2025 End Of Season Recap

The 2025 fantasy baseball season is officially in the rearview, and we’re here to recap the chaos, lick our wounds, and pretend we saw it all coming. Nobody cares about anyone else’s league, but we’re going to tell you about ours anyway. We’re breaking down all the biggest trends from 2025 and seeing if there are any trends worth factoring into our 2026 season. 

We also take a long, painful look at our best and worst calls of the year. For some reason, the Ls haunt us more than the Ws. Superlatives? We’ve got ‘em. MVPs, LVPs, guys we’re done with, and a few players we just can’t quit. We also hand out Rookie of the Year, breakout, and bounceback awards.

Join us as we wrap up the 2025 season with a mix of analysis, fantasy therapy, and unfiltered honesty; and maybe, just maybe, help you get a head start on next year’s draft prep.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
You like fantasy ball, sense a chasm that I shall
not me hear myself stun spans and they can't even
count some of unifor gas I surround.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
It ain't even.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Matter be health well, yeah, several charges on everyone, nothing
else and I'm alreadium to hear my baby sounds just
like your name was, Mark. And it's a ride by podcast.
It's a rapp podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
It's a rapp podcast.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
It's a ride bo podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
It's a rap up podcast. I don't have a rap
up podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Got a turn off?

Speaker 1 (00:53):
It should rap bo podcast. Welcome back, Welcome back. This
is the podcast I have been on, joined by the one,

(01:17):
the only, the Fantasy Master, Lethrio Gray. Alright, how you
doing over there? Greg?

Speaker 2 (01:23):
I'm doing better than the Mets, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yea. And that intro collapsed about as well as the
Mets did there. You know, I thought I would go
somewhere today and I was like, no, we're just back
to the olds, as did the Mets. They just did
their old thing and they collapsed and didn't make the playoffs. Great,
I know it was.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Actually it was like, what is the most Mets thing
that possibly could Mets? And that is what's the most
heartbreaking thing that could happen, and that is having a
game where all you have to do is you only
have to do is beat the Marlins. The Reds had

(02:05):
already lost. They were like the red The Reds entire
team was like waiting to see what would happen with
the Mets. All the Mets had to do was win,
and they would have got into the playoffs. And and
also like the hardest hit ball of the year for

(02:25):
the New York Mets, it was Pete Alonzo's line drive
with the bases loaded, and it was a line drive
out to left to the left fielder. And so that
like that ended like their their best rally. They were
up I think it was They're up like twenty plus
games or something over five hundred. Was like everything they

(02:49):
could have went wrong went wrong for the Mets, and
that is very Metsian. That's how the Mets do. I Yeah,
I feel like they might have they might have made
a deal with the devil in like nineteen eighty six,
to the detriment of Bill Buckner. So the Mets did something, man,

(03:11):
they did something that cursed themselves. They have like like
there's there's definitely bad teams like the Pirates, like top
hitter was like Tommy fam Like there's bad teams in
the major leagues. The Mets were not a bad team.
They were definitely a little bit ill prepared as far
as pitching goes, but they're but they're hitting was really good.

(03:33):
I mean, they had a good team. They should not
have missed the playoffs. They are really I mean, it's
not like I mean the fact that they they didn't
really have the best of pitching, but the fact that
the Reds made it to the playoffs, Like the Reds
were not a better team than the Mets.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
But yeah, anyway, oh well, yeah, I mean they lost
serious in the last Like I mean, in the last
handful of series, they lost one to the Marlins, the
Nationals and the Rangers. These teams are not even trying
to win, Gray, and they just they couldn't get it done.
The Marlins probably were trying to win that last game

(04:15):
just to just to pull a full match and let
them let them enjoy their sulk in their just disdain
for the whole offseason. But a three hundred and forty
three million dollars salary and they don't make the playoffs.
Gray that's yeah, that's pretty brutal. And yes, of course

(04:39):
the way it happened was also just awful. Like you said,
they didn't really have the pitching. They waited too long
to call up their pitching that was in the minors
that maybe could have helped. Maybe maybe they wouldn't have
in the long term, who knows, but it just it
all just fell apart.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
But let's just let's move off that top. Actually, before
we move off of that, I hope they don't think, like, uh,
I hope they don't plan on being like the Orioles,
where like they have, you know, they have great pitching.
The Mets this is have great pitching coming up, so

(05:18):
they don't feel like they need to add any pitching
in the off season. Like I don't know if like
where the Orioles didn't add anyone because they felt like
they had, you know, they had great hitting, so they
felt like they were they could have just coasted to
the playoffs. But I hope the Mets don't do the
same because I mean, I like Jonah Thong.

Speaker 4 (05:41):
And Sprout and McLean, but the I mean they're gonna
be rookies, Like you can't trust rookie pitchers so I.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Don't know anyway. Anyway, now we can move on. I
was just thinking about how like the Mets may think
that they're gonna be in better shape next because they
have like these rookie pitchers that are going to be there,
but who knows where you're gonna get from that.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Yeah, maybe press the challenge button on that idea of
not signing anybody Gray, but one thing that they'll have
next year that that'll be across the whole league. You know,
we are going to get robot MPs to some degree.
It god be a fun, fun addition to the to
the league. They're doing the challenge system like they did

(06:28):
in the All Star Game to start at least, you know,
the there's no way the Umpire Union is just to
let you you straight up replace one of four umpires.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
But I would like to see the the robot MPs
instead of like you know, because it's like it's metaphorically
a robot MP in that it is actually just a
video camera and someone in a booth is looking at

(06:58):
it to see if it's a strike or a ball.
I would like to actually see like a Johnny five
from short circuit like on the field making the balls
and strikes. I want to see actual robots, is what
I'm saying. That's what I want. If I were the commissioner,

(07:18):
I would have robots coming out. It's like, oh, we're
exchanging the lineup cards. Wait, why is that robot ump
breaking Tino Francona's arm? What is he doing?

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Now? Get the robot off of him?

Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah. No, I'm actually excited. I you know, I saying,
like rob Manfred as much as as much crap as
we give Manfred, Like, yeah, he deserves it, obviously, but
the pitch clock was like, the Pitchclock's one of the
best rule changes in my lifetime.

Speaker 5 (07:56):
And robot umps like even though it's like getting a
piecemeal and they're not going to be completely like across
the board, you're gonna have to do the challenges like
you mentioned, I fully embrace the robot homs.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
I'm I'm ready for that to happen. And anyone who's like,
you know, because like people were saying, you know, Keith Law,
ESPN's Keith Law or no, excuse me, the athletics, Keith Law,
Now excuse me the athletics. Keith Law was saying that
catcher frame framing by a catcher is like, you know,

(08:33):
not real, not a real thing. Basically, I'm I'm paraphrasing.
You can look up what he actually said verbatim, but
he said something like catcher framing isn't really a real
thing because it's like you're taking, you know, a pitch
that is not really a strike and you're trying to
make it a strike and vice versa with like, you know,

(08:55):
it's like you should just like if you have balls
and strikes and you have an actual strike zone, you
should call balls and strikes like that. It's like somehow
along the way we've discovered like, oh, catchers can bring
a ball in and frame a pitch to make a
ball look like a strike. It's like, yeah, okay, but

(09:16):
it wasn't a strike. It's not a strike. There shouldn't
be like, oh, this pitcher was in the league for
twenty years, so he gets a bigger strike zone than
this rookie. Like no, that doesn't make sense. Like I
don't know, man, I want, I just want. I want
balls and strikes the same for every pitcher and every hitter,

(09:38):
and like, you know, it shouldn't be like oh, Wan Soto,
you know, just because he has a good eye, a
home played umpster more likely to give a call a
ball for him versus you know, a rookie hitter like no, no,
he should get the same strike zone as everyone else.
So I'm fully on board with this. I even though
it's only gonna be two challenges or whatever it is

(10:00):
per game. Hopefully this will get rolled out this year,
excuse me, in twenty twenty six, and then you know,
going forward, we'll get maybe we'll get more challenges, and
then eventually it'll just be across the board. I imagine
it's gonna take some time, Like how you know the
DH wasn't the DH and the AL and the NL

(10:21):
for many years. I don't know if we're gonna need
that many years to have robot umps, but we probably
are gonna need a good I would guess like five
years before it's really considered something that's gonna happen across
the board for the whole game. But I'm ready for man.
I feel like a ball should be a ball and

(10:42):
a strike should be a strike. Call me crazy, but
that's what I want.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah. I will say every sport has its version of
like veteran versus rookie calls, So I do understand that
to some degree, but I'm with you, like, let's just
get the calls right and let's move on from there.
I hope that eventually we get to kind of where
football is starting to move, where you know, if it's close,

(11:09):
you have to use a challenge. But if if an
umpire misses a pitch by four inches, then they just
kind of automate it from you know, the headquarters, and
they say, hey, they mess that one up. We're just
gonna we're just gonna fix this one real quick. Like
that's why I would like it to get If we're
more than two inches wrong one way or the other,

(11:30):
like let's just let's just free youjust and let's fix
that one and not have to waste a challenge because
it's stupid. Like that's where I would like us to
eventually get with this. But I'm I'm appreciative of at
least the challenge system. We can get rid of some
of it. And also maybe this will bring down the
umpire is just just a notch. I know it's they're

(11:51):
still gonna be way up here in terms of their
thought of themselves. But if we can just bring them
down a notch, that'd be great. Because this just means
like at least twice again. Aim, we can be like, hey,
you know what you were wrong? We you can mean,
you have to admit it because it's on the board
and this is now your job to admit that you
were wrong.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
You admit it. That'll be part of the challenge. Rules
should be like not only do you have to not
only is the call wrong, but the umpire has to
get on the the stadium mic and say I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yeah. I mean, if you have to say you were
wrong and I'm sorry, I feel like that that has
to lower you a little bit and make you more reasonable.
Ask any any person in the world who's been in
a relationship. You have to say I'm sorry repeatedly, you
get pretty good at it real fast. Versus if you
don't have to say it at all for years, it's
it's a little bit harder because you know, you were

(12:48):
single and you were just I was.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah, no, yeah, Okay, let's not go too far down
your I'm.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
Not gonna try to not kicking out, can any.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
Further you go too far down your relationship with But
I was gonna say, though, like I do wonder because
like human psychology, when it comes to OMPs, Like I
would imagine that if a guy is like if like
if someone gets challenged and they're wrong, say like five

(13:20):
six times in a row, like they like they keep
getting challenged and they're keep getting it wrong, and like
they have to overturn it. I do wonder if that'll
like affect their strike zone, and like I would imagine
it would like I could see like a potential where
like you know, they had their strike zone was too
narrow and they kept getting calls overturned. For the picture,

(13:44):
I could see by like the third inning, like their
strength zone expands and suddenly they're calling more strikes and
then it goes the other way. Like I wouldn't be sure.
I wouldn't shocked me to see that happen that, Like
you know, eventually, you know, the umpires get to the
point where it's like the challenges are messing with their
head and changing the strike zone. I could I could

(14:06):
see that happen.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
I mean, I feel like it's just more accountability, which
is a great thing for a untouchable union of people,
Like we should just have some accountability built in and
this this has to help for that, Like they have
to be like I keep missing them low like, obviously
I have to pick up that low ball, and that's
there's definitely umpires out there who miss certain parts of it.

(14:27):
And I will say just I'm fully rewinding. Now back
to the catcher framing. I feel like that was always overblown,
Like it's not catcher framing, it's the catcher being a
veteran and getting the umpire to be like that was
a strike. The umpire is watching the ball, You're not
watching the glove Like it's it's kind of ridiculous that

(14:48):
framing was thought of. It It matters, but it's not.
It's not in all, be all type of stuff. So yes,
let's move let's move it into the future. Let's get
these things right. Great, unlike some of our calls this year,
but let's get into that. Let's get into our wrap
up of the season. It's gonna be a long show,
so let's just let's move into it here. First off, Grade,

(15:12):
I know, no nobody everybody says nobody cares about your leagues,
but I mean, some people care about your leagues, So
why don't you why don't you tell the people how
your leagues went?

Speaker 2 (15:24):
So how did your leagues go?

Speaker 1 (15:27):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, you know, I will I was winning town Wars.
I was winning for I want to say, the majority
of the season. But yeah, I stumbled badly that league.
I had uh, I had Elie de la Cruz, James
Wood Ranger, swore as Lozardo, I had a lot. I

(15:52):
had a lot of guys who did not have good
second halfs. So unfortunately I ended up in second place.
I lost that league and then Labor. I was never
good in late for this year. This year, for some reason,
I won. I won Labor last year, but for this year,
for for whatever reason, my team just never clicked offensively

(16:12):
in Labor, I I well, I mean I know why.
Gunner Henderson has a big, big part of that. Yeah,
there's a I had. I had a lot of guys
who just you know, I don't know. The team just
wasn't built as good as you know, because I usually
I draft hitting heavily too, But for whatever reason, the

(16:34):
hitting never really was there. You know, Surprisingly, I draft
hitting heavy and pitching light, and my pitching I had
like almost maxed in uh in k's and wins earra
and whip I was. I did really well in pitching,
but yeah, my hitting never got there. The r c

(16:56):
L League this year was brutal.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
Man.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
My only my safe grace for the RCL League was
on the last day of the season on Sunday, I
streamed nine pitchers and that managed to knock Sun at
a first place. So I was just happy to I
was happy to knock Sun out of first and knock
him into second. So he didn't win back to back years.

(17:22):
So yeah, the r CL r CL League was not
good for me either this year. Yeah, it's NFBC. I
think I came in fourth in one league where it
was like that was a struggle to get to fourth.
I you know, I don't think at any point I
was ever really in contention to be in the top three. Uh.

(17:44):
In those leagues, the top three are paid, so I
would have made money if I got to the third,
or at least I would have got my money back
if I would have got to third. But yeah, I
never got the third. I was in fourth at the
end of the year. There.

Speaker 1 (17:59):
Yeah it was.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
It was in a great year as far as my
leagues went. Unfortunately, Uh you did you did good though, right?

Speaker 1 (18:07):
I did? I did all right. I won the CBS
in all only auction league. That's that's about where I.
I and my I did well part of the uh
the conversation because the rest of my leagues didn't go
quite as strongly. Uh. There was a lot of not
great teams that I had for different reasons, you know.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
The r c L.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
I thought you, I didn't think you were going with
the Sun angle. I thought you were gonna say you
snuck past me by one point, oh yeah for sixth
instead yeah me and.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
You were you you were battling for six plays. Yeah, no,
I was. I. I didn't really care if I came in, uh,
fifth or ninth. I just wanted to beat I just
wanted to beat Sun and strikeouts and I did. I
think I beat them by like four. Crazy thing is
I barely eat him in strikeouts, uh, which knocked him

(19:03):
at a first, but then he would have But then
I wasn't paying uh I had. I was out when
the lineups locked, so I could have actually moved Trevor
McGill out of my IL slot and moved him into
my lineup because I had one empty spot. And if
I would have done that, I would have got the

(19:24):
Vulture win from Trevor McGill, and that would have actually
put me in front of Kirksey, who actually won our
r c L e, and so that would have actually
bumped stan Son, it would have bumped Son back up
to the top. So I by me not starting, McGill

(19:44):
actually again managed to keep Son into second place, So
it was it was good.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
It was a half point win for Kurtsey, So congratulations
on him for that win in the Parts League.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
Not only did he win that, but he wanted like
I'm not even sure. I feel like he might be
trapped under like a stack of phone books since March.
Like he made no moves I don't even know, Like
he he made like maybe three moves a month and
for an RCL league like Sun made five hundred moves.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yeah, he had no moves left for the last day. No,
he's the only person I know who does this him
and trust trust, he's pretty good about it too.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
But yeah, I mean I think Kirksey, I think used
like maybe fifty moves all year or something less than
maybe yeah, maybe forty, Like he made thirty two moves
all year. So that's like, so if he was actually
paying attention, were we were all chasing a zombie team,
If he was paying attention, probably could have been like

(20:51):
top three in the entire RCL if he would have
maxed his points out because I feel like just streaming
relievers nothing else. Streaming relievers gives you extra keys and
you could move up at least maybe three or four
points at least. And like he was, you know, like

(21:12):
I mean amazing that he was able to win that
league on only for only thirty moves all year. I
mean that's crazy. That's like one it's like one move
a week. Who does that in RC?

Speaker 1 (21:26):
In RCL of all places. I mean, if you got
a good team, you got a good team, why why
mess with the the mojo? You know it obviously worked.
I've had leagues like that where you know, the roster's
two good, so why why add anybody to it? Yeah,
the the you know only I was was kind of
like that. I didn't do a lot of additions there.
I mean I definitely made some pickups, but it's you

(21:48):
know only like unless you're getting one of the big
trade guys or I mean all the all the rookies
are own because we have Itch and Scott White and
like three other prospect guys in that in that league,
so like you can't even get prospects called up unless
it's a random injury call up or something. So a
lot of my team was what I had. My biggest

(22:09):
spin spins was Kyle Tucker, Zach Wheeler, Akunya Matt McClain,
and Roki Sasaki. Those were my five biggest spins. Kyle
Tucker was amazing, Zach Wheeler amazing, but they both got hurt.
You know, I got Caleb Durban, I got Michael Bush,

(22:30):
Andrew Abbott I got for two dollars, Brady Singer I got.
It was really pitching, like I was, I led the
league in pitching, which is really weird for either of
us to do. I spent most of my money on hitting,
and still it was the pitching that they kind of
carried me.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
Yeah, yeah, that's it. I mean that for me the
times like and No only Town wars Is and only
the league where I was, I ended up in second
and I was leading for most of the year. That
was on pitching because like you know, I feel like
the years I win, it's when my pitching does well
because my hitting is gonna do well because I invest

(23:08):
in hitting unless unless something goes completely wrong. I mean,
you know, my hitting is usually stacked. I mentioned Elie
de la Cruz and James Wood both had bad second halfs,
but I also had I had show Hee Otani in
that league and having and Andy Pahez, So having those
guys in an NL only league like Otani alone is

(23:32):
like all you really need. So my my hitting's fine.
It's just like, yeah, the pitching, you gotta, you gotta.
It's hard, because only it's hard to have both pitching
and hitting. Like it's like you're you know, it's an
auction league, so you can't just you know, it's difficult.
It's the only leagues are difficult. So you know, hats

(23:54):
off to you for whenning the the CBS and only
because NL only or ALE only are not easy leagues.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
Yeah. Absolutely, And just to give the opposite side of mine,
the ALE only, I finished absolutely dead last, and I
got this because I had class A, Pablo Lopez, Anthony Santander,
George Kirby, zach Ef Flynn, Jason Dominguez. Like that's that
sounded fine? It was not fine, Gray, Yes, it was

(24:23):
not fine at all.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
Fine.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
One last shout out congratulations to Jory who won the
De Facto RCL Podcast League, because I couldn't get a
podcast league going, but he won the league that the
RCL Podcast League, So congratulations to him. Let's jump into
some content here real quick, Gray, not even quick, We're
like twenty minutes in already. Let's talk about some lessons

(24:49):
learned real quick from twenty twenty five that we can
carry into twenty twenty six. Obviously, we talked about the
rule change that's going to bring something, but a rule
change we've seen for a few years now. This is
the first drop in stolen bases since we got that
rule change, and it was still the third highest and last. OK.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
That's interesting. Yeah, that's interesting because I did feel like
steals did feel down. I wasn't. Yeah, I mean, it
sounds like they were still up compared to before the
pitch clock. But yeah, that's that is kind of interesting
because it felt like a little bit harder on defined
steals than the last two years. Hm h Yeah, I

(25:32):
don't think. I mean the fact that you know, like
I think Josh Naylor sort of like epitomizes the pitch
clock and how I would look at steals like, I
still don't think there's any way like people will say,
there's like you could project steals, which I guess you can.
But and Juan Soto too also proves this, like if

(25:56):
a guy wants to steal a lot of bags, like
there's no way of predicting that Jan Soda is going
to approach forty steals and Josh Naylor is gonna steal thirty.
So I mean, yes, like Chandler Simpson can steal a hundred,
but also like, you know, I don't know, like say

(26:18):
James Wood, you know, like he could steal thirty for
all we like, we like, it's impossible to really know
for sure. It was kind of interesting that it felt
like this year, a lot of the guys who you
were anticipating, like I know, like Ellie de la Cruz
felt like he wasn't running as much.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
You know, it just it felt like a.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
Weird year for guys you were relying on for steals,
and then guys you weren't relying on for steels were
the ones that were stealing bags.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
But yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Don't I don't know if there's any any really like
any found wisdom there that you can take forward to
twenty twenty six, because I feel like steels are just
so unpredictable with the pitch clock. It really comes down
to how much a guy wants to steal. Like, you know,
it's like Jose Ramirez is capable of forty steals, Is

(27:13):
he really gonna steal forty bags? I don't know. He
could steal twenty, he could steal forty, he could steal
somewhere in the middle.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
You know.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
It's like it's really difficult to, uh, to really put
your finger on exactly what a guy is gonna do
as far as steals, which I do think before the
pitch clock it was kind of the opposite. I feel
like steals were like the most predictable because it's like,
if a guy's fast, he's fast. If he's slow, he's slow.
Like if there's no pitchclock, I don't think Joshnahler steals

(27:44):
thirty bags. Now He's he's obviously an outlier, as is
Juan Soto. But yeah, and uh, you know, I just
I think it just goes to say, it just goes
back to, like you like, if a guy wants to steal,
he could steal. You know, at the end of the day,
you're you're probably looking at for steals. You're gonna be

(28:05):
looking at guys who are fast and who have a
history of stealing, and then you're gonna get these weird
anomalies like Josh Naylor and Juan Soto where it's like,
even though they're not fast and they have no history
of running, they're gonna steal you know, thirty bags and
you know, hopefully you get lucky and you grab one

(28:26):
of those guys.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah, I do think there's a team bias here too,
or manager bias, you know, kind of they kind of
go hand in hand. But there's definitely teams who don't
run nearly as much and there's teams who run as
much as humanly possible. Some of that is, you know,
what they have on the roster. You see the Nationals
Brewers and Reds at the top and raise number four.

(28:49):
They obviously have some of the game's biggest steelers you
know out there, but it's also because they let them run.
Whereas we've discussed White Langford and he has all the
speed that you need to steal, and he did find
in regards to steels, but he could steal forty and
he's still in twenty two. Like, there's definitely some factors
that you have to look at it in regards to

(29:10):
stolen bases that you know, it always felt like manager matter,
but pre pitchclock, pre stolen base rules, like if you
were a good stolen based guy, you were still going
to get your steals regardless of the manager. And it does,
like you said, it kind of feels a little different
now where you kind of have to grab them as
you can and from some random places at times. On

(29:35):
the opposite side, Gray, the odd year home run streak continues.
I think I'm the only person who says anything about this,
But you know, if you go back to twenty fifth,
we have to go back to twenty fifteen to find
an odd year that doesn't have more home runs than
every other even year in that time, and we know
they're changing the balls constantly, So I don't even think

(29:56):
it's odd year. I think it's just they go from
live ball to dead ball and just happens to be
an odd year. With that in mind, Dray, any thoughts
on how you might target home runs if those are
slightly down and stolen bases were also slightly down, or
is that now just kind of putting it at all
at an even level here?

Speaker 2 (30:14):
Yeah, No, I don't think there's any real takeaways other
than you know, maybe you know, I feel like you
just gotta draft. You gotta draft power heavy, whether you're
really you know, whether whether you want to or whether
you think the Homers are going to be.

Speaker 1 (30:31):
Down or not.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
I think you just I just feel like that just
strategy of just drafting a lot of power either way,
as you know, the smart move. Like you know, I
was mentioning earlier with my labor team. This year I
had a down year. I won last year. I had
a down year this year. Last year I had Aaron Judge.
This year I could have had Aaron Judge. I just didn't.

(30:55):
So you know, it's like that he's you know, it's
like the whole like you know, oh, there's power later,
so you know, you know, don't worry about grabbing homers.
It's like, no, no grab homers if you can. If
you can grab homers, keep and keep grabbing them. So yeah,
I like I like the draft power heavy early. So

(31:20):
there won't be any real change for me. I do
think that, you know, Uh, I don't know if there's
any real takeaway as far as you know the odds
you or even your thinking either. But it is interesting though,
and you know the fact that the ball changes every year.
I mean, you know, it could be Rob Manfred sitting

(31:41):
in his his layer being like this year we're having homers.
Next year no homers.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Yeah, and it's weird. This year great, And maybe it's
not weird because I'm going back and looking and it's
not as weird as I thought. But if you look
at the top five people in the place, I mean,
Otani is as a monster and a Soto decided to
run randomly this season, but like Aaron Judge, Otani, Raleigh Sodo,
Schwarber as your top five. When you think of those guys,

(32:13):
you think of power hitting over stolen bases, other than Otani,
you just think is amazing and everything because he is,
like it's it's more power at the top this year
than I can remember it being traditionally. I really feel
like it's more balanced normally, where we get a lot
of power speed guys towards top and they come later

(32:33):
and then they come in bunches. But the top edge
of this season was definitely the power guys.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
Yeah. I mean we had a catcher hit sixty homers.
That's like insane. I mean I know he was, like,
you know, he was one guy, but two giant ass cheeks.
But yeah, I mean it's just it's crazy like cal Rawleigh,
I mean, epitomizes the hour for this year. I mean,

(33:02):
sixty homers from a catcher. It's just like, again, and
we've said this many times this year, but the fact
that you could have had, you know, a sixty homer
catcher in like, you know, the ninth round of drafts,
like or you know, for whatever he went for an
auction leagues, maybe twelve to fifty, you know, twelve dollars maybe,

(33:25):
I don't know whatever it was. But it's just like
you could have basically had him in every league, Like
it wasn't there wasn't any leagues where it was like,
oh man, you know, cow I had the wrong draft pick.
I wasn't able to get cal Raleigh. It's like that
that doesn't exist.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
You had plenty of chances at him, Yeah, you had.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
You could have got him in any any league you
wanted them. So yeah, but you know, I mean you
kind of could have had Kyle Schwarber too. I was like,
you know, I totally underrate Kyle Schwarber. Every year I was,
I was in on Aaron Judge. I just didn't I
didn't end up with them anywhere. It's just that was

(34:06):
just a matter of like the like the Otani, Judge Soto,
like a few of those, like the top guys like
that was kind of a matter of where you were
drafting in a snake draft, Like if you weren't drafting
and like you know, the the if you were drafting
in the top two, you were taking Bobby Witt or

(34:27):
Otani probably or if you were drafting like later on,
like say you were drafting like tenth or twelfth overall
in a snake draft, then you know, Judge would have
been gone already, or Wan Soto has probably gone already,
and you know Otani and Witt were gone ready. So

(34:47):
it's like, so some of those guys, it's a matter
of where you were drafting. But you know, then you
have other guys like Cal Rawley and Kyle Schwarber where
you basically could have had them anywhere anywhere.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
You spend one hundred do of your auction budget on
Bobby Whitten Aaron Judge, and then the rest of the
team collapses in on itself. That's that's also a possibility
as goes one of my teams, That's okay, that's okay.
Grey one. Last one last note from this season, lowest
K rate for pitchers since twenty seventeen, which by the
way was eight years ago. Trying to think. I was

(35:19):
like yesterday, do you think there's any adjustment we should
make for pitchers next year? Is it back to to
k's rule everything around me? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (35:29):
You know, I feel like the adjustment I made with
the pitch clock when I decided to forego k's to
go more for k's minus walks and go mostly and
mostly just command, go mostly just walks, walk per nine

(35:50):
or whatever or walk rate, whatever, whatever you want to
look at for command. I would I feel like that's
the way still, because like with the pitch clock, if
you're walking guys or even if you're throwing, you know,
balls out of the strike zone, you're giving guys a
chance to run on you and get into scoring position.

(36:11):
I just feel like, you know, a big like Dylan Cees,
for instance, led the league in K per nine and
you and he had a four fifty five ERA. So
it's like, I feel like that says everything you need
to say as far as like strikeouts go, Like strikeouts
are nice, but if it's not coming with really good command.

(36:35):
I don't. I feel like then you're it's a bit
of a flawed approach, Like I like, I like, you know,
Garret Crochet and Scoobale and U Yamamoto and Freddy Peralta,
but they're also they're they have a better walk rate
than you know, Dylan Cees. You know, It's like Joe

(36:57):
Ryan pitched really well until September, but he also had
a great he had a great walk rate as far
as you know, as well as a good Caper nine.
So it's like a Caper nine I feel like, is
it's great to look at if you need strikeouts, for sure,
But I'm still I'm still feeling like you need to

(37:19):
have good command at the end of the day. Like
it's like that the strikeouts are only going to go
so far. Like you look at like Shane Boz had
great strikeouts, but his walk grate was a mess and
he had a four eight seventy array, So it's like
you need you need to have the command. So yeah,
I mean, I I think as long as you can

(37:41):
make up strikeouts with the middle relievers, I feel like
that's the best bet for you. And and just you know,
look at strikeouts minus walks. Still I'm still not I'm
still not sold that there's anything but strikeouts minus walks
is like the best thing to look at, which is,
you know, it's kind of crazy to boil the entire

(38:02):
and the entire you know, boiled starters or boil pictures
down to one simple thing. But really like strikeouts minus
walks at the end of the day, I mean there's
other things like is a guy's like, you know, able
to throw better walks than he showed this year, Then

(38:25):
you know, maybe there might be you know, like Dylan
Cees had an off year as far as his command went,
so why so then you look at like why was
his command off? And maybe he can get back to
where he was in twenty twenty four. But for the
most part, strikeouts minus walks really like that that tells

(38:45):
you kind of everything you need to know in a
lot of ways.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
Or they could be named you know Jack Flaarny, who
is terrible.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
Yeah, well there's definitely, yeah, there's definitely some exception to
the rule.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
Like I just.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
You know, the history of like who is it like
Ricky in Alaska and Andrew Heaney, Like it's like the
history of like these guys who had, you know, great
peripherals and just never put it together. So yeah, I mean,
you know, Jack Flaherty looks like a guy who's really

(39:25):
like excellent under the hood. I don't know what's going on.
I don't know what's going on with above the hood,
though it doesn't look good above the hood.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
Now he was he was good a month and then
bad for two. That's pretty much how his season went gray.
I think the one adjustment I might make off.

Speaker 2 (39:42):
We would maybe like Jack Flattery becomes like Nick Pivetta,
where you know, it wasn't like Nick Pivetta. For a
long time looked like he was much better peripheral wise
than he actually was at the end of the day
when it came to his uh, you know, actual results.
But this year Nick Pavetta put it together. So maybe

(40:03):
Flattery puts it together at some point. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
I actually might be on him, you know, on him
next next year. He got a little unlucky this year,
but that's also because his draft price next year will
be absolutely nothing versus this year where he was going.
I thought a little early last thing, I'll say for
k's real quick, I will say the one change I'm
probably making for next year is especially for my sp one,

(40:28):
and both of both of us tend to wait for that.
I'm not going with somebody who doesn't get me strikeouts,
like I'm not going with an Era WHI innans guy
for that. I'm getting strikeouts from that guy, and then
I'll you know, adjust from there. But I think that's
probably the change that I would make is at the top.
I'm gonna get those big K guys and try and

(40:50):
rack them up early and then kind of balance it
out as we go. Let's get into superlatives Gray Best
and Worst Calls twenty twenty five. And I know it
seems like on any social media the fantasy community, who
remembers all their best calls? I only remember my bad calls? Great,
so making the best list is tough for me. But

(41:11):
what are your some of your best and worst calls
of the year, Grant I don't.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
I also only remember my bad calls, So I feel
like maybe that's why me and you work out so
well here, because I too, only remember the bad stuff,
Like oh my god, I was like I was so
crazy about some people and I was like, wait, like

(41:38):
what happened to that guy? I want to say specifically,
like this isn't like this didn't make or break your season,
but this one, this one sticks out to me. I
was like, I heard the fences were coming in in Baltimore,
and I was like, Oh, Ryan mouncastle, he's gonna be

(41:59):
so oh good. I feel like Ryan McCastle hit like
three homers this year. I mean, he had like the
worst year ever. I think he honestly, I think he
had less than ten homers this year. I don't know.
I mean he wasn't he was injured at times. It's
not and you know, just sticking with the first basement theme,

(42:20):
I was absolutely sold Michael Toggli. It was gonna be
so good. Michael Michael Toglia was gonna be my Like
that was like, oh, okay, you want to draft, you
go ahead and draft her. Pete Alonzo's I'm taking Michael
toggle was terrible, awful, you know, as bad as Brenton

(42:43):
Doyle was. Michael Toggley was actually worse and Brenton Doyle.
By the way, I fell for the Rockies outfielder thing
two years in a row. Two years I felt for
that stupid Rockies outfielder thing. I was totally convinced that.
Like I was like, oh yeah, Breton Doyle, Uh yeah, no,

(43:05):
he that whole curse of Nolan Jones is that's a joke.
That ain't real. That ain't that's not a real thing.
There's no way, there's no way that happens again. Absolutely.
I also was like I was totally bought in on
everything everything Braves except for Michael Harris a second. I

(43:28):
guess Michael Harris the second was a good call by me.
But I was also totally bought in on Ozzie Alby's.
I figured a coon you would come back in April
and just totally be amazing. I was like, Matt Olsen
sounds he seems fine. Strider. I was like, actually, I
didn't draft Spencer Strider anywhere, but when he was pitching

(43:50):
in March, I was like, I kind of regret not draft.
I was totally like, oh, yeah, Spencer Strider looks pretty good. Yeah,
I mean there's a you know, some of the good calls.
I guess was like, I don't know. I like Pete Alonzo.
I didn't draft him anywhere, but I did like and

(44:12):
he was like the top first basement. I liked him, though,
I didn't draft him, but I did like him, you know,
And that's at the end of the day, it's like
whether I like a guy or dislike a guy, I
feel like it's more important than whether or not I
personally have him, because you know, the whole point of
this is to give other people good advice. So yeah,

(44:32):
I mean I didn't have Pete Alonzo, but I did
tell people to draft him, so I felt like that was,
you know, a bit of a success. And then you know,
I told people to basically I told him to draft
Bryce Terrang who is good at second base. At the
end of the day, he was good, and you know,

(44:54):
I think I might also told people I wrote a
sleeper for mckel mckel arcilla, who ended up in the
top second baseman overall. You know, So there was I mean,
there was some good stuff. Elie day La Cruz and
James Wood. They were really good in the first half.
I love them in the first half. But then you know,

(45:16):
obviously that that whole thing, that crazy thing, that that
little nugget that fell apart on me. You know, I
don't know. I did like O'Neill Cruz, unfortunately he looked terrible.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
All of us. Yeah, both of us on that one.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I don't know. I didn't
like I didn't like Willia Domas going to San Francisco that,
you know, that looked correct. Not liking him, I didn't really.
You know, there's a lot of people who I didn't like,
who who didn't do well. Boba Schett I didn't like.
He did well. So there's that.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
I mean I've had I had some really had some
okay calls, I think, and then some probably terrible calls.
You know, I don't know, maybe maybe it evens out.
I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Look, Boba Schet was fine, Gray, I mean, you're counting
on him hitting three eleven. He didn't have twenty home runs,
he didn't have five stone bases, Like, it's fine. At
the end of the day, the counting numbers are there,
and he had the average and nobody else, nobody else
this year hit for average, so that helped him a lot.
But come on, like eighteen and four, I'm not even

(46:32):
taking an l for that. I honestly, I know I
hate him and I still won't draft him, But like
eighteen and four, I'm not taking the YL for that.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
I was thinking about, like honestly though, I mean to
a certain extent, I do feel like that is a
thing a lot like it's like you like, you may
be wrong, like or I may be wrong on specifics,
but the spirit of something like it's like, boba, shit

(47:03):
he was. I mean, he did do well for fantasy.
But if you're going out and you're trying to draft
every you know under twenty homer, no steal three hundred hitter,
it's bad process, you know, like it just is like
that's not good process. At the end of the day,
it's like, yeah, I mean, he did do well, but

(47:26):
you can't you can't rely on that.

Speaker 1 (47:29):
No, I mean the ninety four runs in three eleven
is the whole is this whole package, and you don't
know if that's gonna be there or not. You're in,
you're out. Those are hard things to count on. So yeah,
I think the process was right. I will again hate
him next year when he gets overdrafted. So and again
you're just like the upside isn't there even if even
if you drafted him where he ended up, like you

(47:50):
feel good about that? No, Like you can add somebody
who's way better than him. You know where he went.
So don't give me that nonsense. Most of my people
are Remember that I was good about where people I hated, like, uh,
Marcus Simeon, I hated Freddy Freeman, Uh not so much.
I hated but you hated him Kyle Schwarber, and I
moved him up simply just despite you. When I was right.

(48:14):
Everybody hated Aaron Nola, I think, but I hated Aaron Nola.
I love Nick Covetta a year in, year out, dude,
just I just do. I don't know why Michael Garcia
seemed like an easy steals thing. I guess we talked
about Michael Bush and I guess I get that right.
But at the same time, I think I dropped him
across all leagues at least three times this season, so

(48:35):
I don't even know if that's right. A lot of
the ones we got wrong were, you know, Ellie O'Neil Cruz.
Those are bad. Jackson Merrill. I feel like we all
love Jackson Merrill and got her Henderson and then they
just was hurt. Jackson Merrill sucked.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
Got her. I didn't love Jackson Merrill, okay, which but
unfortunately James Wood was the guy who I went four
instead of Jackson Maryland and that go way better. That
was that was way better, go way better. That is definitely.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
A W.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
But I mean there was a little bit of you know,
there was a little bit of a struggle bus on
the second half of that. It was definitely it wasn't
all peaches and cream with James Wood.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Unfortunately, Mary Coppoll and Jacob de Grom like, sorry, I
didn't think he'd actually throw a season. Did anybody think
he was gonna throw a season?

Speaker 2 (49:29):
No? So no, I ever, no, I was off on
under Grom for sure. I was totally off under Grom.
But that is that again. I feel like like with
the Bobaschette thing, where it's like, technically I was wrong,
but process wise, a guy who's like, you know whatever,
what is he thirty three and he's just throwing his

(49:50):
first full season, that's I feel like that's good process
to avoid that. I mean, you you can go ahead
and draft him and maybe you get the one dream seat,
but yeah, I don't think that's good process.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
Yeah, thirty three was so generous. Great, he is thirty
seven years old.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
So he's thirty seven.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
Oh, he's thirty seven. Austin Miley Marcelo is doing that.
Two more braves to throw on the pile. Jason di
Mingez I really thought, I really thought this was the
year for Jason de Mingez. Matt McClain. I'll just you
can just bury me on that one. I'm just done
with that. Christian Walker, Dylan Cruz I also thought were
gonna be gonna just take their next step. Not Christian Walker.

(50:31):
I just thought he'd do what he'd always does. But
he didn't even do that, and Dylan Cruz got hurt.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
So it is Christian Walker was like I mean, we
we were both wrong on Christian Walker. But that again
not to make excuses for us, but listen to me
when I say everyone thought Christian Walker was gonna be
good in Houston. Houston is a smart team. They went

(50:55):
out and they got Christian Walker, who pulls the ball
and has the short porch at the Crawford boxes. I
mean that, if you didn't think Christian Walker was going
to be good in Houston, I feel like you were.
You're just guessing at stuff. So we were, we were,
we were wrong, but we were we were right with
everyone else.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
I'm right there with Let's let's hand out some awards
let's go let's start with the MVP. Let's do a
best that's really not hard. We can just look at
the playwriter and then let's do a best value.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
Yeah, okay, so.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
The best I mean Otani, Judge, roly Soto, I mean
those were who were you taking? I mean, we got
to we have the draft, but who you leaning for
at one? Oh, it's got to be. It has to
be right, it has to be.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
I don't even think it's a question really, if you're
if you're, if you're a right minded person, I mean,
how do you not take the guy with fifty homer power,
twenty steel speed who hits three hundred and also chucks
and twenty he starts. I mean that's kind of I mean,
it feels kind of like a no brainer, even if
you don't get the pitching stats, because that's how your

(52:06):
league is set up. His hitting stats alone, year over year,
he's just he's so good. I mean, yeah, Otani easily.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
Yeah. And let's also not forget he was coming off
the shoulder leg ands you thing, so like he could
also get back to like thirty steals fifty six whatever was.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
Also a thing like people have completely forgotten the Otani
thing where it's like there was a large contingency of
people who are like I don't know if I'm drafting
because of the shoulder thing like crazy, you're crazy, No
he won't pitch, You'll still have fifty home runs. That
was a thing like that isn't like that isn't like

(52:48):
in retrospect like, oh wow, those people are crazy, Like
they were crazy then they were crazy when they were
saying it, so that was always crazy.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
Anyway, Yeah, let's talk about because that's really what matters here.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
Great al Rawley out of like out of nowhere. I
mean cal Rawley, I feel like he had the best value,
Like you know, I think if there is guys like
Pca had a great year for where you drafted him.
You know, Springer obviously had a great year for where

(53:23):
you drafted him, Eavaldi, but like cal Raley, I think
had the best year ever for value. I mean, if
you could get a ninth round catcher and hit sixty homers,
think co mom man, that's like you were hoping for thirty.

(53:43):
You were hoping for thirty. If you got twenty to
twenty five, you were like, okay, whenever he's a catcher,
you got sixty homers from him. I mean, it's just insane.
I honestly, I don't think we're ever gonna see anything
like it again. I would be shocked if anyone ever

(54:03):
comes close to Like I feel like cal Rowley, what
we just saw, sixty homers from a catcher. I don't
think we're ever gonna see that again, and that that
is so incredibly crazy.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
Yeah, maybe if Schwarmer or Otani you want to step
behind the plate, like, maybe that could happen. That's about it,
Like could be a catcher again and least valuable, playing
great and there is no shortage. Okay candidates, none, who
you're going with you?

Speaker 2 (54:34):
I you know, I Gunner Henderson really like he's screwed
up a lot of my teams. I I personally drafted
Gunner Henderson said, I really I felt the Gunner Henderson
like terrible season a lot. That that hurt my that
hurt a lot of my teams. Like I think he

(54:54):
ended up with seventeen homers twenty nine steals. Steels were nice,
but seventeen homers from your first round. Pick a guy
who you think you're you're you're assuming you're gonna get
thirty you're hoping for thirty five plus to get seventeen,
you're just it's basically you're I mean, it's like you're done.

(55:18):
And then to back that up into the second round,
I drafted Eurredon Alvarez. I mean, you want to talk
about my labor team. I had Gunner had I think
that I've got I might had E'redon Alvarez and I
had someone else. Maybe I didn't have gunn Her. I
had gun Her in a lot of leagues, but I
also had Eordon Alvarez in multiple leagues. And You'don Alvarez

(55:40):
was awful too. I mean he was like, you're assuming
thirty five homers. You're hoping having that big fifty homer
season from youord On that He's like hinted at you're
hoping for that. Instead you get what five homers? I mean,
You'redon Alvarez was miserable to to draft this year. Miserable.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
He absolutely was, I'm gonna go Jackson Merrill for mine,
just Gunnar Henderson also Barry teams with Jackson Merrill. I had,
I had so many places great and he's just he
was not good. You know, Corey Seeger is one and
Mookie Betts. I'm sure both of them killed a lot
of a lot of teams out there. They get an
honorable mention. I didn't have them on mine because I

(56:26):
didn't have them ranked there nearly that high. Maybe if
you guys would listen to us, but hey, you know.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
Maybe you listen to us. Would Gunner Henderson you're instead of.

Speaker 1 (56:36):
A Cory Seeker? You know? That's still or Mookie. I
would still take Gunner Henderson over Mokie. That was still
a win. Are you done? Are you done with anything? Great? Anybody?
Any any thoughts here? I know I have a couple
of thoughts. There are people I'm done with after this season?
What about you?

Speaker 2 (56:56):
I don't know. I think, you know, I think a
few of the guys who I feel like have aged
out that I'm done, like tay Oscar Hernandez for instance,
I think I'm done with them at this point. I think, like,
you know, looking at him for next year, you look
at him as like twenty five homer, two seventy hitter,

(57:18):
who's gonna miss like, you know, maybe twenty games or something.
So that takes some runs in RBIs away, so that's
that just he becomes a you know, one hundred and
fifty overall guy versus you know, the thirty to forty
overall guy that he was last year. So I mean, that's,

(57:39):
you know, if that's being done with someone, I think
I think Tay Oscar I think he's I think he's
basically finished, you know, as far as as far as
uh what he was. I think there's also you know,
I think I'm kind of out on O'Neil Cruz, believe is.

(58:02):
I don't know. I feel like I might be done
with O'Neil Cruz. I can't get my head around like
he can't hit two twenty or whatever. Like it's just
like he and he doesn't want to. He doesn't want
to run. The powers not coming in a way that
I thought it would. The Pirates suck, so the runs
and RBIs aren't there. I think it's time to put

(58:25):
away the O'Neil Cruz thing, unfortunately, because you know, I mean,
I really I love O'Neil Cruz for many years now.
But yeah, I think I'm I think I'm done with
O'Neil Cruz. I'm definitely done with Jordan Walker, that's for sure.
Remember him.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
Oh my god, no more, no more time for that
one great maybe in like a Joe Adell year in
seven years or something when he started two. Yeah, I
agree with those. I think O'Neill Cruz might be hitting
his Adelberta Monda speak where like this was as good
as it gets. Really like you look at it and
you're like, twenty thirty eight, be get like two forty.

(59:06):
That's not the worst thing in the world. But I
just don't know if he can put it all together.

Speaker 2 (59:11):
Gray.

Speaker 1 (59:12):
I think if he got traded from the Pirates, which
he tried to do this season and may have tanked
part of the season for that, if he can get
traded from the Pirates or are here, he's going to
work somewhere else that's not the Pittsburgh organization. In the offseason,
I could maybe get in, But I just feel like
the Pirates are just a terrible organization across the board

(59:36):
when it comes to developing hitters. They have not developed
a hitter since I don't know, like Brian Reynolds or
Josh Bell and like we're talking about the two most
boring hitters we've ever seen in our lives. Like that's
not good development and it's been thirty years, Like where
is your hitter. There isn't Barry Bonds or Andrew McCutcheon, Like,

(01:00:00):
those are the only two guys. And they still have
Andrew mcutcheon. He's thirty nine years old. They still have
n't they still have?

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
He was he was probably like their second.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
Most I hate to say. That's gotta be true, Grey.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Tommy Sam and then mccutchey.

Speaker 1 (01:00:20):
It has to be true.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
It was.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
They were so embarrassingly bad, Great.

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
Horwich fighting. Speaking of guys that are were done with forever,
I don't know if I'm done with them. Actually, I
guess it doesn't apply because I don't know if I'm
done with them forever. But Austin Riley is gonna be
really difficult to draft.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
It's gonna be really hard to get back Riley. He's
gonna be free. Like, if he's free, I'll take the
opportunity and we'll see. That's it. The Pirates great, they
had one one hitter who had a plus offensive War
one and Spencer Horwitz. Oh my god, so well, Yeah,

(01:01:07):
I'm not drafting Pirates. This is why are we drafting
players from these teams who can't develop anybody to hit
the ball. I'm done with it, Gray, and they don't
spend money, so you're not even bringing in people who
hit the ball. Moving on to people who can't hit
the ball and throw the ball, let's talk about some
rookies of the year all only. I really like it's
Nick Kurtz. We don't have to. There's no discussion. Who

(01:01:29):
would be after him if he didn't exist.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
I mean he didn't exist. I don't know. Probably his
teammate Jacob Wilson, I mean he did. I think he hit.
I'm gonna say he hit like three eleven or three thirteen.
He hit, he hit well. I guess him.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
Yeah, yeah, I think it'd be him. I think if
Roman Anthony hit stayed healthy, he could have gotten the
Boston push and maybe got there. But yeah, I think
it's it's Jacob Wilson or maybe Jack Lighter, who was
was you know, solid, it very serviceable. But it was
Nick Kurtz that there was. There's nobody else. The n
L is a little more wide open gray. Who do

(01:02:08):
you think it is from? From the n L?

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
I'd probably say Horton. I guess it's a tough I
don't know, it's a tough Who's I don't know where
the where are the Where are the odds at.

Speaker 6 (01:02:26):
The odds around Horton right now? That's pretty much it.
I would probably trust the odds if I were. If
I were gonna guess, I am Yeah, probably I guess Horton.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
Yeah. I think it's Horton and Baldwin. I think Caleb
Durwan deserves an audible mention as somebody that I did
like and I had him the NL only league that
I that I won. Uh and Nolan MacLean who came
out of the rookie and if they had called him up,
maybe the Mets wouldn't have blown it. Who knows. Let's
talk about some breakouts Gray and there were. There are

(01:02:59):
plenty of these as well this season. Let's who was?
Who were so many your breakout favorite bank breakout players
this season? Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
Man, you know what? I did like Junior Camerino. I
liked him. I feel like I liked PCA too, Maybe
not as much as you, but I liked him. I
didn't draft him anywhere, but I did like I didn't
like PC. Oh. I drafted and liked Chris Sanchez. That

(01:03:30):
was a late one because it was like once he
was throwing I think it was two or three miles
per hour faster in spring training. It was like, oh,
oh that's good. I'm in on that. Uh Andy pa
has I mentioned earlier. I drafted him in our in
my tat Wars NL only that draft. I believe that
draft happens like the first week of March. So I

(01:03:52):
was definitely in on Andy Pajas. I liked him. Oh actually,
on that team, I had Hunter Goodman, so I like,
I actually had Hunt Goodman probably more than any other player.
So you know that goes again to uh, you know,
punting catching. I wish I would have punted catching and
grabbed Cal Rawley. But Hunter Verman was the second best

(01:04:13):
catcher this year, so you know that that wasn't terrible.

Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
Actually, on that tow Wars team, I had Andrew Abbot too.
I liked Andrew Abbit a lot. James would he was
also on that team. Had I had a lot of
breakouts on that team. I wish I wish Rangers wore
as in the rest of those Shmohawks could have held
it together in the second half. Yeah, yeah, those are
some guys. I I'll be honest, I wasn't I liked

(01:04:41):
picking up Nick Kurtz, but I did not draft Nick
Kurtz anywhere. I I or maybe I actually take that back.
I think I did actually an NFBC league. I got
Nick Kurtz in one league, in the Draft Champions, which
is a draft and hold, I think I got Nick
Kurtz there. But from the most part, I wasn't drafting

(01:05:02):
Nick Kurtz. But I did. I was early in on
like picking him up. I I did, you know, I
liked picking him up.

Speaker 3 (01:05:09):
I just I don't know if I necessarily was earlier
than most people or everyone, but I was. I was,
I think on the on the beginning ends of that.
Who else, Yeah, I don't know. That's a lot of
players that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
Yeah, that's a good listen there. Do you have one
or two names you can throw for the people who
might be an early breakout candidate. They might get a
might get a post of their own this offseason.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
Ooh, an early sleeper. I don't know, man, you know,
I have to, uh, I have to sort of it
might be too early. I have to I have to
look at I have to look at some names. But yeah,

(01:05:53):
I mean, just looking now, I say this guy named
Brenton Doyle. No, I'm joking, not brent Doyle.

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:06:07):
I have to look at it. I have to look
at some names, but uh, I think it's too early
for right now. I'm I'm still we're still, We're still
doing the rap on twenty twenty five. Next week. Next
week is the twenty twenty six draft.

Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
Be a sleeper there, great tough one of five.

Speaker 2 (01:06:27):
Yeah, yeah, that's true. I don't know anyone who plays,
anyone who plays in Sacramento. I like anyone, any hitter
in Sacramento. I like anyone there. Yeah, we'll see.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
Well, that's a valiant place to put your your hope
and trust.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
Gray.

Speaker 1 (01:06:45):
Yeah, I don't. I don't know if I have an
official one yet, but I don't know. I mean, Roman
Anthony's definitely gonna be on that list. Jacob Marcy kind
of came out and showed a little bit. Brett Batty
might have started that breakout. Jordan west Berg was tagged
by a lot of people for it and kind of
just he was injured at different times and never got together.
I mean, I could see myself pretty much back in

(01:07:06):
on the entire Baltimore offense. That was one of my
thought processes this year was like if I just scrapt
everybody in Baltimore will start with Gunner. Then we'll just
work our way down the lineup. It'll be great. I
may fall for that again next season, so we'll see
if that happens. Bounce Backs Gray, there was, There was
definitely some good bounce backs this year. Who's the Who's

(01:07:27):
the winner of the Award?

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
No, I don't know. I'd probably say Trevor's story was
like I because I feel like Trevor's story was such
a bounce back that he wasn't even really considered like
Buxton sort of, but Buxton was just like, you know,
Buxton was always good if he was healthy. Trevor's story

(01:07:52):
hadn't been good or healthy in a while. So I
would probably say Trevor story because it was, like I
feel like, even if you were to say to someone
like you're gonna get one hundred and thirty games from
Trevor story, I think even at that point, people would
be like, there's nothing there anymore like his Like he's done.
So I think Trevor story. You know, Hobby Baias was

(01:08:17):
considered a bounce back in like July, but I don't
think he ended up really being a bounce back like
he really he had. You know, what ended up looking
like a bounce back from Hobby Baias really was just
him being good for the month of May and June.
And then that's kind of it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:37):
Yeah, kind of like the whole Detroit Tigers team. I
mean that was another just collapse.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
Yeah. True, but they at least made the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
They snuck in the playoffs. Yes, they just just barely. Okay,
great player most likely to repeat twenty or sorry player
most unlikely to repeat their success this year?

Speaker 2 (01:09:02):
To repeat their success this year, I you know, most unlikely.
I I mean I think we've we've talked about like
my PCA worries. I think we talked about them last week.
I just I can't trust anything that the Rockies do,

(01:09:22):
so anything Hunter Goodman, I don't. I don't trust that
really cal Rawley. I think we talked about cal Rawley
last week too, where it's like he hit sixty homers
this year. I mean, if you're if you're projecting him
for more than like forty two homers, I think you're
crazy probably And you know that's an eight high projection

(01:09:45):
still too. Yeah, and that's and that's eighteen homers off
of what he did, so that's definitely not I mean,
that's not repeating. Obviously, I wouldn't. I don't know if
you would, but I wouldn't trust the Graham or Paveta
necessarily to repeat. So yeah, I don't know, there's some.

(01:10:05):
There's a couple.

Speaker 1 (01:10:07):
Yeah, uh Paveta. I feel like it's still not gonna
be expensive, so maybe I'll have some. But yeah, I'm
not gonna own the grom. Eovaldi is another one, just
because he was high on the play Raider. I mean,
I don't think anybody's gonna be drafting him either. But
Eovaldi just does this every like three or four years.
He'll have a good season where he just lucks into

(01:10:27):
wins and throws all right, and then he's back to
his normal, not so good self the rest of the time.
Let's talk about the players you like to bounce back
after this tough season.

Speaker 2 (01:10:38):
Gray, Okay, No, no Braves. I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:10:43):
I can't trust not a single one.

Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
No, No, I don't. I can't trust the Braves anymore.
They really they've just.

Speaker 1 (01:10:52):
Done it over, completely disappointed the nineties. We're done with it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
I'm just I will It'll be hard for me not
to anticipate and Ellie dela Cruz bounce back. He is
so talented, I feel like Ellie de la Cruz and
unlike O'Neil Cruz, Ellie at least hits for a decent
average even when he like struggled this year. So I

(01:11:19):
feel like Ellie de la Cruz is gonna be a
guy who it's gonna be hard for me not to
be in on Ellie de la Cruz again. I anticipate
next week is our twenty twenty six draft show. I
imagine Elie day la Cruz is gonna be drafted, not
by you, at least by me somewhere in the top twenty.

(01:11:43):
So definitely gonna bounce back there. I kind of like,
Whyatt Lankford if he can, you know, if he can
keep his obliques healthy, I feel like he had. He's
still young enough where I think there could be something
there with Wyatt for a bounce back. And then you know,

(01:12:03):
I'm gonna as much as Gunner Henderson bothered me this year,
it's gonna be hard not to be in for the
bounce back there, because like I just think I don't
think he was healthy this year. I think he had
you know, he had a bad oblique in March and
never really got healthy. I don't think, and you know,

(01:12:25):
it cost him kind of his power this year.

Speaker 1 (01:12:27):
So I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:12:28):
I I hope I'm I hope I'm not in on
Gunner Henderson, but I think.

Speaker 1 (01:12:33):
I might be. I'm definitely gonna be back in on
Gunn Henderson. I just I just think he's a really
good baseball player. Like there's not there's not much more
to that than my thinking than that. I just think
he's a really good baseball player. Why Langford, I could
have I could definitely see him breaking out, and especially
because you gotta think Bruce Bochi's gone, Like his contracts up,

(01:12:57):
they were terrible, I mean terrible this season. They have
to be looking at a change and that can only
be good for White Langford.

Speaker 2 (01:13:04):
Like Bruce Bochie, he he hit Jack Peterson like third
or something in the line of Jack Peterson had he
had like a one sixty average at times Bruce Bouchie
was hitting him lead off. I mean, come on, man,

(01:13:25):
I cannot I'm not a major league manager, but I
can tell you Jack Peterson should not be hitting leadoff.
I mean, the only thing he does is occasionally hits
a solo homer. He does nothing else. He hits one
sixty with the occasional solo homer, and that's the guy
you want hitting leadoff, Like.

Speaker 1 (01:13:44):
Come on, man, come on. Bro Yeah, a little overthinking there,
and that's probably why he's gone and looking for a
new job. So I do like White Langford now, probably
like the Rangers in general, because they'll finally be allowed
to run, I would assume, And just getting away from
Bruce Brochi has to help the lineup as a whole.

(01:14:06):
I just I can't see how it doesn't. Yeah, although
that ballpark is still just horrendous. It's it's not doing
anybody favors. Maybe we'll make some changes this season that
would be That would be amazing. I haven't heard that
the rain the Rangers are changing anything in ballpark. Don't
They can bring the fences in like forty feet and
lower them ten that would be awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:14:26):
Oh yeah, we haven't heard anything about Bruce Bochy being
fired or in the stadium changing. But here's what we
really we really.

Speaker 1 (01:14:34):
Want these things to happen. Gray, Absolutely, that is the
end of season wrap up. Gray. As you mentioned, next
week we will be back to do the twenty twenty
six preposterous three early draft of the first twenty five
people give or take until then, enshoy playoff baseball, Go Cubs,

(01:14:57):
and uh, just let's just enjoy this play off baseball
that we get Gray and not have to not have
to write podcasts or set lineups. Well, I guess we're
still podcasting and you're probably still writing, but still we're
gonna just get enjoy some playoff baseball, and of course
I will enjoy football as well. If you have any
football stuff, I can still help you on Twitter. I

(01:15:18):
am at rasbeat on. Gray isn't at rasball account. I
don't think he's got much, but maybe he can send
you my way or to the Football rasball account. Check
out the Sunday Live show if you have start sick questions,
and always subscribe to our podcast on wherever you get
them and YouTube dot com slash Rasballfantasy. I will see
you next week, Gray, Talk to you later, all right,

(01:15:40):
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