Welcome back in to join the ranks. Everybody your Dynasty Rankings podcast for the
Dynasty Guru, where we chat fantasy baseball and you go win some cake.
I am Taylor Case, your tired, friendly neighborhood dynasty dad, and as
always I am joined by the preeminent Dynasty philosophizer himself, mister Joe Guarino.
And today is a good day to talk about some baseball. We're mostly talking
rankings again. Today We've got an excellent guest. We uh well self so
self proclaimed, i should say, the guy who Baseball Savant was named after.
I'm very excited to have him on. Very smart dude, sparks quiet,
a bit of good conversation in our TG slack as well, so I
think this is going to be a great pod. His name is Aaron Coming.
Aaron. How you doing today, man, I'm doing well. Thanks
for having me on, absolutely, Thanks for bearing with me through the scheduling.
As I say every time, it is not easy to schedule three grown
people sometimes across three time zones, because time zones just don't work properly in
my head sometimes especially and Joe's too wet, we get messed up sometimes.
So thanks for bearing with us, and thanks thanks for being here for my
pleasure show rundown today, same kind of stuff we did with Sam last time,
just some general takeaways from our consensus. I forgot last time to actually,
you know, list out our players. You know, I had a
time and the consensus to kind of give you a sneak peek general takeaways or
so I'll do that today general takeaways, hot takes because Risers Risky is top
fifteen, and then we'll finished up with anybody else that we have missed or
we may have missed along the way. But because we haven't done this and
we haven't done it a whole lot lately, I'm just gonna check in with
you guys, make sure everybody's been good. It's like this year is going
okay, Joe time you're chiming in there. I haven't actually asked you how
you're doing yet, have I did? I skip that? Yes, you
did, but I am I did. How are you doing? Man?
I am doing very well. M okay. I just had a very nice
weekend and got to, you know, relax after a stressful week at work.
I've got a stressful week ahead of me, but you know, eventually
it will be over and that will be nice. The weekends have been very
nice lately. Sorry you had a stressful week. Did everybody have a stressful
week last week? Seems like it. First week of the year is always
hard. Everyone's got their gears resolutions that they're going to work harder, and
so everyone's trying pretty hard except for me. Yeah, because I except for
me. I'm like, I'm going to work the exact same I have the
exact same amount of motivation as I did ten days ago, but um,
instead, now everyone else around me just has more motivation. So yeah,
well, when you were already at Max's effort, it's tough to go up
from me exactly. Yeah. Oh yeah, ten percent every day of the
year for Joe. Yeah, napscent all Yeah, you're a nap guy.
Huh oh. I love to nap. It's one of my favorite things.
That's why you never text me back. Yeah. I'm also just really bad
at texting. I'm one of those people. I know I am as a
person. I'm chronically late and bad at texting. I'm one of those people,
and I'm very I'm very aware of it, and um, it's just
how I am. It's how i'n't hold that against you. Yeah, thank
you, Taylor. Um. Some people get on my case about it,
but I'm just like, well, okay, you're probably bad at something too.
I don't know what it is. You're probably bad is that? What
is that? What you say to them? Yeah? Usually I'll be like,
oh, yeah, well, um, you're bad at you know,
bowling? Sorry? Mom? Yeah? Sorry? Mom gets he's out and
text her back too, And that's that. One's a little bit a lot
more on me, but we'll see. I know my mom is the is
the same way, and I try to text back as fast as I can,
but sometimes sometimes it's not fast enough. It is what it is.
Okay, we've checked in with everybody. Anybody else, everybody's every Aaron,
you're your How is your first week? My first week was pretty good.
I'm I'm a huge fan of New Year's Actually, it's easily my favorite holiday.
I like the sentiment of a fresh start with everything, so I'm usually
pretty bubbly the first week of the year, and this year is no different.
Feeling good despite everything else going on, looking forward to all the possibilities
that twenty twenty two holds. Nice. I like that. Yeah, it's
a good it's a it's always a fun holiday in the case household as well.
You got do you have any resolutions? No? Much the same is
Joe. I was pretty much perfect ending twenty twenty one, so you really
no really no need to try to. If it ain't broke, don't fix
it, you know. Oh wow, you guys are my freaking heroes.
You guys are my heroes. You have to teach me that by the end
of the year. You're gonna have to teach me that because my my expectations
were high going. I mean, we achieved a lot last year as well,
but I think I had a weird a weird I don't know if like
expectations really high, and then I hit the weekend and I just like,
I've crashed this weekend. So I gotta I gotta work on that for next
week peak performance we're all striving for. Anyway, Let's get to some consensus
rankings and let me see if I can pull that up really quick, because
I think it is important too. At least list off, you know,
the top ten, top fifteen or so before we actually do these takeaways.
People actually kind of know what we're talking about. So as it stands right
now, and I think they or fifteen, sixteen, maybe seventeen writers that
contributed to the consensus rankings for second basemen this year, and what we came
out with when Keaton ran all of his numbers was Albi's at one semi and
at two, Brandon Low at three, Jonathan India four, I'll two Va
five, Chisel or Jazz at six, Maryfield to seven, Corona Worth eight,
Nick York nine, Jorge Polanco ten, Bruhan Levin, Edmund at twelve,
Gorman at thirteen, Luis Garcia at fourteen, and Nick gonzal Is at
fifteen. I'm not going to go any further than that. I think that's
enough just as a framework reference there, so everybody listening can kind of,
you know, beyond the fringe and formulate their own opinions if you haven't gone
to the site to read everything yet, which I encourage you to do as
soon as possible. After looking at all of these, we have any takeaways
from the list as a whole eron I'll start with you, yeah, going
through and looking at the consensus and my own per snow ranks, and then
digging into the categorical stats for everybody. It's surprising how little batting average there
is at the top. So historically, obviously, batting average is taking a
hit overall in the game. But second base used to be what I waited
on and snagged a batting average guy at the end of the draft to just
fill in my needs based on everything else that was going on. But now
there's really nobody like that. I mean, you've got at two Vight,
he hit two seventy eight last year. Maryfield was two seventy seven. But
in our ranks, you've got to go all the way down to Nick Madrigal
at number seventeen to find anybody else that hit above two seventy the top of
the top of the ranks, there is just it's not going to prop you
up like it has in years passed. Yeah, it's a little top heavy
in that regard. Definitely, I'm kind of with you. I don't know,
Well, maybe I'm not. Maybe I just complain did that. But
do you guys reach for second baseman like I don't. I feel like I
never draft a second baseman before, Like I don't know, the eleventh twelfth
round in drafts, I just wait and wait and wait because I just don't.
I don't know. I like you're saying here, I don't expect all
that much and doesn't seem like you're gonna get all that much at least something
like batting average. You guys agree with that generally. Yeah. Yeah,
Actually the past few years, I've been a big supporter of taking Outbis,
but he's obviously earned the reputation where I mean, he's number one on our
list again here and in redraft. He's been getting propped up now that he's
a first borderline first round or easily second round pick. So I might end
up steering away from taking somebody early, but he was just such an excellent
five category contributor that I would prop him up quite a bit. Yeah,
he's he might be the exception for me, like if he fell to the
end of the first or the set or into the second round. I think,
I think I agree with you. I just haven't really, I just
haven't really seen that. I haven't done too many drafts, to be quite
honest, so far. Maybe or a couple best ball, Yeah, I
haven't. I haven't been in that position yet. Keep an eye out.
What about you, Joe, Yeah, Well, like last season, um,
I kind of actually found myself edending up with like Josel Tube in a
lot of leagues, just because I really liked his value that you could get
him at like last year after he was coming off of poor twenty twenty,
and I think with like the Astroist cheating scandal, people just got soured of
him as well as just like overtime players that have been around for a while
aren't the hot thing anymore and so they don't get like the limelight, I
guess. But Altoba was great, Like dude played almost played like every game
and had like thirty home runs, stole a couple of bases. You know.
I mean, I think I'm good. Later I'm going to talk about
him more. But I think that he's, you know, at least on
our list, like pretty undervalued. So I found myself taking him in a
lot of leagues last year and hopefully again this year if people are going to
keep undervaluing him. I also, I'm like, I don't know, I
just don't really like the guy, Like I'm not in love with the guys
at the top here, like even like Brandon Loo at like three, like
that dude can't hit lefties. It's not that he can't like he's an above
average hitter against lefties, but just barely, and they don't really play him
against them. So like, I don't know out of like a player who's
like you're gonna be taking inside the top one hundred, and they're just not
gonna play pretty much against an entire type of pitcher that's pretty rough and it's
hard to recoup that value versus taking a guy like India or Marrifield are grown
and worth. I think I'd rather have those guys over Loud, just because
I know that he's gonna you know, I know that those guys are gonna
be playing against lefties and righties, and you know, loo isn't I agree
with you there? I ranked I ranked for three or four spots lower than
we have him in the consensus as well. I liked the other guys a
little bit more. Um yeah, Indian Semi and Maryfield, Chisholm and cronin
Worth. Maybe I just don't know a whole lot more about Law as I
do about those other guys, and I'm not sure I've rostered him before.
To go along with what you were saying, though, I think I think
Griff, my brother is writing about him in the in the comments, and
he's gonna I don't think his comment right up is I don't want to say
it's not nice, but it's he's he's the same. He's not very high
on Lao going into this season. He said. He texted me or he
texted everybody and was like, so, I feel kind of weird doing this
to a guy who we have at number three, but I don't really like
him all that much. So he kind of agrees with you. Yeah,
I think that, like you know, when you look at the aggregate of
like what you're going to get out of him just off of right, he's
like he's so good against right he's that it doesn't really matter how bad he
is against lefties or that he's not going to play. But like on like
a season long basis, I feel like you're going to get a much like
lower variability from like India or like Maryfield or Corona Worth like I was saying,
or even guys like Jorge Polanco. I think there's an argument for where
like these are guys where they're gonna have a lot higher over the floor.
Like if you remember, like the first half of last year, law was
awful and it was really like a really good second half which propelled his season
and like actually saved it. And I feel like if he, you know,
wasn't as good as he was in the second half, we wouldn't be
talking about him the way we are now. Uh. Yeah, that's always
a tough thing to analyze for me, because like, you can't just take
away a second half, right. Normally I would look at a strong second
half and say, like, Okay, he did that, it's there,
and maybe that momentum can carry him through. I know that it's not.
That doesn't always happen, but yeah, that's that's tough for me too.
Yeah, what do you think year, We're go ahead? Joe. Sorry,
I'm actually a big loud proponent. Joe kind of hinted at it,
just because even if he doesn't play against lefties, all that's doing is taking
out the bottom fifteen percent of his performances. So, yeah, you're you're
getting fewer plate appearances, but the level of those plate appearances is easily top
five. And he's a few years younger than some of those other guys too,
not that it's a huge difference, but he is going to be twenty
seven next year. But thirty nine home runs last year. I mean that's
it was second at the position, just behind Semion. So it's it's tough
to argue with that kind of power output. That's very true. Agreed.
Yeah, that's pretty sexy. I mean almost forties. It's really nice.
Sense really and he could easily I feel like he could. You know,
I don't know about Semion's forty five. The repeatability of that. That's that's
a lot of home runs. I would think, yeah, sure, yeah,
So I mean law could easily be the leader in twenty twenty two.
So who knows? Who knows who? Seems like we're a little split on
them. Oh that's good that it's gonna make our our listeners think a little
bit. I like that. I'm kind of the same in general. I
don't have I don't have too many complaints about this list M Like I hinted
that earlier. I just I don't know why. I just kind of I
wait on this position. If I'm drafting, I don't there aren't a whole
lot of second basement I go out and target I will I will fall back
on mid round guys, and then I will often churn through them in redraft
and even dynasty leagues as well, depending on who's playing well. I just
it's just not a position I necessarily pay up for. Let's get to the
next segment here, let's Joe, let's go to you. Let's get let's
talk about some hot take here. Anybody have any any hot takes in the
rankings or on the consensus that we need to chat about. Yeah, there
were a couple of people like this is what I was sensing it earlier with
al twove that had him outside of their top fives, And it was like
multiple people to the point to where he landed at number five on our list.
And you know, I think that having him outside of the top five
second baseman after what he just did is kind of crazy because like in turn,
like we can't we think of him as this like old player, but
he's like only five months older than Marcus Semion, who we have, you
know, three spots higher at number two. And to be honest, al
Twovea has a better track record and even if you look at their performance last
season, they had the same WRC plus one thirty versus like one thirty one
for Semion, so only one percentage off in like, you know, a
pretty solid indicator of future hitting, and you know, you might get more
stolen bases out of Semion, But moving forward, which is what we're trying
to project, Semi and going to be moving into a worse lineup leaving Toronto
and going to Texas, and he's going to be going to a worse park
for hitting as opposed to Altuve, who's staying in the same very solid Astro's
lineup, which is just the best lineup in baseball even still, and you
know he's playing at a great park. So like, you know what you're
going to get out of Altuve and Semi. And I think we've seen like
what his ceiling might be and we're like assuming that that is going to be
Semi in moving forward as we have him at number two. But a guy
like Altuve, as you can see, matched his production or at least close
to it, and you can get for a lot cheaper and are not necessarily
a lot cheaper, but just like a lot lower in drafts. Yeah,
it seems like even more so, you know, or maybe maybe he's kind
of he's a little volatile right now. He really dropped last year and now
he's bounced back up, but he's still yeah, maybe he's the he's the
value pick of this top ten um. I don't know what it is about.
And maybe, you know, we talked a little about a little bit
about this in the TDG slack the other day. I think I'm holding on
to something with him, that there's something about him I don't like, or
I think he's just gonna fall off the table. I know he rebounded last
year, you know, just just fine. But I but you know,
prior to twenty twenty one, I think looking at Al two Bay, I
saw an you know, an increasing strikeout percentage and this kind of increasing want
to sell out for power, which which really wasn't a huge detriment to his
game, but I saw that to me at the time was like it was
harbinger the word an omen an ill omen of things to come. Like I
wasn't sure when all of a sudden that was going to spike and then the
homers were gonna not come. And he proved me wrong. And I still
I ranked him probably too. I think I have him at ten, but
you're right, he could he could. Yeah, he could be. He's
a he's a candidate top three you know year any year out it seems like
that, and that I think I have him misranked there and looking back at
it right now, Yeah, where are you at on him? Yeah?
Go ahead, Joe, Yeah, like I have him ranked at three.
I have n't. I think that Albis in India are better long term bets.
But when I have my projections for the next two seasons and I was
looking at like, who's going to be the top second base in terms of
projecting out by points, Alice Huve was number one in both seasons, and
I think that's just an indicator of like how good he still is and how
good he should be, like according to the projections, and how well he
played last season. Yeah, yeah, you're right, he's very good.
I mean he's all over I don't want to say he's all over the map.
He's anywhere from three to ten on our on our rankings here on the
or on the rankings as a group. Aaron, I don't see your rankings
on here. Are they not on this They're not on this list? Mine
mine did not get in there. That's correct, So my my top five
though obviously Albi's at one, and I agree with Joe that Indian too,
but i'd have Lao then Semi and and then I do have l two of
a right where our consensus is at five. It's tough. It's tough for
me to say that someone who's going to be turning thirty two next season is
underrated when he's number five in our consensus rankings. But a lot of Joe's
points hold true, especially with how we're valuing Semi and now that he's moving
and things like that. But to push back on Taylor, why you had
kind of been down on him a little bit, You're right that his strikeout
rates were going up, but they ballooned all the way up to just eighteen
percent in twenty twenty, So even a career high is still well below league
average. Yeah, and even if you sign up for power, it's the
same thing when Bregman in that ballpark hit forty plus home runs. Their swings
are tailor made for where they're playing eighty games, so it's it's a perfect
fit to just get the ball in the air and pull it and just try
to yank it and get it into those Crawford boxes there. So I don't
blame him for that. I think it's a smart strategy and obviously it paid
off. He at thirty one home runs last year, bouncing back from the
down year. But I still do have Semion ahead of him, just because,
yeah, L two ways men, maybe a little bit more consistent over
his career since he broke out, but before the down twenty twenty season for
semi and he was a top three finisher for MVP in twenty nineteen. It's
it's not like he had some sluggish career or has been all over the place
or anything like that. He's he was an MVP caliber player two years ago,
he was an MVP caliber player this past year, so I don't have
any doubts about his skills maintaining. And yeah, the Rangers weren't a great
team, but Semion wasn't the only person they added. They also added another
potential MVP candidate in Corey Seegers, so he's gonna have some up and comers
around him. It's not going to be the Toronto lineup Banning means, but
he's still a viable player and he's a cross category contributor too, so I'm
a big fan of having him up there top five. I agree with you,
and to me, the difference in like four or five steals from Altuve
and fifteen from Semi and it is kind of is kind of a big deal
considering how few people, how few players get to that number nowadays. In
my opinion, I'm going to feel like that's rare. So that adds him
as well, and I have him at three. I have I think I
have, let me look at that Albie's India semi and as well, and
then, like I said, al Tube should be up higher. But I
have him at ten right now because that's a good and because that and that's
a good point eighteen percent or whatever quote unquote his strikeout right balloon too.
It's a very small balloon, better than most other you know, players in
the entire league, to be quite honest, Um excellent. Uh, let's
hear a hot tag from you, Aaron, Well, you had kind of
hinted at it before, but with consensus rankings, it's tough to have any
quote unquote hot hot takes, any individual hot takes just could kind of washed
out in the aggregate. But one thing that I noticed was going into twenty
twenty one, we had Nick Gonzalez as our number nine second baseman and played
eighty games his past year, played very well, and now we dropped him
down to number fifteen, and for me, I just don't see it.
He was awesome college hitter, excellent hit tool, people question the power,
and then he hit eighteen home runs in those eighty games in his pro debut,
totally backed up the power surge that he saw at the end of his
college career and what justified him being a top ten pick in the MLB draft.
And it just doesn't make any sense to me that we dropped him with
other performances not living up to the hype from some people above him. I
think I think he's easily top ten, if not pushing it on the top
five. Honestly, I agree with you. I agree with that top five
is tough, but I think I think I have him at ten or eleven,
and I think that's where he needs to he needs to be close to
that. He Yeah, he what did He didn't do anything wrong? In
fact, he he excelled. I don't know. Maybe maybe we had him
higher last year and there was just like some hype, you know, maybe
there was some Twitter hype about him or something. Yeah, that's that's that's
hard to understand because I'm looking at his stats right now. Three zero two
and three hundred and seventy plate appearances, batting average and in High A.
And then he batted three eighty in the Arizona Fall League. I mean,
what the heck? One nine fifty ops this year. Yeah, he's going
to be He's going to be a good player. I've spoken, I think
i've I wrote about him a while back, and I spoke highly about him
on a conversation I have with somebody on Twitter a while ago. He's one
of my favorite second basemen in the aim right now, he's not even.
He's not even, I should say, in the miners right now. Um,
yeah, go ahead, Eric, Yeah, he h. So in
our red Ups, I had forty one through fifty as part of our rankings,
and I wrote up to Cupedo Marcano, who's in the Pirate system,
and I basically just used it to talk about how much I love Nick Gonzalez.
So nice. Hey, I'm a Marcano fan as well. He was,
He's a former Padre. I don't know. It doesn't sound like you're
necessarily a fan of him. He's he's a he's a Nick Madrigal light light
type exactly. He's got a great he's got a great, great hit tool.
Um, he had a little bit of a power of surge in U
in college, but nothing to speak of once he hit the majors. Actually,
his on base percentage outpaces his slugging percentage as a pro, So I
don't think he's necessarily going to have the breakout he needs to have. Yeah,
right, I still hope he's somebody to keep an eye on it.
And he's got an eighty grade name. But yeah, he's hasn't hasn't worked
out yet. I hope he shows next year. He shows up. My
maybe this is yeah, I think this is a hot take. I have
Felix Valerio at eighteen, and the consensus has him at thirty seven, and
there have been for a couple of different reasons. Um, he he got,
he came onto my radar, he got he was on my radar him
a couple of months ago. I think Jordan on a Dynasty's Child episode brought
him up as his top Pods pick. So I started following along because it
feels like anytime Jordan predicts anybody's going to be pretty good using his Major League
Equivalency program and stats article that he writes every once in a while, I
like my ears perk up and I followed him since then, and I really,
I really like it a lot. I really like his game a lot,
almost a one to one walk to strikeout ratio, a really good above
average hitter in in in a ball one forty nine WRC plus and then high
a one thirteen, which is pretty solid things things. There's obviously an adjustment
period when he was called up, but across those two levels eleven home runs
and thirty one steals. And I know the rules are a little bit different
in the lower miners right now when steals some kind of take that with a
grain of salt. I just really like this kind of profile, especially if
he can get I don't know, maybe he puts on put on a little
bit of muscle and start hitting at a couple more home runs. He's somebody
I'm gonna be keeping a close eye on next year as well. He's twenty
one already. I don't know what his when his estimated cup of coffee is
obviously stills a couple of levels to go, but he's definitely somebody you need
to keep an eye on. Uh he we're talking about Marcano a second ago.
He's kind of like Marcano, but can actually he can actually hit a
few homers, like he's got some of that projectability there, I think.
Um, I'm trying to look through where do you do you have him ranked,
Joe Um? I only did thirty rankings, but he would probably be
ranked on wait forty, Um, he would probably be on there for me
umb forty range for me. Um. I don't know about eighteen. I
like him. Um, but you have down here that he's like Nick Madrigal
with more pop, and you say, could be. I want to let
you know that Nick Madrigal with pop is just Mike Trout, not not like
not like Mike Trout pop, but like like ten to fifteen home runs pop
and then and then a really solid you know, two ninety two eighty to
two ninety average. I like that. Yeah, I mean I think he's
got a good profile. I like the hit tool. Um. That's like
that's about it. Though. That's like very it's like a very one dimensional
game. But I don't think it could be. I don't think it's that
bad for like a second baseman who could give like high average. Maybe he's
David Fletcher. That would be really good. Dad. We're about to get
into that. Oh my God, all right, let's yeah, let's do
it. Let's let's go. I mean, so David Fletcher and Herman Marquez
Jesus every time? Okay, every time? Who then, obviously you know
how this goes, Joe. Everybody listening you probably know as well, who's
gonna who's gonna take the jump next year that we're not talking about enough in
the thirtiesh range and the lower who's gonna jump back up and be relevant again?
And please explain to me why it's David Fletcher. Joe. All right.
So first I'm going to preface this by saying that there's, um,
there's an episode of the Office where Ryan he had like just become like the
one of like the bosses, and he's like back talking to all the characters
and he's asking Kelly, who he used to date for those of you who
are not familiar with the show, and he goes, do you have a
question, Kelly? And she goes, yeah, I have a lot of
questions. Number one, how dare you? And that was what I thought
when I saw that we have David Fletcher ranked as the number twenty eight second
baseman twenty eight for David Fletcher, Are you kidding me, guys, Come
on, where what are we doing? We have one Sigura ahead of him,
one Sigura? Are you serious? Like, it's just crazy to me.
We have like all of these guys that are just like, you know,
close to out of baseball ahead of a guy who could be hitting in
front of Mike Trout and Showhyotani, who's got like one of the best hit
tools in baseball? Are we kidding? Guys? Like? What are we
doing? But what? Okay, let's take a step back. That was
that. I hear you loud and clear. I want you to know that
I hear you. Okay, But what is it? What isn't one dimensional
about David Fletcher's play? I mean it's batting average, right, there's so
one he's super one dimensional. But he gets to hit in front of Mike
Trout and show hey Otani and he's got like a In twenty twenty and twenty
nineteen he had a ninety he had above a ninetieth percentile x batting average,
and even in twenty twenty one, which was bad, but I just think
it was a weird bab appear for him. It was still seventy seven,
which is still pretty good, and he's gonna get on bass and he's going
to score a bunch of runs, and he's gonna steal some basses, and
he's gonna hit for a high batting average, and like like we were saying
earlier, it's kind of hard to find like a you know, a high
batting average player at second base towards the top of the list. And if
people are going to value David Fletcher and like what he brings to the table
at twenty eight below, some of these guys that are like just afterthoughts on
their own teams, not even on nasy teams, but on their own teams.
I mean, you know, gimme, gimme that's great, like good
for me, but it's just ridiculous season. I just one bad season though
I was just looking at his WRC pluses. I don't know about one bad
season. But he's not a he's not an unproductive hitter. I'm gonna need
you to be the tiebreaker here, Aaron on David Fletcher. I have never
and will never rostered David Fletcher. It's it's such a boring profile, Like
so the things that he does and the opportunity has I get your points,
but Um, the only way he's batting ahead of Mike Trout and Showeo Tony
is when he's in the eight or nine hole in the lineup turns over.
He's not going He's not He's not going to be their leadoff hitter. He's
not one of their best four hitters to put at the front of that lineup.
Um. I'm sure they're going to rotate him in and out and he'll
get he'll get starts there, but with everybody healthy, when he was getting
starts there, they didn't have a healthy Render and they didn't have a healthy
Trout. It just it wasn't a major league lineup that he was hitting leadoff
in front of. So when everybody comes back, I sincerely doubt he'll be
in the top half. Um, he did show more speed than he had
in the past. I think twenty twenty one he doubled his career steals,
So that's a little bit something that to be optimistic for. But for me,
the empty batting average just isn't going to do it, because if he
does end up in the back half of that lineup, the counting stats aren't
going to be there to make him a viable option. Guys are thank you,
thank you, Eron. That was that was very well said Eron.
He's risky. No, I'm not saying he's bad. I'm not saying he's
a bad hitter. I just I just in comparison to other guys around there,
I just don't I just don't see it. I think I have him
at number thirty five or thirty six, and I think you're right, Aaron.
I think the lineup concerns are real. He had almost four hundred plate
appearances in the you know, as the leadoff hit or last year. But
you know they didn't have a full team, like you said, you know,
with the full teams he fit. So I have a I think there's
a good measure. I think the opening day lineup is a good way to
look at and say, like, what is their picture for like a pretty
good lineup and assuming good health. Obviously, if you look at last season
first game of the year for the Angels, their lineup went Fletcher one,
trout or Otani two trout, three, Rendon four, okay, and he
hit in the leadoff spot from that day all the way until Tuesday five eleven,
so over a month when he got a day off, and then he
was back in the leadoff spot. I'm just and I know that they do.
They move him around. He's gonna hit nine or he's gonna hit one.
But like you were saying, he hit in the leadoff spot last year
for the Angels more than any other player, and I don't see like how
Otani, Trout or Rendone are not going to be hitting in the middle of
the lineup. I know they were playing around with Otani in the leadoff spot,
but like you were saying, that was when the lineup was weird and
the Angels weren't good. And even after towards the end of the season,
they went away from Otani hitting leadoff and went back to Fletcher hitting leadoff.
So I don't see how he's not going to be there or expects to be
there, considering that was where he hit more often than not last season.
And I think that if we're looking for like lineup considerations, the Angels haven't
added anybody that's particularly compelling to hit leadoff versus them. I mean, what
do you expect Fletcher or Brandon Marsh to be hitting there this upcoming season.
I don't think it would be Marsh after how bad he played in the second
half. Yeah, he feels like back half or six seven type. Yeah,
that's a good that's a good counter. That's a good that's a good
point. That's a good point. And maybe his babbit go was back up
again. I don't. I mean, he's he's not a slow guy,
right, and he's kind of he's just a little slappy. But I I
don't know to me. To me, it seems risky, but it seems
like a good opportunity though he's what is it risky at twenty eight? No,
that's what I was about to say. Thought at that spot, maybe
maybe it's not Where did we have him in twenty going into twenty twenty one
that I'm not sure. I don't even know that we I don't even know
that we had him. We think we might have had him at another position
or something. I think we had ah see that would explain it. Yes,
while we had him at number thirty eight a short stop last year or
two, there's a lot more projects to deal with him that one. Yeah,
something, but but look at look at TDG ahead of the game there,
all right, Aaron, let's hear let's hear from you man, where
who it's going to take a huge jump next year, just behind Fletcher a
couple of spots in our consensus rankings. At thirty one, we've got Nick
Solak, and I will fully admit he disappointed me this year. I thought
he was going to play a little bit better. I thought he had a
little bit more solid hit tool. I thought that average was going to be
pretty stable, dipped down in twenty twenty one, but I think that the
tools are still there. He hits the ball hard, He's a young guy,
He's got some power, he's got some speed. He's not great defensively,
but he's versatile defensively, and really all we care about with defenses being
on the field. Obviously when we're talking about Semi, and we talked about
the other bats that Texas brought into the fold. So one of his primary
positions at actually second base is obviously going to be occupied. But he's got
the likes of Andy aban Yez and Cole Calhoun and Willie Calhoun to fight off.
And none of those names stick out to me as anybody that's going to
be any significant competition to him, whether that's floating around the infield or in
the corner outfield spot. So I think he's a younger guy that a lot
of people were high on going into twenty twenty one. He had a down
year but still showed some some glimmer of hope and had a little bit better
second half than he did to start. So I think there's still some potential
in there and somebody that I still believe in, and I'm willing to take
a shot on, especially at that deflated cost. Sure. Sure, what
do you think about Nick soil act Joe? I've never been a big fan,
like even after like after twenty nineteen. I know a lot of people
were pretty high on him for like the small sample performance, and I don't
think that there's nothing to that. Like I think that showed kind of like
what is potentially capable. But um, you know twenties twenty twenty numbers and
his twenty twenty one numbers, he looked to be about the same guy over
both samples. And you know, I actually like I think I like Andy
Banya is like a little bit more than I like Solac, which is kind
of funny that you mentioned him, Um, and I want to talk about
Andy Banya is actually a little bit later. But I do think that Solac
will probably get more chances than a Banyas and most of the other players in
there, and they could potentially have like room to move him around considering considering
semi and then see you're we're going to be occupying the middle infield spots,
so that could be interesting for like multi position like flexibility out of a guy
like him. So I could see some like pretty solid upside, especially with
the improved light up. I could as well. Doesn't really seem like he's
a guy that really hits the ball hard enough. I think that's something that
may maybe kind of turned me off just in general. It's not it's not
really barreling up the ball. But who knows, maybe he'll switch it.
He'll switch it back on next season. I h well, I had Felix
Valerio down here for this section, so one I already kind of talked about
him, and I forgot to say as well, there's that Jared Perkins did
an article about him as well in November, and we will post the link
to that as well, so you come back and read it and read about
how good Felix Valario is going to because I think he's going to take a
solid jump next year. Let's go to this next section. Here, let's
get risky here, Aaron, let's start with you looking at the top fifteen
that I listed out at the beginning. Who is your riskiest top fifteen play
for twenty twenty one riskiest top fifteen play for the next year is going to
be Vidal Bruhan. I'm a huge fan of the skills. He's obviously got
elite speed, He's I think he's going to be a great defender. I
think he's going to be a great hitter. The power has started to emerge
a bit and people are banking on that exploding for him too, so a
lot of people are even higher than we are with him at eleven. But
the biggest issue is I just don't see him getting regular playing time. Obviously,
Tampa's notorious for messing with playing time of just about everybody on their roster
from April all the way through to October. But with his profile, I
just don't see him setting himself apart and being one of those handful of guys
that's going to get full run. And that's really the crux of why I
think he's risky. It's it's not a skills commentary anything like that. It's
just a matter of I don't believe he's going to get full playing time,
and for that, I'm not going to invest at the price that the market
is setting for him. Yeah, that's a tough one a guy like you,
Like you said, you're right about all those skills. He's a very
skilled guy, very skilled, tooled up player. But playing time is always
a consideration with that team. So kudos and ditto to that sentiment as well.
Mine is Jazz Chisholm Junior, despite how much I really like him as
well. To me, he's like a true twenty twenty threat. He's got
to stay healthy, he's got to stop striking out. I know that in
the past he has shown the capability to be a better, more patient,
leadoff hitter, and I think that's where he's gonna stick next year, I
hope through the entire year for for you know, I'm on the team that
seems to be on the rise, but we got to start seeing that.
I'm gonna be I'm gonna I'm gonna have my magnifying glass out on the every
time Jazz is up to the plate, hoping that he can just get a
couple more walks. What about you, Joe? For right, here,
I've got um Semi in and Luis Garcia down um Semi and we've kind of
already talked about like the potential concerns about moving to Texas, so I'm gonna
just brush over that one. But with Luis Garcia, I don't quite see
like what everything is like all about. So, like, yeah, I
know he's like twenty one basically like twenty twenty two, but he's not really
a you know, great bat type of hitter. Like I know, he's
got great back control, but he doesn't strike out much, but he's never
really been like that great of a hitter even in the minors. He had
like a pretty decent season in twenty twenty one for his age, but really,
like I just don't quite see what's there, Like, he doesn't really
steal that many bases. He stole one base in twenty twenty one on both
like between MLB and Triple A, and only one base in twenty twenty,
so I don't quite see like the stolen base is that I would like to
see there for a guy like him, But maybe that's going to come in
the future. He's still pretty young, and the Nationals certainly aren't going anywhere
so I'm sure they're going to give him all the opportunities you can get at
second base, but I just don't quite see like him being a top fifteen
type guy when there are a lot of other guys like Jeff McNeil or you
know, Colton long One, Ciga, David Fletcher, Adam Frasier, just
those types of guys. I'm a little bit more confident in that they're going
to produce next season, and I'm not so sure out of Garcia because we
really haven't seen it. But he's still very young, So I gotta I
gotta cut in for a second. Are you saying Wan Sigura one Cigura?
Yeah? Is it? Is it pronounced Wan Sigura? Jean cigarette? Did
I say Wanigura? You did earlier too, And my thinking of Jean Sigura,
Why did I think it was one? I know it's not. It's
not even spelled like one. I know you know you've said Jean Sigura before
we talked about him last year. Yeah, I just want to say one.
Maybe somebody good, Lord Joseph, what are we gonna do with THEO?
I mean, I don't I there's not a whole lot we can do
it's not a big deal. I'll cut this conversation out most likely unless unless
you bug me the rest of the day. But um, I just was
I just was curious to making sure we were talking about the same dude.
Yeah we are. I'm just a weirdo. Yeah, leave it in,
no worries. I think I think I might think I might leave it in
jeans Cigara Jean Ciara like jeans, like jeans. Yeah, things are aware.
Yeah, what I'm going to do with this guy? Yeah? Yeah,
this guy. Yeah. All right, let's move on before we close
everything out. I don't think we have any listener questions for today. Is
there anybody else that you're high on for twenty twenty one, Somebody that we
need to keep an eye on, somebody even deeper in the rankings that we
need to chat about. Aaron, I'll start with you, So, um,
when you had asked this question, I wasn't specifically looking at for twenty
twenty one. But somebody that long term I think we're undervaluing just based on
his absolute monstrous ceiling is Ellie de la Cruz. He's he's basically a carbon
copy of O'Neill cruise. He's just a massive bodied guy who people were concerned
as to whether he'd stay in the infield. He's he's actually been playing a
decent amount of shortstop still, so I think he'll be a shortstop or second
base. He's got a cannon for an arm, so he might move over
to third base. But he's got eighty grade power, he's able to steal
bases, he's got the speed. He's just got so much potential and so
much raw skills that when you're getting down into the deeper parts of these rankings,
you're not you're not looking for somebody to be a starter right away.
You're looking to take a chance. And there might be nobody beyond twenty five
in our rankings that's that's got higher potential than what this guy can do.
So for me, I'm taking a shot on him anywhere I can. I
just think he's he's so impressive to watch, and if he pans out to
even eighty percent of what he's able, he's going to be an all star.
I agree with you. I've read I think four or five months ago,
I read Joe Joe Drake's Joe Drake from Prospects Live. He did a
really thorough scouting report of him, and and somebody I've it's not somebody I
roster any of my leagues right now, because in like weirdly, in certain
circles, a lot of people feel the same way as you, at least
privately. They're not like broadcasting a whole lot for Ellie, which goes along
with what you said. I think he's just kind of a little under the
radar, But yeah, it could be a really nice a really nice player,
really nice player someday. Let's hear Joe. Let's go to you next
man. All right, So I'm gonna start with a guy whose name is
going. I'm gonna pronounce it like I think it's pronounced, but I have
looked far and wide and cannot find it. So it's ed Ward Coolly or
Julian. He's French from Quebec, so it's probably Julian. I don't know,
doing your best, so I'm doing my best. It's kind of hard.
It's spelled E d o U A r D, so it's like it's
kind of like Edward, but like it's weird. Okay, So he was
really really solid and I kind of just happened upon him while doing some queries
about second baseman, and I was kind of shocked that, like no one
else was really on him all that much. We have him ranked at seventy
six, and I actually ranked him relatively high. I think I had him
around eighteen. Let me see, yeah, eighteen, So I ranked him
around eighteen, And I'm just gonna list off like his numbers. So he
played. He got like five hundred some odd plate appearances between Class A and
A Advanced, and he had eighteen home runs, thirty four stolen bases,
a four twenty one wOBA and he drew more wiles than anyone in the minors,
and he had like a twenty one point four percent walk right because of
that. So he's like a really really like solid player with speed and power
and patience. And he's still only twenty two. He'll probably start the year
of double A for the Twins, and you know, he's really going to
probably end up having to play you know where wherever because he doesn't necessarily have
like a lockdown position that they've tried him at, So he may not be
a second base like long term. But considering we have him at seventy six,
this is a guy that's mostly off of everybody's radar. But with those
kind of numbers at you know, advanced a for a twenty two year old,
that's incredible. That kind of profile, that's like twenty thirty potential.
I guess, like, if you can hit eighteen, why can't he hit
I don't know, maybe it's more like fifteen, like twenty five or fifteen
thirty, But that's incredible. Yeah, I'm ashamed to a bit. I
don't know. Before this conversation, I did not who I didn't know who
this person was, but those are some numbers that are definitely worthy of being
higher than seventy six. And it was just you and Shelley are the only
two who ranked him. Yeah, looks like I mean, I'm not surprised
he was drafted in like a round or whatever. I mean, eighteenth round,
eighteenth round. Okay, somebody who just got kind of lost before twenty
twenty or something. I don't know. Um, Okay, you got anybody
else, Joe? Um? Yeah, and then I've got I was talking
earlier about Andy Avanya's who plays for the Rangers. He came up last year
as like a twenty eight year old rookie and he showed a plus hit tool
and because he played mostly second and I think a little bit of third,
but likely going to be moving all over the field as kind of a utility
role after Seeger and semi and have joined the team. So I could see
he was hitting in the you know, two to three spot towards the end
of the season, and I could see him moving probably not into the lead
off spot um. I would assume that's probably gonna be like Willie Calhoun or
maybe even semi in um, but you know, potentially into like the five
or six role, or even if he's sitting ninth, then he might have
an opportunity to be on base while seeker and semi in or at the plate,
which is pretty good for you know, run value or whatever you might
want to look at him. But he's just a solid guy we have ranked
at forty five that I think could be seeing regular plate appearances in the majors,
which is the thing is just inherently valuable in itself for fantasy purposes.
I agree, We're gonna say so again. I did the write up for
Ebanius. He was in my stretch there at forty five, and I think
in the two paragraphs that I wrote about him, I used the word fine
about a dozen times. Yeah, he's just he's not an exciting profile.
Obviously it took him until that advanced age to actually make it to the majors.
But he's he's not gonna hurt you anywhere. But he's not going to
be a huge boon free and a player like that is is perfectly fine.
There's there's nothing wrong with this profile. And if he does get the at
bats, then you're not gonna you're not gonna mind having him in your line
up there. Yeah, especially in deeper leagues, you know, and that
that's what we're kind of what we're you know, getting at with this section.
Sorry to cut you off, Joe, Oh yeah, no worries,
Yeah, no, just kind of a guy who could fill in if you
have injuries or on your bench, and he might be on the weight,
he might be on waivers and most dynasty leagues, So if you could just
snag a guy like that and have him as a guy who could fill in
and not kill you in terms of like your categories, that's pretty solid.
I like that. Nice. Nice, all right. I've got somebody as
well, somebody I talked about on Nynasty's Child a while ago as a top
podspect. Another, of course, another Madrigal type, low k rate,
steals type guy who I actually think it hits some more homers. A guy
named Uribil. You will reb an, I believe is how you say that.
I think I got it right the second time. He's already for me,
a top ten prospect in Padres system. I think MLB dot Com has
him a little bit lower than that. Um, somebody I'm keeping an eye
on because the hit tool is there. Again I'm looking out for. I
feel like I'm speculating on everybody on second base. At a certain point,
you get further down the list, and he added power. Watch out,
he's going to jump real quick. I don't This is more of a gut
call at the moment. I know he doesn't have like a profile that lends
itself to that, or he hasn't shown that he can hit. He can
hit a few, and I watched him hit. Um. I went to
a game, a Storm game at the end of last season, and he
had a couple really good at bats there. But somebody keep an eye on
somebody. That's a name to kind of get in your get in your brain
there. And I think I might have been the only one who ranked him,
but another really you know, so another real under the radar type guy.
All right, well, is there anybody else that we need to chat
about before we get out of here? Any other any you guys got to
get anything else off your chest before we before we bolt? I don't think
so. I think, Um, I think we got like a lot covered.
And you know, one thing I will say one more thing, just
about what's his name, Julian um is that I kind of think he has
a similar profile to Nick York, who we have at nine. And I
think that's kind of crazy because like that's such a stark contrast between the two,
not saying that Nick York shouldn't yet nine. I think I had him
within my top like twelve or fifteen as well. But um, I just
think that, like it just goes to show that like where you get taken
in the draft sometimes can't have an impact all that kind of stuff, And
the only way that we're going to discover some of these guys is just by
randomly sorting through leaderboards and happening upon you know, Josie Miranda or you know,
Eduardo Julian Julian. I don't know. I want to know, I
wish that a page had where I could pronounce his name. It makes me
feel so bad. There are some I think I'm gonna get it. I
get it too. I know we do our best and I try to get
it, but we try to get everybody's name right, and I know that's
important, but we're trying. I think there is there is a pronunciation guide
from MLB, but it's also my understanding that not it's not necessarily perfect that
I've heard in certain circles. So anyway, you're working on it. We're
working on it. What about you, Aaron, anything else? Get off
your chest. Not. I think we did a good job covering and everybody
top to bottom. Obviously we've got the stalwarts at the top and the flyers
that we would take towards the bottom of our list here. But the one
thing that I will say in scouting the stat line for Eduardo Julian is he
spent the whole year at at single are A couple levels, whether it's single
A or high A. But that is where the pickoff rules were adjusted.
So those steals numbers for everybody across the board was pretty inflated. I know,
some of it, just much the same as Taylor. I actually wasn't
familiar with him until I saw his name on the rundown here. But looking
into him, I see that the scouting gives him decent speed, average speed,
but nothing that would portend thirty plus steals. So I would just be
a little bit cautious as to banking on too much of that moving forward.
That is very good to know it's something it did not consider. That's yeah,
that's tough, and it's still thirty four steals, right, you'd think
like even if he could do somewhere around nineteen or twenty, I think there's
something to be said about guys who who choose, who are given that green
lighter, who choose to steal that much. Yeah, it's just it's really
tough with those weird pickoff rules. What was it like, you're limited to
you're limited to two, limited to two and some of the leagues were down
to a fifteen second pitch clock, and yeah, it was there was a
lot of benefits for running totally. Yeah, as you're saying above, maybe
he just turns out to be a quote unquote fine bass dealers. You know,
sometimes you need sometimes you need those guys, right, Like we were
talking about in the last episode. Sometimes you need those uh those Jonathan Scopes,
right, Joe, just the fine players that you know. It's kind
of kind of now you're speaking my language. I love I love me some
Jonathan Scope. The same man should have had you on the last episode toomers,
I mean we you can fill out your lineup with fine players and do
really well and in your leagues, you know, anyway you could you do
fine? Right, get that off I get that now, I've got that
off my chest. Great, Um, excellent guys, Thank you again for
being here. Um, thank you to everybody who's stuck around for the last
hour and listen to us. This is joined the ranks. If you have
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Kudos for making it all the way through and listening to the end of
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