November 14, 2018 • 36 mins
Al Melchior talked about Carlos Correa having surgery to repair a deviated septum. Gary Sanchez had shoulder surgery on his left shoulder and may be ready for spring training. Al also makes mention that Acuna Ohtani wins the Rookie of the Year award with Bob Melvin and Brian Snitker both winning Manager of the Year awards. He also gives a update from the Arizona Fall League and mentions that the championship game will be played on Saturday. Lastly, Al talks with Nick Dika from the band Arkells and asks questions about his music career and fantasy baseball. #fntsy #fntsysportsnetwork #nickdika #arkellsband #acunaohtani #briansnitker #bobmelvin #rookieoftheyear #manageroftheyear #carloscorrea #garysanchez #fantasybaseballhour
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to the Fantasy Sports Radio Network. Ladies and
gentlemen to the Fantasy Baseball We'll welcome everybody. This is
(00:24):
the Fantasy Baseball Hour. I'm your host, Al Milk. You're
thank you so much for listening during this uh fine
time in the off season, middle of November. We've got
free agency going on, but really the news is more
of the awards that are going out this week and
uh a couple of injury notes um Arizona Fall League
(00:46):
about to wrap up, so we do have all of
that to go over on this show. But I'm super
super excited for today's guest. Uh. It's uh as far
as I can recall, the second time I've had a
professional musician on the show, but the very first time
that I can recall having somebody who's both a professional
musician and a professional fantasy baseball analyst. Uh. Nick Dka
(01:09):
from Rhotographs and from the band Arkell's is going to
be joining us uh in just a little bit. UH.
So very excited to talk to Nick both about the
recent work that he's done for Rhotographs, some really great
stuff that you should check out if you haven't done
so already, and also the Rkel's tour that's about to
kick off, so, uh, lots and lots to get to here,
(01:30):
So here I go. I'm gonna start with a couple
of injury notes here, and this one is is one
I really hadn't heard or seen much about, to be honest,
but it strikes me as kind of a big deal.
And that is across Korea just recently in the past
week had surgery to repair a deviated septum. So we
(01:51):
already know that Korea has dealt with back issues, dealt
with them for most of the season. Uh, perhaps an
oblique issue in there as well. And actually, this is
of the things I'm going to talk to Nick Dyke
about because he recently did write a piece on Carlos
Correa's season. So add to all of that the fact
that he was playing through a deviated septum that was
(02:11):
affecting his breathing. So you know, the the injury narrative
just gets stronger and stronger here in terms of explaining
just a surprisingly disappointing season for for Carlos, Korea. And
the other big surgery injury news is Gary Sanchez had
surgery on his left shoulder last Thursday, He's expected to
(02:33):
need three months to recover from that surgery, which, again,
barring any unforeseen kind of setback, UH, should make Sanchez
good to go for spring training and for opening Day.
And uh, I'm serve curious, actually, I've been curious as
to how people are going to respond to Sanchez coming
(02:55):
off like Correa coming off a bad season, although in
Sanchez's case it was really really much much worse a
bad at just one eight six, did have eighteen home
runs in plate appearances, but that's still for him, represented
a decrease in power and obviously a big decrease in
batting average. So now you you tag onto you know
(03:17):
the problems that he had, both in terms of performance
and in terms of health, the fact that he will
be coming off shoulder surgery. Granted it's his non throwing arm,
but you know still how that maybe could affect him
behind the plate or I should say, at the plate, uh,
for Gary Sanchez. And this also follows up on something
(03:37):
that I talked about. I think it was on the
most recent show here last week when I was talking
about JT. Real Muto. And now he's been put on
the trade market and his agent is saying that he's
definitely not going to be a Marlin by the time
spring training rolls around. And I, as I talked about
real Muto, just store of really without even checking myself
for thinking about it, kept referring to him as, you know,
(03:59):
the obvious first catcher off the board next year, and
then sort of circle back in that discussion and said, well,
you know, maybe it's not really that obvious. So I
put it to the test, the ultimate test, which is
a Twitter poll, and I asked, just put this out
right before the show, a few hours before the show,
(04:20):
and asked who should be the first catcher off the
board in and this was I probably just then didn't
even need to correct myself last week when I was
comparing real mooto It Sanchez, because the overwhelming majority in
this poll said, yes, real Muto should be the first
catcher off the board. The options were real Muto Sanchez,
(04:40):
and then I put other, uh, parahetically right in. Nobody
not a single person wrote in anybody, although three percent
did vote for other. So maybe Willson Ramos, maybe uh um,
maybe we'll controlst of those sort of doubt that uh
and I take at one reply, uh William's Sado. But
(05:01):
I think that was probably tongue in cheek. I think probably,
especially since on the last show I'd brand award on
here say that Asado is probably not going to rack
up that much time behind the plate anyhow, So Realmutoka, Sanchez,
everybody else. Three. And by the way, great turnout for
this poll. One of the best responded to poles I've
(05:25):
ever put out, so kind of amazing for the middle
of November. Folks really came through on this. So I
feel very confident in this sample, almost two to one
in favor of Real Muto, and that really did surprise me.
I wasn't I wasn't totally sure how this one was
going to turn out, so uh. In any event that
maybe partially is slanted by this news of the surgery,
(05:48):
maybe I don't have it before and after unfortunately, but
in any of it, there's your Gary Sanchez news, and
there's your Gary Sanchez poll in other news, A hundred
to you. And here's where another place where I was
wrung by the way I said, I think Abo was
gonna accept the qualifying offers this year hundred ryu did?
He took the Dodgers up on the one year seventeen
(06:10):
point nine million qualifying offer, and in retrospect, yeah, that
makes a lot of sense because he only made fifteen
starts this past year, missed more than half of the
season with the strain groin, and this gives Yo an
opportunity to build up his value, hopefully a little bit
better for another run at the free agent market. But
he certainly has sensational year and probably could have done
(06:32):
much better than a one year deal shy of eighteen
million on the market, but probably just figuring that he'll
do even better next year. But Rio one seven and
three with a one nine seven e r A at
one point zero one whip, eighty nine strikeouts and eight
two and a third innings, and that strikeout ratio, his
(06:53):
his rate was twenty seven point five percent, which by
far is the highest of his career. So he's had
a great opportunity to first of all, if you could
stay healthy, have a great season twenty nine and uh
improve its value. And we don't have a lot of
draft data to go on, even mock draft data, but
(07:13):
as I have been referring to in recent episodes, we
do have those nine two early mock drafts that Justin
Mason put together and across those nine drafts reuse average
draft position was two hundred points seven. So yeah, you
can get them cheap, and it's it's a great risk.
I think it's a great risk, you know, considering how
(07:34):
pitching does thin out, and that you can get somebody
really pretty late in the draft who gave you a
sub two e r A and a whip that was
just barely over one. You know, Grantities. He certainly looks
regression bound, but it's a great skill set and you
can get it very cheap. Apparently, if those two early
(07:56):
mocks are going to be any indication of what's going
to happen a few months from now. Also a couple
of notes that occurred, a couple of things that happened
very close to the last show, but just late enough that, uh,
it was not the last show. So this is sort
of old news. But the Raising the Mariners made another trade,
(08:18):
Malex Smith and outfield prospect Jake Freeley going to the
Mariners in exchange for Mike Zunino, Guillermo Heredia, and minor
league lefty Michael plas Meyer. Obviously, the big names here
are Zunino and Smith. Smith had a forty steel season
for the Raise, hit two nine six, little bit of
a minor power breakout, only hit two homers, but some
(08:39):
good doubles and triples power that we're supported by his
bad ball profile. Zunino very disappointing year at the plate.
Just hit two a one, did get twenty home runs,
which is sort of, I think, kind of the minimum
you expect from Zunino, and not that you should expect
him to hit for a great average, but to oh
one even for Zunino a bit disappointing and just forty
(09:01):
four RBIs thirty seven runs, which is also quite low
for uh, somebody who hit twenty home runs. So between
the run production and the batting average, that sank Zannino
down to twenty place in roto value among catchers according
to the ESPN Player Raider. So Nino maybe he should
rebound somewhat. I would think with the rays he gets
(09:25):
some nice away parks to hit in his numbers were
maybe a little suppressed by Safeco field. So it's it's
a it's an upward move for for Zunino and for
Smith going the other way. Uh, you know, I was
a little disappointed, actually, we were very disappointed by d
Gordon's production last year and especially stolen bases and um,
(09:47):
you know, jess A gurdu to the last couple of
years a little a little disappointing. So hopefully Malx Smith
can build on that forty steel season, but maybe hold
a little bit of skepticism there, hold back a little
bit on draft day. Uh, probably a little bit of
regression due for him as well. So that was the
big deal. Uh, Smith and Zanino involved in that trade.
(10:11):
The Pirates resigned Jung Hon I'm sorry, Jung Ho Gang
to a one year, three million dollar deal. Appeared in
three games towards the end of the season last year,
was on the restricted list, uh due to three d
u I arrests in South Korea. But he's gonna be
given a chance. Recording to Adam Bury of MLB dot Com,
he's gonna be giving a chance to actually play every
(10:32):
day now. Whether that comes at the expense of column
Iran over third base or Gang splits his time at
some different positions, that remains to be seen. I think
some of that probably has to do with maybe how
well Moran performs in spring training, so that'll be a
position battle worth paying attention to. And Uh, finally, in
(10:55):
terms of the news from the past week, Joe Mauer
announced his retirement. He finishes up with a three oh
six career batting average and a three eight on base percentage,
hit a hundred forty three comers over his career, and uh,
you know, was not a not a big fantasy producer
the last few years in his career, and of course
(11:15):
that his career was uh impacted by by concussions, which
is always something that you hate to see. But um,
you know, certainly a great player, somebody who will be
in in the Hall of Fame discussion. And uh you know,
certainly unquestionably you know, somebody who was very consistent in
(11:37):
terms of producing for for batting average, uh and on
base percentage. So as you're listening to this, maybe the
Side Young Awards have been given out. I'm coming to
you on a Wednesday here, So depending on when you
listen to this, you may already know as of right
now for my knowledge that that is still to come ahead.
(11:58):
But we do know the rookies of the Year show
Yotani in the a L and Ronald Dacuna in the
n L. We know our Managers of the Year Bob Melvin. Um.
What believe is wanted for the fourth time either the
three of the fourth I think of the fourth which
is uh after admit took me by surprise and Brian
Snicker winning it and deservedly so. Um over in the
(12:22):
National League. So anyways, the big ones you know, still
coming m v P. S cy Young's so be able
to break those down on next week's show. Now that
that is not being able to you know, look into
the future, but it certainly does seem like there's a
lot of anticipation that Blake Snell is gonna win. I
still think Justin Verlander has a very strong case. Uh
(12:45):
and uh, you know, I think pretty much the consensus
is that Jacob Degram is going to win over in
the National League. Uh. So we should have Nick Dyka
joining us. In fact, right now, got word that we
do have Nick Nika on the line. So, as I
mentioned earlier in the show, uh doing some great work
(13:08):
for Rhotographs also Baseball Prospectives Toronto, and also doing some
fantastic work with his band R Kels. Nick is the
bass player for our Keels and Uh, Nick very excited
to have on the show. Thank you so much for
taking the time out uh to join us here. And
I believe you're actually just on the verge of of
(13:29):
leaving for your tour. Is that correct here? Well, yeah,
thanks for thanks for having me. That is correct. We're
headed to the airport about two hours to take off
for Europe. So yeah, thanks for having me on. Yeah,
my pleasure. And I'm extremely honored that you're actually taking
the time to do this right now, you know, other
than that your uh bound for your tour in a
(13:50):
couple of hours here, So and I certainly do want
to talk about the tour, uh, talk about your talking
about your your new record. I don't know if we
still call them records. I'm showing h here. Uh uh
all right, that definitely works for me. Uh, But I
want to start with the fancy Baseball angle first. You know,
(14:12):
given that this is the Fancy Baseball Hour, but when
did you start playing Fantasy? I started playing probably about
ten years ago. I had some friends who were playing,
and it kind of stuck with me. Is kind of
a fun way to engage in baseball, and also just
to kind of keep up with the teams and players
that I wouldn't typically pay attention to. I'm a Canadian,
so I followed the Jays and the American League a
(14:34):
little more closely. But Fantasy I found was a good
way to kind of engage with again, like the ANL
and some of the more, you know, fringe players I
wouldn't be focused on otherwise. Yeah, it's it's absolutely great
for that. And that's really what what got was, you know,
the real magnet for me too, because I had been
sort of not following baseball as closely as I I did, uh,
(14:57):
you know a few years prior, and then when I
had a bunch of friends that were playing Fantasy and
it's like, oh, I gotta watch you know, I gotta
put on ESPN. So, uh, well, you've written some really
neat pieces for Rhotographs lately, and um, so I'll focus
on a few of them. You did a review of
Mike Fultonevitch's season, and you know, all all of us
(15:19):
who write for Rhotographs, you know we're doing you know,
breakout breakdowns and you know various you know reviews back
of the season. So you did one on on Foltonevitch,
and um you you actually referenced the piece that I
wrote around the middle of the season. Uh. And we
both kind of share a skepticism over what fultonevitch did
this year. So, um, what what spurs your skepticism and
(15:44):
where do you think he should be drafted going into
next year? Yeah, well, kind of what I wanted to
do was kind of build off the piece you wrote,
which was based on the skepticism over his swinging strike right.
And he has a very average swing strike right, and
typically pitchers who do show that swaying strike right aren't
able to post high strikeout rates from year in a year.
(16:07):
And uh, you know, I took a look at at
the second half, and I took a look at his
pitch mix and see to see if there was anything
he was doing that might suggest he's gonna able to
be able to sustain his performance. And I think that
given he is throwing his slider and fastball more often,
he might be able to sustain some of his development
(16:27):
that he made ineen, But I don't think he can
sustain all of it. Uh, he's just not getting enough
swing strikes. So I think around pick a hundred, he's
not gonna be a total bus there. You know. That
might be a round or two earlier, based on kind
of some of the early mocks, A couple of pictures
I've seen going after him that I'd probably prefer to
take would be Carlos Martinez because of track record, or
(16:50):
Hermon Marquez because of upside. So I don't think he's
gonna be a complete bus but I don't think expecting
the kind of b R A Lowers three rate that
he had this year, I think that's too much to
expect from him going forward. Yeah, I'm I'm with you
on that as well. And we're basically in the uh
(17:12):
the two early mocks which I talked about earlier in
the show. Uh, he went just inside to the top one.
I'm currently involved in a mock draft through Nick Pollock
in picture List, and we're currently in the ninth round,
and um, I've got a whole bunch of of starting
pictures in my queue right now. I just just took
(17:32):
Jose Barrios in the eighth round. I may go picture
again this ground, and so I've still got several of
those pictures in my queue now. Foltonevitch went in the
sixth round in the staff, but even if he was
still there, I would prefer every picture that's currently my
queue to Fultonevitch. Just to give you an idea of
(17:53):
how I think that he may be, you know, getting
overdrafted a bit here. So I certainly agree with you that,
you know, some of the the pictures that came after
him in terms of the two early mock adp Yeah,
I would would think he should go maybe you know,
two or three rounds later even than he did there.
So yeah, yeah, yeah, Uh, well you talked about a
(18:21):
couple of short stops, so start with the Manny Machado,
and um, he's certainly an interesting player to look at
now because, um, he didn't do as well with the
Dodgers as he had done with the Orioles. And then
of course you've made a lot of waves in the
in the postseason for a lot of the wrong reasons. Uh,
some performance related, some not. But how are you viewing
(18:43):
him now in light of the stint with the Dodgers?
And you know, you can put as much weight on
out the postseason as you like. I personally, you know,
wouldn't put that much weight on it. But you're looking
at the last couple of months, Um, how are you
looking at him? Yeah? I think the interesting thing about
his time with the Dodger is he continued to hit
better at home than he did on the road. And
(19:04):
what's interesting about that is Dodger Stadium excuse more picture
friendly than Oriel Park does. UM. So I think I
think Machado is kind of a safe that if you
if you want to take him kind of after pick twelve,
depending on you know your lead side, you know, that's
that's when I'd start to take a look at him.
I definitely feel like, you know, Francisco and Door and
(19:26):
Trey Turner should be drafted ahead of him, potentially Alex
Bregman depending on format in terms of shortstops, um, because
Bregman is just so good when it comes to Watson strikeouts.
So if you're in a points league, he might be
a flight favorite over Machado. UM. But yeah, I think
I think Machado is a player that it's the splits
(19:49):
are kind of confusing, given that he hits so well
at Oriel Park, but then he didn't hit well at
any of the other picture friendly stadiums that he spent
a lot of time in, like Yanti Stadium in Fenway Park,
So there's not much sense to it. But I'm inclined
to just kind of ignore it given his his lawn
track record of success and and start to look at
(20:11):
him any time after Yeah, well, you know, and I
think again, I'm not really sure what to make of
it either. But if you were inclined to look at
it optimistically, you could say, well, yeah, he went to
Dodger Stadium, which is not really uh, like you said,
not nearly as good of a park for offense as
Oriel Park is. And so maybe we don't worry about
(20:32):
where he lands because it's it's probably just not a factor.
Um and uh. You know, so that that is an
interesting angle that you took in in the column that
you wrote. And also I'm glad that you brought up
Bregmant because that's gonna be a real dilemma for me.
And I haven't done my projections yet, and you know,
as of right now, I feel like it's sort of
a toss up whether it's whether it's points or um Roado.
(20:53):
I'm not sure which way I would go. I would
certainly go Lindoor for sure, maybe Bregman. I would not
go Carlos Korea over Machado. So you wrote about Korea
too in a different piece, and I mentioned at the
very top of the show Korea just had surgery to
repair a deviated septum. So that's interesting news on top
(21:15):
of all the back issues and the fact that apparently
he wasn't you know, really breathing well this year. Um,
what do you make of all that? Where would you
rank him visa the Machado or Bregman or Trevor's story
even for that matter, Yeah, I think, Um. The first
thing I wanted to mention was just I'm getting really
(21:36):
skeptical of the Astros and how they're kind of leaking
out information about their players health. It It makes it
very difficult from from a fantasy perspective. You know, I
thought Jose Altuve had nize arness, not that he needed,
but you know, it reconstructed me. Um. So I'm finding
that kind of problematic and that makes that makes it
(21:57):
harder to make kind of in season decisions. But about
guys like Korea who you know have back sore nows
and then they're out for a month and a half,
you know, so there there's that to consider. I think
I would take him over Trevor's story, but it's well,
what we'll really what I would do is, I think
you're going to be able to get Coorea later, so
(22:18):
I try to wait on Corea as opposed to having
to pick story earlier on UM. I took a look
at Um one of the picture list marks. It wasn't
the one you were in now, but one of the
other ones. He didn't get drafted to the fourth round.
He got drafted after Tommy Fan and Corey Seeger, and
I would definitely take Korea in the fourth round. I
(22:39):
think that's great value. I think you can get him
the third round. That's probably gonna be good value. He's
he's not you know, he should be going after Machado
and lindoora Um and Turner and and Bregman. But I
think in terms of the second tier of short stuffs, uh,
he can provide a lot of potentially added value if
he's if he's able to rebound. Yeah, and that that's
(23:01):
the if. Um. You know, certainly, I like, you know,
the fact that he's you know, certainly at an age
where you like his chances for that. I did take
him in the uh pictureless mock that I'm in at
the end of the third round, so I did feel
like it was good value. UM. Corey Seeger was still
out there and actually stayed out there for a while
I'm okay with that. Yeah, I actually I think that's
(23:23):
gonna be an interesting dilemma for people to corea versus
a seeker. So shortstops pretty interesting up near the top
in terms of the risks and how people are gonna
going to manage those. So, um, well, I do want
to talk a bit about our kel's. Uh, And one
thing I want to ask you about is how you
actually find the time. I mean you're not just a
(23:45):
fantasy baseball player. I mean you're you're an analyst, you're
a writer. Uh, how do you juggle all of that? Yeah? Well,
I think one of the things about being in a
band is it it means there's lots of time, like
in airports and my hotel lobbies, like waiting around in
sound check. So I try to use those moments to
be as productive as possible, you know, whether it's like
(24:07):
looking looking at Twitter for all the latest news in
terms of baseball and stuff like that, or just popping
on my laptop in the hotel lobby, or or waiting
for a flight to to try to get some some
writing done or do some analysis. And so that's basically
right kind of how I try to do it. It's
just be as productive as I can and kind of
those hurry up and wait downtime moments, and uh yeah,
(24:30):
I guess I guess that's that's probably what I try
to do. Although yeah, I, like anyone, I end up
just on you know, Instagram the same time, like like
anyone else, Lea. I was actually just realizing. So at
the top of the show, I said, this is, as
far as I can remember, the second time I've actually
had a professional musician on the show. The first at
(24:51):
Scott McCoy from R A M on the show, and
he talked about talked a lot about, you know, obviously
his own fantasy baseball playing, but he was saying, how
you know, Mike mill like you kind of have to
you know, he has to sort of you know, get him,
you know, off of his phone or his laptop. He's
really obsessed with it. So I'm like, maybe this is
a bass player thing. Uh, it's it's people know how
(25:15):
to day. Josh Donaldson got traded to the Jay's. Our
guitar text literally stopped, he like stopped during the show,
and he just made a sign that said Donaldson just
got traded to the Jays. He just held it up
on the side of the stage. I didn't believe him.
I didn't believe him, that's yes, So I thought, maybe
you're you're getting punked or something there. Yea, yeah. Uh well,
(25:41):
so all right that your album Rally Cry just came
out last month, is that correct? Yea, yea, in October. Yeah,
and I've given it a given it a few listens.
I typically can't don't know about you. I really can't
write and listen to music. But while I'm doing my
research before I start writing, I like to put a
little music. So I've I've done some good work to
(26:01):
Rally Cry lately. How long did this take off for
the whole process of writing, writing the songs and and uh,
you know, recording it in the studio. Yeah, so we
did this one kind of differently. Typically, what we'll do
is we'll kind of we'll go on tour and then
we'll come back and then we'll hold up in a
studio for you know, five or six weeks straight and
(26:23):
and really right and record the whole thing. But this
time we were pretty busy touring, so what we did
was we actually just kind of popped in for a
couple of days. If we had you know, a week
off between tours, we'd go in for a couple of
days and record a song. So it took us all
in all, probably about ten months of just kind of
going in and out and doing three three days at
a time type of thing where we'd record one song
(26:45):
and we'd hit the road again, come back record another two,
and so on and so forth. So yeah, we started,
we started about this time last year recording and yeah, yes,
that's just you know, like I said, that's incredible And
I guess like you said there, maybe your time is
a little you know, uh bunchee that you know, you
have these moments in airports and stuff, you can manage
(27:08):
your team, but that's you know, that's that's quite the
commitment there. Uh. How do you feel about the album?
And is is there maybe a particular track that uh
that's a favorite for you? Um, it's you know what,
it's it's hard to pick. It's a little bit like
you know, picking between your kids in terms of thinking
a favorite track. But uh, I definitely I'm very proud
(27:28):
of the record. I know one song uh called Relentless
that was like a fun one, an interesting one for
us to record because we used the sample on that song,
and as a rock band, you know, we don't really
use samples. That was our first time ever doing it,
so that was kind of cool to to learn how
that works and like learn how to try to play
(27:49):
with you know, play with like a basically a prerecorded
element in in the in the track because we're not
we're not used to that, and we think it turned
out great. It was. It was really fun learn experience.
And you know, even though we're a rock band, we
you know, we love all sorts of music and like
rap has samp Like every rap song has you know,
twenty samples in it, So it was really cool to
(28:10):
to kind of dig in and try to get our
feet right with that. Uh yeah. Well and definitely you
know comes across in the album that you all have
a lot of influences in different different types of genres
that that you like. So it's it's, uh, it's an
interesting mix. Um So. To encourage people to pinably read
your read your work on rhotographs, but to check out
(28:32):
rally cry um so. As you you mentioned at the
top here, you're going to be taking off very very
soon here eminently, uh to join the band for for
your tour where all are you going, And you're starting
in Europe right yet. We're headed to Europe tonight, and
we've got date in Germany in the UK over the
next few weeks, and then we've got some tours lined
(28:53):
up in Canada and the US for February and March.
So yeah, we should be kind of all over the
Eastern and western seaboards in the US and then we're
going to cross Canada in February. I'll be very cool,
I imagine, I imagine. So, but well, I I, uh,
(29:13):
you know, I wish you the best of luck with
with that and uh, you know, be uh looking looking
for news from your tour. I got ask this though,
Uh will we see any more work from you in
the near future on rhotographs, Because I know I've asked
you about how are you juggling everything? Uh? Does this
fancy baseball kind of go on the shelf? Now we're
gonna we're gonna se more work from you? Oh no,
(29:35):
absolutely not. I've already got to the Lord of Scurril.
Uh data queue up. I'm going to dig into tonight
on the flight and so I think that's gonna be
my uh my next my next column for Rhotographs taking
them a look at his half season and see kind
of what he looked like going into fantastic. Okay, well
we'll be looking for that too. So uh well, like
(29:57):
I'm sure you've gotta get going here. So I again
really appreciate you taking the time out. Best of luck
with the tour and with the album and with LORDA.
Scouriel and all of your other analysis. Uh So, folks
should check out Rally Cry from Markel's and check out
Nick's work on Rhotographs and Baseball Prospectives Toronto. Nick Dyka,
thank you so so much for joining me here. Thank
(30:18):
you all right, take care. Uh So, again, that's Nick Dyka.
Please do check out his his work. He's a fairly
recent edition over at Rhotographs and has just written some
great stuff. So um uh do do to go check
that out? Uh So. Uh one thing that I did
(30:40):
not get to and actually haven't talked about in a
few episodes before Nick joined us was taking a look
at what's going on in the Arizona Fall League. And
now it's really a pretty good time to do it
because it's almost over. The championship game is actually this Saturday.
Uh So, that you could you're pretty close to just
being able to put a bow on those final stats.
(31:01):
And granted, those stats almost never really mean a whole lot.
I think maybe in the most extreme of of outlier
cases that if somebody unexpectedly has a really great Arizona
Fall League. And I can't think of specific examples, but
I do remember situations, maybe within the last two three years,
where somebody got a little bit more of a shot
(31:22):
in spring training because they did so well in the
Fall League. So uh, somebody who definitely has received quite
a bit of attention is Nate Pearson. The unfortunately probably
should have kept Nick on for a couple more minutes
because the Blue Jay's prospect. He does have a six
twenty e r A in twenty and a third innings
(31:43):
in the Fall League, and he's walked thirteen batters, so
that doesn't look so great. But basically what's really helped
him garner a lot of attention is the fact that
he's throwing triple digits and he pitched in the Fall
Stars game and hit one oh four there with the fastball,
and he does have twenty three strikeouts in those twenty
and a third inning, So some good, some bad, uh
(32:05):
for Pearson, But you know, given that too, he missed
almost the entire twenty eighteen season after one of his
first appearances breaking a bone in his forearm. Uh, there's
a lot there that's that's very encouraging. So his stock
certainly has gone up. John do plant here, his is
of right now leading the AFL and strikeouts. He's got
(32:27):
thirty two in just twenty one and two thirds dings.
So I think his stock maybe goes up a little bit.
And of course Forest Whatley has been one of the
best pictures, but that that was to be be expected.
Similarly of Vladimir Garo, Ju Dear has been one of
the best hitters. He's got right now, got a three
fifty one average. He has struck out six times. I
(32:48):
don't know how many plate appearances he has, but he's
twenty seven for seventy seven three one average. Uh so
in eight plus I think maybe eighty five plate appearances.
I think that's what what I'm to get out of
my memory, just six strikeouts. So uh, just continuing on
with great contact skills that he's show to the miners,
up seven doubles, no homers. Uh, But you know, I
(33:11):
think he's still he still should look at him this year,
despite the fact that you know, didn't have a home
run yet in the a f L. Colt Tucker is
having a very nice a f L and he's somebody
I think we could see up with the Pirates, maybe
not to start the season, but maybe mid season. Uh.
He by the way, has an identical batting line two Guerrero.
(33:34):
He's twenty seven for seventy seven three one average. That
part of the batting line anyway is identical. He has
stolen six bases and nine attempts, so not great efficiency,
but did still six bases. He stole thirty five at
Double a L Tuna this year, So Tucker somebody to
think about maybe as a stolen based source leader in
the year. This year, the leader in the f AL
(33:57):
a f L and home runs is Braxton Davidson of
the Braves. He's got six of them, and there's a
whole bunch with five, so it's not like he's exactly
running away with it. Hit twenty homers at Advanced Class
A Florida and the Florida State League, but had two strikeouts,
which is outrageous. Struck out nearly half of his plate appearances.
(34:20):
They proved that just a little bit in the Fall
League twenty eight strikeouts and seventy one plate appearances, So
you know, there's maybe something there in terms of power
for Davidson, but maybe he's got to cut back the strikeouts. Uh.
Peter Alonso overall a pretty good Fall League five home runs,
four stolen bases, but he did hit just two twenty
six or I would say went there against a handful
(34:46):
of games left. But strikeouts maybe a little bit of
an issue for him as well. Well. After he got
promoted to Triple A this past season, that rate was
twenty five nine percent, which isn't terrible, it's it's nowhere
in the vicinity of you know, a Braxton Davidson, but
it was a substantial increase from what he had done previously.
(35:06):
And then in the Fall League seven strikeouts in I
think a little more than a hundred plate appearances. I
don't have that number right in front of me. So
you know, again, you you sort of project from major
the major leagues, and this is somebody who maybe is
in danger of being around a thirty strikeout rate in
the Major league. So Alonzo mean, don't get me wrong,
(35:28):
you know, I would love to see him up with
the Mets right away and play all over or at
least the bulk of with the Mets, and I do
think that that's likely to happen. I think he'll be
a nice power speed source. But maybe just pull back
your expectations a bit in terms of batting average for Alonso.
(35:49):
But yeah, sort of nitpicking here. UH certainly UH would
be a great prospect to have in UH in just
about any format. So you know what that said, it's
not much that that's left there in the Arizona Fall
League and us. On that note, we're gonna wrap things
up here, so look forward to seeing you next week.
And thanks again to Nick Dka from rhtographs and from Arkhills,
(36:13):
and hope you all have a great week, enjoy the awards,
take care everybody, have a good one.
You're listening to the Fantasy Sports Radio Network. Ladies and
gentlemen to the Fantasy Baseball We'll welcome everybody. This is
(00:24):
the Fantasy Baseball Hour. I'm your host, Al Milk. You're
thank you so much for listening during this uh fine
time in the off season, middle of November. We've got
free agency going on, but really the news is more
of the awards that are going out this week and
uh a couple of injury notes um Arizona Fall League
(00:46):
about to wrap up, so we do have all of
that to go over on this show. But I'm super
super excited for today's guest. Uh. It's uh as far
as I can recall, the second time I've had a
professional musician on the show, but the very first time
that I can recall having somebody who's both a professional
musician and a professional fantasy baseball analyst. Uh. Nick Dka
(01:09):
from Rhotographs and from the band Arkell's is going to
be joining us uh in just a little bit. UH.
So very excited to talk to Nick both about the
recent work that he's done for Rhotographs, some really great
stuff that you should check out if you haven't done
so already, and also the Rkel's tour that's about to
kick off, so, uh, lots and lots to get to here,
(01:30):
So here I go. I'm gonna start with a couple
of injury notes here, and this one is is one
I really hadn't heard or seen much about, to be honest,
but it strikes me as kind of a big deal.
And that is across Korea just recently in the past
week had surgery to repair a deviated septum. So we
(01:51):
already know that Korea has dealt with back issues, dealt
with them for most of the season. Uh, perhaps an
oblique issue in there as well. And actually, this is
of the things I'm going to talk to Nick Dyke
about because he recently did write a piece on Carlos
Correa's season. So add to all of that the fact
that he was playing through a deviated septum that was
(02:11):
affecting his breathing. So you know, the the injury narrative
just gets stronger and stronger here in terms of explaining
just a surprisingly disappointing season for for Carlos, Korea. And
the other big surgery injury news is Gary Sanchez had
surgery on his left shoulder last Thursday, He's expected to
(02:33):
need three months to recover from that surgery, which, again,
barring any unforeseen kind of setback, UH, should make Sanchez
good to go for spring training and for opening Day.
And uh, I'm serve curious, actually, I've been curious as
to how people are going to respond to Sanchez coming
(02:55):
off like Correa coming off a bad season, although in
Sanchez's case it was really really much much worse a
bad at just one eight six, did have eighteen home
runs in plate appearances, but that's still for him, represented
a decrease in power and obviously a big decrease in
batting average. So now you you tag onto you know
(03:17):
the problems that he had, both in terms of performance
and in terms of health, the fact that he will
be coming off shoulder surgery. Granted it's his non throwing arm,
but you know still how that maybe could affect him
behind the plate or I should say, at the plate, uh,
for Gary Sanchez. And this also follows up on something
(03:37):
that I talked about. I think it was on the
most recent show here last week when I was talking
about JT. Real Muto. And now he's been put on
the trade market and his agent is saying that he's
definitely not going to be a Marlin by the time
spring training rolls around. And I, as I talked about
real Muto, just store of really without even checking myself
for thinking about it, kept referring to him as, you know,
(03:59):
the obvious first catcher off the board next year, and
then sort of circle back in that discussion and said, well,
you know, maybe it's not really that obvious. So I
put it to the test, the ultimate test, which is
a Twitter poll, and I asked, just put this out
right before the show, a few hours before the show,
(04:20):
and asked who should be the first catcher off the
board in and this was I probably just then didn't
even need to correct myself last week when I was
comparing real mooto It Sanchez, because the overwhelming majority in
this poll said, yes, real Muto should be the first
catcher off the board. The options were real Muto Sanchez,
(04:40):
and then I put other, uh, parahetically right in. Nobody
not a single person wrote in anybody, although three percent
did vote for other. So maybe Willson Ramos, maybe uh um,
maybe we'll controlst of those sort of doubt that uh
and I take at one reply, uh William's Sado. But
(05:01):
I think that was probably tongue in cheek. I think probably,
especially since on the last show I'd brand award on
here say that Asado is probably not going to rack
up that much time behind the plate anyhow, So Realmutoka, Sanchez,
everybody else. Three. And by the way, great turnout for
this poll. One of the best responded to poles I've
(05:25):
ever put out, so kind of amazing for the middle
of November. Folks really came through on this. So I
feel very confident in this sample, almost two to one
in favor of Real Muto, and that really did surprise me.
I wasn't I wasn't totally sure how this one was
going to turn out, so uh. In any event that
maybe partially is slanted by this news of the surgery,
(05:48):
maybe I don't have it before and after unfortunately, but
in any of it, there's your Gary Sanchez news, and
there's your Gary Sanchez poll in other news, A hundred
to you. And here's where another place where I was
wrung by the way I said, I think Abo was
gonna accept the qualifying offers this year hundred ryu did?
He took the Dodgers up on the one year seventeen
(06:10):
point nine million qualifying offer, and in retrospect, yeah, that
makes a lot of sense because he only made fifteen
starts this past year, missed more than half of the
season with the strain groin, and this gives Yo an
opportunity to build up his value, hopefully a little bit
better for another run at the free agent market. But
he certainly has sensational year and probably could have done
(06:32):
much better than a one year deal shy of eighteen
million on the market, but probably just figuring that he'll
do even better next year. But Rio one seven and
three with a one nine seven e r A at
one point zero one whip, eighty nine strikeouts and eight
two and a third innings, and that strikeout ratio, his
(06:53):
his rate was twenty seven point five percent, which by
far is the highest of his career. So he's had
a great opportunity to first of all, if you could
stay healthy, have a great season twenty nine and uh
improve its value. And we don't have a lot of
draft data to go on, even mock draft data, but
(07:13):
as I have been referring to in recent episodes, we
do have those nine two early mock drafts that Justin
Mason put together and across those nine drafts reuse average
draft position was two hundred points seven. So yeah, you
can get them cheap, and it's it's a great risk.
I think it's a great risk, you know, considering how
(07:34):
pitching does thin out, and that you can get somebody
really pretty late in the draft who gave you a
sub two e r A and a whip that was
just barely over one. You know, Grantities. He certainly looks
regression bound, but it's a great skill set and you
can get it very cheap. Apparently, if those two early
(07:56):
mocks are going to be any indication of what's going
to happen a few months from now. Also a couple
of notes that occurred, a couple of things that happened
very close to the last show, but just late enough that, uh,
it was not the last show. So this is sort
of old news. But the Raising the Mariners made another trade,
(08:18):
Malex Smith and outfield prospect Jake Freeley going to the
Mariners in exchange for Mike Zunino, Guillermo Heredia, and minor
league lefty Michael plas Meyer. Obviously, the big names here
are Zunino and Smith. Smith had a forty steel season
for the Raise, hit two nine six, little bit of
a minor power breakout, only hit two homers, but some
(08:39):
good doubles and triples power that we're supported by his
bad ball profile. Zunino very disappointing year at the plate.
Just hit two a one, did get twenty home runs,
which is sort of, I think, kind of the minimum
you expect from Zunino, and not that you should expect
him to hit for a great average, but to oh
one even for Zunino a bit disappointing and just forty
(09:01):
four RBIs thirty seven runs, which is also quite low
for uh, somebody who hit twenty home runs. So between
the run production and the batting average, that sank Zannino
down to twenty place in roto value among catchers according
to the ESPN Player Raider. So Nino maybe he should
rebound somewhat. I would think with the rays he gets
(09:25):
some nice away parks to hit in his numbers were
maybe a little suppressed by Safeco field. So it's it's
a it's an upward move for for Zunino and for
Smith going the other way. Uh, you know, I was
a little disappointed, actually, we were very disappointed by d
Gordon's production last year and especially stolen bases and um,
(09:47):
you know, jess A gurdu to the last couple of
years a little a little disappointing. So hopefully Malx Smith
can build on that forty steel season, but maybe hold
a little bit of skepticism there, hold back a little
bit on draft day. Uh, probably a little bit of
regression due for him as well. So that was the
big deal. Uh, Smith and Zanino involved in that trade.
(10:11):
The Pirates resigned Jung Hon I'm sorry, Jung Ho Gang
to a one year, three million dollar deal. Appeared in
three games towards the end of the season last year,
was on the restricted list, uh due to three d
u I arrests in South Korea. But he's gonna be
given a chance. Recording to Adam Bury of MLB dot Com,
he's gonna be giving a chance to actually play every
(10:32):
day now. Whether that comes at the expense of column
Iran over third base or Gang splits his time at
some different positions, that remains to be seen. I think
some of that probably has to do with maybe how
well Moran performs in spring training, so that'll be a
position battle worth paying attention to. And Uh, finally, in
(10:55):
terms of the news from the past week, Joe Mauer
announced his retirement. He finishes up with a three oh
six career batting average and a three eight on base percentage,
hit a hundred forty three comers over his career, and uh,
you know, was not a not a big fantasy producer
the last few years in his career, and of course
(11:15):
that his career was uh impacted by by concussions, which
is always something that you hate to see. But um,
you know, certainly a great player, somebody who will be
in in the Hall of Fame discussion. And uh you know,
certainly unquestionably you know, somebody who was very consistent in
(11:37):
terms of producing for for batting average, uh and on
base percentage. So as you're listening to this, maybe the
Side Young Awards have been given out. I'm coming to
you on a Wednesday here, So depending on when you
listen to this, you may already know as of right
now for my knowledge that that is still to come ahead.
(11:58):
But we do know the rookies of the Year show
Yotani in the a L and Ronald Dacuna in the
n L. We know our Managers of the Year Bob Melvin. Um.
What believe is wanted for the fourth time either the
three of the fourth I think of the fourth which
is uh after admit took me by surprise and Brian
Snicker winning it and deservedly so. Um over in the
(12:22):
National League. So anyways, the big ones you know, still
coming m v P. S cy Young's so be able
to break those down on next week's show. Now that
that is not being able to you know, look into
the future, but it certainly does seem like there's a
lot of anticipation that Blake Snell is gonna win. I
still think Justin Verlander has a very strong case. Uh
(12:45):
and uh, you know, I think pretty much the consensus
is that Jacob Degram is going to win over in
the National League. Uh. So we should have Nick Dyka
joining us. In fact, right now, got word that we
do have Nick Nika on the line. So, as I
mentioned earlier in the show, uh doing some great work
(13:08):
for Rhotographs also Baseball Prospectives Toronto, and also doing some
fantastic work with his band R Kels. Nick is the
bass player for our Keels and Uh, Nick very excited
to have on the show. Thank you so much for
taking the time out uh to join us here. And
I believe you're actually just on the verge of of
(13:29):
leaving for your tour. Is that correct here? Well, yeah,
thanks for thanks for having me. That is correct. We're
headed to the airport about two hours to take off
for Europe. So yeah, thanks for having me on. Yeah,
my pleasure. And I'm extremely honored that you're actually taking
the time to do this right now, you know, other
than that your uh bound for your tour in a
(13:50):
couple of hours here, So and I certainly do want
to talk about the tour, uh, talk about your talking
about your your new record. I don't know if we
still call them records. I'm showing h here. Uh uh
all right, that definitely works for me. Uh, But I
want to start with the fancy Baseball angle first. You know,
(14:12):
given that this is the Fancy Baseball Hour, but when
did you start playing Fantasy? I started playing probably about
ten years ago. I had some friends who were playing,
and it kind of stuck with me. Is kind of
a fun way to engage in baseball, and also just
to kind of keep up with the teams and players
that I wouldn't typically pay attention to. I'm a Canadian,
so I followed the Jays and the American League a
(14:34):
little more closely. But Fantasy I found was a good
way to kind of engage with again, like the ANL
and some of the more, you know, fringe players I
wouldn't be focused on otherwise. Yeah, it's it's absolutely great
for that. And that's really what what got was, you know,
the real magnet for me too, because I had been
sort of not following baseball as closely as I I did, uh,
(14:57):
you know a few years prior, and then when I
had a bunch of friends that were playing Fantasy and
it's like, oh, I gotta watch you know, I gotta
put on ESPN. So, uh, well, you've written some really
neat pieces for Rhotographs lately, and um, so I'll focus
on a few of them. You did a review of
Mike Fultonevitch's season, and you know, all all of us
(15:19):
who write for Rhotographs, you know we're doing you know,
breakout breakdowns and you know various you know reviews back
of the season. So you did one on on Foltonevitch,
and um you you actually referenced the piece that I
wrote around the middle of the season. Uh. And we
both kind of share a skepticism over what fultonevitch did
this year. So, um, what what spurs your skepticism and
(15:44):
where do you think he should be drafted going into
next year? Yeah, well, kind of what I wanted to
do was kind of build off the piece you wrote,
which was based on the skepticism over his swinging strike right.
And he has a very average swing strike right, and
typically pitchers who do show that swaying strike right aren't
able to post high strikeout rates from year in a year.
(16:07):
And uh, you know, I took a look at at
the second half, and I took a look at his
pitch mix and see to see if there was anything
he was doing that might suggest he's gonna able to
be able to sustain his performance. And I think that
given he is throwing his slider and fastball more often,
he might be able to sustain some of his development
(16:27):
that he made ineen, But I don't think he can
sustain all of it. Uh, he's just not getting enough
swing strikes. So I think around pick a hundred, he's
not gonna be a total bus there. You know. That
might be a round or two earlier, based on kind
of some of the early mocks, A couple of pictures
I've seen going after him that I'd probably prefer to
take would be Carlos Martinez because of track record, or
(16:50):
Hermon Marquez because of upside. So I don't think he's
gonna be a complete bus but I don't think expecting
the kind of b R A Lowers three rate that
he had this year, I think that's too much to
expect from him going forward. Yeah, I'm I'm with you
on that as well. And we're basically in the uh
(17:12):
the two early mocks which I talked about earlier in
the show. Uh, he went just inside to the top one.
I'm currently involved in a mock draft through Nick Pollock
in picture List, and we're currently in the ninth round,
and um, I've got a whole bunch of of starting
pictures in my queue right now. I just just took
(17:32):
Jose Barrios in the eighth round. I may go picture
again this ground, and so I've still got several of
those pictures in my queue now. Foltonevitch went in the
sixth round in the staff, but even if he was
still there, I would prefer every picture that's currently my
queue to Fultonevitch. Just to give you an idea of
(17:53):
how I think that he may be, you know, getting
overdrafted a bit here. So I certainly agree with you that,
you know, some of the the pictures that came after
him in terms of the two early mock adp Yeah,
I would would think he should go maybe you know,
two or three rounds later even than he did there.
So yeah, yeah, yeah, Uh, well you talked about a
(18:21):
couple of short stops, so start with the Manny Machado,
and um, he's certainly an interesting player to look at
now because, um, he didn't do as well with the
Dodgers as he had done with the Orioles. And then
of course you've made a lot of waves in the
in the postseason for a lot of the wrong reasons. Uh,
some performance related, some not. But how are you viewing
(18:43):
him now in light of the stint with the Dodgers?
And you know, you can put as much weight on
out the postseason as you like. I personally, you know,
wouldn't put that much weight on it. But you're looking
at the last couple of months, Um, how are you
looking at him? Yeah? I think the interesting thing about
his time with the Dodger is he continued to hit
better at home than he did on the road. And
(19:04):
what's interesting about that is Dodger Stadium excuse more picture
friendly than Oriel Park does. UM. So I think I
think Machado is kind of a safe that if you
if you want to take him kind of after pick twelve,
depending on you know your lead side, you know, that's
that's when I'd start to take a look at him.
I definitely feel like, you know, Francisco and Door and
(19:26):
Trey Turner should be drafted ahead of him, potentially Alex
Bregman depending on format in terms of shortstops, um, because
Bregman is just so good when it comes to Watson strikeouts.
So if you're in a points league, he might be
a flight favorite over Machado. UM. But yeah, I think
I think Machado is a player that it's the splits
(19:49):
are kind of confusing, given that he hits so well
at Oriel Park, but then he didn't hit well at
any of the other picture friendly stadiums that he spent
a lot of time in, like Yanti Stadium in Fenway Park,
So there's not much sense to it. But I'm inclined
to just kind of ignore it given his his lawn
track record of success and and start to look at
(20:11):
him any time after Yeah, well, you know, and I
think again, I'm not really sure what to make of
it either. But if you were inclined to look at
it optimistically, you could say, well, yeah, he went to
Dodger Stadium, which is not really uh, like you said,
not nearly as good of a park for offense as
Oriel Park is. And so maybe we don't worry about
(20:32):
where he lands because it's it's probably just not a factor.
Um and uh. You know, so that that is an
interesting angle that you took in in the column that
you wrote. And also I'm glad that you brought up
Bregmant because that's gonna be a real dilemma for me.
And I haven't done my projections yet, and you know,
as of right now, I feel like it's sort of
a toss up whether it's whether it's points or um Roado.
(20:53):
I'm not sure which way I would go. I would
certainly go Lindoor for sure, maybe Bregman. I would not
go Carlos Korea over Machado. So you wrote about Korea
too in a different piece, and I mentioned at the
very top of the show Korea just had surgery to
repair a deviated septum. So that's interesting news on top
(21:15):
of all the back issues and the fact that apparently
he wasn't you know, really breathing well this year. Um,
what do you make of all that? Where would you
rank him visa the Machado or Bregman or Trevor's story
even for that matter, Yeah, I think, Um. The first
thing I wanted to mention was just I'm getting really
(21:36):
skeptical of the Astros and how they're kind of leaking
out information about their players health. It It makes it
very difficult from from a fantasy perspective. You know, I
thought Jose Altuve had nize arness, not that he needed,
but you know, it reconstructed me. Um. So I'm finding
that kind of problematic and that makes that makes it
(21:57):
harder to make kind of in season decisions. But about
guys like Korea who you know have back sore nows
and then they're out for a month and a half,
you know, so there there's that to consider. I think
I would take him over Trevor's story, but it's well,
what we'll really what I would do is, I think
you're going to be able to get Coorea later, so
(22:18):
I try to wait on Corea as opposed to having
to pick story earlier on UM. I took a look
at Um one of the picture list marks. It wasn't
the one you were in now, but one of the
other ones. He didn't get drafted to the fourth round.
He got drafted after Tommy Fan and Corey Seeger, and
I would definitely take Korea in the fourth round. I
(22:39):
think that's great value. I think you can get him
the third round. That's probably gonna be good value. He's
he's not you know, he should be going after Machado
and lindoora Um and Turner and and Bregman. But I
think in terms of the second tier of short stuffs, uh,
he can provide a lot of potentially added value if
he's if he's able to rebound. Yeah, and that that's
(23:01):
the if. Um. You know, certainly, I like, you know,
the fact that he's you know, certainly at an age
where you like his chances for that. I did take
him in the uh pictureless mock that I'm in at
the end of the third round, so I did feel
like it was good value. UM. Corey Seeger was still
out there and actually stayed out there for a while
I'm okay with that. Yeah, I actually I think that's
(23:23):
gonna be an interesting dilemma for people to corea versus
a seeker. So shortstops pretty interesting up near the top
in terms of the risks and how people are gonna
going to manage those. So, um, well, I do want
to talk a bit about our kel's. Uh, And one
thing I want to ask you about is how you
actually find the time. I mean you're not just a
(23:45):
fantasy baseball player. I mean you're you're an analyst, you're
a writer. Uh, how do you juggle all of that? Yeah? Well,
I think one of the things about being in a
band is it it means there's lots of time, like
in airports and my hotel lobbies, like waiting around in
sound check. So I try to use those moments to
be as productive as possible, you know, whether it's like
(24:07):
looking looking at Twitter for all the latest news in
terms of baseball and stuff like that, or just popping
on my laptop in the hotel lobby, or or waiting
for a flight to to try to get some some
writing done or do some analysis. And so that's basically
right kind of how I try to do it. It's
just be as productive as I can and kind of
those hurry up and wait downtime moments, and uh yeah,
(24:30):
I guess I guess that's that's probably what I try
to do. Although yeah, I, like anyone, I end up
just on you know, Instagram the same time, like like
anyone else, Lea. I was actually just realizing. So at
the top of the show, I said, this is, as
far as I can remember, the second time I've actually
had a professional musician on the show. The first at
(24:51):
Scott McCoy from R A M on the show, and
he talked about talked a lot about, you know, obviously
his own fantasy baseball playing, but he was saying, how
you know, Mike mill like you kind of have to
you know, he has to sort of you know, get him,
you know, off of his phone or his laptop. He's
really obsessed with it. So I'm like, maybe this is
a bass player thing. Uh, it's it's people know how
(25:15):
to day. Josh Donaldson got traded to the Jay's. Our
guitar text literally stopped, he like stopped during the show,
and he just made a sign that said Donaldson just
got traded to the Jays. He just held it up
on the side of the stage. I didn't believe him.
I didn't believe him, that's yes, So I thought, maybe
you're you're getting punked or something there. Yea, yeah. Uh well,
(25:41):
so all right that your album Rally Cry just came
out last month, is that correct? Yea, yea, in October. Yeah,
and I've given it a given it a few listens.
I typically can't don't know about you. I really can't
write and listen to music. But while I'm doing my
research before I start writing, I like to put a
little music. So I've I've done some good work to
(26:01):
Rally Cry lately. How long did this take off for
the whole process of writing, writing the songs and and uh,
you know, recording it in the studio. Yeah, so we
did this one kind of differently. Typically, what we'll do
is we'll kind of we'll go on tour and then
we'll come back and then we'll hold up in a
studio for you know, five or six weeks straight and
(26:23):
and really right and record the whole thing. But this
time we were pretty busy touring, so what we did
was we actually just kind of popped in for a
couple of days. If we had you know, a week
off between tours, we'd go in for a couple of
days and record a song. So it took us all
in all, probably about ten months of just kind of
going in and out and doing three three days at
a time type of thing where we'd record one song
(26:45):
and we'd hit the road again, come back record another two,
and so on and so forth. So yeah, we started,
we started about this time last year recording and yeah, yes,
that's just you know, like I said, that's incredible And
I guess like you said there, maybe your time is
a little you know, uh bunchee that you know, you
have these moments in airports and stuff, you can manage
(27:08):
your team, but that's you know, that's that's quite the
commitment there. Uh. How do you feel about the album?
And is is there maybe a particular track that uh
that's a favorite for you? Um, it's you know what,
it's it's hard to pick. It's a little bit like
you know, picking between your kids in terms of thinking
a favorite track. But uh, I definitely I'm very proud
(27:28):
of the record. I know one song uh called Relentless
that was like a fun one, an interesting one for
us to record because we used the sample on that song,
and as a rock band, you know, we don't really
use samples. That was our first time ever doing it,
so that was kind of cool to to learn how
that works and like learn how to try to play
(27:49):
with you know, play with like a basically a prerecorded
element in in the in the track because we're not
we're not used to that, and we think it turned
out great. It was. It was really fun learn experience.
And you know, even though we're a rock band, we
you know, we love all sorts of music and like
rap has samp Like every rap song has you know,
twenty samples in it, So it was really cool to
(28:10):
to kind of dig in and try to get our
feet right with that. Uh yeah. Well and definitely you
know comes across in the album that you all have
a lot of influences in different different types of genres
that that you like. So it's it's, uh, it's an
interesting mix. Um So. To encourage people to pinably read
your read your work on rhotographs, but to check out
(28:32):
rally cry um so. As you you mentioned at the
top here, you're going to be taking off very very
soon here eminently, uh to join the band for for
your tour where all are you going, And you're starting
in Europe right yet. We're headed to Europe tonight, and
we've got date in Germany in the UK over the
next few weeks, and then we've got some tours lined
(28:53):
up in Canada and the US for February and March.
So yeah, we should be kind of all over the
Eastern and western seaboards in the US and then we're
going to cross Canada in February. I'll be very cool,
I imagine, I imagine. So, but well, I I, uh,
(29:13):
you know, I wish you the best of luck with
with that and uh, you know, be uh looking looking
for news from your tour. I got ask this though,
Uh will we see any more work from you in
the near future on rhotographs, Because I know I've asked
you about how are you juggling everything? Uh? Does this
fancy baseball kind of go on the shelf? Now we're
gonna we're gonna se more work from you? Oh no,
(29:35):
absolutely not. I've already got to the Lord of Scurril.
Uh data queue up. I'm going to dig into tonight
on the flight and so I think that's gonna be
my uh my next my next column for Rhotographs taking
them a look at his half season and see kind
of what he looked like going into fantastic. Okay, well
we'll be looking for that too. So uh well, like
(29:57):
I'm sure you've gotta get going here. So I again
really appreciate you taking the time out. Best of luck
with the tour and with the album and with LORDA.
Scouriel and all of your other analysis. Uh So, folks
should check out Rally Cry from Markel's and check out
Nick's work on Rhotographs and Baseball Prospectives Toronto. Nick Dyka,
thank you so so much for joining me here. Thank
(30:18):
you all right, take care. Uh So, again, that's Nick Dyka.
Please do check out his his work. He's a fairly
recent edition over at Rhotographs and has just written some
great stuff. So um uh do do to go check
that out? Uh So. Uh one thing that I did
(30:40):
not get to and actually haven't talked about in a
few episodes before Nick joined us was taking a look
at what's going on in the Arizona Fall League. And
now it's really a pretty good time to do it
because it's almost over. The championship game is actually this Saturday.
Uh So, that you could you're pretty close to just
being able to put a bow on those final stats.
(31:01):
And granted, those stats almost never really mean a whole lot.
I think maybe in the most extreme of of outlier
cases that if somebody unexpectedly has a really great Arizona
Fall League. And I can't think of specific examples, but
I do remember situations, maybe within the last two three years,
where somebody got a little bit more of a shot
(31:22):
in spring training because they did so well in the
Fall League. So uh, somebody who definitely has received quite
a bit of attention is Nate Pearson. The unfortunately probably
should have kept Nick on for a couple more minutes
because the Blue Jay's prospect. He does have a six
twenty e r A in twenty and a third innings
(31:43):
in the Fall League, and he's walked thirteen batters, so
that doesn't look so great. But basically what's really helped
him garner a lot of attention is the fact that
he's throwing triple digits and he pitched in the Fall
Stars game and hit one oh four there with the fastball,
and he does have twenty three strikeouts in those twenty
and a third inning, So some good, some bad, uh
(32:05):
for Pearson, But you know, given that too, he missed
almost the entire twenty eighteen season after one of his
first appearances breaking a bone in his forearm. Uh, there's
a lot there that's that's very encouraging. So his stock
certainly has gone up. John do plant here, his is
of right now leading the AFL and strikeouts. He's got
(32:27):
thirty two in just twenty one and two thirds dings.
So I think his stock maybe goes up a little bit.
And of course Forest Whatley has been one of the
best pictures, but that that was to be be expected.
Similarly of Vladimir Garo, Ju Dear has been one of
the best hitters. He's got right now, got a three
fifty one average. He has struck out six times. I
(32:48):
don't know how many plate appearances he has, but he's
twenty seven for seventy seven three one average. Uh so
in eight plus I think maybe eighty five plate appearances.
I think that's what what I'm to get out of
my memory, just six strikeouts. So uh, just continuing on
with great contact skills that he's show to the miners,
up seven doubles, no homers. Uh, But you know, I
(33:11):
think he's still he still should look at him this year,
despite the fact that you know, didn't have a home
run yet in the a f L. Colt Tucker is
having a very nice a f L and he's somebody
I think we could see up with the Pirates, maybe
not to start the season, but maybe mid season. Uh.
He by the way, has an identical batting line two Guerrero.
(33:34):
He's twenty seven for seventy seven three one average. That
part of the batting line anyway is identical. He has
stolen six bases and nine attempts, so not great efficiency,
but did still six bases. He stole thirty five at
Double a L Tuna this year, So Tucker somebody to
think about maybe as a stolen based source leader in
the year. This year, the leader in the f AL
(33:57):
a f L and home runs is Braxton Davidson of
the Braves. He's got six of them, and there's a
whole bunch with five, so it's not like he's exactly
running away with it. Hit twenty homers at Advanced Class
A Florida and the Florida State League, but had two strikeouts,
which is outrageous. Struck out nearly half of his plate appearances.
(34:20):
They proved that just a little bit in the Fall
League twenty eight strikeouts and seventy one plate appearances, So
you know, there's maybe something there in terms of power
for Davidson, but maybe he's got to cut back the strikeouts. Uh.
Peter Alonso overall a pretty good Fall League five home runs,
four stolen bases, but he did hit just two twenty
six or I would say went there against a handful
(34:46):
of games left. But strikeouts maybe a little bit of
an issue for him as well. Well. After he got
promoted to Triple A this past season, that rate was
twenty five nine percent, which isn't terrible, it's it's nowhere
in the vicinity of you know, a Braxton Davidson, but
it was a substantial increase from what he had done previously.
(35:06):
And then in the Fall League seven strikeouts in I
think a little more than a hundred plate appearances. I
don't have that number right in front of me. So
you know, again, you you sort of project from major
the major leagues, and this is somebody who maybe is
in danger of being around a thirty strikeout rate in
the Major league. So Alonzo mean, don't get me wrong,
(35:28):
you know, I would love to see him up with
the Mets right away and play all over or at
least the bulk of with the Mets, and I do
think that that's likely to happen. I think he'll be
a nice power speed source. But maybe just pull back
your expectations a bit in terms of batting average for Alonso.
(35:49):
But yeah, sort of nitpicking here. UH certainly UH would
be a great prospect to have in UH in just
about any format. So you know what that said, it's
not much that that's left there in the Arizona Fall
League and us. On that note, we're gonna wrap things
up here, so look forward to seeing you next week.
And thanks again to Nick Dka from rhtographs and from Arkhills,
(36:13):
and hope you all have a great week, enjoy the awards,
take care everybody, have a good one.
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