2304 - Closer Preview

0:00Greetings to scientists, everyone. It's Rick Twoselmock, the fantasy baseball live. Today is March 1st. We have turned out of awful February and it's cold weather. We're now to cold weather March, but we are 2010, what, 26 days away from the first pitch thrown in anchor for our season, is that about right? Yeah, it seems about right. We got the WEC coming up too. So we're going to have lots to watch. And when you're speaking about the dismal cold of February last night here, it was minus 31. It's warmed up a tad here. That's cold, by the way.

1:00It's warmed up a tad here. We had a little bit of snow fliers this morning, but I'm supposed to be 65 next weekend. So I'm hoping that that Punx the Tolling Fill has finally gotten back into his little hole and we can get spring all the way. Well, I mean, you couldn't pick a better way to celebrate your upcoming birthday than that concert Saturday night or Sunday night. Good for you. That's not my birthday. That's not my birthday, molefrale. That's just a date, man. I still got something for my birthday yet. I'm going to find out what that is. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah, well, hey, Joe Bonamoso's present, it's not a bad present either. That's true. Yeah, we're very excited about it. So we're heading off next Sunday with Tim and I will be doing, what do we decide to me? Monday, we're going to be doing the show on Monday. Evening, we're going to be doing our annual mock draft. That's really a real draft. And we're going to be recruiting some people and Tim's charge of that.

2:00He's going to be doing that and we're going to get that going a week from Monday. I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, that's always fun. And we have a good time with that one. It's just a fun afternoon evening affair. And yeah, I'm always looking forward to it. We're doing a 50 rounder on the clock, right? Yeah, 50 rounder. It'll be a 23 rounder. And the little twist is this year, Tim and I won't have any problems with this, but maybe some other people you've got to have draft, at least one rookie, somebody who has less than 50 N Ains pitched or less than 130 at bats. And if you don't pick one of those guys, I get the pick them for you. And I get to take one of your fifth round pick away. And I get to pick a rookie that will be left. So you don't want that to happen. Well, no, I could see somebody ending up with some 16 year old Dominican kid

3:02that he has to look at all year. Nah, that doesn't sound like fun. Probably make it fair. I'll probably pick one of the guys that I think will come up in, or maybe let the person pick, but they will lose their fifth round pick. So that will be the little twist in it. So I'll make sure everybody knows it. I want to do the invite. Some exactly what that particular role is. But you had a draft this past week, your labor draft went on. Yeah, drafting out of the fifth spot was a funny evening. I actually spent some time with Dr. Rodo yesterday morning going over it. And he liked the results. He was drafted right beside me. And we took turns sniping each other. But yeah, it was nice to be back on serious a little bit, you can embrace it. It was a fun event. Yeah, I see that. Let's just go through the first round. And then we'll go through your picks. Otani won a judge to first, that's a rotisserie league and batting average, correct? That's correct. Yeah.

4:03And you've got to draft players that have not had any at batch at in the big leagues, where you have to wait until they have a big league at bat to draft them, to acquire them or pick them off the waiver. Is that correct? Yeah, that's correct. They've got to have a third of an inning pitched or one at bat before they are eligible. Once the draft is over during the draft, it's fair game. But if you want to late pick the stash and avoid that massive fabrush, now is the time in this league. The first round looks pretty straight forward. It's Joey Otani, Aaron Judge, Bobby with Jr. Juan Soto, Tim took LED lacrosis. He told us last week in the fifth hold, Jose Ramirez and the sixth Eric Skrubel, Ronald Acunio, Jr. is off to a really good start and spring training, Paul Schienz, Julio Rodriguez, Kyle Tucker, Gunner Henderson, Garrett Crochet, and Fernando Tatees.

5:05I don't see any real surprises here. Well, Kyle Tucker is up a little bit, but that's, hey, that's personal joy. Probably because Corbin, Carolyn, Francisco, and Dorif dropped because they might start the season on the IEL and have the hammock issue. Right, yeah, no, there was nothing, there was nothing really shocking right through, I would say the, right through the second round. You know, Nick Kurtz fell a little bit, but again, still a middle of the second round. Yeah, it was, it was pretty well to chalk and then you get in the rounds three and four and the pictures started flying off the board. So yeah, there was probably, like picking Ellie Dilla Cruz in the fifth spot, it was probably the most controversial pick in that first round. Yeah, and as we talked, I just don't, I don't think it is. I mean, I was picking in the seventh home in my NFBC draft and that's where I picked Ellie Dilla Cruz and I don't know who went.

6:07So obviously Corbin Carole went before him. Somebody else must have gone before him as well. I can't remember who it was. It must have been one of the pictures. Right, probably because there's three of them going towards the middle back of the, of the first round, but you know, I could have gone Jose Ramirez, but now I've got, I've got future rookie of the year, casual commoto plans in most of my leagues. So I don't need to double down on 30 days by taking Jose Ramirez. I can just spread it out and go a little bit cheaper on that position. Well, I mean, you're all in on Kaz Okamoto. So it's either going to work or it's not. But yeah, a lot of, a lot of the guys that I have as my draft target. So if you do terrible, then my draft targets did not work. Well, and I don't have a function where I can go 0.0 down the road, which that's not fair, it really is.

7:08Yeah, so, so Tim goes, Ellie DeLa Cruz won. Yeah, we'll just do the first five picks and you can talk us through. Ellie DeLa Cruz won White Lankford 2, Hunter Brown 3, Andre's Munoz 4, because you got to get a closer early. And Freddie Peralta number five. So what was your thinking picking Ellie DeLa Cruz and then coming back with White Lankford? Well, I've wanted to be strong on the old field. You know, right from the get-go this year, from the early days we started talking about drafting. And I love Lankford, okay? What can I say? I probably could have waited around, but I just want him on as many of my teams as I can get this year. I think you've got a, I think you got a safe floor of 25, 25 with a decent batting average. And I'm perfectly happy having him anchor my outfield, Rich. Now, to be fair, I have him as well, but he has not done it yet. No, he hasn't, no.

8:11So, but we both plan on being in on the ground floor, right? Okay, so that's, that's my one concern. He hasn't done it yet. I have him, you have him. It's like, I don't know what to say to that. But at some point he's going to do it. There's no guarantee it'll be this year. I think the likelihood is pretty strong. It's this year because he had his taste last year, little bit of aches and pains. Hat showed some flashes of being the guy that we think he's going to become. But there is some level of risk because he has never done it before. Yeah, 2020, I think would be disappointing. As, you know, I had, but at the same point in time, that won't kill your plans. And I think, you know, he did it last year, okay? Did you say that 2020 would be disappointing? Well, based on he did better than that last year, yeah. Well, I mean, no, not that, not that 25, 26 at 2020.

9:11I'd be a little disappointed with that because that would mean he is performing this year at a lower level than last year. I'm expecting growth. Oh, okay. 22, 22 last year with a 241 batting average. It's got a little unlucky. I mean, so that's, so what I say he didn't, he hasn't done it yet. That's probably a bit of a lie. Because I mean, the last year was pretty strong. Yeah, it was. And if he produces the last year's level, he's not going to hurt either one of us. Right. It'll be a bit disappointing, but it'll be at this point where we can get over fairly easily, I think. So back to your first pick. He did, did, did, did you toy with the idea of, of going with one of the big pictures? Did you also toy with the idea of Ronald Acunia, who are a Brigis Kyle Tucker, some other big outfielder and go outfielder, outfielder? No, no. There was no hesitation. I'm looking, you look at what the Delacruz did last year, okay?

10:12What, 20 homers ADRB eyes, 100 runs scored, 37 stolen bases with a busted up quad in a second half. Okay, I think you can set a 20 home run, 35 to 40 stolen base floor for Delacruz. You can also look at the potential of a 25 to 30 home run season and 50 stolen base. So there, you know, type here. So there is no hesitation on my part at all. I didn't want, I didn't want the pitching end. You know, I know Ronald Acunia is set in the world on fire right now, but I just feel Delacruz is a safer pick. And Julio Rodriguez, again, it's a great pick, but I just think the upside is, the sky is the limit for Delacruz. And I'll take that upside. You also indicated last Sunday that you would definitely take a Hunter Brown, I think a Logan Webb, Brian Wu, etc.

11:12Were you hoping that Yamamoto would get back to you because it went one pick before you? Actually, one pick after. Oh, so you took, that's right. You took Hunter Brown, I had a Yamamoto explain. Yeah, I explained that one yesterday because the gentleman drafting after me was convinced for sure I was going to take Yamamoto and he wanted an explanation. And it's a very simple one. If you look at their numbers from last year, they're totally comparable, you know, it's strikeouts, it's bitch, ERA. All the numbers were within fractions of each other. And when I look at Yamamoto and don't say I love Yamamoto, I just think Hunter Brown's capable of 15 to 20 more innings that Yamamoto will be this year. So I have Brown, I've moved him up ahead of Yamamoto. It's still very close, but when in doubt,

12:12I'm going to go with what I believe is going to be the picture that gets the higher workload. And I think that's on your brown. Our Patreon members got my targets two months ago. I said the fourth horse of the big four after schoolable schemes and crochet was Hunter Brown. That was what my data told me. And I thought it was a clear, definitive Hunter Brown over everybody else, including Yamamoto, Logan Gilbert, Christopher Sanchez, but that's just me. I do think I agree with you wholeheartedly that Yamamoto will be rested. He is not going to pick as long as Hunter Brown is healthy. He's not going to pitch as many innings as Hunter Brown. Just not. No, I don't think there's no reason for it. Okay, the Dodgers are in it to win it. They want him ready for the playoffs because we know, based on last year, how much of a difference maker can be in the playoffs. Yeah, I think Yamamoto will be slightly overdrafted this year.

13:17He's good, great picture. No question about it, but I think people just need to realize that there's going to get rested. He just is. Then he went with the closer we make, we, I made the comment last week and I think you agreed. I mean, as long as everybody is drafting a closer early, it really doesn't matter. Just jump in and get the guy you want. Well, yeah, and what we saw is in the fourth round, I took under his moon, you know, so okay. And right after Munoz, when you're, you're under an, coming back in round five, we then saw Devon Williams or oldest Chapman, David Bedner, Jeff off in around six. I think Munoz is a step above all of those closures. So I'm perfectly fine with him in round four as an anchor to my fantasy bullpen. Can we talk about Devon Williams? I never could talk about closures today. But let's just talk about Devon Williams from, he was brutal last year.

14:20It was not a good year, no. Why is, why is he still going as one of the elite closures? I mean, when he was that bad last year, well, because once you get by the first four of five closures, okay, they've all got some boards. Okay, you know, Chapman is getting up there in age. Hey, what type of seasons have we seen from David Bedner over the past three years, up, down all over the place, Ryan Hellsley, you know, the middle deal, right? You look at Hellsley, he didn't look too good in the second half. Racial Eglaceius had his moment last year, brilliance. And he also stumbled, Jeff Hoffman, you know, the Jay's big project in the off season was to find a closer. Well, Jeff Hoffman is still a closer, okay? Once you get through that first four or five closures, there's a huge group of all called mid tier that all have,

15:22that they, they should all have various levels of concern attached to them. And then you get the, let's call us a dark, hopefully, stick to the last ten or so closures. So I think David Williams falls into that middle group where you take him and your preferences are, you know, okay, it could work great or it could be a year like last year in which case, that's an awful high pick to be struggling with for all of 2020, which is why again, I wanted one of the big, and I'm not saying the, the elite five or so are carved in stone, but there's closest you're going to get a lot closer than the next group in the average. But I get with Devon Williams of previous four years. Five years was, was unbelievable. I mean, it's just, you know, best closer if, if top three of not the best closer in the game, but last year, maybe the bright lights of New York was just too much, but he's still in New York, he's the only other, other side of the

16:24Hudson or other side of, other side of the East River. So I, I don't know, it just seems a little scary to me. Yeah, it's, it's a situation I wanted to avoid. All right. So that's your top four. Let me get back over and then coming at number five is one of my guides, Freddie Peralta. I love that pick. So you decided to go three in a row on pitching. Well, when you look at the base, I think I established a base with Delacruz and Lankford of 50 home runs and 65 stolen bases. Okay. That's a good enough start that it allows me to look at a starting picture and go three pitchers in a row because, you know, I've, I've mentioned many times 23 is a magic number. That's how many pitchers ended up generating 180 plus straight oats last year. I wanted at least two with Freddie Peralta. I've got my two and with Kevin Goldsmith as my third starter.

17:27That gives me three. So I wanted to take care of the strikeouts with a good solid ace high number two type starter. I'm Freddie Peralta does everything I'd like. After that, you went rainy, a Rosarena and it's 10s, you know, just a guy that gets a lot, say you're Suzuki, one of my guys targets this year goes in the seventh round. Kevin Goldsmith has to mention Joe Adele, big power. And then of course, he goes Kaz Okamoto and then Amaya followed by that. So you went with your two favorite Japanese guys coming into this season. Talk about the why go back to two outfielders after taking white Lankford. You see went three outfielders and three pitchers rotten around. Yeah, I wanted to shore up my old field. I had I wanted power and a little bit more speed. Randy Rosarena accomplishes that for me.

18:29I don't see any reason why I say I see Suzuki handed 25 to 30 home runs after hitting what 32 I think was last year driving driving in 90 runs. And Joe Adele, I'm counting on 3590 other Joe Adele. So just filling in the gaps from a power speed point of view and making my outfield as strong as possible. You've got serious power on this team with Adele, Suzuki, a Rosarena, Lankford. I mean, look, deal like Cruz might not hit 50, but if you told me he had 38, it wouldn't surprise me. That guy's got huge, huge bat speed. Yeah, no, I again, I'm there's a big difference between Ellie Dilla Cruz's floor and potential ceiling. And if he gets to his potential ceiling with the other picks I've made after him, yeah, I like my offense a lot, I really do. I think Ellie Dilla Cruz has Ronald Akunya kind of power speed upside.

19:33I don't think he's as good of hitter. But if you told me it's it's 40 80, I mean, I wouldn't think that's like totally crazy, 40 60 for sure, something like that. I would be shocked. No, I'll be back in a second. OK, I just have to grab some more blood pressure medication. I got to get it down a little bit here. No, but again, the ceiling is incredibly high. It is, it is, and it sort of sets things up for picks like Adele and Suzuki, because I have between Dilla Cruz, Langford and Rose Brena. I've got a good, really good stolen base base. So I can go to guys like Adele and Suzuki and not have to worry about the fact that they're going to give me combined for sure on basis, right? Right. I can just toward the power. Ellie Dilla Cruz and Ronald Akunya are good buddies. And you know if Ellie Dilla Cruz gets out of the gets off the snipes strong,

20:34which I hope he does, he'd be cutting from that 2022 or 23 season of Ronald Akunya. You could see him doing that. You could see him stealing bases just to just to catch Ronald Akunya. Well, yeah, when you look at the numbers he posted last year, the half the season was with a damaged quad. OK, you give him a healthy quad. And I think last year he would easily stolen 55 bases. Yeah, that big year was 2023, 41, 73. Yeah, that's, yeah, I don't think Ellie Dilla Cruz is going to hit 337. But I think that kind of that kind of season, the 40, 60, 70 season is definitely an Ellie Dilla Cruz. He's going to do it at some point. Hopefully it'll be this season, but I think it's, it's in there. Let's see, anything to say about it, let me, I have a, I know out of question, I want to, you talked a lot about Eury Perez.

21:36Did you, did you have a fleeting moment of taking Eury Perez where he took Freddie Peralta? And if he did, did you hesitate because he has been not very good in spring training so far? I mean, what was your thinking or did you just say Freddie Peralta's the better pitcher, more established pitcher? I'm going to take him. What was your thinking there? I love Eury, I love Eury Perez. And if he was still there in the sixth round, he was, he was taken right before me. Okay. I had two players at the top of my queue and the order I had them in was Eury Perez and Randy or Arena. So you would have taken Eury Perez. Wow. I would have, I would have gone with the third pitcher there and scrap my plans for my down and round 11. Okay. And I would have, I would have found my stole maces somewhere later on down the road. No, I, my thoughts on Eury Perez haven't, haven't changed one bit.

22:37Even with the lousy start, because it wasn't just a lousy first start. It was a lousy first two starts. That is not swaying your concern at all. No, I heard he's, he's working on his fielding and the more hits he can allow in spring training, the better field or field or field. I'm not going to get, okay, yeah, yeah, I'm not concerned about Eury Perez. No, okay, all right. So that's funny. So I've not heard that strategy yet when, when does, because again, spring training shouldn't account for anything. We're going to get to a Maya for a moment because he didn't have a very good first downing if he asked me, when do you start to get worried? If Eury Perez blows up again in his next outing, do you start to get worried or you just say, no, it's a spring training. It's just spring training. Okay, the only time I will get worried is if after his next start, the Marlins announced that he's dealing with a sore elbow or his forearm

23:39seemed a little, you know, a minor forearm strain. At that point in time, you have to get concerned, no matter who it is. Okay, yeah, did it, did it? So you're not worried, obviously, because you took the Maya that he pretty much was throwing 93 miles an hour. Right. Yeah, I'm not concerned. He works, he works 94, 95. It's his first outing. No, I'm not concerned at all. I'm sure if he wanted to, he could have ramped it up. He threw half a dozen pitches, 100 triple digits. He can, he can throw it that hard. He's, it's spring training, he's building, building his arm strength up. I, I have no concerns. You'll be fine. Tim goes with 12, Abner, you rebate, Jin Jackson holiday drops a little bit. Tim jumps on him. Garrett Cole loved that pick there at 14, just to let you know, Tim, I got him in the 19th round. So I probably, I probably could have awaited. But I, every time I turn around, I see his,

24:41they're moving up his targeted start data. If I can get the half a season on the Garrett Cole at 80% 75 to 80% of we're accustomed to, I'll be very happy. It, look, anything can happen, but it is Garrett Cole. I mean, the Garrett Cole is one of Hall of Fame career. This is, and still on his prime. I mean, this is, this is one of the best pitchers in the game. And I don't know, 14, 18, 19th round seems crazy to me. Well, again, you're, you're betting, you're betting on Earth, you're rather than later. And hopefully we see him towards mid May. And if that's the case, we're looking at 20, potentially 20 plus starts. That's, that's a lot of 75% of Garrett Cole in this prime to add to your team when she get into May. And you get a replacement level guy to fill in with them. And I know where you go. I think it's gimme, gimme, gimme there.

25:41Okay. So you got Garrett Cole 14 carless. So you did wait on catching because you go carless of eyes in the 15th and then Harry Ford in the 20th. So you're talking about that in the men and then South Freilik in the 16th. Robbie Snelly and also got beaten up in his first sounding. And you waited on shortstop and you went mason win and you also waited on first base and you got Josh Bell. I mean, it's, so this is a very interesting area because we're seeing the effects of taking three outfielders early and taking four, five starting pictures early. You waited on shortstop and you waited on first base. Well, yeah, and as soon as I moved, Abner, you rebate up into round 12, which I think, which I, I love that pick. I really do. I took your rebate over Trevor McGill, who went to fix after me. OK, I, you know, McGill, we'll talk about him a little bit more when we get into the closer reports. But again, he had peer, peer, be shot in the off season.

26:45He's never made it through a season in his career. I don't think 100% healthy. Your Ebay's got the stuff to close and at worst, I think I've got eight to ten saves and close to 100 strikeouts. So I, I, again, I was very happy to get Abner, you rebate in the 12th round. But with those two closures, there comes a price and the price is first base, catcher and the middle infield, the middle infield I wasn't too concerned about. Corner infield and catcher. Yeah, hey, hey, we were at the stage of the draft where if I didn't look to Carlos Nervias, you can see the catchers taken after and it was getting pretty, pretty ugly. Yeah, I'm looking at it. So it, but I guess the old saying is you can't have everything, right? So you got a, when you make, when you're in the draft and in the heat of it,

27:46when you decide to take an Abner, your rebate early or you decide to go with three out, well, four outfielders early, you've got a Dell too. Four opiales, yeah. I mean, you're something's going to fall and I guess the most troubling pick, a long-term owner of Josh Bell here, myself, Josh Bell's brutal. I mean, he'll have three weeks where he looks like the best first base and then baseball. But you can't tell when those first three weeks are going to be. Otherwise, it's awful. Yeah, I'm praying. Reese Hoskins keeps a job in Cleveland. Yeah, I know what I've got with Josh Bell. At the end of the year, hopefully, it should be 20 home runs, 60 RBI's in a 240 batting average. But you're right in between there. There's going to be six weeks of nothing at some point you've done. It's going to, it's inevitable. It is, it is, you're, I mean, trust me, Timmy. It's going to, you're going to look kind of go, oh, dear God, why did I draft this guy?

28:47And also, it'll blow up and go, okay, but you've got to make sure you have a man. Otherwise, you're screwed. Yeah, no, he's going to be in my lineup and barring Reese Hoskins having, you know, or something on the waiver wire, okay, of, you know, availability there. Yeah, I'm just going to have to live with it. And I knew that when I picked him. Yeah, it's just, yeah, you live with it and life goes off. It took Reese Hoskins in the 24th round. So we'll get to that in a moment. And then, but tell me how you feel about Carler's advice and combo of, and Harry Ford. Well, I've also got Joel Mac that I picked up. Okay. Joe Mac. So, yeah, I'm sorry to buy. Hey, if I can get 10 home runs and 50, 10 to 15 home runs and 50 sold 50 RBI's and then advise, I'll be ecstatic. Harry Ford's fighting it with David Ruiz for the number one job in Washington. I know he's young, but again, there's a little bit of speed there, a little bit

29:48of pop of, I like Harry Ford. And again, I've, I've protected myself, I believe with a catch that if he doesn't break camp, we're going to see him fairly early in Joe Mac. So hopefully between the three of them, you know, I can, I can end up with a total of 20 to 25 home runs and 110, 115 RBI's. Oh, great. Brian Bello in the 21st round, Victor Scott, four speed and the 20 Marcello mayor and the 23rd Rees Hoskins, we already mentioned 24th and back to back potential closers in Jojo Romero, though, I think it's your closure. Let's see if Jojo Romero listed as the closer, which I found to be interesting. Dre Jamison, I actually picked them up a couple of our dynasty lead redrafts because I looked at Tim's report and had Kevin Gehnkel in the number one spot. They said, no, thank you. I went with Dre Jamison and he's the only guy that's got heat in that bullpen.

30:50Paul, see, we'll sit and eating. I'm miles an hour with the heat eater, okay? I, I, hey, if you're going to cause, I'm going down the, I'm going down the, I'm the Gehnkel path too many times. Oh, yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no, I'm, I'm not either. And I, I think with Jojo Romero and you look at the situation with him and Brian, I think Romero's going to get five to 10 saves by the time it's all said and done. And as a third, you're a big ole, Brian, a few weeks ago, that was your sleeper sleeper guy. Yeah, I still think, Oh, Brian could be the number one, but all it's going to take is just a small stump, stump, stump, and Romero's going to pick up some saves. And Matt Svensson, I, I like a lot as a number three. When we get into some sleeper, some sleeper picks, I'll rant on about him. But again, out of a third closer, if I can get five to 10 saves, that should guarantee me

31:50with your eBay and Munoz, a solid bullpen. And then you finish up with Joe Mac, you mentioned eight Miller, which is interesting. Pick and then your guy, Ryan Weiss, Tim is this guy's bank on a get him of the 29th round. I think it's great for anybody in the 29th round. It's a great pick, but eight Miller above all the other guys. That was really, this is a somewhat of an anti-timma cloud draft, because that's really your, well, I mean, it's not fair to say I'm Ianokomoto or true rookies. I mean, they are, but they're right. This is your true prospect that you've got out there. Having Robbie snowing, yeah. Oh, I drafted around seven, yeah, so I've got, I've got a lot of, a lot of youth on this game. You know, we look at Mason win as a veteran, he's 23, you know, yeah. There's, there's a lot of, you know, why at Langford and Delacruz combined, I don't think at the 45th, there's a lot of youth on this game.

32:52But again, I think we're going to see, I'm prepared to wait on Miller. I think at some point in time this season, we're going to see it's just a matter of when, and I think when he does show up, I think when he could potentially bring your fantasy squad is a lot of goodness. So I'm prepared, I'm prepared to kick back and see where Nathan, Nathan Miller does, does down on the farm for at least a month to half, two months. Yeah, I think, I don't think he's played in spring yet. So I don't know if he must be hurt. Yeah, in the lower back issue, I believe, yeah. Cause he has, I keep waiting for, for that bat to come up and I haven't seen it yet. So Timmy, let's take a quick break it back. Can I just want me, I mean, I like your team and what, you, you, I'm what, you to give me kind of your assessment of your team and what you think you're going to have to work on besides first base.

33:56I like your team. I mean, did a lot of things I did in my NFC draft and I liked my NFC draft. You took a lot of the targets, which I doubt you looked at mine. You just kind of came to the same conclusions that I did. So I like it. I could be dead wrong. Do you like it? And then what are the areas you think you need to focus on? I like it a lot. Obviously a corner infield, you know, corner infield is going to be a priority. And I've got through six or seven names. I've already got stashed away in my queue for the first waiver. I'll see what happens with re-sauce guns if he breaks camp. I'll exercise some patience and see what happens in the first couple of weeks. But definitely a corner infielder. And you know what, it doesn't matter how much pitching you have. You never have enough. Okay. So I at some point in time, I'll be watching very carefully to look at, you know, I like my pitching, but at the same point in time, I,

34:56hey, pictures get hurt. They break. So you can never have enough of them. Ryan Weiss, I'm, I'm very, very bullish on. Hey, if you can snag him in the 20, 29th round, nothing but upside with that. Hey, it might not work out, but they don't look like he did that. It's a free pick. It's a free pick. Yeah, there's, there's no bad pick in the 29th round. Let's sell well, exactly. And last year, if it wasn't for Cody Ponds, he would have been the KBO MVP. That's how good a season he had last year. So I'm willing to, I'm willing to wait and see how that one shakes down. And then, hey, if that one works out, yeah, that it's definitely, definitely a plus, much the same is, you know, guys like Joe Mac and Miller and, you know, you're rolling the dice and you're hoping for a best case scenario. If they, if it doesn't happen, well, you know, my philosophy when it comes to the way we were, we spend lots, spend early, get, get the numbers and roll with it.

35:59So I'm, I'm, I'm really happy with the team. Did I, they shook down just about how I was hoping it would. It's like Jackson holiday in the 13th round. Yeah, he's, it's going to be a slow start for him. No doubt, but if he goes 15, 15 with a half decent bed and, you know, in the 13th round, that works. I say there's no bad picks on the 29th round. And I see Spencer Jones's name there. That guy's definitely not, that guy's not a subscriber. That's for sure. But again, you're looking to last, the last round. And, you know, I'm, Bo Naylor has a strong September. He's upside, Will Vest, Trilio and Will Vest. We're pulling for Will Vest, that's for sure. Oh, yeah. I don't know about Dustin May. I see Dustin May. I don't like that. I, I think Dustin May does everything left, but I get it. Yeah. No, again, it's gambling on some upside. And when you look at how the, the guy that has Dustin May instructed his pitching,

37:04he has one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 of his last 11 picks were all pictures. Yeah. Chris Rodriguez, he got Cody Ponce. Cody Senga, Rocky Sasaki, Jared Jones, he got King Cole, that's funny. He's going to have two or three of those guys work out for him. But again, yeah, most of his reserves are pictures. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Mike went basically other than Quarrel, he is all pitching. And again, much like everybody else knows, you can never have enough of it, right? Hey, you might as well load up now. Well, it's free because once you get in season, the injury started happening. If you're light on pitching, you're going up against 14 other teams, who also might be dealing with the, with pitching issues. So yeah, again, I, I look at the team right beside Mike,

38:08who is Jeff Erickson from Rural Wire, six, his last six picks were all pictures. Yeah, yeah, that's for sure. Well, I hope you did well. When is, when is your town where is draft? That's in a couple of weeks, right? Uh, no, it's this, uh, it's just coming Tuesday. Really? Okay. Wow. Yeah. And then I'm on for a couple of weeks. Yeah, I told you usually the first week of March. Uh, labor is a little bit later than normal. Usually it's around the 15 through so, but because of the Olympics, Steve Gardner was a very, very busy camper over at USA. Today, he's a commissioner of labor. So we pushed it back in a couple of weeks. So. Okay. Well, very good. So, uh, let's move to some quick news and notes and then we'll get into the closer report. Very excited about the closer report. Um, Zach Wheeler, he keeps getting, like, Gareth Cole, he keeps, keeps getting pushed up to him. Now they're saying that it's going to be April 9th.

39:08He's going to make his major league debut, which is only a week or two late. He hasn't risen much in the 80 P's. Again, he's coming off of thoracic outlet syndrome, uh, surgery, which is they take out a hip, uh, not a hip bone, a, uh, a bone in your, um, oh, what is it? Your ribcage? Ribcage, yeah. Yep. And, uh, that reduces the pressure on the arm somehow. I think we're able to figure that out. But it's been difficult to come back from that surgery from that condition. So I get why nobody's believing in them. But just like with Gareth Cole, it is Zach Wheeler, one of the best pictures that in this era of the game. Is this a guy that you're starting to get interested in? No, I'm, I'm going to pass because my philosophy, the way I'm building my pitching this year is I want some of those hundred and eight plus Draco types. Okay. Well, you ain't going to get them in the eighth round, okay? Or if you do, you're getting them with a whole bunch of caveats.

40:10So for me, I hopefully have three starting pictures that will satisfy my particular needs by the time we get to Zach Wheeler. Okay. So he falls out of interest with the way I'm building my teams. Uh, you know, if you're looking at Wheeler as a number four starter, I'm, I'm okay with that. Okay. Because you've got three starters ahead of them to anchor your rotation. If you're looking at them as a number three, that's a little bit too much risk for me. Rich, uh, I would, I would just, hey, I hope it works out. I hope Zach Wheeler returns to, you know, the form that we've seen over the past five, six years. But again, that surgery and the risk associated with it. Like I said, as a number four, yeah, okay. As a number three, that's a pass for me. Yeah, I'd like to see. I think he could really go up if he, if we see him in spring training, which we

41:11should soon, if he's really 97 miles an hour and dominating, I think he's, he's going to start flying up draft charts. And I think rightly so. Yeah. Yeah, then you'll end up buying him as a number two, which I won't, which I won't do either. Uh, well, look at the Freddie Peralta type for Dylan C's and dealing much more comfortable. Tiny league owners or managers need to, now again, things can change. But Zach Wheeler has said a couple of years ago and a reiterated again, last year, this is his last season. He wants to do something just like, yeah, he said 27, okay, his last season. Oh, 27, I thought it was 26. Yeah, no, I, I took and looked up the article on it. And it says 27 will be his final season. But right now it doesn't look like we're going to have a 2027. So 2026 could be it, right? Yeah, I told my wife about the, uh, the debacle with, uh, with Tony Clark.

42:12And she just shook her hand like, what's wrong with these guys? Like I, I have no idea. Yeah, it's, uh, I, I don't know, but like we discussed last week. Thanks, thanksgiving in that household going to be a terrible, not good. Um, definitely on, let's see. So that's first and, and we already talked about a mile. You're not worried about his debut. He did not look good 93.3. It was only an inning. He, it was a clean inning that it wasn't resolved. It was just the fastball was not what I think anybody thought it would be. The other guy that I'm starting to get a little worried about. And he is starting to drop in drafts. And that is Josh Hader, um, because there is no time table. The report came out yesterday for him to start throwing yet. And this is starting to get disconcerting. Yeah, uh, Abner Yareve should go a little bit ahead of Brian, Abreu, but not by much. I think you've got to be moving Abreu up somewhere between 12, 13th, 14th round.

43:20And again, when you start looking at the strikeout credential from Abreu, in addition to the fact that he is the unquestion, unquestion number two guy in that bullpen, uh, I'm the sort of the guy that I'm staying away from Hader, but I'm all over Abreu. Okay. And once I see Hader off the board, and yeah, my interest in Abreu gets, gets drawn to the four rather quickly. I'll take him the next round or the round after that right away. Just, just because I, I like Abreu. I, Hey, if Hader is healthy, that's great. But man, I don't think he's going to start the season on time. So you're already pushing it back a little bit. If they rush him, who knows what's going to, what's going to shake down? I'm just not comfortable with Hader. It, it, it, yeah, I think it's a pass for me as well. I mean, look at this Josh Hader. We've been talking about Hader and, and Garrett Cole and Zach Wheeler. These are like stalwarts and it's like you can't believe that they're hurt and that

44:22they might not have a great season. But when you haven't thrown and it is March 1st, that's a problem. Yeah. Well, yeah, it's, it's a rather big one and I just don't, I'm just staying away. Hey, it could work out fine, but I'm, I'm not taking that chance. I'll, I'll invest in Abreu before I invest in Hader this year. To interest, two interesting spring training stats. First is a really weird advance honey cut. The young outfielder with the Baltimore Orioles has got three at bats. He's got three home runs. Master, he struck out about half the time. I'm not sure there's anything there, but it is a weird stat that actually made MLB.com. When you go there, it's the lead story. So everybody know that and and Connor Griffin also has three hits and three home runs. He's been up more times, but he did go one for three today with another home run. So thoughts on Connor Griffin or you, if you're, if you're Pittsburgh Pirates fan,

45:23are you getting excited that there's a chance he breaks camp or does he need more time seasoned? Uh, I think that the most excited I would be is when I heard back in November that he was getting an invite to camp and the Pirates, uh, powers to be said, yeah, he's, we're going to give him a little bit of a legitimate chance to hold down, hold down the, hold down the fourth break in camp. That's when I would have been at my peak. Uh, again, there I, I believe you mentioned it when they're off air before we got in the, you know, the Pirates are looking at extending him an offer, well, they extend him an offer. He takes it. Yeah, he'll be there. If not, I think he's back in the minors. Yeah, I don't, I don't think for long. Look, the, I'll say, I'll say it again. It's all about Paul skeins. The Pittsburgh Pirates will not be able to resign Paul skeins. And as we've seen with the Tigers and Terrick Scoobal,

46:23they're going to do everything they can to win with Paul skeins. And because you're not, Paul skeins is not, he's not going to be in the Pittsburgh, uh, organization, uh, another type of guy like Paul skeins for a long, long time. It just, he's just a unicorn and you got to go for it. And if, if you can bring up Connor Griffin and let him struggle for a couple of months before he takes off, I think you do that. And you're playing for the second half of 2026, but more likely 2027, where you start to get this core group that can really make things move. Yeah. And again, I hope that's the route that the Pirates, you know, take. But I do remember when Andrew McCutchen was in his prime, the Pirates had a very, very good team and they had a loaded minor league system and they didn't bring any of their minor liars up. They just played through it. They went to, I believe, back to back wild card situations, one and done. And that was all she wrote. So I just don't know what direction Pittsburgh's going to go in.

47:24They've already proven in the past, you know, their commitment is to the wall. Let's hope that's not going to be the case with Connor Griffin. And we see him sooner as compared to later, Rich. I know we get a lot of listeners, a lot of new listeners. This time of year, as they're prepping for the draft and we're getting into our closer report in a minute here. But if I may, Timmy, I need to, I need to emote about something that, that I found out about this week, may I do that? Yes, nothing beats a good Rich Wilson rant to conclude our opening notes. So we sold our beach house in North Carolina and before, you know, we were there moving stuff around and I wanted to watch a game in MLB and I brought it up on the TV and it was blank. It just was black and you know, the MLB app was a Samsung TV and it just didn't work.

48:25And you know, we had too much stuff going on. I said, look, I wanted to have this in the background. I don't know what the problem is. I'll figure it out later. Get back up here. I want to watch a game on MLB this past week and I go to, and I have MLB TV. I've had it for years and I go, bring up the app and it's black. Like, what's going on here? So I start to dig in and like, waste an hour of my time. Turns out, my TV and it's not like these TVs are old, Tim. As Samsung's the biggest maker of televisions. This is not like I got some wink-a-ding kind of, this is Samsung. Yeah. Well, yeah, isn't he, isn't he a middle infieler? Yeah, that's right. That's right, I think so. And my TV is not supported by MLB TV. I'm like, what do you mean my TV is not supported? It's like a generic, it's not like something fancy. It's just a TV. It's not like my 26-inch color that's sitting in the living room, right?

49:28No, it's a real TV. It's, you know, it's, it's what, you know, it's everything else works. Netflix, you name it, they all work. And they all work at the beach house thing. So I'm like, what the hell is going on? All of a sudden I start to dig into it. And it's like, well, MLB has now decided to work with ESPN for the next three years. And they're no longer really supporting their MLB TV app. And you've actually got to go through ESPN to get the MLB package. I'm like, what the hell? Like, what do you think? So I'm like, how do I do that? And I'm trying, and I'm not a rocket scientist. I'll give everybody that, but I'm pretty technically savvy. And I hear not figure out how to purchase this thing. And they say, well, we have a cable provider, a pair of Fios. Well, you got to contact Fios and they'll cook it up to your ESPN. And I couldn't figure it to sit and happen.

50:30They never sent me an email. So then I get on the phone with the ESPN people and they said, well, you got to let your MLB TV package kind of expire, which is today or yesterday. And it finally expired. And then we'll get you all set up. So I got to get back on the phone with the ESPN guys to me. Just to get it set up, you go through the ESPN, ESPN app. You no longer go through MLB TV. I'm like, why did they do this? Like, it worked fine. I don't get it. It's got to be money. It's got to be money, Rich. That's the only reason MLB does anything. Well, I did a little bit deeper. And they want you to sign up for ESPN Unlimited. Now, again, if you cancel ESPN Unlimited, which gives you every sport known to mankind, you can still keep MLB TV, but you've got to subscribe to it for a month. So that's the ESPN hook. But apparently, my understanding is with all of the regional networks going out of business,

51:30they've all, they've all MLB TV is going to be basically to broadcasting all of their local stations. And that's why they decided to hook up with ESPN, because ESPN's got a more technical savvy and a broader reach to do all of that. That's the reason they've done it. But for me, they've made it very, very inconvenient. Now, maybe to work out better, but it has been a royal pain. Yeah, no, I'm very happy with my 162 games minus peacock of Toronto Blue Jays. I'm not even going to bother. I'm not even going to bother trying to play that game, Rich. I can see enough baseball granted. It's going to be Blue Jays heavy, but that's crazy. You would think it would make it as easy as possible to get people to pay them money. And in turn, they're not. Are they? Everything that you buy today, Timmy, is click here. You click it, put in your credit card.

52:31Another click done. And this was like, no, you got to call, talk to somebody. And it's like, what is going on? I mean, this is, and like the NFL, all that stuff just works. Like this stuff is just made, they made it so difficult. And I just don't get it. No, I, hey, I, I, I support your, your ranks. I'm not just not going to have anything to do with it. Hey, I'm out of the country. I'll probably have 16 extra buttons to hit. OK, it's, hey, I, I don't want to play around with that. If they don't, if they don't want your money to find a, find a different avenue, it would be my suggestion. It's a stop. But again, it's certain televisions is so lame. Like just tell us and just be up front and open to say, hey, by the end by March 1st, you got to switch over. Here's a button to click and you'll be good. But no, it wasn't that. It was all hidden. And it's like, it wasn't anything obvious as to what to do. And it was very annoying. Yeah, I can say I just made my last pick in a 50 round draft

53:34and hold. I went with a Rocky's picture. Can you believe that? You did what I'm going to go. Quintana. No, Juan Mejia. OK, there you go. To me, it's come back and let's do your close report. The original, the initial close report for 2026. Looking forward to it. Last year, the close report was pretty stable throughout the year. Obviously, when the trade deadline came, it became crazy because all the competing teams took everybody's closer and put them together on their team to create the super relief course. When you're looking at the table here, do you think it's going to be another stable year where you're going to have guys are going to remain as closers? Or do you see a more typical year, which is upside down and backwards and forward every week?

54:37There's multiple pictures that are the closer for a particular team. Well, yeah, if you go back to 2024, OK, life was good. All the closers stayed closers. It was rather boring in 2024. And then we headed in it last year. And the early thinking was, well, it worked in 2024. What could go wrong in 2025? And everything went wrong, at least in the second half of the season. Right now, I'm looking at a grand total of nine teams running committees, OK, which is a third of your bullpen's in baseball have not established a defined closer. That's a third of teams in the game. I think we're going to have more of 2025, except I think it's going to be more of a second half season. Yeah, it's going to be more of a full season shuffle, not just a two to three month. I think it's going to be a dog's breakfast.

55:38And again, that's one of the reasons why when looking at the established, I'll call elite closers. Yeah, there's a group of five of them, OK? The fit that quality for me. After that, you're into a middle tier. And after that, you're trying to toss educated darts. So for me, getting one of those top five closers is imperative. For all of us Americans, I'm going to give everybody a, I'm going to save you from having to go to your computer. A dog's breakfast or dog's dinner is an informal British idiom for something that is a total mess chaotic or extremely badly done. It refers to disorganized, disorganized, botched or poorly-arranged situation. There you go. So that just that was a dog's views, dogs breakfast. And that's that's a rare term that you do.

56:38So just wanted to get everybody a heads up. Origins was the 1930s. Suggested if you felt like cooking or a task, that results in only fit for a dog. And that's that's entomology up. So there you go. Yeah, the Canadian equivalent to that just cluster blank. We have that one too. Yeah, OK. That's the North American idiom I guess. That's the North American idiom of the dog's breakfast. That's very, very funny. OK, Sammy, so let's, so why don't you go through, I'm going to read out teams and tell me where you start to get worried. Dodgers, Mariners, Phillies, Edwin Diaz, Munoz, Durant. Good. Yeah, we're good up to that. We're good up to Kate Smith at number five. OK, so Mason Miller and Kate Smith with the Padres and Guardians. So would you consider them to be the elite closer? Yes, those those five, again, when I look at them,

57:42Miller seems to be the primo choice right now as number one has the number one overall. I've downshifted a bit on Miller because at 105 miles an hour, I just don't know how much, how much that arm is going to take. OK, we saw his minor league history, which was what 17 innings or something like that. Yeah, he just couldn't stay healthy. I've shifted Miller down, but the top five are all elite and I recommend them as targets, targets for everyone. After that, we get into the middle court. Yeah, I've never actually rostered Mason Miller. I mean, I, and it's so reason it's not his stuff, which is some of the best in the game. If you could just take a look at, I mean, it's absolutely off the chart. I mean, it's just he's never been able to stay healthy. Except when he got to the major leagues, he's basically been out. He's had a couple of stents, but I don't think God intended for man to throw 105 miles an hour 104.

58:45I just, I'm not sure that works. Well, I, you know, how we always, the picture's break. OK, of the top of the top five, if you had to factor in injury risk, which is what I've tried to do. I, man, 104, it's like it, I agree totally. His stuff is unbelievable, but how long can he continue to do when he's done? I, I don't know it. There's doubt in my mind. So I, just as an aside, I've actually talked with a lot of pitching gurus, or guys who study the kinesiology of pitching and the mechanics and so forth. And the number I have heard is the absolute upper limit for the human body to be able to throw a throw a baseball would be about 106 to 107 miles an hour. They do not believe that man can go over that now. They also believe that you couldn't run a four minute mile and people blew past that. But that's seems what these experts believe is somewhere around.

59:46So we're getting pretty close with Mason Miller at being at the absolute upper limit to what people believe a human body is capable of. Yeah, I started looking at 100 miles an hour right now for me. That's, that's throwing the ball hard, 101, 102, everything over and above that, I think has got to increase the opportunity for injury. Oh, it just does. That's, that's my training of thoughts. He had 102, 103, 104. Yeah, he might have three more miles per hour in the tank, but 104 miles an hour, he's bringing it. That's an incredible pressure on that arm. And you do get unicorns like a roll this Chapman that just 38. He's just continuing to throw 100 miles an hour and nothing seems to slow this guy down. But most guys break. And LeGronjé is the Yankee, young Yankee kid who I saw a time last season. It's the next guy who said 102, 103 consistently.

1:00:50You just worry about guys that throw that hard. Bring them up right now. Use them, use them quick. You know, take advantage of, take advantage of that situation while it's at hand. The longer you wait, obviously, the, the odds aren't your favorite, right? The next grouping, tell me when to stop Yankees with Bender, Braves with the Glacias, Metz with Williams, Orioles with Hellsley, Red Sox with Chapman, Marlins with Fairbanks, Blue Jays with Hoffman, Brewers with McGill. Time out. Time out. Sorry. No, keep, keep going rich. Sorry. Astros with Hader. Palencia. Correct. Royals with Estivus. Right. You got to stop it. Reds with Pagan. That's, that's. We're just the middle to the end. The middle tier ends for me at

1:01:53Santana. Okay, so, okay, so we've got Pagan, Kenley Janssen. Oh, just a crusher for me with all my, with all my shares of Will Vest. Yeah. Professor Lover, do you do well with Will Vest still? Can you do it? And then Danny Santana at, yeah, I see the next group is starting with Demingas. Oh, please. Yes, and going right down that list. That is your, that's your property area. Demingas down to Ginkgo. Yeah, it's, yeah, I think if you look at everybody in the group that we just mentioned, they're all capable of being flying closures. But there's also question marks associated with each and every one of them right now. Okay, the group below Santana. There's question marks with everybody across the board in that mess. That's your, you're getting into that dog's breakfast. Toss it dark part of the program.

1:02:53Out of that middle tier, give me two to three, two or three guys that were you the most that, you know, hey, they've got the job. It looks pretty secure. But something there worries you either the setup or next guy in line are too good to keep down or that the person who's the closer now doesn't typically keep their job or is there anybody in there that worries you in that middle tier? I have no shares of Jeff Hoffman. Okay, and I lean to be a Jay's fan. You know, the candidate's team and yeah, so be it. But, you know, the Jay said at the end of last year that, you know, upgrading the bullpen was going to be a priority. Well, they picked up Tyler Rogers. Okay, who hasn't, yeah, good picture. He hasn't traditionally been a ninth inning guy. But Jeff Hoffman last year was a roller coaster ride. And I don't think it's going to be anything but the same heading into this year.

1:03:55Okay, so hey, we're going to see Hoffman's got the job. The thing that will change is that when he takes the down swing on that roller coaster ride, then you're going to see Rogers and Louis Barlin enter into the equation, I think fairly quickly. So, Jeff Hoffman, no go. The brewers, hey, McGill, no go. I will invest in Abner Uribe, but I will not touch McGill. Josh Hater right now. Why not? McGill has been somewhat consistent. He hasn't had a full season where he hasn't ended up on the IEL at some point in time. He had a PRP thing for his forearm elbow in the off season. That doesn't say to me that anything is going to change as far as his health status moving forward. He's a good pitcher and he's capable of 25 to 30 saves. But even right now in Milwaukee, he's coming out of Milwaukee.

1:04:56They're very comfortable with Abner Uribe in the ninth inning. And they've stated that they've stated it might be a committee. You know, okay, right under the gate. That's how comfortable they are with Uribe. So, why would you pay any sort of premium for McGill? Hey, I drafted Uribe in labor two spots before McGill was drafted. So, that's where my thoughts are. So, in Glacias, you mentioned really struggled in part of the season. And Robert Suarez, I'm not looking at the data. But he was the top closer over the last three years in terms of number of saves. I have not been personally. But if I had him in a dynasty league, would you be dropping Robert Suarez or would you be looking to acquire Robert Suarez? Ah, acquire. I think a Glacias is the guy that they walked through this year. But in the event, we see a repeat of when you, you know, where he struggled last year.

1:05:58I don't think the Braves will hesitate at all to bring Suarez into the ninth inning. Okay, they won't run two months of a struggling ratio of Glacias in 2026. That just will not happen. If I had a Glacias, I'd want to handcuff in Robert Suarez. Same, same here. And I'm hoping somebody drops Robert Suarez in our dining series. I think that's a guy that you want. I mean, he's, all these challengers came to him. And even Mesa Miller, he was when the Padres acquired Mesa Miller, was still Robert Suarez that was closing after they cut Mesa Miller. So he's turned away better pictures than him. It just keeps getting it done. Yeah, and hey, Suarez is a great picture. So like I said, that's where you get into, you know, you look at Bednar, okay? He's had his moments over the past few years where he's been a free agent in dynasty leagues. People have cut him loose because he's been that bad over the past couple of years.

1:07:01He's hurt. Glacias has had his moments. Devon Williams, we talked about in the last segment. Helzley didn't look great in the second half. Our oldest Chapman is the 38. Pete Fairbanks had a hard time getting a job. Hoffman, we saw that McGill, Hell, Josh Hader, who knows what's going to happen there before the beginning of the year. I actually like Danny Polentia, Fairbid, with the cup. Yeah, now you do. Hey, I like film. It's hot too. If you see, he's a solid picture. Yeah, Polentia can really brand. You know, you get asked to visit him, you know, if they're gone, Kenley, Janssen, Santana, some of these guys will get moved. Like Kenley, Janssen, I don't see a 30 plus save season in there. I think he'll be the principal closure, but I think they'll also be enough for Will Vest to get each to 10 saves in there. They're not going to work in Regents in the three of the four days. Sorry, but I don't know if you can really talk about that. I mean, what's the chances of a million? But God, light means striking twice here. And then having another, it was phenomenal last season.

1:08:02Yeah, no, we had a, we had that college camp in North Bay for years. And it got hit by late in five times. It can happen, Rich. It can happen. You want to end the place when it got hit by lightning now? Three times, yes. Really? What's that light? Yeah. Dark, very quickly. Brilliant flash of light. Glass all over the place. It imploded the TV set. We're watching TV. There's glass around the whole of the place. Big noise, big flash, darkness, lots of yelling, looking for alcohol and cleaning up the mess. That's funny. Timmy, let's take a break and get back. And let's talk about these drugs at the end. Fortunately, we do this talking about closures every week.

1:09:03And we will talk about these last 10 or so more times than we want to. But that's just the nature of the beast. I think it's probably fair to say of the last, where is it? Nine teams or 10 teams on this list? They will generate 30 mentions on the waiver wire this year. How does that? That's crazy. I mean, to me and Gus, like, with the white socks, they signed them. I mean, he's got to get the job. But I don't understand Grantele look really good last season. I thought they would, I think you should be a starter. Maybe they're going to make him a multi-ending reliever. That's why he's not scheduled to close. There's been talk that they'll treat him like they did in Chris sale. Even though I don't think there's anybody left in the white socks organization that was there when Chris sale was there. I get the sentiment, but it just feels like Grantele is the best pitcher in that bullpen.

1:10:03I agree. Unfortunately, the white socks have got a plan in a path plotted out. Originally, I had Grantele as the number two guy. And I moved him back to number three and it's got nothing to do with skill and ability. It looks like the white socks want to get him into multi-ending rule. Correct. Okay. Well, if that's the case, how do you put him in the number two spot as a set-up guy to Dominguez? I don't think he can. And I think Grantele, they want him to be a starter. And I think he will be. And I think they're following the path that they did with Chris sale. Okay. I think he's the best arm of the three, but that's not the plan. And as much as we would like to say, he should be the closer. The white socks are going to be the ones to decide it. So I just don't see many saves. You know, he might pitch the eighth, ninth inning a few times. But they want to stretch him out. And I think I'm the second half.

1:11:06He's going to be starting games. I swear, I think he belongs. But Dominguez, look, I've been down that path way too many times as you have it. It never ends well. Now, maybe he can pull a book on and put it all together finally. But no, no, thank you. No, Moss. No, and Leisure doesn't suit me at all. You're right. But did you have a leisure suit when you were in your... Everybody did, right? It was cool. Yeah, I had built a lot of them too. Yeah, a leisure suit. Yeah, I think that's in high school. And that's what everybody was wearing. I mean, it was like you had to have a leisure suit. And you look back on him and go, oh my word. I can't believe we've worked this. Yeah, I've had days where I've burnt pictures, okay? Burning picture parties, I'll follow them, okay? Yeah, a dear guy that couldn't have been me. No, it was not a good clothing trend there. Okay. The range, Jack's, Clevver and your Baker, it's a committee. I like, I think Jack's the best picture in that group.

1:12:08Yeah, things have changed with the injury too. Evan, you said on it. Okay, coming into spring, it was a you said at Jack's Clevver and your threesome. Well, you said it's dealing with a shoulder impingement and shoulder issues. And he's out of that mix. And I think the beneficiary there is definitely, I think, gripping Jack's. I would, if I had to bet, I would go 60-40 that he starts in the closer role with the injury to you said it being being a good bit behind that one, that decision. So I've got it as a committee for now. But I sort of like gripping Jack's amongst all of the other messes that we're going to discuss. And I know most people believe that the rays run with committees. But if you historically look at their bullpen, they typically have a closer. Yeah, they do. They, you know, they had Troy Percival for a while, you know,

1:13:10airbanks. Yeah, no, they, they're not, they're not a team that is hooked into a committee format. Right. Sometimes it plays out that way because there's nobody to claim it. So I think if Griffin Jack's gets a shot and he's always been the setup guy. And I think maybe this one, that gives him a chance to be the close of the giants. I thought it was interesting you had the giants walker down a little lower, even though it's a stable situation. And he's, he helped the job pretty much last season. So why is so low with Walker? Well, he held the job. He lost the job. He held the job. I don't know. Are we going to see Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde from Walker? And I'm not sold that we're going to see the, the good doctor. And right now he's got the job. It's his to lose. But as we saw last year, he can lose it. And I'm just not convinced that will happen.

1:14:11With the athletics Harris, Sterner and lighter junior, does Harris have the, I mean, you've got him in the, the closer slot, even though it's a committee. He seems like he is the odds on favorite decent stuff. Yeah, I think he's the odds on favorite. He held it in September. Okay, the closer bit. But yeah, you got to look at Sterner in that big fastball. He's going to be lurking in the shadows. And he's a pitcher that I rather like heading into, heading into drafts. You know, 15 team drafts. I don't have any problems with somebody tossing a dart at Sterner. I think he's a good pitcher. And again, only time will tell. But definitely it's, you know, I've, I've heard a lot of people like Mark Leiter. I use never, he's never performed in a closing role. No, he hasn't, he was, he was solid with the Yankees for years.

1:15:11Yeah, yeah, he's solid. But I, I think it's going to be one of the Harris or Sterner. And the guy that I like is Sterner for the fastball velocity. You've already mentioned you like, Joe, Joe Romero a little bit more than Ryan. Then O'Brien is that still, because you took Romero and the draft. Yeah. Yeah, the, the guy that I really like, like I think with Romero and O'Brien are going to be in a committee to start the year. You got to write you in a lefty there. I think that'll work. But the guy that I really like, go check out Matt Spenson's staccast page, that will bring a smile. I, if you've got the space, he's one guy that I would definitely look to add as soon as possible. I, I think he's got closure written all over him, Rich. I'll have to take a look at that. My guy, Victor Vodnick, because I like saying Vodnick.

1:16:11Someone, he is the, he's the closure. It's a stable, but you'll probably get what, 25 shots. So, of course, about 15 games. It's, it's a Rocky. Yeah, it's a Rocky. I like my here as the number three guy in that bullpen. I, I just took him with my 50th pick in the draft and all the big arm. And I wouldn't be at all shocked to see him find his way into some saves this year in Colorado. Robert Garcia seems to be getting the early buzz as the closure with the Rangers. Is that your take as well? Yeah, but they're, I don't think they've committed to them. You know, they keep talking about Chris Martin, who's I think now 38, 39 is being in the mix. And hey, when they sign the Lexus Diaz, okay, to work out of that pen. Is that an endorsement of Robert Garcia? I don't think so.

1:17:13That to me is, it's, I'm looking that it's Garcia's to lose, but I think there's a good chance he might. And I wouldn't be totally shocked to see Alexis Diaz end up. Yeah, I mean, he's got, he's got a pitch better though, because he didn't pitch well last year at all. And then it was a horrible year. Yeah, and then this, he's already got blown up in his first out. This spring. So he's, he's got to make up. There's, there's definitely some issues there. Angels, Robert Stevenson, Drew Pomerancin, Kirby Gates. And, and Joyce in the cast of thousands. Exactly. You had me, you had me in my NFBC draft. You had me drafting Ben Joyce. I did that when I wanted to do the password. And now Ben Joyce is even on this list. Explain yourself. Well, you need to develop more columns on this list. Check it. Slide a fourth and a fifth for, for certain circumstances. Yeah, there's about four or five guys that could end up saving games.

1:18:14And let's face it, you know, Yates is closing in on 40 Pomerancin, health and the same sentence. This is not tomorrow. And Robert Stevenson, the same thing. Joyce, the same thing. Whoever's healthy and gets back to back chances will hold the job until they're not healthy. Which could be a very short period of time, unfortunately. It's, yeah, you do what you want with the angels, but I know what I'm doing. And that's avoiding it. I just, no, no, no, no. Second, another break. Timmy, come back and finish this list up. And then ask about your closers, or excuse me, your sleepers.