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Speaker 1Scott just wrote up 35 awards for the 2026 Fantasy Baseball season. Let's talk about the top six of those. Up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express. Welcome to FBT Express on Friday, October 2nd. I am Frank Sample joined by Scott White. And why are we dressed like this? Why do we do this? Why does everything look like this? Why do we do any of this? I don't know. Just recorded our full-length podcast, which was our official award show. So be sure to check that out. Let's just run through the top six, Scott. The most valuable hitter award for the season went to.
Speaker 5Pete Crow Armstrong. Surprise, surprise. The only surprise here maybe is that this is an award that I don't just automatically hand out to the best hitter. It's an emphasis on value. So the best bang for the buck hitter normally. But I kind of did it a little differently this year because Pete Crow Armstrong was a pretty good value himself being drafted at worst in the third round. Certainly no earlier than that. He could have been drafted later, but certainly no earlier than the third round. And then he was far and away the best hitter in fantasy. Became the seventh ever 40-40 player. Nearly tribbled his walk rate from a year before. Led the majors in runs scored. Got to give it to Pete Crow Armstrong. Most valuable hitter.
Speaker 1Yep. Preseason ADP 32.9. The top player in fantasy this year. And according to the Fangraphs Player Rater, he provided 48 points. $8.9 of value. Again, the best player in fantasy. What about the most valuable pitcher award? That went to.
Speaker 5Again, also the best one. Jacob Mizurowski, who was drafted much later than Pete Crow Armstrong. So obviously the value component was there. And he was the best pitcher, regardless of format. You could make a case for Cam Schlittler for this award too. He was obviously a great value. He was a great value himself. Historic type of season. But the only real edge Schlittler has over Mizurowski statistically is 19 innings. Even with that 19 inning gap, Mizurowski had more wins. He had more strikeouts. The clincher, I think, was the whip. Mizurowski's was 0.12 points higher than Schlittler's, which doesn't sound so big when the whips are both below one. It's like it's a great whip either way. But 0.12. I mean, just imagine if we're comparing a 110 whip guy versus a 122 whip guy, how differently you'd approach those two.
Speaker 1Yeah, I totally agree with that one. They had similar ADPs coming into the year. Mizurowski was the better pitcher for Fantasy. He provided $43 worth of value versus 37 for Cam Schlittler. So totally agree with that. Most valuable pitcher goes to the Miz. What about the best value hitter edition? Which is different than most valuable hitter,
Speaker 5but the best
Speaker 1value goes to
Speaker 5Miguel Vargas. So I didn't want to just stick with the obvious Pete Crowe Armstrong. I wanted to reward a hitter who also became a stud at a ridiculous value. And Vargas was barely drafted inside the top 300 on average. He did take a little bit of a step forward last year, which at least made him viable in Fantasy. But I think everyone, everyone had dismissed the possibility of him ever breaking out in a major way. They weren't counting on him having the biggest increase in average bat speed of any hitter this year, which led to him blowing up for 33 home runs. In addition to having 22 steals and walking a ton, not striking out much. Miguel Vargas was the 10th best hitter in five by five scoring. So traditional Roto scoring. Do you know where he was in head to head points? Number three, number three overall, Miguel Vargas, the best value as a hitter.
Speaker 1And what's scary to imagine is can he get even better? He underperformed his expected stats this year. So I'm saying there's a chance. Let's take a quick break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in FPT Express episode. And this is an abbreviated part of our award show here. The golden breadstick. The best value pitcher edition goes to Parker Messick.
Speaker 5Let's not overlook this guy the way we did coming into the year. He was very impressive in a late season debut last year. Just as impressive down the stretch as Cam Schlittler, Nolan McLean, almost as impressive as them anyway. Didn't get nearly the same treatment on draft day. I think mostly because it wasn't clear he had a rotation spot till the end of spring training, but he was awesome. Won 12 games, 256 ERA, 106 whip, 193 strikeouts, 11th best pitcher in head to head points, ninth best in rotisserie. And he's about to go down as maybe the biggest rookie of the year snub ever because he's not going to beat out Kevin McGonigal, who led all position players, AL position players in B war this year.
Speaker 1The preseason ADP, for Parker Messick was around 300 and he was just awesome and got better as the season got, went on to the era actually got better in the second half. His K minus walk rate went up. The velocity went up, started going deeper into start. So truly, truly awesome season here for Parker Messick. Let's bring it down a little bit. Scott, the biggest bust award goes to
Speaker 5Vladimir Guerrero. Now he wasn't the absolute worst. Player you could have drafted in the first two rounds. That would be Garrett Crochet or Cal Raleigh, but Garrett Crochet missed most of the year with injury. Cal Raleigh, not the most surprising bust. They were definitely people, plenty of people concerned going in. Vladimir Guerrero was supposed to be as bankable as anybody had been an early round mainstay since the start of his career, still in the prime in his age 27 season. And just the power dried up. The exit velocities were still good, but nine home runs in a full season, 688 OPS. And the only explanation we really have, the only theory we have for it is that his back was achy all season, which may well explain it, but it's not so conclusive that I think anyone feels good about drafting Vladimir Guerrero next year.
Speaker 1No, no, certainly not. The preseason ADP was 18.4 for Vlad. And he finished as the 221st overall player. Some really weird quotes towards the end of the season too, about how he was paid this massive contract, $500 million contract for the production that he has provided in the past. Not what he's going to do in the future. So just weird quotes, weird, weird vibes, weird season all around here for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Let's wrap up with the biggest breakthrough in fantasy baseball season of this season. That goes to.
Speaker 5Jordan Walker was a stud 269 batting average, 29 homers, 102 RBI, 97 runs, 22 stolen bases, must star player, all star home run Derby winner. And this is after everyone had already given up on him. He was a huge prospect once upon a time, underwhelming rookie season. The two years that followed took a step back, but the eggs of, were always tremendous, and 20 years later, 24 years old coming into this year. Maybe when a player is that young, we shouldn't be so quick to write him off because Jordan Walker came back, had a huge season, struggled at the end, bad September. I think he was dealing with a hip issue at the time. But he certainly put himself in the third round conversation at worst. It may have been the second round before that September, but third round at worst, I would say for next year.
Speaker 1And I don't want to overrate that tough ending too much for Jordan Walker because we saw similar things happen to James Wood last year and Pete Crowe Armstrong. And it's like, man, when you're that good, that young, and you had that much prospect pedigree, it's like, let's not overthink this too much. I think Jordan Walker is a really, really talented player who was dealing with some injury here down the stretch. 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'll be back again next week. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
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