Fantasy Baseball Today - Our FINAL 12-Team Roto Mock Draft Part 1! Rounds 1-13 Picks & Analysis (3/19 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

Let's get into our final 12-team Roto mock draft! In part one we're breaking down the first 13 rounds, highlight picks, strategy and roster construction. How far did Freddie Freeman fall after missing the first game of the season with a rib injury? 🏀 Join our Fantasy Baseball Today Bracket Game: https://shorturl.at/zezZC Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CPTowers @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/ 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 league. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up and welcome in some fantasy baseball today. You are listening to this on Wednesday, March 19th. I am Frank Stample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers.

Today on the show, we are doing a. Live 12-team Roto mock draft. Yes, just last week we had the mock draft megastrine, but a lot has changed since then, and we are entering the biggest draft weekend of the year. So here we are. Guys, go ahead, Scott. I like that you just prefaced the whole thing

with the arguments I made to you for recording another mock draft episode. That's exactly it. That's exactly what happened behind the scenes. That is called a sub-tweet. No, I mean, I was just in case other people were wondering, I just thought I would drink it. Well, no, like, there are some big questions that need to be answered that weren't there when we last did a mock draft, including Spencer Strider, who we talked through at great length on yesterday's podcast.

But also, like, what do we make of the report that Christian Campbell is considered according to one beat writer at least in the mind of team decision makers is the way he phrased it? the favorite for the second base job for the Red Sox now, which I had kind of written off. Well, it's two different Red Sox beat reporters said a different player was the favorite for second base yesterday. So with David Hamilton being the other, it was a, I forget her name, but a writer for the athletics said David Hamilton

and Chris Cotillo said Christian Campbell. So that's up in the air. We also have Freddie Freeman being scratched from the Dodgers opening day with pain in his race. ribs the same spot where he apparently tore cartilage in the playoffs last year. Sounds like they think it was just a scar tissue thing, but that's another injury concern I didn't even know about before yesterday. To be honest, I was aware of the ankle, but the rib cartilage, that's something new. So how much does he fallless at all?

Kirby Yates is the closer, right? Not Kirby Yates. Jesus. Tanner Scott. Tanner Scott, but Dave Roberts had already said that. I thought you're being sarcastic. No. No, just, you know, you know how my brain is sometimes. Yeah, I wasn't being a jerk, by the way, because sub-tweeting has a negative connotation.

I actually was just, you know, clearing the air. I can't believe you said that. You know, I would talk about game one of the season. Obviously, we're excited. There's baseball that's happening. But by the time you're listening to this, we'll already have a second game played, most likely. So that's twice as many games. We'll wait until both games are done.

And then we can talk about those. Obviously, Yamamoto looked okay Imanaga looked okay, but yeah, we'll wait until both games are done. We'll talk about those more on tomorrow's podcast. Freddie Freeman, an interesting talking point. We'll see if he falls in this mock draft a little bit today. Again, it's a 12-team Roto mock

and we are using the standard five-by-five categories with Roto lineups, two catchers, one of each in-field position, an extra corner infielder, middle infielder, five outfielders, one utility spot, then nine pitcher spots. I am drafting second. Chris is drafting fifth.

Scott is drafting 9th. This will be broken down into a two-part podcast on the audio side of things. Scott, I know you want to get things started, but I do have to quickly promote our bracket game that we have coming up later this week. Get those brackets in. And it is bracket time.

So get yours in now on the CBS Sports app. Enter the bracket challenge for the chance to win a new Nissan Armada and trips to the 2026 Final 4. You can also play in men's and women's pools with friends and join our FBFB. pool. If you were in it last year, you're automatically in again. All you have to do is go in and make your picks. If you want to join our bracket game, go to cbsports.com slash baseball. You can also find the link

in this episode description. The winner of our FBT bracket game will get a one year subscription to Paramount Plus for free. Get the CBS Sports app to start filling out your brackets. No purchase necessary. See terms and rules for details. With that, Scott, we are ready to get this thing up and running. I don't know who I have to think. It's probably you. Thanks, Scott, for giving me the second overall pick. It's a pretty easy decision, I think,

whoever's there between Otani and Bobby Witt. But that decision will be made for me by the first overall drafter. So here we are. Up and running. And it was Bobby Witt. So I will take Shohei Otani whenever this loads. And boom.

First two picks. No surprise. Bobby Witt and Shohei Otani here. Otani, I believe, two batted balls over 110 miles per hour in their very first game. It's just Otani, being Otani, obviously. Aaron, Judge, Ellie De LaCruz, and Chris,

you are up with the fifth overall pick. And anytime Jose Ramirez falls to five, that's an easy choice in a Roto league. So, I'm happy to make that pick. Yeah, Jose Ramirez just one of the most consistent. I believe he's finished as a top six or top

eight player four of the past five full seasons that he's played in. So yeah, about as consistent as they come. If you want to play for just safety and consistency and high floor, and obviously the ceiling is there, we saw it last year. Jose Ramirez is a fine pick. The very next pick was Juan Soto, sixth overall. So I noticed Bobby Witt, we all noticed.

Obviously, Bobby Witt went over Otani. But what I wanted to point out is even with some of the new revelations from Dave Roberts about how they might sit him a little more often this year. Otani just over the weekend on NFBC remained the consensus number one choice. And I don't know if I'm surprised by that or not, but I do find it interesting.

I'm to the point, really even before that revelation from Roberts, just with the concerns over the shoulder and the likelihood now stated by him himself or by Dodgers management likelihood that he's not going to run as much this year. I've been favoring wit over Otani in this format and judge over Otani in head-to-head points. There was also at one point a little, a very small quote from Dave Roberts where he said, you know, he's probably going to get some extra time off around his starts when he's back to pitching,

which at this point we have no idea when that will be. But yeah, that's what I was referring to. Decent matters at the margin. when we're talking about gaps that are as small as the ones between the top three players. It shouldn't be enough to drop him to fourth in any league, but it's enough to take Bobby Witt or Aaron Judge over him, I think. And if I had the first pick, I would have taken Bobby Witt, but with the second pick here, I go with Otani.

And even if he runs a little bit less, I think we could get, you know, 45, 20, something like that, obviously still expecting an awesome season. The next couple of picks, Fernando Tati said seven. That's earlier than where you. used to and then Francisco Indoor, Scott, you were up at 9. Oh, I didn't realize I was up. I'm happy, I told you.

You are on the clock blasting in my ears should have given it away. Kyle Tucker, I haven't had a chance to take him yet, but he's next up in my rankings, player with true five category potential. He's had a bad spring, which I've noticed

has knocked down his ADP slightly over the last weekend. I don't know if it's because of the bad spring. The bad spring should not affect your opinion of Tucker one way or another. I think we're we as in people who talk about fantasy baseball generally are running the risk of over emphasizing spring happenings this spring. There hasn't been a lot of it's just spring when it is just spring.

And certainly in the case of a Kyle Tucker as proven as he is, it's nothing to worry about. All right. After Kyle Tucker, Corby and Karendor, Mookie Betts and Gunner Henderson, Gunner Henderson, by the way, did take batting practice on Tuesday. Brandon Hyde said they're, quote, hopeful, but not sure Henderson will be ready for opening day. The way things have trended, I think he'll be there. Of course, we don't know that for sure, but it seems like things are looking a little bit better here for Gunner Henderson. Into round two, back-to-back aces, Terrick Scuba, and Paul Skeen's.

We're coming up on Scott's second pick. Chris, I didn't get an opinion from you yesterday on Mookie Betts. maybe that's because you don't have one and it's not a big deal. But the fact that he had this illness and he lost 15 pounds, he's already traveled back to L.A. You worry at all about Mookie Betz losing 15 pounds right before the start of the season? I have no idea, frankly. If it was something with long-term implications,

you would think they wouldn't want him traveling overnight in the middle of the illness, right? Like that, like this is, it's what, a 15-hour full? flight, 12 hour flight. Like, I, have you ever waged yourself after being sick? It's, it's really not that abnormal to lose 10 pounds. I guess it was a little more than 10 pounds, but. Yeah. Like, you're dehydrate.

Like, I just, it's possible. I don't want to say that it's, there's no concern at all. And if, I think the gap between, I don't know, the sixth player and the 15th player, or 16th player, frankly, is pretty. slim. So if you wanted to just say I'm out on Mookie Betz if he falls to the second round, I'll take him there. I think that's reasonable, but I'm

not going to like drop him a whole tier or anything. Like if you want to say, okay, fine, I'll take Julio Rodriguez instead of Mookiee bets. That seems reasonable. I'm not going to drop him behind Jaron Duran. You know? All right. After Paul

Skeens, we got Yoron Alvarez, Julio Rodriguez-Sos Scott and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. down to 17. That feels like maybe the lowest we've seen Vlad go in a long time as well. Scott, you start with two outfielders here. And it's a lot easier to do in a Roto League with five outfielders versus head-to-head league where we only have three. Yeah.

And that was the decision for me between Vladimir Guerrero and Julio Rodriguez. I actually wrote about Julio Rodriguez came out on the site Tuesday about how he's one of 12 players. I generally try to avoid in drafts. I just don't have a good feeling when I go to draft him. Not for any particular reason. I do go into it more in the article and you can go read it. I just generally try to avoid him, but I wanted to start,

I wanted to have a draft where I start with two outfielders because I feel like so many of them I stock up on infielders early. Not that I'm afraid to draft two outfielders in a five outfielder league. It just works out that I focus on infield earlier. All right. after Vlad Jr. Bryce Harper, Tray Turner,

Chris selected Jackson Trio. Then we get Jaron Duran. So Chris, you took Chorio to pair with Jose Ramirez. So all right, you get an elite outfielder and third baseman power speeds. Technically,

Jaron's ranked ahead of Churio for me. Churio was my second highest player remaining and they're both outfielder. So in this instance, I don't think I've drafted Churio this year. So I wanted to see, wanted to see how that felt. Okay. Well, are you thinking about making that change or you just wanted to try it out?

Like if this was a league we were playing out, who are you actually taking, Turyo or Duran? I guess I have to say Duran because that's who I have ranked higher and that's what I've had all offseason. And I have no reason to move Duran down or Churio up. I don't know. Like this is something we talk about a lot that isn't really applicable to most people who play. But like I'm going to end up. having drafted, I don't know, 25 or 30 teams,

I'm going to play 12 or 13 of them out this season. So I'm not always, sometimes you make a pick in those circumstances to see what a different team looks like. If I was playing one league out, yes, I would probably just go with Duran. I think he's the safer pick, the safer bet for high volume five category production, but it's a razor thin margin. All right, after you selected Jackson Trio, we got Duran, Jazz Chisholm, I selected Austin Riley, then Jackson, Merrill, and Cattell Marte at the turn.

We are into round three. I thought for sure, me passing on Zach Wheeler would be a mistake. But here he is in the third round, and I don't really want to take pictures this early in the draft, but he's the best player on my board. And so I'll take Zach Wheeler here and see the way the rest of the team turns out. if Jackson Merrill was here I probably would have taken him just so I can get one outfielder.

I've got third base and UTIL, so it's kind of a weird roster construction, but I'm going to go ahead and take Zach Wheeler and hopefully you could fill out the outfield later on in the podcast. That's interesting that you'd say you would have taken Jackson Merrill if he was there because so far that's the one pick

that stood out to me as a little earlier than we're used to seeing Jackson Merrill go. And I wonder if he's kind of replaced Ronald Acuna at that two, three, turn as the go-to pick for somebody looking for an outfielder with Acuna now sounding like he's going to miss at least the first quarter of the season. Yeah, I do think that makes sense with someone like Jackson Merrill there after I selected Zach Wheeler, William Contreras, Matt Olson, ahead of Freddie Freeman.

So another reason, another reason I passed on Freeman was to see how long he would last in this draft and whether or not Chris would take him. So, Chris, you're up. Yeah, I really don't know. I'm going to do it. A little rib discomfort by not playing. I would have done it. If he made it to me, I would have done it. Yeah, I don't love drafting a guy who's presently dealing with an injury. Sure. He said he's 75 has a 75% chance of playing in game two. So. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, even if he sits game two, I probably just not in abundance of caution. If I, if I, if I, where the Dodgers, I'd probably sit him in game too. He's got another eight days between their next game, you know?

Right, between the next game that counts. I think the most likely explanation, the way he described it, is scar tissue. And that is one of the explanations the trainer gave him, in which case it's absolutely nothing to worry about. But, you know, some people were already worried about him managing the ankle injury. Wait, but is it absolutely nothing to worry about the scar tissue if it's already giving him a problem now. Like, the season hasn't even started yet.

That's what's scar tissue does. It, it, you got to, you got to, what, like, tear through the scar tissue, right? And, and that's painful in the moment. But then it's, it's not like an actual way. You got to the other side is what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah, I don't, I don't think that's a big deal. No, it's, I've never, like, scar tissue is always like, oh, it's just scar tissue.

That's how it's presented. All right, Scott, you're on the clock. I'll let you make your pick and we'll come back to you after Freddie Freeman, Corey Seeger, Raphael Devers, Mani Machado, so we get the third basement coming off the board. Devers last week, slipping a little bit, gets back into spring games. All right, he's back here in the middle of the third round. So perhaps people overall are feeling a little bit better about just Devers being ready for the season, starting as the D.H, it seems like things have smoothed over a little bit in Boston regarding Devers

and that whole third base situation. Yeah, this Freeman thing, I don't know, it just, the fact that it was something that came up in the World Series. And it's a problem, now again. Yeah, but it's just one thing compounding. That's a normal timeline. And there's a, but I don't love it. I mean, I probably would take him in the third round, but I,

it scares me a little bit, obviously. It scares me a little bit. It's worrisome. We don't know that it's scar tissue. I just think that's the most likely explanation. No, he actually, I watched a video interview and he brought that up. He said the doctors said it was scar tissue, so.

Give it away. Yeah. Oh, gosh. This is what we're doing, Chris. After We said scar tissue way too many times And that's all I can think about now

After Manny Machado Scott selected Corbin Burns And then Pete Alonzo So Scott I feel like this is Earlier than usual For you to take a starting pitcher as well It is But

Nobody else was taking starting pitchers And I thought all of the hitters There were a reach I considered Pete Alonzo Because I like filling first base Early But Corbin Burns I think is more valuable than Pete Alonza.

That's, that's, uh, getting him at 33 feels like something I couldn't pass up. I, I almost took burns, but his ADP is closer to 40. So I was hoping he might make it back to me.

Um, he did not. No. We are getting a bit of a pitching run here as well. After Pete Alonzo, Cole Riggins. Logan Gilbert. And then into round four,

we get Chris Sale, Wyatt Langford and Garrett Crochet. So yes, the pitchers are coming off the board. And Scott, you are back on the clock. Let me take a quick break. When we return, we'll get your pick right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. My right after this, I was looking for the ad to play.

So that's why I said it like that. But maybe I should change it up every now and then. Someone left us a five-star review. Thank you. But they said they don't like the way that I say right after this, the same way every single time I throw it up. break. So I've got to change it up a little bit. Scott, here we are. Your round four pick. And you selected Ronald Acuna. I did. I was between him and Jose Altuvei. I don't know. Jose Al Tuve's

become one of those players who I feel confident he's going to help him batting average. I feel confident he's going to help it runs. I kind of wonder if three quarters of a season for Acuna, I guess I'm leaning yes, that three quarters of a season of Acuna is going to be more valuable than Altuva. because some of those totals can only get so high for Altuve. If it was a 15-teamor, I would not have taken Acuna. Obviously, the quality of the fill-in for him wouldn't be as high in a deeper league like that. But I think I said at the time we found out if Acuna misses the first quarter of the season,

that drops him to like the 40 range. And that's exactly where I took him, 40. Not thrilled with it. I wish someone else had taken him. but it seemed like the right pick to make. All right. Well, after Acuna, O'Neil Cruz, C.J. Abrams, and Jose Altuve, Chris, you selected Michael Harris.

I did quickly look up Ronald Acuna's NFBC ADP over the past week. It is 36.7. So right around this range of the draft. Yeah. You know, I have seen some main event draft boards where he just, he slept. I think it was like the fourth round of a 15 teamer. So, you know, it's. Yeah.

Yeah, in a league where you know, IL spot, you're, it's tough. It's really tough in those 15 team leagues with no aisle spots because there's going to be a bunch of injuries in April. And you're just stuck with that roster spot. You can't drop him. So the first sign of a needed ad, you've got to drop somebody. It puts you in a bind that's not necessarily there if you're in a 12 team league. Or any league with an IL spot. Yeah.

That makes a huge difference. The fact that you'd be playing a man down for the first quarter of the season. That's because you don't know what injuries are going to happen in the meantime and you won't be able to stash those guys in an aisle spot either. You know there will be injuries, though. My next thought was if you drafted CUNYA in a league with no aisle spots, you almost can't take another injury stash or even a prospect stash for that matter just because you don't have enough bench spots.

So it does kind of limit your flexibility and the construction of your, your bench there. Where do we leave off? Chris selected Michael Harris. Then there was Brent Rooker, Ozzy Albies. I selected James Wood as my first outfielder, Kyle Schwerber, here at the turn. Chris, you took Michael Harris. And where do you think he's going to wind up batting in the lineup here to start the season? I think anywhere in the top five to open the season. If ProFar is not ready for with that wrist injury. We assume he will be, but if he's not, it could be leadoff. And look, that matters, but I also think Michael Harris has 30-30 potential. So it doesn't matter that much. You know, if he goes 30-30, but it's only 90 runs in RBI, okay, great, he's not a first-rounder.

I still think he's a fine pick. I'm not going to worry too much about it. I think it's going to be somewhere in the top five. But he's probably not going 30-30, right? It's probably more like 2020. Sure, but like, I don't know. Wyatt Langford went ahead of him. Michael Harris is a much more proven player than Blaine Langford. And I'm not sure the ceiling is lower. To be just a 2020 player than Langford is.

It's kind of a double-edged sword, the provenness. Yeah, I don't know. Like, I think they're, like, Michael Harris turned 24, 11. days ago. I don't want to say that a 24-year-old who is a proven star caliber player at the major league level can't be better than he's been so far, especially when he's dealt with injuries, his playing times interrupted. I'm just talking what's the likeliest scenario is all.

Sure, but if we're comparing him to another player, if we're comparing him to Wyatt Langford, I think the likeliest outcome for White Langford is he's not as good as Michael Harris has been so far anyway. And we may just disagree on Langford. I think the upside is... I think Wyatt Langford was a lot worse than Michael Harris last year. I don't know if that's true.

That's fair that out. Michael Harris had like a 720 OPS. Yeah, 722 OPS, 264, 60-over's 10-10-field end up? Okay, 740. He got there with that big September. Okay, great. Wyatt Lankford's better than Michael Harris, I guess. I don't know.

I don't think that's what we said exactly. But, look, Wyatt Lankford almost always goes ahead of Michael Lankford. but yeah I think they're both you know round three four or five picks somewhere in that range catching up on round five by the way we left off with Kyle Schwerber he was the last pick of round four and next up we had to ask hernandez I selected Marcus Simeon then Emmanuel Clause Dillon Cress took adley Ruchman then Devin Williams Jacob de Grom and Blake Snell so yeah I took Semyon here he was top hitter left on my board um

Well, if Marcel Lozuna was, if I didn't have Shohei Otani, I probably would have taken Marcelo Zuna, but couldn't do that. So no Marcelo Zuna for me, and that means my five players so far. I've got Semyon, Riley, James Wood, Otani, and Zach Wheeler. It feels pretty good. Chris, you took Adley Ruchman. So you get a catcher here, early round catcher. Have you taken a pitcher yet?

I have not taken a pitcher. So I've got Adley Ruchman, Jose Ramirez, Freddie Freeman, Michael Harris, and Jackson, Churio. That's pretty awesome. Really good offensive core. And this is different than I usually go. I usually have at least one pitcher by now, sometimes two, sometimes a starter and a reliever.

So I want to see, I've got two or three drafts that I'm playing out left. So I want to see what it looks like if I wait at pitch or something I haven't done yet. All right. Well, I name dropped and Scott got the gift that keeps on giving. Marcel Lozuna 57th overall. Let's go brave, Scott. Yeah, I'm happy with that value when I saw Schwarber go, because in Roto, Ozuna tends to go before Schwerber.

When I saw Schwerber go 48, I was like, okay, there's no way I'm going to get Azuna, get him 57. It makes me feel a lot better about the Acuna pick because I think I'm getting a lot of offense there from my fifth round pick in Ozuna. And that is the benefit to having your utility spot open still. I don't know. It's unlikely I would have filled it before this point, I guess. But you said you had blocked them with Rooker, right? You had blocked your utility spot with Rooker. I have Otani. Don't only get one of those guys. I have Otani.

Otani, that's it. Okay. Yeah. And Chris talks about that a lot. It's like every drive Chris has Otani as the first, second or third pick. It's utility players always come around and you want to take those guys. But unfortunately, you can't because the spot is already blocked. After Ozuna, we got Framber Valdez and Edwin Diaz. D.S. I want to bring up the relievers here because lasting until the fifth round of a 12-team Roto League, does that sound right? I feel like maybe we usually get a Class A or Devin Williams in round four of a 12-team Roto League. I think this is closer to right. It's still earlier than I rank them, actually, because I think a lot of that bleed over from the 15 team leagues where they're so scarce. They get pushed up into round three. I use the word bleed over too soon, but I think that kind of bleeds over. to 12-teamers and artificially inflates them when there's not the same scarcity for saves.

Yeah, I agree with that. At the 5-6 turn, we get Wilson-Gatreras and Jordan Westberg. So, Chris, the rise keeps on rising, keeps on going. Wilson-Cutrhus keeps on rising. That's how I should probably phrase that. And I think we mentioned the ADP was around like 65-67, but even here in a 12-team league, granted two catchers, he goes 60th overall. Yeah, one thing I.

I did notice and it's not really relevant for the draft we're doing, but for people who are playing on Yahoo. I did a Yahoo mock draft today. And catchers go so late on Yahoo. I don't know if it's the in the pre-built rankings or the ADP, whatever it is. But, you know, I was drafting with industry people. It was for Yahoo's content. And like, Yiner Diaz was like a hundred and 25th pick or something.

It just, we pointed that out on the. Megastream too. And it's a head-to-head categories league. So like, Yider-Diaz might deserve to go that late in a points league. But in a Categories league, that was surprising. And Wilson Contreras, I think, was also outside of the top 100.

Yadr-Dar-D-Ir-I-B-I bring that up because Yainer-Diaz has not been drafted in this one. And that is pretty interesting because he is almost, I think over the last week, it has flip-flopped on NFBC. So now Yainer-D-D-S is technically third by. behind Adley Rutchman, but it's always, almost always in quick succession with those two in like the 55 to 60 range. And we're about to have the 66 pick with no Yainer Diaz. So I think that's interesting. Yeah, the past week at NFBC, Adley Ruchman, 57 is the ADP and Yiner Diaz

at 58.4. So going just after him, we are into round six. We left off with Jordan Westberg. Then we get Christian Walker, Shoti Imanaga, Lawrence Butler to Scott, Josh Hayter, Luis Robert. Christian Walker, by the way, it sounds like things have been okay. I mean, we haven't gotten confirmation. He's going to be ready for opening day. But this does seem early in the sixth round. I think he probably would have made it back to the 7-8 turn there. Scott, you got Lawrence Butler to go along with your, I know you just cook Marcelo Zuna.

I do not have an infielder yet, Frank. So this is uncharted territory for me, six. six rounds in. I have four outfielders. I have a utility. I have a starting pitcher. Not a single infielder. That will make for an interesting build. Yeah, I pulled up your team and four outfielders through six rounds. That is, uh, that's a lot. So I didn't come in here thinking, I'm just going to draft outfielders. It's, I'm trying to be unintentional about the position I take. And, uh, I think I'm going to have to start being a little more intentional. Obviously, it's just three outfielders filled for the first month and a half.

free outfield spots because Akuni is going to have to go in the IL spot. But no infielders. After Lawrence Butler, Josh Hader, Luis Robert, Tyler Glassnell, and Chris, you selected Anthony Santander. And I could tell while you were making your pick, you had your critical thinking face on. I was really struggling with where to go there because I don't really like any of the starting pitchers at the top of the list as like an ace. I just think there's too many workload concerns about the top guys left.

But I wasn't sure. Like I thought about Yiner Diaz. I don't know if I've seen a two elite catchers draft. And part of my thought process here is because of the mild uncertainty about Freddie Freeman, I do think I need to be a little bit more intentional about my offense and make sure that. that already because I've got Freddie Freeman, I've got Jackson Churio, I've got Michael Harris, I've got Adley Ruchman.

I need to be cognizant of power. Like I feel really good about the batting average of that team. But I think power, Jose Ramirez, is probably the best power hitter on my team, but he's probably more like a 30 to 35 homer guy than he was last year. So that's why I went with Anthony Santander. But a part of me continuing to hammer offense here is,

one, I don't love the pitchers. I just, I don't think Yoshinobu Yamamoto or Michael King can be the anchor that I want for a pitching staff. Maybe King can, but I just don't feel great about him getting there. And so I'd rather wait for some of the more boring volume plays at pitcher. So yeah, that's my thought process there. You don't have a pitcher yet? I do not have a pitcher yet. Okay.

After Anthony Santander to Chris, we got Cody Bellinger, Yoshinobu, Yamamoto, and I selected Brenton Doyle. The last pick of round six was Josh Naler. Yamamoto, by the way, in their opening game, five innings, one run, four strikeouts. I thought he looked really good. Had 11 whiffs on 72 pitches. The splitter was. Yeah, the splitter was awesome.

Disgusting. I mean, I saw a strikeout of Matt Shaw, which not fair. You know, a rookie has to go up against this disgusting. splitter is very first time out. Matt Shaw, by the way, batting fifth in his first game. I thought that was pretty cool. So it seems like a good sign there early on for Matt Shaw. We are into the splitter for Yamamoto. It was up more than two miles per hour and he threw it a lot more also. So that I think helped contribute to his dominance. Yeah, 40% spliter usage for Yamamoto in game one. I believe it was around 25% last year. So mostly when splitter fastball in this first time out,

the Tokyo series against the Chicago Cubs. So I am faced with the decision of taking a SP2 to go along with my Zach Wheeler. Get out of there, Otani. You're not a pitcher. And let's, I don't think I need to do that yet. I think there's still a lot of pitchers left. I'm going to grab another outfielder here. Someone, you guys know I love him. I always take Sayas Suzuki. I try to get him as often as I can.

And my offense at this point, I've got Semian, Austin Riley, Brenton Doyle, James Wood, Sey Suzuki, Otani, and then Zach Wheeler. So after taking Wheeler in round three, I did just want to load up on a bunch of bats after that, and I feel like it's kind of coming together. So I like it so far. Now, I don't want to alarm you, but Say Suzuki has a zero OPS this season. Oh, gosh. So that's just something to keep in mind.

Should I drop him, Chris? It's been a rough season so far. After I took Suzuki, there was Mason Miller, Alex Breggman, and Chris, you selected Max Fried as your SP1. Yeah, I think he's very undervalued. Based on ADP, I probably could have waited two more rounds to get him, but... Freed ahead of Michael King? I did take him out of Michael King. Yeah, that was surprising to me.

It's not how I rank it, but part of that is knowing that Max Fried goes much later than he should. and part of it was, like I said, I don't necessarily know if I trust Michael King to be the kind of volume guy that I want as my ace. Max Fried obviously has had some injury concerns over the last couple of years, but he consistently pitches six, seven innings. He consistently gives you very, very good ratios.

So I would rather have him as the anchor of my staff than Michael. King, even though in a vacuum, I would have Michael King ranked higher. But something you just mentioned there is that you know that Max Fried will go later. So knowing that couldn't you have taken Michael King now or another pitcher and then maybe got Max Fried in the next round? Sure. It's possible that that would have been the better way to go.

I still, I just, that's where I think Max Fried should go anyway. And so there's always that balance when you're draft. between where you have a player and where you think they will go because it only takes one person to buck ADP. And in this instance, if there was someone looking at Max Fried in the second half of this round, I was that one person who screwed them up. So you can't necessarily count on that. I'm about to buck ADP. Uh-oh.

Uh-oh. Sounds like another-Campbell. Sounds like another outfielder. No, my first infielder, Beau Bichette at 81. Yeah, I thought about it. taking him. Okay. Yeah, I've tried to wait out, wait out ADP to get Popeschette.

And it hasn't worked out in our mock drafts. He tends to go ahead of ADP. I take him 81 here. I have him 72 in my own rankings, I think, somewhere around there. So a discount by my own rankings, but an overpay for ADP. Obviously, I think the ADP is ridiculously low. And I think he was the best infielder left at a spot shortstop that it's going to run out of star caliber player soon.

After Chris, go ahead. If it has already. Go ahead. Yeah, I'm working or for tomorrow's newsletter, I'm doing bowl predictions for every team. And one of mine is Boba Chet finishes as the number one Blue Giant fantasy. And given their ADP, which is about 100 spots apart, that sounds ridiculous. But I do just want to point out that last year, Vladimir Guerrero was about four spots ahead of Boba Chet and ADP.

The year before, he was about three spots ahead. of Boba Shet and ADP. The year before that, Boba Chet was just ahead of Vladimir Guerrero. So Vladimir Graschette should go ahead of Boba Shep, but it's just a sign of how much we're reacting. And I think all three of us agree overreacting to the bad half season that Boba Shet had. Yeah, I keep pointing out,

like since the time he broke into the league, he's never been less than like a third round pick. And then suddenly he's fallen more to the 10. 10 round range or later. Round eight here, and it sounds like if I wanted Bo Bichette, I had to take him exactly where I did, because the guy picking right after me, who, of course, would have had two picks before it got back to me,

said he wanted Bo Bouchette. Let's catch people up. After Chris selected, Max Fried, there was Michael King, Aaronola, Bryce Miller, Scott selected Bo, Mike Trout, Christian Yelich, Riley Green, and Randy Arosorana. I understand it's spring training,

It doesn't really matter for veterans, but for Bobauchette, who was just injury riddled last year, was never healthy. And when he was healthy, he was terrible. You would rather him get off to a nice start in spring than not. And that's exactly what he has done. He's 15 for 41 with four homers, a stolen base. That's nice to see. And an 1145 OPS. The next two picks, Mark Viantos and Spencer Strider.

Not exactly top 75, top 80, Chris, but there's no doubt this is a rise. now a top 90 pick on Strider. Not Luis Arise. Right. Is that what I said? Oh, Louisa Ross. I'm in a mood if you couldn't tell. I can tell.

If you couldn't tell by the red hot chili peppers of it all earlier. Yeah, in the draft I did earlier today, I think Strider was a top 70 pick. Wow. He has gone, I think, as early as 70 in NFBC drafts. Since his start, we don't need to belabor the point that we made yesterday. I will not be pushing him back up that high,

but I understand why other people will. It's just not the move I will be making. And if you want to say, y'all draft scared, we have been accused of that before. After Spencer Shrider, one pick later, Scott selects. I wanted to get you ready. I wanted to have it queued up so you could hit it right when I did it, but didn't get the timing quite right.

Yeah, 88. I won't complain about 88 for Junior Commonero. It's when he gets pushed up to 70 that I have a real problem with. And I think the way I built my team, it's the perfect time to take a shot on Junior Commonero because I need so much infield help. Obviously, he has incredible upside. Yeah, someone in the FBT Facebook group asked

for an explanation as to why Junior Commonero is going as high as he is. and I offered the extremely helpful and unhelpful answer, the same reason Vlad Jr. and Eloy Jimenez were going as high as they were back in the day, which is just to point out that we don't get this right all the time. And in both of those cases, frankly, as rookies, we didn't get it right. They were both overdrafted. So I think that's the range of outcomes for Junior Kamenaro, unfortunately. For what it's worth.

You guys talked about Strider going a pick ahead of my Commonero pick there at 87. I was really considering it as it was approaching me. He was definitely one of the two or three players I was considering. Him going right before the pick reduced those considerations to just two players, and I took Commonero. The other two went soon after Commonero, Salvador Perez and Cal Rale. I would have taken one of them. After Scott selected Junior Camerro, we got Brian Reynolds.

Salvador Perez, Cal Raleigh, Reisel Iglesias, followed by Spencer Schwellenbach. For those watching on YouTube, if you saw me throw my head back and anguish, that was because Spencer Schwellenbach got taken, and I am sad that he is gone. By the way, there have been 13 drafts.

Oh, I'm on the clock. At the NFBC over the past two days, they have finished, or have been completed in the past two days. Strider's ADP is 85.6, 85.7, I guess. So right on where he went in this one, a max or a min pick of 59. I was going to bring that up too.

I noticed the same thing. So yeah, that's interesting. If you're playing in a 15-team league, Strider would be your fourth pick at pick 59. Yeah. I mean, the thing you have to keep in mind is that is the second to last pick of the fourth round. it was probably the only chance that person was going to have to get Spencer Strider. So that probably plays into it.

I'm not saying it's the right pick even with that, but that's probably the thought process there. And just a couple of other names that we've mentioned who are moving way up. Junior Kamenaro is up to 75.3 over the past couple of days. And I don't, Cody Bellinger just keeps moving up every time I look. He's up to like 85 now. I don't get this one.

He did go even higher than that in this draft, I believe. I think it's just because he's hit well this spring. Yeah. Yeah, I think. And that's kind of a dumb reason. But because there is also the massive venue change in play there, I think people just seeing is believing, you know. Yeah.

And he is playing effectively in that venue because they're playing at Steinbrenner Field. It's not for me, but I understand. After Schwell and Bach, we got Bailey Ober. I selected Pablo Lopez. I think he was maybe the second or third top player on my list. The previous turn, and he made it all the way back. 95th overall, that feels, I don't ever take Pablo Lopez.

Frankly, I think he's kind of Aranola-E, but, I mean, 95th overall. be a little higher. 95th overall, I'll do that every time on Pablo Lopez. It's a fine price. I did put Pablo Lopez as one of the 12 players that I just really have no interest in drafting, which isn't the same as calling them busts. It's just, I really don't want to have to take him.

I don't know that Pablo Lopez's line is going to look that different from Seth Lugo. You make the Nola comparison. A lot more strikeouts. A lot less. Well, he had one year where he had a lot more strikeouts. I guess he had two. 2021 and 23. But for the most part, he's been

what he was less than a strikeout per inning last year, right? No, he was over a strikeout per inning. It came over. But he's in recent years, he has had years where he's less than a strikeout per inning. Yeah, but since he's joined the twins, the strikeout rate has been a lot better. So look, it's my SP2 to go with Zach Wheeler in round eight.

I obviously have no issues with that. The last pick of round eight was Logan Webb. Into round nine, George Kirby, Vinnie Pee. Baby. Followed by Dylan Cruz, Jason Dominguez. So some young outfielers there. Willie Adamas, Justin Steele, Roki Sasaki, and Hunter Green.

So this feels a little bit earlier than we're used to on Dylan Cruz and Jason Dominguez. But five outfielder league, I guess, you know, if you want some power speed combination, you can talk yourself into that. And Chris, you selected Willie Adamas. Yeah, player, I never really draft. I believe you only have one starting pitcher, right, through nine picks? one starting pitcher, yes. I was a little surprised you took Iglesias last round over Pablo,

because I feel like Pablo is a player usually draft. I don't think I've drafted Pablo very often this season. I'm not opposed to it. I think he's a nice high floor stabilizer, and he definitely would have been among my options, but I think there are enough similar-ish pitchers who should make it back the next time around that I didn't feel the need to put him out there.

All right. After Roki Sasaki, there was Hunter Green. Tristan Kossis went to Scott and Ryan Helzzi. Scott, I know you're probably looking at first base and you see the end of a tier there because that's exactly why I took Vinnie Pasquantino. I didn't want to have to settle for someone lower than him or Kossis is my starting first base. Yeah, and I don't feel great about Kossis, to be honest. He's yet another one of those players on that list of 12. it was just, well, how long do I want to push it at first base? This is the end of a tier. You know, the fact that the strikeout rate blew up on Kossis last year and remained high this spring,

that's the real point of concern for me. That we haven't seen a lot of evidence of that guy we saw in the second half of 2023 since the second half of 2023. And I really don't know what I'm getting. it feels like a big leap of faith at Pick 105. Yeah, so that's where I am. But my infield now has Tristan Kosses at first, Bobichet at shortstop, junior commonero at third base.

At least on paper, there's a lot to like about that infield. So I'm going to have to address my pitching staff some moving forward here because I still just have Corbyn Burns there. And I may do it with my very nice. next pick. After Ryan Helsie, we got Matt McLean, Stephen Kwan, and into round 10, Jake Berger and Felix Bautista. I know you guys don't usually think about player pairings maybe as much as I do and just, I just like to think about it in terms of players that complement each other. But Chris, if you're going to take Stephen Kwan doing it with Jake Berger, kind of feels like it makes sense,

right? Like, you get that great batting average base, you get run scored, maybe you get 15 to 20 steals, but maybe only 10 home runs, but if you pair that with Burger, it's, it makes a lot more sense. Yeah, I, I always struggle with this type of thing because there are going to be other pairings that will give you similar production or potentially better production. So I, they, they complement each other well. I think that is a fair way to say it. And if you are going to take Stephen Kwan, you have to be cognizant of the impact that's going to make on your bat on your home runs because, you know, what was it? 21.8 homers per lineup spot is what you're looking for if you want to finish top three in home runs. I think was the number

that we came to when we talked about that. So having one guy who's going to be Penn at best, probably, plus can't exactly count on 45 homers from your catchers. if you don't take an early one. You know, it does mean you really have to be aware of the impact that's going to have on the rest of your team. All right. After Jake Berger, we got Felix Bautista, Freddie Peralta, Joe Ryan, and then Will Smith. Scott, you selected Joe Ryan as your SP2 here in round 10.

I know yesterday we talked about the velocity was down quite a bit, over two miles per hour on all of his pitches. Does that worry you at all here taking him in round 10? Not zero, but like I said, yesterday with veteran pitchers who obviously have roster spots. If the team isn't expressing

concern over the velocity, it's probably not a real concern. It's probably just them getting in their reps. We saw with Shota Imanaga. Remember, his last spring start, his velocity was down more than two miles per hour. Well, he comes here for a game that counts in Japan,

and his velocity's up a mile per hour. So suddenly that concern is removed. I just don't think it's worth stressing about it too much as long as the team doesn't seem stretch or the pitcher himself. I'll also note in Joe Ryan's case, there's the added detail that the velocity he's been working at this spring, he has worked out in the past. And he's had good performances like that.

I mainly like Ryan because he's a great source of whip, regardless of how everything else works and that's mainly what I want to make sure I I bolster here with my early pitcher picks. Yeah, I think you can be a little concerned that like the big strikeout rate jump from last year may not carry over. Although actually was a strike rate higher in 2023? It might have been. So yeah, I don't know. Maybe he gives something back, right?

Like the ERA was super volatile. He gave up a lot of home runs in 2023. He had a huge strikeout rates. So maybe it just makes him a little more volatile, but I think it's fine overall. Yeah, he was 11K per 9 in 20203, as Joe Ryan were talking about, 9.8 per 9 last year.

He has yet to have a year where it was a strikeout per inning or less. Yeah. All right, catching people up on picks after Will Smith the catcher. We got Sandy Alcantara. Sandy. Followed by ESOC Paratus,

Luis Castillo to Chris, Andres Munoz, Bryce Tarang. I selected Sunny Gray. Then at the turn, we got Matt Chapman and Ryan Walker. So I will go... Was there a Giants fan in here? Come on. I will go ahead and take Scott's favorite closer this season,

Yawan Tehran, as I see the top closers. Right after my actual favorite closer this season. I was thinking about taking Ryan Walker with my pick, just a couple of picks ago. But I figured I would get one of these two closers, and I have them in a similar team. I know, you know, Scott, you feel differently about that, but I'm okay with Duran as my first closer, and so I took Sunny Gray. You know, back-to-back pitchers, we'll see if I regret passing on some bats here at the 10-11 turn.

Maybe I should have continued building that out, but I think now through 11 picks I have, I have four pitchers and seven hitters. That's probably okay. Next couple of picks. After Duran, there was Xavier Edwards, J.T. Real Muto, Zach Gallen, and Brandon Nimmo. So, Chris, you go back-to-back pitchers here with Castillo and Gallin. You didn't take your first starter until round seven with Max Fried. And all of a sudden, you've got Freed, Castillo, Gallen, and Reiselaglius.

Yeah, a lot of really interesting picks happening here. The fantasy baseball world's least favorite pitching staff right here on my team, everybody seems to hate Luis Castillo and Zach Gallen. I think Max Fried is being way undervalued, but I'm okay with these boring veterans at the top of my rotation. I will need to target some upside guys for strikeouts especially,

because we know, Freed, Castillo, probably more like a strikeout per inning guy, Gowan probably too, but I'm okay with that for waiting on pitcher. After Gallin, Brandon Nimmo at 126th overall, then Luis,

Garcia and Adolus Garcia. So there you go. Back-to-back Garcia's. And this is earlier than we're used to seeing Brandon Nimmo. He had been falling down draft boards. He was back playing in the outfield on Monday, I believe. So that's a good sign. Some positives finally.

Right. It seems like everyone's becoming a lot more sanguine about Nimmo, just seeing him out there. And I can't remember the last time we saw Nimmo go before the player. I'm about to take Ian Hap. Yes, another out. Yeah. And Hap's falling.

But there's no reason Ian Hap should. It's kind of amazing to me. Ian Hap's still here. So I'm going to take advantage of that. Also, the fact that at the end of round 10, so this was about 11 picks ago at this point, Bryce Terang, that raised an eyebrow for me with him having actual difficulties throwing. The shoulder doesn't sound like it's a bad injury, but he was having trouble throwing with it. And so I wonder if it's going to turn into something more.

but we didn't see him slide at all. He goes to pick 118. I did see today that they did say he's going to be there every day or opening day second baseman. So I wonder if this shoulder is more. We were thinking about playing him at shortstop, but that's probably not a viable option, but he can play second. I wonder if that's what it is. I did read it contributed to that decision.

But I'm thinking, like, is there a chance he goes on the I. with us? Well, and I just, he's not a player with a huge margin for error. Right. You know, you're only drafting him, I think, expecting strike or stolen bases. Last year, even last year, he only scored like 72 runs, right? It was a really low number. So you can't necessarily depend on Bryce to rank for anything except those stolen bases. I think he truly is a one category guy. After Scott selected Ian Hap, we got Robbie Ray in round 11. Shout out to Robbie Ray. Currently pitching while we're doing this mock draft.

Five shutout innings. Nope, I lied. Five innings, two hits, one unearned run with two strikeouts. So not the gaudy strikeout lines that we're used to seeing from Robbie Ray, but he has had a spectacular spring. I believe he still has not walked a player this spring. and that has been pretty awesome. He doesn't have one today, then he hasn't, yeah.

Yeah, that's been a great development from Robbie Ray. I updated my rankings here on Tuesday. I moved them up to SP 37. It's not high enough, man. I just, I have big FOMO on Robbie Ray. To me, feels like could be this year's Chris Sale. The guy going outside or right around 130, that if everything works and he could stay healthy

and you talk yourself into it, we could just get a Cy Young Calibur season. It's got to. Got to get at least one share. I got FOMO right now on Robbie Ray. After him, we got Shane O. Mac. Here comes the money. Here we go.

Money talks. Here comes the money. Shane McClan, followed by Robert Suarez, and we're into round 12. Tanner Scott, who picked up the save in game one there between the Dodgers and Cubs, followed by Jeff Hoffman, Victor Robles, Hunter Brown,

and Ryan Presley. So a bit of a closer run here, Scott, and mixed in. You got your SP. in Hunter Brown. Yeah, I've never drafted Hunter Brown, so that was interesting. He seemed clearly like the best starting pitcher on the board.

He doesn't really fit in with my whip plan, though he's one of those players, like it was a tale of two seasons within a season. So if he's more of the guy that we saw at the end who was dominating, then I'm less concerned about the whip there. I wonder if I should have taken a close, or instead. To be honest, this draft is moving so fast. I'm having trouble keeping up with

just the crossing out of names here. And I'm sure you're having trouble keeping up with the reading off of names, Frank. It's a very fast moving draft. Yes, indeed. After Presley, there was Brian Wu, Jorx and Profar. And Chris, you are up. Again, you have the face of anguish and decision. I was going to take Brian Wu. I think I could use a little bit of whip stabilization, he's the best one out there. That's who I was considering instead of Brown. I don't know why I took Brown. Now I really don't love the hitters who are available, but I don't really want to take

another starting pitcher. This is kind of a real Chris's choice here, but I am going to go with a pitcher, one who had a very good whip last year and who I do think will be good this year and is being undervalued. That's Jack Flaherty. Continuing the theme of drafting. pitchers that your typical fantasy baseball analyst and player this year will absolutely hate. Not us.

Not us. Well, you hate Luis Castillo. I do. He is on the list of 12. He's the headline. Yeah. He's the big name on your players I hate. He was he and Kodai Senga were the co-inspirationes.

Kodai Senga remains available in this draft. All right. after Chris selected Jack Flaherty Tanner Bybee. So we are getting a bunch of starting pitchers going here. Time for the monologue to figure out what I'm going to do. It just feels like a not great range of hitter. Yeah. In particular.

And I think I'm still about to take two hitters even with you saying that I've got Vinie Pass Guantino, Marcus Simeon, Austin Riley, then Brenton Doyle, James Wood, Seiz Suzuki, Shohei Otani. And then my pitcher is Zach Wheeler, Sonny Gray, Pablo Lopez, and Yohan. DeRond. The next pick, Trevor McGill, so another presumed closer off the board. Let me take a look and see who does Raymond Adderton have on his team here. See what I could do positionally here. Looks pretty pitch, hitting heavy. Looks like he's only got three pitchers.

Yeah, but I don't think I'm going to take a pitcher. I went back-to-back pitchers last turn. So one of my picks is going to be Josh Lowe. Someone I like this year, I don't think I ever had the opportunity to, draft him and this is the first time. You have to reach for him. As my, uh, the ADP is like what, 150-ish? Oh yeah, he's 146 in the month of May or March. Yeah. So I get him here at 143, get a fourth outfielder, add some speed to my team, felt like I could use a little bit more speed and playing in that Swamprenner field with the dimensions, the Yankee Stadium dimensions is a lefty. Just think he wasn't healthy last year. I think we get a bounce back year. Close to 20 home

runs, 30 plus steals, hitting in the middle of the raised lineup. So I think we get a pretty big bounce back season here from Josh Lowe. And the next pick was Jared Jones. And we are into round 13. Where are you guys at on Jared Jones? I feel like we haven't heard much since him talking about the pitch mix early in camp. Yeah, he's looked like the same guy in the spring. Right.

And that concerns me because I forget how much. many starts into the year was, but you know, the first couple months he had a league leader type swinging strike rate. And then after that, it was like 11% something very, very mid. And the ERA was very high during that stretch as well. So I don't know. I'm, I'm not sure, given all the upside plays, we've seen emerging starting pitcher. One just got paired with Jared Jones there, Gavin Williams. That's the one I'm most excited about. I guess too. Raymond's

not according to my rankings. I've moved Gavin Williams actually just ahead of Jared Jones in my rankings. So Raymond Atherton pairs those two. And what I was going to say with Gavin Williams

being the prime example of this is with all the upside plays we've seen emerge at starting pitcher this spring, I don't know that Jared Jones stands head and shoulders above them. And yet his

ADP is head and shoulder above them. Yeah, so the next couple of picks, as you mentioned, Gavin Williams, I took Shay Langalears, then Ehueheneos-Swarez. Was that what elicited a gasp from you, Chris? It was the A. Johanio-Swarz pick, yeah. I could use some power. Power is, I think, starting to run out, it's fair to say.

So that wasn't great for me. Yeah, that's part of the reason why I took Languiliers. I didn't have a catcher yet. I think my batting average is probably going to just be middling at this point. But I did want a solid catcher one. I wanted to add some power, so it felt like it made sense to do that. And I mentioned I updated the rankings on Tuesday. I moved Gavin Williams up to SP 50.

It's got to see you have them at SP 44. The three names I have just ahead of him, Brandon Fott, which I know you guys do not agree with at all. But Spencer Arroghetti and Kodi Senga. I can see moving Gavin Williams ahead of all of those. Gavin Williams is higher than 44 for me. It's just not reflected on the rankings page yet. I'll give you a number here in a minute of where he ranks for me because it is definitely higher than 44.

So I said I moved him ahead of Jared Jones. That would put him. Why is Jared Jones not showing up? Because I didn't put a space in the right place. Okay, 40th. So not that many more spots, but higher than 44. He is not that high for me. After Kodi Senga, Chris, you selected Michael Tolia, then at Nika Horner and Pete Crow Armstrong.

So this does feel early for Michael Tolia, Chris, but you said you were looking for power and he should deliver that. And yeah, it's just the top hitters on my board are just not going to hit for very much power. Like we were getting close to where I have Pete Croix Armstrong ranked, but I just didn't have very much interest in him. It doesn't really fit what I needed for my team. But Michael totally does because he, you know, even in well under full-time playing, he had 25 homers last season, still 10 bases as well. It's just the batting average question. Is he going to be, I think he can be fine.

It's an open question whether he'll be actively detrimental. But I think I have enough batting. average cushion here and I needed power that I could afford to make that play. All right. After you selected Tolia, there was Nico Horner, P. Crow, Armstrong, Elliot Ramos, and Scott, you selected Seth friggin Lugo. Ah, yeah, I should have selected somebody else. I love how that's your first piece of analysis after you selected. Well, my rankings aren't totally updated in the draft room here and I realize I moved to someone

ahead of Lugo. That's okay. All good. After Seth Lugo, we get Jordan Romano, who looks like he will open this season as the Phillies closer, but I think I mentioned this

either on Monday, Sunday night's podcast. Jose Alvarado's velocity this spring is up like two and a half miles. He's throwing 101. These are just demonic sinkers right now, and yeah, he looks really good. I don't think he's going to overtake Jordan Romano,

but look, if Romano slips up or gets hurt again at some point, then we could maybe see Alvarado snag if you saves this season. Yeah, so the guy who goes right after Romano's Christopher Sanchez. That was the guy I moved ahead of Seth Lugo and who I would have rather taken. And it seems like he fell a little bit further, at least based on spring hype and recent 80 patrons. Yeah, I don't know about you guys. actually don't really think I've moved Christopher Sanchez up very much.

I just think he was being wildly overlooked for a long time. Yeah, it was a combination of the two. I was ranked, I ranked him higher than he was going at first, and now I have him lower than he's going, so I'm trying to move him up some. I thought he was great just the way he was, and I think people are seeing added velocity this spring

and are deciding there's more upside there. And, you know, maybe there is. but I expect more He doesn't need it He doesn't need it Yeah I expect him to be more or less What he was last year I think I move Christopher Sanchez up to

SP 39 And It's not that much higher than where you guys have him Chris you have him at SP 44 Scott it says 47 on the site But I'm sure you just moved them up In your ranking so

Yeah I think we're all Probably in that like SP 40ish To SP 45 range on Christopher Sanchez Last pick of round 13 Was Danesby Swampi Swan So here is what we're going to do. Sign off part one of the audio podcast here.

But we'll be back for part two. We'll go through the rest of all of our draft picks and then we'll recap our teams at the end. So make sure to check that out. Mount Podcasts.