Fantasy Baseball Today - Mailbag! New Rules in Spring Training, Daily Lineup Strategy & More (3/4 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 4, 2023

What do we think of the pitch clock so far in spring training? How much have the new rules affected scoring, batting average and stolen base attempts so far far? We spend the rest of the podcast answering your latest Fantasy Baseball mailbag questions. Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Welcome in to another mailbag edition of Fantasy Baseball today. Frank Sample joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. And today on the show, got some data.

Early returns on the new rules in spring training. and how they're affecting things thus far. And of course, we'll get to your Melbaid questions, Apple Podcast Review, and some emails later on in the show. Let's start off with these early returns, what we've noticed on these new rules. And before we get into the actual data, and so I wanted to ask you guys how you feel about the pitch clock,

I feel like we haven't actually talked about it yet. There's been lots of takes on Twitter and in the baseball world. Scott will start with you. As of March 1st, the average game time in spring training was two hours and 39 minutes. So that's part of the goal that they want to achieve. But how do you feel as a fan watching the game with the pitch clock? So I've only tuned into one spring game so far,

but I did explicitly for that purpose. I wanted to see what it felt like to experience the pitch clock. And my gosh, it's... I had heard this from people who watched a lot of minor league games last year that you don't even realize how much you're going. to appreciate the pitch clock until you see it in action and that's exactly the way I felt about it the pace it was it was almost like video game speed you know um and just like you've seen a lot of these side-by-side comparisons on Twitter of uh there was one where a pitcher and this

spring got through a whole inning in the time it took a pitcher last year to throw one pitch yeah you know, and it's just the amount of dead time that becomes live time is, it's really the sort of thing. Like, if you haven't seen a spring game yet, you need to because it's going to change the experience of watching a baseball game on TV dramatically. And I think we're going to look back on this in 20 years and be like, this was the thing that saved baseball. Like, that's, that's how big of a change.

I think it is. Chris, no surprise. The baseball purists are up in arms about the pitch clock. And which is so silly. Because the thing that I keep going back to is this is what baseball was for such a long time. Like this morning, I was looking back.

I went and watched like, there's a, a 1965 world series game that Sandy Kofax started. And that's, that's the way. I searched for that just because like, I know the purist left Sandy Kofax. They think he's like the best.

He's really good, not to take anything away from him. But like you watch it and it's like, it's like this is like 1965 Sandy Kofax. Like his arm is already destroyed. He's got one year left. He's laboring. And it's like 15 to 17 seconds between when he gets the ball back and when he throws, which is what we're aiming for here. I watched a 97 World Series game.

Same thing. Levon Hernandez pitching game one in the 97 World Series. He gets the ball eight seconds. between when he gets the ball back and when he throws. This is what baseball was. So like the purists are just being reactionary. I feel like this isn't actually like a like a principled stand against what baseball used to be. It's just they don't like a new thing.

But like this is like aesthetically as long as the pitch clock is not in your view, which it won't be in the actual games. It isn't spring training, but that's just how the spring training thing works. it's going to look like baseball looked for a hundred years before. And so my only thing is, as long as it doesn't lead to more injuries, I have no problem with it.

I can see some situations where, like, those high intensity postseason moments where, like the pitcher staring down the hitter, like I could see losing some kind of drama in those moments, but who cares, right? And it's one of those things people always do,

like people, just like they did with the DH, they're like, it takes away the story. strategy and it's like no it introduces different strategy like batters have to be in the box quicker like it it's not taking away strategy it's a different version of it and i just again as long as there's no increase in injuries as a result of this and the minor league data suggests that there won't be or at least not a noticeable one i have no problem with it and i can't imagine anybody

actually disliking this i think the principle that they're railing against is just the idea that baseball was always the sport that didn't have a timer compared to football, basketball, basically every other. And so that, I understand why that would upset the purest sensibilities,

but what I've noticed, I mean, who are the most high-profile baseball purists out there? They're crusty old broadcasters, right? And what I've noticed, I've said I've only tuned in for one spring game. I've caught clips of others. And I've noticed that they're all, like, while they may have disagreed with the idea and principle, when they actually experience what the pitch clock is doing to the experience

of watching a game, they all seem pretty happy with it. I mean, it's the sort of thing where it's worse in your imagination, or maybe you don't appreciate the upsides of it in your imagination as much as you do once you, you know, once it's reaction. I mean, hey, look, if I'm getting paid the same amount of money to work less, I'm going to be happy about it too. Look, I can't speak for purists, but I would imagine it's not the aesthetic that they're worried about. It's clips like the one that Jeff Passen tweeted out last week where it's bases loaded. There's two outs. The game is on the line and it ends in a tie because it's spring training. But the inning ends because the batter wasn't in the boxing time.

Like something like that. That's going to get people up in arms. Yeah. Like, that's why they're introducing it in spring training to get everybody used to it. Well, like, the player in the moment is going to understand the stakes of that, and he's not going to goof around with it. And there was, like, there was a college game that had a similar situation. It was like, bottom of the ninth, two outs, bases loaded, teams down six three, three, three two count. And the guy doesn't step into the box quickly enough. It's a strikeout game ends.

Like, that's a stupid way to end the game. I agree. Like, as a fan of sports, like, that's a. dumb, but also just get in the box. Like, especially for the hitters, just get in the box. What, like, what are you doing? Like, that, I have zero sympathy for a hitter who gets a strike in this situation. Because you're not the one who has to do anything.

Like, I can understand, like a pitcher, like, man, I need a couple extra seconds to like, like, that was, that was a tough pitch. I feel a little weird. Like, I can see that. A batter, just step in the box, man. Like, that's. Well, in the specific instance, I think he was in the box. He just wasn't looking at the. pitcher.

If I'm remembering it right, I actually saw it live. And, you know, that seems a little more tic-y-tack, but it's the sort of thing, like, if it's a problem, they'll adjust it. Right. I'm sure there will be a little more leeway. Like, this is one of those things. Like, we always see this in football. Yep.

In preseason where, like, there's a point of emphasis. And we're like, oh, man, they're calling so many pen. And it's like, it's a point of emphasis in the preseason to get everybody. used to it. Players will adjust. The umps will adjust. It'll probably be like the play clock in the NFL where it's like, oh, it was on zero for half a second. It's like

they're going to give them that half second on zero in a big moment, I'm sure. Like, we're not going to see Game 7 of the World Series decided by a called strike. I hope not. Sure, hope not. Let's talk about offense and the results that we've seen so far there. The shift affecting

scoring and batting average, according to an article from ESPN, that runs and batting average were both up through the first wave of games compared to spring training a year ago. Players hit 272 through February 28th with an average of 11.9 runs scored per game. That's obviously total.

That's up from a batting average of 259 and 10.6 runs through the same period in 2022. So it's a very small sample size. I think we can update these numbers as we get further into spring training, but the early returns, batting average way up, 13 points and run scoring is up as well. Steels.

Jason Collette put out a fantastic thread on Twitter, and his final tweet showed that if this spring training stolen base attempt rate carries into the regular season, we will see a 25% increase in stolen base attempts this year, which is something we've talked about all off season. So we were pretty much bracing for this stolen base blowup. That would actually be lower than the increase. rate from the

from the minor leagues last year I believe I think the the increase was more like 50% if I'm remembering correctly from the minors I know they said what MLB's line was was that it would return if there was a corresponding increase in the majors it would return us to the standards standards for stolen bases that we haven't seen since their early 2000s yeah or in 2012 not that we haven't seen since the early 2000s because actually the early 2010s were even higher, but it would return us to what we saw in the early 2000s. So early, so using the year 2000, there were 2,924 stolen bases, 2,900 stolen bases in the year 2000.

1.25 times last year's steals total brings it to 3,107 stolen bases. So it would actually be close to 200 more steals than in the year 2000. So I think that's, yeah, that's kind of what we were looking at and hoping for. And I want to read the T-Leaves on specific players that are making a note of this and they want to steal more. I know Tommy Edmund was the name that we brought up right during the mock draft yesterday. And I saw an article from Jason Stark. The Braves say they want to go 40-40, like multiple hitters they think could go 40-40. You know, the 40 home run part.

A little loft. Yeah. I'm not sure who the other is. Yeah, like Michael Harris has talent, but I don't know, 40, 40. But the thing is, clearly they're putting an emphasis on they think they can run more. Michael Harris, and it wouldn't surprise me if Ozzy Albies or even Vaughn Grissom, these guys are athletic enough. So really want to pay attention to which players are saying that they want to run more. Chris, go ahead.

I know you had something you want to say. Yeah, and, you know, this is another one just from an aesthetic or strategy standpoint. There's also been a lot of talk like Wilson Contreras, I think, has led baseball since he got to the majors in, pickoff attempts from the catcher. And like, that's something that I think Sean Murphy talked about wanting to do more of. And that might be a way that teams try to get around this is try to, you know,

use the catcher as a way to limit the running game more. So like, it's another thing where this wasn't really matter as much for fantasy, but like it just increases or redistributes the, the onus on the different players around the field and then changes the way the strategy works. But it's not necessarily. removing strategy, if anything, this kind of limitation increases the strategy because now you have to

think about when you're going to step off and when you're going to try to pick off. So I'm pretty much a fan of all the rules. I think it's all positive. It's a really exciting time in baseball, I think. I know there are going to be frustrations as we work to adjust in fantasy in particular, our expectations for certain baselines and the scarcities that exist in the game is going to change. and we're going to have to adjust on the fly. But I think the product is in every way going to improve. I agree wholeheartedly. I love the changes that they're making.

But from a fantasy perspective, I mean, my head is just spinning, trying to figure out what, like, how can we actually project this? And I think we don't really know. Like, we're seeing improvements already. But I think we're going to have to adjust on the fly, which you were just saying, Scott. And that's the thing. It's from a fantasy perspective,

it just increases the uncertainty. And there's already a relatively high baseline of level of uncertainty in fantasy baseball relative to other sports in particular, but also the modern era of baseball has created and a higher level of baseline uncertainty with not just rule changes, but the changes in the offensive environment with the baseball. And this year we've got Toronto and who's the other team changing their park dimensions? DeT Tigers, Detroit.

Tigers. So like, uncertainty is, it's not necessarily a bad thing because it could create a more fun game. It's just uncertainty is bad for fantasy because it makes it harder to predict. And so,

you know, next year we'll have a better idea of what to expect from, you know, these rule changes and how it'll impact and what types of players will be impacted and we'll know a little more. But right now we're, we're heading into 2022 or 2022, three inches,

uh, with uncertainty about what the environment is going to look like at it on a macro level and then a few teams there's a micro level. And so it's, uh, it's interesting times. It's a little frustrating as a fantasy analyst. It would be nice if next year we could go into the season saying,

hey, this is the type of game we are going to be playing because that's, you're playing against your opponents, but you're also playing against, the game. And so it's, it's an interesting situation to be in as fantasy players

and fantasy analysts for sure. Wouldn't that be something, Chris? Don't hold your breath. That's all I've got to say. Let's get into your mailback questions. Thank you all so much for all of the questions. They are flooding in.

We have so many of them coming in. I just have a few requests. If you're leaving an Apple podcast review question, please try and keep its strategy or some kind of player focused because we've got a lot of keeper questions and moving forward, we're going to try and get away from keeper questions on the mailbag, but you could send the keeper questions to the email address,

Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com, and I'll try and answer as many of those individually as I possibly can. But again, moving forward on this podcast, we want to focus on specific strategy or maybe certain players, things like that from a fantasy baseball perspective. Let's get into your email questions. This first one is from Wes in a head-to-head five-by-five daily category snake draft. Quality starts and OBP instead of average and whip. Okay, that's interesting. 10 team, three-person keeper league.

I would like to know what is your draft strategy for a daily lineup league? Should you use any bench spots for hitters or should it be reserved for exclusively pitchers to ensure volume in that space? Also, how does value change with someone like Shane Bieber be more valuable than Francisco Lindor? I don't know. So, in the specific instance of what you? you're talking about here with the change from quality start from whip to quality start especially you know my typical advice for a daily lineups league for pitching would be you want a lot of pitchers but also it's easier to get away with just having more middle relief and then set up men not so in

this instance because now you've got four counting stats uh in the pitcher categories instead of three and only one of those counting stats benefits relievers so there's not really much reason to have middle relievers and set up men on your bench in this instance. This is one where it probably does make more sense to load up on streaming starting pitchers. And the thing is the problem with loading up on streaming starting pitchers typically is you run the risk of wrecking two different ratio stats with bad starts. Well, here it's just ERA. So, like, loading up on even bad starting pitchers, their chances of getting a quality start are pretty low. But now all of a sudden, this heavily favor starting pitchers because they're the only ones who are getting quality starts.

And it heavily favors. They're not the only ones getting wins, but most wins are going to come from starting pitchers. So I think it does change the balance in your typical daily league. I think the Marmol strategy is a perfectly viable option. In this one, I don't think that's the case. And I think it's more likely to even punt saves in a format like this, where quality starts as a category and wins. You're much more likely to get those from starters.

I guess. Chris was saying, you know, I think the best way to put it is bad starting pitchers will hurt you less. You still obviously don't want bad starting pitchers. But because quality starts and wins are in there, I guess, both quality start and wins. Gosh, I mean, I do wonder if he meant. Yeah. Like, get load up on innings eaters. Guys who you know are going to go deep into games,

which are generally higher ranked and head-to-head points league. So maybe look at those rankings for starting pitchers. The Mount Rushmore, Scott. I mean, if we're talking about Miles Michaelis and Merrill Kelly and Tyler Anderson and Martin Perez, I mean, those are, those are the endings eater types right there. The problem with Martin Perez's whip and whip doesn't matter. And even Jose Burrios, I think it's someone who makes a lot of sense in that format as well.

Also from a daily lineup perspective, I've heard some form of this question before as well. Picking up hitters that have certain splits, like, you know, lefties that only play against right-handed pitchers. Hey, you can throw Jack Peterson in there whenever he's facing a righty. And you just leave them on your bench whenever they're facing a lefty. Or streaming Rockies hitters whenever they're at home and then just benching them whenever on the there on the road is that something you guys would pay attention to i mean you could do it some but you only have so many bench spots and you wouldn't want a lineup full of splits guys yeah and like there aren't that many rockies players worth doing that with anyway you know like we

potentially just lost brenna rogers for the season so there's one yeah more who is uh you know like how many guys would you even want to play that game with with the rockey's Not many. And the ones that you're drafting to be in your lineup, they're probably not ever leaving, right? Like guys like Chris Bryant or some like Charlie Blackman. Maybe becomes more valuable in that. But again, like Scott said, you probably want to. You only have so many bench spots and you probably want to use them for pitchers in this instance. All right. This next question is from Dan. Dear Beavis, Butthead and Stewart. I'm going to assume Stewart is someone from Beavis and Butthead. It's probably a safe assumption. Didn't Beavis and Butthead make a comeback? Didn't it make a comeback recently? Yes. Yes. What's that streaming service of ours?

Paramount Plus? Paramount Plus. You're doing a great job, Scott. I was trying to be company man, but I know King of the Hill much better than Beavis and Butthead, so I don't know who Stewart is. Fair enough. Last season, you guys were high on the following players who didn't quite break out. Who are you still buying slash not buying from this list? Why or why not?

So Brendan Rogers, not looking too good right now at the injury. Other names here, Patrick Sandoval, Joe Adele, Jared Kelnick, Riley Green, Trevor Rogers, Alec Boe, and Hazu Sanchez. I'm still pretty high on a handful of these guys. I think Patrick Sandoval still has a lot of really interesting tools. Obviously, you know, he didn't have quite the breakout we hoped for. I read an interesting note about him this spring. Well, let's hear it.

lost the feel for his change-up during a stretch last year, which forced him to rely on a slider more and develop it, so that it became a pretty good swing and miss pitch. His swinging strike rate was still great. It just wasn't as good as 2021. But the change-up has looked good this spring, and he says he wants to throw it more than last year. I mean, really, just like, let's just be slider change-up for Patrick's Hannibal.

Throw the fastball. Like, he's one of those guys who I wonder, like, I typically think most pitchers should throw their forcing fastball more than their sinker. You don't usually get much better results on balls and play with the sinker. So you'd rather just chase the whiffs. In his case, his forcing fastball so bad that I kind of think he should just be like a sinker changeup slider guy. And the sinker, he should throw like 30% of the time. Okay.

Yeah, I was going to say, like, change up's only good because you throw a fastball. Yeah. So. I mean, in his case, like, he's already only throwing his fastball. basketball is like 36% of the time total anyway. So it's not asking too much. I do think like the slider and change up both look really, really good last season.

He got really good results on the slider. So I still think there's a lot to like about Patrick Sandoval. So I'm still in on him as a, you know, kind of mid to late round guy. Adele, I just, I think Joe Adele needs to change the scenery. I don't know if they're ever going to trade him, but he's someone who probably just needs to play every day.

he seems to be in his head as a fielder especially, which makes it hard for him to get in the field. So I don't know about him. I would like to see it, though. But Riley Green, I'm still definitely in on. He's someone I'm drafting in pretty much every league. I have him way ahead of consensus. So I can still take him in like the 12th round and get him a lot.

Rogers, we all like quite a bit. Yep. My speakers. Boom, not as much, but it's a profile that I like to target because he hits the ball hard. He's got pretty good plate discipline. He just needs to elevate it more. So, yeah, I still think there's some,

and I actually did like Brendan Rogers a lot more. I like Brendan Rogers quite a bit until this shoulder issue, unfortunately. So Kellnick has hit three home runs this spring. His exit velocity readings have been ridiculous. The most recent was off the left-hander and hit the opposite way, which it takes a special amount of power to hit a home run the opposite way, now that the juice ball's gone. He's had big springs before.

Not sure how many breaking balls he's seeing right now, and that's been his biggest problem. But nobody wants Jared Kelnick, and I don't know, maybe if he keeps performing this spring, it'll change. But his ADP's outside the top 300. Everybody's just out on him. And he's 23 years old.

He was arguably the top prospect in baseball two years ago. If he was going in the middle rounds, get it like I don't know that I want to try that again but when he's basically free I don't understand the downside and I've gotten so much grief on Twitter for expressing any amount of optimism for Jared Kalmaid and it's like you can't if you're if the investment is so little what is the downside to drafting him there's no downside just take him and see how it goes if he's batting, you know, 150 at the end of April,

okay, move on. Like we talked about yesterday, most of the guys you're drafting in that range, you're going to be dropping. Or, I mean, I mean, yeah,

I know. If it's like 25th round, most of the guys you're drafting there are going to be dropped anyway. So take guys with upside. And if Jared Kalenick doesn't work out, you'll pick up someone on waivers who can at least be a replacement level player.

Like, even now, the comments that are showing up in the live stream, they're like, I'm not saying, saying Kelnick is good. I'm just saying he's free and we still don't know what he could be. Yeah. Last name that we haven't mentioned here is Hesu Sanchez. I don't have much faith in Hesu Sanchez,

but he's kind of fallen into that Willie Calhoun bucket for me where I don't have confidence, but I'll always love him and I'll always be rooting for him. So I hope it works out. And he's still young enough where I guess it could, but we haven't really seen much. Let's take our first break and we'll get some more questions here on fantasy baseball today. Welcome back into fantasy baseball today, answering your email questions. This one's from Spencer. Hi, Marco, Donnie and Naifi? Nefi? Nefi.

Nefei Perez. Yeah, that would be my, yeah. That's the only Naifie I know, former Rocky's shortstop. Donnie and Marco. Marco Scudero. That was the thought I had, yeah. But I don't know what the connection is. They're infielders.

Donnie Darko. No, I don't know who Donnie is. Yeah, I've got nothing. I don't know. Donnie Murphy. After reading the Jason Stark article in The Athletic Detailing MLB's re-cracked down on the sticky stuff plan for 20203 Yet another factor to worry about. I am having a frank-esque panic attack about random slash known pitchers being affected.

Could you guys go over the pitchers who were affected the most in the silky, smooth, and not sticky summer of 2021? I remember Darvish and Garrick Cole. Tyler Glass now destroying his arm, but were there more? So this is a tough question because correlation does not equal causation. And just because someone had a bad stretch in the middle of the 2021 season doesn't necessarily mean that it was because of sticky stuff. So I tend to not put too much weight on this one on an individual pitcher basis. Like, yeah, it's possible.

Garrett Cole will be affected or you Darvish. but I tend to think they'll figure it out just like they did. You know, like, no. How did they figure it out? But like Garrick Cole, even in the 2021 season, did get better as that summer went on. A lot of them did. Was it finding new ways around the rule? Was it MLB being laxer?

Or was it just like it took some time to get used to? I don't know the answer to that. I know there is an answer. I just don't think it's a knowable. answer. I think it'll impact big strikeout guys like high-end types more. It'll help create less of a gap between them and everybody else. If there is an impact, that's what I think it'll be. But picking out individual pitchers, what I will say is James Karenchak. It seemed like he was totally ruined without it, and then suddenly he was fixed again last year. But he's not obviously a high stature fantasy pitcher. to begin with. And there were still a lot of videos last year. I remember of him either constantly touching his hair

or they looked like maybe there was Vaseline on the back of his pants or something like that that he kept going to between pitches. So it feels like they moved away from cracking down on it last year. But we'll see. Just another factor in fantasy baseball. They checked the hand, I think, the same inning every time or something like that.

Yeah. But they weren't really looking. Clearly ways to exploit the check. Yes. This one's from Greg, dear Tommy, Jason, and Billy. Those are very common names. That's a tough one. I have a very strong guess.

I'm pretty sure these are Power Rangers. They were all Power Rangers, yes. Blue Ranger, Red Ranger, Green Ranger. Makes sense, right? Later, the White Ranger was Tommy. I know why I know this much about Power Rangers. Scott, it's all right by me. I was a huge Power Ranger fan growing up.

I think that's probably the only reason why I know this. Have you guys ever done a league with left field, center field, and right field designations, rather than the general outfield designations? Our Points League is considering doing it this year as a way to make it a little deeper. Not like Outfield isn't bad enough, huh? Since we currently have the standard three outfield spots. What are your general thoughts on this type of league and then ask if there's any players that stand out? I say this every offseason.

I've always wanted to play in a league like this. I've never done it. I think it's very interesting. I mean, there's some outfielers that bounce around between different outfield spots. So it's like, how do you designate? But maybe we should make... Same way you designate eligibility anywhere else.

Maybe we should make the Four of the People League, left field, center field, right field. My guess is left field would be the weakest. But I'm not actually confident in that. It shouldn't be because it is the one of the two easiest positions to play. So you'd think they'd hide bats out there. But yeah, it has kind of become weak.

Maybe that's going to change now that there's more of a premium on defense again and more of a premium on power again. But as things currently stand, I think right field is absolutely the strongest, followed by center field and then left. But yeah, I mean, it's going to – I think the scarcities that are being introduced, especially given the current state of the outfield is not going to be worth it.

Last year, left field collectively had the highest OPS of the three outfield positions. Center field had the lowest, but there were a lot more stolen bases at center field. Right field had more home runs, so I don't know. That makes sense.

Off the top of my head, like judge plays right field. Obviously, they get a huge bonus there. Center field, a lot of the times on bad teams, we'll just see a good defender out there who can't really do anything offensively. And then in left field, like Scott was just saying, you might hide someone there, but they're a good bat. So you just want to find a way to get their bat in the lineup.

So just talking it through, it makes sense. Unrelated, but kind of related. Third base had the second highest collective OPS last season. Maybe collective OPS isn't the best way to measure this. I just find that interesting. 725 OPS for left field and third base. First base was 746. DH 710, I think that's stupid.

I think teams are misusing their D.H spot, but hey, that's been a long-running trend. DH used to be by far the best position in terms of collective OPS. It no longer is, and that's a change. I think with the introduction of the D.H. in the National League, yes, it created more jobs, but it also put a lot of worse hitters into those jobs. So that's why we've kind of seen it dragged down a little bit. This one's from Peter. One of my secret sleepers that I haven't heard, I hope your league mates are not listening to this.

Anyone talk about is Trey Mancini. If you take a look at his expected home run total at Wrigley Field for last year, it was 37. How accurate do you expect the statistic to be? I hope you say it's accurate because I've been grabbing him all over the place. So I think there may be a mistake here. Uh-oh. Yeah. That's Cincinnati.

I didn't fact-check this. Yeah. His expected home runs in Cincinnati were 37. Expected home runs in Chicago 21. Oh, really? That changes things. Because I've noticed that for the Cubs, expected home run stats for most players is pretty high.

And I thought, you know, just looking at the overall park factors for Wrigley Field. You know, Wrigley Field is such an oddity that because of how much influence the wind has and what direction it's blowing on what particular day. And it can be a huge home run park at times, but it can be a stifling home run park at times too. And so I wonder if the inputs account for all of that. I don't really know what the inputs are, so I can't say for sure. But I think maybe the effect could be exaggerated for some players,

though as you're pointing out, not specifically, Mancini. Mancini had a great X home run number going to Houston last year, and it didn't pan out. I just, I don't know. I don't know that it's there for him anymore. I'm not ruling it out, but in the same range, there are a lot more players. There are a lot of other players I can get more excited about, especially since he's a liability defensively, and at some point Matt Mervis is going to be put in the mix.

So I don't know how much job security he's going to have either. Yeah, he's more of a 15-teamer for me. I don't really reach a point in 12-team leagues where I think about him, but I could see snagging him as a corner infielder or utility option in a 15-team league, sure. It's pretty clear to me that 2019 was the outlier for Tray Mancini with a juice ball when he hit 35 home runs. And obviously, for a lot of players.

He's dealt with a lot since then, obviously with a cancer diagnosis and then making it back into baseball. So it's awesome to see that. But last year he did, he doesn't impact the ball as hard as other players. And he kind of sold out for fly balls last year. He changed his launch angle. And it led to a lower bat,

but then a lower batting average. So it seems like this is kind of the player he is, like 250-ish, 15 to 20 home runs. I guess there's still a chance he can outperform that, but I probably wouldn't put much stock into it. Sorry, Peter. Let's promote one thing before we get to your Apple podcast review questions. The CBS Sports Fantasy Baseball Commissioner product

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We had a Roto mock draft just the other day, which we did live, and worked out seamlessly. So yeah, just another reason to sign up for the commissioner product. You could set up custom rules, roto, head to add points or categories,

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today. Again, that's CBSSports.com slash FBT. Let's get to your Apple Podcast review questions. A lot of these are going to be keeper questions, so I think we can move pretty quick through those, and I think I have like 25 of these on the rundown, so let's see how many we can get to. From J.B. Roe, 10-Team 7x7 head-ed category Keeper League. Added categories are hits, OPS, quality starts, and pitcher losses. Grade the trade. I gave up Kyle Tucker, Mani Machado, and Oni Jimenez for Trey Turner, Jazz Chisholm, Alec Minoah, and Gunner Henderson.

So you know I hate giving up the stud third baseman and Manny Machado, but you are getting one of the guys that could live with there, Gunner Henderson, in return. You're getting a high-end pitcher that you didn't have before in Alec Manoa. You're getting an upgrade at second base, Jimenez to Jazz Chisholm, and you're getting an upgrade overall, just in first round type, Kyle Tucker to Trey Turner. So I think that's a really good trade for you. Yep. I think it's an A.

A, cool. Yeah, A's all around. This one's from Cole, Deer, Voight, Rusek, and Atwater. I have no idea. I mean, that's John Voight, right? The spelling with the G.H. It looks like this is Chicago PD? Okay.

I've never watched. I'm in a 12-team head-to-head points, daily lineup league. Due to everybody's work schedules, we are forced to draft very early this year. So coming up this Sunday, March 5th, I really hope you listen to this podcast. We have only one week of spring training to observe players, setting aside the injury risk and whatnot that comes over the following weeks. That said, what players are worth paying extra attention to this week based only off their performance thus far?

So Cole sent this question in on Monday. Obviously, we only do one mail bag per week. And so I think I just wanted to highlight players that maybe have stood out to us so far. And the ones I wrote down, Kyle Braddish, very deep sleeper, his velocity, was up. Tyler Malley's velocity was up. Jose Burrios, the spin rate on his curveball was up. Andrew Painter looked pretty good in his first outing, so could have a job on opening day. Shane McClanahan, velocity was good. That's good news for his shoulder. We spoke about Jared Kellanick earlier. And Anthony Volpe, I wanted to highlight him because we're recording this

Thursday afternoon. He hit a lead off home run. He already has a couple of stolen bases in spring. He's not on the 40-man roster, but if he keeps this up, he is really giving the Yankees a tough decision to make, whether, I don't think it would come at the expense of Oswald Paraza, but I don't know what they're going to do, because if Volpe just crushes it, they probably need to give him an opening day roster spot. Shamanai's velocity is way up. Noah Sender guards is way down. So maybe flip-flop their sleeper appeal.

I mentioned Patrick Sandoval, a reason to be encouraged for him. I think the player who's raised his stock in my own eyes so far is Garrett Mitchell. And it's not so much that he had a two homer game. I mean, it's a reminder that there could be power that is unlocked there. But it's more just, it's becoming increasingly clear that the brewers want him to be their everyday center fielder. And I wasn't, I wasn't totally confident in that before spring training. And if he's their everyday center fielder, you're talking huge steals potential for very

low price at a position where everybody could use them in a roto league. All right. Chris, any standouts for you in spring training? Adam Wainwright's velocity was down four miles per hour. Yeah. I don't know. It's too early to worry too much about spring. Like Grayson Rodriguez said he made his spring debut today.

He was averaging 98 miles per hour with his fastball. You know, he said his stuff is better now than it was a year ago. Take that for what it's worth. but looks like he's going to be on the opening day roster for the Orioles, definitely someone who I'm surprised there isn't more hype about. I know there are questions about workload and how much he's going to be able to contribute this season. But like, if anyone could be the Spencer Strider of 2023, you know, the guy who is currently arguably the top pitching prospect of baseball sure could be. All right. This next one's from Matt Go Cards. I play in a six by five Roto League that

includes hits as a sixth category. Is there any advanced stat that would account for the number of hits more heavily outside of batting average? Any players that would be pushed up the most in your rankings with this high format? Chris, something that stood out to me, and I like this point

that you make every year, someone like Tim Anderson where his walk rate is lower, his batting average matters more because it's a lower denominator, I guess, or higher denominator? Higher denominator, yeah. Yeah, so his batting average counts for more because obviously he's not walking as much. So I think anybody with high batting average and low walk rate would do better in a league like this. So Tim Anderson, Jeff McNeil, Alex Verdugo, Luis Robert, Loris Gariel, Ahmed Rosario,

Nico Horner. Those were all names that I think had under a 7% walk rate last year, but really good batting average. Luis Arias as well. I don't love adding hits as a category when you keep average because you're kind of double counting in a lot of ways. But yeah, it makes the, one-dimensional batting average sources a little more valuable. I think it's the best way to think about it. Someone like Gene Segura could potentially be a little more valuable in this format as well. But that profile, you're kind of slap-hitting middle infielders typically. Yeah, CJ Abrams, I think could have sense there as well.

From Civilian, for the last four years, I have played in the Yahoo Public Head-to-Head most categories format. And I may have heard you guys say last year that you did not. prefer that format. Which formats are your favorite to play? Also, which sites you recommend for public leagues and prize leagues for a solo player? Well, I mean, we work for CBS sports, right? So we've got to say CBS. Look, I actually generally, I like the format on CBS, the way everything's laid out. It's the first format and website that I've played on ever in fantasy. So I'm just really used to it at this point. So obviously, I'm going to vouch for CBS. But yeah, which formats do you

guys like playing in most i my favorite is weekly lineups rhodo lineups but with category but head-to categories that was i could have said that in a less awkward way but yeah day weekly head-to-head categories with full rhodo lineups is my favorite because i love the the strategy of having to build a rhodo lineup and the the choices that you have to make in that regard. I think the standard head-to-head lineups just a little too shallow. It's a little too easy to build a lineup.

You don't have to make as many trade-offs. But I like having the rotos scoring and I like having the head-to-head aspect. I think head-to-head is the most fun way to play fantasy. I like having that aspect of it. So yeah, that's my answer. But I don't like daily lineups because I don't have the attention span to manage my team every day.

That is just that is asking too much. Scott, if you've been trying to talk, You're muted, bud. Okay. Yeah. Certainly if you want to play, certainly if you want to play in like a dozen leagues, you can't have daily lineups.

And if you do have daily lineups, you need to have weekly waiver runs because the constant streaming of players every day is just... That doesn't reward... It just rewards hustle. Yeah, it rewards being anal retentive. My favorite format,

is the one I started with head-to-head points. During the juice ball, I know during the juice ball year, I say that all the time. But it's true. It kind of ruined head-to-head points baseball because the lineups are so small and there were so many redundancies within the hitter ranks that it pretty much just became a race to the best pitchers. And that was annoying. But now that we're back out of that, I think there's a lot more different approaches you

could take. a lot of people are still going to favor pitchers because they tend to score a lot. I prefer streaming pitchers in that format. And I think it is the format that most rewards following a tiers approach and really finding those scarcities and taking advantage of them

and separating your team in that way. I think it's also the format that allows for ease of trading the most. And like trading is kind of a... trading is like one of the most fun parts of playing fantasy. It doesn't get analyzed a ton, but it is over the course of the season, I think the most enjoyable way of managing your team is just making trades to upgrade it.

And because there's more flexibility in the lineup, because you're not having to preserve all these various different categories, it allows for more maneuverability. I think my favorite format is, actually the heads head points Tat Wars League that I play in which I've won two years

in a row, shameless flex, but heads headts and weekly lineups, salary cap slash auction, and it has roto style lineup.

So it's a little bit deeper. It's two catchers, it's five outfielders, corner, middle, and it's seven starting pitchers and two

relief pitcher spots. So I like how deep that it goes. I like the salary cap aspect you can get all your favorite targets. And there's a lot

strategy that goes into that as well. And then head to headset points, which is how I started playing fantasy as well. Prize leagues, if you're looking for, I know fan tracks and NFBC are the ones that I would probably recommend most for that. This one's from Kid Bachata. Hi, Eddie, Waldo and Weasel. Ah, those are, um, the, Eddie Winslow, Carl Winslow son from Family Matters and his friends, Weasel and Waldo Haraldo Faldo.

Right. There was so much confidence in that. I love it. 10 team daily head to head categories with OBP, middle infield, and four outfield spots have to keep four of these. Jose Ramirez, Shohei Otani, Trey Turner, Mike Trout, Yerdan Alvarez, and Julio Rodriguez. My gosh. I think the four to keep are Jose Ramirez, Trey Turner, Julio Rodriguez, and because it's a daily league, obviously. Sohei Otani. So we're leaving out Mike Trout and Jordan Alvarez.

So the only thing I would say is it is an OBP league. So I think you could make the case for Alvarez or Trout ahead of Hulia Rodriguez, especially because you already have the steals with Trey Turner and Jose Ramirez. You could,

but I won it. Well, a strange thing I noticed with Trout the other day, you know what his OBP was last year? He hit over 280. His OBP... Yeah, he didn't walk very much last year. 368.

Yeah. That's, I mean, maybe he'll get back to being a 430 OPS. There's been some weird stuff with his plate discipline in the last few seasons, but it's also relatively small sample sizes across the board. So I still view him as an elite OBP guy. This next one's from Noah Ken. What is your opinion on gatekeeping third baseman from the rest of the league? I had the third overall pick in an eight-team league and was considering taking Jose Ramirez

in outfielder, and then potentially another thing. third baseman for my corner infield spot. So the problem is, let's say Brett Beatty and Josh Young have good seasons. And Anthony Rendon bounces back. All of a sudden, this like panic about third base looks pretty silly because it's, it's going to have enough guys. And so like, I think it is valuable and worthwhile to play the position scarcity game to a certain extent. But this is basically building your entire team around the idea that there is, that there

just will not be in a third basement. And maybe that will prove to be a valuable strategy and a good prediction. There are too many factors involved in this to, to play that game, I think. I think in an eight team league, I would worry about position scarcity less and just take, also that. Take the best player in terms of their output. I would worry about position scarcity. more the shallower the league is because you're going to feel those differences more. I mean, unless it's just, unless the league itself is so shallow that you don't even get out of the shallow part of every position. But I think you do, especially at third base in the outfield. There will be some people who don't have nearly the caliber of players as everyone else.

And those people will almost certainly lose because of it. Yeah, I just think eight teams is like, Like, okay, let's say you double up on two of the really good third baseman. You got Jose Ramirez and Rafael Devers. That means there are Machado, Riley, Aronado, Witt, Bregman, I think, are kind of the, is after there's a drop off there's a drop. There's drop off within the drop-offs, but like there's, so like maybe one other team doesn't have a good third baseman. Like it, I don't know. Yeah, I agree that this strategy isn't.

I was just addressing the broader point. Yeah. Like, how much does positions there seem matter? I think you should just worry about getting. getting the stud outfield or getting the stud third baseman, like just getting studs everywhere and leaving other people not to have studs at wherever they don't think to do that.

All right. Next up we have from Andrew L. 1422, 10 team heads head categories with standard positions, one catcher, one of each infield spot, three outfielders. We can keep six, but if we do keep six, we lose our first round pick. I have the 10th pick. I'm keeping Trout, Trey Turner, endeavors i need three more

matt olson michael harris adly rutchman spencer strider and brandon woodruff uh okay so you are going to keep sorry a lot of information that i'm having to reprocess here uh you're going to keep Harris right um olson probably and

one of the pitchers. So I do have Olson ranked higher than Woodruff and Strider, but I think I would keep Harris, Strider, and Woodruff just to get the second starting pitcher. They've already got Trout Tray Turner endeavors. Yeah. Particularly since it's a 10-team league. I'm thinking you're going to find enough pitchers,

but I understand your point. Yeah, it's close. I think I would go Olson, Harris, and Woodruff, but I think I'm kind of on an island ranking. No, I like Woodruff more than Strider, but it's close for a lot of people. This one's from K. Smitty, 2277, 12 team head-to-head points league, need to keep two. Bobby Witt in the sixth, Verlander in the seventh, Gowan in the 12th, Dalton Varsho in the 14. Points league. So Witt in the 6th, I don't know. I mean, there's a chance he could improve.

But if he's who he was last year, Witt in the 6 doesn't seem like a great value. I think I'd go with the... I think I go with the pitchers, actually, since it is a points league. Verlander in the 7th, Gallon, and the 12th. All right. This next one's from somebody named five-star all-fake. All-Fake. All-Fake. All-Fake.

All-Fake. All-Fake-all. 12-team headset categories need two keepers. Goldschmidt in the 4th. Bobby Witt in the 7th. Shane O. Mack in the 8th. Julio Arias in the 10th. Eloy Jimenez in the 12th.

Vinny Pass-Quantino in the 14th. And Corbyn Carol in round 14 as well. I just don't know why you're asking for permission from a podcast that you think doesn't deserve five stars, but that's fine. Need two keepers. You got to keep Bobby Witt since it's a category's league in round seven. The other one, I'm inclined to say, it's between Goldschmidt and round four and Carol in round 14. So Goldschmidt and round four is probably only a one round discount, but it's for a stud bat. any amount of discount is not a bad idea.

But Corby and Carroll could be a stud bat, and you're probably getting him twice as early. Or you'd probably go in like round 70, you're getting him round 14. I think that's what I do. I think I'd go Witt and Carroll, and then you got a nice head start and stolen bases. The added categories in this instance,

on base percentage, total bases make me lean goldschmidt, just because I think he's going to be really good in those. and Carol may not be. Not to the same extent. If Carol falls short in home runs, he's hitting a lot of doubles and triples. So I think it actually helps improve his stock, too, the total basis.

It's close. I'll break the tie. I was leaning McClanahan or Corby and Carroll, so I guess the fact that two of us decided Corbyn Carroll's worth consideration, then I think we probably would go with him. This one's from DSA 2020. Quick question on 5x5 Roto with weekly lineup locks, we have to fill

nine pitcher spots, but no starting pitcher or relief pitcher requirements. Minimum innings pitched is 1,000, but no maximum. How would you construct your mix knowing that the roster spots lock on a weekly basis? This is actually a rule.

We don't mention it often, but in standard 5 by 5 roto, with nine pitcher spots, you can divvy them up however you want, there is normally an innings minimum. Sometimes it's 900, sometimes it's 1,000. And the point That's pretty high. The point that I've heard, the reason that's in place is so you can't just have nine relievers in your lineup

and wind up with really low ratios. So that's why there is an minimum minimum innings requirement. I think I'd make sure to get two solid relievers. I'm not saying they have to be one of the top nine. Like you have to get, you know, Devin Williams and Jordan Romano. You don't have to go that high end. But you get one of those top nine and get like a Daniel Barr. or Camilla Duval or Alexis Diaz type to pair with him.

Somebody who you know is in that closer spot to begin the season. And then you can fill the other seven spots with starting pitchers without having to worry about chasing saves. You know, a thousand did sound high. I'm looking at our Memorial Magazine draft. Is that what we call that like league? Isn't that 900 or no? Well, but last year, the lowest,

innings total for any team was 1374. Oh, really? So. Okay. I guess it's never been an issue somebody falling below it? I don't know if that's averaging 100 innings per spot. Oh, it might be including benches? That's the question that I'm trying to figure out now, yeah.

Yeah. I've never known anybody who's actually finished the year under the innings. Yeah. So I think it's pretty generous. It's 100 innings per spot is 900. This would be 1,000 divided by 9. 111 innings per spot. You can't have too many relievers in those spots,

bottom line, especially since so many starting pitchers these days are going like 130, 140, 150 innings. I wouldn't want to want to mess with it too much. I'll stick with what I originally said. If you go six starters or less, then you can very quickly fall behind in wins and strikeouts. So that's why

you typically see six or seven starting pitchers in a starting lineup in that format. I would say it's just build it like a normal, Roto League and you'll probably get there. And if not, if you're falling short of the pace, you'll know, you know, you should, you'll, you'll have to make some trades. But like, if you're falling short of the innings pace, it probably means you're already doing pretty well on saves so you can afford to. This one's from GDCA 2020. I, in a 12 team dynasty league and need to keep five of the following. Ronald de Cunia, Fernando Tatis,

Adley Ruchman, Bryce Harper, Spencer Strider, and Alec Manoa. basically the question is should you stash Harper over any of those names? I think you should stash him over Rushman. Good with that, Chris? Catchers aren't as impactful overall. I think so, yeah. Yeah, especially if you have an IL spot. If you don't, then I would not do that.

This one's from Vilwock 79, Dear Frank, Brooks, and Cal. Those are Orioles third baseman. I mean, Cal obviously mostly short stuff, but it was a third baseman at the end. Sure. I'm playing in a roto keeper league with quality starts in place of wins. I can keep Sandy Alcancera for $22 and Christian Javier for six.

I can't decide if I should splurge for a third ace to fortify my strikeouts or keep more money for hitters and keep those two as my SP1 and SP2. Well, you know what I'm going to say. That looks like a pretty good one and two to me. And they complement each other pretty well, because you get the innings from Sandy, you get the higher strikeout rate from Javier.

Yeah, so I would take care of your hitter spots where the scarcities, I think, are going to be more pronounced. This one's from Andy B. 1021, in a 12th team, Roto League with the 10th pick. In mock drafts, I keep winding up with Juan Soto and Manny Machado. Are there any concerns with making your first two picks from the same MLB team? I did that in TGFBI with Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis,

The thing about having two Padres with your first two picks is the Padres have a lot of really good players. Sure do. Like, it would be a problem if your two best players were from the Marlins. Or the Tigers, but I don't even know how that would happen. But like, you know, if you've got Ronald Acuna and Michael Harris, you know, that's probably okay. Yeah. Yeah. Again, if they're your first two or three hitters drafted, they're, they're probably going in the early. There are some like fringe scenarios that. could screw you, right?

Like, I remember, I think it was 2004 or 2005. The Marlins just had this crazy stretch. Well, South Florida had this stretch where there was just a ton of hurricanes. And the Marlins ended up getting screwed, had to play like 28 games and 26 days. A bunch of them were on the road. The team collapsed down the stretch. Like, that kind of thing could hurt you in like real outlier fringe scenarios. I wouldn't worry.

2020, especially would have been bad when, like, the Cardinals and Marlins both like lost half their teams to COVID. That's less of a concern now. So like, it's act of God stuff that you're worrying. Yeah. Like there are like, you could see a scenario where like,

there's a correlation where just the Braves just have a bad year. Right. And like just something happens and, and your, your team gets kind of dragged out. Your Padres have a bad year. And Soto and Machado both happen to have bad seasons for, but it's equally true that you could have an outlier outcome.

where they both have massive seasons that feeds each other, and they end up having even better seasons as a result. So I don't really worry about it. This last question is from Savvy PA, 12-team headshead categories, Keeper League, one catcher, three outfielers, two utility spots, currently keeping Sandy Alcantara in the sixth, Logan Gilbert in the 10th, George Kirby in the 11th,

William Contreras in the 14th, Tony Gonselin in the 19th, and Nicolodolo in the 20th. Would you swap any of those for Corey Seeger in the fourth, Clay Holmes in the 14th, or Oscar Gonzalez in the 14th? Maybe Seeger? I usually try and get Seeger in round five, but in a keeper league, it's hard to get things that perfect. And I just, like, I'm not wowed by the values of, like, Logan Gilbert in the 10th and George Kirby in the 11th. Yeah, they'll go there. And even if they go a round or two earlier, it's like, I don't know.

I just don't value one middle round target that much more than another. I'd throw Gilbert back and keep Seeger because I prefer Kirby to Gilbert. Also, Clay Holmes in the 14th, I don't know how scarce saves they're going to be. A lot of times the value of save sources could get inflated. And he may end up going much earlier than 14. You may go like the 10th or 11th. I might throw Kirby back and do that. All right.

Well, hope you're not a Mariners fan because we're getting rid of both Logan Gilbert. You can throw Gonsal and back instead if you just really love George Kirby. Sure. But it's, you know, I think the point is there are going to be a lot of starting pitchers out there like those two, and there are only so many closers. All right.

We're going to wrap there for Scott. And Chris, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. If you're watching us live on YouTube, we'll be back here later on tonight. And if not, on the podcast side, we'll be back next week. Bye-bye.