Debating American League MVP: Cal Raleigh's Case for 2025

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00:00Now, as far as the AL MVP, George and I see this differently.

00:03I'll kind of go through my explanation, and then George will give his.

00:06My explanation is sort of as follows.

00:08Now, I've said this through the years in fantasy baseball.

00:11I've tried to correlate it with fantasy football, so I'm going to make my case here again.

00:16So my MVP for the American League in the first half is Cal Raleigh.

00:20And my reasoning is not just because of the offense, and, you know, he did hit another home run last night,

00:24but my reasoning partially is because of the position that he plays, and that is a catcher.

00:30So you may say, well, you know, give me this in fantasy football terms.

00:34So in fantasy football terms, it would essentially be pick your favorite tight end, Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez,

00:42you know, Travis Kelsey, and give them a 2,000-yard season with 20 touchdowns.

00:48How valuable would that player be in fantasy?

00:51He'd be the number one overall pick if that was a tight end.

00:53And that's my reasoning behind it, George.

00:56Like, I understand catching has been better, okay?

00:58Much better this year than has been in years past.

01:01But the difference from Raleigh to, like, the fifth best catcher in fantasy is a monster gap.

01:09And I know you're going to go with Aaron Judge here.

01:11And look, that's a very easy one, too.

01:14But the difference between Aaron Judge, like, per se,

01:17and maybe the second or third best outfielder in the American League isn't that significant gap.

01:22So I'm going with Raleigh and MVP.

01:25Yeah, I don't think you had to explain your choice there.

01:27All right, Raleigh is – I mean, once again, if I go by my definition, he's the fantasy MVP.

01:32When did we draft him?

01:33He wasn't even the number one catcher drafted, right?

01:35I mean, I don't even think he was the number two catcher drafted.

01:37You know, probably top four, top five at best here.

01:39So Raleigh's a great pick.

01:40I have no issues with that.

01:41And to be honest with you, when I got this question, it did not say fantasy MVP.

01:45It said MVP.

01:46So that's why I chose Judge, by the way.

01:49If it was a fantasy MVP, I probably would have chose Raleigh as well because, once again,

01:53he drafted him late.

01:54Judge is the, at worst, third overall pick behind Ohtani, behind Whitney.

01:58He's number one in a lot of leagues, number two.

02:00So it is there.

02:01I think overall MVP, it'll be Judge over Raleigh because he – outside of home runs,

02:05his numbers are just better, especially in the analytics days, the OPS,

02:09and all that stuff here.

02:11But Raleigh's a – no one's arguing Raleigh for a fantasy MVP or even reality MVP.

02:16That wouldn't bother me either if he wins it, by the way.

02:18And he's actually been a very good catcher, other than maybe a little slow tag on Volpe

02:22with the other night.

02:23But thank you for that.

02:24I appreciate it.

02:25Mr. Consistency, our award goes to the same player.

02:28We don't have to dive in any deeper than this.

02:31Another home run last night.

02:32Was it two home runs last night for Jose Ramirez, George?

02:34I think it may have been two more home runs.

02:36One of the second game.

02:39Okay, gotcha.

02:40Yeah, Jose Ramirez is just – every year, same thing.

02:43He will not be the number one overall pick in fantasy next year.

02:47You could make a case he should be the number one overall pick

02:49because you know exactly what you're getting.

02:5130 home runs, 30 steals, good average.

02:55He's going to drive in a lot of runs.

02:58The most boring, great player we've seen in a long time.

03:01You know, this is hilarious, by the way.

03:04When I got this question, we're going to keep throwing Sam Yarnel under the bus here.

03:09What the hell – what the hell is he looking for?

03:12I had no idea what he was looking for here.

03:13So for you and I to pick the same player, but it went through my mind the same thing.

03:17You just said there, this is a guy nobody talks about.

03:19We never get any love for.

03:20He's always going top six fantasy league.

03:23You know, and that's it.

03:24That's the last time we mentioned him.

03:26We don't speak about him ever again here.

03:28So, you know, I was going to pick somebody else, but also Sam put hitters.

03:33They had to be – it has to be a hitter.

03:34You know, because I was thinking – we don't have a Mr. Consistency in pitcher.

03:40Do we?

03:41I don't think we did.

03:42So there was somebody else I was going to pick then.

03:44It was Logan Webb.

03:45It was going to be my other choice here for the same exact reason.

03:47Another guy we pick and we just – we don't talk about over again

03:50because he's not sexy, but he gets the job done.

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