Fantasy Baseball Today - H2H Points Mock Draft Recap! Picks, Strategy & More (12/26 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: December 26, 2023

How does strategy change in a shallower league vs. a deeper one (3:17)? ... Which players in the first two rounds gain or lose value in H2H points leagues (8:25)? ... What about the hitters that gain or lose the most in the middle rounds (13:05)? ... News (24:10): we have more rule changes in 2024. ... How were starting pitchers drafted in this H2H points mock draft (29:15)? ... Why do relief pitchers lose value in this format (35:53)? ... Let's recap Scott's team, who was drafting 11th overall (42:00). ... We wrap up with Frank's team, which was drafted second overall (51:20). To display your continued support of the show, please vote Fantasy Baseball Today in the Sports Podcast Awards in the "Best Baseball Podcast" Category https://www.sportspodcastgroup.com/sports_category/best-baseball-podcast/ Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, December 26th. Hope everybody is enjoying the holiday season,

because I know the Dodgers and their fans certainly are, Scott. I am Frank Stample, joined by Scott White, and last month we did our first mock draft of the offseason. It was a traditional 5-by-5 roto draft, and we had a bunch of people ask, what about head-to-head points? Well, today, we are recapping our first head-to-head points draft, and I will highlight some of the biggest differences

between the two formats, where some players went in some, where they went in the other one, and we'll obviously compare and contrast. And we also had some new rules approved by the MLB competition, committee. Nothing too drastic, but stuff that we'll quickly mention, and I don't know, if we have any thoughts on it, we can bring those to light. Let's just jump right in here, Scotty, and we will start with our head-to-head points mock draft. This was a 12-te-team league using the CBS Sports head-to-head points scoring, and rosters include one of each in-field position,

three outfielders, one utility bat, and then on the pitching side, you start five starting pitchers and two relief pitchers with a five-man bench. So that means in this format, you start 16 players versus 23 in the traditional 5-by-5 roto. Let's just start there. Tell me your strategy and roster building how it might change in a shallower format versus a deeper one. Well, I would say that while we traditionally think of a points league as being the league that favors pitching, where you lean into pitching more. I think the shallowness of the format makes me inclined to do it less. Not only the shallowness of the format, but the fact that in a head-to-head league,

I feel like you're less susceptible to that snowball effect we saw befall so many starting pitchers last year where they just have these disaster outings that would blow up their ERA, Well, that still leads to a negative ERA in a ROTO league, but in a points league, you can just move on the next week, forget about it, and enjoy the good starts when they come. It doesn't have that lasting effect like it does in roto leagues. So I'm even more inclined to sell out for the true stud hitters early. and because other people are more likely to divert to pitching in those early rounds, given the format, I think it makes it more likely you could do that for four rounds or so. That's what I did in this mock.

I went four straight hitters, and then I went pitching really hard because I feel like the caliber of hitting that comes after that true stud level, the MVP caliber bats that last around four rounds or so, the caliber of hitting that follows that is probably enough to last the rest of the draft in a shallow league like this. Like there aren't much distinction. There are the distinctions between that next group of hitters, the kind you're drafting in round five and beyond, aren't so different from the ones you could draft late in a league where everybody is starting only nine hitters total. So I went really heavy on pitching after those first four rounds after going hitter,

hitter, hitter, hitter. And I'm really happy with the way my team worked out. So I think I'm going to stick with that approach and head-to-head points leagues this year. Yeah, I think specifically in shallower leagues, which again, this is just the standard on CBS for a head-to-head points league. I understand, you know, different websites might use different roster sizes. On CBS, it's nine hitters, it's seven pitcher spots in head-to-head points leagues. And that's a shallower format. So obviously you need more difference makers in each starting spot,

which I think Scott you kind of touched on with, you know, wanting those MVP caliber bats up top. I think you could take a little bit more risks because the waiver wire has more talent on it. And in deeper leagues, in like a roto league or, you know, even some of these 15 teamers or NL, A, only, whatever it might be, I think I like to value the floor of a player much more than I will in a shallower format.

And I'm not breaking any news there. I think that's pretty well known and researched at this point. But yeah, I think that's just kind of the overall theme, I guess, when playing in a shallower league, you can take more risks, but you also need more difference makers, players that are going to stand out up at the top. Like the strength of everybody's lineup from top to bottom is just going to be better than in a deeper league or any kind of roto league with all the extra lineup spots.

So you need to sell out a little more for potential, difference makers, which again, I think at the top of the drafters, you're more likely to find within the hitter ranks than the pitcher ranks. And I started my draft the same way as you did. My first four picks, they were all hitters. But what I did wrong is that I did not hammer pitching enough right after that. Like you said, you took five pitchers in a row, and I did not do that. So we'll talk about roster construction and how our teams turned out a little bit later on.

I wanted to quickly talk about the scoring format that we use at CBS. I wish there was a universal scoring system that every fantasy baseball points league used, kind of like in fantasy football that's pretty universal at this point. It's not the same for fantasy baseball. You know what? But here at CBS, we are the kings

of the points leagues, right? We cater to the points leagues more than anyone else out there. So I imagine our scoring format has more sway than most. I'm just saying. Just speculating. And it is the format that I started playing on.

I'm not just saying that, oh, company, man, whatever. When I first started playing fantasy baseball, it was a points league on CBS. So it is the format that I am most used to. It's the one I've played in the longest. So obviously, I am attracted to this head-to-head points scoring as well. But I'm sure that it's different from ESPN and fan tracks and NFBC and all that stuff. Wanted to point out, just again, some differences for us, you gain one fantasy point for a walk,

you lose half a point for a strikeout, you only gain two fantasy points for stolen bases. So that will change the valuation of players, and we see that in the draft results starting up at the top. Now, these are some of the things that you pointed out in your article, Scott, which accompanies the draft. I'll include that in the description. People could follow along with the results as we go along here.

But for example, some players that went higher in our head-to-head points mock draft versus the Roto one, Juan Soto, third overall. Now, this is also the first draft we've done since he got traded to the Yankees. So maybe there was a little bit of inflation there too, but he also is just better in a points league. So he went third in this format,

14th in the Roto Mock draft that we did. Aaron Judge went seventh in this one, 12th in Roto. Corey Seeger went 11th in this draft to you. He went 16th in Roto. And when that happens, obviously some players are going to drop down a bit as well. So these are the players that went higher

in Roto, but they went a little bit lower in this draft that we did. Bobby Witt went second in the Roto format. He went ninth in head to head points. Corby and Carroll went eighth in Roto, 14th in this draft. Julio Rodriguez dropped from third to 16th. Fernando Tatees from fifth to 19th, Trey Turner from 11th to 20th. So I will ask you this, Scott, is all of that justified? Do you think the names that I mentioned being higher, do they deserve to be?

Should they be that much higher? and the ones that were lower, it feels like maybe it's a little bit exaggerated. I feel like maybe Julio Rodriguez and Tatis maybe slipped a little bit too far, but that also just speaks to the talent level in the first two rounds, you know? Right, that's what I think it is,

is that I've made this point several times before. I think there are 17 first round caliber hitters. I forget the pitchers, just 17 first round caliber hitters this year. And because there are that many that fit into that very top tier. Their relative strengths and weaknesses are going to make for a wider range,

like more disparity for where they're drafted between the two major formats. And I think for the most part, those changes make sense. I mean, Julio Rodriguez at 16th overall, he's my third overall player in Roto League, so that sounds a little crazy at first glance. but of the

trying to remember the exact statistic I think it's of the 10 hitters who were drafted ahead of him at 14th overall or of the hang on

how many is it of the 12 hitters yeah only two pitchers for taking so of the 12 hitters drafted ahead of him I don't know if I'm getting the stat right

but almost all of them averaged more points per game is my point almost all of them averaged more fantasy head to head points per game in 2023 than Rodriguez did.

Rodriguez, obviously, not having the greatest plate discipline. So his 3.59 points per game in 2020, 2003 trailed Corbyn Carroll, trailed Kyle Tucker, trailed Jordan Alvarez, trailed Juan Soto, even though Juan Soto had a down year. Juan Soto was 3.64. Kyle Tucker 3.81, Corbyn Carroll, 3.80, your Navar is 3.94.

And again, Julio Rodriguez, as good as he was, only 3.59. And Bobby Witt, who went ninth overall here, even though he's my second overall player in Roto, it's kind of the same thing. Plate discipline issues. He was 3.65 points per game in 2023. So not up there with the 3.8, 3.9 point per game guys. And so I think it makes perfect sense. And in fact, my rankings reflect that.

I'm not saying Julio Rodriguez will go as late as 16th in every head to headpoints draft. There were a couple of weird picks ahead of him. Austin Riley at 13th overall stands out. I don't see a lot of justification for that. But it wouldn't at all be surprising to see him slip to round two in this scoring format. Him and Bobby Whit both, frankly, given the high-end alternatives who profile a little better for this format. Again, it's the guys that have good plate discipline, maybe the guys that are going to hit loads of home runs, right?

In Roto, you're trying to create a balanced roster, obviously. So as many players as contribute in all five hitting categories, those are the ones that get pushed up. Again, I'm not breaking any news here, but just trying to point out some of the differences between the players that get pushed up in this format versus the ones that might get pushed down a little bit. And let's focus on that a little bit more, Scott,

because I chose five hitters that saw the biggest rise in where they went in the points league mock that we did versus the Roto mock that we did a month ago. So Alex Bregman went 38th overall in this draft and he went 72nd in the Roto one. Adley Ruchman went 46th in this draft. He went 69th in Roto. Cotel Marte, 67th in this draft. 108th in Roto. Max Muncie, 77th in, this draft, 97th and the other, and Stephen Kwan, 99th overall,

just inside the top 100. He went 175th in Roto. And for all these players, Scott, they have good plate discipline. In the case of Adley Ruchman, he just plays so much that that playing time advantage just really sets him apart from other catchers. He hits a lot of doubles. He has good plate discipline as well. Max Muncie, a very clear OBP versus batting average standout.

So again, that one makes sense. And Stephen Kwan, you know, he doesn't really contribute much in, any category in a Roto League, but, you know, 8th in plate appearances, a 10% strikeout rate, that will definitely help in this format. Yeah, just by avoiding strikeout, Stephen Kwan ends up being not a stud in this format, but like a player who clearly deserves to start in this format, even though he was pretty underwhelming by Roto standards last year, trying to see if I can find his points per game. So yeah, he's 35th in my outfield rankings, 2.90 points per game for Stephen Kwan this past year, which was better than Jazz Chisholm. It was better than George Springer. It was better than Michael Harris. It made Stephen Kwan pretty good. Now, I rank those three players I just mentioned, I all rank ahead of Stephen Kwan, even in points leagues for next year. But like, that's part of what I meant earlier when I was saying that you get to a certain point in the hitter rank.

where in a shallow format like this, there just isn't that much differentiation between, you know, like a fifth and sixth round hitter and like, I don't know what round exactly, 12th and 13th round hitter. They're all looking pretty similar at that point in terms of average per game output. And if you are drafting hitters in those middle rounds,

in the 12th or 13th round, like we said earlier, in a shallower format, you're more likely to take those swings because you want to find a hitter that's going to excel and move ahead of the bunch, ahead of the pack, not just kind of like, you know, be steady eddy. Stephen Kwan, by the way, if you look at cumulative fantasy points got, he finishes the 17th best outfielder in points leagues this year. He was 37th in Roto. So that's a pretty massive difference, right? I understand points per game versus like overall points. Obviously there are some differences there

and his playing time definitely gives him an advantage in the cumulative points. But yeah, Stephen Kwan definitely one that excels in this format. What about hitters that went the other way? So ones that drop down from where they went in Roto to where they went in this draft. So Bo Bichette, who I actually selected 47th overall, he went 29th in the Roto mock draft, which, you know, might shock some people, but he has bad plate discipline. He doesn't walk very much. He averaged 2.9 fantasy points per game.

That was... Same as Stephen Kwan. Yeah, that was less than J.P. Crawford and Nico Horner and Gunner Henderson, you know? So, interesting there. L.E. D. LaCruz. J.P. Crawford. That's the headliner of that group. My goodness.

L.E. de La Cruz. Now, this is an interesting one, Scott, because he went 28th in the Roto draft. He went 61st and had to head points. It might be overstated because he still averaged three fantasy points per game because he was just so electric still. I mean, sealing as many baseball. as he did and hitting home runs. Yeah.

But his plate discipline is very bad. I mean, it's a near 34% strikeout rate, only an 8% walk rate. What do you think? Do you think it should be that different for L.A. Dela Cruz? 28th in Roto, 61st, and points. In terms of how he's valued in the two formats, uh, I,

I don't think it should be that different. I think you should go earlier in Roto leagues. but we think of stolen base heavy players as being more rhodo-friendly for good reason because there's a scarcity there and there's an a, like they're essential in a Roto league. Like you have to get steals, a certain number of steals to balance your portfolio when you could make up for a lack of steals in any other number, any number of ways in a points league.

So, yes, you know, that's part of the reason why Julio Rodriguez, Bobby Witt are my top three players for me overall in Roto and not necessarily first rounders for me in points. But now that we're entering an era where the high-end stolen base totals, like the leaderboard, it's going to be a much bigger number of stolen bases more in. the 40 to 50 range rather than in the 30 to 40 range. That adds a lot of points. That adds a lot of, the guys we think of as the best base dealers in the game now have a higher point ceiling because it's two points for every stolen base. That adds up when you get into like the 40 plus range. And it seems like Ellie de la Cruz is going to be one of those guys.

And that's why for all the contact issues, For all the inconsistency with the bat, he still ended up with so many points per game because he was so prolific on the bases. I don't see that changing. Three other names that dropped down from our Points League mock to the Roto 1. Reverse that.

Drop down from the Roto 1 to the Points League. Michael Harris went 34th in one, 64th in the other. Matt McLean from 45th in Roto to 79th in a points league. And Josh Lowe from 64th in Roto to 100. 10th in a points league.

And Scott, I know you were the one who drafted Josh Lowe, and I know you like him. He finishes the 12th best outfielder in Roto this year. The 25th best outfielder in a points league doesn't walk much. And the lack of plate appearances,

that doesn't hurt you in Roto because he still gives you good ratios, right? Like he provided good batting average and power and speed. But 501 plate appearances, that ranked 51st among outfielders. In a points league, need guys that are on the field that are going to play, be everyday players. And maybe that will be

the case for Josh Lowe this year, but it wasn't in 2023. Yeah, and I've already said part of the reason I rank him so high is because I do expect him to play more regularly for the Rays this year. Maybe, maybe I'm seeing that, reading that a little too optimistically, but I think they're going to need the offense. And I think Josh Lowe might be their best offensive player at this point. He did average 3.10 points per game last year, so it's not like... I see him sliding is less about him being bad for the format as people having other positions to fill, namely pitchers. Like people were drafting a higher number of pitchers and a lower number of outfielders. Obviously, we're talking to three outfielder league here, a Roto League.

We're talking to five outfielder league. So I think that has as much to do with the despair. as the shape that Josh Lowe's production takes. It's just people have higher priorities in that early to mid-round range than a number two outfielder. And what I wanted to quickly point out with Matt McLean, I do think there's a little bit of the same thing

with L.A. Dela-Cruz. Obviously, McLean, not expected to steal 40 or 50 bags, but I just think he's going to be so good that it will kind of out. outweigh the lack of plate discipline, right? Doesn't walk all that much, struck out nearly 30% of the time, but he hits a lot of line drive.

So I think the batting average should still be good. It's a great ballpark. I think the lineup's pretty good. The counting stat should be their power and speed. So Matt McLean is another one where I think he probably should go higher than the 79th that he went in this Points League mock draft just because he does other things so well

that it will kind of outweigh the bad plate discipline that he provides. Let's take our first break, Scott, when we return. some quick news on these rule changes that came out and then we'll continue on with the mock draft. I've got where starting pitchers went, relievers. We'll look over our teams.

We'll do all of that right after this. Welcome back in. Let's quickly talk some news and notes. Got the MLB Competition Committee approved changes for the 2024 season. No surprise, Scott. The game is always a change. And now they are going to an 18 second pitch clock

with runners on base. That is down from 20 seconds this past season. They are going from five mound visits to four, and if a pitcher starts to warm up before an inning, he must face at least one hitter. And lastly, the runner's lane to first base has been widened to the infield grass. Tony Clark, who is the executive director

of the Players Association, put out this statement, quote, player representatives voted against the 2024 rule changes proposed by the commissioner's office, as they made clear in the competition. competition committee, players strongly feel that following last season's profound changes to the fundamental rules of the game, immediate additional changes are unnecessary and offer no meaningful benefit to fans, players, or the competition on the field. This season should be used to gather additional data and fully examine the health, safety, and injury impacts of reduced

recovery time. That is where our focus will be. Obviously, these are not groundbreaking changes, Scott and I guess we'll have to wait to find out about like the ball and the environment and all that stuff. But I kind of agree with Tony Clark here. I figured you know another season with the rules they just implemented in 2023 to kind of gather more data and see what kind of effect it has on pitchers and injuries and all that stuff. That seemed like the prudent thing to me but it just feels like baseball is so ah they're they so badly want to cut off the the game time by like three to five minutes and and so that's why they're making these changes.

Yeah, I mean, look, at this point, I was so happy with the way it turned out last year. It did raise some questions from a fantasy perspective that still have yet to be answered. Like, what impact did the pitch clock have on performances for certain pitchers? I don't think we really have a good grasp on that yet. But just from an entertainment standpoint, how much more enjoyable it was to watch a game.

It was huge. So, you know, I'm with the overall endeavor to make it even faster-paced. I don't think there will be a meaningful difference here as far as that goes. I mean, part of the justification why MLB decided to shave two more seconds off the clock with runners on base is pitchers on average began their deliveries with 7.3 seconds on the clock still. Now, obviously there were times when they took the full 20 seconds, but on average, they didn't come close to taking the full 20 seconds. So I don't think it'll be a meaningful difference to make it two seconds shorter. And I don't think any of these rule changes are really worth fretting over too much.

Yeah, I guess the one main thing, the main pushback that I do agree with is leaving it alone for now, for another season just to gather more data and see if there's any correlation between pitcher injuries. Because now you're changing the data sample again by dropping from 20 seconds to 18 seconds. Sure. And look, I've heard...

It is worth pointing out, though, that it's not like it was brand new rules for the major leagues. They had been testing these rules in the minors for multiple years. So there is more data than just the one season. But I think, like, if I'm looking at this from the perspective

of, okay, I commission a lot of fantasy baseball leagues, I would be careful not to introduce too many rule changes too fast. I always like to be slow about that and really assess what some of the unintended consequences are before I, before I, you know, take it a step further. Yeah. And I've heard different opinions and I guess not even opinions like, you know, I've seen different data points that point out that there wasn't really a big spike in pitcher injuries this year, even though I guess it might feel that way for us. But then you hear, I've listened to Max Scher do interviews where he has said that, you know, the pitcher injuries were more drastic this year than before, like the length of time they were

on the IL or the severity of the injury. But I don't know if there's data, there's data to support that yet. So it might just kind of be hearsay from Max Scher. I think the sticky substance ban might have even more to do with that. Sure. And so it's, there, there are multivated, variables here competing for that narrative to the extent that the narrative is even true. Right. Well, that's where we are. Those are the latest rules. Again, it's nothing that's too groundbreaking and we'll see where they go from here. Obviously, we've heard about the the robo umstone for a while, the ability to challenge a pitch. So maybe those things are coming in the next couple of years. We shall wait and see. Let's get back into our head to head points,

mock drafts got. And we were talking about hitters, ones that move up, once that move down in this format and wanted to talk more about starting pitcher strategy because you kind of touched on it at the top. Typically in this format, I think people want to lean on starting pitching and making sure that they get those aces early. And we've heard that for years. I mean, you can always try and play the volume game like you did, just taking a lot of those, not necessarily glob pitchers, but, you know, middle round pitchers. You could stream two-star pitchers. But they're obviously not as reliable, not as consistent as the pitchers up top. A change that I noticed, Scott, is that elite

starting pitchers used to consistently outscore elite hitters. That is not the case anymore, at least based on this environment. Obviously, Acuna was in a class of his own. He scored 18017 fantasy points, and he wasn't just the only player over 800. He was the only player over 700 fantasy points as well. this year there were four hitters with over 600 fantasy points. There was only one starting pitcher over 600, and that was Garrett Cole. If you drop down to 500 fantasy points, there were 21 hitters that hit that benchmark.

There were only eight starting pitchers who had 500 plus fantasy points. And if you look at 2022, those were reversed. So there was more with 600, more pitchers with 600 fantasy points. There were more pitchers with 500 fantasy points. So I just thought that that was interesting to point out the environment. The elite hitters are scoring more fantasy points than the elite pitchers, and it hasn't typically always been that way. Yeah, and that's something we've talked about before when we've talked about pitchers for

looking ahead for 2024 is in 2023 with all the environmental changes happening, whether it's the sticky substance or the shift ban or more activity on the base path. potentially something else going on that we haven't even pinpointed yet. There's, they're, they're, they've come together to kind of, to kind of chisel away at the upper level of the pitching ranks so that it's not as

dominant at the top anymore. And that's another reason why I don't think it makes sense to invest heavily in pitching or early regardless of what format you're talking about. I'm sure people are going to already, already I can tell people are going to get tired of me saying that. That's going to be a message I'm hammering home all throughout draft prep season. But it's, I'm very convinced of it. And I think it's, you know, within the entire history of playing fantasy baseball,

I think it's more in line with that than not. It's only been in more recent years that pitchers have at all been comparable to hitters at the top of drafts. And a lot of the reason for it was because the high-end pitchers were so, so, so incredibly good. Just not seeing that anymore. So how did people in this mock draft select starting pitchers? Before we get into that,

one more distinction between how to approach pitchers in this versus how to approach it in Roto, because my rankings between the two formats are probably more different than they've ever been. Usually they're almost identical how I rank starting pitchers in those two formats. But for as much as I've driven home the idea of emphasizing strikeouts in Roto leagues, because that is of the five pitching categories,

or I guess the four starting pitcher categories, that's by far the most predictable. And it says something about a pitcher's overall upside, too. Well, the latter is still true for points leagues. It does say something about a pitcher's upside. but the strikeouts themselves aren't as essential. Just like stolen bases aren't as essential, strikeouts aren't as essential.

They're on category, obviously, and they're only worth half a point each in standard CBS scoring. In some leagues, they might be worth a full point each and maybe the assessment changes. But for standard CBS scoring, strikeouts for pitchers are only half a point each. And so I don't think all the risks, all the risk I'm willing to take on for high strikeout guys in Roto,

like, I don't know, Freddie Peralta, Kodi Senga. I'm not as willing to take them on in points leagues because I think you can piece together a rotation of fine pitchers. You know, you can play matchups, you can play two-start weeks. You can, there are workarounds at pitcher more in points leagues than in Roto. So my rankings look a lot different. And some of those strikeout guys that I have so high in Roto are pushed down quite a bit in my points league rankings.

All right, well, how did we see starting pitchers drafted in this specific mock that we did? We had two starting pitchers in the first round. Garrett Cole at pick four, Spencer Strider at pick eight. We had only one starting pitcher in the second round. We had six go in the third round. So nine starting pitchers total in the first three rounds. In the roto mock draft, we did zero starting pitchers in the first round. It was Spencer Strider who went 13th overall, the first pitcher off the board.

We had three in the second round, three in the third round. So six starting pitchers in the first three rounds versus nine in the points league. If we extend that to the middle round, Scott, the first six rounds of the draft, 24 starting pitchers selected in the points league, 21 starting pitchers in the rotomoc that we did. So it's not a huge disparity, but the points league, it's still leaned a little bit more pitching heavy. I know that technically, again, is not your strategy and what you're doing,

But does it surprise you that other people, I guess, haven't latched on to similar thinking. They're just kind of still going in on starting pitching early in this format? No, it doesn't surprise me. Even going back 10 years ago when I was doing this job, and I was very much hitting over pitching regardless of format too. That's a battle I was always fighting in this format is just people are pre-wired to think, okay, head-to-head points league, I got to go pitching.

What surprised me actually is you said nine in the first three rounds in this mock. Yep. Nine starting pitchers. That's quite a bit less than went in the first three rounds last year. So I think people are more or less recognizing what I'm recognizing. They may not be going as far with it as I am. All right. Let's talk about relief pitchers because typically they do go late.

in the CBS head-to-head points format because they just don't score as many fantasy points. They don't score as much as starting pitchers. They don't score as much as some of the elite hitters up top. And obviously, in a Roto League, saves are more scarce. They're a category onto their own, and obviously you still need that category to compete in that format. So this year, six relief pitchers scored 400 plus fantasy points.

29 starting pitchers scored 400 plus fantasy points. Just to give you a little perspective, I understand there are more, not even, there are more starting pitchers than there are closers, obviously. So, but it's just, you see it in the point scored. And specifically in this draft, the first closer, Devin Williams, he didn't go until the ninth round. In Roto, a manual class A went in the seventh round as the first closer off the board. There were eight closers taken in that format before Devin Williams was selected in the ninth. the ninth round of this draft. So again, just to kind of give you some perspective.

And I think it makes sense, Scott. Again, you need saves. Their categories onto themselves. Closers are going to go much earlier in that format because they just don't score as many fantasy points. And there are sparps. Starting pitchers as relief pitchers, which are kind of a cheat code. But I guess overall, your thoughts on relief pitchers, how early they should go. And I guess what your strategy is for this format. My strategy in this format for relief pitchers is, usually just wait until the end of the draft. Only two relief pitchers are started on every team. And that's not even counting the sparps,

which are going to be mixed into a greater degree in this format, because this is the format where sparse matter. So I usually wait till the end of the draft are pretty close to fill both of those spots because there's just enough to go to, oh, there's plenty enough to go around when only 24 spots need to be filled. And I think that's even more the case this year because the relief pitcher crop, the closer crop specifically, is so much more promising this year than it's been the past few years. I mean, this time last year, there was something like eight to ten relievers who I felt confident were closers. Right now there's more like 24, 25 who I feel confident in are closers.

And most of them are pretty talented. Like most of them gotten that job because they deserved it, not just. by default. Famous last words. Well, yeah, I mean, it's inherently volatile the role, but you know what you know going in and you don't know exactly what's going to go wrong. So, and, you know, because only 24 are required to be rostered, there's always alternatives on the waiver wire in this format.

I say all that, and I noticed I drafted Ricea LaGlaecius in this league. I think just because the entire closer. crop got pushed down so much that, you know, there wasn't much downside to taking Ricell Ecclesias where I took them. But normally, I wouldn't even aim that high. On the subject of Sparps, I will say it can be, the approach can be a little overrated. It used to be, it used to be more promising back when pitchers took on bigger workloads. But the guys who are retaining relief pitcher eligibility from last year, understandably, they're not going to be given as bigger workloads.

The workloads aren't going to be as big because they weren't in a starting role to accumulate enough innings the year before. And so the overall output, generally speaking, a closer is going to outdo it unless it happens to be a two-start week or something like that for the pitcher in question. Obviously, at the high end, that's different. Cole Reagan's the best spark this year is my number one reliever for points leagues. I'm also very high on Michael King as a spark. Ryan Pepeo as a Sparp.

He's actually RP only to begin the year in CBS leagues. It's a good year for Sparps, relatively speaking, but you can take that strategy too far. Nick Povett as a Sparp, Chris Paddock, Frankie Montas. I mean, those are end-of-draft kind of guys, but they are ones with Upside who are worth acknowledging.

Yeah, the only other name I was going to mention was Nick Martinez, who has the chance to start with Cincinnati Reds. We don't know that for sure. But again, those are some of the SPARPS starting pitchers that have relief pitcher eligibility on CBS. Let's take our final break, Scott. When we return, let's get into our teams,

talk about our early draft picks, some of our strategy. We'll look at the hitters, pitchers, and overall what we thought, did we like our teams? We'll find out right after this. Welcome back in, and let's get into our team, Scott. For those watching us on YouTube, I will pull up a little tab here so you can follow along. You can, we'll start with Scott's team, and there you go.

Have it up on the screen so you can look at it there. Or if you are following the article, then you can also follow along. So I was drafting second overall, and Scott was drafting 11th, which is great. We get far away from each other, no sniping each other, Scott. Best to leave it that way. And let's just get it. I mean, look, your first four picks, you talked about it. You started with Corey Seeger and Corbyn Carroll, which is like, okay, that's amazing in any draft,

but even in a points league, I think that's great. and then Jose Al Tuve and Bregman. So double-tapping the Astros there at the 3-4 turn. And it might startle some people to hear, oh my gosh, Alex Bregman in the fourth round. But as I mentioned earlier, he is someone who excels in this format, and he's someone that should probably go

two to three rounds earlier in a points league versus a Rotter League. Same number of points per game in 2020. In 2023 was Alex Bregman as Austin Riley, 3.33 points per game for both of them. More points per game than Rafael Devers, far more than Gunner Henderson and Mani Machado. So he is legitimately a stud in this format given his terrific walk-to-strikeout ratio. I also think it's kind of topsy-turvy.

You said Corey Seeger was my first round pick. Corbyn Carroll was my second round pick. That would obviously be reversed if we're talking about a Categories leak. Yeah. But I think obviously you got your base down there. with the first four hitters that you took there. Your next five picks were all starting pitchers, as we mentioned. So Cole Regens, who does have that relief pitch eligibility as well,

followed by Justin Steele, Zach Eflin, Joe Musgrove, Merrill Kelly. When you first drafted Reagan, Scott, were you planning on him being a reliever for you? Because I noticed that you actually drafted two good closers, and boom, you just popped Cole Regens back as a starter. Yeah, yeah. Well, like I was saying, earlier, like, there are so many good closers to go around that it became clear to me the value

was more at that position that it's starting pitcher. And so that caused me to bump Reagan's to SP. And, you know, it might cause me to move Reagan's down in my rankings for this format. I had him elevated in the starting pitcher rankings, in part because I liked that relief pitcher eligibility. but I'm not sure that it's I'm not sure that it's as valuable this year at least on draft day. I'm not sure it's going to seem as valuable given the quality of the closers available. All right, so let's get into the rest of your team here.

We'll start off with the hitters that you wound up with and we'll just go down the line. Starting with your catcher who was Mitch Garver, currently a free agent. We'll see where he winds up. That's my last pick, I think. I went cheap at catcher. But I really do like Mitch Garver. If he lands with some team as his DH, I mean,

points per game last year for Mitch Garver, 2.86. That's more than Wilson Contreras, Yiner Diaz, G.T. Real Muto. And he was definitely a quality bat there in the second half. That seems to be an early theme I've noticed, Scott. Through two drafts, it's kind of weight on catcher, huh? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's never at that impactful of a position. Yeah.

And it wasn't so long ago like J.T. Rio Muto was an obvious standout. Maybe Will Smith would be up there with them. But I think it's deep enough that particularly in one catcher league. Maybe it doesn't work out with Mitch Garver, but there's going to be somebody else. I don't know. I presume Logan O'Hoppy went undrafted. There's going to be some alternative with enough upside that I won't miss making the heavy investment, especially since, I mean, other than Adley Rushman,

I'm not sure there is a clear number two. So it's, I don't know. I just don't think it's the best use of draft capital. All right. Your first baseman was Yandi Diaz, followed by Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Corey Seeger, Corbyn, Carol. And then your other outfielders were Josh Lowe

and Jung Hu Lee and your utility bat, Marcel Ozuna, with Josh Naylor on the bench. So, Jung-Hu-Lee is an interesting one because I think he's someone who plays up in a points league. Definitely. You look at what he did

this past season in the KBO. He had more, he had more than twice as many walks as he did strikeouts. 49 walks, 23 strikeouts. You don't know that that will technically translate exactly to that level in Major League Baseball,

but the early steamer projections have Jung-Hul-Lee projected for a 9% strikeout rate, which will definitely play in a points league. Right. No, definitely. I'm hopeful Jung-Hul-Lee does the same trick Stephen Kwan does, that we talked at the top of the show about how valuable he is in this format just because he doesn't strike out much. Like Stephen Kwan, Jung-Hul-Lee is projected a bad lead-off for his team, which also helps more opportunities throughout the course of the season.

And I have him in for this scoring format, I have him as a starting caliber. outfielder, even though it's three outfielders. In the roto format, even though that's five outfielders, I don't have him as a starting caliber outfielder. So it's a big... So he's top 36 in a points league, but not top 60 in roto? I believe that's right. Damn. He might be at the back end of my top 60 in roto, but it is like a 20 spot difference in

the rankings for me based on the format for Jung-Hoo-Lee. I think that makes sense, though. Overall, Scott, are you pleased with the hitting lineup that you wound up with here? Overall, yes. I think I got lucky with Yandi Diaz. I got Yandi Diaz as my 11th round pick after first-based options like Jamer Candelario. It was not a bad choice, but, you know, Yonti Diaz is another one of those players because the play discipline is so good.

Like, he's a real standout in this format. points per game last year for Yon Dias, 3.45. It was more than Bryce Harper. And it was his best year, so he probably won't do quite that good again. But he's a true must start in this format, is Yon Dias. So to get him in round 11, I think I lucked out there a little bit. My offense wouldn't look as good if I didn't get him. Other than those four stud hitters I got, you know, Joshua Lowe.

Josh Lowe. I don't know why I still listed Joshua in the CBS Sports database, but Josh Lowe is my next titter, right? And then Yandi Diaz. And then Marcelo Zuna, who I got in round 12, I think just, you know,

that one utility spot with so few outfield spots, so few corner infield spots to fill. I think people were reluctant to fill that utility spot with the utility only guy like Marcelo Zuna, but I got to like the value of that pick. The weak spots are Jung Hu Lee,

who's unproven, and Mitch Garver, who's a catcher. So I don't, you know, I can live with that. My pitching, we talked about my pitching already. I don't know if you want to pivot to that again. Yeah, I was going to read off your pitchers, but go for it. So, yeah, it's Cole Reagan's Justin Steele, Zach Eflin, Joe Musgrove, Merrill Kelly.

Obviously lacking a true ace by design. I didn't use one of my first four picks on a true ace. But, you know, I got five pitchers there who I think could be. top 30, top 25. And that's more what I'm looking to do is get those guys who I think are, who I think transcend the glob. I think they're better than glob level pitchers.

They're not going to be ranked like aces, but I think the ace class is not as strong anyway. So I feel like it's better bang for your buck targeting pitchers in that range. I wish my number one was slightly better than Cole Regans in our rotomach draft. I got Kevin Gosman as my number one, which is more than slightly better in my mind.

But it's just kind of a difference between the way the draft played out. Everybody was avoiding starting pitchers in that roto mock. So I got Gosman for a good value. And obviously, I'm prioritizing strikeouts more in that format than I am in this one. So I think it makes sense why it played out the way it did. And yeah, overall, I'd say I'm happy with my team. This is how pretty much all of my head-to-head points teams are going to look this year. All right. And your reserve

pitcher is worth mentioning because they are pretty fun as well. Hunter Green, Christopher Sanchez, Shota Imanaga, who at the time of recording this is still a free agent. And Eric Fetty, someone I know you like quite a bit who is returning from the KBO

and sign a two-year deal with the White Sox this office year. He was their MVP and Syung, whatever their equivalent of Syung is in his one year in Korea. Yeah, just was amazing over there. It was Eric Fetty after making some Arsenal changes. And yeah, I'm really excited about him.

All right, so let's pivot over at my team. And again, if you're watching us on YouTube, you can see it pulled up here. But obviously, we're going to go through all of the draft picks as well. I had the second pick. And my first four picks were Mookie Betts, Bryce Harper, Raphael Devers, and Bobeshet. So same as you start my draft with four hitters.

My mistake was that I didn't hammer SP enough. I did take two starting pitchers right after this. in the fifth and six rounds. But again, I think the way you did it, if you're going to start with four hitters, you just kind of really got to lean into pitching after that and do it with volume. And I remember during the draft,

in the early third round, I was considering Zach Wheeler. And if you listen to our recap and our early starting pitcher rankings, you can tell. I like Zach Wheeler. I'm going to have him ranked as my SP3. I think he's at the forefront of that next group.

I don't consider him in the conversation with like Shrider and Garcone, but like once we're ranking Wheeler and Corbyn Burns and Kevin Galsman and Zach Gallen and those guys, I think Wheeler is, you know, at the top of that group. So I remember thinking about taking him, but man, like Devers was so enticing. He's an elite hitter as well. So I took him and I was like, all right, let's see how it turns out. And ultimately, it feels like my pitching staff needed another pitcher up top. And we'll get to the pitching a little bit later on.

I want to go through the rest of the hitters, starting with my catcher. I got Yiner Diaz. Breakout pick. I mean, he technically already broke out. But as a full-time catcher, hopefully for the Astros, can even break out further,

hopefully in 2024. My first basement is Bryce Harper. Then I have Bryson Stott, Raphael Devers, Bobichette, Mookie Betts, George Springer, Sayas Suzuki, Spencer Torkelson, with Junior Caminero on the bench. I got him with one of my last picks.

I didn't even necessarily want to take a hitter on the bench, but he just lasted so long. I was like, all right, let me take a fun upside bat for the bench here. The clear weakness, I think Scott, Bryson Stott, my second baseman. Outside of that, love the offense, but you'll find out in just a little bit why I didn't necessarily love the way that my pitching staff turned out. It's, you see all these enticing hitters in the middle of rounds and I'm like, bloop, bloop, I just kept wanting to like draft hitters.

And that's what I did. Right. Right. Yeah, no, that's going to be, because I do think, for what it's worth, I mean, just on paper, I do think your lineup looks better than mine. I will tell you now, for obvious reasons. I drafted Max Scherzer, this was before the injury. But even if Max Scherzer was healthy,

I would say that I have a worse pitching staff than you. Yes. Yeah, that's... I think the advantages your lineup has over mine are mostly superficial. Like, George Springer is obviously a much bigger name than Jung Hu Lee. I think in this scoring format, though, especially with the way George Springer seems to be.

be trending. I don't think practically speaking they're going to be that different. And that's kind of what I'm talking about when I say, you know, around five, six hitter versus around 11, 12 hitter. Are they really that different? They're going to look better. They're going to look better. But I don't think practically speaking, they're going to be better. So that's why I think it's, you really need to capitalize on the pitcher ranks at that stage of the draft more, especially in this scoring format. So your offense is great. But, you know, as you said, like Spencer Torkelson was such a great value,

Junior Cominero on your bench was such a great value. And that's what's going to happen in these shallow lineup leagues. I mean, Noel v. Marteigh went undrafted. JD Martinez went undrafted. Wow. Yeah. So, like, don't overpay for mid-to-upor-level tier hitters. The studs, you.

Yes, the true difference makers, yes. But that mid to upper level range of hitters, there's just, there's so many of them for a league where every team starts nine hitters. And you know, I'm looking back at it now. I took Springer in the seventh round, and I could tell you exactly what I was thinking at the time. There were so many good pitchers left.

I'm like, nothing to worry about. All these pitchers are going to come back to me. And none of them came back to me. It was right after I took Springer, Jordan Montgomery, Zach Eflin, Walker Bueller, Grayson Rodriguez, Joe Musgrove, Joe Ryan, Yuri Perez, Jesus Lozardo, Tanner Bybee, Bobby Miller. All of those starting pitchers went between my Springer pick and my next pick,

which wound up being Max Scherzerrador before he got hurt. And I, look, even before Scherzerzor got hurt, he was not really a pitcher I wanted to draft, but he was just kind of like the next pitcher up. Peek behind the curtains here, I was using Scott's rankings because I don't have my own yet. Shurzer was the next man up, but any of the pitchers I just mentioned, I would have rather had those guys, and I just thought a bunch of them were going to make it back to me, and

they didn't. So let's talk about the pitching staff and what wound up with these guys. So I took Tyler Glass now in round five as my SP1. I took Kyle Bradish in round six, as my SP2. I mentioned what just happened. I took George Pringer in the 7, so I came back. I took Scher before the injury as my SP3 in round 8. And then again, I kind of did this thing where I had targets that I wanted,

and I just thought that they were going to last longer than they did. And again, I think it's like that points league mindset, people are just more aggressive on like, let me get my starting pitchers. And I just missed out on guys. So I got Gavin Williams as my SP4, Nicola Dolo as my SP5. We'll fully admit, even if Scherzer is healthy, this is not a good pitching staff. It's not something that I feel comfortable with.

you know, maybe if Scherzer was healthy and kind of turned back the clocks, it would have worked out. But it's not something that you should have banked on. And this is now two drafts in a row, Scott, the two mock drafts we've done where it feels like I'm missing one pitcher. It just feels like I'm missing one up top somewhere, whether it's, you know, if I had Zach Wheeler on this team, if it was Wheeler Glass Now Braddish, has my one, two, three, substitute whatever hitter for when I took Max Scherzer. And then Gavin Williams and Lodolo were my four and five. I would love that. I think that would be fine. But I didn't take Zach Wheeler,

and this is how the pitching staff turned out. Yeah. Well, I mean, look, there's an upside. And it may turn out okay. Don't sugar-cote it, Scott. Drop the hammer. I agree it's not ideal. But here's the thing to remember.

And this is kind of just general advice for head-to-head points leagues, more so than looking at the 20-204. draft pool. Because rosters are so shallow only 252 players

rostered, the waiver wire is fertile and it can make up for a lot of mistakes.

I won the podcast league this past year. I think I won both podcast leagues,

but particular I'm talking about the head-to-head points one, the original podcast league.

And I'm looking back through my draft there and it's you know, four of my, or is it even four?

I would say only three of my first eight picks. Three of my first eight really lived up to the draft pick, like really lived up to what I paid for them. And a couple of them exceeded it. Zach Allen I got in round six, Corbyn Carroll I got in round five. Well, that helped. But, you know, there are a couple outright busts in those first eight picks and then a couple others who just weren't nearly as good as we expected them to be.

And I won the league. And as I remember it, I think it was the highest scoring team, too. So you're not going to blow it on draft day in all likelihood in this format. That doesn't mean you should be lackadaisical about it and not set your team up as best you can to succeed. But it is something to keep in mind, particularly when it comes to taking big swings like we recommend you doing. Even if they don't pan out, there are ways to wriggle out of it because of that fertile wave war. I get that, but I think the one difference between, I guess, your approach this year and mine is, and maybe it's just been so cemented in my head, I just feel like, I think I could get away with three of my first four picks as a hitter,

but I think I need a pitcher somewhere in there. Whether it's the second, third, fourth, chances are I don't think I'm going to use a first round pick on a pitcher in most leagues this season. But, yeah, I think if I took Zach Wheeler in the third or, I don't know, whichever pitcher was available when I took Boba Shette, and I paired that pitcher with Tyler Glass now. I would probably feel better about this pitching staff overall. The relievers worth, go ahead. Well, I think in this scoring format, Bo Bichette isn't one of those clear elite hitters.

So I agree that by the time you get to, so you were at the end of round four. Yeah. I took Bregman at the beginning of round four. So we may have run out of that class of hitters that I'm talking about. You know, I'd probably put Bo Bouchet in that category for Roto leagues. But in points leagues, I mean, we talked about his point per game average this past year. It was 2.9.

9, yeah. I mean, it was the same as Stephen Kwan. So it's, yeah, I think that makes sense. And it's a good lesson, and you don't want to get so fixated on, okay, I need a hitter in the first four rounds that you overlook who the actual players are that you're drafting and who are actually available. Because as a general rule, I'd rather not take a pitcher there. but I think given the quality of hitters that were available.

I mean, Yoshinobu Yamamoto went right after Bo Bichette, and I'm calling him a top 10 pitcher now that he signed with the Dodgers. Right. So I think I would have rather had him than Bichette to pair with Tyler Glass now, your next pick. That would have been pretty cool, right? I mean, having the Dodgers' top two starting pitchers, that sounds like a lot of wins to me.

So obviously that matters. I even noticed Pablo Lopez went in the middle of the fifth round. I would have been good with that, too. You know, Lopez and Glass now as your SP1 and two. Yeah. I feel pretty awesome about that. So, yeah, I think that's pretty clear difference is, yeah. I think I should have taken one more pitcher up top.

And I've noticed that now in two drafts that I've done. So that'll be something I'm more cognizant of in the mock drafts moving forward. Quickly mention the relievers. I got Paul Seawald and Ryan Pepio, one of the aforementioned Sparps now with the Tampa Bay Rays. And then on the bench, I had Seth Lugo, Kentimaida, Reese Olson and Luis Severino. One point on that, something I notice a lot in points leagues, everybody's bench is loaded with starting pitchers, right?

Everyone either has three, four, five, all of their bench spots loaded with starting pitchers. That's how JD Martinez and Nelvi Marte go undrafted. That's exactly it, right? So there is an element where you can, I guess, stream hitters a little bit more. You can find some obviously more helpful hitters than the waiver wire pitching, you know,

Some guys will emerge as they do every year. But yeah, there's a lot of them are also going to be drafted. I remember looking for names at the end of the draft. There was not much left. So keep that in mind as well. Anything else, Scott, did you like to add to your team this draft that we did? I have Josh Naylor on my bench. And I got, when did I get him?

That's a pretty good pairing with Yandy Diaz too, because if Yandi Diaz gets hurt, Josh Naylor was also great in this format this year. 17th round pick. 3.2 fantasy points per game? Yeah, 3.22, you said the same as Christian Walker, basically. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's another example of that.

And look, I hate to use a bench spot on a hitter in this format, but they're just so good, the ones that are available late, that kind of feel like you had to. I mean, the other side of the coin, just to name some of those starting pitchers who were drafted late that we don't think of as being 12 team ops, but you know when everybody's loading up their bench with starters it's going to happen Brady Singer was drafted Chris Paddock was drafted oh you know what I'm sorry I had

last year's draft results pulled up Brady Singer probably wasn't drafted but here are some pitchers who were drafted so Frankie Montas who we mentioned Kenta Maeda who you took Frank Eric Fetty who I took Miles Michaelis was drafted. Graham Ashcraft was drafted. Joe Boyle. Joe Boyle, yeah. Not to say that these are bad picks,

but again, you wouldn't expect them necessarily to go in a 21 round draft. To go ahead of Noel V. Marte, that just sounds odd. Cutter Crawford, Josiah Gray. Yeah. You get the idea. All right, we're going to wrap there for Scott. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today.

Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we'll be back again on Thursday. Bye-bye.