The following players are discussed:
1. Jesus Made (SS)
2. Luis Pena (SS)
3. Jeferson Quero (C)
4. Cooper Pratt (SS)
5. Logan Henderson (RHP)
6. Braylon Payne (OF)
7. Andrew Fischer (3B)
8. Bishop Letson (RHP)
9. Robert Gasser (LHP)
10. Coleman Crow (RHP)

The following players are discussed:

1. Sal Stewart (3B)
2. Afredo Duno (C)
3. Rhett Lowder (RHP)
4. Steele Hall (SS)
5. Tyson Lewis (OF)
6. Cam Collier (3B)
7. Hector Rodriguez (OF)
8. Chase Petty (RHP)
9. Ricky Cabrera (3B)
10. Edwin Arroyo (SS)

Fantasy Baseball Live – October 5, 2025 – 3 pm – 1:15 to 1:30 time

Microsoft Teams
Segments 1 and 2 – Review the playoffs
The wild card games were quite exciting.
•Yankees beat the Red Sox – 2-1
oCam Schlitter was dominant in the closing game. 8.0 IP, 5 hits, 0 ER, 12K/0BB
He was one of my targets last week. I’m not going to get him, am I?
oDuran hit .091. He was good during the regular season, but did he return 2nd round value?
•Tigers beat the Guards – 2-1
oI was pulling for the Guards, but it wasn’t meant to be. Skubal WOW!
•Cubs beat the Padres – 2-1
oThe Padres keep throwing everything at it to win, but they are just not good enough. Thoughts on the direction of the team?
•Dodgers beat the Reds – 2-0
oHunter Greene didn’t have it on Tuesday, but Shoehi certainly did.
Divisional Series – Predictions, and we’ll talk about each series
•The Blue Jays blew out the Yankees – 10-1
•The Brewers blew out the Cubs – 9-3
•The Dodgers beat the Phillies – 5-3
•The close game with the Mariners vs. Tigers

Segment 3 and 4 – Draft 2nd round
•Last week, we drafted the first round. Let’s continue. Let’s do round 2, and if we're a little into round 3
First Round – from 9/28 Podcast
1.Shohei Ohtani - Tim
2.Aaron Judge - Rich
3.Juan Soto - Tim
4.Bobby Witt Jr. – Rich
5.Jose Ramirez – Tim
6.J-Rod – Rich
7.Elly De La Rosa – Tim
8.Francisco Lindor – Rich
9.Corbin Carroll – Tim
10.Tarik Skubal – Rich
11.Fernando Tatis Jr – Tim
12.Kyle Schwarber – Rich
13.Gunnar Henderson – Tim
14.Kyle Tucker – Rich
15.Paul Skenes – Tim

Second Round
1.Jackson Chourio - Rich
2.Junior Caminero – Tim
3.Garrett Crochet – Rich
4.Jazz Chisholm – Tim
5.Ronald Acuna – Rich
6.Vlad Jr – Tim
7.Yamamoto – Rich
8.Pete Alonso – Tim
9.James Wood – Rich
10.Cal Raliegh – Tim
11. Hunter Brown – Rich
12. Freddy Peralta - Tim
13. Zach Neto – Rich
14. Nick Kurtz – Tim
15. Ketel Marte - Rich


Close

The following players are discussed:
1. Moises Ballesteros (C)
2. Owen Caissie (OF)
3. Jefferson Rojas (SS)
4. James Triantos (2B)
5. Kevin Alcantara (OF)
6. Cristian Hernandez (2B)
7. Jaxon Wiggins (RHP)
8. Ethan Conrad (1B)
9. Jonathon Long (1B)
10. Pedro Ramirez (2B)
11. Kane Kepley (OF)
12. Dominick Reid (RHP)
13. Brandon Birdsell (RHP)
14. Juan Tomas (SS)
15. Josiah Hartshorn (OF)
16. Juan Cabada (2B)
17. Jostin Florentino (RHP)
18. Will Sanders (RHP)
19. Tony Schlaffer (RHP)
20. Carter Trice (OF)

Fantasy Baseball Live – September 28, 2025 – 5 pm
Segment 1 – Review the Weekend Games and Playoff situation

Additional Questions:
1.One playoff spot is left – Mets or Reds
2.Both the Guards and Tigers make it, but for the first time in years, the Astros are out of the playoff race.
a.Zach Cole looked really good to end the season. Hit his fourth home run yesterday and stole his third base. Thoughts?
3.The Brewers and Phillies get byes in the NL and in the AL it’s the Mariners and either the Yankees or Blue Jays that get the bye
4.Give me the ALCS and NLCS finalist and ultimate WS opponents?

Segment 1.5 – My Team Top 20s drop on Friday with the Cubs
1.Two per week after that until we are done
2.I’ve modified my approach and will be discussing.

Segment 2 and 3 – Let’s draft the first round
1.Shohei Ohtani - Tim
2.Aaron Judge - Rich
3.Juan Soto - Tim
4.Bobby Witt Jr. – Rich
5.Jose Ramirez – Tim
6.J-Rod – Rich
7.Elly De La Rosa – Tim
8.Francisco Lindor – Rich
9.Corbin Carroll – Tim
10.Tarik Skubal – Rich
11.Fernando Tatis Jr – Tim
12.Kyle Schwarber – Rich
13.Gunnar Henderson – Tim
14.Kyle Tucker – Rich
15.Paul Skenes – Tim
16.Junior Caminero - Tim

Segment 4 – 3 to 5 sleepers entering next season – Here are mine

Sleepers (5)

1.Emmet Sheehan – ERA of 2.82, xERA of 3.01. Three plus pitches of a fastball with a huge whiff rate, signature pitch in his slider (43.6% whiff rate) and a good enough change-up. Above average control.
2. Ranger Suarez – Will continue to be underrated because he’s not an elite strikeout guy, but ground ball machine 3.04 xERA on a 3.20 ERA
3.Eury Perez – Had a rough spot that drove his ERA up, but xERA is 3.24 with nearly a 10 K/9 strikeout rate. Fastball is back to averaging 98 MPH and his change-up is still ridiculous (60% whiff rate).
4.Jac Cag – I’m hoping a .158 batting average surpresses his value. Had a 89 MPH exit velo, which is not elite (more average), but huge bat speed metric and I believe he’s going to hit the ball hard. xBA is .249, reasonable strikeout rate of 22% (just below league average).
5.Dylan Crews – Call me crazy, but speed is at 90th percentile, average exit velo is at 89.7 mph, bat speed ranks in upper third of the league, xBA is .248 on his .210 BA. Strikeout rate is a bit high (23%) and walk rate a bit low (7.5%), but nothing too alarming.
Failed sleeper
1.Coby Mayo – I got intrigued a few weeks ago, and now he’s continued to hit and now has become a bit of Darling going into next season. That said, the data doesn’t not support a breakout. He’s not hitting the ball hard and striking out too much. Oh, he’s been great over the last month, but the exit velos are worse with a .228 xBA. All his power is derived from pull and loft. This might be a sucker a pick, so I’m backing off.

Close

Fantasy Baseball Live – September 21, 2025 @ 2 pm

Microsoft Teams:

ONE WEEK LEFT of the season!

Segments 1 and 2 – Review of the weekend games
Additional Questions:
1.The Tigers lose their fifth in a row and the Guardians are only one game back in the loss column. Who wins this?
2.Sal Stewart has hit four home runs in his first 14 games. He never showed that level of power in the minor leagues, but I always had him projected with plus power. What are you expecting next season? Full-time guy?
3.Nolan Jones hits the IL with an oblique strain and is done for the season. His big 2023 half-season is looking like an outlier as he finished the season with five home runs and a .211 BA as the strong side of a platoon. Any thoughts on him going forward?
a.George Valera (remember him?) should get his at-bats and hit his first MLB home run on Saturday. Any interest?
4.Clayton Kershaw calls it quits, and his next stop will be Cooperstown. Will he be a first-round HOF?
5.Jac Cag hit a home run on Friday, his seventh in 56 games. He’s only hitting .163, but has a .176 BABIP and a very solid 21.6% strikeout rate. His bat speed ranks in the 99th percentile with an exit velo of 90.1 MPH (60th percentile).
a.Is he someone that interests you next season?

Segment 3 – Fantasy MVPs – Mine are listed
1.Catcher
a.Agustin Ramirez (ADP = 442, Rank=161) – 21 home runs, 12 SB, .232 BA
b.If you don’t mention Cal Raliegh – we will do it together
2.First base
a.Nick Kurtz (ADP=474, Rank=124) – 33 HR, 83 runs, 81 RBI, .293 BA
3.Second base
a.Brice Turang (ADP=139, Rank=67) – 18 HR, 24 SB, 95 runs, 76 RBI
4.Third base
a.Maikel Garcia (ADP=205, Rank=112) – 16 HR, 23 SB, 73 runs, 70 RBI, .285 BA
5.Shortstop
a.Trevor Story (ADP=253, Rank=30) – 25 HR, 31 SB, .265 BA, 88 Runs, 94 RBI
6.Outfield
a.Juan Soto (ADP=7, Rank=2) – 42 HR, 34 SB, 117 Runs, 103 RBI
b.George Springer (ADP=239, Rank=58) – 30 HR, 16 SB, 101 Runs, 79 RBI
c.Tyler Soderstrom (ADP=280, Rank=126) – 24 HR, 8 SB, 90 RBIs, 72 Runs, .277 BA
7.Pitching
a.Max Fried (ADP=100, Rank=9) – 188.1 IP, 18 wins, 182 Ks, 2.92 ERA
b.Hunter Brown (ADP=111, Rank=15) – 180.1 IP, 12 wins, 201 Ks, 2.30 ERA
c.Trevor Rogers (ADP=480, Rank=47) – 106.2 IP, 9 wins, 100 Ks, 1.35 ERA

Segment 5 – Any pickups

Take 10 with Tim – September 19, 2025 – 45 minutes to an hour
Microsoft Teams:

1.Yordan Alvarez is hurt again. This time, it’s a significant ankle sprain. He’s been a huge bust this season for fantasy managers. Let’s provide our Top 5 bust of the season. Mine are listed.
a.Adley Rutschman (C, Bal, 56) – 85 games, 9 HR, 29 RBI, .227 BA
b.Marcel Ozuna (DH, Atl, 61) – 137 games, 20 HR, 58 HR, .233 and became a part-time player in the second half. The last two years he hit 40 and 39 home runs.
c.Brenton Doyle (OF, Col, 68) – 23-30 last season and 14-16 this season. He has been better of late.
d.Mark Vientos (3B, NYM, 90) – 112 games, 17 home runs, 58 RBI, and .237 BA
e.Tyler Glasnow (RHP, LAD, 95) – He only pitched in 16 games with 3 wins. 3.06 ERA

2.Arizona Fall League Preview
a.I wrote a large post on Thursday of all the ranked players attending. We will discuss some of the players and who you are looking forward to seeing how they do?

3.Listener Questions:
a.David - Is O'Neil Cruz a bust at this point?

b.Mark – Does Konnor Griffin make his MLB debut in 2025? What is your comp?

c.Hoppy - Who's your favourite (and least favourite) fantasy baseball player of all time?

d.Michael - Hey Rich- I tend to do a number of early draft and hold redraft leagues. It would be great to hear a few lesser known / further away names you expect to contribute in ‘26. I have names like Wetherholt, McGonigle, Snelling.. is Aidan Miller likely up?m early? ERC with Yankees? Barco?. I may be early on this but any names you like would be great to hear., thanks.

i.Robby Snelling, Aidan Miller, Carson Benge, Gage Jump, and Ryan Waldschmdit

e.Jermey - With their recent success, is it time to start putting the Mets pitching development up with the elites (Mariners, Dodgers, Guardians, etc)?

f.Nick - When working a Dynasty League where you can keep anyone you want for any amount of time, what is the cut off of your rankings that you are willing to throw them back into the draft to see what else you can get? Top 300? Top 15 at position? And does that differ slightly on age, like willing to keep someone who is a lot younger or not so much older?
i.Context: I am in a 12 team Dynasty league with normal roster positions, with a 15 person minor league roster in CBS. I find myself sometimes keeping too many players so I really only change over 1 or 2 on the active roster, then struggle to figure out who to cut when a prospect gets called up and wonder if I should cut more people out the gate to take some risks, to be willing to cut them for prospects.

4.What one or two hitters are you targeting for this weekend’s FAAB?

5.What one or two pitchers are you targeting for this weekend’s FAAB?

Fantasy Baseball Live – September 14, 2025
Microsoft Teams:
Podcast
Sunday, September 14, 2025
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
1.The Angels fire Phil Nevin after deciding to not pick up his option for next season. The Angels are in a spiral and are just not getting better. Do you see that changing anytime soon?

2.Connelly Early got the call this week for the Red Sox and shoved it against the Athletics. He pitched five shutout innings, striking out 11.
a.Thoughts on him for the next few weeks to end the season.
b.Payton Tolle has not been very good since he burst onto the scene two weeks ago. Could the same thing happen to Early?
c.Jonah Tong also fell back to earth on his second outing against the Reds, giving up four runs in six innings with 6 strikeouts and four walks. And then, got annihilated over the weekend with six earned runs in 2/3 of an inning.
d.Order these three young pitchers for the rest of the season and next season?

3.Speaking of young pitchers, Cade Horton has been very good this season. He won his 10th game this week, posting a 2.70 ERA but is only striking out just over seven per nine – he has 89 strikeouts in 110 innings. How do you view him for next season? He’s a Top ___________ pitcher.

4.First, it was Jasson Dominguez losing playing time for the Yankees, and now Anthony Volpe. Who do you feel more confident rostering for next season – Dominguez or Volpe?

5.Kyle Tucker hits the IL at the worse time. Moises Ballesteros gets the call. Any interest?

6.Rhys Hoskins is finally back but has only gotten one at-bat over his first two games. Is he going to play full-time or just be a guy off the bench with the recent play of Andrew Vaughn?


7.Arizona Fall League Preview
a.I wrote a large post on Thursday of all the ranked players attending. We will discuss some of the players and who you are looking forward to seeing how they do?

8.Listener Questions:
a.Mac - Hey Rich, I’d be interested in yalls thoughts on Elly De La Cruz second half of the season? While he has been known to be streaky player the lack of home runs and even his normal stealing pace (past week he has started to get some again) during the second half has been bit confusing. Thanks!
b.Collins - Should the Dodgers let Ohtani just come in as a RP in the playoffs and be a shutdown backend bullpen arm?
c.Collins - FYPD: Roki was the consensus top pick last year. Of course, I took him. The next two top picks a year ago were Condon and Bazzana. How’s that working out? Not great so far. With so many more top picks performing in the top round last year, how did a lot of us miss this, just bad luck or what? (Thinking of Kurtz, Burns, Cam, Cags, etc)
d.David - Is O'Neil Cruz a bust at this point?
e.Hoppy - Who's your favourite (and least favourite) fantasy baseball player of all time?
f.Hoppy - find my interest levels go through natural ups and downs during the season, but no matter what happens in season I always seem come back with renewed vigour preseason, when prospect lists are published and drafts start again. Do you have the same experience and have you ever had thoughts about (gasp!) giving up fantasy baseball?
g.Nick - When working a Dynasty League where you can keep anyone you want for any amount of time, what is the cut off of your rankings that you are willing to throw them back into the draft to see what else you can get? Top 300? Top 15 at position? And does that differ slightly on age, like willing to keep someone who is a lot younger or not so much older?
i.Context: I am in a 12 team Dynasty league with normal roster positions, with a 15 person minor league roster in CBS. I find myself sometimes keeping too many players so I really only change over 1 or 2 on the active roster, then struggle to figure out who to cut when a prospect gets called up and wonder if I should cut more people out the gate to take some risks, to be willing to cut them for prospects.
h.Tim - What are you doing with these last couple of faab periods to prepare your team for next year?

9.What one or two hitters are you targeting for this weekend’s FAAB?

10.What one or two pitchers are you targeting for this weekend’s FAAB?

The following players are discussed:

Travis Bazzana (Cle)

Kemp Alderman (Mia)

Victor Bericoto (SF)

Max Clark (Det)

Jansel Luis (AZ)

Aroon Escobar (Phi)

Kendall George (LAD)

Josue De Paula (LAD)

Sean Keys (Tor)

Caden Powell (Hou)

Alfredo Duno (Cin)

Dax Kilby (NYY)

Ethan Holliday (Col)

Roldy Brito (Col)

Robby Snelling (Mia)

Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz (NYY)

Carlos Lagrange (NYY)

Ty Johnson (TB)

Cam Caminiti (Atl)

Juaron Watts-Brown (Bal)

Rich releases his final 2025 update of the Top 100 minor league prospects.