So, went from the brutal cold of Los Angeles to the unseasonably warm NYC to take on the ‘perts of fantasy baseball in Tout Wars. As most of you, they have a bunch of leagues drafting over the weekend. Mine happens to be NL-Only, and happens on Sunday, so, after having Harold Dieterle, former Top Chef winner, on the podcast a few times, Geoff and I finally got to go out to dinner with him on Saturday night. He took us to one of New York’s most renown restaurants:
Out to dinner with @harolddieterle and @GeoffPontesBA prepping for @ToutWars at this place called Sbarro pic.twitter.com/ZF7ZqOEau2
— Razzball (@Razzball) March 18, 2023
Then the next morning I got to Tout Wars with all of my notes in front of me:
Well, I do not know what was in that very authentic New York pizza at Sbarro, but that’s what I’m blaming for not being able to pull the trigger on Jordan Walker. Since I didn’t get Jordan Walker, there’s a case to be made I shouldn’t even bother to recap this draft, but the show must go on. So, this is an 12-team, NL-Only league that uses OBP instead of average, and has a Swingman position, which means you can have an extra pitcher or an extra bat. Anyway, here’s my Tout Wars, NL-Only draft recap:
C: Blake Sabol $3
C: Endy Rodriguez $3
1B: Matt Olson $31
2B: Jazz Chisholm Jr. $30
SS: Oneil Cruz $25
3B: Brett Baty $4
MI: Max Muncy $25
CI: C.J. Cron $22
OF: Corbin Carroll $24
OF: LaMonte Wade Jr. $3
OF: Trayce Thompson $4
OF: David Peralta $3
Util: Juan Yepez $2
Swing: Yonathan Daza $2
Bench: Casey Schmitt, Stone Garrett
P: David Bednar $19
P: Miles Mikolas $11
P: Charlie Morton $16
P: Kodai Senga $15
P: Sean Manaea $11
P: Michael Wacha $4
P: Johnny Cueto $1
P: Drey Jameson $1
P: Gavin Stone $1
Bench: Dinelson Lamet, Luke Weaver
ALL RIGHT, I HAVE SOME THOUGHTS BUT GO AHEAD AND GIVE ME YOUR WAR ROOM TOTALS SO WE DON’T HAVE TO PUSSYFOOT AROUND FOR THREE PARAGRAPHS WAITING FOR YOU TO GET TO THEM.
Thanks, Mr. Al Capps, for setting me up. Here’s my Tout Wars, um, War Room totals (Toutals?):
OH MY GOD YOUR STRIKEOUTS ARE SO BAD I AM LAUGHING VERY LOUDLY AT YOU.
So, clearly, I focused on hitting. An explanation though about my strikeouts. Anyone who has used our War Room knows that the later you are in a draft, the more some players have negatives for some stats. Drafted Gavin Stone and Drey Jameson, and they have a negative $7.4 for strikeouts, because they don’t have enough projected innings. Both are being projected to only start 116 IP combined. Gavin Stone is only down for 43 IP. So, if they get more like 160 IP combined, my Ks go up. Of course, they might not get 160 IP combined, so that is a worry.
Spending all of my money on hitting left me drafting a lot of old and/or boring innings guys. I like all of the guys I drafted, obviously, but if you draft Miles Mikolas or Charlie Morton and pop a boner for longer than five minutes, go see a doctor. One guy who I am more enthusiastic about since I did my rankings is Sean Manaea. I’m a sucker for increased velocity in spring training, and he was a popular breakout candidate last year, before the down year. Haven’t been this excited for a Samoan, since Afa or Sika.
YOU SOUND LIKE YOU’RE HAVING A BREAK FROM REALITY RATIONALIZING THAT PITCHING, SO LET’S SEE IF WE TALK ABOUT YOUR HITTING, MAYBE YOU’LL SOUND LESS HALF-CRACKED.
That hitting is dripping in sex appeal, c’mon!
WELL, I DO LIKE THE INFIELD. THE TEAM, HOWEVER, REMINDS ME OF THAT MEME OF GAME OF THRONES.
Oh, I know what you mean:
That’s fair, but, as you see from the goals in the War Room, I didn’t need to do much with the outfield to get the whole team over the hump because of how good the infield is. Remember, in this league, everyone has holes. Someone has Joey Wendle where I have Oneil Cruz; of course, they have Aaron Nola, where I don’t have an ace. Someone else has Dom Smith at corner, who is worse than my guy, but they have Austin Riley at 3rd, who is better than Baty. It’s a trade-off. No teams, in a 12-team NL-Only, are stacked from catcher to Utility. That brings me to catcher.
YAWN.
No, Gomes went to someone else.
IS THAT A JOKE?
So, the catchers were some of my favorite sneaky buys. Endy Rodriguez? Here’s how I view it: I can grab a guy like Austin Hedges off waivers for nothing. He sucks, sure, but he’s fine for six weeks, then just move Endy into the lineup when he’s promoted. If it’s any time before July, it’s huge. Then again, it’s the Pirates and I might’ve out-thought myself. Blake Sabol? The Giants have said he could get outfield starts to get his bat in the lineup. Great, and could the Giants’ outfielders ever miss time? Let’s see…Conforto? Haniger? Sabol might get 120 games in the outfield!
OKAY, DO YOU HAVE ANY ACTUAL TAKEAWAYS BESIDES CATCHER, BECAUSE RIGHT NOW YOU’RE A HOT AIR BALLOON STUCK IN THE ELECTRICAL WIRES. JUST BUZZING ABOUT BORING ME.
Most of you are in shallower leagues, so take the following with a grain of NaCL. I’m super intrigued about Casey Schmitt. He was in Itch’s top 100 prospects, and the Giants left side of the infield is being held together with glue, and that glue is being made from Brandon Crawford. Also, David Villar isn’t a real thing. I’m sorry, but he is dreadful, and will be demoted or DFA’d by May. Schmitt has power and won’t kill you in average. He could be the three-hole hitter in that incredibly poor lineup.
Similarly to the Schmitt grab in the free rounds, Brett Baty, while not free, is a steal at $4. He’s also bringing down my War Room totals on hitting, as he’s a negative $7. If Baty is a negative seven, I may as well hang it up. The Mets, who have spent $4.8 trillion this offseason, aren’t going to go with their best bat, why? You walked into that pun, but it’s true. Baty’s going to be up very quickly, if not just break camp.
Also, I mentioned in my Jose Altuve injury post the other day, Daniel Bard looks like Daniel Barf, and I’d be looking at Lamet; Gavin Stone looks like the latest Dodgers’ magic show, then I added Yonny Daza at the end because if this team sucks, I can blame him, saying he’s the boss.
