Fantasy Baseball Today - Gunnar Henderson Injury, Royals Bullpen Update & Mailbag Questions! (2/28 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

Gunnar Henderson is dealing with side soreness (3:20). ... Who will save more games for the Royals (6:02)? ... Who were the Statcast standouts on Thursday (15:42)? ... On to the mailbag, beginning with apple podcast review questions (24:15). ... Elly De La Cruz over Aaron Judge (29:53)? ... Let's answer your email questions (33:38)! ... Which players are we targeting in the mid rounds (46:00)? ... Who are some post-hype targets in keeper leagues (53:14)? ... What is up with ESPN rankings (57:07)? ... Which players could be first rounders in 2026 (1:01:03)? 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, @CPTowers @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

Happy Kokomo Mailbag Friday and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on February 28th. I am Frank Stanfield joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we will get you the latest spring news and stack cast data from Thursday's action. And then your mailbag questions. Chris, I love the shirt, buddy. You got it. You got it right. I mean, I'm going on a little vacation this weekend.

So got a kick off vacation weekend right with some Kokomo Friday. If he got it right with the Hawaiian shirt, then I got it very wrong with the black, the plain black shirt. Everybody on the top of this podcast, Scott, I've got the lights behind me. I tried to change it up for a little Kokomo theme. We're ready. We're ready. But you didn't get the memo. I got the plain black shirt.

I got the very brown and gray room behind me. But you know what? You know what? A little beach painting here. You have a set in a moxedista behind you. Yeah. The one guy who lives in paradise. See, Frank and I have to,

we have to have a tropical mindset to. Actually, it was like, it's been like 50 degrees all week. It was nice today. It's been amazing. I am one of those people now that it like, it gets above 50 and I'm like, it's bring out the shorts, baby.

Yeah, there you go. All right, let's hit some news and notes before we get to your mailbag questions. And first up, cross your fingers. Hope everything's all right. Gunner Henderson was removed from Thursday's game with lower right side soreness. Apparently he suffered the injury while catching a line drive.

He hit the ground pretty hard, and he'll undergo an MRI, but is expected to be fine. I just, I think it was optimistic, a good sign that it didn't come on like a swing, like hurting his oblique or anything. But any concern here with Gunner Henderson. Oh, they did decide he was going to have an MRI. Last I saw, they said he wasn't going to have an MRI. That's just from the CBS player news, Scott, so I could be wrong. Okay. I'll double check because that kind of relieved my concerns that there was no plan for an MRI.

It does sound like it's not a concern from everything that I've seen. And, you know, I don't know how much an MRI costs, but maybe they'll just do it just to make sure. Yeah, everything's saying no MRI, all the beat writers. So, I mean, it could always change if he's, he'll be re-evaluated tomorrow. But as of now, they're saying no MRI for Gunner-Henderson. I'm not inclined to move them down unless we hear of more worrisome news than that. As somebody who has the sixth overall pick in TGFBI, kind of hoping I get Gunner Henderson. So everybody else listening, stay away. He's heard. You don't want to draft him.

By the way, I got the first pick. Two years in a row. I did you. I ran the probability on that. It's less than 1%. In a 15-team league getting the first pick two years in a row. it went horribly for me last year because that first pick was Ronald de Cunia. Yeah. But hopefully it goes better this year.

Good thing the consensus number on overall player is coming back from shoulder surgery. That should look out for you. I think I'm going to take Bobby Witt, but you know, I think Shohei Otani's supposed to make a spring debut Friday. If he hits a bomb in that game, then it'll already get me re-phing.

Actually, I'll be honest. If he steals a base, that would probably be. Even more, yeah. Even more, yeah. Back to the Orioles. Jordan Westberg is dealing with lower back soreness, but is expected to return within a few days. Please be okay.

We can't have another player we love getting hurt. Bryce Harper will return to game action Friday. He left Wednesday after getting hit by a pitch on his right arm. James Wood will serve as the Nationals DH on Friday. It will be his first game action of the spring. He was dealing with left quad tendonitis. Felix Bautista threw approximately 25 pitches Thursday in his second live batting practice session.

Apparently he recorded 30. three strikeouts in seven plate appearances. So, all good news so far for Felix Battista. Carlos Estevez is dealing with a mild lower back tightness. Their manager, Matt Quattraro, believes there's still plenty of time for Estvez to appear in six to seven outings later in camp before the season starts. While we're talking about the Royals bullpen, apparently they plan to use Lucas Ersig in the highest leveraged spots in 2025. Whether that be the ninth for a save opportunity or the same. seventh inning, and that came according to

Anne Rogers, who covers the Royals for MLB.com. So do you do anything to your rankings of Estevez or Lucas Erzig reading that? I'll have to read the full article rather than just the

player update. I want to read the full article, see if I can read a little more nuance in it. But if it is so, that really ninth inning, seventh inning, if it's the highest leverage situation they're going to use Erseg, then it stands to reason that that would most often be the ninth inning, right?

Like normally that's what we say when a manager says he's going to use a certain reliever in this way. And he'll probably get the majority of the saves then. Yeah, I mean, I would think it probably becomes not a committee, but not one guy getting all the saves, right? If it's truly that's how they want to use it. The problem is, how do you figure out what the highest leverage situation is? You can have a high leverage situation in the seventh inning and then use him. And then a higher leverage situation could come up in the ninth inning. So based on nothing else but that, if I was just going to go on that one report, I would guess 6040 or SEG.

But that runs counter to what we expected before that report. So I'm not just going to throw my priors out. completely. Yeah, it sounds almost like the way Rocco Baldelli uses Yon Duran. And it's hard for me to imagine Ursa getting that big of a share of the saves. But yeah, I don't know. Aggregation was the word I was trying to think of before. Yeah, I'm trying to skim through the article now and see if, I mean, that kind of feels like the gist of it, but I'll tweet out the article afterwards and people can read it themselves as well. Zach Netto will not be ready for opening day but should make his season debut soon after that in April.

Nico Horner will not travel with the Cubs to Japan for their two game series starting on March 18th. He's still rehabbing flexor tendon surgery he had back in October. They're saying Horner still has a chance to be ready for the team's domestic season opener on March 27th. Are you guys

moving Netto or Nico Horner knowing they won't be ready for their respective opening days? No, I think that's what we expected. It's certainly for Netto. If anything, this was an optimistic report for him. That sounds like he'll be there, I would imagine, within a week or two of opening day soon afterward.

But for Horner, it seemed like the Tokyo series was always a stretch since it's more than a week earlier. They haven't ruled him out for like the league-wide opening day. It sounds like there's a pretty good chance he'll be ready for the, Right. Real opening day. From what I was reading, sorry, go ahead. Well, I was just going to say, I assume most fantasy leagues aren't even counting the Tokyo series.

So it's irrelevant to them. Yeah, I'm still pretty optimistic about Horner, but I have been all along. I think I'm more optimistic about Horner than Netto. And from what I was reading, it sounds like the main reason Horner won't go to Japan is they want him playing in games. They're still going to have five spring training games. after their season debut, they will not have a lot of major leaguers in them, presumably, but they want Horner to get a few games in before the start of the domestic opening day. And so I think this is a pretty optimistic sign about his chances of being ready.

Brandon Woodruff threw a simulated game of about 30 pitches on Thursday. I feel like there's been some not-so-good news about where his velocity is sitting coming back from shoulder surgery. just such a tough injury to come back from. Do you guys think Woodruff is ready for opening day? Do you target him as a late round option right now? I really don't. The injury has such a poor track record. I think he's going to end up missing most of April. I know that's what the estimate on our site is. I don't know that there's a report that makes it that concrete. But just given how far behind he is, it makes sense. He only went for $5, Brandon Woodruff in our NL only. auction. And it's not like

I was pulling my hair out because I didn't have an extra dollar to go six on him. I was happy to let him go for $5. My expectations are pretty low. Chris, are you ready for the Soda Stream again? Because the A's are open to Tyler Soderstrom serving as their backup catcher this season. He's also- Yeah, that would be cool. He's also projected to be their starting first basemen. So majority of the time, first base, maybe as the backup catcher,

here there. There's a chance we could get catcher eligible Tyler Sotterstrom. Yeah, that would be pretty neat. I've been pretty uninterested in Tyler Sotustrom outside of AOL only leagues because I just, I like him. The standard for catcher is just so much lower. And the standard for first base, even in a relatively weak period for first base, is so much higher. But there are legitimate skills here. I mean, he, you know, didn't play a ton last year, but XBA was two-fay. 40 X slug was 480. Strikeout rate was a very manageable

25%. I think it's a fringy profile at first base, even in a best case scenario where like you're probably looking at a corner infielder. But if he does get catcher eligibility and he's playing pretty regularly at first base, that's a much different thing. And so yeah, I think as a late round target,

especially in a 15 team league, as a bench option, Tyler Sotom, makes a lot of sense just because maybe he becomes a corner infielder, but if he becomes catcher eligible, there could be some real upset there. Yep, that's probably reason enough

to take him ahead of like Kyle Manzardo and maybe even Jonathan Aronda, as much as I like Aronda. Yeah. I've kind of been grouping those three first basement together is just high upside guys who seem like they're at least going to be the better half of a platoon.

But if Soderstrom has a, a good chance of picking up catcher eligibility in those two catcher leagues. That's big. That could be big. I had a chance to read the Lucas Urseg article as Chris was talking. And it seems pretty straightforward that that's how Ann Rogers, the MLB, Beat Writer for the Royals, was laying it out as highest leverage bot, regardless, seventh, eighth or night.

Does that mean we should be taking Erseg ahead of Estevez? Like, do you guys want to go as far as to, to, to, make that switch in your rankings? I think Ercig is the better pitcher. Me too. I mean that when they signed Estavaz. I don't know that I buy it. I don't know that I do either.

I still think based on the money they gave Estabez and his experience as a closer, I think they probably start that way. So here's the thing when you're talking about these kind of reports. There is kind of levels to it, right? there is the manager is quoted as saying, this is how we are going to use this guy. And even if that was the case, this would still be a kind of squishy report.

Because it's like, well, we're going to use them. It's not saying it's not, it is our closer. Right. But it would, that would be something that I would move on. And then there is all indications are or the team plans to use where there's not a direct quote from someone, but it's clear this is from somewhere.

And then there's just this is what I think they will do. And that's informed speculation, certainly. But it's not sourced from anything. So I don't know. I haven't read the report you're talking about. Okay. So this is the key sentence. It's the beat writer's own word.

She says that's what the Royals plan on having the 29-year-old righty do again this year deploying him in the biggest spots in the highest of level. leverage. That might be in the ninth inning for save opportunities or it might come in the seventh or eighth. Having Estevez helps Guatraro be able to do that. So yeah, it sounds like it's the second one where she's not just speaking kind of off the cuff. It sounds like she's actually heard something, but it's not a direct quote either. So I think if nothing else, I got to move down Estevez. Yeah, I think they're both probably outside of the top 200 without it with as much confidence.

Yep. Andrew Benetendee was diagnosed with a fracture right hand and we'll miss four to six weeks. One of, wait for it. Joey Gallo, Austin Slater, or Michael A. Taylor could see time in left field for the White Sox. Matt Veerling is dealing with a right shoulder injury and has not played since Sunday. I saw an update that Wenzell Perez could see more run in the outfield for the Tigers with both Veerling and Parker Meadows banged up at the moment. Some stack has data from Thursday's action. Clay Holmes looked good. Once again, three innings of one hit ball.

He mixed in that new cutter, four seam, and change up once again. Sinker velocity was down 1.8 miles per hour, which I think should be expected going from bullpen to starter. But that's now five one-hit innings so far this spring. Tristan McKenzie, velocity up again, way up, over three miles per hour on his fastball and slider. He got bombed. He recorded two outs. He gave up three runs on one hit and five walks. Yeah, it's the five walks.

He didn't get hit hard. He just couldn't find the strike zone. So, you know, I wrote a like spring training, believe it or not, that came out today, just kind of looking at some early spring storylines. I'm going to be doing that every Friday. And Tristan McKenzie should be on the late round sleeper radar was one of them. And I believe it. And even after this, I believe it.

Because he average 94.5 miles per hour in this outing. That matches the highest he's ever thrown. and he talked about last year, just not feeling comfortable throwing after the elbow injury in 2022, uh, 20, 23, excuse me.

And look, it's not a guarantee that he's going to be good, but I'm still willing to put him in the late round conversation. It's not there are other late round targets that I prefer. Um, he's not a top. I'm not even sure he's a top 300 player for me. But in a 12-team league with a bench spot,

he'll be in the discussion for one of the last players I pick. Back to Clay Holmes for a second. I mentioned I'm in a 15-team Roto slow draft right now over at the NFBC. Clay Holmes went 217th overall. So this is not a points league. It's not like a SPARP situation, but 217 overall in a 15-team roto,

kind of sounds like he's climbing up. People are getting hyped about Clay Holmes. Does that make sense? Yeah, I mean, six shutout innings to begin his transition to the starting role and it expanded Arsenal. I think he threw six total pitches in his last start, five or six. Six, yeah. Six, okay. And ones that seem to be intended to address Chris's concern of him retiring left-handed batterers.

So it makes sense. I mean, I've been high on Holmes. I've had on my sleepers list since. January. So I share in that enthusiasm. I'm trying to see exactly where he... 212? 217. 217. So his...

Yeah, that's up quite a bit. His overall... That still feels a little high. ADP is 291.5. Let me see where I have him ranked. Clay Holmes. I have him... 218. Everybody's living in my world now.

There you go. A couple of stat-cast updates here. Or at least in that one draft, You did. It was a sample of one. Yeah. Calvin Foshay's cutter was down 4.6 miles per hour. His fastball down 3.5 miles per hour compared to last year. Carlos Rodon's

velocity has been down in each of his first two starts. Fastball down 1.7. Slider and curve down 2.8 miles per hour each compared to last year. He's also just looked pretty bad in both of his first two starts, but it's two starts in spring, so maybe it doesn't matter. Giants pitcher Landon Relp

through three scoreless innings with five strikeouts. Not sure he has a path to a rotation spot. His slider was up six miles per hour compared to last year if Stackcast has that one correct. And Anthony Volpey had a home run 110 miles per hour off the bat. Any of those last notes matter? Foshae, Rodon, Landon, Landon, Raup and Volpe. It was the hardest hit ball of Anthony Volpe's major league career. So that's a good sign. And he's one of these guys whose bat speed was up in the second half of last season. didn't really lead to better production. But yeah, there's a chance he's the leadoff hitter for the Yankees.

And he's still young enough that I don't want to say the book is completely written on him. I don't even when he was a top of prospect, he hit like 250 at AA with a decent number of home runs. And I think that's just kind of he has to sacrifice one or the other. And last year he sacrificed and got neither. So I would prefer what he did in the first season. to what he did last year, but I don't want to say that the book is completely finished being written on Anthony Volpe. I don't want to say that either, but at the same time, a 110 mile per hour home run in spring

training is not. Oh, yeah, no, that's still the lowest, that's a relatively low max exit VLO. Yeah, yeah. And I know you weren't saying that. I just wanted to make it clear for the listeners. Can I add a couple of things? Sure, that we haven't talked about yet. One Spencer Steer has not been cleared to begin throwing this spring.

He's dealing with a shoulder injury. It has not limited him from swinging, but sounds like there's some concern about that. And I think he's expected to see a specialist or doctor within the next coming days to just check on it. So that's one to keep an eye on just because that's already a very crowded Cincinnati situation. if Spencer Steer is limited to DH or first base duties, I don't think we're going to see Christian and Carnaccio on Strand at all,

and it's going to make things difficult for Jammer Condolario. So that's one to keep an eye on. And Terry Francona said at the start of spring that the team, he wants Candelario to fit at third base because he thinks the team lines up best that way. So he may have, he didn't directly reference Spencer Steers' situation, but he may have had that in mind. Yeah, and they are crowded in the outfield. Austin Hayes sounds like he's going to play a big role.

So that first base might be the only path for, well, not the only path, but that might be the primary role for Spencer Steer. And then Jordan Romano made his spring debut today. And I know there's been a lot of concern rightly about him coming back from elbow surgery. He looked phenomenal. He struck out the side. The stuff numbers were off the charts. he averaged 96.5 miles per hour with his four seamer and threw a bunch of sliders that got a bunch of wifts.

So who knows how he holds up, but it was a very, very good debut for Jordan Romano. All right. Let's take our first break. Before we do that, thanks to everyone watching us live on YouTube. Make sure to hit that like button and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. We are on the road to 30,000 subscribers. We'll take a break. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. your mailbag questions. Up next, let's take a look at, first up, we have Apple Podcast review questions, so we will start with those. This one's from Andrew Dietz. I play in a six-by-six categories league with OPS instead of batting average, plus extra base hits as the sixth category.

We have three keepers per team. I have four out of the first five picks. That is overkill. But good for you. My keepers are Kyle Tucker, James Wood, and Spencer Shreder on four-year contracts. I'm planning to take Vlad Jr. first overall. The person with the second pick is leaning, Matt Olson. I then want to draft Jackson Trio and Logan Gilbert. Who should I draft as my fourth player in the first round? Remaining players, Freddie Freeman, Pete Alonzo, Kyle Schwerber with outfield eligibility, Trey Turner, Jazz Chisholm, Corbyn, Corny, Burne, Chrisale, Garrett-Crochet.

So remember OPS instead of batting average, and extra base hits is an extra category. I think it's probably between Freeman or Schwerber based on this format. But maybe Burns if you just want to lock up starting pitcher, I don't know. You cut out and who did you say when you cut out? Turner. Turner? Yeah. So the players available, Freddie Freeman, Pete Alonzo, Schwerber, Turner, Jazz Chisholm, Corbyn, Chris, Dale, Gary Crochet.

No, who did you say? Who did you say? Oh, I think. Who was your suggestion? Who's the fell on first? Freeman or Schwerber makes sense. Okay. And then maybe Burns if you wanted starting pitcher.

Schwermer, really? With OPS. With OPS and extra base hits, yeah. Instead of batting. Okay, OPS instead of batting. Yeah, okay. I mean, the problem with Freeman is there was some kind of some discouraging news that came out about him Thursday. He's going to be receiving treatment on his ankle.

He kind of loosely just said through the All-Star break probably. I'm going to get some day it's off. Yeah, could sit some day games after night games. It's enough to make me wonder if. I should slide him down a little, like maybe, maybe behind Matt Olson,

not behind Pielanzo. Sounds like he's going after Olson in your league anyway. So that's a non-issue. Trey Turner, like Trey Turner gives you the speed, obviously, just in typical five-by-five rankings.

I know Trey Turner is my highest-ranked player here. But the switch from batting average to OPS and extra base hits, he's not going to be great in that. Why not Jazz Chisholm? he's not a great OPS bat. I mean, he's not a good batting average bat, so I don't know if this necessarily is a bad for him,

but has he ever broken an 800 OPS for a full season? I assume he had over an 800 OPS last year, didn't he? 760. Yeah, that's amazing, given the power he hit for with the Yankees. It was 825 with the Yankees. Still, I mean, I don't think you need to remake the whole thing because of one category. He's not any more of a liability.

in OPS than he is in batting average for where he's being picked and he gives you great production in the other categories I don't know it's not I don't think there's a straightforward answer but I kind of lean Schwerber you lean Schwaber

I don't know I don't know if that's I don't know I mean his biggest liability is replaced by two legitimate strengths Yeah, he was an 851 OPS last year, 817 and 23, 827 and 22. But that was with the lower batting average. I feel like Chisholm could do the 820 if Schwerber settles at that mark again. But it would be a career year.

I think we're expecting a career year from Jess Chisholm. I'm going to say Chisholm. I'm going to say Schwabes. I think I still think I would go Freeman, but if I had to choose... I could go Burns also. Yeah. I if I'm choosing between here two I would go Schwerber but I'm also down at pitcher yeah he's got to wait for strider you're gonna need an ace and strider certainly won't be that in April and probably won't be that in May

so I I might go Burns does does Freeman the possibility have because he's such a workhorse he's always been a workhorse he missed some time last year he was away because his his kid was sick so only played 147 games but he's pretty much right at 160 otherwise every year. That's a big part of Freeman's appeal. And if he's going to have these periodic rest days, I just

I don't exactly know how to value him because that's taking such a big strength of his away for fantasy. I think he's still a third rounder but I don't think he's a second rounder anymore. Yeah, I'm going to go with Freeman. So I'm not sure how much we actually helped you, but we give you three different answers.

This one is from Lurch, 948, trying to narrow down my last keeper between Tyler Glassnow to Oscar Hernandez and Jordan Westberg. It was pretty perfect that Scott's phone went off right as you said Lurch. Frank, you won't get

this reference, but you rang. That's a reference to a very old TV show. Is that Adam's family? Is that what it is? No, he's the Munster's Butler. Oh, he is the Adams family. Ah. I got confused.

Take that, Chris. Look at that. Frank got a reference. So who do you guys like? Glass now, say Oscar Hernandez or Toroen-Westberg? Last keeper. Without any other context here, I'm going to say to Oscar Hernandez. If there's a need to think longer term than that, I could see going Westberg over him.

But I'm going to say to Oscar Hernandez based on the information I have. Agreed. This one is from Isaac. What's up? Kevin, James, and Russell. not Kevin James Well I know who Kevin James is Two different names Kevin comma James

comma Russell God that makes me feel old man Those those three guys haven't played together In like what 13 14 years Oh yeah there you go Okay C man man How about that I play in a 5 by 5 categories league

OPS instead of batting average That seems to be a theme today There you go I have the third overall pick Based on league talk I know Otani and Witt are going one and two I'm currently watching the Red Spring Training game and Ellie Dela-Cruz is two for two with two home runs. Is there a case to be made for Ellie over judge?

His stolen bases almost win you the category every week, and if what he said about changing his batting stance is true, he could hit close to 40 home runs. Also, tell Scott to grow a beard. Listen. That's good. The whole beard thing. Actually, I had someone sent in some great photo.

They're not great, but they were funny photoshops of you with beards, and I was supposed to add them and I forgot to do it. So, you know. I like the Mike Fires one especially. A few, a few, first of all, the whole beard thing is gone on too long. I've said that before. That's not a new take. As for me personally with the beard.

Fine, I'll trim, geez. I will say, I've never seen my dad without a beard. He has had a beard my whole life. So the beard is very much normalized in my life. The beard is not weird. I can't grow a beard like that. that. I can do fine in the gouty area, but along the sides of the face, it's just too sparse. I don't believe you, Scott. I think you need to do it for us to believe you.

So that's the first thing. Second thing, I have a nice, well-defined jawline. I don't feel like I'm somebody who needs a beard. Wow. Wow. Wow. Like, that's what they always say, right? If you don't have a defined jaw line, that's a good reason to grow a beard. If you do, then, you know, show off that jaw line. I got the good jaw line. I got the good jaw line. line. Why would I try to hide it? That's it. All right. What was the baseball question? That was some hate.

I don't know. What was it hate? How was that hate? I feel your hate. I'm trying to quickly make a focus. I'm trying to quickly make a Photoshop with all of these Scott White images on here while also hosting the podcast. No, I don't think you should take L.A. Dela Cruz ahead of Aaron Judge. I think that would be like the dictionary definition of overthinking it. Like, yeah, maybe he changes his batting stance and hits 40 home runs.

Maybe the same thing that happened to Corbyn Carroll happens to him and he screws up his swing and he's terrible. You know, like that, Ellie did a cruise hits two home runs sometimes in three games. That'll happen. Yeah, his swing is much shorter. His swing looks much shorter. I'm having a hard time resisting the excitement for him to the point that, I don't know. If I had the fourth or fifth pick,

I might think about taking him, even though my more analytical side is inclined to put him ninth. But over Aaron Judge, that's what he's suggesting. And in an OPS league, that seems... I mean, that would in theory help Ellie De La Cruz as well. But...

But not like... Aaron Judge has had a 1,200 OPS two of the last three years. And the other one was like 1100. Yeah. Like, I think this is overthinkings. it. I think it's mystery box. Just take the boat. All right. I'm still kind of working on this Photoshop here, but maybe we can

come back to it. I'll get it exported and then I'll pull it up later on in the podcast. Let's get into your email questions. This one is from Garrett, dear Canerco, Thomas, and Allen. I mean, I know Paul Allen is a person. Yeah, he was one of the founders of Microsoft. Is Paul Thomas someone? I was assuming Paul Canerco Frank Thomas, but then I don't know who Alan is. Yeah, that's that.

I don't know. Oh, uh, uh, Dick Allen? Was he a white sock? Was he ever on the white socks? No, uh, yeah, he was on the white socks for three seasons. Uh, he won't MVP. Yeah, he did. I think he's just white socks who have led the league in home runs.

I don't know what the, what the connections. specifically, but these are clearly white stock sluggers. I think we got the right three people at least. I'm sticking with Microsoft founder, Paul Allen, and that is clearly the movie director, Paul Thomas Anderson, but this guy is just very familiar with him, so he doesn't have to go by all three names. I realize now that I didn't read the question. I know you don't dig into keepers, but wanted to ask a strategy question.

We have a two-keeper league where the players you keep represent the pick where you drafted them in the following year for this upcoming draft. I have Jackson Maryland the 19th and Catele Marte in the 9th so I don't need advice on who I'm keeping. I won the league last year and also received the first overall pick this season. The rich get richer. I'm curious with a build like that

and having amazing value in bats already, would you consider going pitchers a bit earlier than you otherwise would? I know Scott has mentioned a few times. He waits until the 9th or 10th to grab his first pitcher. I've started to really like builds where I go hitters at one at the end the two three turn

but go pitchers back to at the three four turn before adding more bats so I mean I think this is a pretty unique I think I've waited to round eight before I don't know that I've waited to round nine and that's not the norm either to wait that long just to clear a few things up

look if you like those builds go for it it's your team I mean it it might work my recommendation though would be to to still take advantage of getting strong The whole idea is I want the highest impact hitter I can at each position, and then I go for pitchers once I think all the stud hitters are gone. You have a head start with stud hitters. That's great.

It means you can get even more. So that's probably, did he didn't say what scoring format it was, though, did he? Did not. Yeah. It's easier to say that in a points league, the plan I just laid out. In a roto league where you're trying to achieve that perfect balance,

I think there's probably, or a dead categories league. There's probably a greater argument for taking a stud pitcher. If it's truly a stud pitcher, I don't know what pitchers are being kept, though. Well, that's the thing is when you're talking about a keeper league and you say, well, three, four turns a little early for a pitcher, well, Cotel Martin Jackson, Merrill are two of the players who are off the board. I assume there are roughly 24 other players from the first four-round range who would not be on the board. So that three, four turn is more like the five, six turn in terms of the

talent that's available. So that's a perfectly fine time to be taking a pitcher, especially because you're going to have, well, the best players aren't being kept, though, is the thing. It's, it's value players being kept. Players, presumably, sure, like these guys, players who were taken later last year. But they are, I would say more or less, you're going to. to have most of the players kept will be top 50 types. I would guess there are a number of true first round bats still available in the draft. And you should at least make sure those are taken before you veer toward pitchers. Yes.

But what I'm saying is like the class of player who's likely to be available at the three, four turn is going to look more like the class of player who's typically available in the four, five. Okay. And if you don't take pitchers in the first four, four picks in this build, effectively you're going to have six, your first six picks will have been spent on hitters. That's not technically true because it'll be your ninth and 19th, but you will have six hitters worthy of your first four picks. And so it's not to say it's

overkill. Having good hitters is great. And hitter production is more strongly correlated with winning a Roto League and all those things. But I would be very inclined to take it. one pitcher with my first three or four picks here. All right, before we get to the next email, I do, I have these Scott facial hair photoshopps ready to go here. This is from a listener, Evan, who emailed them in. Thank you for sending them.

So for those watching on YouTube, you get to see the glorious images here. So I'll try to describe them for those listening. On the top left, we have Scott with a Spencer Strider mustache. Yeah, that's a strider. The top right, we have, this is Scott. Blackman, so Charlie Blackman beard. On the bottom left,

that thing just looks. We have a Mike Fires. I'm just going to call it a Mike Fires because I don't know how else to describe it. And then the bottom right. A beard on half his face like that? He did it for like one start. I don't know if he lost a bet. Yeah, it was insane. Bottom right is Danny

Espinoza. You so rocked this. Sure. And so it's a big burly mustache thing. Like a Doug Jones. You remember that guy? that's that's the mustache Doug Jones had ask your parents about him so the the strider and what was the last one the Danny espinoza the strider and the espinoza like look okay on my face but I can't I can't grow that yeah I was like the strider looks pretty good Scott I think you could pull it off man yeah

all right so but I can't grow it I mean Spencer strider looks like 80% of the dudes in in my neighborhood him Bushwick. I was going to say, if Scott grows one of those out, he has to move to Brooklyn. There's no other choice after that. This next one's from Travis. Question, are we reaching a bit for Kyle Schwerber this year if he's batting in the two or three spot? Are we reaching a bit for Kyle Schwerber? I mean, I get the idea because moving down in the lineup, you lose plate appearances, but the difference between the first and the second spot in the lineup is going to be 15 to 20 played appearances. The difference between the first and the third is going to be 30 to 40s. So he might lose 5% of his plate appearances at the highest end.

The shape of his production will be different. You'd have to account for that. Like if you're counting on him to score 100 plus runs, maybe it's more like he drives in 100 plus and scores 90, but I really don't think you should downgrade him at all. And the other thing, which I brought up before, is just because they say that's the plan going in, doesn't mean they're going to stick with it.

It's the same manager. It's the same personnel. it's very likely he'll say at some point, eh, I liked the way it was looking before we changed and put Tray Turner at the top. So go back to Schwab. And it's the kind of thing where the first time there's like a four-game losing streak, that's the first thing you change, right? Yep.

Yep. Fun side question here from Travis. Not sure if you guys collect baseball cards, but if money wasn't an option, who would you invest in? Honest Wagner. That's probably the right answer. If money wasn't an option. So, I mean, you're talking about like a...

He said money wasn't an option. It was a great answer. Low-end guys, like young guys who are likely to have Hall of Fame careers. Yeah. Paul Skeen's Jackson Cheerio, Jackson Merrill. Yeah. The first name I thought of was Christian Campbell. But that's like thinking, I guess, a little bit further out.

Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Bobby Witt. If you could get Bobby Witt rookie cards. Yeah. It seems like a good idea. Seems like a pretty good way.

I'm not really a car. I mean, I collected cards as a kid. They are long gone. I have no idea where those are. I have enough bad habits when it comes to collecting things, so I'm going to stay away from the cards. I still have all my cards from when I was a kid. And because my generation heard from the previous generation

about how they put all their Mickey Mantle cards in bicycle spokes, and they'd be worth thousands of dollars today. And so my generation was like, well, we're not going to do that, except we all decided we're not going to do that. So their value is. Your cards aren't worth anything. Yeah. My kids started collecting baseball cards. They're really into it.

Not so much for the value aspect, but just to possess players and be able to arrange lineups of them and that sort of thing. My seven-year-old just today was looking at the bet. He was examining his Paul Goldschmidt card closer. And he was marveling at. how good of a career Paul Goldschmidt has had and reading out a lot of the numbers. And I was like, yeah. Might be a Hall of Famer.

Well, I think certainly a Hall of Famer. And I knew Paul Goldschmidt had a great career, but he's there reading the numbers out loud. And it's like, wow, that is even better than I remembered. Sky, you need to get your kids to understand the value of these cards as an investment. All right? It's never too early to start grinding and hustling. Yeah.

Yeah. probably not. I've got to get back to my parents and find the Pokemon cards. I swear I have one of those charades hard somewhere. I have no idea where they are. We have lots of those too. Frank, I have an answer to your question.

I have no idea who I'm going to take in the prospect's draft of the Scott White Dynasty League. We're in the third round and like, I was at a comedy show, by the way. I was at a comedy show yesterday. And I made my pick. And I was like furiously searching.

And I picked someone that I, I don't even remember. Ty Johnson. It was a fine pick. Yeah, it's a fine pick. I don't know. Yeah. I've never heard of that guy.

Well, you've got 15 minutes to research, Chris, if you want to make it by the end of this podcast. There was another raised pitcher who I don't think has been taken. There's two. The Welsh just took a raised pitcher, I think. No,

that wasn't the one I was looking at. All right. Yeah, I guess there was three note worthy raise pictures. I mean, it's possible that I was just talking about guy who's not noteworthy. I think you're just taking nothing but raise pitchers. I do have two raised pitchers so far, yes. Yeah, that's your whole strategy. I don't know about that. All right, let's take our final break. When we return, rapid fire. We've got to get through some questions right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today, answering your mailbag questions.

This one is from Mike. You guys have done a great job identifying later round targets, but I find myself not liking any of the available players in the middle rounds. Who are some players you like in the middle rounds of a 12-team league. Let's say rounds 10 through 13, picks 109 through 156. I wrote about this question for tomorrow's Fantasy Baseball Today newsletter. Doing a little mailbag. So if you want to send your questions in,

they may get answered on the Fantasy Baseball Today newsletter. So I've got six names in the 109 to 156 range in ADP. Let's go. Go for it and I'll add some that you don't. You would like to hear them. Okay, good. Grayson Rodriguez, number 112.9 in NFBC ADP in the month of February. Royce Lewis, 116.2.

I love that price. Boba Chet is moving up. He's up to 121.9. Still think that's a terrific value. Still well within that range, yeah. The Zach Gallen hate has gone too far. His ADP in the month of February is down to 129.3. I get it.

But come on, guys. This was like a top 60 pick a year ago. Anyway, Brian Wu, love the upside here. I think there's like, just in terms of skill set, and I think, you know, Sarah has also made this comp. It feels a little like baby Zach Wheeler with the approach and with the skill set and with the stuff. And it's just a question of whether he can stay upright,

but I think Brian Wu's going to dominate. And then, A. E. E. H. H.S. Scott, I can feel y'all hate. gives you focus makes you stronger before the podcast these guys were just ripping off Star Wars quote

I was sharing with Chris my highly controversial highly controversial opinion that episode 3 is the best Star Wars I mean look I recorded a three hour podcast with Nick Pollock about the last Jedi

so I'm here for Star Wars hot takes we don't need to talk about that that sequel trilogy but episode three is the most quotable Star Wars movie, not always for the right reasons. And then we immediately started quoting it back and forth to each other because it's demonstrably true. So yes. Yeah. So Boba Chet obviously is the best value in this range. If, if, my gosh. Otherwise, I'm mostly finding pitchers here that I like, which is, which fits within my strategy of this is, toward the end of the good glob.

So I'm loading up on pitchers here. I'm taking Joe Ryan if I need whip help. I'm taking Justin Steele if I need anything. I think he's a steal at this point in the draft. 131.8 in the month of February for Justin Steele. Also disrespectful. Yeah, he might be the best pitcher value, just period. Jack Flaherty, I think the hate for him's gone a little too far.

Just look at last year's numbers again. They will surprise you. His stuff looked fine in his start today. They did. It did. I like Brandon Nemo in this range. I think he's undervalued. Again, just kind of throughout the batting average for last year.

And how far down did you say? Pick what? 156. Nico Horner and Alec Boomer right there, 155 and 156 on fantasy pros. And they're good batting average sources when they're hard to find. All right. Some names for me, Jason Dominguez, Jared Jones, Dylan Cruz, Zander Bogartz, Boba, Chessette, Justin Steele, and Stephen Kwan in a head to head points league I do like in that range.

I will say, man, for a guy who was supposed to be a center fielder, Jason Dominguez looks so uncomfortable in the outfit. I don't know what happened. It's bad. But he misplayed another ball today where he just like, he looked like me in softball. Three of those already in spring. Yeah, he just like looks so uncomfortable. It's wild.

Well, the Yankees might have their answer at DH with Stanton Hurt to start the season. All right guys, rapid fire. 10 minutes left. This one's from John. I know you all really like Jordan Westberg this year, but would love to know where you think he should be drafted in a 12-team daily lineup roto, no corner, no middle, and we use OBP instead of batting average. We'd also be interested in knowing what you think his run slash RBI number look like this year. I'm tempted to just wait 120 picks and take some combination of India, Shaw, or Brandon Lau. I guess instead of Jordan Westberg. What do you think? I guess the makes you stronger line was for me. Return of the Jedi, wasn't it? No.

It is from episode three. Yeah, I think it's when Anacons, it might be. I'm not sure now. Ian McDermott is at his best in episode three. That's okay. He's throwing a hundred. I forget what the question was. I'm sorry.

Jordan Westberg in OBP. Uh, yes, he's worse. He's worse. He's worse. I would probably put him a tier lower. Uh, yeah. And like, we like him a lot.

He did have better walk rates in the minors for the most part. It kind of took a turn in 2023. Early on, his minorly career was more like 11%, 10% walk rates. Since then, it's been significantly lower, more closer to 8 to 7%. So that's a little concerning. And obviously it was below 5% last year. So I think in an OBP league, he's certainly lower.

And you could talk, you could make the art. argument that like what's the difference between brandon law and jordan westberg in an o bp league right because the o bps should be fairly similar it's eight to 15 stolen bases which is significant but is that worth 120 spots in ADP i don't know how to do the rapit by your answer like i do chris you don't know you let off your answer with star wars quotes again it is episode three i have confirmed well i think he says give into your anger and and return of the track. All that angered stuff, yeah.

This next question is from Hugh. I play in a weekly head-to-head points league. We do not have a starting pitcher or relief pitcher requirement. We only start seven pitchers. How would that impact your draft and lineup decisions in season? Would you start as many closers as you can? And weeks where you have a good two-star pitcher mix those in. I find myself stuck in between the last few seasons.

I will have a great starting pitcher like Sale, Regens, or Cease last year. But their two-star impact is minimal these days. and sometimes those closers score more in a week for me than a one-star guy like Chris Sale. No. If it uses standard CBS point scoring, no. I just think I'd abandon closers altogether. It's possible that some closers could be worth starting over or starting pitchers for the course of the season. I just think you're going to be horrible at predicting who that'll be.

A manual Class A seems like a pretty safe bet. But I just think I, unless he falls tremendously, I just, just think I'd avoid it altogether and work in as many starting pitchers as I can. Approach it like I would any head-to-head points league, but just forget closers altogether. This one is from Brett. Are there any post-hype or young players that you think could be a greater keeper lottery tickets to ride out a season? My initial thought would be a Kobe Mayo.

Originally, I was thinking Andrew Painter, but I think he's not as primed for playing time this season. My league is pretty invested and has a good eye for talent with most, uh, most young or high-end players off the board. Any thoughts on end of the draft cheap keepers would be appreciated? So I would actually think Andrew Painter kind of makes perfect sense for this because if you're looking at him specifically as a keeper, his 2025 value is likely to be sort of muted, right?

Like he won't make his debut until July. Who knows if there will be a rotation spot for him in July? but 2026 should be all systems go. And he is, if it wasn't for the injury, I think he would be the top pitching prospect of baseball. I mean, yeah, I think most any prospect who is on the verge of graduating would be perfect for this, Roman Anthony, obviously Christian Campbell. Yeah, those guys who were not sure if they're going to debut early.

Right. So Bubba Chandler, Quinn Matthews. Yeah. Maybe they get pushed up in your league, or maybe you can't load up on so many of them because it would hamstring you in the short term. I get that. But post-type guys, you know, you can't be sure they're going to help you in the shit. Like if we were sure they were going to help you in the short term, then they would rank higher than the late rounds. Some post-type guys, I look at like Noel V. Marte.

You mentioned Kobe Mayo already. Chase the Lodder feels kind of. Chaste the Lodder was the one I was thinking of, yeah. He's the Lodder. Sure. I mean, he's still a top prospect, but maybe he's a little post-type at this point. Jordan Lawler. Yeah, that's a good one.

I mean, he's a top 10 prospect, but I think everyone's kind of tired of him. Yeah, I think a lot of those names make sense. A similar question to the last one. This one is from Ryan. I play in a 12-team 5-5-Roto auction keeper, one-year keeper limit. No AL Central.

What did the AL Central 2 to you? That's just get rid of them. Get rid of all those players. Could you go over a list of players to stash that could be flipped at the trade deadline? I'm thinking injured or suspended players that go for discounts at the draft and will be, and we'll provide great keeper value. So Strider, Mania, Painter, etc. I'm looking to trade them to tanking owners for their stars down the line.

You know, it's weird. The first name that came to mind was Shane Bieber, but there's no AL Central. Yuri Perez. No AL Central. Yeah, Yuri Perez. Andrew Painter. Andrew Painter. We're just going to keep citing him.

Yeah. Yeah, I was going to say Bieber and John Means, but they're both on the Guardians. Bradish should be back later in the season. Kyle Bradish, Orioles, and looked like one of the best pitchers in the world when he was healthy last year. Uh-huh.

It's a fair one. It's mostly pitchers like that, right? Hitters, I mean, Zach Netto doesn't feel that discounted that it's going to be a great advantage to stash him. Yeah, I think that pretty much covers it. Bieber would be the best one, but well, Yuri Perez,

probably from a keeper context, would be the best one. Yep. This was from Kevin, Ahoi, Andrew, Gregory, and Starling. Oh, those would have been Pirates outfielers from a decade ago? Yeah, is this like the Pirates Outfield the last time they made the playoffs? McCutche and Polanco and Marte, yeah.

I think so. Might have been. I was randomly watching the last Pirates playoff win. I had completely forgotten Justin Morneau was on the Pirates that year. Did not remember that. Totally random. Yeah, I play in a 10 team hedge head points league on ESPN

and have noticed some massive discrepancies in their ADPs compared to CBS, fantasy pros, and even your rankings. Most notably, Jazz Chisholm in the 10th, Ellie and Julio in the 7th, and Corey Seeger in the 5th. I know there's bound to be some variance based on platform and format, but this seems insane to me. How far are you willing? to let them slide, taking advantage of the discount before the risk of losing them.

No, this is appropriate. And he explains why in the rest of his email. The scoring is different, and it makes a huge difference. In two significant ways on the hitting side, steals are worth one point instead of the two, like on CBS. So that crushes base Steelers. Strikeouts, I mentioned this before, strikeouts worth a full minus one instead of just minus a half on CBS.

So that cuts the pool, the pool of usable players in half. And you can see how somebody like Ellie and Jazz Chisholm, guys with big strikeout issues and the strength is they steal a lot of bases, you can see how it absolutely destroys them in that scoring format. I think it's a bad scoring format. But it is the scoring format you've chosen. So you just have to understand that player values are going to be different. He didn't mention this, but I believe I've also seen this with ESPN that they wore 10 points per save as opposed to seven. And so closers tend to go really high in ESPN points leagues, which would change a lot of the analysis I've given on drafting closers and points leagues, including from a question earlier on the show here, if that guy happens to play in a standard scoring ESPN league. Yeah.

I have, let's see, I could pull this up, I think. pretty quickly. The scoring system is five points for a save on ESPN. That's a standard. Hmm. I thought it was... Two points for a win,

minus two for a loss. Interesting. What are innings? Three, but you get one per strikeout. Okay. Maybe they changed it since I last saw for saves because there were too many complaints or something, or maybe I just had it wrong

in the first place. Yeah. So I did run this point system on the Fangraph's auction calculator using ATC projections. Julio Rodriguez came out as the 36th best hitter. Ellie De LaCruz was 47th and Jazz was 66th. And again, that's only for hitters.

That's not all players. So they do lose quite a bit of value in that format. From David, I just finished listening to your pod on auction leagues. I have participated in quite a few. And one of my nomination strategies, especially at the beginning, is to nominate players who are injured or injury prone. I know I won't buy them and they may well cost their purchasers more than they return. This year, DeGrom, Shrider, Acuna, Trout, and Felix Bautista were on my list.

Yeah, I mean, if there's a type of player or a list of players you don't like and don't want to spend your money on, I think nominating them is fine. Whether it's guys who are injured or I think that's a perfectly reasonable strategy. And if that's, if those are the players you've decided you don't want, that's fine. I don't necessarily agree with that. I think sometimes if they're nominated at the right point. an injury prone player can come at a really nice discount. You don't want too many of them, obviously, but I could see taking Trout in an auction league

because he goes for 60% of his expected value. I think the hope is if you do it early on when people have money, they'll still wind up spending more than they should. But, yeah, I mean, obviously, if it happens later on in the draft and that's the point where everyone's kind of slowing down, then maybe they come in. a discount. So it's, again,

auctions, it's just such a feel thing too, like within the draft and knowing when to throw players out that you don't want. This last one is from Jeff. What player who is currently not a first round pick is most likely to be a first round pick in 26? Chris, I believe you wrote

an article about this exact thing. Yeah, I'm going to try to pull it up. I mean, it's probably Churrio. He's borderline first round now. So maybe that's too easy. It's probably him. I think Jackson Merrill could. Yeah, he could.

He's got a Ron. Lawrence Butler could. Lawrence Butler made my list. Jackson Surrey and Jackson Merrill both made my list. Wyatt Langford made my list. James Wood maybe. James Wood was on there. Louis Robert technically could.

I don't see it happening. But he's, it's within the realm of possibility for him. And of course, you could say guys who've been first rounders in the not so distant past like Corey Seeger. Ron McCona. Tray Turner, me. Yeah. O'Conia is probably the. real answer, right?

Jazz Chisholm. I can see a world in which Jacob de Grom pitches 170 innings and is our first rounder next year. It's not likely. Garret Crochet. Garra Crochet, Lawrence Butler,

and then Trey Turner was one of the last guys I put on there. Also, I put Roki Sasaki there. That's probably not going to happen, though. It's too cute, Chris. You got too cute in your own article. Thank you. All right, Chris.

These cherub cheeks. Chris, are you making the pick? What do we got? Hidden by a beard. No, man, I don't know. Oh, you're telling me you didn't use this entire podcast. It's just research which prospect you wanted to take in Scott White's dynasty. I've been thinking about Star Wars quotes.

All right. Well, I tried. Was the cherub cheeks thing, a Star Wars quote? No, that's just a reference to my chair of cheeks. That are hidden by a beard so nobody can enjoy it. No, we see them. They sit atop the beard. Scott, you can't win this one, man.

We need the strider stash at least. It's not going to happen. All right, well, I tried. You tried. We tried. We're going to wrap there. For Scott and Chris, I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today.

Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow with a bonus podcast. Bye-bye.