Fantasy Baseball Today - 🚨MLB Cancels First Two Series of the Season! - Emergency Podcast (3/1 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 1, 2022

MLB and the Player's Association did not come to an agreement and, therefore, the start of the baseball season has been delayed. What does it mean for Fantasy Baseball? Should you reschedule your draft (1:40)? ... You probably shouldn't overpay for closers since there's a lot of movement left to happen once free agency opens back up (5:53). ... Which players' value is affected most (8:30)? ... Which starting pitchers lose out on great matchups as a result of these cancellations (11:25)? '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

Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Welcome into an unfortunate emergency edition of fantasy baseball today on Tuesday, March 1st. I am Frank Stanfield, joined by Chris Towers here to react to the breaking news. The MLB and the Players Association did not reach an agreement by today's 5 p.m. Eastern Time deadline, again, on March 1st. It appeared there was momentum last night, but not enough to get this thing done. The sides remain far apart on both the CBT and the pre-arbitration bonus pool. as a result, Rob Manfred has announced the cancellation of the first two series of the MLB season. It would appear the earliest the season could start as of now is April 7th, but honestly, who knows at this point.

Manfred also said negotiating could start back up again on Thursday, March 3rd, so a few days from now, though that has not been confirmed. And let's be completely honest, man, we're not here to play politics or anything. This completely sucks. Obviously, a large majority of what we do, Chris, is based on a season, something happening, spring training, pitchers and catchers, the anticipation of a baseball season starting. And obviously now that is delayed. So, you know, first and foremost, everything that's happened in the past couple of years in baseball, it just completely sucks. And this is, you know, another black eye on a long line of things that has happened in the sport the past couple of seasons. But what does it mean for fantasy baseball?

That's why we're here, Chris. And I guess let's start with, you know, one of the most obvious questions is should you reschedule your draft? What are you thinking? What is your initial reaction when it comes to what this means for fantasy baseball? I wouldn't necessarily reschedule my draft yet, but that's mostly because you shouldn't, ideally your home league drafts should be scheduled as close to the start of the season as possible. And so this doesn't this shouldn't change that all that much.

Like we're probably going to have four weeks of lead up time between whenever the season starts and when they come to a conclude to an agreement. And so we'll have spring training and free agency and all that stuff within that four week period. So as long as you're within, you know, four weeks of, I guess right now it would be like April 7th, I think, is the, the first would be the third series would be that Thursday. So as long as you're within like March 10th or later, I wouldn't really be thinking about rescheduling yet. And part of that is just that once you've ever agreed to on what day the draft is going to be is kind of a pain for anybody who's been a commissioner.

And having to go through that process multiple times is just that's no fun. And so if you already agreed on one, I say stick with it at least for now, because right now all we've lost is roughly a week of games. It seems kind of silly that they're just canceling that, but I get that that's the hardline position the commissioner has to take. But as far as canceling or removing, suspending your draft or postponing it, I wouldn't do it yet unless it was supposed to be within like the next week or so. Yeah, and again, you really don't want to be drafting this early anyway, even if everything was going off normally, you know? Yeah. If spring training had started already, it's, you know, it's still pretty early and we usually have a lot of injuries and things, you know, as spring training ramps up. So try to draft or set your draft as close to the start of the originally scheduled start of the season, which was March 31st.

Again, the earliest the season can start as of now is April 7th. But that is, you know, if things start to get moving here, if there's more more, more, or, you know, more negotiation. I mean, both sides have left the negotiating table, and we just don't know when they're going to meet again. So there are a lot of questions up in the air right now. Chris, the one thing I'll say is, and I guess we haven't talked about this enough,

but regarding AL and NL-only drafts, I think maybe you delay those because there's so much still left to happen with free agency, trades. I saw someone on Twitter throw out, just a random over-under-numbered. is within the first couple of days of free agency, how many trades get done? And someone threw the number out six and a half.

So we're expecting a lot of player movement and a lot of things to happen. I believe there are AL and NL only expert leagues that are taking place over the next coming weeks. I believe it's A.L. Labor, NL. Labor. And to my knowledge, if a free agent is drafted in one of those leagues, as of now, those managers will still gain the stats

for those players, if they wind up signing with the opposite league. And that just speaks to how unique this situation is, because it's not really something we've ever done before. Yeah, I know that's what Towers is doing as well. So, yeah, I think, like, if you want to go with that strategy and hold your draft when you do, but, you know, a lot of the analysts or industry drafts happen for content reasons, you know,

when they do. And so, you know, they're affiliated with radio stations or podcasts or whatever. and so, you know, they have their schedules laid out in advance. And so rescheduling those might be hard. Your league probably doesn't have that. So, yeah, I would definitely try to wait for your AL&L only especially until like at least a week or two after whenever the announcement is made. All right.

Yeah, a few other things. I know Scott's writing an article, which will be up on the site soon. Again, CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball. and a few other things that he brings up, Chris, is not to give into peer pressure when it comes to drafting or overbidding on closers. So we've seen this happen in a lot of draft and hold formats, which again, those are very unique.

There is no free agency, there is no trading throughout the course of those fantasy baseball leagues. So it makes sense why closers would be elevated in that format. However, we're kind of still seeing that in the great fantasy baseball invitational right now, even in Tout Wars leagues that are, that are drafting right now, that closers are still being elevated.

Scott says that you should fight or resist the urge to do that because there's still going to be a lot of value once things are announced. Yeah, I think that that's probably the case. I get why closers have become incredibly inflated in these drafts and hold leagues, but if you still play in a fab league,

that's, I don't know, there's value in the security of one of those early closers, you know, a guy like Liam Hendricks who almost certainly isn't going to lose his job. unless he gets hurt. But otherwise, yeah, I don't think you want to push guys up your draft board just because, you know, Dylan Floreau might be the Marlins closer or something like that. You know, you can be patient because you're, you still have guys who are going to sign Ian Kennedy's still out there,

among others who, you know, could end up Kenny the Chanson is still a free agent. So, yeah, there's still, I think that's good advice just in general. don't follow the crowd in terms of paying up for closers because I mean if 25 closers get pushed up half of those guys are going to lose their jobs at least And I'm of the mindset Chris that as we see Kenley Jansen sign if Craig Kimbril's traded If Ian Kennedy winds up somewhere

That's going to change the market because there's not going to be as much of a demand For that mid-tier and as a result we're going to see those guys fall down a little bit and we're going to start to see guys like Craig Kimberl or Kenley Jansen, they're going to start to rise. So it's going to be like a meeting in the middle, and that's where you really want to take advantage. So again, even if you're drafting now,

I get it. You know, people still love fantasy and drafting is one of the most fun parts of playing. So, you know, people are going to continue to draft, but just realize we don't know how many games are going to be played as of now. And, you know,

you might be taken advantage of, I guess you could say, when it comes to the closer market right now. So keep those things in mind. players are affected most, Chris. And I think, again, there's only been two series canceled so far. So nothing major, you know, five, six games per team at this point. Again, we wish it wasn't happening.

But the more games are canceled, the better that is for someone like Ronald Acuna. And we've talked about that a little bit, but let's just say hypothetically, hope this doesn't happen, but the first month of the season is canceled. If Ronald Acuna was expected to return on May 1st anyway, and now he's returning for opening day, then he's not really missing any of the season, and he should probably still be like a top three or top five pick again in fantasy baseball. I think someone like Jacob de Grom and Alberto Mondesi

come to mind as well, because they have to stay healthy for a lesser portion of the season. Does that make sense? Yeah, I think Ronald Cune is probably the one guy that stands out in terms of the fact that he is actively recovering from an injury currently, and we don't actually know when he's going to be back. I would say also,

you could maybe make a case for Lance McCullors and Zach Gallen, Justin Verlander, Mike Clevenger, Denelson-Lematt, guys who are coming back from injuries. But for the most part, with the exception of McCullers among that group, those guys were all expected to be ready for opening to anyway. McCullers, we just don't really know at this point what the situation is. Steven Strassberg, I think, is kind of an interesting one.

Yeah, I'm pretty pessimistic that he, going to be able to contribute anything. But yeah, there's a hope that he could, you know, if it's pushed back a couple weeks, it could make it more likely that he's available to start the season. But yeah, generally speaking, it doesn't change too many guys' outlook in my eyes. I think it's mostly someone like Ronald Acuna who does benefit a little bit. And, you know, he's already going inside of the top 12 in most leagues. So I think, you know, I don't know how much change there is there.

be my Clevenger's also in that group. But yeah, for the most part, I think it's just the fewer games there are, the better that tends to be for players who have injury concerns or players who are coming back from injury because there are fewer opportunities for them to get hurt. And there are fewer opportunities for the guys who stay healthy to rack up additional, you know, edges on them in terms of playing time. So that's, I don't think we're at the point yet where that really matters or should really change anything about how you view players for the most part because one series, you know, we're talking about six games probably so far. So two series, I guess. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't overthink it here. Yeah, it's minuscule as of now. I mean, it's something that could matter more depending on if more games are canceled. But we just don't know that as of now. So just keep that.

of mind, you know, if we start to get into like weeks or months, unfortunately, then, you know, someone like Ronald de Cunia does gain more fantasy value this season. And Chris, last point I wanted to hit on, and this is really just me being a madman, so feel free to call me out if you want to. But I already started looking at the schedule to see which of these series are being canceled, right? And which pitchers are losing out on great matchups. Now, I realize this is just one or two of however many, 33, 32 starts throughout the course of the season. But I think it could matter probably more so for like the fringe guys, right, that we're like really depending on these strong matchups to help their ratios out.

But like, for example, Garrett Cole was scheduled to face the Rangers. And these are not games that are going to be made up. These are canceled games. They are not happening. Adam Wainwright and Jack Flaherty. They miss a series against the Pirates. So they're not going to get that matchup. The Braves miss out on a four game series to open the season against the Marlins.

So Max Reed and Charlie Morton Assuming he was going to be healthy I mean they're not they're missing out on On matchups already so I know it's only one matchup Chris But this is already stuff that I've started to look at now Yeah I mean looks like the Dodgers were going to open Against the Rockies at home So that that is a loss for their pitchers

Yeah yeah no that's that's certainly worth considering I think over the course of a season it definitely makes a small difference probably. You're talking about one start lost probably for the Aces because they're just going to, you know, be the opening day starters or the number two starters at the start of the season no matter when it happens. But yeah, it's, it's interesting to look at, like the Dodgers Blues series against the Diamondbacks and the Rockies at home. For, you know, that that's two really, really good matchups. the diamond backs are projected to be the worst team in baseball by baseball

prospectus. I was looking at their Pocoda projections yesterday. I think the worst offense. So yeah, know that. That's a, it can be a tiebreaker. You know,

I'm not sure it should change your, your fundamental view of anyone, but if you were choosing between Max Scherzer and Walker Bueller, maybe you go with Scherzer because Bueller loses, you know, a series against both Arizona, presumably a start against both Arizona and the Rockies at home. Yeah.

As somebody who has recently invested in both Adam Wainwright and Jack Flaherty, I think Flaherty, if he's healthy, he's probably going to be good regardless. But Wainwright, I mean, someone who pitches to contact, he probably needs all these matchups as he could possibly get. So, you know, once we get into the Pirates and Cubs, yeah. Yeah, once we get into, you know, the fringe pitchers again, I think that this is something that can actually affect them. So we're going to wrap there.

the last thing that I'll say, again, this sucks that it's happening, and it might seem pointless for someone to continue prepping for fantasy baseball, but we're not going anywhere. We're going to continue with the same content schedule. We're going to put out more than five podcasts per week. We'll still take your mailbag questions, fantasy baseball, at cbsi.com. So I know right now there's a lot of anger, and I get it, and you might just want to like quit and not continue prepping for fantasy baseball, but once they announce the season, things are going to ramp up very quickly. So I would encourage everyone to continue consuming this content and, you know, continue staying ready because, you know, things can really, you know, flip on a dime here. So, uh, that plus, you like us.

Yeah. You know, you want to hang out with us. I think so, right? Yeah, probably. And I think this is probably a good time to mention that Chris, unfortunately, I have just confirmed that we will still do a mock draft tonight. So if you want to hang out with us, 9 p.m. Eastern time, we're doing a 12 team five by five rhodo mock draft. Obviously not ideal time. but Chris Scott and myself will be here. We'll probably talk a little bit more about this, and obviously we'll talk about our strategy and drafting players this season.

So we'll wrap there for Chris, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching this emergency edition of fantasy baseball today. We'll be back in later on. Bye-bye.