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?
