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Speaker 3Baseball season is in full swing, and there's no better place to be than CalShee, America's number one prediction market platform. Atlanta is currently trading at 7% to win it all, meaning a $100 trade pays out over $1,200 with a win. On CalShee, you're trading against other people in a live market. No house, no odds makers. And as the odds move, you can buy in or out any time throughout the post-season. Download the CalShee app and use code FAN to get up to $500 in profits. Plus, you get bonus credits when you trade $25. K-A-L-S-H-I, CalShee, trade on anything. 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. CalShee products are not available in all jurisdictions. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see CalShee.com/regulatory. - Way too early, third base rankings for 2027, up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express. - Welcome in to FBT Express on Friday, October 30th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White. Congratulations to the Milwaukee Brewers and all their fans winning the 2026 World Series. But that's not why we're here. We're here to talk about way too early. Third base rankings from yours truly, Scott White. Up top, the top three, we have Junior Caminero. - Caminero, ha! - Ha! Caminero! - Followed by Miguel Vargas and Sal Stewart. It is a young man's game. Scott, how early are you willing, Caminero we know is probably gonna be a first round pick, mid to late first round pick. How early are you willing to go on both Vargas and Sal Stewart in 2027? -
Speaker 4Two, three turn, I would say. I think officially in my Roto/5x5 category rankings, which is what these are, officially, they'll be late second rounders for me. Certainly Vargas will. I am tempted based on his post-season performance, not to jump ahead probably to your next question, to move Jose Ramirez up ahead of Sal Stewart. And so maybe he'll end up being at the two, three turn, late two and pushing Stewart into round three, but all in that same range. Good power speed guys who probably aren't going to be much up in batting average, but won't be terrible. Stewart might be pretty good in batting average, but won't be as useful for stolen bases, I would imagine, even though he wasn't a zero for that this past year. I would say Vargas of the three, I'm lumping Ramirez in with the other two, of the three Vargas is the one I feel best about. I feel like the data is strongest with him overall. You got the plate discipline, you got the hard contact, you got the extreme pull air at rate, and you've got the speed to justify, the base stealing he did, if not better base stealing next year. While Stewart, his data sets a little more questionable. And then Ramirez, well, we'll get into Ramirez, I'm sure. -
Speaker 3Let's talk about him four, five and six in your third base ranks, Jose Ramirez, Alex Bregman and Kevin McGonigal, who also has shortstop eligibility for next season. It's weird seeing Jose Ramirez this low, but he had the fractured hamate bone and he was basically unusable after returning from that injury until the post season. When he hit two home runs, had an OPS over 900, it was only 11 games, but obviously he looked like himself. And the data pre-injury looked very similar to 2025. So I understand he's 34 years old, Scott, but I'm doing the thing you're not supposed to do. I am betting on a mid thirties breakout for,
Speaker 4not breakout, bounce back for next season, yeah. - Well, it happens. And the injury paints a compelling picture as far as that goes. 'Cause I agree, even though he was batting 239 before the injury and fortunately, because of the timing of the injury for Ramirez, you could just do first half splits were pre-injury, second half splits were post-injury. But even though he was hitting 239 pre-injury, I felt like he was the same guy and the batting average was due to normalize and the whole stat line was gonna be about what we expect from Ramirez. But he was so bad coming back from that injury, two home runs for the entire second half just completely punchless at the plate, which isn't historically speaking abnormal for a player coming back from a broken handmade bone. Now we had a lot of players come back from a broken handmade bone in 2026 and most of their power output wasn't that impacted. So you think, okay, maybe they've gotten better at this procedure, players come back stronger. Ramirez didn't, he only hit those two home runs. So what does that say? Let's say him being 34 years old and him always for a power hitter having suboptimal exit velocities, like he got away with not hitting the ball very hard. So how much could he afford to lose there and still be a solid power hitter? Maybe less than some of those other guys. So there, I think there were a lot of, a lot of, there were enough red flags apart from him recovering from the surgery itself to suggest, well, maybe Ramirez really is on the decline and isn't going to be in the same anymore, but then he performs well in the post season, hits a couple more home runs. I think that mostly relieves my concerns and that's why I'm kind of leaning toward moving Ramirez ahead of Sal Stewart. -
Speaker 3All right, let's take a quick break
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Speaker 3Welcome back, FBT Express. Looking at Scott's way too early third base rankings. The top six again, Junior Caminero, Miguel Vargas, Sal Stewart, Jose Ramirez, Alex Bregman and Kevin McGonigal. Up to seven, eight and nine. We have Manny Machado, Zach Gelof and Kazuma Okamoto. Machado getting older. We're starting to see some of those skills decline, but the batting average looked like it was mostly related to Babib, Scott. So I think I would expect the batting average to bounce back a little bit. Maybe the power comes down a little bit as he gets older, but I think that batting average could get up to like that 240, 250 range. -
Speaker 4This is Machado we're talking about? - Yes, sir. - Yeah. So I think there was evidence of decline, like diminished skill here for Machado because the exit velocity, average exit velocity dropped more than two miles per hour. The strikeout rate ticked up a couple percentage points, like in a vacuum, still good exit velocity, still a good strikeout rate, but trending the wrong way for Machado. And he goes on to have the worst season we've seen from him in a long time. - Well, to whatever degree his skills diminished, it was pretty much isolated to batting average. He still hit 30 home runs. He still drove in 92, I believe it was, for Manny Machado. He still scored 91 runs. He still scored 82. So like, those are all typical for Manny Machado. It was really just, he hit only 217 rather than the usual 270. Expected batting average for him was 243, for what it's worth. So maybe he won't be a 270 hitter anymore, but I don't think he'll be as bad as a 217 hitter. And if everything else is going to be pretty typical, he might be a good value there as the seventh third baseman off the board. And I don't think anyone's going to have him higher than that. -
Speaker 3Fair enough. 10, 11, and 12 at third base. You have Isak Paredes, Max Muncy of the Dodgers, and Curtis Meade, who, reminder, is with the Red Sox. He only played one game and then unfortunately suffered a fractured wrist. But yes, he is with the Red Sox. He was having a breakout season with the Nationals. He got traded. We saw a big. jump in pulled air rate and theoretically scott that should work pretty well in fenway park for
Speaker 4curtis mead yeah we were denied seeing how that skill set would translate to fenway park because of the injury but he was a player who despite not hitting the ball especially hard was getting to plenty of power because of a good pulled air rate and as a right-handed hitter that could have a great impact on his batting average too he ended up hitting 253 in that season mostly spent with the nationals but i think there's ground to gain there provided provided he carries this over to next season and since it's not an established track record for curtis mead has a good process had a good prospect pedigree once upon a time but since this isn't an established track record we don't know and because we don't know what he's going to do offensively and he doesn't bring really any value defensively probably going to play second base for them next year rather than third base but doesn't have a lot of exposure to that spot in the majors like he could end up being a total bust next year i am obviously ranking mead for the upside case here some of the players i'm ranking him ahead of include bo bichette uh michael garcia austin riley nolan arenado but i'm clearly seeing the glass half full here for me i'm i'm uh if you see him lower in other people's rankings though that's why there is a glass half empty case for him
Speaker 3all right for more extensive fantasy baseball coverage listen to our full lane podcast fantasy baseball today on spotify apple podcasts or anywhere else podcasts are found thanks for listening to fbt express happy halloween to all this weekend make sure to stay uh safe and uh remain healthy this weekend we will be back again next week we'll see you then paramount podcasts
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