Fantasy Baseball Today - Injury Updates, Spring Standouts & Tout Wars Auction Recaps! (3/17 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 17, 2025

Death, taxes and Royce Lewis getting hurt (4:50). ... Tyler Stephenson has an oblique injury and will start on the IL (7:35). ... Cody Bradford and Jon Gray got hurt this weekend (10:30). ... News (16:28): Spencer Strider is going to pitch on Monday. ... Kodai Senga's velocity was down on Friday (32:43). ... The vibes are off with Luis Castillo (38:00). ... Alan Roden and Cam Smith continue to make noise this spring (40:16). ... Let's take a look at Chris' Tout Wars team from the 12-team H2H points auction (49:27). ... We wrap up by looking at Frank's Tout Wars team from the 15-team Roto auction (1:01:30). 🏀 Join our Fantasy Baseball Today Bracket Game: https://shorturl.at/zezZC Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @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/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Another weekend down, a lot to talk about. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, March 17th.

I am Frank St. Am Frank St. Anthony, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Happy St. Patrick's. to those who celebrate, Scott, no green. I can usually depend on you for this. I know. I've given you guys a hard time the past couple of years for not wearing green saying I was going to pinch you. But I'd plan to wear green tomorrow.

It's just I'd forgotten the whole we've got to live in the future when we record the podcast late at night thing. Don't worry. I've got enough green for all of us. I think we're covered here. I think I got some green books behind me, I guess. There you go. Today on the show...

You still deserve to get pinched, Chris. We will catch you up on everything from the weekend. More injuries, of course. Lots of spring training standouts to talk about. Plus, Chris and I had our Tout Wars auctions, and we will recap our teams. Chris was in the 12 team head-to-head points. I was in the 15-team mixed roto.

And it was a fun weekend. It was, you know, we had spring breakout games. We'll talk about prospects later on in the week. Top prospects that you need to know heading into the season for redraft leagues. And there are real baseball games this week. The Tokyo series, between the Cubs and Dodgers starts on Tuesday at 6 a.m. Eastern Time. So if you wake up bright and early for work,

or if you just happen to stay up really, really, really, really late like we do, we're not usually up that late. But, you know, find a way to catch the games. Big thanks this weekend to Ron Chandler, Peter Kreutzer, and Jeff Erickson for the Tout Wars weekend. It's always a great time to meet up with people and catch up. And obviously, doing live auctions is just a different experience, Chris. know what it was like for you, but it was, it's just always so fun to, to be in the room and battle it out and the banter and going head to head with certain people for players. It's always a

great time. Well, I, I had Ariel Cohen in my draft room. So I had the, I got the full experience. He was, he was in hours to proxying for Scott Engel. So we both got. Okay. Good, good. Um, yeah, no, I hadn't done like a fully in person auction draft like that. I don't know, in eight, years probably. Chris, you're lying because you did ALAB last year. Yeah, but that was like a draft room. No, but... We draft in a draft room. It's not like

a person going once, going twice. No, when we were in first pitch Florida. Yeah, I thought we still had to like click the button on RT Sports. No? I don't think so. All right, then my memory's terrible. So we'll talk about those drafts a little bit later on, but let's get into

the news and notes and we held our collective breaths on Friday. as Austin Riley was hit by a pitch on his right hand, but thankfully X-rays were negative, and he was back in the lineup on Saturday. So I think we're in the clear, right? Sounds good. Yeah, him and Bobby Wett both seem fine,

which is great news. All right, well, the same cannot be said for Royce Lewis. Death, taxes, and a Royce Lewis injury. He was diagnosed with a left hamstring strain on Sunday, and it looked pretty bad. He came up lame as he was trying to sprint to first base, and the latest update we have is that he is expected to start the season on the IL. Scott, I'm sorry.

I know you have him on your Tad Wars team. I do. I do. And that was one of the injury risks I was most concerned about. No backup third baseman. Scouring a 15-team roteau waver wire for a third basement for week one. It's not my idea of a good time. And already off on the right foot in that, on the wrong foot, I should say, in that lead.

We don't know the severity yet. Obviously, there can be different degrees of hamstring strain, so that is still something we're waiting to hear about for Royce Lewis, but it did not seem subtle the pain he was in. If we are following the roster resource page, it looks like Jose Miranda is the most likely fill-in, I would imagine. Yeah, I think that would probably make sense, although I guess there's a chance, like Brooks Lee.

gets back in there. I don't, I don't really know how likely that is. Frankly, I don't know if he's had a good spring at all even. They could put Brickson at third and go with Edward Julian at second, I guess,

but, Scott, how do you think it shakes out? They could do that. Isn't Julian the leading contender at second? Isn't that what we read? I guess we just read that he was, he's supposed to make the roster in some capacity.

But yeah, no, I mean, Brooks Lees, Brooks Lee's had an okay spring hasn't walked much but hasn't struck out much a couple home runs he's looked okay all right well let's move on to yet another injury

Tyler Stevenson will begin the season on the aisle with a low grade oblique train somebody reminded me Willie Castro supposed to be the primary second basement there you go yeah gotcha so hmm play somewhere yeah so Ross the resources Willie Castro at DH

which is just kind of weird but yeah they have moving parts You know, they could just, they can move guys around. Primary second basement, Castro, but I don't know that means he'll play exclusively second base. That would kind of be a waste of his versatility. Yeah, I think they put him at DH and just that's their way of saying super utility. Right. So it seems like one of Brooksley, Edward Julian, or Jose Miranda will see increased playing time as a result of this.

And look, Miranda was having a really good season last year before the back injury. So I do think there's some appeal there. I got him with like my last pick and TGFBI. it's like, hey, well, I can actually put him in my lineup. So that's nice. All right. On to the next injury, Tyler Stevenson will begin the season on the aisle with a low-grade oblique strain. And I guess the fact that it's a low-grade isn't so bad because this happened in mid-March. So maybe he only misses the first few weeks of the season. The scary part is that his backup, Jose Trevino also got hurt on Friday.

A foul tip hit his hand and while he was catching. And thankfully, he avoided any fractures there. I guess Trevino, assuming he's healthy and good to go, will be the backup and the starter while Tyler Stevenson is out. But Scott, how far did you drop Tyler Stevenson in your catcher rankings? Is he still worth drafting in a one-catcher league? Oh, he was pretty fringe in a one-catcher league. In fact, I think I had him 11th.

So that's like I'm probably dropping him behind Gabriel Moreno, Austin Wells, Von Herrera up to about the same point Sean Murphy is and I originally ranked Stevenson ahead so I'll probably keep him behind Murphy but that puts him I think about 14th or 15th

in my catcher rankings and the problem with like drafting and stashing Tyler Stevenson is you're gonna are you do you really want to spend two draft picks on catchers in a one catcher league

if anything I draft him and just pick someone up off the waiver wire if you want to take advantage of the dip but in a one catcher league I don't know if there's enough upside there yeah I'd rather just draft you've on her stevenson was supposed to be the safe boring pick at the end of a one catcher draft and and clearly that doesn't apply to him anymore so I you know I definitely just roll with gabriel morano or austin wells instead who have more upside I would be looking to buy the dip in it to catcher league though because I am in a slow draft going on right now and he fell all the way down to

234th and I was the one to take him and a 15 team Roto League with two catchers I mean that's that's falling really really far I mean Kabor Rees Ruiz went right after him but I I'll just pick up either Jose Trevino or some other catcher to supplement that while he's out 234 234 for for Tyler Stevenson yeah I will note that Sean Murphy and my 15 team wrote a league went about 100 picks after that. All right, so maybe it's not far enough. I think I'm willing to roll the dice on the discount there

if you're getting him that late in a two-catcher league. I think he went for $6 in my Tout Wars auction, and Chris, I don't have your results right in front of me right now. Is that Stevenson you're asking? Yeah, Tyler Stevenson. $1.1. All right, so there you go. Next up, the Rangers rotation took some big hits this weekend as well. Cody Bradford will start the season on IL due to left elbow soreness.

He won't throw for at least four weeks. John Gray was hit by a comebacker on Friday and later diagnosed with a fractured right wrist. It sounds like he'll be out six weeks. Come on down, the Vandy Boys. Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker. Lighter has looked pretty good this spring. Velocity has been up. He's throwing some new pitches.

He has been a little bit more wild his last two. outings, eight walks combined. Kumar Rocker has frankly just looked awful this spring. A little bit better on Friday, but overall, it's been pretty bad. Are you guys looking to draft either Jack Leiter or Kumar Rocker in standard size 12 team leagues? I'm open to drafting either one of them, both. You know, probably not both in the same league because they're both pretty volatile.

And I think the likelihood that either is a must start fantasy option is pretty slim. but there is enough upside. Like, guy, even in 2025, guys who throw 98 don't always grow on trees, especially guys who do that with really good breaking balls like both of these guys have. So I'll always chase that upside. It's with the understanding that the likeliest outcome is probably that they make a couple starts, struggle with command, get through four and a third innings, and just aren't very useful for fantasy.

but I will give them a chance and see if they can turn that upside into something more than just the kind of low-end production you're getting from other guys in the range of the draft anyway. So I took Jack Leiter with one of my reserve round picks in Tau Wars today. And just let's see what the upside looks like. Again, there's a pretty good chance. I'm just dropping him. But I will always take that flyer.

Yeah, I'm much more enthusiastic about drafting, especially lighter, I would say, since he's the one who's looked halfway decent this spring. I'm much more enthusiastic about drafting him, knowing that it's not a, oh, maybe he'll win a spot. Yeah. He's in. And so it's easier to get excited about the strikeout upside, the addition of that kick change up and how good that's, how many whiffs that pitch has gotten for him in addition to what he already had. walks are an issue probably not a good choice if you're looking to safeguard whip

and just along that same vein if we're talking very late starting pitcher picks I would put Tomo Yuki Sugano over lighter who probably would be a plus in whip I would also put Richard Fitz of the Red Sox over Jack Lider

Scott's in let's go I'm in yeah I'm in it was it was a hard sell for me, but I'm in on Richard Fitz. Zebby Matthews looks like he's out of the running now. He and David Festa. Got sent down. They both got option to AAA, which would suggest that Chris Paddock and

Simene Woods Richardson are filling those last two spots for the twins. So they're out of consideration. Simon Woods, Richardson, and Chris, Chris Paddock, very uninteresting options, by the way. Yeah, no, I agree. I don't think it'll be long before we see Zebby Matthews, but it's. I wouldn't call it the highest priority stash. Certainly it puts him behind Jack Leiter. And those other two I mentioned, Tomoyuki Sugano and Richard Fitz.

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No purchase necessary. See terms and rules for details. Let's take our first break. When we return, we will talk about some more news right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today, catching you up on the weekend. And Spencer Strider will make his first spring start on Monday against the Red Sox. His first start since he underwent elbow surgery last April.

And it sounds like we are still aiming for late April for his in-season debut. I feel like this has been mostly expected. So I don't think we're moving him up or down the rankings. I don't think we'd move him down, obviously. We might not be, but he is moving up. Yes. Oh, yeah? Yeah.

He's up to 1.11 in ADP over the last week in NFBC. He was about 125 before that. I think if we get one radar reading of him at like 98, he's going to be a top 100 pick in everything. I don't think that's necessarily logical. Like, we don't know anything new about Spencer Strider now than we did a week ago. at least if we get some stack cast data in this start and he looks good okay you can say his stuff is back but right the movement up is already just hype and that's probably not the greatest idea

well i i think it would count for a lot just knowing that his stuff is still intact right no that that's what i mean it yeah it would be fine to move him up if you see him pitch you're saying it's a little little premature yeah i just did my home league draft which has has a lot of Braves fans in it as you'd expect, although the person who did this is not a Braves fan. He took Spencer Strider in round two with four keepers already kept. So it comes out to like a round six.

So that would be a round pick 60, 61. Oh, still way too early. Yeah. Well, I mean, look. Maybe he's anticipating I'm going to keep him after this year. Okay, that's, I guess, reasonable. but like the thing is okay he starts in late April he's probably not going six innings right away I would imagine not but and they're probably going to have to find some weight like he's probably

going to pitch every six day I would guess I wouldn't be shocked if the Braves went with six man rotations because I'm assuming they want to keep Ranaldo Lopez and Chris Sale on a similar schedule to last year where they both only made like one or two starts for on four days rest if at all So there's as good as he is and as as limitless as the performance ceiling is, there's a ceiling on the impact that he can make. Sure. Yep. Christian Walker is scheduled to return to spring games next weekend and should be ready for opening day.

He's been battling a sore left oblique, but has been swinging a bat recently, so that's good news for him. Mookie Betts is battling an illness and showed some fatigue during pregame workouts on Sunday. The Dodgers and Cubs are set to start their two-game series in Tokyo on Tuesday, as we mentioned. And yes, those games will count for the regular season. Not necessarily every fantasy league. You can kind of set that up if you have commissioner settings on CBS. But it just came out before we started that Mookie Betts will not play in that series. So keep that of mind.

Gunner Henderson said Saturday that his right intercostal feels, quote, a lot better. And he's hoping to be ready for opening day. Chris, good news for you. just got him in town wars uh that is gunner henderson right yes i am i down i moved him down a couple of spots but he's been a first rounder for me the entire time um something would have had to go wrong for him not to be ready for opening day and it sounds like nothing has gone wrong so i i've been willing to take the discount on gunner henderson i got him for 35 in this league it's a points league but with Roto rosters,

so there's some, you know, deflation there. So you could argue I didn't really get a discount on him, but I'm fine with that price either way. Raphael Devers made his spring debut Saturday. He went 0 for 3 with a strikeout, but it's just nice to see him finally get out there. And let's hope that, you know, his body bounces back and everything that we hear,

he continues to play games and everything looks good for Devers. It sounds like he will start the season as the Red Sox DH. Over to the Orioles, back to the Orioles rather, Grayson Rodriguez should begin a throwing progression early this week. Brandon Hyde said Rodriguez's progression, a restart, which means it could take some time for him to build back up. Sounds like you won't be ready for opening day. I think we expected that for Grace and Rodriguez,

but this seems like positive news for now for Grayson Rodriguez. And Chris, we both won Grace and Rodriguez in our respective drafts. I got him for four bucks, you got them for five. unlimited IL spots with Tout War so I was willing to take a shot at that like $4, who cares? Yeah, that might have also been one where I threw him out for $5

and it ended up just sticking. Like, maybe. I don't even know that a couple times, yeah. I can understand Grayson Rodriguez still falling a long way in zero IL spot leagues, but if you have a couple, this is like that he's already

going to be back to pitching win this weekend. When did they say? A throwing progression early this week. I mean, that's not much time to heal. Cody Bradford's getting more time to heal than that. It's like it doesn't seem like it's that series of an injury. Now, every pitching injury could be the thread that unravels the whole tapestry. So, yeah, normal caution is warranted here.

But it sounds like it's it's less that there was this big scary elbow injury than that he just needs. to let it calm down for a couple weeks, and now he's already to pitch again. It'll take a while to build up, but that's all we're waiting for. I think that's very encouraging news. Hazu Sanchez will begin the season on the aisle due to a left oblique strain,

and it looks like Griffin-Konine will start in right field. My guess is he's only a name for NL only, right? Yep. Yeah, he's got big power and gigantic swing and miss issues. So, yeah, I would be shocked if he was relevant in more than 15 team mixed leagues.

Bryce Terang was scratched from the lineup Saturday due to right shoulder fatigue. Manager Pat Murphy said this was done as a precaution and the injury isn't considered serious. Clark Schmidt won't start Monday due to shoulder soreness. And you know what? The Yankee spring training reminds me of the GIF from The Simpsons. I can't say like what episode it is because obviously I haven't watched the Simpsons. But stop it. He's already dead.

I mean, that's the Yankees entire spring training. It's just one injury after another. I hope this doesn't turn into more, but the fact that Clark Schmidt was scratched from his start is not great news. He still expected to throw a bullpen on Monday, but the Yankees, I feel like they need to add another arm. They probably should have done that last week at some point.

So maybe- Call up Lance Lynn. A Lance Lynn. Let's do it. The Cubs are already in. I will say, you know, the Red Sox and Yankees used to compete for free agents and L.E's titles.

And now they're competing to have the most pitchers on the aisle to start the season. only one of them has Richard Fitz. We can make another Simpsons reference. Man, even the Marlins fan is scoring on me. So that's another reference. Yeah. All right. Keep moving.

Yep. U. Darvish had Sunday's bullpen and Tuesday's scheduled start pushback due to fatigue. The severity of the issue was downplayed, but who knows? I mean, you Darvish always dealing with something it feels like. And it's likely to miss time at some point this season. Like we're not expecting a full,

a full compliment of starts out of Udardish at this point in his career. It's weird that they didn't specify what kind of fatigue he's dealing with. A.J. Preller said at times for Y.S.on, less is more. It sounds like it's more just a guy in his late 30s who's put together a great career already doesn't feel like he needs to throw a lot of spring innings. And I'm not saying like he's being a diva. I'm just saying that's the way it is with him at this stage of his career

and they're willing to go along with it. Pirates manager Derek Shelton once again refuse to name David Bednar of the team's closer. I don't think right now we have that. I think right now we'll go and kind of figure out what we're going to do from there. No idea what that means. That's just the least helpful quote I think we've ever got from a manager. In six appearances this spring, Bednar has a 14.4 ERA and a 2.6 whip. Colin Holderman has been their best reliever this spring.

Obviously, it's a really small sample size, but Bednar has looked terrible. Dennis Santana is another option, but there aren't great options as the thing. That's kind of been the issue for them for a while. anytime David Bednar has struggled, especially last season, there just aren't a lot of good alternatives there. So I, yeah, I don't think there's much to get excited about here if it's not Bednar. And frankly, I don't think Bednar is worth getting excited about either. You know, the thing is he hasn't been around that long. He's not young. He's 30. So it's possible that whatever went wrong for him last year wasn't just the oblique,

or he just never, it just, there was mechanics out of whack and he never got it back. So Bednar is someone, even like, he'd have to fall outside of the top 200, I think for me to really have any interest in him at this point. It's less the performance because it's spring.

And by and large, you should ignore spring performance, especially when you look at the velocities for Bednar. They're all fine. It sounds like last year was more a command issue. He said he was, overthrowing the ball, yanking the slider. His velocity was up last year.

Yanking pitches, well, overthrowing the ball, he said, yanking pitches to his glove side. So it was more a command thing last year. The performance wouldn't concern me if the pirates were vocally backing him. And it sounds like I was going back and reading some articles on Bednar from early in spring training. I was reading them this weekend. Like in February, they were saying they have every confidence in him bound. bouncing back. So why won't they name them the closer? Now does that mean they don't have every

confidence in a bouncing back? Really? I don't know. It's it's getting to be a concern. I do think it's possible. We look back at this at the end of April and it's like, you know, Bednar has seven saves and is allowed no runs and we're like, what's the big deal? It's sort of like Tanner Scott last spring, remember? But the fact that he was so bad last. Last year, I felt like he needed to prove something this spring and the fact that they're not endorsing him. It's a little scary. Wasn't there a similar Alexis Diaz quote today? They're not.

He made an appearance this weekend, too, and also look terrible. Yeah. And there was something from Terry Francona who is not at all invested in Alexis Diaz. It's his first time as the manager. Yeah. Yeah, I guess I haven't, I can't find the exact quote, but there was something there of like,

well, he's got a week to figure it out or something. So yeah, could be a couple of assumed closers in, in the NL Central who may not have that much job security. And unfortunately, in both cases in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, the backup options are not great.

I guess Taylor Rogers is better than, Taylor, Tyler? Taylor. Which one? They traded Tyler. They traded Tyler. They traded for Taylor, the lefty. Yeah.

Yeah. Tyler's the like, Submariner. Yeah. He's still there with the Giants. So the quote for Terry Francona was, it's his third outing and certainly we've got to lock it in here. All right.

Yeah, we'll see. I mean, between Taylor Rogers, I know Scott Barlow is someone who has some closing experience and he, his velocity is up the spring and he's looked good so far. So I guess those are a few. names just to pay attention to it. It's crazy to me that David Robertson remains a free agent. I just, I can name five teams that can certainly use David Robertson services right now, but obviously the pirates don't spend money, so that's probably not going to happen.

You guys mentioned this, but the twins option, both Zebby Matthews and David Festa to AAA. Scott, for any early draft that we did, are you continuing to stash Zeb Matthews if you have him or kind of a sunk cost right now? I still think he's good. I still think he's going to have an impact. It just depends how valuable that roster spot is. And I think in most leagues of normal depth or even on the slightly deeper end, I'm going to value the roster spot more than being first in line on Zebby Matthews whenever he gets the call. There's no shortage of interesting pitchers who are potentially undrafted in a lot of leagues. So I'd be fine dropping him. New White Sox manager, Will Venable said Friday that Mike Clevenger will be quote,

near the top of the White Sox options for the ninth inning. Clevenger has thrown three one-hit innings this spring with four strikeouts to zero walks. His velocity has been up quite a bit as well. As bad as the White Sox were last year, they were historically bad. They were 23rd in save opportunities, so yes, they're awful, but when they win games, they're likely to be close games, right? Because they're just, I don't think they're going to score many runs. And they have some interesting pitchers.

They're probably going to be a little bit better than, last year. They're like one of three teams that I think has a zero percent chance of making the playoffs. I think there are 27 that at least have some small chance. The White Sox don't. But I am a little surprised. You know, I'm in some very,

very deep leagues that are like in slow drafts and Clevenger's still out there. Because when has he been drafted this preseason? But now there's this comment from Venable that says he's at least what the frontrunner for saves for the White Sox. I'm kind of surprised as deep as we are in these deep league drafts, and I'm talking about we're approaching Pick 400 that I haven't seen anybody jump in and grab Clevenger. I'm about to in one of them. I don't know. I mean, I'd rather have him than any of the Rockies options at this point.

Yeah, I guess just because there's one of him and like four guys in the Rockies bullpen who it could be. And I don't know. Like, I have no idea if he's going to be any good or not. but well yeah but that's i would guess not line for saves that's that's all i need to know to have some interest in a right yeah that's yeah that's all it is yeah spencer torkelson is set to see time in right field starting on monday he's had a nice spring 10 for 35 with four home runs does have nine strikeouts but with parker meadows and matt verling hurt likely to start the season on the iL there's a spot at d h at least for torkelson and you know they're trying to find ways to get his bat in

the lineup. So just the name to watch early on and let's see. We know he has big power outside. We saw that two years ago. I don't know why. Well, I guess I do know why. Cole Keith has signed to a long-term contract. I just, I was about to say, I don't know why he deserves preferential treatment over Spencer Torkelson. Between the two, Spencer Torkelson has done more in the majors. 2023 was pretty good. And he's had a good spring. But, but yeah, they got Keith locked up to a long-term deal already. Tobias Myers underwent imaging Sunday to determine the severity of his left oblique injury. It looks like Tyler Alexander would be the next up for the Brewers,

unless Brandon Woodruff is ready by opening day, but I don't think that's going to happen. It doesn't sound like that's going to happen, yeah. Yeah, and it looks like Stephen Kolek could open the season as the Padre's fifth starter. Matt Waldron has an oblique injury. Kyle Hart has been delayed because of the flu. He made his spring debut on Sunday, but will he have enough time to be built up? That was his first start of the spring. that remains to be seen.

Standouts from the weekend and gonna take a look at Friday's action. We've got some stack cast, some non-stack cast stuff here. Here's a name that we have not talked about at all. Eduardo Rodriguez, three and two-thirds shut out with six strikeouts. His velocity was up a little bit across the board. He had seven whiffs on 44 pitches. Not sure he was ever really healthy last season.

He had that strained lat in March and then turned into a strain left shoulder. He didn't make his season debut until August. Richard Fitz, four and a third shot out with four strikeouts, eight whiffs on 51 pitches, throwing a new curveball and sinker. His slider velocity was up 2.3 miles per hour. His fastball was up 1.4, and it looks like he will be in the Red Sox rotation to open the season. Max Meyer, three innings, two runs, four strikeouts. He had eight whiffs on 48 pitches. He threw that new sweeper ten times. The velocity remains up this spring. Kodi Isanga three and a third, inning seven hits, two earned runs, only one strikeout.

Fastball velocity down. two miles per hour for Senga who dealt with the shoulder injury last year. So just something to watch there. Carlos Carrasco, three in a third innings, one run, six strikeouts. He had seven whiffs on 61 pitches. I don't really think there's anything there, but he might be the Yankees SP5 to open the season. And no stat cast here, but Tomoyugi Sugano of the Orioles continues to pitch well,

three and a third shutout, one hit, one walk, four strikeouts in four spring appearances, 10 and a third shutout with 11 strikeouts to three walks. His fantasy pros ADP is outside of the top 300. So a bunch of names here, Sagano, Carrasco, Senga, Meyer, Richard Fitz, and Eduardo Rodriguez. Any thoughts? I mean, I talked about Sugano and Fitz a minute ago as there's some of my favorite very late pitchers to take.

Fitz, you know, part of what won me over is I did a search for him in my spring notes, but I was actually looking at last year's notes. And I made a note about him when he got called up last year for the Red Sox. His final five starts at AAA, Final Six starts, actually. He threw, he had a 70% strike rate and a 15% swinging strike rate. And that was before the increase in velocity and the added pitches. And yeah, that's part of the reason why I'm suddenly excited about Sugano. I don't think we've gotten data.

I'm sorry, about fits. I don't think we've gotten data on Sugano yet, right? all the starts, the top line numbers have been great. I think there was one stack has game for him. I think there was and it was exactly what we expected. It was like an 89, 90 mile an hour fastball. And, you know, he throws a kitchen sink. I think the, the problem of Sagano's,

I think the ceiling is probably pretty low. Right. Like, I think there's not, I don't want to say that because Seth Lugo just had the season he had. and if Seth Lugo could have that season, you know, Chris Bassett has been really good. But those are the kind of names,

I think you're thinking of when you think about Tomoyuki Sagano because it's, even relative to like, there are some similarities between him and Shodhya Managa. Like they're both undersized. They both have low 90s, high 80s fastballs. But Sugato's strikeout rates were really low in Japan,

even relative to that league, where Shoddy Minaga was putting up pretty good strikeout numbers. So my expectation is more in like the Merrill Kelly, Eric Fetty, like boring veteran types. What might take him a step beyond that is how good of a ground ball pitcher he is with the splitter. So I don't know, like Nick Martinez's line last year. Sure. I think Sugano has a better chance of mimicking that stat line than Nick Martinez himself does. of repeating it, frankly.

Sugano's first start of the spring, there was Stackcast data. He averaged 92.1 on his fastball and through six different pitches between four and 25%. That's more on the fastball than I was expecting. 92? Yeah, 92.1. Not bad. All right, on to set. I do want to add just Senga.

I haven't moved him down, but I thought about it. Yeah, I'm getting a bad feeling about Senga. There's been a couple drafts recently where he's clearly been the best pitcher, and he's been the best pitcher for, like, more than a round. And I still'm like, yeah, I just, well, we saw him for three starts, playoffs included last year. And the more reason of those in the playoffs, they weren't very good. I think it won one good one, but yeah, it wasn't.

It just, yeah, especially because his fastball was already pretty bad. So if it's sitting 94 now, instead of 95, 96, that's pretty concerning. And even when it was best when we saw him in 2023, it was a very high whip. The walk rate got better as the year went on, but it still wasn't good. I think, I don't think we know enough about it, frankly.

And he's not relieving my concerns this spring. Again, that's Kodi, Sengu we were just talking about. On to Saturday, Jose Alvarado struck out the side in a perfect inning. his sinker velocity was up 3.7 miles per hour, which means he averaged 101.5, and he has been flawless this spring. Six shutout innings with 15 strikeouts to three walks. Definitely just a name to know, at least in saves plus holds leagues.

That's Jose Alvarado. Royals prospect, Jack Caglione, two for three with a walk, double two RBI. He has been blazing this spring, nine for 17, three home runs, only three strikeouts. He was the Royals first round pick last year, sixth overall. only got 29 games in at high A. He is a little bit older because he was a college bat. I don't really think he has a chance at the opening day roster, but I think Caglione is someone that will matter at some point this season in fantasy.

Chris Bubich, three and a third shutout with five strikeouts against most of the Guardian's regulars. He had 10 whiffs on 66 pitches. He threw that new... That was the outing I was waiting to see from Boopich. Yep. He threw that new sweeper nine times, but did not get a whiff with it. Only 22% CSW, but it obviously was an impressive outing. And Luis Castillo, four and two-thirds, two runs, four strikeouts.

His fastball was down two miles per hour. Average 93.6 on the fastball. And not really what you want to see after the velocity has been trending down each of the past two years. He could continue to build up. I get that. But I'd rather see that than not. So Luis Castillo, Chris Bubbage, Jack Caglio, Jose Alvarado, anything on this group. You know, I might write something.

this week about players that just give me a bad feeling. Not not bust picks necessarily. I don't, I don't have, I don't have a strong enough argument to call them busts. I just, they just, when the time comes to draft them, I find I don't want to. And I would put Luis Castile in that same category with Cotei Sanka.

Is Reinaldo Lopez on there after we passed on him nine straight rounds in our draft the other name? Well, that's, you, you were willing to pass them forever. I was... That was not by Scott's doing. No, yeah, I was campaigning for him at least halfway through that.

But maybe. Yeah, I haven't made a full list yet. I just know Kestu and Sanko would be on it. All right. And then some spring standouts from Sunday. Grant Holmes, five and a third, two runs, three strikeouts. Gave up 10 hard hits in this game,

93.8 average exit velocity against, but he built all the way up to 93 pitches in that start. So it looks like Grant Holmes is pretty much ready to go for the start of the season. Jose Barrio six shutout with seven strikeouts. He had 15 whiffs on 70 pitches, six on the fastball, four on the changeup. Blue Jays prospect, Alan Rodin, one for two with two RBI and two hard hit balls. One was 109 miles per hour, exit velocity.

He played center field. Yeah. I have to leave in this one. And Dalton Varshow is playing in games, but he is not going to be ready for the start of the season. He's, I think, only begun throwing to like 100 feet recently. and they basically said they're not really viewing him as a DH option. So Alan Rune has a chance. I was going to say the same thing with that report.

Because before they were talking like, oh, Dalton Varsho, he's hitting so well this spring. He could just DH while he rehabilitates the arm. But John Schneider said if he wasn't ready to play defense, he wouldn't be on the roster. And then Alan Roden started in center, just like he said, Chris. That's probably the right way to approach Dalton Varsho, too. If he's not ready to play defense, he probably should. and be on the active roster.

I think Rodin has like six walks to one strikeout this spring, and that's not so surprising when you look at his minor league data. I view him as like a data darling with the plate discipline and the exit velocities and how good he is at pulling the ball and elevating. You wonder why he didn't have more home runs last year than the minors because the package is there for him to do more of that, and he's had an impressive spring. I think he needs to go on the deep sleeper list.

I did want to bring up a great X account, Twitter account, at T.J. Stats, and he puts out all this great data throughout the course of spring training, and he has a statcast page just for Alan Rodin's spring training metrics, and it's all awesome. Like, he's crushing the ball. The plate discipline looks really good, so I co-signed completely. I like Alan Rodin as a, you know, in deeper five outfieler league, someone that you should be looking to draft with one of your last round picks.

Astros prospect, Cam Smith, continued his big spring, two for four with his third home run while playing right field. He's 11 for 26 with three home runs so far this spring. Chris, I'm so jealous you got him in your reserve rounds. I wanted to get him. I kept pushing the envelope because there was other pitchers that I liked a little bit more than him, but I kind of feel like it's going to happen. I think he might be on the opening day roster.

I had a corner infield spot late in that draft, and I thought about going with Cam Smith and just seeing just to make sure I got him, I got Ahio Hsuarez for $2 instead. And then I got Cam Smith in the reserve round. So I love that outcome. I'm, yeah, I'm pretty much at the point where unless he just misplays like every single ball hit to him in right field,

I kind of think it's just happening. Yeah, I think they've been, they've been looking for I think the way to put it is the only way at this point he wouldn't make the roster is if he gives them a reason not to I think they've wanted to have him on the roster and so far there's been no sign

that he's not going to make the roster it really feels like Cam Smith needs to be one of the biggest risers over the next week probably still a reserve round pick because he has a very limited sample size as a professional, only 31 games. And we saw as good as Wyatt Langford was last spring and as good as he was in his 34 games or whatever it was.

You can't necessarily count on a guy with that little experience hitting the ground running. But it's worth drafting last year's first rounder who forced his way onto the roster. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I actually have Cam Smith. I have him in between Luis Renhivo and Kifo and Connor Norby, just as a pure ranking thing. And obviously, I'd elevate him if it was a shallow league.

Like shallow league, shoot for upside. I'm all about that. Deep Roto League, you might want to play it a little more cautiously for what Chris said. A couple of their standouts from Sunday just going to run through these. Sunny Gray got destroyed by the Marlins. Probably doesn't matter. It's a veteran. but eight earned runs with five walks.

His velocity was down 1.5 miles per hour on the fastball sinker in cutter and he has a 13.97 ERA and a 228 whip this spring. No stat cast but Hayden Birdsong was lights out for the Giants. Five shutout with

eight strikeouts to zero walks. According to Justice de la Santos who covers the Giants, Birdsong had 13 whiffs and seven of his strikeouts came on the changeup. Four appearances this spring at 12 innings, one run, 18 strikeouts to zero. walks. Walks were a big problem for Birdsong last year.

It kind of looks like now he is going to be the fifth starter for the Giants, but that keeps changing. Brandon fought five shutout with seven strikeouts. He had 13 whiffs on 57 pitches. Kyle Hart made his first start of the spring since returning from the KBO. He is on the Padres. Three innings, two runs, two walks, three strikeouts. He threw five different pitches with the sweeper, his most used pitch at 29%. His fastball average 91.1 miles per hour from the left-hand side. And Brandon Woodruff made his spring debut. One inning, zero hit zero runs, one walk, one strikeout.

Brewer's beat writer, Kurt Hogg said Woodruff hit 95 multiple times. Didn't say what he averaged. There was no stack as data for that game. But Woodruff averaged 95.8 the last time we saw him in 2023. So hitting 95, I think, is a pretty good sign. He could

continue to build up, obviously. But nice little spring debut there for Woodruff. anything else on this group him Kyle Hart, Brandon Fott, Hayden Birdsong and Sunny Gray. Birdside's been very impressive and we saw some really big swing and miss stuff from him

at times last season. Obviously his major league track record was pretty bad but yeah, I'll throw him on the pile. There's a lot of interesting names to consider when the first waiver wire run happens if you've got guys to put on IL

and he's on there with like Shane Smith and I'd throw a maximum Meyer in that discussion as well, guys that I don't necessarily expect to be good, but I'll take the flyer and see that first time through the rotation. We saw big swing and miss ability from Birdsong at times last year and the command was just so bad. So I wish we had data, obviously. It feels like we're kind of flying blind without it. But just the fact that Birdsong has 18 strikeouts to no walks in 12 innings this spring. That sounds like he's addressed his biggest issue.

And if so, there's definitely breakout potential here. I'm going to have to move him of the rankings quite a bit. All right. Let's take our final break. When we return, we will recap our Tout Wars drafts from this weekend right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. We are recapping our Tout Wars drafts from this weekend. Chris was in the 12-te-head points auction.

I was in the 15 team mixed Roto, and that uses OBP instead of batting average, but we will start with a look at Chris's Tau Wars team here, and I'm going to pull it up for those watching on YouTube. I will also include the link to both of these draft sheets in the episode description, so if you want to just follow along or see how much players went for, feel free to do exactly that.

The point scoring system for this draft, CBS point scoring with Roto-style lineups, unlimited IL spots trading is allowed, Chris, you spent, I used 80% of your budget on hitting, 20% on pitching. I'll ask even though I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but was this part of the plan, Chris? No plans. Come on, Frank. You know the answer. In A.L. Labor, I think I spent 38% on pitching. It just depends how it works. Now, what happened in this one specifically was, I noticed that the high end hitters were not really getting push.

up as much as they typically do. The one exception was Bobby Witt, who went for 51 when Aaron Judge and Shohei Otani went for 46, excuse me, each. And Jose Ramirez was 38, Kyle Tucker, 35. Like, for the most part, the high-end hitters were cheaper than I expected them to be. And so that's always what I talk about is get a re-react. for the room early and adjust your strategy or how you're approaching the draft on the fly. And that's what I did. So I, Aaron Judge, I can't remember how he was pretty early on. But once I got him,

you know, it was, it was pretty easy to say, okay, well, hitting's going to be the focus in this one. And I'm just going to try to find some pitching values. And what I would say is, I think I got all. Almost all good pitching values. I'm just not sure I actually like my pitching staff, which is kind of those are very different things, right? Like I don't think I overspent on anyone. Maybe Grayson Rodriguez at 5 was a little bit of an overspend, but maybe it turns out awesome.

But it just I look at the whole thing and it's like, I don't actually like the pitching staff very much. So in retrospect, would I have been open to spending a little more on pitching? Yeah, I think getting one more high-end starter would have made sense, but the hitting is really good on this team. You know what, Chris, if you spend 80% of your budget on hitting, it better be good.

And I do think that your read on the situation going into this auction and seeing where prices are at and just kind of adjusting on the fly, I think that's a lot easier to do in a head-to-head points auction because at least in Roto, you have to be much more tactical about covering all the categories, right? So at least in a points league, you could kind of play the value game a little bit more and be really aggressive on hitting,

and especially because you're playing in the Roto style, lineup at least, you do have to cover more lineup spots. So, you know, and your hitting is pretty awesome, as we'll talk about here. I do think just kind of going into a Roto auction with that idea, like you could still pull it off, but I think it's a little bit harder because obviously you're trying to cover all the best.

basis there. For your lineup, you've got Yiner Diaz for 15, Sean Murphy for one, Christian Ancarnaccio and Tran strand for one, Raphael Devers for 21, Auhanios Suarez for 2, Jose Altuve for 16, Gunner Henderson for 35, Carlos Correa for 6, Aaron Judge for 46, Fernando Tatis for 28, Jason Dominguez for 13, Adola Garcia for 8, Tyler O'Neill for 3, and Marcelo Zuna for 14. So, I mean, it's an amazing lineup. There's no doubt about that. What's your, what's your here. First base is obviously a weakness with Christian and Carnaccio and Strand. I will, I did draft Jamer Condolario as well, who should play, I think, a little more consistently than Christian and Carnacian Strand, at least at first. So he will likely be my starting first baseman. But yeah,

it's really strong all the way around, even though like Jason Dominguez, Adolice Garcia, are probably better suited in Roto. I still think the value I got them for in a five outfielder. league is is very good a eugenio swarez again not great in a head-to-head points league but if he's anywhere near what he was last year that's a fine starting corner infielder ozuna for 14 i love yeah i'm very very happy with this lineup it's got a ton of upside it's got i think four top three round hitters and probably five from the top four rounds um the only thing is yiner Diaz at 15. This was one where

I might have thrown him out there at 15 and just I think that's what happened. I threw him out at 15 hoping someone would push it up and no one did. It was I think the first pick that wasn't bid on. I don't love that. This is

his work format by far and if the playing concerns that I have about Yainer Diaz come to fruition, that could work out poorly. But as you're scrolling through, you can notice catchers were really expensive in this league. Gabriel Moreno was $9.

Shea Lang Lear was 12. I'd rather have had J.T. Raimuto at 9 than Yainer Diaz. But, yeah, there were not very many catcher discount. So in that context, Jynar Diaz, more acceptable, but I'm still not thrilled about it. All right. The pitching staff for you, you've got Zach Allen for 12. Tyler Glass now for 12.

Jack Flaherty for seven. Jesus Lozardo for three. Ryan Pepeio for two. Shane Boss for three. Grace and Rodriguez for five. Robert Suarez for three. And Bowden, Francis, for two. So you do get one of the top sparse there in your lineup.

Yeah, it feels a little bit light, obviously, when you only use 20% of your budget. You need, you know, gallon to have a bounce back season. Glass now to stay healthy. Like in a vacuum. I'm not going to stay healthy. I'm not counting on that. I need him to be,

I need Tyler Glassnow to be a must-start ace when he's on the mouth. And I think he will be. He went six plus innings very frequently last year. I, he's not going to stay healthy, though. To be clear, I'm not expecting that or hoping for it. Yeah.

Well, because we have a limited IL spots in this league, are you, is that why you were more willing to take on risk with the Glassnow? Yeah. I mean, it was mostly just that the price was so reasonable for him. that I really didn't see much downside in it.

Some of the other pitchers who were drafted in the $12 range were like closers like Ryan Helsley, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Bailey Ober, Sandy Alcantara. Like maybe it's a little better if I have Ober instead of Glassnow just because he's a better bet to stay healthy the whole season. But I think Glassnow is a bigger difference maker when he's on the mound. And generally speaking, that's what I'm looking for in a points league. So I, yeah, I would prefer having a stronger one. But given the way the prices worked out,

I think it was probably about as good as I could have done. Well, knowing now that it's a points league, that is CBS scoring, I think that's the way to approach hitting versus pitching in CBS scoring points leagues is you want to be more discerning about the hitters you get and less discerning about the pitchers you get. because it's sort of the opposite from Roto.

In Roto, I want to be more discerning about the pitchers I get. I want to really maintain my whip and not have a pick or two in there that's just going to blow it up. And the hitting side, yeah, you've got to balance the five hitting categories in Roto, but there aren't as many ways that a hitter is going to just get sunk, like in a points league, you know? So in a points league, I want to focus on hitters that, well, I mean, Carlos Gare is a good example, who really stand out in the format. You got him for six bucks, obviously some injury risk there. But if he does what Carlos, if he does what he did last year on a per game basis, it was as good as, uh, it was about as good as Trey Turner, I believe is the comparison I keep using. But then with pitchers, you're not balancing categories.

You're just looking for volume and bad starts aren't going to ruin you as much as long as you're getting enough starts and as long as they're going deep enough into games. So I think the way you approach those two aspects of your team was right for the format. And the reserves are fun too. You got Jack Leiter, Cam Smith, Evan Carter, Shane Smith from the White Sox, Jamer Candelario, and Danny Jansen, who you need to cover Sean Murphy for the first couple of weeks of the season. So do like the reserves there as well. Anything else, Chris, that stood out just within the auction, things that you notice, was there maybe a player that you were battling for that you didn't wind up with or a player that you just thought went for way too cheap, anything like that that kind of stood out, top of mind, dropped this option. A couple of things that stood out were, Gare Crochet was $27 or $26, and who was the other guy? Why Lankford for 26? Those felt very aggressive to me.

I get it. I think those players are good, but I think they were probably a little too much. But overall, I don't know. I don't have to run any, like stand out. There were,

I think, just some instances of, like, CJ Abrams went for 19. Yeah. It was fairly late, and the bidding was very aggressive as a result of that.

And maybe there was a teardrop coming up. But that felt like the wrong pick for the format. And then I think one thing that I do to highlight is we saw one, a couple of examples of the opposite of that where Jazz Chisholm went for 16, which I know a points league is not his best format, but $16 for jazz Chisholm is a very nice price. And I think people probably overreacted to the format not being right for him. And then R.

5.8 points per game after joining the Yankees last year was Jazz Chisholm. Yeah. And then Ronald Acuna, only $17. So we're seeing, at least in this draft, I don't know about in yours, but at least in this draft, a bit of a drop off in his valuation, which again, I don't know if that makes a ton of sense because nobody's really talked about April for him for a long time. And so the reaction is kind of to news that we already should have known. I know it confirmed what we already knew, but it's, that was, I had been, I had been under the impression it was late April until they said mid-May. So maybe, maybe I just wasn't current enough, but that that had been my operating presumption. I think that had been my hope, but I had, I thought May first all along, but.

Yeah, I think early May was probably what I was hoping for. Yeah, I think it was a complete, complete opposite. it in mind. I think there was a bidding war for a Coonier. He wound up going for, I think, double the price, like $33. So I'll look it up once we pull up my draft results there, but yeah. I lowered him a tier

in tier 3.0. It didn't actually put him behind any outfielders in the rankings, but it took like a couple dollars off his price. So I moved him down with the mid-May news. Yeah, and again, that is Ronald Ocuna that we were just talking about. Let's move away from Chris's

draft here and we'll take a look at my Tout Wars auction. We'll run a little bit longer here so we can get through it, but it was a 15-te-Teme mixed-roto auction, 5-5 with OBP instead of batting average, unlimited IL spots. Trading is allowed as well. Probably should have mentioned this earlier for those who don't know. I can't just, I shouldn't assume that everyone knows. But Tout Wars is are a collection of industry leagues. There's all different types of formats. There's a mixed roto auction. There's a mixed roto snake draft. That's the one that Scott was in. There's AL-only, NL-only rhododdraft. Chris was in the head-ted points league, and it's all the best players and industry people around. So that's why we come together for this weekend and we do all these

live drafts together. And it's obviously a ton of fun. But for mine, again, it was five by five with OBP instead of batting average, unlimited aisle spots trading aloud as well. The plan going in was to spend around $180 on hitting, $80 on pitching. So like a 70-30 split. I got to 179 on hitting and 81 on pitching. So basically right on plan there. And speaking of the plan, I know you guys love plans. Here it is.

This was my notepad going into the auction. And I think you guys will be proud of at least half of this. Look at the pitchers. No plan. My pitching plan was to just get values. That was my pitching plan. You ran out of time, didn't you? Kind of, but it was also part of,

no, it was part of my plan. I figured it's, it was so hard to predict pitching prices in this league. And I just think I'm going to go in and get whoever I think is going for less than they should. And that's exactly what I wanted to do. I just said it's better to be intentional about pitching in Roto. Ah, come on. That's very disappointed in you.

To a degree. I mean, like, not that I go in targeting specific pitchers. I just want guys that are going to help my whip. No. That's the main focus when I've done awkward. for pitching this year. I, in Roto.

That part was, I was thinking about that. I obviously, like, didn't want to get too many whip pitchers on my, like bad whip pitchers on my team. And my first two were Regans and Logan Webb. And so that whip could be a little bit higher. My mindset then was,

okay, let me get a whip contributor. And I got Bryce Miller as my SP3. So that was obviously intentional about doing something like that. Catchers as well. I just kind of wanted to get guys that were bargains here. But everything else was pretty much planned out. And I knew going in. I wanted to get one of Judge Soto or Otani as the fallback option,

but really one of Judge or Soto because I was so bad an OBP in this league last year, and I wanted to be intentional about that and really just get that massive OBP base going into this draft. And I got Soto, but I had to pay the price to get him. You will see that in just a second. So pulling up the draft results here, this is my team starting with the offense. Shee Langalears 411, Kbert Ruiz for 5, Esock Parade is 411, Alex Bergman for 18, Jammer Candelario for a buck, Bryson Stott for 11, Bo Bichette for 10, Trevor Story for three,

Juan Soto, $53, Wyatt Langford for 22, Randy Rosarina for 16, Tommy Edmund for 7, Jorge Solair for 10, and Max Kepler for one. Once I got Wyatt Langford, and again, I just pulled up the plan, I knew I was going to be at around $20 or less on all of my other hitters. And Langford, I threw him out early because I figured hype guy, he'll go for a little bit more. I threw him out for 15. He starts slowing down around 20. Someone says 21, I go 22, just expecting it's going to keep going.

And I got it for 22. So I was happy with that because the timing of when I threw him out, you'll see later on, O'Neill Cruz goes for 27, James Wood goes for 24. So to get Wyatt Langford for the cheapest of the three, I felt really good about that. So, um, for sure. Well, I think white like, go ahead. I think, I think it was good and I think you kind of needed them in the end because apart, apart from Juan Soto, let's, I'm thinking OPP here, apart from Wandsod, Alex Bregman should be helpful. Isaac Peridish should be helpful. Wyatt Lankford should be helpful.

Sollair should be more helpful than people think. But I, I, I think Lankford's going to be a big contributor to you in that category. and one that you might be suffering in it without him. What do you guys think in general, just of the offense? You think it came together enough after, I'd be spending so big on Soto, 53 for him. It was, I think, 55 or 56 for Judge. Otani was, I think, maybe the second or third player thrown out.

He went for 51. And again, that's part of the problem of trying to plan too much beforehand because he goes for 51. Obviously, in a vacuum, I would rather have Otani for two less dollars than Juan Soto. But Juan Soto hadn't been. thrown out yet and I really wanted one of him or judge. So that was, you know, maybe I kind of penciled myself in a little bit too much there. But what are you guys? Honest thoughts on the way the offense came together here. No, I think it looks great. I think it's a 15 teamer, right? And so to spend

$53 on one player in a deeper league, a lot of spots to fill, I think you were very economical in how you filled them. Only one other hitter who cost over 20. And yet you got some really good hitters. I love the Bichette price probably, it being an OPP league, suppressed his value a bit. But if he hits, you know, if he hits 300 like we're used to seeing him, the OPP's not going to be bad. I think it's, I think it's a strong lineup for a 15 team. Or surprisingly strong, especially given that you spent so much on Soto. Yeah, I thought it, you know, came together pretty well. I was willing to go up over 20 bucks for Alex Brugman.

I was pretty excited to get him for just $18 here. Paratus. I really wanted Vinny P or Tristan Kossis. They went for a little bit more than I was willing to do. So, ESOC Paredes was the fallback plan there. I think that's a great fallback. Yeah. In OBP, I mean, I don't know that the output will be that different for someone like Paredes and Vinnie Pasquantino.

I think Viti P went for 18 bucks and I got Paredes for 11 here. Pasquantino should be a better source of batting average, but in this format, obviously it's an OVP league. That doesn't matter nearly as much. Isopretis should be fine for us. It should be about a 350. OPP. Yeah.

I'd much rather have Paredes for 11 than Pasquantino for 18. I actually don't think that one. No, if I knew that that's what they were both going to cost, it would obviously

be Paredes for me. Yeah. On the pitching side of things, I got Cole Regens for 21. Logan Webb for 16, Bryce Miller for 13, Jack Flaherty for 7, Trevor McGill for 8,

Kenley Jansen for 6, Grayson Rodriguez for 4, Jesus Lazzardo for 4, and Max Scherzer for 2. So only got the two closers there with Trevor McGill and Kenley Jansen didn't get any on the bench either. So that's, I think could be a work in progress throughout the course of the season. But Scott, part of me not being intentional about pitching here was just let me get the values. And I felt like I did a really good job.

Like Jack Flaherty stopping at seven bucks. Max Schurzer just got thrown out so late for a dollar. I went two immediately, was able to get that. Lazardo for four, Grayson Rodriguez for four unlimited IL spots. so I'm really happy with the way the pitching came together too. The pitching looks great. I mean, I thought the offense looked pretty strong, but the pitching looks really strong to me.

And it does seem like you got great values. I like that you only spent $14 to get two safe sources. I think getting Grayson Rodriguez for $4 looks even better today. And that top three, Reagan's Web and Miller, for, for, you spent 21 on Regans and somebody spent 39 on Tarek Scouple right next to that. I mean, it's no question, which I'd rather have. 37 on Steens, 30 on Logan Gilbert. Yeah, that's a phenomenal price.

Yeah, Cs went for 23. I have them valued very similarly. I think I would have went up to like 23, 24 to get Regans, and it's not in 21. So, that was, that worked out great. I'm, I'd be really thrilled with the pitching staff and it's, uh, It makes me a lot happier about the offense you got, too. Yeah, I mean, and just for some context, you got Flaherty, Grayson, and Hazos Lazzardo. I had that trio as well.

You got them for the same price combined as I did, except mine is 12th team league. And yours is 15. So that looks pretty good for you. I will also say, I don't think there has been an auction yet that one of us has participated in and not gotten Jack Flaherty for exactly 7. All the ones we've done, one of us has gotten Flaherty for exactly $7. And that's just kind of bizarre. But I do think it reflects a hesitance to buy into Flaherty on the part of a lot of drafters.

Even though I know they rank him similarly to what we do. He's apparently one of, for a lot of people, one of those. I just have a bad feeling about this guy kind of players. And I don't share in that bad feeling. Yeah, I don't really get it. The velocity's been there this spring. the results have been bad, but we don't care about spring results. We know that.

Like results in terms of, like, he had a bad, he had one good start, but his start here on Sunday was bad. But with enough whiffs that I don't really worry about it being a stuff issue, you know? Yeah, no, exactly. Yeah. And heading into the first break, I only had four players on my team, and I had the most money left. And they were doing a Tout Wars live stream on YouTube and the chat requested to talk to me because they were, Like, what are you doing, man? You've got all this money.

And my thought was a lot of the players that I wanted, my targets, they just hadn't been called out yet. And a lot of times I don't call out the players that I want. I got Soto early on. So I really just tried to play it safe. And I kind of took a step back after that. And I kept throwing out elite outfielders because I knew I wasn't going to bid on those anymore.

I wanted to get that money off the board at that specific position. And when we came back from the first break, Chris, like you normally say, the room was like a little bit tepid after that. and I was able to win a lot of these pitchers for undervalue, and I still wound up with the team. So I think it's a learning experience for people where if there are breaks throughout the course of your auction,

as long as there are still good players left and you know that there are, you can get those players. If you have the hammer and you have the money to spend, there's a finite amount of money that can be spent. If players are going for too much early on, which they did in this draft, I knew that there were going to be values

and I had all the money, the most money going into coming back from that first break. so. Talent is not distributed evenly through the talent, the player pool. You know, like the, the true impact players are very scarce. And then there's a wide range of guys who are very, very similar. They'll do different things, but the overall impact will be very different. So what you want to avoid is paying up for the samey guys and of and not paying up for

the difference makers. There, there are 30, 40, 50, whatever truly irreplaceable players in any given season. And the next like 150 are just not that different overall. And so what you want to do is sit out, be aggressive with that top 50, sit out most of the next 150 or so. And then once you're in a position, and this sounds like what you did, once you're in a position to push people around for the like blast good players

in that next 150, that's where you start to pick back up. And what I often do is like six players, six of the top 50 players or whatever it is. You know, you want to be overweight in that. And then I'll just try to sit out for a long time. And then you'll always see me go like pick up five out of nine players once I'm in that spot. And it sounds like that's what you did. And it works out.

In the reserve rounds, I got Max Myers, Debbie Matthews. Unfortunately, the news came out right afterwards. It's Austin Hayes, Chris Bubich, Luis Heel, and Zach Veen. I got a little bit too greedy with Luis Heel, the unlimited IL spots taking him here in this spot, because I was looking at taking Caleb Durbin as my backup middle infielder, and he went in the last round. I thought I could get him, but I wound up not getting him. And hoping that Zach Veen still makes the opening day roster.

I think there's upside, obviously, on the bench here. And I have two IL spots, throw those guys. Well, there's unlimited aisle spots. I have two aisle players. so I can pick up maybe a save speculation and someone, I'll back up middle infielder most likely once I put those players on the IL. Can I point out two things that I noticed with the last round of the reserves just real quick? Sure.

One, you didn't mention Lance McCullors is going to pitch in a game this week. Right, he will. I thought he was like done, done. But he's actually going to pitch in a grapefruit league game on Tuesday, I believe, or a Cactus League game, I think they're out. And Ben Rice was Mike Carter's last pick in the reserve round. He is crushing the ball this spring. He's got like five batted balls over 110 miles an hour and like 20 over 100 miles an hour or something.

He's been awesome. He dramatically underperformed his quality of contact metrics last year. Sounds like he's the starting D.H for the Yankees. Ben Rice, kind of interesting. Yeah, definitely an aim to look at in some of those deeper leagues. A few other things I wanted to point out before we wrap up, two players that really stood out. And Scott, you would have, you would have just crushed me if you were in the room

and you saw I did not go after Ozzy Albies. He went for $14. I was, I don't know why I stopped. It was one of those things where I froze up and he wasn't really part of the plan. And I started thinking in my head, all right, well, how do I shift the money around to make things work? if I get this and I should have just kept bidding. I had him priced as a $20 player. He went for $14.

I got Bryson Stott 411. So it's just comparatively, I was so upset at myself for not going a little bit further there on Albies. And Robbie Ray went for eight. I thought it was a great prize. I thought with all the hype building, he very easily would have been a double-digit player. But yeah, he stopped at eight.

And that was another one where I thought, I probably should have went a couple extra dollars there and see if I could have got Robbie Ray. So those two in particular, I was just, ah, I was so mad at myself. There are always going to be a couple like that, that you just kind of freeze up in the moment, and then you're, as soon as it's over,

it's like, man, why didn't I go the extra dollar on that guy? That was such an obvious bargain. And then sometimes as the draft goes on, you look back and you're like, oh, well, I got this equivalent player for $4 less. So good thing, I didn't go an extra dollar. Or sometimes the draft goes on and you realize that was your best.

opportunity we're going to get and there will never be another one and you just kind of have to compartmentalize that and move on but i have noticed ozi like i haven't been intentionally targeting ozi albies this year he might be my single most drafted player just because yeah he's always there beyond where i think he should be whether you're talking about auctioned dollars or in drafts and so he seems like one of those players that people just have a bad feeling about and I don't really get it. He's been very consistent, except for the two years

where he broke two bones, which are two of the last three years, and so I think maybe he has this injury-prone stigma now. There is the unanswered question in an environment where the ball's not carrying as well. Does his power still play? Because those were also the two years that he broke two bones, so we don't have a full enough sample to know,

but the numbers were down. Yeah, I think probably that's overthinking it, though, and you should just target Ozzy Albiz as a top four second baseman, and you'll be pretty happy with it. And last thing I'll mention before we wrap up here from this draft, when Jeff Zimmerman won Junior Camerro, Scott, you know what he's saying? It was hilarious. I started cracking up.

That's what I like to hear. Yeah, I also threw a Vinie Pass Guantino and I said, Vinnie P baby. We got a, we got a Vinny P baby in our, and and here comes the money. Yeah, that would that would too. Wow. The issue is growing. Let's go. Let's go.

Incredible. Next year I got to show up with the soundboard and just play them every time someone. I should have just done it, like open it up on YouTube and just started playing sound drops while players were going off the board. But it was a lot of fun. Let us know in the comments. What do you think of our teams? Both Chris and I, he was playing in the 12 team,

had to have points, Tout Wars. I was in the 15 team mixed Tout Wars this weekend. We are going to wrap there for Scott and 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.