Fantasy Baseball Today - Deep Sleepers & Late-Round Category Specialists! (3/24 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 24, 2022

Please vote FBT for 'best Fantasy baseball pod', it only takes 2 seconds! https://twitter.com/baseballpods/status/1506948629185142786?s=20&t=PF-HRL5Usi_nYGUPrc21mA Before we get into the deep sleepers, Tommy Pham signed with the Reds (3:15)! What does it mean for Jake Fraley? ... Deep sleepers (7:30)! Let's start with Alejandro Kirk and Cavan Biggio. ... Can A.J. Puk and Seth Brown carve out roles for the A's (11:32)? ... Can Matt Manning bounce back (14:17)? ... What is Brandon Marsh's skillset (16:25)? ... Can Jake Fraley find playing time with the Reds (18:52)? ... Is it time to pay attention to Keston Hiura (21:11)? ... Let's hit our email of the day (23:30). ... Who are Chris' favorite deep sleepers (28:15)? ... What about Scott's favorites (34:55)? ... What about Frank's deep targets (41:00)? ... What's the latest on news, notes and spring performances (44:34)? ... We wrap up with late-round category specialists (53:33)! '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 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

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. With fantasy! Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. It's about time we get to some deep sleeper, so let's do it. Welcome in Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, March 24th.

Literally, we're recording after midnight. FBT, very much after dark tonight. Frank Stamph will join. joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. We've got those deep sleepers for those of you who play in AL and NL-only leagues, plus 15 team mix. I think you can use some of these players as well. But also, we have some late-round category specialists. So those will be a little bit more shallower.

Those will be like, you know, outside the top 280p. But if you need certain stats later on in your draft, home runs, steals, strikeouts, we will get to those a little bit later on. Plus the latest news and spring performances. There is a lot going on right now. Scotty, how you doing? Speaking of A.L. and only, you just had a salary cap draft. How was it? Yeah, A.L. Only.

I think I did well. I think I did well. It's, you know, we talk about doing studs and duds in those, you know, loading up on high-end players and filling out your rosters. You know, if you know what you're doing, if you know the right players to target for just two or three bucks, you can take a stab at those to start out and feel confident. you can back fill off the waiver wire if you need to,

but very different when you're doing AL or HINL only because the waiver wire is virtually non-existent. What you get in the draft slash auction is what you have, apart from trades, I guess. So it's more advisable to spread the dollars around. I didn't get any player that I would consider like a first-rounder, even in an A-L-only context. I think the most expensive player I had was Corey Seeger for 28.

George Springer for 26 was right there. Jose Altuvae. I think I spent 25 on him. Kevin Gossman 25. Justin Verlander, 23. Just spread the dollars a little more than I would in a mixed league. And I found that's the better way to attack those really, really deep formats. Chris, how you doing, bud?

We miss you yesterday. Hello. Hi. How's it going? What's up? Why was I on your cell? I just had friends in town. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for missing. It's all good. You know, it's bad timing. You know, people coming in town during the middle of draft prep season. I'm going out of town this weekend. So it's not great timing. But, you know, it is what it is. I apologize for my absence.

I hope you can forget me. I forgive you. Just this once. Scott yelled. Un excused absence, Chris. Scott yelled at me. You need a note from a medical professional. I was in the middle of dinner and he called.

called me, screaming. I don't think so. No, I'm lying. I'm lying. Anyway, I probably could lead with something much more important than this, but we had a signing. So I feel like it's worth talking about because it could affect some of the deep sleepers we're going to talk about here today. I know Jake Frailly is one of those names that we were kind of excited about. Tommy Pham signed a one-year deal with the Cincinnati Reds.

Find it kind of interesting that he signed a deal before Michael Conforto. But that is the case. a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2023. And last year, Tommy Fam hit 229, 15 homers, 14 steals, and 155 games. The XBA was much better than that. He still walks quite a bit. Good on base percentage. Chris, what do you think?

I feel like this could be kind of sneaky, interesting in Great American Ballpark. Yeah, I mean, look, it's the right kind of landing spot where someone like Tommy fam, who, you know, whose skill set has declined over the last few years, could, you know, have something like a bounceback season because it's a great place to hit. And, you know, he'll probably hit in a pretty good spot in the lineup when he's in the lineup. I don't think he's going to play every single day. But yeah, no, it puts Tommy fam perhaps in the deep sleepers discussion. All right. The ADP for Tommy. I'm not actually sure where his ADP is right now. His ADP is 286.

Okay, so deep sleeper. Yeah, I mean, he's close. He's close to being a deep sleep. I think most of the names we're going to talk about today are outside the top 380P. but that's close enough. Scott, what do you think about the signing, Tommy Fam, to the Reds? And, you know, who might it affect? I guess Jake Fraley, maybe Nixon Zell. What do you think? Yeah, I was a little more disappointed about what it means for Jake Fraley

because I was starting to get excited about him as a sleeper, a deep sleeper in that park. And I think he'd be more likely to remain an overlooked deep sleeper than Pham will. I expect Pham's ADP's going to move into the top 250, maybe even the top 200 with this news. And I had pretty much written off fam, but he still hit the ball really hard last year. 77th percentile average XIVAvelocity,

84th percentile hard hit rate. Still 69th percentile spread speed, pretty fast. Puts the ball on the ground too much, but still draws a lot of walks. And so, you know, if he can, if moving to a much smaller park than San Diego, when, you know, the rare occasion he's,

does hit a fly ball can help it get over the fence, then yeah, yeah. I might need to move them up quite a bit in my rankings based on this news. All right, a sneaky potential, you know, fourth or fifth outfielder for those who play in Roto leagues. You know, if everything goes right, if he could stay healthy, I don't think it's crazy that we could see a 2020 season out of Tommy fan. Before we get into the deep sleepers, our buddy, baseball pods. We had him on about a month ago doing some mock drafts with him. He's got the 2022 Fantasy Baseball podcast. bracket up and running, and we've made it to the finals against the defending champions. We did it. We're going up against the defending champs, rates and barrels. Great work there from Derek Van Riper

and Eno Saris over at the Athletic. Thank you to everybody who has voted for us thus far, but we need a little bit more help to get to the finish line. So make sure to follow at baseball pods on Twitter and vote for FBT so we can take home the gold. I believe that voting process will actually be on Thursday. By the time you're listening to this Thursday morning, it'll be out. A little Why is that? Because you know, Saris is like the smartest fantasy baseball guy in the world. And Derek Van Riper is super smart and also has that like great podcasting. And it's just like, how can we compete with that?

Little old us. Unfair. I mean, especially me as a host. You know, I listen to Derek Van Riper. The guy has like voice of an angel. You're right, Chris. I mean, that guy was meant to host a podcast. You know, I think I'm really.

Maybe everybody should just vote for them. No, no, no, no. But we're better. Those guys are, those guys. If you're listening to this, that means you should probably vote for us. Anyway, let's go out, let's get on to some deep sleepers here. Admittedly, probably not my most organized rundown of all time, but I got a bunch of names from people on Twitter that they want to hear about.

I've got some names from Chris. I have some names that I draft late. Scott has some names. So we're just going to jump around and try and get to as many of these as we possibly can. Let's start off with two Toronto Blue Jays. And again, this first group are names that I received from Twitter. Alejandro Kirk currently has an ADP of 310.8, and he has played in three spring games. He was the DH in two of those.

I was reading an article earlier on Wednesday, and apparently with the 28-man roster, the Blue Jays plan to carry three catchers. Alejandro Kirk will be one of them, and there's a good chance that he's going to be the DH for them early on in the season. And then the other one is Kevin Vigio, completely imploded last year, but his career 150 game pace, 19 homers, 14 steals, you know, good on base skills. Batting average, probably not going to be so good. Scott, we'll start with you.

What do you think about these two? Alejandro Kirk and Kevin Bigio for those in deeper leagues. I am definitely on board with one as a deep sleeper, not so on board with the other as a deep sleeper. Though, you know, you get deep enough. You don't have to, like, it only takes a smidgen of upside for you to really, for a guy to qualify as a sleeper. seen Bizio put a pretty good numbers in the past.

But no, Alejandro Kirk's the one I'm excited about here. I mean, he has a contact rate like you'd see from a slap hitter, and yet he crushes the ball, 92.3, average exit velocity, 92.3 miles per hour. It's like the perfect combination of bat two ball and bat on ball. I don't know if those are necessarily different things. Bat to ball and ball to bleacher. Yeah. More like.

Yeah, exactly. No, he's an amazing hitter. He's an amazing hitter. He's liable to walk more than he strikes out. I can see why they haven't turned over catching duties to him yet because, you know, he's kind of short and rotund and doesn't look like somebody who's going to profile as a great defensive backstop. He's a big beefy baseball. boy. But they don't have somebody

who needs that to be dedicated to the DH spot. It could be him. It could be him if they're willing to carry a third catcher all year.

They don't even have to see Alejandro Kirk as a catcher. They could just treat him as an emergency catcher. And, you know, maybe the kind of

start he gets off to will determine that. Otherwise, it's Randall Gritchick in the lineup, and I don't know that we need to see any more from him

or that the Blue Jays would miss his bat bat in the lineup. So, yeah, I love drafting Kirk as my second catcher very late. All right. Chris, do you have any hope that Kevin Bissio can get back on track? I know this time a year ago, we all had him as a bust.

I think he was going as like a top 60 or top 70 pick. But does provide some power and some speed currently projected to be the strong side of a platoon at second base for the Blue Jays. The power is the problem. In the past, he has provided some power, but that was the result of an extreme pull-heavy or extreme fly ball-heavy approach, and it did not come with very much raw power. Last season, he stopped pulling the ball,

and the ball didn't travel as far, and that led to just a massive collapse in his skill set. The problem is he just doesn't hit the ball very hard. And so with the juiced ball on a pull-heavy approach, he was able to kind of maximize what he was able to get, and even that was only like 20-ish homers. and so I just don't, I didn't view him as someone

who had a very wide margin for error last season and so I don't really view him as someone who has much bounce back potential. That being said, it's never a terrible idea to draft last year's top 100 picks if it costs you effectively nothing. Yep.

DTM. There's you a DTM. Bring in Jordan Groschens, have him play some second base in the minors. Oof, all right. We'll see. but we do like Alejandro Kirk here. Let's move over to the Oakland A's.

I got two names here as well. A.J. Puck and ADP of 524. There was an article on the athletic, I think a couple of weeks ago, maybe a month ago, that said he could work his way into save opportunities there. The guy has a big fastball, big slider as well, but has only thrown 24 and two-thirds innings in his major league career.

And then Seth Brown, looks like he's in line for some playing time. Now that the team traded away, Matt Olson, 20 home runs over 111 games last season. He also has two 30 homer seasons in the minors. So Chris, we'll start with you this time. What do you think about Seth Brown for some power and AJ Puck in that bullpen? I think Seth Brown's more of an AL-only player because, like, yeah, we're talking about deep sleeper. So obviously, you know, you don't want to knock any guy too much.

But Brown, I just don't think he's going to be able to hit lefties. And I don't know if he's going to get the opportunity too. So he could put up decent rate stats, but it's just, it's hard to see him being someone who's super valuable in mixed formats. Puck, on the other hand, you know, if he's healthy and he does emerge as a late inning reliever for the for the athletics, yeah, I think there's a lot of reasons to be excited about him because we're talking about one of the top prospects in baseball just a few years ago who's dealt with, you know, primarily shoulder injuries over the past couple of years. I can't, did you have Tommy John as well or was it just shoulder? I think it was just shoulder, but I'll look it up. Either way, you know, obviously concerning.

And his chances of becoming an impact starting pitcher seemed pretty limited at this point, but, you know, 50 high leverage innings, he could absolutely do that and be a very good reliever. So I'm excited to see him potentially get that role. AJ Puck had Tommy John surgery in April of 2018. So, good to know that. I think he came back from Tommy John surgery,

had a shoulder injury during spring of the first season he was back, and that was the issue. All right. Scott, Seth Brown, big power here. Lots of strikeouts, lots of fly balls. But, you know, with playing time, I think, especially in AL only, we could get 25 plus homers out of it. Yeah.

Yeah, no, I hear what Chris is saying, where I don't see myself targeting him late in like a 15-team mixed league. But he is somebody, I put an asterisk next to going into this AL-only, AL-only roto draft that I took part in because, I mean, 20 homers and 281 at bats last year. That pretty much sums it up.

If you're talking about a $2 or $3 player in an AL-only league, I mean, you can't do much better than that. He ended up going for three. I bid two on him, but I got outbid. All right, let's, I'm going to give you guys each one player and then we'll keep rotating back and forth. I've got an email of the day.

There's a lot of names to get to. Scott, you'll get Matt Manning here. He had a bad rookie season. 5.80 ERA, 1.51 whip. There really was not much under the hood, 6.8% swinging strike rate. He was a top prospect. His velocity was up in his first spring start the other day.

Any hope for Matt Manning in deep leagues? Yeah, everything looked terrible. It started in the miners, by the way. I traded him in the Scott White Dynasty League, that 2014 points league, before he even got called up. Because I was like, I don't know what's going on with this guy,

but he doesn't seem to have it anymore. That's interesting because there were not an insignificant number of prospect people who thought he was the most talented of that trio. Going into last year, yeah. Casey Meise and Terrick Scoobal. Yeah, but going into last year, but he was very consistent prior to last year. But yeah, he just fell apart. And I have, I think he's only made one start,

but his velocity was up from last year in that first spring start. About one and a half miles per hour. Yeah. So it could be enough. You know, sometimes all it takes is that much velocity to change the complexion of a pitcher. But, you know, the spin rates weren't very good. There have been control issues in the past. I just, I don't have a lot of hope for Matt Manning at this point in time. Man, I don't know if there's just something organizationally with the Tigers or if it's, but all three of those guys, Scoobal, Mize, and Manning. They all look pretty underwhelming right now, which is this was, you know, arguably the best trio of pitching prospects any organization had a year ago. And it seems like every single one of them has taken a severe hit to their prospect standing. Manning in particular, I remember in the short in 2020 season, he was working out in their, whatever they were calling it, alternate site. And I know he was dealing with an arm injury.

And really since then, he hasn't really looked the same. So maybe there's something kind of there underlying. But yeah, the V-Lo up so far. Something to watch for Matt Manning. Brandon Marsh, Chris, you get Brandon Marsh. ADP 361.6, has some prospect pedigree himself. Last season in 70 games with the Angels hit 254, two homers, six deals, lots of strikeouts, but also lots of line drives.

What do you think about Brandon Marsh? This is a type of prospect that I tend to struggle with. And it's the, I mean, I could Brian Hayes would be in. another example last year, Christian Pache for the Braves, the guy who has this high prospect predigree, and then you look at the numbers, and it's like, that doesn't really match up. It's not that Brain and Marshall's numbers were bad in the minors, 288 average 811 OPS over 295 games. It's just like it doesn't look like anything special. And, you know, obviously there's projection involved in that.

You know, he's going to take this step forward. He's got the skill set. He just needs to figure it out. And we've seen examples of that in the majors. I mean, we've seen flashes of the skill set. But yeah, I struggle to get excited about a guy who has 10 home runs in 120 games between AA and AAA. There's some speed there, which is the, I think the primary draw if he gets an opportunity.

But not someone that's on my radar too much. I might have him in 1-15 team league. I know I definitely had him queued up in TGFBI. I can't remember if I actually pulled the trigger on him. But that's the kind of format where I would. That's the only kind of format I would be interested in, I think. Yeah. Not one of my top sleeper.

Not one of my priority deep sleepers either is Brandon Marsh. Like, he looks like a launch ankle case where if he learned to elevate the ball a little better, he impacts it hard enough that he could turn into something. And he's, you know, I don't know how many bases he's going to steal, but he's very fast. So, like, you definitely could see. a high ceiling for Brandon Marsh, but he just hasn't demonstrated it. And even in the majors last year,

two home runs and 236 at bats, and he struck out 35% of the time. You're drafting him late in the hope it all comes together suddenly, but it seems like a low probability hope to me. I mean, the one thing he does have going for him is kind of like Christian Pesche, he's really good defensively.

And so if he's competent to start the season as a hitter, you know, he should get the opportunity, but I don't know if that's enough. All right, Scott, talk to me about Jake Fraley. We mentioned his name a little bit earlier on. I guess even with Tommy Pham signing with the Reds, Jake Frelly came over in the Jesse Winkertrade, by the way. He played for the Mariners last year, 78 games,

only hit 2-10, but he had nine homers and 10 SEAL. So he does have a bit of a power speed combination. Even with FAM coming in, they could go Pham, Senzel, Fraley in the outfield, and then play Tyler Naquin at DH. So I think there's a chance he still could play. What do you think about Jake Freilly? Yeah, I mean, I think they're going to give Nick Senzel a chance to, another chance to make good on whatever his potential is anymore.

But we've seen that movie enough times to know how it goes. So I'm not completely casting Frealey aside. I'm not sure he's worth a roster spot in a 15 team league anymore. And I was getting to the point where I thought he was. But definitely somebody to monitor because, you know, he mentioned he hit 210. Well, he reached base at a 352 clip. So, like, even as somebody who hit 210,

he was valuable enough for the Mariners to play. And there's the power speed combo there. The hope is moving from Seattle to Cincinnati, he would get a boost of home runs that also translates to a boost in batting average and continue to run like he did last year and continue to begin on base like he did last year. And you may have something there. You know, the opportunity isn't as clear anymore. Reds Outfield has a lot of deep sleepers worth considering

because I would throw in Ari Stittes Iquino. The Punisher. And, you know, Nixon's L as a deep sleeper. Like there's, you know, potential for 1515. And Tyler Naquin is more of an Anna only guy, but he should crush Rite's and, you know, get the opportunity to play pretty regularly as a result of that. So, you know, they'll be bad, but there's some interesting late-round fantasy guys. Tyler Naquin was a great story last season.

He hit 270, 19 homers, five steals, and 809 OPS. I know he slowed down in the second half. He had like one of those ridiculous months, but plays in Great American Ballpark should start against right-handed pitching. I think he can pop 20 plus homers this year. Again, that is Tyler Naquin and only a name that you want to pay attention to. And Chris, maybe another name. to pay attention to an NL only.

Kestinjura, are we falling forward again? He went two for three with another home run on Wednesday night. This time playing left field, so they're trying to find ways to get him in the lineup. There's talk about how he's changed up his batting stance in the off season, and I'm really paying attention to the strikeouts.

He's got three strikeouts and just 11-plate appearances. Obviously, it's a super small sample size. I think it's like a 27% strikeout rate, but what do you think about Kestan Hira? Can he earn some opportunities here with the Brewers? Yeah, such are the meager joys when it comes to Kestan Hero over the past few seasons that a 27% strikeout rate over 11 plate appearance is just taken as an unequivocal good sign. But yeah, to quote Michael Scott, there's no doubt about it, I am ready to get hurt again. I will absolutely be targeting Kestan here in the late rounds.

We've seen tremendous upside from him. We've seen incredible batted ball quality of contact data from him. And yeah, he's reworked his swing. He's gotten rid of the super exaggerated like Josh Donaldson-esque leg kick that he had over the past couple of seasons that, that, you know, seemingly helped him generate some of that power, but also potentially led to the kind of contact issues and timing issues that we've seen. So, you know, if he can be a 27% strikeout rate guy, I still think there's 25 home or potential here. So, yeah, Kustin here is absolutely someone in a really good lineup and a really good park that is worth keeping an eye on. Yeah. Yeah.

I remember last year, I think his ADP was like a seventh rounder in 12 team leagues. And it was the sort of seventh rounder where if somebody drafted him in round five, the whole room would erupt in applause for that pick. Like he was just everybody was excited about Kestan here. Heading into 2020, right? Well, heading into last year. Last year, his ADP was 74. Yeah. Wow.

So just a year later, he's not being drafted at all. And, you know, hot start to spring, maybe that's going to start changing. But, like, there's no risk to taking Hero now. I don't know if he's going to have a job on opening day, but he's so far putting himself in position to do. All right. That brings us to our email of the day. And I've been saving this one for exactly this podcast. This one's from Andrew Bush, dear Kenley, Eric and Jeff.

Kenley Jansen, Eric Gagne, Jeff. Jeff Shaw? Was that a Dodgers closer? Back in the day? No idea. No idea either. I think it was. I think it was Jeff Shaw.

I think I got it. Yeah. Yeah, go Scott. Yeah, this guy, yeah, he had some massive save seasons. 42, 48, 43. All right. Jeff Shaw, let's go. I am in a 16-team six-by-six categories league

with the extra categories being holds and OPS, and I am looking for late power or speed with multiple position eligibility. You recently had your sleepers pod, but I have not heard anything about these four potential sleepers. These are some deep names. Bradley Zimmer, Nixon Zell,

who we were just talking about, Jorge Mateo with the Orioles, and Mike Nostakis, expected to start at third base for the Reds. Scott, you are shaking your head. I'm assuming you don't love any of these. I don't. No, I'm sorry.

I don't. I mean, there was a time when Senzel, Bradley Zimmer, and Jorge Mateo were either really good prospects or at least fringe top 100 prospects in the case of Mateo. But they've just shown so little. Yeah, there are so many players

I'd go for before them. But in a 16-team league, you know. Even in a 16-team league. Yeah, I think Senzel will definitely get drafted in a 16-team league. Zimmer and Mateo are probably pretty fringy even there. I'm not sure they would get drafted in most TGFBI leagues,

if I'm remembering correctly. But, you know, I'm not totally disinterested in them. I'll say that to damn with faint praise. I think Zimmer went for $2 in the AL-only salary cap draft tonight and as just like a cheap steals play, basically. And I think Jorge Matei went for $1 as the same thing. And that's in the deepest league I play in year after year. So, yeah, I mean, this is real, real Hail Mary type of stuff here.

Yeah, Zimmer had 15 steals over 99 games last year. Lots of strikeouts, lots of ground balls. But he does run when he's on base, and Cleveland usually lets their guys go. And he plays for Cleveland. So he should have played appearances. As for Mustakis, I just kind of think he's done. I think last year was really the last two years. We were quick to write it off in 2020 because it was 2020.

But I think he's done, but I think there's more reason to take a flyer on him than those other three. All right. Yeah, Mike Mustakis, 106 games since the start of 2020. 217, batting average, 14 homers, 717 OPS. He's dealt with a lot of injuries. Also might have been a beneficiary of the bouncy ball a couple of years ago. So not sure, even in Cincinnati, what can Mike Mustakis get back to? Before we get to a few more,

I want to share a little cheat code for keeping tabs on March Madness, and that's the CBS Sports mobile app. It's not only your gateway to watching every tournament game, but the best for lightning quick college basketball scoreboards, updating brackets, expert picks, and the latest news on all the action for the men's and women's tournaments. The app is free. Just search CBS Sports in your app store,

and if you're like me, it'll soon be your go-to sports app for everything. Also, I made a little mistake yesterday. I apologize. I said our head to head points. Podcast listener league will be this Monday, March 28th. We're still having it. Don't worry about that. However, I forgot that I have a 15-team salary cap draft that same night.

So what we're going to do is we're going to do the podcast league draft two nights later. Wednesday, March 30th, at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. Our second listener league, the For the People League, will be the following Tuesday, April 5th. at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. So remember, send us something creative, a song, Photoshop a picture of us, make a poem, create a t-shirt design. We're actually looking for one of those. So if you make a good one, we might actually make it a shirt. And email your submission to Fantasy Baseball at cbsi.com and put FBT Listener League in the subject line. And please let us know which draft you'd rather be in. So we have to

make sure that you're actually available and you could be in the draft. Again, those dates are next Wednesday, March 30th at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. And Tuesday, April 5th at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. All right, let's get to a few more deep names. Chris, you sent me a bunch. I don't know how many are here. There's got to be like 12 or 15 names. So however many you can rattle off in like the next two minutes, go for it.

First, I want to add that if anybody wants to get a spot in the podcast league, if you want to make a Photoshop of Frank Scott and I with the Muppets and some kind of Kokomo theme, that would get you in. That would be my pick. So just putting that out there. It's just some thought I just had. Special request. I have strong memories of the Muppets version of Kokomo as a kid.

And so that's where my mind went. So it's a free idea for anyone who wants to take that on. All right. Some deep sleepers. We've talked about one of them, Kestin Hira. I'll also throw out Bobby Bradley, who's got big time power and could have a pretty decent role with the Cleveland Guardians. Caesar Hernandez seems like he might be the leadoff hitter for the Washington Nationals,

which, you know, whatever, but he'll be hitting in front of Juan Soto and Nelson Cruz at the top of the order. And, you know, could very well be a 100-run guy. He gets on base at a decent clip. He doesn't really, even at his best, he never stood out anywhere. But, you know, that might be enough to make him fantasy relevant. Isaiah Connor Folefa. He's a good source of late speed at a very cheap cost. And I think there's a chance that playing at Yankee Stadium makes him a potential 15 homer guy.

And there aren't a lot of 15-15 guys. So I'll throw him out there. Dominic Smith, I know is someone that Frang and Scott in particular have liked a lot over the past couple of seasons. And Scott, I think you recently said that you're moving him up your rankings in light of the news that he was playing through a torrent labrum. I'm less of a believer in Dominic Smith. We've really only seen like the 2020 season

is the only time when he's really ever hit at a high level. But, you know, I'm not immune to his potential charms. Just to interject here, yeah, Dominic Smith, J.D. Davis, and Robinson can know the three who figured to contribute to the D.H. role for the Mets this year, maybe Smith will start sometimes at first base and let Alonzo play D.H. That happened a lot in 2020, actually.

They all three qualify as deep sleepers for me. I mean, the metrics on J.D. Davis, he's been hurt the last couple of years, but the metrics are still great. Needs to elevate more, but otherwise, everything is strong. Robinson Canoe in 2020. Last time we saw him. Robinson was awesome. Now he's 39, I think, and just sat out all of last year,

so who knows what to expect from Canoe anymore? I think the consensus feeling is that Canoe is going to get the majority of the starts at DH, but if Dominic Smith is strong all of spring, I mean, he's clearly the best building block of the three. And, yeah, I would target any of them late in a 15-team Roto League, any of those three, but Dominic Smith, based on the revelation about him playing with the torn laborman

a shoulder last year, he moves to the front of that list for me, I think, clearly. Chris, were there any other names you wanted to mention? Oh, absolutely. Jared Duran of the Red Sox. I was going to ask you, I mean, what, I had a lot of hype last year? What do you think is going to happen with Jaron Duran, right? Because they have Jackie Bradley expected to start in center field.

You know, that's more so for defense. But I just, I don't know where he fits in, at least at the start. Yeah, I would think he's not going to play every day. At the start, I would guess he goes back to AAA. But the thing about Jaron Duran is he had all this hype last season as a potential power speed guy. But he had never really done anything to justify that hype. at the minor league level. Last season he did.

He was a swing change guy. He played 60 games, had 16 homers and 16 steals with the 258 average. If he can do anything like that at the major league level, Jaron Duran is going to be a must-start fantasy option. So, you know, Jackie Bradley is an elite defender. And so that will help keep him in the lineup. But he's also a guy who had a 497 OPS last season.

It was arguably the worst hitter in baseball. And so if he can't have a significant bounce back, I don't think that's much of a roadblock, especially if you're talking about someone that you're stashing late in a draft and a deeper league. So even with those concerns, I'm not scared off Duran Duran too much. It's just only in a 15-team league at this point.

And then some pitchers. Luis Petino was scratched from Tuesday's start with shoulder discomfort, but he made it through a bullpen session, through 18 pitches, seems to be okay. So that's a good sign. I like him a lot as a deep sleeper. ADP is right around 300. Didn't get the strikeouts last season in the majors,

but clearly has excellent stuff. His slider and fastball were really good. He's got to throw the change up and curveball more if he's going to be an effective starter. But I like the bet on the talent. Ken Giles, one of my favorite late round sleeper targets for saves. We don't know what the Mariners' back end of the bullpen is going to look like, but they did give him a two-year contract knowing he would miss the first season with Tommy John's surgery, so I think that bodes well.

Eliezer Hernandez, I've mentioned him a few times in the last week, but there were some interesting signs in his first spring start yesterday. His velocity was up, or maybe two days ago, his velocity was up. His change-up looked pretty good. That's the Marlin's signature, and he's got this amazing slider that's always been a huge weapon for him. And Denelson Lamat, if you go to the roster resource page for the Padres, they have the most hilarious projected closer situation I've ever seen on roster resource. I think they have seven pitchers who are six pitchers who are currently projected to close.

Obviously, that's not going to be the case. But Denelson Lemat is one of them. And his profile has always seemed like it would work really well in small spurts out of the bullpen. He throws really hard. He's got this amazing wipeout slider. So if he gets a chance to close, I think Denelson Lamet could be a legitimate different. difference making closer. So we'll see obviously concerns about whether he can stay healthy in addition to all that, but that's one that I'm keeping a really close eye on in spring. I would love

to see Denelson Lemieux in the mall close for the Padres. I think it makes a lot of sense. Scott, I know recently you read that Robert Suarez could be the leader for closing opportunities in the Padres bullpen. So a few names to pay attention to there. I still think that they should probably trade for someone like Craig Kimball, but that's just me. We'll see what they do. Scott, I know that you're getting ready to write a Deep Sleepers article, so you must have some names written down somewhere, right? Yeah, actually, Robert Suarez was among them. I'll add also that Matt Barnes,

we had no idea what the Red Sox we're going to do, but now that everything seems to be pretty set across the league. I think Matt Barnes is going to get another shot at that for them, and it was awesome in the first half last year, so he deserves another look. M.J. Melendez, if you want another upside play, a second catcher. I think he's going to beat Nick Prado to the majors and certainly Vinnie Pasquantino to the majors. I think he's going to spend some time at third base in addition

to catcher and DH and could make a pretty big impact to catcher whenever that day arrives. He was one of three Royals who ranked in the top four in the minors and home runs last season at all levels in addition to Salvador Perez leading the majors in home runs. Well, Melendez led the minors in home runs. Two royals catchers led the majors and minors in home runs. Yeah, there was Bobby Witt and Nick Prado were top four, I believe. So, yeah, that was fun. Seth Beer, I think everybody's overlooking him.

Now that the DH spot is here, like the Diamondbacks have no excuse not to play him. He's put up numbers throughout his minor league career and was off to a nice start last year before hurting his shoulder. So don't forget about him. So Kyle Farmer, I don't think, has a ton of upside. But what I've noticed is late in those 15-team roto drafts. If you need an extra shortstop, there's none to be found. Like, that is not a position where you can spot much upside late in drafts. And he hit well in the second half last year.

He put up like a 25% line drive rate, which is elite. If you can keep doing that over a full season in Cincinnati, I think he'll be respectable. I think he'll be respectable enough to take. is a backup shortstop in those deeper leagues. He's my starter in the Scott White Dynasty League. There you go, that 24-teamor. So the rebuild lead-off trio of Rafael Ortega,

Connor Joe, and Lane Thomas fits into this deep sleeper category. I don't think Lane Thomas is going to bat lead-off anymore, but of those three, he's the most likely to play every day. And probably the best base dealer of the three. Gavin Sheets. Gavin Sheets might be the most overlooked hitter in all of fantasy this year. The metrics are good.

In September last year, after spending some time in the miners, he slashed 282, 363, 535. As a left-handed hitter, he was getting more at bats than Andrew Vaughn. And I don't know why that wouldn't continue heading into this year. I think Gavin Sheets, he's DH only, so that's annoying. But he'll pick up outfield soon enough and maybe even first base at some point. So I loved getting him for $3 in that AL-only auction I did tonight. Can I throw out an annoying name from that Rockies group that you mentioned, that you didn't mention? Go ahead.

Sounds like Riemel Tappia is going to play every day or at least get an opportunity to play every day. He's not good. The Rockies shouldn't play him every day. Yeah. But he hit 273 with 20 steals last season. He hit 321 with eight steals in 2020 and only 51 games. So if you need late steals, Riemel Tapia. There you go.

And I've heard that they're going to, they're interested in playing him in center some, which to me sounds like good news for our guy, forgetting his name now, Connor Joe. Bad news for Rocky's pitchers and other players in the Rockies lineup. They don't care about Rocky's pitchers anyway. Nestor Cortez might be the most overlooked pitcher in fantasy this year. And he doesn't have, the peripherals aren't great and the stuff isn't great, but he was so effective for the Yankees down the stretch last year. The numbers were great.

And he's just kind of a weird picture because he gives hitters so many different looks. You can understand why he'd outperform his peripherals. Not a slam dunk he'll be able to keep it going, but it's worth a shot late. Because the numbers were genuinely great. two prospects, like really high-end or at least formerly high-end prospects that I think have a better chance of making the opening day roster than people are getting credit for. Julio Rodriguez, we've talked about him a lot,

but McKinsey Gore also. Yep. He was hitting 98 in his first spring start, and the Dodgers seemed pretty excited that maybe they fixed his mechanical issues. The Padres, yeah. The Dodgers probably aren't excited, but the Padres are the mechanical issues that have held him back. had five strikeouts in three innings today too.

Ruined his control the past two years. Mitch Keller is a deep sleeper with an increase in velocity that was present in his first start as well. And as in those video sessions we saw during the lockout. We saw it in his first spring start. The velocity was up almost three miles per hour. Exactly. Yeah.

Bailey Ober of the twins. Just look at his numbers. They're pretty good. And I'll end with Aaron Ashby of the. the brewers who wouldn't appear to have a spot available to him, but it sounds like they might start out going six-man. And if Aaron Ashby does what I think he's capable of doing in those first couple turns, he might just stick in the rotation.

His ground ball rate last year was better than even Logan Webb. And he has a great slider, great swing and miss slider. Definitely see a ton of upside there for Aaron Ashby. Aaron Ashby pitched on Wednesday night against a lot. the Reds. He threw three perfect endings with three strikeouts. Actually, I think he hit a batter when I was watching it, but no hits, no walks, and the three strikeouts.

So Aaron Ashby, yeah, definitely a name to watch. Lots of breakout potential there. A few names that I've targeted in deep leagues, some of these 15-team draft and holds that I've done, Yoshi-Sutugo, he has first, and outfield eligibility played 43 games with the Pirates

last year, hit 268, eight homers in 8-83 OPS during that time. Chris, you mentioned Dom Smith, From 2019 to 2020, 139 games, he hit 299 with a 937 OPS. I'm not giving up on Dom Smith just yet. Darren Ruff,

I know they signed Jock Peterson. I really like the bat. I feel like they're going to find a way to get him in there, and I think they should. Last year he played 117 games, 271 batting average, 16 homers, a 904 OPS, crushed lefties,

pretty good against Ritees, 824 OPS against Fridays. They gave him an extension yesterday. Yeah, it was a pretty small extension, but it was for three years. So, you know. I was getting really excited about Darren Ruff

until that Jock Peterson signing because Gantler loves platooning players. But kind of along the same lines, Garrett Cooper of the Marlins. I think he has a better path to playing time than Ruff does. And I don't think the upside is quite as high, but it's high enough.

All right. Also blows my mind that Darren Ruff was still arbitration eligible. He's 35 years old. The dude made his debut in 2012. Yeah, he left. I think he went to... He had two years of arbitration left.

I think he went to the KBO and, like, reinvented himself and then came back, and he was really good last year. A few other names, Aaron Hicks, I know I mentioned him the other day. Scott basically laughed at me, but if he starts the majority of the time for the Yankees in center field, 145 games from 2019 to 2021, 22 homers, five steals. So anytime... I'm more laughing at the Yankees. They haven't figured out an upgrade there yet. That's fair.

I mean, they deserve it. Better in OBP leagues. For sure, 100%. Last name here, we have not mentioned all offseason. Stephen Kwan, an interesting player for Cleveland. They need bodies. They need someone that can hit the ball. That's exactly what Stephen Kwan does.

77 games in the minors last season. He hit 328, 12 homers, six deals, a 934 OPS, with more walks than strikeouts. He makes a ton of contact. And again, Cleveland needs help. And I think Stephen Kwan might actually be able to give it to them. So a name that I do like to target in those deep leagues. One more read.

The Madness Continues. Don't miss a moment of the action on CBS, TBS, TNT, and True TV, and download the March Madness Live app to watch every game anywhere, anytime, live. When we return, we'll hit news and notes here on fantasy baseball today. All right, so let's run through some of these. New York City mayor, Eric Adams. It seems like this saga might be over. will announce an exception for unvaccinated performers and sports players on Thursday,

meaning that the Yankees and Mets players will be good to play home games. Have you guys heard anything else about Toronto? I feel like if Judge is not vaccinated, Aaron Judge, then he won't be able to play in those games. It's just the road. That's a national thing. That's a Toronto, Canada federal government thing. So that seems much less likely to change.

Right. As swiftly as the New York one seems. Now, fortunately, it's just road players that are impacted, not Blue Jays themselves. So that's good. Well, that one, I think that's mostly just that like, if you're on the Blue Jays, you can't be there unless you're vaccinated. So I think it's just that everybody's vaccinated. That's my understanding, at least. Well, if you see someone get traded.

I believe you can't enter the country if you're not vaccinated currently. Yeah. I was going to say, like, if you see a Blue Jays player get traded in the next couple of days, is, that might be the reason why. I don't think that's going to happen. But yeah, good news for the Yankees and Mets players there. And some good news for Ronald Acuna. Alex Anthopoulos said he expects Acuna to play in the outfield.

Now in early May. Originally, it was late May, but now he's saying early May, and the plan is for him to return as the DH in late April. So that timeline hasn't changed, but, you know, April 21st, around then, maybe we get a Kunia back. A couple of weeks later, we could see him playing in the outfield. Which I think is good,

because if they have confidence in him doing that, I think that they'll have confidence in just letting Acuna be himself and run the bases and steal bases. I definitely like that they keep moving up the timetable. I still wish we could see him play in spring games and they've said he won't. But yeah, that's encouraging to hear for sure. Zach Wheeler completed a 42 pitch bullpen session on Wednesday, and he'll advance to facing hitters and live batting practice perhaps as soon as this weekend. If all goes well, what?

There was one note I saw where he said like I felt a little behind out of the stretch. or something like that, which seemed like a minor note, but just putting it out there. All right. Yeah, look, if he progresses to facing live batters and all goes well there,

then we could see him, you know, potentially make a spring training start by next week. So, you know, I was retouching the rankings and I basically got Wheeler up to where he was before. Not to the same level, but I move them back inside the top 10.

I don't know. Maybe he misses like one or two times through the rotation, but I feel pretty confident in him now. Staling Marte is playing in a minor league game on, was playing in a minor league game on Wednesday night. Pirates manager Derek Shelton said O'Neill Cruz will see time in the outfield this season. Cruz picked up two more hits on Wednesday

and is now batting 625 this spring. It's probably like 10 or 12 at bats, but he's looked really good. Still not clear if that's going to be in the majors or not. Correct. Sounds like it won't be, but it hasn't been really. doubt. National's manager

Dave Martinez said he's hoping to get 20 to 25 starts out of Steven Schrosberg this season and those will not come early in the season so maybe we see him by May or June at some point. Tuki Toussaint will begin the season at AAA so we can take his name out of

the running for the Braves rotation. Remember yesterday? I said Eric Lauer was scratched from his start with a groin issue. Well, apparently he's good to go. So that would definitely affect Aaron Aspie's ability to get into the rotation. Oduble Herrera is likely to miss opening day after being diagnosed with a mild oblique strain on Wednesday, and he could be out four to six weeks. Scott, I assume the beneficiary

would be Matt Veerling starting in center field, which is a name in deep leagues. Yeah, yeah, I mean, they hadn't ruled out Veerling just being the starter in center field, actually. And yeah, he could be mentioned as a deep sleeper. He hits the ball hard and he runs fast. So, it's a good combination. Pretty underwhelming, though. What was that, Chris? The minor league number is 267. 737.

I think it was pretty good before he got called up last year. And he was at double A. He was pretty bad at AAA. Okay. 690 OPS at AAA. All right. Teasca Hernandez should return from his wrist injury this weekend. And Orioles first round pick in 2020,

Heston Kirsted. This is more so for dynasty. He was diagnosed with a high-grade strain of his left hamstring and will be sidelined for 8 to 12 weeks, dealt with myocarditis during the COVID-shortened year, and it's just been a brutal start. The guy has not played a single game in the minors yet, so just rough all around.

Spring training standout, some things to mention here. Shane Bieber made his spring debut on Wednesday. He recorded four outs. He allowed four earned runs, which came on two home runs, one of those against Dodgers' top prospect. Miguel Vargas, and I saw this quote from Bieber. There was no velocity readings, unfortunately, for the game.

Physically, I felt good, but I felt a little slow. He also said he was, quote, stuck in his delivery. Chris, does this matter for Shane Bieber? I mean, you know, typically spring performance for veterans doesn't, but I feel like we have a closer eye on Shane Bieber. It's not the performance that's going to matter for me. It's weather, like, I really hate that the, But not all the parks have that cast data available because we really need to know what Shane Bieber's velocity looks like because there was something we saw him it was down.

There was nothing, Chris. I searched. There's no stack cast. There was no score bug. Not a single Cleveland Guardian's beatwriter tweeted anything about the velocity. I tried to find any article I could. Nothing. Nothing about velocity whatsoever. So like, okay, he gave up two home runs and what two innings that that'll happen to Shane Bieber occasionally. I don't know if that's, noteworthy unless he was out there throwing 91, 92 miles an hour instead of 93-94. In which case, yeah, I think it would be a concern. So we'll see. Hopefully we get some velocity readings. Hopefully we get some reports in the coming days about that. But yeah, it's definitely something to keep an eye on. And I'm pretty much out on Shane Bieber at his price at this point. I'm just not willing to take the risk. Mike Clevenger threw three scoreless in a minor league outing. He got up to 41 pitches and apparently was touching 95 miles per hour

with his fastball. A mixed bag from a man, Shane O. Mack, Shane McClanahan, two innings, four hits, two earned runs on two home runs. He had three strikeouts. Both of the home runs came on his fastball, which is what Chris has been preaching to all of us. One of those was on a three-o pitch. So I kind of give him a break for that one, but Frank, let's not sweat the spring starts so much. It's not the context. It's not like, you know, sometimes you'll give a home run on a 3-0 pitch, although like, oh, he's got this amazing stuff. Oh, he can't be hit.

And now he's giving up 3-0 fastballs. Come on. What's going on here? And the main thing, too, is like spring starts aren't meant to be competitive. They're just meant to get your work in. You're not going to attack hitters the same way you would during a regular season game. Generally, I mean, some pitchers might, but a lot of pitchers don't. Max Scherzer.

definitely does. But he's never thrown a pitch without trying to get the person he's throwing against out. So, you know, I don't know if Shane McClainey has the same kind of insane person. The results themselves, though, are meaningless to me. Unless there's, you know, some kind of red flag. Yep. In conjunction with the results. All right.

Well, I will quickly mention Sandy Alcantzor. He looked good over four innings, but his fastball velo was down nearly two miles per hour. Does that matter, Scott? I don't know. Like if it stays down two miles an hour all season, it'll be a problem. But in this particular spring start it being down, I don't know.

It's not really impacting where I draft them, that's for sure. All right. I mean, you still got eight whiffs on 57 pitches. So that's a good time. Justin Verlander made another start. He was sitting 94 to 95 with the fastball. So good news there. Last one I'll mention,

Merrill Kelly. He had eight strikeouts over three. perfect innings. And I read an article that he was touching 94 and 95 miles per hour with his fastball. Not averaging, but touching. Last year, he averaged right around 92 miles per hour with his fastball. Brent Strom is now the Diamondbacks pitching coach, and he was the pitching coach for the Astros from 2014 through 2021.

So I think it's notable. Let's see what happens with Merrill Kelly. All right, some late round category specialists. Now that we have about five to ten minutes left. I'll just rattle off a few names and you guys tell me who stands out most for each category. Each of these are going past pick 200 in ADP. And the names that I have written down for batting average, Gene Seguera, my man. Michael Brantley, Yuleiguriel, Charlie Blackman, and Nick Madrigal.

Scott is shaking his head and disgust. This is not a category you want to fill late. I mean, if you have to, Yulee Gereel, you know, I think the runs and RBI should be decent. But the home runs are going to be a letdown for a first baseman. And I think Blackman's fine. Should be anyway. You know, you're not going to get a ton of home runs from him either, but I think runs in RBI will be okay. And Gene Seguerah, look, I talk about the guy probably way too much, but 280, 15 homers, 10 seals.

It matters for those who play in deeper league. So I keep winding up with him as like my either second baseman or middle infielder in those category leagues. David Fletcher is also a. source of batting average. I wish Nick Madrigal was, I felt more confident in him being a source of stolen bases, but that doesn't seem like it's going to be a big part of his skill set, despite what he did in the minors.

His sprint speed was like 70th percentile last season. He's hit like 320 so far in the majors. It's just I don't know if there's going to be anything else there. I've been saying Nikki Lopez is what we wanted Nick Madrigal to be. Guys need to get on board with. Nicky. Big Nicky, yeah. Little Nicky.

Little Nicky. Yeah. Great movie. Adam Sandler, by the way. You know I've seen it. Home runs. Who can you get late in your draft? Adam Duval, Miguel Seno. Best shape of his life, by the way, McGilson, No. Bobby Dalbeck has been crushing some homers so far in the spring. And he was really great from August on last season. Patrick Wisdom, lots of strikeouts, lots of power.

Jesus Sanchez, lots of power last season as well. And Brandon Belt, I mean, when he's on the field, the Giants, they've done great work, getting the best out of their hitters, and Brandon Belt was one of those. Chris, is there one or two that especially stands out here if you need home runs late? Yeah, I think, like, Brandon Belt, since the start of 2020, has probably been a top 10 hitter in baseball on a per plate appearance basis. He's been incredible. So, yeah, I don't know how much he's going to play. I don't know how many counting stats you're going to get out of him, but when he's in the lineup, it seems.

seems very likely he's going to be very, very helpful. And as a late round pick and a daily lineup, especially when he's in the lineup, that's very valuable. And, you know, the rest of them are probably going to hurt you in some way. Hazer Sanchez, the hope is that he won't, but I'm less bullish on that than Frank is, because he's just, I feel like he's a kind of guy that just like kind of runs into one, every once in a while, but he hits a lot of balls on the ground, so I don't know how much I trust the power.

Yeah, once he returned from COVID last year, he did lower the ground ball rate, and Stackast likes him, he hits the ball hard. And he was good against lefties, too, very sneaky part of Hazu Sanchez's game. Go ahead, Scott. Duval. Duval is one of my favorite,

probably my favorite, single favorite, late round target for home runs. He hit nearly 40 last year. He led the NL and RBI. He's, you know, obviously still going to be, there's still going to be a lot of guys ahead of him on base. And of all the players listed here, I think he has the least playing time concerns.

I'm most confident that he's going to be out there in center field every day. It helps that he's a really good defender. Yeah. It's weird that maybe this is just a, like, Braves Twitter thing, but people bemoaning that the Braves haven't found the center fielder. Like, Duval is... He was a four-win player. last season.

He doesn't... Three-win player last season. He doesn't look like he should be a good outfielder, but he is. And he's perfectly fine

at his center. He's routinely been an incredibly valuable defensive player. Yeah. He's arguably more valuable as a defender than he is as a hitter,

despite all the power just because he's such a low OBP guy. But yeah, no, he's fine as your seventh best player, which is what he probably is for the Braves. Adam Deval won a gold glove last year, so don't sleep.

Don't sleep on the defense. Yeah, that's his second, right? No, first. Yeah, first. Run scored. So try to find, you know, some guys. I think all of these are either projected to hit at the top or near the top of their respective lineups. Enrique Hernandez for the Boston Red Sox. Gene Seguera, once again, my man. J.P. Crawford, Rosser Resource still has him at the top of that lineup. Mark Kana, maybe not near to the top, but he does get on base quite a bit, and it's a pretty deep lineup for the Mets.

Charlie Blackman and Oricon, Joe. Brendan Nimmo could lead off against right-handed pitching. for the New York Mets, and someone that Chris mentioned earlier, Seizor Hernandez could lead off for the nationals. Scott, I feel like I usually get my runs earlier on. Look, if you're just drafting good hitters, they're going to score runs. But if you do need them, these are some names late. Yeah, I mean, here's the secret.

If you want runs, if you want RBI, don't target a part-time player. Yeah. Brandon Nimmo gets on base a lot. Should bat high when he's in the lineup, but he's not going to be in the lineup enough to be. Like just go for a high upside bat Who you think has a chance to play every day

And you're gonna be better off Mark Kana's the better bet among those Mets Because he has a better chance of being an everyday player All right I mean I know we haven't talked about Enrique Hernandez a lot but I feel like he's pretty sneaky for runs Yeah I do wonder if at some point Jaron is gonna replace him and render Enrique Hernandez

To the role he had with the Dodgers But yeah, to start out the year, he should be their lead-off guy. All right, some RBI names. A lot of these are the same as home run standouts, but Trey Mancini, Hazus Aguilar had a ton of RBI last season. For a large majority of the season, he was leading the National League, which is just wild. Jonathan's...

Yeah, him and Acknowl were like leading the National League, I think through the point where Adam Deval was traded. They were like number one and three. I think so. On a team that was like 14th and run scored. Sounds about right. Jonathan's scope should hit in the middle of the Tigers lineup, maybe with some prospects involved as well.

Frank Schwindell with the Cubs, maybe not hit for as much power, but makes a lot of contact in the middle of his lineup. And then Nathaniel Lowe, what's dead may never die. I can't give in yet, and that Rangers lineup is improved. Nathaniel Lowe is going to be in the middle of it.

So I'll just throw the name out there. If he learns to elevate, there's something there with Lowe, but it's a big if. And they brought in the hitting coach from the Giants who, did that recently. They got Brandon Crawford to raise the ball more. Brandon Bell, they got a ton out of him.

I have some hope. Are we not including Luke Voight? Luke Voight makes sense. A potential late round guy. Yeah. Home runs, RBI runs, potentially batting average. There's no reason. He just shouldn't be a late round guy. It'll be. Yeah, exactly.

But that's, if you confine ADP to just the stretch since he was traded to the Padres on NFBC, he's still going outside the top 200, right, Frank? Yeah. I think it was crazy.

226 when I checked. So he was traded Friday, and it was like since Saturday, his ADP is still 226. He should be going 100 picks earlier than that. Yeah, I think I have him 129th in my overall rankings. Go ahead, Chris.

The guy we didn't mention a batting average. Jeff McNeil is a late round pick now. That dude was considered one of the safest bets for batting average literally a year ago. Yeah. He was kind of like a, I don't know, poor man's DJ LaMayhew, something like that,

and now expected to start more often than not at second base for the Mets. Steels, Little Nikki Lopez, Miles Straw, Andres Jimenez, you know, I had to, I had to do it. Ryan Maltapia, Jonathan V.R., likely to be a utility man for the Toronto Blue Jays, right? That's who he signed with? I got that right. Jonathan V.R.

No, he's with the Cubs, isn't he? Cubs, Cubs. I knew it was a blue team, right? I know the Blue Jays offered him a contract, but they didn't actually, he didn't accept it. Isaiah Kiner Folefah could give you 15 to 20 steals. Vidal Bruhan's an interesting name. I don't know if he's going to play enough, but he ran out. I meant to mention him as one of the deep sleepers because it's, I think he'll be on the opening day roster.

If he's not, he won't be down long. And they've been playing him some at third this spring, I think short as well. So they're trying to turn him into a super utility player. And he has 80 grade speed. So that alone is reason enough to draft them in Roto leagues. Garrett Hampson is not a good player, but when he gets on base, he does run. Raphael Ortega, someone Scott mentioned, he can give you steals and could lead off against right-handed pitching.

Harrison Bader, he's got tools. He's going to be in the lineup because his defense is so great for the Cardinals. So could run into 15 steals there. Then two very, very deep names for steals. Victor Robles, if he's in the lineup, not entirely sure there. And Tyler Wade, he's part of it. of like a three or four person position battle for shortstop for the Angels. But he's very fast.

I don't think he's a good player, but he's fast. Let's move over to pitching. You know, these are tough because it's like, who's going to be an ERA contributor later on in your draft, right? Like those are just basically pitching sleepers, right? Like whoever you like is a pitching sleeper. Right. Yeah.

Yeah, I don't really. Yeah, I feel like you just target whatever pitcher you think is going to be the best and he'll be basically the best across the board. But some guys, of course, aren't capable of the strikeouts that others are. Some aren't with the sort of teams that are going to help you in wins as much as others. Although that, you know, wins are a little bit random. Obviously, supporting cast helps. Pitching deep into games helps.

But you can't necessarily rule out like Kyle Hendricks, for instance, being a pretty good source of wins this year. For sure. Yeah. For ERA, I did have the Giants guys. I just feel like it's such a great venue. and they've done a really good job. So, Descalfani, Alex Wood, Alex Cobb,

obviously all three sleepers that I like, we like. Stephen Mats, I feel like he's someone that could stand out and outperform his peripheral numbers just because, again, the Cardinals' defense is so good and he'll have all these great matchups against the Cubs and the Pirates. So Stephen Mats, I think, is an interesting name for WIP. These are guys that typically have very low walk rates.

Joe Ryan, John Means, Jose Orkitty, Kyle Hendricks, Zach Grinkey, and Bailey Ober. So a lot of names we've already mentioned multiple times, but... Cavaillale, too. Yeah. Is that Kleezak? Did you mention him?

No, I did not mention him. And you know what? It's worth mentioning those guys. Carlis Grasco is a late round pick still. Yeah, Carlos Garasters is just late round for any. He'll just put him for all these. Yeah. Savali and Plesack, Chris, I think it's a good, two good names to bring up for wins because Cleveland's not the best team, but they go deep into their starts.

and Terry Francona typically lets his starters go deep, and those guys have shown that they could do it. So, um... Cavali, I think won 12 games despite making... Yeah, 12 despite making only 21 starts last year. Yeah. He goes very deep into his starts. And speaking of wins, I mentioned those guys.

Stephen Matt's, again, on the Cardinals, Adam Wainwright, Junjin Ryu, Yusay Kukuchi on good teams. I think if they're right, they both could potentially go deep into their starts as well. Marco Gonzalez and Andrieney. This one always gets me. Yeah. Marco Gonzalez.

I mean, the guy, I think over the past... He won 15 games before, right? Over the past three years, I saw this somewhere. I think he has... He's like top five and just decisions. Because he typically just goes so deep into his starts. So... Yeah, he's...

Yeah. He went 13 and 9, 16 and 13, 17, and 13. 7 and 2, 10, and 6. Yeah, that's... Yeah, he's like the most boring guy, but he's had an ERA right around. round four with like double digit wins, basically every season, the last four. Yeah, he's, he's like Kyle Hendricks on steroids, but like not in a good way.

Like his peripherals are even worse. Like, you're waiting for it to happen, but, uh, waiting for it to fall apart, but he's, he's still been right. Chris Flexen went very deep into his starts last year. I think just the Mariners should be a very good team this season. Again, the Giants, they could provide you some wins. And then Granky and Kyle Hendricks, they also go very deep into their starts. Late round strikeouts.

Now, I don't know. if we can condone all these names because there's some not so great ones on here, but they do get swings and misses. Hermann Marquez, John Gray, Jordan Montgomery, Nick Pavetta, Christian Javier, Tristan McKenzie, Terrick Scouble, and again, Alex Wood.

I feel like he's been on all these categories. Anyone put to a particular standout here? I don't love this group of names, to be honest. I mean, I think we could just carry over some from the other groups like Carlos Carrasco, Joe Ryan. Tony Gonsolin I like for all these categories if he's able to make consistent starts for the Dodgers.

There are other names that I think I'm more interested in as late-round sleepers than these guys that, you know, like you said, with ERA whips, strikeouts in particular, it's mostly about guys who are late-round sleepers in general. And so like Hunter Green would be someone who presumably has a ton of strikeout potential if he ends up making the Reds rotation relatively early. Edward Cabrera, the same thing for the Marlins if he ends up in there.

So, you know, guys like that. I think the like fringe starting pitchers, you just, you don't know what their role is. Like their strikeout rates could be very high, but you probably just worry about how many endings they're going to give you. So Tanner Howk, Aaron Ashby, Michael Copac. I think those guys should have very high K-per-9s, but you just don't know what the workload is going to look like

for them. Some saves. Good luck. Dylan Floro, Joe Barlow, Ken Giles, Matt Barnes, Alex Columet, Lou Trevino, Tanner Rainey, Chris Stratton, Robert Suarez, De Nelson LeMette. We'll throw those guys in there. I love this group. What are you talking about? This is how I form my bullpen with this group. This is where Scott goes shopping for saves. I mean, look, three, maybe four of those guys will likely have 15 plus saves. You're not wrong. I've got a, couple of these guys. I'll bet a couple of them get 25 plus saves. I wanted to say 30, but

I'm not willing to go that far. I mean, there's only like, how many guys got 30 saves last year? Right, exactly. It's possible, like, it's possible Dylan Floro could get 30 plus saves. Like, it's just in the role all year. He would be my favorite of this group, just because he has the job

and I think he's good enough to keep the job, even though he's not that good. you know, there are better talents here, but like Ken Giles, for instance, how long is it going to take him to carve out a full-time role, will he ever? Matt Barnes, you know, and I'm starting to get high on him again, but obviously he collapsed down the stretch last year. Trevino, if he gets traded, it's all over. Yeah.

Chris Stratton, got David Bednar, breathing down his neck and he's not very good. Straton is, isn't it? So, I mean, Stratton's a name that I've targeted in those, you know, 50 round draft and holds. Anthony Bender is another one. Michael Fulmer. Michael Fulmer didn't look very good. I was, I was watching him earlier. Velocity was down a little bit. I think I'd rather have Fulmer than Gregory Soto, to be honest. I think Fulmer is, you could call him a deep sleeper. A few other names, Josh Stallman with the Royals, Jorge Alcala. As much as I like Taylor Rogers with the twins, if they prefer a righty, they could go

with him. And then Pete Fairbanks, if the rays just do what the rays do. He's shown he has some good stuff. He has a name to watch there as well. Chris, to answer your question, only nine relievers had 30 plus saves last. Only 12 had 25 plus. That is, oof. That is wild. Not great, Bob. We're going to wrap there. For Scott and Chris, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.