Fantasy Baseball Today - Mondesi Hurt, COVID Concerns, and 2021 Season Predictions! (4/1 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 1, 2021

Happy Opening Day and Happy Birthday to Scott! Now, when did Adalberto Mondesi get hurt (3:22)? He'll be out a few weeks with an oblique strain. Who are the top replacements available? ... We have news (10:33)! Somebody on the Nationals tested positive for COVID, Hector Neris has been named the closer for the Phillies, Andrew Vaughn will NOT be in the Opening Day lineup and more. ... Should you add and stream these starting pitchers (29:24)? ... What should you watch for on Opening Day (34:34)? Also, what's up with the new baseball? ... It's time for our 2021 MLB season predictions (46:03)! Who's winning each division, the World Series, and all of the awards? ... Email us at [e-mail]. '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, @AdamAizer Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday 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, center field, and swing. This is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam.

Opening day is here. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today, presented by Lining Cougals, our brand new sponsor, and one that I am very excited about. We'll have more on the fantastic variety of beverages they offer later on in the podcast. Frank Stamph will join by Chris Towers and the birthday boy himself. Scott White.

Happy birthday, too. Actually, I don't know if we have the rights for that. That might not be a very useful thing. They never sing that song in restaurants, right? Because they don't have the rights to it. Happy, happy birthday from all of us to you. We wish it was our birthday so we could party too. Hey.

Is that really why they don't sing happy birthday in restaurants? I never realized. That's what I've always heard. In my media law class, I think I heard that. Wow. Yeah. I didn't have that class, Scott. So I'm happy you taught me that.

You learned something new every day. Happy birthday, Scotty. How old are you? 21? 27. No, I'm 37. I'm 10 years beyond my prime. I am retirement age now, for sure.

For sure. Kick back. You might get a spring training invite. I might if I'm lucky. Non-raster invitee to fantasy baseball today Four teams will show up to your tryout Oh man, what a great gift you got Scott Opening day is here

Truly awesome Happy that we finally made it Did you have any birthday cake I actually did not It was pretty low-key day Pretty low-key day My mother-in-law took the kids this morning So I was able to sleep in

I woke up I got a little chick-fil-a for lunch That was a special treat. I got to watch a little TV while they were over there, which, you know, that just an hour of TV. Like this month has been crazy, all right? There hasn't been a lot of TV on the plate for old Scotty boy. So, you know, that was something I was missing. And I got to enjoy that.

Add some little rice crispy Easter treats that my wife and kids made, little like rice, crispy tree egg nests with little Cadbury eggs in them. That was good. Nice. I saw that video. I'm 37, you know. What do you want for me? He's a veteran.

He's a veteran in the fantasy baseball game. I did see that video of you eating peeps, so I hope it's a very fortuitous weekend of peeps eating for you as well, Scott. So happy birthday there. Today on the show, it is, obviously, we're getting ready for opening day. So we will talk about the latest news. Alberto Monasey is hurt. What else is new there?

The Nationals have COVID concerns. Starting pitchers to add and stream for those in daily leagues. We're going to continue to do that. Basically every day of the season now, more often than not, we will end the podcast with that. But we'll do that. And we have our season predictions. We'll have a little fun.

We'll talk some awards, division winners, and of course our World Series prediction. Let's start off with Adelberto Monisee. Chris, your boy, the season is crumbling already. Mondisey. placed on the IL with a right oblique strain really came out of nowhere. There was no talk about this, no indication, nothing.

Just bam, right in the middle of the day, right before the season starts, Mondesi on the IL, expected to miss a couple of weeks with this oblique strain. And he was having a strong spring, 10 for 33, two home runs, and two steals. Chris, what is your diagnosis of this situation?

And would you try to buy low if you could? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think hopefully it's not like a super serious thing that'll cost him several months. Obliq injuries can do that and they can, you know, the effects of them can tend to linger, but,

you know, from what it sounds like, it's not like a super serious one. You'll miss a couple weeks and, you know, there's always obliques, I would guess, have one of the highest re-injury or re-aggravation rates

among all baseball injuries just because it's so key to, you know, playing the game, whether you're hitting or pitching. So yeah, it's concerning. It's especially bad if you drafted modesty and punted steals otherwise. But, you know, if it's just two weeks, I think he could be fine.

You know, I put out the first version of the trade values chart today, and I really didn't move him down too much in reaction to the news because I still think he's an incredibly valuable player to trade. I will say, if I was trading him, I would need full value. And if I was trying to trade for him, I would not give up full value. 100%. But that's how I deal with every trade ever, Chris. Yeah.

But that's to say that when he's on my team, I'm not just looking to move him. I'm not worried about it. Of course. Yeah, don't overreact there with Mondesie. Of course, he's dealt with a ton of injuries. You know, towards the end of 2019, he had shoulder surgery, got off to the slow start last year because of that. And he's dealt with some stuff the past couple of years.

And the latest, again, oblique strain for Adelberto Mondesi. The team has already. announced that Nikki Lopez will start at shortstop on opening day, and a gentleman named Kyle Isbell is starting in right field. Isbell, a former third round pick from 2018, who also had a strong spring in 123 career minor league games. He batted 284 with 14 home runs and 35 steals. Scott, any interest in deeper leagues, of course, in Kyle Isbell? I mean, it probably have to be an AL only at this point. He doesn't have much of a minor league track record. What he has. isn't good.

And, you know, who knows what kind of development he made during the lost season. We don't have stats to assess him on for that. He did have a good spring, and obviously it was good enough that the Royals won him on opening day roster. I could see him being a modest power speed guy.

I mean, yeah, I'm not moving for Kyle's bell right now. I need to see something first. I just have to ask, this doesn't accelerate any type of Bobby Witt timeline, right? Well, I wondered that, but no. No, I wouldn't think so if it is just a short-term thing for Mondesi, two to four weeks I'm saying. And I'm with Chris that like somebody was asking me how much he should follow

if he was drafting tonight. I'd be thrilled to get him in round six in the categories league. If that happens, I'd be doing a little dance. Because season is 27 weeks long. We're talking two to four of those weeks probably, that Mondesie is going to be out. And as I sit here today, I still predict him to lead the majors and steals

by a substantial margin. Yeah, it was someone in our YouTube chat, James C, he was asking, where do I target Mondice now? And I answered earlier, I said, I'd probably drop him three to four rounds. So, I mean, if you were taking him in the third round before,

get him in the sixth or seventh, sure. And that's in a Categories league. In a points league, he does go much lower than that. How do you replace Adelby? Alberto Mondesi, well, you don't. But if you need some steals, I found some names on the Waver Wire, Chris, who are rostered in under 60% of CBS leagues. Andres Jimenez, this was surprising

to me. He's only rostered in 55% of CBS leagues. Elvis Andrus in 49%. Isaiah Kinear Folefa, not very exciting. I get it, but might steal 15 to 20 bases over the course of the season. He is only rostered in 21% of leagues. And then if you play in a points league format, I thought Miguel Rojas and Jose Iglesias were both interesting. They are rostered under 40% of leagues. They make a lot of contact, and I think they're going to play every day. So any names stick out to you there? Well, yeah.

I mean, if you want to go slightly over 60%, I think 62% Jorge Polanco is there. And if you're just looking for a good starter and not necessarily to play stolen bases, I think Palanco would be somewhere I looked. Do you like any of those names, Chris? Andrews, I think, is being overlooked pretty much across the board this year.

I have him on a handful of teams. And I think, I'm trying to find it. I thought I saw some talk that he may hit closer to the top of the lineup against like one, one type of hitter. I think it was lefties. But yeah, like, I think there's still,

I think in 2019, he's still 30 bases, right? Al was Andrews. So there is definitely still still room for him to be a valuable fantasy option. I think he was a top 12 guy in 2019, actually. Yeah, he stole 31 bases, hit 12 homers, hit 275. Last year was a disaster, obviously, but he only played 29 games.

So I don't think it's... As I remember, the last four months of 2019 were also a disaster, but it doesn't mean he's done. I'm just saying, I kind of think he's done. Elvis Andrews. Elvis Andrews getting up there in age, turning 33 years old this year in August, but maybe he'll be motivated, obviously,

the Texas Rangers. It was only the last three months, Scott. And he still stole 15 bases across those three months. What do they say, Chris? Full season statistics. Full season statistics are generally more predictive than half season statistics. Oh man, before we get to the rest of the news and notes,

if you listen to this podcast, you should also be listening to Fantasy Baseball Today and Five. Every weekday, Scott or Chris and myself. We'll catch you up. on the biggest news and waiver wire ads from that night in baseball. The kicker is, it's only a five minute podcast which might sound weird,

but we pack a lot of info into a short amount of time. It's fun. You should check it out. Download and follow fantasy baseball today in five wherever you listen to this podcast. And while we're at it, the madness continues into its final weekend and the Eye on College Basketball podcast

remains your audio guide for the entire NCAA tournament. Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander will offer extensive previews. and breakdowns of the Final Four and National Championship game. If you want the best March Madness Analysis, follow the eye on college basketball podcast. Anywhere you find this one. News and notes, deja vu.

One year has gone, not even one year. I guess it's, what would that be? Six, seven months? Seven months have gone by and nothing has changed. The Washington Nationals had a positive COVID test on the eve of opening day. They also have five close contacts who are, now in quarantine as a result.

If you remember last year, the night before, Juan Soto also had a positive test the day before the season. Nationals GM Mike Rizzo said this will, quote, certainly impact the opening day roster. So there could be some big names involved here. The John Heyman reported that Max Scherzer is not one of them. So he is clear to start for, uh, against the mess. I would guess Soto isn't one of them, right?

Just because he's already had it. I mean, maybe not. Maybe they still play it with contact tracing. They still play it carefully even though he's had it before. But, you know, I'm hopeful that means it's not Soto either. Yeah, I mean, I have no doctor, but I'm pretty sure the antibodies kind of wear off over time. So if that's the case, I guess he could still be susceptible to it. Yeah, I mean, I'd back up all your nationals tonight.

Yeah. Because he just, you just don't know. The game starts at 7.09 p.m. Eastern time. So, I mean, we should get the lineup well before then, hopefully, and we'll know. But, yeah, you were planning to start, Josh Bell, Victor Robles, Juan Soto. We're not saying those guys are out, but there definitely is a possibility. So just plan accordingly. Or just there.

Talk to your commissioner. And if you're the commissioner, be flexible with it. You should have, you should have made rules for your league last year. You should make rules now. If this kind of thing happens, allow people to declare, you know, a backup or something. Is that what you did during the football season? Something like that, Chris? Yeah, and I'm doing that in baseball or basketball leagues this year,

basically at the start of the week and can say, this is my kind of replacement guy in case something happens. Okay. Yeah, so if someone tests positive or if they're contact midweek, they get ruled out, then you have a backup option. Yeah, I think that makes sense. And definitely for those who play in weekly leagues, something you should be looking into.

If you play in daily leagues, you should have more IL spots. You should probably have the IL spots anyway, but it's much easier to handle in a daily league than it is in a weekly league. Joe Girardy announced on Wednesday that Hector Nerris will be the Phillies Closer with Archie Bradley and Jose Alvarado being used in set-up roles.

Narris is only 33% rostered on CBS, which I found pretty low, Scott. That's very low number for Hector Nerris. Yeah, I think Archie Bradley was the one getting drips. Somebody probably wishing me happy birthday. Birthday texts. 10.30 at night. Like everybody I know.

Anyway. It's not from me. I don't think. I, what was I talking about? Oh, yeah, I think Archie Bradley was the one

getting drafted the most of those three and then Jose Alvarado had a lot of hype within the community. So Narris, it seemed like if there was a third choice,

it would be Narris. You know, it was probably even odds for each of them, realistically. And, you know, it's Narris is pretty good. Narris is pretty good.

Like, nobody's ever been excited about him. ever in his entire Major League career. I think he kind of stinks, Chris. He's got a career 338 ERA with a 370. Like, he's not great, but a bunch of strikeouts? It is an odd year. And if you look at the past four years,

he has been terrible and even years. The way I described Neres on Twitter today, I'm not going to be able to find it. But basically, like, he's always teetering. But he's good enough to. hold on to the job as well. So, like, I'm not going to sit here and today and say, you're good for

six months with Narris as a save source, but I don't think his role is one of the most in jeopardy heading into the season either. Yeah. I wrote about, I did like a closer job security rankings. And he's one of the, like, 12

who's actually been named the closer officially or, like, I don't know if the, you know, angels ever officially came out and said, Ryssel Iglesias is their closer, but I don't think they needed to, you know, that kind of thing. And, you know, when you look at the closer options, he's probably like top 15 or 16, because there's just so few who are actually closers and are actually good that, you know, he's... It depends how comfortable you are reading between the lines, because I know somebody asked me, Neris or Pagan, Emilio Paghan, who is the guy we're all leaning toward. Yeah.

And I think he's better than Nairus. That's a close call. I mean, it's a legitimate ask. And I think, you know, if I didn't already have two closers I felt good about, I'd probably lean Narris, the more certain save source. But, you know, Will Smith hasn't officially been named the closer. Jordan Romano hasn't officially been named the closer. And like, I'd rather have those guys.

But I'd rather have Narris than like Raphael Montero, Greg Holland, Anthony Bass, Jake McGee, guys who wear, like assuming are the closers, but, you know, aren't particularly good. Yep. So that would put him right in that middling RP2, closer 2 range for fantasy baseball purposes. And the last thing I'll say about Nerris is he is that split finger pitcher that I've talked about similar to Kevin Gosman, where you see so much volatility year over year, and especially in his walk rate, because, I mean, it's just such a hard pitch to command. So it's a really good splitter, but if you don't have it working that day, I mean, it's,

He doesn't really have much else. So he throws it almost 50% of the time. But when it's on, he does get a lot of swings and misses. Again, Hector Neris, the closer for the Philadelphia Phillies. Andrew Vaughn, are you serious, Tony LaRouca? Are we're really doing this already? Opening day. Andrew Vaughan will not be in the White Tocs lineup on opening day.

Leori Garcia will be in left field and Zach Collins will start at DH. Now, this is, I'm not just saying this is ridiculous because I am heavily invested in Vaughn, but that is part of the reason. But you are being aggressive and calling up Andrew Vaughn, and you are foregoing whatever extra year of service time you would get by leaving him down in the minors to have him on your bench, to not even start him. I mean, this would be like a couple years ago

when the Padres had Tatis on their opening day roster, him just being on the bench. It does not make any sense to me, so I am very frustrated, Scott. if you are in a longer weekly league, an 11-day week, would you bench Andrew Vaughn because of this? No, I wouldn't.

I wouldn't pinch Andrew Vaughn because of this. I did sit him for Joey Votto. In an 11-game week? Votto might not even play on opening day either, Chris. Yeah, we don't know that Votto's back to full strength after what sounds like he was pretty sick. I mean, look, it's... I think...

It's dumb. It is dumb. It's very dumb. And I wonder, it is kind of an old school manager thing, though, to want to get everybody involved early in the season. And, you know, maybe he's thinking, who are they facing that first game? They are going up against Dylan Bundy. I didn't read that. So righty and they got a lefty the next day.

So maybe he's thinking, okay, I'll get the right-handed batter in against the lefty. But I don't think that means like Zach Collins and Andrew Vaughn are in a platoon now. and you have to worry about Vaughn sitting half the time. I don't think that's what it means. I think it's just... I hope not. Kind of an old school manager thing to get everyone involved right away.

And yeah, give the veteran the start on opening day. I guess there is some... There is some risk, I guess. Yeah, I mean, I'm a big volume guy, so I want my players to play. Oh, for me, it's more like if he... If he hits well, but not amazingly. and he's really bad on defense, which should be the expectation.

He was drafted as a first baseman. I don't know if he's ever played the outfield. And like, if Zach Collins is outperforming him, which I don't expect that to happen, you know, there's a chance he does lose playing time. Let's just run through this list. I have start percentage up right here.

I would start Miguel Seno over Vaughn. I know he's going to play. Ryan Mountcastle. Bobby Dalbeck, I would start over Andrew Vaughn. Well, this is where. you kind of draw the line. Yulee Gereale. You know he's going to play,

but he's not very exciting. Would you start someone like Yulee Gerell over Andrew Vaughn? No, and I don't think I would have started all the guys you named over Vaughn either. I would start to know over him.

But not Mountcastle and not Dalbeck. Maybe Mount Castle. I would start, I would say, CJ Cron over here. So the white, even if we're talking about a short week, just the,

if your week one is just four day, weekend. I'm going to bet Vaughn starts the other three of those games. I'm going to bet that. How much are you willing to bet, Scott? A win in week one. That's what I'm willing to bet. All right. If you think of something you would have bet on throughout the course of the podcast, I will take you up on that because I think that at most he will play two games over the weekend, which is just very frustrating. The White Sox do have four games planned for this upcoming weekend. The presumed Reds starting pitcher Michael Lorenzen had a small, setback with his right shoulder strain, while Sunny Gray is expected back from his mid-back

strain sometime in mid-April. As expected, Jonathan India will be with the Reds on opening day and likely starting at second base. Joey Votto. It's only likely. What's up? They might sit him for opening day. Yeah, that's true. Joey Votto, who is still working his way back from COVID is currently, I guess questionable would be the term. It said his status is TBD to be determined. So we will get that lineup tomorrow, and hopefully Joe Evato is in it. Luis Garcia was named the fifth starting pitcher for the Houston Astros. He actually has phenomenal numbers in the minor leagues, bouncing between the bullpen and the rotation there.

2.50-ERA, 1.17 whip, 2,284 strikeouts, and 205 innings pitched. He is only 10% rostered and has SPARP eligibility. Chris, we were talking beforehand, and you said, you've been adding Luis Garcia in points leagues so you can use him as a spark. Yeah, he is my spark in two different leagues. I'm sorry, I'm trying to look up his...

He was in the majors last season. I'm just trying to look up what his numbers were. Unfortunately, there are several Luis Garcia's. So it's kind of hard to sort through them. Last year he pitched 12 in a third innings, 2.92 ERA, 0.97 whip. So it's super small sample size, but.

Yeah, but not bad. Sorry, there are three active Luis Garcia's right now. He's kind of like Christian Javier, where, you know, it's not like he was some super highly regarded prospect, but you look at the minor league numbers and you're like, wow, that strike rate blows me away in 2019, 13.9 K per 9 for Luis Garcia. You know, for what it's worth, he had only nine strike. It's in those 12 and a third innings last year.

and we haven't really seen Christian Javier carry over the big strike at rate either, but he's a spark. There aren't that many good ones. I'm not saying he is a good one, but at least has something in the minor league track record to suggest he might develop into something. Yeah, I've got him and Jose de Leon starting in the podcast points league. Yeah, what can go wrong, Chris?

Old. You know, at least for week one. I don't like it. I like it. It does seem more bold than starting Andrew Vaughn. Garcia is in the rotation because Jake Oterese is unlikely to make his season debut until April 13th at the earliest as he continues to build up his arm. He got a late start to spring because he did not sign with the Astros until early March. Reminder that Arolus Chapman is suspended for the first two games of the season, which means Chad Green would earn save opportunities if need be for the New York Yankees.

The following players have been placed on the injured list somewhere expected. only one. Maybe not. George Springer with his oblique, Robbie Ray with a bruised elbow, Mike Soroka with his Achilles, Luke Voight with his knee injury, and Kyle Lewis,

which is one that I was monitoring. He sat out the past, I want to say, week or so with the Mariners. He was placed on the IL dealing with a knee injury. Scott, who are you thinking starts in Kyle Lewis's absence?

Well, that's a bone bruise, by the way, in that knee, and that can sometimes be a scary injury. so I was watching it closely too. I had Kyle Lewis on my best list, but I got him for really cheap in a couple leagues. He's always going to hurt me, Kyle Lewis. I think Jake Fraley probably gets the bats there in for right now.

I mean, I think it's possible Jared Kelnick comes up before Kyle Lewis comes back, but maybe not. Maybe Lewis is only out a couple weeks and. Fraley's sort of low-key, interesting. Yeah. He's been awful in the majors. But, you know, 250 minor league games, 70 steals, 26 homers.

Between AAA and AA, only 99 games, 22 steals, 19 homers. So there's a chance he's rosterable in deeper leagues. I would say, though, that if you're deciding on an outfielder to pick up in a deep league, Taylor Trammell, who, or Trammell, I think it is, who beat out. Frey for the left field job. Tramel's obviously going to play center to start the season. He's only 31% rostered himself. And that would be the preferred pickup to Fraley.

Yeah, I think he's worth rostering in all category of Roto leagues. Yeah, five outfielder. Five outfielder leagues for sure. 31% roster on CBS is Taylor. Trimel has a bit of a power speed combination and also coming off a monster spring. So has some prospect pedigree.

Came over from the Padres last year. Now with the Mariners. The following players, were dealing with something in spring training, dealing with an injury, but we'll be good to go for opening day.

That includes Aaron, Judge, Anthony Santander, Mike Yishremski and Tommy Lestello with the San Francisco Giants. Are you serious? Yes. I just...

It's breaking news. Something with the Knicks again? I just got... You did this too. We were in live. Oh, my God. The Knicks lost by one point. Oh,

no, this one actually matters. Yeah, so we got some breaking news coming in. Shohei Otani will start the season on the IL due to a blister he suffered on Monday. That's unfortunate, but it'll be backdated to, what is that? The 29th, so he'll probably be able to play by the 9th.

So sit him for the first week, if it's a long week, send him for the second week if you're doing both. But he should be fine. I mean, based on the way they were talking, and the fact he was in the lineup the next day, I would guess this is an abundance of caution move. just, you know, let's not, we're going to have to preserve innings anyway.

Let's not have this become a recurring issue for him. But yeah, that stinks. Take him out of the lineup, too. Otani in week one. Happy April Fool's Day, guys. Oh, what? Don't do that. That's not okay.

That is never funny. That April Fool's Day is the worst April Fool's. That is unacceptable. That is implausible. I can't believe you're that kind of person. Frank, I can't believe you are that kind of person. I thought I knew you better. Unacceptable.

I can't tell if you just went along with it, Chris, or if you... No, I was legitimately duped. Yeah. All right. I'm one of the most gullible people of all time. I was like, until I was like 10 years old, I believed all of the fireworks on the 4th of July were for my birthday. Like, I was embarrassing.

I think I was like nine when I figured out Santa wasn't real. I am too trusting. And you just took advantage of my kind trusting nature. And now I can't trust you ever again. You were nine years old, huh, when you found out Santa? I cannot reveal what age, how old I was when I was. I was older than nine, Frank. Yeah.

You and me are in the same boat, Scott, because I was very... And in fact, it was revealed to me, are we doing... Are kids listening to this podcast? We might not be talking about this. Yeah, we probably shouldn't because this is a family podcast, so some people might listen to it with their kids around. Everything that we just said is a joke. It's April Fool's Day.

We're going to move on. I mentioned earlier that we have a new sponsor, one that I am very excited about. and no matter where you are, today is opening day, and there are a few things I enjoy more in life than sitting down to watch baseball with a beer in my hand. Lion and Cougals is that beer for me.

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We are in on the line and coogles. Something that we will do, usually at the end of every podcast in season. will run through the starting pitchers for the next day and tell you who we're going to stream who we're avoiding. To stream or not to stream is what we will call this segment. Not very creative, but I kind of like it,

so I'm going to roll with it. So these are pitchers that are rostered in less than 70% of CBS leagues. Some of them we already spoke about. Some of them we haven't. So obviously there are not many options because it's opening day. That means all the aces are starting, and I'm not going to tell you to start your aces

because you should already know that. John means business. Does he actually? Scott, you had him as a, sleeper and he is in Boston going up against the Red Sox. Kind of a tough lineup to stream or not to stream. I don't plan on starting John Means in anything shallower than 15 teams, but I also invested a lot in pitching and I don't think John Means was ever more than my seventh starter.

So why would I start John Means? You know, like people are asking me, well, why you recommended this guy when your season long rankings have John Means ahead? Well, my season long rankings are accounting for the possibility that John Means is like this breakthrough ace picks up where he left off his last four starts last year. But I want to actually see it first because I think the other scenario for John Means

is you're dropping him two weeks from now, you know? So I'd rather give him some time and let it play out than stick him in my lineup right away, especially for an iffy matchup like that. Yeah, and this is more so for daily leagues, people trying to find pitchers to stream or whatever. I don't know. It's a little dangerous on opening day, obviously.

But yeah, Nathan Avaldi on the other side here, going up against the Baltimore Orioles at home. What do you think, Chris? Would you stream him or not? I would rather stream him than John Means. I agree with that, actually. I don't know if that means I would stream Nathan Avaldi in a vacuum. But he is the best of the options on the board, I think. Well, how about Brad Keller versus the Texas Rangers?

Yeah, he's the other one versus the Rangers. He could be a better streamer than Avaldi. But I think Avaldi has more strikeout potential. I would agree with that. I don't mind Brad Keller. He's not going to get a lot of strikeouts, but... Oh, all right. David Bowie, you're right? Brad Keller...

She was annoying me, so I had to annoy her, so she would leave me alone. Brad Keller should go deep into a start again against the Texas Rangers. That is a plus matchup by my estimation. Matthew Boyd, you know, we've tried the Matthew Boyd thing many times, but I will point out,

going up against the Cleveland Indians, and they've already announced that Yu Chang and Jordan Luplo will be in the starting lineup. So I'm kind of intrigued by this one, Scott. Well, Loplo is going to be in the starting lineup because he tends to hit lefties well. Point that out. That's a relative term for Jordan Loplo, I would say.

I mean, Matthew Boyd is my number 10 sleeper starting pitcher for this week. That puts him behind John Means. So probably not. But, you know, if you're desperate enough, I could see it. I was going to look up Jordan Loplow's splits for his career against left-hand to pitching. I will point out.

Let's see what we got here. Among teams that Matthew Boyd has faced at least five times, he has his best career ERA against Cleveland. That is... It's 413, so it's still not good, but, you know. Oh, you know, I actually looked at the weather

for that game too, because I had to decide whether I wanted to start him in a 15-team league, and it's going to be 33 degrees, 17-mile-per-hour wins in Detroit. So the ball will not be traveling very well in Detroit. So a very cold day. Get Matthew Boyd in there. I would like to apologize to Jordan Leplow because he actually destroys left-handed pitching in his career.

982 OPS. The guy's absolute slaughter against left-handed pitching. Chad Cool against the Cubs? No, not even going to ask you guys. Kyle Gibson at the Royals, I assume no. No. Fair enough. If you were watching on the video side, don't go anywhere.

If you were listening to the podcast, we were going to take a quick break. But when we return, Chris is going to tell you what you should be watching on opening day. We'll do that right here on fantasy baseball today. Chris, among the, I want to say 30 articles that you wrote this past week, you wrote about what you should be watching for on opening day. So if you would like to tell the people what they, what are they watching? What are they looking for? Well, actually, something that we probably should have mentioned before, you know, potentially

ruining countless childhoods. There was a story on The Ringer today that the ringer.com that talked about the new baseball and some of the evidence that we have from spring training. And I pointed this out pretty early on in spring training that the home run per batted ball rate was higher than had ever been

in spring training. And that stayed true throughout the spring. So my assumption was that they weren't using the new ball. But then there were, you know, Blake Snell talking about the new ball and how it fell and all and all this stuff. And, you know, so the ringer did some research. And they did find that over the course of spring, there did appear to be two different balls being used. One of them had less drag, which was what we expected from this new ball. What MLB said was that they made minor alterations to the baseball

that would reportedly cause the ball to travel one to two feet shorter on batted balls hit over 375 feet. What the evidence seems to suggest so far is that actually on batted balls hit over 100 miles per hour with a 32 to 24 degree launch angle, they traveled 10 feet fewer. 10 feet less, less on average than they have in years past. So that is a significant change. The problem was it seems to add about a mile per hour to exit velocity on average. And so the net effect so far appears to be that the ball is bouncier, but when it's hit at a 100 mile per hour ball hit this year would travel less far than it would have last year.

So how is it how is it bouncing? That doesn't that, but that seemed like the opposite. Because there's a difference between drag and the like bounciness of the baseball. Yeah, I thought they were supposed to be making it less bouncy, but it might have reduced drag. So it might.

Apparently that is the opposite of what we've seen so far. But the overall impact was the highest home run rate ever in spring training. And also, and this might even, it appears MLB just completely bungled this one because it also added an average of 0.4 or 5 extra inches

of vertical movement to fastballs and 0.3 inches on curveballs. So the increased drag on the baseball caused it to move more while thrown. In addition to probably just pitchers being able to grip the ball better, which is what they've talked about anecdotally. So the gap at starting pitchers is going to widen more? Well, so the league wide strikeout rate was nearly 25% this spring.

And in the last, I believe it was 30 years, there has only been one season where the strikeout rate has been lower in the regular season than in the spring. So it could be a situation where we are looking for... What's a normal league average strikeout rate? It's been like, I think last season we're like 23. 4% the year before. It was like 22.8, something like that.

So it's been moving steadily up. So basically it sounds like they're just promoting three true outcomes even more. It seems like this is early evidence and obviously it's noisy because not every game uses the statman, the Hawkeye stackass tracking and not...

Well, are they sure? I didn't read the article, but are they sure that they were able to narrow down which balls were the new ones and which ones were the old ones? They seemed to be able to identify traits in given badded balls that were markedly different enough that they could tell which one was the which one. Okay. And so based on this preliminary data, it seems like we're going to have potentially more strikeouts and more home runs or at least more home runs per batted ball. So like Frank said, yeah. The gap's going to widen.

More three true outcomes. The studs. The studs are going to be more. studlier and the non-studd pitchers are going to be even more vulnerable. It is, um, gosh. It seems like the exact opposite of what Rob Manfred stated goals for improving the, the game have been over the last couple of seasons. And, um, I don't know.

It's, it's really strange and, and trying to figure out, like, who this might affect most, I think is sort of impossible to, to do because, you know, maybe the drag is greater on balls that are hit further, but balls that are hit further, you know, I don't know. I trying to identify which type of player might benefit or stand to lose the most from this.

I think it's probably a Fouls Aaron right now. But yeah, it's a big deal, I think. Yeah. No, it's good that you brought it up. It could monumentally change the landscape again.

And frankly, it's a really bad look for Major League Baseball that they apparently keep introducing these like environmental shifting baseballs every couple of years that just completely change how the game is played. Yeah, I mean, as if Major League Baseball

needed more publicity for all the wrong reasons, right? I mean, it's not the worst thing, but it just, it does seem contradictory. Ultimately, it seems like they want to, just from a pure baseball perspective, they want to speed the game up. And I guess more home runs and more strikeouts would do that

because less runners on base. Yeah, but they want more action in general. I think that's really... That's what's contradictory about it because they're also... You're claiming conspiracy here, Frank. You're saying they said they meant to do one thing, but they actually did this other thing on purpose.

I mean, that's what it seems like to me, but they're trying out these new rules in the minor leagues where there's going to be no shifts. So that is obviously promoting more in-game action. Yeah. But yeah. I think weird. Very weird.

The way Rob Arthur, who was co-writer of that story along with Ben Lindberg and the ringer, there were two baseballs getting used in spring training, one with higher measured drag and one with lower drag. The higher measured drag ball popped off the bat a lot quicker and went out of the yard 20% more often. It also moved more on breaking pitches. Wow. We think the higher drag ball is the new one because teams, teams started using it more and more as spring training went on.

It would make sense that they went through their old store of balls before using new ones. But it's behaving more like it's a more extreme version of what we've seen. I don't know. So yeah, regardless of which baseball league uses in 2021, league-wide spring training stats are usually a very good indicator of how the game will change in the regular season. These stats suggest large boosts in Ks. and home runs leading to even more of the three true outcomes this year. Home runs have been going up since late 2015. The best explanation for what's happening to the ball is a lack of control over manufacturing,

but random manufacturing variation generally shouldn't push the ball continuously in one consistent direction toward more and more homers. So that's the first thing that I want to watch on opening day and in the first week is, you know, is there evidence of this? And obviously one day won't tell us, but the nice thing about stat cap data for all 30 major league stadiums is we're going to get a pretty robust sample size very early on. So, you know, it might only take three or four days before people can start looking at the data and say, well, you know, it does seem to be this or it does seem to be that. And, you know, the early

indication is that we could be seeing another, you know, kind of seismic shift in the landscape, which is awesome to learn 24 hours before our first pitch. I saw you Darvish was joking today. He responded to a reporter saying that hopefully MLB can introduce the Universal DH tonight. I would like to see that. The night before opening day, it's like, well, I mean, they did playoff changes like in the middle of the season last year.

So who knows? I appreciate the optimism, U Darvish, but I don't think it's going to happen, buddy. Some of the other things I'm looking for on opening day, I think are, you know, fairly straightforward. what do the lineups look like, you know, specifically, you know, is Victor Robles batting leadoff? You know, where does Andreas Jimenez hit? There are a handful of guys whose value could change dramatically. Who's throwing faster or slower?

Casey Meis is one guy, you know, when he makes his first start. I want to see him sustain the spring training velocity gains. Patrick Corbyn, you know, we want to see if, you know, it did seem like his velocity was ticking up as spring training went on. You'd like to see him, you know, averaging 90 instead of 89. He was throwing 93 in that last start. So, peaked at it? Yeah.

No, no, no. Every fat, I watched some highlights of his last start and every fastball I saw him throw. It was 93. Well, that'd be a big deal. Steve Strausberg, obviously, with his injury. Yeah. It's interesting you bring that up, Scott,

because I saw a report in Brad Hand's final appearance that said he was throwing 95 to 96. Obviously, they both, both Corbin and Hand played for the nationals. And then the same person who tweeted that out said, All right, maybe the gun is hot in the stadium because Brad Hand has never averaged more than 93 miles per hour on its fastball. So it might have been the same thing. You love the hot gun, Frank.

It might be the hot gun theory. It might be the same thing for both of those guys. Maybe. Yeah, that's why I hate the stadium gun versus stackass thing. And that's why they just need to, how much can it cost to put a Hawkeye thing at every stand? Can we just get this thing done? Honestly, I never heard the term hawk eye camera

before you brought it up the other day, Chris. And I think, yeah, I think that's the new version of Stackast. Yeah, it uses radar instead of cameras, I think. I don't know. Yeah, I actually don't know the exact difference. I just know that it's new and supposedly more accurate. Oh, no, no, no. And then who's throwing new pitches?

Tyler Glass now has got the slider slash cutter thing. Carlos Rodon, you know, appears to have a curveball now. So, you know, over the first turn through the rotation, I think we'll want to keep track of guys who might be throwing new pitches. And, you know, who gets the call for the first safe. for Cleveland and Arizona and, you know, most of the league, frankly. You know, we'll want to see that too. Yeah, for sure.

Season-long predictions. What do you guys want to start with? Would you rather do division winners and World Series, award winners? Yeah, let's do Division Winners and World Series. All right. So let's start off in the American League. We'll start with the AL West. Who do you guys have winning the AL West this season?

The West. No East Coast Bay is here. Well, I've got those dirty Astros winning the AL West. You know, if I started with the AL East, Scott, I would have got at least one tweet like, oh, Yankee Homer, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, well, that's just how they're always shown in the, you know, in the newspaper, newspaper, on the internet. Yeah, I got those dirty Astros winning the West. I still think, I think their lineup is clearly the best in the division. And I think they're one through five, especially when everybody's healthy,

can go toe to toe with anyone in the division either. Their bullpen is a major weakness. And I think, you know, the athletics and angels will be nipping at their heels. But I think the Astros pull it out. They went to the ALCS last year after all, despite their under 500 record. Yep. They have experience as well. I have the A's winning the American League West because they're kind of like the raise in that way

where they're just, they don't really have superstars, but they're always pesky, and they don't really have an ace on their staff, but they have a lot of solid depth. And their bullpen is still really good, even after losing Liam Hendricks. So I think it will be close. I have the Astros gaining one of the wildcard spots,

but the Oakland A is winning the AL West. What do you think, Chris? I have the Astros winning the division as well, and I have the Angels taking one of the wild card spots. And I actually have the Mariners finishing third, because I'm liking the Mariners this year. I think they got the ice. Athletics fourth?

Athletics fourth. Yeah, Rangers. The thing about the athlete, like this was one of the tougher divisions I felt like, just to pick the whole order of, like a lot of athletics underperformed last year in the lineup, especially,

and yet they won the division, and they won it by a big margin, 60 games, but still, I had a hard time putting them too much. I've got an excellent defense, which always helps. Yeah.

American League Central, Chris, why don't you get started? because you have a different answer than we do. Yeah, yeah, I'm not following the way. I had White Sox fans annoyed at me all day on Twitter. Mercy! And I'm picking the Cleveland baseball team

to win the American League Central. Wow, I thought you guys were a couple of Cleveland haters. I think they've got the best rotation in the division still. And, you know, even after giving everybody away. And you hate Plysec? I think the white. Sox have a great bullpen, but

Cleveland's is right there with them. I mean, the end of that bullpen, if you can get, if the starters can get through seven innings or six innings, it's going to be real hard to come back on a bullpen that can throw out a manual class A, James Karen Jack and Nick Whitgren in some order. This is the division of bullpens.

I mean, everybody but the Tigers has a great bullpen here. Yeah, I mean, in the American League, the nice thing is fifth place was easy in every division. Yeah, that's true. Rangers, tigers, and Orioles, yeah. Yeah. I will just point out for Cleveland, as much as Scott likes Plesack,

and I've been talking up Savale, I mean, they have some question marks, legitimate question marks in their rotation after Shane Bieber. So Bieber's going to be awesome, but I actually think the White Sox rotation is a little bit more complete where they're at at this point.

So I'll take the four and five on Cleveland by a decent margin. over Chicago's. I know we like Dillon C's, but like, let's see more than one great spring training start before we start talking about him. You like Carlos Rodan a lot.

Well, we all like Carlos Redaunt, but especially you. I'm just going to say, if we're going to say, Cleveland has rotation questions. Yeah. Chicago's got real big road. And the thing with Chicago for me is just,

if everything goes right, I think they're by far the best team in the American League Central, but they have no depth at any position. And it's been, exposed already. I mean, Andrew Vaughn out

in left field, you're starting. Yeah, they're starting Larry Garcia and Zach Collins and a guy who's never played

above single A and has never played left field. Like, I like Andrew Vaughn. I think he's going to be awesome, but that team,

like, they could not afford a Jose Abe brave of injury. All right. Just at all. We've got to move a little faster. Scott,

who do you have win in the American League Central? I have the White socks. I agree with what Chris said about how if everything goes right for them, like, there's a lot more that can go right for them. And I like what their new pitching coach, Ethan Katz is doing. I think the rotation has a lot of upside the back end too. And I like their lineup the best. I do have the twins over the Indians for second place,

and the twins are one of my wild cards. That was a close call, though. I kind of wanted to put the Indians ahead because I feel like, I feel like more can go wrong for the twins. Their lineup is old and injury prone and it's not as good as I remember it being at this time last year. But I went ahead and put them ahead because I think they're one through one through three in the rotation is really solid still and good bullpen. Yep. I'm with you there. Scott, I have Minnesota second in the division and they are my second wild card team along with the Astros. So I've got the White Sox in the AL Central, the A's and AIS and AAST, Astros and Twins in the for the wild card and of course in the ALE East.

Oh my good goodness gracious. It's the Bronx Bombers winning the division. Yeah, I got the Blue Jays winning the wild card. Okay. But you have the Yankees winning the division?

Yeah. Okay. What do you think is? Yeah, it's really hard to pick against the Yankees. They still, even when half their team gets injured, they have depth too.

They have depth in the rotation. They have depth in the lineup. I do have the Blue Jays over the raise. I thought that would be more unpopular than it seems to be. but you look at that Ray's lineup and you're like, how did they, like they would,

they won, they won two thirds of their games last year. How did this happen? Yeah. And obviously they don't have Blake Snell anymore, so the rotation looks pretty. Or Charlie Morton. Yeah, or Charlie Morton.

Yeah, their rotation looks like a bunch of has-bens. Yeah, I'm not seeing it for the race. So yeah, I got Yankees winning and Blue Jays as a wild card. Yeah, I wanted to get the Blue Jays in as a wild card team. I think it's close. I think they'll be up there.

I like the Astros and the Twins a little bit more. I think they're a little bit more complete, but the Blue Jays' offense is going to be fun. I just worry about their pitching staff outside of Jun Niu. Yeah, they got a little bit of the White Sox thing where, you know, they don't have a ton of depth, although I think they probably have more positional versatility among their guys. Who do you guys have coming out of the American League?

Yankees. Yankees. All right, I actually have the White Sox over the Yankees. So I'm very bullish on the White So, sucks to see you didn't want to be a homer yeah I mean I got to tell you Frank I really wanted to pick the Braves to win the world series I didn't spoiler alert but I really want I could definitely carve out a path for them you know because the the wildcard teams well we'll get to it we'll get to it and yeah let's do it and and that's I want to choose the Yankees but hey it is a it is a homer pick and as long as a roll this Chapman is

their closer in the postseason I'm sure that something bad is going to happen so that's just that's what's happened the past couple of years Let's go over to the National League and we'll start off with the NL West. What do you guys have there? Dodgers. You're the only one who didn't pick the Dodgers and frankly, you're...

I get it, you like the Padres. Come on, man. It's all about... Come on. The Padres have a great team. It's a World Series hangover. World Series hangover, dude. The Padres are taking that division.

I don't have it to the team that loses. Is that true? I don't know. I don't know. But the Padres were amazing and then added the Dodgers have been the best team in the NL for what five years, at least three years. And then they added the NL Cy Young winner to that.

But look at what the Padres added too, Scott. They have three MVP front runners and three Cy Young front runners. You're kidding me? The Padres might be awesome. The Padres might be the second best team in baseball, but they're in the same division as the Dodgers. Cody Ballinger is going to get hurt. And it's not like the number of things that have to.

go wrong for the Dodgers not to win 100 games. We'll see. That's the thing. They close three starters. And I would still feel confident in them winning 100. Right. Tony Gonselin would be most in number two. Like if Dustin May,

Tony Gonselin and David Price are in the rotation all year, they're fine. It's still a 100 win team. It's just there. It's a stir. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see when Adrian Monajon is in the running for the Sai Young, Chris.

And then I'll remind you what you're talking. Audrey's obviously a wild card, right? And Frank, you have Dodgers as the wild card. I have the Dodgers and the wild card. Let's go over to the National League Central. This for me was actually the toughest division to choose. The toughest, for the bottom. It's just, along with the NL East, the NLE East, I think is pretty tough too.

Yeah, for different reasons. NL Central is probably the worst division in baseball, and NL East might be the best. Yeah. So what do you guys have in the NL Central? So I went with the Reds, which seems to be an unpopular choice. I'm seeing a lot of other people picking them for fourth. I can see it.

I got the Cubs fourth. I could see the Cubs winning. Basically, I know the Pirates aren't winning, but it could be any four of the others. You know, the Reds might have defensive issues because they're playing so many guys out of position. But I do think their rotation looks the strongest, especially when everybody's healthy

and frankly, even when everybody's not. Honestly, their lineup is at least the deepest. The Cardinals have a couple, you know, they have Aeronado and Goldschmidt, obviously, but I think both might be headed the wrong direction. The Brewers have yell at who I think is going to bounce back, but they're kind of

shallow at the bottom of the lineup. And the pitchers that are good on the Brewers are going to have innings problems, I think. So yeah, I go with the Reds. Yeah, I move with the Brewers. I think the offense bounces back. And they might, they could be

the best defensive team in baseball. I mean, I think they'll have one of, if not the best outfield defense in the league when they have Bradley Kane and Yelich out there. So I think that'll help a lot. But yeah, I could see the four teams in the NL Central being separated by five games. All right. So we actually have breaking news.

This is not an April Fool's Day joke. Francisco Lindor and the Mets have a deal. 10 years, $341 million. What was that second number? 10 years, 341 million. Okay. So he will be getting paid annually $34 million per year for the next decade. Lindor will be with the New York Mets.

So Steve Cohen opening up the wallet. And I think it's perfect. I mean, it's a nice market to be in, obviously, with the Mets there. He's a very marketable player. Lindor is good. They'll be happy with that for at least five years, I think. Yep. We'll see what happens on the back end there.

I have the Cardinals winning the National League. Central, but again, I think it's really tough. I have Cardinals, Brewers, Reds, and Cubs in that order. Obviously, the pirates are last into the division. How about the NL East? Do you have the Mets winning it? Now they got their guy, Lindor. Could certainly see it. Could certainly see it.

They get Carrasco back. They get Cinderguard back. And that one through five is, you know, it compares to the Dodgers and the Padres. I think it's worse than the Dodgers and the Padres. but it compares to it. But, you know, things always go wrong for the Mets, right? And things always seem to go right for the Brames. The Braves won through five when they get the Roka back is pretty strong, too.

It's not as high-end as the Mets is, but it's, I would put it in the top five in baseball. And the lineup is after the Dodgers is probably the best in the National League. So I got the Braves winning the division. The Mets are my second wild-class. card team after the Padres. But, you know, it was tough predicting this division all the way through. I hated to put the Marlins last. Yep.

But I think they're easily last. I think they're probably 10 games behind everyone else. They're the best. They're the best last place team. I don't know that the record will show it at the end because the other four teams are so good. But I think they're, I think in most divisions, they wouldn't be last. Yeah, I picked the Mets.

Love the rotation. I think the bullpen's pretty good. This is a team with quite a few. contingency plans in the lineup especially. So, you know, I think they could, they could afford an injury to a Jeff McNeil and still be okay. They could afford, you know, an injury to one of the corner outfielders because if Jose Martinez needs to play regularly, you know, it's not the worst thing in the world. This is a team that does have actually for the first time in a long time for a Mets team.

They've actually got some depth. Yeah, and I like the Mets as well. it was a really close call. I think if Carrasco hadn't got hurt and obviously we're waiting on Center Guard, look, the second half of the season, they could be phenomenal. But I do think the Atlanta Braves,

the more complete team now, they have the experience there as well. So I chose the Braves to win the division and I have the Mets joining the Dodgers as my two wild card teams. Who do you guys have coming out of the National League? Or do I even need to ask? Well, I pick the Dodgers.

I mean, I kind of, I don't feel like the pick should be a declaration of who you think the best team in the league is and not, you know, you dreaming up some fantastic scenario. That's plausible, but... You know, I could see... Any team could make it to the World Series, but that's not, like, you don't pick that. I presume it still lines up so that the... Did they change it? The team with the best record in the league plays the wild card team, the wild card winner first, right? Which would be the winner of Padres and Mets. And I could totally... see them upsetting the Dodgers in a short series and the Braves just have to knock off the Padres of the Mets, right? That would be easier. But now, I got that.

I picked the Dodgers out of the NL and I picked them beating the Yankees in the World Series. I was going to save the World Series picks, but it's fine. Sorry. I got the exact same one. All right. Well, I've got the Padres with the best record in the National League. So I'm going with them to make it to the World Series against the White Sox. and that's right.

You guessed it. The White Sox are your 2021 World Series winners over the San Diego Padres. Let's just hit some of these award winners real quick. Rookie of the year. Scott, who do you have, American League and National League? So National League is easy. Brian Hayes. I think it's going to be a runaway.

He had the highest rookie war in the NL last year and he didn't even play 30 games. So I don't know what would have happened if he won rookie of the year. If they could give it to him twice, I don't know. But yeah, it's going to be Cabrion Hayes. And then in the AL, I think Randy Arroserena is, Randy Aroserana is a pretty safe call there. You don't think of him as a rookie.

I think Andrew Vaughn's defensive war is going to bring down his overall war so much that it'll be pretty easy not to give it to him, even if he does everything he should offensively. Chris, what do you think? Rookie of the Year? Taylor Tramel in the American League. I love it. I'm a big fan of his.

I've got him on a lot of my teams. And of course, Ian Anderson. Who else? Consistency. You got to stick with it. But the guy who, one of my bold predictions was he's top five

in the American League and Salyong. I think that would get it in the National League. Yeah. That would get him the rookie of the year. That certainly would. I'm with Scott. I have Cabrion Hayes winning it in the National League. And I also have a Mariners outfield

but not Taylor Tramel. I have Jared Kelnick. I think he could be up by mid-April, and I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility for him to go 20-20 as a rookie, 20 home runs and 20 steals. Would certainly make him awesome for fantasy purposes. So, Kelnick, winning the American League rookie of the year. Who do you guys have at Tsai Young? These were my chalkiest picks. I got Jacob de Grom winning in the NL. I got Shane Bieber repeating in the AL. I feel like this is the, This is the award to go chalk because it's so hard to break through and become an elite pitcher. So, yeah. There's no need to get cute with it. Like, DeGroma is so much better than everyone. I went with Garrett Cole, but Shane Bieber could be at it as well.

I'd take one. I think those. I could have picked Bieber over Cole in all these fantasy leagues. Yeah, like that's, I have a whole higher. Yeah, but it's like I think those three are so far ahead of. everyone in fantasy, and I think it's true in real life as well. Yeah. Yeah, if I was actually betting on it, I would bet on Garrett Cole in the American League and Jacob de Grom in the National League. But if I was not choosing those two, I would go with Gialito in the American

League and Aaron Nola in the National League. Let's call it my non-Cole and de Grom's Tsayung Award winners, if I had to choose some. Let's wrap up here with the MVP. These are fun. I've been saying all preseason, Corey Seeger is my pick for NL MVP. He was one of the three Dodgers candidates I was referring to earlier. The other two being Betts and Bellinger, of course, both former MVP's already. I think Seeger joins that club this year. And then my AL pick is Shohei Otani, who if he makes good on delivering his best-case scenario on both sides of the field,

I think it'll be hard to give it to anyone else because he'll be, they'll be such a valuable player. Spicy. Shohei Otani winning the American League MVP for Scott. Chris, who do you have? MVP, AL, N. Well, unlike Scott, I'm not going to pick someone from a team who's not going to make the playoffs

according to my picks. So, I picked Mike Trout. I have the Angels making the playoffs. I think if the Angels make the playoffs, Mike Trout's going to be the MVP. That's fair. I just, they're not just, They don't make the playoffs.

He should be the favorite anyway, right? If they don't make the playoffs, he's probably going to win MVP. Yeah. Who do you have in the National League? Oh, that's right. The National League's version of Mike Trout, wants it.

Ooh. All right. I mean, I would say those are pretty chalky picks too, right? But they're good picks. They make a lot of sense. Can Soto actually win it if the nationals don't make the playoffs, though? Of course, Frank. Come on.

Don't. I'm not going to say no voter does that anymore, but most don't. Let's just look at war, and they're like, okay, this guy had the most war. He's my MVP. If everyone thinks he's going to be the best hitter in baseball, yeah, you probably do it. His defense is going to drag down his war, so I'll just bring that up. He's more athletic now.

He's doing Pilates. The best for last, of course, I've got short stops. It's all about the short stops this season. In the National League, Padres have the best record in baseball, Fernando Tatis. Could have a 30-30 season. He's an awesome defender. He's the face of baseball. now, I would say, or about to be the face of baseball.

He wins, how was he? 22 years old, 23 years old. He wins the MVP for the National League. And on the other side, probably my boldest take of all. Tim Anderson, he is the one that I have riding the most on this fantasy season, and I'm sticking with it. 25 home runs, 25 steals. The White Sox have the best record in the American League.

They go on to win the World Series. Obviously, that doesn't matter for the MVP anyway. But Tim Anderson wins the MVP, back-to-back, MVPs from the United States. the Chicago White Sox. There you go, guys. We did it. Next time we are talking, we will be analyzing a lot of baseball, a lot of stuff to talk about.

Happy opening day to everybody out there. Happy birthday to Scott for Chris and Scott. I am Frank Deagle. All for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Bye.