Fantasy Baseball Today - H2H Categories Mock Draft Recap; Tons of Moves! (2/4 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: February 4, 2021

H2H Categories Mock Draft Results- https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/2021-fantasy-baseball-draft-prep-head-to-head-categories-mock-for-those-who-play-yahoo-h2h/ We have a bunch to get to but first, who would win in an arm wrestling match? Scott or Frank? ... We have movement! Nelson Cruz has re-signed with the Twins (2:44). Should he be the first UTIL-only bat off the board? ... Alex Colome has also signed with the Twins (8:39). How will they distribute their saves between Colome and Taylor Rogers? ... In other bullpen news, we have Joakim Soria to the Diamondbacks and Sean Doolittle to the Reds (13:40). WHO CLOSES FOR EACH TEAM? ... Kolten Wong signed with the Brewers, which means Keston Hiura is moving to first base (17:00)! ... Chris Archer re-signed with the Rays while the Phillies added Matt Moore and Chase Anderson (19:50). ... On to our H2H Categories mock draft (26:59)! What's the general approach in this format? ... Scott and Frank both chose to punt steals on offense, but who did it better (34:10)? ... On the pitching side, Frank went with a pseudo Marmol Strategy known as the "2x4" while Scott went more balanced (42:10). ... Jameson Taillon was on the podcast with Danny and Will yesterday and his this to say about his mechanics and velocity (52:33). We end the podcast answering your questions! ... Email us at [e-mail]. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank, @AdamAizer Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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. I drive, center field, and swing. This is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam.

I often say there are many ways to win in fantasy baseball. That's especially true in head-to-head categories league. Welcome to Fantasy Baseball today. on Thursday, February 4th, Frank Stamphill joined as always by Scottie Dubs, Scott White. You know Scott, last night in my Q&A in the Facebook group, a gentleman named Slate Invest asked who would win in an arm wrestling match between you and me. Now, have you seen us? Anyone out there watching, you've probably seen a picture of us or a video of us somewhere.

We're not really the most physically imposing human being Scott and myself. I think we can confidently say that. play fantasy baseball, we play video games. I mean, that's pretty much all you need to know. Honest opinion, Scott, you and me, mono-imano, who wins in an arm wrestling match? You? You think so? Oh, yeah. Without a doubt. I kind of feel like you got this like Bruce Banner, Incredible Hulk thing, just like waiting to be on leash, and you'll take it out on me in an arm wrestling match. A skinny man strength? Um, no. No. No. No. No. I don't think so. I don't think. I've never done a pull-up before, Frank.

That's not true. It's true. All of it. All right. Well, people don't want to hear about our physical fitness. I think we probably have talked about that too much. I thought it was an interesting question. I didn't know the answer. I said, probably me, but I think Scott might have something a little bit, you know, deep down inside, some kind of whatever. Yeah. Probably not. Probably not. Today on the podcast will be recap, a head-to-head categories mock draft that we did last night, two nights ago now when you're listening to this. But even if you don't play in that format, we had lots of signings with fantasy implications.

Plus, Jameson-Tayone was on the podcast yesterday with our friends Danny Vietti and Will Middlebrooks. So there was an interesting quote that I pulled regarding his mechanics and his velocity. We'll hear that later on in the podcast. And of course, your questions. I keep saying we're going to get to your questions. Today's going to happen.

We're going to get to your questions. We have some Apple podcast review stuff. We also have some of your emails, fantasy baseball, at cbsi.com. But let's just jump right into some of these news items, Scott. I think the biggest news of the past couple of days is Nelson Cruz, returning to the Minnesota Twins on a one-year $13 million deal. Cruz is now 40 years old, will turn 41 in July. His 992 OPS was eighth best among qualified hitters in 20.

He hit 16 home runs in 53 games. That's a 45 home run pace over 150 games. The ADP for Cruz is 83.8. Scott, you have Cruz ranked inside your top 70 players in both roto and head-to-head points. And you're going back to the well once more, eh? Oh, yeah. And I originally had him ranked higher.

I think I had him ranked in my top 60. I just felt compelled to drag him down some because it was going to be this insane reach based on how long he was lasting in drafts and I didn't want to send anybody down the wrong path by doing that. I have every amount of confidence in Cruz he's particularly going back to a situation

where he's familiar where we know they're not going to do any weird things with his playing time. Like the twins have a lot of question marks up and down their lineup actually and he's probably the most bankable hitter they have. So they need him, they know what he has to.

offer. He was as studly as ever last year. I've seen some people try to make the case that because the strikeout rate was a little up last year and the exit velocity was a little down last year, maybe that was the beginning of a decline for Cruz. But we're talking marginal difference in both areas over a very small sample. I'm going to trust the much larger track record, especially since, I mean, the base numbers were still incredible. Well, let me ask you this, Scott. We often talk about these Util only bats and how there are a lot of them and we're excited for the Nelson Cruz is and J.D. Martinez. You're on Alvarez. John Carlos Stanton is Nelson Cruz the first util only bat that you would take in drafts? I think it's actually J.D. Martinez.

Ha ha. But I, between him, Yorden Alvarez and Nelson Cruz, I, I, like, ideally I want to get the last of those three, whoever it ends up being. You know, I don't like being. I don't like being. the one who has to decide. But J.D. Martinez has a very strong track record himself. I'm trusting in his excuse last year about video access. I'm trusting there will be more video access available to players this year and that he can get back to being the guy he's always been. But is that more or less of a risk factor than Nelson Cruz's 40, 41 years of age?

I don't know. I'm torn on that. I can't say for sure. that's getting really old for Nelson Cruz, but there aren't clear signs of decline yet. There may not be signs before the bottom just falls out. It's not always a gradual thing. So it's, you know,

I just said I have every confidence in Cruz, but I'm also a realist. I mean, I can't say for sure that this won't be the end for him. So which of those risk factors do you find the less risky? I mean, I'm Lena J.D. Martinez for now, but I could be talked out of it.

Jordan Alvarez, obviously he has the risk factor of the the knees, the surgery on both knees, right? Yep, that's dual knee surgery. Yep. Which hopefully corrects the ongoing pain he's felt. He was dominant playing through it. It's worth pointing out.

But, you know, that's a pretty big risk factor itself. And that one strikes me as the riskiest of the three, actually, even as young as Jordan Alvarez is. But ultimately, I hope someone else can make that decision for me, because I think they're all probably, they're all capable of second round production for like,

you know, eighth, ninth round price tag. Yeah, you know, it's interesting you bring up Yudan Alvarez and now he might be the riskiest.

He's 23 years old. He just had dual knee surgery. So I wonder if it's one of those like space jam situations where Nelson Cruz kind of like stole Yudan Alvarez. Not his talent, but basically took his knees.

Like they swapped knees. So now Yuron Alvarez has like these 41-year-old knees. And Nelson Cruz has, has these 23-year-old needs, and that's how he's been able to sustain this type of production. But whatever the case, yeah, like there is risk with all three of Cruz, J.D. Martinez, and Euron Alvarez. But I think where they're going in drafts,

they're upside. What they present is worth taking the risk at that point in the draft. Absolutely. Like, that is my number one priority. I shouldn't say that. But it is a top priority in every draft I'm apart of to get one of those three because I love the value. It's just, you know, parsing,

between the three. I think it comes down to what you find riskiest. Yeah, you're splitting hairs. And you brought back the in-game video situation for J.D. Martinez. And I brought this up a couple of weeks back. Maybe it was a month ago now. But I read this from a Ken Rosenthal article back in September on the Athletic. And he wrote that the MLB is expected in 2021 to introduce a system in which players can access video on iPads during games. but with the signs, with pitching signs edited out to prevent illegal sign stealing. So they won't have a station that they can go to, which is what they used to do in the past, but they will be able to watch their in-game video on iPad.

So that should help guys like J.D. Martinez, Javier Baez, who complained about it, if that's actually the reason why they struggled in 2020. Scott, you mentioned a small contingent of people that are worried about Nelson Cruz's strikeout rate being up, his ground ball rate, 46%. That was also a career high to go along with his 27% strikeout rate. I'm actually one of those people where I'm a little bit worried about it. Couple that with the age. I still really like him if he falls to a certain point in the draft.

But I actually prefer Yerdon Alvarez of the three. But again, it comes down to your risk tolerance for those three players. Let's stick with the Minnesota Twins as they signed Alex Colomay to a one-year, $5 million deal. There's some kind of incentives or a buyout situation where this could go up to like $6.5 million. and there's also a $5.5 million option for 2022. Colomé just finished as the number three relief pitcher in Head to Head Ed Points Leagues, the number eight relief pitcher in Roto.

I keep waiting for Alex Colomé to fall off due to his lack of strikeouts. And there's all these underlying numbers that kind of say Alex Colomé is not as good as he really is. But the truth is this. Since 2016, Colomay has a 262 ERA, a 1.11 whip. with 138 saves. That's the third most saves during that span. So, I mean, we could keep waiting for Alex Colomey to fall off,

but he's actually been pretty reliable amongst closers, which saying that is no easy task nowadays. What I will add to this is Lavelle Neal, who covers the Twins for the Star Tribune, tweeted out that Taylor Rogers will still see some save chances. And I know that, especially in 2020, Rocco Baldelli, their manager, he did kind of mix and match a little bit more

with Taylor Rogers and Sergio Romo. So, Scott, what do you think the distribution of saves will be for the twins in 2021, now with Colomé and Taylor Rogers? Unfortunately, I think it's more likely to be a time share than not. Rocco Baldelli comes from that Tampa Bay Ray's coaching tree,

and that's the organization that believes in that philosophy as much as anybody outside of Gabe Kapler, I guess. And now they have a proven right-handed closer to go along with the left-handed Taylor Rogers. I do think Taylor Rogers is the more talented of the two, but obviously you point to the track record for Colomé. Rogers got kind of burned by the small sample.

Had a rough stretch that inflated his ERA and whip last year. But I do think just pure talent level, he's better than Colomé, and I'm disappointed that, you know, I would have rather kept Roger is a potential closer option and lost Colomé, then the other way around. But now it's like there's a good chance they just cannibalize each other,

which is the worst possible scenario. You know, there's always a chance. One of them struggles relative to the other and it becomes less of a timeshare. But I think that's probably the goal going in. And if that's the goal, Colomé is probably the one to prioritize in fantasy and being the right-hander. But neither one.

one of them is going to be or should be highly drafted among relief pitchers. They're more toward the back end at that position since there might be a ceiling on how many saves they can deliver. So I look back at 2018 and 2019 and the twins had between, I think it was 42 and 50 saves in those seasons. It might have been 2017 as well. So it was like a three year span where they were between 40 and 50 saves. I think this is my read on the situation.

I think Colomé probably gets like 60 to 70 percent, and maybe that's just me being optimistic, but if that's the case, and they do have that many save opportunities, that means he's probably getting somewhere in the range of like 25 to 30 saves, which would still be pretty valuable from a fantasy perspective. Scott, I wanted to ask you, how much do you think Colomé is going to move up

and how much do we think Taylor Rogers is going to move down? Rogers' ADP right now is 141.4.4.4.4. as the 17th relief pitcher off the board. Columet going just a few spots behind him, 155.8. So about a 14-pick gap as the 21st reliever off the board. Do you think we could see Colomé push all the way up into like the Kenley Janssen Ryan Presley range

or not that much? I don't think he should go that high. Okay. Personally, I would see him probably more like the Richard Rodriguez range. I mean, Richard Rodriguez isn't going to get as many saves chances as the twins are going to provide, obviously, but he'll probably be handling that job solo. And I'd rather go for that, especially since, you know, there's going to be more strikeouts there, too.

Taylor Rogers is, he deserves to plummet in the rankings. You say he's the 17th, number 17 among relief pitchers. That's looking at fantasy pros, and they have some weird starting pitchers. mixed in there that makes it look lower than it actually is. They have Kenton Maeda, Corbyn Burns, Carlos Carrasco, Framber Valdez, just a bunch of guys that aren't actually relief pitcher eligible on CBS or most sites. So he's probably... So, Tama Rogers was more like top 10, probably, where he was being drafted among actual

relievers, and now probably outside the top 30. Let's stick with relievers. Joachim Soria signed a one-year deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks, 223 career saves for Soria, a 282 ERA in 2020, but that comes along with a 5.15 X-FIP. The swinging strike rate dipped about 3.5%. Now, I don't know if it was one of these situations similar to like a Brad Hand where it's just a small sample size. I think he pitched like 22 innings.

Again, this is Joaquin Soria. So it might just be like a weird kind of small sample size thing for him. But he has been still very reliable the past couple of seasons. Nick Piakoro, who covers the debacks for the Arizona Republic, predicted that Soria would close for the team. So, Scott, say you draft three relievers on your Roto squad. Do you want Soria as your second closer or your third closer?

I want Soria as... In what format does you say? A Roto format or head-to-fet categories. Yeah, a third closer. My third closer. That's not a role he's handled exclusively for... Several years. I'm trying to remember when exactly.

So in 2015, he got 24 saves pitching mostly for the Tigers. I guess he was probably 72 appearances, 24 saves. I don't know. I mean, most of his 223 career saves come back 2007 through 2011 with the Royals, so a long time ago. He's been, you know, a decent setup guy since then,

but not so good that you really trust he's going to have a firm grip on that role, even if he starts out in it. And I don't think it's a foregone conclusion. He starts out in it. So he's kind of a bottom run closer, I would say, as well, somebody who had probably ranked behind like a Raphael Montero. Stefan Kreitin was the one who was projected to be the Diamondbacks closer before Soria,

and still might get the opportunity to do so. He had five saves last year with a 242 ERA, and a one-one-nine whip. He was pretty good. The one thing I'll add, last thing I'll add on Soria is, I don't think the Diamondbacks are expected to be very good in 2021.

So, you know, if he performs well, there's a good chance that he's traded sometime near the deadline. Sean Doolittle signed a one-year deal with the Reds. He was awful in 2020. Then he was shut down with an oblique strain. Scott, what's your read on the Cincinnati Reds closer situation right now?

Ross the Resource has Amir Garrett, Lucas Sims, Sean Doolittle in a three-headed closer by committee? I think it'll end up being somebody, and I put my bet on Amir Garrett right now, especially since they went out and got the other left-handed Doolittle. Doolittle hasn't looked right, dating back to 2019. So I'm not sure he's a viable closer candidate anymore,

and I'm not really sure he'd be able to hold up in a setup role, even. I'm not putting much stock in that. I think it's going to come down to Amir Gareth and Lucas Sims, Amir Garrett has been vocal about wanting the role. And that's the main reason I'm giving him the edge. But if not him, then Sims. I think eventually, even if it starts out as a committee, eventually one of them will take it.

Colton Wong remains in the National League Central. He signed a two-year deal with the Milwaukee Brewers. Last 162 games for Colton Wong, 288 batting average, eight home runs, 23 steals, not much power, but the batting average in the steals definitely will play, especially as a middle infielder in a deeper type league. The ADP for Colton Wong is 324. I have no problem pushing him ahead of names like Cesar Hernandez,

Thai France, Donovan Solano, Joey Wendell. I think Colton Wong is, you know, fine as like a deeper league middle infielder. Anything to add there, Scott? Yeah, I mean, he stole, he had more than 20 steals in 2019. his career numbers at Miller Parker actually they're very strong not that I think he's going to be a stud there or anything

but in his career in Miller Park he's at 308 with an 855 OPS and probably the leadoff hitter as things stand now probably an everyday player he hasn't been so bad against lefties in his career I think somebody like Thai France might have more upside but that's probably the right range for Colton Wong and in deeper leagues

and leagues where you're looking for steals late. He seems like an appropriate pick. Yeah, a roster resource has him leading off and with Lorenzo Kane, Christian Yelich, Kesson Hira, Avisiel Garcia batting behind him. You might be able to score 80, 90 plus runs. So yeah, it's not a bad call there with Colton Wong. I think the bigger takeaway,

mentioned the name, Kesson Hira. he is now expected to play first base for the Milwaukee Brewers. So he will have dual eligibility for arguably the two most thin positions in fantasy baseball. First base and second base by, it will either be the first or second week of the season. Based on our top 300 ranks, Scott, Heero would be your eighth ranked first baseman in Roto. He would be my ninth ranked first baseman. And you're getting now out of position steals too. He's projected for double-digit steals.

the only other first baseman or first base eligible player that's projected for that is Cody Bellinger. So we have a pretty interesting situation now with Kesson Hira. Yeah, and the only other first base eligible player that I think is a realistic shot at double-digit's deals would be like a Jake Croninworth. So yeah, that definitely adds a little something to Hero's value in the short term. I think the bigger impact is what it means for Hira and Dynasty Leagues,

if you were planning on him being your second basement forever, you got to adjust. I mean, if he's everything he's supposed to be, he should be fine at first base, which isn't an especially deep position now anyway. But it does kind of change your long term, the long term outlook of your lineup by having him switch positions at this stage of the game. Let's hit on the last few news items here. Chris Archer back to the Tampa Bay Rays. Full circle, Archer makes his way back to Tampa after that horrendous trade that, of course, brought Tyler Glassnow and Austin Meadows to the Rays, not really sure how much Archer has left in the tank. He's had an ERA over four in each of his last four seasons and is now coming back from

thoracic outlet surgery, which has been very unforgiving for pitchers. It really derailed the career of Matt Harvey, a few other names as well. Any interest here, Scott? It's just, it's interesting for a number of reasons. Of course, you got the angle of the Rays, used Archer to make maybe the most lopsided trade of, I don't know, the past two decades. Up there in Major League history for most Lopsided Trade, and now they get them back. And they paid him $6.5 million, coming off Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, coming off bad performances.

Like, the raise aren't an organization that just throws $6.5 million around, you know? Like, and they're a smart organization. They're known for getting the most out of players. They know Chris Archer more than any better than any other organization, and they gave him $6.5 million. And so I'm not saying I'm adding them to like my draft list for standard mixed leagues. But it's, I'm not ruling out the possibility he could be a fantasy asset again. I guess Chris Archer's one for the sleeper team, or the, what do we call it? The scout team.

The scout team. That's what we call it. Yeah. So while you were talking, I was trying to look up some of the worst trades in history. And I remembered that like there was a trade a lot. long, long time ago, 2002. I remember Cliff Lee was part of it. And it was traded from the Expos, Cliffley, Lee Stevens, Brandon Phillips, Grady Seismore to Cleveland in exchange for Big Sexy. He wasn't really that big then, but Bartolo Cologne and Tim Drew. I remember, like, I don't

remember the trade. I was, what, 11 years old? But I remember hearing about that trade. And I was like, wow, that was a pretty bad one as well. So definitely up there. And what's crazy about that trade is MLB was running the expos at the time. They didn't have an owner. Oh, my God. And they still, they still move forward with that trade. Yeah.

In a, a foolish attempt to contend when they're right, you know, right on the cusp, but not really that in it. And yeah, it backfired pretty much immediately. Yikes.

Yeah, that's a bad one. Just wrap up on Chris Archer. I was watching Hot Stove on the MLB network earlier. And Ken Rosenthal said, outside of Tyler Glassnow, the raise plan to have, six to eight different pitchers give them 80 to 100

innings this season. So it remains to be seen if they'll actually go through with that, but names like Ryan Yarbrough, Chris Archer, Michael Waka, Luis Patino would be in that mix. There's a few other prospects that they have. McClanahan is one of them. So there's a bunch of different pitchers that they might limit them,

but it's really just outside of Tyler Glass now. Last thing I'll mention the Philly sign both Matt Moore and Chase Anderson to one-year, contracts as a rotation depth. I don't think that Matt Moore will be good, but he's a name to watch. He reinvented himself in Japan last year. He pitched to a 265 ERA, 98 strikeouts,

in 85 innings. So I don't know that it means much. Outside, like, maybe Spencer Howard is now on the outside looking in with these two signings. So that's probably the biggest takeaway here. And then a few other rumors. I saw Marcel Ozuna, the Tampa Bay Rays, are like a mystery team trying to get in on Ozuna

and King Felix. Felix Fernandez signed a minor league deal with the Baltimore Orioles, a one-year, one-million dollar contract. So don't really think there's much to see there. Before we get to our head-to-head categories league, our mock draft that we did, if you're a big football fan, you know that the biggest sporting spectacle of the year is nearly upon us. We know everyone loves making their picks, no matter if you're a diehard fan or just tuning in

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the CBS Sports app. I want to let everyone know that our commissioner product, the fantasy baseball commissioner product, has launched on CBS. The product is built for serious leagues and provides all the tools you need to run your league like the pros. I guess that's us, Scott. We're the pros.

It's fully customizable. Create your own stat categories and adjust scoring by position, deep player pool, minor leaguers, and even a feature to add your own player. There are advanced stats for analytical savvy managers. There is franchise building detailed player contracts, custom keeper rules, and trading future draft picks for those in deeper dynasty leagues. But the biggest endorsement that we can actually give the CBS Sports Commissioner

product is that I use my longest standing keeper league on CBS, played there for like the past decade. Absolutely love it. Scott talks about his dynasty league all the time. And it seriously is the best product in my opinion. I'm not just saying that like I've played there for the past decade. And you hear all the crazy things that Scott does in his dynasty league and how he has it set up for a salary cap draft. And then all different types of rules regarding values moving up. And there's a rookie draft as well. So you could do all those fun things with the CBS fantasy baseball commissioner product. We're going to take a quick break on the podcast side. If you're watching us on YouTube, we're not going to go anywhere when we were.

turn, we will get into this head-to-head categories, mock draft, recap. All right, so this is really the standard format for Yahoo Leagues. 12 teams, head-to-head with the usual 5-5 categories, batting average, home runs, runs, RBIs, and steals. And then on the pitching side, we have wins, saves, ERA, whip, and strikeouts. For the lineup, there is one of each infield position. There's no middle infielder or corner infielder. There is three outfielders. And two utility players, which is interesting. We'll talk about that in a little bit

for the pitching side. This is where things get weird. Two starting pitchers, two relief pitchers, and just four pitcher spots. So those can be starting pitchers. You can have all four starting pitchers in there. You can have four different relief pitchers in there.

That's totally up to you. And that's where I think, Scott, the craziness and this strategy conversation just gets expanded because there's the Marmoul strategy and there's, you know, you could do a bunch of different things. You go all relievers. You can go all starters.

And it's really just up to you, like what you've tried and what works. So with that, Scott, I had the seventh pick. You had the 10th pick. What is your general approach in this format, head-to-head categories? Well, it helps that there is one extra hitter spot to work with. It's not the standard head-to-head lineup like we think of where, you know, each of the eight spots around the pitcher. And a utility spot is a ninth spot.

There's a 10th, an extra utility spot. So that kind of helps to balance out the categories. But I'm actually, this is probably the biggest influence you've had on me so far, Frank. You talked about how this is the format to punt stolen bases. And I think given the market for stolen bases currently, I'm with you on that. Unless you're just able to come about them easily, like you're in a spot to draft Ronald Cunia or Fernando Tattis. Obviously, that'll take you down a different path. But if you're not, having only 10 hitter spots to fill,

trying to juggle all the categories, the fact stolen bases aren't directly tied to any other category. They're just kind of a stat out on its own. And the cost for them, what you have to sacrifice to address that category, it all adds up to probably not being worth, it in this format. You know, in Roto leagues, I'm a little more reluctant to to punt on a category because you don't really know how things are going to break during the season. You don't want to,

to, you know, paint yourself into a corner. So you're locked into the last place at a category. That's just not an avenue for you to gain any points at all. So I don't like doing it in Roto. But in this format where, you know, whether you win your matchup seven to three or six to four, it doesn't matter, you bank a win. Like, okay, I'll go ahead and pencil myself in for one loss for the steals, if it means I'm going to be stronger everywhere else, which I think it does. So that's probably the biggest thing. Obviously, I'm still into investing heavily in starting pitchers,

but this is the format where I'd be most likely to relax that. I think it's the format where high-end closers have the most value. and unless you're talking about the highest of high-end starting pitchers, starting pitchers don't have that much value, really. Again, compared to like a Roto League where only the final season scoring matters, right, where you finish in each of the categories, that's all that matters, and head-to-head it going a week at a time. You know, a great reliever can outperform a moment.

middling starting pitcher and strikeouts on a week by week basis. That's not at all uncommon. You know, when season closes, yeah, the starting pitcher is probably going to have more. But on a week-to-week basis, it's going to be more of a toss-up. So that's part of the rationale there as well as, of course, giving your team a better chance in ERA and WIP. So I still ended up with four of my top 30 starting pitchers, but I ended up with five. I didn't end up with six like I might in a head-to-head points league. So I went a little lighter there, and I probably made my heaviest investment in relief pitchers drafting a couple of guys that I think have a hundred strikeout potential in James Kerinchak and Drew Pomerantz.

I made it, Scott. I made it. I finally influenced you to do something in fantasy. This is a huge moment for me. Finally. I finally did it. I finally include Scott. That dates back to last year.

The first time I heard you mention that, I was like, you know. Because it was just always a non-option for me, punting a category. How good did it feel, though? How good did it feel when you're drafting? You don't have to worry about steals like one bit. Or you just draft as much power, as much batting average as you want. It feels great, right? It was liberating, for sure, for sure.

And part of it has to do with how few hitter spots you have to fill. I mentioned that, but I didn't stress it as much as the other part. It's just unless you get one of those. across the board studs in the early rounds, the only way you're going to meet your steals need is by plugging a guy into one of those 10 hitter spots who doesn't provide much of anything else, maybe even more than one guy.

And that's definitely not worth it. You need to make sure you keep pace in the other categories, which are going to... You know, it's easy to fall behind in home runs, for instance, just because they're so prevalent. If you pass with like a Nick Madrigal, as your second baseman. Like, it's really hard to make up that ground.

Yeah, and we talk about volatility a lot here on the podcast, and especially yearly volatility, but in a head-to-head categories league, the weekly volatility, with any stat, I mean, you can have the best offense in the league and your team could just go whatever. They could go seven for a hundred that week,

and it's not your fault. It's just they had an off week. That can happen on a week-to-week basis. And I think especially with, I mean, it is so hard to predict steals in a season, especially in a weekly context. Like, you can have a really good, a really good team of guys that can produce steals, and they might just not show up that week. So for me, that's just like an added reason why you should look the other way and pump them.

If you target guys that are going to hit home runs and potentially hit for batting average, I mean, every time you hit a home run, you're contributing in four different categories. You're giving them a hit for batting average. You're giving a run, an RBI. and of course a home run. So before we get to pitching, let's just look at our hitters here. And I should have prefaced everything with,

we're not going to look so much at round by round. We've done that with our roto draft, our head to head points draft. We're going to look more at just our teams and our strategies and what we did because I think that's more useful, especially in this format in head to head categories. So Scott, I mean, your offense,

and I looked at it today. I was like, I think Scott punted seals, and I was pretty excited when I saw it. You wound up with Salvador Perez. By the way, everyone. Scott proclaimed in the chat last night that he is moving Salvador Perez ahead of Wilson-Ketrears. So I might have had a little something to do with that as well.

Salvador Perez at Catcher. You have Cody Bellinger at first. You have Jeff McNeil at second. Brian Hayes at third. Corey Seeger at shortstop. Clint Frazier, Aaron Judge, and Eddie Rosario in the outfield. You use both your utility spots on utility-only players.

JD Martinez and Fran Mill Reyes. So just kind of give us a rundown of this lineup. up here and talk specifically about the U-Till only guys because with two spots, I think that only raises the value of those players. Yeah, it should have, but it didn't really. They still ended up being, in my mind, great value. I got J.D. Martinez in round eight. I got Frambele Reyes, who seems like a lock for at least 30 homers and probably 35. I got him in round 15. So I had hoped to do something like that. I didn't know it was going to be those specific players.

I thought maybe it could be something like J.D. Martinez and J.D. Martinez and Jordan Alvarez and back-to-back rounds. Obviously, that didn't work out. But Fram O'Reyas is somebody, we don't even, I don't even get a chance to think about normally because I've already filled that utility spot. And I think, you know, last year he hit 280. 275. He had 275 last year, Fram Mill Reyes,

and doesn't strike out the way you'd expect a guy. No, the strikeout rate's pretty high. But pretty good line drive hitter. So more batting average potential than you might expect. So, yeah, I like Fram Mill Reyes. As for the offense as a whole,

I think I like it. I wish I liked it more, considering I punted on steals. But I don't think batting average. is going to be a problem between McNeil and Corey Seeger. And I mean, Eddie Rosari is pretty bankable for batting average. I feel like obviously wasn't there in the short and season, but you look at the track record.

Brian Hayes should deliver batting average. Cody Bellinger should deliver batting average. If he doesn't, then we shouldn't be drafting him in the second round. So I think that's going to be fine. But I look at like having Jeff McNeil at second base, beyond batting average. You know, there's unlike Nick Madrigal,

there's at least a hope for power there, but I can't bank on it. And then Cabrion Hayes him as my starting third baseman, I think it'll be okay. Obviously, like Brian Hayes a lot. I want to draft him in every league, but I'd rather him be my second third baseman

than my first third baseman, you know, just because that's a little safer. So, you know, Aaron Judge, I don't know. I think there's probably enough power between Bellinger and Judge and Fram Il Reyes, J.D. Martinez, presuming he bounces back.

Corey Seger, of course, is a power source. I think there's probably enough power. You know, I got a great catcher in Salvador Perez. Not everybody's going to have that kind of advantage. I got him in round 11, too. Second catcher off the board in round 11. I know the ADP is higher, but every draft we do.

Salvador Perez is there in like round 10, round 11. It's like, I feel like he was going later than that last year, you know, or earlier than that last year. So, yeah, what do you think of it,

I guess? I haven't compared it to some of the other teams. It sounds like you may have looked over some of the other teams more. Do you think it is strong enough to have justified passing up stolen bases? So I think I probably would have attacked the hitting a little bit more than the pitching. So like, you're pitching, you wound up

with a great staff. Beaver, G. Lito, Plesack, and Kyle Hendricks. I think, you know, maybe instead of a Hendricks or a Plesack, you get another hitter in there. But I get what you're saying. I think it's good enough. I think it's like passable. And like, you don't really have any guys that are going to steal many bases here. But I kind of came away looking at my team the same way where I liked it. I didn't know if it was good enough. And this was even with, like,

I went a different route on pitching than you did. And I took hitters in rounds three through eight. So I really attacked hitters a little bit more. And this is specifically for the head to categories format. Like, this is not a way that I would draft in Roto or head to head points. But I kind of came away feeling the same way. We're like,

I didn't know if my offense was good enough, even with the effort that I put into it. So I'll read you mine and we kind of compare or contrast. And you let me know, like honestly, whose offense you think is better for a punting steel strategy. I wound up with Travis Darno as my catcher, Luke Void at first base, Gene Seguera. I played second base chicken and I just completely lost out here.

Yeah, I'm bemoaning Jeff McNeil and you got Gene Segarra. Seriously. My goodness. Everyone's hearing my roster so far and they're like, ew, you're hitting stinks. But then I got Anthony Rendon, Carlos Correa, Michael Brantley, Nick Castellanos, Iloi Jimenez, Yurdan Alvarez, and Austin Riley. So it's kind of a similar thing, Scott,

where I think maybe I went too hard after batting average. I don't know if I have enough power. I think Voight's probably going to give me 30 to 35. Rendon, probably 30 home runs. Correa will be fine. Castellanos, like 30 plus. Same thing with Eloy and Alvarez. But like, I don't really have a power standout.

So who's offense do you think came out better, honestly? Honestly, I think. I think mine did. Boom. I mean, well, look, Perez compared to Darnet. My Perez, you're Darno. Right. You take Perez, right?

My Bellinger, you're a void. You take Bellinger. My McNeil, you're Segar. You take McNeil. Yes. Third base, you take your Rendon over my Hayes. But shortstop, you take my Seeger over your Correa. Yep.

And then the outfields, your number two, Nick Castianos is better than my number two, Eddie Rosario. But otherwise, it's a wash. I like my two D.Hs better than your two D.Hs, J.D. Martinez and Fremill Reyes versus E. Ordnavarez, Austin Riley. You know, I think, obviously, Reyes is more bankable than Riley. It might end up. Like, you can see the upside in, even though it's easy to say, okay, you take my hitters over your hitters.

You can see the upside in some of those areas where you wouldn't take your hitter. You could see how maybe your hitter, like a Correa versus Seeger, he might end up coming close. Not so much, Seguera. Not so much Gene Segarra, but not to harp on that pick. Yeah, I don't know. I'd really have to dig in

and compare it to some of the other lineups in this league, and I might have done that if I knew we were going to break down this track this way. I was just looking at Chris's, Chris Towers's offense here, and it seems like, you know,

he didn't go as hard after pitching either. His offense is, pretty good. He has Buster Posey, Hosmer, Catelle Marte, Devers, Mondesi, Lordes-Guriel, Marcelo Zuna, Juan Soto, Javier Baez, and Byron Buxton. So obviously he still went after steals, but

his offense is probably more well-rounded, not as much batting average. Interesting to comparing and contrast that. But yeah, typically, in a head-to-head categories format, I do punt steals and focus on the batting average and some of those home run guys. What do you do on the pitching side?

Scott mentioned what he did. It didn't really change up his strategy all that much. So I will just remind some people of the Marmull strategy which has been brought up many times on this podcast, other podcasts all around the industry for fantasy baseball, specifically for head-to-head categories leagues. And this is in a league with no weekly innings minimum or a low one. This mock draft was for a league,

25 innings minimum per week. You use your first 10 or so picks on hitters. You don't draft a single starting pitcher unless your league requires you to do so. If you must draft a starting pitcher, target ones late that have innings concerns, but good ratios. From rounds 11 on,

focus on remaining closers and high-end setup relievers with strong ratios. You punt wins and strikeouts, but your offense is theoretically good enough and you should win ERA whip saves most weeks. Now, for me, on the pitching side, I mentioned last week that I do kind of like this pseudo-marmole strategy. So I like to get two aces, two solid closers, two low-end closers, and then two high-end

set-up relievers. And I was thinking of the name for this. Let's call the two-by-four. The two-by-four strategy. Obviously, two for four different things. I think I successfully pulled it off, too. So my first two picks, Garricol and Arindola, the aces, rice is the league. Calame, solid closers, Hunter Harvey and Stefan Crite at the time. I thought he was going to be

the closer. Those are low-end closers. And then I got Nick Anderson and Diego Castillo. Two high-end setup, man, but you can also do this with a discounted closer tandem. You could do it with Tampa or you could do it with Cincinnati, whatever you want. And my bench is all upside starting pitchers that I can stream in good matchups that can help in wins and strikeouts. So Julio Arias, Joe Musgrove, Tyler Malley, Nathan Avaldi, and Dane Dunning. And if one or two of those guys breaks out, then all the better. I mean, that helps. So my thinking here, Scott, is that I can dominate saves. I would theoretically do well in ratios because I have six different relievers in my lineup at a given time. And then I can

remain somewhat competitive in wins and strikeouts because I have the aces. And then I can stream those other starting pitchers on my bench in either good matchups or, you know, whatever. If one of them breaks out, then I can stream that pitch or whatever it might be. So, So what do you think about a strategy like this? Because I've actually done it in the past and I've won. I legitimately want a league doing something like this. So I was like, all right, I'm just going to keep doing it. Well, personally, I feel like I need at least four starts,

not necessarily four starters, but four starts to feel like I'm going to meet the 25 inning weekly minimum. Like, you can't mess around with that number, right? Because if you get less than 25 innings, you lose. the lose the Luz-E-R-A and whip automatically. So I don't want to mess around with that number. So that's immediately what I worry about with this. I just, I don't think,

I don't think you're going to be able to compete in strikeouts because it's not just that you have two starting pitchers, it's that your two closers are not big strikeout guy. Certainly Colomé is not a big strikeout guy. I guess you could argue Iglesias is pretty good. for the strikeouts. So, yeah, I don't, I don't like it. No, that's perfectly fine, man.

And that's why, like, talking about head-to-head categories leagues is, it's different than any other draft, man. Like, we have a pretty, maybe it's just because, like, we don't play in it enough. And admittedly, like, I play in one or two head-to-head categories leagues every year. And I won a league doing this two years ago. And I was like, all right, ever since, I'm just going to continue to try it.

Pun steals, two aces, a bunch of closers and relievers that kind of help you fill out the stats throughout the week. And it worked out. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to continue doing it for now. It might not be for everyone, but that's why, like, this format is so unique

to, like, whatever you feel comfortable doing, and you want to go for balance. I think a lot of people are still going, going to try and do that. You want to punt one category? That's perfectly fine. Some people have one using the normal strategy as well. So I think it's just like,

to each their own for this format, But yeah, like this is not something I would ever do. Like taking two starting pitchers early. I didn't take my third starting pitcher. I think it's around nine. And that was Julio Reus. So it's just something I would never do in like another format. Right.

Part of the thinking too is like you're never going to get this is this obviously applies across all formats. And it's an argument I've made before. But you're never going to get another shot at a high end starting pitcher than in the draft. I mean, maybe you'll be the guy that picks up the Corbyn Burns or whatever odd example happens to emerge that year, but it's going to be rare and it's not something you're going to be able to rely on. There are always going to be high impact relievers popping up out of nowhere, Tanner Rainey, you know, struggling to think of other examples. But there was a lot of examples. There are a lot of examples every year.

They come and they go and they don't have much of a shelf life and you just, it's actually wrong. to invest in them in the draft, I feel like, because very likely the guys you think are going to be that guy going in don't actually end up being that guy among the relief class. So that's part of the thinking there too is just if you're, if you're if you're if you're if you find your short on something, what are you more likely to attain in season? And I feel like a high impact reliever, you know, if if you're not caring about saves, necessarily you're just caring about the ratio stats. I feel like that's going to be one of the easiest things to find. Yeah, I picked up Diego Castillo in the final round, Scott. So, I mean, you're right. I think he's going to give me elite ratios.

And I would say if you want any of those guys to take them with your final couple of picks or try to pick them up early in the season. Yeah. Yeah. So I ended up with four of my top 30. Like I said, I got Shane Bieber in round one. That was a close call because Trevor's story was still there. And so I could have gone maybe.

Bieber and Story in round one and Trevor Bauer in round two. I ended up going with Shane Bieber in round one and Cody Bellinger in round two. I think that's better, but you know, it depends on where you stand on Cody Ballinger. There's obviously some risk there. I got Lucas Gialito.

Still managed to get him in round three, I believe it was, and then Corey Seeger in round four. He liked the value pick for pick. I like the value of all four of those picks. So Bieber and Gialito, I got two really high-end pitchers there. But then I even departing to draft hitters

more than I normally do I was still able to get Zach Plesack as my third pitcher that was round six and then Kyle Hendricks is my fourth pitcher in round seven and I would have been happy to get like a Framber Valdez

as my fifth pitcher but it just the opportunity didn't present itself because then I needed to jump into that J.D. Martinez class of utility players in the next round and just other needs intervened. I probably wouldn't have let that happen

if it was like a points league where I'm just in that format, head-to-head points. Like, I am all about just hammering the starting pitcher position early and whatever concerns I might have about my hitters in this particularly, like, if I ended up with these hitters and a head-to-head points league, I would be like, all right, let's do it. This is great. Definitely happy with it.

this. But, you know, just the fact that you're having to juggle categories in this format makes it a little trickier. So yeah, I ended up with those four starting pitchers. I drafted two, in my mind, very high-end relievers in James Corinchak in round nine, Drew Pomeranz. I got in round 12. Most formats, I wouldn't even draft my first reliever as early as round 12, much less my second, much less taking a first in round nine. You know, like that's more of an investment than I normally make in that position. But I think just for the sake of strikeout upside week to week, strikeout downside week to week for my team, I really wanted relievers who could dominate the strikeout category and not just,

you know, low-end save sources. So hopefully they fit the bill there. But I didn't make much of an investment at starting pitcher beyond my top four, which is definitely different from how I'd approach any other format. my fifth starting pitcher I drafted was Kevin Gosman in round 16. I think that's good value for Kevin Gosman, who could, he'll have his share of starts with double-digit strikeouts, I feel like. But, you know, normally he'd be more like my seventh guy than my fifth guy.

And then I still got John Means, arguably my favorite sleeper this year. Griffin Canning, who I like is a sleeper, Davy Garcia, I consider a sleeper. obviously I'm not counting on them to be a big part of my team but I'm allowing for them to be if they do indeed breakthrough so

really happy with my pitching considering this is the one format where I'd count Pomerans and Corinchak on the same level as like you know a starting pitcher you'd draft in the 30 to 40 range So I'm really happy with that. I'm really happy with the way my pitching turned out. And overall, I really like my team.

The one complaint would be, I wonder if my hitting should look even better than it does, considering I didn't invest as much in starting pitcher as usual and didn't bother with stolen bases at all. Hit us up. Let us know. What do you think? You like Scott's team? More well-balanced, puns or steals?

Or you like my wacky pseudo-marmel two-by-four strategy. Hit us up on Twitter at CBS Scott White for him at Roto underscore Frank or email us fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. I mentioned we have a quote from James and Tyone that I wanted to get to in this draft. He went pick 164 in round 14 just after Frankie Montas and Tony Gonsolin. He is moving up draft boards, maybe rightfully so, coming back off his second Tommy John surgery, which he'll be like 16, 17 months removed from, so he should be good to go. But yeah, yesterday, Danny Vietti and Will Middlebrooks,

they talked to Tyone and they asked him about his new mechanics and where his velocity is at right now. I really changed the way my lower body was moving. I found some things. When I got hurt, I think it was an early May game in Texas when I finally was like, I can't keep pitching through this anymore. I need to get some help. And right when that happened, I was like,

okay, regardless of whether I get surgery or what my, my path back is going to be, I have to change some stuff about the way I throw because my elbows always freaking hurting, like talking on the phone hurt. So I knew I had to go back to the drawing board. So I got into my legs more, got into my glutes a little more, less quad dominant, more heel connection. And then in turn, that's like really shortened up my arm. I'm moving way quicker. So I do see myself being a little bit more of a four seam top of the zone, big breaking ball guy. So I threw some sim games at the end. end of the year. I was up to like three or four innings facing our hitters. I was like 92,

95. So, you know, with no fans in the stands, no defenders behind you, I was pretty happy with that. I was always a guy before my injury. Like, I had a really hard time throwing, like, full speed bullpins. I would throw like 85 and I'd have some effort on it. And so far this January, my pens, I've been in like 91 to 94, just in, you know, a batting cage throwing bullpens. And I'm really not trying to produce that velocity. So number one, I feel healthy. And two, I think the VILO will be right where it needs to be. Very nice. They are from James and Tiont talking about some new mechanics that he's going with

to try and protect his arm a little bit. And the velocity being around 94, hovering around 94. So Scott, some takeaways there. Look, these new mechanics, he's talking about this short-arm delivery. That's what got Lucas Gialito's career back on track. So I'm not saying he's going to become Gialito, but this is a pitcher drafted very high. prospect pedigree, but of course he's had to overcome a lot.

So thoughts there on what James and Tyone had to say. Yeah, I mean, it sounds encouraging. It sounds like it has the potential for more velocity. You always worry, particularly a guy coming back from a second Tommy John surgery, if he'll just have much of anything left. But we've always liked James and Tyone's secondary pitches. We always thought he could benefit from a better pitch mix. And, you know, it sounds like,

Him wanting to be a guy who elevates his fastball, throws it up in the zone, and then counters that with those hammer breaking balls that he has. That's a recipe for more strikeouts than we saw from him with the pirates. Keep saying Padres instead of pirates. With the pirates. And yeah, I like it. Spring training is going to say a lot for a guy like James and Tyone.

That's going to tell us, I think, pretty early on, whether he looks right, whether he looks like he can be successful coming off the second Tommy John surgery. And if it all looks good, then I think we're going to see him sore up draft lists. And I think being reunited with his former teammate, Garrett Cole, is only going to help him. And I'm not just trying to play off of storylines here, but Garrett Cole is not the same pitcher now than he was when he was with the Pirates back in the day. Like, he has learned a lot. And I think some of the knowledge that he has now he'll be able to share with someone like Tyone's. So when you hear him talking about pitching up in the zone with the fastball

and then burying breaking balls down in the zone, I mean, that's not really the Tyone that I remember seeing a couple of years ago. So if he starts doing that and pitching more like someone like Garrick Cole, then maybe we could get some pretty good results out of him. Yankee bias aside, I was drafting him. I was excited about him even while he was still on the Pirates. So I am actually genuinely excited about this return for Jameson-Tyone. Scott, we're getting close here towards the end.

Let's see how many of these questions we can actually get. to. We'll start with some of the Apple podcast reviews that we have received recently, and we really do appreciate all these that you've been sending in. This one's from Napuntoriero. Nass that one up for sure. Are you fading Jose Ramirez at all due to a future lineup outside of him? Are you worried about him not getting anything to hit, especially if Fran Mill Reyes struggles? It's worth noting this was sent last Thursday pre-Eddie Rosario. Oh, Eddie Rosario makes a big difference there, doesn't it? It definitely does.

What we said before, we're not. I know I've said that, and I think you agree, Frank, that Jose Ramirez is just a class of hitter where you don't really feel like he needs a supporting cast to be a standout in fantasy still. And, you know, if there are two decent hitters in that lineup with them, I think that's... I think you can't ask for me.

much more than that. He can ask for more than that. Certainly, Cleveland fans can ask for more than that, but I think that's enough. This one's from Mike in Rochester. Daily lineups, 16-team Roto, start three outfielders, no middle infielder, no corner infielder. So, shallower lineups, given that it's a 16-teamor. Five keepers, no payment. I have Ronald de Cunia, Mike Trout, and Luis Castillo. I need two from Corbyn Burns, Lance Lynn, and Wander Franco. I think you have to keep Wander Franco and a 16 teamer like this. I don't know. I'm kind of lean in Lance Lynn for this year

because I'm not sure, you know, Burns is obviously younger, but for this upcoming season, I worry about the workload, especially compared to somebody like Lynn. And I'm not sure Burns is somebody with only five keepers that you're going to be locked into keeping for years to come anyway. So I'm not sure the age difference makes a difference. So I'd go Franco and Len, I think.

This next one's from is, This nickname Taken? Hmm. Create my draft. All right, this is going to be fun. Ten team head to head points league. Mitch Garver. Anthony Rizzo.

DJ LaMayhew. Chris Bryant. George Springer. Austin Meadows. Eddie Rosario and Gio Urshella at the utility spot. Must be listening to us because the pitching is phenomenal.

Garrett Cole. Aaron Nola. Clayton Kirschaw. Sunny Gray. Max Fried. Zach Wheeler. Hermann Marquez. Dustin May.

Aaron Savale. Ryan Presley. and Craig Kimbril at relief pitcher. Scott, is there a such a thing as overdoing it in a 10-team points league? I don't know that you would even start all these pitchers. Well, no, you won it, but I mean, I've advocated for taking more than you can start anyway

because not everything's going to go right. But it strikes me as maybe going a little too hard after that at the expensive hitting. I think if you're going to air one direction or the other, that's the direction to air. that's the direction to air because particularly in a 10 team points league. I mean, my goodness, what must the waiver wire hitting pool look like in that format? It probably looks amazing.

And of course, as the season plays out, even more impressive options are going to emerge on the waiver wire. I don't like a lot of the hitters he has. I feel like Chris Bryan in a 10 team league, like you could have done better than that at third base. I feel like your utility player, I mean, as much as I like Rochella for a 10 team league, you could do better in your utility spot than that. You know, Garver is a big gamble at catcher, maybe just shooting for upside there and trusting that the waiver wire will come through

if it doesn't pan out. So I don't like a lot of the names among hitters, but I don't mind the approach in general. And 12-team point league, certainly a 10-team head-to-head points league. I'm kind of of the mind that the starting pitchers are really all that's going to matter, and I trust myself to build a lineup

that'll be competitive as long as I have those pitchers. I don't know that I necessarily trust this emailer to do that, you know, but if you gave me this team, I feel confident I would make it a contender. What's the grade? I will give it a C plus, B minus. I'll give it a B minus. This last one's from Bart's Batts. Salary cap, NL-only starting pitcher strategy.

30 to 50% more than industry average gets spent on the top 20 starting pitchers in my league. Is there a way to take advantage of an entire league spending studs and scrub style like this? Or do I just have to follow the crowd lest I be left out of all the impact players? I think considering it's four starting pitchers, and that's the asset you're not going to get for cheap. You're not going to be able to fall back on low-end options and make it work for you. I think you just have to go with the flow. It's frustrating, but I think that's just the way it is. That's where we are.

That is where the state of starting pitching is right now. Yeah, and we kind of touched on that a little bit on yesterday's podcast with Ariel Cohen, where you have your salary cap values before everything starts, and you kind of adjust for inflation. So, you know, if everyone's going $5 over what they're supposed to for starting pitchers, then you adjust and find the starting pitcher you like most and overspend on that one. If you want to get in on starting pitchers, which obviously Scott and I would tell you to do because they are the most scarce commodity

in fantasy baseball. We're going to wrap there for Scott. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow with Vlad Sedler from Elite Fantasy. We'll do that here on tomorrow's podcast.

Bye-bye.