00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid, Fantasy Sports Today, each and every Sunday morning with Joe Pizzapia and
00:06Matt Stryker, getting you ready for the upcoming Fantasy Baseball season and draft season officially underway and some key decisions
00:13to make.
00:14And we thought that on this show in particular, we'd start off by keeping it simple, Joe, because I think
00:19a lot of folks are still just kind of getting back into it at this point.
00:22A lot of folks are not like you and I.
00:25But welcome back to Newswire.
00:26It's great to move over from football to some baseball.
00:30And boy, you know, this first round of Fantasy Baseball honestly looks a lot like last year's first round in
00:35Fantasy Baseball, at least with a few players here, especially at the top.
00:39It's always the age-old question, do you take a guy like Otani, number one overall, because he's only a
00:44designated hitter?
00:45But then again, you get him as a pitcher in some of these leagues.
00:48And then you see there are some others, Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt, Soto, Jose Ramirez back in the first round,
00:52Acuna back in the first round.
00:54And then the question is, do you take a pitcher in the first round?
00:56So that's a lot for me to get to before even saying hello.
01:00Well, hello.
01:01Oh, hello, Craig Mish.
01:03Yeah, look, it is usual suspects.
01:05And that's not a bad thing, because that means last year, the guys you drafted at the top of the
01:09draft actually delivered.
01:11And they're worth drafting there again.
01:12That's not always the case every single year.
01:14It means most of those guys stayed healthy and delivered.
01:17And that is a very positive thing.
01:19Otani, obviously, a lot of it has to do with the rules.
01:21As you're saying, if he is just the DH still, I still think he's the number one player.
01:25He's a guy capable of a 50-50 season.
01:27There's not a lot of those guys.
01:28He doesn't play in the field.
01:29So he has, you know, a little lower injury quotient on that front.
01:32But he is pitching again.
01:34So then you can make that argument against that as well.
01:36But if he qualifies a pitcher and hitter, obviously, he is by far the best asset you could possibly have,
01:44because you have two players in one.
01:45I know there's been a lot of disagreement about why he should be separated out in the two.
01:49I don't understand why, because he's one year.
01:51He's one man.
01:52He's one guy.
01:53He should be just that number one overall guy.
01:56I mean, I never understood.
01:57Like, is he somehow a split personality?
02:00He still goes on.
02:01He's not artificial intelligence.
02:03Why is this?
02:04I don't know.
02:05I don't know.
02:06It's people trying to bend the rules of time and space and trying to make excuses.
02:10Aaron Judge, obviously, is the second guy here with good reason.
02:13Aaron Judge delivering another good season for the New York Yankees.
02:16Obviously, 53 home runs of his own.
02:18114 RBI.
02:19Hit 330 last year.
02:20He does give you some stolen bases, too.
02:22Probably give you about, you know, double digits, somewhere in that range.
02:26I would be honest.
02:28Chisholm's okay.
02:28I don't think he's super reliable.
02:30Bellinger had a great year.
02:31Will he repeat it?
02:32We'll see.
02:32He's been up and down before, although Yankee Stadium was very, very beneficial for him.
02:36And then you have the next grouping here.
02:38Bobby Witt, the premium shortstop with power, with speed.
02:41You're seeing Juan Soto coming off an incredible first year with the Mets.
02:44And that's considering it was such a slow start to the year, right?
02:47Still ended up with a career high in home runs.
02:49Had 105 RBI and a massive career high in stolen bases, too.
02:5337, which absolutely nobody thought of.
02:56And, Craig, it kind of bears the question a little bit here.
02:58Where Soto's younger than Judge, obviously more stolen bases than Judge.
03:02Maybe, you know, if Judge's power comes back into the 40s, one could argue Juan Soto might
03:07be the better investment, especially with some of the moves the Mets made this offseason
03:10to get more on-base skills around him and in front of him and some more protection behind
03:15him.
03:15Yeah, and no, it's fair to ask if Soto's going to continue that stolen base production from
03:20a fantasy standpoint.
03:21I think you're 100% right, Joe, at that point, if he does it again, basically, this year.
03:26So the question always becomes this time of the year, and again, I understand we're in
03:32February here.
03:33Not a lot of folks are doing this.
03:34Is that do you draft a pitcher in the first round of fantasy baseball?
03:38Because once you make that sort of investment, you better back it up and make sure you have
03:42the best pitching, or else it's sort of pointless to draft just one great pitcher.
03:46So Tarek Skubal, clear first-round pick.
03:49Of course, Paul Skeens in this conversation as well.
03:52You're going to draft, I'm going to guess, more teams than most people.
03:57How many squads will you have, Joe, with a pitcher as your first pick in fantasy baseball?
04:03Well, these are two very specific questions, right?
04:06So the latter one, how many will I have?
04:09Not many in that first round, because it's just not how I like to be.
04:13To me, there's always quality pitching you're going to find in rounds three, four, five,
04:18six, and then some names that I like a little bit later on that I think are undervalued.
04:22Plus, we all know the volatility of pitching.
04:25Sometimes when you invest so early in pitching and that pitcher goes down, it can really sink
04:29your entire roster.
04:30I like to build a staff full of one A's and number twos, as opposed to just having that
04:34massive ace, because the problem is the premium offensive talent all goes in the first three
04:39rounds.
04:39And those guys, you can't replace.
04:41Every year, we get young pitchers who burst onto the scene and make an impact.
04:45Every year, we can stream pitchers.
04:46Every year, there's guys who take that next leap.
04:49It's really difficult to find premium offensive talent on the waiver wire or in the middle
04:54of the season.
04:54It doesn't exist.
04:55So for me, in terms of my roster construction, I'm not somebody who likes to do that and
05:00do the first round pitcher.
05:01I do have a first round grade on Paul Skeens and on Tariq Skubel in terms of overall best
05:06investments.
05:07I would say round 10, 11.
05:10I think that's where I feel comfortable taking those guys, because again, you want to take
05:13them before the turn, right?
05:15One of those guys, because pretty much those guys like Vlad, Nick Kurtz, the guys are going
05:19to slip into the second round or the guys even at the turn.
05:22You're going to get one of those guys on the way back.
05:24That I'm fine with, but I do think it's really difficult if you're in the middle of a draft
05:28at six, seven, or even eight to take a Skeens or a Skubel and then really like offensively
05:33what you put together.
05:34I think it's a very difficult build.
05:37Joe, I think the World Baseball Classic is awesome, and I think everyone's going to enjoy
05:41it maybe more this year than ever before.
05:43As good as it was last go around, I think it's even going to be better, but unfortunately,
05:46the fantasy community are very crabby about it and don't love it because they think that
05:51there's a chance that their guys are going to get hurt in the World Baseball, and by
05:54the way, that could be true.
05:56I mean, they're going to be, if not going at it at 100%, they're going at it at 90%,
06:00which is not generally what you do in spring training.
06:03Is there any strategy for you at this time of the year, let's say next two, three weeks,
06:08where you say, I got to be careful a little bit?
06:11The Edwin Diaz injury the last time, that was a very freak injury, but I'm going to guess
06:15unfortunately we're going to come out of this with something.
06:18I mean, it's not going to be nothing, I'm going to guess at the end.
06:22It probably is.
06:23I'm where you are, even though I'm a fantasy nerd.
06:25I actually enjoy the WBC.
06:27It's really fun.
06:27It's gotten better over the years too.
06:29I think every incarnation of it has gotten better, and it seems like the guys actually
06:34care more about it every single time we see it.
06:36And you're right, there are going to be injuries, but let's not forget, we had three premier
06:40players in fantasy all get hurt on the same day with the same injury, and they barely
06:44picked up a bat, all right?
06:45So the Handmaid Bone Brothers, as I'm calling them, when you have Jackson Holiday and Corbin
06:49Carroll and Francisco Lindor, basically within a couple hours of each other, all having
06:54Handmaid Bone injuries, and all within a couple days of each other having some sort of surgery
06:57or some sort of procedure.
06:59So injuries are going to happen in spring.
07:01Let's just caveat that.
07:02Am I concerned a little bit with anybody?
07:05Most concerning, maybe for me, Craig, to be honest, is probably the starting pitchers,
07:08because you don't want guys ramping up too quickly, and then they're pitching in what's,
07:13you know, some people like to call labor-intensive innings, right, where all of a sudden these
07:17games matter, there's high pressure and a little bit more on these guys in terms of
07:21how they have to deliver in these moments in March.
07:25I think that is a lot to ask sometimes, but it seems like the teams have a pretty good
07:29grasp on what they want these guys to do, how they want them to be used, and the context
07:34of all of them.
07:34And the pitchers, I think, are the one you have to pay attention to, you will see a lot
07:37of bullpen arms, though, being used to.
07:39Starting pitchers aren't going six innings in these games.
07:42Maybe they should hold the WBC till next year, just in case we don't have a little bit more
07:45baseball.
07:45I wish they would have done that.
07:47That would have been fun.
07:48We could just play WBC all year, right?
07:50That would be fun.
07:51But I will say this, Craig.
07:53I'm pro WBC.
07:55Injuries are going to happen in spring, no matter what.
07:57Yes, you do have to worry a little bit about some of the high leverage innings of some of these
08:00pitchers that are putting a little stress in stressful situations early on.
08:04That's not the best recipe, but I will say this, I think it's good for baseball, and
08:09we've seen it really catapult a couple guys having some good seasons, too, getting off
08:13to a good start, if you go back and track the last time we had this.
08:16We'll see what happens here, Joe.
08:18I'm excited for that.
08:19We're coming up here.
08:20They start practicing next week in games shortly after that.
08:24And, of course, spring training games begin this weekend.
08:27So enjoy that as well, Joe.
08:28Last thing before we go here, one other player that I wanted to mention to you that was a
08:33hot-button topic on last week's show, on our show, on our side, me and George, Cal Raleigh.
08:39Cal Raleigh, highest catcher going in fantasy in a really long time as well.
08:42Do you believe in that ADP?
08:46You look, in two-catcher leagues, I totally understand it.
08:48I wish people wouldn't play in two-catcher leagues anymore.
08:51Seldom do they.
08:52It's an old industry adage and standard, but it seems to be wasting away as it should.
08:57I prefer him outside of the top 20.
08:59Right now he's going inside the top 20.
09:01I would feel more comfortable with a guy like Kyle Schwarber or a guy potentially even like
09:05Jackson Churio before I would take Raleigh.
09:07Both those guys going after him.
09:09But even if he ends up hitting 40 home runs and has some sort of regression there, he's
09:13still far and away the best catcher on the board according to the relative position value.
09:18All right, Joe.
09:18Have a great show Sunday.
09:19Thanks again for coming on.
09:21Always a pleasure, my friend.
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