2259 - Fantasy Questions on the AL Central - Tigers, Royals and Twins - Fantasy Baseball from Prospect361.com

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Green and scit jas's every one of Tech Wilson walking
the Fantasy Baseball Live. Today is November ninth, about three
o'clock in the afternoon, a few minutes after three, and
I'm here as always on Sunday with my good friend
mister Tim McCloud. Tim, it is me. Look at my
temperature here seventy two degrees beautiful, beautiful here and on

(00:42):
the coast and North Carolina. What about up your way?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Hey? Is minus five, mostly cloudy, and we got snow
last night. Oh you did wit islate? Ah, yeah, I'm
bout an inch or so. Nothing. Nothing is going to
cause me to get out and do anything about it.
But yeah, we got a little bit of state. You
gotta have that. I'm a firm believer. You gotta have

(01:08):
that base down before you start really cleaning it. Okay,
So that's funny. You're not buying that. You're not buying
that line, are you.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
You know, we will be back up in New Jersey
for the winter, which is really stupid when you're snowbirds.
Aren't you supposed to spend the winter in the south.
But now we're gonna be up white knuckle driving with
everybody else. So looking forward to that from January to February.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
So I know, yeah, it's hard to beat a good
driving in that first good snowstorm. I was actually talking
to somebody about it. And you know, the first snowstorm
of the year. Here we get to see all of
the small box store, parking lot stunt drivers. Okay, and
it's it's it's it's a thing to behold. Okay, doing

(01:52):
that first doughnut of the winter in a parking lot.
You can't beat it, rich, you really can't, you know.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
I know, I know. We're actually supposed to have a
cold spell. I think most of the eastern side of
the United States starts tomorrow night or something, and so
we should have a freeze here, which is good, which
means I can turn off my very expensive sprinkler system.
So that's what I wait for. As soon as so
the grass will go dorm it so I can turn off.
Because when you live on a barrier island, I don't
know if you know this to me, but water is expensive,

(02:22):
right because you got to ship the water across. So
we have a bridge that goes from the mainland to
the island and basically there's big pipes underneath that bridge
that ships the water, and so it's expensive. And you know,
so when you water your grass, you have very large
water bills. So but that's what we got. I'm anxious

(02:42):
to turn it off.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, we really were surrounded by lakes were and have
that problem. I would imagine that cool weather is coming
down from Canada. Do you know what the tariffs will
be on snow this year? It I don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
I don't know. Man, we got I heard that the
administration is going to give out two thousand dollars everybody.
They just announced that the day.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Good for you. Yeah, you're getting your money back.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Get our money back. And that just drives inflation up.
So we'll see. It is absolutely crazy. I mean, I
don't know what is going on here in the United States.
Poor the poor people who who I mean? So Laurie
spends most of her time with nonprofit work, and she
spends a lot of time homeless communities and things like
that's just her passion. And I mean the food banks

(03:35):
are out of control here, Timmy, because a lot of
the snap benefits, which are these food stamps that have
been around for fifty years, because their government has shut down,
they're not funding it and it's really it's I mean,
we got the statistics today and twice as many people
came to the food bank this past week than they

(03:55):
did the previous week. I mean, it's pitiful, it's really
really loudful.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Again with your government shut down, Yeah, the options, you know,
it's one option that is over to the system. And
as a result of that, yeah, you're going to see
increase traffic. But as far as the government being shut down,
even when they're open, aren't they shut down, sir?

Speaker 1 (04:17):
That's a look, it doesn't matter who's in charge of
the government. Just doesn't work very well. It just doesn't.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
I saw a bumper sticker years ago that I absolutely loved.
I wish I could have got gotten it because it
said if the government ran organized crime, they'd lose money.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
That's funny, you know, it's I wish they would redo.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
So.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
I'm a huge fan of Sopranos because living in Jersey,
the Sopranos is a staple there. But that was done
in the nineties where you know, it was little stuff.
You know, they were doing these little small crimes and
building an industry. Now it's gotten as you know, with
the Internet and technologlogy, we're going to talk a moment
about what's just happened with Class A and Nortis. But

(05:06):
that's a big business now and basically stealing stuff and
then fencing it on Amazon. They say to me that
sixty percent of the goods that are sold on Amazon
are illegal. Sixty percent is illegal.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Hey, you want hot goods, you know where.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
To go, and you have no idea. You know, it
looks it's the same stuff that you don't know which
or are the the illegal shops and which ones are
not because it's just all intermixed in there. And uh
so it's crazy. So you can imagine these organized crime guys,
you know, they've you know, they're stealing stuff and then

(05:47):
fencing it out on Amazon and legitimate like warehouse businesses
that they're then laundry money through. So it's kind of wild.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, yeah, you know. And I'm starting to see you
see so many of these buy and sell sites, right
and there's a lot of scamming going on on these
local sites. And I know several police departments are making
spots available in their parking lots for the exchange of
for the exchange of goods. Okay, because people are getting

(06:20):
robbed they're getting ripped off yet you know what I mean,
let's go meet, Let's go meet in the dark alley
and I'll sell you that car. You know. Well, so
I know for a fack in Thunder Bay. They have cameras.
They have cameras set up, and they've got two lots
in the parking lot and they're advising people if they
have any concerns about in exchange for goods, do it

(06:41):
on our property. You'll be safe.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
That's really scary and a little sobering too. So. And
something else has become very popular here is just again
organized crime guys just walking into the walmarts and the
home depots of the world and just taking the chainsaw out.
I want this chainsaw, take it out, and no one's
going to stop. I mean, who's gonna because the person

(07:04):
might be, at least in the United States, might be armed.
So they just expect stores just expect a certain laws
based on this. And it's crazy. It's crazy.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
Well, you know, if they if they weren't armed, how
would they carry it out?

Speaker 1 (07:18):
That's true, that is true. So on this theme of illegality,
Timmy Uh, there is a news story that is broken
here in the last hour or so. Uh Guardians Pictures
indicted gambling scheme evolving mL games. That's going to read
a few little uh tidbits here, so Timy, let me
finish that and then I'll let you comment. Cleveland Guardians

(07:39):
pitcher Louis Ortis, an All star pitcher Emmanuel Class were
the targets of the investigation, and the two face charges
in the alleged scheme where Tis was are reportedly arrested
in Boston earlier Sunday, and Class has yet to be
taken into custody. The pictures face charges of wire fraud,
wire fraud, conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sports contests by bribery,

(08:02):
and money laundering. Here's some of the details. Colossing and
Ortiz conspired with betters to rig pitches and professional games
professional baseball games so that the betters would profit from
illegal wagers made based on their inside information. The defendants
agreed in advance with their co conspirators to throw specific

(08:23):
type of pitches speeds, and their co conspiracies use that
inside information to place wages and some of the incidents,
the defendants received bribes, kickback payments funneled through third parties
and exchanged for rigged pitches. So if I have this
straight temmy, you can bet prop bets on whether the
first pitch is going to be a fastball, whether the

(08:45):
first pitch is going to be a fastball that's more
than ninety eight miles an hour. And apparently that's what
these guys were doing, and betters are making a ton
of money, and then somehow money was being funneled back
to these guys. Your thoughts.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
If you happen to have a Manuel class A roster
in the Dynasty League, it's.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Kind of so low too.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
Thank you very much, you're welcome. I just try to
be that guy rich. It's it's it's a mess, but
you know what, hey, it's a it's a bed that
Major League Baseball has chosen to sleep in. So this
is just the beginning. This is not the end. We
will see more and more and more and uh yeah,

(09:36):
I hey, when there's money involved, okay, it's you can't
rule anything out, you really can't. Yeah, you know, a
Manuel class A was not a fringe player. I believe
his last contract was sixty seventy million. Whare we're talking
big money there? The lure of even bigger money obviously

(09:59):
is going to come into play, and I think it's
going to be a problem moving forward. I think this
is just the first of many situations we're going to
see over the next ten to fifteen years.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
Yeah, we just talked about it. I think it was
last week, maybe the week before last. Similar thing with
the NBA and the same kind of vetting problems that
are there and apparently at the root of the problem
or these prop bets where look, Tim asked me, like,
why would Class throw it all away? My comment to
Tien was, and I'm making this up, but I'm assuming

(10:30):
somebody came to Class A. Maybe it was Ortiz who said, hey,
I'm making easy money doing this, who knows, or maybe
Class went to Ortiz who knows, and said, look, oh,
I you know, what's the harm. You're going to just
throw the first ball as a splitter. The first ball,
first ball is a fastball in this particular range. I
don't even care if it's a striker a ball. Just

(10:50):
thought it that way. Who's really harmed in that perspective?
And I'm assuming that's how it was sold to these
guys like, look, and you can make a little extra money,
You're not going to throw the game it's nothing like that.
I'm assuming it was something like that, and I think
that's where it gets a little dicey. The same thing

(11:11):
is true with these basketball players. Yeah, make the first
shot a layup, the first shot of a jump shot.
I mean, who cares? And and you know you can
bet on that and make make a lot of money.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, the guy that's got one hundred thousand dollars bet
on a prop bet, he cares.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah, that's right. But if he's if he knows that
Closse is definitely gonna throw a splitter as his first
pitch when he comes into the game. And classe A
is you know, getting you know, fifty grand or I mean,
who knows what it's gonna I hope it was big
money to throw your whole career at that. You know,
that's a pretty good bet. So yeah, risk a low

(11:52):
risk bet.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yes, definitely a low risk bet. Now we're into a
high risk bet. The claus Aint never throws another pitch
get in Major League Baseball.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
If this is true, I mean, and it's still just
accusations and they have to go through a trial and
blah blah blah. Yeah he's done.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah, well you know what, Hey, if they're at the
stage where I think it's what prosecutors in Brooklyn. Okay,
Well when you're when you got prosecutors and rather like
this isn't somewhere in North Dakota, Okay, you know, I
mean we're and I'm not slamming North Dakota. It's a
wonderful state. But we're talking high end here, top end, Okay.

(12:35):
And yeah, it's at this stage. It is not based
on in innuendos. You know that's that's not the case
at all, you know, I mean they must have some
very very serious proof for it to get to the
stage where it's at.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
You know, I would I would think I would think
they do. And look, you know, like whether you like
it or not, law enforcement likes to go after sexy,
high profile cases because they can make examples of these
guys and hopefully it will trickle down to other people

(13:16):
that will stop it. I mean, that's the theory. But
they also get a notoriety and that's what people have
always sad. I mean for years, that's what they've liked
to do, and we see it all the time, and
this is the case.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, they're elected by voting the states, aren't they so many.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
That's usually local guys. Like the FBI, they're they're not
well I get you know, like like in a lot
of states, the elected prosecutors for the states might be elected,
but the FBI know, you're not elected, you're appointed by
the administration. But a lot of those guys are career
guys as well. So but you know, hey, look, everything's

(13:56):
political in life. So the FBI, I want to, I'm assuming,
make an example out of class and Ortiz and hold
it up to Major League Baseball and say, look, what
will happen if you think it's as easy money, We're
gonna catch you. And hopefully that will be at.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
The turrent well, and at some point in time it
climbs up the food chain and somebody looks at the
bigger picture and Major League Baseball at some point in
time they better get it together a little bit. I think, like, hey,
I get the lure of the easy money as far

(14:36):
as the advertising, you know, FanDuel, Yeah, yeah, well whatever
sites you're looking at, Okay, but does major League Baseball
need the bad that comes along with that money. I
think they need to examine the way they are looking
at this whole situation and deuce makes them DECI decisions

(15:00):
that make a bit more sense, at least to me anyways.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Richard, So, if you were a betting man, would you
think that Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NFL are
going to do anything or do you think it's just
going to be this is just an unfortunate situation. Let's
let law enforcement take care of it. Will up our
kind of information sharing with our players to make sure

(15:25):
that's never education education, Or do you really think they're
going to turn down the tens of millions, if not
more money that's coming in through these advertisers right now?

Speaker 2 (15:35):
They won't bet on the second incident and the third incident.
They might have no choice. If something happens it seriously
affects the integrity of the game. Yeah, at some point
in time, Hey, no, Hey, I wonder what Boie kan
looking down from up above. I wonder what boy Q

(15:57):
thinks of this whole situation.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
Yeah, I kind of go back to back in the sixties.
I think it was you might remember this. I think
it was the sixty four thousand dollars Pyramid or something
like that. There was a game show on television that
was found to be rigged, and it was a famous case,

(16:19):
you know that, and people were found guilty with the
jail and so forth, and it was huge scandal because
it was also new. Television was relatively new. These game
shows on televisions were relatively new, and it was a
big deal. And it's almost equates to the same thing
that we're seeing in gambling and sports. It's all so new.

(16:40):
But I think everything's gone to just my guess, this
is a little hump that everybody's gonna have to get over.
And I don't think sports teams and sports leagues are
gonna do anything. I think they're gonna the almighty dollars
too strong for them to really make any adjustments. That
would be my gut. And they'll they'll say, hey, we're
going to add some additional education. They probably will, but yeah,

(17:04):
they're not going to turn down I don't know, I'm
gonna throw a fifty million dollars. Maybe it's more I'm
gonna turn that money down.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
No, I'm just looking right now. I just googled Mickey
Mantle and Willie Mays. Okay, and I don't know if
you remember that one, but uh, they were suspended for
their ties to casinos in the late seventies early eighties.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
I did not know that.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, Yeah, these actions were rooted in a long standing
concern over the integrity of baseball.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
So were they that they were just betting? They were
just going to casino, So they were not betting on baseball,
were they?

Speaker 2 (17:45):
No, they weren't betting. They had a They've May's had
a job at Bally's Park Place in Atlantic Scene in
Atlantic City in seventy nine.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
And because of that, Cune suspect would not allow prohibited
him from any baseball related employment. Mantle took a position
with Claridge Casino in eighty three, which resulted in his
band from the sport.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
Wow. So I didn't know that, but they were They
were out of playing at that time, obviously.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yes, but basically they were told, should you wish to
work for a casino, you could have no involvement in
baseball at all. So there's now They were later reinstate.
I think Peter Uber reinstated them. Okay, But again it
just shows you how much in a forty forty five

(18:40):
year span, how much has changed with re arts to Yeah,
this societal's influence on and participation in gambling, and it's
been drastic. We both lived through it. Hey, I can
remember when the only game in town was the Irish

(19:01):
Sweet Steaks and then funded their hospitals and it's not
like that anymore. Business, you know.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
There's one of the more famous thing kind of basketball
thing was always with Michael Jordan. When Michael Jordan took
those two years off to play baseball. There's significant speculation
and people, a lot of people claim this is just
the fact that he was suspended because he was because

(19:28):
it's a huge gambler anyway, and he was suspended because
of something to do with either betting nor basketball or
something related to that. And the deal was you're suspended
for two years, and so he went and played baseball
and they kind of covered it up because he was
too much the face of basketball to make that public.
So that's always been the speculation. So I don't know

(19:51):
if it's true or not, but could be, could very
well be. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
I heard on the golf course he was always he
was betting on everything every.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
Time, hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is just yeah.
I mean he's a billionaire, so you can, yeah that
kind of you could do it, so.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
Yeah, exactly, Yeah, but yeah, No, that's interesting. I hadn't
heard that one, So all I know is at some
point in time major League Baseball. I don't think this
problem is going away, and I don't know how they're
going to address it with the amount of money involved.
But when it starts affecting potentially the integrity of the game,

(20:31):
there's a problem.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
You know.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
Hey, strange bedfellows only works for so long, right.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
I told Tim my roach theory that you never have
just one roach. Tim said, rats, Okay, we'll go with rats,
whatever barmit you want. They have a tendency to be
more than just once. I can't believe that class as
are the only two people in baseball that are doing this.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah, if you find a rat in your house, the
basement's probably full of Okay, you just got lucky and
caught the one.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah, you know, it's it's interesting a lot of people, don't.
Everybody thinks of the beach being beautiful and great. Everything's
great about which it is. But here in North and
South Carolina and all along the coast, where it's hot
and humid, you get broaches, which they call palmetto bugs.
They're roaches in the in in New York, they call
them roaches, and they're everywhere, and you know you gotta

(21:27):
spray religiously and that only slows them down. So and
there's never just one.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
No, and hey, let's face it, their goal in life,
all they do is two things. They eat and they breed. Okay,
so yeah, it's gonna be a problem.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
It's gonna be from today's take a break and we
get back. I got some news and notes. But it's
like with the one we just talked about for you,
I am read to do the American League Central prospects

(22:05):
discussion like we did the National League on Wednesday. So look,
yeah it's good. It's not gonna be as much fun
as a nationale central. American League Central is not as good.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
Uh no, I will agree there. Yeah, it's yeah. Can
I do the top three prospects from all the teams
and leave you five that you want a big or something?

Speaker 1 (22:29):
Yeah, I mean we could do whatever you want. I
mean it's it's your show, so so we can do that.
But it's you know the one that's the most disappointing
to me, and I don't do Wednesday show today, but
it's the Chicago White Sox. I mean, they spent so
much of the last two or three years rebuilding that
farm system, and it's gotten better.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
But it's not elite.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
It's not even close to being an elite. And it's
like you look down, it's like, eh.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
You're the one that depressed me the most was the Royals. Okay,
Like I just I looked at it, and we're gonna
cover some of that a little bit later on in
the show. But like, man, they got a horrible outfield
and they got nothing happening down on the farm, so

(23:18):
the horrible is likely to breed more horrible.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
Yeah, it's not strong by any stretch, but I think
once we get into that on Wednesday, you're gonna look
and go, there's some They've got some talent down there
that you know, if it breaks, they could be somebody.
The Twins are strong obviously because they you know, they
sold off a lot of their a lot of their players.
But I hear you not famous guys for sure with

(23:43):
the Royals, but there's also some players she kind of
got huh, that guy could turn into somebody if things
go right. Probably won't, but he could turn into something.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
Well. Yeah, say, I heard the rumor that the Rockies
are looking at overhauling their starting pitching.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
Well, let's start with the Rockies because they have a
leadership change at the top. They're bringing him a long
time executive, Paul de Potesta, who's been in a bunch
of different Major league teams. I had a chance to
get to know him a little bit when he was
actually the head of strategy for the for the Cleveland
Browns football team. So he got kind of wanted to

(24:24):
change and decided he wanted to go to baseball and
go to football see if he could apply his He
was very analytics driven and wanted to see if he
could apply those same things to the Browns. And that's
when he told me that that football was a lot
easier because it was all eighty percent was about the quarterback,
and they spent most of their time trying to figure

(24:46):
out how to acquire a franchise quarterback and they thought
they had one and they really didn't. So I guess
he just got tired of trying to solve that. As now,
going back to baseball, I just don't know. At the
Rockies Teme, I think de Potessa is a really smart,
thoughtful guy, But is that going to change anything out there?

(25:07):
I mean, any hope. If you're a Rockies fan, any hope,
if you're a you know, you like Rostering, uh Colorado Rockies,
minor league prospects or major league guys, any hope there
at all?

Speaker 2 (25:20):
Well, I have some personal concerns. Rich I've got to
be totally honest with you here. I think this is
going to suck the life out of him and he's
going to apply to be an analyst on your podcast. Okay,
within the next few years. I've got to shore up
my position at the next end of negotiations.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
You could wish this is it's it's a it's going
to be a tough haul man. So because the problem
that even if you bring in the best scouts, the
best analytics, and even if you provide some structure to
that organ I think they'll get better because how they're
doing it now they makes no sense at all. But
the problem is still where they play and it is

(26:02):
ye and you know, they can improve all the other
stuff one hundred percent and maybe they become a five
hundred team and maybe maybe.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
They might get a playoff birth if they have an
offense like they did with Larry Walker and the Boys
back you know, twenties years ago, you know what I mean, It's, hey,
they might be able to build that offense, but they
still have to figure out how to handle Pitchrick. And
it's what's the answer there is?

Speaker 1 (26:29):
I don't. I mean, I'm assuming Depot Testa has convinced
somebody he's got ideas. I'm not going to say there.
He probably will even tell you, because again he's a
thoughtful guy. I don't think he knows that they're going
to work or not. But my guess is he's thought
through this and has said, hey, these are the strategies
we want to try, and let's see if they work.
And there's nothing has ever no one's ever solved this,

(26:53):
and see, we'll see if they get a chance. Again.
I've had discussions with my AI assistant. We've come up
with some ideas that you know, your patren memory, you
know what those ideas are, and maybe maybe they will work.
But maybe that's why he took the jumb Maybe he's
going to use some of those ideas to me. So
we'll see.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
So yeah, it's I it's a tough one.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
It really is, Timmy. Here's the one that you're gonna
know a ton about. I don't even know how to
pronounce his first name Moon Taka Mira Kama. I know
his last name officially posted? I think it was today,
So give us a scout report and tell us all
about him. How do you pronounce his first name?

Speaker 2 (27:36):
Mn attack Munia attacka Murakami Okay, okay, Yeah, he's posted
forty five days to sign. There are two bats coming
over this year, himself and Kazuma Okamoda. He's the captain
of the Giants, first bat the Giants have ever placed.

(27:58):
Those are the two guys you're looking at this year
and today. I'll just discuss briefly Murakami, but at some
point in time I'd like to look at the two
of them and do a comparison. Okay, great, But basically
on Murikami, Hey, two hundred and forty six home runs
in his first seven seasons. He can hit the ball
a long way.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
Again, two hundred and forty seven in its first seven seasons.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
Two forty six in his first seven.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
Okay, Since two forty six divided by seven, is so
thirty thirty two thirty three home runs a year? Is
that about right?

Speaker 2 (28:35):
That's about right? And we're playing in a dead ball
era in Japan. The past three.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
So what does that mean? You mentioned that a couple
of times. I mean, is it have they lowered them,
have raised the mound? Is have they changed the ball?

Speaker 2 (28:47):
I mean they've changed the ball.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Oh they have. So they've done something specifically that has
called this change in offense.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yeah, and I think it's I'm not sure if it's
the Central or the Pacific, but they only had two
Badgers that had more than twenty home runs last year. Okay,
we're yeah, we're talking a significant change. And it's also
one of the reasons why if you take a look
at some of the pitching stats, okay, hey they're off
the charts. Okay, yeah, it's safe one has an effect

(29:20):
on the other.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
But may I drill that, drill into that a little
bit with you, just to make sure I understand maybe
the rationale. So because that seems to be exactly opposite
of what Major League Baseball is trying to do, adding
more offense, making the bases, as tem says, eight feet
wide and you so you have people running more, and

(29:41):
there's clearly been you know, if not deliberate change in
the ball to make them livelier. Sure seems like a
change in the ball to make it livelier. Why is
Japan going appearing to go the other way?

Speaker 2 (29:56):
I personally have no idea, Rich, I can't. I can't,
And it's a decision that they have made and they're
ruling with it. The reasons in rationale behind it. I
have no idea.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
Interesting, okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
But it again, when you're starting to look at pitchers
and batters coming across. It's something that has to come
into play when you're trying to analyze what the potential
is in Major League baseball, right, oh yeah, Yeah, they're
moving from apples to oranges, and it's a challenge to

(30:32):
say the least. Last year he had to remember he
had twenty two homers in only one hundred and eighty
seven at bats. Okay, he can hit the ball with longways.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
Was he was he hurt?

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Yeah? He was hurt.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
Okay, well, eighty seven, Wow, that's a lot. That's impressive.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yeah, he had fifty six one year. Okay, the last
year before they changed the ball. He strikes out a ton,
He walks a lot, say.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
True three true come outcome player.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
Then it sounds like, well, with sort of a hitch
in there. His strikeout race. The last three seasons are
twenty eight to one, twenty nine to five, and twenty
eight six. Okay, his contact rate was seventy two six

(31:25):
last year. Okay, compare that to major league hitters. This
past year. He struck out forty one point seven percent
of the time against fastballs with a velo in excess
of ninety three miles an hour. Yes, trouble with lost.

(31:51):
Last year in Major League baseball sixty almost sixty three
percent of fastballs were at least ninety three miles an hour.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
So this past slow, and he's just strong. That's that's
how he's a community.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
No, the batspeed's high last year is is uh he
striking out so much? Again?

Speaker 1 (32:13):
Why is he striking out so much against high end velocity?

Speaker 2 (32:17):
Uh? Chase rates up there, okay, far as, Yeah, it's
his bat speed last year is highest deck savel It
was one sixteen to five. That's a good number.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
Oh yeah, that's great. So So if I may interject here.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
Yes, so, I mean you may.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
The dream on guys like this is that they're Kyle Schwarber.
Kyle Schwarber this past season, twenty seven point two percent
strikeout rate, a fourteen point nine percent walk right, with
fifty six on runs, that's what you hope that the
uh you know, but it's you know, it's also a
two fifty three babot, a two forty on base percentage,

(32:59):
so you know, So if I guess, if it all
comes together, would you hope that there's thirty plus home
run pop of the bat with a low batting average,
but maybe one hundred points on top of the batting
average role on base percentage.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
Yes, it could be Kyle Schwarber. It could also be
Joey Gallo.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
Oh yeah, yeah for sure.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
Okay, Yeah, what would your wife say? What?

Speaker 1 (33:26):
Yeah? Because I say I do this all the time
with my prospects. So but I can't see you. You're comma.
So would you lean more Kyle Schwarber or more Joey Gallo?

Speaker 2 (33:40):
I think there's significant risk. He is young. He's not
turning twenty six until February. Okkay. My concern is, I
think you're betting with a low floor, high ceiling type
player makes sense, okay, And I think from an outcome

(34:03):
point of view, with the range being that wide, I
have some concerns. It's okay, I have some serious concerns.
He is going to cost somebody eighty to one hundred million,
probably plus posting fee. Okay, it's not going to be
a you know, let's throw let's throw fifty bucks at

(34:26):
this guy and hope it works. No, you're gonna pay
for America. And hey, the ceiling is such that he
could hit forty to fifty home runs with one hundred
RBIs and again that same lower batting average, high or
OVP again depending on what team he lends with the
hitting philosophies, hitting instructor, et cetera, et cetera. The ceiling is.

(34:50):
The ceiling is high, but there's also potential for floor issues,
I think, Richard.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Okay, so let's before we get into this year fantasy outlook,
let's talk to dynasty league. So this time last year
when Rookie Sasaki, I'm not exactly sure when he was posted,
but in a very heavy, top heavy class from a
dynasty standpoint, we know Nick Kurtzon at all. They considered

(35:17):
a very strong upper tier class because they were close
to the major leagues. Rookie Sasaki I think in most
dynasty leagues went one one overall. The upside was the
upside was too high, and maybe it didn't work out
that way this past year still an impressive talent. Does

(35:37):
mirror Kami with a deeper probably a deeper draft this
year with with you know, first year player drafts, but
one that's not very top heavy at all because most
of the high end guys are you know, seventeen eighteen
year old high school kids, so you're gonna have to
wait for a while for these guys. Does mirror Kami

(35:57):
jump to the top is the where would you think
about putting him in a first year player draft? At
the kind of high in the first round, middle in
the first round, low in the first round.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
I think he's going to go fairly high because of
that upside potential and the fact that he is going
to play full time right out of the gate. Okay,
you're not getting yourself like you said. You know, there's
high end kids out there, but you're looking at three
to four years. Wait, okay, Murrakammi three to four years
from now could have one hundred and forty five hundred

(36:31):
and fifty MLB home runs under his belt. Okay, Okay,
So again, short term, long term, Murrakami is going to
be I think a top five pick. Well I pick
him in the top five. No interesting, which leads us
into the other player that will discuss maybe next week,

(36:54):
and that's Kazuma Okomodal.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
Okay sneak preview to like him a little more, a
little less?

Speaker 2 (37:02):
I actually I think if you're looking at floor, he's
four years older. If you're looking at floor versus ceiling,
I like Okomodo a fair bit more.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
Yes, Okay, interesting, what about for this year? If you
are an early NFBC drafts and once he gets signed,
you can you can number three outfield or number four?
First of see an outfielder, first baseman.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
He's looking at first base DH. He can play third base,
but I I would say first base DH is what
most teams will be looking at for him to.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
Fill because let's say hopefully he'll play a position, so
let's put him at first base as is. Say it's
just a corner infielder, a Reef Hoskins type of guy,
where you would draft him around or you think he's
gonna have me be more productive than res Hoskins because
Ress Hoskins might not even even have a job. Do

(38:08):
you where do you grab him in a first in
a draft this year? If you're in an early NFBC drafts.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Well, I can tell you where he's going right now
in the first twenty drafts. He's going fourteenth with an
ADP of one ninety eight.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
The NFC's are out there now, Yes they are. Oh okay,
Oh I didn't even know that. Cool.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
Yeah, no, one ninety eight. He's going fourteenth. Off the board.
They're listening him at third base. If they're you know, hey,
if they're listening him at third base, Uh, good for them.
I don't think he's gonna play third.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
Okay, well, good, I see him at fourteenth, So okay,
mirror a Comi at fourteen or Matt Shawl at fifteen.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
Uh, Murracammy Murraycammi at fourteen, or Esac Paradus at a
essec Paradus at eleven.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
Uh, that's that's a wash.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
Really wow. Yeah, he doesn't go any higher than Noville Marte,
Jordan Westbroog, Alex Brega's sucker.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
I can't I can't see that. Actually, there's a few
players further down in the list. I would probably take
Adison Barger over him. Okay, around later, Max Munsey if
he's healthy, but Max Monsey hasn't been real healthy, so
in hills. Yeah, he's getting up there. Yeah, definitely. So

(39:52):
what about like a.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
Frost Korea sitting at number twenty three? Uh, seventy slots
below Miraca, Yeah, eighty seventy eighty slots below. I mean again,
Carlos Karay is not the same player used to be.
There's no speed anymore. I'm assuming there's no speed with Mirakami.
Who would you rather have.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
There, America Commie? I think, but you know, I like
it is a one down from Korea.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
Jordan Migoll Vargas.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
Yeah. Interesting, I'm I'm gonna be a little more bullish
on both Vargas and probably Brett mc beatty for the Mets. Okay,
then the early NFBC results are showing cool.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
Well yeah, next Sunday guys are going to be reviewing
the nf PC early early drafts. This is very exciting.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
So yeah, yeah, I wasn't sure if you knew or not.
I should have been not it did not be.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
Yeah, the podcast earlier saying that I got I'll start
to my draft targets when we have eightyps out. So
but that's now I'm gonna get started.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
Yuess what yes, yes, what? Yeah, this is the time,
my friend Acon, You're going nine Wow? You look, I
haven't switched over the whole positions. Yeah, there's there's a
few surprises in there, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
Nick Kurtz first round pick.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
Minak Hurts, Yeah, okay, yeah, and Cam and Arrow's right
behind him. Wow.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
Wow, it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
Yeah. What it is interesting when you look at pitching.
Uh yeah, mymortals, not that he moved up to twenty four.
I guess he's up to twenty four.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
He got Scuba one, Paul Skins two coming in at eleven,
and you have oh yeah, of course you get to
a rop behind Skens. That's interesting again, n FC, you
typically go earlier on pictures just the way it is.
That's fast.

Speaker 2 (42:03):
But you only have four pictures in the first two rounds.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
Interesting all I'm looking at that.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
Yeah, you're right, yeah, Pat twenty nine. That could be
too rich for my blood. I get it, but.

Speaker 1 (42:17):
I get it. I'm violent agreeing with you. I get it,
but it's probably a little too rich for me. Yeah,
Yamamoti is fifth and second round, and Logan Gilbert just
out of the just the top of the third round,
and the Hunter Browns. So that's when they're starting, well
not really so this end of the third round, you've

(42:38):
got Jacob de Gram and and then the first closer
Munos off the board. Wows.

Speaker 2 (42:44):
Yes, John, irowed a little more evenly into four or five, six,
And I think we've seen it's not the heavy, heavy
first three rounds that we're used to. And there's a
good reason for that. Look at the injury, the level
of injury. It's right, it's.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
Yeah, it's fine.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
It's fine to draft pitching early. But they got don't
they have to be healthy?

Speaker 1 (43:08):
Yeah? Yeah, they do good stuff to be really really
good stuff here, So thank you for that. On say
much time, let's yeah, let's take a quick break. And
I got a couple more questions before we do the
rest of the Al Central. So what we're doing, Yeah, yeah,
I was.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
Gonna say, if you're looking, if you're looking at teams
that have a potent mariners are all in on this kid.
The Mets will be there, the Red Sox will be there,
The Phillies and the Diamondbacks don't have anybody other than
Ven Smith at first base. There's some teams that could
provide potential landing spots for it.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
Rach, All right, let's take a break, come back and
plow through that. We've got a few more things when
we get it to the al Central, the Ras and
the Rains, the decline a million dollar option on Peter

(44:02):
Fairbanks is now a free agent. I'm sure he's loving
life because he's gonna I think he's gonna sign for
some money. He's pretty good in last season twenty seven
saves two eighty three. Ear a, who does he sign with?
And more importantly, who is now the closer in Tampa?

Speaker 2 (44:21):
Okay, I got three teams that I've got that I
that I like the odds from sidey. One is Arizona,
the other is Texas, and the third is Toronto.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
Can give me the three again, Toronto, Texas and the.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Tigers, Arizona, Texas and Toronto.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
Is that Texas in Toronto? Okay, good, you didn't say
the Tigers. So my will Vest still has a chance. Yeah,
thank you for that.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
Yeah, you'll you'll like what I have to stay about
will Ves. Okay, yeah, we get when we get to
that is the next question or somewhere down there.

Speaker 1 (44:57):
Yeah, I'm gonna ignore you if you tell me Will
Vest is not going to be the closer. I'm just
gonna ignore you.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
So yeah, yeah, zero point zeros will rule.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
I did not do a zero point zero Mirricon, I
help you, I think, yeah, I wanted to be more
mature today. When he's batting one seventy five in May,
I will ask you about Miracamie, and I'll be all
over the zero point zero.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
And I will give you the podcast number where we
discussed today and say, see, I told you so wrong.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
Yeah, closers in Tampa. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:39):
The three names that come to the four Griffin Jackson,
Garrett Clevenger and Edwin You see you? Okay, the only
lefty in that group is Clevenger. But all three of
those guys are big strakeout guys. Okay, at least one,
if not two of them were in and around one
hundred strakeout mark and I think the third was twenty

(46:00):
strikes strikeouts higher than innings pitched. Where I'm gonna right now,
I think a committee is likely to be in play
until one of the three takes charge and owns it.
And if I had to rank them now, I'm gonna
go with you said a number one, Clevenger at two

(46:22):
and Griffin jacks at three. Well, that's how I'm going
to rank them.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
Early on the market. For what it's worth. Has Griffin
Jacks as one?

Speaker 2 (46:33):
Okay, so that's yeah, and you.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
Said it you see it as two? Go way, Uh,
he's so Griffin Jacks is three thirty six eighty p
and you see it is three fifty five.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
Clevenger Clevenger is six seventy nine and first Steph Farst
Witley a six six six sixty eight. So there you go.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
Okay, this speaks very itself, doesn't it. Again, It's going
to be one of those situations when I put together
my rankings, all three of them are going to be
twenty five twenty five plus as far as rankings, because
until we get some definition, we simply don't know. How

(47:22):
are you going to invest highly? You know somebody is
going to nail it and say, hey, I told you so,
I knew this guy was gonna be dificult. We don't
have a clue who the closes is going to be.
Right now, we can speculate. I'll put together my rationale
for you know, those three guys, and we'll see if
it comes to fruition.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
Yep. Shane Bieber to me, surprising I think everybody by
exercising this option, he is staying with the blue Jays.
Clearly he turned down a huge payday, but he decided
to stay with the blue Jays. Maybe there's a long
term deal in the making it if you've heard anything.
Maybe got caught up in the hooplab of the blue Jays.
Maybe he felt a sense of responsibility because they took

(48:06):
a chance on him. I don't know what's you're thinking.
Why did he decide to stay with the blue Jays.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
He decided to stay with the blue Jays because he
likes Toronto, his wife loves Toronto. They put a thing
out on Twitter and they didn't want to see there.
They were very disappointed to be leaving Toronto at the
end of the season, and I think they want to

(48:34):
be back because, along with so many of the other
positives that we're hearing from Blue Jay players, they liked
the community a lot and they want to give it
another year. And at thirty years old, thirty one to mate,
he'll if he pitches well, he'll get his big Bayday.
I think what has happened as a result of the

(48:57):
run this year and just the overall feeling towards the
team and the community and the way everything came together.
I think it's an exceptionally strong and good recruiting tool
that the Jays will you use moving forward, and a
lot of those players want to be back next year.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
I think you're right. Actually, I think it is a strong,
effective recruiting tool. I totally agree with you there, But
I think it's I mean, Tim's always I don't want
to say that Tim's a little bit more. I'm more
jaded than Tim is and some of these things. I
think it's all about money, and I'm not always right,
but I would not be surprised if there is a

(49:39):
long term deal sitting on the table for Bieber. Maybe
it's not as much as you could have gotten out
of the open market, but I would be shocked if
there's not something on the other side for him.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
For the loyal Yeah no, yeah, and yeah, you know what,
sixteen mil isn't jump change. He's already made good money playing.
I think he can take this year and or next
year or is it this year? Now? It's this year.
Now he can take it and maybe enjoy the game
a little bit more. And the reasons are all centered

(50:14):
around that playoff run and how happy he was and
his family was playing in Toronto, so that's cool, you know,
I mean.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
Yeah, I think that's good. Yeah, you could tell the
reason he reupted with Toronto one things. For a fact,
Scott bars is not his agent, So yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
Say that's probably a safe play. Yes, definitely.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
Trevor's story is staying in Boston. To me, huge season
last year. I know we've talked about this a little bit,
but twenty five ur unths, thirty one stolen bases. We
can check where he's going on from an ADP standpoint.
But given his history of injuries, how do you think
about him at drafts at the draft table next in

(50:57):
twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
Well, I wouldn't be drafting him and Byron Buxton on
the same team.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Lewis as well.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
Lewis as well. Yeah, but at the same point in time,
am I shocked he produced those numbers when healthy? No,
Trevor's story is a great base ball player. He just
hasn't been able to stay healthy. Now, hey, has he
got that behind him? We don't know. Okay, I think
it's safe to say there is some risk based on

(51:27):
the fact that he has struggle over the past. But
last year he was healthy. Why can't he be healthy
next year? Okay. Do we say because he was healthy
the three years before that that there's an increased risk.
You know, it logically makes sense. But at the same
point in time, he could go through the rest of
his career and never have another injury. We simply don't

(51:48):
know that. I think when you look at the stats
that he produced last year, I don't think I'd be
giving him much of a discount this year. If any
I'm looking at he's going right now eleventh off the board,
I would probably have him up a little bit higher

(52:09):
because Corey seegers know how they're drafted, basically neck and neck.
But the one thing I think it's important to remember
when looking at twenty twenty six is you look at shortstop,
and man, there is a glut of talent. At shortstop.
You're looking at guys like Cavallero, who you know at
twenty two and he's gonna steal thirty five to forty bases.

(52:33):
You know Mason win at twenty five, Korea at twenty six,
you know McGonagall and Connor Griffin at twenty seven to twenty.
Anthony Volpe is Volpe is twenty nine. Okay, there is
a huge amount of talent at shortstop, but second base
is bleak. I think when you start looking at shortstop,

(52:55):
you best got to be prepared to be looking at
shortstop to fill your middle infield position. I don't think
there's enough second basement in a fifteen team league to
fill second base, let let alone your middle dfield. So
I wouldn't be down shifting too much on Trevor's story
if at all.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
Yeah, I know, Corey Seger doesn't steal bases an entry
plaque year last season, but huge still huge raw power
to finish the season on the il with an appen
deck to me, Cory Seger or Trevor's.

Speaker 2 (53:23):
Story, oh for me's Trevor story, okay, because of the sky. Yeah,
and I would probably also be looking at Trevor's story
over Perdomo, who's at nine.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
Yeah, Well that one's tough man, because I mean Predoma
was great last season. But is that a breakout season
or was there some luck involved there? I guess we
really need to kind of dig into that and figure
that one out.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
Yeah, all I know is I think at for floor,
I think Perdomo gets the nod for ceiling. I give
it to and when you're drafting it, when you're drafting
at eighty four and basically ninety Yeah, I think I'd
probably go with the ceiling there.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
I mean, you're taking a look at this. I mean,
I don't have zach Nido's stats in front of me,
but Zachnido produced a similar I mean, Trevor story produced
a similar season to zach Nedo. Correct, and he's going
fifty slots fifty seven slots behind him? Do I have
that right?

Speaker 2 (54:31):
Well? Yeah, you're looking at twenty six home runs, twenty
six stolen basis for Nido as a twenty four year old.
That's good numbers.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
But yeah, so you say, sorry, stories were better, I believe.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
Yeah, twenty five and thirty one if I recall for
my notes. So it's interesting. So you're somebody's putting a
premium on zach Nedo. I don't know if at twenty
four somebody thinks he's going to do thirty five to
thirty five next, I don't know if that's in him.
Maybe twenty five twenty five is what through the player is.
And if so, it feels like, if you're thinking, is

(55:09):
right that Trevor's story can stay healthy. Some value in
Trevor's story sitting there, you know, three rounds after zach Needo.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
Yeah, I think people are looking at zach Needo and
saying there's thirty five thirty five there, which, hey, there
might be, but I think I would rather bet on
Trevor's story the neto, especially when you're looking at fifty slots.
You know, you're looking around, you're looking at Yeah, you're
looking at three rounds worth of players before you have

(55:41):
to start addressing shortstop its at with story. And then
you got Jeremy Painyah, and you got Willie Domas and
Jacob Wilson and Swanson and the list goes on and
on and on. It really does.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
Let's take a look at zach Nido, shall we heart
hit rates sixty ninth percentile, bat speed forty percentile, ninety
one mile an hour exit velocity. So yeah, there's definitely
power there, this twenty five home run power there, but
his bad speed is below average and he's got a

(56:17):
launch of seventeen and a half degree, so he really
increased his launch angle. I don't see a thirty five
home run guy there. Maybe there's thirty, but he hit
twenty six last year. Speed is at the sixty ninth percentile.
Does that get him thirty thirty? Maybe, but maybe I
don't see like huge growth there, and everything's pool side.

(56:40):
All of his power is pool side. It looks like
a very good player, but I don't Last year in
twenty twenty four is twenty three, thirty, twenty six, twenty six,
this season, everything else pretty much being the same. I
think that's where he might settle in, is between twenty
five and thirty on both sides, which is pretty much
where Trevor Story is as well. Three or four round.

Speaker 2 (57:03):
Parent Bobby Bobby Bobby Witt at the same point in
time in their careers. I think Bobby Wits numbers stack
cast numbers would be considerably better.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
Yes, yes, And Bobby Wits if not the fastest guy
in baseball, he's one of them. So see is in
the eighty second percentiles. Average exit velocity is ninety fIF
percentile at ninety three point three.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
Yes, And just so you're looking, you're looking at Zach Need. Yeah,
you're looking at Zach Needo turning into Bobby Wood Junior.
I don't see that.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
I would think that's a low probability. Yeah, bordering on zero.
That is low. So it almost feels like just on
the surface. Here, Zach Needo at ADP of thirty two,
so you're talking first a couple picks of the third round.

(58:04):
That's full value, if not overvalued. And Trevor's story at
ninety essentially going in the back half helped me. Here
AT's the forty five sixty that's the end of the
fifth round, right, sixth round.

Speaker 2 (58:21):
Yeah, I'm worried, Jeremy Penny. You got Jacob Wilson sitting
at fifteenth shortstop off the board at one sixty. Yeah,
I think there's a I can tell you right now.
If I have to look at Zach Needo very very
early in the third round, I will have no shares

(58:43):
this year.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
Yeah, I kind of agree with it. And it's not
to say it's not going to be a very good player.
And if you want to play that game, great, absolutely,
but man alson, you're looking at Trevor story three or
four rounds later. Besides, the age looks very similar, and
you know, but yeah, interesting.

Speaker 2 (59:01):
Yeah, yeah, give me gimme Jeremy Payne three four rounds later.
I think I think I could live with that.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
Yeah, we could. We could spend the entire podcast on
doing this and we're already at the hour marks. Let's
take our find a break week. But we're gonna stop
the discussion and we're gonna get into these American League
Central teams and Temmy, let's plow through them very quickly.
Should the Arizona All Star Game or whatever they call

(59:38):
it these days, rising stars came, not exactly sure, but
Kevin McGonagall and Esmerald Valdez are the two marquee players
in the game because they're having arguably the two best
AFL seasons coming into the game. Kevin McGonagall, it's not
been a surprise at the aarson the fall, because very

(01:00:00):
good in twenty twenty five, one of the top five
prospects in the game. So when do we see Kevin
mcgonag go. I want to know the date and I
want to know the time, and I will hold you
to it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
Okay, when are we gonna see mcgonagal Uh, he's got
a grand total of one hundred and sixty nine bats
at bats at double A. I'm giving him a half season,
a half season the second half after the All Star break.

Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
Really, that's disappointing, said July. So again, I don't want
to labor the stupid ADPs. But I'm of course obsessed
with him.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
He is.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
I saw his name on here. Yeah, he's going to
eighty one. So he's going as a middle infielder.

Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
Yes, And I think, hey, one hundred and sixty nine
at bats, I think, I think, I think the Tigers
want to see two to three hundreds of bats before
they bring them up. Okay, I could be able to lunch.
But you know, he's only got one hundred and sixty
nine at bats over high A That doesn't seem enough
to me.

Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
Rich So July twentieth, July fifteenth, something like that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
Sure, yeah, somewhere in that range.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
Yep, Okay, all right, So then you give me your
stat line for twenty twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
Six two hundred and forty eight bats, ten homers to
sixty five batting.

Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
Average, ten home runs and a two.

Speaker 2 (01:01:30):
What sixty five? Kicking head?

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
Yeah, but yeah, the reason it's a little lower is
because he's a kid. So I get that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
Yep, yep, okay.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
Spencer Torkilsen had thirty one home runs and Circus has
had thirty one home runs in the past three years
with a ten home run clunker in the middle. So
we had thirty run home runs in twenty three, thirty
one home runs in twenty five, and ten home runs
in twenty four. So Tim loves yes even odd twenty four.

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
Yeah, twenty four is they decided they were going to
turn him into a contact hitter?

Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
Right even odd theory with Jim, Tim subscribes to sometimes says,
expect the tough season. The data says he is above
average ex velocity, but a huge leverage swing to reach
his power in too many strikeouts twenty six percent. What
say you, Tommy? What kind of player are we looking
at with Spencer Torklsen?

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
Okay, the million dollar question is will the Tiger's be
content with the results that I believe they're going to
get from Spencer Toper. The power is real. There's no
doubting that the contact challenges they're real as well. He's
going to hit for power. He's a thirty home run
bat with a two to thirty batting average. My question

(01:02:53):
is will the Tigers be content with those results? If
they're not, they should move on from them because he
is what he is and I don't see that changing. So,
you know, when they finally accepted that the experiment of
twenty four wasn't going to be fruitful. Okay, they said,
well you just go be Spencer Turklesen. Now, as long

(01:03:13):
as they hold to that, there's thirty home run sitting
there well a poor lower batting average.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
So you're he's going seventeenth overalls your first basement. So
Ben Rice is going ahead, but he's probably going to
be a catcher. South Frez is going ahead. He's going
to be a catcher. So he's going to be based
on the ADPs. What are your last first basemen off
the board that's gonna be you're gonna throw on your
first base slot or a high end corner infielder. Would

(01:03:42):
you rather have Spencer Tourklesen or number eighteen Christian.

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
Walker Spencer Dorklsen.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
You don't like Christian Walker?

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
No, Now, look you're looking you're looking at twelfth round
for Torkleson. If I can buy thirty homer from anybody
who's hitting above two hundred in the twelfth round or later,
I'm okay with that. So you you like where he's going,
then yeah, I'm perfectly happy.

Speaker 1 (01:04:11):
Are you Are you going to be happy? If? Are
you gonna be happy? If he's your first basement? Or
happy if he's your corner infielder.

Speaker 2 (01:04:20):
Much happier if he's my corner infielder. You look who's
just above him, you know, Wilson Contreras, Jonathan Randa, Andy Diez,
Sal Perez. Yeah, there's first bases, there are some challenges.
I'm perfectly fine with Spencer Dorkilsen in the twelfth round.

Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
Nick Kurtz in front of Vlatt Junior.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
Seriously, apparently that is the case. Yes, there's no hype
sitting there because of.

Speaker 1 (01:04:52):
Must not be Look, yeah, look, I love Nick Kurtz.
I don't have any any dynasty league. I wish I did,
But first round I'm struggling with that one.

Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
Tim Really, minimum minimum pick is nine, maximum is twenty two.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
It's okay, that's a first round pick, my friend.

Speaker 2 (01:05:13):
Yes, and that's over twenty drafts. It's small sample size,
but when you're looking at a range of nine to
twenty two, you're yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
Blad Junior's just a safer pick. Five picks later, Come on, folks,
so is Pete Alonzo's just a safer pick. Not to
say I think that Kurtz won't be better than both
of those guys. He very well could be he was
last season in limited action. But I mean, at some
point when you're in the first couple of rounds, you
got to play the risk game a little bit, don't you.

Speaker 2 (01:05:45):
Well. Bryce Harper's twenty five picks later, the fifth one
off the board. There's a Matt Olson, Matt Olson at
forty six nine, he's he's into the fourth round. Matt
Olson Man fourth round, he's gonna hit thirty, he's gonna
drive in nine and he's gonna have an OVP of
three forty plus. Even Freddy Freeman, okay, at with an

(01:06:07):
ADP of fifty five. Yeah, I'll take Freddy Freeman and
be very happy with twenty three, twenty four home runs,
ninety RBIs and an OBP of three forty. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:06:20):
Once again today, if you're we are doing a different podcast, so.

Speaker 2 (01:06:25):
Yes we are, aren't we? Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
So that's more fun than this the stuff I've got prepared.
Why did you have to tell me the NFBC when
we're out there, it's the rail the entire podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
I was gonna say, yeah, totally off the rails now, yep,
for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
Oh so that's Spencer Turklsen. How about Casey Miz finally
had a solid season after going one what overall in
twenty eighteen, He's posted a three eighty seventy ARRA and
X expected the area of three sixty nine, which is
pretty good, but it only had eight point four strikeout rate.
Miz is a top blank picture for you going into

(01:07:02):
the season.

Speaker 2 (01:07:05):
I'm gonna go with uh somewhere between high thirties to
mid forties, somewhere in there, thirty eight forty five, somewhere
in that range.

Speaker 1 (01:07:15):
He's like, he's going one oh five.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
He's going one oh five. Yeah, it's hard to sort
of I wish the NFBC eightyps sort of relief and started.

Speaker 1 (01:07:27):
So let's let's say there's thirty relievers taken before one
oh five, which is reasonable.

Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
Seventy Hey, that's too low for my liking. If I
can get to Casey Mice at seventy, I'll be very happy.

Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
He's going. He's going four slots ahead of Joe Musgrove,
who's had two Tommy John surgeries in the last eighteen months.

Speaker 2 (01:07:49):
I mean, I was gonna pay fifteen minutes.

Speaker 1 (01:07:51):
Yeah, it's just I'm not sure about that one.

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
No, I think Casey Mice as a I'll be very
happy if I can get him as a number four,
very happy. I might even look at him as a
number three, depending on Again, I haven't spent enough time
yet looking at the overall starting pitching mix, but I
started like CAZy miis and like him even more based

(01:08:17):
on the early ADPs.

Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
A manual Class went as high as eighty six yikes
in the twenty drafts, and Lois five eighty five. I'm
wondering if the five eighty five was this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
So I don't know if the Brooklyn prosecutor okay, plays
fantasy baseball, but if he does, we know what his
pick was. Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:08:42):
Can you imagine taking Emmanuel Class in the last couple
of weeks at eighty six and fining? I mean, there's
next a zero chance he's going to play in twenty
twenty six.

Speaker 2 (01:08:54):
Yeah, I wouldn't. If I was drafting early, he would
not be. I wouldn't. I wouldn't touch yet with nowhere?
Ye will yet? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:09:02):
Yeah? Yeah, you to move on from him? So yes, okay, Timmy,
this is the big question for me, okay, and I'm
I've got my fingers crossed. I'm going to cross my
legs here. Will vest gets at least twenty five saves
next season. True or false? Please say true.

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
I want you to have a ten to ten button
because I'm saying true.

Speaker 1 (01:09:25):
Really awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
Tell me why I don't think the Tigers are going
to spend on a closer. I don't think they have to.
Will will Vest did a good job for Detroit last year.
There were a few hiccups here and there. But if
you if you look at the numbers and supporting numbers
like three or one, ERA one, twenty one whip, okay,

(01:09:47):
save twenty three games, struck out seventy five and sixty
eight and two thirds, you only walk twenty two, So
you know what I mean. Yeah, he will Vest was
a good, solid pitcher, and I don't see Detroit going
out and investing in a free agent to replace it.
So that's my story, and I'm sick in to it.

(01:10:08):
I'm gonna probably probably have him as a somewhere between
fifteen and twenty somewhere in there.

Speaker 1 (01:10:16):
Yeah. I hope you're right. I mean, I thought Jason
Foley was gonna be good less it seems I got
burned on that. But here's the here's what the data says.
You're right. Erea three or two expected area of two
ninety one. You like that a heavy ground ball machine
four seemer comes in at ninety six point seven, touching
ninety nine. You like that his whiff rate on his

(01:10:39):
sliders forty three percent. His wiff rate on his change
up he doesn't throw a lot, is thirty eight percent.
This is good stuff, Tim.

Speaker 2 (01:10:50):
I think it is as well. And if you start
looking at you start looking at some of the risk
out there. I don't think it's as high as some
of us would tend to believe. Yeah, he's not with
the team's on. The context comes into play as well.

Speaker 1 (01:11:07):
He's not an elite elite strike throw. His walk rates
at fifty five, which is average. But with this great
stuff that he has, his ability to strike guys out,
I'm with you, I'm hoping, I'm I'm I'm again. I
do have will Vest in a lot of leagues, so
this could be my emotion speaking to everyone, but I

(01:11:29):
kind of agree with Tim, it's what the data sort.

Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
Well, all all I know is we're both the we're
both fully invested in will Vest for next year. I'm
in the same. I predicted him for six bucks in
the fxfl over some considerably bigger names.

Speaker 1 (01:11:48):
I kind of still am bullish. I was bullish when
I picked him up a lot last season. I was
bullish when he kind of lost the closer gig. I
picked him up again with people dropped him. So I
kind of like the picture. I hope he maintains the job.
I guess we'll find out in the next couple three
months if if Detroit It brings in a closer, we'll say,

(01:12:10):
if they bring into Peter Fairbanks or something like that,
then we were wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:12:14):
Yeah, and I don't. I don't see them looking at
spending the money on a closer if they have somebody
who's in the relatively same skill set, you know, like,
are they going to spend fifteen to twenty million a
year on Ryan Hillesley? No, I don't see it. Same
with Fairbanks. Okay, I think I think they're both good pictures,
But why would Detroit head in that direction? I don't

(01:12:37):
see it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:37):
Yeah, Wells's got better stuff. Will Vest has got better
stuff than Peter Peter Fairbanks. Doesn't mean he's a better picture.
He's got better stuff, right, Okay, Timmy, give me a
sleeper minor majors and the Tiger system.

Speaker 2 (01:12:52):
Okay, break out the zero point zero for how You Lee? Okay,
I like, yes, well, I played all season last year
at Triple A four in ninety five at bast fourteen homers,
twenty two stolen bases, three forty five OVP. And as
much as I'd like to see Zach McKinstry doing what

(01:13:13):
he did last year, he'll be thirty one next year.
That's his competition at second base. I think the Tigers
will look to Zach McKinstry more of in his true role,
which I think is as a super soup playing all
over the place, and I think at some point in
time they give Lee a shot.

Speaker 1 (01:13:34):
What say you I do? I totally agree, and we
will talk about how You Lee on Wednesday. I think
you're going to see I'm pretty bullish on Lee. But
I'm going to tell you why he is not a
zero point zero for me, because he was He was
came from Taiwan, Taiwan, right, so he's been in the
minor leagues for a while. So this is a kid

(01:13:55):
that didn't come over in the hype of Japanese Korean
type of players that destroyed, you know, the Japanese League
and the dead ball era. Whatever you want to call
it and then comes and blows it. This is a
guy that's been like everybody else. He's gone through the
Major League Baseball system, so I look at him different.

(01:14:19):
Just because he's got a far East name doesn't doesn't
he doesn't deserve the zero point zero.

Speaker 2 (01:14:27):
Okay, Well, yeah, and you're right. He did come over young.
He worked his way through the system. As compared to
building up a career in Asia and bringing that to
Major League base well, yeah, he started out through the system,
worked his way up. And I guess the only other
the only other prospect your question I have for you

(01:14:50):
if we keep mentioning Parker Meadow meadows, well, he eventually
have a good season. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:14:58):
I mean part of the promises. Well, the first year
twenty twenty four, he got into a bad situation where
he was popping up everything. His swing got all on
a whack. The Tigers did the right thing. It was
painful for fantasy managers. The Tigers did the right thing.
They sent them back down to the minor leagues. You
could see that his swing got more level. You could

(01:15:21):
see that in the minor leagues. He came back up
and actually played pretty well. The second half. Then he
got hurt last season, so I think guess I mean,
is he Is he going to be PCA two point zero?

Speaker 2 (01:15:34):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:15:35):
But I think their speed there. I think he's going
to have some power and I think he's going to
hit a little bit. So where's he going to drafts?
That's the question.

Speaker 2 (01:15:45):
Yeah, because he now falls into the post hype hype
player right postly.

Speaker 1 (01:15:53):
Might I see what you're saying there some men's look
menas is an eighty second outfielder off the board.

Speaker 2 (01:16:00):
Yeah, he's got a job to start the season.

Speaker 1 (01:16:03):
I mean we're talking a number five, the number five
outfield right right? Am I doing my math? Right?

Speaker 2 (01:16:10):
Number six? Actually seventy five? Seventy five brings you to
fifteen to five, so okay.

Speaker 1 (01:16:15):
So I'm not doing my math right Yeah? So se
someone's at seventy six really wow? Interesting? Yeah, I'm going
to jump on him a little, Yes, I will. I'm
going to take Parker Metta's as a number five outfield.
I have it's on my target yet, but I think
there could be some value there that That's that's.

Speaker 2 (01:16:37):
Me, Okay, that's and that's all I have for the
dejurit Tigers.

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
I mean take a break, come back and plow through
whoever's next. The Kansas City Royas Royals. Yes, Timmy, I
had to go get my power cable and as I

(01:17:04):
went from this room to the out to the living
space area, the dogs thought it was playtime.

Speaker 2 (01:17:09):
So they're a little annoyed at me. Yeah, I was
gonna say, you didn't. Hey, you're not getting a Christmas
card after today from either one of them.

Speaker 1 (01:17:18):
Rich happy beans are sitting on the couch and looked
up and Frankie came running down the stairs and say,
here's the time. Is a time? I'm like, God, you
just have the Royals and the Twins to do so.

Speaker 2 (01:17:29):
They don't care. Rich, they don't care.

Speaker 1 (01:17:32):
I know, boy, puppies are crazy, Timmy. Let's start with
the Royals here. Bobby Wit hit the ball harder in
twenty twenty five with an eggit Velossiti of ninety three
point three. We're just talked about him a few minutes ago,
same launch angle, but he only hit twenty three home runs.
Makes no sense to me. I'm expecting thirty plus home
runs next season.

Speaker 2 (01:17:52):
What say you totally agreed? Makes no sense to me either.
The only thing I would be a little cautious with
Bobby Wait, okay, is he's hitting in the two hole, right,
Michael Gercy is finally off bat but hitting in the
two hole. Okay. For him to generate rbies, he needs
to see something from the seven eight nine bats in

(01:18:13):
k C, who currently are Michael Massey, John Rave and
Kyle isbel The Royals have to do better than that,
they really do. I if that is their seven eight
nine next year, seventy five to eighty RBIs I think
is pretty well, Max.

Speaker 1 (01:18:32):
Man, I heard you pimping John Rave late in the season.
Timmy said, don't give me that nonsense you were telling them.
In fact, I said, you know, I think I think
he's an outfit, right, I was like, I need an outfit?
What about John Rave? The Raves is all in and blah.

Speaker 2 (01:18:49):
Well, I think the question I said, did they have
a John at that Rave?

Speaker 1 (01:18:53):
Something? Sure? Anyway, Okay, Yeah, I think Bobby with's a
top three player and people, yeah there's down on the power.
I think it's thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:19:08):
And if you only hits yeah, if he only hits
twenty steels forty bases, oh well yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:19:16):
Carter Jensen is my number one prospect of the Royal
system style. Perez is on a team friendly thirteen point
five million dollar contract. I think they re opt him
for two more years if I'm not mistaken. Actually that
was that happened. This week's how many at bats do
you see Jensen getting?

Speaker 2 (01:19:35):
Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna beat around the bush and
give you a turn a short story into a long one.
Here Prez turns thirty six in May, Okay. Last year
he caught ninety two games, thirty at first base, thirty
eight at d H. That basically, assuming the same pattern
comes into play, which I think it will, that leaves

(01:19:57):
seventy games for Jansen. Eight.

Speaker 1 (01:20:00):
Well, hold say those numbers, and I got lost. It
was only he only caught thirty games.

Speaker 2 (01:20:05):
No, he caught ninety two he had first base and
thirty eight at DH. He had sixty eight games at
first base in DH.

Speaker 1 (01:20:13):
I got you. So you're saying those are right off
the bat. If nothing changes, those are seventy seventy game
opportunities for Carter Jensen times four. So that's at least
two fifty to three hundred out of the shoot.

Speaker 2 (01:20:27):
So what you're saying, and my prediction is two hundred
and seventy five at bats fourteen home run, six stolen base,
is at two seventy five two seventy two, seventy five
batting average these three sixty five OVP and does he
interest me very much? So I'm filled with regret because
I cut him in one league after the first two
months as a number two catcher. I'm gonna like having

(01:20:50):
him hopefully on a lot of my teams next year.

Speaker 1 (01:20:52):
Well, you're gonna you're gonna have to really like him
because he's going eighteenth off the board from a catching standpoint,
So he's a high He is a high number two catcher.

Speaker 2 (01:21:02):
Yes, and I might pay for it. There's a lot
of number two catchers that did interest me this year,
and he's definitely one of them.

Speaker 1 (01:21:09):
Rich I like to get how the mighty have fallen?
He has number eighteenth off the board. Number seventeenth off
the board from a catching standpoint. JT. Ermuto.

Speaker 2 (01:21:18):
Wow, I'll still take real. Muto is number two.

Speaker 1 (01:21:27):
What do the early drafters know that we don't know
he has one of his arms fallen off? I mean
that we don't know about.

Speaker 2 (01:21:35):
Not that I'm aware of. But again, I think it's
an illustration of a catcher that is fading as he ages,
and the fact that there are so many good young
catchers emerging right now, it's pushed him down. I think,
I think I think it's as much the young catchers

(01:21:56):
driving him down as it is the skills potentially fading.
It's a combination.

Speaker 1 (01:22:02):
I think you're right because Sam Beasaiah is at thirteen,
Kyle Teal's at fourteen. Yes, there's two guys, Yeah, that
barely played in the major leagues.

Speaker 2 (01:22:11):
Kyle TiAl had a good year last year, and again
people are betting on the upside. And when you see
what you know Augustin Ramirez and the kid in Atlanta,
you see what they did last year, there's a reason
for a lot of hope in the catching position moving forward.

Speaker 1 (01:22:25):
I think take a look at Kyle Till real quickly,
because you said he had a good season last year.
I'm a couple of Dinasa leagues. I was a little disappointed.
So eight home runs in three stolen bases and yeah,
two hundred and fifty three abouts, Why is that good?

Speaker 2 (01:22:43):
Because it's the white sucks.

Speaker 1 (01:22:44):
Okay, he did hit three seventy three with a three
excuse me, hit two seventy three with a three seventy
five one base percentage. So the bath the ball skills
exactly were there. Let's take a look at his uh,
where's his ex of all cities and stuff? Here we
go eighty eight point three. Eh speeds at the fiftieth percentile. Yeah,

(01:23:08):
the power hasn't started to develop yet. But he is
only twenty three.

Speaker 2 (01:23:11):
So yeah, what what's got me sort of sold on him?
Is looking at that at that OBP.

Speaker 1 (01:23:19):
Well, he's a walk machine. It looks like, I mean,
ranks in the upper ten percent of the league just
does not expand the strikes on it also only swings
at strikes. You're like, there's a little bit more swing
and miss in this game than you think.

Speaker 2 (01:23:31):
But yeah, he's twenty three, it's.

Speaker 1 (01:23:34):
Twenty three, so it's definitely a gross stock, is it?
Is it more than JT? Realmuto? Eh? I don't know.
We'll think about that one.

Speaker 2 (01:23:41):
Yeah, that's again, that's a tough one. But you know
you start looking at yeah, at the catchers, Augustin Ramirez
going at eighty four, Baldwin at one oh three. A
guy loved Drake Baldwin at one o three. Will Smith
for the Dodgers and his four hundred OBP is now
the eighth catcher. Please let me have Will Smith. I

(01:24:04):
can live with that.

Speaker 1 (01:24:06):
Yeah for sure. Okay, we're so let's get back. So
I'm with Tim. I'm a big Carter Jensen fan. And
while I think Salvador Perez is always gonna, you know,
kind of call some interference, Gret Jensen's a good catcher
as well. It's not sal Perez but you or sal
Perez chops behind it. But I would not be surprised

(01:24:29):
if that seventy grows into ninety in a hurry for
Carter Jensen and Salperez. I mean, he is getting older, Timmy,
and I know he lost the play, but you know,
I would not be surprised that the royal say, you know,
why didn't you take a cup? Why don't you take
every other week take another day off of catching.

Speaker 2 (01:24:49):
Well, the other thing is too they could throw him
in the oat field and he'd be better than everybody
they've got. Okay, well that's hard. He could get his
bets in there. I'm sorry, I look at that. That
sorry is brutal, it really is.

Speaker 1 (01:25:05):
Let's take a look. I haven't I haven't looked in
a while and see what roster resource is projecting. See
how right? Oh, Jack kagline No, come on, superstar in
the making, John Rave, Tim Loveshew and Kyle Isbell. Yeah,
that's not very good? Is it?

Speaker 2 (01:25:22):
There are limits?

Speaker 1 (01:25:23):
Are speaking of Jack Kaglino and stat line for twenty
twenty six? Give me is it bats? And then will
Paul's six? Oh full time gonna be a ball season?
How many home runs is he hit? And what's his
batting now? Were just should be interesting?

Speaker 2 (01:25:40):
Uh? Thirty two home runs?

Speaker 1 (01:25:42):
Okay like that?

Speaker 2 (01:25:44):
Yeah? Uh, he's looking up at the Mendoza line one nine.

Speaker 1 (01:25:49):
Oh, Timmy, that's not good. No, so they're gonna be
expensive home runs.

Speaker 2 (01:25:57):
They're coming with their premium home runs. Yes, definitely, yeah,
But what do you what do you think can he
Can he produce a better batting average based on what
we've seen thus far?

Speaker 1 (01:26:13):
Rich, I think it's going to be difficult for him
to get six hundred at bats and hit one ninety five.
That's what I think. So I'm thinking about I'm looking
at the thirty two home runs and saying absolutely, I'm
looking at the one and going that's a possibility. But
if that's a possibility it happens. I don't think he
gets six hundred of bats. I think he goes back

(01:26:34):
down to the minor leagues. That's That's the only thing
I'm a little concerned with. But look, it's going to
be big power with a low batting average. That's I
think the guy is.

Speaker 2 (01:26:44):
Yeah, that's yeah, we're on the same page. I think
on a lot of teams, I would agree wholeheartedly with
the way you're looking at it. When I look at
the Royals.

Speaker 1 (01:26:54):
Yeah, but don't you think they're gonna sound.

Speaker 2 (01:26:58):
Who they're going to replace him with.

Speaker 1 (01:27:00):
They're gonna sign Austin Hayes or somebody like that for
five million dollars, and that's that's what they're gonna fill
the round field up with.

Speaker 2 (01:27:08):
Yeah. Maybe.

Speaker 1 (01:27:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:27:10):
MJ. Melindas I missed so badly on that.

Speaker 1 (01:27:13):
Oh yeah, he had that. He had that breakout season
his final year in the minor leagues and actually looked
pretty good, and he got to the major leagues in
that first half season and then the wheels just fell
off and it just he just never recovered.

Speaker 2 (01:27:28):
Yeah. I think he had a forty home run minor
league season before he h got his first call up
to Casey and we never saw power like that ever.

Speaker 1 (01:27:38):
But he was decent when he first got called up.
And it's just once he got figured out, he never
he never adjusted. And you know, you see that happen
all the time. It's disappointing, but it does happen.

Speaker 2 (01:27:50):
Yes, it most certainly does.

Speaker 1 (01:27:52):
Cole Reagan's didn't lift up live up to his draft
slot to me for sure, but he also spent three
months on the il. He still managed to strike out
an impressive ninety eight batters in sixty one or two
thirds inning. Do you still see him as a number
one pitcher? Do you think you can get a discount
at the draft table? And as I say that, let
me tell you what his draft slot is at the moment.

(01:28:14):
Cole reagans. So it's Cole, Cole Sands, Cole wins cool.
Cole Reagan's going at number twenty one. So he when
you throw in a couple of closers there, he's just
outside a top fifteen pitcher, but barely.

Speaker 2 (01:28:35):
Well. When I look at Cole Reagan's his debut season
is a twenty four eual is with Texas in twenty
twenty two, pitch forty innings combined. Verry pitch forty innings
in Texas. Sorry, the following season, he got in ninety
six innings Texas and KC in twenty twenty four, one

(01:28:56):
hundred and eighty six and a third. It was a
GM last year sixty one one and two thirds innings,
ninety eight strikeos. Is he a number one for me? No?
Is he a number two for me? No? Well I
draft him. No, He's now in his age twenty nine season.
He has to stay healthy. Ten to fifteen starts simply
isn't enough, even with the great k rates. I am

(01:29:18):
totally staying away from Cole Reagans. All at somebody else
roll the dice and take a chance on them. But
it simply won't be me.

Speaker 1 (01:29:26):
Yeah. I just did some figuring, and he's a seventeenth
starting pitcher off the board, So he will be the
number one starter on many people's teams. He just will, right,
because there's gonna be some people that draft two starters
early and he's gonna be the number one starter. That's
a little scary based on what you just said.

Speaker 2 (01:29:46):
Yeah, hey, I like Cole Reagans, but until we can
we can see is it? Can you bet? On a
repeat of the twenty twenty four after last year, like
the strakeout rates. I'm looking at the numbers and visions
of Tyler Glassdow are dancing through my head and that's

(01:30:07):
not good.

Speaker 1 (01:30:10):
Yeah, So how do I square the round peg when
you just did a beautiful soliloquy on Trevor's story thinking
he can stay healthy, but yet he didn't stay healthy.
Was it just because it was that one season that
he couldn't stay healthy, but the three seasons prior to
that he did. Is that the difference? Or is it
because Cole Reagan's is a picture and you've been Okay, Yeah,

(01:30:35):
that's yeah, that's where your head is. Okay, that's fair.

Speaker 2 (01:30:37):
Yeah, that's yeah. That's that's where I'm at. Like I said,
I the potential is there. He could be an ace.
I just have trouble. I just have trouble believing based
on what we've seen, we're gonna see one hundred and
fifty plus innings at all.

Speaker 1 (01:30:54):
Yeah. I agree. I So I've never really taken a
look at his injury passed. I don't know if it's
just kind of freaky things that have happened, or is
there a pattern of soft kind of tissue kind of issues,
or more concerning shoulder and arm injuries. I don't know,
but yeah, if you as soon as you utter Tyler

(01:31:17):
glassnow that's not good.

Speaker 2 (01:31:20):
No, I'm just concerned that he won't be able to
hold up to the workload needed to be a number one,
number two type starter. I'll roll a dice elsewhere.

Speaker 1 (01:31:32):
Rich Well, here's the problem though. I'm just looking at
early ADPs and Blake Snell at twenty, cold Ringgan's at
twenty one. I mean, Blake Snell's got some of the
best stuff in the game. It can't stay healthy. Col
Reagan's can't stay healthy. He's at twenty one twelve, and
Back's at twenty eight. There's a bunch of closers in there,
so he's he's struggled to stay healthy. Spencer Stryder to

(01:31:56):
Tommy John Surgery's under his under his belt, so he's
struggled to stay healthy. And then Hunter Green, who I
love going as the thirteenth pitcher. Couple closers, so he's
a top ten pitcher. He's been hurt, not significantly every season,
but he misses four to six starts every year.

Speaker 2 (01:32:18):
Let's take a little little for Trevor McGill, I l
every year he's at forty Two's Thatack Wheeler's at forty three,
Devin Williams is at forty five, Glastone is at thirty eight.
Jeff Hoffin this floor is me. Jeff Hoffin is at
thirty six. And it appears as if the Jays are

(01:32:39):
going to look to bring in a bullpen er.

Speaker 1 (01:32:41):
Like wow, yeah, yeah, so yeah, he's probably hated in
Toronto after that, but Trono, everybody in Canada is nice though.
So Zach Wheeler at forty three, guys, I don't know
if he's going to pitch next season. I mean he's
having thorascic outlet syndrome. I mean the data is not

(01:33:02):
kind to this. Guys that hopefully Zach Wheeler can you know,
can be the exception there. But for pitchers coming back
from TS surgery has been spotty at best. Zach Wheeler's
already said that he's going to retire after the season.
He might Timmy just say mid season, look, it's just

(01:33:23):
not here, I'm not pitching anymore. He could literally say
that then go off and maybe have a chance to
make it to the Hall of Fame.

Speaker 2 (01:33:31):
Yeah, and then you take a look at somebody like
Kevin Gosman okay at forty eight, who is behind Michael
King who didn't pitch last year, and Brandon wood Woodroff
who didn't pitch. They're both ahead of them.

Speaker 1 (01:33:42):
I think they both did pitch, they didn't pitch full seasons.

Speaker 2 (01:33:45):
Yeah, exactly. And then you know you started looking through
the rookie Sazaki at sixty four. Wow, ahead of Ryan
Peppio and Bba Chandler and Sandy Alcantaro and Treya Savage
and Nathan Eovaldi. I'm gonna have to look at this
pitching real close. I think, Rich, I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:34:06):
Not getting a discount on my buddy Kyle Bradish going
as the third ninth butcher off the board. You figure
there's probably ten to fifteen closers ahead of him, So
I mean he's going. He's going as a solid number
two starter. I thought I could squeeze him as a
number three starter. Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:34:23):
Yeah, there's a lot of wows. We're gonna have some
fun with these ADP's, aren't we.

Speaker 1 (01:34:27):
Yeah, all right again, we're doing another show here, Timmy,
give me give me a sleep in the organization. Minor
and majors.

Speaker 2 (01:34:35):
Oh, I got a couple and they are real sleepers.
How about Lobinder Avila love.

Speaker 1 (01:34:41):
You know, I love Lewinder novel. It sim he might
be a bullpen arm, but I do like the arm,
and I'm good that's a good one. I like. I
like that name.

Speaker 2 (01:34:52):
How about Felix Ronde.

Speaker 1 (01:34:54):
Yeah, yeah, that's a possibility.

Speaker 2 (01:34:56):
Be Gedgie's handled a little minors successfully. They could, they
could push him fairly quickly. Might see him this year.
And that's all I have.

Speaker 1 (01:35:04):
Okay, we'll talk more this Wednesday about the Kansas City World.
SI mean, let's move on to the twins. See if
we can finish this at about five or ten minutes.
This one's easy. Well, let me let me bring up
Byron backed Buxton's because I know the answer is yes,
because wherever he's taken, he's going to be too early.

Speaker 2 (01:35:21):
Good. Let's I can tell you the eighteenth oatfielder off
the bard for then ADP of seventy two forty five.
I looked at the ADPs before.

Speaker 1 (01:35:28):
I okay, true or false? Byron Buckston will be overdrafted
in twenty twenty six. Yes, eighteenth outfielder off the board.

Speaker 2 (01:35:39):
Oh, I'm going to say.

Speaker 1 (01:35:44):
Falls, Oh really, you think the eighteenth outfielder is a
good value then for Byron Buxton.

Speaker 2 (01:35:51):
As a number two oatfielder. Yeah, okay. The big question
is can you do what he's never done before last year?
Before last year and put together back to back season
as well? We hey said the odds from doing it
once for maybe he can do it again. The easy
answer is to say false, he's going to be hurt,
but I'm going to be the optimist and say, nah,

(01:36:13):
you'll stay healthy.

Speaker 1 (01:36:13):
That surprises me a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:36:16):
Yeah, me too, must have been the alcohol I was
drinking the other night.

Speaker 1 (01:36:19):
Sorry, okay, yeah, ay, and he pays at twenty seven.
I don't know. There's so much bad stuff you're hearing
coming out of Los Angeles about him. I don't know.
He might not have a job, they might move on.

Speaker 2 (01:36:35):
Yeah, you never know. Yeah, he's young. I think he's
mid twenty eighty five, ninety RBI type guy with a
decent batting average, and he can run everything down in
center fields. So yeah, I'm I'm not sold on what
the rumor mill is currently's viewing. But we'll see.

Speaker 1 (01:36:55):
Let's let's stay with the other Well, most of the
twins pres are injury prim but Royce Lewis is run
up there with Byron Bucks. It might even be less
healthy of a guy than Byron Bucks. And is he
played in a career high one hundred and six games.
Let that sink in for a moment. The power wasn't there.
Though he only hit thirteen home runs and a three

(01:37:16):
eighty eight slug, he still hits the ball hard with
plenty of loft, and I think you can probably still
project twenty to twenty five home runs. My question to
you is do we see a bit of a bounce
back with Royce Lewis.

Speaker 2 (01:37:31):
I'm going to say yes, a bit of one twenty
to twenty five home runs?

Speaker 1 (01:37:36):
And does he does he exceed the one hundred and six.

Speaker 2 (01:37:38):
Games marginally, I'll go with the over.

Speaker 1 (01:37:43):
One hundred and twenty ish.

Speaker 2 (01:37:45):
Yeah, one hundred and fifteen and twenty.

Speaker 1 (01:37:48):
Royce Lewis going as a thirteenth outfielder off the board.

Speaker 2 (01:37:53):
Not to me, isn't too high?

Speaker 1 (01:37:56):
Too low?

Speaker 2 (01:37:57):
Too high? Wow?

Speaker 1 (01:37:59):
So interesting. So you're given Byron Buxton the benefit of
the doubt, but holding firm on Royce Lewis.

Speaker 2 (01:38:09):
I'm still waiting for number one out of Royce Lewis. Okay,
you got to Buxton got his number one, and then,
true to form, I didn't have manywhere so you know
they've got When you start looking at at outfielder, you
know you got Bell and Jersuzuki a rose Arena. I

(01:38:31):
I like a lot of the players in the twenty
to thirty range, and I don't think I'm going to
be rushing on the O'Neill Cruz Byron Buxton, Like, hey,
I'm not off the train. But do I want Byron
Buxton next year? Do I want Randy or Rosarina around later?

(01:38:55):
I think I'll go with a Rosarina. You know he's
penciled in twenty twenty forever, right, Why wouldn't you pencil
him in again next year?

Speaker 1 (01:39:04):
I think that's fair. Yeah, So here's more of a
baseball question, don't necessarily a fantasy question, but I think
it's fair. Pablo Lopez has two years remaining on his
four year deal. Let's face it, Timmy, the Twins' likelihood
of making the playoffs over the next two years is low.
Is he a Twin to start the season, Yes, really.

Speaker 2 (01:39:31):
To start the season. Yes, He's got two years left
on the deal. Right, it's okay. Yeah, he's coming off
a season where he was injured, Okay. I think that
the Twins won't have any problems moving him at the

(01:39:51):
trade deadline. I think he'll be very very highly sought
after at that point in time, and he'll have the
first half of the season to prove he's healthy, right
and ready to rule. So I think they'll move Lopez,
but I don't think it'll be till the break. And
with that extra year on the contract, right, he's gonna
be very very very alluring to contending teams. So I

(01:40:15):
think he's gonna go. I just don't think it's gonna be,
you know, right out of spring.

Speaker 1 (01:40:19):
You don't think it's gonna be in the off season.
I mean that's fair, right, because I mean he does
have to come back to prove he's healthy. I still
think he gets moved. I think they're gonna get get
a boatload of players for it.

Speaker 2 (01:40:33):
Yeah, with that extra year on the contract, yeah they will.
And you know what, right now, they'd be negotiating with
Team A or Team B or Team C. At the
All Star break, they'll be negotiating with every contending team
and they will get a lot more doing it, I
think in that fashion than piece muling it, you know,
doing what they can in the offseason.

Speaker 1 (01:40:55):
Look that the the reality here is that Pablo Opis
is a good picture. Yes, he was hurt last season,
and a lot of the elite teams that that are
good teams have very deep, very deep minor league systems,
And the Yankees could give, could give the Twins whoever

(01:41:15):
they want it because they've they've got to. They've got
one of the best minor league pitching staffs around the
Red Yeah. But you know, but but the Yankees need
they they need to do something right that they got
to win right. So maybe they need to fix shortstop

(01:41:36):
because volpi is I would be shocked if they go
to war with with Anthony Volpi at shortstop. That's it's
being reflected in his ADP as well. But maybe maybe
they need to shore up their their offense. But it
is all about pitching, and they can bring it a
Pablo Lopez into the mix there the Red Sox. Can
you imagine poo Lopez is the Red Sox. They've got

(01:41:57):
plenty of the that the Dodgers, I mean, the Dodgers
don't need him, but why not, right.

Speaker 2 (01:42:04):
So yeah, there's always room for another star on that team.

Speaker 1 (01:42:07):
Yeah, yeah, always room for another star. So I I
think Tim Tim and I think Are. I think he
goes a little bit earlier. But we're both saying I
believe that if he's healthy, he's going to command a
boatload of players.

Speaker 2 (01:42:23):
Yes he is. And you know, when once you get
into June July, that mix of contenders and pretenders starts
to sort of sell phot a little bit, and you know, hey,
you can. I just think Minnesota would do much better
waiting until the drade deadline.

Speaker 1 (01:42:40):
Okay, that's that's totally fair. Yeah, all right, so is
Zebbie Matthews. I just put the word saw next to it.
I mean he's stunned, Timmy, There's no two ways about it.
He have a game that he looked pretty good. In fact,
pitch four or five ins he looked like, Wow, he's
starting to put things together and didn't get not pitch poorly,
get annihilated. I mean it was it was awful.

Speaker 2 (01:43:04):
Yeah, every time he put things together, he couldn't remember
where he put them.

Speaker 1 (01:43:08):
I know it was. I s been totally wrong about
this guy. I thought he would be pretty good when
he came I don't think he'd be Garrett Cole, but
I thought he'd be a lot better than what he showed.
So give me a stat line for twenty twenty six
innings pitch, wins, strikeouts, and earrays, and I think he's
going to get a chance to pitch.

Speaker 2 (01:43:28):
Yeah, innings pitched one hundred and twenty Okay, wins seven?

Speaker 1 (01:43:34):
Wow, Wait a minute, that's more wins than who were
we talking about the other day? Jat oh Bubba Champsia
for six. You're saying, hold a minute, hold him minute. Mclouth.
You're telling me that zebby Matthews is I'm taking a
stake in Lecker bet on that.

Speaker 2 (01:43:52):
So the Twins have a better offense.

Speaker 1 (01:43:54):
Right, all right, all right, good guy, alight.

Speaker 2 (01:43:57):
I'm not saying but it's better.

Speaker 1 (01:44:00):
When's that seven? How many strikeouts?

Speaker 2 (01:44:02):
One hundred and thirty five?

Speaker 1 (01:44:04):
So more than a strikeout so far. I'm liking this right.
So what's his era?

Speaker 2 (01:44:09):
Four eighty five?

Speaker 1 (01:44:11):
All right, so that's not good.

Speaker 2 (01:44:13):
He allowed ninety four hits over seventy nine and the
third last year. That doesn't That doesn't work. It doesn't
work for me. Something has got to change in the mix,
A new pitch refining an old pitch. He's just been
too hittable. And when he does, like you mentioned, when
he does get hit like it's yeah, it's it has

(01:44:38):
the potential to take your fantasy team out of contention
in e RA and whipping a hurry house that and
that's not good.

Speaker 1 (01:44:46):
Plus he's he's a you know, look, I'm an emotional
fantasy player. When you're you feel good about Zebby Matthews
going up against the White Sox, so you put him
in there and he pitches two and a third inning
with nine e runs. It's soul crushing, Timmy, It's absolutely
soul crushing, because one, you have to admit you screwed

(01:45:07):
up and shouldn't have started. Yes, the data said you
should have done that, but you know in your heart
you should have done it. And it's just soul crushing.
It makes you want to stop playing the game.

Speaker 2 (01:45:16):
Yeah, it totally sucks the life out of you. You
want really head down and bump into things around the
hose for two days. Yeah, I get it.

Speaker 1 (01:45:25):
I'm looking at ed Zebbie Matthews stuff he has. Nothing
is over so he's said, see here, everything is moving
away from glove side batters but against armside batters, which
would be right handed hitters, he doesn't have anything moving
away from right handed hitters, so his his cutter, his

(01:45:51):
slider are all literally not moving. They're all sitting in
the middle of the zone. So if you take.

Speaker 2 (01:45:58):
Most hitters could find a weight to do that pretty good.

Speaker 1 (01:46:01):
Again, So I'm just looking at that, So let's go
take a look at Let's go take a look at
against right handed pitching. Because your right handed hitter. His
four seemer had a slug of five thirty four and
expected slug of five forty nine. So I mean he
just got his fastball just got destroyed against right hand

(01:46:22):
he yet gave up three home runs and limited action.
I mean, it wasn't a lot, so he just got
he got killed.

Speaker 2 (01:46:33):
Yeah, yeah, it's hey, I've still got marks on the
top of my head from walking around the house.

Speaker 1 (01:46:38):
Rich.

Speaker 2 (01:46:38):
Yeah, it's I had high I had high hopes as well,
and it just hasn't come to fruition yet.

Speaker 1 (01:46:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:46:45):
Does that mean it won't, No, but it if if
you're looking at Zebbie Matthews and picking him up, he's
a reserve pick at best, right.

Speaker 1 (01:46:54):
Yeah, I don't think he's going that way. If I
recall from the average, I think he was going higher
than you think. So the market is saying, hey, we
still think just maybe they're oh no, he's going one fifteen,
so okay there, yeah, yeah, so he's down there with
a manual class yeas and Rod Vegas at three hundred wow,

(01:47:16):
twent eighteen. I don't know about that.

Speaker 2 (01:47:20):
No, we're going to have some fun when we started
looking at ADP's, aren't we.

Speaker 1 (01:47:24):
Yeah. I kind of like him a little bit more
than that. Why is Clay Holmes at one twenty seven?

Speaker 2 (01:47:31):
I have no idea.

Speaker 1 (01:47:33):
So people want Zebbi Matthews over Clay Holmes. There to
me is is Clay Holmes? Did he retire? Did I
miss something?

Speaker 2 (01:47:44):
Uh? Small sample size, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:47:48):
I thought he was pretty good life.

Speaker 2 (01:47:51):
Yeah, he was twelve and eight last year with a
three fifty three year y and he played the Marlins
a very bit. No, the way was I he walked
to man, but I would count on Clay Holmes next
year before I'd be counting on Zbbie Matthews one hundred
and sixty five innings, And yeah, he walked a few
too many last year. That was the gist of it.

Speaker 1 (01:48:14):
Yeah, I don't know. I mean I love Zebbie Matthews.
Don't get me wrong. I mean I've been high on him.
I'm still pretty bullish, just long term. But he's got attempts.
I don't know if he needs a new pitch. He's
his location is terrible, and he's just getting annihilated. So
give me a sleeper to me the organization minor major,
and I hope he one of them is Walker Jenkins.

Speaker 2 (01:48:35):
Uh no, oh, why you.

Speaker 1 (01:48:41):
Know?

Speaker 2 (01:48:42):
You know who shouldn't be a sleeper, But I think
he sort of is. Is Luke Keyshaw. Okay. I think
he's got the potential be at top ten at second base,
and the BC folks agree, they've got him at number
six at second base right now? One four okay, range

(01:49:04):
of one ten to one seventy five. So when you
look at second base, second base is not overly strong.
I think Luke Kishaw is definitely somebody we should be. Okay,
ten homers thirty stolen bases with a solid batting average OVP.
Does that sound reasonable?

Speaker 1 (01:49:23):
Say that again.

Speaker 2 (01:49:25):
Ten homers, thirty stolen bases, solid batting average OVP.

Speaker 1 (01:49:31):
I think that sounds pretty reasonable. Okay, Yeah, let's see
Luke Keishaw. I'm sorry, I've been distracted. I was looking
at licking at my chops with Walker Jenkinson and he's
going to the thirty first round. I, as Tim would say, gimme, gimme,
gimme get eighty fifth percent til in sprint speed. So
the speed is there, man, he can really hit. He

(01:49:53):
can really hit, rarely strikes out, just does not chase
pitches out of the stone. He walks at an above
average rate. There's no power whatsoever. So yeah, I think
he might be uh what we saw with Bryce Terrang
before Bryce Terrang started to learn to hit the ball harder,
lots of speed and a light hitting kind of second

(01:50:16):
basement with potential, and we'll see what happens when he
grows up. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:50:23):
Yeah, I think definitely he should be on everybody's radar
at second base.

Speaker 1 (01:50:29):
Yeah, it looks like a source of cheap steals. Anybody
else down?

Speaker 2 (01:50:33):
Yeah, I got I got a couple more here. Uh
Cody Thunderbirk and his walk up dog is the ATD
classic funder O Thunderstruck. Yes, we're thunderstruck. Okay, the trainers
don't have a closer and they got justin topa who's

(01:50:55):
thirty five? This year, they got thunder Burke and they
got cool sands. I like Thunderbirk's name, so I'm thinking
he might get some saves this year. Okay, So, okay,
I had.

Speaker 1 (01:51:06):
So we are we're now going on the sound of
names as a good good stuff him. Send your resume
to Prospect three six years. No, I'm sorry to.

Speaker 2 (01:51:27):
Yeah, don't blame you for that one. Somebody's getting saved
games in Minnesota, right, so why not?

Speaker 1 (01:51:34):
Uh thunder thunder Brook that's definitely what his name is.
That's a pretty funny name. Okay, Uh, you said you
had another one.

Speaker 2 (01:51:42):
Emmanuel Rodriguez. He's playing winter ball try and make up
for the lost injury times. I think we'll see Emmanuel
Rodriguez this year.

Speaker 1 (01:51:49):
I do too. He feels and smells like a three
true outcome player. There's more speed than you think. There's
big boy power there, big big boy power were there.
But I mean he strikes out a ton and he
lets I mean I've seen this guy play live. He
lets really good pitches go rup by him. I mean
it's just like dude swing.

Speaker 2 (01:52:10):
So but you know you got right now, you got
Trevor larn at your DH and you get Matt Wallner
and Austin Martin, and then you know the two O
to the two corners in the oatfield. I think I
think there's room for Rodriguez at some point in time

(01:52:30):
to get some advats in with the Twins this year.

Speaker 1 (01:52:33):
I do too, but I I know you didn't, you didn't.
I do think Walker Jenkins, who made it up the
Triple A last season. I mean, that is that is
their potential star. That is the guy that's one of
the best players in the minor leagues, one of the
highest ranked players in the minor leagues. And you know,

(01:52:54):
I guess you can argue the Twins are going to
be no good, so why bring him up at all
into that. I definitely get that scenario as well.

Speaker 2 (01:53:03):
But you know, sometimes you're eating my mind. That's exactly
how I you know. I I think we'll see Jenkins
this year, but I think it won't be I think
they'll they'll look at Rodriguez first, okay, and they'll leave
Jenkins to hone his craft and work on fielding bunts
from centerfield or whatever they're gonna do that. I just

(01:53:23):
don't see them in a rush to bring them up
this year. I could be wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:53:27):
I think you know, well, I just I think you
are wrong, but I won't give you props. That fielding
bunts from center field is brilliant. I love that is
such a great visual.

Speaker 2 (01:53:43):
Yeah, I like I like Walker Jenkins a lot. I
just don't think the twins are gonna rush.

Speaker 1 (01:53:50):
I mean, I think that's fair, and I also think
it's fair that they give him Manuel Rodriguez for a shot, right,
I just don't know if a Manu Rodriguez is going
to hit enough. If Walker Jenkins gets off, it's a
strong starting now that he's not been the model of health,
right and Walker Jenkins has been hurt since they drafted him,

(01:54:12):
and he's still on trip a A, which is pretty interesting. Right.
He hasn't played a whole out in the minor leagues,
but he keeps they keep pushing him hard. So that's
why I have some hope that maybe we see him
by mid season, and if he again, if he's got
seventeen home runs by you know, July first, I think
you see him. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:54:31):
No, I totally agree. And in the meantime, when he
does get the call, he will know how to feel buns.

Speaker 1 (01:54:37):
I'm very well played to me a single final break.
We went way long. Thank you for hanging in there,
and let's wrap this thing up when we get back
for hanging in there with me, And I apologize, Sammy.

(01:54:59):
I I was not a very good host because I
fell in love with the with the NFBC ADPs and
I I saw.

Speaker 2 (01:55:06):
That coming a mile away. As soon as you said
you had seen them, I said to myself self, well
we're gonna have We're gonna have a real in depth
conversation on ADP's. It wasn't on the schedule, but it
was fun, Richard, it.

Speaker 1 (01:55:19):
Was all I was all over. I can't get over
the fact you go to the top and Ronald Acuna
is at nine. I get it, Tim, he could be
he's great, he could be great again, but he showed
no speed when he came back from injury. And he's
got two like big blowouts in the last three years

(01:55:40):
right with his his with his knee. I don't know
how you take him in the as the ninth pick.
I don't know how you do that. His his earliest
ADP is four.

Speaker 2 (01:55:50):
Yeah, how are you taking Nick Kurtz at thirteen?

Speaker 1 (01:55:54):
I know, highest of nine yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:55:59):
Yeah. And meanwhile, Kyle Schwarber is sitting down. Where is
Kyle Schwarber at three?

Speaker 1 (01:56:07):
Yeah? A solid second round pick.

Speaker 2 (01:56:10):
Yeah, if you want forty home runs, wouldn't you say that?
It's sort of carved in stone with Kyle Schwarber and
Pete Alonzo a few picks further down if you want
the power, you know, Pete Alonzo is gonna hit, He's
gonna he's gonna mash home runs, right safe boring?

Speaker 1 (01:56:28):
I think, yeah, Kurtz, I think Nick Kurtz's career is
to become Kyle Schwarber. I think if you can have
a Kyle Schwarber career where Pete Alonzo career, I think
that's that's who the guy is. But guess what, Timmy,
those guys are already Kyle Schwarber and Pete Alonzo And yeah, Kurtz,

(01:56:50):
is you know there is something there's real about a
sophomore slump. And because look, they're gonna have all the
off season to scout all these players, and believe it
or not, there are people in the analytics department. Their
job is to pick apart every player on the opposing
team and come up with a game plan. Something They

(01:57:10):
were not able to do that as thoroughly with a
guy like Nick Kurtz, and maybe he could defy the
odds to me, and there are no holes in his game,
and I hope there aren't. Well my guess is there's
going to be some people that find it, and I
just think the risk is too high. If he had speed,
if he didn't strike out as much, I'd feel a
lot better. But man, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:57:32):
Well, he did hit fifty. It was about fifteen home
runs in about ten days there in that one span,
like everything he hit was a home run for it
seemed like a couple of weeks when he first got
the call. Yeah, streaks like that are incredible, but repeatable
it you know you're asking, you're asking a lot, and

(01:57:52):
like you said, there are, there are. Every team is
going to be looking at every trunk of film for me,
Nick Kurtz, and they're going to find a spot where
are they struggling Now They pitchers are going to have
to hit that spot. But you know they are going
to come up with a game plan for Nick Kurtz.
And again, it's a constant game of adjustments and hey,

(01:58:16):
maybe he'll sail right through it. Maybe he'll struggle for
a bit. But I just have a hard time at
thirteen looking at Nick Kurtz and I think he's a
great ballplayer.

Speaker 1 (01:58:25):
Again, and you take a look exit velocity ninety two
point seven. I mean, he hits the ball really hard,
so the power is real, and it's also real with
Kyle Schwarber. He walks it to we know, Kyle Schwuerber
walks on and he strikes out thirty one percent of
the time. Again, I keep going back to his I
think his long term value is Kyle Schruber, which is great.

(01:58:45):
But he's twenty two years old, and to think that
he's going to be Kyle Schwarber in twenty twenty six,
there's a chance he could be, but there's a bigger
chance of my humble opinion that he is not.

Speaker 2 (01:58:57):
Yeah, or a cal rally there's another.

Speaker 1 (01:59:00):
There you go, Yeah, exactly. He hits a ballharder I
believe than Kyle Rowley does. I could be wrong there.

Speaker 2 (01:59:05):
But yeah, but again, you know, hey, would I be
shocked if Nick Kurtz hit twenty five home runs next year? Now,
I wouldn't be shocked. I wouldn't be shocked if he
hit fifty either, but the variance and the range of
outcomes I think at this stage of his career is
much higher than it is for Kyle Schwarber. Yeah, the

(01:59:27):
range outcomes, yeah, yeah, expected.

Speaker 1 (01:59:31):
His expected batting average is two forty eight. So there's
a chance he's a two twenty to two fifty hitter
in the same ranges as Kyle Schwarber, and a guy
that has so much more risk because of his lack
of playing time in the major leagues. And I think,
to me, that's that's the whole ball of wax there. Yeah.

(01:59:51):
Could he hit fifty home runs, Absolutely, I truly believe that,
But I'm just not willing to take a first round
gamble on it. Just unwilling to do that. I would
wait until the late the second, early in the third,
But it doesn't look like you have a chance for that, Tim.

Speaker 2 (02:00:07):
No, I would. I would take Junior or Gaminero or
Lindo or definitely before Kurtz.

Speaker 1 (02:00:12):
I would take Vlad before Kurtz, but he's not going
before Kurtz, is going before Vlad. I mean, it's a
ball harder than Vlad and he's a hitter, yeah he is,
and he's playing on a much better team. So, yeah, Timmy,
that is a wrap my friend. Uh Paul, thank you
again for the two hour podcast. I think our I

(02:00:35):
think our listeners are gonna love it. I think they're
gonna plot.

Speaker 2 (02:00:37):
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a lot of fun.
And thank you for not using the zero point zero
on Mirracammy. I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (02:00:45):
It's it's it's Timmy. I'm telling you, if he hits
one seventy, it's gonna be it's gonna be NonStop.

Speaker 2 (02:00:52):
You're gonna wear that button nose on me, aren't you.

Speaker 1 (02:00:55):
It's only fun to use on when you get on
a roll and you start pronouncing all these Japanese players
that no one has ever heard of. That's where the
fun comes into it. Or or or maybe when you
promoted some guy and he stinks it's fun to do
it on that, but not on a guy that you
might be really good.

Speaker 2 (02:01:13):
So let's say, yeah, the Yamamoto zero zero it ended
a couple of years ago, right.

Speaker 1 (02:01:18):
I'm not sure I ever gave a Yamamoto zero zero.
I don't think ever gave a row Sake a zero zero.
I'm not sure I'm ready to give him Urakami. And
maybe I gave him one when you mentioned him last
year or something because that was fun. But it's so
fun now. It's like, Okay, this guy is a real deal.
Let's see what he can do and then we get
the chance to play the zero zero.

Speaker 2 (02:01:39):
So timing, my friend.

Speaker 1 (02:01:44):
Everybody, I'm not getting soft. I am not getting soft
because I love playing the zero zero Tommy. It's a wrap,
my friend. We will talk to you on Wednesday and
until then, have a good week.

Speaker 2 (02:01:54):
Yes, be safe, bewill and we'll catch you on Wednesday.
For those Ale Central prospects like

All Episodes

2259 - Fantasy Questions on the AL Central - Tigers, Royals and Twins

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Ruthie's Table 4

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}2259 - Fantasy Questions on the AL Central - Tigers, Royals and Twins