Fantasy Baseball Today - Live Roto Salary Cap (Auction) Draft Part 1! (3/10 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 10, 2023

We're doing a live 12-team Roto Salary Cap draft. How much did Scott spend to win Aaron Judge? Which of the three wound up with Gerrit Cole? Did Chris or Scott get Fernando Tatis Jr.? 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.  Make sure to join our Fantasy Baseball Today March Madness bracket challenge here: cbssports.com/baseball Get Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We gocomo Friday and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today. Frank Stample joined by Scott White and Chris Towers, the happiest of Kokomo Fridays. We've got a long one for you today. We're doing a live salary cap slash auction draft and we are broadcasting the entire thing. So if you're hanging out watching us live on YouTube, feel free to go to the bathroom, go eat dinner, go to the bar, come back. We'll probably still be here broadcasting. Even the reserve rounds? Are we doing the reserve rounds live?

Lord of the Rings extended editions and we will likely still be here. At least one of them. Probably not all three. I didn't. Chris, how you doing, bud? Good.

I made the mistake of like working straight until 615 and then realized, oh crap, we have a draft in 45 minutes. I haven't eaten. So I decided, I got wings, which like, that's probably the worst choice I could have made.

Very amazing. Of any food to just like shove in my mouth five minutes before going on air for four hours. Really poor choice. Not my best. I'm going to, if you hear some like crunching sound, that's probably just me chopping on tums,

try to get through this. Yeah, not the best. Scott, you're ready to draft? I am. I am. I would have liked a little more time to prepare. I thought I'd have an hour.

I took half an hour. So I got a little budget made out here for me to work off of. I'm hoping to, so I was looking through the history of this league. I pretty consistently finished. in the top four. Very consistent about that. There were a couple years I didn't it, but top four, usually there. I haven't actually won since 2016, though. I don't know if you know a little something that happened around 2016. That might have changed the way we play fantasy

baseball. I turn 28. The JBE. The JBE era is what I'm talking about. And so hopefully now that we're out of it, I can get back in a more, more to groove, into more of a groove here and win this thing again. Let's see. All right, so here's what you need to know about this draft. Again, it's salary cap, also known as auction, 12-team, 5-by-5 roto with a $260 budget, standard categories, Roto-style lineups, two catchers, one of each infield position,

five outfielders, one corner, one middle, one utility, and nine pitcher spots. We've got some great players in here as well, including Greg Lathrib, we gotta give a shout out. Back to back champion, I believe back to back champion, right? Is that correct? Back to back and three of four. Maybe he's the common denominator. He joined the league and I couldn't win anymore.

Yeah, I mean, why are we even here? We just have Greg Lathrop on here, like hosting, giving out his strategy, because clearly he's been doing a better job than us. Yeah. All right, Scott, well, whenever you're ready, you are the commissioner of this bad boy. Fire it up. Let's get it going. All right. I know who's nominating first, but I'm hitting the resume.

button. And I know we get lots of questions this time of year about strategy in a format like this nomination strategy, your bidding strategy, and we'll talk it out throughout the draft. But next week, this is this kind of breaking news to Scott and Chris as well, we're going to do a little bit of a strategy week. So I'm going to have different segments for each day where we break down our strategy for those specific formats. So in case that's what you've been wondering, we'll have that content for you next week. And it appears that we're about to have our first time out here. to a great start. Hang on.

Where is Daniel? All right. He's here. He's here. We're going to get going here. Now he's Aaron Judge. Aaron Judge. Aaron Judge.

The first one up. And I shut off the sound this time. Thankfully, hopefully, I think I did. Let me know in the YouTube chat. If you hear, if you're hearing weird random sounds, but Aaron Judge is up and he's already up to $36.

I have a feeling this guy's going to go quite a bit, as he should, obviously. I'm looking. I've got our values up right now to see how much he should go for. He's already exceeded that. So $43 and counting for Aaron Judge. Yeah, actually, one thing that we haven't mentioned,

but pretty interesting is if you play in a CBS league, there is now a consensus ranking on our site that includes consensus salary cap values. Very nice. And I think people could find those within their league, right, Chris? So if you hover over players in your home page, then you can click on rankings

and you'll see those consensus ranks. And our first player is won by whom? Scotty Dubs, $40. All right. Dollars. I already feeling like maybe I have my mojo back because I'd been playing a little scared, I think, the past two years

and backing down when a player went past the value I had prescribed for him. So, you know, I believe in getting high-end players in a 12-team league, and Aaron Judge was one I specifically targeted to give me, hopefully a really big home-run advantage to start my team. I get already seen. So, Bobby Witt is up, and he is now going for $36. I'm going to have the most boring, like $12 to $15 team of all time.

If players are going to be going for values like this, yeah, it's probably not going to work out very well for me. All right, and sold. Bobby Witt Jr. goes for $37. So two players up so far. Aaron Judge for 48. Bobby Witt for 37. I think there is something to talk about

in terms of inflation within your draft, right? Chris, if you notice that the high-end players are all going for overvalue, then you know, A, there's going to be lesser values in the middle or lower-end players. And if you want one of those guys, you're also going to have to pay up. You can't just be so stringent in your values

that I'm just not going to pay the price. Yep, it's a closed economy or I don't know if that's actually a thing that people say, but there is a finite amount of money available in any given salary cap draft. And every dollar above, you know, your projection that goes to Aaron Judge, that means there's one less dollar for the remaining 275 players who will be bid on. So it's something to keep in mind. Yeah, you have to be willing to adjust as the draft goes on. And so far, every player had, I mean, it's only three, but every player has gone for more than I have budgeted for.

And that's what we saw in the head-to-head points draft. Michael Harris just went for less than I'm. Michael Harris just went for less than I haven't budgeted for. I've gone for 22. 28 versus Bobby Woods 37. I'm not so sure I wouldn't just have, rather have Michael Harris. I think it's closer than a lot of people think. And certainly the $7 difference there I would have rather had Harris.

And so B-Done won both Witt and Harris. He's got a nice stolen base cushion, already filled third base in an outfield spot. So he should be feeling pretty good right about now. Yeah, lots of power and speed from both of those guys. Bobby Witt and Michael Harris. Jacob de Grom is currently up and up to $29 so far for Jacob de Grom. And will he stop there? It seems like no, he will not.

He is up to 30 bucks, 31. Yeah, this is another one going right past mine. So I don't know. 22 is all you have Harris for, huh? Chris, where do you have him ranked in Roto overall? I have him 36 overall. Okay, see him like a late third round. And so you're especially low on him then, which is fun.

Yeah, and I think I also, no, not really in my road. And my points league values, I do have pretty aggressive valuations on the top players. My Roto values top out at about 44. and my top five are all 44 or 43. All right. Let's see what we've got here. Javier bias out there for $2. It's an interesting strategy to throw mid-tier players out early when there's a lot of money on the board.

Just to kind of get a feel for how much they're going to go for. I mean, sometimes you do that and they'll go for way over budget. Right now, this seems pretty cheap for... It's pretty good. So, yeah, I did that. I would, you know, I'd like to throw out a tester. Normally it's a player I don't really want, but I wouldn't mind. winning for a dollar if everybody just fell asleep at the wheel or something.

So I think Baez was a perfect choice for that. He went for six. I haven't budgeted for five. So that tells me that people aren't going to dramatically overpay for those guys probably. And that maybe I shun it keep throwing them out as a result. And it's worth mentioning that we are going to play this league out. I know I have it listed as a mock draft on YouTube. This is a real draft.

We're playing this draft out. So keep that in mind as well. Julio Rodriguez. All right, not like I wrote him down for a certain dollar value. And he's up to $46. So I will not be getting Julio Rodriguez. In line with Judge of 48, I would say. And Beedon won him too.

So Beedon has Witt, Harris, and Rodriguez. He is going studs and duds here, which I don't think is a bad idea. Yeah, Bidon has a hot date, so he's trying to get out of here. Let me spend my money. See, the problem is, though, that actually he's going to have to be the last one here. Yeah. Because he's not going to be able to hammer that $2 player at the end of the draft.

Yeah. And something I think is an interesting part of strategy with a league like this is jump bids. So someone throws out Yuron Alvarez for one, two, three, all right, let's move it along here. So I jump him up to 25. Let's, you know, let's keep this moving a little bit. And Yuron Alvarez is kind of a hot topic right now because he's dealing with the left hand soreness. And we haven't seen him in spring training yet.

And he's up to $40. So. And no discount here. But I will say, Chris, compared to where the other early first round picks are going, like Aaron Judge went for 48. To get Alvarez at 40, it is a discount relative to other first round players, not a discount relative to where we have him ranked, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I mean, I moved him down to 10. So, you know, we talked about that on yesterday's show, I think, where I moved him down below Juan Soto and Kyle Tucker and Shoehoyotani. He was in like

the $37 range for me. Now he's 34. So it's, I think still, We're still seeing the inflation for the elite players. Ronald Acuna is the next player up, and already up to 39. No surprise there. I believe Julio Rodriguez went for 46. And Aaron Judge went for 48. So I imagine Okunia will wind up somewhere around there.

Ah, Chris, you're in on the action. Yeah. All right, so he's at Judge's value now. 48 as the leading bill. Surpasses him. Up to 50 now. Acuna is the favorite for this draft room so far. Going once, going twice.

This has... Oh! Ronald Cunia! Raymond Atherton gets Ronald Cunia, which is fitting because I think he likes to put the Nya, a little tilda, over his name Raymond Atherton on Twitter. Alright, so Ronald the Coonio goes for 50. He is the highest bot player so far, and I don't know that anyone is going to beat that, to be honest.

No. Probably not. Vaughan Grissom, another mid-tier player getting thrown out here. Javier Baez, this went for $6 earlier. And yeah, I'm going to get in on the bidding for Vaughn Grissom. I have a certain amount of money budgeted for a middle infielder. And he kind of hits that. And I don't know. I think there's probably going to be better values later.

So Vaughn Grissom goes for $8 once again to be done. So he got Baez and Grissom. Yeah, so shortstop. That's his middle infield. Middle infield. He has Bobby Wood at Third Bay. Harris and J Rodd in the outfield. Yep, yep. He's got a lot of steals already. You probably doesn't need to worry about those anymore. Right, and I am going to nominate

Shohei Otani here and see what he winds up going for. Another first round caliber player. This of course on CBS Otani is one player. You need to decide before the week starts whether you want him to be your utility position or you're in a starting pitcher spot. But you can use them in both. It's just you have to decide before the week starts. All right. Bidding is out and running. $34. Chris seems to be in on the action here. All righty. 36 now for Otani.

Bit of a value so far. See what he winds up at. Yeah. And the thing about auction salary cap leagues is like, there's a lot of the intangible things going on where like, so look, I have ADHD. I have a really hard time sitting still and not part. And so I have a bad tendency of just like, I haven't bought anyone in a while. I'm going to do it. And I'm trying to be present and cognizant and aware. And, uh, you know, we'll see how that goes. Show Hey, Otani goes for $37. $3 is less than Yordaun Alvarez. I actually think that's a really good buy.

Well, unless you consider wit a first rounder, which nobody on, on this podcast does. Yes. then Otani's the cheapest first rounder so far at 37. Now we have talked before about how he's a difficult fit. Yes. Because in a conventional draft, you take Otani in round one. That means you're not getting an outfielder or a third baseman with your first two picks. And those are two critical positions to fill. Or you're filling DH, so no position at all.

Of course, it's a little different in a salary cab draft because you could still jump in there for the third baseman or outfielder you want. theoretically. I think it is easier to build around Otani in a salary cap league because you do have more flexibility in the other high-end players you surround him with. And I do think you probably want one of those other high-end players along with him. CJ Kron goes for $8 once again to B-Dodd. So spending a lot early, but he's got his first baseman, a bunch of middle infielder so far as well. And boom.

He hasn't bought all expensive players. Crone was eight, Grissom was eight, Ayas was six. Let's talk about this one right now, because this is really interesting. Carlos Rondon goes off the board at $26. I don't know if, I don't know if Tim read the injury news on Carl Swardon,

but he was a very. If that was a jump bid, I mean, I assume it was a jump bid. It was a jump bid. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, good to know.

Based on where. I had lowered him to about an $11 player 30th in my starting pitcher rankings. Carlos Redone with this news. Yep, I've got him at 14, but I think I'm a little flatter in that range. So, yeah, it's the same thing. So 26 is probably what I would have bought him for originally. It doesn't sound like a serious thing for what it's worth. Green forearm, and it's always kind of scary because a lot of times it's a precursor to Tommy John.

They and the ligaments, they're saying, yeah, I mean, they're saying there's no, you know, nothing turned up with the UCL, and that seems fine. And they're talking about it may be throwing within two weeks. So it may not be a big. deal for Rodon, but just the nature of the injury makes everyone a little concerned, I think. Ah, so it turns out the gentleman who won Carlos Rodon says in the chat, no, I actually did not know that Carlos Rodon was hurt. Well, sorry, bud. You got it for 20. I mean, I would have backed that out if he had spoken up sooner. Yeah, $26 for Carlis for Carlson. I have him for 16. You

guys mentioned a little bit lower than that. And Jose Ramirez was the next player up after Carl's on. He went for $50. So Ramirez and Acuna tied for the highest bought player so far at $50. And then Luis Robert goes at 25. All right. Chris, you're up to nominate a player. It is my turn to nominate a player. Do you have a specific nomination strategy?

Yeah, I tend to throw out guys who I don't really want all that much. See if I can get some money off the board. I throw out Danesby Swanson, who I think is fine. He's like my 60th ranked player, which is probably around where he's going. But I'm not particularly enthused about drafting him. Likewise. Yeah, we mentioned that recently on Bus 2.0,

not exactly inspired by Swanson. Coming off a fantastic year, but, you know, moving over from the Braves to the Cubs, it's a big lineup downgrade. And he's going around, he goes in a spot similar to like O'Neill Cruz and Wander Franco and just other short.

It goes ahead of Tim Anderson. I'd rather have Tim Anderson. Yeah. Yeah. So Danesby Swanson winds up going for $14, which seems like a couple dollars less than I have. I'm 16. Yeah, I've got those mid-tier guys are going for a little less than, at least by my

dollar amounts and then the high end guys going for more predictably. Danesby Swanson, yep, I've gotten for $16 as well, Scott. Another fun one here, Tyler Glass now, who we know is going to miss some time as well at the beginning of the season, currently going for $9 to Greg Lathrop. Yeah, I've still got Glass now inside of my top 170, but I think there's like, I had him as a bus before this.

I just, I think there's a non-zero chance you end up getting nothing from him this year, unfortunately. I hope not because he's a really fun player. He's really good. I think when he pitches, he'll be incredible, but I just don't have faith that he can hold up.

Tyler Glass now, according to Scott's ranking, is $9 player. I've got him at 6. So he's right around SP. Yeah, I've got him at 7. Yeah, right around SP 45, I think, for all of us. Rafael Devers is currently out there going for $40. So one of those elite third baseman, currently going for more than Otani, going for more than Bobby Witt. It's interesting.

And that's where he settles. 40 bucks for Devers. Yeah, Sam is Jordan Alvarez. So I think that's probably a bit too much for Raphael Devers. but I'm also less invested in the positional scarcity. Narrative sounds flippant. That's not what I mean to be, but, you know. Well, if you subscribe to Scott's position scarcity theory this offseason,

you've got Devers as like a borderline first round pick. So, I mean, if we're dropping Alvarez, if we're dropping Alvarez to the end of the first round, it's, you know, they're probably similarly ranked players for you. Yeah, I have him as a first rounder. And I was looking at him potentially getting him closer to 35, though, than 40. And it's, you know, I don't think it's a bad idea to go to the extra dollar or two for the guy you want, especially in, you know, more of a 12-team league like this than a 15-teamor.

You don't have to guard those dollars so closely. Ultimately, you want the best build you can get. And sometimes there's a player that's perfectly suited for that. When you start going $5 beyond what you want to spend, but that gets pretty scary. Corbyn Burns went for $34 while we were talking. And again, relative to other first round picks or borderline first round picks,

I'm just going to bid you up a little bit. I'm not going to let it happen, Chris. It's just too cheap for these starting pitchers. I don't even want Gary Cole, but he's currently going for $33. Yeah, Frank got me down to the last second. I had him for 32. Frank jumped in for 33.

He got him for $1. dollar less than Corbyn Burns, which is what I have. Garik Cole is to add a dollar less than Corbyn. Although six and seven dollars lower than they actually went respectively. So we're, we're still seeing that surplus, $82 above my consensus values so far. I think Javier Baez and Danesby Swanson are the only players who have gone for less than I have them valued for so far. The point I wanted to be on Burns and Garrick Cole is that. they are, I mean, I guess in the mock drafts, we do, they're more like second round picks,

like late second rounders. But based on ADP, I mean, it seems like a good value compared to Devers going for 40 and Acuna going for 50 and some of those guys, you know, in the mid to upper 40s. So I get it. You know, we think pitching is deeper. Seems like a good. Yeah. I don't have any pitcher for more than $27.

You guys value pitching more than I do. I've got Burns at 27. I think I just have a steeper drop off at the second tier of players or the third tier of players, whatever. And Boba Chet goes for $32. My first player, $32. All right. Yeah, I think it's a good value.

I mean, I like it too. I have him a couple spots ahead of Bobby Witt, and I got him for $5 less, so I'll take that. Yeah, no, I think that's a really good price comparatively to others. J.T. Roamuto currently up at 25. And I think we're starting. to see prices cool a little bit. I think people came out in this draft really hot. A lot of the big name players get thrown out and they go for

decent amounts over what we have them budgeted for. And I think now we're starting to cool down a little bit and kind of come back to reality. Seeing Garikul for 33, Bichette for 32, and now JT's Real Muto for 26. Yeah, that's an okay price for Bramuto. All right. And it's my turn to nominate a player. And I'm just going to get one of the, another one of the big names off the board, throwing traits here and around there. For the most part, Chris, I have a similar nomination strategy to you. More often than not, I will nominate players that I am not interested in buying.

But if we get to a point in the draft where I think things are kind of slowing down and people aren't spending money, I'll start to throw out players that I do want. And I think I'll be able to potentially win them at a value. Speaking of which, Trey Turner was slowing down at 40. Chris getting a little antsy there. Would it would like to get him at 40. That would have been nice. Not going to happen. He's up to 43. You know you already have the shed, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You got a middle infield spot, Scott. But I'm going to let him go of 43, which is actually the value I have him at. So that's probably the best buy of the day. So far. Good job. RJ White. Oh, yes. RJ gets trade Turner for 43. Reminder. Jose Ramirez went for 50. Ronald Acuna also went for 50. So nice little value. Yeah. I have. those guys pretty much all with the same values. So that's clear, I think clearly the best buy so far. Yeah. I think things once again slowing down a little bit. And Roddy Tellez, another mid-tier player getting thrown out there.

And he is up to $6. No, he's not because I bid seven. Ha-ha. And I just got outbid by by $1. He's up to eight. It's tough with players like this early in the auction. Admittedly. So you don't know.

Because with the overbids early on. overbids from the perspective what we'd project them for. You don't know whether some of those mid-tier guys much later on could go for very little money. Maybe Routi Theles, if he lasts long enough, becomes a $3 player

instead of the $8 player he was here. And so I agree, it's hard to go face value on that range of player this early on. So interesting, because now Juan Soto gets thrown out after Trey Turner and the bidding was just very quick. quickly aggressive on him and he gets all the way up to 45 and things to stop. So Juan Soto, a lot of playing in a league like this is when the player is thrown out.

So if people view Juan Soto as that, you know, one of those last outfielders left, top tier that they want, they're going to be willing to go the extra, the dollar or two. And that's how someone like Soto winds up going for more than trade to run. Well, I don't know that that was so much the case here because Kyle Tucker's still out there. Mookie Betz is still out there. Well, Betz just got nominated now. But I do wonder if, okay, Trey Turner plays a deep position,

Juan Soto plays one of the shallowest positions. And if when you don't have that, when you're not confined by turn order, like in a draft, you know, and you might have a, so you have an idea what you want to do free from the constraints of turn order, you're like, well,

I want to get an outfielder. I think people might be saying that a little more than, okay, I'm picking thirds. So I know if Trey Turner's there, I'm going to take them, because that's who you're supposed to take picking third. You know what I mean? Yeah.

And Chris, you wound up winning Mookie Betts who got thrown out for $42. You win him. You have now him and Bo Bichette. You have Bichette at 32. Was that the point? Yeah, that's a nice little starting point. No, I don't make my little plans like you guys

with your little spreadsheets and whatnot. I'm doing these. I have a general idea of the team that I want to build, but I, tend to find that if I say, I want this player and this player, I screw myself up. And I get to boxed in. So I, I don't tend to go into my salary cap drafts with a specific plan. Edwin Diaz, first reliever off the board goes for $22. So we'll keep that in mind for when other relievers get thrown out so we can compare and contrast. And I've got to say, guys, I do have

buyers remorse on Garrickle was not part of the plan one bit. Just kind of felt like he he's going for too cheap. We'll see. We'll see how it turns up. And see, that's the hardest job. I feel like people start to, people start to, oh, it wasn't part of my plan. And then you start to, oh, no, what do I do? My plan. My plan. Come on, guys. No plans. No surprise here. Chris throws out Catell-Marte. It's a tower's favorite right there. He's up to five bucks.

But to me, the whole appeal of a salary cap draft is you actually get to do, or at least you have the option of actually doing what you want to do. You know, like, I never get to have Aaron Judge because I never picked first. Well, now I can get Aaron Judge and build the team I dream of with Aaron Judge at the top of it. All right. Well, Ketel Marte just went for $7. I think Havi went for $7 or six earlier. Six. Yeah, six.

Similar price. One more dollar for Ketel Marte than Javier biased to put that in perspective. Bryce Harper thrown out. Another interesting player, likely to miss the first half of the season recovering from Tommy John surgery. I got to say, like, I know a lot of people get really excited about the prospect of drafting Bryce Harper. And, you know, there have been times in the past where high-end player missing a lot of time. I'm enthusiastic about getting him too. But I feel like with him specifically, he's coming back so late, so late.

Like, he might not be back until August. Like, what kind of impact is he going to be able to make? I do wonder, like, he did hit off a T for the first time today. And so, you know, it's possible that it ends up being a June-ish return, like a late June return. But yeah. I haven't really heard anyone think that. I mean, they're talking to All-Starbreak at the earliest. If it was mid-June, it'd be different.

That's a whole extra month of Bryce Harper. And then I could get behind paying $11 for him. but like, it's going great. I know, it's like, I have a couple of leagues where I was competitive

while drafting Fernando Tattice, and I might have been able to win those leagues if Fernando Tatees had come back, but he just never did, you know, and so it's, and he was projected to come back more like early June, right?

Yes. Or even earlier. All right, well, a few names got thrown out in the meantime. Nathan Avaldi went for $2, got thrown out for one. Interesting.

Bryce Harper wound up going for 11. Christian Walker is, the current player being thrown out there. I'll let you know how much he goes for, but first, I want to promote a few things. It's that fun time of year, spring training baseball, the world baseball classic, and of course college basketball brackets are back. Compete against Scott, Chris, and me in our FBT March Madness bracket on the CBS Sports. All you have to do is scan the QR code in the top right corner of the screen or click on the link in the podcast or YouTube description. The link, by the way, cbsports.com slash baseball.

You can't mess it up. It's pretty easy. After you join our bracket, make sure to run men's and women's pools with friends and family. Which player is thrown out here? Okay, Emmanuel Class A with Friends and Family for the chance to win a new car and trips to the 2024 Final Four. Play today on the CBS Sports app or visit CBS Sports.com slash play to sign up. No purchase necessary. See terms and rules for details. And Emmanuel Class A goes for $23.

Edwin Diaz went for $22. $2. And with that, we are going to take our first break. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back into Fantasy Baseball today, doing a live salary cap draft here, 12-team Roto League. Max Scherzer is the current player being thrown out, and he's up to $25. Big little jump bid to 25 and up to 26, 27.

I'll tell you what, I feel pretty good about Garic Cole right now at $32. We got RJ in here who's kind of an enforcer. he takes it right. Like if you're thinking, maybe I can get a guy for a dollar to less, and RJ takes it right to the amount he's supposed to go for. Like, I'll never mind.

I always take it personally when he does it to the players that I'm betting on. The Enforcer, RJ White. For those who check out our other content, Sportsline and the Early Edge podcast, you know about RJ White. Does a lot of gambling, football content with us here. Max Schurzer winds up going for $28.

So just an interesting perspocket. perspective that he goes for $4 less than Garrett Cole at this point in the draft. Now it's going to be interesting to see where do these other aces go for? Do they also go upper 20s? Because if that's the case, then I think the Burns for 33 and Garikull for 32 actually will turn out to look pretty good. Aaron Savali went for $2 to the enforcer, R.J. White. Oh, I'm up to nominate a player.

Let's see what we got here. I'll throw out this guy. Throw up Vladimir Guerrero Jr. See how much he's going to go for. Currently, uh, battling, it's battling a injury.

Remind me. Knee. Knee inflammation. Yeah, knee injure. Things like a, a minor thing. Um, yeah,

I think he's already like started doing baseball activities again. He backed away from the world baseball classic, but I think that was a, you know, more of a, anything goes wrong and he's not playing kind of thing. I don't think there's an, an issue like,

I, I don't think you should be sweating Garrett Cole. for what, 34? No, 32. 32. I don't think he should be sweating that so much. I mean, I understand maybe you didn't want to buy that high end of a pitcher,

and that's a different conversation, but just, oh, this amount versus it could have been, you know, I could have gotten an ace for 29 instead of 32. Like, Garrett Cole is the best bet to lead the majors in strikeouts. There's no other pitcher that can do that. You're going to have to pay a little premium for that. And it's probably, you know, if he follows through on it, it's worth it. Like, he gives you, he, there is no.

No other player like Garrett Cole in that way. So if that's what your team needs, then if it's a few dollars off, I just, I don't know that it's worth, I don't know that that's something to quibble about. I have no problem with the player, Scott, or the performance of Garrett Cole. I still have the utmost confidence in him.

It's just that was not part of the plan at all. So it's probably something that's going to be in the back of my mind for the rest of this draft. And we'll see how ultimately... That's why you don't make a plan. Vladimir Guerrero goes for $36. dollars. Jeremy Pena goes for eight. It's a pretty good buy on Pena. I know what, Von Grissom went for six or seven, so yeah, I like that. It's a pretty good value on

Jeremy Pena. Manny Machado is out there. He's currently up to 30 bucks. And I believe Raphael Devers went for 40, not to throw any numbers out there, but just a reminder for those listening, for the listening audience. And he's now at 35 to Scott. No surprise there. Now gonna go 36. You're going to press me on this. How far you want to take it, Frank? How far are you going to push it? I don't know.

How far are we going to go? Mani Uchado is currently up to $38. I think I'm going to stop. And he goes to me. 38. Sorry, Scott. Nice little bidding war. But Devers went my limits.

Devers went for 40. I definitely did not want to spend that much on Machado, but I did want one of those elite service. So I had gone 39. I probably wouldn't have gone 40. That's what you're saying? Yep. That's fine.

It's fine. It's all good. All right, who's up here? Kyle Tucker at 34. And Chris is in on the bidding. I'll throw a little one out there. See what happens. So I want to win back-to-back players? 38 bucks.

38 each, Machado and Tucker. That's not bad. Yeah! Let's go. We're based on outfield filled. Look at that, Frank. All right, we're back on track, baby. There was always a plan.

Forget what I said about Garrett Cole. I don't know. I mean, you got three stud players right now. I don't. I do. Oh, this is a fun one. Corbyn Carroll. Being thrown out this early in the draft,

it'll be interesting to see how much he goes for ultimately. Yeah. Corby and Carol has been leading off so far in spring training. Seems like that might be his spot to start the season for the Diamondbacks. Up to 18, 19, 20, 20 and counting. 21, 22. Scott is in. Bidding war.

with our defending champion. It's going to happen? Oh! Snipe. Greg Lathor, back in for 23. Scott? Yeah, I'm going to pass on that too. I know.

All right. I know. I'm already getting that feel like, thank God I have Baron Judge, because I'm already doing that thing that I feel like I've done the past few years and been so disappointed with myself. Like, I'm willing to go a couple dollars over

when you start going four or five over. just no no no yeah no I get it I totally get it I'm currently keeping track of my money so just doing a little math here alright yeah the draft room does that for you yeah I know but I I've got a system here Chris yeah your plan is that what you wanted Chris you want you won Adaberto Montesey for two bucks

yeah let's see sometimes that's what I what I what I like to do sometimes early in the draft is throw out a guy who like if I can get him fine if not. Like Scott said with a dollar bid on Avaldi. But if it's a player that I'm interested in actually getting, I'll do it for two. Because, you know, then it costs an extra dollar for someone to get him. And, you know, it might not be smart to do that without Alberto Mondesi.

But I do think there's still some reasonable upside there for a very, very cheap price. All right. Will Smith is the next one up here. I believe there was only one catcher off the board so far. It was J.T. Real Muto. and I think he went for 26. He did. So Will Smith goes for 20.

All right. That sounds like it's about right. Let's see. I've got Will Smith at 20. I've got Real Muto price at 28. So goodbye so far at the catcher position. Scotty, you're up? Yeah.

I am up, aren't I? All right. Let's try Nolan Aeronado here. Do you have a third baseman yet, Scott? I have Aaron Judge. Oh, all right. So, Aronado could be a player of interest for you. Austin Riley and Arirano are kind of the last of that,

I guess you could call it elite group before we see that big drop-off that we talk about all the time at third base. And Arirado is now up to 30 bucks. No surprise. Scotty is in. And... All the way in. Oh, the Enforcer. RJ White with a close line.

I think this is an enforcement thing. So I'm at 32 for Aeronado. Aronado, by the way, hit a grand slam. Yeah, it was like to like the center field portion of less center. It was basically an opposite field home run for him. That's great. Nice by, Scott.

It might have been the furthest towards center field home run that he's hit since like 2020. I'm not actually joking on that. Scott, you wound up with Nolan Aronado for 32. What do you think about the price? It's, so I budgeted 35 for third base. Devers went for 40, Machado went for 38. Riley's still out there. Is he going to go for closer to,

is he going to go for closer to 40? Or is he going to go for closer to the 32 I spent on Aronado? I think he's going to go closer to, to 40. Okay, I just won Sandy Alcantra too. Did you mean to do that? No, I did. I mean, it's the sort of thing,

like this sort of draft really requires, at least my undivided attention. I don't divide my attention well. And so... I totally get it. I mean, trying to host this thing and draft is near impossible task. Yeah, so I wanted to spend $25 on one starting pitcher

So getting Alcounter for 28 when I just bought Aeronado for 32 is exactly the difference, right? Because I budgeted 35 for a third basement. I got one for 32. I budgeted 25 for an ace. I got one for 28. So I was running that math calculation in my head as the clock was winding down. And I guess I'm happy with it. Yeah.

You bought him with one second left. Yeah. So Sandy went for. Scoundrel. $1 more than Max Scherzer. Gosh. And Ozzy Albies goes for $21. That's a good one, yeah.

I should have been on all that. See, I was busy talking. Sorry, I'm sorry. I'll leave you alone, Scott. Ozzy Albies priced at $25 in Scott's rankings, 23 for me and 25 for Chris. So yeah, goodbye there on Albies. Brandon Woodruff, next up.

Another in the ace category. Imagine he gets close-ish to Sandy and Max Scher's. that mid to upper 20s kind of price? Or not. I'm not bidding because I've already got Garrett Cole. Oh, that's good, man. That is good.

Brandon Woodruff at $23. I mean, I got him at 24. I think I'm just lower on pitchers than you guys are. Yeah, no, that's... I'm 19. I feel like I am the Woodruff guy on this podcast. Yeah, I have my 34. That seems a little bit high.

Probably got to lower that. Jordan Walker. All right. This is the name everyone came to see. came to hear about? He's that's a 14 bucks. All right? 15?

What about other players that win this? Yeah, I mean, this is the sort of player. And maybe I should have known this with Corbyn Carroll. I just did a Twitter survey. Who's your must-have player for this year? And Corbyn Carroll won that survey. It's a very popular pick. Anytime you're talking about really trendy,

popular player, you're not going to get them for a reasonable price because everybody's waiting for his name to come up. So Jordan Walker winds up going for 15. I'm trying to find another hitter that went in that range to try and compare. Christian Walker went for 12. So, all right. I mean, Christian Walker.

Danzry Swanson for 14. Yeah. Ah. All right. So, I mean, $15 for Jordan Walker. That probably hasn't priced around a top 100 player. Austin Riley goes for 32.

Scott, I'm sorry. Ah. I was right not yourself I yeah well so I got Aeronada for 32 and Riley went for 32 yeah I mean I thought about bidding on him just for principal's sake but I didn't I don't feel great

about it either I mean don't get me wrong I like Machado and I like the value where I got him at the time but if you're asking me when I've went 33 on Riley versus my 38 on Machado yeah I'd rather I'd rather have Riley for $5 less Wanda Franco is the name that is currently up

and I That's some fun. Breakout-ish type shortstop. And he's currently up to 10, to 11. Chris, Chris, you like Wander Franco this year? He was on my players. I have to draft at least once team because he's very much like where

Vladimir Guerrero was at the start of the 2021 season, where the likeliest outcome is, he probably disappoints. But the high-end outcome is still worth chasing. Maybe not at a, you know, at cost more often than not, but, you know,

want some exposure. Scott, it's going to be alright, man. You look like you are so stressed out right now. I am stressed. Oh, man. It'll be all right. I mean, come on. Aronado's a good player.

This is my favorite part of a salary cap draft is Scott spiraling. And then two hours from now, I kind of like my team. Yeah, I'm sure. It's all part of the process, Chris. See, if I don't like self-flageulate now, then I can't make the comeback I need to make.

And someone else flagellate you? Or is there only self-flagellation? Nobody can flagellate me as well as I flagellate myself. Is that a discussion for like an 11 o'clock podcast, not an 8 o'clock podcast? Yeah, we'll wait for when we're in the reserve rounds. Then we'll bring that back up and see how you guys feel. Let's case people up.

Wander Franco went for 16. So almost one, only $1 more than Jordan Walker. Interesting. Freddie Freeman goes for 36. To put that in perspective, I spent 38 on Machado. So I think Freeman is a relatively good buy,

and he went to RJ. RJ was waiting everyone out, and he's kind of gobbling up the big name value right now with Freddie Freeman at 36, Austin Riley at 32. A couple good buys there. I'm a little lost right now because I wanted, I targeted specific players for batting.

average help, specific hitters for batting average help, thinking you need to, if you're going to spend, you need to get batting average as part of that spending. And I got Aeronado instead, who hit over $290 last year, but, you know, I think his true batting average range outside of course field is probably between 260, 275. Right. So now I'm wondering if I can live up to my expectations for batting average with what's out there still. And we'll see. There's a lot of players left, Sky. You can find some batting average.

There's a lot of players, but, you know, it's been a lot of money. Josh Hader went for 17. I know that Diaz went for 22, Class A went for 23. So, so far the relief pitcher market has pretty much been on point. I would say this is how much these elite relievers should be going for. Paul Goldschmidt went before that for $31. So $1 less than Austin Riley. Patrick Sandoval is currently up

has talked this spring about how he had issues throwing his change up last year which is his best pitch and I mean he still had a good at ERA the whip was very high as it always is with Sandoval outsmarted myself on this one yeah you thought was hoping

I'd be able because you guys having as a dollar player I was hoping like I'd go up to four and he immediately went up to four and he went for eight ultimately and I popular gotta do that with like a Navalty type. Yeah, might have been able to get him later for cheaper. Oh, well.

The hope for Patrick Sandoval is that if he's right, then the change of could bounce back and we could get even more strikeouts this season from Patrick Sandoval. Felix Bautista is currently being thrown out and he's up to $13. All right, he's going up pretty aggressively here. Hater went for 17. Bautista still has not appeared in a spring training game yet as he deals with knee and shoulder. issues, but I have confidence. I know he's scheduled. The price of he's healthy. I'm scheduled to go for to throw live batting practice next week. And if all goes well there, we could see him in a spring game after that. Felix Bautisa goes for $15. Again, I think that's about right. The relief pitcher market has been on point

so far. Jose Altuvae gets thrown out. So one of those top tier second baseman, the first of that group. Marcus Semyon hasn't gone yet. Either has jazz. All right. And we get a big jump up to 27. you know, Scott's not going to let him go for that cheap. And will Scotty win him at 28? I don't know. Man, RJ is out to get you today, Scott. G.

RJ, I think hard, RJ, I think hard, RJ thinks very highly of me, okay? I mean, why wouldn't he? I mean, hey, it's all good until we enter the draft room, Scott. Then there's no more friends, so. So Jose Altuvae was one of those guys. I absolutely was dead set on getting. I budgeted 35 for him. And I got him for 30.

So that, you know, I can breathe a little sigh of relief now. Nice. Yeah. So, yeah, you've got them at 28 on the site.

Well, I've got head-to-head rankings. Let's look, it would be better if I look at Roto. You got, that's what I do. Like, I try to,

like, these are the players I want. Let me round up. And then I'll be sure I'll get them. And then it doesn't always happen that way. But it happened in L2. of these guys, so I feel good. Oh, this is a fun one.

Spencer Strider made another spring start on Thursday. I had five strikeouts. No surprise. I think it was like three in a third innings. He's up to 25 bucks. So there was another pitcher that went recently. Brandon Woodruff went for 23. So that's a little aggressive on Trider,

but he's another one of those names, a hot name, kind of like Corbyn Carrow, where the people who are in on Trider this year are really in. And they're going to overpay a little bit to make sure they get him. Maybe it's not an overpay. Maybe Strider will be awesome again. I don't.

Maybe it's the perfect amount of payment. It might be, Scott. It might be. Next up. Oh, ho, ho, ho. Corey Seeger thrown out a 25 buckaroos. Geez. Yeah, that's a, that's an aggressive,

aggressive first toss there. That's one where you throw it out there. And you see, let me just see if I could catch everyone off guard and get Corey Seeger for 25 right off the rip. But that will not happen because, Scott is the current bid winner at 30. Will it hold? Yes, it will.

All right. So that's kind of the exact same thing as Aeronado and Alcantra. So I went, I budgeted 25 for Seeger. I got Altuve $5 below budget, so I just added those $5 to Seeger. And now I feel like I'm in a really good spot for batting average, which is where I wanted to be. After buying Al Thubair and Ziger, hopefully a middle and field combo that'll, combined to hit 300. And, okay.

I think I'm in, I think I'm in an okay place now. Scott, are you, were you planning to go with stars and scrubs coming in? Yes. All right.

So you've got Altuvea at 30, Ironado 32, Seeger 30. Yes. Judge F 48. So yeah, you're going to want to say that right off the top.

Of course not. Because then people would have been bidding me up on all the high end guys. Right. But yes, this was very much my strategy, pre-juice ball era. And it worked out,

pretty well, for the most part. Because the scrubs in this depth of format can often turn out to be pretty good players. Yeah, I was looking at some of the draft recap from last year, and you're exactly right about that. Chris, you won Justin Verlander at 27. How you feeling about that price egg? I'm pretty happy about it. This is another league that I'm going to be very, very invested in Justin Verlander this season. I just think he's a little undervalued relative to what you're likely to get from him.

So, yeah, I'm very happy to get Verlander. I swear I didn't do this on purpose. It was kind of a jerk move, but I threw a question to you, and then I threw out Fernando Tati, someone I know you are. Oh, it's okay. Not the nicest thing on my end here. Fernando Tati's up to $31, and that's where we just saw, you know, Aronado and Austin Riley and some of those guys go for.

Oh. That's a good price. It's a good price. I'm happy with it. I'm taking on. you know, some risk there. But I, you know, it's really just got to keep my head afloat for, for three weeks. And then he's back.

And I think he's going to be arguably the best player in fantasy. So it's a, the fate of my fantasy season is going to be very tied to Fernando Tatees and Justin Verlander. Do you care that he's hitless in spring so far? Not even a small modicum of an amount. Yeah, that was, yeah, I have to be saving. saving them, he's due. If I hadn't taken Tatis as my round one player in Tau Wars, I might have game planned for him a little more.

But I knew I wanted Seeger in this one, and I knew I didn't want to fill middle infields. Because the thing about this is we're only doing starting lineups, so you can't draft, you can't pick players beyond the starting lineup. Yeah, no, I'm maxed out on, I've got shortstop middle infield and utility field now, so that's not great. I find there's a lot of low dollar second basement in particular. that I like, but some shortstarts too.

Alex Bregman went for $20 and Matt Olson is currently up to 21, which seems like a pretty good price. Yeah, that's what I happen for. My watch has yelled at me. Sorry about that for those that heard Siri. Matt Olson goes for $21. All right. Goodbye. It's a great buy.

It's a great buy. $1 more than Alex Bregman. I'd much rather, even the Breggman buy I think is okay, but I'd much rather have Matt Elson for $1 more. Pete Alonzo is up and no one's bidding. Come on, let's get this going. Come on. You got to give people a little,

you got to give people a little nudge sometimes, you know? All right. I mean, this is just too cheap. What are we doing? All right, yeah, let's get them up there. $28 for Pete Alonzo. Corey Seger went for 30. Oh, man, I mean, I don't really want it,

but it's too cheap. I'll fully admit was an over by the way. Like, that kind of goes to what I was saying earlier. I feel like if I want my shortstop to be a big power hitter and a big source of batting average, Corey Seeger is the player who does that. And there's something to be said for price enforcement, right? Something I just did right now. I didn't want Pete Alonzo.

I don't have him budgeted. I don't want to spend up at first base. He was slowing down at 25. Okay, I'll go 26. Slowing down at 28, it's too cheap. I'll go 29. And Pete Alonzo winds up going for 30, which is still a good price. But I just, I didn't want him to go for as cheap as he was at the time.

So, Salvador Perez, next catcher up. He's up to $15. I believe that Will Smith went for 20. What do I have written down here for catcher? Yeah, I think I'm going to wait. Chris, you guys like Salvador Perez. You guys are back in on him. Yeah, I am.

I am. It's just, you know, he was, he obviously let me down last year. he was the player I was most invested in and it didn't work out but with the price, Chris won him by the way for $17. I went 16, Chris went 17 and won him.

Before, you know, now he's going for much less than that. And the facts haven't changed. He's still the best bet for home runs at the position and by far the best bet for RBI at the position. So if you're looking for advantages, if you're looking for those kinds of,

Those are one of the kind sort of players that I think are most worth investing in in a salary cap draft like this. I think Salvador Perez fits the bill. And once Salvador Perez returned from injury in the second half last year, he looked like Salvador Perez. Obviously not the breakout 48 home run type Salvador Perez, but he looked really, really good once he returned. He went for 17 to Chris. Jack Flaredi went for nine.

I think that was another kind of sneaky one that just kind of got out of hand. Yep, that was another one just like, Petra Sanival where if I got him for three, I would have been happy with it, but I was happy to let him go at four. Dalton Varsho is up to 22. And he ended up going for nine. Yep. I think this is about the right price for Dalton Varsho. J.C. Rumeuso went for 26.

And Varsho goes for 23. Yeah. Will Smith. I would have gone. I would not have gone. Go ahead. Scott, adjust your mic because it's cutting out a little bit. I would have gone 18 on Salvador Perez now knowing I would have had to go 24 for Varsho.

Okay. So, oh well. You're up to throw out a player, Scotty? Yeah. Let's do Trout. Do you have a specific nomination strategy? Not at this stage so much. Hang on, I might be in on this.

Okay, he's up over 30 right away. Uh, yeah. Um, I think that's fine, but I don't think I really have the funds for it, so that's fine. Um, at, at this stage of the draft, I'm more likely to throw out a player I want that I don't want. Like I had early on, I think my first nomination was Javier Baez to be sort of a tester, and he wasn't somebody I wanted. Obviously, I was just kind of getting, taking the temperature of the room, seeing what an odd ball nomination like that, how people would respond to it.

But I generally prefer to nominate players I want just to know if it's realistic I'm actually going to get them. If I'm holding out false hope, I need to know that early so that I can pivot to another high-end player. If I wait until all the high-end players are gone and then nominate the guy I want and find out then that the price I had in mind wasn't realistic, well, I'm in a whole lot of trouble because all the good players are already gone. So that's why I tend to be more of a nominate the one you want at this very early stage of the auction. One thing I do like about the like throw Jesse Winker out for $2 or whoever, however much he was nominated for is like, it is nice to have some price certainty about the end of your roster early on, you know, like that to know that to know that, like, okay, I got Jesse Wanker for $2 if that happens. Now I know, you know, some of the paths that I don't have to take. And it helps with your average cost per remaining player, Chris.

You know, all right, if I get a $2 or $3 winker, that's how much he went for. You know, all right, I could maybe spend up a little bit more at one of these other spots that I have budgeted for. Julio Arreus is the next pitcher that is thrown out here. He's currently at $22. I'm struggling with Julio Ariris, because we know we're not going to get like the elite innings

or elite strikeouts from him. But he's been so good at run prevention. But the Dodgers. Dodgers defense seems a little shakier than it has been. They've been like, I want to say over the past four seasons, they've been like 20 points in Babbitt better than the average team or something like way better in terms of their pitching Babbup allowed. And so I do wonder if he's just like a good source of ERA.

Is he worth the price? I think that's fair. I mean, I don't worry as much. I know you didn't bring this up, but some people might worry about the shift restrictions for Dodgers pitch obviously he's a lefty and he's more of a fly ball pitcher. So I think he'll mostly still be alright. Maybe closer to a three ERA pitcher than he has been in years past,

but he consistently goes six, place on a great team. He has 37 wins over the past two years. I think I mostly trust Julio Reyes. And he went for a good price at $22. Aaron Nolo went for 27, the same cost as Justin Verlander. That sounds about right.

Sounds about right. Yeah, that's fine. I was in on Nola up to about 25. So it would have been nice to get a second ace with huge energy potential, but it wasn't quite worth it. The enforcer. Enforced himself. Nominated McClanahan for 25.

One McClanahan for 25. I mean, it's a fine prize for McClanahan. I just hope you wanted them. Yeah. So we're getting, we got a little bit of a pitcher run here. Arias for 22, Nola for 27. McClan. for 25.

Does all seem pretty reasonable. I should throw a player out, shouldn't I? It is your turn to nominate a player. That is correct. I'm going to throw this gent out here. Randy Rosarena for a dollar. Leading off for Team Mexico in the WBC. Shane McClanahan, by the way,

has made two spring appearances and fastball velocity has been right around 96, 97 miles per hour in those starts. And so far, the returns have been, shoulder is okay. Hopefully that will remain the case, but I feel a little bit better about Shane McClain and now that I've seen him pitch a little bit. Randy Rosarena is up to $23.

Went 20 homers, 30 steals last year, back-to-back 20 seasons, 2020 seasons for him. And Chris, you are the winner. Yeah, that's, at least by my values, that is the highest ranked player who went for cheaper than I have him valued for. So I'll take that. Yeah, that is good, actually. I'm looking at it. Yeah, it was $3 cheaper than I have them for. My values, I've got them at 27th.

So I don't know. Maybe I should stop talking and start bidding. What's going on here? What am I doing? No, I've got, I'm pretty happy with my team right now. Because I think, I mean, obviously you're seven players and you're always going to have good players. But I think I've got a good balance of speed, power and batting average so far. I'm pretty happy with it.

I've only got three players so far. I've got Manny Machado. I've got Kyle Tucker. I got Garrett Cole. So I won some big names early and I'm just kind of laying low. I'm waiting for the right names to pop out here. Matt Chapman is about to go, he was about to go for $9. He's up to 10 for those that need a third basement or a corner infielder with some pop. Contract year for Matt Chapman.

So perhaps we could see the best of him yet. But what we're going to do is we'll take our second break here in part one of this podcast. This is going to be a three-part podcast, by the way. So I hope you have time this weekend. Listen to all three parts. Let's take a break. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back into fantasy baseball today.

Stalling Marte is the player currently being bid on. Matt Chapman went for $10. Marte is one of these players we haven't seen play yet in the spring. Returning from surgery on both of his groin tendons earlier in the off season. Sounds like he could make his debut either over the weekend or next week. And he's slowing down here at $15. Yeah, I thought I was going to get him for 14, and then I'll have to explain why I just won one of my bus candidates.

But I had a good reason. I'm not going to go 16. I mean, I almost got Albys, so, you know, it happened sometimes. I wish I had gotten all these. Man, that's the one that gets to me. I could add Albiz for 22. Ozzy Albee is the one that got away, Scott. Mm-hmm.

Stally Marte goes for $15, which, look at you. I've got him for. If he's healthy, it's a fair price. So if he's healthy, it's a steel. Oh, well, if he's healthy and he performs like he has in years past, because last year, you know, the steels were down, Chris. He was not efficient on the base paths. But let's stop talking about stalling Marte. Because O'Neo Cruz is up. And that's what people- And I cannot bid on him because I have no spot in my lineup for him. Oof. So that's where my cute little throughout Alberto Mondesie as a bench player strategy. blows up in my face.

Who was the one last year? It was Scott wanted Sean Mania or something. Don't remind me. All right. Don't remind me. I think it was... That was the angriest I have been on the air before. Ever.

Ever. Oh, man, you know, I want to be in... It was long down. I thought I was going to hop in here on O'Neill Cruz. I wanted to be in on O'Neill Cruz, but he's up to $23. It is a lot. That's the same price as 24 now. That's the same price as Randy or Rosaraino left for 23.

Yeah. I mean, again, some of these high players is out of control, man. But like, yeah. I mean, again, it's different. It's different when you're doing a snake draft versus a salary cap draft because most people who really want O'Neill Cruz are going to anticipate taking him in round five or round four at the earliest. and them taking

Randy Orozah reina in round three doesn't change that. Sure, yeah. But, you know, like if everything we hope and dream for O'Neill Cruz comes true, he's better than Randy O'Rosa Rana.

Yeah, I mean, of course. I mean, we're not drafting him in snake drafts at his ceiling, Scott, and I'm not saying $24 dollars is his ceiling. If everything pans out, he could turn out to be a $30 player. But you just kind of, You can't a, you sap some of the profit out of it when you go that high, you know?

That's the issue with... I know, and I just think... I just think I'm not as concerned about it in the mixed versus A. I know nobody plays A. I'm not lonely anymore, but the depth of this league makes me not as concerned about it. And that's a great buy, Scott. You just won Cedric Mullins for 22. He went for a dollar cheaper than a Rose Arena, $2 less than O'Neill Cruz.

So if speed was a priority there for you, I think it was a great buy. And it was because my best steel source to this point was either Altuve or Judge. So I don't have a great one. All right. So fits the roster here. And Chris, come on, man, it's too early for Gabriel Moreno. I kind of wanted him. And I went $2, but he winds up going for four.

I don't want to spend $5 on Moreno. I'm sure I'll get a cheaper second catcher later on in the draft. Yep. But there is some excitement. I know he hit his second home run of the sports. spring the other day. And if Moreno can raise that launch angle a little bit, we know how talented he is,

makes a lot of contact, hits the ball hard. But that's the next step for Gabriel Moreno. Adley Ruchman is up to 16. And he is gone for 16. $1 less than Salvador Perez.

I really like Adley Ruchman, more so for Head Ted points leagues. But Chris, I kind of worry about from a Roto perspective, I don't know if he's going to do enough in the categories to be a huge standout this season. I think he'll get there eventually, maybe not this season, though. It's very Wanderfranco-esque. Yeah.

Where, like, when you project him out all the way and, like, what he could fully become, he's clearly capable of being an elite player, even in Roto. The immediate future seems like it's more of a very, very good player across the board. You want to necessarily a great player. Not for, you know, $4. I just want, fair warning. Yeah, no, I'm... I'm...

$3. Yeah. Oh, man. Scott's trying to get back at me for sending out a tweet about Space Jam. Throwing out cheap players that I like. I don't want to spend... I think of them as more of a Chris guy. Sorry, no.

That wasn't directed at you at all. That was directed at Chris. I love Cabrera, too, so... Big fan, big fan. Three pitches with a whiff rate over 30%. If Edward Cabrara could throw strikes, I think he's going to be awful. Awesome. Alejandro Kirk has not appeared in spring training yet. I believe he's been away for the birth of his child, so it's nothing injury related. Should be fine. I know some people have shared concerns about the second half for Alejandro Kirk. Scott, do you share those concerns?

Well, his second half was pretty bad. It's less that for me. I mean, that is something that's in the back of my mind. But it's, It's less that than just for the D.H. The bat. Of course, they have Danny Jansen. So how much, how many bats is Kirk going to get? He's not a big home run source. I think he has the potential for more home runs, but as thanks, Dan, he's not a big home run source.

And if he's not playing as often as some of the other catchers, then that's going to hurt him in runs in RBI. So he really needs to be a standout and batting average. And I think he can't. It's just putting a lot of pressure on that. $12 is fine. for him. Cabrero went for three. As you mentioned, Kirk went for 12. We've got Shane Bieber who is up to 22. I know we had a run of pitchers earlier. Arias also went

for 22, so that sounds about right. Yeah, that's about right. Yeah, I have Beaver ranked higher than Aureas, so I think the Bieber buys a little better, but I think both are fine. Right. Who's up? Tim Canning. It's got a player out there. Come on. Keep it moving, gentlemen. Adoli-S-Carcia for four. I'll go five. How about that? Adoli-S-Carcia.

I like the value this year. I don't... I know his batting average will be lower than a rose arena, but I don't think that he... Go for it. Go for it. Nah. It's going to be gone. It's not part of the plan.

Oh, Frank. Not part of the chance. Not part of the plan, Scott. Plan. Everybody has a plan. Until they don't. I think mine is kind of... dwindling.

No, I'm kidding. But it's a goodbye on Garcia. He went for 17. A Rosarena went for 22. The point I was going to make, I don't know that he's that dissimilar from a Rosarena. They're both very aggressive. They don't walk very much.

They're going to give you power and speed. I think there's a low floor for both of them. But, yeah. I do think a Roserina in his play discipline's a little better. A little bit, yeah. So he feels a little safer in that regard.

He's a little bit younger too, which also helps, I think. But yeah, very similar players. I think Cedric Mullins is in that. conversation to as just relatively low batting average but good you know power speed guys Taylor Ward goes for 13 looked like he was going to be a nice little value for a second

and then got pumped up a little bit but 13's fine for him there's some optimism within the industry I wrote him up in sleepers 1.0 yeah I took him out of my bus 2.0 okay I've got to throw a player out there I'll throw Zach Wheeler Well, I think is a pretty good value. All things considered this year, where the ADP is at. He's been experimenting with a new kind of slurve, slider, sweeper type pitch in spring training. And who isn't? Zach Wheeler.

Not like he needs it, but. No, I said who isn't. Oh, yeah. I guess so. And Zach Wheeler goes for 21. That's a good price. Goodbye. $1 less than Shane Bieber.

All right. Don't mind that. Scott, you don't have any, do you have any pitchers yet? I have Alcantra. Okay. Yep, that's right. A. E. E. Hiaz Juarez for two. Speaking of new pitches, a guy we talked about today on the emergency pod, Frank, Clark Schmidt,

thrown a cutter now that's kind of interesting because he's got a really, really good slider and a pretty good curveball. His fastballs are kind of. Did that just happen? Eh, Eugenio Suarez, for $2? After Matt Chapman, just a few picks after Matt Chapman went for 10? That sounds about it. I think so.

Yeah. It's a great buy on Ehuyahe-Henio Suarez. Yeah, Chris, to your point, Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake, he kind of emphasizes this cutter. So it could be a new weapon for Clark Schmidt. I know Severino started throwing it last year. Garrett Cole kind of mixed it in a little bit. So I don't think it could hurt.

I don't think it could hurt Clark Schmidt. He looked okay, likely to step into the rotation of Carlos Rodan. And I think he enters the certainly the 15. team, and I think even the 12 team, very, very, like, reserve round discussion if you're looking for a flyer pitcher early. Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if he's one of the last picks in the reserve rounds in this draft, but, you know, that's a 12-team Roto League. It's a little bit deeper roster.

Yeah. And a head-to-ed points league, probably not on Clark Schmidt. Kyle Swarber goes for $28. Scott, how are we feeling? I know that's one of your heart throbs. Yeah, I helped get under 88. I mean, to 28. I had him.

I bid on him at 27. But then I wasn't willing to go 29. I didn't really plan for him, but I have, I planned for Dalton Varsho, so I have some extra Dalton Varsho bucks I can spend and not sure yet how I want to spend them. So I'm just kind of in on everybody until they're spent. What is the exchange rate of Shrut bucks to Varshow bucks?

I've got nothing. No, nobody gets that one? I mean, I assume shrewbucks, that's from the office somewhere in the office reference. Yeah, no, I got you. Man, Bogart's for 14. That's a good one. Some of the, some of these short stops, Swanson went for 14. Those were good buys. $10 less than O'Neo Cruz.

I mean, I get it, guys. I like O'Neill Cruz too, but man. Yeah, Zander hit a home run in the World Baseball Classic yesterday. Good to see that. Love to see it. And Ryan Presley goes for, almost 15, now up to 16, $1 more than Felix Bautista, and $1 less than Josh Hater.

That sounds about right. Makes me think Hater was a pretty good buy, though. Yeah. So Diaz and Class A went for 22 and 23. Here, let's see where you are, Ed Scott. Ah, Jared Kalanick, thrown out for two. Yeah, I'm not going to go three on him. I knew someone would, though.

Wow, now all of a sudden, Scott doesn't like Jared Kellnick. What's going on, man? I like Kellnick for a dollar or two. But three. Now he's up to four. That's 50% more than $2. Exactly. Yeah.

$4 for Jared Kellnick. And Scott, did you see the news that Garrett Mitchell left today on Thursday when we're recording with a strain hamstring? One of your boys? When I saw it, they said it was precautionary, precautionary removal. has that changed or are they still sticking with that line? I'll pull it up for now

but that was the last that I saw as well. Well, here's one definitely directly pointed at Scott's heart. Yeah, Miguel Vargas, the bidding is currently open. Let you know where that winds up. And let's see, he's up to nine bucks. Yeah.

Scott, how much you have him? How much do you have budgeted for him? I did not budget for him. have him as a $6 player. So, um, my turn to nominate here. Miguel Vargas went for nine. Garrett Mitchell, the latest I'm seeing is precautionary.

Correct. On the hamstring. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. All right. Let's do this guy. Let's see how this goes. I did see a couple,

there are a couple injuries today. Harrison Bader has an oblique. and there's another pitcher who has an oblique injury. Well, I've got two, really. Yeah. But he has an oblique injury. Is there a Yankee player

that is healthy right now? Could someone, I mean, gosh, they are dropping like flies. I'm sure there is. Carlos Verdon, they've got Lutrovino and Tommy Canley starting the season on the IL. Now Bader with the oblique,

which if he's not ready for the start of the season, I don't think he will. Oswaldo Cabrera in center field or maybe they play judge in center and... Although Cabrera is... Cabrera's been missing a few days, right? No, that was Paraza.

Ah, okay. You're doing the thing again, Chris. I'm doing it again. This is a good non-larz Nupar. It'll be fun to see where he goes among this group. It's interesting that that survey I referred to who's your must-have player for this year? I thought Lars Neupar would be one of the top vote getters. He got...

We votes. So I don't know if he's just everybody's player. They want the second most or what the deal is. But he's a very trending player, at least among the fantasy analyst ranks. Of course, those were the only people answering the survey. Chris jumped in here at $11. Chris doesn't usually go for the trends. And I love Lars Neupar too, but now he's up to 12.

There's no way I can get in at that price. I mean, I've got him at Penn now. So like, it's, you know, 11 was fine. 12 is fine, I think. If you want him, that's, you know, what you're going to have to play. Even given some of the other prices we've seen, that that's perfectly reasonable. Taylor Ward went for 13. I have Ward ranked a decent bit higher than New Bar.

There is. Yeah, I do too. I mean, I move New Bar up a lot, but he's still $6 for me. Yeah. I know. Do you have my head of Castellanos, Chris? I don't think so now Andrew McCutcheon thrown out for two bucks

so some people trying to fill out the scrub side of their Stars and Scrubs strategy I love McCutcheon I'm not going to say a bad word about him I do want to get back to the Vargas thing me not bidding on him for nine or budgeting for him when you go Stars and Scrubs and notice some people are making fun of me

for my approach with that when you go Stars and Scrubs like one thing you have to be willing to accept is you're not going to get your sleepers. Because in salary cap drafts, you have to go the extra dollar for sleepers. And you went the extra dollar for the studs instead. So you need to be where you need to be really protective of your dollars or the low dollar guys. Like you can't go $4 for a $3 player.

You can't go $3 for a $2 player. You certainly can't go $9 for a $6 player, as would have been the case with Vargas and me. Dylan Seach just went for $20. one day after giving up 11 earned runs in less than one inning of work. I mean, that doesn't really matter, right? But he made fun of it on the podcast. We don't actually think that's the reason

not to bid on C's, right? No, but it wouldn't surprise me if he went for a $2 to $3 discount just because that's fresh in people's minds. Because he went for 20, and Chain Bieber went for 22, Ares went for 22. I think CIS probably should go for around that price too.

So I think maybe you got a slight, discount on Dylan C-Stair. Yeah, no, it's, it's a fine buy for C-Sys. I kind of wonder if I should have been in on it, frankly, since my number one is Alcantra, who's biggest shortcoming figures to be strikeouts. All right, Byron Buckson went for 14. Chris, asleep at the wheel? What's up, man?

No, 14's a fine price for him, but it's not such a steal that I feel bad about not getting him. Yeah, I've got him for 12. You've got him for 14, so that's just about right. Eloy Jimenez is the name that is out right now Is currently? Oh, don't worry, Chris, I'm here. I'm here, I'm waiting.

I'm letting things slow down a little bit. It's all part of the strategy. It's all part of the strategy, Chris. Yeah, I mean, I can't. You can't what? I can't let that go either. Oh, I mean, the price was ridiculous there for Jimenez. Yeah, well, we're doing it on purpose.

Letting people think that they won them. Now it's closer to, okay, so you're winning on 18. That's exactly what I have Jimenez for. So back off everybody is Frank's guy, not allowed to go over. That's my guy. And Chris, something I was doing there, and I do it on purpose is I let it get down to three, two, one. I know a lot of people get annoyed by that, but-

I get annoyed by that. Psychology, I'm with you. It is psychology. That is like something that I have to guard against because if someone does that to me, I will just automatically hit the button. And I know it's not good. Yeah. And so I have to try to like back off.

and stay centered. And yeah, no, it's, I have to be aware. It's interesting that you say that because my reasoning for doing that when I do it is I want them to think I'm about to back off and I'm really having a hard time going this extra dollar so that they don't then try to bump me up another dollar. So you're saying my psychology actually has the reverse effect. Makes me more likely to bid out of spite. Yeah.

Interesting. Chris Bryant goes for $11 and Marcus Semyon gets thrown out at 25. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to end part one of this podcast, but make sure to log into part two. So keep it rolling here on fantasy baseball today.