Fantasy Baseball Today - H2H Points Mock Draft Recap! Taillon to the Yankees! Hand to the Nats! (1/25 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: January 25, 2021

H2H POINTS MOCK DRAFT RESULTS- https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/2021-fantasy-baseball-draft-prep-head-to-head-h2h-points-mock-sees-juan-soto-go-first-overall/ It was an eventful weekend for the guys as Frank joined the famous Scott White Dynasty League! Wander Franco here we come. Let's start with the news as Jameson Taillon was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates (4:56). What does this do for his Fantasy value? Brad Hand also signed a one-year deal with the Nationals. How good can he be? ... What is the scoring format for H2H points leagues on CBS (16:53)? What's your strategy for these leagues? ... Juan Soto went first overall (23:21)! Is third overall too early for Gerrit Cole? ... If you have a late first-round pick, should you start your team with two hitters (28:10)? ... Alex Bregman is a great value in the third round of H2H points leagues (33:42). ... Is it possible to draft too much pitching early (35:32)? ... How should you target pitchers late in this format (40:09)? ... Zac Gallen vs. Tyler Glasnow (41:50)! ... The middle rounds are loaded with great hitters but what about the pitchers (44:15)? ... Why should Framber Valdez go in the seventh round and why does Chris still have faith in Josh Bell (50:12)? ... What should your relief pitcher strategy be and who are this year's SPARPs (55:04)? What were our overall thoughts on our teams? ... Email us at [e-mail]. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. I drive, center field, and swing. This is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam.

Hey there, happy Monday. We've got a head-to-head point mock draft recap today and some more moves being made, including one by my. Yankees. Welcome to fantasy baseball today on January 25th. Frank Stamphle joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Big weekend, boys, I joined the Scott White Dynasty League along with the Welsh. And I don't know Greg's last name, so I'm just going to call him Roto Greg because that's what his Twitter handle is. Handel is. So Roto Greg, welcome to the league as well. I would say, I would tell you what his last name is, but I'm not sure if he'd want me. I think he goes by a nom de plume. You can't, you can't risk

scouting him to the world like that. All right. I'm sure he'll chime in if he wanted me to say it. So I'll love. Roto Greg. Yeah. Has joined the Dynasty League as well. Yes. We could just call him Greg.

Do you think Voltaire wanted people to know his real name? I was going to say like, he could be like Cher, just go by one name. His name is just Greg and that's it. But, you know, I think this might be useful for other people to know when teams are leaving their league or league managers are leaving their Dynasty League. What do you do if multiple teams are leaving at once? And we had a dispersal draft, which meant that among the three teams that were vacated, we basically just had a draft with all of the players combined that were on those three teams.

So I had the first pick, and I took Wander Franco. So boom! Take that, Scott. Hey, a lot of people are probably out there thinking, who leaves the Dynasty League when they have Wander Franco? That is a fair question. I can tell you who. It would mean nothing to you. But yeah, that's... Just don't say the last name. That's surprising.

Yep. So I've got Wander Franco. I've got some other players. I'm sure we'll talk about it a few more times throughout the off-season. Speaking of the off-season, Sky, what's this no trading allowed? I know Nando told me to bring it up. He said, how dare you? Nando.

Nando, Nando, Nando. All right. So the argument for trading in the off-season is trading is fun, which, you know, can't be disputed. the main reason I don't allow trading in this dynasty league is it was mainly it was one of the main reasons I decided to set up my own dynasty league in the first place because I saw in other dynasty leagues I was in it would often play out that a team in contention would trade all of its long-term assets for short-term acquisitions right and it's like okay well they're going after the title it's going to hurt them later you know they're

going to feel it later, but you know, for right now, they want the title, it makes sense. But then the offseason would come. They'd already won their championship. And then they just trade off of those short-term pieces they acquired for long-term assets.

And it was just like chasing your tail. Like it wasn't rewarding like a long-term vision. It wasn't rewarding what I think a dynasty league should reward. It was just rewarding like hustle, basically. That sounds like a vision. I thought it was lame. I thought it was not in the spirit of what a dynasty league should be. Scott,

waves, not windows. That is the perfect waves, not windows strategy. That's not, making a wave every year. That's not how I interpret that. Yeah,

no, I didn't want just the people who had the most time to spam other people with trade offers to, you know, have an easy ride. That wasn't what I wanted my dynasty league to be. and so eliminating off-season trading does away with that. And it also makes a lot of trade interest during the season.

This is an active league trade-wise. And the trade deadline when you, you know, in-season, it's your last chance to make trades before like, you know, before the like trading opens again the next season. It's a frenzy. and it's wonderful. People like it. People like it.

Other than Nando, people like it. I've heard feedback. It's good. Speaking of trading, Chris has Joe Musgrove on his team, so I'm sure we'll be in touch, Chris. Musgrove for Franco. Let's get it done. Send it.

Send it. Get it. Put your money where your mouth is, Frank. All right, enough dynasty talk. We have some acquisitions to talk about, again, head-to-head points, mock draft recap, and some mailbag questions later on.

Send your questions in Fantasy Baseball at CBS. I'm not sure if this is the biggest news item, but I'll just lead with it anyway. Jameson Tyone was traded to the New York Yankees for four prospects, three of which were ranked inside the top 30 in the Yankees organization. 22-year-old pitcher Miguel Jajure. I think I got that right. 21-year-old outfielder, Canaan Smith, 21-year-old pitcher Roenzhi-Cintreras, and 18-year-old infielder Michael Iskato.

Scott-O-White. What is, what does this move do for Jameson's fantasy values? Going outside the top 200 right now. Someone, sneak peek, I like as a sleeper. He's in the Sleeper's 1.0 article. So I liked him already. What does this do for his value, if anything, Scott? Yeah, I like him too.

It's a worst park. It's a tougher division. All of that. But, I mean, going from a team that's aiming for 50 wins to a team that's aiming for 150 wins, or at least 100. That's always a good thing for a pitcher. It's hard to be a decent pitcher and a very good fantasy pitcher when you play for a team as bad as the pirates appear to be aiming to be.

So this can only help Tyone's fantasy value. He has been a good ground ball pitcher over the years. So, you know, in theory, the park shouldn't hurt him that much. Although, I mean, one of the strongest cases for Tyone being a strong. sleeper is that the same thing we've seen from a lot of talented pirates pitchers who did not deliver on expectations as soon as they leave the pirates their arsenal gets tweaked and it's it's pretty consistently they were throwing too many two seamers under ray syringe and um you know pitching to contact as opposed to to maximizing their bat missing capabilities and if tyone follows suit it

seemed like he has the arsenal there for the taking to follow suit. If he comes back from this Tommy John, second Tommy John surgery looking healthy, he could be a nice find for the Yankees. And I agree with you, he's a sleeper. We put out sleepers 1.0 over the weekend. And we each picked five sleepers for it.

When Sleepers 2.0 comes out, and I can expand it from that five. Tyone will also be included in my sleepers. Or what it's worth. the Pirates did drop from 59.3% fastball usage in 2019 to 49.1% in 2020. And that was pretty much what we expected. They were a team who, like you said, under Ray Sirich had been, you know, working by like early 2000s rules, maybe. Like they had some success in the, you know, kind of early 2010s with like Yvonne Nova and Francisco Liriano and A.J. Burnett.

and it kind of made Ray Surridge untouchable in the organization and they just got kind of left behind by the industry and last season I think they started to make the changes that we needed to see so I would have expected that James and Tyone

would have made some changes to his arsenal regardless yeah and he is making other changes as well outside of his arsenal I read a few articles today on Jameson Tion and this one was from Lindsay Adler over at the athletic. She wrote, he has made big changes to his mechanics, shortening his arm path and working to generate more power from his legs, both of which can help him protect his elbow. Apparently, he was pitching through elbow pain for the past, for five

years. He had Tommy John surgery back in 2014, or he returned in 2014 from Tommy John surgery, and he said that I was pitching through pain for five years, and that's ultimately why he wound up having the second Tommy John surgery back in 2019. But we do remember that he started to break out in that in that 2018 season the second half of that 2018 because he started using this new slider more that he had never used before And helped him I believe it was his final 22 starts in 2018 271 ERA 114 whip he was like a top 70 pick in in 2019. So there was a lot to like about him But speaking of that slider he mentioned that it was it was more of a cutter in the past and he was like prioritizing speed with it. And according to an article at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, he's added more

spin to the pitch, creating depth to his slider. So I just think with all these different things going on with him in conjunction, it'd be like 18, 19 months removed from Tommy John's surgery when he returns in February and March here. And he has this, he has new mechanics, he has this new slider with more spin. I think there's a lot to like. So he's going outside the top 200. I assume he'll probably rise up draft board just because it's like the Yankees' tax, but not enough where I think that you can't still draft him. So pretty excited about James and Tyone. The Nationals made a move as well. They are making a bit of a run here. They signed Brad Hand to a one year, $10.5 million dollar deal. On the surface, he had a great year. Fantastic year. 205 ERA,

077 whip. He led baseball with 16 saves in the shortened season. But Scott, under the hood, fastball velocity dropped about a tick and a half from 2019 to 2020 swinging strike rate dropped 3%. You haven't ranked as your RP6,

I haven't ranked as my RP7, so we still kind of like him I think that's just because we know he's going to be the closer, but there's some stuff under the hood

that's a little scary with Brad Hand. Yeah, I understand the case people are making against him and it's rational enough. I will point out that if you just look at, oh, look at the way this number's been trending and look at

the way the velocity's been trending. It's missing some context just doing that because like, you got to throw the second half of 2019 out. He had an injury that he was pitching through eventually got shut down. It totally skewed his numbers for the whole season. He was awesome in the first half of 2019. You know, the fact he came back last year with excellent numbers, but with reduced velocity with a reduced swing strike rate, you know, that's, That's kind of a mixed bag. The velocity did get better over the course of the season. And of course, Brad Hand wasn't the only one who we saw,

his velocity way down at the start of the season. So that's one thing. The other thing is we're talking 22 innings. And the other thing is like, it's hard for me to get that worried about any one closer candidate in particular because it's just such a volatile role. We're worried about all of them. They're all a bad week away from disaster, you know?

like so he had a good year I don't know I and one thing I'll point out is the the dip in whiff rate largely comes from one there were just hitters were swinging fewer pitches last season he went from like a 47% swing rate to like 42% and if you actually look under the the hood for the pitches themselves he fell from a 42.7.7% 6% whiff rate with his slider to a 38.6% rate in 2020.

That's not nothing, but given that we're talking about a closer, you know, we're talking about, I think he threw 184 sliders. It's not nothing, but you're talking about maybe the difference between four swings and misses over the course of the 2020 season, which makes me think that it, it's not necessarily nothing, but it could just be small sample noise. It could just be small sample noise. It could just be that there was something going on

that he can fix or, you know. But the results were so good. And this is something that I'm trying to kind of keep in my head is that like, especially for this season, there's such a desire to find meaning in these, you know, 20 innings that relievers through

or the 65 innings that pit starters through or whatever, that were like drilling deep into, you know, hey, his swinging strike right on his slider. And it, that all matters, but the overall numbers were still really good. He still got a lot of strikeouts. He still didn't give up a lot of walks. You gave up a lot of fly balls.

That's become a problem over the last couple of seasons for him. But overall, he still looked very good. And if the bar is, he's not quite the brad hand. he used to be. The Brad Hand, he still is, can still be a pretty good Brad Hand. I do think some of the negative reaction to this signing among fantasy baseball analysts is frustration that Tanner Rainey doesn't get a chance to hold down the role now because I thought the nationals were ready to turn it over to him the way they were talking about him at the end of last year. Daniel Hudson was falling apart and Tanner Rainey's numbers were awesome. So are Brad Hans.

Yes, that's awesome for a lot longer. Yeah. Scott, just give me a name here. The ADP for Brad Hand is 130.3. Would you rather have Brad Hand or James Carincheck? I'd rather have Karen Jack. The assumed closer for Cleveland. I guess we'll find out throughout spring training.

But he's like, he's like a redid. Like Devin Williams, his strikeout rate alone was basically good enough to make him a fantasy asset without the saves and Karen Jack can match him. So he's like he might be the best strikeout artist among closers or at least up there with Josh Hader. Brad Hand or Kenley Jansen? Hand.

All righty, the Red Sox signed Enrique Hernandez, also known as Kike Hernandez, to a two-year deal while, and they also signed Garrett Richards to a one-year deal. Hernandez really known for being a platoon player, 820 OPS against lefties in his career, 673 against Ritees. Garrett Richards had some solid starts last season,

but he was pretty inconsistent. in overall. Anything to see here, Scott? Not really. I think Enrique Henryandez is going to be pretty much the same guy he's always been. He might play a lot more at the start of the year, but they got Jeter Downs. They're probably going to want to work in at some point. They still got to find a bat's for Michael Chavis.

So I'm not excited about that and Richards. I mean, he has a lot to prove at this point. Before we hit our headhead points mock draft, I do just want to plug a few things. Do you own a smart speaker? Maybe you got one,

as a Christmas gift. You're still working through the kinks, figuring it out. But whether it's an Alexa or a Google Home, you can listen to FBT without lifting a finger. 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. And it's as easy as that. It'll come through your smart speakers.

So if you have one, make sure to give it a try. and we haven't seen Chris's sassy cats yet today on the podcast. They're fighting right now. They're like lying off screen that they just started fighting. We haven't heard them yet. We've heard them a few times recently. But if you'd like to see them, you can do so. On our YouTube, subscribe to the YouTube channel.

It's YouTube.com slash fantasy baseball today. What do we got here? I'll give you a little play-by-play. You can't see them. You can't see them. All right. I can't see them now. Yeah, no.

They know the camera's on them, so they're not fighting anymore. They're like, no. no daddy we're camera shy but hit that big red subscribe button over on our YouTube hit the little alarm bell as well and you will get a notification every time we upload a new video to YouTube head to head points league mock draft recap it's worth noting Scott's Dynasty League is a head to head points league as well and some people have emailed in calling me out that at times I'm a little biased towards rhodo and head to head categories so I will try to work in head to head points more

I play in a batonel leagues. My longest standing keeper league is a head-dead points league. I love the format. So that's really what we're going to focus on today, a mock draft that we did last week. And on CBS, a points league starting lineup consists of one catcher, one first baseman, one second baseman, one third baseman, one shortstop,

three outfielders, one utility bat, five starting pitchers, and two relief pitchers, five bench spots. That's 21 total players on your head-to-head points league team. Roto, you start two catchers instead of one, add a middle infielder, add a corner infielder, two more outfielders. You add one more pitcher, so you have to actually, no, it would be two more. You start two more pitchers, nine total. That's 23 starters in your lineup, plus your bench, makes it a much deeper draft and just league in general than a points league, Roto versus

points league. And the scoring could be different, depending on where you look. There's a lot of best ball leagues out there and just other websites in general that run. points leagues, but maybe I'm just partial because I've played on CBS for so long, but I really, I enjoy the format that we have, and it's a point for a single, two for a double, three for a triple, four points for a home run, and then one for each of a walk, hit by pitch, RBI, run scored, two points for a steal, which is why we generally devalue some of the speedsters, and minus one for a cost stealing, minus half a point for a hitter strikeout. And that's why typically we, devalue guys like Miguel Sineau and Joey Gallo who strike out quite a bit. You know,

30 plus percent of the time. You might want to fade those guys in this format typically. For pitchers, you get three points per inning. That's one point per out. You gain half a point per strikeout. You lose one point for every hit, walk, hit by pitch, earn run aloud. And then you get three points for a quality start, seven points for a win or save, and minus five for a loss. That was a mouthful. I just kind of wanted to set it up in case people were wondering how the scoring system works. How many points for a walk? You get, you lose

one for a pitcher. You gain one for a hitter, Chris. I'm glad you set it up because there are a few common distinctions that make a big difference. I've seen a lot of head dead points leagues that award just one point for a stolen basis rather than two

which really tanks the value. Yeah, devalues those guys even more. I've seen some where a strikeout is a full negative one for a hitter. Innings pitch is only one point instead of our three. And, you know, it does make a big difference. So, yeah, I like three points per inning. I like minus half a point strikeouts for hitters, two points for steel. I like the way we have it.

Yeah, I agree. I like it as well. And a good to great start for a pitcher. Usually we'll get you between 20 and 25 fantasy points. You'll get the occasional 30 plus for some of those ace guys. while a good hitter will do something similar in a week, but two-star pitchers are just massive. And people, you know, they'll hoard two-star pitchers

because, you know, you get two good starts. Next thing you know, you get 40 plus fantasy points in a given week from your starting pitcher. When you get two mediocre starts and you can get as much as one guy gets from his ace. Yes. Or you can get two where... Bad starts.

Yeah, two where a guy gets... But even then, bad starts in a points league don't hurt you as much as bad. ad starts to do in a roto league. So even there's very little downside to a two-star pitcher. Yes, that is a fair point. But it's just a, it's a terrible feeling.

When you start a two-star pitcher and you get like single-digit points. It's not great. It's terrible feeling. I think it's become, especially in the stage we're in now with with pitching, where there's really not much of a middle class at that position, it's become kind of an overrated strategy. Like, it's pretty much always one stud over a two-star. waiver pickup. And I'd pretty much never break that rule. And I think that's typically why we have preached,

I have preached, going pitching heavy in a points league so that you can get pitchers that you can depend on. So with all of that setup, Scott, what is your overarching general strategy for head to points leagues? So for a 12 teamer like this, and you don't often see head to add points leagues bigger than 12 teams. Hitters have, hitters are very replaceable for me. There are the true studs that you can get in the early rounds. And of course, they have value.

They're worth investing in up to a point. But then there reaches a point where like, there are going to be so many hitters emerging off the waiver wire in, in this format because, you know, you don't have the skill specialization. the lineup is so small in terms of how many hitter spots there are to fill. They're going to be more quality hitters than can go around. And so you should lean into that.

I'm not saying you don't invest any early round picks and hitters. Those are true difference makers there at the top. But going pitching heavy, it's worth doing in all formats. I think it's especially worth doing in this format because this is the format where you can totally construct your lineup on the fly during the season. and it'll probably turn out pretty good as long as you're attentive. And maybe I'm wrong on this,

but it just feels like it's much easier to find hitters on the waiver wire, whether it's just streaming throughout the year or just breakout hitters, you know, names that pop up early, so you want to be aggressive with some of those waiver wire hitters if you take pitching early on

in your head-to-head points league. But I've found that it's easier to find reliable hitters on waivers versus reliable pitchers. So our draft 12 teams, I had the third pick, Scott had the fourth pick, Chris had the 11th pick. You can find the draft results on the site, CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball. The link is at the top of the podcast and YouTube description.

So whether you're listening or watching, you can click on that link and you could follow along, see the draft while we're talking about it right now. So in the first round, the first overall pick, you know, had to be one of, you know, trout or mooky bets or maybe a starting pitcher, right? We're talking about pitchers. wrong. It was Juan Soto. First overall to Dan Gilbert. Soto just averaged 4.7 fantasy points per game.

That was the most among all hitters. And that was following a bout with COVID. And he's just 22 years old. 41 walks versus 28 strikeouts. So that type of plate discipline will definitely play up in this format. I wouldn't do it. But I don't think it's crazy either. This is a format that does lend itself to,

Juan Soto's strengths because he's not like, he's not an elite home run guy. You know, last year his pace was right around 40, but that feels, you know, feels closer to his ceiling than like Mike Trout, whose ceiling is probably 50.

You know, he hits a lot of doubles, but, you know, it's the kind of thing where his all around game may not translate quite as well to the five category roto play. I mean,

you know, obviously it depends if he's going to hit. at 350 again. He's going to be a stud in any format. But, you know, he probably ranked a little better, I would guess, the first two seasons of his career in a points league than a roto league. And so, you know, just the play discipline, the all around hitting skills without necessarily the dominance in either home runs or stolen bases, I think does lend him to being a little more valuable in this format. After Juan Soto went first overall, we saw Ronald Lucuna go off the board, maybe a little bit early for him, but showed improved plate discipline last year in terms of his walks.

He still struck out quite a bit, but the walk rate was like 18%. We were talking about that on the outfield tiers preview that we did. So Acuna, still really, really good in a points league as well. And then I took Garrett Cole with the third overall pick. I think we did a mock Scott a couple months ago, and I had first overall pick, and I took Garrett Cole there as well. I have Cole Bieber and DeGrom, well, Cole DeGrom, in that order as my first three players overall in head to head points league. Why? The shallower lineups talked about it makes it easier to find hitters and waivers.

Last year, Bieber outscored all hitters two years ago in 2019. Cole and Verlander scored all hitters in 2018. Verlander and Max Schererser outscored all hitters. So the upside based on this scoring format is there for elite starting pitchers. to outscore every other hitter in the league. So the last question, I guess, is why Cole over DeGrom? Cole has outscored DeGrom in two of the last three seasons. He does consistently go a little bit deeper.

So I'll give him a slight edge there. If you want to go to Grom, I have no problem with it. Scott, is this too early for Garrett Cole or DeGrom third overall? No. I mean, not for, like, if Garrett Cole's your favorite pitcher, I don't have a problem with you taking him third overall. My own rankings have a pitcher third overall, but it's Shane Bieber. I go Bieber de Grom Cole when I'm ranking those three

and I have them third, fourth, and sixth in my head-to-head points rankings. But, you know, I don't know that we want to do the Cole versus Bieber debate here and now. I went right after you. What was interesting here is I went right after you, fourth picking this draft, and none of my top four had gone off the board yet.

So I have Mike Trout number one in this format. I have Mookie Betts two, Shane Bieber three as I mentioned, Jacob de Grom four. I went with Mike Trout I went with my rankings I'm not sure how I felt about it with my top pitch with my number one and number two

pitchers still there at number four and you know I have them ranked third and fourth so I get the fourth pick I'm thinking okay I'm going to start with a pitcher I don't I don't I don't know that I'm happy with the way the team turned out taking Mike Trout here

versus the Shane Bieber I really don't know I don't hate the way my pitching staff looks, but it just kind of, I felt like I was playing catch up at starting pitcher because I didn't have a pitcher

already in the first round. It led me to make some decisions along the hitting front that kind of left me with some weaknesses there. Again, like I said at the top, this is the format to leave yourself hitting weaknesses because there will be options later on,

but it's still not ideal to go into the season that way. Right, yeah. And I mentioned the stat last week, Trout and Betts, very consistent in both formats. Head to head points and in Roto Categories leagues. Trout and bets are the only two hitters to average at least four fantasy points per game

in each of the past three seasons based on the scoring format. So they are still really, really good. But I prefer the pitching. Sounds like Scott might have preferred it as well. But who needs pitching anyway? Chris's first two picks, Christian Yelich and Jose Ramirez at 11 and 14th overall. Yelich average 4.7 fantasy points per game in 2019. That was the most among all hitters before he got hurt that season.

And Jose Ramirez led all hitters in fantasy points in 2018. So, you know, Chris, based on where you were at that point, the top three starting pitchers off the board, U. Darvish went at pick 12 right after you. I don't think you necessarily had to pull them up the board. I'm talking up pitching, but I don't mind you doing this, actually, because if you're two best players, they're two really, really good hitters for the format.

Yeah, they were the two best players on my board. You know, I think, like, if Freddie Freeman had fallen one more spot, I might have been willing to take him. I do have those three starting pitchers ahead of those guys. They're all in my top six. So if any of them had fallen, I would have been willing to make that choice. But given the way the draft went, technically I have Bryce Harper ahead of them in head-to-head points,

but that's one I'm not really super, fond of. So I think I'd rather, I think that's probably one before we actually publish them. I'm going to move down. We got some reckoning to do with our rankings. Sounds like. Yeah, I mean, look, we still got like 30 hours until they're, they're live on the site. So there's time. But yeah, I just, Yelich and Ramirez, I think they're kind of both a little underrated in, in, frankly, both formats. I think I have them both ranked higher than the consensus in Roto as well. And I'm not really concerned at all about YALS just 2020. It just, it was such a short season, such a weird season. And the problems that he had were never problems before in a way that like,

if he had the strikeout rate and he wasn't hitting the ball, okay, with hitting the ball well, that would be one thing. But he still crushed the ball. I think he had the highest average eggs of velocity of his career. So I have no concerns about that. And Ramirez kind of still feels like we're dinging him. him for that weird, like end to 2018, start to 2019, but basically outside of that, it was like 140 games or something, he's been one of the three or four best hitters in fantasy.

And so I'm thrilled to get him there. Yeah, I'm past that. I have no concern over that with Jose Ramirez anymore. Maybe the only thing is the lineup. Over the last three years, he's number six in fantasy points amongst hitters. And that's including, you know, that basically, you know, being not that version of himself for almost a full season. So that tells you how good he's been otherwise.

The rest of the second round, pretty standard here. Clayton Kirshall a little bit early at pick 17. Bryce Harper, head of Cody Bellinger, talked about that last week. Love it. RJ White took Nolan Aronado pick 19 after he took Shane Bieber in the first round. Anthony Rendon was still there for him in the third. So, yeah, I mean, that's what we talked about with the tears, right? is like, why take Aronado or Machado in the second

when you know you could get Rendon in the third round? Scott, if you had that six pick and you took Shane Bieber, who would you have taken in that second round spot just after Aronado, Scherzer, Bauer, Nola, Cody Bellinger. Who would I have taken instead of Aronado there? Yeah, unless you would have taken Aronado. No, I wouldn't have taken Aronado.

I would have taken, in this format, I would have taken both Bregman, who I did take in round three, several picks later, or Rendon. I have Rendon ahead of Aeronado in this format as well. But I don't think

there's a need to take any of those third baseman here. So he already took a pitcher you're saying in round one. Yep, he had Beaver. I think I might have taken a second pitcher. If I took a hitter,

it would have been Cody Bellinger instead of Aeronado. But I probably myself would have taken Trevor Bauer, who's my number four pitcher and who I have going he's number 11 in my ranking. So I have him as a first rounder.

So to get him midway through the second, I think I'd just get those two aces to start off and then grab a few hitters after that. That's probably what I would have done. If I had to go hit her, I would have gone Cody Bellinger, though. I could see it being a case where it was like Harper was the end of a tier for him

and the next starting pitchers who went were Scherzer and Bauer. I get being a little worried about both of those guys. I have, you know, we'll talk about it tomorrow on the Sleepers, Reckons Bus podcast, but I have Bauer as a bus this year. Hmm. Well, I tried that last year, Chris, it didn't really work out very well, but I tried that in 2019. Or actually, I tried the opposite in 2019, and it didn't work out well at all. Yeah.

So, so whenever you think you have Trevor Bauer figured out, you, uh, you, you don't. I believe the phrase is once bitten twice shy. Hmm. I love these philosopher sayings, philosophizing that you bring Chris because... It's from Last Christmas by Wham.

I love that song. I just heard your cats fighting. I love the song, but I don't remember that lyric. So I'm gonna have to go back in... I would think most people would go with fool me once, fool me twice.

That's saying, right? But Chris likes to mix it up. Once bitten and twice shy. Oh, you know, when you say it like that, when you sing it, I've got it. It's the start of the second verse. I love it. Love it.

Fast forward to the third round here. I started my draft with Garrett Cole and Aaronola. Nola I have as my SP4. Scott has Trevor Bauer. I think it's up for debate, whoever you have in that SP4 spot. So I got two of my top four starting pitchers. And then I get Manny Machado in the early third round at pick.

That would be pick 27. I did think about taking Jack Flaherty and starting with just three starting pitchers, but I think it kind of worked out all right anyway. Scott, you took Bregman at Pick 28. great points league player. He led all hitters in 2019 in fantasy points, but you now have two hitters in your first three picks. Bauer was your only starting pitcher to this point. Is it too risky? It's not too risky. I don't, I like, I guess, the, I don't know, what range would you

call it? The 15 to 30 range at starting pitch are good enough that, you know, I have five of my top 30, I'm pretty sure. So I don't feel like my pitching staff is a knock on my team. But like I said, I had to focus on pitching so much after this Bregman pick that I ended up missing out on a couple of weak positions on the infield. And so you look at my hitters and I see two

holes right away that jump out in my lineup. And you don't like to have any holes going into the season. As I've said twice already, this is the format to leave holes in your lineup, but it's still not ideal and I still think I'm just curious how my team would have turned out if I went

Bieber there instead of Trout at fourth overall. It's easy to assume it would look better since I'm not thrilled with the way this one came out, but maybe it won't. It also does raise, it kind of begs the question, what if you overfilled starting pitcher?

I don't yeah I mean maybe but that that gets back that gets back to what I was saying at the top like let me okay a good way to put it is in a head to head points leagues

I'd rather have seven starting pitchers before I have seven hitters it's just you need to make sure you get the scarce hitter spots right I guess looking at it would you you know you ended up taking Dylan Bundy as your fifth starting pitcher

in your first seven picks would you feel better about your team if you had Anthony Rizzo instead of Dylan Bundy. Rizzo being a much better points league player than a Roto league player. And then whenever you took your first baseman, if you had a shortstop there instead. I think that's where you said one of your... I don't think that's one of my holes, actually.

I would not feel better about that. So at first base, I have Dominic Smith, who was better than Anthony Rizzo by a substantial margin last year. And I have Carlos Santana, if Dominic Smith doesn't have the playing time. Carlos Santana, you know, he had a down year in a short year, but the underlying number still look good, and we know he's a points league stud consistently.

So I feel good about first base. I mean, I guess I'll just go there since we're this far down that path. The two weaknesses, I think, are Mike Mustakis at second and certainly D.D. Gregorius at shortstop. I don't mind Mustakis at second base, but... I don't D.D. at short. He's all right.

but it's one of the weaker starting second basement in the league. But it's a good. There's a limit to his ceiling, I guess, is what I'd, uh, I could see myself replacing him during the season, I guess. It's a good question that you bring up, though, Chris, because in the round that Scott got Dom Smith was round 11, the short stops that went right after that, Mondesie, all right, you're not going to take him in this format, but Correa went in the 11th round, Javier Baez went in the 11th round, Danesby Swanson went in the very next round.

So, yeah, maybe if you skipped out on. Bundy and you took Rizzo there or even another hitter, you know, whatever, a second baseman. There were some really good short stops available. So what really has to be. Yeah, that's what I mean is if it was, it's not the first base was a whole, it's that if you had picked another first baseman there or another, a different position. Right. Different shortstop, whatever. And you, you had a different fifth starter.

So I think, you know, Dominic Smith was kind of a pivot point there because I was counting, on at that point getting one of Carlos Correa or Javier Baez or Dan Svonson as my starting shortstop. Those three were left in a tier altogether. I had remembered our discussion from a little bit before about how there's 13 starting caliber shortstops in a league where are only 12, there are only 12 starting shortstop spots.

And so I thought, you know, there's still three from this tier. I don't have to rush out and grab one yet because, you know, I know there aren't that many shortstop spots to fill anyway, but see, what I didn't notice is that a guy took, the same guy who took Fernando Tatis in round one, took Trevor Story in round two, and there was a second person who took a shortstop as a utility player, so suddenly it became 11 short stops for 12 shortstop spots,

and I was the guy who got left out. I missed out on this run of Correa, Baez, and Swanson, right after my Dominic Smith pick. So, you know, in retrospect, I would have taken one of those short stops, instead of Dominic Smith, and I would have been happy with Carlos Santana

as my starting first basement in this format because I don't think there's anything wrong with him. But I don't think passing up Bundy for Rizzo that that's not the counterfactual that would entertain, I guess.

I think Bundy's just, it's seventh round Bundy's a little rich for me, I guess. Because I think Sandy Alcantara in this format, especially, I think he's going to be every bit as good, if not better.

and you got him five rounds later. So that for me is where I think Bundy was probably a luxury. But see that you could have maybe built a different type of team that you might have felt a little more comfortable with. But part of my philosophy with that is, yeah, Bundy, I don't feel great about Bundy as my fifth starter, but I don't want to put too many eggs in the Sandy Alcantara basket too. I'd rather give myself potential.

Like I want to have places where my pitching staff can fail and I can fill it in from the roster already existing instead of having to go out and find it on waiver wire because that's a road to disaster. I do think that there are a lot of undervalued pitchers late in this format that, you know, and we'll bring it up a little bit later, but just undervalued points league's pitchers and sleepers that you can target. I usually, I like to get four of my top 30,

and then I just leave that one spot open for streamers, hopefully one of these guys breaks out or two-star pitchers for that final starting spot. It is so much harder in this. format to say that, though, is the one thing I would say just because of the questions we have about workload for so many guys. You know, I look at, you know, the bench spots in my pitching staff are like Tristan McKenzie and Kevin Gosman, who, you know, I, I like McKenzie a little bit more, but I have concerns about how many innings either of those guys are going to throw,

and that's more important in this format. You know, if you get a hundred and thirty innings out of Tristan McKenzie in a Roto League, he could be a super valuable player. If you get 130 innings out of Tristan McKenzie in a points league, he might be a fringe guy. It just kind of depends on what the shape of those innings are.

And so, you know, I think that's where it gets a little trickier this year. I hear what you're saying, but say you want to dedicate three or four bench spots to starting pitchers, you can take two guys like Kichel or

Stroman or Brad Keller who's like boring whatever their points league specialist Marco Gonzalez is another name and then take two of upside guys Dane Dunning, Tyler Malley John Means and just see if it works out

so I think it's like a nice little balance to have with that we spend way too much time on the third round Chris I did just want to ask you you took Tyler Glass now over Zach Gallen at pick 35 so in 30 seconds or less defend yourself I probably should just take him gallon

I appreciate you. I think Glassnow will be better on a parenting basis, but I think there are more questions about how much he's going to pitch than there are for Gowan. I think there are more questions about his durability than there are for Gowan. In looking back, I think Gowan probably should have been the pick there. I think he's probably more well suited to make an impact in this format than Glassnow is. You did get Brandon Woodruff at pick 38 as the 16th starting pitcher off the board. so I did really like that pick.

I will just point out, Kyle Hendricks went 33rd overall as the SP 13, and I think this is, he's very good in points leagues, but I think it's a good reminder to let everyone know, just because you have Hendricks ranked that high, say you haven't ranked inside your top 15, which I don't think you should, but you don't have to take him that early. Yeah, this is where knowing ADP comes to help because I think he probably would have lasted until definitely the fourth round, but maybe even the late fifth round. I know people are aggressive here, but I think it's, you know, you could be, you want your guys, but knowing the ADP, I think you could have got Kyle Hendricks a little bit later on.

We'll take a quick break when we return. We'll hit the rest of the mid-rounds here and go over our teams, see if we liked them or not. The fourth round, just a great round for hitters. Jose Abraeu falls to pick 37, maybe not falls, but I think is all right there. Rafael Devers at 39. judge at 40, but he walks a lot so that helps in this format.

Corey Seeger at 41, a great pick as well. Scott, you took Carlos Carrasco as your SP2 at pick 45. I took Lance Lynn with the very next pick as my third starting pitcher at pick 46.

I'm not going to ask you out this one because I want to go ahead to the fifth round and then I'll just kind of bring it back. Vlad Guerrero went at pick 48, which is too early for me. Probably too early for most people. And I like him, but I have him 79th overall in my head's head points ranking. So it's very early.

I get it. But too early. Fifth round, Patrick Corbyn went at pick 50. I thought that was too early. Scott, you took, you took Strasbourg. So that's your third starting pitcher. Just a lot of risk, man, I think. Carrasco, Strasbourg.

You took Riu in the next round too. So like your average age is like 50 and maybe you'll get an average. I don't think he was that risky. I actually, I love the Strasbourg. pick. Yeah, in round five. What makes it difficult, isn't that I, well, the injury he's coming back from carpal tunnel syndrome on wrist, I guess, is what the surgery was actually on.

We don't have a, we don't have much of a track record for, for that surgery at all. So it's, it's kind of a mystery. And I, I agree it's risky. I agree, you know, Carrasco, just because of his age is risky. Trevor Bauer, my number one is risky. on your bus list, Frank. I see all that. And that's why

I felt the need to, you know, get volume to, to hedge my bet at starting pitcher. So, you know, I'm hoping four of my top six workout, and then I'll be in good shape. And, you know,

one thing I will say is Bauer's risky, but I think he's more of a bust in terms of like, he's not going to live up to his ADP. I also have Jose, Bray on my bus list for the second year in a row. How dare you? Probably win a MVP as well. And they're both like kind of weird

bus because there's almost no it's so hard to envision a scenario where Trevor Bauer isn't in a head to head points league probably a must star guy just because he throws so many innings he gets so many strikeouts. It's risk in just like can he

anchor your staff? Can he be the guy who anchors your ratios in a roto league? You know, just to clarify that. I got Boba Chet at pick 51 and this is fourth, fifth round, some of these middle rounds, I mean, you know, pitchers are getting pulled up the board

that means some hitters are going to fall. So Boba Chet, getting him in the fifth round, it sounds weird, but someone has to fall. Ozzy Albies lasted to pick 54. Eloy Jimenez went all the way at the back, the last pick of the fifth round at pick 60. So some of these names are falling and that will happen as pitching gets pulled up.

Chris, you, took a few points league darlings here, starting pitchers to pair with your Glass Now and Brendan Woodruff, you took Zach Wheeler and Zach Granky, the Zacks with your 5-6 turn. It's not sexy, but at this point, you have Yelich, Jose Ramirez,

Glassnow, Woodruff, Wheeler, and Granky in a Points League, that's pretty damn good. It's pretty good. Yeah, I mean, it's entirely possible that I drafted my starting pitchers in opposite order of where they'll finish. you know,

Granky and Wheeler, I think in both instances, it was just shoring up the volume after taking, you know, especially Glassnow with the first pick, just not sure how many endings you're going to get from him

and how much, you know, how many starts you're going to get from him. Wheeler and Granky, I think, are both relatively steady. It's kind of a weird thing to say about a guy who,

you know, I think before, the last two seasons was really defined by his inability to stay healthy and you know, Granky who's 37, pretty old, 35, 36, 37, something like that. I think 37, yeah. Sounds about right. But I don't know, until we actually see him fall apart, I'm just going to keep, you know, especially when it costs a sixth round pick, I'm going to keep betting on it.

In the sixth round, more hitter value. And I'm going to sound like a broken record, but I just want to keep reiterating to people specifically in points leagues, but for most drafts this year, there's a lot of value in the middle rounds for hitters this season more than ever before, which is why I like taking aces in those earlier rounds. So in the sixth round, we saw Marcel O'Suna, Pick 61, Pete Alonzo, 65, Whitmerfield, pick 67, Trent Grisham. I got Trent Grisham at Pick 70.

And maybe people are worried about him, but really good play discipline. He walks a decent amount. He is in a really good lineup and I will just point out hitters the hitters that I like to target in this format Hitting the top half of their respective lineups and they're in good lineups so I like targeting those because it'll give you more opportunity for at-bats played appearances and more opportunity equals more fantasy points So it was the number one outfielder last year in this format. Yeah, it's crazy you know obviously there are questions about where he's gonna land but you kind of have to assume it's going to be somewhere with a good lineup. I hope so.

Given that bad teams aren't spending money anymore. I saw a rumor earlier in the offseason about the Giants. That would probably not be ideal, but... No. We'll see. We'll see where Marcelo Zuna lands. In the seventh round, Framber Valdez

went at pick 74. Might seem early to some, but not to Scott. Give the good people a... reason why they should like Frumber Valdez in this range got seventh round. Seventh round. So I think he was one

of just I'm trying to remember the exact stat because there's a good stat. But basically Dusty Baker let him go seven innings with great consistency. And you know I buy that he's a good pitcher. His ground ball rate was the best by far

last year. It was you know, that's never been an issue. for him. He's always been an extreme groundball guy. The issue for him has been walks, which is something he seemed to get past last year. For an extreme groundball pitcher, the strikeout rate is solid. I mean, it's more than a strikeout per inning. So there's a lot to like about Framber Valdez, but the biggest for this format specifically is

the Astros are willing to ride him. And I mean, that's the biggest differentiator. I mean, you have to be a good pitcher, but the biggest differentiator between the good and the great is how many innings you're throwing, and specifically how many innings you're throwing per

start, as opposed to just how many innings you end up with, because you made 34 starts or whatever. Yeah. So I think it was one of just three pitchers who went seven innings six times. Udarvish was one, and there may have been one other, but Fromber Valdez was

like, you know, a standout in that area. Yep, he did go at least seven, six different times in 2020. He went at least six innings in nine of his last ten appearances. One of those was a relief appearance where I guess someone got blown up and he just came in and pitched like he was the starter. But yeah, lots of volume for Framer Valdez lends himself to this format. I took Max Fried with the next pick, pick 75 right after Valdez. That gave me four of my top 30 starting pitchers, which is. which has been the goal in every draft thus far.

Garrett Cole, Aaron Nola, Lanselin, Max Fried. And I noticed that all three of us had at least four starting pitchers by the seventh round. Luis Robert, if you're following along at home to the draft. Luis Robert in the seventh, just at pick 78, it might seem weird. It might seem like he lasted too long, but just so many strikeouts, you know,

30 plus percent strikeout rate and his first taste in the major. could go up. Maybe it goes down, but that is a good amount of strikeouts, which hurts in this format. Chris, you are diving back in, Josh Bell. With pick, with pick 81, you took him ahead of Paul Goldschmidt. Any words for that? I think Josh Bell's going to be pretty good. You know, I think a lot of the underlying numbers were still pretty good. Again, it's one where, like, I could have taken Goldschmidt. I think Goldschmidt at this point kind of taps out at pretty good. and I think there's a chance

Josh Bell can still be great. So, yeah, and, you know, you look at the other first baseman who went in that range. Like, in this format, I like him more than Matt Olson. You know, Goldschmidt, there's always the chance that there's a decline. And that's kind of the end of a first base tier. So it was one of those guys. I think you're kind of on an island with that, though,

across the industry. And I like Josh Bell, too. I have him in my sleepers 1.0. He's one of those players who strikeout rate uncharacteristically blew up in the short season. And he's talked about how,

you know, being affected by the lack of video access. So I'm excited to draft him. But round seven is about where he was going last year. And it just seems like the industry as a whole is really down on him. Like round 15 down on him. That makes sense.

The biggest thing for me is the biggest issue he had, yes, the strikeout rate dropped. But the biggest issue was that he actually had arguably his worst season as a power hitter. And I just think the underlying numbers don't really back that up. You know, he still had a strong average exit velocity, strong max, exit Velo, strong hard hit rate. And the plate discipline's been so good for most of his career that I think there's a really strong chance that he bounces back.

Yeah, he did hit the ball hard still, but the launch angle went back down. lot of ground balls last season. That was up around 55%. But even then, that's an outlier for his career. You know, he'd never been above 51% before. We saw Josh Hader, the first relief pitcher off the board at pick 84. Scott, what is your general strategy when it comes to relief pitchers in this format? And we haven't talked about them yet.

Who are the best sparps for 2021? That would be a starting pitcher as relief pitcher. That is a cheat code, something that you guys have talked about for many years here, where you can use a starting pitcher who has a pitcher eligibility in that role. So what is your strategy, Scott, and who are some of those sparps for this year? So my strategy in Head-Dead Points League regarding relievers is don't draft them. I mean, you eventually have to fill those spots, but you're going to be able to fill them with a projected closer. And that's mainly what matters to me. There's so much turnover during the season.

You know, you can't be that confident that anyone you draft is going to be the guy you stick with in your relief pitcher spot all year anyway. Anyway, you just want them to be filled with somebody who has a chance of sticking with them, sticking in that role all year. But because there are only two relief pitcher spots to fill, there's going to be enough to go around. It's different from a Roto League where, you know, every team is looking to draft three closers.

Sometimes someone will draft four closers. that's not happening here. Everybody's just going with two. There's enough. Just wait. The exception would be if there is a high-quality spark who could compete, you know,

a really good starting pitcher and a relief pitcher spot will outscore really good closer in this format. So those guys are worth paying up for like a Carlos Carrasco was at this time last year. The problem is there's nobody like that this year. This is the weakest spark class. I can ever remember.

I think the highest one is AJ Puck. who missed all of last season with injury. We think he probably has a rotation spot for the A's, but it's not guaranteed. And he's entirely unproven at the major league level. After that, you have guys like Nick Povetta who had a couple decent starts for the Red Sox late last year and used to be a thing.

I mean, there aren't more than 10 SPARP eligible players or relief pitcher eligible players who we think will open in their rotation, let alone be... Like, you look at the list, like you've got Michael Lorenzen who's got a chance to open in the rotation Luis Petino probably won't

Jose Cantana maybe Alex Wood maybe it's it is bleak this year Jose Cantana I think is going to be a starter I feel pretty confident about that they're paying them like a starter the angels are and he might be the single pitcher with the biggest difference in value

between Roto and head-to-head if that's the case because he's not very good anymore, but he is a reliable innings either and in a relief pitcher spot, I think that's going to have value in this format. I think he's pretty much worthless in a Roto League or a 5-5-Categories league.

All right, guys, we only have a few minutes left. Let's just kind of wrap up with some overall thoughts on our teams. Maybe you want to focus on pitching a little bit, but Chris, what did you think about how your team turned out here? Four starting pitchers in the first six rounds, but you did start with two hitters in the first two rounds. I'm pretty happy with it

and I think part of that is because I identified some hitters who may be potentially undervalued in this format and you know I think of someone like Alex Verdugo who you know has really good plate discipline should hit in a good part

of that lineup and I you know I think that lineup would be better than it was last season I think J.D. Martinez, Raphael Devers will have better seasons. Nelson Cruz he's going to be on a lot of my teams. he's going to be a value until he stops being one. You know, him in time of the style,

I also drafted two guys who don't have a team currently. So, you know, we'll see what ends up going on with that. But all in all, for taking two hitters with my first two picks and then loading up on starting pitcher, I feel pretty good about it. You know, I think I got a pretty good mix of upside and stability in my starting pitching staff. But, you know, all of my starting pitchers,

in my rotation, Glasnow, Grinke, Tristan McKenzie, Zach Wheeler, and Brandon Woodruff. You know, Zach Wheeler's probably the safest of them.

And that's what happens. It's not that you can't get good starting pitchers if you wait, but you're going to have to deal with some words. But I'm happy with the team overall. Scott, what did you think of your team? You started with two hitters

in the first three rounds and you got the old folks home at starting pitcher. So what do you think? Yeah, I mean, I wish my lineup worked, looked better. My my

my um my pitchers are Bauer Carrascoe Strasbourg Ryu Bundy and then I have Sandy Alcantara there I have James Paxton who I'm taking a fly around we still don't know where he's going to land so I I think the pitching staff should be fine but moostakis

stands out as somebody who's just going to be passable as a starter in this format and D.D. Gregorius, he might be passable. He was passable last year, but again, that's the upside for him. So, I mean, Trout and Bregman, they should both be studs, but I don't like having those two holes. I'm glad I have a quality catcher in Salvador Perez, who I think went, went to go, 10th rounds.

Like, I'm finding he's really easy to get, surprisingly easy to get, and not leave yourself with the weakness at catcher. He should play a lot. one thing that I noticed in this draft that I'm noticing in every draft J.D. Martinez, I got him in my utility spot. Those DH only guys, there are so many of them and they're just not getting drafted

up to their value at all. I mean, J.D. Martinez, I got him in round nine in this league. Yorden Alvarez, you got him one pick before. So still round nine in this draft, Frank. I think Nelson Cruz was just a round before that. And it went to you, Chris. Yeah. So Nelson Cruz went in round eight.

J.D. Martinez and Jordan Alvarez went in round nine. These are three guys who perform like second rounders in 2019. And just in terms of production, if you're not factoring in position, scarcity and all of that. So to get them this late, like that's something I'm going to be looking to do in every draft, unless the market corrects itself between now and opening day. That's just a must for me for my utility spot. The value's too good. Yeah.

Util only. I love it. All three of us grabbed some great util only. hitters in this draft. You know, I remember we were arguing about Salvador Perez so much towards the end of the season, Scott, and it seems like you're getting him in every one of these mock drafts. So I love it. Like nobody, literally nobody wants him. It's hard to.

I'll take him too. Yeah, I wound up with what I consider a good catcher as well. I got Will Smith as my catcher. Machado was my first hitter taken in the third round. Have no issue having him as the best hitter on my team. Still wound up with some guys that I think have some ups and stuff. side in Boba Chet and Alvarez and Trent Grisham, some bounceback guys, Goldschmidt is fine, Alston Meadows, I've talked up a lot, Jeff McNeil just rock solid for this format. Pitching staff

got four of my top 30 in Garrick Cole, Lance Lynn, Nola, Max Friede, and then it's loaded up on Keichel, Dane Dunning, Tyler Malley, John Means, Jameson Tion, and hope that one of those or multiple of them become serviceable as a fifth starting pitcher, you know, streamer and the right matchups, two-star pitchers,

whatever it might be. So, yeah, I really like just hammer out those first four and then target a lot of guys late with upside or are just undervalued in this format.

So you can find all the results of this draft on the website, CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball. Let us know. Who had the best team? Tweeted at us, email us.

Let us know who dominated this draft. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching. We'll be back again tomorrow with our sleepers, breakouts, and bus 1.0. Bye-bye.