Welcome beautiful people. It is another Tuesday morning. Kenji and I are back with some baseball
coverage. We are officially one week from Games Mattering. Mattering? That's not a word.
From Games That Matter, the Cubs and Dodgers play at 4am R-Time, 6 o'clock Eastern in
Japan one week from the day this is released. That's awesome. We're going to dig into the
Tokyo series a little bit further, but we have a really special episode that we're going
to do today. And this is our offseason war draft. Now you're probably like, what on earth
are these guys talking about? I'm going to explain. Don't worry. But yeah, that's today's
episode offseason war draft. We're going to get into Tokyo series later. We know Garrett
Cole, Greyson Rodriguez news later. Today's the war draft. Kenji, how are you doing? Are
you ready to draft? I mean, I'm good. I definitely am not confident in my ability to draft. As
you know, and as I'm sure everybody knows, I'm still relatively new to baseball, or at
least MLB baseball. And war is a concept that I'm even more brand new to. So we'll see how
I understand it. I think I have a gist of understanding. But I'm kind of guessing with
every pick that I make. So we'll see how it goes. Okay, explain the rules. Yes. So we're
going to draft a roster. So we're going to draft a roster. So an infield and outfield
and two starting pitchers and one relief pitcher. And the winner of the draft will be determined
by war. Now what on earth is war? It stands for wins above replacement. And it measures
a player's value in all facets of the game by deciding how many more wins he's worth
than a replacement level player at his same position. So like Gunnar Henderson versus
a double A shortstop, like Gunnar Henderson is worth blank war higher than that guy. As
Bobby Whitmore, that's kind of how the war is calculated. It's a complex calculation.
It rewards defense heavily, as well as really good offensive players. So if you're great
defensively guys like Andres Jimenez, Patrick Bailey, you guys, they have really good war
numbers when maybe offensively they don't have great offensive statistics, but they
perform defensively. So they're rated highly in the system. So it doesn't just reward offense,
essentially. And that's what we were going for is we wanted to kind of dig a little bit
deeper with this draft. We've done, you know, the Homer draft and some other ideas. We wanted
to get creative and Kenji's won the last two drafts from all accounts. So I had to come
up with some sort of idea that I can maybe win at too.
So explain explain to those who have no idea what this is, what positions rack up the most
war and what positions are kind of useless and all that?
Well, I don't say any position is useless. But good defensive catchers rack up good war,
great defensive shortstops rack up a ton of war. Really, if you're exceptional defensively,
like your war will be inflated compared to somebody's average defensively. So if you
have the same offensive stats, but one is way better defensively and the others below
average, they'll have a stark difference in war. So I hope that explains it. If you're
still confused, look it up, ask chat to BT, somebody will tell you the answer. But it's
a measure of who's more valuable incorporating both defense and offense into the equation.
So that being said, are you looking at a bunch at GBT Kenji? You guys can't see him, but
he was just typing players who have war last year. Just Bob, you wait standing of, yeah,
I think Aaron, Bobby, Shohei, Juan, Gunnar, Francisco, Jaren, Doran, Jose Ramirez, and
Ellie and Chris say on the top 10. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. That makes sense. Like the
best players have really high war basically is the correlation. But there are some other
ones. Like I said, Andres Jimenez is up there in war. Go ahead. What are you saying? Eight?
Is it because of offense? Because he was terrible defensively. Who? Gunnar? Gunnar in eight
war? Yeah. Yeah. Well, it was knocked down because he was bad defensively. He had really
good offensive. That's impressive. Okay. That's cool. So not only is it, we got to draft by
war, but we only people that are eligible to be drafted are those who have changed teams
in the off season. So before we get any further, Roki Sasaki counts guys like him. International
free agents count. He A's on Kim, uh, draft picks that might play a lot this year. Travis
Bazzana counts. Jack Haglione counts those kinds of guys. So, uh, even minor league callups
don't count, but somebody who was in a different place last year and they're going to be in
a new place this year, that's who's eligible to be drafted because Kenji is shorter and
he's won the last couple of drafts. He's going to take the first pick in this. So we're not
doing like positions or anything, right? We are catch our first base, second base, shortstop,
third base, three outfielders, two starters, one reliever. Sure. Let me like, I didn't
know that. I said it multiple times. Three. Oh my gosh. We're that many moves. You said
how many stories? Yeah. Two starting pitchers, two starting pitchers, one reliever and one
reliever. Okay. Well, shoot, I guess I'll go with the obvious one is probably a Juan Soto,
right? He's a pretty good one. He's a pretty good player. I mean, he was like, what, fourth
in war. So I guess I'll go with him. Um, yeah. Juan Soto. That's a pretty good choice. Yeah.
So I mean, I mean, it's no secret. Juan Soto with his, uh, 13 years, all right. It's 15
years, seven 65 million dollar south or a million dollar contract. Unbelievable. So it
was the guy from the Yankees to the Mets. So he did change teams, cross town Juan Soto.
Anything else you got right there, Kench with that pick? I mean, I wonder what is, um, war
would be if you knew how to play defense or run the vases or do anything else besides
hit. Yeah, that's a good point. So he had an 8.1 F war last year. So again, another
caveat for war. So there's two systems that kind of calculate it. Baseball reference and
fan graphs. They both do it a little bit differently. Uh, each one kind of incorporates some different
things in their metrics. One is called F war. One's called B war. The site that I'm using
is fan graphs. So you'll hear me reference F war. So, uh, Soto with an 8.1 F war last
year, that's far and away the best of the free agent class and trades. So good for,
uh, good for one. So speaking of, uh, outfielders, I'm going to take Kyle Tucker traded from
the Astros to the Cubs. I like him in a contract here to have a really good year. Uh, I'm not
sure I have to find out what his war was last year. I don't have it up on this free agent
tracker, but Kyle Tucker still phenomenal last year. He only played, I think 76 games
a season ago and he, uh, he still had 23 bombs. So less than half a season hit 23 homers against
the play, the friendly confines of Wrigley field. I feel good about Kyle Tucker being
my outfielder. I gotta have to bounce back after you take, you take one soda. I'm trying
to find his war. I can't find it cause I never looked at war, but okay. Um, I am up. I will
go. Hmm. I'll go Garrett crochet. Yeah, he was up there. Yes. And I think he'll be better
than he was last year by big time. So I think, uh, I'll go, I'll go with him. Uh, right.
What do you mean? Like, are we doing like, if he drafts a player from one team, he can't
drop like, uh, no. Okay. Good. I was like, ah, I was just complicated. I don't want to
make it too complex on you. Yeah. Yeah. So Kenji started with one subtle gear crochet.
That's pretty good combo. Pretty good one too. Um, I'm going to go for somebody who,
I think this position is scarce and that's why I'm going to go take him. Cause I think
there are starters that are available later. I'm going to take Willie Adamus, uh, from
the brewers to the giants. I took a brief look at the other short stops and I can't
wait to see who Kenji's going to take. I don't even know how you even look at that. So, um,
we'll find out what happens. Um, yeah, yeah. That's, that's great. That's, that is, that
is so great. Here. Oh, I'll help you. I'm going to send you the link to the fan graphs
site that I'm using to track these guys. No, it's okay. It's okay. Well, if you're just
going to keep complaining to the people, I'm going to, I'm not going to let you complain.
I'm okay now. I'm okay now. I got it all out. I'm okay. I'm locked in. Okay. And, uh, Jimmy
Willie. Oh man. Shoot. I don't even know what we're to start, but, uh, I'll go Christian
Walker. Okay. First base. I don't know. Wait, first base war kind of useless. No, it's good.
I'm looking at him last year. Christian Walker had a three war last year. He had a good season.
Three war. Do I want that? Like for example, for reference, Christian Walker had a three
war last year. Uh, Blake's now had a three, one war last year. So, okay. Oh, Christian
Walker. Yeah. Okay. It's a good pick. First base is also thin. There are really a few
thin positions that scare me a little bit. There really are. Yeah. All right. Who you
got? I'm going to take, uh, Corbin burns. Okay. Now I don't know. Again, I'm no war
expert, but, uh, Corbin had a three, seven war last year compared to, uh, and he was
the highest of any starter. So he was higher than really Kikuchi was higher than a Vol D
free Flaherty. So I'm going to take my guy Corbin burns, Oriole legend. Thank you for
your one year of service. You might start my SP one Corbin burns. It was indeed a good
year. Wow. You weren't wrong about the, uh, the shortstop position. Yeah. You're going
to be taken like Hassan Kim or something. I think he's like the only guy I have in
Anderson. Wow. Talk about being desperate. If I'm drafting Tim Anderson, Tim Anderson
has a brutal pick. That is so brutal. Um, I'm going to go jerk some profile. Okay. Okay.
He's a good glove. I didn't really watch braves games last year, but, uh, profile had a four
point three war last year. Really good. That is, wow. That's a really good year. That is
the third highest of the free agent class. That's higher than regman, higher than Corbin
profile had a really good war last year. I don't expect to have that good, but I'm guessing
it's going to be in the highest threes still. Yeah. Yep. All right. Who you got? Okay.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.
Okay. I'm going to take Devin Williams. Yeah. Be my closer. Yeah. I just, I did a quick
look. I don't like any of the other relievers available. So I'm going to go Devin Williams,
lock down the backend. Give me the, the, the guy who broke the beard rule. Devin Williams.
Yeah. I, uh, boy, did he look ugly without a beard. I'm glad they changed it because
I'm so glad he did look horrendous. Um, but someone that doesn't look horrendous is Alex
Bregman in a Boston Red Sox Jersey. Okay. Um, I'm going to play him as third base. I
do think he's going to play third base this year. I think, I think Devers will DH. Wow.
Okay. Okay. I think they like their prospects too much. I don't know. They're, and they're
playing too good not to never sucks defensively. So give me a base is scary now. What, what
on earth? Who else is there?
Hey, Jorge, Polanco. Oh my gosh. Uh, Keke her name. Oh, your own. Kata's not a bad
guy. I'm not doing no Kata. Holy cow. Holy cow. This is about to be bad. Yep. So what's
you got? Oh, this is bad. This is not good. Oh boy. I shouldn't have gone. Actually. Well,
there is one guy you could take. There's one guy who could take her. You think? Yeah. He
got, I'm like, I'm not going to tell you that though. I'm going to tell you because I don't
want to help you out. One guy. There is a guy that you're missing that moved this off
season that plays third. I'll think about it. Uh, I'm going to go, man, this is, I thought
I knew what I was going to do. Now I don't. I'm going to go Gleyber Torres. I think actually,
well, what is his war last year? Yeah. I'm going to go Gleyber Torres. I think he runs
the bases a little bit better. I think he plays better defense in that park.
What was his war last year? 1.7. Oh, but he's projected to have a three this year. I would
love a three war from him this year. I guess, uh, I guess we'll see if he does. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. All right, man. I'm getting cooked out here. Man, I'm going to go, uh, let me just
look up one thing. Oh, let's make sure this guy is actually going to start. If he's not,
I'm not going to pick him. So let me, uh, let me just double check. Okay. Okay. Um,
because of how slim this position is, I'm going to go, uh, but it's so bad. Uh, no,
nevermind. I changed my mind. I was, uh, man, this, this isn't fun. This is tough. This
is no, this is, this is fun. This is good. It was making me, my brain hurt, but, uh,
I'll go, uh, Anthony's saw it on there. Damn. Damn. You filling out the outfield, huh? He's
like the only position that moved this year. I was watching him. That's too bad. That's
too bad. Okay. The, but your office locked up now so I can wait.
Yeah. You can go ahead and take Tyler O'Neill and Jesse Winker and Michael Conforto as you're
going to show you Tyler O'Neill will join my team at some point. Oh, I don't doubt it.
I'm going to take Blake Snell. Okay. There are other good pitchers that moved, but burns
and Blake Snell with Devin Williams, I think is going to be better than whatever you tried
out. Wanted to lock that up.
Frieden crochet. Frieden crochet. Man, you just go with the AL East. Who's going to be
your closer? Kinley Jansen? No, I got a guy in mind. Let's see. Hmm. Who do I want to
pick? Hard. I'm kind of stuck at the moment. Yeah. These positions are pretty rough. Like
shortstop and catcher is like, what do I, what do I do? Like catcher, I guess I got
to catch her. I'm looking at it. I mean, it's either Darno or Elias Diaz for me. Okay.
Because he has yoga is going to split time. Yep. Carson Kelly. I don't even know where
he went. Went to the cubs. And I don't even know who the other guy I'm Oh, you're probably
going to take Gary Sanchez on. I'm not going to tell you if I'm going to take. Well, I'm
not taking Gary Sanchez. So it's okay. But, uh, I'm gonna go Elias Diaz to be your catcher.
His war was a point, 0.5 last year. Ooh, it's pretty bad. But he wasn't all star last year.
Actually, no, what am I doing? I'm going to go Travis Darno. Oh, they're going to know.
Yeah. I mean, Elias Diaz was my only fantasy catcher my first year, no idea who he was.
And I mean, that guy got me a good trade. So I don't have anything negative to say about
him. Okay. Okay. You're up now. I'm looking at catcher too. I got a guy in mind, but I
don't need to go catcher now. You've kind of blocked me. I guess we kind of blocked
each other. So I know I just need to fill out positions because you're not going to
mess me up anywhere else. True. Let's see. First base is interesting because for me,
it's down to Carlos Santana, Jake Berger and Nathaniel Lowe. Jake Berger is a good pig.
I like Jake Berger. Can I put Berger at third? Yeah. I mean, he's technically a third and
first baseman. Who are you going to say was the third? I'll take Jake Berger to be my
third baseman. Who are you going to say is a third baseman? Esau Karate. Oh yeah. That's
good. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. He's going to hit a ton of bombs there. Okay. Yep.
That's where you're going. That's where I'm going. You're going to take your arm now?
No, I'm a... We're doing prospects too, right? If they just got drafted, yeah. Oh, so it's not like
they're coming up in the farm system or anything? No, no. Oh, that's unfortunate. I was going to
draft the Red Sox rookies. Nah, you can't do that. It's too late. Oh man. Are you sure? Yep.
That's no fun. Them's the rules. Oh, shucks. I would have taken different players had that
been a different rule. Oh my gosh, dude. Second baseman shortstop is brutal. Yeah. You're going
to... Hassan Kim and Jorge Polanco. Welcome to Kenny's team. Gosh. I'm going Tyros Strada. Oh,
Tyro. Rocky.
Tyro. He's now, I think... He'll hit well there. He'll hit well at course for sure. Again, he was
another fantasy monster for me two years ago when I first played. No idea who he was and he was an
all-star I think. Yeah, yeah. He's pretty good. We'll get the job done. We'll see. Let's see.
Santana had too good of a year last year.
You only have one outfielder, right? Yeah.
I'm going to take Tyler O'Neill. Yeah. I mean, I had to. New Oriole is going to be my guy.
He's got biceps the size of my forehead. Not even my forehead, my entire head. He's terrifying. He's
chiseled. Looks like he was made out of stone. A Greek god. Tyler O'Neill is the dumb man.
And he's got all the players wearing sleeveless cutoff shirts now and everything too.
Yeah. I saw him warming up with his tank top on. Yeah. Oh, there's cutoffs. I was like,
holy cow. It's crazy. He's roped. How are you natural? I bet the league is sending in
drug tests on a weekly basis. Okay. I don't know if this counts, but is it Heise on Kim from for the Dodgers?
He's playing second base for them. He's playing shortstop like half the times in spring training.
I don't know what to tell you. He's playing second base for them at the big leagues.
But he plays shortstop. Let me look at their spring training. Roster resource. I'm just
saying I promise this guy's played like half of his time at shortstop. I've watched games
at him at shortstop. It has he saw him gameplay in second base. I see on the
finger of the second base slash shortstop. It does say second base slash shortstop when you click on
his profile. All right, fine. Yeah, he saw him at shortstop. Perfect.
F off. If not, I would have just drafted Hassan Kim for second base. Anyways,
if you want me to do that, I'll switch them. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
you're fine. You told me double Kim's I'll do double Kim's. You're good, dude.
So it's a strata. Goodbye. I'm doing a high sun and Hassan Kim in my, there you go.
We should have added more pictures. There's a lot of names here. There are. We can add one more if
you want another starting pitcher. Yeah. Why you pick this one and I'll pick a starting pitcher
next and we can add one. Sure. I won't take Max free here then because I know it's your guy.
Thank you. I need, I need outfield. I need first base. I need my catcher.
I have a catcher in mind. This first base tricky though. There's like one guy, man. There's like
one dude that I'm like, okay, maybe Paul Goldschmidt. You got, you got, you got, you got, um,
Bellinger.
Would you rather have Bellinger or Goldschmidt? He's gonna play outfield. So technically he's
gonna have a higher war. That's a great. Thank you for your
picture. Yeah, you're welcome. Give me a Cody Bellinger is my outfielder. I got honestly should
think of Bellinger, but by the time I noticed, I had already drafted my whole outfield. Yeah.
Totally forgot he got traded. Good for you for helping me with that. You're welcome. I'm such
a nice guy. You are. Your girlfriend should give you a kiss for that. We'll see. All right. Well,
of course I'm taking Max Fried and then we can add another SV if you want. Okay. Fried
is the pick for Kenji. Two good rotations. Can't lie. Well, if we're doing another SP,
I'm going to go Roki here.
Hmm. Sasaki. I just think, uh, yeah, the rest of this is still good. There's good players there,
but I'm going to burn snow Roki. Nobody's nobody's hitting that top three.
We'll see. Yeah. Travis Darnold is going to stop me.
Yeah. Just wait, just wait, just wait. I'm going to go with a little bit of a weird pick.
I'm going to go Clay Holmes as my starting pitcher. Three. Yeah. Starting pitcher three.
Wow. I'm going to buy into that eight strikeout performance spring training. I don't think Clay
Holmes. I am shocked because there were guys like, uh, I mean, Matthew Boyd, Jack Flaherty still
there. Jack Flaherty is still there. Kikuchi. Kikuchi, I saw Pavetta. I didn't. Terrible.
That's about it. All right. Buy in. He's drinking the Clay Holmes Kool-Aid. I'm taking,
I'm taking a shot of it. I want Danny Jansen to be my catcher. Ew. Gross. He's going to bat
fifth for the Rays. No way. Yeah, he is. There's no way he's going to bat behind Kevin. He's
way he's going to bat behind Kevin Arrow. That's a joke. Shut up. I'm looking at the roster resource.
Yandy, Lowell, Yandy, Brandon, Lowell, Kevin Arrow, Josh, Love, Danny Jansen. Did that guy
end up hitting at the bottom of the line? But in the year, did you watch him last year? Yeah,
I couldn't cause he was in the dugout the whole time. Cause he strikes out every time.
I don't know what to tell you, man. Danny Jansen. I'm so anti-Danny Jansen. I can't stand watching.
He had 0.5 war last year, but he didn't start every day. He's projected to have two war this
year. He's not that great defensively, but it's okay. Give me Danny Jansen. Alrighty. Well then
from my bullpen guy, I'm going Jeff Hoffman. Yeah, Toronto. Gonna be the closer for Toronto.
And I think he'll be, I think he'll be pretty good. So I know he's got arm issues and all that, but
I think it'll be okay. I would have taken Tanner Scott, but he's just not a consistent closer.
And I just couldn't take that chance on him. So give me Jeff Hoffman. Okay. Now this is my
last pick of the draft. Indeed. You want out of utility spot? You want out of utility spot?
Yeah. You want a utility spot? You want to draft one more player out of this crop?
This crop? Yeah. This crop. Who else got traded this year? So I'm curious.
Relevant wise, it's really, he's pretty slim prospects.
I'm shocked you didn't go Ryan Presley for your reliever.
I'm not a big fan of Ryan Presley. I think he's washed. I probably should have gone Gavin Lux in
the infield at one point, because he could have played second base or third base because he's
starting third base this year for the Reds. Yeah. He would have been not too bad. Good glove, but.
So I need what? First base? Yep. I thought you had Bellinger.
I guess I can move Bellinger to first and take an outfielder.
That's probably what you want to do, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. I'll take an outfielder.
I mean, it's slim pickings though. Like Jock Peterson.
Jock is a DH. You can't put him in an outfield. Michael Conforto. That's a good pick. Harrison
Bader. I don't know about that. Tommy Pham. Max Kepler to Philly. He's not going to play every
day. I don't think. Yeah, he is. He's starting. Starting left fielder. Give me Michael Conforto.
Michael Conforto.
And this draft is finally over. We're done looking at this crappy crop of players.
So. Is that alliteration? I think it is. That's well said. So I'm going to read off these lineups.
Kenji, I need your gut reaction after hearing both. Okay. Okay. For Kenji Squad, behind the
dish is Travis Darnode. First base, Christian Walker. Second base, Tyro Estrada. Shortstop.
High Song Kim. Hiei Song Kim at short? Second base. And who's at short? Ha Song Kim. Oh,
okay. So no Tyro? No. Okay. So the Kim guys at second and short. Yeah. Alex Bregman at third,
Juan Soto, Jirikson Profar and Anthony Santander in the outfield. Led by, led the rotation,
Garret Crochet, Max Fried, Clay Holmes and Jeff Hoffman closing games. Give me a gut reaction.
How do you feel about that? I wish I would have taken Ballinger considering I thought about him
early, early on. But, you know, you just screw the pooch sometimes.
Sometimes you screw the pooch kids. Sometimes you just screw the pooch. I would have much rather
have had a think Ballinger than Santander just because he sucks at defense. I think it's harder
to hit in Toronto. Yeah. Your defense is questionable at best. I don't know. I mean,
I got a Gold Glove second baseman first. Okay. Outfield defense. Soto, Profar, Santander.
Yeah. Who's a who plays center in that scenario? That's a great, Jirikson Profar. Jirikson Profar
is my center fielder. Wow. Hey, former top prospect, right? Maybe like 12 years ago.
Gucks. My team, Danny Jansen behind the dish, Cody Ballinger at first, Gleyber Torres at second,
Willie Adamis at short, Jake Berger at third, Kyle Tucker, Tyler O'Neill and Michael Conforto,
man the outfield rotation is Corbin Burns and Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki. And closing out the games
is Devin Williams of the Yankees. I feel pretty good. I feel pretty good about that squad. My
pitching, I think I feel is better. Yeah. Hitting is marginally better. I will say you should have,
put Cody in outfield, put Jake Berger at first base and then drafted Esau Prairie at third base.
And I think that would have made your team even better. Makes sense. I mean, you're like
Conforto. Conforto have the bottom of the Dodger order. I like it. Yeah. But you know, you're
wasting Cody Ballinger at first base when he, he's going to have a way higher war at center field.
And I think he's, we'll have a higher war than a Conforto will. That's true. I can see it,
but yeah, your pitching staff's great. I feel pretty good. Okay. That's all I got. Anything you
got, Kenj? No, just unfortunate news around the league, but we're going to touch on that
in the next episode. We're going to go through all the injury bugs and what it means for baseball,
but congratulations. Everybody. We're a week out from games that actually matter. We made it. We're
a week away. So excited. When do the Cubs and Dodgers hop on the plane? I think they got on today.
Today? They're probably flying right now. I think one of them did. I can't remember if both of them
did or not. Okay. Last year I think they went at different times. Yeah, that makes sense. But gotta
get them acclimated. Can't wait, man. We got real games coming. Pretty awesome. All right. Well,
that's it, everybody. Thanks for listening to the episode and we will catch you all on Thursday.