Fantasy Baseball Today - Sonny Gray to the Cardinals & Our First 2024 Mock Draft! (11/28 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: November 28, 2023

Link to Mock Draft results- https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/fantasy-baseball-first-mock-draft-for-2024-shows-room-for-debate-within-the-starting-pitcher-ranks/ We had a big signing on Monday with Sonny Gray heading to the Cardinals (5:33)! ... Kenta Maeda also signed with the Tigers this weekend (11:21). ... Last week Eugenio Suarez was traded to Arizona (18:31). ... Let's get into our first 2024 mock draft, starting with the first round (26:30). ... The second round is filled with first-round caliber bats (38:56). ... Scott surprised us with a starting pitcher in the third round (44:42). ... The Welsh drafted CJ Abrams in the fourth round to pair with Trea Turner (50:25). ... How did the rest of Scott's team turn out (55:05)? ... What about The Welsh's team (1:00:47)? Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 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 league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hey there, welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, November 28th. I am Frank Stample, joined by Scott White and Chris, the Welsh.

Today on the show, we are going to. to recap our first 2024 mock draft of the off season. We did it a couple of weeks ago, but I think the results are still pretty relevant and it's the only mock draft we have up on the site, so we'll break it down. The hot stove is slowly starting to heat up. We have three moves to talk about in just a bit.

I was going to ask Scott, hey, how's your Thanksgiving? You know, the usual. But for anyone watching on YouTube, I mean, look at this masterpiece behind Scott. Big old Christmas tree, the white lights, the ornaments, the presents, which Scott was very humbly bragging about before we started.

Very proud of the rap job. There are no puffy parts on this package here. I'm not even holding it up well for the people who are watching. The few people who are watching to see. This is immaculate. This is an immaculately wrapped box. This is something I'm known for now ever since Frank and I made the gift wrapping tutorial around Christmas time a couple years ago.

It's definitely 99. percentile. I'm going to give you credit for that. Your meter, your, uh, your satcast page is like far red, like wrapping, tape job, uh, no puffiness. I mean, you are top five percentile across the board, my friend. Look, I don't do anything fancy pants. I'm sure you can find people who wrap much better than me, but I do like a tightly wrapped box, you know, tightly wrapped, taped and, uh, tightly wrapped Christmas present. I think it's a good thing. The Welsh is here and he is completely lost it.

How are you doing Welshie? I'm good. I'm good. I have no wrapping skills whatsoever. I don't know what skill I can. I feel like we were bringing you then. I, you should do a tutorial for me.

I feel like we were bringing skills to the show. And I was unprepared. So I don't have a skill set. So I feel very vulnerable right now that immaculate rapping job. But I'll think about. another one. I think I can light the tree very well. I'm very good at plugging it in. I'm very good at putting the pieces to the tree. I mean, I don't know if this is a controversial thing. Is anybody, either one of you, a natural tree guy? Because not so much here. This is artificial. Okay. No, I'm not, I'm not into the cleaning up the pine needles and potentially bringing in outside pests and how dare you guys. The pre potentially dying on you before the big day. I mean, I guess it's already dead, but, you know, looking dead. Yeah, not into that.

I like just pulling it out from under the crawl space and setting it up again, fits exactly how you need it to fit, all that. Do you decorate the outside? Because you say you plug in the tree. Do you do the outside lights? I don't do anything. It's like all preset. It's all pre-lit.

It's ease of life. It is like two pieces we put together because we have a giant thing. Plug it in and then we just put the ornaments on. And we have this beautifully gorge. gorgeous tree right now. But I feel like we've highly offended, Frank. Is this a natural tree conversation we're about to have? No, I mean, we got one this year. And we've done it in the past, but we've kind of alternated. I've got a fresh tree this year. But I do like it. Like the smell. Smells great. Hmm. Yeah, but you're putting your nose up a little bit more. I can tell. I can tell

where this is going. It's also like a natural. It's like a three or four foot tree. So it's, we all eventually reach a point where we're like, no, artificial's better. Yeah. You resist. That's called like having a family and kids and stuff like that. You're just like, nah, I'm not going to do this. When you're still living the high life, you're just like, you know what we should do? We should get a we should get a real tree.

Let's go down and chop it. We're not doing that. We got podcasts to do. Scott's too busy rapping presents. There was I think 20 plus in there. There's too much going on to this time of year. Yeah. And we've got moves to talk about.

So let's do exactly that. Before we get to our mock draft, the big move that was just announced on Monday. Sunny Gray to the Cardinals on a three-year $75 million deal, which according to SpotTrack, tied for ninth highest AAV among starting pitchers. And look at that. I actually got one prediction right on FBT and 5,

so shout out to me. Sunny Gray just had a huge year. He finished second in the AL-Sy Young voting with the Minnesota Twins. He was the SP-22 in Roto, the SP-21 in head-to-head points, 279 ERA, a 1-15 whip, 184 innings his most since 2015.

He was awesome. But Scotty, how much are you buying it? How much are you buying what we just saw from Sunny Gray? And what do you think about the fit with the St. Louis Cardinals? I've gone through my phases of being a Sunny Gray believer and have always gotten burned by it. Always gotten burned by. Oh, he's changed up his pitch mix.

He's getting more strikeouts. You know, he's had so many ups and downs over the course of his career and so many troubles just taking a regular turn of the rotation. This past year was his first time reaching the 180 inning threshold since 2015. 2015 was a long time ago. That was the last time Sunny Gray got to 180 innings prior to 2023. So you've got to bake that into the cost, too. He's likely to miss some time with injury.

His two-year stint with the twins was among his better two-year stints. He had a combined 290 ERA-14 whip 8.9K per 9. But really, even there, what we're mostly impressed with is the ERA number, right? I mean, the strikeout's underwhelming. I know he kind of unveiled a new breaking ball this past year, a sweeper that was a couple mile per hour harder than whatever previous form he threw, and it had a nice whiff rate. But still less than a strikeout per inning.

So I don't know that it matters that much. I think Sunny Gray makes for a nice rotation stabilizer in fantasy, but I wouldn't want him as more than my third or even fourth starting pitcher in a 12th team league. Yeah, he's got this kind of jack of all trades, master of none thing going on. He threw six different pitches between 7% and 27% of the time. That sweeper, as you mentioned, Scott was amazing for him. A 097 batting average against and a 41% whiff rate. Always gets a good amount of ground balls.

The control actually looked much better the past couple of years with the Minnesota Twins. He has an injury history. We already talked about, you know, most endings since 2015. The early ADP is 131.3, going just after Max Scherzer, just ahead of names like Chris Bassett, Gavin Williams. Welsh, how does that price tag sound for you when it comes to Sunny Gray? Yeah, I'm looking here. Just after Max, the couple guys, below him. You've got Bassett, Gavin Williams, Jordan Montgomery down in the 150s.

I don't think it's relatively appropriate. There's just really interesting interview that was out there by, I remember Eric Crats, is that right, the former catcher who's on foul territory? Yeah. And he was having this whole thing about Sunny Gray and kind of almost the eccentricness of Sunny Gray, how when he went from the A's to the Yankees, they just wanted him to throw nothing with sliders all the time. And it kind of just messed with his rhythm because he he didn't get the choice as far as like what the pitching coach, it was Rothschild at the time who was telling him what to do. And he's a constant tinkerer.

And he was at that time in the interview, he's like, he just wanted to throw like fastballs and cutters. Well, then you go from like 2022 where he scrapped the cutter. And then he brought it back in 2023 and through it 13% of the time, redeveloped this new sweeper. I mean, he loves to tinker. So I'd also say, God knows what's in store for this year.

what the Cardinals might end up doing, what he might end up wanting to do. I'd assume they're also going to let him kind of have free reign. And hopefully, you know, under the guise of like contraris and everything like that, they're going to be able to manage these and maybe on the fly type of calling. All of this is to just say, like, I love the reinvented sweeper. I thought that was a great pitch for him. Divisionally, maybe this is going to work out positively. And I think like in the 120s, he's a solid SP3 that you can get.

And I don't mind the new destination at all because you also think about the defense, the defensive support that he's going to have on both corners with Goldie and Aeronado. And you've got a couple of these bats that are a new year older. That I think there's a lot of offensive support, a lot of defensive support. And if he kind of maintains what he was doing last year and that sweeper gets a 41% whiff rate, I think he's going to be able to touch that 9K per 9 and have a really good year. Yeah, I think SP3 makes a lot of sense, which both of you have already referenced at this point. One thing I'll say, I do think we'll see some regression in the ERR.

Ray and Whip, I think that's pretty natural. I mean, 279 was a not a career best, but close to it. He's, you know, 347 for his career. I think that probably ticks up into like the mid or high threes. Sunny Gray just had a 5.2% home run to fly ball ratio. By far a career best, and he led Major League Baseball. I mean, the next closest was Tanner Bybee at 8%.

So I do think we'll see some home run regression. Sonson FIP. Sunny Gray did. Yeah. Unlike a choice, especially given the strikeout rates. So I imagine the home run luck, luck, quote unquote he had would speak to that. So yeah, you make a good point.

Like that's how FIPP can fake you out is if somebody has, like I said, good home run luck. We did have another pitcher sign over the weekend. Kent Maeda to the Detroit Tigers on a two-year $24 million deal. Solid season in his return from Tommy John surgery, 423 ERA, a 117 whip. 117 strikeouts over 104 and a third innings. As usual, strikeouts, not an issue for Kent to Maeda,

among pitchers with at least 100 innings pitched. Maeda ranked 15th in K-minus walk rate. He was 23rd in swinging strike rate at 12.8%. Home runs have been a constant issue, and they were obviously, again, this season. Moving to Camerica Park, not that, you know, there's going to be much in the way of wins there. That should help, because, I mean,

that is the worst home run park in all of that. baseball. So that should actually help Kenta Maita this upcoming season. Scott, my guess is he'll work in as like a late round sleeper. He'll be a streamer when he has the right matchups. I don't know that he's just like an every week starter. But pitching in Comerica is something that could actually help Ken Tamida. Yeah, that was my thought too. Like considering home runs are his biggest issue. going to what stat cast rates dead last among parks for home runs over the past three years. That seems like an upgrade for Kintamaiata.

There is a supporting cast issue there, but ultimately you want him to pitch well. And he ended up with 423R8, despite a high strikeout rate, despite a pretty good whip, that ERA was high. I say home runs are Kintamaita's biggest issue, but I mean really his biggest issue,

regardless of where he's pitching, will he stay healthy? And given that he'll be turning 36 this upcoming year, I don't imagine that's going to be improved with the tigers. And it's not even so much about him missing time is him pitching through injury, because when things go bad for Maeda, they go really, really bad.

And you might remember there was a, what was it, a nine-start stretch after he returned from his triceps injury, this past year. He'd returned to June from a tricep century. And for those first nine starts back, Kenta Maeda, had a 236 ERA.95 whip, 11.2K per nine. I mean, that's a must-start pitcher. But, yeah, then it unraveled pretty cool.

Right about the time we began trusting him, it unraveled. And so that's particularly when you factor in the health concerns, that's going to, I think, make pursuing Maeda pretty frustrating. And it's going to make him nothing more than a late-round pick in 12-team leagues. but a lay-round pick who could be very useful off and on. Yeah. The injury history, as you pointed out, it's prevalent for Ken Tamayeta.

He hasn't thrown more than 106 and a third innings since 2019. And again, he's, you know, in his mid-30s, it's probably not going to get much better moving forward. What does this mean for both the Tigers and the Twins' rotations? Because the twins have now just lost two pieces. They lost Maeda and Sunny-Gray. Obviously, the Tigers gained Kenta Maeda. So first of up, the Tigers rotation looks like,

as of now, Terik Scoubel, Mieda, Casey Mize, the returning, Casey Mize. So not sure how many innings will get out of him as well. But Matt Manning and Reese Olson, looks like Sawyer Gibson Long is probably on the out for now, but obviously there's injuries and underperformance. He can work his way back in. They also have some prospects that could be pretty close

in Jackson, Job, and Wilmer Flores as well. The twins projected pitching staff, Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, Billy Ober. All right, that's all good. Chris Paddock, also coming back from injury, pitched a little bit towards the end of the season. I'm excited about Paddock. And Louis Varland.

I know Paddock had a like, what? He pitched a couple of endings towards the end of the year, but his velocity was way up, right? Something like that? I mean, he was working in relief, but yeah. And he was missing a, how many appearances did he end up making? Was it like two, three inning appearances? Something like he had five inning. He pitched five innings.

So I don't know how many appearances that ended up being. But he looked like. He looked like somebody worth gambling on in the late rounds, especially in Points League is going to have RP eligibility to begin next year. So even,

you know, we think of that as a shallow format. Only 250 players drafted usually in a 12-team had points league. But for that relief pitcher eligibility, a guy who's shown upside in the past, I think he might be worth gambling on

at the end of drafts. And I think I feel pretty confident he's going to have the inside track on a rotation spot next year, I imagine they'll bring in somebody at a low cost to kind of compete with Paddock and Louis Varland,

who himself is kind of interesting. I don't think the upside is huge for Varland, but I think he could be a useful streamer type. Two things... Oh, yeah, no, sorry, I'm going to interrupt you. I'm just going to say two things to consider is they do have a pretty robust minor league system. So if they do feel that they're in contention,

I think that's a team that they can trade from within those spots. I mean, just looking, I just went away from it, of course. Obviously, they're not going to trade Walker Jenkins, probably not Emmanuel Rodriguez, but you've got Brooks Lee. They got Brandon Winaker, who they just drafted. Austin Martin is sitting out there. They've got some guys at the lower levels. The secondary thing to throw out to you is David Festa.

David Festa did get to AAA this past year. 119 strikeouts and 92 innings. He had a four ERA, but he was able to get, I guess it was only three starts in AAA, but he was at AA the whole time. I'm pretty intrigued with him. Festa change up, he used 22.6% of the time or change. Oh, no, I'm sorry.

Festa at AAA had a change up with a 22.6% swinging strike percentage on his AAA numbers. And that's a guy that can just pump fastball, get those strikeouts on a change-up that's a great pitch that I think they would be comfortable with as far as a full-on starter. So just throwing out there that, you know, I think they might feel they have a little bit more depth than is being presented. And A, they can go trade for and be a guy like David Festa as somebody that's going to get

an opportunity pretty soon. So interesting because just looking at his profile, David Festa, six foot six. And you mentioned it was a changeup, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's so, it's so similar. to Bailey Ober, who's like 6 foot 8, and he's like fastball top of the zone and then throws this awesome change up. And this guy's 6 foot 6 and it's fastball and it's change up. It's just, they kind of have a type right now. And it's worked for Bailey Ober. He's been a pretty useful pitcher so

far. So I don't know, might work out for also someone like David Festa as well. If they're not comfortable with Paddock, what if they're not comfortable with Paddock as a starter? You know, a guy like Festa could be somebody that they put in there and Paddock goes to the bullpen or you piggyback, you know, and you a guy like Festa. Again, I'm throwing Festa out here as what is on the roster, there is still an entire free agency, and they do have bullets in that trade gun right now because they've got some pretty good talent. All right. Let's wrap up the news with this trade that we had right before Thanksgiving as a Eugenio Suarez was traded over to the Welsh's Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for hard throwing reliever Carlos Vargas and backup catcher Sebi

Savala. Suarez finished as the 18th third basement in Roto, 14th that had 10 points. Kind of surprising because he had 214 strikeouts, which was the most in the American League. He hit 232. He had 22 homers, 96 RBI. Still hits the ball hard, but the barrel rate came down a little bit this year. Slugging percentage and ISO were both down as well. The ADP is 284, so we're talking about like a real late round, maybe even like a deeper league corner infielder here. But Welsh, any thoughts here, any enthusiasm for your debacks acquiring a.

Hohenio Suarez. Yeah, I mean, I think the possible, I mean, friendly ballpark, if you look at ballpark factors, he had 22 this year. If he were to have been all in Arizona, of course, all that tells us is maybe a three home run boost hitting in Arizona. So there's a slight advantage in Arizona in general. On the Fantasy and Five, I had predicted Matt Chapman that the Diamondbacks would go and they'd spend some money on Matt Chapman because they were going to do something at third base.

This seems like a, this seems like the alternative of what. they probably are going to have to end up doing. They may want to spend their money on the contracts of the players and trade within the, you know, in the organization. And that's why I had presented this Jordan Lawler for a cease or Corbyn Burns type, you know, some type of move like that. Because I think that's where the Diamondbacks make their moves. But, you know, he's going to hit in the middle of an order.

That's got some good contact. I say middle order, probably like four or five. But, you know, you're going to be hitting theoretically with the opportunity of guys like Corbin Burns, uh, Corbin Burns. Corbyn Carroll and Catelle Marte both on base, both high batting average players. The RBI opportunity with maybe the ball flinging out a little bit more. I don't love the batting average,

but it's not going to get much worse than Evan Longoria. I think he could pop up a little bit, like a corner infield option to watch. Maybe he's got some hot streaks if you're playing for big power and strikeouts aren't going to absolutely destroy you. But, you know, what league is average or, you know, the strikeouts not going to affect you most likely. Maybe in an OVP league,

he's a little bit less damaging. But it's okay. It's a little bit more than slightly lateral move. All right. The, uh, Scott, anything on Suarez? My biggest takeaway from this trade is that,

you know, I think Jordan Lawler's future is eventually shortstop, but this is one less avenue now where he can potentially win an opening day job, unless they're going to use him as trade bait, as you said, the Welsh. So that's, you know,

maybe. maybe a little less interest in drafting Jordan Lawler, not that he was going to be a huge draft day target to begin with. And that is putting Pardomo on a pedestal. I understand I'm putting Pardomo on a pedestal, but defensively they love him. He did a pretty decent job. He was an all-star.

And I have thrown out this idea that I think that Diamondback should reconsider maybe putting even Cotel Marte back in the outfield. You got an opening in that left field spot, let him play the Lordus Guerriel spot, and then that would enable. I think that's the path. for Jordan Lawler to be an impact with the Diamondbacks.

But as I said, I'm not sold that they're not going to use him as ultimate collateral to make a big franchise changing move. If you're going to trade him, that's what you would do with it. Yeah. And last point on this, Rasta Resource currently has Dominic Fletcher as the starting DH for the D-BACs. So if everything just kind of stays the way it is, look, they can still make more moves. I think there's a chance Suarez could- They will make more moves. Suarez could DH a little bit if they really want to get Lawler in the lineup.

I think they could find ways to get creative with it. But yeah, I think as of now that that's a possibility, at least looking forward for Jordan Lawler. Some other new items worth mentioning, Jason Hayward looks to be back with the Dodgers on a one-year deal. Pirates starting pitcher Johan Oviedo will undergo Tommy John surgery. Japanese pitcher Shota Imanaga was posted on Monday. He's 30 years old. A left-handed pitcher who sits in the low 90s with his fastball. has great control this season in the minors in Japan.

He, uh, 266 ERA, a 102 whip 10.6K per 9, 1.4 walks per 9. So K minus walk rates. I have been amazing for that guy. Basically, uh, every year he's pitched in Japan. Uh, but viewed as like a mid-rotation starting pitcher in major league baseball. The early ADP for Shota Imanaga is 258.1. Just behind Charlie Morton and Christopher Sanchez. he's a name that I think we're going to need to know for fantasy purposes.

And the latest rumors, the Braves and the White Sox have discussed a potential Dillon C's trait. So maybe a little Von Grissom, a little AJ Smith-Shawber, something like that involved in the deal that could happen. And the Reds reportedly pursued Sunny Gray and are now interested in Tyler Glassdowne. So I don't know that that would be the great move, the best move for Tyler Glassdown's fantasy value going into a great. American Ballpark, but we shall wait and see what happens with him. Let's take our first break, when we return. We're going to break down our first mock draft of the off season. We will do that right after this. Welcome back in. Let's break down our first mock draft of the off season. And I'm actually going to show the draft picks up on the screen for those watching us on YouTube.

So you can follow along that way. Or if you're listening, I'll put the results, the link in the podcast and YouTube description so you can click on that and you can follow along. that way as well. Speaking of which, boom! Let's pull it up there. And this was a 12-team standard 5-5-R-O-League.

Usual categories, batting average, home run, run-scored, RBI, and steals. And on the pitching side, ERA, whip, wins, strikeouts, and saves. Of course, we were using roto-style lineups. So 14 hitters,

that includes two catchers, one of each infield position, five outfielers, one corner, one middle, and one utility hitter, and then nine pitcher spots. which you can divvy up however you want. I think most people either go

six starting pitchers, three relievers, seven starting pitchers, two relievers, whatever it might be. Each of us here were in the draft, and we were all drafting in the back half. So I had the seventh pick. Scott had the ninth pick in this draft, and the Welsh was picking down at 11.

Lame. I'm sorry, but just, you know, not my fault. It's fine. It's totally fine. It's totally fine. It's just, you know, your hopes get,

when you're at the back of the draft, you're like, is Gordon Carroll going to fall? No, he's not going to fall. But yeah, yeah, yeah, we were all in the back half. We don't want all be drafted next to each other. You guys are animals. You guys are savages. He did fall to one of us, but did we actually draft him?

We'll find out just a second. Let's start with the top half of the first round. We'll look at the early round stuff and then kind of get into our teams and roster construction and all that kind of fun stuff. But the first half of the first round, Ronald de Cunia, Bobby Witt, Julio Rodriguez.

I think in most category, Roto style leagues. That will be a consensus top three in some type of order. Acuna's going to be one, and then Bobby Witt and Julio Rodriguez, whatever order of those two go in. Followed by Mookie Betts in this drafts,

Fernando Tatis, and Jose Ramirez. So, Scott, Tatis kind of remains this off-season wild card. He came back from the suspension. He only hit 257. The power and speed was great. 25 homers, 29 steals, and 141 games.

He posted just a 770 OPS, 965 in his first three years. So this is actually a big drop-off. We don't know if it's, you know, shoulder-related. He had different surgeries coming back from a suspension. I think he's gonna remain kind of a polarizing figure this offseason. His early ADP is 6.9, yet he is still the number two projected hitter from the early steamer projections. What do you think about Fernando Tatis going as early as number five overall? Well, I don't like it. I don't like it less because of how I

feel about Fernando Tatis than because of how I feel about a couple other guys who could have been drafted instead. I think the top six is crystal clear. You already mentioned Acuna Witt and Julio Rodriguez. The other three are Corbyn-Carrul, Mooky-Betz, and Freddie Freeman. Mookie Betts did go ahead of Fernando Tatis. We went fourth in this draft, but Tatez going fifth overall here. We still haven't seen Freeman or Corbyn Carroll. go off the board. And I mean, obviously, we, we, I recognize the upside for Fernando Tatis. He has probably the second most upside of any player in fantasy behind, just Ronald de Kuna,

based on what we saw from him in, what was it, 2021, the kind of his 162 game pace that season, the home run and RB, and the home run and stolen base totals were insane. but, you know, then he did have a couple of surgeries. He did have a PED suspension and he came back and, you know, he was back end of the first round kind of good. I am encouraged by how hard Fernando Tatis hit the ball. And I think that's maybe where you make the case. Okay, we'll give him a pass for 2023 and trust that he's still this like top five caliber hitter.

There's a chance. I just think, based on what we just saw Corbyn Carroll and Freddie Freeman do, basically, when we see Freddie Freeman do every year, I don't see the point of taking that risk in round one, if it means passing up those guys. It doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't really fit my level of risk aversion selling out for upside like that in round one. So that's really the only objection I have to Fernando Tatis. But look, that was my objection to taking Ronald de Kuna, number one overall this past year.

And obviously, I beg on my face for that. Yeah, I mean, I think there is a chance that Fernando Tatis, look, he got one year under his belt back from injury, suspension, all that stuff. And then boom, comes out this year and has like a 40-40 season. I think that's entirely possible. Not that I'd project it to happen. But like you said, I mean, the upside is definitely there. And so I get that. Jose Ramirez, he's the only other name I wanted to mention here in the top six.

Maybe a touch high compared to ADP. I wouldn't take him over like Carol, Freeman, or Tucker. But once those names are off the board, I do think Jose Ramirez is in play. Then we get into all of our picks. So the back half of the first round, I took Freddie Freeman at number seven overall. That was followed up by Corby and Carol. Kyle Tucker went to Scott. Then Shohei Otani, Trey Turner went to the Welsh,

and Aaron Judge was the final pick of the first round. back in September, I said that I would take Freddie Freeman over Corbyn Carroll, and at least for now, I'm sticking to it. Maybe it's, I don't know, scared money, don't make money. Oh, really? Not that I should. Go ahead. It caused you some consternation in round two.

It did. That I thought might cause you to rethink taking Freddie Freeman over Corbyn Carroll. And I know your concerns with Carroll are related to the shoulder issue that popped up. Like, there were a couple times mid-season where we thought Corbyn Carroll's year was over because of a massive catastrophic shoulder injury and he was back in the lineup like a day or two later. Luckily you got to see it all

way to the World Series where it wasn't an issue, Frank? Yeah. I'm not good enough. Still not good enough, but I would think that would bring peace of mind. I have a couple months to change my mind, guys. Come on. No, sure. I'll point out, we'll get into, it's worth getting into in round two.

We see what happened in round two, why maybe taking Freeman over Carol was not such a great idea. But we'll get to it then. Yeah. Scott, you took 51 seconds to select Kyle Tucker.

Does that mean you were contemplating anybody else? You know, I was probably furiously putting to, putting my rankings in a form where I could narrow them down

as the draft was playing out, you know, copying and pasting them into an Excel file so I could delete the names taken and keep trying. Because, you know, what's in the draft room right now

is not something you want to rely on for your draft. So that's probably why it took me 51 seconds. I tend to take a lot of time anyway. But yeah, I was probably waiting to the last minute to get those rankings in order. If Corby and Carroll fell to me,

so Corby Carroll went to 8th and I took Kyle Tucker 9th, so there was probably some disappointment setting in because I think Corby Carroll's the number 4 player. Would have been great to get him in 9. But no, Kyle Tucker is, I think pretty clearly the best choice of that second tier of hitters, especially if, you know, Fernando, Ortiz isn't there to consider.

Yeah, I would not dispute that. I was going to make the argument a little bit earlier that I think you could stretch it until like a top seven in Roto. And if you wanted to attack Kyle Tucker there as like the seventh player, I have no problem with saying that. I would say he's pretty proven at this point. I mean, there's like I feel like you have to take an outfielder if it's in doubt. Like that is the one position where it feels like there's a lack.

And obviously this being a standard Roto League, five outfielder spots to fill. Yeah. When in doubt in the early rounds, take an outfielder. I'm not going crazy for the position scarcity thing, but that is the one kind of rule I'm making for myself, when in doubt, take an outfielder. Yeah, more on that in just a bit. Welsh, you took Trey Turner at Pick 11.

You took him over Aaron Judge, Spencer Strider, and Yorda Alvarez. Were you happy at that decision in the moment? And I guess were you happy with it at the end? Yeah, well, in the moment, yeah. I want to prioritize stolen bases. I know we're going to all season long have this debate of our stolen base is less, you know, worthy and elite power. But I will say also, like, I definitely was watching Corby and Carol fall.

And I was like, oh, come on, baby. Come on. Come up sevens. And it didn't. And Kyle Tucker didn't fall. And I just thought, you know, the back half of what Trey Turner did this year, he kind of got back into who he was. He ended up with 30 stolen bases. He hit 292.

We saw a huge power output post all-star break. with 16 homers. We were kind of waiting for that from the WBC. So you just kind of got back into being that full-fledged player. Now, the end of it, we'll save that for the discussion we're going to come to, because you both are going to argue for what I did, which, by the way, this is a mock draft. We're kind of messing around here.

We're playing with some different styles. I did have kind of an idea of what I wanted to do, but I got a little crazy with it. So at the end, I gave myself probably too much of one position, so you could argue maybe not. But I think he was the best player on the board. and I was paying attention to this wheel situation where I was like, well, I can get one of Judge Alvarez or Soto. I wanted a big power here. I wanted obviously Judge and Alvarez probably a little bit higher in there.

But those are one of the three players I wanted. So knowing that I could prioritize stolen bases, I did that with Trey Turner and the batting average. And I figured I'm going to get one of these guys. Or if I wanted to quickly change my mind, I could go get the best SP off the board. So I actually thought I was in a really good position. and this started off really well with Turner.

And early ADP would agree with you because Trey Turner's NFBC ADP is 9.3, so is going a little bit earlier than even where you took him. I have Trey Turner as the ninth overall player, so for you to get him, what, 11th? Yeah. The Shohay Otani pick at 10th overall,

I think, really stands out to me that, you know, you're just, you're not going to worry at all about a missing time at the beginning of next year. you're going to fill the DH spot without the option of having being able to switch him to pitcher at times. I don't know.

To me, Shohei Otani belongs after the guys all in consideration for around one pick, which is like 16 guys. I think it's open for interpretation. We definitely want to get some updates about how he recovers because,

you know, there's a lot of like narrative out there of like, hey, you know, now that he can focus on hitting, he might want to do this and do that. And maybe he goes,

you know, more games played. And he kind of even goes, a little bit more wild. That narrative is out there, but it's also kind of true. Like, this is,

like, what he can be as a hitter is to dream on. The negatives are he is D.H. So the flexibility is gone, and that takes away maybe some players later. And the injury,

like, what time could be missed? Theoretically, we are presented with no time to be missed, but there could be some time missed. And I don't know, taking a player with that type of injury, scary.

I mean, Bryce Harper came back after, what, six months? Took him two months to get right? Right, right. He did not look like Bryce Harper. So, yeah, I have, as we're seeing here,

between my take on Fernando Tatis and Shohei Otani, my tendency is to play it very, very safe in the early rounds. Because like that, a missed pick there could just ruin your whole season. And I think to your point, it's like, I'm not quite like that because I'm a little bit of a wild card, wild west, boom. But like, the players are so good. That's that counter to like, you could be like, hey, I don't want to play it great.

But the players are so good in the first round that it's like, why take that extra little stab it, playing it risky when it's like that that looks like, and it could fall apart. That looks like one of the best first rounds I've seen and God knows how long in the season. Like those are all potential. I mean, some of the players are overall picks.

Some of the players who weren't in round one. Like I saying, they're, they're to me a 16 first round caliber players. And so, you know, I agree with you. Picking 11th, You were complaining about picking 11th, Welsh. I mean, that's, that might be a good place to pick. Yeah, I complained to complain.

That's all I was doing. I'm really, I'm not upset about that spot. It comes back to bite you. There's this like, there's a good feeling of like not having to wait long between picks, but then having that big, huge space between coming back where there's things you'd like to do. I don't know, sometimes it kind of like, it can kind of throw you off just a tiny bit, unless you have a absolute hard concrete plan, which, you know, in November, I don't have my hardcore concrete plan.

I want to play around with some stuff. You know what? There may be 19 first round caliber picks come to think of it because I wasn't including Otani, Bryce Harper, Jan Soto in that original group of 16. Last point on Oton.

What? Yeah, I think you said. Yon Soto? I think you did. Juan Soto. It's a silent J. It's yogging. I believe it's called Yogging.

People said Juan Succo. I think Yonso is a better nickname for the bad version of him. Last point on O'Ton. that I would make, I would not take him at 10, but if somebody wanted to make the argument for him, if you think he's going to be fully healthy on opening day, he's probably a top five pick. Like if we get that confirmation during spring training, he's probably moving up into the top five. So I guess that's the argument for him, but I'd have to see him hit a few, hit a few dongs in spring

training. Yeah, which I think he's certainly capable of. Let's move into the second round because we spent a lot of time on the first. The second round starts with, you know, I'll scroll down for the little. watching us here so you could see what's going on. The second round started with Spencer Strider as the SP1, and then the Welsh took Juan Succo, Juan Soto, followed by Yordon Alvarez.

Corey Seeger went to Scott, Raphael Devers, and then I took Francisco Lindor to pair with Freeman, and here was my dilemma, which Scott mentioned earlier. In a vacuum, I think Bryce Harper is a better player than Lindor. I think he's a better player for fantasy as well, and I would take him just in a vacuum over Francisco Lindor but I didn't because I didn't want to start my team with two first basemen which then brings us to the question well

if you would have just taken Corby and Carroll or Kyle Tucker then you could have had Bryce Harper or you could just start your team with two first baseman and see how it works out. Yeah I mean the fact Corbyn Carroll was there more so than Kyle Tucker for me I'm definitely taking Freeman over Tucker but I definitely not taking Freeman over Corbin Carroll And this is, this is a, I wasn't even counting on this is, I wasn't even counting this as a reason why, but the, what can happen among the obvious early round first baseman? You mentioned Harper.

Matt Olson too. So Harper ends up going 21st overall because you didn't feel like you were able to take him having already taken Freddie Freeman. So you take it Francisco Lindor instead. Matt Olson went 24th overall. Matt Olson's a hitter who I think you could justify taking as high as like 11. 12th. I'm going to tell you right now, I would have taken Matt Olson. Like you're saying you would have taken Bryce Harper in your spot, Frank. I was salivating thinking we were going to talk about Matt. I have Matt Olson over Harper right now. I would have taken Matt Elson. So that idea of Corbin and

Matt Olson, that gets me excited about that. So either way, you can interchange the players, but I completely agree here because Matt Olson is a top 12 viable fantasy value. I don't think it's going to be often that somebody, so Raphael Devers was the pick directly before you, Frank, Francisco Lundor. I don't think it's often Raphael Devers is going to go ahead of Matt Olson and Bryce Harper. I don't think it's often that Austin is going to go ahead of Matt Elson. We haven't gotten there, but I don't think that's going to happen very often either. So there was just kind of some, why is everybody passing over these two first basemen happening in this draft?

But particularly in your situation picking 18th overall, it's very likely that one of Olson and Harper will last to 18th overall. And so, yeah, that might be the reason to think twice about taking Freeman there, certainly if somebody like Corbyn Carroll is available instead. I mean, the fourth pick in round two, 16th overall, where I took Corey Seeger. The debate for me with that pick was Corey Seeger or Matt Olson, having taken Kyle Tucker and outfielder in round one. I was like, okay, do I go Corey Seeger or do I go Matt Olson get the huge home run in RBI and run, frankly, production from Matt Olson?

or do I get the huge batting average from Corey Seeger with still great home run run in RBI production as well, but maybe not quite at Olson's level. And ultimately, I decided batting average is the higher priority in the early rounds because it's really hard to get batting average along with anything else in early to mid rounds even. But it was a close call.

I think those two in terms of overall value, Seeger and Matt Olson are pretty much neck-and-neck-neck for me. and so I was floored to see Matt Olson go 12th. The guy who drafted Ronald de Cunia first overall, then got Matt Olson with his second pick. And that just, that can't happen. That can't happen. How did we let this happen in a mock draft in November?

What are we doing? Let's quickly remind people what happened the rest of the second round. So I took Lindora pick 18, followed by Garrett Cole, who was the SP2 off the board, Austin Riley, Bryce Harper, Luis Robert, Corbyn Burns as ESP3, followed by Matt Olson, who went to my buddy George Kurtz, who I used to work with.

So shout out to George. He did a great job there, starting his team with Ronald de Cunia and Matt Olson. Frankly, I don't think it will happen in many other drafts this offseason or in 2024. But for anyone who does get that, shout out to you, because that's awesome. Let's take our final break when we return.

We'll break down some of the other early rounds, and then the rest of our teams will do that here on fantasy baseball today. Welcome back in. let's get back into the third round here, which starts with Zach Wheeler as the SP4 off the board, followed by Vladimir Guerrero, Ozzie Albies, Ellie Dela Cruz,

Bobauchette, and Pete Alonzo. So, look, Ellie Dela Cruz, I think a lot of off-season conversations are going to be about him and his ADP being a third round pick might sound crazy, but if there is any way that you're going to do it, pairing Ellie Dela Cruz with Moogie Betts

and Bryce Harper feels like a pretty damn good way to do it, Welsh. That's how you do it. If you're going to do it, that's how you do it. We said, you know, I'm getting crazy in those first couple rounds because they're such great talented players. Then you start getting into a little bit more of like, you know, you're taking a little bit more concerted risk.

I mean, you could apply a risk to some of these other picks. I mean, I think Vlad is a good deal here. But, you know, Vlad and some of the counting stats being down Pete Alonzo on the batting average and stuff. So if you're going to do it, have two of the safest picks at the top end, take Ellie De La Cruz for the insane upside. if it works out, if he gets the ball off the ground off of his, what, three degree launch angle and he's not striking out 30% of the time,

Ellie is going to be a massive, massive, massive return. And it'd be interesting to look at like at the end of like what all he did and what type of implied risk was out there. But it's probably not going to be a ton for me this year. But I, this is how you do it. Yeah. Although if he had just taken Corbyn Carol over Mookie Betts, then I don't know that he even needs to stress about steals at this point.

Do you think that was a stolen base stress pick or do you think it was he does everything pick? Just sell out for upside. I think it was more stolen bases because that's the one thing you can count on L.E. De La Cruz 4 and he probably doesn't have a lot yet between Mooky Betts. Didn't feel like he had a lot yet between Mooky Betts and Bryce Harper. Not that he had zero, but I don't know what, I combined 30 between the two of those guys, maybe even less. I mean, I'd rather be the guy who takes Freddie Freeman and takes Ellie De La Cruz because he built in a little more batting average protection that way.

Bougie bets did hit 307 this past year, but the previous two years he was more like a 260 to 27 hitter. So I don't know. It's going to take a particular start for me to be the one who grabs Ellie De La Cruz in round three, though it is looking like that is when you would have to commit to taking Ellie de la Cruz.

I also want to point out, and I'm encouraged by this, Vladimir Guerrero and Bo Bichette, two guys who've gotten a lot of benefit of the doubt in the past, the fact they're going in round three shows they're getting less benefit of the doubt. And I think that's appropriate based on the way certainly last year went, but even the year before for both Vlad and Bo. Yeah, Scott and I spent a lot of time talking about Bo Bouchet on our shortstop recap last week so you can go back and listen to that and I you know I saw I think it was either on

Friday or Saturday now maybe it was even before Thanksgiving there were some rumors last week that like the Cubs were poking around on Boba Chet with the Blue Jays and I don't know there was just like some whispers of trade rumors on the on the Twitter on the X machine so I don't know I don't think that the the Blue Jays are very inclined to move Boba Chet but it's the first that I've heard about it so it's something to pay attention to. The back end of the third round, I took Jose Altuve with the seventh pick of the third round, followed by Marcus Semyon.

Kevin Gosman was the fifth starter off the board. He went to Scott. Then Michael Harris, Gunner Henderson, went to the Welsh, and Luis Castillo, the sixth starter off the board. Scotty, got to be honest. I was a little surprised to see you take a starting pitcher as early as the third round. Was this just because you didn't love any of the hitters available?

Was this part of the plan coming in? What do you think? there is a certain threshold among my hitter ranks where I feel like, okay, everybody above this is MVP caliber bat. And everybody below this, not to say they couldn't become an MVP caliber bat, but I think I consider them a little less than that right now. So they're a little more, they're part of a bigger, less select group. And basically, so that the two picks before my Gosman pick at the ninth pick in round three, the two picks before that were Jose Al-2-Vain. Marcus Simeon. And that was basically the cutoff.

Those were the last two from that group of MVP caliber hitters. If Simeon had lasted one more pick, I would have taken him instead. But here, the ninth pick in round three, this pick 31 overall, it came down to, okay, the best hitter for me was Gunner Henderson. Gunner Henderson, you know, he takes another step forward in his sophomore year and maybe he becomes that MVP caliber bat. But by ranking them as high as I do, like we're kind of counting on him taking that step forward already.

Like he has more in common with Manning the Hatter than with Austin Riley. So I thought that was, I thought, I thought, I thought that was too big of a leap. The fact that Kevin Gosman was still out, that he's my number four pitcher, a big strikeout guy, likely to eclipse 220 strikeouts.

And my biggest rule, at least in Roto League, my biggest rule for starting pitchers this year is, if I'm going to pay, I'm going to pay for strikeouts. So the fact that Gossman specifically was there, and he was the pitcher I could opt for instead of Henderson, you know, kind of passed my two big rules for starting pitcher. Definitely getting strikeouts in the case of Gossman and MVP caliber bats all gone before I took my first pitcher.

All right. Let's move into the fourth round. The Welsh we found out loves him some speed. Why is that? Because, well, Zach Gallen was the first pick of the fourth round. And then the Welsh took C.J. Abrams, followed by Tyler Glass now. Mani Machado went to Scott, then Mike Trout, and I took Randy a Roserana. So I'll just quickly read off all of our teams, how they look through the first four rounds.

And then Welsh, you can just comment on your Abrams pick. But through four rounds, Welsh had Trey Turner, Juan Soto, Gunner, Henderson, C.J. Abrams. Scott had Kyle Tucker, Corey Seeger, Kevin Gausman, and Mani Machado. The only one of us to take a starting pitcher in the first four rounds, let alone Scott took him in the third. And then I have Freddie Freeman, Francisco Lindor, Jose Altuve, and Randy a Rosa Rana. Welsh, lots of speed.

Two short stops. What do you think? And we ain't done. We ain't done. We can keep going. I will tell you this. My plans got derailed. So I gave a long, hard look at going.

knowing Castillo or Gallen. But I kept staring at Gunner, and I kept staring at like the third base spot. And I just didn't, I wanted to, I wanted to lock that in. This is more stolen bases out of a position that doesn't normally get it.

I think he's a great hitter. He's going to be put in a prime spot. I like the home. I believe in it. So I was like, all right, I'm going to take Gunner. Then I'm going to take one of Castillo or Gallon.

Well, if you're watching on the YouTube, you notice bam, bam, both of those went and I went crap. Those were the two pictures I wanted. I thought, very long and hard also about George Kirby, but as Scott kind of said, like, I do want to,

when I can pay for the strikeouts. So then I say, you know what, I'm, I'm going to invest here. C.J. Abrams is still there. Like,

I know people are going to be weird about speed. I feel like I'm doing a decent job, especially on the risk I took at the beginning. I've got batting average. I've got some power. Gunner is a 30 home run power guy. And I was able to then solidify the number three projected steamer,

stolen base guy on the season. Yes, I already had the position full, but I got middle infield. And I sometimes think we make a little too big of a deal about like, hey, you got two here. But we have middle infield. We have corner infield.

We have U-Til. I want to utilize that with the best players as possible. And I also just didn't like, I wasn't in love with the hitters that were coming after that. And my two SPs went. So I decided to pivot into this like speed-heavy approach to see what it ended up looking like. And I knew a player I was going to take later, which derails Scott's.

brain on ever liking this team and I knew I was going to take this guy and I still did this. Yeah, I mean, I think the way I was looking at your full roster prior to this podcast because I did mention in my write-up for this mock that, you know, it makes sense for somebody to take CJ Abrams in round four. I don't know that it makes sense for the guy who took Trey Turner in round one to take CJ Abrams in round four. You really focused in on your needs after that. And so I think it turned out okay. Like you don't have too much speed. You didn't overdo it with speed.

You think you might if you take Turner in round one and Abrams in round four, but you just kind of pivoted away from speed after that, which is fine. There's a lot more speed available at all phases of the draft, but you don't have to build your team that way, obviously. It leaves you with less options, but it also kind of gives you a clearer path forward when you do something that extreme early on. I find CJ Abrams to be a hard player to, to rank and to justify because he's going to give you a ton of steals.

If he maintains his pace from the final three months for a full season, he might give you 70 steals. I'm not sure what else he's giving you. I'm not sure what else he's giving you. Maybe he takes a step forward and batting average. Maybe he gets on base more and can be a big runs guy. Maybe he hits between 15 and 20 homers again. I don't think any of that is a lot for C.J. Abrams.

And so it's, I think I'm only going to take them in round four if, like, I got burned in steals up to that point and just really need to make up ground quickly. Yeah, we said this on another podcast, but I think if you start a team with Judge and Alvarez or Judge and Soto or Alvarez and Corey Seeger, something like that. If you're in the back half and there's just some way somehow you miss out on Trey Turner and there's no speed left. If you start with those two sluggers and then Abrams is there in round four, I, I think, think that makes a lot of sense, but as you pointed out, and we'll read off the teams here and let people decide, but yeah, Welsh did kind of pivot into other positions and other needs after taking those speeds gears up at the top. If you're watching on YouTube, you see I I pulled up Scott's team here, so I'll run through here and I'll let you guys talk about

each year teams. We'll start with the offense. Scott, you had Chey Langaleers and Tyler Soderstrom at Catcher from the Las Vegas A's. How about that tandem? Christian Walker at first base. It looks really bad to start out, right? I'll start out with Langalears and Soder Strong. Yeah, yeah, sorry. I just have to read it from the top down. My last two picks in the draft, basically.

Christian Walker at first base, Zach Gelloff at second. Mani Machado. Yeah, that's, yeah. Mani Machado at third, Corey Seeger at shortstop, Ronnie Maricio at middle infield, Junior Camerero at Corner,

and then in the outfield, Kyle Tucker, Josh Lowe, Sea, Suzuki, Chas McCormick, Kerry Carpenter, and you have Jaron Duran at utility. So nice to see that one of the three of us actually invested in outfield and came away with a decent one. Went and out. More on that in a second. Seems like a decent amount of power and speed.

Obviously, you punted at catcher here, Scott. You also have prospects at both middle and corner. Are you okay with that after being aggressive on prospects last year, and it kind of burned you a little bit? Yeah, I'm okay with it because we saw Maurice. go crazy on the bases. Once he got called up, we already got a sneak peek at him. We saw the huge exit velocities carry over to the majors.

I think the playing time's going to be there for him. And if nothing else, I think he's going to run, and he could deliver big power on top of it. And Cominero, I mean, is elite, elite prospect, and you're not having to invest a top five pick in him. What round did I get him in? I got Cominero in round 17.

So, yeah, I didn't draft a lineup with five rookies and I drafted it with two, but they're either really high-end prospects in common arrows case or, you know, have already shown they can do something in Mauricio's case. So I'm fine with it. And the investment was low. Yeah, I do want to, well, you already mentioned it, my emphasis on the outfield. Yeah, I feel good about the balance I achieved here with power and speed and taking advantage of scarcities in the case of Zach Galloff and junior.

common arrow. I think second base and third base are the two positions where I'm most likely to wait because I like a lot of the upside available later on. On the pitching side, we mentioned you took Kevin Galsman in round three. You also took Blake Snell in round five. I believe it was Cole Regens in round seven. Justin Steele in round 10. So four of your first 10 picks there on starting pitchers. You also have Christian Javier, Ryan Pepio, rounding out the pitching staff, followed by Ryssela Glacius, Craig Kimberle and Tanner Scott as your closers. Tons of strikeouts. Looks like the ERA should be strong.

The one issue I would point out, Scott, is the whip. With Kevin Gosman, Snell, and Regans altogether, all those guys, I mean, Reagan's and Snell, the walk rate, I think, is going to be high for both of them. But Kevin Gossman, I mean, the guy always gives up a ton of hits. I don't know what it's about, what the reason is, but his whip is always a little bit more elevated for an ace than you'd like.

So that was my only kind of pushback on the specific pitchers you too. Based on last year stats, I think it was still top five team in terms of whip. So I don't know. And like I said, the reason I'm really selling out for strikeouts and my pitching rankings I can already tell they're going to be different for most people's because I'm elevating strikeout guys over non-strikeout guys intentionally is because like that is the one pitching stat I feel like you can count on. That's part one. If you buy strikeouts, you're going to get strikeouts, barring injury, of course. And part two is the high strikeout guys generally have the most upside overall. So if there's, if there are going to be pitchers who surprise everybody with their ERA and Whip,

it's more likely to be the strikeout guys. That's a secondary reason. But I think they're both good reasons. And really, that's just kind of getting back to my original pitching philosophies before I kind of started trying to play market inefficiencies instead. I know I'm not really breaking news with that. But like that is why, if you're, If you're not aware, that is why I'm selling out hard for strikeouts.

And so I know I invest in pitching in this team, as you pointed out, Frank. But I invested in Gosman, Snell, Regans. Those three are my top three pitching picks. Huge strikeout guys. Huge strikeout guys. And then the fact that, you know, I have Justin Steele on this team as well. I don't think of him as a big strikeout guy, but he was there in round 10. I wasn't even the biggest, like every time I said anything bad,

about Justin Steele this past year. I had a bunch of people jumping down my throat. You know, somehow he lasts till round 10 in our first mock. I thought that was the steal of the draft. No pun intended. So I didn't intend to invest this much in pitching. And I don't know that I will in every draft. I think partly it was just other people weren't getting pitching.

And so a lot of times it made sense for me to grab that guy. But I'm really happy with the way this team turned out. My offense is a little weaker than I'd like it to be. But I think it's competitive. And my pitching, I think, be pretty dominant and in the areas that are most predictable. I'll also point out, I drafted three closers here in Ryssel Iglesias, Tanner Scott, and Craig Kimbril, maybe not a closer, but I'm ranking as a closer for now until we see where he winds up. That's going to be a lot easier to do this year.

The closing landscape is a lot more predictable than it's been in recent years. So many of those jobs are known. You're not going to have to go crazy for saves the way you've maybe grown accustomed them too, given the scarcities of the past couple years. All right, let's run through the Welsh's entire team. Again, he was picking from the 11th spot, and he had Wilson Contreras and Elias Diaz at Catcher, Tristan Kossis at first base, followed by Edward Julian at second, Gunner Henderson at third,

Trey Turner at short, C.J. Abrams at middle, Royce Lewis at Corner, and in the outfield, Juan Soto, Teosker Hernandez, James Outman, Tommy Fam, and Jackson Turyo, with O'Neill Cruz as his utility bat. So look, if nothing else, Welsh, you automatically win the fun category. Like, this is an incredibly fun team.

It also has three very awesome short stops that are likely to go in the top, what, 75, maybe like 100 picks in drafts this year. If you could change it, would you go back and maybe take an outfielder over one of Abrams or O'Neil Cruz because the outfield looks like it turned out a little bit weak? Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I would tell you, like, a couple things. and I'll try to be quick about it. Like, mocks, especially early, are meant to really explore roster construction. That's like a really important thing. You're not, you don't do, when we do a podcast, we all kind of want to win the mock,

but you want to explore like, what can I do with the construction of these teams? But I also noted, and if we were to go through all of this, every round, I would get sniped on something I want to do, and I would pivot. But pivoting to me doesn't mean I have to also pivot at the position.

Like Scott snipe me on Blake Snell. I would have taken Blake's now. You know, like that's the type of stuff that continuously kept happening to me. And then I put myself in a situation. I was like, okay, I'm going to take Royce Lewis. I come back. O'Neill Cruz is there.

I want him. I want to draft him. So if I had to pivot off, ironically, it would have been Abrams because I want to keep O'Neill Cruz this year. But I didn't like any of the other hitters or pitch. I just didn't like anything that was out there. So, yeah, there's a million things I would change about this.

This is not something I'd feel super comfortable. about going in with the season with because you guys can obviously pick apart some of the crazy stuff that's out there. And like you said, the outfield's got to be better. Like, especially if I'm going to invest in Wawn Soto early on.

I wanted it to be better. So yeah, there would definitely be changes. What I wouldn't change is I want O'Neill Cruz on my teams this year. I love the Turner and Soto stuff. And, you know, a couple picks,

like I think Royce fits on a team. I'm going to take a shot later on Jackson Churio, but I think there's other things. things. You know, hindsight, getting Royce Lewis, I could have not gotten Gunner Henderson and maybe taken a more of a stud outfielder. And then my pitching suffered from it because I went, I decided because again, I just didn't like some of the pitching was out there. And I wanted to see what would the elite closer look like. And I went hard on closers. I ended up getting Camillo DeVall, Josh Hader. And then I took Paul Seawald. And I constructed probably the oldest, most boring

pitching staff. But I did have some of the pitchers late fall to me that. I wanted to fall to me. I took Shane Bieber in the 11th round. I got Hunter Brown. If I can get first half Hunter Brown back. I got Sunny Gray. I don't even know where. I'm not looking at it. Hunter Green for the strikeouts. Maybe a bounce back for Josh Hater and I had to get Brandon fought because I think he's like the changes and what we saw in the back half of the year. There's no any constrictions with a guy like that. So it doesn't look sexy, but this is definitely a team that can dominate most of the counting stats outside of batting average, which I'm kicking myself about, and I will win saves. And it's going to help my ratios. But how competitive

will I be if some of these guys don't show out? So it's a crazy, risky team. I don't really suggest it, but I do suggest taking shots like this to figure out what is the roster construction, how do I want to do things. The next mock we do, I'm probably going to go heavy pitching. That will be something I want to explore. What does my heavier pitching team look like with some of the bats that I do want to target? All right, maybe the next mock draft that we do, I'll start with two first basemen and see how it turns out.

Yeah, get crazy. Get a little crazy with it. And of course, we saved the best for last. I'll just quickly read off my team and some quick thoughts on it. I was drafting from the seventh pick. And at Catcher, I had J.T. Rilumuto and Logan O'Hopi. I had Freddie Freeman at first base,

followed by Jose Altuvae at second, Josh Young at 3rd, Francisco Lindora at Short, Bryson Stott at Middle, and Christian and Carnaccion Strand at Corner. Wow. That's amazing. I love it. I love it.

Brace yourselves for the outfield. Randy and Rosarena. All right, that's pretty good. Cool. And then Jorge Solair as my second outfielder, Stephen Kwan, Lordeis Gouriel, Starling Marte, and Anthony Rizzo as my utility hitter. So, as you can see, there are lots of very fun and great

infield options, even once, even after I had filled out my infield, I just kept noticing, like, every pick that I was up, it was like, wow, there's another really good infielder here. Wow, there's another great infielder here. And I could not say the same thing about outfielder. So I don't really want to do the position scarcity thing, but I kind of agree with you, Scott. No.

If you're just kind of, you know, if you use it as a tiebreaker in the early rounds, take the outfieler because, man, you don't want this outfield. I'm not sure it's crazy to say you should try to come out of the top six. rounds with two outfielders. I know it's being a bit dramatic, but like, I agree here. Like, I did the same thing. I'm like, this short time. I'm so good.

I have to have O'Neill. I have to have these guys. The outfield does not have that feel and the fall off is bigger. And that's weird, by the way. Because every, for years and years, what do you do? You're like, oh, hey, second base stinks or, ooh, third base isn't that good. It's outfield this year. There's not enough depth starting five later in.

Yeah. But there were other positions that were. week in addition to outfield. It feels like it's getting worse. Like we would talk ourselves into like, hey, Starly Marte is kind of a good bet a little bit later on. No,

he's not. Not anymore. I'm going to, I'll bet you by January when you have like really hardcore solidified draft plans. I'm going to say like through six rounds, I probably want to have two outfielders. Maybe you open it up a little bit to like round seven or something, but I would prioritize it.

Certainly in a five outfields league. And I had that when I was looking through your team, Frank, like I was looking at the infielders first. I'm like, wow, Frank dominated this draft. And I got to the outfield. And I was like, oh. Oh, not great.

Yeah. Something else I noticed, too, which doesn't help the outfield position is that Eloy Jimenez and Marcelo Zuna are U-Till only this year. So, well, in 2024. So keep that in mind. It's like we lost two other, what should be, you know, probably a good thing. Helpful outfielders for fantasy.

Quickly on the pitching side, I double tap my first two starting pitchers in rounds five and six. And here's how it turned out. I had Terrick Scouble and Freddie Peralta up top with Walker Bueller as my three. So, you know, tons of upside, but also tons of risk, I would say. Then I kind of back it up with Jordan Montgomery, Jose Brrios, Aaron Savali. Because they kind of feel like higher floor guys that kind of pair well with, I guess some of those upside guys that are maybe not as proven or with Walker Bueller. He's coming back from Tommy John surgery. And then I had Brian Wu as my seventh starting pitcher. Only two closers for me,

Jordan Romano and Kyle Finnegan. Again, I love the upside. I have three of Scott's top 24 ranked starting pitchers on my team here. But again, a little bit of risk, but I think I kind of paired it well with the higher floor pitchers. Any thoughts?

I think you did great. You did great, Frank. You deserved you won. I think you won the thing. You sniped me multiple times. You sniped me on a couple of those pitchers. I definitely was looking at Scoobel. I was looking at Bueller.

I think even at the Savali pick, I was looking at those guys. I thought you constructed it well, and you are crown trophy winner of mock draft 1.0. Woo! Yay me! All right. Well, Scott doesn't sound like he agrees on that. You don't like the pitching staff?

I feel like your pitching should be better. It has Terrick Scuba, though. That's pretty awesome. Did you see that infield, though? I mean, no, that's a great infield. It's a great. Like, clearly all your investment went in the infield. Because even like your second closers

Kyle Finnegan. He's fine. He's a closer. He is a closer. All right, well, we've got time to figure it out, hopefully. But we don't have any more time left on this podcast. We're going to wrap there for Scott and the Welsh. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today.

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