Fantasy Baseball Today - Injury Updates, Pitching Risers & Tout Wars Recaps! (3/16 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

USA has advanced to the finals of the WBC (4:25)! ... We have injury updates on Jose Ramirez, Francisco Lindor, Zach Neto and Zack Wheeler (6:36). ... There are also updates on Seiya Suzuki, Lawrence Butler, Shane Bieber and Joe Musgrove (18:12). ... The Braves expect to run more this season (25:14). ... Should we be talking about these pitchers more (29:52)? ... These deep-league pitchers have impressed in spring training (43:49). ... Nick Pivetta and Shane McClanahan made starts this weekend (53:26). ... Let's recap the H2H points Tout Wars auction that Chris was in this weekend (57:33). ... And then look at Frank's team from his 15-team Roto Tout Wars auction (1:09:23). Tout Wars draft boards- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FUC4bQIEBWB_Uls78le749zlaFIUcRo8HreKAlcdQUo/edit?gid=1184240362#gid=1184240362 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. It was a busy weekend.

Let's get to it. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Monday. March 16th. I am Frank Staple joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we have a bunch of weekend news to recap. I have pictures that we haven't talked enough about this spring. Maybe we haven't. Some deeper names as well.

See what you guys think about that. Man, Frank, not to interrupt your little bit of teasing here, but just from going through these weekend games, I wrote my deep sleepers, 40 deep sleepers heading into the weekend. Took me forever. But I put it out there. And then going through these weekend games, I was like, oh, I should have put him in there.

Oh, I should have put him. Like a dozen more players, I wish. Were there multiple Braves pitchers on there? Because I'm starting to get excited about a couple of young guys on the Braves now. J.R. Ritchie, let's go. I think the other one you're, what did you say, Frank? J. Ritchie? J. Ritchie actually was in the 40.

Nice. Didier Fletez seems like a, he's only pitched like five innings so far, but the stuff looks pretty nasty to that too. He looks, he's definitely a couple of the dozen. that I'll at least be featuring them in spring risers. Yeah. We actually are going to do a podcast just dedicated to deep sleepers at some point this week. I know we got a question on the mailbag last week asking about that.

So we are going to have an ability, a chance to expand that roster, Scott, and talk about as many deep sleepers as we possibly can. Later on, we'll also recap the Tout Wars auctions that we did this weekend in person. I was in the 15-team mixed roto. That's with OBP instead of batting average. Chris was in the 12-te-head points auction. So we'll talk about all that a little bit later on. Very fun weekend. Always great time. Towers get to meet up with everybody.

People from all over the place, all here in the New York City area, draft in person. And we also did karaoke, Chris. I don't know if that's like my. It was great. My voice is kind of weird today. I don't know if that's affected by karaoke, but maybe it's. You were great. So were you.

Frank did say it ain't so by Weezer. It was phenomenal. I did a little don't look back in anger by way. So that's kind of my go-to now. It's a little, it's kind of cheating. I've done it like 10 times at karaoke now, but it gets people going. Oh, yeah?

The lads were out in force on Friday night in the village, and they were enjoying it. Yeah, I was going to play the videos, because we had video footage of this happening. I was going to play them on the episode here today, but copyright issues and things like that. So maybe I'll just post it on Twitter instead so everyone can see. The World Baseball Classic, how about it, man?

Crazy weekend here. Started off on Friday. DR Mercy Rules, Korea, then USA held on to beat Canada. On Saturday, the fairy tale story for Italy continues. They defeated Puerto Rico. And then Venezuela shocked everybody by eliminating Japan as well. Then here on Sunday, we got one of the semifinal matchups. USA defeated Dominican Republic 2 to 1.

And some very questionable calls by the Empire down the stretch of that game. That's a terrible way for that game to end, man. We need ABS in the next world baseball classic. Like I'm a lot more forgiving of umpires than most people are, I think. Ending a game on a pitch that missed by like five inches. Come on, man. That is so tough. It's not what you want. In a full count too, like...

And it was a great at bat by Geraldo Prado too. Like he did everything he had to. That was... That was heartbreaking. That was a rough way to end a great thing. to end a great game. But man, I mean, with the exception of Dominican Republic, these games have mostly been really close and really fun. Dominican Republic games before the USA game were also very fun. They just weren't particularly close. I think they mercy ruled like three out of their first

four games or something. But yeah, it's been awesome, man. The Venezuela game, Venezuela beating Japan. Was your wife freaking out that Willie Air Brea You home run? That was sick. So like in our relationship, I'm the one who cries. Like, I'm the emotional one and my wife is very stoic. She was getting a little emotional when Venezuela beat Japan. It was very cool. And her whole family were there. It was, yeah, it was awesome.

And then here on Monday night, we do have the other semi-final matchup, Italy, going up against Venezuela. And then we will have the final game, the World Baseball Classic Championship on Tuesday. So once that happens, we'll talk about those games as well. Let's quickly just run through like the news and notes and stuff. There is some notable injury things that happened this weekend, so we'll get that out of the way. First up, Jose Ramirez, probably not a big deal, but he's day-to-day with less shoulder inflammation.

Apparently jammed his shoulder on a headfirst slide into third base on Sunday. Perhaps he'll get some imaging and see, but Scott, this doesn't sound overly serious, right, with J-Ram? I'm a little worried. I know we're going to get some answers, hopefully Monday, so we can eliminate that worry quickly, maybe. but if I happen to be drafting Monday, picking sixth,

I might just take Kyle Tucker or Terrick Scouble instead because, you know, a lot of times it's initially reported as a jammed shoulder that doesn't stay a jammed shoulder. It becomes a dislocation or a torn labrum. I mean, they're saying he's going to be re-evaluated Monday, which tells me they didn't do a thorough evaluation. It was bad enough that he came out of the game.

You know, don't want to get ahead of myself. maybe it's fine, but if you happen to be drafting in the next 24 hours, if it was me, I'd play it cautiously. Oh, hey, we got Jose Ramirez on that beat FBT team, by the way. So hopefully he's okay. Also, my tower team. Yeah. I actually didn't write this one in.

I guess it's probably just fine because he robbed a home run later in the game. But Julio Rodriguez got hit on his wrist by like a hundred mile per hour pitch from Paul Skeens. But again, he stayed in, robbed an Aaron Judge home run or a close to a home run. so I think he's all right, but we could get more news on that as well. Francisco Lindor made his spring debut on Sunday. Afterwards, he said he would not commit to being ready for opening day, despite saying that he has checked every single box. So I think they're kind of hedging their bets right now.

He went one for three with a hard hit single, 104.5 exit velocity. Chris, have you moved Lindor up or down, or is it just kind of status quo, end of the second round still for Lindor? Yeah, I've moved him back up a little bit, not a ton, but a few spots. So it's more like 20, not 25.

Not quite to where he was before. Just like with Corbyn Carroll, I'm not quite to where I was before the injury, but I have moved them both up about five spots in the rankings. Speaking of Corbyn Carroll, he's expected to play in the outfield in games Wednesday and Thursday of this week, likely in a backfield game. He has made his return, but it's only been at DH so far. So we'll have to see how he does in the field as well. Zach Netto has been diagnosed with a minor left hand sprain

and hopes to return to action in a couple of days. Scott, I'm a little word about that one. Scott, you have a grid on your face. What's up? What do we got? Not zero worry. Because it's the same. He sprained the same hand last season, missed the final two weeks because of it.

Now, they've done x-rays. X-rays came back negative. I can imagine more being wrong with the hand than, well, I mean, they're calling it a sprain. So more is wrong with the hand than just a broken bone. I don't know that they're able to gauge the timetable for this very well, particularly since it's a recurring injury. So like the worst case scenario for Ramirez is worse than for Netto, I would say.

And so it's not quite the same level of avoidance on draft day. But I don't know. It's enough in both cases where until we get more clarity, and we'll probably have clarity sooner on Ramirez than Netto, But until we get more clarity, I don't, if I'm picking where they're supposed to go, I'm probably pivoting somewhere else to another player who's about as good because he's being drafted right in that same spot as well. Yeah. And there was a quote. He said, quote, definitely a learning experience for me. Don't slide head first in spring training. Maybe get a bigger lead next time at first base. I cause this. I'm just a little sore, but everything should be back here in a few days. Doesn't sound serious. But I do wonder if it's like, maybe it makes him a little less likely to run. And that's a part of his...

Yeah, that's the Netto quote. So, you know, that just makes me think, well, maybe he's going to be a little less likely to run. I don't think it's like a huge change in his value or anything, but it's something to think about with Zach Netto. And it's a pretty fragile skill set, I think. He's very good, but it's not like Zach Netto has outlier raw power. or honestly even an especially good approach at the plate,

his plate discipline is pretty bad. So it is like, I think he's a good player, but it's not that hard to see how things could go wrong for Zach Netto, especially if just let's say he was more of a 15th steel guy than a 26th steel guy. I think the whole profile looks a little worse. It's kind of like a better Trevor Story profile. We're like, yeah, he's probably going to be pretty good. But you don't have to squint too hard to see things kind of going sideways for Zach Nose.

He's someone that... I feel like in Roto League's he was being drafted at the full extent of his value. Yeah, I think that's pretty much the case. And he's not someone I've felt comfortable drafting so far this season. So, you know, I'm not taking him off my board entirely, but he's never been really a target for me. And now maybe I'm a little slightly more scared off of him. Zach Nettos 80s in March over at the NFBC is 32.5, so pretty steep ADP. We'll probably see that drop down a few picks over the next couple days.

Zach Wheeler progressed to facing hitters on Saturday in a live batting practice. I couldn't find anything about velocity or anything. I don't know if you guys were able to, but his ADP continues to be on the rise in March. It's at 125 as the SP 27. I believe all of us are off that cost, right? I just don't understand why his price is rising at all. I'm actually more inclined to lower him in my rankings based on how this spring training is done. Not that there's been anything bad, but when it comes to this specific injury, the Thoracic Allot's syndrome.

I know it's typically the nerve issue is usually the bigger concern than the, the venous one, but it's just a big unknown. And I think people are treating this spring as if we've gotten a bunch of good news. but we really haven't gotten any news about Zach Wheeler, at least about where he is right now. He is healthy and he is currently able to pitch, but is he still a major league caliber pitcher? I genuinely have no idea. I hope so, but I can't, I can't move him up in my rankings when we haven't seen what he looks like post-surgery. Like, is it, yeah, I'm off a blood clot and thoracic outlet syndrome. And we're like, oh, that's a 10th round pick.

I can't do that. I wonder if people are just not understanding that aspect of it because I saw something online. I ran some surveys. And so I was looking at a lot of feedback. And, you know, somebody was saying why, I forget who they were referring to. But why is Scott propping up this pitcher with an injury history when he's been knocking Zach Wheeler all spring?

And it's like, well, Zach Wheeler's injury is different. from what that picture, it's different from most pitcher injuries. It is the kind of injury that has been known to end careers, not immediately when it happens, but the pitcher comes back and he's never the same. And you're right, yes,

it's usually nerve related, not vein related, the version of the thoracic outlet syndrome that ends the careers, but it's, there's less of a history of pitchers having the vein related ones. So, um, a little more success.

but still very, very, very much in question that Wheeler's going to be Wheeler again. It's pretty much just Merrill Kelly, I think, that we count as like a big success story with this one. Scott, you mentioned you're doing spring rankings, rises, and fallers. I don't know when you're planning on doing that. But next one. Okay, I'm doing that tomorrow. Is it, are you doing ADP tomorrow? No, I switched it to spring rankings, rise and followers.

I was going to do an ADP thing tomorrow. Do an ADP thing tomorrow. Just, yeah. Just having a little. programming meeting here. Good to plan this out. Yeah. Live on the show.

But I have Zach Wheeler as a rankings faller for me. I'm much less likely to rank him, draft him, just because I figured we'd have some kind of data on what he looks like now. And we just don't. So like I have him as a faller, whereas Shane McClanahan, whose velocity is down two miles per hour has had a ton of injuries over the past three years. I don't have him as a riser, but I don't have him as a faller either.

I'm kind of, I think the category was, uh, rankings somewhere in betweeners with Shane McClanahan and Connor Griffin, because Shane O'Mack actually had a very good start today. It just, he kind of looked like Matthew Boyd, whereas like, mediocre fastball,

but the changeup was awesome. Right. And it's like, there's nothing wrong with Matthew Boyd. It's just Matthew Boydoy's not Shane McClan. Right. It's just shame McHenhanhan might not be shamellahan. But at least we've seen.

seen him out there and we can make some assessment of where he is. I think, um, I think with Wheeler, I'm just kind of a no go on him. Yeah, I think we're all in agreement there. Let me take a quick break, our first break. And when we return, we have a lot more news to get to. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Continuing on with the news from the weekend, Sayas Suzuki left Saturday night's WBC game with a right knee injury. Craig counsel told reporter Sunday that Suzuki is still waiting to be evaluated. Scott, is this a similar kind of wait and see approach to some of the other injuries we've talked about where if it's around where he usually goes, just kind of pass for now until we learn more? I'm expecting an aisle stint to begin

the year for Suzuki personally, just based on the way it looked based on the way he walked off. Not that I think it's like a, I don't know, it could be a bigger injury, but I think it'll be an injury that cost him some amount of time. Still in a holding pattern as far as rankings go, because, I mean, for most of these injuries over the weekend, we just need to hear more. But hopefully we hear something on Suzuki soon. I would probably avoid him for two or three rounds. Brandon Woodruff threw four simulated innings at the Brewer's Complex on Friday and said

after that his status for the opening day rotation is, quote, up in the air. We've gotten a lot of that this spring from Brandon Woodruff. so I don't, it's kind of a weird one as well, but at least he's pitching, so we'll wait to learn more on him as well. Gabriel Moreno has been diagnosed with elbow inflammation after an MRI, didn't reveal any structural damage, so kind of wait and see approach on him as well. Hey, we got him on our beat at BTCC. They say he should be ready for opening day.

All right, good news. Lawrence Butler is planning to make his spring debut Tuesday against the White Sox. The A's have brought him along very slowly after having surgery on his right now. knee and then a PRP injection in his left knee. Chris, even if Butler returns on Tuesday and plays, I don't know, three to five games, I mean, that's nowhere near what we usually want to get from a hitter before we get to opening day. Yeah, this is another one. His price is starting to fall. I think it's down about 20 spots over the last week from where I had been before, but where was all the enthusiasm and optimism?

coming from before. Like, did people just not realize that this guy had surgery on one knee and PRP injections in the other knee? That's pretty concerning for a guy who's not that good. You know, so I get the idea that, oh, maybe he was playing through injury last year, but I've found his price kind of hard to understand all along. Well, if he was playing through injury, he might still be good. It's sure. I'm torn on Lawrence Butler because I could see it getting worse because look, delayed start to spring training. He didn't come in fully healthy clearly.

So is he just going to be behind all season? You see players suffer an injury early on and then they're never right the whole year. But at the same time, well, this recovery revealed how. injured he was last year, the fact that he needed this done to his knee. And he was playing basically the whole season like that. And so maybe it explains why he was such a letdown and fantasy. So it kind of washes out. I'm willing to take him at face value straddling the upside and the downside there.

But it definitely is not a safe pick by any means. It's not the sort of pick I like making in deeper leagues. Yeah. Again, that's Lawrence Butler. His ADP in March is 156. Trevor's story has not played in three straight games, but apparently the Red Sox are just monitoring his workload this spring. I hope that's all it is. We'll see. Blue Jays manager, John Schneider, said Shane Bieber will potentially throw off a mound for the first time next week. He's still working through forearm fatigue. Speaking of the Blue Jays, Jose Burrios has elbow inflammation and will visit Dr. Keith Meister on Tuesday.

So that is obviously very bad news for him and their rotation, but they've built out a pretty good amount of depth here. So it looks like Scherzer will be ready for the opening day rotation. Cody Ponce will be in there. And maybe they can't be as deliberate with Treyia Savage as they once wanted to because just injuries are piling up. So we'll see what happens. Lots of elbows going on this time of year.

Joe Musgrove is in, quote, a bit of a holding pattern. According to his manager, Craig Stamman, Musgrove is returning from Tommy John surgery. He had in October of 2024. He's only made one start this spring. It wasn't even an official spring start. It was an exhibition against Great Britain. But I'm not so sure that Joe Musgrove's going to be ready for opening day.

This one kind of just snuck up on us. Oh, I absolutely don't think he's going to be ready for opening day. And that poddraint's rotation is bad, man. They've got a lot of dudes in there. None of them are very good. except for, I don't know, Povetta and Michael King. Am I forgetting someone? Am I forgetting anyone good in the Pogneur's rotation?

I mean, it was supposed to be those two in Musgrove basically holding it down at the top. Randy Vasquez and Walker Bueller and Hermann-Marquez. And I think there's another dude who might have been interesting four years ago in there. Yeah, it's pretty bad. They're really trying to string it together there. I don't really understand what's going on here with Musgrove.

because the way they're presenting is, yeah, we're pulling back on him for now, but we expected this. We knew it was going to go. This is normal. There's nothing normal about this. I've seen pitchers come back from Tommy John's surgery. This isn't how it normally goes.

You don't throw them out there for a spring start and then give them three weeks off. I don't really understand what's happening here. They're acting like it's normal, but I don't believe them. I don't either. Oliver Marmold said that Yvonne Herrera was in a much better spot Saturday and the team remains confident Herrera will be ready for opening day. He has missed the past week with knee inflammation.

Merrill Kelly told reporters Friday that he'll likely start the season on the IL. He made his debut on Friday, but it just seems like he doesn't have enough time to get built up here. So perhaps a short IL stint there for Merrill Kelly to start the year. It turns out Quinn Preester is dealing with a nerve issue. But they also said it's somewhere in the thoracic family, which is. is very scary. He said an optimistic timeline is late April, early May. Don't think I buy that one. Yeah, I moved him down to around 400. He's pretty much off my board in a standard mixed league. Yes, again, that was Quinn Priester. Pat Murphy did say that Logan Henderson is, quote,

back on track after his bullpen session on Thursday. He is working through elbow soreness, which is scary because he ended last season on the IL with elbow inflammation. Kyle Stowers made his return from that hamstring injury on Saturday. He went 0 for 2 and played his scheduled five innings. We got an article this weekend from Mark Bowman, who covers the Braves for MLB.com, stating that the team plans to run more this season with their new base running coach Antoine Richardson around.

We figured that was the case. It's nice to see it in writing and, you know, hear more about it. Well, specifically, the article singled out Austin Riley as someone who could benefit. And he apparently was asking their, you know, other Braves, could he steal 15? And they were saying, no, 20. Riley's going to steal 20. And look, his sprint speed's always been good, not like 90th percentile, but like 70th percentile. Good enough that he could steal bases if he wanted to.

And if he had a good technique for it, it never has. Yeah. So, I know, I'm not moving Riley way up my boards on that theory. But they hired Antoine Richardson to steal more base. Like, that's why you go out and get that guy. So I think, you know, you should at least keep it in your back, at the back of your mind for Ozzy Albiz, Michael Harris, and yes, Austin Riley.

Josh Young played in a minor league spring training game on Sunday, his first game action since suffering that grade one at Doctor Strain. Josh Lowe returned from his left oblique injury Saturday. Against the Mariners, he went 0 for three with three strikeouts. The Rangers designated Alexis Diaz for assignment. Do you guys have a feel for the closer situation in Texas right now? Robert Suarez, right? Garcia?

Robert Garcia, excuse me. I don't. The only other choice would be Chris Martin and nobody. Nobody seems interested in doing that except people who run fantasy teams. So that's got to be Robert Garcia. They don't really have lefties in their bullpen. That's the thing. Yeah, but you look at Chris Martin like, dude is a one,

inning at most pitcher. Yeah. And I can't imagine he's pitching like regularly on back to backs or anything, given how like he hasn't thrown more than 45 innings in the last two seasons. He's never thrown 60 innings at the major league level. He's about to be 40 years old. Yeah. Like I think managers prefer not to go with.

Like there's a lot of times when guys come back from injuries who are closers and their managers will say like we're going to work them back slowly because we can't use them in opening in back to back days. Like a lot of club managers just don't want to use pitchers that they can't use on consecutive days as closers. So I just- I got Jaylen Beaks. He's pretty good lefty. Yeah, I think it's, um, skip Schumacher when he managed the Marlins was as dedicated to dedicated bullpen roles as any modern manager. He had a true eighth inning guy.

He had a true ninth inning guy. So I don't, you know, I don't think he's going to keep us in suspense for long. but I definitely plan to move Robert Garcia way up in my rankings in light of this news. The Rangers designated, nope, I already read that one. Charlie Condon will open the season in the minors despite his strong spring. The Angels sent Christian Moore and Kyron Paris down to AAA. And apparently Adam Frazier is the leading candidate to start at second base. Wolf.

Sean Newcomb will work out of the bullpen for the White Sox this season when he signed back in December. It sounded like there was a chance he would be a starter, but apparently that won't be the case. He will be a reliever. Speaking of relievers, Angels, Robert Stevenson, underwent imaging that revealed potential UCL damage and will visit specialist Dr. Keith Meister

to evaluate his options. Very unfortunate for him. He's dealt with a lot of arm injuries the past couple of years, but you can cross him off the list of Angels closer options. Jeff Fletcher, who covers the team, said Kirby Yates is likely the early favorite

for saves, which we also suspected. Last news item here, Hayden Burke song. I have another closer item. Jason Burke of SI.com wrote about the athletics bullpen situation over the weekend and he highlighted Hogan Harris

as the most likely to be the lead arm in a committee there and he did not mention Justin Sterner who seems to have been getting the most attention. He mentioned Scott Barlow and Mark Leiter as also in the committee. But Hogan

Harris was the one he singled out. I took him with my last pick of TGFBI. We'll see. Yeah. He is legitimately, according to Rosser Resource, the only left-handed reliever in their bullpen. So we'll see. I mean, it's a name that's thrown out there. I know you got some saves down the stretch of last season. So we'll see. Yep. All right, let's get it to some pitchers from this spring. Should we be talking about these guys more? And we can move through pretty quickly through some of these names. If you don't think they're worth talking about, let's just keep it moving. But Max, First up, I just wanted to mention here, his velocity has been down pretty consistently.

And I thought early on this spring that, okay, he has time to get built up. But, you know, we're pretty close to the start of the season. And even when he started this weekend, his fastball was still down almost two miles per hour. His sinker was down two miles per hour. Cutter down 1.5. You guys worried about this at all? I mean, we've seen Max Fried have success with this velocity before. But does it stand out at all?

Was he a notably better pitcher last year than the year? before. No, I mean, I think he's pretty much the same guy. He was a little younger, but a little lower. But in terms of like the skill set, I think there was that much of a difference. The strikeout rate was identical. He threw the most dinnings. He never has. That was the main thing. Yeah. But like, I don't think we saw like a huge sea change for Max Fried and his velocity was up last season. So I don't, I'm not going to say it definitely doesn't matter. But I have no reason to to be worried about Max Fried's velocity. Yeah. Well, he's had the forearm stuff the past couple of years. Not last year, but the years prior to that. But he's not like, I don't know.

I never want to do the ah, his velocities down. That means he's hurt because Max Fried would know that better than I would, right? Yeah. It could be a leading indicator, but I don't. Longtime veteran. I haven't seen any concerning reports. Like the Yankees are worried about him. He might just be doing what he needs to do to get ready,

but not necessarily go in full bore. Mm-hmm. All right, yeah, we can keep things moving, just wanted to ask about it. Next up we have Chase Burns. He faced the Giants this weekend. He threw two shutout innings with two strikeouts. But he went from 68 pitches on March 8th down to just 24 pitches in this start. Terry Francona said Burns experienced a limited range of motion in his throwing arm earlier in the week.

Quote, we're nipping this in the bud right now. Any concern with Chase Perkins? I've been concerned about Burns for a while now. And to the point that even though all offseason, I talked about how it seemed like he was being underpriced relative to some of the other pitchers going into their second year when I thought he had the most upside, clearly. Great strikeout potential put him in my breakouts article.

But there's just been a weird vibe around him. And from the beginning, they've talked about him being in a competition for a role. which they still are they still are talking about it now i will point out brandon williamson who now that hunter green is hurt uh it's ret louder brandon williamson and chase burns for two spots so only one of them's going to go brandon williamson threw four shutout innings on sunday but frankona didn't give him a ringing endorsement he's had a good spring but he says you know our biggest challenge with him is, hey, I'm getting on a five-day rotation because you come back from surgery like that and one day you feel pretty good. Next day, it's like trying to navigate

getting that routine and it's just going to take some time. It's not his fault. He's done a great job. So it sounded like Francona was conceding that Williamson doesn't have the job, which, oh, okay, maybe Burns is okay. But I don't know if there's a health thing going on than that. It's just weird that William, the Williamson start, that comment from Francona happened after this. And it seemed like he was acknowledging,

well, Williamson isn't really in a place where you can do this yet. So I think I'd just keep drafting Burns like normal, but I'm a little concerned about it. I am including Burns in that spring training fallers segment for me. And it's everything Scott just said. It's just a little weird that they're,

look, I don't think it's weird that they're making him earn a spot. Like, that's, that's perfectly reasonable. But it is weird that we seem so much more confident in Chase Burns than the people who run the Reds do. He had the flexor strain last year. I think it was minor, but I don't know. And then there's just this weirdness. It's just been a weird spring. It hasn't been a bad one, although his results have been pretty iffy.

But I'm just, I was really excited. to draft Chase Burns before and now I'm just kind of I'm okay if he falls but I do need him to fall a little bit maybe to around 120 before I'm really comfortable like I think Chase Burns is probably more talented than Cameron Schlett Schlittler right now I'm not sure Chase Burns is better right now yeah and certainly don't think he's as good of a bet it feels like Burns should be going closer to where Cam is. Like Schlittler's ADP is 132 in March, and Chase Burns is 117. Yep.

So I think that's a full round of difference. I think that's, man, I think Cam Schlittler is just underrated. He's looking amazing. He had the health issue at the start. Yeah, he had the back thing, yeah. But he's looked great since returning. His velocity has been up. He's racking up whiffs.

You can't. If you start downgrading every pitcher who's experienced a, a bump in the last, you know, a health issue of some kind, some severity in the last six to eight months, then pretty soon as nobody left to draft. Yeah. Next up we have Kodi Senga, who this weekend threw three perfect innings against the Marlins with five strikeouts. He had eight whiffs on 38 pitches. His velocity has been up consistently.

He's only made two starts this spring, so it's a small sample size. Very small. It's like five innings. But the fact that his velocity is up, I think is a good sign for him. the fact that, you know, hopefully he's healthy. His ADP in March is 253. I just feel like he's a name we haven't talked much about. What do you guys think about Kodai Shinga?

Should he be more on our radar as a potential sleeper pitcher? Yep. I'd say he's a definite riser. He talked about just remaking his mechanics even, and that's corresponded with this velocity bump. And at first I wasn't sure what to think of that because his previous start didn't get very good results and he didn't sound so confident

when he was talking about remaking himself. even though the velocity was up but then after this latest one, the five perfect endings against the Marlins? Three perfect. Three perfect. Three perfect.

Yeah, three perfect. Five strikeouts. He just said, I'm healthy and I think that's the most important thing. And yeah, that's probably so. He probably wasn't healthy for most of last season and it was a disaster. But I think Sank has definitely

moved into the draftable in all leagues category again. He was a must-start pitch. sure through June. I think it was like a late June start where he had the hamstring injury covering first. I was at the game. And he had like a sub two ERA at that point. It was totally unsustainable. But we didn't expect him to crash so hard that he ended up in the minor leagues.

So I think that's definitely a name to keep on your late round radar. Next up here we have Robbie Ray, who this weekend through five perfect innings with eight strikeouts. He had eight swinging strikes on 64 pitches. His slider was fill. six of those eight whiffs with a 60% CSW rate. His last two spring starts nine no-hit innings with 12 strikeouts to four walks. This is one of those where like I don't want to make a big thing about a veteran who just

looks good this spring, but he's another name that we just haven't really talked too much about this offseason. So have you gained any confidence or does this not really matter for a veteran that just is pitching well right now? I think Scott has to answer this one because he's the, yeah. Like I'm kind of in on Robbie Ray and Scott's way out. Well, I definitely took a second look at this. When I saw this box score, it's obviously an attention grabber.

He threw only 60% of his pitches for strikes in it. So it was kind of fortunate that he had no walks. I think he had four walks in his previous start, right? And that's, yeah. And that's all. That was the biggest issue. for Ray down the stretch last season. It's sort of always been an issue in his career.

I think I'm a little more open to drafting him, but I'm not eager to draft. I may, I, there were, there have been drafts where I, he's been my top pitcher available and I was just like, yeah, I don't, I don't want it though. So I just kept skipping him and I might be a little more willing to take him where I rank him in light of this spring. But I don't think it's,

it hasn't been. so transformative that I have a whole new outlook on Ray, who of course is pretty old and has been around for a long time. Robbie Ray's ADP in March is 176. He's going one spot behind McKenzie Gore. That feels kind of foolish, right? Like, don't we just want McKenzie Gore to do what Robbie Ray just did last year? And Robbie Ray has done it for longer?

I think I rank Ray ahead of Gore, but I haven't been the Gore guy either. Yeah. I mean, I like Gore, but I would still take Robbie Ray ahead of it. just because he's done it. He's actually done it. McKenzie Gore hasn't. And they seem like a pretty similar profile. Yeah, I think both are actually pretty good drafts at their price.

So, 175 range. So yeah, you could just grab one, grab both. Why not? Last name here before I get to some. Your whip, that's why not. Yeah, you don't want both of them. Yes, you are correct, guys. So one of them with Chotei Minaga, balance that out, and you'll be all right.

Last thing here before I get to some deep names that I want to just quickly run through. Zach Gowan, the results weren't great this weekend, but I've noticed that his velocity has been up pretty consistently this spring, like one and a half to two miles per hour on all of his pitches. Chris, any more interest than, you know, when we enter draft season on Zach Gowan seeing this slight below bump? Sure. Yeah. I think he's kind of been left for dead in a lot of way. I guess his ADP is right around 200, so that's not entirely fair. He is getting drafted in pretty much every league, but I think he's a totally fine end of rotation arm to grab. And I think the nice thing is you're not so convinced that there's upside that if he gets off to a shaky start, you have to hang on to him forever. And there is something freeing about taking guys who you're just kind of like, let's give him a turn or two through the rotation.

see if they have it. If they don't, I don't feel that bad about dropping Zach Gallon for whatever hot new thing is coming out that you can try to pick up in that first or second waiver wire.

So, yeah, I'll draft him outside of the top 200 and see if he can carry over this velocity bump and be a more effective version of himself. It would be hard, I think, well, I don't know. Players are so disposable in a points league.

I was going to say it'd be harder to draft Gallin to drop Gallin in a points league because I think he's going to have value all season long, even if just last year's version shows up, because it'll be an innings eater. But even in that format,

if you're talking about standard CBS size, players are pretty disposable. So he might be on the fringes there. Which veteran would you rather take a shot on late? Zach Allen or Kodai Senga? Probably gallon for me. Yeah. Certainly in a points league, I think.

Certainly in a points league, gallon. Probably gallon regardless, but I am hesitating because I have seen clearer signs of of improvement from Senga, who himself was, you know, when, coming off that rookie year, how long ago was that? He was being drafted like a top 25 starting pitcher, right? He was pretty big deal.

All right, let's take our final break when we return, I have a bunch of deep names that we will quickly run through. Should we be paying more attention? We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Let's take a look at some deep league pitchers and some names that have looked pretty good this spring. Do they matter?

Should we care more about them for fantasy? We care about all of them, obviously. Max Scherzer this weekend, four and two-thirds, shutout innings with five strikeouts. I don't know how many innings he's going to throw, but he's looked pretty good this spring. Deeper leagues. Should we care more about Max Scherzer's of the season?

Yeah, I saw him go in a series. 24 team league I was in. And I thought, I wish I had done that as dominant as he was against the Tigers, 11 whiffs on 65 pitches, six on the fastball. You know, he's probably, he's probably going to miss time here and there,

but in a deep enough league, I think he'll be useful. I think I already know the answer to this one. I know you and I both like him, Scott, but Jacob Lopez, man, he has looked good. Four no-hit innings this weekend with seven strikeouts to one walk. He had 10 swinging strikes on.

52 pitches. And I know there was some injury concern. I totally get that. But man, for where he's going, I feel like he should probably just be like a last round flyer, even in a 12-team league at this point. He was in my 40 deep sleepers, Jacob Lopez. But I don't think he should qualify as a deep sleeper

because I think he showed enough last year. You know, obviously he was injured for the start of spring training. And so I think it raised some doubt whether he'd be in the rotation at all. Though it sounds like the way the beat riders were talking after this start, It's not really a question anymore. He strikes out like he doesn't throw very hard, so he's not a conventional prospect. I mean, it doesn't qualify as a prospect.

I mean, it never was really a prospect because of the velocity, but he has unconventional fastball shape, unorthodox delivery from the left side, just the kind of weird pitcher. You know, you see it in the strikeout numbers everywhere he's gone, including in the majors last year. So I think Jacob Lopez is going to be, I think he's a real one.

I think you definitely need to have them. on your radar more so than Scherzer. Weird is the right word. I think Jacob Lopez is one of the weirder pitchers in baseball. His pitches just do not move. Like one nice thing about baseball Savon, if you go to the top right of any players page, you'll get their pitch plot, like the movement profile, the velocity, the horizontal and vertical movement.

And then they have the little dotted area or the dashed area behind it, which is what that pitch type typically moves like when lefties throw them, let's say. And Jacob Lopez has just looked nothing like any other pitchers. His sliders get way more lateral movement than typical. His cutters have way more rise and way less sweep. His foreseemers have way more lateral movement. The thing about that is, you know, we talk a lot about IVB and you want to hire IVB. That's typically the way we view it.

But I think it is better to say you just want IVB that doesn't look like most pitchers. So Joe Ryan is a guy who does not get a ton of IVB on his four seamer, but he gets a lot of run. And it works differently than most four seamers, which makes it play up. And Jacob Lopez is kind of like that with every pitch. Like there's just, there aren't going to be a lot of guys who look like Jacob Lopez. So I think that's going to help him. So one last note on Jacob Lopez. I was trying to look up the injury real quick.

He missed most of September with an injury. He missed all September with an injury and got knocked around in that final start where they discovered he had an injury. His final 13 starts leaving out that last one where he was hurt. Jacob Lopez had a 217 ERA, an even one whip in 10.5 K-ber-9s.

13 starts. All right, I have four other names here that I want to quickly mention. You guys tell me if any of them matter. Brandon Fott, I mean, this is one of those things where I just, I don't want to get sucked in by spring training. No. But he has looked good. He threw five perfect innings with six strikeouts this weekend.

And so far this spring, 10 innings, one run, 11 strikeouts to three walks. Jacob Lats is competing for a Rangers rotation job. He had 14 swinging strikes in a start this weekend. He has been doing a good job getting whiffs. Brandon Sproat, I guess, could be in the mix for a rotation spot just because the brewers have some injuries there. His velocity has been up to spring. He also has implemented a new cutter. And J.R. R. Ritchie, who we mentioned earlier, prospect with the Braves.

I don't know that there's, I mean, I guess he could be competing for a spot with Bryce Elder. But there's also just a lot of injury risk in that rotation. So he could have a shot there. They're going to need more pitchers. Both him and Didier Fuentes, as we mentioned at the top. They've looked really good this spring. and at some point I imagine they'll replace Bryce Elder, Martin Perez, whoever else they get to fill out the rotation.

The Braves really seem to have a lot more faith in, oh my God, Bryce Elder? Jeez, I kept thinking Joey Wentz, but he got hurt. In Bryce Elder, then, like, anybody should. I think it's just he's out of options and they don't want to lose the depth. I think that's the main thing. Though he did have a good star last time out and had a different, pitch selection.

That was, I thought was kind of interesting. I'm not, I'm not talking up Bryce. Scott, stop trying to make fetch happen. I'm just saying, you know,

he's been useful before. It's been a lot. Actually, uh, stop trying to make fetch happen is Brandon Fott. We're, no. I just had to ask.

Okay, here's the thing. Yeah. Frank, you want to like Brandon Fott. And that's fine. I'm not here to judge. I'm not here to yuck anyone's yum.

I will just say, Fight over fought. Just open the underdog app and draft him in a best ball. He'll have like five awesome starts. And then he will be horrible the rest of the time. We are four years into this, right? Like, we know who he is. We know who he is.

Well, apparently he, supposedly, I read that he made a mechanical adjustment to make his sweeper more effective because it got throttled last year and that's what kind of messed everything up. but I don't see different characteristics on that sweeper, so I'm just not sure I buy that. Yeah, is that a good spring? I'm not, I'm not any more interested in drafting Brandon Fott than I am. I'm a little more interested in the Bryce Elder, but only a little bit more. Brandon Fott's got a 513 ERA over 500 innings.

I didn't realize it was that bad, my gosh. I just like, there has not been a worse pitcher given as much attention by the fantasy community as Brandon Fott in the like 15 years I've been doing this job. It's wild. I'm not doing the Brandon Fought thing again. Any deep league interest in Lats, Sprote, or J.R. Ritchie. Richie has a stash. I'll probably be upon my 10 favorite minor leagers to stash.

Yeah. I think Lats is interesting, but probably not much more than interesting. And Sprote, I'm not a huge believer in, but the brewers are a team that's worth betting on. if it does look like he's going to get an opportunity, I think he's worth a look, but not someone you have to, you should draft before he has a chance. Like,

I don't think this is a guy that, like, you have to make sure you're stashing in a minor league spot or anything. Can I bring up a hitter who has, surprisingly had a really impressive spring? There's probably nothing to it. Is it Matt McLean? No.

Everybody knows about Matt McLean. He's up to, like, 150 and 80, over the last week. He hit another home runs. It's someone with as many home runs as Matt McLean, though. Okay. Is it this honeycutt? Is that that guy's name?

No, it's Josh Smith. It's Josh Smith, who's never really show power in the majors before. But officially he has four home runs. The home run he hit Saturday, he hit 109.8 miles per hour, which equaled the hardest hit ball of his career. Officially four home runs, but he also had two home runs in an exhibition game against Brazil.

So really it's six home runs. runs that Josh Smith has hit this spring. And again, harder exit velocities than we typically see from him. And apparently he is doing the thing George Springer did last year. And you hear about a lot of times when players see a power surge as they stop taking defensive swings. It's often guys who are who run low strikeout rates and they're just trying to put the ball in play and they're not unleashing their A swing. That's what afflicted Springer, apparently, in the years leading up to last year,

and Blue Jay's coaching staff got him away from that, got him to unleash that A swing more last year. Apparently, that's what the Rangers have talked Josh Smith into doing. We're seeing results in spring training. He plays in the Cactus League. I'm sure the pitchers he was facing in that Brazil exhibition game worth that great. But if you're in a deep enough league, he's multi-eligible, he has an everyday role,

and I think his spring is worth highlighting. Josh Smith for the Rangers. Was it against Jose Contreras' kid? I think that was the one impressive Brazil pitcher. He's 17 years old, right? Yeah. Did he strike out judge or? Not Major League impressive.

Got him to hit into a double player or something? Yeah, he struck Raleigh out and then got Judge into a double play, something like that. Yep. Two other pitchers, I just wanted to quickly highlight here from the weekend. Nick Povetta, he's been dealing with this arm fatigue. He made a start this weekend. got up to 56 pitches and his velocity was actually up a little bit. So I thought that was a good sign there for Nick Povetta.

And then Shane O'Mack, Shane McClanahan. We mentioned his name earlier. Three and two thirds, no hit innings, seven strikeouts at two walks, had ten swinging strikes on 55 pitches. Fastball velocity remains down. It's down two miles per hour. He averaged 94.8 miles per hour in this start. But his change-up looked really, really good here.

What do you guys take away from Shane McClan-Sart this weekend? Anything at all? Is it just kind of status quo with him holding pattern type things? It's gone up half a mile per hour each start. It's still down to the fastball, but it's inching up. Everything you read afterwards still sounds very optimistic. And the change-up was great, obviously, in this start.

I don't know. I am starting to get... I'm not ready to tell McLeanan. a sleeper or a big bounceback candidate, but you know, I had no interest in it before, and I'm starting to get a little bit interested. So I will just say, I think there is almost no reason to believe he can be Shamiclin-Hanagan. Like that guy who used to be arguably the best pitcher in baseball, I don't think that's ever coming back. I just, the, the IVB is two inches lower. Like every stuff metric that I've seen, there are like six different ones floating

around there. They all agree that Shane McLeanhan's fastball is not very good right now. It's 95, but it's 95 with pretty mediocre shape. I made the Matthew Boyd comparison earlier. And the reason I made that comparison was because Matthew Boyd gets by with 93, 94, but he locates it well, and he's got the killer changeup. And that does seem to be what Shane McClanahan still has. Like the changeup has looked awesome in both starts so far this spring. So I think like that seems like a diss to Shane McClanahan to compare him to Matthew Boyd. Matthew Boyd was really good last year. Yeah.

And like if you get, what are we expecting from Matthew Boyd? Like a 360 ERA. Probably I would hope for more strikeouts from Shane McClan than Matthew Boyd because I think he was like eight per nine last year. But it's just to say. Shane McClan can still be a useful pitcher without still being Shane McClan-an. So I think it's just about keeping your expectations in check. I don't think you should be drafting Shane McClan-200th overall thinking, this guy's got some big upside.

But if you draft him 200th overall thinking, yeah, he could be really useful. And there are going to be some really impressive nights. There are going to be some nights when he doesn't have it and he gets hit hard. But on the whole, I think he can still be. useful. It's just, I don't personally see the path to the high-end outcomes for Shane McClainahan consistently is the way I would put it. So I brought this up on Wednesday's show. If Spencer Strider was going as late as Shane McClanahan, would you be willing to entertain a mid-ground possibility for him too? Because I feel like the conversation on Strider has been all in or all

out. Maybe he could be Sunny Gray. Sure. Yeah. It's all about the price. And with McClanahan, the price has been over the last week, I think, still around 200. That's about 90 to 100 spots later than Spencer Shreder. And so it's, of course, it's much easier to look on the bright side when you're talking about that. With Shreder, things have to go right for him to justify that price.

Yeah. McClanahan just kind of needs to be okay. He just needs to be a non-disaster to be useful. It's a hypothetical. because we have seen in some of our own draft strider fall for a long time. Sure. Yeah. All right, let's wrap up here taking a look at our Tout Wars drafts from this weekend.

I will put the link in the YouTube and the podcast description. So you can take a look at all the teams and the prices and things like that if you so please. So I'm going to pull up the draft board here for those watching. Well, really Google Sheet for those watching to get an idea for what Chris did. And we will start there. Chris was in the 12 team head-to-head points Tout Wars auction standard $260 budget. The only difference

here is that it's rotosized lineups, but it's head-to-head points. It is using the CBS sports point scoring system and Chris you spent 73% of your budget on hitting 27% on pitching. This is probably a foolish question, but did you have a strategy

going into it? Buddy, you know, I didn't. I mean, no, I have a general strategy to how I have a approach my drafts now, my, my, my auctions. And as a general rule, it is aggressive early, get those high-end players, those guys who are truly irreplaceable. And in this context, it would be Jose Ramirez, Gunner Henderson, Cattel Marte, Kyle Tucker, Gary Crochet. I mean, that is a heck of a top five for any team. That is five second rounders, at least, like top 20

picks pretty much across the board. Maybe you can tell Marquez more like 25, but I love getting those five guys. And then I, it's a real test because I don't have patience as a person, just in general. I'm a very impatient person. But I just, once I do that, and I've got those guys who are truly irreplaceable, I know most of the rest of the player pool. Yeah, there are guys I like, but they're, once you get, I think, who were we talking about? It was Say a Suzuki.

I moved him down about 30 spots in the rankings as a result of the injury in the overall, which that sounds like a big drop. Well, kind of. He went from being in the $16 range to a $15 player in my auction value because I just don't think the outside the top, I don't know, 50 or so. You know, whatever the number is, I don't think the differences between players are all that big. And so I would rather be very, very aggressive at the high end and trust that I will be able to find replaceable guys in the mid range and not have to spend like the difference. You did.

The difference between the $12 guys and the $20 guys just isn't going to be as big as you would think. And you can always find values if you're if you're smart and patient. And so I think it worked out really well in this draft. I'm pretty happy with it. I mean, the prices for your low, like the caliber of player you got on the lower end. Like $4 Trevor Rogers. $1 Blake Snell. Nobody went two on Blake Snell.

I mean, I understand that he's hurt, but it's a 12. That happened to me. What happened to me multiple times in this draft, it was the weirdest thing was I want to say Snell was the first one. I just threw him out for a dollar, not that deep into the draft, maybe 100 nominations in. I threw him out for a dollar and nobody bid at all. Delitz with outfield eligibility in a points league, $8. Like, what the heck was going? And the thing is, you got all these studs and they went for less than we, they usually go in our auctions.

And you'd think, oh, well, you know, the mid-tier, a low dollar, but they're going to go for more because of that. And they didn't. Like, they went for less also. Like, I feel like this is the nose pickers division. Like, what were they to do? What did everybody else do here? I think the- Bad player is how it looks to me.

I think the dynamic with this league. And Frank, I think it was probably true for yours. We are not drafting in a draft software. We are not, like, we do not have the player pool picked up. And I can't cite, score, sort by. best player remaining by Scott White's rankings, you know, I, I think that that dynamic alone really changes a lot about how people approach auctions. And I'm not, look, I agree. I come in with their laptops and their spreadsheets. I agree. They've been researching it for

two weeks. But it just creates a different dynamic. And in this draft, there were five or six different players that I got through without a follow-up bid. on my nominations, and they weren't necessarily players I wanted. Like, I've made my Nelvi-Marte skepticism pretty well known. He was added to my bus 2.0 last week. I got him for three bucks.

Like, I threw him out there for three bucks. He's third base and out field eligible in this league, and he got through, there's my corner infielder. Jackson Holiday. I threw him out for two. I figured somebody's going to get Jackson Holiday. He's only going to miss a couple weeks. Nobody bids. Chandler Simpson, not this is not his format.

He's better in rodeo, but I thought Somebody would have been $2. And a five outfielder points league, though. He's still a starter. Yeah, I think so. Outfield is, you spent a combined $18 on Brandon Nemo, Christian, Yelich, Chandler Simpson. Two of them are great head-to-head points players. That's your outfielder three, four, five.

Yeah. Like, it's so hard in a roto league where I think there are more viable, viable starters than in a points league in the outfield. And it's so hard to get that strong of a one through five. And I don't see a hole. I mean, Noelvi-Marte could begin the year in the minors. Jackson Holiday could begin the year on the aisle. They're your corner and middle infield options. Yeah, I've got, no, I've got injured players.

Like Jackson-Haw-Saint-Mil. A million dollars in a points league. Come on. Yeah. But Sandy Al-Contra, Blake's now, Joe Musgrove, they're probably all going to start in the aisle. So I do, and I have Kyle Teal for a dollar. So I, I, but I don't mind that.

because this is an unlimited IL league. Yep. Yep. So I can, I got four free bites at the Apple, the first waiver, Ryan. Kyle Teal is the second catcher for a dollar, even knowing he's going to miss a couple weeks. And here's the kicker, all right? We haven't talked about your bench. This is what really, because, okay, sometimes.

Well, do we want to go through the team as a whole? Because people listening can't see it. Yeah, go ahead. I can read off the offense first. You got Francisco Alvarez for nine, Kyle Teal for one, Wilson Catreras for 11. Jose Ramirez for 39, DeLVe Marte for 3.

Catele Marte for 24, Gutter Henderson for 29, Jackson Holiday for 2, and then in the outfield, Kyle Tucker for 34, James Wood for 18, Brandon Nemo for 9, Chandler Simpson for 1,

Christian Yellich for 8, and then Marcus Semyon for 3. So you could throw Semi in at second base while Holiday is out, and then... Remember, this is a points league, so you're not even concerned about balancing categories.

You're just trying to get as much production as you can. Right. Before we get to the pitchers, I will just quickly mention your reserves because they factor into what you did drafting some injured hitters here. You got Yvonne Herrera, Esauk Peratus, Andrew Painter, Owen Casey, James and Tyone, Adrian Houser. So how in a 12-team league with Roto lineups does not just Yvonne Herrera make it to the reserve rounds, but Isok Paredes both. I mean, this is a better scoring format for both of them than Yvonne O'Voreira. one. One person did put Yvonne Herrera out as a catcher because I think that, yeah, this

scoring, this league has 15 games for eligibility. He had 14. Yeah. So I think they, he got nominated as a catcher pretty late. And then it was like, no, you got to do that back. He didn't have room for him in his roster. I don't, I just think nobody, nobody had any utility spots left by the time that he was nominated.

Because, no, I had him as my top player for a long time, but I had. He's been a hype guy all preseason. Yeah, I had, I had already filled up my util, so I couldn't bid on Yvonne Herrera. So I was just looking at him, like, he's like my 157th player or something. And he made it to the reserve rounds just because I think people filled up their utils early. And that's crazy. So you take Herrera in the first round of the reserved round, and then somehow nobody takes Isok Perretti's for the whole first. Like, it wasn't just that he made it there, but people passed on him.

So basically what's going to happen here is you're going to move Marcus Simeon to middle infield to replace Jackson Holiday. And you're going to put Ivan Herrera at your DH. Then you're going to move Isok Paredes into corner infield to replace Noelvi-Marte. If he's not available, honestly, Perretta is probably a better starter for points league even if he is. Yeah. Yeah, I might. Like I might bench Noel V. Marte and start Issaq Paredes there. Yeah, I've got two starting caliber players on my bench.

That feels very good. I hope you win this league just because the rest of the league needs to be punished for what they did here. My pitching staff can be a little shaky. It's a points league and it's only 12 teams. I mean, it's. So they don't divide starters and relief pitchers. You have to have two relief pitchers. You do have to have two relief pitchers.

It's seven pitcher spots. You could theoretically run out nine closers if you wanted to do that. It's seven just pitcher spots and then two relief pitcher spots. And so reading off your pitchers here, Chris, you got Garrett Crochet for 37, Sandy Alconstra for nine, Joe Musgrove for three, Luis Castillo for five, Matthew Boyd for four, Trevor Rogers for four, Blake Snell for one. And then your relievers, you have Trevor McGill and Ryan Nelson as a spark there for $3. I mean, my biggest criticism coming out of it, I think like all the values you got were great for how much you paid for them.

My only thing is like would like a better SP2, but I mean, Blake Snell could eventually be that for you. Yeah, and I prefer if I'm going to have Blake Snell, I think doing an head-to-head points league. Like, just, yeah, he's going to be a must-star guy when he's healthy. And those weeks should be more impactful when he is healthy because presumably it will be the playoffs, at least if he avoids getting hurt again. So I'm okay with that. Musgrove, you know, I wish I had, you know, like, I'm going to have to put James and Tyone or Adrian Houser or Andrew Painter, like whoever has the best matchup.

I have to have them in my lineup ahead of Joe Musker. But somebody's going to merge off the waiver wire. Yeah. So I'll have to be aggressive on the waiver wire with my pitchers. You can stream much better in a points league because it's just a much more forgiving format. You're just looking for volume. I don't think you need a true number two. I mean, I kind of, I rank Sandy pretty close to being a number two anyway.

Yeah. He could be that for sure. points league for sure. All right. So I'm pretty happy with this. I'm trying to be a number two. I feel, uh,

I feel, uh, at least a couple of the auctions I've done this off season. I have felt better about those than like, any I've done in a long time. I think aggressive early, patient late and pick your spots and have the ability to pick which players in the five to 10 to $12 range that you really

like. So in this one it was Christian Yalach and Brandon Nimmo. Like I knew I wanted those guys in a point, like especially with Yelich having outfit eligibility. I feel very good about that approach. All right. Let's slide over to my Tout Wars auction from this weekend. I was in the 15 team mixed roto with OBP instead of batting average and also a $260 budget. I spent 65% on hitting, 35% on pitching. That pretty much went according to plan. I wanted one. of Judge Otani or Soto going in, but my God, Aaron Judge went for $63. That is an all-time Tout War's record. What's funny is, earlier in the day, they had the A-L-only auction in the morning.

He went for 62. At that point, that was the Tout War's record. And then later in the day, he went for 63. He went for one more. And so the record was broken twice in the same day. The high-end players were so aggressive in yours. Wow. And that is something that I have noticed is pretty consistent year over year.

The high-end hitters go for a lot. And then you don't know it necessarily where the inflation is going to come, but I think what I'm learning now, two years in a row, is the $10 to $15 outfielders, or like not even $13 to $15 outfielders, they all go for 7 to 10. Like that is where the inflation is felt every single year. A lot of I felt like the SP2s and MFielders, SP3s went for cheaper prices than they should have as well.

So again, there is a finite amount of money in an auction. If everyone is overspending like crazy for the hitters up top, there are going to be bargains at some point. There just has to be. That's the math, the way everything works here in an auction. So I didn't get judge, obviously. I think I was in at like 55, 56, but then I, you know, I bowed out. I wasn't going up to 60.

There was seven more dollars. Otani went for 58, Soto for 54, so it was too much for me. I pivoted to Ronald de Cunia for 46, and that was $4 less than Bobby Witt. It was $1 more than Jose Ramirez. Same price as Fernando Tatis. Like, there was a crazy bidding war for Tatis. Was he like the last? He might have.

He might have been. Yeah. I can see that happening where you're staring at. I mean, look, I have L.A. Cruz ranked ahead of Fernando Tatis. I think the consensus does, and he went for 39. So, yeah, I. That's interesting that Fernando Tatis was the guy that got bit up.

Yep. So I'll read off by hitting here and I'll let you guys judge it. I got Will Smith of the Dodgers at catcher. I don't know that I need to like save the Dodgers anymore, but whatever. I think we're done. I think we're past that one. I got Carlos Nervias as my catcher too. I really wanted like a seven-ish dollar second catcher and I just did not budget correctly for that later on.

Vinnie Pee Pee. Well, I press two buttons at once. Vinnie Baskwantino for 19. I got Kazima Okamoto for nine, Andrew Vaughn for six, Bryson Stott for nine, Corey Seeger for 18, JJ Weatherhold for four,

in the outfield I have Ronald Acunae for 46, Brent Rooker for 22, South Freelich for seven, Dalton Varsho for five, Jake McCarthy for one, and Marcus Semyon for five. How weird that you both got Simeon in your utility spot.

Yeah, that's weird. Classic, classic DH, Marcus Simeon. Yeah. I mean, look it's it's it's it's hard to compare to what just what chris just put together but this this is 15 teams right yeah 15 15 team roto like okay you got a bad second catcher it's it's gonna happen yeah you only spent a dollar on him at least and i think you've got it built a strong i mean that's a strong outfield yeah getting bar show for only five and a i couldn't believe

Team Rotel League. I ran him through the ATC projections with OBP, and he was like a $13 player or something. Yeah, I love the Freelich Varsho combo. Yeah, I think that's great. Weatherhole. Look, JJ McCarthy. We haven't talked a lot about him,

but I don't know, Scott, if he made your deep sleepers list, but not JJ McCarthy. Sorry, Jake McCarthy. I'm just thinking of the memes now. The JJ McCarthy memes. I'm thinking about those now. Jake McCarthy, outfielder for your Colorado Rockies.

Yeah. Stole his 50. Six base is. Sunday and he looks like he's going to hit lead off two years ago I think he hit like didn't he like two seventy five with 30 steals or something I think it was two eighty five yeah like I think Jake McCarthy could actually be a pretty useful fantasy option in Colorado yeah as a fifth outfielder in a 15 team roto league for a dollar like yeah there's you balance the categories well like but what amazes me most is you know sort of like you got sort of like with Chris not

to the same degree, but you've got some, like Corey Seeger for $18, that seems like a good price for a high-end player, Pasquantino for 19. It's a pretty good price for a high-end player, considering it's 15 teams. And then you look at the, you were still able to get some of the popular buzzworthy mid-to-late-round targets, the kind you would really want to be your low dollar players, but they tend in auctions to get elevated just because they're the ones everybody wants. And he didn't really have to pay a premium for them. Like Okamoto as your third basement for nine. And Dalton Bar Show for five. Actually, Weatherholt. J.J. Weatherholt is your middle interfielder for four now that it looks clearer than ever he's going to be on the team.

One of my, one of my fomo guys, man, I had to get him in at least one league. And in OBP, he's going to be so good in OBP too. Bryson Stott is very boring. But like, in a 15 team league especially, I think that's a really nice second baseman. He, he, like, changed his,

he changed his batting stance or his swing setup, uh, around August last year and has actually been really good since then, including postseason, last two months of last year and having a really good spring so far. So could be a slightly better. I'm not saying Bryson Stott's going to have like a breakout season, but could be a slightly better version than the very boring guy he's been.

The one thing I was worried. about afterwards was power. I have three guys in the lineup that could be like eight to 12 home run hitters. Yeah. So like you really need the dog of Varsha breakout to be wrong. Stott, Freelick, and McCarthy. You know, they could all be in that like eight to 12 home a range.

But you got a number of guys that you expect 30 plus from. You balanced it well with them. Pasquantino, Seeger, Cooner, Rooker. Yeah. I'm going to put Varsho in that category because I'm a big Varsha believer. I know he's never done it before. but I expect him to this year. It's basically what, 22 and a half season last year?

Yeah, yeah, for Varsho. So I actually wanted, I wanted Sal Stewart as my corner. I think he went for seven or eight. I just, it was at a point where I didn't really want to go much further than that. And there were other corners I liked, like Andrew Vaughn for six. I'm already talking to Justin Mason. I'm trying to trade for South Stewart, so we'll see if we can get that done. And I really wanted Caglione, but I figured, you know, everyone wants Caglione now.

And I think he got up to 12, but I budgeted a, like my third outfielder spot for a power hitting kind of hype outfielder. And that was either Caglio or Varsho. And I wanted to spend like $8 to $10 in that range. Again, Cags went for 12. I got Varsho for 5. So pretty happy about that tradeoff comparatively between the two. Tags went for 12 in my league. South Stewart went for 14.

You know what? Who got South Stewart in your league? It was the same person who got both. It was Joe Galena. My boy, Joe. And I will say, did I mention the South Stewart thing earlier on the show? Or was that before the show? I don't think it was on the show.

I had planned on either Sal Stewart or Jorge Polanco for my first baseman. And Sal Stewart got to like 12, and I was like, that's too much. I can't do it. I'm going to pivot to Jorge Polanco as my first baseman, except I already had Ctele-Marté, Jackson Holiday, Marcus Simeon. And I realized too late after the South Stewart one that Jorge Polanco is not actually first base eligible until five games or so into the season.

So I kind of screwed myself up there. You still got William Contreras. That's better than Polanco anyway. Wilson, Wilson, Wilson. I like Polanco a little more, but I think it's probably fine. I like Wilson in a points league. I think that suits his skill set pretty well. He usually walks quite a bit.

He's going to be in the middle of that lineup. Reading off my pitching staff real quick, I've got Hunter Brown for 25, Jacob de Grom for 19, Dylan C's for 13, Nick Ladolo for nine, Garrickle for six, Chad Patrick for one,

and then the closers, I have Raisal Iglesias for 11, Sir Anthony Dominguez for six, Clayton Beater for two. On the bench, I have Merrill Kelly. Merrill Kelly in the reserves, he's like a three or four dollar pitcher, at least in a 15-teamer.

Robbie Snelling, much easier to stash a prospect in weekly lineup leagues. Max Meyer, Kobe Mayo, Samin Woods Richardson, and Luis Anhele Ocuna. So that gives me the brothers Akuniai on my team. I don't know what the plural is for that, but I have both of them.

This looks like a more typical bench for a league with lineups this size. Yeah, yeah. Kelly, okay, yeah, he probably should have he probably should have gone in the auction phase, but not for a ton of money. Right, right, right. The pitching staff is kind of weird for me.

It's like I don't target Hunter Brown. I wanted, Yamamoto or Sanchez or Chris Sale and they all went for like 25 to 27 I think Sanchez went for 26 I was kind of kicking myself for not going 27 on him I like Sanchez a lot I don't know I think I kind of panicked

because like I wanted a top 10 starting pitcher but I'm not really a Hunter Brown guy so that one was kind of weird but I felt better about like getting Dillon Sees for 13 bucks he was the first player thrown out after the first break and I that always happens man I don't want Dillon Cs

He was not a target, but I budgeted for like a $15 pitcher as my SP3. I'm telling you, the most consistent trend I have noticed in auctions is right after the first break, everybody clams up. Yep. Like it's just, I don't know what it is psychologically, but there is something about that break that people come back and they're like, I don't know if they're not ready for it, but it's like the first couple of players especially. Like that's usually when I want to start being aggressive again is after I want to be really aggressive early and then after that first break I want to hit hard. Yep. And get multiple players because people tend to be, I don't know, a little gun shy when it comes to those. I will say your bench does have one of my spring risers that I've already written about Max Meyer.

Yeah. And I got to add Kobe Mayo because he's absolutely a spring riser. even if you're not a big believer. Max Meyer, the athletics, Max Meyer, right? No. No. Marlins, Marlins. Marlins pitcher, Max Meyer.

Oh, I'm sorry. I was thinking Max Muncie. The athletics, Max Muncie has had a fantastic spring. We can get into more. Max Meyer, I'm not really a believer in Max Meyer, but I know Nick Pollock likes him. It's smarter people than me. The thing Max Meyer still has some potential.

He's throwing hard again this spring. He's throwing, sweeper as well as the slider which I think he toyed with last year but the sweeper has looked really good so far So Meyer has definitely moved into that that late round range for for me at starting pitcher for sure So I like that one Yeah, I do have some slight concerns about the pitching staff here not in terms of upside like it has plenty of upside But you know de Grom he has

reverts to be an injury plagued Lodolo's no stranger to injury either and you have a you got a third closer potentially in Clayton beater and another pitching spot used on Garrett Cole so like your depth could like yeah yeah could have a depth issue if yeah well these guys get hurt yeah and Merrill Kelly's gonna be hurt to start the year and Snelling is a stash so you might have to make a tough call on Robbie Snelling yeah there were probably wouldn't have gone for Cole and you know it might have happened early enough that you didn't know how the rest of the pitching staff was gonna come together obviously yeah it

actually was pretty late but I just I knew going in because the unlimited IL spots, I wanted to get one of Rodon or Cole because I felt like they were going to go for good prices. But I mean, comparatively, like, look at the team right next to me. Shotee Imanaga went for six. I paid six for Garrett Cole. Like, I have Imanaga ranked higher.

Like, I'd rather just have Eamonogne in a vacuum. Right. Yeah. So that was one of those things where I think I was kind of like too tied to, like, oh, getting one of those injured pitchers later on because I have unlimited aisle spots when I'd, theoretically didn't have to do that, you know? People may watching or listening, they may be like, well, wait a second.

Chris drafted more injured pitchers than Frank did. Frank's pitcher staff looks better side by side. Yes, but you have to remember, A, Chris is 12 teams, not 15, so the waiver wire is just more abundant. And B, Chris is a points league, not a roto, so it's more forgiving for pitchers. Like, you can totally compete in a point 12 team points league by just patching up your pitching staff all season long. Yeah, I will say there were a decent amount of, I thought, pretty interesting pitchers for a deep league that just didn't get drafted in the reserve rounds. Like, I ran out of bench spots. I wish I had four or five more because I just wanted to keep drafting because there were some kind of interesting players left.

So once I put, you know, Cole on the IL and Kelly on the aisle, I'll obviously be picking up some pitchers. But yeah, I do, I do agree with the depth. There could be some questions there. I will also say, our reserve draft. Dude, we flew through that draft. Like the reserve rounds, six rounds, 12 teams. We were done in like four minutes. I don't know what every like everyone wanted to get out.

But it was like I was like, because I don't have a laptop. So I was doing everything on my iPad. And I like could not keep up with all the picks. So that was that was stressful as well. It's just not. It is harder. I'm so used to drafting on a website where at least I have. ADP or default rankings to go by.

And this was just like, I just had a spreadsheet with my rankings and then I had to fill them in as we went. It was causing me some real stress. Once I finished my filling out my roster, there were still some other people that had to do like $1 bids in the auction. I went immediately to NFBC ADP, their like roster grid of ADP. And I just started writing down as many names that did not get drafted at that point. Like just working my way down from around like 20 down.

And so that's how I came up with my cue for the reserve rounds. But yeah, it does get a little bit hectic at that. Yeah, it was stressful. Just one last thought. $11 for Riceo Iglesias and a 15 team roto league. That's good. That's good. People are really.

I wanted Robert Juarez too. I put a $2 bid on him. People are really in on Robert Suarez is going to just take that job. Which is so funny because Robert Tuarez was the one everyone was sure was going to lose his job last season. And now, oh, it's the guy who's ahead of him, who, by the way, has never lost his job. I guess he did briefly last year. But for the most part, Rysel Oglisius' career is untarnished.

And but suddenly they don't think he can do the job anymore because he's got a good backup. So I actually bring it up in part because that survey I did, one of the questions, was which closer do you expect to lose his job first? Something like that. Carlos Estevez won, but he just barely edged out, Rysel Iglesias. I'm like, Rasselaglaces, because, like, Carlos Estavaz was throwing 90 miles an hour in a world baseball classic game. Like a very competitive environment. It was, I think it was a game where they beat Brazil or something.

So it wasn't that competitive. But still, it was, you know, it's harder to make the argument, you know, oh, it was just spring training when you're, like, pitching for the Dominican Republic and the world baseball classic. Like, you can't get up for that. So, yeah, that, uh, Carl Sestovaz. Yeah.

Know the names Matt Strom and Lucas Erick before your draft for sure. Last note on Tout Wars before we wrap up here, I was given permission by Nick Pollock to announce this. But for the first time ever, they are launching the Champions League in the Tout Wars. And that draft will be held on this Thursday. I believe it's 8 p.m. Eastern Time. If I get a link to a draft board, obviously I'll tweet that out and let everyone know where to find it and follow along. But this is a 12-team head. Head Categories daily lineup league with 12 people that have won Towers multiple times in the

past. So I am part of that league. So again, I'll be tweeting out the link and things if you want to follow along. It's basically meant to be like for the common fantasy player, the people who just play in, you know, 12 team head to head categories as their home league to be able to use it to help, like see what our strategies are and how much we pay for players in Fab and things like that, the moves that we're making. And so that's the thought behind it. And so that first ever draft will be happy in happening this Thursday so uh very honored happy to be a part of it and happy they chose me to to be in it um and we'll see what i can do i got eighth pick out of 12 which is kind of i don't know it's like no man's land i don't i don't love it but we'll see what happens

Kyle Tucker baby yeah maybe i don't know ellie category dominator in a category league we'll see maybe Jose ramirez uh with the injury we'll see uh we are gonna wrap there for scott Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. 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.