Fantasy Baseball Today - Live 16-Team H2H Categories Draft Part 1! Rounds 1-7 Picks & Strategy (4/6 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 6, 2022

We've made it to our final draft! What kind of categories does this 16-team league use (2:25)? ... Let's start with rounds one and two where Rafael Devers went seventh overall (4:45)! Scott went with two aces. ... Chris took Justin Verlander in the third round (21:00)! When did the first reliever get drafted in a saves plus holds league? ... Will Smith and Yasmani Grandal see a big boost in OBP leagues (38:40). Is Mondesi worth a sixth-round pick? ... Julio Rodriguez and Seiya Suzuki both go in the seventh round (54:49). 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 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

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. At last, we have made it to our final draft of the offseason, and this is a fun one. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today. Frank Stanfel joined by Scott White and Chris Towers.

Today we have our 16 team head-to-head category draft, also known as the For the People League, made famous by one Heath Cummings. Scott, what's the backstory of this league? Because I know you love it. I don't know exactly what Heath's rationale was. I've always interpreted it as just another way of trolling me because that's something he enjoyed doing.

So he made it 16 teams. He made it OBP instead of batting average. Quality starts instead of wins. Let's see what else. Stolen bases minus caught stealings instead of just stolen bases. And we figured for the first time this year, since it's clearly not a traditional scoring league, it's already plenty weird enough. We're going to turn saves and says saves plus holds so that we actually know what we're talking about when people ask questions about it. I thought that was a good idea. So I'm embracing the weirdness. Now, I did happen to win this league last year.

which was the only it wasn't the only league I won I did win and then all the only league too but yeah no that it was nice to get over that hump that that you know but kind of the only league you like weigh me down with you

you hate this league yeah and so it's it's indicative of the season that you had that the league that you just like always said you hate and don't know how to play in I'm pretty sure Scott had a weird draft too like You selected Walker Bueller, someone you hated last year. Yep.

And you won as a result of it. So, yeah, this was like... I went against every instinct. It was like that Seinfeld episode where, you know, where that's what George does. Yeah, the Bizarro League for Scott. Let's set up the draft here before we actually get started again. 16 team weekly head-to-head categories league with some interesting categories on the hitting side. OBP, home runs, RBI, run scored, net stolen bases that steals minus caught stealing.

And then on the pitching side, quality starts, ERA, whip, strikeouts, and saves plus holds. There is no weekly innings minimum. This will be a 22 round draft where you start one of each infield position, three outfielders, one utility bat, and then seven pitchers, which you can divvy up however you see fit. You go seven starters. You can go seven relievers, if you like. The participants in tonight's draft. Jason Gallup, Adam Nejemi, Tanner Frost, Doug Rowe, Colin Faint, Brendan Sargent,

Matthew Burnett, Jocelyn Corkham, Andrew Skilicki, Neil Kaplan, Josh Weddle, Ashley Harper, and last but not least is Evan Boudreau, who won our FBT March Madness Bracket. Congratulations on taking it down. Each of us are pretty sped out throughout the draft. Chris is picking fifth overall, I am 11th, and poor Scott is all the way down at 16.

Before we officially kick off the draft, we do have a message from one of our drafters. tonight. Take it away, Neil. Hi there, this is Neil Kaplan. You might know me as the voice of Optimus Prime from Transformers, robots in disguise, all way back in 2001 on Fox Kids. Well, right now, I'm participating in the fantasy baseball draft for the people. So if you'll excuse me, I've got to roll out. Awesome. Very happy to have Neil Kaplan here with us in the league. Please go check out his IMDB page. The guy has done

wonderful things. Awesome work. A lot of anime, video games, cartoons, all different... He's a character on Attack on Titan, right? Yes. He was in Star Wars Visions? Yes. That is so dope. Yes. And now he's in the podcast

for the people leave. Wow. Let's go. Yeah. So this is awesome. You know, I probably should have done this beforehand, but we'll do it here live. On the fly. I've got to get the draft room up. Probably should than that again, and here we go. All right, so we are getting ready to start it up,

and I hope everyone is still with us here, and let's go. We have officially started again, 16 teams, OBP, head-to-head categories. It's going to be a fun one. It's going to be a weird one, but I'm interested more than anything else to see where relievers go throughout this draft. A lot of people ask us questions about saves plus holds leagues,

and here we are. That's exactly what we're doing today. First overall, no surprise, Juan Soto, who just is completely ridiculous in any format that awards walks, OBP, ridiculous walk rate last year. I think it was over a 20% walk rate in the second half last season for Juan Soto. And I think that he is worthy of being the first overall pick in any type of OBP format. Second overall, Trey Turner. Now, Chris, what do you think about Trey Turner in this format?

He doesn't walk as much. He's still going to provide a bunch of other categories. even though he doesn't walk because his batting average is so high, in turn, his OBP will still be very high. But yeah, I mean, you know, I think he's still very good, but what do you think about him in OBP? So I'm wondering like the stolen bases minus cot stealing, whether that should matter.

My thought is that it's just the same as stolen bases and you should just value it the same. Yeah, I don't think he's the number two player in this format, but I don't have any problem with him, you know, going number two overall in an OBP, league. Like, if he plays the way he's supposed to, he's probably still going to be like a 380, 390 O BP guy, so it doesn't really matter. All right. We have hit a snag here, third overall pick. And I don't know if this,

I believe gentlemen actually, Ashley Harper is here in the draft. But let's see. I resumed the clock. I started over again. And we'll see if we can get that up here. But anyway, yes, we've had two picks so far. Juan Soto and Trey Turner. Scott, we had some news here on Tuesday afternoon. Bryson Stott has officially made the Philadelphia Affiliers roster, but Alec Bohm has also made the roster. So how do you see this playing out?

Do you think that Bryce and Stott will get every day at bats to start the season? Well, the way they were laying it out, I think I was reading quote from Dave Dumbroowski, who runs the front office there. They're not expecting any infielder to be ready to go every day at the start of the year. Obviously, the short buildup to the season. So Stott is capable of playing short, third, and second. Boehm is capable of playing third and first.

And so no, I guess is the short answer. I don't know that he's going to play every day, but they feel like he's going to play a lot just as they're mixing, as they're cycling infielders through the lineup for at least the first month is what they said, and then they'll reevaluate come May. So if Stott does what he's supposed to do, I imagine he'll stick around. round, but obviously that's a big if for a player who has yet to make his big league debut.

But very impressive spring, good on base skills. And yeah, somebody worth a late round pick, I would say. Bryson Stott. All right, we've got to keep the draft moving here. So on auto for now, Jose Ramirez was the third overall pick. And then Vladimir Guerrero is the fourth overall pick. Vlad, of course, ridiculous batting average, walks a decent amount as well. So, look, he's good regardless of format, but I think OBP might even see a slight boost in this format.

All right. I'm here. I'm struggling with where to go. Oh, yeah. Chris, you're on the clock. Fifth overall. Again, the first four picks, Soto, Trey Turner, Jose Ramirez, Vlad. What are we doing? So part of my thought, it's down to Garrett Cole or Mike Trout for me.

And part of the thought process is I have Mike Trout in a handful of leagues. I don't have Garrett Cole anywhere. And so the game theory part of me is just like, we'll just take Garrett Cole. and diversify. And if, you know, Garrett Cole's really awesome, there's a pretty good chance he's going to be worth that pick either way.

But I do think Mike Trout's just better. And in this format, I mean, he might have a 450 OVP. I am going to go with Garrett Cole, though, and just ride my Hero SP approach and, you know, see where it goes. Only seven pitcher spots in this format. Obviously, being a head-to-head categories league,

there's room for a Mar-Mull strategy if you want to chase that, saves plus holds. I don't know if that makes it a more viable strategy or not. I guess it does make it a little more viable. But yeah, we'll see how the rest of the draft goes. But I'm not super comfortable there, but that's the decision I made. Did the fact that we have quality starts factor into your decision at all? Because, I mean, I guess that wouldn't change much for Garrickle.

He does go very deep into his starts. But yeah. Yeah, I mean, you would think quality starts. I think that the impact of quality starts versus wins is mostly just that it makes the high-end pitchers more predictably elite rather than, like, yes, Garrett Cole should win a lot of games, but is that 15 wins or is that 20 wins? You know, I think that's where the range is, whereas with quality starts, it's a much narrower range. He should be among the league leaders in quality starts, and I feel more confident in that than I do in, you know, him being. among the leaders and wins. All right.

After Chris selected, Garrett Cole, that was the fifth pick in the draft, Boba Chet, Raphael Devers, Corbin Burns, and Mike Trout just went ninth overall.

I do think in an OBP league, Boba Chet probably loses some value, Scott, but look, if you want to pick up the steals, I can't really blame you,

but the OBP will be lower than other hitters in this range. Yes, it will. And in points leagues, we've even seen him slide to the second round. points league's reward walks in a way standard roto doesn't uh i also want to point out raphael devers seventh

overall so i uh i have a team i share in the main event for nfbc and and we set the new minimum for for rafel devors at ninth overall in that draft so who was that who picked rafel devers seventh overall man after my own heart whoever was that would be I don't know. Not that I would advise picking him over Mike Trout and Bryce Harper in an OBP League has happened, but still, I like to see the adherence to position scarcity.

All right, I'm going to take Shohei Otani. I don't have a single share of Shohei Otani, and that will be the theme of today's draft for me. I did want to punt steals, but I think Otani to be there 11th overall in a Categories league, even in an OBP league, he strikes out a lot.

There might be some miscarved. conception that he doesn't walk. He walks a lot. I think it was a 15% walk rate last year for Otani. So, I guess I'm not punting steals and I'm going in and I'll try to build a more balanced roster than expected. I believe Rafael Devers

went seventh overall to Evan Boudreau, so yes. Go, moving up the board. I want to make sure that you get that third baseman. No chance he was going to make it back in the middle of the second round, so it makes sense to me if you want to get him. Showing Otani, I took 11th overall. Walker Bueller goes 12th.

Freddie Freeman goes 13th. Mooky Betts goes 14th. We're coming up on Scott's pick shortly. Walker Bueller might surprise some people here going 12th overall in a categories league. But again, quality starts is one of the categories. And Walker Bueller was amazing last season. And he actually led all of baseball on quality starts.

I believe it was 28 quality starts. 27, rather. The next closest, Robbie Ray had 23. San Diego Cancerra had 23 as well. So he should be great once again. Mani Machado was the 15th overall pick. And Scott, you are on the clock for two. So I am.

So I am. You know, interesting Walker Bueller. Sorry, go ahead, Scott. We can talk about it afterwards. I am not sure what I want to do here. I think I'm going to double tap starting pitcher, which is not an approach. I have normally gone.

with, but this is the league where I go against my every instinct, right? So I think I'm going to go Scherzer and Woodruff because that quality starts standard. Like, you need a lot of them. And it's a difficult standard for the average mid-range pitcher to meet. And part of it is also like Kyle Tucker is the obvious hitter to take there. But I've talked about this before with the head-to-head categories league. You got a guy who's going to give you a dozen steals. That's a useful number in a Roto League,

but when you're measuring steals on a week-to-week basis, what is the impact really? I'm not sure it's great enough. So I considered Ronald Acuna, actually, over Kyle Tucker. I think Acuna is the more obvious hitter there. But then you're waiting a month, and I didn't necessarily want to do that. Yeah, you're waiting a month, but he might be, he doesn't, I don't think the conception of him

has caught up to the fact that he might be even, more valuable in an OBP league at this point because he's become a really, really high walk guy over the past couple of seasons. If I had taken a hitter, it would have been him, but I want to try this approach, pitcher-pitcher because I've, you know, my, I've talked about before also, and this is part of what helped me win last year. I went pitcher a lot with early picks, and some of them weren't very good, like Kyle Hendricks, Shane Bieber.

And then with hitters, I just went for like extreme power hitter. basically, not worrying about any other categories and hoping that they would combine for enough home runs in a given week to kind of carry me across the board and everything but steals. And to a degree, it happened. I didn't go into the playoffs as the number one seed or anything, but I was good enough to get to the playoffs

and then good enough to carry me through the playoffs. So that's kind of what I'm basing this idea on too. All right. After you double-tap starting pitcher, Scott, you went with Scherzer and Woodruff again. Kyle Tucker, Ronald Acuna, and then Aaron Judge goes, and Aaron Judge is somebody that I was considering heavily myself

because, again, in the OBP format, he just walks so, so much, really does see a boost in value in a league with OBP. So I was considering Aaron Judge. Shane Bieber is the next pick. I have a pretty good idea of who I want to take. Just want to make sure that I'm not missing anybody. Yeah, I'm going to go with Sandy.

Sandy Alcantara, who I think this is probably the preferred format for him as well, because as great as he pitched last season, I believe he only had nine wins. He goes deep into his starts. He's going to provide quality starts. But wins could be hard to come by. So I feel like Sandy Alcantara sees quite a boost in this format as well. Chris, I saw a team start. Muki Bet's Ronald Acuna.

And I just feel like that has you written all over it. Yeah, I mean, I really like both of those players, obviously. You know, part of the problem there in this format in particular is just only three outfield spots means that, you know, you've kind of locked yourself into passing on some outfielders. You can have at most two outfield only players for the rest of the draft. And so that's a little difficult. Like that introduces some complications, I guess, is the way to say it. But that is also, I've talked about this before, but I don't think that's a reason to go away from those guys

if they're the top players on your board. After I selected Sandy O'Connor, Zach Wheeler, the next pitcher off the board, who I believe is scheduled to pitch on either Monday or Tuesday next week. So he's going to throw, I think, another minor league start on Thursday, and then he'll jump back into the rotation, at the back end of the rotation the first time through for the Phillies. but looks good to go.

And if everything is right for Zach Wheeler, should provide a lot of quality starts as well. After Zach Wheeler, Ozzy Albies, Julio O'Reas, Yerdon Alvarez was the other one that I was heavily considering with my pick. And then Luis Robert.

Luis Robert, love the player. I believe he had a sub 5% walk rate last season. Yeah, he doesn't walk. There was like a period, like the first month of his career where he had like three walks in a four game stretch and it inflated his walk.

walk rate, but yeah, I think he's settled in very much as a very low walk rate guy, but he's another guy that he might hit 300 and it won't matter all that much. Yep, yep, 4.7% walk rate last year for Luis Robert. He wound up hitting 338 so that helped the OBP get to a 378 mark there. Chris, you got George Springer. I feel like this worked out pretty perfectly for you. Someone that you like, he walks a lot and it's a nice pairing to go along with Garrett Cole. So you have one ace and now one hitter.

Yeah. And, you know, he wasn't necessarily the number one player on my board in a Roto draft, but you know, the two guys who are ahead of him in Roto for me,

he was the third going by my Roto rankings. The two guys who were ahead, Cedric Mullins and Whitmeryfield, who just, this format's not as good for both of those guys. So it was pretty easy

to get Springer there. He was my top player left by a pretty healthy margin. Um, maybe not for everybody, but for me, Ford Springer and his 250 combined runs and RBI are a lovely, uh, number 20, number 28 overall pick. Yeah. Yep, 28th overall.

And then the next pick there is Lucas Gialito. All right. We'll see what happens here with, uh, with our buddy Ashley. And, uh, see, let's, let's write in the chat. See how Ashley's doing. Ashley does not appear to be in the room at the moment. All right, I'm only going to do this one more time, and then I think we just got to let it play out,

because obviously we are drafting, we are potting. There's a lot going on. We need this thing to keep rolling along here, so. Yes, yes, yes, yes. All right. Again, Scott, two starting pitchers. I went with Otani and Sandy Ocantara, Chris's balanced approach so far as well,

Garrett Cole and George Springer. So I don't know what to anticipate. Like I hate picking at the end just in general because it's so hard to predict what's going to make it back to you after those back-to-back picks. But especially in a league with bizarre scoring like this and especially a 16-teamor,

which is strange and large. You know, I thought about, I came, when I logged in before we started recording, I told Frank, I might take Salvador Perez at the one-two turn. And then he reminded me it's an OBP league instead of batting. I can't do that then. OBP's kind of a problem for Salvi.

And there it goes, Scott. Salvador Perez, 30th overall. But it, you know, kind of what Chris was saying. Like, he's still, like, even in an OBP league, the advantage he gives you at that position in a format where there aren't many hitter spots to be filled. I think it's perfectly reasonable where he was taken here toward the end of round two, about 30th overall.

Even understanding that he's going to be a net negative, pretty sharp net negative in an OBP league with the OBP specifically. And not relative to other catchers. There aren't many catchers. I'm going to get more of bats. Sure. That OBP is going to hurt even more than... Although that's less relevant in a, you know,

in a weekly Categories league than a true roto. 316 was his OBP last year. Yeah, that's bad. All right, let's see. Let's catch people up. A few other picks here. Matt Olson went and then Starling Marte

to finish out round two. The first pick of round three is Robbie Ray. And Robbie Ray again was tied for second in terms of quality starts last season with Sandy Alconcera behind only Walker Bueller, as I mentioned earlier.

So we'll see if Robbie Ray can keep it going this season with the Seattle Mariners now. A lot of strikeouts. Yes, lots of strikeouts regardless. I like this team name here. I'm with you, Scott. I wonder if they actually are with you. I think they are because they just went dual Atlanta Braves, Matt Olson and Austin Riley. Austin Riley was somebody I was kind of hoping to get in round three, but not even close.

Not even close. Well, not even close. We got a whole, we got like four. 14 picks to go. And as we... But he's been sliding, I feel like. I don't know if it's because of Chris Bryant and the,

you know, the recognition that Bobby Witt's going to gain third base eligibility. I feel like maybe there's been less people feel like they have to reach less for Riley than they were in the earlier drafts. I think that makes sense too, right? Like, just strategically

if they're... I know, Scott, a big reason why you were drafting Austin Riley, in a lot of our early drafts is because third base was, you know, as thin of a position as it was at the time. And obviously it got a lot better with, you know, Chris Bryant moving over to Colorado. He's now, you know, basically a top, consensus top 60 pick. And then Bobby Witt has made the Kansas City Royals opening day roster, something we heard over the weekend from John Heyman, but it was confirmed on Tuesday. So he will be in the lineup on opening day and likely to play third base.

You need five games at a position on CBS to earn eligibility. So he'll get Bobby Witt will get third base eligibility pretty early in the season. Chris had a pain to sigh just then. I think his boy, Byron Bucson. Oh, right before your pick. American League MVP Byron Buxton. Gosh, that would have been a really nice start for me. Didn't Byron Bucston hit another homer on Tuesday?

Yeah, he's, yeah. Just crushing it, absolutely crushing it. Him and his, well, I guess it's even higher now, right? He's probably got like a 1,700 OPS. Yeah, he's pretty good. Pretty, pretty good. You would have had your top two AL MVP candidates, Chris, Byron Buxton and George Brown.

It would have been pretty cool to have gotten that as a start, but that's disappointing. I'm going to go a little bit weird here, but I'm just going to do it, because I don't have him yet. Whoa. I'm taking Justin Verlander, pushing him way up the board.

Oof. Taking Justin Verlander. You know, 16 team league, even when you're not picking on the edges in this format, like there's no way. Justin Verlander's going to be there the next time I pick. I didn't think anyway.

The way that things have been going. And the people that were drafting with, I would imagine Scott was thinking about taking him at the next turn. Well, I already got to starting pitchers. But I'm glad I do because people like, Justin Burlander are going in round three. So I'm not, I'm not sure I'm going to like what's available at starting picture

when it gets back to me. Yeah, just throw ADP out the window because Carlos Ordone just went 40th overall as well. So after Buxton, Chris selected Justin Furlander, Teaska Hernandez, Aaron Nola, and then as I just mentioned, Carlos Rodan goes 40th overall. And there are two picks before I am up. I've got Chohay Otani and my man, Sandy Alcantra. And Sandy. Marcus Semyon goes.

What would I like to do here? One pick just went. And I've got a few things in mind. Okay, Zander Bogarts goes. Looking at that. Looking at that. Good OPP guy. I mean, the thing about where we are in the draft schedule,

you know, two days before the C. and starts. And the fact this is the listeners league and the fact that this is a weird formats, like, really you should just throw ADP out the window. Yeah, I mean, yeah, let's just do it. Let's throw ADP out.

Do it, baby. So Xander Bogart's goes, and then I selected Charmo. Charlie Morton. It's happening. This is my starting pitcher strategy. If I can walk away from a draft with Sandy Alcantara and Charlie Morton, I am a happy man.

So, especially taking an elite hitter like Shohei Otani, I feel better about maybe doubling down on pitcher after that, and then I'll jump back into hitter somewhere in the middle parts of this draft. After Charlie Morton goes, Kevin Gosman is off the board. Scott, I bet you feel pretty good that you went with two starting pitchers because they are all gone. I wasn't expecting it to play out this way,

but yes, I like the hitters who are left a lot more than the pitchers. If I had not taken a pitcher there, and assuming that wouldn't, you know, maybe me not taking two pictures there would have prevented somebody else from taking one of these pictures. We don't really know how it would have played out. But yeah, my ace would have been something like Max Fried or Logan Webb if I was waiting to take a picture now. So, yep. Pretty pleased with that choice. And it would not have been Max Fried because Max Fried just went. 46 overall just before him, Nick Castellanos. Nick Castellanos, by the way, was a top 20 player in

Roto last season. I don't really, I guess, I guess it was just that his ADP was much lower most of the offseason because he was a free agent and we didn't know where he was going to play. But I feel like as a result, his ADP never got to where it needed to be now that he signed with the Philadelphia Philly. So for anyone who's drafting these last couple of days, if you're getting Nick Cassiano's outside of the top 40, I think it's a really good value. After Max Fried goes, Joe Musgrove and Scott, you are on the clock for two. I have to imagine that you're looking at a few hitters here.

Yes, I am. I am looking at a few hitters. One of the hitters I will be taking this evening is Pete Alonzo. Want a lot of power, like I've said. Nice. With my hitter spots, and I think he should provide it. Now, the second pick...

I thought about him with my pick, Scott. I'm going to go with a guy who offers a little versatility, which might be handy in a league where only nine line-up spots are filled, and hopefully will provide some power in his new environment and happens to play a scarce position. Double-checking here, making sure it's who I want. Yes, it is. I will go Chris Bryant.

Yeah, the first share of Chris Bryant this year. That's fun. That's exciting. That is fun. Yeah. Those were two names that I was looking at when I was considering hitters with my pick. But, you know, I wanted to get some pretty safe starting pitchers and obviously we love Charlie Morton,

but yeah, I think two, you can really ask for much more than that, Scott. If you were going with two pitchers to start your draft to get those hitters on the way back, Pete Alonzo and Chris Bryant to pair with Brandon Woodruff and Max Scherzer, I think that's a pretty good start. This may be a league where I don't really care about stolen bases. It's like I was saying with Kyle Tucker the last time I picked,

you know, you can piece together a lineup with a bunch of 12-15 steel guys in a roto league and finish in the middle of the pact, and it's worth doing. But in a league with only a nine-man lineup where things are being scored only a week at a time, unless you're getting really high-impact base Steelers, it's just probably not a category worth pursuing. All right, after your Chris Bryant pick, Logan Webb,

which I think makes a lot of sense if he's healthy and he's good to go, he went very deep into his starts last season, especially down the stretch, That final 14-start stretch, I believe he had quality starts in either 11 or 12 of those. He was amazing. So Logan Webb, I think,

someone that will fit very well in a league with quality starts. Now, we're 50 picks in. Correct me if I'm wrong. No Josh Hader, no Liam Hendricks, right? So we're 50 picks in. We're definitely seeing the effect of going saves plus holds instead of just saves there, because this being a 16-team league,

you know, we see a lot of those 15 team roto leagues and those guys might go in round two. You know, they might go within the first 30 picks, which is, we've all said was ridiculous, but even after 50, they're not gone here. Yeah, no, I think it's a good point. And I think it's fair, Scott. I think that relievers should be devalued.

It almost flattens the position out because at this point, you're just drafting for skills, which honestly, that's how it should be for fantasy. Like, I understand the chase for saves. it's kind of fun. Sometimes it's kind of annoying. But Chris, what I like about this is that you can just draft the best relievers.

You can just draft the best ratios, the best strikeouts. And if those are the best relievers on the best teams, then in theory, they're just going to wind up with saves and holds. Yeah, I'm trying to find the save plus hold leaders from last year. Now, it is worth pointing out that somebody like Josh Hader might get 35 saves. and the holds leader, or at least, I think maybe somebody had quite a bit more than 20 holds last year, but it was just one outlier, and most of the leaders were like right at 20 or so.

Yeah. So, you know, holds and saves aren't, it's not a one-to-one ratio there. You can't just say, I'm going to pass up this saves guy or this holds guy because he has better ratios or whatever. You have to think about what the actual total number is going to be. But, yeah, I mean, I agree that.

that closer should fall and that, I have always feared in a format like this, saves plus holds, that it would go too far toward flattening the relief pitcher and basically devalue everybody. And I don't know that this draft should have the final say in that, but I could see that happening. And the fact that those two high-end guys haven't gone yet,

we're trending that direction. You also have to take into account that it's people who listen to us and who have listened to us say that those guys shouldn't go as high as they have. Sure. So, you know, there's part of that. That's always a factor when we're talking about these listener leagues is that, you know, they're going to be influenced by us and they're going to draft, you know, closer to the way that we think is ideal. and for us, that means devaluing those high-end closers. But, you know, I think that is also a reflection of the draft as well, like the format as well.

Sure. All right. After Logan Webb went, Trevor's Story. Trevor's Story was the other one. So I was considering three hitters in the third round. It was Trevor's Story. It was Pete Alonzo. It was Chris Bryant.

Scott, you selected two of those hitters. Trevor's story goes. And then after that, Nolan Aronado, Frankie Montas. I'm up at pick 54. I selected Paul Goldschmidt, someone I consider to be in the same tier as a Pete Alonzo, Matt Olson.

Doesn't do it the same way, not as much power, but I do think we'll provide very good batting average. In this case, OBP, he'll chip in a few steals, you know, 6 to 8, something like that, and I think the counting stat should be

very good for Paul Goldschmidt. After that, Dylan Cisse and Freddie Peralta. Freddie Peralta is interesting because, while the strikeouts are great, I think I'll have a strong ERA and whip. Scott, I just don't know

how deep Freddie Peralta will consistently go into his starts. Now, you know, he broke out last year, so maybe, you know, he's already created that foundation and he can, you know, go a little bit deeper this year,

but that's not necessarily what we saw from Freddie Peralta last season. Before I answer that question, somebody just auto-picked Dominic Smith, which I think probably would not what they intended to. to do in round four. So we'll back that out.

We'll check on them while I'm talking about. What was it you asked me about? I was asking about Freddie Paralta. Yeah, Freddie Paralta in a quality start league. Yeah. So his innings were limited last year. Obviously, he got to only 144 and a third. But the way they went about limiting his innings is they pretty much let him go for the first

two thirds of the season and really pulled back for the final third. So there were. more six plus innings starts than you would think. And obviously he's going to be allowed to go even more innings this year, provided he stays healthy. And it's not a situation where like it's hard to see him going six innings. If he can physically do it, there's no reason his skill set set shouldn't work over six innings now.

This isn't the same guy he was coming into last season when he was really just, you know, a two pitch guy. He's got four really good pitches now, one of the best fastballs in the game, which is what he relied on pretty heavily before this season. But now he's got that curveball and that change-up to go with the slider and fastball combination. And it makes Freddie Peralta someone who, in theory, should be able to go through lineups as often as he needs to, as often as he physically can, hopefully at least. He went six plus innings

11 times through July, just through July he went six plus innings 11 times and 20 appearances. It's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. Look, if he's as good of a pitcher as he showed last year and I think in general as good as we expect him to be then he should be more efficient

and he should be able to get quality starts. It's just a matter of him continuing to build up that innings total that we saw last season from him And of course, you know, I love drafting Brewer's pitchers this year. I've talked about this a lot. I like targeting Cardinals pitchers for that reason. Going up against the Cubs, the Pirates, and the Cincinnati Reds. It's just a fantastic division to pitch in.

All right. We are having some technical difficulties. If anyone is watching this draft and you are part of this draft, we got to keep this moving here. We're in round four and we're like 36 minutes into the draft. So let's see. I'll explain what happened with me having to restart the clock.

Okay. I was searching for Liam Hendricks. I'm going to be the one to draft him. And I ran out of time before I could correctly spell his name in the search. Oh. You put the C in there between the I and the K. Well, I thought I did the I-KS ending first and it didn't come up. So I had to try it again.

It's like when you're typing in your password, you know, and you just see the asterisks. And you're like, oh, it must not be that password. But you don't know if you guess the wrong password. of the many you use or if you just mistyped it. So it's not, I like how they, most of them have that button now to show, show password as you type it in. You know, that's been a lifesaver for me. Yeah, I probably shouldn't reveal this.

I don't know if you guys do this, but I just have like a running note pad on my phone. That's just like filled with my passwords. So. Oh, it's on your phone. Yeah. Oh, okay. I thought you had like a like a notepad. No, no.

The notepad is just for, it is just for, you know, for the baseball notes, Chris. You know that. But yeah, I have a notepad just filled with passwords because I don't know. There's just so many of them nowadays. After Freddie Peralta went,

we saw you Darvish, then Wander Franco, Jose Altovae. Chris selected Liam Hendricks, the first reliever off the board that is 60th overall in a saves plus holds league. Then Whitmerryfield,

Clayton Kirshaw, and Josh Hater. All right, Chris, so you kind of, you got the ball roll in there. Yeah, no surprise Hater goes off right after Hendricks.

whichever one went first, that would be the way that it would go. And I have our league settings punched into the auction calculator on fan graphs using ATC projections from our buddy Ariel Cohen. And Liam Hendricks and Josh Hader, they should go around here based on their projected dollar amount. So this is about the right range, right around, you know, 60th overall for those two in a saves post hold leaks. All right.

The Whitmeryfield went. I mentioned Clayton Kirshaw, Josh Hater. Kattel Marte is the next pick off the board there. Again, not someone who necessarily walks too, too much, but if he hits for the high batting average, as we expect, in turn, the OBP should be perfectly fine for one, Katel Marte. And we are into round five.

Before we continue on with round five, if you are listening to us on the podcast side, as we've done with all of our other live drafts, this will be broken into a two-part podcast. So after you get done listening to part one here, you can hop into round two and you can listen to the second half or, I don't know. It's probably going to be... It's going to be a three-hour draft.

Yeah, it's probably going to be much longer than just a two-part, you know, two-hour type podcast. But hey, 16 teams, 22-round draft. It's going to take quite some time here. All right. So I was kind of surprised Jose Berrios was falling. Like he went behind Clayton Curry. He just went off the board, 66th overall,

second pick for round five. after Clayton Kirshaw had already gone, Udarvish, Dylan Sees. Dylan Sees is, you know, maybe he takes a big step forward this year, but question how often he's going to be in line for, going to be allowed to get a quality start. But somebody like Briehaus, that's not a question at all.

I mean, that guy goes very deep into, starts very consistently. That's kind of his main value. And so I think it plays up in a format like this. Yeah, it's one of his, I would say, best strengths. It's, you know, I don't want to call middling, because he's better than middling. He's, you know, we all have him ranked as a top 25 starting pitcher,

but he doesn't necessarily stand out, but a solid ERA, solid whip, just around a strikeout per inning. But where he really helps again is with volume and consistently going deep into starts. After Jose Burrios, Corey Seeger, Will Smith. Will Smith, who I think is a very, very strong pick, especially in an OBP league,

He walks quite a bit, hitting in the middle of that Dodgers lineup. And Chris, you are on the board. You are up here around 5, 69th overall. Nice. Let's take a look at your team. See what we've got going on. A very un-Christower start so far. You've got three pitchers and one hitter.

Your one hitter is George Springer. The pitchers, Garrett Cole, Justin Verlander, Liam Hendricks. What do we do next? That's the question, isn't it? It's a tough spot, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do. But since I didn't get Will Smith. Auto! Oh, no!

Ah, darn it! I didn't think there was any way, Yosmani Grundaul was going to get back to me. He is an OBP stud, and I think gives you as much of an edge as Will Smith in this format and deserves to be drafted in the same range as Will Smith. So I'll just go ahead. and take him right after Will Smith.

For this format, you're probably right. I've given the stat before for Mitch Garver that he had the third best OPS among catchers last year. And the two I always say were ahead of him were Yasmani Grondal and Buster Posi, who's retired now. So Yosmani Grondal had a higher OPS than Salvador Perez last year. And most of it's because of the OBP. He had a 420 OBP.

Now, normally he's more like, you know, 370, 380. last year was a little it was the best year of his career but he walks a lot that's for sure yeah and actually I mean the quality of contact metrics for him were

ridiculous as impressive as Salvador Perez I mean he was he was 90th 95th percentile in hard hit rate average exit velocity etc so you know he really did I mean it was probably a career year but he was also just playing at a ridiculous

ridiculously high level. Yeah. No, Grandal is someone who I love targeting, especially in head-toed points leagues or any type of OBP format. I've considered him with my last pick when I took Paul Goldschmidt.

So I was really hoping he would make it back. Great pick there by you, Chris. After Grandal, Jose Ibrahim, Kenley Jansen, Francisco Lindor will not be on my team. He goes 72nd overall. And then Christian Yelich, and I am on deck.

in round five. I've got two hitters and two pitchers thus far. Brandon Lau just went off the board. I've got Paul Goldschmidt, Shohei Otani, Sandy Alcansara, and Charlie Morton. And I'm actually really want to Brandon Lau. Yeah, he walks quite a bit. I thought about it.

Yeah. I didn't want to take. So I had like, Yelich was one of three outfielders who's just like clearly at the top of the, the queue for me. And I didn't want to take another one. since there were three of them. And I already have Springer as my only hitter.

So that's why I took Grandaul. But it would have been Lao if it wasn't Grandal. Shouts to the Tampa Bay Reyes social media for their helpful visualization on how to pronounce Brandon Lowe versus Josh Lowe, by the way. What did they put out? It was just a pronunciation guide. But, you know, it was helpful. Just a nice reminder. We're going to have to keep that in mind.

All right. It's a good thing they don't have Nate Lowe anymore. So I believe Nate Lowe and Josh Lowe are actually brothers. Yep, they are. Yes. So kind of awkward because they trade one brother away and they still have one and they have another player with the same name, but it's pronounced differently. And those guys are not related. So it's kind of interesting.

But yes, I have a feeling Josh Lowe will be drafted at some point in this draft. Not yet, but we'll see. I selected Eloy Jimenez. Somebody I do like quite a bit. I think we haven't seen the best yet. I think it's coming. He's having a strong spring as well. I think that we could just get this monster power season out of Eloy

where we hit something like 280, 35 plus home runs. It doesn't walk too, too much. I would have taken Lindor if he made it to me here. He's who I was looking at Grandaul as well. So I'll set her for Eloy. I didn't have an outfieler yet. I think the thing with Eloy is you're hoping he becomes like a Jose Bray type. Right.

You know, not going to walk a lot, but hopefully we'll make decent contact for our. a power header and just drive in a ton of runs and hit for power. Yeah. With a good batting average. That's the hope, right? I think with any players in this mold, Chris, is if they break out and they hit for as high of a batting average as I think they can, then even if they don't walk much, the O.B.P.

should still be passable. So that's the hope for Eloy Jimenez. After he went, Rysseliglesias, another reliever off the board. Shane O. Mac. Shane McClain-Han goes 77th overall. Here comes the money. I got you, Skeddy. Here comes the money.

Here we go. Money talks. Here comes the money. Alex Bregman, which makes a lot of sense here in OBP, and then Emmanuel Class A. And Scott, you are on the clock. You suspended the draft. How dare you?

I didn't suspend it. No, I did. Can we get this guy to take Dom Smith out of his cue? Why? He got out of picks. He's taking Dom Smith twice in a row now. Oh, did he? Are we going to leave Dom Smith in the sixth or fifth round?

Look, we're going against him. So if he wants to leave Dom Smith in the fifth round, that's fine. But did he? I don't see Dominic Smith. I'm not being Dom Smith. What pick now? Okay. I guess my,

I don't know. It was wrong. Sorry. I apologize. How do you, Chris? That was on me. Well, look, if someone wants to support Dominic... That was my bad.

Maybe, yeah, my penalty is I should have to take Dom Smith with my next pick. Yeah, we might have to. For the people. You're going to have to do it for the people, Chris. All right, Scott, you are... I'm going to do a couple weird things here. You ready? A couple weird things.

I yes. stressed about it, but I'm going to do it. I don't like the state of second base right now. That's why I was upset about the Brandon Lau pick. I feel like getting that impact power bat that I'm trying to get almost everywhere is, there's one option left. And he just so happens to be better in an OBP league than a batting average league. Now, I'm a little scared of him because he got a messed up elbow, but I'm going to take Max Muncie.

Ooh. I'm going to take Max Muncie. I'm going to take Max Muncie. All right. And then the other one is a player that I've said is uniquely, uniquely valuable in a head-to-head categories format because I've talked about the steals impact and like you need to get a ton, you need to have a guy who you can trust to get a ton of steals in a week-long time frame to be worth the pick. Uh-oh.

And that's why. He's going to wreck his OBP. Adelberto Mondesi is who I'm taking here. For however long he's healthy. he should single-handedly win me steals for however many weeks he's healthy and I'm willing to take the OBP fit for that especially since I got a good OBP base already

and actually I mentioned Chris Bryant's versatility when I took him in anticipation of hopefully getting a shot at Mondesie later who of course himself will become eligible as shortstop in due time but yeah I'm not punting steals after all this is my one hope for them

and if I'll just lose for whatever weeks he's not healthy I'll just lose but I'm happy to I'd rather do that than to try and chase steals with a bunch of guys who aren't going to give me that many.

The chat loves it Scott. They are in the rest of the league. You got an ellipsis and then thanks Scott so I think they were upset that you drafted Adelberto Montesey. That was a good turn.

All caps. We love Scott. Monashy will be really good for the first five weeks. I wanted Staling Marte and Adelberto Montessie. That's the kind of comments. I expect more.

Mondesie will be really good for the first. You know what? I drafted him in this format last year too, and he was hardly healthy at all. But those weeks he was healthy. Yeah. He won me steals. Yeah.

Probably helped a lot in the championship. I think it's a really good combination with Max Muncie too. For obvious reasons. I mean, for since Muncie joined. The 10 weeks you get out of the both of them combined. I really am worried about Muncie's. He's had a horrible spring.

I'm not sure he really has all the strength and flexibility he needs in it. But I'm crossing my fingers that everything the Dodgers have been saying about the elbow is true and that it's just a fluky spring stat line that I'm reading too much into. All right. Since Max Muncie joined the Dodgers, by the way, in 2018, he has a 15% walk rate and a 371 OBP. All right, picks are flying here after Monisey went. Brian Reynolds, Chris Bassett, Adam Wainwright, another one who does get quite the boost

in a quality start league. Edwin Diaz with the New York Mets. And I am going to select, when Scott was talking about second base, I was a little bit worried that he was going to take this gentleman. Let me check out my team. Again, I've got Goldschmidt, Eloy, Otani, Morton,

Sandy. Let's just check in on starting pitcher and see where we're at there. it's dwindling a little bit. I don't want to jump back in yet. So I am going to select Jorge Polanco, who I think the power will take a little bit of a step back, but someone that just helps you across the board,

walks a decent amount as well. I think the twins are going to have a sneaky good lineup this year too. So I drafted more Jorge Polanco than I expected coming into the draft season. He just seems a little bit too undervalued. Before we get to the other picks, gotta remind everyone that a week unlike any other is finally here. The Masters returns to Augusta National where Hadeki Matsuyama will defend his green jacket.

Go join the First Cut Golf Podcasts where the entire crew is previewing this year's tournament from storylines to picks and even daily fantasy advice. The First Cut has you covered. The First Cut Golf podcast is available wherever you're listening to this podcast. And some big news on Tuesday. It sounds like Tiger Woods is going to give it a go in the Masters. So some fun there as well. After Jorge Polanco, Ryan Presley and Trevor Rogers. Where are you at, Chris?

You are up in, you're up in about three picks. Trevor Rogers, it seems like there's a... His velocity was down pretty significantly today in his start. It was weird because he like piggybacked. Elias Hernandez started and got hit by a comebacker and then two relievers pitched and then Trevor Rogers. pitched. But his velocity was down quite a bit. His max fastball Velo was actually lower today than his average was last season. So hopefully that was just a one-start thing. It wasn't like that

his first two spring start. So it doesn't look like it's an ongoing issue, which is a good thing. But just something to keep in mind, it was a little worrisome to see that from Trevor Rogers. That being said, it's not like I was avoiding him in this draft if it had come to it. Mm-hmm. All right. I mentioned Ryan Presley, Trevor Rogers, Kyle Swarber, the beefcake, the wandering eye for one, Scott White. Kyle Swarber, by the way, I did a hit on CBS Sports HQ on Tuesday and we were doing some season-long player props. I think Kyle Swarber, there's some value in betting him to lead baseball in home runs. So if you want to throw a little sprinkle on that, I'm interested in Kyle Swarber. After that, Framber Valdez, Inequality Star League, great pick. Bobby Witt. Don't go after the player I love, interested in Kyle Schwerber. Dimm's fighting words, okay?

I like Schwerber. I'm really upset that Bobby Witt just got taken. I was sniped yet again. Coming both ways now. Oh, my goodness. Let's check it on that team, Chris. Where, uh, I never know your team name. What does this one mean?

In the Aeronado over the sea. It's a reference to the new. neutral milk hotel album in the air over the sea. One of my favorite albums. Weird album, weird, weird stuff. All right, I'll do this. And he did it. John Carlos Staten.

All right. I mean, this is a very Chris Towers-esque team, I feel like. Grandal, John Carlos Stanton, George Springer, and then Justin Verlander, Liam Hendrix, Garrett Cole. Chris, given your first three picks, is it fair to say that you will be punting steals? Yeah, I think that's probably fair But that'll be the only category

I'm punting in this format So I don't think it's that big of a concern I wanted to punt steals As I mentioned coming into this draft Especially in a league where it's net steals I mean that total is gonna be even lower Than we're used to seeing just a normal steals category So I wanted to punt it but I just

I couldn't pass and show you a Otani 11th level I mean like that's the thing I was willing to take Byron Buxton with my third pick he got taking one pick before me. I wanted to take Bobby Witt with my sixth pick. He got taken one pick before me. So it's not that I'm opposed to having stolen bases on my team.

It just didn't work out with this draft. All right. After John Carlos Stey and J.D. Martinez, it's a strong pick. I was thinking about it. Fernando Tatis, we have four IL spots in this league. Likely going to miss the first two, two and a half months at least. You know, we're hoping for like a mid-June,

maybe late June return for Fernando Tatis. J.C. Realimuto, I mean, this is late too. I mean, 95th overall, round six of a 16 team league. I think that's a pretty good value for J.C. Realimuto. Scott, talk to me about Fernando Tatis. He was someone we were all considering in our previous listener league draft than we did last week. That's a head-to-ed points league.

It's a much shallower. In a league like this, the replacement value, not nearly as good. Do you still think he should be worth a top 100 pick here? Yeah, I think so. He was somebody I considered when I went with that Muncie and Mondesi turn. But you're right. It's harder to justify in a 16-team league. Because there are only nine hitter spots filled by each team,

I still think the replacement value will be acceptable enough to take him here in the hopes that he has an early June return. If it ends up being late June, then that's going to, you know, then that might be, that might tip the scales against it. but the impact's going to be so big. So if you can hang in there for two months without Tatis, it could be the pick that wins you the league once he does return. All right.

After Real Muto, Jonathan India to finish out round six, and then Alec Manoa and Tyler O'Neill. Scott, I'll go right back to you. When you were talking about making your pick and you're breaking down second base and how it's kind of dwindling a little bit, you don't normally draft this guy. I thought you were going to take Jonathan India, actually.

No, I want a power. I want a power. There were a number of decent second baseman who might be 20 homer guys like India or you look further down. Jake Croninworth, Chris Taylor. I just feel like this format specifically, it's not a points league where you get all those extra bonuses from those smaller contributions, doubles and the like. It's not a Roto League where you have those very large hitter lineups to help you balance. out categories. You have nine spots to do as well as you can across the hitter categories. And so more than anything, I want power in my lineup spots. And Jonathan India, good OBP guy,

will provide some steals, but it's just not the sort of big impact week to week that I'm looking for in this format. All right. After Alec Manoa, Tyler O'Neill, a roll this Chapman off the board. Chris, you are on deck here. year and now you're on the clock. Craig Kimbrel. So, trade it over to the Los Angeles Dodgers. We mentioned he's inside our, each of our top 10 relief pitcher ranks now. I think this range makes sense to select him. What do you thinking here, Chris? This is, see, this is where being outfield heavy is difficult because my top player is an outfielder. I may be able to just wait. So that's what I'm going to try to do.

I'm going to take Joey Votto here, 101 overall, and hope one of my top two players is still there. Next time around, which is risky, because there are 20 picks between my next two picks. All right. The profit pocket has begun. Joey Votto, of course, someone who excels still in OBP. I was looking for Julio Rodriguez to go right there after Joey Votto. It's about, so 107 overall, that's about right exactly where. I've moved in in my rankings just about a round after Bobby Witt, which I think, as we've discussed in recent days, is appropriate.

Same. Yep. I did a huge overhaul on the rankings the past two days. And I have moved Julio Rodriguez up to 100th overall. Scott has him at 99. Oh, I'm higher than I thought. And Chris has him at 108. So yeah, inside the top 110 for.

each of us on Julio Rodriguez, who will be on the opening day roster for the Seattle Maritors. After Julio Rodriguez went Mitch Hanager, Anthony Rendon, and Randy a Rosarena. I am on deck. Who is worth noting, not as bad of an OBP guy as you might think, or at least he wasn't last year. Obviously, if he hits 230 like we're worried he might, then the OBP is going to be a problem, but he has 360 OVP last year. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

All right. After Randy, Marcel O'Zuna goes, when O'Zuna's at his best, he's someone who walks quite a bit as well, and he's been rising up draft boards, rising up the rankings, rightfully so. We'll be with the Atlanta Braves on opening day. All right.

I've got a few different things I need to look at here. Third base, we've kind of made it to the, not entirely the wasteland, but we're getting close. We're getting close to the wasteland. Do I have a shortstop? No, I don't. All right, this is starting to dwindle a little bit as well.

Hmm. I've got 20 seconds. What would I like to do? Sweating over here. I see it. I see a beat of sweat dripping down his forehead. He's. I don't have a share of him yet.

And I wanted to get there. I wanted to get Seya Suzuki with the Chicago Cubs, Japanese phenom who came over this season. And, you know, it's been a mixed bag so far in the spring, which I think makes sense. There's going to be a bit of a transition period for him. I think there could be some issues with strikeouts, but he walked a lot over in Japan and could provide power,

a little bit of speed as well. So I'm happy to select him as my second outfielder. to go along with, with Eloy Jimenez. Scott, I was also considering Carlos Correa. I know.

I was glad you didn't take him. Yeah, because I, yeah, short stop. Anyway, short stop is dwindling here. Let's catch people up.

After Sayas Suzuki, Jordan Romano, someone I was also looking at. And then Blake Snell, Carlos Correa, and Akeel Badoo, Akele Badoo, who's going to go 30-30 this season,

according to my bold predictions. And, Scott, you are on the clock. Let's check in and see what you got going on. So you've got Pete Alonzo, Max Muncie, Adelberto Mondesie, Chris Bryant, those are your four hitters. And then, of course, you started with the two aces, Max Scher and Brandon Woodruff.

Yeah, so I'm thinking about coming back here with my third starting pitcher. I'm running out of time. I better stop thinking. I don't have shortstop filled either. I mean, Adelberto Mondesie could move over there eventually. But I know he's not a great O.B.P. guy, but he is a big power guy. and he's dual eligible.

I'm going to go ahead and take Javier Baez and keep my infield deep and versatile because after Baez, I didn't really like what was available. C.J. Abrams is down there, I guess. But that's, we've got to wait until we get to him, I suppose. And then for my second pick, for my next shot. You might want to just punt OBP from now on.

No, I'm doing okay. I got Muncie. I got Bryant. I got Alonzo. They should be fine. Well, you think about it. In a week's time, OBP is pretty random. So I'm not really sweating it that much. That's true. I'm going to go Varsho. I'm going to go Daldon Varsho.

I didn't like not getting Salvador Perez in a league with only nine lineup spots. I think it's more important to have an actual impactful catcher. And I don't think, you know, we've talked about Varsho as a steel source of catcher. He is. But it's not going to be like a ton of steals. It's not going to be a ton of home runs. but I think just in the runs in RBI relative to the average catcher

in a league like this, he's going to put me ahead. So thought about going starting pitcher, but Varsha is the pick. All right. So again, Scott's two picks there, Javier Baez, and Dalton Varsha. We are into round

eight now, and what I'm going to do is sign off of Hour 1 here on the podcast, and we'll be back with Hour 2. We will see you then. Bye-bye.