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00:00That's the American League Central. I think the American
00:02League Central is that aisle in the supermarket, where it just
00:04kind of smells a little not a bad way. It's just kind of
00:07weird food. It's organic. It's whatever you can make fun of it.
00:10Uh huh. At the end of the day, this stuff's good for you. And
00:13yeah, I understand the supermarket stuff's a little
00:16higher price, but here it's not. When you're playing fantasy
00:18baseball, you're wagering. The American League Central is like
00:21this forgotten wasteland. I just think it's wonderful. Let's talk
00:24with the Cleveland Guardians. The big problem with them is they
00:28had no one around Jose Ramirez last year. Well, now you're
00:31getting a full season of Lane Thomas and Stephen Kwan
00:34maturing. And I think, I think if Bazzana and Manzardo and
00:38these guys can start to contribute along with his
00:41pitching staff, who's going to beat this team in the Central,
00:44Joe? Look, on paper, certainly the bullpen is incredible.
00:48Emmanuel Classe coming off an all-world season, you know,
00:52little struggles in the playoffs, you know, but that's
00:55what made Mariano so special, right? He was so good in the
00:57playoffs in those bigger moments. So, you know, saving
00:59games in May and June is one thing, saving them in October
01:02is another, but if you look at this lineup, you know, it's
01:06pretty good. I think what they need is a step forward from a
01:08player and I'm going to talk about Kyle Manzardo who's
01:10having a phenomenal spring right now. This was a player in the
01:13Cubs system and got moved to the Guardians system and now he
01:18is going to be either the everyday DH or first baseman.
01:20One of those two things are going to happen there. So,
01:22Carlos Santana brought back in, but Stephen Kwan, a guy that
01:25upped his home runs year over year, really made a conscious
01:28effort to improve that power and he did. Went from being a
01:31guy in single-digit home runs to fourteen home runs last
01:35season. Lane Thomas, a player with some power, some speed. The
01:39bottom half of this lineup is a little concerning. You know,
01:41you lose Josh Naylor in this lineup. It's not as deep. You
01:44still have Jose Ramirez who is all-world MVP caliber guy. The
01:48rotation with Gavin Williams, if he can take that step forward
01:51along with Tanner Bybee. I expect Williams to be more like
01:54the two, but I still think it's a little thin. What you're
01:56hoping is you're getting Shane Bieber back at some point this
01:59season towards the end of the year and he really becomes that
02:02guy at the trade deadline you add for the stretch run and if
02:05Bieber comes back and he is healthy and he can be anything
02:09close to what he was before the injury. That's another ace. So
02:13the Guardians are the favorites in this division. I think for a
02:16reason and they should be because that bullpen is so good
02:19and the game has changed, right? You don't need dominant
02:21starting pitching. You need starting pitching. They can get
02:23you five six innings turn around to the bullpen and hand
02:27it off to them and let them be dominant. Now. The one thing I
02:29will say is year to year. Sometimes bullpens can go from
02:32being dominant to being less than dominant. They are one of
02:35the tougher things in baseball to be consistently good year
02:38over year, but if any team can do it, I think the Guardians
02:41can Matt. What do you make of this lineup to to me? Manzardo
02:44is the key. If he takes that step forward, if he shows you
02:47what he is giving you in spring training as this is the new
02:50Kyle Manzardo with 3090 kind of player, then I think they're
02:53okay. If they don't get that the offense does concern me
02:57just a bit. Yeah, because then you move Santana up and you try
03:01to protect Ramirez. Otherwise, it's pitch around Ramirez, but
03:04that's what we're talking about is this team had no help aside
03:06from Ramirez. Well now they do and they have some things
03:08coming in the pipeline and we're talking about so I grew
03:12up Cardinal baseball. If anyone remembers that, you know kind
03:15of mid 80s, you score a couple of runs and then you just
03:17tighten the screws and that's the end of it. That's what
03:19this Guardians team is going to be. They're not going to be
03:21exciting, but from a wagering perspective, look at run lines,
03:25look at unders look at that just that good fundamental kind
03:29of kind of baseball. I guess in football is at the NFC Central
03:33is at that smash mouth kind of way. This is what it's going to
03:36be here and it really is going to be five six innings of gray
03:41dreary baseball. Turn it over to the bullpen. You got yourself
03:45a win. I don't care what it looks like. Let's go down now
03:47and have a little fight. Alright, let's have some fun.
03:49Kansas City Royals. That's the next thing we're going to talk
03:51about here. This lineup is Jonathan India, Bobby Witt,
03:55Pasquantino Perez, Massey, Renfro, Melendez. Is that
03:59Michael Garcia, Kyle Isbell? Joe, you take Bobby Witt out of
04:03this lineup. No Jack Caliglione right now. You take Bobby Witt
04:06out of this lineup and this team is is NG bro. This team's
04:10not good. After Reagans, you have Lugo, Waka, Lorenz and
04:13Bubich and Estevez. Come on. Come on. Fight me on this,
04:17man. I feel like you're not a fan of the Royals. That's what
04:20I'm getting. Is that true? I don't see it. I just don't see
04:24it though. If Pasquantino doesn't hit, you pitch around
04:29Witt. Perez is great but getting old and then what? MJ
04:34Melendez? Look, I think that what you want. Look, Reagans is
04:41the best pitcher in this division. So, you've got that
04:43going for you along with Scuba. Like, those are the two guys
04:46that, you know, are are right there neck and neck at the top.
04:49So, if Lugo and Waka can give you what they even close like
04:5485% of what they gave you last year, that gives you a little
04:57bit more depth and potentially some of these other rotations
05:00too. Uh as much as I love the rotation of the twins in
05:03theory, it's still a little theoretical. Uh the Tigers
05:07rotation still again a little bit more theoretical whereas
05:10I've seen it with Lugo. I've seen it with Waka. I know how
05:12steady they can be. So, I like the rotation more than you. The
05:16back of the rotation definitely has problems. We can talk about
05:18that but you you can fix those problems. If you have the means
05:21to the end and you wanna move some prospects and finally
05:24start to cash in, you can't. The middle of this order though,
05:27Pasquantino, Sal Perez, I think that's enough as long as
05:31they're on the field. Bobby Wood Junior is, well, Bobby Wood
05:35Junior is the the top of the board for MVP right now with
05:39Aaron Judge, right? Those are the guys neck and neck at the
05:41top and I think with good reason. When you have a player
05:43this special, if a Jack Caglione can come in and play
05:48first base, the problem is again, the position he plays,
05:51right? Does he start to take some balls in the outfield? You
05:55know, that way you can keep Pasquantino at first and keep
05:58Perez at DH and have somebody else catch. Maybe you want
06:01Perez to be catching more this year. Like, they have
06:03flexibility there but Caglione is having a phenomenal spring
06:07training and he was the player that last year when I was doing
06:10research going into the the draft, Caglione's what they
06:14look like. Travis Bazzana was my number one overall guy but
06:17Caglione was my number two and I think he is going to come
06:21quickly here to the major leagues. Uh we mentioned how
06:24good he's, what is it? The 1800 OPS in spring. Now, it's only
06:27spring training. That's fine but monitor this guy. Maybe
06:30he's not worth drafting, right? Cuz you're in a twelve team
06:33league but he should be on your watch list and if he's starting
06:36to hit in April and May and AA and AAA and hang on where they
06:39start him off. Caglione's gonna come quickly and I think he's
06:42going to eventually get to the big leagues probably sometime
06:44in July and if he does and he hits, that's a difference
06:49maker for this Royals team. So, I understand your reservations.
06:52I'm gonna take the other side of this which is I still think
06:54they can be competitive for this division because I think
06:56they're pitching depth at starter could be better than
07:00the Guardians. The bullpen's not as good but they did bring
07:03in Estevez along with Erceg so they have two guys at the back
07:06of that bullpen now. We'll see how it shakes out but man,
07:08having Bobby Witt, arguably the best player in the American
07:10League, that certainly helps.