| | | | Wednesday, March 17, 2021 | | Happy St. Patrick's Day! You've probably heard this at some point but salary cap drafts are the best way to play Fantasy sports. It doesn't matter if it's baseball or football. Having the ability to get exactly which players you want is awesome. Snake drafts are the classic way to play in Fantasy but your player pool is limited by what draft slot you have. What happens when you really wanted Mookie Betts on your team but you wind up with the 10th pick? No Betts for you! | | In a salary cap draft, you can have Betts, Juan Soto, Jacob deGrom, and Gerrit Cole all on the same team. Of course you still have a $260 budget you need to abide by, but you can never get all four of those players on your team in a snake draft. There are different ways to attack to it. If you did wind up with the four names I mentioned above, chances are the rest or your team is going to be quite barren. That's what we like to calls a "stars and scrubs" approach (or maybe you've heard "studs and duds"). If that's not for you, then you can live in the mid-tier of bidding where you're likely going to find many gems in your salary cap draft. Either way, it's a great time. If you've never played in this format, definitely look to try it out. | | And of course, you can subscribe to make sure you get the latest episodes of Fantasy Baseball Today right when they drop on Apple and Spotify. | | Also, the Fantasy Baseball Today Draft Guide is LIVE! It's a one-stop-shop to help anyone dominate their drafts that includes sleepers, breakouts, busts, rankings, analysis, tiers and more. The best part about it? It's free! | | | | LIVE Rotisserie Salary Cap Draft! | | | | Let's hit on a few of the most glaring observations we noticed during this Salary Cap Draft. You can see the full results here. | | Right off the bat, people are paying up for elite pitching. Each of Jacob deGrom, Gerrit Cole, and Shane Bieber for $50+ and were among the first eight players nominated. It wasn't just elite pitching, though. Elite hitting was inflated as well with each of Ronald Acuña, Juan Soto, and Mike Trout also going for $50+. That meant the mid-tier players would come at a discount later. That they did. Each of Nolan Arenado, Aaron Judge, Ozzie Albies, and Luis Robert went for less than $20. Remember during your salary cap drafts that if the elite players are inflated, other talent will come at a discount. How did the rest of our teams turn out? Happy you asked. Scott White did Scott White things. While he didn't wind up with a top-tier ace, he did land five of his top 35 starting pitchers: Kenta Maeda, Carlos Carrasco, Zach Plesac, Kyle Hendricks and Dylan Bundy. Chris Towers picked his spots wisely. He wound up with four hitters valued at $25 or more: Jose Ramirez, Manny Machado, Marcell Ozuna and Xander Bogaerts. On the pitching side, he mixed veterans in with youngsters. His top four starting pitchers were Max Scherzer, Zack Greinke, Pablo Lopez and Sixto Sanchez. For me I just really wanted players I haven't had the ability to draft yet. That's how I wound up with Mike Trout at $50, Lucas Giolito at $35, Alex Bregman at $23, and Max Fried at $12. I also knew I wanted two aces and I accomplished that with Giolito and Luis Castillo. | | | | Latest News and Notes | | | | News broke late Tuesday night that Royals top prospect Bobby Witt Jr. has a chance to make the Royals Opening Day roster. When asked about it, Royals general manager Dayton Moore said he is "open-minded" about that possibility. The former second overall pick has impressed in spring training, going 9-for-31 with three home runs. He should be on everybody's radar at this point as a late-round flier in that same range as Jarred Kelenic and Alex Kirilloff. While it's not major news, it matters in category leagues. Orioles reliever Hunter Harvey was placed on the 60-day injured list with an oblique strain. The two most likely candidates to pick up saves in his absence are Tanner Scott and Cesar Valdez. Carlos Carrasco, who's currently dealing with elbow inflammation, threw an 18-pitch bullpen session Tuesday. The next step will be for him to get into a simulated game. While Carrasco has top-12 starting pitcher potential, he does come with a good amount of risk. Eugenio Suarez started at shortstop for the Reds Tuesday night, with Mike Moustakas at third base and prospect Jonathan Indian at second. The Reds currently don't have a plan at shortstop, and that's how they found themselves in this situation. If this remains, Suarez will gain shortstop eligibility early in the season while Moustakas will gain third base eligibility. India was the fifth overall pick for the Reds back in 2018. Through 165 minor-league games, he has 17 home runs with 17 steals. He's worth a look as a late-round flier in deeper Roto leagues. | | | | The best of what you might've missed | | Everybody loves prospects. Everybody also includes Scott, who wrote up the top-10 prospects you should be stashing in redraft leagues. Here's to finding the next Acuña! | Here's what to look out for today
| | If you don't know our favorite players to draft by now, then where have you been? Either way, Chris will let you know. He'll be writing up the players he's drafted most to this point in the Fantasy Baseball season. | | | | | | | | Bracket Week | | THE BRACKET IS LIVE! | Need help filling out your bracket? CBS Sports HQ has got you covered, with non-stop coverage of every game from every region of the NCAA Tournament. Leave it to the experts this year, we know you might be rusty after taking last year off 😉
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