Latest / Dynasty Sports Life / Dynasty Sports Life Ep 213 Marcus on buiding dynasty winners

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Dynasty Sports Life Ep 213 Marcus on buiding dynasty winners · Dynasty Sports Life

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Speaker 1: The In This League Podcast Network.
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Speaker 2: This is Dynasty Sports Life, a podcast about playing fantasy baseball, basketball, football,
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Speaker 2: and hockey. 365 days a year.
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Speaker 1: Here's your host, Jesse Sevier. Welcome to the Dynasty Sports Life.
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Speaker 1: Jesse Sevier with you to talk about the wonderful world
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Speaker 1: of Dynasty Fantasy Sports. Football, the season is upon us.
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Speaker 1: it's just a couple weeks away. Lord knows it's going
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Speaker 1: to be crazy times from here on out. Keeper, you
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Speaker 1: got some deadlines probably, drafts, they're probably all over your
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Speaker 1: timeline right now, all over your brains. I am preparing
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Speaker 1: because earlier in the summer, that's when I do a
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Speaker 1: lot of my work because rookie drafts, but now look
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Speaker 1: out because the redrafts are upon us. Baseball is in
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Speaker 1: the crunch time. I'm in playoffs, and every day I'm
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Speaker 1: stressing the heck out about daily ads and what's going
1:02
Speaker 1: on with my teams to an extent that's just amplified
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Speaker 1: from earlier in the summer, and hockey and basketball just
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Speaker 1: around the corner. Today, we're going to step back. Everybody
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Speaker 1: else is talking about football, I think, right now, but
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Speaker 1: I zag when others zag, and today... It's Marcus and
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Speaker 1: I going to be zagging together. We're going to be
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Speaker 1: talking about some more general philosophical conversations in the fantasy realm.
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Speaker 1: I think people will enjoy this. So hang on here.
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Speaker 1: We're going to talk about fantasy strategy, dynasty strategy with
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Speaker 1: Marcus right after this. We bring back my buddy Marcus,
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Speaker 1: ready to talk a little bit more Blender material. How
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Speaker 1: are you doing today, Marcus?
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Speaker 2: I'm doing great, Jesse. I appreciate you having me back, man.
1:48
Speaker 2: Always a great time.
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Speaker 1: Oh, son of a gun. You bail me out week
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Speaker 1: after week. We have some great conversations and today will
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Speaker 1: be no exception, I'm sure, because we're taking it back.
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Speaker 1: We're going to some more general topics in the Dynasty Tip.
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Speaker 1: And yeah, man, I'm going to let you kick off
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Speaker 1: the first one. Go right ahead.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. So this one, like you said, we kind of
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Speaker 2: want to go back to, not back to the basics,
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Speaker 2: but how do you continue on that conversation from the
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Speaker 2: last time that we met about building that team that's
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Speaker 2: going to take you the distance from start to finish.
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Speaker 2: So today's topic is going to continue on that team construction,
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Speaker 2: but this is specifically how we do that when it
2:26
Speaker 2: comes to category leagues. And we all know first and foremost,
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Speaker 2: before we do anything, we got to know the rules, right?
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Speaker 2: So you always want to make sure that you know
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Speaker 2: the rules. What kind of categories are you playing? Is
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Speaker 2: it head to head? Is it roto? Because if it's,
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Speaker 2: if those are different, if it's one of those, those
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Speaker 2: are completely different strategies, right? As someone who doesn't really
2:45
Speaker 2: appreciate Roto, I know we got a couple people that
2:48
Speaker 2: probably hate to hear that, but I can't keep the
2:51
Speaker 2: attention span. So I'm not worrying about Roto, but your
2:55
Speaker 2: Roto categories are going to be maximizing games played or
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Speaker 2: efficiencies based on the player that you got. And those
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Speaker 2: are going to differentiate significantly from those head-to-head strategies. So
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Speaker 2: I think we can start off with basketball. I'll start
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Speaker 2: off with basketball. And From a basketball strategy and really
3:15
Speaker 2: from any sport, but the head-to-head strategy is all you
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Speaker 2: got to do is score one more than your opponent, right?
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Speaker 2: So that's where I like to start off. When we
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Speaker 2: start off from that strategy basis, we want to make
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Speaker 2: sure that we have enough. In basketball, you're typically playing
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Speaker 2: nine category or eight with that extra category being turnovers.
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Speaker 2: And I just want to win one more than the opponent.
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Speaker 2: If I can do that consistently week in and week out,
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Speaker 2: I know at the end of the day, I'm going
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Speaker 2: to be dancing for that title or at least putting
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Speaker 2: myself in a contention to do that. So to get
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Speaker 2: started off, Jesse, I'm going to pass it back to
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Speaker 2: you for just a moment. What are your first takes
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Speaker 2: on if you're going head to head, how are you
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Speaker 2: starting to build that team?
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Speaker 1: Okay. So obviously when you're starting to build a team,
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Speaker 1: you're thinking about youth. You're thinking about production guys who are,
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Speaker 1: Going to have that upside for the long term. Obviously,
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Speaker 1: you're not drafting LeBron James in the first round. This
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Speaker 1: is not 2006 or whatever. That's not how things roll anymore.
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Speaker 1: But the first thought I had about this in terms
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Speaker 1: of basketball was also related to salary, which is, of course,
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Speaker 1: what you and I play. And something that is true
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Speaker 1: to me as I have followed NBA the past few
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Speaker 1: years is that big men are not rewarded with the
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Speaker 1: same contracts that the little men are in basketball anymore.
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Speaker 1: You would think that we're looking for the big guy
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Speaker 1: to get all the money, but I did a chart
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Speaker 1: of the average salary of the top 25 players in
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Speaker 1: each category of our, I left off turnovers because that's
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Speaker 1: very difficult, but the other, really the other six categories,
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Speaker 1: field goal and free throw get a little bit more
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Speaker 1: complicated too. And wouldn't you know it, the cost of
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Speaker 1: Put it this way. The average salary of the top
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Speaker 1: 25 scoring players is more than twice as much as
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Speaker 1: the average salary of the top 25 blockers or stealers
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Speaker 1: in the NBA. When you're doing category building and you're
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Speaker 1: doing it by salary, there's actually a logic to trying
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Speaker 1: to build around big men instead of small men. If
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Speaker 1: you can get rebounds, blocks, steals, and presumably by extension
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Speaker 1: field goals, you've got four of the categories right there.
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Speaker 1: And if anything, unless you're drafting Joel Embiid, you're also
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Speaker 1: going to be in decent position for turnovers because it's
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Speaker 1: the guards who are going to have the turnovers. If
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Speaker 1: I were to try to draft incredibly efficiently in a
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Speaker 1: league where I just needed to win five categories and
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Speaker 1: I was really trying to make that narrow thing, I
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Speaker 1: would think hard about building around big men from the start. Now,
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Speaker 1: those big men don't necessarily, the blocks don't necessarily last
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Speaker 1: forever in fantasy. And some of these guys do get injured.
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Speaker 1: I think probably the category you could find to supplement
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Speaker 1: them would be three-pointers because while three-point specialists, if you're
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Speaker 1: going for that sixth category, while three-point specialists don't necessarily,
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Speaker 1: they're not going to help your field goal percentage, but
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Speaker 1: you can get some three-point specialists. They generally are, they're
6:23
Speaker 1: not going to matter for free throws. You're not paying
6:24
Speaker 1: for their free throws. But you could have guys who
6:27
Speaker 1: overlap a little bit with steals. So if you're trying
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Speaker 1: to build the most possibly efficient team for fantasy basketball
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Speaker 1: where you're just trying to win categories, points, assists, and
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Speaker 1: free throws are the ones that you're probably going to
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Speaker 1: be less interested in. Because especially from a salary perspective,
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Speaker 1: you're going to be able to get cheaper with the bigs.
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Speaker 1: So that's just one thought. What do you think about that?
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Speaker 2: No, I think that's awesome. I think you're completely right
6:52
Speaker 2: when you're looking at it in one perspective. But I
6:56
Speaker 2: like to approach it a kind of a different way
6:58
Speaker 2: because I don't know what my team is going to
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Speaker 2: look like yet, right? So I can go in with
7:01
Speaker 2: a game plan at the end of the day, but
7:04
Speaker 2: if three people in front of me have the same
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Speaker 2: game plan as you, and then that option's not there
7:08
Speaker 2: to start out, my whole thing is I'm starting out with,
7:12
Speaker 2: I need a superstar, right? I need one to two
7:14
Speaker 2: superstars right out the gate because I know that they're
7:16
Speaker 2: going to have value in four to five different categories.
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Speaker 2: And that's where I want my primary focus to be
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Speaker 2: is how can I build around my two superstars Depending
7:27
Speaker 2: on the size of the league, we might have the
7:28
Speaker 2: ability to get more. But at minimum, I want at
7:31
Speaker 2: least two that I know are going to be full fledged.
7:34
Speaker 2: They're going to be there the whole year. They're going
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Speaker 2: to be in. Hopefully they're trying to achieve MVP trophy.
7:40
Speaker 2: So that way I know they're going to put up
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Speaker 2: those stats and then I see what else I have
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Speaker 2: to work with. Right. So once I have my core
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Speaker 2: two or three, I know how I need to start
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Speaker 2: building the team now and I can get a better
7:52
Speaker 2: perspective of what categories that I want. want to focus on.
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Speaker 2: If I only need to focus on five, what are
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Speaker 2: the five ones that my people are the best at?
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Speaker 2: Let's make sure I can supplement my additional players to
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Speaker 2: continue making them stronger while also seeing those other four.
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Speaker 2: Where can I continue to build up in maybe two
8:13
Speaker 2: of those other categories? Because I'm never going to be
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Speaker 2: the best in all five of those every single week.
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Speaker 2: So let's make sure that I have a medium range
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Speaker 2: of outcomes for those two out of the other four
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Speaker 2: categories and really build it that way. I know it's
8:27
Speaker 2: not like I'm not going to give you exact players, right?
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Speaker 2: But there's a lot of three and D players out there.
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Speaker 2: And if I know, but I don't really have the
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Speaker 2: three and the steals to go along with it. These
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Speaker 2: are premium players that I might value a little bit
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Speaker 2: higher to build some of my things where I'm not
8:43
Speaker 2: as competitive as well, continuing to strength points and threes.
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Speaker 2: It may take a little dip in field goal percentage,
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Speaker 2: but I know it's not going to be the end
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Speaker 2: of the world. So that's how my initial approach is
8:53
Speaker 2: going to be. And It's okay to learn that over
8:55
Speaker 2: time because I'll admit full open, being completely vulnerable. When
9:01
Speaker 2: we started the diesel, I didn't really know a ton
9:03
Speaker 2: about category basketball. I've only ever played points before and Roto, unfortunately,
9:08
Speaker 2: that one time. But I was like, you know what?
9:10
Speaker 2: Stars win it, right? So I was like, I'm just
9:12
Speaker 2: going to go out and accumulate all the stars that
9:14
Speaker 2: I could and then got dominated come playoff time because
9:18
Speaker 2: they don't play in the playoffs, unfortunately. cause it's the
9:21
Speaker 2: end of the year. So I had nobody going, but
9:23
Speaker 2: also I went up against some teams that were better
9:25
Speaker 2: prepared to win categories specifically versus just having my stars
9:30
Speaker 2: try to carry the load. So it was something that
9:32
Speaker 2: I had to adapt over time and I still got
9:34
Speaker 2: a lot of stars, right. But trying to move a
9:37
Speaker 2: couple of stars for some better fillers when it came
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Speaker 2: to those categories that I wasn't as strong in and
9:43
Speaker 2: trying to strengthen some of those ones that you can't
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Speaker 2: just fill with stars that don't play in the playoffs, unfortunately. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: The, the, Kind of the perspective that I was taking,
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Speaker 1: I'm not going to double down on it. You're right
9:56
Speaker 1: that you definitely want to have a core of top stars, right?
10:02
Speaker 1: That is, I do not dispute that. Keep in mind
10:05
Speaker 1: that in a salary league, every one of those top
10:07
Speaker 1: stars is going to kind of slaughter your salary cap.
10:11
Speaker 1: So this is more of the, what do you build
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Speaker 1: around those top guys? I'm thinking if you somehow are
10:17
Speaker 1: able to start your team with Victor Wembanyama, This is
10:21
Speaker 1: what I just was talking about is something you could
10:23
Speaker 1: really lean in on because you're starting out with an
10:27
Speaker 1: insurmountable lead practically in blocks and somebody who's really rebounds
10:31
Speaker 1: and points. And then the question is, are you going
10:33
Speaker 1: to supplement your gaps? And you can do the same
10:36
Speaker 1: thing with the guards. I'm not saying you can't do
10:37
Speaker 1: it with guards. If you get Luka Doncic, how are
10:40
Speaker 1: you going to build your team around that? Because you're
10:42
Speaker 1: not starting out with a foundation there, but you could
10:44
Speaker 1: complement it. with an Onyeka Okonwu or something like that,
10:48
Speaker 1: who's going to get a bunch of rebounds. Even a
10:50
Speaker 1: DeMontis Sabonis, if he's able to just keep surviving, he
10:53
Speaker 1: gets rebounds for days and his star is not going
10:58
Speaker 1: up in terms of salary into the future. So there
11:02
Speaker 1: are certainly different ways to approach this, but the guys
11:05
Speaker 1: who maybe it's time to stop pounding on poor Jalen
11:09
Speaker 1: Brown at this point, because the tales of him being
11:13
Speaker 1: overrated have been legion. this off season, but he is
11:17
Speaker 1: going to have one of the biggest contracts in the league.
11:19
Speaker 1: And if you try to build your team around him,
11:21
Speaker 1: you're going to start out with some problems because that salary,
11:24
Speaker 1: his usage is going to go down in Philadelphia. It's
11:26
Speaker 1: going to be very difficult to build everything else around
11:29
Speaker 1: him because he's going to have a little bit across
11:33
Speaker 1: the board in multiple categories, but for the salary, he's
11:37
Speaker 1: going to kind of crush you. So yeah, there are
11:41
Speaker 1: many ways to quote unquote skin this cat, but you're right.
11:45
Speaker 1: You have to find the gaps. You do want to
11:48
Speaker 1: have star power, and then you want to figure out
11:50
Speaker 1: the very efficient ways to build around it. And you're
11:53
Speaker 1: right at the end of the game. If you are
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Speaker 1: the fifth best player in all nine categories, you're probably
12:00
Speaker 1: not going to win a head to head. You need
12:02
Speaker 1: to be the best in some of them and investing
12:05
Speaker 1: in the young guys who can stay there for a
12:07
Speaker 1: long time is awesome.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. And I agree. And I'm, Even though I didn't
12:11
Speaker 2: say exactly what you did, you're 100% right at the
12:14
Speaker 2: same time. Because I was just thinking the other day
12:16
Speaker 2: about how I could add some specific stats that I
12:20
Speaker 2: was looking for to the team that I have now.
12:22
Speaker 2: And I was like, you know what? There's a player
12:24
Speaker 2: who's about to have an outrageous salary. And even though
12:28
Speaker 2: they are the MVP, right? SGA, we're talking here. If
12:32
Speaker 2: we look beyond the curtain of what's going to happen
12:35
Speaker 2: when they get their extension, I just pulled up their guy.
12:38
Speaker 2: in 27, 28, we're looking at 64 million, then 69 million,
12:42
Speaker 2: 74 million, and then 79 million. If you're trying to,
12:47
Speaker 2: I would love to see if I could get a
12:49
Speaker 2: reduction on him, like a price just to see if
12:51
Speaker 2: I could add them. But then I know right around
12:55
Speaker 2: the corner, I'm going to have to get rid of
12:56
Speaker 2: them because it's not going to be valuable. And even
12:59
Speaker 2: though he brings those MVP numbers, if I already have
13:01
Speaker 2: a team that can support that, and he's like an
13:05
Speaker 2: It seems wild to say, I would like to add
13:07
Speaker 2: the MVP of the league to add some extra, to
13:11
Speaker 2: add some extra beef to the lineup. But at the
13:13
Speaker 2: same time, like you're taking into account the contract is just,
13:17
Speaker 2: is it even worth it? Would it be worth the
13:18
Speaker 2: cost to get the name for the price tag that's
13:21
Speaker 2: associated with it? And I don't know, man, that's the
13:23
Speaker 2: hard part about it. So I think having, if you
13:25
Speaker 2: have an SG on your team, you know, you've locked
13:28
Speaker 2: in so many different categories already as great starting points.
13:32
Speaker 2: And now you're right. You got to supplement it, finding
13:34
Speaker 2: the young guys that are going to be active and
13:36
Speaker 2: be there and build around the superstars that you do have.
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Speaker 2: And from the cost perspective, the big man stuff does work.
13:42
Speaker 2: But with the big men, you're worrying about the injuries.
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Speaker 2: Do they have the duration? And now we've seen a
13:47
Speaker 2: couple of big men that really don't put up the
13:49
Speaker 2: numbers that you would expect, but are getting paid like
13:53
Speaker 2: they should be. So we're going to see what that
13:55
Speaker 2: looks like for basketball time over time. But then moving
13:59
Speaker 2: on to the next spot is you just said that
14:00
Speaker 2: if you are the fifth best in all the categories,
14:03
Speaker 2: you might not win a head to head. You can't.
14:06
Speaker 2: It's going to kind of bring me to my next
14:07
Speaker 2: thought process on this, especially within basketball, is that you
14:11
Speaker 2: can't accidentally punt a category. You have to make sure
14:15
Speaker 2: that you know what you are strong in and make
14:18
Speaker 2: sure that your strength is dominant there. Make sure you're
14:21
Speaker 2: one of the top teams in the league for your
14:23
Speaker 2: middle ones. Hey, maybe we can be six or seven
14:26
Speaker 2: in that situation. Right. And then If we're not going
14:28
Speaker 2: to be good in something, intentionally be good. Decide which
14:32
Speaker 2: of those middle grounds that you want to be good
14:35
Speaker 2: in or you are. I will give up. Right. I
14:37
Speaker 2: will be OK without this. Just like you said, if
14:40
Speaker 2: I know that I feel like anyone that does maximum
14:42
Speaker 2: games played is punting turnover. So that one doesn't really matter.
14:45
Speaker 2: But especially if my lineup is guard heavy or my
14:49
Speaker 2: talent is guard heavy, I know I'm never going to
14:52
Speaker 2: win turnover. So I literally don't care. Give me all
14:55
Speaker 2: the turnovers in the world as long as we're going
14:57
Speaker 2: to put up points and get assists and it doesn't matter.
15:01
Speaker 2: But yeah, don't accidentally punt anything. Make sure that you
15:03
Speaker 2: know where your strengths lie and intentionally punt those categories
15:07
Speaker 2: that you know are one of your weaknesses.
15:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're absolutely right. I talked about that if
15:14
Speaker 1: you finish, what did I just say, fourth, fifth place
15:17
Speaker 1: in every category. That's exactly what you want to do
15:19
Speaker 1: in Roto. And when people are converting over, they can...
15:24
Speaker 1: be a little focused on that because it makes sense.
15:26
Speaker 1: That's what they've always, that's what I was taught from
15:28
Speaker 1: the beginning of Roto Leagues is try to build a
15:31
Speaker 1: team at the draft where you can finish fourth in
15:34
Speaker 1: every category and you'll win the league if you're able
15:36
Speaker 1: to do that. Obviously you want to do better than that,
15:39
Speaker 1: but that's a realistic goal in terms of what are
15:41
Speaker 1: you trying to accumulate? What kind of stats are you
15:43
Speaker 1: trying to project that you get at the draft? So
15:46
Speaker 1: it's so different in this. Now, one thing you need
15:48
Speaker 1: to be careful about is You sit there and you think,
15:51
Speaker 1: I'm going to dominate five of these categories and lose
15:54
Speaker 1: four of these categories, and I'm going to be great
15:56
Speaker 1: because that will work in the playoffs, but you better
15:59
Speaker 1: darn watch out in a regular season for head-to-head because
16:02
Speaker 1: if you have only the capability of winning certain categories
16:05
Speaker 1: and you have a bad week, you're going to lose
16:07
Speaker 1: your matchup. You can only punt so many categories, even
16:11
Speaker 1: a categories league, and you probably never want to be
16:14
Speaker 1: truly punting more than one or two. And this is
16:17
Speaker 1: an old saying also with punting is, Don't punt like
16:22
Speaker 1: I'm going to make sure to have the worst in
16:24
Speaker 1: this category. I'm going to have the least points. I'm
16:26
Speaker 1: going to be so smart. I draft nobody who scores points.
16:29
Speaker 1: Guys who score points tend to be good at other things.
16:32
Speaker 1: You're not trying to get rid of the points. You're
16:35
Speaker 1: just trying to not care about them and not value
16:38
Speaker 1: them when you are valuing your most high players. You
16:42
Speaker 1: want the guys then who get the rebounds and the assists.
16:44
Speaker 1: If you're doing that and that you get a guy
16:46
Speaker 1: who just doesn't have the points to go with that, fine, fine.
16:49
Speaker 1: Like Draymond Green back in the day would be able
16:52
Speaker 1: to get you your boards and assists, but he wouldn't
16:53
Speaker 1: get you the points. Fine. But yeah, I think we
16:57
Speaker 1: probably take similar approaches to this. You need to figure
17:01
Speaker 1: out how you can win categories. And it ends up
17:04
Speaker 1: drifting toward the big men or the little men in fantasy.
17:08
Speaker 1: And the thing is a team with the big men
17:11
Speaker 1: is more likely to win turnovers than the team with
17:14
Speaker 1: the little men. So that is a kind of a
17:16
Speaker 1: built-in advantage. I, for one, I have an awful time
17:19
Speaker 1: with percentages, Marcus. I feel like I, in every league
17:23
Speaker 1: where I'm good, I'm like, I built this up. I
17:25
Speaker 1: built this up and my percentages end up being trash.
17:28
Speaker 1: And I ended up losing both of those. And I'm like,
17:30
Speaker 1: how can I lose both of those categories? And maybe
17:32
Speaker 1: it's because I balanced the rest of my team such
17:35
Speaker 1: that I have a bunch of chuckers who are bringing
17:37
Speaker 1: down my field goal. And I have some bigs who
17:39
Speaker 1: are just slaughtering my free throw. And it just, it's
17:42
Speaker 1: killing them both somehow, but. I don't understand how I
17:44
Speaker 1: lose both of those in some leagues, but I somehow
17:48
Speaker 1: managed to do it.
17:50
Speaker 2: I can empathize with you. I also lose both and
17:52
Speaker 2: all the time. And slowly, year after year, I'm trying
17:55
Speaker 2: my best, man. I'm trying my best. Get rid of
17:58
Speaker 2: those guys that can't hit free throws. Rudy Gobert, I
18:00
Speaker 2: know you're so good at so many things, but I
18:01
Speaker 2: can't keep losing free throws all the time. Just let
18:04
Speaker 2: me down, man. Just let me down. But yeah, that's
18:08
Speaker 2: the basketball stuff. I think basketball is a lot easier
18:11
Speaker 2: to project because there's so fewer players that impact everything.
18:14
Speaker 2: And with basketball is that one player impacts every category.
18:18
Speaker 2: So every category applies to one player, which is different
18:21
Speaker 2: than almost every other sport. Because when we're talking baseball
18:24
Speaker 2: and hockey, there's a real segregation between pitching versus hitting
18:29
Speaker 2: and then also goalies and scorers. Offensive players. So I'm
18:33
Speaker 2: going to give you the opportunity to pick which sport
18:36
Speaker 2: you want to transition to next when we get into
18:38
Speaker 2: some of those different types of sports categories that do
18:42
Speaker 2: have quite the difference when it comes to who gets
18:44
Speaker 2: to score points in those cats.
18:47
Speaker 1: I guess I was thinking next about baseball. Baseball's the
18:51
Speaker 1: more obvious one to me because football and hockey tend
18:55
Speaker 1: to be played more in a points format. I hate
18:59
Speaker 1: that I've turned into a points guy with hockey. I always,
19:03
Speaker 1: for years, when I was starting a dynasty league for hockey,
19:07
Speaker 1: and I've done a number of those over the years,
19:08
Speaker 1: I would put it up for a vote whether we're
19:10
Speaker 1: going to do points or categories. Points would always narrowly win,
19:13
Speaker 1: and I'd always be like, ah. But the truth is,
19:16
Speaker 1: there is serious flaws to trying to do categories with
19:19
Speaker 1: hockey because there's a good number of categories that are
19:23
Speaker 1: just so extreme for players who don't have a big
19:27
Speaker 1: impact on the rest of the game. Yakov Training and
19:30
Speaker 1: Tom Wilson are going to start winning you leagues. And
19:33
Speaker 1: people are like, who the heck are even they? They're
19:34
Speaker 1: not even on the highlight show, but they get the
19:36
Speaker 1: hits to such a degree that they dominate those better
19:40
Speaker 1: than Connor McDavid does points. But baseball is one where
19:44
Speaker 1: I really do think about the categories. And again, being
19:49
Speaker 1: opportunistic to me in a draft is as important as
19:53
Speaker 1: dominating the categories. The thing with pitchers is unlike hitters,
19:58
Speaker 1: it's impossible to get success for every one of your
20:02
Speaker 1: categories with one player. So pitchers are by definition, they're
20:06
Speaker 1: by definition, they're more injury prone. I would say that's
20:11
Speaker 1: a wild statement. I should really probably back that up
20:13
Speaker 1: with evidence, but my, my gut bias is that pitchers
20:18
Speaker 1: are more injury prone and they'll go out for a
20:20
Speaker 1: year and a half more frequently than a hitter will.
20:24
Speaker 1: And that in addition, again, pitchers, you can't have saves
20:29
Speaker 1: and really be a guy for wins at the same time,
20:31
Speaker 1: not dominant in both categories. So again, you're starting out
20:34
Speaker 1: with fewer categories. So obviously the, Like you said, start
20:37
Speaker 1: with a star, start with a couple stars, start with
20:39
Speaker 1: hitting stars. That's great. But what I have found is
20:43
Speaker 1: that in dynasty leagues, there's an efficiency to be found
20:46
Speaker 1: with pitching. And that has surprised me. I've never been
20:50
Speaker 1: a draft pitching high type guy, but I'm thinking here
20:53
Speaker 1: to when we started the four sport dynasty and people
20:57
Speaker 1: were so reluctant to take pictures because the normal answer
21:00
Speaker 1: to this question, Marcus is you take the hitters, right?
21:03
Speaker 1: there was such a reluctance to take pictures that I
21:06
Speaker 1: almost cornered the stupid market on them. I took in
21:10
Speaker 1: our startup draft, I took Aaron Nola, who that was
21:12
Speaker 1: better four years ago, Blake Snell, Bryce Miller, Tariq Scooble,
21:17
Speaker 1: all those guys in the startup draft. A couple of
21:19
Speaker 1: years later, a year later, I got Paul Skeens number
21:22
Speaker 1: four in a rookie draft. I've traded for Chris Sale,
21:25
Speaker 1: Trevor Rogers, and Nick Lodolo. And I've claimed Cam Schlittler
21:29
Speaker 1: and Spencer Schwellenbach off waivers. And If I still had
21:33
Speaker 1: all those guys, I'd be winning the freaking category every week.
21:36
Speaker 1: Of course, what I've done with them is I've gradually
21:38
Speaker 1: kind of tried to sell them off and build up
21:40
Speaker 1: the rest of my dynasty team with that. Because at
21:44
Speaker 1: certain points, people look around and they realize I need
21:46
Speaker 1: a freaking starting pitcher. And nobody really wants to pay
21:49
Speaker 1: for it. You weren't the guy I traded Tariq Scooble.
21:52
Speaker 2: To, right? No, we did want him, no, but we
21:54
Speaker 2: did not.
21:56
Speaker 1: And I got a pretty good haul for Tariq Scooble.
21:58
Speaker 1: Not as good, really, in retrospect as it should have been.
22:01
Speaker 1: but I got a pretty good haul for him. And
22:04
Speaker 1: it's like getting those players is a way to accumulate value.
22:09
Speaker 1: It's a little bit questionable from a just, just strictly
22:13
Speaker 1: baseball perspective, but I think they're less coveted than the
22:17
Speaker 1: hitters are. So while you don't want to fall behind
22:20
Speaker 1: in the, the, the, the rat race for hitting stats,
22:24
Speaker 1: the game is to accumulate the value. And then over
22:26
Speaker 1: the longterm, be able to turn that value into maybe
22:29
Speaker 1: back in hitting value or, and overall win the league.
22:32
Speaker 1: You want surplus value. So if you're playing the long game,
22:35
Speaker 1: I think there really is a value to taking some
22:37
Speaker 1: pitchers because people are afraid of them. What do you think, Marcus?
22:40
Speaker 1: I'm talking myself into a corner here. Help me out.
22:42
Speaker 2: No, I think what you're saying is exactly accurate because
22:45
Speaker 2: that comment was made several times during the Diesel inaugural draft.
22:48
Speaker 2: Why are there so many pitchers out there? And it's
22:50
Speaker 2: because you just said it yourself. And I know you
22:54
Speaker 2: said it without any backups while you were talking about
22:57
Speaker 2: pitchers being injured more frequently and I just Googled it.
23:00
Speaker 2: And as much as Google AI is accurate, it does
23:03
Speaker 2: say that pitchers experience significantly more injuries than hitters. And
23:06
Speaker 2: when they get injured and we're talking about the big ones,
23:09
Speaker 2: we're talking multiple years before they show effectiveness. So that's
23:13
Speaker 2: even why we didn't trade for Scooble at the end
23:15
Speaker 2: of the day, because I wanted him. The other Mick
23:19
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, he's really good. But, you know, he's
23:21
Speaker 2: never had a TJ before and he's going to get one.
23:24
Speaker 2: And then we're talking two years later. Without him, effectively,
23:27
Speaker 2: he's got to get his surgery. And then it takes
23:29
Speaker 2: about a year before they put up stats that are
23:32
Speaker 2: close to what they had before them. So anytime that
23:34
Speaker 2: you're trading for one of those pitchers that has never
23:36
Speaker 2: had one, you effectively have to count in that there's
23:40
Speaker 2: going to be a two-year window where you're probably not
23:42
Speaker 2: going to have them, especially if they throw hard. And
23:45
Speaker 2: then if they've already had one and they get a
23:47
Speaker 2: second one, the projectability of them ever coming back is,
23:51
Speaker 2: what's that time frame? What's that lifeline look like? Plus
23:54
Speaker 2: you continue to see them on the IL over and
23:57
Speaker 2: over again. So I get why that is the common point.
24:01
Speaker 2: And I also am starting to understand baseball, something that
24:06
Speaker 2: grinds my gears with how much people value young hitters,
24:09
Speaker 2: because it's so crazy. And I don't know if I'll
24:12
Speaker 2: ever get over it, but the fact that Evan Carter
24:15
Speaker 2: can be so valuable in a vacuum for a moment
24:19
Speaker 2: and then whatever right Bobby Miller can be so valuable
24:23
Speaker 2: he's a pitcher but still he had a really good
24:25
Speaker 2: value for a moment and then you could pick him
24:28
Speaker 2: up off waivers it's just crazy to me I don't
24:30
Speaker 2: know if I'll ever get over it but yeah that
24:33
Speaker 2: that is exactly what you were talking about people fear
24:36
Speaker 2: those injuries and when you traded Scooble we went dang
24:39
Speaker 2: that was not nearly as much as we thought we
24:41
Speaker 2: were gonna have to pay for him I wish we
24:43
Speaker 2: threw out an offer at that point right like you
24:46
Speaker 2: said though in retrospect It never feels like enough if
24:48
Speaker 2: they're good. But then there's a bunch of those times
24:50
Speaker 2: where they don't end up being that good. But you
24:55
Speaker 2: can even see it with pitchers that they're pretty volatile, right?
24:58
Speaker 2: So we saw before this year, Mizorowski was going up
25:03
Speaker 2: and down with, is he actually going to be good? No.
25:06
Speaker 2: And then we saw in the diesel that there was
25:08
Speaker 2: a pretty significant trade for Sandy where Miz was a
25:11
Speaker 2: piece of that. And now you look back on it
25:13
Speaker 2: and I bet Dave and Luke are going, dang, why
25:15
Speaker 2: did we trade for Sandy when we had already on deck, right?
25:20
Speaker 2: Now it looks crazy, but you don't know. And even
25:23
Speaker 2: Skeens looked amazing. And now he still looks good, but
25:28
Speaker 2: the things that made him look so amazing previously, they
25:32
Speaker 2: don't look that amazing anymore. He's got a higher ERA.
25:34
Speaker 2: He's not throwing as significantly year over year. His miles
25:38
Speaker 2: per hour and the fastball are dropping. What's going to
25:42
Speaker 2: happen next, right? Pitchers only have a limited number of
25:44
Speaker 2: throws that they make before it's over. We don't know
25:47
Speaker 2: when that's going to happen. And that's the scary part
25:49
Speaker 2: about drafting those pitchers so highly. And you told me,
25:54
Speaker 2: like you just mentioned, is that you've traded for a
25:56
Speaker 2: bunch of pitchers. You've also traded away a bunch of pitchers.
25:59
Speaker 2: I feel like the ability to move pitchers and gain
26:03
Speaker 2: pitchers is easier than it is to gain good hitters.
26:05
Speaker 2: So you just traded us, Chris Sale, for the playoffs.
26:08
Speaker 2: We also acquired Yamamoto. And that one's kind of wild,
26:11
Speaker 2: but we acquired a few pitchers right at the trade deadline,
26:14
Speaker 2: which Much easier to put those deals together to get
26:17
Speaker 2: a pitcher to move into a competitive position versus trying
26:22
Speaker 2: to gain a big-time hitter. Those guys cost way more.
26:27
Speaker 1: Just over two years ago in 30-team league, you and
26:30
Speaker 1: I are in, the Barry Baker, I traded for Dalton
26:34
Speaker 1: Varshow with Lance McCullers as just a side bit to that.
26:40
Speaker 1: I traded away for him. Cole Kerrig... who's now in
26:45
Speaker 1: the pros and playing for the Guardians, Lucas Giolito, who
26:49
Speaker 1: that was cap, negative cap hit, and Jacob Mizurowski for that.
26:54
Speaker 1: For freaking Dalton Varshow, I traded away basically Mizurowski, Carrick,
26:59
Speaker 1: and oh my gosh, that was two years ago. But
27:02
Speaker 1: the whole thing was, that was way before Mizurowski was up,
27:06
Speaker 1: and I never believed he was going to throw strikes.
27:08
Speaker 1: Even though he's a brewer, I didn't believe he was
27:10
Speaker 1: going to throw strikes, and I wanted to hit her,
27:11
Speaker 1: and boy, Dalton Varshow isn't even worth He frustrates me
27:16
Speaker 1: in a starting lineup now. But anyway, yeah, the thing
27:20
Speaker 1: with pitching is, and I should say, that was my strategy,
27:24
Speaker 1: was to try to take those values that are actually
27:26
Speaker 1: worth more. And while I still believe in the strategy,
27:32
Speaker 1: it is hard to market those pitchers to people. You're right.
27:34
Speaker 1: Scooble got me a lot, but less than the number
27:39
Speaker 1: one theoretical pitcher on the market should have gotten me
27:42
Speaker 1: on a minimum freaking contract. So it's not easy. It's
27:46
Speaker 1: not easy, but you get something out of them. And
27:48
Speaker 1: I don't know, pitchers do last a long time sometimes.
27:52
Speaker 1: They've only got so many bullets in the gun. But
27:54
Speaker 1: Chris Sale, you could have said five years ago, Chris
27:57
Speaker 1: Sale's almost done, but he wasn't. I don't know. The
28:01
Speaker 1: other thing that I'm really trying to track into the future, Marcus,
28:05
Speaker 1: is you're right about the whole two Tommy John thing.
28:08
Speaker 1: The second Tommy John really seems to take it out
28:12
Speaker 1: of some players. But the internal brace, I'm not so sure.
28:15
Speaker 1: It seems like guys come back from that freaking second
28:18
Speaker 1: for the internal brace and they're not quite as cooked.
28:22
Speaker 1: And if that's what everybody's going to be getting now,
28:25
Speaker 1: I don't know what we have to say about that.
28:28
Speaker 1: Now it's starting to look like Shohei might. kind of
28:30
Speaker 1: be at the end of the road as far as
28:32
Speaker 1: pitching is concerned but he was a guy who i
28:35
Speaker 1: was like why are we all so optimistic about this
28:37
Speaker 1: guy after a second tommy john but it wasn't a
28:39
Speaker 1: tommy john was it it was a ucl brace yeah
28:43
Speaker 1: it was a ucl problem it's all that that's a
28:45
Speaker 1: moving target is what i'm saying that's what i no
28:47
Speaker 1: longer assume is necessarily the case but yeah but how
28:53
Speaker 1: do you see the whole thing is everybody wants to
28:55
Speaker 1: build a team out of hitters How do you do
28:58
Speaker 1: it though? Everybody wants the same fricking hitters.
29:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't. That's the hard question is I don't know, man.
29:05
Speaker 2: I'm glad that Mick is the baseball guy because I'm
29:08
Speaker 2: very easy to go. Whatever, man, we can go sell
29:11
Speaker 2: in baseball. I don't care about baseball. He's like, no, no,
29:14
Speaker 2: we're not selling. Come on, man. It'll be all right.
29:17
Speaker 2: You can do it again. You did it already. We
29:19
Speaker 2: gave you nothing and you built it up into the playoffs.
29:21
Speaker 2: You can do it again. It's baseball. It's random. You
29:23
Speaker 2: never know. And he's like, stop. But even before I
29:26
Speaker 2: move over to hitters, like pitchers, I know you said that,
29:30
Speaker 2: but Spencer Strider was a guy, right? He looked like
29:33
Speaker 2: he was on the cusp of a Cy Young, has
29:35
Speaker 2: a TJ, and now I'm not trading for him, right?
29:38
Speaker 2: And he plays on a good team. He's going to
29:39
Speaker 2: get runs. support but there's just not I would have
29:43
Speaker 2: I tried to get him when he had his TJ
29:46
Speaker 2: because I was like you know he'll come back in
29:48
Speaker 2: two years he'll be amazing again and it's the third
29:51
Speaker 2: year now right it's been three years this is the
29:53
Speaker 2: third year and he's getting worse every year right so
29:56
Speaker 2: I'm I don't know, man. I'm always worried and I'm
29:59
Speaker 2: sure other people are as well, which is why their
30:01
Speaker 2: prices aren't nearly as high as the hitters. But I
30:04
Speaker 2: have no idea how to acquire hitters. Hopefully you get
30:07
Speaker 2: someone that gives you a hitter and they don't realize
30:12
Speaker 2: how hard it is to get hitters. We were able
30:14
Speaker 2: to get Quetel Marte and he's not even a crazy hitter,
30:17
Speaker 2: but he is one of the better second basemen available
30:20
Speaker 2: in the league. And even Dolan said afterwards, you know what,
30:23
Speaker 2: now that I look back on it, it didn't look
30:25
Speaker 2: like it was that great of a deal. After we
30:28
Speaker 2: made it, because you never know, especially when you're trading
30:29
Speaker 2: draft picks, what those draft picks are going to be.
30:32
Speaker 2: And if it's baseball, those draft picks might be several
30:35
Speaker 2: years down the line. They might be amazing or they
30:37
Speaker 2: might be nothing. We just don't know. But in order
30:41
Speaker 2: to get a top hitter, you've got to be willing
30:42
Speaker 2: to shell out the price, I think, especially for a
30:45
Speaker 2: young one. And if we're talking salary, which all the
30:49
Speaker 2: leagues that we play in together are salary leagues, those
30:52
Speaker 2: young hitters have that provided benefit of being so cheap
30:56
Speaker 2: on top of it. And they're producing, and you hope
31:00
Speaker 2: that they'll produce for many years to come. And getting
31:04
Speaker 2: a guy like Jackson Merrill, who was already on a
31:06
Speaker 2: guaranteed contract for a while, you know what that's going
31:10
Speaker 2: to be like. And even if you hope he continues
31:12
Speaker 2: to perform at the level that he's at, but with
31:15
Speaker 2: him being so young, you hope he continues to grow
31:17
Speaker 2: and provide better stats, especially when they've got the millions already.
31:21
Speaker 2: But hitters can be– I understand why they cost so much,
31:25
Speaker 2: but also I don't. At the same time. I don't
31:28
Speaker 2: at the same time. So frustrating, Jesse.
31:31
Speaker 1: Yeah. A slugger who can steal. You're talking about five categories,
31:37
Speaker 1: six categories in a six by six league. And it's overwhelming.
31:41
Speaker 1: You can get a guy who just destroys everything. Shoya
31:44
Speaker 1: Otani destroys everything for a league, even if he's just
31:47
Speaker 1: a hitter. But yeah.
31:49
Speaker 2: All right.
31:49
Speaker 1: Let's take a brief break. We're going to come back
31:51
Speaker 1: and talk some more. Back to talk more category strategy,
32:12
Speaker 1: how you build your franchise strategy with Marcus. So we're
32:14
Speaker 1: talking a little bit of baseball here. Yeah. And you,
32:17
Speaker 1: before the break, you were talking about Cattell Marte. And
32:19
Speaker 1: of course now Cattell Marte is completely gone AWOL. So
32:23
Speaker 1: that one didn't work out. They're not even, they don't even,
32:25
Speaker 1: at press time here, we don't even know if he's
32:27
Speaker 1: coming back this season and he's just kind of disappeared
32:30
Speaker 1: on us. But yeah, it's, it is very difficult to
32:34
Speaker 1: figure that out. Again, I, I come on here every week.
32:38
Speaker 1: every time we talk about baseball and in my four
32:40
Speaker 1: sport team, and I act like I know what I'm
32:42
Speaker 1: doing and I very well may not, but my hitters
32:45
Speaker 1: are just a volume play. I've accumulated 40 prospect hitters
32:49
Speaker 1: at this point, 50 prospect hitters, and just hoping that
32:53
Speaker 1: some of these guys come out to be something. Cause
32:55
Speaker 1: that's the only hope because trying to get the star
32:58
Speaker 1: hitters in the draft was just impossible. And I picked
33:01
Speaker 1: the Wander Franco is the one that I want. I
33:03
Speaker 1: could bet everything on. And of course we know how
33:06
Speaker 1: that turned out, but, Now, at least I've got Max
33:09
Speaker 1: Clark is finally up. Kalen Culpepper is finally up. We'll
33:13
Speaker 1: see which one of these guys is next, but it
33:15
Speaker 1: should be on the way. Some of these other fellas.
33:17
Speaker 1: Let's see if I managed to get a roster out
33:20
Speaker 1: of them or not. But yeah, it's just impossible to accumulate.
33:24
Speaker 1: And now you've tried to figure out how to build
33:27
Speaker 1: in 30 team, at least. I know you've started to
33:30
Speaker 1: build up there. What have you seen or what has
33:33
Speaker 1: been your strategy for trying to accumulate? And that's points.
33:36
Speaker 1: So I guess there's a little bit less category to that.
33:38
Speaker 1: But any relevance of this conversation to that situation?
33:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like that one, even though it is points,
33:44
Speaker 2: it's pretty separated when it comes to pitching and hitting
33:46
Speaker 2: because of how the points are scored. And in that league,
33:50
Speaker 2: I thought that pitching is different because it's way harder
33:54
Speaker 2: to come by because of some of the rules about
33:57
Speaker 2: how many different starting pitchers that you can have and
34:01
Speaker 2: how often you can play them. But I felt the
34:03
Speaker 2: complete opposite because we started acquiring pitchers in the diesel,
34:07
Speaker 2: which is category. And I was like, oh, you know what?
34:08
Speaker 2: I'll build with hitters because they're harder to get. And
34:11
Speaker 2: I built a team that can swing the bat. My
34:14
Speaker 2: team scores all its points based on hitting because my
34:17
Speaker 2: pitchers suck, man. I got nothing. And every time I
34:20
Speaker 2: trade for one, I'm about to take Mikey to court
34:22
Speaker 2: because every time he trades me a pitcher, they go
34:24
Speaker 2: DFA two days later. This happened like twice this year already.
34:28
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure it happened a couple of years ago.
34:30
Speaker 2: I did it, right? I made the call. But man,
34:32
Speaker 2: I thought pitching has been incredibly difficult, especially starting pitching.
34:36
Speaker 2: But when it comes to the category aspect of it,
34:38
Speaker 2: if we're looking at how to game plan it, I
34:42
Speaker 2: think finding for hitters all positions, but having a player
34:46
Speaker 2: who can contribute at least three categories is a really
34:49
Speaker 2: valuable player in that sense. And you got to figure
34:51
Speaker 2: out which one set that's going to be. But I
34:55
Speaker 2: really want to set up with a team that's going
34:57
Speaker 2: to get me a group of guys that's going to
34:59
Speaker 2: give me at least three categories. And when you're establishing
35:03
Speaker 2: what your pun categories are going to be, for both
35:07
Speaker 2: pitching and hitting, I think you really have to clearly
35:09
Speaker 2: define what's your game plan on steals and what's your
35:14
Speaker 2: game plan on saves. If you're going to allocate the
35:17
Speaker 2: resources or save hold, I get holds really changes that.
35:20
Speaker 2: But if it's just saves, like you really have to incorporate,
35:23
Speaker 2: are you going to spend resources to make sure that
35:27
Speaker 2: you are a competitive force in saves? And are you
35:29
Speaker 2: going to spend resources to make sure you win steals?
35:33
Speaker 2: If you're not going to do that, you're either, risking
35:37
Speaker 2: it for luck because you never know when those guys
35:39
Speaker 2: are going to get steals or if you got an
35:42
Speaker 2: occasional saver, like hope for the best, right? But you're
35:46
Speaker 2: probably not going to invest the resources if you don't
35:49
Speaker 2: care about it. And you can definitely build good strategies
35:51
Speaker 2: either way. Simon and Donovan, they won the diesel last
35:55
Speaker 2: year and they Mason Miller, Chandler Simpson, right? They weren't willing.
36:00
Speaker 2: I tried to get both of them from them over
36:02
Speaker 2: the last couple of years. And they're like, no, you're
36:04
Speaker 2: going to have to pay a premium price if you
36:06
Speaker 2: want steals. And good luck prying Mason Miller on that
36:09
Speaker 2: amazing contract out of my cold dead fingers, right? Because
36:11
Speaker 2: he's going to be our save leader. And I was like,
36:14
Speaker 2: you know what? I tried. I did my best knowing
36:16
Speaker 2: that those aren't really like high desirable players in the
36:21
Speaker 2: scope because they only offer a couple of things. They're
36:25
Speaker 2: not going to get you heavy strikeouts. Closers definitely don't
36:29
Speaker 2: always help with the whip and they're put in undesirable positions.
36:34
Speaker 2: Chandler Simpson is not a great RBI hitter. He's not
36:38
Speaker 2: going to hit home runs, but he is going to
36:39
Speaker 2: get your runs and steals. And even as a two
36:43
Speaker 2: category player, there's still a lot of value. If you know,
36:46
Speaker 2: you're probably going to win steals at the end of
36:48
Speaker 2: the day. So that's my first one is what am
36:51
Speaker 2: I going to do with those two? and who are
36:53
Speaker 2: going to be my core three category players, build around those.
36:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is the truth. If you are not in contention,
37:03
Speaker 1: to me, I don't know if I would move steals,
37:06
Speaker 1: but in a saves only league, not a saves holds league,
37:10
Speaker 1: those guys should, you should be constantly shopping them because
37:13
Speaker 1: they're just not going to hold the role until you
37:15
Speaker 1: get to have a contending team again. It's just not
37:19
Speaker 1: the way the world works in 2026. So I'm trying
37:23
Speaker 1: to move those guys. And you stubbornly hang on to
37:26
Speaker 1: the Mason-Millers if you are in contention, if you think
37:30
Speaker 1: that you can win. It's the exact same thing that
37:32
Speaker 1: the Real Padres did, right? They traded an incredible position
37:36
Speaker 1: prospect in Leo DeVries to get Mason-Miller. Why? Because they
37:40
Speaker 1: were very close, they thought, to being able to contend
37:43
Speaker 1: in the They needed the pieces that were going to
37:48
Speaker 1: put them over the top and being able to throw
37:50
Speaker 1: Mason Miller out there one in and a night just
37:53
Speaker 1: makes the game shorter for everything else. So it makes
37:57
Speaker 1: sense when you're on the verge of contention, that's what
37:59
Speaker 1: you want. Otherwise, it kind of surprised me. I was
38:02
Speaker 1: trying to get some save guys recently and I wasn't
38:06
Speaker 1: able to do so, but.
38:07
Speaker 2: I don't know.
38:07
Speaker 1: What do you think, Marcus?
38:08
Speaker 2: That aligns with real life too, because you see right
38:11
Speaker 2: at the trade deadline, all those MLB teams are paying
38:14
Speaker 2: significant prices for relief pitchers, right? Because they know the
38:18
Speaker 2: podcast that we listen to that's currently on hold, right?
38:21
Speaker 2: But David Sampson, former president of the Marlins, does say
38:23
Speaker 2: that when you're building a team, your starting day pitching,
38:27
Speaker 2: like your relief pitching, the bullpen, is not what it
38:30
Speaker 2: looks like at the end of the year. If you
38:31
Speaker 2: are a team that is not contending, You are moving
38:34
Speaker 2: those relief pitchers and you hope they're healthy so they
38:37
Speaker 2: can go to competitive teams. And the team that builds
38:40
Speaker 2: their bullpen during the offseason is not the team that's
38:44
Speaker 2: looking to win the World Series because that's never going
38:47
Speaker 2: to happen. We don't know what they're going to look like.
38:49
Speaker 2: Injuries happen to pitchers all the time, especially those pitchers
38:52
Speaker 2: that are only pitching one to two innings and are
38:54
Speaker 2: throwing as hard as they can all the time during
38:58
Speaker 2: those innings. Those are the ones where you're going to
38:59
Speaker 2: see those significant injuries.
39:00
Speaker 1: That's all.
39:01
Speaker 2: Wonderful strategy, and I agree completely. And it replicates the
39:04
Speaker 2: same in real Major League Baseball because those are half
39:08
Speaker 2: the deals. You get the deadline. There's all those relief
39:10
Speaker 2: pitchers that are going for, I can't believe that guy
39:12
Speaker 2: was worth that, right? I can't believe they paid that
39:14
Speaker 2: for him. It's crazy, but it's a real thing for
39:16
Speaker 2: a reason.
39:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, in MLB, the thinking is shifted. Somebody is doing
39:22
Speaker 1: the math there and doing it very differently than what
39:26
Speaker 1: happens in fantasy baseball. And I get it. Things are
39:29
Speaker 1: going to do that in real. We think of it as,
39:32
Speaker 1: I could have five innings worth of this. Why are
39:34
Speaker 1: they paying so much of one inning of that? But
39:37
Speaker 1: the ratios will get you. The ratios will help you
39:40
Speaker 1: for many of those guys. But Yeah, it frustrates me
39:45
Speaker 1: to no end when in a league where maybe a
39:48
Speaker 1: player is a little bit more inactive or is down,
39:52
Speaker 1: not going to make the playoffs, and they won't trade
39:54
Speaker 1: me a closer in Dynasty that they have. You've got
39:57
Speaker 1: one closer. It doesn't matter. You're five years from contention,
40:01
Speaker 1: given this roster realistically. Why the heck can you not
40:04
Speaker 1: give up, what, a role as Chapman or something right now?
40:07
Speaker 1: I was going to give you something really good for him,
40:08
Speaker 1: but you're just not hearing it. I'm like, what are
40:10
Speaker 1: you doing? That guy definitely won't be pitching in an
40:13
Speaker 1: MLB in a year or two. Yeah, it's a strange thing.
40:16
Speaker 1: But that's when, to me, saves are the last thing
40:18
Speaker 1: you put together. And it's the first thing you're trying
40:20
Speaker 1: to sell if you are not in contention. Steals can
40:23
Speaker 1: last a little bit longer. But again, it's just one category.
40:27
Speaker 2: Yeah. And with relief, we took not that we embodied
40:30
Speaker 2: that strategy entirely, because that's one thing that we've always
40:33
Speaker 2: been strong in is the hold safeholds. But we have
40:36
Speaker 2: realized that we had, like in the diesel, we had
40:38
Speaker 2: too many relief pitchers with salaries that were not necessary
40:42
Speaker 2: when you could have a Hunter Gattis for minimum salary
40:45
Speaker 2: instead of an AJ Minter who costs you 10 million, right?
40:48
Speaker 2: And they're doing essentially the same thing. So if you
40:51
Speaker 2: have safe holds, it definitely changes the value significantly. But
40:55
Speaker 2: for saves outright, it is a little harder to come by,
40:58
Speaker 2: but you're right. I wouldn't be building my team around
41:01
Speaker 2: any relief pitchers and They contribute just, it's not just
41:04
Speaker 2: the one category. They contribute to everything, but not the
41:08
Speaker 2: same as if you can go out there and get
41:10
Speaker 2: someone who's going to start 30 games a year, right?
41:13
Speaker 2: 35 games a year.
41:15
Speaker 1: Let's talk about some other sports here. Football, you have
41:17
Speaker 1: to be a, you have to be a deviant to
41:20
Speaker 1: try to do categories football. I've seen it done. I've
41:23
Speaker 1: seen people play categories football and you're just, I don't know.
41:27
Speaker 1: That's just, that's broken. Go ahead. Go ahead. Have fun
41:30
Speaker 1: with that. But no, I'm not joining you with that thing.
41:33
Speaker 1: It can be done, but I don't know that's something
41:36
Speaker 1: that I would think about there. But do you have
41:39
Speaker 1: any thoughts on football or should we move to hockey?
41:41
Speaker 2: I will say that I am with you. If anyone
41:43
Speaker 2: asked me to play category football, I would never talk
41:47
Speaker 2: to that person again. I'm a degenerate, Jesse, but that's
41:53
Speaker 2: throwing your life away at that point. I'm not willing
41:55
Speaker 2: to take that next step.
41:57
Speaker 1: You're from Marcus's Apple calendar. We're not going to remember
42:00
Speaker 1: it anymore. You're gone, buddy.
42:02
Speaker 2: Cut off.
42:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, hockey is, I said it, I think I've
42:06
Speaker 1: already said it on the show, but it is so
42:08
Speaker 1: difficult to figure out from a categories perspective. You're almost
42:12
Speaker 1: a fool if you are playing categories in hockey not
42:16
Speaker 1: to aim at the physical stats right away. Get yourself
42:19
Speaker 1: a couple stars, fine, but you really should be finding
42:23
Speaker 1: every star who can give you the other categories right
42:27
Speaker 1: away to be able to dominate that league. There's just,
42:29
Speaker 1: there's no way around it.
42:32
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think with hockey, as you said, the problem
42:35
Speaker 2: is that it's transitioned over time, right? Because before we
42:40
Speaker 2: started doing dynasty, like single season redraft, category hockey is great.
42:45
Speaker 2: I'm totally down with one year of category hockey because
42:48
Speaker 2: that could be fun and you can build it. You
42:50
Speaker 2: can make fun trades that you realize are helpful and
42:54
Speaker 2: this one vacuum year, but doing categories for dynasty hockey
42:59
Speaker 2: is so much more difficult because of the bash components
43:03
Speaker 2: of it, essentially, especially those physical components. I don't really
43:07
Speaker 2: see that it would, it can work. I'm sure there
43:09
Speaker 2: are successful category hockey leagues out there. I know forever.
43:14
Speaker 2: We only played, we only played category redraft with Glenn
43:18
Speaker 2: and myself. We've been playing for years. However, When we
43:22
Speaker 2: changed the points, I was like, oh, this is so
43:24
Speaker 2: much easier. I don't have to think about it. Plus,
43:27
Speaker 2: I'm not really worried. Like points hockey changed the game.
43:30
Speaker 2: I became way more interested once we transitioned to points.
43:33
Speaker 2: And then the one thing that's always been something that
43:36
Speaker 2: I've not really appreciated about fantasy hockey categories is the
43:40
Speaker 2: inclusion of the plus minus category, which is just insane.
43:44
Speaker 2: And in fact, I talked to Glenn before this recording
43:48
Speaker 2: to get his take on it. And he goes, if
43:51
Speaker 2: any person ever tells me that they want to play
43:53
Speaker 2: a league that has plus minus, I'm going to tell
43:56
Speaker 2: them that's complete BS and I would never bother with
43:59
Speaker 2: my time. And I agree. Like that's just such a
44:03
Speaker 2: dumb category for no reason.
44:06
Speaker 1: I turned people down for leagues when I found out
44:08
Speaker 1: it was plus minus. I'm in enough frigging leagues anyway,
44:11
Speaker 1: but I wouldn't join one. And frankly, I'm not going
44:13
Speaker 1: to join one with PIMS. And I know people differ
44:16
Speaker 1: from me on that, but I'm like, you are rewarding
44:20
Speaker 1: something that is hurting the team. And the only reason
44:23
Speaker 1: it's in there is because people have a vestigial enjoyment
44:26
Speaker 1: of fights and, quote, want to reward the physical aspects
44:31
Speaker 1: of the game. Well, trust me, if you're doing a
44:32
Speaker 1: category league, if you're rewarding hits, and hits is getting
44:35
Speaker 1: like one-seventh of the juice of your scoring, you're rewarding physicality.
44:42
Speaker 1: You're making Alex Ovechkin and Brady Kachuk first-round picks easily.
44:49
Speaker 1: Alex Ovechkin was a high first-round pick for I don't
44:51
Speaker 1: know how many years. He won't be now, but in Brady-Kachuk,
44:55
Speaker 1: the only thing with those Kachuk brothers, they hit like crazy.
44:59
Speaker 1: Brady shoots like crazy. That's why I've always loved him
45:01
Speaker 1: for fantasy leagues. He's becoming a little bit more of
45:03
Speaker 1: a questionable character in the great landscape of hockey, but
45:08
Speaker 1: that is his superpower, and it elevates him beyond the
45:11
Speaker 1: scoring totals. His scoring totals are not elite, but.
45:16
Speaker 2: I just remember, yeah, I'm sorry. I just remember like
45:19
Speaker 2: when you were getting down to it, you just filtered
45:21
Speaker 2: the categories by PIMS and the, okay, I'll just take
45:24
Speaker 2: the highest one because I don't care. And I remember
45:27
Speaker 2: one year specifically, I was like, who the heck is
45:29
Speaker 2: Radco Gudis? And that dude had the most penalty minutes
45:34
Speaker 2: I've ever seen. And then forevermore, I was like, that's
45:37
Speaker 2: my guy. Cause that's the dude that's going to be
45:39
Speaker 2: in the box. And I'm with you. I'm at this point,
45:42
Speaker 2: I don't really find value in Dynasty. When it comes
45:46
Speaker 2: to this, there are redraft strategies where you could just
45:49
Speaker 2: go goalie and just bash, right? Goalie and bash and
45:53
Speaker 2: win the goalie stats and then try to get as
45:55
Speaker 2: many physical ones as you can. But you're going to
45:58
Speaker 2: be investing high draft. And this is not a redraft show, right?
46:01
Speaker 2: So we're out of town on hockey. Sorry, guys.
46:05
Speaker 1: Hey, but Raiko Gudas, he truly like he started out
46:09
Speaker 1: as just a mean guy. He's from Prague, Czech Republic.
46:15
Speaker 1: And he just looks me. He looks Cro-Magnon. No offense, Rodko.
46:19
Speaker 1: He's a good dude. He was with the Capitals for
46:22
Speaker 1: a year and I enjoyed cheering for him, but he's
46:24
Speaker 1: just a guy who hits people and gets in fights
46:27
Speaker 1: and does those things. But he was the captain of
46:30
Speaker 1: the Ducks last year. And of course, famously injured Austin Matthews,
46:34
Speaker 1: took Matthews out for the season late in the year.
46:37
Speaker 1: And then nobody would fight him from the Maple Leafs.
46:39
Speaker 1: Nobody even stood up to him. Everybody just was skating
46:42
Speaker 1: around and that That almost burned down Toronto, the city
46:45
Speaker 1: that is, because people were so mad about that. But yeah,
46:48
Speaker 1: Rocco Kudas, man, he was a cheat code in fantasy
46:51
Speaker 1: there for a couple of years.
46:53
Speaker 2: So I'm over here prompting the guy that ended my
46:56
Speaker 2: fantasy season. Dang it. I had no idea that was him,
47:00
Speaker 2: but that's unfortunate for me with that Matthews injury.
47:03
Speaker 1: That was him. I think he ended two of my
47:04
Speaker 1: fantasy seasons last year, Diesel and FSGA. I was counting
47:08
Speaker 1: on Austin Matthews, but Yeah, it's tough. But yeah, those
47:12
Speaker 1: types of guys have so much value in category leagues.
47:15
Speaker 1: And then really in category leagues too, where even if
47:19
Speaker 1: you have three or four goalie categories, the goalies become
47:23
Speaker 1: so outsized in terms of their value to the team.
47:26
Speaker 1: The problem of goalies is just eternal in fantasy hockey
47:30
Speaker 1: because it's eternal in hockey. It's like you think you
47:33
Speaker 1: have a great team, you think everything's going well, and
47:35
Speaker 1: then you realize there's one guy on the other side
47:38
Speaker 1: who's basically the equivalent of all pitchers. If you were
47:42
Speaker 1: playing fantasy baseball and there was one pitcher per team
47:45
Speaker 1: and he basically pitched five out of every eight games
47:50
Speaker 1: or something like that, and that was half of your categories,
47:53
Speaker 1: what would you do with that? It breaks. I love
47:57
Speaker 1: fantasy hockey more than any other fantasy sport probably, but
48:00
Speaker 1: there are things about it that systemically are so flawed
48:03
Speaker 1: that they're broken if you don't do points.
48:05
Speaker 2: I did see that. I know we're getting close to
48:08
Speaker 2: the end here, but one thing that I've seen discussed
48:10
Speaker 2: in the past is instead of using some of those
48:13
Speaker 2: categories that we despise, people have weighed more onto points.
48:16
Speaker 2: If someone scores a goal, they weigh goals twice as
48:19
Speaker 2: far as weighted. And that's something that my head cannot
48:22
Speaker 2: comprehend because why would I want to put so much
48:25
Speaker 2: more value in the top? The top guy should always
48:28
Speaker 2: be valuable, but they already do everything. Hockey, I don't know,
48:32
Speaker 2: but that's something that I've seen on the side for weighting.
48:35
Speaker 2: points for two, and then for assists, one and a half,
48:39
Speaker 2: or just points, one and a half in general, adding points.
48:41
Speaker 2: I don't know, man, but those are some of the
48:43
Speaker 2: things that I've seen to try to combat the plus
48:46
Speaker 2: minus in the PIMS. But I think we're on the
48:48
Speaker 2: same wavelength as when it comes to a dynasty league
48:52
Speaker 2: categories is probably not the way to go anymore.
48:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, I do. Actually, that's one of the things that
48:59
Speaker 1: I've advocated for from time to time is Not to
49:02
Speaker 1: put plus minus in that end, but two points for goals,
49:05
Speaker 1: two points for assists, like a double category for those.
49:08
Speaker 1: And then hits, shots, blocks. You got seven categories and
49:11
Speaker 1: you can still win a lot, but you can't win
49:14
Speaker 1: the matchup without having some kind of point component that
49:17
Speaker 1: you want.
49:18
Speaker 2: Absolutely. I couldn't agree more.
49:20
Speaker 1: It's going to do it for us, Marcus. My dog
49:23
Speaker 1: is ready to end this recording. He's very upset that
49:27
Speaker 1: we had certain opinions about points and I'm going to
49:30
Speaker 1: have to leave it in because we're running up on time.
49:32
Speaker 1: But why don't you let people know, make your Marcus announcements,
49:35
Speaker 1: your general trash talk. Give us what you have to
49:37
Speaker 1: give us this week.
49:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I don't. Unfortunately, Jesse, you did make me
49:41
Speaker 2: make a Twitter. So now that I'm on Twitter, I
49:44
Speaker 2: refuse to use it. I will do everything in my
49:46
Speaker 2: power to transition Red Rocks to Discord. It is what
49:49
Speaker 2: it is. I will do everything that I can. It's
49:51
Speaker 2: already started. But I don't do social media. I just
49:54
Speaker 2: encourage everyone to continue to enjoy fantasy sports, Dynasty, keep
49:59
Speaker 2: building those relationships. And more now than ever, because I
50:03
Speaker 2: matched up against the beast. Remember, the goal is always
50:07
Speaker 2: to beat Kevin.
50:09
Speaker 1: Poor Kevin. I traded him Jaden Higgins. Jaden Higgins went
50:12
Speaker 1: out for the season just now. So, yeah, I ripped
50:15
Speaker 1: off Kevin. I feel bad that I wasn't.
50:18
Speaker 2: He did message me about that trade before because he
50:21
Speaker 2: asked me if I was interested. And I was just–
50:24
Speaker 2: I needed a few days to step away from fantasy
50:26
Speaker 2: because I had to take care of the adult things.
50:29
Speaker 2: And when I saw the trade, I went, damn, I
50:31
Speaker 2: could have really made an offer. Especially when that happened.
50:35
Speaker 2: I was like, that's even worse. But it couldn't happen
50:37
Speaker 2: to a nicer guy, I'm sure.
50:39
Speaker 1: Poor Kevin. All right, well, Kevin just catching straight.
50:43
Speaker 2: For no reason. Literally for no reason.
50:46
Speaker 1: No, the only reason is because he wins every time.
50:48
Speaker 2: The strays will.
50:50
Speaker 1: Continue until success declines. All right, thank you for coming on, Marcus,
50:55
Speaker 1: and talking some fantasy with us. And until next time, man.
50:59
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me, Jesse. Take care, brother.
51:08
Speaker 1: Before I get out of here, thanks to the boys
51:11
Speaker 1: that are in this league for hosting and posting. Thanks
51:13
Speaker 1: to all of you for listening, rating, reviewing, subscribing. Checking
51:18
Speaker 1: me out on Blue Sky, Jesse Sevier. Checking me out
51:21
Speaker 1: on X, DYN Sports Life. I hope everybody enjoys it.
51:25
Speaker 1: If you've ever thought about being a part of our diesel,
51:28
Speaker 1: we keep calling it the diesel, by the way, if
51:29
Speaker 1: you're confused by that. Diesel is just the DSL league,
51:35
Speaker 1: and I call it the diesel because it amuses me.
51:37
Speaker 1: But if you've ever thought about being part of a
51:39
Speaker 1: Ford Sport League and you want to get in touch
51:41
Speaker 1: with me, no openings right now, but teams do come up.
51:45
Speaker 1: And some of them, very good teams. It's just some
51:48
Speaker 1: people lose bandwidth. There's a lot of bandwidth involved. Or
51:51
Speaker 1: teaming up with somebody else is always an option too.
51:54
Speaker 1: We've got Marcus as part of a three-man team, as
51:57
Speaker 1: you heard him discuss. Anyway, that's just kind of putting
52:01
Speaker 1: that out. I like to put that out there once
52:02
Speaker 1: in a while. Thank you for listening, everybody. And until
52:05
Speaker 1: next time, good luck in all your Dynasty fantasy leagues.