Fantasy Baseball Today - Live Roto Mock Draft Part 1! Rounds 1-12 Picks & Strategy (3/2 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 2, 2022

Let's start our mock draft with Fernando Tatis first overall (2:00). When should Ohtani be selected? ... Frank goes with a pitcher-heavy approach early on (13:45). ... We see a few big-name shortstops go early in round five and Scott selects Kevin Gausman over Charlie Morton (22:00)! ... J.D. Martinez and Bryan Reynolds were selected early in round seven (31:35). ... We see our first first basemen in the profit pocket go in round nine (43:51). ... Nelson Cruz is going too late in the 11th round (52:40). 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. With fantasy! Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. All right, keep your head up, everybody, and let's have some fun. Welcome into another live mock draft edition of Fantasy Baseball today.

I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today we have a 12-team 5-5-Roto mock draft with the usual roto-style lineup. Two catchers, one of each infield position, one corner infielder, one middle infielder, five outfielders, one utility bat, and nine pitcher spots. I have the third pick. Scott has the eighth pick, and Chris has the 12th overall pick. And before we get started, just a heads up on the podcast side of things that this draft will be broken down into a two-part podcast.

So if you listen to Hour 1, keep an eye out for Hour 2 in your podcast feeds. How we doing, Scott? Are you ready to draft? You are muted, sir. So if you are trying to talk to me, it is not working. You told me to mute before we start. It sounds like Scott is not ready. Yeah, clearly I'm not.

Yeah, let's do this. Let's get in the right frame of mind to do a fantasy baseball draft despite the day's disappointing news. That's right. And we can still have a lot of fun with this. So I'm looking forward to starting. All right, let's do it. Yeah, everyone, keep your head up.

We're still going to have some fun, regardless of what's going on in baseball right now. We've got to stay ready for whenever the league is ready to start up and end this lockout. And as a result, we'll keep the content coming. We'll have some fun. And let's do a little mock draft. Let's have some fun.

Again, this is a 12-team roto mock. I have the third overall pick. And first overall, no surprise in this format, Fernando Tatis, Jr. And let's see who goes second overall. my buddy Dave Mendelssohn is up on the clock. I didn't want to ask you guys. What's up?

Because I, you know, hi, Chris Towers here. What's up, man? I did a draft today. I think it's my first completed draft that I'm playing out this year, actually. And it was the Towers, 12-te-W-T-Ting mixed Roto with O-B-P innings-pits instead of wins and saves and holds instead of saves. I didn't know Tout Wars was already starting up. Yes.

today. And I took Fernando Tatis with the number one overall pick in an OBP Roto League. Do you think that was the right choice? Oh, well, the other players you would consider are Trey Turner and it's not like

he has some kind of crazy walk rate. I guess the batting average will be higher, so in turn the OBP will be higher. Jose Ramirez, kind of similar situation. No, I don't think it's crazy. I mean, I guess Juan Soto is more so in the conversation, because it's OBP, but if you want to get some steals with your, with your first pick,

I have no problem still taking Tatis. Yeah, I think it comes, I think it comes down to Soto versus Tatis in that format. Yeah, I mean, I have questions about how much power production soda is going to provide relative to the average first rounder, certainly relative to somebody like Tatis. So, yeah, I mean, I wouldn't overthink it because of the OBP thing. in general, replacing OBP with batting average in a Roto League, which is not what we're doing in this mock, by the way. I think there's a danger in overestimating that.

Yeah, I agree. No, I mean, I think obviously we boost Juan Soto and OBP, and his walk rate is going to be absolutely ridiculous. We saw that especially in the second half last year, but it's always been the case for him. Let's catch people up and keep this draft moving here. First overall, Fernando Tati's second overall, Trey Turner.

and then I took Jose Ramirez, so I believe you gentlemen have Vlad over Jose Ramirez, but I want to get third base out of the way. I want to get some speed with my first pick. I go with Jose Ramirez. We see Juan Soto go fourth overall, then Vlad Guerrero goes off the board, and Garrett Cole, our first starting pitcher goes sixth overall.

And then just after that, Mike Trout goes, and Scotty, you are up. What are we doing? Oh, boy. Well, I wanted to pick eighth here. because that's where I'm picking in Tout Wars next week. So it gives me a chance to kind of game plan for that, even though this is a 12 teamer in Tau.

Must be nice. League is a 15 team. Be able to choose where you're drafting. It is, isn't it? It is nice. So Bo Bichette is still here, and that's the chalk pick. There's Shohay Otani,

who hit almost twice as many home runs as Bo Bichet last year. I don't expect Bo Bouchet last year. Chet is going to be available for me at 8th overall in Tout Wars. So I'm going to play this with Otani, who I do think I actually have ranked higher two. And we'll see how it goes filling that utility spot right away. And just how the overall team build goes with Otani, because I don't think I've had a chance to experiment with that yet. All righty.

Otani, eighth overall. And then Bryce Harper goes the pick after. Scott, I do just want to follow up quickly on that. So you have an eighth overall pick in Tout Wars, which is a 15 team league. Right. Do you worry more about filling your utility spot early just because there's so many more players drafted,

there's so many lineup spots to fill in a 15-team league where, you know, obviously taking a non-positioned player is, you know, it's a little different than anything we've ever done before, in the first round at least. No, I don't really think it's a big problem. Last year, there were so many DH-only types. Alvarez was, Stanton was, J.D. Martinez was. in addition to Otani and a couple others.

This year there's really only three, right? Otani, Cruz, and Fran Milraeus. Yep. And Otani's by far the best of them. I think the deeper the league, the easier it is to do that because you're less likely going to stumble into this miraculous value at a position you've already filled. So, yeah, I mean, we'll see how it goes.

We'll see how it goes. But I'm not so worried about that with Otani this year. Although I will note that in TGFBI, another 15-team rode a league. I took Vladimir Guerrero in round one. And then Freddie Freeman lasted to me in round two. So I started with two first basemen. And if I didn't have a D.H spot available, you know,

I might not have been so willing to do that. Indeed. All right. Well, after you took Shoahua time, you see Bryce Harper go. Bo Bichette goes 10th overall. Ronald Acuna finally goes off the board. Chris, you select Mookiei bets with one. picks and you're on the clock with the first pick of the second round. What are you thinking here?

Yeah, I've got Freddie Freeman as my top ranked player, but Kyle Tucker is my number two player. So it's not really a big difference there. It's my 12 and 13 overall. So all 11 of my top 11 players have been taken. And I'm thinking I'm going to try the outfield double tap to start with Tucker and bets because I haven't done that one yet. It's weird. I have bets ranked pretty high and I actually haven't really drafted him much yet so far. So I'm going to go with Betts and Tucker here and we'll see how that goes. All right. Yeah, we have five outfield their spots to fill in a roto style format. So obviously you don't want to, you don't have to worry about filling those outfit spots up too quickly. But I wonder if it's something that will play its way into your draft strategy later on in the draft.

So we'll wait and find out there. RJ White goes with the brave stack. Ronald Acuna with his first pick. Freddie Freeman goes 14th overall with his second round pick. And then we see our second starting pitcher off the board. Corbyn Burns goes 15th overall to Micah Henry, our buddy, friend of the podcast. We had them on earlier in the off season. And one more pick until Scotty is back up.

Yeah. So I want to bring up the Acuna thing, 11th overall. Now that the season is delayed at least a week, we don't know how much longer it could be, but at least a week, is Okunia just like an automatic first rounder now for you guys? Are you not, if you're picking at the end of round one, are you not letting Akunia get by you? I have a feeling that Chris probably wasn't going to let him get by him anyway in the first round. No. Yeah. Yeah. I think I need a little bit more time to be delayed. Not that I want that to happen, obviously. But I think as we get further into April, Scott, if we start to lose more games and we move closer to May,

then yeah, I think we're talking about Akunia as like a bona fide first. first round pick again. And depending on how much time we lose, I mean, we could be talking about him as a top five pick again. So, yeah, I mean, it obviously depends how much time we lose, but I still go back. Like, the last we heard of a timetable for him was May, and that was coming directly from him, who would be the most optimistic person of anyone. And that's, you know, that's still, that still leaves a lot of potential for things to go wrong. And I just, I just hate to end up blowing my first round pick like that. I still don't think I'm there.

But, you know, if we start canceling multiple weeks of the season, then I could get there pretty quickly. I ended up taking Raphael Devers with my second pick, 17th overall. It was more the chalk pick than what my own rankings suggest, but I may need to amend my own

rankings if that's the case, because you know, just it's nice to not have to overpay for some security at third base, particularly since I got some stolen bases in the first round. I was looking at Luis Robert there in round two as well. But I decided to go ahead with Devers and not have to stress over the Austin Riley, Nolan Aeronado, Alex Bregman situation later on.

All right. So let's see what else happened here. After Corbyn Burns went, Jacob de Grom went 16th overall. Then Scott, you selected Raphael Devers, as you mentioned. Max Scher, Luis Robert, Starling Marte, and Ozzie Albies go off the board. and I find myself in a bit of a pickle here because I've got Jose Ramirez already. My top ranked player for those watching on YouTube,

you see it right here. Mani Machado is my top ranked hitter. And I don't want to double-tap third base as much as, you know, I love Mani Machado the player. So I'm just going to go with a pitcher. I'm going to take my highest ranked pitcher, and that is Zach Wheeler, get myself an ace,

and we'll see what hitter makes it back to me here in the third round. I did want to bring up Brad Johnson's pick of Starling Marte, because I believe he selected Vlad Guerrero in the first round. Yeah, he did. So, if you're somebody who worries about getting speed with your first round

pick in a Roto League, I think that this is a pretty good way to start a team that has Vladimir Guerrero. So obviously, you take him first, first round, and then in the second round, you get Starling Marte. I don't think anyone's really expecting the 45, 47 seals that he had last year, but

if he hits for a good batting average, he always does, scores a bunch of runs, and seals, you know, 30 to 35 bases, then he's worth a second round pick. And he's a really good player to pair with Vladimir Guerrero. So I do like that pairing in the first two rounds. All right. Yeah, Marte is someone who like there feels, it feels like there's a wide range of potential places he can get drafted, because sometimes you'll see him in that second round range. And then I want to say he went like 40th in my TGFBI today or something like that. So, your TGFBI is going very much. very differently from mine, if that's the case,

because stolen bases are being inflated out of, it's out of control, Chris. It's out of control. Let me make sure, but I think that was the case. It's entirely possible I'm just lying. I suppose I should probably volunteer my... 31, okay. My take on Starling Marte,

and Whitmeryfield falls into this category, too. Sure. I am so invested in not short-changing the power categories this year that I just can't do it. I just can't take a guy who's not even going to give me 20 home runs with an early round pick there, much less 25 or 30 home runs because it's really tough to keep up in that category. It doesn't take much to have a middle of the league finish and stolen bases.

It takes a lot to do so in home runs. And plus, you need runs in RBI are directly tied to home runs in a way that stolen bases aren't. So short-changing the home run category is a quick path to, like, sinking your team's entire offense. So I'm just, I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen this year. That's my number one priority in Roto leagues. Yep. Scottie has mentioned he is part of the zero SB strategy this year.

My rebuttal to the rebuttal would be that finding players who can provide both batting average and steals together. It's pretty rare. And I think that you could find some decent amount of power in the middle parts of your draft. but if you want to, you know, just load up on those four categories and try and get as much of it as you possibly can, then I see both sides. But me personally, I'm still going to try and build for as much balance as I can and hopefully find some power in those middle rounds.

Let's see, after I selected Zach Wheeler, Brandon Woodruff, and Mani Machado to finish out round two. And starting up round three, Cedric Mullins. Yudan Alvarez went one pick before. I actually would have selected Yerdon Alvarez. And after that happened, I figured I'd try something different. So I selected Walker Bueller, two starting pitchers, my first three picks. Not something that I normally do, but this is the part of doing mock drafts, right?

Trying out new strategies. And so I want to see how this team turns out overall. So I've got Walker Bueller, Zach Wheeler, and Jose Ramirez for my first three picks. The King, Scott Engel selects Marcus Semyon 28th overall. Shout out to the King. Then we see Salvador Perez. Oh, Brad Johnson. No, Salvador Perez.

What are you doing to me? No Salvi. Scott in this draft. No. But after Salvador Perez goes, we see Matt Olson, Aaron Judge, and that brings us to you, Scott. What do we got? I think we got Shane Bieber. Seems like a pretty good value at this point.

Yeah, I mean, that's by far my highest ranked player. Four of my top five players are all starting pitchers, and Shane Bieber is my favorite of them. So, yeah, it's normal to see him go with the two, three turns, so I'll take him in the back half of round three here. My top rank hitter among those pitchers, by the way, was Austin Riley. But that's, you know, that's the advantage of taking Devers early on is you don't have to stretch yourself at third base like that.

All righty, yeah. So you've got Shohei Otani. You've got Rafael Devers and now Shane Bieber, two hitters and a pitcher, hopefully a healthy pitcher, Shane Bieber coming back from that shoulder injury that he suffered last season. We are up to pick 33 overall. Our buddy Dan Schneier is on the clock. Let's see what happens there.

Scott, I mean, I've got to say, look, as much as you like Salvador Perez, 29th overall, it's probably earlier than you'd like to select him, right? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I already stretched the Salvador Perez rule in TGFBI, took him in the front half of round three. One of my rule is anytime he's available in round four, no matter what the format, no matter what else you have going on, you take Salvador Perez in round four.

But TGFBI, 15 team league. It was 35th overall pick. That's about what his ADP is. So I wanted him badly enough that I wasn't, like I knew he wouldn't be there toward the end of round four. But this is different. The 12-team league, obviously. I don't know.

I think the shallower league actually justifies the reach a little more than a deeper league does, right? Like if I was going to take Salvador Perez ahead of ADP early in round, you know, inside the top 30 picks. I would rather do it in a 12-team league than a 15-team league because I don't know that getting the advantage, being the standout at a position counts for as much in a deeper league where everybody's going to have some duds

somewhere in their lineup, you know? I hear what you're saying. Yeah, no, it's kind of tough because I feel like the people who wait on catcher, their catchers are going to be so bad. So, like, the advantage grows even more

when you have Salvador Prez in a 15-team league? Yeah. What percentage of the total number of catchers started are going to be basically bad? It's going to be 80% of started catchers in the league, right? Right.

We've been a little off-topic here, obviously, talking about a 15-team versus a 12. Sure. But, yeah, anyway, we got some more picks here. Yeah, let's catch people up. going on. After you selected Shane Bieber, Robbie Ray,

Josh Hader, and Julio Arias go. And then Chris, you go with Whitmerfield and Liam Hendricks. So my question was going to be, hmm, did Josh Hader go too early in this draft? And then you go ahead and select the second closer available. So you now have

two outfielders, potentially three if you want to use Witt there, and Liam Hendricks. What's going on? Yeah, and this is, um, obviously it's a mock draft. This is the year. where closers are getting pushed up, and I'm pretty opposed to that, but I want to see what happens if you follow this route.

So I think I've got a really nice base of hitters, probably a little light on power at this point in the draft, but it's three rounds in, and I should be pretty good in batting average. Embatting average and stolen basis. So I'll have the flexibility to chase some power moving forward. So I want to see what happens if I, you know, go with the recent trend of having, you know, an early round closer, which is not something I typically do.

All right. Well, I'll tell you what. Unfortunately, Chris, you won't have George Springer on your team because he just went 40th overall. I thought about it. I thought about it. That's your guy. And right before Springer went, we see Seasker Hernandez and Tim Anderson off the board. Scotty, you are up and you have two hitters and one pitcher. which way are you leaning here? I am leaning pitcher, not because I really want two pitchers with my first four picks in a Roto League, but because, you know,

having already filled third base, Austin Riley's still out there, not going to take him, though, obviously. I think a pitcher is clearly the best player left again. So I'm pairing up Sandy Alcantara with Shane Bieber. And hopefully, that puts less pressure

on me to draft Charlie Morton, which as we know is one of my top priorities in every draft. So I still hope to do them, but you know, somebody, somebody sneaks in there and grabs them before I can, that's fine. I'm off to a nice start here at starting pitcher. Potentially more Charlie Morton for me later on in the draft, although I've got two pitchers, so I probably don't need him either. After you selected Saniel Octor, a pick that I love, Paul Goldschmidt, Zander Bogartz, Austin Riley, and Aaron Nola go off. the board and I am left thinking what do I do now. I've got two pitchers. I've got Jose Ramirez. I'm on the clock. Trevor Story is my highest ranked player. I think it's pretty close with

Francisco Lindor. Oh, nobody that I truly love here. Let's see, what are the guys after me have so far? Mendelssohn, he has a shortstop and an outfielder. He's got a third basement and a short stop. All right. So I think I could get a good shortstop coming back to me, which means I need power, Scotty, and I'm taking Pete, the polar bear Alonzo. 46th overall. I would have selected Paul Goldschmidt if he made it to me here, but he did not. So I want to rack up some power, potential 40 homer bat. And like what I saw from him in the second half last year, batting average was up. I always kind of felt like Alonzo could hit for more batting average. He had a really good batting average in the minors too. So, I think there's a chance. We get a 270 plus 40 to 45 home run season from Alonzo, and that would be truly awesome. Yeah. With the way he cut his strikeout rates down last year below 20%.

Yeah, no, honestly, I was hoping he'd make it to me in round five because I see him do that from time to time. It turns out Tim Kanek, who's picking two spots after you said he was about to take him. So clearly that had no chance of happening. But take that. No, I like the pick. All right. Let's see if I can grab one of these short stops

if they make it back to me. Although here's what I'm concerned about. I've got Jose Ramirez, I've got Pete Alonzo. Let's say I wind up with the Trevor Story or Francisco Lindor here. Not the best batting average. And typically I like to protect the batting average as much as I can early on in a roto draft.

But admittedly, you know, Pete Alonzo, one of those short stops. And Jose, I mean, you're probably looking at a 265-ish batting average from your first three batterers, which, you know, I'd probably want that to be better. So we'll see. We'll see what these guys do.

Lucas G. Alito went, one pick after me. Emmanuel Class A is off the board. I believe as the... Third, third relief pitcher. Third closer off the board. All right. Ahead of... Ariselle Eglacius.

Which, I'm struggling with Class A this season because I really liked him last year, but I don't know if I like him as that elite. elite cost closer just because he's not going to be an elite strikeout guy, you know? So, or at least I don't think he is. I think he's going to be like, I think it'll be kind of like Jordan Hicks when he was doing really well, but with better control. And obviously that's a very good pitcher.

But if you're going to take a closer in the third or fourth round, I just like, I struggle with the idea of it being a guy who probably can't get you 100 plus. strikeouts, you know? Like, I think Rizel Iglesias is a little fringy, and he's got a chance at 100 strikeouts. I think there's a really, really slim chance that Emmanuel Class A ever gets you that. That's a good point, yeah. I originally had Class A ranked ahead of Iglesias, but I wasn't expecting any of them

to go in the round four or five range. I think when you add that context to it, yeah, you need to make sure there are benefit in strikeouts as well. I just want to take a closer in this range myself, but if you're a lot of you. going to. I hear what you're saying, Chris. Tim, who selected Emmanuel Class A, did defend the pick here in the chat. I like Class A more than Rysel, better stuff, and he is amazing at limiting hard contact, which... Oh, yeah, no, I think he's incredibly, I think he's got an incredibly high floor. And, like,

he is, he legitimately might be, like, best in league at limiting hard contact with the stuff he has. He's just so hard to square up. He's, he's kind of like Sandy Alcantara, Alcalfa. among relief pitchers in that way. And that just he's got so much movement and his pitchers are so hard that it's incredibly hard to square him up. I do think, Chris, that there could be more strikeouts on the way for Class A. He, over his final 32 appearances, had a 17.7% swinging strike rate, which if that was just his total for the year, would rank among the league leaders, among relief pitchers.

So I think that we could see more strikeouts on the way. You know, maybe he doesn't get to that super elite mark, but can he get up to 11 or 12 K's per 9? I think that's doable for a manual class A this year. I'm a fan. I would still take Rice Lake Glacius over him myself, but I do like both guys quite a bit. J.T. Rilumuto went off the board with the first pick of round five.

Then Byron Buxing goes, and I'm sticking to my guns, stick it to my word. I take Francisco Lindor as my third hitter, 51st overall. Edwin Diaz, Trevor Story, Freddie Peralta, Will Smith, the catcher. Those are the next four picks. And Scotty, you are on the clock.

Thinking hard. I am thinking hard. I'm going to take Corey Seeger. It was between Corey Seger and Jose Altuve for me, and I actually made the opposite choice in TGFBI when Altuve over Seeger. But the difference there is I began with Vladimir Guerrero and Freddie Freeman to Sure Fire 300 hitters. And in this draft, I began with Shohei Otani, who might not hit 250.

So I felt like the batting average boost from Corey Seeger. I was willing to take on a little health risk there, I guess, for the advantage of batting average. He's likely to give me over Jose Altuve. Well, I will point out, Scott. His first series was going to come against the Yankees. I believe in Yankee Stadium. I have to confirm that. So he's losing out on games in Yankee Stadium, which for a left-handed bat, those would have been great for Corey Seeger.

Unfortunately, after Corey Seeger goes, the name you were. were just talking about, Jose Altuve, goes next pick off the board. Micah Henry selects Ryssela Iglesias, and I believe he has both Ricelli Glacius and Josh Hader. He does.

He's got two elite closers to go along with Corbyn Burns, Tim Anderson, and Boba Schett. So two shortstops, two closers, and a starting pitcher. An interesting build. Interested to see how it turns out.

I mean, you see it. it a lot. You see it a lot in these roto leagues, particularly industry leagues, a lot of expert types. They like to not only go big on closers, but double up often at expense of their hitters and their starting pitchers. And I don't get it, but it's common enough that I can't help but second guess myself. Like, what am I missing, you know? Yeah, we'll see how it plays out for them. But for me, it's, you're paying for security rather than production because there are going to be later relievers that deliver similar production, maybe not in all five categories, but certainly in the one that matters most. Yeah. And I think just based on where we're at right now in the

offseason, there's a lot of uncertainty revolving, you know, closers and bullpens in general. There's still a lot of, you know, things that need to happen in the offseason. Kenley Jansen, Craig Kimberl, where are these guys going to line up? So I think, again, people want those quote unquote safe closers right now. And of course, Reisel Eglacias fits that bill. There are 10 surefire closers right now, and one is Mark Balancen. So I get it. It's just that scarcity won't be true for the entire season.

It'll only be true. Like right now, even before the start of the season, you know, we'll probably have a couple more surefire closers, and then more will emerge within the first couple weeks of the season. and, you know, I just think it's stressing over something that you don't need to stress about. All right. Let's catch people up. After Rice L. Iglesias goes, Wander Franco, goes 59th overall. Chris goes with Nick Castiano and Jose Abraeu, then Lance Lynn and Catele Marte. Chris, you passed on Catee, man. The thing is, he doesn't go this high usually.

You got caught playing the ADP. People are listening to you. he goes 20 picks later. And it was a spot where, based on what I have already, Whitmeryfield, going into that as my offense, Whitmeryfield, Mookie Betts, Kyle Tucker. So three outfield eligible players and the one who's not, or who's double eligible is second base.

Coutel Marte is a second base and outfield eligible player. None of those guys figured to be standouts in power or run production. So I made a decision to chase power and run production. and Nick Castiana said Jose Ibrahim in packages who won't hurt me in batting average, hopefully. And, you know, it just kind of, it was a numbers game, I guess, in passing on Catelle-Marté,

and just hoping that he would be back, he would be there next time I picked. Yeah, I know that Micah is a big fan of Catelle Marte, saw him tweet out that he thinks Marte can compete for the MVP this season, some lofty expectations, 300 batting average, 40 homers he threw out there. I think the power is, you know,

probably unrealistic, but man, can he hit 25 to 30 with a 300 batting average? I think it's doable. But let's see. Absolutely. After you selected Jose Ibrahim, we see Lance Lin, again, Catell Martegos, Nolan Aeronado, Scotty selects Kevin Gausman, Randy Orozoranigos, Oroldus Chapman, and then Logan Webb. I am on deck, and Scott, I'll let you talk about your pick of Kevin Gosman.

You selected him over Charlie Morton. How could you do this? I think you're muted, Scottie. Yes. Sorry, too much coughing. I did the same thing in TGFBI, went Gosman ahead of Morton, departing from my own rankings,

playing to ADP, and it worked out. I got Morton two rounds later. So I'm going to try it again. This is my third starting pitcher. Provided I do take Morton with my next pick, that'll be four starting pitchers in my first seven picks,

which is not at all how I'm looking to build my roto teams this year. but I just don't like the value of the hitters right now. I just think this particular group has been less aggressive about drafting pitchers, and so that's forcing me to rethink my strategy midstream. And it's probably worth trying that in a mock. See how that ends up playing out for me if I end up liking my hitters, hitting when all said and done.

Brandon Lau was the hitter I was looking at, but I already had Otani, right? Another low average high power guy. So we'll see. If Morton ends up going before my next pick, then hopefully Lau is still there and I can take him instead. All right, I selected Eloy Jimenez 70th overall in round six, and I'm happy to do so. I didn't have an outfielder yet, so he is my first. Need him to stay healthy, obviously. Wrote about him in Breakouts 1.0.

I think everything was trending up for Eloy Jimenez entering last season. And then, of course, he tore his peck in spring training. But man, if he's healthy in that lineup, I think we could see him go 280 plus 30 to 35 home runs, 100 plus RBI. Just really needs to stay healthy. I think, you know, that kind of potential is in the bat of Eloy Jimenez. After I selected him, we see Alex Bregman go, Jorge Polanco, Tyler O'Neill, and Ryan Presley. So another closer goes off the board. And I have a decision to make.

Charlie Morton is my top available player. I already have two starting pitchers. I could use another outfielder. Hmm. Decisions, decisions. That would be J.D. Martinez in the rankings. I could use a batting average. Brian Reynolds is there.

All right. I'm talking it through. I'm going to take J.D. Martinez. I think it's really close between him and Brian Reynolds. Reynolds probably helps the batting average more. J.D. Martinez, I think, gives you a few more home runs. So you trade off a little bit. I think JD 280 hitter, you know, 25 to 28 homers at this point in his career.

But in the Red Sox lineup, should have a bunch of counting stats as well. And of course, Brian Reynolds goes with the next pick overall. So I get my first two outfielders, help the batting average, help the power out a little bit. And I still have two aces. Yeah, I like the way this team is playing out so far. Let's see how it continues to go. Right. Brian Reynolds went. I mentioned that. Jonathan India goes 77th overall. I want to check in on Brad Johnson's team. I feel like he hasn't drafted a pitcher yet.

Let's see what he's got going on. He's got Salvi. He's got Vladimir Guerrero, Jonathan India, Austin Riley, Trevor Story, and Starling Marte. He's got Logan Webb as his lone starting pitchers. So, all right, load it up on some offense. Let's see how the pitching turns out there as well. so he's the one causing this for me he's the one forcing me to take up well me too I only have one reliever so we've got three teams so far one two three teams so far with only one

pitcher actually four and two of them only have a reliever so it's an interesting start so far right now that Jonathan India pick is really interesting it's earlier than we typically see him but that's that's not what I'm getting at

what I'm getting at is that second base is thinning very fast I don't have one yet if India's already gone and Brandon Lau's still there and I already have three starting pitchers

maybe this is the draft where I can live without Charlie Morton maybe I just need to take Lao and so basically and Javier Baez are the last two standouts at second base.

After that, it's, you're risking injury with Muncie. You're taking a big performance risk with Chisholm. Right? Jess Chisholm is still there, I assume. Yep, he is. But we know I don't like him. Scottie, before you make your pick,

can you just back out the Anthony Rendon pick? I believe George won's Jack Flaherty. Okay. So he'll make that. Yeah, he didn't get timed out there. I assume Mike will stick with his pick of Adelberto Mondesie, and then you will be back on the clock, sir. Yeah, give me time to think about that. Yeah.

Yeah, let's do it. Let's go Lao. Right. And if somehow Morton is still there in round eight, I'll almost certainly take him. I have a good feeling that whoever is picking at 12 probably will not let Charlie Morton get past him, but I could be wrong. We'll see what happens. He doesn't have a starting pitcher yet. He just...

Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. We'll see. Kyle Schwerber goes with the very next pick. I'm sorry, Scotty. You will not wind up with Kyle Schwerber in today's draft. He's really... I don't know what his recent ADP looks like,

but I find that I'm not getting him as much anymore. Well, I will... Let's see. I'll pull up last two weeks ADP over on the NFBC and find out where Kyle Schwerber's been going. Javier Bay is. I think that this is a pretty... appropriate range for Bias to go.

Yeah. Yeah, 82nd overall, I think it makes sense. If Mike Giannello was listening and said, I'm going to mess with Scott and take Brandon Lowe here right before he picks, I would have taken bias. Because that's, like, that was the last quality second baseman. IMAHO. Last two weeks over at the NFBC, Kyle Swarber's ADP is 117.5.

I believe... It hasn't really changed. I believe when we did the... outfield preview, and he was around 130. Yeah, well, I mean, he went 81 here, so that's... Yeah, that's pretty high. Yeah. Actually, I lied. No, fantasy pros has them at 117, so...

All right, not much of a change there. I guess Dan Schneier's just reading your content, Scotty, and he wants himself some Kyle Schwerber. Makes sense. That's true. That was somebody who edits my work, yes. Makes sense. I apparently made a convincing case. Ooh, all right. Oh, Chris.

RJ, I will say I'm not a big fan of Chris Sale this year but for him to go 83rd overall I think that's pretty good value so I don't like him when his ADP was inside the top 60 picks but you get him 20 to 25 picks later and all of a sudden he's a much better value

All right Chris so you double tap you two of your guys here at the 7-8 turn you get John Carlo Stanton and Charlie Morton your first starting pitcher I think this worked out pretty well for you so far Yeah I think Stan's a very good good fit for the way my team's been built so far because I've got that, you know,

nice bedrock of, you know, average runs and stolen bases with my top three picks. And the only problem is I've got four outfielders now. So that's interesting. That's filled up pretty quickly, but eschewing, pitching early on and still ending up with Charlie Morton and Liam Hendricks, I think that's a pretty interesting start, a good base. so Scott doesn't appear to agree with that. Oh, I'm just cursing RJ. My breath again is always doing bad things to me.

So I think this is an interesting start for my team. All right, before we get further into round eight on the podcast side of things, we're going to take a quick break. But when we return, we'll continue on with our rotelmock draft here, fantasy baseball today. All right, so let's pick things back up. And after Charlie Morton goes, we see Carlos Correa,

the pick that made Scotty curse RJ Ware. Yeah, that was, that was, that was the last of that giant tier at shortstop. So now it's Willie Adama's or butt. Oh, wait, I already got Corey Seeger. Yeah, I was going to say, you know. Don't say his name. What am I doing, Frank?

There's always Schmilly Shmadamas later on, Scott. Not that that would give a way. I shouldn't be stressing out about shortstop anyway, because, you know, I could get a middle infielder, obviously, but. Correct. But yeah, I got shortstop covered. All right. Carlos Correigos, Jose Barrios, 87th overall.

Scotty, you are on the clock. Cody Bellinger goes. Oh, man. So I guess Dan is taking on that role of the Troll FBT team today because he's taking quite a few of the players that we like and look, I guess it makes sense. Scott, you're up, 89th overall.

Who you got? Yeah, well, I still think I like the pitchers more than the hitters that are available. So even though I didn't get Charlie Morton and I'm about to take my fourth starting pitcher here in Frankie Montas who I seem to be higher on than the consensus last 15 starts he is swinging strike rate went way up

his splitter usage went way up if he can sustain that then I think there's another level for him to reach here and even if he doesn't the final numbers being what they were in 2021 are certainly good enough for this rank So my fourth starting pitcher, I'm normal. It's not uncommon for me to draft Frankie Montas as my second starting pitcher. Like Morton is my number one and Montas is my number two. So yeah, clearly I am approaching this roto draft a little differently than most of the ones I've done.

All right. After you selected Montas, we see U. Darvish go off the board, Christian Yellich and Dalton Varshow. So again, Yelich and Bellinger kind of married at the hip here. usually once we see one of those guys go, the other one goes not too long after that. And then Jazz Chisholm goes with the next pick. And it appears that I have missed out on the acceptable second baseman. And as I mentioned on our position previews recap,

you know, I keep, this problem keeps happening to me. I think I've got to make second base more of a priority in my drafts. Because I don't know. Now I'm just going to wait and take Gene Segaro or Colton Wong later. on basically. So I don't know. We'll see how that turns out. I could take a catcher here. I don't have one of those yet.

Thinking about a, there's a pitcher that I like that's available. Max Muncie is there. I don't know. Like, to me, Max Muncie is radioactive. So, like, I just, I just think the, it's less than a coins flip chance

he's available for the majority of this season. I am a, I just wish we knew because like that injury isn't necessarily a giant issue for all position players. Like you see position players play through. You see all damage. Shohei Otani did it as a rookie when he needed Tommy John surgery. So it's it's just an unknown, I think.

That's the real, the real issue. And like, again, I've said it a lot, but that's the thing that if we were having spring training, right now, we would at least know a little bit about how he's doing right now. It wouldn't change it wouldn't change whether he would be able to make it through the season or not. I think there's still risk of that, but we just, we don't quite know what it means right now, I guess is the best way to put it. That's a really good point you mentioned about Otani, because remember, after after it was known, Otani needed

Tommy John surgery to pitch again. He was done pitching. They just made him full-time DH for the rest of the year. And DH is, we assume, coming to the NL now. So,

you know, the Dodgers could just plant Max Muncie at DH if the elbow wasn't working for him in the field and maybe he could last the whole season that way. But I'm just not confident

that's the way it's going to play out. All right. Right. No, that's fair. It's, it would be one thing, it would be a lot easier if we had gotten some kind of update one way or the other. Like he's a month away or he's healthy right now, but we're not sure. But the problem is we haven't had an update really since like the end of November. And that was a pretty vague one. Like that was like it's not healing as quickly as I hoped it would. But that was four months ago at this point. So we don't know where he's at. Yeah, no, it's definitely a fair point. And speaking of Muncie, he just went 100 second overall in round nine. Let's catch people up on what has happened. I was on the clock. Back in round eight, I took Yasmani Grandal.

He is, you know, one of those top five or six that I really would like to get a catcher this year as my first catcher. And then Jesse Winker and Justin Verlander go. And then starting around nine, we see Alec Manoa, Dylan Seas. I selected Joe Musgrove. So nice little starting pitcher run here in round nine. Mitch Hanager, Trevor Rogers, the aforementioned Max Muncie, and then Bobby Witt goes 103rd overall. For those wondering, yep, that's about the price you're going to have to pay

for the top prospect in the game. Scotty, you are on the clock. I was looking at Witt there. Obviously, can't take him. This is weird. It's been a weird draft, and so I'm going to do a weird thing. I'm going to take Chris Bryant, even though I already have a third baseman. Weird.

I don't have an outfielder yet, so I'm drafting Chris Bryant. Like, he's my top-ranked outfielder. You wouldn't think anybody'd ever draft Chris Bryant for the outfield, given the state of third base this year. But here I am doing it. So, yeah, Chris Bryant. How does that make you feel? Not good. Yeah, that's your first.

first outfielder, Scott. So, yeah. Right. Loaded up on the infields. It's better to have him as my first outfielder than Austin Meadows. Certainly. I agree with that. I just wish somebody had left me like McChanniger.

If I was going to fill outfield spot anyway, I don't know. Somebody's going to be hurting the third base. That is correct. All right. So after you selected Chris Bryant, Dan Schneier continues on. Dan Schneyer continues on with the troll FBT team selects Joey Votto, the I believe the first of the profit pockets we drafted so far in this draft.

Then Anthony Rendon goes, Luis Castillo, which caused a groan. A Yelp. Well, it was Votto Rendon Castillo were my top three players in my queue. Oh, that is brutal. That run just killed me. Brutal.

This is actually the appropriate point for Votto to go, as opposed to where he actually goes 30 picks later. And naturally, it was named by Dan Schneier. It's the appropriate spot for Luis Castillo to go, rather than like 20 spots earlier, like he usually does. Yeah, true, true. Yeah, that is a good point. So Castillo goes 107th overall.

His ADP is 75. Wow. All right. So, man, he's falling quite a bit here in this draft. And Chris is panicking. He is... Yeah, I'm not in a good space emotionally. Oh, man.

You're going to make me back out your picks, aren't you? Oh, no. Nope. Oof. He goes with... it down. Lordus Gurriel. A little bit of a reach, but I like him a lot. I think he's another really well-rounded player.

So, I'm okay with that one. Now I'm trying to figure out, do I fill that utility spot? That guy's really good. I'm with you, Chris, by the way, on Lordus Gariel. Wrote him up in Breakouts 2.0. He was dealing with a knee injury last year, but final four months of the season,

the numbers were much better. and if you take his 150 game average over the course of his career, he has averaged 27 home runs per 150 games. So if he does that with his career 282 batting average, I think he's a fine pick. The problem is that's outfielder number five. Oh, man. Oh, geez.

All right, well, you can't select another one. Well, I guess you can for utility, but all right. Yeah. Yeah, you've got six outfield eligible players on my team. right now. And then you select our boy, Willie Adamas. Nice pick.

I like it. Yeah, again, another one that like, probably would have preferred it 20 picks later, but there's definitely no way he's coming back to that point in this league. You guys were already talking about him in the last round. So I'll take the guy and,

uh, you know, we'll see. That's, that's one infield spot that's filled satisfactorily. Is that a word satisfactorily in a satisfactory way? Let's look that up. Yes.

It might as well be a word, right? Everybody knows what I mean. Satisfactorily. I think my three infielders are satisfactory so far. It looks like it's a word. So yeah, I'm going to give you a pass there, Scotty. That's fine. All right.

And I've noticed, Scott only has one outfielder. And then in the chat, our buddy Brad Johnson writes, Oh, that's why I only have one outfield there. That's because Chris has five of them so far. Horting the outfield position. Oh, yeah. Because I have Whitmerfield, too. Whitmerfield, too.

Yeah, no, that's a good point. After you selected Willie Adomis, we see Reese Hoskins go. Love it. Profit pocket. Rejoice. Let's go. After Hoskins goes, Jared Kelnick, and Shane McClan, two hype guys this year.

Two former top-ish prospects. No, not-ish. Top prospects, for sure. Some breakout potential there. And Scotty, you had three seconds left. You selected your first closer, Kenley Jansen. I think you now have five pitchers to five hitters, right? Your first 10 picks?

Is that right? Yeah, I guess I only have five hitters. Okay, yeah, yeah. How does that make you feel? I don't know. Not great, not great. Like, I'm never excited to take a closer, you know, unless it's like Dylan Floro in round 18 or something. I guarantee you there was never another sentence on a podcast said where somebody was excited to select Dylan Floro.

How I want to approach Closer is basically I want to be living in terror that I'm about to miss out on the last one and then come through and take them before somebody. Like, that's how I want it to play out at Closer. Man, I play chicken at closer, Scott. At my last pick, I was debating Kenley Jansen and Will Smith. You selected Kenley. One pick later, Jordan Romano goes, and I just started sweating right now. It was like, am I actually going to get Will Smith? And I did.

I pulled it off. So I am pretty excited to make that happen. My first closer of the draft. Yeah, many closer run here. These closers are gone way earlier than this in these 15 team leagues. Like, I can live with Kenley Jansen at 113. I think that's fine. But, you know, he might have gone 50 pigs earlier in some of those industry leagues.

Yeah. Let's see what else has happened. I mentioned the Kenley, Jordan Romano picks. Austin Meadows goes here in round 10. Pablo Lopez. Ryan Mountcastle. I selected Will Smith. I get my first closer.

He is my fourth pitcher overall. I have Zach Wheeler. I have Walker Bueller. and I have Joe Musgrove as my first three starting pitchers. Then we see Jared Walsh go with pick 119. And Tim Kannick is on the clock for two picks. And I should probably figure out what I want to do next. I need a cap.

And I'm already at this point where most of my top remaining players are outfielders. That's what I'm talking about, Chris. I don't know, Chris. That's what I'm talking about. That's the risk. You know, that's the risk, but it's okay. You know what? And I really don't...

There's a lot of outfield talent left, but as I've mentioned on previous podcasts, I do think that there is a bit of a cliff. There's a tier drop in talent level, and it was basically, you know, around where you took Lorda Scarell, Chris, then we see Jared Kelnick, Austin Meadows. I only have two outfielders,

So I think I, man, outfield in second base. I think I've got to do a better job on that in future drafts. But we'll see. I think I'm going to continue to wait on outfield. There's nobody that's really screaming out to me that I should be drafting here. I don't know. I don't know who I should draft in general. But I've got to figure it out because there's no time left.

Tommy Edmund goes Giovanni Gallegos and then Danesby Swanson. And I am back on the club. I need a second baseman, not really anyone that I want to draft there. Jay Crono Word, DJ LaMahue up at the top, meh. I can use another outfielder, but again, nobody that I really love. Starting pitcher, some interesting names there. I'm going to do something different. I'm going to select somebody from the profit pocket, and that is,

Josh Bell. So he will be my corner infielder. I've already got Pete Alonzo. And I just like what he provides at this point in the draft. You know, two 70 hitter, 25 to 30 homers. I think he'll get, you know,

up over 90 RBI. Nationals lineup isn't great, but he's hitting behind Juan Soto, obviously, so that should help. And he was really good over the final, you know, four or five months last year. And that's more of the player

I'm expecting here in 2022. So I opt to fill my corner before second base or outfield? I don't know if that was the right decision. We shall see. After I selected Josh Bell, Tyler Malley goes off the board and Joey Gallo to

Brad Johnson. How's the pitching looking, Brad? Let's check back in here. All right, he's got Logan Webb, Pablo Lopez, and Trevor Rogers. An interesting group. Upside, you need Pablo Lopez to stay healthy, of course.

Joey Gallo, his second out. fielder to go along with Starling Marte. He's already filled two catcher spots. Four infield spots. Right? Interesting build there. And let's see. Scotty, you're back on the clock. Shane Boswant and Chris Bassett.

Two more pitchers off the board. And what are you thinking? Do you have to get more offense here, Scottie? You muted yourself again. I think this is going to be our record performance for mutes during a podcast or a live stream. Sorry. Sorry. So I have relief for me because I was thinking I had blown it with that Kenley Jansen pick.

I noticed there was two of the profit pocket left at first base at the time Josh Bell, who you took Frank and C.J. Cron. I ignored them because I'm so used to having a first baseman already. But I don't have a first baseman yet. So I will get the last of the profit pocket here, C.J. Cron as my first baseman, in the hopes that the Coors effect bolsters his number. for a second straight season. And frankly, I think he could potentially do even better than he did last year there. And last year he hit 281 with 281 with 28 homers 92 RBI. Yeah, I'm with you.

I mean, we need to see a little bit more consistency. He was awesome for the final two months of the season. Before that, he was okay. You know, he was like a mid-700s to an 800 OPS bat, those first three or four months. But, man, if he can carry over some of what we saw down the stretch, then we could see 280, 30 plus homers from C.J. Cron, I think that's possible.

Nelson Cruz, 129th overall. Don't forget about the old man. The vet. Nelson Cruz. I couldn't take him. I might have taken him, but I couldn't. Yeah, that's right. You've got Joe Hilton. Coming home to roost.

He was at the top of my queue. All right. Even though dramatically limit my flexibility at this point, it's just the value's too good. Yeah. I mean, I was going to say, Chris, like, are you sure you want him? He doesn't play outfield anymore. He probably played like, he's probably played an inning there in the last couple of years, right? I think he played more first base last year than he did outfield. And that's probably for the best, honestly.

I think so. I've got to move Nelson Cruz up my overall ranks because, honestly, if I remembered he was there, I might have selected him over to Josh Bell myself. I think it's a close call, but. Yeah. I like the Blake Snell pick after him too. Yeah. I had been, that's a pick I would have made probably two rounds ago if I was sitting on two starting pitchers instead of the four I actually have. Yeah. I just,

I think the potential for him to have an ace caliber season is greater than for, you know, some of the like Shane McClanahan's and, and Alec Mnanoas that have gone already. But he is, you know, there's more downside for Snell too, I would say. Scott, hold on. Did somebody say Shane McClanahan? Here comes the money. Here we go. Money talks. Here comes the money.

Money talks, Scott. So I don't know. I don't know if that's actually going to happen. Blake Snell versus Shane O'Mack, but we'll see you this year. Blake's now, by the way, the ADP is 106. He lasts to pick 130 here. So much like Luis Castillo, lasting a little bit later than we're used to seeing. After Jake Cronomworth goes, Chris, you do select a util, only bet, and that is Fran Moraes,

might actually earn outfield eligibility throughout the course of the season. And you grab Eduardo Rodriguez. Is he your SP2? SP3? SP2, yeah, I'm going light on

SPs, so I'm going to have to hit it pretty hard here, but yeah, Friend Mo Reyes just like Nelson Cruz, I just think the value's too good at 130th overall. That's a pretty safe bet for I mean, really 35 homers if he plays 130 games, 140 games, a ton of RBI.

So, yeah, I think I'm pretty well set in offense. I might need to take one stolen base guy at some point down the stretch, but otherwise I think I can pretty much focus on pitching moving forward because I think I've got a pretty good base across the board now. And, you know, that'll happen when three or nine of your first 12 picks are hitters. All right. The rest of round 12, what else is going on? After you selected Erod, Wilson Contreras, Zach Gallen, and Chris Taylor,

guess I won't be using him at second base. Scott, you are back up, and you have six hitters and five pitchers to this point. Which way are you leaning now? Did he do it again? he did it again I did the opposite a little while ago where I thought I wasn't muted

so I hit the mute button and then coughed and I had been muted so I apologize for that one you know you could give me a more subtle cue than that you don't have to anyway Scott you muted yeah

Ranger Suarez so and now Marcelo Zuna goes I may be playing to ADP a little too much because there are a number of hitters I like and expect to get that it's not quite time to get. And you can get burned doing that, especially if you need something as badly

as I need outfielders right now. Scott, what's the favorite sound drop that I have that I play? Because next time you're muted, I'll play one of those sound drops. So that'll be your... That's not exactly subtle either, Frank. I'll give you... Oh, man, I should have a...

played this for Josh Bell. I'll play that next time you're muted, Scott. And nobody will know what's going on. So it's totally fun. All right, so you select Rangers Juarez. You have six hitters and six pitchers through your first 12 rounds. Only one outfielder as you begrudgingly watched Marcel Ozuna get drafted there. And then Josh Donaldson, and then Carlos Rodan, and then Justin Turner.

Okay, what do I need? Another outfielder would definitely help. I need a second baseman. Is it time to draft Gene Seguera or Colton Wong yet? It is not time to draft either of those guys. So I will continue my search. And the top of the outfield rankings right now is not looking too hot. There was a pitcher that I saw that I like.

And I think that's who I'm going to draft. It is my man, Sean Manaya. Haven't thought of a fun nickname yet for Sean Manaya, but he's the guy. He is my SP4. I like the VLO jump from last year. The underlying numbers were much better for Sean Mania. Lower that sinker usage a little bit, man.

I think the secondary stuff is good. And I think that there's a chance that we see a mid-3 ZRA with a strikeout per inning, and that would be awesome to get from my SP4 here in round 12. All right, DJ LaMayhew goes off the board. I will not be drafting him as my second baseman. I didn't really want them anyway. So there, take that.

Clayton Kirshall goes to finish out round 12. And that is a perfect time to, on the podcast side, we are going to end hour one here on the podcast, but keep your eyes and your ears open for our two of the podcast. If you want to see how the rest of this draft plays out. But we're going to wrap this one up, and we will catch you on part two. Bye-bye.