Next Year's First Round with Lauren Auerbach

0:00Hello everybody and welcome to the Thursday edition of the road wire fantasy baseball podcast Eric Hulture in here excited to be joined today by Lauren our back of baseball HQ and fan tracks one of my league mates in golf. We've got a fun topic for you today. We're going to take a look at all the turnover at the top of the player pool. It's been remarked in a bunch of places that the top earned value leaderboard contains very very few of this year's first round pick. So the question is, is next year's first round going to look more like this year's first round or this year's leaders in earned value. We've got a whole bunch of interesting matchups to talk about. But Lauren before we get into all of that, how's your season going? Are you already thinking forward to next year? Do you have some exciting finishes here in the last couple of weeks? You know, no, I got hit really hard in a lot of my leagues with injuries and I just wasn't able to kind of come back. So my highest kind of place right now is I've got a second

1:05place, which is fine and it's great. But on the whole, I am not like, you know, pushing for a championship. Yeah, well, it then sounds like I booked the correct guest for our look forward to next season. We are going to get into all of that in a minute, but as always, want to start with some headlines, the first of which includes a player who will be talking about later on as well. That is Shohei Otoni, who is headed to the injured list. The transaction doesn't appear to have happened just yet as a recording, but the news from earlier today, or perhaps last night after the Dodgers win over the Reds is that Otoni is indeed heading to the I.L. He's been dealing with, well, the good old double slash, you know, will he put the injury in parentheses and sometimes you get two injuries with a slash between them. Well, I see Otoni biceps slash knee slash neck, not all that common to have three separate

2:08ailments here. It doesn't seem like necessarily any of them is all that serious, but a veteran player wearing down a little bit at the tail end of the regular season. I guess if you've got Otoni, he does have time to return for a few days. So, and even in leagues without I.L. spots, you hold on to him just for a final series or two? Yeah, I think so. I mean, he's it's Otoni, you know, and it's the Dodgers. And I think that they're probably taking just, you know, proper cautions for him for their star player. So yeah, this has not quite been an Otoni season. As we'll discuss soon, it was his worst season at the plate since 2022. He was unable to remain a pitcher for the whole season after a strong start. We'll talk about just where that leaves him in next year's drafts in a minute, but I do want to talk about the player who is apparently getting called up to take his spot on the roster. And that's Hosue de Paula, one of the top prospects for the Dodgers,

3:13one of the top prospects in all of baseball. He's actually jumped all the way up to number four on RotoWire's top prospect rankings here. De Paula will be making jump straight from AA, but some pretty exciting numbers at that level in 124 games. He had 27 homers. He had 31 steals. He hit 303. And there's always a question about a prospect in his first couple weeks in the big leagues. And De Paula isn't going to get more than a couple weeks here before the end of the year, but the potential seems pretty high. This is looking like a priority waiver add to me. Would you agree? I think so. I mean, you kind of have to take a shot right now. You'll get a little bit of a peak. I think he's expected to go in the lineup on Friday. So you'll have, you know, you'll get to see him maybe a couple times before the waivers hit on Sunday. But yeah, I mean, this is you take this upside. It may pan out and may not, but I think that if, you know, whatever remaining few dollars, you have,

4:15you want to see where it takes you. And it looks like there should be a spot for De Paula to play. At least against righties. Maybe he'll play every day, but with no Tony clogging the DH spot. There's room for Teosca Hernandez, Tommy Edmund Kyle Tucker across the outfield with De Paula, DH or De Paula in one of the corners and one of those other guys sitting. Seems like a pretty compelling player here for the final couple weeks. And we'll see if he ends up making some noise in October as well. We'll save conversations for just how early we're taking Hoseway De Paula until after we've seen him for at least a few games, but certainly keep an eye on that one. One more injury to discuss here. That would be Jazz Chisel. He is on the IEL now with a spring thumb. He's being shut down from baseball activities for seven to ten days. And we only have what is in the 18 days left in the regular season. So this seems like one where probably you can cut

5:17bait, although if you don't find anybody great, I guess maybe hoping that Chisel gives you a few games in the final week might make sense, depending on your team. Anthony Vopi back up and could get some playing time. I guess in deeper leagues that might have some interest. Yeah, but I feel like we've kind of seen enough flashes of Vopi at this point and he really kind of bounces between the majors and AAA. I don't know, I think unless you were really desperate at the position, yeah, it's maybe I guess it just ends how your lineup looks right now, but I wouldn't put Vopi as like a huge ad for this fat period. No, maybe if you're desperate for steals, but even then it was only 18 steals in a full season last year, seven in 56 games earlier this season. Jazz Chisel is not going to get to 50-50, like he said. He was going to aim for back in the off season. He unless he makes it back for a few more games, he's going to finish with

6:1719 homers. They did tie his career high with 40 steals. We may get a chance to talk about where we'll be taking him next season once we get on to the main topic, which you know what? Let's just go there right now. Not the busiest day of news the last couple days here. Everybody's busy watching football, I guess. Apparently they play football on Wednesdays now. I didn't know that until yesterday, so. Yep, same. I learned yesterday after me. Is it Thursday? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I would have believed it with a short week. I thought I lost track of time in the other direction, but it could definitely have been Thursday yesterday. Maybe it's Friday today. Who knows? But let's talk about the main topic of today's show, The Turnover at the top of the player pool. What we're going to be doing today is I have a list of the best players in earned value. I set this for 12 team two catcher leagues like the Rotawire Online Championship. And I've compared that to the average draft position in the Rotawire Online Championship. And we're going to go one versus one, two versus two, three versus three as far

7:23down the list as we get and discuss which player would we rather have on our teams for next year. So let's start with a big one. The number one player in earned value this season is peak. Oh, Armstrong turns out if you have all the power and all the speed anybody could ever want. And you raise your batting average by about 35 points. That will make you the best player in fantasy baseball. PCA has 41 homers 36 steals a 281 average. So far, it's going to 110 runs 97 RBI. So definitely going to finish triple digits in both of those and outstanding fantasy season from people Armstrong. Even though the first month or two was still pretty shaky, we've still yet to see a full season of PCA looking like the good version of himself. And he's still probably going to win the MVP over the guy who was the number one pick in the Rotawire Online Championship this season. That was Shohei Otoni. We've talked already about how he's ending the year banged up about how

8:27he did take a step back this year in his age 32 season. A step back still season have 30 homers 11 steals hit 277 and he pitched for several months if you needed him on the mound instead. So it's not as if Otoni's having a bad year. Back when the two early meatball draft happened three, four weeks ago, which is a 15 team draft champions league draft that a couple of our league mates, Jake Halisker and Jenny Butler, among others, participate in PCA was the number one pick and that meatball draft Shohei Otoni was the number two. Do you think that's a pretty good forecast of the discussions we're going to be having all throughout the off season? Do you think it's going to come down to PCA versus Otoni? I think this is one pick and I do. I think this is going this is the draft topic of 2027. I think it's funny, I think going into draft season last season people are like, I don't know about PCA. There were some plate approach problems. Can he put up another 30-30 season with some

9:34of his flaws at the plate? Like you said, he did and he made some plate adjustments. A big thing was that he ended up walking at like a mere 12% clip versus only a 4.5% clip. He was chasing less, made more contact. He did all the things that he wanted to see and all the things that I think we kind of questioned him about. So to a certain extent, PCA looks like a different player and when you dig into these numbers, he looks pretty good and I think for me going between PCA and Otoni, I'll probably take the safer pick which I think is Otoni even though he did land on the IEL today. We are seeing some wear and tear with his body possibly being the two-way player that he is. But I think I would know Otoni but I have no problem if PCA is going above Otoni. What about you?

10:35Yeah, I think it's definitely going to be a close race. I have not yet decided who I will be ranking number one. Otoni is on the down slope of the Agent curve but he's not that far along. He's only 31 years old. He won't turn, sorry, he's 32 years old. He won't turn 33 until after the midway point of next season. So it's had a point in the Agent curve where you'd expect each year to be worse than the last but not by a huge amount. Whereas on the other hand PCA, he will turn 25 shortly before opening day next year. So in the opening day is at a typical time. You would expect him to even theoretically have some growth ahead of him. I think that's probably asking too much. Are you worried at all just about just how big of a step forward he took this year? It's only natural to give a little bit of that back. And then I guess the question comes how much can he afford to give back for you to still feel pretty comfortable with him as a number one pack. And the answer is probably

11:38quite a lot. I mean, if he's going to finish 40, 40 comfortably. Yeah, I mean, I think that like I said, the big thing with PCA was, you know, those holes in his plate is plain metrics and it looks like he has filled them. And so I think that that's okay. I think in terms of, you know, looking at O'Tani, like you mentioned, you know, he hit the, he only has 30 home runs this season. He's a little bit on the downturn, but this is you're talking about like, you know, the best player baseball, he's one of the most durable players in baseball. I think, you know, his floor is kind of a 40, 45 on run floor. And I think you get a lot of, you know, greater counting stats with team contacts with O'Tani, although the Cubs are certainly nothing to sneeze at. I think the one thing that, you know, PCA will have on O'Tani is probably more steals. And I think that especially with O'Tani, you know, we talk

12:40about him kind of at the top of the show where he's got all these kind of injuries. I wouldn't be surprised if he steals a little bit less. And his, his steals have really kind of fluctuated since, since he's been, um, immediately going from 26 to 11 to 20 to 59 to 20 to 11. And so there's a real kind of fluctuation there. And I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, the Dodgers kind of want to hold him off the base by us a little bit. But I also do think that that's, that's picking nets here. And I think that's getting a little too cute. Um, but I do think that that is one area in which PCA does have over, over O'Tani is, is the speed there. Yeah, I think that's a very good point. So in other league formats where you don't need steals quite as much. And certainly in leagues where you can get O'Tani as a true two way player and use all of his stats. I think he's still going to be the number one pick. But going to be a pretty close conversation everywhere else. We'll talk about another couple players who might be in the mix for number one as we keep going. But let's, let's go to number two versus number two. The second best player in terms of earned value so far this year is

13:44Jacob Mizorowski. Now of course it'll change a little bit in terms of your pitcher to hitter budgers budget split. But I think Jacob Mizorowski looks like the number two player. According to the way I've done the math and I, I can buy that for sure. He is enough ahead of the rest of the pitchers just an absolutely dominant season for him. Number two in ADP this past offseason was Aaron Judge. For me, he was number one ahead of Shohei O'Tani. That hasn't gone well because of the injuries to Judge. Although they will be closing in a little bit with Judge returning and O'Tani missing some time. In that meatball draft a few weeks ago, Judge had only slipped to four and Jacob Mizorowski was 12. Although I will note that people drafting in August for next year do tend to be pretty nervous about taking pitchers who still have six more weeks where they could get hurt this season. So I think the pitcher prices are a little bit depressed. Mizorowski was the number one pitcher off the board in that draft. So I guess the question here is, is Jacob Mizorowski the number

14:48one pitcher off the draft off the board for you next year and has Aaron Judge slipped enough with his age and durability questions that you could see taking at least one pitcher to ahead of him? Yeah, I think that if you're going to take a pitcher in the first round, definitely Jacob Mizorowski has to be at the top of the list. He's just been so dominant. It's a sub-2 ERA, a sub-1 whip. 31.7 percent strikeout minus walk rate. I think that you can make the argument that if you take someone like, well, if you take Jacob Mizorowski, he gives you such an edge in terms of strikeouts and in terms of ratios that you're getting as opposed to other pitchers that I think that you consider him. Personally, I generally tend to take pitchers super early. In the round, I tend to focus more on bats, but I think that Mizorowski is one of the few players that you can,

15:54you should consider taking in the first round just because of that advantage that you'll get. And Judge, again, this is another player, a little bit of an older player. He's just coming off of the IEL, had a little bit of a down season. But again, it's tough to discount Judge. He's hit 50 plus home runs in three of the last five seasons. He'll give you a little more than a handful of steals, strong team context. And his quality of contact metrics, they fit the touch, but nothing really crazy. And I think that it's just so hard to find a player who has consistently hit 50 plus home runs like Judge has with his strong team that I still think I would still go over Judge here. But Mizorowski is in the running there, for sure. And I think that he, the argument is like, yes, he should be going in the Mizorowski, should be going in the first

16:56round. It's just a matter of where and who he kind of upsets in doing that. Yeah, I think they both could probably end up being some of the riskiest picks in the first round next year, despite the fact that there's little doubt as to how good they are. But Mizorowski, we got a figure he has even more risk than your average starting pitcher, right? I mean, I know he hasn't had a major injury since he's reached the majors, but he does throw 105 sometimes. He also is going to have a decent sized innings jump. But he's already jumped roughly 30 innings from last year. He's going to make a few more stars. And then some in the playoffs, that could be something that scares you off. And as you mentioned, a lot of people are just nervous to take a pitcher in the first round period. So wouldn't really be looking his way. But Aaron Judges is going to be 35 years old and coming off a year in which he played less than half a full season. That's got to be right up there with a pitcher in terms of injury risk. So it's going to be one where I could see

17:56a lot of people really hoping they draft someone else, even though they're aware of just how good these two players are. Right? Certainly the more cautious, safe drafters are going to be pushing both of these guys down the board of use. I think so. I think so. All right. Will they instead then go for the players who finished or who are currently number three, Ben Rice, assuming you give a bump to catchers in two catcher leagues has been the third best player in earned value this year. Bobby Whit Jr. was the number three pick off the board back in draft season. I think though now that Ben is no longer going to be catcher eligible, calling him all the way up there with Bobby Whit Jr. is going to be a stretch too far. I think this is a pretty clear one where we don't need to spend too much time on which players better. The question for me though really is just how close does Ben Rice get in that meatball draft? He actually went in the middle of the third round. Do you think that

18:57seems fair for him or do you think that Ben Rice has done enough where he should actually be pushed maybe mid-second or even higher? No, I think that's a fair point. I mean, he Rice loses, loses that that catcher designation this year, right? And so I don't know. I mean, I think it he was 38. I think it was a little that's a touch too high. I would probably consider Rice a little bit later, but I don't have a problem. I think that the issue with Rice is that I think that he's more of a three and a half category player. I think that you're going to get that power. You miss some batting average there, but he did make strong quality contact and he traded strikeouts for walks, but overall very similar numbers last year. I think that he's up there, but I think he was pushed up there with the catcher designation. And I'm a little less interested

19:59in Rice without that designation this year. Yeah, I think that is definitely the case. He is currently seventh in the league with 36 homers. That's one more than Rafael Devers, two more than Pete Alonzo. So maybe some other corner sluggers who will be going around his range of draft, one fewer homer than Matt Olson. A whole bunch of guys hitting in the mostly two 50 to 270 range with power that's going to end up close to 40 homers. You're going to have a lot of options to choose from there. Should we talk about Bobby Witt though? He hasn't been quite as high in earned value, but he hasn't been bad. He is 22nd. Do you see him still as a top three sort of player for next year? Do you think that there's going to be some people making the case for Witt ahead of Otani due to the risks that surround Otani that we've already talked about and Witt maybe even ahead of Pete Croarm Strong. I mean, they're both five category superstars. Just Pete Croarm Strong is coming off the better year. Is there a legitimate case to take Witt who's been there for longer?

21:04You know, I think that Bobby Witt is like he's an excellent player. I think one issue that you see in it's coming out this year is, you know, his team context isn't as strong as some of these other players that we've been talking about who you want to compare him to in terms of taking one over the other. Bobby Witt Jr. so far this season has 18 home runs, 84 runs score, but only 54 RBI and 39 stolen bases. I think that something you do have to take in consideration is that that Royals team context just isn't as strong and you can have a great player. But the rest of the team is maybe lagging a little bit. You may lose that. And I think when you're talking about it, you know, a first round player like Bobby Witt Jr. Like I said, it's not something that I would just dissuade me from drafting him at all. But I think, you know, it's something that if you're thinking of him as a, you know, one of the top, you know, top three, top five, something I think that you need

22:04to take into consideration. Yeah, I think that's a great point. I am also curious to see how his power is going to be discussed this off season because we saw him hit 20 as a rookie and then 30 homers, then 32. So back to back 30 home or seasons. But last year, just 23 this year, just 18. He's probably going to finish about 20, 21. It's going to be a little bit hard making a case for somebody to go first overall. If they're in the 20 to 25 home or range for two consecutive seasons, still you could call him a five category player, but it's not quite superstar levels. I am a little bit confused why the powers dropped off though. The barrel rates aren't really down significantly. The strikeout rates the same hard hit rate is pretty unchanged. The flyball distribution is still pretty similar. Actually, if you more flyballs this year. So that could be one where if you believe that he's just a 22 homer guy, then yeah, you're not really going to push for Bobby with junior first overall. But if you say look at everything else, he still doing, he's going

23:08to be 27 years old. Why can't he hit 32 homers again? Then maybe I'm not sure yet which side of that argument I fall on. Yeah, I don't know. I think it's interesting. There are a little like I said, I think there's a little bit of holes, but it could be also nitpicking. But for me, it's at team context. And if you have the rest of your team not doing so hot, then that may kind of look, you know, lowers your value at the end of the day. Yeah. So we'll see if the royals add a ton of big bats and get us to buy in over the off season. Let's go to match up number four though, the fourth best player in fantasy baseball, roto fantasy baseball. So far this year is Yordon Alvarez, who has put together a healthy season and has looked like the Yordon Alvarez, we all remember meanwhile, one Soto was the number four pick in the roto wire online championship back in draft season. He is not going to finish nearly that high because he missed some time. He's only played 95 games, he'll finish around 110 or so. His counting stat numbers have taken a hit because of that. His

24:12stolen bases are all the way back to his normal level, those 38 steals he had last year. I think we knew we're a fluke. Some people thought he might still get 20, some thumbies on eight right now. On the whole though, it looks like a pretty normal one Soto season is going to be 28 next year. So do you think you'd rather take one Soto with a bounce back year of sorts bounce back just in terms of health or would you rather take Yordon Alvarez hoping that the good health can sustain for a second trade season? I would take one Soto. I think I really like Yordon Alvarez. I think that we I'm going to kind of always talk about like old man Alvarez and his like really old creaky knees, but no matter how much time Yordon Alvarez misses, I feel like he you can still always pencil him in for 30 to 35 home runs and like a 290 batting average. I don't know how he does it, but he does. I think that that's admirable, but I do think that with Soto, this is again,

25:14another star player that just I think has had his down season just because of injury, but he's also Soto is another extremely durable player. I think that this is just kind of a one-off yet to you know injury issues. I believe it was strains in both of his calves for Soto, but you also get steals with Soto. So I think that when you look at Soto, I think that you know you can kind of pencil him, you know, 35, 40 home runs, you know, maybe six, six to eight steals, but it is possible you know with with calf strains in both of his legs, it's possible that he doesn't get the green light. It's much and runs less. So there is that, but I think that you've got that durability. So you'll be getting more played appearances than you would with Alvarez. You've got some steals and you still have a high batting average. So I would lean so no on this one. Yeah, I think I'm right there with you. Soto is going to be in his age 28

26:16season next year. Alvarez will be in his age 30 season. So not quite at the part of his career, where you're too worried about things to take a step back, but his health has been much more inconsistent than Soto. I do think if we hear whispers of lingering calf problems or other problems for Soto, I would back off and maybe take Alvarez in that case. Soto, yes, he's not that old yet. He's going to be 28 in October, but he was so young when he broke through. He played 116 Major League games in his age 19 season. Sometimes I do worry a little bit about these guys who are handling the rigors of a full Major League schedule, even as teenagers and 20-year-olds, that maybe 28 for him is 34 other guys. And he's not the absolute fittest physical specimen, like we see on some guys out there. I wouldn't be too surprised if he ages worse than average. I don't really think that's coming next year, but if we do hear more calf issues, then you start to

27:20worry that that durable tag is gone, right? You're only durable until you're not anymore. He did have five straight seasons with 150 plus games, but those could be his last five for all we know. Sure. Moving on, though, to the next matchup. This is a pretty interesting one, where the last one had two very similar players. This is two very different players. Cam Schlittler is fifth in earned value to this point. He's the number two pitcher, not that far from Izorowski. Maybe I overstated just how far Izorowski was ahead of the rest of the pack. Meanwhile, the number five player in Roto-Yer Online Championship drafts this past winter was for some reason Ronald Acunia Jr. People must have forgotten about his past injuries or something. I guess there's one person in every league who thought he would stay healthy. They took him and they were wrong. Acunia hasn't necessarily taken a huge step back when he's on the field. If you're willing to suddenly project good health, there's some elements of his game have taken a step back. He's only hit in 253,

28:25but 16 homers 20 steals in 93 games. The fantasy juice is certainly still there. Still big barrel rates, still perfectly acceptable strikeout rates. He's going to be in Zade's 29 season next year. So theoretically, he shouldn't be over the hill, but gotta be pretty worried with how banged up he's been the last several seasons. So does Ronald Acunia Jr. go ahead of Cam Schlittler? Next year, a Cam Schlittler going to be a top two or three starter probably? How are you viewing these two heading into next season? You know, I'm not very confident in Ronald Acunia. I know if he's on the field, if he can get to 150 games, then you're looking at a 40-40 season with I think room to grow on the steel side of things. But that is a very big if. At this point, he just has problems staying on the field. For me, I would rather let one of my leaguemates take Acunia and if I miss a season

29:30where he's on the field and he just rakes in production, then I miss that. But I think I just don't I don't trust the injury stuff with Acunia if you are talking about a top draft pick. And I think Schlittler, he's interesting. I think he's doing everything you want a pitcher to do. He had 73 innings last season with a sub-3 ERA, a 122 whip, and a 17.4% strikeout minus one. Walk rate. So pretty salad, super stuff. And what did he do this year? He, you know, banged out a full season and, you know, he upped his case. He, he, you know, was walking last. He upped his ground ball rate. So he's doing all the things that you want him to see. And now he's going into his second full season, heading into 2027. And I would much rather take Khan Schlittler who you're seeing the arrows go where you want those arrows, you know, they're going up as opposed to Acunia where you don't really know

30:33what you're going to get in terms of if he's on the field. Yeah, I think I'm right there with you. I think Khan Schlittler, I haven't yet decided exactly where he's going to rank. But he's going to be in the mix for that number two starter spot, right? There's a handful of other guys who are going to be there. Maybe Yamamoto, maybe, maybe Chris sale, maybe Terrick's schoolable, maybe Christopher Sanchez, a couple others. I think there's going to be a big clump from two to seven or so. And I think Schlittler's going to be near the front of that. And I think puts him, that puts him not much later than the early second round, right? And for me, I don't think that I can take someone with Acunia's durability issues in the early second round. I think he's going to have to fall to at least the back half of the second round for me to be interested. And that means if he does have a healthy year, he's going to win some people some leagues next year and those people will not be me and they won't be me either. Apparently this next one though, I can't call them all interesting. Jim, I should pull out both the Zoris. This one is tantalizing. This is intriguing. Very intriguing.

31:36We've got a match up between Jordan Walker, who has been the number six player in terms of earned value in Rodo League so far this year versus Jose Ramirez, who was the number six pick heading into this season. Ramirez has finally had a year where he has started to show some signs of age here in his age 33 season. He'll turn 34 one week from today. So early happy birthday to you, Jose, if you're listening. Ramirez did miss a little bit of time this year, which is not something he really ever does. The last time where he missed any time, any significant time at least was 2019. He's going to finish 125-ish games this year, maybe 130 somewhere in that range. He's only had 11 homers. He does still have 31 steals, but his batting average has fallen to 234 as well. Strike out rates not really much worse. The bail rate is down. It looks like a player who is aging and also

32:38maybe got a little bit unlucky. It's going to be tricky where to put a guy who has been a meanstay of that first round for what a decade almost at this point. He was set it up. Are we going to penalize him? Right, right. Just how far does Ramirez slip and does Jordan Walker comfortably jump ahead of him? I had to say this was like one where I kind of just had to think about. Like I really went back and forth on both of these guys, but I ended up leaning towards Jose Ramirez. On this one, I think the track record is there, although I just said there are some kind of concerns. He's entering his age 34 season. Jose Ramirez is and he's coming off of a left-hammate injury that he suffered in June of this year. There are concerns. He's someone who's always

33:39kind of really tapped into his pull power. He doesn't have strong quality of contact. Metrix is a career 6.6 percent barrel rate. He has to be pulling in order to kind of get that power. I choose kind of Jose Ramirez a little bit reluctantly. I think with Walker, this was what he's so young. I think that he's a good reminder that I think sometimes in fantasy circles, you can write players off if they don't produce right away. Walker is making a ton of strong quality contact in 2025, but he was just striking out at a 32 percent clip. He does still have those kind of holes at the plate, which can kind of keep him back. But he did barrel the ball more. He cut down on the strikeout, Ray, he has improved contact, but still a little bit weak. There's just, I think, a little

34:42bit, for me, there's too much uncertainty. I think that if Walker does, if the strikeouts go back up, if he can't make as much contact, you are talking about someone who's just, his numbers are going to crater. And so I'm a little hesitant to buy in really high on Walker, and I'd rather take kind of the old veteran who does have some flaws of his own, but I'm going to lean on that track record, I think. Yeah, definitely some downside with both of these guys. If Walker gives up some of those skill gains, which he showed this year, and if Ramirez continues to age, I guess you could say if you want to blame his struggles this year on that broken hammy, then you say that's not the sort of thing that tends to linger from year to year. We're not going to say he's injury pro now, and he's super likely to break his hammy again, is different than a guy who has bad knees that keep popping up over and over again. And the fact that Ramirez is still stolen 31 bases tells me that he doesn't feel like he's getting older just yet. So I think though, I ultimately would be Aegis here and would

35:48probably take Jordan Walker. I would just rather have a guy in that part of the aging curve. I am worried that even if we blame Ramirez's downturn this year on the injury that there's still going to be a normal amount of aging that happens for everybody and their age 34 season. So I think I would take Jordan Walker here, but I think you could definitely go either way in that meatballs draft last month. Walker went 10th and Ramirez went 14th. I think you're going to see them both in that range for a lot of drafts. This next matchup is also intriguing or interesting or what have you two guys who went in a similar range in that draft in August. We've got CJ Abrams, who has been the 7th best player in terms of total earned value in road eliggs this year. A real breakout season there for the shortstop. Teryk Scubel on the other hand is the number 7 pick heading into this year's draft. So of course, it's not going to perform like the 7th best player

36:51this year due to his missed time and things haven't been perfect since he's made it back. He's had a few unescubel-esque starts with the Dodgers, although he does have a 293 ERA with them through 7 starts. Even if Strike Out Raid is down a little bit and the walk rate is up a little bit. It doesn't look like somebody who is still broken following that surgery earlier this year. So Scubel, does he fall particularly far for you or is he still in that mix for the number two starter behind Miss Arowski, which would put him presumably right around where people are going to be looking at CJ Abrams next year? I think we're getting a little too cute with Scubel here. I think that if you're doing a straight up Abrams versus Scubel, I think I'm a big CJ Abrams fan, but I'm probably I'm taking Scubel. I think that with he hasn't performed as well going over to the Dodgers, but it's just like, you know, he's changing jobs, he's doing lots of things, but like let's remember, his

37:53K-Rate is still sitting at about 30% with a sub 5% walk rate. He's still, you know, mowing down players and has a really great team context now. And I think that I'm not dropping Scubel very far in any draft. I'm considering Scubel as Scubel and there's like little dropage for him in my eyes. Do you think somebody could even put him ahead of Miss Arowski? Do you think that would be crazy? Do you think he's actually still at the number one? I still think like he's still the underlying metrics. He's still there. He's still, you know, where you want him to see with a strikeout to the walks. And I think that he's still good. He's still Scubel. And I just think that that's, you know, I wouldn't drop him. And he's definitely, I think, in a top three, three mix, top two mix, you know, and so for me. And I think with Abrams though,

38:54I'm a big Abrams fan. I live in Washington, DC. And you know, he's always kind of considered just this 20, 30, 250 player, I think. And so, and this year, you know, he hit the 30 home run mark so far in 138 games. He's got 28 steals and a 261 batting average. And I think when you look at his underlying metrics, it doesn't really look like he's made a ton of games, but you know, his barrel rate went from 7% to 10% from 2025 to 2026. He's also increased his launch angle. And one of the things that I would say with Abrams and, you know, other nationals players is that in this past offseason, this past offseason, you know, the nationals cleared house. And they basically brought in a whole new set of like young guys who are very like analytic minded and their goal in the offseason was to make their their batters, you know, hit the ball better and improve their

39:58launching angles because a lot of the players in Washington had ground ball rates sitting around 50%. And I am in dug into the numbers yet of, you know, the nationals, but I know that some of them have raised their launch angle. And it's not a fluke that the nationals, you know, lead the league in run score second, I guess, and run scored this season. And so I think that their offense is humming along. I do think that Abrams should move up in drafts this season compared to last season. And I think that if you think it's just the fluke, I would say just, you know, I'd be wary of thinking that it's just a one off weird year for Abrams. Yeah, that launch angle going from 13 degrees to 18 degrees for Abrams, which has helped that increase in barrel rate, which you talked about, a bigger increase in barrel rate than there is in hard hit rate, that that's up a little bit, but the barrel rate's actually up more significantly. And that's because that launch angle has improved as well. But it sounds like for you, it's still probably scuba and scuba probably going at a range of

40:59the draft where you're a little bit nervous about taking a picture. So yeah, I'd be like, you'd like to end up with someone that's going to be Abrams, but you'd actually rather have scuba. I think I would, yeah, I would do scuba. All right, say Abrams, maybe for you more of a early second rounder than a late first rounder, but still a definite improvement. Somebody we need to think about in different terms for what it's worth in that meatball draft. Abrams did go in the first round, 13th scuba went 17th, although as I said, I expect the pictures to be all a little bit depressed in that draft because who wants to take a starter and then have them get hurt in the final six weeks of this season before next year even begins. Moving on though to number eight here, maybe this one's a little bit less interesting. Good, we need one of those. These have been all way too close and exciting. We've got Hunter Goodman versus Ellie Dela Cruz, Hunter Goodman in that meatball draft went 46, which is a pretty early for a catcher, but nowhere near as close as Ellie Dela Cruz, who went 11th. Goodman though is eighth best in earned value this year. If you

42:04give that bump to catchers, Ellie Dela Cruz was the eighth pick heading into the air. He's actually been 12th best in earned value. So he's been one of the only first rounders who has performed like a first rounder. In fact, I think he is the only first. Yeah, because a couple of these guys went just outside the first round and a perform like first round values, but in 15 team leagues, Ellie is the only one. So I think we're taking Ellie Dela Cruz well ahead of Hunter Goodman. We are. But Hunter Goodman certainly a very good season and it's going to go a good deal earlier next year than he went this year, right? Yeah, I mean, I think that's the takeaway for for Goodman on this is that, you know, there's still some, you know, plate issues here, but it helps that he's at, um, Cours Field. He's now is back to back 30 home run seasons. And I think it also speaks to as much as I think he should go up. I think you still have a pretty stacked catcher position and you have a lot of intriguing guys to choose from in the 2027 draft.

43:07Yeah, there's going to be some early runs on catchers. Anyone in an auction league is going to have some fun times there just trying to make sure you get the cheapest of that tier of four or five very similar elite catchers. A little bit worried about Goodman's strikeout rate jumping from 26 to 32% this year, but he hit 37 homeers. He's probably going to finish with 40. So I can't complain that much on Ellie Dela Cruz though. If he is the only first rounder who's performed like a first rounder, should we think about moving him up the board? Next year, he actually slipped a couple picks in that meatball draft down from 8 to 11, but he has performed up to expectations. Maybe even surpassed them a little bit this year, 26 homeers, 25 steals, hitting a career best 283, although still striking out 27% of the time. I don't know how much I trust him as a source of batting average, but the bear rate, although yet to a career best 16%, he's going to be 25 years old

44:08next year. Is there a case for moving Ellie up rather than down? Yeah, I think you could maybe inch him up. I mean, I think that he's like I said, I think all the points that you made, I mean, this is an incredible player who I think you do have to accept high case or part of his profile, but it does come with above average walk rates, so that's good. And he's able to decrease his ground ball race this year, but like you said, I mean, you've got these career best kind of quality contact metrics across the board. He has a strong park factor with a great American ballpark, and it's an intriguing lineup in Cincinnati, it's kind of an intriguing young group, especially with Sal Stewart and some of these guys. I don't see a problem with inching him up a little bit. I don't think just by like a couple spots, you know, I don't think that he like he breaks into I don't think, you know, the top five or anything like that. So

45:11yeah, I think that's fair enough, but he might be not far outside of that top five. Up next, we have a battle between two guys who were right around that one to turn. Junior Camonero was the 16th pick, but he's been the ninth best performer in the road wire online championship so far. Meanwhile, Julio Rodriguez was the ninth pick, and he has had a bit of a disappointing season, and this fallen down the board. I think I'll be taking Junior Camonero, who's pretty clearly on the upswing over Julio Rodriguez. Is there even any doubt in that one? Is Castan Manero done enough to make this very, very obvious that he's in another tier from Julio who's been in that one to turn to here for a couple of seasons now? No, absolutely. I mean, I think the concern going into 2026 was, you know, Camonero's power translate once they move over to the top, and he's shown that it has, and he's such a good hitter, and it's really hard to find a flaw in Camonero's game. So I think

46:15this is kind of an easy one for me as well. Yeah, the only flaw for Camonero is really that he's a four category player. I think we can call him four. The batting average is finally there this year at 281. He's had a strike at rate under 20% for a couple of seasons now. So I think I trust him to produce batting average in addition to power. He's about to have his second straight 40 Homer season whenever he next clears the fence. Only three steals, but I think Junior Camonero is probably the number four category player on everyone's board next year heading into his age 23 season two, where you'd expect a step forward and certainly not a step back. If anything, I think he's the number one four category guy. He was the fifth player off the board in that meatball draft after PCA, Otoni, Bobby, Witt, and Aaron Judge. I guess this is considering Aaron Judge, a four and a half category player if I'm going to make this point, but you could probably make the case for Camonero.

47:17Overjudge if you are somebody who's particularly concerned about age and injury risk. Yeah, I think that's kind of an interesting point, but yeah. What about on the other side, Rodriguez, fell to 20th in that draft, which would be the lowest we've seen him in a while if that's where he settles, but he is currently a below average hitter by WRC plus and only 98, only just barely below average, but that's park adjusted. He throw in the fact that he plays into pretty bad park too. I don't think I would say that Rodriguez's true talent has fallen to below league average at the plate, but it is worth noting that when he broke into the league at his 21-year-old, we were thinking there could be superstar talent here. There could be more levels that he can reach, but instead he produced the same very good performance for several years and then took a step back this year. Do you think if he's going in the middle of the second round, is that a bargain that you'll be trying to chase? Or do you think that's a pretty fair price and you're not particularly going to chase him giving him an offer a year like this? I don't know that I'm going to chase him.

48:22I guess it kind of sees. I think maybe if he fell, a touch, I'd be interested. I think the one thing with Julio Rodriguez is that his barrel rates have ticked down for really every season. I think that's a little concerning. I also think, again, I keep kind of bringing up team contacts, but the Mariners had a really hard time generating lots of runs this year. It hits players like Julio Rodriguez. You're not immune from that. Right now, he's hitting with at 65 runs, 61 RBI with, I know, about a handle, 18, 15 games left. He's hit the 2020 mark, but I think that it just comes with a little bit more of uncertainty. And I don't like to love the team contacts around him. And again, I don't love that barrel rate

49:22ticking down each year. Yeah, so lots of minorly worrying signs there. And there is bounce back potential certainly, but there's also potential for him to continue to be slightly underwhelming. Let's round out the top 10 then we have the 10th best player in the Roto-Wire Online Championship. So far is the rookie Sal Stewart. He is mashed up here against Paul Schienes, who was the number 10 pick heading into this year's drafts. Now Paul Schienes fell all the way to 71 in that meatballs draft last month. I doubt he's going to fall quite that far next year's drafts. I think there was maybe a bit of an injury scare or whispers of a potential injury around the time of that draft. And if we don't have those in peak drafts season next year, Schienes is surely going to go a lot earlier than that. But is Schienes going to go after Sal Stewart? Has this been a disappointing enough season for Schienes? Who has a 383 ERA on the year, almost double what he had

50:27the last two years? And is this also an encouraging enough rookie campaign from Sal Stewart that you would rather have Stewart than Schienes next season? I like Sal Stewart and I would actually rather have Sal Stewart than Paul Schienes. I think with Schienes, he did well in the first half, but you started to see a second half fade. The ratio started going up. The walk rate started going up. And that was significant because he moved his walk rate from 5.5%, which is great up to 10.5%, which really kind of hits the ratios and the ERA really hard. And so I think that's a little concerning. And like you said, if there's maybe an underlying injury issue there or something, I think it's something you want to kind of see how that's, if that comes up in the off season and see how he does in spring training. I think with Sal Stewart, I think he's a really exciting player. He hit 31 home runs, 15 steals, with 264 batting average. So that all plays. I think one

51:31thing with Sal Stewart that I really like is that he's been consistent both at home and on the road. And I think that we always talk about these reds as they've got great American ballpark in their back pocket for half their games, which helps. But he's actually hit 17 home runs on the road for his 14th home and his OPS both away and at home sits just above 800. So I like that consistency there. I like the pop. I like the speed, the batting average is playable. And like I said, I think there are some interesting pieces in that in that reds offense. And so I think I think I was named Stewart here. Yeah, I think it's really tough to say that I would drop Paul Schienes as far as he might drop. And maybe I'm crazy for just ignoring especially these last few months here. He's been bad. I just tied to the name value. I just see Paul Schienes. And I think

52:35if you're going to give me that in the third round, I'm going to click on Paul Schienes. Maybe I'm just thinking about Schienes in 2024 and 2025. He's lost almost a tick and a half of velocity this year. And he had lost almost a full tick the year before that. This is just not the same guy who entered the league. I think this is one where we could see his value moving considerably in either direction over the course of the off season. If there are whispers of, oh yeah, he's been actually pitching through something, then maybe you'd be pretty worried that that develops into something more significant. He hasn't actually missed time yet 32 starts last year. He's going to finish on 32 again this year. So in a sense, he's very durable. And that's pretty valuable as well. If we hear that his velocity is back up in his first spring start, I think he's going to shoot back up the board. But I guess maybe until we hear that, Sal Stewart is really good. And he's got that speed

53:37to 15 steals to go along with a very good bat in a very good park. It just feels wrong for me to say I would take Stewart over screens, but I have a feeling that is where a lot of people are going to be including you. It sounds like let's move on though to a match up between two more pictures. This one might be pretty easy. I'm curious for your thoughts. Yoshino B. Yamamoto has been the 11th best player in the Roto-Wire Online Jammanship this year, the third best pitcher behind Jacob Mizorowski and Cam Schlipler. The 11th pick heading into this year was also the third pitcher off the board. That was Garrett Crochet and oops, that one did not go very well. Some struggles early on and then an injury that initially was expected to only keep him out for not much longer than the minimum. But we know how that often goes. We have not seen Garrett Crochet pitch in a game since April. And he has been throwing off a mound for almost two weeks now. He's through 20 pitches in a side session

54:41on Tuesday. Okay, that's exciting. He might make it back as a reliever. It sounds like I'm pretty sure that even if he does make it back and throw some good innings in the regular season and the playoffs, Yoshino B. Yamamoto is still so solid and consistent and elite as well year after year. That I think that Yamamoto comfortably goes ahead of Garrett Crochet. The question is just how far do you think Garrett Crochet will fall and do you expect yourself to be taking in if there is a pretty big fall or do you view this as a pitcher who's clearly going in one direction when it comes to health and I'd rather not see where that goes next year? I think it just kind of comes down with Crochet, your risk tolerance. I think that because he's an excellent pitcher and I think that he's been dealing with shoulder inflammation. But it's a pretty big deal because he's been sideline with shoulder inflammation since April. So that's a lot like capital I inflammation I feel

55:45like and I think that there are issues there. Like you said, I don't know if the Reds-Oxay will bring him back as a reliever down the stretch or the postseason. But I think say assuming all goes well, you don't have any setbacks with Crochet. If he gets back on the mound this season or in the off season, he's still kind of an intriguing arm. There's a lot of it's high risk high reward. I think for me, like I wouldn't consider Crochet until at the earliest and I would maybe be a little hesitant to do it. But if I had to say like two really strong stable starters that I felt really comfortable with and I felt comfortable on the strikeouts and the ratios, maybe I would consider a Crochet as my SP3 but that's probably the earliest I would do it kind of taking him as a dark throw that could either really kind of push you forward in legs or you understand the risk

56:51that you're taking. But I don't know. I feel like he's such a good arm that I think and pictures starters get pushed up so high, the closer we get to draft season. I don't really know where he will go. I think that there will be drafters that will pick Garrett Crochet pretty high. But I don't know that I would do that. I'd take the Yavomoto over Crochet but in terms of thinking where you take when you consider Crochet, for me, it's like I want to have at least two solid SP1 SP2 locked and loaded before I would consider Crochet. Yeah, here's a potential decision. Draftors might have to make next year Peyton Toli or Garrett Crochet. The Peyton Toli. The only one actually in the fifth round of that meatballs draft a few rounds ahead of Crochet. But that was before we'd seen the news about Crochet starting to work his way back. So maybe they'd go closer. But I think somebody like Toli will lead to enough and without these major injury concerns that I think

57:53Crochet is probably going to slip behind that kind of picture. This would... Yeah, I think so too. And then of course, yeah. Right. And then of course, if Crochet does stay healthy, he could win some leagues. If he really is an SP3, although there's the added wrinkle of, okay, let's say he comes back and makes 30 starts next year. What are the odds that he's actually, you know, Garrett Crochet in those 30 starts and what are the odds that a long shoulder related absence means his shoulder's not in the same place. So even if he does stay healthy, he's not quite the same picture. Moving on to number 12 here. This is the end of the first round in the Roto Wire Online Championship. LEDALA Cruz, who we've talked about already, sneaks in there as the 12th best player so far. This season, he matches up here against Gunner Henderson, who was the number 12 pick heading into this season. I think that LEDALA Cruz should be comfortably ahead of Gunner Henderson. If they started in a similar

58:53place and Cruz had a good year and Henderson did not, but just how far do you expect Gunner Henderson to fall? This is somebody who is only hitting 219 this year, only a 698 OPS, but strikeout rate is barely up from last year. The barrel rate is down, but only 1.6 percentage points. This is not somebody who's fallen off a cliff and he will be 26 next year. I could see a pretty big bounce back from Gunner Henderson, but just how much do we want to pay for that potential? He would have to drop a little bit from me. I think that you said there aren't like, I don't know when I'm getting with Gunner Henderson sometimes. He's played like near full seasons, but if you look at both his home run and his stolen base results, they're really up and down. His home runs total goes from 28, 37, 17. He's sitting at 22 this year. His stolen base is 10, 21, 30, 10. All of this is with

59:59consistent playing time. This year is a little bit down for him. His quality contact is all career lows across the board. His barrel rate took down for four straight. He's just a weird one. Gunner Henderson for me to figure out. He's chasing more, but his contact rate goes up. It's similar to like, I just don't know what I'm going to get with him. I don't like that. As one of my top picks, I'm probably going to be passing on Henderson unless he falls, I don't know, I don't know if it'll fall far enough. For me to consider him, but I don't know, I just don't like that I don't know when I'm going to get from him. Yeah, he only fell to pick 26. He's too early, meatball draft. If you want him to fall a little bit later, maybe into the 30s, it's been a few years since he's been an elite player. So

1:01:01taking him coming off the down year when he's still in the second round might feel a little bricy. Unless you think all that elite skill is still in there. Just needs one season to put it all together. That does it for the first round of the Roto-Wire Online Jammanship. Let's quickly do just a couple more here. Chris sale versus Corbin Carroll. Chris sale has been the 13th best player so far. Corbin Carroll was the 13th pick in this year's draft. Sale has been incredible. He is 37 years old and he looks as good as he's ever been. A 210 ERA, a 101 whip, a 31% strikeout rate, a 5% walk rate. He's been durable enough for straight seasons of at least 20 starts. We've put that period of his career where he was really tough to trust behind him. Meanwhile, Corbin Carroll has been banged up a bit this year. He had that hammockbone fracture before the season. He is now

1:02:03dealing with back issue, which could end up sending him to the IEL. We'll see. It hasn't been a terrible year from him, but 240 with 19 homers and 21 steals. Definitely below expectations. But again, pretty clear reason for that you would think. With the hammockbone fracture, one more year behind him. Do you think Corbin Carroll stays early enough in the draft that he's still going ahead of Chris sale? Or do you think maybe we should just take Chris sale in his age 38 season? I think it's Corbin. I think you know, he fractured his hammockbone in spring training. So I think that Corbin, I think initially it's like prior to doing that, I think he was more in kind of six, seven, eight, a kind of mid-mid-mid-pap. So his kind of 13th is with that hammockbone. And I think if you look at kind of on the surface, it looks like Corbin Carroll has had a down year. And it looks when I was looking kind of at first half versus second half. It looks like he's kind

1:03:06of gone through a second half phase. Fade, excuse me. But you know, he's got a low babbip during that period. And I think it's masking some under some strong underlying metrics. In the second half, Corbin Carroll has 14.3 percent barrel rate, 51 percent hard hit rate, and a 92.8 mile per hour average exit velocity, all of which are consistent with his 2025 numbers when Carroll hit his career high 31 home runs. So I'm actually all in on Corbin Carroll. And I think that if you were in on him in 2025, you should be in on him at that same level. I mean, in 2026, I think that you should still be in on him at that same level heading into 2027. Yeah, I think that's a good call. I think Carol could be one of the nice early bargains if people are a little scared coming off a down year, which has plenty of clear explanations and some pretty promising underlying numbers.

1:04:08Chris sale went seventh among starting pictures in that August draft. It was Ms. Rowski in the first round. And then scuba, Sanchez, Slitler, Yamamoto, Lazardo, and sale. I think I'd be happy getting whoever falls to the back of that group in round two, whether that sale or someone else. A couple more here, both of them involving Fernando Tattis Jr. He has been actually the 14th best player in the roadwire online championship this year, despite the fact that he didn't hit a homeer for what was it six weeks or something absurd to start the year. He has hit enough since then and also was doing everything else that he's still been quite useful, whereas Kyle Tucker, who was the 14th pick heading into the year, has been awful. And maybe we expect a bounce back certainly from Tucker, but this is a pretty easy one I think. Tattis well ahead of Tucker. It's just a question of does Tucker fall to the third round, the fifth, the seventh? I'm not really sure. Yeah, it's Tattis. Like you said, it took a minute to get there by said, he only had like five home

1:05:14home runs in the first half, but he did hit the 20 mark on 20 homeer mark. And now he's four straight seasons of 20 home runs, comes with consistent underlying numbers, his bat speeded up. He still kind of leans its ground balls like close to half of the time. But he's definitely a solid player. And I think that he's an easy pick over Kyle Tucker, who I think that there are you know, concerns about. And so that's an easy one. I forgot what your question was there. Yeah, the question is just how far is Tucker going to fall? I think it's 30 next year, right? You could buy him out of that, but he was so bland this year. 225, 13 homeers, 10 steals. That's not even mediocre. I know. And you've seen those home runs go down now for five straight seasons. And he's going into

1:06:17his year 30 season. You know, it's funny. I had really high hopes for Tucker a little bit just because that moved to the Dodgers this year. But it's just it's kind of starling. It's like not as starling as Vlad Guerrero Jr. But it's in the same vein where it's just a complete drop-off in production. But there's nothing like really crazy that you can point to is barrel rate has been halved. You know, but Tucker is sitting with like a 350 slug right now. And it's just it's not good. And his bat speed went down. So, you know, I don't know. And I don't know if he'll be running as much. So I wouldn't be surprised if if Tucker falls, you know, at least you know, around a half. But so that's what I think it would be, but you know, still thinking Tate's over him. So. Yeah, come comfortably. Tucker fell to the 72nd pick. So late fifth round.

1:07:19Yeah. That to early meatball draft last month. Let's end the show then with two players who were top 10 picks in that draft. James Wood has been the 15th best player in terms of earned value this year. He went six in that draft. And then Fernando Tate's who we just talked about was the 15th pick heading into the year and is produced right in line with expectations. So you take in James Wood ahead. They went six and eight in that August draft. You think Wood is impressive enough that he's jumped ahead of Tate's who has just been a mainstay in that part of the draft for quite a long time now. I am all in this on being like a homer about James Wood. And I will, you know, take him over Tate's, you know, for the season, you know, he hit 30 home runs as 18 steals, 265 batting average. And you have to keep in mind that, you know, that's with, he's missed a month with an oblique injury. But the power with James Wood is so tantalizing, he's got a 20.7% barrel rate,

1:08:22a 58% hard hit rate and 95 mile per hour average exit velocity. And again, like we talked with with you know, CJ Abrams, that launch angle also went up with James Wood. So going from, you know, his ground ball rate of 48%, it's now 44% so far this season. The contact is up, the chasing is less. And I just think with that power there, you know, I think that, you know, Tate's wins out probably in steals, but you know, the net are very aggressive team on the base pads. And this is a formidable, I think offense. And I just think that that power there with Wood, it's, it's just, it's too good. Like I, I will go Wood over Tate's. Yeah, I think that's fair enough. I think that's really close, but I might be on that same side as well. It's really good to see Wood start getting that strikeout rate back down when it trended in the wrong direction last year. It's now back down to 28%, which is too high for most players, but when your barrel rate is in the 20s, I think you have

1:09:23enough power to sustain it. And he consistently produces a perfectly fine batting average even with all the whiffs, because he just hits the ball so dang hard. He puts it on the ground too often, but that does actually keep the batting average respectable as well. I guess with the guy of his size, once we get to the second oblique strain, we start to wonder, okay, is the body not going to hold up here, but I think we can forgive a guy one oblique strain head again to his age 24 season. Yeah, I think those two are going to be picked in a pretty similar range, but I could, I could see Wood going just ahead. So that will do it for our look at all the turnover in the top 15 picks next year that looks like it's going to be one of the more interesting draft seasons in a while with just this many new names and just how far last year's disappointments fall and just how far this year's surprise packages rise is going to be something we're talking about for most of the next several months. So thank you very much, Lauren. Thank you, everybody who hung out in the chat.

1:10:23Where can people read more of your work, Lauren? I have work over at fan tracks and also at baseball HQ. And just because I thank you for having me on, I think that this is a really great exercise, you know, end of year and going into the season, I think it's fun. I think it, you know, sometimes you miss out where where players actually are going and sometimes you think that they're higher and they're actually lower and vice versa. And I think that it's really kind of fun exercise that everyone should do. And I am glad that I was able to do it with you here. End of season. Yeah, thanks very much for joining me. I will see you in Arizona. Will you be at first pitch this year? I should be. Yep. Very good. Representing baseball HQ there. Thank you very much. Again, for joining me and the Rotawire Fantasy baseball podcast. We'll be back tomorrow with a double header Todd and Clay going over to start pictures. And me and Jeremy going over the top waiver wire picks. We'll have that tomorrow right here on the Rotawire Fantasy baseball podcast.