Fantasy Baseball Today - 12/10: Strasburg, Wheeler, Didi and More (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: December 11, 2019

Need some reaction to the latest news? We tell you the most significant Fantasy news since we last Podcasted (2:15). A couple of SP afterthoughts have changed teams and it may make a big difference in Fantasy ... With Stephen Strasburg signing a new contract, we look at the ADP of the three WAS aces and decide who has the best draft value (8:48). Then we get into Zack Wheeler's intriguing value (13:00) and what you need to know about Cole Hamels (18:00) ... We go through more notes quickly (22:30) including items on Didi Gregorius, Tommy Pham, Omar Narvaez and Andrew Benintendi ... 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

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. Now here's Adam, Scott Heath, and Chris. Band is back together? Something like that. What was the last time, Adam, Scott, and Chris?

What a good. Nice. That's your chance, ladies and gentlemen. Encore. Who was the last time the three of us did a podcast together? When was the last time you hosted a podcast? Period. Well, you mean football or baseball? Yeah, well. Football is this morning.

I would guess it's been four months, right? August, maybe September. Are we forgetting one? I feel like we did one together. We might have. Right at the end of the season? I don't think so. I don't think so, Tim. The listeners would know. What is I don't think so, Tim, from? You ask me that every single time I say it, every single time. So we are right back where we belong. Okay.

Well, you'll have to remind me some other time. Welcome to the show, everybody. Fantasy Base and Paulson. I have the worst memory. You don't know that about me, but I honestly have the worst. I have such a bad memory. Her memory cannot be worse than mine.

It is worse than yours, Gene. I promise you it's not. All right, we'll have a memory contest. And the things that people forget, that what Chris and I forget on this podcast, we'll have to keep track of. So far, I'm winning. Scott,

Scott just got like legitimately mad at me for getting that reference. It was kind of predictable, actually. I thought you would ask it after I said it. You did. Yeah, you know. All right. So we got some news to get to here, starting pitchers being signed. By the time we finish this podcast, hey, who knows?

Maybe the Yankees will have signed Garrett Cole. That'll be wonderful. Everybody will be happy about that. So I'm Adam Azer. Scott White's been with Chris Welsh and Chris Towers for much of the off season. And Chris Towers is back now. So the three of you guys for doing that show last. Last week, very important and informative stuff.

Check out last week's episode. Hey, what was the biggest fantasy item from the last week of signings and stuff, Scott? The biggest fantasy item, so fantasy-specific and not real-world implications, I actually think was Dylan Bundy getting traded from the Orioles, where I had absolutely no interest in him anymore, to the Angels, where I think he kind of deserves to be drafted in all leagues now. If this had been a video show, I would have spit out my water. I would have to be...

But like that, you don't actually believe Dylan Bundy needs to be drafted. Right. It's more like, well, it's not the Orioles. The number of pitchers you can bank on will run out well before the end of a standard mixed league draft. So you might as well shoot for upside. And yeah, I mean, Dylan Bundy has a lot going for him still. He's one of the few swinging strike leaders who isn't already regarded as an ace. He has clearly an elite breaking ball and that slider cutter hybrid. And he's just gotten pummeled with the Orioles. Partly is because the park he pitches in, the lineups he's

facing in the AL East. And the fact that the Orioles have a miserable track record developing pitchers. I mean, Jake Garrietta went from, you know, waiver wire fodder to historic Cy Young season after leaving the Orioles. And I think Bundy has the tools to do something like that. Obviously, I'm not going to predict that dramatic of the transformation. But I think he's, I think it's worth a flyer. It's interesting because, like looking at his splits right now, in 2000,

I mean, Bundy, yeah, he's a victim of the home run. He gave up more than 40 home runs in 2018. Last year, 29 home runs. But 13 of them on the road. And opponents hit 216 against him on the road. So that's encouraging. Now, that's cherry-picking stats, obviously. I just, you know, he doesn't, like,

Jake Arietta, I'm thinking, has a lot more velocity than Dylan Bundy. I could be wrong about that. At this point, you know, he averages like 91.5 miles per hour at his fastball. He's a soft tosser, right, relative to the average major league starting pitcher at this point. It's more his secondary stuff that stands out.

If they change the baseball. Like I said, he's a swinging strike leader. And if you look at the leader board for swinging strike percentages, why it's a stat I'm always citing. It's like, who's who of Cy Young contenders. There may be one or two other names in there where you're like,

you know, this name is not like the others, but Bundy has consistently been up there. Okay. I, you know what, it makes sense. It did make me, in my head, spit out my water at first, but it makes sense. And, yeah, I mean, like, what are we going to say about Stephen Strasbourg? He's back with the nationals.

Zach Wheeler to the Phillies, we'll talk about that. I like Cole Hamels to the Braves, give you some encouraging stats on Cole Hamels and why he should probably be going earlier than 250th overall. Michael Paneda, two years, $20 million with the twins. The Didi Gregorius signing just happened a few hours ago, one year, $14 million with the Phillies. another one that'll make you spit out your water? What's your biggest fantasy item from last week? Not the biggest fantasy item,

but one that like Dylan Bundy, I think probably pushes someone into the fantasy relevant category where they might not have been before that. And that's Kevin Gosman, signing with the San Francisco Giants in a park. That's a great park to pitch in. As we know, it's the best park in baseball for pitchers. we have seen a lot more of a fantasy useful Kevin Gosman than we have of Dylan Bundy over the last couple of years, I will say.

He's pitching in a great park. He goes through these stretches where he actually looks useful. I'm not going to say that Kevin Gosman needs to be someone that you draft as a starter for your team. But if he goes late enough, Kevin Gosman in San Francisco is really interesting. I thought I saw something, and I don't know, it was something on Twitter. I don't know if it was a beat writer, if it was anybody in the know, even. I'm trying to find it now, but it seemed to be suggesting that it was, he, the idea was to put him in the bullpen and resuscitate his value, kind of like they did for Drew Pomerant's that way.

But I don't know if that is the official plan or if that was just somebody speculating. Elite closer They don't have a closer I mean maybe Maybe All right cool Well yeah This week was not quite as interesting

As last week Where you know Jonathan VR lost a ton of value Right I didn't I apologize I didn't hear what you guys said On the show last week But Jonathan VR lost a ton of value right

Wow I thought we were friends out of my You listened to the podcast Where Scott White said That that that was the most impactful move Which was? VR. VR, yes, yes.

It was. I mean, it made, there's a lot of uncertainty and questions surrounding VR, and that, that I think helped answer some, frankly, in a positive way. But we talked about that last week. I do want to follow up on Gosman from Henry Schulman, one of the Giants actual beat writers. He said Gabe Kapler says Gosman was signed as a starter, despite his good work as reliever with the Reds, last year. And he's got a bunch of incentives. Yeah.

Like games started. I think it's like 250,000 for like 18, 22, 24, 26 or something like that. Yeah. So we'll see. He is kind of a two pitch pitcher, though, and that hasn't really worked out well for him so far. Okay. So, yes, the Marlins, by the way, are moving in their fences.

That's pretty cool. And they're installing artificial turf. Maybe both of those things are going to be good for Jonathan VR. The walls, yeah, seven feet. in center field and 12 feet in right field and maybe left field as well. I'm not quite sure, but that's nice. Marlins moving in the walls. I thought that was the second most oppressive hitting environment after San Francisco, Marlins Park.

So it'll just have to wait and see how big of an impact it'll have, but it can only help for the few hitters they have who have value guys like VR who was leaving a hitters park. Okay, so let's talk about Strasbourg, seven years $245 million to stay with the nationals. If you look at innings, I mean, it's amazing that he actually threw, he threw 215 was it in the regular season, no, 209, and then he followed that up with 36 and a third in the postseason. So that is 245 in a third innings for Stephen Strasbourg.

Question, which national starting pitcher do you want at their current NFBC average draft position? Max Scherzer 16th overall, Stephen Strasbourg 26th overall, or Patrick Corbyn 48th overall, Chris Towers. I guess Strasbourg? Maybe, it might be Scherzer. Strasberg is the worst answer of those three. Again, it's Scherzer 16, Strasbourg 26, and Corbin 48th. Corbyn and Strasbourg had very similar years. Yeah, Strasbourg was better.

I think he won four more games. But, like, Strasbourg does not deserve to go 22 picks ahead of Patrick Corbyn. He had a better team around it. Just a better environment. When Strasbourg is so unreliable with innings, because this is his second 200-innig season, and he had it, like, five years ago and didn't even come close. for four straight seasons after that, I think it was. So I think that's a preposterous

that he would go that much ahead of Corbyn. So he's the definitive wrong answer, Chris. Would you like to try again? Well, so you know my philosophy, and anyone who doesn't know, I'm generally not going to be the person who pays up for starting pitcher. So, yeah, it's probably Corbyn,

who, you know, you look at it, he did have a lower ERA. He did have slightly fewer inning, slightly fewer strikeouts, but that's than that. It's very close. I think the whip is probably the biggest difference between the two of them because you're not expecting Strasbourg to win more games pitching for the same team than Patrick Corbyn. If they're ERAs, you know, Patrick Corbyn actually had a slightly lower ERA. So, yeah, I'll take the 20-pick discount and go with Patrick Corbin, who I think he has now thrown,

Yeah, he has three, 200-inning seasons, one with 189. Strasbourg, by far, 25 more innings or 26 more innings than he had ever thrown in his career. Plus the postseason. You're never going to profit picking a guy coming off a career here. It's just, that's not how this works. I wouldn't say never, but let me get Scott. Like, Jake, it depends if you can be drafted on the career. Well, let's have Scott answer.

Which national starter do you like at their ADP? Scherzer 16th, Strasbourg 26, Corbyn 48th. The only one I rank higher for Roto, and obviously that's what we're talking about if we're working with NFBC ADP, Roto or 5x5 categories. The only one I rank, I'm sorry, lower than they have them is Stephen Strasbourg. So it wouldn't be him. I have Steven Strasbourg 32nd, Corbyn 38th, so just six spots apart. and Corbin is the biggest discount in terms of spots.

But I think Max Scherzer at 16th is, I think my eyes would light up if I saw him still available there. I actually have him 13th, so just outside of my projected first round for a standard 12th team league, but very close to having three starting pitchers in my first round. And I think that trifect of Garrett Cole, Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer is You know, DeGrom, I guess, is only a half step behind. But that's their three who can do something that no other pitcher in the player pool can do.

And Scherzer, you know, he struggled a little bit after he came off the IL, but his first 20 starts before getting injured, 241 ERA was on pace for 322 strikeouts. So that's pretty good. Zach Wheeler is on the Phillies. Five years, $118 million deal. And if we look at his ADP, it's about 120th overall. And this is a guy, Zach Wheeler, that we basically call the by-low candidate all year long. But he just had too many bad starts.

He also had 15 starts of seven or more innings. That's tremendous. I know Scott knows that because Scott loves that. Zach Wheeler pitches deep into games. By comparison, Steven Strassberg, coming off a great year, had 13 starts of 15 or more innings. seven or more innings, and Wheeler had 15 very good for both of them, but it's great. Yeah, so like two-thirds of his starts were seven innings plus. That's basically,

I mean, that's Rolander type stuff, right? I mean, that's half. It was half. Okay. It was about 23 out of 31 were six innings or more. Okay. Okay, there you go. So, yeah, you know, he's not a big swinging strike guy, so maybe Scott hates him. This actually must be one of the most confusing players for Scott. He pitches deep into games, but doesn't. get a lot of swinging strikes.

He's above average at everything is the thing. And that makes him, because he also pitches deep into games in this environment, being above average of everything, piling up those innings. That makes you a standout. Yeah.

It's a, obviously he's going to a hitter's park now, then that's playing more of a neutral park. It used to be more of a pitcher's park, but they moved their fences in a few years ago. It's more neutral now. I'm not sure that is really the biggest takeaway here, though. It obviously doesn't help.

But Zach Wheeler, he's above average at everything, including inducing ground balls, or specifically inducing weak contact. He's maintained a low home run rate throughout his career, and seven career starts at Philadelphia. It's basically one per nine innings, which is very good rate in this environment. Only seven starts, but still, he has a good track record there.

I think values basically the same. Okay. Last year, he was 26th in point. and 35th in Roto. The innings helped, 195 and a third, but also the whip heard him in Roto. 396 ERA, 126 whip.

And maybe it was a bad thing, Chris. Do you think Wheeler was unlucky last year? Because, you know, he really, he was amazing after the All-Star break in 2018. His last 12 starts, 196 ERA, and he didn't quite follow that up. It was a somewhat disappointing year for Wheeler. Was he unlucky or, you know,

is he a high-3s-ZRA guy in your mind? Well, he was also, really, really good after the All-Star break in 2019. I think he had a sub-3 ERA after the All-Star break. He wasn't quite as good. I think that was mostly his last six starts, though. He had a 180 ERA in his last six starts. I can look into it if you'd like.

Fine. I think he's probably more of a high-threes to low-four E-R-A guy. But in this environment, that has a ton of value. That's, you know, when you said 120th overall was his 80s. He actually kind of perked up because he's someone that I thought would have been going a lot higher than I would have felt comfortable taking him. But if it's 120th overall, you're talking 10th, 11th round in a 12-team league, maybe 8th round in a 15-team league, if my top of the brain math is correct, that seems perfectly reasonable for your number three starting pitcher in a deeper league or your number four or potentially number five in a 12-team league. That seems like a great spot for Zach Wheeler.

I actually, through the course of this conversation, have come out feeling all better. Well, here are the pitchers going around him. And yeah, it really was the last six starts that helped that ERA, because he had a four-something ERA in August. The ADP range, about 120th, as we mentioned. Jesus Lazzardo, Zach Gallen, Zach Wheeler, different spellings of the word Zach.

They are not related. Junjun Rieu and Max Fried. That's such a smart aleck response. I'm sorry. Yeah, it was. Hesus Lazardo, Zach Allen, Zach Wheeler, Junjin Ryu, and Max Freed.

Scott, you want to take a gander at those rankings there? I wasn't listening and what you actually listed up there. Isn't in the notes? Yes, it is. Lazzardo, Gowlieler,

Ryu, Freed. Well, I'm sure I have them a little different. It doesn't sound widely different here. Let's see. Yeah, okay, so I have Wheeler first of that group at 36th overall. I have... Lizarro, Gallen, Riu, Fried. Yeah. All right, hang on a second. Backtrack. I actually have Riu first of that group. He is all the way up at 27th for me. And then get Wheeler second. Zach Gallen, just a couple spots ahead of Max Fried. I think Luzardo's last for me. He's only R.P. eligible.

so I'd have to check the mixed rankings to find out for sure, but I think I rank him last to start out. All righty. So let's get to our next signing here. Cole Hamill's one-year deal. And now he said that he got hurt. So Cole Hamill's, you know, he got traded to the Cubs in 2018. And after the trade, he was gangbusters, 236 ERA strikeout prating.

And then his first 17 starts of the season, he had a 298 ERA and about a strikeout printing. and a 120 whip, and you should probably expect a high whip with Hamils. He goes on the IL. He misses all of July, and Cole Hamill said that when he came back, he was trying to fix his mechanics while building up arm strength after his oblique injury, and it didn't work. So, you know, his end of the year numbers look pretty bad. Now he goes to the Braves, and he's going about 250th overall

in between Domingo Armand, White Sox pitcher Michael Kopeck, Milwaukee picture, Adrian Howser, Marlins pitcher Sandy Alcantara and Hamils is old but you know he looked pretty good with the Cubs so Scott how do you feel about him on the Braves I think he summed it up pretty well

the 17 starts before the strained obliq to 98 ERA 1 20 with 8.8K per 9 and the biggest adjustment he seemed to make was he was a better ground ball pitcher than ever and it wasn't you know it was kind of a completely different category of

ground ball pitcher, uh, which is a good way to survive this environment with diminished stuff. And then it was just such a stark contrast between pre-injury, post-injury. Alex Anthopoulos said something similar

after signing him that they feel confident and he'll get back to being the guy he was before the injury. I don't see, think you could really go wrong taking a flyer on him in that spot. Curious. I have him ranked. I have them. One

90th, so, you know, obviously you're going to see more of a discrepancy in various rankings, the deeper you get into the rankings, because that sounds like a big difference. And I wasn't particularly high on Cole Hamels, I didn't think. But, yeah, I mean, that's, it's, I'm probably going to draft so that I don't need to have Cole Hamels, a Cole Hamill's in my starting lineup. But if you're forced to, it doesn't seem like a bad gamble. It just seems to me, Chris, without having really looked at it, and I'm obviously still in football mode,

but 250 overall to be able to get Domingo Raman or Michael Kopeck or Cole Hamill. Those sound better. I agree. Yeah, those sound better. Well, all of them, I think, sound pretty good at 250. Well, Domingo Raman's not going to go in that range. He's either going to go undrafted or he's going to go a lot higher than that. It's just going to depend on what happens with the looming suspension with him. Um, yeah.

Copac, yeah. I mean, there's more, there's more upside with Michael Coppec. If he comes back from Tommy John's surgery and, and looks really good, then obviously he's going to sound really good. But, you know, let's look at someone like AJ Puck, who came back from Tommy John's surgery and, you know, didn't progress quite as quickly. I think he suffered a setback. You know, we tend to assume that Tommy John surgery guys are just going to come back from. But Michael Copac, we saw what, four starts? in the majors. Yeah.

But it was really he seemed like he was on a sharp upward trajectory in terms of figuring out his control problem. So I'm pretty bullish on him. Yeah, no, you're right. Like that was his last six starts at AAA. He had good control, but before that it was really bad

for most of his minor league career. It was a couple of starts in the majors where he looked pretty good. But, you know, yeah, there's more upside with him. If I'm taking a flyer on someone at 250, I'm more likely to take Michael Copeland. pack than Cole Hamill's because there's just more upside and that's the type of pitchers that I target in that range. But, you know, I think that's a perfectly fine range for Cole Hamill's. It seems

like it's probably more likely to turn a bit of profit on that cost than Sandy Alcantara. It's just Sandy Alcantara, if his second half was legitimate, is more likely to turn a lot of profit. All right, let's fire through some more notes here and we'll read some emails at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Do you care? Are you drafting? Michael Paneda, two years and 20 million with the twins. He started using, I think, his

secondary pitches a little bit more, right? And he was okay. Yeah, specifically the change. He was always lacking that third pitch. Right. Yeah, his last 11 starts were good. Really good. Yeah, final 11 starts, 276 ERA 10.1K per nine. He's been a guy who's faked us out

a lot over the years, but I think this was the strongest commitment he ever made to using that third pitch slider is a wipeout pitch yeah I'm I'm very interested now he's not going to be able to pitch until mid-May

because he's serving a PED suspension so I don't know if you'll be able to devote a bench spot to him for that long but in anything deeper than 12 teams I would think it's worthwhile I love a guy coming off a PED suspension too you don't care I know you no I don't at all

I don't think that was sarcastic, yeah. No, I don't. Most guys don't lose it after their ED suspension. There's been a lot of profit to be found over the last five or six years on guys coming back from performance-enhancing drug suspensions.

Dede Gagorius, one years to the Philly, one year to the Phillies, and I called the Eagles the Phillies on the football show today, so I need to go to sleep. Yeah, so here's where D.D. Gagorius ranked in points leagues from 2016 to 18. 12th, 9th, and 8th, and in Roto, 13th, 9th, and 7th.

He was a really good, 270-ish hitter, 25-ish home runs. A lot of runs in RBIs. The Yankees scored a lot more runs than the Phillies last year. I mean, they scored 169 more runs than the Phillies last year. So the lineup's not going to be as good, but it won't be bad. But, yeah, like, is Deidugorius? Scott, is he going to crack your top 20 at shortstop? Yeah, barely.

Barely. I mean, I have him 18th, and obviously I'm, it's encouraging that he wound up in a spot, another good hitter's park. Seems like he'll play every day. But I'm not really inclined to move him up. The two players I have ahead of him are Tim Anderson, who's coming off a phenomenal season. This is Points League, by the way. Tim Anderson's probably a little higher in Grotto. And Corey Seeger at 16th, who's coming off not such a great season, but we know what his upside is and, you know, for having not such a great season. He was still better than D. Gregorius on a per game basis. So yeah, I don't really think I can justify putting Gregorius higher than that, which is just a testament to how deep shortstop has become. I think one, maybe the most interesting development with this is what it means for Gene Seguera, because if you think Gregorius at 18th is low, Seguerra's 22nd. He's just gotten buried at a position where just being adequate in a few areas clearly isn't enough anymore. If he picks up second base eligibility to accommodate Gregorius, then, you know, second base is the weakest non-catcher position, and he might be able to redeem something for you there still.

I guess for the Yankees probably puts Glabre Torres at second. And LeMay, excuse me, Glabre's at short, LeMayhew at second, and probably in Duhar at third base. Oh, no, or shell at third base. And O'Hahar, we'll see. Maybe some first base, maybe bench hitter, maybe traded. That's, like, in terms of sorting out positions, I think Yankees' first base slash DH is the most interesting one of anywhere to me. I mean, we'll see if they bring back Breck Gardner,

because that'll force one of the, well, Hicks is out for the year. I'm not sure how that would, but they want. Yeah, Hicks is. Talkman, right? They want Talkman in their outfield. I don't know. Talkman's there. Miguel Andehar, they got to find it bads for.

Luke Voight, presumably, and I think Mike Ford had the most interesting data of any of them. And we'll see how that all shakes out. Fortunately, it sounds like LeMayhew isn't going to be making many starts at first base anymore. Yeah, I don't think Aaron Hicks is out for the year, though. I think he's like an all-star break kind of guy. I think he had his surgery. He had Tommy John. Eight to ten months.

Okay. So, yeah. Yeah, I mean, Labor Taurus had that when he was in the minors and was ready. I think eight to ten months later. Okay. Well, he won't be a factor for a while. Let's see. Gausman to the Giants. Chris has said Gosman, top 100 pick.

Tommy Fam. Tommy Fabb and Jake Croninworth to the Padres for Hunter Renfro and Xavier Edwards, a slap. I think you call them a slap hitting prospect. Right? Yeah. Something like that. Exactly word.

Yeah. Well, value up down to the same for Tommy Fam, Chris, who let me just tell you where he finished last year. Tommy Fam was 22nd and points and 27th in Roto at outfield. I don't think it changes much. That's probably a pretty neutral park shift for him. They're both not great places to hit. He's good.

I don't think it much matters. he's not moving to a hitter's park he's not moving to a worse pitcher's park so I think you you keep him right where he was can you tell your cat to stop walking around so much just tell her to chill out or him to chill out she is

not a chill cat if I make any sudden movements she's going to freak out her name is David Bowie David Bowie her she this is kind of feeling like a paranormal experience for me though because Chris is sitting in a room that's uncharacteristically dark. I'm not sure exactly what's going on.

I don't know if he's podcasting by candlelight or what the deal is. And then this cat is just pure white. And you just see this white blur hovering around his shoulders. Guys, I don't have a cat. I don't know what they did. You had a cat. Okay, so Chris's house is haunted in Brooklyn. And what else?

What else? Scott, the Prospects Exchange and Hunter Renfro exchange in that deal. matter? Not really. I mean, the biggest prospect in this deal, has it been finalized, by the way, because there was some discussion that

they didn't like something about, the Padres didn't like something about FAM's elbow, though it sounded like it was still going to go through. But anyway, just bringing that up. Xavier Edwards is the biggest prospect, second base prospect, good contact speed guy, and somebody who absolutely needs to be owned to Dynasty leagues,

absolutely won't be contributing in 2020. I think there's a chance Renfro's value could go down here if the Rays play him even less than the Padres did. The Padres seemed noncommittal with his playing time, and the Rays are even more mix and match than them. But I don't know. The Rays also have kind of a history of maximizing the impact of prospects gone wrong. and I mean, Renfro has a lot of power but doesn't really do much else well, so maybe they know something they can do to fix him.

Yeah, they know Tommy Fan's going to make more money than Hunter Renfro is what they know. Well, I mean, I'm sure they had a lot of tick, they could have found a lot of takers for fam, and this is the one. I mean, maybe the Edwards return is what put them over the top. But they've done some big things with hitters, making them better, right?

I mean, the biggest example, of course would be Yanti Diaz, but I mean, look at what Austin Meadows did after being not, we weren't really certain what he could do power-wise. They're a pretty good organization. Yeah, for sure. Fam has had basically the same slash line, two straight years.

275, 367, 464, 273, 369, 450. Very, very similar. He did score 25 more runs in 2018, though. And then you just look at 2017, and he was unreal. He had a 931 OPS with 23 homers and 25 steals in 128 games. Don't know if he can recapture that magic. It's been a few years now. But at least he has that in his somewhat recent history.

Okay, it's time for a new game called Scott White. Let's fire through some of these notes so we can read some emails and go to sleep. Here is a note. Omar Navas traded to the Brewers. Go. This is a win-win for the catchers who are now the start. for their respective teams. Narvaez going from Seattle, the Brewers. You know, he...

Upgrade. It's an upgrade in Park, obviously. But even more so, Tom Murphy now becomes a starter and had terrific power production, the kind that was going to probably cost Narvae's playing time if Narvaez was still there. Bad splits against Ritees, but, you know, 30 homer catcher potentially, you can accept a bad batting average. So who do you like better, Narvaez with the Brewers, Murphi. But Tom Murphy,

I think they're both in my top 12 now. Oh, interesting. Andrew Benintendi added muscle and weight before last season, and Cora says he's in a better place physically now. Okay. Like, this is why I don't care when we get these

muscle watch reports of, like, I'm in the best shape of my life because, like, Andrew Ben and Tentene adds muscle and weight before last season, and he has his worst season ever. Well, if you had told us before the season, Andrew Ben, Ben, Tendi, added some muscle. We're like, great, he's going to hit for more pop. He's finally going to break out.

We just don't know what any of this means. Everyone's different. Everybody's body is special. Don't tell me. It just... No, I guess I just buy the possibility that this is an excuse. Because something clearly went very wrong for Andrew Benintendi. I like excuses.

I like excuses for situations I don't understand. Because sometimes they're right. And maybe, you know, I still am going to probably be the low guy on Benintendi. I rank him, I think, 30th in the outfield just because he's Andrew Benintendi, and I don't want to feel like a total idiot when he bounces back. This makes me a little more hopeful that he could because right now he looks like Nick Marcaikas. Did he add that muscle like halfway through the 2018 season? Yeah, I know. That's really when the drop off happened, right? Because that's when it happened.

I think the bigger issue is he, from what I remember, he became a lot more pull happy, but he's not, like, that's not the kind of hitter. he is. It doesn't work. If he was bulking up, I mean, that's the same thread of trying to muscle balls out of the park as upping your pull percentages. So, I don't know. Who knows? You know, players

transform statistically for all the dumbest reasons. And, you know, we know there's potential in Ben and Tendez bat. We've seen it before in the majors. Clearly did not reveal itself last year, though. So many strikeouts. Strikeouts went way up

last year for Bedintendi, which, you know, you could bank on him at least being solid, having a nice floor in points leagues, but the plate discipline was so bad. Yoannus Cespitas has begun running a running program. He's also hitting and throwing, so he's a three-tool rehabber, Yueness Cestepidus. And that's it. That's the last note I got, Scott. I don't know where to rank Cespedus next year.

That's kind of, we don't know if he's going to be ready, first of all, but this sounds encouraging. And I mean, he was studly when we last saw him, alongside at 30 coming back from a bad injury. Too bad, right? Wasn't it both? Yeah, there was, I think he had a knee surgery, and then he did some damage to his ankles, stepping in a hole on his farm or something like that.

Yeah, it was pretty bad what happened to his legs. They got messed up pretty bad, but, you know, last we saw him, he was good. So I have him ranked 74th among outfielders, which sounds very low. But it's one spot ahead of Kyle Lewis and two spots ahead of Joe Adele, who are both likely to get some traction on draft day. So that's kind of what I'm thinking for CESPIT is now that risk-reward range of outfielders. Okay, cool. Hey, our email address is Fantasybaseball.com.

Fantasybaseball at CBSI.com. Send in your emails. We are anticipating having a show next week, right, Scott? Yes, we are. And we're going to have a special guest. Should I mention what's special about that show or no? I don't want to get ahead of ourselves just in case it doesn't happen. But we have lined up a special guest.

We're looking forward to it next week. I can't imagine we'll have one the week after that. That'll be Christmas week. But we will have one more, at least before the end of the year, where we can celebrate Garrett Cole and Pinstripes. Email us from Joseph. Head to Head League, would you keep Cateau Marte in the 14th round or Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the 15th round?

Oh, no, in the fifth round. So it's Marte, Catell in the 14th round, or Vladdy in the fifth? It just so happens I'm working on my top 50 keepers column, which is a column where I account for what you'd be sacrificing based on previous years ADP. And it's similar to this for these two players, Catele-Marte 15, Vladimir Guerrero 5. I think it's maybe a couple rounds off, but the difference is about the same.

And I have Cotel-Marte considerably higher. I don't understand why early drafts have Vladimir Guerrero going so high, given how loaded third base is with stud bats. I mean, you can't, there comes a point where he can only be so good, and there's already so many options there that why, why are you banking on a better scenario, him delivering a better scenario than, you know, like a Mani Machado or something like that? Or I could probably even have better Matt Chapman. You know, you'd have to rank him higher than these really good players to justify drafting him that high.

And yeah, he might be able to do it. But, you know, he clearly has to make some adjustments to his swing to get there because there was too many ground balls. and you're not going to go wrong drafting one of those other guys as you're starting third basement. All right, so you're taking Marte in the 14th over Vladia in the 5th. Chris, you agree? I don't think it's even a question. Like, Coteel-Marte should be going ahead of Vladimir Guerrero. Just without knowing what round you can keep.

I agree, but I don't think he does. I don't know if you have the NFBC ADP there. I do. Do you feel sometimes when you say things on a fantasy podcast, in your head you go, wow, at the end of the, year, that might be the dumbest thing I've ever said. Like, because there's obviously a scenario where Vladimir Guerrero 100% deserve to go a lot higher than Catel Marte.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. going 49th. And Catel Marte going 45th. Yeah. Okay. So behind, but not by much. You ask, do I ever worry that something is going to be the dumbest thing I've ever said? That's an incredibly high bar. And the chances of any individual thing I say being the single,

dumbest thing I've ever said are so vanishingly small that no I don't you can't keep yourself up I only worry about process with those kinds of things because I there was one it was on a donkey teeth of Razball I was on his podcast and he's giving me so much grief about it since we had a long conversation about he had I think Ronald Acuna fifth overall and I had Acuna as like a second home man the ghost just popped in

that was freaky it's just a blur I had Acuna as the second rounder And so he had Acuna 5th overall ahead of Nolan Aeronado, who's, of course, one of the most bankable first rounders you can find. And so we had a long conversation about why it was a bad idea to take Acuna ahead of Aeronado. He, of course, disagreed. Acuna obviously had the better season. But, like, if you drafted Aeronado instead, that wasn't the reason you lost your league. He had a typical dominant Aeronado season. And, like, yeah, maybe it was technically wrong.

but like the range of outcomes for Acuna was much wider and I would make that argument for in a similar situation again. Like I just don't want to go wrong with that first round pick. I'm really surprised that there's not, that there aren't more people who are a little bit snake bitten by Vladimir Guerrero because he was going so high last season. And usually that's what happens. When we have these young guys, usually if they disappoint you, we back off of them. Right. He's going even high. It's not even like Iloi Jimenez, who is, you know, at least bounced back in the second half and showed you what he could be.

Now, Vladimir Guerrero had a very good August, I think a 970-something OPS. But then in September, he wasn't very good at all. And so it just, I'm surprised that this is one of those things where last year people were talking about Vladimir Guerrero versus Juan Soto. And, you know, Juan Soto then went out and had a great year, backed it up. But even before that, like, we had, we have evidence. that last year Juan Soto could hit the Major League level. We have evidence that Catelmarte can hit at a very high level. I don't think he's going to back up what he did last season,

but I think he, you know, 32 homers, 10 steals, 3.30 batting average. He was amazing last year. The fact that we're talking about him and Vladimir Guerrero as like a toss-up, I don't know. Maybe it'll make me look really stupid, but if I'm going to look stupid, it's going to be with the guy coming off the 9-81 OPS. That's a good point.

Okay, let's go to our next question. It's Nolan. He needs keeper help. He's keeping Acuna, Bellinger, Snell, and Verlander. He needs one more. Rendon in the third. Jorge Soler in the 15th or Tyler Glass Now in the 18th. Rendon in the third, Soler in the 15th, Glass Now in the 18th.

I think it's Rendon. Take the better player. I really like Glass Now. I don't like Jorge Soler so much. He's coming off one decent, pretty good, very good season. as a power hitter, but it came in, you know, basically 1998 course field. And you just don't know if that offensive environment is going to sustain itself. Like, we don't know if they're going to change the ball back.

And if they change the ball back. Yeah, but he impacts the ball so well is the thing. Right, we hit the ball forever. Well, but he made, he cut down on his strikeouts. He improved his batting ball profile most drastically in the second half, even more so than the year-long numbers. and I know what you're going to say in response to that, and we say it all the time. But I think...

Anthony Rendon is so bankable. No, I agree. Rendon in about the same keeper round is top of my top 50 list. So I agree. I would keep glass now, I think. But it also comes down to you're keeping five players. Who's available to you in the third round? Because if there's really not a good player or a great player available in the third round,

then, yeah, keep Rendon. If you think you can get a great player in the third round, that's where you have to keep Rendo. And then I would take glass down in the 18. Yeah, I mean, when you remove the keepers, everybody else is taking, you're going to end up having to overpay for the top players that are left

while obviously you're getting a little bit of a discount. So to get any kind of discount for a first round caliber bat, I think that's usually the way to go. All righty. So Michael Minster has a keeper decision in an eight-team categories league. he has to keep eight of these guys. All right, here we go.

Well, Acuna's a must. Let's say, Bellinger, Betz, Lindor, right, Bueller. Those are easy. Okay. Acuna, Aerona, Aronado, Bellinger, Betz, Lindor, Bueller. Okay, that's six. That's seven. That's seven.

Okay, then last one. Josh Bell. No. Martinez. J.D. Okay. J.D. Martinez, Clevenger, and Darvish. I think it's Clevenger.

Agreed. I think I have J.D. Martinez ranked higher, but given the premium on high-end pitching, I don't know. I think I'd kind of opt for Clevenger. Because I don't know what everybody else is keeping. I'd like to have that third elite arm. He's already keeping Acuna, Aeronado, Bellinger, Betts, and Lindor. So that's why I went with Clevenger.

Yeah. John from Long Island, pronounced L-A-W-N-D-U-Y-L-A-N, Long-E-E-L-A-N. Okay, John from Long-G-E-L-E-L-A-N, as he says. Works. I'm in two head-to-head-to-head points leagues where you can keep players for two years and you lose the round in which they were drafted. In one league, I'm keeping bets in the first and Acuna in the 12th. Who should be my third keeper? Charlie Morden in the ninth round, Miguel Sino, in the 23rd round, or

Bo Bichette in the 23rd round. I think it's Bichette. I'm more inclined to go with Morton. Yeah, that's really a tough call. All right. I'd be curious to know if you keep, if this is the starting point that you keep escalating from for years to come.

You only keep it for two years. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah, that makes it easier to go Morton. It's a toss-up. Okay. In the other league, I have Verlander in the second. Now I need to keep two others.

Lindor in the third, Rendon in the fifth. Remember, this is a points league. Lindor in the third, Rendon in the fifth, ding, ding, ding. Clevenger in the seventh, Bichette in the last round, or Gialito in the last round? Rendon and Gialito. That's fine. That's how I felt about this podcast. What?

Actually, I thought this was wonderful. I had a great time. It was great. It was good to get us back together again. Good job, guys. I liked it. It was more than fun. You were fine, Adam.

Question for you, Scott. You gave such good parenting advice earlier, and that was, I love excuses. So, you know, I hope you're teaching that to your kids. That was great. We have a tough parenting decision to make, and you've gone through this. So 16 months old, I think.

15 to 16, something like that. Don't tell my wife. I don't know. Should we get a real Christmas tree or a fake Christmas tree? Because we are concerned that he is going to be, you know, pulling the little thing, you know, the blades out or whatever. Oh, he's going to be pulling things off the Christmas tree, whether it's needles or ornaments. Yeah, we're specifically concerned about the needles. Sorry, you can tell I haven't had a lot of Christmas trees. Yeah.

They're going to be all over the place. So real or fake? What do you think? Well, the real versus artificial argument, the effect it would have on the kid never came up for us. I am pro artificial by a long shot. I don't think any kind of faint smell is worth the hassle of cleaning up after it shedding all the time or the stickiness you feel if you happen to touch the wrong part and you try to wash it off. but it doesn't wash off very easily. It leaves this black residue.

You know, you have to make sure it fits the space and you have to estimate every year. You don't have this tree already perfectly tailored for your living space and artificial all the way. Okay, I'm going to tell where you said that. Thank you, Scott. Very. Grinch.

No, he's not a grinch. You don't know. You don't know. Look at this tree. You see this tree behind me. It's beautiful. It is. It's beautiful.

It's fake. You didn't know that until just now. I did. I could tell. It's too symmetrical. That's a good quality. I went down to Rockefeller Center and I saw the tree. I saw that big, ugly, lopsided tree and it was beautiful.

Yeah, you're such a tourist. Okay, that's Chris Towers and Scott White. I'm Adam Azer. And we'll talk to you probably next week. Stay tuned to everybody. Have a great week. We'll talk you next.