Fantasy Baseball Today - 03/29 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Opening Day! Let's Go!

Episode Date: March 29, 2018

Forgive the enthusiasm but we are PUMPED UP for Opening Day! We're even debuting our personalized walk up music (1:40)! Then we'll discuss the Salvador Perez injury and how to replace him (4:30) and more bullpen news (7:05) for NYM, TEX and SF ... Recapping Wednesday's Podcast For the People League draft (11:15) with a commissioner controversy. Then we'll tell you players we are keeping an eye on (17:31) early in the season. Who are we going to pick up if we see good production? ... Batting order news (31:00), bold predictions (37:40), MLB picks (43:43) and Jonah Keri joins the show (52:00)! ... Your emails at [e-mail] Today's episode is brought to you by www.ziprecruiter.com 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

Bell Eve. It is opening day. We can't wait. The games are about the start. Cubs Marlins, the marquee game to start things off. Chris is wearing his Marlins shirt. Chris, are you the new Marlins man? I am wearing the orange Marlins jersey. I have millions of dollars to spend going to sporting events.

So yes, I guess I am the new Marlins man. Congratulations. Marlins man. Disappointed in Heath and Adam today. Oh, yeah, I didn't wear any. Baseball attire. Come on, fellas. I literally came from the set to the podcast. I'm wearing the shirt that I was wearing on the set.

I can't wear. If they let me wear a Royals jersey on set, I would have worn it. Maybe you should have. Here's what we have today on the show. At the end of the show, you'll hear my interview with Jonah Carey. It's about 13 minutes or so. You will hear our bold predictions. You will get our MLB picks and predictions.

Salvador Perez is out four to six weeks, so we'll talk about some catcher replacement options. We've got more closer news as the Mets have discussed Eric Holland, news out of the Rangers bullpen and the Giants bullpen. We are going to talk about the for the people league, the 16 team categories league that we drafted last night. Most importantly, players, we are scouting. Who is available in leagues now that should be on your radar if you see a good start or a

good game or two from them? You might want to pick them up. We will talk about that. And probably just get into how aggressive we are in free agency. Of course, team scam and team Kreeh are probably going to differ on that. But I do have something special for you today. It is opening day, and I've got for you your very own walk-up music. Oh!

Yes. Wow. All right, so I've written out. You picked it for us, though, because normally we'd pick our own. I think that's how it works. I picked it for you. I don't know. Maybe some players are just like, I don't care.

I picked it for you. You could tell me what you would pick. Heath, I had the toughest time picking for you. Yeah. Why is that? I don't know. See, I had one come to mine immediately for Heath. I have no question what mine would be.

All right, well, here's what we got. Here's what we got. So I made out the lineup card leading off the chief of chest hair, the king of Kansas City, the OG of DFS. This is the one. It's the key. Keith Cummings. You like it? Oh, that's outstanding.

It's one of my favorite songs. It was baseball-oriented. Great choice. It would not be my personal choice, but I love it. All right. What would you have gone with? I would have gone with Buster Rhymes, Wu-ha. Okay.

I don't know that song, but I'm sure that's good. Batting second, we have the Prince of Points League's, the Sultan of Syllables, Scott White Jr. That is wonderful. There you go. All right, all right. Now we are two hitters. I'd be singing it on the way up to the batters box.

Everybody would. Actually, that's a great walk-up song. Everybody loves that. All right, batting third, the boss man, the man who makes it hit. To like whip and FIPP. Chris Towers. I like the song. It's Eve.

I'm glad you figured out who it was. Yeah. No, you know what? When you said, blow your mind, I was like, oh, I know that song. It's a good song. It's not a bad song, actually. It's pretty good. And then I couldn't really think of a good one for me,

so I just went with the song that I would make my walk-up song. And it's this. You got the Yeah Is it Huey Lewis? No, I don't know who this is. I don't know that song. The original Transformers

cartoon movie from the 80s Orson Wells as the voice of the bad guy. Yes. And it's also apparently from Boogie Nights. I think Mark Wahlberg sings it. But now we have walk-up music.

I love it. Great. Thank you. Yeah, that was fun. Okay. Big news. Salvador Perez out for. to six weeks with a torn MCL, partially torn MCL.

Who are some catchers? I'm going to get the most owned list here. By the way, that's a cool tool that we have in our leagues. You go to the players and then roster trends. You can go to most added. You can go to most viewed, most owned. If you go to most owned and you sort by free agents, you can kind of get a look of who's out there

that you probably should own, that you don't. So, all right, let's go with guys who are less than 80%. sent on. Wellington Castillo, probably the runaway winner. Travis Darnow, Chris Ioneta, Chorinos, Alfaro, Hedges, Vasquez, Russell Martin, Matt Wheaters. What do you guys, James McCann, Alex Avillo? Who do you like? Alfaro is my favorite choice there.

There are concerns about the plate discipline, but this is a top prospect. He didn't really hit in the high minors, but you know what? Neither did Gary Sanchez. All right? He broke out. He hit the ball really well in September. There's a lot of power there. I think he can be the kind of like 260 hitting catcher with plus power who ends up being a stalwart in your lineup. I went with more of an approach of it's week one.

I have to start a catcher this week. Who do I want? And I think my choice would be Manny Pina. And he gets to start the year with the Padres pitchers, which is going to be a boon for anyone's value. And then he gets to go home and play a pair of series at. Miller Park with Stephen Boat also on the DL. I expect him

to play a lot early in the year and hopefully he plays a lot until Salvador Perez comes back. I agree with Chris Alfaro has a lot more upside. I agree with you Adam that Wellington Castillo is by far the best choice for like the rest of the year. Yeah. But you really just need somebody for four to six weeks.

Castillo barely makes that 80% cut too. So a lot of people aren't going to have him as an option. Robinson Chorinos is only 41% owned and is the Rangers primary catcher this year, 17 homers and 263 at bats last year with a high OBP. He's always been kind of interesting, and I don't really think he can sustain that pace over a full season, but I think he could be a solid fantasy option now that he's going

to have the abats. I also think James McCann and Mani Pena, well, you just mentioned Pani Pena. They're both like 20% owned and under, and I think they're both pretty interesting. Okay. So there are some names for you. you want to replace Salvador Perez. Tough break. It's a shallow position.

Sucks when your catcher gets hurt if you invested somewhat already in the position. Hasn't he ever seen Bull Durham? Isn't that a thing? The veterans don't carry their own luggage. You get a rookie to do it. Scott, how many syllables is Manny Pena? Wait, you know, I came up with a word today. Poor total.

That was tough. It's the same sound as junior. It's not about sound. It's a single letter can't make two syllables. That's ridiculous. Yeah, exactly. Okay, so the Sultan was illibles. Quick closer news.

The Mets have discussed Greg Holland, according to the Bergen record. Yeah. They've discussed him internally. They've never actually made an offer to him, so. Everybody's discussed Greg Holland. Let's be honest. That's the way I read it. Should we sign Greg Holland?

Oh, that's kind of interesting. Should we talk to his agent? I don't have a signal right now. Or maybe they called him and found out he wanted Wade Davis's deal. and we're like, oh, never mind, you're not desperate enough yet. If I, I know this is a little bit too video gamey or simi, but if I was a manager of a team like the Royals or another bad team that had a closer that was at least a closer, I would like immediately shop him to try to get any type of decent prospect, sign Greg Hall into whatever deal he wants, pay him for half the season and trade him for prospects. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News thinks Keone Keller will become the Texas closer. I think that we were, you know, more or less saying that.

Yeah, hopefully. And then in San Francisco, Sam Dyson, Tony Watson, Hunter Strickland, all being mentioned as possibilities for saves if Mark Malanson has to start the year on the DL. I think that you look at what's going on with Melanson, and he struggled last year. He was hurt. He's still hurt. I mean, I can't just think, oh, if he goes on the DL, he'll be back in 10 days. There's an opportunity here for someone to have the role.

It could be 10 days. It's not a guarantee. But it's a scary situation. if you were a Melanson owner. So what do you do with the scout? We were talking earlier. Hunter Strickland or Watson was the one who's developed a new pitch? Hunter Strickland.

And I think I have this right, going off memory of something I caught a glimpse of. But I'm pretty sure I read he worked with John Smoltz on a slider this offseason that has drawn rave reviews in camp. Smoltz, of course, when he was pitching, he was regarded as having one of the best sliders in the game so that's a good guy to work with on that and hunter strickland was already a pretty good reliever could use a little more bat missing ability and if this grants him that then maybe he does profile as a closer caliber reliever so who would you guys pick up if you were going to pick up one of dyson watson and strickland i mean i think it had to be dyson right now i don't have a lot

of faith in him pitching well so um you know it wouldn't be a heavy investment for me, but I would guess just because he was the guy at the end of last year, he's probably going to get the first chance. All right. Well, who's ready to challenge me in a draft? We're getting it started. Follow me on the draft app. My username is Big Cane 2.

And let's do a draft on the draft app today. So if you follow me, Big Cane 2, I will create a draft and you will see it in your lobby, and then you can join it. I'm going to start it at 2 p.m. Eastern. We'll do a $2 entry, and we'll start small. We'll do a five-person draft. See if it fills. I'm sure it will.

We'll just, we'll go on from there. You can do it up to 10 people on draft. You don't know what I'm talking about. You're missing out. This is Daily Fantasy Baseball. Play every single day. Download the draft app or go to draft.com and use our promo code when you sign up. First of all, you're going to be telling the good people at draft.

Hey, I listen to the Fantasy Baseball today podcast. And also, you're going to get entry into a free, a pay contest for free. The promo code is FB today. I love Draft. I'm going to be playing all the time during the season. You get to do snake drafts every day. The contest started just one. $1. I know you're really going to enjoy it.

So search draft in your app store or play from your computer on draft.com. Get a free entry into a real money baseball draft when you make your first deposit and use the code FB Today. Again, that is FB Today, a real money game for free with the promo code FB Today. Search draft in your app store or go to draft.com and enter that promo code FB Today. Speaking of drafts, last night was interesting. It was the best draft I've ever had. What did you say? Well, yeah, I mean, Scott and I...

He's a confident guy. Scott and I agreed. I like Team Scam more than Scott does, but we agreed that we like Team Kreeh more than we like Team Scam. You guys did a great job. You have an excellent team. Thank you, and I want to be clear.

I wasn't saying that it was the best draft I've ever had in terms of I drafted the best team I've ever drafted. I'm saying I've never enjoyed a fantasy baseball draft more than that one last night. Well, I was pretty pissed at you last night. I think you made a big... I think you made a commissioner blunder. I think you did the wrong thing.

Well, I'm sure you do. It did not work out in your favor, but I just followed the precedent set by Mr. Fantasy Baseball, Scott White. Here's what happened. Scott and I were on the clock. We had 70 seconds to pick. Which is sort of brief, but totally fair. Plenty of time for a pair of experts, I would think.

We are... Now it's tough when you're trying to get on the same page as someone. you know, so we used a lot of the clock. We were going to take Zach Godley. And I had Zach Godley and Miguel Sinou in the queue. It was like 75th overall or something. And then we saw Ozzy Albies, probably with like 20 seconds left on our clock. And we agreed, let's take Ozzy Albies.

So I put Albies in the queue. Now, when I put, we're obviously on different computers. When I put Albies in the queue, it also shows up in Scott's queue. And then I moved, at the time, Sunno was not. number one in the queue. I moved Albies up to number one in the queue. Just in case we ran out of time we had an auto pick, it would default to Albies. But as I was moving Albies up to number one, Scott clicked on Albies, who was number three in his queue. Quickly, that changed to Miguel Sineau. So he accidentally clicked Miguel Sinell. So we immediately said, whoa, whoa, whoa, we clicked the

wrong guy. We meant to take someone else. We didn't say who it was. We clicked the wrong guy. We did not wants to know. As we were saying that, the next freaking guy took Ozzy Albies. So, he let us back up the pick and take someone else, but he wouldn't let us take Ozzy Albies, who was picked after our pick. And that bothered me. We should have had Albies. I'm sure it bothered you. I thought the best comment, oh, that was the best comment right there. I thought the best comment in the draft room was it's kind of like the NFL draft where if you your clock runs out on you the next team gets to pick and then

you still get to pick but you can't take the guy they took and like that's kind of what happened but that's not what happens. Fitting move for team scam how does the pick get delivered to the commissioner in the NFL draft because that was that was

what went wrong. The delivery the delivery system went awry we made a rule after that only Adam would click draft. The Charlotte Hornets. The Charlotte Hornets in like 2012 drafted

a guy who turned out to be like 37 years old. They didn't get takesies backseys on the pick. You mess up. I mean, you got to live with the guy you took. You're lucky that we gave you Zach Godley

instead of Miguel Sonno. I was going to be fine. I mean, I thought we were going to be like once I saw, obviously we were like no no we need to back this out and and then once i saw ozhi albies go i thought oh they're probably not going to let us take albies even if they do back it out because that you know more because you fairness that's when you don't you don't know if once that happens you don't know if the person's just like oh well if i'm not going to have a chance at ozie albies with my next pick

i better take them now you don't know if that's legitimately who they wanted to take so that's why it's It's tough to allow that. But as a commissioner, my general policy on this is, like, I want to compete against people who actually took the players they meant to take. I want to compete against them at their best. Like, it doesn't seem, like, I don't want to get away with something. Oh, you had a technological failure. Oh, you. But this was not that.

Well, yeah, I was that. Kind of was. I hate, I don't, like. Wrap it up, Scott. I'm sorry. Just, look, I'm obviously on your side. But that's okay. That's okay.

We're still, we're going to do fine. And Heath and Chris threw us a curveball, and they went zero RP. So last year, Team Creeth was all about RPs and not a lot of SPs, and this year was different. Well, we had a, and I had a feeling this would happen. RPs went pretty quickly in this draft. We were very much planning on going zero RP, but Heath Snips. Exactly.

That's exactly what happened. We had pretty much decided we were. going to take hitters with our first six picks because at like 2.30 yesterday afternoon, we decided to take Joey Gallo in the fifth round in the in half in the sixth. And the plan worked out perfectly. It worked out perfectly. And then we got to round seven and it just Lance McCullors was there. And we thought, you know, McCullors could fit with either strategy. Let's take McCullors and see what relief pitchers may get back. And none of them did. Okay. So, you know, different ways to skin a cat. I hate that. You shouldn't skin any cat. Right. I know. Yeah.

Some guts need be scant Scott and I went kind of starting picture heavy We had no they don't We had a cluber, Kichel and Godley In like our first five picks Or four or five, I think five picks No I think four picks So you didn't get any aces

No no that's not true Wait We got Klover Six picks Yeah we got Klober's on ace All right Klobber Kikel and You're using Adam's old Outdated words against him

I see Yeah and Alex Wood And we went starting Pitcher Heavy and we only have one closer So I think you can punt a category in a five-by-five categories so you can still be okay. It's different in Roto, but a head-to-head categories, you can punt categories, and we are planning to do that.

Players, we are scouting. All right, so who are you going to be looking at early in the season? If they do well, I'm picking them up. It's going to be very similar to any sleeper's list, but I'll put Brandon McCarthy out there. Jake June is for me is a big one. If he continues the uptick and strikeouts, he showed this spring training, having added a pitch this offseason, then he's up there for me.

I think the two younger guys and the Brave Stath, who both had great spring, Sean Newcomb and Mike Fultenevich, the former did show good strikeout potential this spring. The latter has always had kind of issues with that, even though he throws hard. but they're both ones who if they have a good first start, then yeah, I'm rushing to add them in every league. Like, I don't know that I have specific guys that I'm watching. Like, it's kind of, I'm just going to kind of let the performance dictates who I'm interested in because that's, like, if somebody goes out, let's say it's Jake Junice or let's say it's

Brent Souter or whoever, if they go out and have a stinker their first time out, obviously nobody's going to then pick them up. Like, it's, the guys I'm most interested in picking up this first time through the rotation or this first week of the season, if you're just talking about hitters, are the ones who, I feel like I'm at risk of losing to somebody else and offer some possibility of a breakout. So it's just going to be kind of a wait and see thing. Do you have any names? Because I have, I put a bunch of names in the notes.

So I can just read them, and that helps. I mean, two outfielders who were great last year before suffering oblique injuries that were not as good coming back. Aaron Hicks is 75% owned. He's batting fifth today for the Yankees. Mitch Hanager is 54% owned, and he had a 10-54 OPS before the oblique injury. So I'll be keeping an eye on them. Hanley Ramirez is 64% owned, especially in our points league where I have Justin Smoke is my first baseman. I'm keeping an eye on Hanley Ramirez, batting in the middle of the Red Sox order.

Matt Kemp, I think, is very interesting, a 56%-owned. I did put Jorge Alfaro on here. We already talked about him. He's 40%-owned. I think Delano to Shields is a must-own in any categories league, but even in a points league, if he leads off, gets on base and steals, he's 68%-owned. If he steals two bases opening day, like, even in a points league, you're like... Absolutely.

Maybe I need to pick this guy. I've got one we've talked about that I had not realized that he was going to be in the opening day lineup yet. Jose Martinez is hitting fifth and playing first for the car. Cardinals today. Awesome. Is Matt Carpenter not playing? Matt Carpenter's at third. Awesome.

Hey, hey, hey. That's very good to see. Hitting third. They're going, are they facing a, who are they facing? Thor. Okay. So, yeah, Tommy Fam hitting second ahead of Carpenter. I mean, there are so many pitchers that I'm going to, you know, be sort of scouting that are owned.

Like, I really am looking forward to watching Patrick Corbin tonight. And who's he facing? If it. John Gray, right? Yeah. John Gray, like Patrick Corbin. so that's one I'm circling. But let me read you a bunch of pitchers.

Well, how about that whole game? Yeah, right. We're going to be playing very close attention to Chase Field for the first couple of weeks. The Phillies, how much Scott Cungery plays in week one? He's 74% of them, but it's still, you know, less than 80. If Aaron Altair, and based on their springs, Aaron Altair should get all the playing time of right and Nick Williams none. But, you know, obviously there's some doubt how that's going to play out. Like, the list is honestly endless.

I could keep offering up names, but Mitch Hanigar's only like 50% owned, and you know Jorge Ziller. Michael Reiner. So then let me give you guys some names. I'll separate them into sort of ownership groups. Five guys who are between 70 and 79% owned. Shaw Mania, Michael Waka, Jake Faria, Stephen Matz, Felix Hernandez. Manaya Waka, Faria, Mattz, Hernandez. How many of them would you not be rushing to pick up?

they do something well. Well, first of all, I want to say, Faria is the one of these things. It's not like the others in there, and you should probably pick them up now. Yes, good point. Faria, 73% own. I think Manai is right there with him. They're both very talented young pitchers. Faria was better last year, but the peripherals don't quite back it up. I mean, my initial run of the rankings, I had Faria in my top 40 starting pitchers. Now, I kind of sobered up after that, but, like, he was really good when he pitched last year. Okay, so getting back to, what were the list of names again? Mania, Waka, I'll take Faria out.

Matt's and Felix Hernandez. I mean, Felix, I'm not that interested in watching him pitch, even though I do own him in probably 70% of my leagues. I'm not expecting Felix Hernandez to all of a sudden add three miles an hour to his fastball and turn into King Felix again. But even if he gets off to a somewhat rough start, I still think there's potential to. get back to a mid-3ZRA.

Yeah. I think the difference, Felix is probably the one I'd be least inclined to pick up if he had a good first start because I think, you know, obviously on the downside of his career, the upside for him is like

mid-range fantasy option. When those younger guys with more electric stuff, they, you know, they have breakout potential. They could potentially crack the top 20, 25. So I would be more interested

in them than him. All right. Heath, let's take a look at the next group here, about, you know, 50% owned or so. We've got Mike Fultenevich. I don't know that he deserves to be the most owned here. Fultenevich, Flaherty, Sean Nukum, Shahn Nukom, and Velasquez. I'll say him again. Fultenevich, Flaherty, Michaelis, Sean Nukum, Vince Velasquez.

Yeah, the two there that stand out to me are Nukum and Velasquez. And I really think Nukum could just be an absolute. loot stud this year. He's got to have a little better control than he did. He needs to have a lot better control than he did, but just a small improvement in walks could make a huge difference. And I still believe in Vince Velasquez. Yeah, Velasquez, the issue he didn't get to sort out last year was just like all of his pitches are pretty good. And he needs like one of them to step up and become like a real out pitch. And that's what he doesn't have yet. And last year was just a totally lost season. It was never really right.

But I'm very interested in watching him pitch. All right. Then in less than 30% of leagues, Junjin Ryu, this is not a complete list, by the way. Juno Rihu, Rinaldo Lopez, Jake Junis, Armaz. They're about 25% owned. Ryu, Lopez, Junis, Marquez.

We actually do get some questions about Marquez. Do you think he's got some really good stuff? Yeah. But he pitches for Colorado. Right. And he's not John Gray. Yeah, now if you're in a daily league, I mean, I guess you could just start him on the road maybe, but he's interesting. All these guys are interesting.

Ryu, Lopez, Junis, Marquez. Junis is your favorite, Scott? Junis is my favorite, yeah. But I feel like I am higher on Marquez than the consensus. Obviously, there's a lot of downside there. But I feel like he's the Rocky's second most talented pitcher. And there was Ryu and who else? Ronaldo Lopez.

Yeah, he didn't. didn't show a lot of strikeout potential in the majors, but there's still that potential in there. And if he goes and strikes out eight and six innings in his first start, suddenly he's going to be a popular pickup. Okay. And then finally, like deep leagues, Brent Souter, Amir Garrett. Now, Amir Garrett is looking like he's going to start because of the rainout. They already rained out today. And I guess I didn't realize that when they put him in the bullpen, that's only because they don't need a fifth starter.

Is Amir Garrett the fifth starter for the risk? That's what I'm interpreting from all I've seen. All I'm seeing. I think the brewer is doing the same thing with Woodruff, right? Like he's available out of the bullpen early in the year, but he's going to be the fifth starter? Probably. I mean, it's common practice when there's all these off days early in the year. Right.

All right. So you've got, where was I? Brent Souter, Amir Garrett, Matt. I don't know why. I just have this thing for Matt Boyd. I shouldn't. And Dylan Peters. Dylan Peters was on one of my lineup.

I went and I saw a league from last year. that I finished third, and I was using Peters in the playoffs. I'm certainly rooting for Dylan Peters. He's 5'9 and is trying to be a starting pitcher, and I'll always root for that guy. But he seems like the kind of guy who will not be able to keep doing what he did in the minors once he faces actual Major League hitting. Which is what happened last year.

But he did have amazing minor league. numbers Dylan Peters. But I guess Brent Suter or Amir Garrett are the ones to look at in those deep leagues. All right then. News and notes. Is Zach Godley going to make two starts if you play in an 11 game week? I don't know that he will. I've gotten that question multiple times. I looked at it once and I can't figure it out. I think he is starting on Tuesday. And if that's the case, he's not going to make two starts from what I can tell. Does he slot as their fifth starter? Presumably. Yeah. Well, Taiwan Walker. you think would be their fifth, right?

Well, I don't, I mean, I obviously don't think he's their fifth. Yeah, I think it's, I would imagine just because of service time and stuff like that. There's a hierarchy. All right, well, see, if you're in a league that's playing 11 games in week one, you know, I have Zach Godley, for example. I guess it's not a huge deal to just lose one start. Like, for me, it's between Zach Godley and a two-start Matt Harvey or a two-start, Junjun Riu, and I think I just got to go with Godlie for one. Yeah, certainly if it's Categories League.

I mean, Harvey could be a disaster. I obviously, he was on my sleepers list, and I see the upside in him, too, but I'm not starting him really anywhere this first week. He's not that widely available, but that's absolutely someone you want to watch pitch. I don't think the Diamondbacks have announced who's starting Monday and who's starting Tuesday. Okay. All right, it's possible he gets to. We'd like to see him start on Monday, but we'll see about Zach.

Natalie. Nate of all these out indefinitely after elbow surgery. And it's weird because they were trying to go for a four-man rotation in Tampa Bay. Everybody made the same joke yesterday. Three-man rotation. Well, what are they going to do? Well, they're going to lay down and die, Adam. I don't know what are you... Like Matt Andrews moved back into the rotation, maybe?

Yeah, there's also a young guy who's kind of like Jake Ferreia in that, he didn't have like this sparkling prospect pedigree, but he just put up good numbers in the miners. Yarborough, I'm trying to figure, I'm trying to find his first name. Like, Yanni? That's a different one. Okay. All right, let me just open up their roster so we can stop being, uh.

Okay. Yeah, we can stop just taking stabs in the darks at names we barely know. And some teams still, like, they've got 45 minutes left. Some teams still have not fully announced all of their 25. five-man roster. See, the thing about what the raise were going to do here is they were going to, five men, four guys would take a regular turn, right?

But they would still need to work in fifth guys occasionally because they wouldn't want them, they wouldn't want their pitchers pitching too often still. So they have a bullpen full of kind of swing man types, ones who could start if they needed to, ones who could go four innings of relief if they needed to. Ryan Yarbrough is one of them. Also, who Chris mentioned, Gianni Cherinos.

They're both candidates to start, and they're both kind of interesting. And, you know, I'm not rushing out to pick up any, especially when somebody like Amir Garrett is 10% owned. But Yarborough, just for an example, 343 ERA, 9.1 strikeouts for 9-116 whip at AAA Durham last year. Just judging from those numbers, it's somebody to watch. Okay, and Washington, Cincinnati, reigned out, postponed until Friday. Marlins man is leaving the Marlins. Oakland's center fielder Dustin Fowler to AAA. Boog Powell is Oakland's center fielder.

Any interest in Boog Powell? No. Good name. Good name. Great baseball name. I am counting down the days until Dustin Fowler gets back. And for those of you who love the Yankees, We await John Sterling's ridiculous home run call for John Carlos Stanton.

And if you want to guess what it will be, please go to CBSports.com slash MLB and read Pete Blackburn's very funny article about potential home run calls for John Carlos Stanton. As we look at batting orders, some of them are out now. Lewis Brinson is leading off. Cameron Maven is not in the lineup today. No. Oh, no. I would guess that.

Trying hard to look like Garrett Cooper. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Cooper's just going to face lefties, I guess? That's not good for Camberman. Is Cooper? Cooper's a right-handed? Yeah.

I probably shouldn't. I probably shouldn't be asking. Cooper's a righty, yeah. Interesting. No, I mean, Cooper's an interesting bat, who I wasn't sure they'd be willing to trust an outfield on an everyday basement a basis since he's a natural first baseman. Lewis, for instance, going to have to cover a lot of ground flanked by Derek Dietrich and, and Gary.

A couple infielder's. starting six infield. But Ian Hap is leading off for the Cubs. That is awesome. Wilson Contreras is cleaning up. Kyle Schwerber batting fifth. I'm not going to go through every lineup. Byron Buckson batting 8th is very interesting.

I wonder if that's just a safeguard against a potential another slow start. They do have actually a pretty good lineup. The one thing, that's kind of like, well, that's a bad sign for Byron Buckson. He's not going to get as many play appearances. On the other hand, he stole 29 bases in five. 11 played appearances last year. Yeah, I don't, you know, I don't get stuck on this lineup stuff. Lineup order.

Managers change that all the time. Like if Byron Bucksdon proves he's one of the twins' best hitters this year, he's not got a bad eight. And, okay, so this guy I got to talk about, I'm going to be giving him away to anybody who wants him in the For the People League. I think he's valuable in deep leagues. Scott has absolutely no interest in him. I tried very hard to get Scott to draft this guy, especially as in shortstop is our absolutely weakest position. is Drewa Cabrera is cleaning up for the Mets. He is second-based shortstop and third-base eligible.

In a deep league, he's useful, and he could certainly hit more than 20 home runs. He's pretty good. Yeah, Scott hates him, so. No, no. I didn't think he was... Like, I like him in a deeper league than the one we're in, the 16 team. He's kind of what we're hoping that Scott King will be, right?

He's not the new hotness, Scott Kingery or anything. You guys hate Scott King. This is a guy that over the last two seasons... has hit 280 each of the last two years. He hit 23 homers two years ago. Like, he's pretty good. He doesn't steal bases anymore, but like... He's fine.

He's pretty good. But the second base, third base, and short-stop eligibility is a big deal for his drool cabrera in deeper leagues. All right, I think, what else? Oh, Aaron Hicks batting fifth, mentioned that. And...

And he could be what we're hoping Domingo Santana would have been. Just there are playing time concerns about Aaron Hicks, but they actually seem less severe than the concerns for Domingo Santana, right? I think he's less severe than the concerns for Brett Gardner, in my opinion. I think Hicks is their center fielder. I don't buy the Aaron Hicks breakout from last year, because it was basically the first half of the season he looked like a new player,

and then he came back from the injury and he looked like Aaron Hicks again, and I know it was an oblique injury and maybe he just never got right. But given that we're like 2,000 plate appearances into Aaron Hicks, career it's not i'm not a hundred percent bought in i know the batted ball data is very good and he's a popular sleeper around the industry oh i don't know that the bottom ball batta ball data is good he had like his hard hit rate was really good his line drive rate was outrageously low yeah um well you know that stuff that stuff fluctuates a lot we're talking about less than a half season and we're really talking only about one half of one half of one season um but he's also free uh Ryan Healy was able to

to get into the opening day lineup for the Mariners, as is Ichiro. Is Cruz in? Yes. Okay. Because I wondered with his quad if that would get Vogelbach in at DH early. No, no Vogelbach. Stop trying to make Vogelbach happen.

Last thing here. Long season. Starling Marte, batting sixth. Adam Fraser's leading off. Starling Marte is batting sixth. That's so dumb. Don't add that. That's important.

No, I'm not adding. the news, I'm adding the Pirates. The Pittsburgh Pirates decision making. Oh, okay. All right. Low OBP guy. He has a lot of bases. Should batting a lower third of the order. You're a low OBP guy. Actually, if he hits 300, it's not going to be a low OPP. It's going to be kind of an average OPP.

Yeah, the problem is that you get into the eighth inning or ninth inning, and we're turning the lineup over one last time. We need one. Need to get a rally started. We got Jordy Mercer, Adam Frazier, Josh Harrison. Too bad. our best hitters aren't. I actually think Adam Fraser's kind of interesting. Well, look, they're facing a righty, whatever.

Who cares? They're facing Jordan Zimmerman. They are facing... They're not moving Sterling Margey down the lineup because of Jordan Zimmerman. That's true. Okay, so I got a question for our listeners. Are you hiring? Every business needs great people and a better way to find them.

You need something better than just posting your job online and sitting there and hoping for the right people to see it. And that's why they're ZipRecruiter. This is the smartest way to hire, the best way to find quality. qualified people for your job openings, and you can try it for free at ziprecruiter.com slash strike. Ziprecruiter.com slash strike. Big business, small business, somewhere in the middle. It does not matter.

Businesses of all sizes use ZipRecruiter because ZipRecruiter finds qualified candidates for you. ZipRecruiter learns what you're looking for, identifies people with the right experience, and invites them to apply for your job. In fact, 80% of employers who post a job on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate through the site in just one. Day. The right candidates are out there, people. ZipRecruiter's how you find them. So try it for free. Go to ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. That is ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. One more time, everybody, say it out loud in your car wherever you are. ZipRecruiter.com slash strike.

ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Important news. Okay. The untimed draft that we've referenced 432 times over the last week on this podcast. Oh boy, yeah. We just received the projections for fantasy points per week. I never do well in these projections. Never.

You are next to last. Yeah, I'm going to win this league. Chris is third from last. And you're third. I am third. Yeah, I'm going to win this league. A plus I was given for my first. I dominate this league.

I am the editorial king. If those projections were the other way around, do you think Keith would have stopped the podcast to mention that? It would not have been breaking news. All right, hey guys, let's get bold. Let's get bold. Give some predictions here. The story is up on the website. I'm always very flattered that Chris allows me to be part of this.

Heath, why don't you start? Give me your three bold predictions. When we get to Adams, I just want to point out, he did not take the bold part of this game seriously enough. It's kind of true. I will tell you this. You sent the email. I need your bold predictions and your picks.

I had to leave in like an hour, and I just didn't have time to really get bold. I'm so sorry. You're right, though. They're not that bold. All right. Heath, you can start. Do you want me to just give my bold predictions from the article,

or you want different bold predictions? What are you wanting here? Whatever you want. Okay, I'll just run through real quick the three from the article and give you one more that I wanted to give, but Chris ruined. So, Jose Cantana is going to win 20 games this year. There may be no unluckier pitcher in terms of, of wins than Jose Cantana.

For his career, he's got an ERA of like 3.5, and he's a 500 pitcher. Last year, he finally goes to a good team, and he has terrible batted ball look. Everything is going to turn up roses for Jose Cantana this year. I apologize, Heath, and everybody, but we have to be quicker with these, so I can get the Jonah Carey. Okay. Nobody on the Diamondbacks hits more than 25 home runs because Humidor. Gens. Ian Hap finishes as a top three-second baseman in fantasy.

Ooh, all right. No one on the dinbacks hits more than 25 homers. That's the boldest one in my opinion. No, Ian Hap is. They're all pretty damn bold. Good for you. The one that I wanted to give that Chris ruined was that Garrett Cole will be the best pitcher on the Astros and top three in Sai Young. But then Chris picked him to win the Cy Young in this same article, so I couldn't do that.

Scott, and I picked Dallas Kiko to win the Sai Young. So it looks like we like the Astros. Scott, bold predictions. Yeah, I had a bonus one, too. My first is from the humidor angle. The Diamondbacks have three of the top five Si-Young finishers. So I still have room there for Kirshan Scherzer, but also Granky Godlane Ray. David Dahl is a 2020 player.

And at Cor's Field, I honestly think he would have 30-30 potential if he was beginning the season there. But obviously he's beginning in the minors. Just probably my favorite stash, especially in a Roto League. Domingo Santana doesn't get even 400 abats, obviously a playing time crunch there. And I noticed he struck out in half of his abats this spring. That's obviously a big concern for him, how much he strikes out. My bonus one, and this is getting really bold, Mac Williamson, who isn't even presently on the roster, Mac Williamson lead the Giants and home runs this year.

Okay, that's fun. I've really embarrassed by how non-bold my picks are. But Chris, what are your bold predictions? Yours will probably be writer. Man, I hate Scott's bold predictions. Like, they're not, they're very bold, they're good. I'm not, I just, they really make me angry. Why?

Why? Mostly it's the Domingo Santana. Oh, okay. And then the Robbie Ray factor of the Cy Young thing, and then the David Dahl thing, because that hurt Ryan McMan. Like, I just hate it. You don't want those, you don't want those to happen. No, I hope they're, I hope those predictions go up in flames. Okay.

Chris Hours. All right, Tyler Glassnow is a top 20 starting pitcher from the moment he joins the rotation for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Joey Gallo hits more homers than Aaron Judge. I've actually considered putting a little prop bet on Joey Gallo leading the majors and home runs. He's plus 2,500. And the Marlins won't have a single pitcher with 100 plus strikeouts. That is funny. That has happened twice in the last decade.

So you're talking about, what, 0.7% of major league teams over the last 10 years? Yeah. All right, the Tyler Glass now top 20 from the moment he joins the rotation and the Marlins not having a single pitcher with 100Ks. Those are bold. Joey Gallo hits more than more homers than Aaron Judge is an Azer bold prediction. It is not all that bold. Okay.

Okay, Adam. He just wanted another excuse to praise Joey Gallo. In that case, I'm glad we got him in the fifth round. last night. What? He hit over 40 home runs last year, right? Yeah. Yeah, no, Adam.

He had 11 fewer than Aaron Judge last year. I don't know if you know. It's a bold prediction, but it's an Azer bold prediction. We were prepared to draft Joey Gallo ourselves last night. We were. And I haven't drafted him yet all draft season. Same Zies. All right, Azer's bold predictions.

Adam Eaton is a top 15 outfielder in points league's top 20 in Roto. So he's going to do that thing that he did before when he was healthy. Can you go back and make a top 10 in points? Can you edit this? You already said it on the podcast. Cody Allen. Cody Allen saves 40 games. That's a lot of saves.

40 games would be among the lead leaders. I don't think he's ever had more than 34. This is your boldest. One of the best relievers in baseball is going to be amongst the saves leaders in baseball. Never happen. Masahiro Tanaka is the best Yankees pitcher, starting pitcher. Again. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of a little bold, but like.

They're so lame. I'm sorry. Try a bold one right now. Just get bold. Like, I only think Severino's, like, in terms of talent level, slightly better than Masahira Tanaka. Say something bold, I disagree with that. Say something bold. Okay.

How about a... How about a bust? Joey Gallo. Joey Gallo is owned in less than 50% of leagues by the All-Star Break. Oh! That's bold. That's bold. All right.

like that for us going against team creth too i'd like that for me because i have zero joey gallo yeah zero shares shares let's go why you're cheering for an injury because that's the only way that happened let's go through the uh let's go through the division winners just say who you got a l east we'll go scott chris heath yanks yankees not the yankees red soxer heath i went back and forth i went with the yankees sure you're shocked a l central scott criss heath i'm Indians for everyone. Indians for everyone. Although Scott Heath and I have the Royals finishing third.

Most of our MLB experts on the media site, just the MLB writers, have the White Sox finishing third. I think the Royals are going to be underrated. You know, it's weird with these predictions. Like, it's very obvious who the good teams are in baseball, and it's not so obvious who the okay teams are in baseball. Because there are none? Maybe.

Yeah. Like, first and second for every division was very easy. for me, but three, four, or five. I wouldn't be surprised if the team that wins the American League divisions across the board wins by eight plus games. And that's including the Yankees. Yes. That would be surprising.

The Yankees had like an almost 100 win run differential last season. They were incredible. I'm a little, I'm not quite as high. I think they had a best case scenario season last year. Right, and then they added John Carlos Stam. Yeah, which helps. But I mean, it's like, they're like. Yeah.

Oh, it helped. I like them. But I don't think they're a hundred. And then they're winning 95 games. And the Red Sox have won 93. I think they might go in like 100. The Red Sox had won 93. They're my World Series champion.

It might win the World Series. But the Red Sox won 93 games two straight years. And they added J.D. Martinez. So like. They're very good, too. They're awesome. We all like the Astros. We all like the Nationals.

Yeah. We all like the Cubs, which is interesting. Scott has the Brewers finishing third behind the Cardinals. All right, here's a bold prediction. I think the Cardinals could be awful this year. I mean, if you don't, like, the thing is, like, even if fam busts, they got Ozuna, you know. And I just think, like, I have so much confidence in Weaver and Flaherty. And then eventually they're getting Alex Reyes, who is thought to be the best prospect of all three.

Nothing bad ever happens when you're relying on young pitchers. No, but the thing is, they don't need, like, they're just kind of excess. They're trying to find space for those guys in their rotation. And they don't need them, Chris, because they have Michael Walker. Well, Michael Walker is one of the worst-fishing. Baseball guys. They're good. They're good.

Tempt and tons of rotation upside. They just feel like the Seahawks to me. They're getting a little bit worse every year. And I, look, I pick them third. I don't think they're bad. I just think they seem like a team that could be a bus. I could see every division winner winning by like nine games this year. You just said that, but you upped it to nine instead of eight.

Well, it was eight just a minute ago. Well, I said that about the A-L. And then I'm looking at the N-L. They didn't react to that enough. I'm going to add another game. The Cubs might be nine or ten games better than either the second place teams in the NL. Do you know what? I think every team might win a division by ten games.

Nine and a half. We all have the Dodgers. I said the AL only first, guys. All right, who wants to give their World Series picks? Scott, you have the Yankees over. Well, we pick the Dodgers to win the NL East, right? In L. West. I have the Yankees over the Cubs.

Yankees over the Cubs. Heath? I have the Cubs over the Astros. Chris. Nationals over Yankees in a crushing blow to Adam Azer. Will the Nationals win the World Series? Because you're not getting Bryce Harper either. What?

No, they're going to lose to Harper, and they're going to be like, we need to back the truck up. Bryce Harper's not Kevin Durant. All right. Come on. I got the Indians over the Cubs, and I don't know why I picked that. Probably to be different. But, okay. Thank you all.

listening. Yeah, you know what? Let's go a little long today and just read some emails and then we'll play the interview. Yeah. Yeah. This is from Kid. Do you want to do award winners or anything? No, just email? Not really. You read it on the website. All right, fine. Everybody pick one award winner that you want to talk about. I will say, that was Kaiko Say Young. I will say Justin Verlander's Say Young. Oh my gosh. We have three Say Young picks from the Astros. That's very important. Eric Colesaw Young. Whoa. I will say Willie Calhoun, A.L. Rookie of the Year, only to highlight that if you go look for rookie of the year candidates, there might be nine rookies in the National League that are better than any rookies in the American League.

I pick. I pick LeBritory Torres. Bonus. Bonus pick. Show him, Tony. Yeah, sure. Oh, extra bonus pick. We're given two, Adam. You've lost control of the podcast.

I'm not scared of spring. Here's an email from Kid. Dear Clarence, Max, and Patty. Members of the East Street Band. Oh, okay. De Nelson Lemette, should he be stashed or dropped? Yeah, stash him. You got a GEL spot.

He's talking about being back in April, so, yeah, got a deal spot, stashing. Okay. Wyatt, dear, Minter, Hinch, Piersinski, and Reed. AJs? Yeah. Oh. How many leagues do you play in? How do you designate time, energy, and enthusiasm for each of your teams?

Nine, and I don't. It's really hard. It's true. Like, people get on to me for quitting. Chris doesn't try very hard. Right. People get on to me for quitting playing fantasy baseball in July, and Chris quits, like, as soon as he stops drafting.

I'm in 12 to 15 leagues, I think, and, like, just to make it manageable, I condense my ad drops to, like, a three-hour period on Sunday afternoon so that I'm not... And you set a hierarchy. So that I'm focused and not just forgetting about one league. You know, if something crazy happens,

like a big prospect it's called up. Obviously, I'll go through each of my leagues and try to pick them up then. But for the most part, just weekly, week to week maintenance. I'm reserving it for one day and doing it all at once. I literally don't have any idea how many teams leagues I'm in this year. I have none. So I try to go do waiver pickups on Saturday afternoon just because I know that Scott's going to do it on Sunday. And I want to get it crack at the players. I may do it in Saturday this year. I'm going to do it. If I start seeing that, I'll do it on Fridays. And get some work done. Yes. And, like, honestly, I'll admit it. If we get to June, I've got too many teams, and three of them suck, I'm not going to put as much energy under those three teams. I'm only in six leagues, so I can dedicate myself to each league. And I am one to watch a lot of baseball at night and see someone I like and pick him up,

because that is just how I play. And I am wrong a lot. But you know what? Like, a couple years ago, Aaron Sanchez, I saw him pitch his first game. And I was like, damn, this guy is good. He had a great year. So I actually buy into it. I'm very active on the waiver wire.

I have plenty of enthusiasm. I love it. This is from Adam. Grade the trade. Judge Godley, Elvis Andrews. Giving up. Judge Godley and Andrews. Getting J.D. Martinez, Kintana, and Story.

Ooh, no. No. It's not that far off. Yeah, it's a C-minus. It's probably the Andrus story. Yeah, it's a 10. C plus because of that, yeah. Yeah.

You would rather have Martinez than Judge, right? I would rather have Martinez than Judge, and I would rather have Kintana than Godly, believe it or not. I would much rather have Kintana than God. But those are slight improvements, and I feel like Andrews to Story is a big downgrade. Seven by six league with OPS, if one of those seven is OBP, I would rather have Judge than J.D. Martinez. True. Fair. David S. Kyle Schwarber or Domingo Santana for week one, 11-day scoring period.

Schwarbs. Domingo Santana is not in the best shape of his life. Start Kyle Schwerber. I mean, the biggest question about Schwerber is will he play against lefties? And I know the first four days, they're facing three righties. And obviously, Santana has plenty of time questions, too. So I think I'd go Schwerber. Thank you guys.

I think I'd go Santana. Let's get ready for opening day. That was very helpful at the last moment there. Let's get ready for opening day. Let's get Jonah Kerry on the line. Jonah Carey is on the phone Jonah Jonah

I had to go false set of falsetto there All right that's enough singing Everybody will talk to you Friday with reactions from opening day All right here's our CBS Sports senior writer Jonah Carey You can definitely listen to the Jonah Carey podcast

You will love it baseball fans David Ortiz last week Pretty awesome Jonah how was that I actually listened to it was outstanding but it must have been fun for you. Yeah, it was a good one. It was a limited amount of time. I had obviously one of those cattle calls,

but it was interesting. He's an interesting guy. He talked about very candid. You know, I asked him about 2004, and he said, what was it like going down 3? How did you keep the faith? He's like, no, I thought we were finished, which is not something you typically hear from an athlete.

I asked him about, wow, the rich history of baseball in Dominican. He said, nah, I kind of wanted to be a basketball player more. So I appreciated that about Ortiz. You know, he didn't give the same Pat, answers that you could fall back on. Well, let's talk fantasy. How many leagues you got this year? I'm only in one league.

I don't do, not only one league. I only do one league in any sport, which is the league of leagues, which is baseball, basketball, and football all in one. So, like, Anthony Davis gets drafted, and the next pick is like Mike Trout, and the next pick is, like, Levion Bell, and you could trade Bryce Harper for Tom Brady, and every other league just starts to look, yeah, kind of whatever after that. When you could trade between leagues, when you could trade Fab, my team. between leagues when you could trade, I don't know, Alex Reyes as a baseball keeper in exchange

for picking up Jordan Howard late in the league to make a late in the year to make a football push. You know, your 12 team mixed baseball starts to look a little, not as insane. So when is the, like what's the calendar? What does it start with the season, the year? So we just, we drafted a week and a half ago and right before baseball. So we do baseball, it's always one one calendar year. Baseball basketball, baseball, and then we get to basketball, and we can't award the ultimate winner because basketball ends April 11th, but we have a pretty good idea.

So I'll end up handing out the winning slightly after we actually draft for the following season, but that's roughly it. It's essentially March to April of every year. That's very cool. And, you know, in fantasy baseball, you play roto or points? Yeah, no, it's roto. The only difference is in a 5-5, it's OBP instead of average. So what is your pitching strategy in these roto leagues?

As I recall, I feel like we did a mock with you last year and you went kind of RP heavy. Is that what you do? It varies. I mean, you're seeing it more and more where you can draft chat green types and they can really help your ratios. I used to chase two-star weeks and all that stuff. And I just got sick of being torched. I got sick of guys with 475 ERAs and all that. So, yeah, I think there's something to RPs.

It's getting to the point now where wins can be redistributed because starters are getting pulled early. So I think there's something there. And, of course, you know, when you get an RP with skills, there's always a potential for, you know, job inheritance. You know, now we're looking at an Archie Bradley type and say, well, maybe he might close. But a year ago, you would have said, well, he's just good. I'm just going to draft him, and maybe he'll pick up a few saves. And look at a Drew Steckin Rider or a Michael Givens or I rostered Keone and Kila.

These are guys that it's not clear what the role is going to be, but they might strike out close to 100 guys with low ratios. And if they happen to get some wins and saves, then that's great. Yeah, what do you think about this baseball trend? of, I don't know, six-man rotation, four-man rotation, but whatever it is, it seems like an increased onus on the bullpens. Is that here to stay or is just our next little fad? No, it makes a lot of sense because managers are recognizing the third time through the order penalty that, you know, unless you're Scherzer and you're pitching a no-hitter or whatever,

you're going to get to, roughly coincides to about the sixth inning. You're going to get through the third time through the order. And even if you're pitching well, it's just not going to go as well, because hitters will time you up a little better, maybe you're tired, whatever it is, it's just going to change. And so from that standpoint, you don't necessarily mess with your starter that way. You live to fight another day. So the move is to Super Bowlpins, and the good news about that is that it's much easier to find a guy who can be effective for 15 or 20 pitches than it is for 100 anyway. So it's going to lead to more efficient roster building.

You know, you can go find arms in the miners who can throw hard and maybe have one secondary pitch. much easier than you can finding effective starting pitcher. So the net result here is get the best starters that you can and then just use the guy, throw some spaghetti against the wall when it comes to your other guys, and they'll end up being the core of your bullpen. What do you think about the home runs this year? More or less the same?

Well, a humid or in Arizona could affect things to some extent. I guess that could be a small drop. I mean, that's one at 30 home parks, but there's an expectation that that's going to go down a little bit. it's also game baseball is a game of adjustments right so even if the balls are juiced which unless something has changed they are because they were last year pitchers might pitch differently you know maybe they realize that there's that uppercut swing and so they pitch high in the zone and in fact you see that right guys like marco estrata they'll throw you know high changeups and try to do things like that and try to figure out a way to mess up your timing you know so that you can't necessarily lift the ball in that way so i don't feel like pitchers could get really smarter so yeah i got to my head i could see it going down a percentage point or two something like that. I'm surprised that they didn't, I guess we don't know for sure, but I thought they'd change the ball without coming out and saying it. And I, for all the listeners of this podcast, as I just had this discussion with Chris a few days ago, I thought that by at this point in spring training,

the players would be talking about it and that we just kind of know anecdotally that the ball is different because I thought that Rob Manfred and the league would want more balls in play, more action, fewer walks, strikeouts, and homers. And I don't think that that has happened. So, well, at least changing the ball. We haven't seen any evidence of it. of it. You know, what do you think about what baseball is becoming and what the commissioner's office would want it to be? Well, you know, I think the commissioner's office was looking at 2014, for instance, as a year where there were a lot of strikeouts and no home runs. It's not like it's one or the other business. They thought that, well, there was nothing good offensively

happening. And sure, doubles and triples and stolen bases and home runs at a balanced game would make a lot of sense. But I think they're taking it by baby steps. And they're saying, okay, well, at least if there's going to be high strikeouts, then we can get the power hitting, people do seem to enjoy. Now, it could be that you see them ease off on the ball. I mean, Ben Lindberg and Rob Arthur and other people have studied this. It's clear, Alan Nathan, it's clear that the ball is due. So, yeah, we can see that regulate a little bit. But I think a lot of that is going to come from strategies and from team building and from figuring that all out on the organizational level, that more than messing with the ball

might be what plays where you're going to see maybe more athletes come up as opposed to just kind of big dudes who hit home runs. It might just be a matter of changing the way you develop talent changing the kind of talent you look for. Jonah, who are some guys that you're looking for for breakout years from? Well, on the pitching front, I think I have a lot of the same suspects that some other people do, which is guys like Luke Weaver I really love, Luis Castillo,

Zach Godley, who I liked last year, and gets the benefit of the Humidor. All of those guys, again, it's peripherals, it's not that complicated. If you have strikeouts and you have low walks and maybe your ERA doesn't reflect it, then, you know, you're going, the good things are going to happen. Now, the issue is that your league mates are probably pretty savvy because

they're probably reading guys like you. And so they recognize those same things. So maybe you have to cut a little deeper and you have to look for other things. So it could be a ground ball rate. It could be a guy coming off of an injury. Like I drafted Jimmy Nelson because, oh, well, people forgot about it. Maybe I'll have a good second half when he comes back in July. You have to be smarter and more creative than the next guy. So I think all that's there. On the hitting side, I mean, man, there's a lot of them that I can think of. I'll tell you something, you know, Matt Olson gets a lot of hype in Oakland. but go look at Matt Chapman at third base.

He had 37 home runs in A ball just a few years ago, and he's got, you know, as far as profile goes, about as much power as Olson does, but because he had a good glove and lower-on base and more importantly, didn't hit 23 home runs in like 49 games. People forget about him, but that could be a 30-home run guy. And if you're talking speed, and again, maybe a popular pick, but I'd even go higher than what the Touts are saying is the line of the shields.

I think he could steal 45 bases with 100 runs scored a 370-on base percentage. which is, that's phenomenal. That's all-star level. I really, really, really love him. And in fact, I have three members of the Rangers lineup this year. I have the perennially underrated Chin-Suchu, which in an OPP league is even better. I have the shields.

And people really weren't buying Elvis Andrews. They're like, okay, the guy steals 23 bases a year, but the power wasn't for real. How do we know that the power wasn't for real? Maybe it's the case that he just tapped into what everybody else did. It's spring training, but his OPS was about 30 million. Maybe he does go 20-20. I think we could see that happen, and you just play whatever your league says.

And if the league says, we're treating this guy as if he's just the same stolen base guy, cool, sign me up. Then the downside is right about where I drafted him, and the upside is where he was last year, and I get him in a discount. I like him a lot as well. Yeah, Scott White definitely agrees with you on that one. And I'll let you go. I just want to know two things.

Number one, if you are the commissioner, what do you do to increase pace of play? and number two, of course, who is going to win the World Series. Let's deal with pace of play. What does Commissioner Kerry do to address this? Yeah, I mean, pitch clock can certainly make some sense if that's really concerned about that. Guys have to be in the box, too. It's a hitter thing and a pitcher thing. You know, commercial breaks.

People do talk about that. There are ways around it, right? I don't object to having sponsored patches on the uniforms or more in the stadiums or whatever. If you want to have the money there but you don't want to have the same old boring Cheetos ad or whatever, then make the, you know, between innings a minute, 15 instead of two minutes or whatever, and find other ways to maximize your revenue. Get internet advertising. Do whatever.

I'm not saying give up money. I'm saying just work around it and try to find something better. But those kinds of things can certainly come into play. And, you know, it's not like it's a throwing to first every time kind of thing. I think it's almost nobody steals bases. I really think it's just a holding the ball and kind of a downtime thing. And I don't even think, again, pace of play being operative here. I don't think that Manfred is necessarily saying we need to chop 20 minutes off of every game.

me saying, just get on with it already. You know, it's a 6-0-0 lead. It's in the third inning. Throw your damn pitch. World Series? I have the Nationals over the Yankees. Oh, all right. That'll be good for ratings.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, the Nationals. Man, I feel so bad for Dusty Baker. Yeah. He's such a great. Who wouldn't want this guy to manage their team? But maybe, though, maybe they just needed a new voice. I don't know.

It's a nice pick. A lot of talent there. Jonah, thank you very much. Thank you so much for coming on. stuff and tell us how we can listen to the Jonah Carey podcast. Yeah, subscribe on iTunes and Stitcher and SoundCloud and just dial up CBSSports.com and you can get it there as well. And yeah, David Ortiz last week and tomorrow we got 15-year MLB veteran Larry Parrish.

I love talking to the old ball players. I'm here in Montreal and I just did podcasts with three straight former expos because I'm a homer. And so you'll get Parrish. Ellis Valentine is coming up and former all-star pitcher Kenny Hill. And they all have, you know, you want to know about baseball in the 70s, 80s, 90s, whatever, not just what's going on today. They have some great old stories. Does your homerism translate to the Washington Nationals, or did it die in Montreal?

Well, I mean, if you think about it, let's say you're a New York Yankees fan. The New York Yankees moved to Oslo, Norway. Are you an Oslo Yankees fan? Of course you're not. It's about where you come from. So, no, there's no ill will toward the nationals, but I don't have a favorite team. I'm very much a neutral arbiter of baseball, which I guess suits me well. when I'm writing about it, not so much when I want to get excited about a particular team.

I root for players more than teams, I guess, at this point. Yeah, well, we certainly do that in fantasy. That's Jonah Carey. I am Adam Azor. I want to thank Scott and Chris and Heath and everybody for listening. We'll come back tomorrow with another edition of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast.