Fantasy Baseball Today - 01/02: Encarnacion! Ryu! Keuchel and More! (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: January 2, 2020

The MLB transactions never stop, and we're back to react to the latest news! First, are we nervous about drafting HOU players now that their cheating operation has been exposed? And which signing or trade from the last two weeks has been the most impactful for Fantasy (6:15)? Which has been the least impactful (11:51)? ... Going through more news and notes (15:00) including Edwin Encarnacion and Dallas Keuchel to CHW plus Rich Hill and Homer Bailey to MIN. We also give our thoughts on Hyun-Jin Ryu, Luis Robert, Cesar Hernandez and more ... Answering your keeper questions (30:50)! ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. What a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. We're fantasy! Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris. You know, it's been a pretty eventful couple of weeks in fantasy baseball. Welcome everybody to the show, Fantasy Baseball today.

Adam Azer with Chris Towers. We're going to talk about the biggest news, the lamest news. The Domingo Armand News, Homer Bailey to the twins, Eben Incarnacion, and Dallas Caico, to the White Sox, stuff like that. What's going on Chris Towers? Happy New Year, buddy. Happy New Year. You got any resolutions? Yes, yes.

Let's hear him. I want to exercise more, always. And I've said all of these things on the football podcast, so I apologize to those who listen to both. I already, I already went for a run in 2020. Did it yesterday. Are you dying? It's like you're, because you're, this is weird. Yeah.

South Florida. And I'm in the northeast. Yeah. Technically, Connecticut. Right. This is a bizarre situation. I'm looking at you sitting in my seat. The weather was really, yeah, it's true.

The weather was really nice. So I was doing just fine. My other resolution is to stop cursing so much. Yeah. That's going to be hard. Right. Yeah, it is. That's been one of mine for a while, and I always fail.

But this year, I'm going to cut at least 30% of my profanities out. You've got a sponge living with you. You kind of have an incentive to. Like, I've got cats, so it doesn't really matter. I talk like a sailor at home. Well, I imagine, as a fellow cat owner, if you didn't have cats, you wouldn't curse as much. But they are infuriating, curse-inducing animals. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sometimes.

If you had a kid and a cat and your stupid cat that you love with all your heart, wanted attention while you were like feeding your child or bathing or changing her. You would be, I yell. I mean, I don't yell at the cat. I yell internally. I want to yell at the cat, but I resent. They're so annoying, Chris, when you don't want them to be around. Like, they're so annoying.

The cats. The cats. Okay. Yeah. All right. Anyway, email of the day is from Rosendo at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Should we draft an Astros player after the first two rounds? Obviously, Bregman, Altuve, and Brantley are going to be out. I don't know about Brantley in the first two rounds.

But with all these signs stealing from the Astros and the big advantage with that, are their players still good? Yes. I think, I mean, what we saw with, I think it was 2017 was the big leap that the offense made. They went from one of the worst strikeout teams in baseball to, I think, the lowest strikeout rate. It was a dramatic shift. But one of the weirdest things about that was they made almost the exact same gains on the road as they did at home. And now, obviously, we don't know what they were doing specifically.

I mean, we know they were banging on trash cans and strumming on streetlights. But other than that, we don't actually know, like, how widespread it was. Was it just at home? That would make more sense. They have, you know, access to their own facilities. But, you know, when we saw those improvements on the road, it does make me wonder how much of it is something that we can point to and say, okay, this is for sure why George Springer is good. Like, George Springer was good as a prospect. You know, I think, you know, Jose Altuve has always been a guy who never struck out.

So I think you're probably overthinking it. It's a lot like the juiced ball where you take it into account in your preseason rankings. but we just don't know, and it's really hard to make declarative statements on something where we're dealing with a lack of information. And that's tough because it is possible that the Astros come out this year. And, you know, they're not getting this advantage and their guys just don't hit as well. But we don't know that for sure. And I think you can you can dig yourself in a hole if you try to fade Alex Breggling.

You try to trade George Springer or try to fade George Springer. I'll say like Altuve in 2019, most recent season, was a lot better at home than he was on the road. But in 2017, he had an 834 OPS at home and a 1081 OPS on the road. Unbelievable, much better on the road. In 2018, and 2017, by the way, is the year the Astros probably they should be stripped of their World Series championship for their rampant cheating. 2018, he had an 898 OPS on the road and 776 at home. So he's actually someone like if 2019 it never happened where he was so much better at home, I might actually be a little bit worried about Jose Altuve.

I think it's, look, they're obviously cheating. They're huge cheaters. They should be stripped of their World Series Championship for the, I'm going to say that about 100 more times before the end of the year. I don't think it's nothing, but I'm going to treat it like nothing because I don't know that it's something. because I don't know that it's something, if that makes sense. Yeah, like, Alex Bregman has had massive home road splits. He has a 10-12, or no, sorry.

Actually, I was looking at the wrong category. Let's just move on. He's been better away from home. Away from home. Yeah. Which is interesting because he seems like exactly the kind of guy who would be better in their home park, but that's not because of the sign stealing.

It's because of that short porch and left field. He doesn't have a ton of power, but it plays up because of that. But he's actually been better on the road, so nobody knows anything. I just realized what I said. So Jose Al Tuve was actually better on the road and not at home. Okay, so just I don't know why I got confused. It seems like you did too. I probably confused you.

So my bad. So Jose Al Tuvei, while they were rampant cheaters, was better at on the road than at home. So forget it. Yeah, that's what you said. Yeah, I know, but I said it and then I made a point that made no sense. Because in my mind, he was better. In my mind, he was better where they were. but in reality he was better where they weren't cheating.

Although they're probably cheating on the road too because they're huge cheaters. Anyway, of all the things we've seen over the last two weeks, now this was after Rendon and Bumgarner and Garrett Cole, what's the biggest fantasy impact of these last two weeks? It's not a ton to point to. I guess Edwin and Carnaccio to the White Sox. Oh, Chris, there's so much. Look, okay, here's what we're dealing with.

We got Keiko and Encarnacion to the White Sox. We got Ryu to the Blue Jays. We got Homer Bailey and Rich Hill to the twins. We got my vote for the biggest fantasy impact is Shogo Akiyama to the Reds. We got Patances to the Mets. We got Travis Shaw to the Blue Jays. Lewis Robert today signing a big deal. Domingo Oman suspended for 63 games in 2020.

We've got a lot of stuff here. So what's your, what's your vote? And Cardassione? Okay. Luis Robert. Robert. Robert. Louis Robert.

I think that's probably the biggest one just because this basically guarantees he signed a five year, six year, $55 million deal with a couple of options. This basically guarantees he'll be their own opening day. I'm sure they'll say in the next couple of days, well, we're, you know, we want to make sure that he'll be up when he's ready. And they'll, they'll do that whole dance. but he'll be there on opening day. And so I think that probably, you know, makes him someone that'll be, you know,

worth drafting for sure within the top. I would guess he'll go within the top 100 picks. Do you think he'll go ahead of Elo Jimenez? I think it's possible, but there is a, I think there's going to be a lot of hype around Elo Jimenez in his second year because, you know, he did have such a huge September. Okay. Yeah.

Scott's only got his top 24 published. I dig somewhere for the rest of his rankings, but I'll pull up some ADP. All right. My, yeah, so my vote for the most impactful fantasy thing of the last two weeks is Shogo Akiyama. He is the new probably leadoff hitter and center fielder for the Cincinnati Reds. He can play all three outfield positions. He's 31, and he's signed a three-year deal worth a little more than $15 million with the Reds. So here's a bit of a write-up on him that I read from CBS Sports.com.

He is a five-time All-Star who has twice won the Golden Glove Award in Center Field. In Japan, golden gloves are given for all-around excellence, not just defense. Veteran Japanese baseball reporter Jim Allen says Akiyama can hit for average in power and adds, quote, now he's just better than average on the bases, and he is in, quote, a steady decline. defensively. So it's kind of interesting. He gives you some power. He gives you some speed.

He's kind of been a star. And he's been in the Japanese leagues long enough where they didn't have to post him or anything. He was just a straight up free agent. But, you know, one thing this does is it makes you wonder where Nick Senzel is going to go because second base, Mike Mustakis is there. They got third base covered. Could he play shortstop?

But Nick Senzel is currently only outfield eligible. So I don't know. There are a lot of moving parts here. also have a lead-off hitter who can steal some bases for the Reds. Yeah, and there's no guarantee that Freddie Galvis will remain the starter. You know, I know he had a good year last year, but that's relatively speaking. And after getting to the Reds last year, he had a 696 OPS, you know, great defensive player, but not necessarily someone.

I would guess Nick Senzel's in the opening day lineup somewhere. As for Akiyama? Yes. Is that how you pronounce it? Okay. The profile actually looks a lot like Shinsu Chu over the last couple of years. You know, Shin Suu has been someone who, uh, Heath Cummings has really liked a lot. And he, I would guess over the last four years has pretty consistently outperformed his ADP hitting, you know, 20 to 20, 21 to 24 homers every year, uh, scoring a bunch of runs because he gets on base.

Uh, hit 24 homers, 15 steals, 265 average 93 runs last year. I would expect less power than that. that from Akiyama who hit 20 and 143 games last year against obviously inferior competition. But, you know, a similar-ish profile, not someone that I would get terribly excited about, but, you know, probably could be in the mix, you know, as a fifth outfielder. I guess part of the problem with that profile, someone who walks a lot but doesn't have huge power, doesn't steal a ton of bases, is an issue we've seen with Chu, where, his game might be better suited for a head-to-head format where you usually have fewer outfield

spots to fill. Yeah, like a points league format, you mean. Yeah, and there's a lot of OBP here. I mean, he's around 400 OBP every year. Do they play 143 games in Japan? He's played 143 games in five straight seasons, exactly 143 games. So that's pretty cool. All right, how about the least, the lamest fantasy impact of the last two weeks?

You want me to go first? Yeah, I don't really know how to answer that question. Yeah, yeah. In your homework. Dellen Batances, to me, like, here's a guy who for the last five years, excluding 2019, has clearly been one of the best relievers in baseball. In those five years, we're talking a 222 ERA, talking 14.6 strikeouts per nine. A 102 whip, which is really good, slightly higher than, like, the truly elite RPs, but really good.

And his ERA, his last three seasons, has been closer to three. but his K-rate has been over 15. And he goes to the Mets, and they have Edwin-Diaz. Now, he might be better than Edwin-Diaz. It might be great, but I would have liked him for Delambatances to go to a place where he's really going to get to compete for the closer's role. I imagine it's Diaz's job to lose, basically. I would guess so, and we also have to take into account the fact that Delin Patanzas is coming back from a torn but not a ruptured Achilles. Now, a ruptured Achilles is not necessarily a death center.

but it's arguably the toughest injury to come back from that's not like a shoulder injury. And so we'll have to see what he looks like. You know, you said the whip is a little higher. I think that's mostly just been true since his run prevention numbers have been a little higher than, you know, we want to see. Like, he's got a 289 ERA over the last three seasons. 2016 to 2018, he only faced two batters in 2019. Right. So he's not quite in that.

elite tier. Now, the strikeouts are. That's the biggest thing that he gives you when he's healthy is you're going to get, you know, a hundred plus strikeouts from a reliever, which has a lot of value in a roto league, although, you know, without the saves with a high 2 ZRA rather than a high 1 ZRA, it's, you know, maybe more just a late round guy that you swap in your lineup when you don't like the matchup to your starter time or something. But you got to, obviously, you got to figure if Diaz struggles, again, Patances could be next in line. Sure.

Sure. It gives them another option. Hopefully the New York Mets stink doesn't ruin him like it does everybody else. I mean, let's like, Edwin Diaz was the best closer in baseball. He goes there. He has a 559 ERA. Oh, Jersfamilia was unbelievable. And I mean, he was unbelievable with the Mets, but then he comes back and he's a disaster.

had another guy. I can't remember his name. But there was another guy who was really bad after signing with the Mets. The Mets just ruined everything. The Mets had a bad off season. They have Seth Lugo. They have Bantanis. If they get Diaz going again, they actually, they're a sneaky playoff team because if their bullpen hadn't been so bad last year, they definitely could have competed for a wild card.

I think their bullpen's actually going to be really good. There's a ton of talent with Diaz and Bantas especially. Yeah. Lugo was so good. All right. So I'm not even going to let Chris respond with his lamest. of the last two weeks, because he doesn't have one. So I'm going to let him off the hook.

Let's just go through the rest of the news and notes. So Domingo Oman is suspended 81 total games, 63 of them this year. And, yeah, I mean, this is probably a little longer than I expected, I guess, but not, I don't know. Not surprising. So we don't have to draft Domingo or Amon. He's probably going to be out about the same amount of time as Rich Hill,

I don't think. So, yeah, I mean, they both, obviously. pitched really well last year, who would you take Domingo Armand or Rich Hill and we're going to leave morality out of this and just talk baseball? Yeah, the thing that I think you have to

keep in mind is you don't get to use an IR spot. I mean, maybe your league will allow you, but when a guy suspended, they don't go on the IR or the IL. Gosh. Get with the sport, Chris.

Man. So, yeah, I think it's obviously Rich Hill with that in mind. And I think just Rich Hill's a better pitcher. Like we saw a pretty incredible couple of months from Domingo Armand, but that was basically it for him in his career. You know, he wasn't a huge prospect. He was a decent prospect.

Great stuff. He was someone that the ACEs metric that we talked about a lot last off season identified as a potential breakout candidate worked out really well. But I'm not sure. like Rich Hill is going to pitch like an ace when he pitches. You know, we know that pretty much at this point. Okay. Rich Hill's on the Twins, by the way.

And so is Homer Bailey. So Homer Bailey's, you know, he's worth discussing for sure. He turned it on late last year and he finished the season with Oakland. With Oakland, he had a 430 ERA, but in his last eight starts, specifically, he had a 225 ERA. The first five starts with Oakland. Three of them were fine. Three of them were quality starts. Then he just had these two terrible.

terrible starts where he gave up 16 earn runs in six and two thirds. But last eight starts, 225 ERA, seven walks to 48 strikeouts and 48 innings, 13% swinging strikes. Did he throw his splitter more? Yeah. Kind of, but he threw his splitter a lot all year. I went back and I looked at the game log of every game where he threw his splitter 30% or more. And usually the results were pretty good. So he threw a splitter a lot, but I think he ramped it up even more late in this season. I just, I mean, we're talking about a guy who was one of the worst pitchers in baseball for basically two and a half straight years, I think, before this late season surge. So I don't know, how do you feel about him? Not someone that you need to invest anything more than a late round

pick in him, but like you said, that splitter, there are reasons to be optimistic based on the splitter. Now, it could be a situation like a Kevin Gosman or Matt Shoemaker, where you have one really, really good pitch. In this case, for both of them, it's the splitter, or for all three of them, I guess. And so it might be a situation where you'd like to see Homer Bailey throw that splitter more, but maybe it loses his effectiveness the more he throws it. I'm not sure.

Let's talk about Edwin-Incarna Cronos. Going to the White Sox, busy, busy offseason for the White Sox going to make the playoffs. Chris Towers. That's a pretty terrible division, so maybe. Yeah, maybe. They should be, they could be really good. You know, I feel like if I say Ewan Encornaccio into a baseball fan, they know he hits 30 home runs, but they probably don't think much else.

Well, He went in Carnacio and hit 34 home runs in 109 games. Yeah. I know his batting average is going to stink. He's probably going to hit about $250 if we're lucky, you know. He had 244 this year. His batting average has declined four straight seasons, but eight straight seasons with 32 or more home runs, and just hit a ton this year.

So 34 and 1009 games, that's six. So, yeah, like, let me put it this way. 2017, he was the number five first basement of points, number eight in Roto. 2018, he was number nine in points, number six in Roto. In 2019, he would have been, if we're just giving him 140 games, 140, not 150, not 140, 140, everyone in Karnasian, would have been the number, nine first baseman and points. He would have scored more points than Anthony Rizzo, Yule

Griselle, and Jose Ibrahim. Even with that crappy average, even with the plate discipline being bad. So, you know, what do you think about a guy who's going to be 37 years old in a few days? The skill set's definitely declining. And, you know, we saw that in 2018, most specifically, when the power wasn't quite where we have gotten to gotten used to it and then it bounced back last season. But everybody's power bounced back last season. So, you know, I think. But his was like extra bounce back. Sure, sure.

But I mean, he hit 38 home runs in 2017 and 42 in 2016. So, you know, yes, he hit 34 and 109. There's no, there's not necessarily any guarantee that he would have kept that pace up. I guess his pace with the Yankees was a little slower, right? Yeah, he got hurt, and he was so bad in the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, look, you're not going to have to invest much in him. He is, is he first base eligible? He is, yes, he played enough there.

So that helps because there's going to be this year a couple of DH-only guys. So him being first-based eligible certainly helps his appeal. but look you're going to have to spend maybe a 15th round 13th round pick on this guy he's there's not going to be much risk uh even at his age you know i'm looking at it's hard to find early adp right now but um you know it looks like fan tracks has him at 182 overall i'll take that every time around who like who are the other guys some other hitters in his reign scott kingery Chris Davis, Adam Eaton. Chris Davis?

With a K. Are you serious? That's where he's going. Yeah. I'm going to have a lot of Chris Davis. I'm the most consistent hitter in baseball for three or four straight years. He obviously had a down year and was playing through injuries and he's going in the 180s. Come on now.

That's crazy. One caveat is I cannot access an FBC ADP right now, which is probably the best option. Same with me. Why not? What's going on with us? Oh, I think I just found it. I got it. Okay.

I think. Nope. Nope. What's going on, Chris? Why can't we get this? I think that is an issue with the, uh, with the Wi-Fi on CBS. Really? Yeah.

Can't, uh, you can't get there. Okay. Jose Ebreu or Eben Encarnacion? Yeah, I think in a vacuum, maybe Jose Ebrayu, but there's going to be. to be a significant gulf in their cost. I'm looking at, I was able to get to the NFBC ADP. Woo. Ibrahim, who currently has an ADP of 77th overall,

which feels way too rich for his profile, especially, you know, when he's not a guarantee to hit for average either. So, you know, Edwin-on-Karnassion does come off the board right now, about 100 picks later. I'll gladly take that value. All righty. So let's see what else we got here. We got Dallas Kikell to the White Sox three years, $55.5 million.

Overall, look, I think anybody who listened knows how I felt about Dallas Kikell. Thought he was going to be terrible with the Braves. He really wasn't. But a 375 ERA with a 137 whip and well under a strikeout printing is not very good. But I would say he was really a lot better than that. His first two starts were bad, you know, like six-sern runs and 10 and two-thirds. It's not surprising. He missed so much time.

His final 17 starts, he had a 362 ERA, but he had 12 quality starts and 17 starts. He had one just awful, awful start. He gave up eight runs and three and two thirds at Miami. You take that start out, and now we're talking to 302 ERA, but still a 1.26 whip, which you know it's never going to be a good whip. But for the most part, if you started Dallas Keiko, he pretty much did well for you, which surprised me.

I really didn't think he was going to be that good. And then you guys, Junjun Riu, also going to the Blue Jays. We can talk about that. But, you know, what do you think of, like, Dallas Keikl, or we got an email about Armand Marquez. Would you rather have Armand Marquez or Dallas Keikle? I would rather have Armine Marquez for sure. So where's Dallas Keikel going in this ADP?

276th overall right now, an NFBC ADP, just ahead of Garrett Richards, Forrest Whitley, and Yanni Chorinos. And that feels like an interesting mix because there's upside with someone like Forrest Whitley. If he gets into the Astros rotation, although there's no guarantee of that. We've been saying that for two years now with Forrest Whitley. But he's the safe guy that you can get and he'll hopefully make 32 starts and not hurt you. But there's not a ton of upside there. He's not someone who's going to help you a ton.

No, that's why I don't really want to. He has to pitch so well. especially in a rotissory league or categories, because he's a whip killer and he's a strikeout killer. And he just has to pitch so, so well in order to really be good for fantasy. If Dallas Keikel is just average, he's not even worth owning. Junjin Ryu has been, for the past two seasons, one of the best pitchers in baseball.

He stayed healthy. He's going to the Toronto Blue Jays. He'll be 33 years old in March. He had a 232 ERA. He had a 101 whip for the second straight season. But the strikeouts did go down to an 8 per 9-9 rate after it was 9.7 last year. It's not great with strikeouts other than 2018. Where's Junjin Ryu going in ADP?

Junjun Riu is going. You've got to give me a heads up on these things. 101st. Control F. Right behind Sunny Gray, Mike Soroka, and just ahead of Carlos Carrasco and Madison Bombar. That's a really good group. That's a really interesting group. Yeah, it really is.

There's a lot of potential for some serious, serious profit. All right, so give us, give it to us again. Give us those five. Then we're going to rank them. Sunny Gray, Mike Soroka, Junjun Riu, Carlos Carrasco, and Madison Baumgartner. Carrasco is one with a bullet for me. Yes, I think so.

I think I don't quite understand. Like, I understand why he's going so late. But this was a guy who this time last year, you know, we were talking about him as a potential top 12 picture. I don't understand why he's going. going so late. I think it's very obvious why he didn't pitch well last year. Yeah. He's number one there with a bullet.

Number two, I don't think it's going to be Soroka. I think it's, I think I'm going to go Carrasco, Ryu, Gray, Soroka Bumgarner. I might swap Gray and Soroka. That's one that, you know, now that you know, we're in the new year, I'm going to really

start going deep into my fantasy base all research and Syroca is someone who I'm really looking forward to looking into deeply. Because my initial reaction is just to write him off. Right. But, you know, I probably in his prime wrote Dallas Kikeloff too much. Oh, you sure did. Absolutely. And I ended up being right.

No, you did not. He had three years with a sub three ERA. He won a Cy Young. No. History has absolved me. Please. You know, editors get to write the history books. Okay.

Editors get to publish the history books. You are real Samuel Tarley. And so I think there might be something in that profile that can lead him to be underrated. So that's where I, him versus Sonny Gray, Mike Soroka, is a really interesting group. Okay. And then. And then. Garner, I think, clearly last, although I'm less ready to write him off than I was

this time a year ago. What's the most interesting of these three? The Indians signing second baseman Seazar Hernandez to a one-year $6.25 million deal. Jason Kipnis is a free agent. The Blue Jays signing Travis Shaw. They lost Justin Smoke. They signed Travis Shaw to a $4 million one-year deal. The Miami Marlin signing Corey Dickerson to a two-year deal worth $17.5 million.

And then I think, did Justin Smoke go to the Brewers? I believe he did. Yes. So it was like a smoke for Shaw swap. So out of Smoke and Cesar Hernandez and Corey Dickerson and Travis Shaw, what's the most interesting thing there? I think it's Justin Smoke and I think it's not particularly close. He had...

You love Justin Smoke. What's that? You love Justin Smoke. Well, he's someone who, I don't think we're ever going to see that 2017, Justin Smoke, where he hit 270, 38 homers, 98, 90 RBI. But he had only a 223 Babbitt last season. And even if you think Justin Smoke is the kind of player who will have low babbps, consistently, that's too low. I think there's a ton of sleeper potential for Justin Smoke, especially playing in Miller Park, which, you know, famously is a great place to hit, especially for left-handed hitters.

He's a switch hitter. He'll face lefties more often than he faces righties. And so I think, like, he's got an ADP of 480. Wow. He's been, you know, he's gone undrafted in a lot of leagues. He's someone who, with the last few picks, you know, either that corner infield spot, if I didn't fill it in or, you know, as a bench player, Justin Smoke makes a lot of sense of someone who I want cheap on draft day. Let's read some emails at fantasy baseball at cbsi.com.

Well, first, how's your holiday? Your New Year have been, Chris Towers. Good. I had a great New Year's Eve. I stayed home. You didn't go to time. You didn't go to Times Square? You big tourists.

I was actually really disappointed. So I live in East Williamsburg. But my living room, I look out my living room window and I can see the World Trade Center. It's a beautiful view. Striking. I go up on my roof. I can see pretty much all in Manhattan all the way from World Trade Center down in the south to Empire State Building in Midtown and all the way up. I see the whole thing.

So I go up on my roof right at midnight. I'm up there. It's cold. We've got some beers. Zero fireworks. I literally did not see a single firework from my rooftop. I don't know how that happened. I live in the largest city in the country.

Not a single firework. That is interesting. Even I saw fireworks. In fact, my brother-in-law lit fireworks at the party I was at. Could have come to our place. Outside? Yeah. Okay, good.

Yeah, I just want to make sure. Oh, yeah, for sure. That was fun. Did you, nobody's seen this movie, but did you see uncut gems? I have not seen uncut gems. I just really want to talk about it with someone. I saw the rise of Skywalker, but not on Cut Jums. Okay, well.

You're not a Star Wars guy. No, I mean, I want to be a Star Wars guy, but I keep hearing that all the new movies kind of suck. The Last Jedi's amazing. Okay. From Michael, Dear Carrasco Price, Ventures, and Donaldson, those are the comeback players of the year for 2018 and 19. I think it would be nice to have a brief segment about teams that tend to improve certain

types of players, or if there is a change. trend for something like this in looking for breakout candidates like the Astros and starting pitchers and Tampa Bay with hitters? That's a really tough question because one, we're not privy to a lot of what goes into these kind of situations. So like, I think with the Astros, it is pretty clear that they tend to get the best of everyone. Now, obviously, Adam Azer, you know, would say that it's...

Trip them of the title. Yeah, completely flawed. And they, but like this is a really, I think it's more like what are the really smart organizations. What are the organizations that are going to maximize what the guys have? And so I think you look at a team like the Yankees has actually had a really good track record with this. They seem to have really smart people in their off in their front office. And so when they identify like a Luke Voight, that should be something that makes you take notice. The Tampa Bay raise has mentioned in the email with, I can't think of the guy's name.

the guy they got from the Indians last year. Yandi. Yandi Diaz. Yeah, that's one where when they traded for Yandi Diaz, it was like, well, this guy hits the ball really hard, but hits the ball on the ground too much, the rays are a smart organization who might be able to get the most out of him.

So that's what I look for. Yeah, right. The Cardinals have always had a pretty good reputation. Astros, look, I still think the Astros are a very smart organization. I think it's all been there cheating, especially with the pitching. I mean, they obviously, well, but Trevor Bauer thinks they're cheating. All right. Anyway, here's a keeper question also from Michael. Same email.

I need two for a points league, 12 teams. Bellinger in the 11th. Flaherty in the 13th. Pete Alonzo in the 18th, Burrios in the 23rd. Uff. Bellinger for sure. And... Flaherty in the 13th, Alonzo in the 18th, Pryos in the 23rd. Probably Flaherty.

From Cal. I'm in a keeper league. I won my first... I won first place. this past season. I can only keep three players aside from Christian Yelich, who I am obviously keeping. So pick three. Rendon, Al Tuve, Tatez, Flaherty, Beber, Castillo, and Severino. I think it depends on whether it's keep for 2020 or keep forever, but Rendon is obviously one of the answers. I think Tatis and I think you probably want to keep one of the pitchers. I'm leaning Flaherty. Over Beaver? Yeah. Okay.

Although, let's not forget. If Severino, if you could guarantee me Severino was healthy, it'd be really hard to overlook him, too. Yeah. Castillo as well, but they're all really good. And I know why you won first place, but I think it has to be either Flaherty or Bieber, yeah.

From that, what is Erman Marquez's outlook for 2020? Can he still be trusted as a near ace on the road? Yeah, I mean, there was a point last year where he wasn't performing well on the road either, right? I'm looking it up now. I believe so, but I think overall he was performing.

You know, the answer to this question, in my opinion, is yes. If not near Ace, I'd say must start. Let's just check the 367 ERA on the road with 91 strikeouts and 102 third. That does not sound like a must start guy. but was it influenced I think that's a must-start guy it's not a near ace.

You're right. It's not a near-ace. It did come with a sub-one whip and really good control. So I think that's someone that on the road you're definitely starting him, but you have to acknowledge that there's a cap ceiling.

And what's going to make it really difficult is you can't just say never start him at home, right? Like he's too talented. Yeah. And when are you going to start him at home? And that's the thing that's really tough is it might be a situation where you just have to kind of start him and acknowledge that you're just going to, you're going to get a worse ERA than you might want, but you're going to get a lot of strikeouts. Hopefully he can make 32 starts and throw close to 200 innings.

He struggled his last three-road starts. And then he got shut down, you know, so I don't know how much injury played into that. Next email is from Hugh from St. Louis. I know I'm not saying that right. So let me know how to pronounce it next time you write us an email, my friend. Head to Head-to-He Points League, we keep five guys each year. We can keep them for three years. This year, I need to trade Jose Al-Tuve.

I'm looking to trade away Al-Tuve and Pete Alonzo for Mike Trout and a third-round pick which actually equals an eighth-round pick because we keep five guys. Al-Tuve and Alonzo for Trout and a third-round pick minus five rounds. So right now, Pete Alonzo has an ADP in the early. third round in a 12 team league, 28th overall in NFBC. So I think that's a late second in NFBC. So you're basically giving up like a third rounder and a second rounder for Mike Trouton and eighth rounder.

I think that's an obvious win. You take that. Yeah, I think it's a win, but I don't think it's a bad trade if you're the person getting Altuva and Alonzo. No, but in a situation where you can't even keep Altuva? Right. It's a great deal for you, yeah. And finally from Joe, trying to get Garrett Cole in my 16 team auction league.

We have six keepers. We have a $260 cap with hella inflation. Scherzer was the top pitcher for $60 last draft. Right now I am keeping. Verlander for 54. Severino for 17. Flaherty for four. Chris Bryant for 31 and Correa for 22.

And Joe Adele for two. I have sent out this offer. Severino, Conforto, Woodrow. Woodruff and Weaver. How much is that combined? 35, 40. For 45 combined dollars, Severino, Conforto, Woodruff, and Weaver

for a $50, Garrett Cole. What do you think? Yeah, I think you go for it. I mean, you've got, with Severina taken out of the picture, you still have five very good keepers there. So you're not keeping Conforto for 18.

Woodruff for $8 is really interesting. He's going to be a very popular, I don't know. call him a breakout candidate because he kind of broke out last year. I guess, I mean, but $8 is a good price for him. $2 for Luke Weaver feels like a good price.

But ultimately you need stars and Garrett Cole is a star. And if you could get him for that, I think that would be a good trade even without taking into account the salaries. That's Chris Towers, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, it is. Chris Towers. Well, by the way, what are your New Year's resolutions? You know, when you're perfect, there's not a lot of improvement.

fun. So I'm going to just say keep, keep on keeping on. Yeah, and just keep being modest, and I think you'll be, you'll be fine. Obviously. Right. Thanks a lot to Chris. Thank you all for listening. Hope you all had a great new year. Scott White will be back next week. We'll talk baseball with him for Chris. I'm Adam. See ya. Let's see you. Let's say next Wednesday-ish. Sometime around then. Talk to them. Bye.