Fantasy Baseball Today - Kodai Senga Injury Reaction, Ricky Tiedemann Spotlight & Mailbag Questions! (2/23 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: February 23, 2024

Kodai Senga has a shoulder injury and will start the season on the IL (3:12). How far does he move down the rankings? ... This week's prospect spotlight is Ricky Tiedemann from the Blue Jays (10:32). ... Tim Anderson signed a one-year deal with the Marlins (17:51). ... We have injury news on Aaron Judge, Matt McLain and Josh Jung (27:44). ... What happened in the first spring training game (35:34)? ... We kick off the mailbag with three Apple Podcast questions (40:30). ... Do we devalue pitching in H2H categories (45:23)? ... George Kirby or Eury Perez in a keeper league (48:57)? ... Let's talk auction/salary cap draft strategy (50:40). ... Thoughts on Jasson Dominguez in dynasty (56:43)? ... What is the case against Shōta Imanaga (1:00:00)? 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

Man, Tough Fantasy Baseball today on February 23rd. Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White. We decided to give Chris the night off. Today on the show, latest news from the week. A lot has happened. Kodi Senga has a shoulder injury and will start the season on the IL. Tim Anderson signed with the Marlins. We'll have another prospect spotlight and your mailbag questions.

But first, for those watching, how about that new Kokomo Friday intro, huh, Scottie? Yeah. Does it kind of remind you of like an anime intro? Kind of, yeah. Yeah. It's pretty awesome. I don't know.

That's what came to mind for me. But that's fine. We got the exaggerated facial expressions down in those thumbnails they included of us. Speaking of the thumbnails, Scott crushing it as always. For those wondering what we're talking about if you're listening on the podcast side of things, we have a new video animation intro for. Kokomo Fridays. So if you want to check it out, again, you can watch us. YouTube.com slash fantasy baseball today. The audio, however, is exactly the same as the Kokomo Friday you

just heard on the podcast side. Absolutely love it. Let's jump right in, Scott. Something I don't love is this injury to Kodi Sena. I mean, pour one out for the New York Mets and their fans. It is February 23rd and already their top pitcher is down. They missed out on Yamamoto. It's Not looking good so far. Kodi Senga has been diagnosed with a moderate posterior capsule strain in his right shoulder. He'll begin the season on the IL and will be shut down from throwing until symptoms subside and strength returns. Huge hit as Senga was being drafted as a top 20 starting pitcher in ADP. He was inside the top 20 of each of our starting pitcher ranks before this injury.

It's hard to say when he'll exactly return. Scott, obviously injuries are always tricky, especially to the shoulder. could miss a month into the season. It could be two months. I watched some doctor analysis on Twitter today. He said June is the most likely return for Kodi-Senga. That was Jesse Morse, right? Yeah, that's exactly right. But honestly, it's a guessing game right now. What are your thoughts on this injury to Senga and how far did you lower him in the rankings? Well, I'll answer your question and questions in reverse order, as is typical, whenever an interviewer asks an interviewee, two questions. I lowered him to 39th in my roto rankings. I have him just ahead of Justin Verlander, who's dealing with his own shoulder issues,

which don't sound as serious, but he's 41 years old, is Verlander, so it's hard to say. I have him, to give you more reference on where I put code I sing it, he's in between Joe Ryan and Christian Javier, so he's kind of, he's within a group of high upside starters who give me,

reason for concern. Big reason for concern. And this shoulder injury is a big reason for concern. If there are further indications leading up to the biggest draft weekend in late March, if there are more indications that Kodi Senga really won't throw a pitch until June, then I feel like I'll have to move him down even more. I do feel like when we see these Dr. reactions on Twitter to sports injuries.

And this is just kind of going on my own perception, but I do feel like they tend to be on the more pessimistic end. They tend to be on the more cautious end. And I think doctors normally are like that anyway in their recommendations. So I'm not taking that necessarily as gospel, but look, a doctor knows more than I do. So it's definitely worth bringing to light that he's Dr. Jesse Morse here on Twitter and his video prognostication said he wouldn't recommend Senga throwing a pitch until June. The Mets GM, David Stearns, in talking about it, did not sound very concerned.

In fact, he seemed pretty upbeat, pretty smiley during the interview. And he said he still expects Kodai Sanga to make a lot of starts for the Mets this year. He says that because it's, I can't remember which is anterior. or a posterior, but the strain is on the back. And so that's the less serious one, is his understanding. And so, you know, I don't know. I don't know. I've moved him just around 40 in my starting pitcher rankings.

And obviously, you probably have to have three starting pitchers by the time you consider taking him. I'm not sure I want to invest more than that in Senga. and that ranking that I moved him to, if it's a shallower league, you adjust up because you can tolerate the risk a little more for the upside. If it's a deeper league,

you shift them down a little bit because you can't tolerate the risks as much of it being, if it becoming an extended absence for Kodi-Senga. So I move Kodi-Singa down to SP-37, just a touch higher than where you have him, but after reading and just hearing some things, I think I want to move them a little bit lower outside of the top 40 starting pitchers.

Chris has him at SP 42. I am currently in a slow draft over at the NFBC, and we're at pick 110. Kodi-Singa still has not been taken, which I think is fair. In the overall rankings, it came out around like 120th or 130th. So I'll be following this closely, and when he does get drafted,

I'll probably tweet it out and let everyone know where Kodai Senga went in the shot. And because that's a 15-teamber, right? It might last even longer than that. True. And I do think to that point, Scott, if you are planning to take the plunge on Senga, you probably don't want to do it if you took Tyler Glass now, or if you took Chris Sale or Carlos Hordaun. It's just at a lot of risk that starts to add up very quickly.

So I would just say if you want to take Senga, just be cognizant of roster construction of your pitch staff. If it's like a 10-team league and you want to go with a ton of boomer bus pitchers, I don't have a problem with that. Yeah, I think that's fair. The deeper of the league is, I already said it, the less tolerant of risk you can be. Let's stick with the Mets for a second here and just talk about what happens next for them. So they already said that they won't rush any pitching prospects.

I know there's been a lot of hype around Christian Scott, who probably will see at some point this year. But the Mets are not going to push any of their prospects. It sounds like Tyler McGill, Jose Buto, and Joey Lucchase will battle it out for that rotation spot. I'm assuming we don't have interest in any of those names, right, Scott? realistically for our audience, the kind of leagues they'll be drafting in, no, I don't have a ton of interest in those. However, I will say, Tyler McGill, if I could find the note I had, man, I've been keeping these copious notes through spring training of interesting things I read.

And then when I try to refer to them during the podcast, I can't seem to find him. I don't know. I found something interesting about Tyler McGill, but now I, I can't find it in my notes, so you just have to look for it yourself. We will trust you, Scott. I do feel like I've read something about, also about Tyler McGill, whether it's like velocity being up or a new pitch, something like that. Yeah, it was something like that.

Yeah, it was really interesting for the 2014 Scott White Dynasty League where there's never enough pitching to go around. It definitely caught my attention. And I was like, oh, I wonder if an opening will happen. and Tyler McGill will be worthwhile, but whatever. I'm sorry I can't find it. I'm the most frustrated of anybody. Oh, oh, I think he was studying.

Whatever. Now I've got a you have an ad blocker window opening up, so I have to get rid of that. Let's just move on. This is a disaster. It's a rough go at it. All right, well, Kodi-Senga, the big news, again, he's dealing with a capsule strain in his right shoulder.

Going to start the season on the IL, we dropped him down to around SP40 in the rankings. It's Friday. You know what that means we have another prospect spotlight. This was an email from Bill Van Vigel who asked us to talk about Ricky Tiedeman, who is the top pitching prospect with the Toronto Blue Jays, and he is Scott's number 23 overall prospect,

the fifth pitching prospect if you include Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Tietamon is a 21-year-old lefty who throws hard with a nasty slider, huge strikeout upside. He has 199 strikeouts over 122 and two-thirds in the minors. Last year, he was limited to just 44 innings due to a biceps injury, but then also went out to the Arizona Fall League and was named pitcher of the year. Pitchwell, 250, ERA, 11-WIP, through 18 innings out at the AFL. Scott, what are your thoughts on prospect Ricky Tiedeman?

Yeah, so because of all the time he missed with injury last year, it seems like his stock is down. It seems like I'm higher on him in my prospect rankings than the consensus. There were also some performance-related concerns that came to light for as little as he did pitch. Specifically, the change-up was supposed to be a masterful pitch for Ricky Teetamon. I mean, the fastball's great, too. He has kind of a three-quarter or he has a really low arm angle, a low release point on that fastball that in addition to it being high velocity gives it the optimal vertical approach angle for swings and misses.

So it's a great pitch. It's, you know, there is no better indicator of upside for a starting pitcher than a swing and miss fastball, which Ricky Tiedman has. But part of the excitement was he also has this great change-up. Well, he throws them from different arm ankles. So it's almost like he's tipping his pitch. The movement he gets on the changeup relies on a higher arm ankle than he throws the fastball from. So there's a lot of reason to think that may not work in the long run.

He did make strides with his slider this past year for as little as he pitched. And so now there's another really good secondary offering that might allow him to phase out the change up or tweak it or do something with it. so that there isn't that glaring issue. But again, the fact that he has the fastball he does to me makes Tiedemann, it overcomes whatever flaw you might want to attribute to him, whether it's health or the issue with the changeup or whatever. I'll also point out he had 16.8K per 9 last year, so it's not like

it's not like he was struggling to put away batters and as you mentioned his Arizona Fall League I think helped to relieve relief concerns somewhat from all the time you missed during the regular season

so yeah I think there's a ton of upside here he's still a work in progress the Blue Jays don't seem to have him in the running for a rotation spot this spring I think they're hoping

Alec Manoa claims their one rotation opening but I do think barring another season that's wrecked by injury. I do think we'll see Tied him in at some point this year. And he could be a big strikeout artist right away. I'm still very hopeful of the upside for him. Yeah, that was the next question is how can we see him in the Blue Jays rotation this year?

Obviously, Alec Manoa's status is up in the air. Everything that we've heard and seen is that Manoa has showed up to camp in good shape. I think I read he was throwing like 92, 93 miles per hour in a BP session. on Thursday. So that's good to hear about Manoa, but obviously the performance was terrible last year. The team also signed

Yariol Rodriguez, who they keep saying they plan to use as a starter. So just kind of feels like Teeteman is blocked here unless, I don't know, multiple pitchers get hurt or are just really bad?

Things happen. I mean, no team sticks with just five starters or six starters. I mean, they're going to need multiple starters. pitching pitchers who aren't going to be in their initial starting five. So I'm not worried about there eventually being an opening.

I can't tell you exactly how it'll come in the Blue Jays rotation, but I do think there will be opportunities for Teetamon to factor as a starter. And even if he's not able to claim a rotation spot, he might stick around as a multi-inning reliever at that point. He's going to get a start this year. He's going to get the start to his big league career this year. Again, unless he goes through another year where he's, constantly hurt as happened last year.

Again, that's Ricky Tiedemin. Blue Jay's top pitching prospect, one of the top five, maybe for some top 10 pitching prospects in all of baseball, likely to see him at some point this year. And remember, if you want to hear 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 you will hear about them at a future date. Let's take our first break. When we return, we've got some other news notes, Tim Anderson signed with the Marlins. We'll talk about that right after this. Welcome back in. Let's continue on with the other news and notes. We had some signings. Tim Anderson and Jake Berger are reunited and it feels so good. Anderson agreed to a one year $5 million deal with

the Marlins who desperately needed a starting shortstop. There's no way around it, Scott. Anderson was awful last year. He hit 245 with one homer, 13 steals and a 582 OPS. It does appear at as though he was playing through that knee injury. He suffered in April, kind of rushed himself back. And I think that's probably a good explanation for why he played as bad as he did. But injuries have been a consistent problem.

Tim Anderson has not played more than 123 games since 2018. The difference now is that the ADP is almost 400, Scott. It costs nothing. You can get Tim Anderson for free. What do you think? Yeah. Well, I don't think at that cost it's worth worrying about the injury. history. I mean, back when he was a fifth, sixth rounder in fantasy, sure, that that might have

been reason to steer me away. But yeah, that's not, that's not what you're worried about with Tim Anderson now. What you're worried about with Tim Anderson right now is, is he any good? And I think the answer is probably no. I'm not rocketing up, him up my rankings with this news that he's now going to be the Marlon shortstop. He is 30 years old, which is not. old, but short stops tend to age quicker. He's also a very undisciplined hitter. So when the crash, whenever the crash was going to come, you've had to figure he was going to crash hard.

And that may be what happened last year. But you do mention he suffered that sprained knee in early April. At the time he suffered it, he was batting 298. He had already stolen five bases of his total 13 on the year. so he was looking like normal Tim Anderson prior to that injury. It is just an 11-game sample, so we're pinning a lot to an 11-game sample there. But it's not so far-fetched to believe that that knee was the turning point

that just wrecked his season and an off-season of rest will be enough to cure him. I think if you're talking about a deep roto league, where you got a third middle infield spot to fill. And there are plenty of options in middle end field, but let's say you missed them all for whatever reason. Tim Anderson does offer you an upside play. By signing with the Marlins, we at least know he's going to get the opportunity

to try and bounce back. Not that many teams had a shortstop opening like the Marlins did. So that wasn't a sure thing that wherever he signed, he was going to get a chance. We know he's going to get a chance now. And that is the most important thing for Tim Anderson, retaining some smidgen of fantasy value. But if we're talking about bounce back candidates,

even at shortstop, you know, I'm going for Trevor's story before I go for Tim Anderson. I'm going for Carlos Correa, certainly, before I'm going for Tim Anderson. It's a low probability play in my mind, but one that in the right scenario I might consider taking. Yeah, I think Tim Anderson is only draftable in 12-team Roto Leagues are dealing.

deeper. The ones that have that extra middle infield spot that go a little bit deeper into the player pool. If you play in a head-to-head categories league over on Yahoo or any type of head-dead points league, Tim Anderson most likely will not be someone that factors into leagues of that size. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he kind of, you know, bounces back to prime Tim Anderson, but I think we're still a ways away from that. Brandon Woodrow... I found what I was looking for for Tyler McGill, this very important story that we've already spent too much time on because it's Tyler. McGill. So he developed a splitter

modeled after Kodi Senga's Ghost Fork, such that he is calling it the American Spork. And of course, every pitcher is developing a splitter this spring, right? But this actually started for Tyler McGill at the end of last year, so it's

further along. And Mets pitching coach Jeremy Heffner thinks it could actually rival Kodi Senga's forkball, which seems pretty far-fetched to me. But, you know, Tyler McGill throws hard. So maybe it'll be a weapon that unlocks something for all those very deep head-to-head leagues out there. The American spork, that could play pretty well if it works out. We'll see. Brandon Woodruff signed a two years, $17.5 million contract to return to the Bruners. He's four

months removed from right shoulder surgery and could maybe pitch later this season, though 2025 is much more likely. Anything to add on Woodruff Scott, he feels like a name where if you play in a dynasty or a keeper league and you could draft him late and then maybe keep him the following year, he might kind of fit that mold. Yes,

but I would prioritize him after Sandy Alcantra, after Jeffrey Springs. Shane O'Mack? After Shane O'Mack, Shire of Jane McClan. It's a shoulder thing for Brandon

Woodruff, and it's harder to say with a lot of confidence that he's going to be as good as new once he's past that. It's easier to say for guys having Tommy John surgery, I would say. The Red Sox signed Liam Hendricks to a two-year, $10 million contract. Hendricks had Tommy John surgery last August, which means he'll likely miss all of this year, but should be back in 2025. Lots of questions here, Scott, lots of moving parts. Obviously, Liam Hendricks has gone through a lot over the past couple of years. But if he is 80% of the pitcher he was

just a couple of years ago, he'll probably wind up being the closer for the Red Sox next year. That, I mean, that seems like a that seems like a high probability outcome. Yes, because at that point, Kenley Jansson's going to be gone.

Liam Hendricks is going to be old. I mean, I don't think it's a given that he's going to bounce back. He's been through a lot, health-wise the past couple years. But he was one of the best closers in the game before those troubles started. And I think the Red Sox signed him with that hope in mind.

The raise signed Ahmed Rosario to a one-year, $1.5 million deal. And it sounds like the plan will be a utility role, both middle infield positions and corner outfield. Rosario has been much better against lefties in his career. So I don't think this is an everyday player, Scott,

but if they want a platoon partner for Brandon Lowe. Oh my gosh, I just forgot about Lowe versus Lowe for a second. I had like a brain fart there. Brandon Lough, I think that's something that they could do. Obviously, they could play him in the outfield. Anything to see here with Ahmed Rosario? He's very fast, and I hoped he would be somebody who took advantage of the new base stealing environment last year,

and he didn't really in part because he hit so poorly. fantasy-wise, I think this move effectively quashes whatever little value Ahmed Razar you had. More at bats could develop during the season, of course. I'm just kind of disappointed in all the 29 other teams in the majors that they couldn't give him $2 million. You know, like for a viable shortstop, and I understand he struggled defensively

last year, Ahmed Rosario. Players can have off years defensively. He's still young enough. He has good enough defensive history. He was a four-win player in 2022. And shortstop-capable players are hard to find. Anyone who you can just stick at shortstop is worth $2 million regardless of what he provides with the bat.

So I'm very surprised this is the best Ahmed Rosario could do. Yeah, I hear you about having a bad year, Scott. According to Stackast, It was a really, really bad year defensively. Yeah, but he still has 95th percentile sprint speed. So I don't think he's, I don't think it was a loss of athleticism. I don't know what happened to him defensively, but minus 14 outs above average first percentile.

Yeah. So it was really bad. But yeah, I mean, it would have been nice to see a team like, I don't know, the nationals sign them to be their starting second baseman. But I guess they still want to give Luis Garcia a shot. So, yeah, it doesn't sound great for Amman Rosario. To sticking with the race for a second, I do assume that Jose Caballero will remain their starting shortstop because he is a much better defender,

or at least he was last year. He didn't play much shortstop last year for what it's worth. But yes, that does sound like the plan. I think they like his on-base ability. If he doesn't perform and Ahmed Rosario looks better at shortstop than he did last year, then I could absolutely see it changing at some point. But the plan for now is, yes,

Caballero still going to get the majority of the starts at shortstop for the raise. And he's actually taken advantage of his base stealing ability in the little bit. We've seen of him in the majors so far. So it might be a better situation for fantasy anyway. Some smaller signings that Cubs signed David Peralta, the D-back signed Randall Gritchick. Any of these things matter, Scott? Not really. No.

Okay. Junjun Ryu signed an eight-year deal. What? to return to the KBO. So between the Dodgers and Blue Jays, he had himself a nice little career. Shout out to Kianjian Ryu, returning back to the KBO.

Non-signing news, and this is stuff that spans the last time we did this mailbag podcast. It's just hard to do news and we have the position previews going on. But Aaron Judge said Tuesday that his right big toe injury will likely require constant maintenance

for the remainder of his career. That doesn't sound great, Scott, for a 6'7 giant who is moving back. back to center field. So I have defended Judge all off-season that he's not injury prone, that last year was a fluke.

I am rebutting all of my statements because that doesn't sound very good. Oh, yeah. No, I agree. I didn't. I was concerned about the injury risk for Judge because it's been a constant since he reached the majors.

But this obviously makes it, even worse, constant maintenance. What does that mean? Does that mean off days? Is that going to cost him counting stats? I mean, batting behind Juan Soto, judge could be poised for like 130 plus RBI season, potentially.

But he's got to be in the lineup enough to do that. And look, I already factored in a certain amount of injury risk, so I wasn't pulling him down my rankings based on this news. But it's, to me, a justification for why. I have him ranked, I believe I have him 10th in Roto leagues compared to... That's exactly right, yeah. 10. When I had him as the number one overall player heading into last year.

It wouldn't surprise me if he does slip a little bit in drafts. I know the mixed labor draft happened just the other day. That's a 15-team expert league. And Aaron Judge slipped to 13th overall to Mike Giannella. Great player. Shout out to him. Yeah, he got Aaron Judge, and he was happy to get the discount. I was texting back and forth with him.

So yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if we do see Judge Fall a little bit in drafts. I didn't move him down the rankings. Maybe I'll move Juan Soto just ahead of him now just because I think Soto's a little bit more dependable. He does not miss games, but yeah, it's still very close between those two. Matt McLean tweaked his right oblique and will be sidelined for the next week or so. It's the same oblique that he dealt with last year. This injury does not sound great either, Scott. We're still far enough from opening day that he could be fine.

but to me it's alarming that this is still an issue, something that hurt him last year. There have been five NFBC drafts over the past two days. McLean's ADP has dropped 10 spots to pick 70. Is that warranted? Well, I thought he was being overdrafted to begin with. I have him in the same tier as like Hassan Kim and Bryson Stott and Catt and Cattel Marte.

when if you just look at ADP, it looks like McLean belongs in a higher tier than that group. I think there's enough downside risk there just from a performance perspective that I wouldn't want to draft McLean in the same spot everyone else was drafting. And frankly, I'm not sure 10 spots is enough to correct that gap. Don't get me wrong.

Within the tier, McLean ranks higher than those other guys I listed. but the bottom line is I would rather pass up McLean focus on other positions knowing I can fall back on those others. Let's stick with the injuries. I'll go ahead. Finish up. Well, I didn't comment on the injury. Yeah, I agree with you that if it's, if he is aggravating an injury that he was dealing with last year, that would suggest the injury never healed, right?

Like, you don't aggravate an injury that's over and done. And if it hasn't healed after that many months and what's this going to be like over the course of the season? season. So it's, he'd have to drop a lot more than 10 spots, Matt McLean would, I think, for me to, to decide he's worth prioritizing within what I see is a very big tier at second base. So what are you thinking? Like down, like, like pick 80, 90, does he have to fall to 100 for it to make sense? Let me consult my rankings. So I have, uh, Hassan Kim at, 73rd, which I think is a little high. I might need to lower him.

Cotel Marte, 803rd. I have Bryson Stott, 85th. I have Andres Jimenez, who's also in that tier. 125th. Wow, I might need to move him up. Sounds like I need to close the gap within my own tier. So the fact that McLean is still going around 70th, you say? Yeah.

Like, I think you'd have to drop behind some of those names. Okay, so probably around, like, to the 85th. 590 range. Another 10 spots, probably, if not 15, yeah. All right, fair enough. Let's continue on with the injury news. Unfortunately, last Friday, Josh Young was diagnosed with a strain left calf. He'll be reevaluated in two to three weeks. That brings us to early to mid-March. So again, there's still enough time there where it could work out for Josh Young,

but man, this guy has dealt with so many injuries early on in his career. There have been 21 NFBC drafts since last Saturday. Young's ADP is 119.3 during that span. So he's dropped about 15 spots. Does that make sense? Do you feel like Josh Young needs to drop even further? Well, as Jimmy Rollins famously said about 12 years ago, calves are tricky cats.

So the two to three week timetable, I think you can't say that with a lot of confidence. it could linger, it could be re-aggravated pretty easily. However, they are offering a two-to-three-week timetable for what sounds like at this point a minor injury. I wouldn't want to overreact. Young goes a lot later than somebody like McLean, so 10 or 15 spots in ADP isn't as meaningful.

But I was not inclined to adjust him at all in my rankings. I was already pretty low on him, as you know, but I was not downgrading him based on this news. No, my expectation as Young will be ready for opening day, and this will never be something we think about again. Shout out to my Scott White Dynasty League team, by the way. I have all of Matt McLean, Josh Young, and Kodi Senga. Well, maybe not Sena anymore.

I think I'm going to get rid of him now, but that's because he costs a lot of money. Anyway, let's run through the rest of this news real quick. We do still have questions to get to. manager David Bell said he expects Noel V. Marte to make his Cactus League debut on March 2nd. He's a little bit behind because of a grade two hamstring strain that he suffered back in November

while playing in the Dominican Winter League. The pirate signed Mitch Keller to a five-year, $77 million extension, the largest for a pitcher in franchise history, and then later named him opening day starter. Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said that Kyle Bradish has been bouncing back well after playing catch. Bradish was diagnosed with a partial UCL

hair in his right elbow last week. One day after doing our relief pitcher preview, the White Sox expected closer, John Brebia, suffered a right calf strain. They didn't specify an exact timeline. Three names to watch, prelander, Baroa, Brian Shaw, Jordan Leisure. But the answer might actually be nothing.

No names, no names to watch. That's probably the answer. Angels Mariner, Ron, manager, Ron Washington, revealed some notes about his team's projected lineup, either Luis Renhifo or Mickey Moniac at leadoff. two, three, and four, looks like Nolan Shanual, Mike Trout, and Anthony Rendon, and Zach Netto expected to bat ninth.

The Tigers also signed Gio Orchella to a one-year, $1.5 million deal, and he will serve as bench depth. We had a spring training game on Thursday, and look, we're not going to react to every single spring game, but it was the only game on, and I just wanted to quickly touch on a few things.

First one, yeah. If you want to react, feel free. Joe Musgrove did look rusty. Obviously, I'm not overreacting either way. Lots of breaking balls could not command anything. He was charged with four runs. He did not record an out. But again, let's see how he looks over his next few outings.

Yuki Matsui struck out the side in his debut. Fernando Tatis was leading off. Hassan Kim was batting in the middle of the lineup. Thought that was kind of interesting. Jackson Merrill made a great catch in left field. If you remember, he is their top shortstop prospect. He's transitioning into the outfield, so it's nice to see him make a great play out there.

And then we got some other games coming up on Friday that I'll mention. But any quick reactions to any of those got? Matsui looked great. And I think as strikeouts were, I know one of them was against Gavin Lux. So it's not like he was facing a bunch of minor leaguers. The splitter drew rave reviews. He wears number one. I don't know how you give a reliever number one and don't make him the closer.

Early returns, very encouraging for Yuki Matsui. Not taking anything away for Joe Musgrove. I didn't see any talk of his velocity or anything. I'm not sure there was a radar gun on him. But unless we hear his velocities down or something like that, you know, pitchers, especially veterans like him, they're just getting ready. Blow-up starts like this aren't uncommon. Not adjusting my ranking for him in the slightest.

Jackson Merrill looked good in left field, as you said. And I think as a realistic shot of winning that job, we might need to, just because of how aggressive the Padres are in promoting prospects, we might need to be talking him up more as a potential eight-round target. The lineup thing, Fernando Tatis batting,

leadoff and Hassan Kim batting in the middle, let's see if that becomes a trend. They do have a new manager of the Padres. Mike Schilt is their manager now. So it wouldn't be surprising if he did things differently from the last guy. And we have six spring training games on Friday If you want to tune in some pitchers to watch Chris Paddock with the twins

Dane Dunning with the Rangers Jordan Wicks with the Cubs Johnny Brito with the Padres Real quick promotion Join our FBT Facebook group if you haven't already Facebook.com slash groups slash fantasy baseball today if you're watching on YouTube You could scan the QR code that'll take you right to it And we have bonus FBT in five episodes coming out every Saturday

Breaking down the players you want to hear about download and follow FBTN5 wherever you listen to this podcast. Let's take our final break when we return mailbag questions here. Fantasy baseball today. Welcome back in. We've got about 20, 25 minutes, Scott. So let's do a little rapid fire. Get through these questions here.

And we will start with our Apple podcast review questions. This one's from M. Wilson 14. You guys rule. Also, Hunter Green adding two new pitches heading into 2024, a splitter and a curve. Cy Young can. confirmed two question marks. So I do think he's being a bit facetious here.

I think it could help Scott. Obviously Hunter Green has been predominantly a two-pitch pitcher, fastball and slider in his career. I think a bigger problem is can he command those pitches because he walks so many batters already. He gives up hard contact. He gives up a lot of fly balls. Maybe a third or a fourth pitch can help with some of that hard contact,

but he's got to be able to throw these things for strikes. Yeah, I mean, ultimately it comes down to how good are the pitch. and I haven't seen a lot as far as that goes. I think if he starts deploying them in games, maybe we'll have a better idea. I'm more excited about the curveball, actually, because he needs a slower offering to go with that fastball and slider,

and it could serve as an effective counter to the slider, especially help slow down hitters' bats for his very fast fast ball, let it play up. you know, this could be the key to unlocking his full potential, but it's obviously too early to say at this point. It might just be a lot of spring talk. Yeah, I get the upside with Hunter Green. We spoke about him on one of our pitching previews.

It's not for me. I understand the upside completely. I still just think that there is such significant downside between the injuries and, again, the walks, the hard contact, the ballpark he pitches in. There's just a lot playing against. against him. One year he might put it together and make me look foolish, but it's not for me. Hunter Green is in the glob, of course. How could he not be? But he's on the side of the glob with hope of transcending the glob. Not every glob you picture has that hope. Hunter Green does,

and that makes him more attractive than a true globby guy to me, at least depending on the format. This next one's from On Dead Lynn, on Deadlin. Okay. Defending champ, In a 30 plus year, five-by-five dynasty league where we protect seven players every year. My top six are Acuna, Trey Turner, Altuve, Machado, Corby, Maccato, and Luis Castillo. Who would you pick for the seventh spot between Trout, Eflin, Bradish, and Rysel Iglesias?

Trout? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, to me, it's really Trout versus Eflin. But, yeah, I think I would lean Trout as well. Good there? I mean... they're going what four rounds apart in drafts, if not more? I don't think it's, I think it's particularly close.

You've only filled one outfield spot with Acuna, and outfield is terrible. Yeah, Trout's a pretty obvious answer, I think. The Fantasy Pro's ADP for Mike Trott is 55.8, and Eflin is 83.6. Like two to three rounds. Three rounds. Yeah, almost three rounds.

This next one's from Diabetes Daddy. I am in a 12-team head to head categories Keeper League. I'm already keeping Tatis, Austin Riley, and Corbyn Burns. I can keep either Blake Snell in the 11th or Walker Bueller into 21st. Keepers can be kept indefinitely,

but each year they move up by one round. You take the discount with the injured Walker Bueller or rehabbing Walker Bueller, I guess. I mean, that could be great to have Walker Bueller for that cheap for years to come, only moving up a round at a time. And I think it would be an obvious, yes, if he was coming back from his first Tommy John surgery,

but coming back from the second, I have more doubts. I mean, Snell in the 11th round, obviously, if he maintains who he was last year, that's going to be something that'll pay off for years to come too. And I think has less chance of missing, right? Like, Bueller, I could see a scenario where you keep him here in round 21 and decide next year he's not worth keeping in round 20 because it just went that poorly.

So it's a tough one. I understand the dilemma. My hunch is Bueller because if it does work out and he gets back to like a form to to have him round 20, two years from now, 19, 18, you know, you'll never not keep him again until his career is over, basically. All right. I am going to, I'm going to just plead the fifth, and you go with Scott White's answer

because I think it's a really tough question. Let's get into our emails, Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. That's the letter I, and this one's from Aaron. I was wondering if you have any general rule for adjusting your rankings for head-to-head categories for pitching. I feel like pitching as a whole may be devalued slightly in head-to-head categories versus Roto,

since you can bench or stream pitchers late in the week. If once or twice I'm benching Spencer Strider because I can only lose ERA or whip, he seems less valuable, right? My other question was, we'll get to that in just a second. But what do you think, Scott? Do you devalue starting pitching

in a, I guess, a daily head-to-head categories league? No, I haven't before. It does sound like Aaron is describing a setup that I haven't quite played before, which is both daily lineup changes and daily transactions. And I think that opens up a new world of possibilities that frankly he's more accustomed to than I am. And so I'm not going to tell him he's wrong.

my general approach in head-to-head categories leagues is to really sell out for individual start impact. So a Chris Sale, for instance, would be more attractive to me in a head-to-head categories league than he is in a roto league. Because for however long he's healthy and starting, you know those starts are going to be very impactful. He could do a lot of good for you in the strike. category over a short period of time. So that would be the biggest distinction between the two. But for the most part, I've approached my pitching staff similarly, certainly the starting pitching side of my pitching staff similarly to how I do in a roto league.

My other question was my league specifically is six by six with walks to lessen streaming with only 25 innings required. So other than pushing up the George Kirby's and pushing down the Blake Snells, how would walks change your approach to pitching? Well, yeah, I think it would it would counteract the streaming effect. I mean, streaming sounds pretty dangerous

in a head-to-head categories league. It's more useful in a points league because even a not-so-great start in points league is still usually worth a small number of positive points. A really bad start could be worth a huge number of negative points, but a not-so-great start in a categories league could mean like a 6ERA and a 1-5 whip, you know?

So I think there's already a lot working against that approach in a head-to-head categories league, and a walk penalty, the fact that walks counts as a category would even go further to combat that. And it's probably worthwhile, particularly if you're going to do daily transactions and lineup changes,

because I don't know, that just seems like, that just seems like it could get out of hand. set up like everybody is trying to grab every start they can at the end of the week i don't know that's that's that's that feels like a high effort low reward way of playing to me so i don't endorse the format but uh those are some of the approaches i do think you've built in some safeguards at least This next one's from Ryan. I am in a 13 team roto with wins, quality starts,

strikeouts, saves plus holds, and earn runs for pitcher stats. Would you trade an $11 George Kirby for a $6.00 Uri Perez? I know you're all down on Kirby and high on Perez based on current ADP, but do the auction values I gave change those opinions? Well, I can tell you

what mine are, my projected values for both of these guys in a roto format this year. George Kirby, I have at $17. You're saying you can keep him for $11. Yuri Perez, I have for $14. You're saying you can keep him for six. So I guess based on that, I do prefer Perez, but it's close.

And just outright, I prefer Kirby. I do want to stress that because I do think, understandably, you're listening to a podcast. You're not absorbing every word necessarily. and sometimes the nuance is lost. Kirby is being over drafted, I think, because he's being drafted, what, fifth, sixth overall

among starting pitchers in the top 10. What is it exactly? I could pull that up. It's 8. It's 9th. Sorry. He's being drafted 9th.

He's being overdrafted because I think he's more like a top 15, maybe even beyond top 15 pitcher. But he's, is still a top 15, slightly beyond top 15 pitcher in my mind, and still plenty valuable. I don't think he's bad. I just think he's being credited as an ace when he hasn't deserved that. This next one's from Sean.

In an auction draft, what are your strategies for the following? This is a head-to-head categories league, if that means anything. Pitching versus hitting budget allocation. I guess we'll just tackle these one at a time. Do you have a budget, Scott, because some people are very strict with 65, 35, 35, in favor of hitting or 70, 30? I mean, most of the time, it's in favor of hitting because most leagues have more hitter spots than pitcher spots. You're talking about a roto league when you're talking about an auction. So, yeah, there's a lot more hitter spots to fill, and you go deeper into the hitter pool in a Roto league.

So normally the budget would be heavily tilted toward pitching. I mean, toward hitting. And I think it should be given the dynamic of the player pool right now, where there are clearer distinctions to be found at the top end of the hitter ranks than at the top end of the pitcher ranks. I think even in a league where you start closer to an even number of hitters and pitchers, you still want to devote most of your budget to hitting. I have never sat down.

I'm somebody who plans out my auctions ahead of time. And I write down how much I intend to spend at every position, a few names that I think I could give for that price, and make sure it all adds up to 260, so I'm not living in fairyland. But I've never actually gone into that process saying, okay, I want to spend this much of my budget on pitching, just in general, and this much of my budget on hitting. That's just not, that's never been a part of my process.

I see a lot of people talk about it, but that's never been part of my process. So I would say, I would say, aim for as many stud bats as you feel like you can afford without putting yourself in a really bad position for pitching. So maybe, maybe three,

I don't know how big your lineup is obviously, but three is probably the most you could justify getting. And when I say stud bats, I mean like top three round guys. I do think it's relative to your specific league too, right? It depends how people are spending money or how they've historically spent money in your league. And, you know, we've got some emails recently and people asking, well, why don't you talk about auction values?

Auction values are so tough because while we have them on the website, you could check them out with the rankings. Every auction is so different, Scott. They're suggestions. Yeah, like, we can give you an idea. Scott said, all right, he has Kirby at, you said, $18, right? Like, in one draft, he could go for 20, and one draft he can go for 12, right?

Like, it's just kind of a range of things. So, yeah, auctions in that way, I think, are tough to talk about, specifically how much to spend on each player. In fact, we will have an auction coming up soon. A live auction we'll do here on the podcast, so that'll be a lot of fun. The next question, would you prefer, a few high price players complemented with several $1 players

or a good amount of medium price players. So you're suggesting a Stars and Scrubs approach or a more balanced approach. I think that depends entirely on how deep your league is. We just did a head to head point salary cap draft, i.e. auction. The other day, 21-man rosters, only 252 players rostered across the league, only 16-man starting lineups. it's pretty shallow.

And I took most everybody in the league took a very Stars and Scrubs approach where the elite players were pushing $35, $40, even $45 at some of the weaker positions. But the middle tiers, what you'd normally consider the bulk of the draft, they all went for relative discounts.

They're just not as impactful in a shallow league like that. You're not as worried about whiffing on a low dollar player because you know there's an ample waiver wire, you know there's going to be plenty of opportunity to adjust for mistakes. But if you're playing in a really deep league,

like an AL or NL only, or even like a 15-team rhodo with a lot of lineup spots to fill, you can't afford to miss as much, so you need to play it a little more in the middle. And the deeper the league, like in some of the AL and NLs we do, I don't, I have a rule where I try not to go

even $30 on a single player, because that's how much I want to live in the middle. But if it's on the shallower end, if it's fewer than 300 players rostered, let's say, then I think you go stars and scrubs. I would recommend, though, for your scrubs, rather than devoting a dollar to each of them, and meaning you could only win the players you yourself nominate,

and if somebody bids you up one, oh, crap, I got to wait a whole other round to nominate somebody. Save yourself. $2 for every player so that you have an opportunity not only for the ones you nominate, but ones other people nominate for $1 too. And sometimes you might even go straight to three if it's somebody you really want. And lastly, how many players from one MLB team is too many? I don't worry about that.

Between hitters and pitchers on the same team, I think having a lot of Dodgers, for example, that's not going to be a problem. I would caution against having too many Rockies in a head-to-head league, just because when they're on the road, you don't want multiple road Rockies on your team. But I don't even know that you're drafting more than one Rocky hitter anyway, right? It's like Nolan Jones and that's it. Now, that feels like more of a football concern.

Stats players put up aren't related to each other in that way, and they play many games a week as opposed to just one. So, yeah, that's not something I put much thought into, other than the Rockies thing. This next one's from Dana. In all the discussion of top prospects coming up this year, I haven't heard much about Jason Dominguez coming back. I would love to get your take on how he compares to that group in a dynasty context.

So the group that we often talk about is the top four top prospects, and that includes the two Jackson's Holiday and Chorio, Wyatt Langford from the Rangers and Junior Camerro from the Tampa Bay Rays. Just for reference, Scott has Jason Dominguez as his number 11 prospect in his top 100. And what are your thoughts, Scott, about Dominguez coming back. He had Tommy John surgery. So the hope is he's probably back in the second half, July or August, I think. Yeah, it just feels a little too distant for a player who has hardly proven himself in the major.

Right? He got like a week of action. So it went well. He had four home runs. But we don't know exactly when we're going to see him. And we don't know exactly what to expect. And we don't even know if the Yankees will have an opening for. because they acquired two outfielders this offseason.

So that's why you haven't heard much about Jason Dominguez, obviously. In a dynasty context, well, I would treat him like the number 11 prospect. He's going to contribute at some point this year, I think is fair to say. So any other high-end prospect who you expect to contribute this year, that's how I'd value Jason Dominguez. All right, Scott, we have four questions left, five minutes in the podcast. from Angel thinking of trading Corbyn Carroll in a 12-team head-to-head categories keeper league. I'd have to sacrifice my 12th round pick to keep Carol.

The trade was this. I received first round pick swaps. So pick second instead of eighth. I would get Jackson, Churio and Evan Carter, who are last round keepers, and an additional fourth round pick. I listen to the show and I'm slightly concerned with Carol's shoulder,

and this seems like a good return for Carol. So Carol as a 12th round keeper, I mean, that is Primo. That is pretty awesome. Or you get to move up to the second overall pick, Truro and Evan Carter, last round keepers, and then additional fourth rounder. And it's only a 12-team league.

It's a pretty shallow. Doesn't say how many keepers per team either. It doesn't, yeah, right. It doesn't say how many keepers per team. So the second overall pick, what would that be like? The second overall pick in round four or the second overall pick in what would normally be like round 12, you know?

That makes a difference too. Ultimately for a league of this size, I don't like it. It's if you are going to make a trade like this, it's probably the best you could do because Jackson Chorio and Evan Carter as last round keepers, I mean, that could, like, you could absolutely, even if Corbyn Carroll, everything's fine with the shoulder and he remains this good forevermore.

I mean, Jackson Choreo and Evan Carter could be close enough. Choreo could maybe even be better. So it could work out, but you're obviously taking a proven first round asset who's already extremely discounted and forfeiting him. I think in a shallow league, that's never really a good idea. This next one's from James. Hello, Barry Maurice and Robin. Barry Maurice and Robin. Chris, Scott, I'll save you.

And I will say this. If Chris was here, he would probably know this and he would probably be disappointed in us. Those are the Bee Gees. I'd love to hear someone make the negative case for Shota Imanaga at his current ADP, his high K-rate last year in Japan, Cubs defense, and current price had me drafting him pretty much everywhere right now. I'm thinking that maybe I'm a bit too head over heels, and I'd like someone to bring me back down to Earth a bit on Imanaga.

Well, I think the biggest downside issue is he could be very home run prone. His home run rate for being in Japan was actually pretty high last year, and there tend to be a lot more power hitters on this side of the Pacific anyway. In Chicago, the wind's going to be blowing out some days. He could have some really ugly stat lines sometimes, could Imanaga. And look, I mean, from a pure scouting perspective, the reports aren't raving about him. I think more analytical scouting approaches,

like using the Stuff Plus model and everything, are more optimistic. But he doesn't throw especially hard. His fastball doesn't have traditionally dominant characteristics. It plays up because of the vertical approach angle. But there's reason to think maybe hitters are starting to catch up to that anyway across the league. Like, it's not a sure thing I'managa is going to be even good, which is why I only have him, I think, around 50th in my starting pitcher rankings.

I like him as a sleeper, but there's a scenario where he could get pushed up beyond a point where I'd be willing to pay the price. And the adjustment period, right? Look, we've been spoiled the past couple of players and pitchers that have come over from Japan. Obviously, Kodi-Single was awesome last year. But, yeah, I mean, there is a scenario where either it doesn't work out or it takes some time for that adjustment period for, for Imanaga, to get going. With that being said, Scott, I do agree.

Like, I have him as a sleeper, and I love drafting him. His ADP is 212 right now. But yeah, I mean, there is a world where this clearly doesn't work out for Imanaga. This next one's from John, trade, Juan Soto and Terrick Scuba for Bobby Witt and Jesus Lazzardo,

a roto league with OBP and Slug. Well, OBP Soto comes out way ahead of Witt, so that changes the calculation there a bit, and you know how much I like Scoobel? No, definitely keeps Soto and scoble. Yeah.

Because we like Scoble more than Lozado. Obviously with 50 steel guy with first round hitting characteristics like Bobby Witt is. That's, I think it's worth considering. But I think because of the the OBP category here,

I would stick with Soto and Scoobo. Yeah. This last one is from Lewis. I feel like many people aren't appreciating the effects of the six-man rotation on the Dodgers starting pitchers in 2024. Even if Glass

Now and Yamamoto crush it in 2024. They're very unlikely to pitch 180 innings simply because they're not going to have enough games started. And they will almost never have two start weeks. Most innings pitched by an angel starting pitcher each of the past three years. Last year, 148.2. In 2022, it was 166 in 2021, 130.1. Another way of looking at this is that it could be a benefit to Glass Now in Yamamoto.

Maybe it will make Glass Now less likely to get injured and it will allow Yamamoto. to stay on a schedule that he's used to. So painting both sides of the coin here, Scott, the one pushback I would have with using the Angels as an example, their pitchers stink. Yeah, yeah. Other than Otani who had other reasons why his starts had to be spread out more. But the bigger issue is I don't think the Dodgers are actually going with a six-man

rotation. This storyline has... Their guys are already dropping like flies. Right. so they're going to have fewer options there. It came up because a beat rider speculated that given all their pitching possibilities and given that they have several guys in the rotation

who had durability concerns, it might make sense for them to use a six-man rotation sometimes. But it was never like Dave Roberts saying, yep, we're going with a six-man rotation this year. In fact, I think to the extent the Dodgers have commented on it official, they've pretty much ruled it out, which isn't to say they will never insert a spot starter at times.

I mean, most teams do, but the Dodgers, if things go as they're supposed to, they're not going to have a six-man rotation this year. So we can go ahead and quash that narrative right now. Wait, you know what? I would welcome it with as much as I like MHG hands, Scott, that would be pretty awesome. Look, things find a way of working themselves out.

Obviously, James Paxton has an extensive injury history, So does Tyler Glass now, obviously. We're waiting for Walker Bueller to return, but lots of excitement with Emmett Sheehan would like him to get a fair opportunity this season. All right, we did it. Look at that. All of our mailback questions done.

We're going to wrap there for Scott. 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.