Fantasy Baseball Today - 5x5 Roto 12-Team Mock Draft

Episode Date: March 14, 2026

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All right. The first draft, we are up and running again. This is a 12-team roto, standard five-by-five categories. You know the deal. It's batting average runs, home runs, RBI, and steals on the pitching side. We have ERA, whip, strikeout, wins, and saves. And it's not a great sign that our first pick is taking 45 seconds. So let's keep this thing moving. We've got a lot of drafts to get to today. Vlad, you are on the clock with pick number two. And you're a Dodgers fan. So this is perfect. It works out either way. I feel like you can't lose. a pick two you get judge or you get otani and be a happy person all right so again judge and otani first two picks i am picking third i did randomize this so you know i'm not cheating my way to the third pick whatever you want to think is happening here i will go ahead and take bobby whit junior cover all the bases there batting average home runs steals and lock up my shortstop glad you're you're sitting a second one would you rather pick second to first and two Would you take Otani over judge if you had that choice?

Yeah, so I, a slight preference by the very smallest, slightest amount and nothing to do with fandom for Otani. And just, yeah, just a preference there. And, you know, I would be happy with two because I do like playing a little bit of draft chicken with the person that is at the end, almost trying to figure out who they're going to take. so you can, you know, take the, you know, kind of push that guy, another two picks. All right, catching people up on picks here after I took Bobby Witt. We got Jose Ramirez, Ronald de Cunia, and then at number six, Chris, you selected Juan Soto.

It kind of feels like it started out as a consensus top five, and it has kind of evolved into a consensus top six now that includes Ronald de Cunia. And I'm sure you were hoping to get him at six. Yeah, I'm the rare person who has Ronald Cunia ahead of Juan Soto. I know that kind of makes me an outlier, but it's just condo. I don't know if you guys have been watching the World Baseball Classic. He had two more steals in the opening round of four games. I believe that gives him, let me do the math of my head,

16 stolen bases in 24 games dating back to the start of the Venezuel and Winter League. Obviously, look, this is varying levels of competition, but we've said it all spring. If Ronald Cunia wasn't going to run, he wouldn't be running in the World Baseball Classic and spring training and the Venezuelan the Winter League. I think we're going to see a big return to 30 plus steals for Ronald Kuna at least. All right. After Juan Soto, Corbyn Carroll at 7 and then Kyle Tucker at 8. So we have got some encouraging news here on Corbyn Carroll who made his spring debut

yesterday on Wednesday coming back from the hamate bone injury here. Scott is on the clock. We'll get to that in a second. But Vlad, how do you feel about Corbyn Carol coming back from this hamate bone injury? Good news that he's bad. We still have to make sure he's right and the power is there. But do you think he deserves to climb back into the first round now that he's back in spring training? Yeah, this is where he's going to be going now, now that he's back. And so soon and so long there is there are no, no issues. And I don't think he's going to be smashing home runs.

Obviously, that will bring him right back into the first round immediately. But he fell to 15, 20, somewhere around there. So you'll probably see him pop back up somewhere around 8 to 12 over the next week. All right, Scott, you are up at pick number 10. What do we have? Yeah, I'm going to take Terrick Scouble. I'm going to take the first pitcher. I don't mind taking any of the big three pitchers in a Roto League this year

because I think the advantage they present more so than first round or second round pitchers in years past. The advantage they present is so significant. And because the person at 12, then, okay, so right after I took Terrick Scouble, Julio Rodriguez, Fernando Tatis Jr. Cominero real quick. You got the chance. Yeah, this is going to be another one of those drafts where I double up at pitcher. Pocket aces.

Yeah. So it doesn't happen often. It doesn't happen often that the person who takes one of the big three in round one then has another opportunity in round two. But I've tried it before. And I don't mind the way it turns out. you obviously can you obviously can take it easy a pitcher after this point you have such an advantage in eRA whip and strikeouts all the pitching categories really that you don't have to hit that position so hard in the middle you don't you don't have to get the the duplicates that you normally have to take by investing in risky or less certain pitchers so it's always Overall, I would say the strategy is riskier because obviously pitchers are inherently risky. So if you're beginning your draft with two of them, if either one of them falters, well, it's going to be hard to make up for that.

But the optimal build for this is still going to be pretty good because of just how much you're able to ignore pitching moving forward. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see, A, how your offense turns out and B, when do you take your SP3 at what point in the draft? After Scott selected Paul Skeens, we got Gunner Henderson, Jazz Chisholm, Cal Rale, and Chris, you selected Jackson Trio to go along with Juan Soto. Yeah, getting a nice power speed, batting average balance with him and Juan Soto to start my draft is pretty good. I did consider, obviously, if Kyle Rale had been there, that would have been a decision to make, but he went one pick before me. I've talked a lot about just while I think Kyle Schwerber's ranking is fine, I'm a little hesitant. to actually make the pick to lock up my Util spot. Especially, I mean, in this draft, obviously we're not drafting bench spots in a real league.

We would. That does complicate things because you have a little more flexibility to pick utility-util-only players for your bench or, you know, if you've already picked your shortstop and your middle infielder and I don't know, Trevor Story falls to like 1.30 or something. It does make it difficult to get through your draft without that utility spot open. But I did consider Schwabber and obviously Raleigh and even Kurtz there, but I went with Jackson Chiria. After Vlad Jr., we got Trey Turner. I selected Kyle Swarber to go along with Bobby Whit Jr.

Because I already had that speed. I have that base. So I'm happy to pair a big power bat with him. And Vlad, you selected Pete Alonzo ahead of Nick Kurtz. Talk to us about that. Yeah, just somebody that I trust a lot more. I think the Baltimore Orioles offense is going to be a cheat code. I think they're going to be, I think, like, the fourth team in history to hit 300 plus bombs collectively.

And Pete's going to be a big part of that. And, you know, just love him part of that lineup. In my valuations, I have him just a little bit ahead. And listen, Nick Kurtz is great. The rookie season was phenomenal, but still some concerns with the strikeout rate, again, hitting against lefties. So I'll take the more, I guess, solidified. for me, value in Alonzo.

A big part of this is you're bullish on the Orioles lineup. Yeah. Okay. That's. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of upside there. It's, it's just a take. I haven't heard before.

So it's interesting. I will say it's the struggles. It's the lefty stuff that that really worries me about Nick Kurtz because, look, he should improve, right? He's young. Apparently today is his 23rd birthday. Congratulations to Nick Kurtz as we talked down on him. That's what we got.

you for your birthday. But he had a 423 expected Wobah with a 94.5 mile per hour average X velocity against Ritees. That's really good. Against Lefties, 261x Wobah, 88.6 mile per hour average eggs of velocity, 37% whip. He was really pretty, pretty bad against lefties last season in a way that look, he's not going to lose playing time, but if you're wondering how Nick Kurtz could be a disappointment, that would seem to be one avenue for it. That said, I think Frank's still thrilled to take him at 27. Third round pick. Nick, I think this is the first draft I've seen where Nick Kurtz has gone in round three. I got him 25th in TGFBI. Obviously, that's a 15 team league, so it wasn't round three. But that's one where it's like, I don't like him as the 18th pick,

but 25, 27 if it happens, I love that. That's easier to, to something. Yeah, so at the turn, there was Catelle Marte and then into round three. Jordon Alvarez, Francisco Lindor, went to Vlad. I selected Nick Kurtz, then May-Michato, P. Crow, Armstrong. Chris, you are on the clock. I will just quickly talk about this pick. Like, I have Nick Kurtz as a bust, but at pick 27, it does make for a weird build. I've got two big power bats with Kurtz and Schwarber.

Some of that batting average insulated in there with Bobby Whit, but I think it's something I'm going to have to go back to paying attention to is that batting average. but lots of power, good speed there with Witt. We'll see how it turns out. It's kind of a weird build. Chris, you went with Zach Netto, but it sounds like maybe you were not loving the pick. Well, no.

What I was really struggling with was my top player was James Wood. And that would have given me three outfielders in my first three picks and a player I'm pretty scared of. I did add him to my bus 2.0 column. He was the lead of that. And it just, you do not see really, really good players struggle the way James Wood did in the second half of last season very often. And now he's super young. He's still more tools than skills.

And there's room for rapid improvement if those skills catch up to the tools. But man, a 40% strikeout rate in, you know, 40% of the season is really tough. And it's actually, he had a sub 700 OPS after the All Star break. and that was buoyed by, I think, five homers in his last six or seven games or something. He was absolutely useless for almost the entirety of July, August, and September last season. You're just mad you couldn't get Jordan Alvarez, let's be honest. I would have been cool with Jordan Alvarez there, obviously. I don't know, man.

It's one of those things where the ADP says one thing and the actual drafts. I'm in. Maybe it's because everybody who I'm drafting with generally knows how much I like Yordon Alvarez, but I don't think I've actually taken him in a in a while. So seems like everybody's pushing him back into the into the I mean the fact that he went ahead of Nick Kurtz the fact he went ahead of Nick Kurtz is definitely I think he's a better header than Nick Kurtz. It's just a question of can he stay healthy. Yeah. Yep. After Chris liked it at Zach Netto, We did get Yamamoto, Raphael Devers, and James Wood, and Scott, you are back up with the boxings. I know what Scott's going to do.

Oh, you do? No. Because I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'm going to take a hitter. I'll tell you that much. And the hitter I'm going to take is actually Bryce Terran. Yeah, it's Bryce Rang. Okay, that's what I thought you were going to do.

That's what you thought. Okay. It's early for Bryce to Rang. Four, when I take him in round four, usually feels a little early. And here I am taking him around three. But my top three hitters otherwise were all first. basement. There's only two people behind me. And I believe one of them has a first baseman already, Vladimir Guerrero. So like, I'm going to get one of Matt Olson, Bryce Harper,

Freddie Freeman. And that. I think Vlad is on one of those teams. They, they don't have first baseman, but it's still unlikely they will take every first baseman and four picks. Right. Yeah. I mean, he was that to be one. It was an incredible year. In Roto last year, He was the top second baseman. Jazz Chisholm hadn't yet got that second base eligibility. So very impressive season. Yeah, and what I like about Bryce Tereng, for those who haven't been following along the whole preseason,

he had a huge increase in his exit velocities last year, like three miles per hour. Rarely do you see that big of a jump from one season to the next. It took them from lower half of the league in terms of contact quality to upper half of the league. the kind of contact quality that could make him a power hitter if he's able to elevate the ball enough, which he did it for most of the year. August he did hit 11 home runs just that month.

So he showed it is he is capable of making that adjustment to tap into more power. And a couple of years ago, Bryce Terrang was a 50 steel guy too. So there is a best of both worlds outcomes here where he is like a 20 home or 40 steel second basement. And then, you know, you could talk about him as early as round two, I think, if that's what he actually is. Scott, do you know where Bryce Terang ranked in your favorite stat pulled air rate last year? Pretty low, apart from August, yeah. Out of 250 qualifiers, he was fifth lowest. That is the problem.

That is the problem. But he showed in August that he's capable of making that adjustment. So I'm hoping it becomes a more permanent one. I also think he's having like a nice spring in world baseball class. He's had some some big moments certainly. Yeah. And I think the downside is probably like, oh, he's a 14 homer 40 steel guy with a good batting average at the weakest position or at least the position with the fewest studs.

He might just be Lucchiechel. He might be. He might be, he's one of the players, I think that you can, you can just, justify reaching for a little bit because there is a scarcity of that kind of player. After Scott selected Bryce Terang, we did get Moogie Betts and Wyatt Langford to finish out round three into round four. We got Brian. Woo! Logan Gilbert.

Matt Olson went to Scott. Bryce Harper and Brent Rooker is next up here. Yeah. So none of the three first baseman went with the two people following me. So I got my favorite of the three Matt Olson. Yep. Um, Mookie Betz at 35. Vlad, how you feeling about Mookie Betz this year?

Because he had the illness to start last season, but then he finished really strong, also had a bad postseason. So it's like there's a lot of give and take there. What are you expecting for Mookie Betz? Yeah, I mean, his beginning of his season, basically just wrecked him for the whole year with the illness and losing all that weight. I think he still has another couple of good seasons in him, expected to hit third behind O'Tani and Tucker.

And in front of Freeman, the thing is, in a lot of early drafts, he had been going in the 60s. I was in a 12 team or not long ago where he went 70-something. That is just an absolute steal. So I love Mookie. Probably, if I can get him in the 40s, 50s, that's fine. And it gets past there. It's just an absolute gift. All right.

We're starting to get some of the pictures off the board here as well. Chris Sale went and Freddie Freeman to Chris, Christopher Sanchez, and then Roman Anthony at pick 45, I will hmm, debating some pitchers. And I think this is the point where you do start, you should start to see that, that pitcher run. We get a round two, round three break for the most part.

I know Yamamoto went in round three. I'm not sure he needs to go that far ahead of the others. But round four, round five is where pitching tends to pick up again. Yeah, my issue, My issue with, like, Yamamoto has been not that I think he's a bad pick for the number four pitcher. I think he's a perfectly defensible pick for the number four pitcher. It's just that he's kind of going ahead of the rest of the candidates.

And that's where it's like he was the number seven pitcher last year. I think he's awesome. I think last year is close-ish to a best-case scenario just because you're never going to get the huge innings totals for Yamamoto. So he's got to be really efficient. really able to overcome that low-ending total. And I just, again, if he's the number four pitcher, but he goes 37th, I think that's great. Yeah.

It's just when he tends to go like 24th, 25th is when it's like, I can't really get on board. He is part of a very large second tier. There's the tiny first tier of the top three guys, Terrick Scuba Gerich Crochet, Paul Skeens, that I think are head and shoulders above that next year. But Yamamoto's part of a group. Any one of 10 pitchers could finish as the number four guy behind those three.

And he is just one of them. He could be the fourth off the board, but it doesn't need to be a whole round ahead of the next guy. All right. After Roman Anthony, I selected Hunter Brown. Cole Regens went to Vlad. Then we got a Yankee turn, Max Fried and Ben Rice. And Vlad, you are the first to select a closer. Mason Miller here at pick 50.

Yeah, let's see if we can get a run. run going. I think just getting the elite ratios and I mean, he just stay healthy, man. He's just so good. And the starting pitchers here for me that are available, I feel like, are very similar to the ones in the next year. So I am waiting to, I think it's okay for me to wait a little bit and go picture shopping a little bit later. So Cole Regans as your SP1, look, there's no doubt about the talent. I know the surface level numbers last year weren't great, but all the underlying stuff,

the strikeouts, the K-minus walk. It's all amazing. Does it make you queasy at all, having him as your SP1 here, just given the injured history? Absolutely. Yeah, he's been through so much over the years and just hoping to you finally get like a, you've had one almost full season of health,

but when he's on, he is one of the best pitchers in baseball. Obviously, you know, just incredible lefty, one of the highest swinging strike rates in baseball over the last couple of seasons. And, yeah, just hope he stays healthy. I am not too worried about the park, ballpark dimensions, the walls moving in and being lowered. Sure, he might give up a few extra home runs, but I'm still looking at a guy that's going to probably give you a sub-35ERA

and be in the 200s and strikeouts with 30 plus starts. And I do want to point out this is one where if you only look at the major league inning totals, Co. Regens looks a little worse because over the last four seasons, he's only reached 100 innings once in the majors, but in 2023 he was used a lot as a reliever, but I think he threw it was 124 total innings in 2023 because he was used as a starter in the minors. And then 2022 he threw 134 innings.

I think that was his first full season back from Tommy John surgery. So since the Tommy John surgery, he has thrown 120 innings three out of four seasons. Obviously that's not a great total, but one of them was 180 something. and he's really only had one arm issue since the Tommy John surgery. It's just it was last year and it was a grade two labor and tear. So it's like there's definitely risk there.

But Reagan's if I wait on starting pitchers, he's probably my favorite among the SP1 candidates just because if you just equalized every inning, I think he's clearly the fourth best pitcher in baseball. and I think he's probably closer to that skein scoble crochet group than the rest of them are to him. It's just like, he had a 30% K-minus walk ratio last year. That is insane.

And he had 180 innings roughly two years ago, so we know he can do it. It's obviously he was hurt some last year, but he's not one of these that is perpetually hurt and just unable to take on that kind of ace workload. All right, after Vlad selected Mason Miller, I took Jacob de Grom to pair with Hunter Brown, so those are my top two starting pitchers there.

Cody Bellinger, Austin Riley, William Contreras, went to Chris, then Edwin Diaz, Geraldo Perdomo, two picks ahead of Scott. Sorry, Scott. I don't know if you wanted them or not. I did. Logan Webb and then Josh Naler. So you got yourself Thicky Henderson. I did to pair with Matt Olson.

So I got two starting pitchers already. I got two first basemen already. In Roto leagues, that corner infields. spot can be really difficult to fill. There are some low end or late round upside plays that I like, but everybody likes them. So they tend to get, uh, there tends to be, they tend to be picked aggressively and not always at face value. And so it's easy to get left out at corner infield, mostly because third base is so weak. So not many of those guys are worth starting at that position. So I don't mind doubling up on corner infield this early. Obviously, Josh Naylor, if he continues as a

base stealer. That's going to be a nice advantage to have at that position. I think he's a great hitter. He's proven that many times over. Good source of batting average. So I think just in terms of meeting hitting categories, which I'm still having to make up ground in, because I started with two pitchers, I think he made sense for me. And now I'm up again. So we had, I don't know if you want to read off the picks before I make mine, Frank. Yeah, we got Jackson, Merrill, Yuan Duran at the turn. And now into round six, George Kirby, and for So some more pitchers going off the board that doesn't really help narrow it down for me. Obviously not taking any of those.

I think I'm going to take CJ Abrams here. It's pretty late for him, 63rd overall. Yeah, it's the first time I've taken him. I'm not his biggest fan. But he obviously gives you a little bit of a power speed combo here. probably going to hurt and batting average but but it is

he's not like disastrous 250ish yeah you can you can survive a 250 batting yeah you can survive it yeah I'm not excited about the pick but I do think it's the right time to take him and oh come on I was hoping to be the one to break Frank's heart

no my Kel Garcia just went not your Cal Garcia no it won't be mine after Scott's liked that CJ Abrams Hunter Goodman, Andres Munoz, and Mike Kell Garcia. Part of the problem here, I'm at a disadvantage. People that are watching the drafts, my staff room with my rankings up, and see that Michael Garcia is the top ranked hitter.

So I'm at a disadvantage. Chris, you're up. Yeah, it's a little bit of a reach, but the starting pitcher group has thinned out. I was going to take Michael Garcia here. He's not there. I'm going to take a guy who I think the argument is very similar to a lot of what we said. about excuse me i accidentally hit the draft button twice and i have commissioner access oh so live television yeah we back down nick fox you are still on the clock uh yeah i picked

cow bradish and a lot of what we said about cole regans applies here because there is some concern about the workload i think the ceiling is probably like 160 innings maybe 165 170 something like that. But the floor should be pretty high because we saw that 2023 season when he wasn't a great strikeout pitcher. He finished fourth or fifth in the A. Allen, Syung. He had a sub three ERA. He should win a bunch of games. But then 2024, he comes out and all of a sudden he's just this elite strikeout pitcher. He has Tommy John surgery. Comes back in 2025 just as elite as a strikeout pitcher. He has been like a 33, 34% strikeout rate guy over the past two seasons. It's only 71 innings. There's some skepticism there. But I think the skills are legit. I think he has two

legit swing and miss pitches. His four seamers are pretty good swing and miss pitch. I think Cal Braddish has a very good chance to pitch like an ace. It's just a question of is it 140 innings? Probably a lot more than that. But that might be the outcome. So you do have to be a little worried about that, but man, I think, Frank, I think you've made the comp or maybe Scott that it feels a lot like Terrick Scoobble coming out of the 2020 season, 2023 season. 23, yeah. When he had that like 80 innings where it was like, oh, he's clearly the best pitcher in baseball, but the sample size is small enough that we can't say for sure, it turns out, yes,

this is actually just who Terrick Scoobble is now. Yeah, I think there's some of that potential with Kyle Bradish. After you selected Kyle Bradish, you selected Kyle Bratish, We got Cade Smith, Corey Seeger. I selected Shea Langalear. So let's go A's. Vlad selected Jesus Lozardo and then David Bednar. So, Vlad, I mean, your pick of Mason Miller, hoping that closers would go, it actually turned out pretty well. We got like five or six closers drafted after you selected Mason Miller.

Yeah, it starts to get pretty nasty. You know, before you know it, you're looking at your RP1 being Clayton Beater, if you're not careful. So, yeah, it's glad that happened. And it's great to watch you having the controls. So as I sit there sweating, like, you know, don't click on my guy. Don't go to that position. And you didn't. So I was able to get Lazzardo.

Yep, yep, happy to help you out there. You know what? Boba Shed goes at the turn. And it's just every draft, I forget, he's going to gain third base eligibility. And it's like you just got to remind yourself over and over again that, yes, he is going to be a third base in this season. So after you selected Jesus Lazzardo, David Bednar, Bobauchette, you also took Byron Buxton here.

So last three picks, Vlad, you've got, or I guess three of your last four, Cole Reagan's, Jesus Lazzardo, Byron Buxton, leaning a little bit into the injury risk, but obviously very talented. Yes, that's how I roll. I don't want to finish middle of the pack. I don't get me first or last if it's so is. Yeah, for sure, a little bit, definitely a little bit dicey. hopefully I can grab some solid picks along the way and balance it out.

All right, I selected Sayas Suzuki. And so my updated team, I have Shay Lang Lears, Nick Kurtz, Bobby Witt, Sayas Suzuki, and Kyle Schwaber, the pitcher is Hunter Brown and Jacob de Grom. You're going to have to tackle steals again eventually. Probably should do that sooner rather than later. But lots of power so far to go on that team. After Sayas Suzuki, Framber Valdez and Jaron Duran. and Chris, you are back up.

I believe of your six picks, you have five hitters and one starter. Five hitters and Kyle Bradish, so I am considering a pitcher, but I think I'm going to, I think I'm going to pass, because my team could probably use a little pop. I think Juan Soto is the only guy.

I definitely think we'll get to 30 plus homers. So I'm going to go with the guy. I don't love this season at his price, but Riley Green will definitely hit for some pop. I don't know if we're going to get another 36 or 37 homers. season, whatever he had last year, but I think he's a pretty good bet for 30 plus. All right, after Riley Green, Vinnie P. Baby.

More like Vinny 3, baby. How about those three home runs for Team Italy against Mexico? Did you see the interview with him after the game? Yeah, that was great. They were like, when was the last time you had a three homer game? Never. They were like, not in high school, not in the minors? Never.

Not in Little League? Never. He literally never hit a three homer game. Yeah. He needs to be powered by espresso. to get an espresso machine in the in the dugout in kansas city i was going to say it's definitely not his first ever three espresso day i'm a little worried about how he's going to be feeling today dude there's no what time do you think viny he got to sleep yeah there's no way he slept last

night three espresso shots in a in a three hour game in the evening yeah yeah that is uh that's a rough one after viti p christian yell at ralice chatman scott you are back up yeah i'm taking a eugenio Osweiras here. I feel like power, well, obviously third base is scarce, first of all. It's the end of a tier. I think it's a very thin tier that follows. In fact, it's a non-existent tier for me in Roto

with Alex Breggman I think being a tier lower in this format than head-to-head points. So right time to jump in and grab a third basement, but even more than that is power is where I think I'm most lacking from not taking a hitter in the first two rounds of doing well

with speed between Terang and Abrams and even Josh Naylor, but I need to make up grounded power. Suarez obviously nearly hit 50 homers last year and doesn't seem to be getting enough appreciation for it. He hit nearly 50 homers last year and went from one of the worst hitters parks to one of the best

in the off season. And I'm thrilled to take him here. All right, after you selected a Eugenio Suarez, George Springer, Tyler Soderstrom, Drake Baldwin, and Michael Bush. So a bunch of hitters going here. Last five picks have all been hitters. And Scott, we are back to you in round eight.

Back to me. Back to you boy. I don't have an outfielder yet. You can believe it. Randy, Raina. Come on down. Come on down. All right. Any concern about the batting average so far for this team, Scott? Some. Yeah. Some. Terrang is a good source of batting average. Naylor should be a good source of batting. average. Olson sometimes is a good source of batting average. He was last year. Yeah.

But I'll have to make that a priority moving forward. It's not a category where it's easy to make up ground, but it's not impossible either. So I'll be keeping an eye on that. All right. After Scott selected Randy Rosarana, we got Devin Williams, Joe Ryan, O'Neill Cruz. And Chris, you are back up. Yeah, I took a, you know, I. I like to say that there's too much talk of injury risk,

especially when it comes to pitcher and not enough talk of other kinds of risk. And I'm going to highlight that with my two first pitchers picked. I've got the guy who maybe can't stay healthy in Cowbranish and the guy who never gets hurt, but maybe can't pitch well in Dillon Seas. But look, I'm going to get, I think he's the only pitcher with 215 strikeouts in the last three seasons. I think he's done it four or five straight years.

So I know I'm going to get that from Dillon C's. And I think the ERA and WIP should be significantly better than they were last year. The peripherals were much better than last year. I know that Dillin C's has been inconsistent over the years. But usually when the ERA is bad, the peripherals have been bad. Last year was the one outlier where the ERA was terrible. The peripherals were actually very good still. So I'm inclined to believe we're going to get a,

a good Dillen C's year this year. But again, injuries aren't the only type of risk as Dylan Cis personifies. After Dylan Cis, Agustin Ramirez, Yuri Perez, I selected Nico Horner. I'm not sure that everybody, anybody, has ever uttered these words. But I was praying that I got Nico Horner because he fits this team perfectly. I needed batting average. I needed speed. And that just fits like a glove onto the team. So happy to get him. I didn't have a second baseman yet.

And then, Vlad, you were up next with Michael Harris, man. Michael Harris, he's a tough one because he's so talented, but we get these stretches where he's unusable for fantasy at times just because his plate discipline is so bad. Yeah, it really is. It just has a problem with this play patience and it takes too many, or it doesn't take enough walks, really. And a lot of people drafted him very early last year.

and he unfortunately disappointed heavily. After the All-Star break, he was an absolute beast. He raised his ISO, was stealing bases, and him for power. And he's having a pretty good spring. So I'd love to just see a full season out of him. The concern with him always is he's going to hit in the bottom half, bottom third of the lineup, which is always an issue. But this year in Atlanta, I think that's a good thing.

I think they're going to be turning the lineup many times over. Also another big cheat code for me, at least, is draft as many braves, as many braves as many braves as hitters as I can. That's music to Scott's ears right there. You love to see that. Scott, you're muted, by the way, if you're trying to talk. I said your mouth to God's ears. Yeah, that's, I am less hopeful.

I don't love the downgrade from Ozuna to Yostrimski, and now they're starting shortstop is hurt, and, of course, they lost jerks and pro far. So it's already been a bad start for the state of their lineup, but they do have a lot of big bats too i just hope i just hope the the bottom end guys the maricio du bonn's of the world can keep that line up turning over the eli whites of the world he might be a starter you know all right i am up here with a decision to make and um taking a look trying to figure out what do i do uh nice turn there chase burns and nicledolo simon went with the yankees turn last time he went with the reds turn this time and that's he likes a theme pretty fun turn i probably would have looked at ladolo here if he was

still available but he is not uh you know what i'm just going to go ahead to catcher league i'm i'm going to fill both the catcher spots i'm going to go with chay langlears and i'll take salvador prez here uh the the ageless wonder salvador prez with the fences coming in and coughman he look the power is going to be there rbi are going to be great uh hopefully the batting average could tick back up a little bit but um happy with happy to get the two strong closers there two catchers, rather, in a two-catcher league. Vlad, you selected Nick Povetta. Any concern lately about this arm fatigue that he's dealing with?

No, I think it's that time of year that a lot of them suffer. They're ramping back up. They're back in there. I'm pretty confident with Povetta. I really love the gains he has made with reducing his walk rate over the last couple years. I mean, he was the guy we wanted to see make it happen and was a 5-plus ERA guy for so many years. And we've seen it finally come to fruition.

The home ballpark is just amazing. There are going to be a lot of games against the Diamondbacks, the Rockies at home and in that park. So to me, he feels like a pretty solid SP3. All right. After you selected Povetta, I took Salvador Perez,

there was Kevin Gosman, Nolan McLean, Sandy, Sandy. Tell me about it. Stud. Sandy Alconcert went to Chris, Willie Adamas,

and then Willis, Will Smith. I'd rather hear her say stud, Chris. I'm not going to lie. That's too bad. I'm going to say it every time now. Just kind of throws the vibe off. I don't know. You know, were you not listening before the show when I said, if something I do upsets you, I'm just going to keep doing it. You can't give me that information. Oh, boy. Well, I was hoping Will Smith made it to me here in round nine, pick 10, 10, 106 overall. He did not. Came too short.

Two picks short. So what am I going to do instead? Good question. I think I'm going to take... I'm going to take Jose Al-Tufei. Hope he helps a little with batting average. The idea here would be to slot him in the outfield, actually. Because I already have the second basement, Bryce Terang.

I only have one outfielder. but the versatility doesn't hurt at that weak position. And we'll see if the other guy I was considered. So Luke Keishel goes right after Altufei started a little bit of a second base run here. Man, they pick quick on the end after me. I barely get time to comment. We got to keep things moving. This has to be done by 5 o'clock.

We're fine. We're almost halfway done. Can I do a quick airing of the grievances? There's no world baseball classic today. and there are no spring training games on MLB TV right now. This should be illegal. Everything is done? Well, no, there's three, four o'clock games and none of them are on TV.

Oh, geez. Ridiculous. Are we not good enough for you, Chris? I just like to have, it's comforting. I like to have my comfort baseball on in the background. Yeah. While I'm doing three other things. There's nothing else going on.

Everyone's got to come watch the mock. That's the only thing people can watch. That's the only thing. Kyle Stowers is the next. next pick he's dealing with the hamstring but it sounds like he could return this weekend jeremy pain you by the way when i pick 108 here and he has the fractured finger he'll be revaluated in about like 10 days from now so uh actually less than i think it's like seven days now at this point and we'll see if he's ready for opening day uh scott you are back up your last pick

was al tuve we are in round 10 yeah so i was thinking about rice l iglasius with my last pick i don't have a closer yet i'm thinking about ricell iglesias here too but i I actually still see a handful of save sources that I feel pretty good about. And Ryssel Iglesias has some question marks with the Braves having signed Robert Suarez. He now becomes arguably the top setup man in the game. So instead, I'm going to be careful not to blow my starting pitcher advantages that I built early and take a young stud that I'm very excited about. Cam Schlittler of the new.

York Yankees. Your New York Yankees, Frank. How could you do this guy? Doubling the pain for you. Yeah. Cam Schlittler, by the way, was dealing with the mid-back tightness earlier in spring, but he's made two starts. He made another start yesterday.

He just, he looked absolutely. He looks. Six strikeout. He's averaging like 99 on the fastball. That cutter velocity has been up. The cutter's up like three. Yeah. Look, I do worry about the injuries,

but man, the talent is pretty tantalizing there with, with Cam Schlittler. There was an interesting quote I saw. where he might not be throwing a change up right now, but part of that is because he's actually throwing two different cutters is what he said. He's got the like 95, 94 mile an hour one. He's got the slower one that he threw last year. And so I think those are going to be his primary way of attacking lefties. I know Nick Pollock loves him when he was on the show the other day. He has him as a top 25 starting pitcher. The Yankees didn't really mess with his workload last year either. He was throwing 90. plus pitches pretty regularly. So there's a, there's a lot to like about Cam Schlittler right now, I think. All right. After Cam, we got Ozzy Albies, Rysel Iglesias, Yvonne Herrera, and Chris, your backup. I should have taken Lucchia with my last pick. I thought he might make it. I didn't

that was, that's a bummer. Flew too close to the sun, Icarus. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I often do. Um, boy, I really don't know what I want to do right now. my top player is a catcher but I don't think I want to do that my second best player is a shortstop I don't want to do that I think I'm going to take a guy I don't really like very much which is always a good way to start a sentence during a draft you don't get through a whole draft without taking some guys you don't like yeah Alex Bragman at 115 is probably fine yeah we have our concerns but

that's okay third base is pretty pretty depleted at this point. So I was looking at him myself as well. It's pretty much right at ADP, maybe even slightly behind ADP. But I do have him as a bust Alex Bregman going to Rigley. He has always had the benefit of playing in parks that favor his pull tendencies.

He's actually not a guy that impacts the ball very hard for as many home runs as he's hit in his career. And opinions are divided on this. I know Stackcast shows his home run output should be fine at Rigley. I just think Stackcast isn't totally accounting for all the quirks of that venue and just how much deeper it is in the corners. The deepest park in the corners by far. And then the wind effects. So often the wind is blowing in, particularly in recent years.

So I think we could see a career worst year for Bregman, but still given how weak third base is and we're 115 picks in. I think it's, even as somebody who doesn't like Bregman in that scenario, I think it's fun. to take him here after bregman we got brandon low ryan hellsley i selected emm and shee and i was looking at vlad to see if he would react when i took emm and shean uh i did inside i very much did inside it's got a poker face yeah uh you're on the clock flat what are you looking at uh see i need to shore up my offense um i'm gonna go with louise robert junior who i really like to have a new fresh start with the uh with the mats that is a fresh take for this podcast. We are not the most

bullish on Louise Robert here. So what makes you so bullish? So I feel like he's been essentially in this bad dream for the last few years, having five managers in the last five years, six, if you count, Grady Seismore there is an interim. And he's been hurt for all these years as well. And so just being around a group and losing three straight seasons of 100 games, the talent's been there. We've seen him hit for 38 home runs. We saw the speed in the last

couple months of the year of last season before he got hurt. And he's going to play because he's good defensively. And you get him around these veterans like Juan Soto, Lindor, Freddie Peralta, and I think you're going to see a little bit of change in him. So big on Robert Jr. Very positive reports out of camp. He made his spring debut today. He had two batted balls over 100 miles an hour. One of them was a single. One of them was a ground out. But the reports about his playing shape have been very positive so far at least. We haven't seen it in action yet, but that's good. One bad thing out of that game, Scott, I'm sorry.

Shamanai's velocity is way down. I think he maxed at like 90 miles an hour today. It's been a struggle, it seems. Yeah, that's in theory, we were talking about this before we started recording. I am going to put out a deep sleeper's, my yearly deep sleeper's article on Friday. I have 40 guys. I comment on all of them briefly, just casting a wide net,

looking for upside in the deepest places. I was tempted to put both Bailey Ober and Sean Minai on there, and I may still, because it's not all about how their velocity looks to spring, but I could make a much more compelling case if their velocity was at least holding steady, given that they're both coming off disappointing years. I don't know.

They're on the bubble for my 40 deep. sleepers. All right, at the turn after Vlad selected Luis Robert, we got Teoscar Hernandez and Brandon Woodruff. Vlad, you selected Spencer Strider. I took Joe Adele, needed a second outfielder. I did not realize. I only had one outfielder at this point in the draft.

Then Brandon Nimmo and Jacob Wilson, but Vlad, let's go back to your pick here on Spencer Strider. I mean, much like your Luis Robert pick, we are pretty much down across the board, all three of us here on Spencer Strider. And, you know, his velocity has ticked back up a little bit the last two starts, but he's still not getting whiffs on his fast. So where are you at on Spencer Strider? What are the not chances that he gets back to the pitcher he was before,

but I don't know, like 75, 80% of the pitcher that he was before. Yeah, that's essentially what I'm hoping for when I click on him here. I think there was a time in draft season when he was going in the 80s and 90s, and we just didn't know what to expect. And people were very polarized on him. I think if he's going around here, if he's available here as like my SP4, I think it's a stab worth taking, and if I am going to get 75, 80%, it'll be great. And granted, you'll never get that season, anything similar to what he had, of course.

But you saw the DeGram approach, and I know it's not apples for apples here, but where it kind of lowers velocity intentionally. I don't think that's what Strider's doing, but I think there's some element to that, and I think he'll find himself. So I think everything will kind of bounce back up. I don't think it'll be a smooth ride. I think there'll be some bumps along the road, but, you know, willing to, to go on the journey with it. The slider still great. I mean, he still gets like, even at, I think it's been more like 83, 84,

rather than 86, 87 as it was at his peak. It still was one of the best swing and miss pitches in baseball last year. It's just can he get that fastball to average again? It was an elite pitch for a while, you know. That's the argument I've made for Chase Burns all offseason is like, it's hard to be a two-pitch pitcher and succeed at the major league level. if both pitches are 70 grade pitches, then you're Spencer Strider or Hunter Green, and you can do it. Right now, it's more like Spencer Strider maybe has a 65 slider and a, I don't know, 50 fastball.

So it's a lot harder to do there. But I really hope I'm wrong. That is like the player I hope I'm most wrong about this year because Spencer Strider has best was so much fun. Catching people up on picks here. Going back to round 11, there was Jacob. Wilson, Trevor story, Shane O. Mac. Here comes the money. Here we go.

Money talks. Here comes the money. That is Shane McClanahan, 127th overall. That is much higher than we're used to seeing him go. Bubba Chandler, Jacob Marcy, Jeff Hoffman went to Scott,

then Lawrence Butler and Yiner GS to finish out round 11, into round 12. Some of those closers starting to go. Daniel Palencia, Jacob Mizirowski, the Ms. Josh Hater to Scott. Cosma Okamoto.

It's pretty high too, 136 and then Adley Rutchman. But Scott, you went with the double dip here at closer. Yeah. So I felt like I was at risk of flying too close to the sun myself at relief pitcher having passed up Rice-Eleglaseous last time. But this

is exactly who I had in mind, Jeff Hoffman, hoping he would come back to me. I think he's in for a big bounceback season. He thinks he identified the home run issue he had last year over emphasizing his fastball, plans to emphasize the slider closer to

how he was in Philadelphia when he was a dominant, dominant reliever. And there was still plenty to like about Hoffman's performance as the Blue Jays closer last year just had to, has to deal with that home run issue, and I think he will. And then getting Josh Hater, I think, is a nice injury tag value here. Below ADP, even by NFBC standards, he is going to begin the year on the IL, but he's already throwing off a bullpen. I don't think Hater's going to be out for long, and of course, he's a stud closer when he's healthy. Um, there's only one other closer left that I feel somewhat confident about on the whole draft board.

So I felt like doubling up here made sense for me. Even though it meant passing up on Adley Rushman, who went a couple of picks later, I don't have a catcher yet. That's making me a little nervous. Oh, you took them actually, the other closer, Emilio Began, Frank. You took them here seven picks later. So I guess you can run through the picks and talk about that. Yep. So again, after Scott selected Hater, there was Cosimo, which again, that's higher than we're used to seeing.

But he is on the rise a little bit. This is probably where he should be going. We just like getting him at that extreme discount. Adley Rutchman, Xavier Edwards, Pete Fairbanks, went to Chris, then Connor Griffin at 140, Gavin Williams, I selected Emilio Pagan, and Vlad, you took Matt McLean. So, man, some really fun picks in this range. McLean having the huge spring, he was using a longer bat. He changed his batting stance, and it seems like you are buying in here.

Yeah, I swear I'm not just a spring training hype, helium buyer. No, I do feel like he's been undervalued for most of draft season. And this is a guy that clearly disappointed us going around 9,100 last year. And so you knew after last year the dip was going to be harsh, him hitting ninth last season for a chunk of the year, missing, being benched on occasion was also rough. The batting average strikeouts, everything rough. but talented hitter former first round pick out of UCLA. The ballpark is in play.

The lineup is nice. I think because Noelvi-Marte can't hit, lefties are going to see McLean hitting second in that lineup, hopefully against both lefties and righties. And like what I'm seeing. So the one thing I was going to say, I was trying to figure out on the grid who, you know, exactly the team on the turn is.

So I could figure out if I needed to. go second basement or another position and I couldn't figure it. Yeah. So if you go to the roster grid and you go by draft order, then you can see it'll show like the teams that are right after you. If I'm excited. Oh, by draft order. God. Yeah.

So I mean, that is, it is a good tool to use just to know what that team after you has. So it kind of influences your picks as well. After you selected Matt McLean at the turn, we got Yandi Diaz, Ian Hap, Francisco Alvarez. Chris, talk to us here about conference. Griffin at 140, there was a roster projection from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that had Connor Griffin on the opening day roster, but those are just two beatwriters that are speculating. But it still was interesting to see that.

It's informed speculation, if nothing else. I'm not necessarily saying they are reporting that Connor Griffin will make the team, but they would know better than I would what the chances are. They're there every day. They're talking to the managers and everything. I think there are some people who are acting like there's no chance he makes the team. And there are some people who are acting like it's guaranteed. It obviously isn't either one of those still.

We're about, what, exactly two weeks away from opening day. So we're probably about 10 days from knowing for sure if Connor Griffin will be up. 140 is about where he's going right now, I think, in the month of, let me make sure that's the ADP. I don't have it open. Okay, it's fine. He's been going around 140 in the month of March. I think that's climbing a lot. It's probably fine, I think, because I don't think he's going to be down long.

Even if he's not starting the season in the majors, it'll be by May, I think, or at least sometime in May. And he has a chance to absolutely be worth this pick, even if he misses the first month of the season. It's tough. It's tough to swallow that from a 12th round pick, not going to be. getting anything, but I think he can absolutely be worth this price just because, yeah, I think he'll be a bad hitter. You know, Bobby Witt Jr. was like a 90 WRC plus his rookie season. Bobby Witt was also a top 50 player in fantasy that year because he stole 40 bases or 50 bases maybe. Connor Riffin, it's going to be tough to steal 50 bases. It's tough for anybody to steal 50 bases.

He stole 65 in the minors last year. This guy might be the kind of base runner where If he's just a non-disaster as a hitter, he might be a must-star fantasy player, no matter what. All right. Catch people up here after Vlad selected Francisco Alvarez. I took Ryan Pepio. Let's go. Pep Boys.

After that, there was Trevor McGill, Chris Bubich, Carlos Estevez, and Mike Trout. Before we move any further, we have 650 people watching us live on YouTube right now. So we appreciate all of you being here. Hit that like button if you haven't already. subscribe to the channel if you haven't done that as well. I believe we have right around 200 likes.

So a lot of people here watching, you haven't liked the video yet. So hook us up. We do appreciate that. And big thanks to the listeners that are in this mock draft with us. It's gone very smoothly. We appreciate you helping us out with this as well. So I had a reaction there. I don't know if people heard Chris Boopich at 149.

I've been joking that I just don't believe his ADP, even over the last week on NFBC, nearly 60 drafts. he's been going 200th overall. He never comes close to that in our drafts. I love Chris Bubich as a sleeper. I never get to take him. That's because everybody who we're drafting with listens to the show. I guess so.

I've got them like 135th. You don't think the people doing the NFBC drafts putting big dollars down, listening to us though? I don't. No, maybe not. I do. Thank you, Blad. Yeah.

But like Boobich, was he fulfilled the upside last year. He was an ace for the time he was healthy, missed the last couple months with an injury, but it looks to be at full strength this spring. I think he's going to pick up where he left off. It'd be a dominant pitcher to get him

as late as 200 would be awesome. Never happens. I'm going to go with a guy here in round 13. I almost took him with the last picks when I took the pair of closers. Dan Svyswanson is my middle infielder. Just a great compiler. In home runs, stolen bases,

runs RBI. It's going to be 2020, 80, 80. And that is so valuable at this point in a roto draft. Not a help in batting average,

but not a hurt and batting average either. I think Danesby Swanson is just a really safe guy to plug in and just not have any concerns about. By the way, I do have to lodge a complaint about Vlad's last pick.

What is that? Because Francisco Alvarez is my favorite catcher that I can usually wait on. I think he should be going right around where you took him. I haven't ranked right around 150. And he usually goes 30 picks later. And I think he's going to have a monster season. He went down to AAA. He changed his batting stance. He was a guy. I had forgotten. He broke his handmade bone last spring. Had a delayed start to the season. But he went down to AAA. He changed his batting stance up. He hit like 12 homers in 24 games. or something on his AAA stint, came back up to the majors, had a 940 OPS after he came back.

He's having a good spring. He hit a ball like 440 feet to dead center on Tuesday, I believe. I just think Francisco Alvarez is going to be an absolute monster this year. So I really hated that pick. Good job. I wave my DeKembe Matumbo finger. Yeah. My apologies.

After Scott's elected Danesby-Swanson, Matt Chapman. so my third baseman will officially be crap. Thank you for that. Jack Gaglione at 156, another name who's on the rise. He's having himself a big spring. Tatsuya Imi to kick off round 14. Kenley Jansen, Samuel Bessio to Scott, and then Jonathan Aranda. So for those watching, you might have seen I was deliberating over which pick to make.

When I did, I took Ryan Pepio as debating him or Kenley Jansen. Jansen as my RP2 or Pepio as my SP4. I think there are a few other lower end closers that have the job that I can grab a little bit later on, but was playing a little bit chicken there to see if Kenley Jant to make it back. He will not. Jonathan Arrondigo's, Taylor Ward, and Griffin Jacks at 162. I want to point out, remember earlier, I believe it was round six. I, or was it even round five.

I took Josh Nader as my second first baseman, so filling my corner infield spot. and I talked about how there were some high upside guys I liked later at that position, but they tend to be pushed up in drafts, and they tend to go in quick succession, so it's easy to miss out on them. Now would have been a perfect time to take one. Jonathan Aranda went right after my pick. He went 160th overall.

Sal Stewart, just for the benefit of the audience is the other one I'm thinking about here. One pick away, my goodness. Notice I don't I'm saying it as somebody who doesn't feel like he could take him But you know what? Samuel Bessio Oh, come on, Scott!

Sorry, Frank. For the benefit of the good of the show, as our friend Nando Dufino would like to say. Sorry. I'm not sorry, but I'm sorry. But I'm not. We love to see it. Oh, man.

Yeah. Shout out Nando, one of the best dudes in the industry. What of the OG? Everybody loves Nando. Every time I go to any event in the fantasy sports world, I just find Nando and hold on to his arm because I know he will just introduce me to every single person no matter who they are.

So always a good reference to have for that. Oh, geez. That was right in the heart. All right. I've got to figure out how to recover here. I'm going to go ahead and take Royce Lewis as my starting third baseman. What could go wrong with? Royce Lewis.

That must be like a big downgrade, right, South Stewart to Royce Lewis is your. Look, I love South Stewart, but I like Royce Lewis this year. It's a little bit earlier than where he typically goes, but I need a third baseman. He's had an okay spring, the batting averages down, but I like the fact that he's still running. He ran a lot in the final two months of the season. He's already got like two or three steals the spring. So he was dealing with the side injury, but he seems to be past that. He's been playing in games.

So I know. He's probably going to be hurt at some point, but I, I need a third baseman and I still think he has upsides. And I know he did a lot of work on his mechanics this offseason. Of course, we've seen him be a good hitter before. It's just been a couple years since then. I'd like to see a little, you know, he spent so much of the spring injured already that we haven't gotten to see a ton of evidence.

And it's a small sample regardless. But I don't think it's unrealistic to have hopes for Lewis. It's just a lot of hope behind it as opposed to Tamp. tangible reasons. You know what I'm running into at this point in the draft? I like the pitchers available so much more than the hitters. Yeah. It's a real problem right now because I do have three pitcher spots left to fill

and six hitter spots left to fill. And I just like Carlos Estabez, I was the, I don't know, the, I don't, sheep wouldn't be the right word because everybody's running away from him. But maybe lemming because I might be jumping off a cliff with, uh, with, Carlos Estevez, but he's a closer. He had 40 saves last year. So hopefully he can still be good, right? I want to comment on your last pick, Chris, at 163 in round 14,

Trey is Savage. Because I mean, my draft board said to take them when I took Basayu at my last pick. And I only have three starting pitchers right now. And I came really close to pulling the trigger. But I don't like the reports we're hearing out of Toronto right now about his usage to start the year. At first they were saying, oh, three to four innings starts for a while to limit his innings,

which aren't gonna be that useful in fantasy. Don't know how long that's gonna go on. But I'm starting to wonder if they keep them in extended spring training or even working out of the bullpen early on as a way to limit his workload now that they brought in Max Scherzer and they seem to be ramping up Scherzer in earnest. Might be a speed bump there,

already. Oh, what happened? Not with Scherzer, but Jose Brillo's has a, has an elbow injury. Oh, okay. Well, that helps. Maybe I should have taken you Savage. Well, I think for me, it's just, we talked about this when Nick was on the show. I think Scott was after your, your internet went down, but I think you have to understand what kind of player you are. And I understand that I'm a pretty stubborn fantasy player, often to my detriment. I will not move off of players when I should. But that means I know there's no way I'm dropping Trey Savage, no matter how frustrating it gets in April.

He's going to be on my team no matter what. And so I just kind of think by May 1st, I'm probably going to be really happy I have Trey a Savage on my team. And so I just have to put up with a couple of weeks of discomfort, and I should be able to get through it. So that's the way I'm looking at it. But that might be a, that might be an overly optimistic view. Take that, Scott.

That's what you get for revealing myself. I saw you get upset when Carter Jensen got to just. Carter Jensen, Dalton Varshow. I was hoping that would be my next pair of picks. I got to move Jensen up. And now I get neither of them. So that was unfortunate and I have to scramble here. I'm not drafting enough Carter Jensen these days.

We will let you scramble. Vlad, I want to go back to your picks for a second here. You took Drew Raspison and Wilson Contreras, who might be kind of boring picks, but seems solid. I mean, Raspicin, it's always good ratios, probably around 150, 10060 innings. And Contreras, I mean, I love that bat in Fenway. Yeah, I love Contreras.

Should be the cleanup hitter there in Boston. Again, this is a guy that he's in his 30s. He hasn't had a season of 600-plus plate appearances. ever, but now it'll be a second season not having to catch. And it's a very good offense. I think he's going to drive in a ton of batterers. I think he's going to get your 25. If he stays healthy, maybe gets those 600 plate appearances, maybe 30 plus home runs.

So nice little, there are a lot of risks, I feel like with the corner infielders as we go deeper down the board, whether it be batting average or lineup placement, whatnot. So I felt like a solid pick for me. And then Drew Rasmussen, I mean, the guy just. doesn't give up runs. It's a career, ERA under three and moving back to the trop. So I'm a big fan. All right. After you selected Katrina, I took Shoti, E. Monag. Usually as my SP4, get them as my SP5 here. Always good whip help. Dalton Blancho, Dennis Santana, J.J. Weatherholtz went to Chris. There was Carter Jensen, Brian Reynolds, Robbie Ray,

Michael King to Scott, Colson Montgomery, Blake Snell. We are now into round 16, Dylan Cruz, and McKenzie Gore. Scott will come back to you on your pick. Chris, I want to ask you about JJ Weatherholt here, 174, a little bit higher than ADP, but starting to feel like he's just going to be up on opening day and he's looked really good. I think it's all but guaranteed.

Like, I've been talking about, I think McGonagall and Griffin are basically coin flips to be on the opening day roster at this point. I think J.J. Weatherholt is like a, I don't know, a 20-sided dye that's weighted on 19. of the side. So I don't know if that's actually how it works, but I think it's all but certain he's going to be on the team. He's having a nice spring. Everybody's been talking about him since they broke camp. When they arrived, there was no real suggestion that he wasn't going to be there

starting second baseman. And that's what it was. I have that second base spot open. It is still technically open. But as you're drafting, keep in mind, Boba Schett's going to get third base eligibility. J.J. Weatherholt's going to get second base eligibility very early on. There are plenty of guys who will get eligibility as the season goes on, but those are two of the bigger ones who just, they're going to have that eligibility by, I don't know, the Wednesday of week two, probably. Yeah.

When you were discussing your 19-sided die or whatever he said, I felt like Anchorman when he's like, what did you just say? I always go with that game. It's a great one. No idea what you're saying, Chris, but I'm sure. Let's catch people up.

Chris Scott selected Spencer Torkelson, then Andy Paez, Marcus Simeon, Addison Barger. Chris, you get Dail and Lyle. So when we've talked to a lot about as well. I thought the Torkelson pick.

I was thinking, I probably should have gone Dail and Lyle there. Really, really good price on Andy Pahas, by the way. I'm not an Andy Pahas believer, but yeah, 185.

He was my top ranked player for several rounds. So that's a pretty good buy. and someone I debated taking last pick is Brenton Doyle do like him a little bit as a bounce back here. My team definitely could use some speed. Some questions about whether or not he's actually a good hitter. I think two years ago is probably the career year for Brenton Doyle. But if he can hit 240 and give me 15 to 20 homers, 25 to 30 steals, I think that's all within the range of outcomes there for Brent and Doyle. I got to say these drafters are doing a pretty good job.

This has, I, there have the, the, the, the players everybody's excited about the breakouts the sleepers they are getting pushed up in this draft so that you can't get them close to ADP and yet nobody I want is sliding because of that I'm not seeing any obvious values in response to those players being pushed up so it's it's been well that's just because you didn't want to take Andy Pahas yeah I don't like Andy I I do prefer Spencer Torkelson to Andy Pahas straight up especially in a build where I think power is what I need most. So I did not want to take Pahas, but if you, that's what I mean, though.

Like, I don't think, I just have Pahas on my bus list. I think you have him as a bust Chris. He was somebody who fell, but he's not anybody, like, we're not excited to take him. And sometimes you do just take that guy. I've often advocated for that. But I would rather the players who fall be ones that I'm thrilled to take. like, wow, I can't believe you let me get this guy 30 spots below ADP, and that's not happening. After I selected Brenton Doyle, Vlad, you took Shane Bos, then at the turn, we got Brian Abrayu and Munataka Moracami.

That's a pretty fun turn. Ziciel Tovar, back to you, Vlad. I took Sir Anthony Dominguez is my second closer, then Ramon Luriano and Nelvi Marte. We'll talk about Marte in a second. He felt pretty far in this draft. But, Vlad, you take Shane Bosz, who's now with Baltimore and Zeal Tote. Tovar was was tovar you're starting shortstop or no use your middle infielder right yes yeah so I have Lindor there and You know, Tovar's not he's a profile it's a his profile is not something I'm usually into

He's you know it's really it's an absolute mess I know he's been he's made some Progressions there in the off season and some improvements and he's a I forgot the word you guys use but I say cumulator He's just just gonna rack up the stats compiler. Yeah and you know he's gonna hit first or second. It's going to get you a little bit of everything. Play every day. For sure. Play every day. Yeah. Catching people up. I took Dominguez. There was L. V. Marte again, 197. Jorge Polanco, Max Muncie of the Dodgers, Joe Musgrove, Kate Horton, and Sunny Gray to Scott. This is what I was talking about.

I have Joe Musgrove. Are so good. I have Joe Musgrove ahead of Sunny Gray. And ADP shows that's ridiculous. ADP, Musgrove is going 90 spots behind Sunny Gray. But here's Joe Musgrove, it was ahead of Sunny Gray, just like I have it. So I took Sunny Gray, and I'm getting him about 80 spots below EDP, so I'm not going to complain about it. And my biggest concerns for him are the ratios, and obviously I have a good cushion there with scoble and skeins at the top of the draft. But I would have rather had Musgrove. Mm-hmm.

at the we are into round 18 we got Zach Wheeler and Louise Castillo so two names that last much later than usual Newellvi Martea at 197 which I mentioned earlier Zach Wheeler here at 205

I think the Wheeler thing is kind of like again we're drafting with people that listen to the podcast and you know we're a little bit more skeptical of Zach Wheeler and his return but um glad what do you think about those two falling here Marte, it feels like the role, the playing time is not guaranteed there. Apparently, he's looked really bad defensively in the outfield this spring.

And then Zach Wheeler here at 205. Could be back in April, but not a guarantee. We're not even sure what he's going to look like when he returned. So any thoughts here on the fall of both Newellvi-Marté and Zach Wheeler? Yeah, I know Nelvi-Marte is not somebody usually draft, but at a point when you start getting past 200, it's got to do the one-v-v-un comparisons versus. the players that are there on the board.

He is a tough click for me. And with Zach Wheeler, listen, I was going to ask you guys what the IL rules are here. That's the only reason I didn't draft them. But I think he'll be back in May. I think he's going to be a top 12 fantasy pitcher this year. And, you know, I'm pretty optimistic. But I guess I'm usually pretty optimistic about most things in life. Yeah, we usually do IL spots in CBS leagues.

Let's just assume there's like three to five aisle spots in this league. Yeah. Yeah. So can we roll it back? And I can take it. Well, but that is a significant difference when you're talking about taking, you know, Garrett Cole, Carlos Rodon, Josh Hader is. That's why I'm actually pretty surprised in a lot of these NFBC drafts where

Zach Wheeler's going pretty close to the top 100. And that's a deep league with no IL spots, but it's also overall contests where, man, if you get, if Zach Wheeler's, is 90% of what he was last year. That's a steal if he's back by mid-April, you know? That sounds like the plan. That is kind of the the fallacy of following NFBC ADP so closely is

those are, a lot of them play in multiple leagues and they're just trying to win the overall contest with one. So they are not that concerned with downside risk. and obviously there's a lot of downside risk for Zach Wheeler but what does the upside look like? Upside is from the time he returns he's the best pitcher in fantasy perhaps or at least the fourth best. And so from that perspective, okay, if he busts, that's fine. I've got, you know, eight other entries that I could try to win with, 12 other injuries.

But if you're, you know, if you're the average fantasy player, you're in one or two leagues and it's like, well, I don't want to stake my whole season to Zach Wheeler. And then I'm just miserable. if he comes back and he's not the same. There's definitely game theory involved in a lot of what we're talking about. Because, yeah, when you're playing for an overall prize, you do need to hit on some real upside to have a chance. Now, that's not to say that every pick you make should be risky. A lot of the really good high-stakes players avoid risk pretty judiciously.

But, yeah, it's just kind of always true. you know, we talk a lot less about DFS now than we used to, but there was a little bit of that in the DFS tournament talk where it's like, yeah, you kind of need to be different. You need to be weird. You need to take some chances to have a chance to stand out as well. Because you also, you know, you kind of need some different players to hit for your team to win. Because if there's guys who hit who are super popular, A lot of people are going to have those guys already. We actually have a high-stakes player here. So instead of plus just philosophizing on it. Vlad, we'll let you make your pick. I'll catch people up and then we'll get back to you on that. Oh, I'll back up.

Going back to, do you want me to back that out? No, that's fine. That's fine. Just building my red Sox stack. And by the way, there's another former Yankee. I almost forgot about it because he was with Milwaukee, who I haven't heard him say yet that he hates the Yankees. but yeah yeah it's such a popular thing to do huh uh keelab durbin was the pick there for blad i will go

ahead and make my pick here i think i need a little bit more batting average some speed i will take sal frelick as my fourth outfielder uh going back to round 18 again there was wheeler at the top there at 205 louise castillo ranger swaris went to scott we got jtreal muto carlos rhodas rhodes tarbby kyle mansardo to chris then alec burleson bryson bryson stott i took kevin mcgonigle at 214 as my middle infielder, Ryan Walker to Vlad, Brendan Donovan, then into round 19,

Garrett Cole, Caleb Durbin to Vlad, who I was looking at as well. I think that's a really good pick. Sal Freelich, John Carlo Stanton, Riley O'Brien, Edward Cabrera, Shane Bieber,

Parker, Parker, Messick. So let's go back to follow all that. Yeah, there's a lot of picks. Vlad, we'll go back to you. What do you think about the,

you know, high stakes and diversifying and kind of that idea that, You know, you could take more risks on if you have, like, a lot of different teams and just ability to diversify in that way. Yeah, I mean, there are obviously different approaches. And if you guys remember an absolute legend in Casey Chai does not play in the NFC anymore. But when he goes, when he drafts and he does volume drafts, he used to play all the high stakes stuff, when he wins, it's everything. Right.

And we've seen Phil Dousseau do the same thing. Like a lot of times they just are going in on their plan and their guys and they're executing it. Other people that are volume drafters, they diversify. I think it's much better to diversify in the early rounds, of course. If you have three number one picks and you're doing three main events, you're going to want to mix in a judge there and maybe something else. And then with someone like Wheeler, of course, if you get somebody like that as your number three and it pans out, it's great.

Other times maybe there could be delays and you're just basically soaking up a bench spot. You only have seven bench spots in NFPC. And then what if you want to take someone else later? Someone else gets hurt. You've got somebody waiting in the wings and the minors. All of a sudden, you don't have roster flexibility to get things done. So very many approaches. The one thing I'll say is a lot of the best players in the main event in the NFBC,

they are not going after the hype guys. Usually you won't see that the Connor Griffin on their team in the 130s. They're drafting the Brian Reynolds is and the Ezekiel Vitovars and somehow getting it done. I look at their teams sometimes when they draft. I'm like, what is this? you know here i am drafting my flashy guys and there they go to first place in the league i mean we had um um playing on the name mike mike mgger who won the auction championship last year great player his most expensive hitter was yorna avarez i think yep and his most expensive pitcher was

blake snow i think he had terrick scoble too yeah you know i mean there are ways and i think he had cow rally on that team like there are but cow raleigh wasn't was not a sexy pick last year george springer it's like a decade since anybody's wanted to draft anybody's really wanted to draft George Springer. So yeah, you got to hit on some unsexy picks who are going to play a lot. That's also a big part in, you know, these, you know, a 15-team league, especially,

guys who are just in the lineup every day, like, Ezekiel Tovar is a good example of a guy who just in a 12-team league, maybe you look at and say, I don't, he's kind of a boring pick. But in a 15-team league, the dude's going to hit lead off. for second every single day for, you know, the Rockies who are a bad team, but play a course field still. Yeah. Catching people up here. I'm not going to read off every pick, but Scott

selected Willie Arroyo. We got Robert Garcia, Aranola. We're into round 20. There's Justin Crawford, Jordan Westberg, stash him on the IL. Scott took Austin Wells. Abner Areba. I think that's a great pick. I was looking at taking him if he fell even further. That was at 232. Racine Rodriguez, Glaver Torres. Chris, you selected D-Vax opening day starter, Zach Gallin. Talk about an unsexy pick, but that's a guy who Alasky has been up this spring and

he's talked a lot about that he has a lot to prove this year to try and earn that contract that he wants. Yep, and he is a free agent again. And he won't be tagged with the draft pick compensation this time. So, market should be better for him if he has a good year. And he was more useful in the second half than he wasn't the first last year. So I think we already started to see him figure it out.

But the velocity being up is a good sign. I think Jack Allen is a fine pick outside of the top 225, certainly. I am in a bad state in the outfield here, which happens too often to me. I think what happens, like anytime I have a draft where I don't take an outfielder in round one or two, it's just in a five outfielder league like this. It's hard to come up with three good outfielders in that scenario. I have two. One of them is Jose Al Duvei. But now William Bray was my third and it wasn't thrilled with that. I'm probably going to take some big stabs here with my final two outfield spot just chasing upside rather than settling for somebody boring,

which I think is more justifiable in a 12 teamer than a 15 teamer. But it's not ideal. Don't neglect the outfield kids. Scott, what are the chances that we could finish three rounds in 10 minutes? Good. We will. All right. I hope so. Vlad, you selected Adoli-S-Garcia, and I feel like I've heard you talk about him quite a bit this off-season. So tell us what you like about a potential Adela-S-Carcia bounce back.

And your next pick here, Jordan Beck, who is over there with the Rockies as well. Yeah, no, I mean, Adela-Circia, I'm all right with him at the price and just potentially hitting cleanup in that lineup behind some strong guys. I do like a change of scenery a lot for players. I know it's been a little bit messy there in the Texas. this clubhouse and things are changing. Maybe the vibes will get better. But Dolis moving on to Philly, I think, it's a good spot for them.

I think batting average could suffer. But you might get a few stolen bases. Hopefully, we'll see the bat speed up. Jordan Beck is just a solid outfield five lineup filler with 20-20 potential. Nothing too exciting. All right. Catching people up by two. Frank, you're the one holding us up, man.

I take 30 seconds to make your pig. My bad. Come on. I took Merrill Kelly. Merrill Kelly, who's dealing with the back, but he's supposed to make his debut this weekend. I've been drafting him all offseason as my SP5, SP6, in a lot of leagues.

He's boring, but usually comes through with solid ratios. It's 8K per 9-ish. That was one of my big stabs, Owen Casey. Come on. Canadian legend. Give me that power. The Rockets red glare, because he's a redhead. That's not the Canadian National Anthem, but you know,

you know what I mean. He tends to get overshadowed. in this rookie class, even though I think he's a shoe-in for a starting spot in the Marlins lineup. There's some prospect fatigue there. All the other words we talk about that could be up on opening day. Owen Casey doesn't, we don't really, he doesn't get mentioned. I mean, we talk about maybe some flasher names like Carson Benj or Chase the Latter. Well, Chase DeLotter went right afterward.

That was another one of the stabs I was thinking of taking. So I wonder. It was really hard this spring, Chase the Latter. I wonder if Team Canada, there's a team named Team Canada in this draft was getting ready to take Owen Casey, Chris. I would hope so. I better just take Carson Binge because I think that was the last of the three. There's one more. There's one more potential upside guy, but I'm going ahead and take Binge here, who I hope makes the Mets as the right fielder. Would really like some more confirmation about that. I've seen very little out of Mets camp one way or

the other on how that position battle is going. They have some good alternatives with Brett Bady, who of course they'd like to get at Bats and also. They like Mike Talkman. Mike Talkman. Yeah, he's he's always been an underrated real life player. He's so good at getting off base. Can we please save Mark Vientos? Can we get this man some playing time? I don't know if you guys like him or not, but I still think that there's talent there. There's legit power, but it's hard to see how it works out right now because if Benj is up in right field

and Brett Bady is the strong side platoon at D.H., then what is Vientos? Just a short side platoon D.H. at this point? And the problem with that is he's not actually all that good against lefties. it feels like he should be. Like at the worst, it feels like this is a guy who should be able to crush lefties. And he just hasn't done that in his career. So it is a situation where I would very much like to see him on a different team. Just to get a chance.

Oh, Scotty, you dog. I got to get Mike Burroughs somewhere. I think I was the first on the Mike Burroughs bandwagon. I don't know for the first because Vlad and I were in a gladiator draft way back in like December. and he took Mike Burroughs like right after he got acquired by the Astros. So, Vlad, you're excited about Burroughs as well. Yeah, I'm pretty excited. I'm not super excited on the six-man rotation over there, but that's fine.

What we saw from him out of Pittsburgh after thinking he was a potentially failed prospect, he looks really good. I think that that rotation in general is going to surprise some people. Well, I sniped Team Canada with my own Casey pick, as he said in the chat. So he gets me back by taking Cody Ponce. who take all the Canadians. I like Ponce too. And I like Painter

at this VAT cost anyway. I think he's a worthy gambler, Andrew Painter. So this is what always happens in the 12-team Roto leagues where you have just nine pitcher spots. I mean, maybe there's just too many good pitchers to roster. Now, if you're playing in a typical league,

you'll have a bench and maybe you grab some bench guys before you start fill out your hitter line, if that makes sense, given the volatility at pitcher. but it's it sometimes feels like you can't go wrong at starting pitcher just in a league of this size deeper leagues like 15 teamers it thins out but in 12 teamers there's just so much upside to be found at all stages of the draft Cody Ponce Mike Burroughs Andrew Painter I mean you'd have to call him an upside guy even though there are some questions about how his fastball playing this spring.

There's a lot to like here still. That's starting pitcher. And there's an upside guy there with Jack Leiter as well, who you selected by. Yes. Just a little bit of influence from guys like Jacob de Grom and Evaldi and that park. Hopefully reduces his walk rate a little bit.

Obviously, a very storied prospect. So I'm a fan. I hope it works out for Jack Leiter. All right. We are into the final round here. Shane Smith, another pitcher with a good amount of upside there. Tyler Malley was the pick before. Maybe not the sexiest pig, but pitching his home starts in San Francisco. And Nick Pollock was talking up Tyler Malley the other day.

So whenever Nick talks, we listen. I think he's going to be useful. Yeah. I mean, at that home park, he's not, I think he finished with a sub two ERA last season in like 90 innings or whatever it was. He's not going to do that, but it's a very good home park. He's a decent pitcher. Like he's not an ace, but he's pretty good. So I think Tyler Malley is certainly someone, especially once we get a little closer to opening day and we see where he slots in the lineup if the matchups are good. He's definitely on my late round flyer list for sure.

All right. And then, Vlad, your last pick here is Logan O'Hoppy. So we'll wrap up this final round and take a quick look at your team here, Vlad, to see who you wound up with if I can figure out how to maneuver this thing. Here we go. you have on your hitting side you have Francisco Alvarez and Logan O'Hoppy Pete Alonzo, Matt McLean, Caleb Durbin, Francisco Lindorrae, Ezekiel Tovar, Wilson Contreras, and then in the outfield you have Byron

Buxton, Adolias Garcia, Luis Robert, Michael Harris, Jordan Beck, and Shohei Otani. What do you think about the way that the hitters came together for you? Yeah, I think I have some batting average concerns of probably lots of them. Michael Harris isn't, I don't think. going to carry those guys. And the outfield does seem a little off, a little weak. But overall, needed a hoppy, I felt to shore up the power a little bit and got some stolen bases and mix everything. But batting average would probably be the issue.

On the pitching side, you have Nick Povetta, Cole Regens, Shane Bosch, Drew Rasmussen, Spencer Shrider, Hazus Lazzardo, Jack Leiter, Mason, Mason Miller, and Ryan Walker. Is this pretty typical of you to go seven starters, two relievers for your nine-pitter spots? Yes, of course, with a bench, I definitely would have a couple more relievers and everything, but I'm not afraid to take even my first bench reliever, I'm sorry, pitcher before I take, before I fill out all my hitters. So the pitchers I do like. All right. We did it.

We finished in time. Scott, you were right. We actually got through the entire draft here. Never had a doubt. And I hate to like just rush everything through and kick people off, but we do have to keep things moving here. So, Vlad, thank you so much. want to remind everyone you are the head of fantasy baseball over at ftn you are the host of their

fantasy baseball podcast as well writer at fan graphs great high six player make sure to follow him on x at rhodo gut and glad thanks again man we appreciate you hopping on it's been a pleasure thank you guys