Fantasy Baseball Today - Bonus Mailbag Plus Explaining Different Formats (3/6 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 6, 2021

Before we get to your questions, we're explaining the different league formats, starting with H2H points (1:19). What do you need to know about Rotisserie leagues, also known as Roto and the standard 5x5 (8:20)? ... How about H2H categories leagues (11:54)? Which rankings should you use if you play in H2H categories? ... If you left us an Apple Podcast review question, we answer all of those starting here (17:55). We finished up the show answering some of your emails (48:10)! ... 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.

Hey there, and welcome in to our bonus mailbag edition of Fantasy Baseball today on Saturday, March 6th. Frank Sample joined, as always, by Scott. White and Chris Towers. Just want to give a big thank you to everybody who left a five-star Apple podcast rating and review and everybody else who sent in an email, Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. We are getting lots of questions right now. So if we don't answer your question on this mailbag, I will try my best to get to each individual email as well.

Scott is running on just two hours of sleep. Chris is banged up. So let's jump right in because we have lots of questions to get to. Before we get to the questions, a few people in our Facebook group have asked us to run through the different league formats. So between head-to-head points and roto and head-to-head categories, and just explain what they are, the scoring system, which rankings to use.

So before we get to the questions, we'll actually just start off with this. And head-to-head points, which is, I would say, one of the most popular formats on CBSports.com. It's a lot like fantasy football. So if you're looking to just get into fantasy baseball, I would say that this is the format for you. It's your players accrue fantasy points throughout the week. You're going up against just one opponent.

The standard lineup is one catcher, one first baseman, one second baseman, one third baseman, one shortstop, three outfielders, a utility bat, which can be any position, five starting pitchers, two and two relief pitchers, which can be either closers or sparse, which are starting pitchers that you can use as relief pitchers. The scoring system on CBS Sports might be different from other places, but this is what I've always played with, and I really enjoy it.

So I recommend other people should play with it as well. A single is worth one point. A double is worth two points. A triple is worth three points. A walk is worth one. Caught stealing minus one. Stolen bases are worth two points. A hit by pitch is worth one point.

A home run is four points. An RBI and a run scored is each worth one point. a strikeout for a batter is worth minus half a point. So every time someone hits a home run, you get six points, four from the home run, one from the RBI, one from the run scored. I've been talking for three minutes without letting anyone else talk. So now, Scott, you are allowed to talk. What goes into your rankings on the site when it comes to head to head points leagues?

What goes into my rank? Okay, so my rankings, they're not hugely different between the two. the differences are usually found in like peripheral stats for hitters. So their plate discipline, their strikeouts and walks. If they excel in that, they're going to move up into points leagues. If they're not so good at that, they're going to move down in a points league. So, you know, somebody like Carlos Santana, he's always a points league standout relative to his to his roto value. Because he walks a lot, he doesn't strike out much.

He doesn't hit for much average, but you don't care about batting average. So that doesn't matter in a points league. it obviously matters in roto. You like that he gets on base. So Santana would move up in that format. Somebody like Starling Marte would move down. At Alberto Mondesi would move down. These are guys who don't walk much at all.

And their roto value gets inflated by steals, which are still valuable in a points league, but they're not essential in a points league. And the scarcity really drives up the value of those guys in a roto league a standard 5x5 league. So those are where the biggest differences come in on the hitting end, on the pitching end. Rations are more valuable in Roto,

low ERA, low WIP. You don't actually get any direct points for ERA and WIP. Of course, you lose points for runs allowed. You lose points for hits and walks allowed. But getting points for innings is more valuable than losing points for those. So, you know, a guy like Dallas Keikle,

who tends to have a high whip, doesn't get many strikeouts. Strikeouts are only worth half a point in a points league. But he pitches a lot of innings. He keeps the ERA low enough that he's in line for wins. So he tends to have more points value than roto value on the lower and somebody like Brad Keller. He's not going to have a great ERA and whip,

but he tends to pitch deep into games. So he has more value in points league than he does. and Roto. And then the pitchers who might have more value in Roto, I have a harder time coming up with those, but it stands to reason somebody like Tyler Glassnow would, somebody like Blake's now where you're worried about the workload, but you expect them to have low ERA and whip.

Yeah, and I think it depends. I think it depends if you're talking about a Roto or a Categories League. We often talk about those interchangeably, but the ability to throw two. 200 in a roto league might have more value than in a points league or someone who, you know, you know, is going to make 32 starts. You know, I guess I have value in both. I don't know.

I just realized I didn't go over the scoring format for a head-to-head points league. Sorry, I'm not feeling super great. My train of thought is still boring at the station, maybe. I mean, it's all good, Chris. If you need to take any breaks at any point, no worry is there. Believe me. I know. But for the scoring system for pitchers,

Sky, you mentioned you get a point per out, so it's three points per inning pitch. You lose a point for each of a walk allowed, an earn run allowed, a hit allowed, or a hit batsman that these are first starting pitchers. You get half a point for a strikeout, you lose five points for a loss, you gain three points for a quality start,

seven points for a save, and seven points for a win. So again, might be different in your head, dead points league. This is the standard CBS scoring system that we use. One distinction, because I mean, you obviously still want good pitchers in a points league, and typically points leagues are thought of as being more valuable for pitchers. But I would say there's a lower threshold to meet for a useful pitcher in a points league because a guy who accumulates innings, even if he's not stellar, like a Brad Keller,

is still valuable in that format. Well, he wouldn't be valuable in the other. Yeah, a pitcher who goes six innings with one strikeout per inning, a 1.5, whip and a 4.5 ERA, I don't think we would think that's particularly good, but that is about a point and a half per inning without including, you know, if they get a win. So, you know, whereas in a Roto league, that person's hurting your ratios. So just kind of all pitchers end up moving up in a points league relative to the Roto rankings. It's, you really see more differences in like the top 300s, the overall rankings, at least if you're looking at my rankings.

you see more differences there than if you go position by position. But I do think, you know, the salary cap draft we did last week or earlier this week where all the pitchers were like $40. Like basically if you were a pitcher with an arm, you went for $40. I'm a 35. That's exaggerating. But yeah, I mean, like Luis Castillo went for 42. I think there is a conflation between the super high-end pitchers and all pitchers.

in points leagues. Because like the number one pitchers might score 650, 700 points. That's been about the top over the last few years. Justin Verlander might have been like 7.30 one year. But the number 12 starting pitcher is usually more like 500 points over the course of the season. And so, you know, the difference between a 500 point of one and a 400 point pitcher is big. But I do think to a certain extent,

all pitchers are getting bumped up for the high end guys. We have mentioned Roto a few times already, so let's talk about that. And it goes by a few different monikers, Roto, rotisserie, the standard five by five. This is the oldest way, the most traditional way to play fantasy baseball. And the standard lineup that you use are two catchers, a first baseman, a second baseman, third baseman, shortstop, a middle infielder, which can be a second baseman or a shortstop, one corner infielder, which can be a first basement or third baseman, five outfielders, and one utility. Those are the offensive players who are using in your starting

lineup. And then just nine pitchers. It could be any combination of five starting pitchers, four relievers, six starting pitchers, three relievers. And notice, I'm saying you're more than likely going to have more starting pitchers in your lineup because most standard roto leagues have an innings minimum of somewhere between 900 and 1,000. And that's basically so that you don't just use relievers all season long and keep your ratios abnormally low. Of course it would hurt you in other places, but that's the reason for the innings minimum

and the categories in a standard 5x5. Batting average runs, RBI, home runs, and steals. On the pitching side, wins, ERA, whip, strikeouts, and saves. So, Scott, you talked a little bit about the differences between head-to-head points and Roto thus far. but if you would like to expand a little bit more on what goes into your rankings, I don't head to add points. It's a lot of plate discipline.

In Roto, I assume it's a lot of, you know, steals are a big factor as well. Yeah, you got to mean, it's unfortunate how much you have to move up the base dealers just because there's so few that contribute them in, with any real volume. So they end up getting inflated for sure in that format. It's probably the most frustrating part of the format. I also think there's a big difference in how you approach relief pitchers. I don't tend to pay a premium for them in either format, but it's more justifiable in a categories league, a five-by-five league,

than it is in a points league where most of the points from a reliever are coming from the saves themselves. In a roto league, they can impact more categories and just have greater influence overall. So those would be the biggest differences. Yeah, I guess my just hitters as a whole moved up because there's more roster spots to fill. That's less true in like a head-to-head categories league than a roto league where usually you have five outfielder spots, a middle infielder, a corner infielder. So that just, that requires you to pay more attention to hitters to prioritize them a little more than you would in either of the head-to-head formats with the smaller lineups.

And it's worth noting for rotissory leagues, if people have never played in one and you don't understand how the scoring system works, it's you accumulate the counting stats all season long. So by the end of the year, you'll need, I'm just throwing a number out there, 200 home runs to finish first place in the category. And for each category that you finish first place in,

you will gain 12 points if you play in a 12-team league. If you are last in that category, you only get one point. So by the end of the season, a winning score will be 115, 120 points usually. So you want to be as balanced as possible because those things accumulate throughout the course of the season. Head-to-head categories is basically a blend of both. Head-to-head points and a rotisserie league. You're going up against usually. It's just one opponent on the other side.

And the categories can change. You can add as many as you want. but typically it is the same 5 by 5 categories that you use in a roto league. The biggest difference here, and I'll throw this one your way, Chris, is that there are different ways to change the standings in a head-to-ed categories league.

So there's one format where if you beat your opponent, you win six categories and you lose four, you gain just one win. So your record will become one and no. There is another head-to-head categories format where if you win six and you lose four, your record becomes six and four. So I don't know if there's anything else

you'd like to add on head set categories, but it's really just a blend of both, I would say. Yeah, and it allows for more strategies. I think there's more flexibility because you're not trying to win that overall year-long thing and you can, you know, focus on making a playoff run and other things that you don't necessarily worry about in Rota.

One thing I will add is don't play in a league that gives you six wins if you win six categories. You just do one win per week. You have like we don't decide who goes to the MLB playoffs based on runs scored and runs allowed, who has the best run differential. That's the way you get one win, whether you win by 15 or by two. That's how it should work. If you win your week 5.5 to 4.5, you should get a win because you won. I and I generally just from like a funness standpoint I think when you do the 10 wins per week thing

it's a lot easier for teams to get to fall out of the race early on in the in the season whereas you know if you can only get 23 matchups all year there's a lot more flexibility so I think you should treat it like a normal head-to-head when it comes to the wins and losses not you know this like six to four thing. And I will say in head-side categories leagues, that is where people are more likely to punt categories. Because in Roto, you want to be as balanced as you possibly can. In head-tad categories, if you just need to win six to four every week,

it's easier to punt steals and focus on the other four-cats, the four offensive categories, batting average, home runs, runs, and RBI. And the same thing could be said with, on the pitching side, If you want it to punt saves because they are a very scarce category, it's easier to do it in a headset categories league. Go ahead, Scott. Yeah, if you set it up like Chris who's talking about. If you don't, then it's harder to punt categories.

I try to, and it's difficult because you have to balance the branding aspect. Okay, this term is the known term throughout the fantasy baseball world, so you want to keep using it. You've got to balance the branding versus the precision. the precise term, I think, to avoid confusion when we're talking about traditional roto scoring, I've taken to calling it five by five most often because if you're talking about another categories league,

whether it's roto or head to head, if people are thrown in a bunch of other categories, making it a nine-by-nine league or something, and suddenly the value of stolen bases is diminished considerably. So, yeah, I try, I've been trying to call it five by five more often just for precision purposes, but that's not great from a branding aspect. So it's kind of, it kind of makes it so you end up having to cite three terms when you're talking about the format. And people have asked before, you know, if I play in a head-to-head categories league, which rankings should I use on the site? And I would say if you play in a standard five-by-five head-to-head categories, you know, the same categories as, you know, the same categories as,

a roto league with batting average and saves, you should use our roto rankings for head-to-categories. And if you play in a head-to-head categories league where it uses OBP or total bases, or you have any pitch as a category, then I would say that's more translatable to head-to-head points. So in case people are wondering, I don't know if there's anything else you guys want to add on that, but I could see why it could be confusing for some people. It's less than perfect because there are a lot more hitters being started in a typical Roto League than a head-to-head categories league as I mentioned earlier. So, you know, hitter values might be inflated if you do that.

But just in terms of like if you were going to do it position by position, as opposed to overall rankings, I think it would definitely be the way to go to use Roto rankings for head-to-head categories. And I haven't... Go ahead, Scott. And for overall, you can at least see how much higher the base dealers need to go. And just the lineup, the standard lineup for Head to Ed Categories League, which is a very popular format on Yahoo.

So people who play on Yahoo, you probably know this by now. But for pitchers, it is two starting pitchers, two relief pitchers, and just four pitchers, which can either be relievers or starting pitchers as well. And that's where you get into the strategy aspect, using the Mar-Mole strategy, and maybe not using any starting pitchers. and using only relievers and the offensive side of things, it's the same as a head-to-head points league, just one of each infield position,

three outfielders, but two utility bets instead of just one. So please just keep in mind, when you send in your email questions, we appreciate them. But don't just write head-to-head. Let us know. Is it head-to-head points? Is it head-to-head categories? Is it roto?

Because there are differences between all three. So hopefully that helps everyone out there. Let's jump into the questions because we have a ton of these. start off with your Apple podcast review questions. This first one's from the Ginger King 1031. 12-team Roto Keeper League with quality starts and K-per-9 instead of wins and strikeouts. Keep two. Clayton Kershaw in round one, Max Scherzer in round eight, Steven Schrosberg in round 11,

Zach Plissack in round 24, and Tristan McKenzie in round 24. We will go to you, Chris. What do you think? Two of them. Scher and Plizak. I think those are your two best values. Scott? I was kind of thinking Scherzer and Strasbourg.

I'm surprised Chris went the Plessack route. You can't take on two injury risks like that. Well, Pleesack's his own risk, right? Right, right. But Strasbourg is not just an injury risk. He's a performance risk just because we don't really know. We don't really have, this is the toughest thing with him is there's not really a track record of guys coming back from

carpal tunnels. I was able to fund Jared Eichoff came back and he was never particularly great and he was worse afterwards, but I don't know if that was a correlation. So I've used Strasbourg as

someone I'm okay drafting. I think there's value there, but if I'm taking Scherzer with round eight, I'd rather go with someone who has less injury, less volatility. Well, if you're doing that with police act, then I guess I have to too. So I'm sure. Are in Pleasack.

All righty. This one's from OC Dog Deer, Brian, Freddie, and Bobby. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. I mean, you've got to know this one, Scott. Do I?

Okay, so I was thinking it was Braves related, but I, like, Bobby Cox, Freddie Freeman. Brian McCann? I mean, that just seems like a random selection of Braves. I went with Brian Jordan. Oh, okay. I believe these are the first names of the past three Braves. Managers for the Braves. Yes.

Okay. Well, he spelled Freddy wrong. Yeah, he spelled Fredi. Yeah, he spelled Fredi. Gonzalez does not spell his name like Freddie Freeman. Sorry. Yes. How dare you, OC dog?

In a 10 team, five by five categories league. So, for example, this is just, this is what I'm talking about because we don't know now if you're talking about five by five Roto or five-by-five,

a head-to-head categories league. So keep those distinctions alive. I am keeping Ronald de Cunia, Jacob de Grom. and Aaronola costing me rounds one through three. Looking to trade at Cody Bellinger and Francisco Lindor for extra picks. What is fair compensation? Well, if you can't keep them for, if you can't keep them, then anything.

Yeah, right? But you should be looking for third rounders. Yeah, I think there's a value. Maybe this is a dumb way of thinking of it, but I have a hard time not thinking of it. I think there's value to having good players go back and. to the draft pool because you never know how the ripple effect that's going to have in terms of landing you a better player you know if if lindore's there for somebody to draft instead of somebody worse than lindore then that's going to push another good player down to you um so i'm not

saying that means you have to accept a third round pick for them but like i want to just accept anything for them i want to just accept like a 15th round pick yeah you know yeah that's fair and even a third round pick is probably you know they'll they'll be first round picks in a keeper league so whoever you give them to is going to have an advantage. This next one's from my man, Shine Dog. Dear Barry, Mark and Tim. Oh, A's pitchers who weren't mentioned in Moneyball. That's right.

Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson, and Barry Zito. My Custom Points League awards five per win, five points per win, five points per save, and three points per hold, with a hold being only one point behind a save, should this boost up guys like Drew Pomerant, who seem to be in line for late game work in general, but is it in the form of saves or holds?

I guess, you know, in that case, it doesn't matter because it's going to be, should be good regardless. Noted that it's a 10-team league, and each team must start seven starting pitchers and three relief pitchers. Yeah, I think that's a spot-on take. It boost the value of all three race, who are in the mix for saves

because they'll all probably get some saves and when they're not getting saves they'll probably be getting hold so I think that's and those three names by the way are Nick Anderson, Diego Castillo, Peter Fairbanks

any any uncertain save situation suddenly all the save candidates become about as valuable as a closer. But I will say that the primary impact of that at least in my eyes is it moves the closers down.

It doesn't for me in the overall rankings at least it doesn't move the holds guys up you know it doesn't move Zach Britton up it moves a roll just Chapman down yes and I would say still I would and it's easier to do in saves plus holds just because there's more relievers that are going to provide there but I would try to target relievers on good teams because they're just more likely to get saves and holds because they're more likely to win games so and I think it makes you know these really good starters who we like who are probably going to pitch in relief.

You know, Dustin Mayer, Tony Gonsolin, maybe Michael Copac. There's more out there. T.J. Anton, I don't know if you saw, Chris, five strikeouts. Let's go. Guys who could be starters and you'll want them on your team if they are starters. But if they're pitching in middle relief, they have a chance to get holds as well.

And that could make them at least worth, you know, using as injury replacements in this format. This next one's from J Congo 95 in a deep keeper league. Would you deal Pete Alonzo Luis Severino, starting pitcher Shohei Otani, and Alec Boe Bome, Alonzo, Severino, starting pitch Oetani, and Bome for Jacob de Grom, Christian Yellich, and Paul Goldschmidt, getting the de Grom side.

I can't say yes, fast enough. Unless there's some kind, like unless you've got Alonzo, for like a 25th rounder and Severino for a 20, like, and DeGrom and Yalich and Goldschmidt are all first three. And even then, you still do it. Do it. Take

the train. Oh, I think I have a soundbite for that, don't I? Yeah. Take the trade. Let's go. This one's from CDM-083. I recently rejoined a league after taking last year off. Come on, man. Keep playing fantasy baseball. Can't take any years off. I need help with

deciding all my keepers. Points league scoring with a limit of seven starting pitchers on the roster. Need to pick five out of the following. Pete Alonzo, Paul Goldschmidt, Ozzie Albies, Manny Machado, Marcel O'Suna, Javier Baez, Aaron Judge, Trevor Bauer,

Clayton Kirshaw, and Lance, Lynn. Okay, so, Machado, Albies, Bauer. And two more. Machado, Albies, Bauer, then it gets a little harder. Ozuna and Kershaw.

I was going to say the three starters plus Machado and Judge. I was going to say the three starters as well. Plus Machado and I think I would take Ozuna over Judge just less injury risk and he's really good in points too.

He walks a decent amount as well. Yeah, yeah. All right. I mean, I don't need to be talked into more pitchers. So we're going to say Bauer, Kershaw, Lynn, Albiz and

Machado leave out the outfielders altogether. Albies over Marcel Ozuna in a points league? Yeah. Yeah, I'd rather have either Judge or Ozuno over Albies. Yeah, I think I agree with that as well. So, if you agree with me and Chris, take an outfielder. If you like Scott's analysis, then take Ozzy Albies. This one's from Dylan Harrison in a points league.

Who do you like more when drafting and why? between Lance Lynn, Kenta Maeda, and Zach Plesack. It's Lynn for me, but I think it's, I think it's pretty close between him and,

uh, my Ada. They're both in like the mid to late teens in my starting pitcher rankings, I think, but I do have Lynn higher. And I think that's especially true in a points league where,

um, you know, he's going to go deep into games. He should make a lot of starts. Uh, you know, he might pitch 30 more innings than, Kenta Maeda. Scott?

I prefer Maida. I don't think the gap will be that big. Maida, I think, is very consistent about going six, which is the main threshold I want them to reach. Lynn's going to go seven more often, eight more often. But I'm fairly confident Maida's the better pitcher. He's certainly thrash Lin and all the dominance, metrics last year.

And it was kind of an outlier year for Maeda, but a lot of us saw him going that way anyway. And Lynn took kind of a step back in terms of dominance last year. And, you know, kind of had like a 450 X-FIP. So I have some performance concerns there for Lin. I think the volume that he's going to provide makes him a borderline ace, even with those concerns, but I'd rather have Maida. Yeah, and they're both going to either B-33 or turn 30.

three years old early in the season. I would say Ken Tamayeta as well. I think it's pretty close. He's not going to go as deep into starts consistently as Lance Lin, but he did go 6 plus in 8 of 11 starts last year. Kentamaiata did, and he allowed three earned runs or less in all 11 of his starts. So, I don't know that he's going to be as good again.

It's a good division to pitch in, obviously, he doesn't have to face his own lineup in the twins, but we'll consistently get the tigers. The royals are improving, but I think, you know, he could still do well in that matchup as well. So it's Kenta Maida for me there. This one's from Brian 2-9-5-1.

You guys rock. Thank you, Brian. Hyde for Fantasy Baseball today and 5. Go check it out. I would like to hear the stories of your journeys into the industry. Also, what's one player? Each of you must draft this year. Honestly, I don't know how you guys got into the industry either.

So, I mean, not that we need to spend a ton of time on this, but other people have asked before. I got very lucky, which everybody who gets to where they're doing it on the level, we are. I mean, that was the main thing that happened is you had a very lucky moment in your life where your resume found itself in the right hands and at the right time. And so you got the opportunity that very few people get. That's really the biggest thing. I mean, I majored in broadcast news in college. I went to journalism school.

I got a job writing for a newspaper right out of college just in a small town in South Georgia. But I had the freedom to write my own column. I was the sports editor of that paper. So, you know, that gave me a chance to kind of like show off my writing chops and gave me some published material to submit to CBS. And I just submitted it blindly. They weren't like, I didn't find anywhere where they were like, like taking resumes or something, I just started sending resumes and writing samples everywhere.

And six months later, I heard back from CBS. And so I don't know. I kind of had a really easy slash lucky path. I mean, I'm sure there was some ability that stood out that obviously allowed that to happen. but you got to get lucky.

There's not a lot of these jobs out there. Chris, I don't know if you have a Cliff Notes version of that for yourself. No, it's very similar. I was talking about this on Twitter the other day, just the impact of luck and how much that played a part. I got hired at the Miami Herald out of college. I was still working at my college newspaper. at the time. I was the managing editor. I got hired at the Miami Herald. Actually, because a page

designer from the Miami Herald got hired at CBS Sports to work for the fantasy team. So I replaced him at the Miami Herald. Then 10 months later, I got hired through a staffing agency because I saw a posting. I got lucky. And, you know, I was doing the player notes for CBS sports for, you know, three or four years and just worked my way up from there. That's something to point out too. Both of us started, we were originally hired to write updates back when CBS had their own player updates. Now we get the player updates on the player pages from other sources.

But we used to write our own. And that's how Chris and I both started. And then over time, there were openings to become more featured writers. And I mean, that was even. before this podcast. This podcast is going on for over 10 years now, and I started before that. And then the podcast came along and, you know, it's, I guess we just did a good job because they kept asking us to do it. Yeah, I mean, it's like in all things, I think, you know, to, to reach any level of success in any career, you need, you know, a little bit of luck, a little bit

of talent and a lot of hard work, I think is the main way I'd say it. And, you know, I will say if you're in, like, if you're in college or if you're in high school and you, you know, do want to work in journalism, for me, at least my time at the student newspapers in high school and college were extremely valuable because, you know, you need the, you need the space to mess up is the way I would say it. making mistakes is really valuable because you learn from them, but you want to be able to make mistakes when the stakes are low. And, you know, that's great for networking. You'll meet a lot of people and you get practical experience. So, you know, that would be my biggest piece of advice for any young person who wants to get into really any form of media.

And I'm happy you mentioned hard work there, Chris, too, because you guys use the word luck a lot. And yes, there is luck involved, but I have no doubt that you guys put in the hours and the hard work to get where we all are at this point. So it was a little bit different for me. I started off as an intern way back when Fantasy Sports Network. I was working some radio, some video. I started off as a radio producer, worked up to a video producer, got some on-air opportunities. I was writing about fantasy all along.

And, you know, I had my own blog way back in a day. FantasyOnDeck.com. There might be some YouTube videos somewhere of me when I'm like in college. So if you want to go laugh, go, you know, have some fun with that. And just to piggyback Chris off what you said, if people want to work in media today, yes, it's ultra-competitive, but there's never been a better time in my opinion

because you can do everything from the confines of your home. You can make a blog. You can, you have a webcam on your computer. You can do a video. You can, yes, you might need some funds, but you can buy a microphone. start your own podcast. You could do all these things. So, I mean, you know, just work hard at it, be yourself, and

hopefully good things, good things will happen for you. If we didn't answer the second part of this question, just give me a name. Chris, the one player you must draft this year. I'm updating my most drafted spreadsheet, and it looks like I'm up to eight leagues, and I have Ian Anderson, Jose Orquite, and Byron Buxton in four of them. So those are my most drafted players so far. I would say of the three, Ian Anderson is the one I'm most excited about. Orquite's, I'm kind of surprised he's there.

Scott, if people don't know who you want to draft at this point, then they are not listening to the podcast because our past couple podcasts have been just all like, who are Scott's favorite players to draft everywhere? Let's say it together. Three, two, one. Kibbrian Hayes. We didn't say it together. No, I thought it was going to be Trey Mancini.

That's why. Oh, geez. All right. Kid Brian Hayes for Scott. for me, I'm all over Austin Meadows and Chris Paddock. Those two are, those are my guys this year. All right, let's move on to the next one. This one's from Hugo Robinson.

What are your thoughts on punting steals and saves in a 10-team weekly category league? Spoke about it a little bit. Fine. Yeah, I assume so. That's the format to do it in. Assuming it's set up like Chris talked about where it's one win, you know, if you win the matchup six to four,

you get one win for it, as opposed to getting six wins for it. Even where it's, where it becomes your record, where the six and four becomes your record, I don't mind punting one category. Punting two becomes a little bit tougher because, you know, there's a slim margin for error there. But even in leagues where I've played

where however you win, that becomes your record, I typically try to punt steals because they're very fresh. And, you know, if I happen to be in the spot where I'm, I can draft like a Kunya or Tatis, obviously I'm not punting steals. I'm not passing up. those guys at the start of the draft because I have to punt steals, you know? But if the steals don't come easily, I'm fine letting them go in a head-to-head categories league.

This one's from I.L. Bengal. 10-team Keeper League, head-to-head categories. Keepers are Juan Soto, Shane Bieber, Walker, Bo Buehler, Bo Bichette, Kyle Tucker, picking seventh, and it's not a snake draft. Bauer, Darvish, Harper, Scherzer, and Nola will likely all be there at pick seven. Harper is tempting and probably one of the last guys who can give a 400 OBP and a 500 slug. Those are categories in his league. But there are also a few pitchers that can give you that elite K per nine. So who would you be targeting at seven? Scott, what do you think? Bauer, Darvish, Harper, Scherzer, Nola, among that group. I would be targeting Bauer. I'm the only... Yeah, Bauer.

I think I got the right names here. Bauer. I think of the only one of these three who ranks Bauer among the highest among the pitchers available. So I know I'd be the only one who'd say Bauer, but I don't know. Would you guys say, what, Darvish? Or would you go with...

I think Scherzer is actually my number four-star in a pitcher, but I think I have Harper higher. I think I would lean with a pitcher because this person already has Soto, Boba Chet, and Tucker. So they have three hitters. They have two pitchers in Bieber and Bueller. All three of us have a different fourth-rank starting pitcher.

So Scott would say Bauer, Chris would say Scherzer, I would say Aaron Ola, he's my fourth-rank starting pitcher. I actually think it might be Harper, though, because I think, you know, obviously so does a top-five pick, but I think we all value Beaver just as much as him. You know, maybe in this format because OBP-Wan-Soto might be a little higher. But, you know, Bieber and Bueller are, you know, even with us all being down on Bueller, I think he's still a third round pick for me. So you got a first round and a third round pitcher. But for the hitters, you know, it's more like a first round hitter and two fourth round

hitters, I think. I'd rather get the elite arm while I can. Well, we know that, Scott. I know. I can see why, especially with OBP and slug, you might be leaning Harper. It's not crazy. I would go with Nola. Scott would go with Trevor Bauer there.

Also, he says, I'm a big proponent. of grand slams and complete games in a weekly hit-to-head format. It's like a bonus category. It rarely determines a win, but there is nothing more exciting than when you get a grand slam on a Sunday to win the week. Scott Schenman, if it makes you happy, it can't be that bad.

I'm fine with it, but I don't know. I think it's kind of silly to have that be the single determining factor. That home run happened to be a grand slam. You're still getting the credit for the RBI and all. So it's going beyond just double counting it because it's its own category. I think it's silly. But, you know, I'm not going to tell you how to have fun.

This next one's from 74, Jason K-74. I play in a redraft and a salary cap Dynasty League, and both are going to be switching to short scoring periods. They are head-to-head points leagues, but instead of a matchup being Monday through Sunday, it will now be Monday through Thursday as one period and then Friday through Sunday will be a separate scoring period. What are your thoughts or tips on this type of scoring system?

So this is actually how I started playing fantasy baseball on the website sandbox.com. This was their default way of doing it. I enjoyed it, obviously. if you're in, if you're used to set, if you play in a bunch of leagues and you're used to setting them all on Monday, it's going to be tricky reminding yourself to set it that second time for week. That's probably the biggest downside.

I would also wonder how many starting pitcher spots are being filled because if it's like a traditional five, then there's going to be a lot of, um, a lot of just chasing whoever happens to be making starts for that three day period, whether they're good or not. And that's, that's not a good experience.

I'd probably want it to be three starting pitcher spots instead of five. Yeah, I was thinking four. So either way, it probably shouldn't be five. I think we'd agree with that. And you won't have two-star weeks, obviously, but you want to make sure that you can at least get some quality starting pitchers there in your lineup if you're playing in a format like that.

Let's try to move a little bit quicker. We still have a lot of questions here. Some rapid fire from B. Gobert. I don't know. I just assume it's Gobert because of Rudy Gobert. B. Gobert 24. Is Michael Kopeck worth keeping at $1 out of $260 at the loss of an 11th round pick in a 10-team roto? I can keep him for the next three years.

Is it worth it? What do you think, Chris? Michael Kopeck, $1, 11th round pick, 10-team roto. I'm confused. Me too. Yeah, why are you losing a pick and a dollar and a pick? I don't know. We didn't have to answer this question, Frank.

11th round pick. 11th round pick, I don't know what that, like. He's worth a dollar. He's not worth an 11th round pick. I would agree with that. Do you agree, Chris? Yes.

Okay, cool. This one's from Jason Langley. In a points league with the first overall pick, would you take Garrett Cole, Jacob de Grom, or Shane Bieber? I'm pretty sure we all three have a different answer to this one as well. I'll break the tie.

I know Chris is going to say DeGrom, I think, right, Chris? Yes. Scott's going to say Bieber, right? Right, Scott? Yeah, because deep. I have Garrett Cole ranked first overall but if I was leaning between either of those two I would go closer towards Jacob de Grom

so the answer is DeGrom in a points league I'm the weird one I know I don't see too many people ranking Bieber one like I do there's not really any like wrong answer there I don't think except like one of them will almost certainly bust just because actually that's not true first round pitchers very rarely do

this next was from Mac Mac 51 15 rank these four to keep with Shane Beba Luis Castillo, Max Scherzer, Jack Flaherty, Clayton Kershaw. Rank those. I wanted to say you just did, but that's not true. I would go Scherzer, Castillo.

No, actually, I have Kirchaw, Head of Castillo. What do you know? Okay, Scherzer, Kershaw, Castillo, Flaherty. Chris? Scott has the correct answer. And for me, it is Luis Castillo, Jack Flaherty, Clayton, Kershaw, Max Scherzer. So, way different, but listen to these guys. This next was from...

One of them will almost certainly bus, Frank. Yes, maybe even two. This next one's from John Thundergun. 11 team 6x5 Roto. OPS is the additional category. Every team can keep up to four players at the cost of the round before they were drafted the last year,

with players able to be kept for four years total. I am keeping Kyle Tucker for a 13th, Lucas Chelito for a 14th, and Kessonhira for a 15th, for a 15th. I can't decide between Eloy in the eighth round. It's his second year being kept

or Corbyn Burns in the 16th. It's his first year being kept. Chris's analysis of Eloy has got me a little more hesitant when it comes to the fantasy upside. So what do you think? For me? Anybody who wants to answer?

Go ahead. Chris, go ahead. Okay, you're counting on me to answer, huh? Okay, so keep one of these guys. I would keep... I like Eloy Jimenez, and I would go Corbin Burns. Yeah, I just think the fact you only have one pitcher already, who knows how many others are being kept for the other teams. And I'd hate for, I'd hate for you to have Gialito as your number one.

And then somebody really uninspiring is your number two. It's good value for Jimenez, but I think I'd lean Burns eight rounds later. Yep, yep. Burns for sure. Burns, baby Burns. From Utah, get me two. 16 team 16 category keeper league. We keep eight and I need help with my last two keepers from the following. Alec Bohm, Josh Bell, Teosker Hernandez, Eric Hosmer.

Chips 2. Since we have no idea what the categories are, we'll just answer it like a normal roto league, or I guess a points league. It's probably more similar to points. I would guess I have Bell and Hosmer ranked high. No, Bell and Teasker probably in points. I don't like recommending Tay Oscar ever because he's my number one

bust pick for this year. But I think Tay Oscar Hernandez and Josh Bell, yeah. Booms close to Bell for me, but I'd go Bell. This next one's from C-Rope. 12 team head-to-head categories, salary cap league. We use saves plus holds as a counting stat instead of saves to go along with wins, strikeouts, ERA, and WIP.

Who are some believers that I can get who are great for holds and also help with other categories? Well, we spoke about this quite a bit in our relief pitcher preview, but do you guys have any on the top of your head? Tanner Rainey. Jordan Romano.

All three of the race guys. Agreed. Aaron. Um. Yep. Aaron bummer. Yeah. There's a lot of hot.

The guys who just missed. I mean, really. The Rangers is pretty good. Jonathan Hernandez, correct? Yeah. Just. The thing about this is like don't, it's very simple. And it saves and holds just draft whoever you think the best relievers are.

Right. Yeah. Like Zach Britton and Chad Green will probably get a lot of holds for the Yankees. They might get, you know, Britain, I think, if something happens to Chapman, we've seen he would be the guy. So him, he's not going to give you a ton of strikeouts, but everything else should be pretty good. But yeah, it's just you more or less. ranked pitchers by who you think the best relievers are. And then you give closers a slight bump because saves are more plentiful.

Holds are more plentiful than saves. But the leaders in holds, they're more concentrated in the closers. Yeah. It's more like 25 to 30 for the leaders in holds versus, you know, in saves, they're a little more rare. but we could still get a few with 40 plus, a few with 35 plus, so keep that in mind as well. This one's from Zach in South Florida

in a 10-team 5-by-5 OBP League where everyone keeps six players. I'm keeping Garrett Cole, Bryce Harper, Raphael Devers, and Marcelo Zuna. I need two from Jose Altuve, Javier Baez, Luke Voigt, J.T. Realmuto, and Jared Kelnick.

Two of those. I would keep... Voigt is first for me. I think Voight and Real Muto. Yeah. I think so as well. And no reason to really consider Kellnick when it's only 10 teams, six keepers.

I mean, a deeper keeper league. Should be able to redraft him, I would imagine. Or, yeah, there's always going to be good players to cycle in every year. You don't need to stash a guy in advance of him becoming a stud. If you are watching on the video side, Don't go anywhere.

If you are listening on the podcast side, we're going to take a quick break, but when we return, we have some of your emails. Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Don't go anywhere. So I didn't get to these last week, so let's start off with some of these questions.

I feel like I said these a lot in that sense. This one's from Jared. In a keeper salary cap categories league, I need some help. Do I keep from Vervaldez for $5, Zach Police Sack for $5 and Sixtho Sanchez for $5? or just keep Zach Gallen for $14. Well, Valdez may not pitch this year.

Which is crazy. Yeah, that I don't understand how it's possible that he might not pitch all season with a fractured finger on his non-pritching hand. A fractured finger that pitched through. On his non-pitcher hand. So there must be something going on there. That's crazy.

Hopefully you can wait until we get more information, but I would rather have gallon for 14 than Plexen Sanchez for 10 total. Right. I would agree. The Valdez thing, it really hinges on that. And it's,

I mean, John Heyman sounded pretty confident with his report that that's, that's what the outcome's going to be for Valdez. I'm not saying it's for sure, but it's, I'm assuming that's what it's going to be, season ending injury for Valdez,

based on what John Heyman's reporting. We'll see. Oh, my gosh. That is, come on, starting pitcher already stinks, as it is, we can't have this happening already. This one's from Colin.

I play in a 12-team 7-7-Categories league with losses and K-to-walk ratio as the extra two for pitching and strikeouts and OBP as the extra two for hitting. I have four players to keep with no draft picks or anything attached. I have five guys I'm considering. In Bo Bouchet,

Alex Bregman, Aaron Nola, Corey Seeger, and Zach Gallin. So you need four of those. Bichette, Bregman, Nola Seeger Gallen. Sorry, Bichette is the guy I'm leaving out. Really? He's the lowest ranked among them.

He's not going to be a... Well, he'll probably be a pretty good OBP guy because he'll probably have a good batting average, but he's like a 6% walk rate guy so far in the majors. So he's probably going to have to hit 290 or better to really be a plus OBP guy. His ADP is higher than both Bchette and Cet and... Seeger, but I would, then Breggman

and Seeger, but I would also prefer Seeger, Breggman and Seeger, than Bichette. I'm just surprised, I keep, I was thinking Gowan. I guess really, you know, there becomes an issue of you keeping both Seeger and Bichet, what does that mean? Do you have,

what kind of lineup spot do you have for both of them? Do you have a middle infield spot, or is Bichette automatically your D.H and blocking you from getting any other? That might decide it for me whether I throw back Bichet or throw back Galaen. Yeah, all of these players are top 35 for me in the overall roto rankings, except for Bichette. He's 43rd.

Yeah, I know it's tough because it's a keeper league and you want to keep the young guy in Bichet, who has pretty massive upside, I would say. But I'm with Chris. I think I would leave Boba Bichet out of that group. Yeah, and if 2022 and beyond is a concern, then I do think that changes in a little bit. But none of those guys are so old that you expect much. of a drop off anytime soon. This next one's from Spencer. Dear Mark,

Sammy, Sammy and Ken. Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, and Ken. I was going to say Street Fighter characters? No. 14 team. 14 team Head to Ed Categories League with OBP instead of average and quality starts instead of wins. We can keep three players.

Keepers can be kept for up to three years. I'm already keeping Tatis in the 20th and Aranola in the 9th. I'm debating between keeping Garrett Cole in the fourth round. He has one year left or Wander Franco in the 23rd round with three years left. I always find these questions so interesting. Don't overthink it.

Like, it is possible that Wander Franco steps into the majors and becomes an impact player, but let's turn the clock back three years ago, two years ago, I guess, at this point, going into 2018. Vladimir Guerrero was in their 2019, sorry. Vladimir Guerrero was in the same spot, Wanda Franco. This historic generational type prospect,

he was being projected as like a top 15 hitter by most projection systems. He was a top 50 pick. If you chose between even someone like Max Scherer, or actually Max Scherzer was great in 2019. So if you had, if you chose between Max Scherzer in 2019 and Vladimir Guerrera right now, Vladimir Guerrero would have been the wrong pick even with the keeper value. And so I just. think you take the sure thing. It's already such a discount.

Culling around four, you know? And it's only for one year. I get that. But yeah, I agree. And it probably puts you in a pretty good position to win because you're starting your team with Tatis, Nola, and Garrick Cole. That's pretty damn good in a 14 team league. This one's from Brad. I made a

significant trade. We'll go. Sig. All right. Chris is writing something in here. I couldn't tell it. I think it's significant. Significant trade with my brother. I'm wondering. what you think of the trade and would you have done it? I traded away Trevor Bauer and Jose Berrios for J.T. Realmuto, Alex Bregman, and Ian Anderson.

Mr. Anderson. I don't think I'd do it. I have Anderson ahead of Berrios, but that's pretty close. So it's Rao Muto and Bregman versus Bauer. I think it's fair. I don't necessarily love it. I wish I knew how deep the league was. I'm assuming shallow, just because most people seem to play in shallow, and if the shallower it is, the more I want the best player in the deal,

and I think the best player in the deal is Bauer. So that's why I leaned that way. But it is close. It is close. And if it was a deeper league, I might swing the other way on that. This is the last question that we'll take, but we've received a few questions regarding this about rankings versus ADP. And this one's from Jason.

Trying to do draft prep and have been listening to, the position previews and I am having a hard time with it. During your ADP reviews, you guys typically refer to fantasy pros or NFBC ADP, which is great, but those numbers don't really line up with the players that I see in the CBS draft rooms. For example, you often talk about getting one of the three utility players, J.D. Martinez, Yardonne Alvarez, Nelson Cruz, in the mid-80s ADP in the seventh round. However, when you open up the CBS draft room, they are ranked under projections as 67, 68, and 73. I have noticed this with many other players as well, Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa,

where there are significant differences between Fantasy Pros ADP and CBS Projections rankings in the Draft Room. Considering that non-industry fantasy players aren't looking at Fantasy Pros or listening to the podcast, well, they should be. And mostly just going by the draft room projections,

how should I strategize draft prep when the information I have been listening to doesn't line up with the actual draft room? Well, if you think we're good, at what we're doing and you trust our analysis, then I think you can view

the draft room's default rankings as a potential inefficiency. And this is true of every site. You know, the default projections, you know, projections are weighted to a mean. They're weighted to the most likely outcome. You know, and so that's different than, you know, when we're doing rankings

and we're baking in the potential, for upside or, you know, just the, that gut feeling that you like a player like I do with Ian Anderson or Scott does with Brian Hayes. That stuff doesn't get captured by projection systems. And, you know, projection systems are usually pretty accurate, but if you draft by projections, it just, to a certain extent, you're kind of drafting for sixth place. that's not to say that if you draft by my rankings, you're drafting for first place.

But, you know, one of the benefits of you being someone who listens to a podcast that presumably you think features smart, very handsome, thoughtful analysts is, you know, you should presumably have some sort of of edge. And I would say, that's, that's kind of how I view it. First and foremost, when you enter a CBS draft room, hit that little drop down that says projections and click on Scott White's rankings or click on Chris Towers's rankings or click on Frank Sample's rankings or click on expert average rankings. Do not use, do not use the projections. That's all I will say and I'll just leave it there. Yes, yes, I agree. But there is,

there is a point that he's making here where the layman fantasy drafter who doesn't have his own rankings, who is just kind of going into a draft blind, he's mostly going to draft by the default view, which is the projections. Right. And so that's where Chris brings up the point that it would probably behoove you once you know what fantasy service provider you're using to familiarize yourself with the default rankings and find the inefficiencies in there. there, like Chris said, especially if you know the people you draft with are these guys. You know, you know what kind of drafters they are.

If they are studying Fantasy Pros ADP and listening to a bunch of fantasy baseball podcasts, then they're not going to probably pay much attention to the order the players are listed in and the draft room. But that does play a big part in how drafts go. Even among experts or industry people, as they're more commonly referred to. because sometimes you'll just, like, we're all doing the TGFBI, the great fantasy baseball invitational. I don't know how you guys are handling that.

It's a mess. Chris, it's a mess. I don't even want to talk about it. I'm so, I'm so angry, I just go off my tears every draft I do. I set up a spreadsheet that I'm keeping track of with, you know,

I have two different lists. One references the other. One's my rankings. One is the players who are left. And, you know, it kind of deep. defaults to my, you know, it removes the players who are removed from my rankings in the draft and tells me who I have up.

But if I didn't have that, it would be a lot harder because, you know, my rankings are very different from the projected or the default in any room, especially once you're starting to get into the, you know, 170 range, like my draft is. And the reason we'd made the decision a few years back to kind of lean on ADP, fantasy pros, ADP versus CBS. ADP is because our audience isn't just CBS players. I mean, we encourage all of our audience to play on CBS. We think it's the best product,

but they're coming to us from all playing leagues on all different kinds of sites. So we don't, we don't, we want more representative ADP than just what CBS shows. Yeah. And when we bring up fantasy pros, they are an aggregate of a bunch of different sources. So it does help to know, you know, where, um, how people are drafting on all different types of platforms. And it takes all of those things into consideration and it spits out in average, literally,

an average draft position amongst all those sources. So I agree with these guys. Study wherever you are going to do your draft. Look at their default rankings and find the inefficiencies and the players that stand out to you either early or later. We should do. We should do that for a pod. Oh, we will.

Just yeah, go through all the different. Yeah. I've got it. I've got it scheduled, man. All in March. March, 31 podcasts in 31 days. For Scott and Chris, I am Frank, thank you all for listening and watching this. Chris is freaking out.

Don't worry, Chris. They're not all us. For example, on tomorrow's podcast, people will hear Danny Vietti and Will Meadowbrooks, who are joined by Michael Waka, pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays. But you can also hear us. I had a panic attack when I first heard him say that too. 31 podcasts in 31 days. For Scott and Chris, I am Frank, thank you all for listening and watching.

we will be back on Monday. Bye-bye.