Fantasy Baseball Today - 03/15: Live H2H Categories Mock Draft! (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 15, 2019

We've got an entire 12-team, H2H Categories mock draft for you! Format: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, Shortstop, OF, OF, OF, Utility. SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P, P ... How do our strategies change with this format? How many closers do we want to have? ... Chris selected an SP in Rounds 2 and 3, did it work? Scott waited a while for saves. Find out why Heath loved his team ... Email us 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. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Adam, Scott, Heath, and Chris. It is time to draft, and we are ready to give you a live mock draft here on Fantasy Baseball today, so you know exactly what to expect, or hopefully exactly what to expect, on draft day.

Adam Azer, Scott White Heath Cummings, Chris Towers. and eight others partaking in a head-to-head categories draft 12 teams and how do we feel about this format guys how we feel about head-to-head categories right now it's my favorite this is going to be an uncomfortable draft for me today because not only is it a format where I'm not as comfortable but I'm picking 12th which is if there's a krypton if there's kryptonite for the tiers approach it's picking at the end because so much of it is anticipating what's going to happen next you got to throw it out there. the window. I don't even think it's

so much the tiers approach and having to anticipate what's going to happen. I think it's just if you like a player, if that's your guy, you kind of have to take him. Go get him. Even if you think he's he should be taking eight picks later when you're at the turn. Or 20 picks later. Yeah, you kind of got to get

your guy. I hate it. It seems like wasted value. I hate it. I hate picking at the end. I love it at the top. Ging Mickey Betts is pretty cool. Yeah. That's fun. Okay, so like I said, 12 teams. I had the fifth pick Scott has the 12th pick Heath you are 10th Chris where are you second okay all right so let's recap because we had a pretty surprising pick at number three

overall we had Mike Trout to Tom Oganowski Chris took Mookie Betts Kayla Van Horn took Trey turner then Connor Henry took Jose Ramirez and I knew I was going to have to decide between Jose Altovae and no one Aronado I decided to go with Nolan Aronado fifth overall and then Ronald Ocuna went sixth so Trey Turner third Jose Ramirez, fourth, and then Aeronado, Ronald Cunia, Jose Altuve. How about that top seven guys? And we can talk even more, another interest. Scherzer still not off the board is Heath's on the clock.

Heath, what are you going to do at number 10? J.D. Martinez, Christian Yelich, were the previous two picks. And what are you going to do here at 10? I really hate this because I had planned on going very RP heavy. You do have to have two starting pitchers in this draft. and I really didn't think there was any chance Scherzer would be there at 10. I think I have to take him. Okay.

I didn't want to. Okay, I'm going to talk about the format in a second. It's a little bit different than some other head-to-head categories leagues. But I'm going to let Scott decide what to do. He's on the clock with 12 and 13. Scott talk it out. And then after that, we need to discuss Trey Turner going ahead of Jose Ramirez and Ronald Ocuna going sixth overall.

But Scott, Bryce Harper's off the board. You could take, I bet Scott's, going one pitcher, one hitter here. But you talk it out, Scott White, 12 and 13. Yeah, so I think I'm definitely going to take Bregman, Alex Bregman. He's, I have him ranked higher than this, so it's a nice luxury to get him here. You know, Chris Sale kind of made me uneasy this spring. Jacob de Grom's there too. There's the first base scarcity. I could go Goldschmidt. Mani Machado's actually my top ranked player. But I think, I think, I'm going to go Paul Goldschman.

I'm going to go ahead and fill first base because I know Freeman won't be getting back to me. I know Rizzo won't be getting back to me. I don't want to have to, you know, picking at the end, I can't count on timing the Jose Ibrae who picked just right. So I'm going to go ahead and fill that scarce position with Goldschmidt. It'll be interesting to see which pitchers are available to you in rounds three and four. And you do need to start some starting pitchers in this format, as Jacob de Grom goes. But what do you think about Trey Turner going third overall, guys?

I just wrote about him and my breakouts 2.0. I think we have to remember that his down season was the number 17 hitter in this format. And there is a very clear path to a season where he hits 290, scores 110 runs, hits 20 home runs, and steals 50 bases. He does that, he's probably the most valuable player in fantasy. There's a clear path to being the number one overall player. It's not the most likely path. but I think the error bars on a player like Trey Ternan, and this is kind of the argument that you've been making about Adelberto Mondece,

except to a greater extent, the error bars are pretty minimal. You know, like the lowest I could see him getting if he plays 150 games is 25 or so, and he could be number one. There aren't a ton of players. I still wouldn't take him over Jose Ramirez, but I think there is a very good argument to be made to take him fourth in this format after Ramirez.

That being said, I mean, this is the third year. We've basically had this same discussion about Trey Turner, and so far it hasn't manifested. That doesn't mean it necessarily won't. I mean, obviously, the talk early this spring about how his manager wants him attempting 70 steals, that was kind of a game changer. But it's too early for me, given the kind of bats you're passing up, Nolan Aeronado, especially. Yeah, it would have been a tough call for me, I guess. Although I had pretty much narrowed down to Aeronado and Altuvae,

but certainly Turner entered my mind at five. He was off the board. He hit 271 last year with 19 homers, 73 RBIs, 103 runs, and 43 steals in, yeah, kind of a down year. He was the number five shortstop. He was the number 17 overall hitter, as Heath mentioned. Oh, I'm back on the clock. Excuse me, I'll go through some of the picks that we've seen.

Also, we don't like a cunea sixth overall, right? We like them more in the middle of the second round. Yep. Okay. Especially if he's hitting fourth. You know, I started looking into it, and I would set the over under on steel attempts with him at like 21 and a half and so that's that's gonna make it really tough that puts a lot of onus on his bat that you know that means he probably has to hit like

290 with a lot of power and you know if he doesn't there's a chance he's just kind of just an upton okay i just too that's the comp you made yeah yeah that's that's what i think the down like acunia's gonna be great right there's not really any concerns he's just going to bottom out the downside is probably something on the level of like adjust an upside and that's that's the downside upside's great but again it's it's a matter of like i don't want to blow my first pick you know there there there are so many consistent super studs out there that why do we have to elevate a kuni to that level yet it's it just seems like an unnecessary risk okay so uh right now we're in round two and and chris is on the clock i want to recap just round one i'm going to read the picks

It was Trout, Betts, Trey Turner. Four was, sorry, who was four? Oh, Jose Ramirez. No one Aronado, Ronald Acuna, Jose Altovae, J.D. Martinez, Christian Yelich, Max Scherzer, Bryce Harper, Alex Breggman. Round two, Scott started it out with Paul Goldschmidt, and then I think Jacob de Grom. Yeah, DeGrom, Freddie Freeman, to Heath. He loves Freddie Freeman. Charlie Blackman, Chris Sale, Francisco Lindor, Justin Verlander.

I probably would have taken Verlander there if he had been available, but he wasn't. So I was between Aaron Judge and Manny Machado. I took Aaron Judge. Then Machado went, then Klover, then Chris took Trevor Bauer, Tom Ogunnowski took Trevor's story and Blake Snell, and Chris, you are back on the clock with Trevor Bauer and Mookie Betts. What do you got? This has not gone the way I hoped it would.

My plan, if I'm picking second, is Charlie, Blackman's going to be there. He always is. And he went like 18th or 16th overall. The one person who believes Charlie Blackman is still worth a borderline first round pick happens to be playing and picking ahead of me. So that kind of screwed me up. And now I don't know what to do. Well, you have a pitch. I think you ended up taking an ace with your second pick Bauer, which I think if you're picking in the early stages of the draft, you know, the first half, you kind of to take your ace in that round two, three range. Shock us?

Shock you guys. Aaron, no, two pitchers! Oh. You know, it's really funny because my top three players I looked at on your last pick, so four picks ago, and thought, well, Chris doesn't want any of those guys. So you were going to shock me no matter what you did. Yeah, I mean, I think you're

a little low on Bauer. Right. I think I probably took him two rounds ahead of where you think he should go. No, just just one. I just, I think he's just going to be awesome. I I really, I've mostly lost my doubts about him. I think there's no reason to think he's going to be an injury risk. Well, the only thing is, and you mentioned it, but he even, he tweeted something out the other day,

which you've got to be careful with Trevor Bauer tweets. But it looks like he's trying to throw six different pitches this year. And that's great. No, it's great. It's like I said early in the off season. He could tinker his way back to being mediocre. I don't think that's going to happen. I think his approach to developing new pitches is pretty sound.

This offseason he spent working on developing a change-up that's modeled after his teammate Carlos Carrasco's. You know, if you got to do it, that's a pretty good one. Yeah, he's going to throw six different pitches. That's a lot. It might be tough to keep them all there. But you know what? If the change-up throws him off, he can just ditch it and go back to what he did last year when he was the – third best pitcher in baseball.

So I, he definitely seems like a guy who's going to come up with some new plan and then just throw it away because there's a work. There is definitely a risk. But I think his upside is just about as high as anyone's. All right, let's recap some picks. I was, I definitely was very angry at what just happened there. So round three was Trevor's store, no, it was Blake Snell, then no one, Aaron Nola to Chris, then John Carlos Stanton.

Now when Chris took Aaron Nola, I had Nola and Cole in my. my cue and I said, if I don't get one of these two pitchers, I'm going to go with a hitter, because I don't want to take Carlos Carrasco or Noah Cinderguard here in round three. They feel more like late round three or round four picks to me. So then, of course, John Carlos Stanton went, and Garrett Cole went right before me. So my pitchers were off the board, and I had no idea what to do. I have Aaron Judge and Nolan Aronado. I need some speed.

I took Whitmerfield. Was it too early for Whitemeryfield? I was going to take him if he fell to me. Okay. Okay. So not a terrible pick. Now I have Nolan Arenato, excuse me, Aaron Judge and Whitmerryfield's

the balanced team right now. So after that, we'll get to what Heath was thinking. Scott is on the clock and breathing heavily, not happy. Javier Baez, Juan Soto, Anthony Rizzo, Carlos Carrasco, and Heath, with your third pick you took? Well, I mean, it'll surprise no one. He's the happiest person in America, right? Yes, I took Andrew and Intendi at 34 overall, like 20 picks afterward.

He got his number five overall player in the third. round. And I was looking for someone to give me something in steals. I was hoping that I would get Whitmerryfield. I'm happy to get Ben Intendi. And with Freeman and Benintendi, I've got a huge jump on batting average as well. So I'm going to need to find some power at some point. But this is starting off well. Scott, talk to me about what you did at the three-four turn. Okay, so I don't think it's any surprise to anybody that if Adalberto Mondesie is still out there in round four in a categories league, I'm going to take him. Obviously, I'm kicking off round four.

So it could have been end of round three, however you want to look at it. I also took an ace, Noah Cinderguard, because I know they're all going to be gone, probably, except for maybe Grinky, who I'd be happy to take as my second ace. But Carasco and Corbyn, maybe Walker Bueller, they're the only other ones left from that tier. And they're not making it back to me. I wanted to make sure I had that good number one starting pitcher. I did have a small dilemma, a small little debate between Mondesie and Starling Marte, who will do something similar.

I don't think necessarily quite as high end, but more reliably do something similar at maybe a weaker position. But I went without Alberto Mondesie because I was looking for the biggest impact I could. One of these three guys is going to snipe Marte from Adam, right? So who did you take, Heath, by the way, after Bailman. I took J.T. Relmoto. He was there at the top of the fourth round. Not quite as valuable. And this is most of our category leagues because it's just a one-catcher league.

I think he still is. I mean, he's still, I think he has a second round upside. Half the league is going to start a player, maybe more than half the league is going to start a player who literally would not be on a roster. Yeah. If he didn't play catcher. I actually think you could make the case that an elite catcher is even more valuable in a one-catcher league because

roster sizes are smaller in general. It's easier for everyone to get a quality player across the catcher's the one position where that isn't true, where you can get a clear advantage even in leagues where it is such a small lineup. I mean, if Real Muto does what we think he's going to do and hits 25 homers and bats

280 with 180 runs and RBI combined, maybe steals six or seven bases? my team's awesome. That's not that different from what we probably expect from Anthony Rendon or Carlos Correa, maybe. And Scott does mock me for always liking my team at the end of a draft. There's very rarely a time where I say, man, I did a bad job this time. But I am so happy after four rounds to have my clear number one catcher, my number one first baseman, my number one starting pitcher,

and in my opinion, a top five outfielder, at least a top ten outfielder. We've got breaking news. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we do. The earliest Luis Severino will come off to DL is May. Brian Cashman just announced that, so. Okay. He's not going to go for a while in this draft.

Yeah, let's talk about this draft right now. Chris are on the clock. I'll recap some of the picks here. Scott started out round four with Mondesi, Cindergarde at the end of round three, then Mondesie, Reese Hoskins, Ray Almuto to Heath, Cody Bellinger, Chris Bryant, Patrick Corbin. Then Donkey Teeth took Starling Marte right before.

for my pick, but I was going to take a starting pitcher anyway because I had Aronado judge in Merrifield, so I took Steven Strasbourg. You know, I'm worried about Walker Bueller's innings, so I'm just going to take Steven Strasbourg, because that makes a ton of sense. But remember what happened to me in the auction where I missed all the aces, and then my plan was to go Strasbourg

and Paxton. That is currently my plan. I have Bueller and Paxton in my queue. I'm up in five picks. I'm up in four picks. We'll see what happens. Granky just went. So this is how I will make up for it. Now, I need to point this out. Hold on. I need to point this out. And I actually might not do this because things are a little different in this

league. It's two starting pitchers, two relief pitchers, and three pitcher spots. So that's kind of what Yahoo defaults to. Two starters, two relievers, and three pitcher spots. That does change things. Maybe I don't need that second ace. You know what? Yeah, because I don't need five starting pitchers, I'm not going to take a starting pitcher here most likely. Chris, you just selected Lorenzo Kane after Springer and Gras. Rankie were off the board. You also took Gary Sanchez. So what's your team looking like? Yeah, I was torn. I was trying to figure out whether I should go for big power bat, Chris Davis. I don't mind locking up my utility spot this early when it's Chris Davis doing it.

I couldn't tell whether what I needed more was power or batting average. And it was either Davis or Lorenzo Kane for me. Those were the two top ones on my queue. And I went with Kane because I, I figure I can get 80% of what Chris Davis does with a Nelson Cruz or maybe an Edwin Encarnacione, you know, maybe four rounds from now, as long as none of you guys take them now that you know what I want. Probably going to. But I just think Lorenzo Cain's a little less replaceable in this kind of format because he's going to give me a healthy amount of steals. He's going to hit probably double-digit homers in that park. we know he's a good batting average guy

there's going to be a ton of runs in RBI he's just a really solid all-around player in this format guys I want to talk about I want to talk about my pick and why format matters so instead of five starting pitchers and two relievers we're doing two starters

two relievers and three pitcher spots that could be either starters or relievers if we needed more starting pitchers Walker Bueller is still on the board and it's 56 overall like I would have taken him for sure but because we can kind of change our strategies a little bit

in his head-to-head categories. I took Edwin Diaz, first person to take a closer. I took him, I think, 53rd overall. So ordinarily, I would have gone with Buhr there. I think he's just like an amazing value right now. I don't understand what's happening. But I went with Diaz. He's falling really far.

No, it's, it's a problem. Like, if, from everything I've done with mock drafts, ADPs, looking at consensus rankings, I thought I was the only one in the industry who ran. rank Zach Granky ahead of Walker Bueller, but Tom Oganowski and this draft took Zach Granky here in the start of round five with Bueller still out there.

So I don't know if that has to do with the Dodgers slow playing Bueller this spring. I think he either just made his debut or he hasn't made it yet. He's about to. So that might be raising some concern in people. But obviously he's not the proven ace in that he hasn't handled the workload for a full season. Over the final, I'm pitching six plus innings consistently with a sub two ERA look great.

But until you had delivered that 200 inning season, I don't think anyone can be confident you can. The guy who was just taken is the first one that I would say should not have gone ahead of Walker Bueller. I'm almost certainly the lowest on this podcast on him. It's not that I don't think he's going to be good. I just, there's a lot more risk than his current price in ADP. Who is he? Bakes in. You got to say who is.

Oh, Mike Clevenger. Thank you. Just went one pick ahead of Walker Bueller. That's the point, and maybe Edwin Diaz, but that's the point where that's the one where I'm like, okay, we went a little too far. People probably forgot about Walker Bueller a little bit too much. Okay. I do have one question for you. Well, can I jump in?

I'm sorry. Hold your question, Chris. So Scott took Walker Bueller 60th. He took Scooter Genet 61st. What are you guys doing with your pitch? staff in this format. It's a weekly head-to-head categories league, and you know, you don't have to start more than two starting pitchers. You don't have to start more than two relief pitchers. What do you do? It's not exactly Wild Wild West here.

Scott, or Adam. That was something happened there. Adam. Yes. I was going to ask you the same question because you're talking about the format makes it so that you want to take Edwin Diaz. The next question I have is, are you going to take four closers? Is that your strategy? Is that your strategy here. My strategy, getting two aces, which is something I normally do not do, I don't think I'm going to take another pitcher again until probably round 12. Yeah, I wanted one ace

and then I'm probably, we'll see how things end up, but I'm probably going to have five relievers my starting lineup. I'll have another starting pitcher that I'm excited about. And then I'll have a few on the bench that can provide upside. It may come to a point if things go right or later in the year. I'm starting four or five starting pitchers, but I'm going to

start the year very relief heavy. You should get a ripaps. repasper. I'm not overthinking it. I'm approaching it basically like I would a Roto League where I'm going to I want two ace caliber pitchers, starting pitchers, I'm going to get

at least two closers, maybe a third. You know, he's kind of, with the podcast for the People League, he's kind of brought me around to the idea that more of your pitching staff needs to be middle relievers and you don't have to worry so much about wins and strikeouts,

But that is a 16-team league versus this 12-team league, where you can be sure there are going to be high-end middle relievers popping up on waivers throughout the season. We don't even know who all of those guys are yet. So I'd rather hope to build something that can be consistently competitive in wins and strikeouts as well as everything else. And if it doesn't work out, then I can change streams mid-season. Obviously, this is a mock, but hypothetically,

I could change streams midseason and fill more of those spots with efficiency relievers instead. How do you guys feel about Tommy Fam? I'm considering him 68th overall. I'm going to take Clayton Kershaw as my number two pitcher. I think it's time. But what do you? And I think it's a little easier to take Kershaw here because if he doesn't work out, it's not the deepest of leagues. And if I have to pivot to a relief heavy strategy, I can do that. So there are more options with your pitching staff. So I'll take a little bit more of a gamble. Tommy Pham actually went with a pick. after me. We are so far behind on picks. So I think, I think, you know what, how do you feel about Tommy Fam 70th overall? Tell me that. I think it's fine value. Tommy Fam in general gives me anxiety because it always seems like there's something going on with him, whether it's his eyesight

issue popping up again or he's injury prone or he just seems to have these mechanical glitches. At his best, though, I think he's a stud and he's a five-category stud who also walks a lot. just a really potentially high-end player, but I'm not even remote. He's already dealing with an injury problem this spring. I'm not even remotely confident he's going to meet that upside. Okay. So how about we go through rounds four, five, and six? We're in the beginning of round seven here.

And first I'll ask Heath, round four, tell me if there are any like really good or really bad picks. Mondesie, Hoskins, Ray Almuto, Bellinger, Bryant, Corbin, Marte, Strasbourg, Correa, Vado, Gary Sanchez, Springer. I pretty much love that entire round. Like, almost everybody feels like a good pick in that range. That's a weird thing to say for the fourth round of a draft, because that's sometimes where things get a little bit hairy. But I really like the upside for Carlos Correa.

I think that Strasbourg, again, another very high upset pick, obviously loved my Ray Almoto pick. I almost took Mondesi ahead of where Scott took him. I really like that entire round. Okay, Scott, round five. Tell me if any picks stand out is either really good or bad. Granky, Kane, Paxton, Albies,

Edwin Diaz, Eugenio Suarez, Jose Ibrahimbrayu, Bogartz, Kairus Davis, Matt Carpenter, Mike Clevenger, Walker Bueller. Oh, man. I don't think, I mean, probably my least favorite pick is Matt Carpenter, just because I think there's more bust potential than...

He gets credit for on this. Yeah, I mean, obviously he took him. He likes him. I get it, but I think there's downside there. I also don't, and this goes for every draft. I mean, this is a normal spot for Ozzy Albies to be taken. I don't think it really makes sense to prioritize him over Scooter Jeanette, or even like Daniel Murphy, given some of the downside we saw over the final two-thirds of last season.

So I don't love that. But for the most part, it's fine. I actually think Caris Davis is really good value here. you know, normally his profile brings some concerns, but 340 Homer seasons in a row, I don't think there's much doubt about what he can provide. And in a 5-by-5 league, you know, normally we talk about it in a rotos sense where you have all these different hitter spots to fill, but in a 5-by-5 league that uses a head-to-head lineup, no corner infielder, no middle infielder, three outfielders instead of five,

I feel like a key is getting impact from every spot. You can't You can't really have any let up No, yeah, you can't really have any let up Anywhere in your lineup. Yeah, yeah. Chris Keras Davis is, do we have to call it?

No. He's the only Chris Davis doesn't matter. Yeah, he's the only last one standing. Oh, yeah, I mean, he's definitely bad. Okay, so that's round five. We're into the middle of round seven. And Chris, give me your thoughts on round six. Any really good or really bad picks?

We're seeing a little bit of variance from ADP as we're looking at Steel's guys. Guys. Scooter Jeanette, so this starting at 61 overall, going through 72 overall. Scooter Jeanette, Victor Robles, Travis Shaw, Jonathan VR, Jameson, Tion, Armand Marquez, Vladimir Guerrero, Clayton Kirshaw, Tommy Fam, Daniel Murphy, Joey Gallo, Blake Trinen. I don't like it. Any of it? I mean, I think there are fine picks in there, but this, I mean, this gets. into the range of pitcher that I just avoid. I just don't want to pay a premium for, you know,

I like James and Tyone. I like Armand Marquez, but I just feel like you're paying a premium without pricing and enough of the downside there. So this is the range where I'm just going to generally be a little more pessimistic about the picks being made. And then I think, like, I like Robles, I like Jonathan V.R. I think there reaches there. The best pick is probably, either Clayton Kirshall or Daniel Murphy for me because those are two guys who do have I think elite upside. Clint and Kirchall can still, I think, be an ace, especially now that it looks like he's going to be ready, if not on opening day, not far after.

And Daniel Murphy, the injury risk is there, but we've said it enough times. He could hit 3.30 in course with 25 homers. Like there's a lot of upside there. He is perfectly suited for that ballpark. So that brings us to round seven And we are about to end round seven Scott if you want to maybe pause the draft And we'll get to your picks

And you can kind of live pick them But this is pick 73 through 84 Or 73 through 83 And we'll wait for 84 Glaber Torres Corey Seeger To Chris Jack Flaherty

A.J. Pollock I was probably going to take A.J. Pollock 77th overall But he went 76 overall So I took Eloy Jimenez Great pick Canly? Thank you.

You were going to take him right? Oh, yeah. Kenley Jansson, Jose Burrios, Oroles Chapman, Miguel and Duhar, bad pick, right? Very. Mitch Hanager to Heath, bad pick, right?

Outstanding. I actually have Hanigar ranked ahead of Eloy. I think he'll give you better numbers for the full season than Eloy does, but I was going to take Eloy because I think upside matters just a little bit more in this format

than it does in our standard roto. Right, so why didn't you take Conforto or Pue or something like that? Because Conforto went right after Hanigur. and now Scott is on the clock with his seventh pick. So, all right. They may have a little more upside than Hanager, but I really think that it looks pretty similar to what Hanager is going to do.

And I just feel more confident that he's going to give you close to 190 runs plus RBI, hit 25 plus home runs, and give you a good average. Okay, here's what we're going to do. Scott, you're making your seventh and eighth picks. I want you to tell us your team. And then Heath, you're going to do the same in two picks. We're all in the seventh round. We're going to say who we have, what we're thinking,

and then make the picks. Go ahead, Scott. All right, so I have an infield of Paul Goldschmidt, Scooter Jeanette, Alex Bregman, and out Alberto Mondesie. I don't think any surprise I've filled my infield already. Pitching staff, Noah Cindergarten, Walker Bueller. I'm going to at least think about Luis Severino here, but probably go a different direction.

I feel like with the idea that you want impact from every lineup spot, even though I filled my infield I don't think I mind filling that utility spot with Justin Turner because I feel like when he's in the lineup he is that impactful so I'm going to take him Craig Kimbril's still there

he's actually at the top of my rankings obviously makes me a little uncomfortable he hasn't signed yet Will Myers could be my first outfielder and give me some steals which wouldn't be a bad thing even with Mondicey there Yeah, that's, I mean, you could go a little higher.

You know what? I'm looking a little further down here. I think I'm going to go with Pueg, Yassil Pueg, and make him my top outfielder instead of Will Myers. I might want to revisit that ranking. All right, so like we said, I mean, this is a good range for outfielders. The next pick is Jose Paraza, and now Heath, you're on the clock. Tell us about your team and what you're going to do.

Love, love, love my offense. I've got J.T. Realmuto, Freddie Freeman, Travis Shaw at second base, Matt Carpenter at third, Mitch Hanager and Andrew Benintendi, a very on-brand draft for me so far. My only pitcher is Max Scherzer. The only thing I'm really worried about with my offense now is I've got to get steals. And there will be a couple of very good steals guys that come back to me in the next round. So it's time to take my first closer, and it's my first closer, Roberto Osuna. Okay, there we go.

Now, your pitching staff is sure. This is why you always love your team. You have so many weird. You have so many oddities in your friends. I get my guys. Yeah. I mean, that does, you know, always consider that. Fantasy analysts end up loving their team because they have guys on their team that they like more than others.

But Heath does not have speed. Dee Gordon is still on the board and there's a good chance he would be my pick. But we still have like Malick Smith, Billy Hamilton, guys like that. Now, it's tough to rely on a job like a Billy Hamilton in a shallow. league where you start only three outfielders and a utility because his batting average is really going to affect your team. I think I've set my team up to where I can handle at least one bad batting average and maybe another.

And here's one thing about Billy Hamilton, especially when it looks like he's going to bat ninth. That's actually a good thing for his batting average because it won't hurt you as bad. Yeah, he's not going to have as many play appearances. This isn't something that we necessarily talk about a lot, but it's also true of of Joey Gallup because he walks so much that you're going to have fewer at bats to take away from, you know, you want your high batting average guys kind of to be low walk guys and leadoff hitters because that's where you're going to get the most impact from a high batting average. The opposite is true of low average guys.

All right, I just took D Gordon. So after he picked Osuna, Felipe Vasquez went, David Price, Chris Archer, 90th overall, Madison Bumgarner 91st overall And I took D Gordon And I don't know how I feel about it Because I already have Whitmerfield But considering I have Nolan Aeronado And Aaron Judge

I have possibly the Two home run leaders And RBI leaders, you know So I feel like I'm good at batting average I believe in D Gordon So Maryfield, Aeronado Gordon give me good batting average I also have Eloy Jimenez

And my pitching staff right now Is Kershaw, Strasbourg And Edwin Diaz Gee, no risks with my starting pitchers, Kershon Strasbourg. Actually, I like my team. I do not need to focus on steals anymore. I have Merrifield and Gordon, so I will be looking for some power. I don't need to focus on batting average anymore, in my opinion,

because I have Merrifield-Arenato and Gordon. So I'll just take the best available players going forward, and I think on my next pick I'm going to be looking for my second closer is I would like to end up with four of those. I will also consider starting pitcher. All right, Chris, you are on the clock. The last picks were. Gordon to me, Matt Olson, to Connor Henry, and Nelson Cruz to Kayla Van Horn,

and Chris, tell us about your team and what you're going to do here. Well, that screwed me over. I wanted Nelson Cruz there, and now I have to pivot. One thing that's interesting when you're picking, not just at the pivot, but where Heath and I are, one or two picks behind the or ahead of the pivot, you can look at what the teams around you need, and I can see that Tom Ogganowski probably is. going to take an outfielder because he's already got two,

so I kind of want to fill my utility spot and then grab an outfielder coming back. I think that's going to work out, so that's why I'm taking Max Muncie here to fill in either my third base or utility spot. Max Muncie. Okay, and now Jesus Agalore off the board. And now we are done with eight rounds. We are going to get to the ninth round and beyond.

We'll be right back after this. So let's start here with round nine. Krissur on deck, and you just took Max Muncie. two picks ago. Tom took Jesus Aguilar. Tom is still on the clock. This is 97 overall. This is a head-to-head categories league.

12 teams, one catcher, one first baseman, second-based, third-based shortstop, three outfielders, utility. Two starting pitchers, two relievers and three pitcher spots, and there are five reserve rounds. So that gives us, I believe, 21 rounds of drafting, and we are on to round nine, and Craig Kimbril's

off the board. So now, Chris Towers, what are you going to do, sir? If we go through and let Scott pick the worst picks of round nine, I am about to make what will definitely be his list favorite pick because he hates this guy. Marcelo Zuna, I think as long as the shoulders right, and after undergoing surgery,

he's already playing in the field, he's going to be ready for opening day. You look at what he did last year. The overall numbers look like what he was in 2015, 2016, 2016. But if you look at the batted ball data, And he excels in exit velocity, number of hard hit balls, number of balls hit over 95 miles an hour. I think you can probably make the case that his overall numbers don't reflect how well he swung with that last season. Now, the shoulder injury can lead to some inconsistency.

Maybe he hit a lot of balls hard when he squared them up, but there were a lot more that he just couldn't get around to. And that could be an issue. But there are, I think, a lot of signs that maybe, okay, He can't be 2017 when he was, what, the number seven outfielder. But I think there's top 12 potential with Marcelo Zuna. And I wanted to get someone who can provide power. He's not going to steal any bases at all, but he should be helpful in power and run production.

And I think he's going to be a 280-ish hitter. Yeah, I mean, not to start a prolonged Marcelo Zuna discussion, but, you know, it's hard to know how to account for the injury variable, the shoulder, how much did it impact him. He said it had been bothering him for three years, so that just adds another question to the equation. But the biggest issue is you'd look at what he did in 2017, and it's kind of the argument we've been making against Javier Baez. He was such an outlier in Babip and home run-to-fly ball rate that it's unreasonable to expect him ever to do that again. And, you know, I don't think 98, if you're confident in him, 98th overall where you took him is bad.

His ADP, I think, is 74. So he's in my over-rated column looking at ADP. I have him more like 120, but... I think it's like 139. Yeah, something like that. And to back up my point a little bit more, he was in the 80th percentile in average axis velocity on line drives and fly balls. he was in like the 83rd percentile in barrel rate and about the 87th percentile

and percentage of balls hit over 95 miles per hour. This is still, I think, a very good bat. You did not make the worst pick of round nine. Let's recap, oh, Ahmed Rosario. Yeah, so steals are going a little early. So round nine, and this is what happens in Categories League. So Kimbril, Marcelo Zuna, Sean Doolittle, Zach Wheeler, I took Brad Hand. He's my second closer. I have two starting pitchers and two closers right now through nine rounds.

Miles Michaelis. David Dahl, who is the other player I was considering. I took Brad Hand instead of Dahl. Malik Smith was taken. Ahmed Rosario was taken. I'm guessing that was the one that Scott really didn't like. Corey Canable to Heath and Jose Leclerc to Tim McClough. I forgot how to pronounce his name. It's not McLeod. McLeod. McLeod? McLeod. McLeod, I think. It's not MacLeod. No, he correct. Corrected me. It's not in a cloud. Scott's on the clock. Fascinating discussion, guys. Yeah.

Severino. So, yeah, when there's so few hitter spots to Phil, who cares if he's missing a month? I want impact. Severino seems like great value. I'm taking him. Walker Bueller and Sera. I agree if he misses a month. Yeah. And then, and then it's interesting. Will Myers,

who I debated a little bit last time, but that last round is still there. David Dahl isn't, who's my other exciting upside outfielder in addition to Pueg. But I don't want to waste the lineup spot. I think Yasmani Grandal is definitively the third best catcher, and I'm not confident a good one's going to make it back to me.

I could see us going on a run here since they're all so closely ranked, so I'm going to take Grundal. But I do want to talk about Ahmed Rosario a little bit if we could, because this, like, I don't understand the Ahmed, and I don't want to trash this guy's pick, because I'm sure he has great reasons for taking him. but I don't understand the hype to begin with considering

his steals really took off when he moved to the lead off spot which he won't be batting anymore his last couple months he hit 280 but at the total expense of power no on base skills like he's not a good hitter and I'm not confident he's going to be a big base stealer or even a 20 steel guy

meanwhile Gene's a girl was still there like in a best case scenario I'm Ed Rosario can be Jean's car with maybe 10 more steel I don't even like Gene Sugara at all. I thought I was going to have him in my bus column. But if I can get him at pick 112, Geneziger is good. Yeah, he is.

He's going to hit 300. He's going to score a bunch of runs. He's going to steal 20 bases. He's going to hit 10 to 15 homers, maybe more in that park. Geneziger is good. That's a great pick at 111th overall. It is. It was really good.

It was a very good pick. And Brandt, oh, oh, you Darvich is fine. So Brant is the guy who took Rosario. He also has Jonathan, VR. Annie has Christian Yelich. So I don't know, it just seems like an overkill pick there. You need, you need Rosario to really hit to make that, because you have VR. Like, you can't take two of those guys. To make one point, you know, we were discussing Raphael Devers earlier, and his ADP is probably a little later than, actually, no, I don't think it's later than I'm in Rosario. I think it's earlier.

And what we're, what we were talking about with Raphael Devers is what's the reason for optimism? Heath, you like Raphael Devers a lot, but even you acknowledge that it's basically he's got to do something he's never done. It's basically betting on the pedigree. Yeah. He does need to get better. I think he's probably done just a little bit more. Yeah, and I wasn't actually, like I wasn't, yeah, the comparison between them. And his minor league track record looks like a good hitter.

And he said, right, but so does Ahmed Rosario. So Amid Rosario was routinely hitting well above 300 in the minors. When he got called up, I think he was the number one or two prospect at that point. Yeah. And it wasn't that long ago. I think he just turned 22 or 23. He's still really young. He was one of the top prospects in baseball a year and a half ago.

So I don't, I definitely would not have taken him at 95th. But when you can get him in like the 13th, 15th round range, I think it makes a lot more sense there. because you're betting on Pedigar, you're betting at a point in the draft where you're just betting. And you just have to find a reason to bet on someone. I like what Scott said about taking Grandal. You want to stand out in this shallower format at every position if you can. So I took Wilson Contreras. I'll recap some of the picks here in round 10.

Billy Hamilton just went off the board. But it was Grandal, then Ramos. So not the only ones who thought that. Gene Segerid, Heath, Kirby Yates, Robinson Canoe, U. Darvish. Robbie Ray, Wilson Contreras to me, Will Myers, which I think is very good value in a Categories League, 117th overall, Will Myers. And same with Michael Brantley, 118th overall. And then Chris took Billy Hamilton. So, Chris, how are you doing? That was 119th overall. 120th overall was Matt Chapman. Chris, how are Steele's looking for you? What you got there? I'm good. They're good now.

Hamilton. I only have one roster spot to fill for hitters. And that's either Yeah, it's got to be second base at this point. So I'm, yeah, I'm doing well. I have Lorenzo Kane, Mookie Betts, and Billy Hamilton. Between the three of them, they should steal. Let me get in 100 bases. You were arguably fine on stolen bases without Billy Henson. Now you're the best in the league.

Why wouldn't you have taken a- That seems like over-kick? Yeah, why wouldn't you have taken- Oh, I don't agree because I have nobody else who's going to steal bases. Joey Gallo is probably my fourth best stolen base guy. Okay, so why wouldn't you have taken- taking a guy like Aaron Hicks, who might give you 15 to 20, along with Mooky Betts

and Lorenzo Cain, instead of taking Billy Hamilton, who just sucks at playing baseball. Because Aaron Hicks is already hurt. And Billy Hamilton doesn't suck. He's hit 240, 250 before. He's been a top 30 player. Right, but that's all you can do.

I think... I think actually Billy Hamilton is really demonstrative of the difference between a head-to-head categories in a Roto League when you have nine hitter spots versus 14. I'm totally down with taking Hamilton as somebody who's going to carry you in steals when you have so many lineup spots to make up for a shortcoming.

But when you don't, I mean, he's sinking you and everything else. Oh, take it back because that's the guy I wanted. Are you fine with that, Chris? I'm fine with that. I mean, it's Josh Donaldson. He's on my bench for now, but I mean, I have enough rich. You should have taken a picture.

You have, I think you have a good excuse. So if you want... Right, we're podcasting. I went on a soliloquy about Billy Hamilton and the state of my team steals. But I would have preferred to fill out my lineup with a second baseman. Admittedly, the second base options there

aren't super great, in my opinion. Brian Dozier probably being the top one. And I said I was going to fill my lineup before I take another starting pitcher. I'm sticking with it. I'm a man of my word. Okay. So I know what Scott's saying about Billy Hamilton

and it hurts, you know, it could hurt you more in a shallower format where you don't have all these other hitters to balance it out. But let's take a look. And, you know, you took Josh Donaldson and really bothered me. That's what I was going to take. But then I decided, I'll just take Amman Encarnacion, because I think they could be very similar. All right.

So let's go with the latest draft results. And after Hamilton, it was Matt Chapman. And then we have in the beginning of round 11 now, so 121st overall, Luis Castillo, Josh Donaldson, Jurexon, Profar. Rice Selle Iglesias, Edwin Incarnacion, Shane Bieber, 126 overall,

Wade Davis, Great pick. Raphael Devers. And now, Heath, you're on deck. And let me pick apart Heath's team. It's a thing of beauty. I feel like you need speed. Am I wrong?

I don't have your team. I am borderline on speed right now. I'm low. I'm not going to win most weeks, but I'm not going to be close to the very bottom either, I don't think. Your pitching staff is interesting. You have Scher, Osuna, and Canabel, and now you're on the clock.

I think I might have good ratios. What do you do here? There are two outfielers left that should not be there at all. Two outfielers that should have been taken probably 30 picks ago. And I struggle between the two of them, but I think one of them might steal 10 to 15 bases, and he's currently healthy. So I'm going to take Andrew McCutcheon and leave the other one. Oh, that's actually not who I thought you were taking.

McCutcheon, if I hadn't taken Hamilton, he would have been my pick to fill out my utility spot. Yeah, he's good, and he's in a great situation. He's best park of his life. This could be one of the best seasons of Andrew McCutcheons. Yeah, I think 25 homers and 10 steals could easily be in the cards with a better batting average than we've seen recently. Interesting. Okay, then Edwater Rodriguez went a little earlier than I think we're used to seeing him go, 131. Scots on the clock.

The other outfielders who were available, Aaron Hicks, Justin Uppes, Justin Uppes, and Nick Castiano's, they're all hurt right now. But Eddie Rosario is also available. David Peralta, Jesse Winker, Stephen Piscotti. This is a little bit of an issue with the three outfielder leagues because I did like those values, but I already filled up outfield with Judge Eloy and Gordon. And I had second base filled with Merrifield. So, you know, you could take one as a utility.

That's totally fine. But just be aware that if you fill up outfield too early, you might have to leave some very good players on the board to fill other needs, which is not necessarily. necessarily a loss or anything, but it's just something you should be aware of. Scott takes Eddie Rosario here. And I think that's why Scott likes to wait at Outfield. So you are getting good value. And he has Pueig and Rosario.

Scott has Grandal, Goldschmidt, Scooter Jeanette, Bregman, Mondesee, Rosario, and Pueeg. Do you feel like you need another speed guy because you basically just have Mondesie, Scott? Do Pueg? Yeah, I mean, Pueg should get me. I think he'll probably give me 20. Bregman steals some bases. Goldschmidt could bounce back to a degree. I'm actually not that worried about it.

You don't have a closer yet. You don't have any safe. I don't have a closer. And I feel my top closer remaining is Cody Allen, so I don't feel like now's a good time to take a closer. I think I'm going to take Nicholas Castellanos here as my third outfielder after taking Rosario as my second. Two guys who are...

I should be in really good shape. for batting average. That is one category. Like Justin Upton was out there too, but he's so streaky and a head-to-head categories league and he's going to bring down batting average. I actually rank him ahead, but I think I'd rather have the safe batting average guys in Castianos and Rosario.

I feel good about that category. And my lineup is full. I'm agonizing a little bit. Okay. Let's hear about it. Well, if I pitch, I only have one hitter spot left. It's the utility. And I think the guy I'm going to take will be there in a while.

So with my pitching strategy, there are a couple of starters I could take for my second starting pitcher. This guy, I think, probably generally goes a little too early, but this might be his best format. So I'm going to take Josh Hater and just continue hopefully owning the ratios. And I do think the one thing about Hater, his ratios would be worse than they were last year. I think he's still probably going to be amongst the league leader, maybe the league leader

in strikeouts at relief pitcher. and if you've got Scherzer and Hader and Canable, you've got a chance, I think, to compete in strikeouts on a week-to-week basis. The one thing with him is he was mortal after those first two, just absolutely incredible months. Yeah, they stopped. They used him like a regular reliever. Like from June 1st on, he was basically on like a 77 inning pace. Now, that would have come with 110 strikeouts. Right. He's awesome.

It's not necessarily an argument against him. but he had a three-ish ERA, a whip around one, maybe a little under. He was very good. I just think the most likely outcome for him is that he's very similar to Dellenbatansis rather than this incredible standout who... It's possible. And like really put you ahead of the past. I do think early in the year, if there's no Jeremy Jeffress, he probably sees that increased usage again.

So one thing that I think is really interesting, guys, is that it's round 12. I have four pitchers And two starters So do I Yeah How many do you have Scott Four I have three and one

Severino so two and a half And Chris how about you Oh only two I'm a man of my word This is the difference In a head to head categories league You know This is just

This is just why it's different And I My pitchers are How And in what way I would not have I don't I would not have

Two starters and two relievers I think what you I think what you want to say is non-closing relievers are a lot more valuable in this format as Heath has pointed out over the years and so there's not as much of an onus

on making sure you get top flight or even really you want the top flight pitchers you don't want to fill out you don't need to fill out your staff with guys who are going to win 12 games with a 370 R. I don't have less value relatively I don't agree about

I don't want middle relievers. I want guys who are starters or closers, ideally. You don't want middle relievers, but they present a much more useful fallback in this format than any other. That's how I'd sum it up. That's 100% true, yeah, agreed. And I think we're all on board with the idea. These stud pitchers are just so far ahead of everyone else at the position

that you want them in every format. It's just how much, like Chris was saying, saying. How much can you wait beyond that? And I think that's very dependent on format. Okay, so we're done with 12 rounds. I'll go ahead and recap round 12 and you could tell me good, bad picks. I took Garrett Hampson in that round. I would love to get your thoughts on that. Here's what round 12 look like. Castiano, Mustakis, Hader, Hendricks, Morton, Winker, Buxston, Hampson, Povetta, Kikuchi, Dozier, and Posey. Posey's a good value there.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm not as optimistic as you are, Heath, about him bouncing back. I think he just kind of is this now, especially at his age coming off a hip injury or hip surgery, but he should still be a catcher who gives you something. God, Chris, always taking my guys. Chris took Jordan Hicks. That's who I was hoping to take. He's going to be the closer.

That's clearly the earliest he's gone in any draft. Not that I don't think it's a desert. it. Yeah, like you were, I cut you up from saying Adam, I think he's clearly going to be the Cardinals closer. I want it upside with my with one of my, with my relievers. That's, I'm going for upside

with the rest of my pitching staff. You know, I guess the question there with Hicks is what happens with Carlos Martinez and Alex Reyes. I don't really worry about Miller, Andrew Miller, impacting his steals total that much, but those two. It's just hard to know what direction they're going on.

Like, Fultenevich just I was actually thinking about taking Mike Fultenevich for maybe the first time ever. More like Moldenevich. I don't understand what you were about to say. I don't understand how Justin Upton is still on the board. He was the guy two rounds ago that I was talking about how it was stupid. He was still there.

I mean, he is currently hurt, I guess. But, I mean, how much do you guys? Because this is the sort of idea that you really need a significant. sample size to give it any credit. But he is a wildly streaky player, a guy who will have like a 12 home or month at some point during the season. And so while I would have definitely taken him over Castiano's in a Roto league, I feel like in this format where, like,

there's going to be a couple weeks where he wins you all the offensive categories, but then there's going to be so many where he just drags you down and you're like, can I bench this guy? No, because he's Justin Upton. And who knows when he's going to have that monster week. Like, it's hard to play that game because I feel like there isn't a lot of predictability with that. But with Justin Upton, he's been around so long and done it so often. Right, but like last year, I don't know how it broke down week to week, but it was sub-700 OPS in April, March.

And then. Terrible. Four straight months of at least 800 with two of 900. And then he was not good in September. I don't know how you look at that and say, all right, I know when to sit Justin Upton. That's what he said you don't. Yeah, no, but that's, I don't think you can worry about it.

Well, I'd rather not have to worry about it. I won't worry about it to pick 154 at all. Yeah, I mean, he should go now, obviously. And he took him. He already did. So, uh, so this round, round 13 is, I'll read the results. Uh, Cole Hamels, Jordan Hicks, Danny Jansen, Yadier Malina. Tyler Glass now

and we are Catcher sucks now because Molina and Jansen are off the board Tyler Glass now Fultenevich Cody Allen David Robertson

Jose Alvarado Justin Upton and Nick Senzel and now Scott will make the last pick of round 13 which is 156 overall and I got to tell you something

I got a problem because I think my pitching staff is going to be bad now because I have a tweener staff because I'm not starting pitcher heavy and I'm not really pitcher heavy and now all the guys that I feel very confident

about getting saves. Not all of them, but a lot of them are gone. So there's still Ken Giles, there's Matt Barnes, there's Will Smith. I guess I can feel pretty good taking a third. Colomé. I am so happy with my most recent pick. You just took who? Rich Hill. Rich Hill.

Is there any pick that you don't love? You can't just be... Which fits in perfectly, I think, in this... I'm going to tell you why this is a good pick in this format. Because when he pitches, he's going to pitch deep, strike out a bunch of batters, and give you good ratios. And you only have to, if you're going with this approach, you only have to have two to three starting pitchers anyway.

And so it won't be hard to replace him. That is true. He's a good pitcher for this approach. And, you know, I like, I just took J.Hap and John Gray. I like them both more. I think they could do Rich Hill things without all the injury risk. Hey, Scott, I just want to say one thing. Oh, go ahead.

Oh, wait, it's not working. Hold on, Scott. Okay, I'll get it to work. Failure there. Is that it? No. Oh, no, no. We're saying that John Gray and J.Hap can do Rich Hill thing?

Maybe he wanted the Heath is on. No, I have a John Gray thing, but my iPad is messing up, so I have to fix my iPad. You thought that was a bad take? No, no. They're just totally different. They can't do Rich Hill things. Sure, they can. They both have big strikeout ability.

they both can give you low whip with a mid-3 ZRA. Well, I think he'll come be... John Gray and J. Hab can get hurt. That's not fair. They can absolutely without getting hurt. They can. But, I mean, Rich Hill, you know, he's... I was just making a joke.

Oh, okay. Not well. I miss the joke, too. I don't think Jayhap can do rich hill things. I think he can do good things that don't resemble Rich Hill much. I think John Gray absolutely... It was basically Rich Hill last year. The strikeout rate was an outline.

I think Jayhap has And still below Rich Hills Last year or the year before I think Jayhap has generally been underrated in fantasy I think he's probably He usually goes 100 picks later than this In previous years Oh in previous years

Now he's probably being properly rated Maybe I don't know why we think Why the fantasy community at large Is treating him as a different guy I mean he was better His fastball played up I think there was a difference in how he, where he located his fastball in the strike zone.

I think that's the background behind it. But, I mean. He's 34? Yeah, 36. 36. The Yankees aren't the team that I would expect to find a way to play up a guy's fastball. But it's already happened. Yeah, for two months.

No, he was good with the Yankees last year, too. It wasn't just two months. Was he with the Yankees the whole year? No. Yeah, that's what I mean. He got traded to the year. Yeah, that's what I mean. He was at the Yankees for two months.

Okay. Okay. I mean, it was a really good year. I think the downside is high. Does that make sense? High floor. High floor. And obviously a ton of wind potential for the Yankees.

So I'm, you know, as my fourth starting pitcher. And the thing is, I have five now. I may not need to draft another. I feel like I got five pitchers with impactful ceilings. and, you know, don't have to fill out a rotation with marginal innings eaters now. Okay, well, let's recap what's going on in the draft. Because a lot of things that we are done with 14 rounds. Good stuff.

We're going to give you the whole thing, by the way. Round 14, John Gray, Jesus Lazzardo, Rich Hill, Kenta Maeda, Carlos Santana, Francisco Mejia, Ken Giles, I took Aaron Hicks, Chris Paddock, was, oh, not the interesting pick, 165th overall, Will Smith, Matt Barnes, David Peralta. So here come all the closers

that, not all, but a lot of the closers that we don't know if they have the job, such as Strickland and Matt Barnes and Will Smith. It's a good guess that they have the job. Very early for a lot of these guys.

It's definitely throwing off my calculation because I don't have one yet. But I think that's a format specific thing too. You may be punting safe. Yeah, you're punting. Maybe. No, there's a couple out there still. Yeah.

Yeah, not necessarily. I think I have to take a closer with my next pick. They're just, I wanted to have four. I have two right now, and it has to happen. Like, it's going to be, from our sensibilities, it's going to be too early for any of the guys you'd be taking now, but the draft is dictated that they've all, you know, the high-earned guys went about in the normal range,

and now these lower-end guys are going, yeah, it's going to seem early. So it's going to come down to a road to Smith, Viscayano or Archie Bradley for me. And who would you guys take? Bradley. You can't have him. It just went. Arota's Viscayano it is.

And then I guess I will have to put Minter in my queue and maybe take him with a late pick and see how that plays out. And I could always, like if Viscayano early in the year, we're not playing this out. But if Viscayano early in the year, we're getting all the saves. and this whole thing about sharing with Minter were bogus, I would just drop Minter and move on from there. But also Minter, I think, could just give good ratios and be a good, a usable pitcher,

even though I don't want middle relievers in this situation where I'm sort of handcuffing. It's not so bad. So a lot of pitchers are going to go now, I think Keikle, Jimmy Nelson, Brandon Nimmo, Chris took Jimmy Nelson, by the way. Nimmo, Archie Bradley, I took Miss Guyano, Miguel Cabrera, 174th overall. We never talk about him.

Fled by Brad Peacock and Ian Desmond. Somebody talk about Miguel Cabrera, 174th overall. He pulled off a hidden ball trick. That was neat. He talked about that. No, there's a chance that Miguel Cabrera bounces back. He should be able to DH more, and maybe that'll work. I'm skeptical, but in, what, 174th, there's...

We are at the no downside. Like, just make your call part of the day. draft and Miguel Cabrera could still be a top 50 player. It's not what I think is going to happen, but it's absolutely possible. Okay, I'm going to give this another shot. Scott, this is what I was trying to play for you earlier. Let's see if it works. Here we go. John Gray, you can draft him if you want to. There we go. It worked. So, yeah, that was one of our podcast submissions, podcast league submissions. They're amazing, by the way. We're getting so many good songs. Yeah, they're amazing.

Incredible. I'll just let this one play in the background. Not all of the songs are in, by the way. If you didn't do a song and dance, it doesn't mean you're not in the podcast league, but this is a great one. I'm going to play this one on Monday's show because it's so funny.

Just tagging on to the end of the episode. Scott refuses to listen to it. Who knew we had such talented listeners? Me. I always believed you know. So anyway, I have no idea what we're talking about now. We talked about Miguel Cabrera. After Cabrera was picked, Ian Desmond.

176 overall for Desmond, who might give you 2020? No, he won't. He might. I'm grooving, I'm grooving. More likely, Chris, Ian Desmond gives you 20-20 or gives you 20 of neither. Of definitely 20 of neither. He should be benched. I'm going to kill that.

Anyway, Ross Stripling after that, Heath took Paul DeYoung. Love it, Heath. Great pick. Nomar Mazarra. And Scott took Alex Colomey. Thanks, Adam. That's he loving all of his picks. He loves all his picks.

I mean, it was probably 50 spots after Paul DeYoung should be taken. Exactly. And in a week where I play Chris or somebody that has a ton of steals, I'd rather start him at shortstop than Gene Segar. That's an interesting strategy. I like that. That's a good take, kind of based on your performance. Probably 40 picks before you needed to take him. That might be true also.

So Scott took Alex Colomé and Luke Voight. Trevor May comes off the board. And now Heath is up. Heath, who are you going to steal? Oh, go ahead, Scott. Go ahead, Heath. It's your pick. I'm going to take Peggro's Strope.

I wanted one more guy that's going to get some saves at the beginning of the year. I don't feel quite as confident that Scott does that he'll be the closer for the entire season. I do think it's definitely a possibility. This gives me Canable, Ozuna, and Strope with my three closers. I've got Josh Hayter as a middle reliever. I've got a team ERA of like 2.5. Everything's going great. Okay.

I was going to say, this is, like, I honestly don't know what to do at this stage of the draft. Because in a normal head-to-head league, like a head-to-head points league, like we normally play, load up your bench with pitchers to take advantage of two-star weeks. But when you're preserving your ratios, you know, that's... That's not the greatest approach. Reliever, Scott. Best players, too. There's going to be so many on the waiver wire.

Like, I don't want to use my precious draft picks on them either. For me, it's just at this point almost entirely about upside. I just want guys that could possibly be stars. I don't care if we're 50 spots away from their ADP or my ranking up. Yeah, that's basically what I decided to do, taking Luke Voight with my 16th pick, because if all goes right for him in that lineup, I think he's a 290 hitter with 30 plus Homer's ton of RBI. Do you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to Tyler Skagg.

I am going to Tyler Skaggs. I'm going to take him here 188th overall as my last... Are you taking him just so you could have an excuse to play that clip? Because I think that... I think that's true. I thought we must be ending the draft after this round. That's the only reason that he's taking him this early. 180th overall?

That's early. 188th overall? It's fine. Don't listen to them, Adam. They're bullies. There's no such thing anymore as Reaches. Like, just take who you want. We only have five picks left.

Yeah, five picks left. So we're finishing up round 16. Some of the guys off the board. Oh, Ender Enciarte. I like that pick. That's a nice pick. Marco Gonzalez, Takeda. Then Chris took Andrew Miller.

Did you take Andrew Miller because you have Jordan Hicks? Or did you just take Andrew Miller? No, I've been whispering to Scott that he should take middle relievers, and that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to take the guys who can strike out 100 batters and give me a two, three, ERA. and I won't really miss a starting pitcher. I assume Patances is next. It depends what Tom Ogunowski does.

Well, Tom selected maybe my new biggest concern of spring training, Colin McHugh, who got lit up yesterday by the Marlins B team. He's made three or four appearances now totaling 5.2 innings. He's faced about 15 innings worth of batters. He's been awful. The velocity's been down a little bit. I'm a little worried about McHugh Oh, that's interesting

I mean he's a veteran pitcher And normally we know So the velocity has been down a little A couple miles an hour A couple miles per hour I mean a lot of times veteran pitchers Are just working on stuff But he's not exactly a veteran pitcher

With an extensive enough track record as a starter He had three or four years I don't know I hear you, it's been an awful spring He's not good enough to overlook a starting an awful spring. You should take it into account. Considering it's round 16,

I mean, if you're pursuing upside, I think he certainly fits the bill. I remember the year after Rich Hill had that awesome five-star stretch with the Red Sox where we were like, what's up with this Rich Hill guy? The athletics gave him a one-year deal just to try him out.

He was awful that spring. And I got scared away of drafting him, even though I was hyping him as a sleeper all preseason. Goes on and has a Dominique here. So you got to be careful with that stuff when you know the upside is there. In my opinion, I don't think Colin McHugh has really ever been that good of a starting pitcher, though. And I don't want to base our expectations for him this year on what he did out of the bullpen. He's been a very hit-able...

He had the Brad Peacock slider. I mean, it's... He added a dominant pinch to what already was a pretty impressive arsenal. Yes. Okay. Heath, another great pick for Heath? Yes, Julio, you're right. Reyes, just outside of the top 200 overall, to pair him up with Rich Hill. I've almost got a full-time starter now.

It must be so hard to be married to you. What do you mean? I'm always happy. But everybody else isn't. So let's talk about our teams. We have all of our starters. We're drafting reserves now. Chris, you had the second pick.

And kind of slowly take us through your team. First hitters, and we'll talk about it, then pitchers. Go ahead. Yeah. Mookie Betz was my pick at number two overall. It's kind of the obvious pick. It's Heath's number one overall player. So my lineup right now is Gary Sanchez, Joey Gallo, Brian Dozier, Max Muncie,

Corey Seeger, Lorenzo Cane, Marcelo Zuna, Mookie Betts, and Billy Hamilton. Great. I think it's a nicely balanced team. There's some risk, especially with batting average. That's the one place that I could be a little bit concerned about that lineup. Slow it down for the list. know it's hard for listeners, so just say it one more time, just kind of pace yourself, but Gary Sanchez, Joey Gallo, Brian Dozier, Max Muncie, Corey Seeger, Lorenzo Cain, Marcelo Zuna,

Mukie Betts, and Billy Hamill. Very nice. That is my starting lineup. I have Josh Donaldson coming off the bench. There's some flexibility here, so I'm really happy with the lineup. And then my pitching staff, I got my two Aces and Trevor Bauer, and, and, you know, Aaron Nola, they're two of the starting pitchers that I like the most this year, especially in that second, third round range.

My closers, I've got my, the rest of my pitching staff is all relievers, plus Jimmy Nelson right now. So Jimmy Nelson is an upside starting pitcher play. Matt Barnes, Jordan Hicks, Andrew Miller, Dellen Battances. There is an obvious trend there. It's four guys who could strike out 100 batters this season. Jordan Hicks is probably the one that I'm least sure of. He was also the first one that I took. But I really like the combination of, like, I can compete in strikeouts with someone who went with five starters with this team, I think.

And now I'm probably going to continue to target good relievers, probably not closers, but good middle relievers. and then just upside starting pitcher plays. I might not take another hitter. And how did you feel now in retrospect about taking two pitchers with your first two picks? I'm sorry. I'm happy with it. With Betts Bauer Nola. I'm happy with it.

I think it worked out really well at that point in the draft. If you're at the top of the first round, I think taking one of those elite hitters and then grabbing a couple starting pitchers is absolutely a viable way to go. I just think what I then did was filled out my entire, starting lineup before I took another starting pitcher or another pitcher. And that is, I think, the way you should go if you go to aces in this format, because you're pretty good on pitcher no matter what's going to happen after that. Okay, so I just took Hunter Strickland like 210th overall,

and I really think he's going to be their closer. So I'm happy about that pick. And I want four closers. So that was kind of my goal coming in. Two starters, two relievers. three pitcher spots, I wanted four closers. Obviously, you don't have to start four closers every week, but you want the options. So I had the fifth overall pick. I took Nolan Aronado and Aaron Judge with my first two picks. And when you do that, you know you're good at RBIs, you're good with runs, you're good with home runs.

You're probably pretty good with batting average, as long as these guys hit. So that means you need some speed. Third round, I took Whitmeryfield. I'll just give you the rest of my team. So it's Wilson Contreras and Edwin Encarnacion. Whit Merrifield, Nolan Aronado, Garrett Hampson at short,

Aaron Judge, Eloy Jimenez, and Aaron Hicks in the outfield with D. Gordon at utility. It can use him at second or outfield. But I've got my speed with Merrifield and D. Gordon. I've got my power with Aeronado,

Aaron Judge, Eloy Jimenez, Edwin Encarnassione. I have a lot of good batting average here. Garrett Hampson gives me some speed as well. Actually, I really like my hitters. My pitchers, if everything goes right, I feel like I would have an amazing team.

I have Strasbourg and Kershaw. And I have Brad Hand and Edwin Diaz. Those were the first four pitchers I took, not in that order, but Strasbourg, Kershaw, Diaz and Hand. I also have a Rodeus Viscayano and Hunter Strickland. Tyler Glass now, Tyler Skaggs, and Gregory Polanco is my bench hitter right now. I'm very happy with this team.

I think the risk is Kershaw, Strasberg, Skaggs, Glass, last now, my starting pitching could be terrible. Well, could be terrible. But I think the hitting's really balanced. I think I'm good in every category, to be honest. Does anybody... I think your starting pitcher pitching could have terrible stretches.

I don't think it'll be terrible. And obviously, you don't need the volume of innings in this format that you do in a points league, or even I would say a roto league, just because it's so segmented when you're rewarded, you know, week by week, as opposed to, the full season.

You do have a lot of, like, you've got some high average guys and some low average guys, and it'll be interesting to see how that plays out over the course of the season if that's a strength for you or a weakness. I can say, based on the projections, Adam, last time I looked, had the second worst batting average. Really? Better only than Chris Towers. All right, so explain that to me, because I don't really get that.

Like, I have Aronado. I have Merrifield. judge probably hit 270 or so Homenes should be good with batting average Now what are their projections for D. Gordon Because I really think D Gordon can hit 300 Garrett Hampson's supposed to be good at batting average I don't get that.

76. That's not very good for Gordon obviously he could be a lot better. That's the thing about this exercise is it's only as valuable as it is as the projections are accurate so but your batting average is terrible. But I look at your lineup Edwin and Carnacian's liability in batting average. Aaron Hicks

is to the rest are fine. You're relying on guys who have question marks or in Garrett Hampson and Eloy Jimenez's case guys who haven't done it. You know,

I think Aaron Hicks could bat 275, but he hasn't really done that. I think Elo Jimenez could step on the field and hit 290 right now. I think Garrett Hampson should hit for a high average.

But it's a risky batting average group. Because you've got about as many proven bad batting average guys as you do proven good batting average. And something that's really impressive. Scott has 150 more at bats than I do. He's got 1,400 more at bats right now projected than Adam does. And he has a six point lead on the field in batting average at 287. Okay. Yeah, I want to make sure I was good at batting average. All right, well, let's go to Heath's team real quick. Then Scott, we're about done here. It's a 21-round

draft and we're about to finish round 19. So, Heath, you have the 10th pick, and how did it turn up? Well, fantastic. I mean, haven't you been listening to the podcast? I've got J.T. Realmuto, Freddie Freeman, Travis Shaw, Matt Carpenter, and Gene Seguera as my infield. My outfield is Andrew McCutcheon, Andrew Beninti, and Mitch Hanager. I've also got Justin Upton, Adam Eaton, and Paul DeYoung as my other possible options as

utility or filling in for some of those spots. I have three starting pitchers, Max Scherz, Rich Hill, and Julio Ureus. I'll probably only use two most weeks. And then I've got quite a bullpen, Roberto O'una, Corey Canable, Pedro Strope, Josh Hader. And just recently, I picked up Sir Anthony Dominguez. I'm trying to decide if I want to go with another reliever or look for an upside starter here in the 20th round.

and I think I'm going to have to there's two guys left that I really think have quite a bit upside especially at this point in the draft I'm going to go with Zach Godley Okay Yep definitely still some good starting pitchers left Sonny Gray was going to be my pick

He just went I think I'm going to have to start considering And there's some good starting pitchers left Carlos Martinez is still on the board Probably should get drafted It's 233 right now I don't think he will

If he's there for Mr. Irrelevant, I'll take him. I have a relief pitcher spot open, and he's eligible there, so I would take him. But we'll see. So you guys really don't think Carlos Martinez is going to be a starter this year? I think he could be. I think it may be June. Yeah, I'm giving it. Still 30, 33?

No. No, I think it's... I mean, at some point making a start this year, it's probably better. than 50-50 of making a start eventually. But there's a reasonable chance. He's just the setup man all year. That's kind of how they were talking even before he was hurt. Is Kyle Tucker worth drafting?

I think so. Yeah. If you're stocking your bench with upside. Done, took them. All right, Scott. He was in my cue. You had the last pick. You know, you had a couple of pitchers fall way below their ADP.

Obviously, one of them, injury-related, Louis Severino. took in the middle rounds, but Walker Bueller, you took 60th overall. But yeah, how do you feel about your team in this head-to-head categories league? I like it. I mean, obviously, I'm going to have a saves problem early on, not really going to compete in that category. I have Columet, who I can move in and out of the lineup when whenever I feel like I have a chance of competing, and there will be closers that emerge off the waiver wire in a 12-team league. I think eventually that won't be something I'm sweating so much.

I think I have a lot of impact, both in my lineup and my pitching staff. I'll go through the lineup now. If you want, Grandal's a catcher, Goldschmidt, first base, scooter Jeanette, second, Bregman, third base. Lower down. Adelberto Mondesi, shortstop, who I'm relying on primarily for steals, but there's some 10 to 15 steel guys in there. My outfield is Yassio Pueig, Eddie Rosario, Nicholas Castellanos, my utility players, Justin Turner.

I mean, these are all must-start bats in any format. And it's going to be great for batting average. Don't really have any home-run liabilities. And I think have enough steals. So I feel good about that. Pitching staff, Noah Cinderguard, Walker Bueller, Luis Severino, have to wait for him, fine. Fourth and fifth starters are J-Hap and John Gray.

I think there's a lot of upside with that five-man rotation. And then for my bend, my bench, My last two pitcher picks were Joey Lucasey and Josh James. Do you guys want to see Team Sam get into a fight? Okay, let's do it. Let's fight. Put up your Dukes. You cannot say that Nick Castiano's and Eddie Rosario are must-starts in any format.

I can't. What format would you not be starting them in? Yeah, I mean, no, no, no. Adam's right. They're must drafts. If we start like an eight-te-head points league, no. You're probably not starting.

Nicholas Castellanos or Eddie Rosario If you shrink it enough, I guess No What format are you? 12 teams, even this league Like you are going to have They're fine They're good, they're fine, they're solid

They have to be drafted But throughout the year You're going to have hot hitters That you pick up That you can start over guys Like Eddie Rosario and Nick Castiano Like they're not league winners for you Eddie Rosario and Nick Castellanos

Are going to get hot too Yeah, I know They're going to be at times They're going to be must start But they're not like Leaving your lineup Don't even think about it I mean they're both

probably going to end up hitting right around 285 with good power and as good to run production as you can get. I'll put it this way. If you ever get to a point where you're able to debate whether or not you can start Rosario or this other interesting guy

who emerged on your bench, you're in a great spot. You're in a really good shape. I'm not saying that definitely won't happen in three outfielder league. I guess you're technically right, but like nobody rarely is something. somebody looking at their team, seeing Eddie Rosario in their third outfield spot and saying,

man, I need to upgrade there. It just doesn't happen. I agree with that. But if I had Castellanos and Rosario as two and three, well, then I better have a great infield, which you do. So, and that's how you draft, which is totally fine. And you're going to be able to take Carlos Martinez with the last pick of the draft. Way to go. If there are any late round picks? We have three picks left in the draft. If there are any late round picks that stood out to you guys that you want to talk about that were particularly good or bad?

I'm having a hard time deciding right now which really good late round pick I'm going to make. My last pick on the clock. There are two starting pitchers I think definitely should be drafted and probably should have been drafted before now. Sean Newcomb, who I believe has some upside. And then Jake Arieta's still there. and he's probably going to be better than he was last year and he's definitely going to be worthy of being owned in this league.

I'm going to go with Newcomb, though. Oh. I'm upside. I just don't see it with Newcomb. I didn't see it last year and he wasn't very good. He was very good. Not very good. He was not.

I said he wasn't very good. He wasn't very good. No, I just, he hasn't really shown a lot of signs of getting the control fixed, and he just doesn't miss as many bats as you think he does. I mean, look, he could take a Mike Fultenevich leap. That's not out of the question. The same team that got it out of Fulte, could get it out of Newcomb. But he is better than Fulte was before his leap.

Maybe. I don't know. Yeah, he definitely was. Defense independent pitching stats would say that. It's just, I feel like it's another, an investment in Nukum is another, kind of like we were saying with Devers, except it's even harder with pitchers, I feel like. Just line faith in the pedigree, hope he breaks through.

And look, I just took Rinaldo Lopez, so it's kind of the same thing there. You know, I guess. Yeah, it's, look, it's the last pick of the draft. Yeah. Yeah. Probably drop them. There was a good stretch, Jose Martinez, Luke Weaver, Andrew Heaney, Eric Hosmer, Caleb Smith, Kyle Wright, Jeff McNeil, Tyler White.

Good players that, you know, it's not that deep. It's 240 overall there. 252 players' draft. So you can get good value with your last round picks, and you'll be able to get good value on the waiver wire. You should always keep that in mind when you draft. And that is going to wrap it up. Our head-to-head categories draft is complete.

You can see the results on CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball. Thank you, Scott. Thank you, Heath. Thank you, Chris. Thank you to our video producers for all my hand ringing at the start. I made it through without tilting one. It's a win. I'm exhausted.

Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. And now I'm going to make this into a podcast. So thank you all for listening and watching, and we will talk to you on Monday. Enjoy your weekend, everybody. See you.