Fantasy Baseball Today - Early Roto Draft Recap! Is Bobby Witt A First Rounder? (11/11 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: November 11, 2022

Let's recap Frank's 15-team 5x5 Roto draft that he did in Arizona last weekend (5:22)! ... Should Ronald Acuña go ahead of Aaron Judge (7:50)? ... Did Juan Soto and Bo Bichette go too early (13:17)? ... Is Bobby Witt Jr. worth a first round pick (17:33)? ... Ozzie Albies went way too early (23:30). ... It appears many people plan to wait on pitching (26:20). ... Did these polarizing players go too early or too late (34:42)? ... News (41:43): Jose Ramirez has thumb surgery. ... Let's recap Frank's entire team (54:16). ... We wrap up with some of our favorite and least favorite picks (1:06:00). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: 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

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. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. What's up, and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, November 10th. I am Frank Sanfell, joined by the Welsh. How's it going, Welsh?

Are you feeling any better? What's up? I'm feeling much better. I don't know if I sound 100% better, but I feel exponentially better. Of course, as soon as all my friends left, that's when I started feeling better. All right, well, look, one step at a time, as long as we get you back on track. How was the AFL today? I know you were out and about.

It was good. It was a regular season finale. I was at the game that actually didn't matter. I was at a game yesterday where we had more pouring rain and they played through it. I saw Glendale and Mesa. Technically got my last look at Matt Mervis and Jason Dominguez and all of them because Mesa was a eliminated to the games, the game I was at, there was a no hitter through five. And then Glendale came back and won against Surprise, who's officially eliminated.

Glendale is playing tomorrow in the play-in game. Mesa Peoria today played, winner goes into the play-in game, and Peoria no hit them through six innings, and then ended up winning four to nothing, one hitting them, and it's Peoria and Glendale. And if that Peoria, Glendale doesn't mean much to anybody, but like Peoria is like Jackson Merrill, on Hill Martinez. And Glendale is Austin Martin, Edward, Julian, Nelvie Marte, those guys, those teams are going to play against each other. And the winner will play surprise on my hat here, the surprise Swarrow's,

who is Nick Gonzalez, Henry Davis, and that crew. But it was good. Guys are ready to go, though. Guys are very ready to get out of here. Peoria, you mentioned Jackson Merrill's on that team. They're the Havillinas, right? They're the Havillinas, okay? You know what I found out today?

I didn't even realize Jackson Mero is the youngest player in the AFL. I know he was one of the youngest, but I thought it was, David Sende de Los Santos, maybe he puts in more context for everybody, too, when you take a look at how he competed and he did pretty good hitting right around 270, but how he did here as the youngest player in the AFL, but it is the Havillina team, the pigs, as I think that's the hat you got. Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to bring up. I don't know anything about Peoria or the Havolinas, but the Stamphal family is a Havillina family. So let's go. Havilinas are very mean, wild boars that live out here. They're very vicious. As in, if you were to see one, you would want to run because they're not like, oh, come here, you know, Sue away.

Like, come here, little piggy, pinky. No, they have tusks. They're hairy, and they will come straight at you and chase you. I have had friends that have been chased, and we were actually, my wife and I and our dog was chased one time by a havalina. So I'll stick to a cactus that at least I can control a walk around. You know, you were 100% right. the way, because I just bought the first hat that I saw, which was the Havillina's hat while I was out there,

because I really obviously wanted a hat. You said, nah, wait, you know, home run derby, AFL fall stars game over the weekend, they'll have merchandise for every team. 100% should have waited. The Scorpion's hat is, it's, that is sick. So I, I wish I waited and I got my hands on that. I easily could have just bought two, but, you know, why do I need two AFL hats? I'll just, I'll wait until the next time I come out. You can, maybe, but I just want to point out, the championship game is in Scott still on Saturday, and you do know someone that's going to be there. So just saying,

Scorpions have. It was my birthday yesterday, well, so it was your birthday. You know what? Maybe we need to get a little present. All right. Be on the lookout then.

All righty. All righty. Well, today on the show, we haven't talked about it yet, but we're going to recap a draft that I did last weekend out at first pitch, Arizona. And I may have a problem because it's November 10th, and I already have two drafts in the books

in early November. Like, what is going on? I'm doing another mock draft later tonight with Scott White. He's back in the mix. He'll be back on the podcast next week as well. So we'll have all different kind of industry experts and guests in that draft later on

and the results will be up on the site. That's a different draft than the one that we're talking about today. But just be on the lookout if you want to see some results up on the site. The draft that we're talking about today was one that I did last week. As I mentioned, 15 team standard 5x5 roto.

It is a draft and hold, which means that it is a 50 round draft. There's no waiver wire ads. There's no trades in season. All you have to do is set your lineup each and every week. And we drafted the first 23 rounds of this draft, and we're going to pick up the next 27 sometime in January. Hopefully, a bunch of free agent signings are done by then,

and I will have the first pick in the draft. So I'm very excited to see what happens because if a closer emerges or something, I'm just going to draft that guy. And obviously, that will hopefully help out my team. But let's jump right in. I was drafting 15th out of 15 teams, and we'll get to my team a little bit later on.

What we're going to do early on is we're going to focus on just the early round picks and, you know, obviously players that stood out, and I've got some interesting names that I want to bring up as well. Shout out to Mike Scott, who is watching in the YouTube chat, and he was part of a team that was in this draft as well. A four-man crew. Welsh, I've done drafts where I've shared teams with one other person. I've shared teams with two other people, a triumvirate.

I've never seen four. But that the four blows my mind when I saw this comment because I've shared teams with Scott Bogman, who is like another brain of mine. You know, me and him, it's very easy to do. I've done with a few other people that I know as well. I've never dabbled into three. The idea that four people could come to a conclusion on something I don't understand unless they kind of did a, the Trump rule.

where it's like, all right, guy number one gets the final say on the first pick. And then guy number two gets a final say on the second pick and you just go down the line. Or maybe they make the pick. I just don't know how four people do it, but, you know, God willing, it looks like they did. Yes, they did indeed. And for those watching us, I'm actually going to pull up the draft board right now. Beautiful. Bear with me here because, you know, I kind of took this picture off of a projector and it's kind of slanted and stuff.

I think it was a very technical picture. It's a very high-end graphic that we've got here, everybody, so just bear with. For those who don't know, I am the graphics department here. I am the producer. I am the producer. I am the other. I'm juggling a few different things here,

but I think you could, for the most part, see what's going on in this picture. So for those watching, you can follow along. But we'll start with the first five picks of the draft again, 15 team league. So, yeah, I think it's easier to talk about five names at a time rather than just throwing a whole bunch of people who are listening or watching. The top five picks were Trey Turner,

Jose Ramirez. Ronald de Cunia, Julio Rodriguez, and Aaron Judge. And I think what might stand out right there, Welsh, is Judge, going fifth overall and might surprise some people. But again, it's early November. He's a free agent. We don't know where he's going to play. I think most people, I assume that he will be back with the Yankees,

but we've already heard rumblings about San Francisco. They've got all this money to spend. And obviously, if he goes there, it will affect his value for fantasy purposes. So I think we're kind of seeing people hedging a little bit when it comes to Aaron Judge I've taken a little bit of a step back with him since the end of the season. Welsh, I do think in head-to-head points, he should be the number one overall pick. There's no doubt about that in my mind. If you want to make the argument for a pitcher, I think you can.

But in Roto, I just feel like Trey Turner and Jose Ramirez are a little bit safer. You look at what they've done each of the past two, three seasons, safe floor, high floor, but also a very high ceiling as well. Judge, obviously he has a very high ceiling also, but I think the floor is a little bit lower when you factor in injury risk. and the fact that we just don't know where he's going to play right now. So what do you think about that top five? I think that's going to be a pretty standard top five in moj drafts this year,

at least in Roto. Yeah, so I think the names are right for the most part. Those are the names jumbled a little bit, like my personal order. This is probably jumbled a tiny bit. I don't know. I kind of look at a cunia and I feel like maybe he should be on the outside of like the fifth spot between these guys. you could question Julio Rodriguez.

The judge thing is interesting, though, especially when I get what you're saying. You know, you're saying unanimously it's judge because in a point you're not worrying about categories and you're just collecting. My only thing is, though, he was so elite from a power perspective, while also providing stolen bases,

the same clip as Francisco Lindor. I mean, like, think about that. Yes, you get a higher advantage on a few of these other guys. You know, you're going to get a little bit of an uptick when a little bit. I'm underselling it. You get an uptick when you take Trey Turner or whatnot. But I kind of think you still can go in that range because you can get those big stolen bases in other spots like Tommy Edmund.

And I mean, I guess there's a couple other first rounders that go in there. I don't know. I think what keeps me off of judge going one or two, even in a Roto or a head to head, isn't really about the need for stolen bases that Tray Turner, Jose Ramirez provide, it's actually just more about the destination and what we're in for for Aaron Judge long term. If he's going to be in New York or he's going to be in somewhere where it suppresses a tiny bit. But I don't know. I think the argument still lives because he was so insanely dominant. And it wasn't a four of five category. It's like, no, man, the dude hit 60 while almost stealing 20 bases. I think I think that negates a lot of that needing the stolen bases at the top

end of draft. And he hit well over 300 too. I mean, it's, That's not something that we've seen him do before. He's been consistently around 280 or over 280. So let's factor that in. Judge is a batting average contributor as well. It's worth mentioning that if you go to Fangraphs.com, which I think a lot of people use when looking at either player pages or certain stats, analytics, steamer projections are out.

And I'm telling you right now, Welsh, that for anybody who uses draft software and just plugs in projections, Ronald Acuna is going to pop up as one of the, maybe the top player, because the early steamer projections for Acuna, 270 batting average, 31 homers, 36 steals. That's massive.

That's just absolutely massive. But, you know, will be attained those numbers? I don't know if the power- The only thing I wanted to add, you, sorry about that. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Go ahead. No, no, it's good. The only thing I wanted to add with that was, what's interesting about that, it's always interesting about projections, and it leads to this, like, you know, elongated conversation about them. It was something,

it just stuck about it. mind about when we were sitting there with Rob Silver and Rob was talking about how he's like, oh, you know, well, Josh Hater is going to be very loved by the projections because, and he, he drew out a very like solid explanation. He's like, because these projections are going off of a three-year basis. And a three-year basis is much bigger for Hater and how he's performed than he did in that last little clump against San Diego. So I think about the same thing. And it's looking at a longer period of time for Acuna, which is smart. and that's why projections at the end of the day, you know, find the best medium ground.

But at the same time, it doesn't necessarily mean they're also anticipating or building in any, you know, short-term bad quality that might carry over into a next year. And I don't want to put that on Acuna because he got, you know, he played hurt and he came back and some things maybe seemed to be zapped a little bit. Maybe he'll come back to it. But I don't know. I'm not surprised that the projections do that because there's a bigger baseline. of huge performances from Acuna.

You just got to wonder, was what we saw on the back half of the year, maybe a little bit more of what we get. And if that's the case, then I would think he's going to be on the bottom half of these top five. But again, that's like this whole projections versus what steamer has done and how they project them and what you build into the back end of the year. Because most projections, I mean, you know, it's frank, like most projections are not building a whole lot of what like the last three months were.

It's building a bigger, longer term baseline. And that's good and bad. Pick six through 10 in this draft. We saw Juan Soto, Shohei Otani, Boba Chet, Kyle Tucker, and Mani Machado. And I don't mean to crap on anybody's team. If anyone's listening to this or watching this after the fact, obviously we're analyzing the draft

and we have to give our opinion on certain players. But it seems a little bit too early for Boba Schett. In my opinion, he needed a monster September to make the season-long line look respectable. He still finished 23rd overall in Roto. and he went eighth overall in this draft. He went ahead of Kyle Tucker, Manny Machado, Freddie Freeman, Yurdon Alvarez.

I don't think he's off by that many spots. If Bo Bichette was there for me at the turn when I was picking 15, 16, he would have been in consideration. I just think there's a few other names that went just after him that are more trustworthy. Your thoughts? You know, it's funny. I actually thought you were going to say another guy.

I thought you were going to say a different player when you said it, but I agree with you on the Bichette one. I'm looking, I probably would have taken every player in the first round above him. So yeah, like you said, right at the tail and I probably would have taken, I hate to say it, the player you took over him as well. I kind of thought you were going to say Soto, though. Yeah, I think there's an argument too. Yeah, that was, we, I misunderstood an assignment you had for me for the show.

You know, hey, pick a favorite and least favorite in the rounds. So I picked one for every single round instead of just like a couple that you really liked and a couple you didn't really like. And I actually put Soto as the one that I didn't like the most out of this. And again, projections are going to be back to trying to be favorable. As a matter of fact, they have Soto hitting a higher batting average than Judge. Steamer does. They have them hitting more runs than Judge. They have them hit one less stolen base.

And then, you know, like a handful less homers. Like they're almost having Soto be judge again. And I get it. I think there's a lot more questions with Soto based off of an entire year of struggles than there are giving him the benefit of it out over three years. So at six, I'm taking Otani over him. I'm definitely taking Tucker over him at this point. Then you're getting into a range where I'll give you whatever you want. You want to take his teammate, Machado, Alvarez.

I think there's arguments for bets even over him. But I don't know, six seemed a little bit high. Soto and Bichette both kind of stand out to me is a little bit high in this. And I would have taken the other guys that you just mentioned Machado, Tucker, O'Donoh. honey over, but all of them. There's going to be one specific listener who absolutely loves you Welsh because he would email us every single day last year. And he would start the email with Juan Succo. Oh, no, I'm not a one Succo guy. I'm not the one Succo guy. That guy can like me, but I'm not a one sucker. It's just like I, I, oh man, now I'm going to be the one Succo guy.

Forget about it. No, but like we should question. Yeah. We, we, this is what's so hard about especially this time of the year. And I'm a little selfish here because, like, I'm going to get to go see a lot of Soto in person because he's down the street for me in the Padres camp, and I will be at that camp as much as possible, really seeing how he's meshing with the players and stuff. But like, he had contact issues all season long.

And he went to a ballpark that is a little suppressive, that never really changed. He continued to struggle. Maybe an offseason will get back to the player that we know more than what was this last play. but I think he's a absolute pure battle of what projections are built around because the long term tells you you should believe in him. And by the way, when I say I don't like it, I still like him as a first rounder.

I just don't like him at six. So I'm not exactly one, sucko. But we also shouldn't just be like, that was an anomaly of last year. He was getting traded. He went to a new team and stuff like that. Like, I don't want to put that necessarily. Like we should dig deeper to make sure there might be, you know, to make sure that there aren't bigger contact issues than we're really worried about. But, you know, over here, Chris Juan Soto, Succo Welsh.

Yeah, I mean, I'm going to look forward to hearing what you have to say about, uh, one. Now I just want to keep saying Wantsucko, Juan Soto. I know, I know. He's still a very, very good player. And I think he's worthy of being a borderline first round pick. It might be a little bit early, though, at six. I agree with you there. Picks 11 through 15 to round out the first round. Yuron Alvarez, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Garrett Cole. And then I took Bobby Witt Jr. and Vlad Jr. So I wound up with both juniors there at the turn. I really like this range too.

Alvarez, Freeman, they seem rock solid. Mookie Betts, it kind of feels like Mookie Betts should go where Soto went, maybe, you know, sixth overall. Maybe even earlier than that. I mean, he's just about as consistent as it gets, year in and year out. Still plays for one of, if not the best lineups in baseball

with the Los Angeles Dodgers. But yeah, I took Bobby Wood Jr. and I took Vlad Jr. I think you can argue for names like Raphael Devere. and Austin Riley or Bryce Harper. But me personally, Welsh, in a roto league, I don't like coming away from the draft with my first two hitters not contributing anything in steals.

I know Scott, if Scott was here, he would say, well, Frank, you know, there's going to be more steals this year. You're going to be able to find them in the middle parts of the draft. And I agree. But if I can get someone like Bobby Wood Jr., who I have some questions about the batting average.

Other four categories, I think he's probably going to be elite. So I really don't have a problem with him going in this range. And in fact, his early ADP, the NFBC, a lot of players do draft for upside. There's an overall component in most of the drafts. He's been like a top 10 player early on. So I was delighted to get Bobby Wood Jr. here at the turn. What do you think about his early value Welsh?

Yeah, I know. I love it. I mean, you know I love it too, because we had talked about this. And I think I even told you like, if you get Bobby Wood at 15, that's stupid. And you ended up getting Bobby Witt at 15. Like I think that's a steal 2525. I want to say, do you know off the top of your head? I mean, I could click on it real quick.

Well, Bobby Witts, maybe I can find it real quick. What is batting average? Oh, here it is. I think it was 254. Yeah, 254 last year. His steamer projection is a higher batting average this year. You love to see it. Homer's real, stolen bases, real, middle of the lineup, real, playing time, real.

All those things are good. Hopefully they build some pieces around him, so he can contribute an RBI. But I think this is great. And I completely agree with you. I want to get stolen bases. One of my biggest advocation or I'm an advocate of with stolen bases is, and I know this is a little counter to Scott.

Like Scott has said, you know, oh, you can get the stolen bases late. I don't mind stolen bases late. But the most consistent stolen bases you can get tend to come out of the top end of drafts. Like those are guys that don't waver and waffle and you lose them for playing time or they're empty, the guys with the high end stolen bases, there's a reason you're paying up for them. And I know it feels weird sometimes. You might be like, I don't get Kyle Tucker. No, you want, you can get 30 stolen bases out of a first or second round talent and you're getting all five tools. Then you don't have to worry about them disappearing or fading away or anything like that.

Or trying to get like one mediocre stolen base guy and then a bunch that contribute just a little bit. Well, if all of them stop just a little bit, then you've just lost any of your advantage. So I agree with you in general that one of my first two hitters or three, I want to get some decent stolen bases out of. If I can be the guy that got Kyle Tucker and whoever, you know, Lindor, not that I would want that pairing, but just try to prove a point of the stolen bases, I think that's a huge win as well.

And that's also coming back to why I like Judge, because Judge, I think contributes in that. But I do want to say Betts is a steal at 13. I think your wit Guerrero, combo also looks killer. I think there's so much upside there for a bounce back with Guerrero, getting higher batting average. I think he's a much better hitter than, you know, numbers spit out. And I think Guerrero is going to bounce back more this year. We're going to get more of the OG Vladimir Guerrero. So Bobby Witt and him, it's a really, really good one. The only interesting thing,

though, out of, well, no, never mind. I was about to say it's the third base thing, but Vlad moving over to first, you locked up your first baseman. You can kind of sneakily put Bobby Witt in at third base for your steals, which I think gives you even a better advantage there, so you could swoop up another shortstop later, which I believe you did. So I very, very much like your start. It's a good sneaky roto slash head-to-head type of draft. Two quick questions before we move on to the second round. Do you think Bobby Witt Jr. should be a first-round pick in a 12-team league,

because I do think most of the people listening or watching this play in 12-team leagues. It's actually the poll that we have going on YouTube right now. So I'll reach you those results. Is Witt a first-round pick in a 12-team league? and would you take him or Bo Bichette first? Yes, and yes. And I think the second yes is pretty close. That's a pretty close one.

I actually wouldn't even kill someone for pairing those two together if you wanted, because you can Bo's your short and Bobby Witt's your third baseman. But I could see why people would not want to because of the player pool that's out there. My argument would be that the reason why is I would rather get the high upside young guy right now with the playing time and all of those extra stats, because of the veteran I'm going to get on the back end of this. Because if I'm getting Bobby Witt at 11, I've got an opportunity to get a Vlad or a Betts or a Freeman or a Trouter Harper on the backside of it to kind of stabilize it. So I would say yes. And then me personally, I think I am taking Witt above Bichet. So we've got 24 votes. Obviously,

it's a pretty small sample. But so far, 58% say no, that Bob. Bobby Witt, Jr. should not be a first round pick for next season. And I think that's going to be a pretty polarizing one. I think Witt and Bichette are very similar. I think I give Bichette the edge for his third base eligibility. You trade off a little batting average from Bichette, but you get more steals with Bobby Witt. Oh, you meant Witt. Sorry, you said Bich. You said Bichette over. You mean, you give Witt the edge because of the third base eligibility.

Yeah. That is what I meant. I think that's not what I said. But yes, that is what I meant. Yeah. So starting off the second round, I, took Vlad Jr. Then we saw Raphael Devers, Corbin Burns, Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Pete Alonzo, Austin Riley, and Ozzie Albi. So a lot of hitters in this mix. Harper is one that stands out to me where normally if everything is all right and we have no question marks, this seems,

this is a screaming value for Bryce Harper. He's utility only to start the season. And I'm kind of nervous. You know, this week they announced he's going through his options, trying to figure out what he's going to do, is he going to have elbow surgery or not? And if he does, it's probably going to miss time to start the season. So I do think that anyone that's doing drafts right now, you have to be careful when it comes to Bryce Harper. The other one that stands out is Ozzy Albies. And as much as I like the player, power speed combination, going ahead of Paul Goldschmidt, Lindor, even Fernando Tatis Jr. seems kind of early. Excuse me, seems kind of early for Ozzy Albies. No chance. You told me,

to pick my least favorite of rounds. Well, you told me to just pick some least favorite. The easiest one. And I will tell you this, when we're honing in, you're going to hear me talk about it later. This isn't probably my least favorite pick of the entire draft is Ozzy Albies here because I think it's too risky. I don't think he warrants it.

Do you want to talk about it? I really even need to give any explanation if you just list the players that went after him. You said Paul Goldschmidt, Sandy O'Contra, Shaneonaghan. There's no way. There's a better second baseman than him in fantasy already. That goes two rounds later. So there's no way.

It's just not the pick that I would want. Jose Altuve outperformed him, but it's father time type of stuff. It's early. So you don't want to kill, like you said, you don't want to kill these type of drafts because it is very early

and people have to reset their minds and stuff like that. But the good thing to get in is I'm not going to invest in Ozzy Albies if it costs me a top three round pick. Yeah, I do think in most drafts will probably be more of a third or fourth round pick. And I kind of think he's in a similar tier as Albies and Marcus Semyon, who are the top second baseman. You know, I think Altuva is obviously a little bit safer. But, you know, we did see just two years ago, 2021, that Ozzy Albies performed like a top 12 player. He was 30 homers, 20 steals.

Have some question marks about the power now that we've got the humadors and offenses down a little bit in general. but I still like Albies, but yeah, that just seems a little bit too early. There's just two other second baseman that go rounds and rounds later that can be 30, 20 guys without, you know, without thinking twice about it. Maybe the batting average wouldn't be there like it would be with Albies, but there's just too many questions. It's too risky. All right. So for those following along, or if you're watching us live, you see the draft board up, you'll notice that excluding Shoheyotani. Only two starting pitchers were drafted in the first 23 picks of this draft.

So typically 12 team leagues, only two starting pitchers in the first two rounds, which sounds kind of crazy. But to put that in perspective, we saw five pitchers being drafted in the first 23 picks of ADP last season. That included Garrett Cole, Corbyn's, Walker Bueller, Max Scherzer, and Brandon Woodruff. Why is this happening? I think it's a combination of things that we're seeing right now. We're lacking in abundance of elite offensive players. I think you kind of, you see that drop off too. after Goldschmidt, Lindor.

In the early to mid-third round, you have to start making decisions about guys like Zander Bogart and Luis Robert and Michael Harris and J.C. Relamuto, and those are good players, but either they don't lack that elite skill or they're younger guys that we just haven't really seen

do it for multiple seasons. So that's one reason, and I just don't think that there is a clear top tier of pitching. Where does it start? Where does it end? How do you rank them? What order do you put them in? And I think people have hesitation about being the third or fourth team to take a starting pitcher because frankly, they just don't know who to take.

They don't know how to differentiate Sandy Alcotsra and Shane McClanahan and Jacob de Crom and all these names. So you're like, all right, someone else make the decision for me and I'll just take whoever falls at that point. So I think for those two reasons, that's why we're seeing pitching going a little bit later right now. It could change. I think many things are going to change before we get to February and March, obviously. Your thoughts on pitching this early in the offseason.

Yeah, I think you said to great. You know, Paul Spore had famously said years ago, you know, the glob, he called it. There was this glob. It was after the elite guys. Except now, I think this is morphed into just multiple globs of pitching. There's the top-in glob of pitching, which is not one or two guys because the differentiation isn't quite there. It's a big glob.

It's coal. And if you want to throw a tonny in there and Burns and Alcantra and Cease and McClanahan, then the next glob that's is. it's in there is got like Urius and Woodrof and you've got the the guys and you want to call them the second or third tier of the glob are not that much different from even the top one of Gallin and Luis Castillo and Verlander and there's just so much good pitching that I don't think anybody feels pressed if I don't get coal there's no way I can compete if I go and get Rondone later and guess what you can and everyone knows that now and there's so many that you

can get multiple of them. You could go three straight. Technically in this draft, you could have gone four straight rounds if you wanted with pitch, with hitting. And then in the fifth and six, you could have gotten a combination of Luis Castillo, Rondone,

Gallin, Gossman, Joe Musgrove, Framber Valdez as two of your pitchers. That says a lot when you can take the advantage of taking those amazing hitters early while one guy is taking Cole and you're getting Paul Goldschmidt or Vladimir Guerrero. And then in that fifth and six, you're still getting two ace-like pitchers. So that's just me putting a lot of names to kind of the theory that you just said. I agree completely.

And I don't think that you should be so married to a draft strategy or something that you've done in years past. Because for years, I would tell myself, I can't leave the first two or three rounds without a starting pitcher. I need a trustworthy ace. I've got to get at least one. You just listed it off. If I can come away with two of those starting pitchers that you mentioned in rounds, five and six, whatever it might be, I'm totally fine with that. And again, the fact that we're lacking elite offensive producers, we still have some of them. I don't want to say like,

there's no elite offensive players. There is, but there's just not as many as there have been in years past. So that's why I think you almost want to like double down and give yourself more insurance policies by taking hitters in rounds three and four. You want to see, you want a visual too. This is my tease for people to make sure, because I want you to physically see it, come over to the fantasy baseball today, YouTube, if you're listening on the podcast. subscribe and then make a comment say you love the Welsh blah blah and then come on and look at the video and just look at something for me because look at round go to round eight and look at the hitters that are there and I'm trying to jump ahead but like I said Cron and Chris Bryant and

Nate Lowe look at compared to the pitchers you still have Snell and Kirby and right I don't think those are the same I don't think the same value of hitter exists in round eight that you still get in value of pitcher in round eight. And even into nine, we see Kershaw, Nestor Cortez, Severino, just one of those things. It's something you deal with in fantasy football. It's kind of been a running back versus wide receiver strategy where it's like, hey, look at the running backs in round 10 compared to the wide receivers. It's not close.

Wide receivers deep. Well, in this situation, you know, the hitting is not close to what pitching you can still get. So I'd rather stack up some hitting early. It doesn't mean they're all garbage. I'm not trying to say that. but it's just like, give me those elite hitters early because I could still get Kirby.

I could get Kershaw. I could get Severino. I could still get some awesome pitchers. Freddie Peralta went in the 10. I get some awesome pitchers in, you know, round 7, 8, 9, and 10 to build out a pretty incredible rotation of big strikeout guys. And hopefully I've maintained, you know, a decency area as well.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Let's take a break, but first promote a few things. We do have a new TikTok account at FBTPod. So for all the kiddos out there, you got a TikTok, make sure to follow us, come interact, like some videos, drop some comments on there. I may or may not have uploaded a TikTok of the Welsh comparing Jordan Walker to Julio Rodriguez, so you could find that on our TikTok right now. I have to see it.

You told me, you told me. I was like, am I TikTok famous now? I have to see. I hope I sounded eloquent. Oh, you did. Yeah. Of course, I covered it up with some Jordan Walker highlights that I scooped up while I was out there. So it's cool.

I mean, we're doing more short term, short form. That's the word that I'm looking for here. Short form content, some original content. You notice that on YouTube. We've got some shorts coming out. But yeah, give us a follow on TikTok. The link is in the podcast in the YouTube description. Scott White is back next week, and we are picking things back up with third base.

We're going to recap, look at some early rankings. And then, of course, we will get some top prospects from the Welsh to know at the position. Let's take a break. And we'll be back right after this. Welcome back into fantasy baseball today. I do have a quick game that I want to play. We've got some news and notes to some options to talk about, some minor trades being done as well.

Free agency is technically open right now, but nothing crazy going on yet. Little lightning round here. Some polarizing players that I've got for you, Welsh, and you tell me whether or not these players in your mind. Again, it's very early, things will change. Early, did this player go too early, too late, or does it sound just right?

And we'll start with Fernando Tati Jr., who went in the first. the third round at pick 33. Your thoughts, early, late, or just right? I think it's just right. I would even argue it might be a little late because you got to remember those playoff games ate into some of that suspension time. So now it is, I think, 20.

It's 20 less, yeah, 20, 20 less games that is going to be missed, which is a significant deal and not to keep going at it, but you want to look at the projections that are already. putting out there. Tatea's still putting up some big numbers. So I'll say it's just right for the time that's going to be missed, but it's definitely not too early. Yeah, I would almost air towards it. It might be a little bit too late. I think I want to, you know, take a shot on Tatee's and either the way it gets closer to the season. I think like he's going to be sneaking pretty heavily into that second round. Man, the projections for steamer. Two 83, 37 homers, 20 steals, and only

125 games. That is absolutely insane for Fernando Tatis. Michael Harris, he went in the third round. He went to pick 41, third round of a 15 team league. Obviously, that would be the middle of the fourth round in a 12 team league. Michael Harris, 41. Early, late, just right.

Oh, man. Everyone wants me to say it's too early. I just hate to tell you it's not. It's just right. It's just right, I'm going to say. Yeah, I think that's fair too. At early ADP, he was going in the second round. So, he actually slipped a little bit in this draft. And if he made it to me at the three four turn, I would have

taken Michael Harris myself, but he went a few picks before. His teammate, Spencer Strider, also went in the third round of this draft. He went pick 43. So in 812 team league, that's getting closer to the end of round four, early, late, or just right? Man, so, okay, I think it's a little early, but I'm going to be the person that's not going to be afraid to pay the cost of what it is. We had a big old debate at AFL in the stands about Spencer Strider. And there's a few of us. There's camps of guys. There's a couple people that are like, it doesn't matter.

I'm getting Strider. And there's a couple of people that's like, hey, it's a little too risky. I will take Strider where I have to. I'd like to see him sitting, especially when I see a guy like Zach Gallen, who was closer, I think, into the fifth round. That comparatively, actually two rounds later, that comparatively makes it look like it's too early because those two should be a little bit closer. So maybe Gallen is the one that's behind. But I'm going to say it was a little too early for Strider, but with a caveat that I'll still

pay the price. I love the gif of the little girl where she's like, why not both? And why wouldn't you just go, why don't you take Spencer Strider and Zach Gallen, right? It seems to make sense to me, right? You know, if I'm taking Strider as my SP1, I want an SP2 that I feel pretty comfortable about the endings that they're going to provide. And if you think that Gallin is past the shoulder and, you know, arm, elbow, whatever he's dealing with the past couple of years, he's probably going to give you close to 200 innings pitched. So you pair him up with Strider. I think you feel pretty good about that combination of picks.

And that you could maybe do like four or five, you know, because we know, gallons around the five. So if you went three straight hitters, you could really build up, you know, your core, get two guys that get you some stolen bases, maybe another bat that's in there. Make sure one's an infielder. And then you go Strider, Gallin. Maybe you got to sneak a closer in there as well. But, ooh.

The next name I wanted to bring up Jazz Chisholm. He went in the fourth round at pick 54. So again, if you play in a 12-team league, that's middle of the fifth round. And this past season, he was on pace for a 35-35-homer-30-steal season. He is ridiculous. Can he stay on the field? What do you think?

Early, late, just right. I'm a little worried, and I've joked, that he might be our new modern day, Jean-Carlo Stanton, where he just finds ways to hurt himself. But I'm going to say, this is too late. he's going too late. I would rather in a vacuum right now have jazz chisholm than Ozzy Albies. I would rather go and take my risk, especially in a format like this, where I'm trying to build up these categories, better power, I think better speed.

He's a little bit more electric. RBI might be a little bit more of a difficult time. But with this time off, I'm hoping he's going to be healthy and raring to go. I kind of blind myself to injury stuff, especially with younger players, even though this. This has been a little bit of a trend. He's a very aggressive hitter. But I think from a fantasy perspective, he's everything that you want. So I think this is too late.

I think this is a third rounder. All right. Vinnie Pasquantino, everyone's favorite first baseman. Fifth round, pick 63, going ahead of Kyle Swarber, Justin Furlander, Carlos Fordon, Adolice Garcia, Starling Marte. Early, early, just right. It's a little early. It's a little early for Benny.

I'm sorry. Now, Scott's going to be upset about that. No, Scott would agree with you. Scott would not take him ahead of those players. I could say that for fact. And I'm looking into the next round. I'm not sure I'm going to take him over any of those players either. So it's a little too early for that.

I love Vinny, especially if you're OBP and, you know, there's good power numbers and stuff like that. But that's way too early. Christian Javier, world series champion, Christian Javier. Sixth round, he went at pick 80. He went ahead of Joe Musgrove. He went ahead of Framber Valdez. He went ahead of Robbie Ray.

Early, late, just right, on Christian Javier. year. It's a little early too. I like those other guys ahead of him. I can't, I couldn't do that. Especially when you give me, I was, if you didn't give me the context of the players and I just thought about the round, I might have said, okay, maybe, maybe it was just right. But no, it's not over those players. It might be a round or two later. It might be round eight, uh, in this, maybe seven, uh, late seven. So that's too early. I saw that Scott put out his starting pitcher ranks for next year and he has ranked the top 40. He has Christian Javier as his SP 20. Just behind whom?

Framber Valdez, Joe Musgrove, and Robbie Ray. The exact names that I just brought up. But he's in that range. So, like, you know, once those guys are gone, maybe it's a late sixth, early seventh rounder in a 15-team league, which is more like a, you know, seventh round pick or an eighth round pick in a 12-team league. All right, we're going to take a little bit of a break from the draft here.

We're going to get some news and notes, as I mentioned the other day. Make sure that you are subscribed to the podcast. You are subscribed to the YouTube channel, have notifications turn on, because with free agency starting, we're going to have emergency podcasts for big name, free agent signings or trades, whatever might happen. So you want to be alerted whenever we go live.

Jose Ramirez underwent thumb surgery on Wednesday and will return to baseball activities in six to eight weeks. Should be all good for spring training. And again, worthy of a top three pick, I believe, in fantasy baseball. The Red Sox added prospect and Manuel Valdez to their 40-man roster. He's a 23-year-old who had a big season in the minors. Hit 296 with 28 home runs between AA and AAA last season.

Welsh, I don't know if you have big thoughts on Valdez, but I've seen some rumors of the Red Sox maybe shopping around for a second basement. They can move Trevor's story over to shortstop. Zander Bogartz is a free agent. They still could bring Bogart's back. Who knows? We'll see what happens. But I kind of want to see them give this kid a shot and see what he could do.

What do you think about him? Yeah, I like it, Manuel. He was with the Houston Astros before this. A little bit smaller of a guy, five foot nine, but big power. last year registered 28 homers, 28 homers with over 100 RBI and eight stolen bases. He's got a nice, beautiful uppercut swing too. It's just, it's one of those like,

it's kind of like, um, Halzay-L-Tuvia, I hate to say it. It's like the smaller guy, uppercut swings, those guys that know how to loft the ball. When they get a hold of it, it just looks gorgeous. And Emmanuel does that a lot.

So I actually really like this move. I've got Emmanuel probably higher than most prospect people. I think I've had him around the top 150, even closer into the top 100, just because of those power numbers. And he's just not a household name whatsoever. So I would love to see him get some opportunity for sure. I like that comp, too, just from a size perspective, right? Valdez 59, 190's kind of a smaller dude, but he packs a punch. And I was actually checking to see if he was a lefty or righty. He's a lefty. So it would have been a little bit more excited about him if he was a right-handed bat in Fenway. But either way, I think there is big pop from the middle infield there. with N. Manuel Valdez.

Nick Solek was traded to the Reds for cash considerations, and I just can't quit. In deeper leagues, I'm going to have some interest. How about this? How about this for a comparison, Welsh? Nick Solek in his career has hit 252

with a 700 OPS. Brandon Drury in his career before 2022, which if I brought up Brandon Drury last year before the season started, people probably would have laughed at me. He hit 2.49. with a 7-11 OPS before last season. Great American Ballpark does great things for a hitter.

If Nick Solac can find his way into some playing time, I am interested. I am very interested. What do you think? That's where I saw that guy. I was like, where did I see that he is this year's Drury comp? That's where I was.

It was you that put it out there. Yes. Yeah, I've never been the biggest Nick Solac guy. I mean, to be fair to your point, though, like I really struggled with Drury. one of my biggest struggles overall is these way, way, way late booming players, these guys that have gone through minors and got up to the majors and struggled and struggled and struggled and then something reclicks.

Because I'm looking for something tangible. What's the thing that reclicked with Brandon Jury this year? I still don't know. You know, like, was it a huge? I mean, obviously you can go and look and like, oh, he's not swinging at this or blah, blah, but like, was there a mental change? Was there an approach change to what he was swinging at? Like, I just don't know what that is.

So how can he be bad for so long? So the same thing with Nick Solek. Like it's just not that good. Like he couldn't break much with the Rangers. He could, I mean, he could steal some bases. There's power. There's like Walmart five tools,

but they've never come together. You know, it's blue light special. It's been canceled at Kmart. So are the reds going to be able to put that together? Maybe they did it with Drury last year. Maybe there's going to be opportunity, but they've got a lot of Nick Solax.

It's called the Nixon's Elle. So Spider-Man meme with those. too. I get why you can be excited because that's a team that doesn't have a whole that has opportunity. The Reds have opportunity. And if Nick Solac could break that, okay, cool. Maybe the Reds have a formula. Cool. I just don't know that they do. I don't know if Drury is going to be the example that I'm going to start putting on all these type of players. But we'll pay attention to Nick Solek for sure, because if he got regular playing time and hit consistently, he could be a 20 stolen base guy. So that is valuable for sure. He is just not.

jury. They're very different, like, I think they're different statistical players that you would be getting, but I understand what you were doing. Yeah. This is a very deep league play, by the way. You know, like, just a name to just, all right, tuck it away and we'll, we'll figure out what happens come spring training. But if you play in deeper 15 team leagues or NL only, he's a name to know. That is, uh, oh, NL only, no doubt. Yeah, no doubt about it. Colby Allard was traded to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for Jake Oter Rizzy. And according to their GM, Alex Antopoul Allard will join Mike Soroka, Ian Anderson, Kyle Muller, and Bryce Elder in a competition for the team's fifth starter job. So again, there's a lot of names there.

Allard, Soroka, Ian Anderson, Muller, Elder. There's intrigue with, I think, a good bit of those. If I had to say now, I think if Soroka's healthy probably would be my pick. But I wouldn't be surprised if Ian Anderson gets back on track too. I wouldn't be surprised if Ian Anderson has moved out this team. I mean, why he's just falling? I mean, you're in a five-man battle for the fifth spot and you're going up against Soroka. There's no way.

I mean, Soroka, the only reason he doesn't take that job back is if he's not healthy. If that, if he hasn't been stretched out enough or whatever, he's taking that. So what are they going to do? Put Ian Anderson in the bullpen and make him a six starter or a long, I don't know. That just seems weird. I think this team would probably benefit from cashing in on some of those young arms that they have and how they're able to burn and turn and recreate them like Kyle Wright. I think they would do well on burning off one of those arms and probably making a pretty valuable trade,

maybe bolstering their bullpen if they wanted or something of that nature. Because Ian Anderson, I don't, I've never just been a big Ian Anderson guy, but man, that's crazy that he's in that competition. We did have one more trade. The Pirates acquired G-Man Choy from the raise in exchange for pitcher Jack Hartman. And I don't think there's much to see there with G-Man Choy. I think the Ray side of things is a little bit more. interesting because obviously we're watching for Kyle Manzardo. I don't think he's going to be ready for opening day. Maybe he's a mid-season call-up, whatever it might be, one of their top

prospects in the organization. He plays first base. But in the meantime, Fangrav's depth charts has Jonathan Aranda penciled in at first base for now. They can make moves in the offseason. Aranda's kind of an interesting player because he's put up some big minor league stats. Hasn't really been given a fair shake. Well, any thoughts on Jonathan Aranda with the race? Yeah, so I think you said it well. Aranda makes tons of contact. He's another one of these smaller, kind of like in Manuel, one of these smaller type of guys that has pop,

but he just makes tons of tons of contact. But there's the rumor going around the GM meetings right now is there is not a team more active in trade talks than the Rays right now. And I think the Rays have a glut of players that are like each other, that they need to consolidate from, you know, are you ever going to find playing time to Vidal Bruhan or Josh Lowe. or Walls. I mean, they have all of these guys.

Jonathan Aranda would be another one of those that, you know, is there something in the works for them? Could they package a couple? Could they package low, a pitcher and a Randa in maybe like a little semi-meadale, you know, like a tiny one where you're trading three really good assets to play for now

and maybe bolstering like a high-end pitcher for a team that wants to move off? I just don't know if they stick with all those guys. I kind of have a hard time believing that they're going to let that entire infield be Franco. and Vidal and them. I think someone's going to move. But if not, Aranda's possible, but I just, he doesn't fit the, well,

you know, I was about to say, he doesn't fit the body type or anything like that, but it's a raise. The rays, they, you know, fit square pegs and round holes all the time. Yeah, you know, I'm looking through first base now, just to see if there's anyone that stands out. Obviously, Rizzo, Jose Abraeu, and Josh Bell are all free agents.

So they can go that route if they want to. I don't know who might be available for a trade. There's no one that really jumps off, like, maybe a rowdy Tellez or someone like that, but Milwaukee still kind of needs him too. So I don't know. We'll see. I think it's a good thought. They do have too many of those players, but I just don't know, which first basement might be available. Both Terrick Scuble and Casey Mines are rehabbing from their respective arm injuries, but both are expected to open the season on the IL, potentially miss a large chunk of it as well. Red Sox GM Brian O. Halloran told reporters Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Hauke,

will be prepped as starters for next season. I saw a follow up somewhere that said Tanner Hauk is the best option that they have at closer, which I don't disagree with. But again, I guess we'll find out. But if Halk is in the rotation, I don't know who's going to close games. I mean, maybe it's you, Welsh.

Who are they going to use? I just don't know. Pretty devastating cutter. I would have, I don't know, I would want to see Whitlock there. That was what I wanted Whitlock to do. And I felt like the starting stuff really wasn't, and teams have done this.

Remember the Dimeback's doing this with Archie Bradley. That's a horrible example because nothing worked for him. But, you know, they tried to keep stretching out and it didn't work and then end up getting in the bullpen. I can appreciate that Whitlock is going to get the opportunity. I don't think they should stretch both of these guys out. I actually do believe that they should pick one and they should let one really lock into being a closer. Because the only thing I don't like about that is, like, let's say you go both. And let's just say somehow like Tanner Howk ends up being awesome in a rotation can go deep.

And Whitlock's not again. So then like, how long is a transition? going to be back to going into a closer. Though what I would say is for everybody that's arguing about this, what that is probably telling is they don't want either one of those guys as closers. They're going to hit the market. And I know in the free agency, there is like Ranger Suarez. That does not mean that they're not going to go calling and pushing around.

There's plenty of teams that have got three or four guys that could be closer material nowadays. So I think the Red Sox are going to go and call and they're going to make a move and they're going to move some assets. I know you said Ranger Suarez. I think you meant Robert Swares. Robert Suarez, yeah, yeah, not the Phillies guy. Which is worth mentioning, he actually just resigned with the Padres.

So, oh, I didn't even see that. That just came out, you know, a couple minutes ago. I signed a five-year deal worth $46 million. Would it surprise me if Robert Suarez is closing for the Padres next season? Maybe they bring in another name, but Josh Hater's a free agent and Suarez was really good. So could have. How about Boston unloads the checkbook for Hater? Maybe.

Maybe they bring in, you know, Kenley Jansen on a one, two-year deal. something like that. So they need it. The past couple of years, the back end of their bullpen has been rough. Japanese outfielder Masataka Yoshita is likely to be posted in the next two weeks. He hit 336 with 21 homers and an OPS just over a thousand last year in Japan. And he's already kind of been linked to the Yankees, which he's got this big left-handed swing. I saw one of his home runs and would play well in Yankee Stadium. Frankly, might play well anywhere. But just a name to remember there, Masataka Yoshita. More optiony type things. Justin Verlander declined his $25 million option and is now a free agent,

and I assume he'll have a very long list of suitors, assuming he wants to play again next season. The Mets picked up Carlos Carrasco's $14 million. The Rangers picked up Jose LeClerc's $6 million. The Giants declined Longoria. The Ray's declined Kiermeier. The Orioles declined Jordan Lyles. The Astros declined Trey Mancini. A.J. Pollack declined his $13 million option. We'll become a free agent. Drew Smiley did the same. He's a free agent. Paxton, no surprise here. Exercises $4 million player option and will remain with the Red Sox.

That's a business move, Frank. That's a business move for the cash book. Yes, I have an option? That's a yes. Yes, yes, I agree completely. Here are the players that received the qualifying offer, which is $19.65 million. Aaron Judge, Tray Turner,

Zander Bogartes, Jacob de Grom, Danzby Swanson, Carlos Rodon, Brendan Nimmo, Wilson Contreras, who already rejected the offer, no surprise. Chris Bassett, Anthony Rizzo, Tyler Anderson, Martin Perez, Jock Peterson, and Nathan Avaldi. I could see the last four there. Anderson, Perez, Peterson, Avaldi, maybe take it. Anderson Perez, they probably could get multi-year deals, but those are the ones that I think we have to be on the lookout for.

A few other draft takeaways, we've got about 10 minutes left, so let's just observe my team. Welsh, be as mean as you want, as direct as you want to be. If you love the team, tell me. If you don't, tell me that too. So we'll start with the infield. Reminder, 15 teams, two catchers started, a corner infielder, a middle infielder, five outfielders, and nine pitchers, which you could divvy up however you want. Seven starters, two relievers, six starters, three relievers.

And we will start with the infield. My catchers, I've got Tyler Stevenson and Yasmani Grandal, Grandal, who I got very late. I think it was around 20 or 21, something like that. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Jonathan India, Bobby Witt, Jr., and Carlos Carraya. So that is first, second, third shortstop. And then my middle infieler is Ezekiel Tovar with the Rockies. My corner infielder is Tris and Kossis with the Red Sox.

Seems pretty balanced to me, Welsh. The only thing is maybe I put too much weight on rookies starting in a Tovar and a Kossis. But what do you think about that in field? Yep. I think you kind of nailed it. If I don't give me any context and we just go names, I love it. I'm always a Carlos Krea guy. I kind of always give him the benefit of the benefit of the.

doubt. I think he's just ultimately talented. He just always underperforms. The Vlad thing is what carries it. I love Bobby Witt. Tovar, such a great bet. Kossis. But like you said, I think there is a ton of risk. I think there's a ton of risk in there, which I think this probably lacks typical floor. I feel like I would see from you. Just because you've got a rookie at shortstop, a rookie corner infielder, a way underperformed young player in Jonathan, India. So I think that. That's really risky. I see lots of stolen base potential in there.

I see some power. I got to tell you, I just hate two catcher leagues, but I do a lot of industry ones. I love your combo. I think Tyler Stevenson is a steal. Where did you get him? I got him at the 7-8 turn,

which I will bring up in just a bit. That was kind of the first time that I panicked in the draft because I just got snite. It was, I had four players in my queue. They all went within six picks right before my pick. I was about to say it was probably what,

like Alejandro Kirk, McKenzie, Anio Cruz, and MJ Melendez, probably all those guys. Yep. And Logan Webb was in that mix too. Yeah. So I think you did well. I think you really did well in a two catcher format. I just think this is and kind of looking ahead when I also see your outfield. I think there's some youth risk that also maybe is showing some power lacking. All right. Well, let's talk about that outfield, which starts nice and it falls off a bit of a cliff here.

A little, little one, little tiny cliff. Yeah, just a little. Hill, it's a hill. Randy,

Rosarena and Starly Marte, again, those are top two like that. And then, Brandon Nimmo, please sign with the Rockies, please.

Jorge Solair, Jesse Winker. It's very bad, and it's very injury prone. I don't, do I get a full season combined from those three players? I don't know.

I can't tell you that. Maybe, yeah. And then I have, I have Azwaldo Cabrera from the Yankees in my utility spot. He has outfield eligibility. So the one thing I took away from this draft

is if you play in a five outfielder league, typical roto leagues, you have to make outfield a priority. You have to get three of the top 30. You have to. It gets so, so bad. And at one point, it was just so bad. I just kept waiting.

I was like, I don't want any of these players. They're not better than the pitchers or infielders that I can take right now. So I'm just going to keep waiting. And this is what I wound up with. I like the top two. It's very risky. Dude, I do this so much,

because we do tons of rounds. Roto and head-to-head-head stuff. And anytime we do five outfield, especially during draft season, one thing I do a ton of is mock drafts, these mock draft episodes I do. And I have the same thing kind of happen where I will get enamored with, ah, I get this shortstop in the second basement, got to get my closer, got my starting pitcher, and then I get an outfielder. And next thing I know it, we're in the hundreds. I've taken one or two outfielers, and I go, oh, my God, what has happened to this crew?

I always feel better about my team when I've got three. studly-ish outfielders. I always feel better, and I think you would too. You would have felt a lot better if, you know, really you push these guys down. If it ended up being like, if it ended up being a Rosarina as your second outfielder, Martaise, your third, or even whatever, you just throw someone else in there where it's Nimmo and Solair at 4 or 5, this would look exponentially better. So I guess when I now put together with your hitters, I just feel more risk.

I don't feel as much floor, which again, it's all about upside and stuff like that. Like if Tovar works out, you're going to be killing it. If Kossis is playing every single day, probably going to be killing it. So that's going to make up for a lot of the inefficiencies. And you will have a decent amount of power. But if you do look at that outfield, it's like a Rosarayne is your five tool. Marte lacks your power. Nimmo kills your power.

Good average. Salair gets you power, but it hurts now kind of brings down your good average guys. And Winker is just a bag of whatever. you know, at this point. So, yeah, man, I like your infield quite a bit more than I like your outfield because even though there's risk with Casas and Tovar, I don't see the downside like I do with Solair and Winker for sure. It is a disaster. I will openly admit that. And for those watching, you'll see the draft board. And I took Randy Rose Arena over Jose Al Tuvae, which seems hypocritical because I've talked about Altuvae and I would love to have Altuva on my team. But I'm

damn happy that I did it because if I didn't, how much worse would this outfit? Look, you know, you have to make it a priority. That is the one takeaway that I took away from this draft. Takeaway that I took away from this draft. Yes, that's a very good podcasting. I took Tyler Stevenson and George Kirby at the 7-8 turn. Again, this is the first time in the draft that I kind of panicked because I wanted a good catcher and I wanted, I needed an SP2. I only had Max Scherzer at that point. And like, look at this run. It's, you know, I missed out on Logan Webb,

Alejandro Kirk, Tristan McKenzie went. MJ Melendez went one pick before me. I had all those four in particular. It's like, I'll take one of those catchers. I'll take one of those pitchers. They all went. And so let me ask you something. Go ahead.

I'm looking at your, I'm looking at the draft board right now. Do you think you could have dealt with a situation because I see you how the arrows are pointing? If you didn't take Kirby and you took George, Springer instead. And you've now have Springer, Arosurana and Marte. And then

you come back around on the 9th and I see where you have Carlos Correa, but instead, maybe you double bang pitching there and you go, even Freddie Peralta or Gialito or in Lin or whatever combo you want to do. And then now what you're doing is you don't

have that in-field, that little bit of in-field push with Correa. I mean, honestly, in this situation, I suppose, you know, you could have still got Correa with another starting pitcher because you picked back to back, but you could have just double-tap starting pitchers there. You think you would like that team better with Springer instead of Correa? Yes, completely. I mean, that was the point that I was going to bring up is, and I think what I would have done differently is not taking Tyler Stevenson. So I think I still

would have taken Kirby and I would have taken Springer and I would have just kind of weighted on catcher. I like Stevenson, but actually based on early ADP, he goes in the ninth round. I took him at the seven-eight turn. So I did reach on him quite a bit. Based on ADP, but yeah. And I see Willem Contreras and Sean Murphy going in the ninth and tenth. And now that I'm kind of looking at that, dude, it's like, yeah, you know what? You could have taken Kirby and Springer. And then maybe ninth and tenth you could have take, I guess you couldn't have taken

William Contreras, but you could have at least got Sean Murphy to go in there. And he would have been paired with Yosmani Grindal. That's the oversight. You know, that's like if we had the big picture beforehand, I do, you know what? I 100% think that would have been the better play. And this team construction would look so much better. but it is what it is. Now you kind of know for future ones.

But yeah, maybe Stevenson was kind of the start of the problem and passing on Springer as well. So let's talk about those pitchers real quick. The ones that I wound up with, I took Max Scherzer at the 3-4 turn. I don't know if people are just scared off by the injuries that he suffered the past couple of years. If he is lasting to pick 46,

I will have a lot of Max Scherzer this upcoming season. I got George Kirby as my SP2, then Lance Lynn, Jeffrey Spring. Trevor Rogers, Marcus Stroman, and Kentimaida, who was the last pick I made on this team. It was, you know, the end of round 23. So obviously very, very late. Should be ready to go on opening day for the Minnesota Twins. And then my relievers are Felix Batista and Scott Barlow.

Batista I took at the 5-6 turn. That is also a priority of mine in Roto leagues. I want to get at least one of the top 10 relievers. I want one anchor. I want an anchor closer. To me, Bautisa, is that. And then I also took Scott Barlow, who I wasn't planning on taking another solid second closer. He just lasted really long.

It was, you know, the 11-12 turn. So I had no problem taking Scott Barlow there. What do you think about the pitchers? I love Scherzer. Again, this is one of those things where it's like you can't pick on the pitching when you're picking on the hit. Like you had to give up a little bit. And obviously you prioritize the hitting a little bit more. I personally probably would have loved one more solid pitcher.

That's just how I construct. to have like Scherzer and somebody, you know, like I guess I'm kind of looking back. This is the problem. Musgrove at the 5-6 was the one that I was really looking at. Yeah, see, like personally, I'm not taking Felix Batista there, and you could have taken Starling-Marté in Musgrove, and it probably would have felt better. But what we're doing is we're digging into the same trench of like, all right, now I didn't take Stevenson and I took a closer, but wait, that's where we were

going to take Springer and all this stuff would have started to happen. And you can't have everything. I think the Shurzer one is ridiculous value. I completely agree with everything you said. You got a couple names like Kirby is by number two. I don't feel comfortable. I'm cool with buying back on Lynn.

I'm just not as big on him. I love the Springs though. I love the shot with Rogers. Stroman's a good inning theater. So I dig those. I dig what you did. And you made this great point at the very beginning that hopefully people have in the back of their minds.

You have the first pick when it comes back. So like you've kind of built the construction of your team, but if something crazy happens in the meantime, you are going to have the first shot at throwing in this next guy and getting this next guy. Back to maybe why personally, if I'm building this, I'm like, I know you think Felix Batista is like a linchpin guy. I kind of would have probably locked it off like, I need class A. And then I probably would have had a couple other guys. And then I'm not paying a super high price that even if you could have upgraded Scott Barlow just a tiny bit and then taking your second close.

closer with your first pick coming around, you're going to have more insight when the draft starts back up because you're going to be closer into spring training and everything like that. So that's just me picking apart a few of those little things. But I like the overall team construction of everything you did. I mean, and Frank's a dang winner. So who am I breaking this down? Frank is two-time tout champion points, of course, but you know, Frank knows his stuff. So I think you did a really good job, but it is good looking at these early ones and kind of re-breaking where we would have moved here and there. Yeah, no, I appreciate that.

And like you said, I'm a winner in head-to-head-to-head-points. Roto has given me some fits the past couple of years. So obviously, trying to learn a little bit and get back on track there. But let's wrap up. I know you had a bunch of favorite and least favorite picks for each round. You don't have to go each round, but maybe, you know, the top three in each of those categories that stood out to you most. What do you think?

I'm sorry, say that again? The favorite and least favorite picks. Okay. So my least favorite picks, I'm going to go with Ozzy Albies, like I mentioned. I think, oh, man, I kind of want to change this one. Okay, round seven, I didn't like Tyler O'Neill going in round seven. That wasn't, I felt like that was too high. I feel like Tyler O'Neill might have been able to push himself out of a gig in general.

So I didn't like the Tyler O'Neill ones. I didn't like the Ozzy Albie one like we mentioned before. as far as some that I really liked, I think I've mentioned a lot of them. I loved Galen by Team 12 in round five. I thought that was a fantastic pick. I loved Franco in round six by Team 2. I thought that was a great value.

And this might surprise people. Oh, I'm trying to say if I want, you know what, I think you have this. I'm going to add it in there. I love the Gunner Henderson one. There is a player that I love that if anyone knows me is going to be shocked by it, but I think you have him written down as someone that you really like,

so I'll throw that back out there. Now I don't know which one it is. Well, the picks that I wrote down that I like the most, Verlander going in the fifth round, I think right now people are just kind of worried he might retire. I think he would have hinted at it or said something about it by now if he was going to do that. So I think he's going to be back.

And if he is, he's obviously going to go higher than this. Stalling Marte at the five, six turn, who I took, he was still really, really productive when he played last year. I know he missed time. he always misses time, but I think he's a pretty good bet for, you know, 20, 20 at least, maybe even a little bit more steals.

And Corey Seeger, in the sixth round of a 15-team league, that's who I was debating. But again, I'm happy I took an outfielder because it just drops off. Seeger, I think he's going to be a monster. His, you know, expected numbers in statcasts

this past season were great. I think he's going to hit like 280, 30-plus home runs. You know, by next season, 20-24 would not surprise me if he's like a second or third round. pick again. So, yeah, I could see that. And actually, it was one of the young guys, throwing back out, O'Neill Cruz. People would be surprised to hear me say that and how critical I was last year. I actually think O'Neill Cruz came at a pretty good cost this year, not

compared to what it was last year. Steamer projections are wild. I think they're a little too wild, but he had an amazing second half. So like that Gunner Henderson 8th and O'Neill Cruz seventh, I thought those, and I think it was by the same team, like team 13, if I remember correctly, both were, I thought were really, really good value picks. That was actually our our buddy Joe Orico, he made, he made those picks. Good job, Joe. Joe. Tom, Tammy, did a great job. Come, Joe.

Yeah, O'Neil Cruz. That was 103 overall. So, yeah, that seems like a pretty good value. Pretty good. We're going to wrap there for the Welsh. I am Frank. Takeo over listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again on Tuesday. Bye-bye. Bye.