[SPEAKER_02]: All right, welcome back to another baseball America fantasy podcast is your host Jeff Ponce alongside me as always is my co-host Dylan White up there in the Great White North though all over the United States is feeling like the Great White North right now Dylan the got freezing temperatures down in the deep South cold spell it's winter in America Dylan it's winter in America.

[SPEAKER_02]: I was going, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: How are you?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's good.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's good dug out my car.

[SPEAKER_00]: We park on the street.

[SPEAKER_00]: So dug that out the other day.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now it's about to get to very frigid temperatures.

[SPEAKER_00]: This polar vortex seems to happen every five years or so is incoming.

[SPEAKER_00]: So.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that is a nice little segue because it has remained a hot stove here in the

[SPEAKER_02]: Kyle Tucker signed with the Dodgers a few hours after we recorded the podcast and we're like, I don't know, it could be the meds it could be the Dodgers and then that kind of played up publicly for like two hours until it was finally announced to like 1130 that he signed with the Dodgers.

[SPEAKER_02]: So just another player, another superstar in this Dodgers machine, just another cog.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's hard not to like the landing spot, you know, even if he's hitting fifth, like a lot of RBI opportunity, a lot of run scoring opportunity, that's kind of a lineup that doesn't really quit from one to nine.

[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, I mean, I don't think you can knock the landing spot for the next couple of years and should cushion some of those, some of those counting stats quite a bit doing.

[SPEAKER_02]: So what's your, your sort of quick and dirty takeaway with the Tucker thing?

[SPEAKER_02]: It's already

[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a huge money.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's, he would be stupid not to take it there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Championship team.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dodger Stadium is pretty good for, for lefty hitters for home runs.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what Conforto signed last year, that was kind of the big talk and fantasy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Conforto is going to a huge launch pad.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's probably one of the better landing spots compared to the metzer of the jays.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he was already a stud.

[SPEAKER_00]: You will remain a stud in the county statute.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'd be great.

[SPEAKER_02]: He was not the only big free agent that signed last week.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sorry, dealing, but old friend Blue J's farm hands, former Blue J's prospect and, you know, star and Toronto, heartthrob and Toronto, Boba Shet, that's a Tucker again, oops, Boba Shet signs with the Metz, um,

[SPEAKER_02]: What's your take away here?

[SPEAKER_02]: We can get into this a little bit more because it's happened a few days.

[SPEAKER_02]: After the last time I recorded, it is a pretty formidable Met's lineup.

[SPEAKER_02]: We'll maybe talk about a little bit more about the Met's.

[SPEAKER_02]: They've made some acquisitions now this offseason.

[SPEAKER_02]: Um, and we'll talk about the Louis Robert trade in a little bit.

[SPEAKER_02]: Obviously, they got Freddy Paralta, but also, you know, Marcus Simeon, it's not a, it's not a bad looking team at this point.

[SPEAKER_02]: Um, so what are your thoughts on the landing spot for bow and sort of how this meds line up looks first is maybe even last year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they also signed Jorge Palanco.

[SPEAKER_00]: That looks like he'll play first, so that's pretty good lineup, but it's pretty a lot of the last Peter Lanzo, obviously that's a big loss, but they filled it up with the names he just mentioned.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I think it's a good spot for Bo.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think a roster resource has him hitting third, so Lindor, Soto, Bashet, so there's going to be RBI opportunities there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bo doesn't really walk much, so he's not an on-base guy, so the three spots probably the best spot for him.

[SPEAKER_00]: analytics wise and then polongo semi and bady Francisco Alver as all behind him so he's going to get knocked in as well so.

[SPEAKER_00]: As long as his knee is okay and not blocky or wonky and he can run from first to home on a double, he should have a lot of runs and RBI.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's a good spot.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sad for him to leave the J.S.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he was also offered a lot of ridiculous money with objects and stuff, so like you'd be a silly to turn that down to.

[SPEAKER_02]: And when the money was going to so many other players in Toronto, it seemed to kind of signify that that relationship,

[SPEAKER_02]: had played its course out.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, good luck to Beau with the mats, like I said, it's a really good lineup.

[SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, hit, you know, if he hits three in that lineup, as for off the resource housing.

[SPEAKER_02]: There will be, as you said, a ton of RBI opportunities and a ton of run opportunities as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's a good line up kind of one.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let's say one through eight at this point.

[SPEAKER_02]: We don't know if Carson Bench is actually going to be their nine-hundred.

[SPEAKER_02]: But that's kind of exciting if it is.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, let's move on to the next acquisition.

[SPEAKER_02]: The Louie Robert trade, they trade away Louie and Helokunia, as well as Truman Poly, 2025 draft pick out a Harvard.

[SPEAKER_02]: Kind of an interesting trade, I think, from both ways, because Akunia could find himself into more playing time with a bunch of position eligibility and could maybe even gain more positional eligibility depending on how your league sets, its limits, et cetera.

[SPEAKER_02]: really good contact skills, not a whole lot of power, but speed.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, there are some fantasy viable skills with a Konya and some more runway, of course, in Chicago versus, you know, being the third or fourth option with the meds.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, what do you think about the Akonya land expot and we can dig in a little bit to Robert, which, you know, we'll see.

[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, I think for Kunia, it's very good.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was kind of blocked.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like there's like Ronnie Mauricio ahead of him as far as I'm concerned.

[SPEAKER_00]: Brett baby, maybe if you call him a second baseman and they had jet Williams.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like they have a bunch of outfielders.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jacob Rimer Ryan Clipper.

[SPEAKER_00]: All these guys are coming in who arguably are maybe better than Luis on Hell, a Kunia.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I think free him freeing him up.

[SPEAKER_00]: and going to the white socks who looks like they're going to play them in the outfield.

[SPEAKER_00]: Primarily, I think it's good.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's good for him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think landing with the white socks is good.

[SPEAKER_00]: The initial reaction is they have no one else to play, so it's going to be good.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they're actually a pretty good team.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're all their positions are filled with these guys that are kind of intriguing.

[SPEAKER_00]: be curious to see how you go.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have them in any disease because of the metst factor at the time and the, you know, if I was drafting today, I probably definitely have a metst target to, uh, to think about.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I agree with that.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think that the playing time opportunity there is really interesting, especially considering good fit into center field.

[SPEAKER_02]: I can play multiple spots in the infield, competently, the defensive numbers across his couple of stints in the majors back that as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, interesting to see how that works out.

[SPEAKER_02]: Louis Robber on the other hand, is someone I'm fascinated by, especially in a much better lineup.

[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe just a more interesting clubhouse and environment than he's been in.

[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe his entire career kind of heading in the right direction.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think you'd say with a maths and a lot of really talented young players.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's like the fifth or sixth most famous guy in that team now.

[SPEAKER_02]: That pressure isn't necessarily on him to produce all the time.

[SPEAKER_02]: If he stays healthy, let's say doing he plays 140 games next year.

[SPEAKER_02]: What sort of numbers are you predicting for Robert?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because really, it's been up and down at points, but there's power and speed here and definitely still sort of that quick twitch upside.

[SPEAKER_02]: If he's healthy, he could potentially put it together in New York on where the interest is as to what you think.

[SPEAKER_02]: Production wise, home runs, steals, batting average, that sort of thing, could be a steal.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's great.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, if you look at this career numbers, he has 24, 2375 plate appearances called a 2,400.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's easy to do math.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like four seasons of 600 plate appearances.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has 102 home runs and 102 stolen bases over that career.

[SPEAKER_00]: So divide by four and that's like 25 or 25 stolen bases.

[SPEAKER_00]: which is pretty good and a 110 WRC plus.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's a 25.25 guy at 600 plate appearances over his career.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's 28 heading into his age 28 year old season.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's right in his prime.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not like he's 33 now and you know he's not going to hit these career numbers.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has 13.7 war going to fan graphs over that time, so divide that by four.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a three-war player.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they're going to go three-war player who can go 25-25 with a 110-WRC-plus.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's obviously, he has it in the tank to perform, like he said, he's not the guy, he's not so-to-le, he's not lindor, the meds aren't counting on him to be the one that carries them, he's they have roster resource, has them batting eighth, so there's no pressure on him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's that ideal spot, an ideal team, maybe the media spotlight, may, like, if, you know, the fans are not necessarily the most forgiving.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if he slums or he's hitting 1808 or something like that, then, you know, maybe he's going to hear it in a may affect him.

[SPEAKER_00]: but they have a lot of upside in this bat and he may not get the counting stats because he's hitting eighth but you know 2025 25 25 25 he's been stealing more bases than hitting home runs so call it 15 to 20 with 25 to 35 solar bases the way total still bases like that's aren't afraid to run so I could see him even stealing 40 so I think it's a great landing spot for him it's

[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully, he's the same guy that he's kind of shown himself over his career on average to be, rather than the guy who's flailing at everything and not really being able to take a walk.

[SPEAKER_00]: So fascinating, I guess, is the bottom line.

[SPEAKER_00]: You might see.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, there were some swing adjustments late in the season that if you kind of look the side by side, got a little bit more upright.

[SPEAKER_02]: The last year was just a lot better.

[SPEAKER_02]: The timing was better in terms of getting his foot down.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the battle was just sort of being on time with the fastball.

[SPEAKER_02]: you know catch a break and balls of stuff out ahead without flailing about at it like you said think a lot of it was like timing stuff and you know the meds have more resources just more available more invested in this player and I think if he produces there's a chance that you know there's some sort of extension or something that gets floated out there yeah it'll be interesting to see how this all plays out but I do think there's a lot of upside with that trade

[SPEAKER_02]: One that I think we can be very clear about what the upside is, Freddie Parallel, to trade it to the mats, going the other way though, two top 100 prospects in Jet Williams, shortstop, center field, or second basement, completely of variety of positions, and then Brandon Sprope.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right hand or made his debut last year made some really nice adjustments at Triple A and has a six, seven different pitch shapes that hope mix in in a given game so a really deep arsenal interested we'll talk about the prospects first I'm really interested in what the brewers can do.

[SPEAKER_02]: with, especially from a command perspective, there's no better finishing school, even the Mariners, even the Dodgers when it comes to pitching prospects than the Brewers.

[SPEAKER_02]: Guys go there and they take a step forward.

[SPEAKER_02]: We kind of saw it with Quinn Priester, kind of, you know, Pirates finishing school, didn't take so much red socks finishing school, maybe took a little bit.

[SPEAKER_02]: As soon as the Brewers took them into their organization, all of a sudden, Priester takes a massive step forward and is a very fantasy, very dynasty relevant picture at this point in time.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think we could see something very similar from Sprote, and you might even argue that he has more tools than his tool belt than Sprote, some of these other guys that they've maxed out.

[SPEAKER_02]: Jet Williams, very Brewers type of player, undersized guy, maybe a little bit more power than

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm drawing a blank who's the other short third baseman that went to Washington state Lewis.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, Corbin, what's his day?

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: K, K, K, K with Derby.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were Derby and Jesus.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, my brain just like absolutely froze.

[SPEAKER_02]: They were like, they're more power than that.

[SPEAKER_02]: And maybe a little bit more speed than those guys too.

[SPEAKER_02]: We'll definitely a little bit more speed and more positional versatility.

[SPEAKER_02]: So really kind of an interesting trade from that perspective, we know what Freddie Perl could be.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, he's been one of the better pictures in the major leagues over the last five years.

[SPEAKER_02]: 29 years old.

[SPEAKER_02]: 8 million dollars last year of the contract is kind of when the brewers move on from guys like this.

[SPEAKER_02]: Can't fault them just kind of based on how they have to operate, but.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I think it's a good trade for the Metz as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: They also get to buy his Myers who, you know, has been fairly successful the last few years as a starter and then last year, Morris as a long reliever.

[SPEAKER_02]: So just more pitching depth that they add and I would say, Paralty, though I like McLean more long term, I would say Paralty is kind of the, the facto ace at this point, time.

[SPEAKER_02]: So changes the face of both of those teams.

[SPEAKER_02]: But let's talk about the prospects.

[SPEAKER_02]: What do you think about those guys and then you can jump into the Paralty fit?

[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, yeah, I mean, this is the kind of trend that if it happened in your dynasty league, it's like, ooh, nice trade guys because it's like the win now team is is trading for, you know, the ace.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so for the best point of view, you're getting for all the, it goes to the front of the rotation and it's a rental.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's only for a year.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, they, they don't have to pay that much, but they, they did pay quite a bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, Robo Scott loves jet Williams more than, I guess the, the standard, uh,

[SPEAKER_00]: fantasy or prospect lists are haven't because, you know, he rosecoat doesn't know that he's, you know, five foot seven.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, they see that the average contact doesn't chase good barrels reasonable 90th percent of Alexa velocity considering a size, um, stole 32 bases last year in double life.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, like Robo Scoutsies, like a 120 WRC plus at peak, like 20, 20, 25 type of thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: So,

[SPEAKER_00]: whether or not that actualizes I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was kind of blocked it as the Metz as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was taking him in DCs just because I I have to buy into what Roe was going to say.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was taking him instead of police hell of a coolness.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I do like Jet Williams.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm curious to see what happens with the brewer that I don't know if he's going to play this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: But, uh, let's see a couple of coffee there, Brendan Sprout.

[SPEAKER_00]: We just released the stuff plus numbers of the top 100 and his stuff plus is pretty good.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, not last year, but the year before, really great in AA, stumbled in AAA.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but the stuff still good in 2025, he's got like hundreds across the board basically.

[SPEAKER_00]: huge arsenal.

[SPEAKER_00]: And like you said about the breweries, like, you know, great finishing school for pitchers.

[SPEAKER_00]: So definitely curious to see how he goes, have him at a couple of diseases as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, um, very interested to see these guys getting, getting traded, getting a change of scenery, kind of shows that the team acquired and believes in them and, you know, willing to give them the playing time and run away to make the trade, you know, justifiable, by giving up their ice.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, very interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then Pearlton, do you want to talk about Pearlton now, or do you want to simply just just jive right into it, where you think of the Pearl to fit in New York.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's great.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paralt is very good, sneakily good.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's actually been pretty, he's hasn't been injured.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's pitched quite a lot durable.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's the word I'm looking for.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, the bets are world serious contending team in my opinion, thought they were last year as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, he's going to head up that, uh,

[SPEAKER_00]: That's starting pitching rotation, which is a bit weak, maybe considering their competitors and their, you know, they're, they're in the running for a world series that it could be better and, you know, Friday, for all to someone that definitely improve it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I think it's good for both.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a win now trade.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I still don't really know what to do with jet Williams, Brandon Sprout, they can afford to get rid of them because they have a lot of arms coming up in the system as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I think it's a good win win for both.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, absolutely.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, the last trade, this one went down earlier today.

[SPEAKER_02]: Mackenzie Gore is traded for five players, including one guy that we talked about in last week's FYPD show, then Gavin Feene.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now with the Nationals, not a huge shock, the Nationals front office came from the Red Sox.

[SPEAKER_02]: Love their name, it's your guys in particular.

[SPEAKER_02]: their AGM, Kevin Pearson was the scouting director, amateur scouting director for the red socks last year.

[SPEAKER_02]: They loved Gavin Fiend, they were attached, they were attached to that name throughout the process.

[SPEAKER_02]: So if you gave me two guesses as to like players that they would

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, potentially trade for Louie Parales and Gavin Fee would have been very high up on those.

[SPEAKER_02]: Also get Alejandro Rosario, who had a medical situation that, you know, delayed his, his Tommy John surgery, can't get into the specifics of that, but believe he did have it this month.

[SPEAKER_02]: So he's out for another year.

[SPEAKER_02]: So a very interesting pitching prospect just someone fortunate things that delayed his ability to have that surgery, et cetera.

[SPEAKER_02]: Just people need to keep that in mind before they make comments on Twitter.

[SPEAKER_02]: Which I saw quite a few interesting ones today.

[SPEAKER_02]: And Abby Ortiz, a guy that I think Robo Scout is like for at points over the last couple years not, like I'd stand out, but obviously

[SPEAKER_02]: And then, you know, a couple other, you know, sort of additional players.

[SPEAKER_02]: So we can get into the prospect if you want.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think we necessarily need to.

[SPEAKER_02]: What are your thoughts on the fit there with the Rangers?

[SPEAKER_02]: Goers a guy that I think on the surface looks like he's going into his prime.

[SPEAKER_02]: Kind of tremendous first half last year.

[SPEAKER_02]: has been pretty productive for a very young player on a fairly bad team, but he's never been able to take that step forward into like the elite category to kind of be considered like a pretty parolta or what it or it have you.

[SPEAKER_02]: So what does Gore have to do in that regard?

[SPEAKER_02]: What are the things you like about it?

[SPEAKER_02]: What are your concerns with Gore going into next year?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because it is a better landing spot.

[SPEAKER_02]: We speak like a standard five by five perspective.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, we both talked about him when we're doing the pitching as kind of a sleeper for this year, he he throws like a 150 plus innings, he gets strikeouts, I think he had 200 last year, I mean, I'm staying in 185, 181 year before.

[SPEAKER_00]: Entering his prime, like he said, he's going to be in his age 27 season, the only issue is kind of the walks are high, the whip is high from a fantasy point of view, but he was a three war pitcher last year, a three war pitcher the year before the Rangers are a better team than the nationals this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would think, so I think it's a good landing spot.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's interesting from the Rangers point of view because I think they're pretty good at developing pictures, like

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe not the recent top 30, but the top 30 before, you know, they called Drake and kind of these like unsung guys that they traded since, but just seemed like they were just pumping out good pitching prospects kind of out of nowhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe trading for a pitcher I wouldn't have expected I would have thought maybe they'd trade for a hitter, but having a good workhorse pitcher in the major leagues and the rotation starter is going to go 150 to 200 innings obviously extremely valuable.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has more I think it's two seasons before he hits for agency so twice as much duration than Perlta

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, you got to give up a near-top 100 guy, like Gavin Feene.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, it's a quantity for a pitcher who has more, more years of control.

[SPEAKER_00]: Rosario, he's a tough one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, obviously, the tantalizing upside, he was so good in 2024.

[SPEAKER_00]: He had one of the best, like, peak projections from our West Scout, and his staff were so great, but, you know, he's in a missed two years.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's already 24.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's not going to pitch till he's 25 and lose a few years of development.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's kind of a lottery ticket even though he's like the second name in the in the in the hall.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I think it's I think it's a good trade for the rain.

[SPEAKER_02]: Who I think robots got liked, we like this looking at the underlying data, but obviously had an injury that limited his season, he's kind of interesting the other interesting thing with Rosario is he's going to be that age, but on top of that he's actually.

[SPEAKER_02]: going to be 40 man eligible this offseason as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: So they're going to have to ask the 40 man roster, protect the role 5 draft and could be an interesting sort of steel there in the role 5 of some things they can pass them through and certainly show the kind of stuff that maybe you could at that age.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let's take a quick break here, Dylan.

[SPEAKER_02]: We come back.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to talk about your redraft rankings, but a little bit more from like a redraft strategy perspective of building your team and approaching your draft and how to use these rankings.

[SPEAKER_02]: What do you say, Dylan?

[SPEAKER_02]: Sounds good.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right.

[SPEAKER_02]: We'll be right back.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, we are back.

[SPEAKER_02]: We are talking redraft rankings here on the baseball America fantasy podcast.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is Jeff Pondsel on side, Dylan White, our master of the redraft rankings.

[SPEAKER_02]: So Dylan, I want you to just high level talk to me a little bit about how you approach your build from just a redraft standpoint, kind of the 30,000 foot view here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, so if I'm doing a DC that has an overall component on playing for the overall.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so what that means is you're going to need balance on your team.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can win your league by punching categories.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can punch stolen bases.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can punch saves in an overall you can't.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you look at the top 10 finisher's and overalls for the last, you know, 5 10 years.

[SPEAKER_00]: the lowest percentile rank in any single categories is like 70%.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you have to be a balanced team.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does that mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: That means you need saves.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you're going to have to take closers.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to have to spend draft capital on closers.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the DC, you don't have fab during the season.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't pick up players who you draft is who you have.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you have to be mindful of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure you get closers.

[SPEAKER_00]: I also don't like having a big hole

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to want to take a nice catcher early as well, and you won't balance, so you want hitting and pitching kind of balanced out as much as you can.

[SPEAKER_00]: Take shots on upside, of course, if you want to win the overall, but you know, make sure you have coverage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Steve Weimer, who won the overall two years ago, and is, you know, one of the best fantasy players out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: You kind of like in straff champions as playing whack a mole because like you grab that second catcher, but then that means your fifth I'll feel there's not good if you grab that fifth I'll feel that means you're middle in feel there's not good zero is kind of just trying to fill the holes that end up popping up by based on what you pick so.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's kind of the high level draft have a high level view, just have a balanced draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure you got coverage at every position.

[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure your bench has every position covered off.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you want guys with positional dual eligibility that helps save some spots and give you easier draft fix later in the in the draft.

[SPEAKER_02]: around.

[SPEAKER_02]: It doesn't necessarily have to be a draft champion.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can keep it more general too, or talk about a few different, you know, maybe styles, leagues.

[SPEAKER_02]: But through those first 10 rounds, kind of what's your ideal hit or pitch or split at that point in time?

[SPEAKER_02]: And it would be different obviously from NFBC do, you know, like a more standard road-o-lead.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think, you know, five, five is kind of the target, um, just based on the, the, the, the ADP lands for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I, there's a bunch of pictures, like in a, in a couple of sweet spots.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, um, maybe in the first 10, I'll have six hitters and four pitchers because I have some pitchers that I want to target later.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and one of those pitchers is a reliever, which means you're going to have

[SPEAKER_00]: five rounds, especially if you want one of the good ones.

[SPEAKER_00]: I might as well talk about it now.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're drafting early, which I did, I eat before the new year.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, a lot of the closures hadn't signed or I and healthly hadn't signed, Evan Williams hadn't signed.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's talk about Jeff Hoffman, maybe not being the closer, hinting that the jays may sign someone,

[SPEAKER_00]: The closers who have a role on a team and likely wouldn't lose that role, even if they signed a high profile guy, 10 day it pushed up because they are guaranteed in quotes to get saves, you're not picking someone like.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then the Dodgers sign it when Diaz and then so Tanner Scott's out of a job and becomes a zero automatically.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the guys who are going to maintain their their role no matter who gets signed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Get pushed up.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, you're taking your Mason millers, you're taking your Edwin Diaz as you're taking your.

[SPEAKER_00]: second or third round.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's what I would do.

[SPEAKER_00]: You want to get some speed probably early.

[SPEAKER_00]: Guys who are multi category guys from the hitting point of view in the first couple rounds.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then just kind of, you know, you want to have batting average as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I tend to target batting average and maybe not take a, you know, a Kyle Schroerber or a Kyle Raleigh even.

[SPEAKER_00]: just because I don't want to have to always be looking for batting average for the rest of the draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to have the flexibility to kind of pivot whichever way I want to go.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think that that mantra of just trying to stay flexible, you know, in the early round, they're just, you know, not, not pigeonholing yourself into having to backfill in certain categories later is really really important.

[SPEAKER_02]: So after we get past round five, so we'll keep it a little more general.

[SPEAKER_02]: Are there any sort of like must-have hitters for you at this point maybe kind of feeds into that balance build?

[SPEAKER_02]: And maybe you can even look at some of the teams that you've already drafted.

[SPEAKER_02]: I haven't drafted any yet myself.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, what I like to do is I like to look at sort of the landscape ahead is there any screaming value that I I like and so in some early drafts, for example, Connor group say we want Connor group and he is being taken in like the 20th round not happening anymore, but he was being taken in 20th round.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I think, okay, I'm going to take Connor group and in the 18th round.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to have a short stop, but he may not start the season that short stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to have to get a short stop before that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'll keep that in mind and I'm going to take a short stop or I'll see like Chase my draft who I like to was being taken late and he has second base and short stop eligibility.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I know I'm going to take him and he could be my middle and field guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe I don't have to

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm having my draw at the end corner Griffin.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm constantly doing that and then so I'm kind of getting an idea of like, this is my must have guy and so what don't I need?

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, second base is there's a lot of good second based on who are all kind of equivalent, who are in the like 10 to 15 round range.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't need to take Katel Marté.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't need to take Bryce to round.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't need to take Nico Horner.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can just kind of eliminate them off the board and you just kind of build that way.

[SPEAKER_00]: So all that to say.

[SPEAKER_00]: The guy I end up having on all my teams right now is Michael Harris after round five outfield my fifth outfielder has been spotty and so I want to make sure I have outfielders he should hit you know 280 or more and he steals bases so getting a guy who could be 2020 with like a 280 batting average.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, around six around seven, I got to take it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's the guy that I have on all my teams.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's the guy after round five that I've been getting everywhere.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, well, let's move on to the picture side.

[SPEAKER_02]: Next then is there a picture that kind of falls into this must-have category that you've been scooping up after round five so far, knowing it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there were two, and they were study gray, and they were McKenzie-Cawar.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now that they've been traded, and what you tend to see is after someone's traded, everyone's talking about some on Twitter, everyone's doing analysis, and they're in the,

[SPEAKER_00]: in the consciousness of drafters and their ADP goes up.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know if I did a draft now, if I'd end up with studying Graham McKenzie-Gore, but their guys who get volume, they'll get the 150 plus endings.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their ratios aren't that bad.

[SPEAKER_00]: They'll get strikeouts.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're usually criminally underrated in these things because people really want to like 11 K per 9 with incredible ratios.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then these guys tend to be lower.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think McKenzie Gore is not going to be going where he was going.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was going in the 14th round or so.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think he's going to be much higher now because, you know, the nationals weren't expected to win that many games.

[SPEAKER_00]: He kind of.

[SPEAKER_00]: faded in the second half last year, which people were scared of.

[SPEAKER_00]: But now, you know, if the Rangers are showing that they're committed to him, then, you know, I think he's going to go up higher.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's, it's typically been semi-grain McKenzie Gore in the years past, like Nathan Yield Valdi, you just kind of look at what the, what the, the projections say for dollar value, compared to ADP, and you see like the biggest discrepancies, and then like you understand why so Brad and Woodruff, yeah, he's injured.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, oh, Justin, see you look at I understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then you find the one that's like, I don't really understand this one.

[SPEAKER_00]: And those guys, I tend to go forward, so I'm sorry, Greg, what's that guy?

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, well, you seem to be like, major league front offices targeting the same sort of players.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, you talked about Connor Griffin, or any other prospects made a little bit more off the radar that you're getting later in these drafts.

[SPEAKER_02]: Who are some guys you're targeting?

[SPEAKER_02]: Using the Robo Scout and all your experience for last season.

[SPEAKER_00]: A funny one is Jose Fermin of the Cardinals.

[SPEAKER_00]: Rob was got all this like them.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a guy who should have by any average seals bases can play second base, third base.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this was before Nolan Aronato was traded.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it was kind of like a spec trade, a spec pick that if Aronato gets traded, maybe for me and it'll come in.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I've been getting him in like the 50th round.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like my last pick complete just a lot of repack.

[SPEAKER_00]: Connor Griffin for sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would take him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have no wish you'd taken him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen him being taken as early as the eighth round now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I would take McGonagall.

[SPEAKER_00]: The problem is it's like a Griffin McGonagall weather hole to there are all kind of being taken in the same spot.

[SPEAKER_00]: I got to take Griffin out of those three.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why I was taking.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't really have any McGonagall or weather hole anywhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, Justin Crawford has been a popular pick because the projections really like a good batting average will steal bases.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, Don Browsky has been talking about he's probably going to make the team.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's a popular one and he's been kind of

[SPEAKER_00]: pricing me out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and I like the, of the, the rookie pitcher.

[SPEAKER_00]: So a tray of Savage, Nolan McClain, Chase Burns.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jacob is Eurowski, Boba Chandler.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're all being taken earlier than I'd like.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even can't just let there.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I've been taken the second tier, the Jonah Tong, Peyton told you guys, Connelly early.

[SPEAKER_00]: I like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their their price is kind of there in the 20th round compared to like the 10th round.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like that discount.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm, I'm more willing to take.

[SPEAKER_00]: They may not have a role guaranteed, but, uh, you know, I like the upside there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Toli, Tom, I'm kind of riffing for outside of it and Jose for me as my law to re-bick.

[SPEAKER_02]: I like that.

[SPEAKER_02]: When there we have it, those are all the questions I had on the red draft strategy side of things.

[SPEAKER_02]: Go to baseball, America, check out Dylan's work, putting out red draft rankings, that you can follow in all your drafts, you know, you work in an ADP,

[SPEAKER_02]: it working in projections, kind of weighing all that stuff.

[SPEAKER_02]: And of course, Dylan has a lengthy track record of winning some very competitive leagues.

[SPEAKER_02]: And of course, the overall few years ago on the ad a BC main event.

[SPEAKER_02]: So Dylan, thanks for joining me.

[SPEAKER_02]: All those that are out there.

[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for tuning in and listening.

[SPEAKER_02]: This has been the baseball America fantasy podcast.

[SPEAKER_02]: We'll be back next week with more.