Fantasy Baseball Today - Live Roto Mock Draft Part 1! Rounds 1-10 Picks & Strategy (3/2 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 2, 2023

**APOLOGIES FOR THE DRAFT ROOM POPPING SOUNDS EARLY IN THE PODCAST BUT EVENTUALLY WE FIGURED IT OUT.** We're doing a live 12-team Roto mock draft! In Part 1, we break down the first 10 rounds of picks, offering up strategy and different player analysis. Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Welcome in to a live mock draft edition of Fantasy Baseball. Today, Frank Stamphel, joined by Scott White and the returning Chris Towers. There he is.

Just popped up on the screen. And from here on out, we've got a mock draft once per week leading up to the start of the season. Today on the show, we'll have a 12-team Roto mock draft. Welcome back, Chris. How was vacation? How was Florida? Yeah, it was good. It was dealing with family the whole time.

So, you know, always, always fun. Gladly took a day off after I came back to, you know, do the vacation from the vacation thing. But I'm good. I'm ready to go. Let's season starts in 29. days, let's go. We're ready. 29 days. 28, if you're listening on the podcast, Scott, you didn't get the memo. It was a red shirt date here on the draft. Or you didn't get the memo that it's Jersey Day.

You know what? I will go run and change my shirt right now if I need to. And you guys could just keep this thing going. You don't. All right. Anywho, let's break down the draft that we've got going on today. I mentioned standard five by five Roto categories that we're all used to. Batting average, not OBP, of course. Roto style lineups where you start 23 players, 14 hitters, and nine pitchers, two catchers, one of each infield position, middle infielder, corner infielder, five outfielders, one utility spot, and then nine pitchers, which you could divide up however you want, six starters, three relievers, seven starters, two relievers, however you want to do it. And we're all spread out throughout the draft. Scott is drafting

12th overall. Chris is drafting 7th, and I got the lucky draw. drafting second overall. Got some heavy hitters in this draft as well. Tim McLeod, B. Don from Razball. My buddy Michael Waterloo is in here. And you know I'll have a special eye on Mike Gianella because we are competing in NL-only labor this weekend. Mike's a defending champ.

So got an eye on him. Let's see which players he winds up. He's the defending champ in my Tao Wars League, too. Mike Ginella? Banner year. Banner year for Mike Giannella. Shout out to Mike Ginella. What are we watching for?

Let's see how far these injured players slip throughout this draft today. And heads up for those listening on the podcast side. This is going to be a long one. So we're breaking it down into a two-part podcast. With that being said, Scotty, we're all good to go. Let's fire this bad boy up. All righty. B. Don has the first overall pick.

Julio Rodriguez goes first overall. And maybe my rankings have done. I knew B. Don would do something interesting there at the time. I knew it. I think most people there is a consensus top five. you can rank them in any order, but Julio first overall, that's pretty bold.

It's pretty bold. You can rank them in any order. Julio Rodriguez usually isn't at the top of that order. So Chris recently talked me into Ronald de Cunia as the number one player in 5 by 5-5 roto. So it's not reflected in my rankings. Maybe I need to update them. I'm pretty sure I did that.

But alas, Ronald de Cunia is my number one player. I think you can go him, Aaron Judge, Jose Ramirez, Trey Turner. It's a preference of what you want. However, you want to build your team if you want more power, you can go with Judge.

But me personally, Ronald Acuna, I think, bounces back, fully healthy, one year further removed from the ACL, and we can get a, I don't know, 30-30 outcome from Acuna this season. The third overall pick, no surprise, Aaron Judge. I think we're all kind of expecting this consensus top five as we move it along here. Mike Gianella, the year will 2020 be the year of Mike as well? We'll see what's going on.

And how's your... Although, worth noting, worth noting, Scott does not agree with the consensus top five. Scott has, you have Mookie Betts in your top five, right? Ahead of Ronald O'Cuna? I think it's ahead of Trey Turner.

Okay. Yeah, but then I took Juan Soto ahead of Mookie Betts when I had the eighth overall pick in TGFBI. So, you know, drop Trey Tertrida. I don't know how I feel. I just know I want an outfielder in round one. I don't want a shortstop in round one,

especially in a five outfielder league. whether Mookie Betts deserves to be the one to go ahead of Trey Turner or Wonsoto does, or I guess you can make the argument for Jordan Alvarez or Kyle Tucker. And I probably would make the argument for Alvarez, if not for the hand issues. Yeah, I don't want to take Turner getting a glob of steals there in round one isn't as important to me as getting as, filling one of the scarcest positions, arguably the scarcest position again, especially if it's a five outfielder league. That to me, Scott, arguably, is maybe taking position scarcity a little bit too far. I know we've talked about this and shortstop is loaded this year, but Tray Turner,

five category contributor, man. I mean, maybe he's not giving you 30, 40 home runs, but he's probably going to give you 20 plus. I mean, most first rounders are five category contributors. Some don't help as much in steals. Well, you know, of the guys, you mentioned, Betz is pro. I mean, even Betts isn't really a five category contributor at this point in his career, right?

No, I mean, yeah, that's kind of why I've cooled on him because he, I saw an interview with him and Freddie Freeman and he would, he kept, he kept talking about how like, he's slowed down.

Even when they brought up the rule changes and if he's going to run more. He just kept referring to how he's slowed down. And it doesn't seem like he's that motivated to be a, base stealer again. Doesn't mean it won't. But yeah, I'm less, I think when I originally made my rankings, I was thinking, oh, Buki Betts, I'll easily get back to 20 steals with the rule changes and the ease of swiping second base because of the pickoff limitations. But after hearing that interview, I don't know. I started to rethink it a little.

But that's fine. You want to take Trey Turner? That's fine. I don't think it's going too far because you're still getting a first rounder if you don't take Trey Turner, but, you know, I'd rather you guys take Trey Turner so I don't have to. That's ultimately what it comes down to. He is not buying. Go ahead, Chris. Not buying the Mookie Bets is in the best shape of his life talk. Mookie Bets is always, I haven't seen that.

Yeah, he added like eight pounds of muscle or something right down. Right? Do I remember in that story correctly? He added muscle this off season. He did add some muscle based on, based on an evaluation that happened to drive line baseball. All right, so let's catch people up on the draft here. The top five picks, Julio Rodriguez, Acuna, Judge, Trey Turner, Jose Ramirez. Again, consensus in some order.

Kyle Tucker goes sixth overall. I know Tim loves Kyle Tucker. I believe he took him second overall in the labor mixed draft last week. And then Chris, you were up at seven and you took Best Shape of his life, Buckey Betts. Yeah, I think Mookie, Juan Soto, Jordan Alvarez, even Tucker, but I'm a little lower on him. I think you can't really go wrong with any of those five. I think it's a tier of five at the top. And then it's probably a tier of,

I would say four or five. I think Otani's probably there too. And then I think the drop off, the first drop is at six. I think the next drop off is at 11. All right. Well, that's coming up on Scott's pick here. After Mukhi Betts, we see Juan Soto.

Shohei Otani. By the way, I'm rocking my show yeah, roto wear shirt. So, showy Otani. So when we broke, We talk about yesterday with our buddy Ariel Cohen, both the hitter, both the pitcher. How do you value him?

How do you build a lineup around him? It's kind of weird with the U-Til only and then having to choose whether you use him as a hitter or a pitcher. But we broke that all down yesterday. Go back and list to it. Yordon Alvarez goes at 10th overall. So, Scott, you don't have to make the decision. And you are on the clock. Vladimir Guerrero goes 11th.

Yeah, so I gave myself the – I set up the draft order for this league for what it's worth. The space was apart, so we had time to reflect on each of our picks if we needed to. I wanted to put myself 12th, so I would face the possibility of not being able to go outfield or third base at the start. I don't want to go for trout here as one of my two picks. So I'm going to take a third baseman. I'm going to take Rafael Devers, but I'm also going to take Freddie Freeman and see. Oh, wait a second. Or, no, let's just do it.

Let's do it because I want to see how my build goes when I don't have a chance at an outfielder until round three. Because remember, there's this big gap in the outfield rankings. You've got the seven first rounders at the position. And then Mike Trout's really the only justifiable second round pick. But with his health issues and everything else, I think it's a reach to go with him over Freddie Freeman, who's just so reliable. even if he plays a deep position. And I found, you know, I'm kind of having a hard time coming away with one of those mid-tier, second bases,

first baseman, like a Nate Lowe or a Christian Walker. It's a good idea in theory, but they tend to go in quick succession. So it's a difficult needle to thread, especially when you're picking at the end of the round. You've got those back-to-back picks. a long wait in between. All right.

So Scott trying something different here, and I appreciate that. Devereur's at the turn, along with Freddie Freeman. We are moving into the second round here. The reason I hesitated and thought, oh, maybe I should go Fernando Tatis is because, you know, we didn't talk about it when we were doing the position previews. But when Fernando Tatis comes back, he's going to be an outfielder. So within the first week, he's back. He joins the, it becomes eight first round calibers.

outfielders in the outfield instead of seven. Yes, that is a fair point on Fernando Tatis. Made a spring training debut the other day. Sorry, I'm just trying to figure something out because the draft chat is popping in the YouTube on the YouTube side of thing. So I'm trying to figure that out in the meantime. I don't think anyone's going to hear it on the podcast because I have it muted through my Google Chrome, but apparently it's coming through on YouTube.

So that's not great. Anywho, after Freddie Freeman went, Mani Machado and Austin Riley are the next two picks up here. And this is frustrating because I'm three picks away. And this is another drop-off point for me. There's one of the two players. I've got, I had two players clearly ranked ahead of the next guy.

And one of them just went in Fernando Tatis, who obviously I love. I've drafted him in TGFBI. I drafted him Tout Wars yesterday. I'm, I think Fernando Tatis is arguably going to be the number one player when he gets back. Like I might just slot him number one the day he comes back.

Chris, you are officially the Fernando Tatis Jr. guy this year. Like you are, you're the face of Fernando Tatis. I'll take that. I'll take that. That's a good face.

Look, I, he's a historically productive young player. He is not available at my pick. But when he's on a per game basis, I think he has a very, very good case to being the best player in fantasy. I'm not going to get him in this league.

I am going to get two outfielders with my first two picks because Mike Trout is my top player left, so I'm taking him. Love to take a player who, if he plays 125 games, it's a positive outcome and stick around, but it's also arguably the best hitter in baseball still. Yep. So you start with Mike Trout and Mookie Betts.

A couple other picks. After Austin Riley went, at 15th overall, we saw Tatis, Pete Alonzo, Trout to Chris, Bobby Witt, Jr., to Tim McLeod. Bobby Witt, Kyle Tucker. That's pretty fun from a Roto perspective. And then Boba Shett goes 20th overall. I am up in two picks here. No starting pitchers off the board yet. So that's going to be an interesting decision here. A couple of hitters. We got the second baseman coming up. I think this is the point where the hitter pool to me kind of feels like

it drops off. After we get past Boba Shed and Bobby Witt, Goldschmidt was still really good last year. obviously he's one year older, the expected numbers, you know, kind of worrisome, probably not. But I think like we just hit that drop off. So I'll have to decide if I want to take Paul Goldschmidt, pull up one of the second baseman, or maybe be one of the first people to take a starting pitcher in this draft. And Paul Gulchman just went. So, uh, Mike Giannella, writing that down, National League player, Paul Goldschmidt, okay, sounds good to me. All right, one more pick, and then I am up.

and I think as of now I think I'm going to take a pitcher because it feels like the best player available. I don't want to pull up like JT. Relamuto Lindo. You might have to pause it.

Why, what's going on here? Still having some technical difficulties with Mike. Did he want Paul Goldschmidt or did he not? Okay, so we'll pause the draft for now and we'll ask Mike what he wants to do with that pick. But in the meantime,

it looks like Corbyn Burm, Burns was about to go. So, man, I don't know. Do I take Garrett Cole? We'll see. You guys, filibuster. I'll see if I could get Mike situated here. Chris, I did want to ask you when it comes to Fernando Tatis.

Sure. For me personally, I like to play it as safe as possible in the early rounds. I think most people like to draft that way. Fernando Tatis, you're not only worrying about coming back from a suspension. He's missing 20 games at the start of the year. He's coming back from shoulder surgery. he's coming back from multiple risk surgeries. We haven't seen him play in a game since 2021.

So it's not just the suspension. We have multiple injury risks. And perhaps performance risk at first. It might take him a little bit of time to get up to speed. Wouldn't surprise me if he slumps for a couple of weeks or even a month before he turns into the Fernando Tatea Seval. Does that worry you at all? And I think it's worth giving. voice to the concern that he was taking performance enhancing drugs.

And that's what he was suspended for. And we don't know when he was taking them or whether he was taking them in 2020, when he was, you know, or 2021 when he was the best player in fantasy. All of those things. That's a concern I've seen brought up. I don't share that concern, but I want to voice it to give the full breadth of the concerns, you know, out there. There are definitely risks here. This is a, you know, a guy who strikes out a lot. It's not just like, hey, all these things you mentioned.

It's also just a potentially high variance skill set. You know, it's possible that he runs on the bad side of luck and, you know, doesn't have a 280 batting average like we've seen the previous two seasons. I do think there is definitely some risk here with Fernando Tatis. But it's a situation where it's not just, especially when you're comparing into the second rounders, it's not like, well, you're taking on risk for comparable upside. to, you know, someone like Pete Alonzo. You're taking on a lot of risk,

but you're also potentially getting the best player in baseball, where, you know, I don't really think Austin Riley. I don't think even Mike Trout necessarily have the kind of upside Fernando Tatis does, especially in a Roto league where he can hit 290 with 40 home runs and 30 steals, and I don't think anybody would blink. So it's, there is certainly. risk there, but I don't think you can play that scared. All right. Well, we're getting things sorted out here.

Mike Ginella does indeed select Paul Goldschmidt. I am on deck. We'll see if we can keep this moving because if not, we're going to have like a three-hour live stream going here for this mock draft. Corbyn Burns does indeed go. I'm going to take Garrett Cole, Homer, and I'm going to see how it turns out. I don't typically like starting pitcher early, but again, I do think there is a bit of a drop-off in terms of the hitter talent pool around the Paul Gulchman range.

So I assume, yeah, Bidon was not going to take both second basemen. So I'll have my choice of either one. And I'm going to go ahead and select Jose Al-Tuva. So my start to the draft, I go Ronald de Cunia, I get Garrett Cole, and then I get Jose Al-Tuva. I don't have to worry about starting pitcher for a while now. You know, maybe round five, round six, I'll jump back in. But I've got that ace. And then we'll see if I can get lucky with like a decent.

Bregman or Gutter Henderson type third basement. After, yeah, the two picks at the turn, I should mention. Michael Harris went pick 24 and Cedric Mullins went with pick 25. Just after that, see Nolan Aronado. I believe Tim is a Cardinals fan, so no surprise there. Chris, I think I saw you take Nolan Aronado in TGFBI. That's not on brand. That is hashtag not brand, Chris.

That is off brand, although it was, I believe, in the third round of a 15th. team league and it was towards the end of the round, if I'm remembering correctly. I think you got him in the fourth, which is even crazier. Yeah. So, yeah, round four I took Justin Verlander ahead of him

and then got Nolan Aronado in the fourth round. So yeah, I'm not the biggest Nolan Aronado fan, but 49th overall, that's just a screaming value because he is, for me, close to a tie. I think he's, do I have him ranked in the top 24?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I have him. ranked from no he's 36 for me so you know a little bit of a reach potentially here at the early third round but not enough that i'm going to criticize it and you know once he fell to me in the tgfbi in 49 overall that's that's just an easy pick yeah i mean that's just way too late and sometimes it happens that way i know kind of messing with scott a little bit here there that he keeps drafted his bus players but i mean they're busts where they're going according to adp slip far past that point, then everyone is a value at a certain point in the draft.

There are very few players that I just flat out wouldn't draft. Like Tyler Glass now even before the injury was a bust for me. But I did take him in Tout Wars because I think it was like the 15th round or something like that. And at some point, like, you need to get good players. And you have to take on risk and you have to be able to balance risk and build the right portfolio. But you do reach a point. where even disliking a player doesn't mean you can't draft them. Yes.

And plus, I mean, you have to consider the likelihood that any sleeper, breakout, or bust pick is going to come true. Right. You know, I look back at the end of the year, and if I get half of those picks right, that's a really good year for picking sleepers breakouts and bust. So, like, I just approach, I know it sounds like a funny thing to say for somebody in the position I am, but I, I approach fantasy baseball season, draft season, from the perspective. I don't actually know that much. And so I try not to take any opinion I have about a player too seriously

and just try to build the best team I can with the variables presented to me. To a certain extent, fantasy analysis is the blind leading the blind. It's not, you know, it's not entirely. But it's, you know, like the near-sighted, leading the blind or whatever. You know, we can, we're, we're giving informed opinions and predictions, but projecting this stuff is really hard. We're talking about 670 played appearances and 162 games and 30 starts and a lot of different

things can happen. So, yeah, there's also just when you play in as many leagues as we do, it'll probably be 11 to 13 leagues for me. Frank, I'm sure it's higher for you. Scott, I would guess it's around the same. Maybe a few more. You need to diversify your portfolio as well. You know, that's just, that's basic, you know, stock market strategy.

And I'm on the clock and I'm blabbing. There you go. I was going to let you know. You've only got 10 seconds left, Chris, but you are aware. And hopefully that's enough time for you. Anywho, let's catch people up. After I took Jose Altuve, Nolan Aronado, Marcus Semian, Francisco Lindor, Randy Rosa Rana, then Chris took Justin Verlander,

and we see Sandy Alcanswer go off the board. We do have an obligatory break that we have to take here. so I'm going to do that, and it will be right back for Scott's pick on fantasy baseball today. Welcome back into fantasy baseball today. We saw a few pitchers go off the board, and then Ozzy Albies goes at pick 33. And Scott, I'm pretty sure they did that, A, because you're wearing an Atlanta Braves jersey right now, and B, so that you can't get a second basement. Yeah, it never works out when I'm drafting.

It actually did in the 15-team league, TGFBI. I got Jose Al-Tuvae of all second basemen around three. But for some reason, when we, in the mock drafts, we host ourselves. It never works out for me to get Ozzy Albies, who, you know, ADP is much lower than round three. Never works out for me to get him there. And Jax Chesim goes off the board, too, not that I was seriously considering him. So this is a curious spot for me. One of my top five pitchers, Max Scherzer, is still there.

So I could think about taking him. Bizarro drafts, Scott? I really don't want to. I want to keep trying to push the envelope with starting pitcher, take it later and later. Unfortunately, four of your top five players remaining are starting pitchers. Right, but I don't have to follow that. I'm going to go with Luis Robert, and did Schwerber already go?

Yeah, he just went two picks before. I'm pretty sure those three people just ahead of you are just going to keep messing with. with you all draft. Get ready for that. Yeah. Boy, they've really passed up pitching in this draft, haven't they?

Yeah, we've only had four pitchers taken through the first three full rounds. Yeah, so I don't care that I'm name dropping here. J.T. Real Muto is still available, but outside of that, he's not available anymore because Scott just took him. My 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. 10 top players in my rankings

right now are all pitchers, one way or another, starting pitcher or relief pitcher. So that just goes to show people in this draft so far are waiting quite a bit. I'm probably going to regret taking Garikull because there's going to be a lot of really good pitcher value, or at least it seems that way. Oh, now Corby and Carroll goes at 38 overall. Like, man, this whole group is not wanting anything to do with pitchers. And not only that, I mean, pulling Corby and Carroll up the board, as much as I like Corby Carroll, as much as anybody likes Corby and Carol, I haven't seen him go that high in a series draft yet. So we'll say, I noticed in one of the spring training games,

I kept either yesterday or day, he did have, I think, 112 mile per hour batted ball, which was one 10, five mile per hour harder than any batted ball he had last season. So that's a promising sign. It's just one batted ball event. But, you know, max exit velocity does tend to be a pretty good proxy for raw power. That is probably the one question mark about Corbyn Carroll's,

how much immediate power he's going to hit for. And, you know, if he is going to be a bit of a better power hitter, at least have a little more pop than he did in his, you know, brief rookie showing. That could be huge. I guess he's technically still a rookie. He has upside to perform like a fourth rounder. I mean, if he gets 30 plus steals. Upside to perform like a first rounder.

Yeah. I mean, if he goes, I guess technically, I think that's, that's like his 98th percent. child outcome, but sure. Anybody who can run that much and has any amount of power and doesn't strike out a ton could put together in returner like season

theoretically. Yeah, not Jorge Mateo, Chris. After Scott took JT. Real Muto, Corbyn Carroll, as we've been talking about, Corey Seeger. I want to talk about that for a second. Max Scherzer and Aranola. Chris, you're on the clock. We'll come to you in just a second. I've consistently now been seeing

Corey Seeger go in the fourth round of drafts. A lot of those have been 15 teamers, but now he's creeping into the fourth round of a 12 teamer. Yeah, I mean, 39th overall. I don't mind it. I really don't mind it. 39th overall. All draftsies in my opinion, so.

I love Corey Seeger, but that's too early for me. It's shortstop being as deep as it is, and the fact he, I mean, we're talking five by five league. He's basically a non-factor for steals. If he gets pulled up into that range, I don't think I'm going to be chasing it. Having said that, I just picked Luis Robert and JT Real Muto. I know last time I took Real Muto in a mock. I think it was also one we did live like this, and I hated it and said I never put it again.

That was a one-catcher league, though. So, you know, I was seeing the value of Sean Murphy and William Contreras later, which I don't think will become an issue here. Also, one thing that led me to take Real Muto is that with my first two picks, Devers and Freeman, not a lot of steals there. So, you know, getting two base stealers. So basically, it was, the reason I skipped the pitchers, even though there were a lot of great ones there,

three reasons. One, I'm consciously trying to avoid pitcher to see how much I can get away with it. Two, I didn't have any steals yet, and I was able to get two hitters who contribute in steals. And three, What was three? Oh, there were so many good pitchers left there that I hated the, like, okay, Max Schercher's my highest rank one, but like I don't like Max Scherza that much more than the 10 guys available after him.

So it just seemed like a reach even though it's lower than his ADP. And look, it's working out because since then only three starters have been taken so far. This draft is really eschewing pitchers. So, you know, you're still going to have probably one of those 10 guys remaining. Yeah. And now I'm faced with the decision of let me catch people up on picks, even though I'm on the clock here. Yeah, I know it's a long time.

Chris took Edwin Diaz, then Matt Olson goes, Josh Hader, Jacob de Grom, Emmanuel Class A. I took Dalton Varsho, something I never do, but feels like pretty good value at the end of the fourth round. Spencer Strider and Carlos Rodan at the turn. Again, I want to say 11 of the top 12 players available in my rankings are starting pitchers. The one who is not is Adolice Garcia. But do I want to take him at this pick?

I think I have a good amount of speed so far. So I'm going to go ahead. I'm going to take Eloy Jimenez, which is somebody I do like a lot. And I talked about him during our outfield preview. And this is kind of the nuance of drafting in a Roto or a Categories League where you just don't always take the top player in terms of rankings. It has to fit your build, right? So I've got Varsho, I've got Altuve, I've got a Kuna. I've got a pretty good base of power and speed so far.

I think I needed a little bit more batting average. So I went with Eloy Jimenez over in Adolius Garcia, even though I have Garcia ranked ahead of Eloy Jimenez. But I got to say, it was pretty hard for me to pass on like Brandon Woodruff and Zach Wheeler because, I mean, It just feels insane that they're here in the fifth round. And that's probably why I shouldn't have taken Gary Cole in the second round of this draft, at least. Oh, you didn't know what's coming. Yeah. After Eloy Jimenez goes, I mean, so far, I still really like the team.

So we'll see how it turns out. After Eloy Jimenez, Shane Beaver goes off the board, Adoles Garcia, George Springer, and Will Smith. So, Chris, we're coming up to your pick. Actually, we're up to your pick right now. Your previous pick was Edwin Diaz. So you could talk to us about him. I feel like you've been drafting a lot of Diaz and your next pick that you're about to make. Yeah, I've, I've had, I think I, do I have Diaz in Tout Wars as well? I'll make my pick first.

And, you know, I like to talk about zinging when the rest of the league is zagging. And so I'm kind of doing that. Three of my first five picks will be pitchers. Diaz, I don't love taking the closer super early, but I am starting to come around to the idea of when there are 12 closers who actually matter. getting one of them. It's sort of the hero SP idea, right? It's you get that one guy, you get the one guy who can anchor you.

And in this case, saves, but also, you know, he'll help a lot in ratios. And then you just kind of don't worry about it. So like with Diaz, obviously anything can happen.

It's a long baseball season. He could get hurt. He could stink. We've seen it before. But ideally, I've got 37 saves locked in now. And, but with,

with, you know, Justin Verlander and Shane McClanahan, who was my most recent pick. I should have a ton of strikeouts, really good ratios between those three. So the idea behind the Hero SP is just to give myself the flexibility now to just not take a starting pitcher for, you know, eight more rounds or whatever it is and still feel pretty good about my pitching staff. And that's the approach I've taken the last couple of years. It's worked out okay. My pitching staffs tend to be pretty decent. And I feel really good about the way my drafts have gone. lately with two early starting pitchers to anchor my team.

So that's where I'm going. And Shane McClanahan made his spring debut on Wednesday when we were recording this. Saw a tweet from Neil Salons, who I believe is either a pre or post game broadcaster with the race. And McClainahan's fastball was averaging 96 to 97 miles per hour in his first spring start. That's step one. That's what I wanted to see. Now I need to see, all right, one or two more outings. where McClanahan's velocity is okay

and he comes away on Skate and the shoulder is okay and I'm back in. That's what I need to see personally but that was a good first step for Shane McClanhan and after Chris took him we see O'Neill Cruz Brandon Woodruff, Zach Wheeler, Dylan Seas all the pitchers are now flying off the board Scott, you're on the clock for two picks.

I know. Dylan Sees is like the last one I really hoped to get. So I just missed. I still think I am. I'm going to take a starting pitcher here. I'm going to take Alec Manoa. Because I have Alec Manoa,

Julio Arias, and Max Fried, the only three remaining from the second tier at starting pitcher. Alec Manoa, I also took my ace in TGFBI, also in round five, though that was in a 15-team league, so the value felt much better. I could take Devin Williams here and do, like Chris was talking about. I think there are a handful of other relief pitchers.

There are nine total that I. I'm okay with as kind of my hero RP safe bet for 30 saves. So instead, because I know outfield is going to get ugly very soon, I'm going to go ahead and take Teoscar Hernandez as my second outfielder going with Luis Robert. It's too early. He's really the only out. I guess I could consider Starling Marte here, but I don't have a lot of, he's one of my bus picks for this year. I'm not confident he's going to steal a ton of bases as much as he's.

he slowed down last year. He's already injured. So it just feels a little too risky for me. Plus, I don't really need his batting average after going Freddie Freeman and Raphael Devers 1 and 2. So Teoscar Hernandez, who hopefully, I mean, we've seen him steal a dozen bags before. Hopefully he can be in that some factor in that category as well with stolen bases, presumably getting easier this year.

Yes, and with Tay Oscar, I brought this up during our outfield preview, He dealt with an oblique injury early last year. He was dreadful in May. From June 1st on, he was outstanding. 285 batting average. I think it was 23 home runs. He was basically the Teosca Hernandez, we saw in his breakout 2021,

over the final four months of the season. So I'm not saying he's a main target, but I don't mind him. Like if he falls to me within a draft, I'm okay taking him, and I think that was okay value where you just got him, Scott. Scott seems so far.

He's got J.T. Real Muto, Freddie Freeman, Raphael Devers, two outfielers, and Luis Robbins. and Teoska Hernandez, and then Alec Manoa as his first starting pitcher. Let's get back to the draft picks, and let's see who we got. Brian Reynolds goes off the board, Gunner Henderson. All right, so it looks like I'm going to have a crappy third baseman.

Gunner Henderson and Alex Bregman go back to back. You know, Chris, that's like, I'll go to Scott and Chris, you can make your pick and then we'll come to you. Scott, that's the position scarcity where you can take it too far conversation. because I thought about taking Bregman at the beginning of the fifth round, but it felt too early. I have Elyoy ranked ahead of him, but then that's the risk because you know most likely Breggman was not going to make it back. So that's what I was wrestling with, but we'll see how it turned.

Who'd you take early in row five instead? I took Eloi Jimenez. It was a little early for Elo Jimenez, though, too. It was. It was. Yeah. I mean, I've talked before how if I'm picking late in round two like you were, you took Cole, I would just take Nolan.

Maronado, even though I know it's about half a round too early. I just don't want to have to play the game you're talking about at third base where, okay, there's only a couple of options who could be good left, and do I have to reach a whole round early for them? I don't know. I mean, we'll see who you ultimately wind up with a third base. You know, I like Max Muncie still, and he tends to go much later, especially in this format.

So we'll see. I did want to point out, after my Teotov's, Hasker Hernandez pick, Brian Reynolds went with the very next pick. If I had passed up on Hernandez there, it would have been with the hope that Brian Reynolds made it all the way back to me two rounds later, which seemed like a long shot, but it makes me feel better about taking Hernandez knowing Reynolds went with the very next. Yeah, that's the thing about picking on the ends of a draft is you can't really play the, I hope he'll make it back to me.

It's just there's too many variables. It's too hard to. It's you can kind of predict seven picks out. You know, you can get say of, you know, these 10 players, seven of them will be picked. 22. It's just, it's an impossible game to try to play. That's, it's one of the nice things about picking at the end is just get your guys. But it's, it can make it harder to play the like tiers game, which is, Scott, that's, which is mainly how I draft.

Yeah. So I've always hated picking at the ends because it's just, it's so hard to predict what's going to be there a full two rounds later, you know. All right, let's catch people up on the picks here. After Brian Reynolds, we got, we had those third baseman, Gunner Henderson and Alex Bregman, Adley Ruchman, Chris took Tommy Edmund. Then we see Julio Arreus, Devin Williams, Starling Marte, falls down to 69th. That's not so bad.

He, he lasted until pick 101 in my TG FBI draft. And that's, and I, I drafted. Marte. I didn't want him. But the end of the seventh round in a 15th team league, I'm like, okay, it's gone too far. So, uh, solid value for Starling Marte. Zander Bogartz, I took Kevin Gosman as my SP2 and then Dan Svys Swanson goes at the turn. I am thinking about taking a shortstop because, um, as we've talked about a lot with shortstop, it's like really good. And then it's not. So I don't want to make sure I get one and I don't kind of miss out on that, that grouping of elite short stops. But let me quickly run through the rest of the positions here. Let me see who I have.

I've got a catcher. I've got Varsho, Altuve, and I've got two outfielers. So what do I need? Okay, first baseman. Still a good amount of first baseman left. Don't need second. Third base. We're just going to wait on that. See if there's any outfielders I like. Seems kind of early for those guys. So it looks like shortstop. And I'm going to take what fits my team. I've got Altuve, Eloy, Akunya, Varsho. Yeah, I'm gonna take Wanderfranco. He's my top rank shortstop here.

Gives me some batting average. See if that early season breakout that we saw last year before you got hurt comes true. Maybe you can hit 20 plus home runs with really good batting average, double digit steals. And it's just a fun player, right? So adding to the team, I've got Wander Franco now. And after that, Vinnie Pass Guantino, if you want to talk about fun, Vinnie P. after him, Max Fried and Alejandro Kirk.

Chris, you are one pick away. I'm going to pull up your team. See what you're working with so far. You've got three hitters, Tommy Edmund, Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, and you've got three pitchers, Justin Verlander, Edwin Diaz, and Shane McClanahan. Which way are you looking? Oh, and you're on the clock. Who just went?

So this is one where I'm in the middle, so I've got 10 picks between my next one and this one. I'm going to try to play the, I can get this guy the next time around. So I'm going to take Salvador Perez. I got Tommy Edmund, Salvador Perez. I'm going to be the Salvador Perez guy this year as well because I've got him in a bunch of leagues.

I took Tommy Edmund with my most recent pick because I really needed steals, mooky bets on Mike Trout. Just don't think I can project more than, I think 15 would be a good outcome for those two combined at this point. So I needed some steals. Salvador Perez obviously not going to give me any, and there are some batting average concerns.

So steals and batting average, probably the two places I'm lacking, but should be really, really good in power, runs an RBI between Perez, Trout and Betts. So I'm going to hope I can get someone who can help me in those other categories. Scott, don't listen and don't take anybody who's good at batting average or steals with your next two picks. I don't think I'm going to, but I was just queuing up Salvador Perez. I'm beginning to warm up to him at his cost.

I took him in the sixth round of TGFBI. You're taking him in the seventh round here, 12-team versus 15-team league. What I love about Salvador Perez is the RBI potential. Obviously, the home runs. We all know the home runs, but the way he stands out in RBI from every other catcher, basically, like if he's healthy,

and you just look at the numbers he was on pace for last year, if he's healthy, it's going to be right around 100 RBI. When most good catchers, the ones we identify is good, they're talking like 65 to 75 RBI. It's a huge discrepancy. And plus, I've noticed this too. Teams have gotten to where they bat their best player high in the lineup so often that a lot of the studs are doing more good for runs than RBI.

And so you get a true RBI guy there and he just so happens to play a position where nobody else gets a lot of RBI. Salvador Perez looks like a really helpful player and you don't have to pay, obviously, anywhere close to the price tag he was going for last year. I'm very interested what their lineup construction

is going to be to the Kansas City Royals because I saw a spring training lineup where Bobby Witt Jr. was leading off. Now, I don't know how ideal that is because he's not a big OBP guy, but it wouldn't surprise me if they went Bobby Witt, Vinnie Pasquantino, Salvador Perez to start their lineup. You know, Vinny P makes a lot of contact, he gets on base. Kind of, I don't know.

I could see it. It wouldn't surprise me. Ross of Resources, MJ Melendez leading off, which is kind of unorthodox, but he does walk quite a bit. After Chris took Salvador Perez, Raissel Iglesias, Byron Bucson, sorry, Chris, Jordan Romano and Freimber Valdez, Scott, you're on the clock for two. Yeah, I did get called out in the chat of my TGFBI draft for not taking Byron Buxton. So that's another league where I'm not getting them. Hey, people, I guess it's cool when you have like players that are associated to you, you know, Chris? Yeah, and especially when it's a player as fun as Byron Buxton.

And, you know, when he inevitably gets hurt, I know I can open my phone and have 25 notifications for me with sad gifs. Yeah, that is fair. Scott, okay, looks like I won't be getting Max Marston. Muncie is my starting third baseman. You know what? This is the perfect draft to try it out. Either get one early or don't get one at all. I'm just going to wait until the end and see who winds up as my third basement.

Oh, your next big bee, Scott, outside of Max Muncie. Oh, I'm struggling with it because everybody feels like a reach and that's what ends up happening. You definitely didn't get batting average or steals. I did not. I'd queued up a bunch of relievers and I could maybe take one now, Ryan Presley, Kenley Jansen, Felix Bautista are the last of that, you know, that group of nine that I want to get one of. I'm also a little worried about shortstop, but everybody there feels like a reach.

I'm looking at starting pitcher, but there's still a lot of really good ones left. I think I'll go ahead and take a closer here. No, don't do it. I'll take Ryan Presley. No! Yeah. I scream, no. Scott just goes, yeah.

Yeah, that's what you did, Scott. You stole two picks from me, two that I was looking at taking. Max Muncie and Ryan Presley. I was a little surprised you didn't go with a starting pitcher there, Scott. I think Scott might be frozen. He might be lagging out. After he took Presley, we see Christian Javier and Jose Abraeu. I'm not to saying this, Chris, because I wanted a closer.

I mean, there's still some closers left. That's fine. But I felt like where Scott was in the draft, round eight, if he could have taken Christian Javier or U. Darvish as his SP2, to pair with Alec Manoa, that sounds really good to me. Yeah, I mean, I get it because, you know, one thing that the mock drafts allow us to do

is, you know, kind of try out different things. And Scott has talked about how he wants to, you know, experiment with pushing starting pitcher down. That's clearly what he's doing. And it's one thing that, you know, Scott often struggles with. He's in the waiting room now, so I don't want to speak to it for him. But I feel like Scott,

I feel like you had like a minor meltdown like five years ago when Heath and I told you that sometimes we just do mock drafts and we just try things out. We're just like, yeah, we'll just, yeah, I don't know if this is the best team I can build, but I'm just going to try it out. And you were like, that's unbelievable. And so I feel like you kind of struggle to like stick with the I'm going to try things out thing. So I appreciate your conviction here. I've embraced it more since you got like you you guys first presented that idea to me. And I hadn't even considered that because I figured the mock draft was mostly for the viewers. And they want you to get them their best, they want to see your best version of a draft they can possibly see.

But there have also been many tumultuous years in fantasy baseball since then. You know, like back then, I pretty much drafted the same way every year. There wasn't a need to change my strategy that much. And with the juice ball era, obviously different rule changes that we think are going to impact the game in a major way this year. It's led to so many shifts in thinking that it's kind of forced me to experiment more when it was not something I was inclined to do before. Yeah, the guy that I was alluding to who I wanted to take with my ninth round pick was still there, or eighth round pick happily. So I did end up adding Tim Anderson, who just perfectly fits a new. need for my team because my offense before that Mike Trout,

Mookie Betts, Tommy Edmund, Salvador Perez, light on average, light on spiels, spiels, steals. Tim Anderson is going to give me a great batting average no matter what. One of those guys who probably could steal more bases and maybe he will with the rule changes, but either way he'll be helpful in stolen bases. You know, I think 20 over the course of the season is an okay bet for him. so just fits my build perfectly. I'm very happy with how this has gone so far.

All right. With my picks here, I just took Felix Bautista at the end of the eighth round, and then I took Nate Lowe with the start of the night. Usually I like waiting at first base, but felt like he fit my team, gives me a little bit of pop, 25-ish home runs and a solid batting average as well.

And there are a few outfielder that I don't mind getting a little bit later on. So I'm going to wait on outfield. I've already got Garrett Cole and Kevin Gossman as my SP1 and SP2. So I feel all right where the pitching is at. I've got two starters and one closer there with Felix Batista. The draft is back up on the screen here.

What we're going to do is we'll take one more break, and then we'll come back and I'll catch everyone up on all the picks that are going down. All right, we're back here on fantasy baseball today, and let's remind everyone what happened in round eight. Scott took Ryan Presley. Then we saw Christian Javier, Jose Abrae, Willie Adamas, Zach Gallin, and Tim Anderson. Went to Chris.

After that, we saw Chris Bryant, Robbie Ray, Carlos Correa, Tyler O'Neill. I took Felix Bautista. Then Ryan Helsley went at the turn. And then we will see what happened in round nine. Reese Hoskins. I took Nate Lowe, U. Darvish, John Carlos Stanton. That was one of the outfielders I was talking about.

And then Labor Torres and Jake McCarthy. Chris, you are backup. Let's remind everyone of your team. You've got Salvador Perez, Tommy Edmund, Tim Anderson, Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, and then Verlander, McLanagan, and Edwin Diaz. Yep, I'm going to take a third outfielder here, Christian Yelich, who I feel like at this point, he's just a kind of safe five-ish category guy. You're going to get like decent, decent production across the board, but not. necessarily standout production anywhere except maybe runs, but it's still a, there's a little bit of upside there. I think he could get back to 20 plus homers and 20 plus steals and, you know,

quality of contact metrics still pretty good. So I feel like he's okay there. Yeah, Christian Yelich managed to stay healthy last year. Even if he just did what he did last year, then we're talking about a 15, 15, maybe a 20 and 15 guy. And he was a top 100 play. And now here he is going outside of the top 100. After Yelich goes, we see Taylor Ward and Wilson Contreras. Two picks coming up before you are here, Scotty. And let's check in on your team. Earlier when I kicked you out because I said,

I falsely accuse your internet of not working. I thought that it made more sense for you to take a starting pitcher at the previous turn. Are you okay the way that things turned out? No. No. once again, they didn't play out as I anticipated they would during the long wait. We'll see how these last two picks before mine go, and it'll make it clearer if it was the wrong thing to do. I mean, I knowingly reached for Max Muncie because I still needed a second baseman, and I like him more than the consensus, and I knew it was very likely, given the state of third base, that somebody would take him there.

So that was a get-your-guise sort of pick because you... Okay, yeah, so Kenley Jansen's still there. It's my pick now. Lance Lynn and Stephen Kwan just went. And remember, I said there were three of the nine that I think are safe bet for 30-plus saves left. So I took one of them, Ryan Presley, and only one other of them, Felix Bautista, actually, ended up going. So it would have, you know, obviously it's hard to predict that. I've noticed Kenley Jansen seems to be going below ADP consistently.

I'm not sure what the deal with that is. If people are just thinking, oh, the Red Sox, they're probably going to be last place in that division. So how many saves is he actually going to get? I think it'll be pretty good for a last place team. And obviously, there are no threats to his role there. And I may just go ahead and take him here myself. Let me think.

Yeah, let's do that, in part because I was out of time. But, yeah, with one of those picks, whether it was not reaching for Muncie or whether it was just waiting longer at relief pitcher and hoping that the trend of Kenley Jansen sliding would continue. If I had taken a starting pitcher there, probably Zach Allen would have been the one. And I would have felt better about that. but I'm going to not get cute about starting pitcher anymore. I'm going to take Tristan McKenzie here. And he will be my number two, Alec Manoa, Tristan McKenzie,

and then two closers in Ryan Presley and Kenley Jansen. All right. So now we make our way into round 10. The picks at the end of round nine were Lance Lynn and Stephen Kwan before Scott made his two picks. And I think one of the things that might be contributing to Kenley Jansen falling, pure speculation is that he is one of the slowest pitchers in baseball. So I think people might be worried about.

Most closers are. Like, I've been keeping up with like all the news stories on all the individual team sites. And that's basically a storyline for every team. Yeah, Giovanni Gallegos is another one. He's, he's right there. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, it's like. So from, I don't think it's going to matter that much. From what I under, like, it's probably going to matter for some. one. Yeah. It'll matter for somebody, but it's not like it'll be a strong correlation with the leaderboard for time in between pitches.

Like somebody, it's just going to mess up completely. But I don't think we have, we're going to have any idea who that somebody's going to be. Yeah. Like the minor's, the minor league data from everything that I understand, there was very little impact on the game, both in a micro and a macro sense. you know, both on a pitch by pitch and game by game level. We're seeing like, oh, I can't believe this guy got called out on strikes. And it's like, that's not going to happen often enough in real games for it to matter. Because they're getting used to it now.

Like this is a different type of thing that they'll have to get used to. But that's why they're introducing it in spring training. But from what I understand about the use of this rule on the minors, you're not going to notice it. Yeah, that's everything that I've heard as well. That's just something I could think of for why Kenley might be slipping. I mean, maybe it's the Red Sox being bad too. But yeah, look, if you want to give me Kenley Jansen, someone I think is pretty safe for at least 25 to 30 saves,

yeah, that's totally fine. Let him keep falling. After Scott took Trista McKenzie, Bryce Harper goes off the board, likely to miss the first half of the season. I think we'll probably see him post-all-Star break as he recovers from Tommy John surgery. Sean Murphy and then George Kirby. Chris, you are one pickaway.

What are we thinking here? Hitter, pitcher. Hitter. I'm going to stick with my stated plan of not going with a starting pitcher for a while after taking a couple early. And the problem is my team could still use some speed and there aren't many good players who will steal bases remaining, I guess is the best way to play.

put it because there are players who will steal bases, but again, don't necessarily want Jorge Mateo on my team. So, you know, that's, uh, you know, kind of the issue there. It's, it's what happens when you double up on a mooky bets Mike Trout combination early on. You're going to

be chasing stolen bases. But, you know, that's just the, the reality of the draft. And I'm not going to take a base stealer here. I'm going to take a guy who I think is a very good hitter and specifically a very, very good power hitter. and that is Christian Walker who is on a lot of my teams. Again, I'm kind of going back to the well on a bunch of guys in this draft.

But I just think one Christian Walker, I think, is viewed a little bit as a flash in a in the pan or a one-year wonder guy. I don't think that's fair. He's been at least fantasy relevant. Three of the last four years, 2021 was very bad for him. But he was good in 2019. He was pretty good in 2020. and he was obviously very good in 2022 with underlying metrics that suggest he could be even better, but even if he's not.

And, you know, I think the Chase Field factor could make it harder for him to be as good as he could be. I still think he's going to be a very, very good source of power. All right. Let's catch people up on some of the picks. After you took Christian Walker, well, just before that, we saw Kirby and Clay Holmes.

And then after your pick, M.J. Melendez, Nick Castellanos, Camillo Doval and Lars Newbar. I haven't done a single draft this offseason, either a mock or a real one, where I've wound up with Lars Newmar. I mean, this is 118. So round 10 of a 12 team league, 118 overall.

It's a little early. That's got to be the earliest I've seen Newpar go. 86 is his men pick in NFC drafts. In the NFBC right now, my NFBC actually, we're around pick 160 and he still hasn't gone off the board. I'm starting to think about taking him with my next pick if he's still there. Right.

But yeah, it's a case of the buzzy sleeper getting pushed up, which is more likely to happen in a shallower league, I would think. People are willing to take bigger risks for what they see is upside. Yeah, and look, for all the reasons we've talked about Lars Nupar, basically all offseason, he hits the ball hard, he's got good plate discipline. He hit lefties well as a lefty last season. There are still some playing time risks.

If he doesn't get off to a good start, the Cardinals are loaded in the outfield. They've got a few players waiting to play DH. They've got Jordan Walker, one of the top prospects in the game, getting ready to make an impact as well. So as much as I like Lars Neupar, I like him at his price, you know,

which is usually post-150s. You have to be really confident at a sleeper pick to undermine the sleeper. appeal of that pick by taking him 50 picks early. But there have been times when I've done that for players. And for what it's worth. I'm confident enough in Nupe Barr specifically to do that.

New Bar, you know, if there was a player to bet on or a player archetype to bet on, a guy with a proven ability to hit the ball really hard who has, you know, plus plus physical skills is not a bad provable. Because like that's effectively the idea behind Bobby Witt, right? or the, you know, taking the top prospect, Newt Bar doesn't have that kind of pedigree, obviously, doesn't have necessarily the minor league track record. But like, it's that this guy is so physically gifted

that he's going to beat the projections. That's the idea behind it. I'm not necessarily saying I agree with pushing Newt Bar, but he's definitely a guy who like, I'm starting to think I need to get at least one share of, you know, like I need to make sure, I need to be that guy in at least one of my drafts so I can get him.

Yeah, no, I get it, Chris. Again, there's a lot to like about Lars Neupar. After I took, I should probably tell people, I took Hunter Renfro at the end of round 10, and then we saw Ryan Mountcastle, Andrew Vaughn, I took Blake Snell as my SP3, William Contreras, Clayton Kirschaw, Logan Webb, and Logan Gilbert.

Here's what we're going to do. On the podcast side, I'm going to sign off of Hour 1, and then we'll be back for Hour 2, and we'll keep the draft rolling. So we're going to sign off, but make sure to join us. in part two after this.