Fantasy Baseball Today - 05/29 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Mailbag (recorded Friday)!

Episode Date: May 29, 2017

It's your Memorial Day Mailbag (recorded on Friday) as we answer your questions throughout the show ... We're grading some trades, but also answering questions about Stephen Piscotty, Devon Travis, Matt Harvey, Eric Thames, Xander Bogaerts and many more ... Daily lineup strategies, position scarcity, best MLB teams to be a fan of ... 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

Doesn't buy the hype of random number. God likes using gifs the most Adam loves. Happy Memorial Day, everybody. It's actually Friday right now, May 26. But you are here. And we're all drunk. We are? Because it's Memorial Day.

That's what we're supposed to do on Memorial Day. Oh. Barbecue, you drink some beers. Yeah, you barbecue. I'm not going to drink. You know, I don't drink, but I'll have something for you then. Thank you, Chris Towers. Appreciate that.

What a man, Chris Towers. Anyway, we don't know what happened over the weekend. But I think we can assume, based on the conversation. Chris and I had yesterday that Anthony Rizzo hit eight home runs over the weekend. Definitely. He's due. Yeah. And Scott's here too. I am here, yeah.

What's up, Scott? How was your Memorial Day weekend? We'll find out. We will find out. Anyway, I want to thank everybody for listening. I hope you've enjoyed your weekend and enjoying your holiday. And let's do some mailbag stuff. Our email address is Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com.

We will read, I think I got about 15 emails or so in the notes today. We'll do about a half hour. But I wanted to know if there was any trade talk you guys wanted to have. We can grade Chris's trade on the air. Okay. Towers powers right here. Let's grade the trade. I had one of those, one of those ones where you offer a trade and it just sits out there for two weeks.

The person doesn't respond. And then you get a notification that it's been accepted. You're like, wait, what? That usually doesn't work out for you. No, it usually doesn't. But this time I think it works out perfectly. I did a classic sell high by low. I traded Ryan Zimmerman and Alex Wood for Justin Verlander and Handley,

Ramirez grade the trade. He gives up Ryan Zimmerman and Alex Wood for Justin Verlander and Hanley Ramirez. Well, probably since you proposed that trade, Wood's value has improved dramatically. So it looks less good for you than it did a week or two ago, but I still think you come out ahead here. I mean, I consider Verlander the most valuable piece of those four still. Yes. And A minus.

That's where I'm going. I think that's what Scott was trying to get. get to a A minus? No, that's too high. It's like a B minus. Do you have Hanley or Ryan Zimmerman higher, Scott? I have Ryan Zimmerman higher, Scott. I wonder what Ryan Zimmerman has done over the Memorial Day weekend because he's starting to struggle quite a bit.

I mean, he's had like an 800 OPS in the month of May. Has he? I mean, like three days ago he did at least. All right. But what about six days ago? Exactly. Well, let's take a look at the game. But anyway, yeah, that was an interesting way.

You said you have Zimmerman ahead of Hanley? Yeah, I do. And Chris? I still have Hanley ahead. I just believe in the skill set with Hanley. All right. So that's your trade talk. Now, Chris wanted to talk a little strategy.

All right, fine. He's singling. He's getting some singles. He has Ryan Zimmerman as of Friday afternoon had not homered since May 6th. It happens. Yeah. He's got, I think his OPS in the month of May is still like 820 or something. So.

Yes. Not as good, but not, it's not an Eric Thames collapse. But since May 7th, his OPS is 545. That's 16 games. He's due. So what's going on with Eric Thames? Oh, he's been bad. Since May 22nd, I think he's got like a 218 batting average.

May 22nd? Today's the 26th. Or April 22nd. Oh. That number's been floating around. Like, I think since the last series in Cincinnati, he's had like 218. team batting average, two home runs in 20 games or something. Not great, but everybody goes through slumps. He also, Thames had an illness.

He had strep throat. Yeah, leg issues. Yeah, the leg issues kind of concerned me going forward because they seem to be recurring. Remember they were like, he's on base too much? That's what they said. He's just getting on base so much. I mean, I still, yeah, I still fully believe in the breakout. The plate discipline's been great.

Yeah. His batting average has regressed to a point that now his bad bet looks 100% sustainable. And the overall numbers still look great because of that first month. So I think you're going to be very happy. He's one that I look at the overall track record, and that's pretty much very close to what I expect. You know, actually still probably higher than I expect. I don't think he's going to be a thousand OPS bat, but I still expect him to be very good. So of the four, unless I'm forgetting someone, the four big-time surprise hitters.

Oh, it's been a lot more than four. The four best ones. Judge, Thames, Conforto, Zimmerman. Okay. I'll roll with that. Who's the least likely to be good rest of season? Oh, least likely to be really good. Probably Zimmerman.

Yeah, I agree with Zimmerman. Although I would say of that group, Aaron, judge probably has the highest range of possible outcomes. Like, I'm pretty sure he's good, but I think Michael Conforter is just a better overall hitter. I don't know if I'm in the minority on that one. But I just think with the flaws that Aaron Judge has, there's a chance that, you know, he turns into the bad version of Giancarla Stanton from last year, where he's just a

borderline starting guy. Have you seen the judge's chambers at Yankee Stadium? It's pretty soft. No. So they have like two rows in right field where they give people black rogues with like a Yankees logo on it and judge on the back. And they have like, they set it up, it looks like like a bench basically. And it's just like the judges. It's fantastic.

So this is like a team sponsored fan group. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's kind of lame. I think that's kind of way. Nobody's going to the games. It's unbelievable. Like what do they have to do? Go to the freaking games, people.

You see keek. Not a problem you normally expect at Yankee Stadium. That's, they've been. Not. It's kind of crappy the last few years. Attendance tends to lack. The stadium is so big that it makes a stadium look empty. Tickets are really expensive.

Not on the secondary market there or not. There's no excuse anymore. NBA Finals prediction real quick. Then we'll get into the emails. Warriors and Six. Sure. I like the sound of that. I think the Warriors are going to win.

I was going to say Warriors and six. Nobody likes to say seven or less than six. I hope it's awesome. Everybody likes to pick six, right? Favorite. Unless you just think they're going to run away with it. Yeah, favorite and six is like the coward's way out. Yeah.

All right. So, you know, the thing about the ballparks, we all watch a lot of baseball, I see so many empty ballparks. Just, I don't get it. Go to the games. How much baseball are you watching on the weekends? Because that's my thing.

No, the weekends, the weekends look good. I watch a lot more baseball during the week, and people just aren't going to go to a baseball game on a weekend. That's a shame. You don't get home until 11. That is true. The games are long. All right.

This is an email from Chris Rockford, a Rockford Peach. I thought you were going to say Chris Rock. No, Chris Rockford. Okay. Can you break down Stephen Piscotti? Is he dropable? Would you rather own Piscotti, Altair? Okay, well, the question is, I have to drop one of these when A.J. Pollack comes back.

Altair, Piscotti, or Boar? I would drop Altair. I would too I think I talked last podcast about how Boar is taking a stud turn I feel like and the fact he's less than 60% owned is just... Has the highest OPS of any first basement

in the month of March. Wow. May. Yeah, I don't know. You got your... You hit the bottle a little early on a board all day. I did... I told you.

I think, I wonder if it's just waver wire fatigue because everybody jumped aboard Altair, and I think it was the right thing to do. He's like 85% owned, but I think what Boer's doing looks more sustainable, and I agree that Altaire's the low man here. Now, Piscotti, okay,

so I did the number crunching as of Friday afternoon. Stephen Piscotti last year was the number 21 outfielder in points leagues, number 27 in Roto. Very good. Obviously, somebody won a roster and start. But, you know, I looked at his numbers

from last year, like 22 homers, I think, seven steals, nothing spectacular. And I thought, what would that be this year with outfielders, where it's hard to get a lot of guys that are on waivers that you like? So I took his points per game from last year, fantasy points per game, and I gave it to 42 games for Stephen Viscotti. And he would be the number 38 outfielder right now,

based on his production last year. But that's... It's close, you know? And points per game are going to be higher early in the season. There's just a lot of guys playing over their heads. Those numbers are all going to come down. You look at the OPS leaderboards. What was his OPS last year?

He's not a steals guy, Piscotti, and he doesn't have a great OPS. He was 800 last year. Yeah, all right. But, like, no, I'm just saying, like, in general, when you're comparing early season numbers to full season numbers, there are a lot of guys. There are, I would guess, 10 players who have an OPS over 1,000 right now. That probably hasn't happened. If it's ever happened, it probably hasn't happened since the height of the steroid error.

Okay. All right. Next email is from Brian Norris, formerly Team Ginger in a podcast Rejects League. Brian says, hey, Nando, Hurkin' Ow. I don't know. And not anymore. I have more outfielers and catchers than I know what to do with. Assuming you can't change the roster, what's the best way to make those lineup decisions every day?

How do I start the right ones most of the time? I did air quotes on right. Is there some rubric or logic I can lean on rest of season? For instance, should one value the hot hand more or less than the pitching matchup? How much it splits dictate things? So this is a daily lineup question. Yeah. I think they're all coming to play.

I think the number one factor here is just how good is the hitter himself. And you're rarely going to want to stray from the best one. But I, you know, if it's too close to call, basically, then, then yeah, you unfortunately have to make some decisions. And I think the pitching matchup would take number one priority for me. This is just, it's such a narrow needle to thread that I just, like this is, we were telling before the show, in one of my leagues, I don't have a single hitter on my bench. I have one in my daily league. I just, I would rather throw crap at the wall with pitching and see what sticks and just kind of roll with the hitters. and not have to make this kind of decision.

I know that it's different in a daily line. Well, yeah, with daily leagues, I mean, you want to have some hitters on your bench when hitters have days off, Mondays and Thursdays. Because four of the hitting categories are counting stats, especially. Right, right. But if you have excess that's really giving you a dilemma as opposed to just extra guys for off days,

then it's probably best to try and work out a trade for more pitching. I think that's probably... And he says he has more outfielder's and catchers than he knows what to do with. Outfielder. everyone has more outfiters and they know what to do with. And catcher maybe too. So a few catchers are needed to be started.

Maybe if it's a 12. Yeah, but I would not roster two catchers. Oh, if it's a two catchers, I would. But I wouldn't roster a backup catcher. Yeah, exactly. You're not getting enough production to be like, oh, my catcher's sitting today. I'm going to put the other one in.

I don't know. But just getting back to the original question, even if it doesn't apply to this particular guy's situation, I do think the opponent is the second. factor to consider be and obviously if the left-handed batter and he just stinks against left-handers never plays against left-handers that that's high priority too but whatever you go about doing i think you need to be consistent with it you're going to be wrong a lot no matter what approach you take just because that's the way baseball works i mean otherwise we win otherwise we win on daily fantasy every day

yeah exactly you you need to pick an approach and stick with it so that you get all you you get the benefit from it because there will be times when it benefits you, and you're not just chasing the benefit and always missing out. Hashtag, trust the process. Hashtag, I have nothing clever there. I just trust the process is so annoying. Joe Pototsky, Patoski, from South Bend, Indiana. I'm sorry I said trust the process is annoying.

It's basketball. Basketball is annoying, right? Is it a basketball thing, trust the process? Yeah, it's a Phil-Nose-Sher. Oh, it's the Sixers. It's the Sixers, right? Should we point out why you're maybe a little distracted right now? No, I'm good.

That had nothing to do with it. Earlier it may have. But right now, that had nothing to do it. There is a Miami Hurricanes baseball game going on in a TV here. It's behind Adam. He has to turn around. So he keeps turning around every time I'm talking. It's very rude.

But what you should know about this Miami Hurricanes baseball game is this is an elimination game. Their season will almost certainly end if they don't win this game. Well, this podcast will most certainly end if the host It's distracted. I wasn't distracted one time. With having Starling Marte suspended, I'm hurting in steals. It's a 14-team, 5-5 league. Would you give up Michael Brantley for D. Gordon?

I could do that, yeah. I think they're fairly interchangeable. And in this format especially, in a points league, they kind of go the opposite direction. Brantley's more valuable, Gordon becomes less valuable. But in this format, and if you need steel specifically, I think this makes sense. Yeah, you would expect.

It to be close to a wash and batting average and runs, Gordon's going to have a big edge and steals, and then it's just whether you can make up the home runs in RBI. Email from Alex and Boston, and before you guys respond and potentially criticize Alex in Boston, you should know. He wrote us a very nice email, and he gave us a five-star review. Oh. So I support anything, Alex. I agree. He bought us off.

Keeper 12 team head-to-head points league. we had a trade offered to us on CBS on Wednesday. It was Braun and Dickerson for Marte, Cindergarde, Shaw, and Tomas. And he hadn't decided on it yet. But we were leaning towards not doing the deal, and we communicated as much to the other owner. I was watching the Brewers game when Braun got pulled for calf tightness, and I called my co-owner.

We decided to accept the trade. giving up Braun and Dickerson, getting Marte, Cindergarde, Shaw, and Tomas. He did it after the Braun injury. The other owner is crying foul, but we also think it was risky to leave a trade proposal out on there on his part. Out there on his part. Please ask the guys what they think on the podcast today if you can fit it. So, yeah, he wasn't going to accept the Ryan Braun trade, was watching the game. He'd be giving up Ryan Braun.

Was watching the game. Saw him get injured, accepted the trade. I mean it's a five-star review No it's bad You can't do that Alex It's a bit of a bleep move But uh Yeah you can't do that

It's not against the rules No it's not against the rules But I mean just the simple standard of treat others The way you want to be treated Like it seems reasonable to think Okay The that

If a player in a trade proposal Get injured It's worth checking with the owner Who made that proposal to you are you still cool with this? Because you don't want bad blood. You don't want them to boycott all future trades with you. Don't say bad blood.

You're going to get Chris and Taylor Swift. You don't want. I mean, it isn't technically illegal, and I don't know, you know, I don't know if your commissioner, if it would be right for your commissioner to. Would you veto it? Would I veto it? No.

I would veto it faster than you saying, hey, Commissioner Adam, will you veto this trade? It would be vetoed before you would have said. I'm mostly with Heath when it comes to vetoes. This is such bad form. If you're going to invoke the veto, that means that there is a basic level of trust that has been violated within the league.

That's exactly what it is. But that should mean that it doesn't just stop there. I think a veto means you need a rule, you need to punish the owner, kick the owner out. Well, no. Why? Why? I relate this to back to instances where, which happened fairly regularly, probably across all the leagues I'm in, maybe twice a year, somebody will click the accept button and say, oh, I didn't mean to do that.

I meant to click the decline button. And I always, as the commissioner, back that trade out. Because I feel like, could they be lying to me? Yeah, they could. They could have just decided, had instant regret after clicking accept and made up that excuse. but I feel like if a trade is accepted like both parties should be happy at that point right if somebody's feeling regret

then I don't feel like it was a legitimate trade I feel like well I feel like both people should walk now now obviously two days later that's probably a different story there's a statute of limitations maybe I mean sometimes trades get accepted and you're like oh maybe I shouldn't have done that but but this is a I mean this is a specific case A guy gets hurt. You're watching the game. You can't expect a guy to know that.

You don't accept the trade. Maybe you walk back half the trade. No, you don't do that. Just walk back to trade and let them redo a trade without. I'm thinking of real-world scenarios. Like the Marlins' Padres trade last year where what's his name got hurt? Yeah. Or was hurt when they traded for him and the Padres lied about it.

It's kind of a similar situation to that. Maybe Alex gets docked to pick next year. What was his name? No, it's not the same situation at all. No, it's not because that's, no, you can't do that. Boy, Chris, I'm glad you're not my command. Commissioner, Commissioner Meany Pants. Next email is from Alan.

Both Adam Frazier and Devin Travis are available in my league. Should I drop one of the following for Frazier or Travis? Oduble Herrera, Stephen Piscotti, Aaron Altair. I wouldn't hate dropping Oduble for Adam Frazier. Like Adam Fraser right now is what we were hoping. Not for Devin Travis. I thought you were all aboard the Travis bandwagon. I think it depends on what the league format is.

but I really like what Adam Frazier's doing right now. I think he's a... Hitting a lot of singles? You're taking Adam Frazier over Devin Travis. You're taking the singles hitter over the doubles. It's fine, but you are doing that. It's also the walks and the stolen bases with Adam Frazier. He doesn't run that much, does he?

He was a 15 to 20 steals guy in the minors. Yeah, that doesn't mean anything. What has he been in the majors? I think he's got seven and like 280 plate appearances or something. He's two out of six. This year? Yes. Well, he played last year.

Yeah, but he still eight bases over the weekend. Yeah, two out of six. I don't see Fraser as a base dealer. The fact that he homered him back-to-back days leading into Friday, you know, he's not a power hitter at all. Isos, like... Well, would you drop anyone for Devin Travis? Yes, I would drop...

Oduble? Oduble. For Travis. Oduble or Altair. Would you drop Kendall Graveman or Shaman for DeNelson Lemette? I don't think so Would you drop Oduble Herrera for Yeah, that's what I was thinking I might

Oduble's pretty replaceable right now I liked what we saw from Denelson Yesterday Here's an email from someone in Springfield Hi, I'm Troy McClure Would you rather have Matt Harvey or Joe Ross Rest of Season in a Roto league

Chris? Do it, Scott Do it, Scott Yeah, no, I mean If Matt Harvey was the only person I could consider dropping for Joe Ross I'd do it I feel like the Amphi

and Star Wars and we need to like Don't spoil Star Wars. Push you to the I have to watch Empire Searcher Feelings. It's not it's not giving up on Hollywood. You know it to be true. I still think you're going

to want to keep a close eye on RV and hopefully have another chance at him. Okay, from Jared. I'm sure that's a funny joke when I eventually watch Star Wars. Grade the Trade. Says Dear Matt, Luke and Danny.

Is there a third Bonner brother? The NBA player, Matt Bonner. His brother is Luke Bonner. Okay. I don't know, maybe that's a Danny Bonner. Danny Bonner-Ducci. Maybe we got a U.F.

basketball fan here. Danny? Man, these names are so generic. Well, look, somebody Google it. Ten team head-to-head points league. Three outfielders. Oh, that's the defenders. Oh, okay.

My John Carlos Stanton. Yeah. So this is a big trade. Write it down, everyone. Let's pull over, write it down. My Stanton, Bautista, Ceris Davis, and Jason Vargas.

Batista, Stanton, Ceris Davis, and Vargas. I get Mike Trout and Eric Thames. Oh, come on. This is an A-A. Okay, here's the thing you have to keep in mind on this tray. There's a PS. This guy was the Freddie Freeman owner and the Starling.

Marte owner. So he's probably hurting on depth. It's a 10-team league. The depth is the waiver wire. Yeah. He also picked up Baltista and Vargas on waivers. Yeah, that's... I like it. That's a B-plus, I guess. All right. A from Scott, B-plus from Chris. Good job. This is from Cody. I wanted to shoot you an email about

former top-10 outfielder, George Springer. Unless I didn't copy and past it right. It says George Spring. Is that someone else or just a typo? Probably a typo. I think it's a type of. I drafted Springer pretty high. He obviously has not been even decent for us fantasy players since the first few weeks of the season.

Any thoughts? Cody, I will have to disagree with you. He was great for me on a Sunday in week, I don't know, five or six when he helped me overcome Scott White and beat him in the podcast league with a massive two homework games. So here's the thing with George Springer and that this keeps happening. he has he's

supposed to be this big time power guy and he's hit he has 30 home runs last year right but um he's a ground ball hitter he's 51% this year 48% last year and he doesn't hit the ball

especially hard he's been 33 to 34% for three straight years now so yeah I'm not sure he's like a consistent much more than 25 homer guy I will say this, though, about Springer. I mean, you talk about the peripherals the last three years.

His OPS the last three years, his three seasons in his career years, his three seasons in his career. 8.4, 826, 815. But if he's not... That's not great, Chris, but he led baseball and played appearances last year. It pushes everything up for him. Yeah. If he's not stealing bases, though, how much better than Stephen Piscotti is he on at least a per-game basis? Yeah, I mean, that's the thing about Springer, though, is that...

I don't, you really don't look at per game with him. Because like I said, he leads off of the Astros. That's always risky. Because one, I guess, but you would see him, yeah, well, yeah, injuries suck. But you would see him Springer likely being top five or ten in plate appearances. Yes. I said, I've said this, he's going to play it appearance his way into being a good. Yeah, he's probably not like a, it's, we've talked about this a handful of times.

times over the last couple weeks. He's probably not like a top 15 outfielder every week, but he'll probably end up a top 15 outfielder. Right. Right, exactly. Okay, I think he was eighth last year, but certainly not on a per game basis. That's George Springer. Next email is from Eric, a lifelong Atlanta resident, go Braves, and go Scott. Yeah. He says, Dear Yankees, Braves, Royals, and Marlins, because of the keeper limit, a manager has in my league, he offered me Mani Machado for Zander Bogarts. Zander Bogart's looks good.

Machado's sitting at 218. Do it. Don't even think about it. I know the concerns. If you need steel, Zander Bogart's going to get you. But the difference is so massive here. Yeah, do it and put your back into it. Chris, in D.C.

I am trying to get a feel for a fair trade value for Cindergard and Bumgarner when they returned. Do you think that Cindergard and Bumgarner will have health or performance problems when they come back. And what is there worth to a team that's highly likely to make the playoffs and the stats over the next month won't be missed too much? It's more valuable for that team. You talked about on Friday's show, Adam, that if you already have a big advantage built up, then maybe these are players you target because you know, obviously, for where they'll end up, you can get them at a discount. I don't think you can rule out the possibility that there will be

struggles coming back from these injuries, especially in the case of Bumgarner because he hurt his pitching shoulder. I am anticipating a full recovery from both, but it's one of those things you just don't know until you see them pitch again, and we're far away from that. They're definitely both, I would say very risky.

Because there's a chance that they just don't come back on the same timetable. There's a chance Madison Bumgarner, doesn't come back. It's a small chance, but there's a chance. Also, as of right now, those teams are not really playoff contenders. Yeah, yeah, that's true.

Keep that of mind. I mean, weird to say it, but. I think they both could get back, and especially the Mets. All right, let's finish up here from Nate's. Dear Ben, Fred, Randy, and Vandal. Savages. Ah. Who's Vandals?

I have no idea, but the other three of Savages, What are the chances that he's not? I have David Dahl on the DL right now. I can drop Dahl and pick up Yohan Munkada. Who is the greater upside? I think... I mean, Dahl does. We've seen...

Okay, greater upside... Moncada has the greater long-term upside, right? Probably Munkada has the greater long-term upside, but we've actually seen Dahl succeed in the majors before, and obviously he has that nice safety net in Colorado. The problem is that... Where's he going to play? Yeah, is there going to be an opening for him?

We know, like, the White Sox could find a spot for Moncada now if they wanted to. And eventually they will. The Rockies have been playing Herardo Parra as the left-hand of platoon part of the first base thing. Right. I think they would like to play both Parra and Reynolds every day, and they can't. So how are you going to fit another bad in there? I think I'd rather, it's easier to stash doll since he can fill a DL spot, but if that's not a consideration, I think I'd rather stash Moncada.

Vandal Savage is a. Superman villain. Who will get more steals? Moncotte. Thank you, Chris. Moncada or doll? Moncada. Moncada. All right.

Next question is about catchers and shortstops. Jake and Casey, Jake and Casey, who, he's still killing it in the podcast league, I think. He's a very good player. I was wondering if you could break down catcher and shortstop, the two weakest positions from players 12 through 25. I'm in a 10-team league where guys like Bandy and Castillo are starting catchers,

and I've shuffled between Russell, Cozart, and Diaz. I'm thinking about grabbing Gregorius. What's the strategy here? Do I overpay to upgrade its shortstop? What level starting pitcher should I ask for if I trade Kyle Schwerber, who's catcher eligible since I have Gary Sanchez? It's a 7-by-7 OBP league. It's a shallow league.

You know, it is interesting. Do you overpay for shortstop, I think, or catcher? is the most interesting part of this email. But also, you know how much I love D-D-D. But anyway. One thing that's interesting for me that I found is, like, we all agree Trey Tern has been like a massive disappointment this season. So far.

And so far, he's probably barely been a starting caliber outfielder. The league where I have him in my shortstop spot, I haven't even thought about him. Like, he's just been, I feel good about him every single week. I don't even consider. And so it's like, that might be the guy that you target. Because I think, well, how about VR? VR is like a top 10 shortstop.

Sure. Yeah, I think either one of those guys probably have better days coming ahead of them. I would rather. And I like Turner better. I just think you have to pay more. He mentioned Diaz here. We don't think Aledemus Diaz has better days ahead for him. I think Edison Russell does.

Yeah, probably. And I have more confidence in Diaz specifically than I do VR. So I don't know that that's high enough of a, trade target if I was going to upgrade at shortstop that way. I feel like he's okay as shortstop because Cozart's at least the hot hand for now. He's performed like a top five shortstop this year. So just ride

that until Lenmus Diaz heats up and you'll be fine. But like answering the question in a broader sense, these are the two positions where there is some honest differentiation in a mixed league of this size where you know most everywhere else around the

infield, certainly in the outfield, there's a lot of teams just kind of producing similarly because there's so many options there. So I think it's worth overpaying if you have the excess to overpay. Yeah. And just the replacement levels higher at those other positions. And Turner's a great target because you think he could be a stud. I mean, Sanchez or Schwerber would be a good target. If you're talking about in your situation, you have Sanchez and Schwerber, I'm not so sure you

shouldn't trade Sanchez just because I feel like he might yield the better return. And I have faith as a catcher. Would you trade Sanchez for Turner? Oh, yeah. For trade Turner. Yeah, I'd do that. All righty. So two more emails here.

This is from Blake and Santa Barbara. I'm a Dodgers fan, yet I hate the Dodgers. What have they done to deserve loyalty? $16 beers, $25 parking, highest payroll in baseball, but not even a top 10 roster, in my opinion. So which is the most, which team is the most worthy of fandom? I'm creating a roto format to determine which MLB franchise deserves loyalty. So far, my categories include price of beer at the stadium.

Salary paid and wins over the past 10 years. I think it's salary per win. Salie paid per win. Price of tickets and per cost of living index of the city. I need at least two more categories. What else should be included? I mean, some sort of success that's not tied to salary. Because, like, the Marlins probably look fantastic,

based on these three things. Beer's not expensive. They pay nothing per win, even though they don't win very much. And you can get tickets for like four bucks on the secondary market. But, you know, you're going to go sit in an empty stadium. I actually think home attendance is a big part of this.

Like, I want to root for a team that has a lot of fans that people show up. Home run statues per team should be, you know. Home run statues per team. Why not just statues? Because I'm trying to make the argument for the Marlins. Percentage of Hempelbrun statues? Oh, you mean the sculpture thing?

Yes. Oh, gosh, that stupid thing. What about percentage of roster that are like homegrown players? Oh, I like that. Homegrown players. You need a fun ranking. You want to root for a fun. Do you uniforms?

You know what you should do? You should just not be loyal. Just root for whichever team is most fun at that moment. $16 beer? That's an insult. And I don't even drink beer. That pisses me off. Yeah.

Yeah, no, you don't drink beer at the baseball stadium. Last email is from Jimmy in New York. Dear Ginsburg, Judy and Aaron. Judges. Now that Alex Bregman is middle infield eligibility, who do you like better rest of season? Bregman or Ledmus Diaz? I'll say Breggman.

I have a little more confidence in the pedigree for Breggman. They've had similar, they've disappointed in similar ways this year. and I still have confidence at both, but I think Bregman is the lower risk of the two. T.S. Chris Towers, you are an indie rock fan. Listen to the band Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. I read this email the other day. I'm going to check them out.

I've added them to my list. I just need to get my computer back. Okay. I've got the wrong computer. That helps. In the last 30 seconds, do you want to apologize for the whole Gambler's fallacy thing? I'm right.

Like, I'm 100% right, and everyone was saying so. Everyone was saying so. You're not reading the same things I'm reading. Yeah, I'm only reading the positive one. All the emails I've opened. Yeah, exactly. With subject line, Chris is right. While you were, what is the Twitter thing?

While you missed? While you're away, yeah. A lot of Chris Dowers, Heath Cummings, Gamblers, and stuff are there. Very much enjoyed it. And I was clearly right. Yeah, I'm not sure. I agree with that. Thank you, everybody.

Hope you had a great weekend. We'll talk to you on Tuesday. See you.