2020 All-Stars

Trout. Thumb. Us. Tears.

That’s pretty much the first 10 minutes of the podcast. We discuss waiver wire guys that are out there, but none of these guys are Trout. Not even close. So yea, probably best to just replace Trout with tears. The big question is: Is Mike Trout gettable now? If someone is in a win now mode, Todd thinks that Trout is gettable.

We discuss pitchers next. David Price is back and we give our thoughts on him. Todd seems more optimistic than I am. Todd ambushes me with some recent call ups.

As always, check us out on Twitter @2020AllStars, Instagram 2020AllStars, and iTunes.

Season 5 Episode 8 (53:44)

Was this our best effort? … ýou can be the judge. We chat about Julio Urias. He had another bad outing and was sent back to the minors. Todd still has the faith and believes this guy will still a be a star. But for a keeper league, we discuss whether you should hold onto him. But it’s not all bad news, we discuss some guys that have been pretty good lately and what we expect from them in the future.

What’s going on this week in the nation’s capitol? We discuss the closer situation and we’re definitely not in agreement on this. Koda Glover looks to be the guy right now, but we suspect that’s going to change.

Todd is worried about Joc Pederson. Note this was before his collision with Puig. Speaking of worried, we discuss some stalwarts that are off to a slow start.

As always, check us out on Twitter @2020AllStars, Instagram 2020AllStars, and iTunes.

Season 5 Episode 7 (43:04)

The big news of the week is the Aroldis Chapman injury. Although it’s big news, there is really no corresponding move because Betances should have already been owned. KRod lost the gig and Josh Wilson steps into the role. The next KRod looks to be Fernando Rodney, but who will be the next guy? JJ Hoover? Not exciting. The Washington situation is completely off the wall. How long can they keep letting these guys blow wins? Santiago Casilla and Brad Brach are guys that had bad weeks that we aren’t panicked about.

We move from the guys that end games to guys that start them. Todd picked up Jose Berios and we talk about Berios vs Urias. Todd + Kool Aid = Urias Apologist. What do y’all think?

ALERT: We announce the official Prospect of the Podcast for 2017. * dramatic pause * Kyle Tucker! This 3B in the Astros systems, but this guy is absolutely mashing. He’s got speed, power, average, and youth. This guy looks like the real deal. Will he be up this year? It’s doubtful, but we want to believe. While the Astros are stacked, the left fielder is a weak spot. Could Tucker come up and play left?!? Only time will tell. Another prospect that we were pumping earlier but said was not going to get called up, got the call this week. Ian Happ has a chance to stick with the Cubs although we aren’t sure where he’ll play. He’s got the bat that plays, but where would he slot into the Cubs big league squad. We wonder if Kyle Schwarber’s struggles could open up a spot for Happ.

We end the pod with what we do best. Rummaging through the dreck looking for diamonds in the rough. I’ll let y’all listen to see what we dig up.

As always, check us out on Twitter @2020AllStars, Instagram 2020AllStars, and iTunes.

Season 5 Episode 6 (50:22)

Another week, another set of big names going down. Not sure how we got there, but we begin with Closerpocalypse. We go through a bunch of the guys that have recently gotten saves, but may not stick around in the gig. Crappy closers are basically our bread and butter, so listen for big names like Brad Brach, Bud Norris, and Enny Romero. My German style “ch” with these German names is strong this week.

I obsess over Chris Carter for no obvious reason. The guy has done absolutely nothing this year, but that doesn’t stop me from pushing him like your local used car salesman. Not to be outdone, Todd once again pushes Kennys Vargas. Where else are you going to get a Chris Carter vs. Kennys Vargas discussion?

Speaking of Minnesota Twins, Todd gives us his opinion on former Yankees, Jose Berios. We somehow jump from Berios to young guys who have been disappointing so far. Todd tweeted about Ozzie Albies, so we discuss whether he should get in there for Dansby Swanson.

But not all the rooks are struggling, because Cody Bellinger looks like he belongs in the bigs. I am a bit more caustious than Todd based on an inflated average. But he’s gonna get some run and he’s got the power to do some damage. Todd tells his own story about Golfer’s Elbow, so who knows how long Gonzalez will be out. Todd’s injury took 6 months to heal. False equality or cold hard truth?

What’s the drama with Matt Harvey? We make wild speculations about what happened and the future of Harvey and how you should handle him if he’s on your squad.

As always, check us out on Twitter @2020AllStars, Instagram 2020AllStars, and iTunes.

Season 5 Episode 5 (47:11)

You came for baseball, but you’re staying for the basketball talk! This episode when way off the rails, but moved along quite nicely. On this May 4th, Star-Wars day, we begin our discussion with the Noah Syndergaard injury, how the 10-day DL is being used, and replacements for your squad. Lots of ghosts Christmas past in our list. Charlie Morton, Derrick Holland, Ervin Santana, Trevor Cahill… Welcome to the 2012 All-Stars! Todd goes on a rant about Julio Urias.

We get into Dodger prospect talk. Alex Wood is one of our replacement guys of interest. Cody Bellinger looks like he’s here to stay. Todd predicts a .275 average with some pop and speed. But with all the injuries on the Dodgers, we think he’ll stick around. I want to pronounce Cody Bellinger as the 2017 prospect of the podcast, but Todd thinks it’s a little late.

Aaron Judge, who is this guy? Are we ready to crown this guy? His popcorn numbers are eye-popping but beneath the surface lies some things to worry about. We comp him to Joc Pederson’s rookie year. Joc was on super fire for a bit and then he got figured out and had a historically terrible second half. The walk rate seems too high, the strike out rate a bit high. We compare him to everyone’s darling, Eric Thames, and the answer may surprise you. We discuss guys that you might want to target if you want to sell high on the Judge.

Kennys Vargas isn’t on the radar anywhere except here. Todd loves Kennys! He goes as far to say that Kennys Vargas will outperform Ryan Zimmermann. Todd worries about RZ’s glass chin.

As always, check us out on Twitter @2020AllStars, Instagram 2020AllStars, and iTunes.

Season 5 Episode 4 (1:00:30)

The big news in the past couple days is the Madison Bumgarner’s dirt bike injury. Blessing in disguise? Cheap young talent on the wire to replace him? We discuss these topics.

Once again, we chat about closers. Same song, different verse, only this time just a little bit worse.

In case you weren’t tuning out early, we stepped up the non-sense with catcher talk. Robery Chirinos, Jett Bandy, … need I say more?

In small sample size theater, we discuss Eric Thames. Who is Eric Thames? We think we know who he is.

As always, check us out on Twitter @2020AllStars, Instagram 2020AllStars, and iTunes.

Season 5 Episode 3 (44:00)

The big news of the week was Starling Marte getting slammed with an 80-day PED suspension. We discuss what to do with him, what are the long-term ramifications of this? In what types of leagues do you keep Marte and where can you let him loose? Also we do some replacement talk, although with a guy of Marte’s caliber, you’re not gonna find someone on the wire to solve all your problems. Travis Jankowski and Jarrod Dyson are the speed guys that we mention. If you’re fishing for upside, Austin Meadows is an interesting name. His profile is what has the scouts drooling, but his numbers aren’t bananas.

The news that affects us is Marcus Semien’s broken wrist. Todd threw out a couple of nice sleeper names that you’ll want to listen for. I have my doubts about Jose Peraza, so we chat about the Reds situation for a bit.

Our favorite topic, Closerpocalypse, rears it’s ugly head. Matt Bush looks to be the guy in Texas. Zach Britton got hurt and Brad Brach looks to be the guy. The National’s situation is dicey; Todd thinks it’s Kelley and I’m in the Koda Glover camp. Which crappy closer would you want?

As always, check us out on Twitter @2020AllStars, Instagram 2020AllStars, and iTunes.

Season 5 Episode 2 (51:35)

We kick off a bit of rust with the first episode of the season. Mostly chatting about old flames such as Wil Myers and George Springer. Was it our best effort? Best of 2017 so far is how I’d describe it…

We get into a discussion about the Padres for way longer than we should. We talk about a bunch of young pitchers such as James Paxton and Dylan Bundy. Ending things with the Closerpocalypse, which is starting early this year.

As always, check us out on Twitter @2020AllStars, Instagram 2020AllStars, and iTunes.

Season 5 Episode 1 (35:54)

Turner vs Bregman. Todd likes Turner’s steals potential and the general lack of steals in the league. Turner is definitely the burner of the two, but I’m worried about his OBP. Bregman is finally turning it on and Bregman has shown his potential to be a high average guy. The lineups of both guys look like they’ll be solid and we’re split on this so take your choice. We ponder if Billy Hamilton could get 100 steals next year. We both agree that the second coming of Vince Coleman would be awesome.

Our earlier discussion winds it way into something about steals and the middle infield in general. But there are just a ton of options out there. Todd is ready to crown Corey Seager as the next big thing. Number 1 Shortstop 2017. I don’t believe it but I do like Seager. We discuss all the other SS’s as well. Speaking of #1, we discuss if Mookie Betts should be the #1 overall pick.

As always, check us out on Twitter @2020AllStars, Instagram 2020AllStars, and iTunes.

Season 4 Episode 18 (48:44)

Welcome to the 2005 All-Stars podcast! We discuss a lot of the old guys that are in the news this week. Ichiro got his 3,000th hit. Ichiro has had a sneaky good average but he’s not really putting up the counting stats to be fantasy relevant. Next we discuss the fantasy implications of the Prince Fielder news. Mitch Moreland? Jurkson Profar? Joey Gallo?

We discuss a couple hot guys in the news. I go on a diatribe about how I don’t think David Dahl is for real. Not that he’ll be bad, but his current pace feels completely unsustainable. We give a little more love to Max Kepler. Is he the ROY or could it be someone else? We jump on the Joe Musgrove train. I’m not sure who he is, but he’s been pitching well recently. We discuss the end game strategy of riding the hot hand and how you should treat the of the season.

The Closerpocalypse has hit our first love, Wil Harris. He lost the gig to Ken Giles after blowing a few saves and Giles looking solid. We also love Edwin Diaz. Is he the next Aroldis Chapman? We like him a lot more than a guy like Kimbrel. Adam Ottovino could be back in the chair.

Also, check out my statistics project over at Github.

As always, check us out on Twitter @2020AllStars, Instagram 2020AllStars, and iTunes.

Season 4 Episode 17 (52:19)