Fantasy Baseball Today - 03/31 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Let's Get Ready for the Season

Episode Date: March 31, 2017

Last-minute draft advice and some tips for Week 1! It's time to get ready for the 2017 season ... Blake Treinen is the Washington closer, but will he keep the job? We've got more lineup and rotation news and Zack Wheeler just became relevant ... Drafting in deep leagues, Spring risers and fallers and a look at the Most Added list and two-start pitchers you should add ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

R.A. Dickie, Steve, a random number, Jen. Scott likes using jiffs the most. Adam loves ERA and Auto Tunes himself this way. Paxton's regression screams Brooklyn Mike Trod plays near Disneyland. Last three-season podcast, season starts on Sunday. Welcome to the show. Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com is the email address. You guys ready? Ready for her baseball? You guys got a big smile on your face this morning. It must have been a good night last night.

Oh, we scams the hell out of that league. That's what we did. Fitting. Oh, yeah. It was a good draft for us. We were very happy about it. Scott had, I would say, 75% of the control of the team. So that's been, you know, I give you a little more control than that.

I think the way I broke it down, like the first third, I probably had a little more control. The second third, maybe you had a little more control on the final third. It was probably an equal share. Adam, you're getting in Ply 50-50. I would disagree with that. You're getting married soon. Yeah, I am. And I need to teach you a little lesson about expectations.

I'm not getting married to Scott. You have to be quick. From the stories I hear, I get the idea that you're doing a good job of setting expectations with your future spouse, and she knows what to expect from you. That she does, yeah. You're not doing a great job of setting expectations with this team. Because if I had just looked at this team and said, this is a 16 team league, I said, oh, that's a pretty good team you guys drafted.

But hearing the way you guys bragged about this team all night long. No, we killed it. And I was like, yeah. This is my favorite team. This is my favorite team. You've got a lineup with Travis Darno, Pablo Sandoval, Mitch Hanigur, and Mike Napoli in it. Yeah, if you talk about the worst four players in a lineup of the 16-team league. That's like 40% of your lineup.

Yeah. Hanager's only a fill until Ian Desmond's healthy, first of all. All right, well, we'll talk more about that. And Hanager's awesome, by the way. I have no problem with Hanigar. And Darno, I think it's going to be really good. And Scott didn't like Darno. So, you know, that was actually one of the two picks that I got to make.

No, it was good exercise. It was fun. This side of Adam wasn't around during the actual draft. Scott did a great job. I agreed with most of his direction, and we came together and made a nice team. I want to thank everybody for participating in a three-hour draft last night. They actually went pretty quickly for 16 teams in 25 rounds. 24 rounds.

24 rounds. Never odd number of rounds. That's completely unfair. I agree with you. I want to ask you guys, who's the biggest spring riser since we started, since we started this podcast? You know, we've do it all year, but since we really got going, who has risen the most? Blake Trennan. Yeah.

Since yesterday, Blake Trennan is the biggest. On a technicality. I mean, Greg Bird is the one who comes to mind for me. Like, that's obviously the biggest storyline. Yeah. Chris, biggest rise of him. I would say the player who's risen the most for me is James Paxton, but not necessarily because of what he's done in the spring. So I'll go with Greg Bird, too.

He's had a ridiculous spring that has definitely. jumped him up the charts. Ring faller, Heath, biggest faller. Biggest faller, I will say, Stephen Mats. Yeah, so Mats is going to be shut down for three weeks. That's the thing. I was looking at it last night, and I took David Price, like, the 111th overall pick, and Matt's just kept falling.

And we get to, like, the 15th round of a 16-te-te-te-te-league. We were talking about it. And I was like, man, but then there's a big difference between David Price through 60 pitches or played catch for three hours yesterday, and Stephen Mats is not going to throw a baseball for three weeks. Right, right. Like the vagueness of Mats's injury and the fact that he's had a Tommy John surgery before, and he was down a lot of last year with the elbow injury.

Surgery in the offseason. Yeah, right, exactly. And he just got a PRP injection, too. And he's not David Price to begin with. So, you know, I don't know. I understand why Mats is falling a lot. Yeah. For me, it's Zach Ranky.

just going to take a different approach to this. He's not injured, but there's, I feel like with Harvey, every time he pitches, we get a lot of media attention, we get a lot of, like, we sort of know where he's at, we sort of know what to expect from. Granky, I don't know what's going on. Last time he pitched, he was not throwing hard, he didn't throw well, and the articles I read were like, well, Greg, that Granky got his little tune up, he's ready to go for the season, and I just don't feel confident in him, and I have not been willing to pull the trigger at all on Zach Granky. I'll go in a similar direction and say Carlos Carrasco.

Got shelled a couple weeks ago. They shut him down with elbow soreness. He comes back in his first start and looks terrible. Yeah, like we said, next year's bounceback candidate. Who's a follower for you, Scott? I think technically ranking-wise, it's probably Harvey because I, you know, I've realized I'm able to move them down a lot in my rankings, but I'm still happy to draft them where I can get them.

So it's kind of a weird choice. I think maybe just in terms of my perception of, of him is Aaron Nola. Okay. I wanted to see better. Okay. Especially after the rough finish. Now, you've done a lot of drafts, guys.

I want to know who's the most important player on your fantasy team. On your fantasy teams. Like the one guy, if he has a big year, things are going to be good for you. Scott? Isn't it Harvey? No, no. You get Harvey so late that, like, he doesn't have to. It's Ian Desmond for you.

Is it? I don't think it's Ian Desmond. Maybe I'm just thinking of all the mocks, but you took him in both of. our podcast leagues. I mean, you could make a case for, my first two thoughts were actually Rick Porcelo and Gene Seguer, because I have an actual investment in both of them frequently. And so if they just bottom out. And both have been pretty bad players in the very recent past.

Sure. So I didn't want to take Porcelo, but we got him 108 overall. Yeah, seventh round in a 16-team league. I don't think anybody can really. I can't. I couldn't dispute the value. All right. Chris, how about you?

Most important players? I would say it's probably James Paxton. Once I started reaching for him and making getting him a priority and drafting him oftentimes as, you know, an ace for my staff. And I think he has realistic potential for that. And it's just if it doesn't work out or if he gets hurt, my teams could be in a rough way. That's somebody I wish I had. No, I wouldn't say more of. I would say some of.

I don't have any James Paxton. And that bothers me since I was the first one to love him. You guys sort of stole that. Yeah. You don't love him nearly as much as. I do. I picked him on Valentine's Day. I don't have him in a single league.

I only got him in one mock. It's Chris's fault. Heath, how about you? There's three guys that I have on six of my teams this year. Oduble, Taiwan, and Wade Davis. I think probably the most important is Taiwan. Not because I've spent too much on him, but just because on a lot of my teams,

I've got one, maybe two starters that I feel really good about. and then a lot of guys like Taiwan Walker. All right, guys, well, good luck. And James Paxson. We're going to have to make some trades for him. And last thing, favorite format. What's your favorite format? We do standard roto, head-to-head categories, head-to-head points.

Scott, what's your favorite format? You know what I'm going to say. Yeah, head-to-head points. And for a lot of reasons, but the biggest one is that I think it rewards players in the fairest way. It gives the best... It's the best representation of what makes a player good in real life also makes them good in fantasy.

Chris? Head-to-head categories. I would agree with Scott if we could just fix the stinking win-loss problem in points leagues. And because of that, I have to go with head-to-head categories. I think wins should be five points instead of seven. I've tried to equate 20 wins with 200 strikeouts. I feel like they're similar. Actually, 200 strikeouts is more common than 20 wins.

But it's also... But it's also... It's also more in a pitcher's control. Like, 200 strikeouts is something a pitcher actually did. Yeah, I know. Winds are not completely random, by the way. No, you make it... I kind of like the fun of predicting wins.

I understand it's, you know, it's kind of a garbage stat. But I'm kind of a traditionalist, too, so it's not something I get worked up about. It's a really bad stat. Yeah, I'd say head-to-head, categories with quality starts and OBP. We were talking, a good example that we were talking about Shelby Miller, how he's never been a top 30 starting pitcher. He had the one year where he threw 200 innings with like a 307 ERA,

but wasn't a top 30 pitcher because he played for a dreadful Braves team that scored like 15 runs all season when he was on the mound. He went like six and 17 that year. He was an all-star. Yeah, he had like a 120 ERA plus or something. He was really good. Can we all agree that standard Roto, no head-to-head matchups throughout the season, just 12 teams compiling stats,

for a year is the worst. I get why people like it. I get why people who take fantasy baseball really seriously like it because the best team will usually win. But that's a really easy formula for having half your league. Stop carrying halfway through the season. I think if you want to have a league where you're actually saying, I want to find out who drafted the best team this year, 12-team standard roto is the best way to do that. Yeah, I agree. Let's learn the lesson from fantasy football. Fantasy football is not the most popular fantasy sport just because the NFL is more popular. It's also the head-to-head matchups, the short season,

the fact that anybody has a chance throughout the season. And what does everybody play in fantasy football, head-to-head points? Yeah, well, yeah, but you're also talking about 105 points to win a game versus, you know, 600 or whatever it is for baseball? No, no, it's like you win with 250, 300. No, not 400. You score 400, you're winning, at least in our scoring. You're winning every time.

Obviously, it depends. That's the scoring breakdowns. But that's a lot of points. All right, so we've got to talk about, obviously, Blake Trinen. There's a lot of news. Jacoby Jones could be Detroit's center fielder. I need you guys to tell me about Yandi Diaz, who looks like he's going to be the opening day third basin for the Cleveland Indians.

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I put in an $8 bid. I put in a claim for him in another league and obviously did not get him because somebody with a higher waiver wire priority which is why I like Fab. Those jerks. Got Trinan. So obviously Trin is actually the second most added player

in our league right now. He's the closer right now for the nationals. Yeah. You know, he'll be Trinan, but he'll be failing. I think in the long run. Like I understand adding him. He is the closer for a top division club. but he was the least inspiring choice of the three they were considering Sean Kelly, Cota Glover, and then Trinen.

He'd be a little hard on him. He had a 2-2-80 RA over 73 appearances last year. He's Sam Dyson with control problems. Yeah, he does have control problems. He's a huge ground ball pitcher, decent strikeout guy, but he walks a ton of players. The positive is he's going to be able to. to limit runs, ideally, because of his ground ball rate and the walk rate won't matter, but he's not going to be an elite ratios guy.

I think he could be great just because of the team he plays for if he keeps the job all year. It's just like because he, I don't think he was Dusty Baker's first choice. I think the front office talked him out of Coda Glover. Well, I will say that like a month ago, I remember John Heyman said Blake Chiron, he predicted this. So this is not completely out of the blue. But Dussie Baker was talking about Cota Glover pretty glowingly. And Sean Kelly is the most effective pitcher they have.

So I just feel like if Trinan, you know, a little bit more of a pitch-to-contact guy, a guy who has hurt sometimes by his control, if he has a bad week, like even if he had a great first two months, he has a bad week that could end everything. They said they're going to give him some leash, though. They said we don't want him looking over his shoulder. If he does what he's, like if he matches his career totals in terms of ratios, he's probably not. losing the job. I don't really know, it's funny. I don't know other than save opportunities, what's so different about Trinan? He's better than Rodney. But you're worried about WIP.

Like, Trinand had a 122 whip last year. It was 138 and 139 in his first two seasons. I would assume he's probably in the drafts that are happening right now. He's probably being drafted well ahead of like A.J. Ramos. And I would, yeah, like where would you put him with Ramos, Robertson, Dyson? I put him, I think, a little behind Ramos. I put him behind. I have so little faith in his job security. I actually have him behind Neftali Feliz. Oh, no.

No. Come on. Sorry, I do. Yes, I do. I don't know why you would do that. Okay, Trinin's got a better team. I don't want him. Pitching in a better part.

He's a better pitcher. And he's a better pitcher. What advantage does Neftali Feliz have? Lack of options. Yeah, job security. I mean, the most important thing, the most important quality a closer can have is the ability to remain a closer. I don't know if that can overrule the other. three, though.

I don't know that Trinan, I mean, Trinin's going to have a higher whip probably than Feliz. He'll probably have a lower strikeout total. Like, Feliz may have a higher ERA, maybe. Last night, he did go behind AJ Ramos last night by two rounds, yeah. And we took Ramos, right?

No, we took him too. We took Krodd. And we took Collins. Among the relievers, he went in the same range, but after Greg Holland, Sam Dyson, Jim Johnson. Tony Watson. Jim Johnson, that's a different case, because Scott was drafting. Yeah, Scott convinced me on that way.

So, yeah, if that's where he's being drafted, and that sounds probably in the 20 to 25 range at reliever, that's probably fine. All right, Blake Trident is going to be 29 years old in June, 2280 RA last year, 31 walks, 63 strikeouts in 67 innings, with a 122 whip, and he was really good down the stretch, except for one outing gave up five run runs in one outing. If you look at the last three months of the season, though,

the rest of the time you take away that horrible outing. That happens with the relievers. I get it. He gave up four runs in 34 and a third. And the path to success for him is Sam Dyson. The super high upside one, if he could improve his control, would be like a Zach Britton,

like a poor man, Zach Britt. Okay. Jacoby Jones could be Detroit's center fielder. Any interest there? I mean, if you get points in your league for kickoff returns for touchdowns, then I think somebody have to consider late. All right, he's strictly A.L. only, right? Jacoby Jones?

Yes. All right. Aaron Judge is the Yankee starting right fielder, and they want him to be an everyday player. So Aaron Hicks apparently is going to play against lefties, which means Ellsbury and Gardner are going to sit occasionally. Judge starting right fielder, he improved this spring. He still strikes out, but he cut the rate. Of course, it's not major league pitching all the time.

and he hit the crap out of the ball. So Judge, Judge, or Holiday? Stick with the Yankees. Holiday and points for sure. Yeah, I guess if you're drafting that late, it depends on whether you want security, which I think Matt Holiday does bring. I think he's going to have a good season.

But Aaron Judge has 35 Homer upside. All right. Judge or Puege. Puege. All right. Let's see. We got Yandi Diaz, Cleveland third baseman, making the team. And this is big because Jose Ramirez is going to gain second base eligibility pretty quickly.

He's going to play second while Kipnis is out. But yeah, Yandi Diaz batted 429 this spring and good minor league numbers, right? Is Yandi Diaz someone we need to know about, pay attention to? His minor league numbers look very like Jan Harvus Salarte. Like... Which is not an insult, right? No, it's not an insult, but it's not. someone you get excited about either.

Young Harvice Solarte is probably like 50-50 on getting drafted in most leagues. But he's someone I would take a flyer on an ale only, especially points. It could be short-term, though, right? When Kipness comes back? How short-term? Three weeks? What I'm looking at, though, that really helps him out is he played a lot of games in the outfield last year. That's true.

I do think they'll have some openings there. So I think it's probably short-term. I think you're right about that. It's just that if he hits and they want to keep him up, they can just move him to the outfield when Kipness comes back. All right. It seems like Michael Brantley will start the season in Cleveland. He might get a few more at bats, but without the big league club,

but you're going to have Brantley early. Drew Pomeranz will begin the season on the DL. He's got this flexor strain. I mean, this is a guy who had a great year with San Diego, but it just seems like he's so injury-prone, Drew Pomerant. Big issues there with his arm. but he still might make his first start of the year. However, Pomerans will be on the DL to start the season.

Yadir Molina, three-year contract extension with St. Louis. Oh, forgot about – well, first of all, John Heyman reporting that St. Louis could be interested in Jose Cantana. Be aware of all your white socks if you're in an AL-only league. Zach Wheeler is in the Mets rotation. He will have an innings limit this year. I read it could be around 120. Yep. Stephen Mats, like I said, going to be shut down for three weeks after having the platelet-rich plazes.

Injasma injection in his elbow, and Robert Gazelman is going to pitch the sixth game of the season for the Mets. So right now, Gazelman is technically the number five starter. Wheeler's the number four starter. And they're having no Cindergarde pitch the fifth game of the season. Yeah, they're going to have them pitched twice in the first week. But should the Gazelman owner be concerned that if Mats comes back, that Wheeler is going to, I guess we have time to play it out. Yeah, I think you should definitely be concerned about that. What's your interest in Zach Wheeler, who, you know, has had a nice ERA.

Let me get the stats. He hasn't pitched in the big league since 2014. But in 2014, he threw 185 and a third with a 354 ERA, but a 133 whip. However, more than a strikeout printing for Wheeler. What are we thinking about Zach Wheeler? I always have to, like, remove – because, you know, I play in enough dynasty leagues that it's easy for me to get excited about Wheeler in that format. But just, you know, thinking from typical fantasy owner, single season,

format. I just don't think he's going to make that big of an impact. The innings limit would probably lead to early hooks. He might create early hooks himself because he's not a model of efficiency and wasn't this spring either. It's great that he's throwing 97 again. I'm just not that interesting. Take Matt Moore and subtract 80 innings. I don't think it's that simple, but I think it pretty much is. Like, they're kind of the same guy. I think he's not a bad guy. I'm not going to draft Zach Wheeler for one of my five starting pitching spots, but I like the idea of having Wheeler on my bench because I don't think he's going to, I think he'll be useful until he has to be shut down.

I mean, you'd rather have Aureus on your bench than Wheeler, right? It's not even close for me. Well, I just, I don't, I think there's a chance that whoever drafts Eurias is dropping him before he's up. That's a problem. Yeah, you might have to. Like, you get an injury on your team, you need, or, you know, you need to pick someone up. Arias could be somebody that you have to cut early.

I mean, in our league last night with eight bench spots, no, there's no chance. And that's why we took him. And that's why we took a reis. I've got five bench spots. So you're just, you keep, you keep Wheeler around because there's a chance you might sneak him into your lineup in a two-start week or whatever. I think I might use Wheeler on a one-start week with a good matchup. There's a non-zero chance you're dropping Zach Wheeler as well.

That's true. Yes. Non-zero. There's a non-zero chance of everything. Sure. There's a significantly higher than non-zero. He's two years removed from pitching in the majors, could have some rust, was struggled with his control and command early on. Who would you take a flyer on?

or Daniel Norris? Norris. Wheeler or Mappoid? Wheeler. Wheeler. I'm going to Wheeler. All right. Ricky Nalasco is going to be the Twins' opening day starter.

Is there any sleeper appeal with Ricky Nalasko? Chris is. You mean the Angels? Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No. Come on. He did have a really strong finish.

He did, yeah. It's like, you know, I guess maybe an AL only sleepers. Can we go through the Angels rotation? You sure? Skag's number two? Richard's number two? No, Richards is number two. Richard Schuemaker, Skaggs.

That's not the worst. It's not the best game in baseball. I'm sorry. That's better than the Marlins. Are they starting their worst pitcher on opening day? Yeah, that's what I didn't understand. Why would they do that? Because it's just another game.

Like, we make too much an opening day starter. He has to be the best one. I think it matters to the pitchers. Kyle Hendricks is technically the Cubs fifth star. Did you know that? They're fourth most talented. Really? You think Lackey's more talented?

No, he's their third boast. No, but Lackey, before he turned 32 or whatever point, he decides everyone is terrible at. Oakland's going to use closer by committee to begin this season. Even though, like, I needed saves, I didn't really consider Ryan Madsen. How long is that ever lasted? No, you're right. So who's the one to get if you were going to have a Oakland? It kind of lasted all season for that.

Yeah, yeah. Madsen got more than 30 saves, right? Really? He ended up with 30? In a league like we did last night where, you know, every closer has to get drafted. Is Madsen still the preferred guy in Oakland? Yeah. Yes.

I think Santiago Casillas probably second. He got exactly 30 saves last year. Wow. All right. Let's look at the most added list here and see who people are adding. I mentioned Blake Chironin is number one. It's number two. So who's number one?

Danny Valencia. What? The most added player. That's stupid. That's kind of gross. He's 55% owned. Really? Yeah.

That's dumb. Can we just play some 2016 Scott White on Daniel Valencia right now, please? Only if we can play 2016 Scott White on Rich Hill. Because remember, the two of you were battling over both those guys. What do the late second half stats mean or the small sample size means? Four starts for Richel. And you guys both went one for two. Didn't hit that poorly last season.

It wasn't a mixed league vibe. I don't think this is that ridiculous. No, I don't either. He's going to be third base eligible and first base eligible. To be clear, I wasn't saying plays that because Scott was so wrong. I was saying play that because Scott's opinion has changed so much on Valencia. I think we're all higher on Valencia than Scott now. He hit 287 last year with 70 homers.

70 homers. How do you got to get this guy. It's only 55% owed. Must add, but it was actually only 17 homers. Now, the big thing is his defense is. such a disaster that it's hard to keep him in the everyday lineup even though he's a good hitter. And sometimes he punches teammates in the face. That's kind of a problem too. But he's playing first now, right?

He is playing first, yes. So that defense, they have Vogelbach and AAA, and if he gives him any indication he's ready, he's going to be up. So I don't think there's any really long-term appeal to Valencia. Does this remind you of when Billy Bean said play Scott Haddeburg at first base, even though Pena was the only guy who actually knew how to play first base on the Moneyball A's? No. Just referencing your favorite movie ever, Moneyball. That was totally forced and not that applicable.

But it's a guy who doesn't know how to play first base. What do you mean Valencia doesn't know how to play first base? He doesn't have to play any position. He got in shape. He's never showing you evidence he knows how to play any position. And ultimately became the biggest movie star in the world. That's true. All right, so would you rather have Valencia or Sandeval?

I would rather have Valencia. For sure. Oh, Scott hates Danny Valencia. I just don't know. What's the upside for Valencia? What's the upside for Pablo Sandoval? Pablo Sandoval has been a must-star option before.

300 once? No, he's had more years where he's had more years where he was a fixture in fantasy lineups than just the ones. The upside for Danny Valencia is 25 home runs and 80 RBI. And he's in a great lineup, Sandoval. Just Danny Valencia. It's not the Red Sox lineup. Come on.

Pablo Sanfal hit three. 3.15 in 2011 and 3.30 in 2009. That's like... But those weren't the only years he mattered. Those were his best years. His best season was Barack Obama's first year in office. Wow. His best season wouldn't look great in fantasy now. You're stating facts and you make it sound like a relevant point. You're arguing a completely different concept from the line. No, his last three years in, his last three years in San Francisco, he hit 280, and averaged 14 home runs, 72 RBI, and 60 runs.

And how many games? There were a lot of missed games in there. He averaged 25 miss games per season. Well, all right, all right, forget it. This is obviously deep league stuff. But your argument right now is a little bit like Yasmani money Tomas problems. It's a little. Awesome.

It's a little random. It's so awesome. The Barack Obama, like it was a little. Everyone loves it. Well, no, it's just to show you, to give you a sense of the timeline. That felt like a, it feels like a whole lifetime ago. But I just, like, do we really think he's got 3.30 upside anymore? No.

Do we think he has 3.15? Was I arguing he has 30 upside? Are we sure he has 280 upside at this point? Yes. Yes, we saw him at 280 less year. I am. All right, I'm moving on. Greg Bird is the number three most added player, 89% owned in CBS Sports.com leagues.

Keon Broxton is 77% owned. He's fourth. Brandon Jury is fifth, 67% owned. Oh, yeah, he's starting. Yeah, that's fine. We should pick him up. Jury's better than either Sandoval or Valencia. Can we all agree to that?

I think that's fair. Okay. Probably. Kendall Graveman is 36% owned. I'm guessing he's going to be a two-star pitcher. Two-star pitcher, that's the only. Ryan Healy is 76% owned. Okay. Tyler Skagg, 65% owned.

Charlie Morton, on the most out of this. He's 25% owned. And yeah, he's got, I guess, deep sleeper appeal. I like him. Tommy Joseph is 66% own. It just seems like weird time to be out of him. I'm not sure why Tyler Skaggs is 76% on, you said? Tyler Skaggs is 65% on.

I don't get that. Does seem a little high. Hellixon, I was just looking at Helixen today because I had to pick a two-start sleeper for week one. Obviously, there's not many because it's mostly studs. I picked Helixen. He's 59% owned. It seems like, I would guess Helixen would be. higher owned that Skaggs, given the way the last season went and the way this spring is gone

for Skaggs. Yeah. Coda Glover is on the most added list at 48%. And if you want to speculate on closers, I guess Glovers is not a terrible guy to speculate on. Junjin Riu, 30% owned. Brandon Kinsler, 57% owned. Kiermeyer 83%, Patrick Corbin.

Patrick Corbyn 32%. Who would you guys rather own? I'd rather have both than Skeggs. Corbyn or who was the other? other one? Riu. Probably a good Corbin. I rank them Corbin's gag's Riu.

I may be a little, I may be being a little too careful with Riu, because I know the velocity's not all the way back yet, but he has had a very encouraging performance otherwise. Chris Owings is on the most added list, and he's 57% owned. Oh yeah, he's going to start.

That's what's happening here. He's a bad hitter. Some speed, though? He's not a worse hitter than Ahmed. Nick Ahmed. No, but Nick Ahmed is not 57% owned. Oh, I meant for fantasy. Sure, sure.

Owing's still more than 20 bases last year. He did. And he's dual eligible. Wellington Castillo is 86% owned. Michael Brantley, 93%. And Francisco Liriano is also on the most out of list at 71%. Keep adding. Keep going.

Get it up to 89. Probably should be closer to. 89 is the goal? 89's the goal. Okay. I don't know why. We have 11% of 10 team leagues. Kevin, so today on the show we're going to, you know, we're halfway through,

but I want to read some emails. I definitely want to do that. that, but we got to give you week one advice, and Chris wrote a story on batting orders, and I like to favor Chris's columns. Like I said, we were going to do, he's sleepers. No chance. No chance. I'm not 100% sure we're going to get to the batting orders, but I do have it at the notes.

Well, it's Chris's. I would assume we will. So, you know, we did a 16-team league last night. We have some tips for drafting in deep leagues if you're still going to draft tonight or or tomorrow. But I think focusing on draft stuff is probably not going to help many people. But focusing on our newest sponsor is going to help people. Honestly, it's really cool stuff.

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MVMT-W watches.com slash F-B baseball. Join the movement. Chris, batting orders. Yeah. Like some of it we've talked about Schwabber, batting lead-off. But what were some of the more interesting batting order things? Well, one of them may not actually be all that interesting. Mitch Hanigur batts second, was batting second in like their final tune-up game for the spring.

Turns out that might just be a match-ups-dependent thing for the Mariners. Gerard Dyson seems likely to hit higher in the order against Ritey, so keep that in mind. And also keep in mind that batting orders change constantly. Yeah. And based on the way Gerard Dyson has hit throughout his career, I don't see a justification. preamating second. I can see that changing. He has a 329 career on base percentage against right-handed pitching, which is fine.

That's fine. You can live with that. That's actually above average at this point. I don't know how much. I mean, Scott Service is only in his second year managing, right? So I don't know how much of a traditional list he is. But obviously the traditional leadoff hitter is just a really speedy guy. Doesn't mean that's the way it should be, but that's the tradition.

Yeah, and I feel like he would say something like, Dyson handles the bat really well, knows when to give himself up for the team. That's what he would say? Yeah, lay down a sacrifice punt. Pull a ball to the left side to move a runner to third. This is just that yo's quote? Probably the more interesting one would be

someone that we talked about recently, Delano DeShield's batting lead off for the Rangers, if that sticks. Team scamp. He had 344 on base percentage in 2015 with 25 steals. I loved him so much before last year. I think he's got a chance. Delano to Shields.

So, like, so I, you know, this was, Scott and I were talking, I want the Leonard of Shields, I want the Leonard of Shields, I kept saying. Scott was like, I think I may have overhyped the Leonard of Shields a little bit for you. When you're asking me in round 12, yeah. We ended up getting him much, much more. No, I didn't want him in round 12. I think I probably mentioned him in round 12, but not to take it. He is just poo-pooing all over your contributions to this team. No, he made these things. He said, this was the best team, but only because of what Scott.

When he picked Travis Darno, he said, Adam wanted him 13 rounds ago. No, Adam mentioned him 13 rounds ago. That was the cat. Look, Travis Arnault, I seriously want to talk about this. Travis Arnault, going into last year, we liked Travis Arnaud, because what he did, he's always hurt. I know, that's the worst part of Darno, but what he did in 2015 was pretty good. And he was, like, Travis Arnaud was part of the- Young Top Prospect. R.A. Dickey trade, right? He came over with Cinderguard, okay?

So there's reason to like Darno. He had a terrible year last year. He's bad defensively. He can't throw anybody out. I get it. But he's got like a 950 OPS in spring. And I just... Changed his swing and changed his approach to play. I just think it's way too early to give up on Darno. This is a 16-team league, and we were the last person to take a starting catcher. I think he's a top 16 catcher. Like, he would not surprise me at all if Travis Darno is on the most added list very early in the season.

I just like Austin Hedges more. I don't know where he's batting. Giving you a hard time. But what were you talking about with the Shields? No, the Shields, did we overhype him a little bit? Because I've been kind of going crazy trying to get to. the shields, I don't have him in three leagues. Well, I think because you act like you want them in every league, that's why I said.

Every category is a Roto. Right. Not a points league. And I think Roto especially, I mean, when you have five outfielder slots versus three in the league we were playing in last night. When it's only three outfielder spots, like you kind of have to make every one of those hitter spots count and just a pure speedster. Listen, you can't, this is another thing. I know your theory you got to make every hitter spot count. I don't think it applies in a 16 team league.

Like everything changes in a 16-team league. A 16-team three-hury-le-league is almost as deep as five outfield or 12-te. We were able to draft the shields for our bench, so it's kind of irrelevant. It's 80% as deep. Like, we got both of it. We still got the shields like you wanted. We didn't get him in our starting lineup like I wanted. So that's fine.

Yeah, like you didn't want him in the starting lineup. No, forget about our team. I'm saying the shields. Did we overhype the shields? I think he's probably, if you view him as like a boy. borderline top 50 outfielder, I think that's okay. All right. Would you rather have him or Ragee Davis in a Rotter League?

Him. Rajay Davis leading off for the athletics. Stole 43 bases last year, led the American League. Probably a better bet to steal more bases. Yeah, he's safer. He's safer. Delano. He played an entire season and stole 25, or 120 games and played 20.

I think it's the bad holiday year in judge debate. I would guess that there's a higher probability that Roger Davis is a better year than Delano de Shields, but the Shields has upside that Davis doesn't have. Like, if De Shields can hit well enough to stay at the top of the Rangers lineup, if he shows the kind of on-base ability he did this spring in two years ago, then you're talking about a guy in batting leadoff in that lineup who may well reach 100-run score, maybe even exceed it. Right.

But, like, there's also a chance he has a terrible April and we never hear from him again. And unlike Greg Bird, who's obviously a big spring riser, if you're going to get the liner to shields, you get him at a point where if you end up dropping him and you're fine with it. He's a bench guy. Okay. So, sorry, Chris, I keep interrupting you. Your columns are the most important. So batting with and stuff.

I think another really interesting one, and this is one that I think is interesting in a really bad way, is Jason Worth batting second for the Nationals. That seems like it's going to happen. I think we've seen Adam Eaton bat as low as sixth for the nationals. He's at seventh. Which is just, it's dumb. They have, of their five best hitters, I think Adam Eaton is definitely one of them. I think he's, and three of them are lefties, so I get that they don't want to just put lefties at the top of the lineup.

But if you want to break them up, bad Adam Eaton first and Trey Turner second. Instead of Jason Worth second. Or Anthony Rendon instead of Jason Worth. Sure, yeah, that's the thing. It's that Jason Worth. So we're not looking at this news and saying, okay, we should get Jason Worth. It might be enough to make him mixed league viable. bowl in a five outfielder league.

Was he drafted last night? I'm pretty sure he was. But while you're looking that up, Alex Gordon is also in Chris's column, batting lead off for the Royals. He was not. Is Alex Gordon a better, he's better than,

he's better than Worth? Yes. Is Gordon better than, let's say, Hunter Pence? That's really close. I think he very well could be. Yeah. He doesn't deserve to be drafted ahead, though. I mean, after the year.

I've got him behind Pence. All right. All right. The rest, if you want to see it, go online. Go to cbsports.com slash fantasy. And every week we have hitting advice, pitching advice for you. I actually don't even know editorially what's in store this year. I know things changed. So why don't you tell us what we can expect online? Every Thursday, there will be a things-to-know column for the upcoming week that includes the latest injuries, the latest storylines, schedule preview. That'll be for me. Scott, you will be doing... Yeah, I will rank all the two-star pitchers for the upcoming week on Fridays,

and also I will give you the top 10 sleeper hitters on Friday. On Fridays, I will be writing it on Friday. I don't think I will have it for the podcast on Friday. You'll have some of it. Well, it's okay. We don't really talk about the things that you write so much. Yeah, we'll definitely talk about the things to know. We'll do Chris's piece on Friday probably.

On Wednesday, we'll have a trade value piece, which is something new that we're doing this year. Because Wednesday is great. the trade day on the podcast. Well, we will have a trade value piece. Chris will do that every other week. I'll do it every other week so we can talk about it every other week. We'll have waiver wire every single morning.

I'll have a regression piece and a – I'm going to do the roto fixes once a week, starting in May. All right. Great. So do you want to talk about hitting or pitching right now, Scott? For week one? I can talk a little about it. Yeah. What's week one looking like?

I mean, how many games? How many teams are playing five games? Baltimore. Baltimore is the only team that does not play at least six times this week. So sit Machado. That's in Chris's thing, Snowfall. Don't sit Machado. No, don't sit Machado, but who's a-

You don't sit Machado? You don't hit, I don't think you sit Chris Davis, and I don't think you sit Mark Trumbo. No. Those are the three guys on that lineup, especially, who have the best chance to make up an entire week's worth. Do you sit well-in-in-castio? That, I think Castillo and Adam Jones,

Adam Jones in a three outfielder league, I could see thinking about it, but he'd probably still make it happen. The thing with Adam Jones is at this point, he's a compiler. His best value is that he's in the lineup every day. He doesn't walk, so he gets a bunch of at-bats. But what's the caliber of outfielder you'd sit in for? For instance, the Rockies, I think, have the best hitting matchups this year. They're at Milwaukee for this. And this year.

They play half their games, of course. This is true. They're at Milwaukee, the best home run park for four games. then they're home, Colorado. And they're not facing good pitchers. Harardo Parra coming off a good spring. They have seven games? Yes.

Would you binge Adam Jones for Herrardo Parra? I think you'd only even consider it in a points league. And because the roster size is so small, like, who are you going to drop to pick up Herrardo Par? I just don't think that's justified. But if you're in a league and, like, sometimes we assume that people are only playing in, like, 12-team three outfielder leagues. or 12-team-5 out for the leagues and there's nothing in between.

But if you're in a league where you need someone for week one, like, Harardo Parra could be a nice addition to your lineup this week. And he could be a guy that just gets added. Yeah, he could be a guy who hits 300 for the rest of the season. He will be. I'm very confident saying Herodos Par will be in my top 10 sleeper hitters for this week. But it's always difficult to couch the sleeper hitters in a given week. like how actionable is that advice?

I feel like in fantasy baseball, generally speaking, you start your best hitters and don't worry about it. There may be that lineup spot or two every week that you're kind of uncertain about. This is for the Indesman owner. This is for the J.D. Martinez owner. You need somebody and you're just not feeling who you have. Is Mark Reynolds going to play every day? Yeah, yeah.

He's a sleeper too. I would say Tony Walters is a sleeper for this week. Those are really the only three Rocky's hitters, so you could get away with calling a sleeper. Yeah. Okay. Anybody else that we should be looking to pick up for week one? Jeremy Hallexon is probably the best two-star pitcher who is not widely owned already. Graveman, what did you say, Graveman's ownership?

36%. So he's still widely. I don't think he's as good as Helixen, but he's facing. Oh, we're on the pitchers now. We're on the two-starts. One thing that I think is worth noting that I noticed is the Tigers do not play. a night day back to back. They don't have any games where they play a night game

followed by a day game. They're all day games until I think the 14th or something like that. Wow. That's crazy. It's too cold Detroit to play at night right now. It makes it more likely that Miguel Cabrera is going to play every game. Is that a serious answer?

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know specifically this week if it's going to be this cold, but you do not want to be playing night games in Detroit in early. Yeah, and they're in Cleveland, I think, to open the season. they're also, those games are all during the day but yeah, I think until the second Friday of the season they do not have a night game

and I think that probably makes Victor Martinez and Miguel Cabrera less likely to take a day off because I was thinking with Miguel Cabrera's back maybe he gets a couple days off during it. No, no, yeah, that's what I'm fine. But it's nice to know. But maybe a boost for Victor Martinez.

It is currently 39 in Detroit. So, thank you. I don't have the time. I don't have the time. two-star pitchers in front of me just because I'm in the office I don't have my second computer but well and they're not like I had to do a lot of like speculation to come up with um who I think every two-star pitcher will be this is kind of just my own personal opinion other guys who may not be universally owned junior gara is he actually is set to start opening day for Milwaukee uh but you know

Colorado the first time through and he he has had such a bad spring he has uh what lost a lot of his appeal. Second time through, he's facing the Cubs. So, like, you know, you'd have to be pretty desperate, I think. And that's kind of true for all the two-star pitchers. Irvin Santana gets Kansas City and the White Sox. So he's pretty good. I don't hate that.

Week two is going to be a lot more interesting for two-star pitchers, because this week it's basically just every opening day starter gets two starts and maybe a couple of number twos. But for the most part, you're looking at Aces and Ricky Nalasco. Is there anyone that's getting skipped? This week? Is Gazelman going to make a start this week? They have six games.

Most, I don't think there's going to be too much skiffage going on this week. The White Sox, even the White Sox need a fifth starter. They're talking about going like David Holmberg on Saturday or something. There's, like, because the Orioles are the only ones who I think can go with the four-man rotation since they're the one team playing five games. Now, I think next week we might see more skipping happening. But this week, I don't think there's going to be too much of that. But I'm sorry to bring this up.

I feel like the Yankees are definitely going with a four-man rotation. Yeah, I think every team has a day off this week. So a lot of teams are going to go four-man. I think several teams are going to go four-man and have their ace. I don't think that many are. I really don't. The Yankees might because the way their off-days line up, most teams off-day is Sunday. It's the first day of the season.

Or Tuesday. Oh, and the Yankees play Sunday. Well, every team has a second off day, but most teams first off day is Sunday, which doesn't really help with spacing out your rotation. But the Yankees are one of the three games happening Sunday. And so they get Monday off and then they get Thursday off. And so that may allow them to go for, man. All right. Who are the Padres playing this week?

Is there a one-start pitcher against the Padres that might be good for fantasy? Dodgers and Giants. That'll be the back end of the Giants rotation. They're so high-end. Brandon McCarthy and Matt Kane are the only two that wouldn't be universally owned. Brandon McCarthy is going to have a great start. Bold prediction. Brandon McCarthy is going to have a domination start.

Five and two-thirds of shutout bowl. He'll get your quality start. Six innings, one run, eight strikeouts. Brandon McCarthy. There you go. I mean, I imagine most people have a more exciting one-start option to go with than Brandon McCarthy. but you could do worse if you're forced into that situation. So is there anything guys want to talk about from last night's draft?

16 team league lessons learned. We had the 12th pick. We went with Kershaw. You guys, Kreeh, had the 15th pick. And I made a funny joke that you got arrested last night. By the Karma Police. Like the song. At the radio head concert.

They didn't play that one. What? No. They didn't play like one of the two radio head songs that I know. I will say that like a creep, you two were just a little bit too complimentary of each other throughout the draft. I would say I'm sorry we got along. I ended up looking at my roster and it was a real letdown. Really?

Oh, man. Really? No, that's just a radio head song. Chris loves our team. So you guys went, you went with the RP strategy. Yes. What's your pitching staff? 16 team head head categories league.

No innings minimum. No innings minimum. We've got Zach Britton. And by the way, seven pitcher spots, seven that you start. Right. We've got Zach Britton. I'm not going to do these in the order. Fine.

Greg Holland, Nate Jones, Roberto Osuna, A.J. Ramos, Blake Trinen. And then we've got some starting pitchers as well. Okay. We took David Price at Pick 111 overall. We've also got Lance Lynn, Jose de Leon, Lucas Gialito, and Blake Snell. Who are we going to drop Lucas Gialito for in two weeks? And who are you going to drop Blake Snow for? We don't have to drop anybody because we just put David Price on the disabled list.

So you get a free pick up, Chris. You can pick up whoever you want. Because I took Lucas Golato with like the very last pick of our draft. If you think somebody we should take in somebody else, you can take them now. Now, this is going to be interesting. I want to see how you guys do with this RP strategy. And there are only seven pitching spots instead of like eight or nine. And maybe that means you get one bad appearance from a reliever.

And you might not win Whipp or ERA that week. Yeah, that's always the risk with this kind of strategy. That is a possibility. But more of a risk when there are fewer spots. If you've got six, if you've got six relievers that are closers, and maybe Nate Jones won't be for the first two months of the season. I go win saves.

I think you're looking at an average of two innings per guy per week, probably an average of three. Probably, yeah. No. Because most pitchers pitch 60 to 7. I would say most closures. Those are like 60 to 70. Other relievers get 70 to 80.

So you're talking about 15 to 18 innings out of those guys? One bad outings not going to kill you. It's going to take two. Yeah, they might be two. All right, well, let's see how it works. You know, we could sit and speculate. We actually get to see it in action and how this strategy works, which I think will be very helpful on the podcast.

But we obviously went hitter heavy early, and that's why we went with that strategy. Yeah, we won't go through our teams or anything like that. But in the deeper league. Scott's got something to say. No, no, I was going to let it. Like, I feel like the quality of closers you had to get, you couldn't go that hitter heavy early.

You had to spend on closers while people were spending on starters. We took, our first five picks were all hitters. Okay. And I believe seven of our first 10, and then both 11 and 12 were closers. I'm not so sure that seven of our first 10 weren't hitters. They absolutely were. I would say...

But your first five were not, obviously. We took Kershaw first. And then four hitters. Kershaw Encarnacion, Segura Polanco. I'm forgetting one. I don't know. It doesn't, you know. Maybe Hamils was our fifth round.

I think our lineups are relatively similar. Except for, like, we're weak at different positions. All right, this is what I wanted to say, just to give, you know, for a deeper league. Scott and I wanted to make sure we had strong starting pitching. Because it's not the deepest. Like there is a point where, oh my gosh, Jason Hamill just went. There's almost nobody left that we like, you know, like there are some really bad pitchers that we thought were, you know, being taken or still available.

So I think we have the strongest starting pitching, and that was a priority for us. That being said, we don't really have a lot of, like, bench depth. We're not going to be able to just stream guys. But I remember in this 16 team league last year, I missed the playoffs. I think I was 8 or 9 out of 16. and my biggest issue was I could not find a pitcher to save my life. Like Garrett Richards got hurt. My pitching staff was a mess for the entire year,

at least the second half of the year, and there was nothing on waiver. No, there won't be. A 16-team league, yeah, you can't fill your pitching staff out that way. The only pitchers who will be there will be ones who will just completely drain your ratios. I do want to kind of clarify what you said, because it's not like we went. I don't feel like we went pitcher heavy here.

We were just, we just made sure not to go pitch your light, and we were very careful about the kind of pitchers we took. We didn't want them to be ratio drains. Okay, so, you know what? Who cares? I want to read emails. Let's hear from people. Fantasy Baseball at cbsi.com.

This is from Jason. Jason wants to know about Charlie Morton, Michael Waka, and Alex Cobb. How would you rank Charlie Morton, Michael Waka and Alex Cobb? Waka Cobb Morton. Yeah, I agree. Though, like, when it gets to the point where you take Morton, he's the most excited of the ones I am to take. Like, I think he is the best chance of exceeding his draft position. If Cobb has a good year, actually, the question I asked at the start of the show, who is the guy that would, you know, make your teams, whatever?

Cobb might be, I think I have three teams with Cobb. So I'm hoping he was like a 250 ERA guy, wasn't he? Maybe that's a little low. But 280. No, he used to be a guy we ranked in the top. 25 starting pitchers. What are you hoping for 160 innings out of him? Can I get 170?

Maybe. That's possible. This is from J.T. and Nevada. Dear Leon, Mark, Eric, and Anthony. I feel like Chris would know that. Yeah, Chris. Who is it? Hit the Google, huh?

Yeah, I don't know. Leon Mark. Go ahead. Bold prediction from J.T. Kyle Seeger, better than Corey Seeger. That's bold. I think it's a possibility. I don't know if you factor in position scarcity that I could buy it without injury.

But just like the raw numbers, I think it's plausible. He was as good as Corey Seeger from May 1st on. Yeah, he did have it. Kyle Seeger did have a terrible April last year. I remember there was some talk about dropping him at the time. Hopefully you didn't it. Did we figure out who Leon, Mark, Eric, and Anthony are? No idea.

All right. This is this one I actually know. From Mike in Detroit, dear, patches. Peter, Steve the Pirate, and Justin. Yep. That's Dodgeball. Dodgeball. Grade the trade.

I give up Mike Trout. It's an F. Now, I give up Mike Trout. I get Mookie Betts and Cirrus Davis. A. B.S. That's an A. There is no trade.

There's almost no trade in the world that involves giving up Mike Trout and get you an A. When you get the second best player and the sixth round picture. I'll call it a C, though. A C? Like, I don't, like, this is, this is a trade where I could at least think about giving up Mike Trout. I think it's, I think it's at least a C plus. I mean, it's a win, isn't it? Not necessarily.

So you're arguing with the A and you're arguing with the C. I don't think it's an even C, but I don't think it's a, A, and A is like great trade. I don't think this is a great trade. I think it's a great trade. If, if Mokey Betz is who he, exactly who he was last year, then it is a great trade. Let's just simplify this. It's a bet. Let's simplify this.

Let's do it. The way we do the trade chart, or the way we're going to do the trade chart. What would you have paid for Mike Trout in an auctionally? 46. 50. What would you trade? What would you have paid for Mookie Betts? So would you have paid $6?

I would. That's why I give it a B-minus. I don't think trades work that way. I don't think trades work that way because with the trades, you have the foreknowledge of what you're replacement level player is going to be the start of an auction. You kind of have to conserve dollars differently. We don't know that. Yeah, but...

He gave us some context, actually. I'm not going to assess someone else's trade in a way. I wouldn't assess my own trade. I would do this trade, but just like, I don't think it's a slam dunk. Just because Chris Davis is... Honestly, if that were Jose O'Brien, I would feel a lot better about it because Davis could be so bad. Yeah.

And then you just traded... Trout for Bates. I guess my point in why, like, it might not be worth giving up Mike Trout is, like, there's a chance Chris Davis, and does he say how deep this league is? No, and I'd like to move on. Okay, well, there's a chance to see Riz Davis and Abraeu in a standard 12-team league just are not really putting you ahead at that position. They're just like at the first basement everybody else has, so what was the point?

Yeah, I know, I know. All right, this is from Dane. Dear Theodore Thomas, Abraham, and George. Oh, no. They're presidents. Oh, Rushmore. Yeah. Mount Rushmore.

Not the movie Rushmore. All right. So, Dane is saying that Alex Breggman is batting second. Is that true? Yes. I believe it is currently true. All right. It's Springer, Bregman, Altuve, Correa.

Oh, wow. Not as many played appearances on my Points League team as I thought then, because I have Correa. With the recent news of Bregman hitting second, how far, if at all, does he move up your third base rankings? He hit second last year. I had him so high to begin. I think he hit 43 out of his 48 games number two, so I don't think it changes much at all. I could move him up a little bit in my Points League top 300, but I had a gap between the tier right in front of him, so he wouldn't move up past Kyle Seeger. All right, Bregman.

All right, real quick. This is like the 17th time I've asked this. Bregman or Beltray? Bregman. Next question is from Robert Galvin from Fortin, California. Long-time listener. Hey, Sandy, Fernando, and Clayton. Those are Dodgers lefties.

Yes. Getting ready for a draft stumbled upon a potentially troubling stat. Max Scher's strand rate was 81%. Does that concern you at all? Scher, 81% strand rate. I would need to see what. his strain rate has been in the past, I would guess it's always been really high because he's the type of pitcher who gives up a lot of home runs and it doesn't really matter because

they tend to come with the base is empty. He was 79.6% the year before. So, no, he's consistently been since becoming Max Scherzer with like capital letters on both of his names, he's been 75 to 77%. Here's an email. Here's an email from David. Hey, Norm, Randy, and Rob. Do you know the last names of Norm Randy and Rob Adam? Those are the nasty boys he gave it to us. Charlton, Dibble. Yep.

Who am I forgetting? Randy Myers, right? Myers. Yeah. 12 team standard head-to-head points league. I need to start three outfielder's for week one. Piscotti is a lock. I need to start two more. Okay, the first one you're going to start.

AJ Pollock. You're going to start the first two. Yassio Pueger, Jason Hayward. He also said David Dahl, but Dahl is going to be on the DL. So Pueger Hayward. Yassiel Pug. Could be a match-ups thing. Who's got the match-ups?

You both play seven games. I'm looking at that now. Hayward does get that Brewer's rotation the second half of the week. Pueg is banged up right now, isn't he? I am pretty sure. But Pueg gets the Padre's rotation to start the week. And then the Rockies rotation at Colorado.

After that. Okay. I need to see Jason Hayward hit. Puegs at Cors. The session's over. Yeah. Also, you need to see. Yeah.

Yashel Puig was banged up, but he's been playing in games over the last week. You need to see Jason Hayward prove he's a major league caliber hitter again. Okay, here's from Jeremy and Cincinnati. I feel like I've listened to 90% of the podcast since January. I've never heard the name Max Kepler mentioned. What's up with that? What do you say about Max Kepler? I don't know what to say about Kepler.

How inspiring. Like, he came, he looked like Nick Markakasie in the minors, but he was rated as a higher prospect than that. And then, not to clarify, Nick Markechakis was an awesome prospect too, but he didn't kind of live up to that. Anyway, I'm getting lost in details. And then he came up, Kepler did,

and he was hitting a bunch of home runs, and then he wasn't. And then he wasn't doing the Nick Markekes he thinks he did in the minors either. So, like, who is he? I don't know. That was a, yeah. Do you draft Max Kepler?

No. No, not generally. He should have got drafted last night, though in a 16-team team league. I would guess he probably did. I would assume he would. And he's not a bad low-end guy in a Roto league where you need five outfielders. If you have a bench spot in that league, I think Max Kepler should be drafted.

There is some upside. Even if the power last year was sort of a mirage. But I'm taking Judge over him. I'm taking the shields over him. I'm taking Renfro over him. Like there's always somebody else who I can get behind more. Last email, John in Boston. Dear 64, 626257 and 411.

Those are our heights. Who's 411? You? Am I shorter than Chris? That could be the heights of the Astros infield. It could be. Am I shorter than Chris? Oh, yeah, I'm pretty sure.

Stand out. Let's do this. This is great podcast. I'm short of than Chris. Yeah, definitely. You're 411. I'm 411. Head to Head Categories League with OBP.

I need a catcher. Vote, Cervelli, Rupp, Hedges, Darno. Vote for safety. I'm going Cameron Rupp. I'm voting for Darnow. Scott, go ahead and take hedges. Scott always hedges. For upside, I'll say hedges.

Okay, so... Vote is the safe one, yes. Or rep. Rup and voter vote both going to say. Okay, great. So, you're welcome, John. Who's your favorite analyst? Well, this has been...

None of us after that. This has been a fun off-season, huh? Yes, it's been great. We're ready to... Finally, over. Yeah. Get those lineups set. And good luck, everybody.

Thank you so much for listening. Don't go anywhere because your season's not over yet. It doesn't end after the draft. We're going to help you out so much during the season. Let's rock and roll. I meant to give the listeners a shout-out that were in the drafts last two nights. They did a fantastic job. They did.

And the chat rooms were fun, too. Great chatting, guys. Really enjoyed it. You know what I mean right now. Get out of here. All right. Later, everybody. Have a great weekend.

We'll talk to you on Monday.