Fantasy Baseball Today - Bonus Mailbag! How To Draft Prospects in Redraft Leagues (3/27 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 27, 2021

Before you draft those Fantasy Baseball teams, you should listen to our bonus mailbag! Let's start off with your Apple Podcast Review questions, which asks about draft strategy in H2H Categories leagues (1:31). It's time for 'Fantasy Justice For All' (23:02). ... It's time for your emails (28:21). How should you draft in a 10-team keeper/dynasty league plus when is the right time to draft prospects in redraft leagues? Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank, @AdamAizer 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/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. I drive, center field, and swing. This is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam.

Hey there. Hope you're enjoying the weekend. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Saturday, March 27th. Frank Sample joined by Scott White. And this is our last bonus mailbag podcast of the off season. Thanks again to everybody for leaving five-star reviews on Apple and, of course, emailing in all of your questions throughout draft season. Hope your drafts are going well.

Of course, this is a huge weekend for fantasy baseball drafts opening day right around the corner. If you are watching on YouTube, you might notice that I am wearing this flashy polo shirt. I got tired of Scott showing me up. So you know what? I thought I'd step it up a little bit. And Scott, you're wearing a Marlins hat. You're a Braves fan. It's like, imagine me coming on here and wearing a Red Sox hat or something.

Come on, man. Not quite the same. Not quite the same as the Yankees Red Sox rivalry. But you wear Rangers hats. Pirates. I think I've seen you wear pirates gear before. Yeah. Kind of just a baseball fan.

And if I want to wear this teal colored shirt, like the Marlins, you know, Marlins hat just goes with it. I appreciate it. I appreciate the matching look there. Let's jump right in. We'll hit some Apple Podcasts review questions right here at the top. And this one is from More Kokomo. How can we possibly play more Kokomo?

We played every Friday. And it's a Kokomo Friday theme song. So I think we played just the right amount of Kokomo. Hey Luke, Pete, Chris, and John Carlo. Voigt, Alonzo, Davis, and John Carlo. Are those like the home run leaders the last four years? That's what I'm guessing. Makes the most sense to me.

I'm in a 12 teams 7 by 7 head-to-head categories league with OBP, hits, and Ks as the added offensive categories, K-to-walk rate, quality starts, and saves plus holds on the pitching side. I typically look at points league rankings since the categories reflect the points league and I normally punt seals. I made some trades, but now I have the eighth overall pick, three third round picks, one fourth round pick, and one sixth round pick. I already know my eighth overall pick will be one of

Garrett Cole, Shane Bieber, or Jacob de Grom. Curious as to how you guys would, who you guys would take if you had five picks between 29th and 41st. All right, Scott. So assume you take one of those pitchers in the first round, you now have five picks between the, in the third and fourth rounds.

How would you divvy those up? Well, okay, obviously this isn't a keeper league. So that helps. That makes it easier. Okay, so you're starting pitcher. Five picks between 29 and 41. Boy, so really all the pictures we would count on, we would think of as being like,

Cy Young contenders are already gone at this point, obviously. Well, obviously, if Corey Seeger's there, I would take him, DJ LeMay, he's there, I would take him, probably take Alex Bragman if he's there. Don't know that I'd take all three. You use three of those five picks on those three, but those would earn, you know, a little tick up for me.

And then I would look at what pitchers are there. If it's Maida, if it's Brandon Woodruff. Who else is in that range? I know Zach Gallen isn't anymore. Yeah, those would probably be the main two. Maeda and Woodruff if they're there. Jack Flaredes right on the cutoff,

but he might be there at 29. He might be there. It's a long shot, but he might. Kershaw is another one. He might. He has an ADP of 31. Yeah. Beyond those pitchers are like

Lance Lynn, Blake, Snell, Tyler Glass now, Steven Strasbourg. I don't think it's a bad idea to reach into that group. If you want to be pitcher-heavy. But it is a little reachy. So, you know, at least consider what other hitters are there. Maybe if like a Marcelo Zune is there, that's,

somebody I draft occasionally in that range. That's probably what I think of doing. Yeah, I think if you take one of Cole Bieber or DeGrom, and you have five picks in this range, I would probably use at least two of them on starting pitchers, and then you would use the other three on hitters. So through your first six picks by 41st overall, you would have three hitters and three pitchers. Just a few other hitters.

I'm not sure if you mentioned Kyle Tucker, Scott. I'm perfectly fine with him in this range. steals, so I kind of passed over the base Steelers. That's true. That makes sense. Marcelo Zuna can make sense for a punts steals build. Anyone else? With Merrifield, if you weren't punting steals, I would consider in this range. But again, if you are,

then never mind. Yep, Bregman, I agree with you. Anthony Rendon. We talk a lot about perfectly fine with either one of those. Raphael Devers, if those other two-third basemen are gone. I'm cool with that as well. This next one is from the Mandur 5, 12-team, 5-5-Roto with 3.5.

outfielders, two utility spots, five starting pitchers, and four relief pitcher spots. I pick fifth overall. This league has a pitching innings cap of 1350, 1,350 for the year. I'm wondering how that affects overall draft strategy. I'm hoping

to go to Grom with another pitcher in my first two picks. Overall, would your overall, would your draft strategy change with this setup? I know Chris has mentioned recently the average roto team two years ago

had around 1,300 innings pitch. So, considering you have to start five starting pitchers and four relief

pitchers, it's probably going to be a reach for you even to get to 1350, I'd imagine, Scott. Yeah, I would think so,

too. I'm not used to seeing an innings cap. The traditional innings limit for a standard roto league is

900, innings minimum, I should say, is 900. So, you know, if Chris researched and found that most teams got to 1,300 going with 9 pitchers. You got to figure

most of them were starting fewer than 4 relievers. So even more innings being added on with the starting pitchers, I don't think it's something you should really worry about. Yeah, I agree with that. I would just draft normally. If you want to use your first two picks on starting pitchers, and that was your strategy regardless, just coming into the season, then sure, I think you should remain with that. And, you know, we love pitching, so.

I'm not opposed to that idea. This one's from Maxman in a CBS Daily 10-Team Roto Keeper League with OPS instead of batting average. I can keep Shohei Otani for a ninth rounder. I know this is higher than ADP, but the upside is so tantalizing, given the league format is a ninth rounder too steep a price for what it's worth.

My other keepers are Shane Bieber, Chris Paddock, Zach Plesack, and Ian Hap. Scott, I came on here the other day and I said, I might use a fifth or sixth round pick on Shohei Otani in a daily lineup league where you can reap all of his benefits

but this is a 10 team league so it's a little bit more shallow I think I would still do it for a ninth rounder. Yeah, that makes sense and even if it wasn't a daily league like Otani's the sort of player that somebody might reach four or five rounds for

so if you're really high on him and if you think the upside is enormous which it is I don't have a problem keeping him in the ninth round obviously it would depend on if I'm throwing back some amazing keeper instead. But when you're drafting in the ninth round, that's not really a make or break stage of the draft where you would have major regrets giving up that pick, I feel like.

So certainly because it's a daily, I think it's fine keeping Otani in the ninth round. But even if it wasn't, I don't think it would be, I don't think it would be the worst idea. Yep, I'm with you. Let's do it. Let's keep Shoah O'Tani there. This one's from Team Money. 12 team 5 by 5 Roto League. I can keep two players.

I've decided on keeping Luis Robert in the Robert Robert Robert. Oh, man. I'm just going to message a White Sox broadcaster, and hopefully they respond to me because this is... I think we know they call him Robert, right? Yeah, and then I mentioned someone last week and sent me a snippet of an article that... From when... When Robert was 19 and saying in Cuba, they pronounce it Robert. But since then, Robert himself has been calling himself Louise Robert.

So, he must decide he liked it. I don't know. Robert. We will go with Robert for now. I'm going to listen back to a spring training broadcast and just see how they say it. Would you keep Dylan Bundy in the 20th or Nick Magical in the 22nd to help lock down steals? I, to lock down, Steele. Oh, Madrigal to lock down steals. No, I'm not... I would definitely keep Bundy in the 20th. It's a better discount.

And while I'm hopeful Madrigal will run, we haven't really seen him do that much in the majors, and I don't think it's a guarantee. But really, more than anything, it's just that the discount for Bundy here is so much greater. Yeah, I'm not even a huge deal in Bundy fan, but in the 20th round, that's a no-brainer. Keep him with Luis Robert, and there you go.

This next one's from CDM-0-83. My keepers are about. Kershaw, Lynn, Machado, and Ozuna in a 10-to-head points league. I have the sixth pick in our draft this weekend. What would be your approach from this spot? I am leaning towards attacking, pitching heavy, and then filling out my hitters after I have my top five. So he already has a top three, Scott, of Trevor Bauer, Clayton Kershaw, and Lance Lynn.

I guess you can use two of your first three picks from the six spot, and you know, you'll have five there. It's a points league. So what do you think? Yeah, I mean, the fact you already have two early round hitters in Machado and Ozuna, you know, I've said before that if I think if you went in a points league just drafting straight pitchers until they were all gone, I don't think that's necessarily the wrong approach. There are a few first round hitters that I think need to be taken before that second wave of pitching becomes in.

basically in a points league I go Bauer de Grom I'm sorry, Beber de Grom Cole to start out but then once they're gone before you dip into the next tier at pitcher I would make sure Juan Soto, Mike Trout, Mookie Betts

Ronald Acuna Fernando Tatis Jose Ramirez, Freddie Freeman and Christian Yalach I'd make sure all of them are gone before I dipped into the next tier but you know again if you just went pitcher until all the good ones are gone,

even ignored that last bit of advice. I don't think it would be, I don't think it would play out so poorly for you as long as you're somebody who knows you're going to play the waiver wire all year and scoop up hitters as they emerge. So I'm fine with that. I'm fine with that.

Maybe all the good pitchers were kept and the best you're looking at in this draft are guys like, like Dylan Bundy. I don't know. I suppose that's possible. In which case you might want to, you might want to rethink that.

think that a little, but assuming there are some good ones out there, I think I would definitely emphasize pitching with your first few picks. Yeah, it's a 10-team league, five keepers each, you know, top of 50 players or so could be kept. But I would agree. I mean, like even in a shallower league, that means there's going to be even more hitters available that are awesome, and you need to stand out and pitching that much more. So I agree, I would be all right, using my first two pigs, two of my first three, something like that on starting pitching.

This next one from West Six. I'm in the final season of a 12-te-to-head categories. Like, how does that work? Like, you just... All right, we're going to wrap up to our league after this season. Interesting. Who should I take as my three keepers? Mani Machado in round one.

J.C. Rilomuto in round two. Zach Gallen in round two. Sorry, bud. Kyle Tucker in round three. Sunny Gray in round 10. Dustin May in round 20. Matthew Boyd in round 20. Or Patrick Corbin in round 22.

He needs two of... three of those, rather. Ugh. Well, not sure you're winning the final season of your league. Okay, so the only one that seems obvious to me is Kyle Tucker in round three. Not that it's amazing value, but it's fine. At least you're not overpaying for him. Mandy Machado in round one, I think I'd lean toward that.

Well, then you're giving up your first round pick and maybe somebody really good slipped through. I mean, Scott, we don't like Patrick Corrid. But in round 22, yeah, I guess you kind of have to. There's not really... You just have to. There's not really a great alternative. Yeah, all right.

Throwback Machado in round one. Definitely reamuto in round two. It's just... I imagine there are going to be good players getting thrown back that you'll rather use those picks on. So Tucker, keep Tucker in round three, keep Patrick Corbyn around 22. And I guess Sunny Gray in round 10, even though...

Yeah, that's where I was... so high on him either. Yeah. Don't love those keepers, but good luck, buddy. West 6th, Tucker, Gray, and Patrick Corbyn. This one's from J.P. Garn, who are some high K-per-9

middle relief names that weren't around last year and might be called up after spring training this year. Players like Devin Williams. All right, well, this is going to be interesting. I play in a complex

keeper roto league with 11 offensive categories and 11 pitching categories and need to find some sneaky good holds guys with high strikeout rates. So obviously, Scott, it's a little bit easier to answer the holds part of it and the strikeout part. I mean, predicting reliever relief. Here's the thing about Devin Williams. I think this will sum it up. Yeah. I had not, I had not heard of Devin Williams until last September. So, you know, he was already up for a while before I had even heard of him. Um, because that's, that's just like these guys so often come out

of nowhere. Sometimes they're good starting pitching prospects that just get moved to relief, like a Josh Hader, for instance. But a lot of times they come out of nowhere. Somebody who might not make the roster and hasn't had an awesome spring, and we've mentioned him as a potential closer candidate at some point. This year is David Bedner, right? Isn't that the name for the Pirates? For the Pirates, yep. B-E-D-N-A-R. Yep. Seems like he could emerge as that guy, but, you know. So you kind of just wait and see those guys when they emerge.

Yeah, and I don't really think there's going to be any shortage of them. Like, of course, you want higher strikeout relievers, and a lot of people know those names. Garrett Crochet comes to mind, Michael Kopeck. I mean, these are prospects that are going to start in the bullpen for the White Sox. And at least for Kopeck, maybe work his way up to a rotation spot. But they could, you know, get tons of swings and misses, tons of strikeouts. and the other names that we've mentioned before that are just solid setup guys.

Chad Green, Tanner Rainey is one that comes to mind. Jake Deekman for the Oakland A's. I'm looking at K-per-9 over the past two years for relievers. Tyler Matzek, who is on the Braves, actually has a very high strikeout rate. Yeah, he was great last year, and there's a multi-inning reliever, which is nice. He's, you know, sometimes he goes just one inning,

but he's often a multi-inning reliever. Tyler Duffy for the Minnesota Twins. is another one who gets a ton of strikeouts. Adam Ottavino, who is now with the Red Sox. He might work his way into some saves as well. Trevor May is now with the New York Mets. Should get a ton of holds and has a good strikeout rate. Scott Barlow and Josh Stallmont with the Kansas City Royals

should be sitting up for Greg Holland. Stallmont especially a lot of strikeout potential. The whip was high last year, but he could make strides with that potentially. Raphael Dolis with the Blue Jays I mean there's one man down now we know Kirby Yates is not going to be he's going to be out for I think all the entire season

for the Blue Jays so Jordan Romano moves up to the 9th Raphael Dolis likely in the 8th Giovanni Gallegos with the Cardinals we've talked about him a lot anybody else I mean he might be drafted as a closer candidate but yep

if they do go Amir Gareth then Sims will be setting him up Jose Alvarado is one that I keep gravitating towards and he's actually my pick to lead the Phillies and saves this year. I mean, I don't know if that's a bold prediction or not, but I just don't think Archie Bradley and who's the other gentleman? Hector Nerris.

I don't think they're very good, so I'm hoping for Jose Alvarado. And that's the last actual Apple podcast review question we received, Scott. But I did want to address this. Some dude on Apple gave us three stars, three out of five stars, and said that we've, quote, gone corporate. What do you think, Scott? Is that true? Have we gone corporate? Gone corporate. What would that even mean? You know, we read some promos. We do work for a large corporation. That's true.

Maybe we always were corporate. Were we ever the rogue podcast? I don't know. I think if some higher ups at CBS ever listened to me, they'd wonder what I was doing on this podcast. No, stop. So maybe in that way we're not so corporate. I think I keep it pretty casually. looking me wearing my old school Marlins hat and my old school video game t-shirt here. I don't know. I don't know if that's corporate or not. One thing that I will say that Adam, look, Adam and I do things very differently.

I try my best to listen back to what Adam has done. And I try to replicate a lot of the great things that I thought he did on this podcast. But one thing that he definitively is better at than me is just like whatever just pops into his head that day that he did, For example, you know, if he saw peeps when he was at the supermarket, he would bring up peeps and you guys just talk about peeps and just go down a rabbit hole of talking about stuff like that. So I could probably do a better job of just bringing random things from my outside life. But I just, I kind of think like people don't care about that. And they'd just rather hear us talk about fantasy baseball. So well, it's certainly tricky to find the right balance of that. That stuff is fun. Easter's coming, Scott. Do you have any any peeps takes that you want to update the people with? Well, look, I'm known for my take. on peeps, which it's actually been misinterpreted.

People that have interpreted my take on peeps that they're like the best thing ever and I'm obsessed with them. My take is actually that I don't understand why people revile them so when it's basically a marshmallow covered with sugar. And like people are fine with marshmallows. People are generally fine with sugar. And they're like, why is this combination since people over the edge? I don't get it. I think people are fine. I actually think Easter is great for candy.

It offers some of the best candy. They're all polarizing, apparently. The Cadbury chocolate eggs, those are. Well, you're talking about the ones with the candy shell on the outside, right? I believe so. Those are great, for sure. But I think my favorite is the Cadbury cream eggs, which some people think is icky too, I guess.

I don't know. They get, they don't like the consistency of the cream or something. I don't know that I've had, I've definitely seen the label of the cream egg. I don't know that I've ever had one in my life. I think it might be my single favorite candy. Oh, man. And then the other one is jelly bean, but specifically black jelly beans. I could do without all the other jelly beans.

I actually bought a bag. I found it in the store for a first time of just the black jelly beans, which I think are amazing, but again, some people think they're disgusting. So I don't know. Maybe I have horrible tasting candy, but cabberry cream egg. black jelly beans and peeps I'm fine with all of them I'm good with all of them give them to me I'll eat them up this time of year man and I hope people are listening to this mailbag podcast because these are the takes that they need to hear and black

liquorish Easter I mean jelly jelly beans Scott oof yeah those are rough get that you get that tingly feeling on your tongue when you eat them those are those are polarizing for sure you either you either really like those or you absolutely hate them. There is no in between. It's so true. When I was checking out at the grocery store with the bag, the lady who was scanning my groceries, she was like, where did you find these? I didn't know they have these. Like, I think you and I are the only people who like black jelly beans. And then the bagger person was like, nope, me too. So like, it's just like, yeah, it's like, it might be the most polarizing candy out there. Yeah, you and two other people in a supermarket. It might be the only three

people in all of Florida who like black licorice jelly beans. So I'm definitely out on those. They don't sell any other color jelly beans, at least not in a typical grocery store by itself. That's true. They don't just sell orange jelly beans for whatever reason. If you are watching on the video side, don't go anywhere. If you are listening to the podcast, we're going to take a quick break. But when we return, we have fantasy justice for all. So last week, Scott, I did the mailbag with Chris. And we debuted a new segment called Fantasy Justice for All. We said, we did a fantasy justice for all. For All. And of course, you were around for regulators. Since then, we haven't been able to do regulators because for copyright purposes. And Adam on the football side has gone to the fantasy cops.

So basically, I just blended fantasy, the word fantasy, in with the Metallica album and Justice for All. And I thought it made sense. Fantasy Justice for All. So that's what I've come up with. And for this, you know, this is, if you have a non-fantasy related question, if you have a commissioner question or just any type of league rules or anything shady going on in your league. Just email us in and drop the word fantasy justice in the subject line and we will get to your question. And also, Scott, whenever I am getting ready

to read a fantasy justice question, we have this little sound bite. Some nice little epic music. It's like we are getting ready to judge you for what is about to happen. That music sounds a little corporate to me, Frank. Yeah, that is. I just realized I wrote from, from Atlanta. So it's from somebody in Atlanta. I will find out your name in just a second. Let's pull this up. Fantasy, Justice for All from from Jake, from Jake in Atlanta. Okay, so bear with me a little bit here. My home league with all my high school buddies is a head-to-head points league with up to three optional keepers. We did not play last year and the year before that I was the runner up. Therefore, I pick 11th in the first round and second on the turn.

Yes? Well, the commission says that only, that only starts in round four. First three picks I'll pick at the end. Fourth round two. So if I keep zero players and another team keep zero players, they will pick in front of me rounds one to four,

even though neither of us are keeping a single player. When I bring this out to the commission, he says it's my choice to not keep anyone, so it's fair that I pick last. First, oh my God. This is all over the place. For most important, technically, if everyone select zero keepers,

the entire league, save one team, will pick ahead of me four consecutive rounds to start the draft and completely tank my season before the first pitch is ever thrown. He also says the app

will not let him start the snake in round four. Either snake or none at all. I told them there's enough tools out there to make the draft work however we want. This cannot be the first time this issue has come up. Thanks for

regulating, although it's whatever, fantasy justice for all. Okay. Yeah, so there's a lot going on here. It's kind of convoluted question, but yeah, I mean, it definitely seems weird that why don't they just use a snake type of, even if there are keepers involved, they don't understand

why that would change things, right? It's weird. Well, I mean, if this is, if these are the rules for the league, the two participants in the championship game, I guess. Yeah. they don't they have to pick at the end of every round the following year i mean that's a little

me i mean even if it was the first round right say you okay whatever you finish in second place you have to pick 11th out of 12 and if you win the league you have to pick 12 out of 12 it should still snake right i mean that's kind of crazy i mean not if they don't want it to i'm fine with it i mean i understand the rationale for you're you're trying to encourage parity um and And I actually play in a league like that, one of my score sheet leagues. It's just the champion, but he drafts last in every single round the following year while everyone else gets to snake. So it's not unheard of. You know, if the commissioner springing this rule on you for the first time this year, I could understand being miffed by that.

But if it's the way it's always been, I don't really see a problem with it. As far as setting up the draft goes, you can set up a draft so that you, you, you, you set the draft order every single round. You don't have to commit to snake or not. You can customize every pick in your draft in terms of what order it happens. So that shouldn't be a problem. Indeed.

No, I agree with, okay, if this is how the league was set up, sure, like you should go with it. You should know the rules by now. But it kind of sounds to me like this guy is changing things out of nowhere. Well, if that's what happened, I didn't necessarily read that from this.

But if that's what's happening, Yeah, I could understand being upset about that ultimately, you know, unless you and a bunch of other people badger the commissioner and he changes it. I don't think there's much you can do about it. But I could see being upset about that. If the year you do well is the year he decides to make this change. Yep. Rules are rules.

If this was in place and you got to play with it, if this commissioner is just bringing it on you, then I say you all revolt against him. Boom, fantasy justice. Emails, fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. This one's from Adam, as an expansion team entering into an already established 10-team 5-5 Roto League. I've accepted I won't be competing for the next couple of years while I stockpile

young starlets. However, my main question comes down to the first pick of the upcoming draft. Should I opt for slugging like Raphael Devers or pitching like Lucas Yolito? Yes, those are the top two players available. Things are going to be rough. which would be better to build around for the next four-ish years. Additionally, do you have any super hot young sleepers? I should be targeting.

I am in a unique position where I can comfortably reach, say, for someone like Gavin Lux, while other guys are still grabbing players to compete, like Paul Goldschmidt. So first question, Scott, Devers or Gialito, if you are in a keeper league and looking for someone who's going to be the better one over the next four years and some young.

hot sleepers. Well, you know, I value somebody like Lucas Gialito more, but if you're thinking long term, it's harder to say that a Gialito is going to remain a Gialito than a Devers is going to remain Adever's. But this is a 10-team league. Very shallow. It's roto. It's roto, by the way.

Still, very shallow. I haven't, like, I don't really see. myself ever go in like the long-term rebuild route in a 10-team league. I just think I have enough confidence in myself to assemble a competitive team on the fly regardless of what hand I'm dealt. So if I were you, I wouldn't go the route you're suggesting here and picking up a lot of a lot of prospects or less than established players so that you can hope to compete in two or three years. I mean, if it was like a 24 team

league, okay, I understand that. But 10 team league, like, there's half of everybody's roster is going to turn over before the end of the season, if not more than that. So, like, I just, I don't think you need to pigeon your hole, pigeonhole yourself into that plan.

Pigeon your hole. Oh, pigeon year hole. Oh, man. You can tell. We are just losing it, man. And the baseball season hasn't even started yet. A few younger names, though, if you just wanted to that I could see moving up a couple of rounds and value over the next couple of years. Andrew Vaughn, we've been talking about a ton. Recently, I wouldn't mind reaching on someone like him. Alex Kirillov, we were excited about. Still are, but he's not going to start the season with the

Minnesota Twins. Nick Senzel, someone who's getting a lot of hype right now with the Cincinnati Reds. Those were three hitters that I could see emerging and being drafted much higher in drafts next year. This next one's from Colin. One thing I don't think is spoken about enough is how you're in-season. and strategy plays into your draft strategy. For example, I play in a six-by-six category Keeper League with quality starts and OPS as the added categories, and I feel fine

completely punting saves and stolen bases in my draft with plans to either pick these up, off the waiver wire, or trade future draft picks for those categories if I am in contention down the stretch. Shouldn't this be an important factor going into draft day?

Yeah. Yeah, it's an important factor. I mean, I don't know that we've necessarily addressed that as a topic specifically, but it's kind of folded into all of our draft analysis. Like, you know, obviously I've talked before about how if it comes to it, I'm okay coming out of a roto draft without any saves because I know they're going to be tons emerging on the waiver wire over the course of a season. I think that's harder to do with steals because the kind of steals you're going to find

on the waiver wire might be from very bad hitters overall. so it would be difficult to slot that into your lineup without sacrificing in other areas. So I don't know that I'd recommend it for that category, but for saves, I think that's the one category you can do it with. But, you know, I mean, even what I was saying about head-to-head points leagues earlier, drafting all the high-in starting pitchers until they're gone,

that's because I know I'm going to be on top of things on the waiver wire and I'm going to snag a bunch of hitters who nobody saw coming at the start of the year. and I'm still going to end up with a quality lineup that way. If that's not you, if you're not going to operate that way, then you've got to be a little more balanced from the get-go. So, yeah, it factors into all of it. This is more about you, the listener, right?

So this comes down to what kind of manager you are. And if you've played fantasy baseball in the past, you might have an inkling into what your strengths and what your weaknesses are. And I would say, play into your strengths, right? if you know that you are good at finding saves and steals on the waiver wire or finding trades, buy low trades for those type of players, then sure, you can come out of the draft punting those things and you can build up an awesome starting pitching staff and you can have all this power. And then if you want to trade off later on in the season, because

you're leading in those categories in Roto to try and acquire some saves or steals, then sure, you can go after that. But it's really hard for us to specifically talk about something like this because every fantasy manager is different. I mean, if you've played ever, you should kind have an idea of what your strengths and weaknesses are. So I think ultimately, you know, we do our best to analyze each player and say what they provide. And after that, you should be able to kind of form your own strategy based on what type of fantasy manager you are. This one's from Jack Boyce. Some puns.

So if there's a player that hasn't really had that much of a, that hasn't played that much, shouldn't it be a small stamp full size? Maybe. I should have had the b-dum-ch. Sound effect, ready. Also, Scott should name his next cat, Jose Urquit, Kitty, Kitty. Hmm. I don't think there's going to be a next cat.

Have you ever had a cat before? Hopefully, I live a long life and, you know, opportunity to change the mind. But I'm not, I'm not really a pet's person. It was my wife's cat. I inherited her, it by, I inherit, I should call him a him. I'm enough of a pet's person to at least call him a him instead of it. I inherited him by marrying my wife. wife. But I think once we started having kids, like, even the pet thing got kind of, you know,

she's kind of over it too. She's, she's meeting her nurturing needs with the children. And so, I don't know, she doesn't seem motivated to get another one either. Yeah, I've pretty much gone the opposite route, Scott. I've opted to, uh, to stay away from the, the, the kids route for now. And, and I got a cat. So I didn't name it Jose or Kiti or Jose or Kitty. But, uh, yeah. That's a lot easier Cats are dogs Which one you like more Scott Um dogs

Dogs Bo dogs dogs Dogs are more work though So yeah they are No I realize this is This is kind of a This is an Azer take This is a Stamphill take

But I am big on On cats over dogs Cats are more self-sufficient They don't require as much work Sure they're not as like cuddly And playful and stuff But whatever man It's still a pet you could

Have fun and whatever I don't know You can pet it You can bet it. There you go. You can cuddle with your cat. That works. Pops in your lap when you're watching TV. Sure. This next one's from John. I'm in a roto 5x5 Keeper League. Five Keepers, it resets after five years. That reset is this year. I have the third pick. All the Dynasty Top 300 lists say some version of Ronald de Cunia, Fernando Tatis, and Juan Soto.

I'm tempted to ignore all and go with Mookie Betts because he is the only one of the four with a track record. Thoughts. it's fine. I think you can make the case for any of those four at the top. In fact, I think I have bets too behind Acuna myself. I mean, if you knew that you were only drafting for five years, Scott, you would really take mooky bets for the next five years over Fernando Tatis or Juan Soto? Because I wouldn't. I think it's only five keepers for five years. It's not this is your team for five years.

Sure, but wouldn't you rather keep Juan Soto for the next five years? I would say that towards the end of the, that five-year run, Juan Soto and Tatis are probably going to be better than Muky Betts at that point. But Betz is going to be, what, 32, 33? Yeah. I mean, he's not going to run that much

at that point, I would imagine. Yeah. Yeah, it wouldn't be me, but I don't think it's crazy, I guess, is more the, more of the tact I'm taking here. If, if, I think it's a reasonable pick to make.

But I get what you're saying. Five years from now. A lot's going to be different. So it's always difficult to predict that far ahead. But it's more likely that Ocuna and Tatis especially are still contributing steals. And maybe Soto as well. So if you had the third picks gotten,

it was say it's just Bets versus Soto. Who are you taking? In this, you know, with the hope of keeping him for five years. Yep. I would take Soto. Yep, I would as well. And if it's Tatsis,

I would take Tatsis there. This next one's from Blaine. Grade the trade in an 11-team dynasty Roto League. I give up Bo Bichet. I get Aaron Nola, Jordon Alvarez, Kestin Hiura. 11-team Dynasty Roto. Oh, I mean, gosh. I would trade Bichet straight up for Nola.

So, well, maybe not in Dynasty. But, yeah, I mean, adding Alvarez in there, yeah, that's a good trade for you. A, it's an A. Yeah, that is an A plus. That is a slam dunk. I love it. This one's from Brian.

I've listened faithfully this season, and if I have learned anything, it's that two of the three of you love getting the top three starting pitcher in the top part of the draft. I'm picking eighth, and the only way I'm getting one of those guys is if they do not listen to the podcast as much as I do.

Assuming those top four outfielders are gone, Acuna, Trout, Betts, and Soto. I have been looking at either Tatee's or Freddie Freeman. Regarding Tate's and Freeman specifically, I have almost wanted to grab Freeman over Tate's because I don't think there are really any first baseman to be excited about. Say in the top five, Cody Bellinger, if you assume health,

and the head is on right, being the one exception. The top five short stops all seem to have great potential and maybe I can get one in the third round. Am I overthinking this? Tatis could return top three fantasy numbers, but hasn't had the track record, Freeman has been as steady as you can get, and nobody wants to screw up the early round picks. Does not say what format.

Well, the format makes a difference, because if it's a head-to-head points league, I have no problem with you taking Freeman over Tatis. I might do it myself. But if it's a Categories league, specifically like a 5-5 that weighs stolen bases, you know, 20% for your hitters, I think you've got to take the stolen bases. I think you are overthinking it.

Yep, I would agree with that assessment. If you really want Freeman in a points league, no issue. I think it's close enough where you can make the argument, but yeah, any type of categories league, I would go with Tutsis. This next was from Blake, dear Kelly,

John, John, and Laird. John, John? Kelly, John, John, and Laird? The only Laird I'm thinking of is Gerald Laird, a former catcher. Hmm. I have nothing. I cannot.

Nope, I've got nothing. I was Googling it. Can't find anything. I'm going into my ninth year in a Roto league with OPS instead of batting average. I've always taken a simple approach that power hitters get a slight bump in this format. For instance, Joey Gallo is better

than he would be in a league with batting average. I love you all, but I'd like to hear Scott explain how this draft strategy would change with OPS instead of batting average. Take it away, Scott. Yeah, well, I mean, I think he pretty much he pretty much nailed it.

There are a lot of guys that we expect to have a terrible batting average who are monster sluggers who suddenly look a lot more valuable in this format. Conversely, some batting average specialists who we don't expect to do much slugging

would lose a lot of value. I'm trying to think of a, good example, top of mind. Well, certainly somebody like Nick Madrigal or... David Fletcher. David Fletcher, yeah, those are kind of the most extreme examples. But even someone like Michael Brantley or Alex Verdugo probably lose some value.

Yeah. And, you know, I'm thinking like DJ LaMayhew, I'm sure his OPS, I guess two years ago his OPS was in the mid-800s, right? so that might be that might drop him a little bit we're expecting him to perform more like that no it's 893 two years ago it's still pretty good

and then obviously over a thousand last year so I mean you can look Joey Gallo getting an upgrade makes sense Jorge Salare makes sense Kyle Schwerber I think you got the right idea here yep Kyle Swarber I think gets a boost here Jock Peterson

just players in that mold who hit for a lot of power. Even Max Kepler. Could be solid OPS bad as well. Jesse Winker. Anyone else? Aaron Hicks, definitely. Gonna have a high OBP and obviously that contributes to OPS as well. This next was from Mark. We keep hearing about how starting pitcher innings will be so low this year and valuable for owners.

Kohei Arihara, who is a starting pitcher for the Texas Rangers, put in a normal workload last year when he was in Japan. Should he be talked about more? What do you think, Scott? I think I saw he pitched 139 innings last season. So, I mean, he is conditioned more than other starting pitchers. I don't think that he's, I don't know that he's good, but. Well, that's the thing, right?

Like, it's got to be good for those innings to, for you care about those innings. I see what you're saying. I don't put much value in it. They're going to be, you know, the fact he threw 139. I don't think it might give him a leg up over somebody like Corbyn Burns, but for most of the pitching crop who are established, who are more established than that,

I think they're going to be able to exceed 150 at least. And they'd be just as likely to do that as Arihara. And, you know, I don't have a great feeling about Arahara. He wasn't much of a strikeout pitcher in Japan. and he hasn't looked particularly good this spring. He's pretty... I see him as pretty fringy, if even that. So far, in nine innings pitch for Ariara in the spring,

he's allowed three earned runs with five strikeouts to just one walk, but I think he had a either simulated game or a B game where he got destroyed, and that's not being factored into his numbers here. So, yeah, I'm not sure that he's very good either, but maybe he'll be an innings eater for the Texas Rangers.

This one's from Ryan, dear Buckner, Merkel, and Snodgrass. Those are really distinctive names. I feel like we should be able to figure this out. Sounds like something we should know. Hmm.

You gonna Google that? I'll Google that. No, I'm currently... These are sports blunders, I think. Bill Buckner, Fred Merckle and Fred Snodgrass. I think so. That's what we'll go with.

Sure. I don't know Merkel and Snodgrass. Sorry. This is the final year of my 12-team Head to Head Categories League. Another one is interesting. So I have a win-now attitude and am not concerned with future value.

Categories include runs, home runs, RBI, stolen bases, K's and OBP, pitching, saves, K's, holds, ERA, whip, and quality starts. Okay, you are keeping a lot of people, so I'm not going to read that. My pitching is weak,

so I intend to use my first two to three, three picks on starting pitchers. I do have concerns about the quality of starting pitchers out there since each team is keeping up to 12 players. All right, so I can only keep three of the following. We already, oh, wow, this is crazy. So someone sent this as an Apple Podcast Review question, and we already answered it.

Oh, that's the same question. And I pulled it from an email, too. It's the Kyle Tucker in round three, Patrick Corbyn, and I thought it was 22 before, but now he says round 21 and Sunny Gray in round 10. It was that one. Yeah, that's what we'll go with. This one's from Robert.

I like that the rest of your team is good, though. And now that I know that, I was kind of ragging on you before. Yeah, that helps for sure. This one's from Robert. Hey, Wanda, Thor and Hulk. We know, though. Those are Rugrats, of course. Keeper League, keep six major league players, and you keep eight minor league players.

I give up Charlie Blackman, Anthony Rizzo, Chris Bassett, Kyle Wright, and a 2022 fourth-round pick. I get back Alex Kirillov, Andrew Vaughn, Hianjiru, and Marco Gonzalez. I like it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so that's Blackman, Rizzo, Bassett, Kyle Wright, who just got optioned by the Atlanta Braves

and a fourth round pick. Rizzo obviously still has a good amount of value. Charlie Blackman. Yeah, I don't know. Look, the way I break this down is he's getting Junjunin Riu and Marco Gonzalez back. I think Junjunin Riu and Marco Gonzalez for the two. good players he's given up, Charlie Blackman, Anthony Rizzo. I think that would be a satisfactory

trade as it is. And then it just so happens. The other two players, he's getting back our huge prospects, Andrew Vaughan and Alex Kirillov. So I think it's a pretty easy deal. This one's from Jeff in Cedar Rapids. I'm curious to know how someone should approach prospects in redraft leagues. When Carlos Correa came up, the guy who won my league drafted him somewhere around pick 100, which was considered a reach at that point. But his team went on fire once Correa got the call up. Noting this, I picked Lucas G. Alito and Trey Turner off of the waiver wire the next year. I realized they're both fantasy studs now. They were not in their rookie years. Both struggled. Vowing never to make the same mistake again, I dismissed Ozzy Albies and Ronald

Coonio their rookie years, and that proved to be a mistake. The next year, I toyed with the idea of drafting Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and decided I wasn't willing to pay the price, at least not in this format, that proved to be wise. How do you determine if a prospect is going to be a potential league winner like Albi Zakunia and Correa or in need of maturing like Lucas Gielito, Trey Turner, and Vladimir Guerrero. Well, I don't think it's a, I think you're taking a blanket approach here when it's more of a case-by-case basis thing for one thing. For another thing, it is difficult to tell that with any real accuracy who's going to

be the guy who takes off right away and who isn't. I look at things like plate discipline. I look at, you know, the way the organization talks about the player, what some of the scouting reports say. I look at that kind of stuff and make a determination from that. But it's kind of an educated guess. Really, what it comes down to, for me, when I say, don't make it a case by case, do make it a case by case's thing, is what your level of investment is going to look like. So if memory serves, Ronald Acuna was going in like the round 8, 9 range when, you know, heading into his rookie season. When Vladimir Guerrero, I saw him get pulled up to round 2 in some lakes.

So it's a big difference what you're sacrificing to take the chance on the rookie. This year, somebody like Andrew Vaughn, I find the price tag to be quite reasonable, you know, getting them like in the round 15 range, potentially. so that's easy for me to do because the upside, there's not much risk with the downside at that point. The upside, of course, could be very rewarding. So more than who that actual player is, it's more about what you sacrifice to get him and whether the reward outweighs the risk at that point.

I suspect Lucas Gialito and Turner when they got called, yeah, I mean, you said you picked them up off the waiver, whereas no harm in that. You know, it didn't work out. You moved on. And anytime you see a big prospect called up during the season, you should pretty much always make a play for him. I'm not saying blow half your fab budget for him,

but, you know, take a shot at picking him up just to see what happens because a lot of times they can become league winners. Yeah, and for whatever reason, we've talked about this before, Scott. The top prospects in baseball this year are going later in redraft leagues than ever before. Jared Kellnick of the Seattle Mariners is going right around pick 197. According to Fantasy pros, Wander Franco down at 277. We don't know when these guys are going to be up, but we feel pretty confident. We'll see Jared Kellanick in April at some point.

Even Wander Franco. Even Wander Franco. It could happen. McKenzie Gore. Right. Yeah. You don't want to devote four bench spots to those guys. I think I am in one league.

It's a pretty big bench. but a bench spot or two to see how things go for them when they get called up. I think it's likely all of them get called up early enough that it'll be worth, at least finding out will have been worth the weight. Yep. And I would throw maybe not to the same extent in terms of upside, but I would put Logan Gilbert's name in that mix with the Seattle Mariners. I think we could see him up by the end of April as well.

we're going to wrap there for Scott and Frank thank you all for listening and watching fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again on Monday. Bye-bye!