Fantasy Baseball Today - Our First Roto Mock Draft for 2021! (11/17 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: November 17, 2020

It's officially Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft SZN! But first, we did have some big news (3:12) regarding Mike Clevinger and -- to a lesser extent -- Drew Smyly. ... On to the first round, should Mike Trout still be the first overall pick in Roto drafts (13:05)? Do Christian Yelich and Cody Bellinger still deserve to go in the first round? ... We saw six pitchers go off the board in the second round (20:00). Was Walker Buehler drafted too high? ... The third round is filled with stud hitters, including Corey Seager and Bo Bichette (22:50). ... The fourth round features names we're not used to seeing drafted this high (27:55). Does it make sense to target Ozuna and Maeda this early? ... Scott took how many pitchers in the first five rounds (30:36)!? ... If you were wondering where Corbin Burnes is being drafted, it's the sixth round (38:06). ... The seventh round features discounted hitters with decent track records (40:33). ... We wrap things up taking a look at Scott's team (45:00). ... Email us at [e-mail]. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday '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, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank 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/ 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.

Yo-ho, welcome to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, November 16th, and it's officially mock draft season for Sisson, if you're one of those young hip kids. Frank Stamphill alongside Scotty Dubbs. Scott White. Scott, I'm approaching. 30 years old. And I think this is about the time where I can be old and grouchy.

So me calling out the young hip kids for using ZN to shorten the word season. That seems about right. Can I do that at this age? Sure. Sure. I've never been hip, Frank. Never, ever, ever. I've been kind of anti-hip, which was, I don't know, the closest, by like loudly defying hipness, that kind of made me hip in some circles at times in my life, but, you know, I've never been truly hip. And if I tried to be, it would come off as inauthentic. So I'm with you on this. In fact, I mean, look, I'm very online because I have to be. You know, we're.

we're all active on social media, especially Twitter. The whole meme thing, though, you know, you can't help but get into it when you're that online, but the whole meme culture, it's basically just inside jokes for people who are very online to hold over people who aren't, right? That's all it is. That's all memes are, right?

Inside jokes for a very large inside group. Yeah, that makes, that makes sense. And I fully support it. I know that you're a big gift guy. I appreciate the gifts as well. So there you go, Scott. You always sell yourself short, man. I mean, come on.

The hipness, the gifts, the gift king. Give yourself a little bit of credit here, Scott. Come on now. Am I the gift king? I actually pronounce a jiff, so I don't know if that. Oh, yeah, I've heard this be an issue in the past, you know? I'm surprised it's taken us this long to actually finally address How long have I been here?

Eight months, seven, eight months, and we have never addressed the GIF versus GIF discussion. I still don't know what's right, but I've always said GIF, and it sounds right to me. Well, the creator called it GIF, so that's what I'm going by.

That sounds like peanut butter to me. Well, what does GIF sound like? Something that's wrapped up and under the tree, right? It sounds like a moving image on Twitter, if I've ever seen one. Today on the show, we are going to review our first 12-team roto mock draft of the off-season, and we've got some news.

So, actually, some pretty big news. So it's worth addressing right here at the top. We'll get it out of the way. Scott, Mike Clevenger, signed a two-year contract extension with the Padres. That's nice. Congratulations for Mike Clevenger. Oh, and he'll have Tommy John's surgery this week. I love how the Padres' Twitter just kind of snuck that in. We have signed Mike Clevenger

to a two-year contract extension. Next line. Oh, and he will be having Tommy John surgery this week. So he will miss the entire 2021 season. We will not see Clevenger again until 2022, which means maybe we see McKenzie Gore sooner rather than later. And it's quite relevant,

considering we had the well-shan last week to talk about prospects. Yeah. Now, that seems plausible. I don't know that Mike Clevenger's would really be what kept McKinsey-Gore down. Let me see how their rotation shapes up without

him. I mean, they got Joey Lucasey. They can put back in there. Nelson Lomet presuming his biceps issue doesn't become something bigger like Clevenger's elbow as you did. Nelson Lament, Chris Pat, Zach Davies. And then after that,

Joey Lucasey and yeah, it's pretty wide open. Luis Pettino, obviously, I would think would factor into that. So I would not expect McKenzie Gore to have an opening day job, but he could be up soon after that, I would say. Clevenger, yeah, this was... I'm not going to say it was surprising,

but the Padres had specifically said it doesn't look like he's going to need surgical intervention here. And, you know, apparently they were wrong about that, but we saw the big decline in velocity. Really, his velocity was kind of down all year, but then there was a big drop in the NLDS versus the Dodgers. and, you know, it was, just his effectiveness was off. Like, he was decent during the regular season, but just every measure seemed a little off.

And a lot of times that seems to be a harbinger of a big injury. So, you know, at least he's having it now early in the off season. It's not like a Luis Severino situation last season with the Yankees where they wait until spring training. oh, you need Tommy John surgery. Gosh, they're so bad with injuries, man. You just remind me, Scott, how bad the Yankees are with injuries. But, yeah, it's worth, that is a fair and positive takeaway for Clevenger that he's getting it done a little bit earlier here and should be ready to go presumably by the start of the 2022 season.

It is the second Tommy John surgery. So that would concern me a little bit in a dynasty league. that doesn't tend to have the same return as the first Tommy John surgery does. But it's a wait-and-see situation. I don't think now's like a time to shop them or anything. Obviously, the high-end starting pitcher is still one of the least replaceable assets.

So you'd have to get a pretty good return for him in a Dynasty League, I would say. Everybody just cross your fingers if you have to Nelson Lament on one of your dynasty or Keeper League teams. Hopefully this is an a sign of things to come for to Nelson Lamet as well. Scott, you're Braves. They're making moves. They like to do these one-year deals. And in recent years, they've worked out for the hitters that they have signed.

Drew Smiley signs a one-year deal, $11 million with the Atlanta Braves. And it was an extremely small sample size, but just 26 in a third innings for Drew Smiley, with the Giants in 2020, but he was quite good. 3.42 ERA, 1.10 whip over 14 strikeouts per 9. Velocity was up, uses curveball more. Anything to see here, you know, late round? Yeah. Flyer.

No, I was considering him a deep sleeper even before he signed with my favorite team. So I was excited by this move. More excited than, for instance, when they side Cole Hamels to a one year to your last offseason. and obviously that didn't work out so great. But yeah, he was throwing harder than he'd ever done before. And that was, you know, he had Tommy John's surgery in 2017, came back in 2019, and, you know, whatever, didn't look that great.

This year, velocity jumped on his fastball two, three miles per hour, and we saw his strikeout numbers go way up. his 14.4K per 9 actually would have led all qualifiers. Shane Bieber officially did. He was 14.2 per 9. Smiley was higher than that. He missed some time with injury even within this year, which is why he didn't qualify himself.

Also, his season high in innings was five and a third. That was pitching for the Giants, so I don't know, I'm not going to count on him being a six-ending per guy, six inning per start guy next year, but considering this was his second year back from Tommy John's surgery, who missed some time with injury within it,

there was the weird buildup. You know, I could understand the Giants playing it extra cautiously with him, but he has a three-pitch arsenal. He's an efficient strike thrower. So it seems like he should be capable of going deeper into games. And if he can hold that velocity, you know,

it seems like there's big strikeout potential there. So I definitely see him as a sleeper. I may have overstated the efficiency. He actually had three walks per nine last year. So he's not a big strike thrower. But let me see what his pitch counts were. Yeah, a lot of his starts, he was like between 60 and 80 pitches. So it seemed like he was leaving something on the table there.

Yeah, I like Drew Smiley is a sleeper. It seems like the Braves want him in their rotation. That's why they signed him. and the velocity he said he started working out with weighted baseballs, which I know is something that helped other pitchers improve their velocity. So there seems to be a reasonable enough explanation for that. And it seems relevant since we're doing, we're talking about a Roto Mock draft that we did today on the podcast.

But Smiley is probably someone who's better for Roto League. You talked about him not really going deep into starts. But, you know, if he'd give you five innings with some strikeouts, I think he's someone that might actually be relevant. for 2021. So just remember the name, Drew Smiley. Speaking of the brakes, Mike Soroka is recovering from a torn Achilles,

which he suffered in August of this past season in 2020. He is throwing off flat ground. More on him a little bit later on. The Marlins hired Kim Ang as their new general manager, the first female GM in Major League Baseball history, which is awesome to see. So congratulations to the Marlins and Kim Ang. And hashtag MVP free.

A lot of Braves notes. I didn't even plan this. It just kind of happened. MVP. Freddie Freeman takes home the National League MVP. My guy. Jose Ibrayu takes home the American League MVP. So, Scott, we can do like a virtual high-five.

We can enjoy this moment together right now. We can. Let's go. They are the number one and three first baseman in my rankings next year. Apologies to Cody Bellinger, 2019 MVP. He's right in between him there. Come on. said first basement weren't good anymore, man.

Speaking of which, I will just bring up our email of the day. This is from Scott. I'm sure it's not Scott White. Hey team, I admittedly haven't been listening much during the offseason. Oh, that's your mistake, Scott. Come on, I mean, you got to listen throughout the offseason as well. But I really hope Frank has taken a long victory lap

on Jose Abraeu. Frank, you got so much crab for liking him and the dude freaking one MVP. And that's not even mentioning Manny Machado, finishing top three in MVP voting as well. I still miss Adam. I miss Adam as well. But, and that was just me saying that not reading the email. But Frank came out with a damn fine showing in his first season. Bravo, sir. So I don't ever read

emails on the show, emails of the day. But if, you know, if they're giving me credit or they're giving Scott credit, sure, we'll read them right here. It was actually for me. I just, you know, I enjoy working with you so much. And I wanted you to have a chance to, uh, you know, Singer praises, no, it wasn't really from me. But yeah, no, I mean, these were the two players of Brayu and Machado that you were most out on a limb for in a positive way that I can think of. And they both, I mean, Abrae, this was arguably his best season. I mean, obviously, I never won MVP before.

He had a great season as a rookie back in 2013, I believe it was. But otherwise, you know, had been kind of less than a lead option at first base, I would say, just slightly less than elite. And then Machado seemed like he was trending the wrong direction. But he came back with MVP type numbers as well. So good for you, Frank. I appreciate it, Scott. Look, I will, I'll hold myself accountable.

And I've done that a few times already. Yes, I got these two things right. But there were many things that I got wrong as well, most notably Trevor Bauer. So I'll take credit, but I'll also, you know, knock myself back a little bit when I get things wrong. And hopefully we try and learn from that. Last thing I wanted to mention was that the NBA draft is this week,

and coverage on CBS Sports HQ starts at 7 p.m. Again, that is Wednesday, November 18th. So if you are a New York Knicks fan, like I am listening to this, this is our favorite time of year because it is the only joyful time of year. The NBA draft this Wednesday. Make sure you watch CBS Sports HQ for coverage. All right, Scott, our first 2021 mock draft mentioned last week. This was a weird, fun exercise, just trying to figure out where players are going to go after a shortened season,

how much we need to weigh those things. And we've talked about it a lot. In season, after the season, we've done some position previews. You can go back and listen to those on demand. And now we're finally putting it to the test. So, Roto, two catchers, middle infielder, a corner infielder, five outfielders, and nine pitcher spots as well. the first half of the first round. This really isn't dissimilar from,

we kind of mocked out the first two rounds back in September and it was just me and you going back and forth and we were talking things through. So the first six picks of this mock draft are very similar. Mike Trout went first overall. Ronald de Cunia went to you, Scott. You had the second overall pick. Muki Betts went third.

Isaac Fernando Tatees Jr. Fourth overall, Trey Turner, and then Juan Soto at six. No pitchers here. And this has been a topic of conversation on fantasy baseball Twitter recently, Scott, so I figured I would ask you, should Trout still be the first overall pick in a Roto League? His steals have gone from 24 in 2018 to 11 in 2019 and then just won here in a 60 game season. So you can't put too much weight on that.

He seemingly misses some time every single year with an injury. Should he still go first overall in a Roto Mock draft? or even a Roto real draft? In Roto, I don't have him first, but I have him second. So I'm not going to hold it against anybody for taking Trout first overall. Obviously, you can't get much safer than that. But I do think you're probably leaving some stolen bases on the table, and that is an important category to fill early.

So I have a Cunia as my number one in Roto still. I took him second here in this particular draft. but then I have trout two, bets three, Tatis, fourth. So other than the trout and Acuna being flipped there at the top,

this played out, those first four picks played out exactly as I would have done it. Now, I would have slotted a couple pitchers, Bieber and DeGrom, ahead of Turner and Soto.

And I actually would have had Soto ahead of Turner. But, you know, we're talking about players being flipped one or two spots pretty much throughout this first round. So it's, difficult to quibble too much.

Yeah. So, I mean, everyone's doing a good job thus far in mock draft season. Things weren't too crazy. We didn't see any egregious picks here in the first round. Personally, I think I would put Mike Trout forth. I think I would take

Acuna, Betts, and Tatis all ahead of him just because they have 30 homer, 20, steel potential at least, and probably more steals for Acuna as well. but to each their own, I would lower Mike Trout just a little bit, but I think once you get into that,

Juan Soto starting pitcher range, yes, obviously Mike Trout should be gone at that point. Picks 7 to 12 in the first round, the second half of this first round. That's when we start to see the pitchers go off the board. It's got Shane Bieber at 7, Jacob deGrom at 8, Trevor's story at 9, Christian Yelich at 10, Jose Ramirez at 11, and Cody Bellinger at 12. I will also mention Garrett Cole went at 13 with the first pick of the second round. So we see three pitchers go between picks seven and 13.

Seems like those three pitchers are all interchangeable and all the rankings that I've seen. Scott's rankings, my rankings, even other people. It seems like it is some order of Bieber de Grom Cole here at this point in the off season. It's got a theme for 2021 drafts will be figuring out what to do with these players who just had down 20, 20 years, which it's not even really a full year. It's just such a small sample size.

We see Christian Yellich and Cody Bellinger go at 10 and 12 respectively here. Both were sub-800 bats. Do you agree with them going in this range? Sub-800 OPS bets. Yes, I do. I have Yelich, I think, exactly 10th. I think I have Bellinger 13th now, so out of my first round.

But, you know, that's one spot off. I mean, obviously we know what the ceiling is for these two. It's a top five ceiling. I have more a little more optimism for Yelot reaching that ceiling again because he basically did it two years in a row while Bellinger just has the one year. But with players that high end who are still in the prime of their careers, if things win a skew for them over a two-month stretch. I'm not putting much stock in it at all,

and I'm probably going to be, I mean, we'll see depending how far we make it through this draft, I'm going to put a lot of, I'm probably going to have a lot of stock in those types of players. In the case of Yelich and Bellinger specifically, Yelich still hit the ball really hard. His strikeout rate was just unusually high. Bellinger, you know, the biggest,

the most obvious change from 2019 his MVP season to previous was his strikeout rate was way down in 2019. Great improvement there. And that actually held into 2020. So if he was able to continue with that thing, he improved

the most, then I think he's going to be great still in the long run. Yeah, I'm fine with where they went here. Yeah, with Christian Yell that you brought up to strikeouts, that was basically the only thing that I noticed. of his plate discipline numbers were off where he was a little bit too patient and he wasn't swinging as much as he has in the past. But he had a 30.8% strikeout rate. This is Christian

Yelich in the short in 2020 season. That strikeout rate was never higher than 21% in any other season. And his stat cast numbers were actually better this year than they were in 2018 and 2019 when he really took off. He had a 94 mile per hour average exit velocity. in 2021, which was a career high. So I feel a little bit safer with Yelich. I want to see what happens with Bellinger in the offseason in terms of tinkering with his swing. I know that that was a thing right before the season got started, and it's something that might have affected him.

He also struggled against lefties in this shortened season, something he has now done in two of the last three years. So I'm a little more hesitant on Bellinger. I still like both of these guys a lot, but Christian Yelich is the one that I do feel safer about of the two. In the second round, this is where we started to see more starting pitchers go off the board. Half the picks in the second round. Six of the picks were starting pitchers.

I mentioned Garikola at 13. Walker Bueller at 16. He was the SP4 off the board. Trevor Bauer at 18. U. Darvish at 21. Aranola at 22. And Lucas Gialito went to you, Scott, at pick 23. That makes eight starting pitchers in the first two rounds.

I look back at the last roto mock draft that we did. in July before the 2020 season, eight starting pitchers went in the first two rounds of that draft as well. Really? Wow. Does anything look egregious here, Scott? I was thinking maybe Walker Bueller. He went at S.P. He went at pick 16 as the fourth starting pitcher,

and I know you have him at SP 13 in your early ranks. Yeah, I am just skeptical of the workload, especially coming off a season where nobody got to accumulate that many innings, and the Dodgers were already handling him with kids gloves, just not letting him build up the way most pitchers do, and so not being mid-season form until much later in the season than most pitchers, and I don't see why they would back down from that coming off the season that was.

So I'm, you know, inning for inning, he might be a stud, but I'm skeptical that the innings are going to be there like they will be for these other pitchers, and I wouldn't take him until some point in round three, which means I'm probably not getting him. I will just point out for Walker Bueller, his innings pitched in the last three seasons. 61 this past year, this is regular season and postseason combined, 195 in 2019 and 173 in 2018.

So he's never actually broken 200, even with the postseason included. But, hey, I mean, if he can get us 170, 180 this upcoming season, he probably will be really good in those innings. But it is... Yeah, yeah, if that happens, I would be surprised. if it does just because of how frustratingly cautious they've been with him. I mean, they basically haven't given him a spring draining,

which means very slow out of the gate ends. Yeah, that's two years in a row that they just have gotten him off to slow starts, whether it's by design by them or if it's by design by him. And they have a lot of pitching depth, too. David Price will presumably be back. I guess he could still opt out for next season, too, if you wanted to. But David Price, they have all these young kids and Gonsolin and Dustin May and Julio Arias. So we'll see what happens with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

And again, you could find all the results of this mock draft on TBSports.com slash fantasy baseball. There's an article there where you can follow along and take a look at the results as well. In the third round, Scott, a few hitters stood out to me here. Nolan Aronado went at 27. Corey Seeger went at 31, his ADP last season. well entering 2020 was 125. So he's moved up about 100 picks from where he was going before 2020.

Anthony Rendon was at pick 32, and Bo Bichette went at 34. Scott, I think if you start starting pitcher, starting pitcher in your draft, and I'm not saying that that is a viable strategy. I'm still kind of figuring out my strategy here throughout the offseason. But if you do, I think that

if you're trying to find an anchor in the third round, assuming Aronado, it remains with Colorado, and he's healthy, and he's in course field. I don't see any reason to believe he wouldn't be his normal self. And Anthony Rendon, I think if you get either one of those guys as your first hitter, I'm not really mad at that. Yeah, and frankly, Corey Seeger, I mean, Corey Seeger performed like a first rounder this year, right? Oh, yeah. And it was even better in the postseason.

I'm not sure. Could you look up quickly if he finished in the top 12 among hitters? Yes. I know the fact that he not much of a base dealer may have pushed him slightly out of that, but he was, I mean, he was a Mike Trout level hitter. So, you know, obviously two-month sample,

it was closer to three months with the playoffs, I guess, which adds some legitimacy to it, but there's going to be some reason for skepticism than he can sustain it completely heading into next season. but I think there's a good chance here in the middle of round three he's a bargain and you know it might go well for you if he ends up being your best hitter Seeger was the 12th best hitter in Roto this past season

and he was the 18th best player overall and you're getting him in the middle of the third round so if you trust it he has a lot of injuries in his past so I don't want to completely overlook that but if you think that this is who Corey Seeger is and Scott, we were all excited about Seeger heading into the season, and we all, I had a decent amount of Seeger this year, and it seems like he built off of it in the postseason.

If he can remain healthy, I don't see why he can't be a 300 hitter with close to 30 home runs and great counting stats because he's in a great Dodger lineup. So, again, that is Corey Seeger. Bob Bichette, just the last name I wanted to ask you out here, Scott, going out, pick 34, his ADP, entry, 2020 was 68. So that would have put him in the sixth round,

and now you have to use a late third. I would say he's probably just going to settle in as a third round pick in 2021. Is this too early for Boba's shit? I kind of think it is because if we chop up his season pre-injury, Seuss hamstring, right? It was a leg, no knee.

He had a sprain knee. Yes. If we chop up his season into pre-knee, and Postney Postney wasn't so great. Postney was 15 games. He had 242 with no home runs. That was 15 games.

And then pre-knee was 14 games. And he had 361 with five home runs, four steals. So that was like his whole season. We're talking about 14 games where he was awesome. And like 14 games, as small as we're talking about the sample

for everyone else. That's obviously not. nothing. He could end up being this good. I mean, obviously he has a great prospect pedigree, and he got off to a promising start as a rookie in 2019 and all of that. But, you know, we weren't drafting him in the third round based on that performance as a rookie. And I think 14 games of him doing something more is not enough to win me over to drafting him this high. Bichette has played 75 career games thus far in the majors and in those games he's batting 307 with 16 home runs,

50 runs scored 44 RBI and 8 steals. If you double that, which is of course dangerous territory, but if you double that, that's 150 games, 32 home runs, 100 runs scored 88 RBI and 16 steals. So seems like that would be a pretty damn useful player in Roto and he has the prospect pedigree, and I made this comment during our shortstop preview that I kind of get Fernando Tatis vibes

where we're a little bit hesitant, and he has that prospect pedigree, and I think that there's a big upside, but we might be worried just because we don't know what the floor is. We think the upside could be massive, but we still are not sure of what the floor is. And he is going later than where Tatis was going last year. I'm not saying he's going to turn into the player

that Tatis is. now, but there is a lot of upside when it comes to Boba Shet, and a lot of people that are excited about him. So, just the name to monitor in the all-season in terms of ADP. The fourth round. I dedicated this round, Scott, too. Players were not used to seeing drafted this early in drafts. Tim Anderson went at Mr. Anderson. I can do that now because I saw the first two Matrix movies. I haven't seen the third Matrix movie yet. Tim Anderson at 38. Iloi Jimenez at 40. Marcel O'Zuna at 41, Kyle Tucker at 44, Zach Gallen at 45, selected by me, Kent and Maeda went at 46.

Scott, for me, Tim Anderson has really been a stud since the start of the 2019 season. We knew that Eloy, Tucker, and Galen all had upside entering 2020. We were somewhat excited about them, and basically they hit on that upside. Marcel Ozuna is a little bit different in that he's been inconsistent the past couple of seasons. He's had two really great seasons in the past four years. And then Kenza Maita has shown his flashes in the past, but never of being this good. And he did have a great schedule. So you can include all the names, but specifically the ones that I thought stood out to me were

Ozuna and Maeda. Do you have a problem with them going potentially in the fourth round for 2020? No, I rank them to go there. There is some hesitation since it's built on a two-month sample where they were amazing, but a two-month sample from players who have a pretty extended track record of performing less than that. It helps that in both Osuna and Maeda's case, we long suspected them of being capable of more. and they lived up to it last year. It's for both of them though,

it's a situation where if you look at where they rank positionally, I have a hard time justifying ranking them lower than this. And so if I'm ranking them at this point positionally, this is the port of the draft where you can expect them to go. I'm not sure if I'm going to be enthusiastic about drafting them here. So, kids at Maeda went 10th in the fourth round with the 10th pick of the fourth round. And I drafted Brandon Woodruff right after that. So I suppose if Maida was still there, I would have been drafting Maida myself because I rank him ahead of Woodruff.

So, yeah, I mean, it makes me a little nervous, but I think it's, I think it's appropriate for both of them. Speaking of your team, Scott, as we enter the fifth round, you took Ronald Ocuna with the second overall pitch. and then you went with four starting pitchers in a row. Lucas Gialito at 23. Look at scout, this big old grin on his face. He's so happy to get these aces on his team. Max Scherzer at 26. You took Brandon Woodruff, you just mentioned,

at pick 47, and then you took Carlos Carrasco at pick 50, and then you took hitters with seven of your next eight draft picks. So just looking at the first five rounds, and then kind of how everything worked out after that, that. Is this a strategy you could actually see yourself using in 2021? I know last year was like four of the top 30 or 35. Are we going four of the top 20 this year, Scott? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. I don't know that it was entirely necessary as the draft played out. There were enough pitchers that went several rounds later that I still liked enough. And it just didn't make sense for me to draft them anymore

because I had already filled out so much of my pitching staff and I needed to have all those hitter spots to fill. So maybe, you know, if I used one of those four picks, whether my second round, third round, fourth round, or fifth round, on another hitter, particularly one that steals bases, because other than a kunia, I don't know that I'm in great shape for stolen bases, and obviously those need to be filled early. I might like that a little more, but I don't dislike the way it turned out. Part of it was going with the flow of the draft.

This was a very pitcher-heavy draft, particularly by Roto standards, and I'm not sure They're all going to play out this way. And I'm sure by like my fourth round pick, I would be able to recognize that and maybe not go for Woodruff, maybe go for some hitter. But I don't hate it. I don't hate it. Part of what makes it, part of what justifies it,

I mean, beyond the case I was making for starting pitchers early this year, is that I do think we're going to see even a bigger, an even bigger disparity in workload and the guys that are going off early are the ones who are going to give you the workload. Part of it, too, is there are so many hitters that are well-established studs who just had a terrible two months.

And if you're going to believe that it's just a fluke of sample size or a fluke of some of the COVID protocols, like in the case of not being able to watch video in between a bats or whatever, if you're going to believe that, then believe it, you know, and then take advantage of it. So my third hitter in round seven is J.D. Martinez. The first hitter I took as a cunia.

The second was Matt Olson, who himself had a down a couple months, at least with the batting ever. He was my second hitter around six. And my third in round seven was J.D. Martinez. I mean, J.D. Martinez, we've seen him go in rounds one or two the past, what, three years. And I'm not ready to bed. I think there's a lot of reason to believe it was just this fluky thing.

He talked about a lot. He talked a lot about the effect that not being able to review video had on him. And so I'm hopeful, I'm hopeful things play out well for him. I know I'm getting kind of, kind of going deeper into the draft than maybe you want to at this point, but round eight, Carlos Correa, the same thing, a guy who had kind of a wacky two months and then showed in the playoffs that it really was just wacky because he hit what i think he hit five home runs during the regular season and then six in the playoffs or something like that five and five and it was the same thing for altouvae too yeah and i think that this final point that you're making scott is the main one where

if you want to lean into starting pitching early that means that you are confident in the middle rounds of hitters and if you do think 2020 was this kind of some short season sample size that you're really worried about when it comes to established hitters, then you 100% should take advantage of the discounts that you're getting on these players. Glaber Torres went in the late sixth round of this draft. J.D. Martinez went in the seventh. Javier Baez went in the seventh. Carlos Correa went in the eighth. So you are getting, I got awesome medals, I believe, in the seventh round as well.

Not as much of a track record, but still a player that I think is very talented. If you trust the talent of those hitters, then you should want to get pitchers and pitching volume in particular. early on and then kind of lean into those discounts that you're getting in the middle round. So that was definitely one of the takeaways that I noticed early here in this mock draft. And I agree wholeheartedly. We're going to take a quick break. I just want to remind everybody that if you enjoy fantasy baseball today,

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episode description. We're going to take a quick break. When we return, we're going to hit on the rest of these middle rounds, some rapid fire, interesting players I saw, and we'll just take a quick look at what our teams turned out looking like here on fantasy baseball today. The last thing I wanted to mention from the fifth round was that I took Luis Robert at pick 52 as my second hitter, which in itself seems risky.

But so much fun, man. Luis Robert and Fernando Tatis on the same team with some stuff. Judd pitchers in the middle there. I think I wound up with Darvish, Luis Castillo, and Zach Gallen as my SP 1, 2, and 3. So if you're wondering where Luis Robert wound up, early 5th round in this mock draft,

I have a feeling he will go higher the closer we get to the actual season. We also saw our first catcher, J.T. Real Muto, go off the board at pick 56. And our first reliever, Josh Hater, went at pick 58. I think Rio Muto might move up once we know where he actually signs.

There are rumors of Josh Hater. Hater potentially being traded soon. We'll see what happens there. I think Hater went pretty far ahead of the second reliever. Liam Hendricks went in the middle of round eight, and we have Hater going at the end of round five. So, yeah, that's a big... Yeah.

There are probably, what, like, 12 relievers that you can confidently draft right now, probably even less than that, that you can confidently draft expecting to get saves. Because I know I have guys like Kirby Yates and Trevor Rosenthal in my top 12, 12 relievers and both of them are free agents. We don't really know if they're going to sign to be closed as I'm presuming they will,

but maybe not. So it's kind of, it's with these really early mock drafts, it's hard to draft for that position specifically just because so much can share. I mean, Brad Hand is a free agent. So many, so many relief,

high end relievers who are free agents. The sixth round, we wondered since September, Scott, where Corbyn Burns would be drafted and the sixth round, at least early on, looks to be the home of one Corbin Burns.

And he was taken at pick 66 as the 24th starting pitcher off the board just after DeNelson Lamet and about eight to ten, eight or ten picks ahead of Hyun Jin Ryu. So does this make sense? I feel like it does.

Burns, in this range, there's upside. SP 24, you probably get them as like your SP3. It seems like it makes sense. This is where I rank them. This is where they fit into my starting pitcher rankings. But this goes to what I was saying about if there's this disparity in workload

between the established high-end pitchers and the more recent who've joined that group, like this is where it begins to show up. And this is why, you know, this is the start of round six and I had four starting pitchers in my first five rounds. So this is where I started back off starting pitcher two. Because Lamet, I mean, this will be his second full year back from Tommy John surgery. Full year.

Like, 2020 was a full year, you know. Like, is he going to go beyond 140 innings? I doubt it. Corbyn Burns, obviously really short season. And then he spent 2019 in relief and really hasn't had a chance to extend himself. I think since like 2017 and the minors. is he even got to get I assume he'll get 100

endings but is it going to get much more than that? I don't know. I mean, drafting him here, you're obviously hoping he will, but I have my doubts. And it is fair. He was used as a reliever in 2019 so the endings were kept low then as well.

This just goes back to the question I asked you earlier, Scott, and for anyone listening, if you are just enamored with the talent of Corbyn Burns and you want him on your team and you want to take him in round six or seven as your SP3 or maybe even your SP4, just make sure that you have other pitchers on your team as well

that are going to give you innings that, you know, these workhorse guys, if you have, he's a good guy to pair with like a Lance Lynn or just somebody in that mold that we just feel really confident about the innings come 2021. Again, that's if you want Corbyn Burns on your team. It's got the seventh round. You mentioned this is where you took J.D. Martinez.

I took Austin Meadows at pick 76. Javier Baez went at pick 78. Kestin-Hira, a name that doesn't have a track record, but someone we were excited about, mostly excited about entering the 2020 season. And then he led us down. He led the National League in strikeouts, actually. I was going to ask you which one are you most likely to target,

but I guess it's Shady Martinez since you actually drafted him ahead of all these other names. Scott, are any of these names that you are most likely to avoid? Meadows. You're worried about Meadows. Yeah, yeah, because I wasn't totally convinced he was as good as he was in 2019 in the first place. I mean, it's really just a one-year sample of him being a stud. And then you factor in all the raised nonsense with the different lineup every day,

and he's a left-handed hitter, and I'm sure they're going to have other hitters they could mix in there. I just, unless he is as good as 2019, will he be an everyday player? I don't feel confident saying that. So that's why I have Meadows rank quite a bit lower than this. But I love this round overall. Martinez, Baez fits into that same category. I still love Jordan Alvarez, especially since he's had knee surgery. I mean, I feel like that should be behind him now.

Two knee surgeries. Dual knee surgery. He's a D-H, so that shouldn't hold back his ability to take the field, at least. And I was drafted him in round two in some leagues early. early this season before the knee became such an issue. Keston Hurrah, I still like at this point. So I wish I could have had several picks in this round, frankly. I don't hate some of the pitchers in this round, though, is the thing.

Like Ryu and Sunny Gray both went in this round. And while I do rank them behind Denelson Lamet and Corbyn Burns, I feel more confident in the workload they're going to get. And I like so many of the hitters that it's hard to say. I wish I had taken a hitter instead of one of those four pitchers early so that I could grab a pitcher here because I don't want to miss out on these headers either. But it's like that's that I guess is the justification maybe for not taking so many pitchers so early. And what I'm noticing at least early in the all season, Scott,

I know that there was kind of a cutoff point last year and it was right around 35 for you. and for me, what I'm looking at thus far is a similar range this season, right around 30, 31. Once we get into Kyle Hendrix, Chris Paddock, Jose Berrios, that's that range. That's why I have 29 through 31, and you have those players similarly ranked as well. Right after that, it's Bundy, Lazzardo, Ian Anderson, Sixto Sanchez. Pitchers that I like, but inherently do come with more risk. So for me, I'm looking at that top 30, 31, and if I can get three or four of those guys,

that's that's that early cutoff that I'm looking at here of pitchers that I still feel pretty good about. Yes, there are a lot of things that went wrong with Chris Paddock this past season, but if I'm getting him as my SP4 in round, let's see what round he went in. He went in round nine. If I get Paddock as my SP4 in round nine, Scott,

I'm gold. I'm perfectly fine with that. And Barrios too. at the end of round eight because they have they have a full season of being studly so i don't put the same level of performance risk on them that i do unlike an ian anderson or a jesus lusardo who um you know obviously a tiny sample size of being good and and they weren't good across the board either i mean ian anderson had some control issues jesus lizardo had consistency issues.

So I put the cut off at about the same point where I like the upside of Ian Anderson and Jesus Lazzardo, but there's obvious workload risks there. There would be anyway just because of their age, but especially coming off the short season. And then there's more performance risk too. So there's still upside plays, but I don't want to have to rely on upside plays at starting pitcher because there's not much recourse if they don't pan out for you. Let's quickly just wrap up here with taking a look at our teams and how they turned out, Scott. And we mentioned you went with the starting pitcher early strategy here. Looking at your infield,

you wound up with Salvador Perez. My guy, Salvador Perez. Look at, I love the way this worked out. Salvador Perez, you got Bust. 11, right? I got him in round 11. It was late. I feel like he was going that late this year. Yeah, round 11. I pick 122. It's, if people are not buying into Salvador Perez, I'm perfectly fine getting him in round 10 or 11 as my first catcher in a,

on a roto team. So you wind up with Perez, Buster Posey, you got Matt Olson, Nick Madrigal, Josh Donaldson at third base, Carlos Correa at shortstop, T. Gregorius at Middle Infield, and Paul Goldschmidt at Corner Infield. That rounds out your infield in general

on this Roto team. So considering you weighted, There was some injury risk with Madrigal. He had shoulder surgery, and Donaldson was just banged up this year. But in general, what do you think about this group of infielders? I'm comfortable with it. I am asking Nick Madrigal to do a lot in batting average and stolen bases because he is my best hope for stolen bases beyond Acuna.

And he didn't, I don't think he had a single one in the short time he was in the majors this year. It's just with his. lack of power, it's hard for me to believe, though, never let him run, you know? At batting average, he should be a safe bet for that as long as he's on the field. So I'm asking him to do a lot there. Obviously, not my goal to get Nick Madrigal is my number one second baseman, but I think for this team, the way this team is constructed, he's a nice fit. I would have, I wish I felt more confident in my third basement, too, because, I mean,

Josh Donaldson that feels like a huge huge rolls of dice given his age and injury history and it's a position where most teams have a stud. So I really need that to work out and I don't have a replacement lined up if it doesn't.

I don't think JD Davis for instance got drafted. He did not get drafted. J.D. Davis and he wasn't great this year but I'm not ready to give up on him. I'd love to have him on my bench. We didn't draft benches. I didn't have a spot. to put him so I couldn't draft them late

since we're only drafting starting lineups. I didn't have a spot for J.D. Davis. But that's, if I, if I draft Josh Donaldson in a real draft with a bench, Davis is somebody. I'm probably going to get late to pair with him. Nick Madrigal did have two steals this year, Scott, in 29 games. And Steamer

on Fangraphs has him projected for a 305 batting average and 20 steals in 146 games. So that'd be pretty good. Mm-hmm. Out of your second baseman. In your outfield, you wound up with Ronald Acuna, Kyle Lewis, your guy, Kyle Lewis, Trey Mancini, who there's actually been good news on recently. Of course, he missed the 2020 season with a colon cancer diagnosis, and he is in the cage.

He's been swinging, and the hope is that he can be ready for opening day for the Baltimore Orioles. You also got Will Myers, AJ Pollock, and J.D. Martinez at utility, because he is utility only now. Acuna, Kyle Lewis, Mancini, Pollack, J.D. Martinez. Yeah, I think I'm really happy with this. Will Myers didn't run much this year, probably because he was hitting so many homers.

But just given his track record, there's a good chance he's helping me out in steals. Lewis will help me out in steals to some degree. And I got Kyle Lewis in round 17. I don't like him, but to get him in round 17 of a five outfielder league, That's wild. That just doesn't seem like that could go wrong.

Mancini, I got in round 18. If things continue to trend the way they have for him, probably going to have a lot of shares of Trey Mancini. Agree wholeheartedly. You know, Pollack was the surprise 16 homer guy this year. I got him in around 16. So, like, I didn't pay much. Where did I get Myers?

Will Myers was probably my second outfielder drafted, if we're not counting J.D. Martinez. Yeah, I got Will Myers in round 10. And I think Teoscar Hernandez went four picks later. So those were the, I kind of lump those two together because they're power first guys who also contribute some speed. But I'm not really counting on them for batting average,

even though they were both fine for that in the short season. I don't know if you prefer Hernandez or Myers, but I kind of pair them together and went with Myers over Hernandez there. you know he's I don't know that I necessarily feel confident with him as my number two outfielder but when you consider number three, four and five here I think it's a strong outfield the pitching staffer Scott we mentioned he went pitching heavy and wound up with Gialito Max Scherzer Brandon Woodruff Carlos Carrasco Lance McCullors as your SP5 future Cy Young Award winner Joe Musgrove as your SP6, Jose Eurkeedy as your SP7, and you got Taylor Rogers, and

Daniel Hudson, who I think might be a free agent, not 100% sure about that. He's under contract. Okay, so it should probably be the closer for the Nationals. I mean, slam dunk at starting pitcher here, Scott, and I know you usually wait on relievers anyway. Yeah. Yeah, I, for spending four of my top five picks on starting pitcher, I actually wish it looked a little better than this. I mean, how much better can I be? I mean, I compare my top four to other teams top four and I'm like, am I

clearly beating this team in starting pitching? And, you know, some teams I can certainly say that about, but there's some that I can't. And they didn't invest quite as much as I did. So that's why I'm not totally sure I'm all in on this approach. But I ended up with not just those four.

I ended up with five of my top 40 by getting Lance McCullors there too. Obviously, he's not a sure thing. He's more in that Ian Anderson, Jesus Luzardo category. But I like the upside. And I don't necessarily need him to come through. But if he does, then that's obviously going to make my pitching staff really strong. And I got two possible closers for not investing much there. I never invest much in closers.

I hope to get a third at some point, but, you know, yeah, no complaints about the pitching staff. It's obviously the strength of my team. And if you want to see who I wound up with on my team, you're going to have to find it at cbsports.com slash fantasy baseball. You can find the article there with all the draft results. We'll drop this in the Facebook group as well. For Scott, I am Frank, thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today on our YouTube channel. We'll be back again on Thursday. Bye-bye.