Fantasy Baseball Today - 11/22 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Judge's Shoulder, Otani, Thanksgiving Fun

Episode Date: November 22, 2017

Was Aaron Judge's shoulder injury the cause for his extended slump (3:20)? Are the Yankees destined to get Shohei Otani (5:36)? And should steroids users be allowed in the Hall of Fame (9:25)? We've got some HOT TAKES for ya on today's show! ... One player who will be better and one who will be worse on KC (17:50), CHW (22:24) and DET (24:20) ... We're having some fun today as we unveil a listener-inspired All-Christmas team (28:20) and discuss a troubling Thanksgiving trend on the West Coast of the country (31:00) ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

And we are talking baseball on Wednesday, November 22nd. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Hope you have a great, great holiday. We'll be back to talk to you next week. All right, that's it. That sounds like I'm outroing right now. Have a great show. Have a great day, everybody.

See you later. Wow, now I suck at intros. How about that? Yeah, you're so bad at outros that now you're just going all the way. You're going to suck at the beginning and suck at the end. But the middle is going to be great, kind of like an Oreo. You don't like the Oreo The cookie is the worst part of the Oreo

Hmm Objectively But always objectively But that doesn't mean that the cookie's bad Look I never said your intros are bad You did Thank you A very uncomfortable start to the show

Because I feel like Chris just took a picture of me VSA No I was taking a picture of myself Oh okay All right it was weird I was Snapchating with a friend You don't know about Snapchating Snapchat because you're not a youngen.

See, Wednesday, I mean, it's always, you know, there's never anybody in the office for me since I work from home. But Wednesday in the Fort Lauderdale office where Chris is, Wednesday before Thanksgiving, it's like, you know, there's like nobody there. How many people were there? I would say, so I've been during football season, I get to the office usually 10, 30, 11 o'clock because I write a piece at home first and then come into the office. and usually I have to park in like the third or fourth row in the parking lot. Today I was in the second row. Oh. So that I think tells you everything.

It tells me a lot. All right. What do we have for you today? We've got one player who will be better and one who will be worse for the Royals, the White Sox, and the Tigers next year. Did you tell me to do that? I sure did. I don't remember it. Wait, did I not?

I can do it. I can do it on the fly. I got this. I'm looking at the email that I sent you better. and worse. Casey, White Sox, Detroit. That sounds like you've got 15 minutes or so to think of it. We'll talk about Aaron Judge's shoulder. Talk about the Braves cheating.

We've got the All-Christmas team, which is really funny from Ken from Fort Worth. Excellent. A Thanksgiving-related tweet. And your email is at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. So, Chris, and Scott's not here. He's back on paternity leave. He'll be back in seven weeks. It's got to be back next week

So we did a draft yesterday actually And it was really really interesting And I was going to say Hey let's talk about the draft today But I want to wait for Scott to be here So we'll do that next week My team is incredible Yeah I went

I'll just say you know Teaser for next week I went heavy pitching And I don't know how I feel about it It's really interesting But I decided I drafted an ace You got one ace

I got one ace See like three of my first six and maybe four of my first eight picks were pitchers. And I decided I've been talking all this time about how we have to prioritize pitching. I might as well actually do it. So let's see how the team turned out, but that'll be next week. Chris, Aaron Judge, he had arthroscopic shoulder surgery. And I know he went in the second or the third round yesterday.

Second round. Second round. All right. So he was out of the first round. And I'll look up exactly where he went. But arthroscopic shoulder surgery. And I mentioned this last week, you know, there was a lot of speculation that when he went on the horrible slump, 52 games after the All-Star break, 182 batting average, striking out 1.52 times per game. That was up from 1.3 strikeouts per game before the All-Star break.

But a 182 average and nine home runs in 52 games, maybe the shoulder did have a lot to do with it, or maybe it was just a slump. But anyway, do you have any reaction to Aaron Judge getting arthroscopic shoulder surgery? I don't think that's why he fell on the draft. I'll start by saying that. I do think that it played some part in his slump, but I will also point out that he was incredible in the month of September. So I don't know if it's like a magic bullet, and we can just say, oh, Aaron Judge had shoulder surgery,

he's going to be fine now. Yeah. Because he does have those holes in his game. You know, he is going to go through slumps like that because he's so tall. He's very tall. His bat is so long. He went 19th overall.

The, what is that? Ninth pit? No, I don't know. Seventh pick? I would say, yeah. I would say that's within the range of where I would expect him to be taken, maybe a bit on the lower end. He did go ahead of John Carlos Stanton,

which I think had more to do with just weird Giancarlo Stanton slide. He went around ahead of John Carlos Stanton. You took Stanton with the middle of the third round. Yeah, I think I had the fifth pick, and I took him in the fifth pick of this third round. I think that was more, you know, the draft room hasn't been updated. People just didn't have Drunk Carlos Stanton on their minds. But I would say that's around where I would expect Judge to go. He's going to be a high variance player next season.

There's a chance he has another monster season. I think there's a chance that he has a season where he hits 220. Yeah, Judge was the seventh pick of round two, 19th overall. And Gary Sanchez was one pick. after to Chris Towers. Enough about the draft. That's for next week. MLB, the Players Association, and the Japanese League that houses Shohei Otani.

They've all agreed on a deal regarding a posting system. So Otani will be coming on over to... He's going to be on the Yankees, right? Can we just all agree? No. No, he's going to be on the Marlins. Okay, yeah, that's going to happen. I think we all know that.

Right. I'm very excited for him to be on the Yankees. In fact, I think we should already, like, do position. Like, who's out of the Yankees rotation when Otani signs? I think they're going to, I think, and I would hope, and we talked about this a little bit last week, I would hope that whichever team signs him goes with a six-man rotation. I don't think you can do that. Why not?

I just think you'd have to play a position player short thing, because I don't think you can remove a guy from your bullpen. Well, well, Adam. Yeah. You've got an extra position player because Shohei Otani can be your DH and Philips. in the outfield as well. It all works out. You've got, I just, I hope whichever team signs and takes advantage of the, the flexibility that he's going to afford.

I think a six-man rotation, let him DH three or four times a week when he's not, and that way you've got kind of 26 roster spots, right? Yeah, I mean, that makes sense. Well, no, you've got 25 roster spots, but you've got 25 roster spots, but you've got, 25 because he can be both a pitcher and a hit. You can use him as that bat off the bench when he's not starting. You can use him as a

DH. You can go with a four-man bench and not be as short-handed as a lot of teams often are when they go with a four-man bed. You know what would be really bad a really bad thing for fantasy baseball, a six-man rotation. It would be very bad for the pitchers. It would be different.

No, it would be bad because you'd lose two start weeks. You'd have guys making fewer starts, objectively. Yeah, I mean, there would still be some two start weeks, but yeah, for the most part, you would lose a lot of them, and that would be, that would take out some of the strategy, but everybody loses it. Okay, let's just do some quick math. Ready? 162 divided by 5, 32.4. 162 divided by, oh, crap, I hit the wrong button.

All right. So, 162, 162, 162 divided by 6, 27. You're missing five and a half starts per season from a pitcher. That's terrible. Well, you're losing five and a half starts for like 15 pitchers. How many guys are actually making 33 starts? Well, I mean, you know what I'm saying. It's bad.

So also, the Braves cheated. Scott's not here. We'd love to get his thoughts on it, but very harsh punishments. And they lost 12 international prospects. They're now free agents. What's really interesting about that is these guys, have to go through the same international signing system as Shohei Otani. And so there's going to be some team that's just hoarding all their cash.

There's going to be many teams that are hoarding all their cash for Shohei Otani. And all of a sudden there's these 13, you know, somewhat significant, I think, you know, varying degrees. Kevin Maiton has considered the best of them. But guys that are back into that free agent pool in a year where there's not more money available. So it's going to be really interesting to see. teams could get real bargains on some of these guys. But the most that they can give Otani is $3.5 million as a bonus. Yeah, it depends on which teams.

Some teams can give him $3.5 million. I think the Yankees are one of them. The Yankees and the Rangers are the only teams. And then there's other teams that can only give him that can only offer $100,000. Right. So I think the Red Sox are one of those teams that can only offer a couple hundred thousand. So it'll be on the Yankees. Joe Morgan wants steroid users out of the Hall of Fame.

What did you think of Joe Morgan's letter? I agree with him. I agree. I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever vote for a guy that we knew used steroids. I would never vote for that guy to be in that way. So who do we know used steroids? Barry Bonds. Andy Pettit.

Why do we know Barry Bonds use steroids? Oh, no. See, I have this argument with a lot of people. There's no doubt about it. I agree. No, I agree. But how are you making this decision? Because I'll tell you why.

because he said that he used steroids, but he thought they were arthritis balm. He called them the cream in the clear. There's no doubt with Barry Bonds that he used the cream in the clear. His excuse was, I thought it was. Assuming leaked grand jury testimony is true. There's no doubt. We know for a fact that Barry Bonds used. Okay, so here's my thing.

All right. And I agree. And I'm not saying they're the same thing. But when we say that steroid, because the argument that Joe Morgan's using is that they gained an unfair advantage that wasn't available to players of previous generations that put them ahead of their peers, right? Yeah, but that's not the whole thing. The other thing is like they tarnish baseball by cheating, right? Wasn't that part of it or not? Gaylord Perry's in the Hall of Fame.

Yeah, I know, but that doesn't mean that all cheaters should be in the Hall of Fame. Well, sure, but like, it's an arbitrary line to draw. I don't think it's that arbitrary. You're like a chemical substance to gain strength and clearly cheat. We're going to put Tommy John in the Hall of Fame through the Veterans Committee, right? Yes. That is the definition of using science to gain a competitive payment that was not available to players of previous generations. Oh, come on, sir.

You don't even believe what you're saying. Soap's career came to an end because of elbow injuries that might have allowed him to play had he been born in 1972 instead of 19. instead of 1940. Chris, so you're telling me that... I'm not. I'm not telling you anything. So then don't even make a ridiculous argument. I'm just asking you where we draw this arbitrary line.

Lasix surgery. No, come on. Stop. Why is LASIC surgery different from steroids? Oh, come on, Chris. Why? Answer the question. Well, for one thing, it's legal.

There is no evidence that any of these players broke the law. Steroids are legal. What's illegal is using them without a... prescription, but there's not necessarily any evidence that Barry Bonds didn't have a prescription. Chris, like, don't even be, don't even play the semantics here. You know there's different between steroids and LASIC. I agree. If I had to vote, I would not vote for Manny Ramirez this year. Right. We know Manny Ramirez has used steroids. I would vote for Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. And the reason I would is because both of those guys were Hall of Famers, regardless of whether

they used steroids or not. If Barry Bonds retired after the 98-9s, 1998 season, he has 450 career home runs, 450 career steals, three MVPs should have been four. They gave Terry Pendleton one of the worst MVP awards of all time. It should have been Barry Bonds. He's a no doubt Hall of Fame. In fact, if you took Barry Bonds before he started taking steroids, did like some Dragon Balls E Fusion thing where you split him in half into like Barry Bonds, the fast guy and Barry Bonds the power hitter, you probably have two Hall of Fame players. Like Barry Bonds is so clearly a Hall of Fame caliber player that keeping him out because he used steroids, it does nothing. But it bothers me that anybody that would willfully cheat the game like that would get in the Hall of Fame.

And I think for me, I would also- Okay, but there's a lot of guys like that. Yeah, fine. So fine. So keep them all that. So I would say that, you know, I think you need to send a message that if you took steroids, you don't get in the Hall of Fame. And that's a turn for anybody else. before Bud Seelig

basically allowed guys to take steroids by turning a blind eye. Bud Seelig's in the Hall of Fame. He was the commissioner during the Home Run era. I don't like the argument that. Bobby Cox is in the Hall of Fame.

He had steroid users on his team. Why doesn't Bobby Cox kept out of the Hall of Fame? Also, Joe Morgan starts citing the character clause. Bobby Cox had police called to his house for a domestic violence incident. Why is Bobby Cox allowed to be in the

Hall of Fame, but not Barry Bond. Because character clause in baseball doesn't mean off the field stuff. It means character in the game. That's why OJ Simpson's in the Hall of Fame. And I just, I don't buy the argument, oh, that this guy's in. So that means we should turn a blind eye to everything. You're just making a problem worse. I'm not saying turn a blind eye.

But I think drawing a line and saying any player who used steroids, regardless of when they did or what impact it had on their career, I think that's a stupid way to do. Barry Bonds is, you cannot. And this is really the way I view it. When you talk about the Hall of Fame, can you tell the story of baseball without that player? Yeah. The answer is clearly no on Barry Balls. The answer is clearly no on Roger Clemens.

But you ask like people wouldn't know. But then make a steroids wing for all I care. Sure, acknowledge their steroid use on the plaque. I'm fine with that. But these guys belong in. No, but they should be in a separate section, the hell section of the Hall of Fame. The hell of fame. The Hall of Shame.

Sure. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, you're going with these weird technicalities that even you don't believe. So I'm not even going to take you seriously, Chris. I just hope you're going to be. I think you should never take me seriously. Mission accomplished. And then something that you didn't take very seriously at all.

I tweeted yesterday that I was listening to just some music, and I was stumbling upon some old MTV unplugged. And I got to Pearl Jam. And I'm not really a big Pearl Jam fan, to be honest with you. But I think that Jerry. Jeremy is a better song that smells like teen spirit. Ridiculous. Jeremy should be considered the best rock song of the 90s.

Completely ridiculous. I'm not, I'm with you. I'm not the biggest Pearl Jam fan. I've caught some heat for my Pearl Jam Hot Takes. I think they're pretty good. I think they're like the police. You know, a very good band. Not sure they made any great records,

not any albums that I listen to constantly. But they're a great band. They belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I don't know if they ever took steroids. but uh Jeremy's not a better song and smells like Teen Spirit. It's ridiculous. It's it's such a bad, it's such

like you're well known for your bad music opinions. I think we can all agree. No, I don't agree. It's such a bad take. It's such like Jeremy is fine. It's got that great 12 string bass riff at the beginning. It's got Eddie Vedder making weird Eddie Vedder faces in the music video with his like long hair in his weird mouth.

His eyes, his crazy eyes. But smells like Teen Spirit has the most iconic guitar riff of the 90s. Yeah, that's the thing about... And the most iconic drum fill of the 90s. That's the thing about the iconic guitar riff. I mean, smells like Teen Spirit was the first song I ever learned to play on guitar. Yeah. That's probably true for most people.

It's the easiest song in the world. And it's brilliant. It is. It's great, but there's got to be something, you know, you got to lose some points. I think that's what it is. You're one of these people who thinks that technical complexity is important in the value of a song. Go listen to Ingui Malteme and those other guitar shredder. Go watch the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, watch some guys shred while playing crappy music.

Give me good music. And smells like Teen Spirit is a good song. I don't care how easy it was to play. Did I ever say that it wasn't? I said it was worse than Jeremy. And I just said Jeremy might be the best song of the 90s. It's not. And, you know, but we always just say, oh, it smells like New Spirit is the best song.

Because, you know, the critics have told us for so long that it's the best song of the 90s. That doesn't mean I have to agree with it. The critics are right. They might be, but so, you know, I'm right, too. So let's get to baseball here. No. No, this is fun. Look ahead for 2018, a player who will be better on the Kansas City Royals.

And a player who will be worse on the Kansas City Royals, I guess I'll go to give you some time. I got it. All right, go ahead. Who will be better? How about this? I'm going to go with the most surprising pick. Nobody would have ever expected it.

Eric Hosmer will be better next season because he will not be playing for the Royals. He will be playing for the Boston Red Sox. Okay. And you're the park factor is what you like. I think that part, I think if he goes to the Boston Red Sox, That park is perfectly suited to Eric Hosmer's swing. I think he will be a monster if he goes there. That is my official prediction.

And I will just hope that Danny Duffy gets healthy in the offseason. He had elbow surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow. Never want loose bodies. Never want that. His velocity was down all year last year. But usually you lose velocity throughout the season. He actually maintained his velocity throughout the season. It was still a little bit down.

but like you compare, you know, April 2016 to 2017 big drop. You compare September 2016 to 2017, not as big of a drop. And he started to get the strikeouts later in the year. So I'm optimistic that Danny Duffy can get the strikeouts back up to a round of strikeout per inning. And hopefully he's a little healthier next year. He's my player who will be better. He has 381 ERA, 1.26 whip, which really isn't that bad. But, yeah, I expect better things.

Who's going to be worse? Mike Mastakis is the easy call. I don't know if you said the same thing, but I think he's definitely going to be worse. Why? Just doesn't have the track record to back up what he did last season. You know, I like the swing. He's another guy that if he lands in the right place,

maybe could keep it up. But I just, I don't see, what do you, 38 home runs last season? Uh-huh. I just, I don't see him keeping that up. I don't see him sustaining the 270 average. And I think there's a pretty good chance he's not a fantasy relevant third basement next season. Wow.

All right. That's pretty interesting. Well, then, my guy is W hit Maryfield. I'm just trying to look up where Bustakis finished. The fact that he also had a big time second half fall doesn't help his case as well. How many games did he play? 148. And he was 13th in points at third base.

Really? How is that possible? Interesting. Didn't strike out much. Well, he doesn't walk. He doesn't walk. 34 walks. So in points, he's not as good.

I'm sure he was a lot higher in Roto. I'll double check on that. My guy was W hit Merrifield, W hit Marifield, W hit Maryville, with Merrifield. Going to be 29 years old in January. He had a very, very late breakout. But he was the number eight second basement of points, number seven in Roto, batted 288 with 19 home runs,

and he stole 34. four bases, which is really encouraging. But this guy hit two home runs as a rookie in 2016 and half a season in 81 games. Went up to 19 home runs last year in 145 games. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, this was not a prospect. He had a 745 OPS in the PCL in 2016. So I just juiced baseball with Merrifield.

I like the steals. And the peripherals aren't that bad. He's like Mastakis. He doesn't walk, but he doesn't strike out. But yeah, I'm not feeling it with Maryfield. He just feels like one of those guys that we're going to. Chris Taylor of the Midwest. Yeah, yeah, that we're going to say, yeah, one hit wonder.

He's going to disappoint. I will, something that I do think needs to be said because you and Scott have discussed the idea of the juice ball being phased out and changed. It's unlikely that that would happen at the beginning of the season. Why? Because in 2015 when the ball, when we understand. the ball changed, or when we assume that the ball changed based on the evidence. The change happened pretty much at the All-Star break, and I believe the reason for that is that teams have, like, months worth of baseballs in reserve. They're not going to throw all them out and buy new ones.

They're going to have to go through them. So I don't think it's going to be an overnight thing at the start of the season if it happened. Interesting. I did see a quote last week. it might have been from Manfred himself, but it was somebody in the MLB office. They acknowledged that

they were looking at the baseball. So I expect some changes. All right, let's go to the White Sox. Player who will be better on the White Sox, Chris. Good luck. A player who would be... This one's hard. Yeah, good luck with this.

I'll go with one of the rookie pitchers. Lucas Gialito actually had a 238 ERA last season, but the peripherals did not back that up at all. He'll be worse. He'll be worse. I think he's not going to have a 238 ERA, but I would bet he has a better, a better fit than 494. I think his true talent level probably improves. It could be a lot like Dylan Bundy, who was a better pitcher, even if the top line numbers didn't quite show that. And Renaldo Lopez, I just, I expect him to strike out more than six batters per nine, which is what he was at last year.

I just think the stuff is there. I think he'll be a lot better. Now, I say this, my guy who will be better, without really knowing their bullpen all that well and what the plans will be. But Nate Jones only had a pitch 11 and two-thirds innings. Nate Jones is a really good pitcher. In 2016, he was elite.

He had a 229 ERA. He struck out 80 in 70 and two-thirds. He only walked 15 for a reliever. That's crazy. Nate Jones had a 0.89 whip. And I just see him. Look, he had mid-season elbow. surgery. So it might take a little while, but I see Nate Jones as a guy who could be

their closer at some point. That's my guy who will be better for the White Sox. My guy who will be worse, Avi Garcia. Is that who you're going to go with? There's no other answer. This is not a team that had a lot of guys play well. Right. Definitely Garcia. He batted 3.30. And I mean, he had a big September. I don't know if that means anything. He finally had some power. Batted 355 with five home runs and five doubles. 92 Babbip, though. Yeah, no, the Babbib was crazy. And he didn't hit for any power.

I mean, if you're at outfielder, you don't steal bases, you only hit 18 home runs. No, I'm sorry. No Avi Garcia for us. So that brings us to the Detroit Tigers, a player who will be better next year, Chris. I guess I should stick on brand and say Nicholas Castellanos, although Miguel Cabrera is also another very good choice for this. Nicholas Castiano actually finished with decent numbers, got hot in the second half of the season, but the peripherals say he's going to be even better. I got, I got Miggie, no doubt.

Yeah, I mean, I got him in the fourth round in that draft we did yesterday. That feels like it could be league winning type of value. Stanton in the third and Micky in the fourth. Wow. So who's your ace, Chris? You Darvish. Oh, yeah. So kind of iffy, aish-ish-ish.

Ace-ish. But better than I usually go with. Okay. Good for you, changing old habits. And a player who will be worse. I cheated, and I picked a guy who used to be on the Tigers is now on the Angels. I'm going to say Justin Upton will be better. It will be worse.

I don't know how he did what he did last year. It was really remarkable. It was consistent, which even at his best, Justin Upton, was never consistent. He had an OPS below 800, two straight years, and then it was nine o'clock. one last year. Not as good for the Angels after the trade. I just, I didn't understand that we're waiting and waiting for that slump to come. It never came. The team stunk and somehow Justin Upton had a really good season batting 273 with 35 home runs. And the most surprising thing, 44 doubles. That just came out of nowhere. I can't see him doing that again. I will not be

paying for Justin, I will not be paying for 2017 production for Justin Upton. Yeah, yeah, I don't think that's unfair. He's probably someone that might get overdrafted. When he falls, he's good value, but we know who Justin Upton is. Well, we thought we did. I want to see how we did in Los Angeles of Anaheim at that park. Angel Stadium, he batted 2.45, but he did hit six home runs in 16 games. So, damn, good open-ins.

Not a lot to take out from that, though. No. Chris, who's going to be worse from the Tigers? this is another hard one just because teams that are bad usually don't have guys overperforming. So I could go with two guys who were traded. I would bet Justin Verlander and J.D. Martinez are both not as good next season as they were specifically after their trades. But I won't cheat. I won't be like Adam and break the rules.

I'll go with Ian Kinsler. It's time. He was still pretty good for fantasy. 22 homers, 14 steals last season, 90. run scored. It's going to end at some point. This guy's 35. He's a free agent.

Changing scenery can always, you know, can sometimes knock guys off their game. So I'll say, Ian Kinsler. I just feel really dirty for going on that whole rant about cheating. And I'm not getting in the podcasting Hall of Fame if I keep taking someone like Justin Upton and acting like he's on the Tigers. Well, also, you, uh, you go with, you've got some. enhancements. Oh, yeah.

On your, you've got some vocal enhancements that might keep you out. I might have to write a letter when you're eligible for the podcasting Hall of Fame. That's fine.

I mean, it is cheating. It's still the beans, you know? No, it's well known. I turn the treble down a little bit, and I turn the base up just a little bit, just a little bit.

I'll look at the mixer right now. The treble is, instead of at 12 o'clock, it's at 11, and the base is at 1 o'clock. It's really, it just makes my voice a little bit deeper. I only do it because I want the listeners, I want the listeners to enjoy it more.

That's not like I'm going to get a new contract out of it here. Yeah, sure, sure. You're doing it for Barry Bonds was doing it for the fans too. Yeah, right. The fans of San Francisco love Barry Bonds. That's who he loves, though. He loves the fans. All right, so here's our email of the day is from Ken in Fort Worth, Texas. He's got the All-Christmas team. Okay, we've done Halloween. Here's the all-Christmas team. I did not put these in your notes, Chris. Okay. I want you to be surprised. We've got E. Gurriel. Great. Josh Silverbell.

Sure. Chris Kringle Bryant. Yeah. Garrett Cole in your stocking. Sure. Jack Frost Flaherty. Jonathan Ho Ho Holder. Yeah.

That's good. St. Nick Marquakis. Yeah. Lonnie Deck the Chisenhall. That's good. Sengwon O Christmas Tree. Very good. O'Tanembaum.

What is it? Isn't that the original? I don't know. Yeah, O'Tanbaum. It's like a German thing, I think. Really? I have no idea what that means. And Lorenzo Candy Cade.

Excellent. These are very good, Ken. Very good. I can't really think of... What's that? We skipped Thanksgiving, though. I can't really think of any Thanksgiving except for Greg Bird. Kendall Graveman.

Uh, turkey Wendell. Are you doing this off the top of your head? No, I'm doing some searching. I'm trying to find a cranberry. Oh, Darryl Cranberry. That's awesome. There's got to be one that rhymes with gravy. Steve Gravy.

Steve Gravyman. Oh, oh, sorry, I forgot it. Steve Gravy. A player who played in the 1909 through 1927 era, stuffing McKinnis. This is great. And there's got to be like. Like Robinson can-o, you know, corn or can-o gravy. Yeah.

Yeah. Is there beats? Like, uh, hmm. I thought, I thought about Thanksgiving. I couldn't come up with it. Nate creamed cornejo. Okay. Okay.

Okay, great. So, uh, what's your favorite Thanksgiving side, Chris? Uh, cornbread. Okay. So my mom makes a corn souffle that now my wife. wife makes. It's absolutely delicious. I don't like the corn suflay. I just like the cornbread. Okay. Well, I make great cornbread. I put some cheese in there.

I cook in the cast iron skillet with some butter, a little bacon maybe, some saracha if I'm feeling frisky. Nice. I'm trying to find this tweet. Why can't I find it? I retweeted it. I wonder it's weird. All right. So anyway, Jeff Schwartz is a former offensive lineman. Yes. He's been on our fantasy football today podcast. And he tweeted something about Thanksgiving sides. And I will find it because it's very interesting. Oh, here it is.

It's from 538. He retweeted something from 538. The most disproportionately consumed Thanksgiving side dish in each region. So you've got the southeast. They favor macaroni and cheese. Obviously. Not a huge surprise. The northeast, where I currently am,

Squash. That's pretty weak. The Midwest, looks like Ohio, I don't really know geography that well, but the Midwest here, rolls slash biscuits. Sure.

Then you've got like the heartland, green beans and casserole, and then you've got Texas, Oklahoma, you've got the southwest. Cornbread is their favorite thing. So that makes sense. Then you've got like the left half of the country. Salad.

Salad is their side. Like I get, the methodology is such that it's which one they like more than other regions. Like which one is popular relative to other regions, but still salad guys. Disproportionally consume Thanksgiving side dish. Salad. And Jeff Schwartz is who I saw. He said like, what did he say? He said so embarrassed.

It's so embarrassing for the West Coast. It's embarrassing. It really is. I will not have one piece of salad tomorrow for Thanksgiving. I'm making, like, a spinach dip. Yep. Like a spinach and artichoke dip with a lot of cream cheese and grueaer and various other. Like, that's salad, right? No.

That's the way salads. That's the closest that will come to eating salads. Exactly, exactly. All right, let's do some emails at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. This is from the other Scott. Dear Grumpkins, Snarks, and others. I have no idea. I figured you would know.

It just felt like something you would know, since you're a snark. I thought the offseason might be a good time to bring this up. We didn't read this last week. Did we stop me if we read it? FBT is powerful enough to change the world. For MLB, make all the bases flat like home and change rule to allow the runners to overrun second and third in the same manner as first base, as long as they don't make the turn. This would eliminate base-related injuries,

and I think it is dumb when a guy who beats the throw gets called out when it comes off the bag by a millimeter for a millisecond. I agree that it is dumb when a guy comes off the bag for a millisecond and is called out when he beat the throw. I think a better... I don't agree with the allow them to overrun second and third. I just think that's... I think that's silly.

You're in play. The reason you can do it at first is because you're running... You're running out of play, you know? You're not really running out of play. Yeah, you are. I do not, though. Yeah, you are. Okay.

Anyway. But I don't agree with that rule, but I do think we need to make it like in a, in, in basketball, you know, the cylinder, the invisible cylinder that extends infinitely through the, through the air or the goalposts in football. I think the base should be like that. If you're on top of the base, you're on the base. Once you touch it. What did we just made the bases like a lot higher? You know, like six, like four feet off the ground, but they were soft. They were like cushiony.

They're like, so you have to hug them? Yes. And you would never come off the base. You know, I mean, when we were kids, we used to play with like a tree was the base and you just have to touch it. So I guess it's kind of the same thing, except it's not a tree. Sure. What if it was a tree? It's what?

Wow. It would be so scenic. Yeah. So, okay, the other question from the other, Scott, is what about Daniel Murphy? What's the deal with him being held out eight times in September? Anything that concerns you going forward for Daniel Murphy? Didn't he have surgery? He did have surgery, and that does concern me.

And there's not even certainty that Daniel Murphy, who had knee surgery, will be ready for the start of the regular season. And he's just an injury-prone guy. Like, he seems to sort of wear down at the end of the year. And that is definitely something you need to keep in mind with Daniel Murphy. Yeah, he's also just awesome. And if you get 140 games out of Daniel Murphy, you're going to be very happy with the results. So he is, what, 32 years old? I don't know offhand.

Certainly older than you would think based on the fact that he's really only been an elite player for two and a half years. But there's some concern that he'll fall off this year. I think he's definitely a risk. At this point, I think you definitely have to downgrade. Grumpkins and Snarks are from Game of Thrones Yeah, you'd know that, I wouldn't I don't... That's bad on you that you don't know

I feel like that must be from the books Because I don't remember that from the TV show I don't know This is from Matt in a small city In Northern California But not in the Bay Area Mount Shasta Dear Andre

Mandy and Carrie Uh The cast of This Is Us. What? No, it's the cast of the Princess Bride. Oh, sure. Yeah, that makes sense. Mandi.

Grade my trade. I thought with Mandy Moore. You're such a tween. Grade by trade in a dynasty 5 by 5 categories league. Give Chris Archer Get Alex Reyes

and Luis Castillo. That's tough. I tend to think it's a B plus. I think it's a win. but it's super risky. Like Luis Castillo could just be as good as Chris Archer. Based on what he showed last year, I think he's got tons of upside. I think the strikeout potential is similar, but we haven't seen him do it for as long as Chris Archer.

And obviously, Alex Reyes could be the best pitcher in baseball. Or he could never throw a major league pitch. You know, we haven't seen him succeed in the majors more than, you know, a cup of coffee, and he's coming back from Tommy John's surgery. There's a risk, but that definitely sets you up to potentially have two aces, and I think that's worth doing. All right. Here's an email from Noah. Dear Griffin, Justin, and Travis.

The cast of This Is Us. I have no idea who these people are. I don't even see the Google. I've got a friend named Travis and his brothers named Justin. I went to middle school. I had a good friend named Travis and Justin. This might be from my middle school basketball team. I don't remember having a Griffin, but we definitely had a Justin and Travis.

So let's just say that. It's a podcast called My Brother, My Brother, and Me. Oh, okay. 12 team head-to-head category. Are you sure it's not my basketball? Yeah, you're probably right. No, it's your, sorry. It's your middle school basketball.

Undefeated season, by the way. 12-team head-to-head categories league, three outfielders, middle-infield, quarter-infield. We have an auction with a $240 budget. He's keeping Altuva, he's keeping Scherzer. They're pretty expensive. Who should his other two keepers be? A $1, Justin Boor.

Mike, $8. Mike Bustakis. $3 Elvis Andrews. $1. Smoke. $26. Kris Davis. Dollar Tommy Fam.

$13. Rich Hill. Dollar Alex Wood. Dollar Luke Weaver. And then he wrote $130 to line orders. Did I read that? I feel like I read this already. No, you didn't.

Because I feel like I remember $130 to Lionel to Shields, which must have been 13. Nope, you have not read this one. Am I crazy to say that you shouldn't keep Max Scherzer at that price? $38. In a $240 budget, too. So, you know, we're usually talking about $260. I think I might let Scher go. But you'll keep a $30 Al-Tube.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, definitely. I'm liking a $1. Tommy Fam. I like Tommy Fam for a dollar. I like Elvis Andrus for three. I like Luke Weaver for a dollar. I like Alex Wood for a dollar.

You know, it's always tough because keeping Mac Scherzer, you're guaranteeing that you have that ace, and that's very valuable. But there's no way you get Luke Weaver for a dollar in the draft. There's no way you get out Elvis Andrews for three. There's no way you get Tommy Fam for a dollar. And so I think I might keep those guys, and I might just go out and spend $38 on Max Scher again. Okay.

All right, here's from Jason. Next year I'm coming back with Goldschmidt-Altoe, Carpenter, Broxton, DeGrom, and Richards. So he's got mostly hitting. Well, he's got DeGrom, Richards. Okay. I need to keep one of the following players. $10 Chris Bryant, $6.

$0. Cody Bellinger, $34, Chris Sale. You are keeping Chris Bryant and Cody Bellinger and letting go of either Garrett Richards or Keon Broxton. If he can't do that for whatever reason, and he could only keep one of Bryant-Bellinger sale. It's Bryant. Yeah, I mean, yes. Chris is right, though. $6. Bellinger is much better than a $1.

Bauer, Brock, Dinner, Richards. Yep. All right, we got John from New York. Ten team head-to-head points league. I'm drafting eight. We can keep up to three players for up to two years. He's going to keep Salem Verlander. Who should be his last keeper?

Keeping Sale and Verlander. Carrasco, fourth-round pick can be kept for two years. Gialito, 23rd pick for two years. 23rd round pick for two years. Bryce Harper, first round pick for two years. Mookie Betts, second round pick for one year. Reese Hoskins 23rd round pick for two years.

So you're always searching for surplus value when you're talking about keepers. And that's why I don't think Harper is in that discussion. Although you probably can't get him at 8th either. So if you really want him, you can keep him, I wouldn't. For me, it's either Betts or Hoskins.

And I think Scott would go with Hoskins. I think I would go bets. How do you feel? I just want to piss everybody. How do you feel about a 2019 Aaron Judge, Bryce Harper,

Shohei Otani, Yankees Outfield? Whatever. Okay. Okay, cool. Like, you know, enjoy your number six starter and your 220 hitting Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper can't stay healthy.

Congratulations. Way to go. Okay, this is from Andrew. Thank you, by the way. I'm very happy with that. It's too much fun. He wants to do more Halloween team names. Trick or Trey Turner.

Yeah. Ian Dedman. I don't... Like Ian Desmond. Oh, Desmond. Deadman. Yeah. Edwin Reincarnation.

That's a very good. That's one of the best. Yeah. I'd also like to put my vote in for the submission, Witch Hanager to be on the team. I know it's an obvious rhyme, but it's hilarious. Something about the last name paired with Witch. And I think Scott is wrong.

Kevin Scaremeyer is perfect. I know it is a problem. perfect rhyme, but that's how it goes sometimes. Paternity leave seems to have stunted his imagination. It's very good. Yeah. Scaremeyer, it's great. From Jason, dear Yankees, Royals, Braves, and Marlins?

Sure, yeah. I think you're thinking of Yankees, Royals, Braves, and Analytics. Sure. That's Chris's favorite team. Team analytics. He's rooting against Derek Jeter. 13 team point... What, would you say?

It's pretty easy. You have a lot of practice. I'm in a 13-team points league. Keep eight. So he's down to these two. By the way, stolen bases are worth three points, and wins are worth 10. So that makes starting pitchers and steals guys more valuable. Billy Hamilton in the 10th round.

Gene Seguer in the 17th. Yelich in the 5th. Moncata in the 16th. Weaver in the 21st, Rayamuto in the 12th, Kane in the 9th. All right, Kane in the 9th, no way. Well, I mean, steals are important. I'd rather have Hamilton in the 10th. Yeah, and Yelich in the 5th.

I don't think so either. All right, so we cross out Yelich. I don't think Seguerra or Montata. All right, so that means we're down to Billy Hamilton in the 10th. We are down to Weaver in the 21st and Rayamuto in the 12th. No, thanks. I'm going Hamilton and Raimuto. Oh, no.

Over Weaver? Over what? Weaver? Rayamuto? Yeah. What a boring player. Is he? Yeah.

A catcher? Yeah. He's going to steal like 10 bases? Yeah, whatever. Get those extra few points? Oh, man. You could go with Weaver. I just...

Catchers are hard to find. Pitchers are hard to find as well, but he's already got a couple on his team. And I just think locking in a good catcher is really valuable. All right, fine. I would go Weaver. He would go Raimuto. See who you like better. Tom from Jersey. Very interesting discussion on innings. Home ribs.

I like that. I love the autocorrect. Home ribs and the juice ball. I have thought in response to Chris, who said if they take away the juice ball, strikeouts will still be up and home runs will be down. In my opinion, players know about the juice ball, and I'm sure many of them go up to the plate trying to hit home runs. What are your thoughts?

If they get rid of the juice ball, do you think it will have the impact Chris says it will? Well, I'm responding to myself here. The one thing I would say is that strikeouts are very correlated to velocity. And I don't think pitchers are all of a sudden going to stop throwing 98 miles an hour. Velocity has league-wide just continued to increase. And I think that's tied to the increase in strikeouts. It's tied to the increase in pitcher injuries. It might be tied to the increase in home runs.

I think that's a little more spurious. But I just, I don't think strikeouts are necessarily going anywhere unless you shrink the strike zone, lower the mound, any number of things that you could do to lower them, which I don't think are worth doing. And so I think it's a real concern that if home runs go down, you're not going to see any positive impacts out of it. I think a 22nd pitch clock could have more of an impact on strikeouts. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think pitchers are able to and taught to go full effort more often because they can take that time. I think there will be an increase in injuries if there's a pitch clock of 20 seconds put in, though, at least until pitchers adjust. I also, I think strikeouts have gone up like every – we set a new record for strikeouts in baseball every year.

It's got to be like 10 years running now. Yep. And I believe the pitch effects data across the league has shown pretty significant, consistent jumps in league-wide average fastball velocity in that time. I think the average fastball velocity is like 93 miles an hour now. And we got two more. This is Daniel from Kentucky. Pick two out of three. Reese Hoskins, Tommy, Fam, Greg Bird. I think it's got to be Hoskins and fam. Fine. We've seen it.

This is from Greg. Would you trade Tyler Chatwood and Alex Avila for Danny Salazar in a Keeper League? I would very quickly do that. Yeah, for show. All right, thank you, everybody, for listening. You know, we were going to do like a 30-minute show, but we just had too much fun today, and I hope you had as much fun as we did. And now I can do my outro.

Have a great Thanksgiving, everybody. Enjoy your turkey. I hope you have ham because it's better than turkey. And turkey, ham is to Jeremy as turkey is to smells like teen spirit. See you later. Thank you.