Fantasy Baseball Today - Live H2H Categories Mock Draft Part 2! Rounds 12-23 Picks & Team Recaps (3/13 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 13, 2024

Let's continue on with the back half of our live H2H categories mock draft. We run through rounds 12-23 picks, strategy and recap each of our teams at the end. Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  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

Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Welcome back into Fantasy Baseball today, part two, our two of our 12 team live head-to-head categories, Mott draft. We are into round 12, where the first three picks were Jake Berger, U. Darvish, and Eloy Jimenez. So perhaps the effect of those two utility spots, but we have seen all of Otani. Maybe not Ozuna. This is probably the right spot for Ozuna, but O'Otani, Buxton, and Eloy going earlier than we normally see.

Yeah, it's an interesting move from George Kurtz, who already had one of his utility spots filled. So now he's got none of the flexibility that comes with that extra utility spot here, because he does have Jose Ramirez at third, drafted Max Muncie for utility one, and added I, himena.

So I think it makes sense to push up those util only players, but doing so when you don't have that, when you're losing the flexibility, it's a little tougher to swallow. I think. I didn't realize I was on the clock. Wow.

Scott, rookie move. You got to stick with Josh Nailer, man. No. Ah, come on. I am taking Pete Fairbanks. How dare you?

Let's take a look at Scott's team and see what's going on here. But Pete Fairbanks, your second reliever so far. You've got Matt Olson, Matt McLean, all the mats. Royce Lewis,

Hassan Kim, Fernando Tatis, Evan Carter, Andres Jimenez. Lots of speed on that team, it looks like. Your pitchers, Pablo,

Yomobu Yamamoto. Chris Bassett, Josh Hader, and P. Fairbanks. So three starters, two relievers, and a decent amount of offense so far. Yeah, I could use some more power. I'm going to have to dedicate my last outfield spot and probably my second utility spot to that, I would say. I am on the clock. The latest pick was Jordan Walker.

Just before that was Josh Young. Top of my... Great value for Josh, y'all. Top of my rankings are all catchers and closers. I already have a catcher, so not going to do that. Yeah, well, I haven't filled shortstop yet. I'll just continue on the theme of building out a roto team in a head-to-head categories lineup.

I have a lot of do a little bit of everything, but not awesome at anything type of players. I don't know. I mean, I guess if you have enough of those guys, it could still work out in a head-to-head categories league, but yeah, I don't have any, like, extreme power standouts or extreme speed standouts. It's just a lot of solid players so far.

After I took Danesby-Swanson, Wilson Guitreras, and Hunter Green. Poor Chris. I was going to take Hunter Green. So who were you? He sounded, I couldn't tell from that noise that came out of your mouth, Frank, whether you were sympathizing with Chris or celebrating that you upset him. I will leave it open-ended. It's kind of like the Sopranos.

Oh! How do you interpret that noise exactly? Yeah, normally, I think in most episodes, it's like you did something wrong. Like, oh, what are you doing? Kind of thing. I don't love it. I don't love it. Uh-oh.

Chris, on the clock with 15 seconds. Jose Alvarado is the pick. See, the perfect response from both of you there would have been, Oh, but you missed your opportunity. Only if we were professional broadcasters or something. That would have been great. After Alvarado, Clay Holmes, and we are up to the last pick of round 12. It was Riley Green.

I kind of feel like some of the people picking right after you. Yeah, there's a little bit of that. They're trying to. They're looking to torment you, Chris. A little bit, a little bit. It's fine. The Buxton pick earlier. It's fine.

But the thing is, that you think you have to keep in mind, I never have a plan. so it's not like I was you know like that's fine I'm fine it's fine that sounds like rationalization are there any

pitchers left for you to take Chris healthy pitchers actually yeah there are some yeah there's some there's plenty yeah there's pitchers good pictures that's a different they're all gloppy pitchers I'll tell you that much there are lots of

there are lots of interesting injury stash pitchers, I think, still available. Well, one of them might have just went. Gavin Williams, who were waiting to learn more on. Yeah, so I kind of got screwed up. I don't know if we talked about this yesterday, my Kodi-Sanga Gavin Williams combo in the FSGA draft last night. But I was doing a radio hit.

That's what happens when you do these expert leagues. They'll call you for the Sirius XM radio show in the middle the draft and you're talking, you're chatting with Steve Phillips and those guys. And then you've got your cue set up and maybe your cue isn't as well set up as it should have been before you got called up. And you draft Gavin Williams and Kodiysanga and consecutive picks at the turn. And then you realize immediately after you get off the phone, oh no, they're both hurt. And so that wasn't great. I think it sounds like, like Gavin Williams is just a day-to-day injury. You know, there are still day-to-day injury.

Sure, yes. That is the most common kind of injury. And it was like my 15th and 16th round picks in a 14-team league. So I'm fine with both of them in theory. I'm probably not fine with both of them, especially in a draft where I kind of waited at starting pitcher because then I had to really hammer starting pitcher for like eight picks in a row. I wrote about it on the site. I kind of did a round through, round walkthrough on CBSports.com and in the newsletter. So if you don't want to check that out,

you can get my thoughts there. All right. Well, should I make the smart pick? No. Or make the sexy pick? Never make the smart pick. Do I draft with my brain? Never draft with your brain.

Draft with my heart. Draft with your nethers. Don't finish that. Don't finish that sentence. I'm going to, I'm going to take the sexy pick. So,

So I needed another position more, but I wound up taking Christian and Cardassio and Strand. Josh Naylor was still available. I think I have a good amount of batting average already. I have Freddie Freeman on my team. I have Raphael Devers on my team. I think this team needed a little bit more punch, more power.

And Christian and Cardassion Strand at 150. I actually moved him up inside of my top 150. I think closer to 140. And with the news that Noel V. Marté is suspended for the first 80 games of the year, I think that frees things up a little bit more for all of the Reds players and I think it makes it more likely

that Encarnacian Strand is an everyday player and can reach that 30 home run upside we think he has. I've got him as my 130th player Roto, so I think that's a good value. Yeah, go me. After Code Isenga... Way to go.

Tommy Edmund went 148th overall who is still dealing with that surgically repaired right wrist apparently it's more inflammation than structural, but sounding likely that he will start the season on the IL. I added him to bus 2.0. I'm starting to get worried that it might be a lost season. And I don't know if you guys saw Victor Scott.

I think it was today. Reach base four times. Bunt hit two RBI or two line drives up the middle. Just put him on the roster, man. Alec Berlison and Brendan, get out of here with that. Gill and Carlson is going to have a big year. Oh, okay. Yeah, just put Victor Scott on the roster.

I was going to say, no Alec Berluson slander around here. Scott loves him some Burleson. I know. Burleson also hit a home run, by the way, on Tuesday. Oh, that doesn't even count. It was spring training. It only counts if it's a player I'm excited about. Victor Scott, by the way, as you mentioned,

three for three with his fourth steal on Tuesday. He's now batting 370 with a 469 OBP this spring. Doesn't have the most experience in the upper-mic. so far, but he's 23 years old, and he was out in the Arizona Fall League. So got a little bit extra experience out there. I think if the Cardinals wanted him on the roster, they could certainly make that move, but we will wait to find out if that is the case. After I took Encarnacio and Stran, Josh Naylor went one pick later.

Mitch Keller, Craig Kimball to Scott and Brandon Nimmo. Scott, would you have taken Mitch Keller if he was there? Yes. And, all right. Sniped. First question answered. third closer in the top 13 rounds that's interesting

I think this is the format to do it you're going to win saves almost every week if you have three legit closers and I seem like I get why people don't like Kimberl he's had it always feels like he's teetering on the edge of disaster

but like the Orioles signed him with the explicitly to close like they made it clear he's going to be our fill in for Felix Batista, he's our closer. And if you look at the numbers the last three years for Kimbril, one of the last three years, it was kind of a down year, but two of them were great. And the overall stat line for that three year period for Kimbril, 310 ERA, a 109 whip, 12.7K per 9. I mean,

that's, that's an elite closer, right? It's kind of like Kenley Jansen, where these guys were so good early in their careers. And then we did that thing we always do, where as soon as they showed like a slight sign of decline. We were like, let's get the next guy up for saves. We don't care about these guys anymore. But like both Kenley Jansen and Craig Kimbril are still good pitchers. They're not the best closers in baseball anymore, but they both get the job done. They're reliable enough to close.

And when there aren't obvious threats to the role, like this is the most locked in to the closer role, Kimbril's been in a few years. And, you know, he's managed to be a good fantasy asset even when he wasn't the for sure closer. He found his way into that role. So now that he's locked into it, I think he's going to be a great starting option and tends to go later than he should.

All right. Catch people up on some picks. After Brandon Nimmo went 154th. We saw T.J. Friedel and Jose Berrios to finish out round 13. Into round 14, Ryan Pepio, Jose LeClerc, Anthony Rizzo. Scott, you are up. Let's pull up your team, see what the needs might be. You don't have a catcher.

I assume you're not going to take one of those. A third outfielder, a utility, maybe another starting pitcher. What do you think? Yeah, I think I need to stop messing around with power. And which one am I going to take? I'm going to take Soler. I like, Jorge Soler. Yeah.

You know, sign with the Giants this offseason. It's just a matter of, well, it's not just a matter of staying healthy. He has had some down seasons in previous years. I think, and maybe I'm just making excuses for Salar, because I do like him a lot. A very visually appealing swing. But I think the down years that he's had, it's when he's been trying to play through injury a lot of the time. So Saler was healthy last year. He looked great.

He had 30 plus home runs. And if he manages to play at least 130 games, I would guess he's going to hit another 30 home run. this season. It's just a question. It's not just a question. There are a lot of questions with Jorge Salair, right? I did the same thing you did.

It's only this thing. No, it's a lot of things with Jorge Saler. But one of the things is, okay, if he's playing 130 games, maybe he gives you a 30 plus homers. Be the first giant hitter in a long time to do that, by the way. I think since Barry Bond.

I think that's right. I don't think that's an exaggeration. I don't think they've had a 30 homer hitters and a lot of it's personnel reasons. Like, they haven't really built their team around Stangers. I think Soler absolutely could do it at that park. Brandon Bell would have done it if he played in any other park in baseball. But if he plays only 130 games,

is he going to give you the RBI production of a 30 Homer guy? And I'm not sure about that. Thinking about it more, maybe I should have gone Anthony Santander instead, given the lineup context. But I'm obviously locked into Soler now. I think the upside is higher for Soler. Yes.

Santander is the higher floor play. So especially if you play, in a deeper league with five outfielders. Santander, he's out there. He plays every day. He's going to hit you his 25 to 30 homers. Counting stats should be fine. And he'll give you a 250 batting average.

Part of the reason I was saying I don't feel like I can mess around with power anymore is because all those utility only guys have already gone. I guess except J.D. Martinez, who apparently is in contact with the Mets again. Yep. Maybe I'll add him to my cue. But Elo Jimenez isn't there anymore and Byron Bucston isn't. So less power at this stage of the draft than there would otherwise be.

After Scott to Cori Solaire back-to-back closers, Kenley Jansen, who's expected to make his spring debut on Friday. That one was a steal. Yep. And then Adbert Alzelye, who we think is the Cubs closer. They did sign Hector Naris this offseason. I took Tyro Estrada, and things are looking up, guys. I was tilting earlier because of the Will Smith pick.

He kind of messed up my middle infielder's, but I wound up with Estrada as my second baseman, and Swanson at shortstop. And it doesn't blow you away, but I think it's fine. After I took a shot. The guy who picked Kenley Janssen's last name is heist. Oh, by the way, that is why it was a steal. Good point.

Very good point. Also, I absolutely would have taken Kenley Jansen there if he had gotten back to me because I wanted to say, Scott said he's going to win saves every week with his three closers. And I was go, bam, four closers. You're not winning at least two weeks. But I can't do that now. You cannot. After I took Estrada, Jordan Montgomery,

164th overall. I lowered him in the rankings as well. I moved him down to, well, maybe not down enough. I moved him down to 148. I see you have him at 181, Chris. Chris, did you forget you were on the clock? Yes.

Sorry. Do you need to redo that? If you don't mind. I think you should redo it, yeah. Okay. All right. All right, so Jordan Montgomery goes at 164, Sunny Gray, and then Key Brian Hayes to Chris.

Hayes is another name having a big spring, and last year made some adjustments over the final couple of months where he started lifting the ball more, pulling the ball more. That's all we've ever said about Key Brian Hayes is he's got the talent, he hits the ball hard, if he starts to get it in the air to his pull side,

we could finally get that. 20 plus homers, 15 Steve. deals, whatever it might be. Three homers and 23 plate appearances, zero strikeouts for Brian Hayes so far. Let's go. Anthony Santander, the next pick. They are listening.

They are listening. We are up to the final pick of round 14. Thanks to everyone for hanging out. We've got over 400 people here watching us live. Like this video, subscribe to the channel. If you haven't already, we do appreciate it. And here we are. We're almost up into round 15.

and we are officially there. Brian Wu, the final pick of round 14. And let's check back in on Chris's team. See what we've got. I know you waited a while to take your first starting pitcher and it wound up being Joe Ryan. Nice. Maybe.

You're hitting, you've got William Contraris, Vladimir Torres, Klaver Torres, Kibrian Hayes, Francisco Lindor, Jazz Chisham, Adoles Garcia, Julio Rodriguez, and C.J. Abrams. You're pitching. Joe Ryan.

Kodai Senga. Ryan Helsley. Yohan Duran. Jose Alvarado. Yeah. One healthy starting pitcher. One healthy starting pitcher. I lied to you earlier, Frank.

I'm sorry. I don't like lying. But yes, I am going with not the Marmoul strategy. I'm going with a mostly closer focused approach. And then I'm going to, you know, try to get some values at starting pitcher. but offense is really, really, really good. As it should be, I spend a ton of my draft capital on the offense. And I think you can piece of us pitching staff together here better than you can in any other format.

And Jara Fenton just took Shota Imanaga, who I was hoping to get back and I should have left that pick. Yeah. Stand when it got autoed. I was kind of hoping he would somehow make it back to me. He definitely wasn't going to make it back to you. That's right. I think I kind of ignored starting pitching for a while too because I only have four starters. I have Zach Eflin, Bailey Ober, Dylan sees, Freddie Peralta,

which is, I don't know, maybe it could work. I also have Edwin D.S., so only one closer. Yeah, probably ignored pitching for way too long. And Chris, you took Bryce Miller. The next pick was Jamer Candelario. I know, I believe Bryce Miller racked up a bunch of strikeouts here on Tuesday. What have you seen or read about Bryce Miller this spring? I know he's been working on a lot of things.

Yeah, I don't think we've seen anything in front of the stack cast cameras, unfortunately. So we haven't gotten much data on the new splitter. Anecdotally, visually, it looks pretty good from what I've seen. But yeah, he's got 11 strikeouts and eight innings. He's got three walks in those eight innings. So the command hasn't been quite as good, very small sample size. And he's allowed a couple of home runs. I think there's upside with Bryce Miller.

I think the, you know, we're kind of at a point in the draft where my downside concerns don't bother me as much with a guy like Bryce Miller. And the Mariners have, I think, earned the benefit of the doubt with their pitching development, not just for guys coming into the Oregon or coming up to the majors, but for the changes that those guys have made once they've gotten to the majors. You look at Gilbert adding a really good splitter at the Major League level, George Kirby doing the same thing. So the hope with Bryce Miller and Scott is having a complete meltdown while I'm talking. The hope with Bryce Miller is one, that the splitter gives him an extra swing and miss pitch. He doesn't have to be quite so reliant on the fastball. And two, his release point on his sweeper was really messed up last season.

I think he lowered his arm slot like four inches when he threw his sweeper and batters just didn't swing at it. So I'm hoping that he was able to put some work in to fix those things. After Bryce Miller, Candelario, Starling Marte, I took Nick Povetta to continue with the theme of just get a lot of strikeouts. I'll probably try and balance him with another whip pitcher later on. Again, that's just somehow been the theme of the pitching staff today. After that, Christopher Morel, Christian Javier, and we get to Scott, who was very disgusted by... Just growing stuff.

At least one of those picks. Yeah. A few of those picks. A few of those picks. So I realized after taking Jorge Salere that Christopher Morel was still out there, and I just have him too far down my rankings. I need to move him up. And then he goes two picks before me to RJ White, no relation.

And the two picks I actually had queued up since I had already taken Jorge Saler were both pitchers. Christian Javier and Nick Povetta. So the three picks before mine were the players I wanted. after what was it two rounds ago, the two picks before mine, you guys, Jeremy Heist and RJ White in particular, but you too, Frank.

Yeah. Take that, Scott. I don't like you very much right now. So I take Reese Hoskins instead to fill my second utility spot a little more power to help with what I think is the weakest area in my starting lineup.

I haven't paid a lot of attention to batting average, but I don't think I have huge liabilities there. Hoskins is probably the biggest, liability there, in fact. So, yeah, I feel pretty good about my offense. I have not drafted Reese Hoskins yet this season, I think. And I always end up being like one round too late to get him. And I want to change that.

I want, I want Reese Hoskins on some teams this season. Remember, 2022, his ADP was 124. 2021, his ADP was 160. Now he goes, I mean, 180-ish is. pretty early for Reese Hoskins at this point. So I think you just got 30 home runs and 100 RBI. So that was a great pick. Thank you.

After Hoskins, Salvador Perez, the aforementioned Victor Scott. I don't know that I've ever seen him drafted in any of our mocks, but here he is, 179th overall. Chas McCormick and then into round 16, Sean Murphy. And I knew eventually there would be some great catcher values in a one-catcher league.

And I think we're starting this. see some of it. Sean Murphy in the 16th round. That sounds pretty awesome. Doc is back on the clock. Yeah, and Frank, or Frank, did you take Victor Scott and TGFBI? I

think I did as... That's a 15-team 29 round draft, so... Either my last or second and last pick. Part of the reason why I took him was that draft was a little bit earlier and my hope was, all right, let's Let's just take some upside shots on the bench.

If he doesn't make the roster, I'll just drop him before the first waiver runs. So I'm rude for him. And the thing about that, we talked about this, I think, in a recent podcast. But then FBC leagues have a rule where you can't pick up a player until they've made their major league debut unless you draft them. Yes. So now that I have drafted Victor Scott, if he does not make the Cardinals opening day roster, I can drop him. he will be in the player pool forever

because he was drafted and then dropped in the NFBC. So that's just a weird kind of quirk rule with that specific format. After Sean Murphy, Alex Lang, Marcus Stroman, Scott, you are back up. And I hope you didn't get snipped again. I did not. No, the other end of me,

the other side of me, George Kurtz, Doc Eisenhower, Sean Millerick, they don't. They don't concern me. They're not on my level. Take a shot. Gosh. Wow. They're not taking the players I want anyway.

No, I'm going to do something a little out of character, too. I'm actually not going to wait until the- Big Dumber. Yeah, I'm actually not going to wait until the very last round to take my catcher because I am trying to achieve this balance in the categories. And I really don't want to leave myself weak in the power categories. I'm going to use my catcher spot to make sure I meet that too. You know, obviously there's a chance Mitch Garver,

Francisco Alvarez could also meet that need. and maybe I would have had a shout at one of them on the way back. But I think Cal Raleigh most safely meets that need. And so given that there wasn't another obvious choice for me here, as well as I'm doing in saves and don't need any other hitters and no pitcher is jumping out of me at this point. I'm going to go ahead and take Cal Raleigh and meet that categorical need. Chris, this next pick is for you, bud.

Oh, thank you. And it is Mason Miller for me because I do not have a second closer yet. But in this, and I don't know that Mason Miller will be the A's closer, but I think in head-to-head categories, you can take relievers even if they aren't closers and just plug them in your lineup all the time, and then you can just pick up strikeouts throughout the week and hopefully help with the ratios.

And my gosh, Mason Miller has looked so good this spring. Can he stay healthy? That remains to be seen, but man, he's pumping 100 miles per hour. He's striking everybody out. my guess is if the Oakland A's want to win games, which I don't know if they actually do, then Mason Miller will wind up getting some safe for them this year.

Well, you don't have to talk me into it because I was about to pick him. I'm sorry. But also I did dedicate the pick to you. I appreciate that. It was kind of cool. Maybe for your next gift, you can just give him to me.

Yeah, we can make, this is a trading league, right? Yeah. Yeah, we're not playing it out, so we can do whatever we want. After Cal Raleigh went, Nathan Avaldi, Hunter Brown, I took Mason Miller, Kyle Harrison, Francisco Alvarez.

I think great value. Again, the catchers at this point. It's just they're all good values. Chris, you took J.D. Martinez, and let's talk in hypotheticals. If he does wind up with the New York Mets, how do you think that would go overall for his value? I think he would have to be a top 150 pick. I think anywhere he signs. I'm not too worried about that just because J.Mortinas was so good last season.

Now, obviously, there are plenty of concerns about his age. I think he's 37, going into his 38, 37 season. His plate discipline took a big step backwards last year. He had to probably trade some plate discipline for quality of contact. Quality of contact was as good, arguably better than it's been since 2017, at least. 518 expected wobbon contact. So skill set is still very, very, very. strong for Jani Martinez.

All right. After you took J.D. Martinez, Ryan McMahon and Yuki Matsui to finish out round 16. Let's take a break when we return into round 17. We go right after this. Into round 17 we go and Brian Abraeu, Trevor's story. And Chris, you got me back because I was going to take Robert Suarez. So I had to queue up Suarez too. I was going to get that fourth closing. Frank, I will trade your Robert Suarez for Mason Miller right now. No deal. I think we, Scott, can you just process that one? We don't need to accept it or anything. For our mock draft, yeah, sure.

No, so the fact Yuki Matsui went ahead of Robert Suarez, I don't feel like that needs to be happening anymore. I understand it's a head-to-head categories league, and there's more incentive to take set-up men in that format, and the same guy who took Yuki Matsui also took Brian Abraeu, so he may just be doing it for ratio help. And look, there's still a chance Matsui ends up in the closer role eventually for the Padre.

but it does seem all but official that Robert Suarez is the closer for the Padres. AJ Casavell, the great beatwriter for the Padres MLB.com. He's the beat writer I talk about most. He's very good at his job. But he's made it pretty clear that Robert Suarez is the direction the Padres are planning to go for ninth inning duties. And I feel like it's kind of flown under the radar because I haven't seen his ADP move up as much as a result. After Suarez, Stephen Kwan, Eduardo Rodriguez. I took Lane Thomas.

This is a player I have not drafted at all this offseason. A hundred ninety-eighth overall. His ADP is usually around 130, 140, and... He went lower than I have him ranked, and I have him like 60 spots below ADP. Yeah, I never take him, but he could still be a 2020 guy, and he's running a lot this spring. Here he has five steals, so...

I mean, even in the second half, when he kind of collapsed back down to like a 720 OPS, which is what he had been before last season, he still had 14 home runs and 12 steals. So I do think the home runs and steals are going to be pretty good. It's just not a 10th round pick quality for me. But at this level, yeah, I think that's a great pick. After Lane Thomas, Kyle Bradish at 199th, then Christopher Sanchez and Scotty is jumping on the hype train, AJ Puck.

Well, I got snipped again by Jeremy Hyde. with Christopher Sanchez there. So, Nolan Gorman goes right after me. That was the other guy I was considering. It would have been for my bench, which is why I didn't do it. I was thinking about Gorman too.

Yeah. I'm always thinking about Gorman. Yeah, no, I mean, I think A.J. Puck's going to be really good. I don't know how long he'll last in the role for the Marlins, given all his years in relief and the fact he originally moved to the bullpen. Even though he was a top starting pitcher prospect, he moved to the bullpen because of health concerns. So he may not last long, but I think it'll be really good for the time he lasts, like over 10K per 9 good, particularly with some of the pitches he's added to his arsenal.

I know the splitters drawn rave reviews, another left-hander who may be throwing a splitter here. Now, Chris loves those. Yeah, Puck, I'm a believer. Yeah, I like it as well. And I moved him up a lot in the rankings. I might need to move him up even more if I want to actually get a shot at drafting him. after AJ puck Nolan Gorman

Nestor Cortez Carlos Estevez and Eric Fetty so Scott I hope you weren't I hope you weren't planning to double down

on pitcher because you might have been planning on Eric Fitty I was you know oh don't tell me you're backing off

Scott hates Eric Fetty I've always said it I don't know uh oh he's made only two spring stars I don't know. Did he go today? I don't think so.

He's made only two spring starts. Not a lot happening in the strikeout department in either of those starts. And I don't want to put a ton on that. But, you know, the enthusiasm is based on so little to begin with, right? That I just, I kind of want to see something really good from him this spring before I, before I elevate him too far. I'm not saying I wouldn't have taken him in this draft. If another round or two had gone by, I absolutely would have.

But I don't know. I'm hedging a little bit with that one, I must say. Okay. After Eric Fetty, D.L. Hall, Jonathan, India, I think D.L. Hall, not to the same extent as AJ Puck, but as someone who is gaining some steam and hopefully will be in the Brewer's rotation. Scott, you went ahead and took Nicola D.O. who made his first start of the spring just the other day,

and he threw two shutout innings. And I believe I've read he hit like 96 or 97 on the gun with the fastball. I think Nicola Dolo is really good. You know, last week I came out with my survey I do on social media every year, just kind of talking about asking people their favorite breakout player, different superlatives basically for the upcoming season. And I was looking back at last year's results. And Nicola Dolo was.

A breakout pitcher pick, everybody was most confident in the meeting number of responses at this time last year. And so now that he's gotten the all clear with the leg, I mean, the little we saw of him last year, he was striking out everybody. I know the overall results weren't that good, but I still think there's a ton of upside there for Lodolo. And I'm probably more enthusiastic about drafting him than Eric Fetty. So I did something wrong when I took Edwin Diaz that I would like to caution everyone. everybody else from doing in their head-to-categories or roto leagues, even for that matter, taking an elite closer and then ignoring the position for way too long because... There are no closers left, Frank.

There's nothing left. Yeah. I took Will Smith partially because I now have both Will Smiths, and that's pretty cool. Technically closer. But I... Think of all the Will Smith-inspired team names. Oh, wait. But I also do think that he will be the Royals closer to start the season.

How long will that last? that I'm not so sure about. I got Mason Miller, so I technically have Diaz, Miller, Will Smith combined. Maybe it's two closers. I don't know exactly with Smith and Miller. Miller, you'll still get a lot of strikeouts.

I think the ratios will be good. Smith could be the complete opposite. It could be bad ratios, but he'll get some saves. But yeah, I ignored that for way too long, and I would caution everyone else to not do that when taking an elite closer. after I took Will Smith, Brendan Donovan, Justin Turner, and Chris, you selected Reed Demers,

who I traded you in the Scott White Dynasty League. How about that? Yeah, don't tell Scott when we made that trade. I would never. We made it only when it was legal and didn't have any discussions about it prior to that. Yeah, no, if we're going to do the Nick Ladolo was everyone's favorite breakout last season thing, well, Red Detmer's was actually everyone's favorite breakout pitcher. He was just going so early that I don't think people were saying that about him the way they were Lodolo.

I have a lot of concerns about Reed Detmer's that I didn't have at this time last season. He didn't take the step forward that we hoped for, but it was a weird season because he was actually much better against right-handed batters than he was against left-handers. I want to pull the numbers up because they are stark and worth headlining. He had, Reid Detmer's, had a 694 OPS allowed against right-handed batters, which is actually very, very good for a left-handed pitcher. He had an 882 OPS allowed to left-handed batters. Reed Detmer's is a left-handed pitcher. Yeah.

Who throws 96-97 miles an hour. Lefties aren't supposed to hit you like that. And so, I don't know. I'm hoping there were some stuff with like his slider not working as well as he hoped it would that he's hoping some offseason work could fix. I'm hoping that there's still some certainly sleeper appeal for Red Demers, but potentially even the ability to live up to the expectations we had for him last year, I think is still there. After you took Reed Detmer's Willie Adamas, Colt Keith, and now we're into round 19, Masataka Yoshida.

For anyone watching, you saw me react to Aaron Savali being drafted at 218. He was my next pick. Probably could have taken him last round and got Will Smith this round. I don't think anyone else was going to take Will Smith, but whatever. Chris, you took Luis Severino, who has looked pretty good so far this spring. Apparently the Mets have, they're saying they figured out what the tip pitching issue was last year. Yeah, they're saying it was an easy fix. That's what I'm hoping, because the...

The velocity was still mostly where it was supposed to be last season. The movement profiles didn't look that different. The stuff still looked pretty good. And so it was one of those situations where it was weird, how horrible he was. But remember 2022, even though he, you know, obviously has had a ton of trouble staying healthy over the past couple of seasons. 2021 or sorry, 2022. He pitched 102 innings with a 318 ERA and a 1.0 whip with more,

well more than a strikeout per inning. So I still think Luis Severino has plenty of upside here. After Severino, you say Kikuchi, Ezekiel Tovar, and I took Anthony Volpe, who I wrote up in Bus 1.0. It's very similar to Lane Thomas. I mean, he's a bust when his ADP is 130, 140. At 222, I don't think he's a bust. I mean, if it doesn't work out, you can just drop Anthony Volpe. He still did go 20-20 last year.

And the talk this spring has been that he has leveled out his swing. He's hoping to hit more line drives for what it's. I know he's hit for a good batting average so far this spring. But that's exactly what I called for when talking about him as a bust. He had a huge uppercut in his swing last year. Anthony Volpey did. And we talked about that when he was coming up. He had that really low batting average in 2022.

And I think a lot of people wrote it off as, well, it was just bad bad bet block. But no, he was hitting too many. fly balls and too many infield fly balls as a result. And so I have questions about whether he's going to be able to hit for power with this swing because the quality of contact is pretty mediocre. But maybe it just helps him handle breaking balls a little better because he was really bad against them last year. Yeah. And I think the hope would be less home runs, but getting on base more, which could allow him to steal more bases. So maybe a similar skill set to, you know, Tyro Estrada, who I got 70 picks earlier, right?

Andres Jimenez. Yeah, like 15 homers, 25 steals with a 250 batting average. That would still be a really valuable player for fantasy. Volpe is in my bus 2.0 coming out tomorrow on the newsletter. And the comp I drew was to Trevor Story. And what he's done since getting to the Red Sox, and we all agree Trevor Story's been an absolute disaster since getting to the Red Sox. He has a better batting average, more runs and more RBI,

in 22 fewer games with basically the same number of home runs and steals. And in most drafts, Trevor Story goes 80 to 100 picks later. In this draft, I think Story went like 10 picks earlier. So I like Volpey there. All right. After I took Volpe, Kentima Maeda, who made a start on Tuesday and he looked pretty good. Yes. Four shutout innings with seven strikeouts, 13 swinging strikes on 65 pitches for Kentomite.

in that start. After that, Alec Bohm, Charlie Morton to Scott, and Tristan McKenzie to George Kurt. Scott, talk to me about Charlie Morton because I feel like I haven't seen you draft him at all yet this offseason. You have not, even though he's a strikeout guy, a strikeout specialist, and that's kind of how I've, that's been the focus when building my pitching stats. I've talked about that a lot, but he just feels like such a liability for WIPP with his control. issues that I haven't been that motivated to take him. But to me, he was the last pitcher who I feel like is must draft in this format. I'm not saying no other starting pitchers will be taken, but I could live without any of

the others being taken. And I need somebody, presuming Nick Ladolo begins the year on the IL as he is behind in his buildup. I need somebody to slot in my lineup. And yeah, Charlie Morton, I think the. The negative impact of the whip will be less, is less of a concern when you're going week to week with it as opposed to it's going to linger with you all season

because you started them for that one terrible start in a roto league, you know? So I can tolerate him a little more here, and he'll probably give me a lot of strikeouts and wins on those occasions. I do start him. Frank, can I ask you a question? Yes. How are we feeling about our early catchers? You and I both took catchers in what, the seventh round?

That sounds right Well you took them later Chris I think Adley went Oh no I'm sorry Was it nine? Was it William Contreras in round nine When you got it was William Contrars and Will Smith Both in round nine for nine yeah Even later than you were saying

Yeah and great I still love the value Yeah but when I look at my rankings My top players are Mitch Garver A third baseman Logan a Hoppe Gabriel Moreno Cabr Ruiz Jonah Two outfielders

Bo Nailer How do you feel about your early round catcher? I'm still happy with it. I was looking to see who the next starting pitcher taken was because I could use more pitching right now. And it was actually Verlander and then Joe Ryan. So I don't even really, that was back in round nine when we took the catchers.

That's my number one. So I would have. I could use another pitcher right now and I wish I took one earlier, but I didn't love the pitchers in that range. So I think I'm still okay with it. I think I'm still right. with it. Getting Will Smith and

around pick 100 when I did. Let's catch people up. The latest after McKenzie James Outman, Ian Hap at 228, phenomenal pick. Ryan Weathers, also on the rise, looks like he will be in the Marlins rotation because Edward

Cabrera has a shoulder impingement and Max Meyer was sent back to AAA. And Ryan Weathers does look great this spring. He's, you know, he hit 99 miles per hour a few times. The fastball has been up. Did have some prospect pedigree, so we'll see if

it works out for Ryan Weathers. Kobe Mayo, another prospect with the Orioles who has massive power. But where will he play? We see something similar for lots of Orioles prospects. Matt Chapman and Scott, your backup. I think I got to take

Cedric Mullins. I'm not counting on him as being a part of my lineup, but those weeks, when I look at the matchups and say I could use more steals here, it's just you know I put Mullins in my bus 2.0

because I think the Orioles may begin to phase them out but they may not and yeah a potential 15 homer 30 still outfield at the stage of

the draft round 20 pick 232 again I keep this is what now the third or fourth bus pick of mine that I've taken but the values

on all of them I feel like it justified it and I feel like that happens a lot in the mock that we do, which makes sense, right? If we're doing them with other people

who listen to the podcast, if these are players that we're constantly talking down about, all right, everyone's down on these players, but there comes a time where they do become a value. And so you did that with Mullins, I did it with Volpe. I took Lane Thomas around Pick 200, someone I never take, but

just seems like a pretty good value at that point. After Mullins, Andrew Abbott and Jared Kelnick, I need some more pitchers for the bench, and I wrote up Brian Beow in Breakouts 2.0. He's got an awesome change-up. He throws pretty hard, 96 miles per hour with a sinker. The sinker change-up combo is good.

He needs a breaking pitch, and apparently has worked with Pedro Martinez this off-season to refine his slider. So if we can get anything from that slider from Brian Beow, then I do think he could take that next step here with the Red Sox in 2024. after Bayo Paul Skeens, who is arguably the top pitching prospect and all of baseball will start the year in the minors,

but should likely see him at some point this year. And then Jackson Merrill, who was named to the Padres' opening day roster. Good pack. We are going to hear more about the Dodgers and Padres' rosters sooner than other teams because they are playing in that first series in Korea next week. And so manager Mike Schilt said,

Jackson Merrill has earned the opportunity to get on the plane. So he will be in Korea and presumably in the opening day lineup for the Padres. That's awesome. I'm wondering, based on Chris's reaction here, good pick, good pick. I got to move him up. So I, again, I was going on the word of that great beater writer for the Padres, AJ Casabelle. He said early this spring, you know, as long as Jackson Merrill proves he's up to it as a hitter,

he's going to be on the opening day roster. So I said, okay, I'm going to rank him as if he'll be on the opening day roster. And I kept drafting him as a result sometimes at what seemed like crazy discounts to me. So I wonder if it's going to be one of those situations now where I was out ahead of everybody and now everybody's going to surpass me and I'll just never have a chance at Jackson Merrill again. Like I drafted him in TGFBI because he went close to 300, I think. Oh, I've been getting him outside like the top 400. Yeah.

But I'm going to move way higher than that. that, but I'm going to move up to around 200 is what I'm going to do. Okay. Let me see where I actually have him. I've never had to draft him where I actually rank him. So you have. Now I'll probably have to. You have him 258, Scott.

I'm looking at it right now. And I have, I updated the rankings. I moved Merrill up to 287. That was actually before the news came out. So I probably got to move him up again here. If I do want to keep drafting Jackson Merrill. After he went, Chris, you took Gavin Stone, someone we've talked about lately as a deep sleeper.

It seems like he's in the rotation. He's last I saw he's traveling to Korea with the team. Yeah, I think he will be because Emmett Sheehan likely to start on the IL, same thing with Walker Bueller. To be clear, Gavin Stone is not going to pitch likely in the first two games of the season, but they do have two exhibition games in Korea against the Padres as well, the Dodgers do. And so I think that's to keep him on schedule with the team out there. After you took Gavin Stone, Brandon Lowe, Michael Bush,

and then we're into round 21, Ryan Presley, Thai France, Brandon Fott. I think an interesting pick, Chris, and I probably would have taken him if you didn't. So I know he hasn't looked good in spring. He made some adjustments in the second half last year, pitched really well in the postseason. He has an awesome sweeper.

Does he have anything else? That's the question with Brandon Fott, because his fastballs get hit so hard. He was, I talked about Reid Dettmer, and how bad he was against lefties and how weird that was because he's a lefty. Brandon Fought was like just as bad against lefties.

Now he's a righty, so it makes sense. But yeah, he had an 867 OPS allowed to left-handed batters. He wasn't much better against righties, to be fair. Yeah, big home run issues for Brandon Fought. But again, he made that adjustment last year, changed which part of the mound he was throwing from, and he did have some success. so I still have some hope for him.

He was a pretty big name pitching prospect as well. After Brandon fought, Matt Brash, Jorge Polanco. I took Cutter Crawford, and then the next pick was Shane Boz, who my guesses we'll see at some point in May later on in the season, but I think we'll hopefully start on the IL. If they just option him, then you can't stash him on an IL spot, and that would suck for Shane Boz. So I hope they do put him on the IL.

Cutter Crawford, I took him, he's always had really good swinging strike rates, velocity is up a little bit to spring, people who are way smarter when talking and evaluating pitching seem to be all in on Cutter Crawford, so I'm just kind of jumping on the bandwagon here. Yeah, I was thinking after I said what I said about Charlie Morton, he's the last starting pitcher who I think has to be drafted in this format. Yes. Cutter Crawford might. I don't have him ranked that way.

I made a note here to probably move him. him up. But he's probably in that boat too, especially now that Lucas Gialito is out and that makes Cutter Crawford's role more secure. Guess what? I'm about to take another bus pick of mine. Uh-oh. You suck, Perides. I mean, he was picked 249. Yeah, he'd been my top player or my second top player for like 80 picks. So that makes sense. And with his first base, third base eligibility, I have a back up at all my infield spots now. There you go. So that's good.

Let's take our final break. When we return, we'll catch you up on the latest picks right after this. After Shane Bosby saw J.P. Crawford, Scott took Esauk Paratus, Chris Bryant. Jared Jones pitching prospect with the pirates who we talked about earlier in the week is competing for a spot in their rotation. He throws incredibly hard, 99 miles per hour at the fastball. Has this really good. it's like a slider cutter it's like a harder slider

so I think there's going to be lots of whiffs but potentially some issues with control but there is some upside and excitement around Jared Jones right now at the turn Kerry Carpenter good pick like that one I rolled this Chapman let's see did Sean wind up with David Bednar because I'm wondering if he kind of handcuffed the pirates

closer situation here he did not did not all right so just took chat And if Bednar is not ready to go for opening day, then Chapman likely would be picking up the saves. Mitch Garver is the next pick, and then Emmett Sheehan, who still does have lots of upside,

but likely to start on the IL. And Scott, you are back up your second to last pick. Mm-hmm. Probably a pitcher. It was going to be Carrie Carpenter if he hadn't gone. But he has gone. So it's not going to be him. It's going to be a pitcher, I think,

especially given the daily lineup context here, and I'd want to have options to move in and out of the lineup based on that. I'm going to go with James Paxton. Of course, the big knock on him is he might only give you a dozen, 15 starts, but they should be good, especially with the Dodgers offense backing him. And so I think as a bench option in a head-to-head league, that's probably where he's best suited. And I have James Paxton on my NL labor team,

so go Paxton man. Stay healthy for as long as you possibly could. That would be awesome. After Paxton, Chris Paddock, one more pick, and then I am up. We are in round 22. Thanks to everyone for hanging out, being here, watching us live.

Still over 400 people going strong. We appreciate you. Like this video, subscribe to the YouTube channel if you haven't already. Jung-Hu-Lee at Pick-258. Could turn out to be a good pick. Fantastic pick. I assumed he was already gone.

I will go ahead and take one of my sleepers. I wanted a little bit more pop on the bench, and I got Tyler O'Neill. Good pick. Let's go. Hector Nerris, who could potentially steal some saves away for the Cubs. Chris, you are on deck. What are we thinking?

Second and last pick. We got a couple of wise guys. We got one wise guy who hasn't taken. a catcher yet and I have a feeling I know what this person is trying to do and I'm not going to let them. Oh, I like it. We'll see. We'll see if this is what they actually wanted to do. Maybe they'll pop in the chat and say so. But we got one guy who hasn't taken a catcher yet. I'm going to aim for some upside assuming, yeah, I'm going to do the Henry Davis thing. Who. Yeah. I moved him up big time in the rankings today too. I really like him as a sleeper at the catcher position. He is someone who I moved up to 206 in my last update of the rankings overall, which I think makes him around, would make him around like 16 at catcher, if I'm remembering correctly. Yeah, 17. So I'm cool with him. You know, we've talked a lot about how there are like the 17 catchers you feel comfortable with as a starter,

Scott. Yeah. I don't know if you include Henry Davis in there. He's not a catcher eligible player right now. Right. You can't draft him to fill your catcher spot. I just, I don't like the idea of taking an extra catcher. Yeah. No, I get that. Yeah. But I'd rather have... I'd rather have...

I'd rather have him than Luis Campasano, personally. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. By the time he has catcher eligibility, he would be not the last of those 18 players. Sure. Yeah, I think if you already had catcher, I would rank him ahead of Campesano as well. So I'm with you on that one, Chris.

After Henry Davis, should have mentioned Tage Bradley also went. There was some news here on Tage Bradley. On Tuesday, he was scratched with peck tightness and sent for an MRI, but manager Kevin Cash said he's optimistic the injury was caught before it became anything serious. So we'll see what happens with Tage Bradley next, but let me quickly pull up their roster resource page. If Tage is not ready to go for opening day, who else will be in this race rotation? Because Shane Baws won't be ready. We know that. I mean, they've got like Zach Lattel is their number three, right?

Something like that. Ryan Pepio. Yeah, I don't know what it's going to look like if they have to dip into the minor leagues. There's someone named Jacob Lopez in AAA? I don't know. I don't know if what would happen there. Probably would just get like an opener and a long reliever, my guess. He's been pitching in spring, but I don't know if that's an actual thing.

Yeah, he's got two appearances to it. so they're not stretching him out yet. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe Mason Montgomery. Maybe. We'll see. After you took Henry Davis, Mackenzie Gore, Junior Camerro, who was sent down to,

I believe it was AAA earlier in the week. So he will not be on the raise opening day roster. My guess is he'll be up soon. I think somewhere around early May. After Camerro, we're into the final round. John Means Business, Griffin Canning, Chris selected Carlos Correa Clayton Curshaw

I believe there are some IL spots on this league so you can stash Kershaw way. We are going deeper into the starting pitcher pool though than you normally see in a categories league. I think it's with the idea that oh their daily lineup changes we got to maximize our starting pitcher

options and that's reasonable enough but if it's not a daily league for you you're probably not going to go this deep into the starting pitchers. I have an idea of a picture I would like to take and hopefully he does not get selected because I would like to talk about him. I feel like he's a player we haven't talked enough about and we were pretty excited about him towards the end of last season Scott. Just say the name. Stop playing. I know who you're

talking about. Nope. Can't trust anybody, Chris. Especially not Phil. I just moved him into my own queue so I guess I can feel confident I'm not going to get him. And his name is. Okay, Reese Olson. John C. No, it's Reese Olson who had a swinging strike rate of at least 13.9% or higher on three different pitches last year. I think some of the hesitation, Scott, this draft season has been, we don't know if he was going to be in the rotation for sure,

but I think he will be, and he looked really, really good down the stretch last year. One of Matt Manning, Reese Olson, and Casey Mize is going to have to be left out of the Tigers starting five, barring an injury, of course. life may find a way. And, you know, I mean, obviously Matt Manning and Casey Mize, the Tigers have a lot invested in them.

I have the most confidence of those three in Olson myself, but it's not for sure he's going to be one of the five. By the wise, while we're on the topic, did you guys see Jackson Job today? I think I saw some clips, but it was only one in anybody. He looked awesome, right? Legitimate, oh my goodness, gracious stuff from Jackson. and Joe. He averaged 100 miles per hour

with his fastball hit 102. Oh my goodness gracious. Five whiffs on 13 pitches. That's, I mean, his velocity, it was only one inning in spring, but his velocity was up significantly because he was like sitting 96, 97 last year, from what I understand. I wonder if he knew he was only going to throw one inning

and it's kind of like let it fly. But yeah, everything looked very, very good for him. You know, Scott said something there while he was analyzing Reese Olson. Life finds a way. People have taken this Jurassic Park thing way too far. I mean, let's talk about this. I'm getting tweets every day. Like, I'm losing my credibility as a fantasy analyst.

You know what you should do? Lean into it. Lean into it. Don't watch Jurassic Park. I'm never going to watch it. Just watch Jurassic Park six. All right. Let's do this right now.

How many Rocky movies have you seen? I have seen all of the original. Original Rocky movies. Oh, you have? Okay. You have seen Creed? Have you... I haven't seen Creed.

Have you seen Alien or aliens? No. Have you seen any Terminator movie? No. I played the video game, though. Have you seen any Star Wars movie? Yeah, I've seen each of the... I saw the, like, three they made back in the day, I guess the first three, even though it's like

four, four, five, and six, actually. And then I saw episodes one, two, and three. I saw the seventh movie, and then nothing after that. Have you seen back to the future? I have seen all the back to the future movies. Oh my goodness, you're doing better than I thought. Have you seen Ghostbusters? I, yes.

Honestly, you don't need to. Those ones are overrated. Indiana Jones? Oh, the first Ghostbuster, come all that's fine. The first Ghostbusters is... That's fine. Maybe on the Mount Rushmore of comedy. I should not answer these questions

truthfully anymore because... Have you watched Indiana Jones? The backlash that I'm going to get. He has not watched Indiana. Go watch Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark right now. I will not answer any more questions. You got to watch... Maybe it's just a Spielberg thing.

He just doesn't want to watch Spielberg movies. No, there's a lot here. I've gone into this with him before. There's a lot. I'm just making bad choices here. But there's a lot of- Agreed with the commenter. Jaws is a top five movie.

I've seen Jaws. I've seen Jaws. Incredible movie. Well, have you guys seen every episode of Pokemon? Well, let me ask you that. No. That's basically what I was watching when I was a kid. And Adam Sandler movies.

And Adam Sandler adjacent movies. The problem is, instead of watching other movies, I've just watched all of the stupid Adam Sandler type comedies. He's just been rewatching bedtime stories over and over. No, no, no, no, no. Grandma's boy, Chris. Grandma's boy is a movie.

Grandma's boys, the one he always talks. I can. I can actually very good. I can recite like every word in that movie. I kind of liked bedtime stories. Anyway, let's wrap up the last round here and recap our teams. All right, what happened?

After Reese Olson, Braxton, Garrett, Logan O'Hoppy, Scott Tick Sal Freelik, who could bounce around for the Brewers this year, some second, some third base. Edward Cabrera to George Kurtz, who, I don't know, maybe if you add up all the arms together on his pitching staff, he has like five. After that, Justin Lawrence and Robert Stevenson. Robert Stevenson, I should have been on top of that. Did Astavis get picked? Yeah, he did. But let's recap our teams. Anything you'd like to add? Even if he doesn't become the closer is probably still going to have a lot of value in

daily head-to-head categories league like this. Let's start with Scott's team. We'll work our way backwards this time. And your catcher, Cal Raleigh, the infield, Matt Olson, Matt McLean, Royce Lewis, Hassan Kim, in the outfield, Fernando Tatis, Evan Carter, Jorge Soler. At the two utility spots, you got Reese Hoskins and Andres Jimenez. Before we get to the pitching, Scott, not a team of offense you usually put together, but how do you feel about the balance of this offense?

I feel like it's well balanced. I think my weakest offensive category might be batting average. Yes, definitely. Yeah, but in this format. Other than Tatis, I don't really have a standout. I don't think I have major liabilities there. And yeah, given the format, given that it's weekly chunks that are scored at a time, ratio stats like batting average, very unpredictable from week to week.

so I'm not sure it's the category you want to build around anyway. I will win batting average sometimes. I will lose batting average sometimes. But I think I'm going to win the other offensive categories. A lot of times, I would have rather had Christopher Morel as my fourth outfielder than Jorge Saler. I just, I need to move them up in my rankings, clearly. I don't really like Jorge Salar that much,

but he fit the needs of the team at the time. On your pitching staff, you've got Pablo Lopez and Yamamoto, who you took in the third and fourth round. You've got two, I think more than two. You've got multiple closers. Josh Hader, P. Fairbanks, Craig Kimbril, your other starting pitchers, you got Chris Bassett, A.J. Puck, Nick Lodolo,

Charlie Morton, James Paxton. On the bench, you've also got Cedric Mullins, Isok Paradeus, Sal Freelik. But, Scott, how do you feel about how the pitching staff came together? Because you've got the closers down for certain. You got the two aces, you got Chris Bassett, do you wish you maybe kind of jumped in a little bit earlier

for your SP like four or five? Yeah, I mean, I don't know exactly. I'd have to go back and look through the draft to see what that would have cost me on the other end. But it did kind of catch me by surprise how deep we went into the starting pitcher pool and AJ Puck and Nick Lodolo. They're two pitchers I'd like.

I'd rather than be the number one and two pitchers on my bench rather than in my lineup here. I'm hoping that I'm high end enough at pitcher that it'll be fine. I mean, I don't usually get two pitchers as high end as Pablo Lopez and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. And my number, who's my number three? Chris Bassett?

Yep. Or is there another one? That's Bassett. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess I probably wish I'd, ideally I'd have another pitcher in between those. I'd have a number three and a different number three

and Bassett would be my number four. I think it, I think it'll be fine as long. as everybody stays, as long as the top guys stay healthy, which is, of course, not a given since they're pitchers. And, you know, if any of Puck, Lodolo, if Charlie Morton has one of his better seasons, if any of those come through, it'll be fine.

I feel pretty good about this team. And again, Scott was drafting ninth in this draft today, and I was drafting sixth. So we'll take a look here at Catcher. I took Will Smith in the infield, Freddie Freeman, Tyro Estrada, Rafael Devers, Dansby Swanson. In the outfield, I've got Michael Harris, Randy Rosarena, Seya Suzuki,

and my two utility bats, I've got Christian and Carnaccio Tran and Lane Thomas. On the bench I grabbed Anthony Volpe and Tyler O'Neill. Just kind of filling out more of the theme. Chris, we talked about it throughout the draft. I don't really have standout power hitters or standout stolen base guys, but I feel like I have a lot of everything,

which probably plays better in a roto format than head-to categories. Yeah, I think like if this were a true roto format, I think I'd be a little worried about how much speed you have. I'm not sure you'd have enough to really compete at the high end and that, but it's okay to be weak in one category here. And I think that's probably what happened is you're, you've got like a decent number of 20 steel guys, but no real standouts like you said.

in this format, I think it's fine because the rest of the hitting should be good enough. You know, getting that edge at Will Smith in the ninth round is going to be really nice for you. So I think it works. I don't know that I have enough power either, to be honest. I mean, you know, Freeman will give 25. Yeah, I guess that's the thing is like you look at Freeman.

You just kind of assume, okay, he's a great hitter. But yeah, the home runs are for where he gets taken a little lower. Yeah. It's kind of, yeah, it kind of feels like a like a B-minus offense all around, I guess. The pitching staff, I've got, my first two pitchers were Freddie Peralta and Zach Eflin. I also got Dylan Sees and Bailey Ober. Back to that kind of balancing act, I kept taking strikeout guys and then some like ratio whip help as well. I also did select McPovetta, who I wanted to get more strikeouts on this team.

On the bench, I have some upside pitchers in Brian Beaux, Cutter Crawford, and Reese Olson, just realizing I have like all the Red Sox pitchers. I didn't play on that. My closers, I've got Edwin Diaz, and maybe not another closer. I have Mason Miller and Will Smith on this team. I did want to grab another kind of spec reliever for the bench. Probably should have taken Stevenson with that last pick. Yeah, that was a good pick.

Yeah, I mean, like, I'm not going to make excuses, podcasting while drafting, but this doesn't feel like my best work. You can't give your draft sheet your undivided attention, and so certain names are going to slip by you, like having with Christopher Morel with me. Let's see. I was wondering if a roll this Chapman got drafted. Yeah,

he did. He got drafted in round 22. So near the end as well. I think it's okay. Like I have enough strikeout standouts where, you know, those guys can carry me certain weeks. Strikeouts are going to do great.

Yeah. As long as Povetta is, you know, doesn't wind up back in the bullpen as long as Freddie Peralta stays healthy with Dillon C's there. I mean, you're going to have a ton of strikeouts.

Whip, I think, will be a problem. Yeah. That is. a concern. Let's take a look at Chris's team who was drafting third overall here and kind of leaned into that heavy relief pitcher strategy. How about the offense? William Contreras, a catcher in the infield, Vlad Jr., Glaber Torres, Kibbrien Hayes, Francisco Lindor, in the outfield, jazz Chisholm, Adoles Garcia, Julio Rodriguez, and your two utility bats,

J.D. Martinez, and C.J. Abrams. Obviously, Chris, you invested a lot in your offense. It's really good. It looks pretty awesome. Yeah. Yeah, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, happens when, you know, with 12 of your first 15 picks or whatever, our hitters. It better look good. And it does. Like, it should be good everywhere. So I'm, I mean, Cabrion Hayes is your third baseman. I think you could have a great year.

But it's like, how did you only end up with Cabrion Hayes? All right. Well, that was the one spot I waited on, but fine. I'm so sorry. He does not meet Scott's standards of offense. Let's take a look at the pitching staff. And you leaned into. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

All right. Are you, how competitive are you going to be in stolen bases? I think I'm going to be pretty competitive. Lindor will give you 25, Jazz, 25. 35. Leo 35. Lindor 30. I mean, if Jazz plays half a season.

CJ Abrams, though. Abrams 40, yeah. Yeah. Oh, did I miss Abe? Yeah, he's at the utility spot. Oh, okay. Yeah, you're going to be. Sorry, I missed that one.

No, this is, I haven't looked at the numbers. I would assume it's the best offense in the least. and it kind of has to be. Yeah. For this strategy to work, I assume it is. Let's take a look at the pitching staff. You lean into that heavy relief pitcher build. And, yeah, the starting pitchers, you waited.

The pitching's not great. Yeah, you got Joe Ryan, Luis Severino. Let's just see the other starters first. Reed Detmer's, Bryce Miller, Brandon Fott, Gavin Stone, Kodi Senga. So Senga, you've got an injury stash. Joe Ryan, you know, there still is upside as much as we talk about the downside.

But yeah, it's mostly upside. But the closers, Yon, Duran, Ryan Helsley, Jose Alvarado, Robert Swares. So kind of like a pseudo-Marmole strategy here, Chris. Yeah, it's more saves focus than a typical Marmoral strategy. I think it would be a little better if I'd sacrificed a little offense to get one more high-end pitcher. I was hoping to take Zach Eflin when you took him with my next pick.

I don't know who I took instead. but I feel like I would probably feel better about that if I had that opportunity. You took Zach Eflin when I took Jazz. So if I swapped out jazz for a decent outfielder and had Athlin instead of, you know, whoever has my number two starting pitcher or number one, I guess.

I would feel better about that for sure. All right. Well, the draft is in the books again. That was our 12-te-to-head category draft. Let us know in the comments. Who won the draft? And of course, we'll check back in to five. find out who got the most votes.

We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.