Fantasy Baseball Today - Bonus Mailbag; Multi-Position Eligible Players, Two-Catcher Leagues and more! (3/13 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 13, 2021

Frank and Scott are answering all of your questions but first, where's Chris? Byron Buxton really got hurt eating steak!? ... We start off with your Apple Podcast review questions (1:50). Why are two-catcher leagues a thing? Outside of Dylan Moore, who are some late-round multi-position eligible players to pay attention to? ... Let's move over to your email questions (38:44). What is the most likely Kris Bryant scenario this season plus keeper questions! Email us at [e-mail]. 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.

It's mailbag time. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Saturday, March 13th. Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White. I hope Chris is doing all right. The craziest thing happened to him, Scott. Chris cracked his tooth while eating steak. He had to go to the dentist and get a crown immediately, so I hope he's feeling all right, man?

That is crazy. That's a tough steak. Yeah, it's pretty tough, man. I mean, how do you prefer your steak, Scott? Are you steak? Do you like steak? Yeah, I like steak. I'll make people angry if I say how I prefer my steak.

I'm not going to say I prefer a well-done. I prefer it medium, but too much pink is off-putting to me. No, I'm with you. Medium well. I'll say it. Loud and proud. Medium well. We're going to get some feedback for that 100%, but I'm here for it.

I'm just kidding. None of that happened to Chris. I just wanted to shed some light on Byron Buxton. That's actually... Oh, is that what happened to him? Yeah, so that happened to Byron Buxton on Thursday. You can't make this stuff up. Byron Buxton can't even eat a steak without hurting himself.

It's... Yeah. And this is the Saturday. show we're doing here. That's right. We're recording it on Thursday. So it's relevant now while we're talking about it.

But I thought it was fun to poke Chris a little bit because he's not on. And he's a big Byron Buckson fans. So can't make that kind of stuff up. Let's jump right in because we have a lot of questions to get to Scotty. And we'll start off with some of our Apple

podcast review questions. Thank you to everybody who has left us a five-star review. Drop a question in there. And thank you to everybody who is currently sending in your podcast submissions, those have been awesome. You can continue to email those

and just email us any questions that you have about fantasy baseball. Fantasy baseball at CBSI.com is the email for that. This first one's from Duke. I'm in a 12 team salary cap $260 budget.

We start 10 pitchers, two at each infield position, five outfielers, and one utility. It's pretty deep. Keep Dom Smith or Dansby Swanson each at $3. Already keeping Lance Lynn,

Carlos Carrasco, and Luke Voight. Oh, it's Swans. It's Swanson because there are no concerns about the playing time because shortstop. I mean, if every team's doubling up at every position, you're not going to like the back end of the shortstop position very much. And presuming it's a category as league, he'll give you some steals too. So I think Swanson pretty easily. Yeah, I like Swanson quite a bit.

It seems like maybe we haven't talked about him much. We spoke about him during our shortstop preview, but Swanson was really good last year for the Braves. 274 batting average, 10 home runs, 49 runs scored, 35 RBI. The run scored, I don't know that he's going to be on a similar pace to that because it seems like he's going to bat a little bit lower in the lineup this year, maybe fifth or six for the Braves. But yeah, he made some adjustments, started spraying the ball all over the field.

Big fan of Danesby Swanson. We've been waiting a while. He's finally coming into his own. This next one's from Sebastian. Pick two of these guys to keep. Zach Gallin in the 12th, George Springer in the 11th, Jordan Alvarez in the last round and Corbyn Burns in the last round.

I think it's actually Gallin and Burns. I mean, the value is great for all of them, but if we're just drafting them straight up, the order I would pick these players would be Gallin first, then Springer, and then Burns before Alvarez, and you know, you got that 11th roundkeeper cost for Springer, last round keeper costs for Burns.

So that kind of makes up the difference. there. And plus, I just want to make sure, just want to make sure I'm not short-handed with the pitching in a keeper league. You don't know who else is being kept. Yeah, it's a good point. I was going to say, if you can keep Alvarez and he maybe just bumps up one round from the second to last, I'd be really tempted to go that route, just go Alvarez and Burns, but you bring up a good point in like year after year? You mean Alvarez and, do you mean Alvarez and Gallin or Alvarez and Burns? Alvarez and Burns. So they're both last round keepers. I assume one of them would have to bump up to the next round. So you're thinking future years, how, how, how, how, how,

how the keeper cost escalates would make a difference here for you. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, that's fair. That's fair. And we don't have that information, but just from what I know, I'd say Gallin and Burns. And like, I might anyway. I might anyway.

Gallin and Burns for Scott, Alvarez and Burns for me. But at least you know Burns is the one that you're keeping for sure there. This one's from App Game Maestro. With the uncertainty of closers for each team, has anyone ever thought about altering the saves category to be a team category instead of an individual one? Draft the Tampa Bay Rays bullpen instead of any of their closer candidates.

Fantasy football has done this for team defense. What do you think of this idea, Scott? I feel like I've heard it before. It's obviously not widespread. I don't care for it. I don't know. I don't really get... the

push to do away with saves, I understand they're harder to secure, but like, do you just not want to do anything? I don't know. That's kind of the fun of playing out the season is,

you know, figuring things out along the way. And I think it's added an interesting strategy wrinkle. It was already a volatile position with a lot of turnover and just the fact that every manager is so tight-lipped about how they want to use their bullpen arms and they don't want to pigeonhole guys into roles.

It's just added another layer to that. No, to me, it's not appealing at all to do, to go the team bullpen route. usually I am with you on this Scott I like the chase for saves and I don't like that any time there's something tough to deal with in fantasy any type of fantasy

the first instinct is just oh get rid of it same thing in fantasy football oh tight end stink well let's let's add another flex spot let's get rid of tight end no I mean that's what makes fantasy football fun is that not everyone has a great tight end and that's where the strategy comes in when when you're drafting and the same thing for saves

but this is actually a pretty interesting idea It makes things easier. I wouldn't be opposed to trying a league like this. It sounds pretty interesting. Someone emailed in recently that their league does, you draft an entire team's rotation. And that's your pitching staff. Yeah, I've seen that too.

Yeah. It's interesting. Why not draft an entire team's lineup, you know? Just three draft picks. Lineup, pitch, rotation, bullpen. That's it. This next one's from Jay and Cincinnati. Deer Cliff, Lars, Kirk, and James.

Scott, if you don't know this, then I might quit my job. Oh, man. You might have to quit your job. Sounds familiar. I will give you one hint. Okay. They are my favorite band. Okay, it's a band.

You don't know my favorite band? Come on, Scott. Cliff Lars. Oh, Lars. All right, who is it, Frank? I'm sorry. Well, this was the last podcast. we're ever going to do together.

It's Metallica, Scott, it's Metallica. Oh, gosh. I probably should have known that. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm really not, really not a music guy. I'll let you slide for now. Ten team head-to-head categories league. We keep seven already keeping Aranola,

Luis Castillo, Jack Flarity, Bryce Harper, Kyle Tucker, and Corey Seeger. Some damn good keepers there. Keep one of Jose Berrios, Zach Granky, Charlie Morton, Byron Buckson,

Cabrion Hayes, or Ryan Mountcastle. Just one. Okay, I presume you're keeping them all on equal terms. Seven is still a decent amount of turnover, 10, a very small league, obviously. So I pretty much just picking whoever,

whoever should be drafted first in 2021, which would be, uh, Granky. Granky, I had a Berrios. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I think it's pretty close there. if you wanted to lean with the youth, not that Berrios is super young, but he's younger than Granky, so I wouldn't mind that. Some people email in and ask, Scott, do you factor in thinking years in advance, right, in a league like this?

So would you take A. Cabrion Hayes because he's the youngest of the group and he has like this big potential? Would you keep him rather than one of the older pitchers because, you know, Hayes might turn into a superstar? So I kind of shortcut the process there, presuming people have heard me give the whole spiel before,

but basically it depends how good the draft pool looks in your keeper league from year to year. This being a 10-team league, very shallow. Only seven keepers.

So, you know, you know there are going to be good players in the draft every year. So you don't need to, you don't need to play the long game, really. If it was 10-plus keepers, certainly like 15 keepers,

or if it was like, if it was a deeper league and the draft the draft supply wasn't going to be so great then you you kind of have to you kind of have to hoard

talent in a way that might lead you to to keep the younger guys just because they'll be around longer you know so seven keepers is getting borderline but I think because it's such a shallow league I want to have a problem with you Keep in Burrios. I think it's a close enough call between him and Granky for

2021 that maybe just keep the young guy versus the very old guy, but I'd probably lean Granky. Wait, Scott, did you say shallow? I can't get over that. Such a great song from Chris. This text is from Matthew. You talk a good bit about two catcher leagues, but after playing fantasy for 10 plus years, I've not only never been in one, I've never known somebody in one. Are they a real thing? If so, why? Oh, they're certainly a real thing. That's the industry standard in Roto League.

For Roto League, Tout Wars is Two-Catcher League, ToutWis is Two-Catcher League. I mean, those are probably the most well-known leagues I play in. But all the in-house Roto leagues we do, two-catchers. Why? So I feel like nobody ever likes my answer to this, but I I'm pretty adamant about it. When you have only one catcher versus five outfielders versus a middle infield spot, a corner infield spot,

how deep you're going into those other positions? Like, it's so much deeper than where you're going at catcher. And it's amplified because nobody picks up a catcher to fill any other position. So in one catcher leagues, the number of catchers that are rostered are the number of teams there are. and that's it. So, you know, relative to those other positions, you're just not going deep enough into the position. And you look at the waiver wire and,

wow, those are some pretty interesting catcher options out there. But, like, there's no reason to pick them up because, like, it just makes the position too easy. Two catchers, I mean, it kind of, it kind of goes a little too deep at the position, I'd say. Yeah, we need one. But you can't do one and a half catchers, you know?

So I'd rather do two catchers than one catcher. Yeah. It's a tough situation. It feels like that's just been the standard for so long in Roto leagues, and that's why they use two catchers. There's not, outside of what you just said,

there's not really a great explanation for doing it. And I know I just gave this whole spiel about how in fantasy football, you shouldn't get rid of tight end. But tight ends a lot like catcher, Scott. Like, imagine every fantasy football league had to start two tight ends.

That would be insane. That would be a mess. So, man, like playing in two catcher leagues is tough. That's why some people put more of an emphasis on it. Okay, let me get two of my top 12. Let me invest some real capital into the position. And then there's others who just completely punt it. They might

just take a team's catcher tandem. Max Stasi and Kurt Suzuki together and just take one team's catcher tandem there. You're not going to get as much volume. I tend to punt at catcher in a two catcher league. The one catcher leagues, you have fewer

lineup spots to fill in general, so you need more impact for meets position. actually more likely to go for a high-end catcher in a one-catcher league than a two-catcher league. But, I mean, you could end up pretty. In a two-catcher league, you can really shoot for upside with that second catcher spot, especially. You could go for a Francisco Mejia, who may finally break through for the raise this year, after all those lost years with the Padres and Indians. I like, you know, somebody like Dom Nunez is going to get a lot of playing time for the Rockies

and he has a lot of power and some on-base ability. He could be a big surprise breakthrough last year, this year. You know, in a two-catcher league, you might have drafted Mitch Garver two years ago. He was in the discussion to draft in a two-catcher league, and look how that played out. So, like, it just, there are enough interesting options there that it's kind of nice to have that second spot to explore the position more. Alejandro Kirk this year, somebody who's interesting. Tom Murphy coming back from injury. We know he has big power,

and he's supposed to get like a 55% share in Seattle. I can keep going with deep catcher options, but there's definitely enough to, to, you know, not look at the two-catcher league as such a bad thing. Yeah, I tend to lean on those vets to Yadir Malina, Wilson Ramos. They go later than they should

just because they're old and they're boring, but they seem to be pretty reliable there. and Elias Diaz is someone I'm still holding out hope. I know you brought up Dom Nunez, so we'll see what the split is for the Rockies there. Yeah, those are the two Rockies guys, yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty excited about Elias Diaz. I've wanted him to be a thing for a long time.

It hasn't happened, so we'll see. I keep in these 15-team two catcher leagues, it's like I keep going one way or the other with the Rockies catcher. I think Nunez has more upside, but if Elias Diaz gets the majority of the playing time, it's course field, you know? He had a pretty good year with Pittsburgh. a couple years ago, so he could end up making a real impact.

Right. This next one's from Scott T. who calls himself Shine Dogs Daddy. I don't like that. Shine Dog sends a lot of emails in. No, we're not doing that. I'm going to tend a deep 10-person keeper head-to-head points league to save time. The later you take a player, the longer you can keep them. Who are a couple of later round players you could see getting taken in the first 25 picks by 2022 or 2023. So some late round prospects, Scott, that we're looking at that can become potential superstars

over the next couple of years. Well, I mean, the big three prospects that are going to be worth drafting and stashing in all leagues are Wander Franco, McKenzie Gore, and Jared Kellnick. Those are ones who certainly

aren't going to make the opening day roster, but we'll be up soon and we'll make a big impact, probably, right away. Obviously there are like Andrew Vaughn and Alex Kirolov guys who expect to make the opening day roster at least very soon afterward and they have that kind of

upside too. But kind of going off the beaten path here I immediately think of Brendan Rogers for something like this who's finally in line to be an everyday player for the Rockies second base. He's had some shoulder problems the past couple years but he's healthy again former

top top prospect and obviously has the benefit of course field. You know, this being only a 10-team keeper league, I mean, we don't even need to go that deep, probably. I would, you know, anybody, anybody who's an ex-prospect and is still young and has a shot at playing time, so that one includes somebody like Austin Riley or. Gavin Luxe comes to mind for me, Scott. Yeah, yeah, Gavin Lutz.

Nick Senzel with the Reds. I like. Sure. Sure. I mean, other pitchers, Michael Kopeck, Nate Pearson, even like Terrick Scoobel, I mean, really anybody who's a prospect and is close or has a job already, those are guys that I would be interesting. I mean, in a 10-team league, you can only draft so many of them because obviously the late round picks are going to be pretty attractive,

who are the more proven ones, I mean. But, but yeah, those are the first players I think of. This next one's from Blaine 035. This question is specifically for Scott. So, happy you here, Scott. Good thing I'm here. 11-team, Roto Dynasty. Our draft starts with the 16th round.

Would you trade Max Fried for a 16th round pick so you can secure Kibbrien Hayes? Thinking of doing this because my pitchers are U. Darvish, Aaron Nola, Lance Lynn, Junjin, Ryu, Zach Plesack, Michael Kopeck, and Devin Williams. So if you have that kind of pitching depth in a dynasty format,

Scott, would you want to trade away Max Fried for Kibbrien Hayes? No, I mean, Max Fried is a good dynasty asset himself, and I would take him several rounds before I took Hayes if we were doing a complete redraft, so I understand feel like you're pitching strong there,

your pitching can never be too strong. honestly. Like, even if it turns out you're just running away with the pitching categories and all your guys happen to stay healthy, like you could trade Ryu or Len, an old guy like that. There are going to be several teams in your league who have a desperate need for starting pitching. And you could probably get back more than just Hayes for it if it comes to that. But it turns out you might need all the pitching yourself. And the draft is really the only place you can feel confident you're going to get that kind of

of impact at that position. And it's worth mentioning with Max Freed, and really any players that we talk about as a bust, a lot of them are overvalued. So when we talk about that, most of the time it's based on their average draft position in redraft leagues. If you have Max Fried at a great keeper value

or a great dynasty value, just because we call him a bust for this year based on his ADP, doesn't mean that we're down on the player in general. And same thing with Bobauchette. Someone emailed in recently and asked, oh you guys have bobaschet as a bust i can keep him for one dollar but now i don't know if i should yes you should definitely keep boba shet for one dollar that's one of those annoying things like

and i i tried to clarify um you know i actually have distinct columns overrated versus bust for one thing and and fried is in the overrated column he's not in the bust column but even we were having that conversation on the podcast like obviously bichette's a really good player and is probably going to be a really good player for a long time. I have him in a dynasty league myself and he's like the one untouchable on my team. So like

it's just there's there's there's the redraft context where you're considering what's most efficient with each pick. And so sometimes the bust label gets mixed into that discussion. But if it's, but it's purely

but in those cases it's often just purely an efficiency issue and not really anything to do with the quality of the player himself. This next was from Andrew Deddle, 12-team 6x Six-by-Six Categories League. How would you guys rank Nelson Cruz, Yudan Alvarez, J.D. Martinez, and A. Eugenio Suarez for this year specifically, J.D. and Yordaun are both outfield eligible. So between Chris and Ariel Cohen, I'm taking a longer look at A. Eugenio Suarez and liking what I see. a little more

just the fact that he's oh I just know okay sorry I didn't catch that last line about J.D. Martinez and Yorden Alvarez both being outfield eligible Jordan Alvarez wow that changes things because I was going to say Suarez

just because he's eligible in position and the others aren't so I mean it's close enough between Cruz Alvarez and Martinez the three in most places DH only guys I keep going back and forth

who I prefer between those three so if you have two who are eligible in outfield and one who's not I think Cruz immediately goes but to the back of the line here and I would probably rank them I still think I go Suarez one but it's closer I mean the fact Jordan Alvarez has still hasn't played yet this spring right makes me a little nervous I'll go Suarez Martinez Alvarez but Alvarez has the most upside so do with that what you will yeah I was gonna put Alvarez first on the list without field eligibility, but I think it is close with Suarez.

This one's from Farmer Kurt, Deer, Zach, Slater, and Screech. That is bewitched. I don't think so, Scott. 16 team head-to-head points, Dynasty League. I have a very strong pitching staff while my offense is fine. Would you trade any of Bieber, Garrett Cole, Clayton Kirschaw, Zach Gallin, Kent and Maida, Jesus Lazardo, or McKenzie Gore for a top-of-the-line position player?

which pitcher would you trade? There's no rush to do this. Trading doesn't end before opening day. The reason I want to overdo it with pitching is because pitching gets... There's so much attrition over the course of the season. And you don't know who it is that's going to go down, but one, two, maybe even three of these guys

will go down for an extended stretch. And you'll feel sad that you traded them away before it happened, because now it's going to be much harder to get them after that attrition is kicked in and other guys are losing pitchers as well. So don't do it. Just wait and see how it goes, wait and see

what your actual needs are as things are playing out. It's much easier to fill hitting on the fly than it is to fill pitching on the fly. There's just no reason to rush off and do this. This next one's from Anonymous Guy who plays in a league where most managers listen to you guys. Head to head points. Head to head points.

Keep two as long as you want. Pete Alonzo, Luis Robert, Nate Pearson, De Nelson, Lamette, Griffin, Canning. Head to head points, Scott. Well,

obviously the hitters are much higher and than the pitchers. But it is a head-to-head points league. And if Lamet were healthy, it would be an easy one for him. Yeah, if Lamet was healthy, then he would probably be top of the list here.

But the questions about his elbow. I'm still tempted to do it. I'm still tempted to do it. Keep him and Luis Robert because Luis Robert's ceiling could be like, you know, top five. We could be talking about him like Fernando Tatis at this time next year.

As much as I don't like paying up for Robert in fantasy, like I acknowledge there's still a super high ceiling there. Alonzo, the fact that he strikes out so much and like isn't going to really get any, better from here and first base. You know, it's always, it always has a share of sluggers. I don't know that Alonzo is so worth protecting

in this instance. I think I'd go Robert, and I think I'd go Lamet as things stand now. Alonzo's the safer choice, but I think I'd go lament. This next one's from Brad in New Jersey in a startup dynasty head-to-head categories. What round would you take Shohei Otani? He doesn't say if it's a daily lineup league, but I'm thinking if it's head-to-head categories,

that it might be daily. And that means you could take advantage of both the pitching side and the hitting side. And I have starting to get the feeling Shohei Otani's going to be a big thing this year on both sides, and you'll be really glad that you can enjoy the benefits of both. What round?

he keeps moving up. It would be hard to justify taking him earlier than like round 10, I think. Like you want him to be discounted. Even in a daily lineup league, Scott? Yeah, I don't want to reach for him. I mean, round 10, I don't know how big the league is, but I'm assuming 12 teams are fewer.

Round 10 would be about the... I think it would be the earliest I've seen him go. Have you seen him go earlier than that? No, no, I haven't. Yeah, I think, round 10, you start to get to a point where you feel less confident in your picks in general. So I think that's about where I do it.

If I could squeeze another two, a round or two out of it, great. But like, if you have to have him, I think letting him slip beyond round 10 might be a mistake. I think, I just think if this is a daily league and it's startup dynasty, he's going to be, someone's going to reach on him like way higher than he should go. He's going to be a top five or six round. player, I think. I'm not saying that you should do that,

but I think that's probably where he's going to go in that format. Okay. Sorry, I was, you're right. Dynasty. I wasn't considering the dynasty aspect. So that's a good point. Yeah. Top 50 players, Scott?

I'd still be reluctant. Because like, we're basing a lot on how he looks this spring, right? If we did this a month ago, even in a startup dynasty, who wouldn't be a top 10 round pick. I think I'll move it up to round eight. Okay, fair enough.

This one's from Doug, Dear Mahoney, Tackleberry, and Hightower. That's Police Academy, I think, though. I've never seen it. Nice. You haven't seen the movie, but you know the characters? I know movies pretty well. I have, like, movies are my wheelhouse. I know a lot about movies even if I haven't seen them.

So, yeah. 13-team standard 5-5 Roto League, where I can keep up to six with no contract restraints. I have a fair amount of early round picks from last season's trades. How early do you think I should pull the trigger on Jared Kelnick, 13 teams? How early? Okay.

I don't know. What do you think, Frank? So let's look up the ADP for Jared Kelnick is 203. He's climbing. So 203, it doesn't say I can keep up to six and I have earlier...

Yeah, that's not that many keepers so I don't feel like you have to... But if other people are keeping six... Six players already, he's going to be a top 100 pick in this format, I think. Because you're saying... Because it's already six times 13 being kept, right?

Yeah, 78 players being kept. He's going to be close to a top 100 pick. Yeah, I'll be a top 100 pick in this format. Yeah. If you want to secure that you get him, then eighth round maybe? In a league like this? Sure. I feel like I'm big a... It's hard to say. It's hard to say.

Whatever would equate to, his ADP is 200. Whatever would equate to, if you want to pull him up the board 50 spots because it's a keeper league, if you wanted to draft him inside the top 150, I wouldn't have an issue with that. So just kind of equate that to however many players are being kept in your league. and that's probably how I would go about it. See, it's hard to just pull a number out of the view because in atypical leagues like this, you kind of take your cues from how the draft is going.

Like if I see Andrew Vaughn go, if I see Dylan Carlson go, if I see Wander Franco go, you know, that kind of puts the idea in my head, okay, I probably need to take Kelnick soon if I want him. Right. And maybe Kelnick will get taken ahead of all three of those guys. But, you know, you can't,

you don't want to be so, far out on a limb that you're giving up value either. So I take my cues from the draft room in atypical leagues. And so I just really don't know how to give you an answer. This is the round where you should take them. From Slayer 69 brings me back to my guitar hero days. I had a question for Frank mostly, but would love some input from the crew. I became a baseball fan when I moved to Cincinnati in 2015. It's been difficult to root for a below average team, but I am heavily invested. I'm moving to NYC in three weeks. Welcome.

It's not often that one can potentially get a second team to root for. Who to choose? The Mets or the Yankees. All right, well, first of all, of all the dramatic things I've ever seen. That's right. Moving from Cincinnati to New York, that's a very dramatic move.

I would say I would continue to root for the Cincinnati Reds. I am very big on you should root for the fandom in your geographic location. I am very, very big on that. So if you live in New York and you're a Celtics fan or you're a Red Sox fan or you're a Patriots fan, chances are I don't like you.

I don't like when people do that. But so I would, first of all, I would stick with your Reds, no matter what, you're a Reds fan. Stick with them, follow them. If you wanted to choose a second team, I don't know. Either way, you're probably going to look like a bandwagon fan

because the Mets are about to become really good. We presume the Yankees. Yankees are usually good year in and year out. Not that they perform in the postseason, but that's a conversation for another day. Just pick the Yankees. If you're choosing between the Yankees and the Mets, like, it's, it's, you don't have any, like,

childhood ties to it. Like, just pick the Yankees and save yourself a lot of misery because Mets fans seem to be the most miserable fans out there. Well, you know, I'm not, actually not like I obviously I grew up a Braves fan I lived there for over 20 years and was heavily invested for the Braves I moved to South Florida there was obviously not a thought in my mind am I going to become a Marlins fan even now having lived here 13 years I have no investment in the marlins it's it's really easy uh you know getting getting games out of market these days so

it's it's not difficult to follow your team but I understand you You're a more recent baseball fan probably haven't so closely tied yourself to the Reds yet. You said it was hard to root for them. I can understand a little more in that scenario, but I don't agree with you that you should be a fan of where you happen to live because, you know. You have to, Scott. It's a transient world. Did I use that word right?

Transient? I don't. You're asking the wrong guy. But to me, it's a lot like, you know, when you're in high school and you have pep rallies, right? I mean, there's something to be excited about it's, you know, this is where I'm from. I never leave this living room, so it doesn't matter. This next one's from CDM-O-83, 14-te-to-head categories. I am learning that so many of our listeners play in head-to-head categories league,

so we might have to do more with that. 14-te-to-head categories with keepers. I made two trades recently and curious on your opinions. First, Walker Bueller and Brandon Lau for Whitmerfield, Luis Robert, and Randy Arosa Rana. Okay. Bueller and Lowe from Merrifield, Robert.

I would say that is for that categories league. Yeah, that's good. That's good. I don't think, I think Bueller's going to be underwhelming this year. Obviously,

we've talked about that a lot, and you're getting three base dealers without giving up one. I mean, you kind of lock up the category right there with Maryfield,

Robert, and Rosarena. I mean, not completely, but you do yourself a lot of favors. Yeah, I like it. That's, I mean, give it a grade.

I'll give it a, B plus. The second one, maybe not so much. Lucas Gialito for Kyle Tucker. Nah, there's not a scenario where I would take Tucker over Gialito and you already got plenty of speed

so it's not like that was even a desperate need for you. Got to keep the ace. This next one's from Harfam's. FET is easily the best fantasy baseball podcast available. I have you alone in my elite tier of fantasy pods.

Well, thank you, sir. or woman, whatever you might be. I am in a 12-team head-to-head categories Daily League with a short bench. Because of the limited bench spots, multiple position eligibility provides key middle to late round value. Could you give me some advice

about whether Dylan Moore is worth reaching for in this format, or can you suggest multi-position eligible players to target in later rounds that provide better value than Dylan Moore? Well, you've come to the right place because Scott White loves Dylan Moore. He just drafted him in his Tout Wars team.

So I don't think there's anyone else more equipped to talk about Dylan Moore than Scott. I'm not comfortable going public with that yet, Frank. This was a revelation I had last night is that I'm actually starting to like Dylan Moore as scary as he is, is out of nowhere break through during a very short season. Just the fact that like Shed Long is still hurt for the Mariners,

so he's not going to be in the mix at second base. And now they're talking about batting Dylan Moore leadoff, at least some of the time. Like, he'd have to go really wrong to lose his grip on playing time, I think. And if he's playing, he's going to steal some bases. He's going to pop some homers. I think it'll, I think it'll be at least okay. And I do like the multi-eligibility.

So he lists a few guys here, right? Nick Solac, Honduras him. These were just names that I threw in there. Oh, these were your. suggestions. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

Because the ones, I mean, Andreas Amenez immediately came to mind for me. Actually, I think he's triple eligible, second, short, and third.

And he's, he's somebody I look to for steals. Uh, if steals are a need. He doesn't even specify that they are. But if he's going after more, it seems like they probably are. Uh,

uh, also a speedster. Tommy Edmund. I like it. He's going to be quadrupled eligible very soon. on some sites he might already be second base eligible. And CBS, it's third short and outfield right now, picking up second base,

expected a bad lead off for the Cardinals. And pretty much my cue to take more. Remember, I use draft room cues is basically, whichever goes first between Moore and Edmund, once the first one goes, I try to take the second one. That's kind of where I am now in those categories leagues. Let's see, multi-eligible guys.

Oh, that's 12-team league. Probably no need to go this deep, but like Nick Horner's multi-eligible, and I could see him having Nick Solek-type production this year, is having a big spring. I don't think Brennan Rogers has multi-position eligibility, but he's the name that we like. No, he doesn't.

He doesn't. So-Lack, you mentioned, Ryan McMahon, not that he's going to give you steals, but I think on some sites he might have three different positions. Jake, Jake Croninworth is first, second, short. And I think that's it. John Bertie has...

Second and outfield. Second in outfield, so that helps. He can give you some steals. Hacian Kim, depending on where he plays. I think he only has shortstop. He's only shortstop to start now. But both he and Croninworth, for that matter, could pick up outfield, I think.

All right. I think we gave this person a pretty good list there. and a nice little analysis of Dylan Moore. We're going to take a quick break, but when we return, we have your emails here on Fantasy Baseball today. So let's get to some of these emails, Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com.

Do a little rapid fire style. Get to, let's get to all of these. Let's do them all, Scott. This one's from Matt. Dear Bear, Des, and Kobe. Bryant's. Those are Bryants. I was having a discussion with a buddy

about Chris Bryant that led to an interesting bet. Which side would you take? Side A, Chris Bryant finishes outside the top 150 in a head-to-head categories league. Side B, Chris Bryant finishes inside the top 84. Winner gets money and the option to swap draft positions next season. I like this. I mean, it's very likely neither side wins. Right?

Somewhere in the middle. I'd probably take side C there. Neither? Uh, I have serious concerns about Bryant. I saw him. on the down swing even before last year. I kind of worried if he was on the verge of a collapse.

So maybe over that small sample, it's kind of a confirmation bias thing for me that I'm just not interested. I know Chris feels entirely that is on the other end of the spectrum as far as that goes and thinks everybody's riding off Bryant too quickly. Maybe right. He's still pretty young.

But if you're forcing me to pick one of these more extreme scenarios, I would take side A, finishes outside of the top 150. Yes, we are, in lockstep there, Scott. I will say it's a contract year for Chris Bryant and this all comes down to health. If he stays healthy, I think he probably can finish inside the top 84, but I am in the belief that he probably won't be able to stay healthy and it has affected his production the past

couple of years. So it's side A for me as well. This one's from Dozier. I am in a 10-te-to-head categories league and was offered Freddie Freeman, Whitmerfield, Luis Robert, and Lucas Geelito for my Jose Abreu, Kevin Bigeo, Alex Bregman, and Trevor Bauer. So it's a pretty big one here. Four for four. I think you take it. Freeman's definitely better than Abraeu. Maryfield, I think is definitely better than Bigio.

Robert versus Bregman, you know, I'd rather have Bregman, but in a Categories League, I think a lot of people would say they'd take Robert instead. And Gialito for Bauer basically wash. So I think on the strength of Freeman and Maryfield, the what you're receiving is better than what you're giving up. This one's from Brian in Brooklyn. My particular league withholds

as a sixth pitching category isn't the value of starting pitching diluted and relievers more valuable as they earn holds, saves, and wins along with contributing to ERA and WIP per ATC and the BatX projections run through an auction calculator which you could do on fan graphs.

You can run your favorite projection system there and they'll spit out a dollar amount. Guys like Liam Hendrix and Josh Hader are worth fourth or fifth round draft picks in this format. Does that sound right? Well, I don't know. I don't know exactly how those projections work

in terms of spitting out their round value. I would guess relievers are notoriously difficult to project. So, you know, you're obviously going to have a very optimistic projection for guys like Hendricks and Hader and a very pessimistic projection for lower end closers. The thing about the overall point, though, about relievers being worth more than starting pitchers because there's both a holds and a saves category, I think is flawed, though, because nobody's ever going to get a hold and a save in the same game. True. And usually at any given time, a reliever is only in a role that will. secure him one or the other. You know, even if it's like a Nick Anderson situation where it's going to be, I don't know,

a dozen saves and a dozen holds over the course of the year. You know, how's that so different? Like, wouldn't you rather have a 30 save guy and a 20 holds guy, you know? I don't know. I don't think I agree with the reasoning here. This one's from Kevin in Detroit. My league is changing our 10-te-to-head category. scoring to include innings pitched as a new category, along with saves plus holds, replacing

saves and K-per-9 replacing strikeouts. My question is, how does this change your draft strategy? We start nine pitchers and have four bench spots. Should I draft like normal, move to a more streaming pitcher-type team, grab more relief pitchers? What do you think? Endings pitched, saves plus hold instead of saves, K-per-9 instead of strikeouts? Well, that's interesting because you know the fact that innings themselves are a category really cuts against

you loading up on like Tyler Glass Now Ian Anderson types guys who we worry about them going deep into games consistently and just you know dominating the K-per-9 category because you don't need

the total number of Ks but innings pitch being its own category I mean that that makes that Not necessarily the answer. I probably approached about the same way. Yeah. Maybe stocked down a little for guys like Zach Granky and Kyle Hendricks who are going to suffer more in K-per-9

than they would in straight Ks, but only slightly down because obviously you still want them accumulating innings. Yeah. I don't know that I would downgrade them, Scott, because those guys are going to help you in innings. I think what you need to do with something like this is just build for more balance. So try and get as many high-end relievers as you can,

guys that are going to give you high K-per-9, who, okay, maybe they won't give you saves, but they might give you holds. So you get a lot of those, and then you couple them with starters that are going to go deep into their starts. So I think it's a good way. I think with something like this,

as you add more categories, you really just need to build for more balance. So that's what I would do there. This one's from Cameron. Has a few questions. First, in a Roto Keeper League, I get five keepers that I get to keep for three years at plus two rounds a year keeper cost.

So it goes up two rounds each year. Salvador Perez in the 26th round, De Nelson Lemette in the 25th, Sonny Gray in the 20th, James Karenchak in the 17th, Corey Seeger in the 6th, then Kent and Maida in the 5th, Max Frieden the 8th,

and Spencer Howard in the 20th. Currently keeping the first five, is that the best? So we'll answer that question first. I guess Maida in the 5th, would you take him over any of those other values? Probably not. I'd be tempted to take him over

Corin-Chack speaking as the Corin-Chack guy I just don't know that I want to use one of my precious keeper slots on an unproven closer and again who knows how many high-in starting pitchers

are being kept you starting out with just Gray and Lamett you know I certainly wouldn't want that to be my number one number two or even my number two number three you know. So secure Maeda there in the fifth round. That's at least, you know, you're probably not drafting them any later than the fifth round. And then address next year, next year. You'll probably have some newcomer keeper possibilities at that point. Additionally, I could trade Denelson Lamet, who was a 25th round keeper for Trevor Bauer, who was a fourth round keeper. It's a 12-team league, so Bauer seems more irreplaceable and a higher impact. But the late, round price tag is tempting for Lament. I think I do it.

I think I do it. You're getting Bauer at a two-round discount there. Obviously, he becomes an immediate ace for you. I'd still keep Maida over Corinchak at that, in that scenario, but beginning your season with Bauer, Maeda, yeah, Bauer, Maida, and Gray, as opposed to Gray, Lament, and Corinchak. you're giving up some value there with the difference in rounds, but that sounds a lot more appealing to me.

I mean, obviously, if Lament ends up having a second Tommy John surgery, then you're not keeping him regardless of what the cost is. So, the long-term aspect doesn't even really come into play here. This next one's from Sean. Dear Crash, Ray, and Billy.

I think that's Bull Durham, right? again, I haven't seen it. Oh, well, I haven't seen it either. So we're gonna hear it from the people. Draft spots were just set, and I'll be picking fourth in a 10-te-to-head points league. Could use some advice. If someone in front of me takes a position player, I just take best pitcher available, right? What if all three of CBD go?

That is Cole, Bieber, and DeGrom. Thank you for that. I was having trouble processing that in the moment. Um, head to head points. Yeah, okay. Yeah, just take the best pitcher available. If all three go through, which is how I think all three of us rank them in head to head points, right? We have all three of those top pitchers going one, two, and three.

Yep. Then you have to ask yourself, do you pull someone like Bauer or Aranola up to the fourth overall pick? Yeah, no, I wouldn't. I've been thinking about this because remember the other day on the podcast, I said, I'm to the point where I think I'll pretty much just take starting pitchers. in a head-to-head points leagues until the good ones are all gone. I think

I draw the line at five hitters in particular. Yeah, five hitters in particular. The obvious five, Trout, Betts, Acuna, Soto, and Tatis. I would go with the best of them.

I think I have, I don't even remember. I think I have Soto in Head to Head Points League. I think I have Soto ranked at the highest among them. You know, I saw that you made that change the other day, Scott, and I was like, whoa, what did this happen? The plate discipline is just so good. And I know it is for Bets and Trout as well, but I think it's best for Soto. So I feel like the ceiling might actually be higher for him at this point.

So, yeah, those five hitters, if, you know, if I don't happen to have one, if I don't happen to get Bieber, de Grom or Cole, which is how I rank them. If they don't happen to be in a position to take them in the first round, then I would look at those five hitters before I looked at taking another pitcher. This next one's from Nick, dear Kit, Plow, and Mace.

I have. Which, when I research this, I think it's something Star Wars-related. Mace Winding? I don't know. I think of Knight Rider with Kit, but I don't know who. the name of anyone else in that show. This is where we need, Chris.

I have a question for you about my Keeper League situation. Five by five head-to-head categories league. We use OBP and quality starts instead of batting average and wins. We keep up to five players and they count towards your first five draft picks. I have seven potential keepers. Trout, Jose Ramirez, Max Scherzer, Luis Castillo, Adelberto Montessi, J.T. Realimuto, and Kestin Hiura. So you need five of those.

What do you think, Scott? Trout and Ramirez, of course. Yeah, I think he doesn't say how deep the league is, right? But it's only five keepers, so a lot of turnover year after year. I don't think I'd worry about the long-term ramifications. I would just take the top five he has listed here.

Trout, Jose Ramirez, Max Scherzer, Luis Castillo, and Alberto Mondesi. Agreed. This next one's from Eric, starting a new league with head-to-head points and keepers, but the draft format is a little unique It is a blind salary cap league where we submit one bid for each of and only our starting 22 players. Only one bid.

Okay, interesting. Multiple rounds of bid submissions until rosters are complete. Having seen one year of this league previously, player values can be all over the math depending on what players are catching attention. Do you have any players that you think I can sneak away with using a low bid because they don't have that, quote, name value. Kind of in the same vein, any players that are worth spending up on to ensure I get and have as a keeper. Points are heavily skewed towards total bases and any pitched and strikeouts. Okay, so kind of boring guys that we see fall sometimes. Is that, is that kind of what you're thinking? I don't like going after, in salary cap leagues, I don't like going after the

trendy guy because the trendy guy might go for $5 to $10 higher than he should. And I'm not, I'm ever so confident in any of my predictions that I'm worth paying up that that I'm willing to pay up that much you know um so I I I immediately thought of Carlos Carrasco here because of course my mind goes to pitchers and obviously him dealing with an elbow issue right now only helps your your chances of getting him for a discount same Mike is Mike go ahead Mike is somebody who I just nobody seems to want for no good reason Alex Bregman came to mind for me, Scott. He's dealing with the hamstring, so he might get devalued a little bit. And great in a point.

Rendon. Rendon, too. I mean, he's older, so just not exciting. Either of those third basemen, I would love to get. Yeah. I feel like you could take advantage at third base with a guy like Matt Chapman or Gio or Schella. Or even like Brian. I mean, there's obviously a certain dollar amount I'd take Bryant for.

Yeah, this would be difficult to do, to plan. for because there are always discounts in a salary draft, formerly known as an auction. There are always discounts, but you don't, it's kind of just the discounts happen to be the guys who are last the longest on the draft board, right? And you obviously can't predict how that's going to shake out ahead of time. So I would look at some boring veterans too that are just good in points leagues. Goldschmidt, Anthony Rizzo, Zach Granky. names like that. No one's really excited to do that.

I tweeted this out last week. I said no one's excited to draft Jorge Solair. Well, since he hit a very long home run. But in a points league, he's going to strike out quite a bit. His OVP is very good too. So even Soler, I think, is, you know, he's unexciting, but he could be really good. Yeah.

Yeah. Trying to think of some other. Granky, you mentioned that's a good one. Man, yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I don't think I'm going to come up with another name quickly enough for us to linger on it.

So let's go to the next one. Yeah, we gave a few a decent. Nobody wants Carlos Santana, so put in a bid for him for two bucks. Yeah. He's probably going to hit 30 homers, right? 25 at least. 25 with a really good OBP,

so like that call as well. This next was from Daniel. Hey, Brian, Melvin, Miguel, and Javi. Those are, I don't know. Brian and Javi, is that a Braves catcher? thing, McCann and Lopez. But I don't know how Melvin and Miguel fit in there. I'm not sure. I think these are

Orioles, Scott. Brian Roberts, Melvin. Melvin Moore. Miguel Tehada. And Javier Lopez, potentially. Javier Lopez, yeah. We did our 2020 Keeper League draft, but suspended the league and did a separate standoff league when the season resumed.

We do a salary cap draft and I get to keep four guys at their draft day costs permanently. The budget is $260. below is what I am thinking with the rest of my options. Definite keepers are Glaber Torres for $5. Max Scherler for $3. Max Scherzer for $33.

Up for consideration. Trey Mancini for a buck. Michael Colpec for three. There are a few others here. Max Muncie for 13. Justin Turner for 10. Jack Peterson for 1. Hector Nerris for 18? No.

Jose Alvarado for a buck? No. I think Mancini for one. I'm kind of tempted to go Monday. C for 13, but he's no spring chicken, and there's a chance he falls off pretty quickly. I think Mancini for one makes the most sense. Yep, I like that as well. This next one's from Andrew. Hello, Ted, Roy and Keeley.

No idea. This is, I think it's from Ted Lassow. I think that's a thing. Quick question about how to attack custom league setups in general. Our Keeper League is a 9x9 Head-Tead Categories League, with each category essentially being the different. ways to get points in a points league. With 18 categories up for grabs each week,

should I worry, should I even worry about steals or saves? Seems like a great opportunity to forego those categories in hopes of better players in other categories. Yeah, I'd punt steals for sure, for sure. Unless they just fall in my lap, you know? I'd punt steals for sure, because steals are so isolated from everything else. And I get the argument for doing that

with saves also. Holds is not a category. I think I'd just go, I think I'd go straight starting pitcher. I draft a lot of starting pitchers so they're not going to hurt your ERA and whip, and then you can load up on quality starts, wins,

strikeouts, complete games is a category for some reason. Innings pitched. Yeah, like most of these categories reward starting pitchers. So get the high-end guys who aren't going to hurt your ERA and whip. and then don't even worry about steals. Chances are, if people follow, like the draft room rankings, a lot of the steals guys are going to go early

when you're drafting pitchers, and that should be a welcome development for you. This next one's from Kyle. Hey, guys, I play in a Yahoo Head to Head to Head, Categories League, and wanted to get your thoughts on Isaiah Kinear Foleva, who still has catcher eligibility on Yahoo Leagues with how much the Rangers run on the base paths. How does his catcher eligibility impact your draft outlook for him?

he's probably one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. He's probably top ten. Certainly top twelve at the position. Yep, agreed there. Pretty excited about

Kiner Fleffin. Not that excited is not the right word, but maybe double-digit home runs, 15 to 20 steals. That definitely has a place as a middle infielder in deeper leagues and definitely as a catcher. This one's from Jeremy.

Dear Jack, Pat, John, and Mariano. And I left it in there. sorry Scott oh man world series MVP's against the Braves Jack Morris

Pat Borders John Wetland and Mariana Rivera man man they I don't like the clothes are getting

MVP against you that for some reason that just makes it seem worse right I'm sorry Scott 10 team keeper league Roto 6x6

with OBP with OVP instead of batting average and slugging percentage as the extra category. Quality starts is the extra category on the pitching side. Keeping Freddie Freeman, Nelson Cruz, and Shane Bieber. I need to keep four more from the names below.

Dylan Bundy in the 15th, Jesus Lozardo in the 22nd. And then any of Jeff McNeil, Dom Smith, Alec, Alec, Bome, Santander, Kevin Gosman, Jameson, all in the 23rd round. So four of those. I think I would go Bundy in the 15th, Lazardo in the 22nd. And McNeil in the 23rd. One more. One more. Dom Smith in the 23rd. I like it.

This one's from Darren, dear Wander, Andrew, Jared, and Alex. Wander Franco, Andrew Vaughn, Jarlick.

Alex Kierloff. There you go. You guys have been talking about some of the young guys in spring making noise so far. You guys have also talked a lot about Key Brian Hayes and Alex Kiroloff previously.

Can you rank your priorities for rookie hitters including guys who debuted late last year with a very limited sample size like Hayes and Kirillov. So how do you rank those, Scott? Hayes, Von, Kalenik, Wanda Franco, and Kirloff.

We're talking strictly for 2021, right? That's what it seems like. Yeah, so Hayes von Kiroloff, because those are the three I expect to contribute basically from the start of the season. Hayes, Von, Kierloff. And then I give Kelnik a slight edge to Wander Franco. I think

there's more pressure for the Mariners to call up Kelnick because of the controversy there and I think they'll have an easier time fitting him in than the Ray's will wander Franco. I could be wrong. It could be Franco up first but it forced

I'm kind of having to kind of having to nitpick there and to pick a favor. And I say Kelnick over Wander Franco. This one's from Matt and NorCal head to head five by five categories league. Keep seven. No salaries or contracts. I give Kestin Hira and get Glaber Torres.

I mean, I trust Glaver Torres to make an impact more. Hira could contribute in steals and well, I guess he's not going to be second base Elvis much longer. So that makes it easier. Yeah, Glaver Torres. This one's from

No, this one's from Andy and Casey. Just wanted to ask you for a couple names of position players outside your top 300 that you might eye moving up by opening day. Well, Oh, I have this ready to go. I was jotting down names to move up. Nice.

Outside the top 300, he said. Yeah, I was doing that during our 15-team mock yesterday. So I think these are all outside the top 300. They're at least borderline. Z.J. Cron of the Rockies. Looks like the favorite to win a job there. I think batting average may actually be boosted at Coorsfield more than the power, but both could be.

Ty France of the Mariners, he's looked awesome in the spring. Nico Horner. I already mentioned him earlier of the. Cubs. A couple guys who I don't even have ranked yet, and I need to get them in there. Josh Rojas of the Diamondbacks has been tearing it up this spring, and he's a guy who a couple years ago had amazing numbers in the minors. It looked like a total stud coming over in the Zach Granky trade from Houston.

He's been playing a lot of shortstop. He could end up getting the majority of the playing time at second base. So Josh Rojas is moving up for me. Jaron Jaron. Jaron Duran. I think that's how you say it, right? I think it's Duran. Duran. Jaron Duran of the Red Sox

who a speedster and a contact he turned in the miners, but looks like he's starting to add power and will be taking over in the Red Sox outfield at some point this season. So he needs to move up. Michael Taylor of the Royals now, formerly of the Nationals.

He's going to be their starting center fielder. He has 20-20 potential and strikeouts have held him back at the past but he made a change to his stance eliminated a leg kick. It's a lot more under control and that could help him unlock his potential.

So he's somebody I'm beginning to look at in those deeper leagues as well. That's a good enough list for me. We're going to wrap there. For Scott, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching fantasy baseball today. You won't hear us tomorrow. Tomorrow you will hear

Danny Vietti and Will Middlebrooks. They're doing a National League Central preview, and they also have Rob Freibin, aka the Pitching Ninja, coming on the podcast as well. Ooh, big get. Very nice. But we will be back on Monday.

Bye-bye.