Fantasy Baseball Today - Jackson Jobe Spotlight, Mailbag Questions & Trade Strategy w/ Mike Meyer! (3/9 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 9, 2024

Let's start with our prospect spotlight, this week Jackson Jobe of the Detroit Tigers (2:40)! ... Mailbag time, starting with your Apple Podcast questions (8:40). ... How do we value prospects like Ricky Tiedemann and Brett Baty vs. first-year players (12:36)? ... It's time for FANTASY JUSTICE (21:10)! ... How do we typically fill out our bench in leagues (27:50)? ... Cristian Javier or Triston McKenzie this year (32:15)? ... How to take advantage of ADP on different sites (37:10). ... Draft-A-Thon winner Mike Meyer joins the show to talk trade strategy in Fantasy Baseball (45:30)! ... How to approach trading prospects in dynasty (53:04). ... How to account for inflation in keeper/dynasty leagues (57:08). ... We wrap up with thoughts on rebuilding in dynasty leagues (1:00:26). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Well, fantasy! Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Here we go. We've officially reached the Saturday mailbag phase of draft season.

Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Saturday, March 9th. Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we have our latest prospect. Spotlight, your mailbag questions, and a very special guest joining us later on in the podcast. Lots to get to. Let's jump right in with our prospect spotlight. Today we're talking about Jackson Job, who is the Tiger's top pitching prospect and Scott's number 22 overall prospect, number four pitching prospect, and that's if you include Yoshinobu Yamamoto in that mix. Jackson Job is 21 years old coming along very nicely.

A third overall pick back in 2021 out of high school. And last year in the minors, a 281 ERA, 0.98 whip, 84 strikeouts over 64 innings. He got one start in at AA. Also made four starts in the Arizona Fall League. Did miss a chunk of time due to lumbar spine inflammation. We'll get to more of that in a bit. Has a four pitch mix, big fastball, big slider, 3,000 plus RPM spin rate on the slider. Scott, we'll start with you.

What do you think of the overall pitching package here with Jackson Job? I think it's pretty impressive. Obviously, you said where he ranked among my pitching prospects. Third, if you don't count Yoshinobu Yamamoto. So Jackson Job turned himself into one of the elite pitching prospects last year, which is a relief to Tigers fans because you mentioned he was taken third overall in the 2021 draft. The next three picks in that draft were Marcel O'Meier, Colton, Kouser and Jordan Lawler.

So, yeah, Jackson Job, the high school arm. It was a risky pick at the time, but it seems like it's paid off for the Tigers. The big selling point, you talked about the slider, the 3,000 RPM. That is a ridiculous spin rate on a slider. It's a ridiculous spin rate.

It's a little more common with curve balls, but it would be ridiculous for that pitch too. And what really, I think, put Jackson Job over the top last year was the command he showed for having that swing and miss potential with the slider. 14 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio is what he put together in his 16 starts.

Now it was only 64 innings. He's still, like I said, he was drafted out of high school in 2021. So he's still early on the developmental path. And that time he missed with the back injury last year puts him even further behind in terms of like innings built. up. So unless the Tigers are, unless they're a surprise contenders this year, which I can see it. I can see enough going right for that roster that they are. I don't think they're going to fast play Jackson Job here. I don't expect to see him this year. Maybe in September if they

preserve enough innings along the way. But I think when we're talking 2025, Jackson Job is going to be, getting the sort of buzz like Paul Skeens is getting right now in all likelihood. Chris, obviously we have concerns over any pitching prospects, especially ones out of high school, just trying to project them long term. This lumbar spine inflammation, it kind of adds an extra element here of things we potentially need to worry about. How much does it worry you long term with someone like Jackson Joke?

Yeah, I mean, the concern level with any, I believe he's a 21-year-old starting pitcher. Yep. The concern level with any 21-year-old starting pitcher, especially one who hasn't made it through a full season, is just can they do it? Can the arm hold up? And arm injuries haven't been the issue for Jackson Job so far in his professional career.

It's been that back issue that's been recurring. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, though, because every young pitcher has the potential for arm issues, the fact that he has a different injury that has hindered him so far in his professional career. I think it's a little concerning. He's also had some trouble keeping the ball in the yard, 1.3 home runs per 9, 1.6 in his first year. So, you know, not a perfect profile, but there's a lot to like here, certainly. And if he makes it through this year without issue and gets up to, you know, probably 110, 120 innings, he got to 79.2 last year.

If you include the Arizona Fall League, I think we're talking about someone who absolutely has the potential to be a fantasy. difference maker in 2025. Like Scott said, given the lack of workload, given that he's only made one start above high A, I think it's probably unlikely that Jackson Joe makes much of an impact for fantasy this season. But as I always say, once you get to double A, I think you're always, you know, a good month and a half and an injury away from having an opportunity. So I'm kind of of the opinion that once a team thinks a guy is major league ready, they should

probably just be in the majors because there's no point in wasting bullets in the minors. And obviously not every team agrees with me. Look at the Pirates with Paul Skeens. But, you know, it's a situation where I wouldn't be shocked if Jackson Job got called up by June. You know, it's kind of similar to where Yuri Perez was at this time last year. I agree with you guys. I think it's probably unlikely that we see him. But, yeah, I kind of think the Tigers could be in a mix for a wild card spot this year.

So maybe later in the season. season, you know, if pitching injuries just kind of add up and they need more arms and they just, they need an extra punch to that rotation. Obviously, it looks like Jackson Joe will be able to provide that. So lots of strikeout upside here, maybe long term, some injury risk, but yeah, there is a lot to like with Jackson Job of the Detroit Tigers. And remember if you want to hear more about a specific top prospect on a future mailbag, leave us a five-star rating on Apple podcast, drop the prospect's name in the review, and we will get to it on a future show. Real quick, things to promote, make sure to sign up for the FBT newsletter, cbsports.com slash newsletters.

If you're watching on YouTube, you can scan that QR code that will take you right to the website. Hit that FBT logo, punch in your email address. It's easy as that. It's free. Obviously Chris puts a lot of work into it and does a great job. So make sure to support that and download our five-minute podcast, FBT and 5, wherever you listen to this podcast. Let's get into the mailbag questions, and we will start with our Apple podcast reviews.

This one's from Kramer, J33. 12 team head-to-head categories with OBP instead of batting average and pitcher losses instead of whip. Three-year max, one-round penalty for years kept. Based on previous years' draft position, saves are scarce. Most teams rostered three to four closers. Keep three.

Freddie Freeman in the first, George Kirby in the 12th, Gunner Henderson in the fifth, Camillo DeVall in the 15th, Nico Horner in the 17th, Riley Green in the 14th. Freddie Freeman. Yep.

Kirby. Man, that losses instead of whip kind of makes me just want to not worry too much about starting pitchers. I don't know. I don't know how to deal with that one. It does hurt Kirby a little bit

because his whip is so good, but I think the ERA and the wind should be pretty good for Kirby too. Yeah, but look at what else is out there. You know, he's saying saves are scarce. So throwing back a 15th round Camillo Duval

might not might not be something he could do. He's got Nico Horner who tends to go in what, round six, seven. He's got him as a 17th rounder. Probably loses a little bit of value since it's OBP instead of batting average,

but... His OBP should be fine. It should be, yeah, it should be mid-300, 346 last year. And obviously he's going to be a lot of stolen bases, eligible at both middle infield spots. I don't know. I think I'm, and then Gunner Henderson in round five,

that's obviously good value too. I'm eliminating Riley Green as much as you like him, Chris. No, I agree with that, yeah. But the other five, Freddie Freeman's obvious. You have to keep him. So Kirby, Henderson, Duval, and Horner. You need to keep two of those. Again, it's Kirby and.

the 12th, Henderson and the 5th, Deval in the 15th, Horner in the 17th. I don't think you can go wrong. I will say, if this person has a top pick in the draft, though, what if you throw Freeman back, you draft him, and then I would just go with Kirby Deval and Horner? Yeah, that's what I was thinking, yeah. Yeah, I kind of like that. He has the number one pick in the draft? No, no, we don't know that. But I'm saying if this person has a top, you know, it's hard to project because you don't know who's if you have anything less than the number of, like you've got to assume all the Freeman, caliber hitters players are being kept. I mean, if you know they're not, then, and you'll have your choice of other first round

caliber players in round one, then yeah, you could get away with doing that and take advantage of some of these discounts. And now that I'm thinking about it a little more, only three keepers, he said saves are scarce. I was kind of thinking that means all the closers are being kept. If only three closers are being kept, not that many closers. If only three players are being kept, not that many closers are. So I think you can throw Camillo Deval back.

Can I just put one thing out here? And this is true across. fantasy sports. I think having losses as a category is bad. You should not penalize. Because you look at like the players who lose the most games, obviously bad pitchers on bad teams are going to lose a lot of games. Good pitchers are going to lose their share of games too.

I think Logan Webb had more losses than wins last year. Yeah. Like it just I, the problem with this, it's kind of like in fantasy basketball, when turnovers are one of the nine categories. And it's like, hate it. The best players have the ball in their hands more.

Turnovers as a category is mostly just diminishing the value of the best players. I don't know. I don't love the idea of having losses as a distinct category. All right. We got to move on from this one. So I'm just going to say Freeman, Kirby, and Horner. Yeah, I'm going to go with the same. This next one's from DJ.

I am in a Dynasty League with minor league rosters. My question is during our first year player draft, How do you weigh a draft pick against a post-hype sleeper like Brett Beatty or Ricky Tiedeman? I managed to get both of those guys for essentially a second and third round pick. I missed out on some nice prospects like Noble Meyer of the Marlins and Kyle Teal of the Red Sox. So what I would say is to use Scott's top 100 prospect list because they do have other top prospects. They have first-year player drafts. First-year players so you can kind of see where they all kind of rank together.

And you had... Bady is not on that list, right? It's not on that list. That is correct. I was going to point that out. I didn't know first-year player drafts could have players who weren't first-year player. Okay. I see what he's saying.

It could just be a- drafting from among the leftovers here. It could just be a minor league draft, kind of similar to your, you know, the Scott White Dynasty League, right, Scott? I have T-Dem-in as a much higher prospect than Meyer and Teal, to your point. So that would be an easy one. Bady, since he's not listed among my prospects,

because he doesn't qualify as a prospect anymore. It's not a, as obvious, but I think Meyer is so far away as another pitcher drafted straight out of high school that range of outcomes is so wide. I don't think

he's on the same level as Beatty in a league like this. And Kyle Teal, just the fact that he's a catcher. Pretty high floor catcher prospect because his hit tool is so good. There's a good chance he's up for the Red Sox this year, I think.

So it's a closer call between Kyle Thiel and Brett Beatty, but just as a rule, when it's a catcher versus something else, I take the something else. So, Tideman and Beatty. I will say Noble Meyer, I believe, has thrown more than five innings in a start as a professional, or has thrown five innings in a start as a professional as many times as Ricky Keteman has. I believe that stat is correct. Sorry, sorry.

Now, Ricky Tiedman has never thrown more than five innings. That sounds right. And last year, he did not throw five innings. in a single start. So are you saying Ricky Tiedeman is not the obvious? No, I think he is. I just want to, it's important context

because there's a lot of hype around Ricky Tiedeman, and I think it's worth noting. This next one's from Mike in Philly. Pick two pitchers and two hitters to keep in a 12 team head-to-head six-by-six league with OBP instead of batting average,

total bases, K-per-9, quality starts, net saves. All right. Hitters, Corby and Carroll in the third, Gunner Henderson in the 7th, Lars Newbar in the 11th, Trevor's story in the 20th, and Bryson Staten 21st, pitchers Kevin Gosman in round 4, Grace and Rodriguez in round 15, Yuri Perez in round 22, and Mitch Keller also in round 22. Carolyn Henderson are the easy calls. You're getting two high-level players at, even if it was a slight discount, it'd be worth keeping them. They're both pretty significant discounts. So those two guys,

then I would go, Yuri Perez and the top. 22nd and Grayson. I would go Grayson in the 15th. Scott, I would imagine you would go Keller in the 22nd. I'd go Grayson in the 15th. Yeah,

especially if it's a situation where the discount carries over from year to year. Yeah, I rank Grayson Rodriguez higher than Keller in redraft leagues. And I think when you're talking round 15 for Grayson

versus round 22 for Keller, that's, it's seven rounds, I understand, but it's so late for both. Yeah. I'll take Grayson over. The difference.

Between a 15th round pick and a 22nd round pick is marginal at best. This next one's from Vote Refu. Not sure if I got that right. I have a 10-team points league, which I believe is minus 1 for strikeout, so I guess we can keep that in mind. I also pick seventh in every round. So it doesn't snake.

All right, that's interesting. Pick three between Julio Rodriguez, Corbyn Carroll, Spencer Strider, and Corbyn Burns. It's a pretty good group. Well, definitely Corbyn Carroll, definitely Spencer Strider. It comes down to J-Rod and Burns. And normally in a traditional fantasy league, even one of our standard head-to-head points leagues

where it's just minus half a point for hitter strikeouts, I would say. Leo Rodriguez, of course. He's a first rounder. Burns is at best a second rounder. But when you make strikeout, when you penalize hitters a full point for a strikeout, instead of half a point,

some of those bad plate discipline guys get crushed as a result of it. And Julio Rodriguez is a bad plate discipline guy. I'm in a league like this, so I'm trying to pull open last year's stats real quick to see where Julio Rodriguez finished. He was the sixth best outfielder, 455 fantasy points,

is how many he scored. I know the scoring might be a little different. Versus Corbin Burns, who scored 542 fantasy points. So Burns scored more in this particular league. I still think I'd go Julio Rodriguez, just given the scarcity of the outfielders, but it's a closer call between those two

when it's minus a full point for strikeouts. So here's the fun thing. In standard ESPN scoring last year, Corbyn Bairns scored 432 points. Julio Rodriguez scored 431. Okay. Now, I personally expect Corbin Burns to be better than he was last.

season. I'm not sure I necessarily expect Julio Rodriguez to be better than he was last season. It very well could happen. It's within the realm of possibility, but I'm mostly expecting him to stay pretty steady. So I would go Burns over J-Rod in that instance. It's also not just a matter of who scores the most points. They play

different positions. The standard for replacement players different. Yeah, I think I wrote about this the other day. I think the of the top 50 scores in ESPN's format last year only 15 were pitchers? Yeah, it's hard to know exactly what the scoring system is, admittedly.

I don't play in any points leagues on ESPN, but I know a lot of people do, and we have a question coming up a little bit later on about the different rankings across the major site, CBS, Yahoo, and ESPN. We'll get to that later on. Let's take our first break, and after this, we will get to some fantasy justice here on fantasy baseball today. Welcome back in. This next question is from Stonecutter.

Who Needs Fantasy Justice? If you have a question that's not player-related or strategy-related, if it's something that's going wrong in your league, send that in, use the subject fantasy justice in the email, whatever it might be, and we'll get to a few of those on future mailbags as well. Dear Robert Allen and Francis, Chris, you are muted, but... I have no idea. I only know who it is because they included it in the question.

I'll get to that in just a second. My question is in the circumstance of a draft where a manager mispicks or freezes and then auto picks a player he does not want, then several teams pick after. What is the proper procedure? Now, I know that there are some sticklers for this out there. Scott, in every league that I've ever done with you, you are pretty understanding if someone picks the wrong player or if there's some kind of weird computer thing that happens and whatever, we have to back things out. The one thing I would say about this is, if multiple picks happen after something goes wrong, I think you still need to honor those picks. So if we have to go back to someone else who needs to, you know, they misspicked, they cannot pick any of the players that went after their pick. That's what I would say personally.

Agreed. Yeah, I agree with that part. Just as, so I would say that the further away you get from the pick being made, the less forgiving you, need to be. So like if if the pick just happened and the person said no wait, I messed that up, you know, basically any reason, basically any reason they want to back it out. You know, if it doesn't seem like a very good reason, I might be kind of like, eh, yeah, but okay. You know,

I might be begrudgingly back it out and let them redo it. But if it, you know, nine picks happen after that, I think it's the difference of, whoops, I didn't. mean to take that guy versus my computer crash and I've spent the last 10 minutes trying to log back in. You know, if it's, if it's my computer crash and I spent the last 10 minutes trying to log back in, then I think, okay, you swap out the pick. You'll let everybody who picked afterward keep the player they wanted. But, you know, it's a different standard, I think, the further away from the pick you get. But yeah, as a general rule, I'd like to be very forgiving because, you know, that's the kind of thing that can just totally ruin the experience.

a person. And it's not worth that, you know? Like, okay, so maybe they made a bad pick and, and, and it, it improves your state because they made a bad pick and, and now they want to, because the timer ran out on them or whatever. Ha ha, ha sucks for them. But like, is that really how you want to beat them anyway? Is, is just because of an administrative error like that? Don't you want to beat them when they were putting together the best team they, they, they, they, in, getting the actual player they won and putting together the best team they could. That's how I've always thought of it. I agree.

And yeah, it's just not worth, it's just not worth creating a lot of frustration and animosity by being a stickler over a timer, which is mostly there just to keep the draft moving. Robert Allen and Francis, Robert Manfred, Alan Bud Seelig, Francis Vincent. Those are the names that we were looking for, and Fantasy Justice has been served. This next one's from K Good Friend. I am in a 10-te-to-head points league. It's a keeper-slash-dynast-dynasty league where every year we add an additional hitter

and pitcher keeper to our teams. I am torn on who I should keep for my hitter. Jackson Holiday as a second rounder. I have two second-round picks, so all right. Might look at that as a luxury. Or Spencer Torkelson in the seventh. I think I'd still rather do Torkelson. Hang on.

I'm trying to catch up to the details here. every year we add an additional hitter and pitcher keeper to our teams. I feel like I'm missing a lot of pertinent information here. Let me say this. The less turnover there is in the league, the more likely I would lean Jackson Holiday, who I think could be your best player within a couple years. And I don't think that's likely for Spencer Torkelson,

even though the discount, it's not, you know, Holiday as a second round pick, it's not a discount at all. But in a dynasty league with little roster turnover, you could argue he's a top 15, 20 dynasty asset already. So it would make sense that you'd use a second round pick to keep him. But if it's a league where, you know, just like five, six, less than 10 players, let's say, are being kept, that would mean more roster turnover.

That would mean you don't have to be so long. term focused. So maybe in that case, it makes more sense to take Torkels. And the fact you're calling it to Dynasty League, it leads me to believe holidays the best. Also, I have the fourth overall pick in our draft, and our league is skewed towards pitching. My heart is telling me to take Matt Olson, but my brain is telling me to take the best pitcher available, which it looks like it would be Kevin Gosman or Terrick Scoobal.

Any suggestions? My brain and heart tell me to take Olson. Homer. But yes, I would do the same thing. So yeah, I mean, I guess it depends what it means by skewed towards pitching. Like, are pitchers much more valuable in this format than they are in normal ones? Or do pitchers just tend to not be available? Because if it's the former and there's a reasonable chance that Gosman could outscore Matt Olson,

then I might be inclined to just go with Matt Olson, but or with Gosman. But if it's just that pitchers are a little more scarce, then I'd still take, just take the best player. This next is from Matt in Knoxville. Dear Bobby, Billy, Happy, and Nicky. Those sound like title characters for Adam Sandler movies. Four characters from the only four movies Frank has ever watched. There you go. The comedic genius, Adam Sandler, by the way.

12-te-to-head Categories League. I can keep four of the following. Terrick Scoobble, Cole Regens, Jazz Chishol, O'Neill Cruz, J.T. Real Muto, and Nolan Jones. I'm already keeping two pitchers and four hitters. Okay You should keep Scubble Jones

Reagan and Jones We keep talking at the exact same time Yes Scoobel, Nolan Jones Cole Reagan's and What'd you say O'Neill Cruz? I'd go jazz chisholm over O'Neill Cruz But I think that one's close enough

That it's basically a coin flip Yeah I'd prefer Cruz But fair enough I think I would go with crews over jazz, but yeah, that is really close. Let's get into our email questions, fantasy baseball at cbsi.com. This one's from Anthony looking for some advice on how to navigate the back third of the draft. Typically, you've advised the best approach is to fill your bench, filling your bench is to go heavy pitching.

When you get to the later rounds in the draft, you typically prioritize filling your starting hitter spots before pitcher depth, or are you comfortable filling your final utility spots within the last few picks. How do you balance navigating back in pitcher depth versus starting level bats? So this is more of a strategy question. I think there's a lot of nuance involved based on what type of league that you're playing in.

I think in a head-ed-pointe league, I try to fill up the bench with as much pitchers as possible. Maybe I'll take one kind of upside hitter for the bench. The rest is going to be pitching. But in like a typical Roto League, 15 team, we just finished up our TGFBI drafts, the great fantasy baseball invitational.

There are seven bench spots, and I think I had three pitchers and four hitters, right? Like just kind of a mix of upside. So I don't know. And those really deep roto leagues, the 15 teamers, there's such an emphasis on getting pitching on your bench that there just aren't enough to go around. So it's hard to get more than two or three.

In a shallow head-to-head points league, where, you know, head-to-head points is the format where you most need pitching depth. obviously it just depends on how the build is going but I would say it's not uncommon in the head-to-head points league with nine hitter spots in the lineup for me to have at least one of those hitter spots, maybe even two because catchers always one I guess.

So two of those hitter spots, maybe my catcher and my third outfielder to keep them open for a while even as I'm filling out my bench. So I might have eight starting pitchers, the five in my lineup and three on my bench, before I take my third outfielder just because you reach a point in the outfield rankings where there's not a lot of differentiation

and because it's a three outfielder league there's not a lot of demand for a, you know, for a... What's his name? McCormick, Chas McCormick. Chas McCormick type. Like, you know, is there that much difference between Chas McCormick and now I've got to come up with another name?

Masataka Yoshida. Sure, that's a good one. Thank you. Gosh. Yeah, is there that much difference between those two and a head-to-head points league that you really need to take one, four rounds ahead of another? No, there's not. So I'm probably taking pitchers at that point instead. I need to stop talking. It's not going well. All right. So, Chris, you can answer this next question. From John, if you customize the roster to allow larger squads, how would you adjust a salary cap from what seems to be the $260 standard? I am a commissioner of a league that is head. ahead most categories and we're switching to auction drafting this year. We've been going on 10 years and have adjusted our roster to hold more relief pitchers for saves plus holds category, extra outfielder, two catchers, et cetera. In short, we have 26 starters, 15 hitters and 11 pitchers.

Four bench spots, would you advise a $260 budget or $300 or $340 cap, other? And you know, Chris, 260, I don't know how we got to that number. I'm sure some fantasy baseball historians somewhere knows the reason behind $260. But as long as I've played, that is the standard. And it doesn't really change across formats. If you play in a 15-team roto, it's 260. If you're playing in a 12-team points league, it's 260.

So that's just kind of what I'm used to. Yeah, and the thing to keep in mind is every dollar that you add to the pool is almost certainly going to go to the high. end players and not the low end players, right? So like, if you go up to 300, what that probably means is that Ronald Acuna goes for $75 and not that Brian De La Cruz goes for five instead of one. Like that, that's, I think, the way to think about it. So I, I, good job pulling out random names there. That was, thank you, thank you. That were appropriate for the point you were making.

That was very good. That's a rare skill. When I think about this question, you're talking about three extra starters relative to a traditional Roto League, which is $260 for 23 starters. I think 260's fine. Like, ultimately it doesn't matter, right? Like, I'm in a football league where everyone decided they wanted more money to spend during the auction. So we raised our budget from 100 to 120. It doesn't really, like everybody still has the same amount of money. everybody still has to distribute the same amount of money across the same roster spots.

I don't really think it matters. And given that you're only talking about three extra roster spots, I think 260's perfectly fine. And as we mention a lot on the podcast, whenever we're talking about salary cap leagues, auction leagues, go to Fangraphs.com, hover over their projections tab, and use their auction calculator. You can punch in any type of league settings,

however many spots you have, different categories, and it will punch out, it will reveal what the salary cap values, the auction values are for players in that format. So again, it's an invaluable tool and I would recommend it to everybody. This next one's from Kyle, who says, glad to be back with you for another season.

Well, thank you, Kyle. I am wondering who you are viewing as a better late round bounceback candidate between Christian Javier and Tristan McKenzie. They're not priced the same, are they? I don't think so. I think Javier is going a bit higher. Yeah, closer than I thought.

Within 50 picks of each other, it looks like. Okay. But McKenzie later, McKinsey did have his spring debut and just the other day. And I don't think there were any velocity readings available. No. Just anecdotally, it went well. So I was kind of not even interested in him at all, McKenzie, who dealt with elbow and shoulder problems last year, I believe,

until I saw that, until I saw him back pitching again and could at least have the faith that he was going to step on a mound at some point this year. So that renewed my interest slightly, but I still have Christian Javier way higher in my rankings.

I mean, Javier was better in 2022. I know McKenzie pitched more innings, but on a perning basis, Javier was quite a bit better. And strikeout, rate has always been better for Javier. I feel like people are being a little too dismissive of Javier overall. I understand last year went poorly and there were some issues with his fastball shape,

which was really the whole strength. The strength of his arsenal was the fastball shape. So if he lost that, you understand why he struggled to the extent he did. But there's evidence that later in the season he began to fix it again. I know he lost a lot of weight this off season, hoping that would help lock in his mechanics better, because he just kind of lost his mechanics last year. And that's fixable. That's very fixable.

I don't think Christian Javier's decline last year is one of those declines where it's like, okay, his skills have diminished and there's no way he could get this back. I think it's more like he was doing something wrong and he needs to figure out what he was doing wrong and start doing it right again. And I think there's a pretty good chance of that happening. And he doesn't have the injury concerns that Tristan McKenzie does. And his Christian Javier's velocity was up so far in spring. He averaged 93.7 with his four-seem fastball on today's Thursday, right? Thursday.

When we're recording this. Yes. As we're recording, he was pitching. Velocity was up about one mile per hour with his fastball. So I think that's a good sign. I'd much rather have Christian Javier. than Tristan McKenzie. The only thing with Javier that worries me is that he is a two-pitch pitcher, and like Joe Ryan,

he kind of relies on this deceptive rising fastball. And if there's anything off with a fastball like we saw last year, he just crumbles. And so I can't get that out of my mind. There's downside risk for sure. There's downside risk. That's why he's going as late as he is. But I think it's too late considering the upside potential. There's downside for both of them.

But what I was going to ask is, if I guaranteed. 160 innings for each of them, does that change the calculation? Because if I knew for sure McKenzie was on the mound for the same amount as Javier, I might actually take McKenzie. I think Javier is a better pitcher. I had McKenzie as a bus candidate last year.

I think, like he's got the fastball. He's got two good breaking balls. The fastball is a decent pitch, but it's not a great one. I have concerns about his arsenal and how effective he's going to be as much as I am really rooting for Tristan McKensey. Yeah, I think he's, there's pretty significant performance risk there for him as well.

Yeah, I prefer Javier even giving them an equal number of innings, yes. All right, this last question we're going to get to is from Sean, dear, Carmen, Sydney, and Richie. Oh, the bear. That's correct. I haven't watched it, but I've heard anything. It's phenomenal. Hey, gang, one of my favorite pieces that you put out every year is the one covering site ADP gaps between the big three of CBS, ESPN, and Yahoo.

While I love the CBS format and obviously the show, two of my three. leagues have unfortunately not seen the light. However, I was wondering if you could specifically spotlight some of the consensus FBT loves that just can't be loved as deeply over on those other sites. I'll admit, Cole Reagan's is a big inspiration for this question. And Chris, this is where I throw it over to you because I know you just wrote multiple articles covering this topic. Yeah, so this was Wednesday's FBT newsletter, I believe I wrote about it and the site, the stores are on the site, best values at CBS, ESPN Yahoo, Yahoo, worst values at each as well. There's two different pieces.

I don't know how you, how do you want to discuss it? So, I mean, this particular question, I guess, is asking about players that we love that maybe they're ranked too high on the other sites, I guess, because that admits Cole Reagan's

is a big inspiration for this. So, I don't know. I really get that because I got ADP pulled open here now and Reagan's goes earlier on our site than any of the others. Yeah. Hmm, maybe. Maybe it's, okay, players that we have higher on CBS that are ranked lower on other sites. All right.

So the players who are being drafted highest on ESPN relative to the other formats I compared, each site to the fantasy pros consensus. And some patterns emerge when you look at ESPN in particular, Stephen Kwan, Kaber Ruiz, Luis Arayes, Junghuli, Ketalmarte, like extreme contact-oriented hitters. tend to be way more expensive on ESPN for, I think, obvious reasons, as we talked about earlier, that you get the extra penalty for strikeouts in that format.

Even then, though, like, Stephen Kwan's ADP on ESPN is 69th, that's just a bad value. Like, even knowing the difference in scoring format, I... So we're talking ADP here versus rankings. I mean, I guess it comes out about the same, right? Yeah, I'm looking at the ADP, each site. Yeah.

A particular site is more or less going to align to the default ranking in that draft room. Okay. So, and ESPN doesn't have roto ADP. They only have head-to-head points ADP. I'm pretty sure points are their predominant format. Yeah,

their default. And it's minus one for a strikeout. So that's why those players get pushed up in that format. Yeah, it's a little hard to compare across formats like that because I assume all the other ADP data from the other. from the other sites is for Roto League's 5 by 5 categories

league. So I believe Yahoo's default is head-to-head categories. CBS is head-to-head points. ESPN is head-to-head points. I don't know. On Fantasy pros, they got a roto ADP up here. Fair. They don't have our head-to-head points. Chris, was there any other names that you wanted to...

I don't know how helpful this discussion is for an annual name. Yeah, I mean, I'll just name some players who are overvalued on Yahoo as well. Kerry Carpenter is 40 points 40 spots higher in Yahoo ADP, Brandon Fott, Tyler O'Neill, Shane Boz. Shane Boz is 197 at Yahoo. I think that's probably too rich a price to pay,

especially in a shaller league like that. Robert Stevenson, James Outman, Justin Turner, John Carlos Stanton, Josh Young, and Carlos Correa are all going higher at Yahoo. Would you like to know some players who are going lower? Yes. In those leagues. Okay, at ESPN, it's a lot of guys who strike out

Noelvie Marte, O'Neill Cruz, Tyler O'Neill, Josh Lowe, Jazz Chisholm, C.J. Abrams. I actually think C.J. Abrams is a really good value. At ESPN, he's 137. Wow. So I like that one. Jordan Walker's 199 over there. And then a couple pitchers. Shane Boz is 321 at ESPN.

I think that's actually a good value. Didn't like him on Yahoo. And Aaron Savale is 314 at ESPN. So I think that's a pretty good value. And then at Yahoo. Mitch Garver's 400th in ADP of Yahoo. I know it's a one-catcher default for their head-to-head categories leagues,

but he's still a top 12 catcher for me. I know he is for Scott as well, Frank. I don't know if he is for you, but that just... I have him a little bit lower, but I think I have him higher than 400th. Yeah, if I'm... And Bo Nailer is also a very good value.

Those make sense, given that it's a one catcher. Jared Duran is 269 at Yahoo. That's great value, even in the three outfielders. League. Jammer Condolario, 283, Trevor Story, 282. Lars Neupar, Wyatt Langford is still only 219. And Brian Beyo is actually maybe the most undervalued pitcher at Yahoo. 287 ADP for Brian Beio. So I like that one. Who just signed an extension with the Red Sox and someone that I do like. I wrote them up in my breakouts 2.0. So let's go, Brian Beow. Let's take our final break. When we return, we'll be joined by a special guest here on Fantasy

baseball today. Welcome back in and we would like to welcome to the show a very special guest, one that was one of our fantasy football today, Draftathon winners. Welcome to the show. Mike Meyer, what's going on, Mike? Hey guys, how are you? Doing very well. Thanks again, obviously, for contributing to a great cause with the FFT Draftathon. All of the proceeds went to St. Jude Children's Hospital. A few things before we start here, Mike is a Red Sox fan. So I just have to throw that out. First and four months. I was already on the fence. All right. You're a Yankees fan, right? Don't act like you're any better.

But his birthday was yesterday, so I'll let him slide. Happy birthday, Mike. Hey, thank you. Appreciate it. I also appreciate Mike because he basically made the rundown for this appearance. So, yes, anybody who wants to make the rundown, you're welcome to come on the show because it's a very taunting task.

Let's start with the first topic here and multiple topics on trade. So Scott wrote an amazing article on trades. It was voted the article of the year, the fantasy baseball article of the year by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and how the landscape has changed over the year. So let's just kind of run through a few of these topics here. And Mike, I'll start with you and then we can kind of open up a roundtable discussion. Trade etiquette. That's the first thing, right? It's like the appropriate amount of time that one should be required to respond to a trade. If you get

a bad trade, you know, some people, you know, someone will send a trade, hey, I'll offer you my, I don't know, Masataka Yoshita, that's the name today, for Corbyn Carroll. Obviously, that's a terrible trade. Someone responds, wow, well, I'm just going to offer you the worst player on my team for the best player on yours, and, like, that's not cool. So Mike, talk to me about

trade etiquette. Yeah, so I play in a league that has quite a few trades with the Dynasty League. So, of course, you know, guys halfway through the year tend to, you know, make the decision, hey, I'm not in it this year, let me go for next year. But there seems to be this, you know, circumstance where you send somebody

an offer preseason, and it just sits there. And so the question becomes, you know, how much time is an appropriate amount of time to either, A, wait for a response, B, withdraw your offer and move on to another trade target potentially, or, you know, just the general, hey, what should we be looking at? If are we, if we're dealing with engaged owners with cell phones nowadays, everybody's getting the message. You get the trade, do something. Either, hey, quick text message of, hey, I got your offer.

I'm reviewing it. or you're insane. I'm not trading Corbyn Carroll for Masataka Yoshita. So what do you think is a good etiquette? What's a good time frame? Yeah, so I think if you see the trade offer, and you probably do see the trade offer the day it's made, get an email alert and everything,

I think if you don't like it, hit reject, spare everybody the pain of thinking, it's going somewhere. If you like it, but you're not sure about it, or let's say you're just not sure about it, whatever, you need some time to think about it.

Send the owner a message, letting them know, hey, I got your trade offer. I'm not totally sure I'm into it, but I want to think about it a little longer. Can I let you know whenever? Give them a time frame. It doesn't have to be like

there's this universal time frame, but just communicate. You know, like, don't ignore it. That is, that's part of, I mean, this was one of the things that I brought up in the article about what's made trading so much more frustrating is just that, yeah, I think too often too many trade responses go unanswered. And I presume it's because they didn't like the trade and just didn't bother to click decline. But you can't know for sure if there's no communication. Maybe they did. Maybe they are just thinking about it.

And so if it's an offer that you still want to be a part of, you have to consider, you don't want to take it back if it's something that they are thinking about. Chris, why are you laughing? We just got a, we got a child. We got little Scott, little distracted. Yeah, we deal with that real quick. It's all good.

It's all good. Yes, you do that and we'll be back. That was hilarious. First time we've seen little Scott. here on the show. So that's a first. That's great. Let's talk a little bit about trade strategy and Mike, maybe some things that come to mind for you or things that you think about when kind of forming your trades, any strategies that you use. What do you have there? Sure. So I think one of the things is to know the owners in your league, if that's possible. You know, if it's a

public league that you just joined, probably not as easily accessed. But, you know, for example, knowing that, you know, Frank, you're a Yankees fan or Chris with the Marlins or Scott with the Brave, you know, is it is it a world where we can sort of take advantage or not take advantage, but, you know, have a different strategy. Knowing that I'm a Red Sox fan, I may value, you know, Tyler O'Neill more than I value Claver Torrance, that type of thing. So, you know, what are some other strategies involved other than knowing your owners and knowing sort of their MLB allegiance or is it not a factor at all?

Chris, what do you think about the idea of strategies? Once you've played in a league with people for long enough, you do start to notice certain trends and certain quirks that everybody has in terms of the players that they target and the players that they avoid. This has been a very eventful podcast.

We have kids. We have cat feeders going off. I think I heard Scott's text notifications earlier too. This is why we normally in the wee hours of the morning where there can be no interruptions, no distractions. Yeah, sorry about that.

Yeah, no. So you, like, there's always one person in your league who really likes prospects. And there's always one person in your league who it seems like hasn't really watched baseball in the last three years. And so they draft the best players from three years ago. You guys know, you guys know what I'm talking about. That happens in every draft. And so, yeah, knowing your league beyond just who you're playing with. But, you know, obviously knowing who you're playing with, knowing the settings, all that stuff is all.

always super important for drafting, for trading, et cetera. So yeah, I think that's absolutely a big deal, is knowing what type of player the people in your league tend to value or undervalue. This was another one of the frustrations raised in my article, though, is that it's harder to find differentiation. It's harder to find true agreement, you know, like a challenge trade with people than it used to be

because information has gotten so much. much better over the years. And fantasy players, just as a general rule, are much sharper than they used to be. Everybody kind of, there's a lot more consensus about player values.

And so if you can find, if you can find an avenue of differentiation there, like a path where you two can come together on liking different players more, then I think that's invaluable. And that's really a big, part of making a trade work these days.

It's really hard to find people now who like at last year's All Star Break viewed Bryce Elder as an ace. It just doesn't happen anymore. And so when we say sell high, well, if every single fantasy analyst is calling a player a sell high and every single article that you read says sell high on them,

people are going to be hesitant to buy. And so that's, it's a real problem not just in fantasy. That's a problem in professional sports. Every player is valued similarly. Most teams look at things in a very similar way, so you don't really have a lot of situations where one team just way under or overvalues a player.

It just doesn't really happen. Look at Blake Snell and Cody Bellinger. There wasn't a team out there willing to give them the $250 million contract or whatever it was that they were looking for. Yeah, that's exactly the example. that I was gonna bring up, so I agree completely there. Mike, you have a question here regarding prospects and trading and keeper dynasty leagues.

And Scott, I know you have lots of thoughts on this and it's very league dependent. How many players are you keeping? How deep is the league, so on and so forth? But Mike, do you have a preference or do you like to acquire prospects? Do you have a strategy yourself when it comes to either trading, acquiring,

or keeping prospects year over year? Yes, so the league I mentioned before, we have, it's 5 by 5-5 roto, 15 teams with a 17 round draft at the end of it. So it's very deep. 40 players are rostered per team. So you get way down in the player pool. One of the things that I kind of look at, you know, a lot of guys will take prospects in the draft portion of that after the auction is completed. I tend to look at prospects as sort of commodities or collateral. So if you get yourself in a position, you know, in mid-season where you're sort of, hey, I have a shot at winning this, players are performing, or you've gotten a lot of value. You can kind of use

these guys as trade chips to say, all right, I'm all in. I'm going to go for the title. Or, hey, you know what, I'm not in it. I have a bunch of prospects. Let me start building for next year, whether that's trading those guys or not. But what ends up kind of being the question is with prospects, you never know. For every Corbyn Carroll, there's a Joe Adele that just doesn't come through fruition as you would hope it to be. So, you know, what are the thoughts on, you know, depending on where you're at, is it contingent on that only? Or do you just hold and hope for the best with Fernando T's to tease as a prospect? So we were just talking about market inefficiencies and how they're harder.

It's harder to find those on the trade market. But prospects can be one. This is something I've noticed in different dynasty formats I play in, is that just by virtue of labeling it a dynasty league, people assume prospects have as much value as they do in real life. And depending on the setup of that dynasty league, they don't. And that's actually kind of why I set up the Scott White Dynasty League the way that I do is I wanted to make it so that prospects genuinely did have as much value as they do in real life. And you're not seeing people overseeing prospects in a way that doesn't really make sense to the rules.

And I think the key distinction there is how much does it cost to keep this prospect early in his career? What makes tanking, I guess, is what people call it now. What makes it such a viable strategy in MLB is that if you get this rush of prospects on your roster at once, well, suddenly you have a nucleus that's dirt cheap, you know, and you can fill in, you can add more money at that point to make it a super team where you're, you know, your best players are dirt cheap and then you're bringing in some more expensive players who are also really good. And that's how you get this juggernaut. You can last several years.

You can afford to quote unquote overpay. Right, exactly, which is what people say the free agent market always is, an overpay. So for that to apply in a dynasty league, it has to be set up the same way so that prospects, even once they get to a point where you can use them, they are dirt cheap to keep for at least three years. And if it's not set up that way, then prospects don't have as much value in real life. And I think it makes more sense if that market efficiency, inefficiency exists where people are overvaluing prospects just because they're prospects and just because it's a dynasty link, then yeah, you can take advantage of it and mostly use prospects as currency. I agree. At least, Nars, I see a lot of guys, they want to be right.

They want to, you know, hey, I tab that guy. I've had him on my roster for two years and now he's an All-Star. You're Gunner-Hentersons of the world. that type of thing where you see guys where I'm more apt to say, I'll give up Gunner Henderson two years before, you know, he's going to be good for somebody that can add value right now. Let's talk about inflation in Dynasty and Keeper Leagues. And I think this one is a little bit tougher to talk about because it is so league dependent and there's a lot of nuance involved in it too. I think something that I've tried to do at least, the Scott White Dynasty League is kind of

its own beast, right? So when I'm trying to figure out how much a player might go for in the auction, I will look back at previous year's auctions. So try and find similar players and say, all right, you know, this player went for this much here, but obviously it's just so dependent on how many players are being kept that year. And it's never, there's never going to be one right answer. For example, I mean, Yamamoto was available in the auction. And there were teams that were out of it, like to start the year. They're just rebuilding teams that say, I'm going to acquire the highest price pitcher and then trade him immediately after the draft. Yamamoto went for $87 in the Scott White Dynasty League. So it's really hard to talk about this across multiple leagues. But,

Scott, I think what I've tried to do in the past is look at how much players go for in the previous year to try and give you an idea, although it's not going to be perfect. No, it's not going to be close to perfect. I, you know, it's funny. We were doing the Scott White Dynasty League, the free agent draft which is you know done via auction and um i had more spots open than i've ever had before in that league and so you know usually i just go in and i've kind of my plan of dynasty league is to always be building for next year so usually i go into it and i'll have two or three spots to fill and i just get the best of what i can get for however much it cost me and it's not a big deal but i

had more like 10 spots to fill this time and i was getting so frustrated because there was just nothing, no standard for comparison. So players were going for certain prices and I'm like, I have no idea if the other players who would meet the need are going to go for less than that or way more than that or basically the same amount. Should I be in on this? Should I not be in on this? I don't have a good answer for you because it was driving me nuts.

I guess you just have to go in knowing what your needs are and have a certain amount that you're willing to spend to meet that need. and then whatever caliber of player you get for that is who you get. That's probably the best advice I can offer. Mike, do you have any thoughts? Because obviously you included this on the rundown. I don't know, like obviously something specific to your league, but is there a way that you have tried to calculate inflation in your league?

No. And actually kind of like your answer, kind of looking back historically speaking to see what similar players have gone for. I guess it's all about, you know, pre-auction, with your keeper list, if you're allowed, you know, 15 keepers or whatever, is try to get as many players under value as you may. So you may go for, you know, a $1, Tyro Estrada versus a $42 Raphael Devers. You know, how are you calculating those things?

So, yeah, the answer to your question short, no, I don't have a good idea how to do it. I just try to get as much value prior to the auction that I know like, hey, I'm saving whatever, $7 on, you know, Estrada versus overpay. paying and keeping endeavors coming into the league. Let's talk about rebuilding in Dynasty and Keeper League. Scott, you just talked about how you're constantly thinking about the next year. So I don't think that you're ever in a position where you just need to, all right, let me completely tear this thing down and rebuild.

But there are many people who do play that way. So how do you attack it? Yeah, I mean, partly that depends on the setup of the league too. One of the things I get a lot of grief for in my Dynasty League every year is I don't allow off-season trading, and I understand why that's frustrating, but I've seen in other dynasty leagues too often somebody trade away all their prospects to non-contenders who are eager to get whatever they can for the players they're not going to keep, bring back all this surplus for the current season that takes them to an easy

championship, and then in the off-season, they turn around and sell off all those parts they acquired for the many more hopeful contenders that exist in the offseason. So they're winning on both sides of that transaction, basically. They're buying low on the win now types, and then they're selling at a higher rate, those win now types after they've already won. And that just seemed like not with, that doesn't seem to be in the spirit of a dynasty league to me, where it's more about building a nucleus that sustains you for, for years to come. so I forget what the broader question is and why I got off on that tangent

what was it we were asking it just more about I guess how do you go about rebuilding or retooling or I guess your general thoughts on all that yeah so like I said I am always I approach every dynasty league as in does this trade help me next year Because if you're constantly doing that, then eventually you wind up with so much surplus that you kind of can't lose. Even if you're thinking about next year. So, you know, you have so many cheap options for the next year that are also helpful for this year that you can trade away the expensive options for future considerations without really costing yourself in the standings for the current year, if that makes sense. and it takes a while to get to that point and you have to be

dedicated to do it but I think that's the I think that's the most effective way to build a true dynasty and a dynasty league. I'm not saying I never make a trade to bolster my team for the current year knowing I'm not going to keep this guy

that I trade for but it would have to be something that doesn't really compromise me in the future or at least yeah I would say that It has to be something that's not really going to compromise my future.

It would have to be like more of a discount situation where a team who's out of contention is just willing to trade this piece for nickels on the dollar. Mike, do you have any thoughts or questions regarding rebuilding in that format? Yeah, I think that one of the things kind of leads to the next point is at what time is a good time to make that decision, whether you go all in for this year because historically speaking in our league, it is an auction so guys maintain contract values, but it's one of those that, you know, is it a mid-May, is it an all-star break? Because it seems to be, you know, everybody that is in contention has made multiple trades

of giving up prospects, giving up lower dollar value guys for, you know, a $70 accune to make a run for it the last few months. So I guess that would be, my follow-up question would be, at what time is a good barometer to say, I need to start making decisions? Am I in it or am I not in it? So the hard thing there, and it's the same thing that you see in the actual trade deadline, is if you want maximum impact for a trade, you should probably do it earlier. Because you're going to have more time with that player on your team. The problem there is the earlier you're trying to make trades, the less certain you are that you're going to make the playoffs and the less certain other teams are that they are not.

And so finding that window is always super tough. but I think as a general rule, you should be trying to, if you're going to try to improve your roster, you should be trying to do it as early as possible so you can get the maximum impact from it. So you're not, you know, having that lesser player in your lineup for longer.

It's just you might end up having to pay more. I think it makes a difference too if it's a head-to-head or roto league. Yes. And I'm not fond of roto dynasty leagues as a principle because like there, there's no playoffs obviously so every team is out of it

every team but the couple who are in it are out of it much sooner you know and so it really throws things off but if it is a head-to-head league it doesn't make a big difference to me whether I'm first in the standings or sixth in the standings you know however many teams make the playoffs in this particular head-to-head league

so I am I am generally inclined to wait on helping my team at presence to give it as much time as possible to see if it is a true contender or not because I don't want to give up future assets if for a long shot bid you know if it gets down

if we're closing it on the trade deadline and I'm like yeah if I just fill this one need I think I could be a true contender here even as the sixth seed or whatever then okay but I want it I am future-minded enough that I want to see it play out first before committing to it too early.

I think that's a good point, Scott, between the formats, because in a head-to-head league, the best team doesn't always win. We just got to be there. As long as you get in the dance, like, you have a chance. In Roto, if you get to July 1st

and you're in 15th place, I think you've probably got to be realistic about, all right, what's happening this year? Well, even if you're an eighth place, you know, it doesn't even have to be that extreme example. True. Like, if there are, clear, you know, top three or four teams, again, I think that's a good point is being realistic

with where you're at and your chances to compete. And obviously, that will be dependent on format. But if you see the writing on the wall, you know, instead of waiting to August 1st, when, you know, that's the trade deadline, everyone's trying to make trades. If it's July 1st, you're in 8th or 9th. And look, there's three teams that are, you know, they have 120 points in the rotos standings. Then you probably know, all right, it's not going to happen. Let me try and make moves before everyone else is trying to do the same thing. Mike, you have something on the run down here called the Ricky Bobby. What do we do with that? So, so this is interesting. So this was my first experience in this league is that we had, I was trying to do some trades at the deadline. And I came

across a lot of owners that were, you know, if I'm not first, I'm last. So there are, you know, prizes for second place, third place, fourth place. I think it's top five that, that get, you know, a bonus at the end of it. But it was really weird. I've never experienced this before that I actually was making deals with guys that were ahead of me in the standings that were quote unquote dumping or tanking because they were like, if I can't win the whole thing, I'm out. And I was like, that's so foreign to me.

I was like, if I can get second place, hey, I'll take it. This is a good year. So obviously without pilveraging your entire roster, but I didn't know how commonplace this was in your guys. So this is, is this a Roto League? Correct. Okay. So like I said, that that adds to that feeling of feeling like you're out of it sooner and not wanting to bother to improve.

Even if you're, you know, even if you're in fourth place, you may feel like you're out of it in a Roto League. So that's why I don't think it's the ideal setup for a dynasty league. I think part of this too, and I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion, is like if you're playing fantasy, baseball because you enjoy fantasy baseball and you can take satisfaction in a second place finish in a roto league because like you know i did really well i almost won even though it isn't that this is why i don't generally like to play for money i understand it adds incentive for people i understand people use it to supplement their income but i would rather just play for the sake of the competition you know and and because once you add money and it's in the money you're out of the money what does it matter if i'm out of the

money. It's like a negative incentive for people who would otherwise be competitive, you know? And so that's, that's why I'm not fond of it. I know it's unpopular, but I don't like playing for money. Mike, let's wrap up with this. I know you're a part of something cool going on out there in Arizona. So I wanted to give you the opportunity to plug what you have going on. And what do you got? Yeah. So I am a commissioner of AZ play ball pony baseball. We are a baseball league here with about 40 teams. Our home field is under repair, looking to get a synthetic surface in the infield. So we're offering the chance for any listeners that want to help us out in that cause. We're a nonprofit organization.

We're looking to get a more playable field and also, you know, spend a lot less money on water. Out here in Arizona, you can imagine to keep a field green in 120 degree temps. It takes a lot, a lot of water. So right now on our website, we're on www.azeyplayball.com. We have a donate button up there in the upper left-hand corner. You can click that and make a donation to our league, get you a tax receipt for it and everything. It would be great cause. Help out the kids.

Awesome stuff. Appreciate you, Mike. It's a great, great discussions here between, look, I'm sure things that other people are thinking about. And I'm really happy that you came on and that you made the rundown. So thank you for that. Thank you. It's been a pleasure, guys. Appreciate it.

We're going to wrap there for Scott, Chris, and Mike. 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'll be back again next week. Bye-bye.