Fantasy Baseball Today - H2H Points Strategy! Eugenio Suarez Back to the Reds! (2/2 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: February 2, 2026

It's strategy week! Before we get to that, Eugenio Suarez is back with the Reds (3:58)! ... Luis Arraez signed a one-year deal with the Giants (12:55). ... Other news (17:12): Austin Hays signed a one-year deal with the White Sox. ... Let's talk H2H points strategy, starting with the CBS scoring system (28:30). ... Which hitters gain value and which lose value in H2H points leagues (32:30)? ... Which pitchers gain value and lose value in this format (36:56)? ... Beware of chasing two-start pitchers (45:18). ... Are SPARPs still worth it in H2H points leagues (51:42)? ... Can we actually chase consistency in players (56:00)? ... How much should we be stashing injured players with an eye on the H2H playoffs (59:55). ... How to set up your H2H playoffs (1:04:22)? Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@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/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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. And first pitch, watching. 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. Hello, welcome into Fantasy Baseball today, and welcome to February.

I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. it is strategy week. So today on the show, we are talking head-to-head strategy, both for points and categories, but we also have some news from the weekend. Welcome back, not to Arizona, but to Cincinnati. A. Eugenio Suarez, that is very fun. Scott, look at you, settling into the new place.

Congratulations, my friend. Yes, the Airbnb is gone. Spent the weekend moving again, more permanently this time. And as you can see, spend a lot of time setting up the place. I'm just kidding. It looks like I'm in a hostage video because there's nothing. There's literally nothing behind me. It's actually, I'm in a corner.

I don't know if you can tell. I think it looks fine. I think you holding today's newspaper is a great look. I think it's a great set up. Yeah. Yeah. Just like a hostage video. I got you.

It'll be, it's a work in progress, the setup here. It's a work in progress. But at least I got my fancy CBS issued microphone back. I got my two monitor set up so I can actually look up things while I'm talking or when I'm writing. That's, you know, my productivity is going to go through the roof with that or at least get back to status quo with that. And yeah, I'm very excited. Very excited to be in the new digs. And if you, you know, I want to know where I am, you know, the T-shirt.

Drops a little hint. He's on Greenville Drive. Yes. The closest professional baseball team to me is the Red Sox High A affiliate. I don't want to say anything in case that was Scott's actual street. He's like, uh, I don't know. I don't want people to know where I live. The team is called the Greenville Drive.

I got that. Yeah. Yeah. Red Sox High A, right? I think that's what we're working with there. So some minor league scouting coming soon to Scott White. Let's go. Let's begin with the news.

and we will start with A Eugenio Suarez. That was a Choo Choo Train. That is a, I don't know, it was supposed to be like an ADP train. It's just like rising up draft for us. Oh, okay, okay.

It didn't sound very good. Whatever, it is what it is. Anyway, Suarez, back to the Reds on a one-year $15 million deal. That includes a $16 million option for 2027. Honestly, did not think Suarez would have to settle for a one-year deal with an option, but here we are.

And I'm happy that he did. Based on the landing spot. Oh my God, going from the worst hitting environment in baseball to one of the best. This is an awesome landing spot for Suarez. Jeff Passon said the plan is for him to mostly play DH. More on that in a bit. We do kind of have to sort out the Reds and figure out where everyone's playing here. But, Scott, this is an awesome landing spot for Suarez.

I mean, I was just hoping he didn't end up back in Seattle. Because that, now we've seen him there twice. He's tried twice in Seattle, which is not a very hitter-friendly place to begin with, but it gives some hitters in particular trouble, the batting eye there. And Suarez seems to fit in that category, given that in two separate stints there, he seemed to be held back by it. But it was looking more and more likely that he would wind up in Seattle, particularly after the Diamondbacks traded for Nolan Aronado.

Turns out he went back to another former club Cincinnati. Maddie, and that is the place where he hit 49 home runs in 2019. So we already have proof of concept there. It's very encouraging what he could do there. It's obviously a great environment, but really just getting and staying out of Seattle was enough for me to consider him a top, I think I'm sixth, the third base, very high into the position despite his age. And, you know, good landing spot.

But for him, there are some trickle-down effects that make it less exciting. I don't know if you want to get into those. Now, I think Chris has some things he wants to say about Suarez first. Yeah, we'll get to some of the moving pieces here with Cincinnati. Chris, how much did you move up, Eugenio Suarez? I guess more so in the overall rankings because, like, third base is pretty jumbled up. Like, maybe you moved them up ahead of Bregman or something like that. But how much did you move Suarez up in the overall rankings?

Yeah, I already had him at eight. And I think six makes sense. And I could be talked into five. So I have Austin Riley at five, Michael Garcia at six before this. Riley and the overall was 79th. Michael Garcia was 89th. I think just right in between those two guys, I think you can make a case for Michael Garcia ahead of him.

I can make a case for A. E. Hennio Suarez ahead of Austin Riley. But I'll go with that order for now. It is pretty close to the best case scenario landing spot for A. Bhania Suarez, if not the single best. And if you look at the home runs by park on Stacass based on the park factors or based on the actual bat and balls he hit, this is not an, you know, an estimate. For his career, he would have had 346 home runs at Cincinnati. If you take the median team, which is San Diego, the median is 269.

So that is what, 31, 75 more home runs over his career, about 20% more in Cincinnati versus the median ballpark. I still think he is a extremely high variance player. I don't want that to get lost in him landing in Cincinnati. It's a great park to hit in. We have seen him hit extremely well there. His final four seasons in Cincinnati, he averaged 42. homers per 162 games to hit 247 with an 842 OPS 104 RBI it should be a pretty good lineup potentially a good one if some of these young guys take a step forward it's just been waiting

on some young guys to take a step forward in Cincinnati for a while but you can't really ask for a better landing spot maybe Colorado but they were never going to sign him maybe Sacramento they were never going to sign him either so in terms of realistic landing spots This is a great one for Suarez. I think he's one of the best power bats in the game and should be a top probably 85 pick, top 90 pick. So first seven rounds.

I go higher than that. Getting how scarce third base is. Yeah. I'm looking at your overall rankings in Rodo Category League's guy. You have Suarez at 59th overall. I had him outside of my top 100 before this just because kind of guarding against him going back to Seattle. we were all pretty worried about that possibility.

After this, I moved him up to 77th in Roto. Again, I could argue, you could argue he could be a little bit higher than that, but the ADP was right at 119 the past two weeks. I think he moves up inside the top 80, like a top 70 to 80 pick somewhere in that range for Suarez moving forward. And if you like him more, just go ahead and draft him where Scott has him ranked. How does everything else fit for the Reds here? So Suarez is at DH, Brian Hayes.

will start at third base. Does he remain there all year? He's still a great defender, but obviously is not good offensively. Maybe they can get a little bit more out of him in that ballpark. My guess is Spencer Stier goes to left field, South Stewart at first base. At least that's what I hope,

because I really like South Stewart. But JJ Bladay signed there in the offseason. It was only a $1.4 million deal, and he has an option left. So, Scott, they can find ways to make this work if they want to get Stewart and Stier and Swart. Mores and Hayes all in the lineup together. Yeah, they can.

I just don't know how motivated Terry Francona is going to be. And this is me, you know, just being fearful. This isn't necessarily me saying what I expect to happen. This is just me being a worry ward, to be clear. When Sal Stewart first came up last September, he homered four times in 10 games, and then Terry Francona stopped playing him, even though the Reds were fighting for a playoff spot. There was a lot of Will Benson.

There was a lot of Gavin Lux. Gavin Lux is gone now. So that seemed like it cleared a spot for Stewart. But now with Aohenio Suarez in the fold, no, there's, it's a bit crowded again. Now, I don't, I don't personally think I Brian Hayes deserves every day at bats at third base or JJ Bladee deserves every day at bats in left field.

That certainly is the Reds best defensive alignment. And that may be what Terry Francona defaults to. But I guess it's partly up to Sal Stewart. I don't know. Four home runs in 10 games would seem to say he deserves to play every day, but that's not how it went in September. So that just has me a little bit worried about our boy, Sal Stewart. This is just one that I think if there's a dip in the price,

I'll take it for South Stewart because I think he's probably their third best I mean, he's already so cheap. Yeah. Outside the top 280p for Sal Stewart. Yeah, I just, even if he doesn't start the season with an everyday job, I think he's going to have one eventually. I think he was just, worst case scenario, you'll have to be a little patient with Sal Stewart. But I just have a really hard time imagining a world where Sal Stewart hits like we think he could. And they're really playing JJ Bladay every day over him.

Or they're really playing. Even Spencer Steer. And the nice thing is Stuart has some positional flexibility. You can play second. He can play third. He can play first. Steer has positional flexibility. You can play the outfield.

He can play first base. I think it'll work itself out. So I'm not going to proactively move South Stewart down. I just, I think he's too talented to get buried on a team that has some talent, but we're not talking about the Dodgers here. You know, like that they're sure. there should be a world where South Stewart plays 135 plus games. It's just they might be a little backloaded. You know, maybe it's he starts 15 games in January.

And there's some riskier for sure. You mean in April? If he plays in January, that would be weird. April. Yeah. You have to go back in time at this point. Yeah, April. Look, I agree.

I think if South Stewart hits anywhere close to what we're expecting, this will sort itself out just fine. So definitely a situation of pay. attention to during spring training, but I think eventually he will have a job with the Reds. Hopefully early on in the season. Let's get into the Giants who signed Louisa Rice to a one-year $12 million deal. The idea is for Arise to be the team's everyday second baseman, where he has been pretty awful defensively. So they upgraded the outfield defense with Harrison Bader and now bringing the infield defense down with Louisa Rice. Not exactly what you want to see with a

pitching staff that has Logan Webb and Adrian Houser and other groundball pitchers. They've got a really good defense around him, though. The left side of their infield is amazing. Yeah. The right side. I mean, if Devers is playing first base, er. I think Devers is probably not a difference making first baseman either way. I think he's probably okay.

I think they can live with it. I don't really get the signing. Like, I just, Luis Reyes just isn't that good. but getting him on a one-year deal if he bounces back. It's not as a Casey Schmidt, right? Probably. They have been trying for a second basement

all offseason. They were linked to Brendan Donovan. They were recently linked to CJ Abrams, but apparently the asking price was too high on Abrams. But this is a terrible landing spot. I mean, everything that we said about swore it, I mean, at least look, look, you're not going to get much power out of him anyway.

Right. Yeah. Oracle Park is the sixth, best for singles. And, you know, because it's so big, they drop in. And obviously, singles are a rise as specialty. We don't really hope for much more from him than that. Last year interrupted a three-year streak of batting titles for him.

He hit only 292. But I would expect him to hit over 300 again, provided, you know, there aren't some health issues that prevent that from happening. So I think for fantasy, this is good news. I was a little worried a rise. just given his defensive shortcomings and this deep into the offseason, like who who had a spot in their lineup for him still, I was a little worried he'd have to settle for some kind of reserve role.

Like, he'd be an excellent pinch hitter, which seems weird given that, you know, he's just a year removed from three straight batting titles, but we know their story with him. That's really, it's hollow batting average. It's a lot of singles. There's a reason he's the first player in MLB history to win a batting title on three separate.

for teams. But for fantasy, he's pretty interesting. Roto leagues, it's really hard to fill batting average as late as he's going to be available. And he's as reliable of a source for that as you can find. And it points leagues because he strikes out so infrequently, he's actually a viable starter, particularly at second base. And that's part of what makes this exciting in fantasy, is a rise is only first base

eligible right now. But this means he's going to regain second base. And second base, there's much more need for him in fantasy. So I think it's, I think it puts him back on the radar in a 12-team context. Yeah. So last year, Luis Arise had 21 total strikeouts. I mean, there are guys that do that in a week around baseball, let alone, I mean, a whole baseball season.

That is insane. It is a 3% strikeout rate for Louisa Rise. last year, 2.7 fantasy points per game on CBS. Not great, but again, at second base, I think it could, to your points, Scott, it could turn out to be okay as like a low-end starter there in a points league. Any points leagues where you lose a full point for a strikeout, I believe that's on ESPN. Louisa Rise, I mean, gets a huge boost in a format like that. So definitely keep that in mind with him for his 80P over the past two weeks,

289 over at the NFBC. obviously that number is going to go up quite a bit. Where would you guys slot arise into your second base rankings? I know he doesn't have that right now, but he should have it very early in the season. I was thinking around 17 in points leagues, which would

be just ahead of McLean, Beatty, and Luis Garcia, and then in Roto like 23rd-ish, which would be just ahead of like Chase Midroth, Ernie Clement, and Jake Cronoworth. Yeah, I think around 17 makes sense. I think it's perfect, yeah.

Okay, sounds like that. All right, let's get into the White Sox who signed Outfielder Austin Hayes to a one-year $6 million deal. He was solid in 103 games last year with the Reds, 266 batting average, 15 homers, seven steals and a 7-68 OPS. He crushes lefties. He's adequate, not so great against right-handed pitching.

But Rasta Resource has him in there as a starting right-fielder. I would imagine that's how things start for him in the season and we'll see where it goes from there. Any interest in Austin Hayes, my guess is deeper league stuff here. Not really. Head to head or AL only, sure. He's a decent hitter, but he really struggled to stay healthy last season.

He fell apart after a really good start. He hasn't hit more than 16 homers in a season since 2021. I just don't think there's much here. He's, I don't know, as your fifth outfielder in a 15-team league, there are probably worse options, but he's not a particularly exciting one. Yeah, I agree. He, he, he, there was a much stronger case for him heading into last year. He was coming off a kidney infection that had affected his production.

He was gone to Cincinnati. And White Sox is different. And obviously he didn't quite live up to our wildest hopes for him in Cincinnati. So I think Austin Hayes is safe. out of the discussion for 12 team leagues. Look, like 20 homers, 80 RBI, 80 runs. I can see that. And that, if he did that, he'd probably be a top 40 outfielder.

That's probably on his season. That's probably on his higher end range of outcomes. But that's, yeah, that's, yeah. It's a big park downgrade. You know, I just, it's not a particularly exciting player. The team has a lot of variance where, like, there is a scenario where things work out for the White Sox. Moracami becomes a big slugger and Colsa Montgomery is, you know,

takes another step forward. So like maybe their lineup could get a little bit better. But yeah, I think it's a very low end outcome here for Austin Hayes. Luis Anheil Acuna, we wondered, you know, maybe he'll have a starting job. It's still possible, I guess. Rastro Resource has Brooks Baldwin in that center field, but that's probably a battle for spring. And maybe they just want to go with the younger player, although I guess they're both pretty young. But they probably want to see what they have in Acuna at some point, too.

The White Sox are acquiring Jordan Hicks and minor league pitcher David Sandlin from the Red Sox in exchange for a lower end pitching prospect, Gage Zeal and a player to be named later. Jordan Hicks missed most of September due to shoulder tendonitis. I don't think any of these players matter, even in the deepest of fantasy leagues. The athletics signed Jacob Wilson to a seven-year, $70 million contract extension on Friday. The deal includes a club option for 2033. And Wilson had a strong rookie season. He hit 311, 13 homers, five steals, and 100. 25 games.

I think the A strategy of extending their young players has been a pretty interesting one. They have Wilson, Soderstrom, Brent Rooker, although I guess Rooker's not young, but he's still a good player for them. And Lawrence Butler, they're all locked up for the foreseeable future. So good on them to get that done. We'll see what they could do with Nick Kurtz and Shay Langaleers. Non-transaction news, Shoheyotani is prepping for a full season as a two-way player, both pitcher and hitter, which we expected, though he will not pitch for Japan in the World Baseball

classic. Edgar Carrow visited drive-line baseball last week with the goal of increasing his bat speed and improving launch angle, so a name to watch here in spring training. Mariner's pitcher Logan Evans underwent UCL reconstruction surgery with an internal brace and we'll miss the entire 2026 season.

And I know this was news late last week, but we found out Blake Snell is coming along slowly this off-season in an effort to recover from the playoffs, which, as I pointed out on Friday, were three months ago.

So what is he recovering from? I don't really understand, but how much, if at all, did you guys lower Snell in your rankings? Well, it's weird because he's usually such a good bet for big volume and consistency. And really good early in the season. Yeah, you can always count on Blake Snell. So I don't think we, I mean, I think we have to move him down because this is such new information for me as a person who was born three days ago and knows a lot about baseball for some reason,

but doesn't know about Blake Snell and his history. If you know, you get what I'm saying. Yeah. I haven't moved him down yet because I've been moving, but I will move him down a lot.

I mean, this is, this is the sort of thing that when you have a pitcher ranked high, you can't rank him high anymore. If, if he, his availability for the,

the start of the season is in question with or without the insinuation of an injury. And it's only an insinuation. I don't know if this is just the Dodgers luxurating in their surplus of pitching. It's like, well, we can't, we have more than enough to fill out a rotation anyway. So let's just play it safe with Blake's now because we can. And that's kind of the danger in investing in. any Dodgers pitcher, except maybe Yamamoto, I'll put him as the exception. But Emmett Shee and Tyler Glassnow, I mean, they could do the same thing with him.

I've said it many times. You reach a point where this stops being true, but for any of their pitchers, but especially, I think, Blake Snowell and Tyler Glass now, if the Dodgers get 50 innings out of those two guys, but those innings happen to be in September. in October, I think they're fine with that. They would happily take that outcome. Yep, good way of putting it. And that just, that's kind of been the issue for these guys since they joined the Dodgers. It's just April through September doesn't matter for them. Yeah.

Like that is not, like I said, it's not entirely true all the way because you do reach a point where you do need pitchers. And I don't know, like maybe River Ryan is good enough to get them to the, to the postseason. but at some point you do need guys to make quality starts. But they can work in Justin Rublowski, Landon, NAC. Like, if they win 91 games instead of 101 games, that doesn't really change anything for the Dodgers. I think it's more like 101 games instead of 111 games instead of 111 games. Sure.

But they only won like, what, 95 last year or something like that? They didn't run away. Like that division was in play in September. They weren't running away with it. Yeah, 93. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not 100% true.

Like there could come a point where we're like, man, the Dodgers actually do need Blake Snell. It'd be nice if he was around. But I think the likeliest outcome is the Dodgers are just fine if Blake Snell has a bad season, but he's great in October. Yep. So I just, I can't move him. Like, he's in a weird spot in the rankings where I can't move him so far down.

Like he's, I'm moving him down to 30. already have them so low. You already have him so low to begin with. But where did you say you haven't a starting pitcher? Sorry, I was talking about. 30. Yeah. I mean, that's that that might be too high. It's probably about the range I'll move them into. I moved them down at 25, but it's one of those where SP 25 where I don't, it's just kind of a stay away. I don't, I mean, I guess I if I truly don't want them, I have to rank him lower than that, but it's just kind of a stayway for that. He was SP 18 in ADP before this. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know.

I thought that price was crazy all along, but now it's going to go significantly down. And I would guess he's still a top 30 pitcher, which he has done twice in a nine-year career. I mean, ranking them about how you'd rank, well, I know you guys are lower on Spencer Shrider as well, but just based on where the consensus has Strider. It's not far from where I have Strider as well.

He's 35 for me. So yeah. Yeah. Before we hit our first break, just some programming reminders. We are now up to five podcasts per week. We are here live right now on Sunday night going into Monday morning. We will have a mailbag on Friday, so send in your questions, fantasy baseball at cbsi.com. Drop a five-star rating and review on Apple podcast, Spotify, and you can actually leave the review on Apple and drop a question there as well.

We'll choose some of those for our mailbags. Make sure to subscribe to the FBT newsletter if you haven't already. Chris puts a lot of work into that. If you're watching on YouTube, scan the QR code that will take you right to the website where you can sign them for free. And make sure to like this video. Subscribe on YouTube.

Turn on that notification bell. 40K by opening day. Help us get there. We will take that break. And be back right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. All right, it is strategy week. Let's begin things with head-to-head.

And we are looking at head-to-head points first here. Mostly everything in this section. will be for weekly leagues. We will talk about some more daily stuff a little bit later on. I know we talk about Roto and Category Leagues a lot on this podcast. I apologize. I know a lot of people still play in head-to-head points leagues. Heck, the Scott White Dines.

Head-to-head leagues are the future, baby. That's one way to put it. Scott White Dynasty League is a Head-to-Epoints league. My longest-standing home league is head-to-head points as well. It's how I originally got into fantasy baseball. And for anybody who might be thinking about playing fantasy baseball for the first time. This is the format that you should play in.

It's easily translatable. If you've played in fantasy football, you gain fantasy points based on what your players do on the field. It's easy as that. I've said this before, but I do wish that there is a standard point scoring system that we could use across just the fantasy baseball industry, much like it is in fantasy football.

We have our own here at CBS, which I will reference in a second, but I know ESPN has their own scoring system. Yahoo has their own scoring system. and best ball leagues have a completely different scoring system as well. So it is kind of hard to talk about it collectively all the time because everyone's rules are different. But on CBS at least for hitters,

one point for each of a single walk, hit by pitch, run, an RBI, two for a double or a stolen base, three for a triple, four for a homer, and half a point for a hitter strikeout, minus one for a caught stealing. So we will stop there for a second. Frank, I just want to say real quick. Yes.

Like, I think it's also true that the majority of home leagues to the degree they play categories don't do the standard five by five. Just based on email questions we get, oh, it's an eight by eight. Oh, we use OBP instead of batting average. Like the majority of our audience plays in home leagues and the majority of home leagues are customized. So I don't know that there's any universal standard. aside from points leagues either. Yeah. You always have to tailor the advice to your specific format.

And that for head-to-head points is probably my biggest, just overarching guideline is, you know, particularly if you're new to the format, if you're new to a league, like really familiarize yourself with how the scoring works. Because as we've talked a lot about a lot in recent weeks, minus half for a strikeout versus minus one for a strikeout. Huge difference. and how the player pool works.

Stolen base is if there worth two points like it's standard on CBS or they're worth only one, huge difference and how base Steelers are valued. Pitchers, a lot of times it's minus one first, I mean it's plus a full point for a strikeout or just plus half a point like on CBS for a strike. A huge difference. Innings is a big one.

Three points for a pitcher on CBS, but sometimes it's just one per inning. And that makes a huge difference. So, you know, you really got to know, I know it sounds basic, but, you know, this is kind of just starting out in this format kind of podcast. So, yeah, that would be the place to start. It's really familiarizing yourself with the rules,

looking at the sortable stats page, see who plays up because of it or plays down. No, I think it's a really good point, too. And look, there is, I guess what we do here, there's no universal advice just for every single type of league. I mean, obviously you can garner if we're really excited about a certain player. That's probably translatable in all formats, but I think any time there's a player that's specifically good in one format, like we'll talk about Chandler Simpson,

is obviously much better in a Categories League, someone like that. I think we do a good job of at least pointing that out at the time. So with that, Chris, who are, or what types of hitter types, I guess, or what category of hitters do you think see the biggest rise in a Head-Dead Points League or the biggest fall based on at least the CBS scoring format? Yeah, I think as a general rule, it's especially true of CBS. I think it's especially, especially true of ESPNs.

OBP matters more. And guys who get production outside of the typical five Roto categories. So that is guys who walk a lot, guys who hit a lot of doubles but don't necessarily hit a lot of home runs, guys who don't strike out get a bonus there. So Jacob Wilson is going to be. better in points league. Heraldo Pardomo is going to be better in points leagues. Luis Arias is going to be better in points leagues.

I'm sure there's more. Max Muncie is very good in both, but probably a better points league player. That one's a little complicated because he doesn't play every day. And that's the other thing is that you can get away with, I'll use my O'Neill Cruz example. We had the argument last week about O'Neill Cruz. there's a substantial playing time risk there. That doesn't really matter as much in Roto because if anything,

if O'Neill Cruz gets benched against lefties, batting average is going up. He's not hitting 200 if he's playing every day against righties. He's probably still going to steal a bunch of bases. That kills his value in points leagues. I think O'Neill Cruz might not be worth drafting in a points league anyway, but the fact that there is real playing time risk there, or at least if you think as I do that,

there's real playing time risk, I think that takes them off the board entirely. Yeah. Yeah, volume is is everything. The most important thing in a points league. I mean, certainly it matters in roto two, but percentages, you know, the traditional five by five categories, three of the 10 categories are percentages. They're not totals. Everything that's rewarded in a head-to-head points league is a counting stat. It's just accumulation. So I and that even more so than the hitting end, it manifests on the pitching end. Yeah. Yeah.

With particularly since CBS standard scoring is three points per innings pitched, those innings eaters. You know, if if they're actually good pitchers, it helps a lot. And pitching well also helps to accumulate innings. So, you know, you do want good pitchers. But it's less important that your pitchers are good than that they're just pitching, which is why streaming two-start options is such a successful strategy in a points league while in a Roto League or a Categories League, it's much more likely to backfire. Totally backfire, yeah.

A hitter who I think might exemplify the head-to-head points versus Roto dichotomy, at least last year, was Glaber Torres, who was like the most boring Roto player possible. It's 16 homers, 79 runs, 74 RBI, 4 steals, hit 256. That is maybe above replacement level in runs and below replacement level and everything else,

for a 12-team league at least. In a points league, though, he walked 14% of the time, he only struck out 16% of the time. I guess Claver Torres was pretty close to a top 12 second baseman last year if he wasn't solid. On a per game basis, I think it was like 2.8 fantasy points per game. It was like tied for

six or seventh at the position. That's that's a good example of it. The problem is a lot of guys who walk a lot also strike out a lot. Those two things tend to go hand in hand. But when you have someone like Geraldo Perdomo, who was, to be fair, a top 10 hitter in Roto, he was exceptional in points leagues as well because he walked more than he struck out.

So that's what you're looking for. Someone who loses value, I will just point out, on the very high end, and these players are still great in the format, But someone like Bobby Witt, he doesn't walk as much, you know, he doesn't hit for as much power. Instead of being a top three pick, Bobby Witt might be, you know, in the back half of the first round in a points league. Or somebody like Pete Crow Armstrong who steals a lot of bases but doesn't have good plate discipline. James Wood. L.E. D. LaCruz comes to mind there. Trevor's Story. They all drop down.

Julio Rodriguez, too. Yeah. Julio Rodriguez. We'll talk about like the shriekiness part of the game, although it's kind of hard to quantify. We'll talk about that in just a little bit. On the pitcher side of things, Scott, you mentioned a few times, some of the scoring here, but three points per inning,

so that's one point per out recorded, three points for a quality start, seven for a win, seven for a save, half a point for a pitcher strikeout, and then minus one for each of a walk, earned run, hit a loud, hit by pitch,

and minus five for a loss. So you mentioned like kind of these boring inning eater types are pitchers who gain value. Some names last year who were higher in points per game, that you might think. Matthew Boyd, he was SP 22. James and Tyone was SP 23.

Merrill Kelly, SP 28. Noah Cameron was SP 30. Andrew Abbott, SP 31. Pitchers who are a little bit lower in this format as a result, maybe they don't give you as much volume on a per start basis. Freddie Peralta, as good as he was, all the wins. SP 18 in points per game last year.

Logan Gilbert. Logan Gilbert. Gilbert was like weird. I don't know if it was because of injury. They were kind of. babying him on a per star basis, but SP 39 last season, Dylan C's, we know he was a disaster, but, I mean,

even when he's going great, he doesn't always go six innings, so just a name to remind, keep that in mind with as well, but it's like, innings, quality starts, and wins just matter so much more in head-to-head points than strikeouts, which kind of feels like we're always chasing a little bit more in a road-or category of week. Unless your league gives pitchers a full point per strikeout

versus the CBS standard of half. point. Huge difference then. You really do want to emphasize the strikeout guys. Yeah. Some names who ranked higher in quality starts last season who you might not realize. Merrill Kelly, Luis Castillo, Ranger Suarez, Mitch Keller, Matthew Boyd, Zach Lattel, who remains a free agent, Brian Beow, David Peterson, Jose Soriano, Zach Allen, and Brady Singer. What about drafting starting pitchers in Head to Head, Head, Head, Points. We talk about which ones can help you just from a macro level, but I feel like when I first started here back at 2020, like the assumption was that pitchers would go higher in drafts in head-to-head points league drafts. I kind of see both sides

of it right now because higher-end hitters score more than higher in pitchers. But as a result, there's less high-end pitchers to choose from. So that creates a bit of, you know, scarcity at the position. So, you know, do you think that makes it more likely that you should get an ace on your team? No. Versus, you know, I don't know how it used to be. It was just like people used to always draft pitching higher in points. Yeah.

Well, I mean, how it used to be is pitchers threw a lot more innings. Yeah. So that was part of it. The high-end pitchers outscored the high-end hitters. But even back then, I argued against it. I still thought going hitters early was the way to go in a points league. And I think it's become even more of that, more recognized that that's the case because of the way innings have dropped off.

But also because I think people who've played in the format for a long time have come to realize that it's more forgiving for pitchers. For the reasons we've already talked about, if you're able to accumulate innings, if you're able to just work deep into games consistently, no matter how good you are, you'll have value in this format. And you can stream. Like if you go light on pitching and head-to-head points, you can stream two-start options off the waiver wire. and stick with the teams that actually invested in pitching, and they're obligated to start their one-star guy they invested heavily in. You can hang with them. You can hang with them by streaming.

And so the difference in a Roto League, you know, I already mentioned, you can't do the two-star stream thing because they're going to wreck your ratios. But, you know, if you have anyone in there, if you have anyone in there who ends up not being a place, us for ratios. It can, you can fall behind in those categories quickly.

So if you have a bust, if you draft a starting pitcher who turns out to be a bust in a Roto league, and it takes obviously a few starts to know that and they'll have done so much damage to that point

that you can't recover from or at least it's really hard to recover from it. Well, in a points league, you know, maybe you got an extra loss or two by starting that guy, but you eventually

shed him or learn to sit him and you know you can make up for it off the waiver wire pretty easily they tend to be shallower head-to-head leagues than rhodo leagues too so more more fertile waiver wire to to supplement your pitching staff that way so I think I've gotten to the point you know the conventional wisdom and fantasy was in rhodo leagues you stock up on hitting early and head-to-head points you stock up on pitching early I don't know that I'm in favor of stocking up on pitching early in either format, but I think it's actually less important in head-to-head points leagues that you get quality pitching that it is in Roto or categories. To highlight this, I think a perfect example is Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who I assume is going to be at least the top 10 pitcher in every head-to-head points league.

He was 12th in this format last season, but I think you also have to take into account this. someone like Yamamoto, and this is becoming increasingly common across the sport. Maybe he had one-two-start week, but probably not more than a couple all of last season, maybe a few. You compare him to pick one name at random Zach Allen. Zagallin did not have a good year, famously.

He scored about 125 fewer points than Yoshinobu Yamamoto last season in CBS scoring formats. on a part start per start basis the difference was about four points per game that's not nothing but when you think about that you get a two-starz Zach gallon which probably happened he had 33 starts last year there are 27 weeks in a fantasy baseball season two of them are shortened because of the schedule so let's say 25 weeks he probably had a two-star week eight to 10 times that means like a third of the season you're almost certainly starting a bad Zach Allen

ahead of Yoshinoba Yamamoto that's significant that's not to say Yamamoto's not better I do think it's probably to say that he will not be worth what you're likely to pay for him this year Yamamoto but it's just to say in a points league a really really good pitcher

just doesn't have as much value You look at the days when guys were throwing 230 innings, the best pitchers in the league. They were starting with that 230 point baseline. Terx-Keeble threw 195 innings last season. Well, no, no, but I'm just saying, like, with nothing else, just their innings, you're lopping off 30 to 40 innings from the best, 30 to 40 points per year from the best pitchers. Well, no. Without even continuing to count.

Three points per inning. Oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. 90 to 120 points you're a lot of it on even better even better point yes yeah so like that that's just a huge like there were two pitchers who got to 600 innings or 600 points and it had to head points league last year it was garra crochet who won 18 games and through 205 innings and it was terrick scubble who was the best pitcher in baseball it's just it's a it's a big difference than the

way we used to play to the point where streaming i mean two-star pitchers are rare but but But if you can get a couple in any given week, it gives you a big advantage. Yeah, so the high-end pitchers previously, if we're talking just five to 10 years ago, they would have scored over 700 fantasy points. And we don't, I believe, we don't see anything close to that. Like, again, Crochet led with 637.5 last year. There were three hitters over 650 fantasy points. Hitters, 650 last year.

And there were only two pitchers over 600. So the high end, there's just not as much there from a pitching percentage. perspective. I was going to warn people about two-star pitchers and chasing volume. Obviously, yes, you want volume in a points league. But Scott, as we talked about a lot of times throughout the course of the season, we were recommending a lot of the same guys week over week as two-star pitchers because they would just keep getting pushed back. So while they might look like two-star pitchers, I don't know. I don't know how viable that is anymore because of six-man rotations or guys just being spaced out purposely the way that baseball is now.

And I would almost rather go with, you know, even an SP2 or an SP3 type that has like a decent matchup rather than just some low-end streamer type who might have two starts. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, that's fair. And it's not just the two-start streamer thing, though. It's how many pitchers end up mattering in head-to-head points versus Roto. I mean, that list you rattled off at the start. Jameson Tyone.

Yeah. And who else? I mean, even the, the example of Yoshinova Yamamoto only outscoring Zach Allen by four points per game. Sure. Even if that's not nothing, four points is not nothing. But Yamamoto was one of the best pitchers in baseball. Zach Allen was really bad. And the difference was four points per week, basically.

I'm just saying that is one more arrow in your quiver. If you go light at starting pitcher in a points league is is the two-star possibility. Yes, you can. it's not as full proof as it used to be, and you can go too far with it. But it's, when I say it's more forgiving, the format is more forgiving for pitching than categories. I'm talking about a lot more than that.

And to also offer a word of warning, I remember we invited somebody on the podcast, a listener who was played in a head-to-head points league for a long time, and he was singing the praises of Kyle Gibson and points league. Oh, you got to go after Kyle Gibson. Because Kyle Gibson, you know, he would eat a lot of innings when he was going well and put up a lot of points. But when you're targeting pitchers in a points league,

what makes a pitcher good, the way to evaluate pitchers doesn't really change between the two formats. When you're predicting how good a pitcher is good, going to be moving forward. You still want them to miss bats. You still want them to have weak contact and all of that stuff. So I'm not saying that in this format you can just go and target a bunch of Jameson, and Meryl Kelly types and be fine. You still should aim for the best pitcher you could possibly be.

But I am saying there will be pitchers like James and Tion and Meryl Kelly last year who end up being way more valuable just because that's the format allows for that kind of pitchers, that kind of pitcher to, to excel even if they're not, even if it's not as predictable that any specific one of them will excel, if that makes sense. By the way, I just want to add, just because I looked it up and it's ridiculous. In 2019, Justin Verlander scored 765 points in this format. Yep. And Garrett Cole scored 741.

The top hitter that year was Alex Bregman with 657. Yeah. And I picked 2019 because 2020 is the end of whatever pitching era we were in. It's the dividing line, basically, yeah. Like, that's when 200 innings became 180 innings. And 225 became that's never happening. Yeah, pretty much. Let's take our final break when we return a little bit more on Head-Tead points.

Then we'll talk Head-Ted category strategy right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. It's Strategy Week. We're continuing on with head-to-head points leagues right now. And we should also note that I guess this goes for either head-to-head points or categories. Typically on CBS with the points league, on Yahoo with the categories, the lineups are shallower than usual. So what that allows you to do is take a little bit more risk,

take on a little bit more risk throughout the draft or even throughout the season, just because the replacement value on the waiver wire is much better than it typically is in a deeper format. So, for example, while Byron Buckson's skill set might be better in a Category's league, you know, you get power and speed and everything, he might strike out a little bit too much. Instead of taking the risk on him in a five outfieler league where the replacement value might not be as good, I like taking a risk on him in a three outfielder league where the waiver wire is going to be plentiful. And there's going to be a lot of serviceable hitters and outfielders or even just names that you could stream on a weekly basis. So I just wanted to get that in there from a shallower point of view as well.

You've probably heard us talk a lot about Sparps in the past. Head Dead Points is the format where they matter the most. They are starting pitchers with a relief pitcher eligibility. It's a bit of a cheat code because you can put them in the RP spots and, again, chase more volume, try to get more starts in your lineup so you can earn quality starts and wins and things like that. Do you see yourself going as hard after Sparps in this format this year compared to previous years, maybe versus someone like an established closer,

just because to me the spark list not very good. Like it's okay. There's some interesting names, but it's not great. It's worth, there will be more. Yeah. Yeah. Come spring training, but it's not a particularly, uh, interesting list of names this year for sure.

So a lot of times the best sparks emerge mid-season too. Sure. You don't even see them coming going in. So I, um, you know, there have been great sparks in years past who, you know, maybe they stepped into a. starting role early on and I remember Carlos Carrasco the year broke through he he entered with relief pitcher eligibility next year and when it's going like in the fourth round because of it in a points league but who was there was somebody like that

last year too Grant Holmes no somebody higher in that I can't remember who oh um Chris Boobitch now someone high end no I think I think it was Boobitch yeah because he was a reliever in 20 yeah but we weren't No, he wasn't going that high, though. I can't remember who. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have derailed the podcast when I didn't know the name. In the meantime, I will read off the Sparps to Know for this season. We have Ryan Nelson, Ian Seymour, Joey Cantillo, Cody Ponce, Braxton, Ashcraft, Sean Newcomb, Anthony Kay, Brad Lord. Again, I don't know if all these names are going to matter, but those are the Sparps. And maybe Troy Melton, Peyton, Pant Tolly, and Drew Anderson of the Tigers at some point. Yeah, I mean, who of those is getting?

drafted at all, not, you know, at one point Ian Seymour looked like he'd have a rotation spot, but not anymore. Reed Detmer's is kind of interesting. Did you mention him? He's not even starting pitcher-eligible yet. He's supposed to be in the rotation. Right. Oh, Clay Holmes.

I think it was even higher in than that. No, but he was. He may be thinking two years ago, though. He was getting, kind of blend together. He was getting pushed up a lot, though. Like, I think a couple years ago or something. Cole Reagan's was. Col Reagan's a couple years.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's it. I think that's it. I think Clay Holmes was the top one last year. Looking at the scoring from last season, the top seven relievers in total points were all closers. 13 of the top 15 relievers in total points were closers.

So again, it's just like there weren't as many good sparks as we're used to. So while I think you can kind of stream them in the right matchups, again, maybe try and chase some two-star weeks, the way that this season is set up right now, there are not a lot of high-end sparps. Ryan Nelson's the highest, right? You mentioned him? I think Ryan Nelson's probably the best.

And like some of these guys are mildly. Like maybe Sean Newcomb could be interesting. I like Braxton Ashcraft is like a deep league. Brackson Ashcraft is pretty talented. Anthony Kay. But he's not quite draftable yet. Yeah. Yeah.

Some sparps in Yahoo, by the way, because their eligibility is a little bit different. Chase Burns is a reliever. Has RP eligibility in Yahoo. Ryan Nelson, same. there. Sean Mania, Braxton Ashcraft, mentioned him. Tyler Holton, no, he's just a reliever, so I'll take him out. Yeah, I mean, even then, though, Chase Burns is still the only one

in the most 12 teams, who I think definitely, but... If we had that in CBS, we'd be pretty excited about that, I think. Oh, if Chase Burns was R.P. eligible, I think he'd be... Is that a top 15 starting pitcher? I mean, we all have him pretty close to top 20 already, right? Who's that? Chase Burns? Yeah. Yeah, it was a good chance. Did you mention, Coach Coach?

Ponce, not for Yahoo, but just in general. Yes, yep. Mitch. Okay, yeah, because he's interesting, too, coming back from, he was in Korea, right? South Korea. That sounds right, yeah. And the Blue Jays gave him a three-year deal,

so it's a pretty decent commitment on their end. A couple other things here in Head to Head Points Leagues. I think in underrated aspects, this is more so just for any head-to-head leagues, is finding consistency because it's a weekly matchup, a weekly matchup within a very long baseball season. It is hard to measure consistency or, or quantify it on our end.

It's not really a thing that we can do, except just anecdotally and remembering players that get off to slow starts or players that have terrible plate discipline and they just go through long stretches like Ellie De La Cruz and Julio Rodriguez and Pete Crow Armstrong, Randy Rosarina, Seyana, San Juan Raphaela,

I guarantee you at multiple points throughout the season, we are going to get emails of people being very angry with those specific players because they will be slumping. more than players of their caliber. But I used to bang this drum on football, and I'll bang it here. I think people tend to look at that the wrong way. People only tend to think about the downside of quote-unquote inconsistent players.

And for one thing, I'm not sure inconsistency has much carryover from one year to the next. For every player is inconsistent to a certain degree. I think the problem with guys like Pekker Armstrong is, if they are not getting good results when they are putting the ball in play, they're doing nothing. He just doesn't have any other way to help you in fantasy because he doesn't walk. And that's just a problem in head-to-head points. He's just not a very good head-to-head points league player because of that.

But even if you could tell me for sure that, I don't know, who are two very similar players, Julio Rodriguez and. Corby and Carroll is probably pretty close. Kyle Tucker. Kyle Tucker. Even if you could tell me at the end of the season, they will score the exact same number of points, but Kyle Tucker will be more consistent on a week-to-week basis than Julio Rodriguez.

That doesn't necessarily make Kyle Tucker the better player in a head-to-add-ad points for me. Because you still need to win weeks. And so you can look at, oh, the Julio Rodriguez only gave me six points this week. That killed me. Yeah, but there's going to be weeks where he gives you 50 points. And you're going to have a much better chance of winning that week. That's not to say that the bad weeks don't matter. It's just so many people I think in fantasy,

and this is way more true in football because people think week to week in football way more. But so many people tend to look at it and say, I lost my week because of that guy getting zero points. Well, yeah, but if he has 36 points the next week, you got a really good chance of winning. That matters just as much, if not more. Like those high-end outcomes are super, super valuable, especially because you're going to face weeks where you have to win. And if you happen to get that 36 point effort in a playoff game, that matters way more than anything else.

So I think inconsistency is too often used against players. Volatility is bad or volatility can be bad if you get the bad outcomes. but inconsistency, I don't think consistency should be even a tiebreaker. It's just a different way of getting to the same destination, you know? I think it comes down to you as a fantasy player as well. And we talk about this a lot, Chris, with Blake Snell and Dylan Sees, where if you don't want to be part of the roller coaster ride, you have to know that about yourself as a fantasy player.

So if you play in a points league and you know what, L.A. D. LaCruz has had a few really bad months so far in his career. my guess is it's probably going to happen again. He could just improve and that goes away, but he's also going to have months where he's amazing. So consider that when drafting yourself as a fantasy player. One last thing here that I have on head-to-head leagues is something that people that brought up more to me in recent years

is stashing players. And we talk about stashing players all the time, but more so people just in head-to-head leagues being more focused on the playoffs and trying to set themselves up to have the optimal roster whenever that playoff time comes, if it's in August or September, whenever it might be. How much of that matters to you guys? Like drafting and stashing players,

specifically in head-to-head leagues, or even picking them up throughout the course of the season, just setting yourself up to have the best roster possible for the playoff time later on in the season. Yeah, I mean, I think just because, even more than the head-to-head aspect, just because they're shallower leagues, and you can always backfill off the waiver wire

with startable players, even if they're not amazing, then the best use of your bench spot, your IL spots, is the most impactful players you can stash there. And potentially, you know, it was an adjustment for me playing in NFBC League's 15-team Roto,

no I-L spots. I had to emphasize those boring players more because I'm so used in head-to-head leagues. Like, the bench is no place for backups. The bench is where you stash future impact. The most, the kind of players who are going to improve your team's bottom line the most once they're available. And, you know, as long as you can fill your lineup out in the meantime, you should be fine. But, you know, it gets trickier in head-to-head points leagues particularly, If you go light on pitching, so much of your bench, I feel like needs to be pitchers.

That's why I think it's best, this approach of stashing upside is best serve with IL spots in leagues that make those available. I will also just add in every roto league, finishing in sixth place sucks. That's terrible. You get nothing for it. That's like the worst thing you could do is finish in sixth place. in a head-to-head points league, if you're in sixth place in a league where six teams make the playoffs,

but you're peaking in September, that's just as good as being in second, third place, I guess. You'd rather be in first. You'd rather have the buy if you have a buy week. But like, there's nothing wrong with being in sixth place if your team is peaking at that time.

That can actually be a hugely advantageous spot to be in. You just got to get to six place. So that's a big distinction between head-to-head points and Roto is, Roto, it doesn't really matter when your team peaks. If your team is bad in September, but you were awesome in the first five months, still might win your league. If your team was awesome in the first five months and had to add points league and stinks in September, you might as well have missed the playoffs.

So that's the one key distinction when you're talking about stashing players. And I can't think of any hitters worth stashing right now. The only ones I wrote down were Hassan Kim and Anthony Volpe, but I don't even know if they're worth. aren't that impactful. Those guys are not going to matter in a head-de-points league unless something really unexpected happens. No way. Yeah.

But the pitcher side, there's some names there. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. There always will be. Zach Wheeler, Zach Wheeler, we think we'll not be ready for opening day. He still could be, but you're most likely stashing Wheeler. Obviously, Garik Cole, it sounds like May or June.

Carl Sordawn, maybe late April, early May. Jared Jones coming back for the pirates at some point. Corbyn Burns, that's, Corbyn's, Justin Steele, those are later in the season. We're probably talking like June, July, August, something like that. Steele, Steele's going to basically be on the Spencer Strider because he didn't have Tommy John surgery. He had the internal brace and he had in April.

So I think his timetable is going to be pretty close to what Spencer Striders was last year. It's just we remember how Spencer Strider's season went. So I don't actually know if Justin Steele is going to matter. Right, right. So, I mean, those are the names off the top of our head. But between now, February, first or second when you're listening to this, an opening day, a lot more

players are going to get hurt. We will have an updated list of those as spring training goes along. We're kind of up against it here. I don't want to rush through categories. So tomorrow we'll do Roto and Head to Head Head Categories together. We'll talk daily lineup leagues as well. There was one other thing I just wanted to bring up

with head-to-head leagues in general and how to set up the playoffs. This is a question we get a lot too. And I think it's preference. Like it changes for everybody. Me personally, I like six of 12 teams making the playoffs. I like the five best records automatically get in, and then the next, the sixth and final playoff spot

is the highest point score who is not one of the five best records. So it kind of helps with someone who's just maybe had some unluckiness all season long, and they've just faced the best team over and over, whatever it might be. So rewarding someone who has scored a lot of points throughout the course of the season, the top two teams are going to buy, and then I like two-week matchups in the playoffs, but you probably have to start that in like the second or third week of August to get everything done in time.

I can't tell you how many times I've missed the playoffs is one of the top two or three highest scores. I feel I feel like it happens every year in our listener points league. So this will be the year that I... Obviously not every year. But like every year I miss the playoffs, that seems to be the... Yeah. It seems to be that scenario where I should have made it points wise, but didn't have the win-loss record. I'm going to set that up for this year in the listener league.

It'll be the top five records and then the next points score. My biggest, the thing I harp on most here is I like two-week playoff matchups, even though during the season one week schedule usually, you get a lot fewer. I'm not even sure it's a lot fewer, but it's enough fewer upsets if you just extend the playoff week, the playoff matchup out to two weeks instead of one, still allowing for people to change their lineups,

you know, so they don't have to go two whole weeks without making lineup changes, still allowing them to change it halfway through, or, you know, if your league uses daily line of changes, then that resolves that problem itself. But, but yeah,

I think that that helps reduce frustration a lot for people when they feel like they just got a bad break one week, the week the playoffs started and actually had the better team. I'll also say I think starting playoffs earlier is always better just I don't know you can I don't know call me names about it or whatever

but it's just natural people lose interest when football starts that's just a reality of of the game and so not if you have the right league Chris sure but I'm talking the reality of the world and avoiding as much overlap as possible for football, but also just like September's weird. It's less weird now than it used to be

because rosters don't expand by quite as much, but you still have... You get a lot of players that are shut down end of year, pitchers who get shut down or guys that might just be... Starts get skipped a lot more in September. Hitters out of the lineup just because their team isn't playing for anything. That happens all the time, so... Yeah. So that's...

I think September is just kind of a weird, a weirder time. and so having less, like, it's impossible to avoid entirely having your league decided in September, but having your entire playoffs run in September can be, can lead to some funkiness that I think it's best to avoid. I don't like it, Chris. I like it. I like getting my money's worth. I need all of the season to count.

I think it's also just like baseball season is really long. It's the longest of the four major sports. Yeah, legitimately. Legitimately six months of a regular season. I just don't know. I'm sure there are some casual fantasy baseball players who are just biting their time until football season starts. But I think it's far less than it used to be.

I think the games kind of weeded those casuals out to a large extent. Sure. All right, we're going to wrap there. Again, tomorrow we'll have Roto and Head to Head Categories. We'll talk some daily lineup strategy for that as well. For Scott and Chris, I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow.

Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.