Fantasy Baseball Today - 03/09 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Live Mock Draft!

Episode Date: March 9, 2018

We've got a 12-team points league draft for you to follow! Check out how we build our teams and how our listeners build theirs ... When SPs go earlier than you expect, how do you adjust? Should you take the hitter values or follow the draft trends? ... Find out when the RPs started going off the board and why it pays to wait for C ... 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

Domingo. Baseball today, Friday, March 9th, and we're drafting. We're in a 12-te-to-head points league. So far, two picks are off the board. Not only do we have this draft to tell you about, though. We've got some news from around baseball. So it's Adam, Scott Heath, and Chris here, and I am going to resume the drafts. Chris Towers are on the clock.

Mike Trout and Jose Al-Tube are off the board. Chris has the third pick. Only 45 seconds on the clock. We're going to try to get as many rounds in as we can. So Chris picks third. I pick fourth. Scott picks fifth. That was a coincidence.

No one Aronado is off the board to Chris Taylor. Yeah, totally strange that you just grouped all of you guys together at the front of the draft. You think I'm happy about that? All by myself at Pick 12. You think I'm happy about that, Heath? Come on now. I don't like picking in between these two guys. We have the same, you know, philosophies.

I'm going to go with Mookie Betts. Fourth overall. Scott White, you are up, sir, with a fifth pick. Oh, let me tell the format. Okay. Twelve teams, head-to-head points. 21 rounds with 16 starters. One catcher.

First base, second base, third base, shortstop, three outfielders, utility, five starting pitchers, two relief pitchers. Scott, you can go ahead and make your pick. Bryce Harper is your pick. All right, so far we have three outfielders off the board in the first five. We have Trout, Altovae, Aeronado, Betts, and Harper. And we'll have Kershaw come off the board pretty soon, I would assume. Yeah, I think this is a pretty typical top five. Charlie Blackman sometimes enters this group as well.

I think it being a points league, Harper and his high walk potential, makes it easier to justify him over Blackman. Kershaw actually went next, six, so Blackman is still on the board. Kershaw goes six, and you guys have Kershaw going after Blackman and Trey Turner and for Scott, John Carlos Stanton, but not for Heath, as I recall from our conversation a couple days ago. Adam. Yes. Did you realize there are four Adams in the league? Yes, I did realize that. It's incredible.

Let's talk about the cast of characters here. First of all, another Adam is on the clock right now. So we have Andy. I won't give out last names. Andy, Brooks. Brooks has just a tremendous name, doesn't he? You know, you don't know his full name. But, you know, I'll tell.

It's Brooks Swanson. I'm rooting for him. That is just a great name. And he's picking... Why don't you give out? email address while you're at it. I've given out last names before. They're usually fine with it. Chris Towers, me, Scott. We have... Not comfortable with you giving out my last name.

Do they... None of these people have, like, a Facebook account? Like, their last names just aren't already out there in the world anyway? Well, I mean, not to our podcast listeners. Oh, please. Somebody's going to look them up and stalk them. So after Scott White, the sixth pick is Eric. And the seventh pick is another Adam. He's on the clock right now. And then after Adam, we have Matt, we have TJ, we have another Adam, we have another Adam picking 11th, and then we have Heath at 12, right after two Adams. How about that? You don't think there's any chance all these atoms are just trolling you? I don't think so. Okay. It's a fairly common. We'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Pretty common. All right. So anyway, we're waiting for the seventh pick to be made. You guys can kind of bully Adam A, another Adam A, by the way, into making this pick. I don't think we can. I think he actually is trolling you, and he is going to auto pick. No, he's not doing this on purpose. This is very annoying. This would be the second time he is now auto picking. So anyway, let's go through the news. Colorado signed Carlos Gonzalez to a one-year deal. Let's talk about that. What's the impact there? Yuck. It muddies an already muddy situation. This was a team that probably had too many guys that we liked. I mean, we haven't said the name,

Rai Mal Tapia, but he could have been fantasy relevant with enough playing time. Gerardo Parra could have been fantasy relevant with enough playing time. The most interesting, David Doll, being David Doll and Ryan McMahon, where I saw it as a position battle between those two with Herardo Parra bouncing between right field

and first base is needed. And look, I don't know that Carlos Gonzalez is going to be like just, automatic everyday player. They don't have a big financial investment in him. He wasn't very good last year. So chances are one of those two, McMahon and Doll will still make the roster. But I imagine there's going to be some kind of rotation like we see happening in the Phillies

and Reds outfields. So is David Doll like worth drafting now? You still have to draft him in Rhode Over. Yeah. Five outfield early. He'll be up at some point. And you may have answered this. I'm sorry.

I'm trying to fix draft issues that were that are pausing. is Carlos Gonzalez worth drafting? No. No, I don't think he can hit lefties anymore. He wasn't that good last year. I'd draft him in a five outfielder league. I would take him in the reserve rounds

of the five outfielder league, yes. Yeah, like the 15-team league we're doing, he's probably worth drafting around round 20, but there you're talking 300 picks? Okay, yeah. Yeah, I mean, he was the top 14 outfielder of 2015 and 16 and was terrible last year, but of course he came on strong.

last 49 games, Carlos Gonzalez had a 10-02 or 1,000 OPS, basically. He had 327 with 8 home runs. But you have to wait like 5 months now for Carlos Gonzalez to be good. Mike Mustakis is back on the Royals. One-year deal, mutual option for a year two. He was the number 11 third basement in points, number 8 in Roto. He does not walk much, so he might be better in Roto than points. But he had 38 home runs.

We were hoping for a smaller ballpark, but he's back on the Royals. So what does this mean for Mike Mustakis? I was writing about this this morning, updating the Royals team outlook. I don't really think this is good for anyone. There are very few places Mike Mastakas could have signed that would have had a worse combination of supporting cast and ballpark. So this was about the worst case scenario for him. He now has to repeat last year's career high power numbers

just to be a startable third basement. I don't think anyone should expect that. It's also bad news for the group of Hunter Dozier, Jorge Solerer, Jorge Bonifacio, Chesler Cuthbert. Just two weeks ago, there were four jobs for those guys. And they all had a chance to be deep sleepers. Now there's two jobs for them. The one thing I will say that's a positive about this,

and it's more of a positive of the last two weeks. I had downgraded Danny Duffy and Calvin Herrera a little more maybe than I should have over how bad the Royals should be. In that time, they've added Lucas Duda, Mike Mustakis, and John Jay. I think they're probably closer to a 500 team than the worst team in baseball. And so Duffy and Herrera aren't in as terrible of situations I thought they were going to be injured. And I haven't really understood why we've all just decided as a fantasy community that Calvin Herrera is just useless now. He wasn't great last year, but before last year, he was really good.

I expected a bounce back. My problem with him was a combination of being on a bad team and the expectation that if they were 20 games out of it, he was getting traded to be a setup man. All right, Zach Rankie's velocity is down. We have done nothing but showers at Grinky with praise. How are you guys feeling about it now? I remember this happening last year. I just, I have such a hard time, like, caring about spring training velocity, because you're talking about stadium radar guns or, like, a beat reporter saw someone's gun.

It's not reliable. His velocity was fine in an earlier start. He hit 93. He was working consistently in the low 90s in his first start of the spring. I just, if he's throwing 85 by the end of spring, yeah, I'll be worried. But right now I have not moved him down. I hope you guys pass on him. Nope, nope.

Went through this last year, and it was easier to be concerned last year because he was coming off one of the worst seasons of his career. And he kind of became a kryptonite, I think, for some people with this report. And then the season started, and he was fine and had a great year. Near Sy Young, caliber year. And St. Louis manager, Mike Mathini, does not expect to have a set closer when the season begins. But we still expect it to be Gregerson if he's healthy, right? Yeah. I mean, all the beat riders have pretty much touted him as the closer.

And he's the guy I'm going to draft. They do, like, I do think Dominic Leone, Tyler Lyons would be better. But what was that? What was that, Heath? This mock draft. All right, all right, yeah. So we're back to drafting again. Just Lions, Leon, maybe even Bonnarth.

Mathini has not committed, but Gregerson is the front runner. Heath takes Paul Goldschman, Manny Machado. Let's recap, round one. Here we go. Mike Trout, Jose Al-Tuve, Nolan Aronado, Moogie Betts, Bryce Harper, Clayton Kershaw. There's your top six. Trout, Al-Tube, Aronado, Betz, Harper, Kershaw. Blackman, 7, Scherzer 8, Kluber 9.

All right. Trey Turner, 10. Chris Sale 11. So all four pitchers go in the top 11 and Heath goes and then he takes Paul Goldschmidt and Mani Machado at 12 and 13 and now Chris Byrd. People were drafting off your rank, Chief.

What I will say is if the consolation prize is starting your draft with Paul Goldschmidt and Mani Machado, it's a pretty good consolation prize. I'm okay with that. I do I'm seriously considered moving Goldschmidt down in

points at first base. I think you could make an argument for any of the other three to be better than him this year. The thing is, he's also got great plate discipline. Yeah, he walks a ton. I think he, I still have him ranked number one. I'll take him here and Machado. He's closer to the other guy. Yeah, it's very close. He went from being in a tier of his own to now it's a four-man tier, clearly. And I could very easily have the number one first base than I had number one shortstop this year. Yeah, you did not take Correa, you took Machado. So it's just a touch annoying on draft day because you can't put him at shortstop yet, you will have to use him as a third baseman,

just for the first week. And you'll have to draft a good third baseman at some point, too, who will be a bench player for you. No, no, I think that's the key here is, and I've done this before. If I have Machado on my team, I am looking pretty early at my utility and drafting a good third basement

and playing him there early in the season. And early in the season means, like, through Wednesday, April 3rd or whatever. Wow, Giancarlo Stanton just went, oh, no, we have to, we have got to back out this pick. We cannot have Justin Verlander being auto-picked to 15th over. I think Justin Berlander can go in the second round. I don't think that far-fetched at all. I don't think, yeah, it might.

This dude's not making his picks. No, he made his pick. He made his first pick. I don't know what happened to him in his second pick. All right, so let's recap what do you think about all four of those pitchers going in the top 11 with Kershaw going six? Scherzer 8, Kluber 9, sale at number 11. I think we've been trending that way for a while now. The deeper we get into draft prep season,

the more obvious it becomes that those pitchers are worth paying up for. And in a points league even more so. You're still going to, you know, you're picking in the back half of the first round. You're still going to get a first round caliber bat, at least in my mind, in the second round. So, you know, go seize the. the scarcity there and you'll be pretty happy. Okay.

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Stanton going 16. is pretty unusual. Everyone's drafting off Heath's ranks. That's what's happening. Scott had him seventh. I think Heath has him 17th or 16th. So we've just, we've got the Heath fan club, which explains why this draft is going so poorly.

I appreciate all these dudes and using my rankings. I would like to invite everyone else to join the revolution. It's such a matter of preference between that group. I mean, we talked about the top six hitters, you know, Harper and Blackman and Betts and Atouvae, Trout, who was the other one, Aronado. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, even there, like, I don't know that that would be the consensus top six. I think there are basically 13, 14, first round caliber bats.

And apart from Trout and Otuve going one and two, they could go in almost any order. We've just got another auto pick, Adamazer. Can we turn the tables here? And I'd like to ask you, what are your feelings? commissioner of this league right now. This is the worst. Can we just point out? The absolute worst draft of all time.

I'm so pissed off. The two problem children are Adams. Both Adams. I'm really angry right now, like extremely angry. But I'm also on the clock. So Justin Verlander goes 18th overall. Joey Votto to, is that you, Scott? No, no.

Oh, you're up now. I'm sorry. Yeah. I am going to take with this pick, I'm going to take Freddie Freeman. That is the guy I want to take. The last of the elite four first base. Damn it.

That's who I wanted. All right, so I've got an issue. I've got an issue. I need to talk about it. Three outfielder league. You know how I feel about putting too many good outfielders. So the best players are outfielder's and Francisco Lindor and Gary Sanchez. Jose Ramirez is there too.

Oh, Jose Ramirez. It's not sleep on hand. All right. The only one of the dual eligible elite hitters. Why are you acting like this is a decision? Aaron Judge is still there. you're going to take Aaron Judge. I took Jose Ramirez.

Jose Ramirez, great plate discipline, best doubles hitter in baseball, arguably. That's huge in points leagues. So I took him, and now Chris took J.D. Martinez. So I was thinking about J.D. Martinez. I was thinking about George Springer, who I prefer to Aaron Judge in points leagues. And, yeah, all right. So I decided not to go with two outfielders. But I could have.

I could have. I think you would have been the only one to go with Aaron Judge there, Keith, of everybody on this podcast. I would have taken Aaron Judge about six picks ago. Yeah. Gary Sanchez goes, we're done with two rounds now, so here's what round two look like. Machado, Bryant, Rizzo, Stanton, Correa, Verlander on an auto pick. Joey Vado, Freddie Freeman, Jose Ramirez, J.D. Martinez to Chris Towers, Gary Sanchez, Madison Bumgarner, and now Noah Cindergarde.

So the Trout owner goes Trout, Bumgarner, Cinderguard. Chris, I'm a little surprised with J.D. Martinez over Gary Sanchez. I know you love Gary Sanchez. Yeah, yeah. J.D. Martinez is a better hitter. Gary Sanchez gets the positional bump, but I haven't really drafted J.D. Martinez yet this season either, so I kind of wanted that.

And this has worked out perfectly because I had Springer and Aaron Judge as the next two guys I wanted to take. Only one of them was drafted in that turn. So I will happily take Aaron Judge with the third pick of the third round. All right, third round is Cindergarde, Springer, Judge, and now I'm on the clock, and I have another freaking difficult decision to make. So right now I have

Mookie Betz and Jose Ramirez. I'd really like to get a pitcher here, so it's either going to be Strasbourg or maybe Granky, or do I go with Francisco Lindor? I don't think so. Ordinarily, I'd go with Lindor. But we have a guy auto picking,

so he's going to take two more pitchers by the time I'm up. You could turn the auto pick off and see if he makes his pick. Oh, man. You probably won't. I'm going to go with... Fun to see the clock run down again. crap I'm out of time here I'm going to go with Wow

Strasberg I'm going to go with Steven Strassberg The Adams are ruining this draft All right So I felt I just felt like I needed a pitcher I'd like to get two really good pitchers If I didn't take a pitcher there I don't think I was going to get two top 17 pitchers And I really would like two top 17 pitchers

How do you guys feel about that Bumgarner's center guard pairing at the two three turd It's a little unusual and may Speed up the rate at which the elite starting pitcher, well the second tier, I guess, after the Super Elite. It may speed up how they go off the board. I'm going to pass one up here, though,

because I think Francisco Lindor sliding to the third round is something I want to take advantage of. But it may come back to bite me. I've talked a few times about that 10-team head-to-head points leagues where I went nine starting pitchers in the first 13 rounds, but none of my first three picks were pitchers. So I'm going to try that again. None of my first three picks pitchers.

We'll see if I like how it goes in a 12-10. team lead. Well, the next 12 will be pitchers, so I think he'll make up for it. Maybe. Yeah. Now that you guys have all picked, I really think I'm going to do something I've never done before, and I'm probably going to take pitchers at the 3-4 turn.

You have two hitters so far. Yeah, that's exactly what I would do. You're going to get, like, DeGrom and Carrasco, or DeGrom and Darvish or something like that. Unless the auto picks just take all the pitchers. That's possible. But actually, we didn't have an auto pick there, did we? We had the guy who did auto pick actually made a real pick, and it was Zach Granky.

So here's round three in this 12-team points league. Cindergards, Springer, Judge, Strasberg to me, Judge to Chris, Strasberg to me, Scott took Lindor, Donaldson, Granky, Cody Bellinger, now Luis Severino. The best pitchers available are still really good. They're still in that ace tier. Carrasco, DeGrom, U. Darvish, Carlos Martinez, guys like that. The best hitters available are Corey Seeger, Ben Intendi,

Reese Hoskins, Brian Dozier, guys like that. So the pitchers are a little bit better than the hitters right now, which makes sense. We've had a lot more hitters come off the board. With the 10th pick of round three, Carlos Carrasco. So let's take a look at the... Through almost three rounds, there are... so far three teams with two pitchers and two more picks to be made in this round.

And let's see what Adam does, another Adam. Adam so far has Chris Sale and Chris Bryant. And he is on the clock with 20 seconds left. We're almost done with three rounds here. Okay, this guy's name is Adam White. Are you sure they're not trolling us? Yeah, this guy's going to take Chris Archer? He took Corey Seeger.

Thank goodness he took Corey Seeger because the worst thing it can happen when you take Manny Machado at the one, two turners for Corey Seeger to fall to the three-four turn because you don't really want to play Machado at third. That's what I was going to be forced to do. My first pick is easy. I'm just going to take Jacob de Grom. Nice. And so I've got Goldschmidt, Machado, de Grom.

This is where it gets a little more difficult. And you do have to do a little bit of reaching at the turns if you want to get your guys. So I'm going to go ahead and take Ben and Tindy. I'm really disappointed that Adam White picked two Chris's to start his draft and did not take Chris Archer and Christian Yelich and then draft Heathcliffe Sloaklem. What about Chris Davis, even with a K? Would that count? Yeah, I think he really ruined it. I think he had a really good thing going. I don't think we want to criticize Adam White. He's the only Adam that has not ruined this draft.

It's so true. It is so true. Worst draft ever. So we're done with three rounds now. Ben and Tendi off the board for Heath. So Heath has one pitcher, one starting pitcher through four rounds. I have one starting pitcher through three rounds. Chris and Scott have none through three rounds. We still have we have no relievers off the board yet, but we still have U. Darvish, Carlos Martinez, who just went. Nope, Carlos Martinez just went.

We have U. Darvish, we have Dallas Kiko, Robbie Ray, and Chris Archer. And those would be the last four of the tier. So, Scott, you'll get one. Chris presumably. They could all go in a row here, and I won't, but presumably. I will also take one. I will take... Let's see who the best hitters are. We still have Dozier.

Yeah. Who are some of the best hitters, guys? I'm going to present guys. I mean... Hoskins, Incarnacion. Anthony Rendon is still there. And a points league, one of four guys who walked more than he struck out last year. I might pass up the pitcher if Rendon makes. What? Dude.

Yeah, I might. Big mistake. Well, we'll see. I mean, this is just so weird, Scott, because, like, two days ago, you were talking about the draft. You took nine starting pitchers with your first 12 picks, and you loved it. And now you've none of your first thing. Yeah, I mean, I've really liked the values of the hitters I've been able to draft so far. I mean, Lendor, mid-round 3, Rendon, mid-round 4, that doesn't normally happen.

Scott's experimenting. That's fine. I like it. That's what you do. I don't know that I'd call it experimenting. I'm just trying to do the best with the hand-down. I say you're still drafting the Scott Whiteway. Heath and I are both going to say it's experimentation.

We've got, here's what we've got so far. Ben and Tendi, Carlos Martinez, Alex Bregman, Brian Dozier, U. Darvish, and Reese Hoskins. Scott, can you lean your computer monies? forward just a little bit? Sure, I can. Oh, no, that made it worse. Sorry, back. Oh, he's trying.

We got cameras set up in here, and he's trying to see my monitor, who I have in my queue. All right, guess what? Let's set it up. Let's set it up. Jose Abrae who just went. So, Keiko, Robbie Ray, Chris Archer,

are all on the board. Scott, you're on the clock with 30 seconds left. Then it's me, then it's Chris. Uh-huh. Yeah, Rendon's still there. So I'm taking Rendon. Don't have a third basement yet. Rendon, Scott.

Let's see where this goes. All right, so now I'm on the clock, and I have Jose Ramirez, Muki, Betts, and Steven Strasbourg. Yeah, like if it's sort of a Roto League, I'd probably consider Daniel Murphy here, or Christian Yelich, maybe. But I definitely want a starting pitcher. So then it's who do I like best between Kikel, Robbie Ray, and Chris Archer? Yeah, let's go with Kikl, who says they're better than the Cubs. They will not have a World Series hangover. And now, Chris, you are up.

And you love Aaron Judge. Let me read this email from Tyler or take a quick break from drafting here. Then I'll recap. Tyler from Minneapolis wants to know who is this year's Aaron Judge, your favorite sleeper that's going undrafted that you're keeping an eye on. Claibor Torres, I think, could make a pretty good case to be this year's Aaron Judge, elite prospect, who obviously has a spot waiting for him. They traded their third baseman and second basement to make sure of it.

I don't know that he's going to win a job in spring training, but it won't be long afterwards. Chris and I'll just say in unison, Randall Gritchick, who has monster power, too many strikeouts, going to be in a great hitters park. He could be the 40 homer guy this year that strikes out too much, but has a high badbip and turns out to be a great asset. I want to point something out. You know how Jorge Salar has been around forever and we're already done with him and nobody cares and he's not talented and he's a bust? Stop saying that. We all are somewhat interested at him.

He is like 50 days older than Aaron Judge. I like that. That's a good stat. Okay, Chris, you took a pitcher, right? You took Robbie Ray? I took Robert Ray. And you just felt like you wanted to get one of the potential aces? Yeah.

You could have got Otani in a few rounds. I thought about taking Buster Posey, but I figured one of the next two guys after me has a catcher already. He took Gary Sanchez. there's a 50% chance that Buster Posi gets back to me. If he does, I will either take Buster Posi or get a pitcher with a bit more certainty behind him. Does anybody like Wilson Contreras, like, close to as much as they like Buster Posi? I used to have Buster Posi and Sanchez in the same tier.

I've since dropped POSI to the same tier as Contreras. So, yeah. But that being said, I think fifth round in a points league especially is perfectly fine time to take POSI. Yeah. I don't think I'm going to do it. Are you up again? Okay, well, let's recap the last few picks.

So after a little bit of a starting pitcher run, well, I wouldn't call it that. Scott took Rendon, and then I took Keikl and Chris took Robbie Ray. First closers off the board at 47 and 48 overall. Kenley Janssen, Craig Kimbril, end of round four. And then Yelich and Tommy Fam go. That kind of sucks. I was hoping to get Yelich as my number two outfielder. And now Chris is back on the clock.

Heath since you're not picking for a little while. What do you think about Jansen and Kimbril going? You only need two relief pitchers in this format. What do you think about them going at the end of round four in a 12-team league? I said with my last pick that you have to reach when you're at the turn if you want to get certain guys. If those guys wanted to have an elite closer, they had to take them right there. They were definitely going to go before it came back to them.

Is it a couple of spots too early in terms of my rankings? Yes, but that doesn't really matter when you're at that point in the draft. It's worth noting you don't need a closer in this league. Adam, you screwed up. I screwed up? It's all P-spots. Oh, that is super interesting. Oh, crap.

But it's points. They're probably... This is the worst draft ever. So you don't have to take a closer at all. There's no reason to take one. You should just take started. Wait, wait, wait. Now I had to back back up.

And I just auto-pick. You cannot pause this. No, I just auto-picked. Yeah, because I was so embarrassed by my horrible... Hashtag commiss show All right, so we're going to resume it now All right, so Commiss show

Chris, you took Tommy Fam No Who did you take? You are so on tilt Oh, you took Chris Archer And make your pick and then talk You took Tommy Fam went second You took Chris Archer

In third in this round So I, that means that starting pitcher Tiers is over Chris got two of them That was well done I think I am going to probably take Edwin Encarnacion. I need a first baseman. Great pick. Really?

Or Daniel Murphy. Outstanding pick. He's by far my best player on the board. You could have taken him 15 picks ago, and I would have liked it. Okay. Well, we are selecting Edwin Encarnacion to give me Encarnacion, Jose Ramirez, Mookie Betts, Stephen Strasbourg, and Dallas Keichel. I'm really happy about that start.

You know, it's only five picks in, so people should be happy. So, you know, almost got Chris Archer, two picks away. But that tier is out. So what do you do now with four hitters, no pitchers on your roster? Yeah, that tier is out. So I'm not terribly motivated to dip into the next year. I think I'm just going to lean into it here. Wow.

I'm going to take Nelson Cruz. I just appreciate you trying different things in a mock draft. Scott is shaking right now. It's, listen, you can have the same rough plan and it play out very differently. based on what the 11 other people are doing around you. It doesn't mean you're just throwing your plan out the window. Like, you're just trying to win. That's all you're doing.

Trying to win, just like all you. This is so interesting. We'll have to see which team you like better, the starting pitcher heavy draft or the one where you are not going to take any starting pitchers at all. After Nelson Cruz, Jose Kintana goes, then a role this Chapman. See, Chris is advocating for people not to take RPs, but that doesn't make any sense because... Yes, it does.

Oh, oh, no RPs, yeah, that does make sense. I assume we're going to treat it, like... No, Chris, I would treat it, yeah, at least for our sake, let's treat it like you need to start five starting pitchers and two relievers. We'll let the other... That's boring. No, just do it, Chris. I mean, that's the most common points league. I just, yeah, my thing is just that in points league, closers kind of stink.

Like, I hate them. I really hate drafting them. But, you know, but you have to draft them because that's what we do in points league. So five starting pitchers, two relievers. And there we go. Now, catching up on round five of the worst draft of all time. We've got Yelich, Fam, Archer, Encarnacion, Cruz, Kintana, Chapman, Cole, Posey, Contreras. All right, 57 and 58 for Posey and Contreras overall.

I like that. Heath is causing anarchy in the draft room. Yeah. I mean, it probably doesn't make sense for us to mock draft using a lineup variant that nobody actually uses. Yeah. So I'm with you. Says the guy that doesn't have any starting pitchers yet. He says definitely make these guys use picks on RPs.

I don't have any relief fidgeters yet. Also, there are eight pitchers spots. There are eight pitchers spots? There are eight pitchers. What was wrong? Like, Adam. All right. To get the standard setup is check a box, and it sets it all up for you.

Like, what were you doing? Okay, here's what happened. Here's what happened. I asked Scott White, hey, Scott, do you have any leagues that I can use for this mock draft? And he said, no, I don't. I said, okay. So I went back and I used a league that we used last year, but I didn't realize it was a head-to-head categories league instead of a points league. So I tried to set it up this morning as a points league, and I completely failed.

Yeah. I didn't check the box. I set it up as a points league, but it kept the category's rosters, which were eight pitcher spots instead of SPs and RPs. This is a comedy of errors. Eight pitcher spots, none of which are actually relief pitcher spots. So we will be drafting two really pitchers and six starters. Yeah.

I mean, he's not going to have a bench starter anyway, right? You know what? Honestly, I've looked at the draft so far. I really don't think anything has changed based on my normal expectation for a head-ed-head points league. Except Scott hasn't taken any starting pitchers Because he saw that this was a different type of league That's not why I was just going to load up on closers

You're using a different strategy Yeah Marcelo Zuna, 59th overall And then Heath took Masahiro Tanaka 60th overall And then Lorenzo Kane 61st All right, Lorenzo Kane I know we're expecting a big boost

at Miller Park But this isn't Roto Anybody think this was too early For Heath to take Lorenzo Cane? I'm just trying to start some controversy. No, no, I don't. Take heat off me. I think it's a bit of a stretch in a points league. I think he, am I the only one that prefers Lorenzo Kane to Marcelo Zena?

Yes. Yes. In a point. I think so. Like, I think this is the appropriate point to take Lorenzo Kane because I think when you consider the things he already did well, you're taking him from Kaufman to Miller Park. I'm putting, like, I'm putting an expectation of 20 home runs on him, even though he's never done before that park changes so extreme. And if you give him 20 home runs with everything else he does well, he's kind of like Andrew Benintendi. And I have him too.

I agree that he is a lot like Andrew Benintendi. I just, I think Andrew Benintendi's probably being ranked too high in both points and rota. So you hate Heath's team. Yeah. Well, naturally. Well, you know, he's had the 12th pick. So sometimes, you know, you got to reach a little bit.

One other thing about Kane is if he, if he, like two of the last three years, he's at a strikeout rate around 16%. That would help him a lot if he's there instead of the 20 that he was in the other years. Okay, now, recapping round six, we are into round six, and I will say that there is one pitcher left that I really want right now, and if he doesn't go, I'm going to take Justin Turner, because I think third vase is kind of shallow, and Andrew McCutcheon just went, so that's good.

So now Scott is on the clock. Will he take that pitcher that I really want? Well, I'm going to take a pitcher. Here's where I make my move here. Not thrilled with any of the hitter options still remaining. Obviously, have a nice foundation there. So I am going to take, if I can find him. Oh, he's already gone.

So no, I'm not going to take Jose Cantana. Instead, I'm going to take James Packers. No, Scott. Take Cantana. Just try to negotiate a trade with the Katana owner. I want Paxton. All right, so Scott takes Paxton. that to me ends a tier of pitcher because Nola is off the board,

Kentana's off the board, Tanaka's off the board, Paxton's gone, so I am pretty sure I'm just going to take a look around at some other positions, but see we got Gene Seguerah and Zander Bogart and Elvis Andrews, so I don't feel like I need to take a shortstop. Don't love the outfielders here, Pollock, Upton, Cespitus, guys like that. Yeah, let's just take Justin Turner and get a good third baseman here. It feels a little early, 69th overall for Turner. Am I going too early there?

Ninth pick of the sixth round? It was a very nice pick. My tears say it's between him and Justin Upton. So if you don't need pitching. Yeah, no, I think it was a great way to go. And, yeah, I think he could be an elite third basement. It's just at his age with his injury history. We're not expecting him to get the playing time of some of the others.

I mentioned earlier that Rendon was one of four, full-timers who had more walks than strikeouts, Justin Turner was, too. The other two were Anthony Rizzo and I'm not sure of the other one. Mookiee Betts. No, no. Mike Trout. Yes, Mike Trout. Yes, those were the four.

Trout, Rendon, Turner, Rizzo. So we're getting to a point where he's likely going to be drafted and I just want to, did any of you guys watch any MLB network last night? I did not. I went to a game. Johnny Coedo was pitching against the Mariners. The Mariners broadcast

features just randomly. It has an Australian color commentator, which is terrific. I want to put, Johnny Quato is not in the best shape of his life. Oh, no?

I don't know if it matters, but yeah, he didn't look great. Well, if he's got a little bit more on the backside, that wiggle and waggle might be more distracting. You didn't,

you mean he didn't look great, pitching-wise or just he didn't look like a fit athlete? He was not in the best shape of his life. Okay. Because the line was good. He had to be good start. Let me read round five, or round six, rather. It started with Lorenzo Kane, then Miguel Cabrera, Daniel Murphy.

Daniel Murphy's 63rd overall. That's pretty good, right? Maybe. I think it's good. Yeah, I'm... I'm a little concerns. I never expected him to be ready for spring training. They were saying back in December that he wasn't going to be ready for spring.

Right, but they're now saying they're not sure if he's going to be ready for opening day. I'm sorry, I meant for opening day. I meant, I'm not surprised. But I was operating under the assumption that, oh, he won't be ready for opening day, but he'll be ready for the second week or whatever. And now, like, who was it, Dr. Mike Tanner? Was that his name? Yes.

Yeah. And he's kind of opened my eyes to how, you know, this could really go on a lot longer. and it's not something that I'm willing to invest in at this point. At a position where there are a lot of mid-round options I like, a lot of breakout options I like. I just don't feel like I need to block it with Daniel Murphy if I'm not totally confident in Murphy. All right, so it was it was Kane, Cabrera, Murphy, Arenola, D. Gordon, Keras Davis, McCutcheon, Paxton, Turner, Elvis Andrews, to Chris, Shohei Otani, which too early, right? 71st overall? Yes.

Zach Godley, John Lester, Raphael Devers. Now we're into round seven. John Lester, Raphael Devers, Justin Upton, to Chris. We really have run out of pitchers that I'm excited to take here. I just don't think they make sense. And that's why I went Andrews and Justin Upton. I actually filled out my outfield, which Adam, I know you hate doing that early. But I've said it a couple of times, Justin Upton in the seventh round as your third.

outfielder. That's a pretty big advantage. Yeah, and I can't believe. I just took Xander Bogart's in the seventh round. I have two starting pitchers. But I don't know. I'm not, the pitchers that are going now in round seven, to me, feel more like round nine or ten guys. And I'm just going to keep filling up hitters that I think are falling a little bit too far. I think part of this may be that we have done more roto drafts and more categories drafts over the last three or four weeks than we have points drafts. and you've got to move pitchers quite a ways up in points drafts? Well, yeah, David Price just went, and his ADP is in the 10th round.

But when I went over that on the SP preview, I was like, I've been seeing him going in the 7th round, which is exactly where David Price just went. And that just seems way too early for me. 10th round is one thing, but here he goes in the 7th round. I don't know, like Zach Godley doesn't really feel like a sleeper when he goes at the end of the 6th round, which is what he did. And he was not bad pick. He was the guy that I was considering taking if he had made it. Yeah, it's not a bad pick.

Don't get me wrong. It's just like you're not really getting great value. So now here's round seven. Lester, Devers, Upton, Bogarts, Price, Pollack, Jonathan's scope. Take a look at each position. We've had three catchers come off the board, so we still have Salvador Perez and Evan Gattis, Ray Amuto. At first base.

First base is better in points because Carlos Santana and Matt Carpenter should be a lot better in that format. Santana, Carpenter, Hobartner, Osmer, Will Myers. Those guys are still Matt Olson. Second base. We've got Robinson Canoe. We've got Whitmerfield.

Only four second basemen off the board, right? No, six. Six, okay. So I'm trying to load up the Heath's rankings here at second base. Ozzy Albies. Yeah, you're talking about not being excited about the pitchers here, Adam. I'm not particularly excited about the hitters, too. I think we've arrived at that range of hitters.

in a points league where you're not looking to fill specific stat-based needs. You don't need to get excited about that batting average help or that stolen base help. It's just you're looking for overall production. I think we've entered that range of hitters where there's just so much interchangeability for like the next 10 rounds or so that, like, I have a hard time picking out favorites from this group. Yeah, and you got a lot of good third baseman that, You got Travis Shaw, you got Gallo, Beltray, Seeger, but still, we're seeing them go a little bit later. We're only in round seven right now.

Travis Shaw just went. Sunny Gray just went. Actually, Starling Marte, went before that. So Lester, Devers, Upton, Bogarts, Price, Pollock, Scope, Starling Marte, which got Heath very upset. He wanted him. No, it was Travis Shaw. Oh, Travis Shaw. You like them both, right?

I mean, it's fair for me to have a suit of that. I might have taken them both at the turn. Right. Yeah, this is a very bad situation because I have Manny Machado in my third base spot, and I thought Shaw would be perfect here. I actually have Gene Seguer ranked in that same range, but I don't really want to do that, so I am struggling right now. Okay, I like the outfielers.

I think I might put some in the queue. I like Cespitus here. I know you guys probably don't. Jay Bruce, that's probably the only outfit I like right here. Oh, Buxton. Yeah, Buxton's got to be. Bruce is like, Adam, we're the only two people who play fantasy baseball who like Jay Bruce. Yeah.

Like, you obviously can't take him in round eight, especially in a three outfield of point three. Because they see him going like round 12 and five outfield of road elites. So maybe we should start looking at relief pitchers. I don't know. Maybe. There's only been, what, three off the board? The big three, well, the big two and then Chapman. So Canables there, but I'm not really, yeah, I'm not excited about anybody right now.

You hate to start that run, right? Yeah. The thing is, at least. At least a third of the league is not going to draft a relief pitcher because even though you're telling them to, the rules don't actually require them to. So I don't think we're going to see a relief pitcher run anytime soon. And I think it's too early anyway. Like maybe not for Canable if people really believe in him, but I cannot see Roberto Ozuna going in the 80s or 90s. And that feel kind of early?

Oh, yeah, it does for me. I mean, but, you know, I don't like, I'm kind of with Chris. Not that I want to ban the position, but I don't like investing in relief pitchers in this. This format especially. And I think Cori Canable is a really good example of why I don't like doing it. He is potentially a very good pitcher. He was last year for six months. But his career didn't start 10 months ago.

His career has mostly been pretty mediocre. And if he's a 10 strikeouts per 9 guy instead of a 14 strikeouts per 9 guy, we have seen that Cori Canable is not that effective. We have seen him get drafted. And there he goes. The end of round seven after Travis Shaw, Sunny Gray and then two second baseman, Whitmerfield and Robinson Canoe. Round eight is Luis Castillo. And I don't want to say that.

That's Heath's pick. I don't want to say it's too early because if you want a pitcher, you've got to start taking guys who are going way ahead of their ADP. Do you have Castillo ranked ahead of Barrios? No. Okay. But Barrios is coming back to me. You guys are not taking Jose Barrios. Nobody else is going to take Jose Brrios.

He'll come back to me. Luis Castillo is not coming back to me. This is where Jose Barrios gets drafted. Maybe. I'll be proven wrong, but I would be willing. willing to bet that Jose Brrios is coming back to me. Castillo, McCullors, Corey Conebel, and Johnny Quato. All right, so Scott's up before me, but I'll just tell you everybody who I'm putting in my queue.

I have Gaddis and Salvador Perez. I have Yuenus Cespitas. I have Buxton, and I'm going to put some pitchers in there. I'm going to put Stroman in there in a points league. You know, I don't think the injury is too major. I'll put Alex Wood in there, and I'll probably pick from one of those guys. Gaddis and Perez, Cespitus, Buxton, Stroman, and Wood. And we'll see.

Scott, you're on deck. The last pick was Gene Seguera. Yeah, I was hoping Queda would make it to me fat or not. I still think. I still like the inning's eating ability. Nobody said that. After round eight, which, by the way, we were in the middle of. After round eight, I think we should all recap our teams, our eight picks.

But go ahead, Scott. You will be up shortly. Yeah. What are you got right now? What are you looking at? I'm looking at pitcher. I might like Carlos Santana here if I hadn't already filled first base in utility. So that's, you know, a non-starter.

I, yeah, I think it's got to be starting pitcher for me. And I do like Alex Wood a lot. I've, you know, there are some inning concerns there like there are for every pitcher at this stage. Take someone else. Why? Because I want Alex Wood, and you already took Paxton for me. But I think, I think his inning's concern. turns are of the, you know, he might get a couple 10-day DL stints during the year rather than

that he may only go five innings every time, variety. And that's the kind I prefer. Like, Alex Wood has a share of double-digit strikeout starts. He's got a great lineup backing him, really good control pitcher. So, um, I think this is a good pick right now. All right, guys, I need some advice. I took Stroman. Now Chris, you can go. I'm up. The new, the two people at the turn ahead of me, or after me, and then ahead of me. Neither them has a first basement. I probably need to take Carlos Santana and Matt Carpenter here, right?

Yes. And I would be supposed to go. But yeah. I'm going to ignore your advice. Carpenter, really? Or just not... No, it's Marge. Samarge's his boy. I love it. I'm hoping one of them takes a different first base. Is that your number two starter?

That's my number three. But you'd be fine with them as your number two. I'm fine with them as my number two. Yes. So I've heard. Rich Hill goes... I don't agree. I don't agree. I don't agree that Santana and Carpenter are basically interchangeable, but if you do feel that way, I think that's the right way to play it. Let the other guy decide for you. Yeah, I think they're close to and San Tana. But both of these guys needed a first place.

We'll see. They may be both gone. Yeah. And if Carpenter goes, I'm fine waiting many, many, many rounds. Right, that was my next question. Like, you'd be okay waiting for Josh Bell or Joey Gallo or Greg Bird or Ian Desmond or something like that. I mean, you could take them in like the 15th round in theory. Yes.

Yeah. All right, so we are through eight rounds. Everybody, let's recap your team. Chris, you're on deck, actually. And Carlos Santana just went, by the way. So did D.D. Negorious. Chris, give me your team. My team is Nolan Aronado, Elvis, Andrews, Justin Upton, J.D. Martinez,

Aaron Judge, Jeff Samarja, Chris Archer, and Robbie Ray. All right, so his three starters are Archer, Ray, and Samarja. His outfield is loaded with Aaron Judge, J.D. Martinez, and Justin Upton, and he has No-Wan Aronado and Elvis Andrews. Solid team. I'll go second since I have the fourth pick. I have my infield basically filled, except for catcher. I have Encarnacion, Jose Ramirez, Justin Turner, Zander Bogarts, and I have Mookie Betts at Outfield. So Encarnazion, Ramirez, Turner, Bogarts, and Betts.

I have Strasbourg, Keikl, and Strowman. Chris just took Matt Carpenter. So it worked for you. It worked out. Yeah, somebody, they took Santana and Hosmer where the first baseman those teams took. Oh, boy. All right, so the pitchers, I could take,

Arieta, Hendricks, Berrios, Bauer. I'm thinking no. I'm thinking no on the pitchers. I could take my catcher now. I'm kind of feeling that. Or I could take Cespittus or Buxton. Let's go with... I like Cespitus more than you guys do,

so I'm going to take Cespice. Good pick. He's my number two outfielder. He goes, 100th, that was the 100th pick of the draft. All right, Scott. Now, who's your team? My team, as I prepare to pick here. Make your ninth pick, and then you can recap your team.

I don't want to put you on the spot. So my team is Bryce Harper, Freddie Freeman, Francisco Lindor, Anthony Rendon, Nelson Cruz, James Paxton, David Price, Alex Wood, and most recently, I've added Jake Garietta to my pitching mix. So my starters aren't going to be as safe.

That's volatile. But I hope I get like nine of that kind of, you know, like they could be really good. And then I just need half of them to be really good, you know? Yeah. So who are your starting pitchers again? You have four of them. I have James Paxton, David Price, Alex Wood, and Jake Arelletta. Paxton, Wood, Price, and Arieta.

All right, a lot of potential there. Just a very non-Scott White team. How many outfielers do you have, Scott? I have one, Bryce Harper. Heath, your team, please. I have Paul Goldschmidt, Robinson Canoe, Mani Machado, Lorenzo Cain, and Andrew Benintendi are my hitters. At pitcher, I have Jacob de Grom, Masahiro Tanaka, Luis Castillo, one starting pitcher away from being halfway through with my eight-man super rotation. and I mean in a league where you have eight starting pitchers

I think you really need to make them more of a priority. No, you're going to draft relievers, right? You're drafting relievers. So my biggest dilemma still to this point is the Manny Machado question. And how much, hmm, how important is it to go get a third baseman so I can play him at shortstop? That's kind of where I'm at right now. Well, clearly, I mean, Gagorius and Bogart's and Andrews and. and Seguer are all off the board.

So clearly now the third basement are much better than the short stops. DeYoung, Trevor Story. Like, Story could be that good, I guess, but these guys are your best short stops. Your best third basement are Gallo, Beltray, Seeger. The third basement available aren't that great in points, though.

No. Beltray could be. Yes, I think there's a clear... I think Beltray and Seeger are actually the best two third basemen in points. Sino and Gallo weren't really that good in points. last year. Yeah, but wouldn't you still rank them ahead of Paul DeYoung or Trevor Story?

Well, I don't because of shortstop eligibility, but in this case, it doesn't matter. So I do expect them to score more points than those guys, I believe. Like, they're not, they're, they're, they certainly stand out more in Roto, but just to be, you know, just for accuracy's sake. I mean, Miguel Sineau averaged more points per game last year than Kyle Seeger, two. 2.9, 7 to 282. And Joey Gallo was right there, too, 278. So, like, it's... Do you think we saw

closer to Miguel Sino's best case scenario last year, or Kyle Sears? I think we saw closer to Sino's. But I don't, like, I think there's, again, a lot of interchangeability there, like we're seeing. Like, this format just kind of takes every player's streaks and weaknesses.

And... Yeah, it kind of flattens them out. Yeah. It's just, I hate this. What do you hate? Just the entire position of my team. I took Ryssela Iglesias because I do think he's fallen too far, and I'd rather have him over some of the relievers that are definitely going to go before I pick again.

There's not a hitter that I really want to take right now, so I'm just going to get a little upsidey and take Blake Snow. Okay. Wow. Let's read round nine real quick. Dedi, Hosmer, Carpenter. Chris, you got lucky that somebody took Hosmer over Carpenter. I actually would have been okay taking Hosmer there.

Okay. Cespitus, Areeta, Berrios, Salvador Perez, Will Myers, Cody Allen, Kyle Hendrix, Luke Weaver, and Ricell Iglesias. And round 10 starts with Blake Snell at 109th overall. And I never went over my pitching staff, I guess. I have now DeGrom, Tanaka, Castillo, Snell, and Iglesias. I will say you got a better pitcher than your plan. I know that you believe that.

Did somebody take Barrios? Did I say his name? Yes, yes, they did. I think Blake's a better pitcher than Jose Bruges. Yasopuig off the board. Plant my flag. I just say that, like, I don't know. Well, oh, boy, gosh.

For all of the Jose Brrios has given us no reason to say he's worth this draft date, he was better last year than Blake's Nell. All right. So if we're just going on past evidence-based, that I think that you have a hard time making that argument. So listen, guys, let's talk about something here, right? I really want Byron Buxton. I might get them.

I'm four picks away, five picks away. But I don't have any closers, and I only have three starters. You know, it's like I have Strasbourg, Kiko, and Stroman. You don't have to have any closers. I'm going to have two closers. One of my starters is going to be on the DL probably to start the season. So, like, what do you do when there's somebody you really like, but you don't necessarily need.

And the best pitchers available right now, like I might have to take a closer instead of a starter. Who are the best pitchers? They're not that good. We got all coaches. Well, I think you'll find a lot of disagreement as to who the best pitchers are, which is why you can probably,

you can wait and possibly still get your best pitcher. The best pitcher for me right now is Danny Duffy, but I know he wouldn't go anywhere near him. So it's fair question. Bucksen off the board. I think the best starting picture is Tanner Roard. Yeah, I think I'm going to take a reliever here. He is way down in my rankings, but it's a totally legit argument.

The most recent picks... The Tanner Roar could be the best. Snell, Pueeg, Braun, Bruce, Bow, oh, look at this run of bees. Braun, Bruce Bauer. Matt Olson, Byron Buckston, four B's and five picks. Amazing. Scott, you have to pick somebody whose last name begins with B. You did...

Oh, Al B's. You picked Ozzie Al B's. I like that. All right. I need a closer. I like Sean Doolittle. Were you about to take him? Mm-hmm. Yeah.

All right. Do Little for me is my first of two closers. And boy, I need some starting pitching. I think it's time for me to neglect hitting for a long time because I've got good hitting. Encarnazio and Ramirez, Turner, Bogart's, Bets, and Cespitus. I love my hitting. I only have three more spots to fill. I've got to go heavy starting pitcher.

In fact, I probably shouldn't have taken Cespitus. I probably should have taken a source. starting pitcher instead. There's just, yeah, I don't have enough starting pitching. It's a bit of a regret. But at least I have Strasbourg and Keichael. Hooray for me. All right, Chris, you took...

Oh, you're on the clock still, I'm sorry. I have not picked yet. But I will pick. John Gray. He thought John Gray was the best pitcher left. Like, so this is, like, I think now we're in the point now where there's a lot of pitcher interchange. ability, which maybe means you should

Zag back to hitting. I don't know. I did with my last pick going Ozzy Albies, even though I only have four starting pitchers, so that plan isn't going exactly as I hoped, but I still plan to draft a lot of pitchers. Yeah, it's time. It's time for us to go on our pitcher run.

A lot of other owners have already done it. So, Gray, then Danny Duffy, Adrian Beltray, pick 120 overall, end of round 10. Round 11 begins with Ronald Acuna and Trevor's story. I was hoping to go Al Bizakuna here Oh Homer

Only got half of it Well who's gonna bat lead off for the Rockies I LeMayu I would assume Yeah that's who I bet DJ LeMayhew Okay It's time for me to take a starting pitcher

Let's go to Let's go to The rankings here Can you guys just tell me who to pick, please? I think there's been some talk of Ian Desmond leading off and maybe Rimele Tapia when he plays. I don't know that they're going to have in AAA.

I don't know that they're going to have a very consistent leadoff man in Colorado. Obviously, it was black than last year. If at the end, Desmond, it won't be a consistent leadoff man. I meant to take Tanner Rour. If it is. If it is.

Oh, my goodness. Well, I'm taking Tanner Rourke. Great pick. So after Rourke, Scott White, you're on the clock. Scott White would be a terrible pick. Yippie. Zero fantasy points.

Yeah, that wouldn't be a good one. I can't deny. Wrong side of 30. So there's not the Acuna here for me. Not in the worst, best shape of his life. Get excited about. You know what? I'm back to pitching, and I'm not,

I'm actually going to pick out of order because I don't think anybody wants Danny Duffy really. And I'm going to take one, a pitcher who I feel like people might want Charlie Morton. Danny Duffy has already been drafted. Oh, has he? Yes. Somebody did want Danny Duffy.

Oh, okay. I was just focused on Acuna going and Miss Duffy going in the same range. I would have taken. Obviously, less of a dilemma than I thought it was. That guy took both of your guys. Okay, so Scott takes Duffy. How many pitchers do you have now, Scott? Mike Clevenger.

Five. Ian Hat, Mike Clevenger are the next pitchers? Does anybody have fewer pitchers than I have? I have four. Well, I have four starters, one reliever. I have four. I have four starters and one reliever. I have four starters.

Okay, so I feel okay. Looks like our listeners went more starting pitcher heavy than we did. After Clevenger, we are waiting for a pick now. Let's just randomly take a look at Matt's team. Matt just took J.T. Rayamuto. So Matt has... Where are you, Matt? What is your team name?

We'll get Matt's team in just a second. This is really well done here. What's our next pick, guys? I am three picks away, and the best players on my board are almost universally relief pitchers and catchers. I don't feel great about that. Paul DeYoung is still up there, but again, that gets back to the whole third base versus shortstop debate. And if I can play either of them at a position, I'm going to choose Joey Gallo over Paul DeYoung,

so Joey Gallo will likely be my next pick. All right, now let's take a look at Matt's team. Matt had like the seventh or eighth pick. He has Ray Amuto, Bellinger, D. Gordon, Carlos Correa, Starling Marte, and Will Myers. Rayamuto, Bellinger, Gordon, Correa, Marte, and Myers. It's not great hitting. He would like you to know that D. Gordon and Will Myers will be outfield eligible. And you will play them in the outfield.

He should not play D. Gordon in the outfield. That would be a big mistake. I don't know if that's true. At this point where he hasn't draft. Yeah, and five categories, he can be a useful outfielder. But he also just hasn't drafted in the outfielder, so he needs an outfielder or a second baseman. I'm not sure your options are any better or worse at each spot. Yeah, I'm not sure either.

Like at the high end outfield is definitely thinner, but, you know, like, you know how much I like Ozzy Albies, you know, I like Scooter Jeanette. If I've already drafted DeGordon, it's nice to remember I can move him to the outfield if I, you know, if I like the value of either of those guys and the appropriate point comes up. All right. Hold on. Here's his pitching staff. Sorry.

He's got Scher, Darvish, Cole, Kintana, Bauer. No, not Kintana. He's got Scher, Darvish, Cole, Bauer, and, O'Serzer, Darvich, Cole, Bauer, and, Zuna. It's a good pitching staff. Yeah, it's a good pitching staff. Not great hitting, but good pitching there. Good job, Matt.

Heath, sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, I can't decide what to do. I think I'm just going to ugh. I'm going to pick more based on what I think this player is going to be worth, even though he might come back to me

because Jose Barrillos didn't. So that's a good process. I took Wilson Ramos. I think there is a... That's what you have to do when you're at the end. Yeah. I don't like it. picking at the end. Yeah, it's not great, but I do think Wilson Ramos will be worth this

draft capital. I think he's the best catcher left available. I don't know that there's a huge difference between him and Salvador Perez, and there may not be a huge difference between him and Wilson Contrhus. But you now have Ramos over Gattis. In points. In points, okay. Man, you know, look at the pitchers that are available. Do you like them? Because I don't. I really don't I want to take Gio Gonzalez. I think he was so lucky last year. I like some of the closers left. Yeah, I like the closers, too.

But this is a points league, so they're not as valuable as starting pitchers, not even close. Do you like some of the hitters? Yeah, I like some of the hitters. Yeah, I like a lot of there. There's like the third baseman. I like the first baseman. Take one of them. But they're going to be there in a few rounds.

I need pitching. I got four pitchers, and one of them's going to start on the DL. You think I should still go hitter? No, I'd go pitcher But there are pitchers I like You just said you don't like any pitchers Well, who do you like? I mean, it's only a mock, so the listeners need to know

Who do you like? I like Chase Anderson. Yes, that's my first one, yeah. I think from a context where innings matter more than ratios, Gio Gonzalez is fine here. Heath was saying the other day that he was just waiting for,

like he was just hoping Cole Hamels made some kind of statement about something he's doing different so we could have some hope for him this year. And that happened finally yesterday. Hamels had a great start, four strikeouts and three innings. He's introducing his slider to his arsenal, and it was responsible for two of those four strikeouts.

He says, I need to get more strikeouts. So, like, there you go. That's exactly what Heath was looking for. It's not necessarily a reason to move him way up in projections, but it's a reason for hope. Yes. Yeah. And because we know he's at least an innings eater in this format,

I'll lean into that. Okay. You know what? Actually, there are some guys, some pictures I like. I put them in my queue. I'll just say who they are, since it doesn't really matter. It's a mock. Chase Anderson, Aaron Sanchez, in no particular order.

Well, Anderson's off the board. Scott took him. So now I'm up. Sanchez, Hap, Garrett Richards, Corbyn, Tyone, Hamils, Dylan Bundy. I think I'm going to take, you guys kind of convinced me to take a shot on Kevin Gosman. Yeah, that's a picture. I like.

All right. I'm going to take Kevin. John. There are lots of pitchers remaining that I like. All right. We'll do like maybe 10 more minutes on the podcast here. Real quick. Before Chris makes his pick, you got to go to CBSports.com slash FBT and sign up for the

commissioner product. CBSports.com slash FBT. You can tell how much you can customize by how badly I screwed up this draft because it was so customized already. I wasn't able to perfectly uncustomize it. But yes, you can do categories. You can do roto. You can do points.

You can do 10, 12, 40, however many teams you want. CBSports.com slash FBT. And make sure you start watching CBS Sports HQ. Download the app. I watch it every morning now on my Roku. You got it on your Amazon Fire. Apple TV. Any connected device.

Watch CBS Sports HQ. It's 24-7 streaming sports info. News, scores, highlights. Always on, completely free. freaking awesome CBS SportsHQ. You can also go to CBS SportsHQ.com. Did you make your pick, Chris? Yes.

What you do? Jameson Tayone. There you go. All right. It's one of the many pitchers that I like a lot here. I just feel like such a hypocrite because when we talked about these guys on Tuesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, I think. I wanted Tion, Gosman as reserves.

And I did not draft that way. Well, that's in a league where you only need five starting pitchers. But he was my fifth. Stop. It doesn't even matter. I think other people may have taken pitchers faster, though. Yes, they did. And I didn't adjust to it, is what I'm saying.

I don't know that I did the wrong thing. You know, it's not like, okay, you didn't get five of the top 40 starting pitchers. Your draft sucks. No, I mean, it didn't work out the way I thought it would, but I actually do like my team. My pitching staff is Strasbourg, Kichel, Stroman, Roark, and God. Osmond. I'll load up on some more high upside guys. All right, so

how many of us have a catcher? Not it. Heath does. I think he's the only one. Yeah, I was upset that Gattis went. God, catcher sucks. Yeah, I will not be looking for my catcher, maybe until the last round. At this point, I probably wouldn't take one

until the end. Adam Eaton was picked not too long ago. I'll go through some of the other picks. Adam Eaton in a points league. It's a good pick. Ramos Gattis, Wade Davis, Edwin Diaz, Mike Mustakis, Domingo Santana, 138th overall. Brad Hand, Chase Anderson,

Gosman, Tyone, Pomeranz, Ian Kinsler, Alex Columet, Kenta Maeda, Chris took Kyle Seeger. I mean, Kyle Seeger's is just a beautiful fallback option, 147th overall. And I'm seeing all these closers,

going. So Brandon Morrow is my pick. I have two closers. I took them in rounds like 10 and 13. This was round 13. How many of you have two closers at this point? I have zero. I have one. Who do you have? Oh, Rysel. Rysel O'Glaclesias, yes. So should I not have taken Brandon Morrow? Is that a reach? No, it's fine. The closer we get to opening day, the more it looks like he will. In fact, be the Cubs closer. Yeah. Tremendous ratios last year. There are other closers I'd like more, but

because I think they're safer. Like, he might be the most dominant closer left. Okay. But you don't necessarily want to have, in a head-to-head points, like you don't want to have two closers in your first 13 picks typically, right? No. Yeah.

No, I mean, like if, like if Kenebel is a great value, if I find a great value at closer, I'll take them wherever that happens to be. But almost certainly won't do that with two closers. And I don't have a problem just taking whatever table scraps are left. I mean, 12-team league where each team is only able to start two closers, which is in theory how this would have been set up.

Yeah. Like, there are probably not a lot of people are going to draft a third closer just sit on their bench. So, like, there are going to be closers left. And, you know, it's not like you're literally going to get the last of the 20s. 24 either. So if I wind up with Melanson and Familia as my closers, that's fine with them. Maybe they stink, but if they stink, then someone else will replace them, and it's no big deal. And here's another positive to that.

If you're in a league where, like, everybody, every closer needs to be owned, the second one becomes available, the second there's a closer change, just about everyone in the league is in on that guy. If you're in a 12-te-to-head points league or a 10-te-to-head points league where only two closers are started. or two relief pitchers that are typically closers are started. Well, when someone becomes a new closer, I don't know, three, four owners might be in on them. You have a much better chance of getting that guy off waivers if you want him.

I mean, there's a very good chance. Ten of the 12 teams are happy with their two relievers at the point that transition happens. Right. You know, maybe the other one's not even paying attention that night. So you don't, it's uncontested pickup. Exactly, yeah. All right, so we are getting a lot of closers off the board in rounds. 12 and 13 of this 12-teamie, Maida, Seeger, Morrow, Gio, Porcelo, Hector Neris, Aaron Sanchez,

Garrett Richards, Ender NCRte, and now Jake Faria, Columet, Maeda, Seeger, Morrow, Gio, Porcelo, Neris, Aaron Sanchez, Garrett Richards, Ensiarte, and Faria. Almost no hitters in this round. Heath has the last pick of round 13. But it looks like Kyle Seeger and Ender Enciarte are two. Yeah, now he takes Taiwan Walker, two hitters in round 13. Yeah, all right. People, we got some good high upside pitchers left. I still have like four or five in my queue that I really like.

And there are really good hitters left, too. Eddie Rosario, Eduardo Nunez. Castiano's. 157th overall Castianos has not gone yet. This is exactly where Nick Castiano. feels good going. Yeah, my thing is... Maybe even a little earlier.

I know why people are a little down on Adam Jones, and he's not exciting. But, like, 400 fantasy points is still a starting outfielder in a points league, right? Yeah, but what about the 300... What about the 453 Nicholas Castellanos put up last year? That's true. He didn't do that. Jones is at it over and over and over.

Right, but 400 is probably closer to... Adam Jones's ceiling than... He's... I don't know how... That's his lowest... 401 is his lowest mark since 2010. Yes. He's ranged from 401 to 521.

Yeah. Yeah, he's not getting 521. He was 26 years old. He's not getting... That was the last time he's been below 400. Right. I'm not... But I'm not saying...

Like, I'm not saying below 400 is necessarily what I expect, but he's not doing 500 again. Oh, yeah, no way. He is what he is. That's fine to say. I just, when you say 400's closer to his ceiling than his floor, I don't think that that's what's actually what you mean. It's exactly what I mean.

So you do expect him to be below 400. No, I think 400 is closer to his ceiling than his floor. I think his floor is probably like 300. And his ceiling's like 430. Who's the best, who like the best two or three pitchers that are on the board for you guys right now? For me, the two I rank the highest are Dylan Bundy and Michael Fulmer. But I'm kind of more. I'm more interested in Cole Hamels than

Fulmer at this point. Okay. And then, Heath, I don't know you want to weigh in. Give me a couple of pitchers that are your highest ranked? Definitely. Hamels is my highest, and Corbyn would be second.

Right. So think of those names. Hamels, Corbyn, Dylan Bundy, and I forgot the other ones, Scott said, sorry. Michael Fulmer. And then, like,

I'm looking at, there are a few hitters that I'm very excited about. at this point. Castiano. I'm not going to take Rubenet Odor because I don't need them. But if I didn't have a second basement, Castianos, Greg Byrd, obviously I like him more than others. Castianos just went. I was winding up to take it.

Yoan Moncada is still available. I do think we are at a point where the hitters are better than the pitchers. It's just been a run of pitchers. I mean, I guess that makes sense. We had ten pitchers taken in round 13, and here we are in round 14. And here's what round 14 looks like. this will be our final round of the podcast. Adam Jones, Nomar Mazzara, Felipe Rivera,

Angleton Simmons, Patrick Corbin, Nick Castellanos, Zach Cozart, Scott Takes Eddie Rosario. All right, well, you guys have convinced me. Cole Hamels for me. And I will hope to get Moncada or Greg Bird. Greg Bird in the next round. Chris, your last pick for the airwaves. So I don't want to go off the podcast without a,

without a reliever, without a closer. So, oh, thank you. I've got to pick somebody. And I guess I will go with the guy. There are three closers that I like. I'll go with the guy who's not currently battling arm issues, which is Kelvin Herrera. So that's my choice.

My other options were Mark Melanson and Juris Familia. Jurisphamalia is dealing with arm tightness, has given up like five runs in five and a third. And Mark Malanson had some trouble. troubling quotes after his first outing the other day, talking about how his arm just doesn't feel right. Oh, that's not good. Those are the two guys that Scott was like,

well, if I had that with Melanson and Familia. I didn't see those quotes from Melanson. Familia is not a big concern for me yet, but, you know, obviously something to keep an eye on. Well, he had nerve surgery, right? No, he had a blood clot. Yeah. And he came back last year.

So, I mean, it'll look good at the end of last season, got roughed up early. But by the end, he was looking good again. Gregory Polanco and Dylan Bundy. And Polanco is another. I should have mentioned him in the guys I want category. Polanco 167, Bundy 168. And we are done mercifully done with this podcast.

I do want to thank our listeners, though, because after a rough start with some auto picks, they actually came through pretty damn well. They drafted relievers. They had a really good draft, actually. You know, it was a pitcher-heavy draft. Not necessarily at the very beginning, Maybe, you know, starting with mid-third round and after that, got a little pitcher-heavy.

And you might have to adjust. But then again, as we just showed you, between Garrett Richards, Cole Hamils, Dylan Bundy, Kevin Gosman, Taiwan Walker. There are guys that we like late. So, you know, doer's choice. Good conclusion there, Adam. All right, so that's my worst outro yet for my worst podcast yet. Monday will be better. We'll talk to you there.