 Hey everybody, what's going on? I am Greg Sussman and welcome to the 2020 mock draft for Fantasy Baseball and joining me to give us his top six picks in the draft. It's my good buddy making his return to the hurry up. It's Frank Stample, hey Frank. Hey, what's going on, Greg? Excited to be here. Fantasy Baseball draft season is upon us. Greg, we're reunited and it feels so good. I wish we could do more shows together, man. Me too, buddy, me too. Hopefully in due time. Let's begin with our top six or your top six. We begin at number one of the first time in seemingly a decade. It is not Mike Trout. It's a man that you drafted last year. Ronald Acuna, your number one overall pick. How come? I know you're thinking, Frank, are you crazy? We've tried this before. We tried to take Mookie Betts over Mike Trout. We tried to take Jose Altuve a couple of years ago over Mike Trout. It hasn't worked out. This time, I think it's going to be different. Ronald Acuna is just a different beast and if you play in a Roto League, a five by five league or a categories league, the stolen bases that Ronald Acuna is going to give you are just much more valuable than Mike Trout. Trout speed has been trending down. Ronald Acuna last year at the age of 21 went 41 home runs and 37 stolen bases is already on record saying he's trying to go 50-50 this upcoming season in 2020. I don't know if that's going to happen. Maybe we can get 40-40 out of him, which would be insane. But this is the type of upside that Ronald Acuna has. He was third in baseball last season with 127 runs scored. He improved his line drive rate. He's improving seemingly as a hitter every single year. And you look at his first two seasons, he's had a 280-plus batting average in each of those. He has a slight tick down in strikeout percentage away from being a 300-hitter. That's the one advantage that a Mike Trout or a Yellowitch is going to have over Acuna is that they're going to hit for better batting average because Acuna strikes out a little bit more than those guys. If he lowers the strikeout rate a little bit, his quality of contact is among the best in the league, then we can see him approach or even exceed a 300 batting average with 35-plus home runs, 35 stolen bases, in a ridiculous lineup that features Freddie Freeman, Ozzy Albees, and Marcelo Zuna. I understand Mike Trout is or was the king. Ronald Acuna this upcoming season is my first overall pick. Ronald Acuna gets in there. He's blamed of power and speed. Well, it's simply not mashed at this point. It's still just so young. He had a good lineup with the Atlanta Braves. Acuna, our number one pick. But who's number two, Frank? Well, you go back to the well. It's Mike Trout. Trout over Christian Yellowitch, how come? I just think Trout has done it for longer, obviously, than Christian Yellowitch. And on a per game basis, Mike Trout is still the best player in baseball. There's no doubt about that. The only knock on him is that he does miss time. He has averaged 32 missed games per season over the last three years. That's why I do drop him down to this number two spot behind Ronald Acuna. But if he manages to stay healthy for 140, 150-plus, then he has the upside to once again finish as the number one player. I mean, what else do you need to say about Mike Trout? The guy has had an OPS over 1,000 for three straight seasons. That is just unheard of in baseball. Last year put up a career high 45 home runs thanks to a career high 49% fly ball rate. So we're seeing a slight tick up in launch angle for Mike Trout. And let's look at this Los Angeles Angels lineup. They added Anthony Rendon. I mean, how much better can they possibly get? We know early on in the season, Shohei Otani is only going to be featured as a hitter. So he's going to slot into that lineup every single day until about mid-May when they use him as a pitcher. So the lineup is improved for the Los Angeles Angels which only means good things to come for Mike Trout. He's one of the true five category players in baseball. Going to hit for an average over 300. Going to give you home runs, runs, RBIs. The stolen bases have been trending down a little bit, but it wouldn't surprise me if he bounces back to 15, maybe 20 steals. Because of that, once again, he's your number two player should be taken inside the top three picks. Let's see if Trout can stay healthy this season and bring back the steals that went away last year during an injury at Murray campaign. We know what Trout can do. We've seen it year after year after year. He's still this good. He's one of the best players, the best player, I should say, in the game overall. The second best fantasy player this season. Which brings us to player number three and that is Christian Yelich. Obviously, you could probably make a case for any of these three guys to go at number one, but you've ranked in Okunya, followed by Mike Trout, followed by Christian Yelich. Who's on pace to do absurd things last year before breaking his kneecap. Is the 100% ready to go, Frank? All the reports that we've seen thus far, Greg, is that Christian Yelich is 100% healthy. And if that's the case, you can also make the argument that he should be the number one player here. If you thought his MVP season was a fluke in 2018, you were mistaken. He followed that up in 2019 last year with 33 home runs. 30 stolen bases, a career high for him in only 130 games. I really like that he started running more last year and he was really successful on the base patch. He went 30 for 32 on the base patch. Assuming that he is healthy, he should be up and running once again. His quality of contact is among the best in the league. Doesn't strike out all that much. And he was one of these players that we spoke about for years that if he would just raise his launch angle a little bit, start hitting more fly balls, start hitting more line drives. Earlier on with the Miami Marlins in his career, he had a lot of ground balls. The past couple of years, he has started hitting more fly balls. He has started hitting more line drives. And that's why you see him putting up these ridiculous seasons well over 300 batting average, well over 30 home runs, and he's starting to run more as well. Great ballpark to hit in. Maybe the best ballpark outside of Yankee Stadium to hit in in terms of left-handed power is Miller Park. Really good lineup there as well. The only pause that you have when it comes to Christian Yelich, which kind of separates himself, that's why I have him third, is that he did fracture his kneecap last year. So, assuming he is healthy, he should go inside the top three picks. And I think you can make the case that he should be the number one overall player again. It's just he's coming off a major injury and Mike Trout and Ronald Lacuna are not. It's hard to separate these three players to look at minuscule things. And I'm not sure the injuries are minuscule type of thing, but Trout's coming in healthy. Ronald Lacuna has been healthy. Christian Yelich gets a merit for that, but since coming to Milwaukee, he's been otherworldly just like Acuna and Trout. You gotta feel good if you get a number three overall pick. I feel like in a Kentucky Derby style, I might take number three overall because that's how confident I am in whoever falls to me. I like Christian Yelich at three. Number four is probably where it gets interesting, Frank, because I think you can make the case for pitchers, a couple of hitters, and I'm not sure which direction is right. For you, it's going to a pitcher, but the interesting thing is which pitcher it is. Yeah, I'm going with Jacob DeGrom over Garrett Cole here, Greg. And I understand Garrett Cole was ridiculous last year, put up over 300 strikeouts. Jacob DeGrom has been the most valuable starting pitcher over the last three years, while Garrett Cole has been elite for the past two seasons with the Houston Astros. Jacob DeGrom has done it for longer, and he's not changing teams. He remains in city field with the New York Mets, and I mentioned over the last three seasons what he's done just to give you an idea. A two, five, three ERA, over 11Ks per nine, a 45% ground ball rate, a 0.97 whip, 763 strikeouts over the last three seasons for Jacob DeGrom. That is the fourth most, 622 in a third innings pitch. That is the second most. So he's going to give you volume. He's been safe in terms of not getting hurt. Knock on wood when it comes to Jacob DeGrom. The only thing that we need to ask for is run support. Mets, can you hit the ball a little bit and get Jacob DeGrom some wins? This guy is a back-to-back Siung Award winner in the National League, and he's doing that with less than 15 wins consistently. That's the only knock on Jacob DeGrom, but he's going to give you a strong ERA, going to give you a strong whip, going to give you over 200 innings pitch, over 200 strikeouts, and of course, if the run support can be better, then we'll get more wins out of Jacob DeGrom. Wins are just such a hard stat to predict. Same thing like touchdowns when it comes to fantasy football. It's very hard to predict wins in fantasy baseball for pitchers, but give me Jacob DeGrom over Garakul. He's done it for longer. He's not changing where he's been, and the reason why I take a picture here, Greg, is because in the second round and the third round, you can get really good hitters. Here's that have been going in the first round in years past. Give me one of those aces at pick four or five. Here at pick four, we'll go Jacob DeGrom. A lot of good pitchers coming in around those spots too, Frank, just so you know. But Jacob DeGrom has shown the consistency with the Mets with the Siung Awards, and he's been a major force in fantasy baseball. I talked about that consistency with the Mets, and it's been the same way in fantasy baseball as well. Garakul burst onto the scene last year as the top pitcher. We'll see if he can do it again in pinstripes. Let's talk more now about Garakul in New York and the difference between him thriving in Houston and trying to make a go of it in a much smaller ballpark in New York. Yeah, I'm not really worried about the ballpark again. If Garakul can just do what he's done with the Houston Atros, he's going to be ridiculous. I mentioned that I do have DeGrom ahead of Garakul just because he's done it for one year longer than Garakul in terms of being elite, one of those top five pitchers in baseball. And the fact that Garakul is changing scenery here, again, I don't really worry about the ballpark because Garakul induces so many swings and misses, so many strikeouts. Again, I'll put it in perspective. What Garakul has done over the past two seasons, a 2.68 ERA, a K per 9 over 13, that is the best among starting pitchers, a 38% ground ball rate, K minus walk percentage, 30%, that is second best in baseball during that span, a 0.96 whip. Whatever you want out of Garakul, he's going to do it, 602 strikeouts over the past two seasons. That is the most in baseball. I mentioned over 300 strikeouts last year. He led baseball in strikeouts, swinging strike rate, nearly 17% that led all qualified starting pitchers. And if you play in a quality start league, he had 26 quality starts that was tied for the most in baseball last year. We know that he's filthy. He's got all the stuff in the world. The only difference for me between him and DeGrom, again, is that he is changing scenery. But outside of that, I still think he's one of the best pitchers in baseball. And you can get hitters that are really good in that second round range, Greg. I know you get some pitchers there and you can make the argument for them, but I think Garakul is just so safe. You can get a hitter in the second round like a JD Martinez, like a Bryce Harper, guys that we've seen do it before, that frankly, in most years, would be going in the first round. You could pair one of those hitters with a Garakul or Jacob DeGrom. Give me that every single day of the week. That is why Garakul should be the fifth player off the board, Greg. All right, Garakul, your number five player overall, and there's a clear distance between DeGrom and Kohl and everybody else, Justin Birdland or Max Scherzer included. Getting him here at number five puts you in a really nice position going forward in your drafts. Frankie likes DeGrom, then Kohl. And finally, we get to your sixth player off the board. It's one we disagree with. I'm going with Mookie Betts. You've decided to go incorrectly with his teammate, Cody Bellinger. Why are you being so silly? Well, Greg, maybe I should just throw this segment back to you and you could tell us why Mookie Betts should be the sixth player off the board. Is that how you want to do this? Our fans can just watch the Fantasy BFFs on a daily basis and they can see that. Oh, right. Well, I'll just go with Cody Bellinger here with the sixth overall pick. You can make the argument for Mookie Betts, but he is changing leads and coming over to a new team. A very good team, by the way, in the Los Angeles Dodgers, so I get that. And we're splitting hairs between Cody Bellinger and Mookie Betts. I like both of these players a lot and they are both two of the top five most contributing players across the board in terms of five category players. Someone who can give you batting average, home runs, runs, RBIs, and stolen bases as well. Last year, Cody Bellinger was ridiculous and that's why he won the MVP 305 batting average, 47 home runs. Also chipped in 15 stolen bases. If you look at this guy's stat cast page over at Baseball Savant, it is a sea of red and that's a good thing. I mean, he makes the best quality of contact in all of Baseball. He hits the ball extremely hard. He lifts the ball, which is going to obviously result in a ton of home runs. Look at the lineup. It might be the deepest lineup in all of Baseball. Again, Mookie Betts leading off for this team. Max Muncie, Jock Peterson, Cody Bellinger. I haven't even mentioned Corey Seeger, who was once regarded as one of the top prospects in all of Baseball. I think you can make the argument for either one of Mookie Betts or Cody Bellinger. Cody Bellinger is not changing teams. I feel a little bit more safe with him. I'm going to take Cody Bellinger. He also has a multi-position eligibility. He could play first base, could play outfield. So that'll help you in a roto league where you need five outfielders as well. Cody Bellinger over Mookie Betts for me. Greg, I'm taking him six overall. It's Mookie Betts for me as you know, but we'll save that for another time where like I said, check out the BFFs on sports grid. But Cody Bellinger obviously had an unbelievable season. He's still in the standing player and helps you across the board. As Frank mentioned, you can't go wrong with either Dodger. These are draft Mookie Betts. That's going to do it for us here on the FanDuel Hurry Up Frank. I appreciate you hanging out and good luck this season. Good luck to you as well, Greg. I know that we have a few teams that we'll be sharing together. We'll be drafting and auctioning together. So that will be a lot of fun. Good luck to everybody else out there. If you have a question regarding the back end of the first round or anything else related fantasy baseball wise, hit me up on Twitter at roto underscore Frank. And advertise yourself. That's what you do. I want to thank everybody for watching. Good luck in your drafts. We'll have more MLB content all month long. Have a fantastic weekend. And we'll see you next time. Right here on the FanDuel Hurry Up.