Welcome back to Join the Ranks, a podcast of the Dynasty Guru network where
we're helping dynasty managers win your league's one player at a time. For more
great content, be sure to listen to the Dynasty's Child podcast. Check out
our rankings and articles on the Dynasty Guru website. We also have a lively
discord channel with news updates, early releases of our articles, and it's also
a great place to post questions about trade offers. Later in this episode,
we're going to be talking about one or two of the trade questions posted this
week. If you want to join us there, there's a small donation and
information about that's on the website. I'm Drew Klein, a senior writer at
the Dynasty Guru and with me as my co host and brands of the operation
Chris Knock Chris, how's your week? Emphasize brains and that beauty. I
get it. The week has been pretty crazy. I've been spending a lot
of time outside manicuring my backyard, manicuring how suburban yuppie of you you know,
well, yeah, I mean manicuring in the sense of, you know
that scene in Dumb and Dumber when they're headed to Aspen and they're getting their
nails done right with the metal grinder. I've been using a chainsaw cutting down
trees. So kind of a kind of a wonder one analogy there. That's
heck of a heck of a line. Well, hey, I'm excited to
say we had another correct answer in the randomly inserted obscure song title. Last
week's song, which I thought was an easy one kind of a game,
was blinded by the Light. I prefer the Manford Man version. The reason
I did that is because that should have been the song of the eclipse.
Last time we recorded is right after the eclipse, and everybody was singing total
Eclipse of the Heart, which has nothing to do about the eclipse of the
sun. But blinded by the Light has the great line that Mama always told
me not to look into the eyes of the sun, but Mama, that's
where the fun is, and that that should have been the song of the
eclipse. And that's why I ensured it last week. But thank you for
everybody for playing. The season long contest is still going on. Still time
to get in there and see if you can overtake the lead for the big
prize of the twenty twenty five TDG Discord subscription. That's I always say the
twenty dollars value. You know, I gotta enerject real quick. You say
the Manfred Mann version. I would not have guessed that there was another version
until there was all that Hubba balloon and the discord about it. Yeah,
I believe Springsteen did it first. Actually too, and nothing against Springsteen in
general. I really liked his music, but I think the mid for Man
really put a little more energy into into that song. So I like that
one better. That's when the couple play in the radio back in the day.
Yeah, so rocking. Well. What we've decided to do for our
in season episodes is to look at the ranking by positions. We can cover
two positions each episode, so tonight we'll look at the corner infielders, first
baseman, then third baseman, next time the midland fielders, then the outfielders
and catchers, and then the pitchers. We'll repeat that cycle three times,
which, believe it or not, will bring us to the end of the
season, where as we call it the beginning of ranking season. Each week
we'll talk about players moving moving up and down the ranks, with keeping with
our focus on prospects, look at who's about to join the ranks, and
sprinkled in the schedule throughout the year, we'll be dropping in a special episode
once a month, updating our JTR thirty overlook prospect from each organization. Like
I said last time, a quick note, although the samples are getting large,
we're still dealing with small sample sizes, so we are talking about first
impressions, but the impressions we have right now, and I think we're starting
to see some trends from a few of the players. But speaking of first
impressions, Chris, what do you think of the season so far? And
actually I got a question for you. You probably know Marcelo Zuna is leading
the matrix and RBIs. Do you know who's second? Mike Trump, No,
it doesn't get anyone on base who is second with RBIs? Is it
a Detroit Tiger? It is? Okay, no, I am, but
I'm still going to be gloating. I wanted to see you every week.
It is Sal Perez. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, he's had a
heck of a start. Yeah, I see how this is going to go,
and I like it. And actually Taylor Ward is tied with him,
and he was somebody I've targeted in a lot of redrafts this year, so
the other angel. But what do you think of the season so far?
Anything that was standing up for you? I mean it's not a first base
third base conversation that much, but I mean, obviously the arm injuries are
more than an elephant or a gorilla in the room. I think, you
know, they'd have kind of seemingly plateaued from that first week or two in
those couple of really bad days, or maybe I've just been a little bit
too busy manicuring and I haven't caught everything, but there's there have been some
surprises also with performances. I don't think, Josh. I mean, I'm
jumping ahead a little bit, but there's definitely some names that that we'll be
talking about that I have caught everyone's attention, not just at first place,
but specifically our first and third base And where's these rookies at that we're looking
for. You know, everyone's excited for a bunch of rookies to start the
year, and I don't think anyone's really jumped out as those early those first
names of Langford. They haven't been bad, you know, Walker just got
demoted, but they haven't been outright bad. But at the same time,
no one is just running away dominating the MLB as a fresh face rookie.
Yeah, I mean Jackson Holiday, you can't quite get his seat under himself
yet. But and this will come over time. I mean, I think
we all wanted it to happen quickly, but we've got to be realistically.
There they're facing is unlike anything they've seen before. Yeah, I mean we
get we got spoiled. What was at eighteen seventeen eighteen with that crop.
It's the Comunia, Soto and Tatis of just taking the league by storm.
I don't. Everyone always says that they're not the norm, and it just
shows how far outside of the norm, what kind of outliers they truly were.
And of course there's still a lot of games to be played, so
you know, Holiday could be making us e crow pretty quickly. Hear any
of them. Yeah, and even people talking lately about Corbyn Carroll, who's
had an amazing year last year and he's just not making the kind of contact
so far this year that they made last year. But you know, I
think we can chalk a lot of this up to small sample size. The
talent is there. You know. It's almost like the people who in the
off season were just saying, boy, we were too high in Elie de
la Cruz, and I kept thinking, I don't think we were. And
you know, he was a number one prospect for like two years in a
row for a reason, and I think he's showing us the reason right now.
So yeah, be patient, everybody. The stars are going to start
and I think they'll be there. But yeah, you're right, Chris,
nobody's wowing us and gonna win the MVP as a rookie right now. But
yeah, other than that, a few of the teams are surprising me.
I thought I didn't think Chicago was going to win it, but I didn't
think they were going to be this bad, that being the White Sox,
you know. And then the other end of it, I thought Cleveland was
gonna struggle, you know, with the moves they made or didn't make over
the off season. But you know, they're getting off to a great start.
So hey, that's why we love the game. Yeah, and Yankees
have completely reversed what the trend they were looking like at the end of last
year. Mm hmm, coming on strong to start early makings of what should
be a really good season. I think some really good pennt races, and
you know, Tani will Otani, he's putting up some amazing numbers, you
know at the bat over there. Discussion for another day. But I just
wonder how much he's going to pitch in the future. I know he loves
doing it. I know he's great at it, but it's also great at
hitting. And yeah, I could see a future of the Dodgers really really
limit his innings to minimize the risk of keeping the bat out of the lineup.
It'll be interesting to see, I agree with you. But how they
could use him in a unique you know, they're not quite on the raised
level of openers and all that sort of stuff. Open every third game or
something like that, you know, for two that'll be pretty interesting. That'd
be crazy. Or do what you Pan did in the last game of the
WBC last year and have Atani clothes twice a week. That's a start for
another day. Yeah, there you go. Hey, let's talk about let's
talk about the first baseman first, and we'll first talk about the top of
the rankings of our major league first baseman. Looking back at where we were
individually preseason, and who we thinking is going to move down probably truly actually
make moves, although I got a couple who may move down pretty quickly.
And who's outside your top ten, outside your top fifteen, who you think
is most likely to be in the top fifteen overall. Yeah, yeah,
I'm happy to go first with that if you want to. Yeah, I
think in my top four or Harper, Olsen, Freeman, and Alonso,
and I don't think they're going anywhere. But then I had Vlad at number
five and Torque at number eight, and I'll tell you what I don't mean.
They're both having just horrible years. For instance, Torklesen right now zero
home runs and he's hitting two twenty one. Guerrero right now three home runs,
he's hitting two nineteen. Each has twenty one hits total. Torque has
thirteen singles and eight doubles, and Vlad has fifteen singles and three doubles in
the three home runs. So unless you put a lot of value in those
three home runs, you're just looking at those two guys and going, we're
not getting anything we thought we'd get out of top ten. First, Baseman,
I trust, actually trust Flat to turn it around more than Torklesen.
I mean, I think a lot of us in the industry, so to
speak, got excited about the thirty one home runs and the way Torque finished
the year. Last year. I watched a lot of his games. He's
hitting the ball hard, he's got some clutch hits, he's got paramount RBIs
for those numbers, but he's not playing like a top ten first base in
right now. And I think that he ranking a number eight is going to
be really aggressive. I don't see him hanging there anymore. I mean,
Pascuentino at seven, he's going to be moving up this season. I've got
to believe, just seeing the way he's getting off to know he's back in
the lineup, and then outside the group ed Reee Hoskins at sixteen, and
I think I was higher than a lot of people even there. And right
now I'm seeing that he's coming back. To me. It looks like when
he was healthy in Philadelphia. You know, he's playing equally as well.
So I had Naylor. I don't know who's moving down, but you know,
Pasconcino and Hoskins got to be moving back up back in you know,
hiring, hiring the top ten for Pascentino and and into the top ten for
Hoskins the way things are looking now, So how are your rankings looking?
Yeah, I mean I had the same well, no, I'm sorry,
I had a lad at number two, so I was obviously a little much
higher on him coming in. I agree with what you were saying about him,
you know that probably having some regression to the positive aggression to the mean.
Here it is early, these things are not ironclad as far as opening
statistics. But he is still walking at a solid rate with a three point
thirty OVP. You know, it's over one hundred points higher than his average.
If you look at his stat cast page, you're gonna see that he
is underperforming substantially across the board. His batting average is two nineteen, but
his expected average is two seventy two, So that's you know, fifty points
lower. He's one hundred and twenty points below his expected slugging. And then
his ex wOBA is a good fifty or sixty points higher than his actual wOBA.
So in summary that you know, that's I'm not a firm believer that
you're gonna, you know, get back to those everyone underperforms or overperforms every
year in those regards, but those are pretty extreme discrepancies. So I think
the biggest thing I noticed is that his launch angles decreased, it seems,
and he was known for that. You know, last year he finally got
into the double digits of putting it up into the air on average. This
year, he said it seeming laid back in the ground more. So if
he can correct that, I'm hoping that he'll be getting those numbers. He's
not pulling the ball, and you know those kind of those sort of things
are looking to be more correlated as positive for the power outcomes. So on
the other hand, Vinnie, I'm not Vinnie as he said, but Torque,
he's like he's actually producing less than is worse than his expected stats,
which doesn't bode well for the long term outcomes for him. You know,
everyone was jumping back on the Torklesen train at the end of last year.
He had a great second half, but he's maybe he's a slow starter.
Let's just say, I am not looking to buy Spencer Torkleson right now.
Even if he had another strong second half, I'm still going to be wary
and he'll definitely be dropping down my ranks and I had him where did I
have torkles? And I hit him at seven last year or entering the year,
so he'll, yeah, probably be falling down substantially. Vinnie I had
right at ten, he'll be jumping up. He's you know, he took
a maybe a week behind everyone else, but then he's been hitting well.
I think he's at four or five home runs right now. Steers had a
solid year, and then yeah, Naylor is gonna I think skyrocket. I
kind of spilled the beans a little bit about how much I've been gushing on
Josh Naylor, but he is just firing on all cylinders right now, and
it is impressed. I had a buddy ask me if he thinks if I
think he's gonna lose time when Manzardo gets the call, I personally don't think
you will. I don't know if you have thoughts on this, Droe.
I know you're not a huge Cleveland guy by any means, But at the
same time, you know, they moved him around a lot in the outfield
even last year a little bit, you know, I shouldn't say moved him
around, but then he got some time in the outfield last year and of
course there's the DH, so I'm not too concerned about Naylor's playing time when
Manzarto finally gets the call, I don't know. Yeah, I'm not either.
I think as much as you want to pull Manzarto up and we'll talk
about more about him, I'm sure you gotta keep Naylor's bat in the lineup.
So between the two of them, I see a first base DH thing
going on with the two of them. I think Naylor is he's capable of
playing the outfield, like and then we played some right field the past few
year. I think he's selling him down at first pace is kind of let
him focus on his hitting. But they've got gaps in the outfield, so
if they need to get them both in and somebody else needs to DH,
I could see him doing it when they needed to. You're right about that.
But I think I think the two of them will split first base DH
and they'll find a way to get at bass for both of them. He
came on so he's always been a big power guy Naylor has, and he
had a really good I think his whole year last year, but the second
half was really strong last year. Getting off to great start this year,
they're not going to sit him. A couple of other names in that that
area there are surprising me. I don't know what to do long term in
terms of ranking, but I thought cronin Worth was. I'm really surprised to
what he's doing this year. That two fifty three and he's got the three
home runs, so he's not He's doing better than I anticipated. I wrote
him up a year ago and his stats had had gone down each each year,
so I don't think this start he has is sustainable. I think he'll
kind of regreest to his norm and not be a top fifteen to twenty first
baseman, but right now he's playing like one, So I don't know,
what do you think about that? And then ty Franz is another one who's
not hitting for power, but he's hitting the ball hard and he's hitting to
sixty seven. So it two guys. I am quite sure they're doing well
now, but I'm not going to move him up in the rankings yet.
Yeah, I mean France, I don't know. I used to really be
all in on him, always waiting for him to pop, and last year
was kind of a bummer, I'll be honest. Although he got his first
career steal last year, so that was a big deal in my eyes.
I made a joke to it was a bad joke. It wasn't well done.
I was really off and my jokes in our co patting with friends over
there at the Dynasty's child. And I don't think Sam recognized when I was
making fun of him type France, never never stealing the base. Yeah,
I just coronin wars actually have picked up in my fourteen team home league,
and yeah, he's been he's been great. I'm not expecting to put him
at slade him as my primary first basement, but he's definitely a utility guy
for me to rely on for a while here. And we'll see what happens
France. And no particular hopes for anything long term with him, unfortunately.
Maybe some batting average in those leagues, but that's about it. And then,
Uh, one more major league that I wanted to ask you about before
we move talked about some of the prospects, is where do you we're in
the top ten or fifteen. Do you see yourself sliding? Michael bush Man.
Yeah, that was quite a hot streak, wasn't it. Was it
five games or six games? Did we end up hitting I don't know,
however many that's a lot of home runs in a row. Yeah, I
mean, did we rank him at first place this year? No? I
think we ranked him at third base. That's why I'm looking at my ranking.
Where am I going to put him? Yeah, we'll see. That's
a really interesting predicament that they have going on, with Bellinger getting injured,
calling up Mash Nervous, who I think. I know he's a prospect here,
but that's it was Bush, I guess, But I think this is
going to be Nervs's last chance. Really. I was surprised when they traded
for Bush basically and did not pull mervs up the second half of last year.
I pretty much saw that as the ORG not believing in Nervous, and
so I kind of see this as the right, here's your chance. But
hated mcgreery in the system is another name that a lot of people like more
than Nervous, so in a fantasy sense, so I could see this as
being, you know, the last chance before they relegate him to a quad
A type. So back to Bush. That's a little off topic, but
Bush, you know, if he can maintain this production at first base,
I see no reason he wouldn't be considered a fifteen top fifteen at the position
next year. I definitely as seem as it should be a starting your number
one first basement on any of the fifteeneen lenks. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I agree. Yeah, I was just looking real quick. We actually
ranked him at second base last year. So when we're looking at in season
rankings, now, yeah, that twelve to fifteen range looks like where he's
gonna slide in on my rankings as well. He's gonna have I mean,
I can't imagine having this good of a year that he's had for the first
month, but so I imagine some cool cold water is gonna fall down.
But yeah, I think even with that regression, top fifteen is very reasonable.
All right, let's look at the prospect list of minor leaguers. I
had Mansarto. It's my top prospect for his basement. Did you as well?
I am switching over and checking out, Yes, I did. The
man's alien no reason to move him off of that Other than Hesson Kirstad is
first base eligible. I kind of I consider or more of an outfielder.
I'm not quite sure. I don't just in general, I don't know where
Baltimore is gonna fit everybody, but uh so, I don't know where your
stat's gonna end up or all positions he's going to qualify at. But let's
put in the outfield for now and talk about Colin Manzardo. I mean,
you and I talked about him. We both thought he was gonna blossom this
year. And boy has he ever. Yeah. I mean, he's doing
what he does, which has hit the ball and regularly and get on base.
He's not hitting a lot of home runs. I'm trying to find him.
I don't have his stats pulled up specifically, so I'm sorry, Okay,
he's got he's got five homers. I'm sorry I have that. Yeah.
Yeah, so he's got five. That's actually more than I thought he
had. Oh, he's been hitting him recently, last couple of days.
Has any last week or so? Yeah, But he's I knew he'd been,
you know, hitting and getting his his otherwise extra base hits in addition
to those. So it's just a matter of time, you know. I
think the odds are at Cleveland he's just playing service time manipulation here, they
do. I mean, and the fact that as Josh Taylor plays first base
his position. I mean that's also another reason coming into play here. Why
we haven't seen him, I don't think, but yeah, he's doing what
we're asking or what we expect out of him. A couple others looking at
those, What I did was I went into fangraphs and selected who listened first
base there. I don't know what the number is there, so some of
these names may not be eligible in different fan traction. Yeahoo formats right now,
but Kobe Mayo was listed as a first base prospect. He's getting off
to a good start as well. He's in three twenty seven, three seventy
four, six twenty two. And then Mark Fientos, who I've always been
fairly high on and I've seen mixed about four home runs a three twenty one,
four four, five thirty eight slash line. You know, I had
him ranked ninth at first base coming into the season. He's someone I see
moving up the list, either as people graduate, but also maybe even jumping
over a couple of guys who are in front of him. Anybody in the
top of your list you see moving one way or the other. I really
like what Abby Bombs is doing a double A this year. He hasn't been
hitting many Abby bombs so far heally has one, but he's getting on base
and more importantly to me, and yes, i'll sample size still in my
opinion because he doesn't even have one hundred plate appearances yet, but his k
rate is in the upper teens as opposed to the upper twenties, and that
was a big knock on him. So if he's working on making contact right
now, you know, we can let that sixty great game sixty grade game
power come into play later, so he'll be I had him, where did
I put him? I had him at number eight, which looks like a
lot of us. Yeah, so, oh you were the high one on
six. But I would say, yeah, he's nching up the line for
me and for people who haven't bought your nickname notebook yet. That's Abby mali
Ortiz in Texas. Yeah. Sorry, and I and I didn't come up
with that one that is stolen off of Twitter by Duke's was my guy.
I think it's this handle. I think it's the first coined that one.
One name that I looks like he's going to be moving up lists pretty quickly
is a Spencer Horwitz and playing trip lay in Toronto. Only one home run
so far, but he's in three fifty two four four ninety three, so
getting on base, getting a basically very high rate, strikeout percentage low down
thirteen percent h and walking at a twenty two percent rate. So again,
I don't think Toronto's going to move Laddie off, but he's going to be
a useful piece depending what they do. And I'm just going to go off
track for a second. But Toronto calls up Addison Barger, who pretty decent
infielder and a really good hitter, and put him in left field. Yeah,
I misplayed a flyball terribly and the other thing I said, well,
fortunately, but he's getting mad at Toronto and not at Addison because it just
wasn't fair. Yeah, you've got of a play dh the guy. But
anyhow, we're not talking about that position yet. We will, so who
knows what they'll do with Horwitz. But you know, if he doesn't get
called up, he's definitely gonna move up, you know my ranking list over
the course of the season. You know, if he keeps up this kind
of pace, and given his track record, and I thought highly of him
beforehand, anyway, you know, I don't see why he wouldn't just one
more name to throw it at you. In terms of Keston Hira from Detroit,
old Milwaukee prospect who always put up great trip A numbers and just couldn't
do in the majors, is starting to do it again. He's got a
three twelve, three point fifty four four ninety four slash line. I don't
know if the Tigers are going to call him up or not. Probably take
an injury or two for them to do that, but the way they've been
handling the roster, he put him up there in a position to succeed.
I always pull for the guy because I think he's got the talent and I
never could understand why, you know, he wasn't able to do it at
the major league level. Still not walking. He didn't walk into majors,
you're not walking now. The strikeout rate to twenty four percent, So I'm
not seeing that to be a superstar by any means. But it's just interesting
to see him still hanging around and still producing a triple A and maybe he'll
just be a triple A lifer. But if you had any insight from his
Milwaukee days, or if he's cut your eye at all. No, I
actually and when you mentioned his name, I completely had forgot he was now
on the Tigers. Yeah, I've he's in the back recesses, that's for
sure. He's been had a successful Triple A career, so I think,
unfortunately, that's probably where he'll continue to perform, with an occasional call up
here and there. But yeah, I don't have any expectations of him bouncing
up and being a regular to any extent at this point. But I could
be wrong, and I'm not trying to talk smack about the guy. But
it's interesting that you mentioned him because someone who I'm kind of reminded of with
him is actually performing well in Double A this year, and that was Rule
five draft pick by the Cleveland Guardians Division Dalo Santos, who is now back
with his former club, the Arizona Diamondbacks. So they took him in the
Rule five when we weren't going to give him the roster space, so they
paid money to Arizona and gave him back. I think that's all works.
But anyway, he's back with Arizona, he's performing well his k raids right
where he is always in the mid twenties. He's himself has five home runs.
He's looking like he can handle a double A and is ready probably for
the next level. He's a home run machine. He's got some raw power
in that tank for being a relatively small guy, but he swings that bad
hard. So I was hoping he would break camp with the Guardians. You
know, we've already talked about how that first basi is kind of clogged.
He had formerly played third base too. I don't think he's played there yet
this year, but at least Arizona and now has a chance to let him
fully develop in the miners to really hopefully eliminate as many of those holes in
his swing as he's shown so far. Yeah, I think so too.
I thought he was an interesting Rule five pick, and he's probably not.
Probably he's He's definitely sitting on a few best ball rosters that I drafted before
he gets in back to Arizona, thinking that, you know what, if
if he is a good week, he'll he'll help me here and there.
But as a twenty one year old, I think doubles where he belongs.
I think for his long term development, he's in the right place. But
I agree it would have been the interesting to see if you go, if
you got a chance in Cleveland. But I think sitting on the bench behind
the first base log jam or j ram at third, it wasn't going to
help him any So he's probably where he needs to be. But I'm really
you know, I think it's becoming quite clear to me that Cleveland they can
develop pictures, it seems effectively, but I'm really from a fantasy perspective.
They tend to draft those hit first bats without a lot of tools, and
then they make this rule five selection that doesn't really make sense for their roster
construction, which has to be taken into account when you're doing the rule five
draft. Right. Yeah, it's really really puts a level of concern for
me. If I see a player in a batter in the Cleveland organize station,
I think I'm trying to think who they developed as lately. I mean,
Stephen Kwan and he's not a power guy Batton, you know, contact
average speed. Jose Ramirez is the first is the is the to me,
is like the first Sorry I could completely cut you off, but is like,
is like the player that wasn't a highly touted prospect that they developed and
turned into a you know, a star MVP candidate. You know, as
best as you could ever expect out of any prospect. All right, so
we throw out a couple of sneaky deeps and before we move on to a
third base. Yeah, all right. Mine is a twenty twenty three pick
in the fifteenth round by the somewhere in California Athletics name Will Simpson. Will
is six foot three two twenty five so pretty much built for first base,
twenty two years old, and so far this year he's hitting a three fifty
four five point fifteen five sixty three slash line, two home runs and the
stolen base. Last year he had six home runs, same kind of batting
average, hit over three hundred. Last year his OVP was around three point
fifty and slugging average over five hundred as well. So young guy coming up
in the system. We don't love what they do at the major league level,
but if you really think about it, some good guys have come up
through the system. They've got some scouting and some development going on there as
well. So if I'm looking really deep, somebody want to put on a
deep watch list or put a star next to on my spreadsheet? And see
where it goes. Will Simpson is my sneaky deep for first base. Who
you got? I like it? Mine may not be as sneaky deep.
I know he's definitely started to get some Twitter hype, but he's only I
think it was like one percent owned when I looked earlier on fan tracks,
maybe three percent still single low, single digits. And that is Annoiitus Mordn
of the Baltimore Orioles. He's a right handed first baseman, so there could
be you know, some issues there. But and again he's also in the
Orioles organization. If you weren't aware, they have quite a few good corner
baseball prospects here, corner position prospects. But he seems to just be the
next one. So who knows how long he'll stay in the Baltimore system,
but hopefully long enough to continue to develop. He's at low way as a
twenty year old. I think he just turned twenty. No, he's not
even twenty, but Fangrass is rounding them up and it's early on, but
he's got a near twenty percent walker rate, which is gorgeous, upper twenties
k rate, which obviously is somewhat concerned but you know that might come with
some of that high walk, right, he's watching a lot of us come
go buy the guy. He's got power much like everyone else, and he's
pulling the ball well, he's putting it in the air decently. So the
future could be pretty bright for yet another Baltimore Oriole prospect. Yeah. I
was watching TV last night and next week on Hoarders they're covering the Orioles minor
league system. I like that. All right, let's talk about third basement,
you know, same thing. We'll start talking about our our major league
ranks for a little bit and then take a deeper dive into the prospects.
I know, looking at my preseason rankings and Jose Ramirez number one, and
like I said, he's going to be number one until he's not on my
list. Not getting off to an amazing start. He's had a couple of
good games, but overall kind of sea wre ends up at Elie de la
Cruz at third. I know I qualified there last year, but he's really
a short stop now so and then can I see him with Gunner Henderson.
It's kind of funny with what's going on there. Then Austin Riley Raffie Devers,
who I don't know what's going on. They're not saying what if it's
his leg or the concussion or what, but he hasn't been playing very much
lately. It's an interesting position right nowt at the at the top, and
I think that there's a lot of guys who can move up or down.
But the one I wanted to talk about was Alex Boem who after years of
like loving the guy I just had, you know, it's it's been too
long. I have to really take the rose color off and look at him,
and he's just not a top ten third baseman. And right now,
maybe I'm amazed, but he is really playing the top five, top three
third base level so far in this early season. So maybe I was right
all along. I should not have talked myself out of him over the summer.
But he's a guy. Yeah, he's a guy I've always had,
I think, probably somewhat similar opinion like this is going to be it,
this is gonna be it, you know. And I've traded him and for
him and traded him away, you know, and traded back and all in
the same league. I currently do roster him in my home league, but
yeah, I mean three home runs. This is probably this will probably be
the first year the quickest year he's at, you know, two hands of
home runs in his career, although he did know hit twenty last year,
so I don't think, you know, it could have started last year.
I think if we were to look at a rolling average here see some changes.
I mean his bat to ball is he's always been you know, great
great k rates, great batting or solid batting average. So yeah, I
mean he's only twenty seven. It's not as if he's you know, in
his upper thirties or anything and should have been considered cooked. So you know,
it could just be he's entering that prime window. Yeah, it's it's
great to see. Yeah, yeah, I think shooting like three thirty seven
right now, and then Jordan Westburg's got be in the conversation of top ten.
H if he can keep it up. I know that they're some people
kind of worried about the what's under the hood, But he's shitting three ten
with five home runs already and hard, hard contact rate. I don't I
don't see why, you know, he's not going to stay up there as
well, So you know, what's your uh, what's your top of years
look like. Yeah, my third base was Ellie and Gunner, which you've
touched on there. Uh, and then Austin Riley, who was doing Austin
Riley things right now. So I think if we were to rely just eliminate
the top two, I think Austin Riley should be number one right now.
And then I have Devers, Ramirez, h Cam and Arrow, and then
I have my injury row of Josh Young or I should say not playing row
of Josh Young, Nouelvee Marte, and then Royce. Yeah, that's you
know. I was really excited for Young this year that hip I pitch broken
wrist. It really sucks because even when he does come back, he comes
back at the end of May, like they're saying, I mean, wrist
injuries are power sapping, and so I could as a fan perspective, it
could be really painful and people will probably be dropping him, and I think
that actually will be a great time to pounce and probably just ignore twenty twenty
four unfortunately it's probably mostly last year statistic wise, and then get excited for
next year with Josh Young. So I'll probably I think I'll see I think
we'll see Young drop collectively based on what I anticipate his rest of season to
look like. But I think that'll be quickly for Gotton into twenty twenty five
next year. So Josh Young, get ready to buy. Yeah, I
think I think you're right about that. I just I worry. It seems
like I know they're different injuries every time, and it's not soft tissue injuries.
So I'm not going to label him injury prone or anything, but yeah,
I mean just worry about it. Yeah, And I think, as
you just mentioned, it's this was not a soft tissue. This was not
him hustling down. You know, he's not Royce Lewis. I think Royce
h. Everyone should have some definite caution at this point after two a cls
in the same knee and now quad. I believe his squad, Royce,
you should have hesitation with And yeah, he could be a top thirty type,
but he's gotta be healthy for that. I think Young just got the
short end of the stick here. And if your league made is considering him
as an injury risk, you know, maybe you could start being that birdie
on the shoulder whispering that to him now and then a month or two after
he's back and not hitting home runs, then jumping jumping that by that,
by opportunity. You know, I just you know, keep running different sorts
on the current third basement in the majors, and it just it's a weird
group at the top, like easak paradas keeps coming up. Yeah, you
may be, you know all around, you know, one of the better
third basement out there at the moment. Six home runs and hitting two eighty
four, and aside from a couple of guys we mentioned it, batting averages
dropped down in a hurry. It's kind of like, but first base used
to be years ago, where you get your power and forget about any kind
of batting average. And right now there's just a lot of third basement hitting
in the low two hundreds and but with three, four or five home runs
right now, so early to tell, and maybe we're talking about him again
in a month or so, we'll have a totally different conversation to have.
But I have no idea what the rankings are going to look like when you
do like mid season rankings and knixt year's rankings. Aside from let's say a
couple of guys who we know are going to be near the top, and
then it's going to be whole lot of jumble. I think this is a
position where there's the opportunity for some of the prospects we talked about coming in
and kind of debuting or getting to the top ten to top fifteen in the
o R rankings pretty quickly because I think the openings are there, which is
probably something we talk about it every year and draft season and ranking season,
but it's really kind of playing out. Yeah, I mean you mentioned the
prospects. I guess that's a good segue, right, Yeah, let's go
there. Yeah, I'm excited for Brady House. He could be one that
could even get to the majors of things tumble in the right direction. I'm
trying to find. I have too many tabs open, unfortunately, but he's
I mean, other than Kobe Mayo, who we've already talked about, who
I think ultimately will bouncing between third base and first, but I think Brady
House has a chance to be the next next in line. His top third
base prospectly and Cam and Arrow I forgot about him. I guess that guy
matters too. He'll be up. He'll probably his eligibility though at some point
this year assumably. But yeah, Brady House, I think his next up
he's he's he started off well, he's taking walks early. You know,
his k rates hovering right where it always is, and the guy is gonna
start mashing soon. He's already hit two, but he's gonna. I think
he's gonna at least touch trip away this year and we'll see what those those
Nationals do, and hopefully it'll be his turn to shine in short order,
jumping up our major league ranks. Yeah, and I think we talked about
him last episode. I've always been really high on him and loves seeing the
start he's getting up to. Right now, What do you think about what
Tyler Black is doing? Is he at third base? I thought, well,
they're showing eligible there. He's played one game there so far this year,
but yeah, I was last year. I played twenty eighth. Yeah,
he played twenty eighth there last year. So it's interesting though, And
the question for me is if they signed Reese I believe to a two year
deal Reece Hoskins first, what's there? And they're not playing Black at third
anymore in the minors, they're obviously prep I mean unless They're going to pull
a Toronto and show him and left field when he comes up and begs the
question why is it? Because? Is it because Black's third base defense is
that poor? Is it? They don't plan on having Hoskins around long term,
so it'll be interesting. But nonetheless, I mean, offensively, Black
is doing what you want Black to do, a hitting homers and stealing bases.
So I think he's ready to come up. I bet the Brewers are
waiting for late May, that wonderful time in late May when players all of
a sudden get promoted. Yeah, but no no service time manipulation, just
paverage out that way, right. I got three guys outside my top fifteen
who I'm quite sure are going to move in there pretty quickly. A lot
of people talking about Cam Collier. I know I'm not breaking any uh you
know, breaking any news there, but two three fourteen ninety one slash line
in the Cincinnati system. He's in the High A. He's already got six
home runs already and uh only a four percent walk rate. But which is
why the opp is only three fourteen? But well it doesn't the boy's getting
out of the park. So uh, you argue with a lot of that,
and then James Treanto's in the Cups, is getting off to another really
good start two ninety three, three forty four five seventeen slash line with three
home runs, and oh no, somebody's got a small basis not him,
he's zero. And then another name that got a lot of conversations a year
or so ago, and then not much last year's Andres Chaparro, who's with
Arizona nowase he started out with the Yankee system, I believe right now a
three twenty one, four hundred six nineteen slash line with six home runs.
Not quite sure why he doesn't get well, he doesn't get ranked higher and
doesn't get talked about as much. But those are three guys right now.
I think by mid season ranking is a very good shot at being being in
the top ten at third base, especially with a couple of graduations are going
to happen. Of a couple of names you mention before, I'm surprised.
I didn't hear you mentioned Jace Young or was he in your top ten or
whatever. I don't he was not, No, I did not mention him.
You're right, yeah, Jace Young. He's having himself a heck of
a Oops, I just closed my tam. He's having himself a heck of
a twenty four here, and I think he's actually going to be the third
basement long term there versus Colt Keith. So but yeah, he's four home
runs, and I mean people who are better at scouting than I am saying
he could be as good as his brother. So if it's not apparent,
I'm a big Josh Young fan, so I'm excited to see what Jace can
keep on doing here. Yeah, and he I think it would definitely be
at third base. Keith is actually playing some very good second base right now,
and so I think he's silly in there. I think third base is
wide open and they're just holding it for Jason. The kind of light the
rotation that got going on right now. They got some good chemistry going with
the team. But come mid season, if they need a bat, that
call up could be as early as you know, All Star Game to bring
him up there. So yeah, no, I didn't intentionally leave him off
the list just as I was going through names. It wasn't one of the
ones I circled to talk about tonight, But anybody in your I don't know
fifteen to twenty five range. You see moving up into the top ten,
Well, that's tough. I'm fifteen to twenty five range. I mean I
had Brandon Taylor at thirteen, so I'd be cheating. I had an Aiden
Miller of Philadelphia, I have fifteen. He definitely has had a heck of
a start as well. You'll pull him up to speak a little bit more
eloquently, but he's actually stealing more bases. It's one thing I've noticed then.
I anticipated he's got five stolen bases already this year, and I don't
think he was ever scouted as being a fat guy. So let's see how
all that he's at low way, so we can see how well that plays
out as he advances. But it definitely caught my eye. But he's batt
in three eighteen three sixty seven OVP and a five forty five slug. That's
two homers and four doubles to make that happen. Yeah, I mean he's
shown an all round, five five tool kind of approach here starting off his
professional career, his first full season. So it'll be interesting to see with
Philadelphia and them bringing him through here. And then I just want to say
for the record, that or Elvis Martinez has been playing second base this year.
So even though we talked about him in a lot of positions last year,
we can hold off a couple of weeks before I have to say that
I was so wrong, you know, I actually he really was going to
use him as mine. But I it was like, I'll wait till short
stop because that's where I thought he was speaking second. Well, we'll have
our time, all right. Uh So, who the who's the deep dive?
Who's the sneaky deep at this position? For you? You know,
it's I'm really you know, I have a hard time deciding if they're sneaky
deep to me or sneaky deep to our listeners. And it's definitely a name
who was around last year near the end of the year. It's Reuben Santana
with the Diamondbacks. He kind of we haven't heard much about him. He's
another toolsy corner and fielder type and it's been a he got a little bit
of a late start in low Way this year. He's nineteen, just turned
nineteen this year. Nothing. He isn't setting my Way on fire, But
I like the fact that he can be stealing. He could be stealing bags
and hitting home runs and getting you combo meals as he makes his way through.
And Arizona is an organization that I trust some of their development, so
it's definitely one to be watching. And probably i'd say two hundred and fifty
ish minor league teams are minor league player and rostered leagues. But yeah,
Reuben Santana is someone who I don't think is getting enough press or at least
seems to be lost in all of the shuffle with like fypds as he was
starting to pop last year. Yeah, what I did for this, I
was looking at players who are currently in A or high A and getting off
two good starts and then you know, kind of shortened through the air and
looking with their pedigree and everything was so you know, these are long shots,
and I guess that's called the sneaky deeps. But the one I settled
on, but after that, there's somebody else wanted to ask you if you've
heard about. But the one I settled on for the sneaky deep was a
Braylan Wimmer who was in the Colorado Rocky system at a Ball their eighth round
pick last year out of South Carolina and he had a decent starting complex last
year at just fourteen games at three eighty three four to fifty three five ninety
six, and this year he's hit four home runs already, uh hitting three
nineteen four thirty nine five ninety six. Walks at a fifteen percent rate,
strikes out at a seventeen percent rate, which is low, so almost walks
as much as he strikes out a ball. That's a sneakyast. It's just
there. And if he start to look at an a ball, because you
know, the pitchers there are still trying to find the strike zone, so
it's not that hard to walk. But at least he is showing the patients
and taking the walks when they're there. So a few stats I see,
they are the kind of worth worth keeping an eye on. Sixty three two
hundred so built for power. Yeah, listed at third base and shortstop.
I don't see that profile sticking at the shortstop, so very likely a corner
infielder. The other name that this guy is showing eligible at first, second,
and third playing it in the Minnesota system Rubel or Rubel cesspit us and
no idea if he's related. So Minnesota Twins playing high A this year three
seventy four to fifty two, six eighty five slash lines so far. Twenty
two he had a very good year, twenty three he did not, So
he's kind of been up and down through his young career. He's twenty three
in high A, which is starting to get a little bit old for the
level rule five eligible this year, and I know that you look at that
to be very meaningful. I don't have you heard the name at all,
am I just no, I am not familiar. But I pulled them up
as you're talking. Yeah, I see as bad as four thirty two.
Well that'll probably come back. Yeah, I mean the role five eligible for
someone a twenty three year old at hay A probably doesn't. You know.
He might go into minor league portion or something like that. But I don't
see him as being all those things unless he continues his hot streak and makes
his way through. Obviously he's not multi He's able to play a lot of
positions, so that is not going to hurt anyone by any means. But
no, he's he's not a name I'm familiar with. Yeah, I think
I'm gonna file it under a hot start and a small sample, but it
was just funny. I hadn't heard or seen the name at all, and
like seeing a few different sorts of I kept popping up in the middle to
the high range. I thought, who was this guy? And I've heard
of him? But I'd start in a small sample sounds like something like Private
Investigators, black and white movie Boguard. I was gonna use it for the
title for my autobiography, There you go, my life, My life in
fantasy baseball. Uh So, if you got a minute, I've got one.
Unless there any other third basemen you want to talk about. No,
let's let's see what she got, all right, Uh, let's pull a
trade. It doesn't really hit the position. But looking over the the trades
that got posted in their discord, as we've said before, people kind of
throw up a simple poll. And so this is a in a thirty team
dynasty league where they're looking at category is on one side of the trade,
Bailey Ober picture on the other side, Brady House and Hayden bird song,
thirty team trade, the thirty team league, thirty team league categories, and
a macuum. I'd probably lean Ober in a thirty teamer can I ask why
and that that was that was the majority of vote. It's seventy three in
there. I would lean House and bird Song, partly because I like both
those guys. I don't think too many people know bird Song except for the
guy who just drafted him in that league we're drafting right now, which pissed
me off. But I'm sorry, I hitit that out. Sorry, Aaron,
He's all yours, good, good good, get that thing. Oh
man, Yeah it was. And I I know Hope Bailly is, of
course, but I just think he's a guy. But is he woulden because
in a thirty teamer he's a live arm I don't disagree. He's not a
He might not have the overall fantasy impact of Brady House, but he has
fantasy impact currently. Brady House, as much as I'm a fan, is
still and both of us are a fan of many others. It's still you
know, a minor league baseball player, and a lot can happen in the
next year. Plus birds Song is a pitching prospect. Enough said on that
comment on that topic, it's just when you're in a thirty teamer, and
I also said in a vacuum, okay, but so double down on that
point. But I just think that the MLB contributor who's above average. You
know, he's not a He's not just gonna be getting Indians. He's going
to be contributing in other facets of other categories for you. I just think
that's very valuable piece that isn't easily discarded. I should that's easily be discarded.
Now, if I'm rebuilding, even in the thirty man I would probably
move over for House because pitching is so fickle. I know that I am
in probably in the minority in that as well, but if I'm anywhere near
a competitive window, give me over. Yeah. I do tend to hold
pitching in the thirty team leagues, in the super deep leagues that I'm in.
But he's only pitched over a hundre innings once. He just pulled up
his page while you were talking there. He doesn't walk anybody. I didn't
know his walk greates, you're that good. They're all below six percent for
his entire career. So so of course the whip is down and that helps
keep the E E r A down as well. Yeah, he doesn't,
and you know, then he'll get those ten strikeout games or eight strikeout games,
and then he wants you know, one or two the next one.
He's not super consistent, but he doesn't walk anyone, which is crazy because
he's huge, right, and usually those gigantic How tall is he, like
sixty eight or something? Yeah, usually usually their mechanics are all over the
place. But yeah, he's got that down. He's only I'm actually surprised
that he's only crossed over one hundred Indians once. But I think he was
a late bloomer. If I remember right too, I think you just broke
out. I finally had a full season last year, right, Yeah,
in twenty one he had ninety two innings. That was a twenty five year
old, and then twenty two fifty six innings in the majors. Now he
has Yeah, I was just gonna say, I'm gonna do the math.
Yeah, there's been up and down. Looks like it looks like he did
a rehab in twenty two and then came up. But okay, well,
thank that you enlightened me there. So yeah, I knew a Bailey over
of course, hadn't paid a real close attention and a little bit more there
than I thought. So I learned the hard way when I first joined.
When I joined my first thirty man that you know, there's only so many
starting pitchers. Yeah yeah, hold on, hold on to him like grim
death. Right yeah right, Well that brings us to the end of another
episode. Uh, Chris, any final words. I missed talking to you
on a weekly basis, So this snuck up on me and that makes me
sad that we're already at our time. Oh I did too. I'll have
to we'll have to call in chat and there's nothing to stop us from doing
that. I like it, Yeah, I know, we both Uh.
You know what else I like? The two weeks went by, Like I
haven't spent too much time in the rankings. What am I doing? Like,
I'm watching baseball, I think, you know, during the ranking season,
there's nothing else to do, so I'm like in the spreadsheets all the
time. And now I'm like, yeah, I turned out the MLB network
and that the you know, Tigers are playing well right now, so I'm
watching their games. But even when i'm not, there's always a good pitching
matchup or you know, good players on. So it's definitely cutting into my
ranking time. It's actually watching the game we love. But uh, yeah,
I've enjoyed it too. Uh and Uh, I'm glad to hear things
are going well with you. Look forward to the next one, and to
all of our listeners out there, Hopefully you enjoy hearing the conversation. Hopefully
you're learning some things, and more importantly, we know how valuable your time
is and we really thank you for spending some of it with us. So
be well. We'll be back soon to talk about the middle infielders, and
shortly after that look for our next GT thirty update. So thank you,
everybody, and hey, let's hear what Taylor has to say. Hey,
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