Fantasy Baseball Today - Roto Mock Draft Recap & Pablo Lopez-Luis Arraez Trade Reaction! (1/24 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: January 24, 2023

So, the Marlins and Twins made a pretty big trade (3:15)! Are we moving Pablo Lopez or Luis Arraez in our rankings? ... What's the roster fallout with the Marlins and Twins following this deal (11:40)? ... Adam Duvall signed with the Red Sox (15:45). ... Aroldis Chapman signed with the Royals (19:15)! Who is going to close in KC? ... Brian Anderson signed with the Brewers (23:15). ... News (26:54): Oscar Colas will have a chance to win the White Sox right field job. ... Will Scott Rolen and Todd Helton get in the Hall of Fame (33:00)? ... Who's the consensus top-five in drafts (35:29)? ... Pitching is going much later in 2023 drafts (39:35). ... Should you push up certain positions in your draft (42:00)? ... Where is the starting pitcher value (49:35)? ... We wrap up by recapping Scott and Chris' teams (54:27)!  Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. We have a rotomach draft to recap plus. What are the Marlins doing?

Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, January 24th. The whole gang is back together. Frank Stample joined. by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we're going to recap our latest 12-team Roto Mock, which Scott didn't invite me to. Just kidding. I was traveling. The Marlins and Twins made a trade

and a whole bunch of other little moves that I thought we needed to talk about, but Scott's like really kind of angry about them, so we're just going to try and move past them and then we'll talk about this mock draft. Finally, Scotty and I have met in person. He was impressed by how tall I was, even though he's taller than me, so I didn't really get that.

Because you say you're 5'9 and you didn't, like standing next to you, I felt like you came up higher on me than a 5 foot 9 person. He was wearing his moon shoes, you know. Yeah, pretty comfy. Speaking of comfort, by the way, those couches that you all see behind Scott on YouTube every day, they're pretty darn comfy. I've just got to throw that out there. Thank you. Scott, you might be shrinking because I am legitimately 5 foot 9, so I'm just confirming that for you. I believe, like, what was weird is you shared the photo.

So we took a photo of us standing right here just because I thought that was, you know, like I've joked. It's like you walking onto the set of cheers or something. And like, it must have been surreal for you. So I wanted to get that, you know, I wanted to, I wanted the viewers to experience that with you. But a lot of people were commenting, oh, I'm surprised Frank is taller than Scott. And I'm not, I wasn't really sure how to take that. I'm pretty tall. I'm six.

So I don't know, a two. I have height blindness. I don't know. Like, I can't tell how tall anyone is, like, relative. Like, obviously, when I'm standing next to a person and I'm looking at them, I can say, okay, you are probably taller or shorter than me. But, like, in my head, I have no recollection of how tall anyone is. Is that like, is that just me?

Is that just, like, I just like, I'm just completely oblivious to how tall people are relative to the other people around them. Especially when all you've done for the past couple of years is shows on Zoom or stream yard and stuff. Like, I had no idea. I knew Scott was tall, but I didn't know exactly how tall he was or anything like that. Here, I'm going to make myself taller. There you go. There you go.

Chris is stepping it up. By the way, Chris, thanks for holding down the fort. Admiral job as always now. Just admirable. Yes. What are our Marlins doing, Chris? What are they doing? You know, when this trade went down at first, I love it.

When this trade went down at first, I was like, okay, that makes sense. And then the more details came out, it was like, well, that doesn't make any sense anymore. That's it. That's all. That's my now. Well, let's talk about that trade because the Marlins and the Twins made a pretty big trade. I think it's a decent size trade. The Marlins acquired AL Batting Champ, Luis Arise from the Twins in exchange for Pablo Lopez, and a pair of prospects, shortstop Jose Salas, who is a borderline top 100 prospect, in some publications and an outfielder,

I believe a 17-year-old outfielder in Byron Churio, and I think it was pretty clearly an overpaid by the Marlins, but you could take into account a rise is 25 years old. He has one more year of team control. That's fine.

I feel like quality pitching is harder to find than like a slap hitting. One more year of team control than Pablo Lopez. Yeah, what did I say? Just one more year of team control. Made it sound like he only has the one yet. Oh, yeah, yeah. So he has three and Pablo Lopez has two.

But let's talk about the Pablo Lopez side of it first. Since the start of 2020, he's been really serviceable. 3.52 ERA, 1.16 whip, 384 strikeouts over 340 innings pitch. And I've said all offseason that I'm kind of worried about a move because Pablo Lopez has been much better in Lone Depot Park. I didn't know that was the name until today, honestly. In Miami, 3.45 ERA at home in his career, 4.54 ERA on the road. However, target field rates out very similarly, according to park factors, and it is a better division to pitch in.

I mean, you know, going from facing the Mets and the Phillies and the Braves to the White Sox and the Royals and the Guardians and those teams. So I kind of like this move overall, Scott. Did you move Lopez up or down based on this trade? His early ADP is 166.3. What do you think about the move to Minnesota? I mean, I wasn't inclined to move him that much. I agree it is a slight upgrade. I mean, if nothing else, you know, the twins have a chance to be a success this year,

and I don't really think the Marlins do. So there's a supporting cast upgrade. Again, it may not be a huge one. The twins weren't a very good team last year, but there's at least the possibility of a supporting cast upgrade. You point out that he hasn't been so great in his career. away from Miami. The splits were precisely reversed last year. He was much better on the road than at home. It's a pretty decent sample we're talking about, obviously. So I don't even know what to make of that either.

It's not like he's an extreme fly ball pitcher who requires a good pitcher's part. He's still going to be in a pretty good pitcher's part. So, I mean, you factor it all in, maybe a slight upgrade for Lopez, but stock about even, I would say. And it doesn't deserve, you know, he's clearly not that big of an attraction in fantasy going into this season just by virtue of how deep the starting pitcher position is in pitchers like him, who will have about a strikeout per inning,

maybe a little less ERA in the mid-to-high-threes, eat some innings. I mean, he's had health issues in the past, so I didn't even know if you can reliably count on him to eat innings the way you can of Merrill Kelly, for instance. And, you know, just for fantasy purposes, given the way the starting pitcher, the,

given the way things have shaken out at starting pitcher last year, I just, you know, he's, Pablo Lopez doesn't seem to, doesn't look to me like somebody who has standout potential anymore. And if you want to check out, our rankings, they are live on CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball. Chris has Pablo Lopez at SP44. I have him down at 50. Scott has him at 51. Luis Arise won the American League batting title last year, hitting 316 with eight home runs and 88 runs scored as well as a

795 OPS. He has first base and second base eligibility for fantasy purposes, but is expected to play second base for the Marlins. Chris, his early ADP is 207. your thoughts on a rise. Have you moved him up or down following this deal? No, I think he pretty much stays where he was. It's probably a lineup downgrade. I mean, the twins should have a better lineup than the Marlins, parked downgrade as well, but not a huge one. So, oh, no, I don't think the context changes much for either of these guys. The thing with our eyes, you know what you're going to get from him. And it's probably just batting average. I mean, maybe some runs.

He'll probably hit towards the top of the lineup like he did for the twins last season. There are, you know, lingering concerns about, you know, some knee issues that he's had over the past couple of seasons that, you know, could create some playing time issues for him. But he is one of, if not the single best source of batting average in baseball. And that's pretty much it. I mean, if you get 10 home runs out of him and five steals, that's probably a really successful season. So I think he kind of is what he is for fantasy. he's someone who should be rostered in every Roto League for sure,

but he's such a drain pretty much everywhere except batting average that he's not a player you should get excited about. Yeah, I had a slightly stronger take on Arias. This pretty much killed any interest I had in drafting him. Not that I don't rank him in a way that he deserves to be drafted anymore, but me personally,

like he is so dependent on his lineup context for his contributions in fantasy because he's so limited in terms of home run and stolen base output. And the Marlins' offense is going to be terrible. Yeah. It's funny, like, oh, we want to use our pitching surplus to acquire Big Bat, and the guy they acquire

somebody who had like a 100 ISO last year. I think Arias would be a nice addition to many lineups around the league, but those lineups need to have some boppers. in them already for him to get his, for him to have full effect. And, you know, the twins' lineup wasn't very good last year, but you see the potential for it to be good.

They scored 110 more runs in the Marlins last year. Even as it was. Even as it was. Yeah, they were better than the Marlins. But then you see the potential for even more than that with guys like Ray and Buxton. And they have, you know, they have some other interesting hitters that are just now

entering the mix and could turn them into a really good lineup. And I just don't see that being even a remote possibility for the Marlins lineup. Yeah, the Marlins need a lot of things to go right to have like the 22nd most runs in baseball probably. This is a team that does have some guys who can hit for power, but they're heavily betting on bounce back from Jorge Salar and obviously Al-Garcia, their big additions last year. and maybe Hazu Sanchez can be a little more all than nothing but no it's a bad lineup

so batting average specialist for a rise which is basically what you said Chris but now it's like okay like he could be he could be a batting average specialist that still scores a ton of runs too and now I like that's not going to be the case

anymore with the Marlins so it's just like I don't have any interest in that unless unless my team has been built in a way that just really demands a batting average specialist late. Yeah, you're hoping, like I said, eight to 10 home runs, five steals. Maybe he gets a few more steals with the rule change,

but he's pretty slow. And, you know, 85 to 90 runs is what you're hoping for, but pretty much a one, maybe two category specialist. And I think most people will immediately look at Luis Arise and think of him as a points league player, head to head points league player. He averaged 2.8 fantasy points per game last year, which is solid,

but that was in a career year. And now we're expecting him to be a little bit worse. So I don't know that he's even a standout in a head to head points league anymore. The Marlins as a team had the fifth highest strikeout percentage in baseball last year. So maybe that's what they're looking at here and trying to make a little bit more contact

and take advantage of that. But either way, not a lot of love here for Luisa Rise. Let's talk a little bit about the roster fallout for each of these teams real quick. For the Marlins, Jazz Chisholm will now play center field coming off a stress fracture in his back and a torn meniscus. He has never played a professional game in the outfield in his life. And now he's going to learn outfield and he's going to play center field of all places.

Rasta Resource has Joey Wendell playing shortstop, Avicale, Garcia, and right field, Brian Dela Cruz and left field with John Bertie on the bench. So Chris will come back to you. Jazz Chisholm, seemingly, you know, a couple of weeks into the season, we'll have dual eligibility. and as of now, look, someone's going to get hurt. It doesn't look like John Birdie's going to have an everyday role with the Miami Marlins. Yeah, I mean, I think he'll play enough because they don't have, this is not a team that has, you know, locked in everyday players.

I think he'll get in the lineup enough. But, and, you know, we have to think about the fact that jazz Chisholm has never played more than 127 games in a season as a professional. He, you know, even in 2020, the COVID-shorten season, he played 21 games out of 60 last season, 60 out of 161 or 162. I don't know where I got 161 from. Maybe the Marlins had a rain out last year. But yeah, like this is given his history, I think you should still expect John

Bertie to get a decent amount of playing time. And we don't know how the shift to center field is going to work out. And whether it makes him a bigger injury risk. I would think it's probably a wash in terms of injury risk. I think the issue is just that, you know, he might play a little too reckless, and I think that's going to be an issue in the infield or the outfield, but maybe he runs into the wall more often in the outfield,

I guess, is the concern there. But the issue, I don't think this changes how I view him, if anything, the added versatility of getting outfield eligibility is a nice bonus for Jazz Chisholm, but I don't think it's a game changer either way. You just hope he stays healthy. Sneak peek. My breakouts 1.0 is coming out on Tuesday. Jazz Chisholm is part of that list.

For the twin side of things, their rotation is Sunny Gray, Joe Ryan, Pablo Lopez, Tyler Malley, and Kenza Maida. And Scott, it sounds like Bailey Ober, who does have some sleeper appeal, could start the year in the minors. Of course, there's a lot of injury risk

involved with that entire rotation, so we could see him sooner rather than later. And it seems like there are more plate appearances available now for the Alex Kirolovs and Nick Gordon's of the world now that Luis Horace is gone. Yes, and I do want to point out for the Marlins also. Remember, we were just talking about how there's not enough room for all the pictures of theirs we like.

Well, now there are two spots available for Edward Cabrera, Trevor Rogers, and Braxton Garrett. So, you know, that helps if you're looking to draft any of those guys. At some point, I'm sure all three will get a chance to make a sizable contribution to the rotation. My favorite of them is actually Trevor Rogers. I'm writing Sleepers 1.0 for this week, and Trevor Rogers is in that. Interesting. Interesting.

I do like myself some Edward Cabrera because I think he had two pitches with a 40 plus percent whiff rate, something crazy like that, and obviously he throws super hardies. It's just got to improve the control, obviously, and stay on the field. That's what we need from Edward Cabrera. Scott, anything else on the Twins, or are we good there?

I mean, you know, I like Kirolov, but I was expecting him to play a lot anyway. I like Ober, too, for instance, you brought him up. I do like Bailey Ober. I think his profile is, like just the kind of pitcher he is, is similar to Tristan McKenzie. McKenzie probably has more upside, but I think Bailey Over, if he gets a chance, could surprise a lot of people. But he may have to wait until an injury for that to happen now. All right. Well, again, complete trade.

We've got Luis Arise going over to the Marlins. in exchange for Pablo Lopez and a pair of prospects, Jose Salas and outfielder Byron Churio. Let's get into some news and notes. We had Adam Duval sign a one-year $7 million deal with the Red Sox, and last year he completely tanked. He hit 212 with 12 home runs and a 67 OPS. However, one year earlier, he hit 38 home runs in 2021. Chris, obviously this is a pretty deep league play here,

but any interest in Adam Duvall, five outfielder leagues, playing center field for the Red Sox. He's a tough type of player because this kind of profile does not tend to age all that well. He is, I guess, you know, a good defensive player and a decent enough athlete that you wouldn't necessarily tag him with the old player skills, but especially as a hitter, he's very much a, you know, swing and miss when he makes contact. Good things tend to happen. But, you know, that all or nothing type of profile, you can lose it very quickly.

And it's entirely possible that he just lost it last season. But, you know, they have a need. I wanted to say for Duval, and I know I didn't want to drag these out, but since he went to Chris for the one guy, I had something interesting to say about, I'm going to chime in here on Duval. I think he got burned last year with the Den Ball, as a lot of hitters did.

But specifically, Adam Duval hits really towering high home runs. Like the launch angle is very high. and he tends to pull them. It just seems like a well-suited profile for Fenway Park. Yeah. You know, the stadium with the closest but highest left-field fence is perfect for a guy who hits towering flybals to left field. And I think it could rejuvenate Duval

in the same way it rejuvenated Hunter Renfro a couple years ago. So I like Duval as like a deep sleeper for home. home runs in a way I did it before this signing. Yeah, I mean, you look at it before, but especially at Fenway Park. You look at his spray chart from 2021 and it's like a bunch of home runs to the left side and basically nothing else to the left side. So like you said, it indicates that, I mean, it's, you know what Adam Duval is. He's an all or nothing hitter. So it's possible that maybe over the course of a full season, he gets five to seven more home runs playing at Fenway Park.

I could see that being the case. Yeah. I mean, definitely could help with batting average as well. It's a pretty positive park shift for Adam Duval going from Atlanta to Boston. I moved them up to my 73rd ranked outfielder. So if you play in a 15-team-five outfielder league, there's a pretty good chance that you are drafting Adam Duval either as a fifth outfielder or a utility bat later on in your drafts.

Tommy Tham signed a one-year $6 million deal with the Mets. Last year, you hit 236 with 17 home runs, eight steals, and 89 runs scored. The walk rate did take a pretty big dip. the strikeouts went up as well, still hit the ball extremely hard. 93rd percentile in average exit velocity. Scott, the problem here is it looks like FAM is a fourth outfielder, Marcana and left field.

Daniel Vogelbach, a strong side platoon at designated hitter. I mean, that's the biggest problem. Yeah, the other problem is he hasn't been good in a couple years and it hasn't really mattered how hard he hit the ball. So it doesn't surprise me that he landed a fourth outfielder job. And I don't suspect we'll be talking about Tommy Pham much. this year. Unless there's an interest,

an injury. I mean, even if there is an injury, I'm saying I don't think he'll be good enough for us to care. But it could happen. I guess. I'll roll this Chapman. This probably a little bit more relevant. Signed a one year $3.75 million deal with the Royals.

And this is a tough one for me because Chapman was not great last year. And he just completely went AWOL towards the end of the season with the New York Yankees. Career worse year basically across the board. 4.46 ERA, 1.43 whip. 6.9 walks per 9. This is now two seasons in a row. Chapman has been up over six walks per nine, 10.6K per 9 and 12.7% swinging strike rate,

both career lows for a role this Chapman. Plus, their new manager, Matt Quattrero, he comes from the Tampa Bay race. He was the bench coach there. Now he's with the Kansas City Royals. He is their manager. So I could see them kind of mixing and matching here, depending on who's coming up in the ninth inning, whatever it might be. Chris, what do you thinking?

Like, does Chapman get safe opportunities? Are we, you know, burying Scott Barlow now? What do you think? I did move Chapman ahead of Barlow. I just, I have a hard time, given what we know about, Earl does Chapman? I have a hard time seeing him accepting a non-closing role, even given the way things went last season. Maybe it's wrong. Maybe they'll stick with Barlow or they'll go with a, uh, uh,

not a platoon, a part-time situation for Chapman and play the matchups, but I generally think if he looks like himself, he'll probably be the closer. And, you know, last year was weird because he was so ineffective and the strikeout rate was way down,

27% down from 40% the previous year. Under the hood, it doesn't look like that much changed. His velocity was down a little bit. There was a little bit less differentiation between the fastball and slider velocity. But all in all, like he's still got a lot of whiffs with the fastball.

I think the slider was probably still a pretty good pitch that just didn't play up the way we've normally seen it. And obviously there's, you know, behind the scenes stuff that blew up in New York that could potentially explain why he struggled. I think he's probably done being a leak closer. But we've seen with a guy like Craig Kimbril that, you know, these guys can get it back. So I'm not necessarily writing a roll as Chapman off. And I think at the very least, he complicates Scott Barlow's path to a lot of saves. I do want to point out that that's a minority opinion, you putting Chapman ahead of Barlow. It's something I was surprised to see that so many, including some Royals beat writers,

were just quickly saying, oh, Chapman's going to set up for Barlow. Because I agree with your last statement there that at the very least, I'd be worried about him interfering with Barlow. I'm not to the point of moving him ahead of Barlow, but it wouldn't surprise me if things shake out in spring training in a way that makes it clear we all need to be moving Chapman ahead of Barlow. At the very least, it probably makes a situation where Barlow is like a bad four-game stretch away from losing his job at any point. Assuming Chapman is okay.

He could come out in spring training, throwing 97 miles an hour, and just be a complete waste of time. So I didn't even have Chapman ranked inside my top 40 relievers before this, just because I had no idea what was going on with him. I moved him up to 37. He's right in a group with Jason Adam and Giovanni Gallegos and Evan Phillips with the Dodgers, where I think these are guys that could maybe pick up, you know, eight to ten saves throughout the course of the season, something like that.

But I did lower Barlow to my 22nd ranked reliever behind Jose LeClerc, Paul Seawald, Yuan, Duran. I just, instead of Scott Barlow was seeing the lion's share, I think, you know, maybe he sees 50 to 60% of the save opportunities this season, but it's really hard to know right now. I think we kind of just have to feel it out during spring training and see what they're saying about it. So yeah, yeah. All right, let's move on to our next one. Scott was really pumped to talk about this one actually. Brian Anderson signed a, a one year, a one year, a one year three and a half million dollar deal with the brewers and told reporters that he will be their

primary third baseman. Last year, Brian Anderson hit 222 with eight homers and a 657 OPS. Obviously, this is a pretty big positive park shift going from Miami to Milwaukee. Scott, it sounds like you don't believe Brian Anderson will be the starting third basement, but he does. Well, I mean,

I guess Louisa Riaz could play second and that would free up third base for Anderson. So I, no, I guess they're the ones who signed him and he would have a better idea what the expectations are than I would. But it would surprise me if he starts 150 games for the Brewers' third base this year. I'll just put it that way.

He hasn't been good enough to deserve it. And they have other, like I assume they're not just giving up on Kestan Ura completely. I, you know, they got Mike Brousseau, who they like to play against left-handers. Like, there's going to be some mixing of it. matching there. And I don't think Anderson has the skill set that justifies a true everyday role. And Brian Anderson has not hit 100 games played since 2019. So it's been partially... Oh, they got Abraham Toro there too. Yes. And they have a middle infield prospect in Bryce Terang who a lot of people like as well. So originally, I thought Tarang would start at second and

Arias would be a third. But now they, they, you know, make this signing of Brian Anderson. This is another one where I think, you know, let's see who performs well in spring training. I think a lot is kind of up in the air with the Brewers lineup right now. It'll be, you know, whoever performs is going to play. The Twins made another trade on Monday. They acquired Michael A. Taylor from the Royals

for two pitchers, left-hander, Evan Sisk and right-hander Stephen Cruz. Michael Taylor, you know, more of a defensive replacement at this point in his career. Rasta Resource currently has Edward Olavaris, Drew Waters, and Kyle Isbell playing outfield for the royals. They're starting outfield.

Scott, I mean, I guess this, this could mean Tyler Gentry is closer to earning at-bats with the Royals, but that's really the only positive I could take away. I mean, like, who they had, like, even if Michael Taylor was there, Tyler Gentry's ready to go. There's going to be no stopping him with that outfield. I'm talking about Tyler Gentry, like he's some big-name prospect, and he's not. But I feel like he should be, and he's in my top 100,

and I do think he will be the Royals everyday right fielder by the end of this season and his numbers and minors last year were very impressive and people should take note of him even if even if the prospect hounds aren't giving him a lot of love. Yeah, I'm interested in Tyler Gentry as well.

I think he's a name to pay attention to in deeper leagues, A.L. only but the only thing I'll point out he was 23 years old last year playing at high A and double A and he turns 24 in February. So he's pretty old for the levels he played at, but he was really good. So keep that of mind.

They said the same thing about Michael Massey at this time a year ago. And you know what? Prospect Hounds weren't giving him enough love either. I kept silent. I kept silent, Frank. I bit my tongue. Now Michael Massey's a stud, obviously. No, he's not.

But he showed some good signs last year when he did get the call. Look, you didn't say it. I wasn't going to say it. You said it. But I was like, yeah, I mean, I think Michael Massey's going to be pretty good, too. But he hasn't really done anything yet. We'll see. White Sox manager, Pedro Griffal, said in a radio interview

that Oscar Colos will be given an opportunity to win the starting right field job during spring training. Sneak peek. He's in my breakouts 1.0 as well. Oh, he's in my sleepers 1.0. Let's go. Oscar Coloss. More on him a little bit later on.

Mike Trout's back has been a, quote, non-issue for months now. On that, sorry, on that note, I did see. Sorry, what? Is he in your busts 1.0? No, no. Oh, okay. No, I did see. I mean,

has talked about how he's still planning on playing the outfield this season. I don't know if that's, you know, something that the White Sox are planning on having him do. But he seemed pretty, there was an interview, I think, today on Monday or Sunday,

where he was pretty adamant that he still wants to play the outfield. I have him in my breakouts column, actually. I'm, I think there are a lot of things to like about Elohimans. If we can just stay on them, field and he's just, he's so hopeless as a defensive player. And it like in a way that looks like it's really putting him at risk of further injury. And it, I hope that's not the case, but that was

just another thing I wanted to add. I think by the end of this podcast, I will probably just reveal all the names that are in my breakout column. You can read why I like them. But a part of the- They should be up on the site on Tuesday, right? Right. Yeah. You know, you know, like, you know, depressing thought is like you you take a lot of time to to like make these like well-formed arguments for why you like or dislike these players depending on which column you write and you know 90% of the people who click on are just scrolling through to read the names and that's it guilty as charge I mean I know I do that when I read other people's read other people's columns right like I just want to know the names like why do we write anything why don't we just listen

names. Well, maybe don't read the part where I wrote, I'm hopeful that Eloi Jimenez will not be playing the outfield this season because... That is also a thing I wrote. Yeah, that's part of the reason why I like him. Mike Trout, I mentioned it, but his back has apparently been a, quote, non-issue for four months now. Good news there.

I just took him in the second round of a draft and hold, so all right. I'll take him at pick, what, 23 or something like that. That sounds good. Mike Soroka is a full go for spring training. His early ADP is 386. Scott, any interest? Apparently, he's competing for their fifth starter job. I mean, let's see how he looks in the spring.

I think that's going to be one to keep a close eye on. He was, yeah, he was a divisive fantasy pitcher even before the Achilles trouble started because he was not much of a bat misser, was a big ground ball guy, and had good results, obviously. I would say if he generates a lot of buzz this spring, and he'll be, I could definitely see a scenario where he's a late round pick in 12 team leagues before the springs up.

Like, you know, in a best case scenario for him, you know, obviously we need to see what he looks like coming back from so many injuries. But like there may not be that much of a difference between him and someone like Logan Webb in terms of skill set. It's just a, you know, a question of whether he's healthy. And I think Logan Webb probably has more upside, but, you know. It's funny you say that, Chris. the first name that came to mind when Scott was explaining, I was just thinking of Kyle Wright. Mike Soroka's skill set was Logan Webb.

Yeah, I mean, Logan Webb has the slider that he, you know, got really good results with in 2021 that, you know, I think probably suggests more upside than we've seen from Mike Soroka. But that's like what we got from Logan Webb last season. That could be an outcome for Mike Soroka. Other Braves news, Ronald Cunia will skip the World Baseball Classic. Ozzie Albies has had a normal off. season following that pinky fracture he suffered in mid-September.

For what it's worth, Akuna did play in the Venezuelan Winter League. Only 10 games, but 1160 OPS didn't really need to prove much for me. He's my number one overall player in Roto, but it was good to see him. He was on the Los Tiberones. I think they might have won the Venezuelan League, although I don't think he played the whole season. I would see just scarce highlights popping up from here and there from like the Venezuelan League and Dominican Winter League and stuff. It's

fun. I mean, we don't have any other baseball going on right now, so why not? Alex Bregman's broken left index finger has healed well and he's been able to swing a bat since the start of January. Each of Chris Sale, Tanner Hauke, and Garrett Whitlock are on track for the start of the season and it sounds like both Halk and Whitlock are being prepared as starters this season.

Jesse Winker coming off knee and neck surgeries has been working out at the Brewer's Spring Training Complex and will not face any restrictions at the start of spring training. Believe this is a contract year for Jesse Winker, too. If he can reclaim any of what we saw in Cincinnati, now playing in American Family Field, I think Jesse Winker might be on my sleeper list. He's going to be on my sleeper's list.

Yeah, I kind of like him. I haven't written it, but he's on the list. I like it, too. I was just thinking I meant to have him on my list. So why didn't I? I had it like, I went through every name twice just to make sure I didn't leave anybody out. He's off my list.

I don't want to... Hearing he was hurt all of that, like whenever there's like somebody's inexplicably bad, and then you find out after the year, oh, they're playing injured the whole time. And then they're going to a better park on top of it. Seattle was such a bad park for Jesse Winker to move to. Like just even before we ever saw him play there,

that was the initial reaction to the trade was just, this is about as big a downgrade as you could possibly get. And Milwaukee's not Cincinnati, Although for left-handed hitters, it's probably not far off. It's a very good home park for left-handed power. So I think there's hopefully Jesse Winker is healthy, makes it through spring training, and I'm going to try to draft him quite a bit. Real quick, guys, do you have any Hall of Fame thoughts?

Because I know the announcement is coming up on Tuesday. Sounds like Scott Rowland could make the push. And I don't know, what happens with A-Rod and Mani Ramirez and Carlos Beltron? So I don't know if you have any thoughts before we move on to the line. with any chance of getting in this year based on where the voting is now the amount of what we know the voting

what am I trying to say based on where the known votes where the percentages stand I'm saying this much harder than I need to Scott Rowland and Todd Helton are the only two with any chance but they're just barely over the line right now

and I think there's a good chance they drop below the line and nobody goes in this year And frankly, you know, looking at the class, it's not that surprising of an outcome. There aren't any, I mean, maybe the clear. If it wasn't for the Astros scandal, I think Carlos Beltran would have been a first ballot, Hallfamer. Right. That's what I was going to say.

Like the clear of slam dunk might have been Carlos Beltron, and he's not, he has a pretty good voting turnout, but not enough to really give him a serious chance this year. And then, of course, you got A. Rod and Manny Ramirez on there who would. be slammed on call of famers, if not for the steroid stuff. I think they should be in anyway, but that's an argument that has been done and redone so many times. We got some veterans committee guys going in, right? We got McGriff and someone else, right? Am I remembering that correctly?

I think McGriff is the only former player that's going in. As of now. We'll see what happens with Scott Rowland and Todd. Roland. I'm a little if he are on, but I think Scott Rowland would be a very very welcome addition to the Baseball Hall of Fame. I hope he gets in. I agree. Herbass is

weirdly underrepresented in the Hall of Fame. Before we hit the break, I just want to let everyone know that I love this time a year. You just feel the winds changing over to fantasy baseball mode. Pitchers and catchers are coming up. We've got the World Baseball Classic, which should be a lot of fun. Ton of content coming out on

CBSports.com. You can check it out. CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball. Go look at our rankings, our mock drafts. And, of course, our first iterations of sleepers, breakouts, and bus, which will be published today when you're listening to this Tuesday, January 24th. Make sure to check it out. Also, if you are watching us on YouTube, thank you.

Please hit the like button and subscribe. Duh. Really appreciate it. Let's take a break, and we'll be back right after this. All right, let's get into our latest 12-team, Roto Mock Draft. I actually did not take part in this one, but these two fine gents. We're drafting back-to-back. Chris had the ninth overall pick.

Scott had the 10th overall pick. and the draft results are live on the site. I'll post a link in the podcast and YouTube description so you can follow along. This was a standard 5x5 Roto Categories League with the lineups being two catchers, one of each infield position, five outfielders, one corner infielder,

one middle infielder, one utility bat, and then nine pitchers, which you can divvy up however you like. Six starters, three relievers, seven starters, two relievers, or, as Chris did, eight starters and one reliever, which we'll get to in just a bit.

We're going to jump around all over the place. I got some things planned, but let's just start up top. The top five picks in this draft seem to be mostly the consensus. Aaron Judge, Jose Ramirez, Ronald de Cunia, Trey Turner, Julio Rodriguez. You've probably seen them in different orders,

but typically that five is the top five players that go in Roto. In fact, Chris and I have that exact group of five as our top five. One of us does not. That would be Scotty, who has Mookie, bets at fourth overall and Acuna down at six.

Scotty, why are you down on Ronald Acuna? I mean, like we've been talking about all offseason, he was a pretty big disappointment last year, even after he recovered from torn ACL, didn't hit for characteristic power. Actually ran well despite coming back from serious knee injury, so that was encouraging to see. and look I think

I think now that he's had more time to recover you know it was clear that and he was bothering him at times last year he had to take stretches off even after he returned we're going to see him get a swing back in order and elevate like we're used to seeing and the power's going to come back I do think that's the most likely scenario but I guess I'm being a little bit more cautious than the consensus is with that

given the quality of players you could have in the top five instead. You know, I'm still ranking a CUNYA sixth. So, you know, I think that's showing plenty of optimism in its own right. And I guess maybe I'm just safeguarding against him having longer standing issues with the swing than everybody's presuming. Yeah, I mean, you just have to split hairs this early in the draft, right, when deciding which players you want and, you know, you're playing a little bit more safe. Chris, you are not, however.

You mentioned Ronald Cooney Coonja is your first overall player in Roto leagues this year. Sounds like you're just kind of giving him a mulligan for the knee injury last season. Yeah, I mean, look, he still hit the ball hard. His plate discipline was still mostly fine. He walked a little less than we've gotten used to. And I think the biggest issue was he just didn't have his legs under him. And like Scott said, he wasn't able to elevate the ball like we've seen from him. So I think once, you know, a full year removed, that, you know,

that's what you usually hear with the torn ACL is. you can play coming off the injury, but it takes that next year to really get back to 100%. I think that's what we're going to see from him. The fact that they were willing to let him run as often as they did last season suggests that that's not going to be an issue. I think he's still going to continue to be one of the elite base Steelers in the game. Moving forward,

I think he's made improvements in terms of his plate discipline over the past couple of seasons that have really put him in the conversation for one of, if not best hitters, baseball kind of upside. And, you know, if he hits 45 home runs this season and steals 40 bases, I mean, he very nearly got to a 40-40 season back in 2019. He was on a 40 steel pace last season. I just, I don't really have much concern about what he did last season.

Like, the fact that he clearly wasn't right and was still pretty good, I think that suggests that he's just, he's going to be fine. All right. Let's finish up the rest of the first round. We had Mookiee Betts at 6, followed by Yordon Alvarez. Juan Soto, Kyle Tucker went to Chris, Shohay Otani went to Scott, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and then Freddie Freeman.

That's right. Zero, zero starting pitchers in the first round. In fact, there was just one taken, Corbin Burns, 13th overall, in the first 23 picks of this draft. Garrett Cole and Sandy Alcansara went 24th and 25th, respectively, and that meant there were just three starting pitchers total

in the first 30 picks of this draft. And Scott, this is a lot of what we've talked about this offseason where there's almost a scarcity when it comes to elite hitters. And that mid-tier of starting pitching has returned. And we're seeing it in this mock draft. Do you think this is how most drafts will go? Or maybe just because some listeners were a part of this mock draft and, you know, obviously they hear what we talk about all the time? No, I think this is how most will go. I think this is how they should go based on what we've been talking about, as he said, the way that.

you know, the balance of power between pitching and hitting has gone back to pitching now with the net end ball and the widespread humidor use and all of that, the middle class returning to pitching.

I'm disappointed to see that it is playing out that way. It's hard to get anything past anyone these days, but it does appear to be playing out the way that it should, which means it's going to be harder to execute it properly.

And in NFC drafts, that's what you're seeing. You know, technically there are six pitchers taken in the first 30 picks there. That's because you have Edwin Diaz and Emmanuel Class A going in the first 30 picks, which is NFC, those overall event drafts are a completely different monster and relief pitchers tend to get inflated, especially at this time of year.

But once you take out Shohei Otani, it's just Corbyn Burns, Garrett Cole, and Sandy Alcantara inside the top 30 and 80p right now. So I think that's what we're going to see. Yeah, I'm actually doing an NFBC draft right now. It's a 15-team Roto, 50-round draft and hold, and I'm three rounds in. I don't have a starting pitcher yet, but names like Zach Wheeler,

Dylan C, Shane Bieber, they're still available. This is in the fourth round of a 15-team league. So again, most people are kind of thinking the same way, at least in early drafts. The second and third rounds were filled with position scarcity needs. We saw five-third basemen go. in those two rounds, three second baseman, four outfielders. At this point in the draft, again, three rounds in.

Chris had Kyle Tucker, Bobby Witt Jr., and Max Scherzer, Scott had Shoah Otani, Rafael Devers, and Francisco Lindor. Chris, we'll start with you. How much was position scarcity a factor in your early picks? Because you pick up Bobby Witt, third baseman, Kyle Tucker, you know, outfield is not great. Is that something that you were consciously thinking about with your early round picks? It's part of the process.

But for me, it's mostly just that, like, I don't really love Bobby Witt as a first round pick. But when you talk about 16th overall, I think that's where the cost-benefit analysis starts to work out in your favor. But, yeah, locking up outfield and third base that early, I mean, not locking up outfield, but getting a good outfielder that early. It does make you think, you know, it makes you feel a little more positive about the rest of your team. It makes you, it gives you a little more flexibility about where you go. You don't, you know, necessarily hit that point in, like, the seventh round where, there's no good third baseman left and you start to panic and you potentially reach for one. So, you know, it's part of the thought process.

It's not the primary reason why I took those guys. So they just happened to me, be my top rated players. Although it's interesting, I feel like I'm a little lower on Kyle Tucker and Bobby Witt than the consensus is for sure. And I ended up with both of them in this draft, along with a couple other guys that I'm lower than the consensus on in this one that I ended up with, which was interesting.

Yeah, I mean, look, you might just be lower on those guys compared to early. BC ADP, that's all we have to go on right now. So perhaps, you know, things will change once we start to get more average draft position from different outlets. But look, I mean, if Bobby Witt's falling to the middle of the second round in a roto league, I mean, he's someone that could go 25, 25. That's a pretty valuable player in that format. Scott, I'm pretty sure I know the answer for you, but clearly you took Rafael Devers, which, look, he's a really valuable player. But I have a feeling that position scarcity was even more so in the front of your mind, not the back of your

mind, that wouldn't make sense. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's other than the pitching hitting thing, which we've talked about a lot in the offseason, I think the other main point that I've driven home is that position scarcity is back because when you're talking about hitting not being as deep anymore and you break that into individual positions, that shines a light on it further. And some positions, you really can, even in a 12-team league, you really can, even in a 12-team, Even in like a 10 team league, you can get left out and have to settle for second-rate production.

In a way we weren't seeing as often during the juice ball era, when a lot of times it was smallish middle infielders benefiting and turning into power hitters themselves. And that made for a lot more talent to go around at those traditionally weak positions. So it's at the forefront of my mind in every draft. and so it was disappointing to me that I had to take a DH Shohei Otani with my first bag

and obviously he can play starting pitcher as well but you can only choose each week where you're going to start him and usually it's going to be DH so that doesn't help with position scarcity at all but I knew there was no reason to reach for a third baseman there because both Manny Machado Raphael Devers were still on the board

and one of them would make it back to me early in round two it happened to be Devers who I like even more than Machado. But then the next picks after that, Witt, who Chris took Machado, Riley. There was a string of four third basement off the board there early in round two, which I think was also a reflection

of position scarcity. And then this is the third mock draft we've done this year for CBS. And even though I've said my number one priority in drafts this year is to draft one of Jose Al-2 and Marcus Simeon in round three with Ozzy Albee's also there as a fallback option one of those three really in round three I have yet to actually do it because it's such a narrow window to like I don't want to reach in round two and do it because the quality of players at other positions is still too high you know especially third base that's a good time to fill third base but waiting until round four is also clearly too long and it turns out in this draft the 10th pick of round three was two late for me to take any of Altuvae, Simeon, and Albies. So I had to take Francesco Lendor, also not a

scarce position, shortstop. So even though I was trying to play the position scarcity game, it only worked out with one of my first three picks. Ideally, my first three picks would be something like outfielder, third base, second base, and cover the three weakest positions with my first three picks, but that's not how it played out. And so I was struggling to fill the outfields and didn't get the quality of second baseman I wanted either. You know, one thing, I guess two thoughts. One, one thing I'm going to have to remind myself, and I'm going to try to remind everyone of, with regards to Marcus Simeon since you mentioned it, because I'm just like going to just do this every time we talk about him. He's probably going to have a bad April. I just, I really think,

like if the reality that we saw last season where the ball just does not travel in April and then it takes a little while for that to change, he is incredibly reliant on those short pulled fly balls turning into home runs. And when they don't, if the ball's not traveling as far, Marcus Simmons probably going to have a bad April and you're just going to have to live with that because he's probably still going to be very, very good from that point on just like he was last season. So just that's one thing I want to keep in mind. And then the other thing is like if you take Shohei Otani in the first round,

you know, Scott, I think you kind of touched on this. Does that make it even more important for you to get the positional scarcity guy, especially at third base with one of your next two picks? Yeah, I mean, every pick, but especially if I've already used up my DH spot. I hate using the DH bot that early. Yeah, it's tough. Even late in the draft, even after I'd already filled second base and was filling out the outfield, it's like, honestly, there were a lot of middle infielders who I like the value of who I wanted to be able

to stick at utility in that DH spot and I had already filled shortstop, second base and my middle infield spot, short stops mainly. I'm talking about not second basement, obviously. And I could do it because I had Otani there. So it's annoying, but he's obviously a first rounder.

I would rather have him than Vladimir Guerrero or Freddie Freeman who went with the next two picks. So it's just you're confined to some degree by your turn order and I happen to pick 10th in this draft. Yeah, it is tough. The Otani thing, man, especially if you play in a deeper league too,

if you play in a 15-team league and you're using your first round pick on Shohei Otani, when you know you're going to have so many other positional needs throughout the draft, it is tough, but at some point you've got to do it because, I mean, we see what his upside is, right? Year in and year out, it's a top-10 pitcher. It's a top-10 hitter in the game. Now he's entering a contract year. I mean, I won at least one share of Otani this year because I think he could just go absolutely ballistic, which is something he's already done.

Another reason, let's jump back over to pitching here. UC drafters waiting on pitching is value. Again, if everyone in the draft has the same mindset, then of course it's going to cause a bunch of pitcher value. But look at some of these names and where they went. In round four, we had Shane McClanahan. Here comes the money. Here we go. Money talk.

Here comes the money. I was wondering why you put purple in parentheses in the notes, and I'm realizing that that must be your... Yeah. Yeah. I have a sound board with a bunch of colors. You're a little mini board, yeah. So, yeah, it's easier to remember that way. But hey, our first here comes the money of the year, so we had to do it.

Round four, Shane O'Mack, Brandon Woodruff, Carlos Rodon, Aranola. Round five, Zach Wheeler, Shane Bieber, Spencer Strider, Alec Minowa, Dylan Seas went to Scott, and Julio O'Reas. Round six, Max Freed went to Scott. Kevin Gawson went to Chris, Luis Castillo, and you Darvish. I mean, rounds four through six, they are just so plentiful. You could wait until rounds four or five, like Scott did, and you can get an SP1 that you could still feel really, really good about. So that's another reason why I think people are kind of leaning into drafting hitters

with their first two or maybe even their first three picks. Chris, I wanted to ask you, when you hear some of these names, and obviously you took Gawzman as your SP2 in round six, do you regret taking a Max Scherzer at the end of round three over another elite type hitter like a Lindor or Randy Roserina or Luis Roberts type? No, especially not when you put it as Francisco Lindor, Randy or Roserana and Louise Robert.

Like, look, those are fine players, but like you can say, oh, you can get an SP1 in round five. And like, technically that's true because there are, if you define SP1 as the first 12 starting pitchers who are taken. One of them, you know, all 12 of them are SP ones. But like, I think there is a difference between, you know, SP4 or 5 and SP8 or 9, let alone 12 or 13.

You know, I think what you see and I think my philosophy with starting pitcher this year is probably going to be kind of an hero SP approach, which is what I did in this draft basically where I took one ace, you know, Kevin Gosman, a kind of ace, and then I'm just going to wait on starting pitcher because I think what you don't want to do is push the guys who can pitch like an ace but have never shown that they can do it for 180 innings

or the guys who can throw 190 innings, but they're fine. You know, like a Spencer Strider in the first category or I don't know, Zach Wheeler would be a good character or a good choice for that, but, you know, a Gosser Gossmann, who's like going to give you good production over a lot of innings, but, you know, there's definitely production performance question marks.

I'd rather just get a guy like Max Scherzer who, yes, he has missed some time over the past couple of seasons, only through 145 innings last season, but like I think has a better chance of reaching 190 than Shane McClain or Spencer Strider to us. So I would rather get pay for the guys who have proven to be elite guys with the volume as well then try to fill out my pitching stat or get my elite pitchers from the let's hope they can do it group, I guess is how I would put it. I guess for me, I look at the, and I've talked about how there's like a tier of seven at the top of the starting pitcher rankings. I put McClanahan in that. I put DeGrom in that.

But part of the reason it's seven and part of the reason I actually put ancient guys like Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer at the top. of that tier of seven, which is not something you're going to see in too many people's rankings, is because I look at all of those guys and I have concerns. Like more than for the top ranked pitchers in past years, I guess is what I'm getting at. Like even Garrett Cole, he's come to be an ERA liability with his propensity for home runs at Yankee Stadium. I mentioned the ancient guys, you know, Shane McClainahan, the fact he hasn't. built up a big workload yet and faded down the stretch when he tried. Jacob de Grom, his concerns are obvious.

I guess there's Corbyn Burns there who seems like the safest among them, but a year ago we weren't talking about him being a safe guy for workload. So I don't know. I don't feel confident enough in the advantage any of those guys is theoretically going to give me that I wouldn't just take a Shane Bieber type instead, or Alec Manoa, or, you know, Max Free's, more, I took Max Fried as my number two here in round six. So I, I like that approach better. It may turn out great for you to, to take a Scherzer in round three. Obviously, we've seen what he

can do if he holds up for a full 200 innings, but it's been a few years since he's done that. All right, let's quickly recap your teams within this draft. And we'll start with Scott. Again, he was drafting 10th overall. Your infield, Travis Darno and Francisco Alvarez, a catcher. Routi Tellez at first, Andres Jimenez at second. Scott, don't be so hard on yourself. I kind of like Andres Jimenez. I think that's fine. Raphael Devers at third base,

Francisco Lindor at short, Willie Adamas at middle infield, and Josh Young at corner infield. Seems pretty well balanced. Scott, I would say maybe you're lacking batting average. Was there anything that you liked or disliked about your infield? It's fine. It's fine.

I'd rather have a better second baseman. Andres Hamana is like, if he just does what he did last year, then that's fine. I guess the key with him is I don't trusted to do what he did last year. He was one of the biggest overachievers, according to stat cast.

And I just don't have the same level of confidence that I have in like Jose Altuve or Marcus Simeon even. I do like Rowdy Telez. I think he could be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the shift ban. But I'd rather have him as like a corner infielder than my starting first baseman. And I waited until the very, very, very end. of the first base rank, the part of the first base rankings where I feel comfortable taking the guy as my starter.

Routi Tilless probably a little outside of that even. So I really went the bargain basement route, even though it's a player I like. It doesn't inspire a lot of confidence there either. But Francisco Lindor is probably about as good of a shortstop as I'll end up drafting because, you know, that's not a position I'm prioritizing early because it's pretty deep. Willie Adama's the fact that I got him as my middle infielder. More likely he'll be somebody I drafted me my starting shortstop. But, you know, overall it's fine. It's not what I, it's not necessarily what I planned, but I'm okay with it.

I can work with it. In the outfield, you had Luis Robert, Hunter Renfro, Mitch Hanager, Lordis Gariel, and my man, Oscar Colos, as your fifth outfielder, Shohay Otani was your utility bat. And Scott, you mentioned you had Lindor, you had Willie Adama, so your middle infield was pretty beefed up. In hindsight, would you have maybe passed on Adamas to take a better outfield two, like a Christian Yellage, a Chris Bryant, or Jake McCarthy, someone who went in that round nine range?

I mean, think about those names you just said. Not the most exciting. Right. Yeah, a lot has to go, a lot more has to go right for them than for Willie Adama's to make that pick worthwhile. So I think that's where you get, that's where you get into overplaying the position. game if you make that choice. Like that, the Yelich Bryant class, that is outside the group of outfielders that I feel comfortable.

Like that's after the big drop-off. I refer to a big drop-off in the outfield. They're outside of it. And so it's already happened at that point. So just take a good play or somewhere else. That's the way I saw it. And at that point, in the draft, I only had Luis Robert, my one-and-only outfielder. I took them in round four.

he has durability concerns. So it's not like I can feel amazing even about that pick. But yeah, I would say my biggest regretti, I brought up the second base thing. I think the bigger regret is that I wasn't able to get, I wasn't able to fill in more of my outfield early because of how early that drop-off comes

and how steep it is. So, you know, it's not like it wasn't top of mind in draft. it just didn't work out for me at the spot where I was picking. The pitchers that Scott wound up with, Dylan Sees, Max Freed, Trista McKenzie, Charlie Morton, can't quit. What's dead may never die. Tyler Anderson, Miles Michaelis as the starters, and then Felix Batista, Alexis Diaz, and Pete Fairbanks as the relievers, which I absolutely love. If I could come away from every roto draft this year with those three or something like that, I would love it. Pete Fairbanks at 2002nd overall, I think is a steal.

I was going to write them up as a breakout, but I decided against writing up a reliever. So, yeah, Pete Fairbanks is awesome. Let's quickly wrap up with Scott, Chris's team, rather, who was picking ninth overall in this draft. The infield, Alejandro Kirk, M.J. Melendez at catcher, Vinnie Pasquantino at first, Brandon Lau at second, Bobby Witt, Jr. at third. Wander Franco at short, C.J. Abrams at Middle Infield, and Anthony Rendon at Corner. Chris, I don't know if you realize this, but you have a lot of royals and rays on this team. Yeah.

What more do you need, right? But it's actually really fun. I mean, I really like this infield. Maybe not the combination of that many players on specific teams. But I really like those players overall. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting because it's a group of players that historically and even this season, I don't necessarily love. You know, Melendez, it's going to make the same joke because you can always hear the cops behind me. They're called the cops on me for having too many royals.

Like Melendez is on my bus list, but my bus list is very specifically, Melendez and Bobby Witt, both on my bus list, but my bus list is very specifically about early values and how people are being drafted right now. And Melendez is a top 100 pick right now. That doesn't make sense to me because there's a clear batting average floor that could be catastrophic for him. But 129th, it starts to be a little easier for me to,

to stomach that, especially with a very strong batting average in Alejandro Kirk there. And, you know, I was surprised, Frank, that you didn't have Vinnie Pasquantino in your breakouts column because I wrote, Vinnie Pasquantino is just going to be in every single breakouts column for the 2020-23 fantasy baseball season. And I saw you had already written yours, so I went and checked. And, well, fact check, not true, I guess. But there's so much to like about him. I think he could be an Anthony Rizzo type hitter for the next, you know, five to 10 years. Really love the skill sets there. So yeah, definitely not intentional to grab Rays and Royals,

but the way it worked out, I think it's okay. Vinnie P. Baby, he was in consideration for my breakouts column. In fact, I wrote about two players, Nick Ladolo and Lars Nupar, who I said, these are everyone's favorite breakouts this year. Guess what? Kristen didn't have either of those names in his breakout column. But I do. Basically, all the guys you're talking about leaving out of each other's columns,

I have them all in mind. You know, best of all worlds right here. Hey, there's something good about group think, right? I've always said you were the, you were the Miley Cyrus of our podcast. There you go. For the outfield on Chris's team, he had Kyle Tucker, Eloy Jimenez, Jake McCarthy, Nick Castellanos, and Riley Green. Love it.

Ramon Luriano at Utility. Maybe you worry about the counting stats a bit, Chris. I mean, the Royals, the Rays and National, a tiger and aes hitter. But I mean, the collection. That's kind of what I like about Elo Jimenez here. Yeah. is like, at the very least, I'm going to get a lot of RBI from it. Yeah.

And then the pitchers for you, you had Max Scherzer, Kevin Gosman, Pablo Lopez, Chris Sale, Patrick Sandoval, John Gray, Reid Dettmers, Edward Cabrera as a starters, and just Edwin Diaz as the reliever. I mean, there's a good amount of injury risk, but your entire group of starters, I would say, Scherz-Lopez, Sale, John Gray has injury risk, Edward Cabrera, too. They're all pretty exciting pitchers, though. I do like John Gray quite a bit myself as well. But you only wound up with one enclosure. Was that on purpose or you just kind of forget? No, I mean, when half to two thirds of the closers are probably going to lose their job at some point during the course of the season, I'm kind of fine with getting one of the really, really good ones who's definitely not going to lose his job unless he gets hurt and just figure it out from there,

especially when it's not going to cost me, you know, a second round pick like it wouldn't NFBC. Yeah, I think Edwin Diaz was my fourth round pick. I'm fine with that. Yeah, fourth round pick. You took him 40th overall. And yeah, he was the first closer off the board. You know, maybe you take a few stabs later on. But hey, I mean, if you want to go the hero closer route,

something you mentioned with hero starting pitcher, I think that's a perfectly fine strategy. And then just kind of load up on some upside spec closers later on in your draft. If you want to see the complete results, again, you could do that at the link, which is in the podcast and the YouTube description. but we're going to wrap there. For Scott and Chris, I am Frank,

thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye!