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Speaker 3Visit T-Mobile.com. - Baseball season is in full swing and there's no better place to be than Kalshi, 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 Kalshi, 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 Kalshi app and use code FAN to get up to $500 in bonus credits when you trade $25. K-A-L-S-H-I, Kalshi, trade on anything. 18 plus only, restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Kalshi products are not available in all jurisdictions. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see Kalshi.com/regulatory. We just drafted the first two rounds for 2027. Who missed the cut? Find out on Fantasy Baseball today. Welcome in to FBT Express on Friday, October 16th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White. And on the full length podcast, Fantasy Baseball Today, we just wrapped up drafting the first two rounds for next season. And we are gonna focus here on the players who just missed the cut. But let me remind you who actually was drafted there. So the first overall pick was Shohei Ohtani, followed by Pete Crow Armstrong, Bobby Witt Jr., Aaron Judge, Eli De La Cruz, Juan Soto, Yordan Alvarez, Fernando Tatis, Junior Caminero, James Wood, Jacob Miziorowski, and Jackson Trillo. That was the first round. The second round, Jose Ramirez, Tarek Skubal, Cam Schlittler, Corbin Carroll, Connor Griffin, CJ Abrams, Julio Rodriguez, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Ronald Acuna, Nick Kurtz, Miguel Vargas, and Christopher Sanchez. That was a lot of names, 24 to be exact. Scott, who just missed the cut? If we were drafting into the third round here, who would be next up for you?
Speaker 4I think Sal Stewart would be. And it's not by a lot. He did have a rough September after a very big August. But it ended up having a really good year. As a rookie, a 30 homer, 20 steal guy, tons of RBI, I think the batting average was a little bit disappointing, considering really the percentage stats in general were disappointing. But he made up for it with such massive totals. Really, the reason Sal Stewart would be this high is because he's eligible at third base, which is one of the weakest positions, clearly. Yeah. I do think he has ground to gain. He was a better line drive hitter in the minors, a better contact hitter in general. Also, for as much power as he delivered, it was with a low pull air rate. So if he improves there at all, we could see even more power from Sal Stewart. So I think there's maybe some untapped upside. But even just as he was, it's worth taking here, because of his third base eligibility.
Speaker 3Yeah. I agree. I agree wholeheartedly with that call. He hit 263, 32 homers, 15 steals, 112 RBI. 30-15, sorry. Before the season, I mentioned that I thought his upside eventually could be Manny Machado-esque. Manny Machado is his mentor and obviously looks up to him. He's already there. He basically is putting together Manny Machado-esque seasons. So I totally agree there on Sal Stewart. The next name up for me here would be Jordan Walker, who obviously had a huge breakout season. He did stumble to the finish line. It turns out he's playing through a hip injury late in the season, but still wound up with 29 homers, 97 runs, 102 RBI, 22 steals, improved the launch angle this year, put the ball in the air more. We know that he hits the ball extremely hard. It's just great tools, great bat speed, great sprint speed. Still some questions about the plate discipline. He doesn't, he's not a very patient hitter. He chases a lot outside the strike zone. So he still does have his warts. But this was a top prospect who put it together. And I think that he can kind of build on that for years to come. So I think he's kind of like right in that, you know, two, three turn range, late second, early third round pick for next season. So first two names here, Sal Stewart and Jordan Walker. Scott, back over to you for another player who just missed.
Speaker 4I got to go with Ben Rice here, who the only reason he's not in the first two rounds for me is because he plays a very deep position first base. No longer has catcher eligibility, which hurts, but he's such a good hitter that even at a very, very deep position, you know, got to 41 homers, 97 RBI, 105 runs. He was the top first baseman in fantasy this past year. And I think he maybe left some meat on the bone too. Like I said, for Sal Stewart, because just the previous year, 2025, we saw a better strikeout rate, a better pull air rate. If he can get those numbers back to where they were the previous year, I think we could especially see some gain in batting average. Hard to see much more than 41. But I think it's a doable number for Ben Rice at the very least.
Speaker 3Yep. That was the exact name that I had next up as well. Let's take a quick break and we'll get back into the players who just missed right after this.
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Speaker 3Welcome back in, FBT Express. On the Full Length Podcast, we drafted the first two rounds for 2027. We are now running through the players who just missed the cut here. The first three we spoke about, Sal Stewart, Jordan Walker, and Ben Rice. The next name that I have up here would be Pete Alonzo, who just another ho-hum Pete Alonzo-esque season. Obviously finished extremely hot in the second half of the year. But, you know, new team, new city in Baltimore. It did not matter. It was still the same old consistent Pete Alonzo. And what I really like to see is that he had a huge jump in quality of contact last year, his final year with the Mets. And that carried over this year with the Orioles. If you look at his average exit, the velocity, the barrel rates, the expected stats, the hard hit rates, everything was still there for Pete Alonzo. I think he's one of the safest players in the early rounds. He does play at a loaded first base position. He's not gonna give you any steals, but a batting average in the 260 to 270 range, 35 to 40 home runs, 200 plus runs plus RBI. It just feels like a pretty safe lock there with Pete Alonzo. -
Speaker 4To follow up on your point about the improved contact rate. So he actually hit it. He hit 267 for the year. Pete Alonzo, his expected batting average was 285. - Yeah. - And that was a year after hitting 272. Like Pete Alonzo may have in the past couple of years gone from being a liability in batting average to maybe a small plus in that category. -
Speaker 3All right, Scott, over to you. Another player who just missed the cut. -
Speaker 4O'Neal Cruz. And I may have, maybe should have said him even earlier. He still has considerable strikeout issues, but vast improvement against left-handed. - Yeah, I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that shows the legitimacy of the breakthrough. And he paced out his numbers without those two lost months. It's like a 30 Homer, 50 steel pace. One of the players, I believe Chris took him in middle of round two was Connor Griffin, which, okay, there's a lot of upside. It seemed like why do you need to gamble on that upside when there's so much like proven production still left? And I think. Just look at his teammate here, O'Neal Cruz. It's hard to get much better than a 30 Homer, 50 steel pace even if you factor in some downside risk with the strikeouts. Of course, there's a lot of downside risk for Griffin too. -
Speaker 3Yeah. Last name that I have here is, and then we'll talk about, is Kyle Schwarber, who remains util only. And he's starting to get up there in age a little bit. I get that. He's entering his mid-30s. But he just gave us another 45 home runs this year. Tons of runs in RBI as usual. The batting average came down. The strikeout rate went up, which, again, you don't like to see at this point in his career. But if you look at the underlying play discipline stuff, his whiff rate was actually right in line with where it was in previous years. So I felt like the 31% strikeout rate was a little bit elevated, perhaps a little undeserved there for Schwarber. I think he can get that back below 30%. And like Pete Alonzo, just one of the safest players in terms of power production year in and year out. If you compare his stat cast numbers from 2025 to 2026, he did take a pretty big step back. But that's also comparing him to a 56 home run season, which is a pretty clear outlier. I think if you look at the two seasons that kind of sandwiched that 2025, that should be closer to the expectation. 230 to 240, 40 to 45 home runs. Still really good counting stats here for Kyle Schwarber in the early to mid third round.
Speaker 4Can I mention just two more names here? Yeah, sure. Bryce Terang, I think, is very much in this discussion. And Jackson Merrill probably will be as well, at least in five by five rotisserie leagues.
Speaker 3All right. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to our full length podcast, Fantasy Baseball Today, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to FBT Express. And we will be back again next week.
Speaker 1Bye-bye. Bye-bye. ♪♪♪ Paramount Podcasts.
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