Fantasy Baseball Today - 11/01: Mock Draft Review - How to Build a Team (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: November 1, 2018

Let's start with some World Series talk and news and notes before we discuss our latest mock draft. What might the NYY outfield look like next year? ... Getting into our 12-team, H2H Points mock draft (10:30). First we review Rounds 1-4. Check out where Max Scherzer went. Did Paul Goldschmidt go too late? Did Ronald Acuna go too early? ... A look at how each Fantasy owner went about constructing their team (35:16). We review the first four picks for each squad with grades and debates ... Email us 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

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris. Never too early for a mock draft. A 12-team points league mock draft, to be exact. Welcome, everybody.

We've got a problem here. I'm Adam Azar as you know. The problem is Scott. White is our baseball analyst. He's so wrong about so many things now. I just... Wow. I don't know if I can trust him with anything anymore.

Wow. Man. Yeah. That's what I'm wrong. So what am I wrong about this time? I mean, you thought, you really thought that the Reds thought, that the Dodgers had a chance to win the World Series? They had no chance ever, ever. Oh, come on.

Their team was loaded. Of course they had a chance. They had no chance. Never ever. I mean, it's kind of. of a, it's an argument you can't really win or lose. They could win the world. They could have won the World Series if things happened differently.

Yeah, but you with your Pythagorean win totals, there was like one worse than the Red Sox? They were clear, they were far and away the best team in the National League. I know they had only the third or fourth best record, whatever it was, but they were the best. They, uh, if any team from the NL was going to give the Red Sox a fight, it was them. and I think only Like they could have won two of the games they lost, right? Like it was It was decided right at the end, wasn't it?

Well I mean obviously that's not the way it played out And so it doesn't really matter But no Game four was like that I don't think this was I don't think this was one of the all-time Lopsided World Series matchups now

Oh it was quite It was What is this guy? What is this guy talking about? You know what? He's better at fantasy baseball I mean, part of the problem is they didn't start Max Muncie and Cody Bellinger the first two games, right? Two of their best hitters.

First of all, the fact that they had the choice not to start them says a lot about how much depth they had, more than the Red Sox. Depth, that's that bingo. Glad you said the word depth. Depth really doesn't matter that much in the playoffs, especially bullpen depth. The reason the Red Sox looked a little vulnerable. Bullpen depth doesn't matter in the playoffs when starting pitchers. are going two, three innings at a time? It depends because the Red Sox have, they don't have great bullpen depth,

but they used the same guys over and over again plus Nativaldi, plus Chris Sale, plus David Price in their bull, but it does matter, Scott. But the Red Sox, this is less about, this is not at all about the Dodgers, this is about the Red Sox. The Red Sox were even better than what we saw in the regular season because they didn't have to use some of their below average middle relievers. They used Barnes, Brazier, Joe Kelly, and their starters, basically. I might be forgetting someone.

And they were unstoppable because their starting pitching wasn't going deep in the games. They didn't use Rick Borsello in relief. Like, I don't think any team could just rely on any one of its pitchers to be a shut down reliever all of a sudden. But of Aldi, I had some experience in that role and obviously throw. was hard. David Price has been, you know, that's how he was introduced to the majors was as a playoff reliever for the race. So he had some experience in that role. But, you know, it was, it was obviously, well, the Red Sox were obviously well managed in the playoffs and did some things, introduced some new ideas that we may seem more of going forward, especially since it worked.

Perfectly managed in the playoffs. I don't think that, like this, this series could, have very well gone seven games. It could have very well ended with the Dodgers winning. It didn't. But, you know, if they're playing every, like, if the Dodgers and Red Sox were to play, you know, five games, five times in a row. I don't think the Red Sox would win four out of five every time.

No, they'd probably win four out of four most of the time. Scott, also, you're just so wrong about the Halloween movie. It is so good. and I watched it on Wednesday night to get in the Halloween spirit and I really just love it. It's so good. And I've seen it so many times

and it still scare me. It actually did spook me a little bit. But that's, you know what? That's Scott White for you. Here are some, how was your Halloween, Scott? Was it good? It was good.

Yeah. Yeah, I got to enjoy. I still got it. I got a nice big bag of candy here that wasn't dispensed. Some of it, some of it was collected from the youngster, you know, because he can't, he can only have so much, right?

Yeah, of course. I, you know, I was selective. I left him at least one of everything, but I got my own little bag here. What about you? What about you? Do you take the, uh, how many months is he now? Three and a half. Three and a half months.

So you carry him around in a little costume. Yeah, he was, you know, he wore a pumpkin t-shirt with a little hat, a little pumpkin hat. Um, pretty typical. But yeah, we went with, uh, nieces and nephews and, you know, my wife's sister and brother-in-law walked around. It was fun. We had a good time. And big regret, I don't know how this happened.

I'm going to have to go to the store and rectify this. Somehow, I did not have one Reese's peanut butter cup. Not one. I really had almost no candy. I had a little bag of Skittles and some M&Ms and not one peanut butter cup. Yeah, I mean, you could just go to the store. It's not, I don't know. It doesn't taste the same when you do that.

It doesn't. It does it. I got some extras here, you know, some Reese's. Oh, Nesley's Crunch. Okay. My son just tried that at lunch because I was singing to him the Nestle's Crunch jingle. So, you know, one thing led to another, and he's eating a Nestle's crunch. Oh, okay.

But, yeah, no, I got all, you know, you should come down. I can share my Reese's with you. I am while I'll be in Fort Lauderdale next week, Scott. Save me a peanut butter cup. Delicious. All right. News and notes. The Astros Decline Brian McCann's option.

so he is a free agent. Nobody likes Craig Counsel, maybe, with a question mark. Because Milwaukee's hitting coach, pitching coach, and bullpen coach have all left the team. Suspicious. I don't know what that's all about. I don't know what to make of that. You think that if it was a lot, you know, if they were becoming managers or something, that's one thing. But a lateral move for a team that's exciting and on the up and up, that's a little strange.

Yeah, yeah. It could be like a B.O. issue that nobody you wanted to bring up. bring up with him? I don't know. We'll say. The Yankees resigned Brett Gardner. I can't imagine he's going to play as much as he did last year. Let's get a little, uh, let's get a little Clint Frazier out there, Scott White. It's got Clint Frazier. They declined an option, right, for more, and then signed him for less, which, yeah, I think even Brett Gardner recognizes he might be running out of steam here. Yeah, I hope Clint Frazier. Look, he probably, this move probably would have happened midway through last year.

if Fraser didn't keep having concussion issues, so hopefully he can bounce back from those. It's a lot of power potential, and as if the Yankees needed another right-handed slugger in their outfield, right? Yeah, I guess so. If only Gary Sanchez could play the outfield. Oakland exercises option on Fernando Rodney.

The Pirates declined options on Jung Ho Gong and Josh Harrison. The Indian signed Leonis Martine. He only played six games for the Indians. He was very good in those six games. he dealt with a scary bacterial infection. So the great news here is that his baseball career will resume. And the National signed Trevor Rosenthal to a two-year deal. Interesting, Scott.

Interesting. Trevor Rosenthal was, you know, he still walked some batters, but it was kind of manageable for a closer. He struck out like 14 and a half per nine in 2016. Yeah, it's interesting. Rosenthal to the Nats. Yeah, he was really looking like he was finally emerging. as the elite clothes, everybody hoped he'd be right before suffering the injury that required Tommy John's surgery.

Like he said, the walks were down. You know, strikeouts were getting to an elite level. Yeah. But I don't think he's overtaking Sean Doolittle, especially fresh off Tommy John surgery. And maybe if Sean Doolittle has another injury plagued year, you know, that could get kind of shaky. But, you know, they're paying him a lot, but I don't think he's really. a threat. Okay. And David Price opted into the four years and $127 million remaining on his contract. Eduardo Nunez also opted in to a $5 million player option. Kind of wanted him out of the way for Devers' sake,

but it's not like they were platooning in the regular season or anything. And then there's this from the Boston Globe, just about an arrest during the victory parade. Patrick Connolly, 19 of East Sandwich, faces several charges in the Cora incident. A law enforcement official said Cora wasn't seriously hurt when he was struck. A police report said Connolly told the arresting officers, quote, I love Cora. I didn't mean to hit him, end quote. He later allegedly said at booking, quote, that was stupid. I wasn't trying to hit Cora, end quote.

Connolly was holding a can of natural light beer when police confronted him and several witnesses fingered him as the culprit record show. He threw a beer at Alex Cora and Alex Cora's daughter as they were like driving by in the victory parade. And he's from East Sandwich also. What does that mean? What is with the names of cities in Massachusetts? It's just East sandwich? East sandwich? Yeah, it's West Sandwich.

Now that's where it's. Oh, that's the wrong side. Yeah, that's the right side of the tracks. The east side of the tracks. They throw stuff. Let's get into the mock draft, Scott White. So it was a 12-team mock draft. And I think we're going to do it in.

two parts. So today we'll look at rounds one through four. And since we already did Scott's top 24 and a lot of the players are going to be the same, we'll go through it quickly. But I want to talk about rounds one through four. And I don't think we've done this before, but I want to look at all 12 teams and their first four picks. So we'll get an idea of how each team went about building its squad with its first four picks. Again, 12 team head-to-head points, five starting pitchers, two relief pitchers, catcher, first base, second base, third base, shortstop, three outfield, one utility, and then five bench spots. So we've been playing this type of league for years and years and years, very fun.

And pitchers get a lot of points, especially the innings-eaters. So right off the bat, we see some pitcher favoritism because Mike Trout is the number one pick, and Max Scherzer is the number two pick to Chris Mitchell. Yeah. Shurzer, too. Yeah. So somebody who doesn't work for CBS, obviously, and I feel like when we get outsiders in this format, that tends to happen more. This is the most popular format on CBS, I'm pretty sure, but it's not even really close on other sites.

So you don't see a lot of these mocks represented much on the Internet as a whole. But, you know, we all kind of have an understanding among us when we do them that pitchers don't need to go that high. And the second pitcher didn't end up going until the 13th overall pick. So, you know, if you really want the top pitcher, you obviously can't expect to get them with your second pick if you're picking second overall. But I don't see how you pass up bets. I don't see how you pass up bets or Ramirez, frankly, who went fourth. Trout Betts and Ramirez should be the first three picks in all leagues. If you want to talk about Scherzer after that, maybe we could do that.

Yeah, it is a good point, though, that if Chris didn't take Scherzer there, he wasn't getting Scherzer, he wasn't getting Kluber, he wasn't getting Seale. He wasn't getting DeGrom. Yeah. He could have taken Clayton Kershaw. You know, he could have taken Aeronola. He could have taken Garrett Cole. Those were some earlier. He wasn't getting Verlander or Snell either.

So it's an interesting choice, and you could win that way. I don't particularly love his team. And if you have to begin with a pitcher Like it's bad luck to get picked number two, right? Because I don't feel like you can justify it over those three hitters specifically. Trout Betts and Jose Ramirez. And you should trade down to number four. If you can, yeah.

Or lower. Sure, right. Yeah. And, you know, his team is interesting. I said we'd go, we'd look at each team first four picks. I thought we'd go through the first four rounds first. but this is an interesting starting point. So Mitchell takes Scherzer at two overall.

And then his next two picks are Chris Bryant and John Carlos Stanton. I mean, these are top 15 picks last year. So if they bounce back and he has Bryant, Stanton, and Scherzer, he might have the best team. As it is right now, I don't love the picks. No, I don't because third base is deep. Bryant's eligible in the outfield, too. He may end up playing him there, but, I mean, his season was pretty much wrecked by his shoulder injury that doesn't have a clear diagnosis.

And, I mean, there's no assurance that he's going to be all better next year. So I don't have, like, I feel like both of his first two picks were both reaches. Scherzer at two overall and Bryant in the second round. Standing at the start of the third, that's fine. But, yeah, I don't love the way he started this drive. There were two hitters that actually, I'd say three hitters that actually went after both Brian and Stanton in this format that sort of reflect, okay, huge point right here that I didn't even think about, but here we go. Sort of reflect the reliance on pitching now and how starting pitching is getting pushed up. Because how many pitchers went in the first two rounds, Scott? Scherzer went in round one, Sale 13, the Grom 14, Kluber 15, Verlander, Snell, and,

and Kirshaws. That's seven pitchers? Yep. And then Aronola. Six of them in round two, for what it's worth. Round two was half pitchers. And then there was one in the first round. Yeah, and Aronola was the first pick of round three.

So eight pitchers in the top 25 picks. So if Chris had started with Max Scherzer and then he had taken, for me, and you agree or disagree, you know, up to you, Scott. But if he had taken Charlie Blackman and Freddie Freeman with his next two picks, I actually would have really liked that start. And I think that it's easier to justify the Scherzer pick. I like the combo of Blackman and Freeman, or even Blackman and Rizzo in a points league.

Rizzo's very safe in a points league ahead of Brian and Stanton. If you're picking second in a head-to-head league, on a 12th team league, I don't think you can reasonably expect Charlie Blackman to be available to you in round two. Because you're right, if he had made these picks a little differently, Blackman 2, Freeman 3, it would look a lot better. But that's more because Blackman fell to him than because I think it was right to take

sure it was their second overall. Yeah, I just wonder if we're going to see so many people prioritize pitching that maybe it's not Charlie Blackman, but it's someone we didn't expect that shouldn't be there in round 3, late round 2 or early round 3 that is there. And it makes it easier to take – I think we should have to see more mock drafts. but is it going to be easier to take Scherzer 2, 3, 4 overall, and expect to get two good hitters with your next two picks. But again, I mean, like, I could buy that argument if you're picking fourth,

but you're passing up Mookie Betts, you know? It's true. It's true, yeah. Yeah, all right, so back to the draft then. Let's see. So Scher was two. Trout, Scher bets Ramirez. I took Ramirez.

Heath took Francisco Lindor, Chris took Noon Aronado, 6th. J.D. Martinez 7. Yes, Chris Towers. Our Chris. Doesn't go on the... Doesn't go on the podcast. Let's not put the Scherzer pick on Chris Towers. No, it's Chris Mitchell.

He would have been caught dead doing that. Towers took Aaron Hado. Then Jady Martinez, Aaron Judge, Alex Bregman, Al-Tuve Machado, and then Scott had the 12th pick. He took Bryce Harper. Aaron Judge was definitely earlier than you had him in your top 24 rankings. he went eighth overall, Aaron Judge. Yeah, and this was Mike Cuchera who made that pick.

And I've gotten more feedback online that people think I have Judge Too Low. What's going on in the background there, Scott? Sounds like a vacuum, right? I'm not alone. It sounds like you're being abducted by aliens. Does it? Yeah. Okay.

Well, I should have gone with that because that's more interesting. I don't know what's going on behind me, Adam. A little freaked out. I don't see how you could justify taking Judge over Harper in this format with as much as Harper walks. I mean, Judge does too, but the strikeouts, there's no comparison. Harper was a stud in this format last year, even though the banning average was kind of low. I think he was 11th in this format overall at hitter. I don't know who's quite a stud.

He was the number 11 hitter in points. leagues. Let me do the per game number. Yeah. Aaron Judge before the injury had, this was Aaron Judge, I gave this stat out a few weeks ago, but this was Aaron Judge's 162 game pace before the injury. He played 99 games before hurting his wrist. 285 with 43 home runs, 100 RBIs, 115 runs, 10 steals, 112 walks, 225 strikeouts, and 947 OPS with 100 RBIs and 115 runs. I don't know that Harper is going to beat him in anything other than strikeouts. Well, Harper was 346 last year and Judge was 335. So a notable difference. that was with Harper having bad bad bit luck you know Harper should not have hit 249 like he did

Judge is probably not going to hit better than the 280 he did yeah I think Harper I think the upsides clearly higher for Harper I agree the upsides higher for Harper but we're talking about Harper's upside well and Harper was better this past year right yeah but Judge well I don't I don't think he was better I don't think he was better than Judge if you take out Judge after the wrist injury. If that's fair or not.

I bet it was close. The year before that, Judge, had a 1049 OPS. Judge is a good example of a guy that could not possibly repeat his numbers, but could still be very good. Because in 2017, he was the number four hitter in this format, number three in Roto. He had a 1049 OPS.

He lost almost 1,000 points on his OPS. He lost more than that. But if you just look at the pre-risk injury stats, Judge lost about 1,000 points on his stats and on his OPS, and he was still really, really good. All right, so that's round one. I'll read it again, and then we'll move on. It was Trout, Scherzer, Betz, Ramirez, Lindor, Aeronado,

J.D. Martinez, Judge, Bregman, Altuve. Best pick of the draft, 10th overall. Machado and Harper. And then Scott, you took Chris Sale. and then so we get a little pitcher run. Sale de Grom Kluber to start round two. Scott already told you that half of round two is starting pitchers. Sailed to Grom Klobler.

Christian Yelich, Ronald Acuna. 16th overall. That's bold. 13, 14, 15, 16th overall, pardon me. Yep. Trey Turner, Verlander, Snell to Heath, Chris took Verlander.

Then Snell to Heath. Goldschmidt. to me, Trevor Story, Chris Bryant, and Clayton Kershaw. I think Yelich and Akuna, who went back to back from two non-CBS dudes, Lance and Mike, are the only two that really stick out to me, like, not that they're bad, just that they're different. Yelich and Akunia. I have more, I mean, Yelich. I have no problem with anybody taking Yelich this early.

Do you know Chris Towers would? Yeah, and I understand why. I think it's just different sensibilities. Like, is Yelich going to be as good next year? No. But he's going to be, like, there's not a lot of downside to Yelich. And if you buy that, you know, the homerun increase was less a total fluke than it was, you know, it owed something to the park change. And he's at least a 25 to 30 homer guy with Milwaukee.

if he's not quite a 36 homer guy, then I think it's easy to justify him at this point. Acuna is definitely asking a lot from a largely unproven player, but if he's the guy he was in August and September, it'll obviously work out for Mike Cuchera, who took him after taking Judge in round one. I'd rather have Trey Turner. I'd probably rather have one of the aces.

I'd rather have Paul Goldschman, who went 21st overall. I just think there's not, I just think the risk reward is more in their favor than Acuna, the risk reward balance. Working through an audio issue, apologies for that. And what also, I think 19 picks after Acuna, Scott took Juan Soto. So, yeah, much lower. Right, that big gap should be much smaller. And I think it was more a case of Ocuna going too high rather than Soto going too low, especially in this format. That gap should be pretty small because Soto is the plate discipline monster, which is obviously more beneficial in this format.

And in this format, Acuna's stolen bases aren't as beneficial as they are in Roto. Sayle, DeGrom, Kluber, Yelich, Acuna, Turner, Verlander, Snell. You good with Snell, Tehith in round two? I have Kershaw ahead of him, and Kershaw went four picks later. But that's all I can quibble about there. I think it's fine. Goldsmith's story, Chris Bryant, Clayton Kershaw. I'll tell you about round three in just a second,

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Terms and conditions apply and offers are subject to change without notice. Visit lightstream.com slash strike for more information. On to round three. Aaron Nola, first pick of round three. Okay. Yep. All right. I think that's the right order.

He was great last year. His top five pitcher. Yeah. He was. I mean, I'd rather have Snell because there's clearly more strikeout potential there. I think among the pitchers who pitched like Aces, like Zion contenders in 2018, Nola is the most worrisome to me. because it seemed like he had,

um, it seemed like he had some good bad luck, some good home run luck that maybe he can't repeat. And, uh, he doesn't have the huge strikeout rate to compensate for that. I, I still think he's an ace, but he's a little more worrisome than somebody likes now or,

um, even, even like, uh, well, I took Gary Cole. I think I would have taken Cole over Nola. Cole over Nola

Cola Yeah that's what I was thinking too I was trying to think how to work that into a joke Yeah I mean the next pitcher off the board is Garrett Cole three picks later to me And then there are no pitchers until Trevor Bauer Goes six or seven picks after that Yeah

So all right so Nola was the number five pitcher In this format last year he had over a strikeout per inning He threw more than 200 innings he was awesome Nola Stanton Charlie Blackman Just too late 27th overall, too late. Garrett Cole, Freddie Freeman.

And I took Garrett Cole there, and I just thought, I need a pitcher. Like, I need a pitcher. I was hoping Verlander would fall to me in round two. Chris took him two picks ahead. So Cole was my ace. Yeah, I think that's fine. I mean, and I think that's the right approach. If you had waited longer, let's see, you would have missed out on Severino.

You would have had to go for, like, Carrasco or Noah Cinderguard. They were gone. I think that's too risky. They were gone, Scott. Oh, okay. So you would have missed out on them, too. Granky. Granky would have been the next pick.

Strasbourg. Yeah. I mean, I think there's a teardrop. There's another tier drop right there after Granky, so maybe you could have gotten by with Granky as your number one, but then you get into Bumgarner, Strasberg, Clevenger after that. Those are clearly not ace material.

Right. Yeah, it's important to have an ace. So, Gary Cole, Freddie Freeman, Anthony Rizzo, I love that pick. I love the Rizzo pick. Yeah, that's good. I mean, Freeman, I think, is even more of a value. But in points leagues, Rizzo, Rendon,

in the middle of round three, I think that's right where they should go. So Freeman and Rizzo went to Heath and Chris, and then Rendon. You think Rendon, seventh pick of round three is a good pick? You'd be amazed how he finished. And a lot of it has to do with this format

and how little he strikes out. But he was better on a per game basis than Machado. Aronado, Carpenter, Baez. Wow. Yeah, he was, it was, it was Jose Ramirez, Alex Breggman, and Anthony Rendon, and head-to-head points per game. That was the top three. How?

He had 44 doubles. That's very good. In 136 games. He had 24 home runs with only two steals, 55 walks, the 82 strikeouts. Like, that doesn't even look like there's good enough ratio to... There's not that big of a difference between him and Breggman in terms of ability. I mean, Bregman, the biggest thing I see is, you know, Bregman had more walks and strikeouts this year, but Rendon's done that in the past. You know, Rendon could turn in a 30-homer year like Bregman did this year.

I don't think there's as much separating them as it might appear. And part of it's, part of its two, Rendon played only 136 games. Yeah. All right, so Rendon goes after Freeman and Rizzo, then Carlos Correa, Andrews. Andrew Benintendi, Javier Baez, Trevor Bauer, and Juan Soto. What do you think about Baez, third to last pick of round three? I think it's fine. He'll probably go more like the end of round two in a Roto League where you don't worry so much about

how bad the strikeout to walk ratio is. Sure. Although you probably should worry about it some even in that format because it says something about the kind of downside he has. You know, it doesn't have the direct impact on production that it does in this format. All right, we go to round four. Scott took Juan Soto at the end of round three. He starts round four with Patrick Corbyn.

Then Chris Davis. Matt Carpenter. Again, good format for Matt Carpenter. Luis, then we have four pitchers in a row. Severino, Walker Bueller, Carlos Carrasco, and Noah Cindergarde. It's hard to argue with Walker Bueller here. I mean, he pitched well enough to be in this discussion with Severino, Rasko and Cinderguard, didn't he?

I mean, it's a little bit of a leap. He's right outside of this group for me, because he hasn't, and I think it's more critical at this time in baseball history than ever when, you know, I don't trust a pitcher to throw 180 plus innings until he does it, you know?

Yeah. And Bueller hasn't, and these others do with regularity. I mean, I guess Cindergarde doesn't with regularity, but he has in the past, and the Mets certainly push him that hard when he is healthy. And when he's not. Yeah, and Bueller, I mean, we got to really look at the innings, the jump that he took.

I mean, he was supposed to be on an innings limit, and they just couldn't shut him down. He was pitching too well. He pitched all the way into the World Series. So, you know, that's the – I think he threw 98 innings last year, so, you know, right at a – right about 100. So what did he finish with this year? Do you have that pulled up? I don't. I'm going to let you do that. I'll read the rest of the picks.

So it was Patrick Corbyn, Chris Davis, Matt Carpenter, Luis Severino, Walker Bueller, Carlos Carrasco, Noah Cindergarde. And then, you know, I'd love to call it a homer pick. It probably was a homer pick because, you know, Heath was going to do it. But it's fine. Witt-Mariefield to Heath Cummings. I took George Springer. Of my first four picks, George Springer is the one I'm most excited about. Zach Granky, Madison Bumgarner, and Reese Hoskins, round out, round four. Do you have the innings jump? 161. Yeah, he went over.

Big time. Including the playoffs? It was more than that. It was more than 161 because I didn't include his minor league numbers from this year. Oh, yeah. It was 176. Yeah, he basically doubled his in. 176 after having 98 last year.

Not quite doubled, but not too far from it. That's concerning. It is. He's closer to 180 than I thought he was. So he practically did throw the 180. So that argument, I guess, doesn't apply as much. But, yeah, that big jump is concerning. Yeah, well, I mean, 180 regular season is different than 180 throughout with the postseason.

It just is. It's more time to do it. Yeah, so Walker, Mueller will be interesting. He's clearly a stud. He's just phenomenal. His number is, yeah, his numbers in the second half were crazy. It was a weird thing because you're watching him at the start and he's pitching well, but you're like, where are the swinging

strikes, is how well he's pitching just a mirage, and then it turned out the swinging strike rate was the mirage that got corrected, and then he got better because of it, you know? Right. It's crazy. All right, so I do want to look at how each team, each fantasy the owner built their respective teams. I do want to tell you about Robin Hood, though. Oh, yeah, I wonder if anybody dressed up as Robin Hood.

Maybe the character, but not the app. The app is awesome. Oh, yeah, this is a new app, Scott. It's not that new, but it's a new sponsor of ours. And it's an investment app. And it's really, it's different. Okay, first of all, there's no commission, no fees that you have to pay. That's great.

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Strike. Robinhood.com. You can get a free stock. All right. First picking the draft, the only person who didn't use his actual name in the draft, and the draft room, Scott. Instead, he went by Donkey Teeth. I'm told that's his real name. Oh, okay. Donkey Teeth has Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw, Aaronnola, and Reese Hoskins. Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw, Aranola, Reese Hoskins.

Went with two starting pitchers and two hitters. He's from Razball. For some reason, nobody at Razball uses their real name. I don't know if they're all multi-millionaires or something and can't have that kind of attention. I don't know. I don't know what the deal. Well, if they are, I am going to ask Razbaugh if they need a podcast host. Because, you know, that'd be nice. So I missed your question. What was the question?

No, just your reaction to the start of his team. Trout, Kershaw, Nola, Reese Hoskins. It's hard to tell this early on. It feels like, and I had the same issue. Like, I feel like having done this first draft and taking a pitcher with my second and third pick like he did, I feel like it ends up being a little light on hitting, a little lighter on hitting than I'd prefer. Like, I don't know if I just want to use one of my first four picks on a pitchers and then go really picture heavy after that. But maybe my pitching would feel like then.

That's my initial reaction to it, but I think I need to see more before. I know for sure what my approach is going to be with that. Okay. So why don't you give everybody a grade on their first four picks? C being average. Trout, Kershaw. Yeah. Okay, I see it.

Trout, Kershaw, Nola, Hoskins. Well, without seeing any of the others, I'm going to give it a B. Okay. B it is. Chris Mitchell, Scherzer, Chris Bryant, Stanton, Bumgarner. I think there's a lot of bust potential here. Yeah. That's a D.

Okay, D for Scherzert, Bryant, Stanton, Bungarner. Notice that each of the first two teams have two starting pitchers with their first four picks. Team three, not the case. Igor Mello did not take a starting pitcher until round four. He has Mookie Betts, Trevor Story, Charlie Blackman, and Zach Granky. You could have gone really wrong for him. Granky may not have been there late in round four in a lot of drafts, but the way it went, This is the best so far.

I'll give it a B plus. I may upgrade it when I see some of the others. Trevor Story, Charlie Blackman, and Zach Rankie. And, okay, so I was next. I had the fourth pick. And my first two picks were hitters. And round three, I took Garrett Cole. We already talked about that.

I need a pitcher. I got to take Garrett Cole. If Charlie Blackman had been on the board, as he was for Igor, picking third, if Charlie Blackman had been on the board in round three, I don't know if I would have taken Garrett Cole. Cole over Charlie Black, but I almost feel like you have to divert from your I Need a Starting Pitcher now strategy to take someone who was a top five hitter in 2017. But then you got Strasbourg as your ace, you know?

I know. I guess I'm thinking like I'll make a trade or something like that. I never wanted to go into a season thinking I have to make a trade. No, I just don't want to pass up. I understand. No, I understand. Charlie Blackman should not have been there in round three. Well, it's an overall discussion point of best player available or position.

I would probably be regretting that I didn't take a pitcher in round two. And going ahead and taking the picture and passing up Blackman myself. I think the funny thing is if I would have taken, I took Goldschman around two. I would have taken Blackman right after that, you know, if I were doing hitter rankings, Blackman would have been next on my board. But anyway, my team was Jose Ramirez. Paul Goldsmith, Garrett Cole, and George Springer. I don't feel great about Springer going into next year.

I think this is fine. I think it's a B. I think it's a B. I think you mean A. Well, they're my grades. What do you want? But it's my team, so I think I should be able to influence you a little. Goldschmidt ended up as the number four first baseman.

I think he may be third in points. is fourth in points, third in Roto. But two guys who finish the head of him are Merrifield and Carpenter. And you might not use them at first base? Merrifield, you certainly won't. The other was Freddie Freeman. So Jose Ramirez, Paul Goldsmith,

Garrett Cole, and Springer, I actually do feel good about just in this format, not really in Roto. But the only thing that would change that for me is if he's not batting toward the top of the order. But if he bats toward the top of the order. order. He'll get a ton of plate appearances. He might lead the, he might lead baseball and plate appearances if he stays healthy. He'll score runs. And that is important in a points league. So that was my justification. All right. So an A for me. Scott gave it a B, but I'm giving

it an A. Heath took Lindor, Snell, Freeman, and Merrifield. Lindor, Snell, Freeman, Merrifield. I like it. Very good, but... Yeah. Yeah, good. I'm going to upgrade the Betz story Blackman Grinky to an A so that I can make this one an A minus because I don't think it's quite as good as that, but I like it a lot.

I think Freeman is a good value, the third pick, and Whitmeryfield, it's always tough to invest that much in stolen bases because I feel like it's a, a stat that you can't necessarily expect to carry over from year to year. But second base is trash, and this is somebody who, if he just is the same guy, again, totally lives up to this before you even consider the position scarcity angle. I don't like that I had the fourth pick and you gave me a B,

and you gave the third and fifth picks, A's, and A minuses? that means that in your opinion I really failed so no that's that I mean it's you got a B this is I don't want to be

this is you are talking from a place of someone who always expected to get A's in school and so B in your mind is failure and that's just not the way it works a B is a B you're a B so listen

if I said if I emailed you and I said I was going to read your email on today's show. I'm going to read it next week. We're not going to have time for emails today. I apologize. I got it to go at some point.

We'll get through this segment. But I'll save the emails for next week. So keep them coming. Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Just don't want you to hang on until the end of the show if that's what you're waiting for. No emails today. We'll read them next week. All right, Chris, at number six.

This is my favorite team, Scott. So I would downgrade Igor to an A-minus, Heath, to a B-plus, and now you have your A. Or you can give it an A-plus. Chris Towers, has Aaronado, Verlander, Rizzo, and Cinderguard. That's a B-plus. What? Very good.

No, how is this worse than the other teams? This is Aeronado. This is your fan? Yeah, my fave. I guess I guess I don't have a lot of confidence in Cindergarde to stay healthy. Look, a B-plus is still a very good grade. Chris Towers clearly did not lose this league with these first four picks.

But I just don't, they don't feel as secure to me as, some of the others has the Betts Story Blackman Grinky or the Lendor Snell Freeman, Maryfield. Betts Story Blackman Drinky. Which is not about secure with Maryfield. It's just, it's really nice to be able to fill the second base with the one of the few studs that's there. All right. Betts is safe and great. Story a year ago was like a 10th round pick.

Now he's a second round pick. Blackman, you said yourself, losing his athleticism, can't play center field anymore, wasn't as good last year. Granky was almost bad on the road, has a ton of mileage. I think there's bust potential there. This is what I'm talking about. What is the one with Scott White? He doesn't know up from down these days. All right.

I will downgrade that to an A minus. Thank you. That's story of Blackman Granky. And so now they're only a third of a grade apart. You live with that. Yeah, I guess so. Give and take. All right, seventh pick is Jeff Tobin.

J.D. Martinez. Tray Turner, Anthony Rendon, Carlos Carrasco. That's a good one. It's a good team. It's solid, yep. It's a B-plus. J.D. Martinez, Trey Turner, Anthony Rendon, Carlos Carrasco. Let's take a peek ahead.

Did he take another pitcher in round five? He did. He took James Paxton. Okay, Carrasco Paxton. Yeah, Carasca's pretty weak as an ace. but I mean somebody's going to be weak there

and I don't think Martinez I know Trey Turner in round two looks like a good value and Rendona in round three I was fine where he went too so you know

sometimes you're just confined by by when your turn comes up Mike Couchera at 8 has definitely the most interesting team Aaron Judge Ronald Acuna Carlos Correa

Walker Bueller Aaron Judge Akuner Kurea and Bueller. I think that's another D. I think it's a lot of needless risk here. There isn't. I mean, Judge is fairly safe, I guess,

but I'd feel better about him in round two, so it was a reach. And then I wouldn't consider Akunia, Korea, or Bueller, safe. It could go well for him. I mean, they all obviously have first, well, I don't know that I'd say Bueller has first round upside, but he has ace upside and Acuna Correa

have first round upside. But it just seems like it could go very wrong. And he may have lost his draft with these first four picks. Lance Brasdowski, Alex Bregman, Yelich, Benintendi, who's basically just like Yelich, and Luis Severino. Bregman, Yelich, Benintendi, and Severino. It's kind of boring. It's good, though.

It's a good team. I feel like a really... Yeah, it's a low downside first three hitters there. I'm pregnant Yelich, Ben, Tendi. But I don't know that they have huge ceiling. Well, I mean, Yelich just was... I don't know. Maybe it's unfair to say Yelich had a low ceiling

after the year he just had, I guess. But we don't expect him to hit that many home runs again. So you know what I mean, right? Yeah, I do like the Severino pick. I have a lot of faith in Severino. Yeah, I... I think that's fine in round four. I think that's fine.

I'll give this a... It's another B. Okay. Boring grade for a boring start. Phil Penebchek picked 10th, and he took Jose Altuve. Outstanding. You don't really need the rest of his team.

He got an A. No, Altuve, then Kluber, Javier Baez, and Matt Carpenter. I think it's like a C. Really? Yeah. I would be a little disappointed if my first four picks this way, went this way. It's hardly a disaster.

But I don't expect Byezer Carpenter to be as good next year as they were this year. You know, Cory Klooper's getting up there in age and he showed some warning signs, and you're really hoping Altuve after knee surgery starts running again. Maybe he will. I don't see as much downside here as I do for the Judge Acuna Correa Bueller or the Scherzer Bryant-Stanton Bungarner. But there's a fair amount of downside without two big gluber-by as Carpenter. All right, go to pick 11, George Maselli, takes Manny Machado, Jacob de Grom, Trevor Bauer, and Chris Davis makes my voice get higher because I'm...

so intrigued by it. Manny Machado, Jacob de Grom, Trevor Bauer, and Chris Davis. What do you think? It's a B. Yeah.

Yeah. I actually like Bauer more than Cole, though it's six and one half a dozen of the other, I guess. I think he's going to get overlooked some in drafts, though, just because he missed the last six weeks

with that broken leg. Yeah, I don't know. I hope he does. If he didn't, he might have won Sai Young. He's awesome, Trevor Bauer. Now, George took Bauer one pick before you took Juan Soto, the end of round three, pick 36. So he could have taken Soto instead of Bauer, and then he did take Chris Davis. No, I'd rather have Bauer than Soto.

You'd rather have Bauer than Soto? But what I was going to say is he could have taken Soto. taken, all right, he could have had Juan Soto and Luis Severino or Bauer and Chris Davis. Which combo do you like better? Or I'll just give me, you took Patrick Corbyn ahead of Luis Severino, so which combo do you like better? Soto and Corbyn or Chris Davis and Bauer? I think. I think I prefer Bauer and Chris Davis.

You like Chris Davis 38th overall? Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good. Let me make sure my rankings don't contradict that. So I have a top 600 here for this format, and I have Chris Davis 36th. What do you know? Wow. All right.

So he got great value with 38th overall. And then here's Scott's first four picks. Bryce Harper, Chris Sale, Juan Soto, and Patrick Corbyn. Harper, Chris Sale, Juan Soto, and Patrick Corbyn. Yeah, I'm going to give it a B-minus. I don't love it. Oh, how come? I don't know. I feel like...

I know what Juan Soto did. I think there's a lot of upside. I'm a little worried about how high the ground ball rate is. It just doesn't feel like a comfortable choice to be my second best hitter. And then there's also the fact that I don't have an infielder yet. But that's so deep, isn't it? If we go deeper into the draft, we'll see that it does become a problem for me. Okay, okay.

Well, I think it was pretty telling that the Red Sox did not use Chris Sale to start game five. They went with Price instead. He wasn't healthy. He wasn't fully healthy, at least. So there have to be some red flags and not some red flags, some cautionary yellow flags, I don't know. Checkered flags, something. But we just have to keep an eye on Chris Sale.

Luckily, you're not drafting now. Checkered flag means you won, right? Yeah, I guess so. I don't know. I'm always waving the white flag, Scott. So, yeah, so Scott has Harper, Sale, Soto, and Corbyn, he gives himself a B-minus. That means, I have a better grade than Scott White. And Scott White was the teacher.

So what does that tell you, ladies and gentlemen? I don't know. Thank you very much for listening. We will talk more about this draft next week. Hopefully we will have Chris Towers on. And we will read your emails at Fantasy Baseball at cbsi.com. Adios, Mr. Scott White. Have a lovely evening

I'm gonna eat some wreaths now Save what Save what don't forget Yep well gone All right everybody Thanks again See you later