Fantasy Baseball Today - James McCann to the Mets! 2021 Keepers! Mailbag! (12/15 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: December 15, 2020

We've got moves! Kind of. Let's jump right into the latest news and notes from the weekend, including James McCann to the New York Mets (2:15). Is he a Top-10 catcher? Nate Lowe was traded to the Texas Rangers and is now FREEEEE! Greg Holland re-signed with the Royals. Is he their closer? ... Scott's Top-50 keepers for 2021 will be published soon on the site (19:17). What is his process? ... Let's talk about some fun keepers, starting with Luke Voit (24:05). Can he be a top five first baseman? ... How should we approach Dinelson Lamet (26:28)? Would you trust him as your SP2?... Kenta Maeda was otherworldly in 2020 but is he worth a top-50 draft pick (30:00)? ... Dylan Bundy started hot but faded (33:15). Should he be considered a Top-25 SP? ... Is Dominic Smith a Top-10 first baseman (37:07)? ... We wrap up the show with your keeper and dynasty questions (43:00)! ... Email us at [e-mail]. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

Welcome to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, December 15th. Frank Stanfell and Scott White here. And last week, we had a. big Lanslin trade to kick off winter meetings. I thought it was going to be a huge week of moves, Scott, and it wasn't really. I mentioned we have moves, but they're not really big moves. So, what's going on, Scott? We've got some stuff to talk about. This is Scott's last week on the podcast, not forever, just until the new year. I hope not forever. I hope not forever as well. Do you think one of the big free agents will sign while you're gone, Scott?

I mean, it depends what you're calling a big free agent. It's been pretty quiet through Christmas the past couple off seasons. And early indications are, I know some of the national beat writers are talking about how it's going to be a slow moving off season again. So I don't know. Maybe one will sign, but I doubt we'll see a whole slew of signings while I'm gone. I am fully ready for it. I am 100% ready for everyone to sign while Scott's out. I'm doing an emergency podcast left and right.

Scott's on staycation, lounging on the couch, looking at his beautiful Christmas tree, and I'm just here. Just slaving away, having fun, talking about fantasy baseball. Today on the show, we will talk about some of these lesser moves. James McCann signed it's something. We'll talk about it. We have a bit of a keeper extravaganza.

Scott has his top 50 keepers coming out for 2021, coming out soon on CBSports.com. So we'll give you a little sneak peek on that. We'll talk about some of the players listed there in the ranks. I watched a popular Christmas movie this past weekend. Has Scott seen it? We're going to have to find out. And we do have your mailbag questions,

which are mainly keeper and dynasty related. But let's start off with James McCann. Scottie signed with the Mets four years, $40 million. They opt to go with McCann rather than sign J.T. Real Muto because I think they want to make other moves, whether it's Trevor Bauer or George Springer or Francisco Lindora that remains to be seen for the Mets.

But simple question. Is James McCann a top 10 catcher for fantasy? Yes, he is. I had him in my top 10 already in anticipation of him signing to be a starter. And now, I mean, with this contract, I mean, this is a nice contract for somebody coming where James McCann was coming from. He was an All-Star in 2019 for the White Sox as their starter. But in a way that I think people were pretty suspicious of.

And the White Sox themselves, they went out and signed Yasmani Grandal that off. season. But they were still able to find enough at Bats for Mikan this year, by playing Grundal at first base a lot, actually, to give them enough at bats to kind of validate that all-star performance of 2019 and actually improve upon it. I mean, the OPS jumped by like 100 points, and he did it with a lower bad bet.

So still a high babbub overall, but he's a good line drive hitter. So I, you know, the expected stats on stats, That cast still say James McCann overachieved, but it's one of those situations where I don't know that the expected stats are the first playas I look with him. James McCann has consistently had a very high line drive rate, and that's usually a good predictor of batting average. So among catchers, trying to pull open the rankings here,

I have, that's not what I thought I was opening. I have him, I think I have him ninth. Uh, yeah, I have him ninth and, uh, and that's where I'm going to leave him, top 10 catcher. I mean, obviously catcher not the deepest position, but, you know, he's one of the more trustworthy guys there, if you like. Yeah, you have him ninth in both head-to-head and roto for catchers. I have him 10th in head-to-head. He does strike out quite a bit. I also have him 10th in roto. So just behind Sean Murphy and Gary Sanchez, but I think that's a good place to have him. and I'm happy you address the Babbitt because I tweeted about him when he signed over the weekend.

Someone's like, well, is Babbitt is out of control? But you're right. Line drive rate, high line drive rate, usually correlates well with a high batting average on balls and play. I trust McCann. I think what we've seen in the past two seasons since the start of 2019 is an 808 OPS, which is tied for sixth among catchers with at least 300 plate appearances.

He was a top 10 catcher in 2019, where he was basically an everyday catcher. and he averaged 2.7 fantasy points per game this past season as a part-time player, which was better than Wilson Contreras, who had a down year, and it was better than Christian Vasquez as well. So I like James McCain, no problem with it, as a top 10 catcher. I did just want to ask, do you think this has any effect on Lucas Gialito, Scott? Small sample size, everything that we're dealing with,

but four starts with Yasmani Grandal as his catcher for Gialito in 2020, a 5.66 ERA, eight starts with James McCann, of courts includes the no-hitter, a 2.61 ERA. Am I reading into things too much here? Not necessarily. The thing is, I mean, McCann rated as a great framer this year, but I don't think that was true in previous years. Grandal has always been that.

I mean, that, like, we know him. For a long time in fantasy, Osmondi, Grandal has been one of the high-end catchers. So we think of them as more of an offensive force, but he's even more valuable on the defensive side, I would say. So I think he and Gialito will be able to figure it out. Obviously, they're still going to have another catcher on the roster, and maybe if those two can't figure it out, Gialita will prefer working to the backup.

I think it'll be okay. I think they'll figure something out. I don't think the catcher leaving is going to, I can't think of an instance where that's happened before, where a catcher left and then the pitcher was never good again. That doesn't really happen. Yeah, and I wouldn't expect that to happen for Gialito. That would be quite extreme.

But it is worth noting that it was four of the first five starts that Gialito made the season that he had with Grondoll. And it was that first start where he really just got shelled, three and two thirds, seven earned against the Minnesota twins in the first start of this season. So that really accounted for a large majority of those struggles. I'm not really worried about it myself. Nate Lowe, Jake Gunther and a player to be named later were traded to the Texas Rangers for three prospects. Scott, I was doing a dance around the house, having myself a little party.

I like Nate Lowe, man. I've been waiting for this guy to get everyday playing time for the past two seasons, and he will have that opportunity with the Texas Rangers now. So I've been chasing the minor league numbers for Nate Lowe, and the strikeout rate was high in 2020, but he did some other really nice things, nearly a 12% walk rate, 8% line drive rate. So what can the upside be for somebody like Lowe, who is now with the Rangers? Can he be a top 15-ish first baseman? Would you start him as like a... Would you target him as like a corner infielder for Roto?

What are you thinking? Certainly the upside is there to be a top 15 first baseman. I mean, that's a pretty low threshold that I feel like, I feel like most everyday players, unless they're just completely without power. And there are very few players like that in the game today. Have the potential to be a top 15 player at their position. I have been, the whole fantasy baseball world has been pretty excited about Nate Lowe for a while now.

He just kept getting passed over by the Rays, obviously one with the Rangers. They had a terrible lineup last year. They really need him. And, you know, my favorite thing about him in the minors was the plate discipline, actually. So I understand it hasn't translated well to the majors since he was striking out a third of the time, very limited samples, obviously. But he seemed like a well-rounded hitter

based on his minor league production. He doesn't seem like this all-or-nothing guy. And to me, that suggests the upside could be quite high for him. Now he's on the older side and raise our smart organization. Maybe there's a good reason they kept passing him over. It's not a slam dunk he's going to succeed here

But he becomes a late round sleeper for sure Maybe maybe the raise knows something that we don't But 2018 in the minors 985 OPS with 27 homers 2019 in the minors 929 OPS 16 homers And he has held his own against lefties I was looking this up

Really at every minor league level He's held his own against lefties Done so in the majors as well So I am pretty excited about Nate Lowe getting an everyday role. The Texas Rangers went out and also signed David Dahl to a one-year $3 million deal. His career splits.

9-18 OPS in Coorsfield. 722 on the road. Hunter Renfro was signed for a one-year $3 million deal. Scott, which one of these players are you more interested in, if any? Dahl to the Rangers or Renfro to the Red Sox? Dahl, because I'm swinging big, right? I'm swinging for the best possible.

outcome. Renfro, I mean, he does swing big, but there are clear limitations on who he can be. He's going to be a guy who hopefully slugs a lot of home runs and doesn't do much else. We know that. Dahl, I mean, he's running out of chances to make good on his potential here. I think this is his age 27 season he's going into. So he's getting up there now. Obviously, a lot of injuries have prevented him for meeting that potential. but, and obviously he's had good seasons in the past, but they seem dependent on the cores factor. You mentioned the splits there, and if you break it down even smaller than that,

if you chop it up even more, like the play discipline is pretty bad for David Dahl, and it's not like he's been great about elevating the ball either. He seems, he seems like, it seems like his, success in the past, what he's had in the majors, has depended on the Babbup inflating

effects of course field that obviously he's losing now, going anywhere else he was going to lose it. So his best year 2019, well, 2018, well, 2019, let's say. He had a 386

BAPB that year when he hit 302 with an OPS of near 900. 386 BAPB. I mean, he's not doing that with the Rangers. So it's going to depend on him becoming a better hitter. I don't think it's just, oh, if David Dahl stays healthy, this is going to be a great

fine for the Rangers. He has to get better, too. And I think he can. But this is more of a late round pick in fantasy, if you're thinking of him as a sleeper, kind of like low is. And honestly, I might prefer low. Oh, I agree. And for David Dahl, you mentioned the plate discipline.

He does have to get better in that regard, a 26% strikeout rate for his career, six and a half percent walk rate. So that kind of disparity is not going to get it done, especially in points leagues. I will just bring up, and the past two Wednesdays, we've had Will Middlebrooks and Danny Vietti here on the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast.

They're doing things more generally baseball-related, and they have some former players and current players coming on this week. They have Justin Upton coming on the podcast, so really looking forward to that. But Middlebrooks talked about how he played in the minors in Colorado, and that playing in that altitude, it's really, really hard for your body to recover

and to just bounce back from injuries. And he thinks that David Dahl getting away from Colorado is actually going to help him stay on the field more. So for whatever that's worth, you know, there's going to be a trade-off here where maybe he stays on the field more, but he's just not going to be nearly as good on a per-game basis as when he was in Colorado.

I think that's fair to say when it comes to David Dahl. Greg Holland is back to the Kansas City Royals. He was really good in this short and season a 191 ERA, 095 Webb, 31 Ks in 28 and a third innings. He had six saves, and five of those came after Trevor Rosenthal was traded away from Team. Scott, I know that you typically target closers later on in your Roto or Categories drafts. So will Greg Holland be one of those names you target? Maybe.

I guess he probably enters at the favorite, but Mike Mathini was pretty non-committal for most of those 16. games as to who was going to close. Remember, it took them a long time to settle on Trevor Rosenthal. And then after Rosenthal was traded, it's not like he immediately went to Holland. Josh Stamont, Scott Barlow, even Jesse Hahn got some late-inning

looks. And they'll all be back. They're all younger than Holland. It's not like the Royals paid Holland like a closer, less than $3 million. So I don't think we should just assume Greg Holland is the closer now, I think.

particularly Stallmont to Barlow and some deeper, deeper categories leagues, they're going to get some looks too. But Holland probably starts out as the favorite. And if you had to target just one guy from that bullpen, it would be him. Let's say they get 30 saves on the season the Royals do, and Holland stays the entire season.

There's definitely a chance that they just trade him once they're out of contention, which is probably the assumption for the Kansas City Royals. I don't know. You like the whole? Royals, huh? Sneaky? Well, I mean, I haven't, I haven't compared every team roster.

I haven't compared roster for roster everybody yet, and obviously they're not done making moves, but... Carlos Santana. You know, they broke in Singer and Boobich. They have two other big prospects, I mean, three. Aza Lacey, I mean,

is their best pitching prospect, and though he was just drafted this past year, he's supposed to move quickly. I don't think it's far-fetched to think he could contribute in 2021. I don't know. There might be a dark horse contender here. Those Kansas City Royals. Scott just went over our entire Kansas City audience,

and they all hate me. So the point was, if they get 30 saves, I think probably 20 to 22 of those, go to Greg Holland. That would probably be my takeaway, at least that many. The Cleveland Indians will drop their nickname, which makes sense where we're at. The Washington football team

has done the same in football. And Scott, any suggestions, anything that you've seen that stands out to you, a few that I saw the Cleveland spiders, Cleveland Rocks, of course, the Drew Carey intro, or the Cleveland Rockers, but that might be too close to the Colorado Rockies. So I don't know if they're going to go that route. Cleveland Guardian sounds kind of cool. I read the Hope Memorial Bridge.

I don't know much about Cleveland, so whoever's listening, that's from that area, you will understand what I'm talking about. The Hope Memorial Bridge would sit just outside progressive, is known for its gigantic, quote, Guardians of Traffic statues. So those were the three that I found that I thought were interesting. Did you find anything, Scott?

So they used to be the Cleveland spiders, I think. Yeah, they were. It was, I don't know, early 1900s or something like that. Yeah, I don't know. I feel like any nickname sounds stupid when you first hear it. You know, like it's going to take a wide. for like, okay, to sound normal.

It's going to take a while to sound normal, no matter what it is. So, you know, if it sounds cool, I'd worry it might be too trendy, actually, that that's what, like, I think of like the Toronto Raptors back when Jurassic Park was, you know, still a phenomenon. They got named the Toronto Raptors.

And now it's like, I don't know, that seems like one of the sillier team names out there to me. But who knows? Yeah, I don't have a good suggestion myself because I think my suggestions would sound as stupid as all the other ones do. Well, Scott, have you heard me talk? All of my suggestions are stupid.

So nothing you say will embarrass you here on the podcast. Fun fact, I haven't seen any of the Jurassic Park movies, so I should probably watch. I mean, there's really only one. The first one, that's it. That's all I've got to watch. Yeah. Yeah, that's...

Like the Matrix. even more so. I haven't seen Indiana Jones either. Is that weird? Yes. Is that weird? Is that another one? The most iconic movie characters of all time.

Is that weird? Just watch the first one? Okay. Well, maybe I shouldn't go so hard on you because I have to admit, I've only seen the first Indiana Jones. For shame, Scott, for shame. Now, they're good.

especially the third one, right, is I can't think of the name right now, but Last Crusade, I think it is. I can't tell you. And, you know, Temple of Doom, that gets kind of a mixed reaction from my understanding. But I think overall that's considered a very solid trilogy.

You know, Jurassic Park should have just stopped at one. But the first Jurassic Park, I mean, is, it would be in my top 10 favorite movies all time. And that's, it's legitimately great. You know what's weird is I really like the theme song for Jurassic Park and I haven't seen the movie. So just, very odd.

Very odd. Something that is not odd, which you should be watching this Wednesday, is it's signing day. So on Wednesday, December 16th, we'll have wall-to-wall coverage over on CBS Sports HQ from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern Time 24-7's top analysts,

lead the charge, Barton, Bud Elliott, Steve Wolfong, Josh Pate, and Moore. See where your team's class ends up in the 24-7 rankings, the industry standard, live announcements throughout the day, including Flipwatch,

rankings, leap frogs, and of course signing alerts. No matter what D-1 school you root for will have you covered with breakdowns of all teams. It's nine hours of programming after all. That is just insane. Your home for winners and losers,

top classes, and diamonds in the rough to remember, all available on the CBS Sports app on your Connect TV and on your mobile device. Keepers, Last week we spoke about dynasty strategy, and we got us to some players for Dynasty as well. But Dynasty is a large investment, Scott,

mostly in terms of your time. If you want to be good in Dynasty, you have to put the work in. And I think we all kind of heard that in Ian Kahn's breakdown. You can be good in it. You have to be able to invest the time. If you don't have that type of time, then a Keeper League might make more sense for you

rather than a Dynasty League. And if you've never played in a Keyer, Keeper League before, it's pretty simple. It starts off as a redraft league. And then the following year, after the first season of your Keeper League, you get to keep however many players, however many you agree upon, two, three, four, five, whatever it might be. Some people keep up 10, whatever it, whatever it is. But in my home league, for example, head to head points, 12 teams, we play with four keepers. And every year you keep a player, they move up one round from where they were drafted the year before.

So part of the rankings that you're putting together, Scott, are basically players that were drafted late in 2020 that are going to have much higher value entering 2021. So I guess just tell the people

a little bit more about your process for that. Yeah, the top 50 keepers I put together. It was an idea suggested a long time ago, several years ago. And I struggled, I struggled with the concept

of a top 50 keepers list because, you know, I think of a Keepers League, kind of like you describe, you keep just a handful of players. There's a lot of turnover still. It's not like you have to be so long-term focused. You're mostly just keeping the best players

for the upcoming season and trusting, you know, there will still be good players out there. There will still be young players coming up that you can swap out, you know, if a guy gets too old or whatever. So how am I going to distinguish these key? Keeper rankings from like regular redraft rankings because it feels like, you know,

most leagues where you keep four or five players, you just keep the best players. It's not that complicated. But, you know, some Keeper League's are run where you have to give up a draft pick or, or you're forfeiting something based on what they cost you in order to keep them. And so that's how I've constructed this Keeper list. It's based on where they were drafted the previous year, obviously in this case, where they were drafted in 2020. And, you know, it's a list for those leagues where that determines whether or not they're worth keeping.

And it still ends up being a lot of the high-end guys because one of my philosophies for this is the impact of the player is more important than the discount you're getting. So, like, basically all the first rounders, whether or not they were drafted in the first round. last year are going to be in my top 50 because the impact for them is so great. Most of the second rounders are going to be two. You might get a slight discount for keeping some of them, but some of them not. And even somebody like Alex Bregman, who is getting drafted later in 2021 than he was in 2020, I mean, you're still talking about a first round caliber player there that I would be reluctant to forfeit in a keeper league.

So he's somebody like that would still be on there too. but then you get you get ones that are mostly on there for the discount like a like a Luke Voight for instance who was drafted in the round

16 to 18 range this past year and now he's looking more like a fifth round type and that's a big discount not many people made this list who are only like an eighth or ninth rounder

even if they were undrafted last year and they're going in like the eighth or ninth round. It doesn't mean they're a bad keeper. It just means there are 50 better ones. And, you know, I had to make some difficult cuts. So I got to narrow down to 50 in time for this podcast. I started out with a list of like 75, I think. And then there were six at the end that were very difficult to cut.

The last two cuts, I'll go ahead and tell you, we're Ian Anderson and Six-Dose-Sanchez, who are kind of in that eight, nine, round range now after being undrafted last year. So they're kind of exactly who I'm referring to. They just don't quite have the high-end outcome, at least the expectation of a high-end outcome to justify putting in my top 50,

even though you might theoretically keep them for a long time. Again, you're expecting a lot of turnover in this sort of league. So let's talk a little bit more about Luke Voight. You brought him up, and he was great in 2020, 277 batting average, 22 homers, 41 runs, and 52 RBI. He was the third best first baseman in Roto. He averaged 3.9 fantasy points per game. That was fourth best among first baseman on a per game basis.

He was great. The only question that we really have, Scott, is regarding the injuries. In 2019, he dealt with a core injury. This past season, towards the end of the year, and in the postseason, he dealt with this plantar fasciitis, which they refer to as footstuff towards the end of the season. kind of laughing about that. Like, what footstuff? What does that mean? Um, but apparently he's had

platelet, platelet rich plasma injections and doesn't expect it to be an issue in 2021. So what we'll do for each of these keepers, Scott, is I'll just ask you a buyer sell question for Voigt. Is he a top five first basement for you heading into 2021? He is a top five first basement for me. Fifth, he's my number five first baseman. Um, count. joining DJ LeMayhew at that's position. So yes, he is, but the difficult thing about assessing Luke Void is I'm pretty confident he's good, you know, for for two plus years now he's been good, two years and what, like a month and a half he spent with the Yankees in 2018 and broke out very loudly.

But he hasn't always been good in the same way year after year. This past year, he was a massive power hitter. That was the main way he stood out. also made a lot more contact than he ever had before, but sacrifice some walks, you know, in 2019, before he had the core muscle injury that kind of wrecked his season. He wasn't putting up huge power numbers. He was putting up decent power numbers,

but what really stood out was the on-base percentage. He was getting on-base so much. So I'm not sure exactly what, like, the prototype loop-voit season looks like. But I feel pretty confident he's going to be good, and certainly a discount as extreme as this, you know, more than 10 rounds for a high-end bad. Like, I'm actually not thrilled to take Luke Voight

and redraft leagues because I feel like there's a lot of upside for first basement behind him, but you're factoring in a discount here as a keeper, and that makes him an excellent keeper. To Nelson Lombat was dealing with an injury of his own, similar to Luke Voigt, not the same injury, obviously. He was great this past season. I mean, everyone who drafted him,

him as a potential breakout. Probably couldn't have even imagined a season this good for him. 209 ERA, 0.86 whip, 12.1K per 9. And what I really liked was in 9 of 12, Lamet starts, two walks or less. We're not used to control like that out of Denelson Lamett. The problem is he ended the season with biceps tightness. He had Tommy John surgery back in 2018. I saw an update actually, which came out earlier today. We're recording this Monday, December 14th. You'll hear it on Tuesday. But there was an update that said his throwing program remains on schedule.

He's so far avoided surgery. And his PRP treatment appears to be having the desired effect. So we'll see. By yourself, Scott, Denelson Lemette as an SP2 in 2021. The upside is certainly there. I thought I was going to really. loved Denelson Lament heading into the new season. I mean, I rank him 18th, so I guess I have him as an SP2 technically.

But I'm scared of him. I'm scared of even that language is not totally reassuring to me. He's so far avoided surgery. You know, the PRP injections seem to be having the design effects. Like, of course, of course they're going to be painting a rosy picture. If they weren't, he'd already be going in for surgery, right? Like, it just seems like he's beating the odds. Maybe that's not fair.

But like if there's a single pitcher right now who isn't already going in for surgery, hasn't already gone in for surgery, who I would worry is destined for it, he'd be the one, I think. Is there anyone else who has that same level of concern? So, I mean, he's in my top 50 keepers too, because you're talking about a guy who went in the 12th round. on average last year and now he's between like round four, round six range

which is fair and I think it's too big like you can't let your, you can't let your fears about injury scare you away from that kind of value pick because you know, maybe he will be fine. But he'll be lower on the top

50 keepers list than I think the discount at face value would suggest. Give me a scenario in redraft where you would wind up with Lamet Scott or is he just on the do not draft list? Would you have to have say two of your top 10 pitchers to feel comfortable taking him as your SP3 or like what would you need to be able to take him? I would take him as my number three but it would probably mean he fell. He fell. Um, you know, I rank him ahead of Tyler Glass now and Stephen Strasbourg. Who have injury concerns of their own,

obviously. Yeah. So. I mean, they're my ranking, so I assume I would actually take him ahead of those guys. But it's a problem for me personally if he actually ends up being my SP2. I would rather have him as my SP3. And by the time, it's very likely he's already gone before I'm drafting my SP3. So I just, I don't think I'm going to end up with much of Denelson Lamett. Well, maybe somebody Scott does like as an SP2 is Kenti-Maieta,

who was drafted in rounds 13 and 14 in Roto and head-to-head points, respectively this past season. Average 21 fantasy points per game. That was fifth among starting pitchers. 2.7 ERA, 0.75 whip, 80 strikeouts in 66 and 2 thirds. For Maeda, three earned runs or less in all 11 starts. He only threw more than 94 pitches in just one start, and that was a start where he had a no-hitter going all the way into the ninth inning.

Scott, Byer Sell, Kent to Maeda. as a top 50 pick this season. So basically in a 12-team league, you have to take him within the first four rounds. I buy it. I have him ranked that way. I have him, even in five-by-five leagues, I have him 35th.

I mean, I buy what he did. And, I mean, he was just amazing by any measurement in terms of missing bats in terms of how good his control was. like he was just he was a better ground ball pitcher than he'd ever been before he did everything

right I think his ex-fip what was his ex-fit was like the second best among qualifiers or something just going top of mind there but it was really good it was really good

and yeah the thing about keeping him is he's going into his age 33 season and obviously he doesn't have a long track record of dominated to this extent. It always looked like he should be better than he was with the Dodgers and they kind of manipulated his own. He had the third

best ex-fit among qualifiers behind just, of course, Bieber and DeGrom. Of course, the Dodgers played games with his workload and the twins less so. He was going six innings so frequently. I feel like if he had to labor more, they would have

let him labor more, but he just didn't have to because he was given them the length without having to throw many pitches, so I don't even worry so much about the low pitch counts there for Maida. And I think it's a good example of, if you're talking about a league where you're just keeping a handful of players as opposed to half your roster, don't worry about the age. I mean, there's the top 12 pitcher, and I'd be thrilled to have him at any kind of discount. It turns out it's probably going to be a, it's probably going to be at least five rounds.

Yeah, I mean, if you can keep him for, if it just wants to be. 10 rounds. He went 10 rounds later last year than he's going now. Yeah. If you can just keep him for one or two rounds higher from where you drafted him last year, I mean, you're probably getting him in round 12, 11 maybe even. So it's just a great value for Maeda. And the last thing that I'll add is there was a change in his pitch mix that legitimately helped him get to this point. It wasn't just, oh, like, fluky, where did this all come from? He decreased his fastball usage about 12%. Use his slider 9% more and used his change up 6% more. There was legitimate changes. Slider and change-up are very, very good pitches for Kent to Maeda.

I buy, I buy as well. I wouldn't mind taking him inside the top 50 picks. But what about Dylan Bundy, who was a round 19 pitcher in Roto and around 17 pitcher in head-to-head points leagues last season? I've referenced this before. First four starts, 1.57 ERA, 2.92 X-Fit. last eight starts 4.62 ERA 4.39 X-FIP buy or sell Dylan Bundy is a top 30 starting

pitcher this season I mean you're setting such low thresholds here that top 25 to sell on any of them top 25 um now that's

that's getting that's getting fringy I think I will I think I'll sell top 25 let me see exactly where I rank him so I'm not yeah I have him 31 so I can sell I could I guess I could sell top 30 as I have him 31 um here's the thing about Bundy I actually ended up having to leave him out of my top 50 keepers when I sent you these suggestions for who we're talking about I thought he was going to be in I actually had to leave him out because he I'm not sure he quite measures up

stuff wise I mean it's it's all so reliant on that one pitch that kind of split change up he has going on that is responsible for his whiffs largely and he actually this year he actually lost some

velocity on his fastball so it really depended on that one pitch and yeah he outperformed his peripherals he outperformed the ex-fib he outperform the Sierra they weren't bad as they are but he outperformed them by more than half a run.

So it seems like he overachieved. XERA for what it's worth was actually better than his ERA. That was really low. But I don't trust that one as much as ex-fip anyway. Just worth pointing out. I have doubts about Dylan Bundy the same way to do about Lance Lynn

where your doubts can only take you so far because there's just not much alternative once you get to the point where they're going. Lance Lynn does go considerably earlier. But he throws so much. many innings. It's just, it's hard to, it's hard to let your, it's hard to pass over him because of some peripheral concerns there. And it's the same way with Dylan Bundy, but I'm not enthusiastic about drafting Bundy this year. And, you know, even though it's like a 10 round discount for him,

I'm, I couldn't fit him in my top 50 keepers either. Could fit him in my top 60 keepers, but I'm a top 50. So just misses the cut as a top 50 pitcher, uh, keeper rather. And for Bundy, it was one of those things where if you watched him pitch this year, when he didn't have that split change, his slider is a go-to pitch for him as well. Like, there are starts where if he didn't have one of those pitches working for him, everything just snowballed and it got out of control. Like, he came up, he threw mid-90s with the fastball, and there were starts where he kind of went back to that just because he didn't really have anything else.

And now he throws like 89-90 with the fastball. So if he doesn't have everything work, and it's tough for Bundy's. So I'm... You got the right pitch. I was talking about the wrong pitch. The change-up is okay, but it's really a slider-cutter hybrid

that gets all his whiffs. Yeah, so he uses both pitches. I know his fastball is not the pitch you want him to throw. You want him to throw that slider and that change-up more often than not. And for the first couple of starts, he was moving away from the fastball.

That's why we were so excited about him. But then there were other starts where he just didn't have anything else and he had to go back to that fastball. and you just saw everything starting to crumble there. So I like him as an SP4 maybe, but top 30, I'm selling that one as well. Dom Smith is the last name we'll bring up,

and obviously this is contingent on whether or not the National League has a DH. We'll find out. He was great. He was great in 2020 this past season. If you look at since the start of 2019, his last 139 games, 299 batting average, 21 homers, a 937 OPS.

You know what kind of vibes I'm getting here? here, Scott, for years, I was looking at the gentleman's name, Jesus Aguilar, and I know a couple people were as well, and I said, you know, if this guy just got everyday playing time, he would be able to break out. And that one year with the Brewers, he finally got the opportunity to play every day. It's exactly how I feel about Dom Smith. He kind of broke out already, but I think there could even be another step for him if the Mets really just unleash him and let him go. Buy yourself, top 10, first baseman, if there is a DH in the National League. I buy him as a top 10 first baseman.

I have him actually exactly 10th. It's worth noting first base, not the deepest position right now. It's also worth noting if he's who it was last year, he'll be easily top 10. I mean, he was, in terms of fantasy points per game, he was the fifth best first baseman

with, you know, a solid number of a batts. So he was legitimately studly this year. he doesn't strike out much. That was true in 2019, too. When also the numbers were pretty strong for Dominic Smith. And he's still only 25. He got drafted so young. I feel like he feels like a guy who's been kicking around for a long time,

but that's just because he started so young. And it was probably unfair of us to write him off. I felt like there came a point there where I was the last one holding on to Dominic Smith. and then once Pete Alonzo overtook him, it was like, okay, it's over. It's not going to work out for him. Obviously, the DH helped with that.

I don't know that that's a make or break thing for him because obviously Robinson Canoe, out for the year, suspended. That puts Jeff McNeil firmly at second base. Obviously, Jonas Cespitt is he's out of the mix too. So right now it would be Dominic Smith and left field, and J.D. Davis at third base. It's a pretty awful left side of the field defensively.

And so maybe the Mets wouldn't feel comfortable with it, but there's so much offense they can get from those two that it's going to be hard to keep either one out of the lineup. And you know, they're not keeping Pete Alonzo out of the lineup. So they may just accept it. I don't know. But I don't think Smith's fantasy value totally depends on D.H. staying in L. a solid keeper, I would call Tom Smith. And it depends what your league rules are for keepers as well,

because in most leagues he was probably a free agent pickup. So in my home league, if you're a free agent pickup, you're a round 12 keeper. At that point, you probably don't want to keep Dom Smith. If you just get to keep a free agent for the last round pick in your draft, yeah, that's pretty exciting for Dominic Smith. We're going to hit a quick break when we return. I've got a movie I watched.

Did Scott see it? Find out next. Welcome back to fantasy baseball today And in the holiday spirit This past weekend, Scott I watched for the first time in my life Christmas vacation With Chevy Chase

You shouldn't be surprised I assume you've seen it Have you ever heard of it, Scott? Scott is so disappointed in me right now You have to watch you never Have you never watched a Christmas movie before? Like how did you miss that? one like that's one of those movies like I've watched like I'm tired of watching it because like it's

Christmas and you want to watch Christmas movies but there's only so many good ones that's one of the good ones so you watch it a lot it was very good it was very raunchy I you know I never I haven't watched any of the vacation movies obviously because I live under a rock but it was more raunchy than I thought it was funny um it lived up to the hype and and I went in with a very high bar because people have talked it up. Yeah, just the first 28 years of my life, I didn't get around to it until now. Okay. Yeah, I mean, what do you want me to say about Christmas? Like, I feel like the audience right now is what can even be said about this movie because it's been it's been passed around so much. Like, I don't even know what to say. Is it your favorite Christmas movie?

Scott? It's my wife's favorite. I would say my favorite is Home Alone, which we actually just watched last night. It's another one of those that, you know, only so many good, only so many good Christmas movies. So you rewatch the good ones probably more than they deserve. But yeah, have you seen Home Alone, Frank? Oh, I have seen all the Home Alones, even Part 3, which is egregious on my... I think there was like a direct home release Home Alone 4, too. Obviously not with only one and two had the original cast. course. Yeah.

And look, Home Loan 2 is pretty good too. Homolo 2, of course. In the great state of New York. Yes, I've seen the first three home loans. They were all good. I also enjoy jingle all the way, elf. And Just Friends, actually, my favorite Christmas movie.

It's, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's a good. It's good. It is a great one. I actually was looking for that last night before we settled on Home Alone. It wasn't streaming anywhere. So I'm going to watch Just Friends. but I was looking for it.

Be yourself. Be yourself. For anyone else who's seen it, you know what I'm talking about. Mailbag! Continue to email us, Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com with your questions. If you enjoy the show

and want to leave a five-star Apple podcast review, you can drop a question in there as well. We would appreciate it. This one's from Michael Franco, which makes me think that it might be from Mikel Franco, was hoping to get your opinion on a trade in a 14-team Dynasty League. We keep our entire roster every year

along with a 20-man taxi squad. It's a head-to-head points league. Team A, Alec Boehm and Logan Gilbert. Team B. Matt Chapman and Matthew Liberator. Of course, pitching prospect for the Cardinals. I should have mentioned Logan Gilbert is a pitching prospect for the Seattle Mariners.

I'm slightly worried about Chapman's hip situation, and I feel like I need to get Boehm now before his value skyrockets. Also a huge fan of Logan Gilbert. So it sounds like he would be trading away. Chapman and Liberator to receive Boehm and Gilbert. Head-to-head points, dynasty. What do you think, Scott?

Yeah, I do it. I do it. Recently, my top 30 pitcher prospects were released on the site. I have Logan Gilbert in my top 10. Liberator's in the top 30, but I think in terms of upside, he's definitely a step down. And then I love Boehm. I love Boehm especially for points leagues. So I think that could.

end up being an upgrade or at least a lateral move Chapman to Bome and you know yeah I do it we are in agreement there this one's from Elliot

I'm in an 18 5x5 roto salary cap league with quality starts saves plus holds and OBP instead of the usual wins, saves and batting average

the endings limit is 1,250 and you start 11 batters for outfielders, plus an infielder, plus a D.H., plus all the usual suspects. With eight teams, a total of about 60 points, typically wins the league. As it happens, I'll be keeping Beaver, Cole, Bauer,

and Corbin Burns, or Max Fried, all for tidy prices. I have this crazy notion to go out and draft Jacob de Grom for probably about $40 to $45 and nearly guarantee myself 35 points in pitching, even if I spend $1 on my RPs, which you can do, because this is a saves plus holds leagues.

So there are going to be a lot of relievers available and play the waiver wire, so on and so forth. Am I getting too greedy with starting pitching? I think I might know the answer from Scott. I don't think you can get too greedy with starting pitching. I mean, if it's a league that were trades happen, they're going to fetch the most on the trade market of anybody, of anybody.

Maybe not in a five-by-five league. Maybe not base dealers who are actually worth their salt. maybe those will be the more valuable asset, but I'm not even sure that's true because some teams just won't need another base dealer. Everybody's going to need another pitcher. You may end up being the one who needs another pitcher. Two of these guys get hurt early on.

You'll be glad you have that extra arm, particularly in an eight-team league. I mean, there are just so many redundancies at all the hitter positions. And you run out of those redundancies faster at pitcher among the high-end arms. So yeah, I think that's a good... I endorse this plan. This one's from Keenan, Keeper League,

where you keep three head-to-head categories. Trade Paul Goldschmidt and Kyle Lewis for Kyle Tucker. Am I over-valuing Tucker? I would then slot Dom Smith to first base to replace Goldie. Trade Goldie and Kyle Lewis for Kyle Tucker, Scott. Keep three... Yeah. Yep.

I mean, I assume you wouldn't be keeping either Goldschmidt or Lewis. Am I presuming too much in this question here? Like you might keep Tucker. You probably want to keep those two. I assume you're keeping Tucker by trading for him. That's what I assume as well. Right? But you're only keeping three.

I don't know that Tucker would be necessarily a top three keeper for every team, but maybe it would be for years. I don't know. I don't really see what the down. I don't really see why he's asking this question, Because if I'm interpreting it correctly, it seems too obvious even to ask. You trade the guys you're not keeping for somebody you'd keep. So let's assume for a second, Scott, that he was planning on keeping Goldschmidt and Kyle Lewis.

And as a result of getting Kyle Tucker, he can now keep Dom Smith. Would you like that side more? Tucker and Dom Smith versus Goldschmidt and Kyle Lewis? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I'd probably keep Dom Smith. I know I'd keep him over Lewis. I might keep him over Goldschmidt too.

Okay. So, yeah, that's easy, yeah. This one's from Jordan. 12 team head-to-head categories. Keeper League, 6x by 6 with OPS as the added hitting category, and quality starts instead of wins, net saves and holds, instead of just saves and K-per-9 as the added sixth category on the pitching side. Choose seven keepers from the following.

I went ahead and chose five that I thought were the most obvious ones, which included Trevor Story, Trevor Bauer, Aaron Nola, Yurdon Alvarez, and Adelberto Mondesi. I chose those five. So choose two more out of these names, Scott. Anthony Rizzo, Kyle Lewis, Nick Castellanos, Randy Arosurana, Alec Bohm, Mike Yistrimski, Austin Meadows, Dylan Bundy, Edwin Diaz,

Reisel Iglesias. Two of those. I keep... Bundy and Rizzo. I think you need the arm for sure because you only have Bauer and Nola and I suspect with this many keepers, seven keepers.

Most of the pitchers of that ilk are going to be kept. So you've got to lock up Bundy. And then really it's just a close call between Rizzo and Castiano's for me for that second spot. I rank Rizzo a little bit ahead. First base is going to be harder to fill. Castianos might be the higher upside play,

so I wouldn't mind you doing that, but I'd go Rizzo. I wasn't off base by including Adelberto Mondecy as one of the keepers, right? Even with OPS as a category? I mean, he's going to single-handedly when he's stolen bases probably, so now that's right. Okay, and Rosedoena wasn't close to Cassiano Sir Rizzo. He's third, if I'm ranking all of these by their keeper prospects, he'd be third.

All right. This one's from Matt and NorCal. I play in a keeper league five-by-five head-to-head. categories. We keep seven with no stipulations. I have two spots available for starting pitchers. Gallin is my no-brainer, but who else should I take out of Ian Anderson, Tristan McKenzie, Sixto Sanchez, Zach Plysack, McKenzie Gore, Nate Pearson, Spencer Howard. I could free up another spot by dropping Hiora or Luis Robert, but not a fan of doing, not a fan of that idea. So you need one, Scott. Ian Anderson, McKenzie, Sixtho, Pleasack.

Gore, Pearson, Howard. Interesting names. It's close. I think it's Plesack. I might put, I might consider Anderson and Sanchez. Like if I'm going to say anybody's close, it's those two. But I honestly, I have Plessak 10 spots ahead of Anderson in my rankings. I am a Plesaq believer. And he's the choice to keep here.

This one's from Morgan Day. N-O-only league, Roto Salary cap, $260. budget. Grade the trade. I gave up Kershaw for 23 bucks. Max Fried 15. Garrett Hansen 13. I received Luis Patino for 11. Brandon Woodruff for six. Austin Slater for six. Chris Taylor for three and minor leaguer Marco Luciano. Plus I shed $25 that I can use to extend Fernando Tatis. And I'll only grade the trade. This seems like somebody who's rebuilding here, Scott. or retooling rather.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think... What is Hampson worth, really? I don't know, but it might be next to nothing. It might be based on what he's shown us so far. In an L-only league, obviously, you go a lot deeper, and I guess just as a cheap steel source, like maybe worst case, he'll be that, maybe, but did he...

He didn't even run this much this past year, did he? That 60-game season? So, you know, Kershaw to Woodruff, you're getting Woodruff at a much lower dollar amount. That's basically for 20, 21 returns, that's about equal

in terms of what they're going to provide. You're losing freed, but getting some offense there in Taylor, getting Luciano could be a great keeper long term, and then it's helping you lock up Tatis. I don't think it's, I don't think taking the deal is a sloth. slam dunk, but I get why you're doing it.

I mean, if I was grading it, I might give it just like an even C. And it just depends. I guess it just depends on how good the rest of your team looks, whether you want to stick with Kirshan-Fried, with Hampson as a little extra steel source. I mean, maybe Hampson will go off this year. And you'll really regret doing it. But I'm leaning no on that one.

Leaning no. Leaning no on Hampson going off. Okay. With the trade itself, leaning, yes. Okay. Yeah, I was going to say C plus and C is even usually. So I like it slightly in your favor, Morgan. This one's from Kyle.

Are you guys gamers at all? Want to talk about your favorite video games at all for a bit? I hear Scott mention it every now and then. Well, Scott hosts a podcast on the side. That's called All That's Fit for Eight Bits, in which he reviews the classic NES games. So, yes, the season finale. came out today, reviewed Shadowgate for the NES.

And people seem to like it. I do, if you like the Michael Kane impression, I do that in one of the episodes. I actually do a different impression each episode. I pick out a music track from the game and write lyrics to it and sing it at the end of everyone. So it's kind of a whole, you know, listening experience. You're definitely getting more than

just a breakdown of the game, but you're getting that too. And I enjoy doing it. People seem to enjoy listening to it. That's all that's fit for eight bits. That's what it's called. I don't do a lot of modern games myself. They just isn't enough time. There just isn't enough time.

You know, I could make the little kids excuse. I feel like that gets used a lot. But it's true. They just consume so much of your life. and when you get some spare moments to yourself, it's hard, like you get like an hour or two window. It's hard to sit down for this very like involved game

where the hour or two window might not, you might not even progress far enough to feel like that was time well spent. You know what I mean? So I've kind of, except for the old school games that I can get through quickly, I've kind of put the games, the video games aside for this season of my life.

I hope to get back into them at a later season. But yeah, I don't do much in the modern stuff. What about you, Frank? Well, do you have, give me your three favorite NES games, Scott? For the NES, specifically, I would probably go, not in order. I'll give the easy answers are TechMobile, which I also reviewed already.

Ninja Guidon, which I'm hoping to review next year. and then the controversial one would be Friday the 13th, which isn't considered a good game, but I think it's just because people were scared when they played it and never bothered to figure out how to play it correctly because I think it's actually an awesome game, and I review that one too on all that's fit for 8 bits. So check out that episode if you have any experience with Friday the 13th.

Well, it's funny you bring that up, Scott, because there was a Friday the 13th game that came out, recently the past couple years that you could play on Xbox and I believe PC as well. And you play online. One person is randomly chosen to be Jason and the rest of the people are camp survivors. And I played it quite a bit and it was fun. It was a very fun game. So I do have an Xbox Series X.

I play NBA 2K21 whenever I have time. I don't even have kids and I barely have time to play. So I certainly know where you're coming from, Scott. Gears of War has always been my go-to online multivacons. player game. I'm a huge Pokemon nerd. I own every Pokemon game, traditional Pokemon game from Pokemon Red to the most recent Pokemon

Shield. I am a nerd. For what it's worth, my favorite game of all time is Suey Coden 2, which was an RPG for the PlayStation 1. It's just an excellent, excellent game. That whole series, Sui Coden, it got, didn't get

the attention it deserved, but it's very strong overall. Did you ever play Legend of Dragoon, Scott? I did. Yeah. That was an awesome game. Played it two or three times. Yeah.

I like it and I appreciate it. For Scott, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again on Thursday. Bye-bye.