Fantasy Baseball Today - Live H2H Categories Mock Draft Part 1! Rounds 1-11 Picks & Strategy! (3/13 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 13, 2024

It's time for another live mock draft, this time 12-team H2H categories! Chris is drafted third overall, Frank sixth and Scott ninth. Here are the first 11 rounds of picks and our strategy behind them. 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 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. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today, and welcome to the Wild West. You are listening to this on Wednesday, March 13th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we have ourselves another live mock draft.

this time. 12-te-to-head categories, what I have dubbed the Wild West of fantasy baseball. And, yeah, we've got the standard five-by-five categories. Batting average runs, home runs, RBI, and steals.

On the pitching side, ERA whip, wins, strikeouts, and saves. One of each infield position, three outfielders, two utility spots, no corner, no middle, two starting pitchers, two relief pitchers,

and four pitcher spots, which can either be starting pitchers or relievers. So that's for it. Kind of turns into the Wild West, and I'm sure we'll see some of that throughout the course of this draft. Weekly lineups, 25-inning minimum.

Where is everybody drafting today? Chris is picking third. Lucky guy. I am 6th, and Scott is 9th. We will be live for the entirety of this draft on YouTube, and it will be broken down into a two-part podcast on the audio side. Scott, without further ado, let's fire it up.

Let's start it up here. Jake Holland with the first pick. I have a prediction who it might be. You know, I just, I wanted to say on yesterday's podcast, I made a point of saying that I haven't picked first in any of our drafts yet and that I had some strategies I wanted to try out from the number one spot. And I know Scott, he claims he does the random draft order. I know he, I know he doctors these things all the time.

He's waiting. And somehow, I never get the first. pick. Scott gets the first pick. 70, 80, 90% of the draft we do. Frank gets the first pick like 40% of the time and zero

times Chris Towers has had the first pick and I thought you had the first pick before. I'm not mad about it. I'm not mad. It's actually funny to me. I did decide it was your turn to go the first of the three of us in this one, which is why you're picking third. But anyway, we're missing picks with all these petty grievance.

And so after Ronald de Cunio was Mookiee Betts, that's interesting. And then Julio Rodriguez. So that's the first time, I think, at a Categories league, we've seen MookieBin. You are on deck. Go as high as second. And what's changed is that he's now going to be the Dodgers opening day shortstop rather than their second basement. Already has second eligibility.

He's going to be picking up shortstop, too, within the first week of the season. And so I would guess that was part of J.R. Fenton's incentive for taking him over Julio Rodriguez who went third, and then Bobby Witt, who went fourth. But in this format in particular, I guess this format, more eligibility matters less than than a standard head-to-head points. Probably in a roto league, I guess it matters more because, or less, because you have three spots that you can put a guy in besides their primary position, or two, I guess, middle infield and corner infield in the infield.

but here you have that extra utility spot. So that flexibility is a little less important, I would say. Yeah, I would agree. And it's, look, I want to elevate bets past Julio Rodriguez and Bobby Wood based on that. But we may see that happening more. And I think the deeper the league, the more valuable that is. This is not an especially deep league, 12 teams, smaller lineups. Going to be 276 players drafted.

So I wouldn't have done it. But anyway, that's what happened. That's two, Julio Rodriguez 3, Bobby Witt, 4, and then a few interesting picks after that, Frank. Yes, all the Dodgers are going. Shohei Otani at the fifth pick, I took Freddie Freeman, Corbyn Carroll, and then Kyle Tucker. Wanted to touch on Otani in this format because there are two utility spots, which does change, I guess, your strategy a little bit. It opens up a little bit more flexibility.

You can obviously draft two of those util-only players throughout the course of the draft. You can take Otani, you could take Ozuna, Eloy, Hamey, Well, not all of them, I guess, but you could take two of them if you wanted. And I was going through the box scores earlier. Shohei Otani on Tuesday went three for four with his second home run. He's 11 for 19. He's batting 579. He's got to steal this spring.

And I kind of feel like after he had the surgery, we said, hey, if he looks like Shohei Otani come spring, he probably should just go earlier in the first round again. Is that what's happening? Or do you think it's only because of this extra util spot? I think it's mostly because of the extra util spot and and I get it

I mean when you you can draft in this Yahoo style head to head categories lineup you can draft Otani and you're not prevented from them taking a you know Marcelo Zuner or Eloy Jimenez

or you know who are the others Byron Bucston but he'll get JD Martine or you know even a second first basement if it's not it doesn't

create the lineup building difficulty that usually comes with taking Shohei Otani with your first or sometimes even second round pick. So if that's not an issue, then he probably is a mid-first rounder. And I feel like where the second utility

especially comes in handy is obviously, you know, there are what six fantasy relevant, util only players to open the season. It's nice. You can take Elohimenez's 200th overall or wherever he usually goes.

For me, it's more, let's say I take Matt Olson in the first round. And then I get to the third round and Vlad Guerrero Jr. has slipped far enough that he's available. It becomes a lot easier to actually pull the trigger on that when you still have a utility spot to play with in your roster. But Shohei Otani does look like Shoahe Otani. So I just did want to make that point. I know there is always risk of the elbow popping up and I guess being a problem once again. but so far so good.

The guys looked awesome. After I took Freddie Freeman and mentioned Corbyn Carroll, Kyle Tucker, Scott took Fernando Tatis, then Juan Soto, Spencer Strider, Trey Turner,

and Aaron Judge. I did wonder, Scott, if after talking yesterday, you would take Spencer Shrider just to try it out on a draft and see how it would work out,

but that would not be the case. No, I'm not that interested in trying it out. I'd be more likely to do it in categories league like this than in a points league. I actually think the advantage for taking a strider is significantly less in a points league. You know, he can dominate strikeouts in this format, particularly if Garrett Coles hurt,

and you just need the ratios to be more stable than you do in a points league, where ratios don't matter, at least not in a direct way. So now I was fine passing him up and getting Fernando Tatis at ninth overall. I'm sure Chris likes that. I do want to talk about the Aaron Judge pick at 13, though,

because I wondered if he would go for a discount based on what we learned about him here on Tuesday. Didn't happen in this draft 13th overall. Yeah, so Aaron Judge, which we learned, had an MRI done on his abdomen on Monday and will not swing a bat until later this week. And Brian Hoke, who covers the Yankees for MLB.com, said it's not an oblique issue.

He asked Aaron Judge, it's not an oblique. It's still an abdomen, so it's something. Sounds like an abdominal issue, right? Yeah. I don't know when, I don't need to get into that. But yeah, like, yesterday they were talking like it was just general soreness in spring training, which is understandable. These guys are getting back into game shape. And so I didn't think much of it.

He was taking a couple days off from workouts. We come to find out it's an MRI judge is actually happening on his midsection. Like that sounds like something specific is going on and something that could potentially sideline him for weeks. So I am, you know, hopefully tomorrow we find out something more concrete on both Garrett Cole and Aaron Judge, but I am definitely on the verge of moving both out of the first second round range. I've already moved Cole out of the first round, well, well out of that range. Judge is still, I think 16th for me. The Cole one, though, like that, there's all this talk, like they're going to get like a second and a third opinion.

and like, not to try to predict the future, but I feel like generally if the first and second opinion are, you're almost perfect. You're not going for a third opinion. Right. Like, again, I don't know. Acuna did get a second opinion when he got a good first opinion. So it could just be an abundance of caution situation with a very important asset.

It's really just, it's the third opinion. If he was just getting a second opinion, I wouldn't question it. Okay. But once you start bringing, that's too many cooks. That's too many, too many opinions.

Yes, and while we're talking about the Yankees and Garikull, unlikely to be ready for opening day, did not have the results of that MRI yet. And Big Bob Nightingale, who has given us many reports over the years, reported that the Yankees have re-engaged in talks for Dylan Cs. Whether or not you want to believe that, I'll leave that up to you.

I have moved Garicold down to 99th overall because frankly, I don't know what to do with him, but I didn't want him anywhere high on my draft board in this draft, and so I lowered him a lot. After Aaron Judge went, we see Bryce Harper, Jose Ramirez, Scott took Matt Olson for the hashtag brand, Yorda Alvarez, and Austin Riley, and I am going to go ahead and take the top player on my board,

Rafael Devers, and Chris and I were talking beforehand. I took Freddie Freeman in the first. I took Devers in the second. I might lean into a punt-stolen basis strategy in his head-to-head categories, and see how it turns out. But based on Freeman Endeavors, I think, you know,

I've already kind of laid the foundation for doing that if I want to. Corbyn Burns went one pick later. Scott, I assume it was a pretty easy pick for you taking Madelson 16th overall. Yeah, he was the top guy on, in my queue,

and probably would have been if I was picking 13th, you know? So to get him at 16th, I think especially in a, this format, the head-to-head categories format, where you're having the roto competition, the 5x5 roto competition, but in short one week bursts. And I feel like players who can absolutely dominate in a category, no matter what category it is, are of so much

more interest to me in this format. Because if you got a 20 steel guy and Matt Olson's a home run guy, okay, let's call it a 25 homer guy. You can't count on even getting one home run from that guy in any particular week. Matt Olson, you know he's going to. make an impact in that category, probably every week. And in some weeks, he's going to just, like, win the whole round for you. So I find those guys especially valuable, rather than the jack-of-all-trades types. Those real category monsters. I tend to gravitate toward them in this format.

After I took Rafael Devers, Corbyn Burns went, Pete Alonzo, Chris, you took Francisco Lindor, then Marcus Semen, Ellie de la Cruz, and Jose Altoouet at the turn. What do you guys think of that turn? Acuna, Ellie, Ellie. Jose Altivie. Well, LA kind of fits what I was talking about, just for stolen bases instead of home runs. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it could be home runs too. The thing with both with this approach now is you just don't take another stolen base guy. Right? With Al-Qua and Acuna and Della Cruz and even Al-Tube will chip in 20-ish. Sure. Yeah, that's Jake Holland,

picking. Yeah, that's conservatively, 140 stolen bases, 120 stolen bases for your team. Yeah. You probably, yeah, just you can't draft another. I mean, you can obviously, but like, you're probably going to get some stolen bases just by accident. But yeah, there's no need to take a player because,

oh, I'm taking this guy for the steals, you know. After Jose Altuvae, Zach Wheeler and Chris, you were up. You had Julio Rodriguez, Francisco Lindor, And just made your pick. Yeah, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. I, you know, I've talked a lot about Corbyn Burns this year. And I was really hoping, I don't think I've drafted him so far this season. And he went a couple picks before my pick.

Then Pete Alonzo, who was my next best player, went. So I took Francisco Lindor there in the second round. Technically, I have Ozzie Albies ahead of Vladimir Guerrero. But that would be kind of three jack-of-all-trades guys in Julio Rodriguez, as Francisco Lindor and Ozzy Albies. And I'd rather get a guy in Vladimir Guerrero who I think like Scott was talking about

has the potential to, you know, really carry you in home runs, runs in RBI in a way that Albis won't. You know, maybe runs, but even then,

he's more of a good player everywhere. Now, I find this interesting because it's two days in a row you've talked about Vladimir Guerrero and you've talked about him in terms that would suggest you don't believe what happened to him in 2023, 2022 is legit.

You're still thinking of him more as that, I mean, obviously the 2021-48 homer season would be the best-case outcome, but you think he's closer to that player than what we've seen the last two years. Because the last two years, he wasn't really dominant. Yeah, I think the upside is there. I don't think it's the likeliest outcome, but Vlad is definitely one of those players where if you're playing 12 leagues or whatever it is, like I am, I want him on at least one of them because I still think the ceiling is incredibly high. And you look at last year, he had the highest launch angle of his career right in line with 2021. The quality of contact, okay, it wasn't quite as good as 2021, but it was very, very good.

It was the second best of his career. That wasn't reflected in the overall numbers. As expected, Wobo was 378. By far the second best of his career. Actual Wobah 340 down from 2022, basically in line with 2020. I think he's going to be better this year than he was either of the past two seasons, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. So I am willing to draft him with the hope that he can be that difference making header.

Worth mentioning with Vlad, I know he's been dealing with a knee thing throughout spring, and the Blue Jays are kind of playing it cautiously with him right now. Doesn't sound like anything to be worried about, but something obviously to pay attention to and you have to use a third round pick on a player like that. So keep that in mind. After you took Vlad, Ozzy Albies, Louise Castillo. And yeah, I don't think I'm going to punt stolen bases.

Because I just caught Michael Harris in the third round. We spoke about it yesterday. And on previous shows, he looks so good this spring. I think he's going to bat, you know, sixth in that Braves lineup. So hopefully the counting stats are better. And I think he can go, I don't think it's crazy for him to go like 25, 25 this year for for Michael Harris with a really good batting average. It's kind of hard to punt steals now because there's so many sources of them.

I mean, I thought about taking Sieger. That's not to say you have to get zero steals if you're punting steals. Yeah. Corey Seeger would have fit it perfectly if I wanted to keep on. And that's who I was debating. Yeah, that was the very next pick. Yeah.

Now, so you took Harris at 30, Corey Seger 31, Luis Robert 32. Then at 33, I took Yoshinobu Yamamoto. And, you know, obviously, Gary Cole's still out there. I said before until this is resolved and we know one way or another. I'm not touching Cole until round six, but his removal from the first couple rounds makes it so that drop off in the middle of round three happens just a little bit sooner, you know, where all the MVP caliber bats are gone, and that's when I usually pivot to pitcher, and that's what happened here.

I mean, Gunner Henderson was still there, and he's kind of on the fringe for me with those MVP. caliber bats that requires some amount of projection to say he fits in that group, but I could see it. Having taken Fernando Tatis and Matt Olson with my first two picks, though, I thought I should go for pitcher instead. So I went with Yamamoto. Close call between Yamamoto and Pablo Lopez. I think if it was a points league, I go Pablo Lopez. But I like Yamamoto's chance of dominating an ERA and whip, even if maybe he doesn't have as many two-star weeks as Pablo Lopez will have. Whoa.

All right, let's talk about this latest pick. Catch people up. Corey Seeger went, Luis Robert, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Kevin Gosman. I don't know if Doc Eisenhower is just trying to create content here. Have us talk about his team on the podcast. Wyatt Langford, 35th overall. I know he's a big fan, but yeah. pretty certain he could have got him at the five, six turn if you wanted to wait.

I guess there are no guarantees. The ADP, I checked today. I think it's over the past three days. It's inside of the top 100 now, so, you know, 95 for Wyatt Langford. He continues to climb. I said yesterday he was leading spring training in OPS. I don't know if that's still the case, but obviously he's up there. I believe Shohay Otani has passed him.

I know Zach Gelloff is up there too. He's looked really, really good. Langford's look great. And I do think it's increasingly likely that he'll be up on the opening day roster. But even with that, there's no way, right? Yeah. So late last spring, we saw Corbyn Carroll start to creep into the late round three range in categories leagues. But I do think it was a different situation for a couple reasons.

One, Carroll had the potential to dominate and stolen bases. And anybody who can give you what ultimately ended up being 50 plus steals has, it's hard to let them slu. It's a lip-past round three in a roto league. So you could attach that kind of stolen base upside to Carroll. I don't think you can for Wyatt Langford. He's going to steal some bases, but not nearly that many. The other is that we had already seen Corby and Carroll have, you know, hold his own in the majors. Late in 2022, he got an audition with the diamond back.

So we weren't coming in totally blind with him as far as facing major leaguers goes. So I think this is, I don't think this is something we're going to see often with Wyatt Langford. It still seems more likely to me that it could happen to Jackson Shorio because he is that elite-based dealer like Corbyn Carroll is. Into the fourth round, we go at the turn. Gunner Henderson and Zach Gallen. Doc is back on the clock just for fun. And this is an impossible task for us to do.

But what do you think Wyatt Langford's 90th percentile outcome is this year, right? Like just major upside case for him. Is it 40 homers, 20 steals? Like, it's so hard to say because we have such a limited sample. Yeah. 3015 maybe. Kind of like Gunner Henderson was last year. Maybe a little more batting average.

Yeah, so he stole 12 bases in 44 games last season. He hit 10 home runs. Now, obviously, we don't know, you know, what to extrapolate from that. But by all accounts, he is very fast. You know, maybe not elite speed, but plus speed. And we should mention with the Rangers, they did not run as much last year under Bruce Bochy. Yeah, I think a realistic upside case for Wyatt Langford is probably something like 290, 35 homers, 25 steals. You know, it's a really hard question to answer.

I think that's a realistic, but it's also like he's not, I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. But I don't think he's as good of a hitting prospect as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was when he made his debut. And Guerrero was kind of just an average player. Yeah, I kind of was disappointing as a rookie. So that's the thing to keep in mind is that even really, really good hitting prospects, you know, when I did that analysis of like the top prospect, and how they've been really, really valuable for fantasy in their rookie season, especially the ones drafted inside the top 100.

It's primarily guys who ran a lot. Like, Victor Robles was like a $15 player, his rookie season. It's not because he was a great hitter. It's because he stepped on the field and immediately was like top 15 stolen bases. And I don't know what to expect from Langford as far as that comes. He didn't run much in college. Yes, I mean, 12 steals in 44 minor league games.

You paste that out. That's a big number. Doesn't have a stolen base. attempt this spring. You know, it's, it's, it's so much inclination with stolen bases. And I don't know how inclined he's going to be to run. I mean, the thing with college and with this spring is like, has he had many opportunities to steal a base yet?

Everything's a home run. You can't steal a base. You can't steal a base when you're jogging around them. It hasn't been everything. But yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I really don't know.

I don't know. I don't expect from him for stolen bases. I think it's an open question. Like you said, I think that's probably the high end, though. Yeah. And to be clear, that's not what we're expecting from Wyatt Langford, just making the extreme upside case for him. What happens if everything goes right for him this year?

Catch you up on the fourth round after Zach Gallen. We saw Paul Goldschmidt, Beau Bichette, Scott took Pablo Lopez. Yeah. Terrick Scubel and Tyler Glassnow, I wanted either of those guys. Again, I think looking for players who could provide extremes, I think both Scubal and Glassnow in this format could just dominate the strikeout category every week. but it was not for me, apparently. Both of them went right before my pick.

So I took Randy Rosarena. I'm going to try and wait on pitching a little bit here and see how it turns out. Randy is my fourth, my second outfielder, the fourth hitter on my team. I've got Freeman, Devers, Harris, and a Rosarena. So a little bit of everything. Again, I'm not sure that's like the most ideal way

to build in this format, but we'll see how it turns out. After Randy and Rosarena, Mike Trout, Logan Webb, and Chris, you're not. on the clock. We'll get back to your pick in a second. Scott, tell me why you went with Pablo Lopez, two starting pitchers in your third and fourth round picks. Well, yeah, remember the previous pick I was debating Pablo Lopez and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. So I just, it, I was shocked that Lopez was still there. Usually I speak these things into existence when we're streaming these drafts live, you know. So I didn't have much to think about. I did consider CJ Abrams,

because he is one of those players of extremes, and he just goes off the board to Chris. And so, you know, to get that big infusion of stolen bases every week gives me a better chance of competing in the category. But having two legitimate aces at the top of my staff, you know, there's four categories that they can contribute to. And I think that gives me a nice advantage and allows me to focus on hitters more over the next few rounds.

Let's take our first break when we return. We'll ask Chris about that C.J. Abrams pick right after this. Welcome back in. After I took Randy or Rosarena, Mike Trout, Logan Webb, Chris took C.J. Abrams. Cody Bellinger and George Kirby to finish out round four. The first pick of round five is Cole Regens. We actually got crushed on Tuesday by the Colorado Rockies. Don't think it matters too much. Jackson Churio. Oh my gosh. All right. Is this a, are we in a Dynasty League draft? What is happening? 50th overall. all for Chorio. Yeah, that's the highest

I've seen for him too. Yeah. Have we reached that point? So we just found out Jackson Meryl is making the Padres' opening day roster. Obviously, their opening day roster is much sooner than every other teams. So we're maybe

feeling a little more confident in some of these prospects. Not that Jackson Chorio or White Lankford has officially been named to the roster, but they haven't been sent to minor league camp. the way so many prospects already have.

And so maybe people are feeling emboldened to take them earlier than ever now. Or maybe it's just two oddballs in this draft. Who knows? I think that's probably the more likely scenario. It wouldn't surprise me if they continue to rise a little bit. But being top 50 picks for either of them, I think it's probably not warranted.

But I could be wrong. Chris, let's talk about your picks. You took CJ Abrams in round four. You took Adolus Garcia in round five. I think both are awesome picks. I thought about taking either. one, you know, Abrams, that massive steel total, but I did not. And you did. Talk to me about your team. Yeah, I was trying to. I knew I was going to draft either Adolese Garcia or C.J. Abrams with the

fourth round pick and knowing that there were four picks between them, I had to try to figure out which one was more likely to make it back to me. I ended up going with Abrams there, even though I already have a shortstop. So one of my utility spots is filled. But like we talked about earlier, this format offers a little more flexibility in that regard. And with Abrams, I have the concerns about him, but he hasn't been on my bus list this year. I think the stolen bases alone are going to keep his value afloat. And I do believe in some of the changes he made as a hitter in the second half. You know, up the fly ball rate,

up the quality of contact metrics without sacrificing contact. In fact, he actually made more contact in the second half, both, you know, his plate discipline improved, I guess is the best way to say it. He dropped his strikeout rate from 22% before the All-Star break to 16% in the second half, walk rate up 4% to 6.4%. So I do think, I don't think C.J. Abrams is a superstar hitter by any means, but I think he's good enough and has a pull-oriented swing that should help him maximize the power he does have.

I think there's enough there that it's not just empty stolen bases. I think he's going to be a legitimately helpful player. Yeah, he could hit, you know, 260-ish. I mean, this was someone in Abrams that was widely regarded for his hit tool in the minor. So there is still a chance that he could improve and hit for a higher batting average. And obviously, the speed is going to be awesome. Interested to see how the pitching staff turns out. But, yeah, so far through five rounds, you've got Vlad, Lindor, Adolos Garcia, Julio, and C.J. Abrams.

I'm the only, I'm the only non-coward so far. not taking a starting pitcher, Frank. I know you said, oh, maybe I'll punt. You didn't. You took a pitcher in the fifth round. And it's fine. It's a pitcher as I'm on my bust list. You know, but that's fine.

I'm not omniscient. Yeah, so I took Freddie Peralta at Pick 54 as my SP1. And again, just on that theme of looking for players of extremes in this format, he's going to get a lot of strikeouts. If nothing else, I know it was an inflated ER. in totality last year, but he was much better in the second half of the season. I think there is still a lot of upside with Freddie Pralta, but as you pointed out recently on Bus 2.0, Chris,

I think a decent amount of downside with Freddie Pralta as well. Yeah, I mean, the thing that I struggle with with him is, and this is more of a points worry, but he only averaged after the All-Star break last season, 5.7 innings per start. That was with a 2.8 ERA and a one, I think, an exactly one whip, he just doesn't go deep in games. He gets enough strikeouts to make up for it for the most part.

But yeah, it's hard for me to view that kind of pitcher as an ace. And he's drafted as like the 20th, 18th pitcher off the board. So, you know. After you took Adoles Garcia, Nolan Jones, Manny Machadoo. I took Peralta, then Aaron Nola, Kyle Schwerber, Royce Lewis, and there we get it. Garrett Cole, 58th overall. Scott talked to me about those back-to-back picks.

You took Royce Lewis, who I know was a breakout for you early in the offseason, but you said you never wound up with him. Well, here you go. You got him. And Garrett Cole, someone takes the plunge. I picked 58. So actually, I had Kyle Schwerber who went 56, all queued up, was going to take him, had a plan. I was going to pair him with a high OBP guy the next round to kind of combat his one issue. Obviously, Schwerber is a guy who can dominate a category, home runs.

You can dominate a category in an extra. other way. Runs, too. Well, I was talking about batting. Well, in terms of drag it down batting. Like I said, I had a plan that I was going to safeguard against that but taking a high OBP guy next time. But didn't happen.

So I wound up with Royce Lewis. And, you know, 57th overall, that's fine. Haven't had an occasion to draft them yet. Not sure I've had a chance to pick ninth yet. So maybe that's why. But Garik Cole going right after me, that's 58 toward the end of round five. I have said with all the unknown. surrounding him right now.

I wouldn't think about it until early in round six. And I would not have thought about it if he made it to me for my pick in round six because in this particular draft, I already have two starting pitchers, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and

Pablo Lopez. So it's not the time to take Garrett Cole when you're in that situation. I wonder if George Kurtz, he's the one who took Garrett Cole. He's a Yankees fan. I can tell you that.

He has Kevin Gosman too. So he's doubling down on pitchers who are injured currently, which is interesting, but it is just a mock. That's exactly right. After Garrett Cole, O'Neo Cruz and Nico Horner

to finish out round five and the first pick of round six, Blake Snell at Pick 61, who we spoke about on yesterday's podcast a little bit, lowering him in the rankings. I did exactly that. I think I lowered him to around 85th overall

here on Tuesday. So it might be, a touch high, but if he signed soon, maybe he could be ready by, I don't know, the second or third week of the season. We wait and see on Blake Snell. Framber Valdez is the next pick. 62nd overall.

Scott, you were on deck. You were up. Max Freed was the next pick. And let's check in. I know you got the two starting pitchers. You just took Royce Lewis. You also have Matt Olson and Fernando Tatis. What are you thinking?

Oh, I'm thinking things I've never thought before, Frank. Uh-oh. I took Royce Lewis, had my first occasion to do that, and I'm going to take somebody else here who I've never had occasion to take. It's just a question of which someone else. Is it a musical? Is it a musical pick?

One is a catcher. One is a relief pitcher. You know I don't like to invest in either, but here we are in round six and the top choice at both. They're still available. And you know what? The fact that Devin Williams is currently banged up, Yeah, seeing a spine specialist.

Do it. For reasons that don't sound significant, but, yeah, I'm going to take Josh Hader. I'm going to do it. I'm going to take the first closer in this draft. That's not what I thought was happening either. I thought it was Edwin Diaz. Oh, you thought it was going to be Diaz? Yeah, that'd be fine, too.

They're in the same tier. But I have Josh Hader ranked higher. And I do think of the three major formats, head-to-head categories, is particularly a daily format like Yahoo typically is. It's the one that rewards relievers the most, that there's the most incentive for investing in that position. So to get the best one around six, that usually doesn't happen. And I'm going to need multiple, unlike a catcher.

I'm only going to need one catcher. Everybody in the league is only going to need one catcher. I think there are 17 starting caliber catchers. I'm just not sure the advantage of taking Adley Rushman, even though it's discounted on paper, round. I don't think the advantage is enough to justify it as much as the Josh Hater pick. And you didn't do it, Scott, but I did. Edwin Diaz, come on down. 67th overall. He is the second pitcher on my team. And I do agree in head-to-head categories. That might be the format I am most

likely to draft an elite closer. At the right cost, I think 67th overall is totally fine. Yeah, obviously a discount here or else I wouldn't have done it. After you took Josh Hater, Christian Yelich and Adley Ruchman, so the other player, that you were debating here. And then I took Edwin Diaz as mentioned. Let's check back in on Chris's team. Five hitters. What are we thinking, Chris?

Is this the time to get a pitcher? Maybe. We'll see. We'll see. It's not my pick yet. There's two picks left. We'll see who goes. I have two players in my queue.

Maybe one of them is a hitter. Maybe one of them is a pitcher. Who knows? It's impossible to say. I do want to point out with Adley Rutchman because my bus 2.0 article is coming out tomorrow. It'll be in the FBT News. newsletter, CBSSports.com slash newsletters to sign up.

Rutchman is on my bus 2.0 list, which we talked about last week, and not if he's the 66th pick. You know, like that one is because his ADP is like 39th or 40th, whatever it is right now. In the 60s, I love him. You know, that's around where I have him ranked anyway. It's just like we said, and I am sorry, I'm going to pick a pitcher. I'm going to follow in both of your footsteps. CBS gang loves relief pitchers. Famously, we always talk about

how we want to be the first people on our drafts to take a relief pitcher. I took Yuan to run. I did move Devin Williams down a little bit as a result of the back issue. So he's 79th for me. So he's kind of in the second tier of closers. So Duran was the top one left.

If Edwin Diaz had been there, I absolutely would have taken him. I agree Adley Rushman in round six If he lasts that long, it's fine. Would you have also taken an elite reliever over him In this scoring format? If it's a two-catcher league, Then I'd probably take the catcher.

But since it's a one catcher league. Yeah, I think I probably still would have taken Duran or Edwin Diaz, if he was available ahead of Adley Ruchman there. After I took Edwin Diaz, Christian Walker, Josh Lowe, who we did get some news on here on Tuesday, He said that he's pretty much full go and is aiming to return to games Sunday or Monday. Scott, have you lower Josh Lowe throughout this process dealing with the hip injury?

Because I know he's someone that you were pretty excited about early in the offseason. I hadn't lowered him because I was always under the impression he was going to be ready to go. And so if it sounds like he is, it's especially not a good time to lower him. All right. after Josh Lowe, Yohan Duran to Chris, Logan Gilbert, and Tristan Kossis. All right, another potential hype guy on the rise here. Not as high as some of those other prospects,

but there is a lot of excitement around Tristan Kossis this year. And then the first pick of round seven, Devin Williams, who went to see a spine specialist, I believe, over the weekend. So we're just kind of waiting to learn more. But if he's good to go, he obviously deserves to be one of the top three closers. drafted. We just don't know for sure as of now.

And that was kind of curious the way that was reported because it seemed like the team's own training staff said, okay, just rest a little while, you'll be fine. But Devin Williams himself was the one pushing to get the second opinion. So I don't know how that changes your view of it at all. We hopefully will have something more concrete from him soon. And we can say with more certainty what's going on, but I have a good feeling about how it's going to play out for Devin Williams, just based on what the team's own medical staff is saying. After Devin Williams, J.T. Rilumuto and Jazz Chisholm to Chris the Homer. Oh, yeah. Hey, all you cool cats. I haven't played that soundtrack in a long time. Yeah, no, I was,

I had Jazz Chisholm and Yon Duran in my queue when I made my last pick and again decided to see if I could get one of them through and worked out. I got both of them. This is working out okay for me so far. All right. Well, a couple other picks after Jazz, Justin Steele, who I believe is on the mound right now as we are doing this podcast live on Tuesday night.

And Brian Reynolds was the next pick, 77th overall. I am up. I've got four hitters, Freeman, Devers, a Rosarena, Michael Harris. I've got two pitchers, Freddie Peralta and Edwin Diaz. and I think I want to take my SP2. It kind of feels like we're nearing the end of a tier here. And I'm going to go ahead and take Zach Eflin,

much to the chagrin of one Chris Sowers. Good pick, good pick. I didn't think there was any chance he was going to make it back to me, but he was at the top of my queue for, you know, 15 picks from now or whatever it was. And I feel like Zach Eflin is a good pairing with Freddie Peralta. Maybe not injury-wise because they do have, they do both have some injuries in their past.

but just in terms of the skill set. Zach Eflin, not going to give you massive strikeouts, but a really good whip should be solid ERA. Freddie Peralta, control has been a problem at time, so perhaps an elevated whip, but I think the strikeouts obviously are going to be really good and just feels like a good pairing with those two. After Zach Eflin, Emmanuel Class A,

Jesus Lazzardo, and Scott, you are back up. I was going to be tilting. I was going to be tilting very hard because two of my top three hitters are third baseman. Alex Bregman, which is the especially eyebrow-raising one, and then also Nolan Aeronado. And remember, I took Royce Lewis only to see O'Neill Cruz and Nico Horner to other players I was considering go off the board right after him

before I got a chance to pick again. So I was going to be regretting that Royce Lewis pick greatly if Matt McLean wasn't still there. He was the other of the three hitters at the top of my rankings. I actually have a need for both a second basement and a shortstop, so I could decide later where to put him. I could use some stolen bases. He's hopefully going to be a good source of those.

He's back playing for the Reds, so I'm less concerned about his availability for the start of the season. I think this is a nice discount here at 81st overall, even though I think he's overrated in general, now when he's available at 81st overall. And yeah, I do think that's a pretty good discount. 81st overall. This is kind of the bizarro Scott White Draft.

I feel like I don't see it. I don't see it's other than that all layers. Yeah. Yeah, true. Outside of Matt Elson. After Scott took Matt McLean, George Springer went to George Kurtz. I almost put those two names together, which... I thought you were going to say George Kirby.

It would have just been George Kurtz. But yeah, I assume George Kirby's way gone, but I didn't... Yes. I feel like I didn't announce his name. He went somewhere. My guess is probably in like the fourth round somewhere. I forgot to cross him off, so let's make sure he was drafted. He was.

Yeah, 48th over. Overall. Okay. We are nearing the end of round seven. And we're back to Doc who took White Lankford in round three. Does he have another trick up his sleeve? We'll find out in five seconds or less. Just take Bregman.

Come on. Interesting group of hitters here. Bryce Harper, Nolan Aronado, O'Neill Cruz, Wyatt Langford, and Paul Goldschmidt. So he just took Aaronado. Who you mentioned. Two super young guys with a ton of hype. And then three.

two old boring guys that nobody really wants, who I think are going to have bounce back seasons in Aronado and Gulchman, and then obviously Harper, lots of people want, and is also going to have a bounce back season, I think. So Nolan Aronado was the pick because Scott was name-dropping

and he gave out a bunch of players that are still available, but I'll forgive you this once. Uri-Perez and Alex Bregman at the turn and we are into round eight. Great value. Great value on Bregman there. My goodness. Breggman, by the way, entering a contract year,

there have been talks of an extension. Nothing has happened yet. But, you know, for those who care about contract years and the sort, Alex Breggman is one of those players, I do wonder, I don't think it'll happen, but there have been some talks that the Astros will run a little bit more this year. Under new manager, Joe Espada,

apparently they want to be more aggressive on the base paths. I don't know if that'll affect Breggman, per se. I mean, maybe he chips in a few steals, But it could help someone like Altuve or Kyle Tucker already runs a lot. How much more can he actually run? Yeah, I mean, Bregman is really slow these days. 25th percentile sprint speed. I didn't know it was that bad.

It's all about the power for Bregman. There have been so many reports about him like pumping iron this off season. I don't know. He did, I'm trying to remember exactly. He was swinging like a weighted bat. And now his bat speeds up however many miles per hour. He wants to get back to hitting for power like he did in the late. 2010, which I'm not sure if he understands there was a little something called the juice ball era going on then.

I don't know, but he seems to feel like he can get back to hitting 30 to 40 home runs. I don't think he will. But he's plenty valuable enough with everything else he does to be drafted in this round 6, 7, 8 range. And the thing is, in other drafts, not on CBS sports specifically, because his ADP here is 68, he's closer to 100 on the other side. So Breggman, at least relative to our drafts, or the drafts that happen on our platform, a decent value here, technically an overpay based on where he tends to go,

at least in some of the other leagues. Breggman has taken over as the face of the difference between a points league and a categories league. Or no, yeah, OVP versus, yeah. For years, I mean, Carlos Santana was such a standout in that way where he was so good in a, in a points league or OBP, and then, you know,

not as valuable in the Categories League. Not that Bregman is bad in this format, but he's just so much better in a points league. You know, we talked about him yesterday as a third round pick in a points league and a Categories League. You see what happens here. It's, you know, seventh, eighth round,

this range here for Bregman. Or based on ADP, even a little bit lower, round pick 100. After Alex Bregman, Grayson Rodriguez, Camilo Doval, and Scott, you took Hassan Kim, who, and here you go, you're racking up.

some steals now. Yeah, that's ultimately what decided it for me. I mean, Hassan Kim has stolen three bases this spring, so he still seems plenty inclined to run. That was one of the concerns after his 38 steel season last year. And, yeah, I just feel like I have ground to make up in that category. Got Tatis in round one,

but then I didn't draft another base dealer until Matt McLean with my last pick. Maybe Royce Lewis will give me some, but I'm not counting on a lot there. I am counting on a lot from Kim. There are other second baseman who could provide a lot of steel. So I thought about waiting some more and falling back on like a Bryson Stott or Zach Gelloff or an Andres Jimez. Maybe I should have. Maybe I'll come to regret that in the next couple rounds.

And if I had done that, if I had passed up Kim, I could have either gone for another great closer. At the time, Raisal Iglesias was still out there, Jordan Romano. Or there's another player I'm considering, but I don't want to mention him because there's chance he gets back to me in round nine. Is that three of your buss on your team now? Do you have Lewis as a bust or was he, was that only Frank? No, I haven't as a breakout. Okay.

So it's only two. Okay. It's only two of Kim and, uh, the values were good on both. I agree. Uh, who was the other one? McLean, Kim and McLean, my middle infield. Gotta say, guys, don't like drafting back to back with RJ White. This has been, uh, an unpleasant experience because he went ahead and took Bobby

Miller one pick ahead of me. And so I will never forgive you, RJ. That's not nice. After Scott took Hassan Kim, Ryssel Iglesias, the aforementioned Bobby Miller, I took Dylan C's, someone I don't typically take.

I only had two starting pitchers. Again, but he's going to be a Yankee, so. Ah, not if they're not willing to give up Spencer Jones, which that's everything I've heard so far. But again, a format of extremes. I wanted strikeouts. And again, I have,

I think a good whip specialist in Zach Eflin. But I probably will need another one between Dylan Csson, Freddie Peralta being on my team. Evan Phillips, Jordan Romano. I do want to say, Peralta is actually historically not a bad whip source. I think in the three seasons since he became like an everyday guy, he's been like I think his worst whip was 1.1. He's actually been despite having somewhat iffy command,

a very good whip guy. So that's worth pointing out. Mm-hmm. He, yeah, he does get more fly balls. So that is a fair point. Usually pitchers who get more fly balls don't give up as many hits, and as a result, they do have lower whips. After Evan Phillips, Jordan Romano, Chris, you took Labor Torres.

That was the other player I was debating, so good pick by you. Andreas Jimenez, Tanner, Bybee, and we are into round nine. Chris, I believe you, do you have a starting pitcher yet? Zero SPs, baby. Oh, uh-oh. I think I might know it. you're doing. Carlos Rodon

the ace. There's no way to know what I'm doing. Does it rhyme with Smarlos Shmarmol? No.

Ah. No. No. It might be. Dylan cease for what it's worth. Not that like, hey,

is Dylan cease able to get strikeouts? It's not really a question. Does have nine of them today. Or,

no, sorry, seven in the first three innings of his start. I'm following along with that. Justin Steele has

nine in four innings today. Jeez. So, all right. That's been fun to watch. I'm getting the feeling that sees is going to have a strong bounce back season. Not that he's going to have a low two ZRA again. I don't think he'll ever have a low two ZRA again. You guys, I did it again.

I had two players in my queue, three straight turns through my, you know, wheel or whatever we call it. And I got both players each time. I'm very happy with how that has worked out. William Contreras to Chris. Chris, who still does not have a starting pitcher. So let's see how that turns out. Chris Sale was the first pick of round nine, by the way,

followed by Zach Geloff, who I mentioned is having a monster spring so far. He's really good. Yeah, I wanted to talk about that. Four home runs already for Geloff. It is spring training. It is the Cactus League. He's just ahead of Miguel and Duhar in OPS. But it is encouraging from the perspective that he kind of caught everybody by

surprise last year and I think there was a lot of skepticism just because of that. So to see him just continue to pick up where he left off, even if it's only spring training, I think we'll put some people's minds at ease. And so he ends up going here ahead of Cattel Marte, Bryson Stott, and Andres Jimenez in a Categories League. I'm not sure I've seen that yet. I'm not sure I've seen Gelloff elevated to that level among second basement. So that is what may be the start of a trend here as mock draft season continues. Mm-hmm.

Well, should I do something that I always hate that I do in previous drafts? I think I'm going to do it. And I'm going to take Will Smith, who seems like a good value at pick 102 in the ninth round. But in leagues with one catcher, I see Scott get, I don't know, Mitch Garver in round 20, and I wind up kicking myself every time. Always regret it. Yeah. So we'll see if I regret it again today.

But Will Smith, come on down, joining Freddie Freeman, Devers, a Rosarena, and Michael Harris. At this price, it's hard to complain even if a good value. Because like, okay, we think Mitch Garver is going to be better. Well, this is a shallow format. Mitch Garver is going to cost a lot less. We don't think Mitch Garvers, sorry, we don't think Mitch Garver is going to be better than William Contreras or Will Smith. It's just the relative value is better.

But when Will Smith is going past 100 and what, 105th overall, 103rd overall. I got him at 102. his ADP is 77 overall. William Contreras is 83. So it's like, okay, Mitch Garver, maybe he'll be very good, but at a much deeper, deeper discount. I still think it's fine to get those catchers

at this kind of discount here. It's fine. I agree. I would have, if you hadn't taken William Contreras, I might have. But I probably wouldn't have because Evan Carter was still there. And that's who I was hoping.

that's who I was debating when it was between Hassan Kim and in round eight, Evan Carter to fill my second outfield spot, which I've normally done by this point. But I hadn't in this one. So feeling the urgency in the outfield, thankful Evan Carter made it back to me at 105. Evan Carter's probably going to be one of those Jack of all trades types rather than dominating in any one thing.

But I'm not saying you can't take those. And certainly when you're talking round nine for a player who should have a lot of runs in RBI just by virtue of where he's batting in what lineup. I think I'm pretty excited about one. I'm getting pretty excited about Evan Carter overall. Let's take our next break, and when we return, we'll catch you up on rounds 9 and 10 right after this. Welcome back in, catch people up on some picks.

Shane Bieber went at Pick 100. Did want to mention he made another spring start here on Tuesday. Shane Bieber did and looked much better this time out. four shutout innings with four strikeouts to one walk. I did not see any reports on the velocity. There was no stat cast in that game either, but it was a strong outing for Shane Bieber. After he went, Joe Musgrove, I took Will Smith,

back-to-back second baseman, Coutel Marte and Bryson Stott, Evan Carter, Alexis Diaz, Jackson Holiday, Spencer Steer, and Teoska Hernandez, the first pick of round 10. Jackson Holiday pick 107 to, that's right, you guess it. Doc Eisenhower.

who will have a great team three years from now. Maybe this year. He might have it this year. There's a chance. I do want to point out with that, remember, Hassan Kim, I need steals. There's a lot of second baseman who could give them to me. Well, Zach Gelloff and Bryce and Stott both went before my next pick. Andres Jimenez is still out there.

And maybe I'll grab him to fill one of my utility spots. We'll see. Let's see, Luis Arise goes. So we're kind of, I don't know, people keep passing up Andres Men. I'm a little surprised by that. I do think it's worth talking about Jackson Holiday because there was a question in the chat.

Like, what do we think his ADP should be? Like, what do we think it should settle? And I would say probably around here, maybe a little lower. But the thing with Jackson Holiday, projections are not going to like him. So like when you draft him, your projections are not going to look great.

because he has a very, very limited sample size at the upper miners. He held his own at both AA and AAA, but it was like 54 games. He had five home runs and four stolen bases. Like the underlying stuff, the skill level stuff was good. The plate discipline was excellent at both levels. But I think it's fair to wonder how much of an impact he's going to make for fantasy as a 20-year-old because it might be a little more of a jack of all trades master of none type of profile, at least for fantasy.

Like the vibe I get, and maybe this is wrong, but Danesby Swanson when he was coming up as a prospect, you know, remember he was, it's easy to forget now, he was arguably the top prospect of baseball when Danzby Swanson got called up. And it took him a while. He wasn't as young as Jackson Holiday. is, but it took him a while to really make a fantasy impact. Yeah, no, I think that's all fair and things that I have thought about Jackson Holiday as well. There's no doubting, he's going to be a really, really good major leaguer.

We all think, right? And so far, he's looked good in the spring Jackson Holiday has. He is 10 for 31 with two doubles, two triples, a homer, two stolen bases. And honestly, he is a player that might profile better as a points league player long term, too. just really good OVP. Maybe we don't see full on power this year, Chris, but a lot of that will be extra base hits, like doubles and triples, you know?

It's a little bit like Adley Rutchman when he got called up, where he was a really, really good player right off the bat. But for fantasy, he was just okay because he didn't have the over-the-fence pop. The other thing to keep in mind with Jackson Holiday, having said all that is he was 19 years old last year. He's 20 this year. The fact that he's going to make his Major League did,

debut as a 20-year-old, in the long run, it should mean he's a very, very good player. Guys who make their debut at that age tend to be really, really good. Some of them are difference makers right away, like Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis. And so it's just the likelier outcome is Jackson Holiday is a kind of underwhelming fantasy option from day one. But the outside is significant. I don't foresee Jackson Holiday being pulled into like the top 50, like we saw why it, Langford and Jack Centurio. Jackson Chorio almost made it in the top 50 in this one.

I don't think anyone's going to draft Holiday that high because there are bigger upside questions, particularly at the start of his career. But I would... Is Dansby Swanson still out there? I guess he is. Yep. All things being equal,

I think I'd rather have Holiday than Swanson, even though you're making that comparison between the two. I had... Well, and I was making the comp comp to Swanson. when he got called up. Yeah. All right. And I updated the rankings here on Tuesday,

and I moved Jackson Holiday up. I think just inside of the top 150, that might not be aggressive enough for some. Yeah, I got him right at 150 now. But I have him still below Dansby Swanson, so I would take Swanson in a vacuum. 15 teamer, I think I'd take Swanson. Like, the deeper the league,

the more incentive there is to take Swanson. But anyway, we're missing a lot of picks here. I already regret taking Will Smith, because when I took him, there were so many second basement in short stops off. I'm like, one of those will definitely make it back to me. There's no doubt. And they all went.

So, Bryce and Stott, Catelle Marte. For some reason, Scott took Andres Jimenez, even though he has like all the speed in the world already and already had a second basement. So thanks, Scott. I want to win steals every week, Frank. That's the thing about a head-to-head categories league compared to a roto league.

Like, you can't really overdo it in a category in this format. The more you go over, the more sure you can be that you win that category every single week. Well, let's catch people up. I think where we left off was like Luis Arise, Max Muncie went, Scott took Andrus Jimenez, Xander Bogartz, Paul Sewell, I took Sayas Suzuki, who I do like quite a bit, but might just be like a better roto player. It just doesn't really stand out anywhere, I guess. After Suzuki, David Bednar, who is still dealing with a lot, but I think that's a pretty good discount at 1-16.

catch two days in a row this week already. I think that was earlier in the week. So yeah, I think that's fine. After Bednar, Justin Verlander, and Chris, you got your first starting pitcher, Joe Ryan. Looked excellent today, guys. He did. I don't know if you saw, but no home runs allowed.

Six strikeouts and four innings, 13 whiffs on 62 pitches. He is, I give him this. I know you guys hate Joe Ryan. You are the founders of the he-man, Joe Ryan Hayton Club. He is continuing to tweak. Remember last year he added a sweeper.

He added a splitter. This year, his slider velocity and his splitter velocity are both up. I don't necessarily know if that's going to fix the issues that Joe Ryan has, but he is aware of the issues. He hears your concerns. And he is run out of time. He is taking steps to address them. He's kept trying to find that secondary pitch that is really good to.

go with the fastball. I think I think it's I think it's the breaking point now. He needs to find it right now. Maybe he did. He's just going to fade into obscurity. Four whiffs on 10 splitters today. Three whiffs on nine sweepers. Maybe. Maybe he figured it out. Maybe he did. Come on the price is fine there. The velocity on the secondary pitches. The velocity on the secondary pitches has been up. The slider up two miles per hour. The splitter up almost four miles per hour compared to last year. So So yeah, I mean, there are, it looks like there are some improvements happening, hopefully, with Joe Ryan.

I need to make a pick, so I will quickly select one of my faves. Bailey Ober, I think a good kind of balancing act with Dylan Sees, as I, who I took earlier with the higher whip. Bailey Ober, typically a good whip pitcher. The other picks that we missed out on after Chris took Joe Ryan, Carlos Rodon, Vinnie Pete. Baby! Vinny Passed Guantino to finish out round 10, then into round 11.

Yiner Diaz. Byron Buxton at 122nd overall. Again, we do have two utility spots in this league. But earlier than we're used to see him. Still too early. Yeah. Ryan Helsley. Chris is saying that.

Yeah, I love Byron Buxton, but I've got him 185th. So, and then that's 15 spots ahead of even his like elevated March ADP. So. I wondered if Jay, R. Fenton was trying to get a reaction from you, taking Byron Buxton right before your pick. Yeah, I wasn't considering Buxden. I also already have three outfielders.

So, yeah, three outfielder and one utility. So it would be a more difficult fit. After Buxton, Chris, you took Ryan Heldsley, then Tanner Scott, Marcelo Zuna, at a hundred twenty-fifth overall. Seems pretty good in a league with two utility spots. I took Bailey Ober, Nick Castiano, Spencer Torkelson and Scott,

are you ready to talk about your pick or are you still deciding? It was going to be Spencer Torkelson or Nick Castellanos and they were taken just before me here. So a little bit of a scramble. All right, so I will go back to Chris for now and Chris, Ryan Helsley was your second closer, right?

How do you feel about him this year? Boy, if he just stays healthy. There's no question that Ryan Helsie is an elite, elite reliever. He's got 150 146 strikeouts over the past two seasons in 100.1

innings of work. He's really, really good. It's just a question of can he stay on the mound? I'm willing to take that flyer in one, the 120-ish range of the draft and two, especially in a daily

lineups, a daily lineups head-to-head cast. categories league where the overall numbers aren't as valuable as how good he can be when he's available. And, you know, the replacement level is going to be pretty high in this league. After Spencer Torkelson, Scott was on the clock, tilting life before our eyes. And you went with Chris Bassett, someone that you've warmed up to recently, Scott. I do find myself drafting him a lot and feeling more comfortable with him. A great whip option goes deep into game so tends to get a lot of wins, the strikeout total because of the innings

ends up being pretty good. And I hadn't drafted a starting pitcher since I took Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Pablo Lopez back to back. So I was feeling like things were getting pretty globy there. I don't know. I probably could have waited until my next pick, but I felt like there were more alternatives that I liked among the hitter and really, pitcher ranks than there were among the starting pitchers.

All right. After you took Chris Bassett, we saw Walker Bueller go to George Kurtz, who is gobbling up the potential injury discounts. Already has Kevin Gosman and Garrett Cole on his team as well. But you know what? In a head-to-head league versus a roto league, it's a lot easier to get away with that because let's say, okay, Walker Buehler doesn't make his debut until May and he's got But Gosman, let's say he gets a delayed start.

Let's say he starts off 1 and 3. It's still just about getting to the championship. And if you can get injury discounts who are going to be there starting in May, you can go on a run and still be there in the playoffs and have a really, really good team. So it's an interesting strategy here where you're sort of punting a few weeks at the top. Chris, I noticed you said if he gets off to an 0 and 3 start or 1 in 3, whatever it might be, Don't you mean like 15 and 15 or? No, absolutely not.

Chris does not like that standing system for those. There are different ways to play head-to-head categories. It could be one win, it could be most categories, different ways to play it. After Walker Bueller, Estuary Ruiz, and Yandy Diaz, that is the end of round 11. Let's sign off our one here on the audio side, and when we return, part two here of our live head-to-head categories mock draft.