Fantasy Baseball Today - Projecting The 2020s All-Decade Team! (04/07 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 7, 2020

Last week we revealed our All-Decade Team for the 2010s but today we're projecting the All-Decade Team for the 2020s! Catchers are a unique position but who reigns supreme for the next decade (12:00)? Is it somebody like J.T. Realmuto who's playing now or a prospect like Adley Rutschman or Joey Bart? ... Next up is first base but should Cody Bellinger be eligible for the position (18:00)? If not, is Pete Alonso the easy answer? ... Second base seems easy except Chris comes up with a loophole (24:00). Do we prefer the safety of Ozzie Albies, the upside of Keston Hiura, or somebody entirely different? ... Shortstop features Fernando Tatis but it's also the home of baseball's best prospect in Wander Franco (32:00) ... Third base is a deep position but is that case when projecting for an entire decade (39:00)? ... Who joins Mike Trout in the outfield (44:00)? ... Projecting starting pitchers is extremely tough but wait for Scott's curveball here (51:45). 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

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. One, one pitch, basketball, ball, and basketball. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now, here's Adam, Scott Heath, and Chris. Another day, another report on the timeline of Major League Baseball.

Welcome to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, April 7th. Frank here, joined by Scott, Chris. And the returning Adam Azer. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Happy to see you here, Adam. How's it going, buddy? Oh, man, it's tough to listen to the podcast when you want to get a word in so badly. Flashback Friday.

I was like, Greg Bird! Greg Bird! I didn't get to say it, so today I'm going to scream Greg Bird. That's what happened to do for a flashback Friday, no, Adam? That happens to me a lot when I listen to the football podcast. There will be times when I'm just like, especially like before when I was driving. before I moved, I would like start yelling at the podcast. Like, you guys are forgetting something.

Yeah, yep, yep. I wanted to get on the Mani Machado discussion, but that's good. That means it's an engaging discussion. That means our listeners probably have a lot to say. So we always read their emails and stuff. So you guys did a great job, and I'm happy to be back. Grandford was the player you refused to give up on? Yeah.

Okay, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, that's fair. Adam, did you know today is National Beer Day? Are you firing up a happy hours with Heath Cummings later on? No, I will not be partaking in that. Any alcohol I have in my house is strictly for sanitization purposes. What about penny al-vodka? I don't have any vodka sauce, I guess.

I don't know if I have any vodka either. I do have some penny, though, so we're halfway there. And this time we are, everybody has to say, live in out of prayer. halfway there, live not a prayer. We're halfway there. Thank you, Frank. Thank you. Living a prayer.

Thank you, Chris. We should do that one day. We should have an acapella where we all go in order of... Heath and I did that. We used to do a DFS podcast. Heath and I used to do a DFS podcast, and we did a couple of bets and whoever lost, I think I had to sing Acapella.

And I believe Heath made me sing that song. That's a really tough song to sing. National Beer Day, Chris. Give us either your favorite beer or the beer that you're enjoying most right now. My favorite beer of all time, it's a two-way tie between Southern Tears Crembley Imperial Stout, which I love. And obviously it's my favorite beer of all time. And Ballast Point's grapefruit Sculpin. I love those two beers very, very much.

Those are my two favorite beers. I can tell that Chris is one of those bougie beer drinkers where he has like these trippy IPAs. I mean, just fire me up a nice. Stella. I'm good to go, Chris. Oh, I don't like Stella. I noticed that Scott was drinking a root beer. Yeah, beer is the roots right now.

I hate that even more than Stella. I'll say cream soda over root beer for the record, by the way. I hate that too. I'll take a you who are all of those options. You who. When is National Yoo-Hoo Day? Scott doesn't like beer, but Scott likes baseball. Scott, we have another report on the potential timeline of baseball.

This one a little bit more surprising. Yeah, yeah, Jeff Passon. Last night dropped the Passon bomb with, frankly, one of the most amazing articles I've ever read in that I was stunned after reading the first paragraph and increasingly stunned with each paragraph. Um, it's, uh, yeah, apparently, apparently the league is looking at starting as early as May playing games at the Arizona spring training sites. And they apparently have the support of federal health officials who think it could potentially be safe to do this. Obviously, it would take a lot of buy-in from a lot of different people.

but apparently the union is on board and the union can obviously exert certain pressures and apparently the league itself is on board. It's a pretty far-fetched idea. Don't get me wrong, but it seems to be taken seriously among those who would have the most say. And I think the biggest takeaways from it

are that what would make it I guess viable without it would be a non-starter is if it gets to a point where testing is readily available enough and there's a quick enough turnaround on getting the results that I guess they can remove infected people as soon as an infection is detected it wouldn't necessarily mean shutting everything down which is what everybody was assuming but immediately testing everybody removing the infected parties and continuing from there But of course, this means quarantining a bunch of people, over 1,000 people for months at a time, and are enough people going to buy into that to make it viable? I mean, there's a lot of ifs. And it's, again, it seems very unlikely. But it's what's being talked about right now. Look, I love baseball as much as the next person.

And I think we all want the baseball season to return as soon as possible so that we can play fantasy. baseball and we can have a distraction from everything that's going on. But yesterday we spoke about a report from over the weekend that had an idea like this kind of centered around July. The very next day we get a report regarding May, it just seems unrealistic. And there are bigger things going on in the country, the world at large, where unless, you know, they do come up with testing that is readily available for everyone again, like Scott mentioned, I just don't see how this is even remotely possible.

Some of the things they threw out there, where do that. that, you know, players are going to be quarantined in hotels. They're going to implement an electronic strike zone, no mound visits. They're talking about seven-enning double-headers. It just seems a little bit pretty much. Also, like, if there's a fly ball to, like, right-center field, and the right-fielder and the center-fielder are going to be within six feet of each other, the play is blown dead, and we redo the fly ball.

Give me a break. There were bullet points at the end that kind of just listed some ideas that were bandied about, and those were some of the wilder ones. I don't think in the unlikely event this scenario plays out that we'd actually see all of those. But I think the biggest thing is just apparently these same federal officials are talking about testing being that widely available to the point it's not going to impact the general public if they're testing that frequently by as early as May. And so that's where the May timetable came from. But we'll see. No, that would be amazing from a societal standpoint.

That's what we need. I think from a baseball perspective, the idea of seven-inning games, seven-in-ding double-headers, if it's only once, twice a week or something like that, maybe. But if we're playing a lot of seven- inning games,

that would be awful. For fantasy, for, I just, I would hate everything about that. Ultimately, like, if it's what needs to be done to make this happen this year, that's fine.

I don't really, I've seen a lot of strong opinions, like, oh, this is a terrible idea. I just, it's not up for me to decide whether it's a terrible idea. Like if the, if the players sign on to it and it's feasible and it doesn't put anyone at risk, or at undue risk at least, okay. Like, I, it's just, I, that's, that's my stance, basically.

Right. I'd rather have, I'd rather have something than nothing, but I think from a fantasy standpoint, I don't want to have to deal with seven inning games. Sure. What that would do to starting pitching, just, it would be weird. and not fun. And then it would make, it would make draft prep for fantasy analysts in 2021,

a nightmare looking back at season with a lot of seven inning games. I just think it would be so weird. The takeaway, right thing. That's the first thing I think about is draft prep for next year. Well, I mean, obviously I've been thinking about public safety and public health,

but if we're just talking about baseball, a lot of what happens this season might just mean almost nothing to us next season. Right. But I think that's kind of going to be the case anyway Because what we're going to be seeing is Players did a month of spring training Then they took off at least two months And then we're going to try to play a regular

Like there's just there's going to be a lot of weird stuff We're going to have a shorter season We're going to have condensed schedule It's just it's going to be a weird season And we're going to have to do a really We're going to have to be really conscious of not Overreacting to the things that we see in 2020 No matter what it looks like

because we're not going to have a normal season. It's going to lead to some weird outcomes. For what it's worth, Major League Baseball has issued a statement since the report from ESPN, basically refuting that they have a timeline in mind. So they didn't really confirm anything regarding May, which has been the date that was thrown around in this report. So they basically refuted it. And look, it's just, it's an ongoing process.

And we'll continue to update everyone here on fantasy baseball today on the timeline of baseball as we get more details, but it's all kind of skeptical, I guess, at this point in terms of when baseball is going to get started sooner rather than later. But again, we have to do it with the proper guidelines and precautions. I want to remind everyone that the fantasy baseball podcast bracket is still taking place fantasy baseball today. Number one seed in the Cody Bellinger region did advance to the next round. I believe we won like 80% to 20%. Look, there's no need to There's no need to tell the people to score. All right.

All right, we won. There's no need to rub it in. We did win, but the voting does open again on Wednesday, April 8th. So starting tomorrow, or whenever you're listening to this, it will be Wednesday, April 8th. So if you can help us out with that, that'll be on the at Baseball Pod's Twitter. So a reminder there. Last week, everyone, we did the All-Decade team for the 2010s. today we're going to be projecting the all-decade team for the 2020s.

And this is just a completely different process, or at least it was for me, because we had so much data to look at from the past decade. And a lot of what we're doing today could be helpful for Keeper Leagues and Dynasty Leagues, but it's more so kind of taking what we have from, I guess, younger-ish players and kind of projecting how that's going to play out over the next decade. So we're going to fill out a head-to-head points roster like we did last week. Catcher, first base, second base, third base, shortstop, three outfielders, a utility bat, five starting pitchers, and two relief pitchers.

And let's get things started off at the catcher position last week, all of us across the board, Buster Posey. Now, what I want to do for each position is I want to look at who we chose for the 2010's all-decade team and kind of used that into our, kind of infused that into our process for projecting this decade's players at each position. So we chose Buster Posey.

If we were doing this back in 2010, he had all but 17 plate appearances in Major League Baseball. So if you want to choose a catcher that doesn't have any experience in Major League Baseball yet or has very limited experience, you can do so.

So Scott, why don't you get us started here at their catcher position who it will be your 2020's catcher for the all-decky team. Well, I am going to point out from the outset here that my team is not all prospects. As a general rule, I preferred some amount of provenness, showing you actually are a high-end player already if you're young, and if I can count on you to be around for most of the next decade, that's generally the way I preferred to go. but not many catchers in playing right now qualify as young, and it's not a position that ages especially well.

J.T. Rinal Muto is already 29. How many good years does he have left? Maybe three. I don't know. I want to project him from many more beyond that. So I went with the top catching prospect of the number one pick in this last year's draft who scouting reports suggest has no flaws whatsoever, offensively, defensively should be up in 2021,

unless there's no 2020, then maybe 2022. But yeah, that's Adley Rushman. That was my choice. Orioles catcher of the future. He'll be the best over the next decade. Yeah. Yeah, should be the... I would think that should be the consensus pick

just because the young catchers in Major League Baseball, guys like Francisco Mejia, Carson Kelly, Danny Janssen. They've been so underwhelming so far as a group that I just don't think there's a strong enough case for any of them, and they're all a little older. You know, Adley Rushman right now is 22 years old. Those guys

are all in the 24, 25 range. And at that point, man, catchers, you hit 30, and anything you get after that is bonus. Yeah, I'm not making a team, I'm just going to critique these guys, but even I was going to go with Adley Rushman. But I guess that means

if you were starting a Dynasty League right now, is this the same question? Would Adelie Rushman be the first one off the board? Or is that not the same question. I don't think it's it's the same question because of something Chris pointed out last week how like you're not thinking

10 years ahead in a dynasty league generally speaking. You're thinking maybe at most five years ahead. And so there's it's hunchier this process than the process of building a dynasty league team. It's just kind of

going with your with with gut feel because you're projecting so far out that it's really just a guess. And for the answer to this particular question, my answer probably would be Rushman if it was building a Dynasty League team, but that won't be true for the players I chose at every position. So Scott mentioned J.T. Rio Muto. I'll throw the names, just a few of the names I was considering in there. Gary Sanchez, 27 years old, probably has four, maybe five good years left,

could move away from the catcher position as well. Will Smith is a strong pick, I think, at 25. years old. He hit 15 home runs with a 907 OPS in 2019. And then there's Joey Bart, who is also a prospect. He's 23 years old. He has an 875 OPS over his first minor league seasons. Number two pick in 2018, Joey Bart. Rushman was number one last year. Bart was two in 2018. Yeah. And I actually went with Adley Rushman also. So he was the first overall pick in 2019. You just mentioned that. Scott, 22 years old. The ETA. looking at 2021, hopefully a 60 hit tool, a 60 power tool. The best catching prospect, many regard him since, you know, Joe Mower might even be better

than Joe Mower. So could hit for average, could hit for power. That's what's expected out of Adley Rushman. So we're pretty consistent across the board here so far. Of course, he might be the best since Matt Wheaters. Yeah. I mean, Matt Writers had, I don't remember that one so far. Matt Writers fan, huh?

Matt Wheaters had, like, if Adley Rushman ever has a season in the minor, as good as the one Matt Wheaters did in what 2011 was that the year or maybe a little earlier. It's like one of the best minor league seasons of all time. And yeah. That's just an indication of how difficult it is to... Catchers really hard.

Yeah, especially catchers, but really top prospects in general. Like, it doesn't always go how you think it's going to go. I mean, predicting 10 years out, predicting a decade of, you know, it's obviously a very difficult task. So that's why I didn't do it. I just like, all the other guys do it.

predicting a decade of anything is tough predicting a decade of baseball is impossible i mean we we try to predict a year of baseball at a time and even that is tough enough so trying to predict a decade is even tougher first base for the 2008 chris that was the year for weeder sorry frank i keep interrupting you go ahead it's all good it's all good for the 2010's all decade team three of us chose uh Miguel Cabrera who was well established back in 2010 uh chris chose paul gulchmidt who didn't debut until 2011. So that gives you an idea of, you know, a prospect potentially coming in and taking over this decade. And before we jump in, I wanted to ask you guys, should Cody Bellinger be allowed in first base? Because I thought he should be more of an outfielder. Last year, 28 starts at

first base, 123 in the outfield. And it seems like that's the position that he's trending more towards. So I didn't include Cody Bellinger in first base. I don't know about you guys. We're trying to project the next 10 years. I think it's more likely that Cody Ballender spends more of the next decade at first base than in the outfield. So I went with Cody Bellinger at first base, also because I wanted to cheat and it made filling out the outfield easier. That was the big good thing. Because there are two obvious young guys and one obvious older guy at outfield.

I wanted all three of them in, Freddie or Cody Bellinger first base. And I also just think I like him more than anyone who currently plays first base. I think if the If the Dodgers traded Jock Peterson, he might play more first base. So I just, I think you can project a 24 year old to move to first base eventually.

I don't agree with the idea that he's going to play more first base than outfield over the next day. I think a decade, I think he will play more outfields because, I mean, he's capable in center field. He's amazing in right field. And those are tougher positions to fill them first base. But I took, my justification was that as much as the Dodgers like to move players around,

he will get enough time at first base to retain eligibility there. If not always heading into the year, he'll pick it up soon enough in the year. Yeah, I went with Cody Bellinger too because, like, if you put him at first base, he's a distant number one at first base. And that's even acknowledging the defending rookie of the year in L last year, led the majors in home runs, Pete Alonzo. Isn't Pete Alonzo older than Cody Ballinger? Seven months older than Cody Bellinger.

Of course, Cody Belanger appears to be the more rounded player. He has more of a track record already. Bellinger, if you include him at first base, I think he's the easy choice here. I didn't take the easy way out. I'll tell you where I have Cody Ballinger later on, but I went with Pete Alonzo. He is a little bit older than Cody Bellinger.

And if I was including Cody Bellinger at first base, I would undoubtedly have him here at the position. But I think he's probably going to play more outfield. Maybe he retained some of that first base eligibility throughout the next decade. But Pete Alonzo, someone I do expect to remain at first base, 25 years old, could have just had a career year for being honest. 53 home runs, 120 RBI, 3.6 fantasy points per game last season. A 290 hitter in the minors gives me some hope that the batting average could potentially get better for Alonzo. Maybe he sacrifices some of the power for batting average.

but if he winds up becoming a 270 hitter with 40 home runs, I still think that's a really, really good first baseman for fantasy. Some other names that I just kind of thought of, Freddie Freeman. He's already 30 years old. Yeah, too old. Three or four really good years left. Andrew Vaughn, who is regarded as the top first base prospect. He's 22 years old, looking at a 2021 ETA.

And then kind of thought about Josh Bell Matt Olson, but I don't think realistically you can put either one of those guys over Pete Alonzo, at least that was my thinking. Adam, do you think these guys took the easy way out with Bellinger? A little, but here's the thing like comparing Bellinger and Alonzo. If you want to compare their age 24 seasons, then Bellinger was obviously a lot better. But if you want to just compare their rookie seasons, Bellinger hit 267 with 39 home runs, and he had 64 walks to 146 strikeouts.

So there's no reason why Pete Alonzo can't become a better hitter, batting average and prove his plate discipline like all other elite hitters have done they didn't start out they didn't come into the majors of one walk to one strikeout so i not that i disagree with your call but i don't think it's that far i don't think he's super far ahead of peter lonso considering alonzo had a better rookie year than belliger did yeah yeah you're you're asking like if we if we did this question two years ago belliger might be in about the same place that alonzo is now but you're Just because Bellinger improved to that extent doesn't mean Alonzo is, especially since Alonzo is two years behind in terms of age, you know?

Well, but he had a, you know, he had 50 three home runs this year. No, I understand. No, look, I would have taken Bellinger as well. I'm just, I don't think it's a, I think there's a really good case for Alonzo because his rookie year was better than Belonzo. But I do think it's a big enough gap. when you consider the age and the way they've progressed already. Adam,

and it is a really good point because if two years ago, when Cody Bellinger, say after his rookie season ended, he hit 267. If I asked you what the chances were that he would hit over 300, two years from now, you would have...

I would have said pretty low. What? Right. How would I said pretty low? Oh, pretty low. Oh, I think he said pretty well. Well, I think, think like yes Pete Alonzo could improve but what Cody Bellinger just did uh was one a product of

age he has more time on his side but also it's just it's pretty unreal like that that's like a 95th percentile outcome for a player maybe higher like turning from a pretty good hitter with two years under your bell into one of the three or four best hitters in baseball is it's really hard to do well quite frankly it gives me you gives me pause on Bellinger. Sure. A little bit because he hit 431 in his first 31 games, and then he hit 274 in his last 125 games.

So I'm not really convinced that he's not going to hit 270, and I know he's going to hit for power. I know he's going to be awesome, but I would not be surprised if we had a different answer to this question a year from now, because I'm just not convinced that Bellinger's going to have a lot better batting average than Pete Alonzo. I'd be pretty surprised if we had a different answer that was Pete Alonzo. All right.

Well, you hate Pete Alonzo. I mean, you've been pretty clear about that from... The thing is, at first base, given how likely any number of players are to move there, it could be anybody. It could be Alec Baum, you know. But how sad is it that the position, there are only two players,

two current players that you could even consider for this? And it's Belcher-Alanzo. The position got old. There are more that you can consider than that. Not really. But it's just, yeah, it's, they're too far behind. Josh Bell, Matt Olson, I don't think people who have them in a dynasty league are upset about their first base situation, you know? No, but I'm just, you know, it's not, it's not like a lot of youth, you know, it's, I think I've made my point.

It's a gauge out a little bit. All right, Frank. Back to Frank. Let's move back to Frank. Let's move back. Let's move on to second base here. Three of us chose Jose Altuve for the 2010's all decade team. He hadn't played a single game in Major League Baseball by 2010.

And I chose Robinson Canoe, who was in his prime at the time. Chris, why don't you get started here? Because I know that you were a big Kestan Heurah fan. I mean, for me, it really came down to just two players, but I'll let you kind of start us off here. I'm a weasel. I cheated. a lot. You took a short stop here? I did. I took a 19 year old shortstop who there are some concerns

about whether he has the arm strength to stick a shortstop long term. I went with Wander Franco, the number one prospect in baseball. I originally went with Ozzy Albies. Okay. I like that more. But I'm doing these like prospect profiles for CBS Sports.com and I did the first two today. Wander and Luis Robert. And as I was doing my Wanderfranco research, I saw a couple of scouting reports that said that he may not have the arm to stick a shortstop.

And using Scott's logic, the rays are the type of team who are going to move guys around a lot. I would bet he has second base eligibility. I will take the over on five years of second base eligibility in the next decade for Wander Franco, which makes him second base eligible,

which means he is a second base eligibility, good choice for the all-decade team for 2010 or 2020 through 29, mostly because I wanted to get a different shortstop in the lineup as well. See, I feel like, first of all, it's rare you find a scouting report for a shortstop where everybody's in agreement he can stay at shortstop. So I actually don't worry about Franco's ability to stay at shortstop. And maybe you don't either. Maybe you were just being a weasel.

Oh, I'm being intellectually dishonest. I feel like I needed Franco more at short stuff than I do. with second base where you have three players all 23 who are looking like they're going to be high end options for years to come. Now, Labor Torres may not may not have

much second base in his immediate future. So I was less inclined to consider him, but the other two are Ozzy Albies who you mentioned and Kestin Hira of the Brewers. Scott, there's a 21-year-old shortstop who's better than all three of them.

Well, we'll see. When we get to shortstop. We'll talk about that when we get to shortstop. But Kest and Hira, the main thing we worry about him, and I understand it's only half a season in that in itself presents some risk, but again, we're playing hunches a little more here.

And the biggest thing statistically we worry about heroes, he struck out nearly a third of the time during his stint in the majors last year. Well, during his time in the minors, strikeouts weren't an issue at all. He was striking out like a fifth of the time. I don't think that's going to be a long-term part of his profile, and when you consider how

well, he impacts the ball. The fact he hit 38 home runs and stole 16 bases between AAA and the majors last year. Kest and Hira, I'm shooting for the stars with Kestan Hira as a potential first round type when I don't think Azi Albies has that kind of upside. Sure. And that's fair. And I was going to ask about the safety, the floor versus upside discussion here. And I think it's very apparent with Ozzy Albies versus Kesson Hira.

And I think you made a good point. I mean, Ozzy Albies has been top five in both Roto and points. In each of his first two seasons, he's still just 23 years old, incredibly inconsistent so far. He's durable. And he did improve a lot from his rookie season to his first full season to his second full season. From 2018 to 2019, the batting average improved over 30 points. The OPS went from 757 to 852.

I mean, I think there's still more stolen base upside. I think we can get to 20 stolen bases for Ozzie, maybe even more than that. So it's a discussion, especially in Dynasty, of do you want the safety, the floor of an Albies who might give you more steals versus the upside of a Kess in Heura, where there might be more downside because of the strikeouts. But me personally, I would go with Ozzy Albies, but I don't think that there's necessarily a wrong answer. This is, well, there is a wrong answer at Shortstop. I mean, there's only one. Shortstop is so easy. Yeah, that was the thing. Shortstop was really hard until I moved Wanderfranco.

to second base. And just to give like an assessment of Wander Franco in case you're not familiar with him. He is Scott White's top prospect. He's for fantasy. He's the top prospect in general in baseball, I think pretty much across the board. He's a 19-year-old who struck out 7% of the time across low A or class A and high A last year, walked 11% of the time, hit like 328. He just, he had an incredible season.

what I wrote about him today was basically his floor, and this sounds ridiculous to say, but his floor might be Ozzy Albans. I mean, that is ridiculous to say. And his ceiling might be Jose Al-Tube. But it's, you know, it is ridiculous to say his floor is Ozzy Albies, who was a really, really good all-around player. I know, but like.

No, it is ridiculous to say. I mean, it's just Byron Buxton. Bam. But Byron Buxton did not have, like, O's, or Wanderfranco almost walked twice as a, often as he struck out as an 18-year-old last year. Do you know who was the best hitter in both leagues that he played in as an 18-year-old? Do you know who was the number one prospect just a few years ago?

It was Glaber Torres, and he had 38 home runs last year. I mean, so are you going to, if you're choosing between Wander Franco and Glaber Torres, are you going to take the guy who's in the majors now just had a great year? Or a guy who's never, never set foot in the majors. Well, Adam, I did make that choice. I know, but I think that take, take, take, the bird in the hand. Glaber Torres is 23.

It's not like he's, I mean, Kesson, here is going to be 25. I know. Are we talking about second base still here? Because you guys are both talking about players who are projected to play shortstop. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the problem. Into like middle infield now.

Yeah, I mean, I guess Torres. All right, fine. I'll eliminate Torres because he is a shortstop. I do think that if there's a shortstop that has a good chance of moving back to second base, it's Torres. I don't think his defense is very good. Like, what was interesting about this is,

just the process I did kind of eliminated Torres from consideration because I wasn't sure where to project him long term. I wasn't sure what we'd be thinking of him as in 2020, whether a short stop or a second basement

or who knows, maybe something else. I think you should make an exception because you don't want to leave out you don't want to leave out somebody that's going to have in your mind that kind of a fantasy impact just because we don't know

where his position's going to be. I just think he's so safe. And I did something similar to this. I polled people on Twitter and Facebook about who their top player would be, who their top choice would be at each position in a Dynasty League. I did

that over the weekend. There's an article about it on CBSports.com now. And of course, in addition to showing the poll results, I showed who I would pick at each position. And in that exercise, slightly different because we're talking more about a Dynasty League and the ability to

maneuver your player in between positions as needed. I chose Torres for second base. and just said, you know, I'll trust I'll have a spot to play him, no matter where he winds up. But for this exercise, I wanted to be more confident. I could play the player at the position for a full decade. So that's why I'm going with Hero. But that also shows you how tight of a race it is between the three players we're considering here, leaving out Franco. By the way, I'm sorry, I just want to-

I just want to correct something. I said Hero was 25. That's Bigeo was actually 25. Here's 23, just like Torres. Yeah. If anyone had to watch Kestanhira's swings side by side with Mike Trout, that's something that you should do today because it is uncanny how similar their swings are. But we've already talked a lot about shortstop.

Let's get into shortstop. And for me, I think that this is a really loaded position. Wait, who's your second baseman? My second baseman was Ozzy Albies. Oh, yeah, yeah, my bad. I wasn't listening. I was listening. I just forgot.

I had Albies, I believe Scott had Kessingira and Chris had Wanderfranc. via the loophole. Right. At shortstop, this is a little bit tougher because you have to weigh, for the first half of the decade, how good players like Francisco Lindor, Trey Turner, and Trevor Story are still going to be. The three of us chose, meaning me, Chris and Adam,

all chose Elvis Andrews for our 2010 shortstop. The 2021 is going to be better than Elvis Andrews. It's going to be a little bit better than Elisandrus, I would say. We hope. For me, I thought it was, if I thought it was hands down, Fernando Tatis, who it wasn't one years old, and he just hit 317 with 22 home runs and 16 stolen bases in just 84 games. And, I mean, regarded as one of the top prospects entering last season and basically lived up

to that expectation, albeit in only 84 games, but to give us that glimpse an Erd-B a borderline first round pick, I gave him the edge over Wander Franco. I realize Franco's ceiling is potentially higher than Fernando Tatisans. I don't know if I'm not even I don't know if it's higher. Yeah, it's just likelihood of reaching this ceiling, which I know sounds crazy for talking about a teenager who didn't did he even get to double A last year wonder Franco? Nope, not yet. It seems crazy to say that's a safer profile than a guy who already has most of a season in the majors. But all the downsides we've talked about for Tatis, it doesn't change what his ceiling is.

I mean, his ceiling is a top five overall player, as I suspect Franco's is. But the plate discipline is a major concern. The fact he's bigger, like I'm not even confident he's going to spend most of the decade at shortstop. He's six foot three. I could see him moving. So I kind of, I don't think Tatis is a wrong answer I was just thinking about the process we went through for the last decade where you guys ended up going with Elvis Andrews

just because he was the guy who stuck around for a decade I went with Troy Toulowiczki even though we were talking about basically four good seasons and anyone else we might have considered for the last decade like Lindor or I mean story came up in that conversation some of the same guys we're considering now they only had like three or four good years

the last decade too So this is another position that doesn't age well. It's why I didn't really give the same consideration to somebody like Lindor who's only 26 and story. He's in his late 20s too. I don't think those guys, if they're good much beyond age 30, it's probably because they've changed positions. So I wanted somebody who I thought could give me most of the decade. And really it comes down to Franco or Tatis if you're doing that. And I just like Franco's profile more.

Again, kind of a hunchy exercise here. It probably realistically isn't as safe as Tatis, but the profile itself for Tatis is risky. And I'd rather not play with that when the alternative is Franco, who even by number one overall prospect standards seems especially high end. When it comes to Wonder Franco,

something that Adam brought up was comparing him to Byron Bucson. I don't think that just kind of, of comparing top prospects. I don't know that that's fair because Buxon was just a completely different player. I mean, he's just tools for days. He's incredibly fast, but there was always kind of concern over the hole in the bat and that, you know, he strikes out a lot. And you don't really have those concerns with Wander Franco. So just in terms of kind of reiterating that, I just think that there's a lot more safety involving Franco versus Tatis. Chris, did you take, did you take Tatis over, did you take

Tatis over, did you take Tatis as Shores that? Yes, I have both Tatis. and Wander Franco, I'm very good at this exercise. I mean, I can just move players around to random positions and I can make my favorite team as well, Chris. You can't move guys up the defensive spectrum. That's the rule. You can only move them down. Oh, okay. That's how it works in like sim games. Exactly. Right? I am comfortable playing a shortstop anywhere in a sim game, basically.

Mm-hmm. For those who are involved in sim games, I'm sure they'll understand. I'm doing a draft of fictional football players tonight. So you made me think of that, just talking about some games and stuff. I was trying to think of video game football players. Much, much harder exercise than baseball, by the way. Well, yeah, because, like, you can't pick Bo Jackson. No, but you can pick Bones Jackson from Mutant League football, who's an ace up my sleeve.

My favorite name from Mutant League football is Scary Ice. I never actually played Mood League football watching it on YouTube last night as I was doing research for this so check out the Fantasy Football Today podcast as we do our fictional football player draft and one thing I learned is that baseball movies are like a hundred times better than football movies.

Yeah, I think that's fair. Do you have a lot of things from the longest yard in there, Adam? I mean, there's only like three or four movies that everybody's going to go to the well on, basically. The longest yard, any given Sunday only one guy, I think, of many given Sunday. Friday night lights, the TV show will be popular, not the movie because it's real life,

because it's based on true story. I mean, I have the fourth and the fifth pick, so I'm just going to tell you guys, don't say anything because we're drafting in a few hours. I am hoping to take, you need a special teams player, and you need at least one or two defensive players. So I'm hoping to take Forrest Gump and Becky the Icebox, O'Shea, with my first two picks.

Man. Don't sleep. on Vince Howard. Don't tell me anything. Don't tell me anything. Daddy Spell Shea, I'm tweeting this out. You just call our icebox. How about Bobby Boucher, huh?

I anticipate he'll be picked before the fourth pick. What position did he play? He's a defensive player. Yeah, he was a middle linebacker. Middle linebacker? Okay. He was like a pass rushing middle linebacker as one is. Yeah.

Pass rushing middle line, not an edge rusher, middle linebacker. Mama said. All right, that's way too much football. ball talk here on fantasy baseball today. Third base, three of us chose Noon Aronado for our 2010 team. Chris chose Adrian Beltrae. Aronado did not debut until 2013.

Beltrae was basically in his prime in 2010. And I think, I mean, this is a loaded position as well because you have guys that are still young entering their prime. You have, I think, Alex Bregman, who is basically in his prime. Aronado, who is probably going to leave his prime pretty quickly. and it could potentially be traded away from Colorado.

And then you also have Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who it just kind of seems like he's being disrespected a little bit in dynasty right now. So, Scott, I mean, where did you go at third base? Because I know that you are the Alex Breggman-truther here. I am the Alex Breggman-truther, and I went with Alex Breggman. I think you could go with Guerrero. I think you could go with Raphael Devers. They would probably be my second and third choices.

but Breggman's not old, certainly, 26, and he has a profile that I think is going to age especially well, back-to-back seasons with more walks than strikeouts, great plate discipline, good contact skills. I see him being a high-end player into his mid-30s. It's proven to be MVP caliber and back-to-back years. I think the other two are chasing him right now. And if we're just talking about the next 10 years, I'm not sure. I'm not sure Alex Breggman is going to fade enough, even, assuming those others catch up to him that, uh, that after 10 years, those two will pass.

Chris, you have Alex Bergman as well? I, I don't know if you could hear me typing, but I just changed it. I'm doing a spreadsheet where I'm keeping track of this all because I'm going to write up a piece. And I just moved to Alex Breggman because, you know, I hadn't considered him enough before. I went with Vladimir Guerrero. But in, in that instance, I think Scott makes a really good point. you look at how Adrian Belchre aged and a big part of his value and a big part of why he aged well was he never really struck out much. And so you know, you typically expect a player's strikeout rate to go up

as they get older. And Alex Breckman just has a ton of room to go before that even becomes something remotely resembling a concern. So I just that if he gives me seven good years in this decade, I think they're going to be first or second caliber, first or second round caliber. Vladimir Guerrero still has a couple, might have a couple of years before he gets to that point. I think that's fair. I went with Rafael Devers here, and he's three years younger than Alex Bregman. He was the number one third baseman in Roto last season. He was a top eight hitter in points leagues.

He made a ton of improvements, lowered the strikeout rate. I mean, that's, I hear what you're saying, Chris, regarding that skill aging very well for someone like Alex Breggman, but I don't know that we've seen the best from Raphael Devers yet. I know he's coming off a massive, massive season, and it's really hard to say that he'll be better than what he did last year, but I don't think that it's inconceivable if he continues to improve upon the strikeout rate and considering the bat speed that he has. And the fact that he's just 23 years old, I think you're kind of hoping Vladimir Guerrero Jr. gets to where Devers is at now and then gets even better than that, which is possible.

But I think Rafael Devers is already there and is a borderline top two round player at just 23 years old. So we really need to see Vladimir Guerrero take that step to do what Rafael Devers has already done. And I still think Devers can get even better, which might be better than Alex Breggman's prime season, if that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair. Devers was the other guy considered it. It was a three-man race for me.

I think Moncada is a sleeper. I just want to say his name because I can see him being the best, but I don't think you could actually vote for him. There's just not enough yet. I would go with Bregman. I tend to favor right-handed hitters because Devers had a 743 OPS against lefties. In 2018, he slugged 347 against lefties. So he was great against them in 2017.

It was two years in a row where he's been underwhelming against lefties. But, you know, that doesn't mean you can't be really good. but I do think that righte's are safer hitters in most cases. So that's why I would go with Bragman, even though I think he's three years older than Devers. Between those two, Moncada and Vlad, it's a pretty loaded position. And Jose Ramirez could have five. He's only 27.

Yeah. You know, he could be a factor here too. He might spend most of the next decade at second base, quite honestly, considering the Indians their best prospect, I think. One of their top prospects is the third baseman, Nolan Jones. Yeah. Yeah, and he did play second base before Jose Ramirez. So it's possible that he moves back there.

I did have an honorable mention written down for Yuala Mancata, so I'm happy you brought that up, Adam. But we've got to get into outfield and pitching. And I think Mike Trout's probably the only player who's going to make it onto both of our all-decade teams, our 2010s, all-decade team in our 2020s, all-decade team. I wound up going with Ronald Acuna, who is 22 years old. And I also included Juan Soto, who is 21 years old.

So you might be freaking out. Well, where is Cody Bellinger? Cody Bellinger is my utility hitter. So I did include Cody Bellinger in this exercise. But just in a vacuum and even in a Dynasty League, I think I would rather have Juan Soto over Cody Bellinger right now. Just because he's younger and what he's done thus far, a 9-37 OPS is eighth among all hitters over the last two seasons.

That was his age 19 and 20 season. I mean, that is just absolutely ridiculous. So I have Trout Ronald Lucuna and Juan Soto as my three outfielders with Cody Bellinger in my utility. It was tough to leave Christian Yellich off this list, but I think at 28 years old, it's tough to kind of have him over someone like Ronald LeCunia and Juan Soto. He's the same age as Mike Trout, though. He is, but I think Mike Trout is better than Christian Yelich. Mike Trout is probably better than Christian Yelich, but you could argue Yelich has been better two straight years. It's tough

And it's subjective and You know if you were making a team You could have had Christian Yelich It just It feels dumb to take Christian Yelich For this exercise over Mike Trout Is that it's not like the most Nguenced position that I could possibly take

But it's just like I'm not leaving Mike Trout off for Christian But it doesn't It might be wrong It doesn't know It doesn't feel dumb to take Yelich Over Bellinger And it doesn't feel dumb to take Bellinger over Yelich

For your difference here Yeah. But, like, if we're... Trout's 28, Yelich is 28. Yelich has been just as good, if not better. Trout's been hurt three straight years. Yelich is obviously also coming off a really tough injury. I would not have left Trout off the list.

But I may have left Bellinger off the list for Yelich. You guys are, well, fortunately, those of us who put Bellinger at first base don't have to consider him. But even if... But even if we're leaving Bellinger out of the outfield discussion, I'm thankful. I'm thankful for the utility spot because it allowed me to fit four outfielders in there. And yet, even with that, I still had to leave Yelich out

because one name you guys haven't mentioned is Moogie Betts whose track record is not quite as good as trouts, but it's as stable as trouts. I mean, it kind of, it's, maybe it's not as good as trouts. I think it's as good or better than Christian Yelich's. Like, Mooky Betts, 2018 is one of the best fantasy seasons of the last 25 years. Was it better than what Yewitch just did?

I believe so. I wouldn't think so. They're pretty close. They're pretty close. I can't. Yeah, I don't think so. Look, it's, it's super painful to leave Yelich out. Like, I really wish I could move Mookie Betz to second base or something like that.

But Mookie Betz is a year younger than Yelich approximately. Yeah. And Trout. I mean, Trout and Yelich basically the same. age Betts is a year younger and that year was part of enough to make the difference for me and then so he beats out Trout he beats out Yelich because of that

Betts does and then Trout beats out Yelich just because the track record is of him being that caliber of players longer so Yelich is on the outside looking in here because obviously you can't leave out of Kunya and Soto what they've already done prior to age 22 do you guys think that

Eloy Jimenez or Louis Robert or somebody could I don't have or somebody could be a hundred percent could yeah how how realistic i couldn't justify it yeah yeah for for robert i think you know most people's you know high-end outcome for him is turning into ronald de cunia right like that's the hope that louise robert can turn into ronald cunia so how can you justify you know having robert over someone who they're expecting to become i wouldn't put him over

a cunia though but i would maybe put him over bets or yell like if you were doing like a five out If you were doing a five outfielder league and everybody had Trout, Acuna, and Soto, and everybody had Bellinger at first base. Pick two more outfielders for, is it Betts and Yellich? It is for me because I think they could have six years of doing what they've done still, something five or six, you know? Sorry, I worry Mookie Betts isn't going to age quite as well as Christian Yalch and Mike Trout. just because I don't think

like I think at some point all three of them are going to stop running it'll probably be you know Betts and Yalach have further to go although bets didn't run very much last year either but once the speed is gone I just think Trout and Yalch have more

bat. Although Betts has the best contact skills of the three yes the ballpark I mean I guess I just if they if he had been locked up to the Red Sox like Yelich is locked up to the brewers. I'd probably go with Betts,

but I would take Yelich over Betz. Just because I know how much that ballpark has meant to Christian Yelich, and they just signed it to a long-term deal. We have no idea where Betz is going to go next year. He's going to go to the Giants. Frank, who were your three outfielder's, by the way? I had Trout Ocunia Soto,

and then Bellinger was my utility bat. Is it crazy that none of us have mentioned Yoron Alvarez? I'm waffling still. up to the last minute on my utility spot. I don't know what to do there. I have Jordan Alvarez currently in there. But man. You can actually do what you want.

Yeah. But I already did. Your second base position, your utility spot, which is kind of what you did. Yeah, you know what? I'm going to change it to Christian Yalach. Christian Yalich is my utility. Alvarez is so young and was so good right away

that it seems wrong to leave him off but since it already seems wrong to leave both of Betts and Yellich off I'm okay with it I feel like it's another aging bias thing I have where players who are too

unathletic to play anywhere really don't age well and the knee problems and the need problems that's well no this is a concept that Bill James introduced in the baseball whatever, I can't remember what it's called, in 2000.

And it was the idea of like an old player skill set. And he pointed out that players who like walk a lot, strike out a lot, hit for power and don't play good defense tend to age a lot worse than players with better athletic profiles and who play more athletic. And so that is a concern. Oh, geez. That's that we needed a book for that. The more athletic guy is going to age slower than the last.

Bill James was in his prime. There was a lot of stuff. I actually think that is something that a lot of people think is that like a guy who derives a lot of his value from speed. I feel that. They won't age as well. All right. I think it is.

I apologize to William James. That is a good point. Well, we don't need to apologize to him. Okay. Now, that makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah. All right, we're going to pick things back up here with pitching and moving into starting pitchers and relief pitchers.

This is a really tough exercise to do. Yeah, I hear this. the next decade. And apologies in advance because we're not going to be able to get to emails today. But I promise you, I promise, the next three days. Oh, podcast. I will try my best to get. Promising to try your best.

That's a good head. Promise they try my best. Yes. That's what I use with my wife a lot. I promise. I was trying the same thing to remember. Oh, I left the stove on this afternoon. and so I don't think you guys can do any worse than that.

I could have burned the house down. I mean, that's implying that I haven't done that several times. It's horrifying. At starting pitcher for the 2010 team, we chose Justin Verlander, Clayton Kirschaw, Max Scherzer, Zach Granky, Chris Sale. With the exception of Chris Sale, all of those pitchers were kind of already a thing

or were becoming a thing. They were established in 2010. So, Frank, can I just, can I just sort in this? Like, we're just taking the same five

for, for 2020, 20, 20, right? Like, just Berlandersherserser. Yeah,

exactly. You're going to argue for Felix Hernandez again for the 2020s? Not this time, no. It wouldn't be a worse argument than it was for the 2010s.

But, Adam, you know, what I'll say about your argument for Felix Hernandez is the reason why I left Garrett Cole off my list,

because your argument for Felix Hernandez was for the first half of the decade he was one of the best pitchers in fantasy, and we didn't give enough credence to that, and I think that Garrett Cole's probably going to be really good for the next three years, maybe the next three to five years,

and if he's an outlier like Justin Verlander or Scherzer and pitches well into his 30s, then he will make this team, the 2020s all-decade team. But I actually left Garrett Cole off of my team for the reason that you presented for Felix Hernandez, and we all just didn't agree with you. So I got Garrett Cole off of my team, actually. But you're welcome then.

I have this was, I have, I have to kick out one person and I keep going back and forth on who that is. I'll do as well. Now I have Garrett Cole in my rotation. Number one is Walker Bueller. Yeah, right.

Yep. Are we pretty much on board with that? Okay. Although he's older than I think you might. He's 25 years old. That is older than I thought. Yeah. Like I assumed he was 23.

on this team. Yes. I am not expecting, especially the way pitching is handled now. I'm not expecting this whole team to be great for, this whole pitching staff to be great for the full decade. So Walker Bueller's the easiest call, I think. I have not really hedged on having McKinsey Gore in there.

He seems like barring away the top pitching prospect and got a lot of that buzz from the day he was drafted out of high school. He just seems like that special of a talent. So I have McKinsey Gore in there. Jack Flaherty. Yep. I already mentioned Garrett Cole. And right now, right now I have Shane Bieber out.

And I have Mike Soroka in. Oh my gosh. Chris Paddock. Chris Paddock. Holy cow. Chris Paddock needs to be on this list, Scott White. Uh, I worry about Paddock's durability. But Soroka, I think, is the kind of pitcher who'll

just like I think of him as being the next the decades next Zach Granky he is he's so young he has um he has a strikeout shortage compared to the other pitchers on this list but and yet he has a really stable profile and i just i think he's just going to be automatic for the next several years maybe not earning a lot of si young buzz along the way but maybe earning some and uh should just be a really good pitcher for a long time so that's why i have him on here. I think there's less bust potential with him than there is for a lot of the pitchers you could choose.

Scott, I think it's between him, Flaherty, Cole, and Shane Bieber. I have to leave one of them out and I'm not sure which. I think Bueller and Gore locks for me. You can leave out the 20 year old who hasn't pitched above AA and has only thrown 109 innings as his career high.

You could leave that guy off. I could, but I don't want to. I'm playing hunches here and I think Gore is going to be spectacular. I think he's I think that Scott, we've been friends for like 10, 11 years now. I hope we can still be friends in 2030. I hope we're still doing this podcast together in 2030. That's going to be one of the worst calls you've ever made on this pocket, Mike Soroka being on.

Well, you know what? I've got a worse one. Okay. I'm in agreement with Scott on three of them. Well, two of them, I guess, because he left Shane Bieber off. I've got Walker, Bueller, Jack Flaherty, and Shane Bieber. I really didn't want to go with Shane Bieber. I don't really like Shane Bieber all that much, but it's hard to argue with the combination of age

and the fact that he was, what, third in the league innings pitch last season is already a really good pitcher. The problem I had with this exercise was you can't project a Justin Verlander or a Max Scherter, someone to just be good all the way through to their mid to late 30. It's just you can't do that. But what you don't have right now are 25 and under pitchers who have thrown even 600 innings in their career. It's just like those guys just don't really exist right now. And so you're forced to pick, I mean, Bueller, Flaherty, and Bieber,

Bueller's got the best track record of the three and he basically has one and two third seasons under his belt. So it's really hard to do this exercise. So I want those three guys as young in their prime pitchers who I believe will be good for at least the next five years. Then things kind of go off the rails. I criticize Scott's McKenzie Bore pick and I base. basically picked the left-handed version of McKenzie Gore and Hazer's Lazzardo.

Gors' career high. Oh, then the left-handed version of a left-hander. Hazer's Lazzar, I just, I love his stuff. I love that he's reached the majors. I love that he's performed in the high minors already. He's a year older than McKenzie Gore. But I just, I feel very confident that he's going to be very good. And his career high in innings is five higher than McKenzie Gore.

So clearly you have to go with that choice. after criticizing McGenzie Gore. And then this one's where I just, I might be suffering from oxygen deprivation. I went with a guy who just had Tommy John surgery. Severino.

Luis Severino is 26 years old. He'll be back in 2021. He'll be a 27-year-old with two legitimate ace seasons under his belt. We know he can do the workload. We know he can pitch at that level. It's just really like the other option I thought of was Aaron Nola. And Aaron Nola might be a guy. I really waffled until the last

minute on that one, because I could see Aaron Nola being kind of this decade, Zach Rangy, where he's a control artist, has good enough stuff, but really gets by on command and control. He's proven he can handle the workload. He's proven he's not an injury risk at this point. And he's proven he can pitch at a really high level. So I really, really struggled between those two. And I would imagine neither of you even considered either one of them. I gave half a thought to Severino, but... I didn't think of so. I did.

You really think he's that much better of a pick than Mike Soroka? Yes. Did what he did last year as a 21-year-old? Did he do anything that was better than what Severino's done? I mean, and you know, strikeouts are king, and I just see Soroka being Marcus Stroman. Right, but he's five years younger than Severino, and he's not coming off Tommy John surgery. perspective, everybody's going to get Tommy John surgery,

so might as well just get it out of the way. Now, from my perspective, I'm only thinking about a pitcher who's going to give me five good years. So, you know, why not Tyler Glass now? Why not Luis Castillo? I think they're better picks than Mike Soroka, too. But I cannot believe you guys don't have Chris Paddock. Chris Paddock probably would have been

the third guy on my list behind Bueller and Flaherty. So Paddock was in the discussion for me, and I have four of the same five that Chris does. I have Buehler, Beber, Jack Flaherty, and I also included Jesus Luzardo, just in terms of projection, if you think he can become like the next Chris Sale, just in terms of being that left-handed strikeout specialist. You were going to throw those really quick. Could you repeat him for me?

Walker, Schaeen Beaver, Jack Flaherty, and Jesus Lazzardo. So I have four of the five that Chris has. And the fifth one, and I'm kind of really just buying into what I saw last year, I think we're forgetting about his age and his prospect status. is Lucas Gialito. He's 25 years old. I mean, it might be a little bit premature, but he was regarded as the top pitching prospect in baseball.

And I buy into a lot of what we saw in 2019, improved mechanics, increased velocity, one of the best changeups in the game last year, 15% swinging strike rate was sixth best in all of baseball. So the final spot for me was between Gialito and Paddock, and I went with Gialito because I think his upside is higher than Chris Paddock. But you went with the guy who's been one of the worst pitchers in baseball. Like, Paddock at least

has never done that, you know, like, Severino. I think, I think, Gialito, I think, had the highest DRA, he had one of the highest DRAs among qualifiers in 2018. Oh, he was brutal. There was no way around it. No, there's no doubting that. But I just, I buy into the changes that he made last year, and I think that's something that he can continue to build on.

All right. So, so we're talking about stability, right? Like, And it's really hard for when you're looking at a young pitcher, a guy in his early 20s or even 25-year-old like Lucas Gialito who has one good major league season on his belt to say this is guy going to be a stable high-end pitcher for the next decade. And that's why I justify Soroka, because what you said, Adam, about your only thinking of the next five years and not the next 10. And that's probably true for most of the pitchers we've picked. You really can't envision a window longer than that. But you don't think at 32, 10 years from now, as a 32-year-old,

Soroka will still be generating ground balls and avoiding walks. I mean, that skill set is going to age very well. But for the guy who just... Tim Hudson-like for the next decade. For the guy who just argued Troy Toulwitzky over Elvis Andrews, I'm just shocked that you're taking someone with such a low strikeout rate. You know, like that's just not fantasy impact. I don't think the ceiling is as low as it is for Andrews.

I mean, he was in... Anderson is the number one short. up like four times. I don't mean to, I don't think it was that many times, but I don't mean to make the comparison of the two. I just mean like you're not taking the high upside guy. And groundball pitchers like that,

their whips are higher and their strikeout rate is low. So, I mean, there's a lot of volatility year to year. I've said this before. And I'm, you know, if this is a stick your neck out for a guy exercise, I'll do it here.

I think Soroka strikeout rate is going to get better. And I think he's already elite in terms of ground balls and control. So to what degree his strikeout rate improves might impact what the ceiling is during that decade. But I do think there is a clear scenario here where he's something like Zach Granky, who was on most of our all-decade team for the past decade. Yeah, for me, Shane Bieber was the Zach Granky of this next decade. Just very solid strikeouts, good command, solid at generating ground balls, 45% ground balls. So I thought I viewed him in that Zach Granky light.

But quickly, let's just give out our two relief pitchers. I went with closers. I know that there are other players who are relief pitcher eligible to sparse in head-to-head points leagues. But I went with Josh Hader and Roberto Osuna. They're two of the best closures in the game and they're still both 25 years old. I don't know how you guys kind of attack relief pitcher. I hated this too. I hated any.

Like this is, I just don't worry about relief pitcher in a dynasty league at all because it's just you can't project it at all. And, you know, the two guys that I picked in the 2010s were 23 and 22. They were Craig Kimberle and Dan Kenley Janssen. There's no proven closers that young right now. And so I did go with Roberto Azuna. And then this is just kind of a dark throw, but I went with Jordan Hicks, who's 23 right now, should be back. Honestly, depending on when the season starts relatively early this season. So I think there's a chance that he does come back as the Cardinals closer. And he was looking like he was making the leap to become close to an elite closer last season before the injury. That's a common dart throw based on the polling I did this weekend. He got more responses than

Giovanni Gallegos. I'm not so sure Giovanni Gallegos isn't better. James Carinche. Me neither. The Indians got a lot of votes too. Yeah, I was thinking about him. I think Ozone is the easy one here because he has five years of full-time closing under his belt and he's only 25. if you're ever going to predict a guy to be to have great longevity in that role it's him I went with Hater just because

they're like it's impossible to predict longevity here it's so volatile it's not uncommon for pitchers to be good for like three years and then just fade out completely so I'll take the guy who's there now even though it's not clear the Brewers want him in that role long term and I think he's gonna

I think he's gonna flame out personally I just I don't No, I mean, look, it's a fine pick. I pick Jordan Hicks. So who am I to criticize? Well, it better not be this year because every draft I do, I'm taking Josh Hater. And I'm actually, I got a sleeper. Mike Soroka is so ineffective in the Braves rotation that they move him to closer.

And he goes all John Smolts on us. And that's where he finds his footing. That would be a pretty good pick if that happened. Yeah, that'd be a better pick than him as a starting pitcher. Yeah, yeah, I've told you. Come on. Arsenal's too good. For going a little bit long here today.

the show. Just going to wrap up quickly. I mean, we're already this far in, why not? Team name Tuesday and Chris, your favorite, one of your favorites here, Duky Butts. I was like, was this from our 10-year-old listening audience? I mean, sounds like a new nickname for my 2-year-old.

The other one that we got was Lament for the Orix, which was from Peter, and he says this is from the song Lament for the Orix by the Sword. They had a song in Guitar Hero. Anyone hear of Guitar Hero? Yeah. Oh, man.

I took a day off from work like 13, 12, 12 years ago or something, and I bought Guitar Hero. And I became, that was my most useless talent. I became really, really good at Guitar Hero. That episode of South Park was dedicated to you, huh? Gary, Bear, Gary, Bear. That one? Pop, Pop, Pop your face.

I preferred rock band. I never played rock band. We had a lot of rock band parties in college. Chris was probably a big drummer. Is that true, Chris? Not good at drumming. I like singing. I always thought singing in Rockman was fun.

Star of the show. Exactly. I want everyone looking to me. How good were you at Guitar Hero? Talking like, I was really, really good. Like, expert level, the hardest level. You play Dragon Force? I could not quite beat the, like, one or two hardest ones,

but I could beat every other level. Yeah, I was, I was. I was really wow you should have seen me guys we're setting this up me versus Adam guitar hero all right

I need whoever wins gets that was the show I need a few days we each get like a few days I need training camp because I'm rusty I 100% need that okay good

thanks for everyone for listening today this is really fun I'm sorry again that we went a little bit long but I thought the conversations that we had for projecting the all decade teams were a lot of fun so for Adam Scott and Chris, I am Frank.

Thanks again for listening. We will be back tomorrow here on Fantasy Baseball's Day.