Fantasy Baseball Today - H2H Points 101; Aaron Judge and Globe Life Field Updates! (05/06 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 6, 2020

We're taking a closer look at H2H points leagues strategy but first, new nicknames! It seems like most Yankees are healing up during the quarantine... except one (4:40). What's going on with Aaron Judge? How does injury perception affect Fantasy Baseball? ... The Texas Rangers are moving into a new ballpark called Globe Life Field. How will it play (16:35). Joey Gallo isn't a fan. Also, Adam has some interesting Danny Santana splits. ... H2H points leagues are the best format (25:50)! What are some of the difference between H2H points and Roto? ... Is there a certain prototype to target in a H2H points league hitter (28:53)? What factors should you be looking at? ... Is there a certain type of starting pitcher you're looking for in a H2H points league (34:27)? Why is pitching so valuable in this format? ... SPARPS (43:00)! Why does everybody love them? Why is Frank against them? ... Email us at [e-mail]. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @CBSFantasyBB, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Download our printable Draft Kit from CBSSports.com/draftkit! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. I drive, center field, at the wall, grand slam. 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.

Happy Hump Day, everybody, and welcome to Fantasy Baseball today. May 6th, Frank here joined by. New nicknames here on the show. We got C-P-T, pocket-aces, and Scotty Dubs. That would be Adam Azer. That would be Chris Towers. You went out of order here. I'm not C-P-T.

You're not C-B-T. You're pocket Aces. Yeah. Are you cool with that nickname? You messed up the order. Yes, I am. Rich Rebar gave that to me on a football podcast last fall. Blew my mind.

It was excellent. And some people call me pocket Aces. So sure. It's better than Big Cain, too. It is definitely better than Big Cain, too. And it makes people think that I play poker, which I really don't. That's arguable. Scott.

Scotty Dubs. Are you right with that one? How are we doing? That's fine. The one that has floated around the CBS sports office for the longest is Scotty Blanco. Scottie Blanco, yeah, that's the one. Yeah. But Scott Dubs is fine.

You want to do that. I'm cool with nicknames. CPT. Are you a Chris Paul fan? Is that how you came up with that? Or did you literally just put your initials together? Yeah. think we talked about this already. My initials are Chris Paul. My full name is Chris Paul

Towers, Christopher Paul Towers. The fake Chris Paul. I was originally, fun fact, I was originally going to be named Ethan Allen and somebody talked to my, or Ethan, not Ethan Allen, Ethan. And someone talked to my parents out of that, which is, I think good. I don't think I would be a good Ethan. I actually think you would. I don't know why. Ethan Towers. I feel like Ethan's are much better looking than me. Ethan Towers Give yourself some credit Chris

Amazing, it's sounding name Right? Yeah It sounds way more hipster too It's like fits the persona It's mostly

Just because Towers is a really great last name Well yeah Like humbly speaking You pair it with something As Blas Chris It kind of It kind of depletes

What's the point What's the point Of even having the last name You're just gonna throw Chris in front Come on Exactly Wow I don't have a nickname

Outside of I don't know Strong words From Very unique named Scott, Adam, and Frank You know, I think it's time to get Frank a nickname So that's our challenge to our listeners

tweet us tweet me At Adam Azer I was yeah I've been called Frank the Tank But I don't know I don't really view myself as a tank You're too small to be a Frank the Tank Yeah I could be a Franky Stamps Frankie Stamps is one that I've heard Frankie Stamps isn't bad

Today on the show We're going to talk about those loser Yankees and how they are so bad at handling injuries because we got an update on Aaron Judge. And guess what? It's May 6th, and there's not really much of an update on Aaron Judge. We're also going to take a look at the Rangers New Park.

There was a tweet that came out some quotes from Joey Gallo about how the ballpark is currently being handled, how the ball is flying in their new ballpark. So we'll talk about that. And a little bit later on, we have some head-to-head points 101. general strategy talk when it comes to head-to-head points leagues. We've received a few more emails, and I've gotten a few tweets recently about how come you guys don't talk about head-to-head points?

Don't worry. We're going to get there. We love head-to-head points here. Scott and myself, it's our favorite format. I don't know about everyone else here on the show, but I know for at least Scott and myself, Head-to-head points is the go. I have a nickname for Frank. What is it?

The human consonant. You know what? I was going to go with something like that, too, because there's just so many. There are a lot. You are like 90%. You have two names and two vowels, and that's it. How many people can say that?

I've got three vowels just in my first name and two more coming back around in both the middle and last name. Wait a second. What did you say, Chris? How many vowels? Oh, Christopher. Christopher. Oh, that's BS. Chris has one, Chris has one vowel and Towers has two.

So don't get all high and mighty here. Christopher has three. My name is, my legal birth name is Christopher. But his is Franklin. Is it Franklin? It's Franklin. All right. The Yankees do not how to handle injuries. It's May 6th.

Aaron Judge, still going for another CT scan in a couple of weeks. Reminder. James Paxton, Luis Severino and Aaron Judge all had signs of injuries late last season going into the playoffs, even in late September. I believe there were some footage of when people believe Aaron Judge got hurt. He was diving for a ball. That happened in September. And it is now May 6th. And he is still dealing with this. Instead of opting for surgery throughout spring training like they should have done, or at least once the season was delayed, something that they should have done with Aaron Judge. We're still just here waiting. And I think it's something that even when the season starts up, we might be dealing with. So I don't want to say, that I definitely won't draft him at the right price

because I think anybody could be had at the right price. But I currently have him as my outfielder 15 in my rankings. Scott, you have him as your outfieler 13. Is it time to lower Aaron Judge based on this most recent update? No, I mean, let's see what the CT scan shows. That is the update. We're going to find out what kind of progress it's made

in terms of healing. But I mean, I get your point. I was pretty critical of the Yankees this spring for their approach to injuries. They just seemed way too relaxed about, we'll just give it some time. And it's time that they could have been addressing it in a more definitive way. You know, in a way, the pandemic, I guess, kind of bailed them out from having to play all this time without some of their key players. But yeah, if Judge still ends up missing regular season time by the time the season starts, it's, it's, going to, it's going to turn up the heat again on them and their approach to injuries.

I, I just think we need to wait and see. I mean, that's kind of what we're doing with everybody right now. Among the players who we expected to miss time at the start of the season with injuries, Judge appears to be the most questionable still, his availability. So it's, it's definitely something to monitor. Yeah, that's my biggest takeaway is that we're getting updates, on other players, Justin Verlander's throwing, that the groin is doing better to there,

and he's someone who actually had surgery. We hear things from Mike Clevenger that he's throwing, and it seems like the only person who still, their status is kind of up in the air, is Aaron Judge. Over the past two weeks, NFBC drafts are still being, still taking place. Aaron Judge's ADP is 61. He is outfield, outfieler 16 off the board. Why wouldn't you just take Adam?

Why wouldn't you just take Eloy Jimenez, Joey Gallo, John Carlos Stanton, over somebody like Aaron Judge, just don't even give yourself the headache, although I guess you can argue Stanton gives you a headache as well. At least, you know, the most recent update we got on Stanton is that he is progressing. We don't have that from Aaron Judge. Or just wait 30 to 40 picks later and take someone like Marcel Ozuna or Fran Milraeus. I just want to wash my hands of this Aaron Judge situation.

How do you feel, Adam? I'm not quite there. I think that the players you're talking about are most, likely not as good as Aaron Judge. And perhaps not even close. I mean, Judge at his best is one of the best players in baseball. He's an on-based machine, hitting second

for the Yankees. It's a ton of played appearances. It's a ton of runs. So, the weird thing is the RBIs aren't great for Judge because nobody pitches to him with runners in scoring position. I mean, I mentioned this a long time ago, but 2019

with runners in scoring position, his slugging percentage was $3.94. 2018 with runners in scoring position. His slugging percentage was 413. And his on-base percentage has been sky high both cases. So I think his numbers haven't been quite as good the last two years. One, because he's played through injuries. And two, because Judge just has this weird thing where he's not knocking in a lot of runs

because he's walking so much with runners-and-scoring position. But I think at his best, Aaron Judge, as we have said, could lead baseball on home runs. I think he could be much, much better than those guys, like not even close. So I'm not with you here. And we're still about two months away probably from the start of the season. So I think, Frank, I think you need to chill out, consonant, man. You are freaking out for no reason here. Well, the thing is, I agree with Frank's general take that I just, I don't, for where I expect Aaron Judge to go, I don't want him.

I think if he doesn't have this resolved by way of surgery, and if he does at this point, obviously he's still going to miss a lot of time. But if he doesn't, it's always going to be. It's one of those injuries that you could never be completely sure he's passed because the very active swinging is what's going to aggravate it again. And that just may not be worked. The headache for where I expect him to go now, ranking him 13th in my outfielders, I haven't been getting him. So I'm not motivated to move him down based on that. But if that changes, I'd only want to get him at. at what I felt was a real discount.

Something I've learned about myself as a fantasy baseball player the past few seasons is that when it comes to injuries, I usually just stay away. Guys like Carlos Correa, I've stayed away from the past couple of years, Judge, even going back to when, you know, draft season started, Stanton, these are just players that I typically worry about.

Again, at the right price, sure, but I typically tend to be a little bit risk-averse when it comes to players who are already hurt, on May and they're not getting better. I don't feel like the fantasy baseball community approaches them in a way that's consistent at all. I think some people just get totally buried when they get hurt, and that's a great time to seize those values. But then sometimes it's just like, yeah, like people don't want to be worried about it. The player's so good that they don't want to worry about it.

I mean, the example that comes to mind for me is Francisco Lindor last year. And it turned out fine. People like me who stayed away, I guess you could say we overreacted because he had a great season. But he didn't fall enough to justify the risk in my eyes, so I didn't end up with any shares of him. Other hand, Clayton Kershaw plummeted to round seven or eight with that shoulder injury. What a great. I got a lot of him because that was too far. It was an overreaction in my eyes.

And it turned out great, too. They both turned out great. But one you ended up paying up for still and one you didn't. I think a big part of the issue when it comes to how fantasy players, fantasy analysts, everyone really reacts to injuries, is it's so much of the game is based in, you know, the scientific method. And generally just like really rational, cool-headed analysis, you know, especially now when everybody cites statcast and fan graphs and everything. we're so smart. And I think injuries are the one place that we're still just reacting, you know, like cavemen a little bit.

You know, it's still like, it's like the lizard braying, you know, like we're not, I don't think, and I'm not saying this is necessarily the right or wrong way to, to approach injuries, but we just don't know, I think is the biggest thing when it comes to, like how you should approach a player like Aaron Judge Wrighten. because people have tried to come up with ways to predict injuries and put probabilities on it. And, you know, there's some decent stuff out there, but I think we tend to be, and this goes for fantasy football, fantasy baseball, everything. We tend to be like black and white when it comes to injuries in a lot of senses.

It's either you're injured or you're injury prone and we have to downgrade you significantly or you're not. And so it's not necessarily, we don't necessarily apply those standards consistently. A lot of it's based on like, if a guy gets hurt on September 15th and misses five months, we're not as likely to downgrade that person as if they got hurt on June 1st and missed the rest of the season. And so there's a lot of stuff like that where it definitely plays into like these kind of different biases that we have. and I don't know, I think injuries, and this should be obvious by, you know, my love of John Carlos Stanton this year, I think injuries are one place where you can gain an edge. In a time when it's really hard to gain an edge in fantasy baseball, especially when it comes to drafting, you can gain edges in season, but I think when it comes to drafting specifically, injuries are one place to gain an edge. I think that's one place that the market is still relatively inefficient,

and I'm not sure it ever won't be. Well, that's, that is an area where I think people are just kind of guessing still. They're just kind of going on their gut. But I do think the other one is the one that I'm exploiting and where I'm seeing a market inefficiency, and that's with those one-year mid-career breakthrough types. Just this huge production that seemingly, comes out of nowhere and it's backed up by all the data that we normally gauge legitimacy by,

but because there isn't much of a track record supporting it, people don't really know how to approach them. They downgrade them to some degree, but how much? And I think it's, I think for most it's gotten to be too much, which is why I'm so high on those guys, generally speaking. That voice you heard was not Chris Towers. That was Ethan Towers, our fantasy psychologist. I like when you dive into like the mindset of like the fantasy owners. Pretty interesting. There's a lot of things about, and it's not just fantasy. It's sports fans in general.

There's a lot of like, like, have you ever as a baseball fan thought that your team had a good third base coach? Because I've never experienced that. I've never witnessed a fan base go, you know, the third base coach is doing a really good job in deciding when and where to send runners. it seems to me like every single fan base thinks their third base coast is just woefully incompetent because there are like four times a year where they send a runner that they shouldn't or something like that and that's just those those events stick out in your mind so much that when you're dealing with something

that you don't actually have numbers for and it's the same for like bunting and like every team every fan base thinks their team is like woefully incompetent when it comes to hitting with the base is loaded. I've noticed every team's fan base thinks its manager is bad at managing its own thing. Yeah. And so because when we look at like

Clayton Kershaw, you can say, well he allows 2.5 runs every nine innings he pitches. And so even if you remember the five times when he really blew up in the middle of a season, that's not what sticks with you. And so there are all these things about sports that, you know, psychologically we have explanations for. And I think you can

find ways to take advantage of them. This conversation kind of went in a different direction. But the point is you should draft John Carlos Stan. Right, right. It all comes back to John Carlos Stan. And being a third base coach is a lot like being a fantasy commissioner. It is a thankless job. But I also wanted to get to another news item regarding the new Rangers Park, which is now Globe Life Field last year. And since I believe it was like 1994, it was Globe Life Park. So it's kind of annoying to try and remember the differences. But it was Globe Life Park. Now it's Globe Life Field.

And I saw a quote from Joey Gallo that I found very interesting. The dimensions are a tad bigger in this new ballpark. This isn't his quote. this is still me talking. Center field is 407 feet rather than 400 feet in the old field, and Joey Gallo had this to say, it's playing big, it is definitely going to be a pitcher's park.

We are trying to get those fences moved in a little bit. It's a little deep. I'm not going to lie. It's a little deep to center. If Joey Gallo's saying that, it might actually mean something, because Joey Gallo is one of those guys that has power that you think can translate anywhere.

So, Scott, I mean, it's a little bit like, the Aaron Judge, you don't want to overreact too much, but is this something that you were already kind of baking into your ranking of Rangers players, or is this something where, okay, you'd read this quote, you see the news about how the new ballpark is playing out, and, okay, I might have to adjust things a little bit here. I'm not sure, because just looking at the layout and the dimensions,

I had the opposite impression, and I'm not sure whether Joey Gallo's opinion for this particular, in this particular for this particular concept should count for more because he's subject to his own biases and I think any time you make a change to a player's environment there's going to be

some fear there. I look mainly at the gaps, how deep the gaps are when determining whether a park seems to be hitter friendly or pitcher-friendly because that's where most of the home runs are going to hit. The right center gap at the old stadium was 390 and it's 372 now. That's a huge difference. Left field, it's 374 now. It was 377 before. So about the same, but actually a little closer in the new park.

Center field is deeper. I wonder, because there's some, there's some more interesting things going on with the fence at the new stadium where it juts out more suddenly in areas and it juts back in in areas. the old stadium was more of a of a true rounded fence. And so I'm wondering if that, if something's happening there in the way it plays that I'm not accounting for, I'd be interested somebody better at geometry than me, if they could figure out how much surface area, the outfield grass is in one stadium versus another,

because, you know, that would probably tell us something too. But, yeah, I don't take much from this quote, I guess long story short. So I did an overlay of the two part dimensions and, you know, assuming that they are drawn to scale, um, it's like right field is basically the same. Center field's a little deeper.

And then left field is sort of a little bit of both. There's a part in like the true power alley where it is like Scott said closer. Uh, but then closer towards the line, it juts out a little further. Um, think the what's interesting is

you know I don't know if they I'm trying to find a picture of their of the batting practice session that he did yesterday I think I found one in it it looks like it was just done in the middle of the day with the roof open and that's going to be I think an even bigger key for how this park plays because the the temperature is so extreme

in Texas and when you're playing outdoors, you're getting all of that heat and the impact of that on the flight of the ball. If they're playing indoors with the air conditioning on, you know, it could be 30 degrees cooler in the summer in Texas than it is outside. And that could actually have an impact on how far the ball flies.

I assume. Look, I'm not, I'm not, there are smarter people than me who are actually going to run the numbers on this stuff and can tell us more. but my understanding is that would be the case. And so my expectation is it will play a little bit more pitcher-friendly, but I would be surprised if it wasn't still a hitters park. Maybe it just won't be one of the most extreme hitters park like it has been since Globe Life

Park opened. And it's also very confusing that they're both Globe Life. It is very confusing. And I guess Chris doesn't have a persona that's also like a physics, major that you talk about the science of the of the ballparks i uh i had to take algebra two twice and they finally put me into algebra two in my senior year and it was the algebra two for the seniors we want to get out of here uh class you know multiple choice tests no attendance taken there's nothing wrong with multiple choice chris i mean i'm it's a lot better than the

the alternative. You know, except when they have one of those multiple choice test where there's an E that is permanently none of the above, and they actually make use of that as consistently as they make use of everything else.

So it just eliminates whatever advantage you have of taking a multiple choice test, you know? Either way. The answer could be anything. The point is, I can do some math. But there's that figuring out the heat, the impact of heat, that's, that is far beyond what my brain is capable of doing.

I thought you were going to say, you know, I thought you were going to wrap up your discussion by telling everyone to draft John Carlos Stanton once again. Well, yeah, you definitely should draft John Carlos Stanton. No, I don't think you should. We're going to talk about how the new global life field could potentially help one of the Rangers starting pitchers when we come back. We will deep dive Lance Lynn. Chris, you mentioned that you had a stat. from Derek Cardi regarding Global Life Park, what did you have there? Yeah, Derek Cardi is one of those smart people who actually knows how to do math, real math.

And he said that he expects, based on his projection system, which does incorporate temperature and other effects, about a 2% reduction in Wobah and an 8% reduction in home runs for hitters at Globel Life Park. Glob Life Field, excuse me. See? Super confusing. Global Life Field is the new one. Right. Global Life Park is the old one.

So yeah, like I said, I think less hitter friendly for sure. I would guess that still makes it somewhat hitter friendly, but it'll probably be a more neutral environment. Adam, the point that we got to with Global Life Field and apologies, I tease that we were going to get to the Lansland Deep Dive. We'll do that tomorrow so that we have enough time to actually dive into Lanslind because I do think that he's a very fascinating player. So I want to give him the correct amount of time that he deserves.

Adam, you mentioned that you had some splits regarding Danny Santana. It sounds like the new global life field, even with everything that we've talked about today, the quotes from Joey Gallo, the analysis from our physics major, Chris Towers here. It sounds like it is going to play more towards being a neutral pitchers park, especially when that roof is closed and the air conditioners on. So what do you have regarding Danny Santana, Adam? massive split difference here. 981 OPS at home,

741 on the road, 19 home runs at home, 9 on the road. Must be a Jerox and Pro Far a little bit. And he moved to Oakland. That was worse than GLF Globe Life Field. But this is a guy that I don't trust

as a hitter anyway. He was a good hitter in 2014 and 2019. He was horrible, horrible in between. So this is just another strike against Danny Santana. Danny Santana, current ADP 133.6. I think people are looking at him more in roto leagues because of what he can provide in terms of steals without completely sinking your power.

But yeah, it's still a volatile profile. Lots of strikeouts there. You heard the splits from Adam. So I worry about Danny Santana. I feel like that's kind of the consensus most people do. I've never heard of anyone excited to draft Danny Santana. It's just one of those situations, man. I need more steals.

Oh, look, Danny Santana's still there. It's like Danny Santana or Scott King or your choice at that stage of the trap. And some people go Santana. He at least makes hard contact if we're going to compare him to Jerks and Profar. Jurex and Profar makes very weak contact. So, I don't know. There's plenty of reason for skepticism about Danny Santana, but that's like the, if you want an optimistic take, that's the source of optimism.

Head to head points. leagues. I mentioned earlier, the goat format, the greatest of all time, one that Scott and I love. Scott White's Dynasty League is a points league format. Here on Wednesdays on the show, we like to do a little bit of general strategy discussion. We've talked about trading. We've talked about auctions as well. So now I wanted to get into some head-to-head points strategy in general. Scott, you know, what are some of the biggest differences between head-to-head points leagues and rhodo leagues the biggest differences between head-to-head and rhodo are what's what contributions are scored and how they're weighed relative to each other so i mean what what roto or category

format forces you to do is weigh everything equally which is why we've ended up in the scenario where base dealers are valued so much above everything else just because there's a scarcity in that category, and it's weighed equally to home runs, even though home runs are more valuable to the real game. When points format, you get to assign whatever value you want to each statistic, and then it all goes into a big point pool, you know, fantasy football scoring, basically. So you can weigh home runs more appropriately relative to steals, and that pulls down the base Steelers to, I think, a level that's more appropriate.

But in addition to that, you have stats that a category league, at least the traditional one, went away at all. Like walks for hitters, strikeouts for hitters oftentimes, doubles, triples. Basically everything a player can contribute, you can score. And it gives you, I think it makes for a fairer estimation of what a player's worth is. it's more comparable to his real life value and fair in that way. And a reminder of what the CBS scoring is, and I'm not just saying this because I now work with CBS Sports, I have always kind of gravitated towards the point format that CBS uses

because there's other points leagues out there that use different formats, but I've always gravitated toward this, and I think it's a great way to value both hitters and pitchers in this format. One point per single, two points per doubles, three points per tributt, triples, four points for a home run, one point for a walk, for a hit by pitch, for a run, for an RBI, two points for a stolen base, minus one for caught ceiling, and minus half a point for batter strikeouts. And for pitchers, you get three points per inning, so one point per out that a pitcher records. An additional half point per strikeout, you get seven points for a win,

three points for a quality start, minus five points for a loss, you lose a point for a walk, earned run, hit, or hits Batman allowed, and then seven points for a save as well. So that's just a review of the head-to-head points scoring. Adam, you know, what type of hitter do you target in this format, typically? Is it good plate discipline? Do you technically lean towards hitters in good offenses? Do you try to find guys that are going to be lead-off men so that they see more plate appearances throughout the course of the year?

what type of what's your hitter prototype that you look for in a points league well it's not like the hitter rankings are completely different than that of a roto league but a guy like Alex Bregman versus a guy like Ronald Acuna in a roto league

a cune clearly goes ahead and in a points league to me Bregman clearly goes ahead because plate discipline is super important and steals really are not to say that steals don't count two points is very valuable but but

plate discipline and all the other categories, you know, they count too. So listen, plate discipline is the one thing that's going to change things the most. After that, at bats do matter. Like, I like DJ Lemahue a lot more in a points league than I do in a roto league. Because I think there's going to be a good amount of statistical regression. I think he just had basically a very lucky, very charmed year. But I also think he's going to lead off for the Yankees.

And leading off in a great lineup is huge. George Springer, more valuable in both formats for sure. I like him in both formats, more valuable in a points league. He is a plate appearance machine. He's a run scoring machine. That's huge. So play discipline first. Plate appearance is next.

That would probably be it. And you pretty much don't pay attention unless you're in a daily format to guys who sit versus lefties or righties. I will say that I tend to target hitters that are in good offenses as well. Because if you look at hitters inside the top 100 in points leagues last season, the Dodgers had five. The Astros had five, the Twins had five, the Nationals had five, the Red Sox had four, the Braves had four, the Oakland A's had four, the Giants, the Marlins, and the Tigers combined for zero players inside, zero hitters inside the top 100 last year. And this is kind of like a DFS take on points leagues as well, where in DFS you want

hitters in the top half of lineups because they're going to see more played appearances, which means they're going to have more opportunities to earn you fantasy points. So that is, I mean, we can't completely predict what a lineup is going to look like, but we have a good idea. And I like to target hitters in the top half of really good lineups, just because they're going to see more played appearances and more opportunities than other hitters in bad lineups. Volume is king in a points league.

Efficiency only matters in as much as it helps you rack up more points. And so, you know, if a guy hits 300, that's great. But a guy could hit 250 in a point so he can be a lot more valuable. If he walks a lot, if he hits for more power. Like a Reese Hoskins. And, yeah, I mean, in his case, like, you do also want to, you know, one of the reasons why Ronald Acuna was a lot better in Roto than points last season. He actually had a weirdly low doubles total.

I think it was only like 23 or something to go along with his 40 plus homers. And so that's another place where you have to keep in mind that you're not just looking for home runs. You're not just looking for the specific categories in Rutter. You're looking for that overall offensive production. And in Ronald Cunia's case, you know, the fact that he does lead off helps. But there is, there are things about his game that hold him back relative to the other elite. hitters. Just to put a bow on hitters in points

leagues, 19 of the top 20 hitters last year came from offenses that were in the top half of the league in 2019. So just another point there. Frank, do you think that those hitters were just the best hitters? Or do you think they benefited from the offense? Well, that's what I was wondering

about. Because I think of a guy like Trey Mancini, who was terrific in points leagues last year, and obviously was in a bad lineup. I mean, a lot of those were bad line is just didn't have any good hitters. Right, but he only had 97 RBIs. Okay, that's a lot of RBI.

No, but it really isn't. Not compared to, not compared to the Bellinger 115, Freeman 121, Alonzo 12, even LeMayhew, LeMayhew, a leadoff hitter for the Yankees had more RBI than Mancini. So you're saying Mancini, if he played another line, it could have been even better. That's what I'm saying. I don't think anybody would argue against that, but. LeMayu strikes me as the guy who. you can still be a really valuable hitter even in a bad lineup.

Yeah. LeMayhew's the one that comes to mind as like the guy who benefited the most from the lineup. He had a great year. But to be a lead off hitter and driving over 100 runs, that's pretty rare. No, it's a fair question that you bring up at them. And there's value on bad teams too. I mean, you know, based on what I'm saying, there are a lot of players, and we see this every year, that are devalued because they are in bad lineups.

and at some point they become good values in terms of ADP, but I'm just laying out what the numbers say and suggest. They have to hit better. Right. They have to make up for less played appearances, for less RBI opportunities, less scoring opportunities. All other things being equal, yeah, you'd rather have the guy in the better line.

Scott, starting pitchers, we talk about a lot when it comes to points league because they are so valuable. Is there, you know, we were talking about the prototype of a hitter in a points league that you look for. Is there a prototype that you look for in a starting pitcher for a points league? Or is it just try and get as many high-end elite starting pitchers as you possibly can? Because I tend to look at head-to-head points pitchers as the accumulators, the guys like Madison Bumgarner and Lance Lynn even,

and maybe like a Corey Kluber, are more valuable in this format versus Roto. Yeah, guys who don't pitch deep into games are just going to have a difficult time measuring up being anything more than like a two-week sleeper option. Because of what Chris was saying earlier, volume is so important. And I think it becomes clearest at starting pitcher. So many points are awarded for the innings themselves. And the CBS standard, it's three points for every inning and, well, one point for every third of an inning more accurately. and then you get seven points for a win, three points for a quality start, so you want a guy who's going to go six plus innings with consistency.

The others just aren't going. So a guy like Joey Lucchasey, let's say. You might have some hope he'll deliver a low whip, decent enough ERA, with an okay strikeout total in a roto league, but in a points league he really does nothing for me except as like a streamer type, hoping that in the right two-star week,

he might be able to get enough between the two starts to measure up to what a good starter would score in a one-start week. I'd like to make a point about pitching and see how you guys feel about it. So if you just look at ADP, pitching in points leagues goes earlier than Roto, at least like right at the top, right?

I mean, last year Heath drafted a team in our podcast points league where his first four picks were starting pitchers. And I think that has less to do with the scoring and more to do with the roster construction of our typical points leagues versus our typical roto leagues. So in a typical roto league, you have to fill out five outfielders, two catchers, middle infield, corner infield. And you're only adding going from seven pitching spots to nine pitching spots. A lot of people do like six starters, three relievers.

that's, you know, typically what I do. Maybe I would do like five and four or whatever. In a points league, no middle infield, no corner infield, only three outfielders, only one catcher. Much easier to feel good about your lineup. So I think there's a perception that points league is just so much more important, and that's why it goes earlier. I just think it's because the hitting is shallower and easier to fill. Whereas if we played a five outfielder points league with a corner infielder and a middle infielder and two catchers, I think we would draft our pitching staffs, our starting pitching anyway, more like we do when we do roto drafts than when we do a points league drafts.

It's a little of both. It's a little of both. I think it probably is more what you're saying, and that doesn't get enough attention. I also do think starting pitching is more valuable in a points league because you can fake those ratio categories in a categories league. Yeah, that's true. Just not even use many starting pitchers and end up with a really good ERA,

a really good showing in ERA and whip and saves. but in a points league, you can fake the quality of your starting rotation easier than you can in a roto league. I actually think the highest in starting pitchers relative to the rest of the starting pitcher pool is more valuable in a roto league because they're not having a negative impact. you know, in a roto league, they're bad or middling pitchers have a negative impact on categories and negative impact on ERA and WIP and that going deeper into games

makes that impact even worse. Going deeper into games is always a good thing in points leagues. And so guys that may hurt you in certain ratios, well, those ratios aren't being measured directly. Yeah, you lose points for the number of hits. They give up the number of walks they give up. But not nearly as many as you gain

from them just pitching deeper into games. So guys like Marcus Stroman, Dallas Keichel, they end up gaining a lot of value and become more useful in a points league. And like I was saying with Lucase, you can take advantage of those two-star weeks better in a points league, a two-start option off the waiver wire. You have hope he's going to make a positive contribution for you, even if he's not such a great pitcher. In a roto league, you're probably better off not starting him. Chris, the last point I wanted to make on starting pitching, and I brought this up recently

when we recapped one of our head-to-head points mock drafts that we did is looking at the point scores and how it was broken down last year among starting pitchers versus hitters. So in last season in 2019, there were two starting pitchers with 700 or more fantasy points. There were four starting pitchers with 600 or more fantasy points. They were 15 with 500 or more. In terms of hitters, zero with 700 or more.

But there were also 10 with 600 or more fantasy points and 36 with 500 or more. So what that tells me, is that there's more variance among starting pitchers and there's more parity among hitters. And I think that's another reason why we tend to over, not overvalue, but, you know, push starting pitchers up the board in this format. Yeah, I think it kind of makes sense. Like, we were talking about volume earlier today, or earlier in the podcast, and that's ultimately

what this comes down to. There's a much wider spread of pitching playing time than there is, or, you know, I guess, pitching actual time. Whereas for hitters, you know, the difference between the number three hitter on the best offense and the number three hitter on the worst offense is probably like 60 plate appearances per year, which isn't nothing.

And that's valuable. That's why you want to target those guys on a good teams. But you're going to get those plate appearances even on a bad team. And so there's just more opportunity for those hitters than there are for the pitchers. The pitchers, there's, what was it, five? pitchers through 200 innings last season? It was an incredibly low number.

It was, I believe it was 15 that had 200 or more. But it has been trending down. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's, you know, I've been doing this, this, like, greatest fantasy baseball season's draft, and that's one of the things you really notice when looking back at older seasons is, you know, even as recently as the early part of this, of the last day,

decade, you had guys throwing 240, 250 innings, not as often. Now you're probably going to lead the league if you throw 220. I think that's what Shane Bieber had last year, right? There was only one pitcher with 220 or more innings pitched in 2019. Yeah. Versus, I mean, if you just look back at 2015, there were seven that had 220 innings pitch. And speaking of 2015, there were 27 pitchers who threw 200 or more innings in every season since then that number has been 15 or less. Yeah, and so the other thing about that

is the elite pitchers are the ones who are throwing those innings and those innings are also of higher quality. And so there's that compounding effect that starts to make those, you know, top five, top six starting pitchers even more valuable. You know, it compounds on itself,

whereas, you know, with hitters, there's certainly not an upper limit. You can have a 700 point season from a hitter, but there are a lot more guys who can give you 600, 500, like you said. The last topic I want to hit on head-to-head points leagues is Sparps, and they're very popular in this format. But before we do that, I just want to remind everybody to go listen to the State of Combat with Brian Campbell podcast.

UFC 249 is this Saturday and is arguably the best card UFC has to offer. go listen to their UFC 249 preview pod where Brian is joined by Hall of Famer Rashad Evans to break down the event and offer their expert picks for each fight. Download and subscribe on Apple podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, and wherever else podcasts are found. When it comes to Sparps, guys, it's something that's very popular. I know that you guys have talked about, you know, grabbing Carlos Carrasco a little bit earlier in this format, maybe even Jesus Lazzardo, because you can use that player who has, and a reminder, just SPARP is starting pitcher as relief pitcher.

So you can use that starting pitcher who gives you an advantage in your relief pitcher spot. But I want to question, you know, how much of advantage do you actually get? Because last season, Kent and Maeda and Ryan Yarbrough were the only two SPARPs who ranked inside the top 20 relief pitcher scores. So is it just that there are more SPARPs available this year of higher quality? And that's why we're excited about it?

Because, I mean, last year, it seems like Sparps didn't, really stand out very much in relief pitcher scoring. Yeah, 2020 is the year of the spark. Yeah, but I really feel like we were saying that about 2019. Yeah, I think we were. I can't even remember the names that failed so miserably, but we were definitely saying that. But that being said,

Chris is 100% right. 2020 is where it's at, baby. This, well, and, you know, that's, I wrote about tight ends in football earlier this week, and that's something that I said there was like, we always say this is the year, tight end isn't going to stink, and then it always stinks. I 100 percent agree with you on that. It could be like that.

with Sparks this year, but this year does seem like a special circumstance because we do have Carlos Martinez and Carlos Carrasco, who both pitched out of the bullpen last year, who have been, you know, before last season, they would have been top 20 starting pitchers that were drafting. You have Hayes-Luzezardo, who, if he's not the best pitching prospect in baseball, he's the best one who is going to be on a major league roster on opening day. You have AJ Puck, who has a ton of upside. You have Kenta Maeda, who, you know, know, was only a top 20 relief pitcher last year, like you said, Frank, but this year we expect he will actually be allowed to stay in the rotation the whole season, maybe go deeper in the game,

so it's a different circumstance for him. And so it's not necessarily like there's some kind of league-wide change. You know, next year, Hazers Lizardo, if everything goes right, will not be a spark. Carlos Martinez and Carlos Carrasco will not be sparse. And so I think it's most, and there are other names that I didn't mention that I'm sure we could throw out there for 2020. I know there there were at least like eight that I wrote about in my relief pitcher preview who I like. So it's just a, it's just a specific circumstance for this year. But we'll probably see something similar in 2021 with all the expanded rosters. I'm sure we'll have prospects coming up who are going to be pitching out of the bullpen

who might not otherwise and they might come up next year, or 2021 and still have RP eligibility as a result of that. So, you know, I don't think it's a long-term trend, but I think there are specific circumstances that happened in 2019 and are likely to happen 2020 that will make the SPARP landscape a lot more interesting than it normally is. I can hear it now. 2021, the year of the SPARP. Well, I could give you some numbers. Carlos Carrasco, 2017, he just had a great year. He scored 564 fantasy points. Carasco scored 523.5 fantasy points.

He went 17 and 10 with a 330-80RA. Really good year for Carasco, 5223.5 fantasy points. Last year, Josh Hader scored 464 fantasy points. So you were talking about 60 fewer fantasy points than Carasco. 100 fewer fantasy points than Carasco in Carasco's best year. And when Chris makes this point, I can tell you some of the sparse that we drafted last year in our podcast points league. We'll have fun with it.

Yeah, it's part of that is last year as an especially terrible year for closers. Basically all of the elite guys who were drafted as elite closers at the beginning of the season busted. And you know, you look at the best closers

like, you know, the best closers like... Did anybody have 40 saves? Did anybody have 40 saves? Yes. I think Kirby Gates was the only one. He had that... I've given this that before. He, I think we updated it. I think he had the lowest save total for the MLB leader since like the 1980s. Yeah. It was the lowest for a

non-strike season since like 84. And Josh Hader had the fewest fantasy points of at least the last 10 years for the number 1 RP. So that's the other thing to keep in mind. Although that trend, maybe. That's, yeah, that's

a trend. That's a thing. Because the way they, look, I mean, I expect the league, the league leader or the number one reliever to be better than Hader was last year in terms of fantasy points. But I do expect fewer guys to reach a certain milestone just based on the way relievers are used. But still, I mean, spars are just so, so valuable if you, if they hit. And you can take a gamble on them because if you miss on them, you can go to the waiver wire typically and get a closer. Well, there's a couple of things I think we're missing here.

And I don't know how much time we have left. But I think a lot of the spark pipe is based on tradition and it goes back to a time when, players could be inserted into the rotation and expected to throw 180 plus innings right away, and innings, as we've talked about, are so valuable for starting pitchers in this format that they could just rack up points much easier back then. If you think about it, you know, guys who are carrying relief pitcher eligibility from the year before are normally just being introduced to the starting rotations, and they're handled so much more carefully these days that they're just not going to get the kind of innings total to finish high in the rankings. But on

They will have those moments where they have big scoring production, where they do have a six innings or seven-inning start, where they get a win, and maybe it'll be in a two-start week, and they could put together this 50-point week that a closer just couldn't touch. And yet, I mean, still because of efforts to preserve their innings, they may finish lower in the final rankings.

So I don't think you should ever draft a spark thinking you're just going to stick that, you're just going to stick them in your relief pitcher spot and leave him there. It depends. This year, Carlos Carrasco and Carlos Martinez, you could. They're exceptions because, yes, they are proven high-end starters already who just got relief pitcher eligibility for unusual circumstances. But the typical spark, somebody like Adrian Houser, who I like a lot, like I'm not drafting

him thinking he's just going to stay in my relief pitcher spot all year. I'll probably move him between relief pitcher and starting pitcher as needed. I'll probably bench him sometimes. but because only two relief spots are needed to be filled in a per team in a head-to-head points league, that means you have plenty of closers to choose from often on the waiver wire. You can just pick a guy up and plug them in and he may give you a three save week or whatever. So that's part of what goes into why they may be a little overrated, just the idea of the SPARP in general, but I also don't think the fairest,

way to judge them is exactly where they finish in the rankings. Yeah, and I would say for 2020, Carrasco Martinez, maybe Hauser, although it depends on him pitching well enough to stay in the rotation, and probably Julio or Rias are the only sparks that, you know, over 162 games season, if we were having it, I would prop, those are probably the only far I would expect to throw a hundred, and Kentimaeira, sorry, 150 or more. innings. I don't think Hazers-Lazardo was going to get there this year. I don't think AJ Puck was going to get there this year.

Frank, would you like to hear the Sparps from last year? What do you get? I don't think you want to hear him. Now I feel bad. Matt Strom. Now, there are some I'm probably missing because they were listed as starting pitchers, but these are the guys that are just

listed as RPs. Matt Strom, Tyler Glass Now. That was good. Good for a time, yes. Let's see. Brad Peacock. One pick ahead of Kirby Yates. Oh, I took Brad Peacock and Scott took Kirby Yates.

That worked out. Good pick, Scott. Colin McHugh. Oh, he was great. That was good for about a month. Brad Keller. No? Yuck.

He's actually not bad at a points league. He'd be better if the Royals gave him a chance to win some games. Isn't it? Doesn't Brad Keller feel like he should be 29 years old? Yeah, he's only 24. 24. That blows my mind every time I go to his his baseball reference page. I took him in a dynasty startup because I had that same

revelation. Like, oh, this guy's got a long career of a boring 4-E-R-A. Corbin Burns and Julio Arias taken just ahead of Josh Hader. Burns was like historically terrible. Kyle Wright, Dakota Hudson. Not good. And of course, Hudson was okay. My last pick, round 21,

Greg Bird. Not exactly a A spark, but A spark. He's a spark. He's a spark. There you go. Spark, only for pocket aces there.

Yeah, yeah. He's the spark that ignites the powder keg that blows up your team. There you go. The last point that I'll add on sparps. I am anti-sparps all the way. Let's get relief pitchers. Let's get closers back in those relief pitcher spots

in points leagues. This is the last, you should have led with that. that's explosive. Let's go. If I was a fantasy politician, my slogan would be like anti-sparks. It would be built around something like that. Like, let's get closers back in our relief pitcher spots. My home league, we play with two relief pitcher spots.

You can only use closers. No sparps allowed. And that's exactly how it should be in head-to-head points leagues. Apologies, once again, for not getting to your emails. I realize that I'm failing at getting to your emails. But it's okay because I acknowledge it. So that makes everything all right. Totally fine.

We will have a. mailbag at some point this week on one of our two remaining podcasts. So apologies, but we will get to your questions for Scotty Dubbs, for CPT, and Ethan Towers, for Pocket Aces. I am Frank. Hopefully I'll have a nickname on tomorrow's show. Bye-bye.