Fantasy Baseball Today - 12/19: Talking Big News with Ellen Adair! (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: December 17, 2019

We are joined by an awesome guest today! Actor Ellen Adair of Homeland, Billions and much more is here to talk Fantasy Baseball. Ellen is an avid Fantasy Baseball player and a huge baseball fan, so we bring her on to talk about Anthony Rendon, Madison Bumgarner and Corey Kluber plus more from around MLB like Corey Knebel, Nomar Mazara and Zack Wheeler. And of course we talk about acting, Ellen's inspirations in the industry, how she would have ended Game of Thrones, waffles vs. pancakes vs. french toast and more fun stuff.  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. With fantasy! Now here's Adam, Scott, Heath, and Chris. Another week and more big-time fantasy baseball news. Scott is Anthony Rendon a first-round pick in your mind with the Angels?

I think in one format. you could maybe make the arguments. Okay, good. Yeah, I thought, yeah, I'm glad the answer wasn't just a flat yes. Based on last year, sure, he's a top five hitter in both formats. But before that, you know, not quite this good. But he signed a seven-year, $245 million deal. Corey Klobara gets traded to the Texas Rangers for Emmanuel Class A and Alino DeShields. I think we pronounced that right, right, Scott, Des Shields, we got that?

I thought you were going to talk about the other one who looked up before. I don't think it's Clayce. Class A. That's where he began last year, by the way, was class A. Uh-huh. Yeah, very class A joke you made there. And Arizona signed Madison Bumgarner to a five-year $85 million deal, which could be a bargain. We'll see. But he's been pretty bad on the road the last few seasons here. Now, Scott and I are here, Chris Towers is not. We replaced him with someone better. We upgraded. We have a special guest. We welcome Ellen Adair to the show. Good evening. Ellen. How are you? Good evening. I'm very well. I am no one's upgrade, but I am very happy to be here. I am very excited about this. This is something I've been wanting to put together for a while now. Because Ellen, you know, she's been on a few big shows, well-watched shows. None that I happen to have seen. I am not familiar with Ellen's work. I am familiar with her baseball takes, mainly on Twitter. And I find them to be tremendous. But Ellen is on what, billions.

She's been on Homeland. What's another one? The sinner. The sinner is another big one. Yeah. Yeah. I was on Bull this fall. And I'm going to be on NCIS New Orleans in February.

Wow. So those are the more recent. So what was your biggest role of them? My biggest role was probably Homeland or The Sinner. or I was on this NBC miniseries called The Slap in 2015 that's like two people watched. My wife and I had like a joke about the slap because it seemed like the subject matter was very serious for the slap. But like the way the promos were made, it was like it had that that like intense voiceover of the guy saying the slap. You know, it was just kind of a funny name.

So it made us laugh every time. Yeah. So you're in it. I was. I was. Yeah. And my character's sort of point of view on the whole thing was that it was ridiculous how much drama had come from a slap.

I was like the public defender that these people were like, we're taking a court case against Zachary Quinto for slapping her child. Obviously, he wasn't Zachary Quinto in the show. He had a different name. But I, yeah, I was the public defender who was like, it's ridiculous that I have to take this case. That was my private opinion. That wasn't in the script. Right.

For everybody who watched the slap in 2015 and really wanted to know what I was thinking, that's what I was thinking at the time. Have you ever played a character named Ellen? And is that just so much easier? I have not. I've gone in for a few Ellen's and thought, like, you should really just give me this role.

You're bored for it. But yeah, that has not happened. I always think it's funny when the character has the same name as the actor, especially when it's somebody famous. And it's like, you just name the character after. the actor, right? Yes, totally.

Well, one of my scene partners on The Center, his character's name was Adam, and his name was also Adam, and he just had a running joke where he was like, I have to be referred to by my character name. So, yes, which is a sort of like jockey diva type of a thing to do. So just, so in the center, your best McTeer, right? That's the character name, Homeland Janet Bain. That's right. And Billions, what's the name of Billions?

Well, I was never given a first name. My name was Graff, like Steffie. So just to put a face with the name if people don't recognize Ellen Adair. That's who she is. Yes. And she's here. Follow her on Twitter. Ellen at Ellen underscore Adair, A-D-A-I-R, which is kind of like my last name, A-I-Z-E-R.

There's like a lot of similarities there. But she tweets a lot about baseball. It's very cool. We're going to get her takes on all these moves and get her fantasy baseball background and all that stuff. and I am a huge billions fan, so I look forward to talking about that. I am buddies. I like to think we're buddies with Kelly O'Coyne, Dollar Bill.

He's the greatest. He's awesome. I sat next to him. We did a fantasy draft together. I sat next to him that night and we became friends, and he's such a nice guy, much nicer than he is on the show. I'll tell you that.

Oh, my God, much nicer. Fun fact is that we also did a commercial together for Coffee Mate, where we were married. Really? And this is while we were. I was just in season two of billions. And this is also while we were filming billions. So there was the joke that we had because that was the,

I believe that was the season where you find out that Dollar Bill has a second family that I was actually Dollar Bill's third family. Yeah. That's great. All right, Alice. So let's talk fantasy baseball here. And Scott, I'll give you the first word on Anthony Rendon.

And he gets the big deal. And like I said, he was a top five hitter. He was third in points. He was fifth in rhodo. He's actually the number two. third baseman yet is still a top five hitter in fantasy baseball last year. And do you think there's any change in his value going from Washington to the Angels?

I don't think there is really. I think the parks rate similarly. Angels Stadium may be a little worse, but I don't think that's going to be the biggest driver of his value. It's really just going to be whether he can sustain the power gains that he made last year. If he can and he can stay healthy, which has always been an issue throughout his career, then, I mean, he's going to be a first round type of player again. Actually, in points leagues, which is the format where I think you can make the case already, he's a first rounder.

In terms of fantasy points per game, it went, let me see if I could find the order, it went, Christian Yellich number one, Mike Trout two, and then Rendon was actually third on a per game basis in that format. And that's always been his better format. He walks a lot. Doesn't strike out much. But last year, obviously took it to a new level. Yeah, and 40 doubles three years in a row, too. 41, 44, 44, I think.

That helps in points leagues. I definitely think you can make a case because he's so safe in points leagues. He has a great profile. But yeah, those home runs really helped. Usually about a 25 homer guy. Ellen, when would you take Anthony Rendon? I think I'd take Anthony Rendon a little bit later myself. I think I'd hope

to get him in sort of the middle of the second round. And for like a slightly dissenting opinion, I feel like Anthony Rendon might marginally lose a little bit of his value, just because I think there's more of a question as to who's going to be batting behind him. Whether that's Otani, that's great, but he might not be D-Hing every single day. And so then there's sort of the question of like, well, do you have Justin Upton or like whatever is left of Justin Upton?

at this point. So, yeah, he just might not, I am not looking at his page right now because I'm not a pro like you guys, but, you know, he scored like 117 runs or something like that. Oh, you got it. You got it. And he drove in 126. And that's really a great point because those numbers, look, he could do, he could do 100 to 100, you know, he could do 105. He's probably not going to do 117 runs at 126 RBI's probably going to come down from that. So that's a, that's a very good point. Joe Madden hasn't made out of the lineup yet, so I can't say for sure. But the logical spot to me would seem to be Mike Trout's second, Rendon, third, Otani

fourth. And if he's sandwiched between those two, I mean, either battings either side. He's just said Otani doesn't play every day. True, though Madden has said he's actually thinking about having him hit on the days he's pitching. So it might be more. We don't really know. But my bigger point is with Trout. I mean, whether he's batting, Rendon is batting ahead of Trout or behind Trout.

that's going to be better than whoever he's ahead of or behind in Washington, you know, in terms of getting on base, if he's behind him, driving him in terms of hitting for power, if he's ahead of him and getting driven in. So I don't know. Like the Chris Towers take of anybody coming off a career season, you can't expect it to happen again. That's probably the best approach here and to play it safe and take Rendon exactly where you are. Ellen, that seems to be the ADP for him. the average spot he's going so far.

But I think if we're talking specifically a points league and built-in advantages he has for that format, those top three third basemen, Bregman and Aeronado being the other two, I actually have Rendon ranked second behind Bregman. I actually have Aeronado third in that format, while

Rendon would be third and Aeronado would be first in a standard 5 by 5 league. Okay. It's a good distinction we make there. I will just point out here's where Rendon finished as a hitter, among just hitters, not pitchers, in his last three seasons. He

finished, I know I have this somewhere, he finished 21st, 25th, and 3rd in points leagues, 36, 28th, and fifth in Roto leagues. Keep that in mind. Injuries sometimes play a part in that, but he played the same amount of games this year as he did two years ago, so

not even a top 20 hitter the previous two years, but on a per game basis, he probably was. Now, Corey Klobber goes to the Rangers, and, you know, Ellen, I didn't want Corey Kluber last year. I didn't like what I saw the second half of the season and a lot of mileage on that arm.

But we'll see where he goes now. I mean, it's pretty interesting. He's been better at home over the last couple years than on the road, and this is not a better park by any means. But, you know, where are you on Klobber? Are you excited to draft him? I think I'm not super excited to draft him.

I mean, I was very, very angry about this trade because it seems like just such an obvious salary dump from the Indians owners when I really feel like they should be trying to contend. However, I also have to acknowledge that I think, you know, the whole of baseball was looking at the kind of underlying metrics for. for Kluber and probably not buying in on him. And so even though I think pretty much every baseball fan in the world was angry that their team didn't get Cory Kluber if that was going to be the price to be paid for Cory Kluber. I actually, you know, when I was thinking about it, I realized, you know, I want Cory Kluber for the Phillies because he would be better than what they've got. But I don't know that I'm like necessarily looking to target him. And I think the real reason for that is because there was a decline for him, even though the, um, even though the sort of surface

level stats were still really good for him in 2018, a lot of the underlying metrics in terms of the, uh, usefulness of his different pitches. He wasn't getting as much of a swing and miss on his of his secondary pitches. And that was partly because he was throwing more of them, because he was throwing less of his fastball because his fastball was less, less dominant. So I think that,

I think that if we're looking for him to bounce back from injury, I don't necessarily feel like we're, we can expect the, even to get sort of, of the 2018 results. Okay. That's fair. And I'm glad you brought

2018 into this because that, um, I mean, it's absolutely true what you were saying. And that's, that's why you weren't excited to draft Glover last year. Right,

Adam? Yeah. I mean, he had a, I. was a, back then it was a DL stint with a back injury in 2017. He dealt with a knee injury in 2018.

And he was going, he was going probably like late second. early third round. And that's, you know, obviously, I just looked at his ADP on NFBC and it's like about 90th. And I'd be thrilled to take him there. But I just, my philosophy with pitchers is like, you know, if you're going to invest early in one and there's like a toss up, you don't go with the risky guy. And he just felt risky to me. I felt like he was sort of breaking down a little bit.

Well, and I want to preface what I'm about to say with the fact. I have Kluber ranked 31st going into this season. So I'm obviously downgrading him from perennial Cy Young winner. But, you know, that's partly because there are so many pitchers who are in that near-Ace tier. And then once that big tier is gone, it's just like garbage at the position. But Kluber is in a very big tier of near-Ace pitchers, I feel like. And because of the risk, I don't see the need to rank him especially high. But I think since, you know, it's pretty much universal agreement that,

This seems like a poor return for Cory Kluber, especially the amount of traction he had on the trade market. And there's a couple ways you could look at it. One of them is, okay, clearly Cleveland and the league in general is worried about this guy's ability to bounce back, worried he doesn't have much left. But I think what betrays that argument is how Cleveland even still had him to trade, because they could have opted out. They had a $1 million buyout. So very small buyout at the start of the off season, and instead they chose to exercise it for $17.5 million.

If they were worried about him or worried that they wouldn't be able to get his payroll off, they'd end up having to take a loss to get the payroll off, to get the salary off the payroll. Like they wouldn't have exercised that option, right? Like, they still valued him $17.5 million worth at least. And I also saw a tweet after the fact from an Angel's Beatwriter that said they wanted a couple of top 10 prospects from the Angels organization. So I don't know what they were asking for everybody, but that's at least what they were asking from the Angels. So that would suggest to me they were hoping for a pretty good return here from Kluber.

And maybe that they settled for this one shows how they feel about a manual class A that they have an especially. high opinion of him who has some pretty interesting stuff 100 mile per hour cutter. I think maybe he could be a closer someday. But I guess long story short, what I'm trying to say is we shouldn't take this poor return that the Indians got for Kluber as a sign that something's wrong with Kluber. So I'm not downgrading him based on this. Well, I think, well, okay, I think you look at the return that you get for Kluber and then you look at Bumgarner who got a five-year $85 million deal, which is not really that much for Bumgarner. I mean, for a pitcher of his caliber.

But I think that deal does, but I think that deal says a lot about how teams value him. If that was the best he could do, you know? He has fallen off, I think, at a clear way than Kluber did. Like, at Klubor, I understand, had a high-five ZRA last year in seven starts. You look at a lot of the ace caliber pitchers through May 1st, what their stats looked like. There are a lot that were pretty ugly, too. There wasn't any further decline stuff-wise from 2018 like Ellen was talking about to 2019. So I don't think that really has any relevance here.

All right. So let me give you the ADPs and you guys tell me who you like better. So Kluber, 89th overall and Bumgarner is 116 overall. So Ellen, Kluber 89th or Bumgarner 116th? That's tough. I might take Kluber. I mean, that's a pretty good discount. on Klubber. I think I wasn't aware that he was, that he had sort of dropped that far in ADP.

I would take, and this is, and this is NFBC, right? Right. It is, it is, um, since November 1st, though. So I could take a look at more recent data to see, you know, how people have reacted to the trade. I'm just pulling up since I have, since I actually have Roto Rangkees. I could compare. I have Kluber 96th. What did you say they had him? 89th. Okay, and at Bumgarner 113th. What did you say they had him?

Right around there. You're so close, Scott. You should play like the price is right, except for with your rankings. The thing is I might move Bumgarner down a little bit from here based on his destination, Arizona. Which, by the way, Clover may not sound good going to Texas, but it's going to be a whole new park. We don't really know. Cleveland's. Yeah, Cleveland has.

kind of a hitter's park. So, but Bumgarner, he goes from the best pitcher's park in baseball where he had ridiculous splits the past two years. Really, since post-motor bike accident where he hurt his shoulder, he's only been good at home to now, what's now a fairly neutral park

since they adopted the Humidor in Arizona. So I I don't think it's a disaster necessarily. Bumgarner showed some signs of the arsenal bouncing back. He actually had the second best swinging strike rate of his career last year, but those splits are pretty scary now that he's changing environments.

And top 40 for me still, but probably not top 35 among starting pitchers. All right. Well, let's... Go ahead, Alan. Oh, I was actually, I was just looking it up, and Chase Field was 20 out of 30th in terms of home runs in 2019.

So maybe not quite as, I mean, I think, you know, we still all think of Chase Field as being this, even with the humidor, a little bit more homer prone than that. was interesting for me to see. But the thing about Baumgartner in 2019 was just that the quality of contact that he gave up. So like the exit velo, barrel percentage, hard hit rate, all of those things were higher in 2019 than they'd ever been for him and higher than the average in MLB.

So obviously, those, as you guys have both said, those numbers were not reflected in his results because he was pitching half of his games at Oracle Park. Yeah, I think the good thing is the walk rate was really high in 2018 for him, went back down to sub-2 in 2019, and his strikeout rate went up, you know, nine. It was usually over nine, it wasn't quite there, but 203 strikeouts and 207 and two-thirds. So that was encouraging for him.

There was some encouraging signs. I mean, I think I remember Scott talking a lot about his swinging strikes because we were worried about him getting traded, but it seemed like maybe he was better than his numbers. And, you know, I think both Kluber and Bumgarner are pretty discounted. And yeah, I think we all agree, though, Kluber the better value right now going around 90th of the law. I'm reminiscing over here because Ellen just informed me unknowingly

that it is now Oracle Park and not AT&T Park. And I'm thinking about the Bumgarner column I wrote last night in all the references to AT&T Park. It's a shame. No editor caught that. Anyway. I'm glad that I can provide at least one service today. Well, I'd like to know more about Ellen Adair. I'm sure we all would. So I can't imagine there are too many young actresses that are into fantasy baseball as much as you are. You are, I guess, a fish out of water in that respect, right?

Yeah, it's true. I can't say that I've met another female actor who plays fantasy baseball. Have you met male actors that play fantasy baseball? or they all play football. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Totally. Like most of the people in the leagues that I play with are actors. So I originally got recruited to play fantasy baseball. I have loved baseball all of my life and I've always been a huge baseball nerd, but I'm actually sort of just a fairly recent fantasy baseball player. And I was in a production of importance of being earnest and another one of the actors in that said, you should join my fantasy league. And I was like, I'm not worthy. It was like you could totally do it. So yeah, that was the beginning. beginning of a beautiful, beautiful relationship. Drop some names. Drop some names. Who plays fantasy baseball? Give us the Hollywood gossip.

Oh, gosh. Oh, not. So most of the actors that I know who play fantasy baseball are theater people and not, um, yeah, and not famous people. Um, I know Dylan Baker plays fantasy football.

And I know you already know Kelly O'Coyne plays fantasy football. He does. Yeah. Um, a lot of people. play fantasy football. Yeah, more people play fantasy football than fantasy baseball. But I'm not one of them.

I'm balancing the scales on the other side. Good, good for you. Good for you. So did you want to talk about any other off-season moves that caught your eye? Garrett Cole or, you know, we talk a lot about Jonathan VR crap move going to the Marlins. But anything else that jumped out of you this off-season? Oh, the Phillies. You're a Phillies fan, right?

I am a Phillies fan. Excited about their moves or what? D-D-D. They got D. You're going to love Dedy or gorgeous. I'm very excited about... Who cares about Wheeler? They got Deity.

I'm more excited about Zach Wheeler than I am about Deed Igorgoreas, mostly because, as, you know, everyone who listens to this podcast knows, it's pretty much like Aaron Nola and then a gaping hole after that, in terms of pretty much the whole pitching staff, which I mostly include the bullpen as well. So getting another pitcher was the primary need that the Phillies have, and I really think they need another one because I don't want to count on Vince Velasquez for my number five starter, particularly when I can't imagine that we're going to have an

entirely healthy full season of Jake Areeta and like maybe Zach Wheeler. So anyway, I'm very excited about Zach Wheeler and also very excited about D.D. Gregorius. And, you know, I'm hoping that these two former Tommy John surgeryed players, I don't know what the verb for Tommy John is Tommy John players. Tommy John's. In their sort of different stages of coming back from that surgery will really bounce back with the Phillies. Not that Wheeler needs to bounce back. The one thing that when I discovered that the Phillies got Wheeler that sort of gave me pause was even though the Phillies, are my life partner was I thought, I don't know that the Phillies are, is the organization to get the

maximum out of Zach Wheeler, which is of course what we've all been hoping to see. But I'll be very happy with this deal if Zach Wheeler just continues to be the sort of like four plus win player that he's been over the last couple of years. And I think that there's been a lot of industry prognostication about the, you know, his five-year $118 million deal really showing that the entire baseball industry has moved more into future projection rather than past results, which of course I think we can see with Madison Bumgarner in a very interesting way. Bumgarner did not get as much money as I thought he was going to. But I think that even if Wheeler just continues to be what he already is, he'll definitely

be a great deal for the Phillies. I'm very hopeful because they do have a new pitching coach in Brian Price that maybe they will actually be able to make more out of their pitchers than they have been able to do in the past. Is you excited about Nick Povetta? No. And please don't listen to how excited I was about Nick Povetta on podcast at this time last year. Please don't listen to that past Ellen. She was wrong. Yeah, I mean, we were all wrong.

I think, you know, and granted, I'm still hopeful that, you know, that maybe Brian Price can do something for Nick Povetta because obviously the stuff is still there and the stuff is so good. But I think, you know, a lot of the stuff that we saw in 2018, that sort of walk rate was actually just a mirage and his command is not as good as it made it look like it was. And I think the thing that was just really sad for me in seeing Povetta's move to the bullpen was seeing how he wasn't suddenly super effective as a bullpen piece either. I mean, every once in a while he'd have a great outing, but then every once in a while he'd give up like three dingers. So I'm rooting for Nick Povetta, but you should not draft him. While you guys were talking, I've been coming up with these really weird, random questions

that I'm going to ask Ellen totally off subject at the end of the show. I'm excited. Yeah, I'm trying to get a little strange with them. They're not that weird. I have one sort of like actor thing that I want to bring to this podcast at the very end. So don't let me forget about that. Okay, okay, actor thing. I'm going to put it in the notes.

Actor thing. Actor thing, yes. So do you have any fantasy philosophies you want to? Well, tell us what kind of leagues you play. You play in roto leagues, points leagues, head to head. I play in two head-to-head categories, one roto, and then one head-to-head points, and that is the Scott White 24-team Crazy Town Dynasty League. Oh, cool. What's your favorite format then? And Scott's on the show, so you probably should say points, but I'll let you just be honest. Well, I'll be honest. It was my first time ever playing in points. I really like points because I, as a human being, I'm the president of the ladies-love play.

plate discipline lobby. So I very much love any format that's going to value that contribution. I have a sort of a fondness for a head-to-head categories because it was the first kind that I ever played. And so, yeah, it's sort of like I imprinted on it, like I was a little baby bird hatching out of an egg. And I was like, oh, this is fantasy baseball. However, in my two head-to-head category teams this or leagues this year. I led the whole league going into the playoffs. So like I had the best regular season record in both leagues. And then in both leagues I was wiped out in like I had a bye week and I was wiped out in that first round of the playoffs. And I was so mad. So I do kind of appreciate Roto also for like when I when I win I know that it was fair yeah that's a

that's a charming from the ending but like it sounds like you had an awesome season if you led both of them and then in my dynasty league 24 teams and there's kind of a learning curve figuring you know kind of juggling the immediate impact versus the long-term impact and how much how closely you should guard the low salary players. I mean, it's, it's taken a lot of people in that league several years to figure out. It's become much harder to trade because everybody seems on board. But first year, you take over this non-condender and you were one of the playoff teams. So you did the three leagues I know. How did the Roto League go? I finished third. So I finished third in the three leagues. And then I finished, I actually don't know. But yes, I don't

remember what number I was because it's such a large, such a large league. But I have actually, this is my point, though I haven't been, I've only been, this is where I feel very ashamed and not worthy to be on your podcast. So this will be my fifth year playing fantasy baseball only. However, my point of pride has always been that I have never finished below fourth in any league. Oh, my goodness. Until obviously the 24 team league, because finishing fourth would be. Well, you, that's impressive. I think regular season record you were in top four, though. Yeah, maybe. Or I was close. There was like one or two brilliant weeks where,

I was like, what is going on? I'm in first place in this league. How can this be? And I kept trying to get Griffin Canning from you. Yeah, I'm not going to get up Griffin Canning. Oh, you should. Scott wanted Griffin Canning from everyone in every league. And, you know, we missed the opportunity to sell high on Griffin Canning to Scott White.

He was good. Dynasty League, okay. Yeah. So, so do you have, well, do you have any, like, players that you're going to be looking at draft? Have you thought about your preseason sleepers or break? breakouts or busts yet? You know, I haven't because I really

often build that off of ADP in a way, just sort of seeing where players are going, and then whether or not I think that that's where I also value them. So that's kind of hard to know. And I think often I will look at

people, players going sort of like 200 and below and assess like, oh, like definitely I want to pick this guy or this guy. Like, one of those people for me last year was Catele-Marte, and so maybe that's part of the reason that my teams did so well this year. Why? Why?

Why did you target him? I'd picked him up in a roto league the sort of like late summer before that, and he'd been very good. I don't remember the stats off the top of my head, but like, I don't know, he hit seven homers and stole five bases or something like that.

Big second half, but yeah. I mean... Yeah, it was particularly that like August and September when like most people, well, not most people, but some people are not really paying attention anymore. And I thought, this guy is really good. And so I'm going to target him next year. So I did. And I also got him.

I was in a real bidding war with Al Melchior. I remember for Gattel Morte. And my husband was looking at me as I was like, I'm going to get Katte. Tal Marta, no matter how much it costs. And just being like, okay, I'm going to step away from you. She's in fantasy baseball mode. Yes, exactly. I mean, one of my, like, I tend to like to go for sort of late top tier closers and catchers

and sort of like figure out where they're going and that can sometimes be a way to sort of like start to build what I think my draft. might kind of look like. So by late tier, I just mean like literally not the top guys who go super early, but somebody that is good and is not going to be a liability to you at either of those positions. That's a strategy I tend to have. And I do, I found that I haven't always done this, but my teams are almost always better when I take two frontline starting pitchers. So generally looking to do that, but adjusting, obviously,

if pitchers are going way earlier than I value them in a draft to just sort of like pivot and, you know, go the other way. Sorry, you were going to say? Well, taking two, have any got hurt in your time? Like, have any of the, when you've taken two, have they managed to stay healthy? Like, never, always. Somebody gets hurt, you know, I feel like. Or somebody sort of disappoints, like, a la Cresale. So, like, I think that's one of the reasons why.

it's been so nice to have two of them. Yeah, it's kind of hedging your bet there. Yeah. Which I think people need to do to an even greater extent this year because of somebody who invested pretty heavily in pitching last year. And, you know, I had some good leagues, some not so good. But when they weren't good, I didn't have enough pitching, even though I was investing in pitching. So I kind of want to take it a step further.

Yeah. I felt like the same thing. happened to me in my in my roto league which I spent by the way the entire like first month and half in last place I've won this league like two years in a row I was never been in last and I like clawed my way back up to third so it's like the most proud that I've ever been to finish third but that can happen to me with batting average too I'll even be like I'm going to invest in batting average and it will still screw me over so another strategy I'm like thinking of these as I'm talking about them is I often punt batting average in head-to-head categories because it just means

you lose that one category, like whatever. Interesting. You'll generally win more categories if you have more power guys, but being last in batting average in a rhodo league, it just sinks you in a way that like losing one category every week doesn't. I never, I stink at batting average every year. It's really weird. I always, I try.

I'm like, oh, I got batting average and those guys end up having bad years. I'm cursed with batting average. So in terms of pitchers, you know, like in your first five picks, do you have, I need to have two pitchers, I need to have three, or just see how the draft goes. Do you have a set kind of standard? I think I tend to think of it in the first six, but it totally depends on where I sort of identify, okay, this is where there's a big drop off for me. So, you know, this year, maybe it would be the first five, but generally it's been the first six. Like three pitchers you're saying? Oh, two pitchers. Two in the first six picks.

Okay. Yeah. I think I'm going to go heavier than that. I think Scott's going to have probably seven pitchers in his first six picks somehow. Well, I mean, there does come that point, kind of the tail end of where I'm ranking Bumgarner, the round 40th, where it's just like I don't want any pitchers beyond this. I mean, there is a handful, but they're usually in the 40 to 50 range that I think could have the upside to be that good. But it's a, you know, I think we're past the days of counting on.

the upside pitcher to take that next step. It's just very just a total crap shoot. I mean, who were the guys who took the big step last year? It was kind of ones you wouldn't have invested heavily in, like Brandon Woodruff and Sunny Gray. Well, I got Sunny Gray in your dynasty league, so.

Yeah. No, I'm yeah. I mean, the thing is, that's the thing, 24 team league, and you didn't have much pitching going in and you manufactured it. Like, I looked at your roster, and it's like, man, she got all the breakout pictures. I actually feel like I just slumdog millionaire to that first season, and I'm never going to

be as good in your Dynasty League ever again. Do you remember the scene in the office where they do the slumdog millionaire thing at the company outing? Oh, no, I don't. That's how they reveal that one of the branches is being shut down. Michael and Holly. It is so a dundermiflet air. It is so funny.

And you're just cringing. They're bombing on the stage. It's great. I want to get to these random questions for Ellen and get to her actor thing. But let me let's go through a few other news items, Scott and Ellen, and you tell me if anything stands out. The White Sox get no marmosiah for Steel Walker. That's a terrific name. Also the best name for a Texas Ranger that there could ever be.

That's true. Steel Walker, Texas Ranger. That is awesome. Yoshitomo Tsutugo is on the raise. Two years, 12 million. He's outfield first base. third baseman. Brewer signed Corey Kinebel to a one-year deal. The Mets

signed Rick Porcelo and Michael Waka. Twins re-signed Sergio Romo. Brewers signed Avi Garcia to a two-year $20 million deal. Scott, anything big here? Yoshitomo Tsutsugo, right? Is that how you said that? That's how I said it.

Okay. Now it's consensus. It's, you know, usually the guys who come over from Japan or Korea, in his case, it's Japan. They obviously have huge numbers in the league they were playing in, so I don't know that it makes that much sense to go over them. He's always been a good walks guy over there, at least 80. Each of the past four years, lowest OBP between them is 388.

He's had as many as 44 home runs there, though he had 29 last year. So, you know, he looks like a stud. But we know how this goes. It's really difficult to know how those are going to translate. I'm encouraged by the fact he wasn't really a big strikeout guy ever there. His worst strikeout year was this past year, but usually not such a big strikeout guy. And I've seen others report that the exit velocities were high for him. Because he's going to the raise, you know, they love to mix a match and he's a left-handed hitter, so there's a playing time issue.

But I think he's interesting enough to have, like, even if you don't play in a league big, enough that you could really conceive him being drafted. I think you're going to want to be keeping a close eye on him, both for performance and playing time, because I could see him being a surprisingly impactful player. I wonder what it means for Nate Lowe and his likelihood of getting playing time, but I think Tsutsugo would mostly be at DH. So that's the biggest one. And then the other one, I think worthy of some commentary here.

You know, I'm not confident the White Sox are going to be able to be able to. do anything with Mazarra, but they seem to think they can. I mean, if he improves the launch angle, he heads the ball hard, so there may be something there still. We'll see. But Aviso Garcia is the one who I think could see a big boost here going from Tampa last year where he had a pretty good season. He had like a good stretch. Well, I mean, he was pretty crap. Going to Milwaukee,

he has, he's kind of built for a high Babbitt, and now that he's in a small park, you do like the park overlay of where his batted balls went last year. You could see him getting a handful more home runs. I think 25 with good batting averages within reach for Garcia. So, you know, again, it's going to depend on whether or not he's truly an everyday guy. For him to be so, Ryan Braun would have to get comfortable at first base and who knows. But I think you can draft Avicel Garcia outside the top 50 outfielders with the hope he becomes like a top 40 outfielder. He also stole 10 bases last year.

And so I feel like when stolen bases are so few to begin with, that guys who can just kind of like chip in a few steals like that can actually make a big deal for you sort of at the end of the year. What about Canable guys? Ellen, you know, well, Scott, you tell me first what Canable situation is because you hear all these rumors about Josh Hater. Canabel was going to be their closer, going into the year. You know, what kind of appeal does he have?

I mean, I'm making Hayter, my number one reliever for now. So clearly, I don't think Kineppel's going to regain that role fresh off Tommy John surgery. But I mean, Craig Counsel has not been the easiest guy to think along with when it comes to these decisions. So I just, I mean, if he's lighting it up in spring training, and certainly if Hater were to get traded, which I'm not expecting, then Kinebel suddenly. becomes very interesting again because he you know he was kind of he had some down he's kind of like edwin diaz where he had these like stretches where it's like

what's wrong with him but at his best he was among the very best relievers in fantasy in baseball i i uh agree um i saw reports that he should be back in may so he's not even going to be back for the very beginning of the season there you go are you ready for 12 funky questions

for ellen adair uh sure We should call this truth or a dare But we're not going to because that doesn't make any sense It has nothing to do with that at all You are an actress and a Phillies fan Would you rather hang out with Zach Ephron or Zach Eflin? Zach Eflin

Scott you can feel free to answer these as well By the way Did you watch the Irishman and if so What did you think? I did watch the Irishman Of course everybody watched it I actually went to the theaters And I watched it

because that's the kind of nerd that I am. I thought that it was very good. I also thought that it was too long. I think those two things coexist. So I think it's absolutely, if somebody hasn't seen it, I think it's worth seeing. But perhaps if you go in there with the knowledge that it's too long.

And like, you know, I sort of, I grew up doing Shakespeare. I'm not opposed to something being three and a half hours just because it's three and a half hours. like also I love extra endings baseball and all that stuff. It's just that the storytelling is, it's a little loose to me. I found myself like watching it thinking,

what is the story that we're telling here? And it wasn't until about 75% away through the movie that I was like, oh, this is the story. So it's excellent. I wondered how political of an answer she was going to give that. I mean like inner industry politics, not politics politics. Right. But she, you know, I don't think she did.

I think she gave the honest answer there. Did you see it, Scott? I did. Yeah. Scott, do you see the Irishman? I still have not now. It's good. I watched it in three installments because it is very, very long.

And we are very, very tired at the end of the day. Yeah, when I make my two-day trek up to Georgia and I'm staying in a hotel overnight, I might watch it then. It's good. Yeah. It just. I did see a tweet that I really liked to some guy that was like, now that the Irishman is out on Netflix. I can watch it as Scorsese intended in 17 individual installments hiding

from my children in the bathroom. Exactly. All right. Next question. Which actor is an inspiration or role model for you? Oh, my God. So many. The first name that springs to mind for me is Merritt Weaver. I love her. I think she's amazing. Scott, how do you feel about Merritt Weaver? She was from, she was on New Girl and The Walking Dead for a while. I didn't know.

I didn't know who she was. I thought Scott didn't either. So I didn't want to fall on that. But no, Merritt Weber. I don't, I'm not familiar with her. I, I enjoyed her on both of those shows,

which I, you know, have seen all of. So yeah, no, she's good. Merritt Wee is that right? Do I have the right person? Oh, I know Merit Weaver.

I just watched her, I just watched her two nights ago in that Netflix movie with Scarlet Johansson. She's awesome. She's so good. She's terrific. She's so, so good. And that was a good movie, by the way. I didn't see all of it. My wife was watching it and I got home from work. And I was like, what is this? This is really good. Did you see that one? I have not seen it. No. It's very good. I got to finish it. I most recently saw her in a Netflix sort of mini series called Unbelievable, which is incredible. I guess misnamed for that reason. They should have called it incredible. They should have called it unbelievable. Yes. All right, Mary Weaver. What is your favorite movie? So my favorite genre of film is the people fighting with swords genre of film. I enjoy it even if I know that it will be bad.

However, I'll probably have to answer Kenneth Brana's Henry V. Because it's fantastic. And also because it was very formative for me. My parents took me to see it when I was like. six years old in the movie theater because that's the kind of parents that I have. But I just fell in love with it immediately. And it's probably why I am the way that I am. That's cool. Kenneth Brown is Henry V. But I also love a gladiator. I was just talking about Gladiator the other day. I love that movie. It's one of my favorite movies. It is pretty awesome. You've listened to this podcast. So you should know Scott's favorite movie, right? You know Scott's favorite movie.

I don't remember what it is. The Prestage. Oh, yes, yes, a good movie. That was terrible, by the way. It was so bad. Sorry, but it is the recast. Scott, well, no, actually, I was going to ask you what your favorite movie is, but I already revealed it. So, Audible. Next question, then, since you love swords and stuff, how would you have ended Game of Thrones?

Great question. Thank you so much. I've been dying for somebody to ask me this question. So in the first season, I just sort of randomly picked John. is my favorite character, thinking that I was picking sort of, like, secondary character, like a cool character to pick, not realizing that he was going to become like the main dude and a totally lame favorite character to have. Nevertheless, like, the nature of my loyalty is that once I love somebody, I love them.

So I was really mad for John Snow at the end of Game of Thrones. I felt like he got a raw deal. He was the rightful king, not that he wanted to be the king, but he shouldn't have been banished to the Knights Watch, which in my opinion was like the Game of Thrones equivalent of middle school, like for him to have to go back, even though he didn't stay there for him to have to go back after everything that he went through, I wanted to be like, y'all would be dead if it weren't for John Snow. It's true.

And you're going to make him, you guys would all be zombies. Everybody would be zombies. That's, that's my take on, that's how I would, like, that's, that's, And that's really the only problem I had with the final season, by the way, is what they did with him in the last 15 minutes of him. Although, you know, I was different. And my relationship with John Snow probably was more conventional in that it started out, you know, whatever, this guy. I liked him. It's kind of boring.

But then it kind of grew as the series went on. And to the end, I was, you know, had he had my total admiration by the end of it. Yeah. Yeah, that was my note. And then pacing, like that final season, just it should have been. 10 episodes and not whatever number it was. Yeah, it's a shame. The last two seasons, you know, season seven I thought was just kind of goofy with like,

hey, we're in trouble. Go send help and somehow get a message to DeNaris and then she's going to come and fly it with her dragon in like two hours and say it was just like, oh, you rush this. But I, you didn't see, because my initial reaction when I saw the final episode was like, oh, that sucks for John Snow. But then, you know, you get the point of like, he goes to live with the free folk, the only people who respected him. They really are his people.

And he's, you know, he sort of fits in there. And that, I think he said something to Ingrid or whatever her name was that, you know, he felt comfortable there. And it was almost like some people found it sort of poetic that he finished that way. Well, yeah, not to block Ellen here and jump in first, but like, I don't, I don't, I didn't, I understand that's what they wanted us to think. I don't feel like that's like he wasn't comfortable with them. Like he just,

his relationship with them evolved the same way it did with everybody else. He's a reluctant leader, but when he's forced to lead, he's good at getting people to follow him. So that's, I don't feel like that rang true to me. It would have been totally different. Here's what I would have proposed as a better ending,

or at least a more satisfactory ending to me personally, would have been him being like, I don't want to be the king. I'm going to leave. I'm going to go live with a free folk so that it was his choice. Okay. That is a better twist. All right.

Next question. I'm not asking you this because I need to get my wife a gift, I promise. But what's lies. What is the best Christmas present your husband ever got you? Oh. Well, he's gotten me a lot of baseball-related stuff, which always goes over very well. That's not going to work for me, unfortunately. Yeah. Yeah, I think one of my favorite gifts that he ever got me, this was actually an anniversary gift, was he got me like keds that are leather that look like baseballs and I love them so much.

Well, he, gosh, I remember there was one time when he had me open up a bunch of packs of baseball cards. And in one of them, then there was a card that he made. made of me. And basically it was saying your Christmas present is that I have saved all of this money for us to go on a vacation. That was maybe the best present. He's a keeper. Yeah. He's the best one.

Should the Houston Astros be stripped of their 2017 World Series championship? No. Yes. The answer is yes. I don't know. I'm with Eleanor. I think she is. NCWA. Come on.

I think that they should, there should be a severe penalty. I think that that should be like draft picks or international bonus pull money. Like, it should be real. It should not just be a fine. But no, I don't think. And, you know, if only because of this sort of strange fact of that they were better on the road, then at home that season, despite the whole, you know, trash can, center field camera. assembly line that they had set up.

It's sort of within statistical questionability as to whether or not that is why they won the championship. So that's why I say no. Okay. This next question, sort of imagine yourself in the movie Wayne's World 2. If you could book three bands for a concert, your ideal concert, the concert to end all concerts, which three bands would you book? Oh, I love this question.

And does this have to be a concert that other people would enjoy going to? Like, can it be sort of different? It's your concert. You know, if you want to be unpopular with the people, that's fine, but it's your concert. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it just might be a little eclectic. So, like, I've loved Paul Simon my whole life. I really love Paul Simon.

Paul Simon has to be one of them. And I love Chance the Rapper. So Chance the Rapper has to be one of them. I just don't know what the crossover is. They're touring right now, actually. I'm not sure. They're coming to Queens. That would be the best.

This is tough. I've always said that one of my lifelong Desert Island discs is Jeff Buckley's grace, but he is obviously not touring right now. It can be posthumous. That's fine.

Okay. Well, then maybe Jeff Buckley. But my other answer was going to be one of these two, either a vampire weekend, which I do enjoy, or Pig Pen Theater Company is a theater company, but they write really good music and they tour as well, and I really enjoy them.

See, something for everyone at that show. Plug for, if you kind of like, you know, sort of like folk pop music, look up Pig Pen Theater Company. Scott, who are your three bands? I'm terrible talking about it. All right, then we'll skip it. I mean, yeah. We'll skip it.

Best Halloween costume you ever wore, Ellen. So when I was maybe in fifth grade, I went as Osma of Oz, which people, only people who have watched the sort of like, I don't even remember what it's called, Return to Oz or something like that. There's a second Oz movie. I grew up without a television. I just read a bunch of books. So I was going as Osma based on the books, and it was an amazing costume that my mom made for me. Cool. It was the best.

Scott, what was your favorite, your best Halloween costume? Oh. I never loved my Halloween costumes because it was just like whatever my mom wanted to dress me as. I wasn't motivated to pick something for myself, whatever. I was just in it for the candy. But probably Spock. I think that got a big enough reaction. And I at least had some interest in this.

subject matter. That was probably the best. Rank these three breakfasts. Waffles. Waffles, pancakes, French toast. I think you already did. I think you already did. I certainly did not. Not for me. All right, so Waffles,

one, pancakes, two, French toast, three. I'm with you on French toast three. I go pancakes, Waffles, French toast. Scott, I think Scott agrees with me. Here's the thing. I would go pancakes, waffles, French toast. what you said out of? Pancakes, waffles, French toast. But that is

the best version of them. I think the worst version of French toast is probably backwards if you're talking about the worst version of it. It's probably French toast, waffles and pancakes. You mean the worst version of all of them, French toast has the best bad version? French toast has a higher floor.

No, I don't agree. French toast has a lower ceiling, but a higher floor is what it's got to say, right? I think French toasts, I think bad French toast, you get like buffet line French toast, it's crap like pancakes you can't really mess up well you can make pancakes pretty dry i agree however that mediocre pancakes are better than mediocre waffles yeah yes yeah like waffles is it's a high

risk high reward for me waffles by the way i've done a twitter poll on this before the french toast people are they're a big big loud group and they're very unhappy with us right now they think They think disrespect for sure. You don't wait for me with your freedom toast. Name your ideal burger toppings. Or if you don't eat meat, name your ideal pizza toppings. I do. I do eat meat.

I love blue cheese. So definitely blue cheese. Probably like bacon and blue cheese. That's maybe sort of basic, but it's so good. Scott? Bacon. In fact, I think the best application of bacon is as a burger topping. That's the best way

you could possibly use bacon. It's also great in a salad. It's a great way to be like, look at me. I'm eating a salad except for there's bacon. I mean, it's good in everything, if I'm being honest. Have you had? Have you had? Grilled pineapple on a burger. This is a fairly new... No, but that sounds great.

It's fairly new for me. It's the last couple of years. It's so good. It's really good. I recommend it. I should throw some bacon on there too. All right. And finally, the floor is yours. Ellen, tell us your actor thing. Yes, so my actor thing is I'm so delighted to get to be on this podcast for many reasons. But one of them is that I feel like as an actor, one who really listens to the way that people speak,

I'm delighted to bring my professional perspective on why it is that Scott White says didn't. And I love it. And I cherish it. And Scott White, I want you to never change. But what you say is didn't. You leave the middle D out. And it's delightful. But that is what it is.

What is it again? Didn't. Didn't. Didn't? Didn't. Don't, please, God, don't put the D in the middle. Like, I love the very individual ways that people speak. Like, as an actor, I'm just obsessed with dialects and stuff like that.

So it was so delightful when this was discussed on the podcast because I have, also loved this for a long time that you say didn't. I don't even notice you said anything different that time. Yeah, well, because I... Say it the way you normally say it. Didn't.

Okay. Say it the way I say it. Didn't. That sounds very... It's very close. It's subtle. You were positing incorrectly that you don't always say

the final T, which maybe sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. But actually the thing that makes it distinct and lovable is that you drop the middle D. Okay. Yeah. Very cool. I love it.

Oh, my gosh. Now I'm on the lookout for it. This was a lot of fun, Ellen. Thank you so much for coming on. It was the pleasure of my life. I hope we can, I would like to play in a fantasy baseball league with Ellen. Let's Scott make that happen. Oh, we're always looking for people.

Oh, not in that league. Not in the Dynasty League. Not in the Dynasty League. No thanks. We're not looking to fill spots in that league. People never leave that league because it's the best. Okay. You guys have fun in that league.

That's like a red control department. Exactly. Follow her on Twitter at Ellen underscore Adair, A-D-A-I-R. And check her out. Check her IMD-B page out. It's very cool when people have IMD pages. I think everybody who doesn't have one is envious. And thanks to Scott White as well.

Thanks to all you for listening. Not sure we're going to have a show next week. Although I know Chris wanted to hop back on the mic next week. but if not, we'll talk to you after the holiday. Happy holidays, everybody. See you later.