May 15, 2025 • 39 mins
Join Ryan Wormeli (@RyanWarmly) and Mike Maher (@mikeMaher) for Part One of this week’s edition of The Cycle!
In this episode, Worm and Maher take some Ls based on their pre-season takes, discuss whether or not Jose Altuve has finally hit the wall, break down some of the latest news and notes from around the league, and give their opinions on the reinstatements of Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson.
Timestamps: (May be off due to ads)
Intro - 0:00:00
First Base: Take The L - 0:00:50
Adley Rutschman - 0:01:26
Devin Williams - 0:07:09
Jeffrey Springs - 0:09:21
Mike Trout - 0:12:47
Emmanuel Clase - 0:14:35
Signed Jose Ramirez Jersey Giveaway - 0:17:04
Second Base: Is Jose Altuve Washed? - 0:17:29
3rd Base: News, Notes, and Injuries - 0:24:43
Home Plate: Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson - 0:32:25
Outro - 0:39:02
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, everybody, Welcome into the cycle.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I am Ryan Warmley, joined today by Mike Mayor. Mayor
we're talking to baseball. It's the middle of May. I
don't know have anything specific to bring up.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
How's it going well? Then it would be a great show.
It'll be a short show if you don't have anything
to do with it to talk about. I wish my
Red Sox were better. They just got swept by the Tigers.
That's not great, especially for a team that could use
a few wins. And my fantasy teams are all over
the place. Some are doing really well, some are doing
really really poorly, and hopefully everyone out there's teams are
(00:36):
doing much better than minor.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, we're not here to talk about how our real
life teams are doing. As a Red Sox fan and
an Orioles fan, there's nothing I want to talk about
less than the Baltimore Orioles at this very moment, although
I'm going to talk about some of them in today's show.
You talk about your fantasy teams. Some doing well, so
I'm doing very poorly. Speaking of doing very poorly, let's
dive right into rounding the bases, and we're starting off
with taking the l who can we admit we were
(01:00):
about this year. We are now over a month and
a half into the season, Mayor it is time that
we can start saying, Okay, this is no longer strictly
a small sample size. Obviously to a degree it is.
You know, baseball is a long term, large sample sized sport.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
But you know, we're getting to that point where we
can really kind of start.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
To reevaluate what we were thinking about before the season
and say like this this is the new normal for
some of these guys, or at the very least something
we need to be reacting to and thinking deeper about
for me. And I'll just bring it up first because
I talked about the Orioles Adley Rushman. I was extraordinarily
high on him as the best catcher in fantasy coming
into the season. I thought we were in line for
(01:42):
a very locked in Adley season where he was going
to take the leave and be like not just the
best catcher, but like clearly the best catcher in fantasy
and one of the best overall hitters in fantasy, worth
a top fifty pick in drafts. I was very, very
into Adley this.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Year, and.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
You know, I don't want to like try and justify
being wrong because he's been very bad. There is a
lot of underlying data that says he has been hitting
the ball better than his numbers would suggest, So I
do want to give him some degree of credit there
and say there has been an element of bad luck,
and I'm willing to recognize that. But this is now
basically a year long slump. Because the second half of
(02:20):
last year he was very bad. This year he has
been worse. A one ninety seven batting average, His on
base percentage is under three hundred, is ops to six
twenty three. He has four home runs, but two of
those came in March. I mean he has been one
of the worst hitters in baseball. He's still been batting
like third or cleanup in a lot of lineups, so
(02:40):
he's getting opportunities to figure it out. But average ecxs
of velocity thirty six percentile, barrel rate forty nine percentile,
hard hit rate twenty eighth percentile, bat speed twenty fifth percentile.
His expected numbers for things like wOBA and bad.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
You already named all the bad ones. Everything else is great.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, Well, I'm highlighting that the ball is not coming
off off the bat very well. But he what he
is doing very well is he's not chasing his withf raise,
Chase Raider or elite Elite, So he's not like striking
out a ton. It's his lowestriker out of his career.
Actually walk right roughly in line with everything else. But
it's just been so bad, and it's been like a
year of this, and I'm willing to take maybe not
(03:20):
the L saying like you should drop him, but I'm
willing to take the L on him being the best
catcher in fantasy.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I think it's too early to take the L on him.
Maybe he won't catch up to the best catcher in fantasy.
You know, he's not going to be Carson Kelly. Who
is you know who can be Carson Kelly. But like
you said, like a lot of his expected numbers are
much better. He's batting one ninety one, he's expected batting
averages two seventy nine. It's so much higher. And I
(03:46):
think the Orioles as an organization, as like a lineup,
are just kind of like messy right now, and he's
just caught up in that. He's swinging strike rate is
actually down pretty significantly. He was six point eight percent
last year, it's four point five percent this year. Hard
hit numbers are up, barrel numbers are up. Fly Ball
numbers are about the same. Home run to flyball about
the same two to eleven. Bad bit is not doing
(04:06):
him any favors. So I think he's like in a slump,
but he's also getting a ton of bad luck here
and that the numbers are going to normalize to the
point where he'll be like a rosterbule catch rosterable. That's
hard to say, catcher. It's probably too late to be
the best catcher in fantasy as you were hoping for.
But I think he could easily finish like top eight
with a you know, if he turns it around set.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
The Orioles as an organization are a red flag for
me with him, Like I have a lot of problems
with their approach at their plate. I don't understand why
they're not firing Brandon Hyde. I also don't understand why
they're not firing at least they're hitting coach. I mean
they they need to completely revamp the approach to this organization.
They have seen over one thousand fewer pitches this season
collectively as a team than the Red Sox have like
they are not taking pitches. It is impacting them. Adley,
(04:50):
on the other hand, is consistently taking pitches right down
in the middle.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Like I don't know what.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
It is that's going on with this team, but the
guys that should be stars are not hitting well, and
Adley is right at the forefront of that. I'm really nervous,
and it scares me that this has been a trend
multiple years now of getting worth twenty twenty three, his
OPS was eight or nine. Twenty twenty four, ISPs was
seven oh nine twenty twenty five, ISPs is six twenty three.
I get that there's some bad luck baked in there.
(05:15):
I get that the expected numbers are better. They weren't
really in the second half of last year. This year,
it does seem like more bad luck than playing badly
that I think there were some injury stuff in the
second half of last year. But we're coming up on
like almost a year of a really, really poor performer,
and I feel like I was out over my skis
about him.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
He's also older than I than I thought he was
like an old prospect, and I would have expected him
really like twenty four and he is twenty seven. Yeah,
twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Talk about this all the time. I in twenty nineteen
was screaming from the mountaintops. Everybody said, what, Adley's the
most obvious consensus number one pick we've had in years.
I was like, they need to take Bobby with junior
because it was year one of this half decade rebuild.
I was like, by the time Adley is playing at
a major league level, at a high level and the
team is good around him, he's going to be in
(06:05):
his late twenties, and that's basically what's happening. And I
was like saying this, anybody who would listen to I
love Adly, like the player. He's been a great representative
for the city, kind of a face of the rebuild
for a lot of those years.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
But I sure would rather have had probably Witt.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And I said that the day of the draft. I
would have rather had Wit for no other reason than
the age. I just thought it was poor, poor planning.
But you know, that's a conversation for another day. Yeah,
but he is sneaky older, so like there's not that
and like he did not sign an extension with the team.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I think that might be a mistake.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I mean, if he continues to hit poorly, another year
older as a catcher, a lot of games in college,
Like yes, a mistake for him to not have taken
the sure thing extension and kind of waited out. You know,
Sometimes these players bet on themselves and it works out
tremendously well. Other times your value is out what you
(07:00):
thought it was.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Maybe.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I mean, I still think aad they would get a
huge contract if you know, if he wanted to sign,
but I don't know if it would be as big
as he had kind of anticipated early on, given the
age and position and the performance.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
So two more.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
The other guy I throughout there is Devin Williams.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I think one of my bold predictions on the show
was that he could get like cy Young votes this year.
That's clearly not happening, you know it was. It was
a bold prediction for a reason. It wasn't intended to
be a GIMMEI he's just been awful. I mean he's
been really He's expected ERA is five ten, which is
(07:37):
three points three runs higher than his actual or to
me three runs lower turns better is what I should
say than his actually ERA of eight thirty six.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
He's been really, really bad, and.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I would imagine there's a path to him getting better,
you know, the second half of the season, but so
far it sure looks like a big fat l that
I need to take.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah. I don't even have too much to add there,
because I mean, no one could have really predicted this,
because he was so good and then going to an
environment where he should have gotten a ton of save opportunities,
and it just could not be going worse for him
right now. And like for him to already be like
not you know, the lockdown, No, not like lock but
like the locked in closer for the Yankees and we're
(08:22):
in mid May, isn't like no one could have predicted that.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
The walk rate is a little high.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I mean it's it's it's pretty high, but it's it's
you know, it's usually been around twelve percent. It's in
sixteen percent, So it's very bad. The alarming number is
the strikeout rate, because you look at the last few years,
since twenty twenty, it's been fifty three, thirty eight, forty
thirty seven, forty three. This year it's twenty three and
a half percent.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Strike hou r.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
He's just not striking on anybody, Yeah, I mean, yeah,
the Whips won seventy nine, I mean, almost double what
it was last year. Yeah, and the strike out raid
is almost half what it was last year. The ERA
is about seven times what it was last year. He
hasn't had an ERA over two since twenty twenty one,
and it's currently over eight. So yeah, I am willing
(09:10):
to accept the L. I have Devin Williams in a
lot of places. I don't really know what to do
with him because I don't really want to drop him,
but you know, and I invested a lot in him
on Draft Day and that was a mistake. So sure, yeah,
those are kind of my too. I wanted to highlight
Adlie and Devin Williams who you got.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
So I wanted to give a few here because, as
I told you before the show, though, I'm taking the
L on one, but I'm also going to kind of
like pull it back a little bit, and I don't
want to, like, you know, not fulfill my obligation into
the segment. But my first answer was Jeffrey Springs, just
because I was really high on him coming into the season.
I thought he was someone you could take mid to late.
It's just like really sneaky high up, like this is
a guy who you know was talking about Sy Young Boats.
(09:48):
It's a guy who got Sion votes in the past,
and he got hurt. We just kind of forgot about him.
He went from the Rays to the A's and I
just had really high hopes for him and thought he
was just like I thought he could be in that
like league winner category, like someone you could take like
pretty late on draft day who has a subside. I
(10:08):
didn't think we were gonna get like SP one upside,
but I thought like we could get like SP two
upside from Jeffrey Springs. And he got off to a
really bad start, and part of it was we kind of,
you know, no one really knew what to expect in
that ballpark they were going to. It had the kind
of the same dimensions as the Oak and Coliseum and
the balls flying out of there. So immediately some of
the pitchers that I was targeting on draft Day, like Springs,
(10:31):
like Luis Severino, don't feel as great about them anymore
because that home ballpark is just not great. However, I
will say to pull back the olt a little bit.
In May, he's been really really good, and I don't
necessarily think this is the same turning around. I think
this is just kind of like a mini hot streak
(10:52):
in what is probably gonna be an overall disappointing season.
But in May, if I will scroll down to where
he is, three starts, eighteen innings, one point five zero ERA.
Now that only comes with nine strikeouts and nine strikeouts
and eighteen innings not great, but one point five ERA,
one ninety seven average against and two fifty six WOLL
but in May all really really good numbers for the
(11:15):
whole season, still a four point twenty seven ERA with
expected numbers that are even higher than four to two seven,
And that four two seven comes after three really really
good starts in May, which tells you where his RA
was before that. So I think it's still an l
given my high hopes for him, but there is at
least a glimmer of hope right now that he's pitching
much better.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah, springs to So I didn't I don't have a
lot of this year.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I liked him a lot a couple of years ago,
like prior to the injury, and I just didn't feel
that confident kind of investing in him, you know, given
how little he'd pitched the last couple of years, and
that there are some question marks with the ballpark, But
I have always liked the pitcher himself when healthy. So, I,
you know, with someone on the same page with you,
I wasn't expecting borderline, sp one upside or anything like that.
(12:03):
But yeah, disappointing for him. What where would you rank
the rest of the season, like as an overall pictures, Yeah,
let's put up my rankings this se.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Where he is I mean, like, it's not he's not
someone I'm like banking on, Like he's probably he could
be a free agent in your league and that that
that means he's probably outside of the top.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Actually, that's what what is his roster percentage?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
I haven't had exactly one hundred right now?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
You have one hundred one hundred picture picture Yeah, yeah, okay,
I just want to assume that's what.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
You Yeah, yeah, okay. Who else do you have?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Easy one well document on this show, Mike Trout someone
I have rostered everywhere.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
No, you were in on my traut this year.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah, and I had no idea. I mean, it's an
L in the sense that it went poorly quickly, But
I mean that was the risk we knew.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
In the set that No, it is an L. The
direct reason that everybody was avoiding him. Happened that is
in l fair And when is he coming back, by
the way, no time here.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I'm sure they're making a lot of definitive statements about it.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Yeah, no timetable. He's got a booboo, but no timetable
for him to return from that boo boo. But again,
they were not concerned about it when it happened, which
to me, like I was watching the game when he left,
and I mean, maybe there's something I missed, And you know,
I look dumb for saying this, but and I know,
like you know, medical issues like bone bruises like don't
(13:44):
always like happen in the same way. But like he
left the game with a lower body injury and then
eventually it came out that it was like a bone bruise,
But like, I don't remember anything happening to him that
would like cause a bone It's not like he got
like drilled by a pitch and it was like so
bad that it caused a bone bruise. It was like,
oh he left with like so I'm like need discomfort
and there's just considering like a bone bruise and I
know there's other ways to get bone bruises, but like
(14:06):
that's concerning that, like there's nothing pointing to it. And
then they said they weren't concerned. And then he went
on the IL and they were like, oh, he should
be fine. And then like you know, we're now two
weeks in and he's like doing some light baseball activities.
I'm like, if this is just a bone bruise, what
are we doing here? And it's just like I posted
the other day, like this is very concerning that. There's
(14:27):
just like no information and it's like we've seen this
before with Mike Trout. It's like nothing. Burger turns into
like he's gone forever.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yeah, not great, Yeah, yeah, I mean that's straightforward.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
One's next.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah, And like you said before, I forget it was
a fun when you were on the show. When Kelly
was here. It was like almost like to the day
last year when he went down too, like at the
end of April, like the last day AVAIRIL. The other
one is very similar to your Devin Williams one. I
rarely go closer early, but in a few leagues this
year I wanted to kind of lock in a top
(15:02):
tier closer and thought that the price was right to
get Emmanuel class A, and that's gone even worse than
Devin Williams in some ways. I mean, the numbers are
technically not as bad as Devin Williams, but he already
lost the job like a couple weeks before Devin Williams,
and it's not clear if he's going to get it back,
in part because I think the Guardians have a couple
other good options in the late innings. I think the
(15:24):
plan is still to get him back and have him
be the closer, but uh boy, it is not going good.
He has four point nine to one era expect the
numbers are all much better, so there is like some
signs he's like turning this around.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
But I'm more confident in him kind of bouncing back
for the rest of the year than I am Devin Williams.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
You think, so, why why is it so some.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Of the expected numbers are better and like at the
very least like Devin Williams. You could say, like, well,
he's with a new team, a new ballpark, Like you
can point to things that changed that maybe are hampering
him for some reason, Like I don't know that that's
the case here. I mean, it's just he's just pitching
(16:07):
worse than I expected.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
So I will say Class I has like technically already
kind of gotten the job back. He has been converting
saved more recently. He is usable in some of those leagues,
and the numbers have been better over the last like week.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I invested heavily in our Fantasy pros Insiders Baseball league.
It's a head to head categories, and I decided to
go very very heavy on pitching, both starters and relievers,
and I have both of these, have both of our
relievers on where.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Well, at least Class A is like usable. Now you know,
maybe maybe taking the ls too early because he has
kind of like I was worried when he first lost
the job. They have Hunter Gaddis and they have I
forget the other reliever who actually got the job temporarily
ahead of a Hunter Gadus, But it was I was like, well,
he might just not get this Jop back. But he
has recently. He hasn't like looked that great, but he
(17:04):
has been atleast getting saved, so you can use him
in that way.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Yeah. Well, speaking of the Guardians, we are now giving
away a Jose Ramirez signed Guardians jersey courtesy of our
friends at Pristine auction dot com. All you have to
do to enter is to subscribe to the Fantasy pros
MLB YouTube channel right now, drop a comment below on
any video and that is it will be announcing one
lucky winner right here on the channel. So make sure
to turn on those notifications so you can know when
(17:29):
new videos are up and to claim your prize. Let's
go to our second topic here of rounding the bass
Mayor joseel Tuve.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Is he cooked? Is he washed? Is he finished?
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Being an elite Fantasy contributor. His ops is under seven
hundred right now, he is batting two fifty six. His
OBP is just three oh two. His slugging is three
sixty nine. He has four home runs and three stolen bases.
His and I don't know if you have looked at this,
I put it in the note. His stack cast data
(18:02):
is horrific.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
It is absolutely abysmal.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Fifth percent expect its fifth percentile, excuse me, expected wOBA
twelve percentile, expect to batting average, eleventh expected slugging, first percentile,
average activelosity.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
His average activelosity is eighty four point four miles an hour.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
He's also first percentile and sweet spot rate, his bat
speed is well, I mean it's all blue. His chase
rate is up, his barrel rate is down. I mean
it has just been really really abysmal.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Across the board. He is thirty five.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Now, is this a great longtime elite player taking that
step down?
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Do you see this as still early season? Small sample size?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
I mean, the underlying data is just so poor that
I don't know how you can have any confidence in
him at this age.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Yeah, this is almost another l I can take. Not
that I was heavily invested in him this year, but
I actually kind of predicted this downfall like two or
three years ago and ended up being like way too early,
just kind of banking on a player because you know,
he's very small, and just kind of like banking on
I didn't expect a player that small to kind of
(19:11):
age very gracefully, especially on like the power side, and
he had dealt with some lower body injuries. I was like, well,
if the speed kind of flounders and the power might
not be there, like how valuable iscy for fantasy? And
of course he's still been really good the last two
or three years. But now maybe it's because I do
have a couple shares of him. I didn't like aggressively
target in, but I do have him in a couple
(19:32):
of places, in part because I liked the idea of
where he was going and then he was going to
be outfield, infield, you know, like outfield, second base. Eligible
walk grade is fine, strike out right is about the same.
Bat in two fifty six is like well below. He's
a career three or five hitter. He's batting two fifty
six with an expected batting average that's thirty points lower
(19:53):
than that, So that's not great. The hard hit numbers
are about the same, swing strike is actually lower, barrel
percentage way down. So, like he said, there are some
like concerning underlying numbers there. And we've kind of talked
about the same thing with a Christian Walker, and like
Marcus Semon is like these are like much older players,
and it's it's hard to tell in the early in
(20:16):
the season. Is like you said, is this just a
small sample size, is it a slow start, or are
we seeing the cliff? Is this because just kind of
like the new like version of this player as they've gotten,
you know, they're in their mid thirties now.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
I don't know what the answer to that question is, honestly,
like if it is kind of the new normal with
Josel Tuve, or if it is you know, hey, this
guy's a star. We should have trusted him to figure
it out. I tend to lean towards the negative side
of that answer, and thinking that this is somebody that
I would sell low on, for example, if you can,
(20:51):
and I would not want to buy low on. I
mean again, like the numbers are all bad and the
expected data is worse. That's a pretty bad formula for
a guy in his mid thirties. And you know, we
shouldn't let the players of twenty years ago when steroids
were rampant, you know, color our perspective, Like, mid thirties
is a very reasonable time to fall off a cliff, right,
(21:13):
this is this is not unheard of physically, if if
that is in fact, what's happening. So and it's not
like that the Houston lineup is you know what it was,
and it's heyday either to kind of help bump him
up with some of the counting stats too. So yeah,
I mean, I I think it's a pretty sad thing
to watch. I mean, unless you hate the Astros, which
(21:33):
would be totally justified, but it's sad.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
If you have enjoyed watching al TV over the years.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Are you willing to buy low on him right now?
Speaker 1 (21:42):
I'm not. I mean he's he.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
I would pick him up if somebody dropped him, but like,
I'm not giving up anything. You know, I would trade
from our conversation last week, I would trade haave baias
for him, but like pretty much not much more than
that I want. I want nothing to do with all
two because the problem with All two a too is
if you have him, you're gonna start him like you
don't want to be the guy who sits out to
(22:05):
VA when he finally gets it going again, And so
every week he's just gonna be dragging you down unless
he really does figure it out. So like I would
buy him for the absolute barrassed minimum price, literally free.
Anything beyond that, no, I have no interest in.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Buying I it's kind of stats aren't.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
That bad, but his underlying stuff is even worse.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Right, but he hasn't killed you in your line up,
and he's still hit in two fifty four months, three
stolen bases. It's not that bad.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I mean, I have him in our head to head
points deep keeper league, and in that league he is
you know, if you look at the last several years,
his points per game in this format have been you know,
this is going back like a decade four and a half,
four and a half, three and a half four, two
and a half. That was twenty twenty four four four
(22:57):
and a half three. This year it's barely over two.
It's like, it's a pretty steep drop. And that's just
one scoring format, but it's a pretty steep drop. Yeah,
he's been caught stealing as many times as he's stolen
a base, Like the speed might not be there anymore.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
I mean, it's just.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah, his sprint speed is forty six percentile this year.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
What is it not?
Speaker 1 (23:19):
I don't know, Actually I'm looking, I'm.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
You know, but I mean usually he can get you
a handful of stolen basism like the pestles.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
I guess that's actually pretty normal in life for him, So.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
I take I take back that as a criticist. I mean,
the last couple of years at least, it's pretty normal,
like into his thirties. Earlier on it was different.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Of course, where do you think he is on Fantasy
Bro's VBR, Like overall, like, and I know that's a
difficult gauge. So like let's say above or below one fifty,
like tie players, hitters, top hitters.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
I would guess maybe in the like one thirty to
forty range.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Very close. You're getting warmer. You want to try and
get closer.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
One forty five. Ooh ah close?
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Uh yeah, I mean again, it's it's the counting sets
being down from usual coupled with the underlying SATs being
much much worse.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Do you want to buy him?
Speaker 3 (24:19):
I buy low?
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Okay, yeah, we see.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
That depends on what the price is. Like you know,
I'm always wanted to buy it by very low, but
I just think.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Yeah, like I said, I'll buy free, but I don't
want to buy low.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
But I figure if he was last year about it,
two ninety five twenty home onre twenty two stolen bases,
even if he bats like two sixty fifteen home runs
fifteen stolen bases, that's still very valuable to me.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
I don't know that he's going to get there, though.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
We'll see, We'll see.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yeah, we will see. Let's go to our news notes
and injuries. We can run through these quickly, so real quick.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Some of the Top News Shane mcclanahan's still feeling discomfort
in that pitching arm, with that nerve issue. Don't love that.
I've been kind of stashing him a couple of places,
and I feel like it might be times of just
kind of cut loose. It's uh if he's like not
even he just recently started throwing and he's immediately feeling discomfort.
We don't really have like it's a nerve issue. It's
(25:14):
like hard to kind of like it's you know, it's
not like a like a torn labor where you like
know he's done, or like a muscle strain where you
know it's going to be like a few weeks. We
don't really have a ton of infoto go on on
like a nerve issue. And you know, I'm if you've
still been stashing him. It's now mid May. You know,
are you I know you have him somewhere. Are you
just continuing to hold on?
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah? I don't.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yes, I mean it's easy enough to just stick him
on an il spot, and I haven't the places where
I have him, I haven't felt like I've really needed to.
You know, I just got a cut bait to make
a room for some other like hot shot call up
or something. So I've been comfortable just sitting on him
and hoping all about.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
In this scenario, I have him in TGFBI where there's
no il spots. It's a deep league, fifteen teams, five outfielders.
He's just been taking up a bench spot for me,
and it's not like there's a ton the great players available,
like you said on in Free Agencies that he's just
been sitting on my bench. But I don't know how
much longer I can just have an empty bench spot.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yeah, yeah, But I mean like that's the thing is
like who are you getting in it? Deeply? Like that,
who are.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
You picking up to replace him with? That has that
kind of upside, I'd rather just sit on the upside.
I mean, if there's a scenario where it's like you
desperately need to pick somebody up, like let's say you
have you know, let's see if Freddy Freeman and he
goes on the IL and you don't want to drop
Freddy Freeman, but you don't have a backup first basement,
he desperately need to pick him up, and there was
(26:40):
like somebody good on the on the waivers, like yeah, sure,
like a specific scenario like that, I'd be open to it,
but like in general, I'm not just looking to drop
him for the sake of having another bench spot, Like
I don't care, No, I don't care that much about
having one more bench spot if if whoever I pick
up is not even going to be really in contention
to start for me.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
How about this, what if would you rather stay Sean
McClanahan or Shane Bieber? And I can give you an
update on Shane Bieber. He uh just recently just started
like throwing off a mound. At least that he's still
a ways away from returning from Tommy John surgery. But
at least with him, I have hope that he could
be back in like a month, where say McClanahan just
(27:17):
might be a nothing.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I would probably rather be stashing McClanahan, But I mean,
obviously ideally it's neither her. But you know, but if
I'm if I'm keeping a bench spot for one of these.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Well what about in a league like that, Like, would
would you drop McLanahan for Bieber?
Speaker 2 (27:39):
I think I'd rather have McLanahan in that league because
I guys coming back from Tommy John. I'm like even
when they're back. I don't really have any expectations, like, like,
even when McClanahan returns, I'm kind of hoping that we'll
get something out of him.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Like Bieber, he could return and it could be like.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Just such a limited role that it doesn't really matter anyway.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Fair, Okay, so we can go quickly. Tanner Hawk allowed
eleven earned runs for the second time this year.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Is that pulling a Hawk or is that pulling an
Aaron Nola?
Speaker 3 (28:11):
That's true. He got off to like a decent start
and then he got shelled for eleven earned runs, and
then he looked kind of good and people picked them
back up and he hurt them again. So it's kind
of brutal that, especially in like if you think about
it in like Rodo terms, you probably rostered. How you
give up eleven earned runs. You dropped him, missed his
(28:32):
good starts, and then if you picked him up again,
you got hit with eleven earned runs again. So there
are probably people out there that have like missed his
two or three good starts and just have twenty two
earned runs on the books thanks to Tanner Hawk. Lucas Giolito,
I don't know what to make of him. He had
a good start, a really bad start, and then another
good start. I've seen a lot of optimism for him
in this space. I kind of don't see it when
(28:56):
I want, Like, something just looks off to me, even
I was listening to another show I think it was
the CBS Guys recently where they talked about him looking
better and his vlos as fastball is up. His los
ages fastball was up, but I was watching the game
he was also really struggling to locate it, which tells
me he was maybe overthrowing to kind of get that
velocity backup, and he just didn't look that sharp to
(29:17):
me despite the good numbers. One of the bigger news
items is the Dodgers are calling up catching prospect Dalton Rushing,
and the more important thing is it sounds like he could.
He's a very top you know, he's a very highly
rated prospect. He's like maybe their top prospect. And the
good thing there is that he's a catching prospect but
should be in the lineup in other ways, Like he
(29:37):
can play a little first base, he can play a
little outfield, and so there's a chance he's not just
the backup to Will Smith. He's someone who's in the
lineup several times a week.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
So I saw I thought I saw a quote from
the Dodgers that they were thinking he was going to
catch twice a week and then like kind of find
other at bats elsewhere. I didn't come away from that
quote thinking like it was going to be enough to
be like worth starting in fantasy?
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Did you kind of re that differently?
Speaker 3 (30:01):
I read it as he's going to get enough opportunities,
and I think he's a good enough prospect where if
he hits, he'll be in the lineup more. And they
have enough injuries and enough opportunities. I mean, grant Hi
once they get healthy. If he hasn't been hitting, he's gone.
But for me, especially in like a two catcher league,
if you know you can get a prospect a catcher,
and even in one catcher league, if you're can to
(30:21):
afford to like kind of stash him, I do think
he's a really good prospect. He's a really good hitter,
and you know he can find his way into the
lineup in other ways, especially because like Freddy Freeman is
incredibly hot right now. But it also like there was
a report that he gets like like an hour or
more of treatment on his ankle every day, so like
he's just like scraping scraping it together, like health wise,
(30:44):
and like he's the kind of player who if they
have like one more injury, he could be an everyday
player at the catcher position. Bryce Miller to the IL.
He's another player I considered for like taking the l on.
I wasn't like historically high on Bryce Miller, but I
have a ton of shares of him this year because
I liked where the price was going. So he has
not looked good and he has gone to the IL.
(31:06):
Jose Katana everyone was worried about, you know, holding the
bag and he turns back into Jose Katana, but apparently
he's just going to the IL. He had a shoulder
issue and then they said he was fine, he was
gonna start Saturday, and now he's going to the IL.
So like not a huge name for Fantasy, but someone
that we've talked about on the show a bunch recently.
That's someone where we've been streaming because he just keeps
pitching well. Ronald Lacune began a rehab assignment and is
(31:27):
playing the outfield, So I was kind of hoping that happened,
Like two or three weeks ago, but it's happening now,
and so that's very exciting, especially if someone who's stashing
him and Spencer Streider recently threw a SIM game and
could be returning as early as this week. It hasn't
been decided yet, maybe by the by this weekend, we'll
know more if he's going to go in a rehab
assignment or just kind of come right back to the braves.
(31:49):
It's it did sound or like, actually, you know, I
read it, So I will say that I read that
he his velocity started out fine in a SIM game
that he threw, but as he went on, the velocity
kind of dipped a little bit, which I think can
be pretty normal for someone, you know, working their way back.
But you know, it is something worth noting that they
(32:09):
might have seen that kind of fatigue, you know, because
they didn't seem like they were concerned for like injured reasons.
They just thought, you know, he needed to work back
into the game shape. But worth noting that a velocity
was down. So it's possible they send him back out
for a rehab assignment, but he could return as early
as this week. I've seen some sites projecting him to
start as early as Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Last topic here on Round on the Base is I
don't have a ton on this, but I did think
it was worth mentioning just because it's a big story
in baseball. Pete Rose and Shulis Joe Jackson.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
What's that? So it's a hot topic, sor. I didn't
mean to direct you, but yeah, highly debated in the
space right now.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Yeah, Pete Rose and Sheilas Joe Jackson now eligible for
the Hall of Fame. They've been kind of reinstated into baseball.
The line of thinking from Manfred was this is a
lifetime ban. You know, these guys are obviously no longer
with us, some more recently than others, and you know
they're now kind of eligible. And I didn't really know.
(33:07):
I didn't, like, have a ton of strong feelings, but
I expected to have a ton of strong feelings about it.
I have somebody who tends to care about the Hall
of Fame and the history of the sport and.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Think about this stuff a lot.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
But as I sat down to think, like what do
I actually want to say about this on the show,
I really didn't have much. I'm kind of curious what
your opinion is. I don't find myself feeling strong like
I do think it's kind of crappy to like punish
a guy for his whole life and then when he's
gone and be like, Okay, well now you'll get the
you know, the benefit and the value of being enshrined
(33:38):
in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
That's my take.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
That it's crappy to wait until they're gone.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
But at the same time, like Pete Rose like a
Hall of Fame player, yes, but like even aside from
the gambling, like the by all accounts isn't wasn't a
great person. So like it's also hard for me to
feel too like zimpthetic for somebody like who you you know,
maybe doesn't carry himself in that kind of hall of
fame way. Now, there's a lot of like bad people
in the Hall of Fame, so I'm not saying that
(34:07):
should be like a disqualifying thing, but you know, it
was hard for me to get up in arms about it,
I guess, and frankly, like obviously, like I'm aware of
who shoeless Joe Jackson is, and like the scandal from
back then, but that was long going to ago that
like it's not like I have all the details on
that kind of story or anything like that. So like
the ultimately, well, yeah, so like that one's like a
weird one even like weigh in on and like have
(34:27):
a strong strong opinion about. But like Pete Rose one
is like, yeah, I think it's kind of like a
crappy way to do it by Major League Baseball, But ultimately,
like I don't feel that strongly either way, Like, and
it's not like he's in the Hall of Fame, like
he still needs to get voted in by the writers,
and I genuinely don't know like what they're going to
do with that.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Yeah, I'm pretty similar in that I didn't have like
very strong feelings. I saw a lot of very strong feelings,
like it's ridiculous that they even consider this. I think
it's in a different bucket than the steroid guys who,
like I'm you know, I'm pretty on board with with
not letting some of them in just because like what
they did directly resulted in their numbers, and so it's
kind of hard to be like, hey, like you were
(35:03):
one of our best players, but also like you were
a robot because you cheated.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Are you just very quickly? Are you I don't think
we've ever talked about this. Are you somebody who thinks
that Barry Bonds shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
I have very complicated feelings about that. I'm like I
could go either way. I mean, like, on one hand,
like he very clearly did steroids, but on the other hand,
like he never he kind of never got caught, like
he never actually like there's no proof they did steroids,
so like it's kind of like catching.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
He also was a Hall of Famer before steroids.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Right, Let's let's let's save Barry Bod's well a week
where we don't have a ton of great topics.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Let's let's do Barry Bonds in a future. I was
just curious, but yeah, Pete Rose.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Yeah, in this case, I like I thought it was like,
you know, you're either going to take a stance and
not let him in the Hall of Fame or make
him eligible, or like, if you're gonna do it, doable.
He's alive. Like they waited until he died and they're like,
all right, now he can be in the Hall of Fame.
And I'm like, all right, Like that's kind of crappy.
And I've seen some players. Some people talk on the
space like you know, like if you're permanently ineligible, like
(36:06):
how are you like eligible now? And I'm like I
feel like, you know, for like in the case of
like serless Joe Jackson, like all right, like you're not
permanently ineligible, but like maybe seventy years after you die
you can get into the Hall of Fame. Like is
that a harsh enough punishment for what you did? Which,
like for his scandal that you know, like that's a
big one. Like they threw the World Series. Yeah, there's
(36:27):
no real evidence that he did, because his numbers are
really good in that World series and he was kind
of like a not very smart guy apparently, so there
are theories out there that like he wasn't in on
it even though he kind of knew and was like
still playing as hard as as they forget what the
numbers are, but he batted over three hundred but no
errors in that game, yeah, or in that series, but
like you kind of get it, like okay, like this
(36:49):
is a major thing. You can't throw a world series
and then get into the get into the Hall of Fame.
But the Pete Rose one was like it's been debated
for like decades, and he's kind of gone back and
forth with like multiple commissioners like in baseball, and it
seemed like at one point it almost felt like it
was like me dealing with my son, where they were
like just say sorry, I'm in the Hall of Fame,
and he was like no, no, I refuse, And it
(37:12):
almost seemed like, like you said, like if he carried
himself better and was like more apologetic and like worked
with Major League Baseball, he probably would have gotten in.
But he just kind of acted like a jerk about it.
But I do think it's kind of weird that they
were like okay, like you're not getting in the Hall
of Fame, and then you die and they're like okay,
maybe now.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Yeah, Like like I guess, yeah, I guess that's my thoughts.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Like if you want to dig your heels in and
say Piros will never be in the Hall of Fame,
I can understand that, thinking like, at the end of
the day, it is a museum and it's really hard
to tell the story of Major League Baseball with that.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
It's a woll time hits leader.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
So like I I tend to be on the side
of letting people in as long as they're on field,
play warranted. I'm a pretty small hall guy in terms
of the performance threshold you need to get in, but
I'm a big hall guy in terms of there's stuff
around that because it is a museum at the end
(38:02):
of the day. But if you want to like take
a hard stance on it, I'm okay with that. It
just feels kind of cruel to say, well, now that
he's dead, we're gonna lift this, like honestly, like at
the end of the day, like it doesn't matter that much, right,
Like it's like life is short, right, We're we're gonna
(38:26):
get to kind of celebrate this fun, silly game in
a really meaningful way. And I love it and I
take it very seriously. By the end of the day,
it is just a game, and you're gonna like punish
a guy who like basically gave his whole life to
this sport, and the punish him in a way that says,
we will give this to you, but not when you
(38:46):
are around to recognize and enjoy it. It just feels
kind of harsh. Like again, it feels harsher to do this.
Then it would be to just never let him in.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
Yeah, it's it's an odd move from an odd commissioner
who I don't I agree with them.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
That is also another conversation for another episode is our
thoughts on Manfred. All right, well, we'll go ahead and
wrap up this on that. Be sure to check out
our other episodes of the cycle. This week, We've got
two more coming your way. We've got some buys and sells,
some waiver picks, some pitching streamers, all that good stuff
as per usual.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
That's both on video and on audio. Before this episode.
For mayor, I'm Brian Warmley. Thanks for tuning in. We'll
see again next time.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Baseball podcast.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
If you love the show, the best freeway to support
us is by leaving a positive review on Apple
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Podcasts or Spotify, follow us on x, Instagram, and TikTok
at Fantasy Pros, and subscribe to our YouTube channel at
YouTube dot com slash Fantasy Pros MLB
Hello, everybody, Welcome into the cycle.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I am Ryan Warmley, joined today by Mike Mayor. Mayor
we're talking to baseball. It's the middle of May. I
don't know have anything specific to bring up.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
How's it going well? Then it would be a great show.
It'll be a short show if you don't have anything
to do with it to talk about. I wish my
Red Sox were better. They just got swept by the Tigers.
That's not great, especially for a team that could use
a few wins. And my fantasy teams are all over
the place. Some are doing really well, some are doing
really really poorly, and hopefully everyone out there's teams are
(00:36):
doing much better than minor.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, we're not here to talk about how our real
life teams are doing. As a Red Sox fan and
an Orioles fan, there's nothing I want to talk about
less than the Baltimore Orioles at this very moment, although
I'm going to talk about some of them in today's show.
You talk about your fantasy teams. Some doing well, so
I'm doing very poorly. Speaking of doing very poorly, let's
dive right into rounding the bases, and we're starting off
with taking the l who can we admit we were
(01:00):
about this year. We are now over a month and
a half into the season, Mayor it is time that
we can start saying, Okay, this is no longer strictly
a small sample size. Obviously to a degree it is.
You know, baseball is a long term, large sample sized sport.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
But you know, we're getting to that point where we
can really kind of start.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
To reevaluate what we were thinking about before the season
and say like this this is the new normal for
some of these guys, or at the very least something
we need to be reacting to and thinking deeper about
for me. And I'll just bring it up first because
I talked about the Orioles Adley Rushman. I was extraordinarily
high on him as the best catcher in fantasy coming
into the season. I thought we were in line for
(01:42):
a very locked in Adley season where he was going
to take the leave and be like not just the
best catcher, but like clearly the best catcher in fantasy
and one of the best overall hitters in fantasy, worth
a top fifty pick in drafts. I was very, very
into Adley this.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Year, and.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
You know, I don't want to like try and justify
being wrong because he's been very bad. There is a
lot of underlying data that says he has been hitting
the ball better than his numbers would suggest, So I
do want to give him some degree of credit there
and say there has been an element of bad luck,
and I'm willing to recognize that. But this is now
basically a year long slump. Because the second half of
(02:20):
last year he was very bad. This year he has
been worse. A one ninety seven batting average, His on
base percentage is under three hundred, is ops to six
twenty three. He has four home runs, but two of
those came in March. I mean he has been one
of the worst hitters in baseball. He's still been batting
like third or cleanup in a lot of lineups, so
(02:40):
he's getting opportunities to figure it out. But average ecxs
of velocity thirty six percentile, barrel rate forty nine percentile,
hard hit rate twenty eighth percentile, bat speed twenty fifth percentile.
His expected numbers for things like wOBA and bad.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
You already named all the bad ones. Everything else is great.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, Well, I'm highlighting that the ball is not coming
off off the bat very well. But he what he
is doing very well is he's not chasing his withf raise,
Chase Raider or elite Elite, So he's not like striking
out a ton. It's his lowestriker out of his career.
Actually walk right roughly in line with everything else. But
it's just been so bad, and it's been like a
year of this, and I'm willing to take maybe not
(03:20):
the L saying like you should drop him, but I'm
willing to take the L on him being the best
catcher in fantasy.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I think it's too early to take the L on him.
Maybe he won't catch up to the best catcher in fantasy.
You know, he's not going to be Carson Kelly. Who
is you know who can be Carson Kelly. But like
you said, like a lot of his expected numbers are
much better. He's batting one ninety one, he's expected batting
averages two seventy nine. It's so much higher. And I
(03:46):
think the Orioles as an organization, as like a lineup,
are just kind of like messy right now, and he's
just caught up in that. He's swinging strike rate is
actually down pretty significantly. He was six point eight percent
last year, it's four point five percent this year. Hard
hit numbers are up, barrel numbers are up. Fly Ball
numbers are about the same. Home run to flyball about
the same two to eleven. Bad bit is not doing
(04:06):
him any favors. So I think he's like in a slump,
but he's also getting a ton of bad luck here
and that the numbers are going to normalize to the
point where he'll be like a rosterbule catch rosterable. That's
hard to say, catcher. It's probably too late to be
the best catcher in fantasy as you were hoping for.
But I think he could easily finish like top eight
with a you know, if he turns it around set.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
The Orioles as an organization are a red flag for
me with him, Like I have a lot of problems
with their approach at their plate. I don't understand why
they're not firing Brandon Hyde. I also don't understand why
they're not firing at least they're hitting coach. I mean
they they need to completely revamp the approach to this organization.
They have seen over one thousand fewer pitches this season
collectively as a team than the Red Sox have like
they are not taking pitches. It is impacting them. Adley,
(04:50):
on the other hand, is consistently taking pitches right down
in the middle.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Like I don't know what.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
It is that's going on with this team, but the
guys that should be stars are not hitting well, and
Adley is right at the forefront of that. I'm really nervous,
and it scares me that this has been a trend
multiple years now of getting worth twenty twenty three, his
OPS was eight or nine. Twenty twenty four, ISPs was
seven oh nine twenty twenty five, ISPs is six twenty three.
I get that there's some bad luck baked in there.
(05:15):
I get that the expected numbers are better. They weren't
really in the second half of last year. This year,
it does seem like more bad luck than playing badly
that I think there were some injury stuff in the
second half of last year. But we're coming up on
like almost a year of a really, really poor performer,
and I feel like I was out over my skis
about him.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
He's also older than I than I thought he was
like an old prospect, and I would have expected him
really like twenty four and he is twenty seven. Yeah,
twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Talk about this all the time. I in twenty nineteen
was screaming from the mountaintops. Everybody said, what, Adley's the
most obvious consensus number one pick we've had in years.
I was like, they need to take Bobby with junior
because it was year one of this half decade rebuild.
I was like, by the time Adley is playing at
a major league level, at a high level and the
team is good around him, he's going to be in
(06:05):
his late twenties, and that's basically what's happening. And I
was like saying this, anybody who would listen to I
love Adly, like the player. He's been a great representative
for the city, kind of a face of the rebuild
for a lot of those years.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
But I sure would rather have had probably Witt.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And I said that the day of the draft. I
would have rather had Wit for no other reason than
the age. I just thought it was poor, poor planning.
But you know, that's a conversation for another day. Yeah,
but he is sneaky older, so like there's not that
and like he did not sign an extension with the team.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I think that might be a mistake.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I mean, if he continues to hit poorly, another year
older as a catcher, a lot of games in college,
Like yes, a mistake for him to not have taken
the sure thing extension and kind of waited out. You know,
Sometimes these players bet on themselves and it works out
tremendously well. Other times your value is out what you
(07:00):
thought it was.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Maybe.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I mean, I still think aad they would get a
huge contract if you know, if he wanted to sign,
but I don't know if it would be as big
as he had kind of anticipated early on, given the
age and position and the performance.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
So two more.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
The other guy I throughout there is Devin Williams.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I think one of my bold predictions on the show
was that he could get like cy Young votes this year.
That's clearly not happening, you know it was. It was
a bold prediction for a reason. It wasn't intended to
be a GIMMEI he's just been awful. I mean he's
been really He's expected ERA is five ten, which is
(07:37):
three points three runs higher than his actual or to
me three runs lower turns better is what I should
say than his actually ERA of eight thirty six.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
He's been really, really bad, and.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I would imagine there's a path to him getting better,
you know, the second half of the season, but so
far it sure looks like a big fat l that
I need to take.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah. I don't even have too much to add there,
because I mean, no one could have really predicted this,
because he was so good and then going to an
environment where he should have gotten a ton of save opportunities,
and it just could not be going worse for him
right now. And like for him to already be like
not you know, the lockdown, No, not like lock but
like the locked in closer for the Yankees and we're
(08:22):
in mid May, isn't like no one could have predicted that.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
The walk rate is a little high.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I mean it's it's it's pretty high, but it's it's
you know, it's usually been around twelve percent. It's in
sixteen percent, So it's very bad. The alarming number is
the strikeout rate, because you look at the last few years,
since twenty twenty, it's been fifty three, thirty eight, forty
thirty seven, forty three. This year it's twenty three and
a half percent.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Strike hou r.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
He's just not striking on anybody, Yeah, I mean, yeah,
the Whips won seventy nine, I mean, almost double what
it was last year. Yeah, and the strike out raid
is almost half what it was last year. The ERA
is about seven times what it was last year. He
hasn't had an ERA over two since twenty twenty one,
and it's currently over eight. So yeah, I am willing
(09:10):
to accept the L. I have Devin Williams in a
lot of places. I don't really know what to do
with him because I don't really want to drop him,
but you know, and I invested a lot in him
on Draft Day and that was a mistake. So sure, yeah,
those are kind of my too. I wanted to highlight
Adlie and Devin Williams who you got.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
So I wanted to give a few here because, as
I told you before the show, though, I'm taking the
L on one, but I'm also going to kind of
like pull it back a little bit, and I don't
want to, like, you know, not fulfill my obligation into
the segment. But my first answer was Jeffrey Springs, just
because I was really high on him coming into the season.
I thought he was someone you could take mid to late.
It's just like really sneaky high up, like this is
a guy who you know was talking about Sy Young Boats.
(09:48):
It's a guy who got Sion votes in the past,
and he got hurt. We just kind of forgot about him.
He went from the Rays to the A's and I
just had really high hopes for him and thought he
was just like I thought he could be in that
like league winner category, like someone you could take like
pretty late on draft day who has a subside. I
(10:08):
didn't think we were gonna get like SP one upside,
but I thought like we could get like SP two
upside from Jeffrey Springs. And he got off to a
really bad start, and part of it was we kind of,
you know, no one really knew what to expect in
that ballpark they were going to. It had the kind
of the same dimensions as the Oak and Coliseum and
the balls flying out of there. So immediately some of
the pitchers that I was targeting on draft Day, like Springs,
(10:31):
like Luis Severino, don't feel as great about them anymore
because that home ballpark is just not great. However, I
will say to pull back the olt a little bit.
In May, he's been really really good, and I don't
necessarily think this is the same turning around. I think
this is just kind of like a mini hot streak
(10:52):
in what is probably gonna be an overall disappointing season.
But in May, if I will scroll down to where
he is, three starts, eighteen innings, one point five zero ERA.
Now that only comes with nine strikeouts and nine strikeouts
and eighteen innings not great, but one point five ERA,
one ninety seven average against and two fifty six WOLL
but in May all really really good numbers for the
(11:15):
whole season, still a four point twenty seven ERA with
expected numbers that are even higher than four to two seven,
And that four two seven comes after three really really
good starts in May, which tells you where his RA
was before that. So I think it's still an l
given my high hopes for him, but there is at
least a glimmer of hope right now that he's pitching
much better.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah, springs to So I didn't I don't have a
lot of this year.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I liked him a lot a couple of years ago,
like prior to the injury, and I just didn't feel
that confident kind of investing in him, you know, given
how little he'd pitched the last couple of years, and
that there are some question marks with the ballpark, But
I have always liked the pitcher himself when healthy. So, I,
you know, with someone on the same page with you,
I wasn't expecting borderline, sp one upside or anything like that.
(12:03):
But yeah, disappointing for him. What where would you rank
the rest of the season, like as an overall pictures, Yeah,
let's put up my rankings this se.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Where he is I mean, like, it's not he's not
someone I'm like banking on, Like he's probably he could
be a free agent in your league and that that
that means he's probably outside of the top.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Actually, that's what what is his roster percentage?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
I haven't had exactly one hundred right now?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
You have one hundred one hundred picture picture Yeah, yeah, okay,
I just want to assume that's what.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
You Yeah, yeah, okay. Who else do you have?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Easy one well document on this show, Mike Trout someone
I have rostered everywhere.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
No, you were in on my traut this year.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah, and I had no idea. I mean, it's an
L in the sense that it went poorly quickly, But
I mean that was the risk we knew.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
In the set that No, it is an L. The
direct reason that everybody was avoiding him. Happened that is
in l fair And when is he coming back, by
the way, no time here.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I'm sure they're making a lot of definitive statements about it.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Yeah, no timetable. He's got a booboo, but no timetable
for him to return from that boo boo. But again,
they were not concerned about it when it happened, which
to me, like I was watching the game when he left,
and I mean, maybe there's something I missed, And you know,
I look dumb for saying this, but and I know,
like you know, medical issues like bone bruises like don't
(13:44):
always like happen in the same way. But like he
left the game with a lower body injury and then
eventually it came out that it was like a bone bruise,
But like, I don't remember anything happening to him that
would like cause a bone It's not like he got
like drilled by a pitch and it was like so
bad that it caused a bone bruise. It was like,
oh he left with like so I'm like need discomfort
and there's just considering like a bone bruise and I
know there's other ways to get bone bruises, but like
(14:06):
that's concerning that, like there's nothing pointing to it. And
then they said they weren't concerned. And then he went
on the IL and they were like, oh, he should
be fine. And then like you know, we're now two
weeks in and he's like doing some light baseball activities.
I'm like, if this is just a bone bruise, what
are we doing here? And it's just like I posted
the other day, like this is very concerning that. There's
(14:27):
just like no information and it's like we've seen this
before with Mike Trout. It's like nothing. Burger turns into
like he's gone forever.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yeah, not great, Yeah, yeah, I mean that's straightforward.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
One's next.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah, And like you said before, I forget it was
a fun when you were on the show. When Kelly
was here. It was like almost like to the day
last year when he went down too, like at the
end of April, like the last day AVAIRIL. The other
one is very similar to your Devin Williams one. I
rarely go closer early, but in a few leagues this
year I wanted to kind of lock in a top
(15:02):
tier closer and thought that the price was right to
get Emmanuel class A, and that's gone even worse than
Devin Williams in some ways. I mean, the numbers are
technically not as bad as Devin Williams, but he already
lost the job like a couple weeks before Devin Williams,
and it's not clear if he's going to get it back,
in part because I think the Guardians have a couple
other good options in the late innings. I think the
(15:24):
plan is still to get him back and have him
be the closer, but uh boy, it is not going good.
He has four point nine to one era expect the
numbers are all much better, so there is like some
signs he's like turning this around.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
But I'm more confident in him kind of bouncing back
for the rest of the year than I am Devin Williams.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
You think, so, why why is it so some.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Of the expected numbers are better and like at the
very least like Devin Williams. You could say, like, well,
he's with a new team, a new ballpark, Like you
can point to things that changed that maybe are hampering
him for some reason, Like I don't know that that's
the case here. I mean, it's just he's just pitching
(16:07):
worse than I expected.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
So I will say Class I has like technically already
kind of gotten the job back. He has been converting
saved more recently. He is usable in some of those leagues,
and the numbers have been better over the last like week.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I invested heavily in our Fantasy pros Insiders Baseball league.
It's a head to head categories, and I decided to
go very very heavy on pitching, both starters and relievers,
and I have both of these, have both of our
relievers on where.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Well, at least Class A is like usable. Now you know,
maybe maybe taking the ls too early because he has
kind of like I was worried when he first lost
the job. They have Hunter Gaddis and they have I
forget the other reliever who actually got the job temporarily
ahead of a Hunter Gadus, But it was I was like, well,
he might just not get this Jop back. But he
has recently. He hasn't like looked that great, but he
(17:04):
has been atleast getting saved, so you can use him
in that way.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Yeah. Well, speaking of the Guardians, we are now giving
away a Jose Ramirez signed Guardians jersey courtesy of our
friends at Pristine auction dot com. All you have to
do to enter is to subscribe to the Fantasy pros
MLB YouTube channel right now, drop a comment below on
any video and that is it will be announcing one
lucky winner right here on the channel. So make sure
to turn on those notifications so you can know when
(17:29):
new videos are up and to claim your prize. Let's
go to our second topic here of rounding the bass
Mayor joseel Tuve.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Is he cooked? Is he washed? Is he finished?
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Being an elite Fantasy contributor. His ops is under seven
hundred right now, he is batting two fifty six. His
OBP is just three oh two. His slugging is three
sixty nine. He has four home runs and three stolen bases.
His and I don't know if you have looked at this,
I put it in the note. His stack cast data
(18:02):
is horrific.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
It is absolutely abysmal.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Fifth percent expect its fifth percentile, excuse me, expected wOBA
twelve percentile, expect to batting average, eleventh expected slugging, first percentile,
average activelosity.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
His average activelosity is eighty four point four miles an hour.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
He's also first percentile and sweet spot rate, his bat
speed is well, I mean it's all blue. His chase
rate is up, his barrel rate is down. I mean
it has just been really really abysmal.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Across the board. He is thirty five.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Now, is this a great longtime elite player taking that
step down?
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Do you see this as still early season? Small sample size?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
I mean, the underlying data is just so poor that
I don't know how you can have any confidence in
him at this age.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Yeah, this is almost another l I can take. Not
that I was heavily invested in him this year, but
I actually kind of predicted this downfall like two or
three years ago and ended up being like way too early,
just kind of banking on a player because you know,
he's very small, and just kind of like banking on
I didn't expect a player that small to kind of
(19:11):
age very gracefully, especially on like the power side, and
he had dealt with some lower body injuries. I was like, well,
if the speed kind of flounders and the power might
not be there, like how valuable iscy for fantasy? And
of course he's still been really good the last two
or three years. But now maybe it's because I do
have a couple shares of him. I didn't like aggressively
target in, but I do have him in a couple
(19:32):
of places, in part because I liked the idea of
where he was going and then he was going to
be outfield, infield, you know, like outfield, second base. Eligible
walk grade is fine, strike out right is about the same.
Bat in two fifty six is like well below. He's
a career three or five hitter. He's batting two fifty
six with an expected batting average that's thirty points lower
(19:53):
than that, So that's not great. The hard hit numbers
are about the same, swing strike is actually lower, barrel
percentage way down. So, like he said, there are some
like concerning underlying numbers there. And we've kind of talked
about the same thing with a Christian Walker, and like
Marcus Semon is like these are like much older players,
and it's it's hard to tell in the early in
(20:16):
the season. Is like you said, is this just a
small sample size, is it a slow start, or are
we seeing the cliff? Is this because just kind of
like the new like version of this player as they've gotten,
you know, they're in their mid thirties now.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
I don't know what the answer to that question is, honestly,
like if it is kind of the new normal with
Josel Tuve, or if it is you know, hey, this
guy's a star. We should have trusted him to figure
it out. I tend to lean towards the negative side
of that answer, and thinking that this is somebody that
I would sell low on, for example, if you can,
(20:51):
and I would not want to buy low on. I
mean again, like the numbers are all bad and the
expected data is worse. That's a pretty bad formula for
a guy in his mid thirties. And you know, we
shouldn't let the players of twenty years ago when steroids
were rampant, you know, color our perspective, Like, mid thirties
is a very reasonable time to fall off a cliff, right,
(21:13):
this is this is not unheard of physically, if if
that is in fact, what's happening. So and it's not
like that the Houston lineup is you know what it was,
and it's heyday either to kind of help bump him
up with some of the counting stats too. So yeah,
I mean, I I think it's a pretty sad thing
to watch. I mean, unless you hate the Astros, which
(21:33):
would be totally justified, but it's sad.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
If you have enjoyed watching al TV over the years.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Are you willing to buy low on him right now?
Speaker 1 (21:42):
I'm not. I mean he's he.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
I would pick him up if somebody dropped him, but like,
I'm not giving up anything. You know, I would trade
from our conversation last week, I would trade haave baias
for him, but like pretty much not much more than
that I want. I want nothing to do with all
two because the problem with All two a too is
if you have him, you're gonna start him like you
don't want to be the guy who sits out to
(22:05):
VA when he finally gets it going again, And so
every week he's just gonna be dragging you down unless
he really does figure it out. So like I would
buy him for the absolute barrassed minimum price, literally free.
Anything beyond that, no, I have no interest in.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Buying I it's kind of stats aren't.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
That bad, but his underlying stuff is even worse.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Right, but he hasn't killed you in your line up,
and he's still hit in two fifty four months, three
stolen bases. It's not that bad.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I mean, I have him in our head to head
points deep keeper league, and in that league he is
you know, if you look at the last several years,
his points per game in this format have been you know,
this is going back like a decade four and a half,
four and a half, three and a half four, two
and a half. That was twenty twenty four four four
(22:57):
and a half three. This year it's barely over two.
It's like, it's a pretty steep drop. And that's just
one scoring format, but it's a pretty steep drop. Yeah,
he's been caught stealing as many times as he's stolen
a base, Like the speed might not be there anymore.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
I mean, it's just.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah, his sprint speed is forty six percentile this year.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
What is it not?
Speaker 1 (23:19):
I don't know, Actually I'm looking, I'm.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
You know, but I mean usually he can get you
a handful of stolen basism like the pestles.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
I guess that's actually pretty normal in life for him, So.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
I take I take back that as a criticist. I mean,
the last couple of years at least, it's pretty normal,
like into his thirties. Earlier on it was different.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Of course, where do you think he is on Fantasy
Bro's VBR, Like overall, like, and I know that's a
difficult gauge. So like let's say above or below one fifty,
like tie players, hitters, top hitters.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
I would guess maybe in the like one thirty to
forty range.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Very close. You're getting warmer. You want to try and
get closer.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
One forty five. Ooh ah close?
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Uh yeah, I mean again, it's it's the counting sets
being down from usual coupled with the underlying SATs being
much much worse.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Do you want to buy him?
Speaker 3 (24:19):
I buy low?
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Okay, yeah, we see.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
That depends on what the price is. Like you know,
I'm always wanted to buy it by very low, but
I just think.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Yeah, like I said, I'll buy free, but I don't
want to buy low.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
But I figure if he was last year about it,
two ninety five twenty home onre twenty two stolen bases,
even if he bats like two sixty fifteen home runs
fifteen stolen bases, that's still very valuable to me.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
I don't know that he's going to get there, though.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
We'll see, We'll see.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yeah, we will see. Let's go to our news notes
and injuries. We can run through these quickly, so real quick.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Some of the Top News Shane mcclanahan's still feeling discomfort
in that pitching arm, with that nerve issue. Don't love that.
I've been kind of stashing him a couple of places,
and I feel like it might be times of just
kind of cut loose. It's uh if he's like not
even he just recently started throwing and he's immediately feeling discomfort.
We don't really have like it's a nerve issue. It's
(25:14):
like hard to kind of like it's you know, it's
not like a like a torn labor where you like
know he's done, or like a muscle strain where you
know it's going to be like a few weeks. We
don't really have a ton of infoto go on on
like a nerve issue. And you know, I'm if you've
still been stashing him. It's now mid May. You know,
are you I know you have him somewhere. Are you
just continuing to hold on?
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah? I don't.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yes, I mean it's easy enough to just stick him
on an il spot, and I haven't the places where
I have him, I haven't felt like I've really needed to.
You know, I just got a cut bait to make
a room for some other like hot shot call up
or something. So I've been comfortable just sitting on him
and hoping all about.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
In this scenario, I have him in TGFBI where there's
no il spots. It's a deep league, fifteen teams, five outfielders.
He's just been taking up a bench spot for me,
and it's not like there's a ton the great players available,
like you said on in Free Agencies that he's just
been sitting on my bench. But I don't know how
much longer I can just have an empty bench spot.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yeah, yeah, But I mean like that's the thing is
like who are you getting in it? Deeply? Like that,
who are.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
You picking up to replace him with? That has that
kind of upside, I'd rather just sit on the upside.
I mean, if there's a scenario where it's like you
desperately need to pick somebody up, like let's say you
have you know, let's see if Freddy Freeman and he
goes on the IL and you don't want to drop
Freddy Freeman, but you don't have a backup first basement,
he desperately need to pick him up, and there was
(26:40):
like somebody good on the on the waivers, like yeah, sure,
like a specific scenario like that, I'd be open to it,
but like in general, I'm not just looking to drop
him for the sake of having another bench spot, Like
I don't care, No, I don't care that much about
having one more bench spot if if whoever I pick
up is not even going to be really in contention
to start for me.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
How about this, what if would you rather stay Sean
McClanahan or Shane Bieber? And I can give you an
update on Shane Bieber. He uh just recently just started
like throwing off a mound. At least that he's still
a ways away from returning from Tommy John surgery. But
at least with him, I have hope that he could
be back in like a month, where say McClanahan just
(27:17):
might be a nothing.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I would probably rather be stashing McClanahan, But I mean,
obviously ideally it's neither her. But you know, but if
I'm if I'm keeping a bench spot for one of these.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Well what about in a league like that, Like, would
would you drop McLanahan for Bieber?
Speaker 2 (27:39):
I think I'd rather have McLanahan in that league because
I guys coming back from Tommy John. I'm like even
when they're back. I don't really have any expectations, like, like,
even when McClanahan returns, I'm kind of hoping that we'll
get something out of him.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Like Bieber, he could return and it could be like.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Just such a limited role that it doesn't really matter anyway.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Fair, Okay, so we can go quickly. Tanner Hawk allowed
eleven earned runs for the second time this year.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Is that pulling a Hawk or is that pulling an
Aaron Nola?
Speaker 3 (28:11):
That's true. He got off to like a decent start
and then he got shelled for eleven earned runs, and
then he looked kind of good and people picked them
back up and he hurt them again. So it's kind
of brutal that, especially in like if you think about
it in like Rodo terms, you probably rostered. How you
give up eleven earned runs. You dropped him, missed his
(28:32):
good starts, and then if you picked him up again,
you got hit with eleven earned runs again. So there
are probably people out there that have like missed his
two or three good starts and just have twenty two
earned runs on the books thanks to Tanner Hawk. Lucas Giolito,
I don't know what to make of him. He had
a good start, a really bad start, and then another
good start. I've seen a lot of optimism for him
in this space. I kind of don't see it when
(28:56):
I want, Like, something just looks off to me, even
I was listening to another show I think it was
the CBS Guys recently where they talked about him looking
better and his vlos as fastball is up. His los
ages fastball was up, but I was watching the game
he was also really struggling to locate it, which tells
me he was maybe overthrowing to kind of get that
velocity backup, and he just didn't look that sharp to
(29:17):
me despite the good numbers. One of the bigger news
items is the Dodgers are calling up catching prospect Dalton Rushing,
and the more important thing is it sounds like he could.
He's a very top you know, he's a very highly
rated prospect. He's like maybe their top prospect. And the
good thing there is that he's a catching prospect but
should be in the lineup in other ways, Like he
(29:37):
can play a little first base, he can play a
little outfield, and so there's a chance he's not just
the backup to Will Smith. He's someone who's in the
lineup several times a week.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
So I saw I thought I saw a quote from
the Dodgers that they were thinking he was going to
catch twice a week and then like kind of find
other at bats elsewhere. I didn't come away from that
quote thinking like it was going to be enough to
be like worth starting in fantasy?
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Did you kind of re that differently?
Speaker 3 (30:01):
I read it as he's going to get enough opportunities,
and I think he's a good enough prospect where if
he hits, he'll be in the lineup more. And they
have enough injuries and enough opportunities. I mean, grant Hi
once they get healthy. If he hasn't been hitting, he's gone.
But for me, especially in like a two catcher league,
if you know you can get a prospect a catcher,
and even in one catcher league, if you're can to
(30:21):
afford to like kind of stash him, I do think
he's a really good prospect. He's a really good hitter,
and you know he can find his way into the
lineup in other ways, especially because like Freddy Freeman is
incredibly hot right now. But it also like there was
a report that he gets like like an hour or
more of treatment on his ankle every day, so like
he's just like scraping scraping it together, like health wise,
(30:44):
and like he's the kind of player who if they
have like one more injury, he could be an everyday
player at the catcher position. Bryce Miller to the IL.
He's another player I considered for like taking the l on.
I wasn't like historically high on Bryce Miller, but I
have a ton of shares of him this year because
I liked where the price was going. So he has
not looked good and he has gone to the IL.
(31:06):
Jose Katana everyone was worried about, you know, holding the
bag and he turns back into Jose Katana, but apparently
he's just going to the IL. He had a shoulder
issue and then they said he was fine, he was
gonna start Saturday, and now he's going to the IL.
So like not a huge name for Fantasy, but someone
that we've talked about on the show a bunch recently.
That's someone where we've been streaming because he just keeps
pitching well. Ronald Lacune began a rehab assignment and is
(31:27):
playing the outfield, So I was kind of hoping that happened,
Like two or three weeks ago, but it's happening now,
and so that's very exciting, especially if someone who's stashing
him and Spencer Streider recently threw a SIM game and
could be returning as early as this week. It hasn't
been decided yet, maybe by the by this weekend, we'll
know more if he's going to go in a rehab
assignment or just kind of come right back to the braves.
(31:49):
It's it did sound or like, actually, you know, I
read it, So I will say that I read that
he his velocity started out fine in a SIM game
that he threw, but as he went on, the velocity
kind of dipped a little bit, which I think can
be pretty normal for someone, you know, working their way back.
But you know, it is something worth noting that they
(32:09):
might have seen that kind of fatigue, you know, because
they didn't seem like they were concerned for like injured reasons.
They just thought, you know, he needed to work back
into the game shape. But worth noting that a velocity
was down. So it's possible they send him back out
for a rehab assignment, but he could return as early
as this week. I've seen some sites projecting him to
start as early as Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Last topic here on Round on the Base is I
don't have a ton on this, but I did think
it was worth mentioning just because it's a big story
in baseball. Pete Rose and Shulis Joe Jackson.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
What's that? So it's a hot topic, sor. I didn't
mean to direct you, but yeah, highly debated in the
space right now.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Yeah, Pete Rose and Sheilas Joe Jackson now eligible for
the Hall of Fame. They've been kind of reinstated into baseball.
The line of thinking from Manfred was this is a
lifetime ban. You know, these guys are obviously no longer
with us, some more recently than others, and you know
they're now kind of eligible. And I didn't really know.
(33:07):
I didn't, like, have a ton of strong feelings, but
I expected to have a ton of strong feelings about it.
I have somebody who tends to care about the Hall
of Fame and the history of the sport and.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Think about this stuff a lot.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
But as I sat down to think, like what do
I actually want to say about this on the show,
I really didn't have much. I'm kind of curious what
your opinion is. I don't find myself feeling strong like
I do think it's kind of crappy to like punish
a guy for his whole life and then when he's
gone and be like, Okay, well now you'll get the
you know, the benefit and the value of being enshrined
(33:38):
in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
That's my take.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
That it's crappy to wait until they're gone.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
But at the same time, like Pete Rose like a
Hall of Fame player, yes, but like even aside from
the gambling, like the by all accounts isn't wasn't a
great person. So like it's also hard for me to
feel too like zimpthetic for somebody like who you you know,
maybe doesn't carry himself in that kind of hall of
fame way. Now, there's a lot of like bad people
in the Hall of Fame, so I'm not saying that
(34:07):
should be like a disqualifying thing, but you know, it
was hard for me to get up in arms about it,
I guess, and frankly, like obviously, like I'm aware of
who shoeless Joe Jackson is, and like the scandal from
back then, but that was long going to ago that
like it's not like I have all the details on
that kind of story or anything like that. So like
the ultimately, well, yeah, so like that one's like a
weird one even like weigh in on and like have
(34:27):
a strong strong opinion about. But like Pete Rose one
is like, yeah, I think it's kind of like a
crappy way to do it by Major League Baseball, But ultimately,
like I don't feel that strongly either way, Like, and
it's not like he's in the Hall of Fame, like
he still needs to get voted in by the writers,
and I genuinely don't know like what they're going to
do with that.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Yeah, I'm pretty similar in that I didn't have like
very strong feelings. I saw a lot of very strong feelings,
like it's ridiculous that they even consider this. I think
it's in a different bucket than the steroid guys who,
like I'm you know, I'm pretty on board with with
not letting some of them in just because like what
they did directly resulted in their numbers, and so it's
kind of hard to be like, hey, like you were
(35:03):
one of our best players, but also like you were
a robot because you cheated.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Are you just very quickly? Are you I don't think
we've ever talked about this. Are you somebody who thinks
that Barry Bonds shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
I have very complicated feelings about that. I'm like I
could go either way. I mean, like, on one hand,
like he very clearly did steroids, but on the other hand,
like he never he kind of never got caught, like
he never actually like there's no proof they did steroids,
so like it's kind of like catching.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
He also was a Hall of Famer before steroids.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Right, Let's let's let's save Barry Bod's well a week
where we don't have a ton of great topics.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Let's let's do Barry Bonds in a future. I was
just curious, but yeah, Pete Rose.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Yeah, in this case, I like I thought it was like,
you know, you're either going to take a stance and
not let him in the Hall of Fame or make
him eligible, or like, if you're gonna do it, doable.
He's alive. Like they waited until he died and they're like,
all right, now he can be in the Hall of Fame.
And I'm like, all right, Like that's kind of crappy.
And I've seen some players. Some people talk on the
space like you know, like if you're permanently ineligible, like
(36:06):
how are you like eligible now? And I'm like I
feel like, you know, for like in the case of
like serless Joe Jackson, like all right, like you're not
permanently ineligible, but like maybe seventy years after you die
you can get into the Hall of Fame. Like is
that a harsh enough punishment for what you did? Which,
like for his scandal that you know, like that's a
big one. Like they threw the World Series. Yeah, there's
(36:27):
no real evidence that he did, because his numbers are
really good in that World series and he was kind
of like a not very smart guy apparently, so there
are theories out there that like he wasn't in on
it even though he kind of knew and was like
still playing as hard as as they forget what the
numbers are, but he batted over three hundred but no
errors in that game, yeah, or in that series, but
like you kind of get it, like okay, like this
(36:49):
is a major thing. You can't throw a world series
and then get into the get into the Hall of Fame.
But the Pete Rose one was like it's been debated
for like decades, and he's kind of gone back and
forth with like multiple commissioners like in baseball, and it
seemed like at one point it almost felt like it
was like me dealing with my son, where they were
like just say sorry, I'm in the Hall of Fame,
and he was like no, no, I refuse, And it
(37:12):
almost seemed like, like you said, like if he carried
himself better and was like more apologetic and like worked
with Major League Baseball, he probably would have gotten in.
But he just kind of acted like a jerk about it.
But I do think it's kind of weird that they
were like okay, like you're not getting in the Hall
of Fame, and then you die and they're like okay,
maybe now.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Yeah, Like like I guess, yeah, I guess that's my thoughts.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Like if you want to dig your heels in and
say Piros will never be in the Hall of Fame,
I can understand that, thinking like, at the end of
the day, it is a museum and it's really hard
to tell the story of Major League Baseball with that.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
It's a woll time hits leader.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
So like I I tend to be on the side
of letting people in as long as they're on field,
play warranted. I'm a pretty small hall guy in terms
of the performance threshold you need to get in, but
I'm a big hall guy in terms of there's stuff
around that because it is a museum at the end
(38:02):
of the day. But if you want to like take
a hard stance on it, I'm okay with that. It
just feels kind of cruel to say, well, now that
he's dead, we're gonna lift this, like honestly, like at
the end of the day, like it doesn't matter that much, right,
Like it's like life is short, right, We're we're gonna
(38:26):
get to kind of celebrate this fun, silly game in
a really meaningful way. And I love it and I
take it very seriously. By the end of the day,
it is just a game, and you're gonna like punish
a guy who like basically gave his whole life to
this sport, and the punish him in a way that says,
we will give this to you, but not when you
(38:46):
are around to recognize and enjoy it. It just feels
kind of harsh. Like again, it feels harsher to do this.
Then it would be to just never let him in.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
Yeah, it's it's an odd move from an odd commissioner
who I don't I agree with them.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
That is also another conversation for another episode is our
thoughts on Manfred. All right, well, we'll go ahead and
wrap up this on that. Be sure to check out
our other episodes of the cycle. This week, We've got
two more coming your way. We've got some buys and sells,
some waiver picks, some pitching streamers, all that good stuff
as per usual.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
That's both on video and on audio. Before this episode.
For mayor, I'm Brian Warmley. Thanks for tuning in. We'll
see again next time.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Baseball podcast.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
If you love the show, the best freeway to support
us is by leaving a positive review on Apple
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Podcasts or Spotify, follow us on x, Instagram, and TikTok
at Fantasy Pros, and subscribe to our YouTube channel at
YouTube dot com slash Fantasy Pros MLB
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