Fantasy Baseball Today - Busts 3.0! Deep Sleepers for AL/NL-Only (3/24 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 24, 2021

Which player is most likely to bust from our Busts 3.0 (1:53)? What's the latest on Patrick Corbin's velocity and who is the closer in Cleveland!? ... Another heavy news day as Fernando Tatis hurt his shoulder and we received an update on Zac Gallen (12:38). Also George Springer strained his oblique and Twins prospect Alex Kirilloff was optioned to their alternate site. ... Busts 3.0 (26:31)! Let's start off with two debates: DJ LeMahieu and Matt Olson. ... Nolan Arenado is overvalued but what about Lance Lynn (33:50)? ... Are we concerned about Zach Plesac's subpar spring (38:51)? ... Are Dominic Smith and Marcus Semien overvalued (43:50)? ... When should you expect the utility-only bats to gain position eligibility (51:51)? ... We wrap up with some deeper sleepers for AL-only and NL-only leagues (55:33). ... 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.

Who should you avoid in your fantasy baseball drafts? Plus 3.0 is coming up right now. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today. Frank Sample joined by. Scott White and Chris Towers. We have all the busts coming up later on as well. We got some deeper sleepers for those who play in AL and NL-only leagues. Got some utility-only stuff that I was researching into today.

When are some of these players going to gain eligibility in the outfield? If they are going to gain that eligibility, we'll talk about it all. Chris, you have a new song that you're working on. I mean, I don't know if we were supposed to reveal it or not, but I'm probably... No, no, I want to record it at some point. So I don't want to, I don't, I posted a little teaser on, on Twitter.com for all my, my Harvey Dangerheads. So who's that? Keep an eye, ear out for it.

That was a, there was a late 90s alternative rock band who sang the hit song Flagpole Sita from the idle hands soundtrack, I think, is where that song is from. I don't know much about the artist, but I do know the song. Oh, I think that's their only hit. Oh, for sure. That's got to be a one-hit wonder. What's going on, Scott? How's life?

It's fine. It's good. I'm good. Looking suave, got the polo, slick bag hair. Appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah, trying to class it up around here with the polo. Yeah, I mean, you know, Chris and I just out here looking like schlubs.

It's no big deal. Scott, you recently wrote about your bust 3.0. So let's talk about it. Who is your most likely to bust of the new editions that you added to that list? Well, when you put it that way, Frank, I think I would have to say Patrick Corbyn, who I just basically want nothing to do with anymore.

The velocity this spring has been what it was basically all of last season. And he was a disaster last season. There was a dip in velocity. He ended up having the highest whip among qualifying pitchers. It was just a really awful season. for Patrick Corbyn.

So, you know, it was a weird, obviously a weird season, unusual build up all of that. It was, I think it was fair to give him a pass heading into spring training, but I really needed to see more than I have to have any motivation to take him.

I will point out just to argue against myself that he was thrown about 88 last spring and then got up to 90 during the regular season. season. So if you know, if you play that out the same way, he goes from 90 to 92, then he is right back to where he was in 2019 and previously. So maybe it'll be fine. But I don't like hearing about how he's working to add a change up to emphasize his change up again, uh, when going away from that. Scott hates when guys are working hard. And it would go in away from that and really leaning on the slider is what allowed him to break through in the first place. I think he's reaching. I think he's reaching. I think he's

reaching because he knows he doesn't have it anymore. Ooh, poor Patrick Corbyn for years. I feel like you were in on him before. Scott, I mean, he was fine. He was a great pitcher in the past couple of seasons. Again, that is Patrick Corbyn. The 38 starting pitcher off the board, according to Fantasy Pros, Scott has them all the way down as his

SP 49. So if you use those rankings, chances are you're not going to wind up with Patrick Corbyn. Chris, I know that, wow, you just zoomed yourself in there. Yeah, yeah, I was too zoomed out. I didn't like the look. So I just want to get a little closer to you guys. Chris, I know that you also have Patrick Corbyn as a bus. Is there anything other than everything Scott said that you would like to emphasize on Patrick Corbyn? Yeah, it's just kind of if the end were coming, this is what it would look like, I think. I will say like if he was falling, that would be one thing. But I think he went

like inside the top 50 in a head-to-head points draft we did yesterday or today. And so like if I could get him in the 130 range, I would be okay taking that risk. But because, you know, he was in his breakout 2018 season. I remember he was throwing like 92 miles an hour in April and then his velocity really crashed. And he was averaging like 89 in May and June. And he never really got back to where he was before that. And it didn't really matter.

He was still excellent. However, you know, that was the first year that he went, you know, kind of that. Lance McCuller's route where he was just throwing his slider like 40% of the time. And, you know, now that the story's out on him, you know, maybe he doesn't have another adjustment left to make. I know he's working on the change up. Maybe that can be the adjustment. I know in the last few years he had toyed with a curveball at various times. So, you know, we'll see. But yeah, it's just, it's very hard to get excited about him at this point. Chris, let's stick with you here. Player most likely to bust that you are adding to your bus three,

3.0 is blank. Oh, adding to my bus 3.0, okay, that's a different question because of my most, okay, James Karen check, Karen check, Karen check, Karen check. It does not sound like he's the closer for the Indians. This is not about James Karen check not being a good pitcher, although I think, you know, there are some flaws in his game. He's going to give up a lot of walks. He's going to give up a decent amount of home runs relative to how to hard he is to square up just because he is a, I mean, it's not even, he's not a fly ball pitcher in the way we normally use that term.

He's a fly ball pitcher in that he almost never gives up anything but fly balls. You know, a 23% ground ball rate last season. And so I can just see a scenario where they don't quite trust him in the ninth inning when they've got Nick Whitgren, who actually sounds like he might be the closer. there have been a lot of signs coming out that Nick Wickren actually might be the favor for that job but they've also got a manual Class A who could be the closer

and there's a chance that Karen Chacks ratios aren't quite as good as we want them to be. I think the strikeouts will be incredible. I think he's going to be a 15, 16, 17K per 9 guy but I just think there is a little room for him to be a little bit disappointing

and especially I think there's a lot lot of room for him not to be the closer. At this point, I'd say it's more likely not that he's not the closer. James Karen Chack currently has an ADP of 98.4. He's being drafted inside the top 100 picks as a top 10

relief pitcher in fantasy baseball. Scott, would you like to retort? I know that you were... No, I just wonder what he saw that made him... Was there something concrete you saw, or you just kind of... No, it's just been a lot of... It's been a lot of like...

reporter saying, I think Nick Whitgren could be the closer. And I feel like that's happening more and more. That's pretty concrete. I hadn't seen anything like that. Yeah. I actually saw. There's been no like comments from the, from the coaching staff yet.

I saw this tweet on Tuesday from Tom Withers from the Associated Press, but he also covers the, some Cleveland sports teams. And he said, Terry Francona with high praise for Nick Wickron, who has been reliable and consistent from day one. he could be a closing option to open the year. So that's about...

So I found this quote from Frank Kona. This was from today. It said he's been nothing but a pro. He's been reliable. He's been accountable. He's a leader. He's been a huge part of our bullpen and will continue to be.

I don't know. If you're inclined to believe Whitgren's the closer, I see how you could read that into it. He's been a huge part of our bullpen and will continue to be. I could also see reading that as he will, maintain the same role he's already had. So. Yeah, no, I think that's all true.

But it's also worth saying he's the only one in this bullpen who's gotten save opportunities before. Nick Wickran? He's gotten very few. He has four career saves. Which is, Karen Jack has zero, right? One. I think he got one last year. He's got to have at least one, right?

Yeah, I think he got one last year. He has one in his career. Yeah, it was last year. So he's the only one who's had a stretch. where his teams used him that way. Obviously, we're dealing with tiny sample sizes across the board, but it's just a little bit of reading the tea leaves for me. And when you're talking about a top 100 pick,

even when I do think non-closer relievers can have more value than ever, I'm talking about, you know, Alex Reyes with one of your last five picks. I'm talking about, you know, Devin Williams in the 160-170 range. I don't see a good reason to draft James Caroncheck in the top 100 when Nick Anderson and Devin Williams are going 60 picks later. Yeah, I mean, just to play devil's advocate, I just think it's a high risk, high reward play, Chris, because if he's not the closer, you're right. I mean, he's still going to be really good, get to a lot of strikeouts, and should have awesome ratios. But the reason Scott mentioned him as a breakout back when we did our relief pitcher preview was that if he does wind up being the closer, I mean, he could have an Edwin Diaz type. season from a couple years ago, not having, you know, 50 plus saves, but if he had 35 plus saves

with a sub 2 ERA and, you know, 120 strikeouts or something crazy like that, he's probably a top three relievers. So I get why people like the upside of Karen Chack, but I'm closer with you. I do think there's more downside here. Yeah, like all of the things you can say in his favor are also true of Nick Whitgren and potentially Devin Williams. I think he's less of a sure thing just because his track record is so much smaller. Not to go on for five minutes about James Karen Chack, but the article where I found that quote was from Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com. I'm not sure what newspaper that is. The site's Cleveland.com.

And he was kind of suggesting, he was interpreting it as Frank Conan wants to go by committee at the start until the rolls kind of sort themselves out. So we'll see. And even that makes it a risky pick inside the top 100. Again, that is James Karen Chack, who Chris will have in his bus three, More bus to come a little bit later on.

She just want to promote a few things. If you are trying to stay up to date on all of your sports coverage, whether it's baseball, March Madness, everything that's going on with the NFL, you should be watching CBS Sports HQ. It is free. You can watch it at cbsports.com slash live is the link for that. If you use a streaming device to watch television,

Roku and Xbox, PlayStation, whatever it might be, you can download the CBS Sports app, and you can watch HQ on there for, free. And I wanted to remind everyone that this will be our final bonus mailbag of the preseason of spring training here. We're just about a week away from opening day. So this Saturday, we will have a bonus mailbag. Continue to send it your emails. We will try to get to as many as we possibly can. Fantasy Baseball at cbsi.com. And you can drop some questions with an Apple podcast review. We'll grab some from there as well. And send us your bold predictions. Send us

some bold predictions via email, again, Apple Podcasts for you, whatever it might be. We have the superstar, Adam Azer, coming on the podcast this Thursday night recording, which will come out on this Friday. We're going to ask Adam about some of his favorites, and we'll talk about some bold predictions there. So if you send those in, we'll talk about some of them here on the air and just a few programming notes. If you like watching us live on YouTube for the next two nights, we will be going live between

11 and 11.15 p.m. Eastern time because we have some drafts. Scott and I have a draft tomorrow and Chris has a draft on Thursday. So again, the next two nights we will be starting a little bit later on the YouTube side of things. Some news and notes. Fernando Tatis, left Tuesday's game and has been initially diagnosed with left shoulder discomfort. He will be reevaluated on Wednesday. Scott, if you are drafting right now, you're in the middle of a draft. First round just started. Are you worried? at all about Fernando Tatis, or are you taking whatever discount you can get?

I am taking whatever discount I could get. I was already inclined to slot him behind Acuna and Bats and maybe not Soto, but certainly to Points League Soto. I think this makes that decision easier, but the latest I saw was that he's dealt with soreness in that shoulder off and on over the years has kind of has a good idea of how to manage it.

He said he probably would have kept playing if it was a regular season game. So it doesn't sound like a big deal. Well, no more tomorrow, though, it sounds like. Yeah, and I feel like I don't have any data to back this up, but I feel like this happens right at the end of spring training every year. Some kind of superstar gets banged up and just as a result is going to slip a little bit further in a draft than they should,

or you're going to get them a little bit cheaper in a salary cap draft, then they should go for, and they just wind up being perfectly fine, they're healthy by opening day and just they go on to be awesome. So if you're drafting in the next couple of days before we have concrete information on Fernando Tatis, I'm willing to just say,

all right, any discount I can get here, I would be willing to take that. With Fernando Tatis, we have a Zach Gallin update. He has a hairline stress fracture in his right forearm. Manager Tori Lavulo said Gallin will continue playing catch

during this first phase. Not sure what that means. And did not offer a timeline. Chris, I don't know if you're a doctor or not, but can you help me out here? Zach Gallen. I know he's not a doctor. I am not a doctor. He might moonlight as one, you know, at like 1 a.m. when we finish up every night. But I kind of think this isn't bad news. It's certainly better than I thought it was.

You know, a fracture tends to heal more predictably than other types of injuries. you know, we're not talking about something that happened while he was pitching. It's not something that, you know, you can look at and say, well, the stress of him pitching caused this hairline fracture. It was just a ball fouled off his forearm, right? Is that what happened? I know it happened while he was swinging. I don't know exactly what the scenario was.

And so that really tells me that I just, it's going to take how long it takes to heal. And we don't know yet, but the fact that he's going to keep being able to throw is a good sign. isn't a stress fracture caused by stress or is that a misnomer? I thought it was a hairline fracture he had. I think that, I thought that was what was like. Do the terms get used interchangeably?

Because I thought I saw stress marker, which I interpreted to mean as repeated. This tweet, a repeated action caused it. This tweet that I got from Nick Piacoro, I believe it is, said it combined the two terms. It was a hairline stress fracture. for our doctors out there. I've seen a few people, I mean, it's all speculation. We don't have a timetable at this point, but I've seen three to four weeks on the lower end,

and I've seen some people say six to eight weeks on Twitter. I mean, no one knows for sure. We're just kind of guessing, but like... Six to eight weeks is how long it takes for a fracture of a bone of typical density. You know, a hand bone could be four to six weeks. A femur is going to be a lot longer than six to eight weeks. But that's just kind of the general timeline for it. a broken bone, but this being

a small fracture and him still throwing through it. So presumably that means it's going to speed up the ramp up process. And what I interpret from that during this phase is as he recovers, he can do more than just play catch. So,

you know, I'm just like, who do I want more, Gallin or Carasco? Yesterday I would have said gallon for sure. Now I think you still say gallon, Chris? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I don't think there's any reason to think Carasco will be back sooner.

You know, we don't have a timeline for either of them, but I would guess they're going to be back around the same range. And we all had gallon ahead of Carasco before this. Carasco's had one hamstring. Yeah, it was a little more than that, but Han, uh, Carrasco had the elbow issue that we kind of forgotten about because of the hamstring issue. Um, and both of those seem more likely to her than a fracture in the forearm that was caused by swinging a bat. Obviously, that is just conjecture. I'm not a doctor. But this sounds like once that bone is healed, Gallin should be fine.

And he should be back relatively quickly after that. So Scott, as, yeah, so I would think like my prior right now is probably Gallin is back around the start of May. So Scott, are you saying you're going to drop gallon, because you have them at SP 32. Are you going to drop them down to that Carrasco range? You have Carasco at SP48. Yeah, I would say so. You know, obviously subject to change as we know more. We just don't know much right now.

So I'm kind of, I kind of said it when Carasco got her, like my default view, especially for starting pitchers who were having to cut down the ramp up process, like six to eight weeks. They give me better guidance than that. That's kind of what I'm going with. George Springer was diagnosed with a grade two oblique strain on Tuesday. The Blue Jays are optimistic. He'll be ready for opening day.

But I am not so sure. That does not jive with what we understand about oblique strains, which are like, it is incredibly rare that a player has an oblique strain and doesn't go on the I. And so right there, you're talking about eight days from opening day to now. No, I think this injury happened a couple days ago, so maybe you could. But like, if it really is a grade two strain, that to me, again, this is just my interpretation based on what we've seen in the past. But that's the kind of thing that in my head, I think, well, that's a month at least. And oblique strains, anecdotally at least, oblique strains seem to have just about as many setbacks as more setbacks than any other injury.

Here's the full line from Ross Atkins, the Blue Jays GM. His symptoms and all of his baseball movements and patterns are incredibly encouraging. We're extremely optimistic about his strength, about his range of motion, especially his rotational movements that he could be playing baseball very soon. And it sounds like he was playing with tightness in the area, and then there was some inflammation. So that's when they sent him in for an MRI. I'm not really disagreeing with what you're saying.

It's just adding a little context to it. And it sounds like he's moving like a baseball player should for the most part. And they're hoping he'll be ready for opening day. The quote actually was, Springer is quote, extremely motivated and driven to be ready by opening day, which is very different from the people running our medical staff, expect him to be healthy and able to play.

on opening day. Every player is going to say, yeah, I'm going to be back for the next game. But that doesn't necessarily mean they will be. This is all, you know, this is all still heavily conjecture, but just based on, I would be surprised if he doesn't miss at least sometime. I'm not saying we need to move him down significantly, but a grade two oblique strain, it just, it doesn't seem like the kind of thing you can be back from in eight days. Yeah, it just doesn't, it doesn't seem I remember Judge had this oblique a couple of years ago. He was out at least a month.

He might have been out two months and it is an injury that you could very easily re-agravate. So, I mean, Scott, you're going to drop Springer in your rankings? A little bit, yeah. Would you rather have him or Grisham right now who is dealing with a hamstring injury himself?

I'd still rather have Springer. Okay, so that means you're probably going to wind up dropping Springer like five or six spots in your outfield ranks. All right. So we'll see. Maybe. Find out.

Go ahead. Let me look at it right now and see. Yeah, you have Springer at Outfielder 11. You have Grisham at 17. When this news broke, like I just finished like a two-hour update of my rankings. And it's like, I got to move on to other things. So that's why they're not updated yet. But Springer, dropping behind Tucker, Aloi Jimenez, Luis Robert for Roto.

And that's about it. I'd still take Springer over Castile. as much as I like Castianos. All right. So you're probably getting maybe a round or two discount there on George Springer, if you are optimistic. Let's stick with the Blue Jays. A bunch of stuff going on with the Blue Jays. Robbie Ray will miss one spring start after bruising his elbow while falling down some stairs.

Baseball players find the most interesting ways to get hurt. Or maybe it's just reported more in baseball than other sports? I don't know. It's just like they always get hurt. So odd. But Robbie Ray still hopes to be ready for the start of the regular season. Kirby Yates' elbow injury is Siri enough. serious enough to shut him down for the season

and will probably lead to his second Tommy John surgery. I have moved Jordan Romano all the way up to RP 14, but maybe not high enough because Scott has him inside of his top 12 relievers. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, well, I say that because I feel like Romano's clearly the guy what contradicts that is that the Blue Jays manager is

is not committing to a guy, but that's just kind of like the standard line for all managers now, and you've got the pitching coach talking them up as a closer. Even before this injury happened to Kirby Yates, he was talking Romano up as a closer waiting to happen. You don't need to name a closer is the thing.

It's not like you have to draw up a lineup card that says Jordan Romano is in our closer spot. Right. And when that's the case in pretty much all sports, every coach is going to like, oh, well, you know, you know, we've got a lot of guys who we believe in. And we really, you know, we really trust anyone in that role. And, you know, we're going to go with, you know, the guy who's, who gives us the best chance to win. And it's like, okay, sure.

Yeah, it's. And then you're going to do that two days in a row with Jordan Romano and then you're going to tell reporters he's the closer. Like, that's how this is going to work. Yeah, maybe, maybe. I think it's a fairly recent phenomenon that they've kept it so close to the vest like that. but I think they just realized there's no upside to naming one

as opposed to just letting it reveal itself. Chris, can you just do an entire podcast in your manager voice because you were just like yeah. It's pretty good stuff. Yeah, I mean, we're, you know, you know, he's a really hard,

he's a fierce competitor, he's got the makeup for it. But, you know, we've got a lot of trust and a lot of guys in the back, in the back end of the bullpen. And, you know, we really think any one of those guys can go out and give us a chance to win. So, you know, we're just going to, you know, take each game one at a time. And, you know, really, you know, we're just trying to win games here.

You missed her calling, Chris. Alex Kierloff has been optioned to the Twins alternate training site. He was four for 31 with eight strikeouts this spring. Is this a see you in two weeks type of situation, Scott? I think he has to hit first. I think it could have won the, though, the left field job from the start if he had a good spring. But you, like, somebody in that position really has to force the issue because the financial incentives for sending them down two weeks are just too great. That you can't blame any team when the player makes it that easy to send them down. You can't blame any team for doing that.

But I think as soon as we, as soon as Carol, I think as soon as the twins are satisfied that Kiralov is on a role. And, you know, they can plug him in and he can hit the ground running. I think he'll be up. Trent Grisham is, of course, dealing with a hamstring injury. He took part in a simulated game on Tuesday. He hasn't run at 100% yet, but still has a shot to be ready for opening day.

And this isn't really news, but it is, I would say, noteworthy. Maybe it's noteworthy for some people. Get it out of your system now, Walker Bueller. He allowed nine earned runs in his start on Tuesday against the Brewers, which included 10 hits. Four of those were home runs. He did get his pitch count up to 80. So that was the positive there.

But yeah, happy to see it now than in the regular season, Walker Bueller. I have Walker Bueller as a bust for this year, but it has nothing to do. This start does not influence my thinking on that anyway. It really isn't even a performance concern, period. The fact that he's up to 80 pitches, like, that's usually what I expect from Walker Bueller in like June. Right, he's more built up than usual this spring. Mm-hmm. He didn't throw 80 pitches until he's.

his third start last season. Yeah, it was just a really weird start to the year for everyone, but I mean... And his third start in 2019. Yeah. All right. No, I mean, it's definitely noteworthy that. He's getting that pitch count up, so... Good to see that from Bueller, but definitely not the nine-earned runs or four home runs.

Let's get back into the bus 3.0. And jump back in with one of yours here, Chris. Well, let's just jump lump these together because I saw these. You send them over to me. And you got to explain yourself a little bit. You have DJ LaMayhew and Matt Olson. Both on your bus list. Explain yourself.

Well, I don't think Matt Olson really needs an explanation. He was a bust in 2020. So I think we can just move on. No, in both of these cases, it's just that I think you're paying a premium for production that you can get from other places. Like, I have DJ LaMayhew as my number one second baseman, but I have him one spot ahead of Wood Maryfield.

I have him five spots ahead of Ozzy Albiz, and I have him 11 spots ahead of Catel Marte. And I could actually, I think it's close to a coin flip on Catel Marte and DJ LaMayhew. I think they're going to be very, very similar players. They have very, very similar skill sets. And so for me, it's more about not wanting to pay, you know, a full round ahead of Ozzy Albanyi's,

a round and a half ahead of Whitmerryfield. The number four second baseman in ADP is actually Kevin Bigio, who's three rounds behind him. And then Brandon Lau, Catele, is 50 picks after DJ LaMahue. And so it just, to me,

it's a simple, you're paying for a name and not necessarily the product. Who's more likely to hit 3.30 than DJ LaMahue? Like, it seems like the single safest. Do you call it DJ LaMahue a bust? Yeah. Again, it's not, he does not.

Nobody, no other player does. How are you saying you're going to get comfortable production? Cadill Marte hit 330 two years ago. And you expect him to do that again? I don't expect DJ LaMayhew to hit 3.30. Do you expect anybody? Like if, who do you think most likely to lead the majors and batting average this year? I expect someone to hit 330.

I don't expect anybody to do it. If that makes sense. Okay. Who do you think is going to lead them? If you had to pick one player to lead the majors and batting averages this year, Who would it be? Because it would be LaMahue for me. Yes.

I think he's the odds on favorite and not just saying that. That sounds right. Yeah, maybe Luis Arias, because he's, you know, such a contact. But like, I think he's more likely to hit 300 than 330, DJ LaMahue. Like, I just, you're drafting him, you're drafting him with the expectation he'll be a standout,

not with, oh, he can do it. Like, Talmartre can hit 330. DJ Lemahue is being drafted as if he's going to do that kind of thing. And I just don't think he is... I would set the over under at LeMayhew for 315, probably. I would take the under. Okay.

And Scott, you would take the... I'm setting the over under, so I've been taking 315. I mean, yeah. Isn't that how that works? He's the odds maker. Yeah, no, I think as a general rule of thumb for any type of fantasy sport, Chris, you're probably right that buying a player at his peak ADP coming off a career year is probably

not the most profitable thing that you could do. So I mean, I get it from that perspective. It's just, I mean, his lineup context and everything that he's proven the past two years is just, it's hard to get away from it. But yeah, I mean, look for you. He returns to he returns second round value in 2019. I mean, 2020 was even better. Yes. Right. He's good. This is not this is not a DJ LeMayhew's bad. It's not a Matt Olson is bad. No. It's a I think they're being overvalued and I think you can get similar production. Yeah, it's the same way that we felt about Pete Alonzo last year. I mean, I still kind of feel that way about Pete Alonzo. Pete Alonzo was the second rounder last year. Matt Olson's like an eighth rounder this year. Right. I think Matt Olson's being over by I still think

Matt Larson is one of the most undervalued players in drafts right now because. Yeah, see, I don't know how you can make that argument when Joey Gallo is going Pete Alonzo's going... 50 picks later. Right, but Pete Alonzo's better than Matt Olson. I don't think... I see them both as 250 hitters with 40 home runs. I think they're mirror images of each other.

I think Joey Gallo might hit 210, you know? Pete Alonzo... He might be able to eat out a 240 batting average. Pete Alonzo is better than Matt Olson. He is not 35 picks better than Matt Olson, especially inside... You guys really like Pete Alonso. No, no, I mean...

This is the second day in a row we've argued about how good. beat Alonzo actually I just like we've seen 59 games from Matt Olson where he was awesome in 2017 we saw 127 games where he was really good in 2019 we saw 162 games where he was yeah in 2018 and we saw 60 really really bad games for Matt Olson and 20 I mean it was small sample and he hit 14 home runs in those 60 games so and yeah his bad at all he's gonna hit home runs that's not a question his bad of ball data was better last year that it ever was again, none of this is arguing that Matt Olson's not good.

I'm arguing that he's being overdrafted. I'm arguing that there are similar players, Joey Gallo, Miguel, Seno, Fran Mill Reyes. There are multiple other ones that you can get later. Randall Reyes, I think, is under value too, but he's obviously utility only, so that hurts. Right, but like first, like being able to slot someone in at first base versus only utility, like, I don't think that has 60 picks of value.

Yeah, I would say, the biggest difference why you think he's overvalued versus, I mean, I'm more likely to draft Medalson than you are, Chris, is because I guess you think his floor is that he can repeat a near 200 batting average. I just, I don't think he's going to come anywhere close to that. I think, yeah, that seems really fluky looking at the track record. Yeah. Even if it's not that, I think like 2018, he was super disappointing.

Yeah, but nobody was drafting him. He was, it was his first full season in the majors. Like, McGill said he did not. He did not deliver the power production we've seen from him every other year. He's been in the year. So it was really he underachieved as a power hitter in that first full season. The only two seasons where Matt Olson has not missed significant time, either in the minors or due to injury, he's been a disappointment.

We're going off of 127 games in 2019 where he's an elite power hitter. And then 2017-59 games where he gets called up. It was awesome. But wouldn't you argue Alonzo was a disappointment last year too, though? I mean, you're kind of given a lot. Alonzo, the pass that you're not giving Matt Olson for the short season. Alonzo was a disappointment. He had an OPS 80 points higher than Matt Olson's.

80 points over a 60 game season is nothing. Right, but he was also 50 points better in 2019, and he hit 53 home runs. I don't think there's, like, where, if you want to argue Matt Alton's overrated, that's fine. but this like Pete Alonzo and Matt Olson aren't different like I can't get on board with that I think that is just way off I think the data is very similar very similar we've we've got to move on from Matt Elson talked about him a lot Scott you have added Nolan Aronado to your bus 3.0 we talked about him recently he's not he hasn't looked great in the spring so far he's batting 194 only one extra base hit and he dealt with a left shoulder injury last year and of course he's not in course field anymore so I don't really think think there's anything much more to add to that unless you want to we can move on to a different player it's up to you yeah i think it's just too risky i'd like to see the adp drop more than it has and you know the fact he's still going around 30th on average is just i would have been nervous to take him there

even if he's still in colorado because i don't know what's going on with his shoulder there were a few drafts where i've seen him fall outside the top 50 and if that's the case then i will i will pounce on nolan aronado i think i'm i think i'm probably more likely to draft him than either of you based on that. Lance Lynn Scott, you added to your bus 3.0 and there are some positives,

there are some negatives here, but like what's the driving force here for adding? Yeah, so it's a complicated one because like I'll, there's certainly a point where I'll take Lance Lynn at his ADP just because like, I'm all about quantity over at starting pitch

at starting pitcher and you can't get that picky about it. You just kind of have to take what comes to you and, you know, some of them are going to fail, but if you have enough of them, it'll be okay. I just think Lance Lynn is certainly not somebody I would draft enthusiastically

or reach up for because, like, the X-FIP was over 430 last year. The strike rate was down, the swinging strike rate was down. Like a lot of what we liked about him in 2019 did not carry over to 2020. It looked like it did because, you know,

the ERA and everything was fine. But the underlying numbers were actually much more similar to 2018 when he had an ERA over 450, I want to say. So I can certainly see things going very wrong for him. I think people have gotten a little too sanguine. That's basically what it comes down to for me. Yep. And the ADP for Lance Lynn right now, according to Fantasy Pros, is 52.2. So he's going right around that 4-5 turn if you play in a 12-team league.

I haven't drafted any Lanselin yet either. The positives, I see, like, he's going to be a workhorse, nice division of pitching. He has Miasmani Grundal is catcher, which is all great. But, of course, I mean, the ex-fip was as high as it was because he allowed more fly balls than ever before. He had a career-high fly-ball rate last season at 42%. And now he's moving over to a more hitter-friendly ballpark in Chicago.

Yeah, the AL-West is the most pitcher-friendly venue-wise. So leaving that is not a great thing for any fly ball pitcher. I thought I was going to be relatively high on Lanselin when I had him as SP 17, but I don't think I've drafted him at all this season. I think I'm a little higher on him than you guys are. I do believe in the skill set and the fact that he's able to get strikeouts with his weird approach. I do think it makes him, you know, somewhat more likely to outperform his peripherals

than your average pitcher, but I definitely haven't made him a priority this year. And maybe I need to move him down in the overall ranks because there's kind of a tier that drops off with him to Jun Ryu, who I have a lot more of. Yeah, I see him, I've referred to the Lance Lynn line before where I kind of see him behind between tiers. Everybody above Lance Lynn,

I trust for volume and ratios. everybody below Lance Lynn, I think either has a volume issue or a ratio issue. And he's kind of, maybe he'll be both, but I have my death. If you were watching on the video side, don't go anywhere. But when we, if you're listening to the podcast, then we're going to take a quick break. And when we return, Zach, Plesack, let's talk about him. Here, Fantasy Baseball today. So everyone knows that Chris is a little bit more down on PlessSack than Scott has been,

and we've talked about it a ton. But I don't want to react too much to the spring. but he just hasn't been good. Zach Plissack has not been good in the spring so far. And normally, I would say it doesn't matter for someone who's more established, but he's not. He's just not established. Like, we were drafting this guy inside the top

80 picks based on eight starts from last year, and I have been guilty. I've ranked him inside my top 25 starters all off season long. Five spring starts for Zach Plissac, 18 innings pitch, 23 hits allowed, 14 earned runs, seven home runs allowed,

17 strikeouts is fine. That equals out to a 7.00. ERA and a 1.50 whip. So I don't think you need to dive all that deep into it, Chris, but this is kind of rough this spring. Well, and 17 strikeouts actually isn't that great because that's a 20.9% strikeout rate, which is what we're seeing here

is the difference between pay per nine and strikeout strikeout rate and a small sample size and why you should default to strikeout rate because pitchers who give up a lot of hits, and don't make a lot of outs will have a higher strikeout per nine because they have more opportunities to get a strikeout per inning. But look, it's not about spring. This is a small sample size. It's a weird situation. You're not facing normal guys, all that stuff. But it's 40% of the total batters face that he had in 2020. He had like 204 in 2020 and 81 so far in the spring.

So you can't say it's nothing. And Zach Plei-Zek is being drafted because of 2020. This is not something where like, oh, we saw some stuff in 2019 where we really liked him. And then he built on it. It was like he was outside the top 400 going into 2020. He made those eight great starts. And now he's inside the top 80. So any sample size that detracts from that 200 batter sample size from 2020, I think is worth,

looking at. It's not, I haven't moved him down, to be clear in my spring, in my rankings because of spring. I just don't have him very high. I have him like one, 120. Yeah, 120 overall right behind Sandy Alcantara and Denelson Lamatt in my rankings. And the ADP for PLISAC is 76.6. So he's going much higher than that. Scott, just a few words. Are you worried at all about this spring? No, I mean, obviously, I'd rather his spring confirm what I already suspect. So, I mean, I think that's mostly what spring performance does if there are no factors like, oh, his velocity's down. Oh, we're worried about this one pitch of his. Oh, we're just worried about him in general.

You're not hearing any of that. In fact, you're hearing just the opposite. And I know he said after this start specifically, he was most focused on just making sure he was having, he was throwing every pitch in the strike zone. So kind of, you know, in spring training, pitchers who already have jobs, they're not trying to pitch well. They're just trying to get ready. And so that's why a lot of times you'll see really good pitchers have awful springs, and then they turn it on as soon as the regular season starts.

So, you know, I don't really make much of anything of this. I obviously don't know what's going to happen was that. Please, Zach. I don't know. If he was one of only three high-end pitchers I drafted or potentially high-end pitchers, I would be nervous. But I would have been before spring training started. If he's one of five, then, you know, whatever.

Let's just see how it goes. I think he could be good still. Let's stick with the starting pitcher. Sunny Gray is in your bus 3.0, Scott. And he was a weird pitcher to evaluate even before he's dealing with this midback strain last year. I mean, the walks have always been an issue for Sunny Gray, but last year they were up over four walks per nine for him. And his swinging strike rate just doesn't really add up to the strikeouts that he gets.

And of course, again, he's dealing with. with a mid-back strain, suffered that same injury last year. So, I mean, Scott, I mean, of course there's a point where he would fall where you would be willing to draft him. But, I mean, if he's just going anywhere close to where he was before, I mean, you're just out. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the back issue is dating back to last year.

And, like, basically, he was amazing at the start of last season, missing a ton of bats. Looked like he was the Cy Young front runner. And then his effectiveness dropped off before he even missed time with the injury. and then when he came back, it still wasn't quite like he was missing bats before. So the fact he's still dealing with that same mid-back area now a whole off-season later, like that just tells me he's going to have trouble regaining that effectiveness

we saw at the end of 2019 in the very beginning of 2020. And so kind of like a mid-range outcome is all I'm really hoping for from Sunny Gray, and there's a chance that could go wrong from there. Chris, you've added Dominic Smith to your bus, and his fantasy pros ADP is 118, but I will point out that he's dropping in the NFBC ADP. The last two weeks, that's down to 131, so 13 picks. With a max pick, one draft, he slipped all the way to pick 203.

So I understand, I mean, there's stuff going on with Dom Smith, the wrist, playing time, but, I mean, if he's starting to fall, are you still considering him a bust if he's, you know, 130 or 140 80p. No, not if he's falling to that range. You know, if he goes 140, I think it's a lot easier to stomach. What I think are the risks there, which, you know, it's not just like the wrist. It seems fine. I think he was back in the lineup today.

It's not just the defense, although he might be the worst defensive outfieler in baseball. I think of the four guys who have a worse UZR 150 over the last two seasons, J.D. Martinez is one of them. and I think the other three might not be on a team right now. So, you know, I just think it's a combination of several things where, you know, he basically has 200 plate appearances in each of the last two seasons where he's been this really, really good hitter. That's a really small sample size.

If a guy had 400 really good plate appearances in one season, I think we would treat that with a certain level of skepticism, especially if he had, you know, a track record of not performing well. the fact that it happened over two seasons, I think we're like, well, you know, there was an offseason in between it, and he did it for two seasons. But like, I don't think that necessarily changes the statistical,

like arguments against, you know, how long it takes skill sets to, you know, become stable, how long it takes for, you know, various stats to stabilize all that stuff. So I just think it, you know, a ninth round pick is just, it's a little too much for me to pay for a guy who, I have those questions about. Like if he was playing four times a week by the third week of the season, it wouldn't shock me.

Yeah, I see what you're saying too. It's tough because I actually really like the player. I think everything we've seen in the past two years, like I'm buying in, he had prospect pedigree. He's still pretty young. He's younger than Pete Alonzo. I've mentioned that before. And the stat cast number is back up everything.

Youngest player in their lineup. Yeah. The stat cast numbers back up what Dom Smith did last year. He makes really hard contact. hits well against lefties. It's just a matter of him, you know, playing adequate enough defense, which that's not even the word. He's not going to be adequate. He's going to be below average in the outfield. But just enough for them to stomach that, you know, his bat needs to be that much better. So we'll see what happens with the playing time. I get the risk, but. And, you know,

2019, the underlying batted ball numbers were not particularly strong. So, you know, he really only has the one 200 played apparent season in 2020 where everything looked good. So, you know, it's just, I think there are questions. Yeah. You painted the downside. I do think the upside for Dom Smith, though, is that, you know, we're drafting him inside the top 50 picks next year. If he hit 300 with 30 home runs, it really would not surprise me.

So Scott, Kenley Jansen is on your bus 3.0, but I feel like we've talked about him. You know, he lost his job in the postseason, past two seasons. So he's getting older. You feel like it's going to happen at some point, right? All my busts are just yada, yada, yada, yada, right? No, no, no. I just don't want to spend too much time on guys that we've talked about recently. So Marcus Semyon, I haven't seen this name on your list before.

Why are you worried about him? Well, I just surprised nobody else seems to be. Like, he's not being drafted that much lower than he was last year when he was coming off a near MVP season. And like to me, I was pretty high on him coming off that season. I thought, okay, some of these underlying numbers, I could see how he made some changes. This looks like he might be able to sustain it, Simeon.

But 2020 just made it crystal clear to me. One of these things is not like the others looking over his whole career. Like he's a low 700s OPS guy. I didn't even quite get there last year. But that's consistently what he's been. I think people are really bang. banking on him leaving Oakland going to a smaller park actually

in Dunedden, Florida to start out, but still a smaller park than Oakland. Still a good hitters park, we think. And thinking that's going to transform him, it's possible, but I mean, he always hit about the same at home as he did on the road. Like, the splits are pretty even.

I don't look at the numbers and say, okay, this guy was held back by his park. I think I'm anticipating, like a 250 batting average, 15 to 20 homers, maybe 10 steals from Marcus Simeon, which I just don't think, I just don't, I just,

I don't think that merits the price tag. I mean, we were doing a draft today. He went ahead of Javier Baez, and I'm like, what are you doing? What are you doing? I can see that just because of the walk, right? Yeah, but. He does walk a decent amount.

You're clearly bound to, counting on a much like none of us really have any doubts bias is going to bounce back right I mean not really and like you're counting you're counting on Marcus Simeon being more than pre

2019 Marcus Simeon if you're taking him ahead of bias regardless of the format yeah I would think there are probably two arguments and I'm not saying these are reasons to drive I would take Javier bias ahead of him um

bias probably is going to bat sixth for the Cubs as well I think he's bat's bad bat at six pretty much exclusively in the spring when they've had something like their normal lineup. And so, you know, we do think Simmian's going to be in a better lineup. He's going to bat second in that lineup most likely, potentially leadoff if Springer's injury lingers. And so in a points league, you know, you could be talking about the difference between a number two hitter and a number six hitter being like a half a plate of parents per game. So, you know, I could see that

mattering, but no, I don't have Simeon ahead of Javier bias. I'll just say, I think he probably hits like 255. I think he's probably between 15 and 20 homers. I think he's probably between 10 and 15 steals. Yeah, you could get those kind of

stats so much later than he's going. I agree. I think a lot of it's just like he could score a ton of runs at the top of that lineup. Like if he's a 340 on base percentage guy and bat's second in that lineup, he could, you know, but it is only a 340 on base percentage guy.

If he's hitting 250, does he bat second all year? Yeah, he had other candidates for that spot. He's a career 32 OBP, so. Right, but he's had a spike in walk rate the last couple of seasons. That does seem. But even with that, I mean, it's been, it was 305 last year, 369 in the breakout season, 318, 325. I mean, I'm closer with you, Scott.

It's just his OPS every season since he's become a full-time player in 2015, 715, 735, 722, 7.06, 892, 679. And of course, the 892 came in 2019 with the famous juice ball. So maybe... To a certain extent, I think there's some just... It's an artifact of what's happening to anybody who could steal 10 bases and hit, you know, 15 homers. Yeah. So, you know, I get it.

I don't... I don't have him as a bust. I don't think I've drafted him more than a couple times. I get it both ways. Bust 3.0 in the books, you could find all of our writing about those busts on the website, cbsports.com slash fantasy slash baseball. I was looking into some of these util only bats

just because some people have been asking when we expect them to gain position eligibility if they are going to gain any type of position eligibility. And I will say much more optimistic about J.D. Martinez and Jorge Saler. I'll point out Saler, on a few of the other sites already has outfield eligibility, but on CBS, you need 10 games played from a position last year

to have that eligibility, and Jorge Salar did not get there. So on CBS, he is util only for now. JD Martinez has started seven of 15 games in the outfield this spring, and even if the Red Sox only played him in the outfield for National League road games, they played their fifth road game by May 23rd. but I would guess based on how they're using him that he probably has outfield eligibility by late April. That's J.D. Martinez.

Jorge Soler has started nine of 16 games in the outfield this spring, and I would say that their best lineup, very clearly, has Horace Saler playing in right field with Whitmery Field at second. I don't know if they're going to do that every single day, but even if they did it once or twice a week, Saler is another one that could have outfield eligibility by the end of April. You're on Alvarez and John Carlos Stanton Completely different story

Alvarez has started all six of his games This spring at DH And Houston does not play their fifth National League Road game until August 1st And that is also assuming that he plays The field in all five of those games So I don't I can't guarantee you that I don't even know where you would play

Would he play first base? Would he play outfields? That's the thing is that he has two avenues To getting in the lineup And they They have talked about having him play a little bit. I'm looking at an article from a couple weeks ago. It sounds like they do want to, it's from the athletic. They do want to get him some reps at first base before spring is over. I don't know if that's going to come in a game, but the thing is, as we learned with Anthony Rizzo, a couple of years, you don't actually have to play a position for even a full inning to get a appearance there. If you make one appearance, if you play one play and it's an out, I guess, or a hit. or a walk. That counts as an appearance at that position.

And so, you know, maybe you have a, you know, a couple of times early on in the season where Yarden Alvarez, someone gets hurt. They need to get someone out. You know, they put him in left field when he's on, on and off day or something for like the last two innings. Or, you know, he makes a pinch hit appearance late in a game where he's not playing and then, you know, plays first base because they've got a fly ball pitcher in or something like that. Like, it's with him versus Stanton, I think because first base and left field are an option, it's probably more likely that he gets some kind of additional eligibility, but in neither case does it seem particularly likely to happen quickly. I will point out that with Stanton, he has said,

he's told Aaron Boone he doesn't need to play any outfield this spring. He'll be ready to go whenever they need to put him out there. It's not worth taking the risk in spring training. So it's, I don't know that I necessarily read anything into the fact he hasn't played in the outfield this spring, just based on that. And, you know, it'll only take five appearances. So I expect Stanton will get it at some point. Yeah. I would rank the, the likelihoodness of these Util-only players to gain outfield eligibility order, uh, eligibility in the order of J.D. Martinez, Solair, then probably Stanton and then Yordan Alvarez.

And that, you know, and that's like how quick I'm. I think that they're going to gain it as well. Let's just wrap up with some deeper sleepers. Scott, you wrote an article recently about 30 deep sleepers, and I think this is relevant for anyone who plays, you know, obviously in just deeper mixed leagues, but also for anyone who plays in AL only and NL only, we don't typically talk about them all that much

because, frankly, there's not a lot of people that play ALNL only anymore. So we'll just kind of go rapid fire here. And anyone that you want to talk about, Chris, if you want to jump in, if there's a name that we say that excites you, We will just run through some of the catchers here. Alejandro Kirk, Tom Murphy, Francisco Mejia, Dom Nunez. Yeah, Mahia and Nunez are the ones I find myself drafting the most, basically,

in those two catcher 15 team leagues where I'm waiting until my last two picks to fill catcher. I mean, Mejia was, for a long time, the top catching prospect in baseball, never really got an extended look in either Cleveland or San Diego. The race seemed more likely to play him consistently because Mike Zunino is terrible. and Dom Nunez, 17 homers in 213 at bats with a 921 OPS, his last year in the minors 2009. He bats left-handed. He's supposed to be backing up Alias Diaz to start the year,

but considering he bats left-handed, I could see him claiming the larger portion of the share of that, and then, you know, obviously course fields at his disposal. Alejandro Kirk is someone that I've been drafting a lot as my second closer, and so far in the spring. He's, yeah, it's my second catcher. Excuse me. He is 7 for 22 in the spring with two home runs.

Awesome batting average in the minors. I would expect him to hit for batting average if he plays. But of course, Danny Jansen is still on the team. So I think it's one of those, pay attention early on in the season to see what that split is. But if Kirk is out playing him, I think we could see him take over that role pretty soon.

And Kirk in the ATC projections is actually projected to be the sixth best hitter at catcher by Wobah. Obviously, that's, you know, the playing time is the big thing. He's only projected for 64 games, but, um, they have, you know, that has him right above Travis Darno. He's a really good hitter. He's a really good hitter. Tons of contact and some power too. I'm excited about Alejandro Kirk.

At first base, Joey Votto, who we really have not talked about much. And then Bobby Bradley, who is kind of in a first base battle with, uh, Jake Bowers for the Cleveland Indians. And he's looked really good. He lost a ton of weight in the offseason. So Votto and Bradley. Yeah. Yeah, he's always had huge power in the miners. I think seven of his nine hits have gone for extra bases this spring.

Strikes out a lot. At least he did in the past. And, you know, Bauer probably gets the job because he's out of options, but it may not take long for Bradley to be up. Votto, I'm actually starting to get really excited about it. He hasn't played much this spring because he's just coming back from COVID, and maybe that slows him down to begin the year. But just the changes he's made to his approach,

went on a tear at the final 29 games last year, eight home runs, 941 OPS. And he said he went back to doing what he did when he first came up, which was not choking up on the bat, really swinging for the fences more instead of selling out for contact and controlling the strikes. He's decided he's willing to strike out more to hit more home runs. And he seemed to put it into practice last September.

At second base, Thai France, Brendan Rogers, and Josh Rojas. We just spoke about Rojas yesterday on our sleepers and breakouts 3.0, as well as Ty France, who we've been talking about a ton because he's just been crushing it in the spring. Brendan Rogers does have a hamstring injury and there's talks of him missing potentially the first month of the season,

but once he's healthy, he should have an opportunity to play every day for the Rockies, hopefully. Yeah, unless somebody takes the job and runs with it in his absence. Like, that was the plan. He's finally, like, it's rare the Rockies are as clear about their intentions for their young players as they were with Rogers this year.

And, you know, elite prospect, last time he was ranked as a prospect with power speed and course field. He's somebody I'm going to have stashed away for when he comes back in a lot of leagues. He could hit 320.

Yeah. Of course field, I mean, yeah. That's a positive when your park's giving you a 360 babbit, that opens the door to a lot of possibilities for your batting average. Yeah, and especially for people who play in leagues with a lot of IL spots,

five IEL spots, unlimited IEL. Tout Wars the other day I had unlimited IL spots. I drafted Brendan Rogers and I drafted Framber Valdez and I'm whatever. I'm just going to throw all these guys on the IL and when they return, hopefully they do something. It's, you know, high upside plays there going very late in your drafts. Let's lump third base and short stops together here. Jonathan India prospect for the Cleveland, for the Cincinnati Reds rather, and Nico Horner, who is expected to be the starting second baseman for the Chicago Cucson. Cubs.

He had to get it today he had only struck out once at 28 at bats Horner had he changed his he changed his setup

at the plate to hopefully unlock more power I know some analyst types have been talking about how he never

really showed power the little bit he played in the miners but they saw the potential for

power in him he's also very fast and his attempted three steals this spring so I think he could

surprise I think he could be I think there's similar upside for Horner to like Nick Solock. And India, I like a lot too.

If he wins the second base job, you know, he's listed at third base right now, but if he wins the second base job, good on base skills. Emerging power showed more at the alternate training site last year, former fifth overall pick. I think there's upside there for sure. And even if he's betting near the bottom of the Reds lineup, it's a decent lineup and it's a really good ballpark to hit in.

So I saw the Reds lineup on Tuesday, included him playing second base and E. E. E. Hennio Suarez back at and Mike Mustakis at third base. So that seems to be what they're going for and they're sticking with it for now. In the outfield, you wrote up Justin Upton, Miles Straw, Hunter Renfro,

Sam Hilliard, Tyler O'Neill, Taylor, Taylor, Tramel, and Michael Taylor. Give me one name here, Scott, the one you're most excited about. Oh, most excited. Well, I feel like the one we're not talking about enough is Michael Taylor, who has this, is the Royal Center fielder.

There are no playing time concerns there. There. Injuries and strikeouts really held him back in Washington, but I think it was in 2017 at 19 Homer's 17 steel season with less than full-time at bats. And he's changed his stance. He used to have a big leg kick. It's now kind of just shifting his weight, and they think it's going to allow him to make a lot more contact.

It's had an awesome spring. Power and speed there, playing time. I mean, he's like a last round pick in 15-Team 5 outfielder leagues, and I think he deserves better than that. I could see him being like Kevin Vizio with worse runs and RBI numbers just because the lineup, but like, you know,

his projection from ATC, it's nine homers, seven steals, but it's only 313 plate appearances. If you give him 600 plate appearances, that gets into like 18 homers, 14 to 15 steals. Right. That's entirely reasonable.

And I, and you know, if there is skills improvement with him making his stance more, composed. I don't know. I do want to mention Justin Upton, too, because we never talk about him. He's probably going to bat behind Rendon and Trout. So, like, an amazing RBI position.

And he had an awesome September 2. Final 22 games last year, 303 with six home runs. You know, he was bad in 2019, too, but he was dealing with a couple injuries. Yeah, he was so bad in 2019. He has a long track record of being a middle of the order thumper, and I think maybe he's being written off too soon here. amazingly also only 33 years old. Yeah, Justin up feels like he should be 37.

He's been around for, well, I think he debuted early, right? He was 20 or 20. He was 19 when he made his debut. Yeah, so he was super young. And starting pitcher, Robbie Ray, we talked about recently. Mackenzie Gore prospect for the San Diego Padres. That is Luis Severino with the Yankees, Drew Smiley, Griffin Canning, Terik Scouble,

Usay Kikuchi, Spencer Howard, Trevor Rogers, and Carlos Rodon. We've talked about a lot of these names recently. Who haven't we talked about? I love those last four names. That is... Cacucci, Howard, Rogers, and Rodon. Love all those guys.

Well, let me throw these guys in the mix because we haven't talked about these names. Dalton Jeffries, who has been awesome in the spring for the A's, and he might have just locked up their fifth starter job. I know A.J. Puck was competing for it, but 13 innings pitch, two earned runs, 20 strikeouts.

Again, the name there, Dalton Jeffries. Randy Dobnack, the Stash Man. We talked about him last year. We were streaming him for a little bit. 8 and 2 thirds, 13 strikeouts this spring. He has a new slider he's been pitching with. Logan Webb with the San Francisco Giants. A lot like Dalton Jeffries,

he might have locked up the fifth starter job for the San Francisco Giants. 17 strikeouts over 11 shutout endings pitched for the Giants so far. And Jake Arietta, who is old and not very exciting, but if you are into streaming and if he is inside the top three starters in the rotation for the Cubs, he will face the Pittsburgh Pirates in his first two starts. So Jeffreys, Dobnack, Webb, and Arieta. Yeah, my favorite there are Jeffries and Webb

because I think they have the most upside. Dalton Jeffries, he pitched in 2019 in the minors, he pitched 86, I'm sorry, he pitched 79 innings, 93 strikeouts to nine walks, which is like the kind of stuff Shane Bieber was doing in the minors. I know. That's not compare him to Shane Bieber, but nonetheless, it's rare you see that kind of strikeout to walk rate

From anybody in the miners at relief pitcher T.J. Anton of course just get healthy man. He has been throwing recently for the Cincinnati Reds and still competing for a spot in their rotation and Freddie Peralta the optimism is growing in the industry expected to make a start for the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday. I guess there's still a chance that he could work his way into the rotation as well. Let's wrap there for Scott, Chris, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.