Fantasy Baseball Today - 03/22: Reviewing the Top 150 in ADP (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 22, 2019

We start off with some news and notes which includes an update on the MIL rotation and bullpen, and then it's all average draft position for the remainder of the show. We take you through the top 150 players according to recent ADP. This gives us a look at recent risers like Jameson Taillon and Yasiel Puig and allows to see some of the value at certain positions. We also discuss when to take Khris Davis which will immediately fill your Utility spot. And at the end of the show we tell you what you should have accomplished by pick 150, what to do after pick 150 and who made the Podcast League! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Domingo Samping is ahead, and we are here to get you ready. Welcome to Fantasy Baseball today, everybody. For those of you listening to the podcast, it's a beautiful Kokomo Friday. For those of you watching on video, listen to the show. You'll know what I'm talking about. I'm Adam Azor. I am so excited for today's show. We're just going to go through average draft position,

one through hopefully 200, 250, something like that. And I think Scott White is equally excited. What's up, Scott? Oh, I'm so excited. So excited for this, Adam. Right around the corner. This is the biggest draft weekend of the year that we're preparing people for. And after that, it's the home stretch.

I'm going to start writing things. Looking ahead to week one as opposed to draft prep. Yeah, yeah, and I'm excited for that. I actually don't have any drafts this weekend, do you? No. Now we get them out of the way early. I'm actually hoping to have kind of a chill weekend. We'll see.

Oh, okay, good luck. I have a draft on Monday. You have a draft on Monday. It is the podcast league draft. Today on the show, we will announce who's in the podcast league. And we have a draft on Tuesday. That's going to be for the people league, the For the People League hosted by Heath Cummings. So he'll let you know if you made that league as well.

So I have a quick audio announcement to make. And then we'll get into just a few news items. And then we're going to go through NFBC average draft position over the last week to see how things are trending. Spoiler alert. Jameson Tion is going really early, according to NFBC, and one of the drafts I'm doing now, he's rising, and Jose Abraeu continues to be great value. But first, just a quick announcement, if I sound a little different today, just a different setup today. I think the audio should be fine, but as you can see on video, I'm in the Fort Lauderdale studio, so audio is a little bit different. Scott's at home, and it's a shame Scott's not in the studio with me.

It would have been fun. It's freezing in the studio, Scott. This is the coldest. It is South Florida. I escape New York to go to South Florida. This is the coldest I've been in months. Really, this room is dreadful. I got to get some heat out of here.

I can't wear a cardigans like Chris. It's like an igloo. So yeah, so it sounds a little different today. That's why on Monday we'll be back to our normal setup. Okay, Scott. So Paul Goldschmidt, five years, $130 million. Okay, whatever. Give me a quick dynasty thought on Goldschmidt.

Well, I wish we knew how he was going to play in St. Louis as opposed to Arizona. He was great on the road last year, much better on the road, actually, than at home with the introduction of the humidor. But for his career, I mean, Arizona is a good place to hit. He's always hit better there. We don't know how it's going to play in St. Louis. But this is where he is for the next several years. So, you know, obviously they were confident in it. I'm confident enough that I'm taking him usually in the first half of round two

So not exactly worried But we'll see how it goes Yeah I mean do you do you think he If you were doing a startup dynasty draft today Would he be a third round pick Fourth round pick Paul Goldschmidt Probably a third round pick Just because of his age he's on the wrong side of 30

Which in a dynasty league Assuming you're keeping the majority of your players from year to year. He is on the downside of his career, so that would lower his value some in that format. He has a career 890 OPS at Bush Stadium, which is actually looking at all of his stadiums, a lot of parks where he's, you know, better than that. But all right, next news item, Blake Snell signed to a five-year, $50 million deal. That's wonderful. But more importantly, Corey Knavel, Scott, he's going to have his elbow examined by a specialist. He has a UCL. He has a UCL. He has a UC issue, you can't draft him, right?

I mean, right now the brewers are putting on a brave face and saying, this doesn't necessarily mean he's having season-ending surgery. And, you know, the fact that he has been pitching with a UCL issue for a while now, they're saying, and it's just a matter of, is this new or is it what he's been dealing with already. I think the fact that his velocity has been down recently, and that's what tipped them off to have it checked out in the first place. I don't think that's a good sign.

Yeah, he's kind of radioactive right now. I don't think, you know, if you're drafting before the second opinion, I don't think you can just let him go undrafted, but we're talking late round and cross your fingers because it's very worrisome.

So now what? Now what in the Brewers' bullpen? Yeah, I mean, Craig Kimball, they've been connected to him probably the loudest most recently. So that's that's that's probably a better than 50% chance of happening, I would say, which would hurt Kneville's value in and of itself. But failing that, I mean, Jeremy Jeffress isn't expected to be out for long, so he could become just the full-time closer eventually.

In the meantime, obviously they have Josh Hader who can be part of what I expect would be a committee that would include like Jacob Barnes, maybe Junior Gera, Matt Albers' name has been put out there. Nobody who I think is especially worth drafting except maybe in an NL only league, that sounds like what the plan would be if Kimberl doesn't work out and only until Jeffress gets back.

And all of this is, of course, if Knavel needs season-ending surgery. Right, right. But I'm going to draft Jeffers before I draft Knavel. And look, it could easily be Kimbril and then it's obviously Kimberl's job. But if they don't get Kimbril, then I think Jeffress could be really good draft value.

It's such a small window that we're talking about. I don't know exactly when he's going to have the second opinion. I asked one of the beat writers. He said the Brewers didn't tell them. So we don't know exactly when it's going to be. It could be today, you know? And then we'll know one way or the other. But in the meantime, yeah, it's somebody might end up with a steel grabbing Kadevolo.

but that's, I want to take him into late. Other news from around baseball, Greg Bird is in fact made of glass as he got hit on the elbow and he, of course, is having it examined. And it seems like he's fine, but it's just like he's probably not going to stay healthy. It made me feel better about Luke Voigt because Greg Bird is just so fragile. But I'm probably overreacting to a minor injury. They said he'd be playing if it were a regular season game. Hunter Pence is going to be Texas's fourth outfielder.

Calhoun's going to start the season in the minors. I think that's an AL-only guy, Hunter Pence, that is. And manager Brad Osmiss of the Angels said he'd be shocked if Shohei Otani played in April. So just be prepared for at least a month of no Otani. Right. Now, there was one, it sounds like you're winding down.

So I thought the second biggest news item also came from the Brewers after Coneville. Oh, Brandon Woodruff. I got you. Yeah, Burns and Woodruff in the rotation, yes. Yes, they went the all-upside route with their starting rotation, which floored me. I mean, that's always what we're rooting to happen in fantasy, and it never seems to. But, yeah, not only the two upside sparps, who we thought had a pretty good chance of making it with Jimmy Nelson, headed to the aisle to begin the season.

But Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burns, both in, and also Freddie Peralta, who might have, the most strikeout potential of any of them. He's also the most erratic of them and the most likely probably to lose the job once Jimmy Nelson is ready to go. But still, I mean, we get to see them at the start of the season and maybe he dominates and somebody like Zach Davies gets the heave-ho instead.

So this is exciting news. I think certainly the Sparps, regardless of format, just because the upside is good and because it seems like they have a firmer hold on rotation spots, So that, of course, would be Brandon Woodruff and Corbyn Burns. I think they are worth drafting at the end of any draft. Woodruff may be even a little earlier than that. Yeah, and Burns pitched 30 games last year all on relief.

He's never made a start in the majors, so you don't know what the innings are going to be like at first. But, yeah, I know it's exciting. In fact, Scott, I have here my cell phone to show you I did put that note in my phone, but I forgot to put it in my show notes. and also I have that Matt Olson hurt his thumb. So he did hurt his thumb yesterday morning. We didn't mention that I didn't know about it at the time on the podcast. But do you know anything more about Matt Olson's his digit, his thumb?

No, I don't think he was going to have it checked out until they get back in the U.S. So we're not going to know for a little while. They have good doctors over there. Come on, Matt Olson. We need to know. All right. Those are your news and notes. I want to remind you that if you're about to sign up for a league, cbsports.com slash FBT.

It's not too late to play. Our commissioner product is amazing. I am currently commissionering a draft on my phone. The app is great to be a commissioner. The app is great to draft as well. I play all my leagues on CBS now. I had a league on another site. We moved it over to CBS.

The commissioner is so happy about it. It's just so much better. CBSports.com slash FBT get signed up right now. We're going to start our average draft position review. right after this short break. Scott, here we go. ADP, 1 to 250, let's say. I'm just going to hope we get to that many.

We're using NFBC average draft position over the last week from March 14th through the 21st. Maybe it should be like 15th through the 21st, but whatever. Mike Trout number one. So, yeah, I think the best way to do it, we'll go six at a time,

or maybe 12 at a time, you know, try to do it like round by round. But here we go. I do want to point something out before we get into this because obviously we're using NFBC because you have the ability to manipulate the results so that you can see it

more recently as opposed to the entire draft prep season. And it's to spot changes in an approach or whatever. But every individual site's ADP results are influenced by the order the players show up in their draft room.

So some of them, it's just going to be some of the weirdness is just going to be because this is in a bc's draft room as opposed to this is a recent change that's happening so i i do have the uh the full draft season um data pulled up to to compare the nfbc column there to what we're going to talk about here just to see if it's if it's a timing thing or if it's an inf bc thing okay great and another thing i'll add is that these are roto rankings or you know average draft position yeah i'm I'm finding that in points leagues, and you will find this in points leagues, pitchers tend to go earlier.

If you want two aces, something you can do, that's probably going to be your second and third pick, unless you're first and second or first and third. But the top 12 pitchers are going to be off the board in the CBS Points League, most likely by the end of the third round that a 12-team league, 36 picks. In fact, I think here, even in NFBC, it's pretty similar. So let's get started. Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, Jose Ramirez, Max Scherzer, 4, J.D. Martinez, Christian Yelich, Trey Turner, and Noon Aeronado. That's your top eight. It's a pretty

predictable top eight in terms of the names. Actually, you know, Yelich. All right, it's a pretty predictable top seven of eight. Yelich being six is a little surprising to me. Noon Aeronado being eight behind Scherzer, J.D. Martinez, Yelich, and Trey Turner. I guess it's understandable. I mean, look, J.D. Martinez really has been a better hitter than Nolan Aronado the last two years. So you heard Heath and I talk about it on yesterday's show where I think Aronado should be the fourth pick in drafts. But I really can't argue with it, Scott. So how do you look at that? Shursor 4, J.D. Martinez 5, Yelich 6, Trey Turner 7, Aronado 8. Yeah, I think you pointed out the main oddities. I think we're all expecting a step back from Yelich this year to what degree is really the

question. I think it's going to be a small enough degree that he's still worth a first round pick. but sixth overall and ahead of Aeronado who you know has has won home run and RBI titles I think two of the last three years and with a good batting average like he's just so safe is the main thing about Aeronado there is nothing to worry about taking him as your first pick and even considering it's Roto Trey Turner going ninth overall I thought 8th. Seventh overall for Turner, 7th, according to what I'm seeing. So this is over the last week, Scott, in NFBC. It's not going to look the same as the NFBC column on Fantasy Pro. Right.

I'm just looking at the last week. Oh, you know what? The link you sent me didn't work. It shows the entire. Ah, okay. Yeah, yeah. Back to November 1st. So I'm going to have to adjust that.

So you said March 14th. March 14th through the 21st on NFBC, yes. All right. All right. All right. Where, since I don't want to spend too much time on the first round, Where would you take Scherzer? Where would you take Trey Turner?

And Yelich, I guess. I would take Scherzer in Roto. I think I have him seventh overall and Yelich and Turner 8th and Yelich, I think. Tenth. I think it's how I happen. So just a little further down. Okay, great. And if you want to take Scherzer fourth, like I have never taken a pitcher that early.

But I will say this, if you have the fourth pick and you really want Scherzer there, well, if I told you that you could get Charlie Blackman in round three, and you really like that, then you could go Scherzer and then maybe Goldsmith or Freeman, and then Charlie Blackman or something like that. It's just you don't see. Blackman, to me, is a second round pick, but he keeps falling to the third round. I took him 37th overall in a draft the other day in a points league. if you're confident in getting him and you really like Charlie Blackman,

that's more of a justification to take Scherzer at fourth. So I actually have I actually have Scherzer 7th, Turner 9th, and Yell at 10th. So a little different from what I'm saying. Turner 9th in Rodo? Yes. Okay. In Roto. Okay.

So Scott, that's our top eight. Let's finish out round one, nine through 12. Ronald LeCunia Jr., we've set it over and over. Mid-round two is better for him. Jacob de Grom, Aaron Judge, and Chris Sale. So Aaron Judge appears to be rising a little bit. He's 11th overall over the last week. I get it.

I like him a lot. But he goes ahead of Bregman, Lindor, Altuve, Harper. Your thoughts? Yeah, I mean, he has gotten a lot of hype this spring. He's had a huge spring and kind of adjust to his stance, not as much of a leg kick in the hope that allows him. to make more contact. Don't think he necessarily needs to make more contact

to justify this draft position, but it would take some of the risk out of the equation. It's not something I'm counting on, and I would rather have the ace and Chris Sale because of the scarcity there. I'd rather have Alex Breggman, who I think is MVP caliber and going to be great at least four of the five categories and might contribute more steals than he did last year.

He's actually the reason why trade turn is ninth for me because I have Alex Breggman right ahead of him at 8th. Yeah, and I think Breggman over judge is an easier call in a points league, because Breggman is basically a one-to-one walked-strikeout guy, and that's huge in that format. All right, so we get two aces going at the end of the first round in DeGrom and Sale. And we go to round two, we get to a guy eventually that I think is probably the best value, maybe the best value in fantasy right now.

I know that's crazy for only a second round pick, but we'll get to him in a second. Gregman is 13th. Then Trevor's story feels a little early for story. Fourteenth? Yeah, a little bit. We're talking, you know, a couple spots, but a little bit. Francisco Lindor, these next two picks are really interesting. Francisco Lindor, and then I think the guy that's the best value is Jose Altuve. Jose Altuve, if he gets back to what he did in 2017 and 17, in 2016, he was the number three hitter in fantasy. In 2017, he was seventh in points, fifth and roto, and he is 16th off the board right now. We know he played hurt last year. So, I mean, I would be elated to take him 16th overall. How about Lindor at 15th, Scott?

That's still, that's about the range where I could consider it for Lindor. It's looking more promising than it was certainly at the time. He suffered the calf injury, seven to nine week timetable. What does that mean? Well, so far, he's cleared all the checkpoints. I still have some concerns about how it's going to affect his base stealing ability. And look, he's not all the way back yet. I mean, he still has to play full-scale defense. He still needs to run the bases fully. Those are going to be the biggest turtles with this injury more so than him

playing these kinds of modified games on the back fields. All right, since we won't have time to talk about every player, I'm going to give you the rest of round two when you tell me what stands out. Harper 17, Javier Baez, 18. You know by now we don't like Javier Baez here. Paul Goldschmidt, Justin Verlander, Junkardo, Stanton, Freddie Freeman, Manny Machado, and Garrett Cole. Again, it's Harper, so this is 17 through 24. Harper, Baez, Goldschmidt, Verlander, Stanton, Freeman, Machado, Garrett Cole. Machado, 23, seems low, and that is a recent development. He's drawing.

Let's see, he's dropped some. Well, I mean, looking at the entirety of draft prep season, his ADP is 19th on NFBC, so now he's 23rd. Even 19th seemed a little low for me. I feel like he should go. Like, it's almost a toss up to me, whether to take him or Lindor back at 15. I guess because he's in San Diego, and that's maybe, I mean, it's a tougher place to hit them Baltimore, that's for sure. it's pretty similar to Dodger Stadium. But for his career,

Mani Machado's numbers outside of Baltimore have been less impressive. I don't think that's going to prove to be a problem over an extended stretch of time. But I guess there is a question there for some people. He batted 279 at Dodger Stadium with seven home runs in 29 games. that was good for an 874 OPS.

Pretty good, and he might run more because San Diego likes to run. Yeah, I would take him over Stanton. Even though I think Stanton does have MVP upside. I mean, we've seen it. I know you would take him over Stanton as well. I mean, so does Machata. Yeah, I don't know that he does in San Diego.

I don't know. I do think that the home road splits are pretty important here. But that's fair. That's fair. Okay, so, Gary, I think, Garrett Cole, by the way, as the fifth pitcher off the board. I like it, actually. I think it's a little bold, but I like it. So many strikeouts last year. But he's in a group now. Because 24, 25, 26 are all pitchers. 28 is a pitcher. So here we go into round three. Round two ends with Garrett Cole. And then we have Aaron Nola, Corey Klober, Corey Klober, Trevor, Trevor, Trevor, Trevor, Trevor, Trevor. So not much needed here. I mean, these all these picks make sense, right? Cole, Nola, Kluber, Blackman, Bauer. Yeah, this is the range where the pitchers really start to come off the board pretty fast. The order, I would quibble over the order.

I mean, I think Kluber deserves to be ahead of Nola and Cole, given his track record. And I do have Nola ahead of Cole. But for the most part, this is the right range for all of them. Black Men, yeah, it's always a little surprising to see him slip to round three, but I think it just has to do with the surplus of all times. Personally, I would take him ahead of even Judge Carlos Stan, who's going six picks earlier on average. Right. Okay.

But I have seen him fall dropped to round three a lot. And we start to get to some picks here that are still really good, but don't feel like they have the certainty, I guess. Whitmerfield, Blake Snell, Andrew Benintendi, Chris Bryant. Whitmaneryfield, Blake Snell, Andrew Benintendi, Chris Bryant. That's 29 through 32. Anything jump out is really good or bad there? Not especially. I mean, Maryfield's obviously filling a categorical need around.

So if we're talking like a points league context, I think he'd go a little lower than this group. But maybe Andrew Ben and Tendee would too. I don't love Maryfield here. I mean, he's just not, you're not getting power. you're not getting RBI's. You're getting he hasn't been a run guy.

Yeah, that's not so good. Honestly, I don't I don't know I mean, if Trey Turner doesn't live up to the the idea that he's going to attempt 70 steals this year,

which he didn't last year, obviously, but there's talk that he will. If he doesn't, I think he's basically with Maryfield, right? Yes. I would expect more runs, but yes. So you're getting, you're kind of getting who Trey Turner was last year here in round three with Maryfield. At a thinner position, second base is a little thinner than shortstop. But even beyond that, I mean, just the scarcity of stolen bases and a guy who isn't going to be a complete zero in home runs

and is probably going to be a positive and batting average. I mean, you wait, if you want a big steel source. later after Merrifield and after out Alberto Mondesie goes probably just a few picks later. If you want somebody who's going to carry you in steals after that, you're kind of sacrificing everything else except for maybe batting average. Okay. And so then after that, let's finish round two, around three, rather Juan Soto, Carlos Carrasco, Noah Cinderguard, and Starling Marte.

Starling Marte is in that group too with the steels. Yeah, right. And I would rather have Marte than Merrifield, but I understand the position scarcity. and we've got, well, I don't know if I should say that, because I think it'll hit more home runs than Merrifield, but it won't be that many more. I guess I probably would rather have Marifield. Because Marte's been batting like 275, I think, the last two years.

It's not the batting average stud that it used to be. So that's worth noting. I think it does make sense to take Marifield over Marte. We got 11 pitchers off the board by the end of round three, 36 picks. Also, somebody wanted me to, and I think we should do this, somebody wanted me to give auction values. Okay. So if you have a $260,

budget and Mike Trout and Mooky Betts are around $50 or so. It's kind of where I think they went in our draft, $52-ish. By the time you get to round three and you're looking at Merrifield and Karras, I think you're talking about $30 players, right? 25 to $30 players at this point? 25 to $30 players at this point. Yeah, that sounds about right to me. Yeah, that's right.

Maybe low 30s. Okay. All right, Scott. Round four, Reese Hoskins, Anthony Rizzo, Walker Bueller, Adelberto Mondi, J.T. Reamuto, Anthony Rendon. Hoskins, Rizzo, Bueller, Mondisi, Rayamuto, Rendon. Let's see. I guess maybe, I mean, that Bueller's still higher than I think any of us to take it. Maybe somebody's feeling the desperation if all the a ACE is being off the board at this point. But, I mean, he hasn't shown he's an ace yet. For the final two and a half months of

last year. Yeah, he definitely looked like at ace, but over a full season, with the way it seems like the Dodgers are already trying to hold back his innings at the start of the year. It's a little aggressive. I mean, I don't want to overstate it. I'd probably take him 10 picks later than this. But 39th seems too high. Okay, that's Walker Bueller. He's the 12th starting pitcher off the board over the last week on NFBC. The rest of the round looks good. Personally, I would take Rizzo over Hoskins. but, you know,

Hoskins is going to be due eligible. That does help. No, I'm glad you pointed that out because Rizzo seems like I'd take Rizzo over Chris Bryant who went 32nd. I'd probably take him over Andrew Benintendi, 31st. Like, Rizzo seems

to me early third round material really regardless the format. I mean, it's easier to justify in points league because of his strikeout to walk ratio but the fact that first base is a position where there are few standouts, guys you can draft and feel comfortable with, I think Rizzo deserves to go probably half a round sooner than this. Second half of round four picks 43 through 48.

Cody Bellinger, Chris Davis, Zander Bogartz, Carlos Correa, Patrick Corbyn, Gary Sanchez. I really like Zander Bogartz. I love the plate discipline improvements that he made at the end. end of last year. I don't know if it'll carry over. I just cannot see him taking him 45th overall, and I can't take him over Carlos Correa. So that one stands out to me. But it's Bellinger, Chris Davis, Bogart's, Corbyn, Sanchez. Almost every one of these picks is risky. The only one that isn't is Chris Davis. You know exactly what you're getting from him. But I don't take Chris Davis. I have a lot to say about this group, apparently. I don't take Chris Davis in a shallower format. I don't know how you

feel about this. I don't want to fill my utility 44th overall. If I'm in a deeper league, I don't really care about filling my utility because, you know, it's a good chance my utility won't be that good. But in a shallower league, I lose a lot of flexibility if I take Chris Davis here. So I don't know that I'm doing the right thing, but I personally can never bring myself to take a guy who's just DH or utility that early. But this is an interesting group. Bellinger, Chris Davis, Bogartz, Correa, Corbyn, Gary Sanchez. No, I agree with you on the Chris Davis point. That really holds him back because there's a lot of times I want to drop the third corner infielder.

If we're talking to roto context and certainly in points leagues where you have or head-to-head leagues of any kind, where you have fewer hitter spots to fill, that could be a problem blocking utility early. And it's a shame because what I noticed in my categories leagues last year was that I didn't emphasize home runs enough. just kind of assumed they'd come to me in a high enough quantity because they're found everywhere. But since they are found everywhere, it's harder to stand out in the category. Locking up a surefire or 45 home runs would be nice. But yeah, I agree. It's hard to block utility that early.

Cody Bellinger, I don't like him here. We've talked about that a few times. I think there's more downside than this gives them credit for. I mean, the upside of all these players is similar to what a good scenario for. for Cody Bellinger would be. I don't know that the risk reward adds up to me at 43 overall. Yeah, there is a lot of upside in this group. I mean, a lot of upside.

Correa, Gary Sanchez. I don't know if Bogart's has that upside. I don't think he does, but he is very solid. And Corby, I mean, even Patrick Corbyn. I mean, he was part of that age group definitively last year. And I think the biggest predictor of an ace is, have you been an ace before? Just because of the workload situation, so many pitchers find themselves in this year. I would take Corbyn ahead of Bueller, who win eight picks earlier.

And for those of you watching on video, I just want to welcome our special guest over Scott's right shoulder. Fantasy Cat is on the show today. Very excited to have Fan. What is Fantasy Cat's name? Yeah, you're right. Your image. His name is Tiger. Tiger.

Okay. Tiger. I didn't name him. Don't look at me. Okay. He's a 16-year-old cat. I've known him only half of that time. Okay, so Gary Sanchez is the last pick of round four.

Let's go to round five. We have our first closer, Edwin Diaz, followed by Jack Flaherty, James Paxton, Eugenio Suarez, Eugenio Suarez, Tijuana, and Clevenger. And yeah, there it is. Tion, I don't know how indicative this is, but I could see him going. in the 50s, in the low to mid-50s. I think it's justifiable. He's an outlier. This is one of those NFBC outliers.

For the entirety of Jeff Graf pep season, he's gone 55th overall. Shows him 53rd now. The NFPC draft room is really high on them. The other sites, you know, I can't lower it to just the last week like we are here, but it's around 70th. Which is closer to where I have them.

I mean, I do think there's like Zach Grinky upside. Zach Grinky hasn't gone yet. I'm not really sure what we're doing. Last 14 starts for Tyone. I'm not sure exactly when he introduced the slider, but this was part of it. Tyone had a 2270 RA, 18 walks, 86 strikeouts, and 91 innings. The 12% swinging strike rate, which is pretty good.

Might lead to more strikeouts. He's not going to be like a huge strikeout guy. But, yeah. All right. So moving on down. On the subject of the slider, I read early this spring he had tightened it up so that it's more like a cutter now. I don't like that. Maybe it's better, but the fact that we keep citing this, oh, look what happened when he introduced the slider.

It kind of raises some concern. Well, all those pictures, Flaherty Paxson, Tyone Clevenger going just ahead of Steven Strasbourg. But as you're seeing here in round five, this is a big starting pitcher round, at least the first half of it. All right. So you're probably getting your number two guy here. Maybe number three. Maybe I hope you're not taking your number one. All right.

Strasbourg, George Springer, Yassil Puig, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Daniel Murphy, Tommy, Fam. Strasberg, Springer, Pue, Vlad Murphy, Fam. Now, Pueg looks like somebody. who's really been rising up the rankings here. And I think justifiably, I mean, I think it maybe has just taken drafters a while to come around to the idea that, oh, he's in Cincinnati now, oh, he's going to bat in the middle of the lineup.

So many more of bats than we've been getting from him the past couple years with the Dodgers. And if you just project out his numbers, forget the park change, which is also throwing that in there, but just project out his numbers. You're talking about maybe a 30-home or 20 steel guy. So, you know, an FBC had him going Pue going 72nd for all of draft prep season, and now 57th, that's a big jump. Meanwhile, Vladimir Guerrero has fallen quite a bit.

Yeah, what do you think about him at 58th? That's maybe where he should have been getting drafted all along. so if it took this oblique injury to get him there I guess that's fine I'm probably more comfortable than drafting him there than where he was previously and I'm not sure it really changed his timetable that much because it's not a it's not like a severe oblique strain

and I think we're still looking at him mid to late April which for service time reasons was what we were looking at all along if Yassoopuig is you know maybe going a little bit too early What about George Springer and Tommy Fam? I think it makes sense that they're all in the same range here. Typically in my drafts, I see Puego later.

I'm used to him going later. But, yeah, I mean, if Springer, if he goes and Springer and Fam are still out there, I'm not exactly disappointed in that outcome. And this is, you know, I talked up Puege in this spot because it was, I think maybe he was being underdrafted before. But 57 might be a little too high just in a vacuum. Like, I'm glad he's higher than he was going before, but 57 might be just a little high.

All right. I think it's crazy that I thought we're going to get to 250 people. So let's go a little faster here, Scott. Gene Seguera, we're into round 6, 61 overall. Gene Seguera, Blake Chironin, Clayton, Kirschaw, Lorenzo Kaine, Ozzie, Albee, Zach Granky. Gene Segarra, Blake Chining, Clayton, Kerchaw, Lorenzo, Kane, Ozzie, Zakranke.

So, I look. I'm afraid of Granky, but 66 is really good. Yeah, I find I'm drafting him more now because he's beginning of the season on the DL within his shoulder, right, with a shoulder issue than I was before. So it's kind of funny. Granky? No, I'm talking Granky.

No, Kershaw. I was talking about Granky. Like, I'm afraid of Granky, but he is falling too far to 66 overall. Yeah, no, I mean, this is why I always draft. Like, Granky might be my most drafted pitcher because I can always count on him being there round five. And this is technically round six, but obviously I want to make sure I get him, round five.

That may be your way of getting a second ace in a points league, if you play in the kind of points league where the aases tend to go early. You might have to draft him more like round four, but still it's easier to do. And yeah, I don't really have any concerns about Grinke. He's always among, he always gives you the innings of an ace and the ratios are good enough over the innings that he ends up ranking among the aces. I think he's great.

I don't think there's anything to worry about there. All right. First baseman that's come off the board here. Joey Votto, 67, Jose Barrios, Glaber Torres, David Dahl, Matt Carpenter, and Kenley Jansen. That's the end of round six. So round five began with Edwin Diaz. Here in round six, we have Blake Chironin at the beginning and Kenley Jansson. at the end. But we also have Joey Votto and Matt Carpenter here. And I mean, I love this Joey Votto

value at 67 overall. If you can do that in a points league, that's a steel in a Roto league. I still really like it, particularly if it's ADP. I know Scott agrees with me, but I'm going to ask you, Scott, Albee's 65th, Labor Torres, 69th. Do we still think that's too high? I think it's too high. Definitely for Torres. And it's higher than I take Albies too. I understand it a little more for Albies. Albies has shown skills beyond just the power. But yeah, this is about, I don't know, 20 picks too high for Torres. And really, if you're just basing it on what he did last year, it's 100 picks too high for Torres. I'm already factoring in a lot of upside in my ranking. Okay, so let's go to round, what are we? Around seven now, starting with pick number

73. Armand Marquez, and I think at this point for auction values, you are still looking. looking at guys who are going to, some of them are going to be steal. This is why auction value is so tough. Because Marcelo Zun is in this round, and he could go for $8. Orola's Chapman could go for 18. Armand Marquez could go for 21. This is when auction values probably are out the window, and it just depends on when these guys get nominated, and, you know, and how much money you're spending on closers and that type of thing.

I know people always ask me for auction values and stuff. It's really hard to do because the auctions are just so different. So I just want you to get a sense of how good guys are when they're going, when they should be going, when a certain position is going. Because once you get to rounds five and beyond, closers are coming off the board and you're going to see that here. Armand Marquez, you're also going to see not necessarily the end, you're getting toward the end of pitchers with ace upside. Marquez, Brad Hand, Miguel And Duhar, too early. Jonathan, VR, Arollis Chapman, Zach Wheeler. Marquez, Hand, And Duhar, VR, Chapman, and Zach Wheeler.

Is Wheeler in the same class as Armand Marquez, Scott? Not for me. I mean, you know, I'm especially high on Hermann Marquez. He was basically Jacob de Grom over his final 17 starts last year. And I think he has as much hope of any pitcher out of the ace tier of performing like an ace. Zach Wheeler was really good down the stretch last year. But I group him more with kind of in that next level. level where Castillo and and Darvish.

Yeah, I mean, the two that I pair together consistently, and this is just going to sound weird in the context of this discussion, because we already had James and Tyone go so much earlier. But Tyone and Wheeler, I like to put together because I feel like they've shown a lot of potential. They are, you're going to be, you're going to feel good about getting them as like your number three starter, but they don't quite have ace upside. So I grouped them together. I mean, I understand Wheeler going a little low because of his injury history, but I think in terms of upside, he and Tyone are similar. Next half of this round. Which is more a knock on Tyone than it is positive about Wheeler.

All right, next half of this round, Eddie Rosario, who two straight years hitting around 290, 27 home runs, 24 home runs and only 131 games last year, eight or nine steals. Rosario has not reached 80 RBI's yet, which is strange. But Rosario, Jesus Aguilar, Marcelo Zuna, Roberto Osuna, Osuna back to back, Victor Robles, and Jose Abraeu. And, yeah, I mean, I think the outfielers are really, first of all, Jose Abraeu, 84 overall, all day, every day for us. We love it.

But Eddie Rosario, Marcelo Zuna, and Victor Robles going at the end of round seven in between 79 and 83 overall. Scott, give me a quick thought on that. It's, look, knowing, they're seeing that there's Jose Abraeu available there a little later, like Scooter Jeanette. I feel like there's some infield scarcities that,

to me, are higher priorities at this point than what's definitively a second-tier outfielder. I mean, there is a lot of depth in this range of outfield. There's not a lot at the time. top, but this range where you get into the Castilloes and the Rosarios and, and I can't even think of another example of somebody in that group, but it's a lot of theft. Like, I would throw Michael Conforto in that group, you know?

Yeah. So my priorities are with the infield right now. Okay. We go to the next round, round eight. Felipe Vasquez, Travis Shaw, Scooter Jeanette, Corey Seeger, Mitch Hanager, and Nick Castellanos. Vasquez Shaw. I actually really like a lot of picks in this round. I don't particularly like Castellanos.

But Vasquez, Travis Shaw, Scooter Jeanette, Corey Seeger, love that at 88. Mitch Hanager, Nick Castiano. Let me go to the next group and get your thoughts because it's more interesting. Madison Bumgarner, Luis Severino, back-to-back at 91 and 92. Joey Gallo, Miles Michaelis, Nelson Cruz, and Jose Parraza. last half of round eight is Severino, Joey Gallo, Michaelis, Cruz, Paraza, and Price. Paraza. Sorry, I went too far.

Oh, I forgot Gallo, I think. Anyway, I apologize. Bumgarner, Severino, Gallo, Michaelis, Cruz, Paraza. There we go. So, yeah, there are a lot here that are just out of sorts with how I have them, and I'm trying to figure out if it's an NFBC specific thing. Severino though I mean I even understanding he's going to miss all of April

who knows how much after that I don't suspect long after that but it's obviously looking at an extent of the absence there at the beginning of the season even so the scarcity of pitchers who can deliver those ratios with that workload is such that I think it's worth it I think it's worth playing a little short-handed so that you get that big benefit later.

So I'm like 20 picks higher than this. Wow. Higher than 70-second overall. Yeah. Okay. And you may not have to draft in that high, but, you know, I would take him ahead of a lot of these players. I don't really love. Go ahead.

Go ahead. But we got about 10 minutes left, so let's get going. Joey Gallo has a lot. I have much higher than this as well because what I was saying about Chris Davis getting a sure 40 home runs is important in today's environment and obviously Scooter Jeanette I happen going more like round 6th than 87th overall

Okay Scott I'm going to give you six picks at a time You're going to have to give me real quick thoughts So we can get through the rest here Okay All right David Price Okay no I won't dwell on it David Price 97 Michael Conforto

Josh Donaldson Will Myers and Chris Greg Kimbril. Price, Conforto Donaldson, Myers, Kimbril, and then Justin Turner. That's six right there.

Yeah, Donaldson seems high. I definitely prefer Turner. Okay. Yeah, and I've really come to think Donaldson and Edwin and Carnaccio and Carnaccio are pretty similar.

Ed Carnaccio is like 30 picks later. You're not feeling that? No, Donaldson's ceiling's higher, but there's a risk to just get very little from Donaldson. He should go better. The injury track record becomes an issue. It's like seven straight ears with 32 or more homers and 96 or more RBIs for Encarnacio and something like that. Yeah, but he's old and showing skills decline that we haven't necessarily seen from Donaldson.

I think that counts for more. It does. Okay, so after Turner, Kirby Yates, Matt Chapman, Justin Upton, D. Gordon, A.J. Pollock, Sean Doolittle. Kirby Yates, Matt Chapman, Justin Upton, D. Gordon, A.J. Pollock, Sean D. Pollock, I feel like, deserves to be with that other group of outfielders, and this is kind of what I was talking about about the depth in that range of outfield. Upton, too, frankly. They're both about as valuable, if not more so, than Eddie Rosario and Nick Castellanos to me. Yates seem surprisingly high.

Over Doolittle. I don't get that. I don't get that. I don't get that. And I've been finding Upton falling a lot farther. It's usually the last of this tier to be there. the drafts we do and they have them going near at the top of that tier.

All right, next round. Yasmani Grandal, Malik Smith, Jose LeClerc, Matt Olson, Michael Brantley, Ricell Ecclesias. Yasmani Granda, Malik Smith, Jose LeClerc, Matt Olson, Michael Brantley, Ryssel Eglacius. See, like, I like

Jose LeClerc more than Kirby Yates. But I do want to point out Grandal has moved up a lot over the last week. I'm not sure what prompted that. Maybe just people coming to their senses, but I think he's pretty clearly the number three catcher behind J.T. Realmuto and Gary Sanchez. Yeah. Okay. I think we like Brantley there. Good batting average source.

The back half of round 10 is Robinson Canoe, Charlie Morton. I may have forgotten Rice Luglaclius. I don't know if I said him. No, I did. Canoe, Charlie Morrill. Eloy Jimenez. Still 117th overall for Eloy. Gosh, I don't understand. Move them up. Rugnet Odor, Josh Hader, and Shane Bieber.

Oh, boy. Okay. So, Cano, Morton, Eloy, Odor, Hader, Bieber. Yeah, Jimenez is really surprising because he's actually gone down, it looks like, recently on NFBC. It was a really recent announcement, so part of this date range does not factor in the signing. but still it was too low. I moved him up 25 spots or so

now that it appears he's with that contract he's probably going to begin on the major league roster and tons of upside there. Where is that in your rankings for Eloy? In this format, five outfielder, he's 80th. Okay, about 80th.

Yeah, this seems too soon for Ruegnaudor to me. But I know at this point you're getting you're getting desperate at 7. second base, so I get it. But it's just 118th overall. Yeah, no, there's no reason to be that desperate. I think maybe people are overestimating the upside by taking him there. He's still a young player, but his shortcomings are pretty well known by now.

That's 118th overall. The next second baseman I'm seeing off the board is Brian Dozier at 142nd overall. So if you haven't gotten your second... Yeah, right. I do too. But if you haven't gotten your second baseman in the first 100 picks, yeah, you're you're going to, well, Canoe. Like, I like Canoe at 115.

I think that's really good value when you consider Odor and then Dozier, who obviously has a lot of risk. All right, moving on. No. Sorry, Scott. Luis Castillo, Wilson Ramos, Robbie Ray. We're in a round 11. Castillo Ramos, Robbie Ray, Wade Davis, Jurekson Profar, and Chris Archer. Castillo Ramos, Ray, Wade Davis, Profar, Archer.

Just preceding this group, maybe you listed it off before then was Shane B. at 120th overall. He was right before Luis Castillo, and he has been one of the big risers this spring. And one of the best pitchers this spring with the introduction of the change-up. I know I've moved him up. My rankings a good bit.

I don't love Robbie Ray in this group because I just don't feel like he has any hope of pitching like an ace with his the way he piles up pitches. So many walks. I think the normal. formalization of the BAPB last year kind of exposed him for who he is. A lot of strikeouts, but I don't think over enough innings that you're really going to be able to enjoy them.

I'd much rather have somebody like Chris Archer, who has shown ace potential multiple years. Do you have Castillo or Bieber ranked higher? I have Castillo higher. Okay. So let's go to the second half of this round after Chris Archer. Wilson Contreras, remember Wilson Ramos went earlier in this round. You've got to start thinking about catcher now, people. We're in the 120s, sorry.

So Grandal went in the early 100s. Now we've got Ramos, Contreras off the board. That's five catchers. You're pretty much done, almost done with your top seven, which means Danny Jansen, I think is number eight. But Contreras, Max Muncie, Andrew McCutcheon, Mike Mustakis, Moseh, Mascarro Tanaka, and Kyle Hendricks. Contreras, Muncie, McCutcheon, Mustakis, Tanaka,

Hendricks, real quick thought. I'm really surprised how much Mustakis has moved up with the confirmation, I guess, that he's going to be the Brewer's primary second basement. There wasn't much doubt when he signed that that's what he was going to be. But I still don't think there's any evidence

that he's, as the primary second basement, he's going to play more often than like Travis Shaw did down the stretch last year, which was getting pulled early from games a lot, sitting a couple times a week, just the fact that he's playing in Miller Park and isn't enough for me to move him up this high. All right.

Going down to round, oh, I don't even remember anymore. So I think we're, uh, must be round 12. Uh, U Darvish, Rafael Devere, I'm still good taking Darvish, 133. I like that.

Devers. Tim Anderson, no thanks for me. Edwin Encarnacion, 136. Yadier, Molina, and Buster Posey. and now you have seven catchers off the board at 138th overall. Darvish Devers, Tim Anderson, Encarnacion, Melina, and Posey. And then the rest of this round is Hap, Ahmed Rosario, Aaron Hicks, Brian Dozier, Enderanciarte, and David Peralta. This is not a very good round.

The outfield values seem pretty good, though, especially like Aaron Hicks. But you see some reaches for stolen bases here, namely the short. Shortstop, Tim Anderson and Ahmed Rosario. And I get that steals are scarce. This is kind of the reason why I'm targeting guys like at Alberto Mondesie early. But Billy Hamilton's still out there. Like if you're really going for steals, go for steals. And not these kind of scrubby guys who may give you 20, 25.

Right, right. And I think, you know, Jose Parraza went like 100th overall. To me, like, he might just give you the same numbers as Ender Enciarte, who goes, 45 picks later. Or Cesar Hernandez is even later than that. That was just a pick that jumped out to me. I didn't really love in the top 100, Jose Parraza, round 100th.

The rest of this round, round 12, is Nick Povetta, Byron Buxton, Ken Giles, Ian Desmond, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Mike Fultenevich. Oh, no,

I'm sorry, I guess I skipped ahead to round 13. My math didn't make sense. Beginning of round 13, 145 overall. Nick Povetta, Byron Buxton, Ken Giles. Ian Desmond, Eduardo Rodriguez, Mike Fultenevich, 150th overall.

Yeah, kind of like I was saying for Kershaw, when I was actually supposed to be commenting on Granky, it seems like the injury has pulled Fultenevich down to a range where I'm willing to take the chance on him, even though there are some questions about what he did peripherally last season. He was great in spite of that, and it may work out. once he's over this elbow issue. Ian Desmond does seem like another reach for steals here. You know, we don't have a lot of confidence of him hitting for power.

And with some of these young options coming up for the Rockies, even keeping his job. All right, so we did 150 picks, Scott, up to Mike Fultenevich. What are we seeing here? You've got Aaron Hicks, do we really like a value? But you also have guys like Ender Enciarte, David Peralta.

These might be third, fourth outfielder's for you. They're still going to be outfielers later. the draft. Framil Reyes going outside the top 200. Guys that you can fill out your roster with, you know, at outfield, Jesse Winker, 187, guys like that. Catcher we've talked about. Pitcher, you're still filling out your pitching staff here. Fultenevich is good.

And there's upside with Nick Povetta and Eduardo Rodriguez. Tyler Glass now and Cole Hamels are about to come off the board. Stephen Piscotti's about to come off the board as well. So still good players in this range. A lot of closers going in this range. after 150 picks, so we're about 13 rounds into the draft, 12 and a half, 13 rounds into a 12 team league, Scott. What do you think you have accomplished at this point?

And what do you think you still could see yourself filling out? So at this point, I probably have at least three starting pitchers. If we're speaking specifically for roto leagues with their larger lineups, then, you know, I still have a ways to go with my hitting, but my infield is mostly filled out. I feel like there's more value to be found in the outfields here. But I probably have two outfielders at least already. I probably have my first closer.

I probably don't have a catcher unless it just happened to be great value, but that's more of my style than something I necessarily think everybody should do. and I probably I'm probably in a pretty safe a pretty comfortable spot as far as stolen bases go if I'm not then Billy Hamilton is a huge priority

for me in the upcoming picks let's see where he's going here 163rd overall I have him I have him 130th overall so I might have already I might be looking to take him right now

yeah yeah if I need steel I still see Elvis Andrews on the board at 176 and I think he's a good bounceback candidate at middle infield. He's another guy who was playing hurt last year. I'm hopeful for him, but I understand a lot of people aren't. I agree with basically everything you said. I want to have some outfielders, but I don't want to have filled it up.

You're right about depth being better at outfield than infield going after pick 150. I'd like to have at least three starting pitchers. Wouldn't be surprised if I had four starting pitchers. One closer in a roto league or in a categories league where I'd like to have four closers. I definitely have at least two by now. and I'm going to have three pretty soon. A guy like Jordan Hicks will be in the mix. Will Smith, Hunter Strickland, these guys are going to come off the board.

Strickland goes really late. I like Adam Eaton's value at 196. I'm just trying to wrap this up. Rota's Viscayno at 199. Archie Bradley at 200. These are good values here. So you can still get closers at this point. Scott, we are about out of time.

But I have to tell the listeners, who made the podcast league? All right. Oh, boy. Congratulations. I read all of them. Thank you so much. It's pretty tough to do this because we get so many people who put a lot of time in to give us creative entries, and I wish I could put more of you in. Luckily, there's another league, and hopefully you get in the For the People League. But the I Took Judge Lincoln Park parody, Chris Torrey, you're in. Scott and his female accompanist pitchers with that show-croke Kid Rock parody.

You're in. Jason with his John Gray, Lisa Loeb parody. You're in. Nick from San Francisco, California, wrote an auction strategy Limerick. Saving money for the end may be right, and paying up for some stars I just might, but what I will surely do is submit a bit or two design just to frustrate Scott White.

Nick, you are in the podcast league. Vic wrote us a little song to the tune of the Spider-Man cartoon theme. Azer trade, Azer Trade, offers the worst trade ever made. He wants a stud. like mooky bets he offers up three hurt mets look out here comes the azor trade all right vic is in another guy named scott gave us a major league uh the movie major league comic book strip which was great and then i don't know uh if we have this genita one of our producers we have a bracket from ed newell there it is can you see that scott out of laser madness his worst fantasy takes

we have four regions there's a movies bracket a miscellaneous bracket a food bracket a food and a sports bracket. I have to tweet this. This is incredible. Some of the greatest hits. Die Hard is not a Christmas movie. Jason Witten is a good commentator. This is great, Scott.

I love this. Does it cause you to look within and maybe reconsider some of these takes, seeing them on display like this? The only one I don't remember actually saying is that Creed was a bad movie. He cites it. He has like a proof of it.

But I know I didn't really love Creed. It's overrated. But I don't remember saying Creed was a bad movie. But these are all great takes to be. Yeah, some of it, I mean, you can tell in the moment you were overstating your case. Yeah. And it wasn't meant to be taken literally. But, you know, whatever.

The thing, what's funny about this is I agree with like five or six of these takes myself. That's not a lot. There's 16 of them up there. I hope there's more. Frog and Dog rhyme is probably going to win. But thank you. I'm sorry we got to cut it. Cut it off here.

I wish we had gotten to more average draft position. I need to grab a sweater. I am, like, suffering from hypothermia in here. Scott, thank you so much. Everybody, enjoy your weekend. Hope you've enjoyed watching and listening to Fantasy Baseball today. Good luck on your drafts. We'll talk to you on Monday, everybody.