Rates & Barrels - Shane Bieber doubts, processing spring training news and auction strategy thoughts

Episode Date: March 1, 2021

Eno and DVR discuss the first wave of March drafts — including their hesitation to draft Shane Bieber as a mid first-round pick — how to deal with news and other information during spring training, auction strategy thoughts ahead of this weekend’s LABR auctions, platoon splits for prospects, and more.  Rundown 2:11 Early March Drafts Begin! 4:41 Why Do We Hesitate to Draft Shane Bieber in Round 1? 13:02 How Should We Handle Spring Training News? 22:39 What Else Moves the Needle in March? 33:49 Auction Strategy & Observations 50:02 Prospect Platoon Splits & Jarred Kelenic 57:27 A Failed Attempt at Bribery Follow Eno on Twitter: @enosarris Follow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRiper E-mail: [e-mail] Please fill out our listener survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/athleticaudiosurvey Subscribe to The Athletic for just $3.99/mo: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It is Monday, March 1st. It feels good to flip the calendar to a new month, especially given the prolonged winter we've been dealing with here in Wisconsin. Derek Van Ryper here with Eno Saris. And it feels like baseball season is actually just around the corner. We've got spring games on TV. We've got games on the corner. We've got spring games on TV. We've got games on the radio. We've got drafts starting up. TGFBI started today.

I'm in a league similar to the Barf League that Eno is in. It's called Glarf. It's the Great Lakes version of that. So a Midwest League. That's a slow draft that started up. Our friends over at Prospects Live have a best ball dynasty slow draft that started up today. So I have three slow drafts that all started today. And, of course, the chaos of everything else for the season descending upon us, too.

How's it going for you on this Monday? It was good. Yeah. Chaos, scattered thoughts, trying to get in front of a draft widget and remember what team it was and what's going on and what the settings were and where your auction calculator tab is for that one.

It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Watching Matt, I don't even know his first name, Shoemake, somebody named Shoemake just ground grounded out against somebody named McCarthy. That's who you want. I'm a fan.

Listen, I'm a fan of names on the back of jerseys because there's a lot of players in baseball. And in spring in particular, there's so many more that I just don't have the patience to get the media guide for every single team and be like, okay, number 69 is... So, anyway, that's life right now. I'm on the clock

right now. You are on the clock. Oh, this is a good reminder to anybody out there who is in a slow draft to mute the tab if you are working in an office again. FanTracks in particular notoriously has the loud air horn on by default. The NFPC sound kind of sounds like an announcement is going to be made on an airplane. Ding, ding. Just very soft, very pleasant.

And then there's the you are on the clock, right? That happens on a few different rooms. You are on the clock. But the hard air horn sound on fan tracks will make you jump and will surprise you and will embarrass you, as our friend Vlad Sedler pointed out, if you are in a meeting when that thing goes off. Let this also be proof that sometimes when you're waiting

on someone to make their pick, they're just out there podcasting. Also that. Not doing their pick. They're just, get out of the booth, make your pick. You have to have some patience, man. These two four-hour segments.

Sometimes they'll take the whole four hours. Sometimes I forgot to put auto on. I'm on the West Coast, you know? I went to sleep. Sorry. Sorry they had to wait the two hours, but I think we'll get the draft done. There's a little bit of etiquette in the slow draft, too. The TGFBI League I'm in, Jeff Zimmerman's in it.

He's got the ninth pick. I'm picking 11th. He's planning on picking Shane Bieber, and Shane Bieber is about to make his Cactus League debut. So he chatted the room and just said, I've got a few hours on the clock. I'm going to wait and just make sure that Bieber gets through his outing healthy, and then I'll draft him. It's my first pick. I'm not going to take a guy and then have him get hurt the very first time he pitches in a game in spring training, which is fine. It's a slow draft for a reason. I feel like if you're going to wait like that, just let the room know.

So that way people aren't checking back every five minutes waiting, you know, anticipating that you're going to actually make that pick. For the record, I have the ninth pick. I'm considering Beaver, which I've never, I've never taken a pitcher in the first round. And I'm, for the record, I'm just podcasting. Nice of you to be honest about that. I may check in on the Beaver situation after the podcast is over. I mean, yeah, his outing will be done by the time we wrap this up,

so that works out really well for you. But you've really never drafted a pitcher in the first round before? I've never done it. Never done it before. Yeah. I mean, part of that's probably that you believe one of your strengths as a player is finding plenty of pitching later. So pushing pitching really early is less of a priority for you. But is this going to be different this

year i don't know some of it some of it is also just like um uh gross deep-seated uh bias of against pitchers and and it's just old it's old like i've been playing i'm old now i'm old now. I'm old. I've been playing baseball, fantasy baseball, since like 2002. And when I started, I said, I'm not drafting a pitcher until the 10th inning. I'm going to whoop your pants. I hope I didn't say that. Is that what you said? That he talked trash back then?

Never been a particularly good trash talker. Anyway, I'm not going to take a picture to the tent. I don't want to beat you behind. Are those people still your friends? Man. I never talk trash. That's like Pete Weber celebrating his U.S. Open championship. That was just circulating again because it was an anniversary for that event.

What did he say? Who do you think you are, I am. Anyway, my point was I used to take pictures in the 10th, start taking pictures in the 10th, and it worked because I didn't think we were as good at seeing who were good pictures, like identifying the good pictures we weren't as good at. I think it was the pace of draft. It worked for back in the day.

Cause if you're, if you, I think everyone took pictures later. And then, so if, if everyone takes their pictures later, then you can wait even later and still get like, I was still getting like two top 20 guys and picking in the 10th, you know? So I don't know it's been a long sort of slow process for me of being like no i got i gotta take pictures early they they make up x amount of the roster x percent of the roster and the very best pitchers can be worth just as much as the very best hitters. Injury is just the chaos that comes for us all.

You have to pay the piper and get the best pitchers. I'm thinking about Beaver, but I also got my man, Kristen Yellich, there. I really think he's going to 35-20. Like 275-35-20. I'm just like, man, I don't really want to give that up. I don't either. I am in the 11th spot and I'm glad that Jeff is planning on taking Bieber. I want Bieber to be healthy just

because I don't want players to get hurt, but it's either going to be Jelic or Trevor Story depending on what the team next to me does. They could very well take Jelic and I'm not going to get him. But I do find myself not wanting to draft Bieber. I'm comfortable drafting DeGraw. I'm comfortable drafting Cole.

I'm comfortable drafting a bunch of the starting pitchers that we see consistently going in round two. I just can't figure out what it is about Bieber that I don't actually like in the moment, even though when I step back and look at the numbers, look at the underlying skills, it all makes sense. It's like in the moment. Even though when I step back and look at the numbers, look at the underlying skills, it all makes sense. It's reflected in the rankings. I think he belongs in the late part of round one.

But every single time in the moment, whether it is a draft or an auction, I talk myself out of it. I don't go the extra dollar if it's an auction and I decide to go with one of the hitters instead if I'm in a position where Bieber's out there. And it's an auction and i decide to go with one of the hitters instead if i'm in a position where bieber's out there but it's not and it's not a pitching it's not a pitching general thing so like if cole i was like at nine looking at seven and cole and cole was still out there and

i was like whoa i think if cole gets to me like i'm definitely taking him i don't know why i'm hesitating more on bieber when their projections are pretty similar. So if you had a chance at Cole, you would take him in the first round. Yeah, absolutely. No hesitation whatsoever in that same spot. I would take Garrett Cole. I mean, you know, it is interesting that he was a command, you know, 88, 89 mile an hour Juco kind of prospect, you know just not not on people's radars and even as he you know as he started to put Velocity on of course yeah then the prospect he got on prospect list I'm not

saying that everybody missed on him please don't construe my words that way but I'm just saying that like it's a bit of a pop-up guy Cole Cole is a little bit more of a, you know, was he first overall or like top three pick? Just blew through the minors, throws super wicked hard. I don't know. It's bias on my part for sure to not want to take Bieber. That's the main reason I keep coming back to is I look at the scouting reports from when he came up and it's like those probably don't matter that much anymore. We've seen him at the highest level do what he's done. So what

analysts and evaluators thought he was going to be two and three years ago, probably doesn't matter anymore. And yet in my head, it seems to have some sort of value. Yes, it doesn't really matter at some point when you, but it's not like his track record is so voluminous nice that uh that you can be like oh we know who he is now there is a little bit of uh like well you know his best season was a short season and you know he was giving up some homers before and some hard contact and you know alex chamberlain has famously pointed out some of Bieber's shortcomings inside the zone in terms of the hard contact he gives up. And that could be related to not having the overpowering stuff, right? But at the same time, I think what we're looking at is Kyle Hendricks with velocity.

Which would be a really fun add-on for Kyle Hendricks. Yeah, right. It's not a perfect corollary because Kyle Hendricks is the change-up guy, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I think we're talking about plus command with 94 instead of plus command at whatever Kyle Hendricks throws, like 89, 90. 88, a lot of 88, 89. This is the face I make when I talk about 88. 88 miles an hour makes me make this face yeah the 88 face so i need to get over it i need to get past my fear of shane bieber in the first round because everything appears to be in place

for him to continue to return value of a top five starting pitcher. So if I solve it, I'll let you know what the issue is. I was also doing some eat this, not that. And like Bueller's projections are really similar, man. Just really similar. I think that the biggest difference, you know, when I did auction calculator, the thing that's really killing me is it's like $44 for Bieber and 37 for Christian Jelic.

And I'm like, God, that's seven. That's like a, That's pretty big. But when I looked at the projections, it's mostly a volume thing. Buehler and Bieber's per inning projections are pretty similar. I don't know why Zips has a fairly wide discrepancy. Zips has Bieber at like a 3-5 ERA and Bueller at a 3-1 ERA. So Zips is telling me

to wait and take Bueller. It's time. It's time for those big long sighs and push the button. And swearing at the screen when things don't break the way you want. I'm super pissed. I'm in a long draft and hold.

What's it called? OC? The OC champions or whatever? OC? Draft champions. That's a DC. DC, yeah. So I'm in a draft and hold, and I think we're at like 430 in terms of picks.

And I just screamed at my computer. I hope my wife didn't hear me. I just screamed at my computer. I hope my wife didn't hear me. I just screamed at my computer because someone took Max Stassi. All the reasons to go on tilt, that's not one of them. You bastard! Snipe me at 438!

You can't get sniped on Max Stassi anywhere and you can't get sniped on anybody at 438. This is not a snipe. It's just the draft happening. Well, with games happening, with things happening, with news actually breaking, we talked about this a bit on Friday, the best shape of his life stories, of course, those don't mean a whole lot. At least that's what Ben Lindbergh's study found.

They're not completely meaningless, but they're not necessarily as meaningful as we'd like. It brings us to a broader question of what matters when we're watching baseball and we're watching baseball news in the spring. If you look at Roto-Wire or former Roto-World, now NBC. As you look at the news pages there, it's a great way to stay on top of the information. You'll see a whole variety of different things. You'll see guys pitching a scoreless inning. You'll see someone working on a new pitch. You'll see a minor injury.

Anthony Rendon's not playing on Monday due to soreness. It's unspecified soreness. It's just soreness. He's just 31, and he started doing more exercise last week. So he's a little sore. I can relate to that. But then you get stuff like this. Xander Bogarts had an MRI on his shoulder and the MRI came back negative. So it doesn't seem like anything that's going to cause us to drop Bogarts too far in rankings, but it might actually be something because when you look at a news aggregator,

you see a headline and you see the person who gathered the information, you see their spin on what happened. And sometimes in putting those news items together, the original information gets slightly lost. And this is not at all a shot at people that do this. This is just explaining how the process works. This is how the sausage is shot at people that do this. This is just explaining how the process works. This is how the sausage is made. You need to click through the links when you look at news on those sites because the quotes from the team sometimes shed a little extra light on just how serious something might be. In this case, if you look at the quotes, and the original piece came from Jason Mastrodonato, I believe Jason is with the Boston Herald. If you look at the original quote from Chaim Blum, it makes you feel a little more pessimistic than you'd feel if you only read the player note.

So the quote from Chaim Blum, nothing concerning, no, all what you would expect. He should be ready, parentheses, for opening day. Obviously, we won't skip steps with him. It's a marathon, not a sprint, but we should have the time we need, end quote. That to me says we expect him back playing in spring games before opening day, but we're not going to push it, which would suggest some kind of one- to two-week injury or absence, a very minor strain sort of issue. No structural damage. But if we're going to take Bogarts out of action for a couple of weeks, and we're going to say there's a non-zero chance that he misses opening day, that does probably knock him down a couple of spots,

even if he doesn't even fall more than a half round in ADP over these next couple of weeks. Yeah, nothing in the MRI ignores the fact that there was something that created the need for an MRI. And everything was all clear in the MRI. And then there are steps, you know, to this process means that this is a, this is like an actual thing. This is an actual injury of some sort that requires a rest. Uh, that's step one. Um, and then sort of some sort of rehab step two, that's the normal process, you know? So, uh, it's not like, uh, he stubbed his toe. He's out today, You know, it's not, it's not, I would take soreness, man.

Even if that suggests something about how he's feeling age-wise, I think it's much more nebulous and there's no steps. The step is he's going to sit on his ass today. Tomorrow, hopefully, won't be sore. So, yeah, I don't know. I think that you have to ding Bogarts a little bit here

especially you know we're still seeing a ton of big homers we saw a beautiful beautiful big homer from Gary Sanchez today which cleared the batter's eye and just looked like a 600 foot dong but you know if the ball is deadened at all I think that Bogarts could be one of the guys who

loses a little bit. Now, if he misses a week and the ball is deadened and he's a 280 guy who hits 22 homers this year, are you taking him in the right spot? Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I'm looking at him. So without accounting for the shoulder, I've got Bogarts behind Alex Bregman and Anthony Rendon. Very tightly clustered together. I've got Bogarts ahead of Manny Machado. The market doesn't have that. ADP has Machado 12 spots ahead of him. Yeah, I'd take Manny. Especially now, I'd take Manny.

Right. I'd flip Manny over Bogarts now. I'd probably take Ozzy Albies over Bogarts right now. And again, this is based on what we know on Monday, March 1st. Thursday could roll around and Bogarts could be playing in a spring game again, and you flip it back. But if you're drafting today... There were fewer steps than we thought. Right. But if you're drafting Monday, you're drafting Tuesday or Wednesday, you know what you know right now, and you do want to account for this information without overreacting to it. So I would probably lower Bogarts to probably my 21st hitter. That would put him behind Machado, behind Albies, behind Devers,

and behind Bobachet. I think I'd still take Bogarts over Edelberto Mondesi if that were my decision. Or I might just go to the pitching side and take a pitcher and let someone else deal with it. Some dude just hit Ray Klam on the knee. Aye, aye, aye. take a picture and let someone else deal with it. Some dude just hit rake lamb on the knee. Yeah. So, so like,

should we have like a hierarchy and injury hierarchy, which are the worst injuries? No, it is meaningful because like, let's say Jake lamb's knee is broken, right? Like that's obviously something broken or torn is that's the top tier. That's like, oh crap.

Like do not draft, I think. Right. Because we don't like if something's broken or torn, you don't even know how broken or torn it is. And then you don't know what the, like the re what the thing is. If there's surgery involved, you don't have, you at least don't have that. Like it's stupid to hear, but you don't have that. Well, it was have that like it's stupid to hear but you don't have that well it was what we expected you know like everything went according to plan sort of thing uh because there are surgeries where they go in they're like well

we thought we're taking some chips out but tj um so uh i i so anything broken or torn obviously i think they go right into do not draft um i just, I want to know so much more, at least a temporary do not draft, right? Until maybe some more news comes out. And then I think in the next level of like, oh, soreness, we don't know what's going on. We're taking a step back. I have body parts that I care about more than others. So I think for, I think shoulder, people talk about elbow talk about elbow but you know there are guys who like tanaka slightly torn elbow managed to be great for a long time and like i have a feeling

that the pitcher's elbows like most of the time they hurt i think and so um i elbow doesn't worry me so much shoulder i don't want to hear anything about a shoulder that means it's starting to creep up the kinetic chain or whatever it's trying to creep up the kinetic chain or whatever. It's trying to creep up into the bigger parts of their body. That means something's worse there. So I don't really want to hear about shoulders. And here's a surprising one that bothers me. Obliques.

It's really tricky because sometimes you can really have like a two-day oblique thing where it's just like, it's just sort of day. But then you can also have a two-day thing that becomes a five-day thing, you know, becomes like a two-week thing. Even when they're playing, they're not getting the same bat speed. They're not getting the same arm speed, whatever it is. Like this is a game of obliques. Like I really, I think I would actually drop a guy down a little bit just if I heard him saying something about his obliques. This is a game of obliques.

Well, it's very rotational. It's very rotational. It's definitely an obliques game. Yeah, it definitely impacts hitters and pitchers in a pretty significant way. Usually, it's an IL stint. Usually, it's a couple of weeks at the earliest before a player comes back from something like that. A lot of times, it's even like four to six.

So I'm right there with you. I think there are different categories of injuries, different body parts we're more concerned about than others, especially this time of year. And because of Britt, I'm a little bit more aware of calf muscles now. Britt and Josh Davison together have like, because remember Britt was saying that like sprint speed is the thing that you lose the quickest on friday right so you're saying sprint speed is the thing you

like sprint fitness is the thing you lose the quickest i believe that actually because i'm trying to do some running and you know i read about running training and a lot of them are like you have to run five days a week you'll start losing running fitness on the order of one or two days and i've seen it where like oh my calf or oh my achilles i'm gonna take a week off or something when i start back up again i'm like what five miles feels like a marathon again what i just i what and i've been trying to get back up like i ran like 11 miles last year and i've been trying to get my max run up to back up to that and i'm talking about like last august i ran 11 miles i got to nine last week but you know it's been a slog you know just because i took like a week off in in december so running speed anything that makes them they can't run means that i think it'd be hard for them to play baseball

yeah that ramp back up takes a little bit of time to get back to that previous level. Yeah, it was so bad for him. But what else moves the needle this time of year? It's not just injury information that we're seeing. We're seeing velocity reports. We're seeing new pitches, right? Jason Collette's been doing the new pitch tracker for a while. And new pitches, I think, are a little bit deceiving because just because a guy throws

a pitch in a Grapefruit League game or a Cactus League game doesn't mean he trusts that pitch enough to throw it when the games count. So I think we can be sometimes quick to jump in on a new pitch and say, oh, he's got a third pitch now. He's got another pitch he can use against lefties. And then that pitch is an absolute ghost once we turn the page and get to April. And we don't get the all-important pitch percentages.

So they could talk about having thrown their new cutter in the game or whatever, and we don't even know if he's talking about throwing 10% or he threw two cutters and called it a day. Because I honestly don't really think a person owns a pitch on a major level until they throw it at least like 8% of the time. You know, once, if they throw something three to 5% of the time,

nobody game plans for that. Nobody is like worried about that pitch. It's just a surprise pitch. Probably not a very good pitch. They don't trust it enough. So we don't even know those percentages. And actually the way that percentages and the stints that they pitch in work is also relevant for velocity.

Because I would say generally, big up in velocity is good, big down is bad. And there is enough research that shows that these big movements are meaningful. there's enough research that shows that these big movements are meaningful. But there is also research that shows that spring training, velo changes are not that useful. And I think it's because you'll have guys come out for the, what are they doing now? One inning stints, right? And then, you know, a couple of weeks, it's two or three innings.

You know, they're adding like an inning or two every time they go out. And so you'll see a guy like DeGrom will sit 99 for his whole first inning of work. Well, he knows he's only going to throw 25 pitches today. You know what I mean? And it's DeGrom, so he's going to air it out and get on the social media. And like everyone's, you know, laughing about it. And yes, I do think DeGrom throws hard, and I'm not saying he doesn't. But I'm saying that it may not be that useful because he may sit where he sat last year.

And then I remember everyone was like, you Darvish touched 97 today. And I'm like, you Darvish's max velo last year was 97. You know? Doesn't necessarily mean he's going to throw harder. Right. So you've got to put everything in context. You'd be like, what are you giving me are you giving me a max number or a sits number

if you're giving me a sits number tell me how many innings he threw if he sat this for three innings and it's plus one or two ticks over last year then I'm starting to listen you know it has to be it has to have some volume to it

it has to be voluminous. The word of the day. The other thing I'm looking at this time of year is new defensive positions. Similar to testing out a pitch, it doesn't necessarily mean a team is going to actually play a guy in that new spot when the games begin to count. But I think that might be a greater indicator of intent, comparatively speaking. Dabbling with a new pitch, yeah, that might disappear. But we saw Gene Segura last spring. The last live baseball game that I got to see was a spring training game with you. It was Orioles, Phillies, and Clearwater. And Gene Segura was playing his

new position. That wasn't a secret at the time, but I think he was playing third the day we saw him and previously people expected him to play second, right? Just getting a sense for how pieces fit, especially when a new player was added to the mix. I think in those situations, seeing how the defensive alignment works is actually something I'm pretty interested in because we're talking about paths for players to qualify at new positions and they become multi-position players soon after the season begins, which in a lot of formats becomes a way of adding a little bit of extra value after draft season. Yeah. I mean, in related news, Segura is actually one of my guys so far in drafts, it looks like. I like him just because he's going to give you a little bit of power and speed. And also 2B slash 3B is a rare mix in these days and makes you MI and CI. So it's really a four

position guy that gives you a little bit of power, a little bit of speed. I don't know. It's worked out that I needed something like that at the right time and the price was right. So I'll point that out at Segura. But then also, I like what you're saying about organizational future, organizational desires. I was thinking about Ty France in regards to this. I saw Ty France is mostly taking ground balls at third base. That's a little awkward because they have a third baseman in Kyle Seager.

And so you might just say, whatever, he's just expanding his versatility. However, I then went to Corey Brock and said, you know, what's the deal with Ty France users? I feel like he's the starting DH, but he's taking the balls at third. Does that mean he's going to replace Seager when Seager leaves? And, yeah, Brock was like, yeah, that's how I see it too. So that means, you know, headed towards third base in the future

most likely to you know to be third base eligible after this year I would say and but also tells you something about like how the organization values him like they're more likely to play him at DH and have him actually be a starter

all year if they think he's going to be their third baseman in 2022 um and so I I gave Ty Francil a nudge upwards you know the guy can probably hit and uh uh they have a position in mind for him so that that definitely I think um it's a little bit stronger than you know taking ground balls at is weaker than played in the game at. But there's still some signal to that noise. Yeah, and just comparing that to how relievers are deployed, I would say reliever usage doesn't give us much of anything in spring training

because a lot of teams are going to prioritize their high leverage relievers earlier in the game sooner to the starter's leave because they want the high leverage relievers to face actual major league hitters as opposed to upper level minor league guys that enter the game late. So if Giovanni Gallegos pitched the ninth inning on Sunday, regardless of the score, it doesn't really mean all that much. It doesn't mean he's closer or further to save chances based on that usage. I have to say that I'm finding it harder to understand

the quality of competition right now. Because, yeah, I think normally in the past, you're right, they would bring the closers out. Sometimes the closers would open games because they would be like okay we're making sure that you're gonna you're gonna place the the best play the best uh bats today so we're gonna we're gonna get you in here right at right at the beginning of the game but now uh that innings now that we're down to seven inning games um have these weird things with like, I'm pretty sure I watched Garrett Richards walk off the mound with two outs

because he hit 20 pitches. And I think that they were just like, that's the end of that inning. Which actually, you know what, dude? I mean, these games don't count. If it's supposed to be developmental, then that's fine. It doesn't bother me.

But as an analyst, it makes it a little bit harder because now you're like, this guy who's a closer candidate came in in the third and mopped the floor with them. I have no idea who he faced in the third. They might have already taken out the hitters because today's a five-inning game.

If they're going to mess around with game lengths, I have to imagine they're going to have to lower the price of spring training tickets. You can't expect people to pay borderline regular season prices for spring training tickets if you're going to cut the game in half and barely play guys that are actual major leaguers. Spring training is... They won't necessarily, but it is just an attempt to print money.

Now they're even like, well, players, if you don't really want to play or if teams, you don't really want to put that guy out there, you don't have to. 20 pitches, just call it quits. Yeah, no, I think spring training is very weird. I don't know if everyone knows, but the players aren't paid for it. the players aren't paid for it and they're taking money at the gate uh even if the

you know tickets are cheaper like they're still taking money at the gate i'm sure that they make money off of spring and it's six weeks long you know it's it's there's they're making money off of this the players and they're giving the players food and, like, some sort of little stipend and being like, woohoo. Which, I mean, if you're an established big leaguer, okay, your situation is a little bit different. But for the guys that are fighting for roster spots, for the guys that didn't get big bonuses, we talk about this group of players all the time. Like, they're in pretty difficult spots. They'll save the stipend and eat as much as they can of the free food.

They're like in college when I used to get prodded and zapped for the $10. Whatever. It's come participate in my study. Free pizza. Free pizza. I'm like, all right, I'm there.

You will be here for three hours. We will stab you with needles and take your blood. But you get free pizza. I'm like, all right, I'm there. You will be here for three hours. We will stab you with needles and take your blood. But you get free pizza. And you're like, yeah, three hours, free pizza. It sounds about right. I'll give that a shot for some free pizza. Well, I'm glad to have the games back. As weird as they are, as broken up as they are,

and as limited in talent as they are in some instances, still better to have it than to not, especially given some of the alternatives. All right, let's get to auction strategy thoughts. We've got the labor auctions coming up this weekend, and we have an online conference third week in a row with some cool stuff happening on the weekend. First pitch, Florida would have been in person. Obviously, with the pandemic, that is

on hold, but the event is happening online. Our friends at Baseball HQ are putting that together. You've got a presentation on Saturday. I'm moderating. Basically, we're having an episode of Rates and Barrels live as part of the conference is the real thing, I guess.

When you said presentation, I was like, what? On the rundown, I guess, that's kind of happening. Yeah, when you said presentation, I was like, uh, what? It's, uh, it was on the rundown, it says an hour with Eno. So, I mean, it could be anything. I'm okay with it because, you know, like Pitcher List, we did the same thing. We just sat and talked for a little bit. And I'm all right with it because it takes a lot less work

and a lot less prep work and presentation. I miss me on that. The deep, deep data. We'll talk about some of the cutting edge stuff that's happening. I have hours with me all the time. I have hours and hours and hours with me. You got a little time to come up with the final

strategy, but I'm sure you put some significant thought into how you're going to approach the AL labor auction this weekend and just auctions as a whole. We've talked about them on this show before, usually around this time of year, because it's a good time to start digging into those strategies. What's unique for you auction-wise going into 2021? Is there anything that's very different about your approach? You mentioned earlier that you don't usually draft pitchers in the first round. I assume that means you don't often pay 30 plus dollars for an ace in an auction, but are you more likely to pay up in an auction where you have more flexibility with how the rest of your roster comes together?

Yeah, I've been moving uh slightly towards a model of um so my my hitting model generally is to um try and get the cheapest stud and uh what i found is that my projections uh always kind of uh come down come under on the top. So like my top player will be like for a long, strongest time, the top player would try out for like $35 and he'd go for 40. And I just didn't feel like I wanted to push past my values that much. Um, and what I tried to basically get was get a $30 player for 30, you know, instead of being paying 40 for a $35 player. So that means that I get, it's almost like a two for two second rounder approach you know it's like uh you know i'm gonna i'm gonna get two second rounders i have to pay this there will be times where you just have to pay all the

way to your reality maybe a dollar two more maybe you have to pay 31 to get my 30 but you know i'm going to get one of those i'm not going to get the number one player. And I'm going to try and pay at my value. And that actually pushes my hitting into the middle. So what I end up doing is not having many dollar players, maybe having just one dollar outfielder or a dollar utility player, because even like a $2 or $3 bid at the end game can be really powerful. You know, when people are, they're like, oh, you know, oh, that guy's still out there. And someone's trying to sneak him in and a dollar

and you got $2, bam, you just got, you know, the best of the end game guys, you know, and $1 players hitters a lot of times are either small side platoon or not even set for for playing time and in like an al labor type situation i want to buy playing time so on the hitter end i i do push towards the middle a little bit i have i will try to get like some second rounder types but i will push towards the middle try to have a really balanced by a lot of innings and plate appearances on the pitching side i had been moving towards a stars and scrubs uh approach where I will buy a role just like I bought last year I bought a role just Chapman or two years ago as a role as Chapman and Luis Severino that was my idea you know it didn't work out but that was my idea that I was gonna like

push towards the get it one really good ace one really good closer and then just buy a bunch of cheap arms after that but i think this year i may do more of a push towards the middle on both so i feel like pitching is pretty hard to project right now and putting all my eggs in one basket pitching wise i guess it could be cole but i think cole will also get that like 35 for $40 type situation, right? Where he will push the market for pitching. And then behind Cole, specifically in this pool, the AL pitching pool, I just don't see an all eggs in one basket type pitcher where I just want to be like, yeah, I'm going to put $32 on this guy and ride him all the way to victory.

Yeah, and the NL side is similar in that you've got DeGrom kind of up in a tier of his own, right? He's going to be probably a $38 to $40 pitcher, I would guess, in the NL auction this weekend. And you've got that next cluster behind him, which is pretty nice in the NL. The NL pitching depth lends itself to, hey, you missed out on DeGrom, but you could either get one from the next group, you could jam in two from the next group if you really wanted to. And it just feels like, especially since we're tracking toward not having the DH in the NL, there's a lot of mid-tier guys that you're more comfortable with now. Guys you'd be worried about if they were facing the extra good hitter in the middle of the lineup, but now they're getting the pitcher spot instead, so that pool seems to run a lot deeper now as long as that rules change holds up.

But I'm comfortable paying up at the top for DeGrom. I think he's done it for enough years. He's, to me, not that much of an injury risk, not much more than a typical pitcher, even though he had the TJ a few years back. I trust the skills completely. My top dollar on him, am I going to 40 for him? I don't know if I'm going quite that high. If it stops closer to 35 or 36, I'll get him. If not, fine, I'll build some other ways. The one thing that I think is also tricky with pitching though is figuring out how you want to attack closers in an auction. Because in snakes, like we talked about in the reliever preview, you're really forced to pass up on some good players, whether that's SP3 types or nice bats to kind of round out the meat of your lineup. You're passing on really good players where you're drafting closers.

I don't feel that same shame in an auction. I feel like I can still get a lot of guys I really like, even if I do spend up and pay 20 or 22 or something on Josh Hader. I think the problem I have in the NL specifically, though, I don't know of the cheap closers this year. I still don't know if there are that many I actually even want. Because in labor, we can't take players out of our lineups. And I don't want to have Stephan Crichton just in my lineup all the time.

I don't want him to blow up my ratios and lose the job. Four, six ERA. Woo-hoo! Yeah, I can't deal with that. Or even like Craig Kimbrell. I think Kimbrell sort of makes sense in mixed league drafts where he goes. He's kind of the reverse Freddie Freeman. I always say that in the early rounds, like in the first round of a draft, I don't want to draft Freddie Freeman. I'll buy Freddie Freeman at an auction. I'll draft Craig Kimbrell in a snake draft. I'm not necessarily going to pay $13 for him as a closer. going to pay $13 for him as a closer, right? It's funny how the players you're interested in can shift a little bit just because of the flexibility you have in an auction versus that opportunity cost that you have to go through going one pick at a time in a snake.

Yeah, the shape of the player pool is really important because you can have your values. And this year, and as I have in the past, I have custom ATC values. Shout out to Ariel Cohen. He provides me with some custom ATC values for AL Labor. But I also run the BAT, and I have four numbers. I have ADP values. I have ATC values.

I'll have the BAT values, and I'll have what they earned last year. And I'll have those four values in a row just in front of me to look at. Of course, they'll be sorted by one. I won't tell you which one. And one of those numbers will be a no-go for me. It will represent the ceiling for me. But it's nice to have a range there numbers-wise. But beyond that that there's the

shape of the player pool so in a snake draft like remember we did the analysis for kds for for for snake drafts and we're talking about like well if you take you know uh you take if you have the 11 pick then you're going to end up probably with yelich and and and bueller right um And I ended up having a really basic draft where I almost followed ADP all the way without even meaning to. The same thing will happen in an auction. It's slightly different, but it'll be like,

if I sync my resources into this player, these are the things that I will get from it right and then i will have less you know i'll have fewer resources to buy so like just to give an example if i do sink a lot of my money into freddie freeman it is almost like a snake draft if i do sink my money into freddie freeman i'm buying a first baseman and batting average and power and i will need to therefore and batting average and power and i will need to therefore sink my second most resources into someone who's different than that it doesn't it almost works like a snake but you can choose what that second most resource will be you have more power but you probably will have some effect from from from buying freddie freeman it means that your second guy will be somebody that is, like, maybe it's a Starling Marte type, right?

Where it's like, I need steals mostly from this guy, and I want to spend, you know, my second most expensive guy will probably be, like, sort of $20 to $25. These are the guys that, so if I buy Freeman, this is what we talk about with, like, decision trees. If I buy Freeman, I bought power and first base and floor and all this stuff.

My next guy will maybe it'll be Keston Hira because, you know, he's a second baseman that will steal some bases and have maybe have a bad batting average. That pairs pretty well with Freeman. But that's I ended up doing these little almost like it's like a mock draft and you can just do the mock draft. But I don't have enough time to do tons of mock drafts um so i will do a mock draft in my head where i'm like i just basically fill out a roster you know what i mean like i'll have a roster out and i'll be like okay if i buy devvers with my most money or if i buy jose ramirez with my most money or if i bought you know this is what happens after that i will i'm gonna spend here and here and i'll look at the different teams and I'll say, you know what? I like, I kind of like it more when I start with Devers than when I start with Bregman or when I, you know what I mean? Yeah, I'll do it. I'll do

it like that too, where I'm actually either through the Roto-Wire draft software, which I've always used or just taking Excel or a piece of paper. I'm going to go through the auction values. What does my roster look like if I spend 40 on my best hitter? And then if I buy three $30 players and a few $20 players, what's the rest of my roster going to look like? What combination of skills can I get if I allocate resources that way? There's only a handful of $40 players. So if that $40 player is DeGrom, if I do go to $40 on him, I feel like that's the right choice. What's going to hurt me later? Like what $30 hitters am I going to build around not having a $40 hitter? Right?

Like just kind of seeing like what happens if we go this way? All right. That looks all right. What if I do it this way at the beginning? Putting those bases together really gives you different ways to build because you don't know exactly what's going to happen on draft day. One person in the room in the auction can push you off one of your foundational players. And the quicker you can pivot to plan B, plan C, plan D, the better off you're going to be. And you have to be flexible. You really have to be flexible

in any league, but in an auction especially, as much as you want to script it out, it can backfire on you very quickly if you're too rigid, if you're too locked into a very specific foundation. Yeah, I had a really weird thing happen last year where I had two decision trees where I was like, one is Devers and one is Jose Ramirez. And I thought I'd get a little bit more speed from Jose Ramirez. So, you know, I could make some different decisions down in the outfield, maybe some power guys, you know what I mean? And one was Devers.

And for some reason, I just liked the teams that I was building coming off of Devers. So I identified Devers. I was like, okay, I think he's going to be my $34, $35 guy. And the value spit out $33, $34. Everything's going to go happy if i go that way and he went for like 36 and i just couldn't bring myself to put that extra dollar on you know and so i i was like well okay now we're switching to the jose ramirez plan at least that's my second

plan um and i threw jose ramirez and i bought jose ramirez for 35 uh when the dollar sheet said like 33. So when it came, I, I went the extra dollar for Ramirez and it was a, maybe it was just a gut thing. And it worked out really well for me because, you know, I ended up second in the league and, and, and, and Ramirez has had a great season and the steals and everything, but I thought I'd screwed up. Yeah. I came out of, I came out of the first break being like, why didn't I just put that extra dollar on, on Devers? I think that's why it's important to know how many players are in each group though. Like when you, when you go through that, probably how many $30 players do you see? Cause then, you know, if you're about to run out of $30 players, you like, that's why I went the extra buck on Ramirez. Cause it was later in the draft, right? It was

later in the draft and there was fewer $35 guys left. I was like, well, if I want to get a $35 bat, this room here is one of the last ones. Here we go. Right. So you're going to adjust to the room a little bit at a certain point. If the room's paying plus two, plus three, plus four over the projections for top-end players, you're going to have to follow suit and pay a plus two or a plus three up top, knowing that later on a couple of the $2 and $3 players are going to be $1 players. And if it keeps happening beyond the first 15, 20 players, sure, then those savings are going to extend up into the four and $5 players. Those guys will

become one and $2 players. If you're your $30 guys are all 33, 34, 35, right? Like the money spent earlier is going to come off the very bottom end of the pool as you start to make those adjustments. You don't want to have to pay plus five or plus seven for an $18 player in the middle of the auction because you didn't buy enough production early on. I think that's a really hard lesson to learn for some people't run into that problem in a very long time. Hopefully, I never run into that problem again. But looking at the NL pool, I'm so glad I'm in the NL and not the AL. I just think there are so many more interesting ways to build an NL-only team compared to an AL-only team. I feel like you get steered into a few more specific directions based on how the AL pool is built. Well, if you're drafting in an AL-only situation, I would look at second base pretty hard.

I don't know. I've said this about the overall player pool, but AL second base is tough. AL pitching is pretty tough. There were some high-profile moves from the al to the nl uh some some top arms and so there is a bit of a you know one two and then you know so uh do you have to really make a decision on am I going to bid hard on those two? Or if I'm not going to bid hard on those two, who are the two number twos that I that I am going to, you know, go to $15 on,

you know, if I'm not going to go to 38 on Shane Bieber, you know, who are the secondary guys that I think could anchor a staff. So those are the two things I would say that I'm thinking about. I don't want to give away too much, but those are things that I'm looking at. I may make different decisions than you would looking at the same information, but I think that those are two key parts of

the AL player pool in particular. If you are looking for really in-depth conversation about auctions, Ariel Cohen, the Beat the Shift podcast, he does with Ruvain Guy. They had me on as a guest to talk about auctions. It's like almost 90 minutes of auction analysis. Ariel is a great auction player too. So I would highly recommend checking out that episode if you're either just getting into auctions for the first time, you're trying to kind of kick it up on their level,

If you're either just getting into auctions for the first time, you're trying to kind of kick it up on their level, and you want to get further down the rabbit hole of different things you can do to have a lot of success in a format like this. But I'm excited. I'm looking forward to the auction this weekend. It's one of my favorite weekends of the year. Bummed, of course, that we're not able to do it live, but still good to get together, jump on a Zoom, get to see some faces, and hear the voices of some of our friends, and probably have a beer or two at the end of the evening anyway. We'll have a virtual fire pit or something. We'll find a way to make it work. All right, got a few questions here, Eno, before we go. This first one comes from Kevin. It's about prospect platoon splits. Kevin's in a position with the second pick in his rookie draft

and he's choosing between Andrew Vaughn and Jared Kelnick. He's been leaning toward Kelnick for a while now, but one of the buddies he has in his league said he just hates lefties, which is really interesting. This had me wondering about his splits and whether the Mariners might mess around by platooning him. I think this is just a broader question, really. Do prospect platoon splits matter that much?

And if they do matter, have we even seen enough from Jared Kelnick to believe that he can't hit lefties or can hit lefties? I feel like it's one of these things that we really wouldn't know this early in his career. And how the Mariners handle him or how any team handles a young prospect also hinges on how the rest of their roster comes together and whether or not they even have someone they could easily platoon with that player. Yeah, and then it's complicated by just the overall quality of the prospect and

the way that he'll hit the ground in the major leagues when he gets there. Because if you think about it, like a prospect for the yankees they're if they like if you theoretically knew their platoon splits you would ding them harder right because the yankees would actually use in that way the yankees are usually good so if the guy gets to the major leagues they know he has a platoon problem they'll probably land him in

a platoon situation that's just who they are you But the Mariners, I think, you're talking about a top two prospect in baseball right now, top three with Kalanich. And they're not going to be so good that they're going to try and squeeze every ounce of production out of him when he first gets to the big leagues. So they're going to give him a lot more time. So I would say in the average position for a prospect, it would be more interesting to see how they're used at the major league level than it would be to know their minor league platoon splits.

You know what I mean? So I don't think I'd worry about it too much with prospects. I think that a young player like Miguel Andujar or like a young player that's like playing on a team where they're not using him in those positions. Could we have seen the Hunter Renfro's current situation by his prospect platoon spits or would be... Who is that? Jock Peterson. Spitz or would be... Who was that? Jock Peterson.

Jock Peterson was a decently regarded prospect that came up with the Dodgers and they only used him in platoon. So, long-winded answer, I would say the organization matters as much. The organization

and the landing situation matters as much as the actual platoon Sp splits themselves, I think. Right. I think with Jock Peterson, he came up and was playing for a contender. And a contender is going to have depth, and a contender is going to be very

adamant about making sure that the lineup is as good as it can be every day, because every single game matters. But player development matters more for a rebuilding team. I would say,nick's case i'm not worried about it he's he's going to get chances it's going to take him a few years in the big leagues before the mariners look at him and say we're not playing against lefties i think he's going to be an everyday guy very soon after he comes up so in that case i wouldn't worry about it it is the kind of thing that you you know you don't want ignore. If a guy is striking out a lot more against lefties in the minors,

yeah, you would care about that. But if you see even a 200-point difference in OPS, I think was what was pointed out from 2019, you're still talking about one year split across multiple levels where all those plate appearances against lefties, you're talking maybe 100 to 125 plate appearances total. It's still such a limited sample that you'd be likely introducing something to your analysis that's hurting you more than helping you if you're reading too much into that. So don't ignore it, but don't make decisions based on that entirely. Some other examples of players he mentioned, he had Jock Peterson, Michael Conforto when he first came up at the very least,

Jesse Winker. I get it. It's a real thing to account for, but Kelnick's also, I think, going to be a decent defender too, which helps drive that playing time. Sometimes the guys that end up on big side platoons are left-handed mashers who are below average defenders. Yeah, Winker's not

a great defender. And that kind of pulls them out of the lineup too, because then you have two reasons. You want to play the platoon advantage and you want a better glove out there, because then you're getting an upgrade in two facets that way. Yeah. I suppose we could have seen Winker's platoon coming, I guess.

I don't know. Maybe. But there are so many other ways we could have seen Winkard's platoon coming, I guess. I don't know. Maybe. But there are so many other ways he could have busted. The way that he turned out, I'm not complaining about. He's a valuable major league player and a valuable fantasy piece. Yeah, and he gets platoon. I don't know. What about Alex Kirilov?

Also, you'd rather have a lefty if they're going to end up getting platooned, right? You don't want Mike Brousseau. The other player that Kevin asked us about is Alex Kirilov, who's supposed to come up and have a big role with the Twins. Do you see him being a little more vulnerable

to possibly getting the early career platoon treatment? That is a tougher one because the Twins are going to be good. They're going to try and win their division this year. Is Jake Cave a righty? Because that would give them, I think he probably is. Just from the profile, I'm guessing. Is Jake Cave a righty?

No, Jake Cave's a lefty. Oh, really? So, a rise? Play him in a corner right arise that's lefty too dude maybe not who i'm surprised they don't have a right-handed hitting outfielder yeah who's gonna take his job rooker who's like a first baseman not a good defender not a good defender. Not a good defender. That's interesting. Yeah, I think in this case,

I would play that game. I'd play the depth chart game and I'd look around and I'd be like, I don't see an obvious person to platoon with him. I mean, I doubt they're going to put Keon Broxton out there instead of Alex Kirloff. You wouldn't think. Keon Broxton is a good emergency.

If Byron Buxton's hurt, you get a good defender. Has power and speed, but has a high K percentage. I would guess AAA depth. Clear like 8-9 hitter. Yeah, he's more of a quad A sort of guy that is interesting, but definitely not a guy you're putting on the field at the expense of Kirilov. I got a text update.

Beavers sitting 93 to 94. But I was just podcasting, okay? I was just podcasting. You were not at all reaching out to people on site to give you some scouting reports on how Beaver looked.

Nope. Nope. Nope, not doing that at all. Thanks a lot for that question, Kevin. It's a good question to think about when you're looking at young players, either to stash or for keeper, for dynasty, whatever the case might be. This next email got my attention because of the subject line. Subject lines are always important.

Ratesandbarrels at theathletic.com. If you go the email route, the subject line, subject lines are always important. Ratesandbarrels at theathletic.com if you go the email route. The subject line said, I will send bottles of Jester King if you tell me this trade didn't suck. I'm going to open that email sooner than the other emails. They're not always open in the order that they're received. Sometimes the more interesting subject line does get my attention. I'm sorry to admit that. The question comes from John.

He's looking for brutal, honest feedback on an auto new trade that he made. He gave away Anthony Rendon, who was at $39, for Mark Kanha at $5, and Brady Singer at $3. Was this a bleep trade? A more general question in this kind of format. How do you evaluate cheap points above replacement value, guys? question in this kind of format. How do you evaluate cheap points above replacement value, guys, which is what I got against the studs that guarantee you max points for a higher cost per point, which is a common question that we're thinking about when we're looking at keeper questions and trying to decide what to do with rosters in formats like this. It's very common.

with rosters in formats like this. It's very common. This situation, I feel like I'd be telling a pretty big lie to get that Jester King. The Jester King is tempting. Yeah, it's really tempting. I can't get that up here. I've never had it before,

and I've only heard good things, and I like free beer. I like really good free beer even more, but I would have held free beer even more. But I would have held Anthony Rendon here. I understand you run to a point in leagues with an in-season cap or with just a cap in general where you can't always keep the studs that you want to keep. Eventually, you've got to take a guy like Rendon and say,

all right, I've got to turn Rendon into some younger, cheaper players. But Mark Canna is older than Anthony Rendon, so cheap and efficient, good. He's the kind of guy that could be quickly in a bench role for Oakland. So I don't see a lot of long-term value there. Brady Singer is interesting, but not the kind of frontline starter interesting that I would have looked for as the main piece here.

Plus, you're banking on long-term pitching, which adds a ton of risk. Yeah, and also just generally the flow in Dynasty and Keeper is that gold is young bats. So, I mean, I went panning for gold with Anthony Rendon and came back with old and pitcher, which is the opposite of gold in Dynasty Fantasy. So, I would say that, yeah, I don't love that trade.

I once had a $62 Mike Trout in an Auto New League, and I may not have gotten the greatest return. have gotten the greatest return. I got, um, Roberto Asuna cheap, um, Vlad Guerrero cheap, like junior and, uh, like two pitching prospects. So, uh, the gold was for me, Vlad Guerrero, who I then turned around into something else. And, you know, the world turns on. But the point is that you got to identify that gold, that one piece of gold that you're trying to get. And then you make them add stuff around it. So trading Rendon, probably a good idea.

You probably would have had to do it in season, if not before the season. You do get a bunch of money. But money money itself is and this is on your specific thing money itself is not that amazing because the drafts are not that amazing they're filled often with mid-30s bounce back type players which are not good bets so the the gold is still a 22 to 25 year old young bat. You just want to get that in every transaction you have. Otherwise, keep Rendon and pay the money for the price.

Pay the money for the production. Right. If this trade were Rendon at 39 for Nick Senzel at 5 and Brady Singer at 3, I could start to talk myself into it. Because then you've got a guy that you could see being on your team for several years, being pretty underpriced, doing a little bit of everything.

That's more in line with where I'm at. How do you evaluate cheap points above replacement value guys like this? I just see them as highly replaceable. I don't see as much value in those players. Even though the points per dollar look good, that's replacement level or near replacement level. And I'd rather have that higher value player locked in, knowing that if it doesn't work out with guys in the bottom of my roster, I can find someone else that brings comparable upside to a Canna or a Singer. Those types of players enter the league pretty often, even in deeper, auto-new formats.

Yeah, I have a super deep dynasty that I talk about sometimes on here, Devils Rejects, and players like Andrelton Simmons, and we just a cancer Alberto really late. and we just a cancer Alberto really late. You know, just players that'll play that might be landing in a good situation, might give you good points in a short-term situation like that. They're, yeah, a dime a dozen

when it comes to Dynasty. And they're not valuable in trades or valued in the draft. They're fun to have, though. I mean, this year will probably produce this $5 thing, but he won't have any trade value. And he may end up just being a cut in next spring or once they bring in another outfielder or trade him or whatever it is.

All that said, look, you're going to make mistakes when you're new to a format. It's okay. You also get Jester King. It's going to ruin you forever. Instead of sending it to us, drink it and yell at us. Drink the Jester King. And curse at us. That's the move in this case.

We did have a question. Back at the beginning of the pandemic, we were talking about a website to order local beer from around the country. What's the latest with that site that you worked on? Yeah. In the meantime, a lot of the states have the state beer coalitions or beer associations have put up stuff where you can find which breweries are shipping in your state that way so that there's been some other things that have popped up but we

had you know support beer calm and you can search by state and find out which breweries are you can see you can click you know shipping in state and you should be able to get a list of breweries that are shipping in your state. Otherwise, a place like Tavor is pretty fun. That's a way that you can just order beer from all over the country that arrives in your mail. So that's T-A-V-O-U-R. Pretty cool company. Is Tavor, it's not Tavour? company it's taver it's not tovour well listen i thought it was tj so yeah just just tj anton i thought it was tabor like saver but no i thought it was tovour like dev, but I guess it could be both.

It's probably not Tejay Antone. Yeah, both are possible. I apologize to Mr. Antone and his family. That much we know is true. Second question, I recently bought both Urquidy and Frambois Valdez in a Keep Forever Dynasty League thanks to Eno's discussions on the pod does this make me a perpetual league winner for the next three to

four years and why is that answer 100% yes yeah you've done it mic drop yeah but I am doing like I've said I am kind of looking at pitchers with command as having a higher floor and maybe being more inning safe. So, you know, like the Alec Mills, JT Brubaker,

Urquidy is like a little bit like that, but then also throws nasty stuff. Urquidy's getting some helium too, though. He's starting to creep up a little bit like that, but then also throws nasty stuff. Rikini's getting some helium, too, though. He's starting to creep up a little bit. Sorry to anybody who already had him circled before I put my kiss of death on him. Well, thanks a lot for the email, Baxter, and thank you for your email, John. As we said, enjoy that Jester King. No need to send it our way since we didn't approve of the trade that you sent our way.

If you'd like to send us an email for a future episode, ratesandbarrelsattheathletic.com is the best way to do that on Twitter. He's at Eno Saris. I am at Derek Van Ryper. We've got our survey running. That'll be in the show notes. It's about all the podcasts we do here at The Athletic. If you take a few minutes to knock that out, we'd really appreciate your feedback.

It'll help us make even better shows for you here on our network. If you have not signed up for The Athletic yet, you can get in for $3.99 a month. Theathletic.com slash ratesandbarrels. Get Eno's pitching rankings. Get all my rankings. Get Jake Seeley's projections. Get all

the articles. Everything in the draft kit included. Plus, of course, all the team and league coverage you could possibly want, all for one low price. That is going to wrap things up for this episode of Rates and Barrels. We are back with you on Wednesday. Thanks for listening..