Fantasy Baseball Today - Live 12-Team Roto Auction Part 2! We Had a Kyle Schwarber Debacle! (3/12 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

We continue on to hour two of our live 12-team Roto Auction. We focus on mid-round nominations, building out the rest of our teams and there was a debacle with Kyle Schwarber. Did Scott get hosed out of drafting Schwarber? 🏀 Join our Fantasy Baseball Today Bracket Game: https://shorturl.at/zezZC Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @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/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. This is our two, part two of our live 12-team Roto auction. And we just had Nolan Shannon's go off the board for $2. So not the most exciting player, but we'll get some of those thrown out there throughout the course. People trying to save some money. And again, thanks for being here. Hit the like button, subscribe to the YouTube channel if you haven't already.

30K by opening day. Let's do it. And it's Michael Harris time. It was up to 20 bucks. 21. Let's do it. I'm not going to do it. You're not going to do it.

You're out. And sold. $21. Chris, you have Michael Harris for exactly $21 on the site. Yep. Yep. I thought about it, but I didn't want to go to that. What's the latest on where Michael Harris is going to bat in the lineup this season?

What do you think in there? Well, presuming. pro far is ready to go which I think is a big presumption with a bone bruised in his wrist but that's what the Braves are saying presuming he's ready to go

he's supposed to bat lead off while Acuna is out and I believe Harris is going to hit fifth I think that's the plan yeah so not he won't be in the top three or even four

but batting fifth would help his counting stats I think tremendously right certainly RBI's he's probably not going to score me He runs from that spot if he's there consistently. Okay. But it'll, that, that's always been what's held Harris back. Well, injuries also. But runs an RBI production because he tends to bat so low in the lineup.

It doesn't have great on base skills. So we need good health. We need him to be a high in source of batting average as he's been two of his three years in the majors. And we need him to really take to a higher lineup spot, which it appears he's going to have a chance to fill this year. Again, that was Michael Harris. that we were talking about. Kyle Fingian went off the board for $7, and we now have Logan Gilbert at 23.

Same price. I think somebody... Same price I got Corbin Burns for, which I think makes sense. Well, Gilbert usually goes a little bit ahead of Burns, so... But they're close enough, I think. I'm going to predict now we will see

higher end closers than Finnegan. Go for $3 or less. Okay. Yeah, I think that's probably accurate. I wonder if... saves will get pushed up a little bit, at least based on the pricing I've seen so far. Ryan Walker for 13, fitting in for 7, Robert Suarez for 14. So saves going for, I think, a little bit more than expected, at least.

None of the elite closers are gone off the board yet, right? No, they have not. How about you change that, Chris? Ryan Walker is the highest end one who's been nominated. Yep. And Tyler Stevenson for $6 in a two-catchel league. That's fine. Pretty good.

Same price as Logan O'Hopi. I think both are okay buys. We haven't asked this question yet. Do you guys prefer green or brown? Among the hunters. Among the hunters? Green. Neither is a target of mine.

I think I have green a few spots higher. What do you think, Chris? Oh, I don't know. Greens looked awesome this spring, I have to say. It's a sort of thing where I want to resist buying into it because I just, I think. even in a best case scenario, he's unlikely to remain

healthy and deliver the workload you're looking for, but it's certainly possible he's a breakout this year. Gary Crochet. He just kind of picked up where he left off from the last two months last year. Gary Crochet, reminder, Logan Gilbert went for 23,

so we'll see how much crochet. And this was definitely an example of a player I didn't want, so I'm throwing him out there to see, but that's a pretty, yeah, he was about to go for 19, Scott jumped in at 20. I think it's a pretty good price.

I just, I already spent 23 on Burns. I don't really want to spend 20 plus on two different pitchers, but I, yeah, I think it's probably okay. And 20, 21. 1 for Garrett Crochet.

To Bidon. Gets himself an ace, even with his small, who does Bidon have? A pile of cash. I mean, look, he's got some good players. That's most. what's been nominated.

I want to check out on his team. Sharon Duran is up. We'll catch you up on how much he goes for. But Bidon has Connor Wong for two. Jazz for 28. Mason win for 10. Jeremy Pena for six. O'Neill Cruz for 27.

Dominguez for 15. Do I have the right team here? No, I don't. I'm reading off the wrong team. I was like, these don't look like his players. Jonah Heim for a dollar. Patrick Bailey for a dollar. Tristan Koss is for 12.

Parade is for 10. Bobby Witt for 49. Abrams for 19. Mountcastle for six. Aaron Judge for 49. Junghuli for four. Crochet for 21. Ober for 16.

Suarez for 14. Mitch Keller for two. So, B. Don's got somewhere to be. Don. Tonight. Spending that money. Well, he's got to stick around

for the reserve rounds. Not going to let you leave, B.D. You can do that one on your phone, you know. Yeah. Jaron Duran for 29. I think he was the highest player left on the board. Yep, that's what I have him for. But obviously, this deep you would hope to get a little bit of a discount.

It didn't happen. But it's fine. It's fine. You know, Jaron Duran is one of the players this year. I just haven't been able to click draft. Yeah, this was the first time I've drafted him. Oh, you got him. All right.

Nice. Yeah, so I've got Jaron, Kyle Tucker, and Jose Altuvei, and Marcelo Zuna on my offense. Terrick Stubel, Kirby Yates, and George Kirby. George Kirby Yates, there's the team name. Very nice. Brandon Low snuck by for five bucks while we were chatting. Neither of you, Jens, wanted to get in. I know you both like Brandon Low.

Wait, I was bidding. No, it didn't take my bid. We're going to have to redo that one. That was for Xavier Edwards. Oh, I wasn't the only one. Multiple people were trying to bid. The draft room froze up. Looks like at least four people tried to bid on Brandon Lauer,

or on Xavier Edwards. So Scott, if your plus one went through, you might have got like a $13 bid on Xavier Edwards or something. Well, I typed in seven. Oh, got you. I didn't just hit plus one. I'm not new to this, Frank. Come on. Way too sophisticated.

He's defending champ for a reason, everybody. All right. Xavier Edwards. We know that there will be at least some level of excitement here. Yeah, it's up to eight now, nine. I'm not willing to go 10. I was willing to go seven. but he's an interesting player.

I mean, if his profile works, slap hitting Speedster, we haven't seen much of that in the recent years, but it worked for 70 games last year. The amount of batting average and steals he's going to give you for $9, what he ended up going for is, it could be a coup.

Chris, I know you're a little bit more skeptical on Xavier Edwards this season, right? Yeah, I mean, he's a $7 player, for me. So it's not like a there's a huge gap there but I can see it. It's just there are three guys

with very similar profiles going in like the 120 to 140 range right now and that's Xavier Edwards, Bryce Terang and Pete Carr Armstrong. I get the idea that Xavier Edwards might be a higher batting average ceiling than those guys especially Terang. A big part of it for me is I look at what

Victor Robles did last year and the underlying numbers and I compare them between all four of them and Victor Robles looks arguably better. Here's Victor Robles now. Go for it, Chris. You want him? He's yours, Chris. How much is that? He's more affordable. It's already up to seven. No, that's too much. That's too much.

Yeah. Chris, you have him as a four dollar player. Pekar Armstrong is going to go for probably 10, so it could be a very good deal. Yeah, I do wonder where the values are going to come because, Chris, you pointed out earlier, how much inflation we already had in the draft. and still a lot of these, what we project as, you know, five to seven dollar players are all consistently going for three to five dollars more than

than we have them projected. Oh, they will come, and they will cause great distress when they do. But not for me, not Mr. Cool as a cucumber. Uh-oh, add it. Take a drink. Said it again.

Anthony Santander in Toronto, where, as we spoke about in hour one, they tried their darnest to extend Vlad Jr. Sounds like $500 million. And it did not happen. But what did happen is Chris got Santander for $15. Yeah, that'll play. Yeah, you like it?

Yeah. Okay. I see you adding some pop here, Chris. You got him in Ozuna recently. Yeah, and I've got a little. bit of speed there with Tucker, Duran, and Altuve. So it's a nice balanced team for the most part. Should be like it. You know, obviously only five players. I mean, we need more. That's true, I would say. Emmanuel Class A, our first elite closer. That's a value.

$19. $19 player. He is consensus 20 on our site. Scott, you have him a little bit lower at 18, but I have him at 20 and Chris 21. There you go. For the number one projected closer in fantasy. Jason Foley thrown out for a dollar up to two. Jason Foley, by the way, has looked awful this spring.

And I have not the darnedest clue what the tigers are going to do with Sage's. Yeah, that's the biggest thing for me is... No clue. I'll throw a dollar at a Jason Foley or a Bo Briskey or whatever,

but yeah. They didn't add anybody, so I assume they're just going to pick up where they left off. Same manager, same personnel. I presume Foley's going to get like a 75% share there. But where did they... Unless he's just bad, which is possible. Where did they leave off though?

You know, it felt like towards the, in the second half of the season and into the postseason, they kind of mixed and matched to close out games, right? Or at least... They did some throughout the season, but Foley was... Foley was the one they kept coming back to. Yeah, they signed Tommy Canley to a one-year deal this off-season.

They still have Bo Brisky. They have lefty Tyler Holton. I have no idea. Not that Foley needed to go for more than $2. I was kind of when he was sitting there at one wondering, oh, man, I can't let him go for one, can I? Of two is the max I would have gone for. and of course somebody actually,

other than me, ended up bidding for it. I think we will see better closers than that go for two, or if not two, $3. All right. Devin Williams,

in the meantime, went for 18, so one less than a manual class A. We're getting a little bit of a reliever run here. Pablo Lopez is currently out for $14. It seems kind of good. It's fine. Pablo, we have for $16 in the site,

so maybe a slight discount. Again, starting pitching feels like it's, that's where the best values have been so far in the draft. We'll see if that remains. Cole Regans. Like I said, it's been true for every single auction I've done so far, which probably just means we've valued them too high. All right, no discount here on Cole Regens.

He's up to the same price as Garrett Crochet. Which, hey, I have Cole Regans ahead of Garrett Crochet. So that's fine for me. I mean, I think both third, fourth rounders-ish in a 12-team league. It's probably all right. All right, here's what we'll do. Let's take a quick break.

And when we return, we'll catch you up on the latest picks right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. We are doing a live 12-team roto auction. Not a mock draft. This is a real draft that we are playing out. Scott White is your defending champ. He does not have a live.

much money left, but needs a lot of players. We'll see how it comes together for Scott's team, but pretty loaded offense so far. Cool as a cucumber. Oh, there you go. Drink. Drink. Cotel Marte, $25 for... Decent value?

Yeah, that's pretty good. I wish I had more money. Yeah, I wish I had more money, and I didn't have a second basement already, because I got out too much for $4 less. I, yeah. That seems about right, Chris? It's fine. Yeah.

James Wood, pretty exciting player this year. I'll sneak one in there, see what we got. James Wood was dealing with some left quad tendonitis early on in camp, but he seems to be... I like that you emphasize that when you're sitting there is the leading bid. I just try to think of the first thing that comes to mind. That's relevant throughout spring training, but yes, that was the first thing. He's played in six games. It looks like they're working to get him up to speed.

He has 21. played appearances in those six games. So playing more than you usually see early on in spring. He's got two home runs. I did not get him, by the way. He went for 18. I had a $17 bid, which is okay. I've already got Corbyn Carroll and Jackson Turyo,

so I might need to play a little bit more bargains in the outfield anyway at this point. Michael King for 15, going once, going twice. Sold. That's what I've got him for. to duck. But at some point, going for what we have them listed at is an inflated price because there's going to have to be value somewhere. I think it'll probably be the sub-10 players, Chris.

Well, this is what, you know, we talked about in the strategies. The thing I always notice is it's when we take a break that everyone like backs off. And that's when I like to, but we're, because we're doing this podcast, we're not going to take a break until like, two hours in. Gosh. That's probably going to be a bad thing. I know that's in how we're special here, by the way. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, Scott, Scott.

I was not expecting a visit from Robo Scott this early in the night. Look at that. He's right there up on the draft room. I think you're-crashing our draft. I think you're back. Jackson Holiday went for five bucks, by the way. Scott, you threw him out for a dollar. That instantly jumped up.

Immediately. Everybody wanted Jackson Holiday. Well, I thought I was thinking specifically Doc Eisenhower would, because that's another one of his guys. And he got him for five. He's probably thrilled with that. Oof, the law dog. A little high for me, but look, Jackson Holiday, obviously a lot of talent and nearly on it. All right, Scott, you are lagging just a little bit. Lawrence Butler is out there for $18. dollars. So the same price as James Wood, the hype grows for Lawrence Butler, who is having a

pretty good spring and obviously had a pretty awesome second half. If you ask Chris, I'll say it was only like two months, but it still counts as the second half. You ask Chris, it's an objective reading of what happened. I don't like, I know, I know, I know. Jeez. It's just, you know, It's depending on the analyst. Chris usually isn't the one slicing bigger samples into smaller samples. Well, sure.

Let's take the whole season. Let's not do the second half thing. Oh, whole season was pretty good. It was fine. It was pretty good. Probably not an $18 player though. No.

Whole season was $18. If you give him a full allotment of games and that 262. Oh, if he wasn't sent back to AAA, you mean. Yeah, but if he bats 262, with a, what is it end up being an 8-07 OPS. That's what his full season numbers were.

And about a, what, a 30-homer, 25 steel pace? Like, that guy's not getting sent to the miners. Come on. That could be a really good price on Salvador Perez. He went for $11. I bid 10. I probably should have gone 12.

Catchers have been a little bit unpredictable so far. Wilson went for 17. Salvador Perez usually. goes in a similar part of the draft as him and he just went for 11. I think I probably should have went $12. That's a good buy on Salvador Perez. In a two-catchel league. Oh, come on.

Did you just get angry over Gabriel Moreno? I wanted Gabriel Moreno for $2 and I was willing to go three or four. And that's only because I wanted to share a stat about him that I saw today, that he has already hit more batted balls over 108 miles per hour than he did the entirety of last season. And I think the average launch angle for them has been like 13 degrees. So like he's always hit the ball. Always had the skill.

It's just been a lot of ground balls. And I was interested in that after I saw. But he's not a $5 player. Come on. I found. And maybe this is just unique to the people I draft with. I do auction specifically with. I found that apart from the truly elite catchers,

the position pretty much ends up being undervalued. Now, that already is not the case in this draft because we saw like a Von Herrera go for five and the fact Connor Wong went for two and Tyler Stevenson for six seemed kind of high. But I think that's more because they were nominated so early. We've had so many catchers nominated early when also people tend to spend a lot.

Normally, it seems like catchers get short shrift. If dollars are going to be shaved off anything, it's going to be shaved off of them. All right, so we've got some jokesters in this draft. Earlier, Wilson, Contreras, went off the board, or William. One of the contraris went off the board.

Then the very next, one of the next nominations was the other contraris. Then we get Edwin Diaz for 16. The very next nomination, Alexis, So the brothers Diaz and they went to the same team beat on there. I should probably stop talking because I have to nominate a player I keep nominating elite pitchers and I think I'm just gonna keep doing that for now because I have Corbin Burns and I don't want to bid on another one. So yeah Chris Sale for dollar. Do it see how high it gets.

Should be at least 20. Yeah, should be close to 20. Are you saying that because you don't want sale and you hope he gets at least $20. I think everyone in the draft should bid 20 at least. If he goes for less than 20, he's going to me. Oh, Homer Scott says not today. Let's do it. I'm in at 19. Okay, he's up to 20 now.

All right. It's where he should be. Exactly what we keep going. Exactly what we have him for on the site. It's a dollar less than Garrett Crochet, $3 less than Logan Gilbert, I believe. Yep. Chris Sale, who is your

reigning National League Sy Young Award winner. Can he stay healthy for another season? We'll find out. But he was amazing last year. And Dylan Seas. So keeping the pitching rolling here for one more. Dylan Seas, by the way, does not sound like he'll be traded

before the season. So bad news for my Yankees. Dylan Seas will not be part of their team. And he is also up to 20, same price as Chris Sale. but fine who would you guys rather have in a vacuum cease or a sale sale

sale I think we all I like how you said in a vacuum cease I thought you were about to say vacuum seal yeah

no vacuum sale Scott that's what we're going for there but yes same price back to back $20 for both Chris Sale and Dylan cease all right all the pitcher is going Frambervaldez is the next name up and

He is entering a contract year with the Astros. Ooh, that price climbed quickly. That's fine. 16's fine. 16 is pretty good. Do you wonder who else I should get in on at some point. Let's figure this out. Oh, Bobo.

This is the one draft where he's not going to be a discount. I mean, will he? Uh-oh. All right. I'm not going to let you get him for 10. Chris, you can't let Scott get him. Come on. Or will you?

Yeah, that's fine. Oh! There you go. $12 bid to J.R. Fenton. And Scott, will you let it slide? That's still a decent price. It is, it is, but I have two short stops already. I could start him at DH, but...

I was a little surprised that you bid on him. Yeah, I think there will be... It's a discount from where I have them. I just think there will be... Yeah. even bigger discounts and lower dollar discounts. I can only afford like three more double digit dollar players. I didn't necessarily want one to be Boba Chet.

When I already have two shortstops. I am checking in on shortstop here and yeah, all the elite ones are gone. I did not notice that. You should have been. I do. Yeah, I probably should have. I don't have a shortstop. So, all right.

We'll have to figure that one out. Well, you know, we can find out how much influence we have on the audience we're drafting with because William Adams is still out there and I think he's a clean, sweet bus pick for all of us. So maybe we can drive that price down. It is. I think that between our sleepers,

breakouts and busts columns 1.0 and 2.0 presuming we're just kind of lumping sleepers and breakouts together, I see more crossover between the three of us than ever before. A lot of the guys that I added to my 2.0, I go look at your 1.0 and it was already there.

And it's like, okay. Well, clearly I'm adding a lot to this conversation. I have a theory. Uh-oh. Looks like the draft. Did we get locked out? I try to type in three. I think we got locked out.

Yeah. I have a theory. So this is the first time that we have all podcasted together this much. The entire off season. The entire off season. Yeah. You know, I used to, I noticed when Heath made the transition to football,

they, like, full time, they started to all agree. a little more as well. There's a little bit of a hive mind that happens. And frankly, it's unacceptable. And we need to be less agreeable with one another. I think we can all agree on that. You stink, Chris. Well, you know what?

I showered today. There you go. Guess what? I need a shortstop. And I'm bidding on Willie Adamas. Who doesn't need a shortstop? You need them too, Chris? I need a shortstop.

I don't really want Willie Adama. Domus, you got. Oh, come on. Yeah. I don't want him. That's the thing is like, I don't, I have Willie Adamas as a bust. I don't love him, but like $11.

$11. That's good. That feels like, like, will you adamas for less than Boba Shett? Yeah, that's great. Even though I have Boba Shed as a sleeper and William Adamas is a bust. I'll take that.

Yeah. So if I hit 12, do you go 13 there, Chris? Probably not. Oh, so I could have got him. And Mason Winn has already gone, by the way, Frank. So you can't.

And he was. like 10 I think right somebody we universally consider a breakout you can't get him a few others that i'm looking at okay that wasn't too bad for p. Carr Armstrong seven dollars and i had him at 10 yeah i've got him at eight that one may maybe we maybe we flipped are you guys nervous at all because peak armstrong has looked awesome this ring no okay no just spring doesn't make me nervous He had a home run off of Logan Gilbert the other day. I think Logan Gilbert was generally pretty terrible in that start. You know?

Yeah, I mean, you know, pitchers trying stuff, all that. I'm not worried about it. Okay. Here's our test case on test case on Austin Riley. Does he go for more than Devers and Machado? He's $2 more. And he is the clear best hitter available. Yes.

Yeah. I feel like the bidding should be a little more aggressive. So Garrett Atkins, who has a lot of money left, ends up winning him. And it'll be interesting to see how Atkins team comes together because... He's got the hammer. Yeah, he's got the hammer, exactly. During a point in the draft where there should be a lot of discounted players. And in a shallower league, that can be overrated.

You really need as much impact as you can get everywhere you can get it. But this is kind of medium depth. I want to consider this a shallow league. And so the caliber of players he's going to be buying here, given all the spots we have to fill, it could turn out pretty well if he plays his cards right. Nico Horner is up and yesterday we got a news item that he is playing in minor league games next week when the Cubs are in Tokyo with the hope of still being ready for their domestic opener, which would be March 27.

So that feels like positive news, right? Nico Horner? Yeah, I think so. I mean, that sounds like it's been to hope for a while, but it seems like things are coming together for him to miss two games. And I'm still worried that he'll get off to a slow start. This is a fairly quick recovery from a flexor tendon surgery relative to other players who have had it.

But if he's ready to go, I think he makes for a nice. discount right now, although not in this draft where you want for $8. All right. Although that could be a discount. Ryan Helsley for 13. The same price as Ryan Walker. So comparatively speaking, I think we all rank Helsley ahead of Ryan Walker, right? Yeah.

That's pretty good. Rice-Leglacy is next up, so we got some closers going off the board. It's all a matter of timing there, Helsley versus Walker. if Hellsley got nominated first, I bet he would have gone for 16, you know? But 13 seems like the price for that second tier of closers, because that's where Reiselagelius went as well. I thought about hitting 14 there on him. I did two.

Yeah. You snooze, you lose. I don't have a closer yet. I don't... I'm cool as a cucumber over here. I don't think any of us have a closer yet. Mike Trout is up. It's got you.

drafted him in Toward Wars? Will you make it two for two tonight? I haven't been in labor as well. I'd rather not. I'd rather not. You know, Tao Wars was a specific situation because we were getting

deep into it and it was an OPP League A and I didn't have a single outfielder yet. So it's just like well, I got to cross my fingers on drought just given the state of the draft, the the format of the league. But in this, a standard roto league where I already have an outfielder and there are,

we're not going to go as deep into the outfield pool because it's 12 team or instead of 15 teamer. I'll let Trout go to someone else. And at $13, I don't think that's enough of a discount for me to seriously kick myself over it. Yeah, that's exactly what we have before on the site. And what do you know? I am up here. Uh-oh. And let's see.

Let's start another closer. Mason Miller. I'm going to guess he goes for more than 13. See? Someone I know you like Chris, will you be part of the bidding? There you go. Past 13. Already passed it.

Mm-hmm. Get in there, Chris. Get in there, Chris. Yeah, there you go. Don't let Scott talk you into this, man. Scott had nothing to do with that. Yes, he did. Yes, he did.

Do not underestimate my influence. You have zero influence. The cucumber got you. I am an influencer. I hate cucumbers. Scott, didn't we have this conversation last year that you should make your fantasy, your ex-bio fantasy baseball influencer?

Sure. That would make sense. What is an influencer exactly? We go online and make videos. It has many. It has many definitions. We're influencers, right? Yeah.

Maybe not always in the best ways possible. But I think so. We are influential. Negative influence. Is that what you're saying? Not always. Are you thinking of a specific kind of influencer? No, no.

Okay. I don't know what you're giggling about something. Nothing. I've got nothing. Maybe if you've had a beard, you'd be a different kind of influencer, Scott, but not today. After Bytrout, Mason Miller went for 15 to Chris

and Blake's knelt to $18 to J. are Fenton. Chris, you got your guy. I know your big Mason Miller guy. I feel like we're doing a bit here, but I do like Mason Miller. I am being genuine. I know you're like that.

He's great. I don't have a closer. 15. He went for less than the, I consider him to be part of the first tier of closers. And he went for less than those guys. So I think that's fine. And I'm trying to figure out,

yeah, we'll throw this guy out there for that. amount and we'll see what happens he will probably go for more than this hey yiner Diaz for eight yep one Chris throughout he will he will go for more he's up to 11 now and he should we should I have him as a 16 dollar player but we're getting some underbids now just because and catchers have been cheap people have to save money somehow and yeah oh o all right no discount on yiner ds hey we see it the NFBC ADP, right? He is the second catcher off the board

behind William Contreras. Now, Adley Rutchman did go for 17. Okay. So, relatively speaking, you could argue there is a discount there. He, I am in a NFBC slow draft and 15 team Roto. Adley Ruchman went in the second round ahead of William Contreras. I was, I was stunned. That's too much. Yeah. It was his mom. Oh,

might be. Oh. Yamamoto. Oh, thank you. You got saved, Chris. I got plus one. Somebody jumped up like five bucks. All right.

So you had a $15 bid on Yamamoto and then he goes up to 16 with the next bid. To be clear, 15 would be fine. It's just not a $15 I would like to allocate at this point. We kind of, this was a couple bids ago. Spencer Arrogetti for nine. I know we like him in a general sense But that seems Particularly at a point in the draft

When we're seeing some underbids now Yeah Yeah, it's a little rich for me That's why I did not get in either Oof I'm a little worried So Glassnow has talked about how he He's changing his mechanics

Same thing we heard from Grace and Rodriguez Right Chris? Yeah, and it Like I get it Okay, that makes sense I guess But Yeah Elbow injury, changing the mechanics to try to avoid elbow injuries.

Maybe it'll work out, but no guarantee he'll be as effective with slightly different mechanics. And I don't know, anytime you start to talk about pitchers changing their mechanics, especially because of injury, that's one that it feels like you're messing with the kinetic chain there. That's the term we like to use. Glass now in Yamamoto, $16 each on back-to-back bids there. Yeah, the price itself was fine. Scott, you threw out Yelich. Is that with the hope of winning him?

Hmm? I don't know. Probably not. I believe he homered on back-to-back days? Yeah, he's not going to a discount. Yeah, he's up to 13. I think that's the same price as Mike Trout did, right? Yeah.

Which, I thought he might. I did nominate him with the hope of winning him. We are seeing some underbid. at this point and I thought maybe with his health status coming back from back surgery all the uncertainty that people would be extra cautious bidding

on him but it turned out not to be the case all right well yes Yelich went for 13 and next up we have Teosker Hernandez it's up to 11 I don't know should I go

15 nah you got him just got unless someone else Awesome. And so. No. Oh, no. The fake out. The sniper. I almost got him for 14, but somebody jumped in at 15. I will not be going 16. Good, good price though on Teosker. $15. Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah. If I could have gotten them for 14, I would have definitely been glad I didn't go 14 on Yellage because Tay Oscar, I think we all rank higher than Yellich. But 15 is not bad either. I list a midi. team. Next up is Zach Gallen, who is looking for a bounce back season dealt with the hamstring last year.

The whip was elevated. Weird control year for Zach Allen. Just a weird year in general. He had that stretch where he couldn't throw strikes. He had that stretch where his fastball velocity was way down, but it was like a hamstring injury. I don't think he had any arm issues.

$10, he's been undervalued, I think increasingly so. so yeah that that seems fine comparatively speaking one dollar more than spencer arogatee feels pretty good for yeah for zack allen so as much as we like arragetti but and another guy who has been kind of habitually undervalued is louis castillo so i'm interested to see what happens here louis castillo i wrote up in bust 2.0 velocity was down last year fastball effectiveness was down swinging are you the high bidder right now frank uh no no okay just Just making sure.

No, I was just giving the case of, I mean, I knew I was not going to bid, but. I've moved him way down recently, too. I might. Veloc is down again in spring, by the way. I might find an opportunity. Probably my spring training winners and losers. I'll be able to shoehorn Castillo in there and talk about how, yeah, the Velo being down even more of this spring when it was already down last season. He performed well enough that I kind of was just like, okay, it's not that big of a deal that he lost.

was it like a mile per hour and a half off his fastball? But with the way it's dropped again this spring, I would say, and he more concerned. He's really reliant on his four seamer four whiffs. Probably the biggest drop in his whiff rate last year came from his four seamer going from arguably the best in baseball among starters to just good. and, you know, his arm slot has dropped since his time in Seattle or Cincinnati.

He's a different type of pitcher. The change-up hasn't been as effective. I do wonder if there's a world in which he could, like, just go back to spamming the change-up a little more and get some of that back. But, you know, the shape isn't the same. I'm not 100% sure on that one. Yeah. Can we also talk about how the Mariners have another Luis Castile that's a pitcher?

And so now when you look at the box score, it says Luis, middle initial Castillo and it's just kind of annoying that's probably only in the spring I would guess I hope that's the case I know the other Luis Castillo was already sent back to the minors okay we can we can stop that yeah so Luis Castillo

ended up going for 11 and right after him Spencer Strider went for 12 strider for more than Castillo which we haven't seen in a lot of drafts but I'm there now in my rankings I've dropped Castillo behind strider among others yeah strider went for 12 and

Brendan Donovan went for $2 in this draft. Bellinger is one. That's who you nominated, Frank, and his price has been rising. He went for 28 in ALAB. I nominated him with the hope of trying to get him, and he's all the way up to $16. He's more than Tiaska Hernandez. So now I kind of wish I bid another dollar on Tiaska Hernandez.

He won for more than Anthony Santander and Tiaska Hernandez. I am not getting Bellinger. I wonder how much of that is Oh, he's hitting well this spring I mean obviously the majority is he's a Yankee Stadium now But I feel like it's been recent Yeah, no, he's been climbing rocketed up the rankings Yeah, it just feels like it makes so much sense right

Like his swing in Yankee Stadium and I totally understand the hype I mean that's that's why I want him I want at least one share by the end of spring We'll see if I can actually get it done With Cody Bellinger Spencer Schwellenbach is

out there and it's all up to $14. Trendy name. He's So you're getting him for 14, Frank. What do you project him for price-wise? I probably not that much,

but I did really want him. You're getting your guys. I have him as a $13 player, so I overpaid by $1. Thanks for bidding him up, Chris. Yeah, this is one that I have not moved up as much yet. Gavin Williams, he's probably too low in my rankings relative to where he's going, but I don't know, I'm still a little iffy on him.

I think he's the biggest riser this spring. The number of whiffs he's getting on his fastball alone is absurd. I really wanted to go. I really wanted to get him. He went for eight. I almost went nine, almost, almost, almost went nine. I have a feeling, I have a feeling high-ranked pitchers are going to go for a similar price there, eight. So I just, I backed down.

All right. Shota Imanaga is up, and Scott has him for $12. Up to $13. I swear, I'm not in on the bidding. I'm just going to bring this up because it's the most recent thing on Shoda Ibnaga. but yesterday his velocity was way down in spring training. He gave up four runs. He gave up two home runs.

So hopefully it's nothing and he'll be all right. But it was one thing I will say about him inaga, since most drafts are going to happen after he makes his debut in a week, I believe, a week from today. Yeah. You should probably expect him to not be very good in that start. I don't think any of the starters in the gym, the Korea series last year did well.

I'm expecting things to not look so great for those guys this time around as well in Tokyo. And it could be a little bit of a discount for Shota Imanaga after that. People will be likely to overreact to that. All right. Let's take our final break when we return a few more thoughts on Imanaga. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. We are doing a live 12-team Roto auction,

and it's not a mock draft. This one, we're playing out. We left off with E-Managa for 14 to Scott Christian Walker for 11. I think that's pretty interesting. But show to E-Managa for, you know what? I hate you, Scott. I probably would have bid there, but I was doing our intro back from the break,

so I didn't get paid. Swarber for 13 after Rooker and Marcelo Zoon, I think both went for 17. Somebody's saying they hit 14. Yep, I hit 14 too. I hit 14 too. I swear I did. Everyone saw me on the screen, try to do it.

It's not fun to be on the winning end of one of those players, but Schwerver goes back up. I don't get him for 13. Okay. I assume he's going to go for a lot more now, but it could be wrong. We'll see. We'll see. Okay. Well, if this guy's going to, I'm going to bid 13 again.

Yeah, let's at least do that. Oh, you know what? his spot may be filled. I'll bid 14 now. I wanted to do it before. Yeah, he doesn't have room for, yeah. Well, that's, that's crap. I should have gotten him then.

Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, that's reasonable. Yeah, he doesn't have room for him in his lineup. So you're going to let me get him for 13? No. You're saying that was fair. You're saying that he wasn't, the guy who said he couldn't, he got locked out of the beach.

bidding couldn't actually win him because his utility spot was filled. So we shouldn't have redone it. I understand. You just don't care because you want to win him. No, if you if, no, I mean, what you're saying makes sense. So if you want to go back and give him two for 13, we could do that. We'll let Chris be the arbiter. Don't do that because I think it would be funny to leave him for 16.

But no, Scott is right. I didn't want to bid on him. I was doing the intro back from the break. So I that's also a fair point. I did legitimately want a bit on him. And that would cause Scott to not be cool as a cucumber. Okay. I'll be cool.

I'll be cool. You know what? You can screw with Scott and you always. I always lose to the arbiter, but that's fine. I hope that's fine. We got to redo it again, though, because I backed it out when Chris initially decided 13th. Is that the, wait, no. Now it's all falling apart.

Scott is tilting. for the wrong reasons now because Yeah, because people aren't paying attention. I'm sorry, I miss everything up. No, it wasn't you. It was Chris M. Chris, I can't bid on him.

Yeah, because you don't have a spot for him. Oh, the cucumber's heating up. Uh-oh, he's heating up. All right. It's actually pretty hot. I'm going to nominate Schwerver. Okay. I got better do it quickly before this guy

nominate somebody else. Okay. Frank, go 16 on him. I don't know if I want him anymore. Okay. I don't think of what I'm just kidding. So I've got Kyle Schwerver for 16.

Thank you, Scott, for being a gracious commissioner. Well, I was gracious, gracious to Chris M. I don't think you deserve to have an extra chance to bid, but. Well,

you know what? We left it up to towers. Now that's a spicy pickle. Well, he was, yeah. I feel like we have at least one of these, every auction draft that we do, where. Right.

And I think you guys just to like to laugh in my reaction. So you all, I'm just, you know what? I'm just going to be ruthless commissioner from now on. No, I legitimately did want a bid, and I was coming back from break and I didn't get to bid in time.

Right. But that's not usually an excuse to redo the bid. I wasn't paying attention. Okay. Yeah, next year you will host this auction, sky. And we'll see who wins the championship then, huh? How about that? Yeah, we could do that.

I did want to make that point earlier. I'm pretty sure the only reason I never do good in this league is because I'm also hosting while drafting. That's also why I do poorly. Yeah, it's just an excuse. But Aaron Nola's up there for $13 to Scotty Dobs. And sold. See?

There you go, Scott. have Aaron Nolan than Kyle Schwerber? Way better Philly for 13 bucks. No, I would have rather had Schwerber. Ah. But you do need pitching more at this point. We could agree on that. Maybe.

I don't know. This stream is going to end and Scott's going to like freak out on us. Gosh. It's good to laugh. Junior Kamenero. Camerero. He is up to $10. which doesn't seem so bad

based on the hype around him. Now up to 12. Last I saw he was dealing with a back injury. Does anyone have the latest? I'm not bidding on him. I bring up the news on every player. I think he was back in the lineup. Okay.

I'm not doing that on purpose. I'm trying to inform the masses, I swear. He left last Thursday, I think, with a back injury. Let me make sure. He was back in the lineup Sunday. Okay. There you go. Caminero went for $12, by the way.

Aranola for 13. Christian Walker is when we kind of breeze pass. He went for 11. Still dealing with that oblique injury. He's not swinging a bat yet. What do you guys think about Walker for 11? Is that enough of a discount with what we know right now? Yeah, at this point in the draft, you would expect him to go for.

I have him as a $15 player. You'd expect him to go for a couple bucks less than that. So I don't know if there's much of an injury discount there, but by all accounts, the oblique is not serious. It's not a strain, much less serious than the one that cost him a bunch of time last year, still has a chance to be ready for opening day. And I think the tell there is what we talked about. I think we mentioned earlier that Cam Smith is going to start playing corner outfield in spring games.

Top prospect, he's a third baseman, but there won't be any room for him unless he can play the corner outfield. They're going to try that out. in a couple of days, it sounds like. All right, yes, Cam Smith, having a very good spring so far. He was the headliner in the Kyle Tucker trade, the headline return. They also got Esock Paredes in that trade. And first round pick last year by the Cubs, and so far he has looked the part in spring training.

It's a very small sample. He has not played a game above AA yet. But, you know, we were talking before the podcast the other day, Chris. and my kind of boomer scoutie take is just watching him. He just looks like a ball player. He just, the swing looks legit. He's got the body. I just, I saw him hit a home run or something and I was like, yeah, he looks like a major league player.

He just, he looks ready to go. But we'll see. Stephen Kwan for $9 to Chris. Yeah, that's fine. It's enough of a discount at this point in the draft. I was in on Kwan because I've got. I've got Semy and Carol and Schwarber, so my batting average could be a little shaky.

So I was thinking about getting Kwan. I was in when he was around $7 or $8, but then I kind of backed out, but it could be a goodbye. Jake Berger. I'm probably too low on Jake Burger. I need to move him up. In addition to breakouts,

2.0, Scott? Sleepers 2.0? Sleepers, actually, but he's almost a top 100 pick now. Right. He keeps moving up. it's harder to justify calling him that. I think everybody's awake on Jake Berger.

All right. Edwin Useta for $2 that went a couple of picks ago. I did not mention that one who's looked good this spring. Someone else who's looked good for the raise is Mason Montgomery. And I've seen some smart people typing up Mason Montgomery as they were leaving her this season, a former top-ish prospect from the left-hand side. and some people who think that he could be in the mix for saves. It's, you know, nobody knows for sure. It's probably just Pete Fairbanks to start the year,

but they've got other really good names with Usata and Mason Montgomery in the mix as well. All right. Let me throw... Disappointed that Toglio went for five. You wanted to get him for cheaper, Chris? Were you bidding? I wanted to get him for four. That's my price on him.

And a little bummed. usually I like him more than everyone else not this time I guess Logan Webb is out and about there was some quick bidding on him there for a second but it may be may have cooled off here at okay here at 12 Frank

yeah I see I have him as a $14 player on the site and I am intrigued by him throwing this cutter yeah he's got a cutter yeah throwing this cutter late in the season last year. He used it the other day in the spring quite a bit. He threw 20% of the time.

He's not throwing his change up as much though. He's not. I wonder if he's trying to get a feel for the other pitches early on in camp, but it's a fair point. I think we want to see the change up bounce back the season because it was bad for him last year and that's supposed to be his best pitch. So it's

something we do want to see improve for Logan Webb. So I got him for how much? Twelve bucks? Yes. Okay. Yeah, and that, you know, that's something to keep in mind when you see a pitcher's usage in spring changing. And I want to highlight Clay Holmes when I talk about this because there was an interview with him where he was talking about his first couple of starts. He wants to focus on, he'll focus on the change up in one start, then the cutter in the next start, then the four seamer in the next start.

and what he said was he's kind of going to figure out which one works best and whittle down from there. So he might not have this full six pitch mix, Clay Holmes, when the regular season starts. He's trying to figure out what works best and move from there. It all seems to be working so far. I mean, yeah, that's the early returns are very, very good. Josh Naylor is the latest player up.

Riley Green went for 11. Let's see what we have him for on the side. site, 13, so. Yeah. Not really a discount on him or Josh Naler here at 10 so far. But there are discounts. They're just modest discounts. We're all kind of.

They're discounts from face value, but not once you start accounting for the deflation that should have happened by now. I do have Greg Lathrop texting me on the side here. He wrote, my Logan Webb for $11 with the angry cursing face emoji. I guess he really wanted it. So I'm sorry, Greg. I didn't mean it. Josh Naylor, up to 13.

And that's what he goes for. How do you guys feel about Josh Nailer? I am down on him a little bit this year. You know, he's been a little bit injury prone in the past. And, you know, I don't love the park shift, but look, he's batting cleanup for the team that just led baseball and run scored. So, I mean, he could make me look stupid. I'm not sure.

This is probably a dumb thing to say. But I'm not sure that I totally buy the park factor number for Arizona, home runs for left-handed hitters, which is the worst in baseball, supposedly. But then you actually look at their left-handed hitters and look at their home runs by ballpark, and it's like, it doesn't seem to match up. Yeah. So one thing that could be going on there is the humidor effect, because that is a.

slightly elevated. I think they're like 1,400 feet or something in Phoenix. And very dry atmosphere that the humidor should have, well, it did, that used to be one of the best hitter parks in baseball. And now it's kind of middling. So it could just be that like balls hit, you know, 108 miles an hour at a 27 degree launch angle, our home runs. Those are probably home runs everywhere, actually.

but you know what, that a ball that has the characteristics of a home run in other parks wouldn't travel as far because of environmental effects, that could be what's happening in Arizona. I'm not sure. That's just my theory. Right. You just see it with like their hitters that theoretically should suffer in that ballpark

if the park effects are right don't really seem to. And Josh Naylor's home runs, her expected home run staff for Arizona is, not an issue either. So I don't think it's going to be a problem. He has the sort of profile where he can trade off

some power for batting average as we've seen just the last two years. I think he's going to be, I don't know, like his numbers could take on a few different forms. Yeah. But I think,

I think he's going to live up to his ADP or price tag. And it's like what we talked about with Jake Berger the other day, where, you know, burger skill set because he's not going to put the ball in play. He doesn't get a lot of like the productive outs. You're not going to get a lot of like you'll get a relatively lower number of RBI than

you would think relative to his overall production. Naylor has been the opposite in his career where he drives in way more runs than you would expect just from looking at what his OPS looks like at the end of the season. You know, he was he was on like 120 RBI pace in 2023. 100 plus in 22 as well without the injuries. So he's a very good bet for 100 RBI, I think, at least. Guys, I think we may have hit the savings portion of the auction. Four players in a row.

Felix Batista for nine. Shane O. Mac. Here comes the money. Here we go. Money talk. Here comes the money. Shane McLean. Also for nine.

Hunter Brown for nine and Royce Lewis for eight. So all four. of those are under values, at least according to our site values, and all seem like pretty decent buys at cost. You know what position still has a lot of good names left? Third base. And I made a point to look because I did a 14 team league the other day and I waited way too long at third base and it was horrible. So I wanted to make sure we hadn't gotten to that point, but there's still some really good. There's going to be some really good values at third base because You got Westberg, Bragman, Vientos, Suarez.

Let's see, but I suspect that's why Royce Lewis went for 8. Matt Chapman went for 9 is everyone's like, well, I can still get Bregman. I can still get Vientos. It might be. It might be Chapman for nine bucks, by the way, too. So five single-digit players in a row, all slightly undervalued by like $2 to $3 based on what we have them for on the site. David Peterson snuck on by for $1. Yeah. A player we have not talked about at all this offseason.

Yeah, I tend to just think he's a guy. Okay. All right, let's see what happens with Bregman here. He just got nominated. All right, well, we've got the test case, eight, nine bucks. How much more than that? We'd like to see that price go higher. Alex Begman.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Do we all need a third basement? Is that what's happening? I do need a third basement, yes. Uh, Breggman up to 11, 12. Scott, do you need a third baseman? No.

Okay. And you know what's going to happen? Sold. Is now Westberg and Vientos are going to go for less than 12 and I'm going to look dumb. No. Or they're going to go for way more because they're the last two. I think Bregman was clearly the best one left. Though I, you know, some people might say Viantos.

I like Bregman more than Viantos. I have Viantos as a bus this year. I think, well, yeah, Westberg had of both of them, don't you? Yeah. though probably he'll be drafted as a second basement so I wasn't really counting him but he's in there too sure I kind of won't go 13 on Bregman but I just need I have every infield spot filled but corner infield

so I need to put more of my focus on the outfield I think not much of a discount on Luis Robert here a little bit we have him collectively as a $15 player on the site he goes for 12 a tough player to evaluate this offseason. Luis Robert, man. It's just, I think if he's healthy, I think he'll be good. Granted, counting stats might not be great,

but there's no denying he has power and speed. It was 38 homers, 20 steals two years ago, and the speed actually went up last year. But can he stay on the field? I think he's going to be motivated so that he can get traded away from the whiteside. Well, that's, yeah, can we get like a major league situation where like the GM of the white side?

sucks tells him if you've got an 850 OPS and have only missed like 20 games by July 1st we're definitely going to trade needle contender and then bam oh gosh yeah there you go no no discounts on westberg but he is a second baseman so you know I guess that yeah I know I we have him as a $15 player right yeah I mean I got caught I got caught with the bag there I knew it was going to happen to like based on all those other third baseman going I I wanted one of Bregman or Westberg. And maybe I should have went in on Bregman. I spent $15 on Westberg,

but comparatively to $9 for Chapman, $8 for Royce Lewis. It is a little bit of an overpay comparatively, but he is a player we all like quite a bit. So I'm not mad about it. It's just disappointing. You Tilton? No, not.

Chris, if I went 13 on, my bad, I didn't mean to auto bid, but if I went 13 on Bregman, would you have gone 14? I don't think so. I was pretty iffy on the $12 bid. So. Breggman, by the way,

which we've talked about a lot this offseason. Bellinger, his swing for Yankee Stadium, Bregman and Fenway is just, it should be awesome, right? Even if they're not home runs, it should be lots of fly balls off the wall and the green monster

and in left field. That should lead to an increase in batting average. I'm thinking something like a 275, 280 plus with like 20 to 25 home runs for Bregman this year. Yeah, I would say like 18 to 20 homers, 275, really good counting stats. He's a, it's the second best park for his swing. I think it is a downgrade from Houston overall, but still should be pretty good. All right, Scott. In the meantime, you snuck on by with Brian Reynolds for 11.

That feels like a pretty good buy like that. I mean, a boring player, but, you know. Sesea Suzuki's who I have one spot ahead of Reynolds. He's up now and he's up to 12. So I think I made, I think I made the right call there. And I think, so I was debating going 13 on Bregman and getting Beds for 11. I passed on Breg because I thought I needed to devote those dollars to the outfield. And I got Reynolds for what would have been $2 less.

I think that was probably the right move. their projected numbers should be pretty similar. I do think Bregman has more upside at Fenway Park, but I needed the outfield or more. All right. Well, Suzuki did wind up going 4.13. I was in on the bidding at 12. I like Suzuki a lot.

I talk about him every year. I think he's a sneaky five category contributor. Not amazing at anything, but good batting average, you know, 25, 12, 25, 15, something like that. And I think the comes right. There's room for another step. I think the Cubs lineup could be really good too. Yeah, I think the next step, Chris, is if he could stay healthy for a full season.

Yeah. Because we've had the oblique injury two years in a row for Suzuki. So if he stays healthy, theoretically, the counting stat should go up for Suzuki. All right. Well, we are nearing the end of the audio podcast here. As I mentioned, we're going to sign off there. We're going to keep things rolling here on YouTube. I think we're going to take a break so we can have a little bit of a breather and then we'll pick things back up.

But we are going to wrap there. For Scott and Chris, I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. Again, make sure to check in on YouTube if you want to see the rest of the draft results. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Mount Podcasts.