Fantasy Baseball Today - Live Roto Mock Draft Part 1! Rounds 1-12 Picks & Strategy (2/29 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

Welcome to our first live mock draft of the offseason! In part one, we're breaking down the first 12 rounds of our 12-team Roto draft. Frank is picking fourth overall, Scott fifth and Chris 11th. The guys break down their picks, players and strategy. Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy! Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hello, and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, February 29. That's right, happy leap day to those who celebrate. Frank Stample, joined by Chris Towers and the award-winning Scott White.

show. It's our first live mock draft, 12-team roto, the standard 5-5 categories, and I will preview the draft in just a second. But first, big congrats to Scotty, who won the FSWA Article of the Year award for his article on the state of trading in fantasy baseball or the lack thereof. Let's go. Yes, yes, it is true. I won. Best article, best baseball article about how trading sucks and nobody wants to do it anymore. Now, it was a fun article to write and included a lot of insights from people on social media

with their own experiences with trading. And I worked in a lot of my own experiences with trading over the years and talked about the different reasons why I think it's just not as much fun to do anymore. And yeah, it's, it went over well. It went over well. So it's good to win this award. I pointed out when they called me up and had me on the radio show where they were announcing the awards.

I pointed out, you know, I've been a finalist for an FSWA award, you know, occasionally over the years. But this is the first time I'd actually won since 2009 when I was baseball writer of the year, which I'm pretty sure would set a record for biggest gap between awards. I'm not positive of that, but I would like to think so. I would like to have that record associated with me. The award winning, the record setting, Scott White, 2009.

In my own mind, anyway. You are the Willie Mays of the FSWA Awards. I believe that's the longest gap between MVP awards. So there you go. All right. I've always said Scott White is the Willie Mays of fantasy baseball. We all do, duh. Great year that 2009, by the way.

Yankees won the World Series. I graduated high school, so there you go. Let's quickly explain the draft here before we get started. Again, standard 5 by 5 roto. The category is batting average, run scored, home runs, RBI, and steals. On the pitching side, we have ERA whip, wins, strikeouts, and saves. The lineup spots, Roto style, goes a little bit deeper into the player pool, two catchers, one of each infield position, a corner, a middle, five outfielders, a utility spot,

and then nine pitcher spots, which you can do. give you up however you'd like. I am picking fourth. Scott is picking fifth overall, so that should be fun, some snipes back and forth. Hopefully, make some good content out of it. And Chris will be picking 11th. So we're going to go along on this live stream. So buckle in. This will be a two-part podcast as well for those who are listening. And I'm going to pull up the draft board. And Scott, I think we're ready to go. You are the commission. Okay. All right. Let's get it started. And here we go. Boom. Up and running. First. overall pick is.

It's got to be Acuna. Well, yeah. But it's Darren Doc Eisenhower. So we'll see who the doc takes. What if it wasn't Acuna? That would give us something to talk about. But it is Acuna, as it should be. As it should be.

In every league. There was one NFBC league where Acuna fell to third. No. Really? And I have yet to see a good explanation for it. Because Noel D. Marte was the first. Noel D. Marte was the first pick.

Oh, gosh. I think Bobby Witt went second, and I think that was just because the person didn't realize that Acuna went third. Right. He's got to feel so bad over that. Okay, so in our draft, it's Julio Rodriguez second and Bobby Witt third, which is the consensus for Roto. I prefer Bobby Witt second. I prefer Bobby Witt second because you might be getting a 10 steel advantage there, which is the main.

attraction to taking these players at the top of round one is all the big number of steals. They're going to give you the big steals advantage. Outfield, getting one of, in a five outfielder league, it's especially difficult to fill. And as a general rule, I do put a high priority on getting one of those first nine outfielders, those first round caliber outfielders.

But I think shortstop in this format is pretty shallow too. I run out of options I like there, before the draft is even halfway over. So I think I can justify taking Bobby Witt over Julio Rodriguez if I don't get that first pick to get a cunea. Speaking of justification, I guess I have to justify my pick because I had fourth overall.

And as soon as I saw the draft order come out earlier on Wednesday, I texted Scott and I said, I know what you're doing. I know exactly what you're doing. You gave me fourth overall pick to make sure that I would not take Corbyn Carroll, that I put my money where my mouth is, and that's exactly what I did.

The top three picks, as we mentioned, Acuna, Julio, Bobby Witt. I go ahead and take Mookie Betts. I've said dating back to last year all offseason. Not that I'm completely out on Corby and Carroll. I'm a little bit lower in the first round. Because of the past injury with the shoulder, maybe that's overblown. I want to be as safe as possible in the first round.

And so I took Mookie Betts. I do like that flexibility that he awards me. It was between him and Freddie Freeman, but being able to choose second base or outfield throughout the draft, I like that flexibility. So you've fallen right into my trap here, Frank, because I set up the draft order, you fourth, so that you'd be forced to pick a pass on Corbyn Carroll there and me fifth so that I would get Corbyn Carroll there.

And that's what I'm doing. Cheater. I haven't had a chance for a Corbyn Carroll build yet. But I think it's a clear top four in Roto. I think Ronald Ocunae, Julio Rodriguez, Bobby Witt, Corbyn, Carroll, what they do at hitters along with the massive stolen base output they're going to give you. And we talk a lot about Acuna, the power speed, Bobby Witt, the power speed, the historic combination that they provided.

Same one for Carroll last year. Guys who hit 25 homers and stole 50 bases in the season, he was only the second guy to do that since 1990 when a very young Barry Bonds did it. So that top four is just not a caliber of player we're used to. being in Roto. And so even with whatever shoulder concerns exist for Carol, which I think are pretty minimal, I'm happy to take him forth in this case fifth because you passed on him at number four. I'll remind you of the old adage, Scott. You can't win your fantasy baseball draft in the first round, but you can lose it. So I'm going to play it safe and I'm going to

take mooky bets, which is what I did. Scott took Corby and Carroll. Next three picks after that, Fernando Tatis, Juan Soto, and Freddie Freeman. And Chris, this kind of plays into what you were talking about the other day where you said if I don't have the first pick, I wouldn't mind having the eighth pick, or I guess in this case, even the ninth pick, because Freeman and Kyle Tucker go eight and nine, I think you got to feel pretty damn good about getting either those guys. Even, I know Aaron Judge has the concerns about his health, but I think he's absolutely that caliber of player. And he just went 10th. Yeah. Which is, ask me about my first pick, after I make my next pick.

Can I make that request? Because I'm pretty sure RJ's watching. And I want to see how his two picks go before I make my next pick. He's the one guy picking after you. But we do have to say you pick Spencer Strider. So you're going with the pitcher in round one. He's my number 10, by the way. He's my number 10 player.

So that it's been a chalky draft for me so far. 11th is where you picked. I'm sorry, not 10. Oh, sorry, 11th. Yeah. Yeah. So after Freddie Freeman went 8. 8th, Kyle Tucker 9, Aaron Judge, went 10, Chris took Spencer Strider 11.

I was wondering if you were going to make that move because, frankly, this is probably the lowest you'll see him fall in any draft this year. So, seems like a pretty fair spot to get Spencer Shrider. And then at the turn, RJ White takes Trey Turner and Jose Ramirez. So Chris, you are back up, and I will ask you about your first round pick. And this is why I wanted to wait, because I'm going to try something and we're going to see how this goes. Don't you dare, Chris. I'm going to try it. Oh, a double tap.

Pocket aces. I haven't done pocket aces in years. I think Corbyn or Garrett Cole and Spencer Strider are the clear top two pitchers. Pretty much everyone agrees with me. I think Corbyn Burns is like a half a tier behind them after the move to Baltimore. So there was no way he was going to get back to me. And by the time it gets back to the end of the third round, which is the next place time I'd be picking 35th overall.

you tend to see a pretty big tier drop at starting pitcher but there are still some pretty good hitters left so I want to see how this works because I've talked a lot about Yeah I want I've talked a lot about how I want two aces to anchor my staff

and then I'm going to not worry about pitching for a long time Well we'll see how it goes This is the most extreme version of that I feel like it's the opposite where the end of round three that's where the MVP caliber bats run out and hopefully like a Kevin Gosman or Luis Castillo is still there for me to take but if not I'll just take the best of what's there

but you think it's the opposite you think yeah I think like the drop off from Gosman Wheeler Castillo to like Gallin Kirby Lopez I think is significant enough that I

want to see what it looks like when I do this I'm not I'm not saying this is the ideal way to start your draft from the number 11 spot, but I want to try it out. After Chris took Garrickole 14th, we saw Matt Olson get paired up with Aaron Judge. I mean, there's an outside chance you get 100 home runs from your top two players there between those two picks. And then we see Yorda Alvarez and Shohay Otani go 16th and 17th.

So Kayla Walts did the Astros double tap with Yorda and Kyle Tucker in the first round. Raymond Atherton did Shohei Otani and Freddie Freeman. My gosh, that is so fun. And that's about the latest you'll see Shohei Otani go as well. So 17th overall. And then Bryce Harper goes 18.

That was a team that started with Juan Soto. So just kind of recapping some first and second round picks for people to get an idea of what the player pairings are. And then Austin Riley 19th. And Scott, your backup. Corbyn Carroll was your first round pick. And this is pick 20 overall. So this is another reason I wanted to pick fifth overall is because the 20th overall pick, I thought, could be stressful.

And it is stressful. Your Nalvarez didn't last that long. Shohay Otani, Bryce Harper. If any of them lasted that long, that would have been an ideal scenario. But they didn't. They're all gone. I could think about taking Corbyn Burns here. He's still out there, right?

Correct. But I'm not going to. I'm going to go ahead and fill shortstop, which I think is the second most stressful hitter position to fill early. Why? I got to do that. I'm going to take Francisco Lindor. It's a distant second.

It's way behind outfield. But I have seen Lindor slide to early in round three in 12 team leagues before. And so to take him in the middle of round two feels a bit like a resignation. But I don't think he's going to make it to my next pick. And he is my top player remaining on the board. I could go, if I wanted to stick to hitters, I could go Raphael Devers. I could go Pete Alonzo. Those positions are a lot deeper in my mind.

So I'd rather have Lindor. He gives me steals in addition to power. And I mean, we all talked about how he's our favorite shortstop to draft. It's a little on the early side for him. But I say that, but he is my top-dric player. Yeah, he went 32nd in my Tout Wars draft. the other day, which is in OBP league, which I guess, I don't know, he's, he's probably about as valuable in OBP as batting average. He's not great in either.

That's right. Yeah. So, yeah, it's probably a little earlier than he was likely to go, but I can't imagine he would have made it back to you. Right. A long shot for sure. No, because I would have taken him with the very next pick. So, okay, there you go. Obviously, I hate the pick, Scott. And so thanks for doing that. But yeah, I wanted a little bit more speed to pair with Mookie Betts in the first round. You took Lindor.

So I went ahead and took Rafael Devers. I will explain why I did that after my third round pick. Just going to wait and see who makes it back to me. After I took Rafael Devers, Corbyn Burns, went 22nd. And Corey Seeger, 23rd overall. Still waiting to learn more news on the sports hernia surgery. Opening day.

That's an optimistic pick for Corey Seeger. a lot of times you see him slide to late in round three, even early in round four, and he's going 23rd overall here. I don't necessarily think it's wrong, but it is on the more optimistic side. It is not as far as we normally see him slide with the hernia surgery and his timetable

still being a question. There has been some progress, though. He's been cleared for physical activity at least, So he's moving around at least. I got him 33rd overall in Tauor. So that was one where Lindor went off the board. I took Seeger, who does benefit. I mean, he's another one who's just elite in both average and on base percentage,

but he's very, very good in both. So over the past two weeks over at the NFBC, I wanted to quickly see where Corey Seeger is going. The ADP is... Which is a league that has... no aisle spots. Correct. 28.7. So a little bit past where he went in this draft. After Corey Seeger, Marcus Semyon and Pete Alonzo at the turn. So start your team with Akunia and then you come back and you get Pete Alonzo and Marcus Semyon. That sounds pretty good. Yeah.

Yeah. Kind of cover all bases, right? So it's power, a little bit of speed. I think the trendy way to approach the Acuna pick is what Scott did in TGFBI. And I think a lot of people are doing in TGFBI where You go Acuna and then double-tap pitchers. I think that's become kind of the trendier approach, but maybe more so in a 15-team league where Alonzo and Simeon are off the board already by the time you pick. Yeah, I do want to get into what if you have the first pick and take Acunia strategy a little bit, because I was forced into that in TGFBI, I think, because everybody focused so much on hitters that picks 30 and 31.

It was clearly Wheeler and Gosman were the best. players available in that draft. Normally, I wouldn't do that. But he took Acuna in this draft, Doc Eisenhower, took two hitters in addition to Acuna, knowing it's going to be another 24 picks until he picks again. And what is the starting pitcher going, what is the starting pitcher pool going to look like at that point? maybe like a Yoshinobu Yamamoto or a Pablo Lopez,

Terrick school, maybe somebody like that will be there. No way. You're shaking your head, Frank? You don't even think they'll be there? No, no, I'm just saying Yamamoto after his debut today. I mean, there's no way he makes sense. That was like, it was actually,

it was actually a little disappointing how good he was. I know. Because he only threw 19 pitches in his two innings. And I wanted to watch more of him. But my point is knowing the long wait, and knowing that Akuna already gives you such a head start in all the hidden categories, do you feel like you should really take at least one pitcher? I don't know that I would take two in most cases,

but one pitcher with the second and third choice at the turn there, the two, three turn. I think this is a conversation, I guess for later on, like when we have hindsight, right, it's obviously easier to say that. I mean, if I was on the clock, I think what Doc did there was totally, fine. Yeah, it's a good question. I don't know. I just, it'll be determined by whether.

I'm late. Given given the long wait, especially. And the fact that Akuna gives you such a head start in all the hitting categories. The idea is to balance all the categories, pitching included. And so having a true ace, it might set you up in the most optimal scenario to splurge for that. Yeah, that's something that we'll be watching to see what the pitching staff winds up looking like there. After Pete Alonzo, Zach Wheeler went 26th overall. L.E.

De La Cruz at 27. And I took Ozzy Albi. So I wanted to wait to my third round pick because I was debating Devers versus Ozzy Albies in the second round. And then I got Ozzy Albies in the third round. So there you go. Totally fine with the way that that worked out.

Obviously he doesn't give you a ton of speed but 10 to 15 steals. Kind of helps you out across the board. I wish I had a little bit more speed. But the start here, I've got Ozzy Albies. Rafael Devers and Mookie Betts. So obviously covering a bunch of the offensive categories, we'll see how the pitching staff turns out.

And then Scott, with the next pick, you took Jose Altuve. So your team through three rounds, you have Corbyn Carol, Francisco Lindor, and Altuve. Yeah, I tend to start hitter, hitter, hitter. And I feel like I got three, I got studs at three positions where the stud drop off comes pretty early. in my mind. I'm getting steals from all of them.

I have a good batting average foundation, especially with Altuve there, making up for whatever, however, Lindorra is short and batting average. So yeah, I feel like this is a strong start. I'm happy with it. All right. And then after you took Jose Altuve,

Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. went off the board. Kevin Gosman, Yoshinovo Yamamoto, who will talk about what he did in just a second. And then Luis Castillo. So Yamamoto going ahead. head of Castillo. The more starts we see from this guy.

Again, it's a bit of an overreaction. It's his first start. I get it. But we did want to see how he looks, obviously coming over from Japan. 16 of 19 of his pitches for strikes. Two shutout innings. Three strikeouts, zero walks. And if you guys saw the highlights,

some of these strikeouts, they didn't stand a chance. Pitching is ahead of hitters at this point, but like, he struck out some legit major leaguers. Samian, Nate Lowe, and Lioti Tavares, there were some pretty bad swing. So he looked awesome. That splitter, Yamamoto splitter was hyped as immediately.

It's going to be the best splitter in baseball. It was compared to Kevin Gosfman's, it was compared to show, not show Yatani's, Kodai Sengas. And it delivered in the first two innings. Now, I do wonder because it clearly wasn't anywhere close to the strike zone. and I do wonder if they'll just learn not to swing at it. I don't know. If he's able to disguise it as a fastball well enough, then I guess that won't be an issue.

But that would be the one issue that maybe might make it less effective than it initially appears. But I'm totally on board with Yoshinobu Yamamoto as a top 10 starter and an ace in fantasy. I don't think there's as much downside risk as some people are presenting. All right.

Well, let's finish out round three and let everyone know what happened here. After Luis Castile, Michael Harris 34th, Chris took Gunner Henderson, and then Luis Robert. Let's take our first break when we return. We'll get into round four. We'll ask Chris about his picks. We'll do that right after this.

Welcome back in. We are into the fourth round of our live 12-team Roto Mock draft, and RJ White kicked it off with Zach Gallen, and then Chris took Boba Chet, Pablo Lopez, and Tyler Glass now. Chris, so you started your team two starters. You got Strider and Garrett Cole, and then you came back around with Gunner Henderson,

and Boba Shett. What do you think so far? I think Scott was right when it came back to me. I think the, I had my top three players were all hitters. So it's not like I hated the hitters or liked the pitchers more. But yeah, I think I feel like I could have gotten by easier with Pablo Lopez and Terik Scouble

as my top two pitchers. I think those were the top two pitchers left for me the last time I picked. I mean, it could have split the difference. Pablo Lopez, yeah. Take either strider or Cole and pair them with either Scoopal or who was the other one? It would have been Zach Allen or Pablo Lopez, probably.

I mean, look, I like Gunner Henderson. I like Boba Chet, but obviously neither of them is an elite power hitter or an elite stolen base guy. So, you know, they're more good at multiple things rather than great at multiple things. So, you know, I guess because I would have taken Trey Turner if I hadn't taken Spencer Strider at 10.

So, or if I hadn't taken Garrett Cole, I would have taken probably Shohei Otani. So I guess we could walk through what that, like Spencer Strider and Shohei Otani or. Yeah, I like that more. Yeah, I think I probably like that more too. Yeah. So look,

trying different things out throughout a mock draft and this is exactly why we do it to try and talk through it and see maybe what we would have done differently if this were a real draft. So after we saw Pablo Lopez, Tyler Glass now went 40th overall, then Manny Machado George Kirby and Mike Trout

and then we got to Scott who took his first starting pitcher. Terrick Scouble who averaged 97.5 miles per hour on the fastball here in the spring debut. In a dumb way. but that opens a conversation. Is Terrick Scoobel throwing too hard?

Now, I don't actually mean that. I think it's great that Terrick School's averaging 98 miles per hour as a lefty with his fastball. That is bonkers. This is a guy who had Tommy John surgery way back in, I think, college, and then had a flexor strain surgery two years ago. He's never thrown more than, I think, 140 innings at the major league level. He's coming off in 80-inning season.

I think there's some risk to the way he throws, especially given how quickly his velocity has done. I mean, it's the Jacob de Grom thing all over again. You're already winning Cy Young's with the velocity you have. Why do you need to add another two miles per hour? Your body can't withstand that torque, clearly. And so I think that's a fair concern after one spring start. It's not going to change where I draft.

Terrick Scoobel. He was my top ranked pitcher even before he was throwing that hard in the spring start. I'm not moving him up and I'm not moving him down. Exactly. So yeah, I think this is, I think he qualifies as

more or less an ace of fantasy. I said he's my pick to win A.L. Sy Young this year. So I'm happy that I'm able to get a pitcher that good after beginning hitter, hitter, hitter. At 44th overall here, Terik Scoobal is who I took. But I think he's

right there with Tyler Glass now in terms of being like the ultimate risk reward. I think, I mean, you got a 30 year old who's never known. No, Glassdows riskier.

Yeah. Okay. But in terms of, he is. And Scoobel is probably a better bet to get to 150 innings than Tyler Glass now. Yeah. But the,

the upside is this is the best pitcher in baseball on a perning basis. That's what Terrick Scouble basically was last season. I think among pitchers who threw at least 50 innings, he was fourth unexpected ERA and that's including like it's him and three elite closers

who threw like 60 innings and I think all three of them got hurt at some point during the season that is the upside but I think there's a lot of red flags there as well after Terrick Scoobal went

I was on the board and I took I was debating starting pitcher obviously a pitcher I do like to build around quite a bit was there in Logan Webb I opted to pass because there was an outfielder who could provide me some speed.

Randy or Rosa Rana spoke about him on the outfield preview. He's very inconsistent throughout the course of the season, but by the end of the year, usually just winds up with his 20-20 batting average, 250, excuse me, 2020 home runs and steals, 250 to 260 batting average. Counting stats are fine. He's just kind of okay across the board. He doesn't hurt you anywhere. So I took him, wanted some more speed, and we'll see how the pitching staff winds up.

But yeah, yeah, I did miss out on Logan Webb because he went two picks. later. After a Rosa Rana, there was Royce Lewis, the aforementioned Logan Webb, at the turn. Cole Regens and Grayson Rodriguez. More on that in a second. Nolan Jones went 50th overall. We are into the fifth round now and Freddie Peralta. I am on the board. I will just quickly make my pick and I will take Framber Valdez. I think he's kind of similar to Logan Webb and that he's going to give me a solid base of innings and solid ratios, maybe not the most strikeouts, but I could build around that. Is that your second pitcher?

That's my, that's my SP1. Scott, you're on the clock. Before we got into my pick, I wanted to follow up. So Doc Eisenhower, after taking three hitters, Acuna, and then two other hitters. He comes back in round four and five, and pairs Cole Regens as his ace with Grayson Rodriguez, two high upside pitchers. It could work out. I wonder though

so what would the pitcher have been in round two and three that he could have taken instead I think Wheeler was Gawzman Yeah And so instead of the hitters that he took Which were Simeon and Alonzo

Like it's okay so maybe he could have Bellinger Cody Bellinger instead of Pete Alonzo and then Wheeler instead of Grayson Rodriguez I think I would like that more But I think I'd rather have the hitters there. Okay.

I think it's okay. I just think I have a problem with, I guess, the pitchers that he took in the order. But, I mean, if those are your top ranked pitchers, then that's fine. Yeah, I mean, there's still Aaron Nola out there. There were still Framber Valdez who you took rank. Which is what I probably would have taken in innings eater type with one of these high upside names instead of just taking two high upside guys. And I think I would have liked that more. But there's a one out for upside, clearly.

Yeah. And Reagan's, I mean, you know I like Reagan's going that early, but it's 48th. I keep hearing from people, I keep getting Cole Reagan's around pick 100. And it just never comes anywhere close to that in our draft. So I never end up drafting him for as much as I like him. It's frustrating. I ended up taking Cody Bellinger with my fifth round pick here, a second outfielder. You know, I think outfield is the highest priority position in the early rounds.

Cody Bellinger, we know where he's going now, and it's the same place. where he found so much success last year. So that is at least one worry that's been eliminated. Okay, it won't be the venue that brings him down. There are still worries, of course. But it's a multifaceted outfielder at a time when outfielder is going to drain really quickly and in a format where you go really deep into the outfield rankings. So I decided to prioritize a second outfielder,

with Bellinger over a second starting pitcher. You know, there are some great hitter values here in the fifth round. Now that I'm looking at everything, catch people up. Freddie Peralta went right before my pick. That was the third pick of round five, pick 51. I took Framber Valdez, Scott took Cody Bellinger, then C.J. Abrams, Jazz Chisholm, and Adoles Garcia. Abrams.

Say that name again? Jazz Chisholm? What did I say? Okay. Jazz, I don't know. I can't even. you pronounce the H. Jazz, chisholm, or something like that.

Apologies. Adolos Garcia in the fifth round and C.J. Abrams seemed like pretty damn good values. And you know, if I wasn't hosting a podcast while doing this draft... Oh, don't blame your job. I might have taken Abrams just because I feel like he fits what the team needs.

I needed more speed, but I didn't even realize he was available. bad job by me, but those are, I think, really good picks in the fifth round. You take somebody like Mookie Betts ahead of somebody like Corbyn Carroll. You're going to have to be conscientious about speed after doing that. And you weren't, Frank. You blew it. No, I got Randy Arasorana. He's awesome. After Adolas Garcia, we saw Nolan Aeronado, Logan Gilbert.

Chris took Kyle Schwabber. Then at the turn, RJ took Aranola and Max Fried. We're into the sixth round now where Chris took Christian Yelich and O'Neill Cruz was the next pick. The way Randy Orozarena boathed up this offseason, I don't think he's thinking about stolen bases. I was going to say, like, you remember Doug Martin, the running back for Tampa Bay? His nickname was the muscle hamster. That's right. I think Randy Orozerana's nickname should be muscle hamster.

It reminds me of like Ron Gant going back even further. Yeah, he looks super jacked. Like too, too muscular. I worry. But anyway, I read about it. Let's get back to the picks. I read about it. I haven't actually seen it, though, but you might be on to something.

Again, I look at my spring training roundup. I got a link to it. I probably blew it, not taking Abrams. I do want to point out, you can kind of see the sacrifices I'm having to make for my hitter spots because of the double-tap pitchers at the start. Taking Schwerber there, needs some power, need to get a 40 homer guy, but obviously I'm sacrificing a ton of banning average. So I had to follow it up with a good source of batting average.

I hope. I hope Christian Yelch is going to hit 280 something this year. And I passed up on like Nico Horner, who I think is probably a better bet for batting average and stolen bases because I didn't want to sacrifice power to make up for it. And so I'm I'm juggling a lot of plates here, spinning a lot of plates in a way that that I think is okay, but it feels a little dicey.

after you took Yelich, O'Neill Cruz, Paul Goldschmidt, Matt McLean, who went 65th overall. I feel like he's been dropping a little bit past that since the oblique injury. But if you really like him, you probably got to take him there. And then Alex Bregman and Bobby Miller, Scott, you are back up. And let's remind everybody of what your team looks like. And you have Jose Altuve, Francisco Lindor, Cody Bellinger, Corbyn Carole, and Terrick Scoubel. What happens now? Yeah, what happens now?

I'd hope there'd be a better starting pitcher here than there is. So maybe I regret that Bellinger pick. People have been avoiding closers in a way we're not used to. That that would be the chalk pick. I hate taking closers, so I'm not going to do it. I'm going to take a guy I draft very often. Josh Lowe has a third outfielder. So I'm well ahead of pace.

I'm well ahead of where I need to be to make sure I don't have a problem them in the outfield. I have three already. That's comforting to me. I'm well ahead of where I need to be to make sure I don't have a stolen base problem because all five of my hitters, Corby and Carole gives a ton, obviously, but also Francisco Lendor, Jose Altuve, Cody Bellinger and Josh Lowe, they're all going to make significant stolen base contribution. So I'm in really good shape with stolen bases now, and that's going to open up a lot of options for me with my future hitter picks. But I do need to address my pitching soon. And I hope these closers go so that I don't have to be the one who takes them.

I've got a bone to pick with you, Scott. I know you like Josh Lowe, but kind of feels like you're overdoing it on steals just so that I can't get them. Got to say. I did. That's what you were going to take. That's what I think. That's what I think you're doing right now. It may be overdoing it.

It steals. It legitimately may be. But, I mean, yeah, you're up to like 150. So, all right. Like that's about what you're aiming for the whole, like that's about middle of the path of the whole draft, right? Okay. So I don't need to draft a steals guy again, basically.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's fine. I mean, I love to draft like Jackson Chorio. I love those base stealing second baseman. But we'll see how that influences my decisions moving forward, the fact that I have such a nice steals total already through six rounds. Yeah.

So I needed an SP2 as well. And my top ranked pitcher was Jesus Lazzardo, who I think pairs well with someone like Framber Valdez. Maybe some whip concerns, so I'll have to be cognizant of that in the future. But Lazzardo, up over 10K per 9 last year, he's going to give you lots of strikeouts, good ballpark to pitch in.

Assuming he doesn't get traded from Miami, I think he's a totally fine SP2 to pair with someone like Framber Valdez. After that, Adley Ruchman went 70th overall, and that feels like a pretty good value. I think he was my top ranked hitter and I thought about taking him. I just don't usually take a catcher that early.

So it kind of threw me off a little bit, but I did debate taking him there. It feels like a really good value at this point. Same thing with Nico Horner. I just, I don't really want to fill my middle infield spot yet. I have Ozzy Albies at second. I guess does Nico Horner have shortstop? He might, right?

Yeah, he does. So I could have done that and I blew it again. So here we are. After Nico Horner, Yuri Perez, that's the other pitcher I was thinking about. I think, again, he would have paired well with Framber. I guess kind of similar pitcher to like, what we're expecting from Lozardo anyway, right?

You probably expect something similar from Yuri. Obviously, the upside is higher, but maybe the downside is lower? I don't know. I'm thinking about my next pick, so you're going to have to finish that thought yourself. Sorry, what was the question? Forget it. At the turn, Wyatt Langford was the first pick of round seven. Pick 73.

Oh my goodness. So I know there was an article that came out from Jeff Passon. I believe it was yesterday when we're recording this. So on Tuesday, February 27th, there was an article about how the Rangers are enamored with Wyatt Langford, and they're legitimately giving him every opportunity

to make the opening day roster. Chris, even with that, 73rd, too early for Wyatt Langford? Yes, I think so. I mean, maybe too early for Jackson Shores. you, I think. So I think the problem, though, is when you're picking at the end of the draft,

to a certain extent, you just kind of have to throw ADP out of the window if you want a guy. Because there's no guarantee. Now, if you base it on ADP, Wyatt Langford's going even lower than I think 94 would be what his next pick opportunity would have been. So he could have still had the opportunity to take Wyatt Langford there. but that is the thing you have to keep in mind as you're looking at the results of any individual draft is, while ADP tells you one story, if you are picking first or second or 12th or 11, you kind of have to throw it away and get if you want the guy that you want,

there's no guarantee they're going to come up the next time. I think he probably would have still been there the next time around, but there's certainly no guarantee. Yeah, no, I think that's fair. and I am back on the clock here. The previous two picks after Langford were Josh Hader, so the first closer goes and JT.Rome mute. Round seven.

Round seven, the first closer goes. And I'm going to go ahead and grab my third starting pitcher, and I mentioned in our pitching previews. I like to get three of my top 30, and then I'll back off the position for a little bit, and I'll jump back in later on. So I took Zach Eflin, and I think he peers really well

because he is a low-whip pitcher, so I think that works just, just very well. Again, with Lazzardo and Framber Valdez as my top two starting pitchers. Scott, you are back up, and I believe through six picks, you have five hitters and one pitcher.

I just can't get over the fact that we're here in the middle of round seven, and one closer is gone. He just went. Sounds like you should take a closer, Scott. I'm not going to, because the only reason I ever take closers is because other people force me to.

They create this scarcity that I'm forced to react to. They help in one category. I understand they help a little bit in ERA and WIP, but they don't give you the volume to make a huge difference there. And, you know, it's a deep class anyway. Like I said, 16 players, I feel like have more or less the same upside. The fact you took Zach Eflin, I think, makes it obvious. I have to take a starting pitcher because we're getting pretty close to the glob now.

I'm taking one who gives me a lot of strikeouts. Blake Snell here at 77th overall. That's assuming he pitches this year, Scott. He's going to pitch this year. I don't know that he'll be ready to pitch the first time or through the rotation, given that he's not participating in spring training, because he doesn't have a team. But he will have a team very soon.

And I think this is a good value for him. There's obviously some risk. I have him as one of my bus candidates for this year. So we don't even really need to get into that. I think it's already factored into the cost, clearly. We know what the upside is. We know what the strikeout upside is, certainly. He's a good bet to deliver on that.

And he's sliding, just because he hasn't, I got 77th in this draft, I feel like, is good value. But I got him 90th in TGFBI and was absolutely thrilled with that. Yeah, so I mentioned I updated my rankings earlier in the week. And I did move Blake's now down. I think he's my SP21. And I moved him down to, how about that? 77th overall, Scott, exactly where you took him.

So, yeah, I think he should drop a little bit based on earlier draft, but this is the appropriate range that I would be looking to talk. target. You know, as soon as he signs, though, he's going to shoot back up in ADP. Yes. But is that warranted, though, because there are risks with him starting later in camp. So shouldn't those be kind of... Oh, no, there is.

I just, I laid that out, but I... People are just afraid of... I don't know. When players haven't signed yet, their value gets suppressed to a ridiculous level, as if they're not going to sign. I don't know why that happens. So just the fact that he doesn't have a team right now is causing him to drop too much

and the fact that he does have a team tomorrow or next week or whenever it is is going to cause his value to rise maybe too far but it'll cause it to rise some for sure. All right, after you took Blake Snell, Joe Musgrove, Cattel Marte, Edwin Diaz, Hassan Kim,

Glaver Torres, and Chris, you selected Devin Williams as the, I believe that's the third closer off the board at pick 83 and it feels like all these closer values are exactly that. Oh, wait. No, no, no. Back that out. Sorry. Did you know? I meant to pick someone completely different. I'm sorry. Can we back that out? Ah, our first back out of a live mock draft.

But I'm giving you a disapproving look. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I clicked the wrong button. We are mad at you. I meant to take Brian Reynolds. And that is a great pick too. Brian Reynolds just kind of, as I mentioned on our outfield preview, just kind of keeps things moving, doesn't hurt you anywhere. He's solid. He's a high floor play. and I believe he's what, probably your third outfielder now? Third outfielder, yeah. So I've got Spencer Strider and Garrett Cole. I've got Gunner Henderson, Bobauch, Christian Yelich, Kyle Schwerber, and Brian Reynolds.

And then you backing out the Devin Williams pick actually worked out for R.J. Because at the turn, he took Christian Walker and Devin Williams. We are into the eighth round and Chris, you were back up. And to be clear, I would have taken Catele or Glaver Torres. They both went right before my pick. I would have preferred to have very similar profiles to Brian Reynolds, but would have preferred them at second base. But one thing I'm going to try to do here,

I just took William Contreras. And because I have the strider coal combination, I'm trying to make up ground in the hitting categories. And one way that I can probably do that is lock in an advantage at catcher. And William Contreras is someone that we expect to have a playing time edge on most of the catching position. we think he might be, you know, if not the best, the second best catcher, the second best hitting catcher.

So I'm hopeful that that is one way that I can make up for what I'm lacking by missing out on those first round caliber hitters. All right. Well, after you took William Contreras, Tristan Kossis goes off the board at Pick 87. And I saw somebody ask me this on Twitter today that Tristan Kossis is yet to make his spring debut. Is that something we should be worried about? No. Apparently he's dealing with an illness, some kind of flu. Yeah. If it was, you know, some kind of

structural type injury, then yeah, maybe, but an illness, nah, not worried about that. I mean, a lot of players are just making their spring debut. I've seen a lot of reports in the last day or two. So-and-so is making, Mike Trout's making his spring debut. Like, yeah. It's real, it's, it's February, you know. Jared Duran, I think, has not played this spring. And he's kind of, he's kind of, coming back from, I believe, toe surgery. That's not a different, obviously, because there's a buildup, but hitters, they need like a week. But that's not to say I'm concerned about Jaron Duran, but that's more concerning than Tristan Kossis.

I agree with that completely. Let's take our second break when we return. Scott should be on the clock. We'll talk about that right after this. Welcome back in after Tristan Kossis went. Scott, I've got bad news. You will not have Justin Steele on this team. I know.

That's who I was gearing up to take. I wanted that third starting pitcher. Yeah, so he went 88th, followed by Jordan Walker, Emmanuel Class A, and Yuan Duran. And so after Steele went, I thought, well, maybe I will take the elite closer, Emmanuel Class A. It's been, they've slid so far. Maybe it's justifiable.

But then he went, and I'm not going to go for like Camilla Duval or Jordan Romano yet. So Jackson Chorrio, my fourth outfielder, some more steals. Why not? See, you should have left some of them. those earlier steal for me, Scott. You don't need to over it. You know what? We say, ideally, you finish third in every category. It's nothing wrong with finishing first or second in a category. You can win a category. Probably not going to actually finish third in every category. You are allowed to win a category. Yes. You only need to win by one though, Scott. Just to remind

if I'm really, if I'm really that far ahead, I can swing a trade. This isn't, this isn't NFBC. That is true. This is not. It's a mock draft also. So there are no trades. those, but you get what I'm saying. Let's see what's going on here at shortstop. All right. I'm thinking about a few different things, but I got to make a decision because time is running out.

I think this is a good value for Will Smith. I don't usually draft him, but we're here. 93rd overall. It just feels like it's later than it should be. He's one of those top, you know, three or four names. I think he's part of that elite class. So someone that's going to

not kill you in batting average, 20 to 25. home runs. If he's batting cleanup for the Dodgers this year, my goodness. I mean, the counting stats could be awesome as well. We know he's not going to get DH opportunities with Chohay Otani on the team, but yeah, let's see how it works. Maybe later on. Catcher and relief pitcher have dropped quite a bit in this draft. Yeah, that is a fair observation. After Will Smith, Evan Carter went 94th overall. Go ahead, Scott. So yeah, just to give a closer comparison, so in my TGFBI league, which is 15 team Roto versus the 12 teamer we're doing now.

So like I said, the first closer Josh Hader went in round seven. In round seven of my TGFBI draft, the closers who were going off the board were Tanner Scott, Ryan Hesley, Hesley, Clay Holmes in round eight where a manual class A went in this mock draft, Adbert Alzali. and that was the only one that went in round eight, but that's how far we were into the relief pitcher pool in that 15-team rodeo-legged versus this 12 team where the elite closers are going in round 7 and 8.

And I don't think it's just a depth of the format thing. I think closer, relief pitcher, more than any other position, is driven so much by, by just what's happening in your particular league. People are going to be more, are going to be followers, not wanting to fall victim to that scarcity that's being created. But nobody wants to be the first one to act.

Nobody wants to be the one who sets the closer market. They just, they want to make sure they don't get left out of it. And so a lot of times in our mock draft, this happens where the closers all drop way below what their ADP value is. You know what other market you don't want to be left out of? First base, because they are flying right now. After Evan Carter, Spencer Torkelson, I pick 95.

Vinnie P. Baby. There you go. Jinks, you owe Dick Vital, Soda. Vinny P., Vinnie Pasquantino at 96 overall. I'll say this about Doc Eisenhower, who's drafting first overall. Get your guys because he does not care about ADP. He is just going out there.

He's getting his guys. you know, took Cole Regens and Grayson Rodriguez at the 4-5 turn, took Wyatt Langford at the previous turn, now he goes ahead and takes Vinnie Pasquantino and the first pick of round nine, Anthony Volpe. So, all right. I still, I think only two starting pitchers, right? For Doc?

If I remember. If anyone was going to pass on Ronald de Cunia, it was going to be Doc Eisenhower. He missed his chance. He missed his chance to make a name for himself. He took Yuri Perez. So look, it's a lot of fun on that team. It's a lot of upside.

There's a lot of upside in that pitching staff. That's right. So after Anthony Volpe, Tanner Bybee, and Andres Munoz, and you know what? One of the best feelings in a fantasy baseball draft, when you consider taking a player in one round and they make it all the way back to you in the next round. So if anyone's watching us,

you saw I pulled up Zander Bogartz before. I thought about taking him. I said, you know what? Will Smith, he's past ADP. Let me take him see if Bogartz makes it back. and he did. So that is who I will be selecting as my starting shortstop.

He will gain second base eligibility early on in the season, but I am quite happy with that selection. Bogarts at Pick 100. Yeah, I was definitely hoping he would make it back to me. I think he should have been off the board probably a full round or two ago

based on my ranking. That's a little frustrating. He's another super well-rounded player who I would have liked to have had on my team. All right, Scott. you are back up. Let's check back in on the old squad, see what you got. And Jose Altuvae, Francisco Lindor, Cody Bellinger, Josh Lowe, Corbyn,

Corbyn, Jackson, Truro, two starting pitchers, Terrick Scoubel, and Blake Snell. Yeah. Yeah. Hmm. I guess I'm going to take Chris Sale here. Don't sound so upset about it. Jeez. Well, it...

You might be taking it. There's nobody who I think, other than closers. There's nobody who I'm like, wow, this value is great. I absolutely have to take him here. I don't have a third starting pitcher yet, and we're getting close to the glob. I have recently moved Chris Sale out of the glob because I think it's certain. I'm confident on a per inning basis he will perform better than a globy pitcher.

He certainly. It feels a little early for him, but then again, I never seem to draft him because somebody always goes earlier than I'm willing to. I thought about taking a closer, but there are still so many number ones left that that just doesn't seem like an optimal use of the pick and I didn't love my hitter options.

If there was a slugging first basement out there, I would have taken him because if I'm behind in any hitter category, it's homers. But I don't think I'm really behind in homers and I didn't love the first base options available. So yeah, Chris, say all this. And I will say this. Another strikeout pitcher.

After his first spring training start, again, we don't want to overreact, but the velocity was up one mile per hour, healthy off season, trade it to the Braves, obviously. Run support should be there. If you could stay healthy for 150 innings, I think he'll pay off this value. He is someone who's on the rise, too.

I've seen him going earlier in draft, so I think that's fine. Go out. Over the last week in NFBC, if I can pull it up real quick, Chris Sale, 133rd overall. So that's still, that's, you know, this is we're around pick 100.

That's still early. Don't love it. Get your guys, Guy. Get your guys. After Chris Sale, Ryssel Iglesias, another closer, and then Sunny Gray, we are closing in on Chris's team. Let's check back in, see what you got working on here, Chris. And we know that you started with the pocket aces, Garracola Spencer Strider, and since then you took William Contreras as your first catcher.

You have Gunner Henderson, Boba Chet, Christian Yelich, Kyle Schwerber, Brian Reynolds. So you're lacking that, I guess, elite type hitter, that first round caliber hitter, but, for what you've done since, I think it's kind of rounding into form here. Yeah, I mean, look, you, any draft strategy is going to have some limitations, right?

Scott's team doesn't have a ton of power yet. Frank, I'm sure you have some limitations, but I'm just going with what Scott just said when I was listening. I need speed. I need speed. Yeah, you need stolen bases.

Like, I think I'm missing the high end bats for sure, but I think it's been an okay time making up for it. And we'll see, I'm going to draft a player who I don't really love here, but he fits a need for a little more speed with Bryson Stott, fits a need to make up for a little bit of that batting average that I had to sacrifice to draft Kyle Schwerber to make up for power.

So I'm really having to juggle my offense. but it has been nice to just not think about pitcher for, you know, seven straight rounds, which is what I've done. Because Garik-Col and Spencer Strider, I mean, if they stay healthy, I'm going to get 390 incredible innings, and that's going to make up for a lot of flaws in anything else. 500 strikeouts from those pitchers. Yeah. No kidding.

At the turn, RJ took Spencer Steer and Nick Castellano. So we are into round 10. Yeah, obviously, you know, Stier has multi-position eligibility, but two potential outfielders go. So starting to dwindle a little bit on the outfielders. And Chris, your backup. This is what I don't want to do. But if everybody keeps saying,

I don't want to take a closer if they're all falling, then they're just going to keep falling. We got a collective action problem here, guys. And someone's got, so I am going to take Camilla Doval, who I have ranked, I don't know, 30 spots higher than where I just took him at 11, 1110th overall. So I think that's okay, you know, slotting in an elite relief ace alongside my two starting pitcher aces. I think that's okay. The ADP for Camillo Doval, according to fantasy pros, 69.4.

You just got him at pick 110. So about 40 picks past 8.5. ADP. Yeah, I think it's totally fine to take him at this point. Again, we're into round 10 moving along here. As I mentioned, we're going to be staying live for the entirety of this draft, so it's going to be a little bit of a, not a little bit, a lot a bit longer than we normally are on here, probably two plus hours. And again, that'll be broken down into two part, two part podcast. After Camila Duval, David Bednar. So Chris, you might have spoken something into existence here. That's be the change you want to see in the world.

There you are. You know what? We're running into a problem because I think I'm also on the clock in TGFBI. It's just I can only spread my attention so many different ways right now. That's a four hour clock, Frank. I think you can, I think people will understand if you wait. No, they will not. They will not understand.

People will not understand. And there you go, Chris. You did start that run. Three closures in a row. Deval, Bednar, Jordan Romano. But then Riley Green is gone. So I know you like him quite a bit. Riley Green is starting to creep up.

I think he was, I wrote biggest ADP risers. I think he was part of that discussion comparing January to February because he's starting to get a little more hype. I think he's going to play in games this week. Or did he already playing a game? Yeah, he already appeared in games. So there you go.

He's fully recovered. No questions. He'll be back. and there's a lot to like about the skill set. I've certainly seen him going a little higher than expected in the last couple of drafts I've done, which is frustrating as someone who ranks him about 100 or 100, no, sorry, 50 or 60 spots higher than ADP,

and I still end up not drafting him. So Riley Green went 113th, followed by George Springer and Seya Suzuki. Great values. I considered both of them, my previous pick, when I took Zander Bogart's, And as much as I like the Bogart's pick, depending, based on which shortstop's made it back here, I kind of wish I took an outfielder.

I kind of wish I took Springer or say a Suzuki. They're gone now. And Scott, you are on the clock. Yeah, I think I'm going to go for a close or two. Because we're about to drop out of that very big tier of number ones into some borderline number ones. But I'll take what in my mind is a true number one. Paul Seawald, which is actually skipping ahead in my own rankings a little.

I have Alexis Diaz ranked ahead of Paul Seawald, but I think I've talked myself out of it since our relief pitcher preview. I see more risk for Alexis Diaz than I do for Paul Seawald. So I think I'm going to flip those two in my rankings. But Paul Seawald's my closer here. I'm a number one, and I suspect Alexis Diaz is going to go very quickly here now that Seawald is gone as well as Badnar and. Romano and Camillo DeVall.

Yeah, I'm thinking about it. I have Alexis Diaz as a bus too, so I don't necessarily want to. One of the gentlemen after me does not have a first baseman, so I think I might want to do that. Oh, gosh, I don't know. I took Josh Naler. I don't know if that is the right pick.

I needed a first baseman. He's another guy who doesn't hurt you anywhere, solid batting average, 20 homers. RBI should be good. Chip in 8 to 10 steers. RBI should be great. He's been an RBI standout on a per game basis the past couple of seasons.

So if the drop off, there may still not be a ton of urgency to get your first close or if you have as much faith in Pete Fairbanks and Ryan Helsley as you're doing Alexis Diaz and Paul Seawald, who I took. You could tier them the same. Like I said, I think they have similar upside. but Fairbanks and Helsley are pretty clear injury risks

and if you don't want to mess with that, then I think that's where you'd prioritize Alexis Diaz over them. They're much better pitchers than him. Yeah, I think at least. Alexis Diaz gets a ton of case. Yeah, no, he does. And look, there is a real chance with Alexis Diaz. You know, we cite the second half numbers.

It really was just September. And if you look at his usage, the Reds were really overusing him late in the year. I mean, they were trying their darnest to make a push for the playoffs, and they were basically running Alexis Diaz out there every day. So I acknowledge there is obviously a world where I am wrong about Alexis Diaz being a bust, and he just got overused last year, and he bounces back this year, and he's fine. But I think I'm going to just continue to wait on my first closer,

because all the names I usually like to target, the Glacius's, Bednarz, they're all gone because Chris had to go and start a reliever run, so thanks, Chris. You don't have to do that. They would have been gone either way. I don't know. I mean, I think some of the people drafting here might be watching us. So again, you might have kind of, you might have spoke that one into existence. After I took Josh Naylor, Michael King, Yiner Diaz, Josh Young, and then to kick off round 11, Estuary Ruiz.

How about that? The top two players in Steele's last year on the same fantasy team. Maybe I won't win the category after all. You might not. Yeah, I mean, he's got, I was wondering if the person who took him doesn't have any other steel sources, but they have Marcus Simeon. They have Anthony Volpe. Why Langford should. Yeah, why Langford will steal some bases as well.

He really, he has Vinnie Pasquantino and Pete Alonzo are, they might both steal one base. But yeah, that, that's, it's an interesting approach because. you definitely don't need to worry about stolen bases ever again in this draft between those two Simeon, Volpe, and Langford. It does seem like overkill a bit. Yeah. And between Ruiz and maybe young, definitely Volpe and Alonzo too, there's some batting average risk on this profile that, you know, the rest of the lineup might be well-rounded enough

that you can take a Luis Arias and make up for that, but there's definitely some batting average risk there as well. I don't know how often this has worked in the history of fantasy baseball, double-tapping Guardians hitters, but that is something that I just did. I took Josh Nailer in round 10.

I just took Andres Jimenez in round 11. I don't typically like to fill my middle or corner this early, but I've talked about a bit of an urgency for speed throughout this draft and I was actually debating Zach Geloff or Andres Jimenez. Gelloff went the pick before so that kind of you know the light bulb went off I said all right let me not mess around here let me get Andres Jimenez who I do suspect we'll steal around 30 bases this year so obviously that helps me out in that category and Scott you are back up yeah I regret my last choice because Alexis Diaz

is still there I thought in half around somebody would want to take that closer so I regret taking Paul Sewell last time because I my all alternative was Zach Gelloff, who did go. I still on it. Oh, I filled second base. Okay. Yeah, I have Altuve. That's not such a big deal. Okay. And I don't need Gelloff steals anyway. So I guess it's fine. I guess it's fine. I mean, I guess Yiner Diaz is who I would have taken if I didn't take Paul Seawald because he had slid a while. I tend not to take that high end of a catcher. But he went soon after I took Seawald.

So I would have rather done that. But because that didn't work out, I took Carlos Rodon. here in round 11, pick 125. So my starting rotation now is Terek Scoobel, Blake Snell, Chris Sale, Carlos Rodon. A bunch of lefties, bunch of strikeouts, which is how I like it. And we'll see how the rest of the staff shape is out. Scott, did you ever play MVP baseball back in the day?

Sure. So, you know when you start a franchise mode, they give you the option where you could turn injuries off, Is that what you're doing for your pitching staff this year? Got him. I mean, sale? Sale is, I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't put huge injury flags on most of these guys. Sale, yes. I missed so much of the last few years with injuries. Snell, Rodon. They've had, I mean, Rodon was hurt last year, but the previous two years he wasn't. I think he would throw 130 innings back in? 2021.

Look, there's a ton of upside with those guys. I'm not gonna, like, look, this is what you want strikeouts,

Scott, you got strikeouts. There's no doubt about that. I'm just saying, there is injury risk with each of those guys. In my opinion.

After you took Carlos Rodon, Joe Ryan off the board, Alexis Diaz, Gavin Williams, Hunter Green. All right, this is a pretty fun round for starting pitchers,

getting some upside here. Lane Thomas, and then Chris, you took what, to me look like the end of a tier at first base with Yandy Diaz. Yeah, so you took Josh Naylor the previous round. Josh Young went off the board. He's a third baseman, but I was going to put him in my corner infield spot.

And so, yeah, I think Yandi Diaz was really the last bankable, very good first baseman. There are a couple others that I like, but yeah, I needed a first baseman. I think he was the clear best hitter available. So that was a pretty easy call for me. All right. At the turn, RJ White is back up and he took Jorge Saler to finish out round 11. And then we will hop into round 12. At the end of this round, we will sign off part one of the podcast and then start it back up.

But we're not going anywhere. Obviously on the video, we're going to stick around here. Thanks to everyone watching us, by the way. We have over 300 people watching us live. We do appreciate you. Make sure to like this video. Subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. And to kick off round 12, Marcel Ozuna.

It kind of feels weird, Scott. We're in a draft where you're not going to get either Marcel O'Zuna or Justin Steele. That's kind of weird for me to see. The other Braves fan in the draft got Marcel Ozuna. That's right. RJ White, no relation, even though we're both Braves fans, apparently. And both live in, no, I can't say it. I think I'm correct in that he's a.

a Braves fan. I might be wrong. He is. Yeah, he is. Braves fan and a Buffalo Bills fan for some reason. Yeah, I really wanted Marcelo Zuna. I thought I thought this build that I had going on could use Marcello Zuna more than most of my builds could. So disappointed

to see that. I'm not loving the way the middle rounds are going here. And I think it's just happenstance. Just the players I want aren't laughing to me. I don't think it's like I did something wrong necessarily,

but I am getting frustrated by it. Uh-oh. Scott on tilt. By the way. It's right on cue. Every time we do a draft on the podcast, it's right around this time. Next Tuesday night, by the way,

we are going to be doing a live auction salary cap draft. And that one we're actually playing out this year. I mean, if you want to see. We always played out. entertaining Scott White After Dark. You're going to want to stick around for that one because those are always a good time. After Marcelo Zuna kicked off round 12.

Chris, you finally jump back in with a starting pitcher, Justin Verlander. I'll come back to you in a second. Chris Bassett after that. Jackson Holiday, 136th overall. Francisco Alvarez, Cedric Mullins. Chris, I was wondering when you would jump back in on starting pitcher, and the answer is round 12, Justin Verlander.

And that's pretty much what I say when I'm doing the two aces strategy is I won't take another starting pitcher until around the 12th round. And whether Justin Verlander specifically was the right one, given the concerns over his shoulder and the fact that he's not yet ready to face live hitters, although he is throwing off a mound without issue. You know, it does seem like there's a decent chance he opens the season on the IL. But hey, with Spencer Strider and Garrett Cole, I can afford to take a little bit of an injury risk there on a guy who should give me good innings, it's just a question of how many

innings he will give me. After, what was the last pick? I think Alvarez, Cedric Mullins, Walker Bueller, 139th overall, and Scott, you are back up. What are we thinking? Jake Berger. I have a third base opening.

I have a power need. That's perfect. It's so obvious. I can't believe I didn't do it last round. It is hard to keep track of the team you're building while also. putting on a show for everybody here. So I can sympathize with you there, Frank, on that front,

even though I'm not having to do nearly as much work on the entertainment part as you are. I think you're very entertaining. You're doing a great job, Scott. Don't doubt yourself. Like as far as building my team goes? No, no, no. No, it's horrible. I mean, I was going to say at both, but Chris just went ahead and dunked on you.

So there you go. I will say, not my pick, but Jackson Holiday at 136, four picks before my Jake Burger Pick. I think that's closer to where he should be going than where he's been going. I think the chances of I'm making the Orioles roster 80%. And I think we're at a point already in this draft round 12 where I don't like a lot of what I see at shortstop. So if I didn't have Francisco Lindor already, I probably would have taken Holiday with my previous pick where I took You would have taken him over Danes Redan instead. You would have taken him over Danes v. Swanson.

Is Swanson still out there? Yes. Yeah. In a 12 teamer, I'd think about it. In a deeper league, no, I think I'd play it safe. His ADP and NFBC leagues, I wrote the ADP Rises and Follars on CBSSports.com today. Since the start of February, it's up to 180. So he's one of the biggest risers.

Jackson Holiday? Okay. Oh, I didn't know if you were going to say anything else about Jackson. This is still a little ahead of that, but I think 140-ish is probably going to end up being pretty reasonable for him. Well, I mean, if we find out March 15th, March 12th that he's made the roster, he's probably getting pushed inside the top 100s, right? Yeah, probably if not there, then close to it, I would say. After you took Jake Berger, I went ahead. It took Bailey Ober, who was a pitcher I am pretty excited about.

And this is what I like to do typically. is get three of my top 30, wait, and then I'll jump back in on a bunch of players that I wrote up as sleepers or breakouts this year. Ober, if Scott had not taken Rodon, I probably would have considered him at this point as well. He might have been taken by someone else anyway. But yeah, Bailey Ober has my SP4 at this point.

I do like that quite a bit. After I took him, Shane Bieber, Max Muncie, and Sean Murphy. So we are through 12 rounds. Here's what we're going to do. On the podcast side of things, we're going to sign off part one, and then we will see you on the other side for part two.