Fantasy Baseball Today - 11/21: Roto Mock Draft Review Part Two! (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: November 20, 2019

Welsh and Scott break down the second half of the roto mock draft. Favorite picks, least favorite picks, Vladimir Guerrero Jr's 2020 value, undrafted surprises and some team breakdowns! 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, bold, and basketball, Alboros and toward the corner. Got a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at cbsi.com. Get ready to win your league. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris. Welcome back in.

This is fantasy baseball today. I am one of your host, Chris Welsh. Find me on Twitter at is it the Welsh if you want to ask, hey, where's Adam, is he coming back? Not for this episode. That over there. That is the illustrious, the wonderful, the slow-paced, but very impactful statement. Scott White.

I lost the word there. What would I say? The impactful speaking? I don't know. Speaking? My brain doesn't work that fast, as you just pointed out. What's up, buddy? How are you doing?

How are you doing, Friendo? I'm good. Yeah? What's going on in your world, Frendo? Yeah, I would keep ringing that up. You got the article, as we are in part two, by the way, of the CBS mock breakdown series. Adam was a part of Series 1, so if you miss that, go back and listen, you can get the first four rounds while we also talk about the Astros debacle and a bunch of other fun things, very fun episode.

But it is just Scott and I to break down the rest of this mock draft. Rounds five and above, we're going to be doing a decent round per round breakdown. We'll do some of the late picks, and we'll even look at some team previews. But Scott, you put together an article over on CBS that people can read that kind of goes in conjunction with Give me some little snippets. I mean, you know, any round thoughts? Maybe the first five we talked about. Maybe some guys that didn't get drafted that stood out to you?

Yeah, so some of the biggest one who didn't get drafted, and this was only 23 rounds, 12 teams. We weren't drafting benches or anything, so that's what, 276 players getting drafted. It stands to reason that there are going to be some players who, it's surprising because when we actually start drafting and have benches, they will get drafted. G.O. O'Shella was the most.

obvious one to me. Miguel Anduhar did get drafted. Actually, sorry, my mic fell. I don't know if you heard that. But Miguel, it was actually very appropriate to him as he got injured and then your mic just went just like crumbled down like Andrew. But it did last show too. And you might have to

do something about that. But yeah, And Du Har went in round 19 and Gio Orchella didn't get drafted at all. Now, I actually rank O'Shella ahead of Andhuhar, but obviously we're not sure how playing time's going to get sorted out there who are going to see this off-season what the Yankees decide to do with

those with third base and first base and DH and everything they have a lot of questions there you know isn't it such a isn't it such kind of like a microcosm of how these drafts work like what you just said reminds me so much of this early drafting there's so many people that are taking you know part in NFBC drafts dynasty people are trying to get ready people are trying to get prepped but that exact example that you talked about where you have georshella above Annuar, and yet he didn't even get drafted. Like you didn't even draft Geo. It's kind of a perfect example of people testing some stuff,

people trying to find the values messing around. And sometimes it's even about seeing how do other people value. I know that's an important factor for you as well, how I like to approach his industry drafts to say, well, I know how I think about things, but where's everybody else at? And we learned a lot of that stuff in this. Yeah, I do a little bit of testing.

For the most part, I just try and draft the best team I possibly. possibly can. I mean, and I probably would have drafted Urchelle myself if I hadn't filled the corner infield and DH so early. I just, again, because you were limited to the starting lineup spots, you know, that obviously impacted your choices in the late rounds. Other players who weren't drafted, who I thought maybe should have been, Paul DeYoung, he was pretty horrible outside of April, but was still a 30 Homer shortstop, you know? Yeah, sure. Mitch Keller, uh, had some high points and high upside pitcher. Michael Kopeck's going to be back from Tommy John surgery and has a ton of upside. You think you'd be on drafting him? I'm kind of out on very much out on

post-first year post-Tommy John type of guy. It's like I love Kopeck. I've actually personally like been around him and followed him since he was actually a red sock and especially out he was the White Sox and he's an incredible physical talent and talent. But drafting a guy in a redraft league coming off of Tommy John, even though he was throwing about two or three months ago, I think he had his first bullpen session. You want to end, would you invest at all? Because I wouldn't. I mean, are you not investing in Otani?

Were you not investing in Chris Paddock? Well, I mean, Chris Paddock pitched a little after coming back last year, but obviously you knew there were going to be innings limitations. I assume innings limitations are the main thing. This is more Alex Reyes to me, though. This is much more Alex Reyes, not those guys. Like you said, Paddock got in it. He had a much.

bigger time period and got innings in before he hit the majors and Otan is just a different story because he also hits. In the late rounds at starting pitcher I mean the late rounds would go after upside anyway particularly. Good starting pitch there's not much upside to be found there so yeah

I have him 226th overall in this format so I obviously I think he should have gone I just invested heavily in my pitching staff so you know I didn't have spots available in the range he went I also have Sam Hilliard as somebody who probably should have been drafted in a five outfielder league.

There's a playing time issue that needs to be sorted out there as well. I presume the outfield will primarily be, will be dull and left, Garrett Hampson and center, Charlie Blackman and Wright, maybe Daniel Murphy and Ian Desmond platoon at first, and that leaves Hilliard out. But there's going to be some mixing and matching that will give Hilliard probably an avenue for 300 of bats with the ability for more, a chance for more, depending on performance. So, you know, power speed, course field. It's going to be an interesting player.

Well, we've got a lot to get to this whole draft here. And we left off. The first four rounds were on the previous podcast, as I mentioned, in part one. So part two, we kick it off with the fifth round, and there's going to be a lot of this stuff to discuss. So let's just jump right into this. Starting in round five, Scott, you had the very first pick. You took Patrick Corbyn.

We went Luis Castillo, Shohei Otani in the fifth round by The Itch, Charlie Morton, Chris Bryant, Adam Azor took James, Paxton. Towers took Clayton Kershaw. I really wanted Kershaw. That one heard a little bit. Victor Robles. I took Jonathan VR, Austin Meadows, DJ LaMayhew, and J.T. Realmuto. So in the fifth round, this was the big pitcher round in this draft as we had five starting pitchers taken. That was Corbyn, Castillo, Morton, Paxton, and Kirschaw. And if you want to get cute, Otani technically could be six. Stolen bases were plentiful, I guess you could say, Robles and VR. And interestingly enough, I thought DJ LeMayhew in, like if you want to go look at the two early mocks, was not given any credit whatsoever and how late he was taken.

In this draft, he went above guys like Carlos Correa, and we also saw our first catchers. So those are just some round five notes. But where do you want to start? You want to start with your pick Patrick Corbyn? I believe was your second starting pitcher in the top five rounds. Actually, I want to start with the comment you just made about LeMayhew because it was surprising to me how different our first mock draft was. from the two early mocks, the T-O-O-O-E-O-E-Mox, that were done...

About a month ago? Who was it who arranged those? Justin Mason, Justin Mason set those up, and they were done like October, like late October, I think it was, early mid. Yeah. Which I think it goes to show you that mock drafts are being influenced largely

by the provider that they're being done with. Yep. And the people doing them. So, yeah, there's not a lot of industry consensus yet, particularly for guys coming off outlier seasons like LeMayhew. So just keep that in mind. But I agree more with where he went here, 59th overall. I have LeMayhew 56th overall. So, yeah, Corbyn, was somebody I did not expect to be available at this point, nor did I expect the guy who went right after him, Luis Castillo, to be available in round five.

we talked about this on the last episode I expect round three and four to be dominated by pitching because there is I think a much bigger drop off in the quality at that position than cumulatively

among the hitters going in the same range and that was something I was going to bring up which I wonder I wonder where we go with this at the end of the day because you know you really feel like more starting pitchers need to go so your surprise comes from where you think they should be going higher.

Yet I don't even believe into round five. I think round five, we finally have cracked 10 starting pitchers going. But as you talk about DJ LaMayhew being a product of the provider, you know, you definitely preach the starting pitchers. Yet in this draft that we do here, starting pitching still didn't go. So I wonder what will be the point, like, when will you start to maybe relent that there's just good value in starting pitching? Because I think to me this felt like people are gun-shy.

It's a version of there's so much good hitting out there and people are gun shy from starting pitching disappointing in 2019 that I don't think you're wrong. I think you're right. But I think those two factors are pushing starting pitchers down. And I don't know how much that's going to change. Well, if they're disappointed, that's all the more reason they have to invest in the real difference makers at the position. When will I relent? I mean, not after the first draft I've done. Of course you're not

Like this isn't going to be the one I'm just curious I'm kind of setting an early stage Maybe for you to keep in mind When this is January or February And maybe what was that I said I think we had We don't get really good draft data

Until March And probably not mid-March They'll have to have I'll have to have clear takes before then So we'll monitor seven starting pitchers Went in the first three rounds In the first 36 What do you think that moves to

Say February? In the first three rounds 10, 12, a third. Okay, 12 would be a third. How many went the first? Seven. First three rounds, only seven pitchers went. Fourth round, we have 10.

I have 10 going in the first three rounds. Okay. And I misspoke, by the way, because in round four, we had five pitchers taken. Strasbourg, Snell, Bieber, Nola, and Clevenger, and then another five went in round five. So round four started the push. Right. So I think maybe it starts round earlier. But look, I got Gialito, who I consider among the difference makers at the position.

I got them with the last pick of round six, so 72nd overall. I mean, that's, I want to know. Last now went three picks after that. 75th overall. Carasco, Severino went 77th overall. Kluber 81st overall. Like, it's just weird to me how spread out it was is the thing. I feel like they should be more condensed because there, there isn't.

great differentiation in expected outcomes for them. And expected impact is, you know, I think the people who waited on starting pitchers just happened to get lucky. And by the way, I didn't. I wouldn't want my pitching staff to look any worse than it does. I got, what did they get? I got sale in round two. I got Corbyn in round five.

I got Gialito in round six. and my fourth best pitcher was, my fourth best pitcher was, was Jesus Luzardo. So my fifth pest was Matthew Boyd, who's in my top 45. But, yeah, I mean, I wouldn't want it to look any worse than that.

Because if you're relying, if you're having, if you don't have three real guys you can rely on there at the top and some upside beyond that, I mean, you don't want to have to fill out your rotation with Merrill Kelly types, you know? Well, we'll have to see because I did relatively wait. I took Max Scher in the second round, but I didn't take my next pitcher until round seven. So we can kind of review.

I'm one of those guys that waited on pitching. Just getting through round six here. Zach Granky started the round off, followed by Noah Sinigard, Joey Gallo, Carlos Correa, and the six, Johanio Suarez, Michael Brantley, Josh Bell went to Azer, Trevor Bauer, Tommy Fam, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. With the 10th pick in the sixth round, Eloy Eloy Jimenez and Lucas Gialito, as you mentioned,

was the final pick here. So in round six, the three things that stood out to me. Here are three. Granky over Sindergarde with a question mark. Gallo over Bell with a question mark. And Vladimir Guerrero all the way down at the bottom of the sixth round. Let's start with Vlad there, Scott. Tell the people how much further down you have Vlad than

where he went. I have an 88th. And you're, you're bemoaning how he's going 70th. Like, that's some great offense. And it's just like, I don't think it's an offense. I think, um, I think the amount people are jumping off the bandwagon of what is perceived as a generational hitter off of one season, his rookie season, to then completely jump off the bandwagon. It's interesting to me. How is it jumping off the bandwagon going in round six or even where I have him round, What is 88? 9? 8?

I don't think that's an inappropriate range. I'm shocked at the restraint that people are showing at this point. I do not think people will show this restraint once the drafts come back around. They're still seen as a 300 hitter. You want to go look at steams. He hit 272 in 2019. Steamer still gives him the boost up to a 294 batting average, as he was in 2019, early steamer projections,

projected as the number one, the top batting average of all baseball players and he hadn't played a single game and steamers got him 22 points higher still. I just don't think people will have the restraint to it. There's a part of me that kind of agrees. I think round 5 and 6 is relatively appropriate, but I don't think it's going to follow.

So I just thought it was interesting that he fell this far. To me, it's not when you look at the calibers of players going around him. A ton of hitters put up ridiculous numbers in 2018. Sure. And we got to get deeper into the draft than this until you start thinking, okay, this hitter I'm drafting here doesn't quite measure up. And I think that's when you start going after upside. My problem is, here's my main problem.

The assertion of taking what he did in 2019 and then saying, you can't even take the risk anymore, is not believing or maybe not accounting for, him improving as a player or him being a better player. Like he didn't have a good rookie season. You can't go and say in 123 games, you hit 15 homers with 69 RBIs and a 272 batting average. That's not there.

But that's not the perceived value of this guy. He's seen as a 30 plus 300 hitter who, if given a full season with some decent players around him, is a 100-100 guy. So the idea of only looking at the numbers and then accounting to say, well, you can't possibly put future projection on him and you can't take the risk.

I think you can because there's also, as you keep mentioning, there's a ton of really good bats out there that I think you can't take the risk. In round seven, Nelson Cruz goes in there. You could pick up Nelson Cruz in there. Yes, exactly. So what numbers were you saying Vladimir Guerrero has the potential for? I mean, well, I mean, if you just want, I mean, that's-cruz went around later than this way too late range

where Vladimir Guerrero went and he's coming off the season where he hit 311 with 41 home runs. Are you expecting better than 311 batting average and 41 home runs for Vladimir Guerrero next year? There's other reasons why Nelson Cruz falls that far. It's not obviously entirely on merit. But, I mean, Eugenio Suarez went in the same round as this way too low spot for Vladimir Guerrero, and he nearly hit 50 home runs. Joey Gallo went in that same round.

He would have hit 50 home runs if he'd stayed healthy. I mean, these Carlos Correa, a consensus first rounder for several years, went in round six. These are much more proven early round number type hitters. Maybe Vladimir Guerrero is going to be that. But why are you giving up the sure thing for the possible thing? Like that's, let me point this out. Let me point this out as you're saying this.

I'm defending. By the way, I'm with you. I did not take what I had the chance to take him. I did not take him. So don't take this as me trying to push that hard. What I do think there, has to be, I don't want to get too crazy into it, but it's kind of the like touchy, Fernando Tati's projections of 2019 where, you know, we look at the sample sizes and we don't think about progression.

That's all that I'm getting at. Does Vlad deserve to go ahead of Nelson Cruz or any of those guys that you mentioned? No, but if you want to take the, if you want to play the upside game and you believe in the hitter that Vladimir Guerrero is, I don't think it's egregious that he goes in the fifth round. And I think that's where people will end up sitting. statistically, comparative to what he did and the players that produced in 2019 to where they're going, I think your rank accurately represents the production that Vladimir Guerrero had last year.

It just doesn't represent any upside, and it kind of takes you out on him. And that's okay. No. No, I think you're wrong. Okay. He was much worse than 88th best player. A hundred percent agree. 100%.

And I'm not disagreeing with that whatsoever. Like, I rank him ahead of Josh Donaldson, who, I mean, look at the numbers he put up last year. Great numbers. You'd be thrilled if Vladimir Guerrero put up those numbers in his rookie season. So yeah. What do you think of Steamers' projections? What do you think of his projections?

294, 25 homers, 82 runs, 83 RBIs, and 150 games? It sounds plausible. It seems kind of aggressive. Okay. It also wouldn't be completely shocking if he exceeded them. It's just why the risk-reward thing. doesn't work out for me because the risk is I get you okay maybe he's

maybe he's a little better than we already know Carlos Correa can be you know and it's like they both went in the same range here so I don't know I got you I think it's a really good conversation we're having it's important to have around Vladimir Guerr because he is dicey he's he's um he's polarizing he's gonna be a polarizing player this year because of potential last year's value and how to value him this year and he made a bunch of good points Juarez and Korea

win above him as they probably should. Any other notes around round six that you want to hit? So where do I have Aloy? Because it's interesting you raise this fuss over Vladimir Guerrero and Aloi Jimenez, who had a better rookie season and similarly regarded prospect. I agree. You know, Vladimir Guerrero maybe, there are a few prospects who compare to him in history. But Aloi Jimenez would have been the top prospect in baseball in many non-Vladimir Guerrero

like years he had a better rookie season he's going one spot after him here in round six and uh i mean does that feel too early to you because it's it's higher than i have him ranked too i think he's in a relative 22nd no i think he's going 71st i mean i'm i'm with top 100 production on eloy amenes again these i mean these are two players that i've seen a decent amount so i kind of have a little bit more trust steamer projections does feel a little bit aggressive, 34 homers, 82 runs, 92 RBIs with a 279 batting average. But he's always been a high average batting guy in the minors. That's kind of always who he's been. I mean, let's see, the last time in the miners, the last time he hit under 300 besides this year was in

advanced eight ball in 2017 with the Cubs. So in the White Sox organization, he's always been a very high in 300 hitter, relatively close to sub 20K guy. Doesn't walk a whole bunch, but makes massive, massive of power. So like Vlad, it's very similar to Vladimir Guerrero. I was actually a little bit surprised they went so close. I thought he might fall a little bit, but I think right around 100 is the appropriate time to maybe take some chances. Do I think there's some better options out there, Boba Chet with better position eligibility? Yeah, sure. You know, Nelson Cruz, like you talked about, you want to shore up your, you know, your overall stats, your hitting stats, sure, but I don't think it was egregious. Do you feel it's egregious?

I got Lucas Gialito right after them And I feel like that was one of the steals of the draft So that's helping influence my opinion I mean even even looking at some of the pitchers That went in the next round I look at the players who went in round seven And with maybe one or two All but maybe one or two exceptions

I would take them over both Guerrero and Jimenez Yeah I don't I don't necessarily disagree with you on that one Hey friends, butcherbox.com slash FBT. When it comes to meat, quality matters. Not everyone has convenient access to high quality meat. Not everyone can easily find 100% grass-fed finished beef or free-range organic chicken at the grocery store. Then when you do find it, you might have one or two choices, and then you might even be priced out. Luckily, there's Butcher Box.

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We have Keston Hira, Carlos Carrasco, Tyler Glass now. Kirby Yates, our first closer finally went in round seven. We've got Luis Severino, Bobauchette, Nelson Cruz, Matt Olson. I took Corey Kluber. That was my second pitcher in round seven, Max Muncie, Jose Brrios, and Nicholas Castiano. The big thing that jumped out to me besides the first catcher closed, the first closer taken, was the injured rebound starting pitchers that went in this round, Scott, Carasco, Glassnow, Severino, and Cluber.

This was the round where we all were just chomping at the bit and they're like, yep, give me the rebound and give me the discount. I know I did. Yeah, and I think relative to the other starting pitchers, it's appropriate. This is appropriate they go behind like the Noah Cindergarden, Zach Grinky types we saw go in the previous round. So that makes sense. Again, I would prefer you move all these pitchers up another round or so, but I think it's perfectly reasonable to draft them here. I kicked off this round with Kestin-Hira.

I love that. And this turn, Gialito and at the end of round six and Kest and Hira at the start of round seven, this made my draft, I feel like. This was my favorite turn of the whole draft. Kestin Hira strikes out too much, but the quality of contact he makes, it supports him hitting for an average, hitting for average regardless. He showed power. He showed the ability to steal bases.

Second base is the weakest position other than Ketcher probably. and, you know, some of the two early mocks, he was going as early as like round four, right? Yeah, and I think there could be argument when you want to, you know, I'm sitting here making the argument of the upside on a guy like Vladimir Guerrero. Kestanhira is a better fit for most teams. I mean, you're getting stolen bases. You're getting middle infield.

I think batting average is not that far off, and he's a run producer. I like that pick. What was your favorite non-you pick of this round and your least favorite? My favorite non-me pick was probably Nelson, cruise in round seven okay by towers yeah middle of round seven 79th overall i have him 66th so that's good value uh you know he's approaching 40 here i think he's going to be 39 for the majority of next year and that's a scary age but there has not been any signs of slowdown for him and uh do you see that you see that video of i did not see a video okay you've never seen a video in your life never

never won. Okay, so it's a, it's a picture that moves and it moves at a fast rate, sometimes 29.97 frames per second. No, it's a video of Nelson Cruz at Top Golf. Do you know what Top Golf is? No. Do you really not? Are you being sarcastic? I just, okay. You're going to have to keep explaining. I'm sorry. All right. So golf is a game with a stick in this little tiny white ball. It's not as been, no, it's like, it's like, think of batting cages, but for golf, but it's a game where you can like hit the ball and it hits a sensor and you get points and stuff. It's really fun. Okay. And he's on the top level and they have a netting at the very back end and people can hit the ball and hit the net. You know, that's like a big deal if you can crush the ball there.

Well, Nelson Cruz hit the ball out of top golf. I've never seen it in my life. He hit it above the net, which is probably hundreds of feet tall. Go look it up. If you get a chance, go look at it Nelson Cruz top golf. I've never seen someone crush a ball like him, whether it's a golf ball or a baseball. And that purely makes him a value pick. What did you hate most about this round that's not your pick question here

or obviously my amazing pick of Corey Kluber? Who did you hate? What did you hate? The pick that stands out as being worse than the others is Nicholas Castellanos, and it was the last pick of the round. So I guess that stands to reason. But he was 84th, and I have him 129th. So that's a reach, I think, regardless.

obviously looked a lot better with the Cubs than the Tigers, but we don't know where he's going. He's a guy whose production depends a lot on supporting cast because he doesn't have elite power and doesn't have great on base skills. So it seems like a reach. Round eight started off. Phil, who took Castianos, then took Jorge Solair,

bunch of cheap power there. Yeah, I like that. I'd like it if you flipped him, Phil, just for purposes of conversation. I think that looks better. You mentioned Josh Donaldson, George Kurtz, took him with the second pick in the eighth round. I got sniped so hard, it hurt my soul because I was planning with the fourth pick in this round to scoop up Chris Paddock and he went one pick in front of me. So it took me more than the four seconds it took Daniel to take Chris Paddock. I took you Darvish.

Then it went Josh Hader, Jeff McNeil, Woodruff, Gary Sanchez, Reese Hoskins, Jose Abraeu, Marcel Ozuna, and a very sneaky Marcus Simeon pick. So did you like my Darvish pick? I really wanted Paddock, but lots of strikeouts on Darvish. Yeah, I would have taken it. Darvish over Paddock. So I want to point out. I think you made out there. When you talk about, you know, taking the pitching early, I only took one pitcher on my first six rounds. But now after round eight, I've got Max Scherzer, Corey Klouber, and you Darvish. So what do you think about that rotation? What you think about that? I think it's a fine top three. Okay. I think it's good enough. That's it. Good enough. It's quite sexy. It is quite sexy on stolen bases. What is wrong with you,

sir? Yeah. No, I mean, Scherzer, I wouldn't want less than that. I think you waited as long as you could to still get three potentially high-end pitchers. And there are some question marks with each, but I'm not even meaning to harp on that. I think you did fine. Okay. Yeah, I mean, and there's injury concerns that you could have with that.

I actually think there's a bunch of decent value picks in here, a bunch of interesting one. Second catcher went Gary Sanchez in the eighth round. Absolutely loved your Marcus Simeon pick. That one pissed me off because I was like, how did I forget about Marcus Simeon? And I think that's a big early season thing that will be rectified by February. Yeah, so I got him 96th. And I have him.

Oh, man, I hate what I can't find it. And I install the podcast like this looking up a name. I'll get back to it. But yeah, if Darvish had made it to me, I would have taken him. If Gary Sanchez had made it to me because that was maybe the best pick in a two-catcher league, him going in the middle of round eight. coming off a worse season, he was going like fourth or fifth round last year, right? Which says something about how catcher has evolved. They're more usable bats there and just how much better every position,

other position has gotten that the catchers could be pushed down this far. You can also say maybe the catcher position has devolved, but I think we're saying the same thing. Well, it's a little of both. There are so many great hitters everywhere else that they have to go in front of the catcher. and yet at the same time, there's less incentive to reach for the very best catchers. Because there's not enough separation.

I don't think there's just enough separation at the position. The one that stood out to me in this round, I'd love to know your favorite and least favorite. Towers is Jeff McNeil pick in the eighth round. I just wasn't with that one. I mean, I know what Jeff McNeil does. I just, I didn't, I wasn't feeling that pick. What say you?

I may be higher on McNeil than the average person. I believe in the second half power surge, and if you combine that with the potential to hit 300, you're talking about a valuable player. You're talking about another DJ LaMayhew type, potentially. I mean, it's not going to bat lead off for the Yankees, so he's going to, you know, the upside isn't quite the same. But in terms of what he can do for himself,

I think the potential there is similar. By the way, I have Simeon's 67th. I took him 96. I have, I have Gary Sanchez, 58 and he went 92nd here. Some good value. So what was your favorite pick in this round that wasn't... I think Simeon was at least top three of the best

picks in this round. So if you're not picking Simeon, what was the best pick in this round? And if McNeil's not the worst, I'm not trying to kill it, but like what is the pick you least like in this round? Hoskins. I was just about, yeah, I was about to say you don't like Hoskins. I don't like Hoskins, particularly for this format. In a points league or an OPP League, okay. He's kind of developed some Carlos

Santana characteristics, historically. speaking, Carlos Santana is kind of coming off a career year, so that might be confusing for people. But Carlos Santana has historically been that guy whose value sees the greatest differentiation between batting average leagues and on-base percentage or walk leagues. And I think Reese Hoskins is an even more extreme version of that because the guy's got no batting average potential. I think the last two years have shown that. But good power gets on base a lot.

What about favorite? Format form. So that Salair? Or Gary? No, Gary Sanchez would be your favorite. You already kind of said that because you had him so high, right? They're all, I mean, Saler went 85th. I have him 65th.

I talked about the differentiation at Sanchez and Simian. Sanchez is probably the biggest one for me. Darvish, I thought was a great pig. You got him 88. I have him 63rd. I was very excited about that. Round nine, you started off. Speaking of Carlos Santani, you got him with the first pick in the ninth round.

Then we went Mike Mustakis, Wilson Contreras. So that would be our third catcher in here. Andrew Benintendi with the big fall into the ninth round. Aroldus Chapman, David Dahl, Yasmani Granddoll, Michael Conforto, I took Matt Chapman, Max Kepler, Zach Wheeler, and Yassio Pueig. And I mean, I'm a little bit biased, but I thought Matt Chapman was a value. I thought Kepler was a value, and I liked Puegg as well. A little bit of a question on David Dahl, because I'm not in as much on David Dahl.

I don't like to play that game as much as anybody else. And there's a huge drop on Andrew Benintendi. So I was going to say your favorite, least favorite. But what do you think about Ben Intendi here? I mean, it was one of the quickest picks in the round, four seconds for Ariel Cohen to take him. I wanted Ben Intendi to fall a little bit because I had kind of sat back on outfielders.

I'm okay playing the bounce back, and this is the biggest value I've seen him drop in any of these early mocks. Yeah, I have him dropping a little more than this, though it's far from the biggest reach among the ones we've talked about. And part of what makes it far from the biggest reach is that I think we see the talent really drop off here in terms of what you expect these players to provide. So you can gamble a little more on a bounce back season from Ben Intendi, especially since he's a guy who historically has stolen some basins. And those are always in high demand in this format during this era. So would it be what I do?

But I think it's a justifiable pick. I think Max Kepler at 106th overall stands out as probably the best one. I was debating him in Carlos Santana at 97th. Ultimately, went with Santana because I thought first base was depleting faster. But I think I like both of those picks. You know, we just had a pitching heavy round the previous round with Paddock and Darvish and Brandon Woodruff. I think those were the biggest ones. And the only pitcher drafted in this round is Zach Wheeler, who...

Starting pitcher. A roll of Chapman went in here, too, so relief picture. Okay, yeah. But to your point, only one... Zach Wheeler. And looking ahead to the next round, it's Sunny Gray and Mike Soroka. Like, these are still quality pitchers, but they're clearly a tier below that next group. Like, this is not a group, although I guess, you know,

Yun Jin Ryu just is a Sy Young finalist. But reasonable expectations don't have these guys contending for a Sy Young award next year. They're not pitchers that you halfway expect to bury you, but you can see now that that position is starting to show some hurt. In round 10, just cleaning

it up here, Hampson was the first pick followed by Elvis Andrews. Sonny Gray was the third. I took Eddie Rosario with the fourth pick in the 10th round. Mike Soroka, Yohan Moncata, Hinchin Ryu, Malik Smith, Ramon Lariano, Tim Anderson, Luis Robert, the first rookie

up in there, and Miguel to know. This was a very heavy pay on the speed round. I mean, Andres, Hamson, Anderson, Malick Smith, love the Ramon Laryano pick. And I love to take some chances, though I took some early, is why I didn't give consideration

to taking Luis Robert, where I took Eddie Rosario, but there's a lot of stolen base by, and then you have that Luis Robert potential pigeonholed in there. So what do you think about all the stolen bases, and what do you think about Luis Robert as the 10th pick in a 12 man?

are all, Robert and Garrett Hampson to lead off the 10th round were among the most interesting picks of the draft, I thought. And by that, I mean, I can see it. I'm not totally on board yet. They were all a little higher than I'd go, but I can see it. I think it's justifiable. There's clearly upside there and there's speed upside, and it's in a range where I think you can afford to take those kind of chances, like I was saying, the last round. So, you know, Hampson and Robert in round 10. Robert, by the way, I expect him to be up mid-late April. Like, it was clearly a service time manipulation thing, the reason they were holding them back. So I think it'll just be starting the clock at the start of the year.

And then when that magical date comes, he'll be up. Jumping ahead a little bit, since we're on this subject, Tommy Edmund in round 11, another guy who can help in steals and really came on late last year. I don't think the upside is quite the same as for a Garrett-Hammer. But the playing time is is more assured too for Tommy Edmund. So I think that makes sense. And Mercado in the 11th round. I mean, 10 and 11 was very much like, I need to get that speed if I haven't really put a focus on it early on in the draft.

That's where people are making do, which is not very uncommon. Yeah. And it might be seeing now how early those guys go, even in a draft where, you know, people maybe aren't as well researched yet. and know to reach for those guys, the fact people were doing it anyway, I think is pretty revealing and may be an indication that I might need to move them up. Because as somebody who doesn't place a high priority on steals, you know, I didn't really end up with a great expected stolen base total here. I got Trout first overall who should give me 20 or so, hopefully. Keston here in round seven should give me 20. plus, but beyond that, I don't have a lot of hope for stolen bases.

Something we'll take a look at actually here in just a second. Yeah, we will take a look and do a breakdown of the teams plus breakdown of the picks. But first, I want to tell you guys about our friends over at Siki. Do you ever feel like ticketing websites make getting to the event difficult on purpose? It's as if they're so big they can get away with not caring about the customer experience. The real question is, how easy could it be if those ticketing sites actually care? With millions of live event tickets and price match guarantees, Seat Geek proves there's a better way.

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You're going to get $10 off your first purchase. That's promo code fantasy for $10 off your first purchase. Now, finishing up before we look at our teams, there were some very interesting picks that were made round 11 and on. And I would highly encourage anybody go and check out the article that Scott put together over on CBS. Have you tweeted that sucker out yet? Yeah. Right after we did it, which at this point was a couple weeks ago.

But I could, yeah, pop another tweet out. I can throw out another retweet. Yeah, pop another tweet out there of that one. I'm going to throw out a couple names. We'll just do a few players here that were interesting that were taken a little bit later. In rounds 11 and 12, the guys that stood out to me is you had Frankie Montas who went above players like Robbie Ray and Zach Allen. I took Robbie Ray above Kenley Janssen who went in the 12th round. You also saw Joe Adele go in the 12th round.

So where you see Luis Robert get the I'm super comfortable rookie treatment I think Joe Adele from a talent perspective I like him more than Luis Robert but he's not getting quite the same love that he would come up early. So Frankie Montas, Robbie Ray

Edwin Diaz was the fourth closer taken above Kenley Janssen and actually four closers were taken in round 12. Anybody at one or two players jump out to you? I feel like you're going to tell me about Frankie Montas. Yeah, Frankie Montas I mean I like him better than Zach Wheeler who went in the previous round.

And I think, well, there are obviously some questions. He basically got a third of a season to convince us he had broken out. I like a lot of the contributing factors, the development of a splitter that just really seemed to make his arsenal lock in terms of missing bats and getting ground balls. And just looks like he has the potential to be a front line pitcher. So it was a good time to take him here. I thought about taking him myself. But that was one where I kind of wanted to see how lady would go because I'm not, you know, I kind of intentionally ranked him a little lower than I feel like he deserves to be because I feel like there's going to be a lot of skepticism surrounding him.

You know, we'll see. We'll see. But it was a tough call for me between him and Jesus Luzardo and her way, did I do that right now? He went before Jesus Luzardo. Yeah. Yeah, we're in round 12. Sorry. Yeah.

Joe Adele, I really didn't like that pick. As much as I like the Robert pick, I mean, Joe Adel has a lot of upside. He's going to be a great player in all likelihood. But the steals aren't the same guarantee that they are for Robert, I think, and certainly not the timetable. I mean, I disagree on time table, but I agree on the stolen bases. Because if you guys remember a little plug, obviously I interviewed Joe Adele just about a month ago. I asked him that. I asked him his priority on stolen bases, and he wasn't super interested.

to be honest with you. He talked more about, you know, his first to third type of stuff or, you know, getting to home. Stolen bases are not a major priority. So I actually agree with you. The stolen bases are something that might not be, they're not comparable, especially from an aggressive standpoint. But I think the Joe Adele timetable could be pushed up much more than people expect, like, within weeks. I mean, you don't want to bank on it by doing any crazy investment, but round 12 for Joe Adele. It's not egregious. But I can understand why you don't like it. Yeah, I mean, I think he deserves to be drafted in a five outfielder league but 142nd. I have him 2.96, so he's right on the fringes of a roster spot in a league for me. A league like this for me. I don't know. There are a few reaches here. Brandon Lowe seems like a reach.

Yeah. I mean, he had a lot of strikeout issues and there's some redundancies in that lineup that make playing time an issue. Karris Davis, given his eligibility limitations, I don't want him 141st overall. I like the closers that went here. I think closers slid a bit by typical rotodraft standards, which I'm always in favor of, but it was surprising that everybody seemed in favor of it in this particular draft. I took my first round 12, by the way. I took Kenley Jansen in the 12th round.

He was my first closers. That was the first time I dipped my toe in. Yeah, Jansen, Hans, Smith, Hendricks, Taylor Rogers. I mean, after the first dozen or so, I really don't trust much of anybody to perform reliably for saves. So, you know, those guys are depleting pretty fast here. I also like Lance Lynn leading off the round. I think he's a guy who people aren't going to put much faith in,

but he certainly performed like an ace this past year. Yeah. I'll throw out just a couple others because we'll take a look at our teams here. Some interesting players in their draft rounds. And again, I would just implore you guys if you want to go check it out. Go check out the article. Round 13, Scott took Jesus Lazzardo. I thought that was a good deal.

Gavin Lux and Aristides Aquino both went in the 14th round. Hermann Marquez, I believe Chris Towers took him in the 15th. I thought that was a really good value. A couple oldies, but still out there. Quato and McCutcheon went in the 17th. And a couple rookies in the 20th round. I took Forrest Whitley and Nico Horner. We actually had a big run on rookies late in the draft, people taking upside.

So I thought those are some interesting draft notes for people. Anybody else that stood out to you, rounds 12 to the end? a player or two that deserve note or any comments on the players that I just talked about? I think Adam did something really interesting with his outfields. Did not invest highly in it, targeted a lot of upside and a lot of five category potential that, yeah, just a very boomer bust outfields he put together. Aquino was part of it. I think Aquino in round 14 was good value.

I just kept having players. I wanted to draft more because his personal opinions began to influence things more here in the teen rounds that led to more value picks, I feel like, for me, from my perspective. So I didn't get a chance to grab Aquino. But one thing I feel like people are overlooking with Aquino is the Steele's potential. I mean, the little bit he was up. He went seven for seven in steals. Yeah, perfect seven for seven in 56 games. So definitely 20 plus steel potential there.

Nick Senzel has some steals potential. Kyle Tucker. And those are his five, by the way. Akeno. Akeno, Blackman, Dahl, Sincel, Tucker, if people aren't following along, those are the five. Yeah, there's definitely interesting upside. It seems really risky in a five. And a five outfielder, like, you've got Charlie Blackman, and then you're trying to roll sevens, like with the rest of these guys.

Like, I'm not, I don't particularly, like, what he did with his infielder. field. I love Josh Bell, Albies, Jose Ramirez, Bobauchette. I absolutely love that look. But you're not going to be able to do that with the infield unless you take chances in the outfield. Yeah, that's a really good point, which actually takes us, let's take a look at our teams. Let's take a, let's start with mine. Let's see you pick apart mine here for just a second. Here is my roster. The two catchers, I only drafted Perez's. I got the injured Salvador Perez very late and Roberto Perez. My infield was Pete Alonzo, Catele Marte, Mattie, Matt Chapman and Carlos Correa.

Very happy with that. I got Jonathan VR in the middle infield, so lots of stolen bases here. Nate Lowe is my corner infielder. My outfield is Willie Calhoun, Andrew McCutcheon, A.J. Pollock, Juan Soto, and Eddie Rosario. I also took Royce Lewis as a rookie for you guys to dream on. My pitching staff was Max Scherzer, U. Darvish, Corey Klobber, Robbie Ray, Caleb Smith, Forrest Whitley, and then I took two closers in Kinley Jansen and Craig Kimbril. So what worked, what didn't work?

I think I like your team pretty well, actually. Your worst starting pitcher is Caleb Smith, probably, I assume that was the one you drafted last. Forrest Whitley, I think, was my last. You know what? No, Caleb Smith might have been my last pick because Tim McLeod did irk me taking Whitley right in front of him. I think Caleb was a less.

there. At times this year I was calling Caleb Smith a top 25 pitchers. So if that's your worst one, you know, you have some boom or bust types there in your pitching staff, but you have a nice fairly stable top three, some injury question marks, but Scherzer, Kluber, Darvish.

If those guys are stable for you, then you can obviously hope to find other stable options to support them. A good pitching staff that I can invest as I did on my hitters because I'm much stronger on hitting,

so I had to sacrifice somewhere. So I took some chances, and I hit on a couple of the starting pitchers, like Darvish and Kluber falling back to me, help make this pitching staff good, where it could be a relative disaster, where I put a main focus on hitting. Yeah, and your headfield is good.

I think you have a good balance between power and, I mean, I guess speed-wise, your main contributor is Jonathan V.R., but he should be a big contributor. In fact, that you took him in, in what, round five, late in round five. That was one of those instances where if Patrick Corbyn hadn't been there early in round five for me, that might have been a case where I reached for my one base dealer,

Jonathan V.R. at that point, because we saw him go as early as round two, I think in some of those two early drafts. Yeah, absolutely right. I think fifth round, it's still higher than I rank them, but it's more defensible, I feel like. And to solve the steel's problem, I think it may be worth it. So I liked that one there. Your outfields,

Soto, Eddie Rosario, Willie Calhoun, happy with that top three. But Cutchin and Pollock seemed pretty boring. I mean, I don't see a lot of bounce back potential for either one of them. And I think they're serviceable, but I probably would have aimed for upside over them. I'm not sure exactly how late you got.

Very late, very late. One thing I did, it sometimes tends to happen in these mocks, is outfield just because it's so deep and I can find them deeper. I tend to wait a little bit longer. I'm higher on Pollock. Everyone hates him. I like the McCutcheon rebound.

But yeah, you're not wrong about that. Let's go look at your team. What do we got? Read them off to me. So by rounds or by positions? Just team construction. Positions? Yeah, position.

Okay, so catcher I go, Carson Kelly, who's a top 10 guy for me and James McCann. Carlos Santana is my first baseman. Second base, Kestin Hurra. Third base, Raphael Devers. shortstop Marcus Simeon. My corner infielder is Miguel Sineau, hoping he stays healthy and delivers 50 home runs. My middle infielder is Ryan McMahon. My outfield is Trout, Tray Mancini, I think Danny Santana was the third one I drafted, Mark Kana and Brian Reynolds.

My DH was Jordan Alvarez. Yeah, he'll do. Who I got in the fourth round, which I thought was a good bargain. Yep. So. And then my pitching staff, it goes, who is my ace? Chris Sale, Patrick Corbin, Lucas Gialito, Jesus Luzardo, Matthew Boyd, Luke Weaver.

And then a closing trio of Taylor, Rogers, Mark Malanson, and Keone Kele, unless the Pirates get somebody else. So, you know, Weaver at times, I think, looked like a breakthrough pitchers. I mean, we didn't see that much of him, but he looked like a breakthrough pitcher who was verging on ace potential, and that was the last one I drafted. So I feel really good about my pitching. Yeah, I like your pitching a lot, like where, you know, you have a good top end. I actually think our top three relatively comparable-ish, but you really start to like pull away where you've got, you know, Boyd and the upside of Lizarro.

I love the Luke Weaver pick. On your offense, you've got a great infield, you've got great values. Made me mad when you took Brian Reynolds. You pissed me off when you took Brian Reynolds and you took Luke Weaver. Those were two late guys that I wanted. You did a really well-constructed team. You've got your saves late. You've got your good starting pitchers.

You've got great value. You just, like you mentioned before, you're just not going to be crazy competitive and stolen bases. And that's going to be your biggest hurt here. But you did a better job constructing batting average than I did. And your pitching staff is going to carry you a bit more. Yeah, I mean, I didn't mention Danny Santana earlier. if he is who he just was for the Rangers, then that's three guys that I can hope for 20 plus steals from.

So, you know, I should have 70 plus steals. I mean, I think that's something to at least work with. You don't need a huge number to, you know, at least get some points in the category. Yeah. So I think I have a chance of doing that. But I would like to have one guy who is, a more surefire contributor in that category for sure.

But that's really my one regret from that draft. I think I got a ton of power. I think I don't really have any holes anywhere. Safe batting average. But for batting average, I should be pretty safe. So I feel good about it. Pretty good on the first run, I think. When is the next mock draft?

Are you going to run one in December? Maybe to get kind of a little push against November, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Probably around the winter meetings, maybe right. after it, and it'll be head-to-head points, since that's the other big format for us. And then come late January, we'll probably be doing two mocks a week. So there will be no shortage of them once the new year comes.

That's right. We'll strap in. Good stuff. Very, very early look for you guys. It just can't get enough of it for this mock draft. You can go check out the article to accompany the Part 1 and Part 2 podcast series we just did here for this CBS mock draft. You can find Scott on Twitter at CBS. Scott White. You can find myself on Twitter at Is It the Welsh. Hit us up with any of those questions. You can also email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI for any early baseball questions you got. We will be back with you again, so don't you go anywhere because CBS Fantasy Baseball today has got you covered.

For Scott White. I'm Chris Welsh. You guys have a good one.