Fantasy Baseball Today - Live H2H Categories Mock Draft Part 2! Rounds 12-23 Picks & Strategy (3/15 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 15, 2022

Join our FBT March Madness Bracket for a chance to join our listener leagues- http://cbssports.com/FBTbrackets Let's pick things up with round 12 where Scott selected Tyler Mahle (0:30)! Mark Melancon or Corey Knebel? ... Is round 14 too early for Carlos Carrasco and Jo Adell (9:30)? ... Mitch Garver was a great pick in round 16 (20:50). ... Round 18 is filled with sleeper/breakout starting pitcher candidates (33:00). ... Brandon Belt excels in a daily H2H categories league (42:26)! ... Jon Gray kicks off round 22 (53:15). ... We wrap up by reviewing our final rosters (1:01:00)! 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. With fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. All right, we are back here for our two of our head-to-head categories, mock draft. And we are in round 12.

And so far, the picks have been Nathan Avaldi, Tyler Malley to Scott, then Marcus Stroman, Reese Hoskins, the profit pocket. Let's go. It is now completed. Jared Kelnick and Chris, you are on deck. You are now on the clock. So, Joey Gallo goes with the very next pick. Let's check in on your team, Chris. You can use a first basement. You can use the... Yep, I was hoping Reese Hoskins would be there. That was a snipe of some sorts. So not great for you. You need a third basking. You need a third basking's... third baseman, but we are in the same category here, Chris,

which is not a great one to be in. Yeah, I mean, I've got three hitter spots and four pitcher spots in my starting lineup to fill. I feel more comfortable with the pitchers who are going to be available in the future, so I'll go ahead and take Giovanni Gallegos

there, RP. This is kind of the point where I've got Max Scher Kevin Gosman and Edwardo Rodriguez. If I wanted to pivot to a relief feature heavy build, I've probably got enough starting now to get away with that. You know, you're probably going to get, you're going to get at least one start per week from those guys so you can expect, you know, Scherzer-Gosman and Rodriguez to give you 15 innings per week at a minimum. So, you know,

that gives you just about enough flexibility, maybe one more starter. And for me, not saying that's what I am going to do, but it's an option. For me, Giovanni Gallegos, kind of represents the end of a tier, too. Like, I think that he has true ace closer upside. If he's just named the closer and they don't mess around with it, he could save 30 plus games and deliver elite ratios and lots of strikeouts. He just... Things are much scarier after him.

Yeah, because I'm looking at the other closers, and you're right. It's a little scary there. All right, after Giovanni Gallegos, Blake Trinon, as of now, Kenley Jansen is still a free agent, but, you know, know, if he signs elsewhere, then Trinanin will be the closer for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Sean Mania and then Ranger Suarez, Scott. So you wondered where he was going to go. And this is still the range, round 12.

Didn't even last. Still the range for Ranger. It didn't even last a full round. You know who I'm surprised hasn't been drafted yet. Actually, two first baseman that I had on my bus list. But Jared Walsh and Ryan Mountcastle are still there. And this is much later than they typically go. So I wonder if that's starting to be, those concerns are starting to be reflected in their prices,

a little more, Mountcastles, ADP, and NFBC drafts is 110.4. That's actually up over the course of draft season. And Walsh is 1 15.4. So we're 30 picks past that. It's kind of interesting. I should mention that probably a third of the participants in this particular mock draft are volunteers from my Twitter following. So they probably, they may subscribe to our way of thinking more than the average drafter would.

Okay. I am on the clock. I've made one of my picks. It was Lordus Gouriel. So I have filled out my outfield, Yerdon Alvarez, Eli Homenes and your Lordes-Guriel. I'm very happy with that. Lots of fun names.

It was another situation where he was staring at me for like three rounds as one of my top players. But I only have one utility spot yet left. I don't know if Lordes-Guriel's enough of a difference maker to consider filling that yet. So that's why I passed. Okay. And with my next pick, I selected Mark Molanson.

So as I just mentioned, Giovanniago is kind of the end of a tier. Mark Malanson, look, he was really good last year. I think eventually he's going to fall off. There are more interesting closers out there than that. Then Mark Malanson? I mean, the thing is I'd be fine with Mark Malanson because I think, like, he's proven steady and stable enough.

But it's the diamond backs. Yeah. They had like a 30-game losing streak at one point last year. It wasn't literally a 30-game losing streak, but it was like 29 of 30 or something like that. They did go at least one full month. without a save. Well, that's because they didn't have Mark

Melanson guys, so now they're going to be a lot better, obviously. I'm sure. I mean, look, they only... Like, the guy who just went, Corey Konebel. Look, the Diamondbacks only had 22 saves last season. That's not going to happen again. You know, that's an abnormally low number, even if you think they're likely to be a sub-60 win team again.

You know, that just won't happen again. There's bad luck involved in that, too. So I think he can be a 30 save guy if he keeps the job all season. You know, it's not that rare to see 30 saves on a bad team. Yeah, for me, you're just paying for the security, right? So Mark Melanson is undoubtedly the Diamondbacks closer. Two picks later, Corey Knable goes off the board, pick 147. Yeah.

And I would prefer Knable to Mark Malanson. I don't think there's much separating Kenebel and Gallegos, who I don't feel like, you know, I was just saying it sounds like the Cardinal are actually using the closer term with him, but their history with him is to keep him out of the role as much as they can help it. So I still worry about job security there. Go ahead.

I was going to say the Phillies over the weekend, they did name Corey Canable the Closer for now, quote for now. And then after that they signed Jerry's Familia, and on Monday they signed Brad Hand. I don't think that Brad Hand is good, but he does have closer experience. So, you know, like, there's enough. there to just kind of a slight sliver of doubt.

We haven't mentioned the real reason to be concerned about Corey Canable. And I don't think it's performance and I don't think it's losing the job necessarily. I don't think Juris Familia or Brad Hand are really big threats to him. I mean, there aren't many pitchers that have had more injuries over the last three or four seasons than Corey Canable. Even last season, he only pitched 30 innings. He was amazing. Or 25 innings. He was awesome. He looked great. He couldn't stay healthy last season either. reliever. So that's the concern is that there's just very little reason to think at this point in

his career, even pitching as a closer or reliever, that Corey Canable is going to be able to stay healthy. I mean, man, he's, he's never had more than 76 innings in a major league season. And that was back in 2017. All right, let's catch everybody up after I selected Melanthan, Jared Walsh, Corey Canable, Adam Wainwright, Jorge Salare, Chris selected O'Neill, Cruz. is 150th overall. If Chris is going to do this in round 13, I'm just never getting to get to draft O'Neill Cruz again. Not that I blame them necessarily.

It's just you want to make sure you get O'Neill Cruz. And he has the kind of upside to justify it. I get it. I'm just saying, you know, obviously the ADP is much, much, much lower than 150th. I am, the pick that happened four picks or three picks later is making me wonder whether it was the right pick because I was between Patrick Sandoval and O'Neill Cruz

and I was thinking, take one, hope the other one comes back. And now it's would O'Neill Cruz have been able to come back the next time I picked? This is really highlighting how much I hate picking in the middle of drafts this season. I don't know. More than usual, I feel like when I'm sitting here in the middle, I just, it feels like I have too many choices to make. Whereas like, yeah, when you're on the end of the round, you kind of have to like reach for your guys. but at least you get the guys you want. Whereas I feel like there are more of those hard choices

when you're picking in the middle. All right. After you selected O'Neill Cruz, we see Taylor Rogers. Another expected closer, for the Minnesota Twins, of course. I mean, he's done it before. He had a 30-save season back in 2019, and his numbers last year were completely ridiculous. So I like Taylor Rogers quite a bit. Then Luis Severino, Patrick Sandoval,

Gary Sanchez, who is now with the Minnesota Twins. Interestingly enough, there was a report after the trade that they expect Sanchez to play a lot of DH for them. So could lead to more at bats than we're used to seeing for a catcher eligible player. I think the plan as of now is he's the backup catcher to Ryan Jeffers, lots of played appearances as a designated hitter for the Minnesota Twins. Scott, you select Camillo Duval. Then we see Craig Kimberl and Austin Meadows at the turn. We are into round 14 and you are back on the clock, sir.

Give me those sluggers. Give me Hunter Renfro. Can't realistically count on him being there beyond round 14. Jorge Saler is already gone. Marcelo Zunas long gone. I'm running out of late round. That's the late round home run sources that I like to collect. That I like to collect.

There's still Adam Deval, of course, but he's for sure going to be a drain on batting average. There's still Luke Voight, but there are questions about how much he's going to play. So Hunter Renfro felt like more of a priority here than maybe reaching a little for another save source after just drafting Camilla Duval the previous round. All right. And then the very next pick is Jake McGee. So one round after Camila Duval goes, Jake McGee goes off the board. So maybe some confliction there about who the Giants closer is. Yeah, we're betting on different guys having that role for the Giants. Right. Again, Camila Deval late in the season, he basically, took over the role as the closer. He finished out more games in the postseason than Jake McGee did. So it seems like they're trending in that kind of youth movement with Deval who throws extremely hard. He's got a nasty slider. There's a lot of like that. I haven't seen and

I haven't seen anything since camps opened regarding Deval, but I went back and read a lot of the literature surrounding him during the Giants playoff run. And like the giant, everyone on the Giants beat seemed convinced this is the guy now. So I at least think he's going to be the guy to begin the year and whether or not he can hold on to the role that remains to be seen. But he certainly has the stuff for it if he throws enough strikes. Duval versus McGee is also very much playing into, I mean, sports fans in general, but fantasy players specifically are our well-known predilection for liking one type of player role over another.

And Camilla Duval, everything you guys said, he's younger, he's got a wicked slider, all that. and Jake McGee just goes out there and throws fastball after fastball, and he's been around for a while and it's boring. And so it's very much a situation where we could just be talking ourselves into the more exciting guy at a much higher cost. Yeah. Like I said, I'm talking about what I was reading from the Giants beat, not just slubs like me.

Yeah. Oh, come on, Sky. You're not a slub. I would never trust a slub like you. Speaking of Jake McGee, it is worth mentioning, again, this is a head-to-head categories format, and I think we'll see it later on in this draft, but there's going to be relievers that are drafted that are not expected to get saved. I mean, it's just guys that you leave in your lineup, and they'll give you strong ratios and strikeouts. And I guess Jake McGee,

even if he's not the closer per se, he could fall into that category. The numbers were fantastic last year, 272 ERA, 0.91 whip, almost a, strikeout per inning but you know when he pitches he should be very good uh all right what else happened joe adele goes 160th overall so just throw all adp out the window here uh ryan mount castle then noa sintergard chrisse you select carasco interesting then trent grisham and chris taylor um chris are we at the point where you just need to load up on pitchers and so that's why we're going with carasco because usually he lasts about a hundred picks after this.

I mean, this is around where I have him ranked. I don't know about you guys, but, you know, I do think this is the kind of the point in the draft where ADP doesn't matter so much.

Like, you can talk about values, but, you know, Patrick Sandoval also goes 80 picks later than he usually, then he went in this draft. So it's,

it's the kind of thing where if you're at this point in the draft and you have a need or you have a player that you specifically want, I think you'd just go get them. So that's what I did with Carlos Carrasco. I think it was the best starting pitcher

on the board. So, you know, it was a fairly easy call for me there, even though the value may not be ideal. Okay. And then after Chris Taylor, we see Dansby Swanson, and then Mike Clevenger goes, and I am on the clock for two picks. I still do not have a starting third baseman. Like the Clevenger pick that RJ just made. And we're definitely not just saying that because he's our boss. No, no.

No, that's actually a good pick. Yeah. Man, third base is just barren. What do we do? Should I just wait? Yeah, I think I'll just wait. I think you and I probably have one, probably the same guy that we're hoping to fill that third base spot with

if I know the way you're thinking about it. I have another player that I like to fall back on too, but I know who you're talking about as well. I'm going to select Logan Gilbert with one of the, the picks. I have them in my breakouts 1.0. I like what we saw at times last year. He was inconsistent. I think that he has all all the pieces. He's got the fastball. He's got the two secondary pitches. He just got to put it together. Has the prospect pedigree. It throws really hard. I do like Logan Gilbert quite a bit. He is my SP4 to go along with Brandon Woodruff, Pablo Lopez, and Max

Freed. I've already got two closers on my team. What can I go with here? Should I take another starting pitcher? I think I might. There's no hitters that I really, truly want here. Luis Garcia? I am thinking about him. That's the pitcher at the top of my draft board.

I think I could use more power, though. So I'm going to pull this guy up the board, and I'm going to select Matt Chapman. So that was the play. player that I was referring to where if I miss out on everyone usually yes I like Luis Arias and we'll see if Chris gets him a little bit later on

but you needed a third basement right like yeah you're picking at the end here there's no way Matt Chapman was going to make it all the way back to you a league with two utility spots potential 40 homer guy come on well I hope you're right thank you Simon I very much hope he gets

traded uh look it seems like that is a very distinct possibility with everything that's going on in Oakland right now. So they ship out Matt Olson. They ship out Chris Bassett. I think Chapman could be next. I think Sean Murphy. I think Ramon Luriano, Franki Bontas. I think all these guys could be on the move. And yeah, Oakland A's are look like they're ready to hit a complete rebuild. And I think one year further removed from the hip injury can only be a good thing for

Matt Chapman. So hoping he gets back on track there. After I selected Matt Chapman, we are in around 15 now. Trevor Bauer goes off the board. He is still on administrative leave and we will continue to follow what happens with him throughout spring training. Then Spencer Torkelson and Scott Barlow. A closer who I know you like to select Scotty. Yeah, I was going to be my next pick. That's who that's who I passed up to draft hunter Renfro. So yeah, gonna have to figure something else out there

when it comes to saves. might not be able to wait much longer to grab Dylan Floro, who's less exciting in this format than I think straight up Roto. So I'll think about it. And while you think about it, we will go to Chris, who's on the clock. I am on the clock. And I'm looking to fill first base. There's a couple of guys that I like,

but I'm going to go with an upside pick. I'm going to push Alex Kerloff up my board a little bit and take him. just the batted ball metrics and quality of contact stuff was all pretty uniformly very good for Alex Kirolov in his rookie season. The overall production wasn't quite there, but the hope is that the wrist surgery that he had last season to repair an injury that's really been bothering him for two or three seasons now dating back to his time in the minors, you know, hopefully that can help him put that past him and start to actualize some of the, the power potential that I think is there. I think he could be a very good hitter. And so for waiting to the 15th round to take a first baseman,

I don't think he's a bad consolation prize. All right. After, I think there was one other pick in there that I missed just before Alex Kirloff, Yon Moncada went off the board, then Dylan Carlson and Adolice Garcia from the Texas Rangers.

Again, we are in round 15, two more picks, and then Scott, is on the board here. We'll see what happens. Can I, uh, we're probably about a hundred and fifty. Raymond.

Raymond Atherton to Bill and Floro. Probably about 150 picks until either of these guys might matter. Uh, maybe longer. So we're talking like 15 team rotos. But, you know, we talked about the Jesse Winker trade earlier and didn't get all that deep into it. But I'm just going to throw out there.

I'm going to be taking our, that is Aquino and Jake Freyley late in some deeper roto leagues. I actually think Jake Frele's skill set is really interesting. And playing in Great American Ballpark, there is an outside chance that Jake Frey could have a 2020 season. I'm just going to put that out there. All right? Do with that what you will.

Speak it into existence, Chris. Yeah, Jake Freilly has put up some interesting seasons in the minor. Back in 2019, he hit 298. 19 homers, 22 steals, a 910 OPS. The year before that, four homers, 11 steals, a 962 OPS. That was only 66 games. So, yeah, Jake Freley, a name to watch there.

Aristides, Sikino, the Punisher. You remember the, the streak? That was also... Oh, go ahead? No, the shrieky went on a couple of years ago. I mean, that was memorable stuff. He was ridiculous. He's got 29 homers and 85 career games at AAA.

he's played 486 played appearances at the major league level he's got 31 homers and 10 stolen bases so I was mostly just inspired to mention him when I saw Dolis Garcia

go off the board because I think he could be that kind of player this season. All right. After Tilling Floro went Enrique Hernandez could potentially lead off

for the Red Sox once again and Scott you selected Brendan Rogers. I know. I never get a chance to draft him and I feel like I'm always the one I'm the one who's been

hyping him the longest here. It's especially interesting to me. I drafted him after Enrique Hernandez went off the board. But I won't harp on that too much. It's to fill a second utility spot for me. I already have second base and shortstop both backed up. So I did not need Brendan Rogers, but I'm just not used to seeing him this late. And I'm happy to capitalize on the value for what I think is pretty good upside in Colorado. two Yankees go at the 15-16 turn, DJ LaMayhew and Luke Voight. We know that Matt Olson will not be playing for the Yankees this season. There were a lot of rumors about that throughout the off season. So one name off the list, and we're one step closer to Luke Voigt once again starting

for the Yankees. We'll see where Freddie Freeman and Anthony Rizzo wind up. But there's a chance. There is a chance. Scotty, you're back up. Yeah. I'm going to go with Andrew. Kittridge here. Okay. Give me some saves, hopefully. Give me great ratios more hopefully, which

non-closing relievers, I think, are most valuable in this format. I just added a whole bunch of them to my queue. Yeah. We're at that point in the draft where you can start thinking about the non-closing relievers. Because the thing is, it's not just that they'll give you great ratios, but also

that there's a chance. that Andrew Kittridge ends up just getting 25 saves for the race. There's a chance Paul C.Wald ends up getting 35 saves for the Mariners. You know, these guys are, it's not just that they're really good, but also that they're good enough that if they get the opportunity, they'd probably just run with the job. All right. After Scott selected Andrew Kittridge, we see Aaron Savale, Mitch Garver, 184th off the board.

It's just great value. We spoke about him the other day on the podcast, and now with the Texas Rangers, but the playing time could potentially be moving up, turning in the right direction for Mitch Garver. So this is a little bit ahead of his ADP, but again, I think it's a perfect time to select him. So nice value there with Mitch Garver.

Then Luis Garcia, starting pitcher for the Houston Astros. It goes 185th. And then Michael Conforto, who is still a free agent, has been linked to varying locations in terms of what it could do for his fantasy value. We've heard Corse Field, Colorado. We've also heard the Marlins and Marlins Park. So two very opposite ends of the spectrum for Michael Conforto potentially.

And Chris, you are up in round 16. Thank you for the reminder. Are you? Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and pull the trigger on Louisa Reyes. Take him to fill my third base spot. And I feel really good about that at 187th overall. I imagine Scott even might not hate. that. Not the best starting third baseman you can get, but what Louise Sereas did from,

really it was about June 1st on, if I'm remembering correctly, was quite impressive. It was not that dissimilar to what Jonathan India did last season. It was a pace of about 25 homers, 90 plus runs in RBI, decent batting average. He makes contact. He walks a decent amount. The underlying numbers, you know, in terms of the quality of contact metrics are somewhat pedestrian for Luis Erius, but he's got that same kind of pull-heavy approach on fly balls that Jonathan India does that can help him maximize the power that he does have. And yeah, I think he's, I think he is likely to be fine. I don't think Luis Erius is going to be a star, although I do think there's, you know, potential for him to hit 280. But I think he's fine. He's just not going to hurt me.

Okay. Luis Erius, Chris and myself, we're in. Can he hit 280 with, uh, I don't know, 20 homers, 25 homers, 7-8 steals. I think it's possible. And again, the Brewers lineup is fun. Like, it's pretty deep now. They bring in Hunter Renfro in the offseason. They just signed Andrew McCutcheon. They still have Christian Yellich.

They still have Lorenzo Kane. So, I mean, there's their names there. Colton Wong up at the top. He's a solid player. Arias is a good OBP league guy. Oh, yeah. You know, I don't know if he's a top 12 third baseman in an OBP league, but he walked 11% of the timeline.

season, you know, 345 on base percentage. So, you know, there's a chance at an OBP league for Roto. He's a legitimate four or five category or guy with no real weakness. After you selected Luis Ariaeus, we see Sunny Gray go 188th overall. Now with the Minnesota Twins, then Lou Trevino. I wonder if Trevino could be on the move too, man. Like, I mean, the way that the way that they're rumored to be shopping everybody, I I also read an article recently on the athletic that AJ Puck might work his way into some save opportunities. That's really interesting. Yeah.

Throws hard, but just has not been able to stay healthy, big, burly, left-handed pitcher. He's interesting. Yep, definitely someone to keep in mind more in a 15-team Roto League, but someone that with one of your last picks, you should be throwing a dart at with AJ Puck because he could be, you know, really, really good out of the reliever especially. Okay. Lou Trevino, I mentioned.

Then Jordan Montgomery goes off the board. I am on deck. And now I'm up. Miles Straw. It's pretty late. 191st overall at the end of round 16 could potentially provide you 30 plus steals if that's what you need at this point in the draft.

I wouldn't be willing to sacrifice the power in a league where only 10 hitter spots are used. Harder to justify in this format, especially, being that stolen bases aren't at such a premium, but look, 191 is 191. There's not really a bad pick here. I'm just saying, I would not build my team. There is zero chance I'd have a build

in a head-to-head categories league that included Miles Straw. Well, Scott, I mean, look, if you grab as many power hitters as you often are trying to in these drafts, then you might be... You're not going to talk me into it, Frank. There's no context. I'd rather just be even that more confident I'm going to win home runs in a given week

than potentially undermine that with a Miles Straw pick. And look, I don't know that Miles Straw is a potential category winner like Adelberto Mondesie, but, I mean, again, he could steal 30 plus bases, so it's not nothing. I've got to bring RJ down a peg, Frank. Yeah, that's...

And Miles Straw is another guy who OVP leagues. He's better than batting average leagues. He's probably not going to be a particularly great batting average guy, but he does walk a decent amount. I always worry, I always struggle with this profile, though, the zero power but good plate discipline guys, because you can lose the good plate discipline part really quickly if pitchers just start attacking you relentlessly.

I feel like that's, it's an approach that can often have a short shelf life. I feel like Michael Bourne was kind of similar to Miles Straw in that way. And he was the kind of guy who went it went, it went really quickly. All right, well, Miles Straw, if you're listening, bud, I tried to talk you up, but these guys are just not having it. So I apologize. A five-mile field in Rotow League would be different. I still don't love them there, but it feels like less of a sacrifice.

At the 16th, 17 turn, I selected Eddie Rosario, who, again, I mean, the guy is just undervalued. I think he's rock solid. I don't, look, I don't want him to wind up with the Marlins, but I don't think it really matters where he winds up. I think he's a pretty damn good ball player. And then to start round 17, I selected Alex Wood. I do have a rule that I like to leave every draft I do with at least one San Francisco Giants starting pitcher.

So whether it's Wood, Descalfani, or Alex Cobb. I do like to get one of those guys. And then the next pick is Paul Seawald. So whether he's the closer or not, You leave him in your lineup. You hope that he gives you those ratios, maybe picks up some wins, lots of strikeouts as well. So it's late enough.

It's round 17, pick 194. After that, Calquantral and Junjin Ryu go off the board. All right, Chris, you are now on the clock. John Means Business was the very next pick. And what do you got? I feel like, what do you need? Starting pitching? No, I feel like I'm probably set on starting pitching.

So I'm going to go with one of those non-closing relievers that we talked about. And I'm going to go with Devin Williams. Has been one of the best relievers in baseball over the past couple of seasons. Obviously, you know, there was some skepticism coming off 2020. He wasn't as good last season as he was that year. But still 87 strikeouts in 54 innings. He's got maybe the most bonkers pitch in baseball. He throws his change up like 65% of the time

and had the second highest whiff rate in the game with the change up last season. So, Devin Williams, just a really strong pitcher for this format when you want to have enough relief pitchers, whether they're closers or not, that they're going to be in your lineup every day. All right. After you selected Devin Williams,

Jose Orkitti, Lucas Sims, and Lane Thomas go off the board. Lucas Sims was in the news, recently, there was a report over the weekend that he wasn't ready for the start of training camp, and then he kind of shot that down. He said, I'm not dealing with any arm injuries. So Lucas Sims a little bit up in the air right now. The Reds had 10 different relievers earn a save last season. So it was a messy bullpen. I'm pretty excited about Art Warren, if he can get an opportunity, lots of strikeouts. Did have saves in the minor leagues as well. Who knows? Maybe

maybe I'll even select our warrant Hang on in the strength RJ RJ wants to defend himself here in the chat he says I wouldn't take straw if it wasn't a daily lineup league I like keeping him on the bench

and deploying him late in week as needed or when others have an off day feel like I can steal a win here and there in steals category using him a couple times a week like that so that that's his defense and I hear

it. I hear it. Point well taken. Yeah, that's all I'll say. I mean, look, he's going to hit at the top of the order, presumably for the Guardians as long as he's good enough to. And there's not going to be a lot of competition in regards to being good enough

in Cleveland. So, you know, there's going to be opportunities at the very least. All right, a couple more picks going off the board here. Robbie Grossman, Scott selects Ken Giles, and then Zach Gallen at pick 204. to finish out round 17,

and Zach Gowan was in the news for the wrong reasons on Monday. Apparently he had off-season shoulder issues, and that is in conjunction with all of the elbow, forearm stuff that he dealt with last year. So, oof, lots of risk involved with Zach Gallin. It's pretty scary right now. That is scary stuff.

I probably just not going to draft him. Right. period. And you never say never, right? Because if it's your last pick or something, maybe. But I imagine somebody will take him before I'm comfortable taking him. Because he's already the single pitcher who I'm most concerned about having Tommy John surgery even beyond like Clayton Kershaw or Jacob de Grom. And then he had shoulder surgery in the offseason. Are you kidding me? And honestly, I have performance concerns about him. You know, I have performance concerns about him. You know, I don't know if he's going to be the potential ace that we hoped he would be. Because I'm not 100% sure at this point whether he's got, you know, the kind of plus pitches that you would really need to be more than just, you know, a good pitcher, even without the injury risk. Oh, but it wasn't shoulder surgery for gallon, right? He had shoulder inflammation in the off season.

It feels scary. It was Bursitis, which, again, is shoulder inflammation. Scott, you selected two closers, potential closers, Ken Giles and Joe Barlow. Yeah, yeah, you've really won me over to Ken Giles. I think we're going to draft a lot of them. Nice. Obviously, the Mariners never settled on a closer last year, but, like, Ken Giles, that, as we talked about recently, like, he's the sort of reliever who's not really effective in any other role,

and he's been a very effective closer. coming off Tommy John surgery, so who knows. But I'll take a shot on it this late. But a long time removed from Tommy John surgery at this point. Sure. Yeah, I think he had it late in 2020. Yeah, definitely prior to last season because the Mariners signed him with the understanding

that he would miss all of last season. Right. All right, yeah. Look, he has the closing experience. I know it's a very crowded bullpen right now. They've got Drew Second Rider. They've got Paul Seawald. But, man, if Ken Giles is right, he might be the best of the bunch.

After Scott selected, Joe Barlow, we are in round 18. Kyle Hendrix goes off the board. Tony Gonselin. All right, Scott. People are listening. Some Scotty sleepers there. Rhymel Tappia. Avisa L. Garcia and Chris, you select Tristan McKenzie.

Oof. All right. So this is a nice round for some starting pitcher sleeper slash breakouts. Do you resent him saying, ooh there, Chris? I don't know why he would. Frank's Tristan McKenzie guy. I thought he liked him. I did also have Tony Goncelain.

That was a good, by the way. Yeah, that was like, good. I did have Tony Goncelain and Ken Giles in my queue. So, you know, I was in Lucas Sims since my last pick. So those were all guys I was considering. And I think Tristan McKenzie's right in that group. I wrote about him for breakout's 2.0 last week. And it's a bet on a guy who's shown

two really good pitches and has had really interesting flashes so far in his major league career. So that's why I like Tristan McKenzie there. Mm-hmm. All right. After you selected Tristan McKenzie, Stephen Strasberg and Gregory Soto are off the board. Two more picks and then I am up. So I should start thinking about what I would like to do. I've got five starting pitchers.

That includes Brandon Woodruff, Max Fried, Pablo Lopez, Logan Gilbert. and Alex Wood. I've got two closers in Ryan Presley and Mark Malanson. So a few different directions I can go in here. Cabrian Hayes goes 214th overall. I would have selected him if he made it to me here. And then just kind of play whoever's performing well between Cabrion Hayes and Matt Chapman

at my third base position. Yeah, I didn't even think about him because he's usually gone 50 picks earlier before I'd ever think about him. So that's... Yeah. Yeah, his ADP... This is more of the range where I draft Cabrine Hayes.

Yeah, his ADP and NFC drafts is 139.7. So he went 80 picks later than he normally does. And yeah, that's the point where it's like, yeah, we have a lot of questions about Cabrion Hayes at this point. But there's no downside risk at 215 or whatever it was. Mm-hmm. Okay. I think that I want a pitcher.

not a belly itcher. I think we're gonna just load up. Let's go Giants, man. Let's do it. Alex Wood, Alex Cobb. And then I am going to, I believe, select a reliever.

We're kind of dwindling on closer candidates here. But I believe I did this in our previous head-to-head categories mock draft as well. I'm going to select David Bednar. and of course I would love for him to be the closer of the pirates, but really it doesn't matter all that much because I think that he's going to be really good when he pitches, whether it's Setup Man in the ninth inning. He was amazing last year.

So lots of strikeouts, good ratios for David Bednar. Again, I'm just going to leave him in the lineup, Daily lineup league. Give me those ratios, those strikeouts. And if he's the closer, good. Give me saves too. I'll take those. After David Bednar goes, Adam Duval. So one of those sluggers, Scotty, that goes very late.

Of course, he's going to hurt the betting average, but, you know, 30, 35 plus home runs. Seems very doable. And then Terrick Scoobel, the next pick. And Gene Seguerra, we're flying here in round 19. Joe Ryan goes off. Oh, I want to Jojo. Jojo. Who calls him that?

Do you call him that? I just did. That's the first time I've said it or heard it. The invisible fastball from Joe Ryan, very interesting pitcher. He's one of these vertical approach angle darlings where I cannot really explain it very well, but it's basically where the ball crosses the plate from a pitcher's perspective. You can read articles from other much smarter people who have broken it down before. But yeah, that's basically how he hides his fastball well.

And despite throwing 91, 92 miles per hour, how he's able to have as much success as he has in the the minors and so far in the majors as well. Chris, you select A.J. Pollock, I think a fantastic pick at this point. Could be sneaky good in this format, in particular, the daily lineups if you're going to be on top of that stuff because AJ Pollock, obviously,

I don't think we expect him to be an everyday player at this point, but he's been fantastic the past two seasons. 290, 888 OPS, 162 game pace of 35 homers, 97 RBI and 10 stolen bases, 78 runs. Like, if you just put him in your lineup when he's out there, you're probably going to get really good production from him. Yeah, and hopefully give him some opportunities to DH as well.

Universal DH now. So, look, I know Max Muncie needs it, and we've talked about Will Smith, maybe, but A.J. Pollock can work his way into that mix. If he's swinging a hot bat, they want to keep his bat in there. Good stuff there. after AJ Pollack, Ryan McMahon, another player in this format. You can choose to just play him

when he's in Corse Field. Reap the rewards there. Alex Colomey. Unfortunately, the opposite. I don't know if you want to pitch him when he's in Corse Field, but you need the save,

so I get it. And then Riley Green and Drew Steckenrider off the board. Scotty, you are up. Let's check in on your team. Let's see what we got going on. I assume lots of power.

Mm-hmm. And yes, you've got Salvador Perez, Josh Bell, Jorge Polanco, Rafael Devers, Corey Seeger in the infield, then Trout, Ketel Marte, Kyle Schwaber, Hunter Renfro, and Brendan Rogers in your outfield and utility. You've filled out all of your pitcher spots, so... All right, you got some flexibility. What are we doing? I filled out all of my pitcher spots, but with only four starting pitchers, I believe.

So I've yet to draft my fifth starting pitcher. I don't normally draft this guy, but I don't think he's normally here at this point. Anthony Descliffeani will be my fifth starting pitcher, hoping that his success from last year carries over. I'm a little skeptical of it, but the Giants obviously play in a huge park, which can help keep the ERA lower even for a pitcher who's predisposed to fly balls like Desclothani is. It's got one word of advice. Don't start him against the Dodgers.

Yeah, 100%. Fair enough. Yeah. He had like a sub three ERA against everybody about the Dodgers last season, and he had, I don't, a ERA over 10 in like three or four starts against them or something wild. Well, a daily league makes that more possible. In fact, I can sit them on the road in general if I so choose. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I love that. I think regardless of the format that you play in, you could start Ace Cephani, Pretty regularly, just not against the Dodgers, as Chris mentioned. At the turn, we get two San Francisco Giants, Brandon Crawford, and Brandon Belt, two Brandon Giants. So whatever that's worth to you. We are in round 20. Brandon Belt, for what it's worth, I think,

does excel in this format. When he plays, he's been awesome, but particularly against right-handed pitching, if you can choose to just throw him in your lineup whenever he's facing those righties. The problem is he does. doesn't play nearly as much as he should because he's not that bad against lefties, but Gabe Kapler is just hyperactive manager.

So he takes him out of the lineup a lot, even though it was like on a 50 homer pace last year, Brandon Bell. But yeah, in a daily league, if you're willing to actually check the day's lineups every day and commit to doing that, to actually setting your lineup every day, which I can never do in a daily league, part of the reason I don't like them.

Then yeah, Brandon Belt, he should probably go earlier than this. Yeah, I mean, both Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford probably should go earlier than they do. There's a lot of skepticism about what they did last season. In Belt's case, you know, there were signs of it in 2020 as well. It's not just like a one-year thing. And the thing with Bell is, one, he's one of those guys that just always seems like he's been held back by his home park. And it seems like some of the park factors in San Francisco have shifted to be a little more hitter. friendly in a way that's helpful to him in particular over the last couple of seasons.

But also, he's just always had really good batted ball data. And so it's not necessarily surprising that, you know, he's still, you know, quite a productive player in a smaller role. All right. After Brendan Belt went, Scott selects Zach Rankie, then Adley Ruchman, Kyle Finnegan, Casey Meis, Lance McCullors, who will not be ready for the start of the season. He is behind because of that forearm injury that he was dealing with in the postseason last year. So not a great start there for the Houston Astros. Adley Ruchman, I believe, just went ahead of Cabert Ruiz and Tyler Stevenson. So that is interesting and something we don't really see often in these drafts.

Yeah, a lot of people in this draft have just been content to wait for whatever catcher they get. There are still four people in a 12th team league without a catcher. Yeah. So it's surprising to see all three of those, Rushman, Ruiz, and Stevenson available this late. But you get, I mean, I can't really disagree with the strategy. Yeah, and I wouldn't necessarily take him over Ruiz, but I think it makes all the sense in the world to take him over, Tyler Stevenson. You know, Adley Rushman could just be up by opening day. I mean, that's one of the things that they changed with the new CBA is that, you know, not only are their incentives to have.

having players called up from opening day. They, you know, if you have a player who's on the opening day roster who finishes in the top, five in rookie of the year and three or three in the rookie of the year, five in MVP and Sayyung, you gain an extra draft pick as a result of that. But also, there's the potential that you could call Adley Rushman up on May 15th. He could finish second and rookie the year voting. And he gets the full year of service time anyway. So that's a, that's, you know, at least,

a little bit more of a disincentive for teams to leave their guys down, especially someone like Adley Rushman, who I don't think anybody really, like, he's a catcher, but he's probably ready. Oh, yeah. I mean, he was ridiculous last year and AA and AAA. Yeah, the plate is a player is fantastic. I mean. And everybody raves about the soft skills, the way he handles pitchers, his approach to the game.

There's no real questions about. any of that stuff with him. All right. After Lance McCullors was the last pick that I mentioned, Chris, you selected Garrett Whitlock, and Tanner Howk goes, so Whitlock and Tanner Howluck go back to back. You don't necessarily know what their role is going to be,

but in this format where, I think that these players gain a little bit more value, Chris, because they're kind of like swing man, reliever, starter guys. And I think regardless of what their role is, they should be pretty good when they're on the mound. So you just kind of plug them in and see what happens.

Yeah, and you can get three, four strikeouts at a time from guys like that. If they're going to be multi-inning relievers, you know, who pitch, I think it's not out of the question that you could have a week where Garrett Whitlock pitches three times, gives you six innings and eight strikeouts. And all of a sudden, you've got that in addition to whatever you've got from your starters. Mm-hmm. Oh, right.

I am back up on the clock. I have a few ideas of what I would like to do. I'm scrolling down seeing if there are any closer eligible players left or any type of relievers that I want to target. One of my picks is going to be Aaron Ashby, who was in the news on Monday, because he is going to be stretched out

as a starting pitcher. Okay, something is happening with my screen here. Scott, if you could select Aaron Ashby for me, that would... No, not just you. All right. See if I could get this thing. See if I can get this going again.

Okay, so we've hit a wall. I went to refresh the draft, and for those watching along here, you could see this up on your screen, but I'll take that out of there for now until we figure this out. I was going to select Aaron Ashby. He was in the news because he will be stretched out

as a starting pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers, and people smarter than me, prospect people, are very excited about Aaron Ashby's. A left-hander, throws hard, has a wicked slider. Don't know too much about a third pitch for him, but I do like the potential.

And whether he's a starter or not, like we were just saying about Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Howlke, you throw these guys in your lineup in this format and see what they could do. All right, I think we're back up here. And just to clarify, you say he's being stretched out to start, you mean

stretched out to compete for a rotation spot is Aaron Ashby, which means he'd have to overcome, I guess, Eric Lauer, which, you know, that's not a that's not that big of a lift, but Eric Lauer did finish the season strong, so I would imagine he has the leg up in that competition. Right. Yeah, no, that's fair. I mean, Adrian Hauser's in the rotation as well, you know, might be a little bit more cemented in that role, but, you know.

But it may just be a matter of time before Ashby gets a spot. Somebody gets hurt, whatever. Right. I don't think it's long to draft him. I just wanted to click. Like, if Ashby had a guaranteed rotation spot, he might be, you know, the 60th pitch. You are on the clock. Whoa.

He's a, he's, he only threw 95 innings last season, but he did throw 126 in 2019 in 24 starts. So, you know, there is, um, there's precedent for. him being used as a starter. So it's not necessarily like he's a guy that they can't really use as a starting pitcher or someone whose innings are going to have to be severely limited. I wouldn't guess he's probably not going to, you know, if he played and stayed in the rotation the whole time, you probably wouldn't throw 180 innings. But, you know, it's not out of the question.

I think Ashby could throw 160. And we've seen the Brewers, you know, get that out of Freddie Peralta. His minor league numbers are just okay. A lot of strikeouts, but 375 ERA. There was a deal. There was a gills jump last year, throwing harder and I believe. Control was still bad, though. The slider became a really a wipeout pitch for him.

But even then, 441 ERA, it's, you know, AAA, but it's not the PCL. So Nashville is not necessarily, you know, we're not talking about Salt Lake City or Albuquerque there. The PCL doesn't exist anymore, Chris. Yeah, it's the AAA West now. That's what it is. Nashville was in the PCL, I think. Could be wrong about that. Anyway.

That'd be an awful long flight. But yeah, it's, you know, I think it matters more in a head-to-head points league than a head-to-head categories that he might be starting because he's, your ratios don't matter quite as much, and he could be a really bad-whipped guy based on his minor league career, but it's interesting nonetheless. You're always looking for upside pitchers.

Yeah, especially. I'd pick 240. And to start round 21, I selected A. Eugenio Suarez, so likely to be on my bench. But between him and Matt Chapman, hopefully one of those guys works out. And I have a decent,

at least a decent third baseman here. After A. Eugenio Suarez, R.J. selects Cabor Ruiz. Oh, man, it's just great value. Pick 242 overall. And then Andrew Benintendi, Miguel Seno, Kyle Lewis,

Chris selected, Hermann Marquez, We see Glaber Torres, Jordan Hicks, Eduardo Escobar, and Ian Kennedy selected. Ian Kennedy signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks, and assuming something doesn't happen to Mark Melanson, I don't think that Ian Kennedy will earn any saves this season. Well, you know, maybe. Maybe Melanson needs a day off here or there, but yeah, maybe just drafting Kennedy for ratios at this point and some strikeouts. Scotty, you select Frankie two hits.

Frankie two hits Yeah And a league that rewards That offers no rewards for walks Or on base percentage I'm happy to take Frank Schwindell Like this Don't envision him hitting 326 again

I think his batting average With the Cubs was even higher In the 340s Because he had like an awful stretch With the A's earlier in the year But he was He was a guy who'd hit for batting average consistently in the minors

And I think I've called, I've said Schwendell, I think, has the potential to be like a more powerful Yuleiguriel. Obviously, he has complete bottom out potential too as a guy who got his first shot in the majors at age 29 last year. But that's, that's the hope for him, like a more powerful Yulee Guriel. All righty. After Frank Schwendell, Tyler Stevenson goes at pick 252.

Say what you want about Tyler Stevenson, but man, that is, that is late. is the latest that I have seen him go in a draft this off season. And then John Gray, to kick off round 22. I like John Gray as a sleeper candidate. Finally, out of Corse Field. He is on the Texas Rangers. They paid him a good amount of money, so hopefully we can see the best version of John Gray

that we've seen yet. Scott, you are back up. Yes, I am. Yes, I am. It's between two players here. I'm going to take this one. I'm going to take I'm going to do this.

Do I want to do this? Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. I'm going to take Connor Joe. Yeah. Nice pick. Yeah, I almost took Nicki Lopez instead.

I'm sorry, but I came out so firmly against the Miles Straw pick. Granted, that was like, what, four rounds ago? Yeah, something like that. But I, you know, I already have so many middle infielders, too. It's like, yeah.

Anyway, Conor Joe. I don't have as many outfielders. I like his upside. Hopefully, he's the lead-off man for Colorado. And that would be, I think there's serious upside there if he is. Scott, do you plan to just play Conor Joe when he's at home in this format?

Sure. It's a daily lineup. I mean, he's on my bench, so I don't plan to play him that much at all. But, yeah, as a substitute, too when somebody else has a day off if he's in Colorado. Sure. All right. After Connor Joe,

we see Isaiah Kiner Folefa. So if you do need some steals late in your draft, I'm not sure that he'll offer you much else. But, you know, starting shortstop for the Yankees, a little bit of speed. After that.

I wouldn't be surprised. I said it on yesterday's show, but I wouldn't be shocked if we saw like a little leap in his production with Yankee Stadium as, kind of as home for Conorffalefa. All righty. Yeah, he was playing in Global Life Field

last year. We're still gathering data on that ballpark. It's fairly new, but it seems like to this point, it's played neutral, favoring pitchers. So a nice,

nice little park shift for ICF moving into Yankee Stadium. After he went, we see Harrison Bader, Mike Zanino, Michael Brantley, Chris selects Luis Pettino, who he recently talked up

as a sleeper on our sleeper's podcast. And then Mike Ustremski. It's very late for Mikey Shremski. You know, one year ago, we were kind of excited about Yaz. And now he's going... He was a top 100 pick or not far off

this time last year, right? Yeah. He was like 120-ish, something like that. I think we were just wrong about Yaz. And myself, being one of the most wrong about him. He is... He is someone that I think could benefit here, Scott.

I mean, he was better two years ago against lefties than it wasn't good last year against them. So, you know, maybe he puts in. By the end last year, he wasn't even playing against lefties. Right. So I don't. And you can work with that a little more in a daily league, obviously, but you have to work, you know. Yeah, yeah. I hear you.

All right. I am on the clock. And, hmm. I will take Jesus Sanchez with one of my picks Someone prospecting their organization Who has tons of power Like getting him this late

And I also want to take another Kind of reliever type picture Let's see who I could find Oof It's kind of messy At this point All right, I don't think I'm going to be able to find anybody quick enough.

So I will just select Jose Miranda. I saw the name pop up there and I was like, you know what? That seems pretty fun. So a prospect with the Minnesota Twins who was fantastic last year and maybe earns more playing time

now that Josh Donaldson is out of the mix. I like it. Thanks. Thank you, Scott. I have thought of it. Two prospects there, prospect-ish type players. Hazu Sanchez, Jose Miranda.

All right, we're off in round 23. I think this might be the last round. Yes, it is. And then we'll quickly wrap up our teams. We'll get out of here. But what else has happened? I selected Jose Miranda, Bobby Dalbeck, Colton Wong. You know, I love me some Colton Wong.

15 homers, 15 steals, rock solid. Frank loves him some Colbyck. Colton Wong. And then I wanted to see where you went with the next line, Chris. But now, I can't think of anything on the spot. After Colton Wong goes, Christian Javier, another one of these swing man types. If Lance McCullors is not ready, he could be in the rotation to start the season. And then Kyle Seeger.

Hmm. I guess with the idea that he may come out of retirement? Yeah. Yeah. I saw some whispers. There's some rather jockey commentary about that on Twitter and joining his brother to play in Texas where they just traded away their third basement

after already losing their third basement of the future. Oh, all right. But I don't think, look, maybe I'm, what do I know, right? But I mean, look, you're probably going to cut your 23rd round pick. Yeah. Yeah. I don't expect that to happen. All righty.

After Kyle Seeger. Ah, Chris! That's who I should have took. You know, I've only been talking him up, right? Chris selects Art Warren, so nice pick there. Lots of strikeouts last year. I think a 19% swinging strike rate. Guy has a nasty slider.

Something like 27 career saves in the minors as well. So he has worked in that role in the past. Some uncertainty with Lucas Sims, so I like that pick. And then Omar Nervaez. Ramon Luriano, Gavin Sheets, with the two utility spots in this format. That's a solid pick. Garrett Hampson, and Scott, you're up for your last pick, sir.

Yeah, so one kind of underrated aspect or underappreciated, I don't know what the right word is. Julio Rodriguez with that Jesse Winker trade, it's, there's not an obvious path for him to join the lineup ASAP anymore. But I'm going to take him anyway. I'm going to take him anyway and the hope he arrives sooner than later. Right now, the Mariners projected D.H. is Abraham Toro,

so he could easily be bumped from the lineup and maybe they get Winker in the D.H. spot. Hanager, him and Hanager trading off, something like that. I think there's still a chance Rodriguez could make the opening day roster and if it doesn't happen that soon. It may not be long after that. All right. And then Mr. Irrelevant

could actually be quite relevant. Matt Barnes. he could be the closer for the Red Sox. They haven't made any moves there. You know, they've talked about Garrett Whitlock, but Matt Barnes was really good in the first half of last season. Let's quickly run through our teams. Give some quick thoughts, and then we'll get out of here.

But Scotty, we'll start with your team. We'll work backwards here. You had the 11th overall pick. You've got Salvador Perez, Josh Bell, Jorge Polanco, Raphael Devers, Corey Seeger, and the infield. You've got Mike Trout, Catele-Marte, Kyle Schwerver, in the outfield, Hunter Renfro and Brendan Rogers as your two utility bets. At starting pitcher, you've got Udarvish and Robbie Ray.

A couple of closers here. You've got Andrew Kittredge, Camillo Doval, you've got Ken Giles, you got Joe Barlow, a couple of other pitchers. You've got Blake Snell, Tyler Malley, Zach Ranky, Anthony Descoffani, and some bench hitters, Connor Joe, Frank Schwindell, and Julio Rodriguez. What do you think of the team? I love the lineup. It's my favorite lineup.

I think I've built in a mock or real draft yet. Obviously, I'm not giving myself a chance of competing in stolen bases, but I think in this format where you need, you're going week to week with them. I just feel like that's too much of a crapshoot for me to invest the draft capital in it. I'd just really, I'd prefer to really dominate in power. And I should do well in batting average with this lineup too. but power, I think, is going to be the most predictable

and it has an effect on every other offensive category but stolen bases, especially when you're reducing it to week-long samples. So I love my offense. The pitching, you know, I think I sacrificed some pitching to get that offense, but I do have a lot of upside with strikeouts, which I think is one of the hardest categories to backfill off the waiver wire.

and I have four viable closer candidates here, I feel like, so I should at least at the start of the year before these guys lose their jobs. They should be competing for saves. I think it's definitely workable, the pitching staff, especially given the scoring format. So overall, I'm pretty happy with it. Scott, the range of outcomes on your top three starting pitchers

is just, it's so wide, right? Robbie Ray, you Darvish, Blake Snell. I mean, that could range from top five in Siong voting to you drop up. them because they're just not performing well. Right. But no matter which way it goes, they will have a lot of strikeouts. That is definitely fair. Chris,

you are up, and let's take a look at your team. You were drafting sixth overall. You've got Will Smith at Catcher, then Alex Kirillov, Brandon Lowe, Luis Arias, and Boba Chet in your infield, Christian Yelich, Byron Buxton, Aaron Judge in the outfield, Nelson Cruz and

O'Neill Cruz. Oh, going with a double cruise at UFILITY. I've got the cry. Nice. That's good. I like that. At starting picture, you've got Max Scher, Kevin Gosman, Eduardo Rodriguez, you've got Carlos Carrasco, Tristan McKenzie, Hermann Marquez, Luis Patino, maybe Garrett Whitlock, and then your relievers, you have Emmanuel Class A, Giovanni Gallegos, Devin Williams, who you'll leave in there to get some ratios and strikeouts, Art Warren who could work his way into the lineup with ratios and strikeouts as well.

You've also got AJ Pollock as a hitter on your bench. What do you think about this team? It kind of feels like I'm missing a pick. I don't know if that makes sense, but it feels like as I was going through this team and looking at it, it feels like, man, there should be like a third round pick here somewhere. So that's not a great sign. Who was your third round pick? It would have been Aaron Judge.

Right. I believe. Okay. Who's, like, I think he's good. He's a very, he's a very fine third round pick,

honestly. I rank him there. You dropped to the pitcher in one of the first three rounds. Is that it? Yeah, was Max Scher and Judge. Is that,

is that why you feel like you're missing a third round pick? I'm just, yeah, I think it's honestly, it's just, I know he's going to perform like a first rounder probably,

but Boba Shett doesn't quite feel like it to me. Like having the sixth overall pick and picking Boba Shet first, like, And it's not like there's anybody I would have taken instead. It's just kind of highlights that I think there's a drop off there. That, you know, that's the one where it feels like, ah, it feels like a, you know, like a late first, even though I was sixth overall. So I think that probably where I feel like I'm missing something.

But, you know, overall, I think the offense is solid all around. It's got a lot of potential, but not as many sure things as I necessarily want. and the sure things are of the Nelson Cruz, Aaron Judge Byron Buxton variety, so not exactly sure things for a couple of different reasons. But I'm happy with the pitching staff. You know, Shurs are in Gosman as anchors. I've got a lot of starters who I, you know,

like the potential of. I've got a lot of good relievers. So, you know, it's the kind of approach in this format that I think can work. You know, I've got a lot of flexibility at pitcher, especially because I only have one bench hitter. and I think that's probably the way you want to approach the head-to-head categories for me. I think you probably want more pitchers on your bench, especially in the daily format,

because you know, you want to be able to mix and mask those relievers when your starters aren't out there. So that's the approach I went with. I think it's fine. All right. I will... Not the best team I've drafted. Pull up my team. I was drafting first overall.

And I've got J.T. Realumuto. I've got C.J. Cron. Jazz Chisholm, Matt Chapman, Tim Anderson in the infield, then Eloy Jimenez, Yerdon Alvarez, Lordes Gariel in the outfield, Eddie Rosario and Shohei Otani as my utility bats. Then at starting pitcher, I've got Brandon Woodruff, Max Freed, Logan Gilbert, Pablo Lopez, Alex Cobb, Alex Wood, potentially Aaron Ashby as well. At closer, I've got Ryan Presley, I've got Mark Malansey, maybe David Bednar, nobody else.

Only three closers. All right, I usually like to wind up with more closer candidates than that. So that's probably something I would have liked to do better. A few hitters on the bench, I've got E. E. E. E. E. Hesio-Sanchez and Twins prospect, Jose Miranda.

I, hmm, I like my offense. I don't love it. Jazz Chishol is someone I don't really draft all that often. your offense is like you have so many you have like a couple of really high batting average guys and then a lot of like batting average liabilities including your first rounder otani yeah i mean he could could hit like 250 260 so you know frank you going through your lineup i think made me realize what i didn't love about my team what was that that missing pick i think is the catcher

right i have will smith you have jt romuto with the fur with the fifth overall or the fifth round picks and like they're not it's not that they're bad there it's not that they're bad values or bad hitters but you're sacrifice yeah yeah it feels like when you look at your overall team it just feels like something's missing and you have i guess you either have to remind yourself that you have that edge at catcher or you know at least for me this may be the the way i'm looking at least in this format with such a shallow uh starting lineup maybe I don't love the idea of making, you know, the catchers, except for Salvador Perez, you know, a focal point because it's not clear

they'll give you enough of an advantage in the categories format. And points, you know, I think it becomes a little more clear because they're counting, their numbers should be a lot better than everyone else's. But in this format, it definitely feels like I'm missing a hitter. No, it's a really good point that you bring up. It's, you know, when you can get Mitch Garver at pick 184 versus, you know, Will Smith in the middle of the fifth or J.C. Romuto with the first pick of the fifth round. It's, you know, just weighing those two. And, you know, maybe instead of having Matt Chapman as my starting third baseman, I could have selected a Nolan Aronado there or a...

I don't know that Chris loves that. Yeah. Well, but, you know, but the, the, like, if I had Marcus, if Marcus Simeon had had slip one spot and I had him instead of Will Smith and I had, you know, Marcus Simeon and whoever at catcher, I probably like that a little more. more. Yeah, I agree with that that as emphatic as I am about drafting Salvador Perez this year, part of the reason is because generally I'm not about it at catcher. So I'm not about it so much with Will Smith or J.T. Rio Muto. I'd have to get them at a clear value. Yeah, I think Smith, and I pushed for Smith like 17 picks above where I haven't ranked, I think. So it was, you know, I mentioned at the time that I was just trying to see what it looked. like, turns out I don't love it. Yeah, I don't either.

So I had the option to take Marcus Semyon, and maybe that was the answer, because, you know, I would have had a better second baseman than Jazz Chisholm, and, you know, could have just drafted one of those catchers that went really late. And Caber Ruiz and Tyler Stevenson, these guys all lasted pretty late. The pitching, I like the pitching. I don't love it. I think it's fine. You know, I've got two anchors.

Remember Shohei Otani's part of it. That's your point, Scottie. Yeah. So it makes it look even a little bit better. Yeah, so lengthen out the depth there at starting pitcher. Got the two anchors, play some matchups with the Giants guys. So I think the pitching is actually better than the lineup. But yeah, catcher is tough to take early in a head-to-head categories.

I think that's one of our main takeaways here today. All right, we're going to wrap up for Scott Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching this Mottraft edition of Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.