Fantasy Baseball Today - 11/01 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Drafting Old Guys; World Series Thoughts

Episode Date: November 1, 2017

How old is too old in Fantasy Baseball? We discuss some sluggers who are entering the twilight of their careers (5:45). Have Joey Votto, Edwin Encarnacion or Nelson Cruz shown any sign of slowing down? Which other older players might concern us in 2018 (14:50)? ... World Series storylines (25:10) including the emergence of Joc Pederson (26:44) and the streakiness of Cody Bellinger (28:39) ... Dee Gordon's value (33:45), how to seamlessly take over an existing team in a keeper league (37:41) and more ... 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

everybody. We got a game seven tonight. If you are listening tomorrow. How amazing was that game seven? Oh my gosh. Oh, my God. Can you believe it? All those things that happened? Brandon Morrow. The bases? Brandon Morrow hit a walk-off home run.

Who saw that coming? I mean, it's only fitting. Right? That the star of the 2017 World Series wins it all. Brandon Morrow. He's going to end up pitching in every game in this series somehow. Have you seen that? He's pitching every game?

I knew he's pitched in the last four. He's pitched in every game so far, yeah. Yeah, that's pretty crazy. All right, well, welcome to fantasy baseball today. Today we're talking about old guys, drafting old guys, and we'll also talk about some of the Astros and some of the Dodgers and your emails at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Your stat of the day from good old CBSports.com.

The road team is 19 and 8 team all time. excuse me, 19 and 18 all time in game seven. The road team has won the last two game sevens of the World Series, the Cubs last year, the Giants in 2014. Though prior to that, the home team had won nine straight. So there's that angle. So the craziest thing about that is that up until, what, 2010, you said? The road team was 17 and 9 all time in game 7.

Oh, no, no. Wait, so. Okay, now they're 19 and 18. Yeah. They've won the last two, so they were 17 and 18. Sorry. Before the last, that nine game winning streak for the home team. Before the nine game winning streak, the road team was 17 and nine. Yeah, wow. That is, yeah. That's crazy. We do math, folks. That's what we do. And I do want to point out, famous game seven walkoff, my team. team. Famous Game 7 walkoff, your team. Just wanted to dredge up that bad memory for you. That's true, but I was at the Rentaria one. Okay.

So take that, Chris. I was at a World Series walkoff game. I think we talked about this earlier in the pro season. We did. You had a World Series walkoff? The Alex Rodriguez home run in game four against the Yanks. Brock Clemens, quote, unquote, last game. The Alex Gonzalez?

Yeah. Okay. 2003. Mine was better. So your quote of the day is from Tommy LaSorda. He said to Dave Roberts yesterday, you haven't done bleep until you win tomorrow. That's the worst motivational speech I've ever heard. What a jerk?

I mean, I get it. No, that's a terrible thing to say. Hey, go get it done tomorrow. Not you haven't done bleep until you win tomorrow. It's terrible. Come on, Tommy LaSorda. You're better than that. You know how sports guys are.

You know, winning, winning's not everything. It's the only thing or whatever. A dumb, dumb sports, macho, bro culture. That's how it is. Look, enjoy the ride, Dave. So what's going on with the vocal cords there, Chris? Party, too many concerts? I did go to three concerts last week, but that's not the reason.

I don't know. Have you experienced this as a newly married? person, the existential dread of your significant other who you live with getting sick? So, first of all, the significant other that I live with can hear me when I speak loudly when she's home. So keep that in mind. But I have a very different approach to illness than she does. Do you just ignore her?

No, I would be fine sleeping in another room. Like, it is not an option. She won't allow it. She will not allow it. tried that one time. She woke me up in the middle of the night and was like, get into bed. Yeah, that's a jerk move, man. You got it. That's, you're going down with the ship, man. You're the captain of the Titanic. You've hit the iceberg. You go down with that ship, man. The, the fiddler is playing that song. Yeah, that's us. Yeah, with the fiddlers. I guess so. But, but ironically, like,

I never really get sick from her. I've gotten her sick, but I don't know what it is. So, yeah, my wife got some kind of sinus infection last week. And she is, I love her to death, obviously. She is the worst when she gets sick and she acknowledges it. Because her mom used to really baby her. Whereas my parents were just like, oh, shut up, get over it. Take care of yourself. And so, like, I have to dote over her while knowing that in three days, I'm probably going to get more sick because it's always worse.

for the second person. Well, do you take emergency? No, man. Take emergency. That stuff helps. Look, I just accept my fate. I fall on the sword. It might help.

It's disgusting, but just take emergency. I recommend it. All right then. On to baseball, let's read this email about old guys. Email of the day is from Charles from Chicago. Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com is the email address. Dear Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry. I only took two of those classes.

I was not a good enough student to get to trigonometry. Did I take trig? I don't remember. I didn't get to calculus either. I got to calculus. I did algebra two my last semester because you needed it to graduate. They weren't letting me out without algebra two. You made it, buddy.

And I was in AP calculus, which is really cool. Wow. And then I dropped it because it was way too hard. Actually, it was AP physics that was way too hard, but you had to be in the same calculus. physics, so see you later. 2018, Votto, Cruz, and Encanacion are advancing into their mid-30s. How do you guys approach the aging hitters in terms of predicting drop-off or being willing to

take a risk that they will sustain their production? He specifically asks about Vado, who's 34, Cruz, who will be 38 mid-year next year, July 1st, and Edward Encarnacion, who will be 35 next season. Yeah, so what's your... philosophy on the old farts. It's so tough because when I I was actually, I was having a conversation with someone yesterday in the office and we were talking

about like consistent players. Like examples of a player who's just the same guy every year and Nelson Cruz was the guy that I came up with. He's just the last four years after having so much volatility early in his career, he's become such a remarkably consistent player.

It's got to stop at some point. There's going to be a point where Nelson Cruz isn't one of the best power hitters in baseball, but it hasn't happened yet. I think you have to downgrade Encarnacion and Cruz specifically. Vado, I just think, yes, he's 34, but the skill level is still so high, and it seems to be getting better. And because of his kind of cerebral approach to the game and the way that he acknowledgment, his limitations as a hitter but is able to fight against them. I think I give him more of an edge, and I don't really downgrade him much. But you do have to take into account that for every one of these players, once you hit the age of 30, 31, the risk is heightened.

It's not that they can't be good. It's just that there's a greater chance of them busting. Sure. I don't know that any of these guys are really showing signs of it, though. Definitely not Vado. I think Encarnaccio, the slumps are getting a little longer. That's the one, right? The first 37 games for Encarnacione, he batted 198.

He had a 670 OPS. The slumps are getting longer and deeper, and at some point he won't be able to pull out of them. But his last 120 games, he had a 946 OPS. He batted 277 with 33 homers in 120 games and almost as many walks a strikeouts. 78 walks, 87 strikeouts. You've said it well, though. Encarnacion slumps are getting longer for him. Votto, you know, he was the number three hitter in points leagues, number seven in Roto, this year.

That was his best year. I mean, the last three seasons, he's always been hitting around 320 on base percentage around 440, 445. But he had 36 home runs this year compared to 29 in 2015 and 29 in 2016. So, you know, in Roto, for example, he's been the number 18, number 15, and now number seven hitter in fantasy. I suppose. Now, that's a Roto League that doesn't have OVP. That's a Roto League with batting average. And while he's great at batting average, he's the best in the game in on-base percentage.

Right? There's nobody better than him consistently? No, like Harper's been better than him once, I think. But, yeah, it's Votto. He's led the National League on-base percentage like six out of the last eight years or something. So if you have a Categories League in which you don't count on- on base percentages of batting average league, and you take Vado in the first round, I suppose it's possible that could be overdrafting him a little bit.

I think so. The one thing to point out is he did talk about how hitting home runs was a conscious change to the way pitchers were throwing him. I think it was something about the – we talked about this on the podcast earlier in the season, but it was something like pitchers were – umpires were calling the inside strike more often to left-hand batters. And so he responded by swinging it inside pitches and turning on them more. Well, isn't that a good idea? Shouldn't he have been doing that earlier? Well, it was a response to the way pitchers were pitching him.

And umpires were calling him, I guess. Yeah. So, yeah, Votto's going to be a first round pick, I think, across the board. But if those home runs go back down to 29, he's probably more borderline first round. You feel better about him as a first rounder in head-to-head. And points, yeah, or anything that counts walks. For sure. Now, Cruz is the oldest. He'll be 38 mid-year in July 1st.

He'll be 38 years old. Four straight seasons playing 152 or more games. Four straight seasons with between 39 and 43 homers, between 93 and last year, 119 RBIs. And three straight years where the OPS has been 915 to 936. So he's been outstanding. And I guess the only thing I'd say is that you ask, you know, signs of decline and how worried do we get? Nelson Cruz, to me, has been saved by the designated hitter. And if a guy starts DHing, I love it. Love DHS like David Ortiz. It's a huge factor

for me. And he'll continue to D.H, which is wonderful. Yeah, his strikeout rates actually fallen in two consecutive years. Do you want to know where his ADP was last year? 36. Yeah, right. He's probably going to, he's probably going to, he's probably going to be a bargain again because he's probably not going to go that much higher than that. Right. I do think people will be scared. I don't think that they necessarily shouldn't be because the other examples here, Jose Batista. So he just finished his age 36 season, Jose Batista. So really, 35, he just plummeted. Well, 35, he was bad. 36, he was terrible. And he had 40 home runs at a 34-year-old. So that's where... But there were signs in that age 34 season, I think.

There were like an extended slump in there, I'm pretty sure. Miguel Cabrera, on the other hand, he just played his age 34 season. He went from batting 316 with 38 home runs to 249 with 16 home runs. And actually, it's kind of eerily similar. You look at 2014 through 2016, okay? Those three years for Cabrera, very similar to 2015 to 17 for Vado. And now Vado is about to be 34, which was the age that. that Cabrera was last year, he played hurt for most of the season, and he had a terrible

years, one of the biggest busts in fantasy, there's the risk, you know? It's probably more like, guys get hurt, they don't recover as quickly. And that's the thing is you want to say, well, Cabrera wasn't healthy. That happens when you get older. You know, it's harder to recover from injuries. It's harder to play every day. Yeah. Young guys get hurt, too, but I'd love to see them DH Cabrera.

Sure. They'll do that, but that would be nice. Is Victor Martinez still under contract? I don't know. Yeah, because that would be the... He shouldn't be a roadblock to them keeping Miguel Cabrera healthy. You would hope not. Yeah.

Not that, you know, it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to keep a guy completely healthy. I mean, Hanley Ramirez couldn't play first base because his shoulder was messed up. God, Victor Martinez has another year left on that deal. Cut him. Disaster. All right, we'll get into the World Series in a bit. I do also want to talk about some older players that might concern us a little bit. after I tell you about Seekek.

Yeah, you know I got that Seek app on my phone. You know I use that SeekK app all the time when I want my tickets. It is by far the easiest way that I have found to shopper tickets, and now it's the only way because Seat Geek searches multiple sites. So, yeah, I could look at this site and that site in five different websites and look at the same game or concert or theater, comedy show, whatever. And I could do that. Waste a lot of time, waste a lot of money, or I can let Seekkeek do all that work for me.

Seekkicks saves you time, saves your money by searching multiple ticket sites, comparing prices, finding the deals, grading every ticket based on value, you can immediately see. These are the seats I want to buy. When you look at the seating map, Seekkeeks got all these dots. Red dot, you want to avoid it. Bad deal. Yellow dot, you probably want to avoid it. The greener the dot, the bigger the dot, the better the deal.

It's really cool. It's an easy feature to use, and it's going to save you money. And you'll save even more money. You'll get $20 off your first Seatkeek purchase with the code fantasy. So download the Seekek app and use the promo code fantasy. Save 20 bucks off your first Seek purchase. Again, for 20 bucks off, the promo code is fantasy. Are there any, I don't know, older players, guys getting up there, long in the tooth, big tooth people that are concerning to you?

I mean, it's probably stupid given how good he's been in the playoffs with Justin Burlander. Oh, yeah. We keep seeing these stretches for him that look like he's finished, and then, you know, he's, was amazing with the Astros after the trade. He's been amazing in the postseason. But he's another one who there are signs. And I think, you know, this is something that I wrote about before last season. When I wrote my bus column, I kind of looked for archetypes of players who tend to be busts. And I tried to put them into categories. And one of them was just guys who we ignored signs of decline for him. And Miguel Cabrera was actually in that. There were signs of

decline the year before. I think it was the strikeout rate had gone up. I still had him ranked as an elite person. I don't want to say I called him a bus, but, you know, there are guys like that Daniel Murphy. Yes, someone who wasn't necessarily as good as expected in the second half of the season, Buster Posey. Will you stop taking all my guys? Yeah, I mean, I'm not looking at your list. Oh, you're not? No. No, I'm not. Okay. Lyer. Buster Posey, I think, is an obvious one because we've just seen the decline already.

He's going to be someone, I think, who ages rather gracefully. But we saw him drop to, what, 11 home rounds of this season? 12, yeah. If you were looking at my notes, you know we're 12. That's how you know I'm not looking at your notes. Ryan Zimmerman is an excellent example of someone who had the nice bounce back season, was really good for fantasy overall, but if you draft him expecting that,

I think you're probably going to be disappointed. Robinson Canoe, another one. Yeah, and you can get bargains on these guys sometimes when you're right, like Nelson Cruz this year. So I mentioned a few guys I'm concerned about putting the notes that you didn't read. It's fine. It's better that way. Josh Donaldson, he's going to be 32 years old in December.

That is not old. 32 is not old. It's not. But calf injuries, each of the last. two years. He played only 113 games this year, so he still had 33 damn home runs in 113 games. And most of that came in, what, the last two months of the season? Because I pretty famously said he looked like someone whose skill set was declining on like, I don't know, July 15th, and then he went crazy. Yeah, famously. A lot of people that was heard around the world. Famously. Yeah. So Donald's

someone that's interesting. I'd say second round pick for Josh Donald. Is he a top 15 pick Josh Donaldson next year? I probably wouldn't take him top to 15, but I think he might be there by consensus. Buster Posey. Now, he finishes the number two catcher and points in number three in Roto. He batted at 320, and he had 61 walks to 66 strikeouts. But in an age where home runs are up, up, up, his home runs have gone down four straight seasons. Now, he had fewer at bats this year than he had in his last six.

six years, but, you know, Posey, like you said, there are some signs. Are there enough signs to make Posey anything other than the number two? And we, let's, I mean, let's take time to thank Chris, because he is sick, and I know it's a struggle for you. So thank you for being on. Oh, I'm good. I'm fine. Is there enough of a downgrade here for Posey to make him anything but number two?

Obviously, you're going to take Sanchez ahead of him, but anyone else? I guess you could take Salvador Perez. but no, I think Posey, the combination of safety, the batting average floor is so high. The lowest he's hit in his career is 284. That's incredible. He's just, and that was in a partial season. He's just, he's someone that you know. He's probably going to hit right around 300.

He gets those days as DH when they're in AL parks or at first base, so he's going to play more than your average first baseman. I think he's obviously number two still. Daniel Murphy, yeah. He'll be 33 years old in April. Number five second basement of points, number eight in Roto. Not a huge home run hitter. 322 batting, like great batting average,

but only 23 home runs this year in 144 games. And Murphy underwent knee surgery, and this is one of the concerns, probably the only concern I had for Murphy, was could he stay healthy in 2017? And he mostly did. He played 144 games. But he slumped after the All-Star break.

relatively. That a 292, 371, 498. It's a hell of a slash line, but this day and age, it's not elite. Yeah. But, yeah, he already went underwent knee surgery like a week ago, and Daniel Murphy may not even be ready for opening day. So that's going to be a really interesting one. Does he slip into the third round then at 12-team league?

I will see how he's doing in his recovery in February and March, but I would say at this point he'll be someone I'll be avoiding. And he's a player who I love. He might slip into the fourth round. I mean, it obviously depends on the medicals. If you were drafting today, would you draft Daniel Murphy or D. Gordon? Gordon. All right.

I mean, we'll see where he's playing, but those stolen bases are just, they're so valuable. Yeah, they sure are. We have an email about D. Gordon coming up later. All right, Chris, let's look at the news and notes. I was going to ask you this question. I'll ask it, but I don't think we should answer it. It's probably not the thing we should be talking about. How much would you pay for a World Series game 7 ticket?

However much I could pay so that I could then turn it around and sell it on Seatgeek for a profit. You're pathetic. No, I'm not. I appreciate the sponsorship plug there on Seatkeek, but I would do that for like a Dodgers game 7, but you would do that for the Marlins game 7? You would just try to make money?

You can get like a life-changing amount of money. You can get like $2,000 to $3,000 for a great seat, a great seat. An amazing seat you can get like $15.20. But let's say like the 200-level seat, okay, maybe you're talking $1,500 to $1,000. That's a lot of money. I love that. It ain't life-changing. Plus, let's not forget what you paid for the ticket.

So maybe you're going to make $500 on this ordeal. Really? Is that worth it to stay home and not go? Yeah I toyed I got a free ticket to the Super Bowl once The year it was in New Orleans I toyed with the idea

Of selling it And I mean this was like I was on the second row On the field Woo Yeah In the end zone I may have sold that

Because if I Who was in the game That was the Ravens 49ers game Oh that was a hell of a game Yeah I got to see Beyonce You know Yeah I wouldn't have sold it.

But no, look, if it weren't like my team, I can understand making a ton of money on it. And you got it for free. But if you had to buy the ticket, you know, I don't know, man. I would pony up. I would pony up. For the Yankees? That's fair. Now, for the Dodgers, like, if I had a chance to go to this game seven, I don't think I'd spend more.

Oh, I'm selling this one for sure. Yeah, but let's say you don't even have one. You just had a chance to go to game seven. I don't think I'd spend more than like $200, which, of course, Oh, I definitely wouldn't. Would never get me in. Yeah. But this is exciting.

Like, this has been one hell of a series. It's been amazing. Your other new and note is Uly Gerell is going to miss the first five games of the 2018 season. Deservedly so. No, not deservedly so. He should have missed the World Series. Yeah. Ridiculous.

Just ridiculous. Really bothered me. I'm not over it. Yeah, I mean, the reasoning was. stupid, but that's the decision they made. I wholly disagree with the decision that they made, but it was always going to happen. Sandy Alamar spitting someone's face and wasn't suspended until the regular season. Spitting umpire's face.

Yeah, sure did. All right, it's time for my new favorite segment. It's called, Hey, Chris, guess what? Okay. Hey, Chris, guess what? What? Clayton Kirshall sucks in the postseason. He's the worst.

He's a bum. I hope he pitches tonight. That would be so fun. I hope he dominates tonight. I do too. I do too. I don't really, I guess honestly, I'm only rooting for the Dodgers because I'm rooting against Gurriel.

Yeah, I like both teams. Geregal would be the only reason I would root against the Astros. Like last year, I had no problem with whoever won. I was rooting for the Cubs, but I wouldn't have minded if Cleveland won. So who do you think is going to be? What's your pick, game seven? Well, my boy, Jock Peterson keeps coming up so close

that I gotta go with Los Angeles. Yeah, I'm gonna go with the Astros. So this whole baseball, this new baseball thing for the World Series where nobody can throw an effective slider is really interesting. And it just destroyed you Darvish in game three. Are they like not rubbing it

with that mud stuff anymore? What's going on, guys? You know, I don't know. I'm sure they are, but it's not having the same effect. And it's so unfortunate. Why would they do that? I don't want to be a downer because it has been a really fun, great world series, but all the home runs kind of cheapen the home run a little bit.

I really enjoyed last night's game. Last night was great. Yeah. Hasn't lessened the effectiveness of Kenley Janssen's slider. Not the cutter, but the sliders. I don't know. It's the same pitch. It's not the same pitch.

So good luck to both squads tonight. Hope you all been enjoying it. It's been really fun. Let's do some World Series storylines. Yeah, storyline number one. Justin Verlander is amazing. He has a 221 ERA in the postseason. He had a 192 ERA in the final 16 starts of the regular season.

Verlander's going to be 35 next year. Unless he pitches tonight, 242 and two-thirds innings this year, including the postseason. That's a lot. And I am the guy who like freaks out, like a loser over all these extended innings. But I'm not going to do it for Verlander, I don't think. Because this guy's proven that he can have these types of seasons, go deep into the postseason, and recover just fine.

I think I didn't do all the research, but I looked at just some previous seasons. And when Verlander was at the top of his game, innings didn't matter. Plus, he's throwing harder now than he wasn't the regular season. season. So I don't really care about the innings, Chris. I mean, he's throwing harder now than he has in almost a decade. He's incredible. He's a

freak. Yeah. I don't know. It's really impressive what he's done this season. And, you know, he was one that even when things were going poorly for him early in the season, I don't think anybody was really worried except for maybe Heath because, you know, he thought he was a bust coming into the season.

Right. I just, he's going to slow down at some point, but the signs aren't there yet. I guess the control not being great early in the season, but it's been so good lately. Tremendous, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, let's talk about Jock Peterson. I have been having a lot of fun putting out the Cameron from, from, say, by the bell, from Ferris Bure's day off memes on the phone.

This is Jock Peterson. Five for 14 in the World Series with three home runs. two-walks, six strikeouts. They've been talking about the adjustments he's made. It seems kind of like, yeah, okay. But I don't know. Maybe there's something to it. You love Jack Peterson coming into the year, Chris.

What are you going to do in 2018? Dude's super talented. But there are still, I think, very real concerns about playing time against lefties. I think they'll probably still opt to platoon him. He's someone who is very capable of going into deep slumps. So I think not going to get over excited about him coming off the World Series. Let's not do what we did with Kyle Schwerber last year. Ken Giles lost his closer's job.

He's got an 1174 postseason ERA. Who closes this tonight? I'm not so sure it wouldn't be Giles. I don't know. Like, Davensky hasn't been good. The only guy in their bullpen that's been good has been Luke Gregerson. And are they got... I don't know if you want to go with a guy.

who throws like 88. Right, I don't know. Closing out the World Series. People don't. I don't know. Look, we know Ken Giles. We know what he is. He's streaky.

He's unhittable for months at a time. And then he goes through these massive, massive slumps. We've seen it both of the last two years. I think he'll still be the closer next year. I think he'll still be very good. And I think there will be a point in the middle of May where we're like, is Ken Giles going to lose his job? And I think Giles has been particularly affected by the base.

baseballs that are anti-slider, although his struggles are not exclusive to the World Series. He's just had a bad postseason. But it's really been their whole bullpen, has been junk. Another World Series storyline is Cody Bellinger. Oof. One walk, 14 strikeouts, and a 167 batting average in six games. Reminds me a lot of Aaron Judge in the playoffs. What's your take?

I think it's... Aaron Judge had some good moments in the playoffs. stuff, though, right? Wasn't he great in the NLCS? At home, yeah. Look, these guys who strike out, and we're going to see this more often as strikeouts continue to pile up, is they go through stretches where they just, I don't know if they're not seeing the ball. John Carlos Stanton's had these stretches too, but it's just guys that they're inconsistent because they rely so much, so much of their values derived from their ability to hit the ball really hard, and home runs tend to be relatively rare occurrences that can come in bunches.

You just have to live with these downturns. It doesn't change the way I view Cody Ballinger. And George Springer finally woke up, and he batted 375. He's batting 375 with four home runs, five walk, seven strikeouts, and six World Series games. Big difference for their lineup is he was straight up bad for the first two rounds of the playoffs, and now Springer is tearing it up. Yeah, he's awesome. You know what's weird?

I didn't realize Alex Berger. has like a 700 OPS in the playoffs. That's it. I feel like every single hit has just been like the most pivotal moment possible because I feel instinctively like he's been amazing. Me too. And his defense has been. He's a very good player.

Yeah, I think he's outstanding. I think there's a chance that he's the breakout star of 2018. He will go pretty early, but he could have like, I don't know if he's going to have the bet season from, from, You could have an Anthony Rendon season. Yeah, could he be better than that, though? More power? Hachian Rendon was pretty good.

Yeah, yeah, let's see where Mr. Rendon finished. It was like a top 10 hitter, wasn't he? Let's find out. Well, first, let's see where I finished at third base. Fourth. I'm going to say there's no way he was a top 10 hitter. Yeah, because the top three were all outfielder, right? Yeah, he was 30 fantasy points.

worse than Chris Bryant. And let's see where... You were 30 fantasy points worse than Chris Bryant. I was 29. I was better than right now. And he was fifth in Roto behind Travis Shaw and Brian and Jose Ramirez and Aeronado. So he had a 301-25-100 season with basically the same amount of walks of strikeouts. I think Bregman could do that.

Yeah. Okay. Great. Alex Bregman. Hooray for you. Chris, I have an idea for you. Okay. Is your wife still sick?

She's actually, yes. She's in worse shape than I am. Oh. And earlier you lied. You said that you get it worse than she. You get, you know, the second person gets it worse. Usually. You lied to us, Chris.

But you can make up for it by getting all of us flowers. Or, more realistically, just get your wife flowers. Go to proflowers.com. When was the last time you got her flowers? Last week. Nice. I got her flowers from Pro Flowers. I am not joking. Really?

Yeah. That's great. I did the same thing a month ago. Approximately. It's really great. They're really nice, aren't they? Yes, they are. I got these roses, like three colored, three different colored roses. It's lovely. Yeah, I got something very similar. I think you're going to really like what's on Proflowers.com. And you can save 20% off all bouquets of $29 or more at Proflowers.com. Use this code, A-N-S-S-E-E. Adam, Nancy Scott. That's Nancy on the podcast right now.

Adam, Nancy Scott. A-N-S is the promo code. 20% off all bouquets of $29 or more. Their best-selling cinnamon cider roses are a great option for a birthday, anniversary, any fall occasion. Or you can get the 100 autumn blooms, a dozen autumn roses. A lot of really great things on there. I like putting a little note on the flowers. And, you know, you can choose your delivery date, and they're guaranteed.

to stay fresh for at least seven days or you get your money back. So go to proflowers.com. Be like me and Chris. Use the promo code A.N.S. Adam, Nancy, Scott, A.N.S at checkout 20% off all bouquets of $29 or more. That's proflowers.com. All right. Email.

Adam. Yes, sir. What did the ghost? It's a Halloween joke. What did the ghost get from Pro Flowers for his wife? A bouquet? That's awesome. Good job. I got a lot of ghost jokes.

Do you? What's a ghost's favorite car? A Subaru. Oh, that's so bad. Oh, that's awesome. That's so bad and awesome at the same time. Good stuff. Very good.

I'm going to try to come up with a ghost joke while we read emails. This one's from Brian. Hey, Adam, Chris, Heath, and Scott. You were talking about power speed guys. Chris mentioned how he was really wanting to own Trey Turner or Billy Hamill. Hamilton for the speed. I wondered why D. Gordon didn't come up. In the three years I've been playing fantasy baseball, I found myself owning D. Gordon all three years. I'm strongly leaning toward keeping him for a fourth. Chris? Just didn't think of him. That's the simple answer.

I was the high guy in D. Gordon this year, and he had a really good season. It's going to depend on where he ends up, because I think the Marlins lineup was really good last year, and Marlins Park is a really good spot for him. There's so much room in that outfield for those, you know, kind of bleeding-eye singles to fall. And so you need him to land in the right place, but he's a 50 steel guy, and there's only three or four of those guys, maybe. And he's a 300 batting average guy, I think, pretty much. And, you know, his true talent level, I think, is right around a 300 batting average.

And so he only helps you in three categories, but he helps you a lot. lot in those three categories. What did the ghost say when Chris forgot to mention D. Gordon on our last podcast? Boo. Boo. Yeah. All right. How is that?

I mean, a little obvious. It's no Subaru. Well, that's because Subaru doesn't make any sense. Why not? I think you know why. So, D. Gordon was the number seven second baseman and points. and number three in Roto behind Altuva and Jose Ramirez. The other part of this question from Brian was,

instead of his keep, he says the word freeze, which is interesting. Sure. I can freeze three players next year, and I can freeze D. Gordon in the fifth round. Should I do it? Other options I'm strongly considering are bets in round one. Chris Davis with a K in round seven. Tommy Fam, last round.

Corey Canable, last round. Alex Wood, last round. Travis Shaw, last round. Carlos Carrasco in the fifth. Dee Gordon in the fifth. Is Gordon a keeper for you in that scenario? I think so, just because locking in a 50-60 steel guy, I think that frees you up to not really worry about steals at all.

Looking at last season, going from last place to like fifth place in stolen bases was right around 50 steals for your team. And so you really don't have to worry about stolen bases at all, the rest of your team if you have a guy like that, and you can at least compete. Then I'm going with Mookie, and it's risky, but I think I'd go with Alex Wood. I love the upside he showed this year.

I think what's interesting about this keeper question is that you have to choose in the fifth round, Gordon or Carrasco. Yeah. I think I'd go with Gordon. he's just more of a sure thing. I definitely go with Carasco in a points league. In Categories League, yeah, Gordon. Hey, Adam.

Yeah. Who did the ghost pick in the first round? I don't know. Paul Gouldschmidt. You got to switch it up. You don't always go boo. There's other options. My friends and I in college used to spend a lot of time making these dumb jokes.

It's really unhealthy. What did the ghost have for breakfast on Halloween? Cinnamon Ghost Crunch. That's good. That's solid. Thank you. Okay, here's a question. Mike from Boston.

Dear Jose, Aaron, and Mike? ALMVP. I'm projected finish. Mike Trout, yeah. Long-term auction keeper. Yeah, Mike Trout, heard of him. Long-term auction. I was thinking of Mike Stanton for some reason.

He hasn't been Mike Stanton in six years. No, he hasn't. All right, long-term auction keeper league. One of the old-timers is retiring after 20-plus years. We have multiple people interested in joining the league, but the rest of us can't decide on how to add the new team. So please help. A, the new owner takes over the old team in all contracts.

B, the new owner starts with zero keepers and the old team is fully released into the pool. C, the new owner selects a max-refer. maximum of one player from each of the other team's drops to seed his team, including a max one from the retiring team that he's taking over, or he's not taking over, but the retiring team. Excluding any long-term contracts. So obviously you have to know the nuances of this league. The main issue with option A, which is the new owner takes over the old team in all contracts, is this owner finished top three last year and has Mike Trout locked up through 2023.

So it would be quite a nice edge. So A is new guy takes over the team and all the contracts. B is new owner doesn't get the team. He gets no keepers and the old team is fully released into the player pool. And C, you kind of do an expansion draft. The new owner selects one player from each team, maximum one, with some stipulations. It's definitely not B. No keepers and the old team.

Yeah, I just think that that would suck. I kind of lean C. Me too. I think that's more fun. Now, how do you decide which players are unstealable? I would say you do it just like an expansion draft in any league, where you designate a certain number of players as untouchable, and everyone else is available.

Yeah, okay, that works. Next email is from Jake in the Bay Area. Dear Ted, Marshall, and Barney. I know that one. Is that how I met your mother? Yes, it is. Who do I keep in 2018? It's head-to-head categories with three outfielders.

OBP and quality starts. I can pick one hitter. It's an OBP league member. Aaron Judge or Gary Sanchez, both for a dollar. You know the meme of the two Spider-Man's pointing at each other? No. Have you never been on the internet? Let me Google image.

That's kind of how I feel about this. Like they're kind of the same guy. Aaron Judge obviously strikes out more, maybe has a little more power. But I think it's probably Sanchez just because of that catcher eligibility. I know Judge was better this season. But the version of Judge that we saw in the second half, I think is probably closer to the real one.

Wait, what was your answer? I was looking at the meme. Sanchez. Sanchez. And, uh, Yeah. Can only keep one pitcher as well. That is weird.

Okay, no, anyway, yeah, the pitcher. So pick the pitcher in a quality starts league. Verlander for four, McCullors for eight, Alex Wood for one, Luke Weaver for one. I think it pretty obviously has to be Verlander. Yeah, for sure. Do you know who played center field on the all-ghost baseball team? Um.

It was Johnny Demon. That's pretty solid. Thank you. All right, this is from Tom, who says, thanks, non-zero chance. Help me with this keeper question. 10-team league, 34 roster spots. Oh, OMG.

Seven-by-seven categories league, walks, extra base hits, quality starts, and K-per-9. All right, so seven keepers all can be kept twice, except for Yelich and Tanaka, who can only be kept once. He's keeping Bellinger, Dojur, Kluber, and Abraeu. Three hitters and a pitcher. So pick three to keep.

Remember, Yelich and Tanaka can only be kept for one year. The others for two. Tell me which ones, as you're looking at the list, you can eliminate. That way we can simplify it. Sunny Gray, to me, eliminate. Yeah, fam, I think, is gone. All right. Just doesn't have the track record.

I would say Berrios. Barrios. Okay, then stop there. Let's pick three of these five. Yelich for one year Tanaka for one year Hoskins, Cespitas, Didi Gagorius.

I'm going with Tanaka. I'm going with Hoskins. And it's between Yelich and Cespitas for me, that one's really tough. If Cesspitas didn't have the injury concerns, it'd be him. All right.

Yeah, I'd go Yelich, too. Yeah. And this is from Derek. Wait. Yeah. Who's the manager of the all-Hawloving team? Dead Ghost. Ah, damn, that's pretty good.

That's not the one I was going with, though. I was going with, see, my thoughts, and that's really good. My thought is the worse, the joke, the better. Yeah. Like, the more tortured. Oh, yeah. Oh, completely. Yeah.

So it's Greg Zonbi. That's great. That's great. Okay, this is from Derek. Thanks for all the advice. I won my league last year. Way to go, Derek. Yeah, early opinions on keepers.

We keep eight players head-to-head categories. Keep the players up to three years. And all of these guys have two years left on their contract. It's an OBP league. Also, saves plus holds instead of saves. So we're looking at OBP. Who to Keep? So what does he have to keep eight of them?

All righty. Jose Ramirez, first. 11. It's a must, right? Yep. All right. That's one. Jose Ramirez for 11. J.D. Martinez for 10. That's a must. Marcelo Zuna for three. That's a must.

Tommy Fam for 10. I think you're throwing them out. Robbie Ray for three. That's a must. We've got four. We've got Jose Ramirez, J.D. Ozuna, and Robbie Ray. Jake Lamb for one. Yeah.

All right, let's come back to that. Let's come back to it. I'll put a little. star next to it. Yohan Moncada for one. Not sure. All right. Luke Weaver for one. Not sure.

Rendon for 19. Not sure. Roberto Ozuna for four. Leaning that way, but I'm not sure. Reiselle Iglesias for two. Yes. All right, so that's five. I'll give you lamb is six.

Lamb for a dollar is six. We need two more. We've got Yohan Moncada for. one, Luke Weaver for one, Rendon for 19, Ozuna for four. Where is Jose Ramirez eligible next year? I think second and third. Okay. But I will confirm.

Do I want to lock up my corner infield position right now? I'm fine with it, but I can't make that decision for you. All right, we'll keep Rendon and we'll keep. Ozuna. I just have so much trouble not keeping Yoamonkata. What if he's the best player in baseball soon? I mean, you're only keeping him for two more years.

So that's probably not going to happen? And he just, I don't think he showed enough to make me think that that's going to happen that quickly. There are huge flaws in his game right now. By the way, yes, Jose Ramirez is second and third base eligible next year. I kind of struck out 176 times in 138 games, I think, between the majors and minors.

I'm really just trying to think of one more ghost joke before we leave. And I don't have anything because I'm trying to use different words, like phantom. Hmm. Yeah, it's tough. Ned Ghost is what I'm going to retire on.

Chris, you know what? Let's, if we can remember, let's do the all-ghost team for next podcast. Let's see what we can do. All right. We know Ned Ghost is the manager or and his bench goes could be. Who did you say? Greg Zonby. And the all-Hawloor League team.

All right. What car do they take to get to the ballpark? What? A Toyota Rav Gore. Oh, God. Okay. Thanks for listening, everybody. That's Chris Sowers.

Wow. I'm Atabazer, and I hope you had a great Halloween. See you later. Talk to you next week.