Fantasy Baseball Today - Live H2H Categories FOR THE PEOPLE Draft Part 1! Rounds 1-11 Picks & Strategy! (3/27 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 27, 2024

It's our annual For The People listener league draft! This is a 16-team H2H categories league with OBP instead of batting average, quality starts instead of wins and saves plus holds instead of saves. Chris and Frank were sharing a team with the 10th overall pick while Scott was picking 15th! In part one, we break down the first 11 rounds of the draft, picks and strategy. Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @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/ 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 lead. We're fantasy! Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. And here we are, our final draft of the offseason. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today.

You're listening to this on Wednesday, March 27th. I am Frank Sample joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. today on the show, it's our live. For the People, listener league drafts. 16-to-head categories with OBP instead of batting average, quality starts instead of wins, and saves plus holds instead of saves, the Wild West. We'll get to that in just a second.

But minutes before we went live, Jordan Montgomery finally signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Snakes alive, baby. Jordan Montgomery, to the debacks on a one-year, $25 million deal. with a vesting option for $25 million in the second year. He needs to make 10 starts in 2024 for the second year to vest. And I do love that the debacks made the World Series last year and have continued to invest in their team this offseason.

Not that they've made crazy moves, but just adding on the fringes. I think it's been a pretty nice offseason for them. But let's talk about Montgomery. He had a great year last year, 320 ERA 119 whip, well below a strikeout. per inning. We know the strikeout rate has dropped

the past couple of years, but he is I think proven he's a workhorse now, 178 and a third plus innings in back-to-back seasons. Scott, we'll start with you. What are you thinking about Jordan Montgomery headed to Arizona? I mean, I don't think

anything really changes with regard to his fantasy value. He has the potential to be a top 40-ish type pitcher, but that's when you're counting on him for a full season. And presumably he's going to be delayed here for a few turns at the start as he gets into a position to take on a full workload. So I have him just inside my top 50 at starting pitcher. I don't think I'll have a 320 ERA again.

All the ERA estimators are mid-high threes. That's kind of been Jordan Montgomery standard. And I think he'll return to that this year with, you know, so-so strikeout rate, as you pointed out. It's just a reliable spot filler in fantasy is what I view him as. And I don't think it changes now that he's in Arizona versus Texas last year. Presumably there's going to be less run support. But, you know, he was 10 and 11 last year. I know it was split between two teams.

I don't think much changes is the bottom line. I do wonder if when everybody's ready, you know, Eduardo Rodriguez is healthy, Jordan Montgomery, presuming everybody's ready, what does that mean for Ryan Nelson who had a good spring? But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess. Yeah, the debacks rotation as of now, my guess is Tommy Henry will be the first one to get the boot once Jordan Montgomery is good to go. I think the fact that Eduardo Rodriguez is starting the season on the IL with that lat injury probably has something to do with the debacks being aggressive here on Jordan Montgomery and bringing him in.

The NFBC ADP over the past week is 193.7 for Jordan Montgomery. he's going just after names like Aaron Savali and Nathan Avaldi. Chris, do you think that might climb back up a bit here in these final drafts? We have a draft tonight. So I guess we'll find out shortly. I could see it moving up into like the 160-ish range. You know, you put him like in that. That's where I've got, you know, that Yuri Perez, Kodi-Senga, that whole tier of injured guys who are all better than Jordan Montgomery.

It's worth pointing out, but he'll need some time to get up to speed, and he's not currently injured and presumably will not be injured moving forward. Obviously, anything can happen. But I think that's probably a fair range for him when you're talking about there's a little bit of upside. He's a good pitcher. He's probably not a great pitcher. But, you know, mid to high three ZRA, good team context, good home park. I think he's fine. I've got him on a few teams.

I'm happy he landed somewhere good. my guess also regarding the the options here is that it's not like my my guess would be that it's like it vests and he still has an option right like does does that make sense like he pitches 10 starts he has the 20 million guaranteed for next year but he can still opt out that's my assumption because it would be a really weird decision to not have the opt-down out at the end of the year for such an easy vesting to hit. So that's the assumption I'm operating under that like Blake Snell and all the other guys that Boris had, he's probably going to be a free agent again next off season.

Yeah, I don't know that we have that information yet, but what you're saying does make sense, Chris. So we'll see if that is what the actual contract terms wind up being. But Jordan Montgomery is headed to Arizona, likely not going to be ready. the first couple weeks of the season, but once he's good to go, he'll kind of fit into that Chris Bassett, Jose Burrios type mold

for starting pitcher in fantasy. As we mentioned, we have our final live draft of the offseason tonight. It is our For the People, listener league draft, and here are some of the details. 22 round draft, 16 starters, six reserves,

the starters, we have one of each infield position, three outfielers, one utility, and then seven pitcher spots. You can divvy them up however you please. This is the Wild West. There are no weekly innings minimums. There are no start minimums. There are no maximums.

You can have all starters in your seven spots. You can have all relievers in your seven spots. It does not matter. And I know heads head category leagues are typically daily lineups. These are weekly because, you know, we're managing like 15 different teams. So it would be kind of hard to manage some daily lineups. certain restrictions on if it was daily, I presume. Yes, 100%.

The standings are head-to-head each category, so if you win seven to three in week one, your record becomes seven and three. If you lose three to seven in week two, then your record becomes 10 and 10. So on and so forth. Shout out to our league champion, Scott White. That's right.

He swept both listener leagues last year. The target is on your back, Scott. Everybody is out to get the champ. Scott will be drafting 15th in this. trapped 15th out of 16 teams and one little detail I haven't mentioned yet. Chris and I are sharing and trafting our team together. 10th overall and I'm sure there will be some fireworks minutes before we started. Chris threw some kind of crazy proposal at me and I it's not a proposal. It's what we're doing. You see you see how this partnership has already started off on the wrong foot.

I don't know what this is this is ridiculous. It is what I offered. is a perfect partnership, a 50-50 split of the team where we alternate picks and I don't get to tell you who you should draft with your picks and you don't get to tell me who I should draft on my picks. It's a good thing. This isn't a league that requires a great amount of like coordination throughout the roster.

It's called, it's called Democracy, guys. Is that what it's called? Yeah, I guess so. But it should be fun. and we'll see how this team turns out. Again, this is our final live draft of the offseason. We'll be live for the entirety of the draft.

We might go a little bit longer since it's 16 teams, and it will be broken down into a two-part podcast on the audio side. Let's pull up the draft room, like we always do, and I think we're pretty much good to go, and I will start this thing up,

and the first team is on the clock. Dylan Steinfeld. You were the lucky winner of the Ronald de Cunia lottery, assuming that's who you want to draft. I guess you can never know. But again, some kind of different rules in this league. It's five by five, but we're using OBP instead of batting average.

So that will change a lot. Quality starts instead of wins and saves plus holds instead of saves. And there you go. Ronald de Cunia is the first overall pick. It's three outfielders. Yes. Correct. You said five.

What I say? Five? It's head to head points, rosters, but with no RP spots and no SP spots, basically. It's a format you're probably not playing in. Let's be honest. There's more people playing saves plus holds and quality starts. Oh, yeah, no. It has some features that are implemented.

The saves plus holds. I've enjoyed the safe plus holds since we switched to that. But all of them combined into one, 16 teams and saves plus holds and quality starts instead of wins and stolen bases. It's stolen bases minus caught stealing instead of pure stolen bases. I did not mention that. I probably should have. That doesn't really change how you should view it, I don't think.

Well, Randy or Rosa Raina is going to be a... Yeah, say Suzuki maybe. Randy or Rosarena, a 10 stolen base guy instead of 20 or 25, like he normally would be. Not the most efficient. Let's catch people up on the picks. After Ronald de Kuna, Muki Betz, who in OBP, I think it's totally fine to take him that early.

Bobby Witt, Corbyn Carroll, Juan Soto, and Julio Rodriguez. So in a typical batting average league, Julio Rodriguez is probably a top three pick. Bobby Witt, I thought maybe would have fallen down a little bit more than he did in this draft. But, you know, people want the speed. I get it.

Yeah, yeah, I feel like Bobby Witt, third overall when you're using OBP instead of batting average. She's the first rounder who loses the most value. So I would have let him slide a little bit behind Juan Soto for sure. But that's okay. He'll steal a lot of bases, presumably.

After Julio Rodriguez, Matt Olson, Aaron Judge, two names who definitely see a boost in OVP, then Kyle Tucker. Chris, we're on the clock. We haven't talked about who's getting the first pick, who's getting the second pick. I have no idea what's happening. What are we doing? I'm going to take the first pick. So I'll take the odd number rounds. You take the even.

You can have the first pick. No, no, no. I don't care. It's fine. You can take the first. You got 30 seconds. The only thing that we've discussed is who we want to take in the second round. I think we're in agreement on that.

Yeah, I suggested a first. four and you seemed open to it. You can have the first pick. Go ahead, take it. All right. There's no way I would have taken Spencer Shrider, but that's what Chris is. You had a chance. He makes the most oddball pick you can.

Freddie Freeman, Chris in an OBP league. Come on. Yeah, he's really good too. I like him plenty. Oh, gosh. All right. Well, this team is already off the rails. Do you regret this decision to share your team, Frank?

No, I think it's already in round one. It's going to be amazing. It's going to be amazing. So, you know what? I don't have Spencer Shrider on any of my team. So you know what, Chris? I'm happy we got him. I've got Spencer Strider on a team now. I could say that. I have one chair. That is awesome. After Spencer Shrider to, what's our combined team name, Chris? I don't even know. crampful.

Cramful. I was going to say something like Stowers, Kyle Stowers. Kind of makes some sense, but I don't know. We'll workshop the first name. After Spencer Shreider, Fernando Tatis, Shohei Otani, definitely someone who not necessarily gains a boost in OVP, but he is really good in OPS leagues for those who plan those.

And Freddie Freeman is the next pick. 13th overall. Scott, you are on deck. Pretty neat value for Freddie Freeman there. Yeah, wish we got him. It was great value. Friday Freeman probably should have gone ahead of Bobby Whitney at OPP League

for being honest here. And Julio. Even your honor. Alvarez at 14, that's pretty great. So, I've got choices here that I wasn't expecting to have. I was expecting Matt Olson to make it this far. I was expecting Spencer Strider to make it this far. I might have had my first Spencer Strider team.

You know, I was thinking, we're doing our combined bold predictions article. It's going to come out on Thursday, right, Thursday. And one of the ones I'm considering is Spencer Strider finishes with 75, more strikeouts than any other pitcher. We have like 50 more last year? That's not bold, Scott. I set a bold prediction yesterday and you poo-poohed my bold prediction. That bold prediction is not bold at all.

Okay. Well, I'll keep thinking about it. I'm going to go with Bryce Harper here, I think. It's great pick. I want to build a sturdy OBP base because OBP is harder to supplement later in drafts than batting averages. There are fewer OBP standouts than batting average standouts, I feel like Bryce Harper is certainly one.

That's another reason why that Freddie Freeman at 13 was amazing. But yeah, I'm going to go with Bryce Harper. So this is, I think, my first, my second Bryce Harper. Chris, don't add names to the Q. I didn't realize that would happen now. Yes, our team is up on the screen. Well, I didn't realize our cues would update at the same time. I added a couple players to our queue.

And then they disappeared. I was like, whoa, they just got drafted. No, Frank removed them. No, no. Yes, I had to get rid of them very quickly. After Scott took Bryce Harper, it's back-to-back Phillies, Trey Turner, the final pick of round one. Let's take a quick break when we return.

We'll find out who Scott drafted in the second round right after this. Welcome back in. The first pick of round two was Jose Ramirez and Scott, you are back up following your Bryce Harper pick. You ready for this? Uh-oh. Cory Sieg. baby he's back where he belongs he's back in my top 20 especially in an

OBP league I was looking at Francisco Lindor who is top of the draft board for me and I'm like man that's just that's just not what I want to do with my O BP but shortstop is a weak position and then it hit me it hit me like a bolt of lightning Cory Seeger healthy again this is where I used to be drafting him OBP league let's go he went I got him third 32nd in my Tau Wars League, which obviously was in early March. So, you know, loved getting that value. But yeah, as we talked about earlier in the year, earlier in the week,

Corey Seeger, I mean, I guess it's Monday. So as we talked about yesterday, Corey Seeger, his OVP is, his ADP has remained around 30th in drafts since he made his spring debut. It was 20 before that. He should be top 20 again. Yep, I think that's totally fair, especially in OBP leagues. The plan is coming together. The plan is coming together, Chris.

Here we are. Plan, team no plan. The plan is coming together. Should I make the pick? You want to make the pick? No, it's your pick. I got nothing to do with this. All right.

Well, this guy bus. You can't look at me. It's the bizarro draft. We're going with Spencer Strider in round one. Ellie de la Cruz in round two, who I will admit in an OBP league definitely takes a hit. but in head-to-head categories where you do want players of extremes, we have the pitcher who is most likely to lead the league in strikeouts

and somebody who could provide 50 plus stolen bases this year. And I will say, Ellie Dale Cruz is not a good OBP source. It's not like he doesn't walk. You know, his walk rate last year, I think was in like the 9% range. He actually walked a decent amount this spring. the problem is his batting average was 235, and he might not have a good batting average this year.

But relative to his value in a batting average league, I don't think he's someone who necessarily loses. Like, Bobby Witt just doesn't walk. That's why Bobby Witt is a poor source of on-base percentage. But Ellie Dela Cruz is actually a fairly patient hitter. It's just he's got holes in his swing. Yeah, he won 8.2% of the time. That's a solid mark.

And the other thing is most every hitter you'd be considering drafting this range. You're used to drafting in this range in a categories league, a conventional roto league, let's say, none of them are like batting, are OBP standouts.

Like we're already past that group already. So nobody, like even Austin Riley, Raphael DeVers, who I think went right after your L.E. de la Cruz pick. Yeah, he's not a great. They'll have a higher OBP than L. De La Cruz in all likelihood, but they're not OBP standouts.

Raphael Devers and Austin Riley are probably closer to average sources of O'BP. Right. So it's already kind of run low. But we're missing a lot of picks here. We're not getting our third round pick that we talked about. Well, no, Chris, because we plan on getting him in the fourth round. So we definitely will not be getting O'Neill Cruz. And we'll tell you why in just a second.

We took L.E. De LaCruz at pick 23, followed by Raphael DeVevers, Pablo Lopez. O'Neil Cruz. 26th overall, the spring hype is out of control, completely off the rails. That's what always happens in this league specifically too. This is the last draft of the year for me. I assume it's the last draft of the year for you two. And I assume it's the last draft of the year for everybody else drafting. And what tends to happen in every sport, football, basketball, I'm sure hockey.

I haven't played fantasy hockey in about 20 years. But I'm sure that the last draft of the. year, everyone's like, screw it, Connor Baderd in the second round. That's a hockey player. He was the number one pick in the hockey draft at some point.

This is a very Yolo draft. Nor deny. Go ahead, Scott. This is a very Yolo draft. It's deep, but the lineups are small. We've talked about the need for high category impact with each of your picks.

You guys, I think your Spencer's strider in round one and Ellie De La Cruz picks make sense for that reason and so it is probably the draft that I'm most inclined to reach in I mean if you told me two weeks ago I'd go

Bryce Harper in round one, Corey Seeger in round two in any league I'd say oh man that didn't go according to plan then but no I mean that's how I've approached it the past couple years is just okay who can I

who can I of all the players remaining with this pick, who is the one I will miss having the most? And I take them, regardless of ADP. And it's obviously worked out. I've won the league two of the last three years. Oh. I had a hard time with this league for the first several years of its existence.

So I am sharing my journey. I'm just razzing you, Scotty. The last couple of picks After, where do we leave off? O'Neill Cruz at pick 26, Luis Castillo, Kyle Swarber, who it might sound crazy

in an OBP format, he jumps up a lot. Followed by Mike Trout also gets a boost in OBP, Ozzy Albies, Gunner Henderson, Pete Alonzo. That's the last pick of round two.

Into round three, we go where Jose Altuvae is. Pick 33 overall. And so that person starts Ronald Acuna, Jose Altu... Ronald Coonio, Pete Alonzo, Jose Altuve.

Thoughts? Pretty awesome. Yeah, I mean, that's... Cover all your base. Ronald Acuna is... I have to say, as much as...

I've been... I am like famous Jose Altuve fan in fantasy, right? I always think he's undervalued. I don't think this is his format. I don't think this is his format because he's not a standout in anything but batting average,

and this isn't even a batting average league. I mean, his OVP the last two years... Runs. Well, he's... 387, 3993 in OBP the last two years. So I would say he is an OBP staying out. That's fair. The batting average is so high that it ends up being a good OBP.

But he doesn't stand out as much in OBP leagues as he stands out in batting after leagues. After Jose Al-Tuvai, Yoshinobu, Yamamoto, 34th overall. No discount here. I know some people have let us know he's slipped in some home league drafts because of his first outing against the Padres and the Korea series. obviously he only lasted one inning. He gave up four or five runs. He was bad. He was flat out bad. There's no doubt about that.

But I think there's a bit of an adjustment period for Yoshinobu Yamamoto. He's using a new baseball, obviously acclimating to, we can't even say being in the United States. He's pitching in Korea. Just a lot of bouncing around. I think all of us on this podcast collectively think that Yamamoto is still going to be really, really good this year. After he went, Michael Harris and Marcus Semyon.

and then Kevin Gosman, who made his return on Monday, and he looked really good in that outing, three innings, one run, seven strikeouts, velocity looked fine. I haven't seen an update either way, but my guess is he will not go on the IL and he will start the season with the Blue Jays. Does that sound right? Yeah, I thought Gosman looked great from watching that start.

It was seven strikeouts and three innings. I think you just said that. Whiffs were there. Velocity was actually up a tiny bit, which was a good sign. So as long as he bounces back from it, yeah, I think he's probably going to make the rotation for them.

One thing that we haven't confirmed with the Blue Jays rotation, and it's still an open question. Ricky Teeteman might make their rotation, right? That's only if Kevin Gossman was not available. Okay, okay. Because Bowden Francis has already been named the fifth starter.

Oh, okay, okay. Yep. After Kevin Gossman, Cody Bellinger is the next pick. We are three picks away, Chris. I guess I can't say we because this is your pick, right? It's our pick. Based on what you've laid out here in our partnership.

I kind of feel like this is just your pick, but I guess we'll find out. Madi Machado is the next pick. He blasted a home run in game two. It was going to be Vlad. The plan has been foiled. We definitely were not looking at Vladimir Guerrero as our third round pick. He's gone and so is Boba Schett. So I don't know, Chris.

Yeah, now it's Wait, wait, it's your pick, I guess. Yeah, now it now it gets a little more difficult because the top guys are all Not super great OBP guys. Actually, Randy or Rose Rain, I think it's a bad rap. You know, I like, R&OBP league. I think he's actually better than he gets credit for.

So I'm considering him. I'm also considering... I wrote a name to you on Slack, which you're probably not going to check, but... I can look. Yeah, no, I don't want to do that But I appreciate the feedback I'm considering a pitcher

Who I have not drafted yet But do whatever you want That's probably too much Do I really want to be a chaos agent here? Yes All right, you said yes Is that the pick? You didn't...

That's the pick Oh, all right I mean Scouble and Spencer I haven't drafted Terrick Scoobal yet I'm alright with it Now I have Terrick Scoobel on a team. And I think I can't speak for the whole team.

That's the last picture I'm going to take for a long time. Now, if Frank wants to take a pitcher, that's, you know, this reminds me. I did a for pitch con like three years ago. They did like a blind two person draft where you made your, you made every other pick and you had no idea who you were picking with or what they were going to do. and, you know, that's, that's like this, except Frank is unfortunately stuck with a person he knows is going to make the picks and is a troll. I mean, there's no trolling there. I'm totally fine with Terik Scouble going 40 second overall in this range of starting pitchers.

He's a great the spring. The velocity is up. I mean, we might have a combined, I don't know, 500 strikeouts. 500 strikeouts between, uh, Scoobel and Spencer Shrider, so I'm down. I'm down. After Scoobel, George Kirby, Aaron Nola. Scott, we're coming back up on your team. You have Bryce Harper and Corey Seeger. And no idea what I'm going to do here. I guess one aspect we could touch on is, does quality starts affect scubel or Strider?

I feel like they should be fine, right? Yeah, I mean, by the end of the season, scubal was going six with regularity. Of course, that's not a problem with Strider. I think, you know, you can't really

overdo it in a category in a head-to-head categories league. You just breaking it down, breaking your matchups down into one-week samples like this,

you need reliability. And, you know, Terrick Scouble, like, those are my two Syy Young picks this year,

Terik's Scouble and Spencer Strider. And so, like, the chances of you winning ERA and WIP every week are much greater with that pairing than if you did like Spencer Strider and Zach Gallen, even though I think most people have Gallen ahead of Terrick Scoobel. Like it's, you need the more impactful stats more than like the the volume that Gallin's going to give you. All right. Well, with that, two back-to-back

outfielders, Randy Rosarena and Adoles Garcia. That was the name that I slacked. to Chris and he was like, nah, I don't want to do that. I, the thing is, a Rosarayna is just a better OBP guy than Adolese Garcia. I know Garcia's a better power hitter to make up for it, but a Rosarayna has been like a 350, 360 OBP guy the last couple of years. And Adolese Garcia has been 300, 328. Okay. I mean, he's, I guess it felt, it's felt like he's improved more than that.

But, yeah, you are correct. Yeah, Rosarana walked 80 times last year. Yeah, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, He's pretty good. I think he's probably a little bit undervalued. I think what I was thinking with Adola Garcia is that we've got so much speed with L.A. the L.A.Cruz just kind of getting as much power as we could for like an Adola-S-Garcia. With the counting stats, obviously going to hit in the middle of the Rangers lineup.

But that will not be the case on our team. And Scott, you added another outfielder, one that might have a lower OBP. What do you think? Yeah, I drafted Luis Robert. I'm not thrilled with it. I'm not thrilled with any. anyone who I could have taken there. I think it's,

you know, that's part of the reason why you build up that sturdy OBP base at the front is because your OBP choices are going to be limited throughout the draft. So I got Bryce Harper and Corey Seeger. I did not fill outfield. I did not fill outfield. A lot of times my fallback number one outfielder is Mike Trout or Cody Bellinger. They both already went in this draft.

So I was feeling pressure to go ahead and secure one of those outfield spots. and so I went with Luis Robert. I still don't know what I'm going to do on the turn here. Zach Gallen went right after my Luis Robert pick, and there will be one more pick before I pick again. I have some thoughts about what I might do, but I haven't settled on it yet. Okay, so Framber Valdez.

Great pick and a quality start league. Right, but he doesn't, he's not that, he doesn't have those standout ratios I was talking about. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing is like he might get one at most two quality starts in a given week. Right? Like that's kind of the issue you run into in a head-to-head categories. Right. So I'm actually thinking of going the other way here with my first pitcher and taking one I haven't drafted before,

when I've added to my bust list, but one who is going to be super impactful. For as long as he's available. When he's on the mound. And that is, picking it over again. Let's do it. Tyler Glass now. I was going to say,

we all know who you're talking about, Scott. It's like there's just a moment of anticipation. Who is he talking about? Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. I appreciate the dramatic pause, Scott. Don't let the haters. Well, no, I was literally rethinking my pick

because I wasn't thrilled with that one either, but I didn't see one to get thrilled about, I guess. So diversifying a little bit and, you know, hoping to have somebody who could really make a difference a week at a time. And just understanding that I'm going to need to fill in for him from time to time. All right. Well, yeah, we've had three pitchers in a row, Zach Gellon, Framber Valdez, Tyler Glassnow to Scott. Glass Now wasn't sharp in his first outing in that series against the Padres, but none of the pitchers were. Yeah, that's one of the things we talked about is like, was there something wrong on with the mound there?

Like, nobody seemed comfortable. I just don't think they're ready yet, you know? I don't think these guys are built up or they just, yeah, it's having to travel across the world and then, you know, change your, not necessarily change your routine, but, you know, you're pitching in a new place. I think obviously we're making excuses for all these pitchers, but I think they're pretty reasonable excuses as to why some of those pitchers did not perform. Oh, that is who I don't think they're all going to be bad, no. Gosh.

That was a good one. I wanted Alex Bregman. That will not be happening. He was kind of sneaking under the radar for a while. I was like, oh, if he makes it past Scott, I might actually. Scott didn't take him, yeah. I thought about it, but I just felt like I needed outfield and pitcher more because I hadn't filled either of the.

those yet through round four in a 16 team league. I have one other player on on the mind here, Chris. And if that player goes, then I have no idea what's going to happen. So we'll see what happens. But the last two picks, third baseman, Royce Lewis and Alex Breggman, as we mentioned, the OBPs for Breggman in the past two years, 360, 366 and 363 respectively. We didn't talk about Breggman's going to hit fourth for the Astros. I don't know if we've mentioned. mentioned that, but Cal Tucker's hitting third and Breggman has switched it fourth. And that's an interesting kind of wrinkle. A part of it was just Breggman's ability to hit with runners on base was what they cited as a result of it. I'm blanking on the name of their new manager, Joe. Joe,

a spotter, right? Yep. That was what he mentioned there. So I think it's an interesting one. Great news for Kyle Tucker. Yeah. The next two picks after Breggman, Adley Ruchman, who, will be pretty awesome in OBP formats, followed by Logan Webb, who will also get tons of quality starts. And Chris, the hitter that I was considering is still there, and so I will go ahead and take him. I think he gets a boost in OBP,

and that would be Nolan Jones, our first two hitters, Nolan Jones and Ellie Daler Cruz. Look at us. One of my most drafted players. I think that's the fifth time I've taken Nolan Jones in now 13 leagues. Wow. Now, here's an interesting one is I've got another outfielder who is also, I believe,

has been drafted in as many leagues as Nolan Jones. We'll see if I take him next time around. Oh, nope, not going to. He's gone. That's Christian Yellich, the very next pick. Very good OBP league pick, 3708, I think last year. Good runs in RBI, good steals and power. Solid five category guy in any format.

All right, the next two picks. After Yelich, we got Dylan Sees and Blake Snell. So the pitchers that we often compare to each other as having massive strikeout rates, year over year volatility, now at the point where they're going back to back in drafts. Does that make sense? About 30 picks from now, yes. Okay. So just early in general for those two. Yeah, I think I have them ranked back to back.

quality starts. I know Snell had a bunch of quality starts last year, but typically as inefficient as he is and as many walks as he piles up, he's not usually a standout in quality start league. Blake Snell, I believe, has never averaged six innings per start in a season, and that's including two seasons

where he's had like a 240 Babbap. You know, the two Salyung seasons, he'll give you quality starts if he pitches at that level, because he's going to, to pitch efficiently enough because of the low Babbitt, but it's, yeah, he's not a great quality start source. They may have been thinking more in terms of,

I want the high-impact strikeout guy, you know. And look, I think it's early too for Blake Snell and Dylan Cese because of the damage they're likely to do to your whip, but I do think strikeout is the most reliable category, certainly from week to week at starting pitcher. And that is the thing that Blake Snell and Dylan will for sure give you. All right, after those two,

Glaber Torres, Tristan Kossis, who definitely would see a boost in OBP. I wonder, at 60th overall, is that just right for Kosses, or is he even a value pick at that point? He usually goes closer to 90, 100, I think, so I don't know if I'd call him a value there, but it's fine.

Yeah, does see a boost, for sure, as mentioned. Logan Gilbert is next up, Sayas Suzuki, who we spoke about, yesterday having a pretty massive spring and someone I've drafted a lot of. I think he'll just perform regardless of format. He's got a good eye at the plate. I think he's going to get on base. If you're playing a batting average league, I think he's going to hit 275, 280 plus categories,

some power, a little bit of speed. Yeah, I just think Sayas Suzuki puts it all together and has a pretty massive season this year. After he goes, I believe this is our first reliever, right? Josh Hater. Now, this is a saves plus holds leagues. saves plus hold league. And typically you see relievers go a little bit later. 63rd overall is that too early for Josh Hader in this format.

Let me see where he went in my Tau Wars draft, which is also a Schold's league, as the people say. Well, if I could say without influencing everybody who's drafting with us, their plans, which I can't say without influencing their plans, but I personally don't plan to take a reliever until my last three picks. I just think there are so many hold sources out there. And obviously, the league leaders and saves are going to have a lot more saves than the league leaders and holds are going to have holds.

But I'm willing to sacrifice one of my pitcher slots each week to get a third holds guy in there. And that generally does the trick I've found in the years we've played this league. So I will be looking at set up men late in the draft. not even bothering with closers, unless one just turns out to be an insane value. I wouldn't say Josh Hater in round four, 63rd overall fits that description. Yeah, Hater went in the seventh round,

seventh overall in Tau Wars, which is a Saves Plus Holds League. It's also an innings league, so maybe that also punishes relievers a little more. But yeah, the thing that I think also makes sense about waiting on Saves Plus Holds, because this is something I've really struggled with TOWs because it's innings as a standalone category

instead of wins and saves plus holes. Your specific Toul Wars leagues. Most of the Toul Wars leagues are like that. This specifically, the thing that I've struggled with is in order to compete, because you are competing with everyone. It's a Roto League. So you are competing with everyone,

not just who you're competing with that week. If you just go holds guys, you probably need three of them, and that makes it harder to compete innings. In this format, you're only competing against one person every week. And so that's the key distinction that makes it, I think, even more important to wait on saves plus holds in a head-to-head categories league because you're not necessarily going to need a ton of them at any given time. All right.

Well, the last pick was Josh Hater. As we mentioned, there have been a few more picks. Let's take our final break. When we return, we will catch you up on the picks right after this. after Josh Hader, the final pick of round four was Max Freed, followed by Justin Steele, Nico Horner, Wyatt Langford, 67th overall. I mean, I had him queued up. He was going to be my next pick if he made it to me.

Yeah, that's pretty fun. Not particularly close. After Langford, Zander Bogartz, you know, the first overall pick team started Acuna, Alonzo Altuve, and then got Freed and Justin Steele. for waiting until round four and five in a 16 team league to get your first two pitchers to pair with those three hitters

I think that's pretty good yeah it's pretty good to come away which game is that say his name that is uh I believe his name is Dylan Steinfeld who created one of our crossword puzzles which was pretty awesome so thank you for that if anyone

if anyone wants the crossword puzzles there were two awesome puzzles made one was by Dylan one was by Omar who's also in the league. So if you're interested in getting those crossword puzzles, email me, frank.dott, Stamphel at paramount.com, and I'll get you, I'll get you some of those crossword puzzles. After Zander Bogart's, Freddie Peralta, Zach Eflin, Chris, we're three picks away. What are you thinking, co-manager? Not a pitcher. So for the two people ahead of us, three people ahead of us, don't worry about

that. We're in agreement, finally. So the problem is the clear top players. left on the board on the hitting side are probably going to be pretty big OBP liabilities and so it begs a question here that's worth having a discussion about as a team do we punt are we punting

OBP well if we were I probably wouldn't have taken no one Jones yeah I mean all right so he was 389 that's really good last year we expect some batting average regression yeah I don't know it's it's an

interesting question because the best OBP guys remaining are not great overall fantasy options in my opinion and so there is one name he is not somebody I ever draft

but he is better in OBP I can I can slag it to you if you want is he old he's old okay I know who we're talking uh Oh, yeah.

Well, let's catch people up on the picks. After Zach Eflin, Bobby Miller, Nolan Aronado, and Cattel Marte, we are on the clock. Team Stowers. You know what? When your car has lost traction and you're stuck on the ice and you're skitting out, you know what you're supposed to do? Does anybody know, I've never been in that situation. You steer into the curve, fellas. Oh, goodness.

And that's what we're doing. With CJ Abrams, another power speed guy. Power, we're using the term power there a little. Power and speed. He's got both. He's got a lot of speed. A lot of speed. Oh, gosh, man.

18 homers, 300 on base percentage last season. Yeah, that's not great. My cue just got, it's getting pummeled here. Yeah, we should probably just punt OBP at this point. I don't know. Maybe we can rectify it somewhere. see. Anyway.

Look, the whole thing, you got to make up for my mistakes. That's the whole point of this draft. Our team through five rounds. We've got Ellie Dela Cruz, C.J. Abrams, Nolan Jones, Spencer Shrider, and Terrick Scuba. If nothing else, Chris, we will win the fun category. I don't have four of our five players in any drafts either. So it's kind of a FOMO in addition to a YOLO team.

All right, well, the next two picks after Abrams, Cole Regans and Jackson Trio, if you've been hearing some groans and grunts from Scott in the background, that's exactly why. Followed by Jazz Chisholm, do I have the old jazz? Nope, I don't have it queued up.

Can you get some of like the freestyle jazz that Carrie used to listen to in Homeland? Never saw that show. Cue that one up. Shouldn't surprise anybody. Jazz and George Springer, which I think caused another, oh, shoot, from Scott White, who is now on the clock. Oh, yeah, man.

My hopes are raised for like the first half of each round, and then it gets to me, and it's just like bang, bang, bang, and they reminders, 16 teams, yeah. Yep, that'll do it. That'll do. No doubt. Well, what am I going to do? I am gonna fill my utility spot maybe

right well Springer who you were referring to there by the way we were talking about an old guy oh no okay I I slacked it to you okay I'll open it oh it's a good pick Scott Scott selected Evan Carter

thank you I feel better with you reassuring me that it's a good pick right after goes Paul Goldschmidt who I was considering but I wasn't sure want to fill you my utility spot already. That's what we were talking about. That's the old guy I was talking about. Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, like the one thing I'm confident Evan Carter is going to do is get on base a lot.

And in the middle of that Rangers lineup, it should be a lot of runs in RBI. I do like bigger home run and stolen base standouts, but I like filling outfield too. And it's looking pretty bad is the outfield situation. So I'm happy to get. get my second one here, but I would have rather had Cole Regens or Jackson Chorio or CJ Abrams for that matter. And the first pick of round six is Hassan Kim.

And Scott, you're back on the clock. Let's remind everybody of your team, what you got going on here. Bryce Harper at first base, Corey Seeger, Luis Robert, Evan Carter, go Texas Rangers, and Tyler Glassnow, your lone starting pitcher

thus far. All right. I'm thinking of doing something a little outside the box here. Do I want to do that? Yes. Always. You're an outside the box kind of fella, Scott. I'm thinking of taking a catcher.

Do you want to take a catcher? Only one catcher off the board so far. 82 picks in. 81 picks in. I am, how was he for OPP last year? Amazing. It's pretty good. I'm going to take Will Smith.

That's it. No response. He literally just homered like 20 seconds ago. Will Smith, the catcher, by the way, for the Dodgers. Yes, he is. Does see a boost in OBP leagues and he's going to hit somewhere 20 to 25 runs. I mean, look, if he's batting...

Well, here's the thing. He's the guy batting behind Mookie Betts, Shohey Otani, and Fred. Freeman. Correct. So we've talked about the RBI potential for a lot of players. We haven't really talked about it with him. And I think it's considerable.

So I don't know. I could have gone William Contreras. Obviously, it is a one-catcher league. I like waiting. But it's a 16-team league. So we're getting as deep into that top 17 that I talk about as we can possibly get. And also, I like to get as much impact as I possibly can from every lineup spot in a league where only nine hitters are started. So that is why I ultimately decided to break my usual rule in one catcher leagues of waiting until the end to take one.

We'll see if I regret it. One thing worth noting is William Contreras was a better OBP guy last year. It was only 10 points though, and he was about 30 points better in batting average. So if you expect William Contreras's batting average to regress, and I think that's probably reasonable. I don't think 291 is a reasonable expectation for him. moving forward, if it is, we might just be underdrafting William Contreras.

And he has a much better backup now on Gary Sanchez, which I don't think we've talked about. I wonder how many bats he's going to lose to him. I think it was because Gary Sanchez just took forever to actually sign. Remember, he agreed to a deal and then it was like two weeks until he actually signed.

And I think we just kind of forgot about him. Ultimately, the reason I went Will Smith over William Contreras is because I drafted William Contreras in the other podcast league. So I'm just... And it gave us a chance to talk about him batting forth for the Dodgers. But anyway, what are you getting frustrated

about here, Frank? Well, I was just about ready to take Christian Walker, and that won't be happening. After Scott's pick of Will Smith, Merrill Kelly, who I would say gains value in a quality start league. I'm not sure he should go ahead of Grayson Rodriguez, who was the next pick, and then Joe Musgrove, and Christian Walker, who elicited the sigh,

the, I don't know, Whatever, man. I give up on this team already. Let's see what's going on at first base. There's a clear pick at first base if you want to go there. Is there? Yes. Now who's not checking their slacks, Frank?

Oh, let me check my slack. You got seven seconds. No, that's not who I was thinking of. This is who I was thinking of. All right. I guess we really are punting OBP. We're going to go with Spencer Torkelson. I feel like he's maybe he's not better in OBP.

I don't know. We had seven seconds left. Maybe we should have taken Brian Reynolds and just went with the boring guy, Chris. I don't know. I'm fine with Torque. I mean, I think it's a little early, but I think it's fine.

Andy Diaz, that was the pick, Chris? That was who I was thinking. Yeah, 410 OBP last year has consistently been a very good OVP guy for anyone listening who's also drafting. Okay, team trash can bangers just took him. He went with the very next pick. So I do have ATC projection,

pulled up with this league's settings and Torcoson grades out as as a higher value than Spence. Torcelsen grades out as a higher value than Yandy Diaz. By the way, I want to talk about trash can bangers, Brian O'Donnell's team. No pitchers so far. So that that's one of our drafters who is leaning into the weirdness of the format and wonder if we're going to see a Marmol-ish strategy here, but Yondi Diaz could tell him Marte, Rafael Devers, Bo Bichette, Christian Yelich, Kyle Tucker. It's pretty strong.

There's got to be some teams that have gone heavy on the pitching to this point. I would, because we're, I don't know, I was considering, uh, looking at a now. We have one team with three and that's it. Only one team with three. I guess they're just being well distributed among 16. But two teams with no pitchers. I was considering pitcher with my last, like, ideally I would have rather gone pitcher with my last pick that Will Smith pick.

there just didn't seem like anybody good enough. Freddie Peralta was another one who hung around there for a long time, and I was thinking, okay, Freddie Peralta might be the pick. But then he went just a little before me, my pair of picks there at, you know, the big second to last in the round. So, yeah, Jesus Lazzardo was the best on the board. He goes here 93rd overall.

But I did not feel great about his potential to help me in either ERA and WIP, really. so I decided to let him go. All right, after Yandy Diaz went, stalling Marte. Yeah. Eighty-ninth overall in an OVP league. Okay. We're turning back the clocks.

Maybe we're drafting based on last year's ranking or something like that. He looked healthy and he could make a big impact and stolen bases. I'm not saying I rank him in my top 100, but I can understand why somebody would be motivated to take him in this scoring format. After Marte, Zach Gelloff, Josh Nailer, Brian Reynolds, Jesus Lozardo. I kind of hate the Torkelson pick, Chris. I don't know.

I hate this team. Oh, gosh. You're right. We should have taken Yandy, man. I mean, a minute isn't really enough time to debate who you want to take. Especially when you're hosting a podcast. We should have taken Yandy. You're right.

I wish I saw that sooner. I didn't see it. That could have helped rectify some of the OBP damage, but yeah whatever but I thought you did see his message no I mean I saw it with like seven seconds left and I panicked I was like oh wait well ATC has Torkelson higher so let's take him I can't wait till one of you hijacks the pick from the other that's going to happen before this is over somebody I swear I will not I may accidentally do it because I'm famously absent minded but it will not be on purpose if it does happen

so one of the picks that just happened is one that I was considering Chris but I didn't want to lock up our utility spot yet. So let's catch people up. After Lazardo, it was Christian Encarnacio-Strend, who has been rising up draft boards, and I'm really excited about him. He's not going to walk very much, so I think does

lose a little bit of value here. To Oscar Hernandez, Max Muncie. Yeah. That was the guy I was considering, but did we want to throw him in our utility spot? That was the question I had, so. Yeah, that'd be a tough call. I usually I prefer not to fill up a utility spot that early and look the thing with Max Muncie is

he walks a ton he's not actually been a great OBP source the last couple of seasons it's been 333 and 323 now look that might raise our team OVP projection right now but right it's to say it's Max Muncie's not fixing what is wrong with this team. I don't think anybody would be shocked to see Max Muncie hit 240, 250 again. Sure.

Like there's OBP upside there, I would say. And those are two great pick by Dills Pickles at the 6-7 turn. Max Muncie, Chris Sale, probably the top two guys in my queue at that point. And it's always frustrating when the person who gets Ronald de Kuna has a good draft. That happened in the other podcast league too. It's like you already have such an advantage just by having far and away the best player in fantasy. And you got to go and make good picks after that. Not fair.

Yeah. And for context, he has Pete Lonzo, Jose Altuvae, Max Monci, Ronald Acuna, Chris Sale, Max Fried, Justin Steele. It's a good way to make up for, you know, passing on pitching early. And obviously, Acuna gives you a lot of leeway to. you know, miss out on some hitters and still end up with a very good offense. So, yeah. All right. After Chris Sale, Marcelo Zuna, followed by Tanner Bybee, Edwin Diaz, and Vinnie Pee.

Baby. Vinnie passed Guantino 100 first overall. There has been quite a bit of a first base run since Christian Walker went with the pick before us, and then we took Torkelson, and there's just been a ton of first baseman that have gone since then. Yeah, so we've seen that happen. Edwin Diaz, he went about, what, three rounds later than Josh Hader? Yeah.

So I wonder if Scott's words potentially influenced the draft after he said... How could they not? He was not going to draft a reliever until his final three picks. Yeah. After Viti P, Shota Imanaga, Spencer Steer, Carl's Correa, and William Contreras, team Stowers is back up with Chris's pick. I guess. crampful.

Whatever you want. And, um, I don't know. I'm going to get my guy. Uh-oh. Get your guys, Chris.

Do it. Get the guy I love. Ooh. Look at that carlos Gerea pick. One, one of four. Let's go Riley Green. Hmm.

Well, I definitely wrote two outfielders to Chris on Slack. Neither of them was Riley Green. But, uh, I think it's probably fine. Oh, man. Yeah. Green, not a guy who walks a ton, only 35 walks in 99 games last season, but 349 OBP last year because he hit 288, I do think he'll be a pretty good source of batting average and a good source of OBP as a result.

Let's go Tigers, man. We've got Riley Green, Torkelson, and Terrick Scoobble. Oh my goodness. Yeah, let's do it. After Riley Green, a manual class A, so perhaps some of these elite relievers starting to go off the board. Yeah. And like Class A will get 40 saves and a really good holds guy will get like

what 25? 25-ish, yeah. So that's the kind of difference we're talking about. So there is still some value to taking a high-end closer. It's just how many rounds is it worth to you?

And I find that it's not worth very many. But that is. Knowing that there's an endless supply of holds on the waiver wire. Yeah. That's the key distinction

is that that's about a 40 spot difference in Emmanuel Classes, typical ADP, where he typically goes. But you will never not have holds available. You will not have a ton of holds available potentially, but they will always be out there. And that's one thing to keep in mind when you're drafting a Sholds League is you'll be able to get them.

All right. After Emmanuel Classet, Rees Hoskins, I think that's a good pick in an OBP, format as well. He does gain some value. I believe he's homered in back-to-back days or, I don't know, two of the past three days, something like that. So he's starting to heat up. I wonder if, you know,

it'll take a little bit of time. Not that he had some kind of crazy injury that should affect his production, but just missing a year's worth of baseball. I wonder if maybe it'll take some time for Reese Hoskins to get going. But he's looked alright. After that, Shane Bieber was

drafted, who was maybe Scott's next pick. It was. my next pick. Yes, I had been frustrated that I didn't have any shares of, I think I have Shane Bieber in an AOL only league, but that's it. After being very impressed by his spring and thinking he might be all the way back.

And I needed pitching and I was prepared to take him and I didn't think anybody else would do it because it seemed early, but somebody did. So I'm not going to get, I'm not going to get Shane Bieber. Boo-hoo.

Yes, indeed. Quick, I think this is a time to remind some people that we are going to be live on television tomorrow when you're watching this. Or today, if you're listening on the podcast version, March 27th, 2 p.m. Eastern, you'll be able to watch fantasy baseball today on the CBS Sports Network, the same show as you know it, just on television. Help support the show by tuning in live. You can also watch live on the CBS Sports app. through your cable provider. Thank you to everybody for being here watching us, over 300 people.

We appreciate you. Make sure to hit that like button. Subscribe to the YouTube channel if you haven't already. YouTube.com slash fantasy baseball today. Scott, you are up. The previous pick was Carlos Rodon. I got to take a pitcher and I will take Chris Bassett, who I feel like pairs nicely with my Tyler Glassnow pick,

just a quality start machine who isn't going to wreck my ratios. very often and should give me a nice strikeout total still because of the endings he throws and so I probably would have taken him over Shane Bieber anyway I was hoping to get to pair Bassett and Bieber here but that didn't work out

all right the pick at the end of round seven was Matt McLean did anybody see an update or hear anything about Matt McLean I haven't seen anything On Monday night, he was supposed to go for a second opinion or I thought we would have been provided an update by now on the shoulder injury and it just feels like that has not happened. So before this injury, Matt McLean was going around and pick 70, 80 in that range.

And so he goes up pick 112 in this draft. I don't know. Like if he misses the first couple of weeks or first month, maybe it works out. But it just seems like there's a lot up in the air right now for Matt McLean. We are into round eight, and the first pick here is JT. Real Muto, and Scott, you are back up. So I am, so I am. And once again, not really sure what I want to do. So I'm considering some options. Okay. As the clock winds down. Your team so far, you've got Will Smith a catcher, Bryce Harper at first base,

Corey Seeger, Luis Robert, Evan Carter, and your two pitchers, Tyler Glassnow, and Chris Bassett. Maybe I should... Go ahead. I think pitching is getting ugly. And so... You know what? Zach Gelloff is already gone.

How much longer can I wait on this guy? I'm going to go Andres Jimenez. I'm going to go Andres Jimenez because I think he's potentially like a 60 steel guy if he continues his pace from the second half last year. And I know he stole six bases this spring. And so he's,

a bad OBP source. I've got a nice OBP foundation already when I'm lacking in a stolen basis. Luis Robert is really my only source of them. And I'm worried looking at the number of teams with second baseman left and Zach Gelloff already being off the board. I'm worried that could shrivel up on me

by the time I'm up again. So I think meeting my stolen base need at a position that may be nearing empty here. I think I think I'm going to do that instead of taking a pitcher. I did do it instead of taking a pitcher. pitcher. For context, it was 11 stolen base attempts in April, May, June for Andrews Jimenez last year, eight successful steals, nine in July alone, and it was 14, 25

in the second half in terms of attempts. It was 22 total successful steals from July 1st. 60 may be an exaggeration, but 40. No, no, no, but yeah, just I was giving the context for it that 45. Yeah. And he's always had that kind of speed. That was the thing that was always so frustrating about when him and, and Ahmed Rosario, another guy who's like 98th percentile in sprint speed and the guardians for such a long

time just either wouldn't let them run or they just didn't want to run, whatever the explanation was. It was frustrating to watch because those two guys had significant stolen base upside. Whoa. All right. Well, after Andres Jimenez, Mitch Keller, Willie Adomas, and wait for it, Victor Scott, which is a perfect time to talk about the latest news. Dylan Carlson has been diagnosed with a sprain AC joint in his left shoulder and will begin the season on the 10-day IL. As a result, Victor Scott was recalled and will start in center field on opening day. Last year in the minor's 94 stolen bases.

87% success rate. Chris, I know you wrote an article about this. How far did you pull Victor Scott up the rankings? Is this too early? 117th overall. It's early. It's too early. Yeah, I moved him up to 175.

I don't know if that's aggressive enough. I've seen other fantasy analysts talking about him as a 125 pick. I said 150 if he got called up. The only thing is it's a super high variant. pick, right? Like, if, I think the obvious comp a lot of people have gone with, and there's been a ton of talk about it on Twitter today, is Estuary Ruiz. If you compare them at the same level, at the same age, Victor Scott was much better. And the quality of contact for Victor Scott is much better than it is for Estuary Ruiz, at least from what we've seen. This spring, Victor Scott's

average exit velocity if you remove Bunce was 86.7 miles per hour. For Estuary Ruiz, it was 83.8. I believe. So the average without buntz was only say 86 yeah because that's still bad it's it's still not good but estuary Ruiz was 83.3 so that that's the the relevant thing that he's not I don't think quite as punchless as estuary Ruiz. Now that's a low boy. I think Victor Scott is has been totally overhyped here. I mean some of the questions people were asking me on Twitter today, Victor Scott versus this guy it's like that guy, not Victor's, like, what are you doing? This guy who might only be up for two weeks. And that's the thing.

We're saying the exit velocities might be good enough that he doesn't get the bat blown out of his hands and is actually able to make use of his speed. That's what we're saying when we're talking. Like, not like, oh, he's going to be this power speed threat. That's probably not going to happen for Victor Scott. Right. And it's not clear that that opportunity is going to be like a,

long lasting one anyway. So. But it's just to say, I think he's a more talented hitter than a reason. I think that cop is giving him short shrift. And the other thing is, he's a potential gold glove caliber

defender in center field. And so that's where when I say it's a high variance profile, what I mean is if he gets off to a bad start and Dylan Carlson or Lars Neubar is ready in three weeks, Victor Scott's probably going down. If he's a sales, 700 OPS bat, he might just play the rest of the season every day.

And if he hits 270, he might steal 70 bases. He might. And he might be a four-win player for the Cardinals if the defense is as good as advertised. And so that's where I think, like, Esther O'Reese has legit getting benched downside. And Victor Scott has that downside because he might get sent down pretty quickly. But I think a version of Victor Scott who hits 260 is a much better player than Estuary Ruiz and is probably a more locked in fantasy option as a result. So it's I think this is too early, obviously.

I have him 175. If you really, if you find in, you know, a draft tomorrow or tonight, if you find you're just desperate for speed around 150th overall, go ahead and take them. because it's clearly the highest upside. I'd rather have him in that role than Estro Ruiz, but there's a decent chance we're talking about him as a drop in three weeks. Sure. Yeah, I'm really excited about the player.

Victor Scott, I saw him in the Arizona Fall League. The dude is a blur. Every time he was on base, he was off for second. Sometimes he was off for third. He's just so fun to watch. He's extremely fast.

But there is a lot of volatility in the project. this year, as you guys have talked about. How many times has the speed first prospect disappointed us? Vidal Bruhan. You know, that's one name. But it's happened so often that I've learned just to ignore those guys for the most part

and maybe Victor Scott will be the exception. But if he's the exception, he's probably Andres Jimenez in terms of fantasy impact. I mean, that's the thing, though, is like, The stolen base potential is so much. Yeah, I mean, he could give you two times what Andrus Hamilton gives you. You really think he's going to, though?

Like, really? I think he, I mean, we're talking about a guy in 155 games last year, including the Arizona football stole more than, stole even 50 bases, three. Right? Yeah. Well, if we told you last year, Scott, that, that Estuary Ruiz was going to steal 60 bags, would you have believe that on opening day? No, probably not, but like

How many steals do we think Billy Hamilton would have gotten in this context? A lot, but Billy Hamilton was a perennial disappointment in fantasy. He was, he's like the... He was a controversial player in fantasy, but I think the key thing is just that based on scatter reports and based on the data that I've seen, Victor Scott could be, I guess is the way to put it.

could be a much better hitter than the previous versions of this archetype. Now, that's Vidal Bruhan was supposed to be able to hit, and Xavier Edwards was supposed to, like, it's a tough profile to make work, because if pitchers know you can't damage them when they make mistakes, if pitchers know that the worst thing that's going to happen is you hit a single, it's going to be tough to get walks. It's going to be, like, it's a tough profile to make work.

But I think it's reasonable to be optimistic about Victor Scott. I think it's reasonable to hope for really, really good production. I also forgot, Billy Hamilton stole 155 bases one season in the minors. That's pretty dumb. We've talked a lot about Victor Scott, but yes, he's going to be up on opening day with the Cardinals. It might be two weeks. He might be up all season.

It's just really hard to say for sure. But obviously, there is a lot of hype around him right now. After that, Nick Castiano's Jaron Duran to Team Cramful. I don't know if that's what you. I know you like Jaron Duran, Chris. I love it. Thank you. I don't have a share yet, and I really like the player.

I don't know. Maybe we're overdoing it with speed, but whatever. Get your guys, right? After Jaron, Josh Lowe, Chas McCormick, Hunter Brown, Josh Young, Jose Burrios, Brian Hayes, Udarvish, Billy, Ober. That is the end of round eight,

and we're into round nine, where Brandon Nimmo, Jordan Montgomery, Joe Ryan, and Eloy Jimenez have gone. Chris, I started to think maybe it's time to get back in on pitchers, and basically all the pitchers I considered are now gone. So I don't know what would you have preferred, Jaron Duran or a pitcher at that point. I'm always going to be on Team Jaron Duran. Frank, you know that. I think it's a good value for him. His ADP has actually been climbing a decent amount.

I think he's like around one four. 40 now, so you didn't really reach for him. Still some lingering playing time concerns, I would say. Just like, is he an everyday player against lefties? They've got a crowded outfield. Those are fair questions to ask, but I'm never going to say no to Jaron Duran on my team. All right. Well, that makes me feel better about it.

Oh, man. Is there any rectifying our OBP? I don't know. I just sent you some slack message, Chris, and you let me know. If either of those interests you. Where do we leave off? Eloy Jimenez, then Evan Phillips, who looks to be the locked-in closer for the Dodgers.

He got a save on game one of the season, followed by Jake Berger, who we know loses value in this format. He's not going to walk very much, but... Third base is looking rough, though. Should hit for lots of power. That is Jake Berger. After that, Camillo DeVall, Hunter Green, and Byron Buxton.

Chris, we're up. and I'm, I hear you about maybe getting back into pitcher. If we do that, it's not going to be me who does it. Okay. And I'm going to give you the opportunity to draft the guy who you've mentioned twice in our Slack channel. Feel free in our next round. But I'm not going to do it because I think there is one thing this team is actually missing. Uh-oh.

Right. and it is a OBP. Well, yes, OBP, but actually not great power. Okay. So I'm going to draft one of the most surefire 30 homer guys out there,

Anthony Santander. Ah, okay, I thought you were going to go with somebody else who I think is a better OBP guy than Santander. You guys have punted on OBP. It's official. Yeah, all right, Nolan Jones, is on the trade block. I mean, the only reason I made that pick was, oh, maybe we can get some OVP out of him, but.

There was one better. Yeah, that one, yeah. That's right. Probably a better OBP guy, yeah. Anywho, what else has happened? We took Anthony Santander, who I don't mind the player in general. I think he's fine. He's probably going to hit 25 to 30 home runs.

And then Bryson Stott, who does not walk very much, but this seems pretty late for Bryson Stott to go. It's a good value. Even in OBP, so. Yeah, I was going to be tilting if I had taken Andres Jimenez last time and Bryson Stott made it back to me. Wow, who was the one who took Bryson Stott? You prevented us from getting a Scott White tilt moment.

We'll never forgive you for that. I'm on edge right now, you know. I don't feel like things have really gone my way of this draft. So it wouldn't take much to topple me over. All right. After Bryce and Stott, Danesby Swanson is the next name off the board. And yes, I could already tell this draft is going to go a little bit longer than we're used to going because 22 rounds. We're not even halfway done yet.

We're at the end of round nine so far. Garrett Cole, do we have IL spots in this league? I think we do. We do. I think we have three of them. What do you think this is? in FBC. Of course we have IL spots.

Not barbarians. Okay. There's some choice words, Scott. Injured list. Let's see. What do we get? Four IL spots in this league. Good to know. Probably should have mentioned that at the top. Tyro Estrada was the next pick. Scott, you're up.

For having waited this long to draft my third pitcher, I am relieved and shocked and curious why this guy is still available. Michael King, who I thought was being overdrafted for a while on that, but like one bad appearance out of the bullpen in South Korea, and suddenly he drops like 50 spots in ADP. I do think, given that this is a quality start league, that hurts him a little bit, but I'm still thrilled to get him at 143.

That's what I was thinking is the quality starts. Could be few and far between for Michael King, but I don't know, if he's as good as I think he is or other people think he is, then maybe the quality starts will just be there. We'll see. I think the Padres are hoping they are there. I mean, that's, they gave up Juan Soto for him.

Primarily, it turns out, because they then flipped Thorpe, true Thorpe. All right, after Michael King, we're starting to see some of these injured names come off the board. Yuri Perez at the end of round nine, and then Jordan Walker, the first pick of round 10. You know, we haven't talked a lot about Jordan Walker. Chris, I know you had him in your breakouts 1.0.

And yeah, like, I just feel like we haven't talked about him very much at all this offseason. What are your thoughts on Jordan Walker this year? It's a discounted bet on a super, super talented player who has some obvious flaws in his game. And I think that's a bet worth making when it comes with a discount. And this, you know, what was this like 150th overall? 140th?

That's, that's fine. You know, that's plenty of a discount 145. He didn't really show that he had solved the issues in spring training. And then the issues specifically were hitting the ball in the air more consistently. And, you know, to a certain extent, a little bit of plate discipline. And so I'm not fully on board with, okay, Jordan Walker's going to be the guy we thought he could be. But remember, this time last year, every Jordan Walker conversation was very similar to what we've been saying about, like, Wyatt Langford and guys like that. So it's like, we thought that last year might have been your last chance to draft him outside of the top 40 for the next decade.

And now he's 145th. So I still think it's a worthwhile bet. Yeah. Jordan Walker, by the way, according to Fangraphs, has a 54% ground ball rate here in the spring, which is not ideal. It's not what we want, but it's a small sample, obviously. And we did see once he got called up,

called back up in the second half last year, he wasn't hitting as many ground balls. So if you can keep that in the 45% range, and I think he could still tap it. into 25 home run power and probably snag a few bags as well.

After Jordan Walker went, Scott, you selected Christopher Morel and then Jackson Merrill, 147th overall. Can you tell that this is an FBT listener league? Well, you know,

there have been some interesting things going on at shortstop this whole draft and we haven't had a chance to talk about it yet. Carlos Correa went 104th overall. And I

mentioned it at the but we didn't have a chance to get into it. Then Willie Adamas went 116th overall, and now we have Jackson Merrill going 147th overall. So I think I've talked sometimes about how in those deeper leagues, shortstop starts to look pretty shallow. And I think we're seeing it play out in this draft. People are kind of having to reach to fill that spot

to get a shortstop that they feel is impactful enough to start in a league that doesn't have the middle end field spot. I say that, but Danesby Swanson fell a long way. So that's kind of hard to, it's kind of hard to square that with the other picks. But there have been consistently, consistently there have been reaches at shortstop more than any other position, I would say, in this draft.

All right, after Jackson Merrill, Cedric Mullins, followed by Brian. Woo. I can't say it enthusiastically anymore. It just, it hurts my heart. So, yeah, hopefully, whoever made that pick, that would be. David Coffey, hopefully he knows the news on Brian Wu,

and the latest was right elbow inflammation yesterday. He's going to start the season on the IL. But perhaps if that injury didn't happen, he would have went a little bit higher than this. So we'll see. Anthony Volpe is the next pick. My guess is he's probably going to lead off until DJ LaMayhew is back from the IL.

Chris, I sent you a slack. Do you have a preference between those two? Let's go the latter. had to had league. Okay. Yeah. And, and...

Walker Bueller, come on down. The latest on Walker Bueller, we did get another update, is that he threw a four-inning simulated game on Monday, and manager Dave Roberts

noted that Bueller is close to being sent out on a rehab assignment. And... He might... What if he's just back in April? That's kind of what it sounds like, no? Because, like... A rehab assignment, I think you can go 30 days, if I'm correct, if I'm right on that.

They could still slow play it, right? Yeah, it might just be a whole spring training that he's about to do. And that would be, but like, if he's back at the beginning of May and doesn't have any limitations, that might be a top 15 starting pitcher for five, six of the season when, you know, Garrett Cole and Yuri Perez won a couple rounds ahead of him. I wanted to say a couple things about my pick, if I could, my Christopher Morel pick. Because I thought about going with an injured starting pitcher there. But as I said, I think last round, third base is looking rough.

And it's actually looking a little worse than outfield right now. So I may end up part of the reason I opted for Christopher Merle there is obviously he's playing third base for the Cubs. and I think that may be where I ultimately slot him with the build I have going on here given the state of third base right now so I wouldn't have imagined it playing out that way but that's where we are I also wanted to say with the Anthony Volpe

batting leadoff I'm seeing more suggesting Glauber Torres is going to hit lead off with D.J. Lemayhew out though I don't think the Yankees have totally decided yet. Yep, I would agree on that. After Walker Bueller, Rysel Iglesias, Stephen Kwan, Ryan Pepio, who will be in the raise rotation.

Not that there was really any doubt. I believe he had a pretty damn good start here on Tuesday as well. Lane Thomas, Jainer Diaz, who does take a little bit of a hit in OBP leagues, and I think that's why you're seeing him go 156th overall in this draft. That's great value still. Yeah, followed by Salvador Perez, Justin Verlander, Christian Javier, and the final pick of round 10 is

my man, Wilson Gutierrez. Finally won't be on one of my teams here that I'm drafted. The first pick of round 11 is Kodi Senga. I did want to ask just one follow-up question on Walker Bueller. And I think I know the answer. Life finds a way. Things will figure themselves out. I get it. Let's assume everybody is still healthy by the time Walker Bueller is returning. Walker Bueller's in the rotation.

I understand that. Does that mean it will be the end of Gavin Stone? Because we haven't not addressed that side of it. Probably. I would assume so, but like... James Paxton and Tyler Glass now. Exactly. Yeah. Anything can happen.

I would be shocked if there was not a rotation spot for both Gavin Stone and Walker Bueller for most of this season. Now look, it could be that Gavin Stone is just not any good. Like that could be the life finds a way in many ways. Could be Gavin Stone gets hurt. Could be Gavin Stone gets hurt. Absolutely. He is by no means a sure thing. And that's Emmett Sheehan has a rotate, Pat.

path back to the rotation if and when he gets healthy. Like that when it comes to rotations, like the Marlins. We like Ryan Weathers and AJ Puck and Max Meyer and all these guys. And oh no, Brax and Garra and Edward Cabrero, they both pitch today. They are probably not going to have eight viable starting pitchers

at any point this season. That's just not how pitching works. If they do, it's a great. problem to have. They won't have eight viable starting pitchers for long. It's the same way I'm going to view the Dodgers. It's just pitch there's so much attrition in pitching that it's just I can't even think about that that far ahead. All right. Well, let's catch people up. What else has happened lately? And after, I don't know if I mentioned Kodi Sanga, the first pick of round 11,

then Gavin Williams. It's just a snowball effect. I think maybe Garrick Cole was the first one to go. and then it was Yuri Perez. And we took Walker Bueller and Senga and Gavin Williams. And now Verlander went in the previous round. So we're starting to see all these IL stash pitchers start to go. Chris's IL. Still out there. Chris's IL stash rankings on the site, by the way.

Go check them out. I think Yuri Perez was actually the first to go, wasn't he? I think Cole went a few weeks. I thought Cole went one pick up. Okay. Yeah. But they were close. After Gavin Williams, Alexis Diaz, Charlie Morton, and Pete Fairbanks.

Chris, we're coming back up. I'm currently trying to write you a slide message. You'll see. Yeah, that's pretty much. Somebody in the chat asked when Garrett Cole was drafted 141 overall, which I think is about right. I rank them about 150,

but somebody's probably going to go in 10 spots before that. All right, after Charlie Morton, Pete Fairbanks, and Bryce Miller, you know, I haven't heard much about Bryce Miller this spring. I feel like whenever I've checked the box scores, the game logs have just been underwhelming for Bryce Miller. I think he's only pitched once in front of the stack cast cameras. And that's the thing that I wanted from him was to see,

I think yesterday he was the first time he pitched in front of the stack cast cameras all spring. Because I wanted to see the release point on the splitter and breaking pitches. Because last year when he threw his sweeper and slider, he would drop his arm like four inches. His release point was four inches lower on average for his sweeper and slider than his fastball. And so they graded out as pretty good pitches, but hitters never swung at them, and so they weren't good for him.

So it seemed fine yesterday. It didn't seem egregious, but it's one start. So I don't know what to make of it. Frank, would you like to have some fun with our pick? Sure. Are there any fun?

We're on the same path. Are there any fun players left? Yes. We are on the same path. We are going to take Nolan Gorman, to fill our second base spot. Let's get all the power, baby. Given how much hyped players have gotten pushed up in this draft so far,

the fact that Nolan Gorman was not one of them, I think is a surprise. 328 OBP last year is not great, but that came with a 236 batting average. So if we think he can hit like 250, all of a sudden, the OBP looks a lot better. I think Nolan, there are upside cases where he looks a lot like Kyle Schwerber. especially in an OBP league. So I like Nolan Gorman. I haven't drafted him nearly enough this year. Continuing with the FOMO theme of my picks, I guess.

And the very next pick was Ian Hap, 171st overall. It's great value. Great value, especially in OBP leagues. I think I mentioned him to Chris 30 minutes ago on Slack. So I was kind of pounding the table. But that was before we figured out that we were punting OBP. I kind of want to trade Nolan Jones just so we have like, no good OBP players on our team, Chris.

I kind of feel like we don't deserve him, you know? He just doesn't fit the, he doesn't fit the team, the team ethos of... The vibes are wrong. He's going to ruin the clubhouse culture with all those walks. With all that patience, no, we need aggressiveness. Stop selfishly not making out Nolan Jones. How do you guys feel about punting OBP? Because I understand this wasn't, this was a plan that emerged on the fly,

possibly due from the limited communication, given your one pick on, one pick-off drafting approach. I think it's fine. The thing is, Frank's sweating. Players who have good OBPs tend to be good hitters overall.

So it is hard to thread a needle between draft good hitters and draft players with bad OBPs. Like those two things don't go together a lot. But like, it might very well be true of Ellie de la Cruz and C.J. Abrams and Spencer,

or Torkelson. So if you were going to do it, the collection of players that we have assembled would be one way to potentially do punt OVP but still have a good offense. And it's really, I think, tough to punt. I think punting is more more viable in a head-to-head categories league than there's in a Roto League. Yes, for sure. Absolutely. But you have to be so consistent in the categories you don't punt. Yeah. And just the weekly fluctuation, in OBP and batting average. It's just so hard to say for certain. There will probably be weeks where we win OBP,

even though we're really not trying to win OBP, just because the variance in week-over-week production and baseball is just, you know, it's obviously there. So let's catch people up. After Nolan Gorman and Ian Hap, there was Alec Bohm, J.D. Martinez, who will, sounds like spend at least the first 10 days of the season down in the minors, getting at bats,

and then he'll be up with the Mets. After that. Not quite a snipe, but I was getting ready to take J.D. Martinez at 175, two picks later. Okay. And then Jamer Candelario. Scott, you selected Nick Povetta. And then Andres Munoz is the final pick of round 11. Nick Povetta, I believe, was your SP4, Scott?

What was that? I didn't catch it. Nick Povetta was your SP4? Yes. Yes, he's my SP4. Yep. That was a great pick, too. First pick of round 12 was Horan.

Hay So Lear, who, as long as he's healthy, he's always walked a good amount. He's, you know, could hit 25 to 30 home runs. Can we get, what is it? The first 30 home run hitter for the Giants since Barry Bonds? Yeah, I mean, that's pretty awesome. That's the thing, though, is that it's not a, it's like, there was this discussion when J.D. Martinez signed with the Mats. I don't know if we talked about his quote, but he, he said one of the reasons he didn't sign

with the Giants when they offered him was because Oracle Park, he's afraid Oracle Park's going to make him look like a worse hitter than he is. I mean, he's going to get to free agency next year, and everyone's going to be like, you hit 260 with 20 home runs. And then I saw a bunch of people say, yeah, but Oracle Park has worse park factors or better park factors for right-handed hitters than City Field. The thing about that, though, is for J.D. Martinez, he would have hit 39 home runs at City Field last year, according to the XHR stat from baseball Savant. He would have hit 24 at Oracle Park. Wow. So while Oracle Park might be a better overall point.

part for right-handed hitters because it probably increases batting average, it doubles and triples. For a player like J.D. Martinez and potentially Jorge Salaer, it might be a worse part just because specifically of how much it suppresses home runs. All right. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to sign off part one of the podcast, but when we return, we'll catch you up on the picks. Scott made a pretty interesting one. We will do that on the other side. Stick with us. Part two coming up here of our live

listener league draft. I'm