Fantasy Baseball Today - Vaughn Grissom Optioned, Bullpen Breakdown & Keeper League Targets (3/21 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 21, 2023

Vaughn Grissom was sent down to the minors on Monday (1:25). Is he still worth stashing in redraft leagues? ... Juan Soto is dealing with a mild oblique strain (9:12). ... Chris did a draft Monday night and waited until the 10th round to take his first pitcher (11:00)! ... Let's run through each American League bullpen, offering our favorite for saves (16:55). ... We move over to the National League bullpens (32:05). ... News (44:37): Eloy Jimenez is dealing with a right calf cramp. ... Which players performed well on Monday (50:35)? ... We wrap up with keeper league draft targets (55:08). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Fantasy Baseball Today is a finalist in the Baseball Category for the Sports Podcast Awards! Quickly create an account and vote here: https://www.sportspodcastgroup.com/sports_category/best-baseball-podcast/ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. The Braves tricked us. Let's discuss. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, March 21st.

Frank Sample joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, Vaughn Grissom, sent back to the miners. We'll have a bullpen breakdown, updates on all the teams in baseball and who we think is going to lead their respective teams in saves the season and then sneaky players to target in keeper leagues.

Before we get into all of it, make sure to like this video, comment, and subscribe if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side, please download, follow, and leave a five-star review. We really appreciate it. Thank you very much. And we've got some fun pods coming up this week, tomorrow a live head-to-head points

draft that will actually be playing out this season. It's our listener league and then the following day we'll have a full prospect breakdown with the latest info who made the team. Hopefully we'll have even more by then and we'll get the Welshest thoughts on all of those players as well. A couple days after losing

Jose Altuve and likely Jorge Polanco to at least start the season on the IL. Both Von Grissom and Braden Shoemaker were sent down by the Atlanta Braves. Has nothing to do with what Grissom could do offensively. Because on Monday, Grissom went three for four

with a stolen base, wound up hitting 3.71 throughout spring training. And then they call him into the office and they say, sorry, bud, but you're getting sent down. It clearly has everything to do with defense. And something I've seen from multiple Braves beatwriters is that the Braves need more defense at shortstop to start the season

because Ozzy Albies doesn't have his full arm strength yet at second base. So I think that kind of factored into the decision, but Scott will start with you. Is Von Grissom still worth drafting as a Stash in a standard 12 team league? And how are you handling the rest of this brave situation? Well, I think, and I'm going to be writing about the top 10 prospects to Stash at the start of the year.

And I do think Von Grissom will be among that group or either I'll lead with him and make like an honorable mention out of him because he's not technically a prospect anymore because he got too many of bats last year. So in that one respect, yes, I don't want to bury Von Grissom over this news. I think it's a little more complicated than just he's not quite there defensively. And I think a central figure in this whole situation is funnily enough. It's one of the hardest names to pronounce. Eiré Adreanza.

That's right. Utility infielder who doesn't have minor legal. options who is shortstop capable. So if either Grissom or Shoemake made the roster, they would have to get rid of this major league viable shortstop. And that's the second hardest position to fill. So I think a lot of it is just, well, we don't want to have to forfeit him when we're not sure about Grissom defensively yet.

And we're not sure about Shoemake offensively yet. Because remember what we were talking about yesterday was, oh, okay, it's coming down to Grissom or Shoemake, depends. whether they buy into Grissom's defensive improvement or Schumach's offensive improvements more. And so the fact that they sent both of them down tells me it's more of a stall tactic than anything else. They want to gauge both of these players improvements more. And I have seen from Bray's beatwriters that the plan is for Grissom to play mostly shortstop at AAA, Schumick mostly second base, so that he can get more comfortable with that position.

And so that they can continue to evaluate Grissom at shortstop. Like you said, Frank, we saw Grissom back at shortstop in the spring training game. So they're not giving up on Grissom as a shortstop yet, clearly. Furthermore, Arcea is not going to be somebody who stays at shortstop for them all season because he's like the worst of both worlds. He doesn't offer much defensively. He doesn't offer much offensively. So like this just looks like a stall tactic to me, bottom line.

And eventually one of Shoemaking Grissom is going to be, or Grissom is going to be the brave shortstop. my hope and my guess is it's still going to be Grissom eventually. But I can't say that with certainty. I can't know when it'll be. So I think in standard 12-team leagues, he's probably outside the draftable range. But if you've already drafted him in a league where, say, 350 or more players are rostered, you better have a good reason to drop him. There better be someone of genuine interest for you because there's a good chance Grissom still.

makes a considerable fantasy impact this year, just maybe from May 1st on or whenever. Maybe R.C. Strains his hamstring on opening day. Who are they bringing up at that point? Probably Grissom. Maybe Schumick, but probably Grissom. And so, yeah, I'm seeing a lot of takes out there, like, you know, I told you Grissom couldn't hack it at shortstop. And I just want to, like, cool people's jets on that because we're going to see a lot of moves here in the coming days that are just kind of procedural related you know

for instance the Angels catcher situation same thing Logan O'Hoppy is one of the angels best two catcher options I think that's pretty clear but catcher is the hardest position to fill in the majors and if Matt Fice doesn't make the roster the angels just lose him he doesn't have options so that probably means O'Hopi's going to the minors

just so they don't have to forfeit a major's Major League viable catcher. And that's sometimes decisions GMs have to make this time of year, which is all to say, it's a very long season. It doesn't always, like sometimes we make too much, I think, whether it's health-related or this sort of situation, who's on the opening day roster. And in the grand scheme of things, that's of little significance. Yeah, another example would be like the Marlins seemingly going with Hazer Sanchez.

over Brian De La Cruz, at least in part because Sanchez doesn't have options and De La Cruz does. Yes. You know, see what, see if this per, if this player can do something for you before you have to make a decision on them. It's something like the giants do something similar where they, they like to churn the back like last spot on their roster just to like take a chance on guys that are getting released just to see if you can figure something out.

And if you don't, you just move on. And I think that's what we'll see here. like Adriaza, Adriaenza and Arcia, we're pretty sure they're not good, but maybe they surprise you. And it's not even that they have to be good. It's just that what if things go wrong? And we've already burnt through a shortstop option

who could have helped us. Meanwhile, we can continue to evaluate Grissom and Shoemake in the miners. So let's go ahead and keep Adrianza around for now. And then if a shortstop gets hurt, we don't have to go picking through the scrap heap for enough. other. So those are, now I understand a fantasy, like opening day jobs are important because you have only so much roster space and you want to protect the players that are most worth protecting.

And somebody who's out of sight is going to be out of mine and probably belongs on waivers in the majority of leagues. As I said, easier when it's an injured player and you have an IL spot. Okay. But if it's a minor leaguer like Grissom is going to be at the start of the year, harder to justify the bench bun on that. I get it. But he still should be very much in your thoughts as the first few weeks of the season are playing out.

Looking at Scott's rankings now, and Vaughn Grissom is down to 28 at second base. So behind names like Michael Massey, who we, I think, all kind of like as a deep sleeper this year, Bryson Stott and Luis Arias. Chris, let me ask you this. Any interest in Orlando Arcia in deeper leagues? Last year, he hit 244 with nine home runs in 68 games. pretty high average exit velocity for a middle infielder. 90.7 miles per hour.

You like to see that. He posted a career high 7.5% barrel rate as well. Any interest in RCA playing in a really good lineup? No, I think it's an NL only type of player. Even if he did get to 19 home runs over the course of a season, which was his pace last season, I don't think he'd give you much else. He's almost certainly going to bat at the bottom of the lineup.

He's not going to give you much batting average. I don't see much to be excited about there. All right. And before we get into some other things, I did want to bring up, and this is something I missed on Sunday, so apologies, but Juan Soto was removed from a minor league game

as a precaution due to a mild oblique strain. He had the calf earlier in spring, and they were kind of slow rolling him in spring training and in the WBC. Now it's an oblique strain for Juan Soto. Chris, do you have any concerns drafting Soto? I mean, you drop him down a little bit to like the end of the first round, or is it just going to continue out drafting him where you were before?

Yeah, I mean, the margins in the like six through 12-ish range are fairly slim. So I could see dropping him down behind Kyle Tucker and Yordon Alvarez. The oblique, even if it is a minor issue, is more of a concern for me than the calf was earlier, just because oblique injuries have a tendency to linger longer than you would expect and have a tendency to get worse at inopportune moments. So yeah, like, if you want to drop him, I had him seventh.

If you wanted to drop him to ninth, that makes sense. Scott, any thoughts on Juan Soto? I mean, as of now, I'm not dropping him. I've been pretty, I, after having a lot of doubts about Alvarez Soto, bets, how should I rank them? I've been pretty firm on Soto being at the top of that group number six after the obvious top five. And I went to bed seeing this news,

and I'm like, oh, no, is this going to be a whole drama tomorrow, oblique issue for Soto? And I wake up and basically nobody's talking about it, which leads me to believe it really is just kind of a day-to-day thing as they're presenting it, a precautionary removal. So unless I have reason to believe otherwise, I'm going to stick with Soto 6th. All right, well, we'll get more into some news and notes later on,

but that's what we've got going on right now. Vaughn Grissom and Braden Shoemake sent down by the Atlanta Braves and Juan Soto dealing with an oblique injury. Chris, you did a dream. on Monday, 14 team draft, and you did not take a starting pitcher until round 10. And you text me, yeah, I kind of want to get Scott's thoughts on this. So that's exactly what we're going to talk about right now. I did an FSG or a serious XM fantasy radio hit and I told them, you know, I wanted to see if I could one up Scott because I know he doesn't have the, the stamina to go a full 10 rounds without a pitcher.

Especially in 14 team league. I think the latest I've waited in a league this year was round nine. And I was happy with my pitching staff, but that was a 12 team or not a 14 teamer. Yeah, so this one's a little bit deeper and Chris waited even longer. So the pitching staff wound up like this, Nick Ladolo, who looked amazing once again on Monday, six shutout innings with eight strikeouts. Reed Detmer is Patrick Sandival, Edward Cabrera, Garrett Whitlock, Trevor Rogers, Tyler Anderson.

So you get one of the Mount Rushmore or whatever you want to call them at this point. Drey Jameson, Josiah Gray and Cole Irvin, the relievers, Pete Fairbanks and Dylan Floro. Scott, Scott's kind of covering his face. I don't know. Oh, what do you think, Scott? I mean, I do have Nicolodolo as an ace on my NL only team and thought, maybe I would have liked the better number one and that even much deeper league. So that.

Henry DeBers are going to be competing for the ace spot here, Scott. Yeah. No, it's not a good pitching staff. Just like, I wish I had been able to get one more of that. of the Golden Girls, which we've all agreed we're calling them. I had them in my few, and I just didn't pull the trigger on them.

So, you know, it was a case where like Chris Sale went earlier than I expected. I would have been happy to have him. So, you know, it was a, it wasn't necessarily the plan going in, although it, you know, I wanted to see how far I could push it.

But yeah, it's, it's, it's the weakest pitching stuff I've drafted all year for sure. I'll say this. like there's a clear vulnerability there. And normally I don't feel like my pitching staff's that vulnerable, even when I wait a long time to draft my ace.

And part of it is because I do have confidence in that group of four unexciting pitchers who all were top 40 last year. And so if I'm going to go super weak at pitching, I need to get at least two and probably three of them. You took just the one Tyler Anderson, who's only my third favorite of the group. So that kind of makes me recoiled a little bit just because I don't feel like I have those stabilizers to go with the high upside types. But if you hit on a couple of those upside plays, if you hit on three of those upside plays, let's say, like Lodolo, Detmer's and Trevor Rogers all end up being everything we hope they can be.

Then I think you should be able to make that work through aggressive waiver wire maneuvering. I mean, that's the thing. That's part, that's half the equation to going weak at starting pitching is being very aggressive on the waiver wire. Yeah, like recognizing that that's where most of the waiver wire talent is going to come at that position. And so like you're leaning into the volatility, the good side of the volatility at starting pitcher. But would you guys like to hear the offense? I was getting ready to read it, but you can do the honors, sir. Alejandro Kirk, Omar Narvaez, you know, backup catcher's not great.

Vinnie P, baby. Baby. Maybe. DJ LeMayhew. That's my replacement for Jose Al Tuve for the first six weeks of the season because I have Jose Altuve. Okay. Fernando Tatis, Nolan Aronado, Ezekiel Tovar, who will slide into the shortstop spot for Fernando Tatis for the first couple of weeks of the season.

Muki Betz, Eloy Jimenez, Cedric Mullen, Lars Neutbar, George Springer, Spencer Torkelson, and Spencer Steer with Alec Thomas and Jose Altouvae. and Francisco Alvarez, who was an auto pick. I don't, for some reason, it didn't take the top guy in my queue, which is kind of an annoying thing. But yeah, that was frustrating. I mean, I was a little underwhelmed until you got to that outfield, that outfield in a 14-team league especially.

Wild. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to require some juggling. It's going to require a little bit of good luck, you know, to manage the Al-Tubei injury, especially Al-Tube may be a little overkill. I probably could have just taken a starting pitcher.

But like, I think he was my ninth round pick. I think he was like 120th overall. That's 30 spots later. And so it was one of those situations where like, I didn't want to take him and he just kept falling. And so I think it was like once Chris Sale went the previous round, I took Jose Al-Tubei. I think that was the process there.

All right. So what happens when you wait on starting pitching in a very deep league? Well, you just heard it. I think this pitching staff would be really fun in a K-per-9 league, Chris. The whip? the whip is going to be a problem. Like as much as I like Lidolo, probably going to be a higher whip guy,

Sandoval, we go lots of walks, Cabrero lots of walks, Trevor Rogers, lots of hits and walks potentially. I mean, I know he had a really bad whip last year. So that's going to be a problem, but the strikeouts could be fun. We'll see if some of those guys can break out. Let's take our first break a little bit early here, but when we get back,

we'll get into each team's bullpen here on fantasy baseball today. All right, welcome back into fantasy baseball. Today, reminder that we are a finalist in the baseball category for the sports podcast awards, and we are going up against some big names and it's a voting system, which means we need your help. You can scan the QR code in the top right corner if you're watching on YouTube or find the link

in the podcast or YouTube description. You'll need to quickly create an account on their website, which I know is annoying, but it takes less than a minute, and then vote for FBT. Voting ends on April 6th, and we really do appreciate it. Scott has a bullpen breakdown article that's coming out on Tuesday morning, so make sure to be on the lookout for that. And you can kind of read that, follow along while we're doing this.

But we'll go through each bullpen, see what's happening throughout spring training, and make a prediction on who we think will lead their team in saves. The Orioles, no surprise, Felix Batista, he's back in spring. Velocity has been down a little bit. I think he had three walks here on Monday in an appearance, but just getting through the spring healthy, I think, will be a win for Felix Batista. The Red Sox, Kenley Jansen for the Yankees, Clay Holmes, for now.

And then we get into the raise, Pete Fairbanks or Jason Adam. Fairbanks, I've really liked all offseason. It's worth noting his fastball velocity was down three miles per hour on Sunday, and he does have an extensive injury history. Chris, you just drafted Fairbanks. Your thoughts on the race bullpen? Well, even if Fairbanks was throwing 99 miles an hour and looking like he did last season, I'd be worried about the number of saves he's going to get just because it's the race.

and I don't have a lot of confidence that they're going to just stick one guy in the ninth inning and roll with him as the closer for 40 straight saves. But yeah, I think there's certainly some risk there, especially with the fact that the velocity is down. It is interesting that he's also introduced a new splitter into his arsenal this offseason in spring training. He only threw three of them on Sunday, so we don't really have a lot of a lot to go on there. But yeah, it's a little concerning because like in 2020 and 2021, he had decent ERAs,

but the whip was like near 1.4 both seasons. I think it was above that and won. So, you know, it might be a situation where he had three walks and 26 innings or whatever it was last season. It might be one of those situations where like he's got really good control when the stuff is great, but he never has good command. You know, like that distinction between the two, which is a concern I have with someone like Ryan Helsley as well,

where like if he goes back to throwing 97, all of a sudden, is he going to get as many chases, is so yeah, I think there's some concern there, but I would guess Fairbanks gets the first opportunity. Yeah, that would be my guess as well. They gave him a contract extension this off season, so we don't have to worry about any kind of arbitration hoopla or anything like that. Even if Fairbanks gives you 20 saves this year,

I think that he will pay off his price tag, and I do like him quite a bit myself. For the Blue Jays, it is Jordan Romano. The White Sox, they are saying committee, as long as Liam Hendricks is out, and he's trying to return from non-Hodgkins, lymphoma, which is obviously much more important than baseball, but this is what we are left with on the White Sox roster. My lean right now, Scott, is Ronaldo Lopez, who has been much better than

Kendall Graveman this spring. What do you think about those two? Or anyone else in the White Sox bullpen? Well, I mean, if they do go full-blown committee, Aaron Bummer would probably be the left-hander who would factor into that mix, but he's a distant third in terms of who I would want fantasy. I do have Kendall Graveman ahead of Lopez mostly just as a matter of seniority it's nearly a coin flip though who I'd prefer in fantasy Graveman does tend to go earlier

it's not it's not where I'm making much of an investment I would say remember when this bullpen was just absurdly stacked and they had like four closer caliber pitchers like literally two years ago and now it's like

looks kind of rough. Yeah, I mean, Kendall Graveman does have some history in a closer's role. Renalo Lopez does not, but yeah, I mean, you know, things kind of flipped very quickly here for the White Sox. The Guardians, Emmanuel Class A, obviously for the Tigers. Alex Lang, I think that was just kind of the de facto once they traded away Gregory Soto. He's looked pretty bad this spring. Three earned runs and four innings pitched six walks to five strikeouts. So we know control is a really, really big issue.

for Alex Lang. It's got two very dark horses. I mean, I'm just throwing names out there. They've done really well in spring. Trey Wingenter, who's been out of baseball since 2019, and Miguel Diaz, 6 and a third shutout with 12 strikeouts. And Trevor Rosenthal could be back by June. It's a messy bullpen and a bad team.

What do you think? Yeah, so in my bullpen breakdown, the pecking order I actually put with Alex Lang followed by Jose Cisnero and Bill Bass. So you came up with completely different names than the ones I was considering, which is part of the reason why I think Alex Lang is still the one to have here. I don't have a lot of confidence in him.

He does have major control issues. So did Gregory Soto. And they hung with him through thick and thin last year in spite of it. Alex Lang, for the control issues, his like dominance measurables are off the charts, like swinging strike rate is up there with like Edwin Diaz and Andres Munoz. So you can understand why he emerged as a favorite.

And just that there's the fact there's a lack of clear alternatives, I think he remains though. But it's a low confidence pick for sure. Alex Lang last year with the Tigers had 21 holds and a 19% swinging strike rate that Scott was just referencing an elite mark. but he's got to be able to throw strikes. The Royals, Scott Barlow has been better than a Rolla's Chapman so far this spring. They've both been pretty good.

But Chris, I feel like you've been on the side of, hey, they signed a Roller's Chapman for a reason. Maybe at least during the first half of the season, they'll look to get him more involved. Yeah, and to be clear, I don't think that reason is like we think having Roald of Chapman as our closer gives us the best chance to win. I would guess him and Scott Barlow are pretty similar in terms of their quality as pitchers. And so I just, I have a really hard time seeing or oldest Chapman being okay with being the setup man for the Royals. You know, like that's just, there's not a lot there. I can't say there's like a concrete explanation or, or even like a quote from a coach. It's just like,

the guy who walked away from a team with a legitimate championship shot because he was unhappy with his usage is going to be fine on a 77 win Royals team as a close as a setup man. Seems unlikely. But maybe. Obviously everything during spring training is a small sample, but nine strikeouts to two walks over five innings pitched for Chapman. That's pretty impressive so far. What you want to see at least. Yeah, we'll see if he can keep it up. Let's move over to the Twins, which looks like it is a committee as well with Yoan Duran and Jorge Lopez. The twins have kept saves totals down in the past with arbitration eligible players. It's something that Taylor Rogers has openly talked about

in the past. So Duran would fit that category. and he recently suffered a leg contusion over the weekend after getting hit by a line drive. Doesn't sound like it's major, but it's something to notice. Just to note for now, Scott, how are you playing the Duran versus Jorge Lopez bullpen right now? Oh, I'm totally on Duran. Jorge Lopez was pretty disastrous after coming over to the twins. Like, everything tanked, including the strikeout rate. and I know they haven't

like Rocco Baldelli's emmo with them has been to even when Taylor Rogers was there to mix it up he's he's been as committed to the committee as any manager outside of Kevin Cash and Tampa Bay so I don't think it's a situation where Yohan Duran's going to get

30 35 saves for the twins but they were turning to him more and more down the stretch last season when Lopez was struggling he's clearly the most talented reliever in that bullpen. And so I view it as a similar situation to like a Peter Fairbanks for the Rays or a Paul Seawald for the Mariners where it might be a 65-35 or a 60-40 split, but that is the guy I want from that bullpen. Yeah, no, I would agree with that too.

I think if Duron could get you at least 20 saves, same thing as Fairbanks. Like he is going to be a breakout reliever. I think the ratios and strikeouts will be awesome, once again, for Duran this season last year. Once Lopez joined the Minnesota Twins, he had a 4.37 ERA, 1.6-3 whips, so he was quite awful. For the Astros, we know it's Ryan Presley, as long as he's healthy, of course. For the Angels, who knows? Carlos Estevez has an ERA over 15 so far this spring, 10 walks in 4 and 2 thirds innings pitched. We recently heard that Jimmy Hergett can work back into the closers role

to start the year. He kind of ended the season in that role last year. I keep bringing up Matt Moore. He has not had a very good spring. The name we have not mentioned at all is Ben Joyce, who is a third round pick last year. He throws over 100 miles per hour with the fastball. And so far this spring, five shutout with six strikeouts to four walks. Control can be an issue at times. Chris, any lean here on the Angels bullpen on March 20th? I would guess, Hergett, but was Joyce? Yeah, he was the University of Tennessee. guy. He's super fun. Oh, yes. Regularly. He had like 105 in a game last year, I believe. It's one of the hardest throwing pitches I've ever seen. You know, granted, it was a college radar gun. We don't, you know, you know how college students are.

But yeah, I would love to see him get an opportunity. I think it'd be very interesting. If you need saves, Hurg, it would be the guy, but I don't, I don't necessarily love investing anything in him. Yeah. I don't think Joyce is expected to make the team. for what it's worth. It's something. I don't think so either, Scott,

but he hasn't been sent down yet. So it's worth pointing out. I don't think he'll start as a team's closer, but it wouldn't surprise me if, like, if it's a mess by the time we get to May 1st and this team is actually trying to compete, Ben Joyce could get called up and he's pretty much just built for that role.

So we'll see what happens with the Angels. For the Oakland A's, there was a report back in February from a beat writer who thought it was Danny Jimenez's job to lose. Well, he's, you know, kind of losing it, right now. It hasn't looked great in the spring. He's giving up four earned runs over six

innings pitched. Trevor May, someone I've talked up, also hasn't looked great. He does have nine strikeouts to one walk. Domingo Acevedo has actually looked the best so far, 1.23 ERA, 11 strikeouts, but also five walks. Scott, another bad team, not great bullpen. Any lean with the Oakland days? No, this is one of my least favorite to try to draft anybody from. It's between the A's and the Marlins and maybe the Diamondbacks though I think my current favorite

for the Diamondbacks is my favorite between those three teams. We'll get to them soon enough. But as for the A's, like Trevor May is pretty much who every fantasy analyst has been talking about is the clothes that there. I haven't seen a lot of official reports from Beat Riders

or certainly nothing coming from the team that would single out May in the way he's been singled out in fantasy. So I'm sure some people would highly recommend drafting May. Oh, that's, you know, they're that confident he's going to be the guy. I'm not that confident he's going to be the guy. If you're forcing me to choose somebody from the A's bullpen, okay, I'll go along with the crowd and say May, but not with nearly as much confidence.

Ask me a week into the season, and hopefully the A's have had a save opportunity by that. That's very fair. Part of the reason I did like May before is I was just following the money. I mean, they gave them a one-year $7 million deal. The Oakland A is to not spend any money. So I think that's kind of, you know, with the intention similar to a role as Chapman with the Kansas City Royals. The Mariners, we've got Paul Seawald and Andres Munoz here.

Munoz was supposed to debut this past weekend. He pitched in a B game on Sunday. He's returning from ankle surgery. Paul Seawald had, I believe it was 20 saves last. year. Chris, is this another Tampa Bay raise? Minnesota Twins type situation where Seawald is the favorite for now. Yeah, I would expect 55% of the saves to go to Seawald maybe, but you know, I like drafting him and Munoz to a certain extent just because they're really good pitchers. And so you should get really good ratios from them. And, you know,

if you get 20 saves, you're going to be very happy about the investment you made. But yeah, they're, they're more like, I've got my. one real save source, and now let's start to speculate kind of guys. I will say of the three bullpins that we've talked about in that way, the Mariners, the raise, the twins, the twins with Duran, he has the lowest level of competition in terms of like just the next reliever, the quality of that reliever, not nearly as good as he is. At least, you know, with the Mariners, Seawald and Munoz, they're both good.

Same thing in Tampa Bay. Like Jason Adam is very good as well. Yeah, I mean, you could definitely make the case. Munoz is more talented than Seawald. Yeah. I was saying Alex Lang, among relievers who had at least 50 innings last year, the top two in swinging strike rate were Edwin Diaz. And actually, Andres Munoz, those were the only two ahead of Alex Lange and swinging strike rate.

And so there seems to be a lot of momentum toward Munoz and fantasy right now. But my whole thing with the Mariners' bullpen has been this time last year, we would have loved if Paul Seawald was the favorite for saves. for them. That's what we were rooting for. And now that it's happened, we're already turning the page to someone else. Like that, I don't know. That's what we do, man. See, well, it's still great. Let's, let's enjoy what we have with him, you know? Yeah, that's what we do with, especially with, with relievers. We love to do that. Oh, yeah. We love to throw decent relievers away for the next guy who throws a hundred. Every team's got four of them now. Let's move over to the Rangers,

Bruce Bochy, the manager now. So I think we all kind of think. think that they'll go with some kind of traditional closer, old school type manager. Jose LeClerc was dealing with a neck injury early on in spring, but seems okay now, and he's pitched very well, five and two-thirds shutout, nine strikeouts to four walks. I've brought up the fact that Will Smith signed during spring training. He had 34 saves with Bruce Bochy back with the Giants in 2019. Even with that being said, I think it's still Jose LeClerc on opening day. We'll see where it goes from there.

Yes, I agree. the fact that Will Smith was away from the team and Jose LeClerc has had a chance to reestablish himself. LeClerc would have been the favorite all along if he hadn't been hurt for the start of spring training. And I think, as with Felix Bautista, suddenly now that he's back, there isn't a lot of doubt whether or not he'll be ready for the season.

And I think that makes LeClerc the obvious favorite. Let's move over to the National League. We'll start off with the Braves and Reisle-Glazies. is the obvious closer candidate there. The Marlins, a bullpen by committee. We've got Dylan Floro, A.J. Puck, Tanner, Scott, and Matt Barnes. And so far, again, it doesn't really mean much, but AJ Puck has looked the best out of that entire group in spring training.

Chris, they've got a new manager here, Skip Schumacher. He says it's going to be a committee. What is your lean with the Marlins? I mean, it might be a committee moving forward, but I would guess they'll end up going with one person. I would think Dylan Flore will get the first opportunity. but I don't have a ton of confidence that any of them are all that good or that any one of them is ahead right now.

I think Puck is the best. I think he's clearly the best. I just think they are going to value him as like a multi-inning guy and not want to confine him to the ninth inning. I do think Matt Barnes is a legitimate dark horse here. Yeah, dark horse, yeah. Yeah, obviously he has the experience closing with the Boston Red Sox. I wanted to look up Tanner Scott's.

career numbers against lefties because I just wanted to know if they could use him in a big spot against a lefty and save a j puck for later in the game uh but not enough time probably not worth it anyway let's move over to the Mets edwin diaz is out for the year though he has said he wants to return later on in the season so we'll see if that's a possibility uh david robertson and adam adivino are the next names up here brooks raily if there's some lefties coming up in the mine uh in the ninth inning i think that's possible as well david robertson gave up a couple of runs I think it was yesterday on Sunday. Adam Ottavino has looked the best so far this spring.

Scott, where are you going with the Mets? I'm still leaning toward Ottavino. I haven't heard anything clear from beatwriters. Some of them in the immediate aftermath of Edwin Diaz were speculating Robertson just because he's the one who got 20 plus saves last year. I think Ottavino is better. He's been kind of inconsistent,

and so I can't be totally sure of that. But at his best, he's better than David Robertson. And so he's the one I'd lean toward. But they're pretty close in my rankings. And it's another situation that I'd rather not have to get into. I'd rather have my safe situation taken care of before I have to draft either one of Ottavino and Robertson. But I do prefer them to any of the Marlins' athletics or Diamondbacks choices. or Angels choices.

Yeah, it certainly helps that they're on the best team, too. Of all those teams with messy bullpens, the Mets are the best of that group. Let's move over to the Phillies, who used a committee approach with manager Rob Thompson last season, and they have Sir Anthony Dominguez. They signed Craig Kimbril this offseason. Dave Dombrowski is someone who worked with Kimbril back in the Red Sox days,

so they're reunited once again. Jose Alvarado is still on this team. Chris, I kind of feel like Kimbril gets the first shot. he's looked pretty good so far this spring. 11 strikeouts, just two walks. What do you think in there, Chris, on the Phillies? I think that's an okay assumption, and he's cheap enough that it doesn't really matter

if he doesn't get the first save. You can, you know, if it looks like he's not going to get an opportunity, which I suspect he will, but if it looks like he's not, you know, there's nothing lost in dropping him. So I think he's a fine late round pick. All right. The Nationals, Kyle Finnegan, still the likely leader, but recently mentioned they plan on using him more in a fireman

reliever role this upcoming season. And he's looked pretty good so far this spring. I mean, five walks. It's kind of high. Hunter Harvey was thought to be a closer candidate back in the day with the Baltimore Orioles. They have like Carl Edwards. Alex Colomay has looked absolutely awful. Scott, you still leaning with Kyle Finnegan here? Yeah, they have anointed him as the favored bullpen option. It may not be a traditional closer role, but it will still probably result in him. getting the majority of the saves. You just hate to see saves divide it up in any way for a team this bad. And it's not like Finnegan, it's not like his ratios are going to be that impressive.

So how long will he even be holding on to that fireman role? It's a legitimate question. So this is probably the fifth worst bullpen situation for fantasy ahead of Angels. And that's only because there's at least some clarity on the hierarchy. Yeah, so the only ones are the worst, I guess, are Angels, Athletics, Marlins. Diamondbacks. Diamondbacks. That's four.

Yeah, okay. Next step, we have the Cubs bullpen, and right now it seems like the leaders in the clubhouse are Michael Fulmer and Brad Boxberger. Both have looked really good this spring. They haven't, neither of them has allowed to run. But if we are following draft trends, this weekend, there were nine main event drafts over at the NFBC. those are $1,700 entries. Michael Fulmer went in round 16 on average. Brad Boxberger in round 25.

So Chris, perhaps they know something we don't. I don't know if they know something we don't. I just think there's a sense that Fulmer is a little less of a known quantity and so potentially has more upside. I think he's pretty uninspiring personally. You know, he made the, he made the like, popular move to just like largely abandon his fastball last season. He threw at 28% of the time through the slider 63.5% of the time,

which you would think like, oh, great, he's going to get a bunch of strikeouts. And his strikeout rate was actually below average, especially for a reliever last season. I tend to think Michael Farmer was just not very good after all he's been through. But, you know, Brad Boxberger has never been someone that I think the fantasy community has been particularly excited about. and I don't think they will be here. There was a little nugget that has me leaning toward Michael Fulmer from the athletic, where they were kind of just walking through the recruitment process the Cubs had with Michael Fulmer. And in it, they said, oh, the Cubs are looking toward Fulmer and Boxburger in the ninth inning.

That's where that nugget came from was that much bigger article. But it also revealed that the Cubs brass. brought up the prospect of closing to Fulmer as part of their pitch to him. And he said, I interpreted that as I'm going to have to earn it. But the point is, it seems like they're going to give him a chance to earn it,

which is, which tells me he's probably the leader in the clubhouse for it. It's not with a ton of assurance, but I agree with the NFBC drafters that, the main event drafters that Michael Fulmer is the one to have here. Sure. All right. Well, we've got.

three bullpins where we actually think we could name the closer on their respective teams. The Cincinnati Reds, Alexis Diaz for the Brewers, it's Devin Williams, for the pirates, David Bednar. Then we get to the Cardinals. I think it's Ryan Helsley, but there's a lot of things that he improved last year that he needs to maintain velocity, control. And even with that, he didn't get every save chance for the Cardinals. And Giovanni Gagos, I guess everything besides this final inning against Japan, Look pretty good in the WBC. He had two saves there as well.

Scott, how confident are you that, I don't know, Ryan Helsley is just the closer for the Cardinals? So I did introduce him to my second round of busts. He joined Bust 2.0. And my concerns for Ryan Fulle, Ryan Halsley were threefold, that A, like just natural regression because his numbers were such outliers,

the ERA, the WIP, all of it. B, a big increase in velocity was partly responsible for that. An inhuman increase in velocity, because now he's peaking at 104. And can anybody's arm hold up to that? Can he sustain that? I don't know. And C. Yeah, Giovanni Gaiegos and Oliver Marmull, the manager's tendencies to mix things up in the ninth inning.

And so I still think those are all legitimate concerns for Ryan Hesley, but he has, I think, answered half of one of them. The fastball. Yeah, he is rifling that fastball in this spring again, 10 strikeouts and five innings so far. So it's, Ryan Helsley might have the widest range of outcomes of any closer candidate

because he could be the best closer in fantasy if he's legitimately as dominant as he showed last year and he does get 90% of the Cardinals save chances or he could be a bust like the possibility I laid out in bust 2.0 so I usually opt against drafting him in the range where he's going but if he's obviously the best choice at relief pitcher

at the time I'm looking to take a relief pitcher I wouldn't shy away from him either. The Diamondbacks bullpen is currently baseball's biggest mystery. You could take some dice, roll it, see what pops up, because we've got about six different names here. Kevin Ginkle, Scott McGuff, Miguel Castro, Joe Mantiply, Cole Sulcer, that's right, and Uri's familiar. They're all names that have looked kind of good so far this spring.

Scott, you teased it earlier. Who is the D-Backs reliever that you are looking at? Well, it's a fellow Scott. Scott McGuff. Yeah! M-C-G-O-U-G-H is how you spell that. And he was a closer the last two years in Japan and has looked very impressive this spring.

He did finally give up a couple runs in his most recent outing. But the strikeout rate has been good. The command has been good. The Diamondbacks coaching staff has had nothing but good things to say about him. It doesn't mean... It doesn't mean... Like, he doesn't throw super hard, but he's also, he's one of those guys who doesn't throw his fastball very often. It's like 30%.

But the splitter and slider both look like potential out pitches. So the profile is okay. It doesn't mean McGuff is going to be the Diamondbacks closer. I imagine it's going to take a few weeks for that to sort out. But I think in the end, he will be the cream that rises. and by early mid-May, we'll be thinking of Scott McGuff as the Diamondback's closer.

So kind of going out of limb form right now. Oh, the cream. The cream always rises to the top, Scotty. I love it. I've got a lot of shares of Scott McGuff in deeper draft and whole leagues and NL labor. So let's hope so. The Rockies, Daniel Bard.

He's the closer to start, but sinker down almost three miles per hour on Saturday in that WBC game. So let's pay attention there. The Dodgers say that they're going with the committee, but Daniel Hudson told reporters on Monday that he will begin the season on the IL as expected. Chris, both Evan Phillips and Bruce Starr-Grattoral have looked very good so far this spring. What are you thinking with the Dodgers? I think all three of those guys

are probably going to get opportunities in the first month of the season. I tend to like targeting Phillips or Gratterol later on in drafts. I just, I think Gratterol's got kind of a little bit of a Yon Duran thing where he could just end up taking a huge step forward. And if he takes the even half the saves, he's going to be a really good value. But, you know, I think all three of them are probably pretty good pitchers, potentially very good pitchers. So I like them all at cost. All right. For the Padre, it's Josh Hader.

And then for the Giants, we know it's Camillo Duval. But they signed Taylor Rogers for a decent amount of money this offseason. And it wouldn't surprise me if, you know, Deval got most of the saves last year. maybe he's like 75%, 70%, and Rogers kind of mixes in there. But that's just me speculating. Let's take our final break here. We'll get to some news pretty late in the podcast. And some players to target late in Keeper Leagues.

We'll do that here on Fantasy Baseball today. Before we get into News and Notes, make sure to download and follow our five-minute podcast, Fantasy Baseball Today and Five, wherever you listen to podcasts. News and notes, why are the White Sox playing Eloy Jimenez in the, outfield. He is day to day with cramping in his right calf and yes, it was with him playing in

the field. I think they should probably just give it up and play Eloy at DH. It's, I don't know what to say, because I've been talking up Eloy and he gets hurt every year and now he's dealing with a calf. So hopefully it's, they are classifying it as a cramp, which isn't a real injury. I had a cramp. I had a calf cramp last night. It hurt like the dickens for like three minutes and then it stopped hurting. Just suck on a mustard package. it. I think people do. Is that the remedy?

Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night with a craft camp? Is it? Craft cramp? Has that ever happened to you? Not in the middle of the night, but sometimes I'll get like foot cramps just out of nowhere randomly while I'm sitting at my desk and I'll just be like, I'll freak out. I make a point to drink a lot of water. I've got my little cup that I fill up six times a day probably.

So I'm pretty well hydrated, guys. I think you guys just need to drink some more water. What about when you wake up in the middle? middle of the night and your leg is asleep. I've been dealing with the arm my whole life, but the leg is a more recent development. And it's just, I don't know about you guys, but until I get that feeling back, I'm convinced it's never going to come back. And I'm going to be an amputee.

That's, those thoughts race through my mind as I'm waiting for the feeling to return. I love these little hints of Scott's neuroses. I feel like he hides them relatively well, and so I love when we get them. I haven't had the leg. I've definitely had the arm, but I don't know, hopefully not anytime soon. It's worse. Leg's worse. Kyle Wright gave up four runs over two and two-thirds innings in his spring debut on Monday. There was no stat-cast data in that game, but Beat Rider said his fastball velocity was down in his return, and obviously coming back from a shoulder injury.

Scott, you have been glass half full on Kyle Wright. What do you think about the debut? It wasn't great. It's hard to make anything of it because it's his first start of the spring, and we normally wouldn't react in an extreme way, one way or the other to somebody's first start of spring training. It sounds like they're planning on him to make his first turn still. I hope he looks better next time out. But it's the sort of thing where I'm not inclined to lower him in my rankings based on it. Chris, were you about to have a massive sneeze

because it seemed like you were inhaling to do it and then... No, it was a little yawning. This is one of the bad things about having the podcast on video. is like, I can mute myself when I'm yawning, but when I get, because, you know, like, you guys work, I don't work mornings, but like, I'm up at like 9.30, you know, and I start working at like 10.30. And so, like, you know, it's a little bit of a long day for me. So, yeah, we, we, at least once per podcast, I'm trying really hard to stifle a yawn. And I'm sure I look like an absolute idiot. You don't have to explain yourself to either of us. They're, uh, they're Chris.

Actually, I'm a little offended because he's... Yeah, you got kids. I always forget. You wake up. No, no, no, no. I just, you know, it's boring. I'm boring you is what you're saying, clearly. No, I mean, no, this is, like, I always...

I yawn a lot just in general. I'm just a yawning person. And so, like, it happens a lot at concerts. And I always feel really bad, especially if it's at, like, a small venue. Like, I'm sorry. It's not, it's nothing personal. I just, I just yawn, you know? I'm sorry.

My brain's not getting enough oxen. enough oxygen. No, Chris is actually very considerate because Frank and I are the night owls who are working

until the wee hours of the morning and then sleeping until almost the afternoon. Oh yeah. Chris is willing to podcast with us in spite of that. So that's very,

very considerate of him. Jared Kellanick, look, it's not like I'd be asleep right now anyway. Jared Kalnick left Monday's game due to minor quad tightness. His massive spring has continued.

He's hitting bombs and, he's running. Dan Hayes of the athletic report reported that Alex Kirloff might not be ready in time for opening day as he continues to battle that wrist injury. Scott? Yes. Just thought I'd let you know that about Alex Carol. What was I saying at the top of the show? We can't bury players just because they aren't going to be there for opening day, especially when it's one you can stash in an IL spot in the meantime. It's a long season and opening day status

is an overrated part of it. Yoan Moncada left his WBC game Sunday night after colliding with a teammate. He's dealing with a bruised rib and came up negative for a concussion. Tommy Henry was sent down by the debacks, which means one of Dre Jameson and Ryan Nelson will be the team's fifth starter. Junjun Riu said that he hopes to rejoin the Blue Jays rotation sometime in July. Even in the deepest leagues, I can't imagine having too much interest in Hyun Jiu. I mean, look, if you got IL spots to play with and it doesn't cost you a draft pick or any salary money, then fine.

If you can just pick them up on waivers and stash them. Sure. Like, even if you have, if you have five IL spots, grab five guys who are injured, you'll probably end up dropping them because you'll have your own injuries. But there's no reason not to. Exactly. Good point. John Means. Pick them up.

You got free IL space. J.M.B. John Means business. Maybe, we'll see. A few more prospects that got sent down. Addison Barger with the Toronto Blue Jays, Bryce Miller of the Mariners. I know the Welsh is a big fan,

and Nolan Jones, who we thought maybe had some deep sleeper appeal sent down by the Rockies. He was having a pretty bad spring. Some Monday performances of note, Kyle Bradish had his best Dylan Seas impersonation, allowed nine earned runs over two and a third. You know, he's...

That was right after the eight strikeout and four-inning performance for Kyle Bradish. I was starting to warm up to him. I like it. I know. I don't know where this came from. Yeah, I mean. I don't know.

Hey, I wasn't able to find any commentary on it directly immediately after the start. But yeah, it was ugly. Ugly outing for Kyle Braddish. Somebody's name who we have not mentioned one time this offseason. Derek Hall came on for a pinch hit two-run single against a lefty. And he's 13 for 42 this spring.

He's batting 3-10. He's got five home runs. And should be the strong side of a platoon at DH for the Phillies. until Bryce Harper is back so the first half of the season. This is a deep league play, but this guy is crushing the ball. It's a good lineup,

and it's a good venue to hit in two in Philadelphia. So I'm kind of interested in deeper leagues. I had Derek Lowe. I talked last week about my deep sleepers article that was coming out, and I said it'd be about 30. It actually ended up being 40. 40 deep sleepers. Derek Hall was among them.

Derek Hall showed good power when he got called up last year, but struck out 31% of the time, so he didn't stick around for long. This spring, in addition to all those home runs, eight strikeouts and 44 plate appearances. Granted, it's spring. Right.

But it's encouraging, considering that was Derek Hall's biggest issue. I actually have a note just like that, Scott. Josh Young had three hits on Monday. He's now betting 3.42 with three homers and five doubles this spring. His strikeout rate is 14.6% following the 30, 8% he posted as a rookie. So I get it. Quality of competition plays in here, but 14.6%.

That's exactly what we needed to see from Josh Young. It is. And after I was saying the Derek, the same thing for Derek Hall, I'm not trying to undermine the point. But the bigger issue, I think, because we talked in Young's case, specifically how much he struggled against sliders, how many sliders is he actually seen? How much, what percentage of this spring have pitchers been throwing their usual

amount of sliders? For what it's worth, I have no idea. For what it's worth, baseball reference does have a quality of opposition thing for their spring stats. His is, it's a one to 10 scale.

One being opposing batter is a pitcher. 10 being MLB quality. This is a 7.8, so it's just below AAA. Yeah. Which, so yeah, I mean, I don't know if I would expect Josh Young to strike out 15% of the time

against AAA competition. So it's notable, even though it is a small sample size. But look, this is what we wanted to see from the young tigers guys, right? Like all of them. Riley Green, Spencer Torkelson, Josh Young are, sorry. I just got confused with Chase Young. Are you thinking? I was like, yeah, you're thinking about his brother.

But this is what we wanted to see with these types of young guys who came into last season with so much potential and really struggled is hitting well in the spring. It doesn't mean anything. it doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be good. It just, it's better than the alternative. Like, that's all you can say at this point. It's not actionable. You shouldn't move Josh Young way up your draft board because of this, but you should, you should already have him in your,

yeah, you should already have him in your sleeper conversation anyway. You know, if you're looking for a late round third basement with some upside, Josh Young should already be in that discussion. Riley Green should already be in your draft board in the middle rounds, Spencer Torkelson in the late rounds. This is what you want to see. All right. For Matt Olson, he hit another home run.

He's now 14 for 32. He's batting 438 this spring with six home runs. Maybe that second year on a new team. He's even better. Would not surprise me one bit for Matt Olson. And last but not least, Justin Verlander had six walks in four and two-thirds innings of work. It's just weird.

Weird to see for Justin Verlander. Did you see maybe it was like Zach Grinke? Did you see Zach Rankie's most recent start? He was working on his pickoff throws. He threw 10 pickoff throws in three innings, I think. And he basically, he didn't like outright say it, but he implied that he pitched poorly on purpose in order to work on his pickoff throws.

Interesting. Which is just, what a delight. Never retire Zach Rankie. Yeah, that's about as Zach Granky as it gets. Let's wrap up with a quick discussion on Keeper League players to target. And what I mean by this is injured players, who you're drafting.

If you play in a Keeper League where the value carries over year over year, if I draft a player in round 10, I get to keep them for a 10th round pick the next year or it moves up one or two rounds, whatever it might be. Somebody like Bryce Harper should probably go a little bit earlier

than he actually is going. A lot earlier. Yeah, his ADP is 143.5. That's round 12 in a 12 team league, likely to miss the first half of the season with Tommy John surgery. One of my buddies texted me today. He said, you know,

in a keeper league, where should I draft Bryce Harper? I'm like, that's a really good question. I haven't really thought about it. So, Scott, it sounds like you have thought about it. Where did you draft Bryce Harper in a Keeper League? Yeah, so I was trying to see where he went in our dynasty startup mock. We did a couple of them, one for head-to-head points and one for rotisserie.

And I want to say he went as early as round three in one of them. Now, that's earlier than I would go. I'd want it to be an obvious discount. Otherwise, what's the point? but maybe by like round five, round six. Yeah, that's what I was saying around five. Taken Harper. And it also depends how many keepers we're talking about

because a lot of keeper leagues just keep four or five guys. Okay, probably not worth. I would say in that context, Bryce Harper's still worth it. He's still worth keeping, but is it worth crippling, potentially crippling your team for the current year when you're deciding on just four or five players at the end to keep?

So, you know, not as high a priority to draft Harper in that format. But if it's a league with little roster turnover, you're keeping 10 plus players, let's say. A dynasty startup was the idea I was comparing. I was proposing here. Then, yeah, I think a pick as early as round five or six makes sense for Harper. My homekeeper league, it's head to head points, 12-team league. We keep four players every year. So you would not push Bryce Harper up, like maybe even say around 10.

just so I can keep him for a round nine pick next year. Round 10 is not a stretch anyway if it's a shallower league. Okay. So that's fine. Good to know. I'll write that down. Trevor Story's ADP is 253, round 21. Obviously not as big of a priority or difference maker that Bryce Harper is.

But Chris, what do you think? Would you push him up? I don't know, maybe like round 15, 16, something like that, just to hold on to him and maybe have a good keeper for next year. Yeah, and it's interesting. Like some of the drafts I do, Trevor's story goes way late. later than 253. I mean,

I think he was, I think he was still there well into the 300s in my TGFBI league, which doesn't have I all spots. But yeah, that's the kind of thing where like, yeah, I would push him up in like round 15-ish, because I think the chances of a bounce-back season were,

were decent. You know, he was changing leagues and playing out of course field for the first time. So I think a bounce-back was a reasonable expectation. So, yeah, I would say 15-16, that makes sense. But honestly, you might not even have to. People are really down on Trevor's story.

Injured pitchers to draft late in Keeper Leagues. Walker Bueller, likely to miss the entire season. Tommy John, Shane Boz, same story there. Tyler Glass now we know is probably going to miss the first month or so of the season this year. Terrick's Goobel, he's placed on the 60-day IL. So he's got some time before he returns, but he kind of looked like he was breaking out last year. John Means, Hyunjin Ryu, we mentioned those names earlier. Scott, what are your thoughts on these as keepers later on in drafts? So I am in a couple of score sheet leagues, which are kind of a half-sim, half-fantasy league,

24 teams, so deep. I have Walker Bueller in both, and I believe, at least in one of them, I traded for him last year, just with the idea of holding onto him through this year and then having an ace thereafter. It's not a guarantee, of course, because this is his second Tommy John surgery,

which isn't as straightforward as the first. But I think it's a good idea. Shane Boz, I think I actually traded for Shane Boz and the other. So that's been a pretty high priority there. Those are the two who have high end, their potential is so high end that I think it is worth going the extra mile for them in a keeper situation. It is worth sacrificing a little in the current year to get them.

You know, I talk about how John Means should be a great fit with the Camden Yards, the new dimensions there. But it's not as assured. It's not as clear that he has legitimate high-end upside. So that's more of a late flyer situation. And I'd put Terrick Scoobel more in that category as well. One who you didn't mention here, who I took in, I believe it was around 16 of one of those 24 teams,

score sheet leagues, Max Meyer. That's good one. You're, you're, well, I guess he is on the 40-man roster, so he probably will be on the 60-day aisle. Yeah, he'll be on the 60-day dial. So you will be able to stash him in an aisle spot. And obviously, hasn't proven much of anything at the major league level. But at this time last year, we all considered him a top five pitching prospect and left plenty of. I would also add another guy that you didn't mention is Frankie Montas.

I was just going to say, too. We're not expecting much this year, but obviously. And he sort of feels like a guy who it's just going to go off the rails and we're never going to really see him again. But he's under contract for next year. And, you know, there's at least a chance. So he's definitely someone, it would have to be like one of your last round picks, but I would throw him out there as well.

Is he under contract, Chris? Because I feel like this might be a contract year for Frankie Montauzaz. Maybe. I assumed he had another year left. And then, Chris Paddock as well. He's actually going to pitch this year. He probably will be back by mid-season,

but that's another name that, you know, never lived up to the expected, the hype, but, you know, yeah, he will, he's a free agent at the end of this year. Sorry, Frankie Montas. Yep. All right. Well, I'm not sorry to Frankie Montas, but.

Sorry to us. Sorry to Frank. Sorry for yawning, right? Sorry to Frankie. I'm sorry for yawning. Frankie. Just sorry for everything. Montas.

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