Fantasy Baseball Today - Platoons and Splits That Matter; Mini Mailbag! (05/22 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 22, 2020

We're talking players who are expected platoon but first, how much do splits matter in Fantasy Baseball? Surprise, surprise, Aaron Judge is back in the news (4:00). Will he ever play again?? Also, Brent Honeywell suffered another setback. ... We transition into platoons and start off with Tommy La Stella (9:25). Will he actually be in a platoon? ... What should we expect with Jesse Winker, Nick Senzel and the rest of the Reds (12:15)? ... Why does Ozzie Albie struggle so much against right-handed pitching (20:08)? Is there any hope? ... Frank and Adam debate Rafael Devers and whether or not he can improve against lefties (24:55). Never forget that home run he hit off Aroldis Chapman as a rookie. ... Chris shares some thoughts on Carson Kelly and Austin Riley's splits (32:19). ... What's the deal with Kevin Cron on the Arizona Diamondbacks (35:46)? Can he ever make an impact? ... We're answering your questions and start with how much FAAB to spend on Rich Hill, Spencer Howard, and Alex Wood (40:17). ... What happens when you go hitter-heavy in a H2H points league (45:32)? ... Chris provides some great baseball-related dog names throughout the rest of the show! ... Email us at [e-mail]. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @CBSFantasyBB, @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/ Download our printable Draft Kit from CBSSports.com/draftkit! 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

Did you know that as a switch hitter, Ozzie Albies is not great against right-handed pitching? Well, you're about to find out because today we're talking splits. Happy Kokomo Friday, everybody, and happy Memorial Day weekend. Welcome to Fantasy Baseball today. Frank Stample here with Adam Azer and Chris Towers. No Scott. He is on an extended weekend. He's earned it.

Scott's earned it. Honestly, Adam, I feel like I should just let you lead this show today because we're talking splits and platoons. I mean, this is your thing. I should just leave. No, it's all you. I don't know why you. What is this based on? I didn't really think I was the splits and platoons guy.

Was I? Am I? Yeah, you know what? You referenced them a lot. You know what? I think you're right. I think I fear left-handed hitters because they often struggle against left-handed pitchers. And it could be a little unpredictable.

Like if you look at Robinson Kono's career, sometimes he's fine. Nobody's really good against Lathy. Sometimes he struggles, at least lately in the Mariners days. So, yeah, like, we're going to try. talk about Rafael Devers, he's not that good against lefties. The reason why I don't really have faith in Joey Votto, he can't hit left, like he can't hit lefties at all anymore. So I look at it. It means something to me. I don't know that Joey Votto can hit anybody anymore if we're being honest here at him. He can draw walks against the righties with the best.

Unbelievably rude. Oh, all of this stuff. Yeah, best, a better hitter than Tony Gwyn, no doubt about it. Chris is here. I want to, I got to get him fired up. And the only way to do so is to bring up Tony Gwyn and Joey Votto in the first two minutes of the show. Chris, how are you doing? And how much do hitter splits matter for fantasy in your opinion? Some. They matter some. There are, like Adam said, they definitely matter more for lefties because there aren't that many right-handed hitters who over the course of several hundred or thousand played appearances really have dramatic splits against lefties and righties. They'll usually hit lefties better,

but what you don't see is too many just true platoon guys who just can't handle right-handed pitchers, whereas with lefties, I mean, that's typically the question for a left-handed hitting prospect as they come up is, can they hit lefties? And it's what really makes Juan Soto such an unbelievable talent is, I think he's had an OPS over 800 against lefties both seasons. And I think in his first season, he had a higher OPS against them than he did against Ritey.

So, you know, that ability to come up and more than hold his own. Because usually you're just looking for a left-handed prospect to, like, just don't be unplayable. Just be adequate. That's basically it. That's what it comes down to. And that's what we're hoping for Gavin Lux, hopefully, eventually, to get. get there, but you reference Juan Soto, 849 OPS in his career against lefties so far with a 120 weighted runs created plus. I mean, that's about as much as you could ask for from, and

that's why he's so great as a, what is he, 21 years old? The guy is finally legal to drink and he can mash both lefties and righties. I believe he turned 21 like three days before the end of the world series. Just ridiculous. As you might have guessed, we're going to talk about more of these splits and platoons. On today's show, we have a prospect of value. for Kevin Crone. That'll come a little bit later on. Second half of the show. We'll do a little mini mailbag here on a Friday.

Got some news and notes that I want to hit. Aaron Judge, he is never coming back. I can confidently say, I don't think Aaron Judge is ever going to play another game of baseball. You are so, you are so negative about this situation. Apparently it was a very strange, unusual injury where it was located and Hart's Diagnose,

which is why it took. them so long. He had it since September last year, Adam. He wasn't really forthright about it because he sort of said, oh, it's fine, I'll be fine. And then he had this injury. Then it kind of cropped up again in spring training. And he was like, okay, I better say something. Yeah. You are seeing right there what you are seeing are the two sides of being a homer. There are some homers who will just defend absolutely everything about the team. And you have the other homers who are just totally fatalistic about their teams and think that everything will go wrong.

And right there, you had a perfect encapsulation of it. Because Adam, Yankees train staff. There's no defending it. But they have a new training staff. Right. Apparently, how new are they?

They fired their training staff from last year. I'm just saying, like, I don't think that we've had any more bad news on Aaron Judge. Just, it's not like his timeline has been pushed back. I disagree. When we got that,

well, I guess it depends on when you're... Well, they said last week that he wasn't expected to come back until the summertime. Right, but I feel like... I feel like his timeline never changed. We're just learning more about it. You know, they never said, oh, he'll be out.

I don't even remember at this point. What was your impression, Frank, of when you thought Aaron Judge would be back? So originally, he got hurt in the spring, and they were taking it slow, and it sounded like, six to eight weeks from when the injury occurred back in March, which would have put him at around, you know, the end of April, early May.

And now we're almost towards the end of May, we're approaching June. And the guy has yet to swing a bat. And last week they said he wasn't expected back until summertime, quote, summertime. I mean, that's just such a broad time span. That could be any time. It could be July. It could be August. So I'm looking back at the Roto World Player page notes.

And on March 13th, he said he's, quote, feeling great and that he might be ahead of schedule. March 16th, Aaron Boone said that Aaron Judge, James Paxton, and Joan Carlos Stanton could all be ready to play once the season starts. Remember, this was mid-March, when we still thought there might have been a chance

for a May return or a June return. So, yeah, I think there are definitely... They're lying then. They're filthy. I don't want to say they're liars. I don't know what's in their hearts. The way that they've handled... It's frustrating.

It's frustrating. The way they've handled all injuries since Aaron Boone has come along. I don't think that it's all on Aaron Boone, but it's probably on Cashman as well. But the way that they've handled injuries has been terrible. It's something about the city of New York.

The Mets too. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, just both... Not forthcoming about injuries, let's say. That's not the same thing as calling them liars. Anywho, I think Judge has bigger, problems to deal with right now at the moment. Thank you to TMZ. Brent Honeywell underwent a decompression procedure on his right ulnar nerve on Wednesday. We got some news about that yesterday and it was to

remove scar tissue from the area of the nerve. It's another setback for the right-hander who missed all of 2018 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. So. And all of 2019. All of 2019 as well. Because he, I believe the first time he got back on a mound in his recovery from Tommy John's surgery. John's surgery, I believe he fractured his elbow. So yeah. Yeah, that was rough. Been a rough, been a rough stretch for our guy, Brent, who I really am rooting for. I would love to see the pitch mix and talent that he has on a major league mound.

Last news item I wanted to mention, a handful of teams are opening their facilities for individual workouts. Don't get too excited yet. The MLB and the Players Association are still going back. back and forth, which, who knows how long that is going to take. Like the 2003 hit by 50 Cent and M&M, we are patiently waiting. If you say so. Do either of you dabble with hip hop of yesterday year?

I know Chris basically listens to everything. I don't know if this qualifies. I just got Elmatic on vinyl yesterday. A little gnaz. Okay, I dig it. Very nice. But no, not a huge M fan. after like middle school.

I'm going to assume Adams out as well. Oh yes. I like Next Too Close by Next. Man, that is, we can't talk about that song because this is a family-friendly program, but incredible song. It's so great.

I don't know at what point how many years after I first heard it and liked it. I was like, oh, that. Right. Yeah, okay. All right, platoons and splits that you need to know about. I have an article over on CBSports.com that you can read right now. There are, I highlighted six players that I expect to be in a platoon, at least to start the season. And then another eight players who have specific splits that they should try and improve upon.

I'm sure that they're trying. but, you know, if they do improve upon, can take their fantasy game to the next level. Let's start with some of these platoon bats. Does anything stand out here as egregious, or can we all kind of agree, Gavin Lux, Jock Peterson, Nomar Mazzara,

Tommy Listella, Sam Hillier, Jesse Winker? All those names seem fair to at least start the season in a platoon. Yeah, and I think... No. Like, we're hoping that Gavin Luxe won't have to be in a platoon eventually. certainly many in the fantasy community are hoping that he will prove himself worthy of an everyday job.

But with Peterson especially, there's nothing in his track record or the way the Dodgers have handled him that would suggest he's anything but a platoon bat. There's only one. There's only one that maybe won't be, and that's Tommy Lestella, because he started 15 of the last 18 games versus left-handed starters. Just a thought. He wasn't terrible against last. lefties either. I noticed that. But Ross

the resource has him as a platoon. He hit 265 and that's fine. He slugged 398 which sucks but I could see it because Luis Renhifo his OPS was 609 against lefties. David Fletcher he's been he doesn't have platoon splits in his two major league seasons. He's basically hit righties and lefties about the same and that's

to say not that well. So like you're right to put them on the list. Absolutely. I could see Lestella being the most likely to break the platoon. And I would also say Gavin Lux, Nomar Mazzara, and Jesse Winker in particular, that all just comes down to whether they can prove they don't need a platoon. If they can, there's not going to be a platoon. You know, Kige Hernandez and Chris Taylor will get their playing time

and Gavin Lutz will get some time off, sure. But it won't be a strict platoon. Same with, like, if Jesse Winker plays like we thought he could coming into 2019, you know, when we were making, you know, baby Joey Votto comparisons, he's going to play every day. And no more Mazar, you know, he's only 25. And I think he did show some improvement against Lefties last year, but I may be remembering that wrong. Man, he's been really bad against Lefty's Mzara. I wish Jesse Winker could get there. You bring up the name.

Why do you say that about Winker? Because he's like he. He's very bad. He's horrible against lefties. They have Senzel. They have Flervin. It's Philip Irvin. I like to call him Flervin.

He's, they're both good against lefties. Just because he's the, they're the kind of talents that if they fulfill their promise, they won't be platoon vats. That's basically what I mean. It's not they're young enough. They have enough talent and promise that in,

that if they can, like if Jesse Winker has a 730 OPS against lefties, that's probably good enough to keep him in the lineup every day. I hear what you're saying. I just don't know how realistic it is because a 543 OPS against lefties in his career, a pretty decent sample size. That's basically Jock Peterson. He's basically been Jock Peterson against lefties in his career. And the Reds, even with the Universal D.H, they have so much, so much depth. They have Senzel, Senzel, and Adam, you brought up Philip Irvin, who had OPS over a thousand against lefties last year,

so they can go that route if they want to. I know Mazara was a name that you were targeting early in draft season, just as a last round kind of flyer here, Adam, but it's not that they have a great right-handed bat on their bench in Adam Engel, but they do have a right-handed outfield bat on their bench if they want to go that route. But I think Mazara just kind of is who he is, no? at this point. Has it hit more than 20 homers. Probably is who he is.

And he's not, he like he was, okay, so Engel, the only thing that Adam Engel has going for him in this discussion is that he was really good against lefties in 2019. But in 2017 and 2018,

he was very bad against lefties. So this is not like Chris Taylor got this reputation as a lefty masher because of what he did in, I think, 2017. Or, no,

no, no, I'm sorry, is Enrique Hernandez mixed up the players in that platoon. But it hasn't, it hasn't held up. You know, he's not necessarily a lefty masher. It's not a consistent thing year over year. So Adam Engel, to me, just as likely to go back to being bad against everyone in 2020.

And so Mizarra, yeah, he has to get better because he is really bad against lefties. But I don't think Engel was like, like Philip Irvin probably deserves a crack at, you know, playing every day against lefties. And Nick Senzel at this point, I think deserves that crack at playing every day against lefties. I don't personally think that Adam Engel's in that class. We'll see, but he's been a pretty bad hitter in his career. Yeah, so I think there are a couple of points there worth following. One is just that the point you made about Enrique Hernandez, how he looked like a good lefty hitter one year and then didn't the next.

That's because we're dealing with, you know, if you're a full-time player, you'll get, what, 180 plate appearances again? against the lefty in a season. If you're a part-time player, you're not going to get anywhere closer. Like, Jesse Winkers only had 147 plate appearances against lefties. He's hit for no power, but he also only has a 16% batting average in a 202 babbitt.

It's just, it's not nearly enough time for us to say that he is awful against them. It does likely indicate he'll never be good against them. And, you know, something similar with Gavin Lux, a lot of people have point, when you point to, you know, he's got like a 640 OPS, against lefties in his career or 680 or something in the minors,

a lot of people will say, well, he was much better against them in 2019. Sure, but it's a tiny sample size. And so that's the thing when we're talking about these platoon splits, especially against lefties. One season really doesn't tell you anything. You know, we know well enough to know that 150 plate appearances in a row isn't enough to tell us whether a player is good or bad.

We're talking about 150 played appearances in Jesse Winker's case stretched over two and a half seasons. Yeah, so quickly, which of these platoon bats are you most likely to draft that we've mentioned here? I mean, I don't know how you consider Nick Senzel, because I don't think you really mentioned him, but I think he's got the best chance of... I don't think he's a platoon hitter.

You think he's an everyday plitter hitter? I think so. He's listed as a bench hiter right now. And based on the way he hit against Ritey's compared to the way Jesse Winker hit against Ritees, you know, I think he might be a put-to. I think he might start off the year hitting only against lefties. I'm not sure because you got Akiyama and you got Winker. You got Castianos.

You got Mustakas at second base. I don't know where Jesse Winker or when Nick Senzel plays, excuse me. Well, you look at you got a DH, I guess. You're going off roster. sources, right? And so, you know, you've got eight guys in the starting lineup right now. The rest of the bench, Kirk Casali, Kyle Farmer, Nick Senzel, Josh Van Meter and Phillip, and Gilbert. And we should put Aristides Aquino. Yeah, right? Yeah. But, you know, basically, this creates an extra lineup spot.

All right, fine. It's fine. Zenzel's ability to play, you know, second base, shortstop, and the outfield is only going to help his case, especially because he can play center field. Yeah, okay. I think it's a great chance to earn every day playing time if he doesn't have it to begin with. So we're on the same page there. Frank,

the answer for me is Gavin Lux, Nomar Mizarra. I think those are the only, oh, Sam Hilliard. Like Sam Hilliard, actually, he's a lefty who has had some pretty good numbers against lefties in the minors and obviously plays in Colorado.

So the three of them. Basically the young guys with upside. Yeah, that for me. it. And I'm interested in Tommy Lestella. You know, again, it's going to come down to if what he did last year is real, he's an everyday player. Like, with no doubt about it, in my opinion. If the changes that he made to his swing last year to generate more power while not sacrificing contact sustain themselves in 2020, I have zero concerns about playing time because he's going to be one of the five

best players on the Angels. I have a lot of questions about whether what he did last year was for real. So all of these. these guys, it comes down, you just have to prove it. Yeah, and there's another name that you didn't mention, but I think has a chance to be in a platoon, I think probably will be, is Shogo Akiyama, who I might, I like a lot, I like probably more than a lot of these guys. That's going to be the lead off hitter for the Reds. He's going to play against Ritey's. He's going to get on base. He can steal a little bit. So you think he's going to be platoon, though, because I just don't know that they have enough named because if they're

platooning Winker, then how can they... They actually seem like one of the most flexible rosters in the outfield. It's true. You could bench Akiama and Winker against lefties for Senzel and Flervin. Or Akinio. Yeah, Akino too. Well, it remains to be seen if he'll be on the roster, but I would assume with extending and the Universal D.H. But yeah, Akiyama's an interesting name. Hilliard's probably the one for me, just based on his cost. He's free in drafts. 307.8 ADP, 26 years old. Last year between the minors and the majors, 42 home runs, 24 steals.

The guy was completely ridiculous. He did struggle somewhat in 2018 against lefties. I looked at his AA numbers, so he struggled there, and they still have Ian Desmond who crushed lefties last year. So I think he would probably start in a platoon, but if he proves himself,

could potentially earn more playing time. Definitely an interesting name for Roto Leagues is Sammy Hilliard. I mentioned Ozzy Albies at the start of the show and I don't know that if you guys have, you know, notice this before with Ozzy Albies. I think it's just so weird that he is a, and he's my number one ranked second baseman,

so I love Ozzy Albies. I think he's an incredibly safe player and I think he can actually improve based on his age. But it's very weird that he's a switch hitter who struggles against right-handed pitching. In his career, a 982 OPS against lefties, 744 OPS against Ritey's. And if you look at his minor league numbers,

all of his minor league numbers back up that data as well. So it's just a very odd situation. It's not, again, it's not impossible for him to improve at 23 years old. But it is weird, no, Chris, a switch hitter like Ozzy Albies who struggles like this against Ritees? Scott has made this point on the podcast before that he thinks the switch hitter is going to die. out of Major League Baseball. And I mostly agree. And I also mostly think it should

because it's just too hard to develop two different swings throughout your career. There are very few players who can do that incredibly well. And it's actually pretty normal to see guys have much more success from one side of the plate versus the other. this is kind of an old comp, but I always think of Luis Castillo, who the Marlins' second baseman

and twins and the Mets and whoever else. He had a 698 OPS against right-handed pitchers. Now, that did come with a 370 on base percentage, but versus lefties, his slugging percentage was 90 points higher. It's, you know, a lower version of Ozzy Albies, but a similar one. Moncada is another guy who was awful against lefties,

basically his entire minor league career and the first two seasons of his major league career. And then he took a step forward against them. The biggest issue was he just couldn't hit for power against lefties. And that's kind of similar to Ozzy Albies against righties. That's really where the difference is his swing against lefties. his swing from the right side is much more conducive to power. But last season, Yohama Nakata, you know, was mostly able to take a step forward.

He actually had 21 extra base hits against left-handed pitchers, a 201 isolated selling percentage. So it's not impossible to make that improvement at this point in your career. However, in Albi's case, the sample size against righties is much, much bigger. And so I would expect him to, continue to be more like a mid-700s, but if he can push it to even 780, given how many more played appearances he gets against righties

and how good he is against lefties, that's probably the next step for him in terms of becoming a superstar. And if he does that, he likely becomes a 300 hitter, pushes the batting average over 300, and gets even better for fantasy purposes. Adam, do you have anything to add on Albies before I take you to school and Rafi Devers.

You know I do. I'm obviously. Just this. Raster Resource has only three, maybe four. I think three left-handed starting pitchers in the rotations of the other four NLE's teams. That's really low. He will not face a lot of left-handed starting pitchers

before injuries factor in. But based on an ideal optimal rotation, it doesn't look like he's going to face a lot of left-handed starting pitchers in the division, and we know the schedules are going to be very heavily weighted toward the division. There are more, many more in the ALEs. There are 11 starting pitchers in the ALEs that are left east according to roster. That was, I thought you meant only three across both divisions. That makes a lot more.

And three, not including the Braves. So it's three or four. And I think the Phillies have like all righties, Corbyn on the nationals, Caleb Smith, Stephen Mats. It might be just those three. Caleb Smith, Stephen Mats, and Patrick Corbyn. So look, I don't really care. That's not going to change anything for me.

So I don't really know what to do with that, but it is relevant. Worth bringing up and you can make your own decisions at home on how you want to approach that. Well, I'm looking forward to Ozzy Albies' three home run game against Caleb Smith, and that'll make up for all of his lost production against right-handed pitching this upcoming season.

All right, Adam, we haven't officially done this yet, Got into our Rafael Devers debate here, but I'm about to tell you why. He can improve at the age of 23. I mean, he just did it. He did it from 20... He did it from 2018 to 2019. 2018, he was absolutely dreadful,

really against all pitching, but specifically against lefties. 229 batting average. 619 OPS, 51.7% ground ball rate. Last year, he improved those numbers against lefties across the board. 269, 744 OPS.

It's not great. great, but like we mentioned earlier, if you could just be adequate, I think, against lefties, prove that you can handle yourself, then you'll obviously play against them. And he lowered his ground ball rate. I think if he continues to lower that ground ball rate, hit more line drives, and more fly balls against lefties, you'll see these numbers continue to get better. And I think he can make another incremental jump against lefties. And if that happens, maybe he can be even better. He was just a top 10 hitter last season in both Roto and head-to-head points. So I'm trusting the talent. I'm trusting the age, the pedigree of Raphael Devers,

and the work ethic, frankly, that he has put in against lefties at him. And I think that he can continue to get better at his age. So as I recall, I'm going to look it up now. It doesn't have a very good, very high, 37.5% hard contact rate. That's not

what you usually see from... That's about league average. A true power hitter. Right. It's not great. The biggest thing I have with him is 115 RBI's and 129 runs. Just don't see it happen. again, you know. It's just that was a that was an incredibly good season. So I think those counting stats are going down and it's fine. Like he was the he was the number eight hitter in

points league's number four in rodeo. So obviously he could go down a lot and still be a great value in the third round. I find myself probably drafting pitchers there, even though I don't like a lot of the third round pitchers. Maybe I take guys that go a little bit later that I like more like a Charlie Morton. Um, so devours. I don't know. Look, I don't have the reasoning that you're probably looking for, but I just think that when it comes to a third basement, I need to feel really sure about it because it's the deepest position. So in my mind, am I passing up Charlie Morton or Charlie Blackman or somebody I love at a thinner position or at starting pitcher for Raphael Devers, who the counting

stats are going to come down, doesn't have a great hard comment. contact rate and could struggle with lefties when I could take Josh Donaldson, who's worse, but I could take him like eight rounds later. So I think the fact that he plays third base and isn't eligible to any other position is what prevents me from taking Devers in the first three rounds. But he's young. I loved him as a bounce back last year because I'm a sophomore slump believer. I get, it makes sense that he's really good.

just to me plays the deepest position and I'm usually looking at other things. I don't really have a huge problem with Raphael Devers. It's just I feel like he's not the best use of value in drafts. It's just so... It's weird to me, Chris. Maybe you could speak about this

because I haven't researched it enough, admittedly. The difference between hard hit rate on Fangraphs versus baseball Savant... They're totally different things. Okay, because Devers on Statcast on Baseball Savant has a 47.5% hard contact rate which ranked in the 91st percentile. And his average exit velocity ranked in the 94th.

So according to them, he made elite level contact, which is not nearly what we're seeing in his fan graphs, 37.5% hard contact rate. Here's the way to think about it. Statcast is literally just how hard you hit the ball. Fan graphs is taking into account the ball's trajectory. So if you hit a number, 95 mile per hour, you know, infield fly ball on baseball savant.

It tracks as a 95 mile per hour. It tracks as a hard hit ball. Okay. Fan graphs wouldn't necessarily just so it's, it's basically one's looking at how hard you hit the ball. The other one's a quality of contacting. Although, is Raphael Devers really someone who needs to improve much against lefties? No, not necessarily.

But is he going to hit nearly, is he going to slug nearly, or sorry, is he going to have nearly a thousand OPS against Ritey's? Maybe. I'll take the under on what he did last year. He's at 871 for his career against Ritees. And that's including the really bad 20, 2018 and the just okay 2017 when he was a 20-year-old. So, you know, it wouldn't be a surprise if he wasn't 950 OPS bad against right-handed

pitchers. And one of the things that you really, like just looking at how well a player, like his OPS against left-handed pitchers, because those sample sizes are small and usually you're seeing, you know, 25% to 30% of your plate appearances come against lefties,

I like to look at the underlying skills because those tend to stabilize a lot more. So what I'm talking about is like strikeout rate or ISO. And in his case, he's got like a, 160 iso against lefties. That's a little bit below average for the majors as a whole. It's got a 22.4% strikeout rate against lefties. That's actually right about average overall. So in his case, if he can just be an average hitter against lefties and then crush 70% of his

other plate appearances, I have no concerns about that really. No, the thing is, I don't, I'm uncomfortable doing this because like I said, it's really not an art. against Rafael Devers. It's just when he's the best player available, I don't really want to take him. I'm looking at other things, and I'm thinking I'm going to take a third basement later. Put some respect on Devers' name, Adam.

I hope I did. Fun fact, I was at the game where he hit the opposite field home run off of a oldest Chapman in the ninth inning. I remember that. Gosh, that was. It was absolutely brutal, but it was amazing to see because at the time he was a rookie. and it was like a 100 mile per hour fastball

that was chest high and he managed to hit it opposite field home run it was absolutely ridiculous ever since then I was like this kid's legit it was like the it was either the first ever or the first it may have been the first home run that a lefty ever hit off Chapman or first in like five years it was something remarkable yeah or first opposite field it was something yeah I remember that

it was just absolutely find out there were six other names on here that I wrote about in terms of splits that need to improve Vladimir Guerrero needs to improve against lefties. He was great against him in the minors. Matt Olson. You can pencil that one in, I think. Yeah, that's why I'm actually like Vlad,

and I'm kind of buying in more and more. I'm talking myself into it. The fact that he was so great, not great, but he was very good against right-handed pitching last year. As a rookie, gives me reason to believe he will improve against lefties and those numbers will kind of even out.

He just needs to be better overall. Yep. And if he's better overall, he'll be better against lefties. Is there any other name on this list here, Chris, that stands out to you between, Matt Olson, Corey Seeger, Garrett Hampson, Carson Kelly, and Austin Riley, that are, you know, one or two tweaks away from performing better against a certain side pitcher and, you know, taking that next step. So the two that I haven't really looked at the splits for, I know Carson Kelly struggled against Ritees. That's something that I think Scott's brought up pretty regularly when we've talked about him.

Big time. as a breakout candidate. And it was what, like a 560 OPS against lefties or something? I'm trying to pull it up now. It was a 708 OPS against Ritees last year. 208-203 batting average. That's not too bad. I thought it was worse.

The OPS wasn't terrible, but the batting average was 203. I mean, not great. Yeah, yeah. So for his career, he has a 624 OPS against right-handed pitching, 188 batting average. That's really bad.

But, you know, like I said, once you start, it's important to start looking into the underlying numbers because 367 plate appearances against Ritees just isn't very much. There's going to be a lot of noise there. And he's another guy. You look at it. He's got a 153 ISO against right-handed pitchers. That's for a catcher, not bad. He's only got an 18.8% strikeout rate against right-handed pitchers. He's got a walk rate. over 10%. And he has a 200 babbitt. That suggests to me that Carson Kelly's probably a lot better than he's been against right-handers so far. And that makes me more optimistic. He might be someone who just crush his lefties and gets by against righties. But if you're a catcher, that's more than enough to be a must-start catcher, especially if you're a right-hander. Austin Riley, well, he struck out too much against everybody. And that was the issue.

He struck out 35%, 35.8% of the time against righties and 26.5% of the time against the lefties. So that's definitely an issue. But like Vlad Guerrero, like Raphael Devers, like, or not really, well, Raphael Devers last season, like we saw with him, like we're hoping to see from Vlad, if he gets better overall, it's a rising tide that will lift all boats is the way I view it. And he's so young and so talented.

And he's flashed that talent in the majors. He still had a 201 ISO against right-handed pitchers, despite all of his struggles. So that's one that I have faith will be better for sure. So are we done? done with this? Yeah. Okay. It was the second home run ever hit by a lefty against the Rolls Chapman. Impressive and I was there to witness it. Let's go Devers. There's almost 103 miles per hour. At the time it was the fastest pitch ever hit for a home run

in the stat in the stat cast era in the something era. You don't find talent like that anymore. One of a kind. Tracking era. There you go. Rafael Devers. You could check out the rest of these splits and platoon players over at cbsports.com. I want to evaluate Kevin Crone. I don't know if we can even consider him a prospect anymore, 27 years old. This one came from Lefty 177 on Apple Podcast Review. Make sure you leave us a five-star review

and drop a prospect in there that you want us to talk about. Kevin Crone, 27 years old, former 14th round pick, an absolute mammoth of a man. Four straight seasons of 22 or more home runs in the minors utterly ridiculous last year. Triple A with the juice ball down there. 331, 449, 777 triple slash.

That's a 1226 OPS with 38 home runs, just a 20.4% strikeout rate in the minors. I was quite pedestrian in the major leagues in 2019 last year. 211 batting average, six homers, 36% strikeout rate in 39 games. Chris, the problem with Kevin Crone, is he's a lot like Christian Walker, who finally got his opportunity last year,

and unless an injury takes place, and even if an injury takes place, they might just put Jake Lamb at first base. I don't really see how Kevin Crone's going to earn another opportunity here. Yeah, I mean, the one thing he has going for him is because CJ was born three years earlier, Kevin Crone will never be the old Crone.

Nice, nice. He is, exactly the type of prospect you should be deeply skeptical of. Had okay numbers up through AA. You know, 25 homers, 91 RBI is a 24-year-old in AA with an 854 OPS in 2017. Yeah, that's a little old for the level and he had a 750 OPS the year before. So, you know, definitely not great. And then all of a sudden he gets to the PCL and starts putting up 300 batting averages.

and starts hitting for, you know, 39 home runs last season. And, well, PCL is kind of a fake league. You know, it's like playing in course field pretty much your entire time. He played, you know, he played at Reno both years in AAA, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, Reno and the PCL. Reno is at elevation. I'm not sure how high, but it's definitely at elevation. I'm trying to Wikipedia, and it came up with Reno 9-1-1.

Reno is 4,500 feet above sea level. Albuquerque is way above sea level. There's a Colorado Springs team. There's a Las Vegas team. All these teams are playing last year, especially with that juiced ball in just course field after course field after course field. So, you know, you don't want to dismiss a 1223 OPS

and 39 homers in 84 games. because, well, that would be, like, he was like 1994 Jeff Bagwell. But it's just, given his age, given the fact that it's only been in the PCL that he's produced like this, I'd like to see him get a chance, but I don't have high expectations for it. Adam, anything to add on Kevin Crone? No. No. All righty. We'll move on here. We'll take a quick break. When we come back, we will answer your questions after this. All right, we're answering your questions. Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. This first one comes from Michael Hill. I'm in an NFBC Online Championship League drafted in February before COVID-19 or Chris Sales Tommy John News.

For those who are wondering, NFBC Online Championship is a 12-team 5-5 standard roto with an overall prize. First time... You're aiming for upside all the way across. Yeah, pretty much. You want to be the best team. The very best. Around. Like no one ever was. Nice, Frank. Yes, I got you, Adam. First time playing with weekly fab. Typical NFBC budget is $1,000 per season, and I do not know if they plan to change it for the half season. I drafted Sale and Domingo Hermann. I'm looking to add two of Rich Hill, Alex Wood, and Spencer Howard. Which two should I prioritize, and what would be a good bid, assuming full budget for only the half season. Right now, I have placeholders of $101 for Hill and $50 for the other two being Alex Wood and Spencer Howard.

Yeah, I think like $100 for Rich Hill makes sense, 10% of your budget. In this league, you're looking for upside, and Rich Hill certainly has upside. And with a shorter season, he should be ready for the start of the season. And could be a top top. 20 starting pitcher over 82 games. And then I would prioritize Spencer Howard. You might actually have to go with a bigger bid for him because he does have that prospect type. So I would go like 110 for him

and then throw out like a $50 or $60 bid for Alex Wood and see if you get them. 10% of my budget for Howard, though, feels a little much. Yeah, I agree with that. You know, I just let somebody else have him at that point. But I was thinking 80 bucks for Rich Hill, but I think 100 is 101 is totally fine. And the other guy, I'm doing this in my mind

is what if this is for a $100 budget. So yeah, I think $5 for Alex Wood is something I would do. So 50 seems fine. Yeah, if you really want Howard, then be aggressive like Heath is saying, or like, sorry. Wow. Doing a football draft with Heath right now.

Like Chris is saying, but if you don't, if you feel like that's too risky, just let somebody else get them at that price. Also, hold on, can we pause? Frank, are you hearing the echo? Frankian Adam. Also, Hunter Harvey is available.

I have Giovanni Gallegos, Edwin Diaz, and Wade Davis. Worth spending Fab to get Hunter Harvey? I can drop Evan White, or is it a better investment to go after a speed source, such as Jorge Mateo. I'm average to a little below average in speed.

I don't think Jorge Mateo is going to help you too much in that. He's not even slated to play every day yet. So I wouldn't make it. that the priority. Yeah, I mean, you're going to be in a tough spot if Gallegos isn't the closer for the Cardinals, and it sounds like Jordan Hicks might be ready for opening day, if not shortly thereafter. So between him and Wade Davis, you've got one reliever who I feel confident is going to get

saves, and that's Edwin Diaz, who was famously very, very bad last year. I don't think he, I think he'll be awesome this year. I have very little doubt about him, but yeah, I think you probably want to go get Hunter Harvey. Yeah, Evan White's fine, but Evan White's fine, but I don't think he's not likely to be a fantasy difference maker, I think. I would prioritize if available.

It was not mentioned in this email, but I would prioritize Scott Oberg, since you have Wade Davis and overhead Hunter Harvey, but Harvey does have a chance to be the closer for the Orioles. So yes, you should get him because your saves are looking questionable. I'll even throw Jordan Hicks in the mix. If you did this draft back in February and it's a 12-team league,

Jordan Hicks might be available. So pay attention to him first. I'd be most aggressive on him because you have Gallegos. But after that, yeah, I would take a shot on Hunter Harvey. There was a note throughout spring from their manager, Brandon Hyde, where he kind of referenced the possibility of Hunter Harvey being that guy in the ninth inning. So, yeah, you could drop Evan White in a lot. 12-team league. I'm perfectly fine with that.

This next one comes from Trey Tolbert. Corey Conebel or Will Harris. Who is a better bet for saves? Cinebel. I think Cinebel is a better bet for like eight saves or like six saves short in season. I think Will Harris

is a better upside play. Personally. I think he has a better chance to outright take the job because Doolittle's not as good as Hater. And Harris is an awesome reliever and I don't I'm not ready to say that about Corey Canable especially after missing a year. But they also have Daniel Hudson. Yeah we'll have Hudson go through two guys. I don't Hudson like Hudson had a great month. That is the highlight of his career basically.

For what it's worth, I think Sean Doolittle's very good. I like Doolittle a lot too. I think the chances of him losing the yeah. That's fair. That's fair. This next one's from Ross. Deer Squint, Squint, Ham, Benny and Smalls. It's easy. Hey, the Sandlot. I've consistently used Scott's advice and he's taken me to the championship the past three years.

Not interested. All right, closing my laptop. We're going to praise him while he's not even on the show. Yeah, I hope Scott's listening. This year, I didn't follow his top X pitcher strategy and went heavy on bat as the early rounds went all pitching. Do you guys think I can make it back in year four

keep up the good work? So, yeah, I don't know how we usually handle reading out entire teams, but I'll do it anyway. Just read his starting pitchers. His starting pitchers are Herman Marquez, James Paxton, Zach Gallen, Josh James, Rich Hill. He has Justice Sheffield, McKenzie Gore, and Alex Wood on the bench. Absolutely not. Your team is not good enough. Your hitters are not good enough. Like, they're good, but they're not so unbelievably good. No, you're not going to, your team sucks, bro.

His hitters are pretty great. his hitters are great at him. Are they? I mean, yeah, Gary Sanchez, Jose Ramirez, Trey Turner.

Don't read, don't just read the good ones here. No, but I'm pointing out that he has Ramirez Turner, Springer, JD Martinez,

Gurdon Alvarez. He's also starting Kyle Seeger and Scott Kingery. Yeah, but he's got like, he's got like six first four round players

including two potential first rounders. He might have the best He's not John Carl and Stanton. It's not going to be enough. Oh, gosh, here we go. It's not going to be enough. It should be a fourth round pick.

The fate of his team really rests on the Yankees, which is what I love. You need James Paxton to be an ace and John Carlos Stanton to be great. But I think, look, who knows what you get on the waiver wire? Your pitching is awful and not good enough. I wish you had a better, like I like Marquez, Paxon, Gallon, and Hill. I think that's fine. You need an ace. Or I wish you had.

someone in that Frankie Montas, Jesus Lazzardo, Zach Allen range, instead of Josh James. If it was someone like that, who, you know, I like Josh James, but I don't think,

like he's probably going to be a drag on whip, even if he is in the rotation and even if he is good. So, yeah, that's the one place I think you fell short. A better fifth starter, really. Chris, McKenzie Gore might turn out to be that quality of player. That's fair.

Yeah, I like Alex Wood, Justice Sheffield, too. This rotation's awful. It's very... It is. It's awful. No, it's questionable for a head to head points league. There's no doubt about that. I would try and flip one of Alvarez or Martinez for a top seven or eight starting pitcher.

Or if you can get some depth, if you get two of those guys that Chris mentioned, something like that, like a two of Lazardo, Montas, a Max-free, you know, a breakout candidate like that, I would try to make that happen. That's just me. I prefer more balance and typically lean on pitching in head-to-head points leagues. But your hitting is very good for what it's worth.

This next one from Steve, my family is getting a dog. I'm looking for some baseball-related or fantasy baseball-related dog names. I should probably say up front that I don't want to name a pet after a living person, no matter how decent they currently appear to be. So that means that Azer is out. What non-people names can you come up with? I figured this might make for some good podcast banter. Well, why non-people name?

I guess, yeah. I mean, you could look for some dead guys, but we can agree on what the best name is. Name your dog Darren Ruff. And let's move on. That's pretty good. Can't really argue that. I'm going to give this one some thought.

Can we come back to it. We'll come back to it. Anything that pops into your mind, the few names that just stood out to me, they're pretty generic, but Babe, Bo, Bo, Meatball, it's kind of a baseball term, I guess. You have a little fat dog. Bunt? Pudge, yogi. I guess more of a bear, but double play. Name your dog double play. Yeah. Why not? If anything comes to your mind, Chris, just shout it out. This next one comes from Robert Smith. Hey, Tray, John, Mike, and Page.

That's fish. Oh, the band. Yeah, I don't, I haven't tried the fish thing. I know they have a cult-like following. Don't do it. My mom has seen fish like 150 times. That's what I'm talking about, though. It's like every fish fan has seen them over a hundred times.

Like, there's no, you can't just meet someone who said, oh, I saw fish five times in my life. They're pretty good. There's nobody like that. Well, I've seen them twice. They're, they're lying. Pretty good. You're lying, Chris. No, I've seen them twice.

They're fine. I just don't get it. I think I got to give them another shot. I started a 12-team dynasty head-to-head points league this year, and after about eight or ten rounds of drafting, I ran the projections on pitching to see how early I had to start investing in relief pitchers compared to starting pitchers. What I learned is that I had set innings pitch to only one point instead of the standard three that drastically reduced the importance of starting pitching.

Some might say too much. I was trying to balance out the scoring, but went too far. What do you make of this score? set up for pitchers. He included his scoring, which gives one point per inning, five for a quality start, one point for strikeouts, so strikeouts are boosted, five for wins, seven for saves. The only thing you lose points for minus one point for an earned run. So you don't lose points for hits,

you don't lose points for walks, minus five for a loss. I ran the projections myself. It's basically the same scoring for, like it doesn't change all that much. In this format, you would get 18 points for a six-ennings pitched, five-hit, three-earned run, two-walk, five-strikeout performance with a quality start and a win that equals 18. Normally, it's 20 and a half. So it doesn't really change all that much, is what I found.

Two and a half. It's kind of a big deal, two and a half points. But if you want to make things more even, if you want to devalue pitchers, I mean, this is, I think this is a fair way to do it. I guess so. I don't love the one full point for strikeout, because then a guy like Dallas Keiko or Marcus Stroman,

they really are going to be hard to trust. Mike Soroka's going to lose a lot of value, I think. But shouldn't those guys technically be devalued for fantasy anyway? Because strikeouts are a big part of the game. In my opinion, you know, they are devalued in a half point per strikeout league. But if you just want to talk about regular baseball, does it matter how you're winning? Does it matter how you're getting through the inning? Does it matter how you're, you know, sitting winners down?

Right. So, that's fair. You know, I think it's a little unfair to those guys, which is why I like, like points better than Roto. It's one advantage of points to Roto. I don't know that I love the way we do pitching with points leagues. But I think it's too... I think that that strikeout thing is the only element of this

that I don't like. But it seems fine. Whatever. It's really not that big of a deal. He has a second part of his question. I'm going to need some help here. Oh. Finally, the regulator's portion of the email. After realizing this, I pretty much abandoned my concentration, on drafting hitting and focused on pitching, especially with minor league roster spots, which we have 25 of. I'm not sure if anyone else realizes how the scoring is set up.

Shame on them, if not. But how do you think I should handle this when people finally realize the difference? Also, did I make the right move completely shifting away from pitching mid-draft, where with head-to-head points, you want as many pitchers as possible? I will say if you didn't give your league mates a heads up that you're changing your scoring format and you're just waiting to see how long it's going to take them to realize you changed it

that's kind of messed up. Oh, big time. I would say you're at fault and we need to regulate you. I honestly feel like if nobody knew, you should just go back to the original scoring. Right? Or just let it play out into the season

and see how long it takes people to realize. That could be a little fun. exercise. You know, when somebody would realize when like somebody throws a no hitter, it scores like 50 points and people are talking about it and then you check that guy's score in your league and he only scored like 43 points and you're like, wait a second. Why is, this is by the way from personal history. I just compared two leagues and I was like, why is this guy's point total different in this

league than league number two? And I realized that the pitching scoring was different. It's not something that's easy to pick up on. There's so much going on throughout the game. hits, walks, runs, everything counting against you, innings pitched, every out you get point, you know, so. Frank, I'm rambling. Please save me here.

All righty. Let's get one more question in here before we wrap up for the weekend. I've got some. Uh-oh. All right, hit us, Chris? What the hell's going on? I'm a little just, I think I'm throwing off because Chris hasn't spoken in like two full minutes.

It's just weird. Rex Hudler. Darren Ruff, obviously. Paul Molitor You guys couldn't see it But this is like Chris does best Chris just mulled the screen with his with his Paul Rodriguez

Well oh pug Rodriguez But pug Griffin was an actual player as well You could go with the spoonerism And go with name your dog Larry Barkin Or German Shepherd Smith is they're all great very barking i love it

this is a fantastic exercise for chris to uh flex his his dog baseball knowledge good job chris i appreciated that bark viewing just keep blurting them out just keep blurting them out as we go along

this last one wrap up the weekend with this from Travis i'm an annual listener and loved the show by the way it was a huge vice for me during this pandemic Love the content, boys. So I was really intrigued by Adam's TAP-Hap AMC strategy in Roto. Side note, Adam, we also got an email today from Scott Wolfe asking us to remind him what TAP-Hap AMC is. So hit it, Adam. I responded.

Tap-Hap AMC is two Aces plus Hater and Paxton and more pitching. Yeah, two Aces being two top six pitchers, which would be two of the following. Cole, DeGrom, Scherzer, Verlander, Bueller, and Flaherty. Home run Barker. This is only in Roto, by the way. I sort of tried it in our head-to-head categories draft last night, but it's just a Roto strategy. Bob Old Yeller.

I was just invited to this Roto Keeper League and took over a team for a guy who quit. I kept Zach Wheeler, Sunny Gray, Charlie Morton, Bo Bichette, and Matt Olson at great values. During the auction draft, I went after Adam's suggested group of players for this strategy. I wasn't able to get a top six star. carding pitcher, but I was able to get Aaron Nola and James Paxton and Josh Hader as well as a few

others, as you can see. Do you think this version of Tap Hap AMC could work, or did I blow this $150 buy-in keyboard draft? So Adam, he's got Nola, he's got Paxton, he's got Morton, he's got Zach Wheeler, he's got Sonny Gray, he doesn't have the two aces, but he has some solid depth and he has Paxton and he has Hater. So what do you think? But does he have the closers? He didn't mention any of the closers outside of Hater. Yeah, you've got to have the

closers because you've got to win saves, an ERA and WIP. That's the point. So the pitching staff, like Nola and Morton and Paxton, I mean, that's a fine top three for me. I'm higher on Paxton than everybody. But no, I mean, the point is you've got to get a lot of closers because you've got to win those ratio stats. and saves. Fair. Fair.

So Travis, maybe send us an email back. Let us know if you have any closers. But if you do, then you have somewhat executed that successfully. And Adam likes your pitching staff. But you need more closers. Closers are a huge part of the Tapp-Hap AMC strategy. All right, guys, that'll do it for today. Uh-oh.

No. Bow-Waoie Coon, Commissioner of Major League Baseball. Puppyee Reese I hate to say that the one I came up with is my favorite but Pug Rodriguez is my favorite and oh I had another one I can't think of it I'm sorry guys Bob Old Yellow was great no the best one

Bob Old Yellow is the best one this is the best one we'll say the best for last and take it out Rob Rod Ahoo I Rod Carew That's what I thought it was I didn't want to say

in case I was wrong. Captain America, that's Chris. C-P-T's wearing the Captain America shirt today. Guys, do you have any plans for the weekend, you know, given the circumstances for Memorial Day? I might be getting a dog. Oh. Are you going to name him any of these names?

I think we know what to name of them, Chris. Yeah, I think it's going to be Rod Aroo. Bobbled Yeller. I don't really have any plans. I'd like to make some chicken burgers and sit outside, even though I don't really have a backyard. So maybe we'll do that. You want to hear what happened with my masks real quick?

I ordered masks on April 1st from Amazon. They never came. The order got canceled on like May 15th. So that was a bust. So I went and I bought them online at this place called Reformation. So they make these masks that were recommended in an article I read. They're like the proper thread count and all that. And when they came, they were all flowers.

All of them had floral designs on them. Yeah, my wife bought some of those too. That's very hipster of you to have bought the Reformation. I called them, texted them, and emailed them today. I was really pissed because I'm not walking outside wearing flowers on my face. Why not? Because it's girly. It's for women.

Adam, come on. I'm not doing it. So I'm not going anywhere because I don't have a mask. All right. Well, I hope you find a yard to sit in somewhere, Adam, and with some chicken burgers. And Chris, shout out to old Bob Yeller. I hope it works out for you, buddy. Diego Padres.

For Adam and Chris, I am Frank, thank you all for listening. We'll be back again next week. Have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend. Bye-bye. New York months.