The following is a transcript of a segment from this week's Fantasy411 podcast, hosted by MLB.com lead fantasy writer Fred Zinkie and national editor Matthew Leach. To hear the rest of their discussion, subscribe to the Fantasy411 podcast by clicking here.
Matthew Leach: Giancarlo Stanton is the name in the news this week, and he is -- already, it seems like -- I don't think there's enormous momentum towards getting something done this week, but it seems like the Marlins are getting some ideas as to who they want, who they will deal with. Sounds like they have an idea as to where Stanton's willing to go. All the kinds of things that need to get squared away before this sort of really starts moving down the road. It seems like they're getting that stuff squared away. So there are some places that would seem great for him and some places that would not. I have some ideas, but I'm curious what you think as well. Give me one place that as a fantasy owner you'd be really excited for Stanton to go and one you would not, among the places that are getting talked about.
Fred Zinkie: Yeah, well, I will say this: If Stanton is moved this winter, I don't think it will be a real boon for his value overall because he had -- beyond just his personal success last year -- he had a really nice supporting cast on top of that lineup last year. Marcell Ozuna hit so well. Christian Yelich hit so well. I believe they had four guys on the Marlins score 100 runs last year, which is really impressive.
When I was looking at potential destinations that are reasonable -- Colorado isn't reasonable, for example -- I thought Boston as a potential would probably, from a fantasy-perspective, be really advantageous from my point of view. Just in the sense that the AL East is usually really offensively charged. That's a fine park to hit in. There are a lot of other fine parks to hit in in that division. And then the way Boston spends money, they should have a good lineup around him basically every year. Sometimes a little better, sometimes a little worse, but overall it's hard to see him ever ending up with not a lot of talent around him in Boston. I've heard the Red Sox a little bit, I've heard the Cardinals, I've heard the Giants. I think of those three, that Boston would be a much better destination both in terms of home park but also probably his likely supporting cast on an extended basis.
Leach: I would not mind St. Louis. I think they are going to put a pretty good offense together. I think that the point you make about Boston makes a lot of sense, which is knowing what we know now, look, that was actually not a great offense last year. But it is unlikely to stay that way. It is likely that even if they were to find a way to bring him in, it wouldn't be all they did. And they will bolster that and find some more ways to score runs. Obviously the one to me that jumps out as would be scary is San Francisco. It is not as bad a place to hit for right-handed hitters as for left-handers, but still, it's a tough place to hit. It's going to take a lot more than one guy to turn that into the kind of lineup where you have faith in a guy for fantasy.
One other one that I want to note that hasn't gotten and doesn't seem to be anywhere down the road, but you just can't imagine they're not going to get engaged, you can't imagine the Marlins aren't going to call, is the Dodgers. It would pretty much be malpractice on the Marlins' part to not at least call the Dodgers and see if they wanted to make this interesting. I think that would be a great fit. That is an underrated place to hit for power. It's obviously a really deep and good lineup. They have shown some ability to maintain guys who have sometimes nagging injuries, because that has been one issue for Stanton. Staying healthy has been a concern. I think I'd have trust in that training staff to maintain him well. That's another place where if it happened, I'd be very intrigued.
Zinkie: Yeah, I think of all the destinations we discussed here in this conversation, I think I'd leave him as a first-rounder with all of them except San Francisco. I would honestly, even coming off that season, depending on what else they did with their lineup, but with that home park, with that lineup around him, I would have trouble -- and recognizing that there is still an injury history attached to Stanton -- I would have trouble keeping him in the first round, I think, if he did end up with the Giants. But there's still a lot to be played out here, so I don't think we need to jump the gun on that yet. That's where my mind's at with him now.