Fantasy Baseball Today - Live 16-Team H2H Categories Draft Part 2! Rounds 8-22 Picks & Strategy (4/6 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 6, 2022

Woah there, Jo Adell has climbed into the eighth round (0:30). ... Spencer Torkelson is also on the rise as Chris took him in round 10 (15:05). ... Scott kicks off the 12th round with Jesus Luzardo (35:00). ... Chris Sale lasted all the way to the 13/14 turn (46:45). ... Triston McKenzie, Matt Brash and other young, fun pitchers go in rounds 16 and 17 (59:50). ... Round 18 was dominated by saves plus holds relievers (1:10:30). We break down the final three rounds and took a look at our teams (1:22:27). '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. All right, we are into our two of our For the People League, 16 team head-to-head categories. We're in round eight, so I think this one's going to go quite some time here.

and it seems like you start a little bit of a catcher run here, Scott. So you take Dalton Varsho and then Mitch Hanager goes off the board. We only do start one catcher, thankfully. Imagine we started two catchers in a 16 team league. Every major league starting catcher

is rostered. Oh my. Probably some backups. Probably get like Jan Goans in there teaming up with Wilson Contrars. Wilson Contrars, I don't think it's gone yet, right? Oh, whoa, whoa, no name dropping. Come on, guys. Okay. That's all right.

There are 15. team only leagues where you start two catchers. Some people like that. I don't want to shame anyone for what they're into. I think at that point, Chris, don't you just try to find just a catcher tandem that you like at that point? If you're playing a league that deep,

just kind of ride with both. I would try to find a different league, personally. That's fair. I love how you just said, don't disparage those people, and then you said you would find a different league. Yeah, I would find a different league.

So we got a guy with a look at my team comment. His first seven picks were his seven pitchers. Oh, wow. And he just took his first hitter, Reese Hoskins. Okay, I'm going to get to that team in just a second. I've got to make my pick here. I'm struggling a little bit because there's a different people. Honestly, even though I have first base field,

I was strongly considering taking Reese Hoskins with my next pick. Oh, he just walked so much. All right. shortstop is dwindling. I'm going to go ahead and select Willie Adomis. I regret not taking Carlos Correa a little bit with my last pick.

But I was between a few players there. You know, I think in hindsight, the Sayas Suzuki pick was probably I don't think a little cute. Yeah, I don't think it was necessary. Yeah. Probably got a little too cute with that pick, but

we'll see how it turns out. So far, I've got Goldschmidt, Jorge Polanco, Willie Adamus. Eloi Jimenez, Seyoszuki, Otani, and then two pitchers, Charlie Morton, and Sandy Alcantara. All right, let's see. Whose team is that?

Andrew. Andrew Skaliki. There you go. Let's take a look at that team. And, okay, the pitching staff. Let's run through this here. Kevin Gosman, Frankie Montas, Edwin Diaz, Reiseliglacius,

Walker, Bueller, Shane Bieber, Jordan Romano. It's awesome. It's awesome. I mean, you've got four top 25 starting pitchers and then you have three top 10 relievers.

And your first hitter is Reese Hoskins. So this is a team we will come back to later on in the draft and we'll see how this lineup, how this offense comes together here. I mean, in theory, he should win, like even if some of those pitchers have a bad year, a worse year than we're expecting.

In theory, he should be in great position to win quality starts, saves plus holds, and strikeouts every week. And then ERA and WIP, I mean, there's only so much control you have over that. So he's going to lose those categories sometimes. But those other three he should have a, you know, and then, of course, I win ERA and WIP, his fair share as well. So it's just a matter of what the hitting ends up looking like. Obviously, Reese Hoskins is a fine choice in an OBP league like this, but he's got eight other spots to fill. So we'll see how it goes. It'll be interesting to watch.

Oh, yes. And all right, Wilson Gutierrez finally goes off the board as well. Pick 123. I am the only one out of us three here that does not have a catcher. Chris, that is a great pick, man. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. So I am looking at you. Look, I took my third outfielder.

I took Joey Gallo, 124th overall. And I had been considering him for three rounds. it was mostly just this is the thing about this format when we have to throw our ADP out the window is like how do you handle a guy like that?

Because I think Joey Gallo is probably a top 60 if not top 50 hitter in an OBP league. So how do I handle that when he falls 60 spots from where I think he should go? Could I have risked letting him go another eight picks?

maybe. It doesn't seem like I could have let him go another round after that. Frank wanted him. You should have taken him. I forgot to elevate him for this draft, to be perfectly honest. Yeah. I did have the misfortune of having him in this league in 2020, which was the year he had the 300 on base percentage.

Yeah. Did not enjoy that experience so much. It may have poisoned me against Joey Gallo. It's 389 in 2019. He's not going to do that again, but 351 last year with 38. homers, 90 runs, 77 RBI, even six steals. That's really good. Yep. I should have taken him over, say, Suzuki.

100%. That is, I mess up there. In this format, OBP, I mentioned I've, I got the projections pulled up. He is projected as a top 10 outfielder, top 10 in OBP leagues. Better than Oscar Hernandez, better than Luis Robert, better than Chris Bryant in this format. Now, you have to agree with those projections, but, man, he is Joey Gallo. someone who sees a huge, huge boost in this format. The other picks, I think I missed a few here. I selected Willie Adamas earlier in the round.

Then Justin Turner went. Pablo Lopez, Nathan Avaldi, Jazz Chisholm, Wilson Gutierrez, Chris selected Joey Gallo, Cody Bellinger, and then Luke Voight. And that is, no, he's not the last of the profit pocket yet, but we're getting there. There's a couple more. C.J. C. Cron probably loses. I'm name-dropping, I know. CJ C.J. Cron. Name dropping isn't. What are we calling it?

Name. What was the term you used earlier, Frank? It wasn't name dropping. That means something else. I think I said name dropping, yeah. Okay. You know, I was going to say, and historically he has been a bad source of OBP, C.J. C. Cron. But he actually walked a lot last year in addition to everything else. He had a 375 OBP. So that's definitely not low. If he can do it again. Mm-hmm. All right. And then Fran Morayas goes, I believe that. pick. Reyes is someone who walks a little bit less than you would expect.

He doesn't walk that much. He's gotten better actually. Yeah, past two seasons, 10% walk rate in 2020, 9.2% last year. That's doable. You know, 324 OBP last season and that'll play. 30 homers and 115 games. So man, if he's on the field, you know, Fran Mill 35 plus home runs. He is just, I feel like he's undervalued. You know, typically all the util only, batters are. But yeah, Fran Mill is one of the safest bets, I would say, for 30 or 35 homers.

I wanted Matt Chapman, too. I would take the Chapman with my next pick. All right. Well, that makes me feel a little bit better, so I wouldn't have gotten him. Jeez. Everything goes back to that say of Suzuki. He benefits in an OVP league as well. Even if you don't think he's going to bounce back in a huge way,

he's still a much better player in OVP. Yep, big time. Now with the Toronto Blue Jays You're hoping And I do expect a bounce back Yes likewise You're hoping one year further removed From the hip surgery for Matt Chapman

He can you know Decrease those strikeouts a little bit Hit for a little bit more batting average Power should still be very good Counting stats in that Blue Jays lineup Also great And last year I believe in the Second half he was sixth

In barrel rate Among qualified hitters So showing some signs that like the power was coming back. It's just the strikeouts. Matt Chapman has to improve on the strikeouts. After he goes, Giovanni Gallegos and then Eddie Rosario. Scott, let's talk about Gallegos in this format.

Your team name here, Lego My Gallegos. So shout out to the gent. And he is someone who saves plus holds. You don't really care what he's getting between those two. As long as he's pitching well like he has the past three or four seasons, he's going to be very valuable in this format. Yeah, it's a good point. I don't know that I have much to add to it.

There are other pitchers like that. I don't know if you want me to drop the names. But Andrew Kittridge. Scott, it's got a big name dropper today. I don't know. It's for the good of the show, Frank. That's fair. That is fair.

Patrick Sandoval. Oh, my God. The race, the race. Face to Sandoval. That was... I was wondering who was going to wind up with him. 131st overall. That sounds about right, Chris.

I think that's close to where you have him in your rankings. That is pretty much where I would take him. I would have taken him if he had fallen to, what, 133rd? So I'm very upset with this person. Luis Severino is the next pick. And Chris, you are back up. Let's pull up the... team.

You've got Yasmani Grandal, Joey Gallo, John Carlo Stanton, George Springer, Joey, did I just say Gallo? I feel like Gallo and Votto.

Names are so similar. Anyway, those are your hitters, and then you have Verlander, Liam Hendricks, and Garrett Cole. Are you looking at infield or going back to pitcher here? Well, I'm going to go back to pitcher.

I'm going to take a much less exciting player than Patrick Sandvall, but someone that I do like quite a bit. So that's Eduardo Rodriguez. Yeah. I'm disappointed. Would prefer to have had Patrick's hand of all, but it's fine.

It's fine. I understand it's nothing personal. Jeez, I'm getting crushed. All right. After Eduardo Rodriguez, Sean Mania, these are all, I'm just making, I'm off by like one decision,

basically every pick in this draft, and it's not going well. Well, there's another picture you really like who's there. Hmm. Yeah, I see him. I see him. We'll see. You don't have to take him.

I don't. I need third base. Let's see what's going on there. All right. That's not looking too hot right now. Josh Donaldson, Cabrian Hayes. Name dropping. But it was the best.

Luis Garcia goes, starting pitcher with the Houston Astros. And there's Jesse Winker. I was wondering when that was going to happen. Yeah. And an OBP, so my version of Tout Wars uses OBP instead of batting average as a 15-te-team Roto. Jesse Winker went in round three in that league. I believe it was before he was traded to Seattle. And I certainly wouldn't have endorsed him going in round three. But to see him go 136th in this particular OBP league, I still think that's really good value. All right. And then, John, Josh Bell goes, so we are down to one in the profit pocket. Whoever needs a first baseman, step right up.

He's yours. Tyler Malley is the next pick. And now it's decision time once again. Now it's up to you, Frank. Do I take the... What's it going to be, Frank? Do I take that pitcher that Scott is referring to? Or do I go somewhere else?

I want to name names or anything. Yeah, I'm going to do it. No, you don't need to do it. I'm going to select Logan Gilbert. I thought I could use a little reverse psychology on you. It almost worked. It almost worked. He is my third starting pitcher to go along with Charlie Morton and Sandy Alcantzra.

Sandy. Sandy. And, you know, basically since that first start in spring, Logan Gilbert has looked much worse. So I probably should be transparent about that. He's been giving up some home runs. So, you know, maybe jump the gun a little bit on Logan Gilbert. But I still do like the individual pieces, the three different pitches that he has. He's just got to put it together.

Logan Gilbert has to figure out a way to put it all together. If he does that, I think the breakout is imminent. After Logan Gilbert, Danesby Swanson, Nelson Cruz, and step right up, Mrs. Torkelson, because you've done. got CJ Cron. Oh, and then another more interesting, CJ went right afterward. Oh, CJ Abrams.

All right, 143rd overall. You guys can... Playing a decent amount of outfield in the spring training, hasn't he? Correct me if I'm wrong, but we don't have official news on C.J. Abrams yet, right? They haven't named him to the opening day roster?

No, I mean, El Paso's first game was today, I believe, and he wasn't on the roster, so... That's true. All right. So we wait on C.J. Abrams. But yeah, he's bouncing around. He's playing a little shortstop, some outfield. Scott, you are on the clock here.

The end of round nine. Yeah, so I was hoping to get one of Cruz or Cron, whoever made it to me, and neither of them did. And Abrams was pretty high on my list, too. I'm going to fill out my outfield, I think, here. I feel like we're... Good Ovap guy when he's on and certainly power. There's a guy we're overlooking.

I'm at all this other. Is he an outfielder? No. Okay. I'm thinking we need to make an addition to the profit pocket in the final few days of the draft. Oh, come on, Chris. We can't make it six people deep.

That's just too much. Can we? Maybe it should be. I know what you're talking about. Oh, I think I know too. But I'm not going to take him. I moved them way up the rankings. Just the other day.

Should I take him? I don't know. Should you sky? I'm not going to take him. I think he mentioned it. I'm going to take Randall Gritchick instead. So a couple outfielders here, Jorge Salare, Randall, Randall Gritchick. I got both of those new incoming Rockies hoping the Cors Field boosts their stats.

And, yeah, I got all put my utility spot filled here now. Only have those two pitchers that I took with my first two picks. So I get a little concerned about that. That's the Chris Tower strategy. Yeah, he's got the two. and now we wait. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you change the scoring on me. Everything goes topsy-turvy.

Scott's going with Hero SP. I like it. And then the very next pick is Jake McGee. Well, that makes sense. I guess it shouldn't matter. Again, we're doing saves plus holds here. So regardless, I think the ratio should be pretty strong. Strikeout should be there.

The Giants still projected to be one of the best teams in baseball. I'm still not feeling a lot of urgency. a relief pitcher. Maybe I'll start too soon. It's so hard. It's so hard to know. Closers are going later, but still

relatively where they should. But like we haven't seen a non-closer go yet, have we? I, no. No, we haven't. But I'm with... Scott, you would never guess this, but I'm with you. I just, I don't really feel like

drafting a relief pitcher yet. There's just, there's going to be so many later on that, like, we're just not used to drafting that. And there are going to be ones emerging on waivers to who, who was the leader in holds last year? Luke Jackson, right? Yeah, I think. Nobody was drafting Luke Jackson last year. Come on. I think three Atlanta Braves were in the top 10 or something.

Like, they had an absurd number of, of holds last year. All right. I didn't plan this, but I guess I'm going to be the Homer pick in our two listener leagues. I'm going to wind up with Josh Donaldson on both teams. So I needed a third baseman. He's the last, I guess the last serviceable option that's here, at least in my eyes.

I mean, there's still, Brian Hayes, Juan Montcata, T.J. Lamehue, it's, you know, no one that really stands out. Donaldson has to stay healthy, of course, but the stat cast numbers were awesome last year. I think he'll still hit for power. He still walks a decent amount, so I'm fine with the pick here. I'm happy to get him.

I still wish I got Matt Chapman, but alas, here we are. A couple other picks after Jake McGee went, Cabot Ruiz, Tommy Edmund, Hunter Renfro, Aitonelson, and then Ty France was the next pick. Have we mentioned Donaldson? Maybe you just mentioned it, and I was staring at my rankings.

He's supposed to bat lead off for the Yankees? That's the plan? We mentioned it on a podcast recently, but yeah, he's been batting leadoff in spring. Ultimately, Like, if Donaldston stays healthy, he's going to be awesome. I don't think it really matters where he's batting. But that's a big if and not what I'm willing to bet on.

Not that I'm saying it's a bad pick around 150. But just like, that's why, you know, even though the skill set and the lineup context looks great for him, it's not like Donaldson's a player. I'm eager to draft. Yep. Fair enough. Put Marcus Stroman in the Sandy Alcantara discussion. that same bucket who you worry about the wins with the Chicago Cubs,

but I think if he pitches to the level we expect and we've seen, he should give you a good amount of quality starts. Brendan Rogers goes, Jake Cronoworth, Chris, you are on the clock, and I apologize because I feel like you were making a point before about something, and I cut you off. Do you remember what you were going to say? No, I don't remember. All right.

All right, then. Let's check in on our buddy Andrew Skullicki here. Let's see how the offense is coming along. I think I clicked on the wrong team. Sure did. All right. So again, he used his first seven picks on pitchers. And then Reese Hoskins was his first hitter,

then Danesby Swanson and Hunter Renfro. Yeah, I mean, at this point, you just gobble up all the, like whatever stands out as a value in terms of a hitter. I mean, that is likely the player that you're selecting. So, yeah. Yeah, if you're checking a hitter. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, if you've got seven pitchers,

Scott, I think he's probably taking a hitter. Oh, right. Sorry. We were doing Andrews specifically. Yeah. Yep. Okay, after Thai France, no, a few others here. After Jake Kronoort, that was the last name. Sunny Gray, we haven't talked about Sunny Gray.

He's having, I think, a pretty strong spring. Maybe it was only one start, but it was like a fantastic start with the Minnesota. It was really good. Yeah. So he's a name. Look, when he's on, when he's healthy, we've seen, you know, top 20, top 15. starting pitcher seasons out of Sunny Gray. So I don't want to discount that possibility.

Chris, you are on the clock here. We're in round 10. Where are you going? I'm going to go with the guy that I was hinting at when Scott was picking, but never said his name. I am going to take Spencer Torkelson. If the draft room will let me, it is currently not letting me.

Let me see if I can give you a little of fist. Okay, there you go. No, it didn't. It's not wrong. Uh-oh. That's what they all said. No reason I shouldn't be able to take him. Hmm. Oh yeah, everything's

frozen for me too. Yep. Oh, we're having some technical difficulties. Boom to the moon. All right, well, let's talk about... Every podcast. Come on, guys. Let's talk about Spencer Torkelson for now. He's been named to the opening day roster for the Detroit Tigers.

I mentioned the other day. He only had four strikeouts in spring training. So you love to see that. He walks a ton. The power should be there. Prospect pedigree. Chris, you want to add him to the profit pocket?

Yeah, I think he probably should go in that range, 130 to 150, which is about where we're taking those guys. His minor league numbers are perhaps less impressive than you might think, given that he's a bat-only first base prospect, and you look at it. And it was like, 881 at AAA, 933 OPS at double A. It's like, yeah, that's good. Are we coughing at a 933? Well, it's the kind of thing. It's not, like, it's Bobby Witton and Julio Rodriguez, guys were better and they play premium defensive positions and they're great base runners.

And so it's like, well, why does Spencer Torkasen deserve to be mentioned in that range? And it's because, like, he was running ISO's near 300. And he walked above 13% of time in both AA and AAA as a 21-year-old making his, you know, professional debut. He'd never played professional baseball before. And the only thing holding him back was he had a 278 Babbup in 202. in double A and a 233 in triplet. Maybe for some reason he will be a low babbit guy.

He does hit the ball in the air, but even last season, he didn't really run alarming infield fly ball rates. He wasn't like an extreme Nolan Aronado type of fly ball hitter. So I think Spencer Tolkerson was even better than the underlying numbers last season would make you think. And yeah, I think he's pretty much going to hit the ground running and be, like a borderline top 12 first baseman.

I think you have to keep in mind, too. It was his first year of professional baseball. And that's all he needed to get to the majors. So that speaks to the talent level as well. And just the fact that nobody thinks he's anything but a first baseman, I think the Tigers might have played him a little bit at third base. Yep, they did. But nobody actually thinks he's a third baseman.

Everybody's pretty much in agreement that he's going to be a first baseman moving forward. So the fact that he's a unanimous. top five prospect. And was the consensus number one pick in the draft? When that happens, the amount of certainty that people have in how good the bat is is really, really high. And the guys that you compare that to in recent years would be Andrew Vaughn, which hasn't worked out yet, but Pete Alonzo, another first base only college bat, that's worked out pretty while Spencer Torkelson is arguably viewed as a better prospect than either of those guys. Actually, I think inarguably in both cases.

The one thing I question is, okay, we like Alex Kirillov a lot. We like Joe Adele a lot. I have a hard time moving Torkelson ahead of them, which putting him in the profit pocket would require me to do. With Kirloff, I, I, I. I'm higher on Torkelson than Kirloff, but you like Kirloff especially. Adele I already have in like the 150 range,

so I don't actually know if I would have to put him ahead of Adele. I think it's easier in a league like this, because we're talking OPP instead of batting average for the millionth time. Kiroloff is going to be, he might have a decent OBP, but it'll mostly be batting average. It doesn't walk a lot. And Adele, I don't think walks are a big part of his skill set either.

So, like, if there's any format to do Torkelson, over those guys, which is how this one's played out, obviously. Well, Adele's already gone. Adele went. Oh, Adele went? Okay. Sorry, I missed that. Fair enough.

Yeah, so I recently moved Torkelson up to my 17th ranked first basement. Same spot as you, Scott. Chris, you have him up at 15. I guess it's just a courtesy ranking that I still have for DJ LaMayhew, Ryan Mountcastle, Jared Walsh. But theoretically, I could move Torkelson ahead of those names, too. They are names that I never look to draft, so it makes some sense. Yeah, and LaMayhew really looks like a bench player.

He's going to be a bench player who plays a lot for the Yankees, but pretty much everything I'm seeing suggests that he's going to be, he's not going to be a starter. You know, he might start. He's going to be Ben Zobristy. Yeah. Not in terms of production necessarily, just in terms of role. We're back to the level we were in year one, Yankee year one with DJ LaMahue, where he was going so late in draft. We just didn't know how much he was going to play for the team. And obviously he hit, and as a result, they had no choice but to play him. So if he hits,

if he looks healthy again, DJ LaMehyue will play. They'll find a way. They'll bench Josh Donaldson once per week. They'll bench Kiner Folefa a few times. They'll bench Glaver Torres. And, you know, players will move around and they'll get him in. But ultimately, it comes down to how does DJ LeMayhew look? Is he healthy? Because he had surgery in the offseason, I believe it was a sports hernia surgery. Yes. for DJ LaMayhew. All right, well, we are, we're still trying here. Looks like, looks like I'm back in.

Okay. Do I have control? Yes, I do. So I'm going to back out Chris's pick. Ah, I'm back in this. It was Spencer Torkelson. That's B1. Okay, so I'm just going to,

let me make sure. And he is my utility bat and why don't we take this opportunity to review our teams through 10, 10 rounds? Yeah, sure. Yeah. Let's start with your team, Chris. You just selected Benter Torkelson as your utility bat. You've also got Yasmani Grandal, Joey Votto, then Stanton, Springer, and Joey Gallo, and then your pitchers.

It's going to be very strong in OBT and the power categories. Stolen bases. How many would you project my team for right now? If I said the over under at 18 and a half with Grandal, Vado, Stanton, Springer, Gallo, and Torrull. Uncleston. You take the under on 18 and a half? Wait, I was going to say eight and a half. Gallomite steals six.

I mean, if there's a way for someone to get you negative steals, I guess they can, right? This is a net steals thing. Like, Yasmadi Grandeau will do that. He might be the slowest player in baseball. So you do not have any steals. Your pitchers are Garrick Cole, Justin Verlander, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Liam Hendricks. The draft is off and running. So we'll check back in on teams as we go.

After Chris selected Torkelson, Yoan Moncada, and Michael Kopeck. And Scott, Michael Kopeck, I think, is someone who actually loses value in this format. I just don't know how often he's going to go six innings this season. Or get saves or holds. Right. Yeah, that's true. No, I agree. I mean, I don't think it's wrong to take him the 158 overall.

but I'm less eager to take him when it's a quality start league. For sure. All right. And then we see the newest Detroit Tiger, Austin Meadows, 159th overall, round 10. We mentioned yesterday when discussing the trade. He still walked quite a bit, right around a 10% walk rate. But it came with a very low batting average last season. So he hit 234.

As a result, his OBP was 315 with middling power. doesn't run. It's just hard to get excited about Austin Meadows. It's a little bit more excited. It's a little easier to get excited about these other picks that just happened. Shane Boz finished out round 10 and Jacob de Grom.

So two potential stash candidates. We have four IL spots in this league. And Jacob de Grom, I believe, has gone ahead of the other... Gone ahead of Lanselin. Yeah, the other... Sal Lansman and Jack Flaherty. Yeah, he's the first of

the injured starting pitchers. I think, Castillo is in that conversation to start too. Boss is technically the first. Yeah, you were saying Castillo, he's going to be injured at the start of the year, but probably just missed a couple weeks as opposed to a couple months.

That's true. I've had a lot of trouble figuring out how to rank those guys, though. Like, just relative to one another. Yeah, I've had trouble. Yep. I think I still actually, yeah, so, no, let me pull up my rankings here.

I went with, and I think this is different than what Scott said the other day in the pod, but I went with Lynn de Grom, Castillo, Clevenger, Sale, Flaherty. I think I still have Castillo the highest, just because I think he'll be back the soonest. Not that, I mean, I'm not, I'm not excited to draft Castillo at all, but. Right. Back the soonest, but arguably the worst. Yeah, that's. They were expecting it to be the worst.

That's fair. So I've got a Castillo sale, Lynn, de Grom, Flaherty, and then I move Clevenger just behind Flaherty. So I had Chris Sail the highest, but that was when they were talking about it being back in May still, and then they put them on the 60-day I-L. So I think I need to at least have Lynn, it's Lynn ahead of him.

That timeline seems the clearest to me because it's a knee as opposed to something on the arm surgery. and they said they expect them to throw off a mound in four weeks. They gave such a clear expectation of what they're looking for from Lance Lynn. So I'm, I think he's probably the highest of the injured arms for me. All right. Sal and Flaherty and DeGrom are trickier, for sure. After Jacob Grom went, we see Calquantrell, Chris Taylor, Ian Anderson,

Chris selected Alex Cobb, and then Anthony Descoffani. So we've got a Giants run. and Lordis Gurriel, who will be the most valuable Blue Jays hitter this season, according to my bold predictions. When Brendan Rogers get taken? I believe it was last round.

Yes. That's frustrating. The middle of round 10. Okay. Because he is someone that would fit the punt steel strategy quite well, Chris. I mean, look, last spring,

he said he wanted to steal 20 bases. I think he only came up 20 short. He had as many steals as you and combined, Chris. Speaking of which... Which isn't bad for us. Speaking of which, you started your softball league the other day, right?

Oh yeah, I did. Had a decent game. Well, no, not as a pitcher. Gave up 10 runs and two innings as a pitcher. Oh, geez. But, you know, made a nice running catch when I moved to right field on defense. That's got to go.

And went two for three with an RBI, hit a double off the wall. It's a weird. We're playing at Long Island University's Brooklyn campus. and it's got like a short fence in left field, maybe like 210 feet out. But I hit a double about 15 feet off the wall, so I felt pretty good about that one.

I got into that one. So, you know, it's good. A few things. LSU Blackbirds, by the way, rival school of my alma mater, St. Francis College, Brooklyn, the Terriers. I think they're the sharks now. Oh, they're not the Blackbirds anymore?

I think they're the sharks. Okay. what happened here? Luis Castillo, Zach Gowan, Yuli Gerell, and I am on the clock. There was a player

that I was debating the last round who is still here. Fake news. The Brooklyn L.I.U. University is the Sharks. The main L.I.U. is the Blackbirds.

You are correct. Ah, got it. All right. So I was going to do something different, but I feel like I feel like as a result... Yeah, he lasted way too long. As a result of us getting excited

about other prospects, Jared Kellnick is someone who is falling down draft boards now. So, Julio moving way up right around Pick 100. Joe Adele moving up,

he's already gone. I just got Jared Kelnick in the middle of round 11, pick 171 overall. The spring has kind of been a mixed bag here. I think he's still going to probably strike out quite a bit,

but, you know, if he hits his potential, we could be talking 20-20, 25 homers, 20 steals, if it all works out. Yeah, I was between Torkelson and Kellanick with my last pick, and I ultimately, I just think either one would have been my utility, and I just figure Torgelson probably fits better with a punt-steel strategy, just because I do think he's going to be a better hitter right away, so that was the reason I went that way.

This might be the first draft ever where Julio Rodriguez, Joe Adele, and Spencer Torkelson all went ahead of Jared Kalnick. I was just writing in our bold predictions piece that's out now on CBSSports.com about how Jared Kelnick just kind of for no objective reason being drafted so far ahead of those guys.

It kind of reminds me of a couple years ago, Luis Robert going well ahead of Kyle Tucker. How we talked about it at the time, Kyle Tucker might be just as good as Louise Robert. Obviously, Tucker's been the better one to have since then, as good as Robert has been. Kind of reminds me of that.

specifically Kelnick versus Joe Adele. All right. A few picks happened after I selected Kelnick. Robbie Grossman, he's going to walk a bunch. So that is a, that is really a fantastic pick. So, yeah, the OVP should be good. He could potentially go 2020. He did it last season.

After that, Carlos Carrasco went, Alex Kiroloff, Jared Walsh, and Scott. That's another place that you see the influence of this being a listener league, Jared Walsh, going. Yeah. So late and so. far behind so many of the other first baseman. Yeah, 175th overall. There were, you know, I guess expert leagues or mock drafts that we did with other industry folk

where Jared Walsh would typically go ahead of some of the profit. Oh, yeah. Profit pocket still. And then, Scott, you double-tap starting pitcher again. So you do it in rounds one and two. You do it in rounds 11 and 12. Those are my head of pitchers. Yeah, I guess Noah Cindergarde and Jesus Lazzardo here.

Lazzardo, I'm going a little ahead of my rankings to get him because I keep not getting him and I like him. I have him as a breakout candidate for this season. So I'll go for the upside play there, even though I'm skipping ahead a few spots in my rankings. Center guard of the three who are returning, non-justin Verlander division, the three big names returning from Tommy John's surgery. He's looked the best this spring. The velocity's been down, but the secondaries have been getting a ton of whiffs. and I think I read the angels aren't really putting any limitations on him either.

Now, they do have a six-man rotation because of Otani, but a lot of teams are going six-man to start the year. So I'm not so concerned about that. Would you guys like to know my, we did three bold predictions on the podcast and then I asked for one bold prediction that we really believe in addition to those three for the piece that's going up on the site on Wednesday morning. Would you like to know my one that I really believe, that I didn't mention on the podcast yesterday.

I wanted to save it. Yes. Go for it. The Marlins lead the majors in starting pitcher ERA. Definitely see it. They finished 10th last year. They were sixth in the first half. And the thing that gets me so excited about them,

the depth is ridiculous. They've got Max Meyer and Edward Cabrera in AAA. And I just realized Yuri Perez, 18 years old, is starting at Double A this season. And he's kind of the next one up that everybody thinks is going to make a... I mean, he was amazing as a... You know, first year as an 18-year-old.

Yeah, I know baseball America has him as the Marlins' number one prospect. I don't think they should. I think Max... Max Meyer and Edward Cabrera are just being closer. But, yeah, Yuri Perez, 6'8, very much in the Sandy Alcantra mold.

Yeah, that team... He could be three good minds. months away from being in the discussion too now. You know, we didn't do, I don't know if we're going to do it on tomorrow's show, but in our bold prediction show we didn't do like division winners, award winners, that kind of stuff. Yeah, we'll do that tomorrow's scop. But I almost, three wild cards in each league now, I almost had the Marlins making it. I almost did. I gave it serious thought. They were probably my eighth NL team.

And obviously six, six playoff spots to fill. So that pitching. And like you look at their lineup, you don't have to squint that hard to see it being a respectable lineup. Like, if they get the best case scenario from enough of their hitters, it's going to be respectable. If they're like the 10th best offense in the National League, they could probably be a playoff team. Yeah. Yeah. That's not crazy.

I just don't think they will be the 10th best offense in the national league. Yeah, I mean, it's asking a lot to go right, but there are, there's enough hitting upside in their lineup that it's. at least possible, unlike last year. All right, let's catch people up. After Scott selected Jesus Lozardo, Stephen Mats, Corey Kniebel, Lou Trevino,

Adam Duvall. I selected Lance Lynn. I think he's kind of just sliding a little bit too far here. We have four IL spots, and he's my fourth starting pitchers, so I'm willing to take the shot at this point. I want to comment on Lou Trevino because I feel like that's the reliever,

that's the sort of reliever who should get pushed down quite a bit, in a saves plus hold league because the ratios aren't very good. The saves total is probably not going to be high anyway for what could be a last place team. Andrew Kittredge, who went a couple of picks later, you hadn't quite gotten to him yet, reading off the names, Frank.

But I think I like that pick a lot more for this format than Lutrovino, even though it might be close between the two and a standard league. I can still take Kittridge, but it might be closer. A few strong reliever picks, actually. After I took Lance Lynn, Miles Straw, look if you need 30 plus steals and a solid OVP at this point. That is a fine pick.

Then Alejandro Kirk, he was part of Scott's bold predictions yesterday. Nate Lowe. Blake Trinen, great. In Saves Plus Holds, his ratios were awesome last year. Lots of strikeouts. He plays on one of the best teams in baseball. So that's a great pick, followed up by Andrew Kittridge. Chris selects Gavin Lux.

And then Mike Clevenger and Ryan Moutcastle. I know you needed infield, Chris. So Gavin Lucks, likely a starter for you, right? Yeah, he'll be my starter at either second base or shortstop. But I have second base shortstop and third base still all open. Now I have a second baseman or shortstop. So, yeah, I needed to fill those. And I don't love it.

I'm not a huge Gavin Lux fan. But I don't know, it's an upside play at a point in draft where there isn't much at any of those positions. So it is what it is. I probably could have waited. I'm not happy about it. Well, what do you think about clearly? you just made the decision, but a few picks later, we just saw Brandon Crawford go. So, so I made the decision that Gavin Lux was more likely to be drafted than

Brandon Crawford between my next two picks. So that is frustrating because I do think Brandon Crawford's a better player. Yeah, Brandon Crawford, I'm not happy about that turn of events. Chris has been tilted in this draft. Yeah, a little bit, a little bit. Brandon Crawford, just that kind of random mid-career breakout. I mean, even more than mid-career, it's kind of late career breakout for him, but he, this is. some interesting things last year. Made more context, the barrel rate, put the ball in the air. The Giants just, they

find a way to get the most out of their players, Chris. Really good piece on baseball prospectus today talking about how they've kind of, one of the things that they've done as an organization is trying to play matchups, but not so much like lefty-righty as much as like swing

path versus starting pitcher style and trying to match it, like find the right matchups. They're going a little deeper than that. But yeah, the thing with Brandon Crawford is that the breakout kind of started in 2020. His underlying numbers were much better in 2020 than they had been before. And then it led to big production in 2021. So that's part of why I'm more willing to buy into that.

Oh, man. Okay, there is another team that does need a shortstop. So I'm going to go ahead and reach again. And not happy about having to do either of these, but whatever. I'm going to take Jeremy Payne here. Not happy about starting Jeremy Pena and Gavin Lox, even in the 16-team league, but it is what it is. Did you give thought to Bryson Stott instead of Jeremy Pena?

Yes, but for me, the fact that one, Pena's defense and the fact that he's playing his natural position should keep him in the lineup more. And just two, Stott is a lefty. He's playing out of position. He's got competition for his. role. If Alec Bone can hit, that'll, you know, that'll hurt him.

And so I just, I think Pena's a little more likely to stick. Yeah. So that's the thought process there. All right. Jeremy Pena, by the way, the, of the bold predictions that we, that we didn't give out on yesterday's podcast that will be published on the site, I had Jeremy Pena finishing as one of the top three hitters in terms of fantasy value in the Astros lineup.

this season. Yeah, a lot of it depends. He had never really hit for much power in the miners. And then last season in 37 games, 30 games at AAA, he had 10 home runs. And that was after coming back from a wrist injury. So was it just a small sample size fluke? That's one that I wish we had some good stack cast data to look at and see if he was hitting the ball with more authority.

But yeah, it's like with Gavin Lerner. there just wasn't a lot of upside left. And he does have two home runs in eight spring games so far. So, fingers crossed. Yeah. So, I mean, for that bold prediction to come through, you figure Tucker and Yordaun Alvarez are probably the top two hitters. You know, Penae would have to outproduce Jose Altuve and Yuli Gurriel.

Again, it's pretty bold. But I like what we've seen so far in the spring. Robinson Kano says he's going to be a superstar. So if Robinson Kano says it, you've got. to believe it. What else has happened? After Chris selected Pena, Aaron Savali,

strong pick in a quality starts league, Scott Barlow, Anthony Rizzo, Devin Williams, he's, I feel there were a few other non-closer types drafted already. Blake Trinan,

I mentioned last round, but yeah, Devin Williams should be awesome. Arguably the best. Yeah. Kyle Gibson goes, and this is a pitcher I've been considering for the past

three, four rounds. I'm going to go ahead to be. take Taylor Rogers. Yeah. Who, as we mentioned on yesterday's podcast, we were going through each bullpen. I think he's going to be the closer, but even if he's not,

you know, if he comes out in the seventh or eighth for a lefty matchup, his ratios and strikeouts are really, really good. So, especially here where you don't care as much about saves, I think Taylor Rogers is awesome. Probably like a top 10.

I think he was actually top 10 in saves plus holds last season, because I think he had like 10, like 9 to 10. holds in addition to whatever, 28 saves or whatever he had. Yep. Very happy to get Taylor Rogers here in round 13. Eduardo Escobargoes, Matt Barnes.

We're coming up on your pick, Scotty. Let's take a look at the team. I know last time you double-tapsed starting pitcher. And here's what you got. Dalton Varsho, Pete Alonzo, Max Muncie, Adelberto Mondes, Javier Baez, Randall Gritchuk, Jorge Salair, Chris Bryant. and then your four pitchers, Max Scherzer,

Brandon Woodruff, Noah Cindergarde, and Jesus Lozardo. You are not kidding, Scott. I mean, this is not like a Scott White team at all that I've seen like the entire offseason. Yeah, it doesn't. I think of my eight hitters that I've drafted there, the only ones I draft repeatedly are Dalton Varshot and Jorge Saler, so the rest are all pretty unfamiliar to me.

Honestly, this is much more of a Chris Towers team. That's a lot of, like, I really like Randall Gritchick, Max Muncie, yeah, this is... Should have taken them. Yeah. I'm not sure if I like your team more than mine.

Oh, boy. I might. I think I'm going to draft I think. I haven't quite decided. I'm on the clock. So I need to decide quickly. I think I'm going to draft

a couple stashes here. I don't have it. any stashes yet. Everybody is expected to contribute immediately. The first one I'm going to draft is Chris Sale. That's fine. He's the last of the injured starting pitchers, Jack Flaherty, Lance Lynn, Jacob de Grommer, all gone.

Clevenger's gone as well? Clevenger's gone as well. Though he's not expected to miss as much time as these others. And I need, you know, I want an impact starter for down the line. he's expected to start throwing next week, so hopefully he'll be ready to go as soon as that 60-day timetable is done. And then the other stash I'm going to draft is O'Neill Cruz,

who a couple of weeks ago was going much, much, much, much, earlier than this. And that'll be another big power bat. Whenever he does arrive, it'll give me some Max Muncie insurance because I could slide by us over to second base if Muncie doesn't end up doing... It doesn't end up sticking around because of his elbow.

I'm unhappy. I like it. You know, Chris, When you were talking up your pick, I thought you were going to go with O'Neill Cruz. You were like, ah, you know, maybe it's a little early. I thought so too. And I just queued up O'Neill Cruz.

But I think he was thinking, you know, obviously he needs present at bats at shortstop. Yep. And this is why feeling like you have to take a player or have to take a position is not a good place to be in because I definitely passed up on players that I think are just much better than Gavin Lux and Jeremy Pena

in order to feel like I wasn't, you know, going to be completely left out of those positions and it's not like I feel so good about Jeremy Pena and Gavin Lux that I'm... Yeah, I have some regrets, guys. All right. I am going to... I'm thinking about a pitcher here.

All right. Let's do it. One of my draft rules, I want to try to leave every draft with one San Francisco Giants pitcher, and so I will draft the last remaining of their rotation, and that is Alex Wood.

Here in round... What's up, Scott? You're quite a bit later than the others. Yeah, I think Cobb and Descartesquifani. I think they went in round 11. Yeah, because I know Chris selected Cobb, so yeah, I don't... I have them ranked.

very closely together. I don't think there's a huge difference between any of them. So yeah, if I'm getting Wood three rounds later, I'm happy to do so. After Alex Wood goes, Joe Ryan who, Chris remind us who is Joe Ryan with a mustache? He is

Marco Estrada with a mustache. Okay. Potentially. I'm just saying we've never seen them in the same place at the same time. Right. He also has a huge head of hair. I don't think Estrada has one of those either. No, it's definitely like an outfit. It's a disguised.

Right. After Joe Ryan, Ryan McMahon goes off the board as well. You know a draft has gone sideways when I'm tilting over not getting Ryan McMahon in the 14th round. You hate Ryan McMahon. That's absolutely true. Oh, boy. Would he be your starting third baseman, Chris?

Is that we're looking at? Okay. Or an option at second. Okay. Just bad. Bad, bad stuff all around for you. your guy, Chris. After Ryan McMahon, Michael Conforto, who remains a free agent, apparently messed up his shoulder a little bit back in January, so he's working his way back. I think,

you know, maybe if we get an injury early in the season somewhere, you know, someone loses an outfielder, we'll see Michael Conforto sign. Zach Rankie, John Means, and then Chris, that was the other player that I was thinking about taking, and that is Paul Seawald in round 14. Again, saves plus holds, ton of strikeouts last year he has this wicked slider. And it really doesn't matter what his role is. And he could save games out of the gate because, you know, Ken Giles. He had 11 last year.

Ken Giles dealing with an injury. I think he was like top 15 and saved plus holds last season. Yeah. I want to doubt it. And he'll be in that leverage spot at the start when I don't think he was last season. Yeah, after, uh, after Devon Williams, I would say Paul Seewald is my favorite non-closer. I would also say like Drew Steckenrider for the mayor. is in a very similar spot.

And he's not going to get the strikeouts. Not near the strikeouts. Yeah. His ratios have been quite good overall. Yeah. Huge discrepancy in strikeouts there. But the ratios were very good for Drew Steck and Ryder. Gleiber Torres goes 221st overall.

I know that we've all basically, you know, written Glaber Torres off. That's a good OVP league pickup especially. He is having a strong sprint. here. So I just want to point out he's gone. I mean, he's still 14 bases and had like a 340 OBP last year. That's not a bad pick at all.

He is 10 for 34 in the spring. Three homers, one steal. Yeah, he kind of had that Jose Ramirez thing going on last season, Chris, where remember when Ramirez, he had that like year long stretch where he was struggling mightily. He was actually running more. Because I guess he felt that was the only way he can help

his team contribute. So instead of hitting home runs, Gleber Torres basically did the same thing last year. He was just stealing a bunch of bases. But maybe if he bounces back, it looks something like 20 homers, 8 to 10 steals, which is a decent player.

It's not nothing. We'll see, man. Gleber Torres is one of the hardest players to figure out right now. And there's room for him to bounce back, even if it's not like a 35 homer guy, but if he's a 24 homer guy and he steals 10 bases and he has a 340 to 350 OBP,

like, that's going to be a valuable player in this format. Yep. After Glaber Torres, Kibrian Hayes, there is some question about whether Hayes will be ready for opening day. I know he's dealing with an ankle injury right now. Honestly, for all of Scott's Adam Wainwright's shares,

he's probably hoping for Cabrion Hayes not to be in the lineup, but man, that Pirates lineup is just so bad. It will get progressively worse if Cabrion Hayes is not in it on opening day. I don't remember Wainwright going. Okay, he went round six. Yeah. He must have gone so much earlier than he normally does

that I never even had a chance to think about drafting him because that's probably my most drafted player this year. Yeah, in terms of, yeah, quality starts, he excels in this format. Adam Wainwright, 22 quality starts last season that was fourth most in baseball behind only Walker Bueller, Robbie Ray, Sandy Alconter. The thing is, if he's as good as he was last year

and frankly in 2020 as well, he'll excel in all four bats. But yeah, I mean, maybe slightly more so in quality starts leagues. But look, I mean, as deep as he pitches into games on a team that might make the playoffs, like wins or he's just as much of a standout and wins, probably. Yeah, Jeng Riu and Avicayal Garcia

to finish out round 14. The first pick of round 15 is Hermann Marquez. And Marquez goes deep into, he goes deep into his starts. I think the hardest part for him will be keeping opposing teams under, I mean, to three runs or less, basically, for the quality start.

he'll give you six quite often but keeping runs off the board that's the bigger concern for for Marquez there after he goes Marco Gonzalez and Jose Orkidi I wanted to mention last round

toward the end it kind of got swallowed up by the Paul Seawald pick but right before that John Means went and like the worst thing about John Means is that he pitches for the Orioles

but if it's not a Winsley that doesn't matter anymore. So that might be one of the pitchers who moves up the most in this quality starts format. Because, you know, he's so efficient. He's going to, if he stays healthy, he's going to pitch deep into games.

And I think the ERA is going to be low and as a fly ball pitcher in what's now a very big park. So, yeah, I think that was a good pick. Chris, I've got to say, you are crushing here with the, with the SAVE Plus Holds Relievers. You took Paul Sewell last round,

and then you just picked up David Bednar as well. You know, the pirates, how many games will they win? But I just think the ERA, the whip, and the strikeouts for Bednar are going to be fantastic. Yeah, and look, I mean, the games where they are leading late, he'll be in them. And that will be somewhere north of 60, I would bet. Yeah, maybe they might have a lead late in 70 games this season. So he'll have hold opportunities. they don't have to win to get a hold if I remember, if I understand the rule correctly, right? You can get a hold in an eventual loss, right?

I think so. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's just as long as you do your part to preserve the lead. Yeah, so, there you go. We don't even know how hold works. We're not used to playing. Will Smith was a very good pitch just now.

I considered him as well. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, I mentioned there were, I think, three Braves relievers in the top 10 in holds last season. They just had a lot of leads. They won a lot of games. So now Will Smith slides into that eighth inning roll. A couple other picks that went, Joe Barlow, Alex Verdugo,

Lance McCullors, Trent Grisham, and the aforementioned Will Smith. I think I'm going to join Scott in going Bizarro draft here. Oh. I don't ever. None of us take Tyler Stevenson, but it's picked 235. Yeah, that's. And I don't have a catcher. So I'm going to take Tyler Stevenson, who has a exactly 10.2% walk rate in his 140 career games.

Yeah, nothing wrong with that. He hit for a good batting average last season, 366 OBP. You know, what's the in-game power like? You know, mid-teens, home runs, maybe 15, but he's going to play a lot. Counting stat should be okay. It's a good pick, Frank. It's a good pick. Yeah, I don't know why I feel the need.

I think I'm just trying to talk myself into it. because I just never take Tyler Stevenson. So I'm trying to make myself feel better about it. There's another catcher who's still on the board that. I wonder if Scott and I are thinking the same guy. It's just confused to me why nobody's had interest in him. Like I felt bad in that main event draft I did because we took Alejandro Kirk around picked 200, who I like a lot.

Are we talking about the guy who hit the second most home runs at catcher last season? No. Okay, because he's slightly less terrible in OVP than he is. in regular formats. You're talking about Gary Sanchez. I'm talking about... Like Zunino. Oh, I'm sorry.

Yeah, Zanino is actually... It's better an OBP. Yep, that's right. Who I was talking about was Joey Bart. I don't know why there isn't more enthusiasm for Joey Bart, who's top prospect, former number three overall pick, has had a great spring.

Nobody blocking him in San Francisco. I'm just a little surprised that he tends to go like around pick 300 sometimes. I just... The problem is the hit. HitTool has taken such a hit the last couple of seasons, or at least has been so bad. He struck out so much. Yes. But in a two-catcher league, he's definitely, I've drafted him a bunch in two catcher leagues.

It hasn't tanked his prospect stock. He's moved down some of the prospect rankings, but he's still considered a top prospect, and it's a sort of thing where he's gotten so little experience in the miners that I don't think we really know what the upside is for Joey Bart. I have questions about the hit tool. I think that's fair. But the power looks really, really good. And like what kind of,

anytime you can find upside at catcher, the combination of upside and opportunity. Yeah, like, I'd rather do, I'd rather have him than Elias Diaz. Yeah. You know, or someone like that. There's a lot of like boring catchers who are being drafted ahead of him in a lot of leagues

that like, I'd rather take the chance on Joey Bart that he turns into something, you know? Mm-hmm. Chris, don't sleep on my guy, Alias Diaz, man. He was really good last year. I mean...

And by really good... I mean, like, you know, really good in the most second catcher-esque way. Yeah, like, that's the thing. It's like, your second catcher, you're hoping hits 250 with 15 home runs. Joey Bart might only do that. He might hit 200.

But he could hit 250 with 25 home runs. That's not out of the question. That is fair. Yep. How should I take? All right, let's catch people up. Got some picks going on. I selected...

Sorry, I was thinking through that. We'll get to your picks here, Scottie. I selected Tyler Stevenson, then A.J. Pollack, Stephen Strasberg, who I saw today, I believe he's going to either do some live batting practice or pitch in a simulated game coming up. So some positive news. Mark Malanson, who I think actually should be devalued in this format, you want to draft for ratios and relievers on good teams. I don't know if Mark Malanson gives you either of those.

He has been devalued in this format for what it's worth. Yeah, yeah. But I think it could stand to be even more. Right. After Malanson, we see Darren Ruff and then Scott, you double-tap pitcher once again. John Gray and Tony Gonsolin. Yeah. Yeah, so I was especially excited to make the John Gray pick

because I feel like the challenge at drafting starting pitchers now is, they have to be ones you can trust to go six plus innings with some regularity. So while there's a lot of young, exciting starting pitchers, not a lot, but there are some young exciting starting pitchers out there that I might prioritize in other formats and a quality start one, I'd rather have Gray, who has quite a bit of upside himself. He has, we hoped he would develop a new pitch coming out of Colorado because he kind of had to simplify his arsenal there since,

the thin air robs pitches of their movement. And it seems like he has. It's another version of a slider, but it's that sweeper type of slider that's gaining traction across the majors, a lot more like horizontal movement. And it's responsible for like almost all of his strikeouts this spring. He's been having a lot of success with it.

And it's, I suspect since it relies so much on movement, it's not a pitch he could have gotten away with throwing in Colorado. So I'm still very hopeful of a big, step forward for John Gray since we're already seeing him experiment with that arsenal. All right. And I am trying to make my pick. Will it work?

Uh-oh. Don't say we're broken again. Ah, I got it. No, it worked. All right, I got my guy, Trista McKenzie. Good pick. Scott, I think some of what you're talking about. I don't know how often Trista McKenzie is going to go six innings or give me quality

starts. But, you know, if he breaks out the way that I think he can, kind of like in a Freddie Peralta way from last year. If he just progresses as a pitcher, then maybe in turn, he gives you quality starts as a result. But I am skeptical. Catch you up on a few other picks here. We are in round 16. Scott's like the Tony Gonsolin.

Then McKenzie Gore, Colton Wong, Gary Sanchez, Mike Zanino. I took McKenzie and then Isaiah Kinerfalefa and Gregory Soto. I wanted to mention the Darren Rough pick right before I double tap pitcher there. That is somebody I like for this format because he gives you the big. power I want in every lineup spot. And he's good OBP source. So there's a question of how much you'll play. The Giants love playing matchups unlike any other team.

But they're not completely healthy right now either. So that opens the door, I think, for more playing time for Darren Ruff. I just, I kind of hope to get him like an extreme discount. And so I wasn't quite ready, but I was like a round or two away from being ready to take Darren Ruff. Yeah. And Darren Ruff is one of those where, I can't believe I'm saying this about like a 35-year-old who is,

you know, he came back from, I think it was either Korea or Japan. He kind of reinvented himself. But you kind of just draft the skills and you hope that the playing time works out for Darren Ruff. Because he was good last year. And it wasn't just against lefties. Like he was awesome against lefties, but he was pretty good against right-handed pitching as well. Was it against pitchers who throw ball?

that sink or who throw balls that elevate and his swing plane capable of taking on. I'm just going back to what Chris was saying about the way the Giants set their lineups last year. It's a fair question. It makes you wonder. I mean, didn't seem like there was much rhyme or reason for the way they said it at times, but evidently there was. After Gregory Soto went Charlie Blackman, then Joey Bart, Hazu Sanchez, Chris selected Zach Plesack. and then Trevor Bauer goes. So Chris Plesack at pick 252, he was, you know, in some drafts,

a top 75 pick last year. And if nothing else, you know he will go deep into his starts. Yeah, I've got a lot of Zach Leezak this year, actually. Because I don't think the skills have totally evaporated. You know, the problem with him as a top 75 pick for me last year was just, I didn't think the stuff was as good as it needed to be to just. justify that and he needed he had a very thin margin for error but he is someone who even last year almost averaged six innings per start I'm looking at it I think he was

six innings per start on 25 starts would have been 145 innings I believe he ended up with 142.2. So even with a 4-670 RA he almost averaged six innings per start so you know if he can be more like a high three ZRA guy is like please I could get a lot of quality starts Yeah, why not? Zach Plesack, it's round 16 again. After Plessack, Trevor Bauer, Andrew Benitendi, Terek Scoubel, and Dylan Floro to finish it out. And the first pick of round 17 is Tanner Halk.

Tanner Hout, by the way, in his final spring training start, he did go six innings. So inspires a little bit of confidence that, you know, if he pitches efficiently, then they'll let him go a little bit. that was one of the young pitchers I was talking about where you like the upside and maybe in a different format.

You'd be more likely to go for it. But like there are going, keeping pace in that quality start category because more quality starts happen than wins obviously. So you can't, you can't rely as much on the random distribution

like you do with wins. You really need to actually be intentional about drafting pitchers who can deliver quality I'm not saying Tanner Hauk's a bad pick. I mean, obviously, he could take a step forward and become somebody who contributes them with enough regularity. But the threshold, like that, it's a more difficult standard to meet than what you're normally looking for in an upside play at pitcher.

All right. After Tanner Halk, Eric Lauer, Corey Klouber. Cluber, I believe, on Tuesday's final spring outing, he also went six endings against the Atlanta Braves. Michael Brantley next up and Chris you are back on the clock

let's take a look at what you've got going on you still need a third baseman So everybody's got a third basement and everybody's got a utility So I'm in that spot where it's like How much longer can I let this go And I think I'm gonna I'm just gonna draft

A E Eugenio Suarez and hope that there's any kind of bounce back whatsoever even to just like a 315 on base percentage. If he can give me that, I will live with that because I've got plenty of OBP otherwise and he'll still probably hit 30 homers. Yeah, he was someone I kind of liked early in the offseason as a potential bounceback.

He had a monster September. Obviously liked him a lot more. and Addy. Mariner's better lineup. Not as great of a ballpark. So it's... Yeah, don't love the part shift for sure. A little bit of a trade-off there. And speaking of the Mariners, the very next pick was Matt Brash.

That was specifically the young upside arm I was considering instead of... That was the other guy I was considering. Honestly, John Gray wasn't a choice to me. It was between Gonsalyn and... And Brash. Gonsalyn, of course, may have his own trouble pitching deep into games. I don't know. That was a very close call.

I think it ultimately came down to I think the Mariners are going to have to be careful with Brash's innings in a way the Dodgers may or may not be with Gonsolin. And of course, Gonsalind, I mean, you just look at his career numbers. That'll play. You know, Brash has more to prove. But I do think Brash's upside is higher.

All right. After Matt Brash, Andrew of, Vaughn, Markana, and Mitch Keller. I am on deck here, and I'm looking at an outfielder that I want to select, and it is not Mike Yistramski who just went one pick before me. So I'm going to take Tommy Fam,

who has been batting third in spring the past week or so with the Cincinnati Reds. Not a great lineup, but, you know, good pick. If he's batting third just ahead of Joey Votto. Maybe if you, 20 homers,

15 steals, good OBP, he's got to stay healthy. That's been a huge struggle, but Tommy fans. Fun of those picks are good. Fun player. After Tommy fan,

my man, Connor Joe. Oh, goes off the board. Hunter Green. So we're starting to see basically all of those young, exciting

prospect pitchers who made their respective teams starting to get drafted. You say Kikuchi is the next one up there. Scott, you are on deck. And... Well, although the Tommy Fam

and Connor Joe picks back to back makes it a little easier what direction I should go here. Your utility spot is still open. You have a pitcher spot open as well. Let's read off your team. You got Dalton, Varsho, Pete Alonzo, Max Muncie, Adelberto Mondesi,

Javier Baez, and then your outfield, Randall Gritchuk, Blair, Chris Bryant. Your pitchers, Max Scherzer, Noah Cindergarde, John Gray, Brandon Woodruff, Hazus Lozardo, Tony Gonsolin, and you have two bench stashes in Chris Sale and O'Neill Cruz. Hmm. So what am I going to do now, huh? Bobby Dalbeck was the pick right before Scott, by the way, who is having a pretty decent spring as well. Do I want to push my luck at starting pitcher? I don't think so.

I don't think I do. I am going to take Nestor Cortez, who's like one of my good luck charms this year. And which of these two do I want to do? Do I want to go Nicola Dolo for a little upside there? I mean, he threw like 60 innings last year. I mean, I don't think it's a bad pick, but we're getting to a point where we're almost out of pitchers I like, you know?

or do I go with a reliever, my first reliever. I think I'm going to go with my first reliever because if this guy doesn't end up closing, he's almost certainly setting up but I love the ratios for Art Warren of the Cincinnati Reds. Yeah, hey, you know, I'm about it, Scott. The strikeouts were awesome last year.

I think it was a 19% swinging strike rate for Art Warren, and he has some experience closing in the minors as well in the Reds organization. So yeah. Yeah. And like he was just as dominant in the miners, I want to say, right? Yeah, I'll pull up.

Because it's a small sample that he dominated in the majors. It's only 21 innings. And so, well, you know what? He wasn't that great at Louisville 506 ERA, though the strikeout rate was still crazy. It was, oh, he was, you know, he was Camilla Duvalesque. Except, no, he was, his walk rate was fine. He gave up 10.1 hits per nine in his 16 months. minor league inning, striking out 30.

Yep. He was bad. So that's weird. I don't know if he had a bad defense behind him or what. That's weird. He was bad in the minors last year, Scott, but leading up to that, he was very good. 2019-17-1-17-1-7-2 ERA. What I'm saying is the only thing that made that ERA high in the minors last year was not was hits and not home run hits, like in-play hits. And it's 16 innings. Just, you know, anyway, I think he's good.

After you selected Art Warren, Aaron Ashby, Jesus Aguilar, Enrique Hernandez, and Elias Diaz, the most catcher two of all the catchers. But someone I do like to get as my second catcher in a Roto League. And I am on the clock. There was a name that I was looking at. I've already started working on my bench hitters, so I don't think I want to go back to that. Okay, making sure

Three bench bots left Making sure that I'm not missing That's fun No, I'm not going to do that I'm going to take another reliever here And Somebody who may Oh, I got to do this fast

Can someone pause it? Can I get it in? I'll pause it for you. You're the host Boom. Boom. I don't know if it happened or not. All right, I'm going to take Jonathan Loisiga. So he had just 17 holes last year, but the ratios were great. He's about a strikeout per inning.

And more than anything, it's... 17 holds is not a bad number of holes. Yeah. And if anything happens to Chapman, I think he's the next man up there as well. So, yeah, he's on a winning team. So if they're not holds, it'll work into saves. And I like the pitcher, so... Let me double check this before I say it.

Yeah. So I had a piece come out on Tuesday, breaking down the bullpen situation for every team and kind of prioritizing closer choices, which also kind of serves as a holds priority, a whole hierarchy. I had Chad Green ahead of Jonathan Loisig. So why LaWisega over Chad Green, Frank? Well, maybe I was planning to take Chad Green as well, Scott. Oh, man. I don't know. That is, that's a fair question. I think Chad Green gets more strikeouts. Last year, the ratios were better for Jonathan Loisiga.

Maybe it's just because I watch so many Yankee games. Like, Chad Green feels like he's worse than he is. He gives up home runs in the worst spots. His numbers are still good. Yeah, well, his ERA is always suspiciously high for as good as his other numbers are, because his other numbers are like. Ooh, a slam dunk from Chris Towers. What happened? He's mad because he missed out on Reed Detmer's. Read Detmer's. Ah! Cheez.

Annoying. Good pick. Good pick, Adam. Is that you okay? No, I'm not. One of the last upside pitchers left that I really like. I haven't drafted enough of him. I haven't been as intentional about drafting Reed Detmer's as I needed to be.

And I'm paying the price now. I'm sorry, Chris. It's okay. It's not your fault. In the meantime, I will catch people up after I took Loisiga, Nick Pavetta, Drew Steckenrider,

Reed Detmer's, Miguel Seno, Adley Ruchman. This is pretty late for Adley Ruchman, too, in a one-catchel league. I kind of like it. Chris, where are you going here?

Are you looking at another upside arm? Depends how we define that term, I suppose. I'm going to go with Merrill Kelly. Nice. He's been getting some, a little bit of hype this spring, got a little extension for himself, did throw almost six innings per start last season. So, you know, it's more about can he get that ERA under four?

If he can, I would imagine he's going to average close to six innings per start, if not a little better than that. And, you know, could be somewhat useful. Yeah, good. Yeah. No, that's a good pick. Again, I think more than anything is it's kind of like a veteran pitch. so they're going to let him go.

Likely they don't get wins with the debacks, but you don't care about that when we're looking for quality starts. After Merrill Kelly, Eliezer Hernandez, who left with a forearm contusion, I believe he got struck by a comebacker in his start on Tuesday.

But it seems like he's okay. Yeah. So that's good news because he was having a big spring as well. He never goes six innings. Like even when things are going well, he very rarely throws six innings. and so he's someone I actually like more in a standard roto league. Yep.

All right. After Hernandez, Casey Mize, Jordan Montgomery. Scott, I feel like you didn't get to like finish up your point on the Yankees relievers. Oh, I mean, it could go either way. Oh, because I haven't lost his job. It wasn't. It was worth it, Chris. How much Chad Green analysis do we really need, honestly?

Yeah, that's fair. In case you haven't realized, we're just going to play this out. We'll keep the draft, the stream going, the podcast going. It's our last draft of the offseason. So we'll have some fun. We'll run a little bit long here. Again, we'll break this down into two different parts on the podcast side. Luis Patino just went.

Someone I know you also like Chris. Was he in consideration for you? Yeah. Yeah, he was definitely in my queue. He's another guy that I just don't know if he's ever going to go six innings all that often, especially pitching for the raise. Good news is he's already been named part of their opening day rotation, which is not surprising except that he was dealing with like a shoulder issue at one point in spring.

So it was just a little concerned about that. But I do think Luis Petino has, you know, a decent amount of breakout potential. So definitely someone I like drafting. All right. And the first pick of round 19 is Jock Peterson. And then. Wascar. Yeah, I mean.

Yeah, Jock Peterson. that's kind of an interesting one. He could be playing pretty regularly for the Giants. Yes, he can. I know they've had some injuries there. He's just kind of jaggy at this point, Chris, you know? I don't know. Yeah.

Last year he hit. Yeah, it was Lamont Wade Jr. got hurt. So yeah, it's Peterson should be a pretty regular in left field. 238 batting average, 18 homers, 732 OPS. 8% walk rate. I don't know that there are bad picks necessarily at this point. You know, we're approaching pick 300.

After Jack Peterson, Waskar Eanoa, Enoa's, I mean, his numbers were good. His surface level numbers, a strikeout, strikeout minus walk rate was really strong for Enoa last season. He's just a two-pitch pitcher. I know earlier in spring training, he was kind of messing around with his change-up a little bit. So if that's a pitch that he can use

10 to 12% of the time, maybe throw it against lefties a little bit. I think that can go a long way for Wascar, you know, I don't mind it this late. After Inoa, Nicola Dolo, Trey Mancini, Chris, you selected Ian Hap

and then Jamer Candelario and to Nelson Lamet. Lament's interesting. Lament's another guy I was thinking about, yeah. Could be a decent source of saves and holds. Yeah, I mean, he could be a multi-ending reliever too, so

if the ratios are good, they might matter a little bit more from to Nelson Lemette. Strikeouts there with him too. Chris, you selected Ian Hap, by the way. I feel like we haven't talked about him much this offseason. No.

It's kind of because he plays for the Chicago Cubs, so I guess it's just not exciting to talk about him, but he was better in the second half last season. I feel like we say that about... He just had such a mediocre season overall. I feel like we say that about Ian Hap every year, right?

Like, he was good in the second half. And that's the last thing we remember. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, look, his overall numbers in 2020 were really good. You know, especially in this form, and I think it was, what, a 360 OBP and a slug over 500. So he's someone who benefits from an OBP league because he does walk around 12% of the time. But the strikeouts have been an issue. Last season, it's just like consistency more than anything.

He's got the skills. He's got the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, you know, the, the, the, The power especially, Max XVila last season, 84th percentile, he hits the ball hard. It's just a question of doing that consistently enough to take advantage. And he hasn't been able to do that enough. Again, that is Ian Hap. I'll read off his second half numbers, but I am on the clock. So I have to make a pick.

And yeah, I'm going to do exactly what I said. I was going to do them. I'm going to take Chad Green as well. So let's go Yankees. I've got Chad Green, Jonathan Loisga, and Josh Donald. Either way, I'm getting holds or saves if something goes wrong with Chapman. Good ratios, lots of strikeouts between those two, so I'm happy to do it. Ian Hap in the second half last year, he hit 268 and 886 OPS.

And what really helped was he lowered his ground ball rate about seven percentage points compared to the first half. Put the ball in the air more, home run to fly ball ratio went up. Yeah. need more consistency. Other picks that have happened. Drew Rasmussen, Luis Arias, Patrick Wisdom,

Nikki Lopez, Riley Green, Anthony Bender, Cole Sulser. Which of these picks were the ones that hurt you, Scott? Anthony Bender,

because he's another one who's going to get either, if he's not getting saves, which he may, he'll get holds. And he went 50 picks after Dylan Floreau, which doesn't make any sense

to me at this point. I also thought the Riley Green Pick was interesting. He's somebody I envisioned myself taking because obviously the upside's great but you can't stash him in an IL spot and I'm finding like we've almost filled up our benches and there's

a surprisingly high number of players I still like out there. I'm going to go with a couple outfielders here fill that utility spot one with Andrew McCutcheon who I think could be pretty sneaky and he walked 80 times last year hit for a low batting average but he he thinks he was

favoring his knee in a way that took away some of his opposite field power, and he's going to be playing DH for the Brewers primarily. So I think that's, I like that pick. And then a flashy pick here, the first time I've had occasion to take him in fantasy, Josh Lowe, or as he's doing on the Rite, Joshua Lowe, who is now, who is set to take Austin Meadows spot in the Ray's lineup,

and I think is more interesting to Meadows, because he brings some speed and I think higher end power, too. Yeah, no, I like that. He went 20-20 last season in the minors, 20-plus homers, 20-plus steals. The McCutcheon pick, by the way. He's 8 for 20 in the spring, two homers, more walks and strikeouts, and two steals. So if there was any indication that the knee is feeling good, Andrew McCutcheon is running in spring training. So I think that is pretty interesting.

So nice picks there, Scottie. After Josh Lowe, Brendan Nimmo. Brandon Nimmo's dealing, I believe, with a neck injury. I saw that he got a cortisone shot. Might not be ready for opening day. Man, like, what can go wrong? Will go wrong for the New York Mets. I just, you can't make this stuff up.

Jacob Grom, Max Scherzer tweaks to Hamstring. He's not going to pitch on opening day. They're hoping he pitches on Friday. Yeah, Nimmo received a cortisone type injection in his neck. That doesn't sound good, so I don't know. Maybe it helps out my guy, Dom Smith, gets him playing time. After Nimmo went, Rowan Wick, Will Myers, Austin Slater. And I am up.

Later Slater. Later Slater. And I have not had an opportunity to look through. Oh, he's a fun player. Yeah, I think that's probably going to be it. Let's take a look at the next page real quick. Okay, scrolling through, riveting podcast right now. I'm sorry for those listening.

Okay, I'm going to select Bailey Ober Who has been generating some buzz Around the fantasy industry If nothing else, he doesn't walk many batters at all So I think he'll pitch efficiently Which maybe helps him get to that six-ending threshold For quality starts I don't think I had a single share of him up to this point

So I'm happy to do so Take a shot on Bailey Ober If I took another starting pitcher, it was going to be him Nice Yeah, that makes you feel pretty good You know, that's Scott why he knows what he's doing sometimes, right? Every now on that. After Bailey Ober, Kyle Higashoka, someone we talked about as a spring riser,

leads all of spring training in home runs. So, it looks like he's going to be the main starting catcher for the Yankees. Good ballpark, good lineup. Scott, I think you mentioned that he kind of changed his batting stance a little bit. Or maybe it was Chris? It wasn't me. Yeah, he reworked his swing to, He modeled it after Josh Donaldson,

who obviously has a swing geared for power. And hey, if he needs any tips, you can just go across the locker room now. Right. Makes sense to me. All right. Kyle, got a joker. Interesting one there.

We are in round 20. We've got two more rounds after this. Then that's it. Draft season is over for the boys. It's been fun. I am working. I started it before the podcast. I'm working on the week one sleeper hitters and pitchers.

So that's what stage of the ramp up to the season we're in. We're in the lineup setting stage now. We're officially transitioning from draft season to in season. Well, Scott, let me ask you, are those sleepers going to be for just the weekend slate or for like the long week? I'll have some for both. Okay. It's geared more for just the weekend slate if your week one is. Thursday through Sunday

because that's the default setting. But of course, some people like to extend it through the first full week, make an 11-day scoring period. So I'll have a few sleeper recommendations for the people who do those as well. Okay. Yeah, I think we'll hit that on tomorrow's podcast too. So we'll do season predictions.

We'll talk a little bit about sleepers for the weekend. Because, I mean, even if you don't play in the longer matchup, If you just play in a roto league, you're just setting your lineup for the weekend anyway. So we might have some names for those of you in deeper leagues from the start. After I selected, not me, after someone selected Kyle Agachioca, J.P. Crawford, Nick Senzel, Diego Castillo, not the reliever for the Mariners. Which one? That is the second baseman.

I saw him play third base the other day too, so has some versatility there for the pirates. Alex Colomé. and Chris you selected Josiah Gray who I believe is having a terrible spring the that's fine the home runs are just a massive issue for him right like I think the strikeout stuff is there for Josiah Gray he just allows so many fly balls and so many home runs

yeah he's giving up five home runs and nine and two thirds innings 10 runs overall um yeah yeah I don't know I wonder if it's a case of like one his fastball just wasn't very good last season and you know that's always a concern you can mitigate it by not throwing your fastball that much but most pitchers are still going to throw it 50% of the time at least and yeah it's been really hitable in the major so that's an issue i wonder if he you know could benefit from throwing fewer strikes which is not always uh or you know working in the zone a little less

but the makings of a good pitcher are there like has slider and curveball are both really really good swing and miss pitches. And so when you're talking about this late in the draft, like, yeah, Josiah Gray is not a perfect pitcher. There are none here. So I'll take a swing on some upside there. Yeah, that is a fair point. After Josiah Gray, Chaz McCormick, Jonathan Scope, and Ahmed Rosario.

And we are one pick away from round 21. And there you are. Edward Cabrera is the next pick. Let's quickly run through each other's teams. We'll take a look and talk about some other. and then we'll wrap up the podcast in the stream here. And Chris, let's see what you got going on. All right, so you've got Yasmani Grandal,

Joey Votto, Gavin Lux, Ehaynios-Wares, Jeremy Pena in the infield, and then John Carlos Stanton, George Springer, Joey Gallo, Spencer Torkelson in the outfield and utility. Then for your pitchers, you've got Justin Verlander, Liam Hendricks, Alex Cobb, Garrett Cole, Eduardo Rodriguez, and then two strong, saves plus holds for levers, Paul Seward, David Bednar.

On your bench, you've got Merrill Kelly, Ian Hap, Josiah Gray, Zach Pleseck. You know, the infield's not perfect, Chris, but you've got a lot of power, and the pitching is interesting, I would say. Yeah, I think this team is well suited to compete in this format. Obviously, punting steals is certainly the way to go with the roster that I have.

but I should be able to compete pretty much everywhere. I think it's a very strong OBP team, so that's good. It's one of those teams where you have to remind yourself it's a 16 team league, you know, because it starts to get a little ugly when you're skewed towards 12 teams, but I'm pretty happy with it. I wish there was a little more upside on my bench, and I'm not sure the next few guys that I'm going to take are going to have a ton of upside. So, you know, hopefully I'll be able to stumble.

upon some or I won't have many injury issues, but it is an old core for sure between Garicol, Justin Verlander, John Carlos Stan, George Springer, Grandal, Vado. I've got, there's some risk there in that kind of core build as well. But I'm pretty happy with it overall. I think I think it's going to compete. Hey, you know what? If there was ever a theme that made sense for Chris Towers team, just stay healthy. Yeah, all the end. prone. Makes sense there. Yeah, look, it's a lot of OVP, there's power.

I think you'll be scouring the waiver wire for, you know, any second, third, and shortstop options, but yeah, if you hit on some of those, then I think I think it'll be all right. All right. So you selected Hector Nairis, who

likely set up for Ryan Presley. Then Adam Ottavino goes. A few other picks this round. Josh Young, who you won't be able to stash in the IL because he's on the minor league IL and then Taiwan Walker, James Karenchak Karenchak's kind of interesting

this is late for him is he gonna I thought I saw something that he may not be on the opening day roster but I wasn't I think he's hurt yeah okay that's that's what I thought yeah shoulder all right but not not considered a long term injury

okay and yeah I mean could be one of those hundred strikeout relievers fairly easily if he's healthy. Yep. After Adam Ottavino, Brad Hand goes, and I'll try and figure out who I want to take. How many picks do we have left? I think we have two. Yeah. On my

bench, I've got three pitchers, one hitter. So maybe I'll look for another upside-type bat. And let's see. Talking through Lane Thomas, kind of interesting at this point. Like,

He just keeps sliding in drafts. I know it's kind of a bummer. He's not going to lead off for the nationals, but as long as he's playing every day, could be interesting. Could be like a 20-20 guy if everything breaks right. Ah, finally he goes. And it wasn't in round three.

Dominic Smith is the name there. Is that from the guy who kept auto-drafting him? I hope so. That would make the most sad. No, it would be sad if it wasn't. Yeah. I think it was, yes. He was. Good job, Adam.

Yeah. He was the one being auto-drafted. All right. Not really seeing other names that are very exciting here. I'll figure something out. I'm on deck. Jose Miranda just went to. He will start in the minors for the Minnesota Twins. Still someone that you could stash. I could use about five more bench spots personally.

I mean, there are some. several players I'd like to get my mitts on. Ooh, actually, I just... It's just not going to happen. I just saw a name that I scrolled across that I will be very excited to select. And it is not Madison Bumgarner who just went. So the player I want is Tyler McGill.

Yep, he was in my queue. Yeah, so round 21. Might be the last opening day starter drafted. Yeah, there's talks either. or, man, how far they've fallen. Tyler McGill or David Peterson will pitch opening day for the New York Mets. McGill's interesting.

He's a tall pitcher, big right-hander, strikeouts last year. Home runs were an issue for him. It doesn't necessarily come with like prospect pedigree, but the minor league numbers were kind of interesting. He's got like three or four pitches. So Tyler McGill is someone I've been drafting late in basically all my drafts.

So let's see what he can do. And I'll take a look at my team, and then Scott will get to your picks and your team. Okay. And then we'll wrap this one up. So for me, I've got Tyler Stevenson, Paul Goldschmidt, Jorge Polanco, Josh Donaldson, Willie Adomas in my infield. In the outfield, I've got Eloy Jimenez, Jared Kelnick, Sayah Suzuki, and Shohei Otani is my utility bat. For my pitchers, I've got Sandy Alcantara, Charlie Morton, Alex Wood, Tristan McKenzie, Logan Gilbert. Those are the starters.

I've also got Taylor Rogers, Jonathan Loisaga, Chad Green for my relievers. And then on the bench, I've got Lance Lynn, Tommy Fam, Bailey Ober, Tyler McGill. So I've got a stash in Lance Lynn, some upside pitchers, I feel like in Ober and McGill. I like Tommy Fam quite a bit. I like the way this team turned out overall. You know what? I was reading the outfield. I was like, it seems maybe a little week.

And then I got to Otani, and I was like, all right, well. Yeah. That's a nice reminder that, you know, the lineup, I feel like the lineup is pretty well balanced here. I waited maybe a little bit too long for my, you know, third and fourth starting pitchers. But I wound up with a lot of names here that I like. So with Sandy and Charlie Morton, Alex Wood,

Logan Gilbert again, yeah, those are names that I like quite a bit. Willie Adomis is the breakout there. I like this team. Solid. And then let's get to your picks. Scott, who did you take? You took Tyler Matzick and Colin McHugh.

So, all right, we're both going with the Homer saves plus hold strategy. I mentioned the Braves had all those holds last year. Tyler Matzick was fifth in holds with 25. And Colin McHugh, I think, is going to be the primary right-handed setup, man. And if he continues last year's ratios, he'll be a great reliever in this format. So, yeah, those are my three relievers, those two in Art Warren. Those are going to be my saves plus holds guys to begin the season. I feel okay with that. There are some interesting bats. There's one starting pitcher I like,

but I'll try to pick one of them up when I put Chris Sale on the I.L. All right. You sure you don't want to just tell us who it is, Scott, or? No. All right. Are you sure you don't want to do this right after this pick? Right after my pick? Come on, man. All right. I'm looking. Yeah, I mean, I mentioned his name earlier. I'll go ahead and will I do it? Yeah, I'll take Lane Thomas. Little power and speed.

The walk rates we've seen at times, solid for Lane Thomas. This is a rare draft where we could see two Diego Castillo's drafted. The second baseman already went. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. That's one name for it. Since I don't have any IL stashes that I'm going to put in the

and I don't have any waiver claims to make immediately. I'm just going to throw out there for the last seven people who are picking. Jordan Hicks. Let's make sure he gets drafted. I like it. Andrew Heaney. And, you know, maybe Carlos Santana. Maybe.

All right. Sneaky OBP, someone who's a standout for years in this form. Maybe Garrow Whitlock. Any other names, Chris? Are you trying to guess who the? the players I want. I don't know who Scott, Jameson Tyone. No. I don't know. Maybe you've already said it. I don't think Scott's going to give it up. Let's take a look at Scott's team. He's got Dalton Varsho at catcher. Then Pete Alonzo, Max Muncie, Adelberto Mondes, Javier Bayez in the infield. Then Randalli Grichick, Jorge Salair, Chris Bryant, and Andrew McCutcheon in the outfield and his utility spot. He started off with the two.

pitchers, Max Scherzer, Brandon Woodruff, but he also has Noah Cindergarde, John Gray, Jesus Lazzardo, Tony Gonselin, Nestor Cortez, Chris Sale as a stash, who are the relievers? He's got Tyler Matzick, Colin McHugh, Art Warren, Josh Lowe, some upside there, and O'Neill Cruz waiting on him. So what do you think, Scott, about the way this team turned out? I'm happy. I'm happy with it. I got the power-laden light-up I wanted. I have some particularly with that like I have a lot of versatility between Max Muncie

Adelberto Mondesi Javier Baez and Chris Bryant so like when O'Neill Cruz is ready to go if for some reason somebody's not pulling their weight I can easily get him in the lineup and same thing if Josh Lowe was Joshua Lowe in our product for what

it's worth if he if he's a big breakthrough right away shouldn't be hard to get him in but I mean I'm pretty happy with the players I have starting there and I feel like my starting pitching, considering I went eight rounds or seven rounds without drafting a pitcher after going.

What do you call it, Chris? Hero Ace. Hero SP. A hero SP with Max Scher and Brandon Woodruff at the top. I think my pitching should be fine for a 16-team league. Yeah, I'm happy with it. Really happy with it. Nice.

Now every player that Chris mentioned is being drafted, Garrett Willough, Jordan Hicks Andrew Heaney They were all looking for suggestions Jorge Alfaro I got to say though I got sniped in the

23rd 22nd round with a 343rd overall pick and I'm actually upset about this Adam Frazier Adam Frazier Oh yeah you have Seattle Mariners lead off hitter Adam Frazier was going to be the key

to everything was the one guy in my queue I didn't mention intentionally All right, Chris, hit us here with your last pick. I'll go with Andrus Jimenez. Hey. He sounds like he's going to crack the everyday roster. Jimenez is having a good spring.

And you know what's dead may never die. So the dream lives with Andres Jimenez, who is 9 for 25 with a homer and four steals this spring. So very, very sneaky. Let's wrap there. For Scott and Chris, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow.

Bye-bye.