Guys will wait on catchers, not always dead way, but
likely dead weight. A twenty twenty catcher is not dead
weight no matter what he gets in my opinion, so
that elite's option at the catching positions.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
It isn't a systematic change with the marl I mean,
like we talk about Marcie Kyle Stours is just a
dude Ramirez, Like I feel like they got put in
weird spots and maybe we'd be like hyper focused on
what they've done with their pitching, but the hitting is
taking a turn too, just from like not someone we
not an organization that we like sit and talk about.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
We're like, man, they do awesome stuff, like we don't
do that with hitting.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
But there seems to be something and I don't know,
is there anything with that where you look and you're
just like, man, there are multiple players that we want
to target in a breaking I mean, he's kind of
a unicorn I suppose in his in himself, but there's
something about what the team is doing and developing.

Speaker 15 (48:57):
They're doing great stuff. Like you mentioned Marcie, who's awesome.
I've heard some people say he's the next Piecy good
or bad, but that that could be I'll take at
least get good love there.

Speaker 4 (49:09):
Stowers is awesome.

Speaker 6 (49:10):
They trade.

Speaker 4 (49:10):
I think Norby's actually pretty good.

Speaker 15 (49:12):
Stay healthy, like they got pieces like I've had luckxhury
on Chris Towers preview the Martins with me last year.
When I left that show, there was a lot more
optimisman I have with that team because if they weren't
up yet, they're close, like especially the pitching. Some guys
that he named that we didn't even see them all
at least a full go this year.

Speaker 10 (49:28):
I don't know.

Speaker 9 (49:30):
Yeah, don't be jealous for it.

Speaker 15 (49:33):
Don't be jealous. But the Marlins, you know, we always
want to say they're onto something. And this is where
Chris mo w Turn is pull your ears. They always
find it went sell it, or like they win one
and then sell it so you get the win the
one at least, But they are building something that is
for sure. There's a lot of young talent that's close
that looks like they could be productive.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
One more follow up on that, is there any hesitation
to taking a catcher on the top one hundred. I'm
pretty against it, and I mean, well, I know, I
mean you'd write the catchers in the Fantasy Black Book
shout out with ya. I get that, but like there's
no hesitation, there's not one hundred catchers there is.

Speaker 6 (50:11):
I get the hesitation.

Speaker 15 (50:12):
It comes down to are you comfortable building something else
later on? For the they say the opportunity, cause I
guess for what you take an early catcher for, like
cal Rawley's amazing. I'm not taking cal Rawan all this.

Speaker 6 (50:23):
Year at that press?

Speaker 2 (50:24):
The chance? Yeah? How many? But how many other catchers?

Speaker 4 (50:27):
William?

Speaker 15 (50:27):
My debate because I think you're getting a discount on
a guy that is an average source.

Speaker 6 (50:31):
William, Oh yeah, respect his name.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
Here and then uh and then then I get a
button with the catcher thing.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
I apologize you ever got your love with the catchers?
I had a sore spot.

Speaker 6 (50:43):
How much longer do you have here?

Speaker 2 (50:45):
That is fine, thanks to everybody that was the show.

Speaker 15 (50:47):
So I think there are some viable options that that
just comes down to what's your comfort, Like Ben Rice
is going to play every day.

Speaker 6 (50:53):
You don't get that out of the catcher.

Speaker 2 (50:54):
So that changes Things' Ben Rice going on the top
one hundred.

Speaker 9 (50:57):
He's going at seventy seven right now.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
Yeah, I don't think man, right, that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 15 (51:01):
Yeah, that's just like so there's there's a there's viability
to a catcher in the first.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
Yeah, I didn't playing moving around and stuff in the
stolen basis.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
I just I poke a little bit at the bill
and the catchers that yeah, not a catcher guy. But
all right, it's a it's a good pick, Guscia Ramirez,
I buy it, all right.

Speaker 3 (51:16):
We're gonna bring it home with a pitcher. And he's
somebody who was very popular at the beginning of last
season in the spring. Doesn't play Holmes, not Ryan Wethers,
who we.

Speaker 6 (51:26):
Got both them.

Speaker 15 (51:27):
Yeah, this is one where I keep telling myself I
shouldn't do it, but I'm very interested in Gavin Williams.

Speaker 16 (51:34):
It's a combination of things, like you look at his
ADP and you're looking at a guy going at the
wonderful one forty seven right now, So he's not costing
you a fortune.

Speaker 15 (51:46):
They got a picture finally, made the thirty one starts.
He said, people like them coming into last year. They
liked them coming to the season before and couldn't get
healthy like that was a pain. So we got the
thirty one starts, which was we got the hundred and
sixty eight innings, which is huge.

Speaker 6 (51:58):
Now you a point to the three or.

Speaker 15 (51:59):
Sixty areas great, the Sierra four to three eight, you
can you get out for more. It's the whip with
with Gavin Wllims that people will point to and as
a one two seven, Yes, it's very tilty for guy
that roster Gavillians.

Speaker 9 (52:09):
It is very tough.

Speaker 6 (52:11):
And this is something we have to.

Speaker 15 (52:12):
Try to is the takeaways from the offseason to try
to find any anything valuable out there. You don't take
every split for granted, but you look, Gaviloums improved as
the season went along. Is where I'm going this second
half in a two point eight compared to three to
seven zero in the first half. When you go deeper
into Gavin Williams Arsenal, we talked about that whip problem.

(52:32):
Dude had a whopping one four to three whip in
the first half, one zero.

Speaker 6 (52:38):
Five in the second half.

Speaker 4 (52:39):
That's called improvements, folks.

Speaker 6 (52:40):
That's very impressive.

Speaker 15 (52:43):
Uh, you gotta He had an eighteen point four percent
kaa walk for to nine percent in the first half. Again,
it's small samples, I get it, But there's twenty six.
He's gonna be twenty seven. He finally had his first
healthy season. The quote unquote prospect pedigree has always been
there with Gavin Williams. I'm optimistic, Like I love Tanner Bibby,
that's kind of have been frustrating. I hope Gavin doesn't
go that direction, but I do like the appeal of

(53:04):
Gavin Williams, and at that price, I'm willing to take
a chance as my SP two SP three that maybe
takes that bump for the next level.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
As my residents NFBC Big Winner, you're now our target
here is Gavin Williams the target for you.

Speaker 6 (53:18):
I like Gavin Williams.

Speaker 3 (53:19):
I'm not over the moon with him, but I'm more
convinced based on seeing what he did in the second half.
He improved across the board. The velocity is in the
good range. I think doctor Dave here is he has
saving lives ninety six to six is pretty pretty solid.
The stuff has improved over the last three years. Overall,
I like him in the second half, over the last
fourteen to fifteen starts of the year, it's hard not

(53:42):
to be impressed with him.

Speaker 9 (53:42):
And that early price is not prohibitive at all.

Speaker 3 (53:45):
One fifty one sixty is she said something like that,
I can be convinced pretty easily.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
What are we pointing at?

Speaker 6 (53:51):
That's his ADPs.

Speaker 3 (53:52):
Yeah, I can be convinced the same ADP as Trevor
Rodgers when he got to pepeels close by. It gets
a discussion to be had draft to catch it right
outside the top one hundre. Can we still be friends?

Speaker 2 (54:02):
Of course?

Speaker 6 (54:03):
I will always be a brother from another mother.

Speaker 4 (54:05):
Dude.

Speaker 6 (54:05):
That's right, that's right.

Speaker 1 (54:06):
We do go wait back, casey bubba Casey bubba babba.
So it's a super unique experience we get to do
because we'll do these videos on Fantasy Pros and we'll say,
you know, hey, who's the industry drafting, and we can
look at data that we have on Fantasy pros.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
We have them here. It's a super cool thing to
be able to do.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
It's definitely different probably viewing experience for anybody watching on YouTube,
but having everybody here getting the experience getting the reactions
is kind of the fun thing. And these are gonna
continue to evolve. You know, We're going to continue to
go in as everybody does their work. It's into drafts,
listens to some of the really crazy smart people here
finding who they're drafting. And it'll also be about the

(54:52):
developing side of our teams. You know, what we start
to build and how we get some of these targets.
You think we uncovered the names, you feel I feel great.
That was a lot of fun. It give us people
like you said, a whole different kind of experience. Industry's
Favorite Players is something that we talk about for six
months whenever there's no baseball. We immediately started suit as
the ADPST. Who is the industry targeting? I heard it firsthand,

(55:14):
and honestly, I'm here every year.

Speaker 6 (55:16):
You're here every year. It sounds like the start of
a new tradition.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
Mart, it's a brand new tradition.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
If you're watching on YouTube, let us know who your
targets are for this year. We'll give away some swag.
We'll give a I got, I got some coats. By
the way, I'm gonna randomly pick a few people. I
got some hat codes and maybe you could use it
for shirts and stuff. One person on YouTube, make your
comments and your favorite players. We will rocked us. Was
that fake or real?

Speaker 2 (55:39):
Paul? I can't tell which one.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
But one of the Pauls is going to get a
code and maybe you could too.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
That's watching.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
Thank you guys on YouTube for watching us, and thank
you to the amazing audience and hung with us.

Speaker 2 (55:53):
Thank you, thank you, thank you to a Rico. We
are out for now. You guys are a fantastic one.

Speaker 1 (55:59):
We'll talk to you next time right here live in
Arizona and on Fantasy Pros.

Speaker 13 (56:06):
Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Baseball podcast.
If you love the show, the best freeway to support us.

Speaker 2 (56:12):
Is by leaving a positive review on Apple.

Speaker 9 (56:14):
Podcasts or Spotify.

Speaker 13 (56:16):
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The Industry’s Favorite Players For 2026 | Live From First Pitch Arizona (Ep. 1142)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Industry’s Favorite Players For 2026 | Live From First Pitch Arizona (Ep. 1142)