Redrafting the First Two Rounds for the Second Half! (7/10 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS Sports Got a fantasy question email fantasy baseball at CBSi.com Get ready to win your league Now here's Frank Scott and Chris hey there welcome in some fantasy baseball today on Thursday July 16th. I have Frank's to ample jawline by Scott White and Chris Sauer today on the show We are redrafting the first two rounds for the rest of the season. We'll assume a 12-teen Categories league, but we'll point out differences with head to head points as well. We will alternate picks Chris I just granted you the first overall pick. I don't know if this is a good exercise to have the first overall pick in but Yeah, you got it man. So Chris will pick first got a second 3rd and then we'll just rotate so on and so forth I also created this makeshift draft board so for those watching on YouTube you'll be able to follow along a little bit better than years past And we all created different top 24's so we'll be very interesting I didn't look at I know Chris you already published yours. I didn't look at that Scott. I know yours is coming out soon. I have no idea what it is So be very interesting to see how different our top 24's are during the sector Well, I was able to compare mine to Chris's after I put mine together Which by the way Chris Chris jumped in and published his first It's hey, I've always been an all-star break tradition. I did it. I did in the all-star break last year too I was just looking at what I did last year that was all fair enough So anyway, it's way different. They're way different and and I In a way that on the one hand is surprising because we talk about sometimes how you know when we as we're adjusting our rankings where It's amazing how often we line up with exactly the right number particularly at a position like starting picture where there's so many How often that happens? So it's surprising in that regard, but at the same time like this is It's it's kind of wild right now what's going on at the top of the rankings because so many of the mainstays the the obvious Surefire automatic First-round type picks have So much going on with that makes you not really want to draft them there. I mean just looking at the preseason ADP Air and judge no idea when he'll be back. Who's air mirrors Probably not coming back into August Ronald Acunia. I think he'll be back This weekend or early next week, but It's been a disappointing season Paul schemes weird season carbon carol weird season Garakro Shay not sure if he's going to pitch it all the rest of the season Gunner Henderson's been terrible cow Tucker's been bad. It's been cow Cowrallie Vladimir Guerrero. I mean and even even not great Active and we expected the show hey Otani Scott the knee issue. He's having his knee drained like a little disappointing too Now how how much what when we're talking about just a two and a half month window because this exercise is strictly Rest of season So nothing that they've banked up to this point counts for the purposes this draft. I mean it's going to shape your opinion of them obviously but We're not saying oh you get those stats you don't get those stats just from today forward And it's not like a theoretical scenario where if everybody was healthy who's the most talented like where we're having to factor in the health issues and health concerns It's strictly next two and a half months What do you think's gonna be best and For the number one pick I don't I'm not happy about having a number one pick Yeah, I ended up going with somebody who Has never gotten quite that kind of love before. I mean, I'm not I'm not picking first in this draft But I'll I'll tell you when I take them probably with my first pick who I think the number one over I'll pick for the second half should be All right, and before we get into that we did get some news from Jeff pass And so we will quickly get this out of the way then we'll get into the redraft the a's are calling up Tommy tanks That's third base prospect Tommy white. He's 23 years old a second round pick back in 2024 76 games in the miners this season between double a and triple a he was hitting three oh three with 10 homer 64 RBI 818 OPS doesn't strike out very much doesn't walk very much either and Scott despite the Tommy tanks moniker He actually doesn't hit for that much power either So it's a lot of ground balls, but uh, you know overall solid numbers in the miners. He's 3% rostered He could play third he could play first He could D.H. I think it's some Nick Kerz insurance up on the roster as well. Uh, do you have any interest in adding Tommy white anywhere in fantasy I'm not going to say it's zero because third base is the weakest position and he comes in with that eligibility Are you guys related that should have been my first question. Yeah Not to my knowledge. I see related to Thomas wipe Uh, no, that's a good question. I am not related to any professional baseball players to my knowledge But Tommy white he got that Tommy tanks nickname in college So you know, it's just kind of stuck with them. It's fun to say but you're right the the Data set doesn't really support it which isn't to say he doesn't hit the ball hard enough He does but so much of that contact is squandered on the ground Makes contact at a nice rate but I don't know what I'm feeling like the upside case for Tommy white barring a skill change Which you always got to have on the table for your young player But the upside scenario for who he is right now is like Alec bone maybe exactly I was going to say yeah So uh and that's the upside case obviously he's got to prove he ready to hit major league pitching before he can amount to that event so I would say in standard size leagues you can wait and see with Tommy white rather than making a claim for him Only desperate situations at third base would it be worth pursuing? I think what makes it at least a little bit more interesting is just the environment right hitting in Sacramento during the summer months You gotta hit the ball near though that that that is truth at a separate point So I think in deeper leagues 15 team leagues as a corner infield just you know and in leagues that deep you might just be struggling to find someone Getting consistent playing time. So in a league that deep I think you could take a shot But anything shallower. I think it's probably a wait and see let's see how much you actually play with the athletics and when he plays how good he actually is again That's Tommy white getting promoted to the athletics and According to Jeff pass and will be in the lineup here on Friday Let's get into redrafting the first two rounds for the rest of the season and uh here we go Here's my little google sheet trap board that I created. I fancy. It's it's not the best work that I've ever done But hey, it's something it's more than we've done in previous years And Chris you are on the clock with the first overall pick Yeah, and I think I'm just gonna go with the kind of default option the best five category player out there Although at this point There are multiple categories where Bobby would isn't not really a standout anymore But he's gonna give you the five categories the floor is super high And I think The underlying stats suggest that we have not seen the best of him this season he Has a 389 x-wova. He has a 311 xba. That's a really really high mark. He's actually hitting 286 Um the x-wova is the second best mark of his career. He's on a near 50 steel pace Counting stats have been disappointing for sure. Yeah, power has been a little disappointing for the second year in a row I still think there's 300 batting average 30 Homer pace potential here for Bobby witt so There are potentially other players with more upside uh for this exercise But I'm just gonna go with Bobby witt as my default and Look by the time November rolls around and we're tying my 2027 drafts My hunch is Aaron judge is just gonna be my number one player for 2027 But obviously coming back from that rib injury We don't know when he's gonna be back But it doesn't sound like it's within the next two weeks um yeah buster only was uh I read was speculating late august early september. Yeah, so I there's no way you can pick him for this uh that's Aaron judge, but I think there's a pretty good chance he's gonna be my pick for 2027 Yeah, you do get And obviously that's a different exercise But you do get kind of a reset in the offseason where you can assume everybody's gonna be healthy for the most part And so that frees you up a little more as i was saying a minute ago Uh We're limited by the health circumstances of these players. I think Bobby witt is Is probably the easiest choice you could make here number one like the safest low is for him pick yeah If if we were doing this for real, we were drafting a team for today for it and I had the first pick I would not feel excited to take him and I know like And maybe not for a good reason. I do think the power production is likely to Improve you mentioned the counting stance stats being disappointing just to quantify that he's on pace for 86 runs scored Which disappointing enough for the number one overall pick he's on pace for 65 RBI over the lowest of his career, including his rookie season when he wasn't very good. That darn Royals lineup. Yeah, I mean, a lot of it's the Royals lineup. Now, I think the pace in all three of those counting stats is going to improve. Home runs, runs, but potentially that's the ifiest, but RBI has to get better, right? It has to. I would think so. But still, I mean, given some of the big bats, the huge first halves that put together by some of the other big halves, the huge first halves put together by some of the big bats. I don't know. I only have Bobby with fourth. Ooh, all right, Scott, well, you are up with the second pick. I think my second pick, my first pick, which I'm going to take second here, is actually Chris' fourth pick. So our first and fourth picks are switched. And that is your Nalvarez. Ooh. I mean, look, I could, what Chris was saying about your Nalvarez prior to the season is, come true completely. He is the player who other than Aaron Judge seemed like he had at least the skill set to put together an Aaron Judge type season. And that was an argument I was more open to in years past. I wasn't as keen on it coming into this year because he had missed so much of the previous year with injury and for the time he was healthy and underwhelmed a little bit. And while I didn't think that was definitive of anything, I just wanted to play it a little more cautiously. And I ended up with no shares of your Nalvarez. And now I think presently, at this particular moment, he's the best player in fantasy. And part of the reason I think that is not only the massive home run pace he's on, but he's become a batting average standout. I mean, he's always been a batting average standout, right? But even more so, in the way Judge has been the previous couple years, to the point that three of the four months of the season so far, your Nalvarez has hit 340 or better in three of the four months. So he is in everything but stolen bases where he's a zero. He is as good of a hitter as there is. And I don't think there's any reason why it has to slow down. It may just because of law of averages, but I don't, I think his skill set supports it. You want to hear something? Sorry, I've lost my voice. You want to hear something kind of crazy? Yeah. I believe he is, let's say, okay, he's only 14th. He's only the 14th biggest under performer by his expected stats, which is actually that's something you see fairly often with these super, super high end guys where he has a 439 Woba and a 474 X Woba. I'm pretty sure Aaron Judge had something similar going on last season where it's just like, there's only so good you can actually be no matter how hard you hit the ball. No, it was a couple years ago. Judge had a 466 X Woba in a 420. Last year he had a 470, 463 Woba in a 460 X Woba because he's ridiculous. But yeah, there are reasons to believe that your Nalvarez not only has an overperformed but maybe has underperformed a little. And you know, part of my hesitation in the preseason was, okay, not just that he missed a lot of time last year, but he always misses some time with something or other. And I think when you're looking at the six month gauntlet that somebody has to navigate, it's easier to factor that in when you're talking two and a half months. It's like, two and a half months, I'm willing to risk a little more. I'm with his state healthy so far. He can last another two and a half months. That seems a lot more likely than six to me. Yep. Only has to do it for two months, yeah. And that is the biggest question. I guess the only question for your Nalvarez is whether or not he can stay healthy. Shout out to you, Chris. He was the player you loved on Valentine's Day and you were all over this one. Currently the favorite for the ALMVP on pace for 51 homers, 116 RBI while hitting over 300 and the expected stats as you guys pointed out are just absolutely insane here for your Nalvarez. So three different people have three different number one players. So I'm just going to go back to the well. I'm going to go with the best player in baseball currently. And that is Shohei Otoni. I totally understand that he just had his left knee drained on Sunday and has been bothering him since mid-June. I think it's more an issue for when he's been pitching. Obviously it could affect him. We don't know how it will if it does as of now. But even with him playing through this, like he's the 13th overall player in Roto. He's the sixth highest scoring hitter and head dead points leagues. He's hitting 292. He's on pace for 36 homers. 108 runs 96 RBI only 10 steals. The steals have come way down as we expected, like being a full time starting pitcher. But he's pretty, he's not as dominant as he has been in years past, but he's still really, really good. Steele's have come way down. Yeah. This becomes a different question if you're talking about like him pitching and stuff, but I'm mostly just talking about him as a hitter here. Yeah. And I will take him third overall. We're drafting according to CBS rules, which presumes Otoni is one player that you have to start either at Outfielder starting pitcher and it presumes weekly lineups. So you're basically just getting the hitting stats here, obviously, if you got the two way benefit truly, Otoni be number one. And if this wasn't going on with his knee, maybe he'd be number one. And it's worth noting because I actually didn't know this until I looked into it for this exercise. He was born with his kneecap is in like two pieces. It's not a solid kneecap. So he had surgery. This is something he's been dealing with his whole life. He had surgery in 2019. And so this is just kind of a flare up of a recurring issue for Otoni, which I think maybe is reassuring. Yeah. I guess it makes me feel a little better. I mean, he put about 50/50 season with a kneecap that's in two parts or however you described it's cut. Yeah. I probably didn't describe it well, but it's, but you know, part of what I've noticed with him is you mentioned the stolen bases, Frank. Like I think we just have to count him out for those while this is going on. And also his sprint speeds in the blue now, which is probably related. Yeah. I don't think you you count on him for salt bases at this point. Yeah. So if he's not a base dealer, he's confined to D H, you know, I don't think he's clearly the number one hitter anymore, obviously, because I have Alvarez ahead. And there's actually another hitter I have at two. All right. Let's take our first break. when we return back into rewrafting the first two rounds, we'll do that right after this. Hey, I'm Lisa. I'm Lisa. I'm also the CEO of the car of the car. Of course. I'm the CEO of the car. Yes, the CEO is a big company. And a bit of an employee. Of course. I'm also the CEO of the car of the company. Of course. I'm also the CEO of the car. I'm a little bit hungry. I'm going to eat some food. Of course. You're just the CEO of the car. You're just the CEO. No. Welcome back, fantasy baseball. Today we're rewrafting the first two rounds for the rest of the season. And a quick recap for those listening. Chris was drafting first, got second on third. And we're just going in that same order until we get to the end of the second round. And it was Bobby with junior, Yordon Alvarez and Chauhé O'Tani. Chris, we are back to you. We're so quick to clarification on the O'Tani knee thing. He has a bipartite patella. So the kneecap didn't fully fuse when he was developing into a human and to a full human. And it's left. So it left the kneecap in two parts. I mean, pieces sounds a little more like it broke or something. But I don't know. Hopefully that adds some clarity. Anyway, go ahead, Chris. All right, it's kind of dumb that the best player in fantasy so far has not been drafted yet. That's going to continue. I am going to play it a little bit safer and go with Montsoto as the number four overall pick. He has re-emerged as a standout and batting average. The power that we've seen the past couple of years is there. Think stats have been disappointing but not terrible. But I think the Metz lineup overall will play better in the second half than it has so far. He's on a 15 or so steel pace and you look it up. You look up and Montsoto is on pace to hit 290 42 homers, 90 runs, 100 RBI, 15 steals. He ranks surprisingly low for the season. Like the Fangraft player, I think he's the 33rd player. I do not think Montsoto is the 33rd best player in fantasy. I think he's at worst the fifth. And it really just comes down to how much do you want to roll the dice on the guy who has been the best player in fantasy in skydive soon. That's who you're going to take here. But who was an absolute disaster in the second half of last season. How much should that matter to us when it comes to J. games would. Yeah, I mean, that's the question. That's why he hasn't gone yet. And we'll see where he goes. I'm assuming he's not going to take a year of swimming around. That player of fantasy is going to remain. Wow. I'm drafted. I was going to get the one you're getting yelled at. Yeah. We're all getting yelled at, baby. Want so to, by the way, I have him as a top three player still. And he did miss three weeks at the start of the season with a calf injury, still putting up massive numbers, four walks in strikeouts this year. His strikeout rate is the best of his career. Like, how does this guy keep getting better? He's, it's a 12.9% strikeout rate. The pace numbers are still really good. Obviously not running as much as last season. He put up the 38 steals. But I will point out a lot of those steals came in the second half. So I don't know that there's like a correlation. But who knows? Like maybe this starts running more in the second half. I don't expect it. But I, you know, if he gets to like 15 steals, I think that's a fine season for so though with everything else that he gives you batting average, home runs, runs RBI. And obviously, if you play in a point seeger, OBP, he's just massive in that form. Yeah. Yep. I, I will say he probably, I give so to a better chance of helping in steals than either your now for as or show a tonny and pair. I combine, I'm combining those three because those are my top three in that order. And I would actually have so to number one over Alvarez and points leaks. So just, just to throw a bunch of different rankings at you. Yeah. One time I am fascinated to see where you're going to go because are you going to go with the other guy who was terrible in the second half last year? Oh, I am not going with any guy who was terrible in the second half last year. Tell me, tell me. Play it Frank. Coming in. Oh, I come in a row. Now he's pretty good in the second half. Yep. Yep. And he's coming off a great first half and his hand doesn't broken. Thankfully, after that scary moment in the all-star game, he's on pace for actually more home runs now than he hit last year. And position scarcity is driving this in part. I think I probably would have James Wood and Pete Crow Armstrong and perhaps even one other player ahead of junior common arrow if not for the position scarcity aspect. But like third base is I think clearly the weakest position. And common arrow is far and away number one right now. And he's, his numbers are definitely first round worthy. So I'm going to go ahead and take him here. Plus I have like more confidence in his floor than I do James Woods or Pete Crow Armstrong since you were referring to Chris. So those guys probably have a higher ceiling up as, you know, not taking the position angle into account, but I am going to take the position angle into account and take the floor angle into account and take common arrow ahead of him. Now one thing I noticed while doing this exercise is I think I think there's a tier of eight hitters who I think are not all the same, not replaceable. But like I think they're close enough. And that's kind of where I just slotted in the pitchers in my rankings is when I stop running out of hitters who I feel pretty similar about. I'll just throw in my first picture. And then there's another run of hitters and then pitchers pitchers pitchers. You know, and so now there are a couple of guys I'm not sure should be in there, but everybody we've talked about so far the first five picks are all in that group of eight hitters. And we've only not mentioned one of them so far. I have a group of nine hitters before the first picture and I'm going to guess my nine hurt and your eight don't entirely overlap. None of them are hurt. Okay. I have 10 hitters before my first picture. So all right. Well, we'll see what happens. Junior Caminaros pace, by the way, 48 homers, 105 runs, 101 RBI. He has more than doubled his walk rate this season. The OBP is up from 311 to 372. So he's still getting better as he should at his age. And yeah, he's been awesome. Obviously, there was an unknown with like Tropicana field coming into the season. I was not worried about Caminaro the player, just like the environment. Like what it effect him. It clearly has not. He has mashed. He actually has an OPS over a thousand at home this season and 785 on the road. So I just thought that was interesting. And yeah, he's inside my top five as well. That would have been the pick that I would make. And now we are up to pick six. And is it time? I think it's time for James Wood to be selected in this draft. And you guys have mentioned multiple signs already. Like, yes, it's in the back of my head. We did this exercise last year at the Alsta break. And we had James Wood as a borderline first round pick. And we also would happen in the second half of last season. He also was a super prospect. He's 23 years old. And he clearly has elevated his game this season. The walk rate is up. The strike out rate is down. The bad at ball stuff is just absolutely insane for James Wood. He is the number one player in fantasy so far, regardless of format. Listen to these paste stats. 46 homers. 148 runs. 106 RBI. 25 steals. He has improved the zone contact rate. He is a hundred percent high on stack cast in X, well, but X slug average EV barrel rate, hard hit rate. The ground ball rate is down. It doesn't matter about pulled air rate for him because it's power so massive he could hit homeruns to all fields. It's just hopefully we avoid that second half slump. And there's no way for us to know. But based on what he did in the first half in the improvements that he's made, I have more confidence that that will not happen. Yeah. I'm just safeguarding against it a little bit by by dropping them behind common arrow and some of the other hitters that you might put ahead of wood. And this is exactly where I have him in my ranks. I have met number six. So I also think that 148 run number that pace 148 runs is just so absurd that like he's not going to sustain it in the second half. I know I've been waiting for the nationals offense to slow down all season and it hasn't really happened yet. But that is your Abrams is on like 125 RBI pace too. I've gone from the biggest skeptic to their biggest supporter of the nationals this season. How many I mean, Akunia when he had that massive 2023 season, the 40 70 season, he scored how many runs a day score? He scored 149. So one more than what is on pace for now. And that was the most run scored by a hitter since like Jeff Bagwell had a year in the height of the steroids era where he had more I think it had been a long, long time. So it's just a historically improbable number that there's still enough time for the season to correct. You know, he'll probably still lead the majors and runs. It'll probably be a huge total wherever it winds up. But I don't know, it might be 2025 short of his pace. And one more reason that you should have a little bit more confidence. He won't slump in the second half. Chris, I know you'll enjoy this. He wasn't in the home run derby. So there you go. All right, let's go over to you, Chris. Seventh overall, your backup. Yeah, I think this is me going off the board a little bit. I'm going to guess you guys don't have this guy ranked quite as high. But I'm going to go with Ellie Dale Cruz as the seventh overall pick. That's my next pick. He is, you know, the theory I had coming into the season was his second half struggles last year were mostly because he played through a calf injury. He had looked like he took a big step forward as a hitter. And then it fell apart in the second half. Well, looks like he's taking a big step forward as a hitter again. He's added three miles per hour to his average ex of velocity. He's up to 94.4. He's elevating the ball more consistently than ever. His barrel rate is up to 15%. Basically, every bad at ball metric is better than it's ever been before. And he's basically on a 30 30 pace. It's 76 games. So 15 homers, 14 steals. He is not the huge outlier in stolen bases that he once was. And he probably never will be. I think that's a Terry Frank Kona thing, but also just a, Hey, let's keep our best player healthy kind of thing. We don't need him running quite that much. But other than that, I think we're seeing what the elevated version of Ellie Dale Cruz is. And it's a not hurtful batting average similar to what junior common error did or we'll do you know, 275 280 30 homers, 30 steals. I feel pretty good projecting both of those moving forward. And the run and RBI numbers could be better. That's the one place where this line up is really holding him back. But I still think like it's still pretty close to 100. So I'll take it from all the other groups and massive improvements against left-handed pitching, which is something we've never seen Ellie do before hitting 319 with an OPS over 1000. Oddly enough, he's just been mediocre against this year. I feel like and I don't, I don't have numbers to back this up. But when young hitters really try and improve against lefties, it feels like they almost focus so much on that that they start to slump a little bit against righties. I don't know if there's anything to that, but Ellie, O'Neill Cruz, much better against lefties this year. They're both not as good against righties. Even I think it's willier a break. Willier a break who's awesome against lefties this year, but really bad against righties. So maybe it's just like these guys are focusing so much on improving against lefties that, you know, maybe they start to slump the other way. But overall, I'm an agreement. I have Ellie as my number seven player as well. Scott over you for pick eight. Gotta go PCA here. Yeah. Which it kind of annoys me that I just called them PCA because you save exactly one syllable by doing that rather than and saying, "Peak, grow Armstrong." - Yeah, but it comes out quicker. - I was on the syllable. - I think it's more than one syllable. - 'Cause you can kinda, you don't have to move your mouth much to get from P to C. - Yeah, and a PCA. - Yeah, you only have to. - Peak, grow Armstrong. - Yeah, that's a lot. - Yeah, it's much easier to say PCA's got. - Muches. - I think it's much easier. - But anyway, it kinda hurts me that we're separating him and James Wood by one player here because they are, they were, they've been linked in my eyes for a long time now and I think they remain linked. They both have, you know, obviously, break through seasons last year, but with concerning second halves. And then they both have up to their game in the first half this year, Crow Armstrong's walk rate has actually become a good walk rate. It went from being one of the worst and now it's good. And he's on pace for, you know, huge numbers across the board again, one of the best base dealers in addition to everything else you'll see the first round is kinda lacking in base dealers right now. But continuing with the link to James Wood here, I don't have a lot of confidence he can sustain this pace. So like I, I didn't, I was skeptical about both of these coming in. They were like early third round picks. I felt a little bit better about P Crow Armstrong. I was, so I ended up drafting him in a million leagues just begrudgingly. But everybody kept leaving P Crow Armstrong for me. So I got a ton of P Crow Armstrong. I got no James Wood and for a while that looked horrible. And then June happened. And now P Crow Armstrong looks about as good. It's just, you know, the way I broke it down there and then June happened, which meant April and May were kinda disappointing. And this has been the story for Pete Crow Armstrong even going back to prior to 2025 is you don't want to believe him when he's at his best. You don't want to believe him when he's at his worst. And right now he's at his best and that's what we're ranking him for here. And there are underlying improvements. Like I said, the walk rate is a big deal. But I'm still concerned that the, there's going to be the opposite. You know, we're gonna see the reciprocal here for for Pete Crow Armstrong, the waning to go with the waxing. And I think the biggest distinction between him and James Wood is one, Wood's just been a lot better. You know, some of that's the outlier run total, but still, by the player-aider, Wood's been a $44 player. Pete Crow Armstrong's been 35. 35's awesome, but it's not nearly as good as it is. It's hard to keep up with 140 in-run pace. But Wood is actually underperforming his expected stats by a little bit. And Pete Crow Armstrong's actually overperforming by a decent amount by 31 points on his ex-woba. And he is a pull-heavy lefty hitter. So maybe you think there's something there. He actually played right to his expected stats in both 2024 and 2025. So I'm not sure he's someone we should necessarily expect to outperform their underlying stats. So I do think there's just based on what they've done so far. I think there's more room for Pete Crow Armstrong to regress in the second half. Not be as bad as he was last year, but James Wood still set currently looks stronger than Pete Crow Armstrong's, I think. The one thing that gives me confidence that PCA won't fall off. And I do think he's just naturally going to be a shriekier player. The walk rate, as Scott mentioned, he's just not as aggressive as he was last year. His swing percentage is down 10 percentage points from 60% to 50%. His chase rate, while still high, is down from 42% to 36%. So he's still an aggressive hitter, but he's become more selective. And he's just getting better as a hitter overall. So that gives me a little bit more confidence that perhaps the lows won't be as low as we've seen from Pete Crow Armstrong in the past. We are up to pick number nine. And I'm going to get crushed for doing it, but I'm going to go with the Homer pick and I'm going to go ahead and select Ben Rice as the number nine player here. The breakout has come to reality. He is hitting 278, which is fine, but he's on pace for 48 homers, 108 runs, 114 RBI. He struggled a little bit in June. He's come roaring back in July, 359, six homers and just 11 games. He sat against lefties a little bit earlier on in the season, but he is now an everyday player. And he's actually hitting lefties pretty well, 264, 843 OPS. Enjoy the catcher eligibility while you can, because barring something unforeseen, I just, I think this will, I'm not going to say be the last season, but I don't think that he will have catcher eligibility. Nothing. I mean, let's say it's going to be the last season. It might be. It very well could be. How about this? My bold prediction, one of them before the season was that he would be the top catcher and first baseman in fantasy the season. And he currently is doing that. So that is pretty awesome. Yeah. I have Ben Rice. I have Ben Rice as my top first baseman rest of season. So I don't even think the catcher eligibility is a major driver of this ranking. I do have one hitter ahead of him in my own personal rankings, but I don't think this is a home or pick at all. I think-- Yeah. You know, Ben Rice did have a drop off in June that I think had people a little concerned. I wasn't that concerned. And obviously he's come roaring back here in July. And with Matt Olson, but Nick Kurtz dealing with an injury of-- Uncertained. Uncertained. Yeah. Yeah. A questionable nature. We don't really have a clear timeline for Nick Kurtz. I think it's justified Ben Rice going ahead of him. All right. I'm going to play a catcher, but I'm saying even if you can. Yeah. All right. Let's take our final break. We're going to have to get through. We're going to have to move faster once we come back from the break, just because we are being a little deliberate here. But let's take that break and we'll be back right after this. What is Toyota Fortability? It's buying smart. Right now, your local Toyota dealer has great deals available on some of the most reliable trucks on the market, like the off-road Ready to Combo, Rugged, full-size Tundra, and legendary forerunner, all with the space tech and features to handle it all. 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Nordeo Private Banking is the most important thing to have a car in the car. Which is a great thing. This is a very popular car in the sky. Nordeo Pistefi, called the Private Banking. Welcome back, fantasy baseball today, recapping the top nine picks so far. We have Bobby Witt Jr., Yordana Alvarez, Shohei O'Connie, Wonsoto, Jr. Kamenero, James Wood, Ellie De La Cruz, P. Cron Armstrong, and Ben Rice. Chris, over to you for picked in. OK, this may be stupid. But I'm going to pull the trigger on our first picture. And it's a guy whose most recent start was skipped with arm fatigue, Jacob Nizierowski. I feel very good about this. No, look. By all accounts, this is not anything serious. And if it's not, this is far and away, the best picture in fantasy this year. And I think you have a case to be made for him as maybe the most valuable player in fantasy so far this season. He has a 162 ERA. He has a.76 whip. He is by far the leader in strikeouts. He's on nearly a 300 strikeout pace. He's 110 games. And he's doing everything and the skill set backs it up. He looks like the best picture in baseball, the underlying stats, 2060 ERA, 2095, 210X5. You never see them won that low or that close to each other. There is every reason to believe that as long as Jacob Nizierowski is healthy, he's the best picture in baseball right now. And it's not particularly close. So I think there's a drop off at hitter. So I'll go with Jacob Nizierowski here. How about this, that Chris 33% K minus Wal-Krate leads Major League baseball. Dylan C. is second at 25.9%. that's the difference between Dylan Sees and Foster Griffin who ranks 22nd in K-minus. His K-minus walk rate would be the second best K-rate in baseball if he didn't exist. Dylan Sees is the only pitcher with a higher K-rate than Jacob, as you're asking, K-minus walk rate. That is wild. But his arm might be busted. I don't think it is, but it could be. It could be. I mean, it does have to factor into the thinking here, make you a little more cautious about where you rank Mizurowski. And so I have one more hitter ahead of him. I have Mizurowski. I have him 10th because I have LA Dillock-Ruslaw, but we don't need to confuse everybody by getting into all of that. I'm just saying that injury risk you do have to factor it in if you weren't concerned about it, Mizurowski. I think I think it could go as early as five, I would say. And for what it's worth, I think he's okay too. I saw an interview with him at the All-Star game and he did not seem the least bit concerned about it. When he was asked about it, he was just like, "Yeah, I feel fine. I'll take my next turn." It didn't seem to be a big deal. So hopefully, hopefully that's the case. Yeah, I have him down at 16 just because I was guarding a little bit against this. I mean, look, he throws a hundred miles per hour. There's no right answer. He's battling arm fatigue, but yeah, I still have him as a top five starting pitcher. If he didn't get scratched for a start before the break, yeah, I think he's probably a top five or six pick. We're not even worried about anything like this. Scott, over you for pick number 11. Chris said the drop off at hitter had happened. I'd say he's forgotten about Kyle Schwarber, bankable 50 homer guy, monster to run an RBI production. No steals. Okay, that's true for a lot of first rounder's batting average, you know, a little less than you like here, but he more than makes up for it with everything else he's doing. And I think the drop off at hitter happens after him. He is just the model of consistency Kyle Schwarber 32 home runs before the break on pace for 54 homers, counting stats down a little bit from where they usually are on pace for 96 runs 99 RBI, which are still very good, but normally he's in that like 110 115-ish range with the runs in RBI each. But yeah, Kyle Schwarber, one of the most consistent players in fantasy year in and year out. So over to me to finish out round number one, pick 12. I don't know if this is the right decision, but I'm going to go with Ronald Acunio, who I have as my 10th player. We don't know exactly when he's going to be back, but he's playing in rehab games already. And he could be back as soon as Friday. I mean, if not early next week, his season has been derailed with two hamstring injuries, the same hamstring over and over. The left hamstring has been on the aisle twice. He's only played 53 games, 251 seven homers, 31 runs, 15 steals, 793 OPS. So even when he's played, he hasn't been exactly dominant. I do like that the steals were awesome beforehand, like full season pace 45 steals. Now, hopefully he does continue to run a lot after coming back from the hamstring injury. But yeah, he wasn't the same player, but I still distinct the upside is so massive whenever he plays. If he was healthy now, he probably would be a little bit higher than this, but I think you have to guard against that. And so I have him at pick number 12. Where do you guys have Acunio in your ranks? 15. 14. I'm not really expecting him to run much. That's my biggest thing. I think he's, I don't really have any concerns about him as a hitter. I know he wasn't hitting great before the injury, but he was awesome last year. I think he's a 900 OPS guy. It's just, I think he's probably more like a 15 steel guy moving forward. And you self to be worried about him suffering another injury. Yeah. He's just, you know, torn the ACL in both of his knees and on the aisle five times in the last three years with leg injuries. It's a lot of leg stuff. Yeah. Like last year, it was a calf, a keelie thing, and now he's got, you know, the hamstring. So it's just I think, you know, it's kind of taking its toll on Ronald Acunio. So for anyone who thinks he should be ranked a decent bit lower than this, I wouldn't really blame you. I'm just, I guess, kind of selling out for upside. And I do think he's going to be back really soon here into the second half. So I do have the first pick heading into round two as well. And I will take another picture here. And I will take Christopher Sanchez, who I still have ranked as my top pitcher. And I don't think he has the highest upside because I do think that's Missy Rouski, but with him dealing with the arm thing, I've just dropped him down a little bit. Sanchez to me is just such a high floor. He obviously gets a lot of ground balls. He's maintained that velocity jump from last year to 62 ERA 119 with 10k per nine. Really good control. That 119 whip is high. Admittedly, I get that his bad up is up the season. The Philly's team defense is pretty, great. It's out pretty poorly this year. I mean, he was kind of stumbling into the all star break. So I just hope what happened in the all star game. Frank and the go to the all star. Oh, go me. I remember when goat meant like you were the the dunce, you know, no, it's not like that anymore. I know. And it's bad. It was the car. I'm really old by using it in that way. He was not the go to the, I will just say he was the dunce of the all star game. Yeah, it's not. I'll take the I'm just joking. He's fine. He was the losing pitcher in the all star game. But do you guys worry at all about him, you know, last six starts before the break 556 ERA 153 whip? No. I just said no. All right. Maintain it. All right. Well, then Scott will we're back to you for pick number 14 Jackson, Churrio. Okay. Yep. I have him ahead of Sanchez. But, you know, Sanchez is fine there. I just think I think there's another little drop in hitter after Churrio. So I'm going to take him here to exit velocities, having improved quite a bit. And that was that was the one lingering concern for me with Churrio to the degree I'd even call it a concern. Obviously, he was great. His first two seasons and the production was pretty similar and good enough to justify a second round pick as it is. But if that exit velocity jump leads to a jump in production, especially power, as I think is probable, then he might be he might be a steal here. He's another one who hasn't been running as much as we're used to seeing. But that could change. I mean, so even lead distributed over the course of the years. So I'm not going to make too much of that right now. So if you look at what he's done so far this season, he's not going to play a full season because he missed the first month with a fractured left hand. But if you just take what he's done and paste that out over a full season, it's 33 homers, 114 runs 96 RBI and 20 steals. And it feels like he's kind of coming into his his grown man strength with this improvement in average exit velocity. Yeah, I have Jackson trio in a very similar range. Chris, over to you for pick number 15. Yeah, I feel like I might get yelled at a little bit for this one. But I'm going to go with Holyroir Rodriguez who has not been incredible this season. He's still on basically a 25-20 pace. And we know he is always better in the second half and the first half. That's one of those stats that I'm always wary of because you're dealing with inherently small sample size. But in his case, it's a I think it's a 750 OPS for his career in the first half and a 902. 740 in the first half 902 in the second half for his. Let me tell you this because this I think sums it up. So number so far, Holyroir Rodriguez, 259 batting average 747 OPS. That's for this year, 259 747 career in the first half to 60 batting average 739 OPS. He has had his typical first half. Yep. And then we all know where his numbers typically wind up. So gets past this concussion, I think. He's going to be 30 30 as long as he doesn't miss too much time. Yeah. It sounds like he's going to be back Friday as well. I was reading earlier that it all signs are pointing to Holyroir being activated from the concussion aisle. Hopefully no lingering effects of that as well. I mean, yeah, that's a risk factor. Yeah. Factor that in as well here for Julio. But yeah, if you can get him for, I don't know, 80 90 cents on the dollar based on where he was drafted, I would do that because again, like this is Julio's time to shine second half of the season. All right, we are up to pick number 16. And my next player ranked, let's see what I get. I have a Terrick school. Terrick school is going to be the pick here. The top pitcher drafted in fantasy this season. He had the bone chips removed from his left elbow using that new nano needle technology, which got him back much sooner than expected. And in six starts since returning, ERA a little elevated 362. But it comes with a point nine six whip 12k per nine 1.4 walks per nine and nearly an 18% swinging Shryk rate. So in terms of the whiff, the underlying skills, he looks like Terrick school. He's only completed six innings twice since returning. So I do worry a little bit about like maybe the tiger is kind of baby in him coming back from the injury, but he's had a little bit more time to rest now. I'm just hoping they unleash him here for the second half. And you know, a lot of talk about whether or not he'll be traded. The Tigers are three and a half games out of a wall. I spot a Honestly, it wouldn't matter to me where if he gets traded, if he does, I don't think the Rockies are trading for Terrick Scooble. But I think he probably remains with the Tigers the rest of the season. And so I have him here as the 16th player Scott, back to you. That was like an anti-homer pick, Frank, because there is a pitcher that I would take ahead of Terrick Scooble and I'm going to take him right here and it's Camchletler. Yeah. Of your New York Yankees. Imagine I went Ben Rice and Camchletler on the same team. Oh gosh, the comments. I could just be coming in now. I mean, I don't think I have to make the case hard for Schletler. Everybody knows how good he's been. There might be a concern among some people that obviously first full year in the majors. Normally, that means you got a safeguard against the innings, but he threw about 150 last year between the majors and minors. Did he throw some in the post season too? Yeah, he made two starts in the post season. Yeah. So yeah, I don't think he's going to run into an innings issue. The only thing that I had on Camchletler is that he has looked a little bit more humanly. Seven home runs allowed in his last four starts before the break. And we mentioned this yesterday, Scott with Braxton, Ashcraft. The ground ball rate has been trending down. So in Cam's first eight starts, it was 50%. In his next 12 starts, it's down to 37% ground ball rate. So more balls in the air again, summer time and pitching in Yankee Stadium. I think it's just going to lead to more homers. Does that worry you at all with him? I mean, last seven starts, he has a 234 ERA with 53 strikeouts and 42 in a third innings. Two starts ago, he went eight innings and struck out eight. I'm just asking. No. No, I think Schletler's awesome. Like 205 ERA, you would expect that to regress some no matter who's putting it up. But I think Schletler is awesome and is going to remain awesome. I Chris, over to you for pick number 18 overall. All right. Well, let's just stick with the theme. And I guess I'll just ask the question. Why why Tarek's Google and Camchletler had a Paul Skins? Because his fast ball velocity is gone. Like, I'm a little worried about Skins. I had him right in this range. I have him at pick 17. So I'm just with it. I think the only difference between Paul Skins and Camchletler right now is Paul Skins ERA is higher. And I know that's what we're chasing. We care about ERA. But by every other way that we measure pictures, Skins is better. Skins X ERA is better. His fit is better. His Sierra is better. Like, I understand in theory the concerns about Paul Skins. I don't really share them. Like ERA is volatile as heck. And no, it's, yeah, but it's not just DRA. Go ahead, finish your point, sorry. But when every other skills indicator for Paul Skins says that he's the same guy he was last season, except ERA, I'm inclined to assume he's just the same guy. My big concern with him and we've seen it obviously in the recent performance is just, he's not healthy. And when does that come out? When does that become a public? When does he go on the I.L.? Obviously, maybe never. But I'm worried enough that I'm actually going to pass them up for all of round two. We had this conversation a couple of weeks ago where does Paul Skins rank now? And I think Frank and I both said fifth. So obviously he's the fifth pitcher off the board in this draft. So I think he's the right pitcher to go next, but I have seven hitters that I take out of them. I just think if you don't rank Paul Skins in the top two rounds, you probably shouldn't rank Jacob Mizierowski in the top two rounds because Mizierowski wants to actually deal with an arm. Yeah, he's already, we know he's confirmed dealing with arm fatigue. It somehow feels like we're giving schemes like the, because there's like, woo, this is a spooky injury. He's a ghost injury. But like, we've never actually got hit like we've, he's gotten hit recently. Yeah, his average ex of velocity since June 1st is 89 miles an hour. His XERA is 324. His fifth is 310. His YERA is 460. But again, like the skills indicators, it's like a 24% K minus walk rate. And I don't, I just can't get myself worked up too much about, about a couple. I mean, really, like, it's two bad starts in this stretch. Like, it was the seven run runs, Afiladelphia and four innings and then four run against the reds. He hasn't given up more than two run runs since in any start other than that since June 1st. Yeah. I see, well, I see both sides of it. Like his XERA and every, like you said, Chris, I mean, it's all in line with last year. It's just his fastball velocity is down 1.3 miles per hour. His last start before the break, he averaged 96.1 miles per hour in his fastball, which is the lowest for him in a start in his career. So I see all the stats in that start too. I, I don't think you, I know you had seven strikeouts and five and a third innings, but I don't think he had a, I think it looks like 12 swinging strikes. I don't think it was anything too crazy. Okay. But I see both sides with pulse. Yeah. But yeah, I just ranked right in this range as well. I would just, I would expect that stuff to show up in the skills indicators. And it's not, you know, yeah, well, last four starts. Let me see if, because I see four starts in a row that are underwhelming. Yeah. It's at 11.8% swinging strike rate over his last four starts. That's that's showing up in the skill indicators. I mean, it is just four stars. Yeah. It's a four start stretched like we haven't seen from screens before. And obviously that's comparing him to the impossibly high standard of pulse gains the previous two years, but you can really only compare a player to himself. And all pictures are risky. I mean, we talk about this all the time, but pictures who regularly sit 98 to 100 miles per hour are inherently a little bit more risky. I think that's probably fair to say. And that's the case with mincee rasky and Paul skin. So. And I want to stress like, because I know people are going to point laugh when Paul skins goes off and wins the Saiyong. Like that is like I still have him as the fifth pitcher rest to see it. Like my concerns are 20 or anything like that. My concerns are tiny. The sort of featherweight concerns that you have to you have to apply when you're parsing early round players like this. But I think there's enough of a featherweight there that I'm going to go ahead and parse away. All right. I guess that means that I am back up. And you know, we were talking before we started about this player. We all didn't realize how bad he's actually been. But I think it's time to take Corbin Carroll and so we could talk about it. He is only hitting 251. He's on pace for 21 homers, 91 runs 75 RBI 16 steals. That is not a second round. That's not a first round player. It's probably not a second round player either. Right discipline still seems fine. He's still hitting the ball hard. His barrel rate is down. His ground ball rate is back up, but his pulled air rate is still good. He's still super fast. 97% house sprint speed. And he is destroying lefties. He's actually been really bad against right handed pitchers this season. I don't really know what to make of that. It feels kind of like a fluky thing for Corbin Carroll. And he really struggled going into the break. His last 34 games. 183 four homers three steals a 631 OPS. I just think he's a more talented player than that. And so I'm just betting on the talent we've seen in the past. So I mean, he had an 881 OPS at the end of June. It's really you mean at the end of May? Not the end of June, I believe. What is it down to now? That's what I wrote. Because it couldn't have it couldn't have gone that far down and just it's like a 30 right now, I think. Oh, all right. Yeah. That makes it. Yeah, he had an 881 OPS at the end of June. Okay. Yeah. I guess it's a really bad July. Yeah, he's been really, really bad in July. But and look, he he's a drag on your batting average. I think at this point, we can say pretty definitively. He's not on a 30 30 pace like he was last year and he wasn't even at the end of June. So it's been a clearly disappointing season for him, but it's still such a good skill set for fantasy. Even better in point slicks is he has 19 doubles and 10 triples. Yep. And if two of those doubles and two of the triples were home runs instead, the whole season looks a lot better and it wouldn't change all that much. So I, I'm not too worried about him. I actually did when I did this exercise for the FBT newsletter. I had him in the first round right at the end. And I kind of chickened out as we were talking it through here. I don't think you brought this up Frank reminding everybody for Corbin Carroll. He had only 11 steals at the All Star Break last year and then piled on 20 in the second half, which is sometimes how the distribution of stolen bases goes. Yeah. No, it's a good point. Arts got we are back to you and we are within our last five picks here. And I think this might be the first player that, well, no, I guess Paul Schienz was the first player in one of our 20 top 24s that wasn't in the other that. So Jordan Walker. Jordan Walker is another one. I have Jordan Walker on my top 24. I think now is the spot to take him. Frank and I talked about him yesterday and we put him at about a seven. point five on the Legito meter or whatever you were calling it. And fly a silo meter, but the Legito meter is probably better. Uh, I, whatever we were calling it. And, uh, so, you know, I'm mostly, I'm mostly convinced that we're, what we're seeing from Jordan Walker's legit, obviously put on a show, the home run Derby. I don't think there's a lot distinguishing him and James would accept for legitimacy. Uh, would this is year two of him being a fan of the bed and Walker. It's year one after many years of disappointment, but I think he's going to remain so and so I'm willing to take him here. Yeah. So Jordan Walker currently the fifth overall hitter and wrote a fifth overall player in roto eighth best hitter in total head said points. His pace numbers 38 homers, 108 runs, 128 RBI and 22 steals. So the, he's improved the launch angle. It's more fly balls. He's hitting the crap out of the ball. I have him 25th overall. So it would have been like a just missed. But I think he's in this conversation. And it's just I, I, I have a little bit lower just, I guess guarding the fact that it's only been like a half a half season of seeing him perform, uh, at this level. But I do think it's defensible. And Chris, we are over to you for pick number 21. Okay. I'll, I'll, I'll, to the, the elephant standing on a baseball in the room and pick Nick Hertz, who I don't know how serious this thumb injury is. And no idea. We've gotten zero details. And maybe the promotion of Tommy White is a sign that the A's are expecting Nick Hertz to miss time. I don't know. So he's going to miss some time. Well, yes, but they did somebody on the roster. If he was going to miss the minimum amount of time, he could be back I think on Monday or Tuesday. I would guess it's not going to be that I don't know how long it's going to be. So this is one that if he was fully healthy, I would pick him, I think 10th is where I had him right. Or he could miss a month and be totally not even close to worth rostering here. Yeah. I have no idea. But I think if Nick Hertz is healthy, he's a first rounder. And so I, I'm going to take him here, you know, hedging the bet a little bit, but the underlying skill sets arguably stronger than it was last year. He's hitting the ball harder. Strike a rate. It's right around where it was 31.6% it's always going to be high, but it's walking more. He's been running more this season. It's a great lineup, great ballpark. Everything we've liked about Nick Hertz is still there. Yep. He just maybe only has nine healthy fingers right now instead of 10. I risk reward. I put him here too. So right, right on the money. Yeah. And I also have Nick Hertz right at pick number 21. So there you go. Yeah. We're all on agreement. Hey, this is my last pick. So I've got to make it count. And the top ranked player that I have left is Zach Wheeler. So he will go here at pick number 22. Have him ranked now as a top six starting pitcher rest of season, just defying all the odds as a 36 year old coming back from thoracic outlet surgery. 21.6 fantasy points per game is just a tenth of a point below Jacob Mizierowski to be the top pitcher in fantasy this season. 213 ERA 0.89 whip. 10 and a half K. P9. And he's gotten better as the season has gone on. Three straight double digit strikeout starts to end the first half. And his swinging strike rate. Well, it was down a little bit early on earlier on. That's why I didn't know if he can get all the way back to Zach Wheeler levels. But over his last five starts 16.6% swinging strike rate for Zach Wheeler last year. He put up a career high at 14 and a half percent. So just to, you know, show you how good Zach, he's he's back. He's all the way back to the pitcher. He was last year. And as a result, if you told me you wanted to rank him as a top three or four starting pitcher, I think that's defensible as well. So Zach Wheeler here at pick number 22 and Scott pick number 23. Your last pick. Make it. So I can already tell I showed him Paul schemes over this guy. So I'm going to have to get Paul schemes in there when I published the article. But the player I'm going with here is I'm actually going to go with Jose Ramirez. Okay. He's an ex player for me. So okay. So I'm not too far out there. Obviously another third baseman. So junior common arrow isn't the only one getting drafted. I don't think there's anything wrong with Ramirez as a player. Obviously he's on the I.L. right now with the broken ham a bone. But I think he's trending toward being back last week of July, first week of August at the latest. And, uh, you know, the ham a bone. Sometimes we see player production. Players produce not quite at their usual level when they come back. Though that hasn't been an issue as much with the guys who suffered it this year. And so it is kind of, uh, it is kind of a cheery outlook for Ramirez ranking him this high. But I the rewards I think are so worth it because, you know, even though the batting average was a little down the home run production was a little down prior to the injury, I think not in a way that raises a true red flag for me. So from the day he returns to the end of the season, it's it's plausible. He's the top five player. He's plausible that he's better than the player I actually took fifth junior commonero. He's just the the best third baseman still from, oh, I'd rank it back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If Ramirez was healthy. Yeah. Yeah. And Jerem was only hitting 239. His XBA was two eight before getting heard actually a career high in terms of average exe velocity. So that's why it's weird that the power was down a little bit. The counting stats, you know, the Guardians lineup, just not very good. He was on pace for 54 steals before he got hurt, which is an insane number. He was having a very weird season. It was still productive, but he was doing it in a weird way. I do expect the batting average to come back and be very good once Jose Riras is back and healthy. Chris finishes out. Here we go. Pick number 24, the last one. All right. I'm going to go with Fernando Tatees, who I know has been a big disappointment this season. But since he had his first homeron, May 30th, it's kind of arbitrary end points, but not really. Since he hit his first homeron, May 30th, he's on a 20 homer, 36 steal, 100 run 80 RBI pace while hitting 290. That's a second round player. And I don't think 20 homers is his ceiling. I don't think 287 batting average is a ceiling. I don't think 36 steals is his ceiling. So I think we've started to see more of what the real Fernando Tatees is lately. And it is a diminished version of what he used to be. I think it's fair to say he's not the guy we used to think would be a 35 40 homer guy every year. I think he's still an incredible player. I think he's still much, much better than what we've seen from him this season. And I think it was mostly a weird couple of months where his swing was messed up because he was still hitting the ball hard. He wasn't elevating it at all. He tweaked his swing, he opened his batting stance in late May, right? A couple weeks, like maybe a week or two before the homerun. And since then he's more or less looked at himself. He's looked like an impact player. I think that's what he is moving forward. All right. Let's just kind of rattle off a few just missed players. Two hitters that I have inside my top 24 that we haven't mentioned yet are CJA Abrams and Bryce Tarrang, who has basically picked up right where he left off from last year and it looks legitimate. He's on like a 25 25 pace. Really good counting stats, you know, 260 270 batting average Abrams. I understand more skepticism just because he's gone through much like PCA. He's gone through the like every season. He has a one or two months stretch where he just looks completely lost at the plate. Well, and it's usually the second half his career batting average in the second half. CJA Abrams 40 points lower than the first half and the OPS is like 200 points lower. So I like that. I really think I don't know if the people running the nationals right now are especially brilliant. Maybe it's just a an addition by subtract subtraction thing, but it generally seems like the nationals have a much better approach overall as a team and seeing that with courage. Need having a break down. James Wood and it gets been Luis Garcia. Yeah, really solid season for them offensively. I mean, obviously they're best offensive baseball right now. Yeah, but I wanted to bring it up because I am we already saw a bad June from CJA Abrams. Like I am kind of concerned. He's going to slip into that same pattern. The underlying data hasn't improved enough from previous years. It's approved a little, but not enough to totally win me over. So I do have Abrams in my top 24, but I think a lot of people might wonder why we don't have them in the top 15 or whatever. And for me, that's why I'm guarding against the second half slump. Yeah, I had Abrams in my top 24 as well. I just had Tatis one spot higher to rank wasn't, but he probably should have been. Yeah. I considered to rank, but two players I put ahead of him were Matt Olson and Francisco Lendor. Actually, I think I think Lendor is a good call. A huge by low right now. I think he's he's going to have a typical Lendor second half. I'm going to end up having to bump him out of my top 24 because I think skiing needs to be in there more, but but Lendor was right there hanging on a 24 prior to that move. Yeah. None of the underlying numbers look concerning it off for Lendor. That's a great cause. I should have. Yeah. Should have had him. mine too. Uh, name other names that I had as just misses here. Uh, Chris sale, I think would be a third round player. I understand like the volume is lacking. I think he's like 55th among all starting starters and any pitch this season. But from a skills perspective, he's, he's still Chris sale. Uh, Bryce Harper, I think would be right in this mix. For fun. I mean, South Stewart and Miguel Vargas, I think are kind of, I think if we were doing this exercise for one more round, I think both of those guys would go. Uh, so I just wanted to give them a shout out as well. And we should wrap up and at least mention the name again, Aaron judge. He's not in our top two rounds because we just don't know when he's going to be back. They said they're re imaging him during this all star break. We haven't heard anything about that. No updates yet. But honestly, I feel like the median outcome and everything that I've just heard around this is like late August, early September. And if they really want to play it safe, they might just wait until, you know, the final week or two to get him in there. Or get some at bats ahead of the playoffs type thing. But we just really don't know with Aaron judge. So that's why he's not in our top two rounds. I know. Also thing we should do a couple of honor roll mentions for catchers. Um, because I think if you extended it to the third round, you'd start to have to consider Hunter Goodman and Shay Langleyers. Um, yeah, especially obviously, look like he would have before the last month or so. I think Baldwin's going to get back there. It was. He just got on a rehab assignment after the oblique injury and his strikeouts were way up. But it's, it's gotten better in July. And I think we're going to see him. He has the best ex-wobo of all catchers. I believe you have 379 right now. Dylan Denglish second. Um, I don't know if Dylan Dengler would be in that discussion on third round. But maybe you go a couple more rounds and then he gets in there. Um, so yeah, that, that was, uh, that was another one. All right. Again, just quickly recapping our top two rounds, first two rounds for the second half of the season. Bobby with junior, Yordon Alvarez, Shohei Otani, Juan Soto, Junior Caminero, James Wood, Ellie De La Cruz, Pete Croll Armstrong, Ben Rice, Jacob Mizierowski, Kyle Schwilber, and Ronald Dacunia into the second round. Christopher Sanchez, Jackson, Churriot, Julio Rodriguez, Tarek, Scoobal, Cam Shalitler, Paul Skins, Corbin, Carol, Jordan Walker, Nick Kurt, Zach, Wheeler, Jose Ramirez, and Fernando Tati, Jr. Again, both of these guys are, we'll have articles on the website where you can check out their own personal, uh, first two rounds for the second half of the season. But this was our combined thoughts here on this exercise. We are going to wrap there for Scott Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we'll be back again tomorrow. Oh, bye. Caramount Podcasts. Ready to level up. Chumpe Casino is your playbook to fun. It's free to play with no purchase necessary. 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