Fantasy Baseball Today - 12/06 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Mock Draft Review Pt. 2 - The Middle Rounds

Episode Date: December 6, 2017

We take you through Rounds 4-10 of our most recent mock draft, but first let's talk about Shohei Otani (2:15) and why his value as a hitter might not be what you expect ... Mike Minor to the Rangers (8:40) and Miles Mikolas to the Cardinals (11:20). Finally, some news! ... Best and worst picks of each round as we reveal Rounds 4-10 of the H2H draft (16:00). Carlos Santana went too late and Greg Bird went too early ... 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

Domingo. Everybody, this is fantasy baseball today here on Wednesday. December 6th. I am in Fort Lauderdale sitting across from two lovely gentlemen. Chris Towers, who is very blue, 50 shades of blue. In terms of what he's wearing or his mood? A bit of both, to be honest. Oh, okay.

It's a matter, Chris. It's a matter of business. Just, you know, seasonal affective disorder. It's winter in Fort Lauderdale. Oh, my, it's in the 70s. I was in New York yesterday, you psycho. Here's Scott White. What's up, Scott? Adam. I'm kind of blue, too, because nothing is happening.

A completely stagnant offseason. It's good on top. No, we got some stuff. Breaking down Mike Miners, you know, what the Rangers paid him is kind of depressing in its own right, right? But that's a news item, Scott. Look at it on the bright side. We have something to talk about. We're going to go through. Mike Major Bucks. So we're going to go through rounds. We did like rounds one through three yesterday or last week, rather. We'll go. through the rest today. We'll try. Give you the best and worst picks

and just talk about some players. And yeah, we've got, oh, we have holiday movie themes, movie names based on baseball players. Good. Okay. Yeah, that should be fun.

Again, we did a 12 team head-to-head points mock draft and talked about our teams on the last show. We won't focus on our teams, just focus on some of the draft picks and give you an idea of where guys are going. And there is a write-up on the website. Scott wrote it up and, yeah,

read all about it. So here's email of the day number one at Fantasy Baseball. at CBSI.com. It is from Zach. And he said, to use this soon-to-be overused team name, Show Hey the Money!

That's good. That's a good one. Yeah, you guys like that? He's first. Remember when people were used to write first at the bottom of articles? Yep. Zach is first to this name. Show Hey, the Money.

And he is down to, and these are our news and notes, seven teams, Angels, Mariners, Dodgers, Giants, Padres, Rangers and Cubs. I think it's all a ruse See, we'll fake everybody out and sign with the Yankees. I'm convinced. I just love how angry Yankees fans were at them.

Like the New York Post called him a coward. And they really? There's no justification for why somebody wouldn't want to play for the Yankees. Well, there isn't. I mean, I agree with that, but he's not a coward. I love that Brian Cashman broke that story after, like, it was like climbing the outside of a building. He does that every year.

Racing the Grinch. He repels. Like, what is this? It's like a fundraiser. He repels down a building. He's like breaking the news to New York Yankees fans. Hey, we're not going to get this generational prospect while like some green costume is behind him.

It was phenomenal. Yeah. So that was surprising for sure. But he wants to be preferably on the West Coast. He wants to train in Arizona. And he's got five West Coast teams plus the Rangers and the Cubs. I hope he goes to the Cubs. Because I think it would, I just don't want to do.

They already have Kyle Schwerber. I don't want to. I don't want him to waste away. Like, baseball needs this. And that's why I was hoping he would go to the Yankees. Selfishly, yes, but also. I hope he goes to the Angels. With drought.

If you're talking about, like, the most marginal value that he could provide to a team, it's definitely a team like the Angels who, like, are a couple of elite pieces away. I don't care about that. I just care about the impact on baseball. What concerns me about the Angels is Mike Sosha seems like. Probably the least innovative manager, at least the most traditionalist manager of all these teams. Just because he's been managing them since the 80s? The Dodgers and Cubs are two of the most innovative organizations in baseball.

So I feel like they would come up with a good plan to maximize Otani's output and get the most out of each role that he'd be filling. But from what I've seen from a few different sources, there is less. skepticism within the game that he can do both of these than people outside the game like us who think he's got to go to the right situation for them to even give him the chance of doing this. No, every team wants him to do this. But in Japan, he did not hit every day. No, he didn't.

Twice a week or three times a week? Out of six games. Right. It was something like that. And he only pitched once a week, which is true of all starters in Japan. Whoever signs Otani... is going to have to have more or less a six-man rotation. I mean, I don't know that it'll be six guys in order every turn through,

but they're not going to have to build in enough rest for him to have a chance to bat. I mean, the day after he pitches, trying to swing a bat then is probably out. So that's one day right there. There's going to be a day when he throws a side session. So he took two days off before pitching. So I think he hit three days a week, but I'm not 100% sure. Yeah, something like that. Maybe four if he hit the same day he pitched.

Right. No, I think it was three. But anyway, they didn't have seven-day weeks. So let's say he hits four times a week. I don't think you're not going to want the show. If we decided in CBS to do the hitter and the pitcher version, you're not going to want the hitter version if he's not a full-time hitter. And even if we do one other podcast.

possibility. And it does seem like the two versions of Otani to, you know, a hitter Otani and a pitcher Otani is the most likely thing that's going to happen. But, you know, if we go the route that Otani is dual eligible and you can choose whether to get his hitting stats or his pitching staffs for that week, even then, when are you going to choose the hitting stats? So it's a much more interesting, I think, real life baseball story than fantasy. What is interesting there is, Scott, you were asking me, I think maybe earlier today, if there's like statcast data for Japan or maybe you were asking me yesterday.

Apparently there is. There was a piece on MLB.com. They do have the trackman scouting video system. And, you know, his average fly ball last season on exit velocity was 94.3 miles per hour. The major league average was 91.2. His average line drive was 96.6

miles per hour. The major league average was 92. So he draws comps to guys like Freddie Freeman, Jock Peterson, Joey Gallo, J.D. Martinez, Yueness Sestbitt as Anthony Rizzo. That's pretty good. The issue is he strikes out quite a bit. I think he struck out like 22% of the time, the average. He struck out like 26% of the time last season. The average in Japan is like 19% of the time.

So Jack Peterson could actually be a really interesting comp for his offense. But Jock Peterson playing three times a week, like you said. Yeah. I mean, I don't... It sounds like even if Shohay Otani was just a hitter. Like, pitching wasn't even something he was capable of. He would be getting... Yeah.

You know, he would be a nine million... A nine-figure type signing, you know, if the rules allowed that. Just as a hitter. So, you know, one thing to keep in mind, he's only 23 years old, and he's already established himself as one of the... an offensive force in Japan. Yeah, every team wants them to play both ways. And the impact that it has on the rest of the roster

is going to be just as interesting as the impact of Otani himself. Four-man bench. Well, I think if he goes to an NL team, it allows your manager to pinch hit for the pitcher without burning a position player, which is a night, you know, or you don't have to carry an extra position player. A lot of teams just carry a pinch hit guy.

Right, right, yeah. So, all right, we'll see what happens. We should know pretty soon at the very, at the longest, it would be like three weeks from now, less than that. So it looks like he's, you know, hastily, not hastily, but quickly making a decision and narrowing it down, blah, blah, blah, whatever. Yes, Shohei Otani, hopefully we'll know soon. Mike Minor, he signed with the Rangers for a lot of money,

and last year he had a 255BRA, a 1.02 whip, more than a strikeout per inning. As a reliever, are they going to try him? as a starter, though? Yes. That is apparently why... Because he should just be their closer. That is apparently why he chose the Rangers.

I saw a report that the Cubs offered him the same amount of money to be a reliever slash closer. And he wants to start. He wants another chance. All right. I mean, he deserves it. He was a really good starter back in 2013, went 13 and 9 with a 321 ERA 109 whip. Really seemed like he was on an upward trajectory. I think we were drafting them among the top 20 pitchers in fantasy that following year had some shoulder troubles.

Moving back to the rotation, he threw about three miles per hour harder on average as a reliever than he did earlier in his career as a starter. But he's also remade himself in other ways. The slider is now his primary secondary pitch as opposed to a change-up. He still used three pitches as a reliever last year. I think this is a transition that can happen, provided he's able to. It could be a Danny Duffy situation where he sustains that velocity, which we've seen. He is now my number two spark heading into next season, behind Peacock, who's, you know, a distant number one. It's just like, I know that the Rangers are going to announce a closer, and then he's going to suck, and he's going to be gone in two weeks.

Just make it Mike Minor. And like, let's just save the suspension. It happens out of them. There's hardly been any offseason so far. You're sure the Rangers aren't going to get another closer possibility? They changed their closer to every year. Well, why are you so sure Mike Miner would be a gym in that role? Look what he did last year.

It was terrific in relief. The other reliever that they're going to get, who we don't know yet. Look what he did last year. I'm just joking around. It's not funny. Why? You really are teal today. Dallas Keiko apparently was pitching to a foot injury in the second half.

Very injury prone man. Weird that he decided to tell everybody that it happened during the parade, but ESPN reported right before the podcast. pitched with an undisclosed injury in his left foot during the second half of the season and throughout the postseason. Now, how do you feel about him? That he's just amazing? I mean, what are we going to, we're going to keep doing this? Just like every time he was pitching hurt.

Every time he's not good. It was, yes. Oh, he's hurt. Why is that, he's clearly one of the best pitchers in baseball. So if he's bad, he must not be right. He needs to stop pitching. Heard. I would agree.

Detroit signed Leonis Martine to a one-year contract. And the Cardinals signed starting pitcher Michael Michaelis. Miles Michaelis. I made his name. Oh, is it Michaelis? Yeah, Miles Michaelis. To a two-year, what did you think it was? Miccos.

I liked Micolas. Micolos. Reminded me of Nicolage from Brooklyn Nine-N-N-N-N-N-D. Oh, yeah. Two years, $15.5 million. And in Japan, he had a 218 ERA in three seasons as a starting pitcher. Last year, 225 ERA, a .9A. He doesn't walk anybody.

He doesn't strike out a lot of guys. And Miles Michaelis was really bad in three years in baseball in NLB, 532 ERA. So are the Cardinals working there, Cardinal Devil Magic here? Or are we completely ignoring him? What are we doing? Well, I mean, he was good in Japan, obviously. A lot of it was built on control. His strikeout rate was a little less than a K-per-9,

which, to me, is kind of discouraging, especially that it was happening against that lower level of competition. You know, it's always hard to figure out exactly how these guys are going to perform when they return from a foreign league where they dominated. I mean, it's going to be worse than the numbers they put up elsewhere. I think that's fair to assume, but it was kind of, my process for ranking, Michaelis, was basically close my eyes and turn my finger in circles and then point. And with that method, he wound up being.

97th in my starting pitcher rankings just behind C.C. Sabathia, Jason Vargas, just ahead of Rinaldo Lopez and Andrew Heaney. So, you know, I'm not ruling him out making a mixed-league next year, but I don't think he's going to be an impact mixed league arm. All right, Miles Michaelis, there's your name to know and how to pronounce it. So before we get into the draft, here's email of the day number two. It comes from James, who's currently residing in Florida. Good for you, James. Dear C, B, and S. You guys are B. Happy holidays. I've heard the past few podcasts.

Clearly crisp. With your holiday theme, oh yeah. With your holiday themed fantasy baseball names, I wanted to get in on the fun. I've been watching these fantasy baseball themed holiday movies such as how AJ Hinge stole Christmas, the Santana Claus, Miracle on Houston Street, the Solar Express, a Trevor story, single all the way, glove, actually, and Ernesto Friere saves Christmas. As well as listening to these fantasy baseball-themed holiday tunes, O'Tani ye faithful. I don't know. Good one. What's that one?

Oh, come, all ye faithful. Oh, okay. I'll steal home for Christmas. Sure. Babe if it's cold outside. Yes. J. T. Snow, J.T. Snow, J.T. Snow. All I want for Christmas is Y.U.

You? And hark the Anaheim angel swing. What about I saw Otani kissing Santa Claus underneath? I don't know. I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus. I don't know that. That one's the perverted song, Chris. Wow. It's one of the more questionable Christmas songs out there.

Well, guys, I don't want to, like, disturb anyone, but Santa's not real. So the point of the song is that Santa's dressed up, like, dad is dressed up as Santa. Well, I don't know. I don't know. I'm sorry to. I'm sorry to. I'm sorry to. What a laugh it would have been if daddy had only seen that.

That leads me to assume. Dad is also hanging around at this party, and he just didn't happen to be looking in that moment. Yeah, I don't know. Most songs about Santa Claus presumed that Santa Claus is real, Chris. So a miracle on Houston Street was in there, right? We're missing an obvious one.

What's that? Germain Diehardt. Germain Diehardt. This is like a Hall of Fame email. Shut up, Chris. It's a terrific email. Yeah, it's terrific. How the Hinch stole Christmas?

I mean, that's, I mean, he is basically. the Grinch to Dodgers fans this year, right? Yeah, I would say so. Glove actually? Glove actually is good, yeah. Did you come up with that? Are you quoting from the email? Was that in there?

I don't, we don't have the email. Single all the way. That whole phrase is a baseball phrase. Yeah, Glove actually was in there, Chris. So Ernest Ophrieri's Christmas is great. All right, let's get to the draft. Rounds four and beyond. I will ask you guys for the best and the worst picks.

and let's get started as I scroll up, and I just want to tell you that if you own a Mac computer and you don't have a mouse, you have a terrible, terrible device, and you should throw the computer. I just hate everything about Macs. Wow. Buster Posey is the first pick of round four.

This is 12 team points, head-to-head. One catcher, three outfielers, no corner infield, no middle infield, five starting pitchers, two relief pitchers. of course first, second, third, and shortstop. All right, Buster Posey, Carlos Carrasco, Cody Bellinger, Nelson Cruz, who's DH only. But if they sign Otani, Cruz would theoretically pick up outfield eligibility fairly early. Yep.

Anthony Rendon, Luis Severino, Robbie Ray, Ud Arvish, Marcel OZuna, A.J. Pollack, Reese Hoskins, Chris Archer. All right, one more time. Just so everybody can try to remember them. There's a quiz later for all you listeners. Posey, Carasco, Bellinger, Cruz, Rendon, Severino, Ray, Darvish, Bozuna, Pollock, Reese Hoskins, Archer.

Best pick, Chris Towers. The best pick, it can't. I think it's Louis Severino. Yeah. I think there is. For me, it's either that or Anthony Rendon. I just think those are two guys who, if they just do what they did last year,

and it might be the best seasons of their career, Luis Severino throws hard, he's a pitcher. It's possible that he just blows up. But if those guys just do what they did last year, you're getting two surplus rounds of value from them. Blows up the way you use it could be good or bad. I think he meant it the bad way. Yes.

And it's always true. A pitcher could blow up. I actually think Bellinger is the best pick. And being even deeper into the ranking process than I was just a week ago when we podcasted about this draft. Bellinger, I can tell you precisely where he is in my ideal draft, and it's at the two-three term, much less here in round four. I think the gap between him and Aaron Judge is so small that for a while I had Bellinger ranked ahead. I since talked myself out of it. But Springer is part of that discussion, too.

And to me, all three of those guys are borderline second, third rounders. Just in the interest of full disclosure, you took me totally by surprise when you asked me for my pick because I was not paying attention. Yeah, I don't know why. I mean, you knew what you were doing. I was trying to come up with more. Did you come up with, Eddie? Cody Silver Bellinger. And the Nightmare Balfour Christmas.

Thank you very much. Yeah, Chris is so bad slash good at this. You know, there's another guy in this round that if he just does what he did last year would be one of the best picks in fantasy, and that's Marcel Ozuna who went 45th overall. Ozuna, we used to see him and him hit around 260 or so. He hit 312 last year, 37 home runs. And, you know, 312 with 37 home runs is pretty similar to what he did in the first three months of 2016. He had 314 with 16 home runs, about half the season.

And then he got hurt around the first. that time and he slumped. Is he legit? Because if he is, end of round four is an amazing value for Ozuna. Well, it's hard for me to call him a bit. Like, I don't think there were any terrible picks this round.

He's my 13th outfielder going into next year. So, I mean, to me, it's too early to take him. His output depends on a high babb, and he's never going to walk much. So you could see the downside. I mean, last year he got to an above average walk rate for the first time in his career.

The one thing I will say is he's not going to have a season as good as last year, I think, ever again. And that doesn't necessarily mean he won't play as well as he did last year. It's just he's not going to drive in 124 runs again. He's probably not going to hit 37 home runs again. 124 RBI is unbelievable. Yeah, and that's also with 93 runs scored. He had an outstanding season, but a lot of that was the top of the Marlins lineup was really,

really good, and it's not going to be as good next year. We know that there's a, I would say a decent chance he's not in the Marlins lineup either way next year. Stanton or Ozuna? Yes. Oh, okay. Well, the other thing I'll say last thing here is that, you know,

maybe it feels a little early for some people with Ozuna, maybe it doesn't. Outfield is not that good, and the next outfield are off the board is like 12 picks later, 13 picks later. It's Joena Sestbittus, followed by Andrew Ben, Dentie. I don't want to Well, the next...

One pick later. Right. I missed one? AJ Pollock and Reese Hoskins right after that. Sure. Oh, I was thinking Hoskins as a first person. Hoskins, I do rank ahead of Ozuna, but Pollock I don't. Pollock is actually, in my mind, the worst pick in this round because I think we're kind of clinging to what's now going to be three years ago, him being this high-end player.

It's not clear to me what any more he's good at. He didn't hit for average last year. His stolen base pace was way down from that awesome, what was it, 2015 that he had. And even relative to 2015, the power numbers he provided then in that best case scenario for Pollock that we've seen to this point, don't really measure up to today's landscape. I think it was, if it was like 20 home runs, he hit that. 20 and 39 was his 2015. So the power doesn't measure up.

He isn't running as much. The batting average, you know, he showed he's not going to just automatically hit 300 every year. He is heading into next year my 16 outfielder. All right. And definitely not worth taking a round. And certainly someone you like more in Roto than head to head, I think. Yes.

All right. Round five. Round five picks 49 through 60. Jose Abraeu, Carlos Martinez, Justin Turner. Dallas Keikl, Miguel Cabrera, Wilson Contreras, Daniel Murphy, Robinson, Kanoe, Kenley Jansen, Ioannes Cestepidus, Andrew Benintendi, and Edwin Incarnacion. Here they are again. Abreu, Carlos Martinez, Justin Turner, Keikl, Cabrera, Miguel Cabrera, Wilson Contreras, Daniel Murphy, Robinson,

Kenney, Kenley Janssen, Yueness, Cespitas, Andrew Benentendi, Edwin Encarnacion. Scott, what's the best pick of round five? I was hoping you want to go to me because... You're thinking of Christmas carols with baseball? There's a lot of risk in this round, on both sides of the aging curve, I would say. I like this round. I think Daniel Murphy was the best pick, and I know I made it, so that's why I was uncomfortable. No, I didn't pick Severino last round, Kristen.

You put it in his head. I was stunned. Murphy fell this far, and I know he did have a surgery at the start of the off season that might impact is availability for the start of spring training. My guess is that has to be the reason everyone allowed him to fall that far. I feel like I didn't see him in the draft room. I feel like I missed him. But I mean,

because he was a second, second third round last year. Yeah. Because when he got drafted, I was like, what the hell? What was I thinking? How did I not take Daniel Murphy before?

Yeah. So second base is a middle heavy position. Altoouet. That's kind of part of the reason why he's my number two overall choice in drafts. and then you have Jose Ramirez. Daniel Murphy's my third best second basement, and he's one of only four, Brian Dozier being the other,

who I think can have an elite season. So yeah, happy to get him in round five, for sure. Chris, what's the worst pick of round five? Hmm. In this format, it's probably Kenley Jansen. I just think it's too early and I had to head points league to take a reliever. In a roto league, I think Kenley Jansen there is relatively fine.

I'm a little afraid of Cespitus. You definitely have to be. But he does have great upside. We know that. Yes, he has Marcelo Zuna upside. His per-game production just this past year, though, obviously, he missed a lot of time with injury, but I'm citing per-game production. It was pretty underwhelming.

I think he was playing hurt, though, wasn't he? Yeah. He's always playing hurt a lot, Cessalon. Those hamstrings are very large. There's a lot of room for them to get hurt. He boc'd up too much. He did. Remember, didn't he come to the off-season?

and he was all driving his fancy cars and he got like super bulk. I think they said like, you know, they wanted a different body type from Cespitas. You know who was better than Ces in 2017 and who I would rather have than him, at least in this format in 2018. Tommy fam? Jay Bruce. I rank ahead of Cespedus, which isn't to say Jay Bruce needs to be taken here, but I'm not anywhere close to thinking about Cespitas at this point in the draft. Jay Bruce was taken much later too. Yeah, he was a good pick.

Round six is coming up. Here's round six. 61 through 72. Jonathan Scope, Jake Arenda, D. Gordon, Joey Gallo, Aroldus Chapman, Elvis Andrews,

Sunny Gray, Matt Carpenter, Andrew McCutcheon, Alex Wood, Starling Marte, and Chris Taylor. Chris, I'm going to go to you here. Jonathan Scope,

Jake Arieta, D. Gordon, Joey Gallo, O'Ollis Chapman, Elvis Andrews, Sunny Gray, Matt Carpenter, Andrew McCutcheon, Alex Wood, Starling Marte, and Chris Taylor. Chris, what's the best pick?

Can I pull a Scott? Go ahead. I think my Matt Carpenter pick, 68 overall. I really think that's the best pick of the round, especially in this format because his plate discipline is so good. He had a down year, but he walks so much, he hits for power, and I just think he's due for a bounce back and getting him in the sixth round I was very happy with. I'm just, has Carlos Santana gone yet?

He went in the very next round. What's his eligibility? Well, that's why I was bringing it up because he, you know, we're in kind of uncharted territory here with Carpenter being first base only. Now that could change pretty early on. It just depends. I don't know. I don't think the Cardinals know exactly how they're going to employ him yet next year.

But if he is only first base eligible, I would rather have Santana in that scenario. That's fair. I'd rather have Hosmer, I think, in that scenario. But Carpenter, I mean, so good. He was so good. What happened last year? I mean, the big thing, honestly,

his Babbitt fell 30 points. That's kind of the main thing, because if you look at his batted ball data, hard hit rate was basically identical. It was actually slightly up. He hit a few more fly balls. That can cut into your Babbitt for sure. hit fewer line drives. So there's some concern there. But if he had a 300 Babbitt last season,

he hits 270 and I don't think anybody's disappointed in him. At the same time, we made excuses for him at the end of 2016 because he had the oblique injury. And I thought that was, because he was great before that. And I thought, like MVP caliber good. Right. But I thought it was just the injury. It must just be the injury. I mean, I just need him to be 2016 good overall. I don't need him to be 2016 pre-oblique injury. I just need him to be 270, 890 OPS, and all of a sudden that's a steal on the six-round. The same thing that happened to Miguel Cabrera last year happened to Carpenter, where the batted

balled out looks great, but for some reason he just didn't, it didn't measure up. Now, Cabrero was fighting through some injuries. Maybe Carpenter was too, and maybe he will continue to at his age. He's 32, yeah. But, you know, there's obviously some chance he bounces back in a significant way. What's the worst pick?

I know where you're going with Scott. This was a horrible round. I think this is when people's, you know, incomplete rankings at this stage of the offseason really began to show because I could go a bunch of different directions here. Don't love Alex Wood, don't love Chris Taylor. You're going Gallo, though. But, yeah, Joey Gallo, early round six in a points league with all his strikeouts. There is no justification for it.

I mean, in this format, I rank Josh Bell higher, Justin Bore, Matt Olson, Will Myers, Ryan Zimmerman, Justin Small. Like, it's, and, you know, I don't think Joey Gallo's worthless or anything in this format. Obviously, it's a ton of home runs, and he made some adjustments in the second half last year not selling out so much for home runs that allowed him to hit like 230 in the second half, which is a big win for Joey Gallo hitting 230. He does that over a full season, and, you know, he might be worth like a 10th or 11th round pick in this format. But round six, no way. Let's look at the pitchers in this round. I took Arieta, and then Alex Wood went. No, Sunny Gray went.

I also didn't really like that pick. And then Alex Wood went. You know, and then there's actually a guy who goes with the next pick, the first pick of round seven, Masahiro Tanaka. I might like better than even Arieta. I like the pitchers in the next round. more than I like them in this round. Yeah. All right. So then let's go on to the next round. It's Tanaka, Kimbrel, David Price, Paxton, Nola,

Carlos Santana, Tommy Fam, Justin Upton, Zach Godley, Jose Kintana, Mike Mustakis, and Garrett Cole. A lot of pitchers coming off the board. So again, here's round, what are we, round seven. Tanaka, Kimbril, Price, Paxton, Nola Carlos Santana Pham Upton Zach Adley, Jose

Kentana, Mike Mustakis, and Garrett Cole. All right, before we get to the best pick and the worst pick, what's your overall thought, Chris, on the pitchers here? What I prefer about the pitchers taken in this round to the previous round is I just think the guys in this round, there are pitchers with Ace upside in this round,

specifically James Paxson and then Aaron Nola who just haven't reached it mostly because of injury. I prefer them, I might prefer them to all three of the guys taken in the previous round. Just because I'm going to be chasing upside. I don't think Jack Arieta has the upside at this point, especially not in this format. He's not going to pitch a ton of innings at this point in his career. I don't think, I mean, we'll see if he goes to a different team, but he just wasn't very efficient last year.

And that's never been, that hasn't been a calling card for him in a couple of years. I think you're selling Sunny Gray a little short when you're. say you'd take all of these pitchers over the ones in the previous round. I mean, Sonny Gray, he's really interesting to me. Revolutionized himself. I don't know. He completely transformed himself. That's probably a better word.

Last year, swinging strike rate was far and away the best of his career and one of the best in all of baseball, and yet he was still an extreme ground ball pitcher. Great combination, ace combination. And to me, the durability, he gets a lot of points for that over somebody like Paxton, but he doesn't go deep in the games, right? You're crossing your fingers. Gray?

Yeah, I think he was like six innings every time out. It was extremely frustrating. Well, he... I'll go ahead and look, you want to finish that point. But he at least has a couple 200 seasons, 200-innings seasons in his past. Paxton, you're just crossing your fingers. He gives you 160, which is what Gray did last year.

That's the guy that could jump in that top three Sayong conversation, though, Paxon. If he can ever clear that hurdle with the durability, I think he's deep enough into his career that it's reasonable to wonder if he ever will. Fair. Okay. So, Scott, what's the best pick of round seven? The best pick of round seven.

I like a lot of the pitchers. Wait, you know what? Time out. Why don't you like Alex Wood in round six, end of round six? Did you see what he did in the second half? It seemed like he regressed. Yes, he did, and he lost four. He lost velocity.

His stuff wasn't as effective. And he has durability issues on top of it. So Alex Wood is only my number 30 pitcher going into next year. And, you know, there are some that are even going to go in round eight or round nine that I have ahead of Alex Wood. All right. So then let's go to the round seven then. Tanaka Kimbril, Price Pax, then Nola Santana, Fam Upton, Godly Kintana, Mustacas, Cole. Now that you've had some time to think about it, what's the best?

Ooh, I look that face. He hates round seven. No, I don't hate round seven. There's a lot. You just don't want to say Tommy Fam. I don't want to say Tommy Fam. You don't want to say your pick? I don't want to say Tommy Fam.

Tommy Fam is a really good pick. But I don't think Tommy Fam is the best pick here. And I'll tell you why. Because Scott picked him first of all. And screw that guy. And second of all, as good as he was last year, we're going off a three and a half, four-month sample size, basically. Now, there are reasons.

reasons for that. He seems to have figured out the vision issues that he's had in the past. But if those crop up again, we're looking at a guy who is... Going to the minors. Or is just a bench guy who can't play every day. We've seen him for a while. This is a guy who's, what, three or four years into his career. Good play discipline, good power, good speed. He averaged more head-to-head points per game last year than Cody Bellinger. and Marcelo Zuna.

There's no question. It's just we've seen the type of player, there are, I did this for my bust column last year. I kind of tried to find archetypes of players who bust, young guys who don't have a track record, older guys, guys who we just ignore warning signs for. And one of them is just guys who just come out of nowhere. That doesn't mean they all bust.

But there are guys, and I think we are, all agree that like Whitmerfield will be one of these guys or Chris Taylor. He's more out of nowhere than FAM, though. I mean, FAM had a lot of injuries that said him back. He had the vision issue that set him back. Sure. But you can go back years and see of that prospect evaluators comparing him to Eric Davis. I mean, it wasn't a total shock that he finally put it together.

Maybe a shock that he got the chance to put it in. But the track record was out of nowhere. Okay. Yeah. Fair enough. All right. So it was the last outfielder before the big drop off there. The last potentially great outfielder was FAMM.

And you know I like to draft players before a big drop-off. Sure. Who's the best player then, Chris? All we know is that it's not Tommy Fab. It's Aaron Nolan. No. Tough guy. I don't know who the best pick in this round is.

Carlos Santana might be just because it's good value for him. He's probably underrated. Good luck. You just don't draft Carlos Santana. Just buy low in June. Sure. But you sell, trade Salvador Perez for Carlos Santana around June, and you'll be in good shape. Yeah, this is around, like, I just, I think it's fine.

There's not any picks that, like, I love. I was glad to see Zach Godley go here because I felt like I was on Godly Island, and I could wait another round to draft him, but Lord Michael swooped in and took it from me. That's another guy. All the signs point in the right direction, but came out of nowhere. All right, so. Let's just hope they're not a Ledmas Diaz, you know. If we weren't sure who we love there, let me tell you something I love.

And Scott can tell you himself, because I would tell Scott to get his wife some flowers from proflowers.com, but he already did. Isn't that right, Scott? I did. And she loved them. It was a, I think it was a dozen roses, red and white. So kind of like a Christmas theme going on there goes great with our decor right now. Nice. And she's been, you know, we're about a week into that, and they're still going strong.

Awesome. Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, pro flowers, they're guaranteed to stay fresh, and you control the delivery date. So you can make it very convenient for you. And I really recommend it. So here's what to do. You go to proflowers.com and take a look on there. They've got so many options.

And it's a really beautiful thing that you can send to somebody for the holidays. They're best selling candy cane roses, which are probably what Scott got. You can get them right now for December, for a birthday, for an anniversary, or obviously for the holidays. 20% off any ProFlowers bouquet or plant of $29 or more. If you go to ProFlowers.com and you use the code A-N-S, Adam, Nancy Scott. A-N-S. That's the promo code on Proflowers.com. Again, guaranteed to stay fresh. They are really nice.

My wife loved them. All of our wives have gotten Pro-Flowers from us, and all of them have been very happy with the results. So, again, go to Proflowers.com and use the promo code A-N-S. Adam, Nancy, Scott, A-N-S, 20% off all bouquets of $29 or more this holiday season. Proflowers.com, and the code is A-N-S. Adam. Yeah. Can I?

Yes, Nancy. Yes, Nancy. Go ahead. Jingle all the Wainwright. Yes. That's good. And the Matt holiday. The bad holiday?

Yeah, the holiday. What's the holiday? You've never seen the holiday? Clive Owen, Jack Black. Kate Winslet's a good movie. I think chick flick. Is it a Christmas movie or is it just Christmas themed like DiHyla? I don't think it as a Christmas movie.

Okay. And it takes place during Christmas. I think all three of us in this room don't think Die Hard is a Christmas movie. I do. You do? All right. That's why you're Nancy. Do you think Grimlins is a Christmas movie?

I get to ask that all the time. I have no recollection. I haven't seen Grimals as I was a kid. I didn't see Grimlins as a kid, but I saw it about five, four, five years ago. It could totally happen any time of year. It could be a kid's birth. day present instead of Christmas present, it would be the same story. Is it a good movie?

No, I didn't love it. It was a little, a little slow. Interesting. Yeah, for what should have been fast-paced, it was not. All right, so let's go. I think we go back to the draft now. I got my Christmas tree up. You got to get a Christmas tree up yet?

Yes. All decorated. Yeah. I don't know if we're doing a Christmas tree this year. We might get a small one for the table. Okay, I would get a Christmas tree. Look, we were talking about it before. before the show, we have cats.

Oh, my cat threw up on the tree skirt. Yeah, my cat likes to destroy ornaments. At least she doesn't sleep in the tree because that would be a problem. That would be weird. All right, round eight. Round eight, we'll have to go faster, guys. I knew we weren't going to get to every round. Christian Yelich, Salvador Perez, Domingo Santana, Kyle Hendrix, Eric Hosmer, John Lester,

Huit W. Hit Maryfield, Zander Bogartz, Jake Lamb, Jay Bruce, Ryan Braun, and Marcus Stroman, Yelich, Salvador Perez, Domingo Santana, Kyle Hendrix, Hosmer, Lester, Merrifield, Bogarts, Lamb, Bruce, Ryan Braun, and Marcus Strowman. Who wants best? Any volunteers? Marcus Strowman.

All right. Last pick of the round, 96 overall. I love what Al Malki yours done with his last two picks, 24 picks apart. Masahiro Tanaka. And Marcus Stroman. Mark Stramon, you talk about a guy who goes six, seven innings every time out, 200 innings two years in a row. I just, the only injury track record he has is the knee injury,

which isn't really a big concern. Doesn't necessarily have the huge ace upside because he doesn't get the strikeouts, but he was 309 ERA last year. Hopefully he could win more than 13 games, but that's always a crapshoot. but in this format, 200 innings two years in a row, that's rare. What about the order of pitchers in this round? How would you guys rank them?

Hendricks, Lester Strowman. Lester Strowman Hendricks. Yes. That's how I rank them. And Hendricks is fairly distant third for me. So he's one of the bad picks. He is one of the bad picks. And my eyes didn't immediately go to him.

They went to Domingo Santana. Well, immediately they did go to Domingo Santana. And I do think Yelich, who is my number in this format, Yelich is 14th for me. Yeah, that's a pretty good pick, 85th overall. And Domingo Santana is 34th for me. But, I mean, I get the Domingo Santana hype. He was one of the best hitters in terms of hard contact rate on fan graphs and line drive rate. And that's how you overcome a high strikeout rate and produce a high bad bit.

And the power, you know, you don't really doubt the power. There's just a few outfielders who would have taken ahead of San Diego. ahead of Santana. The pick that I think is just playing bad is Jake Lamb. Yeah, and you know what? We have Polanco, like six picks after Lamb into round nine, and they both are so bad against lefties that I wonder... This is two years in a row now.

Lam's completely tanked in the second half after a hot start. But the overall numbers are good, though, are they? The overall numbers are good. Yeah, in terms of points per game, Jake Lamb was better than Michael. Moustakis and Alex Bregman. But the problem is, if he continues to struggle against lefties to the degree he has, and it even happened down the stretch last season, he was sitting against left-handed pitchers, and that's, you can't really measure a player by points per game if he's sitting, you know,

once or twice a week with that frequency. We may already be to the point where Lamb's a platoon player. So to me, he's not a top 12 third baseman. in this format and I don't think I'd go there even in a categories league. I got to put you on the spot here. Okay. You were crowing, throwing a parade, talking about how you're the smartest person in America because you took 29-year-old Tommy Fam in the seventh round, and then you're going to

turn around and poo-poo, 25-year-old Tommy Fam, in the eighth round. Oh, you're talking about Santana? Yeah, I mean, he strikes out more, sure. but the walk rate not dissimilar, the ability to hit for power and steel bases, also there. Domingo Santana, better, stronger pedigree than Tommy fam. This guy back in his Houston days was a legitimate prospect.

Nobody was calling him Eric Davis. I don't think, who were these people, maybe nine years ago? People were calling Tommy Fam. John Sickle, but I saw from him specifically. Tommy Fam is going to turn 30, like, soon. He is. And like, as someone who's about to turn 30, Well, that basically needs your debt.

Didn't come close to matching FAM's production last year. It was a... The only difference is strikeouts, though. Is that the only difference? I think so. Are they really that close? Eight, ten? There's a ten stolen base difference,

but Domingo Santana hits seven more home runs. FAM was 3.63 points per game last year. Domingo Santana was 3.01. And I think Santana is a fine upside pick in the middle rounds, but I don't think we're to the point yet where you need to be targeted. I just, I think they both carry similar amounts of, of risk and upside. I don't know if anybody specifically said that Domingo Santana was the next Eric Davis, but I'm old enough to remember when Cameron Mabon was the next, uh, Eric Davis. So I don't know how much to put in that, but this

was a, was a legitimate prospect in Houston who just never really got the opportunity consistently to play. Um, I'm not saying I love the Domingo Santana, pick, but it's more, I wouldn't, there is upside there. All right, let's go to round nine. Picks 97 through 108. In this 12-team league, Matt Olson, here's just something incredible about Matt Olson. In his final 13 games, Matt Olson had 10 hits. Eight of them were home runs.

That's never seen anything like that before. So Matt Olson is the first pick of round nine. Johnny Quato, Gregory Polanco, Luis Castillo. Are you seeing this, guys? Four picks in a row whose names end with O. So Olson, then Quato, Palanco, Castillo, Sino. Wow. Canebelo, Duffy, McCullors, Brandon Belt, Seeger, Kyle Seeger.

Brad Peacock, first Sparp, and D.D. Gregorius. Matt Olson, Johnny Quato, Gregory Polanco, Louis, Castillo, Miguel Sino, Corey Canable, Danny Duffy, Lance McCullors, Brandon Bell, Kyle Seeger, Brad Peacock, Dedy Gagorius. I just can't make sense of the Gregory Polanco pick. Yeah, even I can't. I know there is theoretical upside and maybe the light switch comes on. I don't think it's theoretical.

I mean, I think he showed it in 2016. He showed it for like two months. Yeah, it did. It's a lot. I was fooled. But, you know, it's kind of a poor man's Christian Yellich profile, but not discounting it enough. Can you be this bad? It's really something to keep in mind.

Can you be this bad against lefties? Now, he wasn't bad against lefties. He wasn't good against lefties, but he was respectable against lefties in 2016, Polanco. He batted 245. He slugged 469. It's actually not bad at all. But in 2017, he had 231, and he sluged 308. 591 OPS for his career against lefties seems like D.

more relevant than the 2016, although. I don't know that you can be that bad against lefties and be good. It's tough. But he was hurt right at the beginning of the year, right? Last year. Wasn't he dealing with something like in spring training? The problem is he's just not hitting the ball hard enough. And it's been getting worse every year when you'd expect a player with his age and pedigree.

You'd expect it to get better. I mean, his hard contact rate, according on fan graphs, got to be one of the lowest among all hitters, 25.9 hard contact rate. But he's not even the worst pick of the round. Brandon Belt is the worst pick of the round. Unless, and I don't know. Is he a free agent?

No, he's locked in for a while. What are the chances Brandon Bell gets to play in literally any other park in baseball? Yeah, Brandon Bell is. Brandon, Belt, gets to pick. At first base in the ninth round, he's a waiver wire guy. There are a lot of first baseman. I'd rather have them belt.

But Bell average 301 in this format last year, and Polanco averaged 219. I mean, it's not even close. But at least Polanco was upside, in my opinion. I mean, 301's not a bad. Now, he missed a lot of time. Belt did with a concussion. You know you're not drafted. You know you're not drafted.

You know you're not drafted. Neither are good picks. I'm just saying. I don't know that I can objectively say Belts the worst pick here of the two. Okay. I mean, that's fair. I just wanted to be dramatic.

I do think it's worse. Okay. But it's not a slam dunk. What's the best pick of this round? Well, I mean, Luis Castillo, I like a lot. I actually rank one spot ahead of Brad Peacock, but considering you got Brad Beacock, Adam, at the end of the round. Oh, finally I get some do here.

When Castillo went at the beginning of the rounds. And the format, the fact. The fact that Peacock's relief pitcher eligibility is going to, you know, it's actually valuable in this format. It's being able to start him instead of a closer where, you know, if Peacock is as good as he was last year, that's going to mean big points every week. I think it was a great pin. It is a big F. It's another one.

Yeah, it is. Big F. Never done it before. But once you've reached 100 picks, you know, there aren't that many short things at this point. And Luis Castillo is someone that last season. and kind of came out of nowhere. The Marlins traded him for Dan Straeli, and he was considered not exactly a great prospect in the Marlins system,

which is like I'm the 37th best prospect in the Marlins system right now. By the way, I see there's a sporting news article that came out this morning. Derek Jeter's short time as Marlins' exec has eroded his baseball reputation. So I will be bookmarking that to read soon. All right, so people are gift baskets. It's a pretty risky round here. What do you think about Matt Olson, 97th overall? I don't mind it.

There are a few first basemen I have ranked ahead of him, but it's kind of like legacy rankings, I guess. It's guys like Ryan Zimmerman and Will Myers, who weren't definitively better than Matt Olson last year. They've just kind of earned more cred than Olson has to this point. I mean, Olson as a power hitter, There's a lot to get excited about there. Yeah.

Yeah, a lot of home runs for him. All right. And then we'll finish. We'll do one more round and then read some emails. Round 10. Nick Castellanos. I will never. There are two things I won't do as a fantasy, like host slash sort of analyst.

I will never call Ben. I will always call him Ben. I will never call him Benjamin. And I will never call Castiano's Nicholas. He will always be Nick. Nikola. I just refuse. Nick Castianos, Luke Weaver, Cody Allen, DJ LaMayhew.

Michael Fulmer, Travis Shaw, Trevor Story, Danny Sousar, Greg Bird, Taiwan Walker, Jose Burrios, and Marwin Gonzalez. So it's getting interesting here. Castellanos, Luke Weaver, Cody Allen, DJ LaMayhew, Michael Fulmer, Travis Shaw, Trevor, Danny Salazar, Greg Bird, Taiwan Walker, Jose Barrios, and Marwin Gonzalez. Can I start with a worst one? Let me think if I can see. Let me see if I can guess who you're going to pick. It caused me to comment in the message or in the chat room as we were drafting, which I don't like to call out people's picks.

These are all experts. Like it's got to be... I know which one I... You guys can probably guess which one. No, no. Is that be Michael Ford? I actually like Marwin more than Chris Taylor, who went a few rounds earlier. You guys can probably guess which one I'm picking.

For worst? Yeah. Salazar? Greg Bird. You're wrong. You are wrong. You need to get on it right now. Get on the Greg Bird trade.

At the height of Bird Mania last spring, he was not going in round 10. I like him much better than Brandon Bell. If we take what, and I hope I have the stat here since I started saying. Okay, yeah, if we just take August 26th on, Good Bird last year, bird back from all his leg issues and, you know, hit a bunch of home runs to end the season. Just August 26th on. He was only 303 fantasy points per game. 3.03, when

branded Bell was 3.01, like I said, I mean, 303 is less than Justin Smoke. It's less than than Justin Gore. He's going to be better. It's less than Marvin Gonzalez. Well, was he in 2015? Probably, like... Not that much. Probably, like, pretty good, but not Matt Olson good. No,

not Matt Olson good. I think he's going to have a big year. He might have a big year in the relative sense, but I don't think there's... No, like a legit big year. Like, he's a breakout. All right, but here's the thing. You're paying for upside. You're not... at 117, the downside risk is what it is, but you're not factoring in downside. I don't think there's all that much downside because he walks so much.

I don't know. With Ryan Zimmerman still on the board. He has a 316 career on base percentage in 94 games. He hasn't walked. He hasn't walked that much. He's struck out a ton. He's got 38 walks in 94 games. I don't think it's crystal clear still.

He's going to play every day. Oh, I, that, no, I disagree. You think there's no chance they bring in, you know, Tyler Austin or whatever, steals at bats from him against lefties? Well, it's a new manager. All I know is Joe Girardi said a lot. Greg Bird hits lefties. We don't take him out of the line against lefties.

Yeah, it would have been nice if Joe Girardi had stuck around there. Yes. It's said you got the wild card, Aaron Boone. I think he feels a little bit like Deedegroarious to me, where people just really seem to think that Greg Bird's a lot. better than his numbers, and they've said he was the best prospect in their system at one point. So it's now or never. It's now or never for birds.

No, it doesn't have to be round nine. That doesn't have to be the now. We're in round 10, and that was like the end of round 10. Rick Bird is a sleeper in round 19? Fine, I can get on board with that. Round nine, you're still building the foundation of the team. Hold on. Round 10.

I'm sorry. You're still like, he was still taken ahead of Yon Mekata, who if we're talking about a prospect, Yeah, all right. Y'all Makata was a much better prospect. He went ahead of... And where did Minkata go? Makata also had a very strong finish to the season. He went round 11.

Like six picks later. Yeah, all right. No, that's totally fair. My pick, Tywin Walker. Worst pick? He's not good. So who's the best pick of this round? I'm just going to go ahead and say, I think it was Scott's pick, Travis Shaw.

Yeah. Like, everybody's completely overlooking Shaw, although he did. You know, this slump pretty badly at the end. He did. And that's kind of why I rank. one of the reasons why I rank Moussacca's head of him, but he was still, Shaw was 3.31 fantasy points per game last year. Had I?

It was just a moment. Like, this was the part of the draft where the remaining infielders were so much more interesting than outfielders. So a guy like Shaw fell probably two rounds further than he should have. I drafted him a third basement to film a utility spot, which is not traditionally how you use a utility spot, but it was just like, I got to take this. Travis Shaw is another one of those guys that if he just does what he did last year, He's a good value at this spot. Like, Mike, Nicholas Castellanos, who I really like, went ahead of him.

And you're hoping that Castiano's has 2016 Travis Shaw's season. This was a terrible round. Castiano, Weaver, Cody Allen, Mayhew, I really like the starting pitching in this room. Fulmer, Danny Salazar, but you hate Taiwan Walker. And Burrios? That's the one I don't like is Taiwan Walker. You like the pitching here?

The Rios, Salazar, Fulmer, and Weaver. I like the upside with that group. Okay. I think any one of those guys could make a, I don't want to say a Luis Severino jump, but a big jump into the top 20. Who's your favorite? Danny Salazar, the guy I picked.

You like him better than Weaver, the guy I picked? I mean. Scott, I know you like Weaver better. I do like Weaver better, yes. But you hate Danny Salazar. Look. That's why I know. Hinch for pitch, Danny Salazar,

probably has more upside than Luke Weaver, but I just don't think that's all you can measure, particularly when you're still, this is probably what, people are drafting their number three starters right here. Yeah, that's too big of a risk for me with my number three starter. I think that was my number five. I mean, but I had Peacock, so it might be my number four. I have Weaver 41 and Salazar 56 to put it in those terms. Then let's put it in these terms, email terms, whatever that means, fantasy baseball and

The CBSI.com, King of the Segway. This is from Clay. Our league has winter meetings coming up this weekend. I think that's very funny, by the way. And one of the topics up for discussion is expanding the league from 10 to 12 teams. What do we do about keepers? Ten teams right now are keeping 13. Do we redraft or do we protect nine or ten players and the two expansion teams

draft from the unprotected players? Yep. Yes? That's kind of the way expansion drafts work. It's been a long time since we've had one, 97, I guess. think, when the rays and diamondbacks were getting ready to join the league. But if they do this and everybody gets to keep 10 and then like their next three are available, does that mean that the expansion teams are going to be terrible?

They're not going to have any stars? Yes, but that's how it works. The Tampa Bay Rays were pretty bad. Can we at least give them like the first pick in the draft? They can go out and sign Wade Boggs. Okay. This is from Rosenda. Rosenda.

I have the fifth pick. And should I pick up Stanton or Trout if available? Or should I go with an ace pitcher? I won my league with pitching. So I'm just going to say, if Trout is there, he won't be. But if he is, that's the obvious pick. But at fifth overall, do you guys consider an ace? I don't know exactly the scoring format.

Standard CBS scoring in a points league. I do not rank any pitcher ahead of Stanton. So I would go Stanton. And really, the pitchers who are head and shoulders above the rest, Kershaw, Scherzert, Klobber, and Sale. I mean, none of them are, if you're thinking from a keeper scenario, none of them have like, they're all getting up there in age. It's not a keeper league.

Okay, never mind. But the other problem is if you have the fifth pick, I'm not sure any of them are going to be around for your second pick. Going to be close. Yeah, and this is the spot that I'm in with those ace pitchers. If I want to grab one of those four, I kind of want to grab the last one rather than the first one.

Right, but I'm just saying in general, and I don't know if the logic there makes sense. It's just kind of like, I would rather be left with one of them than have to pick one of the four just because they're so close. I agree with that, and I think Kershaw,

just because of his durability issues, you know, the gap between him and the other three is much smaller than years past. It's like Greg Oden, Kevin Durant. I don't want the first. I want the second page. I'll take the leftovers. Yeah, I'll take the rant guy.

I'm not sure. You can have Hakeem and Michael Jordan. If you're one of the first six picks in a 12-team league, if you're picking in the first half of that first round, which would mean the back half of the second round, you either have to reach for Kershaw early in round one or just... Pray the Kluber Falls.

Or just assume you're not going to get one of those four. Yeah, that's a tough choice to make, but we would probably go with the hitter route. This is from T.J. Hey, Adam and one of Scott, Heath or Chris. Shreit, Crete, Heathcrot. He's trying to come up with a combination. That sounds like a Sherlock Holmes name.

Heathcrow. Yeah, I don't know. Wowings also could work. W-H-O-W-I-N-G-S. That could work. Wowings. Head-to-head Categories League with eight. It doesn't work.

Chris is Shaghan. White Towers Cummings. Yeah, no, I get it. It's just, no. Okay, am I stupid here? Oh, holds. Loaded question. All right, I plan a head-to-head categories league with holds.

I can keep 15 players for as long as I want. So he's given us who he's keeping, but he wants to know five of these, and he'd like to keep at least two closers. Okay. So the closers are Ken Giles, Roberto Osuna, Canabel, and Davensky. Or the relievers.

The batters are Pollock, Polanco. Acuna, FAM, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Ian Hap, Willie Calhoun, Matt Olson, and his starting pitchers are Paxton, Rodon, and Snow. I sent you the notes. Oh, this is actually in the notes? Because one of the emails you sent earlier wasn't in the notes. Yes. All right, here's one thing that I will say.

He's got Will Myers listed on the planning to definitely keep. Take Will Myers out of there. You're definitely not planning to keep Wilmires. He's fine, but there are probably. six better players. I would rather keep it. Let's get six better players. Let's get two closers for them. Canable? Canable and... I'm going to say Ozuna.

I rank Giles ahead for next year, but Ozuna seems less combustible. Let's throw James Paxton in there. I agree. I don't think I can go with Rodon or Snell. There are just too many question marks, but if you want to, I think they both have plenty of upside. Tommy Pham. Tommy Fam. That's four. We need two four. Ronald

Ocuna for sure. Five. And the question is, would you rather have someone who's established but older, AJ Pollock, established but not very good, but maybe he will be Gregory Polanco, established sort of, but doesn't have as much upside as a prospect, which is Matt Olson, or Vladimir Guerrero, who could be one of the best players of his generation. Acuna is the best prospect in baseball right now.

Guerrero might be the second best. So I think I personally would go Guerrero as my last, keeper there over Olson. But there's a pretty good chance he doesn't help you that much this year. I can look with that. All right, let's finish up, guys. From Greg, I have a chance to trade Chris Archer or Robbie Ray for Christian Yelich. What makes the most sense in a keeper league?

Hmm. Hmm. I think it just depends on what you need. If you really want Yelich, I think I'd probably rather... Is it crazy to say I'd rather have Ray than Archer at this point? It's not crazy. And I think I really... rank Ray ahead for next year, but, I mean, Archer's cleared that inning's threshold that

it's an upside versus safety thing. It's hard to assume for any pitcher at this stage. So I think long-term perspective, I'd rather have Archer than Ray. I think I'd rather have the two pitchers than Yelich, though. I was thinking that, too. Yeah, Yelich might be a little easier to replace. That's it for today's show. Thank you, everybody.

Well, we got through 10 rounds now. I think we'll maybe just talk about good late-round picks or something next week. But everybody enjoy the week. We will talk to you next. Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday or Monday or Friday, but we'll do it sometime next week. Definitely one of those weekdays. And we will talk to you then.

For Scott and Chris, I'm Adam, and we are out of here.