Fantasy Baseball Today - Opening Day Overreactions! Garrett Crochet, Injuries & Bullpen Updates (3/29 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

Is Garrett Crochet legit (1:22)? ... Shane Bieber is so back (7:17)! ... Is Jason Foley the Tigers' closer (11:05)? ... Dbacks offense exploded on Opening Day (17:30). ... Should Ceddane Rafaela be rostered in all leagues (19:15)? ... News (22:35): Justin Steele is headed to the IL. ... What stood out from Opening Day lineups (28:19)? ... Corbin Burnes was awesome in his debut (35:08). ... Are we concerned with some of these lower velocities (37:10)? ... Should Maikel Garcia and Michael Busch be rostered in more leagues (41:12)? ... We wrap up with pitching, hitting and bullpen standouts (49:14). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

in tough fantasy baseball today on March 29th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, so much to talk about. Opening day overreactions, injuries, waiver wire ads, bullpen updates, and you know there's only one person who could help us start the season. Take it away, Susan.

Oh my goodness gracious. All right, oh my goodness gracious. What a throw by Juan Soto, by the way. Am I right? Am I right? All right, let's do opening day overreactions, and we will start with Scott. You're up.

All right, I assume we're putting this in like a statement. We're making a statement here that's intended to be an overreaction. Okay, so mine is, Garrett Crochet really is an ace. Because remember, we're all kind of making fun of the White Sox. You're starting Garrett Crochet opening day. He hasn't started a game since high school. He has started games. I'd start games at college, but he wasn't primarily a starter in college.

And you know what? It went really well against a suspect Tigers lineup, I would say. But still, the fact he went six innings and struck out eight in his first major league start, Garrett Crochet walked nobody while striking out eight, allowed one run, was, I think about as good as anybody could have hoped for in his first major league start. Now, I will point out, you know, 11 whiffs on 87 pitches. That's pretty good. 87% of his pitches were either slider or fastball, so basically a two-pitch guy. But that fastball peaked at 99.8 miles per hour.

Average exit velocity off Garrett Crochet, 87.1 miles per hour. So they weren't making hard contact when they did make contact. And I've always had something about Garrett Crochet. A wandering eye. Not in this case, but just like I've had an infatuation, let's say, with Garrett Crochet. From the first videos I saw on draft day when the White Sox took them however many years ago, something about the way that fastball like zips in there. I understand it's a hard fastball.

But like somebody who's good at like breaking down individual pitch characteristics, I'm sure could explain what it is I'm seeing on the fastball. but it's just such a pretty fastball to me. And I don't think he's available in any of my leagues because I was picking him up in a lot of them, but he's widely available on CBS. And I would say Garrett Crochet, you know, probably not actually an ace,

probably not every start's going to go this well, but there is legitimate talent here. And he's one of maybe two players I might be looking to pick up here after opening day. I'd say there are a handful of players worth at least a look, certainly, I mean, AL only or NL only, you know, go ahead, Nick Martini just in case. But like, yeah, I think Garra Kirch, like you said, 87% of the pitches were fastballs and sliders, but it was a starter-ish repertoire, right?

Like, he had the fastball, which looks really good. He had the slider, which looks really good. He threw seven cutters and four changeups, but it was all fastball slider early. And then he started working the changeup and cutter in as he went. And so, you know, that does suggest to me that there is at least a little bit of depth to this arsenal. He does throw four distinct pitches, I guess, is the way to put it. And yeah, I think the likeliest outcome is that this doesn't last either because of injuries or, you know, he just can't be effective as a starting pitcher full-time.

But for his first, for his first start that mattered since college, I mean, since 2020, he hadn't started a game. And he only started one game in 2020 in college. This was pretty impressive. Yeah, I think Gary Crochet, 50% rostered right now. He, this was eye opening. And I do think it probably just needs to be 100% rostered just in case, right? Like, just in case we're talking about another Cole Reagan's Terrick Scoobel type of ascension. It's unlikely.

It's unlikely. And obviously, it's going to be tough to drop someone. But if you have Justin Steele, a roster spot just opened up for you if you play in an IL league at least. So certainly Garry Crochet is the top priority. out of Thursday's games to add if you have Justin Steele. And I do wonder if, you know, mostly the two pitch mix, I know you mentioned Chris that he worked in some other pitches. The fact that he has this huge leg kick and it's just a really unique delivery,

the way that he throws and it's funky. He throws hard and it's a really good slider. I kind of wonder if he could just make it work with the two pitches that he has because they look like really, really good pitches. Garrett Crochet is 39% rostered. He's RP only to start the season on CBS. I was going to ask you guys, Garrett Crochet or Frankie Montas, who's also RP only to start the season.

He had a great start in his Reds debut going up against the Nationals. He threw six shutout innings, four hits, zero walks, four strikeouts, only eight swinging strikes on 81 pitches. But the velocity was mostly there, 95.4 miles per hour. He threw his splitter a bunch. Who would you guys rather speculate on, Crochet or Frankie Montas? I'd rather speculate on Crochet, but I probably would have said that before today, too. I think even when Frankie Montas has been at his best in the past,

it had been very unreliable because he kind of loses the feel for the splitter sometimes and becomes unusable. At his best, he's great. But I also didn't so much care for the development I saw in this start. Of course, Frankie Montas hardly pitched last year, but it seems like he's emphasizing a cutter now, which is usually a pitch-to-contact type pitch, and that might explain why the strikeouts were low

and the swinging strike rate was low. And it doesn't mean that's entirely how this season's going to play out for Frankie Montas. But I was more impressed by what I saw from Crochet today than from Montas. Absolutely, absolutely. All right, Chris, give me really stitched together a great performance. Oh, gosh, here we go. All right, Chris, give me your overreaction. Shane Bieber is going to finish as a top five AL-Sy Young candidate.

What? Wow. You have never once heard a bold prediction like that on this show in the last 23 hours or so. Actually, we're recording later than we did yesterday. So 24 hours. I will point out, we're already 0 for one, by the way. We started past 1230, so that's great. So I want to say that like Chris, Chris, like I planned to take Garrett Crochet,

but Chris had also planned to take Garrett Crochet for his overreaction because he thought I would want to take Shane Beaver. and I said, how could I possibly have a bigger overreaction than the one I said yesterday, which was Shane Bieber, would be top five. So a young finisher and the AL for the Bold Prediction Show. So that's good. I'm glad you're on board, Chris. He looked to, I mean, look, it was the A's. It was the A's.

Yeah, that was the A's. You know, they got like two MLB caliber hitters, and one of them, they just picked up off waivers last week. Like, what's a bad lineup? And Estuary Ruiz was not in that lineup, by the way. Yeah, that's not great for Estuary Ruiz. It's one game. But yeah, I know, Shane Bieber looked terrific.

Velocity was up only a mile per hour. I think we probably expected a little bit more than that. But hey, we'll take it because the cutter looked tremendous. 10 swings and misses on 22 pitches, 11 swings, 10 misses on the cutter for Shane Bieber. four with the change-up. Change-up velocity was up two miles per hour. Looked like he reworked that some. Slider was getting more break.

He got two swings and misses with that one. 18 total on 83 pitches. 11 strikeouts, one of two pitchers to go for 11 strikeouts on Thursday. Maybe Shane Bieber finishes as the A L. Sall-Sye Young runner up behind Corbyn Burns. That'd be a nice way for both of our bold predictions to come true. But yeah, Shane Bieber, look, there's still concerns about the forearm injury that he had last season. There are still concerns about his ability to hold this velocity jump and all the increases that he's seen.

But he looked about as good as you could possibly have asked in his first start. I thought it was an interesting pitch mix for Bieber in this outing too because he leaned on the fastball a little bit more than previous years. He used it 45%. It's only a one game sample. I realize that. but he also threw more changeups than we've really ever seen before. Changeup looked really good.

16% changeup usage, the slider. He used it only 13% of the time. So I'm not exactly sure what to make of this, Scott. I mean, it might just be that this is a new version of Shane Bieber, a better version, a better version, maybe a more diverse version of Shane Bieber than we've seen in the past. I just wanted to point out that he did it differently

in this start than we've seen in years past. Yeah, I noticed the same thing. Like I obviously was, excited about what we were hearing in spring training, which is why I had that bold prediction, and I was excited to see that he performed well in the season opener as well as he did, but it wasn't in the way I thought it was going to be. I thought there were going to be fewer cutters this year because it kind of took him away from getting swings and misses. And he got all the swings and misses, not all of them, but he got the majority of the swings and misses on the

cutter itself. So was that just, I don't know, let's see him face a better lineup. Let's see him face a better lineup. Let's see if you can continue this with the cutter. Let's see if the pitch mix remains the same. But obviously there's no reason to be anything but encouraged about Shane Bieber's season debut here. Let's just stick in the AL Central for all of our opening day overreactions.

And talk about the Tigers bullpen. Jason Foley, is he just their closer? Because he looked pretty good in the outing that we saw here. So the Tigers had a one-run lead throughout the game. It was just a 1-0 score. Shelby Miller pitched in the seventh Andrew Chafin came in in the eighth he got four outs so pitched the

got the first out of the ninth inning as well then Jason Foley not Alex Lang came in for the save he struck out two and he looked dominant average 99.3 miles per hour on the sinker which is up two miles per hour from last year he maxed out at 101.1.3 miles per hour with that pitch

and I was getting this question I'll throw it to you guys do you drop Alex Lang for Jason Foley It just, it feels like we just don't know on opening day. It's premature. And I think back to, well, 2021, Julian Meriwether, I think got the first two saves for the Blue Jays. And it was like, oh, man, the fantasy community was ready to just like, Jordan Romano, you are dead to us. Julian and Maryweather is the best reliever in baseball.

Yes. And I think that happened a couple years ago, too, with the Reds. I'm trying to remember the reliever's name. You got a save on opening. Day. Was that like Lucas Sims or someone? No. T.J. Anton?

Santian. Oh, Tony Santian. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, so I referenced at the top of the show, Garrett Crochet was one of two players I might consider picking up based on opening day. The other was Jason Foley because, and I owe Jason Foley an apology at some point in one of the relief pitcher shows we did in the offseason. I said he really didn't have the stuff to close. I was mostly just looking at strikeout rate. There are like a manual Class A vibes here with Jason Foley, especially since he's throwing even harder.

Just a wicked sinker may not translate to a big strikeout rate, but you can understand why the other numbers were as good as they were. And if it's harder now, maybe the strikeouts end up improving. Alex Lang, the tiger stuck with him, I think, longer than anyone really expected them to last year. and so I kind of just assumed that leash would extend to this year. The fact he didn't even appear in a one-run game and Jason Foley looked this good. Like it might be another Julian Meriweather situation from two years ago, but it might not be.

And so I don't know that I'd go as far as to drop Lange in a league where saves are scarce, but I'd certainly be trying to pick up Foley in leagues where saves are scarce. And I'd be looking to do that even if I'd be looking to do that, even if I didn't have Lang. The thing I would point out here is it was a weird situation because Andrew Chafin started the ninth. There was a lefty up to open the ninth inning.

It was Andrew Ben and Tendee. So Andrew Chaffin pitched the whole eighth, faced Andrew Ben and Tendi, and then gave way to Jason Foley. And so maybe they just didn't want Lang to come in in a non-save situation or a save situation, but not with a full inning. maybe Foley has more experience pitching in, you know, more of a fireman role. That's the one extenuating circumstance I could think of when looking at this usage. But yeah, absolutely.

I'm writing about WaverWire Target's for tomorrow's newsletter and Jason Foley's absolutely right there at the top below Garrett Crochet. Would you rank Jason Foley ahead of all of the Brewers relievers right now? Just because we don't know. But we did kind of get an answer with the twins bullpen. Brock Stewart pitching the eighth inning, Griffin Jacks pitched a ninth. They both pitched well. Kind of an answer.

Yeah, kind of an answer. We got an answer, maybe not the answer. I would prefer Foley to any of the Brewers' options and either of the Twins options. If it came down to it, I'm not like eager to dispose of any of those Brewers options or Twins options if I've already made some kind of investment in it. But if that's, if that was the only way of, picking up Foley. First of all, we talked in the offseason.

Yes, Griffin Jackson got the first save, Brock Stewart working to eighth. Maybe that's just the way it'll go with Yon Duran out. But Rocco Baldelli really liked to mix things up in the ninth before Yon Duran settled in that role. So I just think we need more time to see how that's going to play out. Obviously, advantage Griffin Jacks for now. But in leagues where saves are scarce,

I'm not quite ready to dump Brock Stewart. And in the Brewer's situation with three candidates, it's there for a half season fill-in, that's really messy, and that's a lot of roster space being taken up on major questions. I think it might still be Lang, but if it's not Lang, then it's Foley. And it's like less potential frustrations with that pickup. I think the best thing Foley has going for him, beyond just that the version of him that we saw tonight might just be a really, really good pitcher is that if he is the closer, he's the only one out of those situations who has a full season's worth of runway if he's good enough to hang on to the job.

Whereas I suppose it's possible that Adner Uribe or Yolall Paiamps or Trevor McGill is just so good that they can't justify putting Devin Williams back in the role when he's coming back from injury. That seems unlikely though. Devin Williams is arguably the best reliever in baseball. when healthy. So I think that's what gives Foley the edge. I would have a really hard time dropping one of the Brewers guys,

unless it was McGill maybe, just because I think he's the lowest probability chance. But yeah, I think it's probably okay. Okay, last one. And just give me a yes or no. Would you take Jason Foley over Kevin Ginkle right now? No. Hmm.

But it's close. I think I might just because that's another one where it's it's a month for Gingle. You know, obviously there's the potential for setbacks, but when Seawald's ready, he's the closer. I don't think there's any question about that.

I was thinking more like a month and a half than a month. It could be probably four to six weeks. Might be splitting hairs there. Yep. All right, I do have a bonus overreaction. The D-backs will have the best offense in baseball this season because I have a more accurate overreaction to that.

All right, what do you got? Rockies are the worst team in baseball. Or Scott's ERA will never recover after starting Kyle Freeland in an NL only league. You know, the insult to injury or maybe the injury to insult is my ace in that NL only league is Justin Steele. Oh, God. So a lot of bad pitchers get started in NL only leagues. I'm not going to throw out the season because of one crooked stat line. opening day. But yes, I wish I did not start Kyle Freeland in that in all lonely league.

I did just want to highlight this Dback's offense, by the way. 16 runs scored in this game. 14 in the third inning alone. I swear I went to go do something, eat dinner. I probably wasn't eating dinner at that point. But I came back and the third inning was still going. I was like, how is this possible? There were three hits by Catelle Marte, three hits by Lordis Gareel, who also added a home run.

He had five RBI. He looked awesome in this game. Multiple hits for each of Christian Walker, Gabriel Moreno, A. Eugenio Suarez, Haraldo Perdomo, and Blaise Alexander, who we mentioned the other day. Looks like he will be the short side platoon at DH, along with Jock Peterson, who will be the strong side platoon. Let's quickly promote a few things.

Download and follow FBT on Spotify. If you're watching on YouTube, you can scan that QR code. It'll take you right to the Spotify show link. And subscribe to the FBT newsletter if you haven't already. Before we get to the news and notes, let's quickly run through another prospect spotlight. Time to discuss some of the prospects who are catching our eye from a fantasy perspective thanks to our sponsors at Hyundai, where they're thinking about every step of your journey out on the road. Let's talk about Red Sox outfielder Ceylon Raphaela, who we have talked about throughout the spring.

I thought it was interesting that he started in center field here on opening day. He batted seventh in the Red Sox lineup, went one for four with a triple RBI, and a run scored. And in the spring, he looked great. Three homers, five steals. Strikeout rate was under 20%. Coming off a big year in the minors last year as well. Sadan Rafael is 50% rostered.

Chris, I'll throw this your way. Is he a must roster? Should he be just added in all formats? Ceylon Raphael. Certainly not in all formats. Most points leagues, probably not, because the contributions that you're going to get from him in an ideal world are,

going to be held back by what will probably be pretty bad plate discipline. That's always been the knock on him. When you look at the minor league track record, the production's very good. What was it, 26 homers last season? I'm going off the top of my head. 20 homers,

36 steals. Yeah. And then you look at where he ranks, and it's like, this is a potential gold glove caliber center fielder, also a very good defensive shortstop, who doesn't really rank that high despite some pretty impressive,

production on the surface level. So it's bad swing decisions, bad plate discipline is what's holding him back. And that's always been the question here. So I think that's probably going to hold his value in points leagues back. We also don't know if he's going to play every day. But in Roto leagues, the possibility for 15 homers and 25 stolen bases,

I mean, that's a valuable player. So yeah, I think all categories leagues, Raphael deserves to be rostered. Again, he's 50% rostered. Victor Scott, who started on opening date here for the Cardinals. He went 0 for 3, but he did steal a base. He got on base via error, and then he was off and running. He is currently the most added outfielder on CBS.

Also a prospect, so fits in this segment very well. Scott, who would you rather have Raphaella or Victor Scott? Raphaela. You're answering for him. Well, who would you rather have, Chris? Victor Scott, obviously. Yeah. I would rather have Raphaela because I think

look, there's a chance he slumps his way back down to the minors. He looked good in spring training. The Red Sox felt like he had made enough progress with the swing decisions that they obviously decided to award him the job and they didn't have to. But he won it on merit. Well, Victor Scott, it took a few injuries to get him there. Lars Neupar might be back next week. And, you know, so Victor Scott doesn't hit the ground running.

He's right back down. And, you know, Raphael should steal a lot of bases too and brings a power. element as well that Victor Scott lacks. So between the two, I'd rather have Raphaelah, but I agree at this stage of his career with the plate discipline concerns he's not much roster. I want to roster him in five out fielders, and I'll point out that he is among my sleeper hitters for week two, if your league follows the CBS standard of this opening weekend being its own week.

Week two starts on Monday, and the Red Sox have good matchups, and Raphael. as among the 10 sleeper hitters. All right. Thanks again to Hyundai for sponsoring this segment and the show. Learn more at HyundaiUSA.com. Let's take our first break when we return. The news and notes, lots of injuries. We'll talk about it right after this.

Welcome back in. We've alluded to it a few times already, but Justin Steele exited his start with a left hamstring strain. After the game, Craig Counsel said Steele will be placed on the IL. They did not offer a timeline. And Steele was pitching really well in Texas against a tough. lineup, four and two-thirds innings, one run, six strikeouts. The Cubs are already without Jameson, who's on the I.L.

with a back injury, so they are being stretched really thin right now. If you lost, deal, looking for replacements. Obviously, we mentioned Garrett Crochet up top, Frankie Montas as well. The other most added starting pitchers were Louise Heel. Jack Flaredes already up to 74%, so might not be available. Tyler Wells, Jared Jones. would you guys take crochet ahead of heel, Wells, and Jared Jones? I might have had a different answer yesterday,

but I think based on, look, we've seen success from him and all of that group is largely unproven. So, yeah, I'd take crochet at the top at this point. I think it's just like from a game theory perspective, who's going to be available tomorrow out of that group? It's not going to be Garrett Crochet if he's, available right now after that start. Yeah, you'll have another chance at those other guys. Yep. We got the full Royce Lewis experience on opening day. He went two for two with a home run

before leaving the game with a quad injury. He underwent an MRI and currently awaiting the results. He's dealt with many leg injuries, including two torn ACLs on his right knee and then a strain left hamstring last year. If Royce Lewis does miss any time, it looks like Kyle Farmer or Willie Castro would likely step in or maybe. I'll just mention. mention the name. If they get crazy, if this turns out to be a long-term injury, Brooks Lee, just the name to pay attention to. Yeah, one of their top prospects. I'm not saying absolutely he will get called up, but absolutely needs to be mentioned because in spring training, they were trying him out at second base. They were giving him an opportunity.

They didn't send him down until, I think, the final round of cuts. And basically everything that I read about Brooks Lee was, as soon as there's an opportunity, he could get the chance. So certainly a name to keep in mind. And if he gets called up, definitely a name that I think is worth, you know, not adding in all formats, but having on your radar for sure. Yep. And when we talk about some waiver wire hitters later on,

I do have some third base slash corner infielders who maybe could provide a replacement for Royce Lewis if you lost him on your fantasy team. David Bednar was unavailable to pitch Thursday due to ongoing rehab from a lat injury. He suffered earlier in the spring. he made his debut on March 21st and then pitched again on March 24th. This one seems a little fishy to me, guys.

I don't know. I don't know if I'm necessarily buying this. I mean, it's a 10-day I.L. Right? Or is it longer for pitchers? It's 15 for pitchers. For pitchers? Okay.

Yeah, that might explain why he's not just on the IL then. I mean, he pitched on March 24th. That was four days ago. Yeah. I feel like he should have been able to go. If they didn't put him on the aisle, then they must think he's closed. they probably just were being extra cautious here, would be my guess.

Let me, so, there was some speculation that he started warming up. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. I saw someone talking about that from the broadcast, that the Pirates broadcasts were speculating that he had gotten warm earlier, but that they didn't want to have him get up and then down again and then get back up.

So once he started throwing and he didn't come in, they just decided to pass on it. So that's possible. It's interesting that it was not a Roll-as-Chapman who got the save in this one, although it went into 12-innings, so that probably explains it. He did pitch the ninth inning with the game tied. Yeah, he pitched the ninth with the game tied. So Jose Hernandez got the save.

It's probably still a Roldest Chapman, if anything, if Bednar does have to miss more time, but I wouldn't think that there's anything to worry about here beyond the worries that you had coming in? I hope so. I don't know. I have David Beddner in a few spots, so I hope you're right, Chris. Max Kepler was removed after fouling a ball off his right leg. X-rays were negative.

Nixon Zell broke his thumb-fueling a ground ball before Thursday's game. Ildomorrow Vargas started at third base for the Nationals. Max Scher threw a bullpen session on Tuesday, his first time throwing off a mound since he underwent surgery to address a herniated disc back in December. the team suggested Scherzer could be ready to rejoin the rotation before the end of May. So some pretty good news there. Not on the 60 Day IL. Yep. Some good news there for Max Scherzer.

Garrett Cole, by the way, was placed on the 60 day IL. And then I think there was a column that came out from John Heyman here on Thursday that said Garik Cole is targeting a June 1st return, which would line up with the 60 day I'll, I guess. Jordan Romano. That would be interesting if Scherzer beat Cole back, given how those two were drafted relative each other though. It sounds like it might not be that far apart but it would be interesting. Jordan Romano was officially placed on the IL but GM Ross Atkins indicated he's hopeful Romano will require only a minimum stay on the injured list. The Reds transferred Matt McLean to the 60 day

IL on Thursday after he underwent shoulder surgery earlier in the week and Wander Franco was placed on administrative leave through an agreement between MLB and the MLB Players Association. the transaction removes Franco from the raised 40-man roster and is effective through June 1st. Wanted to quickly run through some just interesting lineup decisions for teams and this is definitely an opening day overreaction because lineups change all the time very frequently and likely very early on in the season as well.

But for the Reds, people were losing their minds. Will Benson was batting second in the lineup. They were facing a right-handed pitcher. Jake Frelly was fifth. Ellie Dealer Cruz was batting sixth. Spencer Steer was seventh. Each of Frey, Ellie Dale Cruz, and Steer stole a base in this game. Any concern over Ellie and Steer, six and seventh in the lineup?

No. I mean, it's not not concerning for Ellie, but this is one of those like if he hits, it doesn't matter. He's going to move up in the lineup and he's going to be awesome either way. Stier, I don't know what, what were we expect? Where were we expecting him to hit? Probably in the middle somewhere. Yeah, I don't know. Three through five somewhere there.

Yeah, it's marginally impactful for his value, but it doesn't change how I view these guys. Like, it's interesting, you know, Benson and Fraley against the righty is what you pointed out. Well, Ellie's only been good against righties too.

So, you know, where's he going to hit against lefties? I mean, Benson's on base percentage was very high. So I don't, I don't think it's like a dumb decision by Dave Bell. I don't know.

I hadn't really thought much about the Reds lineup. It's so new that so many of the pieces there are so new that I didn't really have expectations on where anybody would hit. So I didn't take much. There were other lineup decisions that stood out to me more, I guess I'd say. Okay, I'm going to run through the rest of these, and if there's anything that stands out, just interrupt and take it away. For the Rangers, Wyatt Langford was batting fifth in his debut.

He was the designated hitter. Ezekiel Duran hit seventh, and he was the fifth. first baseman versus a lefty. Evan Carter had eighth. Against a lefty. I think we were expecting him in the heart of the lineup. So I would guess against the righty, it'll probably happen.

But yeah, that's notable. Yep. For the Cubs, Ian Hap was at leadoff. Christopher Morel was the D.H. He was betting cleanup. What did Nico Horner do to Craig Counsel? Seventh in the lineup? That's the one. And I noticed this before the end of,

like, I noticed this happened. and spring training. And it just, I never had an opportunity to talk about it on the podcast. But it feels like something we should have been talking about because a big part of

what made him a breakout candidate last year that he lived up to was that, oh, he's going to bad lead off. And it ended up being, I think, second as much the lead off last year. Almost, yeah, exactly equal between first and second. So, but a prominent line-up spot.

And it's not just the loss of at-bats, which is bad enough, but it does seem to me, and I don't think it should be this way, but a lot of players get in their minds that they are supposed to run at the top of the lineup, and they're not supposed to run lower down in the lineup. So I don't know why they think that way.

I think it's just tradition, and they think, oh, this is my role now. I'm not supposed to. So I wonder if it could impact Nico Horner's base dealing on top of everything else. I might have lowered him in my rankings if I noticed this sooner. Not to say like you need to drop him or anything,

but does he stand out as much from the Bryson Stotz and Andres Jimenez's of the world if he's batting in the lower third of the lineup? It's a fair question. I'm not so sure about that. That's part of the concern that we had with Bryson Stott, right? Where he's not going to ultimately reach the ceiling because we're expecting him to bat

probably six or seventh in the Phillies lineup as well. For the Tigers, Colt Keith was in there against the lefty. He was batting sixth in the lineup. No Kerry Carpenter, and Mark Hanna was at DH. My guess is that's because it was against the lefty. For the nationals, Jesse Winker was betting third versus a right-handed pitcher, so right there in the middle of the lineup. For the Angels, Anthony Rendon hit leadoff.

Aaron Hicks was batting second. Miguel Sino started at DH. Logan O'Hopi at 8. Zach Neto at 9. Don't love that. No Luis Renhifo in the lineup. Thought that was kind of interesting. For the twins, Ryan Jeffers was batting second against the lefty.

no Edward Julian, Alex Kirloff, or Matt Walner. The twins are a team that probably uses platoon splits more than any other team in baseball at this point. So that's probably what we should expect. For the Royals, Michael Garcia let off. And he hit a home run, baby. First late appearance. He didn't do anything after that. But, you know, is one of maybe 10 home runs that he's going to hit this year.

It looked pretty good. Maybe he's better than Nico Horner. You've been saying he's the next Nico Horner. Because he's batting lead off. Unlike Warner. And, you know, the thing with, oh my God, why did my mind just go completely blank? Michael Garcia. Yes.

He hit the ball hard last year. He barely barreled it. And so he's definitely one of those guys who needs to elevate more. But if he can, I mean, if he's aimed to be Nico Horner, he doesn't really need home runs. Sure, sure. But the quality of contact could be better than Nico Horner. Well, just because I put a ceiling on him of Miko Horner, Scott, maybe my, my Carl Garcia has his sight set on something much higher than that.

He's probably better aiming for Nico Horner given where he plays his home games, but... Right. Yeah, I don't think there was anything else to say about that. All right, let's slide over to the Pirates. I love that on a Kokomo Friday. Connor Joe was their leadoff hitter against the lefty. O'Neill Cruz was batting sixth in the lineup. My guess is he will bet higher against right-handed pitching.

For the Marlins, Brian Dela Cruz was the designated hitter, batting third against the righty. Tim Anderson was seventh. Nick Gordon started in left field, and he was batting eighth. For the Oakland A's, we mentioned no Estuary Ruiz in the lineup against a righty, Shane Bieber. J.J. Bladay started in center, Seth Brown in left, and Lawrence Butler in right field. For the debacks, Blaze Alexander was at D.H. My guess is he will start at D.H against left-handed pitching. He'll be the short side platoon with Jock Peterson.

For the Guardians, Bow Nailer out of the lineup against the lefty. Austin Hedges was in there. And for the Rockies, L.A. Harris-Montaro started at D.H., even against the Ritey, which meant Charlie Blackman was in right field. I want to say that because of this development with Estuary Ruiz and new concerns about his playing time,

I got my first share of Estuary Ruiz today. I had my last draft. Got him after Pick 200. This is a 15-team, 5 outfielder Roto League. I got him like 15 spots ahead of where Victor Scott went. Wow. And I think I got the better end of that. We'll see.

find out soon, Scott. Let's let's take a look at some of the biggest standouts here from Thursday on opening day. Corbyn Burns I mean, we're only getting to him now, but gosh, there was so much to talk about. Stellar in his debut, six innings, one hit, one earned run, 11 strikeouts to zero walks.

He had 12 swinging strikes on 82 pitches, and according to Jake Rill, who covers the Orioles for MLB.com, Corbyn Burns' 11 strikeouts are the most by an Orioles pitcher in his team debut since 1954.

Anything to add on Corbyn Burns, he's just he's awesome. Well, I think this is like a textbook example of spring training

stats don't matter because I will also mention in that draft, the pick came up where I didn't have a share of Corbin Burns yet and he was obviously the right guy to take

and I hesitated. I almost didn't do it because he gave up five home runs this spring. Wow. You see the amount of faith Scott has in me. What does this have to do?

that you hesitated on my AL-sai-young pick. I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't, it didn't have anything to do with you for what it's worth. But, but no, I ultimately did it. And yeah, he goes out and has this good start. And obviously spring training is over and the switch is flipped. And we saw a lot of that with Jake Berger, remember I was stressing about his spring. He hit two balls 112 miles per hour today. Didn't strike out one.

Logan Webb. But, Logan Webb. What a relief, my goodness. But no, Burns, I think there are some things worth talking about, which is that the cutter velocity was back up to 95 miles per hour. And this start, remember last year was really like in the 93.5 mile per hour range early on. So he regained some of that in the second half, pretty much back to where it was at his peak. The spin rate was up.

The slider, it looks like in the second half of last year, he had switched to more of a sweeper for his slider. The slider today looked more like it. did prior. It had less horizontal break. So he looked like classic Corbyn Burns. It's going to win the ALS. Ion. He certainly could. Any concerns with Zach Gallen's velocity? So he allowed just one run over five innings. He had three strikeouts. 15 swinging strikes on 90 pitches. That's actually an amazing rate. So I'm a little surprised he didn't have more than three strikeouts. But gave up a lot of hard contact. Nine hard hits allowed in this outing.

That was the case last year as well for Zach Allen. The fastball was down almost two miles per hour. He averaged 91.8 in this start. Last year, it was 93.6. And then the curve and the slider were both down over two miles per hour in this outing. It could be something where he's still kind of getting built up. It's the first start of the year.

So I don't want to overreact, but I feel like we should react. What do you guys think? Well, I think I only saw one day of, one of his spring starts. because there isn't much stack cast in the Cactus league. But it was the same thing there with the velocity down. And I was like, well, you know, it's a sample of one. Should I really make a big deal of it? But then it's continued here into the regular season.

They did delay him at the start of spring training, right? So it may be that he's just not as built up as a lot of other pitchers because they were worried about his big workload last year going to the World Series and everything. He did throw 90 pitches today. So it wasn't like his, you know, he threw more pitches than Bieber and Burns and a bunch of other guys. Yeah. I think, I guess arm strength is what I'm talking about. The thing you have to guard against most of all at the beginning of the season, I think, is confirmation bias.

And that's what I'm working on here because I did not draft Zach Allen. I didn't have him as a bust like Frank did. But I shared the concerns coming off a 243 inning season. It's just that's that's a lot of innings to. throw for a guy who's never come close to that. So it just, I'm a little concerned, but I want to guard against being too concerned because I was primed to be concerned anyway. But yeah, lack of strikeouts, velocity down, it's not an ideal start against the

worst team in baseball. All right. There are two other pitchers who raised velocity concerns for me. I don't know if you're about to get to them, Frank. I'm sure there's somewhere on the rundown, but if you want to bring them up right now, go for it. Okay. So those pitchers would be Framber Valdez,

who did not look very good against the Yankees. And this was an indoor start. This wasn't a cold weather start or anything. Sinker was down 1.3 miles per hour. So I'm not saying it's panic time, but it's, you know, it's something to keep an eye on for Framber Valdez. And the other one would be, Mitch Keller.

I don't think there was a third one. I think it was just those two. It was the only two I noted, yeah. Yeah. So Mitch Keller, his fastball was down 1.4, so about the same as Framber Valdez. Now, Mitch Keller's start was interesting, like every Mitch Keller start is, right? He's such a weird pitcher because it's like day to day, you're not getting the exact same guy. And I went and looked through the game log last year.

There was a lot of fluctuation in velocity, which is what I remembered. but I confirmed it. A lot of ups and downs with velocity over the course of last season and he has a lot of pitches and he mixes up his usage a lot and even for the velocity being down, even for him not having a particularly good start

and only three strikes in five and two-thirds innings, 14 whiffs on 85 pitches, four whiffs on the cutter, five on the fastball, five on the sweeper. So like there are things you can look at, oh, that's encouraging, for Mitch Keller, but the actual line wasn't good and the velocity was down.

And we'll see what the next start looks like because it could be completely different. Let's take our final break. When we return, I've got some waiver wire hitters. Oh gosh, there's so much to get to. We'll do it right after this. Welcome back in. Let's talk some waiver wire hitters. Should these names be rostered in more leagues than they are right now? So Michael Garcia, we mentioned what he did, home run in his first at bat, hitting lead off for the Kansas City Royals. He's 47% rostered. Scott, the only way that number could be higher

is if you think he needs to be rostered in points leagues. He only averaged 2.4 fantasy points per game last year. What do you think? Sounds like there are a few categories of leagues he could be rostered in two. But I don't know. It's, yeah, like, if your league doesn't have a corner infield spot

and stolen bases aren't that essential, you know, he's I'm not saying he couldn't have value in that format but I don't know who you drop for him at this point in time. So it's probably in the majority of leagues where he's not rostered, Michael Garcia is probably like a scout team guy.

I will point out though that he is also among my sleeper hitters for week two, the Royals have the best matchups, one of only two teams with seven games. And third base eligible. So if it turns out that Royce Lewis does have to go on the IL and you need a replacement, Mikel Garcia, might be one of those.

Victor Scott was batting eighth in his debut. He went 0 for three, but did steal a base, and he's only 38% rostered. Chris, should that number be higher. I don't know how many category leagues there are, but it feels like whatever, however many category leagues there are,

Victor Scott should be rostered in those. That's exactly it. If it's 38%, then he's rostered in the right number of leagues. If it's 55%, then it should be 55%. That would you prefer Victor Scott or Michael Garcia? It's Garcia for me.

But you guys know I like them. I think it's similar to the crochet thing we were talking about earlier, where it's more likely that Garcia is still going to be available in a few days than Victor Scott. So I'd rather pick up Victor Scott just in case. And if he gets sent down or if he just looks overwhelmed, then you can add Michael Garcia. That's fair. That's fair. I do. Like if I'm betting on it today is Victor Scott on the Cardinals' right?

roster in two weeks. I'm betting no. But I think from like just like a game gamesmanship standpoint, yeah, Victor Scott is the buzzy player right now more than Michael Garcia is. I know we speculated yesterday, Scott, that you don't like Victor Scott because he stole your name. Maybe you don't trust him because he has two first names. You know, it's yeah, yeah, maybe. I don't know. Like it somebody, somebody referred to him. They were tweeting at me and they just said, Scott the second. they call it because like he goes by Victor Scott the second but they just called him Scott the second which is weird normally you call somebody by their last name you're just calling him by their last name but he added the suffix there and I've like

I like the original better someone I know you do like Scott Michael Bush he went one for two with two walks and he stole home kind of it was actually a miscall by the home plate up in that game where it was a foul tip and the ball rolled away and whatever And Jonah Hime screwed up. He did, he did. It should be clear. Everyone was like, what a terrible cult. Jonah Hime is the reason that runs scored, not the umpire.

I just want that to be clear. And then Jonah Hime drove in the game winning round in extra earnings. So that was nice. So Michael Bush had sixth in the Cubs lineup. He's 37% rostered. Should that number be higher? 37%? Not yet.

Okay. Not yet. But I love the upside. Could be another Royce Lewis replacement if we do need one. Michael Conforto went three for four with his first home run. the double he hit in this game, 109.9, exit velocity. The home run was 105.9.

He hit seventh in the Giants lineup against Arreides. He was facing U. Darvish in this outing. 27% rostered. That probably sounds right. I think five outfieler leagues for Michael Conforto, that's probably it, right? Yeah, and even then,

it's been a couple of years since Michael Conforto's been worth rostering even those formats. So, like, I'd rather have Mitch Hanigur, who's in kind of a similar situation and also homered today. And I'm realizing now is the next guy up on the little rundown there.

Look at you, professional broadcaster, Chris. The last time Michael Conforto was of real value in fantasy, it was still the juice ball era. In fact, I think it was 2019, the juiciest of the juice ball era. Michael Conforto is still available in my 15-te-Worce League,

by the way, so that gives you a little indication of the interest level, I guess. Yeah, Mitch had. He was still worth rostering in 2020, the weird season. Oh, he had a good 2020, yeah. Yeah, he did. Mitch Hanigur went two for three with a walk, home run, two runs, two RBI. He's 25% rostered.

You guys know, I agree. I've kind of been all over this one in spring. And I still think Mitch Hanigur could hit. And he's, there's something about playing in Seattle. I don't know. I would rather have him than conform to. He's the anti-to-Oskar Hernandez. He can only see the ball in Seattle.

Might be right. Names in deep leagues. Rosario went one for three with his first home run. He started in center field. That is like, I know the Rockies gave up 14 runs in an inning today, but Eddie Rosario starting in in center field might be the most down bad thing any team had happened to them today. I had to look up to see if there was a different player named Eddie Rosario. I think he was starting four innings at the major league level in center field before this. Well, Mike, here's the kicker. The reason he's playing center field for the nationals is so jesse winker can play left oh my god if you have any

nationals pitchers on your team which you shouldn't just get rid of them because the defense is going to probably just shouldn't have them my gosh i started josiah gray and a league too unfortunately him or kyle hendricks and i hope you didn't put him and kyle freeland in the same lineups no no no do i have josiah gray i think i think i have graham ashcraft in that in a lonely League. It was kind of like Josiah's great, Gray's statistical twin. Let's talk about Nick Martini. He got to start at DH for

the Reds versus a righty here. Two for four with a double dong. He had five RBI. He was betting eighth in the lineup. 33-year-old journeyman did some nice things last year. 29 games with the Reds. Hit the ball hard, a 10.5% barrel rate. He's had stops in the

minors where he's hit. He's zero percent rostered, but NL only 15-team Roto League. I could see wanting to get a part of this Reds lineup. I would rather have... I think I'd rather have him than Eddie Rosario. I saw this performance and I was shaken, but not stirred to add him.

God, you are on one today, Chris. My goodness. I'm in a good mood. Anything else to add, like any enthusiasm for Nick Martini here? His quality of contact metrics are actually okay. Like his average exit velocity last season, it was like 79 plate appearances at the major league level,

but it was like 91 miles per hour. it's Cincinnati. So yeah, I think an NL only he's worth a look. There's no reason to bother with Nick Martini in leagues where Jake Fraley is still available, I would say. It's a sad state that the Reds are down to Nick Martini.

Yep, that's fair. A couple of their names in very deep leagues. Kevin Bissio, one for two with two walks and hit his first home run. Jake Myers went one for two with a homer as well. 110 exit velocity, 415 feet. any interest in Bigeo or Jake Myers in very deep leagues.

That was a week home run from Bishio. Not even 100 miles per hour off the bat. And I don't know why the Blue Jays are still bothering. Like, why do they need to see more from Cabin Bigeo? I think they should just give Davis Schneider full run there. That's probably fair. I was going to say, who else do they have? But yeah, David Schneider would make some sense.

Let's, we've got like 10, 15 minutes left. So let's just kind of go rapid fire. I've got some pitcher duels. some other just recap-y type stuff. And Logan Webb, U. Darvish, they both pitched well. Logan Webb at the Padre, six innings, two runs, five strikeouts,

had 12 swinging strikes. Of course, we were never worried about his spring training. Nobody on this podcast was worried about it. You Darvish on the other side, five innings, one run, seven strikeouts. Did give up some hard contact through eight different pitches in this start. And his curveball velocity

remains down three miles per hour. It seems like Darvish is just opting for a slower loopier curveball this year, anything on Webb or Darvish? Darvish is kind of like Mitch Keller. Keller is kind of like Darvish. Maybe, I mean, yeah. Darvish has become kind of like Keller, because obviously early in his career,

Darvish was just lights out, but they have so many pitches, and you can never tell what they're going to do from one start to the next. They're tinkerers. Yeah. I will say with Webb, you know, like, when I was comparing him to George Kirby in spring training,

everyone was saying, oh, but George Kirby has much more upside for strikeouts. And I think the thing everybody had forgotten with Logan Webb is that in 2021, his slider was a wipeout pitch, 47% whiff rate. And he had like, I get like a 25% strikeout rate that season. It was over a strikeout printing that year. Yeah, 2021, 27% strikeout rate. The slider was good for him today, six swings and misses with it. If that can be a swing and miss weapon for him again,

if he can rediscover the feel for it. I think Logan Webb, we know he has the really high floor, but yeah, what if there's a 24% 25% strikeout rate ceiling where, you know, then you can start to push up to like 200 plus strikeouts?

I think it's possible. Pitchers duel number two. We had Cole Riggins. And Pablo Lopez, seven innings, one run, seven strikeouts to zero walks. He had 15 swinging strikes on 84 pitches. And Cole Riggins, six innings, two runs, nine strikeouts, 19 swinging strikes on 97 pitches.

He had four or more swinging strikes on four different pitches in this outing. The control a little bit off, gave up some hard contact, but Scott, the whiffs were awesome. I think the most impressive thing about Cole Reagan start is that he was basically standing out there in his underwear and he wasn't ashamed. He just mowed them down. I don't know how he got the see-through pants on opening day.

I didn't notice it for any other players, but it was so distracting when I tuned to that. Yeah, I couldn't pay attention to anything he was throwing because I was just... His underwear was showing. What in the world? These jerseys are so bad. I think people have just gotten exhausted with the discussion,

but how is this still going on on opening day? The Yankees were literally sweating through their jerseys. It was disgusting to watch. Yeah, that was, that was. I saw the same thing as you, Scott, one of the Astros, because they're wearing the white pants. I'm like, well, I could see that guy, Zundies. There you go.

The Yankees, like the lettering on the front looks like. That's just a New Jersey, by the way. They don't have the white outline on the letters anymore. No, they're in New York. What? Oh, New Jersey. I get it. Man, Chris.

Chris after dark, here we go. I don't know. Yeah, that's what, like, I felt like I was watching the first episode of Breaking Bad Brian Cranston standing and it's like, it was just so. But the actual pitching for Reagan's was impressive because, like, obviously he got a lot of whiffs

and he showed that he has a bunch of swing and miss pitches, which is what we talked about too. Four plus whiffs on four different pitches, the slider, he had that working. He was a little wild, but the fact that he could not be at his very best and still have a start this dominant, I think speaks the world of Reagan's upside.

And it will say also on the other end, Pablo Lopez. He got 15 whiffs total. Zero on the change-up. If that had happened a couple years ago, there's no chance he'd have a start like that because that was basically Pablo Lopez is everything then. He's become a much more complete pitcher. So impressive start there from both of them.

impressive start, like, compared to opening day last year, remember how glum we were because, like, everybody was terrible. It was kind of the opposite end. Like, we all feel like geniuses right now. Well, except I looked at all my lineups just now, and I don't think my teams had a single home run in any of them. No, that's what happens when you get good pitching. But you know that'll come.

The pitching, the pitching is a little more stressful, I think. Yeah, tell that to a team that I had, Scott, with Framber Valdez and Zach Eflin in the lineup together. That one was not too great. Listen, I had one with Kyle Freeland. We are aware. Pitcher's duel number three. Terrick Scoobel up against Garrett Crochet. We spoke about Crochet on the other side. Obviously, Scoobel was awesome. Six shot out innings, six strikeouts to zero walks, 20 swinging strikes on 83 pitches. Bonkers. Ten on the fastball, five on the changeup, three on the sinker, two on the slider. Fastball velocity was up almost one mile per hour.

Anything to add on Scoob, he's so good. The thing I didn't look at yet was the slider, because I know that was something that he was working on this spring. And velocity, spin rate, movement profiles all look identical. So there was talk of him working on a different version of the slider, but I guess that didn't manifest in this one at least. But yeah, he's awesome. It's amazing.

Like the transformation Terrick Skoble has made. We've talked about it so much. But like he legitimately had one of the worst fastballs in baseball in 2022 or 2021 maybe. And now it's like arguably one of the best. It's wild. I think injury is the only thing that could stand in his way. So on their pitching standouts,

the good, the bad and the ugly. The good. Tyler Glass now, six innings, one run, five strikeouts with 13 swinging strikes. On 81 pitches, Jose Barrios turned in a quality start at the raise.

Six innings, two runs, six strikeouts for him. Didn't throw the cutter. I think he only threw it one time in this outing. That was interesting because he was throwing that a lot in the spring, and it did not make the trip up north with him. The velocity was up for Burrios. I thought that was interesting. Sinker up.

That carried over from the spring. Sinker up one mile per hour, slurve up 1.2 for Jose Burrios. Nathan Avaldi, six innings, two runs, three strikeouts against the Cubs, Jesus Lazzardo struck out eight against the pirates. He allowed two runs over five innings. And Brian Beaux was solid. Five innings, two runs, only two strikeouts. But his velocity was up.

The sinker was up 1.1 miles per hour. The slider up nearly three miles per hour. So maybe a new and improved slider for Brian Beaux. Anything to add on Bayo, Lazardo, Avaldi, Berrios, and Tyler Glassnow. Uh, no, not really. Not really. Um, I'll just say like every good Nathan Avaldi start, I think is a sell high opportunity. Um, just because I, I feel like at some point it's going to take a turn.

And it seems to happen every year. Um, and that's all I have to add there. The bad. We spoke about Mitch Keller. He gave up five runs for earned over five and two thirds innings at the Marlins. Framber Valdez very wild, six walks, three runs allowed over a four and two thirds innings. against the Yankees. Nestor Cortez gave up four earned runs in the first two innings and then he settled down after that at the Astros. Five innings, four runs, five strikeouts for him. Luis Castillo, not great against the Red Sox, five innings, four runs, five strikeouts. Anything to add on Luis Castillo, Nestor Cortez, Franber Valdez, and Mitch Keller,

we already kind of talked about. I thought Cortez looked fine. 11 swinging strikes on 76 pitches. That's pretty good. And that's a really tough top half of a lineup. So like struggling against them doesn't really concern me. Velocity was fine. Swinging strike rate was fine. Pitch mix was fine. I think it was a not a super promising star for Nesson Perez,

but nothing to be concerned about. And the ugly, Zach Eflin hit hard by the Blue Jays, five and two-thirds inning, six runs, five strikeouts, three homers allowed. Fun fact, he did not allow three homers. runs in a single start last year, and he only allowed six earned runs once. We'll point out he was cruising in this start, and then in the sixth inning, he things just

kind of spiraled out of control for him. Gave up some hard contact. I watched an interview after the game. He said he just lost his mechanics a little bit late and didn't have his best sweepers. I have some other concerns there because, okay, first of all, Zach Eifflin had an 849 ERA this spring. I know it's spring, but when you kick off your regular season this way, His final spring start was good, but he gave up two home runs.

So it was kind of bad, too. The bigger issue is he threw only 10% curveballs in this start. That's compared to like 27% last year. The curveball was the pitch that allowed him to break out two years ago in the Phillies bullpen that then carried over into last season and starting role for the raise. And it's kind of an essential pitch for him. So I don't know why he was fading it, but he, you know, He needs better results than this, if that's going to continue.

Maybe he just, you said he didn't have a feel for the slider. Maybe it's weird that he said slider and not curveball, but maybe there was something like that going on with the curveball, and we're going to see more of it going forward. I would assume so, but I didn't like seeing only, him using only 10% of the time this time. He did say sweeper in particular, and I guess that's what it's classified as on Stackass as well.

And so the last year, the sweeper and the. curveball had about five inches of average horizontal movement different than one another. Today they had the same horizontal movement. The curveball just had more vertical break. So it seemed like they were, you know, I think the, I didn't have the feel for them. Explanation probably makes sense. And I don't know, man, you make it through five innings with one earned run aloud. And then you struggle in the sixth inning in your first start of the season.

That seems like a pretty easy one to write off. It's just the home runs, you know? A lot of home runs this spring and then more home runs in the season debut than he had in any start last year, you said, Frank? Yes, he didn't allow. It doesn't mean he's toast. Right. But like, it's not what you want to see, obviously. Yeah, it's not ideal, but I think it's fine.

Some hitting standouts, the re-breakout for Tyler O'Neill has commenced. One for three with a sock and a shoe. First player in MLB history to Homer in five consecutive opening days, which is just a truly awesome stat for him. Also, did you see his somersault throw from right field? Funniest highlight of the of the day, of the season so far. Go check it out. I think I did see it. And it was just cut off by the pitcher, right?

He just like, he throws his whole body into this thing and like literally does a somersault. It's incredible. Yeah. That is Tyler O'Neill. Yandy Diaz, three for four with his first home run. 107.2 exit velocity. It was a screamer down the left field line.

Carlos Correa had a good game. Three for four with a double, two RBI. Paul Gulchmidt, three for four with his first home run. And I saw this stat on Twitter X. Maybe we're calling it. Apparently three of Paul Goldsmith's swings today, including his home run, are in his top five as a cardinal in terms of bat speed.

And he went to driveline baseball this off season. So I thought that was kind of encouraging for Paul Goldschmidt. Jake Berger, three for four with three RBI, two batted balls of at least. a hundred twelve miles per hour. Who cares about spring training? Anthony Volpe went one for two with an RBI. He had three walks.

I watched that whole game. He looked really good. Very poised, patient, good plate discipline at the plate. We'll see how long it lasts or, you know, carries over for Anthony Volpe. Bad luck for Bregman, one for five. He had five hard hit balls, but only one hit to show for it. So bad luck for him. And the Dodgers lineup is just so stacked. I mean, my goodness.

Mookie Betts hit a homer. Show you, Otani had two hits. Freddie Freeman, two hits with a home run, three RBI. Miles Michael has definitely helped, but their lineup is so good. It was exactly as advertised that one, two, three. Some quick bullpen notes to wrap up with here. We talked about the Tigers extensively at the top. For the White Sox, Michael Kopeck pitched in the eighth inning

with the White Sox down one zip. He gave up a hit, a walk, and a hit by pitch. The velocity was up a little bit on the fastball. He did get three whiffs on eight sliders. I guess it's kind of a mixed bag, but overall, I guess, kind of encouraged for Michael Kopeck. Yeah, I think Jordan Leisure is under-roastered because he's barely rostered at all.

Okay. I would still think Kopec's the one to roster of the two, but it's hardly a certainty that he would be the favorite for saves if an opportunity came up. And one has to happen at some point. Probably. Yeah. For the Padres, Yuki Matsui entered in the seventh inning

with runners on first and third with the game tied. Jung Hu Lee flied into a sacrifice double play, but the go-ahead run scored at the time. The Padres then took the lead in the seventh. Matsui stayed out there for the eighth, and then Robert Suarez eventually would get the ninth inning. Gave up a solo homer, but it was a three-run lead, and so he picked up his second save of the season.

For the twins, we mentioned Brock Stewart, pitching the eighth inning with a one-run lead. Griffin-Jack got the ninth, and he walked one but picked up his first save. The Pirates, O'Rola Chapman, pitched in the ninth inning with the game tied. David Bednar was not available. And then in the 12th inning,

left-handed pitcher Jose Hernandez picked up the save for the Pirates. For the Yankees, Clay Holmes, got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He gave up three hits. He was saved by Juan Soto, throwing, I think it was Maricio Dubon out at the plate.

But as a result, Playhomes did convert his first save of the season. For the Rangers, actually both bullpins in this game. Jose LeClerc entered the ninth inning with the game tied. He walked two. He gave up a run on a wild pitch. Jonah Heim. This was not like.

LeClerc wasn't great. His command wasn't great in this one, but that run was not his fault. And then on the other side for the Cubs, Edward Alzali got the ninth inning with the one run lead. He gave up a game tying solo home run to Travis Jankowski of all people. this one, have you guys looked at Adverdalsalized splits before? I'll admit I hadn't.

He is real bad against lefties. He has like an 850 OPS allowed in his career against lefties. Travis Chinkowski, obviously when he hits, hits left-handed. And that's a concern. I don't know. Just because they didn't commit to him

publicly as the closer all spring. Hector Nairis is there. He's a very good reliever. I think there's definitely some risk here. It was a 725 OPS against Lefties last year for Alisly, which was higher than it was against Ritey's. I'll point that out. But I've heard that before. The splits are bad. But again, it's like he wasn't terrible against them last year. So we'll see. Yeah. I mean, they signed Hectorneris for a reason. So players, closeers with a tenuous grasp on the role. You obviously don't want to see them. struggle in any way

because manager might think twice about using him in that situation next time. I will point out in LeClerc's case that in the inning David Robertson worked. I think he got the win. But he walked two in his inning too. So it wasn't all that sharp. His velocity

was up from watching it. I haven't looked at the actual charts yet, but David Robertson's velocity had to have been up a lot, right? Yeah, one mile per hour. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I mean, something to watch.

And then the last one, one of these West Coast games here, it was Kenley Jansen, who came in with a two-run lead. He walked one, but struck out two, picked up his first save of the season. We're going to wrap there. Opening day is in the books for Scott and Chris.

I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again next week. Bye-bye.