Fantasy Baseball Today - 🚨Rodon to the Giants! Kershaw Back to the Dodgers! - Emergency Podcast (3/11 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 12, 2022

Join our FBT March Madness Bracket for a chance to join our listener leagues- cbssports.com/FBTbrackets Carlos Rodon has signed a two-year, $44 million deal with the San Francisco Giants (1:00). What does this mean for his Fantasy value? ... Clayton Kershaw is back with the Los Angeles Dodgers (8:12)! Kershaw or Rodon? ... We wrap up with other news items (14:11). 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. We have signings. Carlos Rodon to the San Francisco Giants and Clayton Kershaw has returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Welcome in to an emergency edition of Fantasy Baseball today on Friday night, March 11th. I am Frank Stanful, joined by Scott White, and let's start with the biggest move of the day thus far. Carlos Rodan has signed a two-year, $44 million deal with the San Francisco Giants after reports that medical were quote, actually very good, according to, again, reports, I believe. Those were from Andy Martino and Scott, lots of people saying this was the best possible

landing spot for Carlos Rodan. And really, it's hard to argue with it. I think, if anything, the financials, that's what I'm excited about here. The fact that the Giants were willing to give Carl Stradon two years for $44 million when the White Sox did not offer Carlos Rodan the qualifying offer, which was one year. around $17 million. What do you think about this deal and what do you think about the fantasy upside now

of Carlos Rodan with the Giants? I feel like you just took the words right out of my mouth, Frank. I don't know what else I have to talk about at this point. No, I mean, yeah, that's what it was going to be one of the most interesting things to me, how much Carlos Rodan actually got. Would he get one of those one year proof it type offers that players so often get when they're coming off?

a down season. Certainly he didn't have a down season. He had an incredible season, a breakthrough season, a season where if he had enough innings to qualify, he would have been right up there with Corbyn Burns in terms of both ERA and K per 9. I think Burns was slightly ahead in K per nine, like a hundredth of a K per nine. But Rodan actually had the better ERA. And he was amazing until August when his shoulder started acting up

and spent some time on the aisle came back, was averaging about three miles per hour less on his fastball which was certainly cause for alarm I mean that's a big drop and when there's a shoulder injury that corresponds to that

yeah reason for concern that's how he that's how he finished out the season and so that's why we wondered if teams would be a little scared. Now, he did only get a two-year deal. He didn't get a five-year deal or what maybe he would have gotten if he did finish completely healthy.

But still, it wasn't that kind of one-year-proof-a-deal. The Giants were willing to guarantee him a second deal and for pretty high average annual value. So I find the terms of the contract pretty encouraging. And yes, you mentioned he's going to San Francisco, which is one of the more pitcher-friendly places to pitch, maybe even the pitcher-friendlyest place to pitch. And I didn't notice this about Carlos Rodon until I was looking into it just now, but it gets up a lot of fly balls. Pretty extreme as far as that goes. Now, it doesn't look like he had good home run luck last year

because the quality of contact was so poor against him. But if you were worried about that, normalizing the number of home runs he gave up relative to the number of fly balls he gave up, it's encouraging that he's going to San Francisco because that should relieve those concerns as well. And then, of course, I mean, the Giants, they're looking to contend. They have strong supporting cast. It's a very good situation for Rodan.

And, you know, obviously the Giants seem to know pitching pretty well. They've had a lot of success signing veterans in recent years, Kevin Gossman, most notably, but also Alex Wood and Anthony Descliffeani, even Drew Smiley for the little bit of time he was there, sort of peaked in a way he never did before. Rodon doesn't need nearly as much help as those guys. did. So yeah, I mean, pretty much everything you could hope, you could hope for for Rodan he accomplished with this signing. And I only moved him up like a spot in my rankings, but I already was ranking him pretty aggressively and just kind of knowing I wasn't going to draft him.

you know, just kind of ignoring him whenever he came up in my ranking down. I might have to give a serious thought at this point, taking him actually. Yeah, I mean, it makes sense. He was amazing last year. He was the SP 113 in Roto in just 132 and two-thirds

innings pitched, the SP12 in fantasy points per game. So just to put that in perspective, how good he was on a per start basis, 2.37 ERA, 0.96 whip, 185 strikeouts, over 132 and a third innings pitch. Scott, you mentioned fly ball pitcher, 45% fly ball rate. That is

massive for a starting pitcher. So moving over to San Francisco, bigger ballpark. I know traditionally it's been regarded as a pitcher's park. The past couple of years, it's played a little bit better for offense, but ultimately a great landing spot for Carlos Rodon. They do a great job with their starting pitchers the past couple of years. Not that he doesn't come without risk. Again, like he dealt with shoulder injury last year. He's dealt with shoulder. injuries in the past, the velocity, fluctuated in that second half. Let's talk about the price. Guy, you mentioned that you moved him up, one spot in your rankings.

He is currently the SP 34 off the board, according to Fantasy Pros. The ADP is 108.8. And let's compare him to other players in his range. One spot ahead of him, Justin Verlander, your guy. I think I know who you're going with here. Justin Verlander versus Carlos Fordon, who you got? Yeah, I also moved Verlander up when I was making those adjustments in my ranking. So, yeah, Verlander over Rodon.

All right, so how about Rodon versus the next pitcher ahead is Blake Snell? Who would you rather have there? Yeah, that one I was struggling with. I went ahead and left Snell ahead of Rodon. But that could change in spring training. Like, if spring training starts and Rodon's throwing 95 plus with his fastball, looking like he did for his healthy stretch of last season, I think it's pretty, like, he could, he could shoot way up my rankings.

I don't know that it's possible he could move ahead of Justin Verlander, but it may be possible if, like, he, if the velocity seems to be all the way back in spring training for Rodon. Because, I mean, yeah, just inning for inning, he was a top five pitcher last year. So, yeah, that would be something to think about. How about Root? And I didn't mention this, but, like, even when he was, Not throwing his hard in September, in those five starts, he still had a 235 VRA.9.96 whip and 9.8K per 9.

You know, so like, he, yes, a jump in fastball velocity fueled his breakout last year, but there may have been more to it than just that. And I think it's worth mentioning, Scott. I mean, he made one start in the postseason. You know, whether he was just jacked up for that start, he didn't really go deep into it. But the velocity was there in that one postseason start as well. He averaged right around 96 miles per hour on the fastball. How about Rodon versus that group of hype breakout starting pitchers? Rodon. McClanahan.

Go ahead of them, but it's Rodan. McClanahan, Trevor Rogers, Dylan Cesar, taking Rodon ahead of all of them. Yeah. All right, fair enough. Let's move over to Clayton Kirschaw, who is back with the Los Angeles Dodgers on a one-year, $17 million deal with incentives.

Interesting of note, because, again, they did not offer him the qualifying offer. Qualifying offer, thank you, Scott. Which was right around one year, $17 million, but ultimately they wind up resigning him for something similar. I guess he can make more of that with the incentives here. Clayton Kershal was still

really good last season. 3.55 ERA, 102 whip, 144 strikeouts over 121 and 2 thirds innings pitched. His swinging strike rate was a career high. I mean, we're talking about a Hall of Fame pitcher in Clayton Kershaw, 16.7% swinging strike rate. Again, he's got another one where he doesn't come without risk. He was shut down last year because of a forearm slash elbow injury. But when he was on the mound, he was still really good.

So what do you think about him returning to the Dodgers? The ADP is 130.2, the SP 38 off the board. Yeah, I'm a little less sure what to think about this one. Because he did sort of get a one-year proof of deal, right? and you wonder if that's because no team was willing to make him a multi-year offer. You wonder, though, if he wasn't really looking for a one-year or a multi-year offer because he'd taught some of this off-season about retirement. Maybe he wants to revisit that idea next off-season.

He may have also accepted a bit of a hometown discount from the Dodgers. Obviously, it's the only organization he's ever been a part of. So I don't know that we can read. too much into the terms of the deal like we can with Carlos Rodan, but I'd feel a lot better if it was a multi-year deal that Kirschaw signed. The other thing is his health, like Carlos Rodon's health situation was kind of vague, and so that made it scary, but what the shoulder injury was actually classified as was shoulder fatigue, which, you know, it seemed like it could be bad because the velocity was down so much,

but shoulder fatigue doesn't sound like a scary injury, right? Kirshall's elbow injury, there was some talk of him maybe needing Tommy John surgery. And I don't think that's, you know, once that is brought up, it's never totally put to rest, you know? For sure. He says he's healthy now, but he's a little behind in his preparations for the season.

I don't know if he's going to be ready for opening day. I don't know if he's going to be ready at all, right? Like, it could be, remember the brave sign, Cole Hamill's to that one year deal a couple years ago, and did he make a single star for them? I don't know. Like, that happens sometimes. So, yeah, I'm not, I've been pretty unsure

how to rank Clayton Kirschaw this whole time, because, yes, as you point out, he still was very effective last year before this trouble with the elbow came up and his track record is what it is and you don't want to bet against a guy with that kind of track record. But it's, I don't know.

I hope we get a chance to see him pitch this spring because if we don't, I think I'm going to treat him like he's radioactive almost. Like, you know, he might have to be there out after the top 150 for me to take a shot on him. Yeah, both of these pitchers.

We want to see what the valetive velocity looks like in spring and how their body, their arms react to pitching in games again following what happened last season. Again, Rodon with the shoulder injury and Clayton Kershaw with the forearm slash elbow injury. The ADP, as I mentioned, for

Kershaw is 130.2. Scott, would you rather take a shot on Carlos Rodon around 108.8. Or Clayton Kershaw at 130.2. So probably like a two-round difference between the two. I'd like to take a

look at who's going around them, but without taking the time to do that, I'm going to say Rodon. I just, I have a lot more confidence in Rodon at this point, clearly. Yeah, the pitcher is going just between them. We mentioned again, like Justin Verlander, just ahead of Rodon, you'd much rather have him. But between Rodon and Kershaw, it's Pablo Lopez, Tyler Malley, Zach Gallen. I know you like Lopez, but I know for sure those other pitchers are not really in on, right? Right. No, and I was thinking beyond just the pitchers. So Kershaw is going right there in the middle of the profit pocket at first base. That's fun.

That's fun. While Rodan is, you know, Fram Bill Reyes, Bobby Witt, he's going among hitters that I'm not sure really deserve to go ahead of the profit pocket at first base. That's why we call it the profit pocket is because we think they're going too late. That's right. So, yeah, I don't feel like the 30-pick gap between Rodon and Kershaw, you really lose anything. So I'll just, I'll say Rodon. Overall, are you in on either of these guys, out on either of these guys?

Final fights. I still think just the way, the way I'm going to build my teams, you know, emphasizing Verlander where I emphasize him. and maybe dipping into that profit pocket at first base, you know, Cohen after going for Kyle Schwerber likely, who goes in the same range as Carlos Rodon. Yeah, I just don't know that it's going to, Rodon's going to be on my radar very much,

but I'll at least be open to the idea now in a way I wasn't before with him. All right, a couple other news items we'll wrap up with here. Trevor Bauer has been placed on administrative leave for seven days while the, not the, while MLB investigates a possible suspension, according to John Heyman of the MLB network. So again, this is what we mentioned.

Isn't it just MLB network, Frank? Not the MLB network. Oh, hey, man. At this point, I'm just reading whatever's written, man. You know what? It does sound weird, like just the syntax, you know? Right. While MLB investigates,

as it like it just sounds more natural to say the MLB yeah and I understand right like look saying the major league baseball obviously it's not right but the MLB network sounds a little bit better I think certainly if you say RBI's instead of RBI then you should

probably say the MLB instead of MLB right yeah well I I'm normally a just RBI guy's got versus RBS has told me to be so that's why I am yeah Adam Azer. Deep in my heart, I'm an RBI's guy.

Yeah. True story. There's not many things that Adam Azer has yelled at me about, but one thing that he has is, he's like, why do you say RBI versus RBI's? I'm just like, I don't know, runs batted ins.

Doesn't really make sense. I don't know. But whatever. It's semantics. Anyway, this is why, you know, like talking about Trevor Bauer from a fantasy perspective is hard right now because we just don't know

what's going to happen. So again, he's placed on administrative leave. The MLB is going to investigate. They can suspend him for games even though he was found not guilty in anything outside of Major League Baseball. So just keep that in mind when drafting him or presenting any type of optimism for him in fantasy baseball. Things could still happen. So it's basically up in the air right now. The other news item I wanted to mention, Andrewton Simmons signed a one year $4 million deal with the Chicago Cubs. There are incentives involved there as well.

I would imagine this takes them out of the running for Carlos Correa. Again, the market for Carlos Correa is one of the most interesting for me right now, Scott, because I just don't know who is going to pony up all this money for Carlos Correa. It sounds like while everyone just assumes that the Yankees are going to be involved here, they have middle infield prospects that they're very excited about. And everything that I've read is that they're looking for a stop gap, one year type of situation at shortstop, then 2023, they turned it over to Anthony Volpe or

Oswald Parraza, whatever it might be. But I don't think that they're going to spend all this money on Carlos Correa. So if the Yankees are not doing it, I don't know who is. I don't know if it's, do the Astros try and bring it back? The Dodgers get involved somehow. Another team, the Red Sox, maybe the Angels, something like, I just don't know. But I do know that Angelton Simmons signing with the Cubs tells me that they're probably not going to be signing Carlos Correa.

So that's where we're at right now. Yeah, yeah. And of course, Simmons has virtually no fantasy value at this stage. Right, of course. But it is interesting from the perspective of the Cubs have built a groundball-oriented pitch-to-contact staff, signed Stroman. Marcus Strowman this offseason, already had Kyle Hendricks. Wade Miley is there, too.

We're not that interested in Wade Miley, but he was pretty good last year for the Reds. Yeah, this only adds to my interest in Hendricks, and it's good news for Stroman. In deep leagues, you know, you might not go after Nico Horner as hard, but he was, I didn't see him as particularly exciting anyway. I don't think there's enough power there. And, or, you know, there's modest steals potential maybe, but not enough power to make it worthwhile. You know, while you were talking about the effect that Andrewson Simmons has on Nico Horner, I thought about Carl Sordaun signing with a Giants, poor one out for our guy, Tyler Beattie. And by our guy, I mean, I bid on him in the Scott White Dynasty League.

So I think he probably doesn't have much value now because the rotation seems like it's set. Logan Webb, Carlos Verdun, Anthony Descolfani, Alex Kovny, Alex Cobb. Any of those guys get hurt. Tyler Beattie probably gets an opportunity, but outside of that, probably not. And again, this is for the deepest of leaks. We're going to wrap there. For Scott, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching this emergency edition of fantasy baseball today.

We'll be back again on Monday. or maybe sooner. Bye-bye.