Fantasy Baseball Today - Early Round-By-Round Targets & Bullpen Updates! (3/30 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 30, 2022

Woah, Scott drafted some speed in our latest Roto mock draft (2:10)! ... How are we navigating the first round this season (9:00)? ... Who are our favorite second-round targets (17:20)? Can Luis Robert take the next step? ... Third round targets (22:44): why is Chris back in on Marcus Semien? ... Fourth round targets (29:12): Trevor Story is in a great landing spot! ... Fifth round targets (34:00): Francisco Lindor has looked awesome this spring. ... What's the latest on Chris Sale (41:33)? We have updates on the Dodgers, Giants and Rays bullpens (42:33). ... Justin Verlander and Mitch Keller continued to impress on Tuesday (57:28). ... We wrap up with the players who should gain position eligibility early in the season (1:01:18). '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 league. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, March 30th. Frank Stanfield joined by Scott White and the returning Chris Towers. What's going on, Chris?

How was Puerto Rico? It looked fantastic. It was beautiful. I hadn't been, we went every summer. My mom's from Puerto Rico. We used to go every summer. I had been a long time since I'd been. I hadn't been since I was in high school.

So it was lovely. It's a beautiful, beautiful island. If you ever get a chance to go, highly recommend it, beautiful people, great food. Old St. Juan is beautiful. I went to Hidon Bthorne Stadium in San Juan, the historic baseball stadium there. If you guys remember at the Expos and Marlins used to play there, a few series a year. apparently they leave it open. So my sister and I just kind of drove up and walked around and took pictures.

It's very cool. I'm rocking my Santersec hang of the heados jersey. Roberto Clemente. Nice. Had a good time. It was a lovely, lovely, ill-timed vacation, not necessarily the best time to go on vacation right before fantasy baseball season starts. But, you know, it is what it is.

You can't pick and choose when your sister has a free hotel room in Puerto Rico, you know? That is fair. You said it. Not me, by the way, Chris. Just point that out. Yeah, one of my close buddies who I grew up with, actually, best man in my wedding, his family is from Puerto Rico. So I'm very entrenched in the culture, the food. It is fantastic. So the food is, amazing. I've got to get out there. I'm like 40% mafunga at this point. If anyone doesn't know what that is, just look it up and you'll have a good laugh. Scottie, what's going on, man? Unintentional about steals. I don't know. sneaky sneaky Scott. You know, no, no. We did a little mock today. That's what he's referring to. Tell us about it.

Well, it was a mock, first of all. It's funny. A few years ago, I remember we had this argument about what we do during mocks. You got so, you got, like, offended during this. I remember specifically, like, you were like, how could you? Yeah.

When Heath and I were saying that we would, like, use mock drafts to, like, try different things out and, like, let me see how this. team, you were like, how could you do that? You're betraying the listeners trust. That's only a slight exaggeration on the thing Scott was saying. Yeah, no, I used to always approach from Knox like, you know, I'm going to try and build the best team I possibly can. And you guys revealed to me that you like to use it more as a laboratory to try different things out.

And I feel like I've embraced that more this year than ever. And, you know, I had the first. pick. So I wanted to try what life was like with Trey Turner. Because I have Vladimir Guerrero ranked as my top used to be my number two player, but now that Fernando Tatis got pushed down, he's my

number one player, and that's higher than anyone else seems to have him. So I have a lot of Vladimir Guerrero in teams I've, in legitimate teams I put together. But I wanted to try life with Trey Turner, see how that goes. So that gave me a nice dose of steals right away. And look, when I say

intentionally unintentional about steals, that doesn't mean you pass over good hitters who happen to steal bases also. True. That's, you know, I'm drafting Trey Turner because he's a great hitter. And oh, look, he gives me a lot of steals too. Isn't that a nice bonus? So that's part of it. And in round five, I drafted byron Buxton.

There's also not somebody I often have the pleasure of drafting. I believe my choice came down to him or look at who went right after him and it was nobody I was considering so I felt like I guess like Corey Seeger or somebody who went around it a half later or Jose Altuve I think was in the mix there as well but I already had Trey Turner right

who I could slot at either shortstop or second base so I didn't know that I needed to prioritize middle infield there so okay I'll shoot for the upside of Byron Buxton again a really great hitter who also happens to seal bases So this is a team where I don't think I'm going to struggle with steals. And look, I don't think you necessarily have to draft a bunch of big base Steelers to have a respectable finish in the stolen base category.

That's the whole point behind the zero SB strategy that I've been promoting. But between those two and Manny Machado, who should give me a dozen or so, Julio Rodriguez, who could give me 12 to 15. I'm pretty well set for stolen bases in a way beyond what I normally am and I'm pretty happy with the way the team came out I don't know that I love picking first still

but it is nice to get steals from a first round caliber hitter I don't know that I'm going to move Trey Turner or Jose Ramirez ahead of Vladimir Guerrero based on this experience I mean Vladimir Guerrero gives you so much to everything that isn't stolen bases. You know, I still think you can overdo it with the steals and pass up great stats elsewhere.

But, I mean, he was technically the number one player in this format last year. But it is nice to get stolen bases early and not have to sweat it so much the rest of the draft. Yeah, and there are a ton of ways to build a roto head-ed category team with steals and with Vladimir Guerrero. You know, second or third round, you can target guys like Whiteman.

Maryfield or Tim Anderson, later on, Byron Buckson, who's got drafted in this. So, you know, just keep that in mind. If you want to take Vlad early on in the first round, you could do it, and you could still come away with Steel. So it's not like that category is completely dead if you draft Vladimir Guerrero. And that's, you know, not to, I feel like it has been a while since we've talked about this. So I guess we can recover old ground.

But, yeah, I mean, that's the thing about stolen bases, too, is because they are so scarce, you don't actually need that many. And on the other hand, you need a ton of home runs. You need to keep feeding the home run beast. Or it's much easier to lose ground in that category than it is a stolen basis. Stolen bases, you can get like an instant fix, you know, because it only takes like 80 from your whole team

or something to finish in the middle of the category. So that's... And it's kind of a similar idea to saves, where, you know, you can get that one guy who adds, you know, half of what your team's total would be to be middle of the pack, you know, you basically don't have to worry about it the rest of the time. And that's, that's one way in which the fact that those categories are getting more scarce, actually, you know, not just makes those more, the high end players more valuable because they, you know, are one of the few guys

who do it, but also just because you can, you could draft. I mean, out of Brotham-on-a-Mondisi would be the one extreme example, but even Trey Turner, you know, if he, or Whitmerfield, really, you know,

someone who's been in contention to lead the league and steals multiple times in the last few seasons. You can do that and just not really worry about it. Otherwise, and end up,

you know, just kind of accidentally middle of that back. Right. If you're not trying to win the category, you're just trying to, you know, not take a one point in the category,

basically. That's very easy to do. And, you know, I think a lot of, a lot of times we're so adamant about filling stolen bases that it ends up being it ends up robbing you in the other four categories and that's a bad trade-off fair enough today on the podcast by the way we're not talking about this frotal mock draft but it was a good conversation to have anyway if you

want to see the results of that draft you can find them on the website cbsports.com slash fantasy slash baseball we're going to take a look at round by round targets players who will gain position eligibility this upcoming season. Bud Elliott, who hosts the cover three podcast here at CBS Sports, he brought that up to me. We were talking earlier in the week, and he said, I haven't heard this on any other podcast talking about players who will actually gain position eligibility. You know, we've done it sporadically, but we haven't done an actual segment on that. So we'll do that a little bit later on as well. But let's jump into our round by round targets. And it just feels weird to ask you guys who your favorite player is to draft

in the first round, because obviously you're just at the mercy of wherever you're just at the mercy of wherever you're drafting in the first round. So with that being said, Chris, where is your favorite spot to draft in the first round? And, you know, you probably don't have the option. But if you did, where would you want to draft? You know, I think it's probably either one of the first four picks or like eighth.

Because I feel like there's a drop-off between, you know, for me, Jose Ramirez is my number four player and Boba Chet as my number five. And then if I'm picking eighth, I usually can just take Mike Trout every time. And honestly, if I pick 12th, I can usually take Mike Trout too. So, you know, anywhere between there, I'm fine with that because, you know, I talked about this a couple weeks ago with one of the drafts that we did where I had Boba Chet. I picked six, I think, or fifth. And I ended up taking Boba Chet.

And I kept thinking, like, it feels like my team's just like missing a pick. And it's just because, like, while I do like Boba Chet as a first round pick, obviously, obviously, he's my number five overall player. It does feel like a little, it feels like there's something missing when I take him fifth. And so for me, it's more like, I don't want to end up in the spot where I'm fifth. I think that's all I want.

Does that make sense? It's more that like avoiding that kind of no man's land in the first round, where I don't think there's any difference. I have, in terms of auction values, I have Boba Chet and Shohei Otani fifth and ninth, and they're the same price for me. So it's kind of like, I either want the last of the first tier

or I don't want to be at the top of the second tier rather than like a specific spot in the draft where I do want to be. Yeah, I think in a rhodower category as Lee, Chris, I hear what you're saying about Boba Shet, but I feel fine about him. Even if I get him fifth overall in the draft. I guess my thing is I feel fine about him.

Yeah. You know, like I, yeah. When I look at like my team overall anytime I've ended up with him as my like lineup anchor. It just like, it feels like I should have like a much stronger. Maybe that's unfair because he's kind of like 95% of Trey Turner everywhere.

Yeah. I think it's because it might be a psychological thing because it's his first time in the first round. So we're looking at him like, really, really does he deserve it? As like an actual hitter, he is well below the rest of the guys.

I mean, you know, you're talking about he's like a low to mid-800s OPS guy as opposed to. Yeah. You know, Mookie Betts consistently putting up 900 OPSs for most of his career. Yeah. Yeah, well, and I think what Chris is saying is he, Boba Shed is fine, but he feels just as good about Mike Trout as Boehatt.

And so why you're giving up kind of three picks of value by picking. Yeah. Yeah, that's, or like even like Kyle Tucker and Boba Shed, I don't think there's much difference there except for counting stats. I think, you know, Tucker it looks like he's probably not going to bat at the top of the lineup again. And they didn't consult with me, so don't ask me why it looks like that. But it does look like he's going to bat in the bottom half of the lineup, at least to start the season. But I feel very, very similar about those two guys. And it's probably just like, Bovichet probably gets five to ten more runs in RBI.

Scott, talk to me about your favorite spot to draft in the first round. Maybe how it might differ in a roto league versus a hit-to-league versus a hit-to-head points league. Well, okay, my favorite spot to draft just just, Generally speaking, it's about the same as Chris. We used to talk about a clear top five at the top, and obviously Fernando Tatis went down, so now it's a top four with Turner, Soto, Guerrero, and Ramirez. And I think that's the same top four points or Roto.

I think maybe I have Garrett Cole ahead of Trey Turner in points. And obviously, the order of the top three is different. Juan Soto's number one in points leagues while in Roe. You know, you might go for one of the base dealers instead. I have Vladimir Guerrero number one, but Soto would be a clear fourth for me in Roto while he's a clear one in points. But I actually, even more than picking fourth, I prefer to pick near the back of round one, near the back of that second cluster of players. And I'm happy to take Trout or Harper or Otani even. I prefer Tani Lest because of the batting average issue in Roto.

But I'm okay with that. What I hate about picking at the top of the first round is it pretty much means I'm not getting Salvador Perez. This is what happened to you in this draft. Yeah, I mean, I could have taken him 37th overall. No, no, not 25th overall. 25th overall. Yeah, that's early.

The first pick of round three. I knew I wasn't going to get him at the, the end of round four, right? And I thought about it. I thought long and hard about it. I ended up taking, who did I end up taking instead? I know, but Machado, I think Machado and Bieber were your picks there? Yeah, so I was between Bieber and Salvador Perez for me.

And I think if it was a real draft, I might have taken Perez instead of Bieber, honestly. But I didn't, I didn't, I preferred to test something other than drafting Perez there. So that's what I did. Anyway, much more likely I'm going to get Salvador Perez if I pick in the back half of round one, because then at this point I'm probably taking him late in round three. I'm not going to risk him being there for me early in round four. So that's something to think about too.

It's not always about just the player you're taking in round one. I mean, that's one pick. I also prefer to pick toward the middle of a round than closer to one end or the other, just because it's harder to anticipate what's going to come back to you with that next pick, it's harder to do the tiers approach because a whole tier of players can be wiped out if you have to wait 20 spots between each of your picks. And that just drives me crazy. I end up reaching or getting shut out too often when I pick at the ends. So I prefer to pick

toward the middle. So I think like eighth or ninth, ideally, is where I'm looking to take this year. All right. Yeah, you could be susceptible to those runs if there's a closer run that happens or a bunch of steals or even like a catcher run, something like that. It could be. positional, or it could be, you know, a categorical run that happens in your draft if you're drafting on one end. And then, of course, you know, what's going to make it back to you on the way back? I think in a categories league, I want to be one of the top three or four, I think, if I can get Trey Turner or Jose Ramirez or even Bobuchette. Awesome. In a points league, I think kind of like the 8 to 10, you know, maybe like 6 to 10 range. I would love to get Garrickole if I can in a

points league. But if not, you know, any of Trout, Harper, those guys are awesome in points leagues. And then you have an earlier second round pick and you can hopefully get an a stare as well. And I'll say in points leagues, I do think the drop off in values perhaps a little less pronounced at the top. Yeah, I agree. So, you know, that's where having that top four pick is not necessarily as much because like Bryce Harper walks so much. Garrett Cole, the volume that he can give you as a starting pitcher. We've seen him have that 700 point season. Boba's shot the counting stats.

Mookie Betts is just awesome all around with play discipline as well. well. Mike Trout. Very well. If he stays healthy, he's probably the number one player at point. I don't feel as confident about that in Roto. This is the thing I keep coming back to with Mike Trout every time I write about him or talking about him is like, I think most people would say Juan Soto is the best hitter in baseball right now.

But it's worth remembering like Mike Trout is Juan Soto, but with like a 50 homer pace over the last four seasons. Like I almost feel like how good of a just. a hitter Mike Trout is at this point in his career, is almost just a teeny tiny bit overlooked. He's still pretty ridiculous. Just stay on the field, Trout.

Come on, man, we need you. All right, let's get into round by round targets. That was a whole diatribe on the first round. Let's talk about the second round. Picks 13 through 24. We're using Fantasy Pros, ADP, which is a culmination of ESPN, CBS, Yahoo, NFBC, all the different ADP sources.

And we will start with Scott. Picks 13 to 24. Your favorite player to target in round two? My favorite player to target in round two is probably Rafael Devers to the point that I've moved him up into my round one. I believe I have him like 11th or 12th depending on the format. So if I can get him in round two, obviously I'm thrilled with that. I'd like to secure third base early with the hitter I can trust. And I think Devers is definitely that. And that way I don't have to wonder about Austin Riley or Nolan Aeronado. Some hitters who

you know, very likely will put up good numbers, but we have more questions about them, and they probably go around earlier than they should just because of the state of third base. And I don't think that's happening with Raphael Devers. So I would say he's my favorite to draft in round two. All right. Chris, round two. Who's your favorite?

I'll go the, not quite the exact opposite way, but Manny Machado is my favorite player in round two, mostly because I don't think there's much of a difference between him and Rafael Devers. And Rafael Devers Price just keeps getting pushed up. Some people keep moving him into their first round. And Machado's just sitting there still at the back half of the second round. 22.8 overall in Fantasy Pro's ADP is the number 22 player. I've got him at number 14 in Roto leagues.

And it's because if you look at what he produced is very similar to Raphael Devers, the overall power number is not quite there, but the underlying numbers really, really comparable to what Raphael Devers did, Mani Machado the last two seasons. It really three out of the last four, the one exception being that 2019 season where he just wasn't as good, the underlying numbers especially are extremely strong for Mani Machado. So, you know, he's an above average or below average strikeout rate guy, makes a ton of contact and is making a ton of hard contact. I've come back around on Mani Machado. I was kind of on him going into 2020, but I'm pretty much all in.

I think he's actually among the first round, or the first two-round hitters, probably the most undervalued in my eyes. Plus he's going to help a little in steals when. Right, right. That's like, I think the other four categories are going to be pretty similar between him and Raphael Devers, but I think Machado will probably steal six to eight more bases. So when my initial rankings came out in October, I actually had.

Machado, or at least I came very close to putting Machado ahead of Devers for a lot of the reasons you gave. And I guess the harder I look at Devers, the more I like him. And part of it is because you just look at the combined number of runs in RBI he had last year. Well, and Machado's lineup context looks a little worse with touches out. Although the addition of Luke Voigt helps in that regard. And obviously story added to the Red Sox line, it makes that better. So that's, I think, the biggest key is like runs plus RBI. but those are fluctuate for reasons outside of a player's control,

or at least outside of what we would be able to project that, you know, yeah, the stolen basis for Machada are enough for me to give him an edge. Yeah, there is a lot of variance year over year in counting stats, but it's just hard to see how Devers' numbers, if he stays healthy, how they really take a step back, right? I mean, again, adding Trevor's story to that lineup as good as they were. I do worry with Machado just a little bit that they don't have Jay's Tingler as their manager anymore

and under Jay's Tingler they were very, very aggressive on the base path. So again, we've talked about this. Like he could very likely go from, you know, 12 steals to 5 or 6 and it wouldn't really surprise anybody. Sprint speed was low last year. I do wonder if like, does that necessarily reflect how fast mani Machado actually is when he's fully going? You know, I don't criticize,

Manny Machado for his apparent lack of hustle, but I think it's smart. Like, I think choosing your spots is smart. I don't think you have to try to leg out every ground ball just because Pete Rose used to do it. Like, you're going to get thrown out most of the time. You might get one extra hit per season, but if it increases your risk, chance of risk of injury, it's not really worth it. But yeah, that's, the stolen basis is the one part where it's like, I wish I felt more comfortable in Machado being like a 10 to 15 steel guy. The second round for me, the player that I like to target most, specifically in category leagues, Luis Robert. And I've talked about him a lot this all season. He's 24 years old, teamingly entering the prime of his career. And he just improved

in every possible way that you wanted to see him do from the short in 2020 season to last year. He did only play 68 games last season because of a hip flexor injury, but he lowered the strikeouts tremendously. Lots of line drives. He crushed a ball. He has power and speed. He's part of a really strong White Sox lineup. Would not surprise me if we're talking about Luis Robert as a mid first round pick next year. Can he hit 280 with 30 homers and 20 seals? I think it's definitely possible for Luis Robert. So I'm very excited to draft him.

And maybe in a points league, you lower him a little bit. I think maybe the strikeouts come back, you know, maybe they come back up a little bit this season. So you devalue him just a tad. Maybe it's like an early third round pick in a points league. But I do love drafting Luis Robert this season. A third round target, Chris, we'll start. with you this time. Who you got? Yeah, so I'm writing a piece like this for CBSSports.com

that should be up on Wednesday morning. And I did it based on FCDP since the start of March. Trevor Story is a third round pick. So I will, I'm using him for the article for this, for the purposes of this, we're using fantasy pros 80P. And I think I actually would go with Marcus Simeon, which is shocking because I was all prepared to be out on Marcus Simeon and, you know, not really want to draft him, but I find myself ending up with him a decent amount in the drafts we do. I think I took him in the rotomok we did today, and it's just because I didn't expect people to be as out on him, or not out. I mean, he's a third rounder. He's 31.4 in 80p, but it just it kind of feels like people are not all that interested in actually taking him where he's going,

and I get it. I think there are reasons to be skeptical about what he did last season in particular. He's not going to hit 48 home runs there. 47 home runs again, 45. That's what happens when I just try to guess rather than actually just look at the page in front of me. 45 home runs again. But he's been awesome two of the past three seasons. Yes, there's this big dip in the quality of lineup that he's in.

And I think the park is probably worse. But I just, I still think that stuff is being overrated. And when you look at the overall package of who he is as a player, Like his quality of contact numbers don't look elite, but he's so pull heavy. He hits the ball in the air enough. I just like I do think he's a pretty good bet for 30 homers, double digit steals, good runs and RBI because the top of that lineup at least should be pretty solid. I just kind of feel like he's someone that I didn't think I was going to end up with.

And I'm drafting more and more than I expected. So that's a that's what. I would go with there. You bring up a good point about the part shift, the lineup shift. Those end up being the points that are stressed when making the case, the bust case for Marcus Simeon. The biggest red flag for Marcus Simeon isn't so much that. It's that for all but two years in his career, he's been fringy in fantasy.

He's been borderline rosterable, except in 2019 and except in 20, 21 when he was MVP level both of those years. So I feel like maybe that's gotten lost in the, in making the case for Marcus Simeon, because I guess the way I interpreted it is, as was, okay, there's reason enough to be skeptical about what he did last year just because of his track record. And then when you add these other factors to it, well, okay,

like we got to be careful with Marcus Simeon. I'm not totally opposed to drafting me. There have been a couple times when he's lasted to like round five. And it's like, all right, give me Marcus Semyon. But yeah, in round three, it's still, there's still too much else there that I like. All right, Scott. Talking a big game, there's a lot that you like.

Who's your favorite in the third round? It's obviously Salvador Perez. What's funny is his combined ADP here is 29th. I think maybe I've done one draft where he's went as early as 29th. So I don't know how that's happening. I guess maybe drafters, just regular drafters, are even higher on Salvador Perez than like industry folks who I'm drafting against R.

So, you know, obviously I passed on taking him 25th overall, as we talked about at the start of the show. But in the back half of round three, that's automatic for me. I don't care what my first two picks were. I don't care who's off the board in any other position. Salvador Perez is there in the back of round three. I'm taking him because I think that's the biggest advantage you can get at any position is that guy right there.

And I feel like maybe this gets lost in the analysis of Salvador Perez is it wasn't like a one-off for him. He was far and away the best catcher in 2020 as well. We just wrote it off because it was 2020, right? But two years in a row now where he's been just on a different level from every other catcher. Yeah, I got him with the ninth pick of the third round in a 15-team league that I did yesterday, a roto league, two catcher.

So I'm ending up with him with Salvador Perez and a ton of the drafts that I'm not doing with Scott. And even in the ones I'm doing with Scott, I feel like I'm ending up with him a decent amount. I know. Because, yeah, I know. I agree with a lot of what you're saying. I was skeptical about him last season, but the edge that particularly him and Will

Smith and potentially Dalton Varsho can give you at the catcher position, I think it's just super valuable. It's part of why, you know, if we were doing the players you don't like drafting from each round, J.T. Romuto would be my pick for where he's going just because I think he's getting kind of pushed up along with those other two guys in a way that I'm not sure his overall production actually justifies anymore. But yeah, no, I'm, I really like Salvador Perez at this point, and just from what it means for your team as you're drafting. All right. Third round for me, I think I cheated a little bit on this one

because Sandy. Sandy Alcantara is the 37th player off the board, but I'm taking him in the third round, even though in this mock draft that we just did, I passed on him on the third round because I thought he would make it to me in the fourth, but he didn't. So maybe I'm a liar.

Anyway, I do like Sandy Alcantir quite a bit. And last year he was one of four pitchers with 200 plus innings pitch, so he is a workhorse. He's going to go deep into his starts. Hopefully Miami could score some runs for him this season. And I think that there is more upside in the strikeout department than people are giving him credit for.

13.3% swinging strike rate for Sandy last year. That was ninth among qualified starting pitchers. Over his final 13 starts, that number went up to 15% swinging strike rate where Sandy made a pitch mix change. Slider usage went up during that time. His fastball velo was up last year. He's just progressing overall as a pitcher.

He gets a lot of ground balls. He's come a long way in terms of his control. control as well. I'm there. I know he's like a divisive player. Some like people are either in or out. I am someone who is in on Sandy Alcansara. Let's go into the fourth round. These are players going between picks 37 and 48. Scott, kick us off. Your fourth round target. Well, first of all, I just want to say if Zach Wheeler makes it to round four here, that's pretty much automatic for me as well. I think there, I have virtually no concerns about his shoulder at this point with him back to ramping up again.

But among those who actually go in this range, favorite to draft. I mean, the one I draft most often is probably Austin Riley, because if I haven't locked up third base yet, I'm starting to get a little worried about how that's going to look. So it's probably him, and I think he's 90%. I think he's at least 90% of what he was last year.

I have the most questions about the batting average of looking at his whole stat line. hit over 300. I think realistically, he's more like a 280 hitter. But I know you guys have, have, like, concerned about bottom-out potential

for Austin Riley, and I'm not really there with him. If we're talking strictly favorites, I know I'm naming three names here. Who I would prefer to take in this range is Pitalonzo. Get the 40 homers. You know,

I don't want to sell homers short this year. There's a lot of first basement I like later, so, you know, I end up passing over Piedelonzo. a lot in this range, but optimally, he would be the guy to take care. And, you know, we talked

earlier about how, you know, maybe a couple weeks ago, how him and Matt Olson's prices were kind of coming together. That was an eighth NFC drafts. In Fantasy Pro's ADP, that's not the case at all. Matt Olson's ADP is 25th, 26.2. Pete Alonzo is

45th at 46.2. That's a massive gap, and it makes Pete Alonzo look that much better. or Matt Olson look that much worse, although I don't necessarily think it's a terrible place for Matt Olson to be picked. It's just earlier than I would want to, especially when I think there's such a comparable player in Pete Olson, you know, Pete Alonzo.

Pete Alonzo. He emerged them into one player. That's how unlike they are. Yeah, it's the same case that we made last year when Pete Alonzo was going in the third round and Matt Olson was going however many picks later, like 30 or 40 picks later. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, it's not the gap is not as far this season.

but, you know, if you can wait two rounds and get a very comparable player in Pete Alonzo, it's something that I'd much rather do as well. Chris, the fourth round. I think you've got a few options here. I know you like Alonzo as well. You mentioned someone earlier. Where are you going? Yeah, it's got to be Trevor's story.

And, you know, I think with him settling in Boston, I would expect that the price is probably going to be even higher than that, I think, in NFC drafts since March 21st, from March 21st through March 28th. He's at 32.1, so, you know, solid third rounder, and I think that's where he belongs. It's not quite as good as it would have been if he had ended up going back to Colorado, but Fenway's a great landing spot. It's a great park. It's the second best place he could have signed if he was, you know, if Coors was on the table, it's the best if he was never going back to course. So I think his price is going to be higher than a fourth round pick for the, for the remaining eight days of drafts. Normally, I'm saying these words to Scott, but Chris,

I'm with you. I like Trevor's story quite a bit. And man, this position is so loaded because in the mock we just did on Tuesday night, I took Tim Anderson in the third. But then I think I saw Trevor Story in the fourth. And I'm like, man, I really want Trevor's story. And then Lindor was there. And I think the sixth round. I was like, I really want Lindor. Fifth round. I was about ready to take Lindor. This draft would have been totally topsy therapy if that happened. Yeah. Trevor's story went 37th overall. Gotcha. in this mark we just did, first pick around four. So I was looking at him as well as Tim Anderson in the third round, and there's a lot to like. It's, again, the shortstop position is absolutely loaded. Fourth round for me, Lucas Gialito is someone that I've come around on more recently,

where if I miss out on Sandy, if I don't get a starting pitcher in the first three rounds, I like Lucas Gilead. I was looking more into him. So among qualified starting pitchers over the past three seasons, so since the start of 2019, 3.47 ERA, that's 10th best, 108 whip, that is sixth best, a 15.5% swinging strike rate for Golito. That's fourth best. I don't think that he really needs to get better. I mean, he's been really, really good already.

You know, mid-3s, ERA, strong whip, lots of strikeouts. He plays on a good team. Should get a lot of wins as well. It goes pretty deep into his starts. You know, I think the next step is, can he gets to 200 innings? I don't know if that will actually happen, but I don't think he needs to. I think he's a perfectly fine fallback option as an SP1 if you don't draft a starting pitcher in the first three rounds. Let's move into the fifth round. And I'm going to start us off here because I just mentioned my guy, Francisco Lendor, who, by the way, hit another home run on Tuesday night.

And all of a sudden, he's tied for the league lead, spring training home runs with four now. He's looked pretty good thus far. I believe he leads all spring hitters in barrels as well, which, you know, there's only like 40% of the parks that actually have stack has data. So who knows where he actually ranks, but he's hitting the ball well.

He is doing exactly that. is what we need to see. Something that he's picked up since September where, you know, he turned it back on. 257 in that final month. Nine homers, 895 OPS, a 13% barrel rate, 92 mile per hour, average exit velocity.

He looked a lot like the player, you know, we saw in years past. So I've made this comp before. A poor man's Jose Ramirez. I think he can hit 25 plus homers, 15 steals, really strong counting stats in the Mets lineup. You know, first year in a new,

location, big city, you know, obviously lots of expectations with the New York Matt's like. I just think he's going to bounce back. And I think the hate has gone too far the other way for Francisco indoors. So fifth round, I am all in there. Chris, who you got in the fifth round? Yeah. So if we're going by Fantasy Pros ADP, I really like Byron Bucks and Kevin Gosman and George Springer, who are going consecutively. Um, yep. So I'm going to pull a Scott here and just list a quarter of all the players being drafted in this range. Um, By NFC ADP, Buxden is a fourth rounder, Gosman is a sixth rounder,

so I was able to write about all three of those guys in my piece. But I'll focus on, you don't need me to tell you why I like Byron Buxton. He's amazing. Even if you don't believe what he did last season was real when he had a thousand five OPS. Over the past three seasons, his 162 game pace is 277 average,

36 homers, 91 runs, 101 RBI, 22 steals. if that's not a first rounder, it's a top 15 pick at worst. So I think there's top five overall potential there for Byron Buckson. Gosman is a player that I think is getting, I don't understand. There seems to be a lot of skepticism around Kevin Gosman. Like I had him and Robbie Ray kind of grouped in my mind. And I do have Robbie Ray ranked higher, but there's been like a two round gap in ADP, if not more, at least in NFC ADP.

And I don't quite get it. I think Kevin Gosman, look, he was never going to be the 173 ERA guy that he was pre-all Star Break last season, and that was always going to be an unreasonable expectation. But he basically just had a really, really bad July. And that was really all that went wrong for him in the second half of last season. He had a 297 FIP from August 1st on, 370 ERA, 28% strikeout rate. There's not really anything with the sticky substance crash. down with Kevin Gosman that that looks suspicious he was actually June was arguably his best month

in the immediate aftermath of that so I don't really I don't quite understand why there seems to be so much apparent skepticism around Gosman relative to other kind of one year wonder guys and he's not really a one year wonder he was awesome in 2020 too so I'm in on Gosman my kind of ideal start at starting pitcher would be like Max Scherzer in the second round and Kevin Gosman in the sixth if I can swing it. And it's pretty realistic. So I like Kevin Gosman in the fifth or the sixth round. All right. Scotty, fifth round.

These are picks 49 through 60 in a 12-team league. So I'll go with the one Chris didn't get into then. George Springer. He played 78 games last year. So roughly half a season, but less than half a season technically. But you don't expect him to play every day, even if he does stay healthy.

So let's say he played half a season last year. He doubled his numbers. 44 home runs, 118 runs scored, 100 RBI, even eight steals for good measure. I mean, he's basically, if you're just talking to the five-by-five categories, he's basically Shohei Otani, but with fewer steals. And if you're talking about points leagues, he might be even better than Shohei Otani if he stays healthy.

But I have more, you know, I have more hope for him than Byron Buckston, for instance, staying healthy. I think Buxton has more upside between the two, but maybe Springer's a little more realistic that he achieves that upside. As the lead off hitter for this Blue Jays lineup that we all love, Springer's my favorite. I don't know if it's kind of like Mike Trout, where I don't know if like the leap that Springer has made as a power hitter is an appreciated enough. Over the past three seasons, so since the start of 2019, he's played 251 games. He's 75 homers. That's a 48 homer per 162 game pace. He's not going to play 162 games, obviously, but he has been an elite power hitter the past three seasons. There's been a marked jump in his production in that time.

Yep. Yeah, I mean, I'd rather have, would you rather have judge in round three or Springer two rounds later? And for me, it's obviously Springer. I might just have Springer ranked higher at this point. I do. Yep. Oof, the love for George Springer. Springer is my number 24 player. I'm I am way higher on George Springer than everyone. He's going to be on pretty much all of my teams. Hey, it all makes... It's been around three tonight, yeah. It all makes sense to me.

I like George Springer as well. Let's take a little break from the round-by-round targets here. I just wanted to quickly mention. We had a mix-up in our head-to-head points listener league. So now, Elliot Freeman is joining the league, and that will be drafting if you're listening to this podcast later on today. If you want to watch us live, that will be on Wednesday, 9 p.m. Eastern Time here on the YouTube channel.

So please join us and we'll have some fun there. Jen from Arkansas, one hour hoodie giveaway. Thanks again to all of our subscribers. It's really an awesome milestone for us to hit 10K YouTube subs. So thanks again to everybody there. And shout out to Jen for winning our hoodie giveaway. And our last mailbag of the off season is coming up this Saturday. So if you have a question, send it in to Fantasy Baseball at cbsi.com,

put mailbag in the subject line or leave a five-star rating on Apple and drop a question in the review. And we will get to as many as we can in an hour later on this week. All right, let's take a quick break. And when we return, news and notes here, fantasy baseball today. All right, so let's quickly hit some news and notes. Chris Sale, who is dealing with a stress fracture in his rib, is feeling much better.

And we'll start throwing early next week. Scott, are we moving Chris Sale back up the rankings? I saw you tweeting about him earlier on Tuesday. Yeah, I feel like I overdid it in moving him down because I was thinking mid-June and now I'm feeling like mid-May. is what we're talking about here for his return. So I would probably move him. Let me see if I can find the sheet from tonight.

Into that range just a little after like Chris Bassett and Ranger Suarez, kind of sort of where Adam Wainwright is going. I think I'd have him just after Wainwright because we know I'm high on Wainwright. So that's where I'm thinking the right range is for Chris Sale. All right, yeah. So I've got them at SP40, which is basically right around there. So I think we're probably going to wind up around the same spot there in the ranks. Not only has Dave Roberts said Blake Trinan will have a versatile role in the bullpen,

but Trinin himself said that he actually prefers that over being the closer. I think it's looking more and more likely that Daniel Hudson and Bruce Star Gratterol could wind up with save opportunities here for the Los Angeles Dodgers. So keep that in mind if you were getting excited. about Blake Trinanin. I kind of chat, like, here's the full quote. Can I read the full quote? Sure.

I kind of enjoy my current role more than closing, to be honest with you. I enjoy both. When I was in the ninth, it's a really fun feeling being the last one on the field when you get the last out. That's a fun thing, knowing the game comes down to you, but you don't always face the biggest situations in the ninth inning. Like, I feel like, does that quote make it clear what he really prefers? Well, I would also say it's an aggregation error where everybody's just like, like, like, Trinanen prefers not closing. It sounds like he's really happy closing, too.

I think he likes both, but, you know, if, look, again, I think it just comes down to what will be the biggest moment in the game, and that's probably where they want to use Blake Trinon. Right, but I think the thing to keep in mind with all these is, like, nobody gets 100% of the same opportunities. But I think it could be more, it could be more split this year with the Dodgers than, you know, we've seen for the past decade with Kenley Jans. It's not going to be Kenley Jansson's role.

You know, it's not going to be like Kenley Jansson just is exclusively the night I don't think it's going to be that. But I don't know. If Blake Trinan's healthy and he's good, it's hard to see a scenario where he's getting 40% of the save chances. You know, like, that's just typically not how it works. The highest leverage situation is not always the ninth inning, but a lot of the times it is. So I still think he's still going to get a lot of saves. And I think there's probably a buying opportunity now in the next few days of drafts. Ultimately, I think, because I'm sure you have a note here about the Giants Closer situation, I think comments made by players and managers are being treated with a lot more certainty

just overall than they should be. Because there's so little certainty. Right, right. I think things evolve and they can sometimes evolve very quickly. And we only have hints as to how they're going to start out, not where they're going to end up. And also, a third of what we assume the closure situations are on opening day. will be different. Is it too much to say...

Is it too much to say two weeks into the season? Two weeks? Okay. I mean... A third after two weeks will be different? Because there's just so... Well, because there's just so much we don't even know. And there's so much where it's like, oh, well, we think they prefer this guy.

But if one, if, you know, Dylan Floro goes out and has like two bad outings in a row to start the season, that could just mean that he just doesn't get a save chance for like six weeks if someone else Pitt. So it's like, our third of the... I don't know if that necessarily applies to like Blake Trinen. But I also think if Blake Trinan's good, he's probably just going to...

He's more likely than anyone else to get the first save. And I'm not trying to go the other way and say, well, Blake Trinan is obviously the Dodgers closed. Yeah. I think there's reason for doubt. I'm moving Blake Trinan down a little bit with this news. But I'm not moving Daniel Hudson up ahead of Blake Trininin with this news.

Oh, yeah. No, that's a very fair point. Like, out of all this, let's say the Dodgers get 35 saves as a team this year, Blake Trinand very well could wind up with 20 of them, with elite ratios and a lot of strikeouts. And that would still make him a very valuable player. But, you know, as a result, in deeper leagues, you know, maybe Daniel Hudson gets a dozen of those or 10 of them,

and Bruce Arkradar all gets five of them. So that's what the division could look like. But I'm also saying it's still a very plausible scenario that Blake Trinon gets like 34 saves. this year. Like, I don't, I don't want to discount that possibility either. Oh,

I mean, Jake McGee ended up with, what, 34, something like that last year? Well, yeah, so that was so interesting about the Giants last year is they just had so many save opportunities.

I believe they led baseball in saves and save opportunities last year. So the 31 saves that McGee has, they were great, but they were still just, I think it was like 70 or 75% of the giant saves. So they, just had a lot to go around.

It was 58, actually. 58%. But even that, even that gets mischaracterized because, like, McGee lost his job for a while. He lost his job from, like, I think it was late April to early June or something. Tyler Rogers was the go-to in the ninth instead. So it wasn't, it wasn't him consistently losing safe chances over the course of the years. The Giants more or less change closers for like a fifth of the season. And that's part of the reason why there was.

was this distribution of saves between the Giants relievers. It's, you know, there's a lot you could dig into here. But the point is, you shouldn't feel that certain about anything you're hearing. And I think especially, I mean, should we talk about what Gabe Kapler said? Yeah, let's actually, let's actually, coming out of his mouth. Let's actually reveal the quote here. So Gabe Kapler did a radio interview with KNBR and he said, quote, right now, if we were starting on opening day, Jake McGee would be our closer.

for reference, the ADP right now does not reflect that. Camillo DeValle is going at 172.6, Jake McGee at 255.4. Now I agree, Scott. I don't think that we have to absolutely treat this like it's definitely the case. Like, this is definitely how things are now and that's how it's going to remain the rest of the season. But the other side of that, I think we would also be foolish not to react to it. Like I think instead of these guys going 80 picks apart, maybe they just kind of close the gap on each other and they both go around like pick 200 or something like that. Yeah, I'm a little less comfortable drafting Camillo Deval now. I'm moving him down. I'm not moving Jake McGee ahead of him. And, you know, the next, I don't have the exact quote

pulled up, but. Lots of quotes. Like, Gabe Kapler doesn't stop talking. He keeps talking and he talks about how they have three options that they could use for saves. Like it, and it's worth reminding everyone too that on a radio interview last year they got him to talk about how Tyler Rogers is going to be the closer for the Giants at about the same time last year and obviously that didn't pan out except for that short stretch of time when you replaced McGee I mean the the main thing is if the Giants do have three options that they more or less trust for say it's only one of them is a left-hander and it's McGee and like if Freddie Freeman and Max Muncie are due up

in the eighth, they're not saving McGee for the ninth, you know? Like there's, they're, like when there's two right handers versus one left hander, who does and you want to save one for the ninth and doesn't it make sense to save one of the right handers? Like I, I'm not sure. That's typically how it works. And that's something that we've seen with like the twins

with Taylor Rogers where like he doesn't, even when he's been the closer, he doesn't necessarily get as many saves as you would think a traditional closer does because he gets used in different situations more often. but when Camilla DeValle's ADP was in like the 130 to 150 range which is where it's been for a lot of this draft season

and NFC drafts especially there was way too much confidence that he's actually really good and like given the uncertainty of the role the fact that he was being drafted where he has been is putting an awful lot of weight on those 27 innings last season at the major league level

where he looked really like the stuff is undeniable He's a filthy slider. He throws 100 miles an hour. But this is a guy who's walked 13% of batters he's faced as a professional. He had a seven walks per nine last year in AAA. Like you had a 499 ERA and, okay, it's the former Pacific Coast League. It's AAA West. I think AAA or Pacific Coast League name is coming back.

But like, he also just might not be this shutdown reliever. All right, Scott. So you're still taking Deval ahead of McGee? Yeah. I'm lowering Deval more than I'm elevating McGee. Okay. But I think ultimately I'd still rather have Deval than McGee. Chris, say you're at Pick 200.

You have to take one. Which one are you taking? Deval or Jake McGee. McGee. All right. One more reliever update for you. I miss this on yesterday's podcast. Pete Fairbanks will be shut down from throwing for the next six weeks with a lat injury.

I don't really care much about Pete Fairbanks, his value at least. I care about him. He's probably a nice guy. But it does give you more confidence when drafting Andrew Kittridge. for the Tampa Bay raise. So, Scott, would you take Kittridge or one of the Giants closers? Kittridge. Kittridge.

I think DeVall was already gone when I took Kittridge in tonight's draft, but McGee hadn't. But yeah, I would have taken Kittridge. Part of it now is, and I know the race have been as committed to the committee as any team over the past few years, but who else is really capable of closing for them right now? I don't see anyone. So, and they did have that stretch a couple years ago. where Emilio Paghan basically secured the role down the stretch.

So they've shown a willingness to do it when it made sense. Look at the first two or three months of last season. Diego Castillo was the guy. He was just the... So I'm starting to lean that way as well. I'm pretty optimistic about Andrew Kittridge. If you haven't realized by now, we're not going to get to the rest of our round-by-round target.

So we're going to save that for Thursday night's podcast. We'll talk about the players we love, players were scared of. We're going to do all that fun stuff Thursday to set you off into the weekend and you have all your drafts coming up. Shane McClanahan will be the opening day starter for the Orioles. Just wanted to mention

he's my man. Louis Severino has been slowed by a sore arm and will not make his scheduled start on Wednesday. Instead, he will start on Saturday. And that might explain why his fastball velocity was 95 miles per hour in his second start compared to 97 miles per hour in his first start. So this is pretty rough for Severina.

Hopefully just some of that dead arm that we always hear about where it's just like, oh, it just wasn't there. And then like three days later, they're fine. But yeah, you can't. You got to drop him. You know, he was in like the 150 to 200 range before this. You know, after 200, there's still very little risk.

So I don't mind taking the fly home, especially in points leagues, which are so shallow and he's got that spark eligibility that like he still should be drafted in that format. But yeah, it's, it's a bit of cold water for sure. You know what? And Mike Clevenger got shelled in his first official start. Like, shelled.

It was... Eight earned runs. Eight earned runs over one and two-thirds innings. So between Severino, Clevenger, and Cindergard, his velocities down a little bit. Like, there are... I don't think you should feel super confident about any in that Tommy John trio. I mean, Justin Verlander, he's looking great. He was the one we were least concerned about all along.

But those other three, I'm not saying they're going to be bad. Maybe they bounce back fine. but I'm not as confident taking them now as I was before spring training started. As expected, the Pirates optioned O'Neill Cruz to AAA. He was 5 for 15 this spring with two mammoth home runs. My guess is that we'll see him sometime late April, early May. What do you think, Scott? Yeah, I think it'll be very soon.

I think they wanted to get some experience in the outfield. And, you know, he only played six games at AAA. So it would be aggressive. It would be aggressive putting them on the major league roster. And he only played like 60 games at double A, right? It was it wasn't a huge sample size either. Yeah. Yeah.

The frustrating thing is like there's no clear deadline or like, you know, there's no clear timetable of what, where the incentives line up now for O'Neill Cruz to get called up. So it's like, my guess is late April. But I'm not the pirates, so I don't know. It could be laid just. June. That's, yeah. Yeah. We held on to Kellnick and Lander Franco forever last season. Yeah. But no, I absolutely still think you should be drafting him and holding him. I mentioned this on Monday,

but Chris, I want to mention it again now that you're here, how dominant Edward Cabrero was in his spring debut for the Marlins. And he revealed after the start that he's been working on a new sinker. He said, quote, it's something that I'm applying to the game. I'm throwing a 98 mile per hour sinker. It's something that I want to surprise some of the batters with an 88 mile per hour sliders. So he's got both of those things going on, especially if it's breaking like it was today. I can apply it and have some success here. So the Velo is there.

The slider looked fantastic on Monday as well. Chris, I mean, the question is, where does Edward Cabrera fit in here unless the Marlins choose to go six-man rotation? Yeah, I don't think he's going to be in the opening day rotation. It's entirely possible that they could go six-man rotation.

They've got a ton of young guys whose innings, you know, could use preserving. But, you know, he always, also made his spring debut on Monday, so he's a week behind everyone else as well. So I wouldn't expect him to be out there. But yeah, he's super talented. He's a top 40 overall prospect. And the issue for him last season was the fastball. His fastball got crushed. He's got a really good

change up. The slider is, you know, the third pitch. But if the sinker can give him another look that, you know, he can throw a low in the zone and generate a little bit of weak contact with, you know, maybe that's, that'll help him break out. But he's super talented. So I definitely one of the late round sleepers that I've stashed in a bunch of the deeper leagues I'm in. And Alec Manoa just kind of did the same thing last year. He didn't necessarily have a traditional third pitch. He was four seams, sinker, and slider, and it worked for him. So if you throw that hard, it's something that might work for Edward Cabrera as well.

Joe Madden confirmed David Fletcher will begin the season as the Angels starting shortstop, which is good news for Chris's Roto Salary Cap draft, which we did last week. Brandon Belt is expected to be ready for opening day as he battles knee inflammation. Michael Paneda will miss his first start or two due to visa issues. Tony Santian has been told that he will start the season in the Reds bullpen. And I think that just about does it, Scott. I don't know who else they might go with here, but I think both Hunter Green and Nick Ladolo will be in the rotation.

Ladolo pitched again on Tuesday. He threw three scoreless with three strikeouts. And so far in spring, he's allowed just one run with nine Ks to one walk. I think he's in. One of them definitely has. to be in at this point one of green and Lodolo does they still have enough options to fill out the rotation leave one of them out and green's the one already on the 40 man roster so I would guess that gives him the leg up over

Lodolo but it also looks like Lodolo is more clearly ready so I you know and it's hard to say and maybe both of them do maybe both of them too let's do that's certainly a possibility and should be on late round radars and every league. Yeah, we have a few of those coming up. Mitch Keller, McKenzie Gore as well. There's no shortage. Even Reed Detmer's.

Chris, he's someone that's been rising up draftboards. I know you like him as well. I got to mention Justin Verlander with four scoreless endings, six strikeouts to one walk on Tuesday. He got up to 62 pitches. He has not allowed a run in three spring starts.

And the ADP has been on the rise. The last two weeks, NFBC, he's going right around pick 80. So, Scott, now that he's on the rise, what do you think? If you got to use a sixth or seventh round pick on Justin Verlander, are you comfortable doing it?

I'm comfortable doing it. Yeah, I don't know that he's really leapfrogging anybody in my starting pitcher rankings. I already had him ranked plenty high. So, you know, I have him going, like right after Jose Berrios and Freddie Peralta, and pretty high in guys. But I'm comfortable with him going earlier. I always thought he was going too late. So maybe now he's just about right, and I'd be happy to take him still.

All right, I mentioned Mitch Keller. With four more scoreless innings on Tuesday, the fastball Velo was up again. 96.4 miles per hour. Last year, that was 93.8. He threw 17 sliders, 15 curveballs in this start. And perhaps the biggest positive is he has just one walk through his first three spring starts. So, Chris, I feel like you're the one who's talked about Keller the past couple of seasons. Are you actually buying into what you've seen so far?

define buying into. Late round sleeper, you know. I am buying into Mitch Keller throwing harder. Here's the thing. A month ago. He's doing it objectively. A month ago, we were not drafting him in mock drafts. And now he is legitimately being drafted.

Yeah. Yeah, like he, I drafted him in NFBI, which is a 15 team. I drafted him in my FSGA experts league yesterday. That's another 15 team. But yeah, I think he's in the 12 team road a discussion. Definitely in the reserve rounds. if you have that. So, yeah, he's still not getting a ton of swing to misses.

That was a little better in this start than the previous ones. But, you know, it was a lot of swings and misses on his fastball. I'm not sure what he has still besides the really hard fastball. And even then, I'm not sure if it's a great pitch. But, yeah, you can't ignore a guy who's throwing 96 miles per hour on average with his fastball with the kind of pedigree that Mitch Keller has. So expectations should be tempered, as always, but they should be risen. All right.

Mackenzie Gore, we mentioned earlier that Mike Clevenger got rocked in his start on Tuesday. Mackenzie Gore pitched later on in that game. He allowed two runs over four innings of work. He has 11 strikeouts to just one walk this spring. And I saw an intriguing quote from Bob Melvin after the game. Every time Gore pitches like that, we certainly have to take a look and see what the potential is going to be. Melvin also said that he prefers a five-man rotation, but hasn't ruled out six starters to open the season.

Scott, who would you rather take a late round flyer on, Mackenzie Gore or Mitch Keller? I think Keller, just because, you know, he has the role, and you could probably get away with not taking Gore more. I know Gore went, I took Gore in this mock draft we did tonight. It was several rounds after Keller went. So, you know, a lot of your drafts are going to be ended before I think Gore's really on the table. unless they announced that he's in the rotation.

And then I think the math completely changes because a gore being given a chance, I think is even more promising than what we've seen from Keller and the velocity jump this spring. Let's quickly just wrap up here. Players will gain position eligibility this upcoming season for CBS position players.

It's 20 games the year before or five games in the current season. Pitchers need five starts. to become starting pitcher eligible and 10 relief appearances for relief pitcher eligibility. And the early-ish round names, which will gain eligibility. Trevor's story will get second base within the first week of the season, seemingly. Bobby Witt, Jr., if he starts in the opening day roster, will also gain third base eligibility very early on. Adelberto Monasey is the opposite of that.

He has third base now, but should gain shortstop eligibility. Fran Mo Reyes, I read a quote recently that Terry Francona wants to, get Fran Mill Reyes in the outfield maybe more frequently, and he has played two games there so far this spring, which would certainly help his value. I mean, for those deeper five outfieler leagues, if you're drafting Reyes now as a U-Till-only bat, he gains outfield eligibility, that's huge.

That's huge. Yeah, of, you know, we know Otani's not going to, we know Nelson Cruz isn't going to, of the DH-only bats, Reyes is the one more likely to pick up outfield eligibility. And by the way, that, that in and of itself might be the reason to rank him ahead of Nelson Cruz. That might be the tiebreaker between those two for me.

It's just at some point I might be able to play Reyes somewhere other than utility. Yeah, that's fair. And we've talked to a bunch recently about how Bobby Wood gaining third base eligibility helps that position overall. Obviously, Chris Bryant moving to Cor's Field helps third base as well. Bobby Witt, another name on the rise. And that mock draft we did on Tuesday night, he went inside the top 60 picks. So the hype is growing. At least I've seen him go.

Yep. Yep. The hype is growing there. Some late round options who will gain eligibility. Nikki Lopez will gain second base. Ahmed Rosario should gain outfield at some point. Kevin Bissio seems like he's going to at least be the strong side of a platoon at second base for the Blue Jays. Bryson Stott, if he is on the opening day roster, could earn third base eligibility.

He has shortstop to start the season. O'Neill Cruz, when he eventually makes it to the pirates, I think they want to play him in the outfield a little bit. So he's got shortstop now. Could gain outfield eligibility. and then three relief pitcher eligible pitchers who should gain a starting pitcher at some point. Severino, hopefully if he's healthy. Michael Kopeck, I think he'll gain that rather quickly

the first month of the season. And then Aaron Ashby, if he works his way into the Brewer's rotation, someone who has a bunch of upside and should gain starting pitcher eligibility as well. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching. Fantasy baseball today will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.