Fantasy Baseball Today - Lessons Learned From 2019; Let's Be Frank! (04/09 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 9, 2020

We're taking a look back at players we drafted or strategies we used in 2019 that weren't successful and learning from that. Chris starts us off explaining why he was so interested in Trevor Bauer heading into 2019 (3:35). What went wrong? Who might this year's Bauer be? ... Scott then explains why he values pitching so much this season based off the way he drafted his Tout Wars team in 2019 (15:30). How do we avoid that early-round clunker? What was the difference between Gerrit Cole and Blake Snell last season? ... Adam then explains what happened with A.J. Pollock in 2019 (32:30). Who might this year's Pollock be? ... Finally, we get to know Frank! (36:25). Why does he have so many consonants in his last name!? ... Email us at [e-mail]. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @CBSFantasyBB, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Download our printable Draft Kit from CBSSports.com/draftkit! 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. One, one pitch, basketball pulled and fast, Alvarez, and twilight. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Adam, Scott Heath, and Chris. Hey, everybody, and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today.

Frank here, joined by Adam, Chris, and Scott. And I know that you guys are big, fans of acronyms. You've combined your names to make team names before. I know we have TappHap AMC founded by our own Adam Azer. We also have had, I've heard in the past,

Team Kreeh. It just dawned on me that Frank, Adam, Chris Scott, together our powers combined for team fax. Facts, yeah, we're a fax machine. We're a fax machine. Oh, okay, I get it.

I was going to say, like, if, Because, like, we have scam, you know, Scott and Adam. So now we need Chris and Frank to be together. And obviously, Team Crank is the way we go there. Could also be caps. Ah, could be. We've got a great caps. Afx.

Frank, were you thinking facts like Fax machine, or were you thinking facts like there's no T? Like, we have the facts. Frank, Adam, Chris Tauer. Scott. Facts. There you go. A couple representation. We have the facts.

Today on the show, we're going to go over some of the, some of our biggest misses from 2019 and the lessons we've learned from those. We're also going to talk about, let's be frank. I kind of previewed this at the end of yesterday's episode, if you were so listening at the hour and eight minute mark. But what is let's be frank? We're going to talk about that a little bit later on. Maybe.

Hopefully we'll get to some listener questions as. well. But I think looking at the mistakes that you've made in the past and trying to learn from those and apply that to your evaluation for players and draft strategy the following season is maybe something that is under discussed in fantasy. Like we all kind of have like a broad idea of like things that we've done wrong in the past, but trying to apply it specifically from single players that we were maybe higher on or lower on than we were the year before. I think kind of trying to apply that to specific player situations here in 2020 is something that we can benefit from.

So I thought that this was a really interesting idea. It was actually thrown our way from Chris. So Chris, why don't you get started here with either a hitter or pitcher, both of players that you were wrong on in 2019, potentially what you might have learned. And then I think we should try and figure out maybe a player or two that is representative of that potentially this season in 2020. I mean, how long is this podcast going to be, Frank?

I don't know. I'm going to try my best. I promise him. My best to keep it under and out. We've got, I mean, that's a long, long list. One pitcher, I think my biggest miss a pitcher last year. And it's, it's infuriating because it went against everything that I believe. I am a, I'm a stat nerd. I'm a, I'm a slave to stats. And so I don't really think things. through, I just look at someone having a career, and I point and I scream regression. And I don't think anything further. And I didn't do that with Trevor Bauer. I believed in the improvements that he made in 2018. I really believed Trevor Bauer was going to be an absolute star. I would have drafted him. And I did draft him as the number four starting pitcher in 2019. And boy, do I look like an idiot. Because Trevor Bauer stunked. and that's who he's been his entire career.

I don't know. I guess he was good at UCLA or something. But ever since getting to the majors, he has just been a guy. He's been a guy who throws a lot of innings, and he's been a guy who gets a decent amount of strikeouts. And last year it was a ton of strikeouts. But I don't know.

He's just, I shouldn't have believe. You should have. You should have. No, I mean, I clearly shouldn't have because he was awful. in 2019. And so the lesson that I should take from that, and it's going to make Scott mad, and he might throw his podcasting equipment out into the street and quit his job and, you know, resign in protest is don't buy into the one-year wonders, or at least be reasonably skeptical of them. And that's the thing, really. And Scott actually does agree with this. Don't pay full price

for the breakout season. And that was the mistake I made with Trump. Trevor Bauer. He was one of the five best pitchers in 2018. I was like, well, I'm going to make him a top five pitcher in 2019. And what a fool I was. If Trevor Bauer had been drafted as the 15th starting pitcher last year, I think everybody would have been pretty okay with the season that he had. No, absolutely not. He was 25th and points, 33rd in Roto. Right. That's fine. No, that's not fine. That's for somebody who threw 2303 innings. Are you kidding? That's fine. That's obviously somebody you're never benching. say that. I benched him. He deserved to be benched. He had a lot of terrible starts. That is definitely someone that you are benching. He was, he was bad. 448 ERA. The 25th best starting pitcher, you probably should not bench.

He was what, third innings? First in innings? Yeah, he wasn't actually... Okay, but that's... Why is that a bad thing? Why are you holding that against? Because in a roto league, the more innings of 448 ERA and 1.25 whip you get, the worst production you have. Trevor Bauer was not

good last year. He sucked. It's the it's the what I would call the Hunter Pence corollary. That was the comp I used to make all the time where Hunter Pence would always be like the 23rd best outfielder in fantasy, especially later era Hunter Pence when he's with the Giants. And it was like, yeah, he was the 23rd best fantasy outfielder at the end of the season. But he played 160 games or 155 games every year. And during the course of the actual season, there was not really any point where Trevor Bauer was the 25th best pitcher.

in fantasy. There were always probably 30, 35 pitchers who you trusted more on any given week than Trevor Bauer. You don't realize he had the fifth most strikeouts in baseball last year, Trevor Bauer. Yeah. I mean, he definitely, he was basically a one category guy. Yeah. And you have to ask yourself at what cost do you need those strikeouts. And, you know, I made the comp to Robbie Ray in, you know, my sleepers breakouts and busts. I have Trevor Bauer as a bus because you look at their career. It's really not that far off. Robbie Ray in his career 411 ERA, 135 whip, career 11K per 9, Trevor Bauer, a 404 ERA in his career, 130 whip, and 9 and a half case per 9.

He has consistently been over 10 case per 9 the past three seasons. So the strikeouts have been up for him, but especially in that second half, once he joined the Cincinnati Reds, I mean, there was no using him. A 6.39 ERA with the Cincinnati Reds last year. there were 15 starting pitchers who threw more than 200 innings last year. Trevor Bauer was the only one with an ERA over four. And it was well over four. It was 4.48.

So while he finished-as... Things got pretty ugly with the Reds. At the time of the trade, he had a 379 ERA and a one-to-one whip with a ton of strikeouts. I mean, he was not somebody you should have been benching. So I just want to say, and I think Scott's going to agree with me on this. Chris, yeah, Trevor Bauer was a bust. We all were wrong. Sometimes you're wrong about a player.

but I don't think you were wrong about the process because it wasn't just one year. It was a year and a half. 2017, his last 13 games, he had a 242ER, more than a strikeout per inning. He was awesome. He followed through in 2018 with a true breakout season, 12 and 6, 221 ERA. It was terrific. And there was an arsenal change, and that is why Trevor Bauer was so frustrating because he started throwing his slider late in 2017. It was an immediate jump in production.

and I think you were completely justified to take Trevor Bauer where you did and to think he was going to be a top five pitcher. And you weren't going to get him 15th, okay? It's like saying, well, I'll take Shane Bieber 15th at pitcher. It's not going to happen. So if you want him, you have to take him. And look, you got burned, we all did. But I don't agree that that's just who he's been.

I think last year was weird and disappointing. And I think that we were justified to like him, to love Bauer, based on the changes he made in 2017 and how he followed it up in 2018 with the Sayung Calibur season. The player that comes to mind most for who can potentially be this season's Trevor Bauer, and it's unfortunate that I kind of just came to this realization

before the podcast, but it's someone that I like a lot, and it's Lucas G. Alito, right? I mean, Adam, you mentioned this yesterday, or two days ago when I had my all-decade team from the 2020s, I had him as one of them based on one year of great production. The year before that, he was statistically the worst starting pitcher in baseball. So to me, you know, it's unfortunate because I want to like Gialito. And you don't have to pay the same price.

He's the 17th starting pitcher off the board right now. His ADP is 53. So you can get him, you know, late fourth, early fifth round, according to ADP. But, I mean, we're just talking about one player who had a statistically great season. And whether or not you can trust it, I think Gialito fits that mold. That's fair. I imagine Chris doesn't have many shares of them, right? I actually, I've been willing to draft Lucas Gialito as my number one starting pitcher.

And I've done in a few leagues, but it's usually in a scenario where he slips a little bit. And that's really, ultimately, I think the takeaway that needs to be taken from this is not just ignore every player who has a breakout. Scott and I both have quite a few shares of Marcus Simeon this year. And it's because nobody really believes the breakout. And so you get him at what is probably, I mean, he's going around 90th overall. That's probably a seven round discount from what he actually did last year. And so that is you don't want to pay. And in Lucas Julieto's case you're kind of paying for where he finished last year.

But there was an injury. He didn't get the innings that he. might have otherwise. And so I think he was better than where he's being drafted, although that one's a little closer. Yeah, I mean, part of the problem is it's hitter versus pitcher, right? I mean, to get, you're going to have to pay a lot for any pitcher who came anywhere near what Lucas Chilito did last year just because those are so, such a prized commodity right now. And hitters, there's a lot of them to go around, a lot of high-end hitters to go around. So people are, have an easier time discounting the previous year

breakouts there. So that's that I think that influenced the Bauer thing too last year, frankly. It was just how many pitchers are capable of doing the sort of thing he did in 2018. And I'm sure it's influencing Gialito now. And it could go great for Gialito. I mean, certainly we've seen players follow it. It obviously has to start somewhere, right? Players having a breakthrough. season and then becoming great players. So that first year, very often leads to a second year and a third year of that kind of

production. But when I guess the concern isn't priced in, you have to be a little wary of it. Yeah, when it comes to G-A-Lito, I still like him this year. I just think that, you know, just the difference in price allows you to, you don't have to get them as your SP-1. I mean, you can, if it's the fourth, fifth round, you can get them as your SP2. So the biggest difference between him and Bauer is Bauer was being drafted as a top 10, maybe even top five starting pitcher, whereas Gio, you can get him as a top 15, a top 20

starting pitcher. But before we get to one of Scott's biggest misses in 2019, Adam, we probably don't do enough of complimenting you here on the show. So I'm about to give you the best compliment of all. I've seen pictures of you on social media, Adam, looking quite dapper. So please tell us about how you were able to look dapper. What kind of suit were you wearing? was wearing an Indochino suit, my man. Go to Indochino. Just go to Indochino.com, I-N-D-O-C-H-I-N-O, and just look at the suits there.

They have shirts, they have pants, they have blasers, they have a lot of stuff, but you just click on the little suits tab, and you'll just see that they're so form-fitting, and they just look so much better than the suits that you have, and whenever I wear an Indochino suit, I get a lot of compliments about it, and it's not just about how you look, but it's how you feel. You have kind of a swagger to you.

You have kind of a confidence to you when you're wearing custom clothing. Because, you know, a lot of people are out there paying like $1,000 for a custom suit. Indochino, it's like $399. It's an incredible deal. And we have a great offer for you, too, if you use the promo code FBT at checkout. Any purchase of $399 or more at Indochino.com, you enter FBT. You get an extra $30 off. What's already a great deal, take $30 off of it.

But I love customizing you, okay? It's going to fit you perfectly. You get a little monogram. The buttons, the lapels, the pleats, like everything, the styling on the inside of the jacket. get to do every single detail of it. They also have showrooms all across North America. So if you don't want to do it online, you can go into one of the Indochino showrooms. But I highly recommend it.

You know, I had to go to a wedding a couple of years ago. I had to buy a suit from men's warehouse for like $300, which I wasn't happy about. It fit like crap. Then I had to take it to my tailor. That was like $150 because he had to do so much work on it. Already it's a lot more expensive than an Indochino suit. It doesn't fit me well at all, even though the tailor did work on it because the material wasn't as good.

Just don't even bother with that stuff. Just get it customized exactly every detail you want. Go to Indochino.com. Get a suit or get anything for any purchase of $399 or more at Indochino.com. Put in the code FBT, get $30 off and free shipping. Again, Indochino.com promo code FBT for 30 bucks off your total purchase of $3.99 or more high-quality custom suits for an off-the-rack price. Scott, what was one of your biggest misses? in 2019 and potentially a lesson that you learned from your analysis of said player.

Well, this was a big lesson learned, lesson learned, and it's less focused on an individual player than just an approach. And I had been trying to go more aggressively after starting pitcher the past few years because I saw the way things were trending. and I wanted to get out ahead of it. But it always seemed like I didn't take it far enough. And what happened to me in Touten Wars last year, I think made for the clearest case of that, where I, the 15-team league, standard rhodo scoring,

my second round pick, I had a chance at Francisco Lindor, late in the second round of a 15-team league. And if you remember at this time, or leading into last year, I was scared to death of his calf injury, and that's why he ended up lasting that long. But even so, it was a good time to take Francis Gildorra. But I felt like I needed to take a high and starting pitcher there because I knew I wouldn't have that many opportunities to take one. So I took Blake Snell late in the second round instead. Now, obviously things didn't play out well for Blake Snell. But what really messed it up was that my second starting pitcher was Zach Grinky, right?

Who's a good pitcher, had a good year, but not really capable of delivering an ace caliber strikeout total. And then my third starting pitcher was something like Hermann Marquez or, I don't even remember who it was. But it was clearly a step back from those two in terms of expected production. But what's interesting about the way it played out, is, yeah, I got crushed in the pitching categories. I scored, I think, only 36 points for pitching categories versus like 50 something for hitting. I think it was like 55 points for hitting.

I finished in sixth place overall. But clearly my hitting wasn't the problem. It was my pitching. And what's interesting about that is I did well in hitting, even though I passed up that Lindor pick in round two, which would have been a great value. It would have helped set my team apart there in theory, but how much more set apart did my team really need to be in the hitting categories, you know?

So, you know, I was able to manage the shortstop position over the courses of the season. Eventually, I got Beau Bichette. I mean, in this environment, especially, there are always pickups like that to be had if you're paying attention on the waiver wire. But pitching is just a problem I couldn't resolve. I ended up trading for you, Darvish at some point before he took off. but even with that infusion into my pitching staff, it wasn't enough to save me. So my takeaway was that you need a lot of pitchers,

a lot of high-end pitchers, more than you even think you need, because something's going to happen to them, like happened with Blake Snell last year. You can't count on them being there, all of them. And because you can count on your ability to build your lineup on the fly in an environment where,

hitting is so prevalent and home runs so spread out through throughout the hitting pool. I guess my only response to that would be somebody finished in last place in hitting. Like some, there are going to be

teams that don't have enough hitting and it won't just be because they didn't play the waiver wire right or like there are still, you still need a lot of hitting. Sure. So I just, I don't, I don't think we can just make that that blanket statement and say, like, there are going to be teams that struggle to find hitting, too.

And part of the issue that the teams that struggle to find hitting aren't looking hard enough. But somebody has to come in last. There's a level of activity that is not consistent throughout any fantasy league, even how worse. Someone has to come in last place. Right. Yeah. It doesn't need to be Scott White. Exactly.

Exactly, right. I'm confident it won't be me. But even assuming an equal level of activity and prowess and knowledge and all, like, someone is going to come in last place in average and runs. But there won't be an equal level is what I'm saying. Not everybody plays the waiver wire with an equal level of aggression. Yeah. Not even close.

That goes for our listeners too, though, unfortunately. Yeah, sure. Yeah, but no, I mean, I see your point. And I, like, you might be the guy who just takes so much pitching. And everybody's like, dude, why you take it so much pitching? And then at the end of the year, you're going to be the one laughing. I think, unfortunately, I just don't know. Well, we'll have to find out what the season looks like.

This has been a consistent problem. This wasn't just last year. It's every year I look at the, and look, I rarely do just get, like, buried in a league. I'm not sure I've ever finished literally in last place in a single fantasy baseball League ever. There may be like one NL only league at some point that I'm forgetting. But like it's, I rarely have teams that are just awful. But when

I go through my team results at the end of the season and I see the teams that did really well and I see the teams that did poorly, even though I've been trying to emphasize pitching every year, it's always the pitching that's let me down. So I wanted to make sure that I couldn't possibly underdo it

this year. You took Snell. That was the problem. The problem was that you didn't. Yeah, like Well, it could have been anyone, though, is the thing. Well, it could have been Justin Verlander. Yeah, I mean, you might have taken, I know, but that's a hindsight is 20-20 situation. You don't know how the upcoming season is going to play out. You just know high in starting pitchers are inherently risky. But we can also apply my mistake to your team.

I don't think Burlander was available. Right, but either way, you paid too much for Blake's now coming off a career year. Okay, but it would have been like Aaron Noll. or something would have been my option. Who had a better year than Blake Snell, granted, but it would have been the same situation. But that would have been... But that's another one.

Aranola was coming off a career year. I know, exactly. That's my point. So it's not like I could have just plied that lesson and would have been okay. Well, you wouldn't have bought Aaron Nola. Yeah, but he wouldn't have had any pitcher there. I mean, which is the other problem.

It's like... I would have had no chance of having a good pitch. Which is a problem with Chris's lesson, because, quite frankly, you're just not going to have that many options. I mean, if you want to get a high... and starting pitcher, you have to take a leap of faith sometimes. Not everybody can be Garrett Cole. Like, Garrett Cole herself last year was only one year of being elite.

And he had like an ERA around four, basically, before that. The high threes. Look at his ERA. It was probably 380 something the year before. He had like a top five Sigh-Young finish, didn't he? Before that? I can read you Garrett Cole's ERA in seven seasons. 322, 365.

Yes, he had two. 260. But then 388, 426. That was his ERA the two years before 2018. So if you just looked at like his last three years going into the draft last season, you would have had a 388, a 426, and a 280-R. And you could be a little bit concerned. And then, of course, he's the best pitcher in fantasy, basically, or he and Verlander. So you got to take a leap. I mean, you know, I'd struggle, Frank, with these lessons. Because for every player that teaches us a lesson, I could probably find a player that shatters that lesson and every season is so different.

I think my lesson in just playing fantasy for all these years is sort of no guts, no glory. I, you know, I don't want to sit there like if I like a guy and it's only been a half a year or whatever or a year, like I'm fine with that. I'll make my peace with that, but I don't want to pass up a breakout. I don't agree with Chris's lesson, I guess.

This is what I'm saying. Yeah, I don't know. I think a lot of that comes down to, like, when you're reaching for a guy, especially a guy like that, you're basically saying, I'm smarter than the crowd, which is what reaching is,

essentially saying, like, I like this guy more than everyone else, which means I'm smarter than everyone else. But not at least I have a better... That's the thing. But it's not like Scott took Blake Snell ahead of Snell's ADP. You know, like that wasn't a reach.

just had to take them there. Right, right. In that case, I think that's just when it comes to young guys especially, there is too much of an assumption that a breakout season will sustain it. Chris, I think there are three or four pitchers in baseball that meet your criteria.

That's the problem. Sure, that's true. Then don't take a pitcher in round two. If you can't get one of the top five, Walker Bueller, I mean, we love Walker Bueller. Everything we're saying about... I mean... He has.

Jack Flaherty's a better example, and I haven't drafted Jack Flaherty this year, and maybe I'll look like an idiot. But, like, Jack Flaherty's the guy who had the big breakout. Shane Bieber is another guy who had a big breakout. I don't really like those guys as much this season. I would like them more in the third round. It's a really good point that you make, Adam, regarding Garrett Cole,

because, again, we really only had one season of him with the Astros where he was one of the best pitchers in baseball. I mean, while he had low ERAs in some seasons with the pirates, I mean, he was never really considered like a top five, top 10 pitcher for fantasy baseball. And he was coming off two previous seasons where he had a higher ERA. So I think, again, that kind of counters the point against someone like Bauer, against someone like Blake Snow, where, yes, last year you still paid the full price on Garrett Cole coming off, you know, his 2018, which was ridiculous.

But he lived up to it and then some. Like he was the best pitcher in fantasy baseball at. here. And my biggest takeaway mostly here is that I played in a 15 team league last year in the NFBC main event. And I drafted Chris Sale in the second round. And I picked up Frankie Montas, like late in the draft or early in free agency on the waiver wire. And look, if you lose, a lot of this game is skill-based. Like we study numbers, but a lot of it is luck too. Sure. Like in a 15-team league, if you lose your second round starting pitch, or a pitcher who's pitching to the level of Frankie Montas,

it's going to be really impossible to come back from that in a 15 team league. So I think that's worth mentioning. And to me, that's the biggest lesson where the deeper league that you play in, yes, you want to invest in starting pitching early, but things are going to happen that's out of your control. And if you lose your second round starting pitcher or a pitcher who's pitching like Frankie Montas, who at the time was like a top 30 starting pitcher, you lose those two guys.

I mean, your pitching is just completely derailed. There's a luck factor that plays out. But I'm trying to make it so that doesn't have to be the case. Because if you look at it the other way, if I had taken Francisco Lindor there and he had suffered the season ending injury very early, my hitting still would have been fine. It wouldn't have ruined me. It's just that I lost the player where there was no recourse once I lost it.

What did you say? Because that's the way starting pitcher is right now. You finished sixth out of 15 in hitting? No, I finished higher than six. Oh, sixth overall. I finished seventh overall, I think. Yeah, I don't know, man, because like the advantage that you get in hitting by playing the waiver wire sort of disappears in a 15-te-te-te-league. Or at least it's minimized quite a bit.

It's minimized, but it's still... 15-te-lews are wacky. What I've noticed in Tout War specifically, and this is getting off track, it's just kind of, I don't know, rousing the Tout Wars crowd is like, for some reason nobody stashes away prospects for when they're eventually called up. And so that's an easy way to make up the hidden gap. That's like a league rule thing, right? Don't you have to like start them the week you add them or something like that? There's some kind of weird role with. Yeah.

But you can bench them. Right. There's midweek substitutions. And if somebody is inactive midweek, you can bench them. So you miss like a day of production, basically. Sure. And I want to, I guess, add a little bit of color to my Trevor Bauer point and the Gary Cole point and the Blake's now point.

and they are no point. And all that is that when you look at Blake's Now versus Garrett Cole, what was the difference between 2017 Blake's Now and 2018 Blake's Now versus 2017 Garrett Cole and 2018 Garichol? Blake Snow basically just pitched better. No, he moved on the mound and he changed his control, which was what he needed to unlock his potential. Changed his control is a super ephemeral thing that does not always stay. I'm talking about like a tangible change. Moving on the mound is a tangible change.

Garrett Cole moved from a team that we now widely recognize just had no chance of developing young pitchers. They wasted some of the best pitching talent in baseball over the last decade. And yes, they got good seasons out of Yvonne Nova and Edinson Volquez, but it's not the same. He moved to a team that maximizes every pitcher that they get and had a track record of doing that before Garrett Cole's breakout.

And so that one is, is one where you have a tangible change. And before 2018, pretty much everyone said, oh, Garrett Cole is going to be one of the best pitchers in baseball now that he's with the Astros. And it wasn't a guarantee, but then it happened. For me, it's easier by buying to that. And so I think you also, you can't just say blanket, don't buy into career years.

What you have to do is look at what changed, why did it change? If it's just, well, he started hitting the ball harder, that's a little harder to buy into because it's you need a reason why he started hitting the ball harder in my opinion. And so I think that's where like the actual research and the actual analysis comes in. But for me, my prior is and should have been with Trevor Bauer to be skeptical. It's not to write him off entirely, but it's to be more skeptical of career. Okay, but I, fine. I'll agree to disagree. I just think that for anyone who feels regretful for drafting Trevor Bauer or Blake Snell when you did, I think they both gave you great reason for Snell it was moving on the mound and honing in

his control, which, you know, his walk rate was basically the same in 2019. That wasn't the problem. For Bauer, it was the slider that he added late in 2017, that he backed up in 2018. I think we had perfectly good reasons for both of them. So Chris and I, I guess, we'll just agree to disagree. Adam the analyst, this is new uncharted territory. I agree to disagree. That's his catchphrase. My last defense of Scott is, if you look at ADP this year,

there are more hitters that are being drafted early that were going in the double-digit rounds or were waiver-wire pickups than the pitchers that are being drafted early. Jacob de Grom, first round pick last year, Garic Cole's second-round pick last year, Max Scherzer first-round pick last year, Justin Verlander's second-round pick, Walker Bueller, third, fourth-round pick. Fernando Tattis, double-digit round pick. Pete Alonzo Yeah digit round pick

No he's right He's right Sure that is true But those guys also We didn't know They were gonna have an opening day job Until like three days before the season started And once they did

They started shooting up draft boards They were not like early round picks But you're talking about two of the best prospects In baseball It's not like they didn't come out of nowhere I don't necessarily like Raphael Dukers was a double digit round pick last year Sure sure that's a better point

But I don't think he was finished Chris Austin Meadows was a double-digit round pick last year. Sure. Sure. No, but those guys in particular, like, you can say the same thing for Jack Flaherty. You can say the same thing for Shane Bieber. For sure. Shane Bieber is a good one. Last year. Flaherty was like a fifth round pick. He was still being drafted semi-early. Last year, though, like the argument in the fantasy community was do you want Shane Bieber or Nick Povetta? Not in my community. I chose neither. I love Shane Bieber last year.

Everyone loved Nick Povetta, though. Yeah, those were probably the two trendiest breakout picks. It's starting pitcher were Bieber and Povetta. Yeah, and look at the, I guess, the juxtaposition, right? If you just look side by side with, Bidre versus Povetta, went very different outcomes last year between those two. Adam, give us a quick lesson that you learned last year, whether it be a player or a situation that, you know, you kind of,

you messed up in 2019. Well, I tend to make a lot of excuses for players. I try to look on the bright side and say, hey, he was hurt. That's kind of a big one for me. Hey, he was hurt. And, you know, once upon a time, that worked with Justin Verlander. It kind of looked like his career was over. But A.J. Pollock, he was being taken.

You know, I looked at my notes from last year. And when we did the outfield preview, he was being taken in round nine. So around 100th overall. And I really liked him because he was coming off two straight years where he had an OPS around 800, which isn't that good. but I like Pollock going into last year. He was moving to the Dodgers. He was expected to either lead off or hit, you know, toward the top of the order.

And he did. You know, he never hit lower than sixth all year. He was batting, I think, like fourth or fifth, early in the year. And I thought he would score a lot of runs. And the reason I liked him, Pollack, was because in 2018, he had a broken thumb, I believe. And before he broke his thumb,

he was really, really good. And he changed the swing. Right. And you were with me, Chris, 969 OPS before breaking his thumb. 40 games, and then he was awful when he came back from injury. And, you know, it's funny what happened with Pollock. I actually, until you asked this question, Frank, of who I was wrong about, I didn't even

realize how strong his finish was. But Pollock, basically, with the Dodgers, gets off to a terrible start. 28 games, 223 batting average, 3.30 slugging percentage, goes on the IL with an elbow infection, misses a ton of time. Then he plays 58 games after the injury and finishes the season with a season with a 885 OPS. But I'm not going to be fooled again. At this point, I'm fine with him

as like a late round sleeper. They probably need to trade Jock Peterson for Pollock to get, you know, good enough playing time. But he's just too inconsistent. He's just too injury prone. And he's too old at this point. He's 32. So I think you can make excuses for him with injuries and whatnot.

But this is a guy where I think you have to look at the recent track record of three straight years with an OPS around 800 and say, and the steals are declining and say it's probably, he's probably not going to be an impactful player anymore. So I think I just, I had faith in him a little bit too long. And if he had been a 15th round pick, whatever, but he was about 100th overall. So it was a decent investment in Pollock. Yeah, and the injuries have really added up for AJ Pollock. He hasn't played more than 113 games

in each of the past four seasons. And the Dodgers just have the luxury of depth now. So it's, he doesn't seem like he's going to play every day. It seems like if, at best he's on the weak side of a platoon with with jock peterson potentially so uh you worry about that for this upcoming season but you know i started thinking about players that might be in a similar situation to where jock peterson was at heading into last year and you mentioned the age here 32 years old jock peterson or pollock uh for for pollock sorry yeah uh you mentioned his age at 32 years old and i started thinking about tommy fam because while he did play 145 games he was he did play 145 games games last year. He has an extensive injury history. He's playing with a slightly torn UCL.

I understand why people would like Tommy Pham and Roto this year, because he's, you know, one of the few players that can give you 2020. But if you remember, in spring training, and maybe the delayed season actually is, is one that helps Tommy Pham. But he didn't play a game in the outfield in spring training. Like, he hasn't even been throwing the ball like long toss yet, or at least, you know, the latest that I've seen. So he was one that came to mind where, you you're talking about a top five round, five or six round pick this year that can potentially hurt you because of injury. I think we have enough data on someone like Tommy Pham. As much as I want to like him, I think, I think all the signs are there. Interesting. That's fair. All right,

so I tease this at the end of yesterday's episode. And this is something that Scott brought up, because frankly, Scott wants to learn more about me. And I think that, you know, people that are listening to this podcast religiously, you know, they might want to know more as well. So I thought that, you know, let's be frank, this is your guy's opportunity to ask me, whatever questions come to mind, baseball related, life related, facts, bands, music, TV, whatever you want to ask, I'm sure that I'm going to let you down tremendously. There's no doubt about that in my mind. There's no way you can last down more than Adam has. It's so true. When it comes to not baseball stuff, people. hate every opinion I have.

So, you know, I lowered the bar for you. My life is now an open book. So I'll turn it over to you guys and fire away. All right. Here we go. First question. Let's get this out of the way. Why do you have so many consonants in your last name?

You have a six to one consonant to vowel ratio. STA, M-P-F-L at the end. I mean, what is that, Frank Stample? What is the etymology of that name? So that is a, it has a German background. It's actually pronounced Stamphel. Sure. We're getting into it here.

But I mentioned it on one of the first podcasts I joined you guys for. I mean, like, this is something that has been messed up my entire life, like growing up playing basketball, like on the back of jerseys. It's just, I've seen Stamphi with a Y. I don't know how you turn an L into a Y. I mean, even if it gets an I on the end, how do you make it a Y? So I've had, you know, people have just thrown a vowel in there, though, there's no vowel. I've seen an U in there, an I in there, F-I-L, F-I-L, F-A-L. I've seen all different

kind of spelling errors when it comes to the last name. I don't really have an answer outside of, and this is what I provided you on the Facebook page, Adam. I was born this way. So you are saying that people see your name written out, assume somebody made a mistake, and then take it upon themselves to correct the mistake in the spelling of your name. I don't know what the what the correction would be. Stampy. Like the L of. Yeah, I think maybe, yeah, inserting a U or an I in between the F and the L or changing the L at the end to an I, maybe it would be the most common ways people.

I asked Eric Kay who hired you, Frank, right? Like I asked him, how do you pronounce his last name? And he said, I don't know. We were baffled by it too at first. Yeah, and Frank, I'm on a German-to-English translation on Google. And apparently, Stamphel in German, translates to Stamphel in English, the same exact thing, just pronounced differently. Okay, that's one. Number two.

Oh. It's just Adam's going to answer? You have some? Let's go round table. I've got like seven. All right. Can I do the ones about his background? And then you can...

Sure. Okay. Where were you born? What sports did you play growing up? I was born in Queens, New York. This is where I've lived my entire life. Up until two years ago, I lived in the same house my entire life with my parents. I now live with my fiancé in Queens.

So, yes, I am someone who resides in Queens, and I am not a Mets fan, Yankee fan, born and raised. I grew up on baseball, basketball, I played soccer in high school. I played tennis in high school. But basketball and baseball were probably the main focuses in terms of my playing career. Definitely basketball more than anything. Basketball is my favorite sport growing up. It wasn't close. Are you old enough to remember the Jim Layrit's home run in the 1996 World Series

that kind of launched the Yankee dynasty and ruined the Braves chances there? Are you old enough to remember that? I'm old enough to remember watching reruns, highlights of it. Okay. That's one of my early memories. That was my worst moment. Yeah, you were only like two years old. I was five.

Okay. Yeah, that was my worst moment as a sports fan and is never really, my opinion of the Yankees has been kind of formed since that moment. I've since had a worst moment as a sports fan, 28 to 3. Oh, yeah. But that was the worst until then. Can I ask Scott a follow-up question? I know it's, let's be frank, but I want to let's be Scott for a minute.

All right, great, Scott is now the name of the second. Just a totally trolley question. How does it feel that the only championship, one of your favorite sports teams, has ever won, has an asterisk attached to it? Because it was a shortened season, 1995? Yes. It's the only championship any of my teams have won in my lifetime,

so I am fine with it. all my championships with an asterisk. All right, guys, listen, I want to, I want to make sure Frank reads e-bails today. So let's, let's continue with Let's Be Frank. Chris? This is an important judge of character. Heath gives the wrong answer, so I want to see what your answer is. Which office character are you? I am, hmm, Jim.

Wrong! Every person, that is an incredible judge of, character and every person who thinks they are gym is actually Andy. That's probably true. We could, do you have the results from that personality quiz we took last week? Because it would tell you which most office character you're most like. Apparently, I'm bad at self-assessment, so I need to take it over. I just closed out that tab like last night, Scott.

So I had it for about a week and I was like, I probably don't need this anymore. I am historically an open way too many tabs kind of guy. I have like 30 tabs open right now. I don't even know how I manage this, but people see my computer and they're just like, what is wrong with you?

Why do you have so many tabs open? It gives me so much anxiety. Me too. I hate that. Oh, Frank, I hate you. Okay, Chris, what's the next question? Backstreet Boys are in sync? Oh, you know what? For someone who grew up in the 90s,

I get their biggest hits mixed up. to be honest. Wow. Wow. We are going to say bye, bye to Frank right now. Favorite Star Wars movie? Let's go with...

Chris is just giving you questions to judge you with. Sorry. Oh, yeah, 100%. No, definitely. I've seen seven of 89 that are, I guess, actually part of the three trilogy.

The Skywalker saga. Right. I would say my favorite is Episode 3? Revenge of the Sith. An interesting choice. I got to rewatch the old ones, to be honest. I watched them when I was younger,

like the early teen years. I haven't watched them since. So I do got to step it up. All right, one last one. Harry Potter or Game of Thrones? Game of Thrones. I don't mind Harry Potter. I've watched the first five movies.

I read the first three books. I just kind of lost interest. But I guess you could say the same thing about Game of Thrones. Notice, throughout this pandemic, nobody's saying how they're going back to rewatch Game of Thrones, maybe outside of Chris,

because he just never watched it to begin with. But for everyone who's actually watched Game of Thrones, nobody's going back and watching it. That's one thing that I have noticed, and I think that is a testament to how truly the ending of Game of Thrones. Oh, I absolutely want to go back and watch it. I wanted to watch it as, rewatch it as soon as it was done.

I just have to be a little more judicious with my time. Season one. I'm a little way I just finished that season six and I'm a little wary Oh yeah You're just stop Yeah The best two episodes in the whole

Oh it was great Season six amazing The problem is like I So I didn't watch it but I'm online And so I know everybody talks about it And the things everyone's talking about And like everyone loved Deeris And like oh Calisi and breaker of chains

And like her character's boring She sucks She has no charisma And like You don't have to think like One of the worst storylines I've ever seen in a show is her all the stuff in Marine. Everything. Marine's the worst.

I just do not care. Oh, thank you. I do not care about the city of Marine. A hundred percent. Anytime they were in Marine, I was like, oh, fast forward. No, but I watched after season seven, I went back and I watched season one. And they give you a lot of clues about what might happen, by the way. But of course, they don't follow through.

with it necessarily because, you know, the show got crappy. But season one of Game of Thrones is amazing. And even when you go back and watch it a second time, you like it even more than the first time. I've gone back and watched like the biggest episodes, like the Red Winning and the Battle of the Bastards. And like those episodes still hold up. They're still amazing.

And I went back and watched season one. And you're right. There was like some very obvious foreshadowing I noticed in season one when, when Aria gets in trouble for hitting Joffrey with the stick at the time and then the dog comes and bites him, or the dire wolf at the time. Circe says something like, what would you have me do when they're like reprimanding the kids? They're like, what would you have me do? Have her walk through the streets?

I was like, wow. Yeah, also Jora in the second episode, Jora says that the Dothraki believe there is a like a white blade of grass, ghost grass that will consume all the other grass and that is how the world will end. So the Dothraki believe the white walkers essentially will rule the world and they are more or less devoured by the white walkers

in the battle at Winterfell. So that's interesting. Back to Scott. Back to Frank. Last Game of Thrones thing. Sir Davos is the best character. All right, next question. You're the worst. Favorite food, Frank? Pasta. That's extremely vague and boring.

Is that too broad? Is that too general? That's terrible. No, he just means just, just, al dente pasta with no sauce. His favorite food is just a single strand of lukewarm pasta. Favorite pizza topic. Let's go with, hmm, buffalo chicken.

Oh, that's good. Good for you. I like the grilled chicken. Not even really pizza. It did it. Don't listen to Scott. Don't let him take it away from you. I haven't had the race.

Buffalo chicken yet. Buffalo chicken pizza. I enjoy Buffalo chicken pizza, but if that was like, if there was a display of pizza boxes all opened, and it was entirely Buffalo chicken, I'd be a little disappointed. I want one slice of

buffalo chicken pizza to compliment all my normal slices of pizza. Frank, rank these three. Pancakes, waffles, French toast. Reverse order that you just mentioned. French toast, waffles, pancakes. Pancakes get too soggy with syrup a lot.

French toast is just a different beast. It's just completely unique. You get it with powdered sugar on top. You get it made with like the hollow bread. It's amazing. French toast, far and away the best. Waffles number two, pancakes there is. Is it possible you're using too much syrup

if your pancakes are getting soggy? Or not eating them quickly enough. Just freaking out that. That is a fair question. Come on. No, but like the waffle is clearly superior to the pancake. It's the same. It's the same batter, but it's crispy.

It's got nooks for your butter and your syrup. Way better. Well, that's if you prefer crispy to fluffy. Right. Grow on, Scott. All right. Frank, pop tarts, toasted or unt toasted? Yeah.

There's a pop tart, though. Because I can eat the s'mores pop tart normally. I don't think that one needs to be toasted. But like the strawberry, blueberry original ones, like those are much better if they're toasted. Yeah, you're right. Favorite movie? It's a convenience food

eat it the most convenient way possible. Oh my God. Well, can we just let Frank be Frank? Frank, what's your favorite movie? Someone asked me this on the Facebook chat. It's pretty dark. Darren Aronovsky is my favorite director. So I like a lot of his movies and they're very dark.

None of them have happy endings. They're all known for having terrible endings. Recreum for a Dream is one of my favorite movies. Also, Black Swan. I'm worried about you. If I want to cheer you guys up a little bit, just Friends is like my favorite comedy. I watch it every year with my family on Thanksgiving.

It's the kickoff of Christmas season. It's a great movie. Favorite TV show? Oh, no. One movie, and I know you have like a list of like 50 for this one, but one movie you've never seen that you need to see. Wolf of Wall Street. Okay, never seen either.

Favorite TV show? Breaking Bad. Favorite off-Broadway play? Okay, you get skipped. Does everybody have one? I was like, I've only been to two Broadway plays. I saw cats when I was a kid, and I went to see of mice and men like three or four years ago,

and that was awesome. So of mice and men, it's probably my favorite play. Okay. Without even thinking, just say the answer as it comes into your head. Ready? Yes. Okay. Is baseball boring?

No. Adam's just trying to use this to justify his crappy opinions. Without thinking about it, is Aerosmith good? No. He's never heard of Arrow Smith. He's 20, 15 years old. Favorite sports moment. Don't say Jim Lairitz.

Levinne Hernandez. Two atagabaloa National Championship game. One of my favorite moments recently that has happened, and I tweeted this out yesterday, was the D.D. Gregorius home run that he hit in the wild card game. When they went down in the first inning, I was so crushed and I just had no hope.

And that one just like lifted me back up. I screamed at the top of my lungs. I'm pretty sure the neighbors called the cops on me. It was an extremely fun moment. That's one of my favorite. Hey, Frank, I was at that game. What? It was incredible.

It was one of the best moments I've ever seen in person. It was so cool. Alex Gonzalez walk off home run against the Yankees in the World Series. You were there? Oh, yeah. Oh. Chris has to get his Yankee jabs in. Well, of course. No, that's a legit one. That's a legit. In fact, I would say my best sports moment was actually Edgar Renteria walkoff. That's the game I was at. It was at Game 7 of the 97 World Series.

And then finally, how did you propose to your wife? Nothing fancy. I did it in my apartment. I did it here on our five-year anniversary. We agreed to not get each other again. So I tricked her. I got her an engagement ring. But I made her for a one-year anniversary, I made a video of like our best moments together. So for our five-year anniversary, I replayed that on the television.

She got all emotional. I blindfolded her and popped the question. I like that. I like that. How long have you known each other? Like, when did you meet? So on April 12th, that will be our seven-year anniversary

of when we met each other. Oh, okay. So you, like, that's similar to, me and my wife. All right, Frank, we have a lot in common. Thank you for playing this edition of Let's Be Frank. We look forward to getting to know Frank a little bit more. And now, Frank, we look forward to you reading emails.

Send us your email questions. Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. This one comes from Jet. Hey, guys. Was wondering if Tommy Lestella or Garrett Hampson is better for a middle-in-field pickup in a 12-team-team points league. Tommy, Lestella or who? Garrett Hampton.

I would rather take Hampson until it's clear he's not playing enough or he's not hitting well enough because I just think their potential rewards are greater. The rare points league with a middle infielder. Yeah, I'm definitely going to go Hampson. I actually prefer to play my points leagues with deeper rosters. Like my longest standing home league, which is a points league, has middle infielder, corner infielder, a fourth outfielder. and I think that's it.

And we have an extra starting pitcher. So I prefer it to be deeper. I think I prefer Lestell in a points league. Yeah. I would probably agree with you. I don't love either of those guys because I think playing time is so pivotal for points leagues.

Like you need volume. So I worry about both of those guys in terms of playing time. But I mean, I would take Cesar Hernandez if he's available. But between those two, I would go with Tommy Lestella. This next one comes from Chai Cub, Chris. No show Hey, Otani, love, anywhere.

on the all 2020 team. Where is Heath when you need them most? Just feels like Shohei could be a dominant force unlike anything we've seen in baseball for the next decade. Now, maybe I'm just looking to have him recognize because he's a 15th round keeper in my Roto League and would join Juan Soto, Alex Bregman, and Garrett Cole as my other keepers on the list.

Thanks for helping me set up a decade of fantasy baseball dominance. What's at you when it comes to Shohei Otani? Was that one of our omissions on the all 2020s team? he's always going to be hamstrung in fantasy unless somebody decides to count all of his contributions is the thing so I just worry that the workload is never going to be where we need it to be for him to compete with the pure pitchers

nope he's 25 he has 60 innings in the majors under his belt I think he will be very good but I don't think we'll ever see him pitch more than 170 innings in a season okay but if you were going to start a daily dynasty, like a league with daily transactions or dynasty league. Daily, daily lineups. Daily lineups, daily transactions. Yeah, yeah, sorry, all that. You can use him as a hitter or a pitcher every, any day he plays. Yeah, I think that Otani

might be one of the most valuable players over the next 10 years. Yeah, he could be. He's probably, if you're just drafting like that now, I would say he's probably a top 40 player in that format, which I don't think that that's overselling how good he is. I mean, he has like over 900 OPS in his first two seasons as a batter. I agree, Frank, but I actually think there will be at least one person in every draft who thinks he's more like a top 20 player. You're probably right. That's probably fair to say. This next one comes from Todd.

I am going to start a Scott White Dynasty League. So, I mean, technically it wouldn't be a Scott White Dynasty League. It would be a Todd Blank Dynasty League. I have two questions for Scott. If I have 20 teams, will that suffice? I know your article says that you need 24, how will 20 impact it? And is there any current rule or rules that you would like to change but can't because it would throw off strategies for the majority of teams, a.k.a. If you were starting another league, any subtle changes you would make, Scott.

There are some changes I've been mulling, but what's what the reason, it's not because it would throw off the league. That's not why I've not changed them yet. It's just because I haven't decided if they'd be better. The changes I'd consider are maybe doing weekly fab instead of daily fab, just so the players we're bidding on. There's more competition for the bids. There's less players going for $0 or $1. That's probably the biggest one I'd consider.

But I'm still on the fence about it. And if I'm on the fence about it, I'm not going to commit to it, obviously. I'm just going to stick to the way things are. until I'm totally sure it's a change that needs to be made. As far as 24 teams versus 20, I mean, it can work for any league size. I think the bigger, the league, the better. And 24 seems to be a little more realistic than 30.

I mean, I think 30 might be best of all. But 24 would, it clearly works for us. 20, I think, is better than like 12 or 10. It's still pretty good. And you can obviously adapt the rules for that. you might make a change in terms of how many teams make the playoffs. You know, just the obvious things that would be impacted by league size, but you can definitely make it work with 20.

I would like to give voice to the voiceless as a member of Scott White's team, the only league, the only one who's not or who is in this podcast. Offseason trading. Just allow. No, Scott. Just allow offseason training. No. It would be like, what if Major League Baseball just said from October 20th until

February 19th, you can't make any trades. There's specific reasons for why I don't allow offseason trading, but I'll let people go read the article to find that out. And by the way, when I was soliciting comments for this article, a lot more people said they prefer the trading the way it is than that they want off-season trading. In fact, it was almost universal. Even the people who claim to want off-season trading say,

you know, it actually makes sense why we don't. All righty, that'll do it for Adam. Can I give an update on something? What do you got? What do you got, Adam? Update on the golf course thing that I talked about yesterday. I don't remember how much I updated you. I mentioned I drove past a golf course, way too crowded in my opinion, was very pissed off about it.

Did I say I called the golf course? I tell you that. Yeah. Okay, I called the golf course. I called the county executive's office. I let them know. And I emailed the local news station's investigative reporter. Oh, my God.

told her about it. She told me that she, let me see what she said. She said that they sent, she sent it along to the management team and one of the reporters to do a story. So I will ruin everyone's fun before this quarantine is over. But in all seriousness,

I'm still mad about it, and I hope I can make a difference and help the community by getting people off the golf course and in their freaking house. We should nationalize all golf courses and turn them into parks. Free parks.

That's my hot take. And you know what? If they turn them into a park, I tell you, don't go to the damn park. Well, yeah, right now, yes. Yes. I'm talking generally, once this is all over, seize the golf courses. No, that's stupid. Everybody, follow Adams' advice.

Follow his example that he has set here on the show. Continue to stay quarantine. Stay at home. And if you see anybody who is not listening, report them to your local news station. Yeah. bring them to justice. For Adam, Scott and Chris, I am Frank. We are team facts.

If you spell out Chris Towers, we also, we have the T in there. We'll be back tomorrow. We actually have a draft we're going to do right now. It's a head-to-head points league. We will recap said draft on tomorrow's show. That's it for today. Here on Fantasy Baseball today.