Fantasy Baseball Today - Gerrit Cole's Major Injury! Plus the 2025 All H2H Points & All Roto Teams! (3/10 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

Well, Gerrit Cole is getting tests done on his elbow (3:53). ... George Kirby is shut down with a shoulder injury (8:33). ... Francisco Alvarez fractured the hamate bone in his hand (16:28). ... Grayson Rodriguez has now been diagnosed with right elbow inflammation (18:12). ... We have a bunch of other updates from the weekend (21:30). ... What do we think of these spring training standouts (26:53)? ... What did we learn from Statcast data over the weekend (32:15)? ... Who's on the 2025 All H2H points team (46:34)? ... What about the 2025 All Roto team (56:32)? Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Excuse my French, but we just got the injury weekend from hell. Welcome into fantasy baseball today on Monday, March 10th.

I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. today on the show, all of the injuries to all of the big names. Garrett Cole, George Kirby, Francisco Alvarez. And then we will later reveal the 2025 all head-to-points and all roto teams. It's just such a weird transition. How do I go from mentioning injuries

to something so light-hearted as the all-head-to-head-points? Well, like we kind of got lucky up to this point, right? Yeah. I remember... We were due. I remember a few weeks ago, Chris saying, as pitchers were reporting to camp, somebody's going to need Tommy John's surgery this week.

And it didn't happen. And then it didn't happen in the following week and didn't happen the following week. And now it sounds like there's only one who needs Tommy John surgery, but we got a few injuries on the pitching side especially. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and it went like,

I loved the transition from, Grayson Rodriguez is totally fine. There's nothing to worry about too. Grayson Rodriguez, it's just a little tricep soreness, too. Grayson Rodriguez had a cortisone shot in his elbow. I'm assuming tomorrow we're going to find out Grayson Rodriguez is retired from baseball. Do you consider that a negative progression?

Because I think... Yeah, I think getting a cortisone shot in your elbow is a bad thing, generally speaking. Well, isn't it to like reduce inflammation so you can get back to throwing sooner? Isn't that the idea? Right. There's no structural damage. I prefer my pitchers to not have inflammation that requires a cortisone shot.

I see it as more of a treatment than a requirement. Like it's part of modern medicine. This is how we can get you to recover faster. Yeah, we'll see. To quote Scott White, I think you're being a little bit too sanguine about these injuries. Damn, got him. Am I?

You might be. Well, pour one out for your boy and to Yankees fans everywhere. Because we got a Morosi bomb Friday night. As we found out, Garrett Cold needed test done on his right elbow. of course, that same elbow that gave him trouble last season. And just a few hours before recording this, Jim Bowden sent out this tweet. Quote, according to a source,

Garikol has been recommended to have Tommy John surgery, but they are now waiting for a second opinion to confirm the diagnosis. On Saturday, Gary Cole said that he was concerned about what the imaging will show, and so this all kinds of lines up together and makes sense with everything that we've heard and just dating back to last year.

So, Garik-Kohl is pretty much off our board, right? What happens to the Yankees? What happens next? What do you guys think? I mean, it's not official that he's out for this. He's getting a second opinion, obviously, but I've gone ahead and removed him from the board because it's just once one doctor recommends that it doesn't seem like

the alternatives are ever very good. So, yeah, Garakall is just off the board. I guess Marcus Stroman has a full-time job now for as long as that lasts. He was already going to fill in for Luis Heel, who's out for at least a couple months. Strowman started the spring training as their SP6. He's now their SP4.

Yeah, so I guess Will Warren is next up, right? That would make sense. Him or Carlos Carrasco? I would be shocked if the Yankees haven't called the Marlins to see if Sandy. Alcantos available. I don't expect that to actually happen, but I would be shocked if they haven't made that call.

And I would be shocked that they haven't called Lance Lynn's agent. Yeah, yeah. Because he's pitched for the Yankees before. Kyle Gibson's still out there. Something has to happen. They just, you can't waste it, not waste, but you can't just have a year of Aaron Judge's prime go down like this, right?

With the ace of your pitching staff going down for the season and not making a move. So the updated Yankees rotation as of now is Max Fried, Carlos Rodan, Clark Schmidt, Marcus Stroman, and Will Warren, who we talked about. Do you guys have any interest in Will Warren? Because he was a prospect of note. He was really bad last season in the minors. Got called up, made, you know, threw a couple innings in the majors, but wasn't great there either. He's looked much better this spring. They've talked about how he's throwing a newer curveball. And, you know, they're pretty excited about what they've seen. But does anyone have any expectations here with them? for Will Warren? There's some intriguing skills there. He's gotten decent strikeout numbers at the minor league level. He was, I mean, he threw like

22 innings last year at the major league level and gave up 27 runs if I'm, if I'm remembering correctly. So it was pretty bad, but the overall minor league track record isn't terrible. So I think Will Warren can get thrown into the, the late round mix.

Yeah, I mean, I mean, look, there's been some interesting reports this spring, some good-looking numbers. He's pretty far down the list of pitchers I'm excited about who are available in the late rounds. But I'll, you know, I'll keep an eye on him. Maybe he'll win me over over the next three weeks, less than three weeks. I am not expecting this at all. It would be crazy because Luis Heel went on to win the American League rookie of the year. But we were kind of saying the same thing about Luis Heel this time a year ago.

So, I mean, crazier things have happened. we'll see if Will Warren A gets that opportunity to be in the rotation and what he can do with that. I sent out a tweet on Saturday just kind of spitballing, throwing some trade targets out there. Again, I think the Yankees have to make a move, whether it's either a trade or signing a veteran pitcher. You know, I threw Dylan C's Michael King's names out there just because they have, you know, been rumored to be taking offers. But there was another report that came out on Sunday that the Padres are not looking to trade them anymore. I think the Cardinals make a lot of sense, especially... Yeah, Sunny Gray or Eric Fetty.

Yeah, they're pitching depth. I mean, the Yankees did the Sunny Gray thing. It didn't work in New York, but maybe they would go back to that. Eric Fetty would make some sense too. So, Sandy Alcantara, maybe they look around and see, but... You know, who doesn't have a job and could be available for literally nothing if they take on the salary. Old pal Jordan Montgomery's out there. I thought about that one, too.

Yeah, I think that's fair. The diamond backs would love to get rid of him, I'm sure. That is true. Let's move over to the Mariners and George Kirby, who has been shut down from throwing due to right shoulder inflammation and will begin the season on the injured list. And pitching injuries, you just never know because George Kirby, one of the most reliable pitchers the past few seasons. Now he's hurt. Chris, how far did you lower George Kirby in your rankings? I moved him down to around 30th at starting.

pitcher in both head to head points and Rodo and basically just dropped him right in front of Tyler Glassnow and Spencer Strider and Hunter Green and Sandy Alcantara and a bunch of other guys who kind of all have questions about how much they're going to pitch and also lots of talent. So it's possible that George Kirby ends up just missing like two turns in the rotation and he's totally fine. it's also possible that he's just never quite right. And it kind of ruins his season, even if he's ready to play.

There was, oh, Kevin Gosman was the guy I was thinking of last year, where he dealt with shoulder inflammation in the spring training, ended up not missing. I think he missed one turn in the rotation to start the season.

Velocity was down. He pitched through it. He just wasn't the same. He wasn't terrible. He was useful for, fantasy but he wasn't great and that's my concern with george kirby especially because like i mean any regression and the strikeout rate like george kirby doesn't have a lot to give in that regard you know he's pretty much an average strikeout pitcher requires elite control so i

could see things going really sideways for him if he's just a little bit off but i'm not going to I'm not going to make that case yet. Yeah, the timetable is short. The timetable the Mariners have given is 10 days to two weeks in the season. They hope he's back. It's just the uncertainty that goes along with pitching injuries, the possibility of him ramping up and still feeling it, or it affecting him in just unexpected ways.

You know, it's not like a broken bone and the whole, all the like biology that goes into pitching if there's any if there's any like kink in the line it can it can kind of throw things off and lead to other injuries and it can just all kind of fall apart so I want to be cautious but it is on the surface not a serious injury with not a with not a long lengthy timetable it's it's it It's, I moved him down to 24th, George Kirby, which you mentioned strider. That's actually behind Strider for me.

I think I have Strider higher in the rankings than you do too. I kind of moved Kirby to the end of the good glob tier. The start of a good glob tier. The end of the good glob. Oh, the end of the good glob. Which is right in the middle of the good glob. Because there's also the, oh, okay. I'm sorry.

I said it wrong. He's at the end of the start of the good glob tier. That's what I said, Scott. There you go. Gosh, never listening. Sorry. It's confusing. It's confusing even to me.

Unnecessarily confusing. Yeah, I think I've said all I need to say. There have been 22 drafts in the NFBC on both Saturday and Sunday, and George Kirby's ADP came in at 129.8. That's just after Zach Gallin and Sunny Gray, just ahead of Brian Wu, Sandy Al-Cons for Jared Jones. So just eyeballing things based on our rankings, that would probably put him in the SP 35 to 40 range somewhere in there.

And it's tougher to say just based on this weekend's drafts just because there was so little information and it was so new. So maybe some people were kind of letting him slip further than he should. But that is the latest on George Kirby. And shoulders are tricky. We've seen Kevin Gosman was a good example. Chris, you brought up where it like didn't really work very well last year. but then a couple of years ago, Luis Castillo, Zach Wheeler had shoulder stuff,

and they came back and they were fine. So it's just, it's really tough to say. I remember everybody seemed a little too careful with the Zach Wheeler one. Yeah. And I ended up with a lot of them that year because of it. And it worked out great. So sometimes you can get a discount. I think that's especially true with the influence that NFBC has on all the fantasy

baseball drafting world because there are no IL spots and because they tend to be deeper leagues injured players get pushed way down draft boards. So I think there's there's like a built-in level of caution with injured players pretty much always. You guys, and that that you can only draft so many of them, which is part of the reason why I want to mirror that caution in my rankings because otherwise. Yeah, you can you can put together your rankings together in a way that makes it way too easy to get too many guys.

Yeah. Yeah. You guys don't have any interest in Emerson Hancock, right? He just hasn't shown the bat missing ability. He was a top prospect at one point. You know, I think he's working on a cutter and a sweeper this spring. I know he's on my spreadsheet, but I don't know what. He's a let's see it in the season first.

I'd put him below Will Warren even. All right. Let's take our first break, but a quick reminder first that like this video and subscribe to on YouTube if you haven't already. 30K by opening day. Let's make that happen. And a few updates for later in the week on tomorrow's podcast. We'll be joined by Nick Pollock from pitcher list to talk about pitchers that are doing things differently this spring and maybe players who are moving up and down his

personal rankings. And then Tuesday night, I believe we will have our annual 12 team roto auction draft. Right. Scott, is that a 7.30 start time, I believe. It is. It's going to be a long one. That is going to be a long one. So if you want to hang out and watch that entire draft, then feel free to join us this Tuesday at 7.30 p.m. Eastern Time.

Let's take a break. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Lots of injury still to talk about. Francisco Alvarez has been diagnosed with a fractured hamate bone in his left hand and will miss six to eight weeks. Luis Torrens will slot in as the Met starting catcher in the meantime. And Torrens had a solid season with the Mariners way back in 2021, hitting 243 with 15 home runs.

But he has basically been a nice. non-factor ever since then. Scott is Francisco Alvarez still worth drafting latent drafts with IL spots? And do you have any interest in Luis Torrens in a two-catcher league? Well, Francisco Alvarez, I'd probably still draft him in a two-catcher league with IL spots. I moved him down to 22nd in the rankings. So you imagine 12 teams, two catchers, 24 catchers drafted. That's going to put him in that range still.

But it's, I think it's going to be a while before we see him. I think it's going to be on the later end of that timetable. it's just receiving hand, right? The left hand, which should make it, given the pounding that hand takes, it's going to require extra time in recovery. And with handmade bones, you don't always know if the power is going to be there

right away for the hitter. So it's pretty straightforward in terms of how you approach them in fantasy, it's just moving way down the rankings. And if you can afford to stash them in a two-catcher league, you take them with one of your last picks and hope he comes back pretty much looking the same. What, do either of you guys care about

Luis Torrens and two catcher leagues? Probably not right. No. Not really. Grace of Rodriguez. He's active. He's a warm body. He will start games, so he might be relevant in a two catcher league, but no, I don't see much reason to. No, only leagues

for sure. That's about it on Luis Torrens. Grace and Rodriguez update, he's now been diagnosed with right elbow inflammation and we'll be shut down from throwing for seven to ten days. He received a cortisone injection in that elbow. Chris, I know that you were already aggressive on lowering Grayson Rodriguez. Did you lower him more? Yeah, I lowered Grayson Rodriguez outside the top 200. So I think he's pretty much just a late round flyer at this point. It just, I don't know, maybe I'm overreacting. I'm just upset about the situation. No, I don't. I just, I'm just upset about the

situation. Me too. If it is truly inflammation, then it's probably, the timetable is probably going to be on the shorter end. Like, yeah, for Kirby. I would just say, especially when it comes to elbows and especially when it comes to a hard thrower, it might just be inflammation. It feels like there's a lot of ways this can go wrong and very few ways where it goes right. You know, like the, the path to this working out requires a guy who, has had season-ending injuries in two of the last three seasons.

One in the minors with the lat injury last year with the last shoulder. It just, it doesn't feel like the right bet, I think. Yeah, I moved him to 54th and the starting pitcher rankings. Chris has him 62nd. Interestingly, there's a bigger gap between how Chris and I rank Sean Manaya, with me also being higher on him. I move Rodriguez basically right next to Manaya because I think the timetable will be similar

and I ranked them similarly prior to their injuries. Examination hasn't shown anything more than inflammation. And sort of like I said for George Kirby, anytime you're messing with the biology, like just the biological structure of the pitching arm, everything is so interconnected that a seemingly small injury can turn into a bigger thing. But it doesn't sometimes.

too. I will point out, I did see a quote from Rodriguez the other day. I think actually after this most recent start when all this trouble happened, where he talked about how he had like tried to change his mechanics a little bit to like lessen the load on the scapula, I think was what he was talking about. Yeah, I said that. Yep. And so that is just like I changed my mechanics and three starts and I hurt my elbow, that feels like a big red flag too. Yeah. Look, it may not be.

I may be overreacting. Yeah. I would rather overreact than underreact to this. I guess, I guess that's fair. To be fair, you still rank Grayson Rodriguez ahead of Bowden Francis. Yeah.

Brandon fought. Yeah, I think like Gavin Williams. Just in case it works out. I will say Gavin Williams. Might be. might be moving up. Let's get him on up. Yeah, because I actually have

Grayson Rodriguez one spot behind Gavin Williams, so I have Williams higher than you too. So it's not like you have in the undraftable range. It's just an abundance of caution. And that's fair. Like, I want to have an abundance of caution too. But I do think the likeliest scenario

is Grayson Rodriguez is pitching at some point in April. Adolias Garcia resumed swinging a bat on Sunday and is expected to be ready for opening day. He's dealing with an oblique injury. Spencer Shrider will throw at least one more live batting practice before getting into a spring game. Everything has been positive on Shrider so far, and it sounds like he's still targeting a late April return, assuming no setbacks. Raphael Devers is scheduled to make his spring training debut this Wednesday.

Brandon Nimmo received a gel injection Friday as he's dealing with knee inflammation. Scott Nimmo is someone that I know you were excited about. Are you maybe backing off a little bit with everything going on with Nimmo? He's got the knee. You want me to say yes. You want me to say yes. I know it. You want me to.

It's my job. Look, I already thought he was extremely undervalued. And so I'm probably going to try and push the limits in drafts. I noticed in my TGFBI draft, which is going on, he went at his usual ADP. So I wasn't able to take advantage of this news and that. Like, it's, I guess it's more a situation where I'm trying. to take advantage of this news. Because again, it's just inflammation.

And on a position player, that doesn't concern me as much as it does for a pitcher. All right, Ron Washington is unsure if Luis Renhifa will be ready for opening day. He is dealing with a hamstring injury. Jerks and ProFar was diagnosed with a bone bruise in his left wrist Sunday, but is expected to be ready for opening day. Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said Sunday that no innings limit is set on Sandy Alcantara. and despite being drafted just last year and having a limited track record,

Astro's prospect Cam Smith has a chance at cracking their opening day roster. He is having a huge spring and he was the headliner in the Kyle Tucker trade over to the Chicago Cubs. And Chris, we were talking beforehand, you know, it's kind of not to the same level because Wyatt Langford was ridiculous

in his minor league debut, but it's the same vibes. Like Cam Smith was. just drafted last year and he's having this huge spring and next thing you know he might have a chance of making the opening day roster so what do you think it's unexpected but he was a guy that after he got traded you know i was surprised to see how many of the prospect people really really liked that return for the astros he was the the return in the kyle tucker trade and people really like him his uh quality of contact metrics were really

solid last year in the miners. Max Exevalo 1.11 miles per hour. Really good zone contact rate, 84%. So yeah, I don't know. People seem really high on him. Even if it's not, it's one of those things where like

when you looked at the Astros roster, it was like, it kind of feels like they're missing a player. And it's kind of like the Jackson Merrill situation last year where maybe the missing player we saw on their depth chart was Cam Smith. Maybe. I remember when that trade went through the Kyle Tucker trade,

a lot of people were like, what are the asterous thinking here? They didn't get enough in return. And I was like, I think they did pretty well. They got a top prospect and a player with multiple years of control left, who is a perfect fit for their ballpark. Isaac Bredez I'm talking about. And they got what looks like is going to be a member,

there starting five now in Hayden West Nesky. And look, you hate to trade a player of Kyle Tucker's caliber. You'd, everything being equal, you'd rather have those guys than not have them. But if you were determined to trade him, I thought it was a pretty good return. And the way Cam Smith is looking right now, it looks even better. I presume this would mean Isok Perettis would play second if Cam Smith did win the third base job. so that would add to his appeal. I think they're talking about him as an outfielder, actually.

Cam Smith? Yeah. I was under the impression when Alex Breggman was still in play for the Astros that Altuve would play left and Perida's second in that scenario. But I don't know, maybe something more recent has come out. If we could backtrack just for a second on the jerks and pro far injury, because I thought this was fairly big injury news from the weekend as well, a bone bruise in the wrist is the diagnosis.

It looked bad. It was a diving plane in the outfield where his wrist, you know, the glove kind of pushed the wrist back like this. And it looked like it was broken or he must have suffered some kind of ligament damage. He seemed to be in a lot of pain. X-rays were clear, no ligament damage.

Bone bruises what they're doing. Like bone bruises, we've seen that cause guys a long time before. And so the fact that Braves are saying he's going to be ready for opening day, I don't know. That seems kind of optimistic to me, especially given how much, how important the wrist is for hitting. I don't know. I think I'm more concerned about ProFAR's status than Nemo's, frankly. All right. I do want to highlight some spring training standouts, names that had big games this weekend.

This is pre-Statcast. We'll get to some statcast stuff in just a bit. Trevor Story had a two-home run game. Spencer Torkelson had a two-home run game. Ty France is off to a great start with the twins. He's 11 for 20 with two home runs. Blue Jace prospect, Alan Rodin, has been very impressive, has hit two-home run so far.

Christian Encarnacion Schran has three homers. Could make an impact early on with Spencer Stier-Hurt. Pete Kerr Armstrong heard all of us call him a bust and said, watch this. Two-homer game on Saturday, including one off of Logan Gilbert. That's pretty good. Dalton Varshow is a name that we have not talked about at all. He has two home runs this spring.

He is returning from right shoulder surgery. Tomoyuki Sugano, who signed with the Orioles this offseason. Three perfect innings with five strikeouts on Sunday. He is up to seven scoreless with seven strikeouts this spring. And one other prospect you might need to know. Jack Caglione, the Royals first round pick last year, hit a mammoth home run on Sunday. 11.6 exit velocity, 444 feet.

And he is now up to three home runs in the spring. ring as well. Anyone here that you guys want to touch on, Caglione, Sugano, Varshow, PCA, CES, all the acronyms, Alan Rodin, Ty, France, Torkelson, and Trevor Story. CES seems like one we should highlight

because it doesn't sound like Spencer Steers guaranteed to be ready for opening day. The problem is if Spencer Steer... It doesn't sound like he's going to be. Yeah, if Spencer Steer does play, it might just be a first base all year, which is bad for Spencer Steers. year, but it would also not be great for Christian and Carnacian Strand because that would leave

just DH for him to play every day. So it's kind of a double-edged sword for Christian and Carnacian Strand, but he is talented enough to make the decision very, very difficult for them if it comes to it, because if Christian and Carnacian and Strand, remember, he was a top 150 pick this time last year. And if he makes the team gets off to a huge start, hits three or four-home runs in the first two weeks. I mean, is Spencer Steer just the full-time DH? Do they try to get him back out in the outfield if the arm is ready? I did add Spencer Steer in my bus column, and I kind of wish I had kept Christian and

Carnaccio Strand in my sleepers because I had him in Sleepers 1.0, and I took him out for 2.0 because there was just no talk about him at the start of camp, and now it looks like there's a pretty good chance he's going to be the open-day first basement. Just throw him back in, Chris. I won't tell anybody. Yeah, I can just update it. I'll also just make a dumb little joke here. But of course, Alan Rodin is playing well.

Baseball is easy. It's not astrophysics. I was reading a story. He was an astrophysicist in college with a focus on quasars. So smart dude put up really good numbers last year at AAA. Kind of feels like the Blue Jays have a lot of guys that could make it tough to break in. but they seem to really like him. I think they have Joey Loporffito projected as one of their starting outfielders.

Yeah. Like Alan Rodin can overtake Joey Loporffito, you know? I don't mean a lot of good players. But they've got like him and Ernie Clement and, you know, just like Will Wagner, a lot of guy, like Davis Schneider, a lot of guys. Not like great players, but just like guys who are good enough that, you know, upgrading from them is possible, but not like a huge priority. but, you know, Rodin's 24. He played like 70 games at AAA last year. It's a pretty interesting late-round sleeper.

A few things. I like Alan Rodin enough that he was my 100th sleeper and my top 100 prospects. There you go. Third base is also an option for Christian and Carnacian on Strand, as those on the Reds beat have kept saying. It doesn't, I don't think, I think they've mostly played him at first base this spring

in large part, Castere isn't available. and he's not good at third, but they haven't foreclosed that possibility. So if he's hitting well enough, that would be another possibility for Incarnaissance Strand. And three, I'm beginning to wonder if we, the royal we,

but myself too, are underrating Tomoyuki Sugano. I thought the same thing today. You know, I wrote a this year Seth Lugo, and I don't think I included him. And then the next day I was like, oh, that would be a great pick.

Yeah. Deep Arsenal, elite command. Yeah. I wish we had data on him because the issue is he just doesn't throw that hard, but that was, that was kind of an issue for Shona Imanaga when he was first being introduced to us as well. And it obviously worked out okay for him. So still talking about just a late round pick for Tomu Yuki Sugano, but he's at least in that discussion now, I would say. I will point out, Sugano's strikeout rates in Japan were really loved. and like even relative to Shoday Managa. Like he was a 6.4K per 9 last year.

So it seems like the stuff is even worse, even though it is a somewhat similar profile, undersized, low 90s fastball, great splitter. I do want to quickly just run through some stack cast stuff from this weekend on Friday. Christopher Sanchez pitched well again. His velocity remained way up. He averaged 97 miles per hour on his sinker.

Rinaldo Lopez got hit hard and his velocity was down quite a bit. His fastball down 2.5 miles per hour. His slider down almost three miles per hour. His curve down almost five miles per hour. Bailey Oberbo. Yeah, I'm surprised we didn't hear anything more following that Rinaldo Lopez about him needing an MRI. Because that was, that was pretty alarming.

He's a tough one to figure out too, man. Because like he had the shoulder. Elbow, elbow and forearm last year. And then paid back from both of those injuries and was better. Yeah. And yeah, I saw some people who follow the Braves closely, kind of just like Braves Twitter, people on Braves Twitter talking about how, you know, it started out low, but then it was back to normal during,

they were kind of like coming out with all these ways to justify it. I don't know, maybe it's just a dead arm thing, but I'm a little reluctant to, if I have a draft here before his next start, I'm a little reluctant to take Rinaldo Lopez. You know, Scott, to your point about Braves, Twitter, and just team aggregation websites and Twitter accounts, they just, they drive me crazy. They are so optimistic about every single player.

It is crazy to me. It's just, I search Twitter for a lot of players' names, and it's just the most rant, like, I'll search Max Meyer, and you'll get some Marlins aggregation Twitter saying, Max Meyer, top three, Syung this year. It's just like, people throw the craziest takes out there. Yeah, we know Ryan Leathers is the guy who's going to be, the Sion Condonner.

There you go. Just grinds my gears, man. Bailey Ober built up to 63 pitches. He threw a new sinker seven times. Casey Mize continued his strong springing through three shutout innings with five strikeouts. He had 11 swinging strikes on 35 pitches, six of those on his splitter. Velocity way up on that splitter.

And Chris, you got your wish. Felix Bautista pitched in a game with Stackast this weekend. His sinker was down four miles per hour. His splitter was down 2.3 compared to the last time we saw. Yeah, that's not what we wanted to see, but it is clarifying. And there was also a kind of weird quote from Brandon Hyde, where he wasn't 100% sure Felix is going to be on the opening day roster. So I wrote up Bus 2.0.

It'll be on the site later this week. But I wrote that up on Sunday. And yeah, Felix Batista is still in there because he's still like a top 90 pick over the past two weeks. and there's just no way. Like, I'm not saying he can't be good at 96.5 miles per hour. And obviously I'm not saying he can't build up from here, but four miles per hour is a big deal. And I think you have to assume he won't be as effective as he was in 2020.

All right. On Saturday, we got Jacks and Joe. Go ahead. I believe Bailey Ober is also now throwing a sweeper. let me yeah it was called a curveball but i think it's it's more of a sweeper it's a few miles per hour lower than um the oh no he threw six sweepers yeah sorry so yeah that's another pitch for baili over no idea if it's going to be any good he didn't get any whiffs with it he threw six of them uh but just expanding the arsenal a little more on saturday jackson job through three

and two-thirds shutout. Only one strikeout. He got up to 50 pitches. He threw 10 sinkers and four curveballs. Both are new pitches for him. Max Scherzer, three and a third shutout with six strikeouts. He had 13 swinging strikes on 49 pitches. He has looked awesome. Zach Allen's velocity remained down, his fastball and curve, bolt down over two miles per hour. Jacob deGrom made his spring debut two perfect innings with three strikeouts. He averaged 97 on his fastball, and it sounds like he is consciously trying to throw with less velocity. The quote, I look back at the two best years of my career and I didn't throw a hundred.

I'd rather stick a 97 where I want rather than 100 that leaks back a little bit. I think it's pitching smarter and that probably helps DeGrom's chances of staying healthy this season. Yeah, I got to talk about this a little bit even though I'm sure you're wanting us to move on to all head-to-head

and all roto teams, Frank. This is more important. There's a lot going on. Yeah, it's fine. This might change everything for me And I always had that caveat. I always had that caveat when I talked about de Grama's a bus. The one thing that might change in my mind is if he came out and said, you know, the reduced velocity when he came back last September and also it's continued into this spring,

if that was an intentional change to try and stay healthy. Because the whole case was back when he averaged 97 on his fastball like he's throwing now, you know, he was a workhorse winning Cy Young's. And then as soon as he started cranking it up to 99, beginning in 2020, the arm couldn't hold up to that. It's proven it every year since. Now, can we take what he's saying at 100% face value? It may just be a rationalization. It may be that this is as hard as he can throw it coming back from a second Tommy John.

But putting it the way he put it that, oh, yeah, he's trying to pitch smarter is just, you know, saving face. That's possible. But if he's going to say anything about his velocity, this is exactly what I wanted to hear. So I moved him up. You're muted, Chris. You're trying to talk, but you're muted.

You are muted. But he's not saying it because he wanted to be healthy, right? No, he is saying. It's an effective. No, I thought he, I read it as like an effectiveness thing, that he thinks he can be more effective at 97 with command. Well, if you watch the whole quote,

he addresses staying healthy. Okay. It's more important to stay healthy to be available. It's in a video, so you have to watch it, and I didn't jot the whole thing down. I didn't transcribe it. Okay. But yeah, no, that is part of the rationale.

I moved him up from 24th in my starting pitcher rankings to 16th, which makes him just outside the top 60 players overall, which means I still probably won't. I wanted to rank him in such a way that I probably won't draft him. but not in such a way that I definitely won't draft him, which is how I had him ranked before. Yeah, that's the same range I have him as. All right, again, that was Jacob de Grom.

A few others from Saturday. J.P. Sears, three innings, one run, four strikeouts. His velocity was up, and he had nine swinging strikes on 60 pitches. Max Meyer, three innings, two runs, two strikeouts. His velocity remains way up. He had seven swinging strikes on 33 pitches. He also threw that new sweeper nine times in that outing. And I've seen a little bit of hype around

White Sox pitching prospect Shane Smith, who threw three shutout innings with five strikeouts this weekend, including Shohei Otani, Freddie Freeman, and Will Smith. He struck them all out in a row in the same inning. And Shane Smith was the number one overall pick in the Rule 5 draft. He averaged 96.8 miles per hour on his fastball. He also mixed in a slider, change up, and curve. So lots of names here from Saturday. Chris, was there any one that you wanted to mention? A couple. Yeah, I think Shane Smith is. pretty interesting, I think. He was drafted in my AL Labor League, which is pretty annoying. Wow, that is insane. I wanted to go add him. He had very good numbers in the Brewer's organization.

And the fact that he was a Rule 5 pick basically guarantees he's going to be on the opening day roster unless they just don't think he's any good. But if they think there's anything there, he's going to be on the roster. And unlike most Rule 5 picks, he's got experience in the upper minor. So yeah, he's probably just an AL only guy,

but the White Sox have some kind of interesting arms. I'm seeing now he's RP eligible on CBS too. So there you go. Could be a spark and head to head points league. Add that one. And then Jackson Job, why can't you get strikeouts? He's got five strikeouts in eight and two thirds innings this spring. He's not getting whiffs.

The stuff looks unbelievable. All of the stuff much stuff. stuff plus metrics are popping. He passes the eye test. He looks good. And he's not getting the whiffs. And I don't get it. And his strikeout rate was

surprisingly low last year in the miners. It's like 25%. It just feels like he should be better than he is. Again, that is Jackson Job. To be clear, I still love him as a sleeper. I still think he's undervalued.

I still love the upside. It's just, I would like to see, more concrete evidence of the upside? I rewatched that Jacob de Grom clip. He does address health briefly as part of the incentive, but his main focus is on effectiveness of reducing the velocity. Scott's going to drop him. No, no. I still think it's, I still think there's a lot between a lot unsaid there. It just, so one of the things that some of the analysis about injuries has shown is that pitching closer to your max fee low increases the risk that it's not just velocity it's how close you pitch to your max and there was a really good graphic when justin verlander made

one of his starts last year that they showed like his average fastball velocity had been like right at 95 from the time he was like 34 to last year but his max velocity had dropped like three or four miles per hour and so clearly he's pushing pushing pushing And so that's what I would like to know is like he can say, oh, yeah, I'm dialing it back. Is Jacob de Grom still capable of throwing 101 and he's sitting 97 now to try to stay healthy? Or is he still maxing out? That's what we can't know. And so I'm unmoved.

It might be a rationalization. He said it's still there if he needs to reach back for extra. So he is suggesting it. still there. I didn't. It's the best, it's the best thing he could say. Sure. It still may not mean anything, but it's, well, maybe I shouldn't be so over the top in my,

my bust prediction for him. I have him ranked now near or where I've ranked him where you have him now all along. So there wasn't, I'm not going to move him into the top 10. So yeah. I hear everything you guys are saying. And I do think it's probably a positive quote. but I'm not going to move Jacob de Grom. I'm still pretty nervous about his ability to stay healthy,

but maybe he'll prove me wrong. On Sunday, two names with Stackass Data, adding insult to the Yankees injuries. Clay Holmes continues to look amazing this spring. Three and two-thirds shutout innings with eight strikeouts. He had 13 swinging strikes on 67 pitches, six on that new change-up, two on the new cutter, and he has been a big riser in drafts.

I took him in my TGFBI, slow draft. Those are 15-team, roto, industry leagues that were all competing in. I took them 206th overall, and so I would recommend that you do the same. And Gavin Williams was awesome. Again, three and two-thirds shut out with seven

strikeouts. He had 16 swinging strikes on 53 pitches, 11 of those on the fastball. I think these two in particular are probably two of the bigger risers in all of spring. Yep. I hope to have a lot of shares of them,

when all said and done, Clay Holmes and Gavin Williams. All right, let's take our final break. We're probably going to run a little bit long here, but there's a lot of news to get to from the weekend, and I'm sure everyone wants to hear about it anyway. So let's take a break, and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. We are going to take a look at the 2025 All Head to Head Points team

and the All-Roto team. Scott has an article out, including all of these names on the website, if you want to follow along and read that. we did some version of this exercise last week, two weeks ago. Whenever we did Strategy Week, I can't even remember which week is which anymore. But we spoke about some players that are better in head to head points, some that are better in Roto, but we wanted to provide more names and names at every position regardless of which format you play in.

So the all head to head points team, this is obviously based on the CBS Sports Head to point scoring format where you get one point for each of a single walk, hit by pitch, run, an RBI, two points for a double or a stolen base, three points for a triple, and four points for a home run. You get negative half a point for a hitter strikeout. On the pitching side of things, three points per inning pitched, half a point for strikeouts, seven for a win, seven for a save, three for a quality start, and minus one for each of a walk, earned run, hit, hit by pitch, and minus five for a loss. And the biggest differences there from maybe some other head to head points formats you see are we only

minus we only do minus one half for strikeouts both on the hitting and pitching in some do full minus one point which greatly reduces the pool of usable players I would say and then stolen bases being worth two points for hitters in our format a lot of times you see only one it helps keep base Steelers values closer

to where it is in roto and three points for an inning for pitchers, sometimes you see just one. So that helps to reward the high volume guys, even if they're not necessarily the most dominant inning for inning. And my choices here for the all head-to-head-to-head and all roto teams are meant to be the most representative player of that format. Obviously, they're not the best in that format because that would be kind of obvious.

These are the ones whose value changes the most or, changes in a way that you could credit to it being one scoring format or the other. All right. So in the infield of the all head to head points team, you have Adle Ruchman at catcher, Vinnie Pass Quantino, Vinnie Pee. Baby! At second base, we have Jonathan India. At third base, we have Alex Bregman,

and at shortstop, we have Corey Seeger. Scott, anything to add to those names, Seeger Breggman, India, Vinie Pee, and Adley Ruchman. Well, something they all have in common is they walk a lot. Vinny Pasquantino, I think the disparity is even bigger because he doesn't homer at the rate that you prefer for a first baseman. But the plate discipline is so good, not just the walks, but the lack of strikeouts that it more than makes up for any short coming in home runs in a points league. So I haven't ranked much higher in points than a roto. Jonathan India, kind of the same thing there,

but a less extreme version than Pasquantino, I would say. And then with Seeger, part of the justification for having him here, of course, he's great in both formats, but he is one of two, just two short stops that are widely drafted in Rodo that contributes virtually nothing in stolen bases. He and Carlos Correa, who I had an honorable mention for each of these positions, Carlos Correa is the honorable mention. So it makes for a difficult build in Roto if you take either Seeger as your shortstop or Karea,

Karea more likely middle infielder. But you're normally expecting to get steals out of those spots. And those two Seeger and Karea just aren't going to contribute that. Don't mind it and head-to-head points because they're doing so many other things. And you don't care where the points come from as long as they're there. But it's a bigger issue in Roto. I do want to add, add the Ruchman definitely better. in points than Roto.

Before his injury, though, last year, which was, I think June 27th is the date that he took a foul tip off the hand. He looked like he was just emerging as a stud. A superstar in regardless of far. He's always been a guy who more doubles than home runs. He's number two in Roto still, obviously. Not obviously.

I didn't realize he's the number three catcher. in NFBC drafts. Oh, really? He passed him. Yiner Diaz is like six picks ahead of him now. And I think that's a mistake. In a lot of drafts. Yeah.

Probably just an NFBC specific thing. But go out. Yeah, I agree. It doesn't make sense. I think that's a big mistake. I think Yiner Diaz is, I added him to bust 2.0.

I like the player, but I think the playing time is going to be a little harder to come by this year in a way that is not true for Adley Rutchman. So I, that was just something that I noticed earlier today when I was doing my my bus that Yanu Diaz is the number two catcher in NFBC leagues. Yeah. And the reason for your playing time concerns with Yainer Diaz is that Yoron Alvarez expected to play more D.H. this season.

Full-time D.H. And they have Christian Walker at first base, assuming he's healthy. And so that just takes away two avenues from Yainer Diaz to be able to get more playing time, something he did last year. Started 47 games between D.H. and first base last year. Yep. Some of those honorable mentions in the infield in the all-heads-to-heads-heads-points league, Gabriel Moreno, Josh Naylor, Marcus Semyon, Max Muncie, and Carlos Correa. Those last two names in particular, Muncie and Correa, they are ultimate fallbacks at their respective positions.

And it could work because on a per-game basis, they're still really good in this format. And also, it's a shallower format. so you can take on quote unquote risky or injury prone players because the replacement value is so much better on the waiver wire. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, I would say that Muncie,

the difference between Muncie's and Correa's head-to-head points value and roto value is even bigger than the difference for Bregman and Seeger, who are the actual starters, not the honorable mentions. It's just, I don't know. Just sometimes it felt weird to put the better player as an honorable mention. And so sometimes I gave them the top spot instead. Bregman especially, like Bregman's always been a head-to-head points standout.

Last year, his walk rate slipped. And so he wasn't as dominant in head-to-head points leagues as usual. But I'm presuming it's just a one-off because it was so out of character with the rest of his career. And he looks like he's going to be a threat playing his home games at Fenway Park with the Green Monarch. with the green monster. So I think he'll get back to walking like normal. And when he walks like normal, it's not uncommon for Alex Bregman to be better

and head-to-head points per game than like Austin Riley even. Yep. In the outfield, all heads-to-head points team, you have Juan Soto, Brandon Nimmo, and Ian Hap. With an honorable mention to Jerks and Profar, Chris, no surprise, all four of those names, really good in on-base percentage. Yeah, that's the biggest thing.

none of them really steal many bases. Nimmo has gotten to stealing bases over the past couple of years, but with the plantophyschitis and the knee, it's fair to wonder if he's going to steal quite as many bases this year. So I think that makes a decent amount. Yeah, he's usually like, what, 18 or 10? Okay. Hap, I think he's like 15ish usually.

Okay. So yeah. But he usually has very good on base percentage walks a lot. Ton of doubles. That's the biggest. Yeah. Yeah. Hap had 30 has at least 34 doubles each of the last three years.

Scott, did you think about including Stephen Kwan at all in this mix? I thought about it. Yeah, he's somebody who gains value in points. The reason I didn't go with him is sometimes he can be, he can be a batting average specialist at an opportune time in Roto. Like, oh, I need to catch up a batting average.

Oh, good. Kwan's still there. So it's sort of like Luis Arise, where on the whole, I think they're better in points leagues, but they have that one specialty that makes them kind of the perfect pick at times in Roto. Yeah, that makes sense. At starting pitcher, you have Aaron Nola, Logan Webb, Zach Allen, Seth Lugo, and Mitch Keller, and a lot of these names throw a lot of innings.

Aaron Nola, the most innings in baseball since 2018, Logan Webb, 190 plus three years in a row, and Seth Lugo was just second in baseball with 206 and two-thirds innings last season. Yep. Throw a lot of innings, pile up complete games. Their ERAs and WIPs might run a little hot, but that doesn't bother you so much in a points league

because it's not scored directly, ERA, and WIP. It's, yeah, giving up hits, walks, earn runs. That counts against them. But if they're pitching so many innings, they can kind of cover over that. The innings are the more important thing. And somebody like Keller, specifically Mitch Keller, who I just want to touch in a Roto League at this point because of the damage he could do to ERA and WIP, the vast majority of

his starts are going to score a lot of points. He's going to work deep into games consistently. But then he has those really ugly starts that ruin the ERA and whip. You'll take your lumps that week with him in a points league. But for the most part, you're going to be pretty happy with him because of the way the majority of his starts go. All right, at relief pitcher for the all headset points team, you have Robert Suarez and Clay Holmes, who is a SPARP on CBS. Shout out to the other sparks as well.

Jackson Joe, Bowden, Francis, Nick Martinez, Grant Holmes, Chris Bubich. Scott, how did you lay down? I obviously could have put only sparps here, but it felt redundant, so I just chose Holmes. And I put a reliever, Robert Suarez, who I think is in line for a lot of saves, but maybe in a way that's kind of ugly. I could have put Kyle Finnegan there, I guess,

but I went with Swarres instead. Doesn't get a lot of strikeouts, so that that'll hold his roto value back a little bit as well. All right, let's move over to the 2025 all roto team, and this is for the standard five-by-five categories, including batting average runs, home runs, RBI and steals on the hitting side, and wins, ERA whip, strikeouts,

and saves on the pitching side. for the infield at catcher, it's Yiner Diaz. At first base, Jake Berger, second base, Luis Garcia, Jr., third base, Austin Riley, and shortstop, C.J. Abrams, Scott, what was your reasoning for these names in All-Roto? Well, Yiner Diaz, I mean, I guess it's kind of the inverse of the infield for the head-to-head points lineup, right? These guys don't walk by and large. Yiner Diaz, one of the worst walkers in baseball, famously doesn't walk.

He's still a top five catcher in points leagues, but there's a bigger gap between one and two, William Contreras and Adley Rushman and then the whole next group. Especially because that whole next group kind of has terrible plate discipline. Yeah, Cal Raleigh walks a fine amount, but he strikes out a ton, and then Salvador Perez would be the other one who just doesn't walk much. Yeah, Yarni Diaz and Salvador Perez basically the same.

Perez is a little more power forward. Diaz a little more batting average, but very similar plate discipline metrics. Yep. Berger, again, doesn't walk much. Big power, though, and first base eligible at kind of the ideal spot in a Roto league where it looks like the choices for those,

either that position or that category, it looks like they're running low. So I could be really excited to draft them in Roto, but just not interested at all in a points league. I'm sure he's, he could go undrafted in a points league. League and I think it would be okay. Luis Garcia, same thing.

With the added issue of him probably not being a full-time player, that hurts more in a head-to-head points league where volume is always a point of emphasis and, you know, a week where the nationals are facing a bunch of lefties, Luis Garcia, would be pretty useless to you. Austin Riley is the one that's probably the hardest to swallow because he's a stud in either format, but I talked about it a minute ago with Alex Bregman. You know, four category monster and roto, but the plate discipline is just kind of unappealing. And it brings him down, it brings him down to a level where he's slightly less than a stud

in a points league, I would say, so that Alex Bregman can compete with him. And even somebody like Alec Bome can come close to Austin Riley's production on a per game basis. So I feel like third base, if you don't get Jose Ramirez in the first round in a points league, it's probably a position where you should wait a while. Yeah, because it's also true of Rafael Devers. That's true for him, but obviously he has. Yeah, he doesn't. He doesn't walk a ton. Jazz Chisholm has bad play to splint and steals a ton of bases.

Machado kind of similar to Austin Riley. He walks a little bit, but not a ton. He strikes out a decent amount. So yeah, all those guys probably get a little bit of a downgrade in a points league. Some honorable mentions for the All-Roto infield.

Salvador Perez, Ryan Moucastel, Jordan Westberg, Mark Vientos, and Bo Bichet. All those names don't walk very much. Vento strikes out quite a bit. And Bo Bichet doesn't walk much either, but also doesn't strike out much. Should have hit for a good batting average. But yeah, the OBP just isn't usually

a big one there for Bo Baudet. In the outfield, you've got Julio Rodriguez, Michael Harris, and Brenton Doyle. Lots of power and speed here, Scott, with an honorable mention to Pete Kromstrung. Lots of power and speed, but also pretty questionable plate discipline for all three.

All four. Yeah, it's always shocking to me, even his first two years, Michael Harris, as good as his first two years where he hit over 290, it's always shocking to me how low the point per game average is. It's below three, generally,

and given his stack. Thatcher and fantasy, you'd expect it to be higher than that. He's kind of an also-ran starter in a three outfielder points league. Julio Rodriguez, he goes from being a borderline first-rounder in Roto to a borderline second in points league, I would say, because of the poor plate discipline. Doyle, you know, the strikeouts are going to be very high and the steals not as useful as in Roto. You mentioned Pete Crow Armstrong here is the honorable mention. He represents a trio of outfielders that I like taking. in a roto league for the amount of steals they could give me

at what I think is a pretty good value but I just have almost no interest in them in a points league and so it's Peacrow Armstrong and the other two are Josh Lowe and Cedric Mullins yeah I think that makes sense Chris you highlighted Brenton Doyle recently as maybe the player who whose value changes the most from a head to head

points league to a roto league yeah and I think another part of it is he's playing in course field he's going to still be useful in a head to head points league but he's also one of those guys where if you draft him and you've got him on your team and they've got six games on the road he's probably not useful because he had a 635 OPS away from home last year and and I think like look there there I think he's a better hitter than that I don't think he's the guy that, like, if he's left course field, it'd just be a 635 OPS. There are reasons why Rocky's hitters hit worse away from home.

But as long as he's there, that's going to be an issue. All right, starting pitchers on the All-Roto team. All the Dodgers, that's it. We can basically move on. No, it's a strong per inning producers, but questions about workload. So, Garretre Crochet, Blake Snell, Jacob de Grom, Tyler Glass Now, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Yeah, this pitching staff looks on paper a lot better than the head-to-head points pitching staff, doesn't it? It's just availability questions and not just over the course of the season, but also within a game.

How deeper are they going to work into the game? That's been an issue for Blake Snell at times. I imagine, well, it was an issue for Yoshino Bu Yamamoto last year. It could be an issue for Jacob de Grom if they're working to preserve his arm. they might pull him early at times this year. And then Garrett Crochet, of course, totally untested with a high end, with like a full-time starter's workload. It was really just the first half last year where he got that kind of workload.

The one thing I would quibble with is Glass Now and I guess Snell, although I think it's more true of Glass Now than Snell. When Glass Now pitches, he's an ace. They treated him like a workhorse. Yeah, he averaged over six innings per start last year. Snell, he'll throw a lot of pitches, but he has never averaged six innings per start in a season because he's so inefficient. So that, that's why I say it's less true of glass now than Snell, but there is the added wrinkle this year of at some point they will probably have a six-man rotation. Yeah.

Although that seems less guaranteed now than it did a week ago when we learned all the Shohayotani stuff. And part of it's just that, okay, these guys, you expect them to excel and ERA whip and strikeouts. And those are the three contributions that clearly aren't as valuable in a points league. You want volume. So again, ERA and WIP, they have no direct. reward in a points league. Strikeouts, they're worth half a point each,

but that's not nearly as, that makes them far less valuable in a points league than in a Roto league. So part of it's just, okay, these are pictures I like for Roto, but in a points league, I'm just not that interested. Actually, Blake Snell is the one pitcher

that I tier differently for points leagues than for Roto. I am a tier higher in Roto. And then for relief pitchers, you have AJ Puck and Edwin Useta. Both are speculative saves options this season, but would virtually give us nothing in a points league, I would say, unless they become the closer for their respective teams. Unless they become a closer.

They're obviously, you could make the argument every closer is more valuable in a Rotel League than a points league. I've talked plenty of times just this draft prep season about how I wait until the end of a points league draft to take my closer. usually. They're in higher demand in roto leagues. The saves contribution itself is more valuable. But again, like you said, Frank Puck and Usata, there's absolutely no reason to draft him in a points league. In a roto league, particularly a deeper side, a deeper one, they might be the best you could do at a certain point in the draft when all the true saves guys are gone. You might still take

them hoping they can pad your ratios in the meantime and eventually move into a closer role. but they're just, they're not worth putting in your lineup. They're not going to do anything valuable enough in a points league to make them even worth considering there. All right. Well, we are going to wrap there. The injury weekend is over for now. And hopefully we don't get another one, but I'm sure we'll get some more stuff before the season. For Scott and Chris, I am Frank.

Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a 5-star rating on Apple or Spotify. and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.