Fantasy Baseball Today - 🚨Carlos Rodon Will Start the Season on the Injured List! - Emergency Podcast (3/9 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 9, 2023

Carlos Rodon is dealing with a forearm injury and won't throw for 7-10 days. He'll start the season on the Injured List. How far does he move down draft boards? Do we have any interest in Clarke Schmidt who will take Rodon's spot in the rotation? Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Make sure to join our Fantasy Baseball Today March Madness bracket challenge here: https://picks.cbssports.com/college-basketball/ncaa-tournament/bracket/pools/kbxw63b2hazdeobwhayq====?pool-join-key=luc355rrnbhkblo9afv0ti95ozzbzg66&invited-by=ivxhi4tzhiytenztgq2dsojz&via-medium=copy&ttag=FF23_lk_cbssports_cbb_bpm_copySetupInvite Get Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ 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/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 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

Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Well, Yankees fans, the season is over. Welcome in to fantasy baseball today on Thursday, March 9th. Frank Sample joined by Chris Towers, an emergency edition, talking about the injury to Carlos Rodan, who is dealing with a left forearm strain will not throw for 7 to 10 days, and he is expected to start the season on the IL. Chris, before I throw it your way, I'll just do the glass half full,

glass half empty, both sides here. reports say that the strain has been diagnosed as mild. Brian Cashman said in a perfect world, Rodon would return in April and that this is not a UCL issue. He also mentioned this is something that Rodon has dealt with in the past, specifically last May. Class half empty. Rodon had Tommy John surgery back in 2019.

He obviously has a history of left arm issues, though they are mostly shoulder-related. And he's coming off a career high 178 innings pitched. Overreaction season, Chris. This is still very immediate. We're digesting it. The ADP for Carl Swardon, SP12, 40.8 off the board. What is your initial reaction?

And how far do you think he slips down draft boards? Yeah, what we know in terms of concrete information right now makes this sound not particularly serious. He's going to be shut down for 7 to 10 days. It's a forearm muscle strain, not an elbow tendon issue. So based on what we can say for sure, it doesn't seem that serious, but we're inferring, right? Like the reaction to this is not going to be based on the actual information the Yankees give out.

It's going to be based on the inference that there is something structurally wrong, even if there's no UCL damage. Yet, forearm injuries tend to beget elbow issues. At least that's the way we tend to view it. And so I think we should probably react. I don't know what react means relative to. to overreact, overreact might be dropping outside of the top 100.

I'm not going to do that yet. He's going to stay in my top 100. He's going to stay in my top 25 starting pitchers because I do think that when Carlos Rodon is healthy, I mean, he's arguably the best pitcher in fantasy. I mean, we don't know how he's going to fare

playing in Yankee Stadium being a fly ball pitcher there, but he's one of the best strikeout pitchers in baseball. He's a, he's got very good control. His run suppression metrics are all very, very good. I believe he led the majors in fit last season. He's a very, very good pitcher. I had him ranked

seventh going into this. I dropped him to 25. So, right in front of Chris Sale at the starting pitcher position, I believe he's right behind Christian Javier. Might be a little low on Christian Javier. I'm starting to think I need

to move him up anyway, but that feels like an interesting range of boom bust potential there. Yeah, I don't have any issues in terms of the performance for Rodon. Chris, you mentioned, okay, he's going to Yankee Stadium as a fly ball pitcher. He's a lefty, and obviously there's a short porch in right field. I think if he was a right-handed pitcher and a fly-ball pitcher, then that would hurt him a lot more. The projections on fan graphs in terms of innings are for between 169 and 181. So they were

kind of baking in that he was going to miss time at some point anyway. If he's back late April or early May, he could still potentially get to 170 innings. I'm not trying to paint this as a positive. I'm just saying the projections are what they are and they were already kind of baking in that he was going to miss time. So keep that in mind when it comes to Carl Swardon. I think you're spot on, Chris, in terms of where you moved him in the rankings. I wrote here, my initial reaction was to move him down to SP24 as the bridge from you Darvish and Zach Allen. For me, that's kind of like the last of the trustworthy SP2s as the bridge. to Robbie Ray and Tristan McKenzie,

where maybe we have some skepticism on those guys. So I think right around that range. And if that's where Rodon falls to in ADP, that means he's probably going to drop about 30 spots. Because again, he was going at pick 40.8 on average. And Zach Allen, Zach Allen's at 70.8. So about 30, 35 picks, Chris.

And I would guess, like, in drafts that are happening right now or today, he's going to fall a little more than that. Yep. I think there's going to be more of a reaction. I actually don't know where Joe Musgrove has been going since his injury, but I do have Joe Musgrove just a little bit behind Carlos Rodon because I think there's less risk with Joe Musgrove coming back from that broken toe, but obviously the upside's not nearly as high with Musgrove.

So I think that's a decent ranking range for both of them. Look, it's entirely possible that this ends up being largely a non-factor, and Rodon misses two turns in the rotation, and ends up making 31 starts. And he's a top 10 SP for fantasy, maybe a top five guy if he makes 31 starts. It's just Brian Cashman saying, in a perfect world,

he'll be back in mid-April. Well, to me, that suggests May, you know, because for sure, one, to steal a joke from Mike Gianella, why are there injuries in a perfect world? I thought that was a pretty good bit. But also, like, in a perfect world, mid-April, you're probably waiting a little longer than that then.

Yeah, I feel like we're kind of really painting the rosy picture here for Carl Swardan. It obviously is serious, and this is someone who has an extensive injury history. So I don't want to downplay this. This is a very big deal for Rodon, someone that has up to his velocity of the past two years.

I mean, that is something that could be correlated. I mean, and so, again, like, there is definite risk with Carl Sorda, but we will have a live salary cap slash auction later tonight, 7 p.m. Eastern time we're going live. It's going to be very interesting to see how much Carl's Rodan goes for in that draft. And of course there are ripple effects here, Chris, with Rodon falling down draft boards. That's one less ace to grab in the first

four rounds of drafts. So everybody will move up a little bit. It's, you know, it's kind of like the rising tide there in terms of the starting pitcher position. Who fills in for the Yankees early on in the season? We know Domingo Hermann was likely already the team's SP5 because guess what? They have another injury. Frankie Montas is going to miss, I don't know, a lot. large majority of the season after having shoulder surgery. My guess is that Clark Schmidt is the one that's going to step in here, Chris. And he comes with some prospect pedigree, hasn't really lived up to it, but also hasn't really been given a fair opportunity. So far in his career, 3.71 ERA, 1.38 whip.

Most of that has been in relief. He was great in his first spring start, then got blown up in his second one. Do you have any interest in Clark Schmidt as a late round flyer? Yeah, I think Clark Schmidt, there are some interesting things about him. He's put up pretty good. numbers in the minors. Overall, he has a somewhat limited track record. Like, we haven't really seen, you know, I'm trying to figure it out. His total innings pitch in the minors looks pretty low. I'm looking at fan graphs. They don't sum up a pitcher's minor league track record. I'll pull it up for you. But yeah, I think like he's been an interesting fringe-ish pitching prospect for a little while. And I think there's a there's a case to be made that he could be

useful for fantasy for sure. It's a good team. He should have good protection. There should be the opportunity for wins. I think him and Domingo Hermann are probably pretty similar now in terms of the role that they're going to have in the Yankees rotation and the likelihood that they'll be useful for fantasy. So looking at Clark Schmidt's minor league numbers, 185 innings total. He never threw more than 90 and two-thirds, which actually kind of surprises me when it comes to Clark Schmidt. So look, if everything goes south with Carl Sordaun, then Schmidt is someone who could be in the rotation for the majority of the season. We just don't know right now. So keep that in mind. I think Domingo Hermann's spot is a little bit safer now in the Yankees rotation. That'll do it.

You know, I was going to go on a little rant here, Chris, because look, from a Yankee fan perspective, you know, I start off, oh, the sky is falling. That's not actually the case. But there is something fundamentally wrong with either their team, the way that they address injuries. Yeah, the scouting or the, or the training staff. I mean, Frankie Montas's arm was falling off last year. They go out and trade for him. That was, that was weird because he made like one or two starts after coming back from that injury.

And then they traded for him. That was, that was weird. And he was bad with Oakland then. And then he came over. He was off with the Yankees. They wait all offseason. And then Montas had his shoulder surgery. And guess what?

They have two other relievers that are also starting the season on the aisle. Tommy Canley and Lou Trevino. It's just, what is this team doing? What is the front office thinking? What are, like, who is the medical staff? Like, who's in charge of this medical staff? It is a disaster right now for the Yankees. Obviously, we're hoping for good news for Carlos Rodon

and hopefully back sooner than later. But I would say my initial guess is we're probably looking at May, a May return if everything goes well for Carlos Rodon. We're going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching this emergency edition of fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again. Later on today, mailbag at three and then a live salary cap draft at 7.

Bye-bye.