Fantasy Baseball Today - Favorite Draft Slots; SP Who Changed Their Pitch Mix in 2019 (05/15 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 15, 2020

We're talking about our favorite draft slots and starting pitchers but first, what's the one place you're ready to go to once restrictions are lifted? Where do we prefer to draft in both Roto and H2H points in 2020 (5:00)? How good can Alex Bregman be in H2H? Would you rather have Gerrit Cole and J.D Martinez or Cody Bellinger and Jack Flaherty? ... Adam finally gets to defend James Paxton (19:38)! Why was Paxton so much better down the stretch last season? Can new Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake help Paxton get to the next level? ... Along with Paxton, who are some other starting pitchers who benefited from a pitch-mix change in 2019 (32:03)? Frankie Montas introduced a new splitter last season. Is he a Top-25 starting pitcher in Fantasy? ... You've heard Frank mention Joe Musgrove before but has he ever really explained why he likes him so much (37:05)? Can he maintain his velocity spike from last September? How will new pitching coach Oscar Marin help Musgrove? ... Why are we so quick to write-off Justus Sheffield (45:50)? He has a new two-seamer he flashed in spring training! ... Email us at [e-mail]. '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: @CBSFantasyBB, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Download our printable Draft Kit from CBSSports.com/draftkit! 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

Domingo a jag like Michael Waka, Polanco, and from here. Happy Kokomo Friday to everybody out there. Welcome to Fantasy Baseball today, Friday, May 15th. Frank Stanful here with Pocket Aces, Adam Azer, and Scotty Dubbs, Scott White. Guys, I was listening to the Kokomo Friday intro before the podcast, and it got me thinking, where's the first place I want to go once the restrictions are lifted?

Adam, you've got to have a restaurant or a raisin' distributor that you're just itching to get back out to you? What's the first thing that comes to mind? Where are you going to go? I already had a box of raisins today, by the way. I'm sorry. I imagine I won't eat as many when the restrictions are lifted because we just, we loaded up on snacks basically. We don't, we're not like a huge snack house, but we are now because we obviously we can't just go out and get food. Anthony's coal fire pizza is going to be the restaurant I have circled, Anthony's coal fire pizza, or Guadalajara, Mexican. But we order takeout from there. So I'd say some pizza plays probably Anthony's. And to be honest with you, I'm a terrified person

and I'm probably not going out to the next year and a half anyway. Scott, are you equally a terrified person? Do you have a specific place you're waiting to attend once it is safe to do so? I don't know that I'm a terrified person I'm a pretty boring person I don't tend to go many places Don't say that Scott come on But you know I look forward to going to like movies again Restaurants I don't know

I don't even attend that many sporting events to be perfectly honest I'm not a concert guy so it's it's not like I'm missing that But but sure there are things I'm looking forward to again. I mean, you kind of, when you're a parent of small children, unless you just have a massive child care network of relatives or whatever, you kind of get used to hunkering down in your own corner of the world anywhere, anyway, because you just don't have that much mobility

because you have to have the kids in tow. So it really limits what you're able to do. So I've kind of gotten used to. to this quarantine life even before it was an official thing. Yeah, I agree. I would like to have like a barbecue at my in-laws. My wife's family all lives around here. There's a lot of them.

She's 105. So they have a really close family, and that would be fun to just sit in the backyard somewhere with them and have a barbecue. I would love to do that. Hopefully we can do that soon. Yeah, you know what would make that even better? The sweet sounds of John Sterling.

coming through your radio. Yeah. Actually, more likely I'd be watching it on my phone, watching the broadcast. Oh, man. Hopefully baseball's back soon. Looking forward to doing some of those things. For me, I was supposed to hit New Orleans,

New Orleans, for a bachelor party this month. So obviously that's been postponed. I'm excited to eventually do that once it's safe to do so. But a little bit more local, little Italy, some pasta. Big pasta guy, Adam. of who is it? Yeah, who isn't, man? I went to a bachelor party in Las Vegas a couple of years ago,

and we got kicked out of our hotel for like nothing. We were the tamest, lamest bachelor party ever. Okay, it was basically a bunch of me's with some alcohol. And we got kicked out for being too loud in New Orleans. Unbelievable, shame on them. Wait, so were you in New Orleans or Vegas? I said, sorry. Actually, did both.

I did both. It was in New Orleans when I got kicked out of the hotel. Okay. I mean, if you can't even remember what side of the Mississippi River you were on, it sounds like it was a wild time. Vegas was a little more wild than New Orleans, but not for me. Today on the podcast, we're going to talk about our favorite draft slot in each format and why?

Finally going to debate, uh, debate James Paxton. So Adam can get a few punches in there and tell us why we need to move them up the rankings. And then, I mean, the idea of James Paxton, kind of sparked this interest in my mind of looking at pitchers who changed their pitch mix last year and potentially changed their mechanics and overall just made some adjustments in 2019 or in the case of one person made a change in spring training of this season. And we'll talk about those players and how much that actually means for fantasy baseball purposes. Scott, favorite pick in each format.

Give me roto, give me head-to-head points, and why for each? Sorry, you really got very family feud there. Give me Roto. Give me head to hit points. Survey says. And then I have to go around the room and kiss you guys on the cheek. Oh, wow. You're going way back.

Well, that guy used to actually kiss people on the mouth, right? Right, yeah. So weird. Yeah, what's his name? I can't think of his name. Richard Dawson. Yes. Yes.

Also famous for his role in the movie The Running Man. That's right. Yeah. Had to split. I think that was running, man. Had to split. Yeah. I'm not sure.

But I'm stalling here because I don't know. A third in Roto for me, Frank. Yeah, that's the cop-out answer. But I have the same one. I'll say seventh in points leagues because, or wherever I can get Alex Bregman. I misunderstood the question. I thought he said player, not place. Did I say player?

I thought I said draft slot. I meant draft slot. Adam heard you right, so you must have said draft slot. I just missed surgery. Sorry, go ahead. Didn't mean to interrupt. No, I was only interrupting you because I felt like you needed help. It was a phone of friend.

Yeah, third in Rodeau so I can get one of those three outfielders. That obviously I can't do tap half AMC at that point, but that's okay. If it's a little bit later, six or seven, so I could get either Trey Turner or Garrett Cole and points leagues. You know, I think seven's good. It depends where Bregman's going to go. I mean, I think Bregman is the number, to me, he's number three in Roto in Points League, sorry, after Trout and Yelich, and nobody takes him there. So I'm happy to get Bregman in round one, as late as I can pick to get him, which is probably six or seven. And then the only problem is can I get one of those top six starting pitchers.

I think I can. Hopefully I can get one of my top four in the second round. I don't see that happening. But Bregman and, you know, maybe Flaherty in round two, or if I don't. don't want to go with the pitcher, then I'll, then I'll take another hitter and go with two pitchers with my next two things. Adam, what if I told you if, according to CBS Sports.com's ADP for head to head points leagues, you can get Alex Bregman at pick 14.

That's a joke. Then, all right, give me, give me the 12th pick and I'll take, or give me the 10th pick and I'll take Scher and Bregman or something like that, DeGrom and Bregman. Yeah, that's not going to happen if you're drafting with me, F-W-I-W. But my preferred place to pick in Roto League would be third, because I don't care that much who I get between Acuna, Trout, and Yelich.

And in fact, I agonize when I have to make a decision between the three. I finally settled on Acuna number one overall, but that was with a lot of back and forth. So third, I'm fine with in Roto. I don't consider Acuna part of that group in head-to-head points because his steals aren't as valuable in that format and he falls short in the plate discipline. He's more like a late first rounder in that format.

So I would say second and just give me probably Yelich. But maybe someone will take Yelich first and then I'll take Trout. I think that's the way to go. For Scott, though, how close is Breggman to Yelich and Trout? I think he's pretty close. And in that case, if you draft later, and take Bregman, you can get one of the true aces, potentially, whereas you can't do that if you have a top two pick.

So does that matter? Like when I say true Aces, I mean big four, big five, big six, whatever you can. Yeah, yeah, because you're probably not getting Kohler to Grom with your second picking ahead to add points league. But I think if Bregman is who he was last year, the number show he's about as good as those two. But there has been some talk that, you know, maybe he's not really somebody that you can count on for 40 homers or a 40 homer pace

year after year average home run distance was pretty short etc i don't i don't think i've kind of downplayed those concerns but i don't think there's nothing to them i think it's i think it's likely that uh 2019 will go down as a career season for bregman and maybe he does take a small step back this next year while trout and yellich i think they're pretty much locked into being, you know, MVP front runners year after year. If you take Bregman's 2018 season and you remove him from the 2019 player pool, he would have been, let's see, one, two, three, four, five, six, seventh best. He would have been right behind Mookie Betts and Raphael Devers in points in 2019.

And that was with his 2018 production, which you think would be better in the 2019 environment, and even if it wasn't that much better. So the point is, in a points league, Alex Breggman is awesome, and he is a very high, high floor, and you should draft him if you can't. Yeah, to put that in perspective, Christian Yellich averaged 4.7 fantasy points per game last year, Mike Trout 4.5, Alex Breggman, 4.2 fantasy points per game.

So slightly behind those guys on a per game basis, wound up with more fantasy points because he played more games. He played 156 games compared to 134 for Trout. and 130 for Christian Yelich. Now, was Bregman third or was Rendon ahead of him? Rendon was third. And Bregman was fourth? Yep.

Because you say it's a small difference, 4.7 versus 4.5 versus 4.2. It's actually not. No, it's not. You look in the rankings, it, you know, obviously there aren't any players in between them. So it seems small in that respect. When you're just considering the point value itself, that that's actually a significant. significant difference. The difference of two-tenths of a point per game is like the difference between, I don't have a good example off the top of my head. You're right. It's a bigger gap

than I thought it was. Yeah, it's between them. But that further proves your point of why you want one of the top two picks, Scott, so you can get yell at your trout who are, you know, noticeably better on a per game basis than Alex Bregman. I'm with you guys. I'm going to take the third pick. It seems like a cop out this year. But Scott and I each have Ronald de Cunia, Mike Trout, and Christian Yelich all valued at $42 in auction league, so we have them valued basically the same. So you could get whichever one falls to you with the third pick. I agree with that.

And the head-to-head points league, I want the fourth pick so that I can grab one of Garrett Cole or Jacob de Grom. I just want one of the aces, even if it's a little bit early to take one of those guys. I assume the top two hitters will be who you mentioned. Scott, maybe Betts or Bellinger falls in their third. I'm guaranteed one of these pitchers with the fourth pick. And last year, 741 fantasy points for Garrett Cole.

that was second most among all players behind. Only Justin Verlander. Jacob de Grom was down at 585 fantasy points. Lagged behind because of some bad luck in the wins department. Surprise, surprise. That's the New York Mets when it comes to DeGrom. He had 23 quality starts, which was the sixth most in baseball.

So some bad luck, and I really like the hitters you can get in round two. Jose Ramirez, Rendon, J.D. Martinez, Bryce Harper. I'm cool with any of those guys as my top hitter. So here's an example of what I was trying to come up with off the top of my head earlier. A difference of 0.2 points per game is like the difference between Paul Goldschmidt

and Christian Walker last year. Okay. Okay. Yeah, so that's a decent amount. Frank, you're looking at ADP? I do have ADP pulled up. What do you got? Give me a late second round pitcher in points.

So I was going to ask you this exact question is would you rather have Cole and, let's say, J.D. Martinez or... Let's go with Cody Bellinger and... It doesn't matter who you say. Cole and J.D. Martinez. Jack Flaherty. Cole and Martinez.

Yeah, so Cole and Martinez better than Bellinger and Jack Flaherty. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so that's... For me, yes. Yeah, that's why I would like that, you know, fourth or fifth pick, because I think you can... With either one of those picks, you'll get one of the aces in Kohler to Grom. Yeah, I think so.

I think so. It's a closer call than I think. our unanimity, unanimity, then our agreement might lead people to believe, but yeah, I agree. Yeah, I think that if you have to know,

for me, it's like, how far will Nolan Aronado Freddie Freeman or J.D. Martinez or Anthony Rendon fall in a head-to-head points league? If one of them is going to be available at the back end of the second round, that is a really strong case to take Cole or de Grom

with your first round pick, you know, ahead of some of those elite hitters. What were the names you mentioned? No one Aronado, Freddie Freeman, Anthony Rendon, I'll throw Jose Ramirez in there and J.D. Martinez.

Like any one of them, or multiple, could finish as a top five hitter. It wouldn't shock me at all. They're all, like, awesome elite hitters. And worth, worth it to,

if you can get the pitching upgrade him round one with like Gary Cole, in my opinion. Yeah, so our most recent 12 team head-to-head points mock draft, Aronado went at 11, Freeman went at 13, Anthony Rendon went at pick 16, and Jose Ramirez went to pick 17. And then J.D. Martinez, you got him in the third round. It was like 3-9.

Why are people afraid of it? I'm sorry, I know I'm derailing the show. I apologize. I will say in September, he had 228 with a 7-13, OPS, and that was by far the worst month of the last three seasons for J.D. Martinez. But he had a 975 OPS in the first five months. He was on pace for 41 homers in 155 games. And just last year, he was probably like a top eight pick, I'm guessing. So I don't know. What's the deal? Well, now I'm rethinking what I even said earlier about preferring Cole and Martinez to Flaherty and Bellinger. because I have Bellinger ahead of Cole, even in a points league.

I'm taking Bellinger ahead. And yet Martinez is routinely falling to the third round in that format. So Bellinger and Flaherty are first and second round picks. Cole is a later first round pick than Beliger, and Martinez is a third round pick. So my rankings really don't support what I just said there. I'll tell you why I think Martinez falls to the third round. When it's time for him to be picked in the second round, and then even early in the third round,

the players who are going to take him have already drafted an outfielder. And I'm thinking they don't want to have two outfielders in their first three picks in a three outfielder points league. Yeah, that makes sense. I was actually thinking just personally, I don't, the reason I'm likely to pass up Martinez, even in like the third round of that format is because, you know, in a three outfielder league, I hate filling up my outfield early because there are so many. value picks late in the draft that I like there. And so, you know, unless it's somebody as super duper high end is like a trout or

yellich or bets, you know, somebody like that, I'd rather pass it up for some other positions. So that's why I've been inclined to pass over Martinez in maybe a way that's unfair to him. So I guess I'm going to retract what I'm saying. I don't want to have to redo my rankings. But no, I think I just made the case for why I would prefer Bellinger and Flaherty to Cole and Martinez. And that's just that, you know, it becomes a, it becomes a situation of filling lineup spots. And Bellinger does that better.

But man, I don't know. That gap between Cole and Flaherty in terms of trustworthiness. Yeah, I know. And honestly, I feel like I trust, I feel like I trust J.D. Martinez more than I trust Cody Bellinger, which you probably don't agree with, but... Nah, come on, Scott. I don't. Change the rankings.

Like, I like Bellinger better. I mean, maybe I'm just saying I need to move Cole up a couple spots and I head to points. And move J.D. Martinez up while you're at it. Last point I'll make J.D. Martinez averaged 3.7 fantasy points per game last year, which was the same amount as Francisco Lindor, who is a consistent first round pick. So just making the case, once again,

give me the ace starting pitcher in the first round and give me J.D. Martinez in the second round. Email the day. This one comes from Morgan Post. I don't know if I'm saying your last name, Craig. I apologize there. I thought it might be cool to vary up the podcast introduction with a fan contest.

I do like the new intro, by the way, and I love the Kokomo Friday intro as well. The winner's intro could be played for a week and they could get some cool CBS fantasy swag or something. What you think? Well, Morgan, we love it. And here's what we'll do. Everybody has, how much time should I give them, Adam?

What's, one week, two weeks? What's a good amount of time? More than one week? You can do as long as you want. All we have, it's time right now. Yeah. So let's go, let's say, what's today, May 15th? Let's go two weeks.

All right, two weeks. So on May 29th, that will be the final deadline day. and so everyone has two weeks. You can create an intro for the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast. Keep it under a minute, preferably around 30 seconds, I would say is a good amount of time. Do not use copyrighted music. If you appreciate...

Or anything or drops or anything. FBT and you want us to stick around and continue doing the show. Do not include any copyrighted music. I will choose the best three entries and we'll play them here on the podcast and we'll have a vote. The winner will have an entry into one of our podcast,

So there you go. Ask and you shall receive, Morgan. We're going to have a little bit of a competition. Make those intros. You have two weeks. May 29th is the deadline. Send those in, I guess, an MP3 format, fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. James Paxton. Here we go, Adam. Tapap AMC. One of the main components of this strategy is James Paxton. And Adam was appalled the other day to find out that Scott has Paxton way down at SP 30 in his rankings. Then I have him one spot lower at SP 31. Last year, Paxton, SP 29 in fantasy points for game. He was SP 26 in Roto.

The full season line, 3.82 ERA, 1-28-whip, 186 strikeouts in 150 and two-thirds innings pitched. Strikeouts are never in doubt. That's the one thing that you could actually trust Paxton to do is give you strikeouts. Over the last two seasons, 11.4 K-Pitchers. per 9 is fifth best in baseball, 30.8% strikeout rate, 6th best, 14.2% swinging strike rate.

That is eighth best among qualified starting pitchers. His final 11 starts, and this is something I'm talking about with the pitch makes change. From August on, he had a 251 ERA, 095 whip. He upped his curveball usage to 27%. In his first 18 starts, that number was 13.7%. So he basically doubled his curveball usage. saw great results over the final 11 starts from August on. The lack of control is something that is alarming.

Over three walks per nine, that was his highest amount since 2015. Might have been due to his knee injury. James Paxton is always dealing with something, has never pitched more than 160 and a third innings pitched. There was some news earlier yesterday. James Paxton is throwing simulated innings as he had microscopic lumbar dysectomy, whatever that is, back on February 5th,

So, Adam, with all that being said, why do you feel that we should have James Paxson higher in our starting pitcher rankings? I really think that there is a better pitcher in there than the numbers. This guy, you could look at his last five seasons, or maybe just his last four, because those are the only seasons which he's thrown more than 74 innings. And his ERA is 379, 298, 376, 382. It's easy to see the outlier there. it's the 298. He's been a 380-ish ERA guy for three of those four seasons and four of his last five. But I really think that there is a great pitcher hidden waiting to erupt. And he had that year in

2017, he went 12 and 5 with a 298 ERA and a 1.10 whip and 10.3 strikeouts per nine. The K-rate's gotten better since then. The swinging strike rate is outstanding. So what happened in 2018? He had a very high home run to fly ball rate. And he had the same home run to fly ball rate last year. Well, he has become more of a fly ball pitcher. So that is definitely a problem. But I have soured a little bit on Larry Rothschild, the previous Yankees pitching coach. I just think these Yankees pitchers have not reached their potential.

Severino had one great year, obviously. But, you know, I don't know what Tanaka's potential is because he's pitching with the tour in UCL, but he's been a little bit disappointing. It's just, I don't know. Other than the relievers, I just feel like the starters leave something on the table. Well, they got rid of him and they hired Matt Blake coming from the Indians organization. It's going to be, they do great with pitching. It's going to be a more analytical approach.

They seem to like him so far. And he started throwing his curveball more. He was like a two pitch pitch pitch, like a one pitch. He's throwing so many fastballs in the beginning of the year. What the hell is the point of that? And as you said, Frank, it goes on an absolute tear to end this season. 10 and 0, 251 ERA. You mentioned the walks are a problem, but that's the thing.

The walks aren't typically a problem. He usually has great control and one of the best swinging strikeout rates in baseball. Give him a really good bullpen, one of the best in baseball, a great offense, great chance for wins. I think he's got top five Siyang voting potential. If everything goes right, he could have one of those Siyang seasons because I think he's got that kind of stuff. It's just a matter of figuring out a way to stay healthy and put it together. I truly believe there's a better pitcher there, and I would take him right after you Garvish. I think he should be more like 21st instead of 31st in your rankings.

Well, you didn't really address the biggest issue for James Paxton, Adam. You did point to the high ERA and he is a fly ball pitcher in a park that's not great for it at a time that's not great for them for fly ball pitchers. And so his ERA is, I think always going to be a little higher than you'd expect, given his strikeout rate because of that. last year was such a topsy-turvy year with the control for some reason abandoning him and him doing some weird things in terms of pitch selection that I don't know that that increase in walk rate is something that should be applied going forward but even even in Seattle the year before you know he profiled like you look at expected ERA that new stat on stat cast 3.52

in that last year in Seattle. And that was with good control. That was in a bigger park. ERI is going to be less than optimal for James Paxton. I feel pretty confident saying that. But the biggest issue of all for him is durability. And I understand playing a half season, short and scheduled, that's going to help mitigate that risk.

And, you know, I've already moved him up some because of that. But it's not a situation. where it hasn't been a situation for Paxton where he's been he's just been going along and then he gets toward the end of the season and wears down has to shut down that's that's not how it's come about i mean 20 2017 in may he misses most of the month with a strayed forum 2018 middle of july sore lower back lower back inflammation last year it's may he misses all that time with knee inflammation and this is a whole month again. Like, we don't know exactly when the injury is going to come up for him, but it's been so consistent that just because the season's shorter, I don't think he's not going to wind up on the IL because of that. Is there any reason if he weren't going to be, like, if he were healthy,

if I guarantee you that he and every other pitcher would be healthy, where would you rank James Paxson? Okay. If you took, if you eliminated all injury risk, you have that kind of, kind of power. James Paxton for me, it would probably be similar to, probably similar to you, Darvish.

Okay. I think in terms of strikeout upside and ERA downside, they're comparable. Okay. So that's, I think, the big difference in how we see it, because that's exactly what I said. I said he should be right after Darvish, who's 20th in your rankings. So I'll be ahead of Sunny Gray, Bauer, Woodruff, Soroka, Barrios, et cetera. Rios is safer, so I like Brrios. But yeah, I mean, I get the injuries are big.

The thing about the fly balls is Justin Verlander had the highest flyball rate among qualifiers. Garrett Cole was 11th. Lucas Gileadle was fourth. There is a way to excel. You have to be an elite strikeout pitcher, obviously. And he is. And there are, unfortunately, on this list, Matthew Boyd, Rinaldo Lopez, Rick Borsello,

Jeff Samarja, Julio Taran. Yeah, it's a lot. a lot of bad pitchers. There are a lot of bad ones too. But, you know, if you can strike guys out, then you can kind of overcome that. So I'm, I'm seduced by the swinging strike rate, which I thought, you know, I thought Scott White would be, would be there too. All right, Franky, it's a matter of, you know, relative. I think Paxton's a great pitcher, but he's a great pitcher who's probably going to give you a mid-3 ZRA, and that's going to limit his exactly where you can rank him.

Yeah, so I was thinking I would have him around that 20-ish range as well. If you can guarantee the health of him. I thought he's kind of a similar ERA to Jose Berrios, probably in like the mid-to-high-high-3s range, but he's going to give you a lot more strikeouts than someone like Berrios. And you reference the fly ball rate and some of the leaders in fly-ball rate, and Justin Verlander was up there last year, Adam. The reason why Verlander can survive the fly-ball rate

and just allowing as many home runs as he does is because he doesn't walk anybody. But neither does Paxton. But Paxton's command last year was terrible. But in his career, it's been really good. That last year was kind of the outlier. Yeah, but was that because his knee was injured? And I mean, is he going to be completely healthy?

I don't know. But you'll never know with Paxton. So it was 3.3 per 9 last year, which isn't very good. It's not horrible, but it's not good. The previous three years, it was a combined 2.2 per 9, which is great. Right. Yeah, the walk to strikeout ratio It just suggests

Before last year, before the walks went up The previous two years The walk to strike out ratio suggested a very good pitcher And I'm pretty hopeful for the new pitching coach I think he's going to do a better job Obviously, I can't prove that But I like what the Indians have done with their pitchers And I don't love what the Yankees have done

So I'm hopeful that things will be a little bit better As they take a more analytical approach With all that being said to throw one more curveball, your way, pun intended. His ERA at home, even with allowing more fly balls last year, was 3.35, which was nearly a full run better than on the road. So his road ERA was 4.33, which just doesn't make sense, because if he's allowing more fly balls, you would think that he would struggle more at home in Yankee Stadium,

where it's a hitter's park and it's easier to make of that. Teams main Yankee Stadium not put as many lefties in against Paxton, him being a lefty. And it is a better left-handed hitting ballpark. So that does make sense. But what you also have to remember is that division is full of hitters parks. It's probably the most, it's probably the division that's most hitter friendly just in terms of venues. Tampa Bay is not a friendly place to hit.

And Boston isn't so great for left-handed hitters. But otherwise, it's great. And Paxton is going to be spending a lot more time. in his own division this year. So I don't know exactly home and away, those away home runs, how they break down in terms of in division and out of division, but staying in his division

isn't going to be a great thing for him. All in all, the reason why, excuse me, I have him ranked as low as I do is because of the risk for re-injury. I mean, the guy just had surgery on his spine back in February. He's basically dealt with something each of the past,

basically every season he's been in baseball, in the majors. So I just have him ranked that low because of the risk for re-injury. But if you are an injury optimist like Adam, then, you know, Paxton is someone that you should push up your rankings because on a per-game basis, you know, he'll probably perform like a top 25 starting pitcher. So I do think that makes sense if you tend to agree with Adam. All right, some of the pitchers who changed their pitch mix will get into this in just a little bit after this quick break. All right, we already mentioned

James Paxton, who changed up his pitch mix a little bit last year, opting to use the curveball over his final 11 starts, and that really helped. his production down the stretch. I wrote an article for CBSSports.com, which you can go read right now, which also included Lucas Gialito and U. Darvish. I feel like we've spoken about these players enough,

so I'm not going to waste too much time on them, but obviously Gialito completely revamped his mechanics, started using his change-up more last year, and then Darvish started using, according to Fangraphs, it was a cutter. You can go to different websites in it. It'll tell you it was a different pitch, but Darvish basically changed his pitch mix

in the final three or four months of the season. He was great. He pitched like an ace. So I wanted to focus on a few pitchers that are a little bit lower down. Frankie Montas is someone who is considered a breakout candidate this year and for good reason.

You know, last season had the 2.63 ERA 11 whip averaged 9.7Ks per 9, 2.16 walks per 9, career high, 49% ground ball rate. And Scott, he started using a splitter, 18% of the time, which is something he had never used before. So it seems like he finally put everything together, improved the control, was able to get a few more swings and misses.

The strikeouts were there. And it seems like that third pitch, the splitter, is what he was looking for all along. And he had that pitch last year. To me, I don't blame PEDs, performance-enhancing drugs, which he had a suspension for last year. is the reason why he was finally able to throw a splitter. So I don't really correlate those things,

and I think that he'll still be a really good pitcher this season. Yeah, this was the most important pitching addition for any pitcher last season. It completely transformed who Frankie Montas was. The splitter immediately became his best swing and miss pitch. It was his best pitch. And he went from not having it to now having a pitch that's better than all the others. It was his best swing and miss pitch.

it was a great ground ball pitch. You saw both of those rates go up. And those are the two most important rates at a time when, you know, anything hit in the air seems to have a chance to leave the park. Keeping the ball on the ground or missing bats altogether, those are the best two things a pitcher can do for himself. And we saw it play out for Frankie Montas and the 16 starts he made. So, yeah, I mean, unless that pitch regresses, you know,

or unless he has a durability issue because he's not tested over a full season yet. Not that there's going to be a full season this year. So, yeah, things are looking up for Frankie Montas even more with a smaller schedule too. And it's mostly because of that splitter. Adam, would you rather have Frankie Montas or his teammate, Jesus Lazardo?

Frankie Montas. But I don't really know what to make of it because I just feel like the splitter was important, but I don't think he's going to be as good as he was last year, and I don't think anybody does. 263 RA, as you mentioned. Yeah, he'll probably be good.

I don't know that he'll be great. It feels like last year was the best year he's ever going to have. He wasn't, like, he had a 4ERA in the minors with a strikeout printing. In 2018, he had a 3880RA, but low strikeout rate. So it just seems like a really big jump. So I'm thinking 330 ERA

be really pretty good That was as expected ERA last year According to Stadcast 331 Yeah if you gave you a 330 ERA A 1-1-15 whip Over a strikeout per inning That's a top 25 starting pitcher That's a really good pitcher

You know he's not elite But that's a very good pitcher Very good, absolutely Yeah so Montas somebody that Monta is somebody that I'm in on Scott I believe you like him as well. I have him ranked inside my top 25 right now. Yeah, I don't have him, you have him top 25, you said? Yes. Yeah, I don't have him that high. I have him 24th in Roto, you have him 27th. So we're

not far off. Yeah. And you know, I've been thinking about moving Cory Klobber down. Yes. I want to address the rankings a little this afternoon. Yeah, because if in a short and season, and Corey Kluber, he's not going to, if things go perfectly, he's not going to have the same sort of innings advantage. He would have had over a full season, so it doesn't make as much sense to invest in the risk, the relative risk of a guy in his mid-30s coming off a lost season

and not having the most encouraging reports surrounding him in the abbreviated spring training. So yeah, I think Frankie Montas, I guess, I guess maybe he's higher than I thought he was in my own rankings. Yeah, let's do it, Scott. Joe Musgrove, stop me if you've heard the name before. I don't know that I've ever revealed why I like Musgrove as much as I do. In fact, I've always really liked him.

I just think that his combination of able to generate swings and misses, not an elite level. He's not elite in any one aspect, but has solid command can generate modest swings and misses, decent ground ball rate, and I think all of those things combined can make him a solid pitcher, and he could potentially be even better if he can carry over what he did in the final four starts. Mind you, an extremely small sample size, and I realize that.

But the final four starts in September last year, he basically went rogue, stopped listening to what Ray Sirich preaches, as Ray Sirich's philosophy with the pirates as their pitching coach at the time, was a very fastball-heavy approach, and Joe Musgrove opted to use his curveball more. he upped his curveball usage from 8% in his first 28 starts over the final 4, he used it

about 16%. So he doubled his curveball usage. We saw a spike in fastball velocity. The fastball velocity went up from 92 miles per hour to 94. Started getting more ground balls, more strikeouts, a 16% swinging strike rate, and during the spring it was reported that he actually carried

over that velocity spike. He was throwing mid-90s with the fastball throughout spring. So, Scott, I mean, I have Joe Mosgroves, my SP 45 in Roto, you have him down at 62, so I'm much more optimistic, but I'm excited about what I saw over those final four starts and the fact that it seems like he carried some of that over into spring training as well. Yeah, I can point to a lot of reasons in the past, different things Joe Musgrove was doing, and I was really excited about it. I guess I'm saying I kind of have a,

it's kind of a sour grapes thing for me now, because I've had some much enthusiasm for Joe Musgrove in past seasons and he's let me down. Oh, I have as well. I know. I hear what you're saying. Maybe this is what finally causes it to click, but I felt that at other times before, too. Oh, this is going to be it for him. He has great control. I just wonder, even if he is optimizing his arsenal, even if, you know, going to more of a power arsenal, as we've seen Garrett Cole and Tyler Glass now both do upon leaving the pirates and have immediate success for it.

I just don't think the talent level is the same for Musgrove and I'm not sure the swinging strike upside is the same. So I don't know. I'm just not sure the upside is quite enough for me to pass up the upside of other pitchers going in the same range. Like his teammate Mitch Keech, Keller, or let me see who else I like in that same range at starting pitcher.

Because you're talking, well, you're talking 40s, right? You got him in the 40s? I have, I mean, that's like where. Admittedly, I have him ranked much higher than ADP has him as the 61st starting pitcher. So I know that I have him ranked much higher than everyone else. Yeah, because 40s where you have him ranked is like up there with Matthew Boyd. I also have Boyd of 31. Like minor, which I think probably like a good scenario for Musgrove is.

probably a lot like the season Mike Minor just had. And Sean Mania is pretty good. Yeah, I mean, I like the upside of, but even if you look it down in like the 60s range where he's actually going versus where you rank him, I'm more inclined to go after somebody like Josh James or AJ Puck, Mitch Keller, somebody like that. I just feel like Musgrove is, hopefully he takes a step forward,

but even if he does, he'll be kind of boring. Adam, I trust the ability for Musgrove a little bit more. You sent me an article last weekend written by Mike Accesa of CBSSports.com. And he highlighted, one of the things he highlighted was that they have a new pitching coach in Oscar Marin, who is using a more analytical approach. So again, they're moving off from Ray Searidge, who, from 2016 to 2019, the Pirates used the fastball more than any other team in baseball, and that's kind of an outdated philosophy.

So if Musgrove starts using his off-speed pitches more, and he has three plus off-speed pitches, curbstle, slide, or change-up, then I think it could be the year, but then again, I've been saying that for the past three years, Adam. Any love for Musgrove? Well, it's really just, Frank, and I didn't think I'd be saying this to you so soon,

but I love you. And if you have that much faith in him, then he's going to move up my internal draft board because you are really good at this. My thing is like, you know, I just went back and looked at it. There was a five-start stretch in 2018 where he averaged almost seven innings per start at a 212 IRA. There was a five-star stretch at his first five starts of last year.

He went 33 innings and with a 164 IRA and a 13% swinging strike rate. To be honest with you, I know, maybe people do want to hear this, maybe they don't. The reason why I don't really like Joe Musgrove is because I watched him and just, I just didn't get it. when we were talking about picking him up in 2018, I was like, I got to watch some Joe Musgrove starts. And even though the results were good, I never came away convinced that this was like a really good pitcher.

And quite honestly, it's played out because he goes on hot streaks and then he starts getting crushed. And really, I just don't love his fastball. But the thing that I really want to see is if the velocity increase can maintain. because in September last year, Frank talked about how well he was doing, he was throwing harder. So even if they get away, you know, even if they don't go so fastball dependent like Ray Sirich was,

and even if they changed their pitching velocity and he can use his other pitches more, still the velocity increase is really interesting. And that could catapult him into a new level. To kind of take the wind out of the sales with that, the outlier for Musgrove in terms of velocity was what was happening to him early in the season. It wasn't what happened there in September. September, his average basketball velocity in September was more in line with the rest of his career. Yeah, but not the rest of his September's, I don't think.

So when you see somebody do that in September, you wonder what they could do in a normal season. What could they do in May? What could they do in June and July? September, usually velocity is going down. Yeah, that's... You don't like that theory? Well, no, it's... I'm breaking it down my month now, and then it doesn't appear to be so.

It's the case. in 16 and 18, his basketball velocity much higher. 2017, his fastball velocity was higher than it was in 2019. But, you know, look,

but maybe he's a better pitcher now and get some of that velocity back. That would be interesting to me. If he's throwing 92 mile per hour fastballs, I don't think he's good enough. It's more about pitch selection for me. I think that's the key, because we've seen that be the key

for so many pitchers, taking that leap, just leaning more on their best pitches instead of working so much of the fastball. Patrick Corbyn is probably the biggest example. And yeah, that seems like the biggest key for Musgrove. I've just gotten burned too many times to assume this is going to be the time he sticks to the approach that's best. I don't know. I'm not even totally sure it would be best.

I get it, man. Look, 437 ERA. He's never had an ERA below four. Some people are just going to give up on Musgrove. And I get it. I've been burned by him too. I'm just really hopeful that the new pitching coach can help with that pitch selection, as you mentioned, Scott.

And hopefully Musgrove can use his secondary pitches more than he has in the past. Because I think that they're quality pitches. I just think that he hasn't used them enough before. So start to work in the curveball slider, change up a little bit more than usual with the increase in fastball velocity. I think all of that can add up to a potential breakout. you know, not an elite pitcher, a top 30 starting pitcher. If you're getting him outside the top 60, that's a pretty good value.

So just... They all have pretty good whiff rates individually, all those secondary pitches. None of them has a great whiff rate on its own, but if they're all pretty good, it could add up to a lot of whiffs. Yes. Yes, I feel it. I feel the Scott, you know, potentially moving musgrove up the rankings. I feel it.

It's slowly... I probably will move them up a little. Not to where you have them, but a little. The last person I want to talk about, again, there's other names, Marcus Stroman, Luke Weaver, you could read about them in the article I wrote. I just wanted to talk about Justice Sheffield real quick. And it just seems we're so quick to write off these former top prospects if they don't come up and perform right away.

It was the same thing with Lucas Gialito last year. Lucas Gialito was basically left for dead. I mean, the guy was undrafted in even deeper leagues. I mean, I was in 15-team leagues where G-Lito was not drafted last year, and he broke out. So Sheffield didn't have the same prospect pedigree as someone like Gialito, but he was a top pitching prospect. And I think that there are signs with Justice Sheffield. Last year, 12.9% swinging strike rate over a strikeout per inning pitched, 52% ground ball rate.

I think the slider and the change-up are solid pitches. I just think that he can't locate his fastball into his forcing fastball is just not very good. But it was reported that throughout spring this season in 2020, that he was throwing a new two-seamer and his teammates were raving about it. Tom Murphy was catching him and he was talking about the pitch. And I think that this is something that might be able to help elevate Justice Sheffield to that next level. So Scott, I mean, this is more of like a deeper league player

and just really someone to keep on your scout team or just keeping the back of your mind in shallower leagues for now. But given the pedigree, I could see something happening here with Justice Sheffield. He's on my very lengthy list of deep. sleepers and I highlight 35 deep sleepers and in an article that you can catch at cbsports.com and sheffield is among them for precisely the reason you mentioned he he ditched the four seamer for a two seamer this spring and normally normally that's not a move we like to see because two seamer isn't a great swing and miss pitch it's It's normally an outs-on contact pitch,

and it's just kind of out of style and to gaze swing and miss game because of that. But the four-seamer itself was so bad at getting swings and misses, and as you said, he had difficulty controlling it. It just was doing more harm than good and not allowing him to set up the slider in an optimal way. The two-seamer, you know, maybe, maybe you could argue that, you know,

if he stuck with the four-seam fastball, it would eventually reach a point where he could have a higher overall ceiling. But you couldn't say that with much confidence at this point, given the way his development had gone the past two years. This change seems like it might unlock the full potential of his slider, which has the potential to be an elite swing and miss pitch. And, you know, if he's throwing more strikes on top of it too, yeah, I could see him taking off this year.

I don't think, I don't think, though, there's going to come a point in like a standard 12 team league where I see fit to draft him just because the draft will end before you get to that point. But in anything deeper and certainly like he said, scout team at the start of the season. Like he seems like one of those guys Sheffield does where if, you know, he comes out first start, you know, five innings, three hits, six strikeouts. Oh, okay, that's interesting.

I got to keep that in mind. He comes out his next start, six innings, Four hits, two runs, eight strikeouts. Okay, picking them up. Dropping Dallas Keikle. Yeah. Drop Dallas Keikel for that. Yeah, I can totally see that playing out.

Adam, Justice Sheffield, former Yankees prospect. You already spoke about Paxton on today's podcast. Well, you just said the worst thing you could say about Justice Sheffield. Honestly, I'm not going to let it factor in, but have there been any former Yankees prospects that have ended up being good? they are almost always bad. Nobody should trade with the Yankees. You lose every single time you trade with them.

Their prospects suck on other franchises. Ah, let's see. Sheffield is a Cleveland Indians prospect. That's a great point. All right. He is an OG Cleveland Indian. That is correct. He was in what, the Andrew Miller trade?

Yes. All right. Did they get Clint Fraser and Sheffield in that trade? Yeah, they did. Yep. Wow, they got a lot for Andrew Miller. Okay, that helps. Homegrown Yankees

Not good Not very good Except the ones That make the Yankees They could be good Yeah Yeah no they give up on the guys Who are bad

I mean Mariners should have learned From Joseus Montereo Exactly Exactly Oh man Fair point Fair point from Adam

Adam You know speaking of which Fantasy football Today This entire week You had fantasy football Yesterday Earlier today

you did something a little bit different, huh? Fantasy football tomorrow. It was really fun. We talked about our top three at each position for the next six seasons, 2020 to 2025. Personally, I think it should have been 2024, but whatever. It was fun. You know, you had some college players on there.

Not Trevor Lawrence, though. You had consensus with the top two running backs. Want to guess who they were? Christian McCaffrey and Seyquan Barkley. Yes. And then Madness for number three. You had consensus for the number one wide receiver? You want to guess what he was?

I'm going to say Patrick Mahomes. No, wide receiver. Oh, wide receiver. Michael Thomas. Yeah. And madness after that. So it was a really fun conversation. It was good.

We also talked a lot about Michael Thomas and whether or not he's worth a top five pick in a PPR. draft and you might be surprised by the answer so check it out go check it out again that is fantasy football tomorrow and on next week we're back yesterday that you can listen to today yes all the today's and tomorrow's and yesterdays I'm confusing myself for people listening it'll for people listening tomorrow it'll be yesterday and then you can talk about tomorrow which will actually be years in the future Yeah, I think we've fully exploited this joke.

Fantasy Baseball at TBSI.com. Continue to send us your questions. And leave us a five-star Apple podcast review if you want us to talk about a prospect like we did for Shurton Apostle. Make sure to leave that on Apple Podcasts. This question comes from Kevin Lapin. We've actually, we've had a few of these cliff notes

that I've had to really condense because we're getting some really long emails here. But I've managed to shorten it, I think. I'm in an extremely deep 30 team head-to-head points league, up to 70 minor league spots, with 162 daily matchups. My record last year was 81 and 81. My team is young, but good. Infield includes Yon Moncada, Bo Bichette, Kevin Biggio, and Miguel Sino,

all of them are under team control for at least three more seasons. The problem is that I have a bunch of high minors infielders about to debut, and I would like to keep them in the minors if I can't open up a spot on my 26-man roster for them. I've got Brendan Rogers, Carter Keyboom, Vidal Bruhan, Nolan Jones, and Jeter Downs all projected to debut in the next 12 months. My question is, and Scott, this one's probably for you,

are there any of the guys in the minors that I should be clearing a path for? Keep in mind, the salaries for prospects are 51 cents, 54 cents 58 cents during their pre-arbitration years team salary cap is $165 Miguel Seno is $7, Yuamankata is 14

Well, most of the leagues I've played in like this are Sim leagues where you can play guys out of position because this is a fantasy league, you can't do that and so you have to worry about where these prospects are actually going to wind up because my first inclination is on Miguel Sineau, first base, He has kind of a risky profile and he's already getting to a place where he's costing you something.

That would be the guy to move. But are any of these up and comers in line to play first base? Maybe Nolan Jones for Cleveland. But that's hard to say. Mokata for $14 seems like a pretty big price tag for a salary cap of $165. And he's kind of, he's kind of experienced. a second wave of hype right now. Certainly, Carter Key Boom, one of your minor leases in line to play third base.

Maybe that's where Nolan Jones ends up. I can see Brendan Rogers may be ending up there if Nolan Aeronado gets moved. So I feel like if you're going to trade one of your established infielders to clear a spot, Moncada is the one that makes sense. And I think that's the way I would go, especially since it's a point. points league and you don't have to consider his batting average potential his steals potential i i think that's the way i would go i i i think he seems like a good rebuilding player because he's still young but the price tag isn't really what you want uh for for a player of his

you know at his stage of development so i think that's what i do is that trade moncata either for equivalent pitching help. I'm not sure what your staff looks like. You don't say that. Or to continue to replenish your minor leagues and keep the waves of talent going through there. And trusting that one of your minor league infielders is going to emerge as a startable third basement for you.

And I hope I got these prices right, actually, because he said that Suno and Moncada are kept for their actual their actual salary in real life. So Sino's making $7 million, and Mankata's making $14 million. So I assumed it was $7.14. Maybe it's $1.4. Maybe I don't have it right.

That would change things. But if it is $14 for Munkata, then I would agree with you. I like Mankata a lot, but in a points league doesn't have as much value because of the plate discipline. And Carter Keebben, I think,

might actually turn out to be a solid points league player. So I actually agree with you in this regard, Scott. All right. Let's go. I like when people agree with me. This next one's from Casey and Tampa by way of Staten Island and Queens. He says, Dear Frankie M-Train and three other guys. Shout out to the M-Train, man.

I basically have rode the M-Train my entire life from Ridgewood into the city of Manhattan. So I'm happy you acknowledge that, Casey. The M. What color is the M? Orange, the best color. I swear, I don't think I've ever been on the M. I feel like I've been on every train but the M. Yeah, I mean, if...

hell is it what is that what's the line the g if you've never had to go to queens then you don't really have taken the seven into the queens and into queens and that's it into is our podcast going to become a new york centric podcast where there's all these insider new york insider new yorker conversations going where have you been i've been i've been new yorking this podcast no years you have yes but you've been on an island hey man i'm madhattan i'm just reading the email man i'm just reading the email now chris is moving there and Frankie's here. Like, this is...

Plenty of room, Scott. We're going to lose our relatability to... We're going to lose the middle of the country with these kinds of conversations, guys. Come on. Yeah, and Chris likes to act like a New Yorker. Like, he's been here his whole life. He just moved here in the past six months or whatever

it is. He's a fraud. Here's another one. I had to... I had to Cliff Note this email. I run an 11 team, ugh. Don't get me started. Roto League, that's a mix of... But just read the second paragraph. Okay. If MLB goes forward with an 80 game season or some other fairly dramatic departure from the norm, what do you think about simply shelving our usual keeper rules for a year,

playing things out as a full start from scratch redraft, and then resuming business as usual in 2021, it seems really unfair to me that an abrupt wonky and one-off season would have the same impact on team building slash maintenance as a normal year in a keeper league. I actually think this is a fair question. Yeah. You're talking putting a pause on the keeper teams you've already built, just shelving that,

doing kind of a separate standalone one-year redraft league, and then going back to that league you left on the shelf afterward. Yeah, in 2021. Interpreting it right? Yep. It's got to be close to unanimous. Like, I don't either if that's what your league wants to do, but it's got to be close to unanimous.

Yeah. Yeah, I think so too. Because obviously real-life teams are having to deal with this wonkiness as well. They don't get the luxury of putting all their salary escalation and contract terms on hold. So, you know, it's just kind of a new challenge to meet. And I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. But if you want to do that, I'm not saying you're wrong. I just think it's, I think it's unnecessary.

What is going to become interesting is if it turns out, just thinking about Blake Snell's comments from yesterday's morning, if it turns out that, you know, all the hurdles are cleared in terms of what needs to be met medically and the agreement is met, it is reached financially, and they're ready to play again, but some players just assessing their own personal level of risk choose to sit out the season anyway.

And that would be kind of a random draw, right? Like we're not, it's hard to anticipate if that happens, if it's scattered few players just opt to sit out the season, who it's going to be, what caliber they're going to be, how they're going to change the landscape, how depth at certain positions by just removing a handful of players. Like that's, that's going to be hard to predict. project, you know?

And so obviously, guys you're counting on being there in keeper leagues may not be. And that would encourage me probably more to do something like is being proposed here, just having a separate draft and just kind of dismissing this season is too weird to contend with. But again, it's a challenge real teams are going to have to deal with. So if you really want to simulate the experience of being a real life, FGM, that probably means playing through it, regardless of what happens. Yeah, I don't have an issue with this.

I think, you know, what Adam said, it has to be close to unanimous, so your whole league has to agree, but crazy things are going to happen. But if everyone agrees to kind of shelf the Keeper League and play a redraft out, just as a stand-in, I have no issue with that whatsoever. All right, let's end the week with a hey, real quick. I know this was a segment you did. We're just going to answer a question very quickly, and we're going to need this to do so. This one comes from Adam N. Hey, four related names.

I'm going to give you Tony, Pauli, Silvio, and Christopher. Yeah, Brady Bunch. That would be the Sopranos. I am new to auctions and bid on Jose Ramirez, who is a AA player for the St. Louis Cardinals for $15 in a dynasty startup. And I won, having foolishly thought I got a remarkable deal on the Cleveland third baseman. The commission initially said

I'd be refunded the $15 penalty fee. Then he heard about some people in the chat room and rescinded this. It was obvious deception from the person who put him up for auction. What is right? I would break a beer bottle and go after the guy who

nominated him. Unless you just were funny. You know, you do that. You do that. get a laugh, you take the money back, you start the process again. And that's it. You don't make him stick with the $15 bid on the double A player with the same name as Jose Ramirez. It's so stupid.

And the commissioner, it gets bullied by the other people in the chat room. No, come on, commish, grow a pair. Resin the money, do the right thing. Very angry right now. Thanks for putting me in a bad mood on Friday afternoon. A good commissioner recognizes what's in the best. interest of the league and an obvious stunt like this in a case where a guy was obviously duped. I mean, my initial thought was, well, why was that Jose Ramirez going for $15 anyway?

Clearly, this guy wasn't the only one who was fooled. Like, it's just, you're not trying to get away with anything by asking him to rescind it. It's just, it's just wrong. Like, I never understand, like, no, you bid on it. It has to be final. ha ha. Like, I just don't know why people want to compete on dishonest terms like that.

Like you should want people to get what they intended to do so that you can beat them honestly. Otherwise, what's the accomplishment? Or you should notice when someone puts Jose Ramirez up for auction that he doesn't have a picture or doesn't look like the guy from Cleveland and you have nobody to blame but yourself. You know how it is.

You have to keep this bid. $15. You spent the money. You have to keep it. And I, I, I, wholeheartedly, you have, this happened in one of our auction leagues, our home league.

Someone threw out Vladimir Gutierrez, and someone thought it was Vlad Guerrero Jr. They ended up spending it like $18. Okay, question. We said, no, you have to keep him. No, is Vladimir Gutierrez like a legit prospect that would ordinarily be, no, no, no, then no, absolutely not. It's hilarious, and it's great strategy.

It's stupid. If the bid just ends and it's pointed out, you want to back it out. Like, I could understand if it's not noticed until after the auction is over. I mean, obviously, there's nothing you can do about it at that point. But if the bid just happened, it ended, it's easy enough to just back it out and do it again. Like, why? It just seems like a jerk move not to do that. Well, maybe you guys are learning about the real frank.

These are New York values. That's what it is. The jerk within. We're going to lose the middle of the country. It's over. I think it's hilarious and I think you have to stick with it. Fantasy democracy. If the rest of the league wants the guy to stick with his $15 bid on AA St. Louis Cardinals, Jose Ramirez,

then you have to stick with it. Of course they do because it benefits them. If they were the ones that got duped like that, they want to want it. I am so disappointed in Frank. Treat others the way you want to be treated. I love this. We don't even know you. Like this is really shocking.

Very shocking. I'm going to start to reveal the real me. Very slowly over the next couple of months. Let's be frank. Let's be Frank. That'll do it for today. For Jose Ramirez, the AA player on the Cardinals, for Adam Azor, Scott White.

I am Frank. Stanfield, thank you for listening. We'll be back on Monday. Bye-bye.