2026 Fantasy Draft

[Music] Welcome to the Upshot. Ultimate Disc Golf Podcast about the latest in the Disc Golf World. I'm Charlie Eisenhood. It is Tuesday, February 17th. I'm joined as always by Josh Mansfield. And it's a special day because we are joined once again by the one and only Dan Prentice for the 2026 Preseason Draft Show. It's here. Dan, welcome to the program. How are you? Doing great, Charlie. I look forward to this every year. I've been looking forward to it for weeks. I'm pumped. You know what, Charlie, go ahead, Josh. I thought we agreed that we were going to get somebody else after Dan took our butt last season. Listen, I wanted to have him back because I wanted him to have a terrible day today when he gets to the end of this draft and realizes it's all gone terribly wrong. Yeah, that's how it goes. And that he will not be worth telling love that spirit. Hey, I'm just trying to be like the Canadian curlers, you know, just trying to keep it trying to keep it 100 over year. Oh, man. Canada. I mean, I'm not Canadian, obviously. Canada must be ashamed of that guy, right? Like Canada's whole vibe is like, we're the friendly. But country who's nice to everybody. Listen, if you if you if you dip into ultimate frisbee at all, you did not expect a behavior. Yeah, maybe fair. Less of a national international stage though. Yeah, such a little bit gosh, you know, and somebody email us about the curling thing because it's like, they have spirit of the game basically. Oh, really? It's a self-efficient game. Yeah. And I'm so excited to talk about that. Well, you go, you bring it up. Okay. Well, because it's topical right now. So let's do that. It is. Well, they talk also about how I was reading a couple articles about it. And the insistence that there is no video replay, which again, compared to something like foot faults is very difficult to call in real time. And then the other part that was interesting is that like, officials have actually started to be more rigorous in light of the controversy. And so it is a spirit of the game kind of thing, but they also have more teeth to their enforcement and used it immediately after it became apparent that like multiple teams were doing this because great Britain got called for it a couple days later for the same thing like poking the rock for touching the rock. Yeah. And they pulled the stone. Here's my question though. It doesn't seem like it's actually like creating a benefit. I would say the same thing about the football. Well, it's where you bumped into this. A fair point. But what I'm saying is like they have this big motion. And then you're telling me that this little tiny little baby tap is the thing that like determines whether the shot is good or not. I feel like it's some sort of more like a tick. Like, you know, you just something that you're doing, which I think is probably why the Canadian guy got so heated about it. Yeah. But I mean, I don't know. I'm not a curler. But let me bring you our curler experts. Let me bring the email up because Brian sent in a great email, you know, a bunch of information. So curling is primarily a self-efficient sport rooted in the spirit of curling. Where players are expected to call their own fouls, uphold etiquette and manage rules themselves. While officials are present at high level events like the Olympics for measurements and timekeeping, they rarely interfere relying on player honesty. So you see the officials come out with their like protractor, you know, thing and measure the rock sometimes. Sure. But, you know, we clearly there has been rule breaking happening and there's there was an official standing over by what's called the hog line for some reason where they're not allowed to touch the rock after that point, but they didn't do anything. So the question that Brian has is does disc golf need to remain at the highest level of primarily self regulated sport? Or do we need to see more officials being in control and players being less control? And what is like the correct line at the high level? I mean, I don't know that this curling incident will change anyone's mind about this. But like obviously disc golf has kind of been going through the same thing about like how do we get players to enforce the rules? And like the idea is that this season they're going to start enforcing the time rules because of this new time extensions. Time out option on the pro tour. Will it work? I don't know. In my opinion, just since maybe we're all thinking about it, I feel like golf already has been having essentially self governed game for a long time with officials who are there to make rulings on controversies and things like that, which is basically what the pro tour is now doing, which to me is the correct model. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know, curling, it feels weird because curling is in the Olympics, but like does curling have as big of a following as pro disc golf? Surely not. I wouldn't think so. And I know this situation was particularly weird because like I'm going to do a deep di lineup, but the rules weren't like, like previously weren't super clear on whether it was even legal or not. Because it says like, like one of the wordings is like the the stone must be delivered by the handle. But then it seems like it was pretty commonplace for people to touch it and what really made it a faux pop for the Canadians that it was like, yeah, I was as it was touching that line just barely. Yeah, it does very much feel like like what was the spirit of that rule was it just kind of, you know, poorly worded and hasn't really been a deal for a long time at that level of competition. For me, the disc golf rules really only are important like if someone's blatantly cheating and for a pace of play. That is really the reason that I think you need to get ever getting the gritty with any of the rules and disc golf really. So yeah, again, it seems like, you know, when you get extreme cases like we have last year with Kristen, then that is maybe when people can weigh in. But yeah, I don't think we want it to be overly governed by, you know, tiki tech stuff all the time. Let me note that I probably need to take it back. I think it's probably the case that just even because of Canada alone, curling is more popular than disc golf. Wow, from a viewership standpoint. This is from a couple years ago, but they're big curling event was out drawing like NBA games and hockey games. Wow. Yeah, prior prime for 26,000 viewers, Raptors, calves, 279,000 viewers. Wow. This from a couple years ago. So, you know, I don't really know what to make of that. The Google says, I know. Google says that 2.2 million viewers watch the Everest North American curling club championship last year in the US. So in the US. But like, what does that mean reaching 2.2 million viewers? Right? Because I'll tell you what, I watch curling once every four years. And it's during the Olympics. And then I never think about it again. Right? Yes, I also have the vast majority of people's experience. I would have thought so. I looked up. There is a like intro to curling night that you can pay for. They'll teach you how to do it. They'll give you everything you need and you can go curl for two hours in Park City in Utah. I mean, you should definitely do that. That sounds like a great date night. I feel like just me and Megan going curling for a night. It sounds like a blast. I feel like everybody thinks I'm like, curling like I could do that. I could be in the Olympics. But I feel like you get out there and you're like, oh, wow, I'm so trash. Yeah, no, I've been so hard. Yeah, it seems it's such a precision. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I'm shocked that that many people are watching. That's crazy. Yeah. Anyway, let's get into it. Draft 2026. We are going to pick. Let me just lay down the basics here. We're going to pick 10 players each six from MPO for from FPO. Same is last year. The scoring is as follows. We're making a slight change this year, which I will get to. Most of the scoring will remain the same. You get four points for a win. You get two points for a second or third place finish a K.A. A podium finish. You get one point. Here's a change from last year last year was top 10. This year, it'll be one point for an MPO top 12. One point for an FPO top eight. So we're just kind of balancing the divisions a little bit relative to their baseline depth and strength. You get zero points anywhere outside of those numbers all the way down to the cash line. And you get minus one for missing cash. Okay, that is also a change from last year, where our our minus one cutoff was the proturer championship size. So 32 MPO 20 FPO. This is going to drop that negative point down a little bit further, which feels a little more fair and also scales by the size of an event, which is more fair. I mean, there were definitely times last year where you got minus one while your player cashed, which doesn't make sense. So that is the basics majors are worth double points. We do not make a distinction about play offs or other things. Is that all sound good to you guys? Yeah, I think that's great. We did as a note include throw pink as a doubling major as we should of course as we should. Yes. Just just for all the folks listening who might wonder. Yeah. We will have a waiver wire show where we each get to drop one player from each division if we so choose and pick up somebody else. All of the points that the player earned for you previous that point remain on your ledger and you only get the points moving forward from the player that you pick up if you so choose. One clarification that we had been chatting about that I think we should institute is a catastrophic injury an IR substitution. If prior to the waiver wire somebody is injured for does it have to be entire season or can we say I think you know we can make a call about whether to allow a waiver drop situation. I think if somebody somebody gets hamstring and it's going to have them out six to eight weeks I feel like that's just too bad but if they tell their ACL or they you know they break their ankle or something that might be months or potentially you know any sort of season-endering injury like a you know disaster ACL or something like that I think it would be totally reasonable to allow drop but I think we have to take it in a case by case basis. Okay all right let's go with three. But you know spirit of curling will. I'm going to go stealth edit the sheet to pick up the good player. Chuck Wood. Yeah I know I think I finished in last despite having Ganon which is just really last by a wide range. Okay thanks Sean. Thank you. Yeah I just got absolutely nothing from MPO outside of Ganon. It was brutal. It was really brutal. Okay so question on the draft. Yes. Last year we did first and we did like one two three three two one three two one one two three. We didn't remember we were snake right. We like that. Yeah the dance model reversal. I like that. I like it too. I think it balances the top heaviness of the sport a little bit more especially especially given because like otherwise player three really in a tough spot. Like this way they get the third and fourth picks and then the seventh picks versus the third fourth and then what the ninth. Yeah. So it feels more fair especially given that you know the first pick is obviously super super valuable and I think arguably the second pick is as well relative to the third. Okay but you know you guys can blunder if you have the first second pick so I'm not going to say more than that. Oh they have the people that can blunder and have blunder. Noting last year's results Dan with 166 points beats Josh 160 points Dan held on despite losing Kristen at the you know two thirds mark of the season very strong performances from Holland Hanley Kristen Ella Hansen did really well Isaac Robinson Nicholas Auntsola and Calvin Heimberg. So all the top picks for Dan coming through big. Josh almost caught up. Missy Ganon and Sylva Sarnan was we're doing some heavy lifting and Josh had a late Paul McBeth Snipe that will not happen this year. He's not going to go that far down the board and he got 24 points from his fifth MPO pick. That is pretty pretty epic Dan got four from Simon and I got minus six from Corielis so it gives you a sense of that but so are we ready to begin. I think so let me share my screen so we can all see the wheel together. Here's the wheel. You guys see the wheel? See the wheel. All right, here we go. You can see Dan Josh and Charlie in the spinner. Wheel of names.com. Here we go. This is for the first pick to be clear unless I don't win in which case it's for the last pick. Here we go. Picking first. Oh, Josh will be Josh. All right. We take Josh out of the board. We spin again. Second pick will go to. Oh my god. Dan will get the second overall pick. I will pick third. But hey, I picked first last year and it didn't go well so and I think Dan you picked third right? No, I have second pick. Yeah, I'm going to the same spot. That is it. I actually with our reversal I would rather have third or first. Like I feel like it's actually the harder draft position. I think more so this year than last year second is a worse spot to be because I was hoping for first or third this year. Yeah, yeah, I was too. The upshot is presented by pound disc golf makers of the best bags in the sport and more new stuff out from pound. Vagabond pre-orders are live. Some colorways available now. A black bag, a gray bag with turquoise trim, a brown with sage. Remember the vagabond is their smaller shoulder carry bag. It's a great bag. I actually gifted one to my brother for Christmas. If you just want to go out or have like a practice bag or have a bag for quick rounds, still plenty of pocket space to put some water and snacks and plenty of disc capacity for a more casual day. Check it out pounddisc golf.com and pre-order your bag of bond today. All right folks, let's get right into it. Josh, you're on the board. With the first overall draft of the 2026 draft. The team man's field is going to select cannon bird. Gannon was the top performer out of out of both divisions. I don't know if that would have been the case had Kristen continue to play. But even after Kristen left and other FPO players should have gotten the boost. I mean, Gannon outscored civil servant by eight points. That scored Miss Gannon by 11 points, Holland Hanley by 13 points. I think it is the only completely obvious pick of the draft. And that's why I feel like Dan is in the harder place because I don't know where you go for two. And it feels like a lot more equity right below Gannon. But he clearly stands above barring anything weird. Yeah, I'm pleased. Yeah, I don't think there was much mystery in this pick. It feels like Gannon honestly could score even higher this year. I mean, what is going to stop him from just having another massive season? You never know, but it's an easy, easy pick. There's it's rare honestly in sport to feel so confident in the number one fantasy pick. But it's like definitely again, it's not really close. I don't think. Yeah. I'm interested here. Dan goes now. Like this is what I have a thing. I believe there's an obvious pick, but we'll see if Dan goes there. Oh, interesting. Maybe not obvious, but yeah. So for me, there's yeah, just a tier. Gannon was in a tier by himself, cleared number one pick. And then from here, it's kind of like which tiers and which divisions do you value the most? This is exactly why I was not wanting the second pick because picking the first in a tier is just not good for fantasy. You want to be in the last pick of a tier. I am going to go between two players here. I think I'm going to go with the one that I think is more likely to just have a super dominant season. I'll love what we've seen from Kristen even though I don't think it is likely. But I'm going to take Hall and Handley and just and hope that she is the best FPO player this year. This is the pick that I think makes the most sense. I mean, you had a little patch of time last year where Holland was kind of floundering. But besides that, she was super dominant. I mean, looking at the beginning of her season, two points, two points, four points, four points, two points, one, zero four, zero, one, two, two. Like she's scoring every week. Now she did have that patch. I think she took a couple, she took a minus one. She took a couple zeros. But then she gets right back on the horse and goes two on two, zero, four, closing out with a pro-tour championship win. Yeah, really, really what I need from Holland to be to deserve what you're going to say. No, go. She asked me about the majors. Yep. I need those double points. So come on, Holland. A major, a major win, not to this year. A major win bumps her right up. My point is that Holland is the most likely player. to be the dominant force in FPO this year. - Yeah. - I think it's like sealing. - I mean, if nothing else, like Silva, for instance, is not signed up for anything until Champions Cup. And like missing five events, it's not a death knell, especially when you're a lock top tenor, like Silva is. Like she's gonna score your points basically every week. But it's just, that's a lot. That's a lot of points to be left on the table that it's hard to make up when you have a player who's like equally skilled on the board. So now I have to decide what to do. Yikes. This is, I think this is, this kind of makes him race the draft probably. There's a couple of potential strategies here. So I'm gonna pick again at seven. - It's tough out of the first pick, right, Trude? - Yeah, it's nice to not have to really think about it. (laughs) The highest scoring available points from the last year were both FPO. And I think this is a very good case for me to pick both Silva and Missy. But obviously that leaves me a little exposed to a run out there where I don't get another strong FPO, but at the end of the day, Josh is gonna be forced to pick an FPO player because what, well, like he's gonna get too cooked in FPO if he doesn't. So, what am I really worried about? And it is equally possible to me that Missy or Silva is the best FPO player this year. I mean, Silva could do it despite missing a chunk of the season. So I'm gonna do the right thing and pick both players. I'm gonna take Missy again and then as Silva saw it in my first two picks. - Yep, that's exactly what I would've done. And why I didn't want the second pick? Because second pick, you have to choose from those three. Third pick, you just get the left. - You get the last two and you move on. - Yeah, and you don't even turn it right off. - Yeah, take it. - I mean, you look at the like, trajectory for Silva and like, I'm pretty sure I would've picked Holland if I was in Dan's spot just because again, I think like on balance Holland was besides that patch of play where like she was dealing with some personal issues and was like burned out was awesome. And she essentially acknowledged like, I need to take a little more time off at spots during the season. And I mean, Holland was the best player last year. Like straight up. So, and now there's no Kristen who was like, the looming presence that Holland couldn't seem to like, you know, grapple with totally. So now I think Holland is well positioned to dominate. But I'm certainly not sad to have Missy and Silva. Now Josh is going, what the hell am I gonna do? He's gonna do. - I knew that was gonna happen. And I knew, I knew. I also like Dan was talking about like tears. Ganon's on my draft board number one. Holland Missy Silva was next. And I was like, if there's any chance, I was like, there's no way that's gonna make it back to me. But that's right. - All right, so that's right. Back to Dan for the fifth pick. - I think this is where the draft really starts. This is where it gets interesting. Charlie didn't, Charlie didn't fumble. And I will say, I had Silva at the top when I was like first draft of rankings, habit of how to choose missing so much start the year. That was what ticker below, Holland for me. But yeah, super excited about the year she can have. This is really tough. I'm not choosing from just like a big bulk of MPO players who all feel very samey to me. They all feel like guys that can go out win a handful of tournaments this year. Good a bunch of top 10s. And I think I'm gonna go with the guy that is criticized for being a little volatile. But I think has the highest ceiling. I think I'm in it to win it. I don't care about finishing second. I think the way to beat Josh is take this guy and hope he has a year of our reminiscing. I was 2024, then it's 2025. With few more wins, it was like Anthony Borrella. - Oh, interesting. I thought you were gonna say Ricky. When you're like, no, 2024, then 2025. But the volatility didn't make sense to me either. - Yeah, that makes sense with the whole thing. - Yeah, I just, I need the high ceiling. I think to try to compete with Gana and just hope AB, you know, hope that major wouldn't be in the last year as a big boost for him this year. It gets a few more wins, avoid some of the really bad rounds. I also think a player that will be really benefited by the moving down of the minus one penalty to be able to go down. - Oh, that's a great point. - The finishing stats. So. - Yeah, I mean, I, you just, you also can't count out like AB takes another big step forward, right? Like, yeah. - Is that ceiling you're looking for? - Yeah, I mean, multiple wins season last year coming off the multiple wins season year before that. One of the highest podium percentage finishers on tour. It's, I think it's, there's not so many players that you could conceivably pick here and this makes total sense, especially considering the trajectory. - Could you guys blunder a little bit more, please? - Well, I don't, here's, I think I'm gonna make, I don't know, maybe it's not gonna be. - I think I'm gonna make a blunder. - I'm not, here comes the blunder folks. - We'll see, we'll see if this makes you happy, Charlie. There was one, so Charlie says I had to draft an FBO player here. There's only one FBO player I would have drafted here. I actually think that there's a clear break unless you expect a certain, like one, a different player to make a significant jump. There's only one FBO player left at this level that kind of matches up with the FBO players who have already gone. If she had been gone, I would have gone MPO again because I think I really do think it drops off significantly from last season. However, Dan went MPO, so I get her. Give me the dog. I am so excited to get to the dog here. Just because I love rooting for own and no, I've got on my team and I get to root for more. I don't, we always say every year we're like, oh, this is the year. A own eventually has to regress, right? It just doesn't, it doesn't ever have to be the year until own decides it's the year. So after own, who scored 31 points, the next highest scoring FBO player that has not previously been drafted was LA Hanson at 19. Like, drop off. Cliff. So you have to expect someone like Ella, someone like Paige, someone like Kat Merch, for example, to make a big leap in terms of their performance this year, which there's arguments to be had, but I'll take what I feel like is a little bit more of a sure thing in own to be consistent and get at least in the high 20s. - Could look amazing. I mean, I certainly, at this point, don't expect like a significant regression from own because like, where is the regression going to come from? - Right. I don't quite see it. It's not like there, I mean, the argument is maybe like, these young players from Europe are gonna come over and they're gonna surpass her. But it's gonna take a while for that to happen, I think. It's not gonna be in 2026. - It's also a question how much they tour, which is always scary. - Bigger. - And own is always on the road, too. So, safe pick, safe pick for sure. - Okay. - His own father times first L. (laughing) - His father time was undefeated. It's still confronted by the dog. - Could that be an old, what are you talking about, Merck? - Really is. - Says like father time, like an infinity symbol and then one. (laughing) Own his father's time first L. - That's great. - Oh my God, I don't know what to do here. - Oh, it is your pick. - My pick. - Yeah, reversal. - Try this one. - Yeah. - Dan was about to get all snarky with you. - Well, no, no, I would say I was like, oh, what are we just gonna do with the second pick here? (laughing) - Makes a lot more sense to you. - Oh, you know, I actually, guys, I think the reversal's kind of dumb. I think we should just stand there to make it. (laughing) - This is just a little tricky. I mean, options. I don't wanna say too much, I guess. But I'm not gonna be making anything, I'm not giving away anything here. - You don't wanna blunder here, too. - I think, so I kinda wanna take Nicholas, who I think has real win upside. The problem is, he doesn't podium that much, and he, like, top 10s at a lower percentage than a lot of other strong players at this spot. So you're like, do you wanna, like, hope for the wins to be there again? And I just, his putting is a little swingy, which means that he doesn't perform quite as strong, like on a week to week basis, as some other options. So then it's like, okay, do you wanna take, you know, Calvin, who had, I think he had the most top 10s last year. So he's just week in, week out, getting you points, and one of the highest average finishers, I think number two behind Ganon. Or, you could take, you know, Isaac Robinson, who maybe, like, didn't have his absolute best season last year, and you still wanna major. Or you could take Ricky, who's gonna play a Brazilian events, and similarly finishes, you know, up in that top 10, all the time. Or you could take Macbeth, who had a bit of a career run of science last year, and looks like he might be back back. It is not easy to make a call here. But on balance, I think I want the certainty of points all the time. I think that's probably more valuable than somebody who you kind of relying on wins from or maybe major wins from. So I'm going to take Calvin Heimberg here in the third, my third overall pick. I think in terms of the game. I just think you know, he got the major monkey off the back. The ceiling is just unlimited still. I mean, I he could he could be the best player behind again. I mean, he can be the best player period. He could have the best season. He's done it before. Not in the game in the era, but why not now you're just talking yourself into it. It's in the realm of possible. It really is. Yeah, it's it's funny. Charlie hit every single player that I have in this current tier and the player that I have at the top of it. That's still remaining. So I'm glad to ruin your draft a little bit. So that's okay. It's okay. Yeah. I think that's a great pick. Calvin was huge for me last year. I also got him in the third round. I think he was my first MPO pick. Yeah, he was he was he was the highest scoring MPO player after again. Yeah. Oh, that's yeah. Highs of that consistency. Yeah, top 10 every single week and we can week out. And then obviously, you know, had the major win double points there. And I think that has to be the exciting thing for if you're taking Calvin that like last year, you think maybe was a sign of, oh, you know, it went into the pro to a championship as well. Oh, he's a start showing up in the bigger tournaments for me as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I loved the Calvin pick there was really hoping he would he would fall to me. So now again, I'm picking up on that same bucket. All those names that Charlie mentioned are all in that bucket for me of guys that, you know, feel capable of any given week winning a tournament, but probably aren't going to win more than two or three. You wouldn't think. So again, yeah, things like finding the guy in that group who's going to most consistently be in the top 10. I'm going to try to fill those Calvin points for me. It's really tough. You know, I don't have a crystal ball to know and any of them really feel more or less equally as likely. He did well for me last year. And I and felt a little disappointing. So I think the upside is a little more obvious. It's hard for me to buy that Paul is going to replicate last year or do better than last year, which is really what I would be looking for in this spot. So I'm going to lean just ever slightly to taking Isaac Robinson here and hope that he gets me maybe gets that first non major win and maybe more consistently podiums this year. I think very very much in the realm of possibilities for him. He does have I don't know if you were talking historical. He does have one non major win, I think, because he won I'd a wild true. Oh, oh, you're right. Clear back. Yeah, that was his one. And then and then he's only one major. Yeah. Yeah, I had to do it once just to show that he could, right? Yeah. Well, hey, a few more times. I was coming. That's right. That's right. Oh, that's who that's who I think was the next pick to. I feel like this has followed exactly the kind of like script. We're all using those boards. I think that leaves three MPO players in a in a group together. You get to an arrow here, Josh. I do have to an arrow here. No, you don't. I'm sorry. Yes, you do. Yeah, we're back to normal. Yeah, this is keep reversing. So just. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Every time. Yeah, yeah. I know, again, it's good. But like, what's your early chance now? I just, I'm just so nervous about Macbeth, especially since he's having another kid. I didn't want to say it, but now you said it's now we can have off to her. Yeah, like, is he going to take some time off tour? He probably, like, it could, he could just come back and play the exact same. I don't know. But like that new, that newborn drain is like, like just fatigue is so real. And so that's just a question mark for me. And so I'm going to take the guys who I think are a little bit less of a question mark. And I'm actually going to pull them both out of that bucket. And I'm going to go double MPO here. I am going to take Ricky Waisaki and Nick Lissantala. Makes a lot of sense for all the reasons we've already laid out. Yeah, yeah. The only thing I think is like nerve, like, I don't think there's any issues with the MPO picks themselves. I think the decision that might come back to cause me problems is the choice not to take FPO here. Like, and not be, not be as balanced. Yeah, that's, that's, that's what might come back to bite me. But I, I saw looking at Charlie's board last season. Charlie got decimated down the MPO draft. Oh, it was horrendous. For reference, everybody scoring zero points outside of Ganonburg. That was so great. Five players outside Ganon net zero. I think I'd rather be a little bit MPO heavy and hope for that the difference in FPO after the levels that we've picked kind of are okay for me. So I think these two components are really well as well. Yeah. You know, Niklas, yeah, he was like very much all or nothing last year. And he wasn't getting a negative points a whole lot, but it was basically win or zero. Rick, you know, I think it's. It makes very much the realm of possibility that Rick gets a couple of wins this year. You know, for, for Josh, is this your last year that he has to win a major? I got two more years. Two more years, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah. But that obviously would be huge and feels very possible. Um, no, let's go. Let's go. I would rather. I would rather lose this draft harder than Charlie did last year than Rick, win a major. Let me be perfectly. Let's hear. There's no money on the line here. I was about to say, unless you're going to fly me somewhere and buy me a nice dinner, I don't care. Yeah, that's right. That's how it. Poirot mains though, you know, Rick, Rick is going to give you most weeks going to give you a point, you know, probably some podiums. And if Niklas can get you those wins, I think that's the big question though. You know, does Niklas still bring the wins this year? He had what three or four years? We get three. Dude, when he's locked, he's unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. This leads me with an interesting choice. And I, again, I really just, I don't feel great about any of my options here. My worry and Josh kind of touched on this. I think with the way we draft, you do really want to lean into your strength, whatever your strength ends up being early. So for Charlie, that would be going FPO again, at least once with one of these next two picks. And last year, and it ended up being the reason I won at the end of the day. So I don't want to be left with, I won't say the directs because, you know, we're only taking 12 FPO players. But I don't want to be left scraping the bottom of the pickable player barrel when it comes to FPO. So I'm going to take my number one favorite player forever and always and hope that she's a little bit better this year than she was last year's. Her first year where we didn't see her kind of trajectory continue to increase year and year out. I'm going to take Ella Hanson. Oh, a lot of it. Didn't, didn't Ella get her first career win and set the record for the highest ground rating of all time? She won before last year, right? Yeah. She didn't want before last year. Oh, she did before last year. I thought SupremeFlight open was her first win. I don't think so. I think I thought she wanted 1224. I could be wrong. I'm going to go looking. Anyway, carry on. She won OTB in 2024. That's right. You're right. She did shoot the best round ever, which was awesome. That was epic, dude. That was fun. But it still very much felt like, you know, every year before that year it felt like there's a clear like, oh, yeah, Ella is better than she was last year. Yeah. No. And despite that awesome round and everything else, it didn't feel like she was better. I don't think she was necessarily worse than the year before, not glaringly anyway. But again, I think she was suffering from that the drain of the season. We didn't see her finish super strong. I'm hoping some of the breaks in between are a little bit better for her. If she takes any kind of jump in consistency and putting, she does become a player that can win weekend weekend, I think that upside is very much there. And I mean, just for the personal reasons, I was saying it's Charlie that this track is big for me to kind of pick someone who I'm rooting for at the end of the year. And I would be remiss if I can't, you know, wholeheartedly root for Ella every single tournament. My big claim to fame in the Disc Golf World, is that Charlie was there as well? We got to play Ella's first ever real Disc Golf round with her. So it feels very cool. Root for Ella every single time she's out there. So that reason a lot of thing. It kind of sounds crazy. I've learned the hard way that you can't really rely on people to improve their putting meaningfully in their career. It seems to be stickier than you would expect. And that's the problem. for Ella, right? I mean, it's the tea degree is not in question. But the putting is a little sketchy sometimes, but I mean, that's a solid pick. I think she's going to score your points. I mean, she was behind the players we've already drafted was the best score last year. So I think it makes a lot of sense. But I actually think it made a mistake here. I think you should have taken Paul and I'm going to take him. I get a value pick here. I think at Paul in the fourth round. Now listen, is he going to miss some time for the baby? Probably. But I don't think it matters that much. Like he's going to play most of the first half of the season. His skill level has risen back. Like he the reason he I think people conflate the birth of the child is being the issue with the actual issue. The actual issue is that he was hurt. He's playing through an injury and nobody wanted to talk about that. And he's not hurt anymore. And he's now, I mean, what he after. Uh, Ganon and Calvin, Isaac and surprisingly Kyle Klein, Macbeth was the highest average place finisher on to our last year at 10.85. Kyle Klein is an interesting one. I'm sure he's going to get drafted later because he was like all over the top 10 and not doing much else. Um, so, but look, Macbeth, 13 top 10s, five podiums among the top two wins among the top. I feel like it's an obvious pick. Yeah. He, I mean, he was right there. They were the two that I was hem and hawing between. I was, I was really worried like, is that about loading into FPO? I mean, just being, you know, just having terrible FPO behind Holland. And I, as much as I call it, I don't think she's a guaranteed lock enough to just forego the rest of my FPO picks. So again, I think this is a spot where just like purely based on my spot in the draft order was a, yeah, I, I'm not betting against Paul this year. I, I do think it's very much, you know, I would, I would bet on him to repeat last year. I don't think I think it's hard to predict doing much better than he did last year. Um, but yeah, I mean, I wouldn't bet against him replicating it. Uh, Josh, I believe is back to you. No, no, no, it's you. We just keep it the rest of the way we do. Sneaks, though. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's just, it's just the early rounds that we, uh, we, we, I didn't realize that. Okay. Well, that's fantastic news for me. Uh, we, we messed with one round and Charlie's brain just, listen, I just, I expect to keep flipping it back, but that that's totally fine. No, no, okay. Um, while Charlie's doing her condescence, Charlie gave that nice long spiel about like learning the players don't, can't figure out putting and has continued to back Hannah for a bounce back season or break out season. And look, including her last year, year after year after year, guaranteed, I will not pick her this year. And then now she will do awesome. And she'll like, I might, I might take her, I might take her in the last pick just because I have, I swear to God, this is how it works with these, with Eve, Evelyn and Hannah, I write them off to play great. I'm like, I'm so back there. Terrible. I don't know what to do. The problem right now is that FPO gets tricky. I feel like you have to project a little more. It's like way less clear where to go. I mean, I actually really need to decide if I want to take an MPO player or if I want to pick up an FPO option here, because I don't get another pick for a while. So it could really get bleak for me if I don't take FPO here. Um, and it's not like there's like a super slam dunk MPO pick at this point. I'm going to take page Pierce. Last pick of the draft last year, I believe, um, ended up being, I think the next high score after Ella Hanson. And let's be honest, page looks pretty good at the end of last season. She just looks like she's regained confidence and form. I don't need page to be a top, you know, three player for this to be a good pick. I think that it's very possible that she will finish right about here, right? Like six, seventh, something like that on tour. And that would be fine. This just makes, this makes life really hard for Josh specifically, because he only has one FPO right now. And now he's going to have to start thinking real hard about what's going to happen. Um, so I'm, I'm happy to have, I mean, taking Paul and Paige, it does feel like a little, I'm like a little uncomfortable about it. But at the same time, it's not like it was like all they played good for two events last year. It was like consistently improved back towards their level. And that makes me feel pretty good about it. Yeah. This is right around where I had, I had a page going, there's also some kind of romantic about taking Paul and Paige and one. I feel like I'm going to go around, you know? Yeah. I just feels good. I mean, I know my FPO team is missy silver page. I feel real nice. I got FPO team. Yeah. We got to like that. So Charlie, if I had taken Paul, would you have gone L.a. Page or would you have gone with them? I probably would have taken one of the two of them. Okay. Probably that feels, that feels bad. That feels bad. All right. I was definitely leaning MPO here until Charlie said that Josh Lee has one FPO player. So do I try to just really just hand the cap to off on the FPO side? But I don't know. I don't know if there's a player I really like here. I think it's hurting my own team more to do that, unfortunately. So I am going to go MPO and I'm going to go, I'm going to keep the brothers together on one team because I kind of like that as well. So I'm going to take Ezra Robinson who, who again, just like another player who the upside of improvement from last year feels very much there. We saw him get the win. He's he's a candidate for a step up this season. I totally agree. I, I strongly consider taking him instead of page. Yeah. The upside is very, very real. And again, I think I kind of have to roll for upside MPO just to try to hang with Gannon. So yeah. And I've let this eat some more consistency with him. But again, he feels like another one who will benefit from the the minus one penalty becoming a less frequent punishment against him. All right, Josh. I mean, I really didn't expect any hope that Paul would make it back to me. But I'm I'm thrilled with where I get to go next really out like both MPO and FPO. I think that there are two players outside of these two. I think it's very complicated. But I think that there are two players that are just in my opinion, the next clear picks that make it life really easy for me. I'm shocked at the overlook of Elvina who scored 18 points is going to get the benefit of the reduced penalty and is only one year removed from winning a world championship. Yeah. I am I'm very happy to get Evalina here who I think could have a good. I don't expect any like I think we know what Evalina is. Gets couple of win a couple more wins skyrockets and points. But I don't think she can do any worse than she'd last year. I think my concern about Evalina is putting to your rated last year pretty noticeably at the end of the year and plays way fewer events than a lot of other players. It's absolutely true. But to that point, like we know she won a major last year and we know that about. I know. Right. I know. So I mean, I know volatility pick. I it is. She was obviously going to get drafted. So yeah, I'm happy to draft her here. I was worried that she was I was worried that she would Dan would take and then I really she if I went FBO, she was definitely a husband. Take. Yeah. That's and that then I I'm just in the pits of despair. I don't know. This feels like a saving pick for my draft. The only pushback I would say is I maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm harsh, but it doesn't feel like you can count on her being as good as she was last year. I think she's just the peak of volatility and would anyone like if she doesn't get the wins next year, like if she doesn't want a major, you're really a bad spot. Yeah, sure. Way to wait. That's absolutely right. And is it able to say like I think odds are Evalina wins a major this year? I'm not I'm not confident saying that. Sure. Now yeah, I don't think she'll be a weight pulling your team down necessarily, but I think there's a very real chance that six like two or three players that get picked at her. The backsliding with the putting is what scares me, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I will say though to that point there, Dan, you said players behind her. I don't see players behind her that I go, oh, yes, there's value there. True. Yeah. That's it's not a lock. But there's upside to Evalina. I'm not sure I see upside outside of Evalina. And that's why I was like, oh boy, like you're right. Maybe she does a slight bit, but for what it's worth, I do think you still score five to 10 points with Evalina, even if the putting is brutal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm sure she won't be a disaster. And I have a chance it's scoring like good point. There's a world where Evalina scores 30 point. And and so the fact that there is still upside available with somebody who will get me some points is honestly feels like a just saving draft for like draft saving availability for me. Now having fallen in L already, that makes sense why Dan doesn't you know you wouldn't want to be like oh no I need Evolina in the same way that I do. Next MPO player that I really feel like I mean I like the Ezra pick I'm really happy about the Kyle Klein availability though. I am really happy about the Kyle Klein availability. I was prepared to do Ezra instead. Like Kyle Klein had a down year last year relative to his standards and still scored 12 points and is going to drop two penalty points and would have scored two additional points with our top 12 now. And so I mean we're talking 16 points right there on his down year and Kyle Klein's like the it's he's consistent and that's like there are points there with upside that was not realized last season. Multiple second place three second place finishes that all could have been close to a win at which point Kyle Klein might look like like this. This might we might look back and be like oh this was this was the value pick of the draft. Keep telling yourself that Josh. I will. I will. Listen I the Kyle is going to get you points. Will he get you in the Kyle. The Kyle. The Kyle. See the Kyle officially. I mean he's I like that. I will say this in depending on you know if you're doing your own drafts folks. Pantage to your scoring criteria because Kyle Klein is somebody who's easy to overlook because he was not he didn't feel like he was like on coverage a lot last year. You know he didn't get a win. You only had three podiums but like the consistency was was really there and for me seeing somebody with a you know fourth on tour average place finish suggests that the wins could come that it's like a little bit more randomness causing issues. Yeah we sure. Oh yeah yeah at this point in the draft though like what more could you ask for than guaranteed points of possibilities of wins right yeah now it's a great pick he was again he was the last player in a tier for me yeah so again that's draft board just fallen really well for Josh's draft placement yeah all right I actually think this is where the draft starts I think we've reached it's basically worth the midway point. Well this this I think this was a dark start well right but this is where like you win and lose like this is why I lost last year's because I got so cooked after this point in the draft. I don't know that okay I'll whatever I don't want to do what what round did you take Evan Smith the big man again. Oh boy. Oh boy. This honestly is really tough just looking at Josh's team right now and we did just pass the halfway point. Gannon Ricky Nikolas and Kyle his MPO and then Owen and Evalina and S.P.O. I think Charlie and I at this point are really just hoping that Owen does fall off this year yeah and Evalina has you know bad Evalina year because the end the MPO team feels near inter-mountable at this point. So I don't know I feel like I'm falling in his trap I just happen to take high risk players to try to possibly score Josh but at this one kind of everyone feels high risk right like I do think the safe guys are gone and Gals. I think I have a sneaky FPO pick that I can get next round that Charlie won't take from me I'm hoping and so I'm going to take the guy that I like the most of the next of my next MPO to you even though I think probably I could get him later too at this point it's like take your guy stage of the draft right. So I'm going to take a guy that showed some real upside last year had his best year of his career didn't get a win but I think showed flashes that he could get a win this year and I really like the consistency the consistent trajectory. I'm gonna take Sullivan Tipton here. Oh wow. Who's a player I actually I picked up I did have my team after I picked him up in the second half of the season played really well at some of the majors last year really just like his as his upside as a top 10 guy weekend weekend I'm not I'm not saying he's going to be a guy that's like you're seeing the win every single week that that feels extremely unlikely but I do think the world where he just become is one of those guys like a Kyle Klein last year who is like oh look at that. So I'll take another top 12 look at that another top 12 that feels very much in his realm of possibility this year. I think we could look back on this and see it in totally different light like it could be like whoops that was not a good pick or it could be like wow that was yeah the best pick the draft yeah he really has been getting better I think you could have gotten him a round or two later if I'm being honest yeah but again I just feel like I feel like that's probably true for most of the people that are on the board. I hear you I hear you I hear you all right well I'm doing it I'm doing it I'm taking somebody who proclaimed himself the number two thrower on tour on this podcast I was wondering if this is where he goes for I'm taking Aaron Gossage listen it feels like a very Charlie pick doesn't it oh boy does it you get you get a guy in the pod you get some no no no no no I'm not getting missed the eye I understand the the risks here we're getting we're getting Gossage and a back to best right here the one of the things that I do is I look at circle one and regulation percentage as the number one bell weather for your potential it remains true like and when you are number two only to Ganon Burr in this category I am almost certainly going to give you a very serious look and what Gossage said is true now there's the MVP switch risk I get that but he went out of memorial and shot one off of Ganon now you can be like oh whatever it's memorial I get it the thing is the throwing is not a problem with the new discs which is using a memorial right so like okay we're in pretty good shape there the putting for Aaron Gossage was significantly better in the second half of last year if you look at his season stats there ugly ugly ugly because the beginning of his season was horrendous but he truly did play better at the end of the season and when you look at his results down the stretch of the year he had those top five's those the podiums at the tour championship second at world it's like this the the ceiling is so obvious now I have been as burned so many times by taking players who have putting issues that I think maybe this is the year they resolve them but like genuinely the sample is big enough down the stretch of the season that I feel like it really can't get whole at worst and it's not like he's going to be disaster did somebody take him last year surely he was on the board at some point right nobody ended up taking it no no one picked him what was his score last year I wonder if we scored it out I mean we I don't think we yeah because he he's gonna get a lot of things but he's gonna get past the minus one four points from worlds uh yeah I mean top 32s how many times do you miss one two uh three I think that's not that bad so well to your point Dan he had three 31st okay like three 31st and a 30 second so I would have I in my mind those were all negatives as well but in your mind you're not that's just not true in your mind your mind is wrong your mind is lying and his mind is going lower this year so yeah no I completely agree that's this is a better pick I'm saying this is a better pick than I was thinking yes you're yeah I'm giving you credit here Charlie as you make up something in your head about negative points I was with Dan that I would have expected Aaron Gossich to have had more negatives last season sure yeah sure it felt like I mean and I understand this is a high risk pick but this is another one where we could go it was right in front of us like this dude is playing some of his best disc golf at the biggest events of the year and I know we've gone on ad nauseam about what happened to her championship like to some extent he got unlucky to lose that tournament to some extent now you know if he doesn't slip on the tee pad like he might just walk it in I'm just saying I'm just saying I feel like he has been the guy that is closest to breaking through and getting wins for over a year now so I'm happy to have a player of this caliber at this point in the draft somebody who profiles you know even it's like again it's like a marginal improvement remember when Evolina marginally improved her putting she won like two majors and six tournaments or something crazy like that like you know she won worlds despite putting badly because it was just marginal improvement was enough and I think the same thing could be true for Aaron Gossich well Josh let me ask you about the goose pick. - Yeah. - 'Cause you know, Charlie obviously gave us the bowl case for goose. What do you think is more likely that he does take that next step or that he doesn't? And I won't say necessarily struggles 'cause I do think that like, even with the switch and bag, it probably his floor is probably pretty similar to what it's been. - I think what I expect is like goose gets a win and everything else looks the same. I don't see a win and maybe I'm wrong, especially given like how close he's been and like maybe it is a thing of like, getting over the hump could be a big difference maker for him. To me, it feels like one of his podiums turns into a win and then he looks the exact same elsewhere, which is still probably double digit points. - Yeah. - So not a bad pick. I don't expect him to like skyrocket up the board because the next step, the next step to me would be like him competing with the likes of Nicholas, right? Like that's like getting multiple wins, even having a little bit of an inconsistent season maybe but multiple wins with some podiums to boot. Like that's next step for me to gossage. But I mean, just a win would be a big, would be a big boon for gossage. - Yeah, I think a win would have been guaranteed if Charlie hadn't picked him. (laughing) I think Charlie had beaten him basically as the death now. - He would have beaten himself. - Unfortunately. - He knows that he'll get his turn. - He's a curse, picking him's a curse. (laughing) - So Eisenberg's uncertainty principle strikes again. (laughing) - Evan Smith can blame his career positions. - Yeah, I'm on Charlie's charge. - I'm ready. - Okay. - I'm gonna let you guys figure out which European FPO player is gonna pop off and play enough tournaments. I'm done with my IPO. I'm taking Kaden's bird. - Don't do it. - I'm shocked to see what this low, good luck everybody. - That's who you were gonna take next, weren't you Dan? - No. - No. - No, it wasn't. - No. - I have someone else that's like more. I'm curious to hear who you are. - I'm concerned. - I'm concerned. - Let me talk about it. Cause I was like, I got it for the conversation. - Okay, this is what I was like. - This is what I did. - I hear what you're saying. - I'm just curious. - She comes out at the beginning of last season and is like on fire and you're like, "Wow, she's doing awesome." And then it felt like she dropped off, which she did. She totally did. She went 26th at Legstone, 19th at Idle Wild, the D-Glo, 24th at GMC and you're like, "Uh oh, like maybe Katens isn't it." Well, but then what does she do? Folks, ninth MVP, sixth throw pink, eighth to her championship. Okay. - Interesting. - She's fine. - She's fine. And this is the premiere up in the coming player. I think she's the like six highest player rated player in the world right now. Kristen's still number one, Missy Holland, Silva, Evelina, Owen, Haley King, Paige Pierce, Katens Birch. - Next favorite. - So my FPO are all in the top seven most highest rated players. I'll take it. - Yeah. - You guys figure it out. - I, yeah, I'm like, "I'm a concerted second half." - Eat Emilia Ness, whatever. You guys figure it out. (laughs) - So I don't have to go to Europe for my FPO pick. - I know you're gonna take. - Who? - I wanted to take the sneaky pick. But I had to do the right thing. I'm sad that I don't get to work for this player, but I know what you're gonna do. Go ahead. - Yeah, okay. Yeah, I get the upside for Katens is obvious. So, especially Charlie with how safe your FPO is, I think taking the role of just like getting the next player that becomes a top five lock is very obvious for your team. But yeah, like I really wanted the win when she got the win to be her taking off point and like really solidified and just it felt like everything kind of slipped back from that point. And you're right, she did finish a little bit better, but not what I was hoping for after she got the win. I'm gonna take a player who just was kind of off my own radar until I was looking at the disc golf pro-tour standing from last year, like, wait a minute. This player finished eighth in the pro-prosting last year. Look at her result turning of the year. She got a win. She had just like a big ol' streak at top 10s. And it felt like after some time out with injury and time affected by injury that she's maybe getting at that point where we see the upside we saw earlier in her career. I'm gonna take Valmanda Hano here. - This is definitely not who I thought you were gonna take. - I really, no, this is the right pick. I am devastated right now. - I'm wondering who Trolley though, isn't it, say? - I think I'm gonna take who Trolley thought you were gonna take. - I'll say when the pick comes. - Yeah. Oh, damn you just like, I seriously, I was like, I was like, this can't get any better for me. This can not, this draft cannot go better. I really cannot. - Yeah. - That's a great pick. I mean, people forget about the ankle. - Yeah. - It's true. - And that is, yeah. Like her finishing to finish out the season first, third, 14, 24th, eighth. I mean, that's, that is a lot of points. - Fifth, or a pink. - But I throw a pink. I don't know if that in front. - Nine, two or championship. - Oh, I thought she was gonna fall to me. - Yeah, I would have liked for her to fall around later, but with where your team was, I couldn't take the risk. - You weren't getting, or I promise you. - Yeah. - Yeah, I didn't think earlier to me would have felt like a reach. Like I, because I just don't know, but, I mean, Val was phenomenal two seasons ago to start the season as well. Like, I think this is, that's just such a good pick. I was, I was, I was like, there's no way Val's gonna get to me. And then Charlie picked Cadence. I was like, oh my gosh, there's a chance. And then, and then there's something chance. - Yeah, sorry, but I'm sorry about that joke. - That's all right. - If you hadn't taken a cop, I'm like, I'm sorry. - I feel like you guys are more, you're more leaning towards taking Val than Cadence Burj. - Mm. - I don't think that's smart. - Me too. - Last year we were talking about Cadence and we're like, oh, she's too young. It's not ready. And then she plays like the, she did last year. Tell me why she's not gonna get more better this year. - I'm not saying she could. - All right, let's, let's see what happens. - I, I, the upside is pretty bad. - I'm not not going to mount to Hana Pick to be clear. - Sounds like you hate Falma. - No. (laughing) - Sounds like you have a person on that. - Sounds like you guys over extrapolated from four bad tournaments. - Continue. - Uh, let's see, I, I'm with Dan on this line. I really, really, really like the Val Pick. Um, I, there's, there's just, there's, man, she had, she, she's gotten wins in two of the past three seasons. - Oh. - Yeah, I'm jealous. (laughing) - I don't think a lot. - Um, okay. Well, I think there's only one FPO player that's like a, you gotta just take this one next. Which to me, and when Dan was like, when Dan was like, oh, she had a sneaky good season. Like I, she was kind of off my radar. I'm like, oh my gosh, she's, he's, he's gonna pick this person instead. - It's cat, it's cat merch. - Wow, no, that, you guys still haven't said, and who I thought you're gonna take. - Really? - Who's staying? - He's on head now again. (laughing) - No, actually, actually I, I think I 100% know who he's talking about. - Okay. I mean, cat merch, Val and Kaden's merch all finished right at the same level. It was literally 7, 8, 9 in terms of the protour standings. Um, and, and the way our scoring works, cat merch actually would have gotten a lot of points. It wasn't as flashy as previous seasons. But, uh, well, would have, um, still, still would get points. Like she doesn't suffer from the 10 to 8 jump as much as some of the other players might. Still scored 10 points last, last season for Charlie, and, and I think is likely to do, uh, at least that, if not more. And last season, I think was quieter than, than previous seasons from her. She also is gonna benefit from the cash line switch. So I think she actually would gain points in our new format as opposed to losing any, which I'm very happy about right now. I don't know what in the world to do next. This is like, I, I knew I was gonna get one of those three FPL players. And so that pick was kind of, oh, wait, yes, I do. I know exactly where to go next. That's a lie. I have, I have it next. I'm taking Adam Hammist next broke out two wins last season. Uh, yeah, I and very, very big benefactor of the change to the negative rule, uh, killed Charlie in negative points, but is going to have, I think a good bounce back, uh, and I'm very happy to have here, uh, this late. Good luck without him as on your team. I feel like I get completely unfair that he was a minus five for me, but at the end of the day, he was a minus five. It's completely unfair. He was, he was a late pick up. No, no one drafted him. So is that true? Right. His great start. Yeah. That's right. So the minus five was the minus five for that slot. That's right. That makes so much more sense. But still he was a minus three while he was on my team. Yeah. I don't think he's gonna. Yeah. He is like the great start was with carried in last year. Yeah. He did not finish the season great. And he is like the poster boy for why this are scoring your needed revamped. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. Honestly, did he have a bunch of like 40ths or something? Mm-hmm. So a lot of his negative points were very fair. Yeah. Hamas is not missing cash that often. Right. His bad finishes are still inside cash. So yeah, I'm pretty happy to get Hamas here. Yeah. Hamas is a nice pick. He just, man. Again, this is like a draft of basically who am I rooting for for the year? And he's just a tough kind of room for him in. Fair. He makes it tough. He makes it tough. I think just pure. pick wise though yeah he was definitely an oversight by a slash year. Oh yeah. And at this point in the draft feels like I think I think this feels appropriate for where he should go like I don't think he should have gone much higher than this. Yeah. But it does feel like a clear setup and value over like who's left on the board. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna go with a guy that was it was another second half of the season pick up for me. It wasn't as strong as I'd hoped to be when I picked him up. I picked him up for what I hoped would be a strong conclusion to the European swing. He did okay but not great. I can't remember I did check and see how many tournaments he signed up for. It does look like he is going to be playing some in the US and has shown as much upside as just about any player in the division other than Gannon Burr really can win at any given tournament when he's there. And if you guys are playing then he's not costing me points. You know I know that's less of a risk. But a guy that can give me some points and I think can like really dominate in the European swing. I'm going to take Lowry Letman. An upshot staple a guy that feel like people do not talk about enough. Agreed. That's he's good. He's a really good player. He's in the 1040 club. He's not playing until Champions Cup though. I don't know. You're asking a lot. Yeah. Yeah. I just I mean again if I just get a boatload of points in Europe that's kind of what I'm swinging. I just don't know that there's a boatload of points to be had in Europe this season is the thing. Yeah. Well we don't have the double majors obviously. We have the one major and then I think it's three events after that and that's it. That's the that's the opportunity for scoring over there. I definitely agree about trying to think about the European options and just be like is there you know is there some value to be found but it's just so hard when they skipped the beginning of the season and you can't necessarily count on them to play more than 10 events. I will be honest I was looking at Lowry as a waiver pickup and trying to snack him for the European train to get the European swing plus. We did it established when our waiver will be. Oh that's true. Last year we did it right before the European open which I like as timing. How does that fit into this season because we won't have the Euro events beforehand like the back of the season is heavy I think because you asked women's after European open. So I propose the waiver happens after high NOLA. So at the end of the European swing. There you go Dan. You can get Lowry. You can get Lowry. I mean he goes come for the playoffs so you got to decide there but the end of the European tournament and drop that boy. Yeah it feels like if we do it earlier it's a little too early. Okay. So they'll have played two majors and then the rest of the majors will be in the second half of the season. Yeah I'm good with that. Yeah after high NOLA sounds good with that. Yeah. Okay. I've been sitting here looking at this and it doesn't make it any easier guys. I'm not going to lie to you. I know it's tough. I'm taking Cole Revolon. Yeah. Upside crazy. Somebody who's been coming off an injury as well. Started to show us what he was capable of when he was kind of on that previous trajectory. Got to win. Multiple podiums didn't miss cash much. I feel like upside is really high too. Like Cole could be somebody that we are like oh whoa. He could have a Kyle Klein type of jump up in success. Super talented. I mean crazy talented. And you feel a little uncomfortable about it because he did he was up and down for sure but the back half of his season was so strong. I mean besides he didn't play great at USDGC but you know third-odd a wild third GMC wins MVP and has played good like in the fall too. So I just I feel like I can count on some points and the fact that it seems like hopefully the injury steps behind him that he can you know start to achieve at the level he's capable of week after week. I get a second pick here and then I'll let you guys react. This is where I feel like I'm just like kind of throwing a dart. I mean I'm a little worried about what to do here. I'm gonna take Ezra Aitor Hold. Hold on hold on hold on hold on. Let me get this straight. You said good luck with the Adam Hammers pick and just picked Ezra Aitor Hold. Let me let me make sure both of those things happen in the same hold on hold on. Well Josh this is three whole picks later. You got to understand. I get it I get it but the you know one of the highest rated players still left on the board. Yep. Oh you probably make it wins out of it. Not that many missed caches honestly. You'd be surprised. He missed 32 a lot but it didn't miss cash that much. Okay. I know he had those swings. There's no question about that. That was like the talk of last season. Is we don't pick Ezra on pickable Ezra. Listen I don't know what else like look at the board. It's hard. I think it's a good pick. I just I found the commentary on him. It's a little worse for me than last year's back end MBO picks. Yeah I mean we just have that spot in the draft you know. I will say it's it's become a little difficult for me to like shift my strategy for this back end because last year it felt just so much like just avoid the negatives but this should be so much more difficult for the players to get the negatives you know. So like I do think it makes a lot more sense to like swing for those guys that you see as people like in midget just some points. Yeah and just you know if they finish 48 that you know isn't going to hurt you like you did last year. At most tournaments. Yeah or the bigger tournaments. So so yeah getting a guy that like has demonstrably one. You know like the level it feels pretty good to stay. Yeah. Demonstrably one. Now just one. That honestly that that was like one of the I feel like one of the highlights of the season. Ezra's win last year. Ezra and Kate it's the same. Right right right. That's pretty cool. But yeah I don't know tough to see if this Ezra jump to that stage of consistency or not. That's going to be the next thing for him. I'm going to tough spot here because Josh and I both need one MPO. So like which which one is more important to get the pick for I it's tough to say. I want to go with a real quiet guy. I just as someone who just said that you know it's important to get guys who maybe can win here. I'm going to do the opposite. I'm going to go then I don't think it's going to win. I do think he's good. Handful top 10s. I do think he's good for it. Handful top 12s. There are any people. There's no obvious. There's no obvious picks here. Of course. So I'm going to take I understand. This is probably guy that you guys wouldn't take but he kind of quietly had like a nice little season last year. Had some top 10s at majors I believe. Are you running back on Jakub Semarad? No, no, no. That was not good. I'm going to Andrew Marble. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like it. I like it. He was on my list of potentially pickable players. He's rock solid. Yeah. I'm not going to give you like a ton. I don't think but it's also not going to bomb you. Yeah. I you know if he gets me like four or five six points, you know. I'm not going to bank on any podiums but give me a smattering of top 10s. Probably hard to be going to miss cash. And you know and if he gets a top 10 or two at a major that's you know that's great. Right. There are three guys that I've been sitting here kind of bouncing around between and I just I think I'm just going to straight up pick who had the most top 10s and hope because all of them are going to lose me points as well at times. So I think it's really just pick pick the guy with the most top 10s because they will minimize or give you the opportunity. Which and to be to be honest is not the one I expected to pick out of these three. I'm taking I'm taking Silas Schultz. Wow. Wow. Wow. I'm happy to talk afterwards. I want to I want to I'm not a Dan do his pick. And you have another pick my friend. I do but not MPO. So I'm not going to talk about my other. I got you. I'll come back to that but but let's Silas Silas is overlooked in the pro pro-tour standings because he didn't go to Europe. And Or at least didn't do as much Europe it looks like. And so, yeah, he did not go to Europe. So he missed out on all the points of Europe, but he had 10th of music city, 5th at. Um. Uh. Preserve, that's what it is. There we go. Uh, 7th at Ledge Stone, 7th at D Glow. Pretty decent. Like, that's some good finishes. And it wasn't missing cash all too often. I would have gotten more negative points last season. So. Silas is gonna be my MPO pick. Um, FPO, I don't know, through a dart. Like. I. Uh, I have a player that I think I'm gonna take, and I took last season, and it didn't work out for me. So do I run it? You know what? No, you know, I'm gonna. I'm gonna take advantage of the curse. Give me a head of Blom-Race. Oh, wow. She's gonna win three now. Now that she's not on Claire these words. I honestly am here. I'm gonna rush. I'm rooting for you. Thank you. I appreciate it. I just. At this point, I don't know who to pick. I really don't. I don't know who to pick. I really don't know who to pick. I was gonna finish double thing literally got I oh my gosh. Oh my gosh guys. I literally have Charlie's FPU. That's your last season! I got the exact I have Charlie's exact FPO D from last season. Charlie has mine! We flipped FPO! No way! I had to. That's true! It just, it's just the spots! It's just the spots! Well let's take a look. Josh? I actually know how to draft MPO and so I'm gonna win the shot. Josh scored 101 points with his FPO team last year and I scored 67 so good luck, Josh. That's crazy. I will say the draft is different because cadence was a mid season. Yes, good point. That's true. You're right, you're right, you're right. But that is the only deviation point. That's so. That is funny. Yeah. And if Dan takes, he can have almost the same team as last year if he takes a particular player. If I do it, Chris, I think I'll be right back. No, if you take Haley King. A different, a very reasonable to consider taking here. At this point, yeah. The thing about Haley King is every time she plays, she's gonna score points. It's very true. Just don't know how much she's gonna play. Every time she plays, hardly ever. Well, I want to go back to the style of Schultz pick. Josh tried to gloss over it real quick. No, I'm granted. I am surprised to see he had that many top 10s last year. But take it over someone like Simon feels kind of crazy to me. Especially thrown a thrown a new bag will be very interesting for Silas just did not have him on my radar as a player to pick at all. Did you Charlie? I mean, I considered it, but you know, he missed cash quite a few times. Back switch like I like his upside. I just, it's I just feel like there's more secure picks and even a higher upside picks. Like I don't know what you're hoping to get from Silas. I have a player in mind that I might take a flyer on. I'm excited to hear this. First though, we got to go with my final FPO pick in my final pick. Don't blow this. There's a there's a right pick. I'm pretty certain I know who you're talking about. And she is on my board. It's her and Hayley came. I understand. I'm sure that I'm on my board. Yeah. The only thing about this player is if it's who I'm if I'm think the same person is Charlie they finished last year really strong. In fact, I believe shot the best pure strokes around at the newer championship. Like if everyone started clean, she would have won. And the problem for me with Sophia Donica is I really wanted to see her just go out and kick ass in the down under tournament. And she just didn't. She didn't she didn't get a single win. I think the best she did was like a distance second place. And if you look at the competition, she was playing out there. That doesn't give you a whole lot of hope that she's going to pick up right where she left off last year. And you know, give me some top eights. And she's going to be a good one. She's going to be a good one. I think the reason that obviously they did not get picked. I think we all may wish we had. If I had decided to take a more, I'm just going to punt on my last FPO pick till the end. This is probably the, well, depends on the board. But probably the player that I would have taken. Hannah win. Hannah win. Hannah win. Yeah. Coming off her best season ever. 958 rated. Just shot close to a thousand rated tournament at an A tier in Florida. Beat second place by 21 strokes. I mean, I'm just saying. I think Hannah win. Yeah. I think is. If you look at her last year, like, she's not scoring you a lot of points. Like, just not enough of those top eights. And she could have a great year and finish ninth every time. You know, and like, you could end up being like, God, like frustrated because just not enough points available from the, from the upside. But I really think she's going to be a way or why are candid it? I'm pretty sure she lost four tournaments to our scoring change that, that were nine or 10th. Right. That she is not getting advantage now. But I think she could step up into that next. You need to step up. You have the level up. You have to. I liked the way she ended the year last year. She's to me just very promising as a, as a player. Yeah. Yeah. Finished six that MVP open, ninth to throw pink. Like, do signs are there. I don't know how old she is. Like, I feel like she's been around a little longer. She's been around. She's been playing. She's a PJ member since 2018. I mean, I don't think you're getting like the also interesting. None of us picked, I think for understandable reasons. Any of these like phenom up and coming FPO European players. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it's just too risky from like a, if we knew the whole schedules for the year right now, maybe we make different decisions. But a little hard to, also if there were more DGPT events in Europe. But there's one major. Right. That's, that's those, those two things together are just tough. And, and the schedule this year is major. Pro-ture, approach your approach your. And the last pro-ture doesn't count for FPO. Right. So, what that means is that those, those terms are going to be packed with all the American players. There's not that same advantage that the European players had when they were before. And all the US players were still playing in America. Yeah. So, just noting that for the record. Because they're all bumping over companies in the inbox about not taking, you know, Julia Forrest or something. Right. For reference, Hannah Win is going to be 30 this year. I'm telling you, she's, if I had one or two more FPO picks, she would be on my team. I'm like, sad I don't get, I'm still going to be excited to see how she does. But. Yeah. Yeah. Wait, Dan, did you take, we didn't write it down. I already forgot. I was thinking, I was thinking, MPO for some reason. Okay. So, I have one MPO pick remaining. And I can speak freely because there's nothing stopping me from doing that. So, obviously, some guys that would be consideration here, Simon. I think you could still think about Chris Dickerson. Evan Smith actually was like, pretty solid. - He's not all less, Evan Smith Smith. (laughing) But it sounds like he's touring less, so that's, he's out for me. - Uh-huh. - Yeah, he's gotta be out. - And then, I don't know, Ben Callaway won a tournament last year. That was the one player who won. - Isn't he, he's not sorry. - Right, that's exactly what I was gonna say. - Yeah, yeah. - So then, where do you go? Cory Ellis? Now here's what I'm gonna get sneaky. I'm gonna say this name, and I'm gonna think about it right now. Austin Turner. - He was on my list. - I am really. - He was on my list. - I mean, he had some moments last year. He's now moved up onto a higher tier of sponsorship from Discraft. He's playing a lot of events. Super talented. And so I'm thinking about taking the chance. Now, if I look at his last year, I'm just trying to think about like, based on 2025, what he have scored, based on points. So he had a ninth and a second, and a sixth at USDGC. So there's the points. It's not a ton, minuses at Ledgestone, Idlewild, D-Glo, GMC, MVP. I'm like a pretty brutal stretch. So like, we're talking about basically a net zero. Close to it. I didn't fully do the math, but maybe a slight minus. But like, where else am I going? I guess Simon, like, do I want Simon? - Does someone take Simon? Yeah, Dan did got four points. - Four points. Do I think I'm more likely to get points from Simon or from like taking a flyer on somebody like Austin Turner? And then there's like the random European guys who I could consider, like Rasmus South could eat me. I looked a couple of these guys up, most of them aren't playing till Champions Cup. It just kind of feels like that rules it out for me. Again, an extended European tour? Yes. Yes. But only four events is just so, like Lowry's the only one to me that is like, okay, Lowry's going to podium four times. And after that, middle of last season, Austin Turner touched 1038 rated. Where's Simon at right now in rating? He's probably still, he's 1036. Look, very similar players in some ways. A little bit less missed cash from Simon. But also maybe just like not flashing the same upside lately. I don't know. This is not an easy decision, in my opinion. I'm going to take the bird in the hand. I actually think my team puts me in a pretty good position to succeed. I'm going to take Simon. I mean, Simon playing fewer events is actually maybe a benefit at this point in the draft. And obviously, we know he can, we can go out and win at any time. And I want our two wins and it's like, he's an easy steal at that. Oh, yes, yes, definitely. And I don't know if I expect Austin to level up to the point of winning. That's the hard thing, right? Like I know what I'm getting from Simon, which is that he will be like in the hunt for wins. I mean, he had a couple of second place finishes last year. So I'll take it. I'll take it. Yeah, I think I just like more clearly going to score me points. I'm like asking Austin Turner to level up and like, why am I believing that? I don't know. I think he seems like a good candidate. He seems like a good candidate. He's like a part of the draft, right? Like he wanted me the guy who nails the guy that known and he's like, right, that's like a big part of it. Yeah, I think I would have gone LaZada or even Dickerson over Austin. 'Cause I think Chris is a player who benefits from this format as well. I think he loses a lot of his negatives and is good for, you know, a handful of top 12s throughout the year. So yeah, Dickerson, boy, I'm not a reasonable pick for sure. Yeah, I don't love my team. I gotta be honest. Let's lay out the teams really quick. Josh has Ganon Burr. I'm gonna just read the MPO and the IPO in the order in which they were drafted, but those is not one to 10 necessarily. Ganon Burr, Ricky Weissaki, Nicholas Antilla, Kyle Klein, Adam Hammace, Silas Schultz, FPO O'Neal Skoggins, Evelyn Assalamine, Kat Merch, Hannah Blommerus. Dan has Holland, let me go to MPO first. Dan has Anthony Barella, Isaac Robinson, Ezra Robinson, Sullivan Tipton, Lowry Letnan, Andrew Marweed, and for FPO has Holland Handley, Ella Hanson, Valerie Mondajano, Sophia Dunnicka. I have Calvin Heimberg, Paul McBeth, Aaron Gossage, Cole Radall, and Ezra Aderhold, Simon Lazat, and Missy Ganon, Silvassar and Paige Pierce, and Cadence Birch. You know, the thing I will note, you're just, Dan is asking a lot of a bunch of players. That's the problem for Dan's team, right? Like, you're asked, like, for the most part, Josh and I have players who have one events. I think the only players for Josh who have one are Silas and Hannah, and for me, just Aaron Gossage. Aaron, yeah. Dan is asking, Sullivan Tipton, Lowry Letnan, Andrew Marweed, Sophia Dunnicka, to maybe become those players who can step up to that next level. Now, I think they're all really good players who could do that. It's just you're having to speculate a bit to see the results. - Yeah. - Yeah, I think the problem for me is like, a lot of the good back of draft players are just players that don't like very much, particularly on the MPO side, that I just like, you know, Hamis, Cole Radall, and their disguise, like I don't really want a part of. - You got a set of sides, your feelings. - I know, I know. But it's over feelings, Dan. - If I were coming off a grid, we were coming off a resounding victory from last year. I mean, you know, maybe a little bit more desperate to just chase, you know, points. But I also feel like in a lot of ways, like second was just a much worse spot to be this year than it was. - It was. - Like last year I got Kristen to tar. So, you know, it felt very much like, oh, I'm just getting the other again. - Right. - Which was true until she dropped, you know, out of the competition. - And even then she still had tons of points. So. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. She was still very strong. And I was also able to load up on FPO that way, because, you know, there was one more top FPO player for me to swing back around in the second round. I couldn't do that this year. So I had to be the first one to dive into that, like, just cluster of like eight to nine MPO players after Ganon, which just feels like a really bad spot. But yeah, I, it's, it's very difficult for me to see a way to overcome Josh's team. I just, I think he did a really good job of picking those safe MPO players behind Ganon until the Silas Pick. The Silas Pick was the Joey Bucket's pick last year. But I think, I think at that point, you know, it may be just even matter. We don't even, what if Ganon is just, you know, better, even better than it was last year? - Right. - Then the draft is just one and the first pick, you know, I mean, there's not a whole lot you can do about it. But yeah, I, I, one last year without having Ganon, because my, and, FPO is so strong, and I just couldn't replicate that this year. So it's hard for me to see me, you know, winning really. And yeah, I, I, I don't know, I get, Josh feels like the favorite to me, then Charlie, then myself, if I'm trying to rank objectively. But, but, - But, Josh, - Josh got that dominant FPO team from last year of the, the Missy Silva combo. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, FPO is strong, is strong, but is it strong enough to overcome Ganon and Rick? - I don't know, it's hard to say. - I mean, here's what, - What, what, what I will say is, I feel really good about the back half of my draft. Like, my final four picks are Kaden Spurs, Kolorodon, Ezra Aitorhold, Simon Azat. I have to say, I feel like that's a lot stronger than what, the, what you two were, were picking. - I know, that's what I was thinking. - The, the upside is higher. I think maybe a little bit more volatile as well. Like, Jaden's three, just get absolutely nothing from those players. Kaden's probably is pretty safe to give you something, but. - Yeah, so I mean, I don't know, I think Ganon and Rick is really, really powerful. I basically need, I need to get, I know I'm gonna get plenty from Calvin. Like, I'm not worried about that, you know. He could be a 20, - You two-point player, or he could be a 40-point player. - You need him to match it, like you need him to complete. - So I need exactly. I think if I want to win, well, no, the path for me to winning is FPO. I mean, I think it's pretty clear. Like, especially if I'm trying to compete with Josh. Like me having Missy Silva and Josh's top two being own Evelina, like I definitely gonna score more than Josh and FPO. It's just a question of how much more, I mean, it could come down to like, how does Paige produce, how do Evelina and Hannah play for Josh? If they have good seasons, we're probably toast. - Oh, wrap it up. - Yeah. - If Hannah gets to win the season, like. - I just don't see it. - I mean, we have, it's been five, six years of putting brutality. - But, but Charlie, you walked away. And the last fight that happened, Evelina was the best player behind Kristen. - The Charlie Wade is off her shoulders. - That's right, exactly. You're just, you're discounting the curse right now, Charlie. (laughing) - Wait, someone is editing the video of her horror putt at Worlds with just like Charlie, just like sitting piggyback on her shoulder or something. - Or putting Charlie just on the back of the body. - No, just on the back of the body. - The vibe voiceover being like, this is the year. - Yeah, that's it. - Oh gosh. - I'm gonna get someone, I'm gonna get someone who's a video editor to make like a redemption video that's like this is the year with all of Hannah's bad putt and then Charlie being like, I'm not doing it. And then just Hannah, just crushing tournament after tournament after tournament. - That'll be sick. That'd be a sick hype video. - Okay, I wanna note some players who were drafted last year that didn't get taken this year. - Okay. - Who we okay. - Joey Buckets, Chris Dickerson, Evan Smith, Eagle, Gavin Rathbund, James Proctor, Jakub Semarad, Anakin Sten, Maddie O. Haley King. That's a lot. Obviously, Kristen. - That's a lot. - It shows you how much like-- - Yeah, our back caps, back caps in the draft were not good last year. - I don't think we were like wrong at the time. - I, we were with some. (laughing) - I should have taken Jakub. Josh, Josh shouldn't have taken Joey Buckets when he did. - No, that was cool. I mean, you all still let me up Paul McBeth the next round. So I guess-- - Yeah, that was crazy. Joey Buckets went ahead of Paul McBeth. - I mean, I took, I had Simon available. They're just poor, I don't know. The back half of MPO is like a little tricky last year. I took Evan Smith and Eagle McMahon seven and eight and then Proctor, Orham 910. I mean, it was just absolutely horrendous. Like I think-- - Yeah. - I think I erred in taking a little too much FPO in the top half of my draft. Some of that was forced by the structure of the draft and where I was picking, but I also picked Kyle Klein fourth and he just didn't have a good season for me. That was painful. Like if I'd gotten more from Kyle, I probably would have been a lot closer. - And that's where I see I'm very excited because I've got the exact same FPO players that you do. But I took, own into, I got Evolina down in the fifth round. I got Kat Merch in the seventh round and I got Henna in the tenth round, which let me pick up-- - Right, much more valid. - And Kyle Klein, I got in the sixth round, right? So I'm getting like Ricky and Nicholas obviously are just a whole different compared to Kyle Klein. - The thing is, it feels like Ricky, I mean Ricky's another one who you know is gonna get you points, but he had the like down season from a points perspective. - He did, yeah. - He only scored 20. - He didn't get a win. - That was below Macbeth. That was below Barrella. That was below Nicholas. That was below Isaac Robinson. Like I do think it's gonna come down to wins for pretty much like wins, especially wins at majors. Pretty much decide who wins. - Big deal. - So it's gonna be, well gotta be a lot of fun. Let us know your thoughts. - Yes. - Email us upshotoldtural.com. We'll be back for our waiver pickups and kind of check in where the season stands later in the summer, right after the European swing. And then of course we will wrap up everything at the end of the year, but that is our fantasy draft. Where do we get it right? Where do we get it wrong? Who did we overlook? Hannah Winn, she's coming for those points folks. I'm telling you. Dan, thanks so much for being here. - Thanks for having me guys. I mean, genuinely look forward to this every single year. Always happy to be a part of it. - Any final thoughts on our draft? I think Josh has to be the favorite given the, - Yeah. - Ganon, Ricky Nicholas, Trio at the top of MPO. But. - Yeah, I mean, my power rankings will be Josh, Charlie, then myself. Just really didn't, was really honestly just really hoping. I was doing like some mock drafts ahead. That's how much I love drafting things. And I was like, please, the second make, please do the second low balls. - Second is so hard this year. - What can you do? Yeah, I mean, I feel like we all felt pretty good about our drafts last year, and I don't know that it went how we would have thought. So, season wise has twists and turns, especially kind of in that like, you know, like fourth to tenth best player in each division. So, I don't know, this is always my baseline for getting ready for the season, picking my players on the route four. I'm just ready for disc golf. - I know. - It's been cold and snowing wet here. And, you know, it's just time for you back out there and start playing again. - It's officially next week. Next week, there's first beat. So, let's go. - It's awesome. Thursday, we will be with our 2026 season preview episode with makings and predictions as well, be picking our major winners. And then next Tuesday, we've got our preseason mail back. So, email us with your thoughts about anything for the season to come, whatever's on your mind, upshot at ultiroll.com. We wanna hear your mail back questions. We will answer them next Tuesday. And then the 26th, we will be doing our Supreme Flight Open preview show. So, gonna be ton of fun. Finally, the season is back. We're ready to roll. And then, hey, overreactions coming on March 3rd. So, lock in for one of the most fun events, shows of the year. - Dan Prenson with us today. Thank you so much everybody for tuning in. We will talk to you Thursday right here on the upshot. (upbeat music)