Episode 789 - Week of April 7th - In This League Fantasy Baseball

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the in This League Fantasy Podcast network, In
This League Fantessey Baseball podcast online at in this League
dot com. Now here's your host, Bogman and the Welsh.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
What's up, Friendoz, and welcome in. It's the in This
League Fantasy Baseball podcast on the Welsh. That's the Bogman.
We're here today to break down some stuff and things,
some of the latest news going into this brand new
week whatever you call it. I call it week three
right now, but it's all good for week three of
the Fantasy baseball season or two. We're gonna be breaking
down the latest news. We are going to be talking

(00:39):
about the biggest changes. So we talked in the last
episode about some of the stat cast leader boards. Well
we got some updates on finally from the biggest differentials
year over year, so hard to hit the year of
a year, fastball velocity, that type of stuff, very short
sample sizes, but it's not a bad thing to take
a look at. So Bogman and I will be doing

(01:00):
that here on today's episode.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
Fourteen years is a long time, well, she fourteen years
is a long time. That's longer than itl has existed
and we've been around for a long time, and.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Eleven years that is longer than my son either my
kids have been alive. That is longer than it's existence.
And that is Vladimir Guerrero's new home in Canada, the
true regardless of the trade wars, baseball gets Vladimir Guerrera
and Guerrero in Canada signing a five hundred million dollars deal.

(01:36):
Little part of me felt like, was there a little
bit of money left on the table by the way,
you know what I'm saying, Like, I know it's a
lot of money, no doubt, But.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
I don't know the point when he didn't even sniff
what Soto got. Yeah, maybe a little.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, it didn't sniff that. There's also, like I guess
there's always the underlying like advertising things like if he
had gone to Boston, what type of maybe advertising opportunities
would have been there. But you know what, the Toronto
Blue Jays or his home. I it's crazy. This, this
is a full throttle moment bogs because you know, as
someone I've been around minor league baseball for so long,

(02:12):
I have a vivid memory of watching him in surprise
he had never had a major league at bat.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
I remember watching him at the triple in the Fall
Stars game.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, he hit it a million miles per hour. I
remember my kid. I think I've told this story. It was,
you know, very tiny, and he like accidentally went up
to the side of the dugout and like called for
during a game, called for Vladdie to sign a card
for him, and then like he kind of walked away
and he was like oh, and I was like, oh, dude, no,
the game's going on. And then Carlos Hernandez with the

(02:43):
Royals yells to him, calls him to come over. I
think it was Carlos Hernandez and Vadi was at the
edge of the dugout and waved him over and then
he signed my kid's card, and he was just like
he's like a sweet kid. He was always nice. I
saw him before he was a major leaguer, and now
he's worth half a billion dollars.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
And he's locked up until he's forty years old.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, that's his career. He's finishing that his whole career.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Yeah. Yeah, I mean that is Uh. Are these super
long deals going to become a thing? I mean, fifteen
for Soto, fourteen for Blat, I mean I just I
don't know. Like, maybe it's because I have commitment issues obviously,
but fourteen years seems like too long.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
I think it's all bad for fastball. No, I think
it's all I think arbitrational contracts are bad for baseball.
That was a Christian Campbell signs an eight year, sixty
million dollar deal. I think ten.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
They say the Merril deal, like the Players Association was
asking begging him not to sign that.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, because they think he could get more on the
open market. But it's got a lot of incentive based stuff.
I think it's bad. I mean, this is my personal take.
I think a lot of people are like, hey, you
want to be for the player and all that type
of stuff, and I don't disagree, but from a like
and maybe it's because we're like football guys and stuff
too when you look at how other sports work, Like,

(04:13):
maybe I don't need three year contracts in that type
of parody, but I don't think it's a bad thing
to have, like a salary cap. I don't think it's
a bad thing to not have fifteen year contracts or whatever.
So there is some potential parody with these guys. I
just don't personally like it, but it also doesn't affect
me where like I would go and subtweet accounts about

(04:36):
how mad I am and how it's ruining baseball and
create some burner accounts, you know, like I don't care enough,
like if I have a podcast, so I can sit
here and be like I think it's kind of stupid,
but good for Canada if any place needed it, well
it's a Canada. Toronto. Good for Toronto because no one
wanted to go play there. They weren't getting free agents.

(04:57):
They just kept leaving. I mean, I suppose they got Santandeer,
but you know, they they needed something to build around
to get people to stay. And maybe they maybe part
of the problem was it was like they didn't have
a guy like Vlad locked up and who would want
to go there and sign five years if Ladd was
going to become a free agent and gone in a
year or two. So now you have this commitment, so

(05:19):
outside of everything else, he's locked down, baby, And we'll
see what they end up doing, man, because Bobachhet might
be testing free agency. Maybe Vlad will bring in. But dude,
there was that You remember seeing that photo like a
year ago or six months ago or whatever it was,
and it was like the Big three, and it was
like a Red Sox photo of Devers, Soto and Vlad

(05:41):
Guerrero Junior. And now it looks embarrassingly, embarrassingly stupid because
it's like Devers might get traded and they're all gone.
Like the hopes of the Red Sox of getting any
of those guys is done. Because Laddie is a Blue
Jay four life.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Maybe you'll go down hilarious that the Mets fans were
all cheering Vlad the whole weekend and after that weekend
he signs the big extension. Hilarious, I know.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
And he hates the Yankees. Remember that Yankee thing too?
That was super fun. So that is the biggest piece
of news that is floating out there. But we're going
to go through some of the debuts. We've got a
lot of injury stuff that's happening out there. Unfortunately, we're
going to go through my sheet. I post a sheet
now on this one's like a tiny bit late because
I was gone all Sunday between Sunday and Monday, and

(06:27):
I'm actually making some updates to it in the next
twenty four hours where I list the top twenty five
prospects to stash or watch and redraft. I do two
start pitchers that I'm interested in. Pickups under forty percent,
I got a top ten, and a deeper pickups under
fifteen percent. I got a top five, And then I'm
adding some other things players that I'm trading for, then
I'm selling, and things I'm watching. We're gonna go through

(06:49):
that sheet, but we're gonna mainly look at some of
the pickups that I put under there. And bogn put
together a great sheet of some of the biggest year
over year changes from hard hit batspeed v. Those type
of things. And I was having a I had a
conversation with my friend Dennis Hidler Sidsgrafs today. We were
talking on the phone and we were talking about early
season stuff. We actually talked about devers specifically and how

(07:12):
like you have to balance and how I look to
balance early production versus even early underlying stats, and like
maybe something like that speed might feel a little bit
more sticky to a problem. But you also got sample size,
which is too much of them. So it's like, you know,
you go and look at batting average a week in lol,
you go and look at you know, expected batting average

(07:36):
or something like that babbit lol first week. But then
you go and look at underlying stuff and you're like, oh,
the bat speed is down and the swing got a
little bit longer, Like oh, that's actually a little bit
more tangible. But you're still when you're in a weak
standpoint like maybe he's work. It's still too early to
use that underlying data to quantify that these guys are
complete garbage. So that's the balance of any of this.

Speaker 3 (07:59):
Also, this is the second year we've collected you know,
bat speed data from day one, right, like it's always
been collected on the back end, but they haven't shown
it to us immediately. So Armies, well, let's see if
there is a trend of the bat speed getting faster,
you know, when the weather warms up, just like v
low does on pitches. So that's kind of that's kind

(08:23):
of something to balance as well. It is like, you know,
we know that velocity. Once these guys get a couple
of innings on their arm, it's a little bit more loose.
The weather warms up, the ball travels a little bit faster, right,
so the miles per hour go a little bit up.
I wonder if there's something similar with bat speed totally,
but you know it also seen year over year over
year results of that.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yet to your point, we just had snow games, like
the Tigers just played in like a snow game and
the Rockets played Yeah, you got these flurry snow games.
Also to that same point, as it's like how sticky
early on is bat speed from a week to a month,
Like we know right now Devers was like one point
seven bat speeds slower. What's that going to look like

(09:03):
in a month?

Speaker 3 (09:04):
You know?

Speaker 2 (09:04):
Did he need some ramp up time? Did weather play
in effect?

Speaker 3 (09:07):
So yeah, and by the way, some guys are slowing
down the batspeed and having better results.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
I think that's not the be all end all.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
Ah yeah, like people.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Are making changes and that, but those are the things
that we're looking for. But is really being able to
pinpoint some of the changes that are floating out there
right now while understanding the sample sizes. So that's what
we're gonna look at. We're gonna look at just some
of the more significant even though on the pitching side,
fastball increases versus decreases can mean a lot more. And

(09:35):
we're gonna look at like with uh risers and stuff.
So we got a bunch of cool stuff that I'm
looking forward to doing in there. You guys want to
support the boys, go to in this League dot com.
That is the Patreon in this League dot Com. You
can check out that sheet I was talking about. We've
got a Prospect Update and Dynasty update coming next week.
I wanted a full week of the minor league season
in before I made any of the official changes. But

(09:57):
we're gonna have the big prospect in Dynasty update in
April happening next week, which would be pretty fun. We
got the sheet, I got live streams. I pushed the
Monday one. I'm gonna do Tuesday Thursday this week. That
allowed me, by the way, hand up allowed me to
go to extended spring training for the Diamondbacks that opened up.
I got to see some dudes. I actually saw one
guy that's injured that we'll talk about here in a second.

(10:21):
But I got to go down there and that kind
of cost me it. So we're gonna attempt to do
a later Tuesday stream and then we'll do the Thursday stream.
Thursday's part of it is only for Patreon, but you
can also hang out on the Twitch. Follow me is
it the Welsh on Twitter for all the happenings, but
I do post all the live streams directly to patreons,
so you can have your own stream, or you gotta

(10:42):
join me at Twitch dot tv slash in this league.
Hopefully you guys do. We've got some really cool raffles.
We did some in person autograph mystery things, trying to
make it fun, talking bets, breaking down everything, live breakdowns,
and answering your questions. So hopefully you joined me there
Twitch dot tv slash in this league, or if you're
on our Patreon, we got you covered. Thank you guys
for being so wonderful and supporting as always, and please

(11:04):
continue to do so. We will love you very very much.
That player, by the way, I saw kateel Marte today.
I saw him at the facility leaving as I got there.
And do you know how I know that because he
has the most flashiest car I've ever seen. You look
and you're like, that looks like the car of someone
that just signed one hundred million dollars.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
Blue or green, Lambeau or something that's it's a light blue.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
It's like a g wagon. It's like a big old
g wa.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
I've seen it.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I saw it leaving and I
was like, oh, Katel is here, So Kateel is there.
When I was out there scouting JD. Dix, who I
think is going to be a big old future prospect,
contain yourself, bog As the tricks he's going to do
really well. I saw Christian Pache of all the things though,

(11:53):
that made me laugh. Christian Remember Christian Pache. Yeah he's alive, okay,
rarely just playing in next into spring training is hitting five? Well,
you're gonna make a note there was there a JD
joke in there. No, okay, but I got to go
do that, so that cost it. But I'm gonna be

(12:13):
doing two weekly live streams, so come and hang out.
But Katl they said, was weeks not days away, and
just like you can't script it more ridiculous, he signs
an extension to I don't know if you you can't
call it a Diamondback for life. But it's like six
more years and he's already most of the rest of
his career. I would say, the majority of his career

(12:34):
that matters. He's gonna go and he's gonna go down
as one of the best Diamondbacks of all time. So
if he plays again, if he ever plays again, but
they said it is weeks, not necessarily days with the
hamstring injury, which is brutal. And you know, hat tip
to Tim Tawa, but I can't.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Why do you say his name so angry?

Speaker 2 (12:53):
Well, like good for him for all the stuff, but
all the things about Jordan Lawler was second base that
night he was playing that that Katel got hurt. He
was playing second base. He wasn't light in the world up,
but he was hitting like two fifty or something like
maybe he's hitting two nineties.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
Just because he's hitting like three ninety one, he has
more options righter.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
I don't think he has more options. He deserved it, like,
but that is like a super util guy. My point
to it is like if Jordan Lawler has a real
future on this team, and they're like, hey, you know
he will when he's ready, he'll push up and all
that type of stuff. We're saying with Katel down, which
maybe could be a month, we're just still not ready.
We're gonna we're gonna roll out Garrett Hampson and Tim

(13:37):
Tawa for the I don't know, get rid of Garrett
Hampson and give me both Taua and and Lawler. Give
me both of those guys and let them platoon a bit.
But I don't get oh.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
I have options. By the way, he has three now
and Lawler had two. I think that's part of the
reason why two is still plenty.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Like when when is going to get up That guy
debuted in like two twenty three and it is twenty
twenty five. Guess what, I think. He's still rookie eligible.
He's still rookie. He's still on my thinks the roster.
I don't know, no he is. He is still on
my prospect list. He has one. He has thirty one

(14:18):
at bats in his career. Thirty one at bats. You
got to remember when the playoff games don't count. Twenty
twenty three made his debut. So I just don't understand.
I understand tahwah blah blah blah. Everyone's having fun with it.
But it's like, if Jordan Lawler's gonna be the future,
let's let him get up here and like work through
some of it. He only debuted two years ago. But

(14:40):
I digress to tell Marte. Hopefully back pretty soon we
will see Blake Snell placed on the iah with left
shoulder inflammation, no structural damage. Is it whatever an all good?
Or is it panic time? Joe seemed super panicky about it.
I'm a little bit like, this is just kind of
what Blake Snell does. He sucks in some capacity. The

(15:01):
shoulder inflammation, I guess is never good. But I guess
it's better than Nester Cortez going to get a second
opinion on his elbow.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
Yeah. I mean, if they found no structural damage, that
is good. But you know, the two years in a
row now something at the beginning of the season with
Blake Snell, so that kind of sucks.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Is this like I told you?

Speaker 3 (15:19):
So?

Speaker 2 (15:19):
Are you just like, oh, if I have Blake Snell,
maybe we need to get out.

Speaker 3 (15:26):
I still think having Blake Snell in LA is a
good thing. So if there's no structural damage, I think
I'm okay waiting it's it just stinks. It's just not good.
You give my Jordan Field joke, get out, get out? Yes, yes, okay,
that's what it was.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
It's always good. We have to explain it. So there
you go. Blake Snell, I l pretty brutal. I also mentioned,
h I guess since we're doing injury, let's just actually
play out through some of the injuries here I mentioned
Nestor Cortes placed on the ile with left elbow strain.
And there's a report out today that we see King
a second opinion, and like I said, that never goes well,

(16:03):
there's usually never a good ending to that.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
And Jesus, what is going on with the Brewers rotation
right now? Right? Everybody's hurt. They just trade for Quinn Priester, right,
they gave.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
Up a lot for Quinn Priest too. They gave up
Yo free Rodriguez is a really good prospect with the Brewers,
a free and you know, YO free Affrey whatever. And
then they also gave up a competitive balance a pick
that's like a first round pick just.

Speaker 3 (16:27):
For question an A. I thought it was cash, no.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Competitive balance, a pick and like a player to be
named later.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
It's desperate. They're desperate. Look at all those guys that
are on the the I l it's like their whole
pitching staff.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah, but here's what's really goofy about it, and it
maybe tells you the state of their like minor league system.
They got Logan Henderson. Logan Henderson was fine for a job,
but the dude, I think has walked like eight batters
in his two starts in the minors. He just walked
like five or six. You got Jacob Mizerowski. They're still
stretching him out. He's still a little walk heavy. But

(16:59):
those two are legit, legit rotation options, but they refuse
to go to them right now. They're not opening up
that can.

Speaker 3 (17:05):
I think they would if the Myers should be back
like the end of the month, right like it's not,
but they have to have a holdover.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
Maybe that's why they're doing this, but not.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
Like a go deep into the game most of the time.
I know he's already got an eight in game, but
that's not what you want out of him most of
the time. That's not what you expect. So yeah, it's
just I think it's just desperation for them. I was
told to not look at it, and I didn't. Victor
Revlis crashed into the netting in San Francisco. We found
out he suffered a dislocated shoulder. But Jesse Severe Dynasty

(17:40):
Life put in the IL group me room, he added
me and he said.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
Do not look at this Welsh. So I refuse to
look at it.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
But I am told, like Willis mcgahey level. But it's
not you know, it doesn't look great.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
It's not gonna make me feel good, just makes me queezy.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah, I don't know if it'll make you. I don't
even know if it even make you queasy. But it's
not great. You know what's funny was well, it's not funny.
But the night before this, Victor Roeblis made like a
front diving catch where he landed straight on his chest
and I think knocked all the wind out of him.
I thought he hurt himself again. And then I was
at dinner and our guy John text me, It's like, dude,

(18:20):
Robliss just did it again, but this one looks real bad.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah, I mean he's gonna be He's gonna spend some
time out here. Dislocated shoulder. I don't know what the
timeline would imagine like a month, that's a.

Speaker 3 (18:31):
Month, probably more like two months if if it's dislocated shoulder.
I mean, do you think about all the tork you're
putting on that when you bat, when you throw all that?

Speaker 2 (18:41):
So you know, the spencer torque. Let's see if they
said I don't think they said any Oh god, the
video just popped up and I just it just has
left shoulder dislocation. I got away like just before, so
they didn't say anything out. Everyone's calling it the best
catch of the year.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
Two.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
I can't want it. I can't do it. It makes
me watch it.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
I don't think it's going to be that bad bad
injuries like see you live reaction though, let's get it.
I'm telling you, I don't think I saw it. Now.
Look I didn't watch it, you know, with great concentration,
and you.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
Watch it real quick, and then I want to see
your reaction before I react. A right all rightside VI
in the Twitter machine, not the Google machine.

Speaker 3 (19:22):
I'm on Twitter. It's coming up. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
Anytime I ever tell Bogman to search something, he's like,
I don't see it in Google, and I'm like, damn it, twitters, so.

Speaker 3 (19:33):
Watch my My fingers aren't seven thousand feet long like here,
so I don't Someone someone said Victor Roblist jumping into
the vet the net and with the.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
Oh, your mic went out, Hold on what I can't It's.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
Okay, okay, it's not that bad. Uh. You can see
him hyper extended that that's what it is. But it's
not like you can't see bone.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
You don't watch replay, should on replay again?

Speaker 3 (20:02):
I just closed it out because you couldn't hear me.
So it's not that bad. It's not great, but it's
not the worst thing you've ever seen. I don't think
I should watch it, all right, it will not I'm
gonna watch it. You just see his shoulder all right
over extend He caught it. Oh oh, I've sent you

(20:28):
worse things than that.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
Oh it bent.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
Yeah, hyper extended. That's what hyper extending is.

Speaker 2 (20:36):
Oh, get it away. It's still replaying. God, that's what
I hate about Twitter. All Right, that's not good. He's
gonna be out a while. I'll probably see him how to,
probably play in rookie ball.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
But I mean just hopefully he doesn't need shoulder surgery.
That's you know, dislocation. Pop it back in muscles, you know,
the swelling comes down and your back in not like hey,
you pop something out.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
Or he didn't.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
He literally, but now you know what I mean, Dick.
I'm not a I'm not a doctor here obviously, but
I mean, like, nothing that you need surgery for. Hopefully
he comes back clean to that. But then you just
have no idea how long it's gonna take for those
muscles to you know, not be inflamed anymore, because that's

(21:21):
that was ugly looking.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah, no, I I didn't like that at all. That
was a that was a bad look, and he's gonna
miss some time. Stolen bases, Victor Scott would obviously be
the number one to go to. Zach Vine would be another.
Actually I don't know if we have it on here
in Big News or actually we do have it on here.
We'll talk about Zach Vine and everything, but he was
called up stolen bases, Victor Scott would be number one.

(21:43):
Zach Vine would be a really good replacement. I would.
I l Victor Roblis if you can, though, Ivan Herrera
just after just being an absolute monster knee injury, this
is gonna miss a month, so he's gonna miss significant time.
I gotta be honest with you, I'm not sure at
the il spots, you just sure you throw them on there.
But if it's a cost of a bench spot, it's not,

(22:05):
it's not gonna be worth it, and a too catcher
it is. But in a single catchers.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
He's out a month. They just said at least four weeks, so.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, it could be longer. So I just don't think
you can go too much further with that. Some other
out there right now too, Yeah, exactly, some smaller stuff.
C J. Abrams is not in the lineup on Monday.
Was that an injury thing?

Speaker 3 (22:25):
Yeah, he got scratched, so.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
Okay, watch out. Oh maybe it was out late with Abrams.
Some of those Diamondbacks like to gamble. I saw my
buddy Well, probably shuldn't say this. It's not a big deal,
but many Arizona based athletes have been known to gamble
out here. We have casinos. We have a very prominent
casino that's right across from Salt River Fields. And my

(22:49):
buddy wash this is right at the end of spring training,
like right at the end, and he spent a night
at Talking Stick, just chilling. And he looked and he
sends me a picture. He goes, Coudtel's out here playing Roulette.
It just could tell a big high roller table just
playing Roulette, just out there, gamblings. These dudes, they love

(23:09):
to gamble. Not great for CJ. Abrams, just saying, not
that he was out here in Washington, but we don't know.
Matt McLain was scratched on Saturday, with a tight left hamstring,
didn't play Sunday and is not in the lineup today,
so that is going to be something to watch. Horry
Plank was dealing with soreness in his left knee, Andrew
pennintend he left Sunday with an abductor injury. God, that's bad.

(23:30):
We got Josh Young starting rehab assignment on Saturday for
his neck injury, and Clark Schmidt started a rehab assignment
as well. Any of those injuries jump out to you
anything you want to note.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
I mean, just the nets one looks really bad. I
think it looks like Robless is gonna miss an extending
period of time. And McLean is kind of difficult because
you know, you and I were questioning him coming into
the year. But it was the shoulder. It wasn't this hamstring. String.
Isn't that what they said? It was hamstring for him?
For who? Yeah, for McClain, Oh yeah, yeah yeah. So

(24:04):
it's just it's just another thing. And there's Otani tying
the game, uh as we sit here. But yeah, I
think McClain is the only one. Everybody else you kind
of seem to know what it is, or they're not
good enough to keep around on your roster if they're
hurt anyway. So McLain is the one that I'm kind
of worrying about, like this is going to be a
prolonged thing because we know hamstrings can be bad. It

(24:25):
looks like Kittel is probably gonna miss what a month?

Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, this had weeks if not, so yeah, I don't
know what that's gonna end up looking like I wish I.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
Would, I mean do at least so probably for.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
Sean Murphy was activated from the IL, so he's gonna
be back in the lineups, pushing Drake uh Drake Baldwin
a little bit. Ronald Kune is meeting with doctors to
start a running program soon, so that's positive. It's good
to hear something because you're supposed to come back in May.
Even better though, Strider is gonna have another rehab start
on Thursday, and I.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
Would have pitches in his last one. That's got it.
This has gotta be it, This is it.

Speaker 2 (24:59):
So I think he will be activated next week, which
would be like a really big positive that he's going
to be back out there. So yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Shohio Tani also on the injury side through a twenty
six pitch bullpen on Saturday, so inching closer into being,
you know, pitching eligible for every league. But Yahoo, when
you have to have him as a he's weird.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
How we got reports that he was going to pitch
in the World Series last year and he just got
to his twenty six pitch bullpen recently, So okay.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
Things happen, my friend, some breakdowns of some stuff. I
mentioned it. Zach Veen got the call up. Dude, I
don't know what to do with the Rockies. I didn't
even put him on like my prospect redraft list right now,
because dude, they went out of their way to go
and sign Mickey Moniac and they had Jordan Beck, and
they just had like all these dudes, and they even

(25:50):
have these like pseudo dudes, like totally on Bryant but
I know, like that's util in first base. But they
had all these dudes and then they just said screw Beck,
and then they made some other out and then they
brought up They brought up Zach Vien and it looks
like he's going to get regular playing time.

Speaker 3 (26:05):
But you mentioned this on leading off that he was
brought up in the time frame, because what is it Wednesday?
Or Thursday is the last day to get your rookie
up to be eligible for that pit compensation should they
win Rookie of the Year. Correct, yeah, PPI.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
It's like the first two weeks of the season, I
had mentioned my buddy back. He did a good tweet.
I like this tweet. I didn't mention this on the show.
I gave him credit for like putting out some of
the info, but he was like, here are some prospects
to pay attention to. I think it's just kind of
like whatever, Like you can pay attention to lots of guys.
I don't know if a team is going to really

(26:41):
wait down the wire, but there is this extra little advantage,
especially if you can get a week of views and
you can just come to a quick determination. If you
bring the guy up, you're putting that guy in a
position where you can get extra pit compensation. So the
Rockies are doing that. I speculated that. I don't know
how they would do. I just think the A's should

(27:01):
consider doing that with Nick Kurtz, he's a fricking monster
right now. The Pirates already seem to be out of
it with Bubba Chandler because he's on a pitch limit,
so I don't think he's going to be eligible. So
it's just like it's kind of open still, Like Christian
Campbell's the only person that's really running away, but the
the NL is open. Dylan Cruz stinks, Roki Sazaki hasn't
been good. Like it's wide open in the NL. In

(27:23):
the AL, it's only Campbell right now. Just any team,
it would be kind of advantageous to make that move,
and the Rockies did that. And if you know, like
I said on that show, he makes tons of contact.
He's got a swing. He's weird because like he'll just
hit lots of singles and maybe occasional doubles, but he's
got swing and miss. There's not a lot of power
potential in there. But he's one of the most a

(27:44):
great aggressive bass dealers I've ever seen in my life.
So if he just kind of really needs to shorten
that swing and just can you know, get on the ball,
even if it's like one of those low barrel guys.
He's got really great speed. He's not going to be
a big power player, but I think he could steal
some massive bases. I think five outfielder twelve man leagues

(28:04):
like you got to look at Zach Bean right now.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
Yeah, I mean we like Matterson Colorado. I mean you can,
you can kind of put it that way, but good
prospect as well. So I'm all about it. Let's let's
keep him. Let's keep these guys. What do you have
to lose, Colorado? You know owners over there complaining about
the Dodgers spending money. What do you have to lose? Yeah?
Who cares?

Speaker 2 (28:26):
Yeah? Well, I actually like Colorado pitchers, specifically Chase Dolander.
Chase Dolander. I kind of I felt a little squirming
about it because I put a tweet out there. I'm like,
I'm big on Dolander. I'm trying to pick him up.
He didn't have the greatest I don't want to make
it out like he had this amazing start. He picked
up the win. He gave up four earned runs, but

(28:47):
he struck out six. He only walked one. He got
seventy nine pitches five innings. This against an A's team
that's been been pretty good. Man. A little bit of
hard to hit in there, but I think that's the
pitch mix stuff. I thought he was fair in Colorado, too,
wasn't it? I was in Colorado he was able to
come back from a two run first inning he gave up.
He's able to bounce back with that, and he was

(29:09):
just homer heavy, which was just his problem. But fastball, cutter, curveball,
change up. I think that the cutter change up combination
could be devastating. He throws a ninety nine mile an
hour fastball. He left it a lot in the zone,
which I think is kind of the home run problem.
But I think there's some interesting swing and miss in there.
I'm very interested to see him on the road, and

(29:31):
I kind of thought he did it outside of the
home run issue. He did a decent job not exploding
and blowing up in Colorado. I just think he's one
of the best pitchers in baseball. I think his fastball
is ridiculous. I think his cutter looked ridiculous, and I'm
betting on the talent. So that's another guy. I would
actually probably rather have Chase Lander than Zach Been right now.
Maybe that's I don't know if that's popular or not.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
Doesn't really, I mean, I don't know. Hitters in Colorado
seem to be a dime. It does, and specifically the
outfield rotation gets to be But we know, you know,
there are spots available, So I kind of I kind
of like bean, because I mean, how much longer is
Chris Brian going to play fifteen more games, twenty more
games until.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
He's he's youtuo. It's rough to watch Chris Bryant right now, dude.
I don't know, like it's kind of depressing, to be
honest with you, Like, it's kind of like just like
walking down it was such a weird contract too.

Speaker 3 (30:21):
I feel like we would all feel differently about Chris
Brian if he was on like you know, the Brewers
or the Giants or just Colorado.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
It's kind of like he's homeless and you're just like
you want to help him, but you're just not sure,
and it's just like, oh, you shouldn't be in the
streets of Colorado, like you should go somewhere, you should
go to a home or something like I feel.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
Yeah, it feels like he's living in a tent. Is
that what you're saying?

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Yeah? Kind is that?

Speaker 3 (30:46):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (30:46):
I just I don't know. You just feel bad for
him and you don't really know what to do, and
he's kind of alone in the world, Like Colorado feels
very lonely for him, Yeah, he doesn't have any.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
Every time we passes Chris Brian, he's gonna hand him
a dollar, I think is what's gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
But that's the points. Then you go buy him a
couple more times and you're just like, buddy, how many
times can I keep giving you the dollar? Like you
signed in Colorado? Like I can't keep feeling bad for
you know what I'm saying, Like you can't do it
every time? Can you? Chris Bryant every time?

Speaker 3 (31:13):
Not every time? No? You know, just when you have one?

Speaker 2 (31:16):
What's he even doing with that dollar?

Speaker 3 (31:20):
Not getting out of Colorado?

Speaker 2 (31:21):
Not getting hits either, not getting on base. You're not
putting that money to good use. That's the problem, man.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
No from a just go right back to Colorado, aren't you?
We know I'm exactly we.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
Can't get you out of here. I just I'm into him,
and he would be one of the like rookie pickups
that I would be very interested. And we also Thomas
to jay z up with the Cardinals. There's another guy
that you know, power is a little bit questionable. He
can be He's not aggressive on the bass pass, he
can steal some bases. He just makes tons of contact.
He would be a prototypical number two hitter in baseball,

(31:55):
scoring lots of runs. But I don't know where he's
going to hit right now.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
Lineup out today, I didn't see it.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
They're playing right now, aren't they. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
I think everything started like right when we started. So yeah,
they they are playing today.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
Yeah, and he's hitting six. Because I'm about to say
Mason winn is stunk. Oh look at this, How stupid
is this that SII is in and not look at
the back of this lineup Poso Siani wins stinks right now.
So jay Z, I'd love to be love to see
hitting like three. That would be really really good.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
But I'm got on with the walk.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
I'm kind of into him, not like crazy into it.
Logan O Hoppy. By the way, it's homered in four
straight games. If you were looking for a catcher, that's
not available anywhere because he would have been picked up.
But logan O Hoppy has been absolutely nuts. And how
about Elvroto with one hundred mile per hour fastball, it's

(32:55):
a little bit squirrely. The other day I got chastised.
I was like, hey, look, Alvarado might be coming in
Everyone's like, no Romano. Then the next day Romano eight,
Oh dude, I quote tweeted and people were like, yeah,
but Romano was also there and blah blah blah, and
then Alvarado got the save opportunity a little shaky, looks
like he might be the dude. His stuff has been nuts. Uh,

(33:17):
Spring is obviously great, and he looks lying to get
a version of save Opera. I don't know if it's
all of them, but a version of save opportunities right.

Speaker 3 (33:24):
Right, I think right now he's the guy. But look,
we've already seen him give up runs and load the
bases this year, Like we know what Alvarado's all about,
Like he will be very good for a stretch and
then he will have a complete nuclear meltdown. And I
don't think anything has changed that. I don't think because
he's thrown a little bit harder that that has changed. So,

(33:47):
you know, I think both of those guys are gonna
be able to get saved. I don't think I'm going
out and dropping Romano. But I think the same thing
can be said about the d Backs because the last
save opportunity went to Justin Martinez. We had aj Puck
for two, and then the right handers came in in
the ninth, and then Martinez came in for that. Say,
I think that's going to go back and forth as well.

(34:08):
I think that's you know, we talked about this last week.
We're just gonna get a mess of this. But right
now it's Alvarado. I would still say it's probably Puck
for most eback schemes, but if the ninth inning is
coming up with three straight righties, he's going to go
to Martinez. So it just seems like that's the way
it's going to be.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
One hundred percent. Let's take a look at the sheet
that I've got here, and again, this is the sheet
I put up for Patreon people to check out. I'm
kind of every week thinking of new things to add
to it, and next week i'll be better timely for
with it. But the thing that we're going to focus
on is the pickups under forty percent, So Bogs, I'm

(34:47):
going to I'll just do the top ten right now.
I think that's cool. We'll save the deeper. I'll give
you one deep of the league guys, but let's do
my top ten of under forty percent. Now, the caveat
these guys might be on in your league. Maybe you
play in a CBS league where seventy percent of everybody
is owned at all times. But these were the aggregate

(35:08):
between ESPN and Yahoo numbers on Fantasy Pro. So there
are plenty of leagues that these guys are available. So
here's my top ten, and I'm going to give you
the opportunity to change the order. Okay, so number one
on the list, and this is tough because there's quite
a few players that kind of justify this range. I
put Spencer Torkelsen uh thirty percent ownership between both spots.

(35:32):
He's hitting two eighty nine to homers. He seems like
he's back. The strike up rate is a little bit up,
We're gonna have to monitor that, but his barrel rate
is back up. He's hitting the ball hard, he's getting
the ball in the air.

Speaker 3 (35:44):
Which is key.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
He's got a two to fifty two expected batting average,
heart hit rate at almost fifteen percent, and he's walking
more as just a premium bat who's also dhing some.
I put him at number one. So, knowing we're going
to go down the list, what do you just think
about Torco cent real quick?

Speaker 3 (36:00):
I mean, I don't know how he's even still available
at that rate now on any platform. So yeah, look,
his WHOBA is four fifty this year. His ex soba
is three eighty seven. That's one hundred and four points
better than it was last season at two eighty three,
and that's seventy two points higher than MLB average. So uh,

(36:23):
he hit the walk off yesterday, like Torque is just
right now. He is absolutely on fire. I think he's
an auto ad So yeah, probably I don't see anybody
overtaking him.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
And I only put under forties and it was thirty
percent here now on the list, I put Hose Alvarado. Now, clearly,
if you need saves more than a first baseman, you
could make that adjustment. That was kind of what I
was doing, though, like when you don't have multiple guys
at the same position, I'm saying, like, hey, the bat,
I'm interested in his torque. The picture I'm interested in

(36:52):
right now is Alvarado because you're getting saves with Philly.
So what do you think, Alvarado over Torque or easy?
How I have it?

Speaker 3 (37:02):
Okay? So Alvarado no, no, I'm sorry, Torque over Alvarado, Easy,
Like I don't want to give up a guy that's
hitting in the middle of a lineup and playing every
day for a closer that is came into the season
not with the role, got the role. But we've already
seen some shaky outings from So okay, that's torque easy for.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
Me, so you might have him lower then as we
go on Number three, I actually really struggle with this.
I put Cale Manzardo and I had Alvarado between them,
trying to differentiate the value of the closer for Philly,
but also knowing that, like you know, the Manzarto has
been put into some really good positions early on in
the year. He's hitting two fifty eight, so it's cool

(37:40):
down a tiny bit, but he's barreling the ball more,
he's walking more. We're gonna he's gonna have to hold
this up because his XBA is quite a bit lower
in the short sample size. But he's been hitting in
prime spots and he might be util in some other places.
But I made their a tier difference now that Torque
is higher than manton Zardo. Top three, Are you making
any change?

Speaker 3 (38:00):
Yeah, I put Manzarto ahead of Albarado.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Okay, understandable. Number four, I went back to the closer market,
and I put Luke Jackson, who's only twenty seven percent own.
I don't particularly like Luke Jackson, but I put him
there because he's the closer for the Rangers. For better
or for worse. Yeah, I think he's about five on
the season. I don't think they're Yeah, I think he
leads the I mean maybe not after yesterday, but he

(38:23):
led the league a couple of days ago, and I
just that's simply what it is. I don't think this
is a great closer, but I think he's in a
great spot. I put him at number four. So your
list is Torque Manzarto Alvarado, and then where does Luke
Jackson fall.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
I would put him under Alvarado, not because I think,
you know, I obviously don't think Albarado is amazing I have,
but I do have him roster everywhere. You're right. Five saves.
I guess I missed last too, apparently, but I still
think that this is Luke Jackson's first crack at it,
And if the Rangers are really good, I could easily

(38:58):
see them going somewhere else. Were there saves, you know,
trading for somebody, So I'll take all road over Jackson,
but they're pretty close.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
Okay, so we're in line here with just the closer situation.
Number five Jordan Walker twenty percent ownership, they're the underlying
stuff really kind of has me going with Jordan Walker.
I do think we're stepping into like a tier of
players that you could start talking about. But one of

(39:26):
the things is, like Victor Scott doesn't qualify in this.
So like if you're like, well, what about like Victor Scott,
Well he's over the percentage. Jordan Walker was not. According
to the list. He is still at what did I say?
Twenty percent? He's hitting three thirty three homer, two stolen bases.
He is number two in the league in bat speed.
By the way, why we care about that is, you know,

(39:49):
as that profile and the hard hit the forty three
percent hard hit rate comes up. He's lowered his strikeout rate,
he's walking more, he's hitting the ball consistently harder. We're
just gonna have to see if he can barrel a
little bit more. That combo is going to lead to
really good things. I still believe in a good season
is in for Jordan Walker. He is my number five.
Where would you like to put him? On this list.

Speaker 3 (40:09):
Let's leave him at five, but let's talk about him
and the next guy and see where we are, because
I like the next guy a lot too.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
Okay, so I agree on this every day. I'm really
really torn on this one. Ben freaking Rice. Dude, Ben
Rice might be the player you have to go get that.
Maybe there's some questions long term with it. The question
is you got Paul Goldschmidt at first lockdown, and then

(40:36):
you also have Cody Bellinger, who theory could get there.
But when Goldie is not there, they have proven that
Ben Rice is the guy. They're dhing Ben Rice right now.
And one of the reasons he has the most ridiculous
Baseball Savant page that can exist. He is top like
five percent out in every hitting category. Again, it's small
sample size, but it's thirty three percent barrel rate, highest

(40:57):
hard hit rate in the league. The bat is fast,
he's squaring it up, he's not chasing, he's walking. I
wouldn't have argued, Bogs if you would say Ben Rice
should be higher on this list, and frankly I might
boost him up just off of the offensive profile. I
think I might be cool putting him at three on
this because I love everything out of it, and they

(41:17):
like to lead him off. Ben Rice looks so good,
but this is that like super early season. Don't fall
too hard for a player, you know, No.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
Two walks in a triple. I mean, the guy is
just on fire. He's seeing the ball very well right now.
So where did he hit? He hit two today? Maybe
he led off again.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
Oh it's so nice. He hits right in front of
Judge and Bellinger up on this list right now. So
on my own list, I would put him third.

Speaker 3 (41:54):
Yeah, I would still have him behind Torque Man.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
I'm putting him above Man. I'm putting him above Alvarado though,
that's actually what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna move him
above Alvarado because an eighteen percent ownership, so he's now
moved to number two. Alvarado's three man, So you're putting
Man's art above Alvarado. Jackson, Jordan Walker.

Speaker 3 (42:12):
My big question for the rest is would I put
Walker ahead of the closers. I don't think I would
because he's been hitting pretty low in the lineup six
and seven so far. But there is opportunity in that
Cardinal Cardinal's lineup. If you start hitting, you can you
can move up? So I still do like Jordan Walker
a lot. I just think maybe it'll take a little

(42:32):
bit longer, so I think i'd have the closers ahead
of him, just slightly.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
I am. I'm really torn because, like I said, ben Rice,
there's a little bit of like I remember Brandon in
I'm not saying he's Brandon Inch, but remember you know
it's Brandon inje first month, like was it twelve? You're right,
Bertine Homer's he's the best player on the planet, blah
blah blah. But I guess the difference is we just
got data. It's very small sample sized stuff, but it's like,

(42:58):
holy God, it's sitting the ball hard, he's barreling, is walking,
he's not striking out a crazy degree. He's leading off.
I will say this, he is. They're gonna there's gonna
be a big change in store for him. He's only
hitting fastballs. He does not have a hit against a
non fastball right now. All of his hits. He's hitting

(43:18):
five hundred against fastballs. He's hitting zero against breaking pitches,
zero against off speed pitches. He does not have a
batting average against a curveball, a change up, a slider
or a sweeper, so it has only been the cutters.
The closest thing is they won't throw him in the zone.
To him, he keeps taking all these walks. He is
taking walks, which is interesting. You've got murderers behind you.

(43:42):
But I feel like people will be more aggressive. The
league is going to change. So then what happens to him.
That's the reason why we're not like because if you
look at this profile, you go, holy crap, this is
going to be a dude who's going to be one
of the best first basemen in the league. You hold
back because there's a I just want to point out
there's a clear, glaring thing. You're gonna start seeing pictures,
go heavy off speed stuff on him, and let's see

(44:04):
what happens.

Speaker 3 (44:04):
But he is worth speculating on right now. Jesus, I'm
glad you brought that up because it's sexy. Two pictures
number seven, Chris Bubach twenty percent, Casey miz fifteen percent.
The more I stare at this, I think I could
put them above Jordan Walker. Casey Mies was able, and
I'm going to do that now.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
So there's a change. So again, some of these changes
when you guys are seeing this. The list will already
have the update. Casey myes today six innings, I'm sorry, yeah,
six innings, four hits, he struck out six, give up
one earned run. He kind of Yankees did it again, man, Yeah,
against the New York Yankees, picked up his second win

(44:42):
of the season. Has a sub one era. The splitters
efficient I've been talking about.

Speaker 3 (44:47):
This was the snow Flurries game. But yeah, I was
scoring six.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
Yeah, but still yeah, they score exactly and uh, Chris
Bubach looked good again. Strikeouts are happening, he's commanding, he's
pitching backwards like. Both of these guys are moving out
of stream range into like hold range. So the new
rank is Boobach six, Casey Mice seven, Jordan Walker's eight,
and then I'm gonna just give you the last two.
I put Tyler McGill with the New York Mets. He's

(45:12):
eighteen percent owned, and Jordan Hicks at eighteen percent. The
only change I've been thinking about is maybe Dolander over Hicks,
but Hicks has been good. That's my setup. You can
visually see it. What do you think you're a change?
You know, man Zarto, you have above Alvarado, but Boobach six,

(45:33):
Miz seven, Walker eight, McGill nine, Hicks ten, change it
how you want it. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (45:41):
I don't have super strong feelings about those pictures between Boulbitch, Miz,
McGill and Hicks. I know Hicks hasn't improved his velocity
the most. He's also had a lot of injury issues
in his career, So I think i'd probably keep it
as is right there. So you know, McGill had the
nice star, Mys had a really good start today and

(46:03):
Bubach is what is he doing? Like? What is the
main change? Bin?

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Is it?

Speaker 3 (46:07):
Just as he's only throwing the fastball is and he
throwing that way more than anything else right now?

Speaker 2 (46:12):
So okay, let's take a look on the breakdown here.
And they, by the way, the Rows have done some
good stuff with some of these guys with fastball and slider,
to be honest with you, with what they did with
Cole Reagan's. So the biggest overall change has been he
is now starting to throw a slider and he's got
too it's got differential, so he's got a sweeper and

(46:34):
a slider. The slider that he throws is kind of
a bullet slider because it is just like dead middle
in that zone. You can see it really well on
the movement profile on Baseball Savant, where it'll show you
here's his fastball, you know, up top and then dead
red middle. Is that slider in as far as like

(46:56):
rise versus drop, So it's just a bullet, But then
the sweeper kind of similar trajectory really breaks through. So
my whole point is he wasn't throwing a slider in
twenty twenty four. Really he threw He's throwing at sixteen
percent of the time this year. That has helped make
his fastball more efficient. His sweeper is pretty efficient right now,
and the changeup is up with a fifty two percent.

Speaker 3 (47:18):
With that's what I was gonna say. Look at that,
that's almost nineteen percent up from where it was last It's.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
Four great pitches that he's commanding because his fastball isn't awesome.
It's not he throws at night.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
He was throwing two pitches last year. That's the thing
is he was really throwing two. Now everything is working
off the fastball, but he's got three other pitches behind it. Yeah,
so yeah, it looks like the mix is the big difference.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
I'm a big fan over on the and so that's
my top ten. You know, could zach Vien be in there, sure,
he definitely could, Dolander could be in there. There's arguments,
and of course, like I said, plenty of these guys
might not be available. But that's kind of my hot
top ten sheet of players I'm looking to pick up
in the deep world. Number one on the list and

(48:02):
you can check out the others. I got to make
adjustment because one of the guys is hurt on there.
But number one on the list is Kyen Paris and
Karen Parris only had a five percent ownership across those
two sites. It's probably a bit you know up now,
but Kyen's getting more opportunities. Rangifo has been banged up
early sample size. Barrel rate is fifteen percent, heart is

(48:23):
over fifty percent. His strikeouts have lowered, he's walking more,
He's not hitting the ball consistently hard, but he is,
you know, getting to like an eleven degree launch angle,
which is double what he did last year. So that's
that whole Like the way that he's hitting it, he's
hitting it harder, getting it in the air, and it's
creating really gorud results. The profile looks kind of interesting.
Two Homer's four stolen bases and hitting four forty four

(48:46):
early on, he's worth a speculation. So he's my deep
league play and would justify to go on the other one.
But I just did it by you know, percentages. So
that is the sheet, you guys want to check it out.
I got some updates I'm working on today and it'll
be the the top twenty five prospects and redraft to
look at those pickups, and then I'll have some players
to trade four and sell. And that's kind of just

(49:06):
a weekly sheet that'll take us throughout the week and
I'll just continue to update and I will update every
single week with new stuff. So make sure you check
it out. All right, let's take a break. When we
come back, let's take a look at some of the
year over year changes. We got some quantifiable stuff. Whose
batspeed has gone up? Who has fallen? Does it matter
hard hit? We're looking at launch angle, and then on

(49:26):
the pitching side, some fastball decreases and increases, as well
as some whiff changes in a very very small sample size.
And we will do it right after.

Speaker 4 (49:36):
This in this league. Oh I remember in this league.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
Yeah that you can check this over at baseball Savanka
bag and was nice enough to curate a fun little
list for the show of kind of important ish names
or names that might be of interest. As far as
like ownership, I'm not sure how much it would always
be beneficial to only talk about like the top top
guys and what's interesting. And the reason I'm caveating that

(50:15):
is from a bat speed rising perspective, it looks like
you took a two to two and a half increase
year over year. All of these guys but one have
an ownership of ten percent or lower. Now what will
that amount to We'll have to see. But take the
number one guy by example, the most bat speed increase

(50:36):
yere over year from a well below league average under
league average, too above league average now Jesse Winker four
mile an hour increase to get that bat faster. He
was under seventy mile per hour swing, it's now seventy
three point six. What is that equated to? He'sit in
two fifty, doesn't have any real counting stats. He's only

(50:57):
two percent owned, but opportunity. He always a firecracker. I'm
not sure that there's much there, but the profile is
putting us in a good direction. If he starts to click,
you do like to see that increase like that.

Speaker 3 (51:08):
Yeah, and I think it's exactly what you said at
the end. If he starts to click, right left handed hitter,
if you get the heavy side platoon, then outstanding. You
know what I mean, that could really be big for you.
So it's nice to see this increase. But again, you know,
is he gonna wear down? Do guys wear down? Is
speed up? You know? We have one year of one

(51:30):
year of info to go on, so it'll be interesting
to see where Winker ends up.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
One to monitor Nolan Shanwell, almost four miles per hour.
It went from one of the slower bats sixty five
down up to sixty one. So that's a pretty sixty
five point two to sixty nine point one, so it's
just about four. He's sitting two fifty seven, scoring some runs,
got a stolen base, very deep league first base option.

(51:54):
We'll see what that amounts to as well. Like I
guess the other thing with Nolan, like one of the
things I'm putting a little pen in is to kind
of come back and you and you want to determine, like, okay,
when a guy increases the speed, like, like, what else
did you do you know? Or if a back gets long,
did is there a correlation with it getting slower? So

(52:15):
like in his instance here, let's see where is it. Yeah,
it's gotten a tiny bit longer as well. And what
could be interesting about that the swing is that it
could get like you know, Junia Cammenarow's got the fastest
bat in baseball, but it's also the longest swing. But
that bat speed compensates for him getting into the zone

(52:35):
more and also being able to like barrel and drive
the ball out. That's not shina well, but you know,
if he is lengthening the swing a little bit to
cover a little bit more of the plate six point seven,
that's up point two from two years ago, and the
mile pro hour is going quicker. What other fun correlations
on there are there? Well? The blast contact percentage, which

(52:59):
I think when they give you the exact definition, the
blast is a stat cast term when a batter squares
of a ball and does so with high bat speed.
And while squared up contact reflects a batter getting close
to the maximum possible ex velocity on a given swing,
his blast rate has gone up and the contact percentage

(53:21):
as far as squared up is right around on target.
So like, you know, without boring everybody with it, it's
just like the profile seems to be leveling out a
little bit where maybe he could go from a non
factor to like, oh, maybe you know he's gonna score
a bunch of runs and get on basemore and he
could be excited. I'm not saying he will be, but again,
this is like if things start to click back gets
a little bit longer, it's getting faster, he's generating more,

(53:44):
maybe some power will come with it. This is that's
a super deeply.

Speaker 3 (53:47):
Play though, yeah I do. You didn't think you're gonna
hear about Nolan Sean Wells last percentage on the show today,
we got to think, what.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
Were you thinking? The other guys on the increases, Brendan
Rodgers had a three point three it's up to pretty
elite seventy five, again very short sample size. Bryce terrang
like Sean well sixty six up to sixty nine, nice
and South Frillic another brewer from sixty six to sixty eight,
so a couple of brewers on that list. Both of
the brewer guys have seen some increases. Specifically Bryce Terrang

(54:18):
power and speed bases two homers. Yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 3 (54:22):
I think he has one of the longer because I
you know, I didn't do bat length changes because who knows.
Some guys are trying to shorten it, some guys trying
to lengthen it. But Terrang, when I looked, was one
of the higher in terms of adding length to the swing.
So he's just adding more torque and more power here.
So currently, you know, the twenty fifth ranked player hitting

(54:45):
three twenty five, he's got too how many homers did
he have last year?

Speaker 2 (54:47):
He has two already, probably likes he had seven. I
was about to say six, he had seven. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (54:53):
By the way, I'm wondered, like, do you think is
this a buy early on Terrang in case the powers
there or do you think I don't know if I'm
believing all of this. These numbers are great, but I
don't know if I really believe in the overall power
of Trank.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
I don't love that he hit when he hits low
in the lineup sometimes. But here's what is interesting. You're right,
he's a added Jesus A stroke on the podcast went
from six point one to six point seven in swing length.
That is a lot closer to league average. So again
it is getting a little bit longer in the zone,
but he's generating more speed. What that's doing he has

(55:32):
he had a career fast swing rate, so that means
the percentage of time that he's getting to that fast swing.
He was a three percent guy. He's fifteen percent this year.
So he's getting to that fast swing more with a
little bit more length. And what is that doing right now?
Last contact percentage is almost triple. Contact percentage squared up.
Contact percentage is up by two percent. So these underlying

(55:54):
things where he is able to generate and put himself
into better positions for better time type of contact. That's
maybe a simpler way to say it. He's increasing his
odds right now with that swing. So then you take like, oh,
he's kind of a contact hitter who runs a bunch. Well,
you know, I mean maybe if these singles turn into doubles,
then that's going to generate less stolen bases. But he
steals a bunch, he's going to score a bunch of runs.

(56:16):
I think there is kind of a little bilo on him.

Speaker 3 (56:18):
Listen to these early splits too, because this is gonna
flip you know, batting first when he's facing a righty,
batting ninth, when he's facing a lefty, and he has
more at bats hitting first. He has six games first,
he's hitting three to sixty in that spot. He has
a homer from each of those positions. But versus righties

(56:38):
or seventy one in seventeen at bats, he's hitting two
seventeen against lefties in twenty three at bats. That's gonna
flip too. Remember that crazy start that the Brewers had
where they faced all those lefties begin the year. Now
they're getting the righty's and now Terrang is taking off.
So I think right now is a you know, it
might even be the old bye high on the guy,

(57:00):
but it's so early in the season that you're not
really you're not getting him at his peak, and.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
There's not much of a bye high on Terrang though.

Speaker 3 (57:07):
He's not like I suppose if I'm saying, go do it, yeah, no, I.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
Agree, I'm totally agreeing with you, But I'm saying, like,
it's not like Bryce Terrang is at this level where
people are like, well, hey, listen, I'm gonna need Ronald
Kunye to get back. It's like sure, no, he's a
little bit of power up and he's hitting a bunch,
but he was already like a one fifty ish pick,
Like I'll buy him at cost, you know, relative at cost,
Like I think there's there's some more upside there. So yeah,
I kind of agree. Try not to be too wonky

(57:34):
about the early sample size restive. Yeah, but there's some
good stuff in there, all right. So guys that have
that speed falling almost three mile per hour on George Springer,
but you had mentioned this, this is one where we've
had really good results. So he's decreased his his bat
speed was already below the gaverage, but now it's really
those seventy one point nine down to sixty nine point three,

(57:57):
got a homework, two stolen bases. He's hitting three seven
one right now. And I want to take a look
on the bat tracking. He was seventy two point seven
a couple of years ago. He's down to sixty. I
mean that is over three miles per hour change over
two years. He has not lengthened lengthened it, though he
is making a little bit more contact. So is this

(58:19):
an instance he has league average swing length with below
average bat speed. Maybe that's helping him make better decisions
because he has a crazy savant page right now at
his top ten to fifteen percentile in most categories in
most of the major batting categories, barrel is twenty two percent.
He's hitting the ball hard x slug x batting average.

(58:40):
It's all kind of there. If the strikeout's lower a
little bit, maybe there's a little revival for him. I
would rather the bats slow down, then the bat get
longer with the bats, do you know what I'm saying?
Like the bat speed getting a long is actually could
be a good thing. But if the swing, if the
bat speed is low with a long swing, that might
generate away some power. I guess bat speed, I guess

(59:04):
I jings worry me more than slower bats.

Speaker 3 (59:08):
This could all be about a change in his stance
or just pulling the bat through a little bit later.
Whatever it is, it's working to his advantage now. So yeah,
it could just be he's getting old that I'm.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
Not striped by it. By the way, like there's so
much of support that.

Speaker 3 (59:26):
Ran face first into the wall yesterday.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
I mean, but three h four expected batting average. He's
getting the ball in there. He's hitting it crazy hard,
but he has a thirty three percent strikeout rate right now.

Speaker 3 (59:37):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
Maybe there is something therefore, we got to continue monitoring.
Nick Castianos has lowered two point six as well, from
like George Springer, he's hitting two fifty eight with a
couple homers. That has gone down Type France two point six.
Andrew McCutcheon seventy two down to seventy's that's actually two
this is two point five, but that's two mile per
hour change. William Contreras has dropped two point five from

(01:00:00):
seventy four point seven, which is above average, is seventy
two point two, which is below average. Manny Machado is
about league average now down to Jorge Selaier down to
league average, down too, and Colt Keith. But Manny Machado
has seen great results, Andrew McCutcheon has seen great results,
and George Springer has seen great results. The others some massive,
massive struggles. William Contrera specifically UH ninety seven, as his

(01:00:24):
bat speed has gone down. I'm gonna take a look
at him right now. So this is one of those
things where it's like correlation yes, correlation no, when you
want it to tell the story that you want. You
can be like, hey, look at this decrease. It's not
an exact for every single person, but on his bat tracking,
by the way, his swing has gotten a lot shorter.
So this is where like usually slower bats with longer swings,

(01:00:52):
if they're a contact the type of guy Alla Luisa
rise that works, but like shorter swings are shorter. Swing
length with a really fast bat might not be the
best thing. But yeah, he's lost two miles prow in
his bat speed and he's lost half of a foot
in swing length right now, and it is creating some
really really bad results.

Speaker 3 (01:01:13):
Yeah, Contreras is concerning. I think him and Colt Keith
are very concerning because I you know, how much longer
can you keep this up and stay in the lineup
for Colt Keith? You know, Andy A Bonnie has hit
a three round shot today, Like that guy can play anywhere.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
So he's got a negative one not dery launch angle
by the way William Contreras does. So I mean it's
just weird, Like there's some stuff that does worry you
is just.

Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
High profile enough to where they're letting him work through it.
So there may be a bunch more terrible at bats
in in store for him, but he will be on
the field. Colt Keith, I don't know typ France. I
don't know like he had a great spring type France.
But if you don't stick well, tyr whatever. But what
my point is is that I'm not I'm not so
worried about those guys. Can Tras is concerning because, like

(01:02:01):
you said, so much of it is bad. It's not
just the bat speed, but Cole Keith, you know, pick
your poison on what the problem is. There's a bunch
of them and if you don't fix it quickly, you're
not going to be seeing the field as much. So yeah,
I'm worried about Cole Keith more than more than Contraras.
But Contrere's definitely looks the worst on this list.

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
You imagine spending a top thirty pick on a catcher's
hitting ninety seven. It can't either because I don't do it,
But you know.

Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
It is what it is. This one.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
I'm not going to focus on the percentage changes because
they're so absurd, but we will focus. We use this
as a leader board, and I think that's maybe the
more important thing and the reason I'm not doing it.
Nate Lowe is your leader in hard hit percentage Risers,
but it's seventy two percent. That's like, we're not going
to do that.

Speaker 3 (01:02:49):
MLB average is thirty six point six.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, so he's almost added an increase of
MLB averages total hard hit.

Speaker 3 (01:02:58):
He is hitting the crap out of the ball right now.
We just played that series against Washington and he was doing.

Speaker 2 (01:03:04):
The last we talked about him when we're doing the leaderboard,
I'm kind of interested in him right now. And he's
the number one. So your leaderboard of risers, which is
more important is as follows Nate low at the top
hitting two eighty six with three homers, quite a bit down.
Everybody else is closer. Nate low is like just way
above Esak Parades has had a huge increase in hard
hit percentage, has not created a great result. Johanniol Suarez

(01:03:28):
huge increase. He's number three on this list. Tons of power,
but he's hitting a buck seventy six. He is Jukal
and Hyde. George Springer has now shown up twice big
hard hit increase with big numbers. Pete A. Lonzo is
on this list. He is number five Jeremy Pania, Bryce Terrang,
and Alex Bregman. Those are your biggest hard hit increases,

(01:03:48):
regardless of the actual physical number, and I think it
tells you some stuff. Alex Bregman is still killing it
and I don't think the best has even started. I
love Alex Bregman, Terrang. There's another check for maybe why
there's a fun buy. I have been Team Springer, I've
been Team Parades. Both are I'm sorry. I've been Team
Paena and Paradis. Both have had slower starts, but there's

(01:04:12):
a big hard hit change. And then there's a couple
other guys that really stand out. Nate Lowe being maybe
one of the most interesting to me as kind of
of a buy right now, hitting prominently kind of consistently,
He's barreling, his hard hit percentage is going up a ton,
He's just making great decisions. Looks like he could be
a top twelve first baseman this year, so I'm most
interested in him. There's just a couple other confirmations in

(01:04:34):
there for me.

Speaker 3 (01:04:35):
Yeah, I mean, all these guys are pretty impressive, and
like you said, it is, I think this one is
not as telling as the you know, the bat speed increase,
but it is interesting just because the numbers are so ridiculous.
I mean, we would have looked at this a week ago.
I'm sure Suarez would have been what Nate Lowe is

(01:04:56):
doing right now, you know what I mean. So, but
the road trip that treat him well, and now he's
hitting a buck seventy six. But Reregman's reminding everybody of
Dustin Pedroia right now. It is interesting that Painya and
Paradis are hitting the ball harder and not hitting for
a better average two forty two and one six one, respectively.

(01:05:17):
But yeah, like you said, I don't know if I'm so.
I feel like I'm more concerned about the the followers
and the risers. Uh in hard hit percentage.

Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
Yeah, I know if I'm concerned about any of the followers.
I said this, Uh, I've said this talking with someone
that for better for worse. I think I'm I read
more into the positive changes than I do the negative
changes early on in the season. And maybe that's a
very like betting. You like overs and don't like unders,
and it's not a sharp thing, but like you know,

(01:05:49):
slow starts to guys that are you know, predominantly great,
like I don't know if I want to read too
much into it, but when you have like some clickie
over like I don't care that it literally don't care
that Nate Lowis has a seventy two percent hard hit rate.
What I care is that he's got the highest increase
of hard hit race overall in baseball year over year.

(01:06:09):
That means something. That's what I'm taking out of that,
and I think that means more than the guys that
are decreasing. But when it is compared with some others,
like how about this William Contreras. He's the biggest decrease
of any certain person, but he is also like, you know,
it's all falling apart. So maybe that's going to be
this big story that's told where we're like, holy crap

(01:06:29):
in June, like how much does he suck? Or it's
just a very small short sample size, which it is,
but he has the biggest decrease. Number two is Spencer Steer.
Number three is Jose Siri, Vinnie pas Quentino, big decrease.
He's number four Josh Bell, Viento's Chapman, Hap, Trey Turner,
Corey Seeger, and cult Keith on this list, Nobody on this. Actually,

(01:06:52):
one person on this list is hitting over two sixty five,
and that is Matt Chapman. Everybody, actually, all but two
are hitting what is this two twenty or lower, and
Trey Turner and Chapman are the only ones saved. Corey
Seger has struggled early on. Colt Keith is on this
list again, so again, I don't know what I take

(01:07:12):
out of it, but I think there are players to
put a marker in. Mark Viento's is what I want
to pay attention to. His hard hit rate is dropping.
He's hitting like crap, and he's got huge protection in
front of him. I would like I would check to
watch him.

Speaker 3 (01:07:28):
The ones that are less than twenty percent Vento's, Chapman,
half Turner, Seger, Colt Keith, Eh, okay, that's a bad run.
It's the like Contreres forty nine and a half to
eighteen point two. I still, you know, we made fun
of it for Nate Low because it's okay, Well, Jesus,
the average is thirty six point six, but eighteen point two,
I mean, you're cutting not even in half there. Spencer

(01:07:50):
stears eleven point eight hard hit. He's looks still hurt
Jose Siri. Great beginning of spring, bad end of spring,
brought the bad bat to the big leagues, and Vinnie
p dropping twenty two and a half percent hitting two
oh seven, that that stuff is a little concerned. The

(01:08:10):
rest of these guys, I'm not too worried about. And
I'm not super worried about the guys that I just mentioned,
but those are the ones I'm at least raising eyebrow.
I think the thing, let's see, I.

Speaker 2 (01:08:21):
Kind of want to take some of these guys, put
them on a separate list to kind of come back
to after we've moved out of like extreme small sample
size range. Give me three weeks, give me a month.
You know, we're going to do another look at these
type of things in May, at the leaderboards and kind
of come back to a few of the outliers like
George Springer on the positive would be an outlayer. Come
back to William Contrare's on the negative would be an outlier,

(01:08:42):
and just kind of see how that has changed over time.
Last hitting one is the launch angle sweet spot riser.
This is kind of a fun one that you know,
it is their ability to hit that perfect spot to
get the ball up in the air. Mookie Betts generates
this kind of the best. It's not a be all,
in all type of thing.

Speaker 3 (01:09:01):
But you know, I just like that almost everybody on
this list is crushing.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
Yeah, maybe it's a there's a correlation. Guess who The
number one is George Springer, whose we've mentioned again. George
Springer had the biggest increase. The sample size numbers are
not the numbers are too big to even mention, but
he's number one on the list. Spencer Torklsen number two.
He is finding that sweet spot to generate a bigger
launch angle. A second most increase. Austin Reiley's number three.

(01:09:26):
He's actually struggled Oneil Cruz has been awesome. He is
getting to it. He's still in bases at a crazy clip.
His batting average is way way up. Gavin Sheets, Corbyn Carroll,
and Josh Smith. That is your top seven of players
that have increased the most league average, I believe you
said is overall thirty three point two. All of these
guys are in like the fifties and sixties. Overall, but

(01:09:50):
one two three, four of the seven one two, three,
four five. I'm trying to look at them. I think
it's like four of the seven last year had an
under thirty three point two MLB launch angle sweet spot average.
The only guy that had like a high number Gavin
Sheets and Austin Riley, but Gavin Sheets is very small

(01:10:10):
sample size. Most of the others were kind of low.
So this is the type of thing where it can
be a game changer to the quality of contact.

Speaker 3 (01:10:18):
Yeah, I mean, we talked about the other things and
they don't They're not all one for one. These are
almost one for one. Austin Riley is the one guy
that's just hitting terribly outside of his sweet spot hits,
so those are like all of his hits five for
thirty five, one three one know Crue is also a
little below average of two forty two. Everybody else here
two eighty or higher two eighty two or higher. So

(01:10:41):
these ones are correlating to Fantasy Hunter.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
I'll be the Fallers Number one, Brandon marsh He's had
the biggest decrease in being able to generate that perfect
spot to get the launch angle up. Corey seekers number two.
As far as the followers, Max Kepler, Byron Buxton, Alejandro Kirk,
Willia Damis, J McCarthy, Austin Wells and Jose Altuve. Altuve
is the only one of this list that is hitting

(01:11:05):
over three hundred. The next best is Alejandro Kirka two
fifty eight. Everybody is in a massive, massive struggle. You know,
what do you take from it?

Speaker 3 (01:11:15):
Again?

Speaker 2 (01:11:15):
I think we monitor it. Corey Seeger has come up
on this list a couple of times. We know Willy
Adamas has really struggled. Austin Wells is kind of you know,
like the batting average is struggling, but he's had a
couple homers. Again, I don't I don't really know what
to take out of this then to kind of monitor
the top list and be like, oh, this is just
this is something that is continuously telling the story of
this guy's not making great contact. More So, if you

(01:11:38):
can't get the ball in the air, you're going to
struggle with homers. Who is that Warris worrisom for It's
probably worrisome for Willy a damas in a more hitter friendly,
pitcher friendly environment, that's not great. You want him to
be able to get the freaking ball in the air
as much as possible. But like, are you worried about
Corey Seeger?

Speaker 3 (01:11:53):
I'm not. I have a serious question for you. What
happens first Easter or Jake McCarthy's first hit.

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
Well, Jake McCarthy's playing day as we're recording, so I'm
gonna say, Jake McCarthy.

Speaker 3 (01:12:03):
Hit that's also thirteen days away.

Speaker 2 (01:12:05):
I also two weeks.

Speaker 3 (01:12:06):
Hopefully it better be he's gonna be hidden in Reno.
If not, so.

Speaker 2 (01:12:11):
Yeah, soil fastball, let's go to the pitcher's fastball. Velo increases.
Where's this fun? Jordan Hicks increase from ninety four to
ninety sevens a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:12:21):
I just did starters. By the way, there's a lot
of relievers in Hire that are faster, but I was
just sticking the starters.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
Yeah, yeah, no, we want to do starters. Jordan Hicks
has gotten that fastball back up. The good thing about
this is I believe all of these guys have at
least two starts now, so we still cave got small
sample size, but at least we got two starts. I
don't want to do too many ones. He has had
a big increase on the fastball and big results. Hunter
Green fastball is back up after last year, going really

(01:12:48):
heavy splitter so far early in the season that fastball
is back up two miles per hour. He has been awesome.
I think he's he's pitching as we are recording. I
know he's pitching today. I guess he He hasn't gone yet,
but he is pitching today against Logan Webs, So we'll
see how that goes. But fastball has it'll be the
matchup of year over years. Willia Namas versus Hunter Green

(01:13:09):
Hunter Brown fastball increase almost two miles per hour so
far twelve innings, So I guess only one guy.

Speaker 3 (01:13:16):
I see.

Speaker 2 (01:13:16):
You see a single start guy in here. Pretty good results.
Strikeouts have been there. Christopher Sanchez fastball has been up
with that added cutter two and we've seen really good
results outside of the ERA. He's got sixteen strikeouts. ERA
is up at four, but expected is good. Shane boz
He is the one start guy, but his fastball is
up about a mile and a half and Jesus Lozardo

(01:13:37):
about a mile and a half as well. Both those
Philly guys having increases. So who is your biggest boost
of a player who's increased their fastball? Which one of
these do you love the most?

Speaker 3 (01:13:48):
I don't know how it couldn't be Lozardo. I mean,
nineteen strikeouts already is kind of crazy, so I think
it by default it kind of has to be him.
Should Shane boz even count me? How many innings to do? Throw? No?

Speaker 2 (01:14:01):
One game?

Speaker 3 (01:14:02):
Yeah, that's up one game here? Yeah, so fourteen games
last year and what? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:14:07):
I mean, I'm not gonna pick him at it because
he had the one start, but he was awesome. But yeah,
I think it's the Phillies guys. I think Hunter Green
with that increase fastball and that splitter and the slider, like,
we could be going into another realm, another territory. What
are they? God, who's the picture that said it? But
it was like a mile per hour increase in your
fastball is good to cut your ERA by like a

(01:14:29):
quarter point. And it's like if you get two mile
hour increase and you were to drop a half of
an ERA, that would be significant. So Hunter Green could
go into another territory. But the Philly guys really stand
out to me. Both Sanchez and Lizarda look like smashing
deals right now. I buy them both, get the pitching
coach some money. Yeah, I'll be decreases Nest Cortez, who

(01:14:51):
was also hurt and I guess that was two starts.
He went from ninety down to eighty eight and he's
now injured in getting a second opinion. So that is
a fastball increase telling us a warning sign and he
could be gone. Carlos were done down from ninety five
to ninety three.

Speaker 3 (01:15:09):
Let me see what he was today because he pitched,
not the greatest result for him, obviously. Think you have
a six run the snow flourries. He gave up that
three run shot. His average today was ninety three point eight,
so down he.

Speaker 2 (01:15:23):
Was ninety three point three, so he was actually up
a tiny.

Speaker 3 (01:15:26):
Bit from market. So from last year, I guess he
was down point six. So that was on his four scene.
They don't give the overall.

Speaker 2 (01:15:34):
Yeah, Walker Buelers down ninety three from ninety three point
eight to ninety two point one. Corbyn Burns is down.
I think that maybe it's for I know his cutter
is down. His cutter is significantly down. And Garrett Crochet
also down. What is the ninety five down to what
is ninety three? That can't be give me fastball Garrett Crochet's.

Speaker 3 (01:15:54):
This is this is on every fastball. This isn't like
the four seam only this is oh, this is like
this is It says fastball off speed, breaking. It doesn't
give you his specific pitches.

Speaker 2 (01:16:07):
Okay, so he is down on his four seam fastball,
so that I guess that actually is interesting how you're
doing it.

Speaker 3 (01:16:13):
Because that's all the type fastball. That's how they do
it on theirs. It just says fastball, breaking ball off speed.

Speaker 2 (01:16:21):
Yeah, I think it's more. I think it's more interesting
to look at like specific specific pitches. But I do
think it's interesting when you group a couple in because
that can show consistent decrease.

Speaker 3 (01:16:32):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:16:32):
Corbyn Burns cutter is down right now, Crochet. It is
also his cutter. But the cutter looks like it's even
more efficient this year. But his for sing fastball is
down about a mile prour, His cutter is about one
and a half mile prour, and his sinker is down
almost two miles pour. So yeah, the filo is really

(01:16:54):
down early. That was me screaming after that first start.
Results haven't been affected though, when where most of these
other guys have seen a little bit of hit. So
maybe something to watch with Crochet. I mean, I will
just I'll just watch football. I'll just watch replays of football.
If Garrett Crochet goes down and he's just gonna stink,
I really want to see what that turns into. Joey

(01:17:14):
was really worried about Corbyn Burns today too. I don't
know if I am yet, but these are some maybe
potential warning signs. All those guys have eras almost four
and above except for Crochet.

Speaker 3 (01:17:24):
Yeah, I mean it's not great, so you don't want
to see fastball dips. But again, like we said before,
this is early in the season that below can tick up.
These guys figured out most of the time. So I
mean every year with this, remember Granky every year, Oh
my god, his fastball's eighty eight point one and he's

(01:17:45):
awful and blah blah blah. And then by mid season
it's like, yeah, he' said ninety three again, So.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
Yeah, these guys are gonna work it back up. But
again it's put a pin in the things, though. I
will say, like Rodan just got his ass blown up,
Cortes is having a second opinion, and then it's like
next on the chopping bock Walker, Bueller, Corbyn Burns and
Garrett Crochet, like let's just monitor it, like, don't freak out.

Speaker 4 (01:18:06):
I'm not.

Speaker 2 (01:18:07):
I'm a buyer on Crochet. You're I know you're gonna
lose your mind if Burns gets blown up.

Speaker 3 (01:18:12):
Just gave him two hundred million dollars. This is the
biggest contract in franchise history. Better not be.

Speaker 2 (01:18:16):
Hurt every time we get the second biggest.

Speaker 3 (01:18:19):
Franchise contract to Marte, who's already out. I know. All right.

Speaker 2 (01:18:25):
Lastly, let's look at the whiff leaders. So the MLB
average is twenty five percent. Not gonna again. This is
one of those where like I think the sample size
it's too small. It's the leaderboard though, and it will
show us that these guys from an increased standpoint are
doing really well, that they're getting a lot more whiffs
on their pitches. And I know this isn't updated to

(01:18:47):
today's start, but I bet it would help. Casey myies
was the biggest increaser. He had one start under his
belt and he was pretty dominant today. So he's probably
gonna be up at the top again. Uh but he
is number one on the list, and I kind of
imagine what were his Let's see, I can probably look
at the game feed for today. I bet he's in

(01:19:07):
the top.

Speaker 3 (01:19:08):
Yeah, ten whiffs today, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:19:10):
Ten whiffs. So it's not great, but yeah, yeah it's not.
It's not horrific, but he's still He's one of the
biggest increases. Things are just way more efficient. I love him.
Zach Gallen's actually number two. Probably all about the second start.
That's why, like we are way too early, because his
first start sucked ass and then the second start was

(01:19:32):
like the greatest start of his career. So what the
hell is isn't he pitching today? Yes, he's pitching tonight
against the O's, Well just take it. What do you
think it's going to be against the Orioles? What do
you think?

Speaker 3 (01:19:43):
I have no idea?

Speaker 2 (01:19:44):
What do you think I even get blown up? I
think this is going to be for you?

Speaker 3 (01:19:50):
What when did you start hating Gallon? When did this happen?

Speaker 2 (01:19:52):
You know what? And I love him too. I think
he's a funny. He's like me personally, that that anger
he has towards the Cardinals and always like throwing shade
and stuff like, I actually love him, but he's just
all or nothing lately. It's just he's gonna have this
amazing start, He's gonna blowt But you get this Orioles team.
You got some guys that can Donner Henderson tough at
the top, like I think they're just gonna give him fits.

(01:20:13):
It's all gonna be about.

Speaker 3 (01:20:14):
His com I mean, he went up against the Yankees
and Yankee Stadium and made him look silly.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
All right. I'm gonna say five and two thirds, three
earned runs, two walks, six strikeouts.

Speaker 3 (01:20:26):
That's a pretty good start, bro, That's.

Speaker 2 (01:20:27):
A decent start. But it's not thirteen strikeouts. What you
give me your line.

Speaker 3 (01:20:31):
Let's go with six innings pitched, one in run, seven strikeouts,
two walks.

Speaker 2 (01:20:36):
All right, let's see how we rocket. He's number two.
Big whiff change. I think this will be really important.
Landon Route, we got a couple singular start guys in here.
Taiwan Walker, Andre Polanti, and Jamison tai On Town all
had big whiff increases. I don't really buy much of those,
so I'm not not a big buyer on the anybody

(01:20:56):
you want to hit on there.

Speaker 3 (01:20:57):
No, I'm more I get one of the guys in
the if I think I'm concerned about.

Speaker 2 (01:21:02):
With decreases, Blake Snell, who is now hurt. He had
the biggest decrease he was the number one on the leaderboard,
number two. Seth Lugo. Pretty significant decrease right now, it's
over two starts, but he's had good results. Okay, Nickolodolo,
Nick lodol has been super weird because he's massively efficient.
He's hitting zones, but he is just not a strikeout

(01:21:22):
pitcher right now. The sweeper's not doing anything. So but
it's been great results. Miles michaelis then things got jiggled.
Grant Holmes is way down. Results have not been good,
and Kevin Gossman has been pretty mediocre and lost a
ton of whiff on it. So you're worried about Seth Lugo,
who already was a pretty low with guy in the
first place. The two starts have you worried.

Speaker 3 (01:21:44):
I mean, just the percentage of you know, we said
league average is twenty five percent, he's already kind of low,
and you know it's at eleven point eight this year.
I mean, that seems prime to get blown up. So
I'm a little worried if he can't fool guys at
a good rate, that he's going to turn into a pumpkin.

(01:22:05):
I guess that's my concern here. But the results have
been fine so far. So uh, just one to raise
an eyebrow out to watch. If he does it again
and it's another super low whiff rate, I might look
to be moving on, especially if the results are good again.

Speaker 2 (01:22:20):
I kind of nickelodolea is interesting me. I don't know
if it's a worry in a bad way. It's a
like it's kind of like what Hunter Green did. Hunter Green,
you know, changed his as fastball went down, he threw
more splitters, he cut k percentages, but became way more efficient.
It's kind of what's happening with Nickelodola right now. He's
not trying to get big whiffs. He's throwing more strikes.
He's more consistent. I think that could potentially lead to

(01:22:44):
lower strikeouts, or maybe the confidence will lead up and
he will start being like you know, he'll start going
back to the like sweep eror a ton and it's
going to get a bunch of whiffs. So pay attention
to that. But maybe his newfound decrease in whiffs is
going to be better for him. Yeah, and that is it.
Just that's a nice early look.

Speaker 3 (01:23:01):
I'll be looking at logo just real quick to put
a pin in. This is fourteen percent krate, nine point
three percent walk rate. That was twenty one point seven
and five point seven last year. So he's increasing on
the walks, decreasing on the strikeouts. Only two starts again,
but not a good combo.

Speaker 2 (01:23:17):
Not a great combo. Interesting combos though, And you guys
can let us know who you want us to talk
about because in the next episode we want to hear
from you. Coming out later this week, I'm going to
be dropping a post on Patreon where you can drop
your fantasy questions and be on the show. You can
also be heard voicemails in this league at gmail dot com.
Record yourself on your phone, email it in this league

(01:23:38):
at gmail dot com. It can get on the show,
have some fun with it, make the show better. We're
answering questions and we have got the great and powerful
Steve Gardner joining us on the show where we will
be talking about some of the early results, pinpointing some players.
So be a part of it and lock in maybe
even help push us in a direction for mister Steve Gardner,
so be on the lookout for that. Also the page

(01:24:00):
try and get you the personal posts of when I'm
going to be doing some fantasy baseball live streams, answering questions,
some prospect based stuff, just doing a lot of that
fun thing. And we've got all these other you know, ranks,
prospects dynasty. I got this article out on baseball all
happening on Patreon in this league dot com. Sign up
today in this league dot com. That is all we have.

(01:24:21):
I mean, you have taken such great shirt of that.
I t l great care of that il shirt. I
have to go get one right now. Is it is
it a mirage? It looks good on you?

Speaker 3 (01:24:30):
Yeah, it's it's kind of light. The black is not
as black as it was when I came in, a
little grayish.

Speaker 2 (01:24:38):
You know, you've had that for how many years?

Speaker 3 (01:24:40):
Probably four or five years now. It's doing good. It's
doing good. Yeah, it's doing fine. So it doesn't have
a hole in it. So Kat didn't get to it.
We like that. I gotta get me one.

Speaker 2 (01:24:50):
We've I've found out that I think the old link
doesn't work anymore. We have a I have a pen
post on Patreon that gets to the store. But just
type in in this league t spring and if you
ever want to check out, we have all of our
stuff up there. I forget. We have all of it,
all these in this league shirts Boggs Junior. So go
and check that out if you want to pick up
some stuff and follow us on Twitter at is It
the Welsh and at Bogman's Sports. You can catch me

(01:25:12):
on Fantasy Pros Monday to Friday, twelve pm Eastern Live.
We just did a Mario and Luigi. I looked ridiculous
in that the mustaches looked weird, they looked upside down.

Speaker 3 (01:25:23):
They yeah, they looked stupid. It was cheap, It was
like a child's hat, like it was awful. Joe's mustache
was so big you could not see his mouth when
he talked. It's one of the most ridiculous things we've
ever done. And I dressed up like Joe Exotic. But
you know what the problem is, dude.

Speaker 2 (01:25:42):
Maybe I'm like a chameleon because I dressed up like
Joe Exotic and everyone was like, holy crap, you look
like Joe Exotic. Tweeted back to me. Everyone today definitely
not a compliment, was like is it just me? Or
does Welsh really look like Mario? And people in the
chat were talking about my chin, like how it looked
like Mario and I was like Jesus Christ, like, I

(01:26:05):
don't ever why do I keep looking like all these scumbacks.
Every person I've ever looked like is like the most
disgusting person, John Lackey, Luigi Joe. Can I ever look
like somebody that's not a.

Speaker 3 (01:26:17):
I look like Rosie O'donnald So there you go. But uh,
Meghan de Sallian Welsh the Chameleon? Is that how we're
doing it right now?

Speaker 4 (01:26:26):
Is that?

Speaker 3 (01:26:27):
Uh huh Welsh the Chameleon? That's your rapper name.

Speaker 2 (01:26:29):
Right shaking it? I'm shaking it all right. We're gonna
get the hell out of here. Peace out, friends, make
sure you're subscribing all this stuff. Thanks for hanging out
with us, and we'll talk to you later in the week.

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Episode 789 - Week of April 7th

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 789 - Week of April 7th