Fantasy Baseball Today - H2H Points DAILY 12-Team Full Mock Draft

Episode Date: March 15, 2026

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He is the man behind the ATC projections, the host of the Beat to Shift podcast. You can find his work over on Fangraphs, Roto Baller, and I'm sure I'm probably missing something else. Ariel Cohen, what's going on, buddy? Hey, what's going on, guys? Appreciate you hopping in. You can follow him on X at ATCNY,

and he is perfect for this upcoming draft head-to-head points because he is your defending Tout Wars head-to-head points champion. But that's only because I'm not in the league anymore. That's right. And Chris is actually in that league. So we'll see him on Sunday. But Frank wanted two years, you wanted two years in a row, right, Frank?

Yeah. You're like a Talwar's legend because of that. I figured I'd give Ariel Cohen a shot here. And so I left the league. Well, we've, uh, ooh, we have won between the two of us four out of the last six years in town. Oh, yes.

Yes, we like that. All right. The draft is up and running. And the, first overall pick was Shohei Otani. No surprise there. I'm going to go ahead and take my guy. I did not plan this. The draft order was randomized an hour before the draft. So I think I've been picking top three in the two draft in the two drafts that we've done so far today. So not on purpose, but I did draft Aaron Judge here. Aral Cohen is picking third and Scott is

picking at six. And we will get into the picks in just a second. I do want to remind everybody of the format here. This is the standard 12 team head to head points on ESPN. scoring a little bit different than CBS. It's one point for each of a run scored, total base RBI walk and steel minus one for a hitter strikeout. So on CBS, two points for a steel, minus half a point for a strikeout here on ESPN,

only one point for a steel, minus a full point for a hitter strikeout. On the pitching side, it's three points per inning pitched, one for a strikeout, two for a win, five for a save, two for a hold,

minus one for a hit or walk aloud, minus two for an earn, run, and loss. So a little bit different there. You're underselling it. That's not a little bit different. That is way different. It really narrows the usable player pool on both sides. I would say hitters and pitchers.

But I think especially hitters because you get minus one per strikeout as opposed to minus half like we're used to. And you get just one point per steel as opposed to two points per steel like we're used to. So that takes all the high. strikeout guys, all the premium base dealers who don't provide a lot of power. That takes them all off the board, basically. And we got 12 teams in here, right? It's only a 19 round draft, but still, I am, I was picking sixth.

I just took Jose Ramirez, who thankfully doesn't strike out much. But it's, yeah, it's going to be very different. And I especially feel urgency to feel those hitter spots. But, you know, the pitcher side too, because. because it's kind of, it kind of makes the head-to-head points value for a pitcher and the roto value a little more even because you really need premium bat messers with strikeout being worth a point each and not many points available for wins, just two points for wins, no points for quality starts or anything like that. So you have to get actual dominant pitchers

and you have a narrow pool of usable hitters. I want to remind everybody of some other rules here again. our daily lineups. That is the standard format on ESPN and their lineups. It's one of each infield position, including catcher, three outfielder's, one utility bat, and then seven pitcher spots. You can divide those up however you like. It could be seven relievers. It could be seven starters. It could be five and two, four and three, however you want to divide that up, and then three bench spots. This is a 19 round draft, 16 starting spots. And again, like I just said, three spots on the bench. Ariel Cohen, you wound up with Juan Soto. I picked number three. Was that a

Homer pick? It was not a Homer pick. I have him as the third best guy over there. Otani, Judge Soto in that order. I do want to point out, though, that the Paul Skeen pick is a really good pick by Barton over there. Because, remember, there's no very few

points for wins. So Skeens is now a premium pitcher. I had him as almost sixth overall, actually. Yeah, catching people up here on the picks. The top three were Otani, Judge, and Soto. We got Terrick Scuba at four. Ronald Acuna, Jose Ramirez went to Scott.

We got Bobby Witt Jr. at 7. Kyle Tucker, Fernando Tatis, Paul Skeens, Gare Crochet, and Catelle Marte, which might surprise people. But again, he does not strike out very much. And then into round two, it's Junior Camerero, Kyle Schwabre, Corbyn Carroll, Vlad Jr., and Logan Gilbert. Yeah. So obviously the Bobby Witt one is different, though he tends to fall in our points leagues as well, since he's not a big walks guy. Yeah, I do feel like I'm flying a little blind in this draft

because the format is just so... I do play in some different head-to-head points leagues. They're not all CBS default scoring, but the fact that all the base Steelers are, their contributions in that category are cut in half. You know, strikeouts being worth, yeah, I mean, this is different. This is...

going to be interesting. Okay, I am up. Especially interesting when we see Alex Breggman in round two, Scott. Yeah, wow. Yeah. Yeah. I think I'm going to go ahead and take Cal Raleigh here. I know he strikes out a lot, but he is far and away the best catcher and not to overthink the scoring differences, but, you know, still in head-to-head points when you don't have the extra outfielders, you don't have the extra infielders. You need impact from every spot. and so being able to get Cal Raleigh at, where was it, 21, 20?

Yeah, I went ahead and took them. All right. After you took Cal Raleigh, we got Julio Rodriguez. It was 19. Julio Rodriguez and Ellie De La Cruz. And Ariel, you are on the clock. What are we thinking? I'm going to go with Brian Wu over here.

Who I have my number four best overall pitcher. You do need a lot of pitchers here. There's seven pitchers to nine hitters. So you can't discount them and Wu is just amazing. Last long gets you a lot of innings needed an anchor. And for this kind of format, I think you do need a pitching anchor. So that's why I took him. All right.

I am on the clock here and trying to figure out what direction I would like to go in. I had Aaron Judge as my first pick. And again, it's like trying to recalculate your brain compared to, you know, with the scoring format. So the top hitters available, Machado. I would probably need a couple days to study this, I think, to really give it my best shot. I'm going to go ahead and take Gunner Henderson, who typically is a borderline first round pick. I don't expect him to strike out all that much. It's probably somewhere in that like 20 to 25 percent K-ray, but we'll be so good with the power and speed.

Totally fine, taking him here to go along with Aaron Judge. And the next pick was Yoshinobu Yamamoto to finish out round two. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And Christopher Sanchez. You know what? I figured I could get Christopher Sanchez with the next pick that I didn't have to go ahead and pull them up the board there. But I'm not so sure that I want to take a pitcher yet, but I don't know.

Ariel kind of talked me into it with getting one of those ace pitchers. I mean, you got to take a strikeout guy specifically. So I think a Max Fried, for instance, not a big strikeout guy. a lot of his value comes from wins, which are only two points apiece. I was looking at Chris Sale to get those. I was hoping you weren't. With the Braves jersey on and everything. Take that.

Yeah. Yeah. I just took you order in Alvarez. I'm looking at the outfielers, and he's so much better than some of the others. There's a big drop in outfield. If you don't get a big bopper, and since I just went Wu and I didn't get that big bopper, I now have Soto and Alvarez. That's a pretty high and mighty outfield.

I'll play all the other positions a little bit later that I think are a little bit closer to each other in value. You're in Alvarez, I think could have a really great season if he stays healthy. I mean, that's the key for him, really. But if he does, we know his value. And it's worth pointing out that on ESPN, he does have that outfield eligibility.

Yes. On CBS and NFBC, he doesn't. On Yahoo and ESPN, he does have that outfiel eligibility. So nice to point that out there with Alvarez. Next two picks after that, Mady Machado and Max Freed. and Scott, you are up. You have Jose Ramirez and the big dumpa. I know, I know.

I don't like this. I mean, Francisco Lendor is still there in round three. Obviously, that's normally a great value. That feels pretty good. A lot of his value comes from steals, but he's also not a guy who strikes out much. So I think I'm going to go ahead and take him. Yeah, I like that.

You took Chris Sale out from under me. Can't let you get all those brave, Scott. How many braves do I have? I have zero. Well, you had Matt Olson. the first draft. That is, I'm, I'm drafting that Olson a lot. You know why? It's because I prefer Olson to both Harper endeavors and I think I'm in the minority there. Right after Lindor, we got Logan Webb, so another ace off the board, Cody Bellinger in a league where strikeouts are minus one.

I mean, that is a pre-mo pick. I was looking at him. Yep. Yeah, I think it was like a 13 or 15% K rate last year for Bellinger. So someone who does make a lot of contact. We are here in round three. Again, thanks you to everybody for being here. We've got almost 600 people watching live. Like this video if you haven't already subscribed to the channel. 40K by opening day. Probably not going to happen. It's a lofty goal, but subscribe if you haven't already.

I haven't lost faith. After Bellinger, we got Hunter Brown and Mason Miller. Let's see. Mason Miller, interesting to try and evaluate him. So I did take the points. reliever. And I put it. Yes.

But, but it's just seven pitchers, right? It's not starters and reliever. And saves are worth five in this. Saves are worth five, but innings are worth three. Yes. Right. And strikeouts just by virtue of not throwing as many innings, he's going to have a lot

less strikeouts. Probably a little too early for Miller, probably a little too early. But he is the number one guy, maybe fourth, fifth round for this kind of format. I can see that. Yes. So I took the scoring system. I plugged it into the, auction calculator on fan graphs.

I'm using ATC projections. No surprise there, R.L. And they have Mason Miller as a $25 player. And that would slot in right around SP 18, like right behind Cole Reagan. So, yeah, I do think it's early here on Mason Miller. But just to give people some perspective on what his valuation is in this format. After Mason Miller, there was Jazz Chisholm,

lots of power and speed, but also lots of strikeouts for him. But it is a discount from where he normally. normally goes Framber Valdez and Jesus Lazardo. And we are into round four. There we go. Going quick. Yes, sir. So I'm seeing Nico Horner pretty high in the available players.

And he doesn't strike out much, but no power. So I got to think, you know, getting just one point per steals instead of two. He's, I'm a little surprised how he shows up in the draft room because I wouldn't think there would be a ton of value there. I don't know. What do you think? Yeah. Ariel.

Ariel, what do you think about Niko Horner in this format? Horner in this format? A little bit lower down, I have. Yeah, right? That's what I was thinking. I'm surprised how he was in the draft room. Yeah, he is the top second baseman left, but not a big difference to the rest.

I think you could have waited on Horner, I think. He hasn't gone yet. I'm just thinking about Oh, okay. Yeah. You can wait a little bit. I'd be surprised if you've taken. But, you know, two rounds from now, you don't want to let him go way past that.

Mm-hmm. After Jesus Salzardo, Nick Kurtz and Stephen Kwan goes again. It's like so different compared to what we normally see in draft, but it's, you do have to adapt. You do have to adapt to the format. And Stephen Kwan, the lack of strikeouts versus Nick Kurtz, the pick like four. Moogie Betz was a very good value for right here. Yeah. Yeah, that was looking good.

I already had a shortstop, so I wasn't going to be able to do it. I don't know. Maybe I would have filled my. Oh, great. I'm up in Regens just when I was holding my breath on Regens. Cole, Regens. Yep, lots of strikeouts from Regens, lots of risk. But again, this is a shallower format.

So I think it's okay to take on a little bit of risk there. Jacob de Grom is the next pick. and Scott, I hate to inform you, but you're up. I know. I know. And Reagan's and DeGrom were the last two from that tier. Luzardo's already gone, right? So he's gone.

I don't have a pitcher yet. I got to get some strikeouts. You know, minus two points per earned run is a problem for somebody like Peralta, who I think, Freddie Peralta, who's ERA, it's more likely to be in the mid-3s than the mid-high-2s like it was last year. But it does get a lot of strikeouts. and he does seem to be the best pitcher left, so I'm going to take him,

not with a ton of confidence. Let's go, Matt. Was he your top pitcher available? He... No. No. No. Okay.

Close. Yeah. Who else would have been? Kirby? Cease? Yeah, Cease is up there. Well, we'll see what happens next.

Trey Turner in round four. It's just again, you got to recalculate your brain. It's so interesting to see where these guys are going here. Matt Olson, Trey Turner goes, and Ariel, your backup. Your first three picks, Soto, Brian Wu, and Yordon Albrez. Okay, so you mentioned that strikeouts are a big thing in this league. I have a first baseman who is fantastic at not getting struck out. Vinnie Pasquentino, friend of the podcast.

Vinnie Pee, baby. Is he a friend of the podcast? Our podcast or your podcast? My podcast, but he's a friend of every podcast. I wish I was friends with Vinny P. Yeah, more like Vinny 3, man. Three home runs last night against Mexico to help you. And your podcast sounds cool.

Yes, that's the Beat to Shift podcast if people want to check it out. Let's see. First base. I am looking at first base because there are still some pretty big names left that are out here. Let's see, some of these guys do strike out quite a bit, but they also hit for a lot of power. So, you know, this is much further than he usually lasts, but I'm going to go ahead and take P. Alonzo.

Yeah, I was considering taking him too, but I have him just a tick higher in this format. Again, it's total points, right? If this was a Roto League, you would not draft Vinnie P. over Pete Alonzo in any situation. Right, right, right. Yeah. So, yes, I took Pete Alonzo and then William Contreras goes.

I'm not sure I remember what it was last year, but Alonzo's strikeout rates are pretty reasonable for a guy with his power. It's like 20 to 22%. Yeah. Thinking that rate is not terrible. Yeah, not bad at all. Yep. Given the power.

Yep. You'd expect that be more like 25, 26%. Alonzo Gunner, Judge. I've got Chris Sale as my SP1. Do I dive back into pitching here? Again, you want the strikeout? those are big and

I think that's the way that I'm leaning there's still a lot of really good outfielders left yeah I'm going to go ahead and take another pitcher here and take Dill and C someone I don't typically take but man the strikeouts being so valuable the way that they are I again I have the scoring system plugged into ATC projections here

top picture left they have DLNC says the SP 14 so yeah that was that was a good pick right there with the picture So where do you have the second closer, Edwin Diaz, going? Because he's still available. Diaz. Just tell me who to take.

Let's... Yeah, I mean, Edwin Diaz would be the... So, yeah, it's about the right time to take Diaz. Something close to it. Yep, I agree. I agree. I'm going to go with this pick. Michael Garcia, now he probably will go around the two from now.

And remember, I'm picking that the third, so I got to make it towards a lot of people. But the thing about him is if you look at the third base position, there is such a drop from Michael Garcia. Like to me, it's not just overall value. It's the drop from where you are to the next one. After Michael Garcia, Austin Riley is the next best player. And I've got like seven rounds of drop or so of value between the two. He loses a lot of value in head to head. Even our head to head points league, but especially when it's a full point for a strikeout.

That's one that just you just take them off the board. Yeah. But he's not a differentiator. I mean, he's going to get drafted, but he's not. Right. Now, there's no corner in this league. There's just one third basement. So a lot of the third baseman are off the board.

And he's just sitting there with a lot of a value drop. So I didn't want to let him go to anybody. I'm just nervous. And now I got a first and third. You know what? I plugged in your projections, Ariel, and I forgot to put minus one as the strikeout. So it didn't have Michael Garcia ranked as highly as as I thought he should have. have been. But yes, if I had that in there correctly, I probably would have taken to myself.

But yes, good pick there on Michael Garcia. Next one was Bryce Harper, then Kyle Bradish, and Scott, we are back to you. You have J-Ram, Cal Raleigh, Lindor, and Freddie Peralta. Uh, yeah, I don't know. I might. No, he strikes that a lot. I'm actually going to take George Springer here. Doesn't strike out much. Warks out a good clip. but not that dependent on speed. George Springer. That's my pick. Yeah, I mean, he's always been good

in Points League formats, that plate discipline. And I don't think anyone's expecting him to come close to what he did last year, even if he regrets. I mean, it's, what, 20 to 25 homers, 15 steals, leading off for a good lineup. Should still be pretty small production. How was Freddie Freeman still there? I totally overlooked him.

Now I feel stupid. I had one outfielder ahead of them. I won't say who it is, but I think there's one outfielder I had better than Springer. I know who it is. I know he's probably not going to make it back to me because you'll probably take him, Mario. Yeah. Actually, there's sort of two outfielders, but at least one that I usually goes pretty high in drafts in any format. Yeah.

Let's catch people up here on some of the picks. I don't want to be too. Is it Jackson Churio? Yeah, Jackson Chirio. I just figured this format kind of ruined him. Sure, but he's not the second round. that it would be like the fifth round of house. Yeah, sure.

After we saw Springer go to Scott, there was Roman Anthony who strikes out quite a bit, but he walks a lot as well to kind of helps mitigate some of that. Freddie Freeman, Nico Horner, Jose Altuve. So again, a lot of picks here who do minimize the strikeouts. Makes sense for them to go this early in this type of format. Yes, it does, Frank. Yes, it does.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, there's Nico Horner there. So, yeah, I'm about the right spot for Neco. go. I'm down with that. I'm honestly, I'm kind of tilting about the Freddie Freeman thing. I don't know why. I mean, I shouldn't rely on the draft room so much. I should just be able to process everybody who's left with my tears on one page here. But, yeah, I don't know why he was buried. Now, now I'm sure that there's some people who are listening to this broadcast who probably heard of talk about Cheerio. So maybe they picked them across of that. You never know. Yep, yep. And then there goes Edwin Diaz, too. So we were just talking about it. That makes sense. We do appreciate the people who filled in this mock draft, by the way.

They are listeners of the show and keeping things moving along here. We do appreciate them being here. And we are into round six. Round six making some good time here. Altuve, I thought about him. Low strikeout guy doesn't get a lot of his value from steals anymore. Obviously eligible to weak position. But I'm hearing noises.

Oh, somebody took somebody from my cue. Geraldo Perdomo. Yeah, that's a great. Oh, that was my next fifth. Yeah. That is a good one. Oh, yeah. Perdomo. I was going to ask, Ariel, where are you at on Perdomo this year? Obviously, you had the huge breakout season last year, but it was so far in a way different than anything we ever seen from him before. What are you expecting from Perdomo this season? Yeah, with anybody like that, you know, you could expect some regression. You know, he's obviously not as good as the career year that he had. But, you know, I wouldn't expect him to fall flat. So, You know, if you take off a couple of homers, a couple of steals. That's roughly where he is. He's sort of in the range of Jeremy Pena, you know, that type of production, maybe a little bit less than that.

Yeah. And he is so good in a points league format. Any type of points league that penalizes strikeouts, CBS or ESPN. Pardomo is someone who does get a bit of an uptick there in value. So good pick there on Pardomo. And then the next one here is George Kirby in round six. Which is pretty close to where he normally goes.

Yep. Yep, he was the next best pitcher. Mm-hmm. Oh. You know, we did get some news just now, our buddy Chris Towers, Texas. Quinn Priester is back from seeing a vascular specialist in Dallas. Oh, oh. Pat Murphy, diagnosis is nerve issue in the thoracic outlet syndrome family,

but believed it's treatable without surgery. Priester already too lightly today scheduled for a bullpen on March 21st. Doesn't sound very good, though. No, that's not a family I want to be part of. No. Those two are thoracics. Okay, I didn't get sniped this time. So while we were talking, Bryce Terang went off the board in round six here,

and that was one I was struggling with because the strikeouts aren't bad, but they're not as low as you'd expect for a guy who you think is contact-oriented and generally hits for average. And then obviously you don't get much benefit from the steals in this format. So that's why Terang lasted this long. Now, Ariel was, Ariel or Ariel? I'm sorry, I always forget. Ariel.

Okay, I don't need to awkwardly say it wrong, the whole thing. So I'll just ask you, Ariel was talking about how Vinny Pasquantino is a low strikeout guy at first base. But there was one who was even lower last year, and it's Josh Naylor. Yeah, I love nail. Now, obviously, he stole 30 bases last year. and that's worth half as many points as what we're used to in this one. But it gets a lot of extra base hits too. He's an even better points league.

Prior to last year, he was always considered a good points league player, prior to last year with the steals breakout. So I imagine he'll remain so even in a format that suppresses the steals. Yep, I think that's a great pick there with Josh Nailer. Brent Rooker, he was one that I saw very high in the projections, Ariel, that lasted quite a bit in this draft here, round six for Brent Rooker. Yeah, Brent Rooker. That was my next pick.

So I got sniped. Yeah. And that means I would have gotten sniped because you would have taken right before my pick. So there you go. And then Jackson Meryl. So we're getting a run of outfielers here. And R.L, you are back up. All right.

Well, the highest pitcher value on the board, a little bit of an injury concern. But as he's now being drafted, probably two rounds too late, I'm going to go with pitcher Joe Ryan, who I think. just left the twins to go to the world baseball classic. So that's a good sign. So I'll go with the pet. All right. And I am going to grab my second outfielder here,

someone who I see ranks pretty highly in this format as well. Strikeouts were a little bit higher last year. I think they dropped back down this year. I'm going to go ahead with Wyatt Langford as my second outfielder. Joining Aaron Judge. So I've got Alonzo, Gunner Henderson, Judge Langford, Chris Sill, Dylan Cs. Pretty balanced so far.

Can't mess it up, right? It's the first six rounds. You can mess it up. Rafael Devers. That is someone who lasted pretty long here as well. The strikeouts were high. He just got a lot of home runs. A couple years ago, you would think of him as a low strikeout guy for the power he had.

He would strike out 18%. That's the kind of player Devers started out as. But obviously, the escalation we saw in the strikeouts last year. I mean, it's the reason why people are concerned in general, and you ratchet up that concern even more in this particular scoring format. Next couple picks, Devers went, and then Austin Riley, so another third basement off the board. Riley, typically pretty bad play discipline doesn't walk very much.

And not a crazy strikeout rate. He's usually in that, like, 25-ish percent, maybe a little bit higher than that. But it's probably fine at this point if you need a third baseman. Which I do. Yeah. There's one left. There's one third baseman worth drafting left. Yeah.

It's not great. Is he somebody who's not normally drafted very high? Well, can I ask you something here? I mean, you got Boba's Shett who doesn't qualify as a third base yet. But if you're drafting, you could draft him there and then put him in third base later on and take a crappy third basement at the end. You know what? You know what? Thank you for that, Ariel.

I'm going to go ahead and take Boba Chet. We just spoke about this earlier today where I just, I need some kind of reminder that, yes, Boba Chet is going to play third base. And you were that reminder. So thank you. Yes. And I took Boba Chet in TGFBI for the same reason that,

you know, I just didn't like any of the third baseman around. But hey, take him. And by the way, you can use them at shortstop too if you need it. You never know. I've always thought of Boba Chet as a bad points league player because he doesn't walk much at all.

like 6% walk rates. He did get that strikeout rate below 15% last year. Usually it's closer to 20. And so that helped his points league out look a lot. If it's something we can expect to continue, obviously, it's an outlier at this point. But that would be the knock on Bo Bichette. It's not enough walks. Yeah.

But again, in this format, I think we're more so focusing on the lack of strikeouts, I think, boosting of players like that. And last. And last year, there was a lack, but I'm saying in previous years, it wasn't such a lack. Yep, yeah. I mean, even if it's in that 15 to 20% range, I think that would still be worth it here. Who, looking at the rest of the third basement available, I won't be able to put him in my third base slot in this draft, but that is the hope. I already have Gunner Henderson at shortstop.

So if we were playing this league out, I would wind up putting Boba's shed at third base. R.L. you selected Kevin Gosman. Then we got Brandon Nimmo, Corey Seeger. And Scott, you are. I thought Corey Seeger had already gone. Clearly he hadn't, but I think that was a good pick. Yeah. I am going to shoot for some pitching upside here since I only have one,

and I'm going to take Yuri Perez, who should be a big strikeout guy to the extent he's anything at all. All right, Yuri Perez here in round seven. I am trying to keep an eye on those relievers to see when is the right time to mix them in with the starters. don't need them. No, you don't have to. Just seeing if they're better values at this point in the starting pitchers. I mean, in terms of what they're projected to do, the draft room says yes.

And I don't know if Ariel's projections would agree, but the draft room says yes. It's just you know there's a limit to their ceiling when starting pitchers, you know, it's a position full of breakthroughs every year, right? There's so much volatility at starting pitcher. We normally talk about it in a bad way, but in a good way too,

in that guys who don't look like high-end pitchers coming in, you know, you'll get a couple dozen of them who suddenly become that. And that has more upside than a really good closer in this format. So do you shoot for the upside or do you play it safe? And, you know, I think the shallower the league, the more it makes sense to shoot for upside.

Let me just point that one thing about closers in a points league type of format. They're more variable. because some weeks they can have three saves in which holy cow, you're getting tons of points. And in some weeks, you're getting nothing. So if you only have one, maybe two, you're going to be more variable week to week. If you pick three closers on your team, because there's three of them, you're actually going to get a more evenly distributed points total for the week. You're going to need a lot of stars to propel, but it gives you a good base.

So I'm of the opinion in this format, either go like one or zero or go like three and just go for it to give you the points base. No, that's a good point there with the relievers in this specific format. We just saw one of those go with Cade Smith from the Guardians. A couple picks right before that. We got Will Smith the catcher and Zach Netto, along with Sea Suzuki. So those are last ones. Neto is one who I presume his value just craters in this format.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And CJ Abrams would be the same way. Not that he's been taken yet, but same situation there. Exactly. Yeah, James Wood, trying to get an idea of how far down he drops in this format. Yeah, we just saw Wood and Pete Crow Armstrong go. Two others who I always link together. It's also the steals people.

If you're used to playing Roto, steals makes you go higher. It's not the case in this format. Yeah. Yeah, so ATC has PCA is like a $12 player and James Wood is like a $9 player. But based on the outfielders that are left, this is probably the right range of they should go yeah about fair value uh after james wood PCA christian yellich yellich could be a nice little grab there uh does he have good good spot for the catcher by the way i like that i got picked for them yeah shay langaleeer's yeah cosima okamoto here we go eighth round

interesting that's a gamble yeah i mean if his skill set in japan you know he did not like out very much and he walked quite a bit yeah but but i think he could have also lasted longer i think it's a it's a big jump of adp i i think he could have lasted like another two three rounds at least it's possible yep uh we are here in round eight round eight of 19 okamoto scott what do you like about okamoto besides everything i i think people aren't giving his power enough credit given how the ex of velocity readings we do have from Japan. I don't know.

I should probably see if I can find some compiled on the spring so far. But he was, he was as good relative to the rest of that league last year as Aaron Judge is relative to the rest of ours, which, you know, I don't mean to make that say, oh, he's as good as Aaron Judge. But it shows you like he was a monster in Japan. and unlike Unlike Munataka Murakami He doesn't have the strikeout issues In fact he's on the other side

Of the he's on the other extreme as far as that goes I got to make a pick here And I don't know who to pick All right well then we will catch people up And let you figure that out We got a run of pitchers here After Okamoto Sunny Gray Ryan Pepio and Chase Burns

All three names That should get a ton of strikeouts this season And Scott went ahead with the reliever strategy, Andrus Munoz. Yeah. Yeah, it was between him or Kevin Gosman, but Gosman's strikeouts have been on the decline. Still gives you a ton of innings. I already get Gosman. Oh, you just, okay, you picked him.

You did? Oh, I thought he showed up. I hope so. I see him on your team, Mario. Okay. I don't know why. That would be kind of cool if you could do that and just grab up my team, you know? You know what?

I think it's because he showed up in the search. I thought he was available. Gotcha. I'm not used to the draft room either. Sorry about that. Okay. The next picks, we got Luke Kishel and then Luis Castillo and Ariel, you are back up. All right. I think the pitchers are sort of more mushy here that you can pick anyone. The way that I make picks is if there's a range of pitchers or any position that there's so many clusters of values, you don't have to take the highest one. You'll get somebody not much less value. Here's approach, Ariel.

Exactly. I've been preaching that for decades at this point. Exactly. But at second base, I do see a big difference, and that's Glaver Torres. And I needed one. I have no middle infielers at all. So Glabre Torres right there for value. A lot of RBIs and runs.

That's the big draw for Torres. Yep. I was getting ready to take him. So thank you for that, Ariel. Welcome. Luke Cichel is gone as well. So now I feel like I just wait at second base because, I mean, semi.

There are a lot of low strikeout guys there. Yeah. I'm going to go ahead and follow Scott with the reliever strategy here and take Yohan Duran, who should be one of the best in baseball. On the Phillies now was used as a full-time closer finally last year. Lots of strikeouts on a great team. Should get lots of opportunities. So let's see.

Let's see if do I wind up with one closer or do I go with the three that Ariel told me that I should go with? Well, Devin, there's a closer run now, Devin. You know, yeah. Yeah. Those would have been any good pairings for you, by the way. Yeah. And they will not be on my team now. And let's see what I've got.

I need a catcher. Second base, third base. Well, not third base. Bobuchette would be there. So I'll just fill that in last. Second base. Don't love it. Catcher.

Anything interesting here? Yeah. We got some names. See what the projections like here. I have them pretty similar at this point. I'll go ahead and I'll go with the young gun. I'll take Drake Baldwin as my starting catcher here. Oh, that was one of my choices for next pick.

Yes. Take that. Let's make a trade, Ariel. I'll give you a trade in a mock. You give me favorite Torres. Trade's in a mock. I love it here. But I'm going to do the same thing I did with Torres.

There's one shortstop who's so much more valuable than the other. This guy does not strike out a lot. It's Wilson, Jacob Wilson from the athletics. It's good value. Yeah, good value here, no strike. He's about a 3-11 last year. Perfect for this format and perfect for this spot in the draft. I'm having to kind of reverse engineer this.

Like, I'm having to think, does this guy get a lot of his value from steals? And if the answer is yes, then he's probably a lot better in this format. Yeah. And also, you know, obviously the strikeouts question. but I'm a little more accustomed to that. It's just it applies double. Mm-hmm. Right.

Let's catch people up on some picks here after I select Drake Baldwin. Ariel took Jacob Wilson, then my boy, Nicola Dolo. I should have been paying attention. And then Cam Schlitla. Scott, back to you, round nine. I am going to go with the one, the only, Is it too early for him? I don't know if it's too early or not.

Let's take. Let's go ahead and take him. Why not? Do it. Let's have fun. Let's get crazy. Yandi Diaz. All right.

Andy, love it. Love that pick. Yeah. Doesn't strike out much at all. Doesn't normally get a lot of value from speed. So, you know, he's a good points league player regardless of the format. Highest player on the board left, by the way, in any position. Okay.

I can synthesize this on the fly. I'm not that... You know what you're doing? I'm not that dumb. Professional, Scott White. After Diaz, we got Byron Buxton and Ian Hap. Ian Hap usually gets a lot of his value from walks. Strikeout rate is okay.

Walks matter here. Warks matter in this moment. 22 to 25% K rate there for Ian Hap, but he's solid. For whatever this is worth, the ATC projections in this format have Yandy Diaz projected higher than Nick Kurtz. So. Yeah, that's a little surprising, but, yeah. But I mean, look, Nick Kurtz is a 30% K rate and yeah,

probably half of that, right? 15% something like that, 15% to 20%. So. Yeah. Matters a lot. Again, it's not like Roto. It's you got to be aware of the strikeouts here. Big, big thing.

Mm-hmm. All right. Chris Bubich. There you go, Scott. Add another one to the list. His ADP is not real. His ADP is not real. This is even earlier than the one we did.

That's pretty early. This afternoon. It was what, 114, 113? And that other one I was complaining about 140, I believe it was. Gator Diaz, another catcher doesn't strike out a lot. Pretty good for catcher. Yep. All right.

It's coming together. I like this team that I put together. Might have to play this league out. No, I'm just kidding. No more leagues. My goodness. So many leagues, gosh. We got to roll this chatman,

who's probably the last top tier closer available at this point. It was between him and Yandi Diaz with my last pick. Yep. And Yondi Diaz was for my utility spot, by the way, which is part of the hesitation there. But it's we're, so I'm not familiar.

I haven't really played in a head, headpoints league that's only one point per steal but my oldest fantasy league period is minus a full point for strikeouts for hitters and i know they just stop mattering before the draft is even over they just doesn't make a difference anymore who you take and i think we're nearing that point at this one where a lot of these hitters you're just not going to find any advantage there because they're undermined by one thing or another it's the strikeouts being the the one we're not used to one thing will also too keep in mind, and you have to check the point system in your league, is

are there negative points for quat stealing? Because if there are, it means steals are worth much less than you think. In this particular format that we're doing, there is no negative for quat stealing, so steals are actually worth a little bit more than some other format. CBS, by the way,

I believe Quot stealing does charge you. So in the CBS format, any of the base dealers are worth less. Well, you know, they're getting so efficient these days the base dealers, especially with the the new pickoff rules from a couple years ago? It's not about efficiency, though. It's about overall value of steals because, you know,

let's say everybody roughly gets, you know, thrown out 20% of the time, 30% time, whatever it is. It just reduces the point value that you get from your speed game in total, right? That's all it really means. Yeah. So it's kind of like net steals in that way. If you're playing, yeah. Net steals category.

But some, some, some stealers are more efficient than others, you know. It's not, it's not like it's flatly, everybody gets caught 20% at the time. Right. Correct. After, let's see, we are into round 10. There was Randy Rosa Rana, Tyler Glassnow, A Eugenio Suarez, Tyler Soderstrom, and then a pitcher run here,

Zach Wheeler, Michael King, Nathan Avaldi, and we are back over to Scotty Dubs. Do I have to? Do I have to? Oh, man, I don't love what I'm seeing on the hitting side. So I'm going to take a pitcher. I'm going to take Brandon Woodruff, who should look like an ace when he's healthy and available, which he should be at the start of the year, despite some concerns about that.

Yeah. He was one of the highest ranked based on the projections I'm looking at here. Brandon Woodruff, and in a shallower league, you could take a little bit more risk on some of the entry-prone pitchers. So I think that's a good pick. Boy, I'm in trouble in the outfield, man. Oh, McLean just went too. I'm in trouble. Ariel, what's up with your boy?

No one. Nolan McLean got hit around by Italy and the WBC. Just two hit, just two homers. So, you know, he was pretty filthy other than that. But, you know, listen, Italy's 4 and O. They're pretty good. They're doing good. Raisal Iglesi is the next pick.

And Ariel, you're back up here. Okay. The question is, what position to gather from? I've got most of my team filled out. Um, hmm. All right, I'm going to go. Would you've gone Woodruff over McLean, Frank? Because you reacted to Woodruff more than you reacted to McLean.

Based on these projections, yeah, Woodruff was one of the highest ranked pitchers that are left. But, I mean, projections might just be a little bit lower on McLean. Speaking as the one who took Woodruff, I maybe should have taken McLean. That's what my rankies at, McLean over Woodruff. I'm just, well, I just went for more upside and a lot of, of strikeouts with Spencer Strider. What are you expecting this season, Ariel? I'm expecting like 170, 180 strikeouts.

ERA and the whip might not be as good this year. I just worry. I got to see more fastball velocity from him. He's not where he was. But overall volume and stays healthy, I think he can actually beat the ATC projections of just 150 innings and 180 strikeouts, to be honest. I'm going to go ahead and take one of these upside pitchers to

someone I expect to get a lot of strikeouts this season. that is Emmachian. Unless the fastball suddenly comes back and his last couple spring starts. I think the upside scenario for Spencer Strider, and I mentioned this on Thursday's pod, I think the upside scenario is like a sunny gray. Yep. And obviously there's a lot of downside cases for him too. Head to head points, though, doesn't crush you as much as Roto.

So I'm more inclined to take the gamble. and put him in, you know? Sure. Mm-hmm. That makes some. All right. We just saw the Miz go, Jacob Mizierowski, and you know what they say about the Miz. Because I'm the Miz.

There you go. He is awesome. What are the rules for gaining eligibility here? That is a good question. I can look it up while we are talking through some of the picks. I took Alec Berluson because it's just a lack of strikeouts. He is someone that gets pushed up. a little bit in this format.

And someone that I just generally like as well. Ariel, back to you. I am going to look up the eligibility rules. Yeah, I'm going to go with catcher Adley Ruchman, getting a little bit close to thin on catchers, and I don't want to end up with somebody at the bottom. But I think Adley is due for a bounce back season. I'm going to chalk last year, mostly off to injury and slow start.

I mean, he's a top five catcher, to be honest. And at this point in the draft, you know, we're, again, it's 11 rounds. we have 16 starters. I'm going to take a stab at him because a lot of value upside there. Yeah, no, I mean, that's the last catcher I wouldn't have wanted in this scoring format. Exactly. I have no idea how to find out though. Gabriel Moreno maybe is worthwhile.

Salvador Perez still okay. Look at the volume, the volume he is. Yes, the plate discipline is so bad. Yeah. I was looking at Simeon. Yeah, I was thinking about that too. I'm going to be me, clearly. All right, so I said that like I was about to say something big.

But now I'm not as confident in what I was about to say. I can't synthesize anything, even my own thoughts on the fly. So I'm very bad. Okay, so let's do, I need outfield. Who do I rank higher between those two? I should just know that, right? I am going to take Dalin Lyle

A lot of upside Thank you Not many strikeouts Tons of extra base It's seven triples in September alone Hey you know We're on the lineup Is he going to bat by the way

That matter I don't know Second maybe Yeah I mean it's a bad team So you would think In the top half somewhere right Roster resource says fifth

I don't know You might do better than that actually Yeah Yeah. I could see them going, well, yeah, they could go, I think Fifth makes sense. He could work his way up, but I think Abrams Cruz would probably make sense as the top three. Yeah, I mean, obviously, if Cruz isn't, can't pull it together, he's going to move down the lineup. That's the thing about the Nationals lineup is they have so many unknowns that you got to feel like they're going to be shuffling that thing a lot before they land on the right order. catcher run right there.

Yep, let's see what we've got. After Dale and Lilo is Gavin Williams, Salvador Perez, Augustine Ramirez, Otto Lopez, C.J. Abrams. C.J. Abrams in round 11 again. It's just we're not used to seeing that late. He doesn't walk very much. Strikeouts are, you know, he's probably like a 20% K-rate guy. It's not terrible, but a lot of his value comes from steals

and only one point per steal. Taylor Ward, the final pick of round 11. And Ariel, I feel like Taylor Ward, someone who just always pops in the ATC projections. Yeah, I've got him on so many teams. I mean, listen, you know, we're talking like 35, 40 homers potentially. And he's on a much better team in offense than last year. I don't know why he's been neglected. This is a three outfield to league.

So, you know, he's not somebody you must get. But, you know, if you're in a deeper five outfielder league, I mean, he's somebody that's very undervalued. Every year, by the way. Mm-hmm. Yep. And the first pick of round 12 is Hunter Goodman. So another catcher there, someone who will strike out quite a bit. Yeah.

But you're still hoping for like 30 home runs. Yeah. There's so little margin for error with that profile. I probably would have taken a Gabriel Moreno over him. Or maybe even Alejandro Kirk feel more confident. And what they're going to provide in this format. Just obviously Hunter Goodman way ahead of him in a typical fantasy league, but again, we're working with the oddities of this format. Riley Green just went.

Phenomenal last year. He was my next pick. Yep. That's pretty late for him. And we worry about this strikeout, so, Ariel. It strikes out so much. 30% K-ray for Riley Green last year. But it's late.

Again, you were talking about, you know, the fourth to last round and your active players here. It's, again, in a roto format, he's. way, way up, but still decent for the season for the drop here in rounds that you're getting from. All right, after Riley Green, we are getting quite the

pitcher run. Zach Allen, Trevor Rogers, Shotee Imanaga, Ranger Suarez. Scott, I hope you didn't want a pitcher. I always want a pitcher. No, I rarely want a pitcher. I don't know why I said that. Absent-mindedly saying things,

let's pick let me see yeah this guy has a low strikeout rate we've made the comp between him and stephen kwan so many times and steat you guys you guys both like that stephen kwan pick about seven rounds ago so i'm going to take south frelick here i like it yep he uh when he was coming up the hope was that he would become a stephen kwanesque player and that's exactly who south frelick has become going right after him is isi sock paredes who i also like a lot in this format and that's that is why I was asking what the eligibility rules are because I still need a second baseman and I think eventually Perretis is going to pick up eligibility there yeah but it might

take a while because obviously he's not playing there regularly yeah I'm not sure if it's like five games or 10 and makes a big difference I feel like yeah that is fair and Ariel you are on deck here let's take a look at what you've got so far you've got adly rutchman Vinnie p baby glaver Torres Michael Garcia jacobob jacob Wilson, Juan Soto, Yordan Alvarez, your pitchers, Brian Wu, Joe Ryan, Kevin Gosman, and Spencer Strider. And in the chat, someone says it's 10 games for eligibility. Thank you to Jake. I'm pointing that out.

So that might be June or July before Perretta's second base eligible. Yeah. Ariel, you are up, sir. I've got a first baseman, second baseman, but Luis Rias, to me is such a value here. I was just going to take it. And I thought that you maybe could take him. I don't want to let it go around for you. So I'm taking him now.

But yeah, I mean, talk about a no strike rate. What is it? Like a 4% K rate for him. Yeah, yep. That is someone I was looking at here. It would have been weird, though, because he would have just been on my bench because, you know, the hope would be I eventually put him in at second base. I haven't had utility right now.

Yeah, which I think is fine. Let's see. who is rated higher here. And, all right, at second base, I'm going to go with someone very similar skill set to Luis Arise. That is Brendan Donovan, who is now with the Mariners, but typically very low strikeouts,

and should be leading off for the Mariners this season. So, you know, hitting ahead of Julio Rodriguez and Cal Raleigh, we should get lots of runs scored for Brendan Donovan. Yeah, makes sense. Yeah, typically target, but it makes sense here. That makes sense. Yep. Don't hate it.

At the turn, we get Michael Harris and O'Neill Cruz. Ariel, do you think this was the right time to take the plunge on O'Neill Cruz? I'm not a fan of O'Neill Cruz. ATC projections say in this format, you should not actually take them at all. Oh, all right. There is our answer. Bench player. Yes.

Let's see who's available on the pitching side of things. So far, I've got sale, cease, Yon, Duran, and Emmett Sheehan. and yeah, it's dried up a little bit here on the pitching side. Lots of games. I know Tanner Bybee ranks very highly in the projections, but I'm not a Tanner Bybee guy. So I'll leave him for U.R. if you want them. I will go ahead and take McKenzie Gore,

who I think is going to get a ton of strikeouts this year. All right. Lots of strikesouts. I'm glad you didn't take Bybee. That was my name. I know. I know. It's, it's Tanner Bybee and Taylor Ward.

I feel like those two always just pop in ATC and usually wind up on a lot of your teams. Yeah. Well, you know, I thought he had a down year last year. He's still good for 160, 170 strikeouts. So, you know, just for volume, I think at this point in the draft, it works. Yep, yep. And not far off. I mean, the projections have Tanner Bybee a $17 player and McKenzie Gore is a $14 player.

So yeah, it's fine. Similar at this point. Blake Snell goes, then Aranola. Nola, by the way, even year Aaron Nola looked pretty good. That WBC matchup against Mexico, just saying. Anybody on Italy has been looking stellar, by the way.

Yes, yes. It's all the espresso, Arielle. Speaking of which. Yeah, did you guys see that in their dugout? They've got like one of those machines, right? Yeah, every time you hit a home run, you get an espresso shot. Speaking of Team Italy.

I was thinking I was just going to go pitcher here on a big pitcher run. I know exactly where you're going. Somebody in the chat. I don't know if that means I'm cheating right now, taking hints from the chat. Jack Caglione. Love it.

If he gives us the big breakout, the strikeout rate is going to be pretty solid for a player who delivers the kind of power he does. And I've kind of gone weak in the outfit. I already filled out a starting outfield with George Springer, Dayland Lyon, South Freelick. But that's not the safest or most secure outfield.

so I don't mind sticking one hitter on my bench there and Jack Cagg Leone with that kind of upside. Yep, shoot for that upside for sure. Love that pick there with Caglione, who is playing for Team Italy in the WBC. The guy is built like a professional wrestler. He is just insane, man. He is so jacked up, man. If he keeps those strikeouts down and just makes contact, he's going to hit a ton of home runs this year. So very excited about Cags.

After he went, we got Michael Bush, Caleb Durbin. who ranks pretty highly with the lack strikeouts there. I like his bat in Fenway as well. Edward Cabrera moving over to the Chicago Cubs. Don't love him throwing that four-seem fastball as much like he's been doing in spring, but great defense behind him with the Cubs there. Jacob Marcy, who should get on base and steal a ton of bags,

but only one point per steal here. Trey is Savage. Scott, do you think this is the appropriate time? Is this enough of a fall to take the plunge on Trey's Savage? And he was high in my cue. it's you're taking him at this point not being sure if he's going to be an immediate contributor for you and that that is a much harder sell than when we just thought he was a fixture in the blue jays line rotation treated like any other starting pitcher five six innings most starts i i think

you know eventually he's going to be that this year but how long it takes for him to get there is anybody's guess with the kind of clues the blue jays are dropping right now. So it's fine to take him here, but I wouldn't take them much earlier than here. This is about 160, right? I think it went even a little later in our first draft of the day. Yeah. At the turn, we got two more reliever picks here, Carlos Estevez, and Josh Hader. Josh Hater will start the season on the IL.

He's dealing with that biceps injury. Then we got Matthew Boyd, who has been named the opening day starter for the Cubs. He actually left the WBC. He is going back to rejoin the Cubs now. Catch him out. Yep. And then Jack Flaherty and Matt Chapman. Good value for Chapman at this point.

Yep. Yep. That's a good snag right there. Ernie Clement. Ernie Clement. The guy doesn't strike out much. I'll give him that. I just took early Clement in TGFBI earlier today.

He's got tremendous eligibility. And by the way, in this format, I think he's got first, second, third, and short in the entire infield. Yeah. Though, I mean, this, as shallow as this league is, which, you know, we're going to be done about, what, like 220 picks. I don't, I don't worry. Because the waiver wire is so abundant. I don't worry so much about the multi-eligibility. Obviously, TGFBI, 15 teams, deep road of roster is a different story. Yeah. Yep. After Ernie Clement, Xavier Edwards makes a lot of contact, lots of steals and Scott. Ooh, that was the other pitcher I was debating when I took McKenzie Gore. Tatsuya and Maimon. who came over from Japan and he's looked pretty good. The spring sky is hitting 95 fastball. That slider's looking good. Yeah, I feel like it went underreported

that he was the hardest throwing pitcher in Japan last year, at least starting pitcher. Maybe pitcher overall. Now, I'm not even sure what the report is, apparently, so maybe that's why it's underreported. But he threw very hard, and I don't think that was being talked about enough. There are other things to like there, too, of course,

the splitter and the reverse-breaking slider. Just there's power and there's a unique quality to his arsenal that I think is going to help a lot, particularly as he's first making the rounds in the league. So I think Amai is going to be a big strikeout source and hopefully can keep the walks in a minimum. All right. After Tatu Maa, my guy, Sal Stewart, will I get him in a draft today? My last chance is the team that we are sharing together, Scott. So I hope we could get Sal Stewart a little bit later on tonight. I mean, these are just mocks.

That one actually counts. So that's the one where you want to get them. That is true. That's one we can act like idiots if we want. What's the worst that could happen? These are credibility. People stop watching. Yeah.

You know, that's not a big deal. No big deal. No big deal. After Sal Stewart, we got Bubba Chandler and Rale, you selected Drew Raspison. Someone who might not give you a huge volume of innings. It's probably, you know, around five inings per start. But when he pitches, he's usually. really good. Yeah, he's super. So, you know, it's, again, it's head to head points. So if he's in this

week, he's going to be good. If he's out at this point in the draft, these are my end game pitchers. So I want upside guys and guys who are good on a per start basis. After you took Raspus in, I took Alec Bome, even though the hope here is, you know, I would just put Bobichette in third base spot. But even to get Bome at this point, someone who doesn't strike out all that much, he's going to bat in the middle of the lineup there for the Phillies. I think it makes sense to go ahead and do that. Dylan Cruz and JJ Weatherholtz. Yeah, Weatherholt's a good pick.

Does ESPN have a multi-eligible right away? I know Yahoo does. We have him just at shortstop at CBS, but he's expected to play second. So he'll get that soon enough in CBS. I don't really need a shortstop, but man, if I want to shoot for the upside, let's have a little fun, Scott.

Let's do it. You see, one of the prospects goes, it's time for Connor Griffin. There you go. I'm not sure he's going to walk much. And obviously, steals are a big part of his thing. So I think straight up,

I would prefer J.J. Weatherholt in this format. Yeah, that's fair. Got a rookie run, Weatherholt and Griffin back to back. And Kevin McOtogel is one that could make a lot of sense. Well, sorry, sorry. I'll let you have my, I've got my shortstop.

I'm just going to fill out my team. Best outfielder in this format I have available off the board is Zhang Hu Lee. Again, nothing exciting, nothing special. He's my left outfielder, but you know, should have a good batting average, good for the strikeouts. Sorry, Scott. That's okay. Somebody just

took Kevin McGonogical. That's what you did earlier. Oh. You mentioned Sal Stewart and then he went one pick before me in that other draft, so yeah. Yeah. That's fine. I, you know, I already have one bench hitter in Jack Caglione and I don't really like to stack, to stash

a bunch of hitters in this league. I want a pitcher surplus for playing matchups and just, you know, I tend to go cheap at pitcher, so I want to give myself as many bites at the breakout apple as I can. And so along those lines. I like that Musgrove pick, though. Yeah, no, he was next on my cue, so now I got to scramble. I'm actually going to take Jeff Hoffman, though, because I think he's going to be a stud closer this year.

Did not lose the strikeout ability last year. And as I said earlier, in the earlier draft we were doing, I think he's got a good plan for getting the home run rate back to normal. It's going to emphasize that slider more like he was in Philadelphia. All right. After you select Jeff Hoffman, we got Carlos Rodon. There are a couple of IL spots in this league, so it makes sense to grab some of those IL stashes.

And Merrill Kelly goes, Mike Trout, at in pick, pick nine of round 15, much later than we're used to seeing him go, but struck out a lot last year. See if he can get that back under control. Spencer Torkelson, good bet for 30. home runs. All right.

We are closing in. This is a faster draft, you know? Not as deep into the player pool, which is all right by me. Yeah. Well, only 19 rounds. The next one's at 8, right? Yeah.

We got some time to kill. We're making some good time. You know what? We'll just hang out with REL, have a good time. We'll kick back. We'll recap our teams. We still have four rounds left. It's not.

Yeah. That could take 15 minutes. Yep. We got Ryan Nelson and then Robbie Ray. Robbie Ray is good pick right there. Lots of strikeouts. It was. So I had Hoffman. I had Carlos Rodon and I had Robbie Ray cute up.

And for some reason, I thought Hoffman was the. What's the deal with Merrill Kelly? I keep passing him up in my drafts because, I don't know, injury scares me. Any inclination on him? Well, it's just a. It's like mid back tightness. Yeah, it was back tightness. His debut tomorrow, his Cactus League debut tomorrow.

Which I think he's all right, but he's older, you know. I mean, it's something that could. Right, right. I prefer that injury to something arm related. Right. But it is the sort of thing that could recur pretty easily. Yeah. But as of now, he seems to be on track.

You know, he's just the only reason he's going to start on the IAL is because he's behind in his buildup. So I feel pretty comfortable taking Merrill Kelly. I don't know that this is my preferred format for him, but in general, I'm not scared off by Merrill Kelly. If I get him for any sort of injury discount, I'm jumping on it. Yeah, I like him quite a bit to where he's going. He's usually just rock solid, man.

Boring pitcher, but good ratios, 8K per 9, something like that. I usually like winding up with Merrill Kelly. He's better in a points league too where you get bonuses for quality starts. That's not in this league, but in CBS, Someone who does go typically pretty deep into his starts there is Merrill Kelly. After Robbie Ray, we saw Emilio Pagongo, Shane O. Mac, Shane McClanahan. And nope, I took that one off the soundboard, so I can't play it again. Here comes the money.

Here we go. Here comes the money. Elliot Ramos and Shane Bosz. I was thinking about Shane Boz, but minus two per earned run. He does have some blowups starts in there. I'm going to go ahead and take Jorge Polanco here. Everybody has a second baseman but me. But from what I'm seeing, he's the last second baseman worth starting.

And that includes Matt McLean. And he'll gain first base eligibility at some point in the year. When it hurt, yeah. Matt McLean has both of the years he's played. He's run a strikeout rate near 30%. So even if he gets back to being, well, I mean, if he gets back to being his good as, 2023 he could probably live with that strikeout rate but he's got to get all the way back there

i think to to be of much use in this format mhm garrick cole someone i was looking at there uh stash him on the iL yeah i keep going those starting pitchers and other people are drafting them so you know i don't know why yeah the starting pitcher uh pool is not looking so great no it's not and i went cheap there so yep i'm a knucklehead i'd have to just go and uh grab a bunch of relievers now at this well those aren't so great either yeah gabriel moreno goes and ariel you are backup all right well i definitely need a pitcher um i have not drafted a single closer but i think it's a good spot for the cubs closer uh palencia shoot him out come on as the last one i thought was worth drafting at all

oh you don't got to go and do all that uh there may be one other who's worth drafting uh yeah look i don't ever draft this guy but i'm pretty sure he's the closer and hopefully he bounces back So I'm going to take Ryan Helsing. That's the other one. Here we go. We're into the closer pool. Because if you get into the part-time closers in this league, there's just, you need them to get those five points per save.

They're going to pitch so few innings, have so few strikeouts relative to starting pitchers again, since it's unusual for a head-to-head league. Good spot here for Hunter Green here, who again, we don't know what the story is, but you know, you pick them, stash them on your IL, And then, you know, especially if it's a playoff league, right?

If he's back for playoffs, you now have a top pitcher right in the midst of the playoff. Yep. I think that is a completely fair point there on Hunter Green. What I wanted to stress was just pitcher spots. So your relievers and starting pitchers competing on equal footing in a points league. It's, it's, you got to be a great closer to compete with the starters. Yeah.

Full-time closer. Well, I see a few full-time closers. that are left. So you. Yeah, I mean, I hope this guy is one of them. I mean, he could, they could mix in a couple of their tigers. But I think Kelly Jansen is just the guy. Yeah, that's excellent because now you've got the, the three closers or so, and you put them all in. And, you know, somebody will hit on the week for the save. And Jansen actually is, is very interesting. And, you know, he'll last at least half a year, unless he really stinks, because he wants to get that saved total. Yeah. All right. Yeah. How, how important are

strikeouts from a closer in this format though because he he was less than a strikeout per inning and i'm also looking at pete fairbanks he i think he was less than a strikeout burning last year too it's one point per strikeout so right for all pitchers yeah right yeah seems but i'm saying what how much does that have does flight not not not much not you're there for you're you're you're you're you're after closer in this format you're there for the saves yeah five points per save and only two for a win so okay one one per strikeout yeah I went with Jose Soriano. I think he's got some upside there.

Got innings upside. Got strikeout upside. I think he can push 170 strikeouts very possibly. He's always had nasty stuff. But man, we had, I think he was on your podcast, Hussein, the same thing, Ariel. We had Nick Pollock on the other day and just reminding everyone that the Angels defense behind Jose Soriano is just so bad. So that's why his run so high.

After Soriano, we got another closure. P Fairbanks, maybe half a closer. We'll see if he's traded at the deadline. There was Alejandro Kirk, Kate Horton, went to Scott, Willie Adomas, T.J. Friedel, he's going to make a lot of contact. Trevor McGill, we're not sure who the closer for the Brewers is right now.

We're not, but I do think it's going to be one or the other. So McGill, you know, mate, I would say 60% chance McGill is a great pick here. Willie Damasis, that's a great value pick at this stage in the draft. Wow. Round 17, yeah. A lot of

strikeouts, but still. A lot of strikeouts. Really? Round 17, you know, it passed your active round, right? Yeah. Yeah. I, again, I'm thinking to the minus one strikeout league that I played in since I was in high school. And that's a 10-teamer versus a 12-teamer, but Willie Adama's just doesn't really stand out from anyone who's ever on the waiver wire because of how much he strikes out.

Mm-hmm. after we saw McGill went then Brandon Lau Dalton Varshot, Scott, your boy. Were you thinking about it? Less so in this league. Yeah. Not a great plate discipline guy. Christian Walker, who, you know, he lasted pretty long here.

Bounce back in the second half. The Astros playing time stuff is still kind of annoying to figure out, but hopefully life finds a way. And we could get Esauk Paras playing time there. Jeremy Pena dealing with that fractured finger to start the year. Paredes is Andy Pajas there. Yep. Antipahas, yeah.

Paredes is going to play. I'm telling you. I'm telling you right now, Yusac Paredes is going to play. I love it. Scott, when did you become the Astros manager? I didn't hear about that. Congrats on your promotion.

It's not my call, obviously. But I'm just saying. I'm looking into my, my crystal ball. They need him. They need him more than we need him. Did somebody say crystal ball? I'm holding up a crystal ball in case you're not looking. The draft room noise when somebody takes somebody out of your cue, it kind of sounds like a crystal ball. Bum, bum, bum, yeah. After Christian Walker, there was Andy Pahes, Cody Ponce, good pick. I was thinking about Cody Ponce, Kyle Stowers, to Oscar Hernandez, Codicenegas, Grayson Rodriguez.

And Scott, you are back up. We've got two picks left. I really don't like the state of pitching here. This scoring format doesn't support a league much deeper than this. Because it just ruins so many players. I'm going to, somebody took Trevor McGill. I'll take the 40 to 45% shot on Abner, Rebey, being the closer instead. Awesome stuff, man.

I mean, he can, if he is the closer, he could be an amazing closer. So, yeah, we'll see. Andrew Painter is next up. Obviously, big prospect pedigree hasn't overwhelmed so far this spring. I think we were all expecting to see a little bit more. He hasn't given up any runs, really, but the strikeouts haven't been there for Painter so far. Small sample, but we'll see what he could do. Ariel, you are on deck.

What are we thinking about here? Definitely thinking pitcher because I got to fill out some of the bench. And you always want in a points league to have a little bit of a stash. So I can go for a little bit of upside or I can go for some strikeout volume. You know what? I'm going to go for some upside. I'm going to go to Jack Leiter of Texas. All right.

Light him up. Like it. I am going to select an injury stash here that I'll throw on the IL and hopefully he's back some point. Shane Bieber. dealing with the forearm fatigue. I have no, I mean, he could give me nothing this year, but he was good down the stretch. He looked pretty good in the postseason.

And, you know, your second and last pick, I'll take a shot at this point, throw him on the IL. And then my last pick, Scott, someone that we both like quite a bit. Really? Going to shoot for the upside. Let's see if I could find his name again. And I can't. So let's see.

Is he already taken? hopefully not that would stink if he was uh no it's mike burrows mike burrows oh yeah yeah sure okay i i kind of lost track crossing players off my uh my rankings here so i am i've just been leaning on the draft room ariel we are back to you for your final pick yeah well i've got uh question is do we want upside or do we want some depth and volume you know it's a it's a points you're going to trade in pitchers. I think I might go another pitcher. Gets a lot of strikeouts.

I'm going to go with you say Cacucci. A little bit of bounce back maybe, but a lot of strikeouts nonetheless. And, you know, again, he's variable. So as my last pitcher, he'll have good weeks and bad weeks, you know, get him in and he'll have some upside for a good week possible. All right. You say Cacucci, Jose Soriano. Your resident Angels fan here, Ariel Cohen. Angels pitchers.

Oh, yeah, a pair of angels to end the draft. Angels in the outfield, angels on Ariel Cohen's team. Mm-hmm. Well, I'm a pickaway, two picks away. I'm looking at my options here. So some players who aren't, who it appears aren't going to be drafted,

they could still be taken in the last handful of picks here, but appears they're not going to be drafted, even though they almost always are, Samuel Bessio, no wealthy Marte, dance B. Swanson, Trevor Story. Makes sense. Terrible plate discipline and a lot of value from steals. Let's see.

The last two picks, Noah Cameron, McAbel. So we're going for some real deep cuts here at starting pitcher for a league of this size. And I don't want to do that. If I did, I would take Jacob Lopez, who I think has good strikeout upside. But instead, what I'm going to do here, I think to be to really, really, embrace the scoring format a little more. Somebody who I think should be drafted, Max Muncie, I think needs to be drafted.

So I'm going to take him. And if an injury opens up a spot of utility or third base, I'm covered. Maybe I could use him as trade bait later at a very weak position like that. Yep. But the Dodgers, the Dodgers Max Muncie. There is an athletics Max Muncie. Yeah, the Dodgers.

Yes. Definitely not the athletics. Yep. After Muncie, Samuel Bessio, Parker Messick. Parker Messick, nice pick there. Luis Robert, someone who hasn't been drafted yet either. Yeah, lots of strikeouts there. Ariel, what are you expecting from Luis Robert?

I know he just made his Mets spring training debut today. I mean, I'm certainly hoping that he can repeat what he did in the second half, but I think 2030 is a very, very good possibility for him this year. That would be nice. Yeah, nice little contract year here for Luis Robert. And then Brady Singer, Chandler Simpson, who will make a lot of contacts. But being devalued with those deals only one point. That's basically all of his value.

Your draft is complete. Frank's fantastic team. Let's hope that it's a fantastic team. Last pick was Jonathan Arana. I think that one's pretty good too. So nice pick there. All right, we've got about 15 minutes before our next draft here. We can take some time to recap the teams.

Ariel, we'll take a look at yours. And you were drafting third in this one. You got Adley Rutchman as your catcher. Vinnie Pee. Baby. Vinny Pasquantino, Glaver Torres, Michael Garcia, Jacob Wilson, Juan Soto, Yorda Alvarez, Jung Hu Lee, Luis Arise. So we'll get to the pitching staff in just a second. How do you feel about the hitters here?

I like it. I mean, again, I focused a lot on not striking out. I focused on getting value lower down. I got my outfielder's really solid earlier. And when there was plenty of middle infielders with good choices, I waited to the last one of the tier, Sir Scott. We got the tier approach. There you go.

And that got me, actually also got me Mikel Garcia, Jacob Wilson, and it got me Glaver Torres. And then I filled in, you know, with Arias, who just has such a value at the spot I got him as my utility, Jung Hui at the very end. I feel very solid about this, actually.

On the pitching side of things, you wound up with Brian Wu, Joe Ryan, Kevin Gosman, Spencer Strider, Tanner Bybee, Drew Rasperson and Daniel Palencia on the bench, Jose Soriano, Jack Leiter, and Yucci. So you went with the strategy of mostly starting pitchers, only one closer in there with Daniel Palencia. Yeah, again, as I said before, if you're going to do closers in this format, it's better to clump

him and do three closers so you can play him. So the only one I got was Palencia, who I just thought was a great value at the point. But I went for volume. I went for strikeout. I made sure to get an anchor. I made sure to get a lot of volume pitchers in the middle. I probably didn't take any deep, deep cuts at the very end. Not much upside, but I still saw 160, 170 strikeout guys.

And so I grabbed them even if they weren't, you know, some rookie or prospect or anything. All right. Let's take a look at Scott's team. Scott was drafting sixth in this one. Again, this is the standard head to head points format over on ESPN. And, oh, there you are. White whale. I was trying to find your team.

Scott is like, what is his name? your hitters you've got cow Raleigh josh naler go mariners horrid polanco jose remires francisco lindor george springer dylan lyles south freelic and yandhi dyes what do we think i like it i mean i was trying to avoid high strikeout guys too i think i successfully did that with the notable exception of cow raleigh but i mean he's obviously in a different category from every other catcher and i think that's important in a league with so few hitter spots to distinguish yourself.

So even though I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants there, and there were a couple of moments where I was like, oh, I didn't know that guy was still available. I should have taken him instead. I'm pretty happy with this. I could definitely go to work with this lineup. On the pitching side, you've got Freddie Peralta, Yuri Perez, Andres Munoz, Brandon Woodruff, Tatsuya, I, Mike, Jeff Hoffman,

and Cade Horton you also have on the bench, Jack Caglione, Abner Uribe, and Max Muncie. Again, in this format on ESPN, it's the seven pitcher spots, so you can divide those up however you want, and you wound up with five starters and two relievers here in your lineup. Yeah, maybe a third reliever if Abner Uribe

ends up being the Brewers closer. Yep. And I wish I had more bench pitchers, but it, It just, I think I may have underestimated how hard everyone else would go after starting pitchers. And I do like the upside of Caglione if one of those outfielders, Dail and Lyle, South Relick, doesn't work out or anybody gets injured. And then I got Max Bunsey there kind of the same reason. I think he's, I think he's a worthy starter in this format who just happened to make it all the way till the end of the draft.

So I went ahead and took him. I wish I had a little more pitching depth, but I think, I don't know, comparing my pitching staff to Aureles. I mean, Areles, do you feel like mine is significantly worse than yours? I know I didn't invest quite as heavily in it. I like the front of it better. Maybe I like the bottom of yours a little bit better. I like mine better than yours, but no, I don't think it's crazy. And, you know, you do have those closers who get you a nice expected total of saves during the week.

So you basically have to get some of the good starts from the bottom to make it work. Yeah. Yeah, I don't hate it. obviously going to have to keep feeding the pitching beast all season, but that's true in any head to head leak, I feel like. Yep. Yeah. And then we will wrap up here taking a look at my team. I was drafting second in this one. I've got Drake Baldwin, Pete Alonzo, Brendan Donovan, Alec Boe Boe-Bohm, Gunner Henderson, Aaron Judge, Wyatt Langford, Alec Berlison, and Boba Chet. The hope was that Boba-Shett would slide over to third, but got Alec Boehm at a good value. So just

happy to have Boba-Shett there as my utility. And yeah, for the most part, I think I mostly avoided strikeouts. I mean, there are some guys here like Judge Langford, Alonzo could be up around that 25% K range, but they will give lots of power. I think lots of speed with Wyatt Langford as well. Pete Alonzo, obviously lots of power there as well. So I think I'm, I think I'm all right with the, I mean, it's just, it feels so weird compared to the hitter lineup that you normally have. But again, you just, you got a, you got to change to the format that you're playing in. On the pitching side, I've got Chris Sale, Dylan Sees, Yuan Duran, Emmett Sheehan, McKenzie Gore, Ryan Helsley, and Kenley Janssen. So I did go with the four

starters, three relievers strategy. Ariel, how do you think this turned out? Do you think it could work? Sale, Cis, Duran, Sheean, Gore, Ryan Hilsley, and Kenley Jansen as the pitchers. Yeah, I mean, Sale is your anchor. I think that was important to get. And Cs says the strikeouts. I mean, we're talking 200 strikeouts in like four straight years or so. Sheehan, I think is someone who's really going to progress, and I hope the Dodgers let him go. And then you got the closer strategy. So absolutely workable here. And, you know, even your bottom picks, you know, to have your bottom picks be full-time closers,

you know, again, a save is worth, there's no bad save or good save. You're getting five points. So there you go. All right. And then on the bench, yeah, I got Connor Griffin, just hoping for some prospect upside there. Shane Bieber throw him on the I.L. And then Mike Burroughs, someone I like as a breakout pitcher this. season. All right. That was our head-to-head points mock draft over on ESPN.

Ariel, shout out to you. Big.