Fantasy Baseball Today - Mailbag! Luis Severino's Value, Dynasty League Settings & More (2/17 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: February 17, 2022

Before we get into your mailbag questions, what's the latest on the MLB lockout (1:00)? ... What is Luis Severino's Fantasy value (3:30)? ... How much does Joey Gallo's value change in an OBP league (6:55)? ... How can you consolidate talent in a keeper league (9:05)? ... What's the best way to set up a dynasty league (13:30)? ... What's Huascar Ynoa's value (18:20)? ... We've got some keeper questions (23:53). ... What does a league look like under Ron Shandler's BABS (27:40)? ... We wrap up with a Fantasy Justice question (31:18).  '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. I drive. Serafeas is magnificent. Got a fantasy question. Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. With fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam.

Welcome into yet another mailbag edition of Fantasy Baseball today. Let me get Scotty up on the screen here so everyone can see that beautiful mug. Today is Thursday, February 17th. I'm Frank Stample, of course, joined by Scottie White. And Scott, the MLB and the Players Association, are a meeting later today when people are listening to this. Apparently the players have a proposal ready. Now, I'm not going to ask you to place any blame, anything like that.

But we haven't talked about it in a while. How are you feeling? Has anything changed on your side? Do you still think we are getting a full 162 in here? I do. I do. I've been saying all along, it will always look bleak until there's a deal.

And so until it's too late for the season to start on time, I'm going to stick with the idea that the season will start on time. I think too late is probably like a couple weeks from now. So we still have, they still have time to figure this out. And hopefully the pace picks up here with whenever, you know, when the players bring this new proposal to the table, we'll see. There hasn't been a lot of movement.

on what each side is looking for so far. Yeah. When Rob Manfred spoke to the media last week, he mentioned that four weeks is a realistic timetable for when they strike a deal to when they could start the actual regular season. So, like you said, we've got a few more weeks here. By the end of February, I mean, that's really it, right?

That's pretty much it, yeah. Yeah. If they don't have a deal by then, than probably looking at a shortened season or the schedule being restructured in some way. I would guess short in season is more likely because it's a major. So it's a big ordeal restructuring the schedule.

Yeah, and I don't want to spend too much more time on this because a lot of people are upset about it enough and rightfully so. I mean, this is supposed to be an exciting time, pitchers and catchers. This is usually the time of year where we get excited about baseball and fantasy baseball and rightfully so.

But yeah, I mean, like, I'd be lying if I said it didn't suck, man. It's, you know, usually we're getting excited about about games starting up and seeing different lineups and prospects and pitchers returning and all those kind of fun stuff. So hopefully they figure something out sooner rather than later. As always, we thank all of you for your emails, Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. We actually have some Apple podcast review questions as well.

So thank you for those. We've reached the point of the offseason where we have actually too many questions. So I'm gonna try to answer as many of those on my free time as they possibly can. So whatever we don't get to today, once we get past the position previews on the podcast, we'll try to work in some more questions there.

But just know that your questions are being read and they've been acknowledged, but we're getting a lot of them. So we do appreciate all of your emails. Let's jump right in, Scottie, and we will start with those Apple Podcasts review questions. This one's from Dr. Teeth, dear lips, Zoot, Floyd, and Janice. I can't think of what that would be.

Sorry. Yeah, we are at a bit of a disadvantage here. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm not going to know any of these, but... Is that? Sometimes you can get it. Is that the Muppet band? That's what it looks like here.

Minus Animal? That is what it looks like. Yes. Yep, good stuff. Yes. Not, I mean... Yes. I don't know where I pulled that one out of somewhere in the recesses of my mind.

You could have given me a million guesses, God. I never. Never would have happened for me. A really true famous band, if people named the four members of it, I'd have no idea. The Muppet band, minus Animal, the most famous of them. I got that. Impressive. Impressive indeed.

Unless I am mistaken, I do not see Luis Severino ranked in our CBS Sports rankings. Why is that? And what is your opinion of him for this upcoming season? I have him as a cheapkeeper option, but I am unsure. So the first answer there is that Luis Severito is only relief pitcher eligible. on CBS Sports. So if you want to see where we have him ranked, probably more so for points leagues,

then you look at our relief pitcher rankings on the site. But as he makes five starts, he will gain starting pitcher eligibility, and then he will be worked back into our starting pitcher rankings. So if you're looking for him, that's the reason why. But Scottie, what are you expecting from Severino this upcoming season? He's my favorite of, well, I guess Justin Verlander's my favorite,

but taking Verlander out of it, He's my favorite of the Tommy John returnies. I tend to lump Severino together with Mike Clevenger and Noah Cindergarde. He was the best of those pitchers before he got heard. It's been the longest since we've seen him for a substantial length of time. We go back to 2018 since we've seen Luis Severino pitch anywhere close to a full season. And, you know, he was a clear top 10 type pitcher in fantasy. So provided he hasn't lost anything,

His slider was his best pitch. That's a pitch that puts a strain on the elbow. So, you know, hopefully it's still going to be in top form. But I don't think the cost is, I don't think the cost understates the risk or anything like that. I think he's a fine pick for where he's going on average. Actually, I think the ADP is a little high. He's got 154.5. So he's going around other pitchers that.

I mean, I think are actually pretty useful. Not saying that Severino... Chris Bassett, Sean Mania, Marcus Stroman. So he's going right around... Slightly high. Yeah. Slightly high.

I'd like to see him go, I think, just after that group. I agree. But he has more upside than that group. Yeah, he does. I mean, it comes down to workload what you're expecting there too. And if you look at the projections,

there's a wide range of ennings pitch. So from 122 on the low end to 157 on the high end. So just an idea of maybe what you can expect this season, you know, anywhere from, I don't know, 20 to 25 starts. Something like that for Severino. Of course, you know, he has to stay healthy in those starts. But I think if he does, I think the actual production will be pretty good for Luis Severino.

Next up, we have, this one's from Huggy Griff. 12 teams, 6x-by-6 Roto League with OBP and quality starts. You use one catcher, four outfielders, one utility bat. I can keep four players for the upcoming season. I'm pretty set on keeping catcher Will Smith in round 11. And Alex Kerloff in the 25th round. Which two of the following would you keep? Joey Gallo in the 12th.

Dylan Sees in the 14th. Will Smith the closer in the 14th. Sean Maniah in round 20. And John Means Business in round 23. Real quick on Gallo, it is an OB-Bi-Bee. P league, so keep that of mind. Yeah, that's a, that's, yeah, no, that makes all the difference. I'm glad you reminded me.

I think I go Gallo and 12 and season 14 here. I might give up Kirillov and go with Will Smith in round 14, the other Will Smith, the closer. Certainly if it was a 15 team league, I'd do that because the cost of closers being pushed up so much in that format. But even in 12 team league, 14 sounds like a pretty good discount for, a guy who's, you know, pretty safe as far as closers go. I'm not saying there's no way he loses his job, but he was exclusively the closer last year from beginning to end. You can't say that about many relievers.

I don't know that Kiroloff, given how few players are kept in this format, I don't know that he needs to be a top priority here, as much as I like the upside. Yeah, I think that's fair. It's definitely Dylan C's for one of them for me. I like Sean Mania more than anyone else in the podcast, so I'm pretty excited about him in round 20. So, yeah, like, maybe I throw Carol off back and take Joey Gallo.

The difference between him and an OBP and a batting average league is massive. Massive. One 99 batting average last year, clearly horrible. 351 OBP. Yeah, that's really good, yeah. So I think I would throw Kirillov back and I would go with Gallo, Cease, and Mania. But that's just me. If nothing else, we do agree on Dillen Seas.

This next one's from R-Tomp, 2-4-2. 10-team league. I have an issue where my team has a lot of valuable players, but I am having trouble moving them. For example, we have a four outfielder league. You start a left-fielder, a center-fielder, and a right-fielder, plus just one extra outfielder,

and three utility spots. I've always wanted to play in a league where you have to use a left, a center, and a right-fielder. I don't know why. You say that. It seems interesting to me. I don't think you'd like.

All right. His outfielders are Mookie Betts, Mike Trout, Cedric Mullins, Luis Robert, Nick Castellanos, Kyle Swobber,

Aaron Judge, and Jared Kelmick loaded in the outfield. How would you suggest I go about trading some of these players in a deal, two for one or two for two,

where I end up with a better overall player, what players should I target with that type of value? So this is a pretty open-ended question and typically these are pretty tough to answer on the spot,

admittedly. But Scott, maybe of this group in a 10-team league. I don't know if this is a keeper league. It might be. It sounds like he's keeping these players. Which two do you think can maybe

are the best to sell at their peak right now that can get you the most in return? Cedric Mullen stands out to me right away. Well, unless he's legitimately what he was last year. True. And then he's kind of a value, if that's the case.

So I don't know There's enough skepticism about Cedric Mullins I think that I don't know that that's automatically the answer Castellanos coming off a career season and I'm skeptical of his ability to perform at a more neutral park We don't know where he's signing

But that's the first one that comes to mind for me Hmm I'm not going to trade trout or bets In a 10 team league especially Mm-hmm I mean, Schwabber is coming off a pretty big year. I know you like him, Scott, but... I do, but it's a 10-team league.

And it's four outfielders. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just not sure he's going to be appreciated enough. That's tough. How do you... What do you pair with Castellanos to... Like, you... Because it being such a shallow league, like, you really need to get somebody's attention.

And I'm not sure Schwerber does it. Yeah, so... honestly, you probably want to give up Castellanos with either Cedric Mullins or one of Luis Robert or Aaron Judge. Like you got to throw some name value in there. But that's so high in.

And it's not clear, is it five by five league? He doesn't say. I mean, if it's a points league, it's easier to give up Mullins and Robert. But if it's a Categories league, we need the steals. Yeah. I mean, I just might enjoy.

Like, what about Castellano? No, I'll say it. What about Castellanos and Kellnick? It's a 10-team league. Do we really know what Kelnick's going to be? Are we that confident he's going to be a standout in a 10-team league eventually? We don't. But I would only do that, Scott, if there's people in the league that value him as, you know, as this big prospect.

Of course. It being a keeper league. Like, he's still a buzzy player in fantasy, even though it was not very good last year. So if it's Castiano and Kelnick for a true second round type bat, like a Raphael Devers or something like that, that's awesome. Yeah, I think that might be unrealistic. But, you know, if it's those two for like Jordan Alvarez, I think I'd go for that too.

Yeah, but then you have the same problem, right? Oh, you got to say it's an outfielder. Yeah, you got to think of an infielder. Austin Riley. I was trying to think of maybe someone that you're trying to get on the cheap, maybe someone coming off of a down year, maybe like an Aronola. What do you think about that?

Yeah. Okay. Sure. So try it. Try it out. You know, Cassiano and Kelnick, put those guys together. Look, if you really want to,

if someone values Cedric Mullins, like the way he's being drafted as a third round pick, and you can ship him off for that value with Castiano's. And I don't know, bring back a borderline first round player or an early second round player, then I would look into that as well. I think you're much more skeptical of Mollins than I am. Probably.

And, you know, part of it is the category need thing. Like, it's just power speed guys like that are just, they're just hard to find. This next one's from Hamilton Woodpeckers. Great name. Thinking about converting one of my leagues to a dynasty format, wondering if there is a standard format or at least a more common one since I've never been in one of these before. I mean, it really comes down to preference. Scott, obviously you have experience setting up a dynasty league, but obviously it comes down to First and foremost, you have to figure out, I mean, I guess you probably know already if your league is head to head points, head to categories or roto.

But from there, you have to figure out, I mean, do you want it to be a salary cap auction style? Do you want it to be just a snake draft where you can keep up to- Yeah. Obviously, there's all of that like you would for setting up a redraft league. But for Dynasty specifically, I think you have to decide how much of a role prospects are. going to play in this? Are they kept at a lower cost than established major leaguers or the same cost? Because that greatly changes the way they're valued in trades and such. Are players going to be kept at cost, even the major leaguers, at a cost, which would work better in like a salary

cap draft slash auction situation, then are they just going to be like there's a set number of keeper spots and that's how many players you keep? I prefer to elevate the value of minor leaguers prospects because that's more in line with real life, I feel like. So I make them free basically while the major leaguers are kept at a cost relative to where they were selected. I think that would be the ideal setup for me. And just everybody gets to keep as many players as they have roster spots. They can throw them back, obviously, if they don't think they're worth keeping.

But that's, that's, those are like without getting into. the nitty gritty of it. Those are kind of my broad preferences when looking in, when, when, when going into a dynasty league. Yeah. I would say the difference between keeper and dynasty, like a keeper league, maybe, you know, five, six, seven keepers. I think once you get into like double digit players that could be kept year over year, then we start to get deeper into the player pool. And that's where, you know, we start to talk about it from a dynasty perspective. So, you know, 12, keep 12 players, 15 players, as many as you want, as Scott mentioned. I think that's cool.

I think having a farm system, everyone can keep five or six prospects year over year. Obviously, you know, working prospects in some way, shape, or form in a dynasty league. I think that helps, again, makes the player pull very deep. So, yeah, between those two things, some kind of combination of keeping like 15 to 20 players and prospects involved. Sounds good to me. Let's move into some emails.

Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com is the email address if you want to send something in. This one's from Russ in Maine. No names to guess because this is serious. Oh. 16 team, 5-5-Roto, auction keeper league. Offensive categories. Batting average. Home runs.

RP? What's RP? I don't know. Batting average. Home runs RP. OPS stolen bases. I don't know. Runs plus?

Runs plus RBI. Oh, maybe. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe. Anyway, we keep six on a 26 player roster, and $22, Vlad Jr. is one of my keepers, also considering keeping $31 Matt Olson. I know, another first baseman and kind of pricey. Should I trade $31 Matt Olson for $14 Marcus Semyon? That is question number one. Yeah, I'm skeptical of Simeon, but I think you have to. They're being drafted at about the same spot.

Simian is less than half the cost. And he feels more of a need. I think you have to. Yeah. Even me, who is quite skeptical of Marcus Simeon, I would do that trade as well. Well, there's other options, actually. Let's feel these out.

Keep Olson and slot him at utility. We're probably not going to do that. Number three, or just put Olson back in the draft and stick with these six keepers. I could go with Class A over Matt Olson. So it would be Vlad for 22, Freddie Peralta for six, Brian Reynolds for four,

Julio Arias for 27, Kevin Gosman for 10, and Emmanuel Class A for five. Okay. It's not a bad option either. I still think, I still think I'd keep a $14 simeon over a $5 class A,

which is what this decision boils down to. That is close. Yeah, I guess there's also the thought, well, if you throw Olson back, you have a chance to win him back yourself, and if you're trading them, you clearly don't. But you have Vladimir Guerrero, so I'm not sure that would be a high priority anyway.

Yeah, I like it. I'm with you. I think I go with Semian for 14, but it is quite close with a manual class A for five bucks. That's a very good value. This one's from Brandon in British Columbia. Hey, Dante, Vlad, and Craig. Second Generation Blue Jays players. You say it, I believe you.

Love the pod. My question is in regard to a seven-year-running 12-team head-to-head points Keeper League with six keepers at the round drafted. 30 rounds, keepers lose half the value each season. Example. A 30th round pick becomes a 15th. The next, anything odd-numbered would become,

so go from 15 instead of being seven, it would be eight. So we also have a six-man farm, which a player can be kept on your Major League roster as a 30th rounder the next year as a franchise tag when he's no longer a qualified prospect. My team has missed the playoffs two years in a row, and I'm starting to come out of a rebuild. Current set of keepers.

Betts in the first. Vlad Guerrero in the 15th. Bo Bichette in the 16th. Jose Berrios in the 7th. Zach Wheeler in the 8th. Wascari Noah in the 30th. And Terek Skubel is his franchise tag. My question is two prongs.

Should I swap any of my keepers for Montas in the third? Bregman in the 8th. Soroka in the 15th. I guess... Hmm. I think you honestly I think you'd swap a Noah for

Bregman Bregman Yeah I just I think that's fair I don't see Noah as a long-term option for the Braves really

I think I think he gave them a nice boost last year but I just don't think he's good enough you know the arsenal was varied enough

for him to to hold off some of the other pitching prospects coming up like Kyle Muller or even like Tucker Davidson who got a World Series start when a Noah didn't it. So yeah, I just, I think it's, I think it's 50-50. He's even a useful fantasy contributor this year, much less a long-term

keeper for you. I will say the underlying numbers from last year, they love Wascari Noah. He did allow some hard contact, but just in terms of the peripherals, they were good. But you're right, the arsenal is not very deep. It's, fastball, it's a slider. It's a very good slider, but it's very Demelson Lament-ish. So keep that in mind with Wascari-Noah. The other option is I could also

potentially move Mookiee Betz and Frankie Montas for an eighth round Shane Bieber. And that would net me the first overall pick in the draft. Whoa. What? Yeah. So I guess instead of having to keep bets for

a first round pick, he would have the first overall pick. So bets and Montas for a cheap Shane Bieber. So Betts and Montas, where's Montas? Montas isn't one of his keepers? Well, he has him as a third round keeper. Oh, yeah. He's too expensive to keep. Okay. So Betts and Montas. It is a 12 team points league. So Bieber in the eighth is pretty good. No, I think you have to do that because you'll probably keep Bieber not just this year, but next year's a fourth rounder, maybe even a year after that is the second rounder, depending on how he bounces back. And then you get the best of who's not kept. Yeah, I think I do that deal. Which, yeah, everyone's a 12-team league, six are being kept. So

72 players, who's going to be the first overall pick? Obviously, it varies. I mean, there could be players that are too expensive to keep. Yeah, right. Some really good players. I think there's a good chance at least a second round caliber players available in the draft. And probably a couple first-round caliber players will be. Yeah, and you know what? Looking at the keepers too, you already have Vlad, who's a first round caliber hitter. You have Bichette, who in a points league is a second round caliber hitter. And now you're getting an ace to anchor your team with Zach Wheeler and Jose Barrios and Terrick Scoobble. Yeah, yeah. I'm with you. Let's make that swap. Get Shane Bieber first overall pick. And this is coming from someone who is kind of worried about Shane Bieber. I would still make that move.

We're going to take a quick break before we do that. Just a reminder, join our Fantasy Baseball today. If you haven't already, Facebook.com slash fantasy baseball today. Lots of interesting questions and discussions going on there. So if you want to get involved, if you have a keeper question, a trade question, something dynasty related, you want to talk about a prospect, you posted in the group, everyone gets involved, some good conversation there. Again,

Facebook.com slash fantasy baseball today when we return more questions here, fantasy baseball today. All right, so let's jump back in. This one's from Bill in Florida. Hi, Melvin, Justin, and Kate. Uptons. Uptons, correct. Just what you're looking

for. Just seeing what you Think 12 team, head to head points, can keep any four players three years in their draft slot. The locks for me. Cedric Mullen's in the 21st, Wander Franco in the 13th. I need two more. Ian Anderson, round 21, for one more year. Dalton Varsho, round 21 for two more years. Jazz Chisholm, round 21 for two more years.

Brandon Lau, round 15 for two more years? Gibson would be Kyle. I think, am I missing a Gibson, Scott? I think it's Kyle Gibson, right? I think so. Let's see. Yes, it would be Kyle Gibson. There's no other Gibson's when I search on ADP.

Kyle Gibson in round 21, Tyler O'Neill in round 21 for two more years, Julio Rodriguez in round 21 for two more years. Okay, so two of these. I think... Tyler O'Neill? It is at point. At that points, right?

My initial lean is Tyler O'Neill and Brandon Lowe, Scott. Yeah. I mean, Julio Rodriguez is tempting. Sure. Especially if you think he's going to be up for the majority of this year and you get him around 21 next year as well. But I think it's just, I think it's getting too cute. The value for O'Neill and Lowe is too great.

All right. So we're in agreement. Go with Cedricin-Mollins, Wanderfranco, Tyler O'Neill, and Brandon Low. This one's from Curtis. I play in a 12-team 10-by-10 category Keeper League. We keep seven players with no penalties. I'm trying to decide on my last keeper between Bregman and Robbie Ray. My keepers are Kyle Tucker, Ozzie Albies, Yardonne Alvarez, Brandon Woodruff,

and Shane Bieber and Edwin Diaz. Do I have a better chance of replacing my third baseman? Should I keep extra arms because pitching is so volatile? Or do you think Ray is done? We definitely don't think Ray is done. I don't know that he's going to get. I just want to say young. I don't know that he's going to get better,

but I think that the environment is better for him pitching. Yeah, I mean, there's some risk, obviously, but I still draft him. All right, Scott, so... Four or five rounds ahead of Bregman, so I think... Yeah, there's... He's keeping one, two, three, three hitters, two starters, and a closer. Would you rather make that last one a starter to give you three,

or a third basement to give you four hitters? You know what? Ten by ten category league? saves are watered down, right? So why even keeping Edwin Diaz? Just... It's fair. I mean, I'd be interested to know what the other categories are

if it's like K-per-9, obviously Diaz is great in that too. Yes, but it's still a limited number of innings compared to what the starters are giving you and a ratio stat like that. Yeah, I don't think you need to keep Diaz. I'd go... I'd go Ray over Bregman if it came to that,

but personally, I would... also keep Bregman and give up Dias. Yeah. I would go with Ray as well over Bregman. I still lean D.S. over Bregman, but it comes down to what those categories are. So Curtis,

I think more categories helps Bregman too. Yeah, because, I mean, presumably those would be, I don't know, we're just assuming, but it'd probably be something OBP related or maybe plate discipline related or strikeouts, and obviously that would favor Bregman.

It's close. Yeah. Robbie Ray for sure. I think I still lean with Diaz without knowing, but I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to go with Breggman. This one's from Nick in Charlottesville. I just joined a 4x4 head-to-head categories league that uses Ron Chandler's Babs format, played appearances, home runs,

steals and batting average for hitters, innings pitched, strikeouts, ERA, and saves plus holds for pitchers. What do you see as strengths and weaknesses of this format? So plate appearances, you want volume. So that will lend itself towards leadoff hitters, just hitters and good lineups in general. Home run, self-explanatory, steals.

Steels and plate appearances can kind of go together if you get leadoff hitters that can seal bases. Batting average is self-explanatory. Man, I mean, ending's pitch, Scott, in this climate, it's just, it's tough. I mean, maybe you put a little bit more emphasis on getting, you know, one or two work, horses early in your draft

just to make sure it helps you out with endings pitched? I kind of feel like base Steelers, like there's more, like I don't think this, well, just by virtue of it being four by four, I would be less inclined to take a, take the unintentionally unintentional approach to stolen bases than I'm taking.

But beyond that, you know, part of it's because the home run guys are more likely to help you in RBI and maybe even run scored than the steel guys are. Well, I don't even, those aren't even categories. Those aren't even categories, right? Right. So I feel like you have to, you know, you have to put more weight on steals. That's my initial takeaway.

And you put obviously, you could put a lot more emphasis on the volume pitchers, like a Marcus Stroman, who give you a lot of innings, and maybe hold you back and whip. Certainly a ground ball pitcher like that who has the potential to hurt you and whip more than ERA gets elevated because whip isn't a category. So those are probably the biggest things. I think it also helps those pitchers

that you typically target late in your drafts, Scott. So Adam Wainwright, Zach cranky, yeah. Aaron Savali, guys like that. Kyle Hendricks. Yeah. Kyle Hendricks had been a very reliable source of ERA before last year.

So don't write him off like everybody seems to be doing. All right. This next one's from Donnie, dear Tina. Louise and Gene. Hmm. This sounds like something music related. Chris, we need you.

Oh, no, it's not. They don't make jeans anymore, so this is, I mean, they make jeans like blue jeans, but guys named Gene. So this is an old music reference, if that's the case. So this is an animated television show. I don't watch it. My fiance watches it, and she has told me that it's very good. It's Bob's Burgers.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, Tina. Of course, Tina. Yeah. I haven't seen a lot of it, but I've seen enough of it that I should know Tina. I don't know which one it is, but one of them just has like a hilarious voice. Whenever she talks, it's Tina. It just cracks me up. 10 team 5 by 5 categories. Head to head keeper league.

10 team 5 by 5 categories. Head to head categories. Okay. Three keepers each move up one round each, each year. I just said each too many times. It's fine. Can be kept for three years. I have Vlad in the fourth, Kyle Tucker in the 14th.

Should my last keeper be Tyler O'Neill in the 15th, or Teosker Hernandez in the 9th? It should be... 10 teams, so you want the more impactful bat. And for me, that would be Teoscar Hernandez. Yeah, I agree. All right, easy enough. This last one's from Ross,

and he has a regulators question, but if you were with us for the podcast last year, you know that I have replaced regulators with fantasy justice, mostly due to copyright reasons because we can't play the regulators music anymore. I was a big fan of it myself

back when I was just a mere listener of this podcast as well. But if you ever have a question about something that's going on in your league, that's not necessarily player related or keeper related, if you got a fishy commissioner

or something's going down with trades or vetoes or anything like that, then you can send it in, put fantasy justice, fantasy justice, in the subject line of the email and I'll be sure to get to it.

Either on the podcast or I'll just answer you myself. But fantasy justice is back this season. Our league is having a heated debate on a proposed off-season rule that I would love to hear your opinion on. We play in an auction style, salary cap draft style, Keeper League, where players kept increases their value by $5 for the following year. Players undrafted start at $1. The proposed rule is,

that any player not drafted, waiver pickups, that are kept start at $15 versus the current $6. Half the league is saying this will reduce the superstar pickups midseason to be kept for nickels on a dollar for years to come, reduce end-of-season prospect pickups, and create an even playing field instead of incentivizing owners who rush to the computer during call-ups. The other half of the league is saying that all owners have the same opportunity to pick up players and there is nothing unfair about the current setup. Owners should be rewarded for the, quote, effort in their research and prompt selections.

Some recent examples. Tatis, Iloi Jimenez, and Juan Soto are currently being kept for $11, and Corbyn burns for $6. All right, Scotty. So, players undrafted start at $1. Mm-hmm. Okay.

The proposed rules that any player not drafted, waiver pickups, that are kept start at $15. Right. So because the starting salary of a waiver wire pickup is $1, the first year they're kept for $6. So basically they're saying the starting salary of a waiver wire pickup and this new proposal would be $10

so that the first year they're kept to $15. Like that's a big difference. It is. $9 difference. I had always wondered why someone, why a league might make the keeper cost of a free agent pickup a little bit higher than a late round pick. And it's apparently to reward the foresight for knowing to take a guy in the late rounds

as opposed to just, you know, kind of kind of just rolling with the tide by picking him up off the waiver wire and not really having any insight over anyone else. You just happen to get to the waiver wire first. So that's the justification and he kind of lays it out here. But a $9 difference for how much they're kept is, you know, considering that first year at $6, that's already a pretty sizable sum for a guy who was just picked up off the waiver. I don't know. I don't really see the need for a change. Maybe if you are going to change it, make it $5 starting salary so that the first year they're being kept is $10 instead of $6.

It's just such a massive jump. So I used to play in a very similar league to this. It was head-to-head points. It was salary cap style, auction style, just like this. And we always set it up where from the beginning the rules were that waiver wire pickups would be $15 the following year. So, I mean, we were already used to that because that's what we played with. But if we started the league at $1 and then tried to increase it later on to $15, that's just a massive difference. Right.

Right, and there's kind of, like for the non-contenders with the way it's currently set up, they can kind of scout out players for next year that maybe aren't helpful to the contenders and kind of they have an objective, which is nice, but if you raise the keeper cost of those free agent pickups, they lose that objective. Yeah, I see more downsides to this and upsides. I mean, if you want to make it, if you want to even the playing field on the waiver, wire, like institute weekly waivers. I don't know why so many people have a problem with this, but if everybody knows the time

waiver wire runs Sunday night traditionally is what it is. And they have all week, they have, they can catch up, you know, it's not just first come first serve. It's not even the night something happens. You have to be on the ball and get to the computer that night. It's, you have all week to catch up on, on, on, on who deserves to be picked. up and then particularly if it's a fab system you can people can outbid each other for them so there is some like a strategy element to it but even if there isn't even you just want to go straight

waiver wire that um that levels the playing field and I think gets rid of one of the issues you're you're trying to get rid of with this this salary adjustment where it's just because I mean I agree with the people who complain about that fantasy baseball is not your job you know You know, like you can't, if you want it to be a rewarding experience for everybody, if you want everybody to keep everybody invested, you have to make it. You have to make it so they can fit it into their lives. So I don't like free for alls. I don't like even nightly waivers if you can avoid it. I think weekly waivers is optimal for that.

And, you know, yeah, that way it's not just, I have nothing to do in my life, so I'm going to dominate my fantasy baseball league, you know? Yeah, no, I think that that's a really good point. I think if you want to stick with the format that you have now, just meet in the middle. It seems to be the fairest. You know, if half the league is on one side, half the league is on the other, make it so that a player that's picked up is $5,

and then the following year they're kept for $10. Feels like that makes the most sense to me. But if you want to go the route that Scott mentioned there, that's called a fab system. So instead of just a free-for-all, where you could just go add anybody anytime you want, one time per week, anybody gets to blindly bid on free agents

and you have a set number of money that you spend on these free agents throughout the course of the season. It could be $100, it could be $1,000, whatever you want. And say the first week of the season, a prospect is called up. He's a free agent. And at the end of that week, you want to spend $7 out of your $100 budget.

If you're the highest bidder, it's a blind bidding process, then you win that player. And I think typically in this format, that would become that play. salary. So then, you know, they'd be kept the next year for $12. But that's just for this specific example. So keep all those things in mind, but those are different options for you here, Ross. And personally, I feel that fantasy justice was served. We're going to wrap there. For Scott, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back

again tomorrow. Bye-bye.