Fantasy Baseball Today - Live 16-Team H2H Categories Draft Part 2! Mid-Late Picks & Team Recaps (3/28 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 28, 2023

Let's continue on with our 'For the People' listener league. It's a 16-team H2H category league with some wacky categories. We're breaking down rounds 9-22 picks and strategy and then recap our teams at the end. Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Fantasy Baseball Today is a finalist in the Baseball Category for the Sports Podcast Awards! Quickly create an account and vote here: https://www.sportspodcastgroup.com/sports_category/best-baseball-podcast/ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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

Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Welcome into part two of our live. For the People, Listener League draft, this is a 16-te-to-head Categories League with OBP, net stolen bases instead of just stolen bases. Quality starts instead of wins and saves plus holds instead of saves. Fun fact, this is Scott White's favorite format to play in. No, incorrect. Wrong. But let's see.

Let's talk about the picks that are going on. We left off at the end of round 9. So we'll start up with round 10 here, Lucas Gialito, who's actually had a very good spring. He was one of the hardest players for me to rank this year. I don't have a single share of him. It wouldn't surprise me if he makes me look absolutely foolish and pays off top 20 starting pitcher value once again.

Wouldn't surprise me if he's somebody we want to drop halfway through the season. So a complete wild card is Lucas Gialito. But I think he's... While other comeback candidates, Jake Flaherty and Jose Barrios look terrible this spring. Gioledo did look much better. He was actually getting strikeouts at a good rate and...

Velocity was down. Delivering good outings. Yeah, Velocity was down last year too. I don't think it was down even further, was it? I know he was in like the 91-92 range more often than not. Okay. And I saw quotes where he said he's not worried about it. He's more so...

Nobody's ever worried about it. Yeah. He's focusing, especially Zach Granky, right, this time he... Zach Ranky's the only, I think there was one time he said he was worried about it. And other than that, and other than that, yeah. That's the only person who's ever admitted

they were worried about their velocity being low. But Gialito said he's really focusing on executing his pitches a four-pitch mix. So he's typically been a foreseen change-up and slider. So, you know, working in a fourth pitch now, if he can execute all of them, maybe he doesn't need that 93, 93, 94, 95-mile-per-hour fastball velocity.

After Gialito, Yandy Diaz, who does get quite a boost in the OBP format, Brian Hayes, Riley Green, Josh Bell, Alec Bohm, Scott, you're up. Which prospect are you taking next? I actually think I'm going to take Ehuenio Swares. Interesting. Yeah, a little behind in the power categories.

And he gives me some flexibility since Jordan Walker will be able to shift to the outfield soon. And he, you know, he actually draws a fair number of walks. So even though he hit 2.30 something last year, he reached base at a 3.30 something clip. If he can repeat it, which is a big if. Scott, how do you feel about drafting a player in Suarez where you're just drafting him to fit a need, but he's not technically a target of yours or someone that you find yourself drafting often? Because I did this in my main event draft over at the NFBC, and it's probably not.

the draft that you want to do that in because it's obviously a lot of money. But I found myself a little bit behind in speed and I needed a third basement. I said, all right, I'm going to take Suarez, even though I don't really target him often. But yeah, when you need power, you just kind of, you got to go for it. Well, yeah. I mean, that was basically the rationale there. I'm not a big Suarez guy or anything. I just was looking at the players who are capable of providing big.

power numbers and I thought he presented the best fit like I said the power sources at this stage of the draft are less attractive overall than I think the speed sources so you just took Hunter Renfro I considered him as well Suarez actually got on base about 20 points higher than Renfro did last year and because Walker

who I already have lot at the third base, I could shift to outfield. I thought it made more sense for me to go ahead and get a little insurance at third base rather than take another outfielder, especially since a lot of outfielders I like still. So yeah, Hunter Renfro, if he had made it back to me, I would have taken him too, but I went for Suarez in this particular draft. And that was a great pick that just happened. Let's talk about it. After I took Renfro, Jake Cronoweth, also solid for OBP. Tristan Kosses. I mean, if everything works out for him,

one of the main skills for him is the eye at the plate, being able to draw walks, get on base. There's been talks that he could lead off against right-handed pitching this season. I feel like the Red Sox have mentioned every player on their roster as a lead-off candidate against right-handed pitching. So we'll see who actually wins that.

But I think Tristan Kossis excels in a form of Alexis. Kind of an interesting thing about Tristan Kossis. I wrote about him today. I wrote about the prospects who made the opening day roster and the ones who didn't. He has never had a slugging percentage over 500 in a minor league season, which is kind of interesting. The comp that it made me think of is maybe more like an early career,

Freddie Freeman, like a pre-breakout. Obviously, that would be closer to a best case scenario, but it might be a situation where, like, Tristan Kossas, as a left-hand hitter at Corser at Fenway, which is a tough park for home runs for lefties, you know, maybe he's more of a batting average and an OBP guy than a home runs guy. It's possible.

Obviously, the raw power is there, you know. Yeah, so I might just be not optimized. It's definitely possible for Tristan Kossis. He's got three home runs. This spring to go along with five doubles and a 5-82 slug. So take that, Chris. He's doing it.

Well, I did say at a minor league season. That is, yeah, that is fair. After Kossis, Yoan Duran. I think also a great pick for the reasons we talked about Andrus Munoz earlier. Kenley Jansen, Jorge Polanco at the end of round 10, followed by Jesus Lazzardo and Pablo Lopez. So either Marlin or former Marlin starting pitcher run. And, yeah, pitchers thinning out pretty quickly here.

I was disappointed to see Joe Ryan go because I think he'll be a quality start machine and so he went three picks after my Suarez pick just before your hunter run for a pick, Frank, in round 10. And then, you know, part of my thinking was, well, Jesus Lazzardo is still out there. Surely Hesus Lazzardo is going to go before Joe Ryan. It didn't happen.

And it's another situation where, like, Luzardo, is he going to be going six innings consistently enough to deliver the quality starts you want? probably, but there are durability questions there in a way there aren't for Joe Ryan. So I kind of get it. Again, it's a weird format, and I feel like because it's so atypical,

we're all kind of flying blind with it. Our expectations for where players, when players should go are basically out the window and we're kind of all being driven by our, guts right now, which is why, you know, I don't know that this is going to be the most helpful of the live mock draft podcast we've done, but blame Heath Cummings. Just to be clear, I do have a spreadsheet. Oh, all right. Sneaky, sneaky, Chris, but you're just relying on something someone else put

together, right? The spreadsheet is my gut, Scott. I'm just imagining a picture of your gut on a spreadsheet now. That's what you're working off of right now. After Pablo Lopez, Thai France, Pete Fairbanks, love it. And Anthony Rendon, I am up. And I've got like 12 seconds. So I don't know.

Maybe it's a little bit early for this guy, but I don't want to give Scott two opportunities to draft him, and I need speed. So I'm going to go ahead. It's like Garrett Mitchell. It's a little bit early at 166. Starting pitch. Starting pitcher is dwindling.

Starting pitcher is dwindling, but I don't know that there's, a huge difference between a lot of the names that are left. So I think I'll be all right just waiting and seeing who makes it back to me. I have three starters so far in Freed, Darvish, and Jeffrey Springs. Yeah, pretty high floor. So upside with Springs. So I'm right with it.

I'm assuming everyone who's drafting with us is watching. Someone take Jeremy Pena, because I want to take a shortstop, but I don't want to take Jeremy Pena. But I don't want to move this shortstop ahead of Jeremy Pena in my rankings. I can't justify that. So someone please take Jeremy Pena for me. Thank you. Now I'm trying to figure it out.

I have a guess. Ah, yes, I think I do as well. Anywho, after I took Garrett Mitchell, Tyler Stevenson, that's a pretty good value for Stevenson at this point. 167th overall. Yeah, we haven't really talked about him, but there's been some interesting playing time notes where he's not really going to play catcher all that often.

think the goal is 65 games, a catcher and the rest is going to be at DH in first base. And like, Tyler Stevenson could be one of those guys who is surprisingly viable. In part, you know, obviously if he hits as well as he has the last few seasons, it's going to be viable either way. But, you know, if he gets to 550, 600 plate appearances, all of a sudden, that profile looks even better. Yeah. Yep.

So it could be a volume play this season for Tyler Stevenson. Freddie Peralta and then Kyle Wright. Really good value on Kyle Wright. I think that's going to work out well. I was thinking about Kyle Wright too. He apparently is going to start on the IL as he continues to get built up, building up that shoulder, which he had a little bit of a late start to spring. But it sounds like he'll only miss two starts and the rotation could be back by mid-ish, late April,

you know, third week, something like that, second third week. So good value for Kyle Wright at 1.5. 169th. Scott, you are on the clock in round 11. I'm going to take Ezekiel Tovar. I knew that's who Chris wanted. I knew it is too. Scott continues the trend of the greatest dynasty team ever drafted here in a live

live track. I hesitated. And I probably wouldn't have thought of it if Chris hadn't brought that up. So upset. Well, Chris, now you've got to take Jeremy Pena, so. I probably do. And then I was about to take Kyle right. And of course, he went right before my pick. So I had some other players I was considering there. But if Tovar is a power speed threat as shortstop, as I think he could be.

And I don't think he'll walk a lot, but, of course, field, I mean, the batting average could be solidly, well over 300 in the minors last year. I've talked about him being probably the most underdrafted player. I do already have a shortstop in O'Neill Cruz. but I could slot, like it's not a bad idea to have cruise insurance and I could slot Tovar in a utility in the meantime. Cruise insurance like a life preserver? Something like that.

You know, I was thinking today about Azeal Tovar and like how much excitement there is for Jordan Walker and Anthony Volpe and for good reason. They're very good players. They are better real-life prospects than Azequil Tovar. and the Rockies have very much earned the benefit, whatever the opposite of the benefit of the doubt is, with the way they've developed and the way they've handled their young players over the past,

frankly, decade. I mean, really since like Trevor Story is the last even halfway decent. I guess Ryan McMahon's halfway decent. Trevor Story is the last good player that they've developed. So, like, they are a team that is very reasonable to be like, I just don't trust them. But Ezekiel Tovar, I mean, his minor league numbers are a lot better than Anthony Volpe's, especially last year. And obviously, the stolen base totals are very different.

But he's also got course field and like, I don't know, in a neutral context, I think a hundred pick difference between where Volpe and Walker are going and where Tovar are going makes sense. But the fact that Tovar is going to play half his games at course field, I think that gap needs to be a lot smaller. Yeah, two things. Two things. you talked about how Walker and Volpe are much better prospects than Tovar. They are consensus top five prospects overall. Tovar's top 25 consensus prospects. Let's not sell his prospect standing short.

And because we've mentioned Volpe's batting average a couple times already, I will note, again, it was very cold at where he was playing AA Somerset early last year. It held Oswald Paraza back to final 93 games last year. Volpe hit 274. Final, let's do more arbitrary endpoints here. Was that final X games at AA? Because he was also not great at AAA. No, I counted AAA.

If you do final X games at Double A, then I'm sure it's much better. Yeah, final 72 games at AA 286 is what Volpe hit. And we should mention that two years of ago, Volpe hit 294 in the minor. So yeah, it was obviously at lower levels. I believe it was a, yeah, just A ball and high A, but I'm expecting something in the 250, maybe 260 range from Volpe this year. If it's 240, would it be the shock at the century. I doubt he hits 220. Right. Let's catch people up on picks. I said there was a bunch of pitchers left. Well, they're not left anymore.

Scott took Tovar after that. Ian Hap, David Robertson. Chris took Reed Detmer's. I might have outsmarted myself. Scott, would you have taken Garrett Mitchell with either of these picks? I don't know. I wasn't planning my next pick yet at the point you took him. But he wouldn't have been far away for me thinking about him. Okay.

Well, because I was debating... If first hadn't mentioned he wanted a shortstop, maybe I would have. Yeah, I was abating Garrett Mitchell and Reed Detmer's. I'm inconsolable. Maybe I should have taken Debtmer. Anywho, after Detmer's goes, Jesse Winker, Luis Severino, Miles Michaels. One of the... What are we going with today?

Golden Girls. Golden Girls. Okay. Scott would disagree. Let's get into round 12. Luis Arise, Rysel Iglesias, who is going to start off with some low-grade shoulder inflammation. But they're expecting it to be a minimal stay on the IL, assuming no setbacks. We'll see what happens with Ryssel Iglesias.

Seizzi, who has been... swinging a bat, likely to start on the aisle with an oblique injury, but could be back sometime late April, maybe early May. Chris did get Jeremy Pena, lower OBP, but... Yeah, I'm... Gosh. I got thrown off because Estuary Ruiz win. I don't love it.

I was going to double tap Ruiz and Garrett Mitchell just for a bunch of steals. It's probably not a good strategy, but... I don't know. I thought it would have been fun. Anywho, I can't do that anymore. Pena, look, kind of free swinger. Again, lower OBP, probably gonna hit like 250, 260.

But power and speed, and as long as Altuvae's out, I think he's gonna be near the top of the Astros lineup. Yeah, this is actually the first time I've drafted him in a 20-23 draft. So I'm not super excited about it, but, you know, it's 70 picks after his ADP, even in an OVP league.

I think the value's fine. I just, I find it sort of under. underwhelming, but it's fine. Let's talk about another one of these picks here. After Pena went, Grayson Rodriguez, Estéuri Ruiz, Scott goes ahead and takes Merrill Kelly. So, you know,

once you see one of them out Rushmore, they all start to go. And because this is a quality start league, I think that, as you pointed out earlier, Frank, that's more reason to prioritize it. There are a couple pitchers that in a typical league,

I would take ahead of Merrill Kelly. for the upside, they're still out there. But I think I had to prioritize that his ability to pile up quality starts because he pitches deep into games and limits runs well enough. Scott, let's talk about Grayson Rodriguez because we got duped. We'll not be in the opening day rotation for the Baltimore Orioles. And he was officially optioned to AAA after a rough spring here. We heard, I don't know, late February that he was going to be in the Orioles rotation.

I guess a bad spring change their decision. What are we doing with Grays and Jason Rodriguez? Are we still drafting him and stashing him in the meantime? I don't think it's a bad idea. It's probably not on that much higher of a level than we're doing with Brandon Fott. I do think the Orioles, look, the Orioles wanted him in the rotation. They expected him to be in the rotation. That's why we were surprised.

The surprise was that Grayson Rodriguez didn't step up and take the job. None of his starts were particularly good this spring. And you don't want to put somebody who, a prospect who you value that much who think is that big of a part of your future, you don't want to put him in a position where he's just going to lose a ton of confidence. So it was surprising in the sense that the Orioles hadn't hinted they were going to send him down, but it wasn't surprising in the sense that, well, he didn't really earn the job. So, yeah. But I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I moved him down to the point where I want to be drafting him here, where he went.

I moved him down. So I do have him a little head of Brandon Fought, but Grayson Rodriguez is now behind Trevor Rogers for me. And the same range as like Nathan Avaldi and Jose Orkitti, that range of pitchers, obviously, depending on your format, you might want to prioritize upside upside. You might want to prioritize security more. I, but that's, I will say, I could see it being a situation where, like, a different situation obviously, but like remember Reid Dettmer's last year, we talk about when he went down and fixed himself.

It was one start. Now, Reed Dettmer, it was down. It was like 18 days or something, but he missed a couple of turns in the rotation. The way Mike Elias was talking about, he's the Baltimore GM,

was that would be their hope. You know, and obviously, look, general managers lie to the media constantly. It's part of the job. And, you know, it could be some kind of service time thing, although this is a team that is acutely aware that playing service time games can backfire.

I don't think they did that with Adley Ruchman, but he didn't play a full season last year. He got a full season of service time anyway because he finished top two and rookie the year voting. So they know, and every team knows, but they know that just keeping a guy down doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get that. extra year of service time.

And he had an injury. Rushman had an injury. So it was a different reason. No, that's what I mean. They didn't, they didn't. I mean, there was probably a little bit of it, but that either way, they, he didn't get the full year of service time. He didn't play the full year, but he still got the full year of service time.

That's what can happen now with the new rule. So the, the incentives are steered away from, uh, keeping guys down in a way that the Orioles saw last year firsthand. And I mean, I guess from the perspective of thinking about draft pick compensation, the Orioles are still going to have Gunner Henderson up on opening day. And he's the favorite to win the AL rookie of the year or at least finish top three. So either way, they're probably in good position to wind up with draft pick compensation. But in the meantime, Grayson Rodriguez is sent down. And hopefully he gets back on track and we'll see him soon in the majors. I think it'll be soon. I didn't move him down too much. After Scott took Merrill Kelly, we saw Justin Turner. Does play up a little bit in OBP, Camilo Duval,

Joey Meneses, who had a great WBC, hit some home runs against Team USA. I took Drew Rasmussen. I don't know how many quality starts he's going to get me, but I think I'll get it. Yeah, he had nine last year. That was specifically the player I was referring to who I'd normally take over Merrill Kelly.

Right. But because it's a quality start league. And, you know, maybe he gets better, but he pitches for the raise who are notorious for not letting pitchers face a lineup a third time through. That is fair. I believe it was his final six starts. Six or seven. He went six plus in every one of them but one. And I think one of them he had like a near no hitter.

So he went into the ninth inning. So we'll see if that carries over for Raspicin. But I do think he's a talented pitcher. Just let him go deeper into his starts. Paul Seawald, Alex Verdugo, Martine, Perra. Res, about Rushmore, Josh Young, and Ryan McMann. We are into round 13, Jordan Montgomery, who kind of has, like, a Rasperson thing on.

Like, I think he's a pretty good pitcher, but I don't know how often he's going to go six. I feel like he's... It kept him from beating wins last year. He had nine wins and 32 starts. Right. I feel like he's a classic, Jordan Montgomery, like five innings, two runs. It was like a solid start. Doesn't kill you, it doesn't help you.

He's just, he's fine. after Jordan Montgomery Brady Singer Jeff McNeil and Patrick Sandoval Sanneval is someone that we've talked up throughout spring training. He looked good in WBC. It looked awesome. Yeah. Talking about hopefully using his change up more this year and

developed that slider last season as well. And then David Bednar goes off the board. I wonder when I should start to consider relievers. I haven't really thought about it at all. But I am on the clock, so I should probably figure out what I want to do. What does this team need? I've got four pitchers. I don't think there's anyone I want to take here.

I need a utility bat. And... Brandon Drury is a calling, Frank. No, no, no, no, no. No, he's not. Maybe he's calling you. Not calling me. I'm going to go ahead and take J.D. Martinez on the bounce back from my utility spot.

I don't know why. It's definitely a psychological thing. Whenever I have a U-Till spot open, I kind of want to fill it with a U-Till-only player. You don't need to do that at all. But sometimes I just want to. I don't know why, but it's just like a mental thing that happens in my head.

But J.D. Martinez, I think this is the second time I've drafted him. I got them in our Memorial Magazine salary cap league that we did probably three, four weeks at this point now. Yeah, just buying the bounce back a little bit and look, we're around pick 200, so it's not a great investment, a crazy investment into him.

But hitting in the middle of the Dodgers lineup, hopefully could give me some counting stats and a solid OBP to boot. Well, I was debating J.D. Martinez and Jared Kelnick, and he just went, so there goes that. Love the value on Kadaisanga at 199. I continue to love the value for him across the board.

I wonder if there would be more hype around him if he had thrown. the forkball more during the spring because he didn't really use it all that much and it by all accounts is his best pitch and I don't know. I just, I get that he's older and there are a little bit of

injury concerns and some control questions about him, but like I don't know, man, can you imagine the reaction if we had like a 23 year old starter come out throwing like 95 to 99 miles per hour with a huge breaking ball and a really, really

good splitter? We'd be blowing our tops. We'd be pushing that guy into the top 150 and his downsides wouldn't be as ingrained yet. And I just think Khodai Singh is going to be a bad source of whips. That's mainly what it comes down to for me. I don't think he's a bad pick here, but this is about the point where I'd consider him in this

league. No, I think, like, I get why the cost is so minimal for him. I just, I do wonder if, like, we're outsmarting ourselves a little bit or that we're like not accounting for enough upside

for a guy making. Because like his strikeout numbers are good for Japan, but people don't strike out as often in Japan as well. So like he's like a 10.5K per nine guy in Japan. Well, he could be an 11k per nine guy in the majors with, with how much more guys strike out. Obviously it requires the stuff to translate, but I just,

I think there's plenty of upside there. I guess is the way I would put it. I think it's partly a reflex. of just how much deeper starting pitcher is that we don't have to. We don't have to invest so much in a... Taking a stab in the dark like that, particularly for a pitcher who does have pretty obvious downsides.

I mean, it's true. He could be like... He could stay healthier than we expect. He could approach 200 strikeouts and be, you know, a top 25 type starting pitcher and fantasy. That is a possibility. I just think it's... There are some pitchers left who were top 25 pitchers in fantasy last year.

Yeah, I just... It's weird that there's just like seemingly no hype about a guy who got a $75 million contract this offseason. Who also like throws 99, you know, can hit 99. A few tweets here from Anthony DeKomo who covers the Mets for MLB.com. Regarding Kodaisengu, who made a start in an Intrasquod game on Monday. He threw five scoreless innings against a team of prospects, so obviously not the greatest competition. But apparently he threw about a dozen ghost forkballs in that outing. So it's nice to see him start to use that pitch a little bit more.

I know he was dealing with a bit of a finger injury. They say sometimes it can happen when a pitcher comes over from Japan. They just grip the ball a little bit too hard. The baseballs are different. The baseballs are a little bigger here and they're slicker. Slicker. Yeah, they're not. They're pre-tapped in Japan is the way.

they refer to it, so they have better grip, yeah. Yeah. But after a Kodai single, let's catch people up. Jared Kelnik, Noah Cindergarde, Scott took Oscar Kolas. Finally. Finally. I liked him more. I liked him before anyone else did.

And this is the first time I got Oscar Kolas in a league we're playing out. Granted, he's, what, my fifth rookie at this point? I was going to say, Scott, how many prospects is too many prospects? It might be this many. Yeah. It might be. But Alaska. I have five, yeah, five prospects.

He's made the White Sox and should be a contributor. I don't know how much he's going to walk. He's more of a free swinger type, but I think the batting average should be higher. White Sox have a type. Yeah. Could hit for average, should hit for power, which I'm more concerned about anyway. I got a really sturdy OBP base, I feel like, between Freeman and Carol. So I'm not too stressed about OBP at this point.

If you are stressed about OBP in the Pick 200 range, you might as well just give up because there's no salvaging it at this point. Yeah. Again, a sharp room where the players who do get boosted up in OBP were drafted earlier. Guys like Gandhi Diaz, I remember when about pick 150 because it does walk a lot and obviously is better in a format like this. After Oscar Coloss, Alexis Diaz, Nico Horner, Chris took Trevor Rogers. for the hashtag brand, T.J. Friedel, Tyro Estrada, and Luis Garcia. We are into round 14. Ahmed Rosario. Tristan McKenzie picked 210. If you missed the news earlier,

he's dealing with a, it was a shoulder injury, right, Chris? Yeah, it's a muscle on the back of the shoulder. So not a ligament issue. Doesn't sound like it's as boring as it could be, but he's not going to throw it for two plus weeks and timeline is likely eight weeks until he's back. Okay. Well, after Tristan McKenzie, Brandon fought at pick 2-11, starting pitcher prospect for the Diamondbacks. And he's interesting, too, because this is a quality start format.

And he led the minors in innings pitch last year. And he goes deep for a prospect. So I think that that will be something that is part of his skill set this season. Alec Thomas went to Chris. Brandon Drury, Gabriel Moreno. Love it. Great pick at this point, 214. Jake Frailid Scott and Jack Flaherty.

Chris, talk to me about Alec Thomas. How much are you expecting him to play for the Diamondbacks from the jump here? Yeah, I do think there are some concerns about it. It's a bet on talent, though. If Alec Thomas is good, I think he's going to play quite a bit. He's a very, very talented player

who obviously did not play particularly well in his first taste of the majors last season, 619 OPS. However, he is. is still only 22. He turns 23 on August 28th, almost happy birthday to Alec Thomas, born in 2000. That makes me feel old. But he's put up really good numbers in the minors as a, as a young player. I mean, we're not talking about like a 24, 25 year old. He was 21 and 2021. And he had a 953 OPS between AA and AAA and AAA. Overall, he's played 61 games at AAA. He

has a 1024 OPS that's in Reno. That's in the PCL. All the caveats apply. it's inflated offense, but he's got the potential to be, you know, a guy who steals some bases, a guy who hits for a little bit of power and gets on base. So I do think Alex Thomas as someone in the later rounds should be on your radar. All right. For those watching us live on YouTube, you probably just saw me load up a bunch of relievers in my queue. And now that everyone could see, they're probably going to take all of them. But I just need to remind myself of who's available.

and I'm going to go ahead and take one of those names in Jason Adam, who was one of the best relievers in baseball last year. Amazing ratios, good amount of strikeouts, pitches for Tampa Bay. We have no idea if he will get saves for the team, but there's a good chance he gets hold. So I like drafting talented relievers on good teams in a format like this, and Jason Adam fits that description. Let's take our another break here.

We are into part two, but when we get back, we'll catch you off. on fantasy baseball today. All right, let's see. After Scott took Jake Freilly, we saw Jack Flaherty, Michael Conforto, Javier Baez,

I took Jason Adam, then Daniel Bard, Giovanni Gallegos. That's a good pick. I like that. And Edward Cabrera. I thought about Cabrera. I like him.

I know you like him, Chris. I think he's going to give us a good amount of strikeouts, but given how much he walks batters, I think that's going to limit his ability to go deep into starts. Yeah.

that's a concern for sure. And in the spring, I think his walks per nine was 3.6. Now he didn't even make enough innings to get to per nine, you know, 18, if that makes sense. So it's a very, very small sample size. But he did what we needed him to in spring training. You know, you talk about like Josh Young and some of those other guys that we talked about last week or earlier this week. I can't remember. he did what you wanted to see.

He got a ton of ground balls. He got a ton of weak contact, and he didn't give up that many walks. So I think Edward Cabrera is someone that, you know, this format probably doesn't help. But if he's good, you know, he'll get through,

he'll get through batters pretty easily because he's going to generate weak contact. You know, he could be like Sandy Alcantra in that way. And it's just a question of whether he can avoid walks well enough to, to take advantage. All right. After I took Jason Adam,

again, Bard and Gallegos, Edward Cabrera, Tony Gonselin at Pick 223. That's pretty late for someone who maybe misses a couple of weeks, maybe it's the first month. I was off Tony Gonson coming into the offseason because he was going to pick like,

I don't know, 130, 140 around, you know, other breakout hopefuls like Dustin May and Jeffrey Springs and guys like that. But, man, falling a hundred spots with the worry about this ankle injury.

Yeah. That's probably a bit of... I've been drafting him a lot more since he got injured than before it. Probably a bit of an overreaction there for Gonson. Well, I mean, the fact we saw Tristan McKenzie go a couple rounds earlier, I mean, Gonsolin should be back a month before, right?

Yeah, and it's a less worrisome injury. I mean, Gonsland did have, what, a forearm injury last season so that there are arm-related concerns as well, but the present injury for Tony Gonsolin is much less concerning than Tristan McKenzie's. Yeah. After Gonsal and Josh Naler to finish out round 14 and the first pick of round 15 is Evan Phillips.

What's the name? I was waiting for him to go. What's the name of this gentleman here? Casey Burt ends. Corey Cassaw. You're probably watching and you saw me put Evan Phillips in my cue. So you're a cheater and you took him from me.

I mean, it is A-plus holds. League, he's good pick. His numbers last year were phenomenal. 114 ERA.76 whip. He was Ryan Helsley like just, he doesn't appear to be in line for saves with the Dodgers. We don't really know what the Dodgers are going to do for saves, having said that. And we don't really care in a format that saves plus holds

because we know Phillips is going to be part of the back end, bolt next. Yes. I think it's great. Would you guys rather have Phillips or Jason Adam in Safe Plus Holtz? Phillips. I think they're right there. I think AJ Mentor is right there to name another guy who is not in Frank's Q. So if anybody wants to take that guy as well. Wait, hold on. I'm putting in my cue. That means you can't take him. Yeah. I think I think those guys are all ideal for this format. I got a lot of power, Frank. I got a lot of power. I got a lot of power. I got really nervous because because I thought I was on the clock.

And then I saw the red five seconds left and I'm like, oh, crap. But it wasn't me. It was. And I'll also throw out a guy who's had a very up and down career. But, you know, last season, I took this, I took James Karen Jack late in Tout Wars because that's a safe plus holds. Obviously, I think there are some concerns about the sticky stuff band that was put into effect in 2021. And they are apparently going to crack down once again. on that after standards lapsed, I think, and we've seen spin rates go back up.

James Caronchak is, according to the people who track this kind of stuff, using sticky stuff, I think, is the technical term. So we'll see how that works, but he was awesome last year when he came back. Another guy who could be a very good saves plus holds guy. All right. A couple other picks that happened here. What do we got? Ryan Mountcastle doesn't walk first.

much but ah poor guy man I mean playing in Camden with that just taking a chunk out of the ballpark it just kind of crushes the upside potential for Ryan Mountcastle after him Jean Seguero Scott Barlow I took a J. Minter thank you Chris needed that sir Anthony Dominguez and we're two picks away from Scott do you have a reliever yet no I don't know that I'll draft one until the last three rounds oh okay I'd I think that's what I did last year, and it turned out okay. There's some really good ones out there. Yeah, for sure.

I'm just kind of underwhelmed by the other names that are out there right now, so I figured I'd grab some elite relievers, but you might be right. I used to be that lax about saves and pure saves leagues. I've learned that doesn't fly anymore. But for saves plus holds, yeah, I mean, a lot of the best hold sources, we don't even know who they are yet. Again, it's target skills and strikeouts on good teams, and hopefully that translates. After I took mentor, Dominguez, Jorge Lopez, so we do see a lot of relievers going at this point.

Travis Darno, likely to be the backup catcher, maybe play a little DH against left-handed pitching for the Atlanta Braves. And Scott, your backup. Don't tell me to the prospect. What do we got? No, it's not. It's far from a prospect. I'm not sure he ever was a prospect. Allie della Cruz. Actually, I think he was a prospect for the Rockies back in the day. It's Tyler Anderson, the last of the Mount Rushmore. Going well after the second to last of the Mount Rushmore, Martin Perez. Can we get a, can we get a Mr. Anderson drop for Tyler Anderson? Probably.

Mr. Anderson. Mr. Anderson. I got to make that happen. Let's do it. Yeah. Yeah, I probably should have taken him. I think once Chris said AJ Mentor, my mind just got attached, and I was like, yep, I'm taking him. But good pick with Tyler Anderson. Should go deep pretty regularly for the Angels. After that, Andrew Benintendi, Oscar Gonzalez.

Sneaky pick, Chris. I like it. Hayden Wesneski, who had a great spring and was named to the Cubs rotation. And it's throwing harder. than he has. His sweeper was a really, really good pitch for him last year, but he talked in his most recent start about touching 97 miles per hour and reference the fact that at various times in the spring,

he's been over 99 miles an hour, which is a pretty massive jump for a guy who maxed out at 95.9 miles an hour last season. So that is definitely putting Hayden Wisniewski on my late round radar. He's one of the bigger spring risers for me. and someone that I'm going to draft here. Already did, actually. I love it. I just,

I picked him up in the head-to-head points, listener league. I think I had a six or $7 bid out of $100 on him. And so I need to move more. I've been moving him up, but not enough. I mean, like I still have him behind John Gray,

Jose Orquitie, guys who haven't gone yet. and Tyler Malley, who had a terrible spring. And I just think I like it. Like, it's sometimes hard with, you get to a certain range in the pitcher rankings when you're moving newcomers around. And it feels kind of like the way college football rankings work where, well, I haven't done anything to lose this.

Yeah. Upstart. Is Johnny come lately up ahead of them? And Hagen West Neskey's case, probably. And it's more of like, you know, we only get one set of rankings. It's we don't, we can't distinguish, oh, I'd rather have this guy in a shallow league where I can sell out for upside harder. I'd rather have this. And when you're drafting, drafting is different than ranking.

And so, you know, you can look at it and say, I might rather have Tyler Malley. But it also might be a situation where on March 27th, it might be easier to get Tyler Malley in the 18th round than Hayden West Ness. And I think another point to that, Chris, is if you play in a Roto or Head to Head to Head Categories League, you just can't draft off of straight rankings. I mean, it comes down to, you know, what category do I need at this point in the draft? I mean, I think most people realize that if they play in that format. But, you know, I think we might, for some new players who might not realize, yeah, I mean, you know, just because you have, you can't just draft your highest.

ranked player in a format like this. You just you got to fit your needs. So I think that's a little reminder there after you took Hayden Winsneski item out ofino Alex Cobb. People are decimating my queue. Brendan Donovan and then we are into round 16 Raphael Montero. That's a sneaky pick. I like that was a talented reliever last year. Place for the Astros. Trent Grisham, Trey Mancini, Mitch Hanager at pick 244. It's very late. Chris, you can and stash him in the meantime. Josiah Gray, Jose Brrios, went right before him.

All right, so pitchers are flying here. Yeah, I'm not going to mess around with this one. I'm going to go with the rising, the spring riser, who I'm most excited about because what he does with a radar gun is, he doesn't get enough credit for, and that's Graham Ashcraft, who has a, his main pitchers,

as a cutter that regularly hits triple digits. He came up from the miners last year. Had a couple good starts, but didn't get strikeouts with a ton of regularity, having all that velocity. Changed his slider grip heading into this spring, and this spring has 25 strikeouts in 17 to third innings. 25 strikeouts to two walks in 17 into third innings.

And I noticed the other day, Reds Media, was asking, Joey Votto who he thinks has the brightest future between Hunter Green, Nick Lodolo, and Graham Ashcraft. Just by virtue of Ashcraft getting lumped in with those other two, I think shows how the enthusiasm is building for him among those closest to the Reds. And I think he deserves more attention in fantasy. I agree. I was smirking a little bit while you drafted him because I love at this point in the draft season, we kind of have things that kind of set us off, right?

So once you see Josiah Gray go, I feel like, oh, well, now those kind of exciting pitchers who have made changes this spring are going to start to go. So then it just kind of sets off an alarm in your head. All right, let me go take Graham Ashcraft. You might have been ready to take them anyway, Scott, but I feel like that happens

a lot. You're right. It's like a little cue. It's like, okay, this is the right time to start making this move. Right, right, right. Yeah. But after Graham Ashcraft, Jose Orkite, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Will Myers. This is a player that I typically draft every year. It's kind of like my late round, Eloy Jimenez, its starting pitcher. One of these years, he'll stay healthy, right?

I think, hopefully. And that is John Gray. He was actually pretty good last year, his first season in Texas. His last couple of starts, he got blown up. So it made the numbers look worse than they were. but I think heading into those, I think it was final two or three starts, he had a three, five, or three six ERA.

So he was useful last year at times. John Gray was. And I kind of like him now that he is outside of Colorado. So going back to the well, after I took him Jose LeClerc, who looks like he'll be the closer to start for the Rangers, followed by Hunter Brown, and Josh Rojas.

I want to look up Hunter Brown and see what the latest is on him because he was scratched from a start last week with backsorness and it sounds like Lance McCullors could be back sooner than maybe we anticipated. The latest news on Hunter Brown is that he completed

a 25 pitch bullpen session on Sunday is expected to throw a simulated game this week. Assuming everything goes well during the simulated game should be good to go for Houston's first turn through the starting rotation. Brown could line up to start the Astros home opener against

the Tigers on April 3rd. All right. Nice match up there. Chris, the issues that I have with Hunter Brown are similar to Edward Cabrera where I think there's upside. I think there's strikeout potential. But he had bad control in the minor.

So if that could limit his ability to go deeper into start. So just kind of similar to Edward Cabrera, I guess, in that way. Yeah, I think he's fine in this. range. I think he's a perfectly reasonable dice roll. I think there are some who talk about him as more than a dice roll and that's where I kind of recoil and, you know, get a little like, you know, antsy, but I think he's a perfectly reasonable pick in this range. All right. We are into round 17. The last couple of picks here, Brett Beatty, who will start in the minors for the Mets.

But Eduardo Escobar is on a short leash. And look, I think if Daniel Vogelbach struggles, maybe they move Escobar over to DH, call up Brett Beat Beatty. There's a couple of different routes for him to get back to the Mets. Alex Lang, who should be the closer to start the season for the Tigers, though didn't have the greatest spring training. Cody Bellinger at Pick 257. That's pretty late.

So I'm hit a pretty Bellinger-esque home run on Sunday. See if that can carry over. Yasmadi Grandal, he's, if you need a catcher at this point, it's not terrible in OVPs. He's going to walk. I don't know if he's going to do anything else, but Asmadi Grondal is going to draw walks. That I can tell you for sure.

Ramon Luriano, a little bit of power and speed, Sunny Gray, Colton Wong, and I should probably stop talking because I'm up. I got to figure out who I want to take you. You're on the clock. I'm on the clock. I think I need more starting pitching depth. And which, I don't know.

Which one of these not so exciting pictures do I want to take? I go with this guy. I know Chris likes him. Yeah. Yeah, I was, I was looking at Jameson Tyone next as well. Yeah, this guy being Tyone as Scott referenced. Pretty good spring. And everybody this spring is now throwing a sweeping slider, including Jameson Tyone.

And that's the biggest things he's missed, right? is, you know, he's missed the swing and miss pitch, the putaway pitch. You know, the control was very good last year. He does a decent job with contact, gets a decent number of ground balls. It's just he doesn't have a pitch to put guys away with. And the sweeper hopefully can be that. Yep, that is the hope for James and Tyone. And something we probably haven't talked about enough with Cubs starting pitchers,

their defense should be much improved this year. With Danesby Swanson playing short, Cody Bellinger in center field. Defense up the middle should be very good for the cubbies. After I took Tyo and Ross Stripling, it's a nice little pick. I still do like him. Though he doesn't have great upside. He's more of a high floor pick than I think anything else. Vaughn Grissom, again starting in the minors, but probably a prospect you should be stashing.

Bruce Dar graderol could work his way into some save opportunities for the Dodgers. and Scott, let's check it on your team. I feel like it's... Yeah, why not? It's been a while since we've done that. It's very young. You'll notice... That we know.

The youth will jump out of you. It's got a little veteran leadership there with Merrill Kelly and Freddie Freeman, but... Freddy Freeman. Yeah. All right, so we're lacking a catcher. We're lacking a second baseman, though Miguel Vargas will earn that eligibility.

You've got Freddie Freeman at first, Jordan Walker at third, O'Neill Cruz at short. Lars Neupar in the outfield, followed by Corbynman Carroll, Oscar Colos. I know you got A. E. Johanio Suarez there on the bench.

Jake Fraley, Ezekiel Tovar. So some upside bats to go along with Tyler Anderson, Robbie Ray, Lance McCullors. Yeah, you just took McCullors. I know you like to do that later on in drafts. Merrill Kelly, Corbin Burns, Kirby, and

Graham Ashcraft. I like the way you balance the pitching staff because you've got like two, anchors, two aces and Burns and Robbie Ray, then you got some upside with Kirby and Ashcraft, and then you got a few more safe picks and quality starts and Tyler Anderson and Merle Kelly. So it's a nice little blend there.

Yeah, that was the idea. Like I said, you know, two hours ago or whatever. If I was going to invest at starting pitcher, I wanted to be in strikeout standouts. And so getting Burns and Ray, I think that's the most predictable of the pitching. categories from week to week. But all of my pitchers should be pretty safe bets for quality starts.

George Kirby's the big exception there, but I think he has a lot of, because he's so efficient, that could change for him here in year two getting a lot of quality starts. There's no shortage of upside on this team. It's just that the other side of the upside is downside because there are so many rookies. I mean, who is the, how many hitters do I have on my entire roster that we're confident we know what they're going to do? It's basically just Freddie Freeman. Now, I have really strong feelings about how Corbyn Carroll's going to perform. I think the floor is pretty high there.

Eugenio Suarez, you know, if he does what he did last year, he'll be a fine investment. But there's a lot of volatility in that profile. It's partly relying on the fact that this is a nine-man lineup, a nine-man hitter lineup. And so I want to make sure I get the impact in each of those spots. And if it doesn't work out, if I have to move on from Lars Neupar or whatever, I think the waiver wire is going to be okay for backfilling that

with boring players because it is only nine-man lineups and our benches are only so deep. So that's kind of what I was thinking. It wasn't, I didn't necessarily expect to draft as many rookies, but there is a method to the madness, even though this entire league is madness. And so like when you're not practiced in something, everything, it's hard to be especially disciplined when it's a format that you're not especially practiced in. Scott, madness.

Madness? Madness. It's madness, Frank. This is for the people. How can it be? Madness. After you selected Lance McCullors,

C.J. Abrams, Dylan Floro. Chris, you selected Tyler Malley, then Clark Schmidt. I know he had seven strikeouts here in his final

spring start on Monday. He's starting a new cutter. We'll be in the agency. Spencer Torkelson, Stephen Matts. Matt's is kind of a sneaky pick that we never talk about. He's been inconsistent

throughout his career, but I think this late, he's better in a Wins League because he pitches for the Cardinals. I think just drafting a pitcher on the Cardinals who can go five or six innings, good defense behind you. There's a good chance that that pitcher's going to get you win.

So better in that format, but, uh, yeah, yeah, exactly. Lots of interest. Also just has had a lot of trouble staying healthy over the years as well. So that's part of the issue too. After Stephen Mats, we are into round 18. Calquantrol, Andrew Heaney, Jorx and Profar. Ah, Jared Schuster. Sneaky pick there, Chris.

Yeah, I'm not. super excited about Jared Schuster, just like reading scanning reports and looking at the numbers. I think it's unlikely he's an impact player. But at this late, take a flyer on a little bit of a mystery box. I don't know how much of a mystery box, like a lefty who throws 93 actually is anymore. But, you know, we'll see. Hey, Scott loves Tyler Anderson and he throws, what, 90 miles per hour? That's fair.

The league loved Tyler Anderson last year. Yeah, yeah, they should be. I think, no, I mean, Jared Schuster is not like a conventional prospect. So I think skepticism is warranted. If he, if he thrives in the majors, it's because he has that deceptive lefty element going on. And watching some video from him this spring, like the way he hides the ball behind his hip could be it. Could be what allows Jared Schuster stuff to play up. And, you know, I'm saying this stuff isn't that good.

The change up legitimately is in a terrific pitch. It's just the fastball velocity is nothing special. And the slider, it's apparently shown some improvement. But, oh, I was up. Oh, I got Cowrally. That's fine. That's who I wanted to take anyway. I thought you timed out on purpose.

No, I didn't. I just didn't. I was ignoring the voice that said you are up because I was listening to the sound of my own voice. I'm in love with that. Who among us? Yeah. But no, I mean, Cal Raleigh, look, I had full-back options at Catcher. I had a couple of them.

that I like for this format and that I just like in general. I'll go ahead and say them since it doesn't affect me anymore. Their names are Blake Sable and Logan O'Hopi, but I think both have good on base skills. O'Hopi, great on base skills. And I was fading O'Hopi until we learned just today that Max Stassie's going to begin the year on the IL for the Angels. So O'Hopi is in now.

Oh, Hopi's on the roster. I presume he'll be getting the majority of the starts, given his stature. And I would have been fine with him as my catcher, but I can't complain about getting Cal Raleigh this late, the leading home run hitter at the position last year in a format where I want standout home run hitters probably above everything else.

And there are clear downsides to Raleigh, but 279th overall. Can't complain. Wow, that's a, yeah, nice little note there, Scott. I appreciate that on Max Stassie. Logan O'Hoppy is someone that we, loved earlier on in the off season. Big prospect for the Angels.

Last year in the minors, lots of power. Big OBP bad. I mean, he had an OBP over 400 in the minor leagues last year. So in a format like this, 16 teams, you only start one catcher, but O'BP, yeah, that will definitely play for Logan O'Hoppy. After Scott took Cal Raleigh, Luis O'Reas, Trevor Story, that's a good pick on story. 281, we have four IL spots.

Alex Vessia, who had great, ratios for the Dodgers last year. I am up, and I was hoping for this gentleman to make it to me. It is David Peterson, who was named the Mets 5th starter. I keep drafting him. I keep adding him wherever I can.

I feel like I added him somewhere last night. Or no, maybe I drafted him in the head-to-head points in the listener league as well. But I am drafting a lot of David Peterson. He's got that nasty slider. He looked really good in the spring. So hoping that carries over. Pitches for a good team with the Mets, obviously, too. So that is something that

can help as well. Let's take one more break, our final break here, and we'll talk about some Anthony Volpey team names because I need a team name and I've got Anthony Volpe. We'll do that next on Fantasy Baseball today. We got these on Twitter earlier today, and I'm probably going to need you to explain some of them because, you know, duh, it's me.

All right, so you see, this one doesn't work. Volpe fiction? I mean, if you want to do like the Volp fiction thing, but it works No Yeah Volt fiction would work Yeah

But that's not how you say his name No you could say Volpe fiction And people know what you're going after It's close enough All right I'm pretty harsh with team names But I think that works

All right Episode 4 A new Volpe E Sure Yeah that one's a little worse But It's got to be this next one Obviously

Volpe Gilmore That is I've seen this tweet already That's the one That's the one that sounds the best Of course, the one I like, Chris is not like. I don't know. It's not especially clever, but it sounds the best.

It does sound the best. I don't know if I could say this one, but hopefully I can. Big Volpeys, huh? Well, see you later. So that one, I don't get that one. Any funny reference, it's the dumb and dumber line. Big Alps. But yeah, I mean, it just doesn't, it just doesn't sound right

if you say Volpe's name, right. Oh, okay. Well, feel free to correct me of how it's supposed to be said. Volpewee's Big Adventure. Sure. Yeah, I get that one. How about this one? I just, I thought it was too much of a stretch.

You draft Volpe, you draft Max Muncie. The Volp Man and Muncie. Boom. I don't like team names that you have to read them three or four times to get it. Because most people don't have the patience for that. They're just going to be like, whatever. And the last one here is, I like the one that says some vulpe. Now, I wouldn't have gotten that reference a month ago.

I have, you know, I have been what? I have been binging the Sopranos. Mm. It's a, is it Tony Soprano prefers his orange juice, the one that says some pulp. Mm. As opposed to lots of pulp or whatever it was. Wow. What a, what a fake Sopranos.

What a fake Sopranos fan. I am, geez. I like it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, It's a deep cut, right? And so I appreciate that about it. That's probably my second favorite, but I think Vopi Gilmore is the winner there because it's more of a crowd pleaser.

Yeah, well, we'll continue workshopping this one. After I took David Peterson. Oh, man. I wanted to double tap Mets pitchers. That's not going to happen. Carlos Carrasco has gone. Daniel Hudson, Marco Gonzalez, Jock Peterson, Isaac Paratus.

I'm pretty sure that's ESOKAC Paredes. actually. Apologies. It's around 19. How many rounds this draft? I think it's 22. We still have four rounds left, man. It's been the longest. I'm hitting a wall, man. Should we keep broadcasting? I don't even know. We can do it. You've come this far. Yeah, why not? It's around 19. Kent to Maida. Somebody I wrote up as a sleeper. I think eventually he can get back on track. It's been a very bad spring though. I've got to point that out for Kentomite. Yes. Matthew Boyd, it's been a recent. It's been a recent.

Surgeon Spring, though he was scratched from his start the other day, and I don't think they revealed anything that was wrong with him. So that was kind of weird for Matthew Boyd. Seth Brown, followed by Eric Lauer. Jorge Solerer, that's a sneaky pick. Because when he's right, he draws a good amount of walks. Should give you some pop. And as I mentioned on Friday's podcast,

I think I have Soler in every one of my five outfielder leagues this year. He's a guy. Really need that guy to come through this year. Please, a Christian Walker-type bounceback from Jorge Salar. Let's make that happen. That would be, gosh, that would be amazing. I'm going to go ahead and take Kyle Braddish, who had a great spring until he didn't. He gave up like eight runs in one start.

So I know that he ranks very highly on Enosaris' Stuff Plus metric. And, you know, pitches in a good venue now in Camden. So I'm taking a shot. He had one horrible spring start that skewed his whole stat line. But the rest of the time, he looked great and was limiting. limiting hits the same way he did down the stretch last season. You look at his game log at the end of last season. A lot of, there are a couple near no hitters.

There are a lot of starts with just two hits allowed. Just seems to have that. Tristan McKenzie-like quality does Kyle Braddish. Yes, indeed. So hoping it works out for him. And the next pick after him was Justin Steele. I haven't drafted Justin Steele anywhere. I wonder if there should be more hype around it.

I know he has a really good slider, but I feel like he has nothing else. And that's the issue for Justin Steele. Yeah, the one pitch pitcher is always a tough one. I can't say I'm particularly enthusiastic about him. With that being said, you know, I've got to be fair. I drafted David Peterson and he might not have anything other than a really good side. We are at a point in the draft where I'm not particularly enthusiastic about anyone,

including the person that I'm likely to take with my next pick. So, you know It is what it is After Justin Steele Liam Hendricks goes off the board And should be able to stash him on the IL As he

recovers from Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma rooting for Liam Hendricks To get back out there whenever he can Marcus Strowman Kind of a high floor pitcher At this point Scott, you're back up

Give me some good news Yeah, I'm not... Tell me you got a fun name to talk about, someone you're about to draft. Maybe. I'm not sure who I want to be honest. I'm going to... Because I have several choices for a couple things.

I'm going to go ahead and take my second baseman here, even though it might just be for one week, because it is a player. I do have genuine enthusiasm for... So I'll be most hurt if I miss out on him. And that is Michael Massey. Nice. So he'll occupy second base for me.

until Miguel Vargas is able to slide over there. And, you know, if Michael Massey ends up having the kind of breakout, I think he could have, then maybe I'll just hold on to him. Vargas will be somebody who I can shift around as needed. Mm-hmm. All right. I've got Michael Massey and a few deeper draft and hold, so banking on him as well, potentially.

There is one kind of like Miguel Vargas. He's not eligible at second. base yet. But he's going to pick it up in short order. He just got awarded a roster spot today. He's been one of the most under-hyped rookies so far. I didn't need another rookie, but somebody could probably use this guy. Base dealer.

Should I reveal the name? I'm going to reveal the name. No, no, no. Wait, did you say it? Is that it? Oh, you said it. I think you did say it. Bryce Terang?

Bryce Terang, yeah, of the Brewers. So Joey Weimer didn't. make it, South Relic didn't make it, Bryce Terang did. And I think you put up Fyro Estrada type numbers as a rookie. Being their, as their primary second baseman,

will retain shortstop eligibility from his time in the minors. Might sit some against lefties, but if he performs well, that'll be less and less, I presume. I do have a little skepticism about the power, Scott. I know Tyro

Estrada got to double digit homers last year. I don't know if that's in the range of outcomes for Bryce Terang. You did a AAA last year. Okay. Got to 12, right? Yeah, I know he's fast, so should definitely steal a few bags. I'm really interested to see how the Brewers mix it up early in the season in terms of just playing time, because they have a few different ways that they can do things with Luis Arias, either at third or second,

playing Bryce Terang at second base. Brian Anderson is on the team, so they could use him at third or. right field. So they've got a few things there that they can kind of mess around with. After I took price to rang because I talked you into it. Well, he's someone that I've needed to move up anyway.

And I was going to take Yusai Kukuchi, who just got taken a pick before mine. I was trying to figure out if I could make him last another round and it turns out I couldn't. So that's probably for the best. I probably need to be protected from U.S. Kikuchi at this point because he's done a lot of damage to a lot of fantasy teams of mine over the last few years.

But, you know, what I was hedging on my last pick and decided to just go ahead and take Michael Massey, I was hedging between Yusay Kukuchi and this guy, Mitch Keller, I thought they were the last of the two big risers at starting pitcher. Kind of a Spider-Man meme there. Yeah, in terms of making us out in the past. But Mitch Keket, like, I don't know exactly what's going on with Yusay Kukuchi for him to be missing. bats at the ridiculous rate he has this spring. Mitch Keller is one of several pitchers who's as a cutter, and

it may have been enough to round it as Arsenal. His strikeout rate has been impressive this year. His cutter, he's basically led with the cutter. It's been his lead pitch. I know in his most recent start, it was responsible for six of his 12 whiffs on just 77 pitches. So good whiff rate there for Mitch Keller.

And because it's a quality start league, I don't have to care that he's pitching for the pirates. I mean, I could say the same for the Graham Ashcraft pick. That's, right. Pitchers on bad teams get elevated in a quality start league. Relatively speaking, yeah. I did want to point out with, you say Kikuchi, Scott.

You mentioned not sure what he's doing differently. I believe I saw that he's throwing his changeup more this spring. And last year, he only used it 13% of the time, but it had a 39.6% with rate and a 116 batting average against. He's always gotten. I mean, his strikeout rate, like, last year was massive. It was like a hundred and twenty-four strikeouts in a hundred innings or something.

It was huge. It was just. Yes, a throw strike. He gets hit so hard. Yeah. Like his, his expected Woba on his fastball was like 420.

His expected Wobon, his cutter was like 540, which is really bad. So, yeah, that's the problem for you say Kukuchi. He's always had good swing and miss stuff last year. He had a,

a whiff rate of like 30% or more on all of his pitches basically. It's just when he doesn't get whiffs, he gets crushed. Who is Miggies bomber? Miggies bombers. Alfredo. You were looking at my cue

because I had one player left and it was Michael King. I don't like that. No, good pick. Obviously, coming back from elbow surgery last year with the Yankees and he was really, really good. So see if he can carry that over again. I'm going to go

head and take a hitter. I don't have a hitter on my bench yet. And I've been intrigued by Nick Gordon. He has dual eligibility, second base, and outfield. So covers me in a few spots. If Jonathan, India doesn't bounce back the way I think he could, or if, you know, Garrett Mitchell gets off to a slow start, I could throw Nick Gordon in there. I think he's going to play early in the season. Sounds like the twins are going to use Byron Bucks in at DH early on. So I saw Nick Gordon started at center field on Monday. He could play a little second base while Polanco's banged up too. So. I am intrigued.

Someone who hit the ball hard last year and has openly admitted he's kind of selling out to try and lift the ball and hit it harder. So we'll see. With Nick Gordon, after I took him, we saw, oh, it's a good pick.

Forgot about him. I got to move him off the rankings. James Outman, named to the Dodgers opening day roster. And I'm hit. I'm going to hit a wall here. I'm trying to like think of like the words are in my brain,

but they're just not coming out at this point. What is that day when all the teams start playing again? I am losing it. James Outman. I am excited about James Outman. There was a quote from Dave Roberts where he said, we wouldn't have put James Outman on the roster if he wasn't going to play.

So he's a left-handed bat. I think if nothing else, if nothing more, he is going to be, he's going to start on the strong side of a platoon, either in center or one of the corners in the outfield. So I like Outman. And he had really good numbers in the minors last year. So very good pick.

I'm a fan. After he went Roanzi Contreras, sorry, Chris. I feel like that's the first draft you haven't gotten him in. Yeah, yeah. He was on my cue for sure. Michael Fulmer goes, could be the closer-ish for the Cubs. Michael Kopeck, who hasn't looked great in spring. And I think he's admitted he's not 100%.

coming back from knee surgery. Velocity has been down for him. Zach Eflin with Tampa Bay. Their biggest free agent signing in team history. We'll see if it means anything or not. And we are into round 21. Let's go, boys. Two rounds left.

Yeah, see, even the fact that it's a 22 round draft. Come on, Heath. What is this? Who does a 22 round draft? Yeah. Oh, that's the appropriate way to do a draft. you should never end a draft on an odd-numbered round. I have heard people say this.

Heath is right on this one. No, just from a fairness standpoint. The first pick's going to get the first pick and more rounds. Right. Yeah. Even in an odd-numbered round. Who cares who gets the first pick in round 21, honestly?

Heath does. Heath is a man of honor and integrity. It's a man of something, all right. For anyone listening who, look, I'm sure there's a lot of crossover between FBT and FFT listenership. So tweet at Heath Cummings. I think it's at Heath Cummings, SR on Twitter. And let them know that we had the For the People draft tonight. And I don't know, let them know whose team you like the best so far in this one.

If you could remember all of our picks. I mean, there's only been, I don't know, 325 of them so far. All right. Let's catch people up. Austin Meadows. Levenger, AJ Puck. That's kind of sneaky. I like that.

That's good one. Alex Kirolov. Scott. That's fine. It won't be yours. Carlos Santana, like the Yasmani Grandal pick earlier. He will draw walks.

I just don't know if Carlos Santana will do anything else this season. I am up. I felt like I saw a player that I wanted earlier. Now I have no idea who it is. So now.

I probably could use another. I think I only have two relievers so far. And I know that Scott's probably loading up to take his relievers. So, oh, man. I don't think I'm going to have enough time to figure this out. Oh, man. Uh-oh.

I'm on tilt. I'm on tilt. I saw a player somewhere that I wanted to take. Who was it? Uh-oh. I'm going to just go ahead and take Andrew McCutcheon. He's going to walk, right?

A little bit of power and speed. Whatever. It's going to do something. Yeah. I'm going to go and look at some projections and figure out who that reliever I wanted was. Ah, there he goes. He's all at the top.

Crap. Should have taken him. Any Hoosers. I took Andrew McCutcheon. It's kind of a boring pick. Scott, do you have any relievers yet? I do not. Am I going to change that

before the giraffe ends? Oh, so you lied. You said you were going to use your last three picks. Well, I said you were going to use your last three picks. Well, I said he wasn't going to take one until the last three picks. It doesn't necessarily mean he was going to take one with his last three picks. I'm pretty sure.

I said I might just take one with my last three picks. I think we can we can you know, nobody's, nobody's listening this deep into the podcast anyway, but. Shout out to those watching us. Scott, there's 259 people watching us live on YouTube right now. Oh my gosh.

What is wrong with them? You're complaining about live viewership? What's going on? Nobody takes those comments for me seriously. They take them about as seriously as I've taken this draft. Because it's an unsirious league. Ha-ha. Anywho.

Take that. Hey-hity fest. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Luis Renhifo is off the board. Pedal to the medal, guys. Close it out strong. I know. Wald Paraza.

Someone just got auto-drafted in round 21. I mean, come on. We're using a whole minute here. Let's go. But they're not going to take the whole minute next time. All right. I have analysis for my next pick. I don't know why Eric Swanson

isn't appreciated more as a setup man. I mean, clearly, Blue Jays. Appreciate him. They traded Teasca Hernandez for him this offseason. Eric Swanson last year with the Mariners 168 ERA.91 whip 11.7K per 9. And he is like the 8th inning guy for the Blue Jays.

They have well-defined bull. pin rolls there. And so hopefully he rocks up a lot of a lot of holds for me with good ratios. I think that is a very good pick in a saves plus holds format. After that, Josh Lowe, John Bernie. Oh, Josh Lowe did get picked.

I was really like struggling with, I wanted Josh Lowe, but I needed relievers because I only had one before I picked Hector Naris just now. So like, now I guess I'm free to just take another reliever. feels great no John is someone who

remember this time a year ago had a ton of hype then struggled really badly with the raise but he made their opening day roster so

I think he's he's worth keeping an eye on shout out to the score sheet league man big day I drafted Bryce Tarang and Josh Lowe and score sheet

so all right gonna get a gonna get some playing time out of those guys sweet after you took Hector Nairus Chris Brandon Bell All right

Not bad Some walks and some power Some OBP there Kyle Finnegan Likely the closer for the Nationals Slash Fireman reliever Sean Mania What's been going on with Sean Mania

I feel like his first start in the spring He was hitting 95 And then I didn't hear anything after that I think it maintained He just didn't perform all that well So it was hard to get too jazzed out it. He was another drive-line baseball product

was Sean Manaya. I believe. That's where the velocity came from. Hopefully I'm not speaking out of turn here. But yeah, I mean, I just, it was hard to muster much enthusiasm for him because the results weren't really there. All right. Yeah, looking at his spring training

numbers, 408 ERA, 0.96 whip. Not terrible. 14 strikeouts and 17 and 2 thirds for Sean Mania. All right, we're really cruising. now here we go. Cabr Ruiz, Logan O'Hoppy, great pick, Sal Freelick, Jose Alvarado. Was that you, Chris? That was me, Jose Alvarado, yes. A very, very high strikeout rate relief pitcher that I can

throw in there if I want to compete in saves and holds. All righty. Then Michael Brantley, Robert Suarez, who looks like he's going to start on the IL for the Padres. And Scott, you got another reliever. Brian Abrayu. He really found another gear down the stretch last year. Final two months of the season, a 0.76 ERA, about an even one whip,

and the strikeouts, well, the strikeouts are going to shock you, 13.3K per 9, and was working, you know, late innings. He had five holds in September alone. So hopefully, Ryan Abreu can be another cheap play here for holds.

And if he's not, I'm sure I'll be able to turn to some Jimmy Hergut type off the waiver wire. All right. Well, it all worked out because the reliever I wanted last round was Ronaldo Lopez. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. I'm surprised to overlook him, actually. I guess I thought he was already gone. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, good pick. Thank you, sir. And the other picks recently, Taylor Rogers, John Schreiber. Okay. I had a good year last year. I know about relievers mostly because of Scoresheet and then probably like two people listening know what Scoresheet is.

But it's a tremendous way to play fantasy behind only CBS Sports.com as far as I'm concerned. It's more like you simulate games based on the previous week's results. So you have a full bullpen, a starting lineup, and it forces you to know relievers because you need to build a full bullpen. Yeah, I know you mentioned the other day

that Ron Maranaccio is your closer on like three of your team's there. You can designate any pitcher or whatever role you want. So yeah, I got Maranaccio somebody you could take here for holds, potentially. He's still out there. I thought you were going to take him.

Well, I went Brian Abraeu instead. But there's going to be a lot of maranacios on the waiver wire. After many maranacios. Maronacios got the cheese. Hey. After Ronaldo Lopez. Adelberto Mondesie.

Danny Janssen. Brooks Raleigh, nice pick. Ellie Harris Montero, very nice pick. Was named the Rockies MVP of spring training. Followed by Luis Garcia. Which Luis Garcia is that? Not that I should care, but... It's the shortstop.

The Nationals, Luis Garcia. Because I did want to point out with Robert Suarez starting on the IL. The other, other Luis Garcia is probably to be the setup man for the Padres. Yeah. For the first. Love three players with identical names. What can go wrong? I want to give a shout out to in the chat right now.

This is Aubrey and I hung in there. I am eight years old, by the way. Thanks for letting us play. That is fantastic. I believe his father's name is Chris. So Chris and Aubrey drafting together there. It's really late. So make sure you get some sleep there.

And hopefully, hopefully they're on the West Coast. Yeah. There is someone in the draft who is drafting from Great Britain. And it's like five in the morning there. So, wow. Thanks for hanging out. That is awesome. Yes.

And thank you to everyone watching us live on YouTube. I mean, still 250 people watching us live are like two hours and 40 minutes in. I don't know. Should we recap the teams or should we just wrap it up, boys? What do you think? I'll let you decide. Don't, don't ask me that question. Let's recap the team.

All right. Let's recap the teams and we'll start with Chris, who is drafting 13th overall. And what was your team name again? Oh yeah, Lavender Hayes. And we are gonna start at the top. Will Smith the catcher, Paul Goldschmidt, Brandon Lau, Spencer Steer, Jeremy Pena, Chris Bryant, Alec, Alec Thomas, Riley Green, Mitch Hanager, that is the offense. I really like the way it started Chris and then- Well, there's a player missing.

who's pretty important, who will be there in about three weeks. And that's Fernetta Tatis, who I just, I moved to the bench just for my own edification while I'm building. So I knew where my specific holes were now. If Jeremy Pena is, you know, worth starting, I should be able to put Fernando Tatis in an outfield spot. And that'll make it all feel a little better. You didn't seem to put much emphasis on stolen bases.

I mean, Tatis should have. help with that when he's back. But doesn't look like a category you're going to compete in often. Yeah, I mean, I'm hoping like if Alec Thomas plays every day, hopefully he'll give me some steals. Jeremy Payne should give me a decent amount of steals. Maybe Riley Green will chip in. But yeah, it's not a great stolen basis team for sure. Let's move over to the pitching staff. And wow, the two names up at the top there. This is a classic Chris Towers pitching staff. No guts, no glory. Chris Sale.

Jacob de Grom. Ryan Helsie. Framber Valdez. You backed it up there. That is, he's about the safest innings eater outside of Sandy Alconter that you can find. Trevor Rogers, Reed Detmer's, and Hayden Wisniewski. So you got technically potentially three aces here, Chris, de Grom, Sale, and Framber. And then you did your old wait and pick up some upside pitchers later on.

Yeah. Yeah, I think it's a pretty good pitching staff. I would say, you know, obviously absent Fernando Tatis, I think the pitching staff is probably more of a strength than the hitting. But, you know, with Sailing to Gramas as the anchors, it could go. Well, I guess Framber is probably more of an anchor than sail. But, you know, it could definitely go south fairly quickly. So a lot of upside, a lot of risk there.

All right. Well, I mentioned you got Helsley as one reliever. And then on the bench, you've got Hector Neris and Jose Alvarado, hoping to chip in some holds from those guys. as well. Let's move over to Scott's team and was drafting 10th overall. Starts with Cal Raleigh, big dumper. Freddie Freeman. That's his nickname. A terrible nickname. That's the best nickname in sports. That's a fun nickname. Come on. Michael Massey at second base. Jordan Walker at third. O'Neill Cruz, Lars Neupar, Corbyn, Carole, Oscar Coloss,

Mikel Vargas, who will gain second base eligibility. Any other prospect? on the bench. Yeah, Zekeel Tovar. You got A. E. Oh, Hayno Suarez for some pop there. Jake Freilly. This, um, this is kind of like Chris's pitching staff where there, there is some risk, but, you know, there is upside as well. So it's very, very hitter. Yeah. I mean, I took a very safe hitter in round one with Freddie Freeman. Uh, it wasn't able to play the usual position scarcity game because I just didn't see the value there at 10th overall. Uh, and, you know, the fact I didn't take a hitter in round I took Corbin Burns instead meant that, you know, it's kind of a, it's kind of a team I'm not used to. It's probably the first time where I didn't take a stud third basement in round two and still ended up with one I feel pretty good about. And Jordan Walker, obviously not a proven commodity.

Obviously not a lot of proven commodities anywhere within my hitter ranks. but as I said at some point in the middle of this marathon because there are only nine hitter spots to fill I think the waiver wire should be I think it should have some decent options like decent boring options available at points during the season if I can't find a way to make the fill out the nine hitter spots from this group of what 12 hitters that I drafted

and I will say like it's an uncomfortable draft format anyway, you know, given how often how, how rarely we're doing OBP drafts, how rarely we're doing head to head or saves and holds drafts, how rarely we're doing 16 team drafts. So like, there's, there's something to be said for just leaning into the discomfort. And, uh, you know, like, yeah, were you ever going to feel good about a team in this league? Well, that, yeah. Given how uncertain it is with the, with the, with the, the categories, it's, you know, it might be

a smart strategy. You know, that's, I think I said it half jokingly a little later in the marathon. But when it's a format, I'm not all that practiced in. It's hard to be that disciplined in it. And, you know, I play in another league kind of like that. It's my home league. It's the league I've played in the longest. So I have a little more practice than that sense.

But it's obviously not when I'm drafting over and over again the same year. It's a 10-te-to-head points league where strikeouts are worth minus one for hitters and plus one for pitchers. it's usually minus half for hitters plus half for pitchers. And it makes a big difference, especially in a league that shallow. It really thins out the hitting pool especially. And so you find yourself just kind of selling out for format specialists in a way that you'd laugh if you saw someone else do it. But just the, when you're not that practiced and it's hard to know what to anticipate what's going to happen and you just kind of go with your gut.

And so, you know, I also joke that I'm not taking this draft all that seriously. I mean, I want to win, but at the same time, because it's not a format I'm that practiced in, I'm not, it's the path to winning isn't as clear to me. Let's take a look at your pitching staff, Scott, which I actually like quite a bit. You wound up with Corbyn Burns, Robbie Ray, George Kirby. You balance it out with some high floor. and then upside pitchers with Tyler Anderson and Merrill Kelly, two of the Mount Rushmore. You've got Graham Ashcraft in there. Mitch Keller is on the bench.

And yes, that is all the pitchers. And then starting pitchers, and then your relievers, Eric Swanson and Brian Abraeu, who should give you some holds. Lance McCullors as well. We have four IL spots in this league. Yep. I'm going to pick up another reliever probably once I all McCullors. Scott, I noticed that your pitching staff was better in the draft that we did last.

as well in the head-to-head points listener league. Is this like a conscious change throughout draft season where you wanted to wind up with more pitching? Oh, no. All right, so it just worked out that way. I mean, who was the first pitcher I drafted in the points league? I think it was quite a bit later.

I think it was, I went, I don't remember exactly. It was like Zach Granky and Robbie, or Zach Allen and Robbie Ray back-to-back in round six and seven of a points league. So I clearly waited there, and it just happened that the pitching staff came out pretty strong. In this case, and I mean, maybe partly in the other case, too,

just deeper into the draft, it may be, okay, we're drafting against podcast listeners who've been hearing me say all draft season. I'm fading pitchers this year. I'm not investing big in pitchers this year. I'm pushing the envelope. I'm waiting as long as I can, and I'm always happy with the way my pitching staff turns out.

And so it may have just been the case of everyone else, kind of fading, pitching more than usual because they've had that message hammered home. And so I was just kind of taking advantage of players who were falling. It was a long con, basically, is what I'm saying. And everybody felt, no, it wasn't really. I legitimately am fading pitching this year. But yeah, I think this pitching staff came together nicely.

And I don't regret taking Burns in round two. It's the earliest I've taken a pitcher in a snake draft this year, but I think given the sort of the weirdness of the league and how few hitter spots there are to fill and because it's such a deep league, how deep we had to go into the pitcher ranks, I think it worked out fine. I think Burns, in retrospect,

was the appropriate pick there for me. I actually just got the draft recap email Nobody looks better coming out of the draft than Fernando Tautis and Lavender Hays. There you go. Winner, winner, chicken dinner for Chris Cars. Stop the vote. All right, let's wrap up with my team.

I was drafting sixth overall and really leaned into the OBP aspect of this draft. We'll start up top. I've got M.J. Melendez, Matt Olson, Jonathan India, Alex Bregman, Anthony Volpe, Hunter Renfro, Juan Soto, Garrett Mitchell and J.D. Martinez. It feels like I'm missing a player, but maybe that's just because I

pulled players up the board for OBP. I think it's fine. I don't know that there's many standout across the board contributors. I think there's a good amount of power. Tried to chip in some speed with Anthony Volpey and Garrett Mitchell. It's okay. I think it's solid. I think it's the best hitting group of any of our three teams. All right, well, thank you, Chris. I appreciate it.

Let's take a look at the pitching staff. I took you Darvish and Max Fried. Back to back in rounds four and five, looking for a bunch of quality starts out of those two. Also drafted Jeffrey Springs and Jurasmussen, my Tampa Bay Reyes combo. Hopefully they can go a little bit deeper into the starts. Love it.

The cat feeder just went off. We're feeding cats. That means it's close to midnight. What are we doing? It's pretty late here. Who else did I get? I got John Gray. I got Jameson Tyone.

I got David Peterson, Kyle Bradish. So Tyone and who else did I mention? Yeah, Tyone's kind of the boring guy. And then Bradish and Peterson for a little bit of upside on the bench. The relievers Jason Adam and A.J. Minter and Ronaldo Lopez. So I got relievers on good teams that I think are going to have great ratios and strikeouts. I like your team best on paper. Yeah.

I do. I agree with Chris. The hitting is really strong. and the pitching. I mean, like I said, it's hard. I feel like it's hard to mess up pitching this year, but to the extent you can do it,

you didn't do it. You got two high-end types of Max Frieden U Darvish. Jeffrey Springs has high-end potential. Some would argue your Rasmussen does too, though I'm skeptical of that. Maybe I wish you had a little more, you're starting pitching depth isn't that bad. I got Jameson Tyone and Kyle Bradish on their bench.

on your bench, they could be good sources of quality starts. Yep. David Peterson. So it's good. I miss John Gray, too, who, I mean, if he's going right, he probably should give you quality starts as well. So was your second round pick, refresh my memory? Was it Matt Olson?

Yep. And then I took Bregman in the third. And obviously, Olson, it wouldn't have been, you wouldn't have considered him if it wasn't an OPP league as early as round two. But I think it worked out for you because you got that. I felt like I was. even for devoting my first round pick to Freddie Freeman, I felt like I was kind of chasing power the whole draft

and never quite able to catch up. And, you know, Freddie Freeman, who knows if he'll be more like the 20-homer guy he was last year or the 30-homer guy we've known him to be in more recent years. But if it's the former, then I'm going to really need a good outcome for O'Neill Cruz, a good outcome for like Lars Nupar as a power hitter. Or I might be struggling to keep up.

And what I think is the most important hitting category, period, but especially in a head-to-head categories league, because if you have a bunch of like just 30 to 40 homer type sluggers, it's not likely you're going to lose that category very often. it's a little more predictable than stolen bases or batting average. All right. Well, we're going to wrap there. It's been a very long night.

Thank you to everyone for sticking around and listening to the end of both parts of this podcast. For Scott and Chris, I am Frank. Thanks as always for watching and listening to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.