WEBVTT
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Hello and welcome to episode 159 of the Dynasty Baseball
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Pickups podcast. Today is September 27th. I'm Kyle Sontag and
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I am joined as always by Taylor Corso. Taylor, how
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are you doing today, man? And since you don't want
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to talk about fantasy baseball playoffs, how is fantasy football
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treating you so far?
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Uh, pretty good.
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I think I'm 2-0 in a couple leagues and 2-2
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in one league, but I do want to actually say
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I might win a championship today. My only one of
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the year, but if I did... That would keep my
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streak alive of winning a championship. And every single year
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I played dynasty. Fingers crossed that happens. There's one category
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I think that that could come back to hit me,
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but we'll see what happens today.
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So now that you've told me to stop asking, you
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finally want to talk about dynasty baseball again.
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Exactly.
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Of course, that's how it always goes, but hopefully things
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work out for you. I got my fingers crossed for
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you as well, but Taylor, we have Raj Mehta with
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us again, as we are set to dive into our
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recommendations from the second half of the season today. So Raj,
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how are you doing? And do you play any fantasy
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football or any other fantasy sports, for that matter?
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So right now, I actually haven't lost in any of
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my fantasy football leagues. And that's because I don't play
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fantasy football. I'm mostly just a baseball guy.
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I get that.
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It took a long time for me to get into
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anything other than fantasy baseball. It took a a bunch
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of buddies of mine that are much bigger football fans
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than any other sport to convince me to play with them.
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And now I'm in probably four or five dynasty football league.
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So it's just like baseball. It's a slippery slope. Once
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you get started, if you can't hold off as long
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as you can, Raj.
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All right.
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We'll get into a quick note on our listener league here.
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The championship was handed out last weekend within a matter
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of hours of us recording and, The Portland Mavericks defeated
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me quite handily, frankly, in the final. Congratulations to Kyle Bennett,
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who runs that team. And I think I speak for
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everybody in the league when I say that we are
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coming for that crown next year. So you better make
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sure that your team is.
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Ready to go again.
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But speaking of next year, that is what we on
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this podcast are all looking forward to in terms of
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our real-life teams. Because neither the Jays or the Giants
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made the playoffs this season. So I'm going to stick...
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with you first on this one, Raj. What went wrong
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for the Jays, and do you like their chances of
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returning to the playoffs next year?
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I think it was just a matter of, there's a
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couple of things, but I think, first of all, I
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think it's just the pressure of trying to get back
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to the World Series, trying to win the World Series.
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That was just too much for them. Especially because in
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past years, I feel whenever this iteration of the Jays
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team had expectations, they usually fell short. But in 2025,
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there wasn't any damage expectations because 20-4, they're coming off
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a pretty bad year. You're hoping for maybe a wildcard
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spot at best, but the Jays end up being the
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best team in the AL Day ritual series and got
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pretty close to the Dodgers. And I think that's the
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main thing, but also it's just a matter of a
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lot of the guys on that 20-25 team were overperforming
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and they regressed. Like Ernie Clement, a very big good
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example that Vladdy also underperformed. And I think another part
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is that because a lot of these players played in
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the WBC, I don't want to blame the WPCC on everything,
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but because they reached World Series, played seven games and
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also seven games in ALCS. Then they had a very
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short off season from the World Series to WBC where
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it was a high intensity environment. And it was just
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so much intensity in such a short time that you'll
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think the team ever truly recovered and had a, was
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able to settle down. Yeah.
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Yeah.
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I certainly don't disagree with you on any of that.
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The good news is they've got plenty of time to
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rest and recover this offseason. So hopefully they get things
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right heading into next year, whenever the start of that
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season may be. Taylor, same question for you, though. What
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went wrong with the Giants this year? And do you
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think they will be making a push for the playoffs
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next season?
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I hope so. What went wrong is the pitching.
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Primarily the relief pitching was really bad. Our new manager
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had a lot of issues. It just seemed like from
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day one, the team was off. There were a lot
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of injuries, a lot of guys declining. There were some
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bright spots. We got Bryce Eldridge up. Bo Davidson is up. Obviously,
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our farm system now is stacked. But I think it
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comes a lot to what are the Giants going to
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do this offseason? I think they're going to invest pretty
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heavily in pitching, which they really skimped on a year ago.
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I think there are some exciting breakouts that we had
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this year with Casey Schmidt and everything. So I think
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our lineup, could actually be pretty darn good next year
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but we really need to invest in pitching I think
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if we do yes we can potentially make the postseason.
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Hopefully next year is a better season for both of
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our teams Taylor you noted Bo Davidson there we're going
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to get into his big league debut at the end
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of our conversation regarding the news and notes from baseball
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this week a few other topics we're going to discuss
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include some front office and managerial extensions we're We've got
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the final start in the career of a baseball legend.
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We've got some injuries, some DFAs, demotions. And then we'll
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talk about Bo Davidson before getting into our main discussion,
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which are the or will surround the grades for the
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second half of the 2026 season recommendations that we made
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this year. Before we get to any of that, I
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want to remind everyone about all of the incredible offerings
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we have here at PLive. That includes the PLive rankings tool,
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which houses our live prospect and dynasty rankings, as well
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as our open universe rankings and PLive Plus. There's also
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the PLive manager tool, which includes the league and roster analyzers,
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as well as Hobby Plus, PLive playing time, the daily sheets,
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the draft planner, the PLive box score tool, and the
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ability to sync your leagues directly into the site for
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the best insights on all of your dynasty teams. And
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right up until the end of the year here this week,
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our dynasty team has continued to roll out content every
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single day of the week. That includes three up, three
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down articles from Tom Gates, dynasty diplomas from Lucas Morrell,
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expected edge from PJ Benicillo, P-Live plus and minus deep
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sea diving from Charles Trimble.
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We've got Raj.
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Mehta's midweek dynasty pickups articles, my weekend dynasty pickups articles,
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David Goffman's lineup card articles, Ray Coons, various fab driven articles.
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We've got in the spotlight in the shadows from Breck
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Wiedemann and a variety of articles from Trevor, who I
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just want to give a shout out to all of
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my fellow dynasty team members who have been pumping out
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the content and quality content at that every single week
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this season on the pro scouting side of things. We
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got a new under the hood article from Brandon as
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he dove into the profile of Brad Pacheco and And
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Billy McMahon gave us a live looks article after sitting
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in on a game between San Jose and Lake Elsinore
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earlier in the month. So check that one out if
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you're interested in some insights on players like Joshua Gonzalez,
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Lan Hong Su, and more. On the podcast front, Andrew
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Parker dropped a number of interviews this past week with
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a bunch of pitching prospects for his podcast, To The Show.
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That includes interviews with Brady Parker of the Rockies, Jager
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Beck of the Astros, Wiley Maddox of the Nationals, and
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Max Banks of the White Sox. The ProSide pod goes
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live every Monday, so be sure to tune in to
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that one as the guys discuss everything going on in
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the baseball world. And on the P-Live Dynasty pod, Greg
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Kugkamp was joined by Lucas Morel, Breck Wiedemann, and Raj
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Mehta to discuss the AFL by having a little bit
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of a draft, so an interesting podcast. episode there as
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we prepare for the Arizona Fall League. But as you
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can tell, there is a ton of incredible work being
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done up and down Key Live. Whether you like to
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read articles or listen to podcasts to consume your content,
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whether you are into fantasy baseball, real life scouting, the
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amateur side of things, card collecting, you name it, we
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have something for every kind of baseball fan. And it
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is all available at FullSpectsLive.com for as little as just
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$ 7 per month. If you enjoy our podcast, please rate
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and review us. We really appreciate the support. And please
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give us a follow as well. You can find me
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at Sonny underscore 108 on X and Sonny 108 on
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Blue Sky. You can find Taylor at Dynasty Pickups on both.
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You can also get a hold of us with all
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of your Dynasty Baseball questions at DynastyBaseballPickups at gmail.com. Let's
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get into the news and notes here. Let's get into
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everything going on over this past and final week of
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the regular season in the MLB. And let's start with
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the Boston Red Sox, who have decided to pick up
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the 2029 and 2030 options for Craig Breslow and remove
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the interim tag from manager Chad Tracy, as they have
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extended him for three years. And we're going to lump
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the Mets in here as well, because they have also
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removed the interim tag for manager Andy Green and extended
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him for three years. So Raj, we've got a couple
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of organizations making some pretty high up decisions with their
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managers and with their front office presences. What do you
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think about these moves for the Red Sox and for
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the Mets? And does it maybe help your confidence in
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either organization and how that can affect our dynasty players sometimes?
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Because as we know, especially the front office and how
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they operate can really affect things from a fantasy standpoint.
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Yeah, so the Craig Bessel thing was pretty interesting because
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you remember at the start of the year and early
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on in the year, a lot of people wanted him
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to be fired and fired. Because of how bad they
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were at the start of the year, they fired Cora,
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even though Cora was like this longtime manager for Red Sox.
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And he was pretty well respected by the team as well.
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But Chad Trace has really done well since he stepped in.
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I know the first month or so of his tenure
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was as great, but then that 3-2-5 run has really
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propelled them into a clear position. And I think as
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long as you're winning here, people are going to be
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in good graces with you. And the thing about Craig Breslow,
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I know that he had a lot of very weird moves.
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Even at the deadline, I remember they traded Conley earlier
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for Curtis Meade. I was pretty Head scratching at the time.
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I know Curtis Meade has been good this year, but he,
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it hasn't really worked well because Chris Meade went on
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the aisle almost immediately. So the thing about Breslow, and
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I want to get your guys' thoughts on this, is
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that Craig Breslow, the way he operates just reminds me
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a lot of AJ Prowler, is that he gets a
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ton of prospects, but he doesn't really care about the prospects,
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he's just trading them away for whatever, just trying to
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win now whenever he can. The Ali Oshman deal, for example,
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they He is arguably one of the best catchers in
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baseball right now, but they trade a ton to get him.
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Anthony Ionson has been one of the best pitching prospects
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in baseball, plus Andy Azekar, Kirsten Weatherspoon, plus some more
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guys I'm forgetting. So I'm interested to see how you
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feel about Breslau. I believe he's the chief baseball officer,
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so I'm interested to see what you think about him.
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Yeah, I think he's similar to an A.J. Preller in
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that he's certainly more of a go-all-in type than a
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hoarding resources type. But I do think that the Padres
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and Preller are certainly a more extreme version of what
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Breslow is doing with the Red Sox. Anything that you'd
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like to add, Raj, on Andy Green as well before
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we move on?
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I just thought it was interesting that for most of
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the year, Andy Green was saying, oh, I don't really
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want to be the manager. I just want to go
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back to front office after this year. So it was
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interesting to see them. extend them. Cause I think also
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the front office said they were going to be looking
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elsewhere for a manager. So it was a came as
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a surprise when that happened, but I liked the Mets
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having him. He's been a pretty good manager for him
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thus far.
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I think it's safe to say that the Mets have
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made several interesting decisions with their manager spot over the
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last few years. We'll see how this one works out
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for them. Hopefully for Mets fans, it goes a little
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bit better than it has in recent years. but we
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are going to move on to a quick discussion regarding
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the career and the final start of Justin Verlander. I
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don't know if you guys have seen the clips. I
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don't know if you tuned into the start at all,
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but if you can watch the highlights of Justin Verlander
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leaving the game in the sixth inning yesterday and the
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way that he broke down on the mound and He
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saw his daughter running onto the field to get him.
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If you don't get emotional watching that, I'm sorry, but
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you just don't have a heart. It was an incredible
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heartfelt moment in what was the final start of an
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incredible career for Justin Verlander. Taylor, he was briefly a giant.
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I don't know that you have a ton of memories
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from his time as a giant.
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It wasn't long.
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It wasn't at the peak of his career. But I'm
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curious if you have any thoughts on Verlander during that time.
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Yeah, just one of the most dominant pitchers of his time.
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And he is for sure a Hall of Famer in
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my mind. And I don't have a lot of memories
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of him as a Giants pitcher, but I do remember
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facing that team in the World Series and how dominant
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he was this year. And I believe that was Pablo
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Sandoval going after him and humbling a little bit, if
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I remember correctly. But yeah, Verlander just at his peak
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was so dominant. The guy has pitched forever. Just what
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a career. Hats off to him.
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Absolutely. Incredible career.
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Raj, I know you already discussed this earlier in the
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week on the P-Live Dynasty pod. I'm curious, now that
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we've seen the final start of his career, if you
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have anything else you'd like to add.
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It was nice for them to get the win on
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his final start, I believe. He did. They were down 2-0,
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I believe, when he got taken out. But it was
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very fun to see him walk off Mason Montgomery, which
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was very tough to do. But it's nice to see
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him getting the win. not for any league attackers getting
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the win in that final start.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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Really good to see the team get the win in
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his final start and really good to see him have
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a strong final performance. Five and one thirds, six strikeouts.
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So really cool to see a strong end to an
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incredible career. We might be seeing something similar in Toronto today.
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There haven't been any announcements. I don't think Scherzer even
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knows what he's going to do. But he is making
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at least his final start of this season on short rest.
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It's probably not going to be anything deeper than a
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few innings, but it'll be interesting to see what we
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get out of Scherzer today as well. We're going to
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move on to some injuries real quick here. On the
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hitting side of things, Colt Keith is down with a
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thumb injury. Jung-Hoo Lee is dealing with a groin injury.
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Bryce Eldridge and Samuel Basayo are dealing with concussions. Dalton
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Varshow has a wrist injury.
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Josh Young.
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who unfortunately has dealt with a number of injuries throughout
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his young career, is back on the I.L. with a
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fractured hand. And on the pitching side of things, we've
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got a lat injury for Cal Quantrill. Troy Melton is
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dealing with arm fatigue. Dylan Cease hit the I.L. with
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a shoulder injury. Christian Javier, a groin injury. Luis Castillo
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with a shoulder. Clark Schmidt has a biceps injury. Martin Perez,
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a back injury. Corbin Burns with a shoulder injury. Casey Mize,
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an ankle injury. And Blake Trinan with a shoulder injury
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as well. Raj, there's nothing we can do about any
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of these injuries at this point in the year. It's
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the final day of the season. We're not acting on
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anything from a fantasy standpoint. But is there anything here
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that you maybe have some reason for concern as far
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as what next season might hold for any of these players?
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For me, that's going to be Corbin Burns. And that's
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because he just came off the aisle like not too
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long ago. And I believe he was Tommy John. I
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just double-checked how many starts he made since then. Yeah,
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he only made three starts since coming back, and now
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he's back on the eye-over-shoulder thing. I'm not really sure
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how long it's going to take him out for. If
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it eats into next year, then it's going to be
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really tough. We'll have to lock out. Maybe he's fine,
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but Corbin Burns, like, I'm not sure what to do
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with him at this point because he's been hurt for
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a while. He's been declining before then for a while, too.
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So maybe... I'm not, I wouldn't exactly call him a sell,
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but because at this point his value is probably the
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lowest it's going to be for a while. The lowest
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it has been for a while, but I'm not keen
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on buying him either. So I'm not really sure what
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to do with him.
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Yeah, I think I'm with you. Burns is the concerning
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one here, but it's probably a spot where you just
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have to hold and wait and see what happens. Because
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like you said, if you're selling now, you're not going
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to get anything for him. And if you're buying, it
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is far too big of a question mark, in my opinion,
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to be giving much of anything up. Certainly anything that
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a Corbin Burns owner would actually be willing to move
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him for. So at this point, I think you just hold,
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you wait, and you see what happens, and you make
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a decision from there. We're going to quickly move on
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to some demotions and DFAs here. The Pirates demoted Camilo Doval.
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He was quickly claimed by San Francisco, so a return
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for him there. Jesus Sanchez, who was just claimed from
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the Jays by the Diamondbacks, has now been DFA'd by
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the Diamondbacks. And Josue de Paula and Alex Freeland were
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demoted to AAA by the Dodgers. Taylor, I know you
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wanted to touch on Camilo Doval returning to San Fran,
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so I'll get you to discuss that in a moment,
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and then we will return to Raj, and I'll get
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your thoughts on Josue de Paula specifically here. But Taylor,
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what do you think about Camilo Doval and his return?
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Because as you noted before we started recording, He looked
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dominant in his first appearance back with the Giants this season.
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Yeah.
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Welcome home, Camilo. Glad to have you back.
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I don't know if listeners remember, but when the Giants
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traded Camilo Duvall, that was the one trade of Posey's
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that I just was really like, eh, I don't know
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about this one. They got Parks Harbor in that deal.
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He looks pretty darn good. And now they've got Duvall
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back anyway. I think that one worked out for the
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Giants there. But yeah, just looked dominant in his return.
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We'll see what we get out of him next year,
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but The Giants badly need some bullpen arms, so hopefully
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he'll stick around.
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And I just want to.
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Mention DePaul real quick before Raj touches on him. I
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did mention this as a possibility about the reason that
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DePaul came up and they had to put him on
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the 40-man anyway. And I thought it was likely when
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Otani comes back, he was going to get sent down
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regardless of his performance.
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Yeah, I certainly don't think this is anything we need
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to be concerned about. About with DePaula, especially when we
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look at his 11-game sample, he had an OPS over 1,000,
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00:18:39.769 --> 00:18:44.369
a 199 WRC +. So even though it was a
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00:18:44.430 --> 00:18:47.890
very small sample, he was nearly twice as good as
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00:18:47.970 --> 00:18:52.480
the average major league player in his big league debut stint.
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00:18:52.539 --> 00:18:55.900
So Raj, is that enough for us to feel confident
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that he will crack the opening day lineup for the
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Dodgers next year and contribute for our fantasy lineups throughout
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00:19:03.529 --> 00:19:04.430
the entire season?
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I'm not going to say 100%, just because there isn't
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really a spot for him to play. When Otani went down,
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00:19:11.480 --> 00:19:13.440
the DH slot was open, so they just called him up.
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00:19:13.839 --> 00:19:15.480
But then when Otani came back off the LDA, they
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00:19:15.599 --> 00:19:19.960
optioned him down. And he is pretty limited defensively, and that's,
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I think, part of the reason why I didn't want
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00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:24.880
to keep him up. But in my opinion, he's a
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00:19:24.900 --> 00:19:28.069
better hitter than Teoscar Hernandez in left. Kyle Tucker, he's
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00:19:28.769 --> 00:19:31.589
had a down year, I think, based on this year.
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00:19:32.319 --> 00:19:34.500
You can argue DePaulo over Cal Tucker, but I think
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00:19:34.579 --> 00:19:37.240
next year the Dodgers will hope for a bounce back
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00:19:37.269 --> 00:19:40.009
from Tucker. And hopefully, I think Tucker as well has
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00:19:40.049 --> 00:19:44.910
been hot lately. But I think it depends on what
400
00:19:44.930 --> 00:19:47.619
they do in this offseason because I can really see
401
00:19:47.670 --> 00:19:51.339
a world where the Dodgers try to move to Oscar
402
00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:53.099
Hernandez in the offseason and try to open up a
403
00:19:53.160 --> 00:19:56.079
spot for DePaula and I think that's really the only
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00:19:56.160 --> 00:19:58.740
path for DePaula to get regular playing time in the
405
00:19:58.759 --> 00:20:01.000
big leagues is if they are able to move to
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00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:04.589
Oscar Hernandez and the Dodgers they've been Able to do
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00:20:04.630 --> 00:20:06.890
this somewhat in the past. Gavin Lux comes to mind
408
00:20:06.910 --> 00:20:08.900
when they traded him to the Reds. And they were
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00:20:08.920 --> 00:20:11.440
able to get Mike Sroda in that deal, plus the graphic,
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00:20:11.460 --> 00:20:15.359
which he used to get Charles Davilan. So it'll be
411
00:20:15.380 --> 00:20:17.660
interesting to see just if they can move Chastain Hernandez,
412
00:20:18.289 --> 00:20:21.309
and if they do, what his market looks like and
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00:20:21.329 --> 00:20:24.390
who gets him. Because Chastain Hernandez is also a bit
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of a down year this year as well.
415
00:20:27.170 --> 00:20:30.349
Yeah, it'll certainly be interesting to see how they move
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00:20:30.390 --> 00:20:32.349
the pieces around. They likely do need to move some
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00:20:32.369 --> 00:20:35.230
pieces in order to get DePaula in there on an
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00:20:35.309 --> 00:20:37.569
everyday basis. But I do think that he has shown
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00:20:37.630 --> 00:20:41.190
enough where if I'm the Dodgers, I'm trying to find
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00:20:41.250 --> 00:20:43.450
a way to get him into my lineup on opening
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00:20:43.490 --> 00:20:46.190
day and every day after that. Like you said, it's
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00:20:46.250 --> 00:20:48.089
probably not going to be as the DH. So they're
423
00:20:48.109 --> 00:20:50.430
going to have to find a hole. They're going to
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00:20:50.450 --> 00:20:52.710
have to create a hole somewhere else in the lineup
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00:20:53.009 --> 00:20:55.450
that they can plug him into. But it is, from
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a fantasy standpoint, certainly encouraging to see the way that
427
00:20:59.789 --> 00:21:03.069
he started off his big league career. But speaking of
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00:21:03.170 --> 00:21:06.670
players starting their big league careers, Bo Davidson made his
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00:21:06.750 --> 00:21:10.890
big league debut earlier this week. He is prospect number
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00:21:10.890 --> 00:21:14.470
117 overall in our P-Live rankings. And in 125 games
431
00:21:14.490 --> 00:21:16.059
this year between AA and AAA, Davidson slashed 290, 361,
432
00:21:16.039 --> 00:21:24.250
527 overall. He had 29 home runs, 20 stolen bases,
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00:21:24.369 --> 00:21:28.309
and a 129 WRC plus between the two levels. Now,
434
00:21:28.369 --> 00:21:30.349
I don't need to go any deeper than that because
435
00:21:30.490 --> 00:21:32.710
I am going to throw it over to our resident
436
00:21:32.769 --> 00:21:35.049
Giants fan and expert, Raj.
437
00:21:35.650 --> 00:21:36.190
No, I'm kidding.
438
00:21:36.210 --> 00:21:37.009
I'm kidding.
439
00:21:37.450 --> 00:21:41.609
Taylor, tell us a little bit more about Bo Davidson, Taylor.
440
00:21:42.490 --> 00:21:44.869
Yeah, if you could have seen my reaction. Yeah, he's
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00:21:44.890 --> 00:21:47.329
the one I'm really excited about. Obviously, if you've been
442
00:21:47.349 --> 00:21:48.789
listening for a while, you know I'm a Giants homer.
443
00:21:48.990 --> 00:21:50.819
I'm always going to get excited about Giants prospects for
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00:21:50.839 --> 00:21:53.150
the most part. But I really think Bo Davidson is
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00:21:53.609 --> 00:21:57.299
made for fantasy. Just power, speed, didn't look out of
446
00:21:57.339 --> 00:21:59.839
place in the majors in a small sample, 114 WRC
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00:21:59.859 --> 00:22:02.240
plus so far. No extra base hits, but he does
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00:22:02.279 --> 00:22:04.160
have a steal. I think he's going to play a
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00:22:04.660 --> 00:22:05.940
lot next year. I think he's going to have a
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00:22:05.980 --> 00:22:09.220
role potentially out of camp. And I think him and
451
00:22:09.740 --> 00:22:12.329
Eldridge are part of this next wave of Giants talent
452
00:22:12.349 --> 00:22:14.490
that is going to hopefully keep on coming.
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So really excited about him.
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00:22:17.180 --> 00:22:19.119
Yeah, it's hard not to be excited about a wave
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of young talent coming up like that. We haven't seen
456
00:22:21.460 --> 00:22:24.339
that level of talent come up for a while with
457
00:22:24.380 --> 00:22:27.380
the Jays, but Raj, how excited are we to see
458
00:22:27.460 --> 00:22:30.740
Bo Davidson and how big of a role he might
459
00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:33.539
have next season? Because as Taylor said, it looks like
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00:22:33.619 --> 00:22:37.839
he could pretty easily, certainly more easily than a Josue DePaula,
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00:22:38.140 --> 00:22:40.960
have that everyday role right from opening day next season.
462
00:22:41.960 --> 00:22:45.809
Yeah, for sure. Part of that is because the Giants stage,
463
00:22:46.349 --> 00:22:48.869
So did I, so we have a lot more spots open,
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00:22:48.950 --> 00:22:52.410
but the Chinese, it's just been a very messy year.
465
00:22:52.730 --> 00:22:55.490
Right now, I believe they have, you look at the
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00:22:55.849 --> 00:22:58.450
roster resource page, there's just a whole list of guys
467
00:22:58.490 --> 00:22:58.890
on the I.L.
468
00:22:58.910 --> 00:22:59.170
Right now.
469
00:22:59.259 --> 00:23:02.059
I can literally fill my whole page with guys currently
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00:23:02.099 --> 00:23:05.160
on the I.L. It's just insane. And there's a lot
471
00:23:05.180 --> 00:23:08.619
of guys in that outfield that could be everyday outfielders,
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00:23:08.660 --> 00:23:10.619
but not a lot of guys who are really locked
473
00:23:10.660 --> 00:23:13.400
in except for maybe Jung-Hoo Lee. Beta, you want him
474
00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:16.490
to bounce back, but he's been awful. And I don't
475
00:23:16.519 --> 00:23:18.880
think the giants are really too keen on him after
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00:23:19.220 --> 00:23:22.769
his off the field shenanigans. But yeah, there's a lot of,
477
00:23:22.779 --> 00:23:26.700
it's a very wide open roster and I think it's
478
00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:28.640
very easy for both days and just lock in a
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00:23:28.660 --> 00:23:29.319
role pretty quickly.
480
00:23:30.579 --> 00:23:30.839
Yeah.
481
00:23:31.319 --> 00:23:32.819
I just want to comment on what you said, Raj,
482
00:23:32.839 --> 00:23:35.640
because I think that was a great point about the
483
00:23:35.720 --> 00:23:37.420
turnover and the injuries the giants have had this year.
484
00:23:37.480 --> 00:23:40.720
I believe they set the record for most players use.
485
00:23:40.759 --> 00:23:43.730
They set the record for most rookies. And they don't
486
00:23:43.769 --> 00:23:47.759
have a single member of their opening day starting lineup
487
00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:51.440
currently in their starting lineup, nor their opening day pitcher healthy.
488
00:23:51.720 --> 00:23:54.700
So it has been a crazy season of turnover for
489
00:23:54.740 --> 00:23:55.039
that team.
490
00:23:55.960 --> 00:23:59.079
Yeah, that certainly says all that needs to be said
491
00:23:59.259 --> 00:24:03.089
about how the Giants season has gone. With that, though,
492
00:24:03.170 --> 00:24:05.589
we are all through the news and notes, and we
493
00:24:05.630 --> 00:24:09.089
are going to get into year-end report cards, part two.
494
00:24:09.710 --> 00:24:11.730
Just like last week, we are going to discuss some
495
00:24:11.769 --> 00:24:14.849
of our best recommendations, some of our worst recommendations. We're
496
00:24:14.869 --> 00:24:16.849
going to make our case for a few players that
497
00:24:16.890 --> 00:24:19.450
we think could have received higher grades. And then we're
498
00:24:19.470 --> 00:24:22.619
going to discuss some players that we think could maybe
499
00:24:22.650 --> 00:24:27.420
bounce back next year because they were relative misses for
500
00:24:27.460 --> 00:24:30.920
varying degrees this season. But Raj, we're going to start
501
00:24:30.940 --> 00:24:33.220
with you. And I know second half of the season,
502
00:24:33.299 --> 00:24:35.680
it's a little bit harder to find a bunch of
503
00:24:35.799 --> 00:24:39.210
players that you feel really confident in. So before you
504
00:24:39.230 --> 00:24:42.960
get into a few of your best recommendations here, how
505
00:24:42.980 --> 00:24:47.240
did the second half feel different compared to the first
506
00:24:47.299 --> 00:24:49.599
half in trying to find these players that you wanted
507
00:24:49.619 --> 00:24:50.140
to recommend?
508
00:24:51.400 --> 00:24:54.000
It's definitely tough because I think in the second half,
509
00:24:54.079 --> 00:24:55.859
it's really hard to find a guy who's going to
510
00:24:56.700 --> 00:24:58.430
raise his talk because a lot of that happens, I
511
00:24:58.430 --> 00:25:01.609
feel like, in April or maybe May because that's when
512
00:25:02.130 --> 00:25:04.289
players get to make their big first impression. Like, for example,
513
00:25:05.009 --> 00:25:07.900
Ronnie Cruz, he had a very... high April, but rest
514
00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:10.660
of the season, not so great. But his roster jumped
515
00:25:10.700 --> 00:25:13.099
up a ton between the start of the year and
516
00:25:13.119 --> 00:25:14.759
the end of the year. And his stock is still
517
00:25:14.819 --> 00:25:17.359
way up. Whereas for some of the guys that I recommended,
518
00:25:17.500 --> 00:25:20.859
they did have good stretches to end the year, but
519
00:25:20.920 --> 00:25:23.259
because it happened at the end of the year where
520
00:25:23.299 --> 00:25:24.960
the rest, first part of the year was not so
521
00:25:24.980 --> 00:25:27.480
great versus at the start of the year, their stock
522
00:25:27.700 --> 00:25:29.420
maybe only went up like one or two percentage points.
523
00:25:29.460 --> 00:25:32.640
And because that it's really hard to get those very
524
00:25:32.680 --> 00:25:36.759
good call just because I think you need a guy
525
00:25:36.779 --> 00:25:39.519
who performs well, but also loses their roster rate a ton.
526
00:25:39.539 --> 00:25:42.640
And it's very hard to find, very hard to do
527
00:25:42.660 --> 00:25:44.559
that second part. So it's very hard to really get
528
00:25:44.980 --> 00:25:45.380
the call outs.
529
00:25:46.160 --> 00:25:46.660
Absolutely.
530
00:25:46.700 --> 00:25:48.930
Especially as we get deeper and deeper into the year
531
00:25:48.970 --> 00:25:52.329
where people are more concerned with optimizing their big league rosters.
532
00:25:52.769 --> 00:25:54.390
And then you add in the fact that between the
533
00:25:54.450 --> 00:25:56.869
three of us, and I referenced this in my article
534
00:25:56.890 --> 00:26:01.390
that released this morning, there were more than 250 total
535
00:26:01.450 --> 00:26:03.900
recommendations between the three of us. So I can't tell
536
00:26:03.920 --> 00:26:06.640
you how many times I found a player that I
537
00:26:06.680 --> 00:26:09.069
was interested in. I looked up his name on our
538
00:26:09.140 --> 00:26:12.930
sheet and saw that somebody else had already discussed him,
539
00:26:13.009 --> 00:26:16.849
recommended him earlier in the year. So where many of
540
00:26:16.910 --> 00:26:21.250
the players that would have been easy recommendations were already taken,
541
00:26:21.390 --> 00:26:25.309
it really narrows down the list and makes it difficult
542
00:26:25.369 --> 00:26:28.670
to find a bunch of players on a consistent weekly
543
00:26:28.710 --> 00:26:31.859
basis that you are confident in. but you were still
544
00:26:31.960 --> 00:26:35.019
able to get some really big hits in the second
545
00:26:35.079 --> 00:26:38.000
half here. So who were some of your best recommendations, Raj?
546
00:26:39.369 --> 00:26:41.269
So I think my best recommendation of the year was
547
00:26:41.650 --> 00:26:45.789
probably Yosin Peña. And it's pretty interesting because at the time,
548
00:26:45.809 --> 00:26:47.589
I didn't expect him to have this sort of rise
549
00:26:48.190 --> 00:26:51.509
because at the time he was at the DSL 0% roster,
550
00:26:51.950 --> 00:26:54.269
but he was hitting pretty well. He had a very
551
00:26:54.289 --> 00:26:56.720
good EVs, equal number of walks of strikeouts at the
552
00:26:56.740 --> 00:27:00.069
DSL as an 18-year-old, 150 WC +. But the thing
553
00:27:00.089 --> 00:27:03.109
that really boosted his stock is that he was promoted
554
00:27:03.150 --> 00:27:05.769
from the DSL straight to single A, which you don't
555
00:27:05.809 --> 00:27:06.690
really see that.
556
00:27:06.569 --> 00:27:07.130
Often, like at all.
557
00:27:07.230 --> 00:27:09.829
I know a lot of guys did get, given just
558
00:27:09.869 --> 00:27:11.910
getting promoted from DSL to the complex is pretty rare,
559
00:27:11.970 --> 00:27:14.470
but Yosei Pano went straight to single A and at
560
00:27:14.690 --> 00:27:17.269
single A he actually hit pretty well there too. 323 average,
561
00:27:17.269 --> 00:27:18.430
389 on base, 550 slug, 141 WC plus. And because
562
00:27:18.609 --> 00:27:20.029
of that, he went from 0% rostered all the way
563
00:27:20.049 --> 00:27:22.329
up to, I believe it was a 15% rostered and
564
00:27:29.549 --> 00:27:32.130
It's just, I think at this point, and also ranking
565
00:27:32.359 --> 00:27:35.059
162nd overall, but I think at this point, he's almost
566
00:27:35.079 --> 00:27:37.759
a little bit too overvalued. I know Kyle, you're a
567
00:27:37.799 --> 00:27:41.039
little bit lower on him, but because of the age
568
00:27:41.279 --> 00:27:45.940
questions surrounding him, but Pena, he's been a very impressive
569
00:27:46.059 --> 00:27:48.940
player this year. Very easy to see that why he
570
00:27:48.980 --> 00:27:51.220
got an A plus. And then my other A plus
571
00:27:51.269 --> 00:27:55.289
was Brilla Antunez, and he's a guy who, very good EVs,
572
00:27:55.470 --> 00:27:58.849
but The question has always been like, can he make
573
00:27:58.869 --> 00:28:01.190
enough contact? And at the start of the year, it
574
00:28:01.230 --> 00:28:05.630
wasn't really hitting for damage contact, but why I recommend them,
575
00:28:05.710 --> 00:28:08.630
I saw that the past month or so, his contact
576
00:28:08.650 --> 00:28:12.259
rates got better. His dragon was like mid twenties. So
577
00:28:12.720 --> 00:28:14.539
that's why I recommend this. And he's been able to
578
00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:19.160
hold onto that. Those are good rates. Since I, even
579
00:28:19.180 --> 00:28:21.579
though like he was pointing to single a since asking
580
00:28:21.599 --> 00:28:23.859
lay three 42, four 55, five, eight B slash one,
581
00:28:23.880 --> 00:28:27.140
same to you. There was a plus. 11.6% walk rate
582
00:28:27.460 --> 00:28:31.619
and 24% carry rate. That's since I recommended him. And
583
00:28:31.640 --> 00:28:33.859
then my third guy is going to be Leandro Pineda,
584
00:28:34.380 --> 00:28:36.609
who's a little bit not so good. And this is
585
00:28:36.660 --> 00:28:39.650
also a case where he didn't get the highest grade
586
00:28:39.690 --> 00:28:43.250
because he didn't really rise that much, but he had
587
00:28:43.269 --> 00:28:45.390
a pretty interesting year because he was at double A
588
00:28:45.529 --> 00:28:47.170
and he wasn't that great at double A. He only
589
00:28:47.289 --> 00:28:51.359
had an 89 dev receipt plus, but the naturalists sent
590
00:28:51.380 --> 00:28:54.019
him to the dev list, I believe. And they sent
591
00:28:54.039 --> 00:28:56.369
him there for a couple of weeks. And then when
592
00:28:56.390 --> 00:28:58.190
they bought him back, they sent him straight to AAA
593
00:28:58.230 --> 00:29:00.319
instead of sending him back to AA. And that sort
594
00:29:00.339 --> 00:29:03.039
of showed that the Nats were really high on him.
595
00:29:03.799 --> 00:29:06.299
And since coming back, he had only played a couple
596
00:29:06.339 --> 00:29:08.000
of weeks at AAA at that point, but he had
597
00:29:08.019 --> 00:29:10.720
very good numbers. And then since calling him out, he
598
00:29:10.859 --> 00:29:13.640
continued to hit well. In 45 games at AAA, he
599
00:29:13.779 --> 00:29:15.099
put a 329, 440, 650 slash. It won 81 derbies
600
00:29:15.119 --> 00:29:17.039
to plus. Strikeout rate of 19.6%. Walkway at 13.6%. And
601
00:29:17.059 --> 00:29:21.259
the peripherals are all very good, maxed out weak. 1.5,
602
00:29:21.259 --> 00:29:28.500
12% barrel rate, 41.9% hard hit rate. Yeah, Pineda, I
603
00:29:28.880 --> 00:29:31.730
actually really like him, but I'm not really too sure
604
00:29:31.769 --> 00:29:34.930
what his future outlook is. But even though I got
605
00:29:34.950 --> 00:29:36.930
to be like, I just really like his performance.
606
00:29:39.130 --> 00:29:41.000
Yeah, certainly some strong... recommendations there.
607
00:29:41.019 --> 00:29:43.559
And to your point, it's tough in the second half
608
00:29:43.579 --> 00:29:45.769
of the season when there just isn't a ton of
609
00:29:45.869 --> 00:29:49.309
stock movement in general, in most of these players to
610
00:29:49.650 --> 00:29:51.430
figure out who some of the best ones are, because
611
00:29:51.470 --> 00:29:55.019
it isn't necessarily the ones whose stock have moved the most.
612
00:29:55.440 --> 00:29:57.460
And when we're talking about someone like a Pineda whose
613
00:29:57.720 --> 00:30:02.500
performance maybe says more than the stock and whether or
614
00:30:02.559 --> 00:30:05.079
not it has shifted, it's one of those things where
615
00:30:05.200 --> 00:30:07.759
I know Taylor in the past has especially focused on
616
00:30:07.799 --> 00:30:11.109
a player like Devin Fitzgerald, who was a recommendation that
617
00:30:11.150 --> 00:30:13.549
didn't gain a ton of stock. But then you see
618
00:30:13.690 --> 00:30:16.230
that sort of thing sometimes come in the offseason. So
619
00:30:16.250 --> 00:30:19.049
that could be something we are looking at for really
620
00:30:19.089 --> 00:30:21.130
a number of the players that we recommended in the
621
00:30:21.170 --> 00:30:25.519
second half. But Pineda is a good example of that. Now, Taylor,
622
00:30:26.019 --> 00:30:28.940
you didn't make a ton of recommendations in the second
623
00:30:28.980 --> 00:30:32.170
half here because it was just one per podcast episode.
624
00:30:32.490 --> 00:30:35.549
I believe it was nine total post-All-Star breaks. You got
625
00:30:35.589 --> 00:30:37.730
a little bit of a smaller list to pick from
626
00:30:37.789 --> 00:30:40.930
for some of your best and worst recommendations. You're only
627
00:30:40.970 --> 00:30:43.609
going to have a couple of names here for us,
628
00:30:43.650 --> 00:30:46.140
if I'm not mistaken, for the best recommendations. But I
629
00:30:46.140 --> 00:30:48.799
also wanted to get your thoughts on how things shifted
630
00:30:48.900 --> 00:30:51.900
for you in the second half as you were trying
631
00:30:51.940 --> 00:30:54.599
to find players that you were confident in recommending for
632
00:30:54.890 --> 00:30:55.130
on the.
633
00:30:55.089 --> 00:30:59.410
Podcast yeah if you saw raj's grades i didn't have
634
00:30:59.450 --> 00:31:04.150
any misses so i feel like overall this is the
635
00:31:04.359 --> 00:31:05.839
i don't know maybe the secret sauce is doing one
636
00:31:05.880 --> 00:31:08.180
recommendation a week or something because i feel like i
637
00:31:08.759 --> 00:31:11.400
did way better than any but i've been doing this
638
00:31:11.420 --> 00:31:13.799
for a while i've been pretty happy with my results
639
00:31:13.900 --> 00:31:17.160
for as bad as my fantasy season was my recommendation
640
00:31:17.200 --> 00:31:19.880
season was awesome this year i'm really proud of that
641
00:31:20.180 --> 00:31:23.099
and proud of the fact that i had some pretty
642
00:31:23.140 --> 00:31:26.480
good calls in the second half here. So I had,
643
00:31:26.579 --> 00:31:28.480
I'm going to go with just two because my list
644
00:31:28.500 --> 00:31:30.460
is a little smaller, but I had Wilder DeLis of
645
00:31:30.519 --> 00:31:33.480
the Colorado Rockies. Recommended him back in July. He had
646
00:31:33.500 --> 00:31:37.420
a 5% increase in his fan tracks roster rate. He
647
00:31:37.460 --> 00:31:41.509
moved from 643rd to 371st in our prospect rankings. Had
648
00:31:41.509 --> 00:31:44.640
34 games after recommended him, posted a 150 WRC plus.
649
00:31:44.700 --> 00:31:46.589
So Raj Gaming A grade.
650
00:31:46.750 --> 00:31:47.349
Thank you, Raj.
651
00:31:47.529 --> 00:31:49.650
I did have him a little bit higher than where
652
00:31:49.670 --> 00:31:50.069
he's at now.
653
00:31:50.109 --> 00:31:51.130
I had him 300 plus. He's at 371, but.
654
00:31:53.039 --> 00:31:55.099
Overall, pretty happy with how that turned out. And then
655
00:31:55.160 --> 00:31:59.009
Samuel Serrano of the Washington Nationals recommended him back in August.
656
00:31:59.460 --> 00:32:04.569
Another 300-plus recommendation. He went from 2% to 9% rostered,
657
00:32:04.609 --> 00:32:08.069
526th to 347th. Only played six games because the DSL
658
00:32:08.089 --> 00:32:12.769
season was ending, but posted a 174 WRC-plus in those
659
00:32:12.809 --> 00:32:13.349
six games.
660
00:32:13.910 --> 00:32:15.849
So yeah, pretty happy with both of those.
661
00:32:16.869 --> 00:32:17.349
Absolutely.
662
00:32:17.410 --> 00:32:22.190
I can't complain too much about those players results really
663
00:32:22.250 --> 00:32:26.470
across the board with your recommendations here but especially with
664
00:32:26.579 --> 00:32:29.819
those two in particular I do have a trio of
665
00:32:29.880 --> 00:32:32.440
names as I said the second half was certainly a
666
00:32:32.900 --> 00:32:35.859
little bit more challenging in finding players that as Raj
667
00:32:35.900 --> 00:32:38.349
noted are going to move significantly because while many of
668
00:32:38.380 --> 00:32:41.089
these guys performed well the stock just doesn't move a
669
00:32:41.089 --> 00:32:44.170
whole lot but Raj did give me a trio of
670
00:32:44.190 --> 00:32:47.390
A or A pluses so I've got three names to
671
00:32:47.430 --> 00:32:51.150
discuss here I'm looking at Boston Smith of the now Mariners.
672
00:32:51.309 --> 00:32:53.670
I've got Rafe Parrish of the Rangers, and I've got
673
00:32:53.779 --> 00:32:58.039
Eliezer Dishmay of the Miami Marlins. Smith, I would argue,
674
00:32:58.099 --> 00:33:01.720
was my best recommendation of the second half. It was
675
00:33:01.759 --> 00:33:04.359
the only A-plus, I believe, that I got from Raj.
676
00:33:04.400 --> 00:33:08.960
He was recommended on August 2nd. His roster rate improved
677
00:33:09.019 --> 00:33:12.450
from 2% to 10%, and he went from unranked in
678
00:33:12.670 --> 00:33:17.109
our rankings to 322 overall. Now he started the year
679
00:33:17.170 --> 00:33:19.710
down in single A with the White Sox. He quickly
680
00:33:19.769 --> 00:33:23.890
rose to high A and then to double A. And
681
00:33:24.170 --> 00:33:27.950
after demolishing A ball, both single A and high A
682
00:33:27.990 --> 00:33:32.880
to the tune of a 996 OPS and a 156
683
00:33:32.880 --> 00:33:36.680
WRC plus across the two levels, double A did not
684
00:33:36.740 --> 00:33:39.670
slow him down at all. he put up an absurd
685
00:33:39.670 --> 00:33:45.549
1151 OPS and 197 WRC plus in 23 games before
686
00:33:45.589 --> 00:33:48.710
getting traded to the Mariners. Now that's where things did
687
00:33:48.789 --> 00:33:52.099
finally slow down a little bit for Smith, but through
688
00:33:52.140 --> 00:33:55.000
his final 23 games after the trade, he still had
689
00:33:55.119 --> 00:33:59.099
an 879 OPS, a 136 WRC plus, and he finished
690
00:33:59.180 --> 00:34:03.259
the year with a 990 OPS and 158 WRC plus
691
00:34:03.380 --> 00:34:07.119
across three levels and two different teams. Rafe Parrish, I
692
00:34:07.180 --> 00:34:10.619
recommended on July 19th. His stock improved from 2% to
693
00:34:10.619 --> 00:34:15.269
8% on fan tracks and a 599 ranking to 323
694
00:34:15.269 --> 00:34:17.829
overall here at P Live. And this is a name
695
00:34:17.869 --> 00:34:20.289
that I believe Breck is going to be really excited,
696
00:34:20.309 --> 00:34:22.789
Breck Wiedemann, to hear me talk about because I think
697
00:34:22.909 --> 00:34:25.969
it's him that's been pounding the table for Rafe Parrish
698
00:34:26.130 --> 00:34:29.099
as of late. And to Breck's point, Parrish has been
699
00:34:29.139 --> 00:34:32.320
a consistent high-end performer all season long. He started the
700
00:34:32.360 --> 00:34:34.519
year in high A, albeit a little old for the
701
00:34:34.579 --> 00:34:37.789
level at 23% He turned 24 in late May, but
702
00:34:37.809 --> 00:34:42.119
he posted an OPS of exactly 1,000 with a 151
703
00:34:42.119 --> 00:34:45.780
WRC plus in 38 games. He was then promoted to AA,
704
00:34:45.820 --> 00:34:49.320
where in 78 games, he put up a 981 OPS
705
00:34:49.699 --> 00:34:53.260
and 148 WRC plus. And I'll also add here that
706
00:34:53.280 --> 00:34:56.639
I'm not entirely sure I buy into the full extent
707
00:34:56.760 --> 00:34:59.730
of the power surge that saw him hit 27 home
708
00:34:59.769 --> 00:35:02.550
runs this year after hitting six last season, but I
709
00:35:02.989 --> 00:35:06.059
Parrish has plenty of raw power. It's plus raw juice
710
00:35:06.239 --> 00:35:09.519
in the tank here. What's really holding him back are
711
00:35:09.599 --> 00:35:14.500
his launch angles. He's cut his ground ball rate down
712
00:35:14.739 --> 00:35:18.030
this season. It was about 50% last year, closer to
713
00:35:18.030 --> 00:35:21.289
40% this season. And more specifically, what really encouraged me
714
00:35:21.329 --> 00:35:22.670
was the fact that he cut it from 47% in
715
00:35:22.690 --> 00:35:27.949
high A this season to 37% in double A. So
716
00:35:27.969 --> 00:35:30.780
I'm encouraged by that. I do think he's more than
717
00:35:30.860 --> 00:35:33.179
a six homer bat. I'm not sure that we're going
718
00:35:33.239 --> 00:35:36.619
to see a consistent 30 homer bat unless he improves
719
00:35:36.780 --> 00:35:39.639
his launch angles. But I do think that even at
720
00:35:39.639 --> 00:35:44.210
323 overall and a rise of more than 250 spots
721
00:35:44.349 --> 00:35:46.969
in our rankings since I recommended him, I think Parrish
722
00:35:47.030 --> 00:35:51.250
is possibly still underrated and would be a good offseason target.
723
00:35:51.690 --> 00:35:54.309
And I think the same thing of Eleazar Dishmay of
724
00:35:54.429 --> 00:35:59.199
the Marlins right-handed pitcher here. I recommended him on August 23rd.
725
00:35:59.340 --> 00:36:02.280
He rose from 5% to 6% rostered, so not a
726
00:36:02.340 --> 00:36:05.099
huge move there, but he did rise significantly in our
727
00:36:05.179 --> 00:36:09.360
rankings from 526 to 353. And as I alluded to,
728
00:36:09.429 --> 00:36:12.650
I think that's arguably a little bit too low. Much
729
00:36:12.710 --> 00:36:16.329
like Parrish, Dishmay performed well across both IA and AA
730
00:36:16.369 --> 00:36:19.969
this year. But interestingly enough, while his strikeout rate dipped
731
00:36:20.190 --> 00:36:23.210
a few percentage points and his ERA rose more than
732
00:36:23.230 --> 00:36:26.289
a full run following his promotions, He actually cut his
733
00:36:26.349 --> 00:36:29.969
walk rate 3% and saw his fifth improved by about
734
00:36:30.070 --> 00:36:32.429
half a run in double A compared to high A.
735
00:36:32.469 --> 00:36:34.630
So that walk rate is going to be the key
736
00:36:34.650 --> 00:36:40.159
here because his 33.3% strikeout rate was third in all
737
00:36:40.199 --> 00:36:43.079
of minor league baseball among arms with at least 100
738
00:36:43.079 --> 00:36:46.760
innings pitched. He was behind only Christian Zazueta of the
739
00:36:46.800 --> 00:36:49.480
Dodgers and Caden Hunter of the Orioles in that regard.
740
00:36:49.880 --> 00:36:52.519
And those are two really good names to be behind
741
00:36:52.599 --> 00:36:56.070
if you're going to be behind anyone. But, His 166
742
00:36:56.070 --> 00:37:00.309
batting average also ranked as the lowest among that same
743
00:37:00.329 --> 00:37:03.449
group of minor leaguers with at least 100 innings pitched.
744
00:37:03.989 --> 00:37:06.530
Now I know that 100 innings might seem like a
745
00:37:06.670 --> 00:37:09.429
high bar to set here, but there were more than
746
00:37:09.429 --> 00:37:13.030
250 minor leaguers who reached that mark this season. And
747
00:37:13.090 --> 00:37:16.599
it really emphasizes just how good and how consistent Dishmay
748
00:37:16.619 --> 00:37:19.139
was over the entire season. So like I said, similar
749
00:37:19.260 --> 00:37:23.300
to Parrish, despite a rise of nearly 200 spots in
750
00:37:23.340 --> 00:37:25.949
our rankings this year, I think Dishmay is another name
751
00:37:26.190 --> 00:37:29.130
that might still be underrated and could be another good
752
00:37:29.329 --> 00:37:34.969
offseason target. Now, unfortunately, not all of our recommendations were hits.
753
00:37:35.130 --> 00:37:38.329
Even in the second half here, when there wasn't a
754
00:37:38.429 --> 00:37:41.510
ton of movement in either direction, there aren't a ton
755
00:37:41.630 --> 00:37:45.750
of huge misses either, but there were still some misses. So, Raj,
756
00:37:45.909 --> 00:37:49.630
who were a couple of your worst recommendations this season?
757
00:37:51.030 --> 00:37:52.489
So the first one I'm going to talk about is
758
00:37:52.670 --> 00:37:55.030
Jermon Noel. When I recommended him, I believe he was
759
00:37:55.369 --> 00:37:57.829
at the complex, but had just been promoted to single A,
760
00:37:57.889 --> 00:38:00.409
and he was this sort of in-field slash utility type
761
00:38:00.449 --> 00:38:04.239
of guy who had very good basketball skills and good speed,
762
00:38:04.260 --> 00:38:07.219
but not that much power. And I think the reason
763
00:38:07.280 --> 00:38:10.599
why this didn't really work out just because he was
764
00:38:10.619 --> 00:38:13.760
just too far away from the big leagues. Because you
765
00:38:13.780 --> 00:38:15.800
think about a guy I recommended earlier in the year,
766
00:38:16.010 --> 00:38:19.130
like Josh Kordegaard, he's not a pro far away. Good
767
00:38:19.150 --> 00:38:23.050
back to ball, not much power, but he's just doesn't
768
00:38:23.090 --> 00:38:25.909
strike out that often. And the thing is that Kodogar
769
00:38:25.929 --> 00:38:28.219
was at AAA. Since he was hitting well, a promotion
770
00:38:28.239 --> 00:38:31.159
meant going to big leagues. And that's basically, I wouldn't
771
00:38:31.179 --> 00:38:33.480
say make a big, but that's where a guy can
772
00:38:33.500 --> 00:38:34.960
really boost his stock is just like getting to the
773
00:38:34.980 --> 00:38:38.039
big leagues and potentially performing. And Jamal knew well, he
774
00:38:38.090 --> 00:38:41.650
was at the complex. So for him to basically be
775
00:38:42.389 --> 00:38:44.590
a guy like Kodogar, he'd have to go through essentially
776
00:38:44.610 --> 00:38:47.809
the entire mining system. And that was just very tough.
777
00:38:48.239 --> 00:38:49.869
to do just because a lot more can go wrong
778
00:38:50.630 --> 00:38:53.130
from being that far away. And that's the way a
779
00:38:53.250 --> 00:38:56.829
lot went wrong. He had a 54 WC plus. So
780
00:38:56.849 --> 00:38:59.590
it's not great at all. And I, you gave me
781
00:38:59.610 --> 00:39:01.269
an F grade for that. I'm pretty sure I deserved
782
00:39:01.329 --> 00:39:03.949
it for the wall. And then the, I know we
783
00:39:04.110 --> 00:39:06.909
list pick two for our worst friend nation, but I'm
784
00:39:07.110 --> 00:39:10.960
actually going to group two more together for this. And
785
00:39:10.980 --> 00:39:13.760
that's Gage Mill and Robert Moore. And just cause I
786
00:39:13.780 --> 00:39:16.420
think what went wrong for them is pretty similar because
787
00:39:17.219 --> 00:39:20.380
There are two guys who... They were bad-to-ball guys that
788
00:39:20.420 --> 00:39:23.610
were closer to big leagues, but they weren't really playing
789
00:39:23.690 --> 00:39:26.269
that often. They were only playing four times a week
790
00:39:26.349 --> 00:39:28.739
instead of pretty much every day. And a lot of
791
00:39:28.780 --> 00:39:32.010
that was because... I think the team just didn't really
792
00:39:32.050 --> 00:39:33.679
believe in them that much. And I think when the
793
00:39:33.719 --> 00:39:35.780
team doesn't really believe in them, why should you believe
794
00:39:35.880 --> 00:39:39.099
in them? Their performance fell apart a bit in the
795
00:39:39.119 --> 00:39:41.940
second half. I do think they're good players, but because
796
00:39:41.980 --> 00:39:43.480
they didn't really play every day, they didn't really get
797
00:39:43.519 --> 00:39:46.780
the consistency to get better. And because that day just
798
00:39:46.800 --> 00:39:47.440
got worse instead.
799
00:39:49.679 --> 00:39:50.280
Yeah, absolutely.
800
00:39:50.300 --> 00:39:52.039
I think that the biggest thing that we can take
801
00:39:52.079 --> 00:39:54.840
from these second half recommendations, at least on the worst
802
00:39:55.099 --> 00:39:58.619
side of things here, is why they went wrong. And
803
00:39:58.659 --> 00:40:00.889
when we're looking at a couple of guys, like you said,
804
00:40:00.909 --> 00:40:02.989
with Miller and Moore, it's pretty clear that it's just
805
00:40:03.030 --> 00:40:06.110
a matter of what does the organization.
806
00:40:05.550 --> 00:40:06.150
Think about them?
807
00:40:06.289 --> 00:40:08.090
What should I think about them? And I've got a
808
00:40:08.130 --> 00:40:10.909
couple when I get to mine that are certainly learning
809
00:40:11.190 --> 00:40:14.110
opportunities as well. I'll get to those in a moment, though.
810
00:40:14.389 --> 00:40:16.159
I'm going to throw it over to Taylor first. I
811
00:40:16.199 --> 00:40:18.840
know you said you didn't have any misses last this,
812
00:40:19.219 --> 00:40:21.920
this cycle in the second half here, but who did
813
00:40:21.960 --> 00:40:24.300
you think was your worst recommendation?
814
00:40:25.400 --> 00:40:27.420
Yeah, I had all C grades is like my, my
815
00:40:27.460 --> 00:40:30.489
lower grades. So it was hard to pick, but Jason
816
00:40:30.510 --> 00:40:33.030
Moribell was the one that was a C that wasn't
817
00:40:33.070 --> 00:40:35.469
because he just didn't play a lot after he did
818
00:40:35.730 --> 00:40:38.829
play quite a bit after 42 games, but really didn't
819
00:40:38.929 --> 00:40:41.349
see his roster ship percentage move at all, just from
820
00:40:41.349 --> 00:40:43.889
1% to 2%. And I called him a pickup in
821
00:40:43.909 --> 00:40:47.429
leagues of 400 plus. He didn't even crack our top 800.
822
00:40:47.429 --> 00:40:49.309
Wasn't horrible after I wrote him up with a 109
823
00:40:49.309 --> 00:40:52.510
WRC plus, but wasn't that great either? I'm not sure
824
00:40:52.570 --> 00:40:54.289
he's going to pop off anytime soon.
825
00:40:54.409 --> 00:40:57.699
He's fine. But yeah, I think that that qualifies my worst.
826
00:40:58.719 --> 00:40:59.559
You're doing pretty well.
827
00:40:59.639 --> 00:41:02.440
If your worst is a fine recommendation, because I've got
828
00:41:02.460 --> 00:41:05.320
a couple pretty clear misses here. One of them being
829
00:41:05.360 --> 00:41:07.960
an outfielder for the Red Sox, Skylar King, and the
830
00:41:08.000 --> 00:41:11.699
other an outfielder for the Jays, Sam Shaw. Now with
831
00:41:11.739 --> 00:41:14.559
Skylar King, the recommendation was always a bit of a
832
00:41:14.579 --> 00:41:17.480
long shot anyways, but But it still really missed the
833
00:41:17.519 --> 00:41:21.000
mark because he had an 84 WRC plus in single
834
00:41:21.039 --> 00:41:24.559
A prior to my recommendation. And to top that off,
835
00:41:24.599 --> 00:41:26.960
he was an old for the level 22 year old
836
00:41:27.079 --> 00:41:30.159
college draftee. But I saw a stat line that had
837
00:41:30.199 --> 00:41:32.739
been improving month by month for a prospect with an
838
00:41:32.800 --> 00:41:35.820
intriguing power speed blend. And I tried to get out
839
00:41:35.920 --> 00:41:39.989
ahead of a potential breakout that just never happened. He
840
00:41:40.070 --> 00:41:42.289
did earn the promotion to high A that I was
841
00:41:42.329 --> 00:41:44.710
looking for, but things really fell off for him there.
842
00:41:44.769 --> 00:41:47.550
So while he was a deep recommendation for leagues with
843
00:41:47.550 --> 00:41:51.019
500 plus prospects rostered, he was still a miss. I
844
00:41:51.079 --> 00:41:53.360
added him in some deep leagues of that sort of
845
00:41:53.400 --> 00:41:55.619
range and I've dropped him there. So if you still
846
00:41:55.659 --> 00:41:58.380
have any Skylar King shares after my recommendation, you can
847
00:41:58.440 --> 00:42:01.360
probably drop him. And my other one here, Sam Shaw,
848
00:42:01.400 --> 00:42:04.429
this is a little bit off script because Raj gave
849
00:42:04.469 --> 00:42:07.280
this one a D grade instead of an F. But
850
00:42:07.420 --> 00:42:09.489
I personally think it was a little bit worse than
851
00:42:09.530 --> 00:42:11.389
a couple of the Fs that he did give me.
852
00:42:11.789 --> 00:42:14.429
And the main reason being, similar to a Skyler King,
853
00:42:14.469 --> 00:42:17.289
the writing was on the wall for Sam Shaw because
854
00:42:17.329 --> 00:42:20.130
he's a player that was coming back from surgery to
855
00:42:21.190 --> 00:42:25.690
address thoracic outlet syndrome and blood clots in his shoulder.
856
00:42:26.170 --> 00:42:29.210
So there was already a reason to be concerned with
857
00:42:29.250 --> 00:42:31.920
what it could look like. And he then left with
858
00:42:31.960 --> 00:42:34.860
an undisclosed injury in early July. And although he was
859
00:42:35.059 --> 00:42:38.179
activated at the end of September, the high season had
860
00:42:38.199 --> 00:42:41.469
already ended. So we didn't see him again after my recommendation.
861
00:42:41.570 --> 00:42:44.150
So I do think Shaw is still a talented player.
862
00:42:44.170 --> 00:42:47.769
I don't think the fantasy upside is anything special. And
863
00:42:47.789 --> 00:42:50.449
I think the risk of the injuries here just outweigh
864
00:42:50.469 --> 00:42:52.639
the reward. So even though he was a little bit
865
00:42:52.679 --> 00:42:55.719
of a deeper recommendation as well, he is one that
866
00:42:55.880 --> 00:43:00.539
I would consider one of my worst recommendations. Now, there
867
00:43:00.619 --> 00:43:04.519
are a few recommendations that, for better or worse, maybe
868
00:43:04.559 --> 00:43:08.400
didn't get the grade that we thought they deserved. So, Raj,
869
00:43:08.440 --> 00:43:11.750
who was one player that I gave maybe a lower
870
00:43:11.829 --> 00:43:13.250
grade than you thought they deserved?
871
00:43:14.409 --> 00:43:18.710
This one might be not the best to pick for us,
872
00:43:18.730 --> 00:43:21.309
because that was depending between the two guys, but I'm
873
00:43:21.329 --> 00:43:24.329
going to go with Bryce Meyer. You gave him a,
874
00:43:24.320 --> 00:43:27.369
maybe so I saw a bit of a, Tough one.
875
00:43:27.389 --> 00:43:29.130
Cause you gave him a C plus and I do
876
00:43:29.409 --> 00:43:32.389
agree with that because the performance was on the surface
877
00:43:32.429 --> 00:43:34.909
of performance. Wasn't the best, but you consider the fact
878
00:43:34.949 --> 00:43:38.269
that he was promoted to PCL. It's I think the
879
00:43:38.309 --> 00:43:41.869
performance is more so a factor. The poor surface numbers
880
00:43:41.949 --> 00:43:43.349
is more so a factor of him being at the
881
00:43:43.369 --> 00:43:47.070
PCL rather than him being a worse prospect because at
882
00:43:47.090 --> 00:43:49.309
the PCL, he's had pretty good strikeout rates. His walk
883
00:43:49.329 --> 00:43:51.429
rate is actually a little bit better in AAA than
884
00:43:51.449 --> 00:43:54.679
in AA and I think that The thing that really
885
00:43:54.760 --> 00:43:56.980
weighed his numbers down was his, was the home runs,
886
00:43:57.099 --> 00:44:00.579
but you look at the home run to fireball rate,
887
00:44:00.699 --> 00:44:04.139
it was 22.5%. And his 25, 29, except it still
888
00:44:04.159 --> 00:44:07.179
doesn't look that great. But in terms of the PCL averages,
889
00:44:07.320 --> 00:44:10.719
it's actually pretty much league average for the PCL. And
890
00:44:10.760 --> 00:44:13.090
he gets a ton of weak contact, only a 5.9%
891
00:44:13.090 --> 00:44:16.610
barrel rate, 25.9% hit rate. So I do think that
892
00:44:16.650 --> 00:44:19.869
home run to fireball rate is something that should have
893
00:44:19.889 --> 00:44:22.809
been a lot lower. And you consider the fact that he's,
894
00:44:23.539 --> 00:44:25.300
He's just getting used to a triple A ball. A
895
00:44:25.340 --> 00:44:28.440
guy that's knock on the door. I did give him
896
00:44:28.460 --> 00:44:31.639
an aggressive grade of 200 plus prospects, but an arm
897
00:44:31.679 --> 00:44:35.760
that performed well at triple A and is pretty close
898
00:44:35.780 --> 00:44:38.739
to big leagues. I think it's one of those cases
899
00:44:38.780 --> 00:44:42.239
where even though he's ranked around 400, I do think
900
00:44:42.739 --> 00:44:44.690
I would roster him in some 200 plus league just
901
00:44:44.710 --> 00:44:48.989
because it's because he's close to big leagues. There's some
902
00:44:49.030 --> 00:44:51.010
formats where you want a guy closer to big leagues.
903
00:44:51.719 --> 00:44:53.719
over as one of those more far away guys. And
904
00:44:54.260 --> 00:44:56.989
a guy like Brysmaier could be rushable in those 200
905
00:44:56.989 --> 00:45:00.670
plus leagues, even though the performance wasn't the best. Although
906
00:45:00.690 --> 00:45:03.389
the performance was, I do think, pretty solid, given it
907
00:45:03.489 --> 00:45:04.369
was in the PCL.
908
00:45:05.730 --> 00:45:08.719
Yeah, this was one of the tougher grades to give,
909
00:45:08.800 --> 00:45:12.199
because as you noted, the performance at AAA on the
910
00:45:12.260 --> 00:45:16.719
surface wasn't good, but... where he was not just in
911
00:45:16.900 --> 00:45:20.059
AAA for his first sample, but in the PCL, that
912
00:45:20.099 --> 00:45:22.800
certainly has a lot to do with it. On the
913
00:45:22.820 --> 00:45:25.340
flip side of things, the main reason it didn't move
914
00:45:25.460 --> 00:45:28.940
up into a B, despite the fact that the roster
915
00:45:28.960 --> 00:45:31.460
rate rose from six to 7%, and he did move
916
00:45:31.519 --> 00:45:35.039
from unranked to 418 overall, the main thing was just
917
00:45:35.139 --> 00:45:38.599
as you noted, it was a recommendation, a fairly aggressive recommendation.
918
00:45:38.949 --> 00:45:41.489
for leagues with 200 plus prospects rostered, if he had
919
00:45:41.730 --> 00:45:45.369
gotten closer to that recommendation level, he would have received
920
00:45:45.409 --> 00:45:47.570
a higher grade. But for me, I did take that
921
00:45:47.690 --> 00:45:51.650
into account, especially when there was a large discrepancy in
922
00:45:51.670 --> 00:45:53.789
the recommendation to where they ended the season. So I
923
00:45:53.829 --> 00:45:57.070
can certainly see where you're coming from here. But the
924
00:45:57.110 --> 00:46:00.030
league size recommendation compared to the ranking maybe played a
925
00:46:00.090 --> 00:46:02.619
little bit more of a factor for me than it
926
00:46:02.659 --> 00:46:06.039
did for you with some of your grades that you gave.
927
00:46:08.360 --> 00:46:10.900
All right, Taylor, I know that, again, the list is
928
00:46:10.980 --> 00:46:13.880
relatively short for you here, but we've got a repeat name.
929
00:46:13.920 --> 00:46:16.480
So why do you think this player deserved a better
930
00:46:16.539 --> 00:46:17.420
grade as well?
931
00:46:18.719 --> 00:46:21.829
Yeah, it's O'Neal Hernandez or Joneel Hernandez of the Giants.
932
00:46:22.170 --> 00:46:24.210
Raj gave me a C grade because he didn't play
933
00:46:24.570 --> 00:46:26.949
after I recommended him, at least in the regular season.
934
00:46:27.070 --> 00:46:29.889
He actually did play in the playoffs. I don't fault you, Raj,
935
00:46:29.909 --> 00:46:32.269
for this. I wasn't expecting you to dig deep into, like,
936
00:46:32.570 --> 00:46:33.909
minor league playoff stat lines.
937
00:46:34.610 --> 00:46:34.829
But.
938
00:46:35.280 --> 00:46:37.360
I will say maybe this changes the recommendation a little
939
00:46:37.389 --> 00:46:38.889
bit to at least the C plus because it was
940
00:46:38.929 --> 00:46:44.030
just five games, but in those five games, 924 OPS, 273, 333,
941
00:46:44.030 --> 00:46:46.730
591 slash, two home runs, a double, and a stolen
942
00:46:46.750 --> 00:46:49.320
base in that time. So went off in the playoffs.
943
00:46:49.530 --> 00:46:51.500
How much you want to wait minor league playoff data
944
00:46:51.980 --> 00:46:54.059
is up to you, but I feel that did not play.
945
00:46:54.280 --> 00:46:56.300
If you move in that he played pretty well, went
946
00:46:56.360 --> 00:46:58.559
off after, I think it bumps it up to at
947
00:46:58.579 --> 00:46:59.940
least a C plus, if not a B grade.
948
00:46:59.960 --> 00:47:02.869
I'm not sure because I know like minor league playoffs
949
00:47:02.949 --> 00:47:05.389
are like not too They don't matter too much, and
950
00:47:05.409 --> 00:47:06.969
if you think of a big league, now that he's
951
00:47:07.010 --> 00:47:08.500
in insurance, he's probably not going to be in the
952
00:47:08.519 --> 00:47:09.360
playoffs that much.
953
00:47:10.860 --> 00:47:17.820
Oh, okay. That's it. Gauntlet thrown. I challenge you to
954
00:47:17.840 --> 00:47:18.400
a dual, sir.
955
00:47:19.960 --> 00:47:21.960
Yeah, I think part of it is that he was, like,
956
00:47:21.980 --> 00:47:24.800
you recommend him for a league of 250-plus prospects, and
957
00:47:24.820 --> 00:47:29.619
when you recommend him, he was already 332nd on a ranking,
958
00:47:29.639 --> 00:47:34.650
so I think it wasn't, like, as aggressive enough or great,
959
00:47:34.670 --> 00:47:38.460
because I think, like, while he was sort of, like,
960
00:47:38.519 --> 00:47:41.500
rosterable in those leagues, he didn't really boost his stock
961
00:47:42.059 --> 00:47:45.920
that much to where it's like, oh, I'm, this is,
962
00:47:45.920 --> 00:47:48.590
I'm not sure how to explain it, but basically, he
963
00:47:48.610 --> 00:47:50.150
didn't really boost his stock that much, and it was
964
00:47:50.190 --> 00:47:53.190
already a recommendation where, like, he was already in that,
965
00:47:53.449 --> 00:47:56.989
and then he just stayed in that tier rather than, like,
966
00:47:57.070 --> 00:47:57.469
moving up.
967
00:47:59.190 --> 00:48:01.739
Yeah, totally understand. Yeah, for sure.
968
00:48:02.579 --> 00:48:05.199
Oddly enough here, I am also going to be defending
969
00:48:05.300 --> 00:48:07.980
a San Francisco Giants player, but it's also one of
970
00:48:08.059 --> 00:48:11.989
my favorite recommendations from this season as a whole, not
971
00:48:12.050 --> 00:48:15.250
just the second half. And that's Jacob Bresnahan. Raj, you
972
00:48:15.269 --> 00:48:17.769
gave this one a B because he had a four
973
00:48:17.789 --> 00:48:20.989
and a half ERA after my recommendation. But what I'm
974
00:48:21.010 --> 00:48:23.550
looking at more than those numbers is the fact that
975
00:48:23.670 --> 00:48:29.340
his ranking rose from outside our top 550 to 200 overall,
976
00:48:29.679 --> 00:48:32.610
which is exactly where I recommended him. And his roster
977
00:48:32.630 --> 00:48:36.329
rate rose from 7% to 12%, so a significant boost there. Now,
978
00:48:36.389 --> 00:48:38.429
I would love to say this deserved an A or
979
00:48:38.510 --> 00:48:43.510
even an A +, considering his stock arguably improved as
980
00:48:43.639 --> 00:48:46.119
much as, if not more than some of the players
981
00:48:46.159 --> 00:48:50.019
that I mentioned earlier as my best recommendations. And that's
982
00:48:50.059 --> 00:48:52.500
the whole point of these recommendations, is to give you
983
00:48:52.559 --> 00:48:55.000
players that are going to rise in value. So when
984
00:48:55.039 --> 00:48:58.050
I see a player whose stock rose significantly, both in
985
00:48:58.090 --> 00:49:03.210
terms of roster rate and ranking, and who fell right
986
00:49:03.349 --> 00:49:07.349
into the category where I recommended him, I am very
987
00:49:07.389 --> 00:49:10.099
encouraged by that. Again, I would love an A or
988
00:49:10.119 --> 00:49:11.940
an A +, but I would have settled for an
989
00:49:12.019 --> 00:49:13.800
A- due to the performance.
990
00:49:15.550 --> 00:49:18.469
Yeah, I think the performance is what's weighing it down
991
00:49:18.510 --> 00:49:21.050
from an A. to more of a B for me.
992
00:49:21.139 --> 00:49:22.820
I didn't really give any like B plus or A minus,
993
00:49:22.840 --> 00:49:25.579
just an A plus, A, B, C, and that sort
994
00:49:25.599 --> 00:49:28.760
of thing. But I do think that he should be,
995
00:49:29.619 --> 00:49:31.719
he probably should get consideration for A. I think this
996
00:49:31.760 --> 00:49:35.219
is more a situation where I'm not the highest guard
997
00:49:35.239 --> 00:49:39.510
in Jacob Bessahanna, but... Everybody else was definitely high in
998
00:49:39.849 --> 00:49:42.630
the performance. I know after the recommendation wasn't great, but
999
00:49:42.849 --> 00:49:44.550
before the performance was so good that he was able
1000
00:49:44.570 --> 00:49:46.889
to carry his stock up a ton. So I do
1001
00:49:46.909 --> 00:49:51.610
think even though the performance wasn't that great, the roster
1002
00:49:51.679 --> 00:49:54.360
jumped so much, especially considering how hard it is for
1003
00:49:54.400 --> 00:49:56.980
that to jump in the second half. I think he
1004
00:49:57.000 --> 00:49:59.480
probably does. I think you're right. He probably does deserve
1005
00:49:59.539 --> 00:49:59.710
an A.
1006
00:50:00.480 --> 00:50:02.619
I'm glad that I've got you on board there. I
1007
00:50:02.639 --> 00:50:04.920
know I don't need to continue to make my case,
1008
00:50:04.960 --> 00:50:07.059
but if I'm not mistaken, Taylor, maybe you can correct
1009
00:50:07.079 --> 00:50:09.559
me on this. I think this was the third straight
1010
00:50:09.599 --> 00:50:12.599
year and the third different level that he has now
1011
00:50:12.679 --> 00:50:15.599
received Pitcher of the Year acclamation for.
1012
00:50:15.619 --> 00:50:20.519
Yeah, I'm not 100% sure on that, but that sounds plausible.
1013
00:50:21.139 --> 00:50:21.920
I think he did.
1014
00:50:22.019 --> 00:50:25.280
So that would be maybe if I needed to make
1015
00:50:25.360 --> 00:50:29.119
another argument, one more notch in the belt of Jacob
1016
00:50:29.139 --> 00:50:31.480
Bresnahan here. But we're going to move on to our
1017
00:50:31.599 --> 00:50:35.739
final category here. One miss who could bounce back next year.
1018
00:50:35.900 --> 00:50:38.579
So Raj... Who do you have for us in this spot?
1019
00:50:39.599 --> 00:50:41.719
So this is a guy that I was debating with.
1020
00:50:42.980 --> 00:50:45.190
Bryce Meyer is like the guy who I felt you
1021
00:50:45.210 --> 00:50:47.230
graded too well because I'm going to go with Patrick
1022
00:50:47.250 --> 00:50:51.590
Copen and you graded him a D grade. And one
1023
00:50:51.610 --> 00:50:55.230
of the things that was really nuts, he's a guy
1024
00:50:55.250 --> 00:50:57.489
who always had very good stuff, but the command wasn't
1025
00:50:57.530 --> 00:51:00.880
that great. But in the second half, he improved his
1026
00:51:00.920 --> 00:51:02.599
command and that's why I called him out near the
1027
00:51:02.619 --> 00:51:05.079
end of the year. And since then, his command has
1028
00:51:05.119 --> 00:51:11.150
continued to be great, only a 7.6% walk rate in
1029
00:51:11.170 --> 00:51:14.670
degree starts after I recommend him, even though the strikeout
1030
00:51:14.690 --> 00:51:17.579
rate was a little bit lower than you expect 18.2%.
1031
00:51:17.579 --> 00:51:20.670
394 ERA and 330 ERA in degree starts after I
1032
00:51:20.670 --> 00:51:23.949
recommend him. And overall in the second half, 46 and
1033
00:51:23.989 --> 00:51:27.670
one third innings pitch to a, let me just double check. Yeah,
1034
00:51:27.670 --> 00:51:31.510
46 and one third innings pitch to a 330 ERA
1035
00:51:31.670 --> 00:51:35.880
and a sub three fifth 297. 28.1% carry and a 7.3%
1036
00:51:35.880 --> 00:51:38.880
walk rate. And you factor in the stuff, you factor
1037
00:51:38.920 --> 00:51:43.019
in the versioning command in, I guess, 46 and a
1038
00:51:43.019 --> 00:51:46.119
third innings only, but it's not nothing. And I do
1039
00:51:46.139 --> 00:51:48.849
think if he can continue that next year, he can
1040
00:51:48.889 --> 00:51:51.409
really pop off. Because as I said earlier, if you
1041
00:51:51.429 --> 00:51:54.170
have that good first impression, he could really boost his stock.
1042
00:51:54.210 --> 00:51:58.929
And Patrick Copeland, if he does what he did at
1043
00:51:58.969 --> 00:52:01.010
the end of this year, at the start of next year,
1044
00:52:01.170 --> 00:52:04.059
I think he's probably going to Because you look at
1045
00:52:04.139 --> 00:52:07.139
also the... One of the reasons why I didn't pick
1046
00:52:07.159 --> 00:52:11.079
him as the guy to... That I felt like he
1047
00:52:11.099 --> 00:52:13.760
graded too low on is because the roster actually went down.
1048
00:52:14.219 --> 00:52:16.260
They went from 3% to 2%, and the ranking went
1049
00:52:16.300 --> 00:52:20.449
from 450 to 500 around. But if he can pitch
1050
00:52:20.469 --> 00:52:22.409
like this and start next year, I think he's probably
1051
00:52:23.110 --> 00:52:25.610
maybe in that 250, 200 range.
1052
00:52:25.510 --> 00:52:25.989
Even, maybe.
1053
00:52:27.130 --> 00:52:29.510
Yeah, I think there's certainly opportunity for him to rise.
1054
00:52:29.610 --> 00:52:30.050
I do.
1055
00:52:30.690 --> 00:52:32.550
like the call out I think it was just a
1056
00:52:32.590 --> 00:52:36.260
matter of yeah maybe poor timing with people realizing what
1057
00:52:36.320 --> 00:52:39.800
the kind of overall line looked like on the season
1058
00:52:39.840 --> 00:52:41.780
and his stock falling a little bit because of it
1059
00:52:41.840 --> 00:52:45.500
it would be fantastic to see him rise back up
1060
00:52:45.539 --> 00:52:47.730
the ranks though so that will be a name certainly
1061
00:52:48.050 --> 00:52:50.630
to keep an eye on next season Taylor who do
1062
00:52:50.670 --> 00:52:53.909
you have as a miss that could bounce back next season.
1063
00:52:54.809 --> 00:52:56.190
Yeah, I'm not going to get too much in depth
1064
00:52:56.210 --> 00:52:58.170
on him because we just covered him a couple weeks ago.
1065
00:52:58.190 --> 00:52:59.869
It was my last recommendation of the year, but I
1066
00:52:59.889 --> 00:53:02.469
think Kelvis Salcedo, again, not a miss. He didn't really
1067
00:53:02.510 --> 00:53:04.429
pitch after I recommended him, but I feel like this
1068
00:53:04.489 --> 00:53:07.519
is the guy who I feel probably will rise the
1069
00:53:07.559 --> 00:53:10.800
most across the offseason as people do a little bit
1070
00:53:10.840 --> 00:53:13.650
more digging and get a little bit more excited about him.
1071
00:53:14.940 --> 00:53:17.019
Yeah, I think that's a really good call out because
1072
00:53:17.039 --> 00:53:19.769
that's one that we've talked about a few times over
1073
00:53:19.809 --> 00:53:22.409
the last couple of years and the, the hype just
1074
00:53:22.449 --> 00:53:25.159
never quite seems to catch up to. It seems like
1075
00:53:25.260 --> 00:53:28.679
the performance. So hopefully that is a name that we're
1076
00:53:28.699 --> 00:53:31.159
going to see with a little bit more of a
1077
00:53:31.199 --> 00:53:34.079
rise next year. I am going to dive into my
1078
00:53:34.139 --> 00:53:36.659
name here. And while I'm never going to give up
1079
00:53:36.840 --> 00:53:39.860
on Josh Knopf, he could easily be my choice here.
1080
00:53:40.280 --> 00:53:42.809
I'm not going to talk about him. I instead am
1081
00:53:42.849 --> 00:53:45.849
going to take a look at Coy James, a shortstop in.
1082
00:53:45.809 --> 00:53:46.750
The national system.
1083
00:53:47.230 --> 00:53:49.929
And honestly, this is another one similar to you, Raj,
1084
00:53:49.989 --> 00:53:53.489
talking about Copen, that I thought about maybe arguing for
1085
00:53:53.530 --> 00:53:56.150
a better grade on because his stock really didn't change
1086
00:53:56.309 --> 00:53:59.730
at all. And while his performance in 11 games after
1087
00:53:59.789 --> 00:54:03.300
my recommendation did come with a 48 WRC +, he
1088
00:54:03.340 --> 00:54:07.300
also continued to show strong contact and approach metrics over
1089
00:54:07.340 --> 00:54:11.360
that span and got really unlucky with a 189 Babbitt
1090
00:54:11.500 --> 00:54:14.139
dragging down his numbers. And a big part of why
1091
00:54:14.219 --> 00:54:18.539
I recommended James when I did is because he was
1092
00:54:18.639 --> 00:54:21.400
a prospect with an exciting blend of power and speed
1093
00:54:21.480 --> 00:54:25.300
who started displaying some much improved contact and approach numbers
1094
00:54:25.820 --> 00:54:28.400
after the minor league all-star break so although his final
1095
00:54:28.400 --> 00:54:32.099
11 games were a bit unlucky I'm still really encouraged
1096
00:54:32.219 --> 00:54:35.739
by what we saw with regards to again especially his
1097
00:54:35.800 --> 00:54:38.920
approach and his contact in the second half and if
1098
00:54:38.960 --> 00:54:41.739
he can continue that into next season I think he's
1099
00:54:41.760 --> 00:54:45.559
going to be a really big riser All right, that
1100
00:54:45.699 --> 00:54:49.139
does it though for all of our recommendations for all
1101
00:54:49.260 --> 00:54:53.280
of our grades this season. But before we end today's episode,
1102
00:54:53.320 --> 00:54:56.400
before we go, before we take a bit of a break, Raj,
1103
00:54:56.500 --> 00:54:58.500
I understand that you have a bit of a surprise
1104
00:54:58.559 --> 00:54:59.320
for us here today.
1105
00:55:00.320 --> 00:55:02.719
Yeah, so I wanted to do a bit of a
1106
00:55:02.760 --> 00:55:06.039
year in review, but I didn't want to just tell
1107
00:55:06.059 --> 00:55:08.420
you like a bunch of numbers. So what we're going
1108
00:55:08.440 --> 00:55:09.619
to do is that we're going to do a bit
1109
00:55:09.659 --> 00:55:12.539
of a trivia where I'm going to ask questions about
1110
00:55:13.119 --> 00:55:14.820
your recommendation and you're going to try to guess.
1111
00:55:15.860 --> 00:55:16.280
We'll see.
1112
00:55:16.800 --> 00:55:19.820
You'll get the picture. Just to recap this year, I,
1113
00:55:19.929 --> 00:55:23.630
me and Cal each made 115 recommendations and Tara made 23.
1114
00:55:23.630 --> 00:55:27.070
So that's on our 253 total recommendations. So a little
1115
00:55:27.110 --> 00:55:31.289
over 250. Cal, this first question is for you. So
1116
00:55:31.329 --> 00:55:34.059
what do you think was your most recommended team this year?
1117
00:55:34.320 --> 00:55:36.420
And that is what I mean by that is which
1118
00:55:36.480 --> 00:55:38.659
team did you recommend from the most?
1119
00:55:39.880 --> 00:55:47.480
Most recommended team. I don't... It's tough.
1120
00:55:47.519 --> 00:55:49.940
Maybe the Nationals? I know I recommended a few players
1121
00:55:49.980 --> 00:55:50.699
from the Nationals.
1122
00:55:51.820 --> 00:55:54.239
So the Nationals, you had six, but the team you
1123
00:55:54.260 --> 00:55:57.570
recommended from the most was actually the Cleveland Guardians with
1124
00:55:57.570 --> 00:55:59.170
10 different players recommended.
1125
00:55:59.190 --> 00:55:59.449
Oh, wow.
1126
00:56:00.469 --> 00:56:03.190
Yeah. So Taylor, this is for you.
1127
00:56:03.409 --> 00:56:03.829
You had.
1128
00:56:03.849 --> 00:56:06.269
I'm going to ask you your most recommended team, but
1129
00:56:06.289 --> 00:56:09.070
you actually had two because you had two teams tied
1130
00:56:09.090 --> 00:56:11.889
for three recommendations each. So if you like, you can
1131
00:56:11.929 --> 00:56:14.059
give two guesses for what each of them were.
1132
00:56:15.429 --> 00:56:17.030
Oh, man, this is a tough one. I got to
1133
00:56:17.050 --> 00:56:18.219
guess the Giants, obviously.
1134
00:56:18.239 --> 00:56:21.019
It is not the Giants.
1135
00:56:21.539 --> 00:56:25.980
Oh, let's see. Try to think back through all my recommendations.
1136
00:56:26.579 --> 00:56:28.719
Probably the Brewers and the Dodgers?
1137
00:56:29.980 --> 00:56:32.900
No, it's actually the Tigers and the Cardinals.
1138
00:56:33.559 --> 00:56:33.860
Whoa.
1139
00:56:33.960 --> 00:56:35.159
Three from each.
1140
00:56:36.079 --> 00:56:37.960
Wow, would not have expected that. What was yours, Raj?
1141
00:56:39.039 --> 00:56:40.940
Mine was, like, it's going to be an answer for
1142
00:56:41.039 --> 00:56:41.519
one of the.
1143
00:56:41.599 --> 00:56:43.320
Future ones, so I'm not going to say it yet.
1144
00:56:43.340 --> 00:56:46.230
Okay, never mind. go for it.
1145
00:56:46.750 --> 00:56:48.630
So next, we're going to go for the teams with
1146
00:56:49.010 --> 00:56:52.760
zero recommendations. Kyle, this is for you because you didn't
1147
00:56:52.800 --> 00:56:54.119
recommend as many, so you have a bunch of you
1148
00:56:54.159 --> 00:56:56.940
with zero recommendations, but Kyle, you only had one team
1149
00:56:57.000 --> 00:57:00.800
where you did not recommend a single pair from. Can
1150
00:57:00.820 --> 00:57:02.059
you guess which team that was?
1151
00:57:02.969 --> 00:57:07.510
One team without any. The problem is that probably means
1152
00:57:07.550 --> 00:57:09.710
they're off my mind entirely, so I don't know that
1153
00:57:09.730 --> 00:57:11.550
I'm going to get this, but I'm going.
1154
00:57:11.389 --> 00:57:12.929
To take a stab at.
1155
00:57:17.659 --> 00:57:19.039
I'm going to take a stab at.
1156
00:57:20.760 --> 00:57:22.699
Let's go with the Phillies?
1157
00:57:22.719 --> 00:57:27.000
It was actually the New York Mets. And the thing
1158
00:57:27.039 --> 00:57:29.460
that made it this one interesting is that even though
1159
00:57:29.480 --> 00:57:31.840
you didn't recommend any players from the Mets, you ended
1160
00:57:31.900 --> 00:57:34.079
up having two players who were traded to the Mets
1161
00:57:34.119 --> 00:57:36.619
at the deadline. One of them was Gabe Davis, who
1162
00:57:36.639 --> 00:57:39.360
I know in the last week's podcast, he thought he
1163
00:57:39.380 --> 00:57:42.059
would break out next year a bit. But the other
1164
00:57:42.079 --> 00:57:44.840
recommendation was actually Aiden Smith. And this one was interesting
1165
00:57:44.860 --> 00:57:47.539
because that was actually a drop recommendation for you. So
1166
00:57:47.559 --> 00:57:50.489
I want, and just see how you feel about Aiden
1167
00:57:50.510 --> 00:57:52.630
Smith for next year. Cause I know that he's with
1168
00:57:52.650 --> 00:57:54.769
New York now. Is that what probably changed the last
1169
00:57:54.789 --> 00:57:57.570
time you just hear what you think about Aiden Smith?
1170
00:57:58.369 --> 00:58:02.150
I think I'm probably still where I was prior to
1171
00:58:02.210 --> 00:58:05.829
the trade in that he's an incredibly exciting prospect with
1172
00:58:05.869 --> 00:58:08.590
some really big questions that he still needs to answer.
1173
00:58:09.130 --> 00:58:10.889
So I don't know that I'm going to be moving
1174
00:58:10.949 --> 00:58:14.530
him significantly in my rankings until we see what that
1175
00:58:14.590 --> 00:58:19.320
looks like next season after a full off-season of communication
1176
00:58:19.389 --> 00:58:21.480
with his new team. So I know it's a bit
1177
00:58:21.500 --> 00:58:24.480
of a cop-out answer, but I'm probably not doing anything
1178
00:58:24.539 --> 00:58:26.500
with him right now. I want to see what happens
1179
00:58:26.880 --> 00:58:27.380
in 2027.
1180
00:58:27.380 --> 00:58:35.119
Okay, so now let's look at the overall numbers. There's
1181
00:58:35.159 --> 00:58:39.110
two teams that are tied with 16 recommendations overall. And
1182
00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:42.179
can you guess? I'll give you each two chances to
1183
00:58:42.219 --> 00:58:44.099
guess which teams they were.
1184
00:58:45.079 --> 00:58:48.380
I recommended 10 Guardians, so I got to assume that's
1185
00:58:48.480 --> 00:58:48.800
one of them.
1186
00:58:49.659 --> 00:58:50.739
It is not. No.
1187
00:58:50.760 --> 00:58:55.090
Oh, wow. Is this like Family Feud? Can I steal
1188
00:58:55.110 --> 00:58:55.860
another category here?
1189
00:58:55.969 --> 00:58:58.409
No, you both get two opportunities because this is all
1190
00:58:58.429 --> 00:58:58.630
of us.
1191
00:58:58.769 --> 00:58:59.969
Okay. Are we switching back and forth?
1192
00:59:00.570 --> 00:59:02.010
Yeah, go for it. Okay.
1193
00:59:02.030 --> 00:59:03.050
I'm going to go with the Brewers.
1194
00:59:04.289 --> 00:59:04.510
No.
1195
00:59:05.090 --> 00:59:08.079
Brewers had 13. These two teams each had 16.
1196
00:59:08.079 --> 00:59:09.659
Okay. This is tough.
1197
00:59:09.900 --> 00:59:12.179
Tougher than I was expecting it to be. These are
1198
00:59:12.199 --> 00:59:13.219
some good questions, Raj.
1199
00:59:13.260 --> 00:59:13.739
What about the.
1200
00:59:15.519 --> 00:59:17.510
I don't think we had this many, but what about
1201
00:59:17.550 --> 00:59:18.070
the Yankees?
1202
00:59:19.110 --> 00:59:21.329
The Yankees only had seven. Yeah.
1203
00:59:21.989 --> 00:59:22.769
That was a bad guess.
1204
00:59:23.750 --> 00:59:25.730
I'm going with the Nats.
1205
00:59:25.750 --> 00:59:29.349
No, the Nats had 13, so the... Two most recommended
1206
00:59:29.369 --> 00:59:32.369
teams at 16 were the Boston Red Sox and the
1207
00:59:32.449 --> 00:59:33.110
Miami Marlins.
1208
00:59:33.929 --> 00:59:36.449
Okay. We should have gotten Red Sox.
1209
00:59:37.130 --> 00:59:39.309
Yeah. I know you asked me what my most recommended
1210
00:59:39.550 --> 00:59:42.889
team was. For me, it was the Marlins with nine recommendations.
1211
00:59:43.190 --> 00:59:43.469
Okay.
1212
00:59:44.050 --> 00:59:44.380
Got it.
1213
00:59:44.389 --> 00:59:45.219
That checks out too.
1214
00:59:46.360 --> 00:59:49.800
So now what about the least recommended team? And this
1215
00:59:49.840 --> 00:59:52.699
team only got two recommendations out of the whole year.
1216
00:59:53.300 --> 00:59:55.659
One from me, one from Kyle. Taylor, you can start
1217
00:59:55.980 --> 00:59:56.360
this time.
1218
00:59:56.239 --> 00:59:56.860
If you want.
1219
00:59:57.510 --> 01:00:01.050
Least recommendations. And I didn't recommend anyone from them. I'm
1220
01:00:04.269 --> 01:00:09.050
trying to think of like really bad teams. I don't
1221
01:00:09.070 --> 01:00:11.380
know why, but this one's popping in my head. How
1222
01:00:11.400 --> 01:00:12.460
about the Arizona Diamondbacks?
1223
01:00:14.099 --> 01:00:14.539
It is not.
1224
01:00:14.800 --> 01:00:18.199
The Diamondbacks had seven recommendations from us this year.
1225
01:00:19.679 --> 01:00:19.960
You know what?
1226
01:00:20.019 --> 01:00:23.070
I guessed this earlier for my least recommended. So I
1227
01:00:23.190 --> 01:00:25.030
still feel good about this. What about the Phillies?
1228
01:00:26.190 --> 01:00:27.170
It is not the Phillies.
1229
01:00:27.409 --> 01:00:28.929
I think I know who it is. Wait, I think
1230
01:00:28.949 --> 01:00:30.809
I know who it is. Is it the Padres?
1231
01:00:31.849 --> 01:00:34.929
No, Padres had three. So they're like second least.
1232
01:00:34.949 --> 01:00:35.590
They're right there.
1233
01:00:36.710 --> 01:00:42.380
Yeah. So the least is actually the Athletics. And it's
1234
01:00:42.500 --> 01:00:45.159
pretty interesting because the two guys that I recommend were
1235
01:00:45.659 --> 01:00:48.659
Brice and Guedes, which is Carlos, and mine was Joshua Kortegaard.
1236
01:00:49.579 --> 01:00:52.519
And I think both of them, like Kortegaard had a
1237
01:00:52.559 --> 01:00:55.409
good year, Guedes not so much, but I think there's...
1238
01:00:55.869 --> 01:00:58.269
Even though they weren't like, we didn't have that many calls.
1239
01:00:58.469 --> 01:01:02.530
I think those two guys were like pretty impactful, especially again,
1240
01:01:02.570 --> 01:01:04.070
as I think he can really bounce back next year
1241
01:01:04.110 --> 01:01:04.369
as well.
1242
01:01:05.449 --> 01:01:09.489
So yeah, those are two almost complete opposite recommendations too.
1243
01:01:09.550 --> 01:01:11.820
Those are really interesting that those are the only two
1244
01:01:11.880 --> 01:01:12.960
we looked at from the A's.
1245
01:01:14.199 --> 01:01:18.539
Yeah. So now let's look at the, this is for Cal.
1246
01:01:18.579 --> 01:01:25.650
So there was one team that got five recommendations, but Cal,
1247
01:01:25.730 --> 01:01:28.630
you had all five of those recommendations. So I don't
1248
01:01:28.650 --> 01:01:31.150
recommend a single pair from that team. Taylor doesn't recommend
1249
01:01:31.170 --> 01:01:33.429
a single pair from that team. So which team are
1250
01:01:33.449 --> 01:01:34.409
you secretly a fan of?
1251
01:01:37.159 --> 01:01:37.699
Oh, boy.
1252
01:01:37.820 --> 01:01:38.519
You know what?
1253
01:01:39.119 --> 01:01:41.239
This is probably going to be a team that I
1254
01:01:41.400 --> 01:01:45.690
have in no way any actual fandom for, isn't it?
1255
01:01:47.119 --> 01:01:48.090
Let's go Braves.
1256
01:01:49.550 --> 01:01:53.369
It is not the Braves. It is the Seattle Mariners.
1257
01:01:54.190 --> 01:01:54.949
Okay, you know what?
1258
01:01:55.050 --> 01:01:56.969
I don't hate that. I've got a few players that
1259
01:01:57.010 --> 01:01:59.860
I do enjoy there. And I got to interview one
1260
01:01:59.900 --> 01:02:02.739
of the players that I recommended. So I'm just fine
1261
01:02:02.760 --> 01:02:05.139
with that being one of the answers for me here.
1262
01:02:06.960 --> 01:02:09.300
So now one final question. This one's going to be fun.
1263
01:02:09.360 --> 01:02:14.440
So which team got more recommendations this year? The Giants
1264
01:02:14.500 --> 01:02:17.570
or the Blue Jays? And you can each give a
1265
01:02:17.619 --> 01:02:18.670
guess before I give the answer.
1266
01:02:20.590 --> 01:02:22.150
I think it was probably the Giants.
1267
01:02:23.650 --> 01:02:24.909
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was the Giants.
1268
01:02:26.519 --> 01:02:31.320
Okay, so this year, Kyle, you had five recommendations for
1269
01:02:31.340 --> 01:02:33.760
the Jays and three for the Giants. So that's plus
1270
01:02:33.780 --> 01:02:36.219
two for the Jays. But I canceled you out. I
1271
01:02:36.260 --> 01:02:38.900
had six for the Giants and four for the Jays.
1272
01:02:39.880 --> 01:02:41.989
So it all comes down to Tara. And Tara, you
1273
01:02:42.030 --> 01:02:45.989
had one recommendation from the Jays, but two from the Giants.
1274
01:02:46.070 --> 01:02:49.769
Tara's Giants bias makes it 11 calls for the Giants
1275
01:02:49.849 --> 01:02:54.610
and 10 for the Jays this year. And that's all.
1276
01:02:54.630 --> 01:02:55.730
All right. Love it.
1277
01:02:55.889 --> 01:02:56.329
You know what?
1278
01:02:56.489 --> 01:02:58.309
It took until the very end, but at least we
1279
01:02:58.349 --> 01:03:01.090
got one right. Those were some tough questions, Raj. Those
1280
01:03:01.190 --> 01:03:04.710
were really good questions. Apparently, we don't know our recommendations
1281
01:03:04.769 --> 01:03:05.849
as well as we thought we did.
1282
01:03:07.769 --> 01:03:10.400
We have to be more prepared next time around. Absolutely.
1283
01:03:10.420 --> 01:03:12.940
Thanks a lot, Raj. Yeah, that was awesome.
1284
01:03:12.980 --> 01:03:15.760
But Raj, thank you, not just for that quiz at
1285
01:03:15.800 --> 01:03:17.579
the end to keep us on our toes a little bit,
1286
01:03:17.639 --> 01:03:20.619
but for joining us again this week and for the
1287
01:03:20.780 --> 01:03:23.650
excellent work that you have done all season long on
1288
01:03:24.110 --> 01:03:28.000
these articles, on the podcast when we got you on. Please,
1289
01:03:28.320 --> 01:03:30.980
one more time here, tell the people where they can
1290
01:03:31.039 --> 01:03:32.579
find you and what you're going to be working on
1291
01:03:32.619 --> 01:03:35.599
this winter because while our articles are ending, we are
1292
01:03:35.679 --> 01:03:36.840
still going to be very busy.
1293
01:03:38.099 --> 01:03:40.800
Yeah, so you can find me on bluesky at rajmantra.ca
1294
01:03:40.840 --> 01:03:42.889
and now that we're in the off-season, we're going to
1295
01:03:42.909 --> 01:03:46.409
be working on our 2027 Dynasty Outlooks for each MLB
1296
01:03:46.469 --> 01:03:50.050
team as well as the 2029 lineups for each team
1297
01:03:50.150 --> 01:03:53.300
and so I'll be doing the Rockies, plus a few others,
1298
01:03:53.440 --> 01:03:56.510
but the Rockies, since we're working from the worst teams
1299
01:03:56.530 --> 01:03:58.510
to the best, Rockies will be one of the first
1300
01:03:58.530 --> 01:04:01.610
teams we'll talk about. So I believe this week you'll
1301
01:04:01.650 --> 01:04:04.190
find me on a podcast yet again on the main
1302
01:04:04.449 --> 01:04:07.210
Dynasty pod with Greg, and we'll talk about the 2029
1303
01:04:07.210 --> 01:04:12.760
minus for the Rockies as well as their Dynasty outlooks. Awesome.
1304
01:04:12.780 --> 01:04:15.280
We look forward to seeing everything else you've got coming
1305
01:04:15.340 --> 01:04:19.480
this winter, Raj. Thank you once again for joining us. Taylor,
1306
01:04:19.599 --> 01:04:22.119
is there anything that you would like to add Before
1307
01:04:22.139 --> 01:04:24.039
we take a bit of a break through the playoffs.
1308
01:04:26.119 --> 01:04:30.360
Just enjoy the postseason, everybody. Hopefully we get a full
1309
01:04:30.400 --> 01:04:33.360
season next year. But even if not, we'll still have
1310
01:04:33.380 --> 01:04:34.699
some minor league ball to talk about.
1311
01:04:34.980 --> 01:04:35.519
Absolutely.
1312
01:04:35.659 --> 01:04:37.659
We are going to have a ton to talk about
1313
01:04:37.719 --> 01:04:41.190
this winter and even next season, regardless of what's going
1314
01:04:41.329 --> 01:04:45.090
on with the major league season. As Taylor said, enjoy
1315
01:04:45.130 --> 01:04:48.070
the playoffs. Those of you that have your favorite team
1316
01:04:48.110 --> 01:04:50.829
still in there, unfortunately, that is none of the three
1317
01:04:50.869 --> 01:04:53.610
of us on this podcast today. But good luck to
1318
01:04:53.719 --> 01:04:56.099
all of your teams out there. And thank you all
1319
01:04:56.139 --> 01:04:59.280
for joining us, not just today, but throughout this entire season.
1320
01:04:59.780 --> 01:05:02.199
If you enjoyed this podcast, please give us a rate
1321
01:05:02.219 --> 01:05:04.300
and review and give us a follow while you are
1322
01:05:04.400 --> 01:05:06.559
at it. You can find me at sunny underscore 108
1323
01:05:06.559 --> 01:05:10.150
on X and sunny 108 on Blue Sky. And you
1324
01:05:10.170 --> 01:05:13.159
can find Taylor at Dynasty Pickups on both You can
1325
01:05:13.179 --> 01:05:14.820
also get a hold of us with all of your
1326
01:05:14.880 --> 01:05:19.659
dynasty baseball questions at dynastybaseballpickups at gmail.com. And all of
1327
01:05:19.719 --> 01:05:22.380
that contact info will be posted in the show notes
1328
01:05:22.559 --> 01:05:27.019
as well. As always, please consider subscribing to Prospects Live
1329
01:05:27.039 --> 01:05:29.800
for as little as $ 7 to gain access to a
1330
01:05:29.880 --> 01:05:33.059
wealth of incredible tools and content, including more.
1331
01:05:32.840 --> 01:05:34.619
From us at prospectslive.com.
1332
01:05:35.550 --> 01:05:37.489
As I said, we will be taking a little bit
1333
01:05:37.530 --> 01:05:40.360
of a break now through the MLB playoffs, but we
1334
01:05:40.420 --> 01:05:44.750
will be back with plenty of off-season content. Until then,
1335
01:05:44.769 --> 01:05:47.150
thank you all for listening, and we'll see you next week.
1
00:00:04.049 --> 00:00:07.389
Hello and welcome to episode 159 of the Dynasty Baseball
2
00:00:07.410 --> 00:00:11.689
Pickups podcast. Today is September 27th. I'm Kyle Sontag and
3
00:00:11.710 --> 00:00:15.230
I am joined as always by Taylor Corso. Taylor, how
4
00:00:15.289 --> 00:00:17.399
are you doing today, man? And since you don't want
5
00:00:17.420 --> 00:00:20.780
to talk about fantasy baseball playoffs, how is fantasy football
6
00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:21.699
treating you so far?
7
00:00:23.539 --> 00:00:24.559
Uh, pretty good.
8
00:00:24.579 --> 00:00:26.660
I think I'm 2-0 in a couple leagues and 2-2
9
00:00:26.699 --> 00:00:28.820
in one league, but I do want to actually say
10
00:00:28.839 --> 00:00:31.260
I might win a championship today. My only one of
11
00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:33.850
the year, but if I did... That would keep my
12
00:00:33.890 --> 00:00:36.469
streak alive of winning a championship. And every single year
13
00:00:36.490 --> 00:00:40.079
I played dynasty. Fingers crossed that happens. There's one category
14
00:00:40.100 --> 00:00:41.759
I think that that could come back to hit me,
15
00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:43.179
but we'll see what happens today.
16
00:00:43.859 --> 00:00:45.899
So now that you've told me to stop asking, you
17
00:00:45.939 --> 00:00:48.020
finally want to talk about dynasty baseball again.
18
00:00:48.820 --> 00:00:49.280
Exactly.
19
00:00:50.039 --> 00:00:53.020
Of course, that's how it always goes, but hopefully things
20
00:00:53.060 --> 00:00:54.880
work out for you. I got my fingers crossed for
21
00:00:54.909 --> 00:00:57.390
you as well, but Taylor, we have Raj Mehta with
22
00:00:57.490 --> 00:01:00.030
us again, as we are set to dive into our
23
00:01:00.109 --> 00:01:03.979
recommendations from the second half of the season today. So Raj,
24
00:01:04.140 --> 00:01:07.140
how are you doing? And do you play any fantasy
25
00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:10.370
football or any other fantasy sports, for that matter?
26
00:01:11.409 --> 00:01:13.629
So right now, I actually haven't lost in any of
27
00:01:13.709 --> 00:01:16.349
my fantasy football leagues. And that's because I don't play
28
00:01:16.390 --> 00:01:20.670
fantasy football. I'm mostly just a baseball guy.
29
00:01:23.310 --> 00:01:23.909
I get that.
30
00:01:24.030 --> 00:01:26.109
It took a long time for me to get into
31
00:01:26.230 --> 00:01:29.620
anything other than fantasy baseball. It took a a bunch
32
00:01:29.640 --> 00:01:32.250
of buddies of mine that are much bigger football fans
33
00:01:32.280 --> 00:01:34.409
than any other sport to convince me to play with them.
34
00:01:34.430 --> 00:01:38.329
And now I'm in probably four or five dynasty football league.
35
00:01:38.390 --> 00:01:40.670
So it's just like baseball. It's a slippery slope. Once
36
00:01:40.689 --> 00:01:42.750
you get started, if you can't hold off as long
37
00:01:42.769 --> 00:01:43.609
as you can, Raj.
38
00:01:45.170 --> 00:01:45.390
All right.
39
00:01:45.420 --> 00:01:48.920
We'll get into a quick note on our listener league here.
40
00:01:48.980 --> 00:01:53.719
The championship was handed out last weekend within a matter
41
00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:57.599
of hours of us recording and, The Portland Mavericks defeated
42
00:01:57.680 --> 00:02:02.299
me quite handily, frankly, in the final. Congratulations to Kyle Bennett,
43
00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:05.019
who runs that team. And I think I speak for
44
00:02:05.140 --> 00:02:07.359
everybody in the league when I say that we are
45
00:02:07.439 --> 00:02:10.199
coming for that crown next year. So you better make
46
00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:11.219
sure that your team is.
47
00:02:11.199 --> 00:02:12.060
Ready to go again.
48
00:02:12.539 --> 00:02:15.689
But speaking of next year, that is what we on
49
00:02:15.729 --> 00:02:18.550
this podcast are all looking forward to in terms of
50
00:02:18.650 --> 00:02:22.530
our real-life teams. Because neither the Jays or the Giants
51
00:02:22.689 --> 00:02:24.870
made the playoffs this season. So I'm going to stick...
52
00:02:25.030 --> 00:02:28.069
with you first on this one, Raj. What went wrong
53
00:02:28.150 --> 00:02:30.830
for the Jays, and do you like their chances of
54
00:02:30.909 --> 00:02:32.650
returning to the playoffs next year?
55
00:02:34.110 --> 00:02:35.610
I think it was just a matter of, there's a
56
00:02:35.629 --> 00:02:37.400
couple of things, but I think, first of all, I
57
00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:39.759
think it's just the pressure of trying to get back
58
00:02:39.800 --> 00:02:41.280
to the World Series, trying to win the World Series.
59
00:02:41.460 --> 00:02:45.060
That was just too much for them. Especially because in
60
00:02:45.240 --> 00:02:47.979
past years, I feel whenever this iteration of the Jays
61
00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:51.419
team had expectations, they usually fell short. But in 2025,
62
00:02:51.419 --> 00:02:55.370
there wasn't any damage expectations because 20-4, they're coming off
63
00:02:55.409 --> 00:02:58.129
a pretty bad year. You're hoping for maybe a wildcard
64
00:02:58.229 --> 00:03:00.889
spot at best, but the Jays end up being the
65
00:03:00.909 --> 00:03:02.990
best team in the AL Day ritual series and got
66
00:03:03.030 --> 00:03:06.199
pretty close to the Dodgers. And I think that's the
67
00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:08.699
main thing, but also it's just a matter of a
68
00:03:08.759 --> 00:03:12.379
lot of the guys on that 20-25 team were overperforming
69
00:03:12.419 --> 00:03:14.939
and they regressed. Like Ernie Clement, a very big good
70
00:03:14.979 --> 00:03:18.419
example that Vladdy also underperformed. And I think another part
71
00:03:18.500 --> 00:03:21.750
is that because a lot of these players played in
72
00:03:21.770 --> 00:03:25.539
the WBC, I don't want to blame the WPCC on everything,
73
00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:28.710
but because they reached World Series, played seven games and
74
00:03:28.750 --> 00:03:32.090
also seven games in ALCS. Then they had a very
75
00:03:32.110 --> 00:03:36.009
short off season from the World Series to WBC where
76
00:03:36.050 --> 00:03:39.280
it was a high intensity environment. And it was just
77
00:03:39.659 --> 00:03:41.680
so much intensity in such a short time that you'll
78
00:03:41.699 --> 00:03:46.479
think the team ever truly recovered and had a, was
79
00:03:46.539 --> 00:03:47.860
able to settle down. Yeah.
80
00:03:48.020 --> 00:03:48.199
Yeah.
81
00:03:48.360 --> 00:03:50.460
I certainly don't disagree with you on any of that.
82
00:03:50.520 --> 00:03:53.409
The good news is they've got plenty of time to
83
00:03:53.469 --> 00:03:56.479
rest and recover this offseason. So hopefully they get things
84
00:03:56.539 --> 00:03:59.919
right heading into next year, whenever the start of that
85
00:03:59.979 --> 00:04:03.280
season may be. Taylor, same question for you, though. What
86
00:04:03.319 --> 00:04:06.020
went wrong with the Giants this year? And do you
87
00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:08.300
think they will be making a push for the playoffs
88
00:04:08.539 --> 00:04:09.259
next season?
89
00:04:10.219 --> 00:04:14.219
I hope so. What went wrong is the pitching.
90
00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:17.639
Primarily the relief pitching was really bad. Our new manager
91
00:04:17.660 --> 00:04:21.269
had a lot of issues. It just seemed like from
92
00:04:21.310 --> 00:04:23.970
day one, the team was off. There were a lot
93
00:04:23.990 --> 00:04:27.509
of injuries, a lot of guys declining. There were some
94
00:04:27.529 --> 00:04:31.720
bright spots. We got Bryce Eldridge up. Bo Davidson is up. Obviously,
95
00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:36.120
our farm system now is stacked. But I think it
96
00:04:36.199 --> 00:04:37.540
comes a lot to what are the Giants going to
97
00:04:37.579 --> 00:04:39.399
do this offseason? I think they're going to invest pretty
98
00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:42.639
heavily in pitching, which they really skimped on a year ago.
99
00:04:42.670 --> 00:04:45.569
I think there are some exciting breakouts that we had
100
00:04:45.589 --> 00:04:47.449
this year with Casey Schmidt and everything. So I think
101
00:04:47.569 --> 00:04:50.199
our lineup, could actually be pretty darn good next year
102
00:04:50.339 --> 00:04:52.420
but we really need to invest in pitching I think
103
00:04:52.480 --> 00:04:56.100
if we do yes we can potentially make the postseason.
104
00:04:56.600 --> 00:04:59.009
Hopefully next year is a better season for both of
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our teams Taylor you noted Bo Davidson there we're going
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to get into his big league debut at the end
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of our conversation regarding the news and notes from baseball
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this week a few other topics we're going to discuss
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include some front office and managerial extensions we're We've got
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the final start in the career of a baseball legend.
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We've got some injuries, some DFAs, demotions. And then we'll
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talk about Bo Davidson before getting into our main discussion,
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which are the or will surround the grades for the
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second half of the 2026 season recommendations that we made
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this year. Before we get to any of that, I
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want to remind everyone about all of the incredible offerings
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we have here at PLive. That includes the PLive rankings tool,
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which houses our live prospect and dynasty rankings, as well
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as our open universe rankings and PLive Plus. There's also
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the PLive manager tool, which includes the league and roster analyzers,
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as well as Hobby Plus, PLive playing time, the daily sheets,
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the draft planner, the PLive box score tool, and the
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ability to sync your leagues directly into the site for
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the best insights on all of your dynasty teams. And
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right up until the end of the year here this week,
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our dynasty team has continued to roll out content every
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single day of the week. That includes three up, three
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down articles from Tom Gates, dynasty diplomas from Lucas Morrell,
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expected edge from PJ Benicillo, P-Live plus and minus deep
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sea diving from Charles Trimble.
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We've got Raj.
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Mehta's midweek dynasty pickups articles, my weekend dynasty pickups articles,
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David Goffman's lineup card articles, Ray Coons, various fab driven articles.
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We've got in the spotlight in the shadows from Breck
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Wiedemann and a variety of articles from Trevor, who I
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just want to give a shout out to all of
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my fellow dynasty team members who have been pumping out
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the content and quality content at that every single week
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this season on the pro scouting side of things. We
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got a new under the hood article from Brandon as
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he dove into the profile of Brad Pacheco and And
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Billy McMahon gave us a live looks article after sitting
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in on a game between San Jose and Lake Elsinore
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earlier in the month. So check that one out if
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you're interested in some insights on players like Joshua Gonzalez,
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Lan Hong Su, and more. On the podcast front, Andrew
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Parker dropped a number of interviews this past week with
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a bunch of pitching prospects for his podcast, To The Show.
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That includes interviews with Brady Parker of the Rockies, Jager
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Beck of the Astros, Wiley Maddox of the Nationals, and
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Max Banks of the White Sox. The ProSide pod goes
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live every Monday, so be sure to tune in to
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that one as the guys discuss everything going on in
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the baseball world. And on the P-Live Dynasty pod, Greg
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Kugkamp was joined by Lucas Morel, Breck Wiedemann, and Raj
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Mehta to discuss the AFL by having a little bit
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of a draft, so an interesting podcast. episode there as
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we prepare for the Arizona Fall League. But as you
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can tell, there is a ton of incredible work being
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done up and down Key Live. Whether you like to
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read articles or listen to podcasts to consume your content,
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whether you are into fantasy baseball, real life scouting, the
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amateur side of things, card collecting, you name it, we
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have something for every kind of baseball fan. And it
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is all available at FullSpectsLive.com for as little as just
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$ 7 per month. If you enjoy our podcast, please rate
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and review us. We really appreciate the support. And please
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give us a follow as well. You can find me
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at Sonny underscore 108 on X and Sonny 108 on
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Blue Sky. You can find Taylor at Dynasty Pickups on both.
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You can also get a hold of us with all
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of your Dynasty Baseball questions at DynastyBaseballPickups at gmail.com. Let's
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get into the news and notes here. Let's get into
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everything going on over this past and final week of
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the regular season in the MLB. And let's start with
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the Boston Red Sox, who have decided to pick up
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the 2029 and 2030 options for Craig Breslow and remove
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the interim tag from manager Chad Tracy, as they have
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extended him for three years. And we're going to lump
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the Mets in here as well, because they have also
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removed the interim tag for manager Andy Green and extended
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him for three years. So Raj, we've got a couple
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of organizations making some pretty high up decisions with their
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managers and with their front office presences. What do you
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think about these moves for the Red Sox and for
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the Mets? And does it maybe help your confidence in
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either organization and how that can affect our dynasty players sometimes?
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Because as we know, especially the front office and how
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they operate can really affect things from a fantasy standpoint.
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Yeah, so the Craig Bessel thing was pretty interesting because
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you remember at the start of the year and early
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on in the year, a lot of people wanted him
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to be fired and fired. Because of how bad they
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were at the start of the year, they fired Cora,
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even though Cora was like this longtime manager for Red Sox.
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And he was pretty well respected by the team as well.
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But Chad Trace has really done well since he stepped in.
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I know the first month or so of his tenure
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was as great, but then that 3-2-5 run has really
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propelled them into a clear position. And I think as
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long as you're winning here, people are going to be
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in good graces with you. And the thing about Craig Breslow,
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I know that he had a lot of very weird moves.
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Even at the deadline, I remember they traded Conley earlier
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for Curtis Meade. I was pretty Head scratching at the time.
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I know Curtis Meade has been good this year, but he,
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it hasn't really worked well because Chris Meade went on
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the aisle almost immediately. So the thing about Breslow, and
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I want to get your guys' thoughts on this, is
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that Craig Breslow, the way he operates just reminds me
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a lot of AJ Prowler, is that he gets a
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ton of prospects, but he doesn't really care about the prospects,
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he's just trading them away for whatever, just trying to
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win now whenever he can. The Ali Oshman deal, for example,
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they He is arguably one of the best catchers in
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baseball right now, but they trade a ton to get him.
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Anthony Ionson has been one of the best pitching prospects
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in baseball, plus Andy Azekar, Kirsten Weatherspoon, plus some more
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guys I'm forgetting. So I'm interested to see how you
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feel about Breslau. I believe he's the chief baseball officer,
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so I'm interested to see what you think about him.
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Yeah, I think he's similar to an A.J. Preller in
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that he's certainly more of a go-all-in type than a
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hoarding resources type. But I do think that the Padres
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and Preller are certainly a more extreme version of what
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Breslow is doing with the Red Sox. Anything that you'd
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like to add, Raj, on Andy Green as well before
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we move on?
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I just thought it was interesting that for most of
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the year, Andy Green was saying, oh, I don't really
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want to be the manager. I just want to go
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back to front office after this year. So it was
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interesting to see them. extend them. Cause I think also
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the front office said they were going to be looking
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elsewhere for a manager. So it was a came as
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a surprise when that happened, but I liked the Mets
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having him. He's been a pretty good manager for him
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thus far.
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I think it's safe to say that the Mets have
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made several interesting decisions with their manager spot over the
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last few years. We'll see how this one works out
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for them. Hopefully for Mets fans, it goes a little
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bit better than it has in recent years. but we
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are going to move on to a quick discussion regarding
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the career and the final start of Justin Verlander. I
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don't know if you guys have seen the clips. I
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don't know if you tuned into the start at all,
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but if you can watch the highlights of Justin Verlander
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leaving the game in the sixth inning yesterday and the
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way that he broke down on the mound and He
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saw his daughter running onto the field to get him.
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If you don't get emotional watching that, I'm sorry, but
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you just don't have a heart. It was an incredible
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heartfelt moment in what was the final start of an
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incredible career for Justin Verlander. Taylor, he was briefly a giant.
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I don't know that you have a ton of memories
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from his time as a giant.
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It wasn't long.
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It wasn't at the peak of his career. But I'm
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curious if you have any thoughts on Verlander during that time.
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Yeah, just one of the most dominant pitchers of his time.
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And he is for sure a Hall of Famer in
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my mind. And I don't have a lot of memories
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of him as a Giants pitcher, but I do remember
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facing that team in the World Series and how dominant
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he was this year. And I believe that was Pablo
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Sandoval going after him and humbling a little bit, if
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I remember correctly. But yeah, Verlander just at his peak
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was so dominant. The guy has pitched forever. Just what
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a career. Hats off to him.
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Absolutely. Incredible career.
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Raj, I know you already discussed this earlier in the
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week on the P-Live Dynasty pod. I'm curious, now that
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we've seen the final start of his career, if you
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have anything else you'd like to add.
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It was nice for them to get the win on
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his final start, I believe. He did. They were down 2-0,
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I believe, when he got taken out. But it was
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very fun to see him walk off Mason Montgomery, which
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was very tough to do. But it's nice to see
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him getting the win. not for any league attackers getting
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the win in that final start.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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Really good to see the team get the win in
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his final start and really good to see him have
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a strong final performance. Five and one thirds, six strikeouts.
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So really cool to see a strong end to an
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incredible career. We might be seeing something similar in Toronto today.
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There haven't been any announcements. I don't think Scherzer even
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knows what he's going to do. But he is making
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at least his final start of this season on short rest.
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It's probably not going to be anything deeper than a
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few innings, but it'll be interesting to see what we
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get out of Scherzer today as well. We're going to
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move on to some injuries real quick here. On the
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hitting side of things, Colt Keith is down with a
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thumb injury. Jung-Hoo Lee is dealing with a groin injury.
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Bryce Eldridge and Samuel Basayo are dealing with concussions. Dalton
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Varshow has a wrist injury.
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Josh Young.
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who unfortunately has dealt with a number of injuries throughout
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his young career, is back on the I.L. with a
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fractured hand. And on the pitching side of things, we've
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got a lat injury for Cal Quantrill. Troy Melton is
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dealing with arm fatigue. Dylan Cease hit the I.L. with
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a shoulder injury. Christian Javier, a groin injury. Luis Castillo
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with a shoulder. Clark Schmidt has a biceps injury. Martin Perez,
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a back injury. Corbin Burns with a shoulder injury. Casey Mize,
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an ankle injury. And Blake Trinan with a shoulder injury
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as well. Raj, there's nothing we can do about any
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of these injuries at this point in the year. It's
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the final day of the season. We're not acting on
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anything from a fantasy standpoint. But is there anything here
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that you maybe have some reason for concern as far
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as what next season might hold for any of these players?
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For me, that's going to be Corbin Burns. And that's
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because he just came off the aisle like not too
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long ago. And I believe he was Tommy John. I
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just double-checked how many starts he made since then. Yeah,
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he only made three starts since coming back, and now
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he's back on the eye-over-shoulder thing. I'm not really sure
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how long it's going to take him out for. If
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it eats into next year, then it's going to be
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really tough. We'll have to lock out. Maybe he's fine,
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but Corbin Burns, like, I'm not sure what to do
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with him at this point because he's been hurt for
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a while. He's been declining before then for a while, too.
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So maybe... I'm not, I wouldn't exactly call him a sell,
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but because at this point his value is probably the
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lowest it's going to be for a while. The lowest
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it has been for a while, but I'm not keen
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on buying him either. So I'm not really sure what
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to do with him.
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Yeah, I think I'm with you. Burns is the concerning
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one here, but it's probably a spot where you just
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have to hold and wait and see what happens. Because
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like you said, if you're selling now, you're not going
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to get anything for him. And if you're buying, it
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is far too big of a question mark, in my opinion,
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to be giving much of anything up. Certainly anything that
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a Corbin Burns owner would actually be willing to move
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him for. So at this point, I think you just hold,
343
00:16:57.509 --> 00:17:00.090
you wait, and you see what happens, and you make
344
00:17:00.129 --> 00:17:02.789
a decision from there. We're going to quickly move on
345
00:17:02.830 --> 00:17:08.170
to some demotions and DFAs here. The Pirates demoted Camilo Doval.
346
00:17:08.289 --> 00:17:11.150
He was quickly claimed by San Francisco, so a return
347
00:17:11.210 --> 00:17:14.619
for him there. Jesus Sanchez, who was just claimed from
348
00:17:14.660 --> 00:17:18.109
the Jays by the Diamondbacks, has now been DFA'd by
349
00:17:18.170 --> 00:17:22.329
the Diamondbacks. And Josue de Paula and Alex Freeland were
350
00:17:22.410 --> 00:17:25.829
demoted to AAA by the Dodgers. Taylor, I know you
351
00:17:25.849 --> 00:17:28.990
wanted to touch on Camilo Doval returning to San Fran,
352
00:17:29.029 --> 00:17:31.319
so I'll get you to discuss that in a moment,
353
00:17:31.730 --> 00:17:34.079
and then we will return to Raj, and I'll get
354
00:17:34.119 --> 00:17:37.140
your thoughts on Josue de Paula specifically here. But Taylor,
355
00:17:37.619 --> 00:17:39.880
what do you think about Camilo Doval and his return?
356
00:17:39.920 --> 00:17:43.009
Because as you noted before we started recording, He looked
357
00:17:43.210 --> 00:17:47.269
dominant in his first appearance back with the Giants this season.
358
00:17:48.470 --> 00:17:48.710
Yeah.
359
00:17:48.890 --> 00:17:51.359
Welcome home, Camilo. Glad to have you back.
360
00:17:51.380 --> 00:17:53.599
I don't know if listeners remember, but when the Giants
361
00:17:53.660 --> 00:17:56.559
traded Camilo Duvall, that was the one trade of Posey's
362
00:17:56.599 --> 00:17:58.599
that I just was really like, eh, I don't know
363
00:17:58.619 --> 00:18:01.400
about this one. They got Parks Harbor in that deal.
364
00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:03.960
He looks pretty darn good. And now they've got Duvall
365
00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:06.240
back anyway. I think that one worked out for the
366
00:18:06.279 --> 00:18:09.900
Giants there. But yeah, just looked dominant in his return.
367
00:18:10.180 --> 00:18:11.380
We'll see what we get out of him next year,
368
00:18:11.420 --> 00:18:15.190
but The Giants badly need some bullpen arms, so hopefully
369
00:18:15.230 --> 00:18:15.759
he'll stick around.
370
00:18:15.799 --> 00:18:16.309
And I just want to.
371
00:18:16.279 --> 00:18:19.160
Mention DePaul real quick before Raj touches on him. I
372
00:18:19.240 --> 00:18:21.920
did mention this as a possibility about the reason that
373
00:18:21.940 --> 00:18:23.859
DePaul came up and they had to put him on
374
00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:26.049
the 40-man anyway. And I thought it was likely when
375
00:18:26.069 --> 00:18:28.009
Otani comes back, he was going to get sent down
376
00:18:28.089 --> 00:18:29.089
regardless of his performance.
377
00:18:30.130 --> 00:18:32.250
Yeah, I certainly don't think this is anything we need
378
00:18:32.269 --> 00:18:35.960
to be concerned about. About with DePaula, especially when we
379
00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:39.779
look at his 11-game sample, he had an OPS over 1,000,
380
00:18:39.769 --> 00:18:44.369
a 199 WRC +. So even though it was a
381
00:18:44.430 --> 00:18:47.890
very small sample, he was nearly twice as good as
382
00:18:47.970 --> 00:18:52.480
the average major league player in his big league debut stint.
383
00:18:52.539 --> 00:18:55.900
So Raj, is that enough for us to feel confident
384
00:18:55.960 --> 00:18:59.240
that he will crack the opening day lineup for the
385
00:18:59.279 --> 00:19:03.490
Dodgers next year and contribute for our fantasy lineups throughout
386
00:19:03.529 --> 00:19:04.430
the entire season?
387
00:19:05.750 --> 00:19:09.200
I'm not going to say 100%, just because there isn't
388
00:19:09.240 --> 00:19:11.460
really a spot for him to play. When Otani went down,
389
00:19:11.480 --> 00:19:13.440
the DH slot was open, so they just called him up.
390
00:19:13.839 --> 00:19:15.480
But then when Otani came back off the LDA, they
391
00:19:15.599 --> 00:19:19.960
optioned him down. And he is pretty limited defensively, and that's,
392
00:19:20.059 --> 00:19:21.819
I think, part of the reason why I didn't want
393
00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:24.880
to keep him up. But in my opinion, he's a
394
00:19:24.900 --> 00:19:28.069
better hitter than Teoscar Hernandez in left. Kyle Tucker, he's
395
00:19:28.769 --> 00:19:31.589
had a down year, I think, based on this year.
396
00:19:32.319 --> 00:19:34.500
You can argue DePaulo over Cal Tucker, but I think
397
00:19:34.579 --> 00:19:37.240
next year the Dodgers will hope for a bounce back
398
00:19:37.269 --> 00:19:40.009
from Tucker. And hopefully, I think Tucker as well has
399
00:19:40.049 --> 00:19:44.910
been hot lately. But I think it depends on what
400
00:19:44.930 --> 00:19:47.619
they do in this offseason because I can really see
401
00:19:47.670 --> 00:19:51.339
a world where the Dodgers try to move to Oscar
402
00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:53.099
Hernandez in the offseason and try to open up a
403
00:19:53.160 --> 00:19:56.079
spot for DePaula and I think that's really the only
404
00:19:56.160 --> 00:19:58.740
path for DePaula to get regular playing time in the
405
00:19:58.759 --> 00:20:01.000
big leagues is if they are able to move to
406
00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:04.589
Oscar Hernandez and the Dodgers they've been Able to do
407
00:20:04.630 --> 00:20:06.890
this somewhat in the past. Gavin Lux comes to mind
408
00:20:06.910 --> 00:20:08.900
when they traded him to the Reds. And they were
409
00:20:08.920 --> 00:20:11.440
able to get Mike Sroda in that deal, plus the graphic,
410
00:20:11.460 --> 00:20:15.359
which he used to get Charles Davilan. So it'll be
411
00:20:15.380 --> 00:20:17.660
interesting to see just if they can move Chastain Hernandez,
412
00:20:18.289 --> 00:20:21.309
and if they do, what his market looks like and
413
00:20:21.329 --> 00:20:24.390
who gets him. Because Chastain Hernandez is also a bit
414
00:20:24.410 --> 00:20:25.430
of a down year this year as well.
415
00:20:27.170 --> 00:20:30.349
Yeah, it'll certainly be interesting to see how they move
416
00:20:30.390 --> 00:20:32.349
the pieces around. They likely do need to move some
417
00:20:32.369 --> 00:20:35.230
pieces in order to get DePaula in there on an
418
00:20:35.309 --> 00:20:37.569
everyday basis. But I do think that he has shown
419
00:20:37.630 --> 00:20:41.190
enough where if I'm the Dodgers, I'm trying to find
420
00:20:41.250 --> 00:20:43.450
a way to get him into my lineup on opening
421
00:20:43.490 --> 00:20:46.190
day and every day after that. Like you said, it's
422
00:20:46.250 --> 00:20:48.089
probably not going to be as the DH. So they're
423
00:20:48.109 --> 00:20:50.430
going to have to find a hole. They're going to
424
00:20:50.450 --> 00:20:52.710
have to create a hole somewhere else in the lineup
425
00:20:53.009 --> 00:20:55.450
that they can plug him into. But it is, from
426
00:20:55.509 --> 00:20:59.750
a fantasy standpoint, certainly encouraging to see the way that
427
00:20:59.789 --> 00:21:03.069
he started off his big league career. But speaking of
428
00:21:03.170 --> 00:21:06.670
players starting their big league careers, Bo Davidson made his
429
00:21:06.750 --> 00:21:10.890
big league debut earlier this week. He is prospect number
430
00:21:10.890 --> 00:21:14.470
117 overall in our P-Live rankings. And in 125 games
431
00:21:14.490 --> 00:21:16.059
this year between AA and AAA, Davidson slashed 290, 361,
432
00:21:16.039 --> 00:21:24.250
527 overall. He had 29 home runs, 20 stolen bases,
433
00:21:24.369 --> 00:21:28.309
and a 129 WRC plus between the two levels. Now,
434
00:21:28.369 --> 00:21:30.349
I don't need to go any deeper than that because
435
00:21:30.490 --> 00:21:32.710
I am going to throw it over to our resident
436
00:21:32.769 --> 00:21:35.049
Giants fan and expert, Raj.
437
00:21:35.650 --> 00:21:36.190
No, I'm kidding.
438
00:21:36.210 --> 00:21:37.009
I'm kidding.
439
00:21:37.450 --> 00:21:41.609
Taylor, tell us a little bit more about Bo Davidson, Taylor.
440
00:21:42.490 --> 00:21:44.869
Yeah, if you could have seen my reaction. Yeah, he's
441
00:21:44.890 --> 00:21:47.329
the one I'm really excited about. Obviously, if you've been
442
00:21:47.349 --> 00:21:48.789
listening for a while, you know I'm a Giants homer.
443
00:21:48.990 --> 00:21:50.819
I'm always going to get excited about Giants prospects for
444
00:21:50.839 --> 00:21:53.150
the most part. But I really think Bo Davidson is
445
00:21:53.609 --> 00:21:57.299
made for fantasy. Just power, speed, didn't look out of
446
00:21:57.339 --> 00:21:59.839
place in the majors in a small sample, 114 WRC
447
00:21:59.859 --> 00:22:02.240
plus so far. No extra base hits, but he does
448
00:22:02.279 --> 00:22:04.160
have a steal. I think he's going to play a
449
00:22:04.660 --> 00:22:05.940
lot next year. I think he's going to have a
450
00:22:05.980 --> 00:22:09.220
role potentially out of camp. And I think him and
451
00:22:09.740 --> 00:22:12.329
Eldridge are part of this next wave of Giants talent
452
00:22:12.349 --> 00:22:14.490
that is going to hopefully keep on coming.
453
00:22:14.910 --> 00:22:16.539
So really excited about him.
454
00:22:17.180 --> 00:22:19.119
Yeah, it's hard not to be excited about a wave
455
00:22:19.180 --> 00:22:21.400
of young talent coming up like that. We haven't seen
456
00:22:21.460 --> 00:22:24.339
that level of talent come up for a while with
457
00:22:24.380 --> 00:22:27.380
the Jays, but Raj, how excited are we to see
458
00:22:27.460 --> 00:22:30.740
Bo Davidson and how big of a role he might
459
00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:33.539
have next season? Because as Taylor said, it looks like
460
00:22:33.619 --> 00:22:37.839
he could pretty easily, certainly more easily than a Josue DePaula,
461
00:22:38.140 --> 00:22:40.960
have that everyday role right from opening day next season.
462
00:22:41.960 --> 00:22:45.809
Yeah, for sure. Part of that is because the Giants stage,
463
00:22:46.349 --> 00:22:48.869
So did I, so we have a lot more spots open,
464
00:22:48.950 --> 00:22:52.410
but the Chinese, it's just been a very messy year.
465
00:22:52.730 --> 00:22:55.490
Right now, I believe they have, you look at the
466
00:22:55.849 --> 00:22:58.450
roster resource page, there's just a whole list of guys
467
00:22:58.490 --> 00:22:58.890
on the I.L.
468
00:22:58.910 --> 00:22:59.170
Right now.
469
00:22:59.259 --> 00:23:02.059
I can literally fill my whole page with guys currently
470
00:23:02.099 --> 00:23:05.160
on the I.L. It's just insane. And there's a lot
471
00:23:05.180 --> 00:23:08.619
of guys in that outfield that could be everyday outfielders,
472
00:23:08.660 --> 00:23:10.619
but not a lot of guys who are really locked
473
00:23:10.660 --> 00:23:13.400
in except for maybe Jung-Hoo Lee. Beta, you want him
474
00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:16.490
to bounce back, but he's been awful. And I don't
475
00:23:16.519 --> 00:23:18.880
think the giants are really too keen on him after
476
00:23:19.220 --> 00:23:22.769
his off the field shenanigans. But yeah, there's a lot of,
477
00:23:22.779 --> 00:23:26.700
it's a very wide open roster and I think it's
478
00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:28.640
very easy for both days and just lock in a
479
00:23:28.660 --> 00:23:29.319
role pretty quickly.
480
00:23:30.579 --> 00:23:30.839
Yeah.
481
00:23:31.319 --> 00:23:32.819
I just want to comment on what you said, Raj,
482
00:23:32.839 --> 00:23:35.640
because I think that was a great point about the
483
00:23:35.720 --> 00:23:37.420
turnover and the injuries the giants have had this year.
484
00:23:37.480 --> 00:23:40.720
I believe they set the record for most players use.
485
00:23:40.759 --> 00:23:43.730
They set the record for most rookies. And they don't
486
00:23:43.769 --> 00:23:47.759
have a single member of their opening day starting lineup
487
00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:51.440
currently in their starting lineup, nor their opening day pitcher healthy.
488
00:23:51.720 --> 00:23:54.700
So it has been a crazy season of turnover for
489
00:23:54.740 --> 00:23:55.039
that team.
490
00:23:55.960 --> 00:23:59.079
Yeah, that certainly says all that needs to be said
491
00:23:59.259 --> 00:24:03.089
about how the Giants season has gone. With that, though,
492
00:24:03.170 --> 00:24:05.589
we are all through the news and notes, and we
493
00:24:05.630 --> 00:24:09.089
are going to get into year-end report cards, part two.
494
00:24:09.710 --> 00:24:11.730
Just like last week, we are going to discuss some
495
00:24:11.769 --> 00:24:14.849
of our best recommendations, some of our worst recommendations. We're
496
00:24:14.869 --> 00:24:16.849
going to make our case for a few players that
497
00:24:16.890 --> 00:24:19.450
we think could have received higher grades. And then we're
498
00:24:19.470 --> 00:24:22.619
going to discuss some players that we think could maybe
499
00:24:22.650 --> 00:24:27.420
bounce back next year because they were relative misses for
500
00:24:27.460 --> 00:24:30.920
varying degrees this season. But Raj, we're going to start
501
00:24:30.940 --> 00:24:33.220
with you. And I know second half of the season,
502
00:24:33.299 --> 00:24:35.680
it's a little bit harder to find a bunch of
503
00:24:35.799 --> 00:24:39.210
players that you feel really confident in. So before you
504
00:24:39.230 --> 00:24:42.960
get into a few of your best recommendations here, how
505
00:24:42.980 --> 00:24:47.240
did the second half feel different compared to the first
506
00:24:47.299 --> 00:24:49.599
half in trying to find these players that you wanted
507
00:24:49.619 --> 00:24:50.140
to recommend?
508
00:24:51.400 --> 00:24:54.000
It's definitely tough because I think in the second half,
509
00:24:54.079 --> 00:24:55.859
it's really hard to find a guy who's going to
510
00:24:56.700 --> 00:24:58.430
raise his talk because a lot of that happens, I
511
00:24:58.430 --> 00:25:01.609
feel like, in April or maybe May because that's when
512
00:25:02.130 --> 00:25:04.289
players get to make their big first impression. Like, for example,
513
00:25:05.009 --> 00:25:07.900
Ronnie Cruz, he had a very... high April, but rest
514
00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:10.660
of the season, not so great. But his roster jumped
515
00:25:10.700 --> 00:25:13.099
up a ton between the start of the year and
516
00:25:13.119 --> 00:25:14.759
the end of the year. And his stock is still
517
00:25:14.819 --> 00:25:17.359
way up. Whereas for some of the guys that I recommended,
518
00:25:17.500 --> 00:25:20.859
they did have good stretches to end the year, but
519
00:25:20.920 --> 00:25:23.259
because it happened at the end of the year where
520
00:25:23.299 --> 00:25:24.960
the rest, first part of the year was not so
521
00:25:24.980 --> 00:25:27.480
great versus at the start of the year, their stock
522
00:25:27.700 --> 00:25:29.420
maybe only went up like one or two percentage points.
523
00:25:29.460 --> 00:25:32.640
And because that it's really hard to get those very
524
00:25:32.680 --> 00:25:36.759
good call just because I think you need a guy
525
00:25:36.779 --> 00:25:39.519
who performs well, but also loses their roster rate a ton.
526
00:25:39.539 --> 00:25:42.640
And it's very hard to find, very hard to do
527
00:25:42.660 --> 00:25:44.559
that second part. So it's very hard to really get
528
00:25:44.980 --> 00:25:45.380
the call outs.
529
00:25:46.160 --> 00:25:46.660
Absolutely.
530
00:25:46.700 --> 00:25:48.930
Especially as we get deeper and deeper into the year
531
00:25:48.970 --> 00:25:52.329
where people are more concerned with optimizing their big league rosters.
532
00:25:52.769 --> 00:25:54.390
And then you add in the fact that between the
533
00:25:54.450 --> 00:25:56.869
three of us, and I referenced this in my article
534
00:25:56.890 --> 00:26:01.390
that released this morning, there were more than 250 total
535
00:26:01.450 --> 00:26:03.900
recommendations between the three of us. So I can't tell
536
00:26:03.920 --> 00:26:06.640
you how many times I found a player that I
537
00:26:06.680 --> 00:26:09.069
was interested in. I looked up his name on our
538
00:26:09.140 --> 00:26:12.930
sheet and saw that somebody else had already discussed him,
539
00:26:13.009 --> 00:26:16.849
recommended him earlier in the year. So where many of
540
00:26:16.910 --> 00:26:21.250
the players that would have been easy recommendations were already taken,
541
00:26:21.390 --> 00:26:25.309
it really narrows down the list and makes it difficult
542
00:26:25.369 --> 00:26:28.670
to find a bunch of players on a consistent weekly
543
00:26:28.710 --> 00:26:31.859
basis that you are confident in. but you were still
544
00:26:31.960 --> 00:26:35.019
able to get some really big hits in the second
545
00:26:35.079 --> 00:26:38.000
half here. So who were some of your best recommendations, Raj?
546
00:26:39.369 --> 00:26:41.269
So I think my best recommendation of the year was
547
00:26:41.650 --> 00:26:45.789
probably Yosin Peña. And it's pretty interesting because at the time,
548
00:26:45.809 --> 00:26:47.589
I didn't expect him to have this sort of rise
549
00:26:48.190 --> 00:26:51.509
because at the time he was at the DSL 0% roster,
550
00:26:51.950 --> 00:26:54.269
but he was hitting pretty well. He had a very
551
00:26:54.289 --> 00:26:56.720
good EVs, equal number of walks of strikeouts at the
552
00:26:56.740 --> 00:27:00.069
DSL as an 18-year-old, 150 WC +. But the thing
553
00:27:00.089 --> 00:27:03.109
that really boosted his stock is that he was promoted
554
00:27:03.150 --> 00:27:05.769
from the DSL straight to single A, which you don't
555
00:27:05.809 --> 00:27:06.690
really see that.
556
00:27:06.569 --> 00:27:07.130
Often, like at all.
557
00:27:07.230 --> 00:27:09.829
I know a lot of guys did get, given just
558
00:27:09.869 --> 00:27:11.910
getting promoted from DSL to the complex is pretty rare,
559
00:27:11.970 --> 00:27:14.470
but Yosei Pano went straight to single A and at
560
00:27:14.690 --> 00:27:17.269
single A he actually hit pretty well there too. 323 average,
561
00:27:17.269 --> 00:27:18.430
389 on base, 550 slug, 141 WC plus. And because
562
00:27:18.609 --> 00:27:20.029
of that, he went from 0% rostered all the way
563
00:27:20.049 --> 00:27:22.329
up to, I believe it was a 15% rostered and
564
00:27:29.549 --> 00:27:32.130
It's just, I think at this point, and also ranking
565
00:27:32.359 --> 00:27:35.059
162nd overall, but I think at this point, he's almost
566
00:27:35.079 --> 00:27:37.759
a little bit too overvalued. I know Kyle, you're a
567
00:27:37.799 --> 00:27:41.039
little bit lower on him, but because of the age
568
00:27:41.279 --> 00:27:45.940
questions surrounding him, but Pena, he's been a very impressive
569
00:27:46.059 --> 00:27:48.940
player this year. Very easy to see that why he
570
00:27:48.980 --> 00:27:51.220
got an A plus. And then my other A plus
571
00:27:51.269 --> 00:27:55.289
was Brilla Antunez, and he's a guy who, very good EVs,
572
00:27:55.470 --> 00:27:58.849
but The question has always been like, can he make
573
00:27:58.869 --> 00:28:01.190
enough contact? And at the start of the year, it
574
00:28:01.230 --> 00:28:05.630
wasn't really hitting for damage contact, but why I recommend them,
575
00:28:05.710 --> 00:28:08.630
I saw that the past month or so, his contact
576
00:28:08.650 --> 00:28:12.259
rates got better. His dragon was like mid twenties. So
577
00:28:12.720 --> 00:28:14.539
that's why I recommend this. And he's been able to
578
00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:19.160
hold onto that. Those are good rates. Since I, even
579
00:28:19.180 --> 00:28:21.579
though like he was pointing to single a since asking
580
00:28:21.599 --> 00:28:23.859
lay three 42, four 55, five, eight B slash one,
581
00:28:23.880 --> 00:28:27.140
same to you. There was a plus. 11.6% walk rate
582
00:28:27.460 --> 00:28:31.619
and 24% carry rate. That's since I recommended him. And
583
00:28:31.640 --> 00:28:33.859
then my third guy is going to be Leandro Pineda,
584
00:28:34.380 --> 00:28:36.609
who's a little bit not so good. And this is
585
00:28:36.660 --> 00:28:39.650
also a case where he didn't get the highest grade
586
00:28:39.690 --> 00:28:43.250
because he didn't really rise that much, but he had
587
00:28:43.269 --> 00:28:45.390
a pretty interesting year because he was at double A
588
00:28:45.529 --> 00:28:47.170
and he wasn't that great at double A. He only
589
00:28:47.289 --> 00:28:51.359
had an 89 dev receipt plus, but the naturalists sent
590
00:28:51.380 --> 00:28:54.019
him to the dev list, I believe. And they sent
591
00:28:54.039 --> 00:28:56.369
him there for a couple of weeks. And then when
592
00:28:56.390 --> 00:28:58.190
they bought him back, they sent him straight to AAA
593
00:28:58.230 --> 00:29:00.319
instead of sending him back to AA. And that sort
594
00:29:00.339 --> 00:29:03.039
of showed that the Nats were really high on him.
595
00:29:03.799 --> 00:29:06.299
And since coming back, he had only played a couple
596
00:29:06.339 --> 00:29:08.000
of weeks at AAA at that point, but he had
597
00:29:08.019 --> 00:29:10.720
very good numbers. And then since calling him out, he
598
00:29:10.859 --> 00:29:13.640
continued to hit well. In 45 games at AAA, he
599
00:29:13.779 --> 00:29:15.099
put a 329, 440, 650 slash. It won 81 derbies
600
00:29:15.119 --> 00:29:17.039
to plus. Strikeout rate of 19.6%. Walkway at 13.6%. And
601
00:29:17.059 --> 00:29:21.259
the peripherals are all very good, maxed out weak. 1.5,
602
00:29:21.259 --> 00:29:28.500
12% barrel rate, 41.9% hard hit rate. Yeah, Pineda, I
603
00:29:28.880 --> 00:29:31.730
actually really like him, but I'm not really too sure
604
00:29:31.769 --> 00:29:34.930
what his future outlook is. But even though I got
605
00:29:34.950 --> 00:29:36.930
to be like, I just really like his performance.
606
00:29:39.130 --> 00:29:41.000
Yeah, certainly some strong... recommendations there.
607
00:29:41.019 --> 00:29:43.559
And to your point, it's tough in the second half
608
00:29:43.579 --> 00:29:45.769
of the season when there just isn't a ton of
609
00:29:45.869 --> 00:29:49.309
stock movement in general, in most of these players to
610
00:29:49.650 --> 00:29:51.430
figure out who some of the best ones are, because
611
00:29:51.470 --> 00:29:55.019
it isn't necessarily the ones whose stock have moved the most.
612
00:29:55.440 --> 00:29:57.460
And when we're talking about someone like a Pineda whose
613
00:29:57.720 --> 00:30:02.500
performance maybe says more than the stock and whether or
614
00:30:02.559 --> 00:30:05.079
not it has shifted, it's one of those things where
615
00:30:05.200 --> 00:30:07.759
I know Taylor in the past has especially focused on
616
00:30:07.799 --> 00:30:11.109
a player like Devin Fitzgerald, who was a recommendation that
617
00:30:11.150 --> 00:30:13.549
didn't gain a ton of stock. But then you see
618
00:30:13.690 --> 00:30:16.230
that sort of thing sometimes come in the offseason. So
619
00:30:16.250 --> 00:30:19.049
that could be something we are looking at for really
620
00:30:19.089 --> 00:30:21.130
a number of the players that we recommended in the
621
00:30:21.170 --> 00:30:25.519
second half. But Pineda is a good example of that. Now, Taylor,
622
00:30:26.019 --> 00:30:28.940
you didn't make a ton of recommendations in the second
623
00:30:28.980 --> 00:30:32.170
half here because it was just one per podcast episode.
624
00:30:32.490 --> 00:30:35.549
I believe it was nine total post-All-Star breaks. You got
625
00:30:35.589 --> 00:30:37.730
a little bit of a smaller list to pick from
626
00:30:37.789 --> 00:30:40.930
for some of your best and worst recommendations. You're only
627
00:30:40.970 --> 00:30:43.609
going to have a couple of names here for us,
628
00:30:43.650 --> 00:30:46.140
if I'm not mistaken, for the best recommendations. But I
629
00:30:46.140 --> 00:30:48.799
also wanted to get your thoughts on how things shifted
630
00:30:48.900 --> 00:30:51.900
for you in the second half as you were trying
631
00:30:51.940 --> 00:30:54.599
to find players that you were confident in recommending for
632
00:30:54.890 --> 00:30:55.130
on the.
633
00:30:55.089 --> 00:30:59.410
Podcast yeah if you saw raj's grades i didn't have
634
00:30:59.450 --> 00:31:04.150
any misses so i feel like overall this is the
635
00:31:04.359 --> 00:31:05.839
i don't know maybe the secret sauce is doing one
636
00:31:05.880 --> 00:31:08.180
recommendation a week or something because i feel like i
637
00:31:08.759 --> 00:31:11.400
did way better than any but i've been doing this
638
00:31:11.420 --> 00:31:13.799
for a while i've been pretty happy with my results
639
00:31:13.900 --> 00:31:17.160
for as bad as my fantasy season was my recommendation
640
00:31:17.200 --> 00:31:19.880
season was awesome this year i'm really proud of that
641
00:31:20.180 --> 00:31:23.099
and proud of the fact that i had some pretty
642
00:31:23.140 --> 00:31:26.480
good calls in the second half here. So I had,
643
00:31:26.579 --> 00:31:28.480
I'm going to go with just two because my list
644
00:31:28.500 --> 00:31:30.460
is a little smaller, but I had Wilder DeLis of
645
00:31:30.519 --> 00:31:33.480
the Colorado Rockies. Recommended him back in July. He had
646
00:31:33.500 --> 00:31:37.420
a 5% increase in his fan tracks roster rate. He
647
00:31:37.460 --> 00:31:41.509
moved from 643rd to 371st in our prospect rankings. Had
648
00:31:41.509 --> 00:31:44.640
34 games after recommended him, posted a 150 WRC plus.
649
00:31:44.700 --> 00:31:46.589
So Raj Gaming A grade.
650
00:31:46.750 --> 00:31:47.349
Thank you, Raj.
651
00:31:47.529 --> 00:31:49.650
I did have him a little bit higher than where
652
00:31:49.670 --> 00:31:50.069
he's at now.
653
00:31:50.109 --> 00:31:51.130
I had him 300 plus. He's at 371, but.
654
00:31:53.039 --> 00:31:55.099
Overall, pretty happy with how that turned out. And then
655
00:31:55.160 --> 00:31:59.009
Samuel Serrano of the Washington Nationals recommended him back in August.
656
00:31:59.460 --> 00:32:04.569
Another 300-plus recommendation. He went from 2% to 9% rostered,
657
00:32:04.609 --> 00:32:08.069
526th to 347th. Only played six games because the DSL
658
00:32:08.089 --> 00:32:12.769
season was ending, but posted a 174 WRC-plus in those
659
00:32:12.809 --> 00:32:13.349
six games.
660
00:32:13.910 --> 00:32:15.849
So yeah, pretty happy with both of those.
661
00:32:16.869 --> 00:32:17.349
Absolutely.
662
00:32:17.410 --> 00:32:22.190
I can't complain too much about those players results really
663
00:32:22.250 --> 00:32:26.470
across the board with your recommendations here but especially with
664
00:32:26.579 --> 00:32:29.819
those two in particular I do have a trio of
665
00:32:29.880 --> 00:32:32.440
names as I said the second half was certainly a
666
00:32:32.900 --> 00:32:35.859
little bit more challenging in finding players that as Raj
667
00:32:35.900 --> 00:32:38.349
noted are going to move significantly because while many of
668
00:32:38.380 --> 00:32:41.089
these guys performed well the stock just doesn't move a
669
00:32:41.089 --> 00:32:44.170
whole lot but Raj did give me a trio of
670
00:32:44.190 --> 00:32:47.390
A or A pluses so I've got three names to
671
00:32:47.430 --> 00:32:51.150
discuss here I'm looking at Boston Smith of the now Mariners.
672
00:32:51.309 --> 00:32:53.670
I've got Rafe Parrish of the Rangers, and I've got
673
00:32:53.779 --> 00:32:58.039
Eliezer Dishmay of the Miami Marlins. Smith, I would argue,
674
00:32:58.099 --> 00:33:01.720
was my best recommendation of the second half. It was
675
00:33:01.759 --> 00:33:04.359
the only A-plus, I believe, that I got from Raj.
676
00:33:04.400 --> 00:33:08.960
He was recommended on August 2nd. His roster rate improved
677
00:33:09.019 --> 00:33:12.450
from 2% to 10%, and he went from unranked in
678
00:33:12.670 --> 00:33:17.109
our rankings to 322 overall. Now he started the year
679
00:33:17.170 --> 00:33:19.710
down in single A with the White Sox. He quickly
680
00:33:19.769 --> 00:33:23.890
rose to high A and then to double A. And
681
00:33:24.170 --> 00:33:27.950
after demolishing A ball, both single A and high A
682
00:33:27.990 --> 00:33:32.880
to the tune of a 996 OPS and a 156
683
00:33:32.880 --> 00:33:36.680
WRC plus across the two levels, double A did not
684
00:33:36.740 --> 00:33:39.670
slow him down at all. he put up an absurd
685
00:33:39.670 --> 00:33:45.549
1151 OPS and 197 WRC plus in 23 games before
686
00:33:45.589 --> 00:33:48.710
getting traded to the Mariners. Now that's where things did
687
00:33:48.789 --> 00:33:52.099
finally slow down a little bit for Smith, but through
688
00:33:52.140 --> 00:33:55.000
his final 23 games after the trade, he still had
689
00:33:55.119 --> 00:33:59.099
an 879 OPS, a 136 WRC plus, and he finished
690
00:33:59.180 --> 00:34:03.259
the year with a 990 OPS and 158 WRC plus
691
00:34:03.380 --> 00:34:07.119
across three levels and two different teams. Rafe Parrish, I
692
00:34:07.180 --> 00:34:10.619
recommended on July 19th. His stock improved from 2% to
693
00:34:10.619 --> 00:34:15.269
8% on fan tracks and a 599 ranking to 323
694
00:34:15.269 --> 00:34:17.829
overall here at P Live. And this is a name
695
00:34:17.869 --> 00:34:20.289
that I believe Breck is going to be really excited,
696
00:34:20.309 --> 00:34:22.789
Breck Wiedemann, to hear me talk about because I think
697
00:34:22.909 --> 00:34:25.969
it's him that's been pounding the table for Rafe Parrish
698
00:34:26.130 --> 00:34:29.099
as of late. And to Breck's point, Parrish has been
699
00:34:29.139 --> 00:34:32.320
a consistent high-end performer all season long. He started the
700
00:34:32.360 --> 00:34:34.519
year in high A, albeit a little old for the
701
00:34:34.579 --> 00:34:37.789
level at 23% He turned 24 in late May, but
702
00:34:37.809 --> 00:34:42.119
he posted an OPS of exactly 1,000 with a 151
703
00:34:42.119 --> 00:34:45.780
WRC plus in 38 games. He was then promoted to AA,
704
00:34:45.820 --> 00:34:49.320
where in 78 games, he put up a 981 OPS
705
00:34:49.699 --> 00:34:53.260
and 148 WRC plus. And I'll also add here that
706
00:34:53.280 --> 00:34:56.639
I'm not entirely sure I buy into the full extent
707
00:34:56.760 --> 00:34:59.730
of the power surge that saw him hit 27 home
708
00:34:59.769 --> 00:35:02.550
runs this year after hitting six last season, but I
709
00:35:02.989 --> 00:35:06.059
Parrish has plenty of raw power. It's plus raw juice
710
00:35:06.239 --> 00:35:09.519
in the tank here. What's really holding him back are
711
00:35:09.599 --> 00:35:14.500
his launch angles. He's cut his ground ball rate down
712
00:35:14.739 --> 00:35:18.030
this season. It was about 50% last year, closer to
713
00:35:18.030 --> 00:35:21.289
40% this season. And more specifically, what really encouraged me
714
00:35:21.329 --> 00:35:22.670
was the fact that he cut it from 47% in
715
00:35:22.690 --> 00:35:27.949
high A this season to 37% in double A. So
716
00:35:27.969 --> 00:35:30.780
I'm encouraged by that. I do think he's more than
717
00:35:30.860 --> 00:35:33.179
a six homer bat. I'm not sure that we're going
718
00:35:33.239 --> 00:35:36.619
to see a consistent 30 homer bat unless he improves
719
00:35:36.780 --> 00:35:39.639
his launch angles. But I do think that even at
720
00:35:39.639 --> 00:35:44.210
323 overall and a rise of more than 250 spots
721
00:35:44.349 --> 00:35:46.969
in our rankings since I recommended him, I think Parrish
722
00:35:47.030 --> 00:35:51.250
is possibly still underrated and would be a good offseason target.
723
00:35:51.690 --> 00:35:54.309
And I think the same thing of Eleazar Dishmay of
724
00:35:54.429 --> 00:35:59.199
the Marlins right-handed pitcher here. I recommended him on August 23rd.
725
00:35:59.340 --> 00:36:02.280
He rose from 5% to 6% rostered, so not a
726
00:36:02.340 --> 00:36:05.099
huge move there, but he did rise significantly in our
727
00:36:05.179 --> 00:36:09.360
rankings from 526 to 353. And as I alluded to,
728
00:36:09.429 --> 00:36:12.650
I think that's arguably a little bit too low. Much
729
00:36:12.710 --> 00:36:16.329
like Parrish, Dishmay performed well across both IA and AA
730
00:36:16.369 --> 00:36:19.969
this year. But interestingly enough, while his strikeout rate dipped
731
00:36:20.190 --> 00:36:23.210
a few percentage points and his ERA rose more than
732
00:36:23.230 --> 00:36:26.289
a full run following his promotions, He actually cut his
733
00:36:26.349 --> 00:36:29.969
walk rate 3% and saw his fifth improved by about
734
00:36:30.070 --> 00:36:32.429
half a run in double A compared to high A.
735
00:36:32.469 --> 00:36:34.630
So that walk rate is going to be the key
736
00:36:34.650 --> 00:36:40.159
here because his 33.3% strikeout rate was third in all
737
00:36:40.199 --> 00:36:43.079
of minor league baseball among arms with at least 100
738
00:36:43.079 --> 00:36:46.760
innings pitched. He was behind only Christian Zazueta of the
739
00:36:46.800 --> 00:36:49.480
Dodgers and Caden Hunter of the Orioles in that regard.
740
00:36:49.880 --> 00:36:52.519
And those are two really good names to be behind
741
00:36:52.599 --> 00:36:56.070
if you're going to be behind anyone. But, His 166
742
00:36:56.070 --> 00:37:00.309
batting average also ranked as the lowest among that same
743
00:37:00.329 --> 00:37:03.449
group of minor leaguers with at least 100 innings pitched.
744
00:37:03.989 --> 00:37:06.530
Now I know that 100 innings might seem like a
745
00:37:06.670 --> 00:37:09.429
high bar to set here, but there were more than
746
00:37:09.429 --> 00:37:13.030
250 minor leaguers who reached that mark this season. And
747
00:37:13.090 --> 00:37:16.599
it really emphasizes just how good and how consistent Dishmay
748
00:37:16.619 --> 00:37:19.139
was over the entire season. So like I said, similar
749
00:37:19.260 --> 00:37:23.300
to Parrish, despite a rise of nearly 200 spots in
750
00:37:23.340 --> 00:37:25.949
our rankings this year, I think Dishmay is another name
751
00:37:26.190 --> 00:37:29.130
that might still be underrated and could be another good
752
00:37:29.329 --> 00:37:34.969
offseason target. Now, unfortunately, not all of our recommendations were hits.
753
00:37:35.130 --> 00:37:38.329
Even in the second half here, when there wasn't a
754
00:37:38.429 --> 00:37:41.510
ton of movement in either direction, there aren't a ton
755
00:37:41.630 --> 00:37:45.750
of huge misses either, but there were still some misses. So, Raj,
756
00:37:45.909 --> 00:37:49.630
who were a couple of your worst recommendations this season?
757
00:37:51.030 --> 00:37:52.489
So the first one I'm going to talk about is
758
00:37:52.670 --> 00:37:55.030
Jermon Noel. When I recommended him, I believe he was
759
00:37:55.369 --> 00:37:57.829
at the complex, but had just been promoted to single A,
760
00:37:57.889 --> 00:38:00.409
and he was this sort of in-field slash utility type
761
00:38:00.449 --> 00:38:04.239
of guy who had very good basketball skills and good speed,
762
00:38:04.260 --> 00:38:07.219
but not that much power. And I think the reason
763
00:38:07.280 --> 00:38:10.599
why this didn't really work out just because he was
764
00:38:10.619 --> 00:38:13.760
just too far away from the big leagues. Because you
765
00:38:13.780 --> 00:38:15.800
think about a guy I recommended earlier in the year,
766
00:38:16.010 --> 00:38:19.130
like Josh Kordegaard, he's not a pro far away. Good
767
00:38:19.150 --> 00:38:23.050
back to ball, not much power, but he's just doesn't
768
00:38:23.090 --> 00:38:25.909
strike out that often. And the thing is that Kodogar
769
00:38:25.929 --> 00:38:28.219
was at AAA. Since he was hitting well, a promotion
770
00:38:28.239 --> 00:38:31.159
meant going to big leagues. And that's basically, I wouldn't
771
00:38:31.179 --> 00:38:33.480
say make a big, but that's where a guy can
772
00:38:33.500 --> 00:38:34.960
really boost his stock is just like getting to the
773
00:38:34.980 --> 00:38:38.039
big leagues and potentially performing. And Jamal knew well, he
774
00:38:38.090 --> 00:38:41.650
was at the complex. So for him to basically be
775
00:38:42.389 --> 00:38:44.590
a guy like Kodogar, he'd have to go through essentially
776
00:38:44.610 --> 00:38:47.809
the entire mining system. And that was just very tough.
777
00:38:48.239 --> 00:38:49.869
to do just because a lot more can go wrong
778
00:38:50.630 --> 00:38:53.130
from being that far away. And that's the way a
779
00:38:53.250 --> 00:38:56.829
lot went wrong. He had a 54 WC plus. So
780
00:38:56.849 --> 00:38:59.590
it's not great at all. And I, you gave me
781
00:38:59.610 --> 00:39:01.269
an F grade for that. I'm pretty sure I deserved
782
00:39:01.329 --> 00:39:03.949
it for the wall. And then the, I know we
783
00:39:04.110 --> 00:39:06.909
list pick two for our worst friend nation, but I'm
784
00:39:07.110 --> 00:39:10.960
actually going to group two more together for this. And
785
00:39:10.980 --> 00:39:13.760
that's Gage Mill and Robert Moore. And just cause I
786
00:39:13.780 --> 00:39:16.420
think what went wrong for them is pretty similar because
787
00:39:17.219 --> 00:39:20.380
There are two guys who... They were bad-to-ball guys that
788
00:39:20.420 --> 00:39:23.610
were closer to big leagues, but they weren't really playing
789
00:39:23.690 --> 00:39:26.269
that often. They were only playing four times a week
790
00:39:26.349 --> 00:39:28.739
instead of pretty much every day. And a lot of
791
00:39:28.780 --> 00:39:32.010
that was because... I think the team just didn't really
792
00:39:32.050 --> 00:39:33.679
believe in them that much. And I think when the
793
00:39:33.719 --> 00:39:35.780
team doesn't really believe in them, why should you believe
794
00:39:35.880 --> 00:39:39.099
in them? Their performance fell apart a bit in the
795
00:39:39.119 --> 00:39:41.940
second half. I do think they're good players, but because
796
00:39:41.980 --> 00:39:43.480
they didn't really play every day, they didn't really get
797
00:39:43.519 --> 00:39:46.780
the consistency to get better. And because that day just
798
00:39:46.800 --> 00:39:47.440
got worse instead.
799
00:39:49.679 --> 00:39:50.280
Yeah, absolutely.
800
00:39:50.300 --> 00:39:52.039
I think that the biggest thing that we can take
801
00:39:52.079 --> 00:39:54.840
from these second half recommendations, at least on the worst
802
00:39:55.099 --> 00:39:58.619
side of things here, is why they went wrong. And
803
00:39:58.659 --> 00:40:00.889
when we're looking at a couple of guys, like you said,
804
00:40:00.909 --> 00:40:02.989
with Miller and Moore, it's pretty clear that it's just
805
00:40:03.030 --> 00:40:06.110
a matter of what does the organization.
806
00:40:05.550 --> 00:40:06.150
Think about them?
807
00:40:06.289 --> 00:40:08.090
What should I think about them? And I've got a
808
00:40:08.130 --> 00:40:10.909
couple when I get to mine that are certainly learning
809
00:40:11.190 --> 00:40:14.110
opportunities as well. I'll get to those in a moment, though.
810
00:40:14.389 --> 00:40:16.159
I'm going to throw it over to Taylor first. I
811
00:40:16.199 --> 00:40:18.840
know you said you didn't have any misses last this,
812
00:40:19.219 --> 00:40:21.920
this cycle in the second half here, but who did
813
00:40:21.960 --> 00:40:24.300
you think was your worst recommendation?
814
00:40:25.400 --> 00:40:27.420
Yeah, I had all C grades is like my, my
815
00:40:27.460 --> 00:40:30.489
lower grades. So it was hard to pick, but Jason
816
00:40:30.510 --> 00:40:33.030
Moribell was the one that was a C that wasn't
817
00:40:33.070 --> 00:40:35.469
because he just didn't play a lot after he did
818
00:40:35.730 --> 00:40:38.829
play quite a bit after 42 games, but really didn't
819
00:40:38.929 --> 00:40:41.349
see his roster ship percentage move at all, just from
820
00:40:41.349 --> 00:40:43.889
1% to 2%. And I called him a pickup in
821
00:40:43.909 --> 00:40:47.429
leagues of 400 plus. He didn't even crack our top 800.
822
00:40:47.429 --> 00:40:49.309
Wasn't horrible after I wrote him up with a 109
823
00:40:49.309 --> 00:40:52.510
WRC plus, but wasn't that great either? I'm not sure
824
00:40:52.570 --> 00:40:54.289
he's going to pop off anytime soon.
825
00:40:54.409 --> 00:40:57.699
He's fine. But yeah, I think that that qualifies my worst.
826
00:40:58.719 --> 00:40:59.559
You're doing pretty well.
827
00:40:59.639 --> 00:41:02.440
If your worst is a fine recommendation, because I've got
828
00:41:02.460 --> 00:41:05.320
a couple pretty clear misses here. One of them being
829
00:41:05.360 --> 00:41:07.960
an outfielder for the Red Sox, Skylar King, and the
830
00:41:08.000 --> 00:41:11.699
other an outfielder for the Jays, Sam Shaw. Now with
831
00:41:11.739 --> 00:41:14.559
Skylar King, the recommendation was always a bit of a
832
00:41:14.579 --> 00:41:17.480
long shot anyways, but But it still really missed the
833
00:41:17.519 --> 00:41:21.000
mark because he had an 84 WRC plus in single
834
00:41:21.039 --> 00:41:24.559
A prior to my recommendation. And to top that off,
835
00:41:24.599 --> 00:41:26.960
he was an old for the level 22 year old
836
00:41:27.079 --> 00:41:30.159
college draftee. But I saw a stat line that had
837
00:41:30.199 --> 00:41:32.739
been improving month by month for a prospect with an
838
00:41:32.800 --> 00:41:35.820
intriguing power speed blend. And I tried to get out
839
00:41:35.920 --> 00:41:39.989
ahead of a potential breakout that just never happened. He
840
00:41:40.070 --> 00:41:42.289
did earn the promotion to high A that I was
841
00:41:42.329 --> 00:41:44.710
looking for, but things really fell off for him there.
842
00:41:44.769 --> 00:41:47.550
So while he was a deep recommendation for leagues with
843
00:41:47.550 --> 00:41:51.019
500 plus prospects rostered, he was still a miss. I
844
00:41:51.079 --> 00:41:53.360
added him in some deep leagues of that sort of
845
00:41:53.400 --> 00:41:55.619
range and I've dropped him there. So if you still
846
00:41:55.659 --> 00:41:58.380
have any Skylar King shares after my recommendation, you can
847
00:41:58.440 --> 00:42:01.360
probably drop him. And my other one here, Sam Shaw,
848
00:42:01.400 --> 00:42:04.429
this is a little bit off script because Raj gave
849
00:42:04.469 --> 00:42:07.280
this one a D grade instead of an F. But
850
00:42:07.420 --> 00:42:09.489
I personally think it was a little bit worse than
851
00:42:09.530 --> 00:42:11.389
a couple of the Fs that he did give me.
852
00:42:11.789 --> 00:42:14.429
And the main reason being, similar to a Skyler King,
853
00:42:14.469 --> 00:42:17.289
the writing was on the wall for Sam Shaw because
854
00:42:17.329 --> 00:42:20.130
he's a player that was coming back from surgery to
855
00:42:21.190 --> 00:42:25.690
address thoracic outlet syndrome and blood clots in his shoulder.
856
00:42:26.170 --> 00:42:29.210
So there was already a reason to be concerned with
857
00:42:29.250 --> 00:42:31.920
what it could look like. And he then left with
858
00:42:31.960 --> 00:42:34.860
an undisclosed injury in early July. And although he was
859
00:42:35.059 --> 00:42:38.179
activated at the end of September, the high season had
860
00:42:38.199 --> 00:42:41.469
already ended. So we didn't see him again after my recommendation.
861
00:42:41.570 --> 00:42:44.150
So I do think Shaw is still a talented player.
862
00:42:44.170 --> 00:42:47.769
I don't think the fantasy upside is anything special. And
863
00:42:47.789 --> 00:42:50.449
I think the risk of the injuries here just outweigh
864
00:42:50.469 --> 00:42:52.639
the reward. So even though he was a little bit
865
00:42:52.679 --> 00:42:55.719
of a deeper recommendation as well, he is one that
866
00:42:55.880 --> 00:43:00.539
I would consider one of my worst recommendations. Now, there
867
00:43:00.619 --> 00:43:04.519
are a few recommendations that, for better or worse, maybe
868
00:43:04.559 --> 00:43:08.400
didn't get the grade that we thought they deserved. So, Raj,
869
00:43:08.440 --> 00:43:11.750
who was one player that I gave maybe a lower
870
00:43:11.829 --> 00:43:13.250
grade than you thought they deserved?
871
00:43:14.409 --> 00:43:18.710
This one might be not the best to pick for us,
872
00:43:18.730 --> 00:43:21.309
because that was depending between the two guys, but I'm
873
00:43:21.329 --> 00:43:24.329
going to go with Bryce Meyer. You gave him a,
874
00:43:24.320 --> 00:43:27.369
maybe so I saw a bit of a, Tough one.
875
00:43:27.389 --> 00:43:29.130
Cause you gave him a C plus and I do
876
00:43:29.409 --> 00:43:32.389
agree with that because the performance was on the surface
877
00:43:32.429 --> 00:43:34.909
of performance. Wasn't the best, but you consider the fact
878
00:43:34.949 --> 00:43:38.269
that he was promoted to PCL. It's I think the
879
00:43:38.309 --> 00:43:41.869
performance is more so a factor. The poor surface numbers
880
00:43:41.949 --> 00:43:43.349
is more so a factor of him being at the
881
00:43:43.369 --> 00:43:47.070
PCL rather than him being a worse prospect because at
882
00:43:47.090 --> 00:43:49.309
the PCL, he's had pretty good strikeout rates. His walk
883
00:43:49.329 --> 00:43:51.429
rate is actually a little bit better in AAA than
884
00:43:51.449 --> 00:43:54.679
in AA and I think that The thing that really
885
00:43:54.760 --> 00:43:56.980
weighed his numbers down was his, was the home runs,
886
00:43:57.099 --> 00:44:00.579
but you look at the home run to fireball rate,
887
00:44:00.699 --> 00:44:04.139
it was 22.5%. And his 25, 29, except it still
888
00:44:04.159 --> 00:44:07.179
doesn't look that great. But in terms of the PCL averages,
889
00:44:07.320 --> 00:44:10.719
it's actually pretty much league average for the PCL. And
890
00:44:10.760 --> 00:44:13.090
he gets a ton of weak contact, only a 5.9%
891
00:44:13.090 --> 00:44:16.610
barrel rate, 25.9% hit rate. So I do think that
892
00:44:16.650 --> 00:44:19.869
home run to fireball rate is something that should have
893
00:44:19.889 --> 00:44:22.809
been a lot lower. And you consider the fact that he's,
894
00:44:23.539 --> 00:44:25.300
He's just getting used to a triple A ball. A
895
00:44:25.340 --> 00:44:28.440
guy that's knock on the door. I did give him
896
00:44:28.460 --> 00:44:31.639
an aggressive grade of 200 plus prospects, but an arm
897
00:44:31.679 --> 00:44:35.760
that performed well at triple A and is pretty close
898
00:44:35.780 --> 00:44:38.739
to big leagues. I think it's one of those cases
899
00:44:38.780 --> 00:44:42.239
where even though he's ranked around 400, I do think
900
00:44:42.739 --> 00:44:44.690
I would roster him in some 200 plus league just
901
00:44:44.710 --> 00:44:48.989
because it's because he's close to big leagues. There's some
902
00:44:49.030 --> 00:44:51.010
formats where you want a guy closer to big leagues.
903
00:44:51.719 --> 00:44:53.719
over as one of those more far away guys. And
904
00:44:54.260 --> 00:44:56.989
a guy like Brysmaier could be rushable in those 200
905
00:44:56.989 --> 00:45:00.670
plus leagues, even though the performance wasn't the best. Although
906
00:45:00.690 --> 00:45:03.389
the performance was, I do think, pretty solid, given it
907
00:45:03.489 --> 00:45:04.369
was in the PCL.
908
00:45:05.730 --> 00:45:08.719
Yeah, this was one of the tougher grades to give,
909
00:45:08.800 --> 00:45:12.199
because as you noted, the performance at AAA on the
910
00:45:12.260 --> 00:45:16.719
surface wasn't good, but... where he was not just in
911
00:45:16.900 --> 00:45:20.059
AAA for his first sample, but in the PCL, that
912
00:45:20.099 --> 00:45:22.800
certainly has a lot to do with it. On the
913
00:45:22.820 --> 00:45:25.340
flip side of things, the main reason it didn't move
914
00:45:25.460 --> 00:45:28.940
up into a B, despite the fact that the roster
915
00:45:28.960 --> 00:45:31.460
rate rose from six to 7%, and he did move
916
00:45:31.519 --> 00:45:35.039
from unranked to 418 overall, the main thing was just
917
00:45:35.139 --> 00:45:38.599
as you noted, it was a recommendation, a fairly aggressive recommendation.
918
00:45:38.949 --> 00:45:41.489
for leagues with 200 plus prospects rostered, if he had
919
00:45:41.730 --> 00:45:45.369
gotten closer to that recommendation level, he would have received
920
00:45:45.409 --> 00:45:47.570
a higher grade. But for me, I did take that
921
00:45:47.690 --> 00:45:51.650
into account, especially when there was a large discrepancy in
922
00:45:51.670 --> 00:45:53.789
the recommendation to where they ended the season. So I
923
00:45:53.829 --> 00:45:57.070
can certainly see where you're coming from here. But the
924
00:45:57.110 --> 00:46:00.030
league size recommendation compared to the ranking maybe played a
925
00:46:00.090 --> 00:46:02.619
little bit more of a factor for me than it
926
00:46:02.659 --> 00:46:06.039
did for you with some of your grades that you gave.
927
00:46:08.360 --> 00:46:10.900
All right, Taylor, I know that, again, the list is
928
00:46:10.980 --> 00:46:13.880
relatively short for you here, but we've got a repeat name.
929
00:46:13.920 --> 00:46:16.480
So why do you think this player deserved a better
930
00:46:16.539 --> 00:46:17.420
grade as well?
931
00:46:18.719 --> 00:46:21.829
Yeah, it's O'Neal Hernandez or Joneel Hernandez of the Giants.
932
00:46:22.170 --> 00:46:24.210
Raj gave me a C grade because he didn't play
933
00:46:24.570 --> 00:46:26.949
after I recommended him, at least in the regular season.
934
00:46:27.070 --> 00:46:29.889
He actually did play in the playoffs. I don't fault you, Raj,
935
00:46:29.909 --> 00:46:32.269
for this. I wasn't expecting you to dig deep into, like,
936
00:46:32.570 --> 00:46:33.909
minor league playoff stat lines.
937
00:46:34.610 --> 00:46:34.829
But.
938
00:46:35.280 --> 00:46:37.360
I will say maybe this changes the recommendation a little
939
00:46:37.389 --> 00:46:38.889
bit to at least the C plus because it was
940
00:46:38.929 --> 00:46:44.030
just five games, but in those five games, 924 OPS, 273, 333,
941
00:46:44.030 --> 00:46:46.730
591 slash, two home runs, a double, and a stolen
942
00:46:46.750 --> 00:46:49.320
base in that time. So went off in the playoffs.
943
00:46:49.530 --> 00:46:51.500
How much you want to wait minor league playoff data
944
00:46:51.980 --> 00:46:54.059
is up to you, but I feel that did not play.
945
00:46:54.280 --> 00:46:56.300
If you move in that he played pretty well, went
946
00:46:56.360 --> 00:46:58.559
off after, I think it bumps it up to at
947
00:46:58.579 --> 00:46:59.940
least a C plus, if not a B grade.
948
00:46:59.960 --> 00:47:02.869
I'm not sure because I know like minor league playoffs
949
00:47:02.949 --> 00:47:05.389
are like not too They don't matter too much, and
950
00:47:05.409 --> 00:47:06.969
if you think of a big league, now that he's
951
00:47:07.010 --> 00:47:08.500
in insurance, he's probably not going to be in the
952
00:47:08.519 --> 00:47:09.360
playoffs that much.
953
00:47:10.860 --> 00:47:17.820
Oh, okay. That's it. Gauntlet thrown. I challenge you to
954
00:47:17.840 --> 00:47:18.400
a dual, sir.
955
00:47:19.960 --> 00:47:21.960
Yeah, I think part of it is that he was, like,
956
00:47:21.980 --> 00:47:24.800
you recommend him for a league of 250-plus prospects, and
957
00:47:24.820 --> 00:47:29.619
when you recommend him, he was already 332nd on a ranking,
958
00:47:29.639 --> 00:47:34.650
so I think it wasn't, like, as aggressive enough or great,
959
00:47:34.670 --> 00:47:38.460
because I think, like, while he was sort of, like,
960
00:47:38.519 --> 00:47:41.500
rosterable in those leagues, he didn't really boost his stock
961
00:47:42.059 --> 00:47:45.920
that much to where it's like, oh, I'm, this is,
962
00:47:45.920 --> 00:47:48.590
I'm not sure how to explain it, but basically, he
963
00:47:48.610 --> 00:47:50.150
didn't really boost his stock that much, and it was
964
00:47:50.190 --> 00:47:53.190
already a recommendation where, like, he was already in that,
965
00:47:53.449 --> 00:47:56.989
and then he just stayed in that tier rather than, like,
966
00:47:57.070 --> 00:47:57.469
moving up.
967
00:47:59.190 --> 00:48:01.739
Yeah, totally understand. Yeah, for sure.
968
00:48:02.579 --> 00:48:05.199
Oddly enough here, I am also going to be defending
969
00:48:05.300 --> 00:48:07.980
a San Francisco Giants player, but it's also one of
970
00:48:08.059 --> 00:48:11.989
my favorite recommendations from this season as a whole, not
971
00:48:12.050 --> 00:48:15.250
just the second half. And that's Jacob Bresnahan. Raj, you
972
00:48:15.269 --> 00:48:17.769
gave this one a B because he had a four
973
00:48:17.789 --> 00:48:20.989
and a half ERA after my recommendation. But what I'm
974
00:48:21.010 --> 00:48:23.550
looking at more than those numbers is the fact that
975
00:48:23.670 --> 00:48:29.340
his ranking rose from outside our top 550 to 200 overall,
976
00:48:29.679 --> 00:48:32.610
which is exactly where I recommended him. And his roster
977
00:48:32.630 --> 00:48:36.329
rate rose from 7% to 12%, so a significant boost there. Now,
978
00:48:36.389 --> 00:48:38.429
I would love to say this deserved an A or
979
00:48:38.510 --> 00:48:43.510
even an A +, considering his stock arguably improved as
980
00:48:43.639 --> 00:48:46.119
much as, if not more than some of the players
981
00:48:46.159 --> 00:48:50.019
that I mentioned earlier as my best recommendations. And that's
982
00:48:50.059 --> 00:48:52.500
the whole point of these recommendations, is to give you
983
00:48:52.559 --> 00:48:55.000
players that are going to rise in value. So when
984
00:48:55.039 --> 00:48:58.050
I see a player whose stock rose significantly, both in
985
00:48:58.090 --> 00:49:03.210
terms of roster rate and ranking, and who fell right
986
00:49:03.349 --> 00:49:07.349
into the category where I recommended him, I am very
987
00:49:07.389 --> 00:49:10.099
encouraged by that. Again, I would love an A or
988
00:49:10.119 --> 00:49:11.940
an A +, but I would have settled for an
989
00:49:12.019 --> 00:49:13.800
A- due to the performance.
990
00:49:15.550 --> 00:49:18.469
Yeah, I think the performance is what's weighing it down
991
00:49:18.510 --> 00:49:21.050
from an A. to more of a B for me.
992
00:49:21.139 --> 00:49:22.820
I didn't really give any like B plus or A minus,
993
00:49:22.840 --> 00:49:25.579
just an A plus, A, B, C, and that sort
994
00:49:25.599 --> 00:49:28.760
of thing. But I do think that he should be,
995
00:49:29.619 --> 00:49:31.719
he probably should get consideration for A. I think this
996
00:49:31.760 --> 00:49:35.219
is more a situation where I'm not the highest guard
997
00:49:35.239 --> 00:49:39.510
in Jacob Bessahanna, but... Everybody else was definitely high in
998
00:49:39.849 --> 00:49:42.630
the performance. I know after the recommendation wasn't great, but
999
00:49:42.849 --> 00:49:44.550
before the performance was so good that he was able
1000
00:49:44.570 --> 00:49:46.889
to carry his stock up a ton. So I do
1001
00:49:46.909 --> 00:49:51.610
think even though the performance wasn't that great, the roster
1002
00:49:51.679 --> 00:49:54.360
jumped so much, especially considering how hard it is for
1003
00:49:54.400 --> 00:49:56.980
that to jump in the second half. I think he
1004
00:49:57.000 --> 00:49:59.480
probably does. I think you're right. He probably does deserve
1005
00:49:59.539 --> 00:49:59.710
an A.
1006
00:50:00.480 --> 00:50:02.619
I'm glad that I've got you on board there. I
1007
00:50:02.639 --> 00:50:04.920
know I don't need to continue to make my case,
1008
00:50:04.960 --> 00:50:07.059
but if I'm not mistaken, Taylor, maybe you can correct
1009
00:50:07.079 --> 00:50:09.559
me on this. I think this was the third straight
1010
00:50:09.599 --> 00:50:12.599
year and the third different level that he has now
1011
00:50:12.679 --> 00:50:15.599
received Pitcher of the Year acclamation for.
1012
00:50:15.619 --> 00:50:20.519
Yeah, I'm not 100% sure on that, but that sounds plausible.
1013
00:50:21.139 --> 00:50:21.920
I think he did.
1014
00:50:22.019 --> 00:50:25.280
So that would be maybe if I needed to make
1015
00:50:25.360 --> 00:50:29.119
another argument, one more notch in the belt of Jacob
1016
00:50:29.139 --> 00:50:31.480
Bresnahan here. But we're going to move on to our
1017
00:50:31.599 --> 00:50:35.739
final category here. One miss who could bounce back next year.
1018
00:50:35.900 --> 00:50:38.579
So Raj... Who do you have for us in this spot?
1019
00:50:39.599 --> 00:50:41.719
So this is a guy that I was debating with.
1020
00:50:42.980 --> 00:50:45.190
Bryce Meyer is like the guy who I felt you
1021
00:50:45.210 --> 00:50:47.230
graded too well because I'm going to go with Patrick
1022
00:50:47.250 --> 00:50:51.590
Copen and you graded him a D grade. And one
1023
00:50:51.610 --> 00:50:55.230
of the things that was really nuts, he's a guy
1024
00:50:55.250 --> 00:50:57.489
who always had very good stuff, but the command wasn't
1025
00:50:57.530 --> 00:51:00.880
that great. But in the second half, he improved his
1026
00:51:00.920 --> 00:51:02.599
command and that's why I called him out near the
1027
00:51:02.619 --> 00:51:05.079
end of the year. And since then, his command has
1028
00:51:05.119 --> 00:51:11.150
continued to be great, only a 7.6% walk rate in
1029
00:51:11.170 --> 00:51:14.670
degree starts after I recommend him, even though the strikeout
1030
00:51:14.690 --> 00:51:17.579
rate was a little bit lower than you expect 18.2%.
1031
00:51:17.579 --> 00:51:20.670
394 ERA and 330 ERA in degree starts after I
1032
00:51:20.670 --> 00:51:23.949
recommend him. And overall in the second half, 46 and
1033
00:51:23.989 --> 00:51:27.670
one third innings pitch to a, let me just double check. Yeah,
1034
00:51:27.670 --> 00:51:31.510
46 and one third innings pitch to a 330 ERA
1035
00:51:31.670 --> 00:51:35.880
and a sub three fifth 297. 28.1% carry and a 7.3%
1036
00:51:35.880 --> 00:51:38.880
walk rate. And you factor in the stuff, you factor
1037
00:51:38.920 --> 00:51:43.019
in the versioning command in, I guess, 46 and a
1038
00:51:43.019 --> 00:51:46.119
third innings only, but it's not nothing. And I do
1039
00:51:46.139 --> 00:51:48.849
think if he can continue that next year, he can
1040
00:51:48.889 --> 00:51:51.409
really pop off. Because as I said earlier, if you
1041
00:51:51.429 --> 00:51:54.170
have that good first impression, he could really boost his stock.
1042
00:51:54.210 --> 00:51:58.929
And Patrick Copeland, if he does what he did at
1043
00:51:58.969 --> 00:52:01.010
the end of this year, at the start of next year,
1044
00:52:01.170 --> 00:52:04.059
I think he's probably going to Because you look at
1045
00:52:04.139 --> 00:52:07.139
also the... One of the reasons why I didn't pick
1046
00:52:07.159 --> 00:52:11.079
him as the guy to... That I felt like he
1047
00:52:11.099 --> 00:52:13.760
graded too low on is because the roster actually went down.
1048
00:52:14.219 --> 00:52:16.260
They went from 3% to 2%, and the ranking went
1049
00:52:16.300 --> 00:52:20.449
from 450 to 500 around. But if he can pitch
1050
00:52:20.469 --> 00:52:22.409
like this and start next year, I think he's probably
1051
00:52:23.110 --> 00:52:25.610
maybe in that 250, 200 range.
1052
00:52:25.510 --> 00:52:25.989
Even, maybe.
1053
00:52:27.130 --> 00:52:29.510
Yeah, I think there's certainly opportunity for him to rise.
1054
00:52:29.610 --> 00:52:30.050
I do.
1055
00:52:30.690 --> 00:52:32.550
like the call out I think it was just a
1056
00:52:32.590 --> 00:52:36.260
matter of yeah maybe poor timing with people realizing what
1057
00:52:36.320 --> 00:52:39.800
the kind of overall line looked like on the season
1058
00:52:39.840 --> 00:52:41.780
and his stock falling a little bit because of it
1059
00:52:41.840 --> 00:52:45.500
it would be fantastic to see him rise back up
1060
00:52:45.539 --> 00:52:47.730
the ranks though so that will be a name certainly
1061
00:52:48.050 --> 00:52:50.630
to keep an eye on next season Taylor who do
1062
00:52:50.670 --> 00:52:53.909
you have as a miss that could bounce back next season.
1063
00:52:54.809 --> 00:52:56.190
Yeah, I'm not going to get too much in depth
1064
00:52:56.210 --> 00:52:58.170
on him because we just covered him a couple weeks ago.
1065
00:52:58.190 --> 00:52:59.869
It was my last recommendation of the year, but I
1066
00:52:59.889 --> 00:53:02.469
think Kelvis Salcedo, again, not a miss. He didn't really
1067
00:53:02.510 --> 00:53:04.429
pitch after I recommended him, but I feel like this
1068
00:53:04.489 --> 00:53:07.519
is the guy who I feel probably will rise the
1069
00:53:07.559 --> 00:53:10.800
most across the offseason as people do a little bit
1070
00:53:10.840 --> 00:53:13.650
more digging and get a little bit more excited about him.
1071
00:53:14.940 --> 00:53:17.019
Yeah, I think that's a really good call out because
1072
00:53:17.039 --> 00:53:19.769
that's one that we've talked about a few times over
1073
00:53:19.809 --> 00:53:22.409
the last couple of years and the, the hype just
1074
00:53:22.449 --> 00:53:25.159
never quite seems to catch up to. It seems like
1075
00:53:25.260 --> 00:53:28.679
the performance. So hopefully that is a name that we're
1076
00:53:28.699 --> 00:53:31.159
going to see with a little bit more of a
1077
00:53:31.199 --> 00:53:34.079
rise next year. I am going to dive into my
1078
00:53:34.139 --> 00:53:36.659
name here. And while I'm never going to give up
1079
00:53:36.840 --> 00:53:39.860
on Josh Knopf, he could easily be my choice here.
1080
00:53:40.280 --> 00:53:42.809
I'm not going to talk about him. I instead am
1081
00:53:42.849 --> 00:53:45.849
going to take a look at Coy James, a shortstop in.
1082
00:53:45.809 --> 00:53:46.750
The national system.
1083
00:53:47.230 --> 00:53:49.929
And honestly, this is another one similar to you, Raj,
1084
00:53:49.989 --> 00:53:53.489
talking about Copen, that I thought about maybe arguing for
1085
00:53:53.530 --> 00:53:56.150
a better grade on because his stock really didn't change
1086
00:53:56.309 --> 00:53:59.730
at all. And while his performance in 11 games after
1087
00:53:59.789 --> 00:54:03.300
my recommendation did come with a 48 WRC +, he
1088
00:54:03.340 --> 00:54:07.300
also continued to show strong contact and approach metrics over
1089
00:54:07.340 --> 00:54:11.360
that span and got really unlucky with a 189 Babbitt
1090
00:54:11.500 --> 00:54:14.139
dragging down his numbers. And a big part of why
1091
00:54:14.219 --> 00:54:18.539
I recommended James when I did is because he was
1092
00:54:18.639 --> 00:54:21.400
a prospect with an exciting blend of power and speed
1093
00:54:21.480 --> 00:54:25.300
who started displaying some much improved contact and approach numbers
1094
00:54:25.820 --> 00:54:28.400
after the minor league all-star break so although his final
1095
00:54:28.400 --> 00:54:32.099
11 games were a bit unlucky I'm still really encouraged
1096
00:54:32.219 --> 00:54:35.739
by what we saw with regards to again especially his
1097
00:54:35.800 --> 00:54:38.920
approach and his contact in the second half and if
1098
00:54:38.960 --> 00:54:41.739
he can continue that into next season I think he's
1099
00:54:41.760 --> 00:54:45.559
going to be a really big riser All right, that
1100
00:54:45.699 --> 00:54:49.139
does it though for all of our recommendations for all
1101
00:54:49.260 --> 00:54:53.280
of our grades this season. But before we end today's episode,
1102
00:54:53.320 --> 00:54:56.400
before we go, before we take a bit of a break, Raj,
1103
00:54:56.500 --> 00:54:58.500
I understand that you have a bit of a surprise
1104
00:54:58.559 --> 00:54:59.320
for us here today.
1105
00:55:00.320 --> 00:55:02.719
Yeah, so I wanted to do a bit of a
1106
00:55:02.760 --> 00:55:06.039
year in review, but I didn't want to just tell
1107
00:55:06.059 --> 00:55:08.420
you like a bunch of numbers. So what we're going
1108
00:55:08.440 --> 00:55:09.619
to do is that we're going to do a bit
1109
00:55:09.659 --> 00:55:12.539
of a trivia where I'm going to ask questions about
1110
00:55:13.119 --> 00:55:14.820
your recommendation and you're going to try to guess.
1111
00:55:15.860 --> 00:55:16.280
We'll see.
1112
00:55:16.800 --> 00:55:19.820
You'll get the picture. Just to recap this year, I,
1113
00:55:19.929 --> 00:55:23.630
me and Cal each made 115 recommendations and Tara made 23.
1114
00:55:23.630 --> 00:55:27.070
So that's on our 253 total recommendations. So a little
1115
00:55:27.110 --> 00:55:31.289
over 250. Cal, this first question is for you. So
1116
00:55:31.329 --> 00:55:34.059
what do you think was your most recommended team this year?
1117
00:55:34.320 --> 00:55:36.420
And that is what I mean by that is which
1118
00:55:36.480 --> 00:55:38.659
team did you recommend from the most?
1119
00:55:39.880 --> 00:55:47.480
Most recommended team. I don't... It's tough.
1120
00:55:47.519 --> 00:55:49.940
Maybe the Nationals? I know I recommended a few players
1121
00:55:49.980 --> 00:55:50.699
from the Nationals.
1122
00:55:51.820 --> 00:55:54.239
So the Nationals, you had six, but the team you
1123
00:55:54.260 --> 00:55:57.570
recommended from the most was actually the Cleveland Guardians with
1124
00:55:57.570 --> 00:55:59.170
10 different players recommended.
1125
00:55:59.190 --> 00:55:59.449
Oh, wow.
1126
00:56:00.469 --> 00:56:03.190
Yeah. So Taylor, this is for you.
1127
00:56:03.409 --> 00:56:03.829
You had.
1128
00:56:03.849 --> 00:56:06.269
I'm going to ask you your most recommended team, but
1129
00:56:06.289 --> 00:56:09.070
you actually had two because you had two teams tied
1130
00:56:09.090 --> 00:56:11.889
for three recommendations each. So if you like, you can
1131
00:56:11.929 --> 00:56:14.059
give two guesses for what each of them were.
1132
00:56:15.429 --> 00:56:17.030
Oh, man, this is a tough one. I got to
1133
00:56:17.050 --> 00:56:18.219
guess the Giants, obviously.
1134
00:56:18.239 --> 00:56:21.019
It is not the Giants.
1135
00:56:21.539 --> 00:56:25.980
Oh, let's see. Try to think back through all my recommendations.
1136
00:56:26.579 --> 00:56:28.719
Probably the Brewers and the Dodgers?
1137
00:56:29.980 --> 00:56:32.900
No, it's actually the Tigers and the Cardinals.
1138
00:56:33.559 --> 00:56:33.860
Whoa.
1139
00:56:33.960 --> 00:56:35.159
Three from each.
1140
00:56:36.079 --> 00:56:37.960
Wow, would not have expected that. What was yours, Raj?
1141
00:56:39.039 --> 00:56:40.940
Mine was, like, it's going to be an answer for
1142
00:56:41.039 --> 00:56:41.519
one of the.
1143
00:56:41.599 --> 00:56:43.320
Future ones, so I'm not going to say it yet.
1144
00:56:43.340 --> 00:56:46.230
Okay, never mind. go for it.
1145
00:56:46.750 --> 00:56:48.630
So next, we're going to go for the teams with
1146
00:56:49.010 --> 00:56:52.760
zero recommendations. Kyle, this is for you because you didn't
1147
00:56:52.800 --> 00:56:54.119
recommend as many, so you have a bunch of you
1148
00:56:54.159 --> 00:56:56.940
with zero recommendations, but Kyle, you only had one team
1149
00:56:57.000 --> 00:57:00.800
where you did not recommend a single pair from. Can
1150
00:57:00.820 --> 00:57:02.059
you guess which team that was?
1151
00:57:02.969 --> 00:57:07.510
One team without any. The problem is that probably means
1152
00:57:07.550 --> 00:57:09.710
they're off my mind entirely, so I don't know that
1153
00:57:09.730 --> 00:57:11.550
I'm going to get this, but I'm going.
1154
00:57:11.389 --> 00:57:12.929
To take a stab at.
1155
00:57:17.659 --> 00:57:19.039
I'm going to take a stab at.
1156
00:57:20.760 --> 00:57:22.699
Let's go with the Phillies?
1157
00:57:22.719 --> 00:57:27.000
It was actually the New York Mets. And the thing
1158
00:57:27.039 --> 00:57:29.460
that made it this one interesting is that even though
1159
00:57:29.480 --> 00:57:31.840
you didn't recommend any players from the Mets, you ended
1160
00:57:31.900 --> 00:57:34.079
up having two players who were traded to the Mets
1161
00:57:34.119 --> 00:57:36.619
at the deadline. One of them was Gabe Davis, who
1162
00:57:36.639 --> 00:57:39.360
I know in the last week's podcast, he thought he
1163
00:57:39.380 --> 00:57:42.059
would break out next year a bit. But the other
1164
00:57:42.079 --> 00:57:44.840
recommendation was actually Aiden Smith. And this one was interesting
1165
00:57:44.860 --> 00:57:47.539
because that was actually a drop recommendation for you. So
1166
00:57:47.559 --> 00:57:50.489
I want, and just see how you feel about Aiden
1167
00:57:50.510 --> 00:57:52.630
Smith for next year. Cause I know that he's with
1168
00:57:52.650 --> 00:57:54.769
New York now. Is that what probably changed the last
1169
00:57:54.789 --> 00:57:57.570
time you just hear what you think about Aiden Smith?
1170
00:57:58.369 --> 00:58:02.150
I think I'm probably still where I was prior to
1171
00:58:02.210 --> 00:58:05.829
the trade in that he's an incredibly exciting prospect with
1172
00:58:05.869 --> 00:58:08.590
some really big questions that he still needs to answer.
1173
00:58:09.130 --> 00:58:10.889
So I don't know that I'm going to be moving
1174
00:58:10.949 --> 00:58:14.530
him significantly in my rankings until we see what that
1175
00:58:14.590 --> 00:58:19.320
looks like next season after a full off-season of communication
1176
00:58:19.389 --> 00:58:21.480
with his new team. So I know it's a bit
1177
00:58:21.500 --> 00:58:24.480
of a cop-out answer, but I'm probably not doing anything
1178
00:58:24.539 --> 00:58:26.500
with him right now. I want to see what happens
1179
00:58:26.880 --> 00:58:27.380
in 2027.
1180
00:58:27.380 --> 00:58:35.119
Okay, so now let's look at the overall numbers. There's
1181
00:58:35.159 --> 00:58:39.110
two teams that are tied with 16 recommendations overall. And
1182
00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:42.179
can you guess? I'll give you each two chances to
1183
00:58:42.219 --> 00:58:44.099
guess which teams they were.
1184
00:58:45.079 --> 00:58:48.380
I recommended 10 Guardians, so I got to assume that's
1185
00:58:48.480 --> 00:58:48.800
one of them.
1186
00:58:49.659 --> 00:58:50.739
It is not. No.
1187
00:58:50.760 --> 00:58:55.090
Oh, wow. Is this like Family Feud? Can I steal
1188
00:58:55.110 --> 00:58:55.860
another category here?
1189
00:58:55.969 --> 00:58:58.409
No, you both get two opportunities because this is all
1190
00:58:58.429 --> 00:58:58.630
of us.
1191
00:58:58.769 --> 00:58:59.969
Okay. Are we switching back and forth?
1192
00:59:00.570 --> 00:59:02.010
Yeah, go for it. Okay.
1193
00:59:02.030 --> 00:59:03.050
I'm going to go with the Brewers.
1194
00:59:04.289 --> 00:59:04.510
No.
1195
00:59:05.090 --> 00:59:08.079
Brewers had 13. These two teams each had 16.
1196
00:59:08.079 --> 00:59:09.659
Okay. This is tough.
1197
00:59:09.900 --> 00:59:12.179
Tougher than I was expecting it to be. These are
1198
00:59:12.199 --> 00:59:13.219
some good questions, Raj.
1199
00:59:13.260 --> 00:59:13.739
What about the.
1200
00:59:15.519 --> 00:59:17.510
I don't think we had this many, but what about
1201
00:59:17.550 --> 00:59:18.070
the Yankees?
1202
00:59:19.110 --> 00:59:21.329
The Yankees only had seven. Yeah.
1203
00:59:21.989 --> 00:59:22.769
That was a bad guess.
1204
00:59:23.750 --> 00:59:25.730
I'm going with the Nats.
1205
00:59:25.750 --> 00:59:29.349
No, the Nats had 13, so the... Two most recommended
1206
00:59:29.369 --> 00:59:32.369
teams at 16 were the Boston Red Sox and the
1207
00:59:32.449 --> 00:59:33.110
Miami Marlins.
1208
00:59:33.929 --> 00:59:36.449
Okay. We should have gotten Red Sox.
1209
00:59:37.130 --> 00:59:39.309
Yeah. I know you asked me what my most recommended
1210
00:59:39.550 --> 00:59:42.889
team was. For me, it was the Marlins with nine recommendations.
1211
00:59:43.190 --> 00:59:43.469
Okay.
1212
00:59:44.050 --> 00:59:44.380
Got it.
1213
00:59:44.389 --> 00:59:45.219
That checks out too.
1214
00:59:46.360 --> 00:59:49.800
So now what about the least recommended team? And this
1215
00:59:49.840 --> 00:59:52.699
team only got two recommendations out of the whole year.
1216
00:59:53.300 --> 00:59:55.659
One from me, one from Kyle. Taylor, you can start
1217
00:59:55.980 --> 00:59:56.360
this time.
1218
00:59:56.239 --> 00:59:56.860
If you want.
1219
00:59:57.510 --> 01:00:01.050
Least recommendations. And I didn't recommend anyone from them. I'm
1220
01:00:04.269 --> 01:00:09.050
trying to think of like really bad teams. I don't
1221
01:00:09.070 --> 01:00:11.380
know why, but this one's popping in my head. How
1222
01:00:11.400 --> 01:00:12.460
about the Arizona Diamondbacks?
1223
01:00:14.099 --> 01:00:14.539
It is not.
1224
01:00:14.800 --> 01:00:18.199
The Diamondbacks had seven recommendations from us this year.
1225
01:00:19.679 --> 01:00:19.960
You know what?
1226
01:00:20.019 --> 01:00:23.070
I guessed this earlier for my least recommended. So I
1227
01:00:23.190 --> 01:00:25.030
still feel good about this. What about the Phillies?
1228
01:00:26.190 --> 01:00:27.170
It is not the Phillies.
1229
01:00:27.409 --> 01:00:28.929
I think I know who it is. Wait, I think
1230
01:00:28.949 --> 01:00:30.809
I know who it is. Is it the Padres?
1231
01:00:31.849 --> 01:00:34.929
No, Padres had three. So they're like second least.
1232
01:00:34.949 --> 01:00:35.590
They're right there.
1233
01:00:36.710 --> 01:00:42.380
Yeah. So the least is actually the Athletics. And it's
1234
01:00:42.500 --> 01:00:45.159
pretty interesting because the two guys that I recommend were
1235
01:00:45.659 --> 01:00:48.659
Brice and Guedes, which is Carlos, and mine was Joshua Kortegaard.
1236
01:00:49.579 --> 01:00:52.519
And I think both of them, like Kortegaard had a
1237
01:00:52.559 --> 01:00:55.409
good year, Guedes not so much, but I think there's...
1238
01:00:55.869 --> 01:00:58.269
Even though they weren't like, we didn't have that many calls.
1239
01:00:58.469 --> 01:01:02.530
I think those two guys were like pretty impactful, especially again,
1240
01:01:02.570 --> 01:01:04.070
as I think he can really bounce back next year
1241
01:01:04.110 --> 01:01:04.369
as well.
1242
01:01:05.449 --> 01:01:09.489
So yeah, those are two almost complete opposite recommendations too.
1243
01:01:09.550 --> 01:01:11.820
Those are really interesting that those are the only two
1244
01:01:11.880 --> 01:01:12.960
we looked at from the A's.
1245
01:01:14.199 --> 01:01:18.539
Yeah. So now let's look at the, this is for Cal.
1246
01:01:18.579 --> 01:01:25.650
So there was one team that got five recommendations, but Cal,
1247
01:01:25.730 --> 01:01:28.630
you had all five of those recommendations. So I don't
1248
01:01:28.650 --> 01:01:31.150
recommend a single pair from that team. Taylor doesn't recommend
1249
01:01:31.170 --> 01:01:33.429
a single pair from that team. So which team are
1250
01:01:33.449 --> 01:01:34.409
you secretly a fan of?
1251
01:01:37.159 --> 01:01:37.699
Oh, boy.
1252
01:01:37.820 --> 01:01:38.519
You know what?
1253
01:01:39.119 --> 01:01:41.239
This is probably going to be a team that I
1254
01:01:41.400 --> 01:01:45.690
have in no way any actual fandom for, isn't it?
1255
01:01:47.119 --> 01:01:48.090
Let's go Braves.
1256
01:01:49.550 --> 01:01:53.369
It is not the Braves. It is the Seattle Mariners.
1257
01:01:54.190 --> 01:01:54.949
Okay, you know what?
1258
01:01:55.050 --> 01:01:56.969
I don't hate that. I've got a few players that
1259
01:01:57.010 --> 01:01:59.860
I do enjoy there. And I got to interview one
1260
01:01:59.900 --> 01:02:02.739
of the players that I recommended. So I'm just fine
1261
01:02:02.760 --> 01:02:05.139
with that being one of the answers for me here.
1262
01:02:06.960 --> 01:02:09.300
So now one final question. This one's going to be fun.
1263
01:02:09.360 --> 01:02:14.440
So which team got more recommendations this year? The Giants
1264
01:02:14.500 --> 01:02:17.570
or the Blue Jays? And you can each give a
1265
01:02:17.619 --> 01:02:18.670
guess before I give the answer.
1266
01:02:20.590 --> 01:02:22.150
I think it was probably the Giants.
1267
01:02:23.650 --> 01:02:24.909
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was the Giants.
1268
01:02:26.519 --> 01:02:31.320
Okay, so this year, Kyle, you had five recommendations for
1269
01:02:31.340 --> 01:02:33.760
the Jays and three for the Giants. So that's plus
1270
01:02:33.780 --> 01:02:36.219
two for the Jays. But I canceled you out. I
1271
01:02:36.260 --> 01:02:38.900
had six for the Giants and four for the Jays.
1272
01:02:39.880 --> 01:02:41.989
So it all comes down to Tara. And Tara, you
1273
01:02:42.030 --> 01:02:45.989
had one recommendation from the Jays, but two from the Giants.
1274
01:02:46.070 --> 01:02:49.769
Tara's Giants bias makes it 11 calls for the Giants
1275
01:02:49.849 --> 01:02:54.610
and 10 for the Jays this year. And that's all.
1276
01:02:54.630 --> 01:02:55.730
All right. Love it.
1277
01:02:55.889 --> 01:02:56.329
You know what?
1278
01:02:56.489 --> 01:02:58.309
It took until the very end, but at least we
1279
01:02:58.349 --> 01:03:01.090
got one right. Those were some tough questions, Raj. Those
1280
01:03:01.190 --> 01:03:04.710
were really good questions. Apparently, we don't know our recommendations
1281
01:03:04.769 --> 01:03:05.849
as well as we thought we did.
1282
01:03:07.769 --> 01:03:10.400
We have to be more prepared next time around. Absolutely.
1283
01:03:10.420 --> 01:03:12.940
Thanks a lot, Raj. Yeah, that was awesome.
1284
01:03:12.980 --> 01:03:15.760
But Raj, thank you, not just for that quiz at
1285
01:03:15.800 --> 01:03:17.579
the end to keep us on our toes a little bit,
1286
01:03:17.639 --> 01:03:20.619
but for joining us again this week and for the
1287
01:03:20.780 --> 01:03:23.650
excellent work that you have done all season long on
1288
01:03:24.110 --> 01:03:28.000
these articles, on the podcast when we got you on. Please,
1289
01:03:28.320 --> 01:03:30.980
one more time here, tell the people where they can
1290
01:03:31.039 --> 01:03:32.579
find you and what you're going to be working on
1291
01:03:32.619 --> 01:03:35.599
this winter because while our articles are ending, we are
1292
01:03:35.679 --> 01:03:36.840
still going to be very busy.
1293
01:03:38.099 --> 01:03:40.800
Yeah, so you can find me on bluesky at rajmantra.ca
1294
01:03:40.840 --> 01:03:42.889
and now that we're in the off-season, we're going to
1295
01:03:42.909 --> 01:03:46.409
be working on our 2027 Dynasty Outlooks for each MLB
1296
01:03:46.469 --> 01:03:50.050
team as well as the 2029 lineups for each team
1297
01:03:50.150 --> 01:03:53.300
and so I'll be doing the Rockies, plus a few others,
1298
01:03:53.440 --> 01:03:56.510
but the Rockies, since we're working from the worst teams
1299
01:03:56.530 --> 01:03:58.510
to the best, Rockies will be one of the first
1300
01:03:58.530 --> 01:04:01.610
teams we'll talk about. So I believe this week you'll
1301
01:04:01.650 --> 01:04:04.190
find me on a podcast yet again on the main
1302
01:04:04.449 --> 01:04:07.210
Dynasty pod with Greg, and we'll talk about the 2029
1303
01:04:07.210 --> 01:04:12.760
minus for the Rockies as well as their Dynasty outlooks. Awesome.
1304
01:04:12.780 --> 01:04:15.280
We look forward to seeing everything else you've got coming
1305
01:04:15.340 --> 01:04:19.480
this winter, Raj. Thank you once again for joining us. Taylor,
1306
01:04:19.599 --> 01:04:22.119
is there anything that you would like to add Before
1307
01:04:22.139 --> 01:04:24.039
we take a bit of a break through the playoffs.
1308
01:04:26.119 --> 01:04:30.360
Just enjoy the postseason, everybody. Hopefully we get a full
1309
01:04:30.400 --> 01:04:33.360
season next year. But even if not, we'll still have
1310
01:04:33.380 --> 01:04:34.699
some minor league ball to talk about.
1311
01:04:34.980 --> 01:04:35.519
Absolutely.
1312
01:04:35.659 --> 01:04:37.659
We are going to have a ton to talk about
1313
01:04:37.719 --> 01:04:41.190
this winter and even next season, regardless of what's going
1314
01:04:41.329 --> 01:04:45.090
on with the major league season. As Taylor said, enjoy
1315
01:04:45.130 --> 01:04:48.070
the playoffs. Those of you that have your favorite team
1316
01:04:48.110 --> 01:04:50.829
still in there, unfortunately, that is none of the three
1317
01:04:50.869 --> 01:04:53.610
of us on this podcast today. But good luck to
1318
01:04:53.719 --> 01:04:56.099
all of your teams out there. And thank you all
1319
01:04:56.139 --> 01:04:59.280
for joining us, not just today, but throughout this entire season.
1320
01:04:59.780 --> 01:05:02.199
If you enjoyed this podcast, please give us a rate
1321
01:05:02.219 --> 01:05:04.300
and review and give us a follow while you are
1322
01:05:04.400 --> 01:05:06.559
at it. You can find me at sunny underscore 108
1323
01:05:06.559 --> 01:05:10.150
on X and sunny 108 on Blue Sky. And you
1324
01:05:10.170 --> 01:05:13.159
can find Taylor at Dynasty Pickups on both You can
1325
01:05:13.179 --> 01:05:14.820
also get a hold of us with all of your
1326
01:05:14.880 --> 01:05:19.659
dynasty baseball questions at dynastybaseballpickups at gmail.com. And all of
1327
01:05:19.719 --> 01:05:22.380
that contact info will be posted in the show notes
1328
01:05:22.559 --> 01:05:27.019
as well. As always, please consider subscribing to Prospects Live
1329
01:05:27.039 --> 01:05:29.800
for as little as $ 7 to gain access to a
1330
01:05:29.880 --> 01:05:33.059
wealth of incredible tools and content, including more.
1331
01:05:32.840 --> 01:05:34.619
From us at prospectslive.com.
1332
01:05:35.550 --> 01:05:37.489
As I said, we will be taking a little bit
1333
01:05:37.530 --> 01:05:40.360
of a break now through the MLB playoffs, but we
1334
01:05:40.420 --> 01:05:44.750
will be back with plenty of off-season content. Until then,
1335
01:05:44.769 --> 01:05:47.150
thank you all for listening, and we'll see you next week.