Fantasy Baseball Today - Roto Strategy & Mailbag! Skill Improvements & Deep Sleepers (3/18 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 18, 2023

Let's start off with 5x5 Roto strategy (1:40)! ... Can you punt a category in Roto (5:35)? ... What's the best way to balance categories (12:18)? ... Let's get into your mailbag questions, starting with third basemen in OBP (14:20). ... How can you identify skill improvements (16:00)? Who are some players that could improve this year? ... What's the latest on the Braves' fifth starter job (23:27)? ... Who are some deep sleepers we all like (30:25)? ... We answer some questions on pitching strategy (48:30). ... Let's wrap up with your keeper questions (48:30). 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.  Fantasy Baseball Today is a finalist in the Baseball Category for the Sports Podcast Awards! Quickly create an account and vote here: https://www.sportspodcastgroup.com/sports_category/best-baseball-podcast/ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi 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. What's up and welcome in to another mailbag edition of Fantasy Baseball today. Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White and Chris Towers.

Today on the show I promised you that we would get 5 by 5 Roto Strategy. and that's what we'll do. We'll start off with that a little bit later on, followed by your mailbag questions. Thanks again to those watching us live on YouTube. Please like this video and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the podcast side,

make sure to download, follow, and leave a five-star review. We do really appreciate it. And once again, before we get started, mentioned the other day a fun announcement. Fantasy baseball today is a finalist in the baseball category for the sports podcast awards and we are going up against some big names and it is a voting system which means that

we need your help. You can scan the QR code in the top right corner if you're watching on video or you can find the link in the podcast or YouTube description. You'll need to quickly create an account on their website which I know is annoying but doesn't take that long. It takes like 30 seconds and then vote for FPT. Voting ends April 6th and we would really appreciate it if you can vote for us. Let's get into some 5-5-Roto strategy, the most traditional way to play fantasy baseball, using the standard 5-5 categories. Batting average, home runs, run scored, RBI, and steals. On the pitching side, ERA, whip, wins, strikeouts, and saves.

Lineups are a little bit deeper. We've got 14 hitters, nine pitchers. It's a two-catcher format. Some of you listening to this who play head-to-categories or head-to-head points might think that we are crazy. playing in a two-catcher format. Honestly, we might be. Five outfielders, one utility spot, one of each infield position,

a corner and a middle, and then nine pitcher spots, which you can divvy up however you want. Six starters, three relievers, seven starters, two relievers. And I think the point here is to build the most balanced team as you possibly can. So, Scott, we'll start with you.

Do you have a general strategy in Roto? Do you maybe focus on the rates that's more like batting average, ERA, and whip? because I've noticed later on in the season, if you are trailing in those categories, they are pretty hard to make up. Yeah, so I don't know that I have kind of a standing rule for that, but this year I have tried to,

I've tried, you know, obviously I've played the position scarcity game mainly. That's what I'm looking to do in the early rounds, but kind of a secondary goal of mine is to not, get questionable batting average sources with those early picks. That's part of the reason why I don't like drafting Bobby Witt in round two. Why that's my least favorite of those stud third baseman. I always hope someone else takes them instead

because you can get batting beverage specialist late in the draft, but they're likely going to contribute not much of anything else. Like they may help and run scored. But they're not going to give you power. They're probably not going to give you speed. I'm thinking like Luis Arias and Jeff

McNeil types. Like, they're there, but you're going to have to sacrifice so much that you'll wish you just invested in that category early when the kind of players who were providing a batting average were doing a lot of other things well as well. So that is when I focus on early. But I mean, I feel like we're kind of in a place now where there's nothing you can, at least on the hitting side, that you can safely neglect early. in recent years, there's been such an emphasis on stolen bases early because they were becoming scarcer and fewer players were contributing them.

I kind of felt like rotodrafts were trending toward, oh, just draft all the base Steelers until the base dealers are gone and then you can worry about other things. But I think with the rule changes this year to encourage more base stealing, with home runs becoming scarcer now, with the deadened ball being introduced last year, I think home runs are just as critical to that's just as critical of the need to meet early. And I think it's kind of something that's being overlooked. We've talked about how there are only 23, 30 homer guys last year, and the last of them available is Rowdy Telez. That's still mid-draft. So nobody who had 30 homers is available after Telez goes off the board. We've talked about how Hunter Renfro still a top.

30 outfielder, I think, for most of us, is one of the last players being drafted who you feel like you can pencil in for 30 home runs. So it's not like you can neglect anything in the early rounds. It's just, I don't feel like the batting average guys, the early round batting average guys are inflated because of their batting average. They're just, it's just more that there are these suspect batting average guys sprinkled in that I try to avoid. Chris, something we talked about when discussing head-to-head category strategy is that you can punt a category and you can still win. On a weekly basis, you can win your entire league, punting one or even multiple categories, if we're being honest. Can you do it in roto? I think it's possible, but it's a lot harder to pull off.

If you finish last in any category, you basically need to average a third place finish in all of the other nine categories. So is it something that you try and do or try and avoid, I guess? The math gets tricky. Yeah, that's the big thing. You think about probably first place in a Roto League, you're probably looking at like 85 to 90 category points to win your Roto League. And so you just start to do the math.

If you get one point from stolen bases, well, then you've got to get 85 or 84 from the other nine categories. You start to do the math. Like you said, that's big. basically a third place finish, probably a first or second place finish in a couple of other categories as well. It's just really hard to pull off. So when you talk about punting a category in Roto, you know, I do think it's possible to punt a category during the draft and not punt the category for the season. Like you can punt save specifically in your draft and still end up

middle of the pack. Because middle of the pack and saves in most of your leagues is probably going to be something like 40 saves. I mean, it's a pretty, it's going to be a pretty low number. I don't, I haven't done the, the roto category targets thing this year, unfortunately. So I don't have the specific numbers from last year, but, you know, just looking at like our Memorial Magazine draft last year, uh, middle of the pack and saves was 55. So that's two saves per week, basically over the course of the season.

That's pretty doable, but it's obviously much easier if you have, well, we would have said Edwin Diaz. It's kind of an interesting spot now where two of the stalwart at the position, Edwin Diaz and Liam Hendricks are probably off the table

for saves. And those saves are going to come from somewhere, you know, David Robertson or Adamadovino, maybe Kendall Graveman for the White Sox, but, you know, we don't know exactly who those guys are going to be, but it's a lot easier when you can pencil in 35 saves from one guy, and then you only have to get one save per week to basically be in the middle of the pack. I think it's probably easiest to punt saves and steals if you're going to,

because those are discrete categories that tend to have relatively low numbers that you need to compete, although it's worth pointing out, saves middle of the pack was probably around 100 last year in a 12 team league. That number is going to be higher this year because there are going to be more saves around the league. So you probably need... Steals. Steals. Sorry, yes. Steels.

So you're probably going to need more like 120 to be middle of the pack in steals and probably 50-ish again in saves. So like you can survive being middle of the pack in those categories, but it's... Yeah. So you're not even talking about

a true punt with steals and saves. You're just saying not. Yeah. And I think it's worth making a point of there's a difference between punting in a draft and punting for the season. And it's hard. You know, I think in steals, it's probably harder to make up that in season than it is because there are just so few viable steals options who are also not going to hurt you. You know, Jorge Mateo stole a lot of bases last season, but he kind of killed you in four other categories,

whereas there will be saves on the waiver wire and a lot of them. Yeah, I mean, you could luck into a big stolen base source who maybe is in on people's radar at the start, like a Sal Freelick. Maybe he gets called up early by the Brewers and ends up running a lot for him. And he alone takes a big bite out of that steals category, makes up several spots.

in the standings there. And the other thing about saves and steals is the players, a lot of the players who contribute them, or at least, what's the better way of putting it, those two contributions happen independently of the other contributions. Like home runs impact all of the other hitting categories, except for stolen bases. Stolen bases are kind of on an island there

and saves sort of the same way among the pitching categories. So that's another reason why you could at least think about going light in those categories. I have never been compelled to do like a true punt in the category. And I know it's possible to win that way to just accept, okay, I'm only going to get one point in this category. And you have to do that much better in all the other categories. People have won that way. but to me you're kind of like putting yourself in a corner you know where everything else has to go so right and there's not much maneuverability towards your path to victory so i never do it in instances where i've just kind of accidentally done it i just missed out on all the base deals missed out on all the saved sources but i yeah i'm trying to think of a situation where i had a good season doing that i don't think so i think maybe Maybe there have been times where I've not really invested heavily in saves, just kind of took a few prospective save targets.

And over the course of the season, I was able to piece together enough saves to finish fairly high in the category and win the league. It's getting harder to do that because there are so many split save situations throughout bullpens across the league guys sharing to close a role that you can't. You can't be that assured of finding a big saves accumulator off the waiver wire. And plus, the competition for them is getting fiercer too, particularly if you're talking about a weekly fab situation. Any new prospective save sources emerge. The bidding tends to get very high, and it's a low probability bid because you have to act so early on, oh, this guy got a save Wednesday. Maybe he's next in line.

Last point that I want to make on Roto is just a reminder. you only need to win a category by one statistic. That's all you need to do. So in terms of roster construction, say you draft a Bobby Wood Jr. in the second round, you probably also don't want to have Corbyn Carroll and Esté Ari Ruiz and a bunch of other speedsters on your team. You only need to win steals by one in the category.

You don't need to win it by, you don't get a prize by winning it for winning it by 40 steals. So keep that in mind when building your roster. And I think also when trading in season, if you have an abundance of home runs and you are lacking batting average or steals, then that's a very clear, you know, obvious trade that you want to try and make. So keep that in mind. And Chris, I think also to keep it in mind for pitching,

where if you build up a big lead in terms of wins and strikeouts, then maybe you want to start to work in a few more relievers in that second half of the season just to try and pick up more saves. Maybe go with like five starters and four relievers, something like that, just to make up ground in the same. saves category. Yeah, absolutely. That's the thing is that none of this is static.

The team that you draft is not the team you carry through the rest of the season. And your strengths on draft day are not the strengths or weaknesses that you're going to have all seasons. So yeah, you just, you have to be willing to be flexible. You have to be willing to, you know, make changes when you notice them. And also, you know, it's important to note that a strategy can really depend on what type of league you're playing in because there are some leagues that, you know, don't allow trading in an overall competition or something like that. So that that's another one that, you know,

that's, that's a part of the strategy as well. Because in those kind of leagues, the, the team that you draft is going to be the one that you carry for most of the season. Your opportunities to make changes are going to be limited. All right. Well, that's it for Roto. Let's get into your mailbag questions. And we are starting off. with some emails. This one is from Omar. How would you all rank the following third basement in a six-by-six head-to-ed categories league with the extra-hitting category being OBP? Does Scott stand by Devers first in this format?

Devers, Machado, Austin Riley, and Bobby Witt, Jr. Scott, I believe you were faced with this question in Tout Wars, which is OBP, and you actually took Machado first. Yeah, I did. OBP, that league was OBP instead of batting average. this sounds like it's OBP in addition to batting average, so it's kind of double-counting batting average in a way. But obviously this makes Witt clearly the fourth.

I think he is anyway, because he is terrible at OBP. Riley's not so great at OBP either. As for Machado and Devers, yeah. So the main advantage Devers has over Machado, I think, is there's a higher batting average ceiling. Like I think Devers' batting average could range from 280 to 320. I think Machado's batting average could range from 260 to 300. That's kind of how I view the two of them.

So, I mean, Machado actually ended up with the better batting average of the two last year, I believe. But Devers, I think, has, you know, the higher ceiling overall there. But Machado does walk a little bit more than Devers. So that closes the gap. And it's already such a, for me, it's already, you know, kind of splitting hairs between the two because Machado might contribute some steals. Devers won't. So in this format, yeah, I'd go, I'd go Machado over Devers. This next one's from Robert. Chris has given me players like Corbin Burns and Brandon Woodruff because of some skills they had improved. And Scott has given me

Jesse Winker the year he was great. Yordaun Alvarez in his first year of awesome productivity, saying he was pretty much Mike Trout and a small sample, etc. They argued for why they were just awesome players and the focus wasn't so much on their ADP or value versus their ADP or price. I don't know if I'm reading that right. This year, most of the analysis has focused on value and not on skill changes or improvement for players. Yet this is the area where I think you shine the most as a podcast. Can you identify some players who have shown skill improvements, changes, or some reasons why some players are just awesome? Yeah, I mean, I think this is more or less the breakouts, right because sleepers are very price relevant busts are very price relevant breakouts you know the way we tend to talk about them we don't worry so much about price you know i tend to be a little even more not price sensitive i don't know what the what the word i'm looking for there i just completely blanked but i tend to not care about price at all when i'm talking about breakouts and i'll i'll call a second round or a breakout if i think they're going to have the best season in their career bobby whit can be a breakout candidate for sure this

year. So, you know, this is, that's sort of what you're talking about here is breakouts. And so, like, when I think about this, I think about guys that we actually have, I think spent a lot of time talking about this preseason guys like O'Neill Cruz, who just, he's such an out, like, there are obvious limitations to his skill set. And you can poke holes in his game. But like, the upside outcome for O'Neill Cruz is as good as just about anybody in the game because he's got such freakish skills. I think of Ilo Jimenez, who, you know, has established himself, I think, as a, one, very injury-prone player, but two, a very, very productive hitter who specializes in hitting for contact with power

at a rate that not a lot of hitters do. So he's someone who I think, you know, could take a big step forward just by staying healthy. Christian Walker was one of the most improved hitters in baseball last season, but I do think he kind of gets saddled with a little bit of like a one-year wonder kind of penalty. And I don't know if that's fair. He's actually been pretty good three out of the last four seasons, 824, 792, 804 OPS, and it's three of the last four seasons. But, you know, certainly last season he was someone who took a big step forward and you can

argue should have been even better based on the expected stats, 359 X Wobah compared to a 3-4-6 mark. Yes, he plays in a tough park, and that's going to make it hard for him to live up to that. But I think there's still room for Christian Walker to improve on what he did on last season. And then I'll go with three starting pitchers who I love to talk about, Dustin May, Reed Detmer's, and Patrick Sandoval. May and Sandoval in particular, we've talked a lot about, you know, May, ever since the start of 2021, we've only seen about 70 innings,

been getting the strikeouts that he wasn't before that while maintaining the very, very good quality of contact suppression metrics. If he can put that together for 150 innings, I think Dustin May could be a, gosh, I don't know if I want to say a Spencer Strider type contributor this season because he's not going to get that many strikeouts, but like the impact of a Christian Javier last season, I think Dustin May could give us that. Reed Detmer's, Scott, I know you love him. He had a, I think it was like a 304 ERA after coming back from the miners and tweaking that slider.

His FIP was actually even better than that, which is hard to do. And now he's apparently throwing about two miles an hour harder in spring training. That Patrick Sandoval is a guy that, you know, we've talked about a lot. Changeup has been his bread and butter, but he didn't really have the feel for it last season in the way that he did the year before. That forced him to rely on his slider, which actually became a very good. pitch for him. He went from throwing it about 13% of the time, I think, in 2021 to about 30% of it was his most used pitch last season. Good quality of contact metrics, good swing and miss metrics on that one. If he can get the change up and slider working at the same time, I think

Patrick Sandoval could take a big step forward. He had kind of a good ERA last season, but he wasn't all that good. I think we could see like 28% strikeout rate, good ERA, improved whip from last year. I think Patrick Sanabal is someone that I think just could take a skill step. I think with pitchers in particular, if you can identify those that either made a pitch makes change or improve their velocity or in the case of Redetmer's, I guess doing both of those things, I think that matters a lot.

And I saw an article, we're recording this on Thursday, saw an article about Robbie Ray so far in spring training where his velocity has been up and he's got a new splitter that he's incorporating as well. We know that he's always had a pretty hard, basketball and a really good slider. I mean, if the Velassey's up, mixing in a splitter, I haven't really been on Robbie Ray,

but that's kind of interesting to me. So that's the end of off-Rop. You guys are kind of out on him. I know Frank more so, but I'm fine with him as my number two starting pitcher. I've got him in that like 20-ish range, I'm pretty sure at starting pitcher. And I don't

really, it's not a guy that I need to see good things from in spring training, but I'll welcome them. I love to hear good things about a player I already like. Love confirmation bias. Another pitcher in that mold is Joe Ryan that we've heard good things about

adding two different pitches, I think a sweeper and a splitter as well and velocity being up for him. Pablo Lopez, we talked about him recently. Velocity was up. It was one star. I think he only threw three or four innings so maybe he just emptied the tank

for those three or four. So don't want to overrate that, but he's throwing a new improved sweeper type curveball. drink every time you hear the word sweeper. It's just like... Well, that's the trendy pitch. In fact, Stackass actually made it

its own separate classification. Right. It's like... It's just a new pitch that's entered the conversation in baseball now. Its own separate pitch. Yeah. Also, I mean, the reports that Patrick Sandoval

has regained the feel for his change up after losing it last year, I think that's notable. Just on the subject, of other breakout players because of the skills, the underlying skills. Vinnie P. baby. Yes.

Got to bring him on. Absolutely. He's much better expected stats than his actual stats. Pull heavy profile. So it should lead to pretty good power production, even in a very tough park. I think Vinny P is kind of one of the more obvious breakout candidates. And then Lars Neupar,

who has a lot of, helium right now as well. Last name I'll mention is Rwanzi Contreras with the Pirates who does have some prospect pedigree. When he came up late last season, he was throwing a slider nearly 40% of the time, and that is far and away his best pitch. So I'd like to see him leaning into that as well. Let's take our first break here, and we'll be back on fantasy baseball today. This next question is from Nick.

I think it's a good one for Scotty. Keep up the great work, guys. You make draft season so much more enjoyable. Two questions for you. What is Jared Schencher? Chuster's value if he breaks camp with the Braves, is he must roster given the successes of Kyle Wright and Wascar E. Noah when they first came up. I think sometimes we get a little bit lazy with these comps

where it's like, oh, just because a player in the past on a certain team had success when, you know, not when they first got called up because Kyle Wright was up before that, but does that mean it will happen for future pitchers? I don't think that's necessarily the case, but there are other reasons to like Jared Schuster. Scott, what do you think? Yeah, so first I want to say that I'm not confident

and is going to go to Jared Schuster. Dylan Dodd has been making a very strong impression as well, and I might be even more excited about him. But Schuster is somebody who has performed well in the minors, who was a first-round pick by the same head of scouting who drafted Michael Harris and Spencer Strider, and now he's he did such a good job

in that role for the Braves that he's now the Astros GM so like even though Jared Schuster isn't somebody who has a lot of prospect shine just based on the production and based on how the organization feels

about him I could see him being I could see him surpassing expectations he is more of a crafty lefty I'm throw his low 90s I don't know what crafty translates. He's not Jamie Moyer, but he throws low 90s, so not especially hard.

It's more he has a great change up, and I think he's developed a good enough breaking ball that that might be enough. But like I said, I think I like Dylan Dodd even more. Either one, whoever wins this role for the Braves, whether it's Schuster or Dodd, I, we're talking probably not worth drafting in a standard 12 team league, probably just a little outside of that, more like monitoring early in the season to see if they're worth picking up. The second question here, I have the eighth pick in a 10-team head-to-head points league with daily lineups. I'm really intrigued with taking Fernando Tatis with my second pick given the potential

upside, but feel I'd be doing a disservice to myself to take someone who's suspended and also been out for a while over someone with a safer floor who may be available in shall wear drafts like Freddie Freeman, Mike Trout, Raphael Devers, or Mani Machado. Chris, you are our resident Fernando Tatis advocate. What do you think about taking him? I guess that would be 12th overall, not 13th overall. Yeah, it's a little early, tad bit. I have him 12, so it's not early for me. And I think you're kind of thinking about it in the opposite direction emailer, whose name Nick. The shallower your league is, I think the more upside you should be chasing because the floor is always going to be relatively high. The replacement level on your waiver wire in a 10-team points league is going to be really high.

You're going to be talking about really viable starting caliber players that are out there. Obviously, they're not going to replace Mani Machado if something happens to Fernando Tatis. But like, it's very unlikely in a 10-team head-to-head points league that you're going to be really in a hole for three weeks without Fernando Tatis. And once he gets back, he might be the best player, even in head-to-head points lead. So I think I'm, I still like the idea of taking him there. I think he's like the perfect, if you pick late in the first round, he's the perfect second round pick pretty much for, for any team build and any format and anything that you want to do.

I just think the upside is so high that it's worth chasing there. This next one is from Chris. Towers? Different Chris. Chris Welsh. There you go. It's from Chris Welsh. Dynasty head to head categories. Actually, it makes sense now. It's a dynasty question. Should I trade Tim Anderson for Chris Sale?

I have Tatis, Wander Franco, and Tommy Edmund at shortstop, but realize Tatee and Edmund may lose shortstop after this year, trying to win this season. Tim Anderson for sale. Why, Wander won't lose after this year? Correct. I mean, just at face value, it's not an even. in trade to Manderson in a categories league pretty much always gets drafted ahead of sale is it close enough that

to meet your team's needs it might be worth doing yeah I mean I'd shop I'd shop Tim Anderson a little harder to do what kind of alternatives are out there if you could do better than sale and I like sale a lot I think some people listening to this are like why would you bother with sale he's always hurt but I don't feel that way I think that the injuries he dealt with last year were more fluke accidents than injury suffered in the process of playing baseball.

So I could see doing this, but I'd shop Anderson a little harder at first. You don't have to take the first offer that comes your way. I will also say you don't have to make a trade right now. And Tim Anderson seems like a guy who could very quickly rebuild his value. And same for Chris Sale, actually. But, you know, when you're talking about trade value, part of it is what part of of the curve you're trading a guy on. I think you're probably trading Tim Anderson closer to the low point of his value than the

high point. He's someone who could absolutely come out, light the world on fire in April, and all of a sudden you have a much more valuable trade asset. So, you know, if you, maybe you can't start all of Anderson, Wander Franco, and Tommy Edmund, but like you've got Tatis. So you've got a lineup spot to play with for three weeks. So I might wait and see what happens there. You know, wait until Tatis is back before you have to make a decision.

And even Edmund's flexibility should give you a little bit of breathing room there as well. This next one's from Eric, dear Mo, Greg, and Andrew. Well, those are Vaughns, obviously. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I loved which one. I think it was Mo Vaughn, right? He had the interesting batting stance where he would just like just crouched and real, yeah. Just barely look over his right arm while he was batting.

I love that girl. I don't know how he made that work. Yeah. I believe there were brothers, weren't they, Greg and Mo? That I do not know. Let me confirm. O'Von, Greg Vaughn, Brothers. He is the cousin.

Is that true? Okay. Yeah, it looks like that's correct. Anywho, here's the question. When I Googled Greg Vaughn, I got the star of the young and the rest list first. So not related to Movaun, that one. I play in a 20 team of Roto League and, in-person auction draft.

It's a five outfield, their league with a corner infield spot, middle infield spot, two catchers, and the regular positions along with nine pitching slots. 20 teams with two catchers? I mean,

why? Why? Do you have any deep league sleepers that you would try and target at a reasonable price? Love the show and really enjoy your insight. Scott, I believe that you have a deep sleeper article

either out or coming out soon. I don't know if you've started gathering those names anywhere but do you guys have any at the top of your head okay so this is going 40 deep at catcher

I'm not sure even in the Deep Sleepers article I'm going to have a lot of names that you're not already familiar with in this size league I think just like generally undervalued who are going outside the top 300 Eric Haas

is supposed to be the primary catcher for Detroit and has big power and finish last year strong. Christian Bethancourt, who I think is going to get the majority of the playing time there for the raise, has a little bit of speed too to go along with decent pop. Nick Fortez of the Marlins, if he can secure more playing time there. I mean, these are kind of two catcher leagues just for 15 team leagues. Yeah, 15 team, two catcher formats. These guys tend to get drafted there.

I would also suggest not overlooking Mitch Garver, who probably isn't beginning the year with catcher eligibility. He's probably DH only, but he's supposed to split his time between catcher and DH. So by week three, I would imagine you could actually use Mitch Garver at catcher. And he still has relative to the position, a lot of upside. This is probably the deepest one. I can recommend Luis Campiucano of the Padres,

who has been a consistent deliverer in their minor league system and has been passed over for a few years, but it looks like he's going to make the roster as the backup to Austin Nola, and it wouldn't take much for him to wrestle away the majority of the playing time there. I think he's definitely the better bet offensively between the two. Two very deep league names. Blake Sable with the San Francisco Giants. He might get some outfield and DH at bats with the team,

but in most leagues I think he has catcher eligibility. Yainer Diaz is one with the Houston Astros, really big numbers in the minors last year. I don't know if Eric wanted only catcher sleepers, so I just wrote down a bunch of names. Yeah, I didn't read it that way. Yeah, I mean, I'm just going to list off a bunch of guys

and you tell me if you like any of these names. But also Francisco Alvarez, before we move on from the catcher sleepers, big upset there. So I wrote down Michael Massey, Elvis Andrus, Bryce Terang, Spencer Steer, Brett Beatie.

Those were some deeper league infielderers I like. Outfielders, Josh Lowe, Alec Thomas, Sal Freelich, Matt Veerling, Stone Garrett, David Peralta, Will Benson. I like Alec Thomas a lot. I like Sal Freelick a lot. Spencer Steer, someone you mentioned in the infielders, I think is a very good choice. Did you mention Jake Frealey? I did not, but I know you like him. Yeah, yeah, his ADP is really low. 328 overall. I think T.J. Friedel is kind of interesting too for the Reds. Look, I'm still putting Alex Kirilloff in this group.

Nobody seems to want to have anything to do with them anymore. I saw a report the other day. He's going to start the season on the I. Okay, well, doesn't mean he's going to finish the season on the I. He may finish the season on the IL, but that's not a reason not to draft him. Here's a guy who went undrafted in my 15 team Roto League. So, you know, that doesn't necessarily mean he'll go undrafted in a 20 team Roto League. but this is, you know, we're talking his ADP is 447.6 in NFC drafts right now,

and that's Trevor Story, who, yeah, you'll have to stash him. We don't know when he's going to be back, but if it ends up being like a June return for him, that could be a hugely impactful player in a 20-team league who is going super, super late. Do, so I don't expect Story back until the second half, but do you expect Frank Kiroloff to play more games than Story this year? No. Really? Well, that would explain why you're not drafting him then.

I would be surprised if Kirillov didn't play more games than story. I'm super pessimistic on Kirillov, Scott. I just, but I do this thing where I kind of overreact and then I just tell myself, no, it's over for this guy. Like, he's just done. I kind of feel that way about Kirillov. I just don't know if the risk is ever going to hold up enough for him to be even a semi-regular player.

I mean, part of the thing is like, I mean, you look at what he did in the mind, last year, Kierloff. And obviously the wrist was still bothering him. I think he needs to get to a point where he says, okay, I've done everything I can do for it. They've, they've freaking shave the bone down to make it smaller. There's nothing more they can be done. If I'm going to have a major league career, I just have to figure out how to play through it. And I think he's kind of, we're kind of at that point with him. If he wants this, he just has to do the best he can with it. Yeah, you're probably right about that. I guess I just kind of fall. on the more negative view of it.

Here's a player who is out of sight, out of mind right now, unless you're watching the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic, but Jerks and ProFar has been linked to the Colorado Rockies. That would obviously be a huge help for his value, but he hasn't signed yet. His 80 piece, 483.1 in NFC drafts. He's someone that, I mean, if he signed with the Rockies, I think he'd definitely be worth drafting in a 12-team league.

So, yeah, Jerks and Proff. ProFar. You know, the Rockies management is just sitting there, Chris, and who's the young player that people are getting excited about on our team? Hmm, Nolan Jones maybe? Let's sign jerks in ProFar. No one's actually getting excited by Nolan Jones. You know, while we're talking about Deep Sleepers, I'll just mention his name as well. A couple of pitchers, Matthew Boyd, Domingo Hermann, Nick Martinez, Kyle Braddish, Jose Suarez, and this guy's been rising, but Brandon Fott with the Arizona Diamondbacks, I think, is someone who should be. should be on your radar. Did you, did you mention Michael Massey? I did, Scott. I led with him in my

infielders. And I assume you mentioned Anthony Volpe, too. I didn't. But I think he's kind of moving into like shallow league discussion. Yeah. But yes, you should draft him as well. How about Mitch Keller and Braxton Garrett, who showed some really interesting skills last season for pitchers. And there was another one that I had here. Oh, Kerry Carpenter, not a pitcher, an outfielder for the Detroit Tigers. He's having a good spring. Put up big numbers in the miners last season. There's stuff to like about him.

Bailey Ober. Yes, they might go six-man rotation now. They might go six-man, the twins, and his fastball velocity. Like, his fastball is always played up beyond the velocity, but his fastball velocity is up a couple miles per hour this spring. Any great controls, the whip should be good. I mean, we can do this all day. Louis Fortease, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher.

I was going to say, how long could we go until we just like... Luke Voigt. So you asked if I'd made my list of deep sleepers yet. It's about a hundred long at this point. So I have to pare it down quite a bit. There's a lot of fun ones, too. Last one, I swear, kind of similar to Kerry Carpenter, Kyle Stowers with the Baltimore Orioles. Let's get into some Apple Podcast review questions.

This one's from John Thundergun, Dear Chaz, Pip, and Rex. I do not know this one. No idea. I should probably look these up beforehand because sometimes I get nervous that they could be something bad, but those are the main characters from the 1994 American comedy film Airheads

starring Brendan Fraser, recent Oscar winner. That movie sounds right up here. Steve Bishamese in that movie? I was going to say, wow, I love that movie. Yeah, I'm surprised you haven't seen that. That's an Adam Sandler movie. I'm surprised I haven't seen it either. I play in an 11 team 6x5 roto.

OPS is the added category, and it's a keeper league. My four keepers are Kyle Tucker in the 11th, Corbin Burns in the 14th, Chohei Otani in the 15th, and Julio Rodriguez in the 16th. Am I crazy to try and flip one of those guys for a first round pick and keep Corbin Carroll in the 17th round?

For context, Paul Goldschmidt would be the 11th best hitter when factoring in keepers. Essentially, would you try, trade any of those names for Corbyn Carroll and at worst, Paul Goldschman. Well, something you have to factor in is how long are you able to keep the player you're trading with this price? Because they're all amazing first rounders, basically, that you're keeping beyond round 10. But Corbyn Carroll has comparable upside. I mean,

who knows if he'll live up to it. I'm pretty optimistic, but can't guarantee it, of course. And Corby and Carroll could be anything. He could even be Kyle Tucker. You know how much you've always won one of those? You're getting more than just Kyle Tucker. You're getting a first round non-keeper as well. So I'm leaning yes to doing this. In an 11-team league, you need as many impactful hitters, impactful players as you could get.

The question is which one? I think it's Tucker. That's the hardest part to figure out. I mean, Tucker has the highest cost in 11th round pick, but we're in a range of the draft where I'm not as concerned about that. I think everyone's close enough.

I might do burns just because I'm so anti-pitching at this point, and you'd have, you know, it's not like it would be over-cate. You'd have Tucker Rodriguez and you have Carol in your office, so good outfield. Not like more than you need.

But it's, it's, I definitely wouldn't trade Julio Rodriguez. is. That's for sure. But I could consider any of the others. All right. Well, before we get to our next question, let's take our final break here on Fantasy Baseball today. This one's from Maxman O in a daily 10-team Roe in a Rodeo-keeper League, planning on keeping Carl Srodon in the 11th, even with the forearm concern. Also keeping Otani in the fifth. I get his full value in a daily lineup league. Prior to Rodon's injury, I was planning to wait on drafting starting pitcher because I had two

very strong pitchers. Now that Rodon is going on the IL, how much, if at all, should it impact my strategy? Should I now consider taking a starting pitcher with my third or fourth round pick, 10 team league? Wait on drafting. Okay, because you had two very strong ones. Sorry, I'm kind of having to process this a little bit.

I would say... Sorry, Scott, I had to leave you dangling because there was a siren car going past my apartment. And it was very, very loud, so... That's fine. I should have been a more attentive listener. as Frank was reading the question, reading the question. I don't think it should change much,

but I'm the person who waits beyond round three and four to take my first pitcher anyway. So, like, if you just, if you're not comfortable with that, then I guess take a pitcher if you want one. It's, like, not very helpful. But, like, just my general pitching strategy this year, particularly in a Roto League like this, is I'm not taking one.

And I'm not thinking about taking one probably until round five and a 10 team or maybe round six. So it doesn't move me personally. Whereas for me, getting a starting pitcher in the third, the fifth, and the 11th kind of sounds like my strategy. So I think you should. And I think, you know, if you could get a Justin Verlander to pair with Otani and Carlos Rodon, I'd feel very, very good about that. And, you know, obviously those would be the only pitchers that I would take in that range. and I'd probably, you know, wait even longer than the 11th to take, you know, number four. But that's it.

That'd be a heck of a start for a pitching staff. This next one's from John. Hey, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos. Those are the three musketeers, not the candy bar. The French guys with the funny hats. I saw them. I saw them on three musketeers candy bar commercials back in the day with Fran Dresser. Dresher.

There was that fourth guy. D'Arton. Yeah. Love that guy. Yeah. I think that's his name. I never had a Three Musketeers candy bar. Is it good?

It's not very good. What? No. What? That wasn't a take. You never had one? No, I've never had one. I don't know if it's good or not.

How have you managed to avoid? Did you do Halloween? Didn't you have a bag full of candy at the end? And none of them was ever a Three Musketeers. It's just gross. I don't think so. But I probably- Newgate covered in chocolate. Who wants that?

I probably just avoided it because there were so many other things I knew were good. So I'm like, let me not experiment. I'll just go with what works. So that's how I've gotten this far. It's smart. It's not my favorite. It's just it has this weird like chocolate nugut. Yeah, it's like fluffy, fluffy chocolate nugut interior.

It's not very good. It's a very mild chocolate flavor covered in, you know, not mild milk chocolate. don't even really taste the fluffy part. It's just kind of a textural sensation, I would say, a Three Musketeers bar. Now I kind of want to try one. So I think we'll have one of those for dessert later on today. First, a team name Tuesday submission,

the Devers ending story. It's pretty solid, yeah. Okay. Second, my pitching in my 10-team head-to-head points league is Corbyn Bern, Sammy Alcansera, Frammer Valdez, Nesser Cortez, Hunter Green, Chris Sale, Hazis Lozardo and Patrick Sandoval.

Sounds pretty awesome. I really like Edward Cabrera's stuff and upside. Is there anyone I could drop for him? I don't think so. Chris, I recently moved Edward Cabrera up, but I moved him just behind Patrick Sandoval because I think at his best, you kind of want Edward Cabrera to be Patrick Sandoval.

Yeah, I like Edward Cabrera quite a bit, but I still have him ranked behind Patrick Sandoval. It's actually not all that close. it's about 50 spots in the overall rankings, probably 10 spots in the pitcher rankings. So I do have Sandoval pretty clear because, well, like the case for Cabrera is upside, but Sandoval's got quite a bit of upside too.

So, you know, he's got two swing and miss pitches. He's got, you know, he throws hard-ish, at least for a lefty. His fastball hasn't been great. But, you know, if there's any improvement in the fastball, or if the sinker is, you know, used more, I think Sandoval's got a ton of, of his own. This next one's from technically Amish.

Okay. I'm in a head-to-head standard five-by-five category salary cap league. That was a mouthful, word salad. Rate my team. All righty. William Contreras, a catcher, Paul Goldschmidt, Ozzy Albies,

Mani Machado, O'Neill Cruz, Randy Rose Arena, George Springer, Lars Newpar in the outfield with Louisa Rise and Hunter Renfro at Utility. Bryce Harper is on the bench. at pitcher at pitcher you have U. Darvish, Freimber Valdez, Christian Javier,

Lucas Gilito, Pablo Lopez, Edward Brera, Jose Orkidi, relievers, Camilo Duval, Daniel Bard, Craig Kimbrel. The only problem here doesn't say if it's a 10 or 12 team league. Yeah, because that, that'd be a really strong 12 team league. And even in a 10 team league,

it seems pretty good. So I'm going to say it's a, it's an A. Sure. Like, I think you might, You might be a little light on steals. You know, you've got like a couple of 20-ish guys, but that's nitpicking. Yeah, I think it'll be okay.

I'm just trying to imagine interpreting this question as a listener who doesn't have, isn't able to look at the team right in front of them. It just has to remember the names, Frank said. It's a tough, tough one for a podcast. Yeah, bad job me. From Jim Lulo, hello, Paul, Gene, and Ace. That's a kiss. That is kiss.

I think they're having like a last concert ever. Yeah, they're lying. I mean, you know, you know how that works. Elton John did a farewell tour the lasted like six years. My brother asked me if I wanted to go. He was a huge Kiss fan growing up, but I don't think I'm going to go. I want to rock and roll all night. Who doesn't?

And party every day. Can you guys speak on salary cap strategies going into the year? Well, we just did a podcast on it. So I think you should go back and listen to that one. We also did a three-part salary cap. draft the entire thing. So you can hear us fighting about players, cadence, nominations,

bidding process, all that fun stuff. So I would say we pretty much covered all of it. So go back and listen to some of those podcasts. Chris, I was going to ask you about this beforehand, but you know what? We're live. So why not just ask you right now? This one's from Mike in Rochester. I was wondering when slash if you will be releasing

the printable draft prep packet, tiers, rankings, etc. I think I'm going to put the finishing touches on that today, actually. So there's switches and levers that need to be pulled on the backside. I don't know, but hopefully,

that'll be ready on CBSSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball Friday. So check it out. Nice. All right. Let's wrap up with some, I know, we're not supposed to do keeper questions anymore. These are just ones that have been left over

for weeks and weeks. So let's just kind of run through some of these. These come from Apple Podcasts reviews as well. from Letenzo von Matterhorn. Dear Mike, Pat, Jim, and Dave. That's, I'm going to pull one out of my rear end and say like, Ultimo Orioles pitchers. They were some kind of...

From like the 80s? They were some kind of pitchers. Let me... Someone's probably yelling at the podcast again. How did you guys not know this? I mean, there's just such common names except for what's the least common of them. Pat.

Or maybe that's the no, I don't know. I don't know. They are, oh yes, good job, Chris.

It was, the 420 game winners for the Orioles in 1971. 171. Wow. That was a quotation. Jim Palmer,

Dave McNally, Mike Quayar. Is that how you pronounce that? And Pat Dobson. Yeah. Way to go. You all freaking rock.

Even Frank. Wow. Thanks, man. Offa. Scott White. If Scott says nacho cheese is the best ice cream topping, I'm going to Sam's Club to get one of those gallons of cheese and a few pints of briars. If Scott tells me to fade puppies, sunny days, and bats, well, you can catch me in a raincoat with my new cat in the shower.

I have a lot of power of this, man. Scott, Scott, Scott, Scott, a lot of power. That's scary. All right, well, this question is for you then, Scotty. pick six keepers in a 12-team head-to-head category's daily lineup league. There are lots of names. Trey Turner, Juan Soto, Mani Machado, Jose Altuve, Michael Harris, Randy Rosa Rana, Ozzie Albies, Justin Verlander, Carlos Ordone, Devin Williams, Dalton Varsho, Vinnie P.

Baby! And O'Neill Cruz. Well, there are no, like, contingencies to keeping any of these players. Probably just keeping your best players then. So that would be Trey Turner, Wonsoto, Mani Machado, Jose Al Tuve,

Michael Harris, and it's between Rosarena and Verlander for the last spot. Come on, Scott. Get one pitcher in there. I don't want to.

All right, well, you know, Lettenzo is not listening to me, so he's only listening to use. Go with a Roserina.

All right. You heard it. Pro caution to the wind at starting pitcher. You got three great outfielders to start off as well as a third baseman and a second basement, yeah, too,

so you're in great shape. This one's from Crazy Danny. Keeper Question, 6x-by-6 Roto Salary Cap League. $520 budget. Why don't you just use $260? I don't. All right. Corby and Carroll for 20.

Raphael Devers for 70. Justin Verlander for 30. Alec Manoa for 30. Emmanuel Class A for 30. How many? It's easy to just chop it in half. weekend but but that's not really how it works now that's that's because you can still get dollar players so the way anytime my rule of thumb is anytime you increase the salary cap budget

a the high end player should be most impacted more of the money should go to the high end players then the then just distributing it equally yeah but These are all high-end players. So, if we're thinking in terms of Carol for 10, Devers for 35, Rolander for 15, Manoa for 15, Class A for 15. That is just if you cut the values in half. That all sounds really good to me. He needs four.

Okay. So I would say which two do you throw back? You can throw back Manoa. Mm-hmm. And you only need to throw back one. Oh, okay, good. That's only one. Yeah.

So I think you take Class A. at 30 over Manoa at 30. I think especially with Diaz going down, too, to lock down that, you know, now the clear, top closer and fantasy, Emmanuel Class A, I would do that. That's not something we talked about on the podcast, but just like the ripple effect throughout the relief pitcher position, I think could be significant, especially in Roto leagues and especially the deeper, the Roto League. But Class A probably gets pushed into round three.

And, you know, Clay Holmes. And Camilla DeVall probably get drafted closer to like the Ryan Presley's of the world now. Because nobody's going to be like, oh, I'm just going to go without saves since Diaz isn't available. People are going to be trying harder to. And that's going to affect every other team who, of course, needs saves as well. And, you know, one thing that we neglected to mention during the deep sleepers discussion, but you should be drafting Liam Hendricks in your deeper leagues. We have no idea what his timetable is going to be.

Obviously, he's going through treatment for lymphoma, but he was at spring training, at least at one point. I haven't really seen anything since, but he threw a bullpen session during spring training. So, like, it's possible he pitches this year. Yeah, that is Liam Hendricks. Let's move on to our next question from Nick, dear Mac, Charlie, and Dennis. That's always sunny.

Correct. a show I have seen some episodes of, not the entire series. A lot of episodes, does I understand? Yeah, there is a lot. Ten team head-toed categories league. Choose three keepers. Manoa in the 19th. Gunner Henderson in the 20th.

Corbyn Carroll in the 21st. Robbie Ray in the 23rd. Adoles Garcia in the 24th. I'm inclined to keep the first three there. Manoa in the 19th, Henderson, the 20th. Carol in the 21st, I think it's even easier to do if you get to keep players at a comparable discount for multiple years because, I mean, Henderson and Carol, these, those costs could even look, could look even more impressive in future seasons, as impressive as they look now.

I agree with that. The only thing I would add is if you're just focusing on this year or if that value doesn't carry over, I would take Adolius Garcia over Gunner Henderson, but I'm sure I'm on an island with that one. This one's from Coombs 11M. In a 16-te-5-by-five head-to-head categories, starting pitcher categories are strikeouts, ERA, and WIP. Starting this year, we're also using a category called QA-3 in place of quality starts. QA-3 is when a pitcher goes five-plus innings with less than a 4.5 ERA. This is a quality start sliding scale. Basically, which I'm a huge fan of.

Knowing this, which one pitcher would you choose out of Merrill Kelly, Drew Rasmussen, Jose Barrios, Jeffrey Springs, and Jordan Montgomery. It's Springs for me. Springs. Yeah, I mean, Springs is my highest spring anyway. Yep. All right, this one's from T. Money, Dear Shoup, Chainsaw, and Dave. No idea.

Please don't be something explicit. Yeah, I don't know. It looks like something called summer school. I don't know this. Don't know this movie. Oh, starring NCIS heartthrob, Thomas Mark Harmon. There you go. Does every normal, just human, have this amount of knowledge?

Or is it just Chris? Oh, no, I'm just looking at the Wikipedia page. Oh, okay. I have no idea. Yes, he has never heard of this. The knowledge of the internet at his fingers. tips. Somebody who regularly goes to trivia. That would make sense.

10 team 5 by 5 Roto League. I can keep two players. I'm locked in on O'Neill Cruz in the 15th round. Would you keep Shane McClanahan in the 8th round or Adley Ruchman in the 21st? Let me help your decision. Here comes the money.

Here we go. Money talks. Here comes the money. I mean, that's what I was inclined to say anyway. Obviously, great value for Rushman. but I even speaking as somebody who's fading early round pitchers I just think the ace caliber pitcher and McLeanahan is going to be more impactful than the stud catcher if Rushman is even a stud catcher because that remains a bit unproven

this last one is from fantasy god 21 year two in the 12 team and a 12 team Scott White Dynasty League settings for second base do you take brandon Liao for eight bucks. Luis Arise for seven or Jake Croninworth for five. I'm a Brandon low guy. So I'm keeping him. Yeah. He's the one I rank highest for this year and I don't think the $3 difference between him and Croninworth is significant. This is a points league by the way. So that helps Croninworth's value. Croninworth obviously has the multi-eligibility. but even so, I agree that Brandon Lowe is who I want here.

All right, we're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for watching and listening fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We'll be back again next week. Bye-bye.