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Speaker 3Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. And first pitch, rushing deep left field. This is what. Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today show.
Speaker 1Here on Thursday, October 1st, October Baseball is here. I am Frank Stample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we are going through all of Scott's awards. From Most Valuable Hitter to Vinny Vindication and everything in between. And I'm very happy to see that we all dress for the occasion.
Speaker 4Yeah, I'm wearing my best outfit. That's the best, Chris.
Speaker 5So Frank and I are wearing. I was out partying, okay? You were at the before party, not the after party.
Speaker 4Yeah, I was at the befores, waiting on afters.
Speaker 5Frank and I have black jackets. I have a black necktie and he has a pink bowtie.
Speaker 1I don't know if you can see that. Which kind of matches his face. Is it a clip on? This is actually like a burgundy velour jacket. And last year you made fun of me and you said it looked like I was from My Cousin Vinny. And I actually appreciated that.
Speaker 5So we look very funny. We look very formal. And then Chris looks like your cigar chomping uncle on a cruise.
Speaker 4This is a very fancy shirt with a lot of humpback whales on it. I've got a tie. It's like. It's like. I think this is just black. I thought I grabbed a different tie. I've got a. I think this blazer was $35 from Old Navy. Nice. I think I've had it since college. So I. Let's go Mets. I think I. I mean, it's not buttoned, but I think if I try to do that, I might have to take the rest of the show off.
Speaker 1I think we should all end the show by standing up so everyone could see what we're wearing
Speaker 4below. Yeah. Gym shorts. Gym shorts for sure.
Speaker 1Yeah. I've got the gym shorts and socks and then just like everything up top looks great here. But yes, here we are for the golden breadsticks. Let's jump in. There's a lot to get to. Here we go. At first, I thought
Speaker 4that was Star Wars. Like that first note, I was like, "Ooh, we got the Star Wars rights.
Speaker 1Okay." And we are not like other award shows. We are starting at the very top, the very best. And Scott, the most valuable hitter award for this season goes to.
Speaker 5Pete Crow Armstrong. Who else could it be? I usually, I mean usually, pretty much always this award has been about not just the best hitter in fantasy, but one who came at some kind of value. Pete Crow Armstrong. Yeah. Pete Crow Armstrong did. Yeah. He was the highest, the third round pick. And he was far and away the best hitter in fantasy, regardless of what format you played in. Just the seventh player ever to have a 40-40 season, nearly tripled his walk rate from the previous year. Just a phenomenal year for Pete Crow Armstrong.
Speaker 1The preseason ADP 32.9 finish as the number one player in fantasy provided $49 worth of value according to the Fangraphs Player Rater. And, I should have mentioned this beforehand, if you're listening on audio, thank you, but if you're going to watch any episode on YouTube, like this is the one to watch on YouTube. Not just for how ridiculous. Mike worked hard on these graphics. We got a lot of graphics. Not just because of how ridiculous we look. I created like 40 lower thirds today. I created this crazy, there's breadsticks, they look great too. Like I just wish I could eat some of these breadsticks right now. But yeah, it's like amazing lower thirds, we've got the background going, everything, all that fun stuff. Your most valuable hitter was. Pete Crow Armstrong. Scott, do you want me to do the drum roll for every award? Yes. Yes. Because I just, I thought people would just get annoyed by doing that.
Speaker 4No. Yeah, I was going to say, I think like Pete Crow Armstrong, obviously the top choice here and the right choice. There were some choices though. There were some options. They may be coming up.
Speaker 1Yeah. Yes, they will. And we're going to move very quickly through this because there's a lot to get to. So your most valuable pitcher goes to.
Speaker 5Again, a little too obvious. A little too obvious, maybe, but Jacob Mizorowski, it was even a bigger bargain than Pete Crow Armstrong. And though Cam Schlittler was certainly in the running, very close, a good discount pick himself. The only statistical advantage he ended up having over Schlittler was the 19 inning gap. Even wins and strikeouts, Mizorowski bettered him. And then the clincher really was the 0.12 edge and whip. Which I mentioned earlier, it doesn't sound that significant when they're both below one for their whip. But 0.12 is the difference between 1.10 and 1.22. And how differently would we value those two pitchers?
Speaker 1Jacob Mizorowski was the number two most valuable player in fantasy this year. He provided $43 worth of value, preseason ADP of 1.14.1. So if you drafted the Miz, pretty good chance you were playing very late. Late into your fantasy season.
Speaker 4And I think you can make an argument, he was just the most valuable player in fantasy. He went about 80 picks later than Pete Crow Armstrong. So Pete Crow Armstrong was a little more valuable in a vacuum, but that 80 pick difference, it's not nothing.
Speaker 1All right, Scott, let's go over to the best value hitter edition. And that award goes to.
Speaker 5Miguel Vargas. I wonder if this was one of the guys Chris was thinking of. Miguel Vargas was barely drafted inside the top 300. He made a small leap last year, enough to make him usable in fantasy, but I think everybody had ruled out the big breakthrough. It had taken a while for him to become adequate in fantasy. He ended up being, this year, Miguel Vargas, as the number one gainer in average exit velocity. Among all, all hitters. He ended up being the number 10 overall hitter in Roto Leagues. And do you guys, you want to know where Miguel Vargas finished among hitters in points leagues?
Speaker 1I just looked it up right now.
Speaker 5Third. Okay. Yeah. He was the third best hitter in points leagues.
Speaker 1Yeah. Tremendous plate discipline for Miguel Vargas. Just tremendous season all around. I mentioned this when we did some of our way too early bold predictions for next season. One of the ones I was toying with was Vargas finishes top three in ALL. MVP voting next year. What drags him down is the defense is not great, but gosh, and he underperformed his expected stats too. It's like, all right, can he get even better? Maybe. I don't know. Tune in to find out.
Speaker 5We'll have to see. When I dug in with him, I liked him even more.
Speaker 1Yeah. Second, third round pick next season on that fringe.
Speaker 5He's going to be late second for me and Miguel Vargas, unless literally nobody's drafting him there. And then I guess I don't have to either, but that my inclination would be late second.
Speaker 1I agree. All right, let's keep things moving with the best value pitcher edition and the award goes to Parker
Speaker 5Messick, a preseason favorite of, of Chris towers, especially a big part of my tout wars championship team is the 26th round, my 26th round pick. He had a strong debut last year. Didn't get nearly as much love as cam Schlitler, Nolan McClain, who also had strong late season debuts last year. I think part of it was just. Just because we didn't know if Messick had a rotation spot until the very end of spring training, uh, he ended up being the ninth best pitcher in Roto, the 11th best in head to head points. And he's about to go down as one of the biggest snubs in for, for rookie of the year ever, because he's not going to be
Speaker 4Kevin McGonigal, nor
Speaker 5should he,
Speaker 4but incredible rookie season. I think people just. because he wasn't really a prospect of note, like he wasn't a top 100 guy when he made his debut i think people just like actually slept on him and and missed how good his minor league track record was how good he was late last season and uh it's not gonna happen again he's definitely on radars now but that was a a rare i think one where the fantasy community just just missed out on a guy yeah and
Speaker 1he actually got better as the season went along his uh second half era went down to 230 his k minus walk rate first half 16.6 second half 23.2 so he actually got better he gained some velocity started going deeper into his starts as well just awesome awesome season all around here for parker messick whose preseason adp was right around 300 we didn't know that he was definitely going to be in the rotation but uh looking at some of the options there i think you could kind of read between the lines and and figure out that uh there is a good chance that parker messick would be in the rotation he was he was amazing all right we got four great awesome optimistic awards out of the way we got to bring it down a little bit the biggest bust of the season goes to
Speaker 5vladimir guerrero now i will tell you among players drafted in the top couple rounds garrett crochet cal raleigh they were worse but garrett crochet was the best player in the season and garrett crochet was worse because he was injured the whole year and cal raleigh uh he was widely suspected to be a bust coming in i i don't think anybody would thought he bust as badly as he did but there there was a lot of bust buzz for cal raleigh vladimir guerrero was an early round mainstays entire career up to this point and um just the power dried up and the only theory we really have for it was he was playing with an achy back all season which is a pretty good theory but it's not a conclusive one especially
Speaker 4because he was never all that good like it's not like he had you know a month where he looked like vladimir guerrero and he did
Speaker 5hit like 350 in april but not with the usual
Speaker 4yeah there was a power yeah so it was like yeah i this is one where i think we probably just overrated him because of the playoffs that he had but even then and we always drafted him that early he's never been this bad yeah yeah so i i think he's a clear bounce back candidate for 2027 um although he is only number 12 at first base for me so hmm it's just a lot of good i think i'm nine fight yeah burleson caglione and freddie freeman are right ahead of him i'm not so married to any of those guys that they have to be ahead of him so yeah yeah the
Speaker 1preseason adp for vlad 18.4 he finished as the 21st overall player according to the fangraves player rater woof that is a very very rough season there for vlad jr before we hit our first break once again big thank you to everybody who supported the podcast and all of our content all season long we really do appreciate it the best way to help us now is to drop a five-star rating and review on apple podcast or spotify and let us know what you enjoy most about the podcast if you're watching on youtube make sure to hit that like button subscribe stay subscribed we'll have a whole bunch of videos coming up next week of wacky off-season content lots of fun stuff uh before we ramp things back up in the beginning of 2027 let's take that break and we'll be back right after
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Speaker 1back fantasy baseball today you are watching or listening to the golden breadsticks our annual fbt award show we left off with the biggest bust and we will keep things moving let's get back on the the positives here the biggest breakthrough in fantasy baseball this season goes to jordan walker
Speaker 5is the biggest breakthrough we had given up on the possibility he had an underwhelming rookie season despite being a monster prospect and then kept taking steps backwards only to break through finally this year made the all-star team won the home run derby you know it's a it's a good reminder that 24 year olds who impact the ball like he does and that was never an issue for jordan walker he has hit the ball exceptionally hard you can't completely give up on those guys i think uh you know that the poor september might bump him out of round two for next year though we we may have a good explanation for why walker had such a poor september we'll get to that a little later but regardless the the breakthrough was complete monster year for a guy who uh who everyone had
Speaker 4given up on i'm a little wary of i mean everything about jordan walker in every direction next season because part of me wants to just look at what he did from like it was really june on where he was pretty pedestrian and say oh it was fake he just had two good months and then he turned back into who he was i think he had a big august i did but i also i yeah but it was like a 740 ops from june on i think from june 1st on or something yeah july and september weren't great and the problem is i did that with peter armstrong last year yeah and james wood where it's like oh they were so bad in the second half they could fall apart and it's like no that actually didn't matter and it generally doesn't full season statistics are more predictive than partial season statistics so i think you just take what he did overall and it was a very good year it's not the first rounder like he looked like for a couple of months but he doesn't have to be a first rounder
Speaker 1i'm very interested to see where the adp winds up for jordan walker because if he's in that round two three i think there are a lot of parallels to p crow armstrong and james wood as you mentioned that you know had flaws in their game rough second half last year but big prospects and obviously hit the ball really uh at least in in terms of james wood's case hits the ball really hard and so you don't want to kind of write that off too quickly and obviously jordan walker has immense tools and scott you alluded to this apparently jordan walker was playing through some hip pain and some other discomfort late in the season and that could explain his brutal september where he hit 172 with a 519 ops and a 37 strikeout where did he get that hip pain was it the home run derby oh we try to tell you every year chris compete at your own cost the home run derby ruins another sorry chris like he was
Speaker 4just playing over his head for a couple of months and then he got picked for the home run derby because he was playing over his head that's all he won the home run derby and
Speaker 1he put on a show too that it was an awesome home run derby that was a good
Speaker 4choice yeah sure but that doesn't mean he was as good as he was early in the season it's fine it doesn't mean the home run derby ruined him that's all i'm saying
Speaker 1let's keep things moving with uh the biggest breakthrough wait we just got really high there the biggest breakthrough this time the mid-season edition
Speaker 5luke kieschel popular breakout candidate coming in by the end of june he was hitting 245 with two home runs and a 645 ops i a league where i kept him i had dropped him by that point uh fortunately i was able to pick it back up later because from july 1st on luke kieschel slash 324 422 508 homered eight times over those three months with an approved pull air rate that gives me some hope he'll be able to repeat the power he showed in the minors and you know speed ability batting average ability they were already established so i think kieschel broke through in a way that uh that deserves to be honored here all
Speaker 1right yes again luke kieschel i do wonder about like his final three months where he was awesome the underlying stuff still doesn't look great in terms of just like expected stats and quality of contact obviously the pull there rate is very a good sign for him but even like the bat speed actually went down a little bit his fast swing percentage he's probably just never going to be good at those things - Yeah. - But yeah, underlying stuff doesn't look great over that final three month stretch so uh we'll see if he can kind of continue that that trick heading into next season let's continue on with uh the quietest breakthrough this year scott uh who would that go to
Speaker 5jake bowers i just don't feel like he was discussed nearly as much as his production deserved this was a guy like long long ago several organizations ago he was a huge prospect and just never did anything until this year remember early on when we were upset that he was stealing at bats from andrew vaughn well apparently it was a good idea jake bowers ended up being a top 15 outfielder in both scoring formats even with down the stretch he was playing with like a broken big toe and i think he had something else going on didn't seem to matter on base machine you look at his stat cast page it is lit up like a christmas tree he looks legit we'll see where he signs this off season because that could be significant but uh but yeah he definitely mattered this year jake bowers really
Speaker 4tough player to rank for next season partially because we don't know where he's gonna be playing partially because he's a soon-to-be 31 year old who's had one great season in his career and really like one good season in his career he was pretty good in 2025 but it was in a very small role um i ended up with him at like 16 at first base but that's behind like luis garcia i don't know i think i'd rather have jake bowers but we'll see where he lands so it's it's tough that's that's a really tough one because yeah everything about it looks legitimate he hit the ball incredibly hard his plate discipline was awesome he stole 11 bases 389 obp second
Speaker 1to only tj rumfield in the national league
Speaker 4which
Speaker 5we should call him tj max if he led uh
Speaker 4well no tj rumfield did so we would call him tj max yeah
Speaker 5jake
Speaker 4bowers was second that's
Speaker 5where i got this jacket by the way oh not really i have no idea
Speaker 4where i got it um so yeah jake bowers really tough player to rank for next season but awesome awesome
Speaker 12026 yeah picked up as a free agent in pretty much all leagues like maybe he was drafted in 45th overall player uh this past season in fantasy was jake bowers and yeah the expected stats are are awesome as well i looked into his splits he's actually better against lefties than he was against righties like where did that come from he had a an ops over 900 against left-handed pitching so if he goes to a team it reminds me a little bit of ryan o'hearn going to the pirates where if jake bowers goes to a team that's just gonna play him every day and i don't think people are going to to trust what he did and i think you're probably gonna get him as like a pretty steep discount and i don't know i'm very interested to see where the where the the adp winds up here on jake bowers as well all right scott let's uh go over to the most improved players and uh your most improved hitter was jack caglione
Speaker 5hard to believe that he hit just 157 as a rookie last year it was a bit of a head scratcher because his peak exit velocities were certainly there he didn't have major contact issues the strikeout rate actually got worse here in his second year but he hit 289 and from uh june 1st on he hit 317 with 18 home runs in a 914 ops average exit velocity was 97th percentile max was 98th percentile if you just if you project out those numbers from june 1st on and certainly the the stat cast data you know he puts the ball on the ground too much but otherwise the stat cast data loves caglione like it's it's it's not hard to imagine he could challenge nick kurtz for the top spot at the position next year i don't think you need to rank him that way or draft him that way but like it's it's serious upside beyond even the improvement we saw this year
Speaker 4yeah the batting average feels iffy i got he hit what 290 286 for the season something like that um i don't think he's gonna do that i don't think he's gonna repeat the 317 from june 1st on but if he hits 270 there's still a potential 40 homer guy here so there is upside for a number one first baseman finish yeah for sure i love this call
Speaker 1out i think it makes a lot of sense man he went from a 532 ops as a rookie to an 834 ops this season average ev up from 89.4 to 93.3 i do think he's gonna be prone to streaks just be a streaky type player because he does chase a lot of pitches outside the strike zone so you know maybe you're playing a head-to-head league just keep that in mind like you might get a weeks long months long stretches where he's just not very good but you also might get month-long stretches where he looks like one of the best hitters in baseball
Speaker 4there was also just a lot of inconsistency with the launch angle for him which was the thing we mostly focused on coming into the season he had too many balls in the ground he had a couple of months where he elevated the ball pretty well but in the second half it did come back down to earth helps the batting average but makes him a little less of an obvious standout in power like you would think he should be but hey
Speaker 5that preseason hype was justified didn't seem like it would be first but he ended up being most improved hitter yeah those first two months were pretty rough
Speaker 1all right let's move over to the most improved pitcher and the award goes to
Speaker 5kade cavalli he came back from tommy john surgery late last year and by the way he's by that point everyone was already kind of over it he had been a prospect previously but you know hadn't really shown a glimpse of his potential in the majors he got better with each month it seemed like this year uh really took off once he he uh met a certain control threshold and was a top 20 pitcher and i don't see a lot of reason to doubt at this point struck out 200 batters and 169 and two-thirds innings kade cavalli
Speaker 4i i think when you're talking about because like kade cavalli and jake bowers are pretty similar bowers is a little older he's going to turn 38 or 31 kade cavalli just turned 28 but 28 is old enough that generally speaking you don't care about prospect pedigree much but with pitchers sometimes this just happens you know like that's that's the thing it's a lot easier to be skeptical of late career breakouts at hitter because hitter development tends to be a lot more linear than pitcher but pitcher guys just sometimes lose it and sometimes figure it out and there's not really a good explanation for it although in cavalli's case health is a pretty good explanation because yeah he was a prospect like six or seven years ago and it finally worked out and i think it's just because he was healthy yeah
Speaker 1yeah he nearly doubled his k minus walk rate year over year from uh last year 11.4 percent up to 21 and a half percent this year for kade cavalli also had 18 quality starts this season which was uh top 15 in all of baseball it's like tied for like 12th if i'm looking just off the top of my head here but um yeah yeah awesome season very interested to see where the adp lies on him too because he i think he's really talented he showed that the nationals have faith in him they gave him that a contract extension already uh but also has dealt with a lot of health issues so i think you gotta kind of factor that into his costs as well all right let's go over to the best comeback award and that goes
Speaker 5to jordan or jordan i should say alvarez really there wasn't a strong contender for this category otherwise but he he's he's obviously the choice played in only 48 games last year followed it up by playing in a career high 158 this year hit a career high 42 home runs won his first batting title likely going to be the al mvp he's back and he's better than ever jordan alvarez maybe we should
Speaker 1have had chris announced that
Speaker 4award maybe that was my dude that was because i'll just say it because i say it all the time when the only argument against a player is that they can't stay healthy then you only need one thing to go right for them and that's what happened with jordan alvarez i do think there's some risk of over correcting because it's not like whatever injury risk was there coming into the season has just completely evaporated but he's probably going to be drafted as if the injury risk isn't there anymore um because that tends to be how we collectively view injuries you are injury prone until you are not one time and then you're not injury prone anymore and it's like no he's probably still more injury prone than your average player and there's going to be some risk and involved taking him fifth overall or whatever and that ends up being but yeah he's an incredible hitter that was that much has always been obvious and i do think people maybe forgot how good jordan alvarez can be coming into this season because he was not great for 43 48 games last year yeah
Speaker 1let's continue on with the best comebacks what about the best mid-season comebacks the award goes to it's a tie it's three-way split
Speaker 5fernando tatis jackson merrill and alex bregman i had to To honor all three of them under one header here, I was looking back at last year's awards, and I noticed I did 40 of them. And I looked at that, and I kind of skimmed through it, and I thought, how pretentious is this? We can't do 40 again. Like, that's just celebrating myself, basically. So I dropped it all the way to 35.
Speaker 1I was just going to say, I was like, yeah, I made 35 lower thirds today, Scott. Thank you. Don't worry. I added five at the top.
Speaker 5And even then, I grouped some together like this. Okay, so let me run through this real quick. Tatis didn't hit his first home run until May 30th, and then he hit 24 thereafter, reverting to his old mechanics. He had like a closed batting stance early on. It seemed like he was trying to – it's not totally clear what he was trying to do. I hit him where they ain't. Yeah, it seemed like he was trying to – Hit for more batting average, basically. It was a bad idea. Reverted to his old mechanics and ended up being the best version we saw since that monster season he had. What year was that? 2021? Yeah. I think. Jackson Merrill, slash, 219, 278, 350 in the first half. His OPS jumped about 300 points in the second half, slash, 304, 339, 569. And then finally, Bregman. This was disappointing for me because it looked like I had nailed the bust call. It looked like I had nailed the bust call on him when, in the first half, he hit 241 with nine home runs and a 696 OPS. But then in the second half, Alex Bregman hit 303 with 19 home runs, a 1010 OPS. Homer did his second game back from getting his face smashed in. And that ended up having his best season since 2019, the famous 2019 season where he hit 41 home runs and finished second to Mike Trout for ALMVP. Not that his numbers were anywhere close to that. But it was his best season since then. So, clearly not a bust, Alex Bregman.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think Tatis will wind up being a pretty firm first-round pick. I think Merrill probably two, three turn early, you know, third-round pick, maybe something like that. And then Bregman, look, people will remember what they saw last. And that was, you know, obviously him having a huge second half. And he plays a bad third-base position. So, it will be interesting to see how far people elevate Bregman, mostly for that last part, just the fact that he plays third. And this is a really, really bad position.
Speaker 4Yeah, he's sixth for me at third-base. And you just kind of can't move him down any further than that. Who are the five you have ahead of him? Caminero, Jose Ramirez, Sal Stewart, Miguel Vargas, and Kevin McGonigal. If you want to argue Kevin McGonigal versus Alex Bregman, I can hear it. But I can't really see moving Bregman below Manny Machado.
Speaker 1I was going to say, I think you can make the argument for Machado over Bregman. The batting average skills, yeah.
Speaker 4They feel very, very weak now.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's fair. Let's take our final break. When we return, we do have some quick news items to get to. Then back into the Golden Breadsticks. We will do all that right after this.
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Speaker 1Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. A quick pause from the golden breadsticks as we run through the news and notes. And Chris is back. He was partying during the break.
Speaker 4Can I get a ruling? What do we got? Frank, you said something before the show. I went to a concert. I saw Weezer and the Shins tonight.
Speaker 1Very fun. We know Weezer.
Speaker 4The Shins, you know, Garden State. They'll change your life. No? That's fine. But I got back like right before we started recording. And so I've got, I ordered some McDonald's that just got here. And Frank, you said I should eat it on air. This is a very laid back show. I don't want people to see me eat it. We're dressed better than we have all year. I think someone in the comments said this is the first time they've ever seen Frank without a hat on. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1I got a lot of product in my hair, too. I was just like, whip this thing together before we started here. But yeah, Chris, if you want to eat, if you want to go off camera, we'll do the news and notes. Whatever you whatever you want to do, man.
Speaker 4It's fine. They gave me Dr. Pepper, not Diet Coke. That's upsetting. Oh, yeah, that's. It's not like Dr. Pepper's fine, but it's. Yeah. We're not expecting it. It's it does.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's not. It's not a great feeling. It's a little harsh. Let's run through the news and notes. And as expected, Aaron Judge was not included on the Yankees wildcard roster. Trent Grisham and Giancarlo Stanton were on the roster. Stanton did not get a single at bat. Grisham started in center field here in game two. There will not be a game three. The Yankees swept the Red Sox, which obviously makes me very happy. Garrett Crochet was included on the Red Sox wildcard roster. And he made his return. He pitched here on Wednesday. It didn't go very well. He did not record an out. He gave up a run on three hits. He struck out one. It was kind of a weird appearance because he struck out the first batter. He faced Spencer Jones, but the pitch got away from Adley Rutschman. So Spencer Jones reached first. He stole second. He advanced the third on a bad throw by Adley. And then things just kind of spiraled after that. He gave up, you know, three consecutive hits. And then he was removed from the game. The good news is that the velocity was up for Garrett Crochet. So I don't really think we could take. I don't think we could take much at all from, you know, facing four batters here. But velocity being up, I think, is a slight plus.
Speaker 4He had to face lefty killer Spencer Jones. There's nothing you can do about that. No, you can't.
Speaker 5That's just a tough spot to be in. I'd rather the velocity be up than down. I probably would have preferred Crochet not come back at all. Maybe he would have too. Also fair. Yeah, he's going to be a tough one for next year.
Speaker 4I think it's generally more positive than negative. He came back and looked good. Or at least the velocity was there. He looked healthy. Good is not what he looked. But yes, I would rather that than not have seen him at all, I think. But yeah, I don't know. I have no idea what to do with him as far as ranking. I put him 27th in my first round of rankings. But that feels about as high as you could go. And I think lower could be easily justified.
Speaker 1For sure. Yeah, we did an FBT Express episode that came out yesterday. We talked about five of the toughest players to rank for next season. And Garrett Crochet was one of them. So if you want to hear more about Crochet, you can check it out there. Roman Anthony was removed from Boston's wildcard roster after an MRI showed an aggravation of the previous right hand injury as well as multiple new strains. And it seems concerning, right? This is something that kept him out for most of the season and he's still dealing with it and perhaps even made it worse. So yeah, I don't
Speaker 5really have much to add beyond that. It's not great.
Speaker 1Yeah. Tyler Malley apparently suffered an abdominal strain while warming up on Wednesday and nearly did not start as scheduled. How would you know? Seven innings of one run ball, six strikeouts to one walk against the Phillies. It's been amazing since joining the Braves, man. It's like nine starts in the regular season with the Braves. He had a sub-two ERA. He had a whip right around one and then seven innings of one run ball. Yeah, apparently he was pitching through an injury, but he looked awesome once again.
Speaker 5And this was the third time he's faced the Phillies this month. So it was kind of shaky in the first inning. Wasn't looking like it was going to go well. And then he throws a seven inning gem. Gets no decision for it.
Speaker 1All right. Joe Musgrove made his return as well for the Padres. He threw a scoreless inning of relief in their game one win over the Cubs. His velocity was way up, which is to be expected coming out of the bullpen. But good sign for a guy who's, been working his way back from an arm injury. The fastball was up 2.6 miles per hour. The cutter was up 2.6. The slider up 2.7. So very nice outing. Nice return there for Joe Musgrove. We mentioned the Jordan Walker thing. He was playing through some hip pain, some other discomfort late in the season. Could explain his bad September. Cardinals top prospect, Ryaniel Rodriguez has worked out a third base and will continue to see time there as they look to expand his versatility. He has mostly played catcher in the minors, but he also has seen some time at first base, and I I think this is a good development for everybody involved, Scott. I mean, if they're trying Ryan Al Rodriguez out at third, that's because they really like Leo Bernal. And, well, having Ryan Al Rodriguez as a good hitting catcher would be helpful in fantasy. But if he's a good hitting third baseman, that also helps.
Speaker 5Well, yeah. I mean, it's more evidence that they're convinced Bernal is their franchise catcher, which they've already kind of said as much. Rodriguez is a higher-end prospect, amazing hitter. You usually want amazing hitters playing somewhere else other than catcher in fantasy. So that would be great if he could take the Todd Zeal route or maybe the Pablo Sandoval route would be a more modern, even that's pretty old, reference. Victor Martinez? That's even older.
Speaker 1Yeah. Walker Jenkins underwent surgery to remove bone chips from his right elbow. He should be a full go for springtime. Training did end the last couple weeks of the season looking pretty good there. So I think he makes for a nice sleeper breakout type for next season. Zebby Matthews has been diagnosed with a flexor pronator strain in his right elbow and is expected, but is expected to be ready for the start of next season. So that'll be one to follow during spring training. Marlins president Peter Bendix said that Robbie Snelling, who had internal brace surgery, is expected to be game ready by May or June. So that might be a name that we, uh, tuck away early for next season or if the season starts on like May 1st or June 1st, then he might just be ready to go from the jump. Who knows? And some Blue Jays news for next season. Ernie Clement will have to earn the second base job and Spencer Miles's role is TBD. I think he's just a name to watch because he pitched very well this year in different roles. Short relief, long relief. He started a few games, 263 ERA, 110 whip, a 51% ground ball rate. The underlying numbers really back. It up too. So Spencer miles, a very deep name to know for next season. Let's get back into the golden breadsticks again, our annual fantasy baseball today award show, and we are picking things back up with the biggest fake out. The award goes to Kyle
Speaker 5Harrison looked like the Brewers pitching development factory had turned him into an ace. Finally, after two previous organizations had failed to do so. So through 21 starts, Kyle Harrison had a two 79 ERA one 12 whip 11.1 K per nine there after I don't have the exact numbers, but it went horribly. He finished with a four 20 ERA compared to that two 79 mark. The ERA went from one 12 to one 35. He wound up pitching out of the bullpen at the end of the year. So who knows what the future holds for Kyle Harrison, but it does feel like, like his breakout was actually a fake out. And I think the thing
Speaker 4with him is just that the, the margin for error is very slim. Cause he's really, he technically has three pitches, but the changeup is he throws about five to 7% of the time. Usually he really needs to have very good results on his four seamer. And it's not like he doesn't average 98, you know, it's not Peyton. Totally. He's forcing her. It's kind of a weird four seamer that like, generates a lot of two plane break. And when it was working this year, it was awesome. But if it has a little, like if it's 94, it doesn't really work as well. So it's, it's a really, really tough player to rank for next season. I think I ended up going around 40 for him for next season, but it's a very soft 40 one way or the other.
Speaker 1Yeah. And I can help you out a little bit, Scott, with the, with the numbers down the stretch. We, he first reported elbow, soreness on July 9th. Kyle Harrison did. He went on the IL. His first start back from the IL was actually very good, but his final 10 games, six of those being starts eight 67 era to 37 whip. And he was so bad that he got moved to the bullpen. And then he was bad out of the bullpen too. So we are left with more questions than answers for Kyle Harrison heading into next season. What about the fakest fake out award that goes to
Speaker 5Zach Wheeler. And he actually faked us out twice initially. With the thoracic outlet surgery. We weren't, we were thinking he might not ever be the same. He comes back 16 starts to 16 era 0.88 whip. So much for that being an issue. Oh, but wait, now he has a six start span with an eight 51 era and one 93 whip. Maybe, you know, that, that, that, that thoracic outlet syndrome, his health is, is a concern after all. But no final six starts for Zach Wheeler. He looked just fine. One 67 era 0.93 whip. Fakest fake out twice over Zach Wheeler.
Speaker 1Chris, where did Wheeler fall in your first SP ranking run?
Speaker 4Seven. I think the top six are pretty clear. Ms. Scoogle, Schlittler, Yamamoto, sale Sanchez in some order. You can quibble with the specifics after that. I think it's pretty wide. Open. I went Wheeler burns Rasmussen Luzardo to round out the top 10, but I don't know, you know, like I want to see how Lizardo, well, I guess no, they have one, they have one game left before they, he pitched well,
Speaker 1they, they said he was going to be used as an opener and then he wound up going like five innings in that. Sorry. He actually looked really good.
Speaker 4So it would be really nice to get another appearance from Hazel's Luzardo where he looks like himself.
Speaker 5I disagree that it would be real nice to get another appearance from him. But I make my, my way on that.
Speaker 4That's that's a different thing. That's a different thing.
Speaker 1All right. This next one, I believe this is the first time this award is being handed out. I could be wrong about that. Scott, you can correct me on that. Uh, but the perpetual fake out award goes to
Speaker 5Jacob Lopez faked us out at the end of last year, uh, was dominant, uh, earned him some sleeper love coming in. Then he had a, like 75 era through 12 appearances dropped in plenty of fantasy leagues and ultimately dropped a triple a by the athletics. He comes back suckers us in again with a nine start stretch to 36 era one Oh nine whip 10.9 K per nine and then just totally falls apart. Uh, actually his last start was decent, but that 10 run out in September 19th at the guardians, uh, cooked, cooked many people's gooses. At the worst possible time. And like, I, I think, I think he's going to keep doing this. I think there are going to be stretches where he dominates, but as a deceptive lefty with marginal stuff, you know, it's going to be a double edged sword. And he's, uh,
Speaker 4he's kind of just Andrew Abbott, but with better strikeout skills. Um, and I think
Speaker 1pitching in Sacramento is, it's going to leave him open till some of those blow up starts too.
Speaker 4And you know, it, with a view towards beyond 2027, I'm not sure Las Vegas is going to be a great place for him to pitch anyway, or any pitchers, like even with it being a dome and being, or are they doing a dome or a retractable roof either way? I think it's, I can't assume. I can't, I can't imagine they would ever have the roof open in Las Vegas anyway. It's like 120 degrees, but like the, yeah, the lack of humidity, the, the elevation, it's going to be a tough place to pitch no matter what. So, I think, um, there will be uses, but probably not someone who's ever going to really matter for fantasy as far as drafts.
Speaker 5Next up, you don't think it's going to be drafted next year.
Speaker 4Lopez. If he is, it'll be really late. Like Andrew Abbott was drafted, but you know, I don't think anybody really thinks Andrew Abbott matters. It's just, he's a guy in a rotation spot who has some talent, but that's different than, than someone anyone's excited to draft.
Speaker 1I don't think Jacob Lopez will be drafted in all leagues, but in deeper ones, I, I think it could be kind of a late round flyer, uh, but 12 team standard. I'm, I'm not so sure that Jacob Lopez will be drafted. Let's move over to the biggest head scratcher award. That goes to Paul skeins.
Speaker 5He, I wanted to highlight him here. Somehow this seemed like the best way to do it because, well, his whole season was a head scratcher. His velocity of course was down and it would be easy to blame that for his ERA jumping by two runs or so, except his first nine starts when the velocity was also down, he had a one 98 ERA 0.64 whip 10.8 K per nine. And that was even with that terrible season opener. He still had typical Paul skein slash light. Nobody really suspected anything was wrong at that point. Uh, but the velocity remained, remained down and he had, I think like about a four 25 ERA from that point forward. So can he regain the velocity? Does he need to, or is it something else going on? Is it the mechanical thing with, uh, him changing the, how direct he is to the plate? Uh, nobody knows. It's a head scratcher.
Speaker 4That is true. I think that's why he got the award. I get it now.
Speaker 1Yeah. I think another one of the hardest players to rank for next season will be Paul skein. He spoke recently, he talked about maybe the WBC affecting his season but he sounded confident that he'll regain velocity in the offseason i mean you know number one with a bullet to watch in spring training will be paul skeens um and it's weird because the underlying numbers were still really really good for for paul that was the thing is
Speaker 4that the peripherals were mostly still really good throughout the season
Speaker 1yeah so yeah all right we do have to pick things up here the best role
Speaker 5change award goes to jacob latz i don't think anybody saw this coming him being a stud closer got to 30 saves with the 213 era 0.81 whip the rangers actually used him as a starter down the stretch last year and it went pretty well 272 era 108 whip 7.7 k per nine so the strikeouts were lacking there but it seemed like he had some potential in the role they stuck him right back in the bullpen at the start of this year though and he was better than ever and pretty soon claimed the closer role so jacob latz the winner here remember
Speaker 1when we were drafting robert garcia as a potential ranger save source not that we trusted him even yeah little did we
Speaker 5know they had a stud closer and waiting
Speaker 1yeah finished as the 17th best pitcher did jacob latz the third best reliever behind only mason miller and kate smith so just dominant dominant season here from jacob latz up next the ultimate april all-star
Speaker 5goes to jose soriano there were a lot of contenders for this uh christian walker you brought up bill de maro vargas when we were talking about the other day chris but i i went with jose soriano because his april it sustained his reputation for the entire season he never dropped below 90 percent rostered in cbs leagues so in april soriano had a 0.84 era 0.94 whip 10.3 k per nine and it seemed believable because he made some arsenal changes more four seamers and splitters not so limited in his pitch selection but the rest of the season may first on soriano had a 4.88 era a 1.40 whip and just eight strikeouts per nine innings clearly nbd this guy fooled you
Speaker 1and somehow got even worse once he got traded to the blue jays 10 starts with them 5.30 era 1.36 whip under 7k per nine and a 10 swinging strike rate so i'm interested to see what a full off season with i think it's pete walker is the blue jays pitching coach uh what he could do with jose soriano but uh yeah it did not go well his first go here with the blue jays the told you so award goes to i feel bad doing
Speaker 5this but it's munitaka murakami i don't like saying told you so anyway but it's particularly since he's such a joy to watch celebrate after the white socks do something good and everybody is enjoying him right now yeah but it kind of played out the way i certainly feared i think chris was pretty much there too um didn't seem that way early on through the end of july 244 batting average which you know whatever with the kind of power he's providing 935 ops you could live with a 244 batting average that's you know kyle schwarber like right but he is so bad at making contact whenever he swings even at strikes that he ended up looking like joey gallo in the end and i i just think that comp is going to be a difficult one to shake for munitaka murakami ended up hitting just 207 for the year final two months he hit 156 with a 40 strikeout rate and it is tough because
Speaker 4he had the hamstring injury which lines up very well with when he was good and when he was bad and it's impossible to say how much of an impact that had it was not nothing i would say but i think this especially works uh i told you so award because everybody got to say i told you so about murakami if you were a believer in him you got to say i told you so for the first two months and then if you were out on him you also got to say i told you so everybody got to say i told you so he it's tough because he's first base only i've got him 21st right now i do
Speaker 5have him higher for roto yeah um i have him up at 15th even as somebody who's skeptical of him and maybe that's maybe that's just a ranking that i'm gonna have to kind of follow everyone else's lead on since there's a bias there for me uh but we'll we'll see like you're willing to rank him 21st i'm not necessarily opposed to that but obviously the upside is higher for murakami than some of those who i'm sure you have ranked ahead of him
Speaker 4it's also just kind of uh first base is really deep and that that that's kind of what i wanted to highlight there is just even like i i feel somewhat warmly towards him i i think he he can make it work it's a risky profile but clearly we have proof of it working um but given the flaws no but even just the overall production like even if he only hits you know what was it 220 at the end 210 look joey gallo
Speaker 5had a couple great years everybody thinks he was just a bust from the beginning no it just didn't last very long because the flaws were so
Speaker 4apparent and murakami's overall pro right pace was still like 45 homers almost 100 runs 100 rbi like even if he hits 210 that's gonna be awesome it's just he might hit 180 yeah yeah that that's the thing my only request
Speaker 1for the new cba is that we have to have a mandatory murakami reality tv show because that would just watch that yeah gold these celebrations are are just so good so amazing with murakami the mr september award goes to
Speaker 5carter jensen so i was i was pretty down on him at one point i probably in august probably in august that point his numbers didn't look so great um saying and yeah he may be the 10th best catcher overall this year but at no point has he been one of the 10 best catchers to start he's just kind of available that whole time but then in september he blew up carter jensen he had 338 with eight home runs in an 1194 ops and what's fitting about calling him mr september is remember last september his performance then was what got us so excited about him in the first place as a late season call for the royals he had 300 with three home runs in a 941 ops so two years in a row carter jensen establishing september as his favorite month
Speaker 1mm-hmm go ahead and trade for him at your uh deadline next season and then just uh you know get all those september numbers here from carter jensen next up we have the biggest overachiever that goes
Speaker 5to eduardo rodriguez who else could it be we kept waiting for him to fall off he ended up winning 16 games with the 289 era i will point out he had a 520 era in september so maybe finally it did happen but obviously not enough to to do much damage to his full season line that 289 era overall came despite a 389 fib and a 427 xera his 6.8 k per nine was his lowest ever and the walk and ground ball rates were nothing special so why was he good i don't know but i don't think it'll continue
Speaker 1i would like to request that next year that is called the he can't keep getting away with this award uh that feels like a missed
Speaker 4opportunity yeah yeah sure we could do that we could do the the the jesse pinkman memorial award also yeah there you go still alive haven't you seen el camino come
Speaker 5on i have not
Speaker 1uh the biggest power-up award goes to luis
Speaker 5garcia of course technically it's miguel vargas but he's he's not going to be the biggest power-up award he's going to be the biggest power-up he's he's gotten a higher honor so we'll give this to to luis garcia instead who himself gained a lot in average bat speed nearly two miles per hour skipped right over being a 20 homer guy for the first time and became a 30 homer guy the only real issue here is he continues to sit against left-handers and i don't think that's going to
Speaker 1change at this point uh did homer here on wednesday his first career postseason home run 521 slugging percentage eighth best among all qualified hitters this season for luis garcia jr the biggest heel turn award that one goes to
Speaker 5cal raleigh breaking out this award again which i named for luis heel because he was the initial biggest heel but it seemed fitting for raleigh too because not look like obviously the historic season for a catcher best season for a catcher ever got him drafted in round three two on average this year it would be one thing if he were just regressed to a typical cal raleigh season but instead he went from his very best season to his very worst season which just it felt like a twist of the knife i have to say biggest heel turn cal raleigh i don't know he did finish strong for what it's worth but i yeah i can't say strong enough for me to feel great about him next
Speaker 1year uh it was the final 32 games for raleigh 256 10 homers 25 rbi's 935 OPS. I don't know how to look this up. It feels like something that would be right up up your alley chris but uh is this the biggest ops drop year over year in mlb history oh it has
Speaker 4to be um i i know mike petriello wrote something about that but it was like before rally heated up so i i'm not sure it has to be because how many people so on august 12th it was the second biggest ops decline from one year to the next rogers hornsby went from a 1245 ops to an 851 okay from 1925 to 1926 um yasmani grandal apparently had a 939 ops in 2021 i do not remember him being that good that late uh a lot of walks probably yeah how big was the drop overall do we do we have
Speaker 5that number quick uh it was oh you know we got it up to 660 the ops so it was it was 200 less than 300 points 284 it's
Speaker 4not a top 10 mark of all time okay i guess it doesn't have
Speaker 5to be his ops was surprisingly low last year cal raleigh 948 for his 60 homer season and he only had like 250 something like that 97 walks
Speaker 1yeah no whatever the fizzle reel award that goes to and also what is it
Speaker 5it'll make sense once you hear it it's kate anderson so at times i have the sizzle reel award where a guy just blows us away with his raw talent and his stack has readings off the chart but fizzle reel is a guy who you know came in with huge expectations and just kind of fizzled and that describes kate anderson's debut i think historic performance at double a 106 era 0.64 whip we were clamoring for his debut since as far back as may finally comes up in august and look he wasn't horrible 379 era 123 whip won two games like but it wasn't any better than you'd expect to get from the typical streamer provided you streamed well you
Speaker 1know yeah uh i was surprised to see his swinging strike rate was 13.1 percent i mean that is a pretty good mark so there's something to build on there and i think it's a pretty good mark so i think it's a pretty good obviously like the stuff plus number everyone kept referencing that 97 that that's that's pretty bad there uh it doesn't mean everything but uh it's not a a great you know first run here for kate anderson the what's dead may never die award goes
Speaker 5to nolan arenado seemed like he was done as a power hitter back-to-back years where he failed to get even 20 home runs and like the exit was barely enough before and it just kept dropping what actually dropped even more this year but he still got back not only did the 20 homer threshold but the 30 homer threshold and i think looking at his war career war and the amount of war he earned this year this season may have may have pushed him over the edge to being a hall of famer i think
Speaker 4he was a hall of famer no matter what before this yeah i think so too like but i think it definitely was like nine nine gold gloves whatever it was yeah he was getting in yeah nine gold gloves and 350 career home runs he was getting
Speaker 5in the war was pretty
Speaker 4borderline and he
Speaker 5played a lot of he played his best years in colorado yeah he was getting in okay all right well i agree now for
Speaker 1sure yeah uh nolan arenado 28 combined home runs in 2024 and 2025 over 259 games this year 30 homers 152 games so it was
Speaker 4a real john snow turn
Speaker 1yeah spoiler alert um uh what helped him the pulled air rate up to 30 that was massive there for nolan arenado uh scott we have 10 awards left and i i'm just gonna let you rattle them off i'm gonna let you go in order i i don't think we could do the drum roll for all of them but for
Speaker 4good because i keep waiting for a symbol splash after the drum roll and it's never coming and it's been driving me crazy scott from
Speaker 1mr funny math on why don't you just rattle off the final 10 awards all right
Speaker 5boy they're the ones that require the most explanation probably but that's fine um mr funny math is peyton toley last year it was jesus lazardo this is this is normally uh the award i give to somebody who a pitcher who you know you take out his four worst starts and what do his numbers look like oh they're actually great and people get mad at me and it's a whole thing last year was jesus lazardo people got mad at me then we'll get to that in a second taking a kind of different tack here with toley it's less about remove his four worst starts than if then what does numbers look like when he throws his curveball more than 10 of the time versus less than 10 of the time when it's less than 10 387 era 130 whip 8.6 k per nine when it's more than 10 of the time 194 era 0.83 whip 12.6 k per nine imagine if he was throwing his curveball more than 10 of the time all the time that's mr funny math vinny vindication is jesus lazardo for exactly the reason i was just saying he vindicated my funny math by actually being even better than he was last year if you removed his two worst starts when he was clearly impacted by pitch tipping so vindication for me and for yeah you should play that clip for me and for jesus lazardo i'm going to go with jesus lazardo for me and for jesus lazardo i'm going to go with jesus lazardo i'm going to go with jesus lazardo for jesus lazardo the one who fantasy footballers won't see coming jared jones is the one now i'll point out he finished with the 372 era 108 whip plenty of strikeouts uh great k per nine rate so they'll see those stats and they'll probably be like oh yeah i guess i have to draft this guy pretty high but it'll come as a surprise to them because when they tuned out he had an era approaching five jared jones but then in five september starts 0.93 era 0.59 with 12.4 k per nine uh clearly has a lot of helium going
Speaker 4into next year it makes sense that they wouldn't see it they live in arizona i think it's a joke about the fantasy footballers podcast that's
Speaker 5okay okay fair enough all right the one who nobody saw coming i'm kind of naming my awards as if they're friends episodes now this is the carter jensen award leonardo bernal or leo bernal as some people like to say it's the one nobody saw coming overshadowed in an organization with a lot of young catchers um but he hit his way to the majors good exit velocities good plate discipline good polarity and then played every single game once he got to the majors which would be surprising for any call-up but especially a catcher i'm getting real drake baldwin vibes from leo bernal the don't you forget about me award you have to sing it don't you forget about me i watched the
Speaker 1breakfast club for the first time
Speaker 5this year all right it was good i enjoyed it yeah okay i get
Speaker 1it i get the hype
Speaker 5you get it yeah casey schmidt you forgot about him already didn't
Speaker 1you i did i really did
Speaker 5i didn't well you've ranked third baseman already and that's kind of the appeal of casey schmidt he was eligible like everywhere this year but he'll still he'll still have third base next year which is very shallow of course and outfield as well he was the bright spot for the dot the giants this year before having a torn meniscus that ended his season in late july still at 21 home runs the data all looks pretty good doesn't walk much at all but don't forget about him breakout eligible at weak positions casey schmidt not casey casey schmidt all right this is a new one the dodger dog award and it's a tie emmett sheehan jose de paula why are you i'm struggling to figure out what the one of them was really good the dodgers are dogging us with this you know like they're just rubbing it in our faces emmett sheehan comes up in september looks amazing 0.53 era 0.53 with 12.7 k per nine they keep sending them down they don't need them they don't need him that's a spot starter and then jose de paula he comes up much ballyhooed prospect reaches base at a 50 percent clip they send them down they don't need them it's just it's just ridiculous the dodgers rebuilders delight goes to jake mccarthy who probably would not have gotten another chance to be an everyday player in the majors if it wasn't just to fill out a lineup for a rebuilding team and that rebuilding team happened to be the rockies and he he took to coors field like the scrap heap outfielders of your jake mccarthy did 291 batting average 15 homers 32 steals top 10 outfielder he ended up
Speaker 1being 27th overall player by the fangraphs play
Speaker 5incredible season yeah yep mr two-face you're probably going to see the typo mr two-face gage jump gage jump in his nine Best starts, Gage Jump had a 135 ERA, 0.96 whip, 11K per nine. In his 11 worst starts, he had a 1032 ERA, 218 whip, and only 8.5K per nine for whatever that's worth. It wasn't really based on matchups or opponents or anything. To me, it's mostly. What was that, Chris? Not even home away.
Speaker 4He had a 460 ERA away from Sacramento.
Speaker 5I was just about to look that up. He was worse at home, but not nearly as dramatic as this split I'm talking about here. It seemed more to me like how many strikes he threw was the key to it all. In any case, can't trust Mr. Two-Face Gage Jump. Biggest weirdo. This is a favor of yours, Frank. Nick Martinez, biggest weirdo. Oh, yeah. I'm just going to read what I wrote here. How does a guy who's already pitiful K per nine rate dropped by about a point. for a third straight year go on to have a career-best season in which he places in the top 15 for wins, ERA, whip, and innings? With the way they coaxed that sort of season out of Martinez, we're going to have to start calling them the Devil Rays again. Oh. You liked that, didn't you? I liked it. All right, last one here. Mr. Look-Who-Finally-Decided-To-Show-Up. Mookie Betts is the winner here. 337 batting average in September with seven home runs and more walks than strikeouts. He actually ended up having a better OPS this year than last year. And if you project his totals, if you prorate his totals over the 150 games he played last year, because obviously he missed some time with injury this year, 28 home runs, 84 RBI, 86 runs is what it comes out to. There might still be some life in Mookie Betts.
Speaker 4Yeah, he kind of did the same thing last season, though. Same exact thing. And look, it led to another good season.
Speaker 5That's kind of my point. He ended up having a good season when all was said and done. I'm not saying a season that justified his draft spot, but we're well beyond him being drafted. What was it, round three? Yeah, if you're
Speaker 4talking about him as still a top 100 pick, I think that's probably okay, but you're getting no speed from him. He doesn't look like a batting average. He doesn't look like a batting average help anymore. The counting stats were really bad. 130 or 140 combined runs in RBI. No, I'm saying if you
Speaker 5prorate those over 150 games, it's 28 home runs, 84 RBI, 86 runs. That's not bad at all. It's not bad. It's not great. Second, third round material, but round eight, nine?
Speaker 1What if Mookie Betts just does what the Dodgers pitchers do, but he stays healthy? He just stays healthy. He just stays on the field, and he's like, I'm not really going to play until like August. And then he starts to turn it up.
Speaker 4His final 46 games. I don't know if you can assume a 34-year-old will hold steady too, you know?
Speaker 1Yeah. His final 46 games this year, 315 batting average, 10 homers, 29 runs, 33 RBI, 961 OPS. Final 47 games last year, 317, 9 homers, 32 runs, 34 RBI, 892 OPS. It is. It's eerily similar. And he was not good for like the first four months last year either. So, and he had the excuse built in with like the stomach bug and all that. And we thought, all right, he could bounce back. But yeah, he did show up at the end, but I just, I don't know how much faith I would have for him going into next year. All right, Chris, why don't you bring us home? You had some awards you wanted to hand out as well.
Speaker 4Yeah, I wanted to give some Chrissies out. Some, you know, my little bit awards. So, the big beefy baseball boy of the year, obviously. I think this is probably. Probably the third or fourth year running. Kyle Schwarber has to be the big beefy baseball boy of the year. Parker Messick was also a standout big beefy baseball boy, but he's not.
Speaker 1He's kind of a medium beefy baseball boy.
Speaker 4Yeah, he's not quite as big or beefy as Kyle Schwarber. So, I think we'll give that one to Kyle Schwarber. The team name Tuesday of the year obscure musical reference edition because he had a great year and it's a great team name. This will mean nothing to Frank or Scott. And probably like 97% of the audience, but it's a fantastic team name. Sunny Gray Real Estate. It's a reference to the like second wave emo band Sunny Day Real Estate. Great team name. Team name Tuesday of the year. The Yasmany Money Tomas Problems Edition goes to Yoholehiwoo from Heath. Surprisingly, not that Heath. Not Heath. Sure. Who came up. Who came up with Yasmany Money Tomas Problems Edition.
Speaker 5Because there are other Heaths in the world. I mean. Come on.
Speaker 4Allegedly, there are other Heaths, but I thought Yoholehiwoo was very good. And then the team name Tuesday of the year is. I thought this was so funny. The Galaxy is on Joe Ryan's belt from Tyler. That's a phenomenal team name. That's very good. Well done, Tyler. And then we'll wrap it up with the Jag of the year bringing an old one back. And this one is painful, but Jose Altuve, just a guy now. Hit 250, 16 homers, 70 runs, 50 RBI, five stolen bases. I was looking for like the most average player in all five categories. The RBI are a little low, but otherwise, I think this is pretty close. I feel like. To about as average as any player can get.
Speaker 1The most replacement level player for fantasy that could possibly exist. Absolutely. Jose Altuve.
Speaker 5Can I give a quick story real quick before we go?
Speaker 1Yes, sir. Sure.
Speaker 5So I'm glad that these awards, you know, it inspired more awards here and it did in my own house too. So like I'm, I'm well beyond the point where like I expect or even anticipate anyone in my family is going to read my articles. You know, that was, that was something for like a year or two, but well beyond that at this point. Except my kids like read anything. I mean, baseball related that they could get their hands on. We don't give them free access to the internet, but it's like, you know what? I write about baseball a lot. Maybe they can read something of mine. So every now and then if, if I write something that I think they'll be interested in, I print it out for them and let them, you know, consume it. So I did that for this, the article of these awards and you know, my, my 11 year old especially was excited to read it. And my wife told me tonight that when she went up to his room tonight, putting him to bed, uh, saying goodnight to him, um, I guess you don't really put an 11 year old to bed saying goodnight to him. She noticed on his desk, he had started to, to write his own awards for the season. He, she saw awards like the grand salami award and best player. The Marlins gave away.
Speaker 4Oh, Chris. I think
Speaker 5trolling is his friends back in Florida. His Marlins. Best player. Liam Hicks was the winner for that one.
Speaker 1Oh yeah. That's fair. Who won the grand salami award?
Speaker 5She didn't, she, she didn't remember that one. I didn't see it myself. So this is all second hand.
Speaker 4Bring them in at some point. We got to, also I, I assume they're subscribed to the fantasy baseball today newsletter. When you say they don't have access to the, obviously that's the, the one. That's the one. That's the one now.
Speaker 1Yeah. Yeah. So, so next year we might have a, I don't know, a special guest on the, on the Red Six. Special guest, uh, host here.
Speaker 5Yeah. My, my youngest remember made his debut on the, uh, the, the draft-a-thon. Yeah. Our final draft, the, the, the team, the three of us share together that never does well. He, he lent his voice to one of the picks. So yeah. Spoiler.
Speaker 1It didn't do well again. Yeah. Well, we'll try again next year and that will do it for this year's golden breadsticks for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Not tomorrow. Next week.
Speaker 10Bye-bye. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back.
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