Fantasy Baseball Today - 12-team H2H Categories Mock Draft Part 1! Rounds 1-12 Picks & Analysis (3/4 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 4, 2025

Frank Stampfl and Scott White are joined by Michael Waterloo of The Athletic to do a live 12-team H2H categories mock draft. In Part 1, we run through the first 12 rounds of this draft, with analysis on some of the interesting picks. Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CPTowers @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hello, and welcome in. It's a fantasy baseball today on Tuesday.

March 4th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White. Today on the show, we have a live 12-team head-to-head categories. mock draft with daily lineups and we are joined by a special guest to help us draft here welcome to the show for the first time Michael Waterloo how's everything going Mike everything's going very well thanks for having me guys excited to hop on here and do some drafting with you yes and make sure to follow Mike on X at Michael Waterloo and you can follow him on blue sky at

Michael Waterloo dot B sky dot social and you can find his fantasy baseball work over at the athletic and his newsletic letter the walking bucket. Is it the walking bucket or just walking bucket? It's walking bucket, but, you know, in hindsight, I probably should have done the walking bucket. But hey, decisions were made. Yeah, walking bucket, it's cleaner.

Exactly. Isn't that the line from the movie? Did I do it right? Justin Timberlake. No? I have no idea what movie that is, but just as far as SEO, I guess it's a lot cleaner. So we'll go with that and just pretend that you're right. The social network, anyway.

Gotcha. I actually have seen social network, but I didn't understand the reference either. So, Mike, we're already off on the right foot because I don't know any movie references either. So we're good to go there. I will also point out. Way to put you on the spot. That was my bad. He's also a heck of a fantasy basketball dynasty league commissioner.

I will give you credit there. Mike, we play in a league together. And it's a lot of fun. We're both in the playoffs that just started up this week. So, yes, have to give you some credit there. It's a really fun league. So happy to do it. On today's show, mentioned we're doing a live head-edged categories mock draft.

We're using the Yahoo format, daily lineups, 20 innings pitch per week minimum. One of each infield position. Three outfielers, two utility spots, no corner, no middle, two starting pitchers, two relief pitchers, and then four pitcher spots with five bench spots as well. Standard five-by-five categories with batting average runs, home runs, RBI steals for hitting, and then win, strikeouts, ERA whip saves on the pitching. side of things. And the scoring format, the records, it's headded categories with your weekly matchup constantly adding to your record, not just the one win and the one loss, which I know

some people play, but I think the majority and the standard on Yahoo is just the categories keep adding up to the record there. In this draft, Mike is drafting first overall. Scott is fourth, and I will be drafting ninth. And just a heads up on the audio side of things, this will be a two-part podcast and on YouTube just one super long video. So make sure to stick around. We'll probably be here for, I don't know, the next two hours or so. We'll go through the entire draft and then recap our teams at the end. All right, Scott, the draft board is up. We are ready to get things started here as long as you were ready. All right. Start it up. We're off. Mike, you are on the clock. Talk us through. First overall pick. Yeah, you know, this is where it gets important to

know your format. And with this format, it is daily lineups. So I'm going to go ahead and take Shohei Otani. I have the ability to move him in between hitting and pitching every day. So we don't know

when for sure he's going to be back pitching. But yeah, that's kind of the reason I went with him. If he was two separate players or his weekly lineups, I would have went with Bobby Witt Jr. there. All right. Yes. So you are in the Bobby Witt over O-Tom. camp in weekly leagues.

Yes. Because that doesn't seem to be the most popular sentiment even right now. Yeah, I was kind of looking at some draft out earlier and Otani seemed to be going ahead of Witt and it surprised me. But yeah, I'm firmly in the camp of Witt ahead of him. Given the format, I like Otani here. But I do think as he comes back and he's going to be pitching a little bit, we may see a little bit more restrictions on him, whether it's running or just kind of have an extra day off. He's recovering.

The Dodgers want to play safe with him and they have that luxury. So yeah, it's very, very close for me, obviously. But yeah, that's why I lean with it. And in a daily league, like, there's no other way to go with it. The fact you can get arguably the best hitter and probably an ace pitcher for at least five months with one pick.

It's, Yahoo, I think, divides Otani into two players. And so, CBS historically hasn't. Recently, there was an option just introduced in CBS leagues where you can do that with Otani. You can split him into a hitter and a pitcher. But in this draft, we're obviously not doing that. And so, yes, stress Otani is the first overall pick if that's the case. And it is worth pointing out on Yahoo. He is two different players. As a hitter Otani, there's a pitcher Otani. But for the sake of today's mock draft that we're doing,

he's one player in this. And thus he goes first overall. Scott, you had the fourth overall pick here, and you went with Ellie Dealer Cruz, which I know does not line up with your roto slash category rankings. But in this format, you might want to get those lump sum of steel. So why did you go with L.A. Daly Cruz? Well, that's exactly why. Way to give the analysis for me, Frank. No, in head-to-head categories leagues, we talked about this the other day when we had Joe O'Rico on. I have found that with the smaller lineup sizes

and the week by week roto competitions. You need a player to, you need your high-end players to make an impact for that week. You need to count on them doing that week after week after week. I want people who are really going to dominate in a category. And there is no single category. dominator in the entire player pool bigger than Elie de la Cruz and stolen bases and if he does take a step forward as a hitter with the shortened swing that he worked on with Fernando Tatis this

offseason for Fernando Tatis senior then all the better so yeah I wouldn't normally take him forth overall but in head-to-head categories I think I think it fits my strategy for that format all right after Scott took Ellie de la Cruz there's gunner Henderson Juan Soto Julio Rodriguez Jose Ramirez I select the Kyle Tucker at 9 and then Corbyn Carroll goes at 10. Corbyn Carroll currently day-to-day as he's dealing with that back injury. He left Sunday's game. Doesn't sound overly serious, but hopefully we do get him back in game action by the end of this week. Mike, do you agree with the analysis that Scott provided in wanting to get players that can offer like extremes in one category, like

an L.A. Dela-Cruz that could give you massive stolen base potential on a weekly basis or maybe even going after big home run hitters like a Schwabber or Matt Olson, someone like that, who can maybe help you win the category on a weekly basis. What are your thoughts there? Yeah, I think it's absolutely key. You know, the season is kind of broken down into a week-to-week basis, so you're really aiming to win every single matchup. It's not like Roto where, okay, eventually it's all going to even out and you'll get it over the course of the whole season. I think it's really key, especially in a category such as stolen bases that are really, really hard to find. I think you want to look going into that week and say, okay, I don't know how this is all going to play out.

The other team has some strengths. I know my weaknesses, but whenever I have somebody who can just dominate a category, I know for sure I can build around that and then just kind of go from there. So yeah, I 100% agree with this analysis there. And another thing you have to think about versus a roto. I mean, most analysis, five-by-five analysis is geared toward rotos. So these are things we don't often think about. with Ellie de la Cruz in the first round it can be kind of overkill with the stolen bases

because they're so widely available it can kind of hem you into what you do with your next really with the rest of your draft to make sure you're addressing all the other categorical needs and not overdoing it with stolen bases I don't worry about overdoing it with categories in this format because I like if if I'm drafting Ellie de la Cruz I want to make sure I win stolen bases every single week

and since again the season is broken into weekly segments. They're going to be some weeks where, you know, L.A. Dela Cruz maybe just gives me one or perhaps even zero. And so, you know, if I built a team around winning stolen bases, I need to have other guys in there who can contribute that too. All right. Well, after Corby and Carroll went 10th overall,

there was Yordon Alvarez at 11, then Fernando Tatis at 12. Then into round two, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Paul Skeens, Francisco Lindor, and I selected Mookie Betts, who has shortstop and outfield eligibility. I'll decide where I move him, I think, throughout the draft. It offers me a little bit of flexibility where, you know, if I want to load up on more outfielders,

maybe I throw him at shortstop, or if there's a good shortstop value later, I can take that shortstop and move mooky bets back into the outfield. So I've kind of gone the opposite way of L.E. Dela Cruz. I kind of just have five category contributors, not necessarily guys that are going to give you huge speed, but they were the best players available, and that was the reason.

why I drafted them. So, yeah, I mean, it's, look, boogie bet's going to hit 30 plus homers in all likelihood. Kyle Tucker could go 30.30. Yeah. When we're at the most high-end players, I don't know that you can necessarily go wrong. Yeah, I can't think of anybody looking at the names now that I'd be like, oh, I really don't want that guy in a head-to-head categories league. I think he did fine.

Yeah. I did think about if Betty Lindor were both gone and Paul Skeens was still on the board. I was going to think about maybe taking Trey Turner to give me a little bit more speed upside on a weekly basis, but Paul Skeens went, and thus I had the opportunity to draft Mookie Betts, and that's what I did. After Mookiee Betts, Trey Turner, Jazz Chisholm,

Bryce Harper, and Jackson Trio. Scott, you are back up. Your first pick was Ellie, and your second pick will be. I might be overthinking this because of the format. Uh-oh. Or I might be doing exactly the right thing. I don't know. I'm going to take, uh, because he's,

He's still there at pick 21. I'm going to take Terrick Scoobel and not sweat over the pitching categories as much. You know, the top two hitters on my draft board are Freddie Freeman and Catel Marte and then Jackson Merrill's up there too and it just feels a little early for them. Gerard Durant's still out there too,

but obviously with L.A. LaCrues, I don't know that I, even though I just talked about like overdoing installing bases is fine, I don't know that I want my first two picks to be primarily steals guys, you know? I did wonder if you were going to go that route and just try to dominate steals with Ellie and Jared Duran. So that's interesting. You take Tarek Scuba here 21st overall. That's further than I think we've seen him go in other drafts here.

And obviously you don't typically take starting pitchers early on, but a little bit of a different format here with the head head head categories. And you lock in your SP1 all the way down at 21st overall. Never say never, Frank. After Scoobel, there was Matt Olson, Freddie Freeman. Mike, you selected Zach Wheeler with one of your picks. and who is going to be your next pick, the first pick of round three? Yeah, I decided to follow him up with Catelle Marte. I was really hoping that Scoobel would just keep following and following and following.

He's also my number one, but more than happy to get my number two pitchers, Zach Wheeler there and just not have to sweat about that, especially there's quite a few picks before it comes back around me, and I want to make sure I have my, a pitcher I feel really good about leading my staff. And then I was between Marte and Jared Duran there, but I feel a little better. about Marte, just be able to repeat what he does. I like my stolen bases I was able to address in round one with Otani. So I don't really have to worry about taking Duran there.

It just felt a little early to kind of echo what Scott said for him there. So yeah, I feel kind of, I feel pretty happy with Katel there. So taking Zach Wheeler at the two three turn, I think that's a totally fine time to take him. Is that part of your regular draft strategy, Mike, grabbing a starting pitcher maybe in round two or three? Or is that more so speak to the format and getting, you want to get an ace. in a head-to-head categories league. Yeah, it's more format-based for me.

I really want to get an ace, so I don't have to worry about it each week. Kind of like Scott's point with Ellie going in there and just expecting to win steals each week, but still need any other people to contribute. I want to feel good about my ace going into each and every week. Obviously, there's going to be times where it's a bad matchup. He's going to have one start as opposed to two.

But typically, I like to try to lock that pick in, especially if I'm picking on the, if I'm picking first or 12, I'd like to try to grab one. All right. After you selected Cotel Marte, we do see Jaron-Darang Go, then Garrett Crochet. And Scott, you were back up in round three. You know what? Yolo.

Uh-oh. I'm taking Ronald de Cunia. Oh! I'm doing it. Small lineups, you know, I was between him and Austin Riley. Austin Riley, obviously more geared toward the power categories that maybe I'm sacrificing a little with Ellie de la Cruz if he doesn't have a big breakthrough. And hopefully Riley would help him batting average too.

He generally does. But these are smaller lineups, no corner infield spot. And I find in the middle stages of the draft, there are a lot of third basement I like a lot. And, you know, also smaller lineups, more incentivizes more a pick like this where you're going to be forced to wait for a while with him. But you know the standard for replacement is higher. So yeah, I'm doing it. This is 28th overall. That seems like a reasonable time to bet on Acuna.

You know what, Scott, if there is a category for fun, you would have already won it. So having Ellie Dela Cruz, Terrick Scouble, and Ronald de Cunia on the same team. That is a very fun team. You're right. That is a lot of fun. Mike, what are your expectations for Acuna this year coming back from a torn ACL in the other knee? He is now torn the ACL in both of his knees. And such a big part of his skill set for fantasy is stealing bases.

and they've talked about, you know, maybe slowing him down a little bit and not letting him be as aggressive this season. What are your expectations for Ronald de Cunia? Yeah, he's somebody on fading, but I understand it totally, where Scott took him there just because the format, it is shallow, three outfielders, replacement levels around, you can afford a weight on him. He's somebody, I typically say if he's there in round four,

I'll take him, but I'm not going to spend a top three pick on him. I do expect them to kind of ease him in a little bit, But we know the kind of gamer he is. We know how the Braves are. As the season goes on, we're going to see him stealing more and more and kind of getting the greenlight more there. But I do think we need to pump the brakes a little bit and expectations. And it seems like the community overall is doing that. On the subject of them having him run less, I think that's fake news.

Because there was an interview, Akunia being interviewed by his locker. He said, yeah, he may be a little less aggressive this year, too. to protect the need. That's something Acuna himself said. Alex Anthopolis was asked about that comment, and he said, knowing Ronald, he's saying that now, but he's so competitive once he gets back on the field. So I don't think that was Akunia echoing the organization's mandate.

I think that was him speaking off the cuff, and it doesn't sound like Anthopolis is buying it. And frankly, I'm not either. He relishes stealing bases. And I think it'll continue. I think we'll see that as the season goes on. I think, you know, we'll kind of see it in the first week or two. People will be kind of hesitant because he maybe has one steal through two weeks or something like that.

But after the All-Star break or kind of leading into it, it's like, okay, like I can see a segment on your show, Frank leading off. Like, is Ronald Acuna back? Because we're going to see that two-steal game or like four steals and three games or something like that. So, yeah, I definitely see. I think he's going to kind of get back into the flow as he gets healthy and the season goes on. All right, after Acuna, we saw Jackson Merrill, Austin Riley, Cole Regens, William Contreras, Logan Gilbert, and Pete Alonzo. So I selected Logan Gilbert. You guys kind of talked me into getting an ace here in the head-to-categories format and just locking in that pitcher every single week.

Although, you know, I guess something interesting in the head-to-head league is looking at home road splits for starting pitchers. And Logan Gilbert is someone who typically pitches very well at home. And he's still good on the road. He's just not as good. And you could say that about basically any Seattle Mariners starting pitcher. But yes, he is my SP4 this season ranked, and I have him 28th overall in category leagues. And so I got him a few picks past that at 33rd overall. Happy to do that there with Logan Gilbert.

As I just mentioned, Pete Alonzo goes 34th. And then Rafael Devers goes at 35th overall before we get to the 3-4 turn. Scott, how are you feeling about Devers? Have you lowered him at all in the rankings, just the fact that he's only been, he's still kind of working his way back from the shoulder stuff. My hope was that after last season, this would just kind of be behind him by now. But it seems like it's still kind of a thing for Raphael Devers. Well, it sounds like he's not going to be playing third base to begin the year. That's how much of a thing it is.

And I would say that merits a small downgrade. I had already moved him behind Riley. I initially had Devers ahead of Riley. I might be on the verge of moving him behind Machado now because those three are so close together in my mind anyway. I think he'll be there in the lineup at the start of the season. And he played through the shoulder injury all of last year and was fine for four months.

It just kind of caught up to him at the end. So I think part of us not seeing him yet and not playing third base is just an abundance of caution. They want to make sure the bat is solid. So I wouldn't let him slip beyond round three. All right. After Rafael Devers went, we saw Mani Machado and Corey Seeger at the 3-4 turn. We are now into the fourth round.

I am up in two picks here. And let's see, I've got Mookie Betts. I've got Kyle Tucker. And I've got Logan Gilbert so far. Balanced. A little bit of everything. Let's see. What am I thinking about here?

Scott, this is your internal monologue for round four. I know you look forward to these every draft. I do. It's my favorite part. It's also just me trying to like filibuster while I wait for my pick to come up. If there was an interesting pick, everything's kind of been by the book so far. I like William Contreras going middle of round three. This is another one of those small lineup leagues where you want impact from every spot.

So I think Contrera should be pushed up a little bit when that's the case. After Corey Seeger went, we see Chris Sale go off the board at 38th overall. which yeah I think I think getting a true ace kind of makes sense in this format you know I'm not going to bend over backwards for it but I'm not going to consciously avoid it as much as I would in

a roto league or even a head-to-head points for the same reason that I like getting a big somebody who's going to dominate a hitting category you just you create a nice ERA and whip foundation week for week and that's

those are two categories. Really, any rate stat is going to fluctuate wildly from week to week. So, I mean, Terrick Scoobel has one bad start in a week, which he'll have bad starts on occasion. You'll lose that ERA and whip foundation for the week. But most weeks, he's going to give you a nice one that'll help absorb a bad start from some other pitcher. All right. After Chris Sale went, there was George Kirby. I selected C.J. Abrams, then Jose Altuve, O'Neill Cruz, and Wyatt Lank.

Right on cue, our guy, Doc Eisenhower, who drafts Wyatt. In every single mock draft we do winds up with Langford here in round four. I'm just glad he didn't do it in round three. Sometimes he does do it in round three. Wyatt Langford, by the way, we did get an update here on Monday. Could make his spring training debut early this week. He resumed baseball activities last week after being diagnosed with a mild left oblique strain 10 days ago. So it seems like things are trending in the right direction for Wyeth.

at Langford right after him, Ozzy Albies. Do just want to quickly touch on my pick of CJ Abrams. Not a player I typically target, but again, in this format, wanting to get players that could provide bulk in a certain category. And I think CJ Abrams can provide that. I know the steals were down a little bit compared to where they were two years ago, but I think he bounces back with, you know, 35, 40 plus steals this upcoming season in an improving Nationals lineup.

So that's why I opted to go with him, move Mookie Betts into my outfield slot. And all of a sudden, I've got two outfielders so far. So maybe don't fill that position too quick just yet. Scott, over to you for your round four pick. So it's between two players, both DH only. I want to get a big power bat at this point. Normally I'd lean toward Kyle Schwerber, particularly in this format. But I'm going to go with Marcel O'Zuna this time.

Homer. Because I sacrificed batting average, presumably, with the round. one pick, Ellie de la Cruz. I want the better batting average source between Ozu and Schwerber. And, you know, the power production,

at least the last two years, has been similar. It's been 85, 85, can I add correctly? 95. No, I can't add correct. 85. 85 home runs for Schwerber the last two years

versus 79 for Ozuna. And OZuna, and OZuna. actually out had the higher home run total between the two of them. Again, normally I lean Schwabber, but it's close enough that with batting average a major need of mine right now, I'm going to Zuda. Welcome into Mathematics 101 with Scott White, your professor here for the day. Bad choice.

Scott, I did wonder if having L.A. Dela Cruz on your team, maybe you would just kind of lean into the punt batting average by taking a Kyle Schwerber. Did that factor into your decision at all? Did you think about that? No. No, that's not a considerable. consideration for me, especially since, like I said, those rate stats, and there's really just one rate stat on the hitting side, batting average, they can fluctuate so much from week to week that you don't want to completely abandon it. You know, you don't have to be the best batting average team in the league to win batting average sometimes, and I want to give myself a chance at that. All right, after you selected Marcel Ozuna, Blake Snell, Corbyn Burns, I thought was a great value.

I thought about taking him in round four and just kind of doubling up on starting pitcher, but I think that's a really good pick, 47th overall. And then Mike, you selected a manual class A and Michael Harris. We are now into the fifth round. I also thought about taking a manual class A at my pick, but I just am usually not the first person to take a closer. I think this is the format to do it. Mike, is that something you typically do in a regular draft or is it, again, specific to

this format where you want to get one of those elite closers? It's specific to the format. Points, leagues, I don't care. about closers at all. It's something I turn a blonde eye to and I really shouldn't. But roto leagues, I'm kind of waiting. I'm not really a guy who likes to take the first one, kind of like you, Frank, but kind of going back to Scott's point at the fourth page with L.A. Dela Cruz, I want to know I'm going into the week with an elite guy who's able to kind get me those big saves, give me those strikeouts, get me that whip. So especially, again,

picking first overall, it's going to be a while until it comes back to me. So I want to lock in that closer, not worry about that. And I think I did that there with Claisse. I hate being the first person to take one. I'm always hoping the run starts right after I do it. So if we go about four or five more picks here with no more closers, I'm not going to feel a little less good about that pick. Yeah.

So through five picks, you have Otani on your team with Zach Wheeler, Emmanuel Claese, Michael Harris, and Ketel Marte. So a very balanced build so far. After you selected Michael Harris, there goes Dylan Seas. And then James Wood. Scott, you were back up here in Rale. Round five. Oh, and I just had a huge revelation.

Uh-oh. I was thinking I took Marcel Ozuna, Kyle Schwerber's still there. Man, I wish I could get Kyle Schwerber too. And I can. That's right. Because standard Yahoo lineups have two DH spots. So come on down, Kyle Schwerber. Help me, help me pile up those home run numbers week to week.

All the bombs, baby. All the bombs. Did want to point out, Emmanuel Class A's ADP on Yahoo in particular, 36th overall. So again, I think that points to that format, head-ed categories. He does go at that three-four turn and here he lasts to the four-five. So I think, you know, typically in a head-to-head categories league with daily lineups, you will see Emmanuel Claucet and some of those elite closers go a little bit early in these drafts. After Scott selected Kyle Schwerber, there was Brent Rooker, Garrett Cole. I just love that. Once you see one of the Util-only guys go,

it's just like a snowball effect. Now I know you took two of them, Scott. So obviously you contributed greatly to that happening. But right after you took Kyle Schwerber, it's Brent Rooker. So it feels like that in every draft. Once we get to round four, round five, one of those guys goes, boom. Next thing you know, the other two go as well. And as Schwerber had been taken in between my picks, I would have taken Rooker to fill that second utility spot. I think those three bats at the point I took, Ozuna.

I think those were clearly the three best bats left, if you want. weren't, you know, if you weren't looking to fill a specific positional or specific categorical need. All right. After Brent Rooker, there was Garrick Cole, Edwin Diaz. So another closer off the board. Edwin Diaz, the second closer off the board ahead of Devin Williams and Josh Hater. I think that's at least a little surprising. Mike, what do you think about Edwin Diaz as the second closer off the board? Would you have taken him over someone like Devin Williams or Josh Heter? So as soon as I saw that he went, I had to look and make sure that Williams and Hater were still available. So it kind of surprised me.

I was expecting Williams to go ahead of them. But, hey, to each their own, they'll have their preference. I don't think it's anything that I'd really question. I just would have Williams and Hater both ahead of him. But yeah, I totally get it. I get going to a new team in New York. And, you know, it's not really a contract but a trade, but still going to a big environment after leave Milwaukee. So I get any concerns there, but I'd still go with him first.

All right. After Edwin Diaz, there was Teoska Hernandez at 56 overall, and then I went ahead and took Marcus Semyon, who, again, is not really a player that's going to provide anything major. He's kind of just spread it out. It doesn't really give you a good batting average. But, you know, a couple home runs. He's going to score a lot of runs.

I think this Rangers lineup bounces back this season. You know, I still think he's fast enough, too, to steal, you know, 15-ish bases. I think last year was a little bit of a, Luke, it's not, I don't think it's like he's getting older or something and he, he's not capable of running anymore. I think he's still a really, really good athlete and I think the steals could bounce back a little bit for Marcus Semi. Not, you know, not getting to 20 or anything, but you know, somewhere in the teens for Marcus Semi in this season. Did the sprint speed actually go down for him last year? I, I want to say it, an 81st percentile. Yeah, it was still really good.

And he still grades out as a great defender too, so I don't think he's lost any athleticism there. Yeah. Yeah, he is one of those Jack of All Trades, Master of Nun types that I try to avoid in this league when given the choice. I'm not saying I'm never going to draft one. And I think, you know, you took Simian about the point where I rank him. So I'm not criticizing the pick. I'm just kind of pointing out where he fits into the way I tend to approach these drafts. Scott, why are you criticizing my pick?

Come on, man. It's messed up. No, I'm just kidding. After Marcus Semyon, there goes Josh Hater, Cody Bellinger, and Framber Valdez, followed by Devin Williams. So I thought about taking one of Devin Williams or Josh Hater. I thought maybe one of them would make it back to me.

I was wrong. So taking Marcus Semyon kind of screwed me out of getting one of those elite closers. Though, there is another name coming up. We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens here. We are into round six. I just realized I never took a break

early on. So let's take a break now. And when we return, we'll catch you up on the picks right after this. Welcome back in. We are doing a live 12-team headhead categories mock draft. Daily lineups here. Frank and Scott, joined by special guest Michael Waterloo from the Athletic. And we're in round six. After Devin Williams, there's Rysel Aglaeus. 62nd overall. I am up next. So far, my team I've got Marcus Semyon, C.J. Abrams, Mookie Betz, Kyle Tucker, and one starting pitcher with Logan Gilbert. Jordan Westberg goes next up. Jordan Westberg currently dealing with a bit of an injury himself.

It sounds like he is working his way back. Could be back in spring training games as soon as this week. Obviously a player we all really like a lot this season. And yeah, there he goes. 63rd overall. I hinted at potentially taking a closer and I'm going to do it. I'm going to go ahead and take Mason Miller. Now, I don't know that Mason Miller is going to provide the same save total as some of these other elite options.

But when we're just talking about ratios and strikeouts, I think Mason Miller might be the most dominant reliever in all of baseball. So, you know, locking in, I think, around 30 saves, but also coming with elite ratios and strikeouts there. And Chris isn't here. So I actually give myself an opportunity to draft Mason Miller because he, most of the time Chris is looking to select him. before anyone else can.

After Mason Miller, there's Michael King and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Let's check back in on Scott's team. Adley Ruchman, the very next pick as well. Let's see. Scott, you have Ellie Dela Cruz, Ronald Acuna, two util only players with Marcel Ozuna

and Kyle Schwabord. You can do that with the Yahoo lineup. And Terek Scoobel as your SP1. The next pick was Christian Walker. And Scott, you're up. Yeah, this is shaping up to be a pretty funky because five rounds in, I technically have just one hitter position filled. Well, I have L.A. LaCruz, and then I also have a cune who won't be available at the start of the year.

So what's my week one lineup going to look like? I'm going to add a second outfielder here, somebody who I think could be impactful in a number of categories if he hits, which is a big if. But I am more or less a believer in Lawrence Butler. and this is about the earliest I'd take him. Pick 69, it's easier to justify, I think, in this scoring format for all the same reasons I said Ronald de Cunia is easier to justify. So Lawrence Butler at 69th overall, nice. After him, we see Jacob de Grom go 70th.

And Mike, you are on deck. Let's check back in on your team. You have Cotel Marte, Michael Harris, Sohei Otani, Zach Wheeler, and Emmanuel Class A. So trying to cover all the categories so far. You look like done a pretty good job of that. And what are we thinking here before, without giving anything away? Oh, well, here you are.

You're up. Bobachette goes 71st. And Mike, you're up for two. Yeah. So kind of my thinking with this is, okay, I took Class A, which is great. But now I feel like I have a hole within my lineup and also another starter that I really, really want to get. I was hoping Christian Walker would have fell to me, but he didn't. So I don't want to fill up both outfield slots. I just took one my last pick, so I don't want to get that third one,

but I can get that second one. I think I'm going to continue to go with the safe route and kind of somebody who can contribute across the board. So I'm going to go with Brett and Doyle. Big believer in him. I think I selected him. Did that not go through? There we go. Okay. Okay. All right, yes. So Brett and Doyle come on down to Team Waterloo. So that means now we have another decision to make. Do I go with a starter pitch, a starting pitcher? I typically, spoiler, will not take a catcher until very late. I understand what Scott says about wanting to get a beast at each one, but you'll get to start one here. And I feel okay with getting the 12th best one, 13th best one. That's fine. So I'm actually going to take another starting pitcher

here. And did that go through? Okay. Yes, it did. Shora Imanaga is the pitcher. Yes, Shoda imanaga. So decided to go with him. I was between him and Pablo Lopez,

to be honest with you, but felt a little bit better and safer with Shodas. So come on down. Talk to us about Brendan Doyle and why you like him this season because I know Scott has him as a bus this year, but Brendan Doyle, again, in this format,

he could provide big speed, expected his lead off for the Rockies this season. So why are you in on Brenton Doyle? Yeah, just kind of, he's a safe player. And I think you want a little bit of safety to have that assurance each week. And I feel safe at him. I feel like he's good to go. He's going to be leading off. He's going to be able to go 18, 18, at least, kind of hopefully come close to those 20 steals. I feel good about about a 270 average. And there's really nothing I don't like about him, kind of whenever you look underneath the hood. I feel pretty good about him, his barrel rate.

And, you know, he hits the ball decently hard and, you know, it just makes me, makes it feel like a very safe pick. Another guy I was looking at was Luis Robert, and it feels like we just keep waiting for Luis Robert to be a thing, and it's just not happening. So I don't want to regret that pick, so I won't Doyle. Yeah, so Luis Robert a couple years ago,

he had that awesome season last year. Disastrous dealt with the injuries. And so far off to a good start this spring, we'll see if that can carry over into the regular season. It's just the white socks are so, so bad. So finding a way to keep him healthy and keep him motivated in a really bad lineup, the hope was that he would be traded this off season that hasn't happened. But, you know, if Luis Robert gets off to a great start, has a good first half,

maybe he's someone that is traded at the deadline to a much better contending team this season. After Ibenaga, there was Ryan Helsley, Alex Bregman, who we spoke about yesterday as an ADP riser. And rising, he is, 75th overall in this one. And then Scott, you selected Josh Naylor. Why is that? Well, it is my first infielder. Second infielder. Sorry, L.A. Delacruz is my first infielder.

So I'm falling behind at those spots. And particularly first base, I was looking. And for this format, I'm not as wild about taking Tristan Kossis or Vini Pasquantino. because I'm not sure what their power production is going to look like relative to other first baseman. And Spencer Steer is kind of in a sticky situation himself, so I wasn't thrilled about that. Jake Berger I would have been okay with,

but I didn't want to necessarily have to thread a needle there. So I went with Naylor to secure what I thought was a position that was drying up, at least for my expectations in a league like this. Anthony Santander was the other one I was considering. I think he's a clearer power source, but Naylor has a better chance of hitting for average. And that helped push me over the edge too, but mainly it was the position element of the fact that I didn't love

what I might be left with at first base if I didn't take Naylor. That is what I am currently thinking about, Scott. And I hear all your points about Vinnie P. Maybe. But I do look at, like him quite a bit. I think he could be a standout in RBI. He'll be okay with batting average and home runs this season, but

I think batting cleanup for the Royals again, the RBI should be there and so I don't really want to wait on I don't want to get locked out like I did in that other mock draft that he did and my first basement was terrible. So I'm going to go ahead and grab Vinnie Pasquantino here and continue to build out the

offense. I only have one starting pitcher so far with Logan Gilbert, so might start to think about taking an SP2, but yeah, so far I've got Vinnie P, Marcus Semyon, C.J. Abrams, Mooky Betts, and Kyle Tucker, also with Logan Gilbert and Mason Miller on this team. After Vinny Pee, there was Mike Trout. A couple of picks before that. I was looking at Tyler Glassdown. He went to pick right before Vinny Pass Quantino. And all reports good so far with Tyler Glass now. I mean, you know, every year seems to deal with something. Ended his season last year with an elbow injury again, but seems to be healthy. And, you know, Scott,

Your point about Ronald de Cunia earlier, the shallower format, you could take some more chances, and the replacement value should be pretty good in a league this shallow. And so if I could just get impact whenever Tyler Glassnow pitches, that's what I was thinking about doing. But he went one pick before, unfortunately. Yeah, we're to the point where I think Tyler Glass now is just being undervalued in general. Over the last 35 drafts at NFBC, he's 94th. So that's 14 picks later than he went here. I thought there was a halfway decent chance

he'd make it back to me, but obviously that didn't happen. And I think where I win is more appropriate, 80th overall. Mike, what are your thoughts on Tyler Glass down the season? To my knowledge, correct me if I'm wrong. You are a Pirates fan, right? I grew up a Pirates fan and a big Blue Jays and Pirates guy, but yes, I am a sad Pirates guy growing up. Yes, so a former Pirates farmhand long, long time ago,

you got to see the development there with Tyler Glass. Now, what are your thoughts on him this season with the Dodgers? He's a guy. Like, I kind of agree with Scott. He is kind of being underrated at this point, but I also get it. There's some people who are just tortured by the past of Tyler Glass now and the injuries and want to kind of avoid him at all costs.

And it's just like, hey, if he goes off on somebody else's team, that's fine. I don't want to risk it. So I totally get the thought. I think 80th there is a little too. low. I think he should be going around maybe 70th, 75th, personally. But I think it's a pretty good landing spot. He's somebody I

haven't taken yet in any drafts because I can say he should go there, but whenever I'm up, you'll see me go with somebody like Shata instead because I'm too afraid to take a last time and having him blow up my staff. Gotcha. After I took Vinny P, there was Mike Trout, Anthony Santander, as well.

So we're starting to see some outfielders go off the board here as well. Mike I think insert a lot of the same analysis for Tyler Glass now for Mike Trout. We still think he's going to be impactful when he's on the field. It's just how many games are we going to get from Trout this season. He's moving over to right field, hopefully not having to patrol center. Maybe takes a little bit less mileage off of Mike Trout this upcoming season. After Anthony Santander, Max Fri to finish out round seven.

And we're into round eight with Dylan Cruz, the first pick of round eight. Max Fried made his Yankee spring training debut here on Monday. He was okay. I think it was like two and two thirds, two runs allowed. Velocity looked fine. There was Stackass data for that game. So everything looked mostly fine for Max Fried in his spring training debut here. Dylan Cruz and Brian Reynolds.

Next up. Yeah, Dylan Cruz is kind of an eye opener here. Eyebrow razor, I guess you'd say, because we still got Luis Robert out there. We got the boring types like Brian Reynolds who just went after him, say a Suzuki. normally we see Cruz go after those guys I presume it was the thought process was

I want a guy who can like give me big chunks of steals you know and Cruz at least for the little time he was up last year sure he could do that the person who drafted him is saying nah Scotty

yes Scotty okay so I guess I got the analysis right in the long run yeah yeah Dylan Cruz, look, last season in a small sample size, it was 12 steals in 31 games. So hopefully the nationals are as aggressive again this season on the base paths. And if so, I think Dylan Cruz could steal a bunch of bases once again. I am up.

The next pick was Junior Caminero. Camanero. Spoke about him yesterday as a riser. Had a two-home-run game over the weekend. I need to stop talking and figure out who I want to draft here. I am looking up and down the board. There's no one really, there's no one screaming out to me, you know, but this guy's been here a long time now,

and I think everyone's passed on him a few too many times. I'm going to go ahead and take Luis Robert here in round eight. Again, not someone I typically target, but I think the fourth pick of round eight, I do have all three of my outfield spots filled already, but, you know, just kind of building up across the board production again. I think the speed on this team is actually pretty, solid now. I've got Robert, Kyle Tucker,

Muky Betts, C.J. Abrams, Marcus Semyon, Vinny Pass Guantino. Batting average could be a problem for this team, so maybe I can address that at some point a little bit later on. Only two pitchers, Logan Gilbert and Mason Miller, but again, I didn't feel like there was a standout pitcher that I

needed to take here, and I think there's still a lot of really, really good options left, so didn't want to force that issue. After Luis Robert, Christian Yelich is the next pick, and then Bailey Ober. and Ryan Walker, who kind of feels like he's been climbing up a little bit as well.

You know, given the confidence, he's already been named Closer, as we expected pretty much all offseason. But took over as the Closer last year, and he was Dino Might for the San Francisco Giants. That is the hope again this season. Robert Suarez with the next pick. And Scott, you are up.

We have a bit of a closer run going on here. Yes, we do. Yes, we do. I will not be participating in that. run. I'm not sure. Now we get to hear Scott's internal monologue. This is good. No, it's not. Talk us through, Scott. Come on. I really don't know what I want to do. Okay. I probably need to take a pitcher here soon.

And I think I'm going to opt for Bryce Miller. You sound very excited about that. Well, he's not my highest ranked pitcher. I have Aaron Nolan, Logan Webb, ahead of him. But I want to bolster the whip category specifically, and I think he's going to be my best choice for that. So I have Bryce Miller here to go with Terrick Scouble. Bailey Ober's already gone, of course. Shota Imanaga's long gone.

Those are a couple of the other whip specialists in this range. Bryce Miller seems like he fell quite a bit by comparison. I guess it's just four picks after Ober, but it does seem like the right time for him to go. So I'm taking Bryce Miller. All right. After Bryce Miller, Felix Bautista comes off the board here with the 10th pick of round eight. That's 94th overall. He made his spring training debut on Monday.

Felix Bautisa did. And his fastball set 96 to 97 miles per hour. He threw a perfect inning with two strikeouts. Back in 2023, last time we saw Bautista completely healthy, one of the best relievers in baseball. He averaged 99 on his fastball. So I think him sitting 96, 97 is pretty much in line with other relievers that we've seen so far in spring. And I'm starting, the confidence is starting to grow here in Felix Bouttsy. I don't know if he's going to throw back-to-backs that often in season.

Well, that's what I read today is that he probably won't go back-to-back days to begin the year, maybe all the way through the first half. and specifically Brandon Hyde singled out Andrew Kittredge as somebody who could get saves when Batista needs a day off. But I do think Batista will be ready for the season. And on a team like the Orioles, he could still get 30 to 35 saves if he's not able to go back to backs. I think it's fine.

Yep. After Batista there was Bryce Tarang, 95th overall, maybe a little bit earlier than we're used to, but again, a player of extremes, he could give us 40 plus steals this season. At the turn, Mike, you selected it. Tristan Kossis and breaking my heart. Spencer Schwellenbach,

one of the players I love this season. Talk to me about your two picks, Tristan Kossis and Spencer Schwellenbach. Yeah, I was kind of nervous about that. I closed a run. I was like, do I really want to double dip and get a second great one?

But I was like, nah, don't do that, not the smart move. You kind of rang true to me about 15 minutes ago when you said the last mock you kind of got cornered out of first base and you really didn't like your starter. And I was kind of looking. There weren't many.

other first basement I really felt great about. And I do like Tristan Kostas to try to get me 30 home runs. I felt good about that. Wanted to make up some power ground. I felt like I was lacking in a little bit. And then, yes, Shwellenbach, I'm glad that you're a believer too. It's one of those guys I typically look at and I'm like, okay, is he really legit from last year? But, you know, six pitch mix, advanced pitchability, fantastic KB ball.

K walk. I am so sorry. And a good ball percentage as well. He's just somebody who checks every single box as an SP2, and I get him as an SP3 or SP3 and a half, depending on how you want to count Otani there. Yeah, so you've got Zach Wheeler, Shote Imanaga, Spencer Schwellenbach as your three starters.

You've got Emmanuel Claucet as well. So building out that pitching depth in the lineup, you've got Tristan Kosses, Ketel Marte, Brenton Doyle, Michael Harris, and Shohei Otani. So pretty balanced approach here so far from Mike. after Sweltenbach there was Andres Munoz, Sayas Suzuki, Yiner Diaz, Scott, Salvador Perez,

Jeff Hoffman, and Willie Adomas, I am on deck. Scott, you got Yiner Diaz, someone I feel like I have never seen you taking a mock draft. What do you think? Yeah, I was surprised. He doesn't usually last this long. And this is a format where I'm going to prioritize

catcher more than most getting somebody who can actually set me apart. He'll certainly set me apart in batting average, which I feel like is a need for me. I was tempted to pass up Yiner Diaz and see if one of Salvador Perez and Cal Raleigh made it back to me. Obviously, not necessarily good batting average sources, but impact catchers since all three were out there.

Perez went with the very next pick. And so I probably made the right call. What ultimately convinced me, okay, just go with Diaz is I realized I had already filled shortstop with L.A. the cruise because I was I was like oh I got to take willie adamas don't I even though he's a bus pick for me to be there at pick 100 in a league with no middle infield spot I felt like I needed to take advantage of that but shortstop was already filled and both utility spots were already filled too so it's a good thing I remembered that it's always fun when you forget who you have in

the middle of the draft yeah I was about to draft Wilson contraris just now I'm like let me make sure I don't have a catch already just because I forgot and I didn't have a catcher so I selected Wilson Contreras. A couple other picks in between. There was Jeff Hoffman, Willie Domas, Luis Castillo. I took Contreras, Logan Webb with the next pick. And I thought about taking Giner Diaz back in round eight when I selected Luis Robert. But there were so many good catchers left that I figured one of them would make it back. And that's exactly what happened with Wilson Contreras. So I'm happy with that decision to wait and still wound up with someone I consider to be an elite option, like a top

seven or eight catcher this year in Wilson Catreras. I started the catcher run. Yes, you did. We had four go in the span of eight picks. Still got Cal Raleigh up there. I'm surprised Will Smith went before Cal Raleigh. Not terribly surprised Wilson Contreras did. But Will Smith is kind of surprising, especially with the recent revelations about his bruised foot that he's still contending with. Yeah. We spoke about that yesterday.

wondered if maybe it would lower Will Smith's ADP at all. Didn't in this draft, but maybe in others it will. I thought about Cal Raleigh, I just felt like my batting average was already a little questionable, so I didn't, that's why I didn't go with Cal Raleigh. I think Will St. Charis will hit for a better batting average than Cal Rale this season. After Will Smith, there was Aranola to finish out round nine, and the first pick of round 10 is Hunter Green. I am up in a couple

picks here and got to check back in. Go ahead. We got, we saw a bunch of those things eater, high-end innings-eater type of pitchers slide in this draft. Logan Webb, Aaron Nola, both fit that description. So does Luis

Castillo. Guys who we've long consider part of that ace contingent and they just kind of got pushed out this year, but mainly they thrive on volume. And so I think that's why in this particular format we saw them slide. They're not necessarily going to dominate ratios. And the accumulation of counting stats they give you in a roto league, I think, causes

them to slide less there. But since we're going week to week, it's a week to week roto competition. I think we really are zeroing in more on ratio dominators at starting pitcher and just, okay, if they happen to miss some time with injury, we'll work around it. I think that explains what's going on there with Luis Castillo, Logan Webb, and Aaronola. And also, Pablo Lopez didn't went that far before them, right? I think he's part of that same group. Yeah.

After Hunter Green, Justin Steele and Cal Raleigh, I am up. And I'm going to go a little bit against my rankings here. And grabs one, I think, could be great on a per inning basis once he's back from injury. And that is going to be Spencer Shrider. Scott, we're in the brave shirt. I can't let you draft all the braves. You've got Marcel Ozuna. I feel like you got another brave.

Did you get another brave? I did. I got Acuna. Yeah, you can't have all the braves. Come on. This is like the most homerous draft I've ever done. So, yeah, I don't typically draft Spencer Shrider, but for the reasons I mentioned earlier with Tyler Glass now,

shallower format, I think you could take a little bit more risk here and the hope that I'm waiting on Spencer Shrider for maybe the first month or so, but once he's back, I'm not expecting him to be all the way back to the pitcher he was before, but, you know, 80 to 90% of that pitcher, yeah, I think he'll be well worth this spot here. It's going to be interesting to see because he needs his fastball to play elite, you know. It needs to have elite velocity. It needs to have elite ride especially.

And if he loses any of that, I don't know what it's going to look like. But in theory, you know, in theory he's clearly going to be a category dominator, strikeouts especially, but possibly everything. And I wasn't the only one who groaned when you draft him. A couple people in the draft room mentioned that they were looking to take Strider here too. One 12th overall. That's only a little before his ADP and NFBC, the last 35 drafts, 119. So we let it usually goes earlier than that in our drafts.

We kind of let him slide here. All right. After I took Strider, there was Brandon Nimmo, Freddie Peralta, Hunter Brown, Yohan Duran. So a bit of a pitcher run here, Scott. You are back up in round 10. So I am. So I am.

And we've got some closers going off the board here too. That's starting to look pretty thin. And I might need to think about addressing that soon. But I don't think I'm ready to yet. I think I'm going to take a starting pitcher myself, one who one who I think has a chance to be a category dominator

again specifically whip like when I took when I took Bryce Miller as my second one I'm taking Joe Ryan here is my third one yeah I thought about taking Joe Ryan for that exact reason but opted for I guess

the upside not to say Joe Ryan doesn't have upside but if Strider's at his best obviously the upside is higher for someone like him yeah we're kind of right in the middle of the good glob here at starting pitcher. So I, you know, part of me doesn't feel much urgency. But a lot of the pitchers that are left are kind of middling ratio guys like

Sunny Gray and Jack Flaherty. I kind of put in that group. Zach Gallin certainly. And I'm just not sure they're going to be as impactful in this format. Not that they should go much later than now. It's just I'm trying to, again, zero in on category specialists. All right. After Joe Ryan, we see Royce Lewis and Shane O. Mac.

That would be Shane McClanahan. And Mike, you are back up here for two picks, round 10 and round 11. Who are you looking at? Yeah, a couple picks really annoy me a little bit. I was looking at Royce Lewis, just because, again, you can take those risks with those guys who aren't going to stay healthy. but, you know, the replacement levels okay that you can afford to take them. And I was also looking at Hunter Brown, too,

with somebody that I really like a lot. But I'm going to go with somebody I'm really excited about this year, and I'm going to take East lock, parodic. Love him in Houston, especially with the news that he may be hitting second this year. I think that's really, really good for him, especially in that ballpark. So very, very happy for him to join my squad there. I'm with Scott. The closers here aren't that attractive.

So do I really want to force taking a second one? I don't think so. I think I'm going to go in a different direction here. And this is your first introduction of my brain working in real time. So I try to figure out who I'm going to take. I think I'm going to go with my first guy I feel really risky about. But if I can get him at 121, I will do that. I'm okay with the risk and hoping for a bounce back.

Big power performance. from Adelis Garcia. Yeah, so this will be the last time Mike is on this podcast because he's taking pictures that I love. It's Petzar Shwellenbach. He's taking hitters that Scott loves in Isok Paredes.

Just joking, of course. But yeah, two good picks there. Maybe a little bit too good for our liking. But yeah, there was a report today that Isok Paredes could hit second in the Astros lineup that would put him right between Altovae and Yordon Alvarez.

Does not get much better than that. So that would be pretty awesome. Yeah. Yeah. you know, when I passed up Austin Riley earlier and I was saying there are a lot of third basement I like in the middle rounds. I was specifically thinking Isok Perettis and Matt Chapman who just went. So, you know, Chapman tends to go before Paredes, but Paredes is starting to gain some steam. It's funny. I was I was writing my Sleepers 2.0 Sunday night.

and basically everyone from Sleepers 1.0 has gone up 30 plus picks in ADP since I put that out. And Paredes is one of the front runners. I still think he's a sleeper for where he's going. He went 120 here normally. He goes about 170. But yeah, they're gaining traction. Some of my favorite picks. Fortunately, there is a third baseman, one left, that I feel will be an adequate starter for me in this form.

format, this shallower format, and a category dominator. And I mentioned him earlier in the podcast as a potential fallback at first base. Thankfully, he's also eligible at third base. It's Jake Berger. Everybody loves a good burger, but who was added to Sleepers 2.0, BTW. Ooh, which version of Jake Burger are we going to get? That's the question, because last year, a season of Extreme The first half was obviously a down season for Jake Berger and then obviously took off from July on.

So hopefully he can pick up where he left off. And it's a huge park and lineup upgrade going from Miami to Texas this season. So we shall see what Jake Berger can do with the Rangers. I'm hopeful the Rangers do for him sort of what the Dodgers did for Teosker Hernandez, where they took him from kind of a middling power bat to, Okay, this guy could give us 35 homers 100 plus RBI with a not so bad batting average. The five picks so far here in round 11, Adola Sarkisia, Matt Chapman, Gracea Rodriguez, Jake Berger, and Roki Sasaki. Mike, talk to me a little bit about Adola Garcia.

How much confidence do you have in him bouncing back? Because I don't really see anything in the numbers that tells me that he is going to bounce back, but I just have a feeling. It's just, I trust the player. I just like when he's locked in, he feels like one of the, the. the best power hitters in the game. What are your expectations for Garcia this season? Yeah, you know, it's a better roto pick, I think, than a head-to-head because I think he's going to be a guy who's going to be frustrating on a week-to-week basis to have. Because like you said, when he's locked in, he is locked in, look out. But we don't know that we're going to get that for sure. As far as the

numbers go, nothing tells me he's bouncing back. I'm just looking at past performance. And obviously, he's kind of a later career breakout. Whenever he did break out, but he's somebody I just, it feels like, no, I don't care with the number say, 2024 didn't happen. He's going to bounce back and just kind of be that huge power guy again. He's the only guy on my team I really feel risky about, so I'm okay kind of taking that risk here. And if it doesn't work out, that's fine.

I can replace him pretty easily. But if he hits and he's locked in, lock in those 35 homers, I'm going to be excited about it. All right. After Jake Berger, Roki Sasaki, Zach Gell, Alan Luis Garcia. We spoke about Roki Sasaki on yesterday's podcast as someone who's been falling in ADP, and that's exactly what he did in this draft. 125th is maybe the lowest I've seen him go in any mock draft that we've done this offseason. And I think if he does get drafted at that point in more drafts moving forward,

it makes more sense. Like that's probably the spot Roki Sasaki should have been all along. And I'm not saying I'm going to draft him, but that to me makes a lot of. lot more sense for Sasaki to be in this 120, 1.30-ish range in drafts. This is the format where I'd be most likely to draft them. And if Burger wasn't there, I would have strongly considered it. If I just missed out on that range of third baseman, I think Sasaki would have been next up for me, and he went with the very next pick.

All right. After that, I selected Sunny Gray, and I seem to be winding up with a lot of Sunny Gray. I know he dealt with some injury issues in the past, but he, he, He's up over 165 innings two years in a row from a skills perspective. I believe he was top 12 in K-minus walk rate last year among qualified starting pitchers. And I still think he's going to perform as long as he's healthy. So, you know, a lot of people don't seem excited to draft Sunny Gray,

but, you know, if I could wait and wind up with him as like my SP2 or SP3, I'm fine with that. So kind of a forgotten pitcher there in Sunny Gray. Stephen Kwan goes with the next pick here at 130th. we are coming up on the end of round 11. Stephen Kwan. Scott, what do you think about Stephen Kwan here in this format? I feel like, you know, head-to-head points, his preferred format,

but here head-to-head categories, what do you think about Stephen Kwan in round 11? From how I like to put together my head-to-head categories team, it's not ideal. I could understand if you were in a desperate spot for batting average, him seeming like maybe the perfect player to take. but there are only 10 hitter spots, and I just, I want more power from every single one,

or at least to be an elite speedster. Kwan could steal 20 bases, but you know he's not going to steal 40. So it's the sort of player I tend to avoid in this format, though, again, I don't know the categorical needs of Zach Moraine, who took him. All right, after Stephen Kwan, Jack Flaherty, Brandon Lau, and we are into round 12.

Xavier Edwards and Byron Buxton. So, Buckson, I know, is off to a great start the spring, but this is a little bit earlier than I think we're used to seeing him. When he plays, I think it'll still be really good. It's just how many games will we get from Byron Buxon? Xavier Edwards, I think, is a player who maybe could

excel in this format where, you know, if he hits 280 plus with 40 steals this year, you know, he can help you maybe win both of those categories, you know, throughout the course of the season with batting average and stolen bases there with uh yeah no i think edwards is look he's i've said it a few times he's going to work or he isn't going to work you know it's it's a profile we haven't really seen since michael born and and maybe that's not even the best comp maybe like juan pierre is the

best comp that slap hitting speedster who slaps his way on base uh you know 300 plus batting average so that he's a standout in two scarce categories it just seems like in the modern game a certain amount of thump is needed that Edwards clearly doesn't have and that players with that lack of thump generally, they generally haven't lasted long. But he made it work for 70 games. His numbers of AAA, the previous two years were similar.

And so I'm hopeful. I would like that kind of player to become viable again in the majors because it just adds variety and makes the game more interesting. Edwards is going to be an interesting test case. Test case. After Byron Buckson, there was Sandy Alcantra. Sandy Alcantra.

Sandy? Tell me about it. Step. After that, I took Tanner Bybee. So now I do have four of my top 40 starting pitchers, which I think is the goal in most of my drafts this season. Yeah, I've got Tanner Bybee, Sunny Gray, Spencer Shrider, and Logan Gilbert. So really only three of those on opening day, but hopefully all four by the time we get to May.

After Tanner Bybee, Trevor McGill, J.T. Real Muto, Carlos Estevez, and Trevor McGill, maybe one of those kind of last elite-ish closers that you feel good about. Hopefully, closing again for the Brewers this season, did a great job in the first half last year when Devin Williams was hurt. It was dealing with an unspecified injury early on in camp, but he has made his spring training debut and seems like all is good so far with Trevor McGill. Jared Jones, the next pick, and Scott, we are back to you. So I have a couple of hitting spots open still, second base and outfield, but I don't feel like the sort of category dominator that I would like to take is out there. And he may just not be left. They may just, we may just be running out of

them, in which case I can afford to wait because I feel like there are a lot of redundancies. you know, in theory, Riley Green is far and away the best outfielder left, but I just, I look at the numbers and it's just not what I'm looking for. Trevor McGill just went, and I don't have any saves yet. I was kind of hoping for him to be my

top closer. I'm going to take Tanner Scott as my top reliever. Does it have anything to do with his last name? Everything to do with his last name. Yes, Tanner Scott, expected to be the

main safe source for the Dodgers entering the season. We'll see how long that lasts. Scott, what is your... He's walking everybody inside again this spring. Not that we haven't seen that from before, but it does make me wonder how much Roberts is going to put up with from him. I'm pretty sure he had an awful spring last year and then the season started and he just flipped a switch and he was awesome again. But what are your expectations in terms of saves this season for Tanner Scott? How many are you thinking? At least a couple dozen, 20, 24. is kind of where my mind is at with him. And it just depends how much,

how much, how consistent Roberts is about using him in that role. And if he ever does lose it for a stretch like we've seen with Evan Phillips the past couple years, in theory, he could get more than 40 saves. But that's, I think the, I think that's an optimistic projection for him. All right, after Tanner Scott, Josh Lowe, Seth Lugo,

and Michael Waterloo is up here for two. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to sign off part one of our audio podcast. But when we return, we'll find out who Mike selected. But make sure to tune in for part two if you want to hear the rest of our picks, analysis, and our team recaps. And we'll be back.

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