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00:00At 27, sits Ronald Acuna.
00:03Maybe you've heard of him.
00:04At 29, sits Jackson Merrill.
00:07Sophomore slump.
00:08Joe, the floor is yours.
00:10Well, Jackson Merrill could have a sophomore slump.
00:13He is just 21 years old.
00:15An incredible year last year.
00:17I have to credit my co-host at Fancy Rose MLB,
00:20The Welsh, who was at a lot of these
00:22spring training games last year.
00:24He's a big prospect guru guy.
00:25He hosts a prospect show, a podcast.
00:28And he told me the last year, he's like,
00:29hey, Jackson Merrill, he could be rookie of the year.
00:31And I was like, who?
00:32What are you talking about?
00:33And he's like, just watch Jackson Merrill.
00:35Well, 156 games, 24 homers, 90 RBI, 16 steals, 292.
00:40It's a pretty good season for Jackson Merrill.
00:42A lot of people are saying, okay, now can he repeat it?
00:44And I think that's the concern people have.
00:46And then you have Ronald Acuna
00:47basically going right next to him.
00:49Now, we all know what Ronald Acuna is.
00:52At his height, he's a 40-70 guy.
00:54The interesting thing is,
00:55the conversation we've had before,
00:57in fact, George Kurtz and I were arguing
00:58about it last week, which was George saying
01:00he was concerned they wouldn't come back and run.
01:02And I said, well, that's not what happened last time
01:04he came back from an ACL.
01:05Last time, it was the power that slumped.
01:07He had only 15 home runs, but he had 30 steals
01:10in 119 games or 112 games, whatever it was.
01:14And that was before the rules changes.
01:16So there was no problem with Ronald Acuna stealing bases
01:18when he returned from an ACL.
01:20Now he's got two remade ACLs.
01:22I'm not worried about it.
01:23What hurts you with Ronald Acuna is head-to-head leagues
01:26where the first six weeks of the season,
01:28if it's a deep league, a 14-15 team league,
01:32the replacement value's hard.
01:33If you're in a 10-team league,
01:34I'll take Ronald Acuna all day over Jackson-Merrill.
01:37I will find a way to patch together a couple weeks.
01:39Injuries could happen to Jackson-Merrill
01:41and he could miss a month of the season, for all I know.
01:43As long as I have a plan and I'm a savvy drafter,
01:46I know that I can take somebody
01:48to fill that void of Acuna for a month.
01:50The waiver wire in April is always bountiful.
01:53We always get these guys that kind of come out of nowhere
01:55and have good months of April, never to be heard from again.
01:58I can find some offense there.
02:00I can't find somebody with 40-70 sort of skillset.
02:03And again, is he gonna miss the first month,
02:05maybe two of the season?
02:07That's where it gets a little dicey in the deeper leagues.
02:09So 12-team leagues, depends on your risk tolerance.
02:13Jackson-Merrill's safer in a 14-15 team league scenario.
02:18That's my breakdown of these two.
02:19Who would you rather have, Acuna or Jackson-Merrill?
02:23Let me bring some sobriety to this thing,
02:25and that's a great word to use with this crew.
02:28Ronald Acuna is better than anyone you or I know.
02:34Ronald Acuna, with two repaired ACLs,
02:37I don't care if it's dental floss and bubble gum,
02:40is still better than anyone you or I know.
02:43And I don't understand this in the fantasy community,
02:46in the wagering community.
02:48Dude, it's Ronald Acuna.
02:50Earlier, we did a segment,
02:51I was Pablo Lopez under it.
02:53He's still really, I understand he's not Mike Trout,
02:55and that that bloom is way off the rose,
02:57but this is still Ronald Acuna.
02:59Why do we forget about how great this player is?
03:02And come July and August, when it really matters,
03:05we're gonna go, oh yeah, Ronald Acuna.
03:07I want him on my team, even if I have to sit and wait.
03:11And here's the interesting thing, though,
03:12about these ADP wars here,
03:13is that when you're looking at 27, 28, 29, 31, 33, 35, 36,
03:20you have some choices to make,
03:21because when you come back on the turn,
03:22depending on where you are,
03:24a lot of these players aren't gonna be here.
03:25Let's go to third base now.
03:27We'll stay with Atlanta and San Diego, actually.
03:29Austin Riley at 31, Manny Machado at 33.
03:33Now, I prefer the offensive ecosystem of Austin Riley,
03:36based off of what I just said,
03:37the potential of what Acuna means.
03:40Joe, where do you land?
03:43Yeah, this is an interesting one,
03:44because Austin Riley was coming off
03:46some monstrous seasons, right?
03:47You look at 2022, 38 homers, 93 RBI,
03:5123, 37 homers, 97 RBI.
03:53And then last year, awful start,
03:55then he finally got going, and then he got hurt.
03:57So I think collectively, Atlanta just was,
04:00you know, at times just stuck in the mud, right?
04:02Matt Olsen struggled at times, Ozzy Alves was hurt,
04:05Ronald Acuna only played 40-something games.
04:08So I feel like Atlanta just never got out of its own way.
04:11Just so many injuries, so many issues.
04:13So as long as everything's going
04:14in the right direction for Atlanta,
04:16I tend to agree with you,
04:17because I think the upside for Austin Riley
04:19is a little bit higher.
04:21But I will say this,
04:23even though you might be giving up
04:24five or six potential home runs with,
04:27you know, taking Manny Machado,
04:29I think the floor of Manny Machado is a little bit safer,
04:32if you are concerned about what was going on wrong
04:35with Austin Riley last year,
04:36because it was just wrong.
04:37And Manny Machado is just Manny Machado every single year.
04:40You're going to set your watch to 3,100.
04:43That's going to be where it is.
04:44And I think it's a lot closer
04:47than some other people might think.
04:49Well, I mean, they are close in ADP,
04:51but still, it's clear that most people
04:53just prefer Austin Riley.
04:55But I think it's a little bit more of a conversation.
04:57Matt, I'm curious,
04:58like, you want just the steady Eddie of Manny Machado
05:00or the slight upside of Austin Riley,
05:03but the slight downside of the player you saw last year,
05:05which was not good for most of the team.
05:09So I'll admit here
05:10that when I'm playing season-long fantasy,
05:12a lot of times I want to be excited about the team.
05:14I want to be in on the team.
05:16Now, I like the Padres,
05:17but from a different perspective.
05:18I like them from pitching.
05:19I like them from bullpen.
05:20I really don't like a lot of their bats.
05:22So I'm not excited about it.
05:23I need to be excited about it.
05:24So that's why I like Austin Riley,
05:26because I just like the team around him.
05:27I mean, my gosh.
05:28Yeah, you can make the case for what's around Machado,
05:30but when you look around what's healthy and around Riley,
05:34I like his offensive ecosystem far better.