Welcome to the Rotowire Fantasy Baseball podcast, sponsored by Winbet.

I'm Clay Link here with Todd Zola and a special guest to kick things off.

We'll actually have two guests on the show today.

But joining us is Derek Van Riper from The Athletic, former Rotowire baseball editor and Rotowire alum.

Great to have you on, DVR. Thanks for joining us. Yeah, thanks for having me on. Great to see you guys. Yeah, no two-star pitchers, obviously, and no pickups to talk about, but we have an upgrade in DVR. Todd, how are you doing today? I was ready to start opening day next year with the two-start pitchers, but we're going to wait on that, huh? I'm doing well. We'll explain why we have DVR in a moment. Well, we have DVR on because he's DVR. But we have a little, kind of, not so much a surprise, but we have something special planned. And it's, you know, good to wrap it up. I'm glad I'm on this week. I mean, you replace me. I'll not replace me, but I was off last week. And I was afraid I'd get an email that said, you know, Colette's going to take over for you. You're always worried about getting Wally pipped, but you're a, you're a Hall of Famer, Todd. So you got a, you have some job security. You're like Kenley Jansen or Raldus Chapman, one of these types. But I just want to say, you know, as the season wraps up. I'm saying, I still have a job, even if I suck. That's not what I was saying. But you're just so established in the role. You're so locked in. You can hand it to you in the ninth and you get the job done um but i just want to say as we wrap things up here for this season thank you all for taking

time out of your week every week to talk with us it's been great and uh not the best fantasy season for me

i just wanted to admit that uh and say it wasn't my best year, but still hanging in in a couple leagues.

But I learned a $1,700 lesson, guys.

I bought my way into my own main event this year.

It was a first time deal.

And took Trevor Bauer over Vladty Jr in the second round now

vladdie junior wasn't really going in the second early second round most

drafts but I just learned that you know you do all this research just get get the guy you

want if it doesn't feel right don't don't pick the guy and Trevor Bauer DVR I'm sorry that you know we had a deal

involving Bauer and even on the field I just think it wasn't the right pick should

have trusted my gut and gone after Vlad and you put that kind of money on the line

you should go with what you feel is right not just what the market says is probably the

right deal so you guys are actually even though the 2021 baseball season still underway you're

gearing up for a 2022 draft as we speak is that right yeah Yeah, I written about it in the Z-Files.

Derek and I have been teaming up for a few years at this point.

There's a draft that is run.

It's an NFPC satellite, and it seems to start a day earlier every year, DBR.

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