Fantasy Baseball Today - Pete Alonso to the Mets, Jack Flaherty to the Tigers & Mailbag Questions! (2/7 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

At last! Pete Alonso is headed back to the Mets (2:30)! ... Jack Flaherty is returning to the Tigers (7:19). ... Christian Yelich won't be 100% for the start of spring training (14:22). ... We had some smaller outfield signings including Harrison Bader, Tommy Pham, Randal Grichuk and Ramon Laureano (15:56). ... Let's get into mailbag questions, starting with Ohtani as two players (26:53). ... How do we rank Ober, Schwellenbach, Grayson Rodriguez and Tanner Bibee (30:50)? ... Target Tyler Stephenson (36:49)? ... Who are the top quality platoon bats (40:57)? ... Who are our like it, love it and gotta have it players (44:25)? ... Which of these post hype breakouts do we like most (48:03)? ... What's the best way to use a consolation bracket in keeper leagues (52:04)? ... What are some tips for Fantasy Baseball beginners (59:35)?  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, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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

Happy Cocoa Mailbag Friday and welcome in to fantasy baseball today on February 7th. I am Frank Stamfield, joined by Chris Towers. Today on the show, our first mailbag of the offseason. Plus a bunch of news to recap from the week, some pretty big ones. Pete Alonzo back to the Mets, see the lights, and Jack Flaherty is returning to the Tigers. That is where we will start, Chris. Finally, the polar bear. He's headed back to Queens. Pete Alonzo returning to the Mets on a two-year, $54 million deal.

He'll get $30 million in 2025, and he does have an opt-out after the first season. This was sorely needed, I think on both sides. Yeah. Hewoldo wanted to go back to the Mets. The Mets needed to lengthen out their lineup, and so they do get their guy back. And as we said on our first base preview, this was the best possible landing spot for Pete Alonzo. Maybe outside of Cincinnati, there were some rumbling. of them getting involved.

That would have been pretty awesome too. But it was a downseason for Pete, still a premier power bat who gets to hit behind Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto. So the counting stats should be awesome here, Chris. The Fantasy Pro's ADP 43.6. Do you pay the price for Pete Alonzo?

And how much do you think he rises after returning to the Mets? I think he probably rises a little bit. I'm not sure he should. just because there are some worrying signs in the profile that we've seen over the past couple of years, the quality of contact is more good than elite now. He has an all-field swing that is probably especially at risk of losing home runs when he loses bat speed. And so I think he should go around 50.

I would guess he's going to move up a little bit after signing just because we have that confirmation that, yes, he's going to be hitting behind Francisco Linder and Juan Soto. And, you know, I think his career high is like 131 RBI. That's not outside the realm of possibility here. This is going to be a pretty phenomenal place for him to hit. Obviously, like literally Cityfield is not. a great place to hit. And so, you know, that's the other concern when you're talking about a guy who may just have plus power instead of plus plus power, but he's going to have so many opportunities to hit with runners on base. He's going to have so many opportunities to drive and runs that

even if it's a low batting average and more like 35 homers than 40, I still think he's going to be very, very good. Some of their hitters going right around this ADP for Pete Alonzo, the fourth round. Corey Seeger. Chris, would you rather have Alonzo or Corey Seeger? I have Corey Seger ahead.

What about Alonzo or Jose Altuve? I think I have Altuve ahead. And then Alonzo or Kyle Schwerber, which kind of seems like they would have similar outputs, but obviously, Schwerber leading off for the Phillies.

So maybe more run scored, more RPI for Alonzo. And Alonzo has a position. Schwerber doesn't. So who would you take in that case? I'll go Alonzo there. All right. The other side of this is that Mark Vientos will stick at third base. It's bad news for some of those ancillary pieces on the Mets, the Ronnie Maricio's, Brett Bates,

and Luis Anhele Acunias of the world. They were going to be competing for that third base job if Pete Alonza was not back. Do you plan to boost any of the other Mets, Chris, because we have a proven run producer here. I mean, I don't know how much you could boost someone like Lindor or Soto, but maybe Mark Vientos could have you. even more counting stats. He's going to probably bat lower in the lineup as a result of this. You know, he might go from third to fifth in the prospective lineup. So I guess I don't see much reason to move anyone up. It does make the sleeper case for Ronnie Maricio, Luis de Hacuna, less obvious, although

there is still like, they have Jesse Winker penciled in at DH, Jeff McNeil at second. I know he had a good second half, but neither of those seem like insurmountable obstacles to playing time. If, you know, Acuna, what he showed last year was real at all or Ronnie Maricio, the upside he has, I can still see a path to those guys becoming, you know, relatively everyday players for the Mets. It's probably not going to happen right away. It would probably require some injuries. And so I don't know how draftable those guys are. But certainly Ronnie Maricio and Luis San Halakuna, seem like names to keep in mind as the season goes on. Yep. And just to read off this lineup, it does look pretty good top to bottom now.

Lindor, Soto, Piedelonzo, Brandon Nimmo, Mark Vientos, Jesse Winker, Francisco Alvarez, Jeff McNeil, Jose Siri, and some of those young names waiting in the wings. Starling Marte, kind of on the outside looking in too, but I guess maybe a short side platoon with Jesse Winkler. Yeah. At D.H. Let's move over to Jack Flaherty, who was headed back to the Detroit Tigers on a two year $35 million deal. The contract that he winds up settling for here is pretty shocking when you consider. I think Frankie Montas got $34 million. So it's, yeah, I understand there are risks here with Jack Flaherty, but still feels like he probably should have got more years and more money

than what he wound up with. He will make $25 million in this upcoming season has an opt out after 2025. So if he has another big year, hopefully gets back on the market and could land himself a longer-term deal. But this was maybe the best landing spot for Jack Flaherty as well. He was awesome in his 18 starts with the Tigers. 295 ERA, 0.96 whip,

11.2K per 9, 14% swinging strike rate. He dealt with some injuries mid-season, has a long history of back injuries, regress some once he went over to the Dodgers. Chris, I'm not expecting Flaherty to get all the way back to the pitcher he was with the Tigers, but I think he will be slightly better

than he was with the, with the Dodgers. So what do you think about this landing spot for him? It's a best case scenario, pretty much. The Tigers should be competitive, if not, you know, they're not going to win 90 games, but they should be a decent team. And it's a great park to pitch in. Chris Fedder, rightly, I think, has a very good reputation. As a pitching coach, he's done great work with Flaherty last season. I think that was part of why he wanted to go back, but also Terrick Scoobal. and, you know, Reese Olson and a few other guys. So I think there's a lot to like about this landing spot.

And I think it makes Flaherty a top 30 pitcher. You know, I've got this tier, and I was looking ahead at some of the questions we're going to talk about later. And I've got a tier of pitchers right around 30 to 35 that I just don't know what to do with because there's big injury risks with all of them. And Flaherty probably belongs in that range with like Spencer Strider and Roki Sasaki and

Shohayotani and Tyler Glass now. I think you can put him at the top of that list. He threw more innings than any of them last year. But, you know, obviously there, we have seen five of the last six seasons now. Things can go really wrong or I guess four of the last six seasons. When things go wrong for Jack Flaherty, they can go really wrong. So still a high variance pitcher, but a. a 10th round pick, a solid, you know, mid-rotation starter.

I think that makes a lot of sense for fantasy. Yeah, you just mentioned right there, mid-rotation starter. Ideally, what would you want Flaherty as your SP3, SP4 for fantasy? I think SP3 probably makes the most sense. And this is the, but the thing is, this is the range where I'm probably getting back into pitching.

You know, my pitching strategy is, I want an anchor, maybe two. I've done that before in the first couple of rounds. And then historically, rounds four through 10 are not great places to pick pitching. Or I guess the better way to say it is the difference between pitchers drafted in the fourth round and pitchers drafted in the 10th round over the past decade is basically nothing. I wrote about this for CBSports.com. I've got all the data. it's actually kind of stunning how,

and I can go into the specifics if you want, but I figure we'll save that for the SP preview next week, maybe the week after. But the point is I want to pick at the back of that tier. You know, I want more in the ninth, 10th round to start to get back into pitcher. And so Flaherty will probably be in that range.

So I think he's a ideal SP3, but a workable SP2, if you really need to stretch it that far. The ADP for Flaherty is 133.2 as the 40th starting pitcher off the board. Chris, would you rather have Flaherty or Shane O'Mac? Shane McClanahan. Flaherty. What about Flaherty or Carlos Rodon?

I like Rodon, but I would take Flaherty. And Flaherty or Codai Senga? Senga, I just don't really know what to do with. I have him one spot, two spots ahead of McClanahan in my pitcher rankings. So I would still take Flaherty over those guys. All right, the updated Tigers rotation, by the way, includes Terrick Scubel, Jack Flaherty, Reese Olson, Alex Cobb, and according to Cody Stavenhagen,

hope I got that right, Stavenhagen, of the athletic, Jackson Jobb seems likely to claim an opening day rotation spot. So that is a pretty formidable five. It's pretty fun, yeah. For the Ditcher Tigers. Jackson Job, RP eligible for fantasy. So that's a big deal for you.

I had to head points leagues. I think he could be a top 150 pick in those leagues just because the upside if he hits as an RP is Gary Crochet last year. Is that overstating it? That could be, yeah, like the highest in outcome, yeah. The second best pitching prospect in the world after Roki Sasaki, like, he's, there's a lot to like there.

Yeah, let's take a quick break when we return. We'll hit some other news and then into your mailbag questions right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball's Day. We've got a little mailbag just hitting some of the news from the week before we get to that. But a couple of their notes I just wanted to hit on Chris.

Brewer's manager, Pat Murphy, said recently that he doesn't expect Christian Yellich to be 100% at the start of spring training. Yelich is returning from a back surgery to address a herniated disc. And I know Scott is a fan. I wanted to ask him more so about this, but was this the expectation

or does this kind of raise an alarm for Christian Yelich not bad? being ready at the start of spring training. I mean, he might be ready, but he's not 100%. Yeah, that's the, well, it's a question because not 100% could mean different things. It could mean we are going to hold him back and work him in slowly, play him every other day at the start of spring training, or it could mean he's not 100% healthy. Those are very different things. And either way, you know, there's still a month and a half between the start of spring training and,

opening day. So even if he's not 100% healthy, he could still be by opening day. But it's a little worrisome. Yeah. And I'm with Scott for the most part on being bullish on Christian Yelich. And he's a top 100 pick for me. He's a top 24 outfielder. The margins there are pretty slim. And I could fairly easily move him behind Riley Green and Cody Bellinger and Brian Reynolds. Does he really need to be that far ahead of Mike Trout, I think that's a, that's a fair question. So I'm not going to move him down yet. I would like more clarity, but it's, it's not what I want to hear as a person who wants to draft Christian knowledge. We did get a bunch of smaller outfield signings here. And beginning with the twins who signed Harrison Bader to a one year $6.25 million deal with a mutual

option for 2026. Bader was relevant in deeper category leagues last year, 12 homers, 17, steals, but only hit 236. He's still an awesome defender, but currently projects as a short side platoon and really injury insurance for Byron Bucks and Chris, is there anything here with Bader to the twins?

No. Look, a guy who could go 1515 is not without appeal, but it's going to come with a bad batting average. It's probably not an everyday profile. Just deep roto leagues, I think. Yeah. He'll be a I think we look at on deeper waiver wires when, if likely, Byron Buxson gets hurt at some point

this upcoming season. But before then, I don't really see much with Harrison Bader. The Pirates signed Tommy Fam to a one-year $4 million deal turning 37 in March. This is a good landing spot for fam just because I feel like this is an opportunity to maybe play every day, maybe even lead off for the Pirates here. Last season hit 248, only nine home runs, seven steals, not as impactful as he once was. I mean, Chris, we're talking deep league stuff here, but, you know, five outfielder category leagues, do you see anything with Tommy Finn? Not really. It's similar to Bader where fam should at least play more when he's healthy, but he's had trouble staying healthy. And he's just not the impact player that he once was. I know, I mean, look, we don't have to go that far back.

2023, he had 16 homers, 22 steals. So like, could that happen? again with a 250-ish batting average, sure, but he's 37. We saw decline last year. I don't think it's a name you need to bet on. Outfield's deep enough. Yeah, I think mostly NL only leagues there. Yeah. The biggest takeaway for me is I kind of like Nick York, who the Pirates trade of four late last season with the Red Sox. I just don't really see a spot now. Like maybe he was going to get a chance to play in the outfield, but it sounds like they're scared of his defense. They have Nick Gonzalez at second base as well, so probably bad news for Nick York there with the Pirates. The D-back signed Randall Gritchick to a one-year $5 million deal.

Last season hit 291 with 12 home runs, 875 OPS. Mostly a short-side platoon, I think, at DH with Pavin Smith. Another one, Chris, where, you know, NL only, but I don't really see much for Gritchick, right? Yeah, no real appeal here. For him or Pave and Smith is one of these guys that, like, you'll occasionally see people like interested in Pave and Smith and I don't get it at all. He hit the ball really hard last.

His numbers were good last year but it's a it's a platoon bat at best and he had been pretty terrible before last year. So I I don't think either of these guys really need to be on your fantasy radar.

The only thing with Pave and Smith is maybe he can turn into what Jock Peterson did with the D-Backs last year. Sure. Which from a deeper mixed league perspective might have some value, but outside of that, yeah, I mostly agree. Another confusing signing for the Orioles, they signed Ramon Laureano to a one-year,

$4 million deal, and not exactly what they needed. They now have seven outfielers on their 40-man roster, including Cedric Mullen, Tyler O'Neill, Coulton Couser, Luriano, Heston-Cyrstad, Dylan Carlson, and Daz Cameron. Luriano did some nice things last year, once getting traded to the, or just signed by the Atlanta Braves, 2-96, 10 homers, 5 steals, 8. 32 OPS. I feel like maybe a short side platoon with Cedric Mullins in center field, Chris, but more than anything, this just kind of causes more problems for fantasy than helps, I guess.

I don't understand what the Orioles are doing. The Orioles are having the off season that the Pirates should be having, where like they're signing a bunch of decent players, like guys who are legitimate major league players and who are not going to cost that much and might be worth two wins and like that's great but the Orioles have so much depth already in the organization that it doesn't really make sense why like did anybody think you know what the Orioles really needed was another outfielder for four million dollars it just it I don't understand the thought process or the approach here um look loriano showed that there's still something left last year and it seems like a fine signing in a vacuum but yeah where's it where's he going to play Wednesday

going to play? Is it just two to three times a week? Maybe he's a defensive replacement. I don't really see much upside here unless someone gets hurt or if they trade Cedric Mullins, who's a free agent after this season or trade Ryan O'Hern. Then you can start to see it, but it's just another confusing move by an Orioles team that like, is there playing time risk for Colton Couser now? I think there might be. I hope not. So many guys. And yeah. Yeah. I don't really understand the thought process here. A couple of reliever news items here. Ben Joyce is likely to open the season as the Angels Closer

last year 2008 ERA 115 whip, but under a strikeout per inning, the ADP is 216.4. Chris, would you rather Ben Joyce or Pete Fairbanks, who I think is still the closer of the raise, but not entirely sure. Probably depends on what league type you're talking about. In a 12-team league, I think Joyce being the closer

and having a more direct path to 25 to 30 saves probably has more value, even though I think Fairbanks is probably the better pitcher. And in a 15-team league, the 20 or so saves that are 15 to 20 or so saves that I think you can project Fairbanks for with the better pitching is probably more valuable. Joyce, the problem is it just,

there doesn't seem to be a ton of upside, despite the fact that he is arguably the hardest throwing pitcher in baseball. He just does not miss bats. He really hasn't missed bats very often in his professional league and in his professional career. The control when he has missed bats, it's been with really bad control.

So I just, I think he's probably more like a mid to high three's ERA guy who might save 25 to 30 games if he stays the closer all year. And that has value. It's just not an impact. And obviously he missed time with forearm, elbow, shoulder, wrist. something last year.

Sounds right. We can quickly pull that up and see. I think it was... Shoulder. Shoulder, okay. Yeah, which is not great, obviously. But, you know, we need saves for fantasy, so Ben Joyce will be an option. Another potential option,

per the Miami Herald, Calvin Foshae, will head into spring training as the favorite to close for the Marlins. The article also mentioned Jesus Tinoco and lefty Andrew Nardi as, you know, maybe options if Foshea doesn't come through. But Foshae, 29 years old last season at 319 ERA 140 whip, 10.6K per 9. Chris, I mean, this is deep league stuff.

Maybe your third closer or a bench piece. Do you have any interest in any Marlins relievers? I think you can make a case that Calvin Foshae should be more valuable than Ben Joyce. Because I think there's, look, the Marlins are going to be bad. Probably worse than the Angels. I think the Marlins might be the worst team of baseball this year. We love a superlative. But Foshae did show some upside last year.

He missed a decent amount of bats. The stuff is really good. There's going to be some walks, but hey, there's probably going to be some walks Ben Joyce as well. I don't know. Maybe Joyce's save ceiling is five higher, but Fosha might be the better pitcher. So I think they belong in the same range. You know, outside of the top 200, not someone that you're excited for, shouldn't be a huge part of your

plan for saves, but I think Fochet could be very useful for fantasy. The ADP is hugely different right now. Ben Joyce at 216 and Calvin Fochet at 384. So I'm not saying that Ben Joyce should really drop down much further than where he is, but Foshe should probably be a top 300 page. He should be drafted. Yeah, yeah.

I think that's fair, especially in all roto or category. Yeah, any roto. Not a head-to-head points. I don't think either of those guys is really worth drafting ahead-to-head points. Yep, agreed. Not fantasy news, but a worrisome story here just in baseball, MLB fired umpire Pat Hoburg

on Monday after violating the league's gambling policy. Hoburg allegedly shared legal sports betting accounts with a friend who placed bets on baseball. A friend who placed bets on baseball. Hoburg also deleted text messages between the two parties. Chris, very shady stuff. And, like, it's not really surprising, I guess, like the popularity of sports gambling and everything.

And we've seen this happen in other sports. But it does bring into question the integrity of the game. So not great. Yeah, I mean, Hoburg was by all accounts one of the better umpires in baseball, one of the most accurate ball and strike callers. So, you know,

it doesn't seem like there would be anything fishy going on there. And obviously, Major League Baseball investigated it and didn't seem to find anything. But yeah, it's a bad. look anytime you have someone connected to the game connected to gambling in this way. It's a bad sign. Yeah.

Before we hit our mailbag questions, a heads up that our programming for next week, we will not be live on Sunday night since it's Super Bowl Sunday, obviously. So we'll pre-record our shortstop preview, and that will drop Monday morning on YouTube, as well as in the audio feed. We'll be live Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. and I think Thursday night next week because players we love. Three day weekend.

Oh, is it? It's a three day weekend afterwards. Yeah, I think President's Day is on Monday as well. Oh gosh, I got to figure that out too. Well, we'll probably be live Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday next week. Whatever, we'll figure it out. But yes, we won't be live on Sunday night. That's all you need to know for now.

If you're watching this video, make sure to hit the like button and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. We are aiming for 30,000 YouTube subscribers by the end of draft season, so please help us get there. Let's jump into some mailbag questions. If you have a question you want answered on a future episode, you can email us Fantasy Baseball at cbsi.com, that's the letter I,

or you can drop a five-star rating and leave your question in the review on Apple Podcasts. I will mostly avoid keeper questions here. I'll try to answer some of them individually, just on, you know, via email or whatever, but please try to send in players-specific or strategy questions that we could use here on the Melbag podcast. This one's from Bob.

Many leagues, including Yahoo, separate Shohei Otani into two players, a hitter and a pitcher. Where would you rank those two players? Chris? Hitter Otani is the number three overall pick. That's the default for me. I think he should be the number three overall player.

I understand why people have him ranked number one overall. He's coming off arguably the greatest season in fantasy history, but he's also coming off shoulder surgery and elbow surgery. And I think it's just fair to be a little concerned about what that means, a little concerned. He drops two spots. Pitcher Otani is the more interesting question.

And like I mentioned, I've got that range. It starts at 30, where it's Hunter Green, Jack Flaherty, Tyler Glassnow, Shohay Otani, Spencer Strider, Roki Sasaki, where I just don't know. There's upside with all of them, but probably not as much upside

on a season long basis as you would think with any of them, just because you're likely to have real innings limits for Glass Now Otani, Strider, and Sasaki especially. I think Green and Flaherty, if they stay healthy, could throw 170 innings. It's just there's injury risk. But with Glass Now, Otani, Strider, and Sasaki,

I think like 130, 140 innings is probably the ceiling for any of them either way. So I think all of them could be impact pitchers, Otani being further removed from his Tommy John surgery than Strider put our not Tommy John We still don't actually know what Shohei Otani's surgery was

But we assume that it was the same thing Strider had or a similar thing with the Internal Brace procedure So I'll give him the edge But they're gonna have to manage Innings with all four of those guys Three of them being on the Dodgers Who will likely use a six-man rotation

Pretty much full time So yeah I Around 110th I think is fine to draft those guys. Yeah. Otani, I have to lower him. I haven't too high right now, but I think SP 32, which would be right behind Spencer Strider. It would be slightly ahead of Hunter Green, Roki Sasaki. I think Otani, the pitcher, will be impactful when he does pitch, but he's not going to pitch until probably May, and he's going to be on a six-man rotation. So again, you have to wait for him, and then he's kind of limited even once we do have him. So obviously,

that causes some complications with his fantasy value. This one's from Rembi, Greetings, Matt, Darcy, and Ty. I got no idea on this one. I tried looking into it. I think it might be something hockey related, either maybe goalies or enforcers or something. Matt Sundeen, that's a name that I recognize. I don't know about the other guys,

but Matt Sundeen, that sounds like a hockey player. I try to be as knowledgeable across all the sports as possible. I follow basketball. I follow football. I don't follow hockey. I mean, it's really the only sport I don't follow. I didn't play it growing up. So that's really just the only sport I've never really gotten into. Yeah, I played hockey growing up.

It's actually the one sport I played like somewhat seriously. Yeah, you're the only kid down in Miami playing into my teens. Yeah, playing in the outside. roller hockey in the summer in Miami with like long sleeve shirts and rude great uh but i i don't know hockey guys i i know hockey guys up until about 2001 let's say and then uh the panthers started missing the playoffs every year for about 15 straight years and 20 straight years and my interest level waned yeah so now you're a bandwagon fan because the panthers oh absolutely back they're good show up in the playoffs, I'm there.

I got my jersey on, I'm watching every game. Regular season, I think I've watched like three games this year. There you go. Again, from Ramby, longtime fan from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Please rank the following four pitchers in terms of who is most likely to end 2025 as a top 15 starting pitcher. So not just how you rank them, but most likely to finish as a top 15 pitcher. Bailey Ober, Grayson Rodriguez, Spencer Schwellenbach, and Tanner Bybee.

well, I have Ober ranked the highest of this group, so I guess I'll say he is the top one. And look, he is not like the flamethrower with six swing and miss pitches. So I think he gets dismissed a little bit when it comes to the upside conversation. But the one thing you have to keep in mind with Bailey Ober is the whip is going to be phenomenal. Even when he struggled last year, he still had one of the best whips in baseball. And so that's a hidden value that he has that Shwellenbach had very good, very good whip as well. And because of his very good control could be a similar guy.

I think there's more strikeout upside. So I think the ultimate ceiling might be a little high up for Shwellenbach, but I'll go over Rodriguez and Bybee. It both just seems like they should be better than they are. So I will go over Shwellenbach-Rodriguez, Bybee. Yeah. I think Schwellenbach's upside if he hits is a little bit higher than Bailey Ober's. And I feel like Ober is more of a high floor pitcher.

So maybe not as likely to finish top 15 or really kind of boost up as like an SP1. I could be wrong about that. He has great swinging strike. Maybe he just takes another big step this year. But I'll put Schwellenbach at the top of that list who I am. That's reasonable. I am in love with this season. Maybe.

Maybe foreshadowing for our Valentine's Day episode. And then I'll go Bailey Ober. I'll go Grayson Rodriguez. and then Tanner Bybee after that. This one is from Nick. What are the long-term outlooks for Xavier Edwards and Anthony Volpe? I'm trying to figure out what my plan is for them

in a Dynasty Points League. Should I try to move on from one of them before the season starts? What do you think? I think there's a realistic chance that this is the absolute pinnacle of Xavier Edwards' fantasy value. So I think it's perfectly reasonable

to try to move him. Volpe he's still 23. You know, I know he's played two full seasons, but he's still so young. He did show some stuff, you know, towards the later part of last season. I'm trying to remember what the exact splits were.

Maybe I'm overstating it. He didn't really show very much. He did. I thought there was like a little bit of pop. It might have been in the second half. Yeah. In the playoffs, Chris. I mean,

he didn't hit for power in the playoffs. Yeah. I hate to put. much on the playoffs, but like this is when the lights are brightest and all eyes are on you. And Anthony Volpey, like, had showed amazing command of the strikes in the playoffs. I mean, he had a 17% walk rate, 22% strikeout. He had a 286 batting average, 407 on base. Well, only one homer about 10 runs and five steals.

So I don't know, maybe something started to click. I think we have seen kind of pieces of his game that could be useful for fantasy, but we haven't really seen everything kind of blended together yet, which is fair for a 23-year-old. You know, we probably were expecting Volpe to figure it out sooner than he has, but I still think there's another step for him. So I think I would agree. If you can kind of not sell high on Xavier Edwards, because, you know, maybe he just turns out to be a great batting average and hits, you know, has 40 plus deals. Like that, that's within his range of outcomes. But if you could flip Xavier Edwards for another, you know, starting player on your team for years to come,

and then just kind of keep Volpe as your shortstop. I think that's fair. The thing I would say with Edwards is how many guys with this profile become long-term contributors? It's fair. Like, you'll see the pop-up seasons from like an Andres Jimenez or Bryson Stott. And frankly, for the little power those guys have, they've got a lot more than Xavier Edwards does.

So it's just, it's a really hard profile to make work for multiple seasons. And I think there's, a reasonable amount of bust potential with Xavier Edwards this season two. All right. Let's take our final break when we return. We'll jump back into your mailbag questions right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today answering your mailbag questions. This one's from Jake in Kansas City.

I'm very excited about these position previews. Woohoo! It's getting real. Here's my thought of catcher. Why not get Tyler Stevenson if you don't get a top tier catcher? For me, JT. Real Muto is the kind of guy I'm waiting to see go off the board before I make my move at catcher if I miss out early. Real Muto will be 34 years old. He's coming off a down year. I'm concerned about that. And the last thing I want is a second tier catcher who forces me to

roster a second catcher from waivers. Tyler Stevenson, on the other hand, could have a career year this year. He is in his prime and took a big step towards that last season. I just think Tyler Stevenson is the definition of fine at catcher. And frankly, I think his price is probably a little too high. You know, 139 in NFBC ADP, maybe it's a little lower in a one-catcher league, but I just think he's fine, you know, like what J.T. Reramuto was last year, except there's no stolen base potential for Tyler Stevenson. So I think, like, it's reasonable to be out-ish on J.T. Realmuto, not expecting the speed to come back,

although he still ran the basis really well, still had pretty good quality of contact metrics. I don't think the bottom fell out. But Stevenson, he doesn't hit the ball that hard. He doesn't have great play discipline. Like everything is fine, you know,

like slightly above average, pretty much across the board. And playing at Cincinnati helps boost that a little bit. But it's, there's just nothing to get excited about with Stevenson. I think he's a perfectly adequate starter. He's the number, 12 catcher,

kind of the consensus number 12 catcher, but I just don't think I don't think there's another step forward here. All right, I know I said no keeper questions. This one's not really a keeper question. It's more so just projecting players over the next handful of years or so.

This one's from Evan. Why Langford or James Wood? Which player will be the best overall player over the course of the next four years? An impossible question, Chris, and your answer is? Wood's younger, so I guess I'll go with Wood. I don't know.

Like I said, like they're going to be really good plays. Yeah, I said in a recent podcast, I don't answer coin flip questions. This is basically a coin flip question. They're almost back to back in my rankings. James Wood is my 61st overall player for 2025,

right? Wyatt Langford's 65. Langford's one year older. They had similar prospect pedigree. I have no idea. I think they'll both be good. I think Wood has both more ways things can go wrong and ways that things can go right. You know, because he, I think the tools are a little louder.

The athleticism is a little bigger. But the holes are bigger as well. You know, he has not figured out how to optimize his swing yet. The fact that he was a very good hitter or at least a very good fantasy option last year, I think bodes well. but these guys sometimes don't figure it out. You know, O'Neill Cruz is 26 and we're still waiting for him to start to figure things out. So I'll give Wood the edge, but it's razor thin.

Yeah, I think you said it well, though. I think there's a wider range of outcomes for James Wood. I think the upside is a little bit higher. Wyatt Langford, and it's tough because I think his upside is really high too, but maybe more likely to just go, you know, 20-20 this year, maybe be in that 20 to 25 home run and steel range, but I don't want to sell him short either. He could turn into a 30-30 bat,

but maybe James Wood was like 40-40 or something. So it comes down to, I guess, do you want to shoot for a little bit more upside or I guess maybe a little bit more safety with a Wyatt Langford? I think I would lean with James Wood too, but that is, yeah, as he said, razor thin there. This one's from TJ, My Dynasty Auction League, sets daily lineups and I feel like I can exploit the league for value by targeting high quality

platoon bats. Who would you say are the best platoon guys on a per game basis or the guys that have substantially more value in their home parks? The Josh Lowe's and Matt Walner's and Ryan McMan's for example may provide some great quality when they play or play at Cores Field and can be substituted into an outfield or you still spot at lower cost to get an edge. Who knows? Maybe they'll wind up getting 600 plate appearances and even become a steal. I have a bunch of names listed here, Chris. Feel free to choose any of those or anything else that comes to mind here. The one that jumps off the bat.

Jumps off the page? Page is Jock Peterson, who had a 154 way to Runs Created Plus against right-handed pitching last year. He was the number 12 player in baseball against right-handed pitchers. So he's definitely one. I think Luke Rayleigh is also another guy who provides a little bit of speed probably never going to be able to hit lefties but he was really good against righties last year um those would be the two most obvious ones the one thing i would caution against you don't want the lefty platoon guys they're like right-handed hitters who crush lefties and only really play against lefties just because one i'm not a hundred percent sure the

lefty mashing platoon bat really exists. There just aren't many guys who are that much better against lefties than they are against righties. Because you see them, because you see right-yed-s-much as a right-handed hitter growing up, coming up through the minors, coming up through high school, there just aren't that many guys.

The problem, the biggest issue is that lefties just don't get as many reps against lefties. So that's why the platoon edge is there. So that's the one thing I would say is, you probably don't want to try to chase the short side platoon guys. Yeah, I think we're in agreement there. I think the way you can finagle this to make it work

is have a bunch of these right-handed platoon guys, like either the back end of your roster on your bench and just kind of cycle through them as your utility bat based on matchups or whenever they're at home, whatever it might be facing a right-handed pitcher. A couple other names here. Nolan Jones, I think, could be a double whammy. He could just be a strong side platoon.

in Coorsfield. A couple of names in Cincinnati, Jake Fraley and Gavin Lux potentially, strong side platoons there. Kerry Carpenter, I think, just very likely to be a strong side platoon, has big power potential. Williare Arrayu with the Red Sox, Alec Berluson with the Cardinals,

Max Kepler signed with the Phillies this offseason. Peterson, I think, is a great one. Jonathan Aranda with the Tampa Bay Rays. And then some deep down names, Jesse Winker with the Mets, Garrett Mitchell with the Brewers, Pave and Smith with the D-Backs, and Ryan O'Hern with the Orioles.

I'll also say Michael Conforto is not necessarily a platoon-only bat. He might play every day, but he's so cheap in drafts that you might as well, you might be able to get away with just drafting him. Yeah. And with the plan to use him against all righties, and if he has the season, you know, Scott certainly expects. And I think we're all pretty high on Michael Conforter. I think he was a sleeper for all three of us, actually.

Then you might just get a great player out of it. All right. move on to the next question from Brian who feels like Chris is going to love this one. Who are your Coldstone players this year? They'll like it love it. Gotta have it.

Ideally after Pick 72, which is very specific. I enjoy that you included that. So let's say outside the top 70 here Chris, the player you like it, someone you like at value, you love it, someone you love at the value and got to have it, the player that you're

willing to take a round or two early to make sure that you get him. So one point of clarification is I'm a dairy queen guy. Oh, I'm a, I was, I worked at DQ in high school. That was my high school job.

And I still love DQ. The fact that there are no DQs in the city of New York really bothers me. Come visit me in Jersey. And so I got some DQs out here. Every time I go home to South Florida, we got to stop at a DQ and I got to get Reese's Cup and Cheesecake Blizzard.

That's the go-to. Incredible. The combination of flavors and mouth feel. I hate that word. I'm sorry. Texture is a better way to describe that. Is divine. Having said all of that, my like-it value...

Wait, have you been to Coldstone before, though? Yeah, I like Coldstone. It makes some good shakes, man. It's a little too much. You know, it's like, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a sensory overload. I worked, the dairy queen I worked at had a cold stone in the same plaza. Oh, this all makes sense now. So you guys had a rivalry.

Well, it was a little bit of a little brother thing. But also, this was 2004, 2005. This is like peak coldstone mania in Pembroke Pines, Florida. The, the people were losing their minds for Coldstone. And so the nice thing was, we didn't really get. busy until the Coldstone overflow crowd came to us. So like Friday night at 7 p.m.

Coldstone's packed. We don't really get busy until 9. It was a great high school job. Free ice cream. Ah, loved it. Like it, Jordan Westberg. I don't know how to answer this one. It was tough.

So it's the player I like outside of the top 72. I'm going to go with Love It Jordan West I'm going to go like it. Eugenio Suarez in your face, Scott. He's not here to poo-poo on it this time. And got to have it.

Boba-Shatt. Well, yeah, we'll go with that one. All right. Like it for me. I mentioned the name, Spencer Schwambach. I really like the upside this year. Throw six different pitches. Great command.

Obviously, really good team backing him. I wish the ADP was a little bit lower, 94.8. but I still do like it, and I'm willing to draft them there. Love it. Esoc Paredes, 195,0009.5 ADP,

perfect fallback plan at third base, match made in heaven, playing in Houston, and Chris, got to have it. Come on. I thought this was the guy. Jordan Westberg is the gotta have it. Come on, man.

Yeah, so we are all fighting to the death for Jordan Westberg in all of our drafts this season. I won't say, you know, I ranked Jordan Westberg and Boba Shet pretty close. Boba Shet's like 60 picks cheaper

in ADP right now. That's fair. Yeah, the ADP for Bobesh, I think, 125-ish right now. In Westburg is like in the 80s somewhere. Next up, we got this one from TJ. I am in a Dynasty auction league with a pretty full lineup going into our auction.

I'd like to take a flyer. We can bid up to four years for a contract on one of these guys and having a hard time differentiating their long-term value. Of note, it's a head-to-head categories league with daily lineups and adds OBP and Slug. Kyle Manzardo, Jonathan Aranda,

Christian Incarnacion Strand and Davidson de los Santos. I believe the subject for this email was post-hype breakouts. So Chris, which one would you be looking to take a flyer on? Ancarnacian Strand is my highest rank of these guys for 2025. The problem is he might also be closest to running out of chances. I can see a world where he struggles in the first month or two of the season, and it's just, all right, that's the end of the Christian and Carnacian Strand experiment in Cincinnati. I don't think the same is true of Manzardo

just because he hasn't had the opportunities yet so I would rank him second. Ronda, I know Scott likes him and I know the quality of contact's really good. I always struggle with the old the older guys who mash at AAA just because that's what you're supposed to do. But it worked out for Michael Bush last year.

I would put him I don't know, you know what, I'm going Davidson, Delos Santos ahead. We got the Marlins jersey on. We'll stick with the home. Yeah, there was an article that came out kind of highlighting all the position players and pitchers heading into spring training for the Marlins. And the expectation, it sounds like, Dela Santos is going to start in the minors with Jonah Bride at first base. And I don't know who else at D.H.

Maybe it's like Matt Mervis or Kyle Stowers and Griffin Conine. And that's been my expectation. I did the Bench with Boba podcast previewing the Marlins last week. And I think because they have Kyle Stowers and Matt Mervis and Griffin Kohnai and Jonah Bride and a bunch of these guys who are like the same type of guy, I think they're going to run through all of those guys, give them a chance, see if there's something there. And then when those guys all inevitably fail, which is what I expect and I think they expect, then you give Davis and Delos Santos a chance because he's still only 22 this year. Yeah, gives them just long enough to keep him down in the minors and gain that extra. year of control. I would actually go with Manzardo at the top of this group, and I hate that he doesn't have

a position right now on CBS. He's util only. I guess the hope is maybe him and Santana split some time, but Santana's good defensively. I just, I don't know. I don't know when Manzardo is going to get first base eligibility, but I like that. He got called back up late in the season, and he looked really good in the final month. Manzardo hit 270 with an 873 OPS. He popped, I think, five home runs in that month.

And we know Progressive Field played great for left-handed power. This was a big name prospect. So, yeah, I am pretty excited about Manzardo. I think he could take another step forward here in 2025. This one is from Andy Grade the Trade, a 12-team Dynasty Roto League with a $300 budget. Give Jared Jones for four bucks. Get Mark Viantos for 11.

So Viantos is the higher-ranked player this year. I think you generally give hitters the edge in Dinah. because there's so many ways things can go wrong for pitchers. And in a $300 budget, the difference between an $11 player and a $4 player doesn't really matter all that much. So I would rather have Viantos. I think that's a B plus. Yeah, I was just looking at up.

I have Jared Jones as a $9 player and I have Mark Viantos as a $12 player. Yeah, that sounds more or less right. I guess more savings on a Jared Jones. But yeah, I agree. I think in a Dynasty League, you'd rather have. the position player and I think there's more ready impact this season potentially from Vientos versus a Jones but I mean Jones obviously flashed and did some nice things last year too this one is from Dylan I am the commissioner of a keeper league to prevent half of the league

giving up by mid-July when they realized they won't make the playoffs I created a consolation bracket so all teams are active throughout the season winner of the consolation bracket gets the number one pick instead of the guy who stopped setting his lineup however I was still preventing non-playoff teams from making waiver ads as it could change the outcome of a playoff game. What would you guys suggest I do to keep the league active throughout and keep all of the league mates happy? Chris, I feel like every year we get some version of this question,

and it's kind of a toughie. What do you think? Yeah, I think the constellation bracket makes sense, but if people are still setting their lineups and if people have something to play for, you got to let them make waiver ads. I understand. What I do in my football league,

we have a consolation bracket too, is I have the first waiver run is only for the playoff teams, and then there's a second playoff run where the consolation teams can get in as well. So they don't, you know, the playoff teams get the priority, they can make the first pickups,

and then there's another waiver run where, you know, the consolation teams can also make pickups. I would never do that as a commissioner because that sounds like a lot of work, but if you're willing to put in that work, it's fine. That makes sense.

But I think if you're going to keep telling people to set their lineups and that they have something to play for, and they do in a constellation bracket, I think you've got to let them add, especially in a Keeper League, because what, like, I've got to set my lineup. I might, I have something to play for in week 25. A player I might want to keep becomes available on waivers,

and I just can't pick them up, even though I'm still being asked to set my waiver. I think in Keeper, you let people make ads through the end of the season. Yeah. Even in the Scott White Dynasty League, while we have the playoffs and the consolation bracket going on, waivers is still open to everybody.

You know, I think if you play in a league with Fab, maybe that's the answer here is, hey, if the playoff teams really want to compete all the way to the end, they need to save Fab for later in the season. And vice versa, if the keeper teams and the consolation bracket teams want to try and pick up players that maybe they want to keep the following year or they just want to pick up players to be competitive,

then they need to maintain fab for the rest of the season and later on. So I think maybe that could be the answer too. In that league, I might have picked up Jeff Hoffman during the playoffs last year, who's going to end up being a really valuable keeper for me. So I think it just comes down to the keeper aspect more than anything.

If it's a keeper league, people should be allowed to add players the whole year. Yep. This one's from Seth, dear Jack, Joe, Don, and Skip. I don't know I was I was looking I started to think

maybe Marlins managers Jack McKeon Joe Gerard it's the four managers who have made the playoffs with the Marlins well no I guess Jim Leland would also but Jack McKean Joe Girardy Don Maddenley and Skip Shoemaker Wow that's incredible I was thinking

like boom baseball broad like broadcasters Jack Buck Joe Buck Skip Carrie could be wrong I was like, I don't know, Don, I don't, but... Maybe I'm missing someone. That makes sense. Georgia already never made the playoffs with Marlins, but the rest of them make sense.

Yeah, let's go with Marlins' managers. There you go. We figured it out. Hey, gang, had a question about whether or not last season prompted any major change for you in how long to wait on a player. Could just be that the egg ended up on my face more last year than I remember happening before, but I drafted both Michael King and Jackson Trio and held on until the end of May. Is three months the new too?

Or was the process just unfortunately pretty sound there? Grabbed both outside the top 120, so didn't reach, despite, didn't spite drop, et cetera. Any guidance on how reactive, not reactive to be welcome. Always thought of myself pretty patient, even too patient. I have to read these before I actually put them in the rundown, shouldn't I? Chris, how long should you wait before you think about dropping a player, I guess? this caliber. I'm the wrong person to ask because I'm usually waiting too long and I stick with my

priors for too long and it's probably my biggest weakness as a fantasy baseball player. That being said, I was totally out on Michael King by the end of April. I said drop him. I said he was done. And that was really dumb. So I think it just, it's it's a cost benefit analysis. It's a look, most of the players you're adding on waivers, especially outside of the first couple of weeks of the season, let's be honest, are going to be bad. It's just how it works.

There's a reason they're available on waivers in May. That's not always true. Prospects get called up. Breakouts happen. Jerks and ProFar. But with Jackson Churio last year, I think the big thing is like, was anyone you could have dropped him for

going to have the potential upside the Jackson Churio did? Of course not. So I think, you know, it's different in every league. Depends on if you have IL spots and how much you can wait on players. But I tend to be underreactive rather than overreactive. And so I don't really change my view of most players, especially established players, until June. I kind of view it as a sliding scale, Chris, where the later you draft someone, the sooner you can. choose to drop them.

And obviously, like, pedigree and breakout appeal kind of factors into this. And that's what I would say for both of these players, where Jackson Turyo, one of the top prospects entering the season, yeah, I understand the first two months were really bad. And you could just keep him on your bench. But, you know, maybe I wait, you know, the first half to see, because especially when we know that prospects are taking longer to figure things out in recent years. Michael King, a popular breakout pitcher last year. He was a breakout for me.

I know, I believe it was a bus for you, Chris. That was a buy. You know, it's the eye of the beholder. If you drafted Michael King and think, wow, this guy has awesome upside. You know, I saw him pitch well with the Yankees the year before. Let me give him a little bit more time. Maybe you do have to give him that two, two and a half months to figure it out. And I think he kind of figured it out, you know, four, six weeks into the season last year.

I know Scott usually says Memorial Day, which is, you know, two months into the season is kind of like the breaking point. But to me, it's a sliding scale. And I think you have to factor in a player's upside in this case, like a trio or Michael King. Just think about it this way. Remember how stupid the 2020 season was and how many dumb things happened that year that were totally out. Jose Al Tuve hit 219 in 2020. And it would have been really dumb to say, well, that's who Jose Al Tuve is moving forward. What we said at the time was this probably doesn't matter.

We're probably just throwing the outliers out from 2020. 2020 was two months. That's that's what it's what we're looking at when you're talking about. April and May. Yes, need I remind you of the name, Zach Plesack and Kodi Senga, who looked amazing. Not Kodai Senga, you're thinking someone else. Kodai Senga. Kenta Maeda. Kenta Maeda. One of the best pitchers in baseball that year. Yeah. Facing the AL Central, that certainly helped. All right, this last one is from Chris.

Chowers? No, I don't think it's different Chris. Loaded question here, by the way. Hey, guys, this is my first year ever playing fantasy baseball. I'm super excited, but have no idea where to start, aside from no. knowing what players are good. My question is if you have any need to know stuff for a beginner, like if you can draft all starting pitchers or go for a bunch of shortstop that played multiple positions, et cetera. And Chris, it is.

Almost an impossible question to answer, especially at 56 minutes when you said you wanted to do under an hour. I would say, honestly, make sure you listen to all the position preview podcast. That's exactly where I was going to start. The best thing you, the biggest thing you need to do is learn the player pool. There's higher level philosophical stuff and all of that and team building stuff. And we'll get into that stuff.

You know, when we get to RP or SP previews, we'll talk about how many positions, how many pitchers you want. Depends on the format as well. If you're in a head-to-head categories league, it's very different than a traditional Roto League is very different than a head-to-head points league. So there's a lot of factors that go into this question that make it very hard to answer. I have thought, like, maybe we should just do a beginner's guide to fantasy baseball podcast every year. I know most of our audience wouldn't get anything out of it, but it could still be worth listening to.

You guys like us. But, yeah, I would say the easiest way to answer that is pay close attention to the position previews, read Scott's position strategies pieces, read my position previews on the site, and get to know the player pool, the shape, where the deficiencies are at each position, what you need to focus on,

I think that would be the biggest thing, I would say. I know. This just feels like some big, shameless plug for the podcast, but I agree. I think the position previews,

and then after this, we're going to, the final week of February on the podcast, we're going to do strategy week where we kind of break down each different format and what you need to know

about, you know, Roto versus Head-D points and versus head-ded categories and, you know, how to draft an, auction team and all these different types of things. So yeah, I think the best thing for you to do is probably listen to the podcast and just consume as much content as possible. And, you know,

keeping up with like player updates and spring training baseball and all that kind of stuff. We are going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again next week. Bye-bye. Thank you.