2020 All-Stars

This week is pretty special. We’re going back in time to check out some of our predictions from our inaugural episode of Season 3. Below are the notes that we are referring to:

D: Miguel Cabrera will be a “bust” - Either .275 hitter or “is good but plays only 110 games”

D: Anthony Rizzo is the #1 overall 1B. 10 steal speed.

T: Robinson Cano is going to have another rough season. 15-18 hr season. “behind Rendon and possibly Jose Altuve”

D: “I like Kipnis. I would buy Kipnis.”

T: Top 5 2Bs some conglomeration of “Rendon, Altuve, Cano, Kinsler, Kipnis, and perhaps Dee Gordon sneaks in there.”

D: “Bryce Harper or Josh Donaldson as jumping into the top 25”

D: “I wouldn’t be surprised if Jorge Soler jumped into the top 25”

D: “Are you really taking Nelson Cruz over [Jorge Soler]?”

T: “Yasmany Tomas could jump into the top 25”

T: “We love Kyle Schwarber”

T: “What do you think about this Kang guy?”

T: “He might be the best middle infielder [on the all Asian team]”

T: “I’m not sure the 40 homers are going to translate directly to the MLB”

D: “I’d rather have a guy like Jed Gyorko or Andrelton Simmons”

T: “I was all over Xander Boegarts and I can’t quit him. He completes me. .280 25 homer bat.”

T: “Not a big fan of Pedroia, Panda, Hanley or Napoli”

T + D: “I think Pedroia will be droppable by the end of the year”

D: “Pedroia at 2B or Wright at 3B?”

T: “Brett Lawrie: 15-20 pop, 15-20 speed, .280” (38/10/45/5/.268 now)

D: “Switch hitting superstar, Chase Headley”

D: “They’re not going to give the reigns to ARod again, are they?”

Dogebet: Lawrie vs Headley

T: “This is the year for Jed Gyroko. I’m all-in on him. .265, 30 hrs”

T: “SD has 4 players with more than 25 hrs”

D: “Khris Davis gets to 30 hrs”

T: “Does Khris Davis hit over .238?”

D: “20/20 season for Gardner”

T: “I think Charlie Blackmon is for real”

T: “Travis Snider hits 25+ hrs”

T: “[Schwarber] is going to have video game numbers in the minors”

D: “Impact rookie will be Kris Bryant”

T: “Joc Pederson can have a big impact. He’s got 20/20 type talent. The 40/40 was a PCL mirage.”

T: “Aaron Sanchez is a guy that I like”

T: “I think Harvey is going to be a star. 3.30, 8.5K/9, 1.23 WHIP”

T: “Jose Fernandez comes back around July 15th”

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

Season 3 Episode 22 (46:59)

There are times you know you are witnessing magic, like when a pitcher is in the middle of throwing a perfect game. The ball is dancing around, every pitch hits it’s spot, the ball is coming out seemingly a few mph faster with every pitch. You watch this feat and you can just tell something special is happening. You’re giddy with excitement that you can be a part of it.

And sometimes you’re the hitter on the other end of that magic. Baffled, off-balance, defeated.

Well folks, this week Todd and I were on the wrong side of a preverbial perfect game. This was not our best effort. An extra long chat about food forbodes the lack of intelligible baseball chatter to come. We botch names, carry on dialogues that are seemingly unrelated, and throw in the occassional awkward pause for good measure. It’s not pretty, but every prospect takes their lumps.

We start off talking about all the big trades that went down. What does the David Price trade mean for his value? We discuss. Price vs Hamels. Price vs Cueto. Somehow we wander into alternative stat leagues, Dexter Fowler, then back to the trade world with Mat Latos. I could continue to give you the play by play, but then this blog post would be like a Fellini film. Some of the highlights include:

“I really love guys named ‘Paco’.”

“That’s Joc Pederson not Jace Pederson. awkward silence” (I confused Jose Peraza and Jace Pederson)

“Who is the guy who hurt himself playing Guitar Hero?”

“The love child of Fernando Rodney and KRod.”

“Kang-am Style”, “Going, going, Kang!”

“Do you think he moved his van?”, “I’d be terrified to live in a van in Detroit.”

“I think that’s a lot of petina.”

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

Season 3 Episode 21 (45:11)

Trade season is upon us. We delve into the moves that have already been made and also discuss some injuries this week.

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

Season 3 Episode 20 (34:45)

We’re working our way back to form. We’ve got about 30 minutes of goodness for you this week. We chat about keeper league values and specifically, selling stud pitchers for youthful bats. Todd tends to side with the bats and I say throw something against the wall and see what happens. The other trade pieces to offer are the once-young studs that are beginning to fade (i.e. Evan Longoria and Jay Bruce). Really interesting to hear how our opinions differ on trading in general. Todd tends to discount pitching and older hitters, while I conjecture that you might as well offer the deal. What’s the worst that can happen?

In prospect talk, keep an eye on Nick Williams. We really love this guy. He’s cut down his K-rate and still showing speed/power potential like the good version of Alex Rios. Tyler Glasnow in the Pirates system looks like a stud pitcher in the making. If you’re looking for a deep league name for next year, check him out. We are also fans of Julio Urias, who probably won’t be up, but could make a real-life impact in September in a relief role.

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

Season 3 Episode 19 (30:05)

It’s been two weeks and we have a mini-pod for you. We basically run through the injuries of the past two weeks and lament about the Greek Crisis. Miggy, David Wright, Dee Gordon, Strasburg, etc, etc. That wanders into a little bit of closer chatter and old guy talk. There is a rookie of note that got the call to the bigs so we discuss… Robert Refsnyder! and Miguel Sano’s future prospect. Will Sano be better than our man-crush, Kris Bryant? The answer might surprise you.

Alright, this coming week we should have a full podcast for y’all. Cheers!

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

Season 3 Episode 18 (15:29)

This week, we stray from our normal banter about food to talk about gay marriage/LGBT rights. This past Friday, the Supreme Court decided that states could no longer ban or not recognize gay marriages. Huge win for equal rights in America! We even dabble into German gay marriage politics for the briefest of moments. Although the laws here haven’t changed yet, there was a lot of positive energy from everyone this weekend, so hopefully they’ll follow the US’s lead soon enough. But not to disappoint, we quickly moved the conversation onto food. Todd and I have discussed a food podcast in the offseason where each of us has to make a local specialty of where the other is living. The dish that Todd couldn’t pronounce is Sülze and my challenge would be to make chili cheese fries complete with cheddar cheese.

What? You want baseball news? Maybe you don’t after you hear what we have to tell you… Giancarlo Stanton went down with a hand injury that he sustained while swinging. We discuss whether he deserves the dreaded “injury plagued” tag. He’ll be a first round guy, because you just can’t find Stanton power outside of Stanton. But is he the new Tulo? We are a bit worried about that. The most interesting name that we throw out there is Randal Grichuk. He’s got some lightning-in-a-bottle potential.

Speaking of stud outfielders, we discuss what is the value of Yasiel Puig and what is the production. In my opinion, Puig’s value far outstrips his production. He could be a sell high guy now that he is back in the majors. We throw out some names that you might be able to get in a trade involving Puig. Joc Pederson might be a guy one could get for Puig. Jacoby Ellsbury, Encarnacion, Bautista? It seems like anyone that you could get for Puig has question marks, but the gamble is what makes fantasy great.

Another big injury is Anthony Rendon going back on the DL. Second base has been really interesting/disappointing this year. Rendon, Cano, and Kinsler have all disappointed this year, but Kipnis, Addison Russell, and Justin Turner have surprised to the upside. We discuss what to do with those guys and if you want any part of them as buy-low candidates. Bottomline, GET JUSTIN TURNER!

Steven Matz? Steven Matz? Anyone? We like his stuff, but wonder if he’ll get full-time innings this season.

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

Season 3 Episode 17 (45:32)

We start off our chat about the Sunday holidays. Fête de la Musique in Germany and Father’s Day in the US. The big news of the week was Max Scherzer, so we start off our discussion with Justin Turner. What is his value? What can you get for him in a trade? We think you’ll be surprised at the names that we throw out there.

We declare Kyle Schwarber will be the next big thing. He had his cup of tea, drank it, and asked for another… nay, just took another without asking. Schwarber had a great week in the majors as a DH, but he’s already been sent down. We discuss what we think of his prospects this year and the future. There is a Mike Piazza reference! Mullets!!!

Byron Buxton owner? Stay calm! Alles ist gut! He’s a rookie, so it’s not out of the question that he struggled. But that isn’t the case with everyone, because Carlos Correa looks really good. We pretty much annoint him a top 5 fantasy SS and even go as far putting him in the discussion as #1 at the position!?! Welcome to the Small Sample Size Theater. Stay as long as you like. Among the three big time SS prospects (Correa, Corey Seager, and Addison Russell), we like Correa the most for those thinking long term. Correa is part of a great Astros squad that we think is playoff bound as soon as this year.

There are some guys coming off the DL. Most notably Jose Fernandez. We chat about his outlook for this year. And speaking of really good pitchers, Max Scherzer is #1. Better than Kershaw? Better than a Dodger? Recency bias overwhelming points us in that direction. More interestingly, we ponder whether Kershaw is gettable and what is his value? Another favorite of ours is coming back in Devon Travis. We spend an inordinate amount of time ranking him among other middle infielders. My super bold prediction is that Devon Travis is better than Brandon Crawford the rest of the way.

Prospect Talk:

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

Season 3 Episode 16 (51:34)

Bonus: Checkout my mullet!

Bonus 2: Checkout the french fries blog with my fries (german language) that we mentioned last week. I’m the anonymous good samaritan fry expert in the story.

Ok guys, this is becoming a food podcast. For the first three minutes, we discuss making french fries, pommes frites, whatever you call them, from scratch and then turning those into the Quebecois specialty, Poutine.

As for actual fantasy baseball talk, we discuss the recent call-ups. What do we expect of Byron Buxton, Francisco Lindor, and Joey Gallo? Also, who is next to be called up (#freekyleschwarber)? There’s more but perhaps you should just listen instead of reading about it. :-)

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

Season 3 Episode 15 (37:54)

So I, David, was in Israel last week, so we missed a week. Deep-league discussion? It gets no deeper than this. Pat Venditte! Switch pitcher for the Oakland Athletics. Is he fantasy relevant? Not really. But is it awesome that he can pitch from both sides? You need to listen to find out.

We go into homer-mode and discuss the Dodgers and specifically Yasiel Puig’s return to the Dodger lineup and how that affects the rest of the guys in the Dodgers outfield. On the other hand, we chat about what the Jorge Soler injury does to the Cubs outfield. Looks like the Cubs are also experimenting with Kris Bryant in the outfield. More generally speaking, the Cubs strikeout a lot and we generally go into a rant about strikeout rates and guys that strike out a lot.

There are a lot of young pitchers making some noise lately. We discuss them and rank them all relative to each other. Sticking with pitchers, we discuss the Closerpocalypse in Seattle and Tampa Bay.

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

Season 3 Episode 14 (43:56)

I’m not going to sugarcoat this one. We slapped this episode together pretty quickly. I’m heading off to Israel in 4 hours, so apologies for the curtness. However, we still have 45 minutes of podcasting goodness for you. Enjoy!

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

Season 3 Episode 13 (44:31)