In the Yahoo Fantasy Baseball Podcast, Scott Pianowski and Dalton Del Don discuss the fantasy merits of Angels infielder Anthony Rendon

Video Transcript

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DALTON DEL DON: Anthony Rendon is my guy. Not only just a massive change in parks-- Washington, again, a underrated hitters' park-- to a really underrated pitchers' park in Anaheim, coming off the career year, learning a whole new set of pitchers, the whole new-- All those pitchers-- all those parks now in the AL West with Texas moving in are possibly pitchers' parks.

Past injury history too with him. I've been going on record saying I'd take Vlad-- that's a theme with me, the younger guys with the upside-- I'd take Vlad over him at the same price. But it's not even a similar cost. You're paying big time full weight for last year's season, which was terrific. Rendon was absolutely one of the best baseball players last year, but he's not to be on any of my fantasy teams this-- this upcoming one.

SCOTT PIANOWSKI: Yeah. I think he's a good call. You know, last year I was lambasting people who were taking Vladimir Guerrero over Anthony Rendon--

DALTON DEL DON: Yeah. Right.

SCOTT PIANOWSKI: --saying what are you doing? And this year I'm gonna double down on Guerrero. I think he's going to be a great player someday, but he's still not taking his conditioning that seriously, last I saw. As our friend Gene McCaffrey said, he looks more like Carl's Jr. than Vlad Jr. sometimes. To me, Guerrero is being priced like he's already an all-star, and I don't feel like I'm comfortable paying that.

DALTON DEL DON: I just think .330, .340 is within his range of outcomes, the batting average. I'm just a believer. And his minor league numbers were so, so good.

I get it. Now obviously the track record's not there, and he disappointed when he saw major league pitching. And conditioning-- He may have to move full time DH in real life.

But I'm a believer. And especially [? when you ?] [? discount ?] the price too. Rendon, what is his ADP in Yahoo right now? I'm sure it's still-- it's-- it's much higher, right? 30 picks higher?

SCOTT PIANOWSKI: I think it's 21 for Rendon--

DALTON DEL DON: Yeah.

SCOTT PIANOWSKI: --and Guerrero is 50.

DALTON DEL DON: Where do you stand on Rendon, then? Are you spending a second round pick on him?

SCOTT PIANOWSKI: No. No. I don't like the team change, actually. And as you said, he has to learn all the new pitchers. He has to deal with the weight of the contract, although at least, you know, Trout's always gonna be the signature player there.

No. I think Rendon-- I've always been a Rendon guy, but you're taking him like he's an MVP candidate. And even though he was last year, before last season, he was just more of a good player. I don't even think he even made an All-Star team before last year.

DALTON DEL DON: What an interesting top-heavy team, though, if he does-- if I'm wrong and he does continue to play like an MVP candidate. You know, with Ohtani, two way Ohtani and Trout, I mean, they could just be-- have three of, you know, the 10 best players in baseball right there.

SCOTT PIANOWSKI: And you make a great point about the parks, right. I mean, if Texas is close to neutral-- First of all, we can't imagine Texas will be anything close to what it used to be.

Houston has been a pitcher park. Misunderstood because all those cheap home runs down the line, but Houston's a pitcher park. Oakland a gigantic pitcher's park. Seattle's a pitcher park. You know, this is not-- this is not the place to land for-- for ideal stadium boosting. So yeah. I think Rendon's an easy guy to cross off for me.

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