Fantasy Baseball Today - Latest Signings, News & Your Mailbag Questions! (2/16 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

Before we get to your mailbag questions, let's discuss the news from the week, starting with Chris Bassitt to the Orioles (2:46)! ... Nick Martinez signed to be a starter with the Rays (6:00). ... Marcell Ozuna signed a one-year deal with the Pirates (10:06). ... Rangers prospect Sebastian Walcott is out for 2026 (18:30). ... Daniel Palencia has been named the Cubs' closer (22:02). ... Jarren Duran might not play against lefties (25:23). ... Ben Rice is expected to be an everyday player (30:47). ... Here's the rest of the news from the week (32:57). ... Now your mailbag questions, starting with Apple podcast questions (41:20). ... What strategy do we use in snake drafts (45:40)? ... Who gains value in a league with quality starts (51:20)? ... Where would we rank Ivan Herrera at catcher (53:42)? ... How to check your fandom in Fantasy Baseball (55:26). ... The pitcher most likely to breakout is blank (1:07:50). Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Roto_Frank⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hello, and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on President's Day, Monday, February 16th. I am, for example, joined by Chris Tower.

today on the show. We have ourselves a mailbag. We'll answer your Apple podcast review and email questions, plus all the news from the first week of spring training. We are recording this a few days in advance, so probably some things that are going to happen over the weekend, which you won't hear about on this podcast. But, Chris, there was a lot to talk about

and a lot of transactions and just little newsy-type things that we do need to talk about. So we will start there, and of course we did have a bunch of big, injuries we did emergency podcast for those so make sure to check those out we addressed Corbyn Carroll Francisco Lindorr all the Blue Jays stuff Santanderer Shane Bieber Spencer Schwellenbach so Jackson Holiday yep yep so be sure to check those out speaking of the Orioles they signed Chris Bassett to a one year 18 and a half

million dollar deal Bassett hasn't been very good the past two years he's coming off a 396 ERA 133 whip strikeouts still solid Chris any deep league interest in Chris Bassett. No, I think he's just a streamer. You know, you get to that point in the pitcher rankings and you're talking about guys like him, maybe you look at the early season schedule and see that it lines up well.

You know, potentially they get a handful of good matchups and you can look at them and say, hey, I'll pick them up and see if I can get something out of them. Schedule, that's pretty good for the Orioles early on. Yeah. probably won't be in the top three in the rotation, so I don't think he's going to get that twin series, but he's got the Rangers,

probably the Pirates or the White Sox. Sam Fran. Well, Sam Fran's lineup actually could be pretty good. Yeah, you might get a couple of streamable games out of him early on, but I don't think Chris Bassett is someone who needs to be drafted in most leagues. Just a, just a streamer at this point. I guess some fallout for the Orioles rotation. Do you think someone gets the bump here?

If so, who? Maybe Dean Kramer. or do they maybe go with a six-man rotation? Yeah, I mean, you think they've probably got to try to figure out a way to manage innings for Kyle Bradish at least, but Zach Efflin's missed a lot of time. Shane Boz has missed a lot of time. Trevor Rogers has missed a lot of time. So, yeah, I think it's entirely possible they just go with a six-man rotation

and Kramer is just kind of in and out of the rotation depending on the schedule. That would make sense. but, you know, it's not a great rotation. I would say, you know, you set the over under on ERA at four. I might take the over on the over on at least four of these guys. But it should all be low for ERAs, right? Like Basset, Baws, Eflin, Kramer, Kramer.

Jeez, why? Again, I've been sick the last few days. My mind is not in a great place. February is a busy time for us. It's also, yeah, it's bad time to get sick. But Kramer, you know, these are all good enough options. And with Rogers and Braddish, they may have real upside at the top of the rotation. So Kramer's been like the number three for them for the last couple of years.

So this is already better than they've been. And then there's some upside. So or else have done a decent job adding to their rotation. I think I'd still like one more. more surefire impact arm here, but I think they're done. So it's probably decent enough if the offense is as good as we think it will be. One thing to keep in mind if they do use a six-man rotation, we're probably missing out on two-star weeks for a lot of their pitchers.

So keep that in mind when drafting Kyle Bradish, Trevor Rogers, Shane Boz. I think those three are really the only three that will be drafted in all drafts. And then, you know, in deeper leagues, you'll get some of these other names. But yeah, if it's a six-man, probably not getting a lot of two-suits. start weeks there. The raise signed Nick Martinez to a one year $13 million deal and they expect to use him as a starter. He's coming off a bad season 445, ERA 121 whip. But he was pretty great in 24. Also has RP eligibility. So for those who play in a head to head points league, we get ourselves a, I would say a low end spark, but maybe someone you could stream in the right matchups.

Any interest in Nick Martinez? I mean, I think he's going to be in the rotation. because he is their highest paid player so weird yeah it's uh well i i think it's a nine million dollar contract for twenty six with a four million dollar buyout uh for twenty twenty seven if i'm reading that correctly so um yeah i i think or maybe it's deferred no it's a mutual option for twenty seven that's what it is um so he's their second highest paid player this year i guess um the rotation. And we've seen Nick Martinez be useful at times. And obviously the RP eligibility in a head-to-head points league is pretty valuable. So I think Nick Martinez certainly could matter for fantasy. But even as a spark, he's pretty low end. He doesn't pitch consistently deep into games.

The rays are not likely to let him go deep into games anyway. So I think like Chris Bassett, maybe the schedule works out early in the season and you know it looks like nick martinez has some good matchups maybe that's the case i i'll try to look it up as i'm talking but it's unlikely that this guy is someone you're keeping around forever okay at st louis at milwaukee at minnesota maybe you get that maybe he's in the at minnesota at st louis for the first two turns that'd be okay but not super exciting. So now I don't think Nick Martinez needs to be drafted outside of Spark situation. Does seem like bad news for my guy Ian Seymour, someone I do like as a deeper sleeper. He performed well last year, but they keep signing these kind of, not reclamation projects,

but you know, Martinez and Stephen Matt's, no idea of Shane McClanahan is going to give them anything. So if someone gets hurt, if someone gets hurt, then Ian Seymour could be in there. But If they just go with a five-man rotation, Seymour might be on the outside looking in, which I don't love Chris. I think he's almost certainly on the outside looking in right now. Yeah. I also think it's very likely and Seymour makes 20 plus starts this year. Fair. You know, you're looking at Jurasmussen for as much as they've managed his innings, they're going to have to continue to do that.

I think he's going to be capped at 150 forever, basically. He's had three elbow reconstructions, I believe, to Tommy John. and one internal brace. Shane McClanahan has not pitched since like 30 months ago, I'm pretty sure, in a game. And like a game of any, well, I guess he might have pitched in spring training last year. Yeah. Like one start and then got hurt. So he's made one start, I think, in the last 30 months in a game.

He's had Tommy John surgery twice. Stephen Mats is probably going to get traded. Nick Martinez is probably going to get traded. honestly, Drew Rasmussen might get traded anyway. So there will be opportunities for Ian Seymour and Joe Boyle. And they have some really interesting pitching prospects as well, who are, I think, at double A or AAA. So I think we will see Jackson Beaumester and Trevor Harrison and who is the other guy?

Andrew Lindsay maybe? Brody Hopkins. Yeah, that's the guy. Yeah. I've got him on my Scott White Dynasty League. So I think we'll see a lot of these other names who are more interesting than Martinez and Matt's at some point. But not an opening day unless injuries happen in spring training, which they probably will. Yeah.

The Pirates signed Marcel O'Suna to a one-year $12 million deal. He is now 35 years old coming off a down year where he hit 232 with 21 home runs and a 756 OPS. But just the two years prior to that, 79 combined home runs with an OPS over 9. 900 both years. This is someone who was drafted as a top 75 pick last year. I was very excited about Marcel O'Suna. He played through a hip injury. I think that very clearly derailed his season. I don't know how much he has left and PNC is a pretty bad place for right-handed power. Wouldn't surprise me if he bounces back a little bit, but don't love the landing spot, I guess, here for Marcelo Zuna. It's significantly less than I

deal for Marcelo's in of the landing spot. He also did not have surgery to repair that hip injury. He is also 35 years old. Boy, that makes me feel really old, actually. Like, was his time on the Marlins really that long ago? Wasn't he young?

He was like a young guy at one point. He was probably a decade ago at this point. Oh, man. Yeah, he was traded from the Marlins nine years ago. God, that's crazy. Sorry. Yeah, PNC Park is probably one of the last places you would want a right-handed power hitter to land.

You look at the expected home runs by ballpark. Marcelo Zuna's lowest number is Kansas City at 216 for his career. PNC Park's the second lowest. It's worse than Marlins Park. It's worse than when he was in Atlanta. So yeah, it's not ideal. The fact that he's util only also really hurts. I think he's still worth drafting.

just because if he returns to being like a 25 plus Homer guy, I think we saw some signs of life in the second half from him. I'm open to the idea that Marcelo Zuna can still be pretty useful. Still, NL only play, 15 team mixed leagues for sure. Maybe one of your last bench spots in a 12-team league, just to see if there's anything there early on in the season. The NFBC ADP in February for Ozuna was 397 before this signing, So probably we'll move up a little bit, but very late round option as of now.

I think an underrated part of this, Chris, is that it pushes Ryan O'Hern into the outfield, and all of a sudden their outfield defense is really bad. They have O'Hern and Brian Reynolds in the corners. O'Neill Cruz has not graded out well defensively in center field so far. So their pitchers get a lot of strikeouts, and there's a lot of talent on their pitching staff, but do not love that defense out there. Yeah, and you know, when you look at the actual projected rotation right now, I mean, I guess you can hope that Braxton Ashcraft takes a step forward as a strikeout pitcher, but he really wasn't one. I like him. I like him a lot. Last season, you know, it was about a strikeout per inning, but that's, you know, fine. Yeah, I don't know. It's not an ideal mix, but the pirates are in a position where they don't really have ideal options. So I guess the one takeaway here is there's been some talk about.

about Connor Griffin maybe playing the outfield. I don't think that's going to happen in Pittsburgh. I think if he's in the lineup, it'll be at shortstop, which makes sense. He might be a long-term centerfielder, but he might stick at shortstop as well. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, they're certainly more interesting than they used to be,

but this is still a really flawed team that needs a lot to go right to make a run for the playoffs, unfortunately, which I'd like to see. I definitely want to see Paul Skeen's pitching in games that matter outside of the world baseball classic this year. Yeah. I just, I'm not sure how likely that is. I think we're going to see a lot of Jake Mangum late in games.

Yeah, that would make sense. And there are ways they can kind of shuffle things around. If they want to play O'Hurn at first base and put Mangum in the outfield, they can do that. But then Spencer Horwitz is on the bench too. So it's not an ideal roster and not an ideal defense as of now for the Pittsburgh Pirates. On the position previews, we talked about Caleb Durbin getting traded over to the Red Sox, but we haven't talked about the entire trade. So here we go.

The Red Sox received Caleb Durbin, Andrew Monasterio, Anthony Siegler, and a comp B pick from the Brewers, while the Brewers received Kyle Harrison, David Hamilton, and Shane Drone. So the Brewers have some pitching depth here. Rostal Resource has their rotation as Brandon Woodruff, Jacob Mizorowski, Quinn Priester, Chad Patrick and Logan Henderson But they also have Now Kyle Harrison Brandon Sproote, Robert Gasser

Waiting in the Wings I think it's a good way for the Brewers To build their team Just because Woodruff Obviously has dealt with a lot of injuries Mizzi Arowski Has dealt with some stuff as well And Logan Henderson

I think actually ended the season on the aisle With a elbow sprain With a flexor thing Flexor strain yeah That's not great It makes sense for them to build out the depth, but right now it looks like Harrison, Sprote, and Gasser, who do have a little bit of upside are on the outside looking in with the brewers?

I think we'll see them definitely at some point this year. I've never been a Kyle Harrison guy. He's way too fastball dependent for a guy who just has not had a particularly good fastball. The nice thing, I guess, is that the brewers are pretty good at developing pitchers. on the other hand the red sox are also pretty good at developing pitchers and they gave up on i don't want to say they gave up on kyle harrison but they decided he was expendable and i don't necessarily know i have more faith in the brewers to unlock something in harrison than the red socks so i don't i think harrison could be a bullpen arm but i don't have much faith in him in terms of my interest in these

guys if they get called up he's definitely below sproote and gasser. All right, let's take our first break. When we return, we'll quickly run through the rest of the news items. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Mailbag coming a little bit later on in the show. We'll move quickly through the rest of these news items here.

But we learned Rangers top prospects, Sebastian Walcott, will undergo UCL surgery on his right elbow and will miss most, if not all, of the 2026 season. And it was weird because he was shut down from the Arizona Fall League in mid-October with forearm fatigue. and then they wait until February to do anything about it. Maybe they just wanted to try the rest in rehab thing. He's a young guy.

I get that, but if they could have done this any sooner, it feels weird that they didn't. Yeah, on the other hand, if you can avoid surgery, I think you try to. And in this particular instance, we're talking about a guy who's already had 124 games at AA, where he held his own. and he'll be a month past his 21st birthday next year on opening day. That's how young Sebastian Walcott it.

He was 19 at AA last season. He had a 110 WRC plus. So you never want to lose a full season, but if he has the surgery in October and November, he's probably losing a big chunk of this season anyway. So I can understand opting to not have. have the surgery at the time just because you do have a little more flexibility with this kind of timetable. But, you know, it's, it's never good to lose a whole year either.

Yeah. From a dynasty perspective, I mean, we're probably not seeing him until very late in 27 at the earliest, I would imagine. Probably more like a early 2028 name, I would imagine, for Sebastian Walcott. The Phillies have released Nick Castiano's again. We are doing this a couple days in advance. He might sign somewhere over the weekend. So if he does, we are not aware of it yet. but last year he hit 250, 17 home runs, 72 run, 72 RBI. He's still okay. He could probably help a team, not that he's great or anything. Not sure that he has much left for fantasy.

Do you have any deeply interest, Chris and Castellanos? Maybe if he landed in the right spot, but no, probably not. I could see, like, among teams that are at least ostensibly trying this year, I could see him being an improvement on the D8 spot for, like, the Marlins if they think Augustine Ramirez can catch regularly or I don't know the it's kind of hard to the Guardians probably he'd be an upgrade for the Guardians probably um and they probably wouldn't have to pay him anything so I think that would work out nicely for the Guardians as well he's probably an upgrade for the Padres um John Heyman put out

potential fits may include the Padres J's A's Rangers Reds the Reds? The Rangers make some sense. Rangers make some sense. The A's would be good for its value in Sacramento. Yeah, that wouldn't be bad. The Reyes. But they also have Brent Rooker, so I don't know.

Yeah, I mean, I guess you just look at it as Rooker and Castellanos can both stand in the outfield. You know, I don't know if you actually want either of them playing much outfield, but they are capable of it. And I think there was some talk that he was working at first base this off season to try to gain some flexibility there. So I think he could help someone, but it's unlikely to matter much for fantasy. K.M. Schlittler has been shut down from throwing for a few days with mid-back inflammation. He said he has zero concern about it. But hey, it's an injury to a pitcher we like. So we'll let you know about it.

Daniel Palencia will open the season as the Cubs closer. he had a breakout year. 22 saves, 291, ERA, 114 whip, up over 10K per 9. Pretty good control as well. Chris, where is Daniel Palencia in your relief pitcher rankings? I updated this the other day, and he's inside the top 20 now. I think you could move him up a couple spots from there if you wanted to. Like, Dana Santana versus Daniel Palencia,

maybe Santana has more job security because he did it for basically a full year. I'd still rather have like Pete Fairbanks. I'm still assuming Kenley Jansen is the Tigers closer, although I know they've been a little cagey about that. So yeah, top 20 for sure, but I think there's some risk here. You know, we only have really one year of Daniel Palencia throwing strikes. Even if you look at his minor league tracker, the control was really bad prior to 2025.

So I think there's real risk that this goes sideways, but he should be drafted in any league where you're chasing saves for sure. I have him just behind Emilio Pagan, Kenley Jansen, Jeff Hoffman. If you wanted to make the case for Palencia as high as 13th in the relief picture rankings, if you wanted to take him over Pagan or Jansen, I mean, he's younger than those guys. Obviously, he's coming off a great season. Pitching for a good team. I have no issue with that.

But I would take each of Paghan, Jansen and Jeff Hoffman ahead of Palencia as of now. Blue Jays manager, John Schneider, said he's 100% confident in Jeff Hoffman, closing most games this season. We just mentioned we would take Hoffman over Palencia. So those guys are more your catcher two in a Categories League or a points league, whatever it might be. If you wait, I guess they could be your one, but not an ideal situation. Get them as your closer too.

Philly's manager, Rob Thompson said Zach Wheeler will not be ready for opening day, but he, quote, doesn't think he'll be too far behind that. So we are still waiting to see what Zach Wheeler looks like. Maybe he gets into some spring games. That would be nice. He's recovering from that venous thoracic outlet surgery, which is the less severe than the usual thoracic outlet. He also had his rib removed during the surgery, and he kept it, and he has it in his closet. So there's that.

Yeah, the rib removal is the standard part of this. That's how the thoracic outlet surgery. It is like, you are right that the venous thoracic outlet surgery is considered less worrisome than the, I can't, a nerve version. I don't know what the actual term would be. It is a little funny to say the less severe version of getting a piece of your rib removed while they move a vein

to a different part of your body. Yeah. You know, like it's still a big surgery, yeah. It's still pretty horrifying, yeah. The rib thing is just so funny, but you know what? He's not the only one. I remember there was, I forgot who it was, well pitcher, but he got his rib removed from a surgery like this, and he gave it to his dad.

Hey. I don't remember which pitcher was, but they, sometimes they do stuff like this. You know, uh, people are weird. Yeah, just go. Baseball players in general. Put it on the shelf behind you. There you go. Yeah.

That's a bit of me. That's weird. This one kind of flew under the radar. Chris Cotillo of Mass Live.com. He covers the Red Sox reported that Jaron Duran might not start against left-handed pitching this season. year he hit 211 with a 600 OPS against lefties for his career. It's 232, 620 OPS. I mean, that would mean that they probably view Willie Arbriou as more of an everyday player than Jaron Duran. But the fact that people are even talking about this, it's there as a possibility, Chris. And

Jaron's ADP is still around 75. And that's really high for someone who might not play every day. So I came into the offseason kind of, I think optimistic. I would be looking to buy the bounce back, by the dip, I guess, a little bit on Duran. It's an interesting skill set. He gives you a lot of speed, a little bit of power. It's a good lineup. Should have hit in the top half of that lineup. But if he's not an everyday player, it's not as appealing.

And I think this kind of highlights why the Red Sox probably haven't traded him yet, because he's a really good player. You know, he was worth 3.9 wins above replacement, according to Fangraphs last season. He is also a guy who probably can't hit lefties and is a below-average defensive outfielder in a corner. And he's older than you think. And he's 29. He turns 30 at the end, before the end of the season. And he's already making $8 million a year.

So it's like he is valuable, he is good. I understand why finding a trade partner for him that makes a deal makes sense was pretty difficult. And I do think they still should have done it. Duran for Paredes, just do it. I mean, they should have done it. I don't think they're going to do it now, but no. But yeah, I think there is some playing time risk here because he's not a great defensive

outfielder and because he can't probably can't hit lefties well enough. So it's like, yeah, it makes. sense why that guy might be might not be quite an everyday player the 80p in february the nfBC adp for duran is right around 75 uh he's going right next to jackson merrill i know you and i would both rather have merrill than duran cody bellinger's going behind him i would rather have belliger i know he's going to be an everyday player i have bellinger ahead of duran as well i have duran versus boston is oh that's kind of a tough one for me uh give me the same number of games and i'll definitely take Buxton, but I mean, I guess, you know, if Duran's not playing quite every day,

I could see playing time ending up pretty similar there. I think, you know, I've got Duran just ahead of Buxton, just ahead of Michael Harris, just ahead of Randy or Rosarena, all very similar types of players with, you know, I think a Roserina probably the least playing time risk of those guys, just because he's been very healthy. But you never feel great about Randy or Rosarena. So I don't know. It's the middle class or kind of, I don't know, the number two outfielder tier, I don't love this season.

Yeah. But they're all good. It's just, I have questions about all of them for sure. Astros catcher, Yiner Diaz, is behind schedule with his running program after suffering a left foot sprain during the Dominican Winter League. So let's pay attention to that. He has been catching and hitting, though. It's worth noting.

They're just keeping him off the base paths for now. Skip Schumacher, now the manager of the Texas Rangers, said Robert Garcia and Chris Martin are the favorites for saves to open the season. He also mentioned Alexis Diaz has a chance to see saves, but they want to see how he looks during spring training. Diaz, the closer for the Reds for a couple of years there, he does have some experience in the role, and they don't have many lefties in that bullpen,

so Robert Garcia, you know, maybe he comes out in some of the big lefty spots there. Chris Martin has been pretty reliable reliever for them. Really good, yeah. Good veteran guy there. I mean, do you have a lien here on this bullpen? Three names mentioned. I would always go against the lefty. Just, I think managers are always iffy on using lefties as their closers unless they're absolutely dominant.

Martin, I think the one thing is he has never thrown more than 56 innings in a season. I can't remember. Did he get hurt last year? It's been like less than 50 innings the last two seasons. And so it might just be, if you have to be worried about his workload, he's 39 years old or 40 years old. That can also be iffy. So look, Alexis Diaz has been bad the last couple of seasons. He lost his job for a reason.

He was on three different teams last year. So I'm betting against it. But if he shows anything like his former skill set, I might lean Alexis Diaz, but this feels more like a wait and see for me still. So, according to Grock, I'm doing this on the fly, Chris. Chris Martin dealt with multiple injuries during the 2025 season. He was placed in the aisle with right shoulder fatigue in May,

placing the aisle with a left calf strain in July, removed from a game in 2025 with a right hand injury, and he finished the season on the aisle. So, yeah, three different things that he dealt with. Okay. Yeah. Moving on, Aaron Boone said Ben Rice will play regularly against both righties and lefties this season. And it's good news after they signed Paul Goldschmidt because I did have concerns that

Goldschmidt would just play against every lefty and that they wouldn't really trust Ben Rice behind the plate much. But I think we're back on, Chris. I think Ben Rice looks like he's going to play every day. And I think long term, if he plays against lefties as the catcher, he could still have catcher eligibility for 2027, which would be awesome. Yeah, I have some questions about trusting Ben Rice for the first time against lefties and asking him to catch at the same time, which it sounds like that's part of the plan. As Austin Wells, I don't think they want him to face lefties.

He's kind of ran out of steam in the second half each of the past two seasons, so I think they're worried about keeping him fresh, which is probably while they'll carry. three catchers if we count Ben Rice as one. It's weird that all three of the likely catchers on their rosters are lefties. And it might be asking too much for Ben Rice to handle both catching more and hitting against lefties more.

But it's good to hear that they're going to give him a chance because that's all you want, right? Like if he flames out against lefties and ends up just being a platoon bat, okay, that stinks. But at least give him the opportunity to show that he deserves that playing time and let the chips fall where they may. That's the upside we're hoping for.

I don't think it's guaranteed he gets 650 plate appearances, but there's a path at least. The NFBC ADP for Ben Rice in February is 51, which is still too high, but it is dropping a little bit because when we spoke about him a couple of weeks ago, it was like 45. So it's

coming down a little bit. We did a 15-team Roto mock draft last week, and I took him in the fifth round. of that one. It was pick 63. And that's probably the earliest that I would be looking to draft Ben Rice. But in a 15-team league with two catchers, I do want to get at least one

catcher that I feel really good about it. And obviously Ben Rice is still one of those. Reed Detmer's is viewed as a lock for the Angels opening day rotation. He pitched well out of the bullpen last year, and he is RP eligible. So for those who play in Head to Head Points Leagues, a spark to know there, not a

spark yet because he doesn't have the SP eligibility, but you can use him as an RP who will makes starts in a points league. Again, that's Reed Detmer's. Jacob Lats and Kumar Rocker are competing for the fifth spot in the Rangers rotation this spring. And Rocker is still young enough where he could turn out to be something, but Jacob Lats quietly did some nice things last year, Chris. So just very, very deep league name, AL only 15 team mixed, you know, bench option or something. If Jacob Lats wins a rotation spot, I'm mildly interested. I will point out that there is a

There's a world where it's not a long-term thing either way Because Cody Bradford is going to pitch during spring training, I believe. Yeah. And they are, which is wild because he had internal brace in June of 2025. But they are, he's already throwing bullpen sessions off the mound. He's starting to throw breaking balls in recent days. And the hope is. that he'll return by May.

Now, internal brace for a guy that didn't have overwhelming stuff to begin with, it's possible Cody Bradford is just worse than Jacob Lassen Kumar Rocker, especially in 2026. But I think they'll give him a chance. Next up, the A's signed Aaron Savali to a one-year, $6 million deal. He's coming off a rough season and now has to pitch in Sacramento. So no thanks. The Marlin signed Chris Paddock to a one-year $4 million deal.

I think he's pretty bad. but can this block Robbie Snelling? I mean, I hope it doesn't, Chris, but what do you think? You're the Marlins guy. I think the Marlins' plan is for Max Meyer, Braxton Garrett, and Chris Paddock to be in the rotation. Will Meyer be ready, though?

Coming back from the hip surgery? Will Meyer be ready? I think that's the assumption at this point, but I don't really have faith in any of those three guys, personally. Braxton Garrett, I think, will be about 14 months removed from Tommy John surgery by the opening day. I think it was last spring that he had it. Yeah, those guys might open the season in the rotation. I think we'll still see a lot of Robbie Snelling this year.

Yeah. So my push him down draft boards a little bit, but, man, I really, really like Robbie Snelling, man. He gets strikeouts, good control. He gets ground balls, limits hard contact. Has a legit three-pitch mix that he can go to. Numbers were great last year for sure. Yeah, I'm very in. So if people are pushing Robbie Snelling down,

even if you have to wait a little bit, I think he could make a big impact the season with the Marlins. The Iraqis are filling out their rotation. They signed Jose Cantana and Tomoyuki Sagano to one-year deals. Both pitch to contact and both pitch in Colorado. So no interest there for fantasy. The Brewers sign Gary Sanchez to a one-year deal. He will back up William Contreras.

Needs an injury to matter, so not really much there with him. D-backs reliever, Andrew Salfrank, will miss the entire season after undergoing shoulder surgery. He was in the mix for saves. I still think the D-backs are a perfect trade destination for Trevor McGill, but have not heard anything about that. So we're left trying to piece it together, Chris. I guess Kevin Ginkle, they just signed Paul Seawald to a one-year deal. He has closing experience, but hasn't been very good the past two years.

What do you think? I think it's probably Ginkl or Sewell and I don't think either is particularly exciting but Ginkle he was pretty bad last season but before that he had been very solid for a few years for the Diamondback so

he was coming back from a shoulder injury I think last year or something like that so maybe that explains why he struggled I think he could be okay in the role if he's what he was pre-2020 but obviously that's a big risk. I would give Ginkle the edge over Seawold for now.

Jared Jones was placed on the 60-day IL as he rehabs from elbow surgery. That means the earliest he can return is late May. Could be a name that you draft very late and just stash on your IL until he returns or pick him up in season. And Dylan Sees has been working on changing the shape of his four-seem fastball and adding a change-up to his arsenal. Yeah, Dillon Seas working on a change-up is a long-running thing. used to have that like ephus change up that he'd throw very occasionally had this like 65 mile an hour change up that nobody was ever fooled by because obviously he had a different change up last year but it just didn't take i don't know if he if he has the feel for it um i think he's good i don't think

he needs to really change but maybe the blue jays can unlock something and and get him a little more consistent at least. Yeah. I don't want to go too deep into the science of this because I'm not really the person to talk about it. But the whole, if you're a pronator or supernator as a pitcher, it's like, that's why you see a lot of guys who either have really good breaking pitches or really good changeups or splitters. It's hard to have both. And there's not really many pitchers who have both. Obviously, the ones who do are some of the best pitchers in baseball. But Dylan sees, seems like he profiles as someone who will have really great breaking pitches, obviously, and not really great changeups. And that. And that. And that. And that.

That's the idea behind the kick change, by the way, is for guys who don't have a natural feel for a changeup, they don't move their arm the right way, they don't have the right release point, whatever it is. You add the kick change, you put your knuckle on the ball, and that's supposed to make changeups easier for pronators, I think, to throw or sue. I don't know which one is pro, which one is supine. But that's the idea there. I've always thought, and I know Nick Pollock has talked a ton about a cutter might be the changeup that Dillen Seas needs. But we'll see. I don't expect this to matter much, but I think he's good without it. And it would be nice if he was less frustrating.

Certainly the last we'll hear about new pitches popping up or pitchers working on things throughout spring training. Let's take our final break. Here we are. Have to show has been news. We will get to your questions right. after this. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. Finally, the mailbag portion of the mailbag.

So we will start with your Apple podcast questions. Well, really just one question. But if you do have one, you can drop us a five-star rating on Apple and leave your question in the review, and we will answer it on a future mailbag episode. This one is from... Doing them every week. Here we are.

O2 underscore Superman. Need help in a 12-team Headhead Weekly Category League, six-by-six with OPS and quality starts. I can keep three players for a max of three years. Which three should I keep? Ellie De La Cruz for a second rounder, Junior Caminero for a sixth rounder. Christopher Sanchez for an 11th.

Nick Kurtz for a 12th. Jackson Trio for a 12th. He did say that he has 212 round picks, so I guess he can keep both. And Roman Anthony for 19th. This is a great problem to have, Chris. Yeah, it's a frustrating one. I think Ali's probably out.

I do tend to prefer the high-end players when I can get them, but you have plenty of high-end players here. You've got multiple second-round caliber players. I think I would lean Cominero for a sixth, and then Kurtz and Churrio for 12th. Sanchez for an 11th, man. Sanchez for an 11th, but it's a pitcher, and we're talking about a three-year timetable.

I don't know what Christopher Sanchez is going to look like in two years. True. You know, like that's... Quality starts as an added category. He's really good at that. He's a great play. And Christopher Sanchez for an 11th round pick is awesome, but if you're thinking multiple years down the road, I mean, it's just so much harder to predict who the top pitchers are going to be than the top hitters. And all of these hitters are so young. Kamenaro, Kurtz, and Churria. I think they're all 22, right? Sounds. Kurtz might be a little bit older because he was a college hitter, yeah.

But I think I agree with you, though. Yeah. Camerero for a six, Kurtz for a 12th, Churielero for a 12th. Even Anthony for 19th is really interesting too. Roman Anthony, by the way, Chris, looking pretty jacked out in camp. You fell for it. You fell for the fake image. Yeah, the Photoshop. I mean, if he really was that Jack,

that would be pretty crazy. There's this report that he added 15 pounds of muscle. And I love Brent Rooker. I think I mentioned this on the podcast the other day. I love Brent Rooker. Follow him on Twitter. He's one of the funniest and most insightful players out there. He seems like a really funny.

he's smart dude. But he was like, nobody gains 15 pounds of muscle in an offseason. Like, it's, naturally, it's almost impossible to gain 15 pounds of pure muscle in four months. Lance Bresdowski had a tweet where he was talking to some physical trainers, and they said, like,

the max you can do is about two and a half pounds of muscle in a month. And that's a lot hard. if as Roman Anthony you have been a high-level athlete for a long time. There's just not that much room to grow. I don't doubt he's bigger, but I think the thing that people always forget when we get these like, oh, he's 20 pounds heavier at the start of training camp is almost everyone comes into camp heavier than they're playing weight

because they know they're going to lose weight. I come into camp heavier. Oh, for sure. But yeah, you're going to lose 15 to 20 pounds over the course of a season. like that's just from just existing as a professional baseball player so everybody pretty much comes into pat camp bigger than they were just because they know they're going to lose weight so i always i roll my eyes at any best shape of my life or yeah you know he added 15 like that that should never there's some stuff in spring training that matters for sure that kind of stuff unless like

you know he added five miles per hour to his max during games, which, by the way, big news. Every spring training ballpark has stat cast data this year. All right. First time ever. Let's go. It's crazy that we are 11 or 12 years into the stack cast era. And up until now, most of the games in the Cactus League did not have stack cast data.

Yeah. We will apparently have full data this year, which is very exciting for freaks like us who care about that stuff. Let's get it to your email questions Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com That is the letter I continue to send those in We got this one from Lou I'd be interested to hear you all talk

About your snake draft strategy When selecting on the ends Or close to the ends of the snake I'm particularly interested in Scott commenting On how the tiers figure in When drafting from these spots So unfortunately Scott's not here But I think we could talk about...

What? You want to call him like we did for first pitch Arizona? I don't think he would appreciate that right now. Probably didn't appreciate it for first pitch Arizona either. But yeah, I think when you're on the ends, it does add a little bit more strategy to the conversation. And I mentioned earlier that mock draft we did last week. I was the third pick. And something I like to do a lot when it's

coming back to me in the even rounds is I will look at what teams one and two have on their team to kind of help me decide what pick I should make. If I'm between a few different positions. If the guys after me, or girls, have a position that I'm looking at already filled, then I can say, all right, I won't take the first basement here. They already have first baseman. And I could expect, it doesn't always happen that way,

that that player will make it back to me. So that is something that I look at a lot. But I think also, Chris, you kind of have to throw ADP out the window a little bit more because there are runs, positional runs, categorical runs, where, man, if you see that tier of closers is getting a little light, you might need to pull someone up the board

just to make sure you cover your bases there. Yeah, I think a good example would be like, you're at the sixth round, and you're looking for a hitter, and you're trying to decide Vinny Pasquantino or Michael Garcia. And you've got your pick at the end of the sixth round, and you look at the teams picking between your two picks,

and they both have first baseman, take my goal Garcia. Yeah. Because they're probably not going to take Vinnie Pasquantino. I think that's the way you look at it. But yeah, you do have to be a little more flexible about pushing guys up in drafts. I know we got a comment, I think, on the YouTube channel from, we mentioned a couple weeks ago, Ben Rice went 13th in an NFBC draft.

I think we got a comment from the guy who did it. And he basically said, given where he was going, he didn't think he was going to come back to him in the third round. You still didn't need to do that. Right. But that's the thought process. That's an extreme version of it where you want the player. You're going to have to sit there for 20 picks or 24, 23 picks before your next pick. You have to be a little more comfortable with pushing guys up.

And that's where tiers come in really handy. Because if you're, you know, if there are seven players left in a tier when you're picking, you can't guarantee they'll all make it back to you by the next time you pick. but it's a lot more likely than if they're two left in a tier. So that's where it comes in, I think. I think, again, to kind of build off what you were just saying about the tiers, this is a lot of what we talk about with starting pitchers, where if you play in a 12-team league and you have, you know,

somewhere you have a top six pick in the draft, you're picking in the first half. You don't really need to force the starting pitcher pick in the third round because it's very likely that one of those pitchers within the same tier will make it back to you in round four and maybe even around five. So I think that's where you can use some of the tier drafting approach to your advantage

and say, yeah, as much as I love Yamamoto, I think I could get similar production from Jacob de Grom and he's going at the end of the fourth round. So I'll just chance it and hope I get, you know, one of those starting pitchers that make it back to me. So that's one way I would look to use tiers if you are in a snake draft.

This one is from Ryan, grade to trade, 10 team head to points. I give up Nick Kurtz and Juan Soto. I received William Contreras, Jackson Merrill, Cole Reagan's Cade Smith. I'm saying a D. I don't like it. Typically, in shaller leagues, I like getting the better players. I don't like giving them up.

I think in a vacuum, it's not awful, but, yeah, I'd much rather just have the better players. Agreed. Agreed. So, Juan Soto is a top five player in a head-down point. Yeah, especially in a points league, man. And Nick Hertz could be a monster in a head-to-head points league. You might be giving up the two best players in this draft. I think he undoubtedly is, unless Cole Regens is just healthy for like 180 innings or something.

And it's a 10-te-team league. So it's a shallower league and it's a shallower lineup, head-to-head points. So getting those impact players at every spot matters. Now, look, William Contreras, Jackson Merrill, Colergan's, Kate Smith, could all be impact players at their spots. but I think I'd still rather have the two highest end guys in this deal. This next one's from George Kay, long-time listener of the show and fan of all your work. I received a trade in my Keeper Roto League, and I'm not sure if I should take it or not. League settings, 5x5 Roto, 15-team traditional categories.

We still use wins and average. Keeper League where you can keep five major leaguers and up to three minor league players each year. Trade details. I receive, no, yes. I receive Nick Povetta and Jordan Westberg. I send out Christopher Sanchez. I pass. This is kind of the opposite because it's a deeper league,

so I understand maybe wanting to build out the depth, but I would rather just have Christopher Sanchez. Yeah, I think Povetta and Westberg, there are things to like about both of them, but neither of them are sure things. Christopher Sanchez is about as sure of a thing at starting pitchers you can get. And Westberg's dealing with this oblique now, too.

Yep. Yep. This one's from Craig in Cali. I'm a longtime listener in a 12-team, NL-only rotisserie Categories League with 12 Keepers, my league voted to change one of our 5-5 standard categories from wins to wins plus quality starts. Should this impact my auction prep or my strategy on keepers,

how should I value starting pitcher moving forward, what should I be considering? So the names who gain value in quality starts, and it's only one category should it influence you that much. Well, it's wins plus quality starts. Yeah, it's like half a cast. category kind of. So it's, it's in a lot of ways double counting. It's taking a little bit of the randomness out of it. But I think that the impact this will have will be the flattening of that

specific category because your good players who are on bad teams or run into bad win lock. Yeah, that stinks when it happens. Well, that's less of a concern now. So I think the biggest impact here is you just don't have to worry about that category. And you can focus more on strikeouts and ERA and WIP because you're not going to have to worry as much about good pitchers on bad teams not getting wins or, you know, guys getting pulled early. Like they'll, this kind of evens things out at the position a little bit. Just for reference, the Quality Start Leaders last year, Garretre Crochet, Christopher Sanchez, Logan Webb, Brian Wu, Terrick Scoubel, Hunter Brown, Max Fried, Paul Skeens, Framberaldes.

I mean, they're all the best pitchers in baseball. Yeah, the 10 best pitchers in baseball, basically. Two that do stand out, Webb and Valdez, I think, get a little bit of a bump because they do throw lots of innings per start. Some of their names that maybe would shock you a little bit that they rank very highly on this list. Merrill Kelly, Zach Lattell, who remains a free agent. Not so sure about that one.

Ranger Suarez, Matthew Boyd, Mitch Keller, 17 quality starts last year. Kevin Gosman, I think someone who... I think Jamison Tione had a bunch of quality starts. He was, I don't think he pitched the full season, so he won't rank as high, but I think his rate was really high. Yeah, but I don't think if it's wins versus quality starts, I think you can change your, your viewpoints on certain players. But wins plus quality starts, I think, just kind of has the same effect as saves plus holds. It just kind of flattens the position a little bit more. This next one from Brian, where would Yvonne Herrera be ranked if he already qualified at catcher?

I was thinking seven or eight before or after Will Smith. So, looking at the rankings right now, I would probably have him seven. I don't know, maybe higher. I would have him at least seventh. And that for me would be right behind Augustine Ramirez and Hunter Goodman. But I mean, if you wanted to take Yvonne Herrera ahead of those guys, I wouldn't have a problem. So probably somewhere in the five to seven range for me, Chris. I think anywhere from three to seven is defensible.

I think he's that good of a hitter. If you personally like Ben Rice or Shane Langalears or Hunter Goodman more than him, I think that's reasonable. If you like Augustine Ramirez's speed specifically, I think that's fine. But I think Yvonne Herrera belongs in that tier. You know, it would be in my rankings for a Roto League, it would be anywhere from 50 to 70 in the rankings overall. And here's a little cheat code. But if you play on Yahoo, Yvonne Herrera has catcher eligibility already. And I'm looking at his preseason ranking.

It's 171. That's way too low. So, I mean, they have Salvador Perez at 106, Augustine Ramirez at 119. I know it's a one catcher format on Yahoo, but I would take Herrera over both of those guys in a vacuum. Yeah, I think Ramirez in a true roto league, the steals could give him. Yeah, that is closer. I like Ramirez a lot, yeah. But it's close.

Yeah. You know. I mean, they should probably just both be Ramirez and Yvonne Herrera, probably top 100 picks, even in Yahoo. Let's continue on. We have this one from Justin. It is a longer email. I wanted to address this because we do get some questions and things and comments about, like, fandom and, like, maybe us not being fair to certain teams and things like that. So I think it's an interesting talking point.

So, excuse me, it's a longer one. From Justin. I was born a Dodgers fan, and I bleed blue. live in the Bay Area, and it hasn't always been the easiest time rooting for my team amongst Giants fans, especially during their glory years. Now that I finally got to see my team win, as well as my two-year-old daughter, it's like it's all worth it. I'm a very humble fan. I don't brag or put it in anyone's face, but definitely haven't gotten the same respect from Giants fans over the years. Anyways, I bring this, this brings me to my email. I feel when the Dodgers are brought up

in the show, it's in a negative light. I tried ignoring it last season, but this season I feel that Dodgers hate is a little strong. I get it, Frank. We beat your team. I get it. We buy all the best players and probably have a ticket to the playoffs guaranteed. However, I'm just a fan. I can't control the decisions that Dodgers make. I'm just happy I can enjoy this run as long as possible with my daughter. Also, the Scott rant just really had me close to not listening to the show any longer. Sure, we will most likely make it to the playoffs, but everything after that is not guaranteed. Luck was very much on our side last year with the off-the-bench Andy Pahas catch. anything can happen. Anyhow, I just wanted to remind you guys that I'm a Dodgers fan and I love your show,

so please don't gloss over Dodgers players or feel it's unimportant to talk about yet another Otani home run. They matter. They matter just as much as judges' home runs. Justin added a bunch of other things in this email about how much he enjoys our show and enjoys our analysis, and he was very supportive overall. So I want to be respectful here. And when Kyle Tucker signed, we definitely had a long, emotional rant and Scott went off and I think we were trying to capture the emotions of like the average baseball fan in that moment. But I had to push back on glossing over Dodgers players. I feel like whenever we talk about Dodgers players, we still talk about them glowingly. I can't tell you how

many times Chris last year, Otani would do something historic and we would still lead off the show talking about him just because we're in awe of what we're watching. So I think it's a little unfair to say that we don't give Otani his due or we give Aaron Judge more due than we do Otani. I feel like we talk about both of those players in the respect that they are. I mean, they are historic talents that we're watching. I've said it multiple times, like, Otani to me is the most talented baseball player I've ever seen. So I think it's a little unfair to say that we don't talk about Dodgers players in the same respect. Yes, we were frustrated when the Dodgers signed Kyle Tucker.

I think many baseball fans were. But in that same conversation, we told everyone that he should be drafted as like, a mid-first-round player. So I think it's a little unfair to say that we don't talk about Dodgers players objectively just because we are upset at how much they spend. I think we actually do talk about Dodgers players fairly on this podcast. Look, this is a tough thing always for anyone who covers sports because we all have our fandoms and our biases that we bring from a lifetime of watching the sports.

and to a certain degree it's hard to get away from that, right? Like, I am a Marlins fan. I don't really think you can make an argument that I, like, systematically overrate Marlins players. In fairness, there aren't that many good ones for me to overrate, but, like, I don't know. Like, I am personally cards on the table rooting against the Dodgers winning another world series. I think it's not good when one team dominates. And I think it's not good when one team is willing, because other teams are able to do what the Dodgers do.

And the Dodgers are the only one that's willing to spend the money that the way they do. And I think people look at like the, oh, but they give all these deferred contracts. And it's like, well, yeah, that's a strategy that the Dodgers employ that the Yankees, for example, choose not to. They found a loophole. And they, I mean, to their credit, they pull that off. But like the thing about that is it's not a loophole, right? Like if you give, what's Shohe Otani? It's 70 million per year, but 68 is deferred, I think is the number.

Chris, that is a loophole. Well, but it's not because it's not like they're not spending money. They have to take the 68 million that Shohei Otani is due after he retires. And they have to put it in an account that will yield the amount of money that turns into Shohei Otani's number at the end. But it doesn't count against the collective bargaining. It's discounted for the future value of the dollar. So 70 million in 2030 or 2040 or whatever the year is.

Because of inflation, it's valued at 58 million or whatever. They still have to take that 58 million and put it in a bank right now, into an account that will generate interest to lead to 70 million. And that 58 million is what counts against the CBA for the tax purposes. So they are not not paying the money. It's not like this is a credit card situation where, you know, in 2040, the Dodgers can say, oops, we don't have the money. They have to account for the money that they're going to be paying.

And that money is taxed at the present value of the money. And the thing is, every team can and has done this. The Nationals are paying Max Scherzer 10 million a year right now for the contract that they gave him, what, 10 years ago? I think he signed in 2017. Cliff Floyd, very famously, or not Cliff Floyd, Bobby Bonilla. Yeah. It's still getting his deferred contract.

This has been around for a long time. The Dodgers do it to a more extreme level than other teams, but other teams could do this. Now, the Marlins could not do what the Dodgers are doing. The Marlins could not spend whatever it's going to be, 500 million after taxes on their team. That's not reasonable. But the Yankees could.

The Yankees choose not to give out deferred money. That's fine. They think that they have a better chance to win with the way they do it, or it's better, whatever the reasoning is. But that's a choice that the Dodgers are making, that the Yankees are not. That being said, the Dodgers also have the best farm system in baseball right now. There's no loopholes there.

Yeah. They're just better. Like, that's just like, they're picking 28th and 30th in the draft every year. And they're coming up with Zahir Hope and Josue de Paula. And they got, who's the guy they got from the, Mike Sarota last year from the Nationals for like nothing. Yeah, they made sharp trades too. Like the Zaihear Hope trade, that was a, they got him in a trade. Yeah.

I think that was the Michael Bush trade. Yeah. Like, it stinks. Yeah. I wish the Dodgers weren't the best team in baseball to the extent that they are. But, like, it doesn't affect my ability to analyze them. And the only team I'm biased against is the Yankees. That I know.

I know far in a way. And I get what you're saying, Justin, about being a humble Dodgers fan because I hate the kind of generalization of sports. fandom and things like that where, you know, I consider myself kind of a very skeptical Yankee fan and I'm not like, oh, yeah, 27 championship. Like, yeah, we are the best. I mean, you're only conscious for like three of them. Exactly.

But there are a lot of Yankee fans out there that are annoying like that. So I get why. A lot of annoying Dodgers fans too. I get why people get annoyed with them. But it's like, all right, not every Dodger fan is annoying. Not every Yankee fan is annoying. I get that. And again, like, as a Yankee fan, I would quibble with that.

I think every Yankees fan. is annoying. Every Dodgers is annoying. I have never annoyed you, Chris. Also, like, I don't want the Red Sox to do well. Like, I will openly admit, I do not want the Red Sox to do well. That doesn't affect my ability to talk about them for fantasy, right? Like, I will draft Roman Anthony. I will draft Garrow Crochet happily. I will draft lots of Red Sox players. Caleb Durbin, late round play? Like, sure. Like, I can, I think we do a pretty good job of that. So every now and again, you know, we get comments about like, oh, why do you hate my team? Or why don't you talk about this team and stuff. Look, I can assure you, man, I try. There's a lot of players.

There's a lot of teams to talk about. And, you know, I try to talk about all of them. This thing that sports fans do, I have a very different relationship with my sports teams than I think a lot of people do. I'm a Marlins fan, right? Like, there's something wrong with me that I'm a Marlins fan 38 years into my life, right? Like, there's a little masochism there. I find it so weird when fans are like, you hate my team. Because it's like, It doesn't matter. Like, even if I do hate your team, even if I am biased against your team, they're still playing the games on the field.

Like, it doesn't matter if I, like, who am I even, Roki Sasaki, I guess is the one Dodger, I guess Blake Snell, but I've never been a Blake Snell guy for fantasy. My reasoning for being out on Roki Sasaki was long before he signed with the Dodgers last off season. It has nothing to do with that. also like, don't you want us to be wrong? Like I've never understood that complaint from sports fans where even if you think someone is biased against your team,

well, that you want them to be wrong. Yeah. Like, why do you care if they're biased against your team? How many years in a row, Chris, did we get Phillies fans in the mentions yelling at us for not ranking Ranger Suarez as the number one picture in fantasy, right? It's just like, all right, guys. Or Scott's hatred of the Cubs. Like that would be us not assessing a player objectively. Like if we just said, oh, Ranger Suarez is the best pitcher in baseball,

like, yeah, you might hear that on a Phillies podcast or something, but we wouldn't be doing our jobs if we said that. Like, we are looking into, you know, all the different types of numbers and analytics and things that, you know, help us shape that opinion. So we do get it a lot. I can assure you, man, like, I try. I'm sure you do, Chris, like we try to, you know, apply the same standard to all the players. But yes, we do have our inherent biases.

And that is why I think it's so important to have a system that a systematic way through which you evaluate players. And so I know I get comments that where people get frustrated that I'm like looking to the numbers too much. Or or you know, like when when Seth Lugo goes on a year long run where he's just way outperforming his peripherals and people are like, you just can't get past. that the numbers don't matter but it's like but that's the systematic way by which I evaluate everyone or at least I try

it's impossible to be perfectly fair to everyone we all have our biases we all have God I saw someone mention Keston Hira in a discussion earlier today He just like with the Dodgers that yeah I think that was why but that was one where I was just like

I just love the way his swing looks and it was not like my most systematic evaluation and it turns out I missed big on Kestan Hero. I was a huge Kestan Hero fan. And so it's impossible to be perfectly fair to everyone at all times. It's just the nature of, you know, I guess a projection system can try to do that. But a human being, it's impossible.

But you have to try as much as possible to be systematic and apply the same standards to everyone. I think we do a pretty good job of that. Yeah. So I do appreciate you sending in the email, Justin. And I hope you stick with us. Even after the Kyle Tucker rent, yes, we did kind of go off. on that one. But boo Dodgers.

We do, I do, I think we do talk about a lot of Dodgers players quite glowingly on here. But also we're baseball fans. It would be lame if we were just robots. Yeah, every team's the same. Yeah. So stick with us, Justin. We appreciate that email. All right, that one went a little bit longer here.

Let's wrap up with this question from Jeff. We got the same one last week, Chris, but now it's on the pitcher side. So the pitcher most likely to break out in 2026 is blank. All right. How are we defining this? The pitcher most likely to break out in 2026 is... Kyle Braddish. Agreed. I could also say Cole Reagan's, but it already happened.

Chase Burns. Kyle Bradish, Chase Burns, Yerie Perez would be my top three picks. Yes, Braddish and Burns were at the top of the list for me. Yuri Perez, I'm a little bit lower on compared to you guys. Look, there's no shortage, man. It's like, take your pick, Nolan McLean, Tray is Savage, Cam Schlittler,

most likely. Trying to see if there's anyone else that I'm missing out on here. Bubba Chandler. Emishian. Yeah. Yeah, she ends a good one. Especially with Blake Snow behind in camp too. But I think Cowbraddish

is the one I'm most confident will be. Radish. The best version of himself. Chase Burns. too. It's just like, the surface level numbers for Burns were not good, but Scott has references, I think, four double-digit strikeouts games

in his first eight starts or whatever it was. That was more than Paul Skeen's entire career. It was four out of five starts, and the one when he didn't, he struck out two in one inning before that the rain delay at Bristol. Yeah, that's where they played that game. Yeah, right? The NASCAR game or whatever? Yeah, at the NASCAR game.

Yeah. Like, he He had four four straight double-digit strikeout games, basically. That's pretty bonkers. Yeah. And then I guess to put a bow on this entire conversation, my Yankees fandom, Cam Schlittler will be the third pitcher that I will give you there,

even though he's dealing with this back thing. So I think you can make the case for any of those kind of second year rookie pitcher type breakouts for this season. We are going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back with position previews tomorrow.

Bye-bye. Mount Podcasts.