DAILY SLAB, EP. 125, March 30, 2023 — In this video, SlabStox Nate shares his love for OPENING DAY and dives deep into the stats of players he calls the Top-5 most exciting players to watch in the MLB. He’ll dig deep into each players’ sports card market as he looks at the best values in baseball cards.
Let us know what you are most excited about this OPENING DAY. If you have players you’re looking at this season, drop them in the Comments below. Play Ball!
00:13 – What’s Happening – OPENING DAY 2023
01:57 – Adley Rutschman – Baltimore Orioles
05:19 – Julio Rodriguez – Seattle Mariners
07:54 – Aaron Judge – New York Yankees
10:15 – Shohei Ohtani – Los Angeles Angels
12:36 – Corey Seager – Texas Rangers
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On today's daily slab we are looking at The best day of the year today and I Will be covering Five Guys I'm Interested in this MLB season so sit Back relax enjoy today's daily slap Welcome everyone to the Daily slab I am Nate and what's happening today is that It is opening day If you love baseball as much as I do and I'm sure some of you do I'm sure some of You don't I do love baseball quite a bit And I'm sure there's quite a few people That watch base that are on here that Don't like baseball at all but it is my Favorite day of the year today opening Day it's the day when every single team In the MLB feels like maybe just maybe They can win the World Series you fast Forward a week maybe not so much but Today Hope Springs Eternal and there is No better day you throw the brats on the Grill you grab a couple of cold ones Maybe a bag of chips or two you sit down You watch some baseball games it is the Best day hopefully the birds are Chirping outside hopefully it's warm and Sunny out and we can all have a good Time if you're stuck in the midwest you Might have snow that's unfortunate but You can pretend that the weather is nice And you can still Grill and drink some Cold ones so opening day I don't need to Get too much into how much I love Opening day just know suffice it to say
Is that it is one of my favorite days of The year and it really doesn't get much Better than that for me now with opening Day comes a lot of players that have High expectations upon them for the Season and so I thought it would be fun To Veer away from our normal three Different segments Series today and just Do one segment and that is the top five Players I'm excited to watch this season There's a lot of players in the MLB we Narrowed it down to five So let's start off with adley rushman so There's a lot to be interested in with Adley rushman former first overall pick Leading the Orioles last year uh to an Almost playoff birth leading up to a Good record for the first time in Forever adley rushman was the Centerpiece to that team and he was also One of the better players in all of Baseball last year so amongst catchers With 100 or more played appearances Right he was second in fangraph's wins Above replacement at 5.3 despite playing 26 less games than the leader in the Clubhouse JT real muda He was fourth in WRC plus the three guys Ahead of him had played way fewer games So the idea is if they played more games Their WRC pluses might have dropped and He could have been closer to the top of That list he was first in walk rate and He was in the top 15 percent in K rate
Those are all types of things that I Look forward to and I look at to say is This player good not you know uh simple Things that you can look at where you Don't have to dive super deep to just to Be able to tell if a player's been good And adley rushman was great last year Now not amongst catchers but amongst Rookies adley rushman was also good he Was tied with Julio Rodriguez for the Lead in F War fangraphs wins above Replacement at again 5.3 despite playing 19 less games than Julio if he gets Another 19 games under his belt Um which is basically an eighth of the Season he is likely the better player Than Julio despite the fact that people Are enamored with Julio last year and This year not so much and Lee rushman he Was fifth amongst uh Fang amongst Rookies in WRC plus he was second in Walk rate and he was 11th in K rate Amongst all rookies that played last Year that had a minimum of a hundred Plate appearances so incredible Incredible season from him not amongst Just catchers but also amongst all Rookies and that's every position not Just catcher Ali rushman was truly one of the best If you look at his rookie cards amongst The top five or his price on his Base Auto among the top five rookies this is What you get Julio Base auto PSA 10
1825 he's number one Michael Harris was Third in fangraphs wins above Replacement his PSA 10 Base auto 540. Stephen Kwan he doesn't have an auto he Was fourth Um and then Jeremy Pena was Fifth and His Base auto PSA time was 525 dollars Now Ali rushman he hasn't had a PSA 10 Sell for a while but his sgc10 which is At least close last sold for 500 now PSA 10 would bump would give you a little Boost but remember adley rushman was a Former Number one overall pick so he has that Boost baked in whereas Michael Harris And Jeremy Pena things weren't expected Of them so they're really their boosts Really were Play related whereas Ali he hasn't Gotten as much of a boost play related As these other guys and then he's way Way far far away from Julio's prices Despite being just as good and Potentially a better player than Julio The next one up is actually Julio Rodriguez he's my number two player I'm Interested in watching obviously this is Pretty self-explanatory Julio was Amazing last year but month by month Ops This is where it gets kind of Interesting so March and April he had a 544 Ops in 20 games May in 866 Ops in 28 Games June a 903 Ops in 28 Games July And 884 Ops in 19 games a August a 701
Ops in 17 games and then September and October a 1200 Ops in 19 games his worst Year outside or his worst month outside Of his first month was a 701 Ops which Isn't good but it's still above 700 Which is at least Raises the floor right Every other month was above 860. His Ops for the year was 853. if you Remember that first month and he just Plays like he did from the Um from the second month onwards this Dude is probably pushing close to a 900 Ops as a rookie and he also had 25 Doubles 28 home runs and 25 stolen bases So 25 25 there just kind of a fun thing To look at so he's got the power he's Got the speed and it's not just over the Fence or before the fence power he's got Both Julio truly amazing last year and So I'm curious you know whatever his Price is going to be because if you go On car ladder and look at his ladder They show all the cards on it that he Has on that grat that he has graphs of There are 33 cards in the last year that Are down in price in the red Right there are only 13 cards on car There that are in the green so despite His amazing year And despite everyone loving to talk About him and one in Julio tons of his Cards are down including this refractor Auto PSA 10 that is down 15 in the last
Year and the reason for that is Obviously the card Market was really hot Going into last year and cool off Dramatically But it's still crazy to me to see quite Possibly the most popular player in the Entire sport for a while and going into This year and yet his cards are down Largely across the board in the last Year so we'll see what he can do if he Can bump those cards up because if he Doesn't have as good of a year as he did Last year I suspect those cards are going to be Dropping down all right number three is Aaron judge so obviously Aaron judge Amazingly your last year 60 home runs Well here's this tweet from Yankees Muse Only three players have followed up a 60 Home run season with a 50 home run Season and those are Babe Ruth Mark Maguire and Sammy Sosa who did it twice Now Obviously there's not that many 60 home Run Seasons where you can have a huge Sample size and only three guys did it Right but it'll still be interesting to See if Aaron judge can follow it up and The reason I bring this up is because Last year was a contract season for Aaron judge he had to play well to get a Ton of money well he signed his 360 Million dollar contract he locked in his Money now is he going to perform well
Moving forward will he get a 50 I don't Expect him to get a 60 home run season Will he get a 50 home run season will he Get a 45 home run season will all of a Sudden some nagging injuries pop up we Don't know but we do know that guys Usually play well in their contract Seasons and sometimes paying a contract After their contract season when which They did really well doesn't always work Out very well but last year he was Amazing and that propped up so much of His Market even the most random Autos You've never heard of had huge boosts Last year including this 2017 Topps Archives 1959 Bowman uh series Auto Number to 99 PSA 10. this is a pop 20 Card and last year it only sold three Times but it was 465 dollars in May and It went for 2 600 in October that is a 459 increase in just five months six Months or five months Um and I don't know what it is today it Hasn't sold in a while it would likely Be significantly down from that twenty Six hundred dollar point but it still is Fun to look at what was going on while He was in the midst of his home run Chase and how crazy people got to pay These types of prices for Autos that Should never have been that close to That high and now if he doesn't if he Doesn't follow up with another massive Massive massive season these prices are
Going to Crater I feel but I could be Wrong but I do think that they are gonna Crate her if he does not follow it up With at least a 50 home run season next Up on the list number four is show Iotani and the reason I bring up Otani Is because he's in the position that Aaron judge was in last year in which he Is in a contract year he's making 30 Million dollars this year so he doesn't Have to worry about money but he isn't a Contract here and he is about to as long As he stays healthy become the mo the Highest paid player in MLB history and Probably buy a long shot you can't tell Me that a team like the Mariners or The Orioles or you know a team like that That's been bad and can knock off two Stones with or two birds with one stone Getting a good uh top 15 pitcher and a Top 15 hitter all in one package anybody Would sign up to do that as long as they Have the money and there are a lot of Teams that have been saving up money to Be able to take a run at australi Regardless of the price and it is going To be drastic that price And it's deserved in the last two Seasons combined ohtani is top 25 or Tied for 25th in position player Fangraphs wins above replacement At 8.9 For a pitcher he is 10th with 8.6 Fangraphs wins above replacement you
Combine those together he is first in Wins above replacement at 17.5 point six Wins above replacement better than Aaron Judge That's how good of a player is he is Half a win half a win better than a guy Like Aaron judge who just put up one of The greatest Seasons we've ever seen in Our entire lives with the bat especially In court in context of the rest of the League and how poor the wrestling league Was doing were guys with 760 Ops were a 115 WRC Plus 760 Ops I don't know five years ago Might have gotten you a 102 WRC plus and So on so Otani or judge was amazing and yet Ohtani over the last two seasons has Been half a win better than him and like Four wins better than the third best Player in baseball over that time span So Otani going to get a massive contract As long as he stays healthy I'm just Curious can he become even better this Year because it's a contract here will We will we see one of the greatest Seasons of all time I'm hoping so and so he is number four And then number five for me is Corey Seeger so Corey Seeger he is was the Former Dodger shortstop signed with the Rangers massive deal and then kind of Put up a disappointing season he had a 117 WRC plus
Um which is okay not great and that is 12 points lower than his career average Of 129 a 129 WRC plus that was lowered By his 117 Ops or WRC plus last year if He had had a higher WRC plus last year That 129 career average would even be Even higher so it's even a little bit More disappointing of a season that he Had last year now the reason I bring him Up is because according to this CBS Article I read He hit into 123 outs last year into the Shift he was shifted 92.8 percent of the Time he came to the plate he hit into 123 outs into that shift that is by far The most the next closest was Josh Naylor at 95 and then Rowdy to Las at 86 And it goes down from there and you can See the list so if he's heading into That many outs and now the shift is gone And he still put up a 117 WRC plus what Will he put up now now that the shift is Gone I am very curious I want to see and So therefore he is my Fifth Player of the Year and we're Looking at cards here his 2016 Topps Chrome rookie P refractor PSA 10 that is Down 36 percent in the last year if we Can bump that up because of uh no shift And now back to Quality production Seems like a win in my book so Corey Seeger is the fifth spot All right those are my top five if You've got guys that you're looking at
In for this season drop them in the Comments below let me know what you're Thinking about this upcoming MLB season In the comments below would love to hear From you and if you're a Brewers fan Drop a comment as well would love to Hear from you as well as I am a Brewers Fan myself so thank you everyone for Watching today's daily slab if you like This video please click that like and Don't forget to hit that subscribe Button and I will talk to you all Tomorrow for the next daily slab see Everyone Foreign