Fantasy Baseball Today - LIVE H2H Points Mock Draft! (3/12 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 12, 2021

Who's ready to mock! We have a long podcast here for ya on a Kokomo Friday. To no surprise, the draft starts with the big three starting pitchers: Shane Bieber, Jacob deGrom, and Gerrit Cole. Throughout the draft, you'll notice that each of Scott, Chris, and Frank went with a different approach. Scott drafted a starting pitcher for his bench when he only had two hitters! Would you rather have Bryce Harper and Frankie Montas or Luis Castillo and Mike Yastrzemski in a H2H Points league? We talk through each pick and each round to give you a feel for what we're thinking in this specific format! Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday '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, @AdamAizer Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday 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

Domingo Santan, Lucas for Cockta, a jag like Michael Walker, Polanco, and from... The Kokomo Friday, it is mock draft time. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today. Frank Sample, joined by Scott White and the superstar.

Chris Towers, every time I look on Twitter, you have a new... You have new song lyrics, Chris. Is there something you want to tell us? Are you pursuing a new career? No, I did write a Taylor Swift parody today about Scott and his approach to pitch

So, you know, keep an eye out for that. That could be coming in the... That could be dropping in the next few weeks. The more Chris Tower's cats and singing, the better. If we can work that into every podcast, I have absolutely no issue. What's going on, Scotty? How you doing? I'm doing good, Frank. I'm trying to make sure everybody's actually in the draft room for this mock we're doing.

That would help. Yeah, it would help. It would help. It'd be nice to have everyone there. I think so. I think everyone's there. I think we're good. Speaking of the mock, today on the podcast, we have a 12-te-to-head-head-points mock draft that we are doing live using the CBS

lineups and scoring system. As you probably know by now, the CBS lineup in a head-to-head points league, one of each infield position, three outfielders, one utility bat, five starting pitchers, two relief pitchers, and five bench spots. And we're going to run a little long today because of the mock, so just a heads up there. But before we start the draft, just wanted to remind you. all that Paramount Plus is now live. Paramount Plus is live sports, breaking news, and a mountain of entertainment. You can go straight from game day to movie night with Paramount Plus.

Stream iconic movies like The Godfather, Indiana Jones, and Mission Impossible, and new episodes of critically acclaimed original series like Star Trek Picard, the Good Fight, and The Stand. And get this, it's where you can dive into live sports from us, CBS sports, including the NFL, March Madness, the Masters and Champions League soccer. Plus stream hit shows from CBS, Nickelodeon, MTV, BETT, the Smithsonian Channel, and Comedy Central. Live sports, breaking news, and a mountain of entertainment, Paramount Plus is streaming now. Speaking of March Madness, it is nearly here. You can create a pool and compete against your friends, or you can just fill out your own bracket for a chance to win a Nissan rogue and a trip to the 2022 Final Four.

You can play on the CBS Sports app or at CBS Sports.com. slash brackets. Alrighty, if you are watching us on YouTube, thanks for being here. We have this new fancy software. You can watch this draft. This is my screen, so if I throw anyone in the queue, you're going to be able to see what's going on there,

unfortunately. But yeah, this is how our draft room looks, and we're going to get started. You are good to fire it up whenever you're ready, Scott. All right, let's start it off here. Okay, again, this is a 12 team, head-to-head points league. Where is everyone picking today?

the ninth pick. Scott is at 11 and where's Chris? Chris's fifth overall. So I number five, Mambo number five. All right. Well, we're waiting on Kayla Van Horn who has the first overall pick in this draft and it's Shane Bieber. Wow. Going with the she's going by Scott's rankings. Scott's rankings. Yeah, I mean we're going to go ahead and we're going to go with the Frank Stanful ranks here in the room so everyone can see what's happening. Jacob de Grom goes second overall. to Nathan Judah, Jacob de Grom. I don't know if you saw it, but on Thursday,

three perfect innings with seven strikeouts, the guy was pumping 102 miles per hour. Gosh, man. So we got the three pitchers right away. They go off the board, which is how all three of us rank them for this format. I don't think that's terribly surprising. But it wasn't a given.

Right. Yep. Bieber de Grom second overall. Garrett Cole, third overall. Again, this is a points league. So my guess is that we're going to see a lot of pitchers. pitchers push up the draft board. We did see our first hitter and Mike Trout go forth overall. And then Juan Soto goes to Chris.

Chris, I appreciate that you went with Soto there. I mean, it makes sense, right? I got Trout number one as the hitters and Soto too. So those are my first two players after the pitchers come off the board. So worked out. Yeah, Scott and I spoke about this a little bit on our mailbag podcast that we recorded earlier on Thursday. and, you know, even in a points league, you get to a point where you don't want to just pull pitchers up for the sake of it, right?

So, like, if a great hitter is there in the middle of the first round, you kind of just have to take the hitter and hope that your pitching works out. Yeah, no, I even in a points league, I only have the big three in the first round of pitcher. I don't know if you guys have different, but there's just a significant drop off after those three from me. I have different. I've given it some thought, and I think it would only be the big five hitters that would cause me to go against my now stated plan of, I mean, I'm going to try it out in this mock for the first time, just going with pitchers until all the good ones are gone. Obviously, Bieber de Grom Cole, I may not have the first three picks, so I may not get any of them. But the only hitters that I think would cause me to stray from that plan are the big five being, Soto I actually have ranked ahead of

Trout and then Betz Acuna and Tatis. I'm still a little unsure if I'm going to shoehorn Yelich and Freeman in there too and Jose Ramirez I mean I guess you could make a case for him also. It's still kind of a newly formulated plan.

It's been a while since we've done a head-to-head points mine. Yeah, I'll just point out over the last three seasons Freddie Freeman, Christian Yelich, Alex Bregman, and Max Scherzer have outscored every single pitcher with the exception of, I believe it's DeGrom, Cole, and kind of shockingly, Justin Verlander, is actually the second highest scoring pitcher

in points leagues over the last two seasons. Yeah, so go ahead, finish your thought, Chris. So, yeah, I still think I'm going hitter in the second half of the first round. But, you know, I get it. Like, I could see Trevor Bauer being worth it there. After Chris took Juan Soto at Pick 5, we are seeing only hitters go.

So Muki Betz goes sixth overall. Ronald Acuna goes seventh. Jose Ramirez goes eighth overall, which makes sense. I mean, I think it was 2019, 2018. 2018, he was the number one scoring hitter in this format. And then I went with Fernando Tatis at Pick 9. So I'm going to try this out. I went with an elite hitter instead of a pitcher.

normally in a points league, I'm just going to stack pitching. But I'm going to take Tatis here and then basically load up on pitchers after that, see how it works out. After I took Tatis, we saw Trey Turner go 10th overall. Scott, you took Trevor Bauer at 11. And at the turn, we saw Freddie Freeman and Christian Yellich. So you are on the clock. Walk us through your pick.

Well, I did take Bauer over Freeman and Yelich. So we'll try it out. We'll try it out this time. It'll be a bit of an experiment. I've been frustrated specifically with the podcast listener league in the past trying to make a concerted effort

to draft high into pitching and still getting left out and I haven't done as well I think that was my worst league I was in last year one of just two where I didn't finish in the top three and it was because I didn't have enough pitching so we're going to try this time

I got Bauer, I'm taking Darvish here and see how long I stick with pitchers. You don't need to do that, Scott, because you probably just let some pitching fall to me and see how that works out. No, I want to try it. It actually helps that most everybody took a hitter in the first round, so, you know, I didn't have to stretch for like Clayton Kershaw

here in round two, because I might not have been able to hold to it if that happened. And we've seen points leagues where things just go haywire, where people will just, you'll see more than half the first round wind up being pitching, and then all these awesome hitters start to fall. That didn't necessarily happen in this draft that we're talking about. But yes, Scott just took you Darvish with the 14th overall pick, and we are currently waiting for Dan Gilbert to make the 15th pick of the draft. I am on deck, and I am going to take one of Aranola or Lucas G. Leto,

whoever does not get taken here by Dan, assuming that he takes a pitcher. And I will say, I think the rush for starting pitching in head-to-head points leagues is a little bit irrational. Like it can get pushed. You know, the salary cap draft we did last week was just bonkers. Like I got Zach Gallen as my number one starting pitcher for $39. Like that is the cost of starting pitchers there just wasn't commensurate with what they actually provide, which is, well, a lot of points. But if you look at the 2020 results. in the draft room, you'll see that Kent and Maeda was the highest scoring pitcher

among those remaining and he was behind Marcelo Zuna, Jose Abrayo, and Mani Machado. Then it was Lance Lynn, Bryce Harper, Luke Voight, Kyle Hendrix, Trevor Story. Only three of the top, what is that, eight or nine pitchers or players remaining were starting pitchers. It's not, it's not as if. It's not really about, it's not really about pitchers versus hitters. It's about pitchers versus other pitchers. Right, I understand that, but it's still like, we're drafting pitchers as if they are such an advantage. When the very, I just think what happens in points leagues is the very, very, very best pitchers are so much more valuable that it inflates the cost of everything else to a point that I think it's an inefficient market. Well, that's what I'm saying.

I want to try and get as many of those very, very, very valuable pitchers. Right. No, but they're all gone. There's like three of those guys. No, okay. I mean, if you're drawing the line that high, but... No, no, no, but like, when I talk about the guys who are, like, that much more valuable than everyone else, it's like two or three pitchers every year. No, you're right about that.

You're talking about a total points measurement, and that's it, and not really about how the position breaks down. Like, our lineups are so scant. Like, it's just nine hitter spots to fill, period. And there are way more quality hitters available than to fill those spots. So it doesn't, meanwhile, the pitchers are going to run out. The pitchers that are worth using are going to run out. They're going to run out sooner than later.

And, you know, you'll just have to try and piece of pitching staff together, hope to get lucky with one or two picks after that. So I'm trying to depend less on luck here. And trust that there's going to be so much excess at hitting that I'll still be happy with my starting lineup. And I'll have gotten the asset that I'm. I think is really only available in the draft, the one asset like that in a format, this shallow, which is starting high and starting pitching. Wait, did someone say shallow?

All right, so let's catch everyone up on what's going on. I just want to illustrate the point. There were 20 hitters over the last three seasons who have averaged 400 fantasy points. There were six pitchers, and one of them is not pitching this year. Chris, I agree with the concept of what you're saying, but to me the whole point

is that if you do not get those pitchers like yes we're pushing them up that means great hitters are going to fall you're going to be left out and you're going to be left scrambling at some point for pitching no I get that but I just think it's worth

highlighting again that there aren't that the second third fourth tier of starting pitcher in head to head points don't stand out like even relative to the crowd in a way that the hitters who are you're drafting who you're passing up do.

I, they don't, the pitchers don't stand out. You're right about that. But the thing is, I think the combination of getting those pitchers where you can versus the hitters that are going to get pushed down the board, you're still going to get some really, really good hitters in the middle rounds of the draft as well. We'll talk about it as things unfold,

but let's catch people up on, on what's happening here. After Scott took you, Darvish, we saw Clayton Kershaw, go 15th overall. I was on the board. Very happy to get my guy, Aaron Nola, who is my starting pitcher for the season in both head-to-head points and in Roto. After that, we saw Lucas G. Alito, Max Scherzer, so a bit of a pitcher run. Then Brent Herzog selected Cody Bellinger in pick 19.

Chris was up, took Bryce Harper at pick 20, and then Luis Castillo and Francisco Lindor. So through two picks, Chris, you have two outfielders in a league where you only start three and you have no pitchers. Are you okay with that? Yeah. Yeah, I drafted them. Okay. I mean, that was they are very good outfielders. They are good. The thing is like Harper in this format might score 550 points. He did that each of 2019 and 2018. The the guys who you're drafting instead of him, Luis Castillo, like, I don't think he's ever scored that much. And yes, I understand the positional scarcity, but the thing about a points league is you're just trying to outscore the other guy. Right, but you have to outscore that you have

certain lineup spots that you're working with to outscore the person. You still have to come up with five starting pitchers. No, I understand that. I understand that. Okay. But Chris, I think that the combination of taking Luis Castillo in the second and say Mike Yistremski in the 12th will outscore the combination of you getting Bryce Harper in the second and whatever pitcher you're going to get in the 12th, if that makes sense. Maybe. Maybe. It is a maybe. But, like, Bryce Harper's a much more

sure thing to be an elite player than Luis Castillo is. Sure. But they're going. Luis Castillo has not excelled. I understand the point. You don't need it. The only chance to get the Luis Castillo is the draft. The only chance to get

the quality outfielder isn't necessarily the draft because there's only three. Right, right. But it's not, Bryce Harper's not a quality outfielder. He's going to outscore all but like the three best starters in the game in this format. After Chris took Bryce Harper 20th overall, we did see Luis Castillo go off the board and then Francisco Lindor, Anthony Rendon, and Jack Flaherty to finish up the second round. And then to start off the third, we see Scott's boy. Corey Seeger, he ain't making it back to you, Scott. Corey Sear goes 25th, and then Kenta Maeda and Walker Bueller to start the third round.

So we, yeah, pitch. I mean, hitters are following Trevor's story in the third round here. That's, I would say, a really good value even in a points league. And Chris, you are now on the clock. You do not have a starting pitcher yet. Is that the direction you are leaning? Maybe. Yeah, that's certainly what I'm looking at.

That's not what my ranks suggest. Talk us through it. yeah I mean my top players in the rankings are mani machado zander bogarts and rafel devours then it's brandon woodruff and lance lynn um and i can see the merits of going with a pitcher here um i mean you you have to follow the ranks chris you have to yeah i mean that's that's the kind of thing where like you should mostly follow your ranks but at some point you do have to deviate from them. And, you know, I was just doing a draft where, uh,

I think Reese Hoskins was my top player for like four rounds, but I only had one hitter spot left. So, you know, I couldn't take him. But I am going to take advantage of the opportunity to take three of my top 19 players. So I'll go with Manny Machado. Hmm. So at this point, Chris has Juan Soto on his team, Bryce Harper, and Manny Machado goes 29th over.

overall. And I just think that feeds into, not that I would have taken a pitcher fifth overall, because I probably would have taken Soto as well. But, I mean, if I get Machado in the third round as my top hitter and I start with two pitchers, I feel great. I feel great about that. So you are seeing some of these really great hitters, quality hitters in a points league. Xander Bogartz is one of them. He excels in this format. Hits a ton of doubles every year. Quality plate discipline as well. 30th off the board there in the middle of the third round. Two more picks and I am up and I will tell you I hope one of Woodruff or Gallen fall up.

No. No. No. No. This is terrible. You're a Woodruff right after him. Yeah. Yeah. That did not go well for you, Frank. This is the problem, Chris, because I don't want to take Carlos Carrasco in the third round. I don't want Lance Lynn in the third round. Don't do it. But I'm going to hate my pitching, man.

Aye, aye, aye. So let's reassess what we've got going on here. I've got Fernando Tatis and I have Aranola. Alex Bregman is great in a points league. Could go the position scarcity route here with DJ LaMayhew at second. They're both great. And points. He excels in this format.

I don't know how many pitchers Scott's going to take. I mean, he might take Lance Lynn here. I don't even like Lance Lynn. All right. I'm not going to do it. I'm going to take, and this is one where I have Breggman ranked higher, but I think the third base position is a little bit deeper, so I have no problem taking LaMayhew.

And if it works out where a second baseman falls later on, DJ LaMahue has three different position eligibility, so I can move them around, and I really like having that flexibility in the middle of the draft. I think it's interesting how Trevor's story felt around three here because he is a consensus first rounder in Roto leagues and I mean

obviously the steals aren't a necessity in head to head points like they are in Roto but I mean steals are still worth two points apiece and Trevor's story was clearly a stud in this format last year and has been

multiple times before that 2018 and 2019 yeah I'm trying to see exactly where he ranked among hitters. So he was the... It looks like he was in the top 15, for sure, among hitters. Shortstop, you know. I don't know.

Maybe it makes sense with all those pitchers. Some hitters have to be pushed down. I'm just surprised he's not at least a clear-cut second-rounder in this format. Scott, you're on the clock. I know, I know. I could go with another pitcher here, and I'm tempted to. but Alex Breggman. But Breggman is still there,

and obviously with the great walk-to-strikeout ratio, very studly in this. I'm going to go with Breggman. I'm going to go with Breggman. I think the value is just too good to pass up, and I know I'm going to get a pitcher on the way back, whether it's Carasco or Len. He could go Carasco, Lynn here.

Chris Mitchell could at the turn, in which case I'll pivot to a different pitcher. You sniped him, according to the chat. Okay. Jose Berrios. And some people are going to react and say, Wow, Berrios at the 3-4 turn. I do think it's a little bit early,

but quality starts are, you do get bonus points in the heads-to-head points format, and Jose Berrios over the past three years has been one of the best in terms of quality starts. So by the end of the season, yeah, he'll probably have a high-3s ERA, but consistently goes deep. And another pick there in George Springer,

who he excels in points leagues. Honestly, he probably should have been gone before pick 37 in this format. Scott, you're back on the clock. Yeah, so he left me both Carrasco, and Lynn. And I'm wondering if I should have skipped Bregman and just gone Carrasco

Lynn with these two picks. Because now now I'm kind of curious to see how long Carasco would be around if I let him go, him dealing with that elbow soreness that doesn't sound like a big deal, but just the fact that it's an elbow

and he has that red cross next to his name and might cause him to slide. I think there's no way he'd make it back to me as aggressively as people are going after starting pitchers. I'll just go with them. I have him ranked over Lynn, and I'll stick with that.

You made the right call, Scott, because I'm really hoping Dan Gilbert here does not take Lance Lynn. Oh my God! Come on! It's almost like he's watching or something. There probably is... Oh, my God.

And, you know, I think this is a great spot to get Boba Shet, too, but I just... I can't do it because I already have a shortstop anyway, but it kind of... I compare him to Tati so much, and it's not fair because Tatease is awesome. But Tatees was getting pushed down the board,

specifically in Points League last year, and he turned out to be awesome. It's another thing with Bo Bichette, where his fantasy pros ADP says he goes at the two-three turn. That's mostly in roto drafts. If Bo Bichet is falling to the fourth round, give me that. I love it.

But with that being said, I do have Blake Snell ranked higher than Stephen Trosberg. But Blake Snell didn't go as deep into starts when he was in Tampa Bay. Maybe he goes deeper now with San Diego. this is probably a change I'm going to have to make in the rankings here, but I'm actually going to go with Steven Strasberg. Pretty enticed by what we saw.

We didn't have any video of it, but based on what the beat writers were saying about Stephen Shrosberg in his first spring start, everything looked good. He recorded five outs, four of them via the strikeout, and I'm getting a little bit more excited about Steven Shrosberg. So at this point, I have two hitters and two pitchers. And normally, in a points league, I would like to have three pitchers in the first four rounds, but,

Sometimes it be that way. Speaking of Boba Chet, he goes off the board with the 41st pick in the fourth round here. And we're coming up back to you, Chris, and you don't have a pitcher yet. Nope. And my top player on the board is not a starting pitcher. As you can see by my rankings, neither is mine. Yeah, your number two is my number one. But I already have a third base.

So this is a spot where I will probably go away from. my rankings and I will probably take a starting pitcher here. It depends on who goes in the next few picks, but I've got a couple of guys who are close enough to this range

where like Junjin Riu is my number 41 overall player in a points league. If I get him at 44 overall, I'm perfectly happy with that, even if I do have some hitters ranked slightly higher than him.

And Blake Snell goes off the board with the next pick after Bo Bichette, Blake Snell. That was my top pitcher at pick 42. So you would have taken him, Chris, if Snell made it. Yeah. Who would you have taken, if Strasbourg and Snell are both on the board, who would you take between those two? I have Snell ranked higher, but I think like you, I probably would have preferred Strasbourg, just because I think the best case scenario for both of them, Strasbourg probably throws 20 more innings. And in this format, you know, if you're talking about that's probably a point and a half two points per start.

Of course, Stephen Schrosberg coming back from a carpal tunnel surgery that he had last year and apparently it was a short procedure. It only took 15 minutes. That was reported by, I want to make sure I get this name right. I think it's Maria Torres who covers the team for the Washington for the athletic.

Yes, it's Maria Torres. She reported the procedure for Shrosberg only took 15 minutes. So hopefully he is good to go. And it's kind of like in every other year thing with Strasbourg. One year he gets hurt. The next year he becomes a value

and then he's awesome. So hopefully this is a year where... Oh, I was... Zach Rankia, I was hoping, would come back to me. But that's okay. Janjun Riu is my highest ranked player. So I will take him as my number one starting pitcher.

I know he would have been Scott's number four. That's fine. And when I was just looking at the pitcher is further down, I was kind of hoping Ryu would make it back to me. No, no chance that was happening. No, I got my eyes on a couple of guys, though. Ah, I was hoping Kyle Hendricks would come back to me.

This is not working out the way I hope it would. It's falling apart. It's all falling apart. We've only had two, three hitters. We've had three hitters go here in round four, three out of the ten picks, George Springer, Bo Bouchet, and Raphael Devers. And then the rest, I mean, we're getting into,

we're clearly getting into second tier, really verging on third tier at starting pitcher now with Granky, Riu, and Hendricks going off the board. So after Snell went, of course, Zach Granky,

that was an auto draft pick, kind of similar to Jose Barrios. It's a little bit early, but he's pretty safe in points leagues. He goes deep. He gives you quality starts as well. Chris took Junjun Ryu. He spoke about that.

And I don't think Granky was too early there. Yeah, I mean, in a points league, it's, it's arguable. It's fine. It's fine in this format. His peripheral, I know his ERA was higher last year, but his peripherals were great. I really, Zach Rankie's one of my most drafted players so far. I've never been this guy to do the whole ages thing. I usually draft too many old players, but on the pitching side this year, I'm just a little bit more worried about Max Scherzer and Engranky just getting up there in age. It's, I mean, it could easily make me look foolish. I acknowledge that, but, uh,

yeah, I think they're more likely to, to hold up than the 23 and 24 year olds. Yeah, no, they've done it before. After Raphael Devers went, Kyle Hendricks went off the board. Aaron Judge, who I have as a bust more so in a roto league, because, and it's overvalued,

just because you can get production similar to him later on in the draft, but in a points league, the plate discipline just walks so much. I think Aaron Judge is a solid pick here. I pick 47. Then Nolan Aronado goes 48th, and Corbyn burns to start the 50s,

round pick 49 is off the board chris yeah so go ahead scott i was i was trying to count up real quick how many pitchers have gone versus how many pitchers have gone you mean pitchers versus hitters 22 yeah so 25 pitchers have gone through 51 picks now so 25 pitchers versus 26 hitters through 51 picks nearly even wow yeah Yeah, and like, I understand the positional scarcity and everything, but like, and this is not a knock on the person who drafted him, but like, Zach Pleasack at the 50th pick, I just like, I can't see it in any like positional scarcity, anything like that. I just, I think the value of hitters, especially right now, is much greater. I will just say regarding Zach Plissac, I know he was also. him in this format last year and he went super deep into his starts. And that has a lot to do with him pitching efficiently. If he's not as efficient this year, he's not going to go as deep into

starts. But Cleveland, I mean, they are just so likely to let their guys go. Like, you know, Terry Francona, more of an old school kind of guy. He lets his pitchers go deep in his starts. And it definitely helps in points leagues. 50th overall. Okay, I think we could say that about a lot of the pitchers being pushed up. But what about you, Sky? You have any issue with that? Zach, Plessack 50th overall at this point? Well, you know, Chris and I disagree on Plesack. And I see It is more of an upside play, and Chris sees it more as a downside play. So I'm not balking at him specifically,

but we are getting to the point, even in my rankings where it's clear that the hitters available, outclass the pitcher's available. So my fifth ranked remaining starting pitcher is Dylan Bundy, and that's about the point in my rankings where I'm like, okay, everybody above this guy is worth paying up for, everybody below him. You know, you may find some upside plays in there,

but they're generally not worth paying up for because you don't really have a great idea what you're getting into. So we're right on the cusp of that now. I don't know exactly how I'm going to handle my next two picks here at the round 5-6 turn. After Zach Pleseck went off the board, we saw Ozzy Albies go pick 51,

Sonny Gray went pick 52, Chris took his boy, Ian Anderson, 53rd overall. And then Patrick Corbin, another auto draft from our guy, Brent. He turned his auto draft off and then got auto drafted and now he just turned it off again so

he's around I just maybe he doesn't want to make his own picks maybe I guess I don't know yeah we just saw Jose Bray you go 50s you realize we're live here Brent don't you yeah come on Brent my uh my next 15 players in the ranks are hitters yeah I mean you're let me go back to the

the overall ranks that my top four right now are all hitters then we have Tyler Glass now. Seven of your top 10. Yeah. And eight of your top 12 and then like the next 12 are our hitters. I don't really want Tyler Glass now.

More so because of the injury concerns. I guess when he's right, he does go deep into his starts. He's the only guy on Tampa Bay, which I feel like they're going to kind of just let him go and be that guy. But when the walks are an issue, he doesn't really go all that deep into his starts. Scott's coming up, kind of scared about what he's going to do with the pitchers here. Glass now only had four starts last season

of six innings or more. Mm-hmm. All righty. You know what? Quality starts. Five. Let's just do it, baby. Get your guys.

You got to get your guys, man. And I'm pulling him up the board. He was my next pitcher behind Tyler Glass now, who just went 58th overall. I went with Chris Paddock. So at this point in the draft, I have DJ LaMayhew at second. I have Fernando Tatis at short. My three starting pitchers are Aranola, Chris Paddock,

and Stephen Strasbourg. And Scott, you are up. What do you think of my Chris Paddock pick? I think your Chris Paddock pick is fine. I mean, there are some other pitchers, I believe, in, over him, including the one I might be about to take here. Zach Wheeler, I think he's somebody who's reliably going to pitch deep into game. and just be a really secure option here in my rotation.

But like we're running out. We're running out. So if you wanted another potentially high-end pitcher, I think if Paddock was your preference there, you had to take one of them if you wanted it because I really am skeptical that one's going to make it back to you. So yeah, I'm going to go ahead and take Wheeler here. Even though I like the value of some of these hitters,

I was really tempted to take JT Real Muto there, actually. I feel like this format is, the format where I'm most interested in having him because of the playing time advantage and his ability to accumulate more points that way. And like I said, only nine lineup spots to fill, which means the more impactful you can make them the better. I mean, getting far and away the best catcher seems like one potential route to doing that. But I went with Wheeler because I'm trying to stick to my original plan of taking all the

good pitchers until they're out. I broke once for Breggman there on round three. I'm trying not to do it again. And Wheeler consistently went deep into his starts last year with Philadelphia, pitched more to contact last season than ever before. Lots of ground balls. But the swinging strike rate was actually the best of Zach Wheeler's career. So I have a feeling the strikeouts are going to bounce back for one.

Zach Wheeler. I don't have a problem with it. I was hoping he would make it back to me. I would have taken him as my fourth starting pitcher. And based on... So I only have one pitcher left inside my top 30, and that is Max Fried. This is not his best format.

So I might be looking at a hitter here. Let's catch you up on some of the other picks that happened. After Jose Abrae went, we saw Pete Alonzo. Let me go back to this view so everyone could see what's going on. We saw Pete Alonzo go 56th overall. I took Paddock. Tyler Glass now went one pick later. Scott took Zach Wheeler.

And then at the turn, we see Glaber Torres 60th and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who on Thursday went three for three. and all three hits were over 107 miles per hour in exit velocity. You love to see it. Scott, you're back up with 40 seconds left. I'm going to do it. I'm going to stick with it. I'm really curious to see what my lineup ends up looking like.

You know, if we're playing for keeps here, I might go ahead and go Real Muto. I might go Luke Voigt, who's still out there. But I'm going to go with Max Fried instead. I have five starting pitchers with my first six picks. Oh, Scott. I'm not calling it quits there for the. pitching, but I might take a break from it for a while. We'll see what comes back to me.

Well, I couldn't take Max Fried even if I wanted to because Scott just took him. So I will be looking at a hitter at this point. I think that there are some great values. So Tim Anderson's up at the top here. I already have Fernando Tatis, so I will not be selecting Tim Anderson. Roto is his better format because he is not going to walk very much. He has a high batting average, which helps in this format as well, but the steals. You like the steals that he gives you in a roto context for one, Tim Anderson all the way up at the top. We also have Whitmeryfield. I have a second baseman. I can move DJ LaMahue around. That's interesting. Something I could do. You know, Scott loves Whitmerfield. So, yeah, I think, I think it's another, he's another example of

a base dealer getting pushed down more than he deserves to in a points league. You know, all the base Steelers get elevated to kind of an alarming degree in Roto leagues just because they're such a steel scarcity, you have to really overpay for them. But in this format last year, Whitmerfield, who doesn't strike out a lot, who gets a lot of

for base hits, I want to say, gets a lot of doubles. Yeah, he does. 40 plus in 2018 and 2019. So he was behind Lambs. Mayhew behind Dylan Moore actually. Dylan Moore was second in this format on a per game basis. Obviously not being targeted like that this year. Brandon Lau was third in fantasy points per game at second base, but then when Whitmerfield was fourth, 3.29 fantasy points per game. And just to compare that to a player at a different position, somebody who had similar point per game production, Zander Bogartz was 3.26.

So Whitmeryfield was better than Zander Bogart's on a per game basis in this format last year. And he's been right at that level basically every single season. 2017, I think 500 points is kind of the like, I would say that's probably the like almost elite barometer here. And his three full seasons are 479, 515, 511. and the 479, he only played 145 games. Last season, he was on pace for, I think, 540 points. So, yeah, he's very good in this format in a way that definitely was being overlooked to date. After Scott took Max Freed, we saw Luke Voigt go 63rd overall.

And then I was on the clock and I was debating Whitmeryfield or Kyle Tucker. And Whitmeryfield's a fine pick. If I needed a second baseman, I might have went that route. He has outfield eligibility as well. But it's just not sexy, man. I went with Kyle Tucker. I wanted a little bit more flash there, maybe some more upside out of Kyle Tucker. But those were the two hitters that I was debating.

So at this point in the draft, I have six players, three hitters and three pitchers, LaMayhew, Tatis, and Kyle Tucker. And then my pitchers are Aranola, Strasbourg, and Paddock. Pitching is an ideal, but I don't think it's terrible either. I feel pretty good about it. Whitmeryfield went with the very next pick after I took Tucker. J.T. Real Muto finally goes off the board, 66th overall. And then Jose Altuvei 67th.

Chris, you're up with 10 seconds. Who are you going to take? Yeah, I'm going to take one of my guys, Cattel Marte. He is hitting the ball incredibly hard so far in spring training. I think his lack of power last season was almost entirely related to the fact that he had a wrist injury. I believe in the skill set that he showed in 2019 when he was a borderline first round pick. I said that 500 point threshold is the very good to elite tier.

He was at 558 and 144 games. I think he can get back to that level. I believe in Cattel Marte, elite batted ball, quality of contact numbers. I'm fully bought in. Yep. And for Catele-Marté, really good plate discipline in his career, a 14.8% strikeout rate. You do get penalized for strikeouts in this format.

So you typically want to target hitters that have good plate discipline. He doesn't walk a ton. But I mean, 7.8% is pretty good. Yeah, it's fine. You should hit a lot of doubles as well, which helps. Can I go back to something you said earlier and just be a little bit of a turn in the punch bowl? Because I had to look this up. Sure.

Vladimir Guerrero did have three batted balls. three hits today, all hit at least 107.9 miles per hour. I know exactly what you're about to say. The launch angle was 2 degrees, 20 degrees, and 3 degrees. The 20 degree one was a home run, a 412 foot home run. The other two were singles. It's not what we want to see, Vladito. It is not what we want to see.

Probably doesn't mean anything. I just, that is the question for him, we have no doubts that he can hit the ball hard. The question is whether he can elevate it enough and, you know, Just do it. After Chris took Cotel Marte, 68th overall, we see Eloy Jimenez, 69th. Nice there. Even if you don't like Eloy Jimenez in the sixth round, I think that's at 69th.

I like that value there. I was debating him at my pick, but I do think Kyle Tucker is a little bit better in this format. Josh Hater, first closer off the board. Come back to that in a second. J.D. Martinez, he is the first, I believe the first utility eligible guy, right? Yeah. Goes ahead of Yerdon Alvarez. So it's usually once we see one of these guys go, they all start to go, so we'll pay attention to that.

Scott, what do you think about Josh Hater, 70th overall? It just seems like this is not the format that you want to pay up for a relief pitcher. Well, it's certainly not what I would do. Somebody has to do it or else. If we were all just waiting for the last relievers off the board, I don't know, I guess at some point I'd have to jump in a draft hater. But yeah, it's mostly relief pitcher points come from safe. almost entirely. I mean, they don't accumulate innings, which is a big way starting pitchers get points. Strikeouts are only half a point in this format. So you need a lot of them to add up to a significant contribution.

And especially since you're only scoring it a week at a time, there's only so much advantage one reliever can have over another in terms of strikeouts in the span of one week. So it's just about consistency of getting saved, basically. And there's only a lot. so much that a high, there's only so much more that a high end reliever can do that than a low end reliever. And it's not, when you're talking specifically about saves contribution, it's, it's,

it's not a direct, it doesn't directly, it correlate to where you take the reliever. I mean, yes, somebody like on a bad team like Raphael Montero is probably going to get fewer saves than somebody on a good team like a Roldus Chapman. But it's,

it's, The distribution of that over the course of the season, and certainly from week to week, is pretty random. So you're just not going to feel the impact of that high-end reliever very much. If you guys are watching the mock draft live right now on YouTube, you might have thought that I had a crystal ball, because as soon as I said, J.D. Martinez off the board, this usually means the other utility guys go.

Nelson Cruz, with the very next pick. Charlie Blackman goes 73rd overall. 6th O. Sanchez, 74th. Wilson-Gatreras, 75th overall. and then Yurdon Alvarez, 76. And I really wanted one of those three. There is still one of the big four remaining, who will remain nameless for now.

But I think you all know who I'm talking about anyway. Chris takes Jesus Lazardo, and then Starling Marte and Tim Anderson go off the board. They're better in Roto, but these are fine values to get them at this point. The seventh round of a head-to-head points league. It was too far, honestly, in my opinion, for Tim Anderson to fall.

Chris talked to us about Jesus Lazzardo, who made his debut on Thursday, his spring debut, and he was fantastic. Yeah, it's weird that there was so much more excitement about him last season than there is right now. And I think that's kind of indicative of that mystery box versus a boat thing. You know, the mystery box could be anything. It could even be a boat. And, you know, how much you've always wanted one of those, Jesus Lazzardo is a boat. And boats are awesome. he was excellent last season.

His ERA was a little higher than we hoped it would be, but I think we're kind of forgetting that this is, he was a 22-year-old who he had pitched 43 innings the previous season. He had 31 innings or 43, 43 innings above AA in his career. Like, I think he's going to take. a significant step forward. The stuff is excellent. I don't know if you guys saw his turkey sub today, but that was quite fun. He threw some kind of 63 mile an hour pitch today that he referred to as a turkey sub. Lazzardo did? Yes. Oh, I did not see this. It's, yeah, I think he talked about

like he didn't really have his feel for his curveball last season. He feels better about it right now. The reasons we were so excited about him last year are still there. And the fact that he went out and had a 4-ERA as a rookie, that doesn't scare me off of him. He's an incredibly talented pitcher, arguably one of the three or four most talented pitchers in the world under the age of 24.

and I'm fine grabbing him. There are questions about innings. Maybe he gets pulled back later in the year, but you worry about that when it comes. The last thing I'll point out about Luzardo and then catch everyone up. He had a dreadful start on August 14th last year. He found out he was starting the day of

because Frankie Montas got scratched. If you take that start away, he allowed six earned runs over three and a third. He had a 3.42 ERA and his other 11 starts. Again, that is Hazardos, Lazzardo, who is growing on me quite a bit as well. And he averaged like 5.5 innings per start. If you look at the overall numbers, it was 59 innings and 12 games, but he made three relief appearances where he didn't go more than four innings.

They trusted him to go 90 plus. They trusted him to go up to 100. So I think, you know, he could be a guy who gets to 150 innings this season. After Tim Anderson went 79th overall, Denelson Lomette, went 80th. I took Charlie Morton 81st, and then hold on a second. I like Aaron Savale. Aaron Savali just went with the 82nd overall pick in the seventh round of this draft. And then, Scott, you took Nick Castiano.

So talk to me about these three picks that just happened, including yours. Savale, as much as I like them, I think it's too early. Is it too risky for me to take Charlie Morton when I also have Steven Strasbourg on my roster? Because that's what I was wrestling with. No. I don't think I don't think that would be a factor for me Okay

No I Yeah I I think I don't know That wouldn't be a factor for me You just got to get You just got to get the best pitcher you can And they're all big injury risks That's kind of how I approach it

You know unless they're dealing with a known injury I'm not going to put Their risk is that much higher Than anyone else's For that specifically I'm really torn here what I want to do. Talk us through it. I almost took Suarez with my last pick

and remembered, oh yeah, the only hitter I have so far as the third baseman, pregnant. So that would be a bad idea. Louise Robert is still there, which, you know, obviously tons of upside, but it's, you know, his plate discipline really pulls down his points. It wasn't, he did not have a great performance

in this format last year. Biggio did because he walks a lot, but there are a lot of quality second baseman there still, I think I'm going to take Dylan Bundy. I think I'm going to take my sixth starting pitcher because I think he's another big volume guy who's good, who's going to give quality production. Obviously, small samples suggesting that

and people have raised questions about, because he didn't finish as well as he started over the small sample. But I still think the control is good, the swing and miss potential with the, with his breaking ball is good. He plays in a big park now in a division with a lot of big park, so he's not going to get crushed by home runs

like he did in the A.L. East. And I like having access at that position. We'll see. We'll see what kind of hitters I end up with. But this is a fun experiment. I am looking forward to seeing how the rest of it plays out. So I am on the clock with 35 seconds remaining, and I'm thinking about taking Trent Grisham,

but he tweaked his hamstring in a game Thursday. We don't know much about it right now. I might have to lower him in the ranks. I'm looking at Luis Robert as well. I already have one outfielder, but Ehio-Swarres, Chris is kind of talking us into this guy, and I'm looking at the third base position. I also have LaMayu.

Nah, you know what? I'm going to take Luis Robert. And this is not his preferred format. I realize that he's going to strike out quite a bit. But I like the upside of pairing Kyle Tucker and Luis Robert up together here. I was thinking about taking Ehio Hano-Swarz. I was close there. Got to get more information on Trent Grisham.

Of course, I love Austin Meadows. I think it's pretty close between Meadows and Luis Robert in a points league. But, yeah, I wound up taking Robert there. I was really torn. I knew I wanted to take one hitter at that turn. If Bundy made it to me on the second pick, I was going to have to take him because he was, he's what the tears tell me to say. Like, he's the last in his tier.

Most of the other active tiers are far from completion. And because of that, I was really torn between what hitter to take. I ended up with Castellanos. But Robert, I mean, he's an upside play himself. I thought about Grisham as maybe the safer guy. You know, he walks a lot, which helps his production in this format. I might have taken Grisham. If not for that little Red Cross next to his name with the hamstring injury,

not knowing exactly how that's going to turn out for him. It was tough. It was tough. There's a lot of good. Austin Meadows, who you mentioned, Frank, has a really high ceiling. There are a lot of high ceiling hitters left, and that's, now's when I need to start taking advantage of that, but it's like there's too many high ceiling hitters left that I can't decide between them.

Let's catch everyone up on what else has happened. After you took Castellanos at the end of the seventh round, we saw back-to-back relievers to Chris Mitchell. He took Liam Hendricks and a roll of his Chapman. So locking down his two relief pitcher spots there, Scott came back, told everyone he took Dylan Bundy. Kevin Bigio went 87th overall, and he has second, third, and outfield eligibility.

I took Luis Robert. John Carlos Stanton goes off the board at 89. Pick 89, Austin Meadows with the next pick at 90th. And Randy Rosarena, auto pick 91. Chris, you are on the board. Trent Grisham is my top player available. I assume he is not your top player available. What's going through your mind?

Yeah, my top player available. It's a third baseman and two outfielders. So, given that I already have a third basement and two outfielders, I will probably pass on that. And Trent Grisham is actually my sixth player here. He is, you know, with the high OBP, he should be someone who is fairly good in this format. but I will probably continue to fill out the starting pitching staff,

and I'm choosing between, I believe, my top three left are Pablo Lopez, Sandy Alcantara, and Joe Musgrove. Never heard of me. I think I think I'm going to go with Alcantara. I'm really starting to talk myself into him. He's one of the handful of guys who I think could throw 200 innings this season. I believe in his ability to consistently outperform his peripherals. And the peripherals were better last season.

He was like a 3-7-fip guy last season. If he's a 3-75-fip guy, that might mean he's a 3-5-ERA guy. And if he does that, you know, while striking out a little less than a badder per inning, he was 8.4 per 9 last season and keeps the walks to like 3.5 per 9. I think Sandy Alcantara could be a legitimate must-start pitcher in this format. I agree. I like him in this format a lot. I think he's one of the pitchers who gains the most from this format, Al-Cantara,

because the big concern for him, not enough strikeouts. Well, strikeout, their impact is lessened in this format anyway, because they're only worth half a point each. What you really want is stability and volume. He only had one start last year that was less than six-seeing. Sandy Alcantara did. And you can't say that about many pitchers in all of baseball.

And that was with a positive COVID diagnosis that derailed his season. That's true. All right, so let's once again catch people up on what has happened. After Chris took Sandy Alcantara, we saw Pablo Lopez. So you were debating between your Marlins there anyway

and Pablo Lopez is the next pick in the eighth round, pick 93. Michael Brantley, 94th overall. not terribly exciting, but veteran gets it done, makes a lot of contact. Strikeout rate's going to be low. He's going to hit a lot of doubles.

And Nathan Judah takes my guy, Joe Musgrove. So I guess your rankings are pretty good, Chris. People might be using them here because the three that you were debating were the next three starting pitchers. My cue is decimated.

Yeah, I would put players in my queue, but then everyone could see them and we can't have that happen. Speaking on Sandy Alcantara, I did just want to add, yeah, 15.6 fantasy points per game last year. That was tied for 24th among starting pitchers. The three pitchers in a row, 24th, well, tied for 24th, and then 26th it would be. Sandy Alcantara, Ian Anderson, Junjun, Ryu. They're all on Chris's team.

How about that? We are at the 8-9 turn here. I have four hitters on my team and four pitchers on my team. Let's take a look at what Chris. has going on here. He has the same thing. He has four hitters and four pitchers. Three of those hitters came in the first three rounds. But you can see this is what your pitching staff look. And it sounds like Chris likes it. You know, you can wait a little bit on pitching and still wind up with

the pitching staff that you like. He has Hyun Jin Ryu, Sandy Alcantara, Ian Anderson, and Hazus Lozardo at this point. So definitely some upside there. Some picks just went off the board. The 8-9 turn. Corey Klobber, 96th overall. Conforto 97th. Confordo seems like a pretty good value, solid player for this format as well. But Cluber, is this the right

spot, Scott? Is this maybe a little bit too early for him? And he's my third ranked pitcher at this point. I would not want to be in the position where I'm taking Corey Kluber in round nine in a 12-team league. I've taken him like in round 12 in some 15 team leagues.

But obviously the starting pitcher is getting pushed up the board. it kind of has a trickle-down effect throughout the draft where I'm glad I have the pitching I do because I don't want to be in a position where I have to reach for pitching now. I don't know if in the end it's my lineup's going to have some big holes in it. It's possible, we'll see. But yeah, I don't like the value of the pitcher's going right now.

We're definitely at a point for sure here in round nine where the hitters outclass the pitchers. I agree. We are at this point. I need a fifth starting pitcher, and I'm looking at the board right now, and I am not feeling great about what I am looking at. So, might be taking a few hitters here coming up. Yeah, Scott, I mean, I know you wanted to try out the strategy of taking a bunch of pitchers here, but I was a little surprised that you went with a reserve starting pitcher in Dylan Bundy over some of those upside hitters that were available. Well, they let Dylan Bundy come to me, man. Got somebody should have taken him, and then I wouldn't have had to do that. Nobody likes Dylan Bundy, but me. I get it. There's people out there. I think it's just me and Chris who are a little bit down on it. There are dozens of them. Yeah, there are a lot of Bundy supporters out there. After Cluber and Conforto go, we see Carlos Correa. Just fantastic value. I love that. At Pick 98 here,

might even lead off for the Houston Astros, Carlos Correa. Lance McCullors, who, if he felt to me, I probably would have heavily considered. He was my top. He was my top available pitcher back when Kayla took Kluber. Yep. Yeah. He was mine. as well. 100th overall, we see Edwin Diaz.

Then I assume that's Will Smith the catcher, right, Chris? Yep, Will Smith the catcher. Oh, and Eugenio Suarez goes, I thought he might make it back to me there. I mean,

Swares lasted a long time. Yeah, that he was, he's like a top 60 player for me in this format. Even with the strikeouts, he's going to, if he had made it to me here, you know,

he went like four picks before me, five picks before me. If he had made it to me, I would have taken him, even though my third hit her in my second third basement, it would have been worth it for the upside of a guy who might hit 45 home runs and might walk 75, 80 times. He wasn't going to make it to you, Scott. I'm telling you that right now because I am on the clock and I would have selected, would have selected

Eugenio Swar as myself. Again, I have LaMahue who I can move around here, plays a little first second, so I don't really have to focus too much on position eligibility. I could just take the best hitters available, which I have Matt Olson up at the top here. Hmm. Is that the way I should go? Don't really like the starting pitchers. Yeah, let's...

Now, you know what? I'm going to take Muncie. I'm going to take Max Muncie. Give myself even more flexibility here between him and LaMayhew. Not that I really need it, but probably we'll look at taking one of those first basemen,

whoever falls back, just knowing that there's so many here, Muncie has first base eligibility as well. Just excels in this format. He's going to strike out, but the walks hitting near the top of a really good lineup with the Dodgers. This is the preferred format for 1 Max Muncie. Lordez Guriel also went off the board

at pick 102. Trent Grisham finally went, 104th overall, probably aided by his hamstring injury. I took Muncie. And then Ryan Presley goes 106. Scott, you are on the clock, and I think you need some hitting. I do.

I do. So what I'm considering here, I'm probably going to take second base and shortstop at this turn, fill those two weak positions. I mean, shortstop's not a weak position, but it starts to thin out at this point. Only Javier Baez and Danes B. Swanson are really who I'd consider acceptable starters for this format that remain. So I need to take one. Does everybody else have a shortstop? No, me and one other team need a shortstop. Someone's got a shortstop in their utility spot then. Or maybe in a second base spot or something. So the second baseman, I actually have Kest and Hero ranked first here, but Brandon Lau was certainly better in this format last year. You just don't feel good about it, right? Brandon Lau, I don't know.

I'm going to take Lau. All right, maybe you do. Maybe you do feel good about it. It's fine. It's fine. So at this point, we are in the ninth round, and Scott has three hitters, Those three hitters are Brandon Lowe, Alex Bregman, and Nick Castellano.

So he's got a loaded pitching staff, that's for sure. Trevor Bauer, Darvish, Zach Wheeler, Carlos Carrasco, Max Fried, Dylan Bundy there on the bench at the turn. Wow. Wow. Jameson Tion, 108th overall. And Chris Bryant. I don't like Chris Bryant much, but this is a better format for him as well. He's consistently been in that 500 point range with the exception.

of last year in the 2018 when he was hurt. Scott, you're back up in the 10th round. What are you thinking? I know. I thought for sure I was going to take a short. I'm hesitating because only Chris needs one. Would somebody take a second shortstop?

Oh, yeah. I'm definitely, I'm going to take two more if you don't. You want me to pick. But otherwise, I could take Cura, a second, second baseman. I could look at first base,

but there are a few options there that I like. Still, yeah, I'm just going to, I'm going to take by as I have him ranked over Swanson. I think he has the higher seal. I'm going to take bias. By the way, just because I didn't offer really a great explanation for why I went with Lau over Hira, part of it, I guess they're both going to be dual eligible,

so that's not part of it. Kira's obviously going to pick up first base. But LOW averaged 3.32 points per game in this format last year, and that was with some really rough stretches too. while Hira averaged 2.36. I mean, Hira basically wasn't startable in this format last year. And look, he has a lot of upside from there, but also, like, he's got to do with those strikeout issues.

And those strikeout issues, if he doesn't improve in that area specifically, it's going to be hard for him to be an impact player in this format, even if he does, even if he does get that batting average up, 50 points, let's say, from 212. Yeah, Scott took Javier Baez at pick 110. Yasmani Grandaul was the next pick after him at pick 111. And I went ahead and took Salvador Perez. I mentioned I was looking at the first baseman when I took Max Muncie before.

I think there's a chance one of those three can make it back to me again. And even if not, I have that flexibility where I can fill in, I can move LaMayhew to first, and I can just draft a third baseman. So having all that in the back of my mind, I went ahead and took it. took Salvador Perez. Even though he doesn't walk much, I don't think that Yasmani Grande should go ahead of him. And Perez is part of that elite tier, that big three. So maybe a little bit early, but I wanted to get an elite catcher there. And I feel pretty good about that spot. After Perez went, Tyler Malley, someone who I do like, and Paul Goldschmidt, maybe they won't

make it back to me after all. Pick 114. Chris, we are coming up on your 10th round pick. Let's Let's jump over to your team and see what we got going on here. Will Smith, a catcher, Catell Marte at second, Mani Machado at third, Bryce Harper and Juan Soto in the outfield, and four starting pitchers, Ryu, Alcantara, Ian Anderson, and Hayzusu Lozardo.

What's going through your mind? I, assuming, we'll see what, uh, okay, good. I have no doubts about who my next pick will be, and it's making me think I need to move this guy

up in my points league rankings because looking at his numbers, he's pretty much been a borderline elite hitter in this format. That's Rees-O-Wa. Okay. He was fifth at first base, I believe, in points per game, just only

behind Luke Voight and DJ LaMaheo, and I think it was fractional. 3.7 points per game for Hoskins last year. And even his 2019, which I think is, you know, pretty fairly remembered as kind of a disaster when he hit 226. He scored 473 points in this format. 2.95 is what he averaged.

He played 160 games. Which, you know, is most of the players taken to this point in the draft have averaged more than 2.95 points, but that's still like a starting caliber player. Paul Goldschmidt that year who hit 34 home runs for the Cardinals had 2.98. So Hoskins was basically as good as that. And that's the low point for his career. And that's the low point. He was a 3.2 in 2018 and north of 4 in 2017.

But we know that's, oh, yeah, there we go. It's fine. No, that's one of the ones I was hoping to get when I said there were still a few options at first base that I liked. One of them I was looking at was Hoskins. So you jumped in and got him before me. But you didn't take Dansby Swanson. So you left yourself vulnerable at shortstop here. The one thing I do want to point out.

though, in the shortstop conversation. And I don't know whether this is something that we've taken into account enough. But over the last two seasons, Adelberto Mondecy has played 161 games, which is a full season, and he has 491 fantasy points. This might be another case where the stolen base guy is being undervalued a little bit in a points league.

That's not, you know, 4-901 and 161 games, 3.05 fantasy points per game. That's not, like, amazing, but it's pretty good. For his whole career, that's what he's been? The last two seasons.

Last two seasons. Okay. Yeah, he was, he was not that good last year. He was like 27. At 2018, he was 3.4, 3.35.

Yeah. That was Adelberto Monesty, of course, that these guys are talking about, After, where are we up to? Paul Goldschmidt went off the board at 114 that I mentioned. Kenley Jansen, another reliever, 115. Chris takes his guy, Reese Hoskins, 116th.

We are in the 10th round. And Julio Arias with the Dodgers. He does not have SPARP eligibility anymore. He has had that in years past, and that helped his value. But at this point, he only has starting pitcher eligibility and might be hampered by a little bit of Dodgeritis. I don't know that they're going to let him go. very deep into his starts,

but when he pitches on a per running basis, he should be pretty good. Again, that is Julio Arias. Chris, I think part of the reason we have just collectively as an industry had Reese Hoskins ranked as low is because he had that elbow surgery towards the end of last year,

and we had to see how he reacted to that, but he's been playing in the spring. I don't know that he's been very effective, but the fact that he's playing and we're not getting any reports of issues, that should make you feel pretty confident about Reese Hoskins. Yeah, and Tommy John surgery is a big deal, but not really for hitters.

You know, we saw Shohei Otani while he was recovering from Tommy John surgery in 2019 have a really good season. And Aaron Hicks came back and, you know, hasn't been quite as good as he was in 2018, but hasn't been far off. I think Carlos Correa had Tommy John surgery. Is that right? When he was a prospect? I am not.

There was a big name shortstop. prospect or... Glaber Torres, didn't he? Glabort. Yeah, what Torres did for sure. Yeah. Oh, no. It's not that big of a concern

in a, you know, for a hitter. You know, I really... As soon as I said it, thinking that one of those first base would make it back, I knew it wasn't going to happen. So I was playing with fire.

I was playing with fire a little bit there. I was playing with fire a little bit there. Did get my guy, Salvador Perez, when I did. But after Julio Reyes, Kyle Lewis goes off the board. Don't really love that. He strikes out a lot.

So definitely better in Roto. And then Matt Olson, 119th, Anthony Rizzo, 120th. The first base value in this draft has just been great. I've loved this round. So remember that if, you know, every draft is different. But head to head points league, 12 teamer, 10th round, this is a great point to get these first baseman. Well, I mean, there, a lot of the first base crop is better suited for points

leagues because they may not have for average, but they get on base a lot. And that includes Reese Hoskins, of course. It includes one who hasn't. He just went off the board. Carlos Santana, always a points league stud. Anthony Rizzo, he doesn't have a low batting average, but he doesn't strike out much. And so that helps boost his points league value as well, even though his power numbers have been on the decline. So a lot of the hitters I was looking to take have just gone off the board here consecutively. Chris, do it. Take Dansby Swanson.

Take Dansby from Scott. I got a shortstop last time. I don't need Danesby. Take him. I don't think I'm going to do that. Let's take a little gander at Chris's team and see what he needs here. He does need a shortstop. Yeah, shortstop outfield utility.

Could use another starting pitcher. So, where, which way are you leaning, Chris? I think I'm leaning towards starting pitching here. Let's jump over to Chris's ranks and see who he's got up there. That would be Kevin Gosman, Frankie Montas, Marco G. That's Marco Gonzalez. I mean, Hermann Marquez is your guy. Come on, Chris.

Yeah, that's one that I think can wait. I'm going to jump the rankings just a little bit here. And I'm going to go with Frankie Monash. No, don't do it. just hope for that 2019 bounce back for him. You know, he throws really hard. He's always thrown really hard. I don't think the PEDs helped him much with that.

He's talking about throwing his splitter more often this season. I think that can be a big key for him because it is a great pitch. So, yeah, hoping for the bounce back from our guy Franklin Montas. Well, I don't like that because I was looking at Frank. Jimon's Haas myself, but I have a little bit of a strategy thing that I might try out here and see if it actually works. After Anthony Rizzo went, we saw Jeff McNeil, Dom Smith, Let's Go Mets, Carlos Santana, Kesson Hira, just another one. Yes, the play discipline is bad, but some of these guys are being pushed down the board too far. And I think Kesson Hira at 124 is an

example of that. I mentioned how awful he was last year in this format, but yeah, I mean, the upside he could he could certainly become useful again. Let me check what it was in 2019 when he was actually good. His point per game average. Still struck out a lot then, so.

Ooh, wait, hold on a second. Do you see who went 128th overall? It was right around 3.25. I love that pick. 100. I've thought about taking Joey Gallo with each of my last two picks. Who?

You're falling. He did fall a little bit. Actually, this is usually where the ADP is, even in Roto leagues. Yeah, Joey Gall is awesome. No, this is a fine spot to get him. He's going to strike out a lot. Oh, I'm on the clock. Look at that. 45 seconds available. After you took Montas, Chris, we saw Matt Chapman. Pretty good value. Seems to be healthy coming back from that hip surgery. He's been playing in the spring. He hit a home run the other day. Kevin Gosman and then Joey Gallo. So what I am going to do, is, I'm going to look and see

who's available first. All right, well, there are some hitters there that are kind of exciting. I'm going to go ahead and take Mike Soroka, who I know might not be around for the first part of the season, and they are going to slowly ramp him up. So, you know, you might not get full throttle Mike Soroka until mid-May, but there are still enough pitchers here that are not very exciting, but I think,

think they could just fill the void of that fifth starter spot for now until Soroka comes back. And Soroka, you know, if he's, if he's Soroka of old, then he's a lot like Kyle Hendricks, who went back in the fourth round. So, and I just got Mike Soroka in round 11. So I feel, I feel pretty good about getting that discount there. Justin Turner just went 130th. And Scott, you were up. Turner seems kind of reachy for as much time as we expect him to miss. He'll be kind of a headache. I like that word. I like that word you just created.

Reachy. That's one that we'll use. It's kind of reachy, you know. Yeah. Um, all right. So I think it's time to take the secret weapon, the points league's secret weapon, who I think slides too far in Roto leagues as well, but points leagues especially. Oh, I know who it is.

Here we go. He was a stud last year. And his name is Mike Yistremski. Look at that. I know Scott. I know. Yeah. So Mike Yistrimskiy averaged more.

points per game in this format than Kyle Tucker, uh, Trent Grisham was right there with George Springer basically, 3.55 points per game. And, you know, without having some kind of like crazy, crooked number because of the small sample, you know, the way we saw certain numbers inflated, he just, he just has really good plate discipline and enough power for it to

for it to play up for him in this. format. So somebody I hoped to get from the very beginning. I'm glad I got him. I have a problem at first base. I didn't really want to take Mike Moustakis. Well, because he's, now he's kind of, he's kind of fringy in this format. Now you can't because he's going. Now I can't because he just went. So I'm going to have to, I'm going to just have to go the upside route at first base. There's no reason to do that yet. I'm kind of tempted to take Swanson, but. And then, and then you would have dual shortstop and Swanson would be thrown into your utility

spot. Let's look at your, yep, he is your top hitter available. Or you can take Will Myers, who is your second top hitter available and that would fill out your outfield. This might be a little early to do that to fill out all three spots, but. Yeah.

Yeah. Um, hmm. I think I'm going to take Hayes actually because I know I really like him. and he keeps getting pushed up draft boards. And there isn't a clear guy I have to take here. So I'll just take the preferred one that I think has a high ceiling.

And a pretty high floor, too, since he doesn't strike out much. He goes in my utility spot since I have Bregman. And there's fine. There goes your boy, Scott, Trey Mancini off the board at pick 135. I mean, all positions being equal, I prefer Hayes to Mancini. that's fine. At the turn, we saw Ramon Luriano and Mike Mustakis go. Scott, of course, selects

Cibrian Hayes. Let's go back to my little team to be honest, I was tempted to take another pitcher there, but I don't want to have to explain myself. All right, so I have Salvador Perez, DJ LaMayhew, Max Muncie, Fernando

Tatis, Kyle Tucker, Luis Robert. Feel pretty good about that hitting. And then the pitchers, I have Paddock, Soroka, Nola, Strasbourg, Morton could be better. I've got to get someone to fill in for Soroka for the first part of the season at some point. There's no one here at starting pitcher that really...

Well, these are Scott's ranks. That really... I gotta move Framber Valdez down. There's no one that really stands out to me. I am debating two hitters here. Hmm. Do we go with that guy, or do I go with that guy? Yeah, let's do it.

Let's go, White Sox. Of course, my other team... Throw this here. Throw this here. I have a lot of teams now. I have the Texas Rangers. I've got the Yankees. Got the Padres.

I got the White Sox. Where's my guy? Where's my guy? Paul Carrollson. What's up? You took Moncada, right? Yeah, yeah, I took you on Moncada. Yeah.

Yeah, I thought it was too far for him to fall at this point. We're in the 12th round. It's potentially another upside play. Maybe I have too much upside. It's balanced out well. DJ LeMay, he was a high floor play. Max Muncie's a high floor. I think Salvador Perez is a high floor player.

Tucker, I feel pretty good about. Yeah, Luis Robert and Moncada are maybe a tad risky, but you've got to have some upside in your lineup as well. So that's why I went with Moncada there. And I will not reveal the other player I was debating because I'm hoping he makes it back to me. Who else went? We had James Carrenjack and Dansby Swanson

finally goes off the board. I pick 138. Chris, you are on deck. Did you just get that little notification on your ear from CBS? You are on deck. I did get the notification, yes. What do you think? I think now that somebody's taking a second shortstop, Chris is going to jump in from

Mondecy here, right? Or now? Well, he's scrambling. I see Chris right now. He's scrambling. We'll see. You know, we'll see. Oof.

Oh, your boy Marco Gonzalez. That's got to hurt, Chris, going right before you. Marco G. He was at the top of my cue, four pitchers. You know, I'm at a point that I want to have this tiny little rant, and that's just, I kind of hate head-to-head points leagues for this specific reason. In a roto league, I just did a roto league, the rodo baller mock draft, and I didn't draft a single reliever. And I loved it. And you can't do that in a points league.

Points League allows for so much less flexibility in how you draft your team. And I'm considering going with what I think is the last of the sure thing closers in Ryssel Iglesias. He's never been a big points guy in this format, but he always had weirdly low save totals with the Reds. I think the angels will use him differently. So I am going to go with Riesel Iglesias for an RP spot, and I hate it. I mean, I basically don't take a reliever in this format. I typically only take it when I absolutely have to, meaning my last two picks. It may not literally be my last two picks.

It may be fourth from the last pick. I take my first one, whatever. But, you know, I definitely don't believe in making a big investment in it, because with only 24 relief pitcher spots to fill, presumably at some point during the season, there will be 30 relievers first in line for saves on their teams. It may actually be more like 28, but you get the idea.

It's more than enough to go around, especially when you maybe put two or three sparks in that mix as well. So I don't care which closer I get. As long as it's somebody who's getting saves, I'll take them. Marco Gonzalez went at pick 130, well, everything's jumping around. At 139, Chris took Rice-Elegal-Eglacius, 140. You don't have to talk to me about it, Chris.

I love Rice-Leglac-Glacus, so I'm fine with that pick. Hermann-Marquez, 141. I heard a little bit of a groan there from you, Chris, after Hermann-Marquez went. Yeah, I would have loved to get either Marco Gonzalez or Hermann-Marquez as my first starting pitcher on the bench. So, you know, that hurts the depth a little bit. I, you know, that one stung a little bit.

I'm the only person in the world who's disappointed when I can't draft Marco Gonzalez or Ramar Marquez. Tommy Fam goes 142, Gary Sanchez, 143, and then Brad Hand at 144, Shohei Otani. Someone who I know Chris is very excited about as well. Well, me too. That's the pitcher I was going to take if I took a pitcher instead of Brian Hayes' last pick. Okay. Maybe I should have. I don't know.

Seventh pitcher. Chris is catching up to me in raw pitcher count, so I have to do something about that. Kirby Yates, another closer off the board in round 13 at pick 146. Started a little closer run there, Chris. Yeah, look at that. We are about an hour and 20 minutes in. What I'm going to do at some point is I'm going to, I'll cut the podcast off, or we could just leave everything running.

I don't know. What do you guys think? How long should we keep the podcast running? Because we could just stay going on video regardless the entire time. So people are- I don't know that there's a lot of downside to cutting off the podcast. podcast early. Okay. If we're, if we're going to keep talking, if we're going to keep talking and having to be

on our best behavior anyway. Yeah. Because normally we'd be, we would have thrown things by now. There would have been some. Scott would be cursing up a storm. Yeah. Foof. Oh, man.

You don't want to hear Scott on a bad day. Scott after dark. Oof. Yeah. Hey. That's a tough one. I'm not going to tell you when I'm drinking, but let's just say it's a lime green can. If that tells you anything.

About to get wild up in here. Chris just said four loco. Scott, do you know what four loco is? I don't, but I can infer from context. That was a little after your time. Either a little after or a little before, depending on how you look at it here. AJ Puck goes 147th,

and he is maybe one of the better sparse this year. It's really not a bad, it's not a good spark year against sparps in a points league. starting pitchers as relief pitchers. So yeah, Puck goes there and then Jose Orkiti. Chris, you are back up. Yeah, the

Puck will not be a starter to open the season is the only issue there. Worth mentioning. Yeah, I'm a little bit lost on where to go next and I've got six seconds left. So this is going to go really well. you need to pause, Chris?

If you could. Come on. I gave you a little refresh there. Hey, hey, multitasking like we're doing here. Okay, so I'm going to go with a... Do I want to do that, though? Don't do it. Don't do it, Chris.

Yeah, I'm going to go with a utility hitter here, and it's going to be Eric Cosmer. Okay, that's what. I believe in the changes that he made for the most part last season. It's going to bat. in the heart of that very good Padres lineup. He's going to get a ton of counting stats, runs an RBI,

even if he doesn't sustain the gains that he made last season. But if he sustains 90% of the gains he made last season, you're probably looking at a guy who can be in that, you know, 500 point range. Really pushing the limits at shortstop, passing up Mondesie again. But no, Hosper is an interesting case because if you do believe in the gains he made,

you know, specifically trying to put the ball in the air more, then I mean, the cumulative effect of that last year was 3.6, 3 points per game. By far, I'm pretty sure it was by far his highest ever. And, you know, in and with the elites at the position,

and 3.63. I'm more skeptical of that because while he started out putting the ball in the air, more that diminished over the course of the season and his ground ball rate still ended up very high.

I think if we got more four months of data, it probably would have gone higher. But we're assessing this on both sides based on fractions of fractions of sample size. So it's kind of just

it's kind of just a hunch either way you go with it. Yeah, and I looked at earlier and one of the reasons I believe in him is, you know, I looked at the rolling averages and for the most part, if you do, you know, five game average, there's a ton of noise and there were a handful of instances where he was above 50%. But for the most part, even in a five game sample size, for the most part, he was never really over 50% in ground ball rate. If you go to a 10 game sample size, for the most part, again, he was right

around 50%. So, you know, 50% is still a high ground ball rate, but we're talking about a guy who for most of his career has been 55, 60%. If he's a 50% ground ball rate with the quality of contact that he has and, you know, the strikeout rate, which we typically see in the 20% range or below, I think he's an easy 100 RBI, 25 homer guy with a, with, you know, good play discipline and a good average. Again, that was Eric Hosmer that Chris was talking about who he took in the third.

Oh, crap. My shortstop strategy just blew up in my face. And that's who I thought that you were looking at, Chris, because I pulled up my shortstop ranks and I was, I was like, all right, Chris probably has a plan with someone here. And if Semian is batting second for the Toronto Blue Jesus season, where he has been batting in spring. ring. Now things are very hairy. If someone wants to screw me over and take Adalberto Mondesie,

then I'm in trouble. I mean, I do have a utility spot available. Yeah, but you don't want to use Adolberto Mondesie in your utility spot. He sucks in this format. I don't, but I kind of just want to see you freak out. Eric Chris made the gaze for it early. He sucks. Come on. Terrible. After Chris took Eric Hosmer, we saw Christian Javiergo, Will Myers, And Tioscar Hernandez, even Hernandez, who, you know, we have as a bus based on his ADP of 79 in fantasy pros.

He went 150 second. That seems like a pretty good value. I finally get my sixth starting pitcher who will fill in for Soroka until he's healthy. And that is Dallas Keikle, who he's boring. He excels in this format. Should go deep into starts. I think he'll win a lot of games with the White Sox as well. And then Semyon went.

Scott grabs. Travis Darno, Homer. And then, oh, no, I wanted Stroman. I was going to double down here. I had him in my cue. Stroman and Sean Mania at the turn. And Scott, you are back on the clock. Yeah, so I went with Darno there

because he was the last of a tier of catcher that included Gary Sanchez, Yosmani Gruntall, Will Smith. He's going to play a lot for the Braves. They don't have a good backup anymore like they used to have with Tyler Flowers. And he has a lot of run RBI potential in the middle of that lineup.

I think this format is really where I want to try to get an advantage at catcher as long as it's at a discount. I feel like it is for Darno here. And I'm going to fill first base now with one of my sleeper picks who I never get to draft normally, but in a league with so few lineup spots to fill, I feel like Josh Bell fell to me here. And if Josh Bell bounces back to 2019 levels, I go from having one of the worst first baseman to one of the best.

I was debating taking Josh Bell for the past three rounds, and I would have taken him here. He would have been my utility bat. He's growing on me more as well, hitting in the middle of the Washington Nationals lineup. Getting more excited about Josh Bell. So somebody I did want, Scott just lie to me and say you would have taken Dallas Keikle.

Yes, Frank, I would have taken Dallas Keikl. Okay, that makes me feel better. Was that the drop of me singing Gallo? Is there anyone falling? Come on, Chris, tell me. Is there anyone falling? I mean, Josh Bell, I had in my queue for about four rounds. Yeah, me too.

When you took, I don't know, when you took Hosmer right now, I thought you were going to take Bell, and I was like, I don't do it. Eddie Rosario is, even though he doesn't walk much, he's really good in points leagues,

and he would be my third outfielder. Seems like a pretty good value, right? Yeah, let's do that. Yeah, let's go with Eddie Rosario. All he does is print money. All righty. 160th overall. Now with the Cleveland Indians.

And so I fill out my outfield. I have Kyle Tucker, Luis Robert, and Eddie Rosario. If you were watching, you'd see the rest of my lineup here. I feel pretty good about it. I don't know. Pitching staff, it's okay.

I don't know. This isn't my best team. Whatever. Well, breed off some of the names for the podcast crowd. I mean. Right, right, right. You would think.

I host a podcast. I should do this. Salvador Perez I have is my catcher. DJ LaMayhew at first base. Max Muncie at second. Y'amankata at third. Fernando Tautis at shortstop, Eddie Rosario,

Tucker, and Luis Robert in the outfield. My pitching staff is Charlie Morton, Steven Shrosberg, Dallas Keikel, Aaron Nola, Chris Paddock with Mike Soroka on the bench.

Grade my team, Scott. I give your team. I'm... It looks like a solid team. I'll give it a B-plus. I mean, the pitchers... It looks like you got enough depth and enough high-end options there. You know, Robert and Moncada, for this format especially, they seem high risk, but also high reward.

And if for some reason they don't pan out, there's going to be a quality option at third base and certainly at outfield available at some point during the season. You'll be able to swap them out. Like, that's the thing. Like, if you're left with a hole in this format, like, it just feels so temporary because the waiver wire is so robust. and new quality hitters are emerging every week. So that's kind of why I'm making it all about the pitching staff. But I don't think you shortchanged yours. You go Nola, Strasbourg, Paddock Morton, right?

I mean, I wish I had a better number two than Strasbourg. I'd prefer him as number three. But, you know, agreed. Then you got Kikell and you got Seroca on your bench. I think that's fine. I think that's fine. I think that's not a pitching staff that's going to

destroy you or anything. Who would you rather have, Scott? When I took Moncada a couple of rounds ago, I was thinking about taking Josh Bell there, and then I would have had Josh Bell at first, and it would have moved LaMayhew to third. So what do you think about just Josh Bell versus Moncada in this format?

Well, I'm sure I have Moncada higher, but the best we've seen of both of them for this format, Bell, is better. Oh. He was. I mean, he was a monster. He was a monster. 2019. And Molkata was really good too, but not quite as good as Bell.

All right, B plus. I'll take it. Enough about my team. Who cares? After I took Eddie Rosario, Tristan McKenzie, 161, Jorge Soler. Pick 162. James McCann. 163rd. Boo. Chris actually got Adelberto Mondesie. Boo. Anything you want to say? So is he good in this format or bad, Chris? Oh, he's great in this format. Really underrated Adelberto Montesi. One of the better, probably the best value in the draft so far. John Means Business, but does he?

I don't know. The velocity is not where it was last year. Are you backing off John Means, Scott? Oh, I've been far less enthusiastic about drafting John Means. I took him in Tout Wars. I believe it was with my 19th pick, 270-something something. Overall, I took John Means. and I did so with a little reluctance.

And maybe it's stupid. I mean, maybe the whole case for him was stupid. I don't know. Maybe the fact that his velocity isn't up yet to where it was last year. It's just part of the ramping up process in spring training. And, you know, he'll be throwing 94 again by the time the season starts. But I don't know. I just definitely feel more comfortable if, since,

the whole case is based on that jump in velocity. I'd feel more comfortable if that velocity was presenting itself right now. So remember the example I used earlier, which was Chris took Bryce Harper in the second round and I mentioned, oh, well, would you rather have Bryce Harper in this pitcher in the 11th round,

or would you rather have Luis Castillo in the second and Mike Yistremski in the 11th? Just, you know, as an example because Yostremski is good in this format. So, Chris, you actually got you got Frankie Montas in the 11th. So let's just just,

revisit it. Would you rather have Bryce Harper in the second and Montas in the 11th or Luis Castillo in the second and Mike Yistremski in the 11th? Let me do a quick little amount of research on that before I get back to you. All right, let me

ask Scott then in the meantime. Scott, which combo would you rather have? Frankie Montas and Bryce Harper or Luis Castillo and Mike Yostremski? Well, you know I love you Stremski. He performed like a stud last year and I don't think in a way that was unsustainable. So I would take the, I would take the Yistrimski, and who was the early pitcher?

Luis Castillo. Yeah, I would take the Castillo-Yostrinsky combo. But like, we've seen Montas for those 16 magical starts in 2019. We've seen him look like an ace. He cut back on a splitter last year and his ERA blew up. And he's already recognized the need to throw a splitter more. So I'm hopeful in a rebound for him. but, you know, obviously that's putting a lot of faith in something that's kind of flimsy.

But it could work out. I mean, if Montas is who he was in 2019 for a full season, if you could promise me that, then I would take Montas and Harper over Castillo and Yistrimski. But, you know, just playing the odds, I think I like the Castillo-Eastrmsky combination more. After John Means went, we saw a couple more pitchers go. Michael Paneda, David Price. I was debating David Price at my pick when I took Eddie Rosario.

Hmm. Trevor Rosenthal, another closer, and James Paxton to start the 15th round. Nate Pearson, and then Robbie Ray, Blue Jay's starters, back to back. Hmm. Scott, who would you rather have had? Eddie Rosario or David Price?

David Price would have been my seventh starter. Probably Price. I'm actually getting a little concerned to myself that I'm still at six starting pitchers, and they keep going off the board. I'm not sure who I'm interested on any level at this point. I wonder if I should have jumped in there and grabbed a seventh one sooner. You know, my six and certainly my five are so high end that I'm not going to be swapping them out based on matchups.

So it's really just in case one of them bust, in case one of them gets injured. very likely one of them will. Very likely two of them well, you know. So I don't think you can ever completely stop drafting starting pitchers. So I wish there are a couple more good ones left. Yeah, there's not many left. Chris, you are on the board. It looks like you can use another outfielder.

Your top ranked players available are outfielders. Yep. By the way, oh, go ahead, Chris. Sorry. you're oh go ahead okay Andrew Vaughn just went before Chris here in the middle and 172 overall round 15 that was my little groan

that I made okay okay yeah if I didn't get Bell in round 14 that was going to be my plan of first base and I would have been okay with it especially given that there's going to be there's going to be a robust waiver wire in this league like if it just doesn't work out

you need to redo that Chris yeah can you read it that one nope nope he's got to stick with Alex Wood. He's got to stay with Alex Wood. I feel like I was frazzled at the start of the draft and now Chris is getting there. You need a boost to caffeine, Chris?

I'm just, no, I'm just at a point with... You need some of this, Elixir? No, I'm just at a point with Outfield where, yeah, my top players left are outfielders, but I'm really looking at it and there's just not much separation between, like, the top guy and the 15th guy. And so...

Right. It just doesn't make a little... lot of sense for me to pursue that. I do think Verdugo has a good amount of upside in this format, though. If you just wanted to make the case for taking an outfielder here. Yeah, I really struggle with Verdugo. I mean, he hits a lot of doubles. He makes a lot of contact.

He's going to probably, he might not lead off. Kike Hernandez has been leading off for the Red Sox in spring. But when Kiki leads off, they usually have Verdugo second. He should score a lot of runs, too, in that lineup. Yeah, and I expect. that lineup to bounce back as a whole, but I'm just in looking at, you know,

one thing that I wish was easier to calculate was, uh, you know, I'm looking at points per game for Alex Verdugo. And in 2019, which was his better season of the two,

um, you know, he was at like 2.5 points per game, which is really bad. But, uh, he started 84 of his 106 games or whatever, 182.

So I don't know what his points per game was in the starts. You know, so that that's one of the things I'm struggling with. Let's see who else has been drafted. Nope, Chris did not take Alex Wood. That was his auto pick that we backed out. And he took Domingo Hermann at pick 173. And then Adam. I'm not thrilled about it.

Adam Wayne. A riser this spring, I would say. I need to get, I need to get Herman up in my rankings. I think he's going to win the job over Davey Garcia. Just because Garcia has options. and why would the Yankees have taken Hermann this far not to have him make the roster if he's pitching well? So, yeah, there's a lot of quality hitters out there still.

See, that's the thing. Like, my starting lineup is almost full now, and there's still quality hitters out there. Yep, it's exactly right. So, I mean, I feel good about the way this experiment's gone. I have to say, I look at my lineup, it looks strong. Hold on. Let's all judge this together. Let's all judge this together. Is Scott White's lineup, quote, strong, as he says. Travis Darno, I catcher. Josh Bell at first base. Brandon Lauer at second base, Alex Bregman at third, Javier Bayes at shortstop, Nick Castellanos and Mikey Stromski in the outfield, Cabrion Hayes at Utility. Chris, on the Strong O meter, where would you rank this, this, this, all.

offense. I mean, it's pretty weak. But like that's that's the point. Like I have a week starting pitching staff. Yeah. Of course we do. Like that's the whole point of the approach to the drafts is that you're betting that your strength outweighs your weakness. And there's certainly...

I'm actually betting it won't be a weak lineup. I know on paper relative to who I could have drafted, you know, just just in terms of name value. It's obviously going to be weaker because I took some hitters later and some other people took some hitters earlier. But like those are all must start players with the exception of maybe Bell. Right. Like I would argue that my pitching staff's not going to be a weakness, but I'm not going to

say it's not yet. Like it has to prove it. Like, Brian Hayes, I get that you really like him, but, you know, he had a giant jump in production when he got to the majors and we're talking about, you know, 20-something games. He wasn't, he didn't profile based on his minor league track record as a must start guy. This wasn't a guy we were banging down the doors to draft, to add last year when he got called up. If it doesn't work out, there will be some other hitter, you know? That's, that's really what it comes down to me.

Like, it's just, there are way too many hitters to go around. And like, every head-to-head points league I was playing in last year. Oh, shoot, I got a pick here. All right, I'm going to take a pitcher. I'm going to take Griffin Canning because they're running out of ones I like. Every single head-to-head points league I was in last year, there would come a point where it's like,

okay, there's this really awesome second baseman on the waiver wire, but I already have three on my roster. Like, I can't add a fourth. Why won't somebody else add this guy? And it's because they were stacked too. And it's just, I just have it like, I have a feeling that's going to play.

Maybe the deadened ball will change the algorithm again, but I just feel like that's where we are in this format. After who's the last pick that I mentioned? Domingo Hermann went to Chris a while back. Then Adam Wainwright, Andrew Heaney, Dylan Seas. I took Alec Bohm and my entire offensive lineup. All my hitters are filled at this point, which I don't know if that's smart.

I still have to fill two relief pitcher spots. and the rest of my bench is likely going to be pitchers. But, yeah, I mean, Bome at, what pick was it? That was 177, especially in a points league. He makes a lot of contact. Even if he doesn't hit for power, I think a lot of those will wind up being doubles. I love it.

I love getting Bome here as, you know, the last hitter in my lineup. So I feel good about that. And then Max Kepler, who is a points league specialist, Scott took Griffin Canning, Madison, Bumgarner, and Victor Robles at the turn to Chris Mitchell. And Scott, you went with, Clint Fraser, is he one of your starting outfielders?

Yep. So my starting lineup is full now. Clint Flit Frazier was in the last spot there. Obviously, we don't know how legit the breakthrough was, but I like the profile. I like how we increased the walk rate. What it actually added up to last year was per game production, 3.31 points per game, which was on, that's what Kyle Tucker averaged last year. So, you know, there's certainly the upside there for him to be an impact must-start player for me. Of course, if it doesn't work out, I'll find someone else on waivers.

After you took Clint Frazier, Quanghan Kim from the St. Louis Cardinals goes, and then I took Nathan Avaldi as my seventh starting pitcher. And I will pull up my team for those watching. so I wind up with the pitching staff at this point is Nola, Paddock, Strasbourg, Morton, Keikel, I have Soroka when he returns, and Nathan Avaldi on the bench. I think it's all right.

I would like for it to be stronger in a points league, and I think we all three went, all three of us went different routes. I think Scott obviously went very pitcher-heavy. Chris went more with the hitters, first three picks were hitters, and then I kind of mixed and match a little bit. So I think we're a little bit more balanced.

if you're listening or watching, leave us a comment on YouTube, tweet at us, email us in, let us know who you think, which team is best, right? Who did it best for the head to head points format? After I took Avaldi, Montgomery, Zach Eflin,

Roberto Osuna, oh, well, that guy is auto-drafted. Do we need to back that pick out? Scott, what do you think? Yeah, let's do that. Brent Herzog, man. Yeah, I hope Brent takes... No man to call you out, but...

I hope he takes... Luis Severino. Chris just took. Let me see. Let's see here what Brent Herzog needs to take. Let's just make a little pick for him. So the last lineup spot, he has to fill his relief pitcher.

I'll give him the best relief pitcher. No, no, no, no, don't do it. No? No, don't do it? No, no. Craig Campbell. No. Give him Roberto Osuna.

He needed a relief pitcher. Come on. I know, but Osuna needs a team. That's not a legitimate pick. Come on. We haven't talked about Roberto Osuna in a while, who is pitching through a partially torn UCL, I believe, and he either had a showcase recently

or he has a showcase coming up. Some team might sign Roberto Osuna. Is he going to be their closer? I don't know. I guess we'll see what team he signs with ultimately and how he's looking. But again, that is Roberto Osuna current free agent. Chris gets Luis Severino.

Was he the first? the Tommy John recover recovery he had a I think he threw batting practice today I know he threw off a mound at like full go for the first time

and he is ahead of sale and cinderguard I think sales furthest of the three yeah I was curious was he the first of the three to go in this draft he was because I've been surprised Severino is usually the second or third

of the three taken even though I mean sales should Yeah, Tommy John surgery the longest. Yeah. A go. Yeah. I think there was a perception that the Yankees were going to be more careful with Severino than maybe the Mets were with Cindergarde.

But if he's throwing bullpen sessions at like 25, 30 pitches, he might be ready in a month and a half. Right. Exactly. Yeah, I took him with the last pick and my second to last pick in TG, FBI. Yeah, 29th round of the 15 team league earlier today. So I was encouraged by that news for Severino as well. And before, before we go, I do want to go back to the Yistremski-Kestio versus Harper-Montas thing.

Let's do it. Look, obviously, like, I prefer the guys I drafted. Scott prefers the guys he drafted. There's no news there. There's no value there. But what I will say is, based on their production over the last two seasons, I gave the hitters 155 games and I gave the pitchers 32 starts. and Harper and Castilla, or Harper and Montas,

come out 35 points ahead. That's a relatively small gap, but at least based on that, on a per game basis, my guys have been better. That being said, Montas has made 27 starts over the last two seasons. Castillo has made 43.

That's a significant gap. Montas is much less likely to make 30 plus starts than Luis Castillo is, but I would also say Harper is much more likely to sustain the production we've seen over the last two seasons than Yostremski is. You know, Yostremski was much better in year two than he was in year one. So, like, I don't think there's a right answer. And if Montas hadn't been the guy that I took there, you know, it could look very different. If it had been Marco Gonzalez, the math would work out even more in my favor.

But that doesn't necessarily mean it would be the right strategy. Only time will tell. We are now in the 17th round. I'll just quickly mention a few other names that have been drafted. Eduardo Rodriguez, who made his second start of the spring on Thursday, and he looked pretty good at four innings, one run against the twins, the one run he allowed. That was a home run to our guy Alex Kirillov, by the way.

But six strikeouts for E. Rod. So we're rooting for him. He's coming back from the myocarditis from last year. Alex Verdugo finally goes, I just think that's a fantastic pick. pick 191. Mitch Garver and Dylan Moore at the round 16-17 turn.

Tony Gonsolin, who might not have a role to start, but does have some pretty big upside if someone gets hurt. Josh Donaldson at 195, I think that's fine as well. Hard to complain about that value. Nobody needed a third baseman anymore. And then Ryan Yarbrough here at pick 196.

Chris is on the clock. Chris, you could either talk us through this next pick, but I'm getting ready to wrap this thing up. Yeah, I've got a handful of sleeper pitchers left and, you know, only three bench spots. But I'm going to go with my outfielder here. And I'm going to go with Andrew McCutcheon, who we've talked about a little bit, still walks quite a bit, still expected to hit at the top of the lineup. You know, he wasn't quite as good last season as he was before his injury in 2019. But, you know, all told, I think he should be, you know, a guy who average is about.

you know, probably right around three fantasy points per game, which is perfectly fine from my, you know, third outfielder that I'm drafting in the 17th round. He's been at 3.1 fantasy points per game over the last two seasons. Yep, Andrew McCutcheon. He's old. He's boring, but he continues to get the job done. I like him in points leagues. Even in Roto, he goes usually around pick 200. He's going to score a lot of runs. He's not going to hurt you anywhere.

and specifically for this format, he's going to get a lot of plate appearances in a pretty good Phillies lineup there leading off for that team. Scott, anything you would like to say about this draft or in general, your last couple of picks before we wrap up? I think I'm going to move forward with this strategy.

Maybe I would revise it slightly. Breggman, you know, Breggman in round three, that was a hitter value that just screamed out to me. Because in this format, especially, like he doesn't need to have power on the level he showed in 2019. He doesn't need to have 40 Homer power to perform like a first round hitter in this format because the plate discipline is so good.

So at the end of round three, that was just too good to pass up. And, you know, maybe I could have afforded to take another hitter in there at some point. I'm not remembering exactly when maybe instead of Max Fried is my number five. I'm not especially high on this year anyway. I could have taken another hitter there. But for the most part,

you know, the fact that I passed up on like Freddie Freeman and Bryce Harper in round one and two to get Bauer and Darvish, I think that's the way I want to go. And it'll be interesting to see when we do the podcast listeners league, the main head-to-head points league

I'm going to be playing out this year, how aggressively they go after starting pitchers in the first round, because, that could get really wild. People played it pretty safe at the start of this draft, and it allowed me to jump into this strategy a little easier

because all the starting pitchers I was drafted, there were good starting pitchers for a long time. If six starting pitchers going round one, that'll be interesting. And I imagine a lot of people listening, that is how their head-to-head points draft is going to play out. Yep, I agree with that.

last year in our head to head points listener league I had the first overall pick I took Christian Yelich and then at the two three turn I felt like I had to take pitching and I did and I think it was

Lucas Gialito and Charlie Morton and that was those were like my highest ranked starting pitchers at the time and I think I made the playoffs but my team didn't turn out as good as I wanted it to be so yeah I mean

I mean I sure changed it a little I only had four that I really liked and one at the bat one was at the back end and like, I think it was paddock. He just had a terrible year. And so I only had three that were goodish. And it just wasn't enough. I missed the playoffs.

It was, I think it was my worst team last year. All righty. We will wrap, nearly two hours here in the books, doing a head to head points mock draft. Thank you for everyone. If you're still listening here at the near two hour mark or watching, we really do appreciate it for Scott and Chris.

I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching. We'll be back again tomorrow with our bonus mailbag. Bye-bye.