Fantasy Baseball Today - Best Fictional Baseball Players of All-Time! (03/23 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 23, 2020

Imagine a Fantasy lineup with characters from cartoons, movies and video games! We draft the best fictional baseball players of all-time! Did Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn make the cut? Who was the #1 pick in the draft? Before we get to that, we've got a bold prediction about Tommy La Stella (3:00) and much more ... News and notes (8:31) as we get yet another injury note on Aaron Judge, and then we have a player debate (12:00): Yuli Gurriel vs. Luke Voit ... It's time for the Fictional Players draft (18:30). Enjoy! ... Your emails at [e-mail] 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @CBSFantasyBB, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Download our printable Draft Kit from CBSSports.com/draftkit! 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, everyone. Real baseball meets movie baseball. Rolling into fantasy baseball today. It's Monday, March 23rd. I love it. I just love it. What a song. I gotta be honest. I don't know how this ties in.

This is the opening theme of the movie Major League. Oh. They roll the opening credits and this song is playing. I got to tell you guys, I missed baseball so much. I think I said this, right? I had to watch Major League two weeks ago. I was like, I have to watch it.

And this song comes on, and they're playing, guys are like playing stickball in the middle of the street, and you're seeing Cleveland. And it is one of the best movies of all time. Not sports movies. It's one of the best movies of all time. I don't know one person who doesn't like Major League. Nobody's ever seen Major League in like that movie stinks.

University liked. Hmm. Yeah. I guess. I don't know. Absolutely classic. I haven't thought about it that much. Yeah.

Absolute classic. I mean, it's kind of a ridiculous concept, right? I mean, if the owner wanted to move the team to Miami, they're much more straightforward ways to go about. She had to trigger an attendance clause. She had to make the team terrible to trigger an attendance clause.

Right. But she could have just, like, raise ticket prices to, an amount nobody would possibly pay. Ooh, that would have been a much different movie. It would have been a more boring. Economic movie, yeah. Well, anyway, what am I talking about?

Today we're going to talk a little fantasy baseball, for sure, mostly fantasy baseball, but we're also going to do the best fictional baseball players of all time. I came prepared with a list of seven, my favorite seven fictional players, and now I'm being told we're doing a draft that is going to last seven rounds, so I need at least 21 players in my queue

to make sure I can feel the full team. But yeah, we're going to do that later. Later this week, back tomorrow on Tuesday, Ellen Adair is coming back on, and she plays fictional characters. So we're going to get her favorite fictional players. Best guest we ever had. If you weren't listening in December, it was really good.

It was. It was great. And actually, we've had guests on before, and people like them, where this one, with Ellen, we've never had more emails and tweets. Hey, bring Ellen back. So she's coming on to drop fantasy baseball knowledge

on you. I'm really just so disappointed that you didn't know that was the song for Major League, but that's okay. Let's start with the... I didn't either. I just think of you know, the Major League theme. That one. Oh yeah, that's

the montage. Yeah. Yeah, that's another great one. Everything... I honestly, I've seen that movie a lot. I love that movie. I don't remember the musical cues from that movie. I'm sorry. Watch it again. I may.

You have to. All right, so who wants to read the bold prediction that I put in the notes? I guess you're just kind of pawning off your job. I got it. I got it. I found it. I'm having an issue with my computer. It's from Tom Housman.

Bold prediction. Tommy Lestella is a top 100 player with a great contact rate, and he's leading off for the Angels. Top 100 player, Tommy Lestella. I mean, it's not outside the realm of possibility. My latest column up on CBS Sports.com is deep sleepers, late round targets for large leagues. It's 35 of them because I just kind of wanted all these players I never get a chance to talk about because they're too low-ed. I just kind of wanted to put it all out there.

Tommy Lestell is among them. And he's another guy who, you know, obviously the power production. came out of nowhere, but it's backed up by the data. It's not like it was lucky. I mean, the skills may not, the skills may have been the fluke, but he earned the production based on the skills. He's always had good on base abilities. He's always made contact at a high rate.

It is expected to bat lead off against, at least against Ritey's to start the year, which would put him batting ahead of Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon. It's certainly possible this season goes, Like he just picks up where he left off before breaking his leg last year and ends up being this must-star player across fantasy. That's definitely within the realm of possibility, and he's going outside the top 300. So it's an interesting choice. One of the reasons why that injury last year was so disappointing is we just didn't get to see what the second half of his season would look like.

It's the same thing. It's a very similar thing with Corey Kluber, just not coming back after that arm issue. is just we saw a new level of play for Tommy Lestella, and it's such a small sample size that, yeah, it looks legitimate within that small sample size, but we need more time to know whether it's real. If it is, he's a huge value right now. But I have concerns that he's going to play every day,

and I have concerns that it just wasn't real. He slugged 398 against lefties. So will he play every day? Well, Lestela started out the season, sitting, usually sitting against lefties, but he did start 15 of the last 18 games against left-handed starters. So they were gaining confidence in him as an everyday player, or maybe there was an injury that I forgot about, but that was the deal. I think that tends to happen. As somebody keeps producing, he earns his way into the lineup more and more. But that's,

that's the reason why I don't rank him especially high myself. Like I still rank him fairly low is because I'm not confident India bats against lefties. And if he's just a part-time player, it's, you know, that's obviously going to keep him from having much mixed league value. This is within the realm of possibility.

Sure. We had another bold prediction about Kyle Seeger being good. Who would you rather take a late round flyer on Tommy Lestella or Kyle Seeger? Lestella. Yeah, it seems like the ceiling, the potential ceiling there is higher. And frankly, the potential floor is higher, too,

because of how much contact you may. I won't go that far. Because he might just revert to being a zero on power again, Lestella. But he has always made contact at a very high rate. On the power front, one thing I found when I was researching this column was that it was a conscious change he made

to tap into his power more. He went back to a stance he used in college because once he got kind of put in like a pinch hitter roll, in the majors, he changed his approach to just kind of put the ball in play wherever. I don't know. So that's, if you want narrative that backs up production, there it is. Four hitters going between 301st and 307th and ADP on Fantasy Pros, Tommy Lestella, Trent Grisham, Gregory Polanco, and Ian Hap.

Who's your favorite? Three of those are among the 35 in that column. my favorite is probably Grisham because I'm most confident in the playing time for him. Chris, who's your favorite? Lestella, Grisham, Polanco, or Hap? I like all of them. I think I like Hap most.

I think he has the most upside. The improvements we saw in his contact rate, both in AAA and in the majors last season, if he can be more of a 25% strikeout rate guy like he was in the majors, I, you know, obviously I think there's 25 homer, 12 to 15 steal potential there. Well, fellas.

Thank you for the bold prediction from Tom and we'll move on. We have, in addition to awesome FBT content, we've got a lot of other podcasts that are going to keep you entertained for the time being. Go to CBSports.com slash podcasts and check out our full list of shows, combat sports, college basketball,

NFL, we've got the Pick Six podcast, which is covering NFL. Fantasy football today, obviously. Oh, man, we've got golf. Oh, nothing personal with David Samson is awesome. So check it out, CBSSports.com slash podcasts. News and notes, Aaron Judge had a collapsed lung, and his rib fracture is improving.

How did that go unreported the collapsed lung? No big deal. The Yankees apparently can spend $200 million on player payroll, and they can't afford a single MRI or x-ray machine. It's a fascinating usage of their available resources. But when you're a team like the Yankees, you got to find efficient cost-saving somewhere. I mean, that would create some soreness in the peck area, right?

A collapsed lung, I just have a feeling that might be related. Yeah, I think the peck bone is connected to the lung bone. Yeah. One thing I don't like doing and what I can't stand what other people in the media or in the industry do is talk about things they don't know about and say like, oh, why did you do this? You have no idea. I'm going to do it, though. I'm going to do it right now.

Why are the Yankees just having Aaron Judge have surgery already? They should have done it like two weeks ago or whenever the season got suspended, whenever it became obvious that we're not having baseball for a long time, just have the damn surgery because they're going to let this try to heal, and it's not going to work, and then he's going to have surgery like a day into the season. It's ridiculous. They're going to screw it up again. You can definitely see that happening.

I don't think you have a rib removed on a win, Adam. It's not a whim. He has a fractured rib. Get rid of it. Marilyn Manson did. All right. Toronto President Mark Shapiro said that teams would need a four-week ramp-up period. So, that's a long time.

I think I'm trying to remember 95. I think they only did like two weeks in 95, but teams and players were sort of already. Yeah. No, 95. 95. 95. Yeah, it was a different circumstance. They were allowed to go outside.

Yeah, I mean, the number I keep hearing is three weeks. This is the first time they've heard four. So I don't know. Well, maybe just Toronto, maybe just Canadian teams need four weeks. The exchange rate. Right. And Marcus Stroman is putting together on Twitter a dream team for Team USA. He's like enlisting people for the World Baseball Classic.

and he was on the gold or did they win a medal there? I don't know. I think they went silver. I think they won. No, they won. Oh, dude, yeah, it was awesome. And he was great. I remember that great Adam Jones catch.

Oh, yeah. Against I think the Dominican Republic. That was super exciting. Yeah, the U.S. is the defending champions of the World Baseball Classic. Yes. And Stroman was good, but I'm just thinking like, when does somebody tell Marcus Stroman that he's not on the team? That he's not like.

part of the dream team. What a brilliant move. To be like the 50th best American pitcher and to be like, hey, guys, who wants to be on the team? I mean, he might not be on the dream team, but he might be on the actual team. Not a, maybe it's like a little league or a little big league situation to keep up the theme from the podcast. Maybe he's going to be the manager. Oh. And the owner.

Marcus Stroman is better than the 50th best American pitcher. Yeah. Come on. Yes. He's about the 50th best pitcher, right? Sure. Yeah. Okay.

So the 25th best? Well, are we mixing relievers and starters when we say this? I was doing starters. Starters. Starters all, man. Okay. They're only going to have like five starters on the team or something like that. Okay.

That's your news of notes. We're going to have a player debate. Make it quick because all I want to do is talk about movies. No, have fun with it. Luke Voight versus Yuleiguriel. And knowing Chris, I'm guessing he's all about Luke Voight here, which means Scott must have Yulee Gouriel ranked higher.

So Scott, you can start it off Yulee Gouriel over Lucas Voight. Well, I mean, let's just start by looking at what happened last year. Ui Gouriel was a stud last year, right? And it's one of those situations where, you know, the fantasy playing community as a whole, they're looking at the numbers and saying he's not going to be able to do that again. And while I'm usually taking the opposite stance there, it's one where I happen to agree with them of the 31 home runs Yuleiguriel hit.

Like half of them came in July and August, I think. But comparing him to Luke Voigt, who has questions about playing time, he has questions about whether he's even going to be a viable hitter after the way he finished last season, which, yes, it was probably related to what he was dealing with with the sports hernia and all the health situations happening down low. But I still, like, in terms of floor,

Yuleiguriel has a very high floor. He's going to hit for average and drive in a lot of runs, batting in one of the deepest lineups in baseball. He's going to play every day. And then there's always a chance that what he did last season was at least halfway legitimate and he hits

25 plus home runs again. There's always that chance. So it's like there's a lot more questions about Voight and I'm not sure the disparity and upside justifies it. I sort of strongly disagree that there are more questions

about Luke Voight. Like Yule Griel has hit at a level that fantasy players would consider must start for basically two months in four. years. And it was like, what, last July and August? He didn't sustain it in September.

You know, there's a high floor, but that high floor is a guy who routinely was being drafted past 200. He has two good months out of six last season. They were really, really good months. But otherwise, he hit like Yuleiguriel. And that floor was 2018. He had 13 homers. He drove in 85 runs.

That's good. But he was basically a batting average RBI. guy with very little else. Luke Voigt, I mean, he's played 157 games with the Yankees, and he's hitting 280, 384, 517, with 35 homers, 95 RBI, 100 runs. Just that is good enough. But if you take out the 24 games last season after coming back from the hernia injury from his initial IEL stint, he's hitting 298 with a 400 on base and a 547 slugging

since joining the Yankees with a 36 homer, 100 RBI, 100 run pace. I think there's a lot more evidence that Luke Voight is a really, really good hitter than there is for Yulea Gereal. Yule Gareel, I think he kind of is what he is, and the fact that he didn't sustain that two-month power surge last season sort of suggests that that's probably the case, that he just had a couple of really good months. Scott, if you weren't concerned about Voight's playing time, would you save Voight over Gereo?

Yes. Okay. I mean, that's the biggest factor is the Yankees have way too many bats at the corner spots, and we don't know how that's going to shake out. Luke Voight obviously was not doing much good for them last we saw of him. And he's 29 years old. What kind of future is there, really? that's I mean that's huge

I mean Yuley Gurriel is a fixture in the Astros lineup Luke Void if he was too yeah I think the power ceiling obviously higher I think that Voight it's I think it's his job to lose I think he starts the year as the everyday first baseman

and because it seemed like they had moved And Duhar off of first base yeah although their outfielders are probably going to be healthy again so that'll create more of an urgency see to find more of a need to find Anduhaar a spot to play and it can't just be left field.

It is worth noting. Uly Guril's 35. Oh, I know. I know, but he's already established is what I'm saying. Voight isn't. Yeah, sort of.

Like, he's a pretty average player. For the best run in Hasgro's history, Yuleiguriel has been in everyday first basement throughout three straight years. Like, he's not losing his job. Maybe. He hasn't quite been an everyday player.

I can't remember if he's dealt with injuries, but last year I think he played 144 games and that's a career high. So I think you also have to take that into account. No, he's been the everyday first baseman. Yeah, I just, for almost his entire career, he's just been a guy for most of the time that we've seen Luke Voight. Like, we've seen more of Luke Voight being really good than we have of Yulee Guriel.

even though newly guerrilla has a longer track record overall, most of that track record is just kind of present. Like he helps you in batting average and that's about it. His last, yeah, well, RBI, he had 85 RBI last year. He had, or I'm sorry, 2018. He had 104 last year. And the lowest batting average he's had the past three years is 291. Like he's going to be a useful player in either format probably

because he strikes out so little that he ends up being, a decent option in points leagues as well, and obviously Roto League's lineups are so big. But we've never talked about him as a must-start guy before last year. No, no. No, we didn't. And I think that if you play, Guriel's worst format would be a five-by-five

batting average league, or on-based percentage. OVP league. Because Voigt could crush him in OVP. Yeah, yeah. He doesn't bat him much. Yeah. Okay, you guys ready to talk fictional players here? I'm so ready. I put in a lot of work on this one. Yes, you have.

And I stupidly sent you guys. Yeah, thank you, of course. I should have just held it in reserve, but I wanted to make sure you guys were prepared. Thank you for that. Yeah, Chris put the most effort into this. I'm fairly positive of that. 20 people.

He said us 20 fictional players with their statistics, like a little resume. I don't know how he found statistics. Scott, that's what you were looking for? As is it. So good. Oh, yeah. What's this one from?

Is this the montage from Major League? Yeah. All right, they're peeling sections as we speak. Okay, so who has the first pick? Are we snake drafting this? Yeah, but we, I mean, how are we going to figure out who had the first pick? Alphabetical order. All right, go ahead, Adam.

I'll take the first pick. No, it's fine. Adam goes first. Are we snaking? Yeah, snaking. Snaking. Okay. Steve Nebraska from the scout.

Oh, come on. You know I had that before you sent your stupid email. I was talking about Steve Nebraska last week. You didn't even know what I was talking about. You never even seen the movie. No, of course I haven't seen it. How many Brendan Fraser movies does one need to see in their life? It's really an Albert Brooks movie.

He threw an 81 pitch, 27 strikeout, perfect game in the World Series. And Chris put that in his little scouting report. You didn't mention that he hit a home run. He hit, he batted, he pitched for the Yankees. He batted in an American League park. They used him in the order. He hit a home run. They won the game on his home run.

And every pitch he threw was a strike. Every pitch. And it was the greatest game ever played. Well, how could it not be? 81 pitches means he struck out every hitter on three strikes. Three pitches. Yep. Every pitch.

He's just tremendous. Stupid. It's so stupid. Eddie, Eddie Hay, Haleigh, Holbert. The way this is working is we're going to be. do five position players and two pitchers. So you already picked two of your pitch, one of your two pitchers, Adam. Okay. Steve Nebraska's off the board. Chris, you are next. It's got to be my guy, Stan, Mr. 3,000 Ross. You've got really impressive career totals,

2,999 hits, career 460 on base percentage, third all time in walks with 270. I got to pull up his baseball card because there's some real i think it's the 1989 season for the milwaukee brewer's just had some really impressive stats was a power speed guy a little bit of a ricky henderson not quite as many steals but a legitimate five category stud okay so that's from the movie mr three thousand mr three thousand yes stand mr three thousand ross scott you're on the clock let me hit you with his 1985 oh by bad to show the upside go ahead 336 batting average

129 runs score 17 homers 123 RBI 29 stolen bases just an absolute 5 category stud Stan Ross

really impressed man clearly you didn't rank the players on this list you said yes I'm going off lists with my first pick here I'm going with meme sensation

Pablo Sanchez that's a good one backyard baseball I'm not familiar with that. His batting meter is all the way full. His running meter is all the way full. His pitching meter is halfway full. Is he in the pinch

there? I need to explain. He's not going to let you down there. Unassuming with this yellow backwards cap, this derpy smile on his face. But Pablo Sanchez is the secret weapon. And in fact, that's his nickname. The Secret weapon. He is my first. What is backyard baseball? A game after our time, Adam. But I pay attention

on the internet. We're allowed to use video games here? It's fictional characters. Why not? Okay. Why not? What about all the guys? You ever play baseball simulator 100 on Nintendo? But all the characters I invented on that game? I did not spend enough time

to scour the video game environment, but my second pick is also from video games here. If we're snaking back, my second pick is John Dowd. You know John Dowd? Yes, that's a very good one.

John Dowd from MVP Baseball 2005 widely considered to be the best baseball video game ever. John Dowd was the best player in its played left field for the San Francisco Giants and was a monster. This is so interesting. A little bit of a cheap choice. He doesn't exist. Point where John Dowd exists.

Point him out to me. No, I get it. John Dowd was really good. he was the Barry Bonds stand-in because Barry Bonds wasn't a part of the Major League Baseball Players Association. That's great. Good job, Scott. That is cheap, but it's brilliant.

All right, Chris, you're up. So, I got it. To go with Stan, Mr. 3,000 Ross. I do have to ask for a clarification. If a real baseball player appears in a fictional baseball movie, Are they no?

No. No. I have to say no. No. Barry Bonds appears in Rookiee of the Year. He does. He's striking out. No. He does have a 100% strikeout rate in this fictional universe, but the thing that makes it fictional, he is still on the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1993.

Uh-huh. Absolutely not. He was not there in real life. This is a no. Stop making your stupid case. But we are not counting. No, he didn't hit the home run in a little big league. No, he didn't hit the home run.

run he's he robbed loo of the home run oh he had a home run in it too oh he did all right because he does that wink in it right isn't that that that uh jiff yeah kink riffy junior winking isn't that from little big league when he's rounded the basis yeah oh okay okay but he also i think he robbed loo of the home run that would have won the game all right chris what's your real answer because that other one was stupid clue heywood damn it uh slugger for the i believe new york yankees oh you believe he was d h uh in He was the first baseman. You don't even get, that's not fair. That's my pick.

You don't even know who he is. He won the 1989 AL Triple Crown, hit 341, 48 homers, 121 RBI. That's just a monster season, especially in the pre-steroid era. Leads the league in most offensive categories, including nose hair. Just an obvious pick to, you know, now I've got two legitimate studs anchoring my lineup. pretty good shape. Yes. When this guy sneezes, it looks like a party favor. That's a lot. All right. I'm up for two. I have to take Clue Haywood out of my cue because Chris stole them. And I'm going with Roy Hobbs from the natural. And here's one that wasn't on Chris's life. Shameful.

Shameful. Doddy Hinson from a league of their own. Sure. I would say, look, if you're going, if you're going with League of Their own. I can't remember her name. The one who leaves in the middle of the season. Oh, Marla Hooch? Yeah. No, Doddy was better.

Doddy was better. Okay. Marla Hooch was the best hitter. Hey, you know what? I'm going to put Marla Hootch in my cue because I need more people here. All right, so I have Steve Nebraska, Roy Hobbs, and Doddy Hinson. Chris has Mr. 3,000, and Clue Haywood. And who else?

Easy call here. the top player left on the board. Bugs Bunny from baseball Bugs. Played all nine positions at the same time and struck out the side with a single pitch. 80 grade change up. Thanks for letting me get the best fictional pitcher.

Okay, that's your pitcher, Bugs Bunny. Good call. We got an email from Nick in Chicago. Greatest fictional pitcher of all time. Bugs Bunny, dude's pitches could defy gravity. All right. Did you mention this? Chris, like getting all three strikes on the same pitch?

On the same pitch. Yeah. Made a hitter look so foolish that he swung, spun around, and dug a hole into the ground. Oh, yeah. Turned into a drill. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, Scott, two picks for you.

You have Pablo Sanchez of backyard baseball and John Dowd, who was really Barry Bonds of MVP Baseball 2005. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I want the high-end starting pitchers, right? And this guy, last we saw of him, he had a resurgent season after spending some time on the eye out. No, you took my guy. He kind of bounced back like Charlie Morton. I'm going with Mel Clark from Angels in the outfield.

Oh, you're not taking my guy. The ace of their staff. And he, like, you know, I talk about how innings is like, the thing people don't look at enough today, it's kind of doesn't get enough attention how deep pitchers pitch into games and how much it can add to their value. Well, they let Mel Clark throw 156 pitches in that game.

So he's got a pile of innings. I just do have to say, he died shortly after that. That is canonical. That is, he joined the Angels very shortly after that season. So not a lot of the longevity there. Well, okay, that's fine.

Look, Scott's favorite line of movie history is, you used to be Bell Clark, so you knew he was going to take Bell Clark. Yeah, it used to be. Exactly. All right, what's your second pick of the turn here? That's Tony Danza, by the way. Yeah, so my second pick,

man, I am going to go. You know what? I'm going to take my aces right here. I'm going to take my two pitchers right here. I'm going to go with Wild Thing Vaughn. Rick Vaughn from Major League. You know, Chris actually provided a stat line for him. This is definitely ace production, especially by 1991 standards.

So apparently John Sickles. Did he estimate this, Chris? I believe. So that's where I found it. I found it on minor league base, minor league ball.com. Rick Wild Thing Vaughn, 20 and 8 with a 320 ERA, 119 whip, and 198 strikeouts and 225. I know that's less than a strike up her inning and by today's standards that's not an

ace but anybody's striking out 200 guys back then. Yeah, that's a big deal. A couple things though. Pretty sure that movie was in 1987, not 91. That's number one. Number two. No, it's 1989. 989, okay.

Number two, they had a one game playoff with the Yankees and the skipper, Lou Brown, didn't even go with Wild Thing Vaughn. Yeah, that's... Went with Eddie Harris. He brought Vaughn in in relief. So you can have him But just saying He made the wrong decision, right?

He won the game. Harris pitched a great game. Come on. It comes also one when Joe Madden took Kyle Hendricks out in the fourth or whatever. Okay, so Scott has Pablo Sanchez of backyard baseball, John Dowd of MVP baseball 2005, Mel Clark from Angels in the Outfield,

and Rick Wilde, thank Vaughn from Major League. Chris is on the clock. He got his ace with Bugs Bunny. last time up. He also has Stan Mr. 3,000 Ross and Clue Haywood from Major League, anchoring the lineup. Who do you got, Chris? Who's your next pick? Yeah, I'm going to go, there's no

limit on how many Major League players we can choose. So I'm going to pick Jack Parkman from Major League 2. I don't know exactly what the stats were, but he did hit 42 homers, one of the Cleveland Indians fans' notes the previous season. And that was in the 1980s

playing at the Oakland college. I don't think so. I think that was the 90s. He was in Oakland A. That was the 90s. Whatever. No, it would have been 1989 was the season that he came to them from. He had 42 homers in 1989. Oh, all right,

fine. Oh, that's a hell of a hair. I like him, but he's a lineup. Mark McGuire, Jose Canseco, Jack Parkman? You know what he was using? He's a clubhouse cancer though, Chris. What are you going to do in your chemistry now? Not a great guy to have in your clubhouse, but If I can get a Mike Piazza level hitter at catcher, I'm going to do it. 42 homers,

I'm pretty sure that's the record all the time for a catcher in a single season. Why did they carry three catchers if one of them was that good? Well, they traded him. They traded him. Yeah, they traded him and then they won. They got better when they traded him. So Chris just took Terrell Owens, basically. This is fantasy baseball.

I don't care about the clubhouse. Apparently not. I was going to go for a defensive guy later. I might have to rethink this. Oh, come on. This is a fantasy podcast. Okay. All right.

I'm on the clock for two picks here. I've got Steve Nebraska from the scout. I've got Roy Hobbs and Doddy Hinson. I'm going to get my second pitcher here before someone else takes him. And since people say I look like him, I'm taking Henry Rowengartner. Oh, a closer. Oh, yeah. Henry Row and Gardner, you know, a lights out close.

Good enough to be rookie of the year. Now, I'm a little worried about his arm. They never showed him winning the award. It's true. But I'm a little worried because, like, is he just going to throw floaters from now on? Because that's not going to work. I mean, I assume we're doing prime.

Right. Like at their peak in their fictional universe, yes. All right. So Henry Rowan-Gartner for me, and then I need a second pick. Short peak. I mean, four foot 11 pitchers. Honestly, I think Chris is on to something. I'm going to take Marla Hooch.

I need some power. I need some power. Marla Hooch. I don't want to give names away. There's a couple big power paths left. Chris is less. So Chris is up. He just took Jack Parkman.

Who else from Major League are you taking? Are you taking someone from back in the minors? No, no. I'm not going to pick any minor league players. They're too hard to project. You never know, like, you know, someone's going to come along and try it to take nuke La Looche, but you just don't know how he's going to make the transition to the major. So I'm sticking clear of that. I want proven superstar production. And I'm getting that from Snoopy. He came so close to breaking Babe Ruth's home run record just before Hank Aaron did. But Charlie Brown was picked off at second for the final out of the season. Of course, that Charlie Brown, I sure. do hate him. But Snoopy, just an all-around stud. Great clubhouse presence. Got a lot of birds

that hang out with him. You know, that makes him good. And yeah, 714 career home runs, absolutely nothing to sneeze at. So Snoopy, uh, another just huge power bat for me. And what movie is he from? He's from peanuts. Oh, okay. Not a movie. Doesn't have to be in a movie. I know. I know. It's a fictional character. Come on. Okay, Snoopy. Snoopy. Snoopy and Bugs Bunny. Okay. Scott, you have two picks. Yeah, yeah, my two picks here. I am going to go with an all-timer. Mighty Casey from Casey at the bat.

That is a big bat. I mean, I understand our only evidence. Anecdotally is the strikeout. He strikes out in the big game. I understand he may not be clutch, but you can tell just by the way they build up this moment, just the way they talk about him. There's a reverence for this guy. He must have put up some math.

numbers and is the face of the game at this point. So I want that guy on my team. He's not my top hitter here. He doesn't need to be the guy, but I need another middle of the order bat. I'm going with Mighty Casey from Casey at the bat. And all right, this one, I want to go ahead and talk about him because I'm not exactly sure what his upside is offensively,

but whoever Matthew McConaughey plays in Angels of the Outfield, I actually just Googled it. His name is Ben Williams. That's who Matthew McConaughey played. And he makes a catch in center field where he soars so far. It's as if angels were carrying him part of the way. It's as if he's been lofted by wings, really. True, true.

This catch makes Jim Edmonds look like a peasant. that's a guy who I think can be a difference maker for me and even though I don't really know how he profiles as a hitter he has the good face right yeah I mean that's that's he has a good scouting report there with the good face so I'm going Ben Williams from Angels in the Outfield didn't Matthew McConaughey play college football at the University of Texas am I making that up ah I have no idea good athlete yes it would have to be to make that catch that movie Angels in the Outfield by the way one of the

the most stacked, randomly stacked casts of all time. It really is. Like two Academy Award winners for Best Actor in the, in the lineup, Adrian Brody and Matthew McConaughey. Adrian Brody and Matthew Brody's in there. Matthew McConaughey won an Oscar for Best Actor? Yeah. For Dallas Byers.

Failure to launch? Oh, for Dallas Byers. Did you miss the McConaissance? I never saw that movie. Danny Glover, of course. and the kid who's not a kid. Joseph Gordon-Levett. Yeah, that guy.

And another Tony Danza movie. Tony Danza. All right, Scott, so you have two players from Angels in the Outfield. You have Mel Clark and Ben Williams. You are so excited about Ben Williams. You had to Google his name, so that's good. Chris has two cartoon players and two players from Major League and Stan Mr. 3,000 Ross. Who's their sixth player, Chris?

I'm just doing some last minute research because I do want to you know I Was Sam alone a good player? Yeah he was good He was a reliever though He was a reliever I don't want to I don't want me alone

I'm not picking a Sixth round pick my A reliever Um So I'm going to go with I do need a pitcher still But I think I'm going to go with Benny the Jet Rodriguez.

Oh Oh, he was, he was a mickey. We don't exactly. Look, I need some speed, first of all. You know, Stan Ross, my only stolen base guy right now. So, you know, Benny the Jet Rodriguez, made it to the majors, obviously, was a five-tool talent. And must have been in his late 30s. We witness him steal home.

The kid's nickname was the Jet. We see him outrun the Beast for several miles. Do you know how fast dogs run? So clearly, Benny the Jet Rodriguez, actually no, I'm changing it. Sorry. No. Sorry. I'm changing it.

I'm going back to it. I need speed. There's an obvious pick on the board and I forgot. You cannot. No, you've reached your major league quota. You didn't even know the damn song at the beginning of the movie. Willie Mays Hayes. He said he was going to steal 100 bases.

He bought 100 gloves. I did some research. I looked at the image where he's nailing them on the wall. There's only 62. But that's still pretty good. That's 31 steals. That's a lot of stolen bases. So Willie Mays Hayes.

Wait, did he buy a glove for every base or was it two gloves? Yeah, it was one glove for every base. Well, I bought about a hundred of these. The problem, Chris, is when Omar Epps starts playing him, he tries to sell out for power. I assume you don't want that, Willie Mays Hayes. We're going with the classic Billy Hamilton profile, Willie Mays Hayes. All right. Like Mays, run like Hayes.

Yeah. So I was going to take Willie Mays Hayes to get my steals. But I guess, you know, there's... McConaughey's giving me mine. I know. He can run. There are better options here, great hitters that Chris gave us in a list and somebody

came through with an email. But I'm, I can't, like, I don't feel like it would be fair for me to use them since I didn't think of them myself. So I'll take Benny the Jet Rodriguez from the Sandlot. And my last pick will be, uh, oh, Kelly Leak from Bad News Bears. The guy played like every outfield position. He was by far their best player. Kelly League

Was that The kid who seemed like older than the other? Yeah, he smoked cigarettes on the field He was the one who smoked and drove a motorbike Okay

So my team is complete I'll recap it in a bit But Chris you're I was watching Angels In the Outfield, sorry The original bad news bears When I was a kid Chris

I do need a pitcher To fill out my lineup And I'm gonna go with Eddie Harris For Major League No, not Eddie Harris. No, I'm going to go with Billy Chappell for love of the game. Through a perfect game in his final start, which is just an incredible achievement.

But also, had a 19-year major league career. We don't know exactly whether he was a Hall of Famer. But clearly, you hung around long enough to be a starting pitcher in year 19. That's pretty good. Maybe he's not Justin Verlander. But I'm going to guess the peak was pretty good. Maybe a Burt Blyleven-esque peak. I'd get him on the Hall of Fame.

Yeah, that's pretty good. Okay. Scott, your last pick? All right, my last pick's the most obscure one, which is why I saved it for the end. I don't have a catcher yet. I want youths. I want upside. I am going with Robbie Belmont from the Gary Carter's Iron Mask series, who I think was

supposed to be a stand-in for Gary Carter, who, of course, ended up being a Hall of of Fame caliber catcher himself. but by all accounts through the six six book series Belmont could rake his his problem was he kept trying to pitch like he really wanted to be a pitcher and you know

that that obviously wasn't his calling he kept getting hurts and yeah it was his own worst enemy in that regard but when Robbie Belmont just focused on catching and hitting dude could rake he is going to give me a nice fourth hitter here to go with Mighty Casey Pablo Sanchez and of course John Dowd

and I feel good about this team we're going places Oh I forgot about McConaughey That's the fifth hitter too He's batting lead off He's your defensive specialist Yes Okay so Scott's team

Pablo Sanchez John Dowd Two video game characters And then I guess Robbie Belmont is as well He's from a books Kids book series But they were chapter books You know it wasn't like a picture book It was more

It was like for fourth grade fifth grade level Yeah. I read a book about Babe Ruth. Can I put him in my team? No, because he's real. Come on. And you have Mel Clark and Ben Williams from Angels in the Outfield,

and your pitchers are Rick Vaughan. Mel Clark. Oh, right. Mel Clark's a pitcher. And you have Mighty Casey at the bat. Very good. Yep. Very good.

Chris has Mr. 3000, Clue Haywood, Jack Parkman, Willie Mays Hayes, and Snoopy. And is Bugs Buddy and Billy Chappell? Is that how you say, Billy Chappell? Yeah, I believe so. Okay.

And I have a pretty crappy team, I'd say, but I do have Steve Nebraska, who's the best player ever. Roy Hobbs. I have two. That's pretty good, too. I have two Rockford Peaches, Doddy Hinson and Marla Hooch. I've got, I mean, like, they're awesome. They were really good. Yeah.

Okay. Kelly Lee. I have a kid, and I have two. females. So it's hard to kind of like measure up to video game characters, but because they didn't all play in the same league, but that's okay. And I have who the hell have I have with my pitchers? Oh, I've, I've Benny Rodriguez for Steele. Steve Nebraska is one of my pitchers. And oh, I have Henry Rowan Gardner, of course. I think that you're not going to score any runs off me. I

have Steve Nebraska and Henry Rowan Gartner, and my pitching is the best. I mean, you're going to win strikeouts for sure. Yeah. If this Steve Nebraska guy could throw nothing. but strikes for 81 pitches and strike everybody out, then who's to say he couldn't pitch every day? Nothing seems beyond this guy's reach. And he hit the home run.

He's Shohei Otani. No, he's what Shohei Otani wishes he could be. Probably. By the way, Honorable mentioned for me was Ty Cobb from the movie Cobb. He was pretty good. Fictional character. We left some really good ones.

Oh, yeah, let me read this email from Kyle. Hey, Helga, Phoebe, and Stinky. This one may be obscure, but for kids who are in 90s kids, but my suggestion is Mickey K-Line from Hey Arnold for the fictional player competition. He hit over 500 Taters and hit one with his final at bat of his career in which Arnold caught. So Mickey Kailin, Chris, we left him off.

Yeah, Mickey Kailan, I definitely remember that. Really great episode of Hey, Arnold. Hey, Arnold catches his final home. run hits a final home run in his final trip to the plate as a major leaguer joins Ted Williams as the only members of the 500 home run club to do that I also want to point out Joe Hardy from the damn Yankees stage play just had a remarkable half season after selling his soul to the devil hit 354 27 homers 81 RBI and less than half a season really great stuff and then the best player I didn't want to use this one because

someone gave it to me on Twitter and it would have been cheating. But there's a novel called Rookie by Jerry B. Hinkins. Jerry B. Jenkins, excuse me. And let me see. Elgin Waddell is the name of this guy. Hit 998 career homers, made it to the majors as a 14-year-old. 13 MVP awards. Hit 382 for his career.

had a 67 homer, 188 RBI, 161 run season where he hit 429. I won the MVP NLCS and World Series. This was as a 29-year-old shortstop. So I just... Oh, pretty much musician too. Yeah, I didn't want to, I didn't want to cheat. I didn't want to really run away with this thing. But it's pretty clear my team's going to win.

I put in the most work, the most research, and, you know, that pays off. You sure did. I mean, arguably, the most famous player for Major League, maybe. At least the second most famous player for Major League. It was a good power bat. He didn't get taken here, Pedro Serrano. Yeah, it's not that hard to find Homer. Yeah, he couldn't hit a curveball.

Well, he figured it out. He needed supernatural help. You can't count on that. Well, if we're, like a third of my team is gone if we're eliminating the prospect of supernatural help. Chris has Buck's Bunny here. But not Pedro Serrano. He's drawing his line at Pedro Serrano. Yeah, what else would we miss?

Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye. What? So I'm sure there are things we don't even know we miss. There is a lot of work of fiction. There's a lot of fiction. What about the guy from Big League, too? The guy that's gum package. We don't know.

How can he not be good? Although that was kind of Henry Rowan Gardner's nemesis, right? he basically looked like that guy. I can't remember his name, but he could clearly hit the ball a long way. Like, why does every baseball villain from that, that surge of baseball movies in the early 90s, why do they all look like Pete and Cavilia?

Like, it's, it's, it's just not that imposing of a, of a athlete there. Yeah, I, um, the one other one I would have picked if we were drafting real baseball teams. I don't know if you guys ever heard of Henry Scree. Grimshander from the art of fielding novel, but one of the best defensive shortstops of all time until, you know, he starts to lose his confidence after hitting a foul ball into the dugout that injures one of his teammates. Before that, he hadn't made an error in his entire four-year

collegiate career. So Henry's Grimshander, excellent defensive player, not quite a fantasy option, though. Chris, this podcast has been your shining moment. You need to save this. It's your resume now. Good job. Well, I thought we would get to a few rounds of ADP. We'll do that tomorrow with Ellen. Let's do some emails to finish the show.

Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Oh, my favorite emails. Grade My Team. I'm opening the floodgates. I don't like grade my team emails. Just letting everybody know. But I'll read one anyway. This one comes from Jay Hap.

Oh, no, that's his roster. I don't have his name. Well, this listener did an NFBC draft. He faded starting pitching. It is a 12-team league. And here we go. Omar Nevaez and Yadir Malina. Pete Alonzo, Jonathan V.R. Elvis Andrews.

Anthony Rendon. Encarnacion at corner infield. Starlin Castro Middle Infield. Andrew McCutcheon at Utility. It gets a little better. Chris Bryant, Juan Soto. There you go. Andrew Ben Intendi, Oscar Mercado,

Lorda Scurrio Jr. Okay, decent hitting. You got Pete Alonzo. You got Rendon. You got Soto. You got some speed with VR. And this is probably a 15 team. No, it's 12.

No, he said 12. Okay. Is it 12? Yeah, yeah, it's not bad. It's not bad. Pitchers are Kirby E. It's a Rollis Chapman. Roberto Ozuna.

Ryan Presley, James Paxton. Sean Maniah, Mike Fultenevich, A.J. Puck and Armand Marquez. So I don't know. I don't know. I don't really like this that much. I don't hate it. But given that you went so hard after hitting in the first 11 rounds.

Gotta be better. Yeah, the hitting just isn't up to the standard that I would think you would need. Yeah. When I'm assessing a team, my eyes usually go to the holes where I see holes in the roster. and like Starling Castro looks like a whole there are reasons to think that Starling Castro might have figured things out in the second half

there are there are fantasy analysts who really believe in him I'm not necessarily one of them no no and like Edwin Incarnassio and Andrew McCutcheon Elvis Andrews they're all decidedly low end I'm in a when you're filling out a roto lineup I'm not going to go as far as to call them a hole but they're like decidedly low end

Like, they're not going to be. I mean, maybe Incarnacion can come through with a big home run total, but he's not, he's not being drafted like that. Well, you're understanding Aless Andrews, he is being drafted like a solid starter. Right, but other than maybe 2530 steals, what is he going to do for you? He's a bad hitter. But you don't like him is where that comes down. Yes, but I think I'm right. Yes.

Bad hitter. He was like a top eight shortstop last season. in a really deep shortstop field. But this highlights... Exclusively because of the steals, right? Right, but that's still cool. You have enough steals without them. So why are you using your shortstop?

But what this highlights for me is the danger of picking Pete Alonzo in an early round, because there are so many dynamic players available in the second and third round. When you're picking a guy like Pete Alonzo, who you're really only counting on for a lot of home runs, yes, and then runs in RBI. There are guys who can do that at a much chance. cheaper cost. When you're picking in that second and third round range, you want more dynamic all-around players. And I think there's a decent chance that P. Alonzo, you know, obviously

going to be a zero and stolen basis, but he might hurt you in batting average, too. So I think that's one of the things that this highlights for me. Just wait and take Clue Hayward a few rounds later. Exactly. This is from Lyndon Suvanto. Do you guys believe that Shohei Otani could win the MVP as a batter slash pitcher in the same season? And what would his numbers need to look like, he'd probably need to throw about 130, 140 innings of ace caliber ball and hit something like 285 with 25 to 30 homers. I think that probably gets him in the discussion because there, you know, you're probably looking at 450 plate appearances. Maybe he's a three win player as a hitter and base runner, no fielding, and then maybe a four win pitcher. Dare I say if Cho Hayotani does

what he did as a rookie for a full season he's going to win the MVP? It could. He won rookie of the year, so he just got hurt that year, so you know. Right. Yeah, like he doesn't have to be as good. He doesn't have to

be MVP caliber at either of the things he does. Yeah, I wouldn't think. He just has to be really, he has to be like 80th percent on. Right. Like all-star caliber. Yeah. Like a three,

330 ERA and an 880 OPS. I don't even know that you'd have to be that good, honestly. Well, he could do it. And the hitting, especially the 880 OPS. He's like an 800 OPS with a 330 ERA. It's probably in the mix. This is from Hugo. How much do you think this shortened season

will impact Wander Franco's timeline? When do you think he'll be up in the majors for good? I don't think he's going to be up for good any time in 2020, no matter when the season starts. Okay, next question. From Aaron... Scott, if you disagree. Well, there was a comment from the Ray's GM about how...

I forget exactly what the comment was, but he basically left the door open for him to come up this year. I'm not betting on him. I do have him Wander Franco stashed away in a redraft AL only, Roto League, so very deep league. Just in case. But that's the only league where I've even really thought about rafting Wander Pranko, except of course for like a dynasty format.

This is from Eric in Union Gap, Washington. Dear Ryan, Aronado, and Rymold. Nolan's. Yeah. Who is your oldy but goody pitcher this year? Someone with a late career breakout that could help you in a few categories. Like Bartolo Colon winning 18 games at 40 years old. Jamie Moyer winning 16 games at age 45.

R.A. Dickey coming out of nowhere to win 20 games at age 37. Charlie Morton winning the most games of his career at age 35. My pick is Rich Hill and Annabal Sanchez. Who do you like? So we're obviously not looking at like Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer here. We're looking somebody who's going to do it in a way that surprises. I'm going to say J-Hap. I thought I was the J-Hap guy.

I just, yeah, I don't think he's as bad as he was last season. He had, I think, four straight years before last season. with an ERA below 3-6? I think there's a chance. Okay, since you already took him. I jumped in there. Classic Scott White Paws allowed me to take it. Hap reworked his mechanics this offseason

and was lighting it up this spring. So I think he's a genuine sleeper. And he actually wasn't getting drafted late enough to qualify for my deep sleepers. So I'm going to go with one guy who we haven't talked about yet as benefiting from the delayed start to the season, and that's Cole Hamill's, who was on a roll last year before, I think it was

his oblique he hurt, and came back and clearly wasn't the same. I think he had to alter his mechanics a little, and that skewed his season-long numbers, but he was must start for that first half or so with the Cubs, and I think he could get back to being that with the Braves. Thank you, guys. Good show. The show with real baseball and fake baseball and great music at the same time. All right. We're going to close up a shot. We're going to have Ellen Adair on tomorrow.

Until then, for Scott and Chris, I'm Adam. Have a good one.