Fantasy Baseball Today - Sleepers! Plus Scott White's Tout Wars Draft! (3/10 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 10, 2022

Join our FBT March Madness Bracket for a chance to join our listener leagues- cbssports.com/FBTbrackets Sleepers! Why has everybody given up on Kyle Hendricks (1:00)? ... Is Carlos Carrasco worth a gamble late (8:30)? ... Who is Chris' favorite sleeper (12:36)? ... What's the latest on the MLB labor negotiations (18:40)? ... What happened in Scott's Tout Wars draft (24:15)? Did he invest too much in pitching? ... We have more sleepers, starting with Justin Verlander (39:51)! ... What should you know about Reid Detmers (43:16)? ... Why are Jorge Soler and Eddie Rosario going so late (47:18)? ... Alec Bohm and Jeimer Candelario seem undervalued (52:20). ... We wrap up with a bunch of rapid-fire sleepers (55:40). 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 league. We're fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. It's the middle of March. We finished our position previews.

We're doing live mock drafts. You know what that means. It's time for sleepers, breakouts, and bus. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today. On Thursday, March 10th, I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. There is so much to talk about. Today we will focus on our favorite sleepers this upcoming season. We'll break down Scott's Tout Wars team. And of course, we will get to the latest on the labor negotiations. But Scott, I want to start on a positive note. So why don't you

kick us off with your favorite sleeper in fantasy baseball this season? Oh, narrowing it down to one player is difficult. And I just want to reiterate for people who may only listened to the sleepers version of the podcast. My favorite two players to draft this year are the catcher Salvador Perez and the starting pitcher Charlie Morton. I don't think either of them qualifies sleepers, really.

So I'm not going to say them. I think my favorite sleeper, it's a three-way tie. Three players who are in a very similar predicament. You can never just follow the rules. No, I can. I'm a rule breaker. The Forgotten Ace Trio, of Kyle Hendricks,

Carlos Carrasco, and Zach Granky. That's it. All right, Scott. Well, who is your favorite to draft of that trio? Would you like to expand more on one of those players? Let's talk about Kyle Hendricks. He was the one that you sent over to me. Well, he probably is the favorite to draft,

even though he's... The worst. Boring. Well, the worst bet for strikeouts. The reason he's my favorite to draft is because he's the youngest and because it's hardest to make the case for a decline with him.

None of them, none of those three lost velocity last year, really. So, you know, that's why I feel good about, or at least pretty good about all three of their chances to bounce back. But yeah, they're all going outside the top 200. They're like, they've basically been discarded by fantasy baseball, even though for most of the last decade, they've been drafted as top 20, top 25 starting pitchers. And yeah, they were all bad last year. But like I said, velocity was, was north. normal. I think in Kyle Hendricks case, and this probably applies to Zach Grinky a little bit too, is, you know, they throw like 88 miles per hour. They're among the softest tossing starting pitchers. And that just leaves you a narrower margin for error. I think Hendricks, you know, he was probably missing his spots a little. The fact that the ball was changing, the seam height of the ball was changing over the course of the season. It wasn't consistent from start to finish. May have had a little something to do with it. or may not have.

But in either case, like, it's not going to take much for him to rebound to the pitcher. We've known him to be the last seven years, I think. And considering you can get him with one of your last few picks, like, why not? What, what, who in that range is going to provide more upside? That is a fair question.

I mean, the ADP for Kyle Hendricks is 249. point four, so I will pull up some other names that he's going around. But what I especially like about Kyle Hendrix in this range is finding a pitcher that can help you in the whip category this late in your drafts, or even if you're just talking about a target in a head-to-head points league. He's someone that consistently goes deep into his starts. He's giving you a bunch of quality starts over the past, you know, handful of years basically. I mean, I think we can go back even further than that. So it really doesn't matter what format, but really, I mean, the whip category to find that this late in your drafts, it is very appealing.

And of course, you know, last year, a downseason for Kyle Hendricks, but in his career, everything leading up to last year, 2014 through 2020, he made 174 starts, 312 ERA, 110 whip. So there's a chance that he's just done. But if that's the case, I mean, this late in your drafts, you can drop them a month into the season and it's not really going to hurt you. And I do want to clarify how are you going to get more upside than that? at starting pitcher this late in the draft.

I want to address something Gennardo Napoli said in the comments section where why not take a shot on the next generation? Well, that only give you 120 innings. Like Kyle Hendren... Part of what makes you an ace is throwing a crap load of innings and you're not going to do that

straight out of the minor leagues, buddy. So my thought when you said that was like, who are you going to find with more ups? Well, like, it's always like, Josiah, Gray or Luis Patino or Tony Gonselin, who I know you like a lot. I'm kind of running out of names after that, but Chris Paddock. It's not impossible to find.

Read Detmer's who's someone I really like. It's not impossible to find theoretical upside. Layton drafts, that's all you're looking for, really. That's starting pitcher is upside at that point in the draft. it's just is that the same thing as realistic upside? Now I think Louis Petino

is someone who has realistic upset. He was like, the fastball was really good. The slider was really good. He probably needs to throw his secondary pitches more, but he's incredibly talented.

He throws really hard. And like, yeah, he might only throw 140 innings this season or 130 innings. But he might have 70 more strikeouts than Kyle Hendricks with similar ratios.

And he might not. He might not. Because I kind of lump that trio together, of the three, the one with the most upside, is Carlos Carrasco. If you're just looking for the singular late round pitcher

with the most upside, it's Carlos Carrasco, I would say. But the thing about Hendricks is this is, 2021 was probably the first time, I mean, really since he established himself as an everyday pitcher,

probably since, really since his debut, the first season where he wasn't, not just a positive contributor for your fantasy team, but an incredibly good value for where you drafted him or what he cost in a salary cap auction league. So that's where, I don't know, people have been waiting for the like magic trick

of Kyle Hendricks career to die off at some point. And maybe that's what happened last season. But I think it's also worth keeping in mind that it wasn't like he was hurt. it wasn't like he his velocity was down like scott said not really anyway it mostly seems like he's a guy with a very slim margin for error and he got on the wrong side of it you know he missed a few too many times and when you don't have great stuff that can catch up to you really quickly that's something like we talked about the other day with like oh i can't remember who it was that we were

but robbie right where like you can get away with having midling control when you throw like that when your pitches move like that car hendricks can't get away with that and so it's just a question of like was he just off last year? Or was it the start of a decline? It's hard to answer that. But I'm willing to bet when the price is this low on someone with an eight-year track record, like Kyle Hendricks.

Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. Like, they've been discarded. Nobody wants these guys. They've just been, you know, they're complete afterthoughts. Half year league might not even think to draft them at all. So that's part of the argument. But for Hendricks specifically,

there was a stretch of 13 starts in the middle of last year. Remember, we're all like, yeah, guess Hendricks is fine. 13 starts, 12 of them were quality starts. He had a 250 ERA during that stretch, and then he got hit hard again the last two months. So like, even within last year, he showed us Kyle Hendrix is still there. Yep, I'm with you, Scott. I drafted him in TGFBI. I just said it again. I'm with you, Scott. I'm probably going to say that a few more time throughout the course of this podcast, I'd imagine. But I wanted to mention Carlos Carrasco. He was, he's my favorite sleeper. I've done probably five or six drafts that I'm actually playing out this year.

Some of them are drafting holds. But I keep winding up with Carlos Carrasco because he just goes so late. His ADP is 287.8. So he's going almost 40 picks after Kyle Hendricks. And it was a mess of a season for Carrasco last year. Torn hamstring kept him out until July 30th. And then he was just awful once he returned in ERA over 6, 1.43 whip. And after the season, he had to have a surge.

to remove a bone fragment from his right elbow. So, you know, look, obviously he's dealt with a lot of injuries the past couple of seasons. He's up there in age, but he's been rehabbing, training. Everything that I've read is he's basically good to go. We had Derek Rhodes on the podcast yesterday for some injury updates, and he seemed optimistic on Carlos Carrasco as well. But you look closer at last season. The velocity was fine.

He threw his slider and curve a little bit less than you'd like to see. but overall, I'm there on Carlos Crasco. He was great in 2020. I get it in short season, only 12 starts, but he was like a top 30 starting pitcher during that span, and I will take a shot on him. How much? Going as late as he is.

How much do you think the thing with Carasco is just there's a perception that this is a slide that he's on, that like we're going on two out of the last three years not being good, but yeah. And like technically that is correct, but it's worth. remembering 2019, he was dealing with a cancer diagnosis. Right. Yeah. You know, he came back from that and pitched out of the bullpen. And like, that's an incredibly difficult thing to come back from. Then he

comes back in 2020. Looks like himself. Just looks like the plain version of Carlos Carrasco, who had been very good for nearly a decade at this point. And then last year, he just, it might be as simple as he just never had a chance last year. Once he had that hamstring injury, And it was during spring training when he had the hamstring injury, right? Yeah. And he was dealing with like an elbow thing before that. Yeah. But the elbow thing, like he kind of said like, I always have a sore elbow in spring training, which take that for what it's worth.

But I think it's the hamstring injury where it's just like he just couldn't do anything for like three months. Yeah. And so I don't know how much you hold it against him in terms of like his chances to mounts back at least. I think you can hold it against him to a certain extent. But I think his chances to bounce back are much better than his price indicates. Yeah, I agree with you on the, okay, two of the last three years, his numbers have been bad. And a lot of projection systems use three-year averages as a starting point. And so it's just a unfair cutoff for Carrasco if you're projecting his numbers based on specifically the last three years because there were two major health issues.

And then the year in between, he was awesome. He was Carlos Carrasco still. So that, I want to say that. But I also wanted to say, like, when I try to nail down what specifically went wrong for him beyond just the nebulous, oh, he was hurt. And so he wasn't quite right. Specifically, the slider looks like it didn't have the same bite on it. It wasn't getting the whiffs like we're used to seeing. And that, it totally jibes with the idea, okay, he didn't get a chance to build up like a pitcher normally would during the course of the season.

I mean, the secondaries take a while to come around. and he just had to jumpstart it in a way he wouldn't normally have to. So I think, yeah, I mean, it sounds like we're all on the same page with Carlos Carrasco. Yeah, I will say from a roster construction perspective, I've wound up with him on a lot of 15 team leagues

as probably my SP6 or SP7. You don't want to draft him on a team where you have a lot of other risks earlier on, so just keep that in mind. If you take a couple of maybe injury risks at starting pitcher earlier in your draft, maybe Carrasco isn't for you. Maybe a Kyle Hendricks makes more sense because he's a higher floor, doesn't really have as much injury risk. But if you feel safe about your pitching staff, then feel free to take that risk on Carrasco later on in your drafts. Chris, you've already alluded to it, but your favorite sleeper this season is blank. Well, I don't know if I've specifically alluded to who my favorite is. I've just talked about him a ton over the last few months. I mean, there are lots of guys. But the guy I'm the guy I think is my favorite. favorite. The guy that I've probably tied myself to the most is Luke Voight. And I think the

case is should be fairly obvious because it's just whenever Luke Voight's been healthy since getting to the Yankees, he's been awesome. Like we're talking about a 764 OPS as if it's a disaster. Like you think about some of the seasons that guys have had that have been actual disasters. Look at Cody Bellinger last year. Like that was a disaster. Luke Voigt was still an above-average major league hitter in his worst season when he wasn't healthy. And yes, it's a bad sign that that was enough to ultimately get him benched and then, you know, he required surgery. But we're going on four years now since he got to the Yankees, 1133 played appearances, an 883 OPS, 162 game pace, over 100 RBI, over 100 runs, over 30 home runs. He's just a really, really good hitter.

And yes, we don't know if he's going to play every day for the Yankees. Yes, maybe they sign Freddie Freeman and they trade for Matt Olson and there's nowhere for him to play and it's just a disaster for him. But if Luke Voight plays like Luke Voight, he's going to hit somewhere. Whether it's in the Yankees lineup because John Carlos Stanton gets hurt or something like that or the Yankees trade him somewhere else. I just can't see a world in which Luke Voight's putting up his normal high 800s low 900s OPS, that and he isn't in someone's lineup eventually. It's the kind of thing that just works itself out. He's not such a bad base runner or such a bad defender that he just is.

It's not a Jose Martinez situation for those of you who remember him. So yeah, I just think, like Luke Voigt goes like 230th overall. I think in NFC drafts and it just, yeah, it seems like a no-brose. Rainer that he should be I mean there's a group I'm doing an ADP review by position and there's like a group of late round first baseman who it's just like one of these guys

should be on your roster and it's like Luke Void Alex Keroloff Brandon Bell, Spencer Turkelson and it's like one of those guys should be on your team and Luke Void's going to be one of those guys for me in a lot of situations I think the key to what you're saying is yeah I mean the ADP it's actually closer to two four

like he's barely being drafted in 12 teams. So it's... 66 in NFC drafts. It sounds like there's a lot of momentum for the Yankees bringing in a first basement to replace him. And that has to be the justification for him going that late. But because it's pushed him to that late, it's a no risk gamble that they don't have

a chance to bring in another guy before the season starts. Or someone's going to get hurt. Someone always gets hurt. And not just for the Yankees. but obviously for the Yankees specifically. 901 OPS since joining the Yankees has homered at a rate higher than Matt Olson during that same stretch. And that includes two seasons that were marred by injury. He's managed to achieve those numbers in spite of it.

So I'm totally with you. Luke Void is often the reason I can't bring myself to draft Nelson Cruz because then I can't, then I don't have that utility spot open for Luke Voight because I've already taken a extra corner infielder or whatever. Something you mentioned there, Scott, that I think is worth maybe talking about a little bit more. Has been the injuries for Luke Void. He was limited to just 68

games last year due to a torn meniscus in his left knee, a strained right oblique. He's also played through some foot issues the past couple of years, but I mean, really his whole... His sporkerney surgery. Yeah. I'm thinking that after the 2020-19 off-season. Yeah. Really, his whole tenure with the Yankees

has been mired by injury. I mean, there's no doubt that when he's on the field, he's been really awesome. the home run king in the short in 2020. You mentioned the numbers he's put up since he's joined the Yankees. There's no doubt when he's on the field, he's great. He's also a pretty terrible defender. So I don't know, maybe that factors into their decision to ultimately bring in a first basement.

I think it's more likely than not that they do that. But again, he either gets shipped out somewhere or usually these things find a way of working themselves out. I will ask you, Chris, say that we find out two weeks before the season that Luke Void's going to be the Yankees starting first baseman on. opening day. What's his ADP in that two-week span of drafts leading up to opening day? Because right now it's 237. If you knew he was the Yankees first basement, what would it be? If you knew Luke Voight was going to be the opening day first basement, is there any reason he

shouldn't be part of the profit pocket? Is there any reason he shouldn't be drafted around CJ Crone and Josh Bell and Reese Hoskins? Like, is there any reason to take Jared Walsh or Ryan Mountcastle ahead of him? Those guys are both going ahead of the profit pocket, which is... He... Bizarre. Yeah, I was going to say... He might be a top 100 pick.

I was going to say half as ADP, 120, with top 60 potential. Yeah, I think he would be ranked just behind Jose Abrae. I would rank him in the top 100. He would be just ahead of the profit pocket, I think. He would be ahead of Votto for us, I believe. Cron, Josh Bell.

But yeah, he's right in that mix. He'd probably be ahead of them. So if you're drafting now, there's a lot of potential, obviously, for Voight. But again, like, I don't want to downplay the downside. It's, you know, there's injuries and obviously playing time risk as well. We'll get to more sleepers a little bit later on, of course. I want to get into Scott's Tout Wars team as well, which he drafted.

I guess when you're listening to this, it's going to be two nights ago. But we've got to talk about the latest in the labor negotiations. So here's what's going on. Rob Manfred announced the removal of two more series postponing opening day until April 14th, mostly because of the reintroduction of an international draft. It just kind of came this, became this huge talking point the past couple of days where they're closing in on economic issues. And it seems like they were finally finding some common ground there.

I don't even remember it being mentioned before today, before Wednesday. Yeah, that was like the most ironic part of all this is that the main holdup was the CBT and what level that was going to be at and the thresholds. And it feels like all of a sudden they're pretty close there. And then now we have the international draft. So we'll see what happens ultimately. But there were three options proposed by the league. The players countered.

It was a whole mess. And then two hours later, I mean, which is like two hours from a go, like from when we're recording this right now, apparently the two sides are talking again. So deep into the night, even though they've canceled games, I opted against doing an emergency podcast. I think they got canceled them. Yeah.

Well, that's so it's worth. mentioning that the statement from Rob Manfred does not say canceled games. He removed it. It says removed them from the schedule. Correct. And now that's also part of the reason I'm sure that they left that wording is every team, I believe, plays at least one division game in the first four series. And so you've got to make those up.

I don't know how you can just, well, sorry, you're just going to play your division opponent one fewer time. I feel like that's probably not fair. So assuming this happens sometime soon. And from reading the reports, it sounds like the sticking point on MLB's end for the offer that the players made was that it was past the deadline, more than that it was an untenable offer because apparently it was an offer that the owners had made to the players the night before. Right. So it does seem like this is not an insurmountable thing,

unless they insist on canceling games and not playing 162 because then you have to renegotiate player salaries and figure all that stuff out. That's when it gets really thorny. And that's why we need to figure this out, we as if we're part of it, but I think the players and the owners

they need to figure this out now and it feels like they're so close because if you move further away from this point, then again, you're going to have to figure out those player salaries, they're going to want to get paid for the entire season, They're going to want a full year of service time, obviously. So it will get messy if they start to cancel more games.

Jackie Robinson Day is the 15th. Correct. So one thing that I think they would love to do is have that be opening day. And also I just think like that feels like a real deadline. Like canceling that feels like a real blah. Like in addition to all of this just being a generally bad look for the game, I feel like canceling Jackie Robinson. Johnson Day would just be a really, really tough look. And I would imagine they're going to try

harder than they have been to avoid that specific outcome. That's me being optimistic. It's the, it's the 75th anniversary of him. Yes. Debuting too. Right. Yeah. And maybe I'm just naive. There was a report from John Heyman, which, take it with a grain of salt, it kind of seems like he's a mouthpiece for the owners at this point. But I feel like if they figure this out, like they'll just kind of rescind the statement and they'll be like, yeah, we'll play 162 games. But I don't know. It's just like the idea that like if they had come to an agreement at 5.57 PM Eastern standard time on March 9th, we would have 162 games. But if they come to an agreement on, you know, at 1157 a.m. on March 10th, we only get 100 like that. That seems stupid. But if they

get it done in the next few days, there's going to be a full season. I'm very, very confident in that. It's just a fairly sizable, a lukevoit sized if still. I feel like we saw daylight today. You know, they're... And like real, not like last week's like, oh, the owners are optimistic. Yeah, because it doesn't sound like they're arguing over the numbers so much anymore.

And it was just, the owners are not demanding an international draft be put in place. They are wanting to continue to discuss it. And at last report, you know, they were looking for like an opt-out, basically, if they couldn't agree it at some point in the next two or three years,

agreed to the terms of an international draft. So like, that doesn't sound like enough to keep holding this up. Yeah. For either side, really. I feel like it's like from the player's perspective, getting a, here are your three offers,

do you have to take one of them or we're done? Was like, there's no way you can do that. The precedent that would say for future negotiations is awful, you can't do that. And the MLB thing, I think, was just like, oh, our deadline. So it does feel like it's less about the structural issues

at this point, hopefully. All right. Of course, if anything happens, I'm sure we will have an emergency podcast for you and get you the latest between the NLB, between NLB and the players. But yeah, fingers crossed, and we're hoping that we can still get in a full season,

somehow, some way. Scott, let's talk about your two. Chat Wars team, and for those watching us live on YouTube or on demand, I'm going to pull up the draft board here so you can potentially follow along. It's, you know... Very colorful. It's very colorful. The names are kind of small, but I don't know. Maybe there's a way for you to like zoom in and you could check it out, but I feel like it's a nice little visual element to follow along here. I'll put the link in the podcast description as well if anyone wants to follow along. But this is a 15-team 5x5 roto.

industry league filled with the best minds out there. Scott was drafting Smack Daddy in the middle, eighth out of 15. Of course, started with Vladimir Guerrero. That is all I will reveal. We revealed one other player on yesterday's podcast. That was Bartolo Cologne. I'll let you talk about that, Scott.

But walk us through your draft here, what you were thinking. And overall, what you like or don't like about this team. All right. So one thing you didn't mention is five by five, but OBP instead of batting average. And that I think is critical. not so much for what I did,

but for what other people did, because I don't know. I got the sense certain people were trying to show off that they, ah, I know this guy gains value in an OBP league and just like inflated his value beyond belief. Good examples of this are Jesse Winker

and Max Muncie, both going in round three. Joey Gallo went in round five. There were a few picks like that. And so like, and meanwhile, most of the other hitters were going, generally where you'd expect them to go.

Like I kind of gambled in the middle of round three. I took Austin Riley to address the third base scarcity. Considered taking Salvador Perez, all things being equal, I think I'd rather have Salvador Perez. But I was hoping because Salvador Perez is a bad OBP guy, he could fall to me in round four. Didn't it happen, somebody still took him in round three. So generally speaking, the high OBP hitters got elevated,

considerably. The low OBP hitters still went about where they normally go, with some exceptions. And basically just the starting pitchers got pushed down. I did not plan on building a pitcher heavy team. That's what I did two years ago when I won the league. That's what I tried to do last year when everybody was doing it. And then MLP pulled the rug out from under me by changing the ball and making and changing the entire pitcher market. And that's why I've drastically changed my approach this year. My approach going in was what I've been touting all along. Go heavy on the power.

If your team is good at hitting home runs, chances are it's going to be good at offense overall. And especially in an OBP league. Yes. Be intentionally unintentional about stolen bases. Just, you know, accumulate them by. happenstance and hopefully it'll be enough for you to finish in the middle of the category. And then don't go overboard at starting pitcher. Draft enough, but don't go overboard.

That was my approach. That's not how it turned out. So after Vladimir Guerrero in round one, eighth overall, totally thrilled with that. Obviously, he's my number two player in this format. So to get him eighth overall, wasn't anything I was going to pass up. Bo Bichette almost made it to me in round two, miraculously, not a great OBP guy, relative to the batting average, so I guess that's why it happened.

But that would have been amazing if I got him around two. It's not what happened, so it was between Ozzy Albiz and Zach Wheeler. Albies loses value in an OBP league relative to batting average, and I'm not thrilled with taking him in round two anyway. I like a lot of the second basement

available in the round four through six range. So I took Zach Wheeler, all right? Second round pick, starting pitcher, not necessarily something I'm looking to do this year. For what it's worth, both of the third baseman were gone, Devers and Machado. So, you know, Wheeler.

I mentioned I took Austin Riley in round three. Round four, Sandy Alcantara was there in the middle of round four in a 15-team league. That value just seemed incredible to me. Sandy. Had to take him. Jose O'Shea Tuve in round five, fine. That's, you know, that's kind of why I didn't take Ozzy Albies earlier. Brian Reynolds in round six, first outfielder.

Okay, fine. He gains value in an OBP league as well. Scott, Brian Reynolds over Kyle Schwerber, though. I know you had to be thinking about it. Well, Brian Reynolds goes much earlier than Kyle Schwerber. Kyle Schwerber went with the very next pick, which I wasn't anticipating. I thought I had a round or two at least before Kyle Schwerber was somebody I needed to consider. So somebody, you know, somebody went early for Kyle Schwerber, and that's fine.

So, yeah, three hitters there with my first five picks. But that's when things kind of took a turn. So what I ended up doing in this draft, I don't feel like I'm structuring my explanation here very well, but that's fine. Five of my first 10 picks ended up being starting pitcher. Seven of my first 14 picks ended up being starting pitchers. I went heavier on starting pitcher this year than I did last year

when I thought it was the only way to win. And the reason that happened is because beginning with Alcantra in round four, the values just were insane. So Charlie Morton in round seven, Justin Verlander in round eight, the pitcher version of Shohei Otani in round 10. That's who Bartolo Colon is there. It's just a placeholder for the pitcher version of Shoaheotani.

And then I figured I was done. Five in my first ten, right? I got to get all that power I wanted. Round 13, Ranger Suarez was there. And it's just like, come on, guys, this is stupid. I've got to take Ranger Suarez. He's going to be such a good source of the ERA. It was between him or Nelson Cruz for me.

Obviously, I was looking to make up ground and power. Nelson Cruz, you know, that's the one I really wonder about. Should I have gone Nelson Cruz there instead of Ranger Suarez? Because Nelson Cruz went with the very next pick. And then before it got back to me, Hunter Renfro went as well. So then I was just like, whatever, Adam Wayne. is still there. Round 14,

he was a top 10 pitcher last year. I'll go ahead and take him. I do need to jump in, though. I think that's the wrong. I think Suarez is fine. I don't think both Suarez

and Wainwright were necessary. Well, who was I supposed to take instead of Wainwright? Well, I get to like, oh, it's great value. But like, if you needed to make up ground and power, you didn't have a shortstop yet.

You could have taken the flyer on O'Neill Cruz at, you know, 210 overall. That's too early, though. Alex Kiroloff. Round 14 for O'Neil Cruz? That's a 15 team league. I know, but I got them in a round 20 of DGFBI or 18.

Right, right. But it's, but like, it's, or Luke Voight went within the next round. Or Adam Duval or Adoli-Scarci. It just seemed too early for those guys. Like, why would I take those risky players when I got a top 10 pitcher of him? Because Adam Wainwright's not a top 10 pitcher. He was last year. He was.

Yes. But he's not. You're not ranking him at the top. same numbers in 2020 as well. Right, but you reach a point of diminishing returns when you have that many pitchers. And Adam Wainwright, like, yes, he may be a top 10 pitcher again, but it requires a lot of things to go right.

It requires them to be as good as he's been in his last 45 starts. Right, but you don't need it. Right. I think in a league this deep, in a 15-team league, you can't really afford to select luxuries, which I think is what Chris is trying to get at. here. I think even though the value, I agree, Scott, like in the 14th round,

like, yeah, if you needed an SP5 at that point, or even an SP6, I think it makes sense. But when you have as many hitter spots to fill on your roster. I can't know that about the Wainwright pick. I can second guess the Ranger Swarres pick because there were still

good power hitters left, but they were gone by the time Wainwright went. I think it's either one. I would question. It's also in the context of your first seven hitters being Vlad power

Austin Riley power Altuvei not one of the better one of the better power hitting second basement yeah

Brian Reynolds really ify he had decent power last season but kind of came out of nowhere Out of Boutamodice I mean he'll hit

some home runs he'll run into a few but then Ozuna fine Salair fine or no Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, Ozone, Soler. But then, like, you're going to be starting, you're going to be starting Nikki Lopez. I didn't mention the Adelberto Mondesie thing. So, yeah, I got him in round nine. So in addition to not going as crazy for power hitters as I thought I was going to do,

I made the most intentionally intentional stolen base pick you could possibly make because Adelberto Mondesie was there in round nine. And it's like, okay, guys, if nobody wants them, I guess I'll take them and just really not have to think about stolen bases anymore. So I was pretty happy with that pick.

Yeah, so here's the thing. Like, Marcelo Zuno, Jorge Salar, I ended up getting Adolice Garcia after Adam's fight, who, of course, was a 30 homer guy last year. My two catchers, having not gotten Salvador Perez, Joey Bart, Eric Haas, if they're going to give you anything, it's going to be power.

Like, I, with the exception of, the two base Steelers at Alberto Montese and Nikki Lopez. Everybody in my lineup, basically every hitter I drafted is a potential power source. They may not be the most reliable power sources, but if they're going to be good, it's because they're going to hit for power. So I didn't get sidetracked by a bunch of like cutesy, jack of all trade types, OBP specialists, you know, like the DJ LaMayhew's of the world. I, like I made sure except for those two stolen base guys to really zero in on power

with my hitter picks even if they weren't as early, the early hitter picks that I thought they were going to be. And meanwhile, so the difference between this year and last year, I went heavier at starting pitcher this year,

but I just took what came to me as opposed to, you know, stretching for Kenta Maida, stretching for Dylan Bundy because I had to have this good pitching staff. So I feel like, you know, if five of those, seven pitchers I drafted live up to expectations, I should dominate the starting pitcher

categories. I feel more confident I'm going to do this this year than I did last year. And obviously, if it turns out have too much, you can trade in TOW wars. I'm like TGFBI. So, you know, it's not like I'm, it's not like there's no way to maneuver out of any excess I may have. I think I feel pretty good about it. You know, in retrospect, If I could change anything, it would be to swap out Zach Wheeler or Sandy Alcantra for a big bat. Yeah, I feel like, but of course, that early in the draft, I had no idea the starting pitcher values were going to be what they were. Right. Yeah, like, I might feel better about it if you had Judge instead of Wheeler.

If you had like Judge and, I mean, really the rest of the team instead of Wheeler. I feel like I would feel better about that too. Scott, did you debate taking Willie Adamas over Justin Verlander? round eight. I know you love Verlander. We're going to talk about him in a little bit, and it's a good value. But at that point, you need a starting shortstop, and I, obviously, you realize Adomis is like the end of the tier. So did you, did you consider that? Yeah, I did. And then when I saw Justin Verlander there, I was just like, this is no contest. You know, there was still Chris Taylor, there was still Brendan Rogers. There was still Brandon Crawford, if things.

got really funky. There were Stalloneal Cruz. I mean, like, there were other things that felt like I could do at Shortstop, but I just kept putting it off and putting it off and putting it off. And I was ready to take Brandon Crawford in what round was that?

He ended up going on the 18th when you took Mickey Lopez. Yeah, I was ready to take Crawford around 18. Somebody else took him a few picks before. So I was like, okay, it's Nick Lopez or bus, basically, at shortstop. And look, I like Nikki Lopez, but I wasn't intending to take him after already taking out Alberto Mondesie. Yep.

But, you know, that gives me a chance of being more than just a mid-category finisher and stolen bases, which again, I don't feel like is the optimal way to build a team this year. But it's, you know, it's learning to take what's given to you. We are going to hit a quick break. But first, March Madness is here. want you to compete with us in a bracket challenge game. I'll be in there. Scott will be in there.

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2023 Final 4. You can play on the CBS Sports app or at cbsports.com slash FBT brackets. The link is in the podcast and the YouTube description. We're going to take a quick break. More Sleepers next on Fantasy Baseball today. All right, so let's jump back into Sleepers and really just try and get to as many of these as we possibly can. Our Sleeper articles are live on the site if you want to check out all the players that were interested in draft later on in our drafts. But we'll just try and go back and forth and get to as many of these names

as we possibly can. So Scotty, let's jump back in. Another sleeper you're excited to draft this season. All right. Another sleeper I'm excited to draft this year. I mentioned him earlier. I was excited to take him in. Tot Wars.

Justin Verlander. I will call him a sleeper because I feel like a sleeper is somebody, if we're going to really make a narrow definition for it, It's somebody who's being slept on, right? And what that means is that they're being drafted in a way that doesn't account for their full upside. And I think that absolutely applies for Justin Verlander, who goes on average, what, around 100th overall. 107.6 is the fantasy pros ADP.

Yeah. And when we last saw him healthy, he won 21 games. He had 300 strikeouts. he had a whip of 0.80. He is a pitcher out of his time. He is capable of doing things that basically no other pitcher, the exception of maybe Max Scherzer

is capable of doing. And I'm not saying he's going to do that fresh off Tommy John surgery that seems improbable. But how much of a reduction is there going to be? I think, given that he's 39 years old, his career is winding down,

I don't, I don't think he, neither he or the Astros are going to be particularly motivated to play it safe coming off the surgery. I think he's going to be fine coming off the surgery. I mean, we haven't seen him in two years. It's possible there could be some diminished skills, but I would bet on Justin Verlander, just like he has that sort of like Nolan Ryan

incapable of aging quality to him. That makes me think, I think, like, there's not a lot of downside to taking him where he goes. It's like your third or fourth starting pitcher in fantasy. So after Charlie Morton, he's probably my second favorite pitcher to draft with Adam Wainwright, who I also took on that Teller Wars team being my third favorite pitcher to draft. So yeah, Justin Verlander, sleeper. All right, and we don't really talk about the finances much because, I mean, for a lot of players,

I don't think it matters, but the Astro signed him to a one-year $25 million. deal, that is substantial. There's also a conditional option where if he reaches 130 innings this upcoming season, I wonder if that's pro-rated if the season gets shortened. That's kind of an interesting thought. It would have to be, yeah. But if he does that, if he gets

130 innings, he gets an additional year at 25 million. So if there's any team that has followed the progress, the recovery of Justin Verlander, it's obviously the Houston Astros, so I do like that aspect of it. And the last we

heard. I mean, his most recent showcase back in November, he was throwing between 94 and 97 miles per hour with his fastball, which sounds a lot like Justin Verlander. All right, Chris, how about you give us another sleeper you're excited about the season? All right. Another sleeper I'm excited about. Well, I'll do them in a different order than I sent them to you because I don't think the next guy is necessarily the one I'm most excited about. But guy that I'm really talking myself into a lot. And this is actually not on my sleeper's column that I just published last week. So it's a very recent. love affair, but Reed Detmer's, left-handed pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels. He is still prospect eligible and kind of was reminded while I was looking up some prospect lists of Red Demers. I kind of let him fall off my mind because he was bad last year, 7.4 OERA and 20.2 innings, that's not good. But he also pitched in the minors. The first time he had pitched as a professional. He was a number 10 overall pick in the 2020 draft. He had a 319 average, or ERA,

with 108 strikeouts and 62 innings between AA and AAA. Those are fairly ridiculous numbers, the strikeout numbers especially, and that came along with an unexpected increase in fastball velocity. He was drafted as kind of a, I guess, like a Marco Gonzalez type, like the soft tossing, crafty, projectable lefty who like, maybe he doesn't have ups. How? How? upside, but he'll get to the majors quickly and we need the help and he could be a number four starter. Well, he went from throwing 9091 to 92 to 94. And that didn't help him in the majors last season. His fastball especially got crushed, but both his curveball and slider looked pretty good last season. They had good results in very small sample sizes. And the biggest issue with the

fastball seemed to just be location and command. And that was what Reed Detmer's was praised for coming out. I don't think that's going to be much of an issue for him. So this is an opportunity to get a guy who is, I believe, still considered a consensus top 75-ish prospect, it looks like, who's only 22 years old, who's shown success in the minor league level, and who has really good stuff. I mean, the fastball is not going to blow you away, but the curveball is one of the prettiest pitches in baseball. I got really good results, and his slider looked really good last season, which was a bit of a surprise. So I think there's a lot to like about Reid Detmer's,

and especially because, let me just pull up his 8P. It's 436.9 in NFBC drafts overall. I don't know if that's gone up over the last month or so, but yeah, anytime I can get a pitcher with his kind of pedigree for, I mean, in a lot of your drafts literally for four. free or with literally your last round pick. I'm going to do that. It's not like there's anyone blocking him in the Angels rotation. Yeah, that's one of the first things I was going to mention. They have a six-man rotation listed as of now on Rasta Resource and that includes Michael

Lorenzen, Jose Suarez, Jaime Berea. So it's yeah, it's kind of like a, it's like a philosophical question. Like if a tree falls in the woods, does, and no one hears it, does it actually happen or whatever, does it make a sound? Do the Angels really have a six-man rotation? Yeah. I know, like, they have six starting pitchers. They have, they have five pitchers, and then they just insert Shohei Otani wherever. Right. I did want to look up the past month, the ADP for Detmerz is 432. What did you mention it was, Chris, 439, I think. Yeah, so it's gone up a little bit. He's moved up like half a round, but nothing major there. Yeah, awesome numbers in the minors going super late in drafts. He's got the two secondaries. He's got to

figure out the fastball. If he can get anything out of the fastball, then that will probably be the key to unlocking Reed Detmer's. But we might be writing them off a little bit too quickly, especially someone who has his prospect pedigree. Scott, are you thinking about Reed Detmer's or are you thinking about your next sleeper? I'm thinking about my next sleeper. All right. So, have you figured it out? Yeah, yeah, Jorge Salare. All right, let's talk about. Who I also took in Toward Wars here in round 12. Should I have just taken Nelson Cruz over

Jorge Salair. I think I was thinking I want to fill my outfields before I run out options there. I think where you were at in the draft, you really did need outfielder, Scott, so. Yeah, yeah. I was kind of just thinking, okay, I'm going to take

power hitters with my next four picks, presuming somebody else would grab Ranger Suarez and Adam Wainwright at some point during that stretch. But anyway, Jorge Salaire. Yeah, the reason I like him is pretty simple, beginning in his final week with the Royals and then continuing

through his entire stint with the Braves, he hit 277 with 18 homers and a 936 OPS. That's a 49 homer pace for a guy who hit 48 home runs in 2019. And like, okay, you could say we got hot. He got hot. It was a small

you know, it was partial season statistics or whatever. But the guy who hit 48 home runs 2019 legitimately impacted the ball in a way that should lead to those kinds of results. And Jorge Solerick has continued to do that since. He's one of the best in terms of how hard he hits the ball, average exit velocity. And it was apparent, remember, as last year was playing out,

who was struggling early on with the Royals. You looked at the data and you're like, this guy is going to go off here at some point because not only was he impacting the ball, like one of the elite sluggers, his strikeout rate was way down. He had his best strikeout rate ever last year. And then sure enough, that's what happened over those last two and a half months. And obviously it carried over into the postseason. He was the World Series MVP.

We don't know where he's going to end up. He's a free agent. But he has consistently shown the skills of a top-tier slugger. And, you know, it's coming off at least a half season where he got those kinds of results, too. So for where he goes, which is around 185-190 overall, definitely on board. And for anyone who watched the World Series, that home run probably still has not landed. It hit in Houston. It was an absolute mammoth shot.

I don't think it really matters, ultimately, where Jorge Salar winds up, because the type of power that he possesses, I think, will play anywhere. I mean, he's just that strong of a hitter. And I wanted to quickly mention one of my favorite sleepers this year as well, Eddie Rosario, I feel like on a few of the mock drafts that we've done here, I keep winding up with Eddie Rosario. Scott, I know you drafted him in Tout Wars yourself. Yeah, I did.

He goes even later than Jorge Saler. I think that they're both great values. Rosario going just outside, pick 200. And from 2018 to 2020, Rosario finished 53rd overall or better in Roto, each of those three seasons. 53rd or better, his ADP is 201. So he's still just 30 years old.

I think he's in the prime of his career, got off to a slow start last year, missed a large chunk of the season because of an abdominal strain. But once he returned with the Atlanta Braves, he was awesome. He was really good with them in the regular season. That carried over into the postseason.

I don't think there's any reason to believe that Eddie Rosario was just done, which his ADP, I don't know. I guess that's what other people think, because I can't really figure out why he's going as late as he is. I'd be suspicious of him being one of those middling exit velocity guys whose power production

just potentially craters with the deadened baseball. And look, I'm still a little skeptical of it. But it helps in his case that from the time he returned from the strained abdominal in late August through the postseason. So I'm including the postseason numbers,

a 49 game stretchy at 316 with 10 homers in a 975 OPS. He's probably not someone you want signing with like Miami. No. What hit or do you want signing? Yeah, I don't think we want anyone to go to Miami. Especially a middling exit velocity. Yeah, that's what I mean.

Like the guys like the guys who live in that like first 10 rows of the outfield, that it's you, you especially don't want them going to a pitchers park. That's that's more what I mean. Like, you know, like Nick Castellanos, I wouldn't be as worried. But, you know, Eddie Rosario, because he doesn't have the underlying, like, Nick Castionis is still going to hit 270. And he's still going to hit a bunch of doubles if he doesn't hit a bunch of home runs.

Eddie Rosario, those probably turn into, you know, warning trackouts rather than doubles. Yep, definitely a possibility. But otherwise, yeah, I agree with everything you said. Jorge So Ware, I mean, he'd probably be fine in Miami regardless. Yeah. Chris, another sleeper, who you got? All right, I'll go with the guy that I wasn't super excited to talk about first, but he's more than okay for the second one.

And this is Alec Bohm, who I feel like four years ago he would have fallen into the, like, the trendy, ooh, this guy hits the ball hard. He just needs to elevate it thing. But we've kind of moved away from that as a community. We don't get quite as excited about those guys. But that's still a profile that when the price gets low enough is worth chasing. and in Alec Boehm's case, he had an 89th percentile average XVosity, 82nd percentile max exevalo last year, 90th percentile hard hit rate,

which is really interesting because coming up as a prospect, he didn't really hit for much power, despite the fact that he's a really big dude. He's like 6.5, 225. And so it was always one of those things where it's like, I didn't love him as much as everyone last year because it was a lot riding on a really, really inflated batting average. and now, you know, he has a really bad season.

Strikeout rate goes up, all the numbers come down, and I'm much more interested in him. It's like another one of those like late round picks, but it's just a bet on a guy who has shown very good plate discipline in the minors. And, you know, even in 2020, it was good enough for a rookie. And who showed the ability to impact the ball consistently hard last season. He just needs to elevate it. I'm not expecting him to turn into a 35 homer guy.

but I think it's worthwhile to bet on Alec Bowms' pedigree and skill set based on what he's shown in the major league level. He's shown good enough skills, especially how bad third base is right now. Now, it's not clear where he's going to play. Does sound like he is a potential big beneficiary of the National League DH because his defense was very bad last season. But, hey, as long as he's in the lineup.

Hey, if Vladimir Guerrero can do it, it, why can't Alec Bohm? Just raise the launch. Flannemiger is a little more talented. Yeah, I mean, both had prospect, pedigree. Yeah, no, fair point. Both were third baseman. Yeah, I mean, like, there's so many,

they're both big. They both play baseball? They're big human beings. I mean, you know, the possibilities are endless here. But seriously, if he just raises the launch angle, then I think you're on to something, Chris. He does impact the ball incredibly hard. And the one thing I want to see is a strikeouts

got to take a bit of a step back again. I mean, they got a little bit too high last season. You mentioned him as a third base candidate sleeper, and I'll mention Jamer Candelario. The ADP is 273 for him, and since the start of 2020, he has a line drive rate over 26%, which is among the league leaders,

so that obviously correlates well with BABIP and batting average overall. And he took a step forward in the second half last year, too. 282 batting average, 11 home runs, in 882 OPS. There's a lot of optimism surrounding the Detroit Tigers. They bring in Javier Baez, lots of prospects on the way, Spencer Torkelson, Riley Green. You know, if we're excited about the rest of those guys and the potential of this lineup kind of coming together,

I think Candelario is going to be hitting right in the middle of it. So again, third base, not great. Maybe you miss out on some earlier names. Jamer Candelario, Alec Bohm, a few names to target there. Scott, a few more sleepers you got? Yeah, I'm going to throw a little curveball here with Jose Miranda. Let's do it. Of the twins.

Yeah. Minor leager has yet to make his major league debut, but he spent basically half the season at AAA. And between AAA and AA, numbers were virtually identical. And they were like Pooholz and his prime, like 344 batting average, 30 home runs, 973 OPS, all with a 12.5% strikeout rate,

which is similar to Nikki Lopez, frankly. So like premium bat skills here The power was newly developed But you know It seems to be legit He kind of started keying in on pitches he could drive Instead of just you know one thing that big contact Something contact hitters like him struggle with is

Laying off pitches that they can make contact with But they can't do real damage on And he seemed to learn to how to distinguish between the two in the minors last year. And like, he probably should have gotten called up at the end of last season. He was certainly showing he was ready. I think he could have a job out of spring training. If it's not in spring training, it'll be very early in the season.

He's a guy who doesn't really have, like, a clear defensive home, and that's why he's lower in the real world prospect rankings. But, like, that bat, they're going to find a spot for him. Even if it's like in the super utility role, with a lot of time being spent at DH. They're going to get the bat in the lineup. He's third base eligible in fantasy. We can't have enough of those guys.

And I think once Josh Young, the Rangers third base prospect who expected to be up early, once he tore the laborman his shoulder and was kind of removed as a potential draft pick, I really started keying on and keying in on Jose Miranda as a late round target. I've been drafting him in basically every league. I drafted him in Tout Wars.

just because I think whenever his opportunity does come, he's going to make good on it. Yeah, I drafted Jose Miranda in TGFBI myself, a 15-team 5-5 Roto League. And I like pairing him with, if you miss out on one of the top tier third baseman, if you draft a Justin Turner or a Josh Donaldson or even Matt Chapman,

who I selected in that draft. I like targeting Miranda late kind of as like an upside prospect insurance policy where if those guys don't work out, you know, maybe Jose Miranda turns into something. So I do like grabbing him. And there you go. I mean, is third base really that bad? We just rattled off three of them that we do like going very late in drafts.

Miranda, the ADP is 356. So, especially in those deeper leagues. Chris, a few more names that you got here. If you want to give both of us, give us both of them in like a minute or less. Yeah, Ken Giles is one. He's coming back from Tommy John's surgery. The Mariners. Yeah, I think I have him.

I didn't end up getting him in TGFB. I might have him in Tout Wars, actually, because that's a safe plus holds. And we're not sure he's going to be the closer for the Seattle Mariners. They actually somehow, after having very little idea who was going to be the closure last season, have like four viable closer options this season. They have one of the better backends of the bullpen, at least based on projecting.

But Ken Giles, last time we saw him, 187 ERA in 53 innings with 83 strikeouts. He had a bad season before that. That was 2019 when he was really good. Famously quite bad in 2018 between Houston and Toronto. Had some on the mound meltdowns. But yeah, he had that season in 2019 while pitching through elbow issues. So, you know, if those are behind him and he comes back and he's throwing like himself,

you know, the Mariners gave him a two-year guaranteed contract knowing he wasn't going to be able to pitch in 2021 with the intention, I think. of making him the closer this season. So I would say he, if he's healthy and he's right, has maybe the inside track for that job and what we think is going to be a competitive team. He's one of those relievers too,

who, when he hasn't, like he only seems to function properly. Yeah. Yeah, he had, I want to say it was that 2019, 2018 season where the overall numbers were really bad, but it was like a nine ERA

and non-save situations, and he was still really good as a closer, if I'm remembering that correctly. So I do think there's, yeah, Ken Giles, one of the better late round save options that there hasn't been much hype around yet. And Alex Cobb,

who, you know, we're hoping, I'm hoping can take kind of, you know, more of a later career, Kevin Gosman turned, but even just turning back into early career, Alex Cobb with more strikeouts,

wouldn't be a bad thing. He rediscovered his weird, weird splitter change-up thing is what it's referred to as not the weird splitter change-up thing, but the thing is what he calls it. And he was actually quite good last season. He only pitched 18 games, 93-nings, but 9.5Ks per 9, a 2.92 fit to go along with a 376 ERA. The peripherals were consistently better over the course of the season.

And now he's with San Francisco, the team that got the most out of Kevin Gosman and the team that seems to get the most out of everyone these days. It's a great place to pitch, good defense behind him, very good offense backing him up as well. I just think everything's pointing in the right direction for Alex Cobb in a way that I'm fine with him as my number five starter. There are injury concerns and durability concerns and all of that, but if he's my number five starter and I went heavy on hitters, totally fine with it. I think he's going to be better than a strikeout per inning with good rate stats.

Love it. Absolutely love it. All in on Alex Cobb this season as a late round starting pitcher as well for all the reasons that you mentioned. A few names here that I want to rattle off. Lane Thomas going very late in drafts as well. Usually wind up with him as, you know, my fourth or fifth outfielder in a roto league. And in his time with the Nationals last year, 455 games, 270 batting average, seven homers, four steals, and 853 OPS, strong walk rate. He cut the strikeouts down, had some, you know, okay, up and down seasons in the minors, but there was a few there that stood out in terms of the power and the speed. And he's a former Cardinals outfielder. I mean, these things usually work out well.

I mean, not for the Cardinals, obviously. But once they leave the Cardinals, they usually perform quite well. He's got to get better against righties. He crushed lefties. But an opportunity to lead off for the Washington Nationals, I really do like the power and speed potential of Lane Thomas. The last one I'll mention, Hazer's Lizardo. So his final three starts last year with the Marlins.

His breaking ball usage was way up and I think that can only mean good things for him. His final start in general, 11 strikeouts. He missed time last year with a broken hand, which he did playing video games, lost in Fortnite or something. So overall it was just like a weird year for Jesus Lozardo.

The fastball has to improve. He's acknowledged it. I read an article this off season that he's been working on the fastball and he knows that it needs to be better. And if he takes a step forward with that fastball, he's got secondary stuff that is really, really good. So I will go as far as to say, like,

it would not surprise me if Lazzardo turned into, like, Lucas G.olito from a couple of years ago. Because even then, like, nobody was drafting Lucas G. olito those years. We basically wrote him off. I feel like we're kind of doing the same thing overall for Lazzardo. He's just going way too late in drafts. Was a similar prospect in terms of, you know,

before they made their major league debuts, very, actually very similar paths to the majors, too. I think they both had Tommy John's surgery, like right after they were drafted or in Lazardo's case, it might have been right before. I'm not sure, but yeah, I like that. Nationals. I like that comp. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I like that comp for Lazzardo. And the other thing I'd point out is his change-up has been pretty good in his career, that Marlins have a real thing with these change-ups. All of their pitchers seem to have really, really good change-ups. They've earned the benefit of the doubt, I think, with pitchers also. They've just been developing them really well. So I'm not ranking Jesus Lazzardo super high, but I'm excited to see what he can do. If you've learned anything today, there is no shortage of late round starting pitchers

that are interesting this upcoming season. And with that, Scott, we are going to end with not a starting pitcher, but we're going to save the best for last. Because if you've listened to Kokomo Friday this year, you know that Frank loves him some kind Joe yes but I am not the only one no no we both love Connor Joe um Connor Joe is projected to be the Rockies leadoff hitter after excelling in the role last year before a season ending injury and you know he's probably in five outfielder leagues he's probably my favorite late round outfield or target I like Lane Thomas a lot too I think Connor Joe is more gonna give you batting average Lane Thomas will give you

some speed both will give you moderate power but hopefully a lot of run scored batting leadoff for their respective clubs. I also kind of like Raphael Ortega for the same reason, though, he might only play against Ritey's. I also wanted to mention Mitch Garver, because I think he's all of our favorite late-round catcher target. I believe he was second among catchers in OPS last year after finishing first among catchers in OPS in 2019. Just for the price, I think it's reasonable to cross your fingers on good health. All right. And I already made a wild comp with Hazis-Lazardo to Lucas G. Alito. I'll give you one for Conor Joe. This year's, Brian Reynolds. You heard it here first. A 280 plus batting average, 20 plus home runs. We get that from Connor Joe this

upcoming season. 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-bye.