Fantasy Baseball Today - 11/13: Roto Mock Draft Review Part One! (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: November 13, 2019

Welsh, Scott and Adam break down part one of the early CBS roto mock draft. Surprising picks, like Betts over Yelich/Acuna, Soto in the top 10 and the shortage of starting pitchers in the first 3 rounds. Plus some head scratching third round picks that Scott takes to task. Did Mike start the Fier or do Snitches get stitches? Astros cheat and the guys discuss! 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. One, one, pitch, basketball pulled and cash, Albury, corner. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. With fantasy! Now, here's Adam, Scott Heath, and Chris. Welcome in, friends, it is Fantasy Baseball.

Today, we have got CBS Mock Draft Breakdown going for you. I am Chris Welsh, piloted with. Scott White and Mr. Adam Azer. All three of us in the house, the three-headed monster, we are back to break down this mock draft, but before anyone else speaks here, I have to ask, this is my line of the night, is Mike playing with fires,

or do snitches get stitches, Adam Azer? Oh, there's going to be some retribution, I guess, at some point, but they're such cheaters. They're such cheaters. Oh my gosh, they cheat so much. Take the trophy away. Take it away, boys. Scott, put it in the pocket.

Take it away. How offended are you? Now, what I'm so amazed about, and as much as I can hate Twitter and hate social media sometimes, because it could be very draining in our lives, moments like today, Tuesday, as we're recording this,

where you get this breaking news where a major league player is snitching on a major league baseball team about cheating. Twitter never really seems to disappoint because on the surface, we would look and we would say, wow, hey, a player's doing the right thing. He's outing a team that continuously has these type of issues.

Yet Twitter never disappoints, Scott, and they give us the amount of people that are mad at Mike fires for being a snitch. Yeah, I guess there was some of that. There's a lot of it. What are you talking about? There's a lot of it. Like, Twitter is never the place to go for a nuanced take. It's extreme reactions on both sides.

of whatever the issue happens to be. I don't know. I mean, like obviously teams cheat, right? And the ones who have teams that have outsized success get outsized attention, outsized scrutiny, right? Like we've seen this with the Patriots. Let's come on now. We've seen this with the Patriots and the NFL.

Teams that get caught are. aren't necessarily the worst offenders. I mean, not necessarily teams, not even necessarily in a sports context. You can apply this to anything. It sounds like you're saying there's always someone that has to be a scapegoat to a bigger problem that is league-wide,

but the Houston Astros are the poster child for it. And real quick, by the way, because I didn't set it up, but most people know the story. It's that an athletic article was posted, I believe it by John Heyman, if I'm remembering it correctly, that essentially outs the Houston Astros

for putting up a serious, of video equipment to be able to monitor the pitch calls. And what came about in it in the article that Mike Fires starts talking about, and then Danny Farquhar is in the article as well, that says, and there's some video out there that multiple people have done breakdowns about, not only was video equipment used to get pitches, but furthermore, you can see in some video during a playoff series where the Houston Astros were going so far as to use

banging of bats against the dugout for changeups. And that was an amazing thing. And there's video coverage of it where every time a changeup hit, it was almost in real time. You would hear the team with bats and Farquhar, who's now a single-A pitching coach with the White Sox. He kind of figured it out while it was going on. They changed up their pitch count or their signs,

and it ended up working because they couldn't do it anymore. and Mike fires being not only the person that outs him, but uses his name in the article, allows to use his name that he warned the team, I believe was the Detroit Tigers in 2018, that the Houston Astros did this. It's a big deal. It is really a big deal,

and I'm glad that he did it. I'm glad that he put his name on it, and look, there's just too much cheating. You know, it's like a sport where there's, I think every sport, you know, there's a lot of cheating going on, but this has gotten too far with teams using technology. So, I hope.

I mean, that's where I think the line probably is, right? I mean, definitely. Sign stealing, you know, you can have, or we talk about pitchers tipping their pitches. They had a bad start. Oh, maybe he was tipping his pitches. I mean, if you, if you happen to notice that as a hitter, you may not even be looking for it, but you're not going to use it.

You know, like. It's not cheating at all. No, the sign stealing is not cheating. But when it's done when you've got a camera, putting, you know, giving a feed into the dugout and then players banging trash cans or hitting their bat against the dugout or something that's obviously crossing a line. And it's just so funny because there was so much smoke.

There is so many accusation against the Astros cheating. And now I just don't see how they could possibly deny it. When a former player puts his name on it, it's obvious they're doing it. I'm not naive enough to think they're the only doing it. It's also a question of who's doing, like how far up the ladder this goes. I mean, the piece. The government, Scott.

Well, we know a coach was involved, and there seems to be some speculation that at least some front office personnel had to be involved to set up a feed in the clubhouse or whatever. Well, what was interesting about it was, AJ Hinch made this really, like, pointed comment when someone was asked about what was it, that they were whistling with the Yankees, and it was something along the lines of that. And he got really kind of snarky about it being like, man, if this is all that it took, we would have practiced this more to get the Yankees worked up.

And you look at that now and it looks so much worse. But what you're referring to also in the article is Fires mentions that one hitter who, as he describes, found success on another team that was doing it. And then comes over here and wasn't finding success. And a coach kind of conspired together to make this work. And there's lots of speculation. Brian McCann's been throwing into there. Evan Gaddis. A lot of different guys kind of thrown into that mix.

there's no way that the team doesn't know what's going on. Like it's not two rogue players that created this whole thing. It's a system-wide thing. And it reminds me of the really horrible. I mean, baseball is so rampant with it. Like the unspoken allowed cheating rules where everybody has got crap on their hat and everybody is touching their hat and tipping with the pine tar or whatever it is for grip. No manager really calls each other on it.

And it's just league-wide acceptance of cheating has to stop at some point. And unfortunately, Mike fires looks like a whistleblower, but is going to be treated like a pariah. Maybe. I don't know. I mean, I feel like... You don't think it'll be pushback? You don't think there's going to be... I don't know.

I don't know. Because this is like... Because I think when you take the angle of, oh, he's got this young team that's going into Mid and Made Park and he doesn't want his guys to get destroyed, his pitchers to get destroyed, I think that's a somewhat noble thing to do. And to have the current... You know, I can't stand when a team or a player gets accused of... something and it's probably true and then they go well put your name on it

you know if you're not going to put your name on it then I'm not going to give any credence to it well see put his name on it so I don't think it's fair to treat him as a pariah and I hope that does not happen I'm happy he spoke up and if it was Carlos Belcheron or Brian McCann and they took it from a previous team that I guess that means the Yankees probably were cheating

at some point so well there's there's a Cardinals beat reporter that said he had gotten a lot of information I'm forgetting the Twitter handle now but he had heard a lot of this with the Astros, and he said two other teams that from his sources had said were the worst offenders of this outside of the Astros were the Milwaukee Brewers and the Texas Rangers, I believe, are the two teams that he threw into that.

Oh, they should be fired. He's going to be, it's going to be like a scene in full metal jacket. Mike fires as good and noble as it is. He's going to be, you know, he's going to be beaten with bar soap in a pillowcase. That's what's going to happen. There's no way that the good old boy nature of baseball is. is going to be like, hey, good for you, buddy. Good on you, Mike.

Because, like, don't you think that the players are mad at the Astros for cheating? Well, not when they're all cheaters. It seemed like there was, it seemed like there were some players. A lot of the retweets I saw of players were, yeah, it seemed to be disgusted by this idea. And like I was saying before, I mean... The idea of fire snitching or the idea of the Astros cheating? The idea of the Astros cheating.

Okay. And like I was saying before, like, there have been... a lot of, there's been a lot of venom directed at the Astros, rightfully so. From other players, from other organizations. I mean, Trevor Bauer's been, you know, he's had a lot of negative things to say about them over the last couple of years. Like, I think partly that has to do with success, partly that has to do with kind of the way, you know, that they, the whole data versus tradition argument in front offices and how they're at the forefront of the data

movement the Astros are and part of it's, you know, probably justified too. But, you know, a lot of, there's been kind of a sense that a lot of the league is out to get the Astros. And so that makes it, I think that makes, should make things, uh, gentler on Mike fires because of that. Can I give one final thought here? Like, the Welsh is obviously a, stitches a snitches get stitches guy like you are a gangster i don't i don't by the way i like fire i do have to correct by the way it was ken rosenthal i said john hayman i'm not at all to be honest with you i i have to i have i have to find my um my pillars to stand on sometimes because i will fall into a trap of looking at this and be like who cares you know like let him cheat i i want my game

the most entertaining as possible sure would i like it clean i'd like it clean, but this is like low-end drug dealers calling out high-end drug dealers. Like, they're all cheating. They're all finding ways to curtail the thing. So to me, it's a little to be. I would commend Mike Fires for it, but let's just be real. Look at any time anybody speaks up, the good old boy step in. And Mike Fires is going to be probably a tough, tough player for everybody for teams

and organizations to get around. Someone will do it. But there's going to be a little bit lack of trust in him. I'll get a little gangster though, but I don't think snitches need stitches. You are a low-level drug dealer and stitches, stitches get stitches. That is what we found out today. Wu-Tang, Wu-Tang. All right.

Let's change it up before we go to the CBS mock, which is really good. Scott White set this up. We got a bunch of good stuff, Adam, myself, and a bunch of others as well. Obviously, Scott set it up. But let's go to a question. You guys can send in questions, fantasy baseball at cbsi.com, and this one got forwarded to me. This is a great question. It's very important.

Coming off of a very serious issue with Mike Fires, we're about to break down everything for 2020, but this might be the biggest issue that we have in this show today. This is from Scott and Rochester. Is it just me or is there something odd about the way that Scott White says the word didn't, couldn't, shouldn't, and wouldn't. Can't place my finger on just what it is, but every time he says one of those words,

I find myself repeating it out loud and thinking of making a drinking game out of it. All right, so let me try to do it in, my podcasting voice and diction. Couldn't, wouldn't, shouldn't. Yeah. Right? Is that how it ends up coming out? You swallow some letters, baby.

I have a problem. All right. And this is my problem. It's something, well, my problem is that I speak slowly and not just that I speak slowly. I do everything slowly. I write slowly. I move slowly. My heart beats slowly.

It does. They're romantic. I have a low heart rate. And so something I've learned in over 10 years of podcasting is that if I talk at the pace I'm most comfortable, it will be a snooze to listen to. And people listening, it probably already seems like I talk slowly, but this is about twice as fast as I'm comfortable talking. This is 1.5 speed on the podcast. Yeah, we have the speed up Scott's audio in post. Yeah, probably.

And so what ends up happening is it's not just that I prefer. to talk slower. It's that my mouth can't even say things as fast as other people can. And so, you know, partly my mouth is operating fat. My mouth is kind of behind my

head of my brain when I'm talking here on the podcast. And part of it's just I end up having to drop some sounds to get it out faster. You kind of eat the teas. The teas go away. Like I noticed you do something my best friend Scott Ogman does where you do a verland

instead of Verlander, you have that, but you definitely ate all of those teas. I've been yelling at Scott about Verlander for years. He's pretty much, he's pretty much, well, no, I guess it's gotten better. If the Welsh has noticed it, it's crept back, yeah. Well, the other one is, this is what the other Scott does, Scott White. I don't know if you do this, but he'll sometimes go Kershaw. And I, that is nails on a chalkboard to me. That sounds like one of Dale Gribbles catchphrases.

Yeah, I mean, I'm not one to talk. I'm an idiot who, you know, says everything wrong on a, you know, 10-minute basis. But you definitely eat some of those isn't, couldn't, shouldn'ts, and wouldn'ts. Let's try it one more time. Try it one more time. Well, I can't. Oh, wouldn't. Oh, shouldn't.

I can do it. But I would have to slow things down so much to get it outright. It's not worth it. I like it. Were you going to say something like Adam? No, not really. I think we'll hear. I'm sure at some point in today's show, Scott will say didn't, couldn't, shouldn't, and wouldn't.

And we'll take a drink. Nobody caught. I went, Edom. Edom, did you get anything there? Itim. All right, let's get into this CBS mock, but I first want to tell you about our friends over at Seatkeek. Do you ever feel like ticketing websites

make getting to the event difficult on purpose? I know I do. With millions of live event tickets and price match guarantees, Seat Geek proves there is a better way. You can search sports, live music, comedy, and more. In an industry that tends to stagnate, Seat Geek decided to stand out from the crowd. They built the fastest way to find tickets

so you could stop searching for the perfect seat and start enjoying it. Why is Seatkeek better than the rest? Well, they've pulled together millions of tickets from all over the web. They rate the deals on a scale of 1 to 10, and they display them on an interactive map. I love the green dots with the good deals, red dots being the overpriced one,

and every purchase is fully guaranteed. So you can shop for tickets with confidence. I've got the Seek app, and guess what? My red hot Phoenix Suns, 6 and 3 as I'm recording this, putting a little stomping on the Lakers, and I'm looking to get some tickets because the Celtics are coming to town on Monday the 18th. But Seatkeek, they want to give you $10 off your first.

first Seatgeek purchase right now. I'm going to do it. All you need to do is use our promo code. Download the Seatkeek app today and use promo code fantasy for $10 off your first purchase. That's promo code fantasy. Get $10 off your first purchase. Now, Scott White, you put together this beautiful 5-by-5 rotissory mock draft that we're going to be breaking down. And just so happens that you have an article over on CBS covering it as well, right?

I do. Yes, I do with a few observations in bullet point form. I'm sure many of them will come up organically in the discussion of this draft. Okay, well, we're going to go through some rounds here. The participants in the draft, you've got Scott White. I don't know everybody, Connor Henry. Who is The Itch? The It writes for RASBall and nobody by RASBull goes by their actual names.

I thought this was because they were all wealthy and didn't need to have any sort of stature, didn't need to have their name out there. but after podcasting with donkey teeth, I found out this isn't true. I feel very... Donkey teeth is the name he goes by. I feel very triggered with someone with the in the first name there,

so I just want to point that out. I'm on watch. Everybody, Ariel Cohen, Chris Mitchell, Azers in their towers, Tim McLeod. I am in there. Daniel Preciado. I don't know who that is. George Kurtz and Phil Penebchek.

Penebch. Wood and couldn't, should not have tried to say that name. That was, those are some of the participants in this one. It's a 12 teamer here. And I don't know how you guys usually like to do this. Let me burn through the names who went 1 to 12. I've got some notes on here, but let's definitely start with Scott White. So 1 to 12, the draft went as such.

Mike Trout with the number one overall pick. This will be a topic of conversation. Muki Betts, number two. Ronald Acuna 3, Christian Yelich went 4. Chris Mitchell took Francisco Lindor. Adam, you took the first pitcher off the board at 6 with Garrett Cole. Then Chris Towers took Cody Bellinger, Trey Turner. I went Juan Soto at 9, followed by Bregman, Verlander, and Aeronado.

So we had two starting pitchers go in the first round. So, Scott, why don't we start with you? Because you had the first overall pick, probably the easiest decision. But as we've learned, talked, and I've even pulled people out there, as good and as solid as Mike Trout is the number one pick, it's not the biggest slam dunk of 2020. Oh, I guess not. I don't know. I didn't think twice about it.

You didn't, but you also don't value stolen bases. I wouldn't say I don't value stolen bases. I just... Look, Trout's supposed to give you stolen bases, right? I mean, last year wasn't one of his best years for that, but the last time he was down in the teens, he bounced back in a pretty significant way, so I don't think we should rule him out for stolen bases going forward. Yeah, I mean, Akunia technically was the number one finisher in this format last year,

and maybe he will be again. But as we've seen over the years, players who top Trout often don't for a second year in row. In fact, I don't think anyone ever had. Maybe Yelich did. Has Yelich topped him the past two years? Well, Yelich, yeah.

I mean, Yelich would be my second pick. I definitely would consider taking him number one. But I think I've learned a lesson about stolen bases. They're not very predictable. I drafted two guys in our Roto League. Jose Altuve was one of them, and I can't remember who else, thinking I was going to get steals, and neither of them ran. Trout's stolen bases went down.

Betts didn't run as much. So if I knew that Yelich was going to steal about 30 bases, I would take them number one, but I don't. So I'll stick with Trout. Scott, you know, is always going to be Trout number one. But I think Betts should, I think Yelich should have gone two. Betts went two and Okunia went three and Yelich went four. If there's a knock against Trout, I mean, like, you can deal with the lack of steals because he's such a good hitter, but his games played the last three seasons.

140, 140 and 134. He's a little injury prone, I think. The only person, though, that quills at is Ronald Acuna, who doesn't have enough games played under his belt. I mean, Yelich has missed games the last couple years, which is also kind of intertwined with the juice ball era. I mean, it's tough to pick apart Christian Yelich in year two. What is the justification for taking Acuna over Yelich? I just, I don't get it. Well, 40, 40. I mean, high-end average runs, RBIs?

The predictability of the steals, I guess. And I generally agree with you, Adam, which is part of the reason I'm not paying up for steals, but it's more for the steel specialist like the Adelberto Mondesie, Jonathan VR types. I mean, Oconia wants, the year and a half, or it's been more than that, actually, nearly two years that he's been at the big leagues. When he's hit leadoff, he has run. And, I mean, Brian Snickers on the record. saying he's not going to mess with his lineup spot anymore.

So I think 30 steals at least is a reasonable expectation for him. And among all the first rounders or borderline first rounders, except for maybe Trey Turner, I think that's, Akuna is the only one he could say that about. But let me ask you guys something then. How you're saying this is taking Ronald Akunia number one actually reaching for stolen bases. Because I see them so even across the board.

Yelich kind of embodies a lot of the positives you would take both on Akuna and Trout. But there's a little bit of injury there. I think there's a little bit of perceived juice ball things that are going on, especially if Major League takes a pivot. And I think people just don't trust it. And I ran a poll between the three Akunia Trout and Yelich. Yelich came in less than 10 percent as the top pick where Akunia was almost 30 percent of the total vote. So Yelich is kind of in perception-wise, been the clear-cut number three. but how you guys are making it sound is almost like if you take Acuna you are reaching,

and I think they're kind of all on a level playing field unless you don't believe him. I think, I mean, if you look at where Acuna ranked, and I understand, just stick with me. I'm going somewhere with this. If you looked at where Acuna ranked in points league among outfielders, I mean, there'd be no question Trout and Yellich go ahead of him. And the reason I bring that up is because, well, what's the main thing that differentiates the value between a player's points league value and roto league value. With these three, it would mostly be the steals,

the fact that they get inflated in value in a roto league. So yeah, technically speaking, taking Acuna first, is placing a high priority on steals and value and reaching for them in a sense. I don't think it's necessarily wrong. Just everybody who's gone with the guy who finished ahead of trout the previous year has gotten burned by it, including myself,

the year Harper finished ahead of trout, I've swore to myself I want to do that again, and I'm going to stick with that. Yeah, as long as trout is Trout is Trout, I'm going to take him first. The other part of that points league equation is the plate discipline, and Acuna had 188 strikeouts, Yelich had 118. I know Kuna played a few more games, but, you know, the plate discipline's better, and I just look at the Kuna is still young and strikes out more than the other guys, and maybe that means he slumps a little bit more.

I don't think he's going to hit for as good of a batting average. I mean, I think that's pretty clear. He's not going to hit for his good of a batting average. And if he does get moved down in the lineup, I know what Brian Sticker said, but if he does get moved down to the lineup and he doesn't steal, then, you know, he's still going to be a great. He's still great. So no, it's not a reach. But to me, Yelich is, Yowich is, it was the best player in baseball last two years. So he's the number two. There's a lot of people are in that agreement. Does anything matter at all? The Cubs in 2019 were the second lowest in stolen bases per game.

And obviously you've got Joe Madden coming over to the Angels. The Angels were 18th. But the Cubs were at the bottom. Now, in 2018, their totals or stolen bases per game would have actually just been a notch above the Angels. Is there a worry, and we don't need to keep harping on this, we're talking about kind of the top five. But, I mean, is there any type of worry as we keep clamoring that Mike Trout can steal more bases, will steal more bases? But is it going to steal more bases? That's not a priority of Joe Madden. I think it's, I think even more of that came from Theo Epstein in the front office than Madden.

I think Madden recognizing the generational talent Trout is is going to just let him do his thing. That's my guess. I could be wrong. Okay, but I don't think that comes down to does Trout want to, and I'm not sure Trout does. But is he capable of it? He is.

I think all of them are in a relatively close range. There's a little bit of a disagreement here. Age has a lot to do with it. And sustainability, the floors of Trout and Yelich are really hard to deny here. Now, Adam, you took Garrett Cole. You started the pitchers off at six. I don't like taking pitching quite as high, but this seems about the spot that you're going to have to pay for Cole.

I never used to like pitching that high. I wouldn't say I liked it. I actually was deciding between him and somebody who went, you know, almost a full round later. And Trevor Story, who I think in this format is one of the most underrated players. But I didn't take my next pitcher until round five. That was James Paxton.

And then I took Brandon Woodruff in round eight. So I basically said, I've got Garrett Cole. I've got maybe 300 strikeouts. Now I'm going to load up on hitting and not really worry as much about starting pitching. And in a Roto League like this, this is a 5x5 Roto League. I know the formula that worked for me last year. Like I said on the last time I was on, I went relief pitcher heavy. I had a few really reliable starters.

I had Gialito. I had Darvish. I have Strasbourg, maybe one other. And then I went relief pitcher heavy to get those ratios up. So I have no problem pivoting to that if my starting pitchers don't work out. I don't know that you have to draft that way. So I didn't want to put a huge premium on starting pitching in this format, like in terms of numbers, but getting Garrett Cole.

allowed me to sort of, you know, get hitters in the next four rounds or the next three rounds. And there's so many good ones in like rounds three, four, and five that you can take. Exactly. Scott, were you with the pitching this early at six overall? I have Cole six.

Overall, in my top 300 for this format. So yeah, now I do have him ahead of Francisco Lindor who went a spot ahead of him. So there's another hitter I have ahead of Cole who actually went a spot behind him in this draft, and that's Cody Bellinger at seven. who I think it's a clear top five. Trout, Yelich, Acuna, Bellinger, and Betts.

Agreed. And then Cole, because, you know, those five hitters standout so far among the rest. It just seems like a natural spot to stick the standout pitcher. But, yeah, I thought Chris Towers getting Bellinger at seventh overall was probably the steal of the first round. I completely agree. Now, last thing on the first round, I want to talk about my pick here. We've talked a little bit about it because there's some controversy, it and I've actually kind of changed my tune a little bit. So at nine, I took Juan Soto. And I'm very

comfortable with the floor and the upside of Soto. I think from a, like a hit standpoint, a sustainability standpoint, Soto and Ronald Acuna are kind of seen in different areas. It was nice to get a couple extra stolen bases from Soto. But I just so happened to do this player debate podcast over and in this league with Scott Bogman. And it literally was Juan Soto versus Alex Bregman. And I took Bregman's side and he took Juan Soto's side. We were going through the Bates and these guys are really, really close. You have to consider position eligibility as a factor with Alex Bregman. But I want to change my tune to say that I would have taken Alex Bregman, now all things considered, at number nine. But one thing really worries me about Bregman. I'm

curious, both of your takes on this, if there's any worry. Like fires? Mike Fires snitching. I'm worried about snitches. It's, I was going through a lot of the stat cast stuff. Something jumped out to me when I was comparing Soto and Bregman. I mean, Breggman has got like a 19.6 launch angle, which was top 25. He does a lot of that stuff good, but his average home run distance, where Juan Soto was a 404, the league average sits around 397,

average distance on a home run ball. Alex Bregman's was down at 382, which for perspective, and people have heard me say this, J.P. Crawford and Delano DeShields had an average home run distance of 384. So can you read too much into that to make you change value systems?

No, but something it does have me a concern, and it actually kind of reaps if you go and look at steamer projections, steamer projections have Bregman falling pretty decently on his homers by a 30% clip down into the, I think 31 of their projections. Seeing a low average home run rate of 382 for Alex Bregman really puts a lot of home run luck in there. And I'm worried about the sustainability of those homers.

Doesn't mean he's not a great hitter, but maybe he's not quite as valued as a top 100 or at least safe in that marker. Do you buy any of that? Well, I mean, here's the thing. If you're expecting Alex Bregman to hit 41 home runs again And for a variety of reasons, that's probably not something you should expect. You say they project him for 31.

Well, in 2018, that's exactly how many you hit. He hit. And you know where we were drafting him heading into 2019? The first round. Like, he has so many things going for him that he can afford, I think, a pretty big swing in home runs. Now, if his home runs were cut in half, obviously, that would be too much to overcome. But if he's between 30 and 40, I think he's going to. return first round value. And, you know, by the way, if he drops to 31, he's about where Juan

Soto just was. So I, I, I, I don't see much reason to draft Soto ahead of them. I thought Soto was actually the reach of the first round. If I'm, you know, if I'm saying Bollinger was the bargain pick at seven, I think Soto at nine was the reach of the first round, unless you want to say bets at number two, but of course, we've seen bets finish as high as number two before. So then, Adam, are you Bregman over Soto? I'm Bragman, because Scott, Scott, That makes up a good point here. Breggman in 2018 was the number 13 overall hitter in this format. So number 13 overall hitter, you know, probably a young player like Chris Davis finished ahead of him. You're not going to take Chris Davis. You're not going to take Manny Machado ahead of him, you know? So yeah, he deserves to be a late first round pick. And, you know, I think that's why Garrett Cole goes ahead of him because, you know, there are some question marks whether he's really that caliber, like a real first rounder. But he is. Even if he hits 31 home runs, he's going to drive in a 100 runs. He's going to score 100 runs. He's going to hit for a good batting average. Steal some bags. Yeah, Pregman is totally fine at that spot and ahead of Soto.

But I just want to point out, I still believe Wanda's a first round value talent. If you're getting 35 homers, 100, 100 with double-digit solom bases and close to a 290 average, plus you think of progression with him as a hitter. All of that, he's a first rounder. Definitely maybe a reach because there's more floor players to go with, but sometimes you're playing on the upside. Hey, our friends over at Untucket. They got a great, promo code for you, FBT. Have you ever wondered why traditional button-ups look so long and baggy? I know I do because I'm tall.

I'm 6'4 and this is always a problem for me. Plus, I'm not as suave as some of the people I podcast with here with nice jackets and tucked in shirts like Azer and Scott White. I like it, I like it casual. I like it out and that's why untucket is perfect for me. Untucket shirts were specifically designed to be worn untucked. No matter your size or shape, their shirts are the perfect untucked length. Untuck it is big in my household.

Their shirts were the perfect fit for me and my son. I got the 2 inch longer length, which is what I needed. Both shirts I picked up, absolutely solid fit. I was worried about my 7-year-old who's growing every single day. I follow their instructions. Absolutely nailed it on the first try when we got his shirt. With tons of styles to choose from and a surprisingly quick turnaround time, it's going to be more difficult dragging me to a store

than it's going to be jumping on on tucket.com. With more than 50 fit combinations, untucket shirts look great on tall, short, slim and athletic guys of all ages. Try it on in person at one of Untucket's 50 stores or go to Untucket.com to get started. They even offer free shipping and returns for all orders in the U.S. And you can save 20% on your first order by using my promo code FBT at checkout. Untucket.com promo code FBT. All right.

Second round here. DeGrom, Freeman, Story, Scherzer, J.D. Martinez, Judge, Jose Ramirez, Harper, Altuvae, Tatis Jr., Rendon, and Cres. Chris Sale. Adam, let's start with you with your pick here. I thought you got a slamming good deal on Jose Ramirez after you took a pitcher in the first spot. You got your power, you got your stolen bases,

and he got a little bit of value. Oh, maybe. We'll see which Jose Ramirez shows up. I could pass him up there. So he was the seventh pick of round two, the Grom, Freeman, Story, Scherzer, J.D. Martinez, Judge, and then Ramirez. I was really considering Jose Altuva.

I had a thought that maybe Altuve would fall to the third round. But I think he showed that he got healthy in the second half. And he was arguably, you know, it was one of the very best hitters in baseball after the break. And the playoffs help him a lot.

Yeah, I mean, but even without that, I mean, the guy was unbelievable after the All-Star break. But I took Jose Ramirez because of the stolen bases. And, you know, I believe in the bat. But to me, honestly, the story of round two,

the story, was Trevor Story. I seriously did there. Do you think? Trevor's story ahead of Alex Bregman. Trevor's story ahead of Juan Soto for me. Really? Why not? He played 145 games last year and finished as a top 10 or top 12 hitter.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 hitter. He's got 2 years in a row batting around 290 with over 20 steals, with over 30 home runs. He's got Corse Field. Why not with Trevor Story? Well, yeah. I think he validated the 2018 breakthrough in 2019, and if he's going to keep stealing bases like he has the past two years, he's a borderline first rounder.

I don't think 15 is that low form. I have him 12. I have him one spot behind Bregman, but I do have him seven spots ahead of Soto. You know, I'm more with you than not, though I'd still take Bregman ahead of him. I don't know that he's the story of round two. I think the story of round two is Anthony Rendon sliding to 23,

Wild, yeah. Because I have him, I'm 14. Were you salivating, by the way, when it was one pick away from you? Yeah, because I had the last pick of round two. I was going to, not even one second was going to go off the clock, me making that pick. And it wasn't meant to be, unfortunately. But yeah, Rendon, I wouldn't take him ahead of story in this format, since the steals are so important. I wouldn't take him ahead of Scherzer, who I think is, there's some injury risk there.

but he's basically as good as the two first round pitchers for Lander and Cole. And I took Scherzer, by the way, with the fourth pick in the second round. And I completely agree because Scherzer, outside of if you want to attach the injury stuff, average fastball velocity in 2019, highest of his career, K per 9, inside the top three. It was in the 12s. Actually, it was number two, just behind Garrett Cole. All the underlining stuff, he threw his fastball a little bit less to the slider a little bit more. All the underlining stuff outside of some back problems stuck.

So this isn't a Clayton Kershaw issue. So I ended up getting Max Scherzer as the third pitcher in the second round to go on top of a guy like Juan Soto. So I felt like I minimized some of the risk in Juan Soto by taking Scherzer. And we end up having a total of five starting pitchers taking in the first two rounds. Yeah. And actually Scherzer went behind DeGrom in this draft, which. But, you know, I think DeGrom deserves to go in that same range. I would have taken Rendon right after you took Scherzer there at 16th.

I would have taken him ahead of J.D. Martinez. I definitely would have taken him ahead of Aaron Judge. Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper are the two players in this round. That was the ones that don't belong. I was shocked that Rendon went behind Bryce Harper. That one stood out to me. What were you going to say, Adam? Well, I don't know, like, I don't know that Anthony Rendon has the upside of, like, even Aaron Judge or Bryce Harper.

I think he's kind of like Bregman, where his best case scenario is probably a first-round player. Now, in a points league, his best case scenario is probably, like, best player in fantasy, because his play discipline is so good. But in a 5-by-5 roto with batting average, I think his best case scenario was, like, the number 10 player, not like the number three, two or one player with Rendon's. I just say that. He was like, he had a career year. I mean, if he goes back to being a 25 homer guy, he's more of like an accumulator,

not necessarily a category standout except for batting average. So it's question is like, do you buy? What are he at 35 home runs this year? Except for batting average and runs and probably RBI. I mean, if he stays healthy, he has an injury. He's had trouble staying on the field. But that's the only knock I have on Rendo. I mean, you're saying, you're putting,

and I understand fantasy versus real life, but you're putting Bregman and Rendon and what's the CLAIN class. They're two of the six MVP finalists. No, they're great. But because Rendon is a single-digit steals guy, and he's not going to hit four. Like Aaron Judge could have 50 home runs. He has.

Yeah, but we've been... I get it. He's gotten halfway there the past two years. I just think... If you're talking about cumulative upside and not just putting all the emphasis on home runs, I think the upside's very similar for Judge and these other two and that, you know, the year after he hit 50 home runs,

it's not like Judge was a top five pick either, and that was in a less homer-friendly environment than the one we just saw. I would 100% take Aaron Judge ahead of Rendon. in an on-base percentage league. That's not even a question of me. Rendon had a, what, what was his OBP this past year? 412. Okay, it was 374 the year before.

I expect Judge to be over 400, so it's like a watch. It gets on base a lot, too. And then you get more power. So that's the thing. This is batting average, and Judge should definitely take a bit of a hit. But in an OBP league, judges, judges to me, borderline first rounder in an OBP league, you just can't stay healthy. Now, I'm going to jump into the third round,

and we'll piggyback Scott's both picks here. But in the third round, he started off with Rafael Devers. It went Walker Bueller, Starling Marte, Machado, Adaberto Mondes, Charlie Blackman, Zana Bogart, Jack Flaherty, Pete Alonzo, Javier Baez, George Springer, and Paul Goldschmidt. So, Scott, you were able to get one of those top-end elite pitchers. You started your draft off with Devers, Sale, and Mike Trout. Not a bad start. Not too shabby.

I'm glad you think so. I mean, this turn makes me nervous because, well, I do consider Chris Sale One of those top end pitchers He's the one nobody wants I'm probably one of the highest On him in the industry So but you can make that

When you take a when you have the floor of a guy like Mike Trout I feel like you can take those risks It enables you a few more risks Yeah well and I also obviously Chris Sale Wasn't going to make it back to me at 48 And I didn't know what starting pitcher Was going to be there at 48 Because I it didn't play out this way in this draft

As we'll get to but I expect in most drafts, the third and fourth round will be dominated by starting pitching. So, Sale made me nervous for that reason. Devers made me nervous because among the hitters I could see going in the second round, he seems like one of the, one with, he has some of the biggest questions in terms of sustainability, repeatability, and with regards to the season he just had. particularly if the Red Sox kind of start trading off assets

and he doesn't have as strong of a lineup around him. Speaking on your starting pitchers, by the way, seven total starter pitchers through the first three rounds. So 36 players taken, only seven pitchers. It doesn't quite add up, I feel like, to a lot of the narrative we've been talking about. Two surprise picks, Mani Machado and Paul Goldschman.

If you want to talk about players that don't belong, that felt like those were two players that did not belong in this round. Did you read the whole round? Yeah, I read the whole round off. Okay. I just, you know, Scott took Chris Sale at the end of round two, and then the next pitcher was Walker Bueller. And Chris Sale, I think he had more strikeouts than Walker Bueller.

Bueller had 2.15. Sale had 2.18, and Sail pitched 147 and a third, and Bueller pitched 182. So he had 35 more innings than Sale and fewer strikeouts. So that picks makes sense in that regard. Yeah. If you're not worried about the injuries. If you're just counting double-digit strikeout starts,

sail with second in baseball, even though he missed, you know, like two months of the season. So yeah, he's still, there's still plenty of reason to believe he's an overpowering pitcher. But I'm with what you were saying there. There are a lot of picks in round three here that just, you know, I think it's kind of just a phenomenon of drafting in October, November. is that not everybody you're going to get in a draft with you is in the same state of putting together their rankings for 2020

and you're working out of last year's draft room so players that were high last year kind of get inflated just because of that because like Machado Javier Baez Paul Goldschmidt like those are those are like for me around five, six and later types I thought perception though by like Mondesi over Baez. I thought people might question that. I think from a team construction standpoint

it's still a no doubter. But I'm not sure Bayez belongs in that same conversation of those players you're talking about. I mean, it's not spectacular, but it felt like he belonged more than Machado or Goldschmidt. Well, here's the thing for me, right? Because I agree, I mean, Bayez we were killing last year is the biggest bust. I think

we were pretty wrong about him. But I look at the hitters that go in this round, right? Devers, Starling Marte. Remember, we need steals. Machado, Adelberto Monasee. I took Charlie Blackman, I liked that pick. Great value.

Zander Bogartz, Pete Alonzo, Hobby Baez, George Springer, Paul Goldsmith. And it just doesn't feel right. But then, like, go to the next round.

Whitmerfield, Coutel Marte, I know Scott's going to like that pick. And Chris, you actually took him, or the Welsh, labor tourists. I took Ozzy Albiz,

John Carlos, Stanton, Anthony Rizzo, Jordan Alvarez. Like Jordan Alvarez. I don't, I don't know how many hitters deserve to go ahead of the ones in round three. You know what I mean?

I think that's probably why Scott was saying round three is going to be dominated by pitchers because the hitters just feel a little out of place. Yeah, there's a displacement. I don't think we were wrong about bias. I think you guys are understating just how disappointing his year was. He went from over 20 steals to 11 in 18 attempts. So like, is he ever going to run anymore? He didn't attempt.

successfully last year. I just want to point out, it was the team thing. The team was 29th in baseball in average steal attempts as a team. But he still managed to do. He still managed to steal a lot of bases for the team the previous year. He only had 29 home runs. The main thing he brought to the

table was power. He missed time. He played 138 games. If he had played a full season, he probably would have been about 34-ish home runs and close to 100 RBIs and close to 100 runs with a 281 bat. I think he had a fine season, but that's a really good. Tons of I mean, Eduardo Escobar had better numbers than that.

Like, so, I don't know. I was finished behind Muncie in this format. Josh Donaldson, Danny Santana, Eddie Rosario. He wasn't 25 games or whatever. Yeah, it sounds like you're not discounting the time missed. Oh, I am. Like Scott White. I am.

Who should, which hitter Scott, which hitters should have gone in this round? That didn't. Let me look at my rankings here. Well, Catele, I. going in the second round and you mentioned him going in the fourth. Do you see the elapsed time it took me to take him, by the way? Look at the elapsed time. Or if you don't see it, two seconds it took me to take a Talmarté on the draft.

Yeah. Yeah, no, that was somebody who I was hoping would continue to fall to me. Obviously, that's going. No, that's really where I see more pitchers going in my reggae's because there are so many redundancies and particularly Javier Bayes like redundancies. I mean, he's eligible at one of the deepest positions, shortstop. The main thing he brings to the table power is something you can find anywhere. So I'm not the third round looks like Strasberg, Snell, and let's say Shane Bieber are replacing Machado, Bias, and Goldschmidt.

Is that kind of fair to what you're talking about? I, Clevenger, Bieber, and Strasberg, would definitely be going into the third round for me. I actually have the two Indians pitchers, Clevenger and Bieber, ahead of Flaherty and Bueller, who went early in round three. I think that you look at these rounds, right? And you might not see a huge difference between a guy who goes in round three or four. And by the way, Chris, you took Pete Alonzo, and I think that was a great pick. I mean, the guy had 53 freaking home runs. He deserves to be a top 35 pick.

I think you look at some of the hitters that go in round six, like Carlos Correa and Josh Bell, Tommy Fam. I don't know that there's such a difference between them and some of those hitters. So why not take the risk? why not be ridiculed by everybody? Why not take Vladimir Guerrero toward the end of round three early around? He went in round six. Why not go swing for the fences and take an upside?

Because look at the caliber of hitters that are still being drafted here. Look at the caliber that are dropping. They're not that good. You don't even like Hobby bias. And look at the caliber of pitchers that are going to be gone. But they're dropping also. They shouldn't. That I think is going to be a trend

that shit. Like that was one of the biggest takeaways for me in this draft. It's not so much that I complain about the order the pitchers were drafted in, just how spread out they were when they're really, it's really, it becomes really hard to distinguish outside of the top for who

deserves to go where and you know, the fact that there's this range of four or five rounds that they go in, to me seems unrealistic and not the best way to account for the drop-off that's going to happen at that position.

And I think Adam kind of hit on something, though, that once you get closer to drafts, I think at this point there's a lot of people trying to figure out where they are and how they're going to place 2020. And I think once people have a better understanding and more of a draft strategy, you're going to see more risk. I do not believe you're going to see Vladimir Guerrero fall like he did. I do think you will see some pitchers go up quicker.

And once people catch up to guys like Cite, they're not going to let him slip into the fourth round, which takes us to the end of the show. You thought we were going another round. Nope, it is part one of the mock draft breakdown. Azer is going to be parting here, so it'll be Scott White and myself next week as we break down the rest of this draft

and talk about a few teams. Adam, what's going on in your world, by the way? How many million podcasts are you doing right now? Just one a day, seven a week for football. That's it. A little radio show on Saturday nights. And then I hop on to a little baseball. Look at that.

And you're kind of being, and you're like watching a little basketball. You're kind of a multi-sport star now. Yeah, well, the stream's not really working right now. I was trying to stream a couple of basketball games, but then I was like, wait, I should be focusing on the podcast so I could make fun of Scott. But, you know, I was going to, I was going to watch a game, but I didn't and I shouldn't, and I couldn't, and I wouldn't watch those games on the podcast. Well, I promise Scott, Adam, we're kicking Adam off the show.

It'll be a much safer place. It's a very safe zone that I'm going to create for the, rest of the breakdown of the podcast. I need a safe space. I promise you. It's a safe space here. All right, that is everything. Thank you guys for listening.

You guys know where you can send the emails. You can find us all on the Twitters and check out this draft recap. Maybe you can follow along with a podcast. Find this. Scott White wrote this over on CBS. So go check that out. Until next time, friends, we will be back with the CBS Mockdraft breakdown part two next week. You guys have a great one.