Fantasy Baseball Today - 03/22 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Draft Review, SP Tiers

Episode Date: March 22, 2018

Today we're reviewing a 12-team H2H Points mock draft which featured some experimentation. But first, we compare Carlos Correa/Manny Machado to Corey Seager (2:48), wonder why Cody Bellinger feels a little risky (7:16), discuss 1B depth (10:00), SP tiers (11:33) and Willson Contreras' breakout potential (16:16) ... Reviewing yesterday's draft (22:55)! Adam and Scott tried new approaches and didn't like the results. We also review when to draft injured players (34:41) ... Spring risers and fallers (49:16) and we announce the Podcast League contestants (55:49)! ... 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 podcast league is what I will be saying to seven lucky contestants later on in the show. Welcome to Thursday show. March 22nd. Guess what happens in a week, everybody? Baseball. Yay. Week out from everybody playing on the same day. How cool is that? And make week one an 11-day week, right? Everybody agree, right? Yeah. I think that's the default. Unlike that half week after the All-Star break. Oh, that's the default? I think so.

In the past, when the season started on Thursday, that was the default. I haven't bothered to look, I'll be honest. How awesome is it that the very first game of the Major League season is a noon start in Miami? Oh, really? It's going to be amazing. The 4,000 people there are going to be so amped. Okay, I'm wrong. It's not the default.

It is not the default. Will you be important, correct? You are a commissioner in like 17 different leagues. Will you be correcting this? I don't know. I don't, I'll have to think about that more. You're putting me on the story. I won't, Scott, why?

You know what? Maybe in like the Dynasty League I will, but in all the others I'm not. No, 11th league, come on. Why? Because I'm a commissioner in too many leagues. It's so easy. You just do a checkbox. There's a checkbox.

I'm not going to do it. It's a checkbox. I don't change it after the All-Star break. I'm not going to change it down. They have a checkbox for that. Let's put ourselves in the season. same position all our readers and listeners. We're telling them all to change it.

Yeah, listen. I'm going to do it. Only the people listening to this podcast, first of all. Exactly. That's who we're serving. That's everyone. We don't care about just the people listening to this one specific podcast. What a terrible.

There's a writing audience, too. All right. So you go, if you have the commissioner product, if you are the commissioner, you just click on your commission tools, go to your schedule update or editor, excuse me. Length of first period. Just set it for 11 days. It's so simple. there's a drop-down, not a checkbox.

And then... Hold on. Combine all-star period with following period. I just checked it right there. We have made it so easy on CBSports.com. CBSports.com slash FBT. Now that we're done with that little thing, let's talk about the Points League draft we did yesterday. And as we were doing the draft and the draft that I'm currently in right now,

this 14-team slow draft that's going on, I've just had some thoughts. I want to run them by you and see what you think. So here are some observations, and some questions from good old Adam Azer. How much of a difference is the question? How much of a difference is there between Correa slash Machado, who basically are interchangeable, right?

Correa slash Machado and Corey Segar, who you can get a round later, and he actually went in the fourth round in our 12-team points league yesterday. And I guess, yeah, is it worth it to skip over those two short stops? Machado will be a short stop by week two. In round two, take another position, and then take Seeger in round three,

or do you think there is a justified one-round difference between Correa Machado and then Corey Seeger? I mean, okay. You go first. Yes, I'll answer. Okay, you know what my answer is going to be. I think there's a big difference. And I think the big thing is that both Mani Machado and Carlos Correa have shown that they can steal 15 to 20 bases or more. They've shown that they can hit.

Danny Machado is not going to do that. He's not going to, but you could. Corey Seeger can't. All right, I didn't mean to interrupt. I'm sure you have a good point in here, but that's not it. Love it. All right. Go ahead.

Wow. Ouch. Carlos Cray and Manny Machado have shown the skill set to hit 35 to 40 home runs because they put the ball in the air. Corey Seeger hits the ball hard. He just doesn't put the ball in the air. So he needs to improve to get to the level that they've already shown they can play. Now, Carlos Curea has never shown. and he can do it for a full season.

So that's a knock against him. Mani Machado is coming off a really mediocre season, but the best versions of what we've seen Carlos Correa and Mani Machado be are significantly better in 5 by 5 roto than Corey Seeger. Maybe not in head to head. Right. I'm not sure about in head to head. And I do think, and we don't have the exact date that Corey Seeger first started

battling injuries last year, but one of the things about Correa is it's very easy because he missed time last year with injury, to look at it and say, man, if he just does what he did last year over a full season, he's going to be amazing. I do think it's worth pointing out that Corey Seeger has had a similar stretch in his career. It was just ruined by his bad performance the end of the year. And yes, I'm with Chris on full season statistics generally being more predictive. But it's very easy to look.

Corey Seeger's first 105 games last year, he was at 307,000. 399 525. And he has several stretches where you can look at the first 90 games, the first 85 games. I mean, right in that range with a 92930 OPS. Right. I don't know how, I'm not willing to say, throw out what happened at the end of the year. That's who Corey Seeger is. I'm just saying he's shown us that he can do that for 60% of a season. We know part of his struggles at the end of last year was injury related.

In a points league, I don't know that there is a huge difference. In Rotisserie, I agree as Chris, there is a much bigger difference. Corey Seeger averaged the 10th most fantasy points per game at the position last year. Well, right. I don't know. Like, even with what he showed us in those first 105 games, I think he's still behind the other two in Roto because so much of his production is based on other things. But in points, I don't know how many fantasy points per game. He had that stretch, but he had a 925 OPEA.

I don't know about that stretch specifically. He had a 400 OPS. Like Carlos Correa was 3.76. Corey Seeger was 2.98. I mean, if they're both exactly who they were last year, then it's a huge difference. And I would expect Carlos Correa will be a little worse, and Corey Segar would be a little better.

Yes, I would agree with that. So can we just sum it up and say, who would you rather have, Correo Machado in round two or Corey Segar in round three? In Roto, definitely Correa and Machado, but I actually haven't found myself drafting them all that often. Yeah, that's the thing, is like, I feel like there's a lot more competition for them at that point than they're, at least for me,

I find myself drafting Corey Seagre more because I'm not as interested in what else is there at the point you would draft. Just give me answers. So Chris says round two guys. Scott says. Yeah, I'd rather have that. Okay. In Roto, I would definitely much rather have Machado Correa in the second round. In points, it may be like as simple as, are we talking late?

second, early third, because I, Corey Seeger is basically a second round pick for me at the end of the second in a points league. So I'd probably rather have Segar and points. Okay, great. Next question. Why does Cody Bellinger make me a little nervous? I can't really figure this one out, but I continue to find myself passing over him. He's almost like he's at the other side of the Mede Dozier line for me, but I don't think

it's justified. So tell me I'm wrong. Convince me to draft Cody Bellinger. I think I'm the highest of Cody Bellinger are the three of us, and yet. I understand your concern. I mean, just the fact that he doesn't have a full major league season under his belt. You know, we're always a little concerned about the guy taking a step back in sophomore season. He had a terrible postseason.

Granted he was facing ace caliber pitchers constantly. But, I mean, the other side of the coin is that you look at his contact data, his batted ball data. Tremendous fly ball hitter, pole hitter, hard contact hitter, somebody who certainly profiled. to be among the tip-top home-run hitters in baseball. And with a strikeout rate that's bad, but not like, you know, Aaron Judge-level awful, it actually got much better in the second half. So I feel pretty good about him,

especially like in round three. Okay. But any earlier than that, you can probably find somebody more trustworthy and possibly even a better all-around player. At the end of round three, I think I'm fine with it. In Points League, maybe he should be more of a fourth-round pick.

The one thing, I think it's easy to make comparisons between him and Judge, and Judge does strike out more often, but Bellinger doesn't have – I think there's a security blanket for Judge in that he's in the best offense in baseball, and he's playing in Yankee Stadium. And Bellinger doesn't have either of those two things going for him, so he's a little bit riskier. So Bellinger, yeah, like late third round, I'd be fine with it. That's the Dozier territory, but he went with the third pick – to Scott, third pick of round three yesterday,

our 12-team points league, so that's 27th overall. How would you guys rank these four hitters? They seem to go right around the same time every draft. Springer, Bellinger, Gary Sanchez-Donaldson. Springer, Belyinger, Sanchez-Donaldson. Well, just tell me where Bellinger is in that group. He's at the bottom for me. Well, based on my actions yesterday, he's second.

I'm not sure I made the right call, though. I'm really not. Like, Donaldson has the calf thing going on. So basically what happened. I don't know how much you want to get into it yet, but I feel like to totally explain the reason I took Bellinger where I did. I have to. Not yet. That's fine. Yeah, we'll wait.

Yeah, I would definitely rather have Springer and Sanchez. I think I'd choose Bellinger over Donaldson. But Springer is playing in games, right? I have not seen anything on the internet for the last 48 hours, so I can not tell you. I'll see if you played yesterday. A mini vacation. All right, you look that up. Next question.

Should Jose Abrae really be a third round pick, especially in points leagues? What do you guys think? Jose Abrae should be a third-nobes? Probably not points. He's probably more like a fourth-rounder. But in a roto league, that's batting average help. And you need to lock that up when you can. You know, it doesn't count for as much. Like, he's kind of like the yin to the Carlos Santana Yang, where, you know, Carlos

Santana, low, high OBP, low batting average guy much better in points leagues. Jose Ibrahim, high batting average guy, kind of a low OBP guy, relatively speaking, though, and I feel like he's better in categories because of that. Yeah, you would think so. He is a little bit better,

but not like Santana, who you can see by the end of your finishes, Santana was, like, eighth in points, and 13th in Roto. It's much more balance for Abraeu. I think what's different for me is that I just think first base is a deeper position in points leagues because of Santana,

and Matt Carpenter, who are true or false, those two, Santana and Carpenter, like starting caliber first basement at points leagues, but not necessarily in Roto. True. Right. Yeah. I feel like Hosmer's a little better in points, too. So that's why I don't really love a Brayu in the third round in our points league. I kind of get it in Roto.

Is that seem fair? No, yeah, I'm an end of fourth on him. Okay. I've been reexamining starting pitcher tiers. And... Oh, no. It's the Robbie Ray again. Well, Robbie Ray's part of it.

But having said that I... You know, and just saying what Scott said, two of the top 17 pitchers. I think I'm really more like two of the top 12, if I can. Because once I get to DeGrom, Carrasco, Severino, that group, then after that it's Darvish, Carlos Martinez, Chris Archer, Robbie Ray, Dallas Keichel. Darvish, Carlos, Martinez, Archer, Ray Keikle. That's going to 17. But yeah.

Yeah, that's the group I don't. Like, I see a definite drop there. For me, anyway. Oh, you're allowed. You're allowed. To me, like, those guys have all shown the ability to pitch seven, eight innings at a time. If they stay healthy, go 200 innings over a season. Well, I guess not Robbie Ray, but the other three have, the other four have.

What do you guys think? Do you think there's a drop-off, or are they all part of the same tier? I mean, I have already made a pretty good case for why I think that the tiers are just smaller at the top of starting pitcher. But at the same time, I'm not as taking two of the top 12 starting pitchers. Unless I have a pick at the end of the first round and I'm taking two aces, I'm probably just not doing that. Much harder to do. I would just kind of quibble with, like, I'm not sure why we would put like Carlos Carrasco in a top tier, but not you Darvish or Chris Archer. Well, yeah, that's a good point, especially with Darvish, but Archer, like, the last two years, he hasn't really been close.

You know, his ERA has been pretty high. And I think he can get it back, but he's given up, I think he's given up like, I forgot what the number was, so many home runs on the road. He's been a bad road pitcher. He's been bad against his division. So that's why for me. But it is kind of interchangeable. I just want to know, I guess, where, how you guys tier the top. Here's the thing.

Like Chris Archer is so good with strikeouts and such a reliable source of innings. Like you're expecting 250 plus strikeouts from him. And that's, you know, even adjusting for the high ERA, just that expectation of that many strikeouts is a big deal in a ROTO league. And then in a points league, you don't, you care about ERA to the extent it affects win-loss record and it has for Archer. But all those innings and all those strikeouts, it still has. adds up to a lot of points. I think at the end of that tier, along with Archer and Ray,

guys like Garrett Cole, Masahiro Tanaka, and Jose Cantona need to be in there as well. Right. Okay, with the Ray Archer tier or whatever? Right. Okay, yeah, no, it is... I think that I have been doing so many mock drafts that now I'm starting to do real drafts, and things are sort of changing a little bit for me. You just seem to be...

And I think Scott is in this camp, too, and it's not a negative. thing. You seem to be a little bit more anxious about missing out on those, that range of starting pitch. Or you're just a little, I think Heath and I might be a little more optimistic on the chances of some of the non-top tier pitchers. Could be. Yeah.

All right. Next thing. Oh, sorry, Chris. Well, it was a man. Well, part of the reason Cole Kintana and who was the third one, Tanaka. part of the reason I don't tier them with Archer Ray and Carlos Martinez is part of it's because they're riskier. But the biggest reason is actually because I like Paxton and Nola

even more than that trio you mentioned Heath. And I don't see how you could justify tiering those with others given that they haven't reached that inning's threshold. We are seeing the limitations of this exercise. Yeah. Because like the end of your tier, is maybe the beginning of Heath's next tier, and you can just kind of, it's like turtles all the way down

where you can just kind of like keep going until you get to like the 70th pitcher, and we've just like, it's just a series. Oh yeah, everybody's tears. Everybody's tears are different. Everybody has different levels of comfort and sees a different drop-off. And Robbie Ray throws the whole thing in the disarray.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, depending on how you see Robbie Ray. Because he's never reached that inning's threshold. He hasn't, but he's just an amazing strike. kickout pitcher and looked like an ace start per start down the stretch last season. All right. And it has been awful in the spring. Right.

There's that. We do it. Yeah, that should be addressed. But I have two other things, but I only want to get to one of them since I want to save time for other stuff. Should we talk about Eduardo Nunez or Wilson Contreras? Wilson Contreras. So when it comes to the spring, and this is kind of related to Robbie Ray's, spring training, you shouldn't take anything away from old information.

like Robbie Ray walking a bunch of guys. Yeah, that's what Robbie Ray does. Now, you shouldn't be worried about Robbie Ray because of that. Wilson Contreras, man, every time I see him in the spring, he is hitting the absolute crap out of the ball. That's what he did in the second half last year. His hard hit rate spiked. There's a chance that there's a Wilson Contreras breakout waiting to happen,

and I don't think I have enough exposure to him, given my position on the position. His issue right now so far in his career is that he hits the ball on the ground way too much to really take a big step forward. And I don't know if there's been any sign of him changing it, but the quality of the contact that he makes, he makes a lot of loud contact. And I think another issue that he has, and the only thing, I don't have really any questions about whether he is going to be a good hitter or one of the best hitters at catcher. It's kind of the same thing with Ian Hap on a much lower level. Joe Madden likes to do things. He likes to have his finger on the button.

And I worry just a little bit about contraris if he can have the plate appearances to be an elite catcher. How long did he miss with the hamstring injury last year? I don't know. Because he got to 117 games in like 400. He missed a month. He missed a month. Yeah, like I could kind of see him.

Yeah, he missed. I could see him They had Miguel Montero there early last year And so it was kind of a situation Where Montero was starting every third game But once they realized there was nothing there Offensively for Montero They turned more over to Castillo

Chris Jimenez, I guess is the backup now We know he's going to catch you Darvish But otherwise I You know there's that little bit of doubt But it's not a great doubt Would everybody rather have Contrera a round later than Posey, which is what happened in yesterday's Points League draft?

I'd rather have Posey. A round earlier? Posy round five. Yeah, around earlier. Yeah, sure. Okay. Anyone else? Chris, here to chime in.

That's the thing I'm struggling with with Wilson Contreras. I'm looking at it. So he missed about a month. He was getting about 85 to 90 plate appearances per month. If he stays healthy, he's going to be one of the five or six catchers to get to 500 plate appearances. So I think I might rather have him than Posey. Yeah, I'm going to stick with Posey, and a round is about what I have them apart,

so it's hard for me to say I'd rather have this guy here, but I've drafted Posey more. And like the thing about Posey, and Chris is right about his age and concerns about that, but he is one of the few catchers where, like, 500 hasn't been some, oh, he got to 500 plate appearances. 568 last year was his lowest total since 2011. Okay.

So that's Wilson Concheris and some starting pitcher tears. Jose Abe, with Cody Bellinger, shortstop. We got to some important stuff. I want to talk about the Points League draft. But first, haiku of the day is from John from Cincinnati, who is in the podcast league, and his haiku was this. Haiku submit. Oh, no, it's this.

Here we go. Hikus can be good. But serial all-star teams, more than good. They're great. Wow. And then he gave us... Do you count great as two syllables? How many syllables is great?

Well, you could read it however you want. But then he gave us a serial all-star team. Are you ready for the serial all-star team? Yes. Yeah, do it. At catcher. Honeynut Chorinos. Sure.

At first base, Goldie Grams. Yeah. Nice. Second base, cream of wit. Yep. Ooh. We've got frosted maniweets at shorts'nop. Yeah.

I don't know what this one is moose. at third base, Moosley? Oh, that's that, it ends in an I-X, right? Is that? Oh, he just has M-O-U-S-L-I. Oh, I think he may have left off an X there. Okay. I've never had that cereal before for what it's worth,

but I know it's the favorite of Al Milk York. That's how much we talk about cereal on this podcast. Here's our Outfield, three Outfield League, Bryce Crispies, Moogie Crisp, and special K-Ris Davis. Very good. All the way around. Very good submission. I like that team.

No pitching? Oh, hold on. We got players. D.H is Reese's puffs, like Reese Hoskins. Our starting pitcher is Clayton, Curunch. Like, Clay, C-L-A-Y-T-A-Y-T-A-T-A-Y-T-A-T-Runch. And R.P.E.P. Our manager is Cinnamon-Yose Crunch.

The team president is Bobby Kix, and the team owner is Cocoa Crisp, of course. So, it's all around. Terrific. John, you're in the podcast, Lee. Welcome. Now, Points League, after I tell you about draft, all right, baseball seasons a week away, get ready to set your lineups, but also get ready to start playing some Daily Fantasy Baseball. You need to be playing on the draft app, and our promo code on the draft app is FB Today.

We'll tell you more about that, FB Today. What is draft? It is daily fantasy baseball, but it's not like the other guys. On draft, you play live snake drafts with other people, just like in your season-long leagues. That's the best part of fantasy. The draft, right? We love drafts. So you can do a draft every single day now, even during the season.

I've done, let's see, NFL, MLB, and NBA. I think I even did PGA on the draft app. I love them. They're so fun. You do have to worry about position scarcity, so there's some strategy involved. You can do a draft with one other person. You can draft in 10-person leagues. They go quickly.

They're easy to do. And you can win some money. That's always a good thing. So here's what we want you to do. Join us on draft today. Just search draft in your app store or play on draft.com. For a limited time, all of our listeners get a free entry into a real money baseball draft when you make your first deposit. But you have to use our promo code FB Today.

That's right, a real money game for free. Use the promo code FB today when you make your first deposit. Search draft in the app store or go to draft.com and into the promo code FB today. Coming up on the show, we'll tell you about Daniel Murphy. Stephen Sousa has an injury. Michael Conforto Homer twice in a scrimmage. Carlos Carrasco has an injury. It seems like he'll be okay.

Mike Zanino homered three times. We'll talk about it. But let's look at the points league draft. 12 team head-to-head points. And, you know, Scott and I, he was not in the draft because he was camping the last two days. It's been away from civilization. But Scott and I changed our strategies a little bit. And I hated it.

I experimented at him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I experimented. It was pure experimentation. I was experimenting with a little bit. experimenting and you know what I found? I don't like experimenting. The point of experimenting is not to draft a bad team.

I wonder what it would be like if I drafted a bad team. I don't think he tried to. So I didn't love Scott's team. It was not what I expect from Scott Whitehead Head-Head points league. So what happened, Scott? Yeah, the third pick. Yeah. And so I decided there isn't really an obvious third pick in this format in particular.

I know there's a lot of depth at third base. and I liked the last time I did a head-to-head points draft going very heavy at pitcher early, but that didn't begin until round four. So, well, what if I just start with the best pitcher? There's not another obvious option here. I could go Aeronado, but let's see how this goes. So I drafted Clayton Kershaw first.

And the biggest problem with that is it really puts pressure on you to take hitters with your next two picks and to take a certain type of hitter, a really one you can count on being there. And that's why I ended up taking Cody Bellinger with my third pick, with Josh Donaldson and Gary Sanchez still on the board, with Corey Seeger still on the board.

I might have gone with one of them if it was my third hitter as opposed to my second, and if my first hitter wasn't Jose Ramirez in round two. But I felt like I needed somebody who I, you know, catchers are always at risk of injury. so that kind of ruled out Gary Sanchez for me and Josh Donaldson's had the calf thing By the way he has been played playing a lot Yeah I think he returned like last Friday Yeah he's played

Three of the last four days Five of the last seven But yeah a little bit of a cap thing He's got calf injury I mean he's got cat concerns So that that scared me away from him And I went with Bellinger Which I didn't love with my third pick

The fourth pick of the round I think it was Or third pick of the round Round three. Now, I mean, and I was upset with my team at that point, starting Kershaw, Jose Ramirez, Cody Belliger. I didn't love it. I felt like it ended up being okay. I feel like I salvaged it in the middle rounds. I don't hate it.

I probably wouldn't do this again, though, because I don't love it. And I don't feel like there's, like, what really would have helped me, what really would have made this worthwhile is if somebody just did something weird in the second round and allowed. you know, like a Freddie Freeman to fall to me or Anthony Rizzo, and that almost happened. But it didn't. Everybody took who they were supposed to. This late in draft prep season, that's more likely than not, at least,

with the kind of people I'm drafting with. So I should have known better. But so you took Jose Ramirez with your second pick after Kershaw with your first pick. You had the third overall pick, 12-team league. If you had taken Freddie Freeman instead of Jose Ramirez, you would have felt much better about your team? Well, it's hard to know what everybody after me would have done, right?

If I just had the same options with my third pick and it was Bellinger, I probably wouldn't have taken Bellinger. So I probably would have taken Gary Sanchez. And I like that start better. I like Kirchall Freeman Sanchez better than Kershaw, Jose Ramirez, Cody Bellinger. I guess what does that say? About how I feel about Jose Ramirez, right? Yeah.

I feel like I feel good about him. Well, he's not Freddie Freeman. But here's what I would say. Seems like a weird first hitter. By the time you took Jose Ramirez, only four pitchers were off the board, and that is how we draft. But I believe that our listeners, if you are playing in a CBS sports head-to-head points league, I believe that there will be more than four pitchers off the board by the 20th pick. And Chris, ADP, boy, if you could look up our ADP and tell me if I'm right or wrong,

I believe that there will definitely be more than just the big four off the board in the first two rounds. We don't draft that way. But if you did want to take Kirshall with the third overall pick, I think you can do better hitting-wise than what Scott did just because you will have more hitters to select from in my personal opinion. There's a good chance of that. There are two additional pitchers going within the first 20 picks in CBS Sports.com. The big four in head-to-head points leagues are going on the side of the top seven. Oh, wow.

But even those two, like two more pitchers making two more hitters available, two more pitchers being selected, two more hitters available, that's a big deal. So I think you can get away with it I think Freeman went right before my bet He did He went one pick before you yeah So you know So you could have a Not to criticize Scott

It's just the way it worked out But you could have a better outcome than Scott If other people are more starting pitch or heavy Yeah so then I'll just tell you real quick What I did to veer away from my strategy I had the sixth pick I took Mookie bets in the first round Which I love because I'd consider him third

Probably go fourth in points league With bets And then I took Carlos Correa in round two So I was all set up to do what I normally do. And this is what got me thinking about the starting pitcher tiers. Two hitters and then a great starting pitcher. Could have been Strasbourg. Could have been DeGrom.

I probably would have gone Strasbourg. But Josh Donaldson was on the board. And he was the last of those hitters that I really love. So I said, you know, usually I go two hitters and a pitcher. Let's see what happens if I go three hitters. So I went Betts, Correa, Donaldson. And I didn't get one of the top 12 pitchers. I had to settle for Chris Archer as my number one pitcher, which I don't love.

And then I ended up kind of playing catch-up. And my pitching staff, tell me how you guys feel about this. This is what I think I would do if I missed out on one of my aces. I would make up for it by taking a lot with my subsequent picks. Archer, Paxton, Tanaka, Strowman, which I thought was great for me in a points league, is my number four. Archer, Paxton, Tanaka, Stroman, Weaver, Snell. Lance Lynn and Tyler Glass now. Those two are kind of late.

But Archer Paxson, Tanaka, Strowman, Weaver, and Snell are my main pitchers, and I took them between rounds four and 13. That's a lot of pitchers there. Is that a good enough pitching staff to win, do you think? I mean, it's fine. It's not like you really stand out in pitching, and so that may be a problem. I feel like if you were going to go that route,

making up for the lack of a couple true aces with quantity, you probably needed to go even a little heavier, maybe not go beyond round 10 filling out those spots. Well, I took a roll of Chapman, which kind of

changed it too. I wasn't expecting to take a relief pitcher that high, but yeah, no, my takeaway was that I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to take Donaldson over Strasbourg or DeGrom. I wouldn't take Donaldson over Strasbourg either, but I do think it's not

like you did a pretty good job of recovering from it there are a lot of pitchers with upside after round 10 i probably wouldn't have taken someone like lance lynn i would have been looking for somebody with more upside than that i assume that was a late pick very late and i and i figure i'll get anings from him i wouldn't have taken him in rhodo

i think the bigger thing might be the korea pick in the second round because he's probably going to be he'll probably probably be worth that spot in a roto league. But if we think he's going to take a step back,

I'd probably rather have targeted one of the bigger sluggers with that pick. Freddie Freeman went right afterwards. I think I might rather have him. I thought Carlos Correa was awesome value in middle of round two. Like a lot of times we see him sneak into round one. This I think was our first 12-team draft throughout the four super aces all went in round one. So that obviously wasn't an option for anybody in round two. And Chris, I'm sorry.

It seemed late for Gray to me, honestly. Yeah, Chris, I feel like if I did 10 drafts and I was picking in the middle of round two and Correa and Freeman were on the board all 10 times, like five times I'd take Freeman, five times I'd take Correa. Yeah, no, that's – and that's all I'm saying is that I just – I think I might like your team a little more if you had that the guy who's going to walk 95 times and maybe hit 40 homers rather than the guy who just has – like really good, but the bigger argument in his favor is the positional versus, the positional scarcity. And in a points league where you just need one shortstop, I think I'd rather have the better first baseman there.

The ironic thing for me was that I took three hitters with my first three picks, Betts, Correa, and Donaldson. And then because I was playing catch-up so much with starting pitcher, my hitting's not even that good. I kind of neglected it for a little bit too long. And I took Chapman, which is, which was fine. So, yeah, it's just, it was interesting the way it played out. All right.

Other thoughts on this draft, guys? Old guys are undervalued. I don't think I picked a person younger than me until, like, the seventh or eighth round. I think Gene Seguer was the first player in his 20s that I picked, and I ended up loving my team. And there's some risk, but, like, Nelson Cruz is always going to be a good value. I think Andrew McCutcheon, Jay Bruce, even Brian Dozier going at the end of the third round. I think we view Brian Dozier as a guy who's better in Roto than head to head, but he has scored 500 points three out of the last four years. He's been 545 and 575 and 573 the last two.

That's elite. I think he's a little better in points than Roto, honestly. But yeah, I mean, that was good. I really liked Chris's first five picks. His first five picks were, he took Corey Klooper first, and then it was. Votto, Dozier. I think. I think Cruz and Granky. No, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Granky was out of order, but yes. So the order was a little off.

But, yeah, I thought that was a great start. And they all happened to be old, which was great. I didn't so much love the rounds that followed, but, like, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of valuable old guys in those early rounds, and Chris happened. I don't know that it was intentional, but he happened to come upon them. Yeah, I think it's, like, there's a lot of guys who are,

being dinged for their age or other reasons that I have on my team that I don't necessarily think are totally fair. Nels and Cruz and Adrian and Beltrae, I think, are probably still going to be elite hitters when they play. And if they miss some time in this format, it's not the worst thing in the world. Yeah, Adam, you've talked about it a lot. Jay Bruce is really undervalued, I think even in a points context. So I'm really happy with my team.

My pitching staff is all old guys, except for Jamison, own and that's fine. Yeah, well, and you took Kluber and Granky, which is, which is interesting. And I got Lester and Samarja. I'm really happy with my pitching staff. It's actually probably the best one I've put together so far. Yeah, so I think you're definitely prioritizing pitching more than I would have expected. In points for sure. In Roto, I'm willing to take one or no pitchers in my first seven picks still. I don't know, Heath, if you want to jump in, I know you didn't take part in the draft, but anything you have to say or I can lead you into other topics. Why don't you leave me into another topic?

All right, here are some interesting picks. Let's go through these quickly. You just tell me, too early, too late, just right. Daniel Murphy, 65th overall. Well, I mean, that depends, I think, on what you think of this injury. I think it's just about right for me. It's earlier than I'd go. Because if Daniel Murphy's fine, like, April 15th,

which is well within the realm of reasonable thought, he's worth a third round pick? If that happens, but the Nationals are being, and actually it was interesting what happened on Twitter yesterday, Dr. Mike Tanner was talking about his expectations, updated expectations for Daniel Murphy's saying mid-May, potentially June, and was talking about how the vagueness from the Nationals and reading into some of Daniel Murphy's comments

made him feel like there was a disagreement between the team the player. And then... The Beat Rider pushed back. I think James Wagner? No. I can't remember his name. Is it Zucker? Is that his name?

Yes. Yeah, one of the Nationals beatwriters got involved and said, no, there's no disagreement. The team and player are on the same page. The Nationals are just... I'm paraphrasing here, obviously. The Nationals are just tight-lipped about offering timetables for injuries.

So I thought it was interesting that he didn't deny the timetable estimates that Dr. Mike Tanner was throwing out there. He just didn't like him speculating so much into the quotes he was reading, which is fair. So that was interesting. All right, quicker, please. Sorry. How about David Price, 71st overall, end of round six? Feels a little high for me.

I was thinking of taking him in round seven because, like, those two starts he's made this spring. have been very encouraging, and it seemed like the last pitcher who I felt like you could reasonably expect an ace outcome. Yeah, I think maybe somebody was drafting using my ranking, because that's almost exactly where I have him as well. That's why the whole time we talked about Price's ADP on Fantasy Pros. I just haven't really been buying it. 103rd overall. I never see him go that late. So 71st overall.

So I guess I have a question. I got Leicester 84th overall. I know. A little later than that. That was a deal. Ninety-seventh overall. That was a steal. Right, but it almost feels like we're giving David Price credit for not pitching last year?

Well, I mean, Lester didn't pitch very well. Sure, but he pitched. Not pitching versus not pitching well, I'll take, okay, the guy was injured. Right, but Price didn't really pitch well either. But he came back, when he came back from the injury, he was good. As a reliever. Lester was better the year before. Well, I mean, Price still struck out hitters, right?

I mean, Lester's velocity was down, his strikeouts were down, everything you... Rice ranked ahead of Lester? Yeah. I have Lester on my bus list, so I don't see him as a value. Yeah, I just don't think that makes sense. Yeah, I think he's going the route of Adam Wainwright, John Lester, nearly won the Souti Young in 2016. But that was two years ago.

That was two years ago. He's older now. No, I think that was probably, I haven't seen all the other pitchers and where they went, but I've got Lester 57th in points, so I think that was probably one of my favorite values. 57th overall. Yeah, not pitcher. Right. All right. Next up, how about Justin Turner 89th overall?

I think it's too early. I, yeah, I mean, it was funny because remember how yesterday I was talking about how, I guess I gave kind of a rosy outlook for Justin Turner's injury, thinking he'd be back before the end of April, and the guy who took him at this point was the one kind of chiming in and agreeing with me. So we probably are the only two who would have considered him at this point. have been interested in seeing where he went if there weren't Turner optimists among us. I would not have taken him there before the injury.

Oh, really? So, yeah, I think that's too early. That was probably a round or two later than he usually goes. Pre-injury. No, it's the 30 picks. I think his 80p was 57 just a week or two. I know that because I put him in my bust column. I'm just, I don't really know for sure why we would take Justin Turner over Adrian

Beltray. That's exactly what I was going to say. I know the risks with Adrian Beltray, but Justin Turner's actually hurt. And he's not that much younger than Adrian Beltray. Okay. It's like five years, but still. How about these Sparps starting pitchers as relief pitchers? Or not necessarily Josh Hader.

Okay, Josh Hader went in the 13th round. Mike Minor, round 14. Joe Musgrove, round 15. No Brad Peacock. This is the worst year for Sparps that I can remember. I think this is my fourth year, fourth baseball preseason at CBS, and this is absolutely, I would not draft any of those guys where they were drafted. Musgrove might be the exception. Yeah, I took Musgrove.

I've been taking him in pretty much every head-to-head points draft. Josh Hader's probably more likely to be a reparp, right? Yeah, I think he just drafted him for the upside, stashed him away for whenever he's moved to the rotation. It's assuming it happens. I don't think it will because they're talking about him. uh in camp like he's working with the relievers he's spending his time with the relievers he's they definitely want him to be a reliever for however long he reliever lunch table for however long they have an over full rotation overstocked rotation but eventually he could become the closer

like that wouldn't shock me if by june cork can abel striking out 10 per nine with a four er a instead of 14 for nine and it's feasible i think it's more realistic hater becomes a starter mid-season than a close. As far as Musgrove. No, Heath, you have to say that you're a hater of that pick. That is such a Heath thing to say. I am a hater of that pick.

I'm wondering, because Musgrove has been my favorite spark for most all year. He's been hurt at camp. And when he's pitched, his last out of him was awful. He has given up eight earned runs and six and two-thirds this spring. They're still talking about him in the rotation.

I looked it up yesterday before I made the pick. I believe the quote was, we don't know if he's going to be in the first turn of the rotation. We have a day off. He may pitch in the seventh game of the season, but they are still talking about him as a member of the rotation. And I'm not too concerned about the spring training performance. I don't, he might just be bad.

Right. All right, that's Joe Musgrove, and I took Mike Minor in round 14. And I was happy to do it. And then finally, this outfield conundrum, Now, check out the difference in value for Byron Buxton and Roto in points, because in a Roto league, he's going to go much earlier. But in round 10, all three of these guys went. Byron Bxton, Adam Eaton, and Ronald Acuna. And I knew I was going to take one of them, and I just didn't know who to take.

I ended up taking Eaton. Bucson was off the board, so I didn't have that option when it came down to it. But I took Eaton over Ocunia. The Twitter folk disagreed with me. But I thought it was an interesting round of high upside outfielders. I actually don't know that Eaton is a high upside outfield. I think he's the safest one. And that's why I took him.

I really think Eaton's going to be a top 20 outfielder in points leagues. It just has to show up. But who do you guys like? Buxon, Eaton, Eton, Acuna in a points league, rank them. Acuna, I'd most won Acuna. And that's who I took. He went third of them. And that's part of me saying, I feel like I salvaged it in the middle rounds,

getting Acuna in round 10. When it seemed like he was creeping into the round 7 and above range, I don't know if that's just because it's the outfielder format points league or if it's because he just got sent to minor league camp a few days ago. It does give me some hope that maybe that inspired some panic in people and we'll see his stock rise less quickly. I mean, even though it was obvious, it was going to happen. Like Buxton, I think there will be a big difference in the ADP in Roto or points for Kunu.

And probably should be because Steeleals could be a big part of his value. five outfielders versus three outfielders. I don't know that it should be that. I mean, if a Cooney is as good as we think he is, it's not going to matter what format he is. Well, if he's as good as we think, like, if he's as good as we think his ceiling is, or how good do you think his first year he's just Mike Trout?

He might. I don't think he's ever going to be Mike Trout. You know, it's kind of like, he could be. He could just be. Has anybody ever been Mike Trout? He could be 20, like, would it be disappointing if he's 2017, Carlos Gomez? who like hit 2260 with 20 plus homers and almost 12th. I'm not taking carlos Gomez in round 10.

But as a rookie for a prospect of his pedigree, it wouldn't be like, oh, no, he's a bust. So just answer the question, folks. Scott wants a cuckoo. Buckton and Acuna. We went off on such a change. I know, come on. We get nothing done here.

Yeah. So Buxton number one for Heath, Acuna number one for Scott. Chris, who would you take? I love the value. I'll be completely unhelpful to the listeners and say Eaton. That's so I took. If I had liked my hitting more, I would have taken Acuna over Eaton.

I don't know what I would have done if Bucks them were on the board. But I want a little safety there. No, there's like 1,700 outfielders on the waiver wire and a three outfielder points. Like, don't go safety. But he's safety, but he's also like very good. He's been like a 450 point player the two of the three years, or the two years before last year, and he's going to hit at the top of maybe the best lineup in baseball. Second best.

Maybe the best lineup in baseball. Yeah, I just don't know how many weeks he's going to win you, you know, whereas Akunya really could. All right, we're done. We're done here. That is our points. Should we forbid Chris from talking about Carlos Gomez on the podcast anymore? Actually, it seems like it goes off the rails. Chris never talks about Carlos Gomez.

He never talks about Robbie Ray. You guys can come up with somebody for me. Can we, though? Robbie Ray. Maybe I'm Robbie Ray. I don't know. Maybe he's something else. The thing that Scott can't talk about it.

is changing anything about mock drafts. Oh, I can't talk about it. That's what sends us off the real. Sorry. Serial. No problem. All right, news and notes. So Daniel Murphy won't be ready for opening day.

We talked about him. Stephen Sousa is going to have an MRI on his strained shoulder. All right, what do we think? It looks like he's going to miss some time, Diamondbacks outfield or in case you have forgotten. What do you think, Gerard Dyson? Is he becoming a mostly everyday player? I mean, maybe. For how long?

I'm not very interested in. Stephen Susan, Arizona. See, and I kind of thought that whole thing was overplayed because I still expect Arizona to be a better part than where he's played his entire career. Maybe it won't be. If it's not, though, then we have not downgraded the rest of the Diamondbacks enough.

But I also don't think he's as good as he was last year. What about Yasmani Tomas? Oh, that's a better one. He is, I don't... Is he healthy? They've talked about cutting him. They don't like him. at all.

They think he's, and rightly think he's one of the worst players in baseball. He's bad defensively. He's been playing. And not that good offense. He's, okay, he's not one of the worst players in baseball. He is. Chris. In terms of wins above replacement, he has been one of the least valuable players

any time he's been an everyday player. He needs to be a D.H. He's an everyday player, though. There are a lot of players who aren't everyday players. He's better than them. I mean, so anyway, what was I going to say here? Oh, Gerard Dyson. Gerard Dyson is stolen 26 to 36 bases in five straight seasons.

He has never had a 400 plate appearance season, so are you looking to draft Dyson as a late round pick for steals? I am not. Okay, I'd rather draft Cameron Mabon. But he will be available late, and he will steal some bases. He'll probably steal more bases than Cameron Mabin this season. It's just he won't do anything else. Depends how much he plays. Could be very little.

Brayo looking to return tomorrow, so he dodged a bullet there. Braves' third baseman Yon Carmago will open the season on the DL. Camargo. Camargo. Okay, right, I spelled it wrong. Camargo. Rio Ruiz will replace him. Oakland's starting pitcher and prize prospect, A.J. Puck has bicepsoorness. Doesn't seem like a big deal.

Conforto Homer twice in a scrimmage. Yeah, guys. He's making good progress. Yeah. Playing center field, too. Probably need to move them up. My concerns over that injury. And there wasn't any kind of track record for a hitter having it.

But they appear to be unfounded. And Matt Carpenter played second base. So the more I think of it, I really think he's going to gain more eligibility. They have done this. I think he's played not first base like four times in the last week, including there was one where he played third, Jerko played second, and then they just switched during the middle of the game. Good for Carpenter, good for Jose Martinez.

Greg Bird appears to be the favorite to bat third in between Judge and Stanton. Carlos Carrasco, was that Scott? That's cool. Greg third. Greg third. Carlos Carasco was hit by a comebacker. He left with a foot contusion, but as of now, not expected to miss a start. And how about Mike Zanino?

Three homers yesterday was a top eight catcher last year. I know we don't buy the Babbup. It was crazy high. He had an even better spring training last year, so keep that in mind. And last season, Spring Training, Zanino walked 13 times with 11 strikeouts, which was pretty cool. And then in the season, 33 walks, 130 strikeouts. So I don't know that you should really pay much attention to spring training for Zanino.

But I do think, I feel like you guys are the low ones on him, at least based on ADP. Are you changing your mind? Are you higher at all on Mike Zanino? See, I thought I was the high guy on him because of just Scott's ranking. Or relative to the industry, maybe. Yeah, he's eighth and ADP. People seem high on Zanino overall. I have him 10th.

I could understand ranking him as high as 7th. That's all in Roto. He's not as valuable in points. Hey, just draft him and Buster Posey. They'll hit like 260 combined with 30 homers. Before we read our... Before we read our haikus and announce our winners. Spring training stuff.

The good and the bad. All right, I'm just going to read some good hitters. You tell me who stands out. Derek Dietrich for the Marlins having a good spring. Bigelso-No, great spring. Chris Bryant. Yeah, stands out. Okay, we'll come back to it.

Chris Brian homered, finally. Yo-a-Muncada has been a little bit better, but not great in his last six games. Victor Martinez has five home runs. Jonathan Scope has an OPS over 1,300. All of the Royals, Whit Maryfield, Salvador Perez, Mike Mustakas, all have an OPS over 1,400. Surprise. Carlos Gomez is having a good spring, but no walk, seven strikeouts, no steals. hitting well. Jonathan V.R. is actually having a nice spring. And Scott Kingery, Philly's infielder,

is hitting 390 with four homers and four steals. That's actually, he's having a great spring. I will start with Sanoe, and then you guys can tell me who else stands out. So I wrote the other day about Joey Gallo striking out a little bit less in spring training. Miguel Sano is striking out a lot less. His strikeout rate so far in spring training is about half of his career rate, actually less than half, I think is about 17%. And strikeout rate has been shown to be one of those things that can be a leading indicator in spring training. Not to say that Miguel Sino is going to strike out 17% of the time, but he is definitely

someone who, if he just cuts his strikeout rate down to like 32%, all of a sudden you're talking about a potential different kind of category of hitter. Maybe then you're talking about, you know, you could see him hitting 275. 280 and we know the 45 homer potential is there. The rest of our concerns are still there. The out of shape, injury prone, facing a possible suspension. I'm not saying move Miguel Sino up, but it's worth noting. I am just happy that I have put Miguel Sinoe in both the breakouts and a bust column this spring.

So either way, I'm going to say, told you. And I think that's appropriate. I think that's easy. Nice work, Keith. He's a booer-your-bust kind of player right now. Yeah. All right. Well, Castianos or Suno?

Sunno. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I have more shares of Castianos, but I'd drafts Sano before him. Suno for the upside. Any other of those spring hitters really stand out to you guys? I think Scott Kingery's worth talking about. He's been one of the most buzzed-about players this spring. They're just isn't a spot for him, and they've tried him as shortstop.

They've tried him at center field. He's just as blocked there as he's at second base. What's interesting, though, is very recently, they've been starting him at third base. And you could, like, Michael Franco's hitting $150 this spring after obviously having a lot of problems with the bat the last two years. It's not like he makes up with it for it with a high OBP

or great defense. You could see that if he gets off to a slow start, Franco. You could see that becoming the opening for Kingery. a bad month from Mike El Franco, J. P. Crawford, to Orsaysar Hernandez. And I think Scott Kingery's in the majors. And he has 25, 30 potential. Or one of that, like,

if Altaire and Nick Williams have both been awful. If they stay awful, well, they haven't been awful. They're trying really hard to find somewhere for Scott Kingery to play. It's a lot like Xenzel in Cincinnati who's going to play. It sounds like second, third, and short in the mind. So one of the top prospects to Stash. I am happy.

with Mankata's plate discipline so far, or his lack of strikeouts at least, just 16 strikeouts and 59 plate appearances. It's not great, but it's an improvement. And then we've got good pitchers. David Price we discussed. Michael Fulmer, one walk, 12 strikeouts, and 10 innings. I doubt we buy the K-rate, but that's nice to see. Lance McCullors is just having a ridiculous spring,

3-0 with a 0.50 ERA. And an Illinois league, Brandon McCarthy is having a good spring for the Braves. But between Fulmer and McCullors, do you think there's a... story here. Fulmer's changed his slider. He used to have the fast, small brake slider. The hard thrown

small brake slider, kind of the Dan Worthing slider, decided that wasn't so good for the elbow. So he has a more traditional slider now. Maybe it will lead to more K's. I don't know. For me, it's just he's healthy, which is a big deal for him. Yeah, okay. Michael Fulmer.

And I like Brandon McCarthy. The peripherals for like three or four years now. have been really good. I think he's probably a sleeper. He's someone who I could see myself picking up after a couple of good starts, even in mixed leagues. All right, how about some bad hitters and pitchers? I know we're not worried about Votto.

We didn't really talk about this, but Scott, are you still high on Austin Barnes? He's being crushed in spring training by Grandaul. I am higher on Grandal than I am at Barnes now. I actually made Grundal my catcher in this draft yesterday because he is an acknowledged flyball revolution guy, changed his swing path this offseason and look at all the home runs he's hitting this spring. Who, Grandal?

Also, I'm just not, I think we probably might have gone overboard on the Austin Barnes is better than Yasmani Grandal after 200 played appearances last season. Yosmani Grandal's a good hitter, like a legitimately good hitter for a catcher, but also he's an above average major league hitter. Don't get me wrong, I still love Barnes skillset. but could play some second base when yeah i mean they got to figure out somewhere for into

dave robert said that the other day he could play second base he's got to hit again first though yeah yeah yeah elbow trouble this spring yeah delano to shields is struggling a little bit eight k's in his last eight games still having a good spring all right robie ray's been terrible this spring johnny quato hasn't been very good that's that's about it i covered camber projian and parker yesterday joe musgrove we talked about but robbie ray johnny quato Robbie Ray walking 10 batters and 13 innings, that's just a regular... That will happen like four or five times this season. He has a ridiculously high ceiling and by far the lowest floor of anybody in the top 20 starting pitchers

because the bad-biff goes the wrong way again. He's a 5-ERA guy. Ready to find out our podcast league contestants? Yes. Who we're going to crush this year? All right. So it's the four of us, the 12-team league. Four of us.

We're drafting Monday night at 8 p.m. Eastern. Doc Kroitzer, who has written and produced our theme songs for three straight seasons. He's in the podcast league. So we have seven others. We have Nat from Brooklyn. Also, I just want to say before I read these. I read over 500 haikus last night. I want to thank everybody for writing in.

Many of them were worthy of being in the league. So I'm sorry. There's another league. Heath is going to choose many of you to be in. But it's just, it's a tough competition. And I want to thank everybody for being so dedicated. I want to thank everybody for knowing all of our inside jokes about cereal, about raisins, about me adjusting the bass on my mixer to make my voice sound more professional.

All those things came up in the haikus. Yes. So here we go. All right, from Nat and Brooklyn. When co-hosts go low, Adam goes high. High like a prepubescent boy. Also from that Board with Heaths

Try Take early Aces today For short Adam's teats Okay so Take early Aces today Those are my teats This is from Ben

Hiku and team name All Bees Your Brian Dozier Edwin McCain weeps Right It's great Very clever This is from Lee in Hoboken, New Jersey.

We read this one last week. It's 3 a.m. It is 3 a.m. My arm needs to be cut off. My name is Scott White. Excellent. That one made it, huh? Yep.

Good for him. Okay. Jason Bush. Jason Bush has one that you kind of have to say all together, but it is a haiku. But I'm going to say it all is one thing. I will not draft Green Bregman Lamb. I will not draft them. just Tommy fam.

Crap, I messed it up. I will not draft Green Bregman Lamb. I will not draft them, just Tommy fam. I thought it was clever. A little cat in the hat kind of deal there. All right, from Rodney. New rule for the league. All trades discussed by haiku.

You're welcome, Adam. And then he gave an example. Me. I need reliever. Hey, Heath, how about a trade? You've got all the studs. Heath replies. What are you crazy?

R.P. Heavy wins me leagues. It's strategy, bro. So he haikued a trade scenario between him and Heath, I thought that was good enough to get in. We read John's All-Star, Surreal All-Star team, and then finally, I thought one needed to be about baseball. So, Devin from California. Trout or Al-Tuvay, you can't go wrong either way, unless you pick Trey. So there you go.

There you go. I like it. Honorable mention, we had one from Paul. This one nearly got in. Delano to Shields. Delano to Shields, Jr., Delano to Shields. Excellent. That could be for the people

Yeah Yeah How about this one? I can't count Put me in the Rejects League This is the best haiku In the history of all time ever So you know

He just He can't count So those are his syllables And then this one from Graham Is definitely not going to be in the league Graham I just want to let you know I read it

Please be quiet Adam Your squawking is annoying Let the grownups talk Then he replied Oops realized too many syllables On the first line So he just changed it to be quiet, Adam. Your squawking is annoying.

Let the grown-ups talk. He removed the word, please. Adam, you're the second oldest person on the podcast, right? Yeah, it's true. I don't mean to be a stickler, but the Delino DeShield's, Delano-Dishield's, Delano-D-Shield's, Jr., like, isn't Delino-D-Shield's Jr. Eight-syllables?

D-Lino-D-Sheel's Jr. No, Junior's only two syllables. Junior. It's junior. June. Scott, Wait, like Delano is more junior than,

Scott, Scott, White, you do not think that junior is three syllables, right? Junior is three syllables, no. There's definitely your.

It's junior. No, it's just the, look, my name is Scott White Jr. If anybody, like how many times if I said junior in my life?

June, your. Junior. This is one of the five best thing that's ever happened on this podcast. There is a website. How many,

syllables.com and you can look up Junior and it is two. That's right. This is right. It's right. I'm not sure. All right. You've got 24 hours to find proof that Junior is worth the two syllables. How many syllables is fire?

One. How many syllables is oil? Fire is one. How many is oil? Wait a second. Fire is one syllable? Yes. Fire is two.

Fire. Fire. Fire is two syllables. Fire. Fire. I thought it was two until somebody told me it was one. I don't know why I believe that's somebody, but I'm not believing count your syllables.com. Oil is two.

I guess. Then you should think junior is three. No. Junior. It's not junior. What the hell are you? All right, we got to go. Well, yeah, his name is Scott.

You don't emphasize the middle syllable, obviously. You're doing the same thing with fire. Very subtle. No, I'm not doing the same thing with fire. How do you say fire? Fire. Fire. You're the voice of reason.

How many syllables are more complicated than people make them out? Merriam Webster's Learner's Dictionary says that fire can be pronounced with one or two syllables. If you're writing a song and you want to rhyme fire with higher, that is perfectly fine. But then fire has two syllables. Yeah, I agree. It does rhyme with fire. It doesn't rhyme with hi or her. All right, goodbye.

We're out. We'll talk to you tomorrow. See you later.