Fantasy Baseball Today - Players We Love, Clevinger's Knee, Emails (02/14 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: February 14, 2020

We start this Valentine's Day episode with players we love! A couple of young SPs and an OF who kinda came out of nowhere in 2019 and will be even better in 2020. Then we cover the big news (10:30) with Mike Clevinger's injury and Mike Trout potentially hitting leadoff. What would that mean for his steals? Plus Alex Verdugo is hurt and Mitch Haniger's timeline has been pushed back ... Interesting Fantasy Things (19:35)! Edwin Encarnacion was better than you may have realized. And Lance Lynn and Mike Minor are very interesting ... We address MLB rules changes (30:50) and then read your questions about managerial tendencies (33:00), SPs we may have ranked too low (36:50), saves+holds (39:00), closers who could get traded (41:00) and strategy in Two-Catcher leagues (42:40) ... Your emails at [e-mail] Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @CBSFantasyBB, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody. I imagine this is a lot of people's wedding songs once about a time. Yeah. Who doesn't love whisper singing? Yeah. Is Savage Garden the most inappropriately named band of all time? Like Savage Garden sounds like a metal band. Like Savage Garden sounds like they should thrash.

Yeah, they do it. I'll be a wish. It's incredible stuff. Well, I love you, Chris. I love you, Scott. Welcome, everybody. to the show. I love all the listeners. It's February 14th, so we're taking

a break from the position previews to talk about Mike Clevenger's knee, Mike Trout steals, and love some, no, and who we love, players we love. Last year, I believe the player I love was you Darvish. I will give myself partial credit for that one.

Bad than great? I'm pretty sure. It was, yeah, I mean, it was it eventually came through. It was one of those like extended love stories like the notebook, you know? Yeah, you might have gotten divorced before it actually paid off.

Maybe. Actually, in the one league, no, I did not divorce. No, I stayed with him. Until death did us part. Yeah. All right. Damn fair man. Do you remember who yours was,

your guy was, Scott? I, I, um, I don't. I don't. I don't remember who it was. No, I don't remember. Chris?

I don't know if I was even on that episode. I don't get involved, invited to the fun things usually. I don't love you. I'm going to say Josh Bell. Ooh, do you love? Okay, sure, why not? Good call, Chris. All right, so this year, player we love.

We'll start with that. Then we got big news. Mike Clevenger having knee surgery. And Mike Trout could bat lead off. Saw that little blurb. Things that are interesting. And then your emails. also the rules changes and how that might affect fantasy baseball.

Fantasy baseball at CBSI.com is the email address, short-ish show today. So let's get right to it. Scott, who do you love this year? I love J.D. Davis. I don't love him enough to know what the J&D. stand for, which is what I wanted to say when I announced who I love. But I do love J.D. Davis, who I think is

the surest bet among the breakout back. because, I mean, just look at what he did last year. In part-time duty, he did get a chance to play every day in August, I believe it was, and put up monstrous numbers. He put up monstrous numbers in basically every scenario, righties, lefties, it didn't matter. He hit over 300. He had an OPS of 895. and he actually underperformed his ex-BA and his ex-WOBA on the year.

He makes really hard contact. He has good line drive tendencies. He hits the ball to all field. He profiles for a high babb. I think he can do this all again, just hopefully in a more full-time role. Now, the Mets, at the start of spring training, you know, there was kind of a big, this burst of news all of a sudden because reporters had players they could talk to again.

and it sounds like there's kind of a competition going on in left field between J.D. Davis and Dominic Smith. But, I mean, come on. Tom Smith's not good. Why didn't they play him more? Because he was, I was so annoyed as a JD, I guess, as a J.D. Davis owner, it's like, dude, get him in there. He was one of their best hitters and they didn't stick with him.

It took them like a month and a half of Jeff McNeil being basically their best player to play him every day, right? Yeah. Well, they have, now they've said. Their second manager. The third defender. Who is? Davis.

Okay. So that, but like Dominic Smith and left field, that's not, that's not going to go any better. Okay. So, and of course, J.D. Davis can play a third base to, you know, Jeff McNeil can move around if, like, Robinson Canoe gets her. I just think, like, the bat is so good. It's going to work out for him. And I am, I am thrilled to draft him as a starter. it's more likely going to be for the outfields

because there's just so many third baseman out there. But like is my third outfielder that is money and JD Davis is money like around 13 through 15. It's perfect. It's going to go very well. I think you mean Jonathan Gregory Davis. What?

The D come. Oh, I guess the D is for Davis. J.D. is his first and last initial. So he's John Davis Davis? Jonathan Gregory, J.D. Davis, according to Wikipedia. All right. That's one down.

Chris, who do you love? I love a pitcher who may not even have a rotation spot coming into the season, but who I think will be a top 15 starting pitcher in the 2020 fantasy baseball season. And his name is Zachary Davis Gallen. I love Zach Gallen. he's got at least two pitches that whenever someone posts a GIF or a video of him throwing them, I have to immediately retweet them. His curveball is nasty and his changeup is, I guess nasty.

I'll just use that word twice. It's apt. He's got four pitches that he throws at least 15% of the time. He has faith in throwing all of them for strikes. What he did in AAA last year, that's kind of where. you need to start it off because it was the most impressive pitching performance by anyone in organized, independent, collegiate baseball. He had a 177 ERA in the PCL in a league where the average ERA was 548. He was so absurdly dominant. And the biggest thing holding him back at the majors

and holding him back is a relative term because he had a 281 ERA and a low three's fit was a mid-threes fit. He walked 4.1 batters per nine. That was never an issue for him in the minors. A lot of it, I think he had two starts with nine walks that really inflated things, and then after that it really wasn't quite as bad. I just think he is, he's got absolute star potential as a starting pitcher. He pitches from sort of a weird arm angle, which gives his pitches a lot of spin. He's just, he's really, really, really good.

and I wish the Marlins still had him. That stat you dropped of what he did in the PCL versus what pitchers in the hole in the PCL did, which was always a hitter's league, but then, of course, the MLB baseballs were introduced to it last year. That's my favorite stat of all the stats that were contributed by any player last year. And when it was happening in real time,

we were like, okay, could this Zach Gallen guy really be this good? And then he gets to the majors, and I mean, pretty much is a great pitcher from the get-go. So the fantasy playing world is going to lose its mind if he doesn't win a rotation spot for the diamond backs. But one of him, Merrill Kelly, and I guess Mike Leak won't. Who's injured? Now, Mike Leak is in. Well, he's injured right now.

He's having, I think, a minor surgery to repair a fracture in his wrist, but he's only expected to miss a couple of weeks of spring training. But the most recent report I saw is he's, it's. Bumgarner, Ray, Leake, and Weaver are locked in. So it's Merrill Kelly, Alex Young, and Zach Allen, and I don't know, maybe Merrill Kelly gets the edge because Zach Allen has options, but... But Mike Leak is the worst of those pitchers. Probably.

Yeah. Okay, so on our website, cbsports.com, and our player page for Zach Allen, there's a report. Steve Gilbert of MLB.com saying Gallen is likely to begin the season in the Diamondbacks rotation. So let's go Zach Allen. He's going 124th overall. He is a round 10 or around.

11 pick. Eduardo Rodriguez and Hyunjin Ryu are the next two pitchers off the board. Do you like Gowan better than those guys, Rodriguez and Ryu? Yeah. It's the only thing that's tough as Ryu just because he's probably just going to be undervalued for the rest of his career. And I think we're probably over-correcting because it's easy to look at him and say, oh, well, there's regression coming.

But, like, Juni and Ryu is going, what, 20 spots after, 40 spots after Mike Soroka? That's kind of dumb. 34. So we started the show with me about to do the show and then going, oh, bleep! I forgot we're supposed to do players we love today. So I don't really know if I have someone.

But I have two options. Should I go with the fifth round pitcher or the mid to late round shortstop? Mid-round. Piff's round pitcher has a much more likely chance of making you look smart. Okay. It's a mid-round shortstop. All right, I'm going with.

Chris Paddock. I love Chris Paddock. Welcome to the fantasy elite Chris Paddock. That's what we'll be saying midway through the season. He is awesome. He is somewhat of a two-pitch pitcher, but his curveball, I think, has the chance to be great. His change-ups already great. He has, he is a badass on the mound. He takes no prisoners. And I think Chris Paddock could be a second round pick next year and could be one of the up-and-coming great starting pitchers in baseball. Christopher Paddock, I love you. All right. Yeah.

I like him. Apparently, the restraints are off too. Fully after he was, he made 140 in it. He reached 140 innings last year. Yeah. After 90 previously in the minors. So that's a big deal. And I think, like, even if the curveball isn't great, the fastball and changeup are so good.

And the command of both are so good that I, I think. I think he's got a ton of potential either way. So our players, we love. Scott says J.D. Davis. Chris says Zach Allen and I say Chris Paddock. The big news. Mike Clevenger is having knee surgery. Probably be able to better address this next week. We don't have a timetable right now. This was late breaking news just before we got on the show.

But thankfully, it's February 14th. There's time to recover. Meniscus. I don't think it's going to be like a long-term thing, right, guys, with Clevenger? There are two types of meniscus surgeries. There's the repair and there's the removal. And removal's a very quick turnaround, actually, even though it sounds more severe. I guess maybe there are worse consequences for it later on.

I don't know. Yeah, it tends to cause more like tendonitis issues later on. That was what like Dwayne Wade and the NBA did. It caused him issues later. So we don't know the timetable is totally to be determined. I think either way, you can't expect him to be ready for opening day. And if he has the repair, I mean, it could be like mid-May before he's ready, probably. Yeah, it's probably like if he has it repaired, it's probably like a six to eight-week timetable.

And then, of course, there's still like a month-long build-up for a pitcher. Oh, yeah, it's, it's, we can't be losing these guys before the season even starts. Because we're obviously, pitchers are going to get hurt. But if the pool of draftable pitchers shrinks, I mean, the panic for pitching is going to become even more intense than it already is. Clevenger had the lowest FIP in the American League last year, 2.49. He had a 271 ERA. He only threw 12.26 innings. But 12.1 strikeouts per nine, 1.06 whip. I mean, he was right up there with the best of the best. So get well soon, Mike Clevenger. Mike Trout could bat leadoff.

He doesn't really have an extensive history batting leadoff. It's just something Joe Madden said that he could bat leadoff. Not that he will, so I don't want to get too far into it. But the last time he batted leadoff, really, was early in his career. He was 2012. He stole 49 bases. Woo! So that could be nice.

He only stole 11 bases last year. Value up down are the same if Mike Trout is a leadoff hitter. Up, always up. he's going to get more play appearances. Yeah, but he'll have fewer RBIs. But he'll score more runs. I don't know if he'll score more runs than he does batting second. He'd have another better hitter behind him.

Okay. It's always up. Like, it's more volume. It's more opportunities. Like, yeah, RBI might be down, but he's so good that he's probably still going to drive in 90 runs, batting lead off anyway. Yeah, well, that's not...

I guess so. How many runs does he usually drive in? like 115? It was 104 last year. That's the second highest of his career. He missed quite a bit of time. Okay. 104 was the second highest that Mike Shrach's career.

He's batted in the top two of the lineup for most of his career. He's never been a big RBI. Two hitters are not. And they've had pretty crappy lineups. Yeah. So if two hitters aren't big RBI guys, then I wonder about lead off hitters. and who I would love to know

which lead off hitter led all lead off hitters in RBIs last year. Somebody to find out. Per 162 games last season he or over the last three seasons per 162 games he's at 107 RBI. So yeah, I think 90 to 95 he's such a good hitter. He's going to hit 40 plus home runs anyway.

He's going to get to 90 to 95 RBI. What this could do is give us 135, 140 run season. That seems realistic. He scored 110 in 134 games last year, so he could have big year with runs. Okay, Ehuyaheno, Suarez could be ready for opening day. He had shoulder surgery in January. Suarez was the number, oh, man. He was a top 10 third baseman, for sure.

He was number 7 last year. In 2018, he was number 7. I don't know what he was. Yeah. This year? Yeah. Past year. And I moved him to the back of his tier with the, when the initial

reports that he was having the shoulder surgery. Definitely open to moving him back up as things developed further over the course of spring training. But this is obviously a favorable first follow-up. Yeah, he was number nine in points, number six in Roto. He strikes out a lot. He had by far the most strikeouts among third-based eligible players, but he also had 49 home runs, so that'll help.

More news and notes. Let's see what we got here. We got Alex Verdugo. may not be ready for opening day. He has a back issue, something he dealt with last year. The Red Sox, meanwhile, signed Kevin Pilar to a one-year deal. So is Alex...

Yeah. Are you even going to draft him, Chris? Yes. He's got significant potential, but it's a really bad sign that he has not been able to play baseball since August of last year. That's a really, really bad sign for someone

who's not established as a contributor at their major league level. I think there's a lot of potential. I thought if he was healthy and especially if the Red Sox announced him as their leadoff hitter, I wouldn't have been surprised if he started going inside the top 100 by the end of draft season. Now, I think later part of the top 200 makes sense.

I would still take that chance. Especially in a road. Okay. And Seattle signed Taiwan Walker, Scott. One year, $2 million deal. Any interest? Not significant interest. I do believe there's still upside there,

but it's been a long time since he's been able to show anything. And the last we saw of him, optimism had already begun to wane. And the fact that this is the best offer he could get, I don't think is a good sign either. But it is a good place for him to restore his value, pitchers park, team without a lot of pitching assets. so he should have a role.

A flyer, but in very deep leagues. He was pretty good in 2017. It was the last time he really pitched. All right, maybe a sleeper out there. Taiwan Walker for the Mariners. Meanwhile, Mitch Hanager, not sure you're going to be drafting him. He had another core surgery.

That's going to delay his return. I don't know. Late round pick. Obviously, you can stash him on the IL, but it's going to be a while for Hanigar, right? Yeah. I don't know. This seems like one of those situations where it wouldn't surprise me if he just sat out the whole first half.

And at that point, who knows what to expect from him, probably shouldn't be drafted even in like 12-team-5 outfielder leagues. All right, it's Mitch Hanigur. Cole Hamels will not be ready for opening day due to a shoulder injury. Hamels actually was pitching pretty well last year before he went on the I.S. and then he came back and was really bad, and I'll give you all the numbers. But where would you draft Cole Hamels? He had a 381 ERA,

but his first 17 starts before he missed all of the July. He was 6 and 3 with a 290-80RA and right around a strikeout per inning and a 120 whip. Always a high whip for Hamels. When are you drafting Cole Hamels? Do we know when he'll be ready to come back? It sounds like it's not going to be a super long absence. Right.

Just a situation where he'll be healthy, before opening day, but then he'll have to still build up. So I'm not dropping him that much. He's already outside of the group of pitchers that I consider desirable, and he's at the high end of that next group, because he was good before the injury last year, and it seems like it messed him up mechanically from things I've read. So I think there's a good chance he ends up, you know,

from the time he returns being a good inning Zeter, who averages about a strikeout per inning and can win a bunch of games with a good Braves offense backing him. Not a bad, if you miss out on really building a strong pitching staff, not a bad fallback option still. Would you rather have Cole Hamels or Dallas Keikle? Kikell I have ahead of him.

They're kind of in that same group where I think they're decent enough pitchers, but they're just, they're not going to stand out. And there are a few pictures you could say that about because usually the ones who aren't standouts just get crushed in this environment, but I think they're two exceptions. They're Hamels and Keikl.

Would you rather have Cole Hamels or the enticing mystery box of Julio Arias? Arias. Arias? Yes. Okay. Okay. Here are some things that are interesting.

American history? Edwin Incarnation was third in fantasy points per game among first baseman behind Cody Bellinger and Freddie Freeman. He was tied with DJ the Mayhew. I think that's interesting. Edwin and Carnaccio, third best on a per game basis in a points league. What do you think is? Chris Towers. He's still pretty good when he plays. And there, I mean, I don't even know what his ADP is. I haven't looked at that. But I would imagine it's very, very low.

Well, let's take a guess. Yeah, 166. There's a lot of potential there. A lot of potential value. He is the sort of player that fares much better in points league, which is the number you gave Adam versus a roto league, which is what the ADP number reflects. So I'm sure he's not getting a lot of attention in points league drafts either, just because you don't have to go as deep into the hitter pool. And he's a 37-year-old who's on his fourth team in three years. I do think he's at a stage where you do, you wonder if he's really going to be in

everyday player, especially since they have James McCann there, who they've talked about playing some at DH after bumping him from his starting role for Yasmani Grundahl. So he's, like, I'd be happy with Edwin and Carnaccio on as like a corner infield option, but I'd be disappointed if he was my primary first baseman. I did kind of want him as my first baseman in an A-L-only league that we did last night. Yeah, that makes sense. You got him last night. I did get him?

Okay, good. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, he's got eight. straight seasons with 32 or more home runs. And last year he had 34 homers in 109 games. And he was really good with Seattle. It wasn't just like Yankee Stadium.

Now he's with the White Sox. Good hitters park should be a decent lineup. Yeah, yeah. His plate discipline isn't what it used to be. And the batting average stinks. But he still walks and he's still homers and Edward Encarnacion. But he's kind of like Nelson Cruz starting to get banged up, missed some time each of the last two seasons.

All right. More things that are interesting. Lance Lynn and Mike Minor are interesting. It's funny because the Rangers have two guys who were top 24 pitchers last year. But they're very interesting, Scott, where they go, and particularly Lynn. I mean, he was a lot better than Minor last year.

So they're interesting. Yeah, Lance Lynn, I more or less consider among that ace or near ace tier where I think they'll give you a ton of innings and a ton of strikeouts. So it's basically what he did last year. And he was one of many pitchers who, his ERA, you know, it looks kind of middling,

but it was inflated by a terrible April. A lot of really good pitchers were just awful last April. Which makes sense. A different baseball. Especially with the seams changing on the baseball. Yeah, there are some actual complaints voiced there. I've mostly by the changes to his profile, Lance Lynn. He altered his pitch selection a little and...

He doesn't have a pitch selection. He throws 90% fastballs. I mean, like three different types of fastballs. But that's what's so amazing about it. I mean, it's kind of hard to doubt... Look, this is what I find amazing about Lance Lynn. His last month, September. He faced the Yankees twice, the Astros, the A's, and the Rays, and he crushed him.

He was awesome. He had like a low 3s ERA and a ton of strikeouts in those starts. 313 ERA, 44 strikeouts, and 31 and 2.30. It had been what he had done all year after his first seven starts. He's throwing hard and throwing basically exclusively fastball, so that's why I have trouble believing it. But I don't know. Well, he's always been that pitcher. But not with the strikeout.

One of the fastballs he threw was a sinker, and he was more of a ground ball pitcher for most of his career because of that, and a guy who's, you know, ended up outperforming his strikeout rate, but he just kind of like totally ditched that approach, and it was mostly just fastball cutter. And I think they look close enough to the same coming out of the hand that it racks up a lot of swings and misses for him. So he's kind of ditched the pitch.

pitch to contact mentality, as a lot of pitchers have have and seen their number skyrocket as a result. I get it. I mean, like, in that ACE, near-Ace giant tier of 40-year-so pitchers, he's obviously near the bottom. He doesn't have the track record of most of them. We're talking about like a mid-30s breakout. But there are just so few pitchers who are capable of doing anything close to what Lance

Lynn did last year that when the time comes to take him, if you don't have enough pitchers that you're comfortable with, you kind of just have. to take the chance on him. I will say this. I have, I'll just cop to it. I have a mental block on Lance Land. I just,

he's such an, a non-traditional pitcher, especially for this environment in this era that I just, I don't understand how he got so good last year. People have explained it to me. And I still just like, okay,

I believe you, but not really. And that's totally me. I am not saying you should not draft Lance Lynn. The numbers are what they are. Having said that, he's much more, I would say much, much more likely to provide a positive return on investment than at least the next three guys being drafted ahead of him in Fantasy Pro's average ADP

in that starting pitcher, which is Max Fried, Denelson Lamatt, and Shohei Otani. Those guys might have more upside, although Lance Lynn's upside, as we've seen, is pretty dang high. Why did I do Max Fried as the player I love? I love Max Fried. I love Max Fried, too. I'm trying to get a. Max-Fried Shurzy. That's the next Shersie I want, and I can't find one. They've even taken away the personalized Shersie option. Really? Yeah. At least for now, I don't know as we get closer to the season, it'll be back. But I've tried to order a Max-Fried jersey, and I can't get one. I want one majestic. They've kept them locked up, but I think the closer we get to the season,

they'll be freed. Wow. Nice. Okay. So how about Mike Minor? First three months, he was great. Last three months, he had a five ERA. So Mike Miner's numbers aren't as well supported as Lance Lens. By all the ways we would judge a pitcher to see whether he deserved what he did, Mike Miner falls short. And so I'm reluctant to give him my full endorsement. Now, it's kind of the same thing I was saying for Lenn goes for him, though, in the range where he actually goes,

what's the comparable upside of the pitcher surrounding him? And it's like, well, they're not going to give you what we just saw Mike Minor do. So why not just take the chance on Mike Minor doing it again? I think that's probably a higher probability investment. But it could just be total garbage this year as a pitcher, not as a person. And you've got to be prepared.

for that possibility if you invest in him. I know some people get really, when you call a player garbage, some people get really offended. So I just wanted to make that stipulation after the word already came out of my mouth. Okay, so how about we rank these pitchers? Matthew Boyd, Mike Minor, Armand Marquez.

They're going in the same range, about 160th, and 170th overall. Matt Boyd, Mike Minor, Arm Marquez. I can see the case for all three of them. I can probably see the case for minor least. at least in terms of upside. Like Matthew Boyd was an elite, elite, elite strikeout pitcher last year who, despite pitching in Tiger or Comerica Park, Tiger Stadium, it's been a little while since they've had that one.

Got absolutely crushed, gave up a ton of home runs, and it doesn't seem like it was bad luck. He pitches up in the zone a lot. He tends to get hit hard. So I have trouble buying that he's going to be very good, but I can at least see it. Armand Marquez, kind of the same thing. At least I feel pretty confident. Actually, no. I feel very, very confident that I can trust Armand Marquez on the road.

I'm not sure I'll be able to trust Mike Minor. So the problem with Boyd is I can see things going very right for him. I could see things going very wrong for him. He is so vulnerable to the long ball. It's a terrible environment for that to be the case. And he just got destroyed in the second half, or really over the final four months because of it. but still there's some dominant tendencies with the swing and miss rate and the strike and everything. But what really breaks the tie for me, whether I want Matt Boyd or not, is he pitches for the Tigers.

And no matter how well he pitches, he's going to struggle to get 10 wins because of that. And wins are the most valuable stat a pitcher can provide in either the standard points league or the standard roto league. So that's definitely, that said, I think he's just a better pitcher than the other two. and so I put him at the top of those rankings. Oh, really? But it's close. It's kind of interesting with Marquez. You just have to weigh the impact it would have on your team if you said,

I'm only going to start him in road games. And I might get a great pitcher when I only start him in road games. It's not that. He's the only pitcher in baseball that you're going to take that approach with. Yeah, I just wonder how a lot of times what happened, because there have been a lot of pitchers in Rocky's history that has started out that way. My Campton, the great example. and what happens is they want to be the same pitcher at home.

And so they end up, it becomes difficult to stick to the same approach when you're not getting the desired results. And you can end up messing up the whole thing trying to force something that's not going to happen in that terrible pitching environment. So I don't know. I guess I would sum it up by saying, I

if I am in a position in a draft where I am having to count on Boyd, minor, or Marquez to be a stable option for me, things have not gone well. It is not gone according to plan my draft strategy

and I am just looking for a lifeline at starting pitcher. I just looked up Matt Boyd's results with his curveball and it's amazing. You don't sound very good right now. He threw 120, Well, this is why.

Your hands are on your face. He threw 123 curve balls last year. He gave up a 500 batting average and an 1143 slugging percentage. That's not good. A slugging percentage. Stop throwing that pitch, huh? I mean, it's phenomenal. He kind of...

It's a really small sample size. Yeah. All right, guys, let's move on because we are running out of time, unfortunately. We have a thing we have to get to. Anyway, rule changes. Let's talk about the rule changes. Okay, 15-day IL for pitchers now, and for two-way players like Joe Hottani.

And 15-day option period for pitchers. Yeah, so you can't just stash someone for 10 days and bring them back. A pitcher, anyway. Hitters can still go on the 10-day aisle. Three-batter minimum. We know that. We have a question later about saves plus holds and the impact of the three-batter minimum for relievers.

You can face fewer than three-batters if you finish a half-inning. otherwise you have to stay in for three batters. 26-man rosters, not 25 anymore. There's some specifications about what makes somebody a two-way player, a pitcher slash hitter, and that does... It's just Shohei Otani. It's like you have to throw 20 innings and have appeared in 20 games

and had at least three plate appearances in them or something like that. Right, yeah. It's just... There's no way it's anyone but him. And manager for the 20 seconds to challenge a call. So I don't know that there's much to talk about here. It comes up in our emails, and we'll get to them right now. Oh, what?

There is one more thing to add. And it actually could matter a lot for fantasy is the September roster rules. There are no more 40-man rosters in September. I believe the limit is 28. And you can only have, you can't have more than 13 pitchers during the regular roster period, and you can't have more than 14 in September. and I think the number goes up one on double-headers. Well, if you ask me, you should probably stop playing fantasy baseball by September, but...

But this could make it a little more predictable and a little less nutty. That'd be nice. Maybe I'll be more inclined to play my playoff leagues in September. All right, so here are the emails. I don't like your garbage opinion anyway. Yeah, I know. You like two catcher leagues and you like playing your championship games with the final two weeks of the season when people are sitting and crappy players are playing.

Yes, I don't want the fantasy baseball to end. I want more of it. I'm ready for it to end at that point. I'm sorry. I'm ready for football. It's fine. We had a nice run. Let's just end it.

Okay. Emails from Jason Wood, who is a football guy's senior writer and a maddeningly novice fantasy baseball nerd. Well, he says, Dear Tim, Jason, and Damien, and those are Robbins, like Batman and Robbins.

I saw a post on Twitter recently, that explained how Mike Mithini's players in St. Louis ran just 3.7% of the time versus Ned Yost running at a healthy 5.8% clip. With Mithini taking over in Kansas City, it seems like there's a huge risk to players like Whitmaneryfield and Adaberto Mondesie have a lot of value tied up in their ability to steal bags. You rarely, if ever, talk about managerial tendencies and how they will impact fantasy output,

but with speed being at an ultra-premium, this kind of manager change could be the difference between making a huge mistake on draft day or avoiding a pitfall. What are your thoughts about the Royals, base stealing. And are there any other managerial things we should be looking at? So I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm not a big managerial tendencies guy because I feel like so few managers get the kind of sample needed to really know, because it's so tied to personnel, right? Like, yeah, I'm struggling at thinking what player in the Thini years the Cardinals had that

should have been stealing a lot of bases. But Gabe Kapler was an example of someone that you said, they're not going to run that much with him with the Phillies. And they didn't. Like Gene Seguerra didn't run. Right. Well, he was very open about, Gabe Kapler was very open about what he believed and was maybe the least traditional manager ever,

at least in modern times, in a modern sense. So that was kind of a special. case, but... I agree with you. Like, you don't take over the royals and tell Alberto Mondesie to not run. I wouldn't think so. No, he could.

Maybe that's how it'll go, but we have no way of knowing, and it's just a... I don't think it would be so extreme that Alberto Mondesie is suddenly not a good base dealer. You know, he would still be one of the best. It's just, like,

specifically with stolen base is like, there are so many. there's so much fluctuation, so many different variables that can cause great swings in production there, that this is just not one I'm even prepared to consider it, to be honest. Tommy, I'm looking at all of the stolen base leaders in Mike Bethini's years with the Cardinals. Tommy Fam at 25 once. Jason Hayward had 23. It's not looking good, though.

So far, I've only found two points. players with more than 15. Colton Wong had 20 in 2014. But they didn't have an out of Bertha Monash. It may be, maybe you discount Whitmerfield a little bit, although he only had 20 steals last year anyway and ran at like a 67% clip. So it's possible that that might just be not as much a part of his game, no matter who the manager is. Only three or four players, I think four had more than 15 steals in like six or seven seasons under Mike

Mathini. And there's one last thing I want to check here. But that was one of the Hayward's best steel seasons, I got to say, 23, right? He may have had one year, but that was better than that. Carlos Beltrane had 13 for the Cardinals in 2012. The year before that, he had four. The year before that he had three. Was Mike Mathini there that long? That was his first year. That's what I'm seeing on Wikipedia, 2012, 2018. His one year in St. Louis under Mike Mathini, Jason Hayward at a career high for steals. Okay. All right, Jason,

thank you for the thoughtful email. Appreciate that. We're going to say, we're going to say no on Mondesie anyway. Okay, Matt from Canada, which starting pitchers do you think have the greatest potential to far outperform where you currently have them ranked

and could make you look foolish by season's end? All of them? Ten step. There's no such thing as a pitching prospect. Every pitcher is capable of great things. Scott, who are you worried that you're too low on? Well, if we're just...

There are a lot of pitchers. Any top prospect who really hasn't established himself yet could just blow up. Mitch Keller, he's actually on my sleeper list. He had a 7ERA, the bit he pitched in the majors last year. But I like a lot of what I saw on him. I think the new slider he developed last year raises his strikeout ceiling considerably

and he's long been considered one of the best pitching prospects in the game. So I may have him too low. He could have this huge breakout season where he is this pitcher that everybody's just able to bank on week after week. I think that Brendan McKay... Brendan McKay, yeah, I was about to say him.

One of my favorite sleepers. I'll give you seven from ADP who all have... shown the potential to vastly outperform where they're being drafted. It's seven guys in a row from the number 18 starting pitcher to the number 24 starting pitcher. Charlie Morton, 18th overall, Zach Granky, Louis Severino, Noah Cindergarde, Tyler Glastonow, U. Darvish, Trevor Bauer. All every single one of those guys could be a top five starting pitcher next year.

We could have seven top five starting pitcher. That group of 40 I keep talking about, I think all of them have top 10 potential. It's just depending on who gets hurt and who doesn't regress. I'm not even really looking in that group because I feel like that group is going to form, they're all going to be pitchers people pursue heavily. The only one who doesn't is Mike Soroka. He's being drafted exactly where he should be. Next email is from Jolan.

Listen to your relief pitcher preview. I wanted to add one thing for saves plus holds leagues. With the new rules in place for facing a minimum of three batters, holes will be much less, much more scarce. No, much less scarce. What? Why would they be less scarce? What would the, okay.

I think fewer pitchers will get holds, but the guys who do get holds would get more. I think that's what he meant. All right, well, instead of trying to interpret what he meant, what do you think the impact of the three batter minimum will be on holds? And I took a look at the top 12 relievers and holds last year. All of them made 55 or more appearances. 10 of them made 66 or more appearances.

So that's 10 out of 12 with 66 or more appearances. And only two of them faced one batter in more than six appearances. Now, I didn't look at the times they faced two batters because maybe they were ending an inning. it's pretty hard to go back and look at who was just a luggy, basically. But there aren't that many of them anymore. So I don't know. I think it'll have minimal impact personally, but what do you guys think? I think this is one of those conversations where my eyes just glaze over because, like,

it just seems like such a tiki-tech thing. Oh, we're not good enough for you, Scott? No, I'm just saying we could. We can sit here and theorize what kind of impact this has. But I don't think it's really going to change the way you approach things. I mean, hold seems like a category where you're kind of just having to chase it throughout the year. Okay, who's getting holds now? This guy, okay, I'll plug him in and hopefully get some holds that way.

I just draft good relievers. Yeah. Just next up, next email. is from Todd from a town in New Jersey. Mauo. Okay. Hey, Rob, Antonio and Steve. The leaders.

Danderas is. The top saves leaders in Marlins history. Oh, Rob Nantan and Tony Alfonsoaka and Steve. Sechak. Come on. Now, I'm in a holds plus saves. I'm assuming Ceshik. I'm in a holds plus saves league.

Are there any closers who might get traded at the deadline? Oh, sure. Who's the closer for a bad team? Keone Keller. Keone Keller is the first one that came to mind for me. Yeah. Joe Jimenez, Ian Kennedy. Alex Colomey.

Oh, they're going to be awesome. Sorry. Oh, my God. The White Sox closed. Who am I thinking about? Alex Colomey is the White Sox. Okay, yeah, there you go. But I think they'll be good.

I think they might be like a 79-win team. Okay. Rice Oleglaces, I don't know if he'll get traded. Jose Leclerc. Yeah, closer's on bad teams, but Keone Kele is like the one that immediately comes to mind. Ken Giles, maybe? Maybe. Yeah, there were some rumors last, the approach of last trade deadline.

Yeah, he got hurt right before the deadline. That's why, that's something we didn't talk about in the relief pitcher preview as Ken Giles was dealing on and off with an elbow strain for a good chunk of the season last year. Next email is from Caleb and Louisville. Hey, Corky, Tobinsey, excuse me, and Hannigan. Those are Reds catchers. Yeah, I did not know that. Forget who Hanigan is.

I think he's the most recent one, too. Well, in honor of Valentine's Day, we love you, Miss Hanigan. I thought it was Chris Catan characters. Twelve team head-to-head categories two catcher league. Ryan Hannigan. What is your To Rwarker Ramano Catcher League

Shut up Two Catcher League strategy I like a top five catcher for number one And for my number two spot I normally wait until the end of the draft And get the catcher with the best batting average And most consistent playing time So they won't hurt me

We didn't talk about that I think Scott What's a good strategy for two catchers I generally My first catcher is the same way I would approach a first catcher in a one catcher league. And then my second catcher is the best of what's left. And like as late as I can get them. I don't really want to invest heavily in a second catcher.

And in fact, a lot of times in two catcher leagues, I don't invest heavily at either catcher. Totally. Yep. Especially if it's an auction. Like, I need those dollars elsewhere. Oh, man. I've noticed that in our auction two catcher league.

You do not need good catchers to win. but you said there were like 14 guys that you kind of felt were like possible top 12s. 15 actually. 15. 15. So, 15. Do you want two of your top 15?

Because you don't have to pay a lot to get Mejia or Molina. I mean, in an ideal world, yes. But I find when I'm making out my budget going into an auction, I may start out with money allocated for that. And then I'll add the numbers up and it comes to like 320. and I start having to whittle things down.

That's just an easy cut to make. It's just whatever, $2 catcher. Maybe I'll get lucky. I'm so bummed. We have some awesome emails that we're not going to be able to read today. We'll read them at a later date. This guy thinks we should change punting a category

to bunting a category, and he makes a really good point. Sure. So I'd like to read that at some point. But anyway... We also didn't talk about two of your really interesting things that I really wanted to talk about. So thanks for that, Adam.

Yeah, Nick Castellanos and ALS pitchers, yeah. Yeah. We had a great show plan today, but I do apologize for the abbreviated version. Instead, you got this crappy one. Yeah, right? We also had somebody asking for the Michael Cade impression, so that didn't happen either. All these things could happen next week, ladies and gentlemen. Have a great weekend. We'll come back with a first-based preview on Monday. Until then, happy Valentine's Day.