Fantasy Baseball Today - Yankees-Giants Recap! Thing to Watch on Opening Day! (3/26 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)
Episode Date: March 26, 2026Frank Stampfl and Chris Towers recap the Yankees vs. Giants Opening Night game! After that, we discuss the things we're watching most on Opening Day! Subscribe to our YouTube channel: �...��youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CPTowers @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/ 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
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The first game is in the books.
Let's recap Yankees and Giants up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
Welcome into FBT Express on opening day, March 26th.
We made it.
I am Frank Stample, joined by Chris Towers.
Let's recap this game.
The first game opening night, Yankees beat the Giants, seven zip in this one.
We'll start with the good.
That was Max Fried.
Six in a third, shout out innings, two hits, one walk, four strikeouts.
He had just six swinging strikes on 86 pitches.
Veloed down a bit here, Chris, one to two miles per hour.
Didn't seem like he had his best swing and miss stuff,
but was hitting his spots pretty well,
kept opposing hitters off balance.
I thought he mostly looked like Max Reed.
Yeah, he had a somewhat alarming spring,
if you are the type of person who cares about that.
But I think with a guy like Max Fried,
there's no reason to worry about a spring training.
His velocity was down a little bit,
but 1.2 miles per hour or less on every.
pitch doesn't really strike me as particularly alarming. So I think you can all systems go for Max
Fried moving forward. It's a deep pitch mix. He's a veteran who knows how to get guys out. Even if he is
sitting, you know, around a mile per hour down, that only thing takes him back to where he
wasn't 2024, right? So I don't really think there would be anything to be concerned about here.
It was about as promising a first start as you could hope for. On the other side, we tried to tell
you about Logan Webb's whip, man. It's a bad one. Now, he just obviously goes up against a tough
lineup here with the Yankees. Five innings, nine hits allowed, seven runs, six of those earned. Did have
seven strikeouts still in this one. His sinker velocity was down 1.4 miles per hour from last year.
He just kind of got hit hard in two of the innings and it's just everything unraveled in those
two specific innings. He did not allow seven runs in a game all of last year. So this kind of feels like
an outlier for Logan Webb. Yeah, his stuff still looked fine and it was really just
like kind of bad clustering in, what was it, the second inning and the fourth inning,
where all the damage came, second inning and fifth inning. But really, it was just the second
inning where there were a couple of hard hit balls. You know, Trent Grisham had the
triple to left center. I think Giancarlo Stan had a really hard hit ball in that one. But
a lot of the damage was on like a bleeder by Ryan McMahon.
that just got just out of the reach of the second basement.
If the second basement grabs that, the inning's probably looking a lot different.
I know concerns about Logan Webb here.
I think he'll be perfectly fine.
And look, we got Scott White doing a main event draft tonight.
Got to buy the dip on Logan Webb if he starts to fall a little bit around to the number 20 SP.
Yeah, we shouldn't have to say this, but, you know, people react so much.
much early on in the season. If anyone's panicked about Logan Webb, sure, go try and buy. I know
that will sound ridiculous to some, but man, some fantasy managers just freak out right away.
It's, it's crazy stuff. So, taking a look at the hitter side of things. Obviously, the Giants
didn't do too much in this game, but for the Yankees, Janice Chishisholm, one for three,
with a hit by pitch, a run, and his first stolen base. So the quest for 50-50 has begun.
John Carlos Stanton, he cannot open a bag of chips,
but he can hit a baseball really hard.
He went two for four with a run RBI.
One of those hits 114.4 miles per hour.
He is still the 80 grade power.
It's still there, man.
That's the scale, John Carlos Stanton.
Aaron Judge, 0 for four with four strikeouts.
He stinks!
His first four strikeout game since September 28th of 2024.
So it could be shaking.
some cobwebs off here, Chris. Maybe he thought it was a
playoff game. Hey!
You said it, not me. I can get mad at you.
Last thing I wanted to mention here,
Ben Rice played some great defense
over at first base, and I know a lot of people thinking, like,
defense, who cares? But
I think that's something we should care
about because, you know,
Paul Gulchmidt could enter the game for him
later on in games as a defensive
replacement, and Ben Rice was not
very good at first base last year. That was his
first opportunity to play there defensively.
But I saw him make a few
good scoops over at first base. I saw him, you know, a good PFP that he threw over to
Max Freed. So I thought it was a great defensive game for Ben Rice and hopefully that bodes well for
his playing time. Let's take a break when we return things to watch for on opening day. We'll do that
right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Happy opening day to all. What are we watching
for on opening day? We'll start with some pitching things, Chris. I'll just throw your way and
see what you think about it.
Garrett Crochet, bad spring,
velocity was down a little bit.
I don't think it really matters,
but let's see how he looks.
On the opposite end of that,
Matthew Libertor had a great spring
and he's got a revenge game here against the race.
So looking at those two to see,
for Crochet, can he shake that bad spring?
And Liberator, can he carry it over?
Yeah, Crochet talked a lot this spring about
he just didn't feel like his fastball
was where it needed to be.
And there was one point,
I think, in his last start,
where he got down to like 92, 93 with the fastball, which is a little alarming.
I think it was on a home run that he allowed late in that game.
It was like 92.
His next pitch was like 98.
So I'm hoping that the adrenaline kicks in for opening day, you know, not a guy who has anything to prove at this point in spring training.
So hopefully that that's all it was.
And that's what I expect.
And then Libertory, you know, I know front of the pot of O'Saris is a fan of Matthew Libertore.
he made some changes to his fastball shape, added some cut to it.
And there are some people excited about what he showed this spring.
Obviously, it's a good matchup against the race.
So I like that one.
Can I give a couple other starting pitcher things to watch?
Yep.
What's Jacob Mizirowski's command look like?
That was a big problem for him in the second half.
Can he go deep into his start?
Can he, you know, those things are tied?
He needs to throw strikes to be able to go deep in games.
Can Zach Allen turn the clock back?
His velocity was up this spring to her.
around 94 miles per hour.
It'd be nice to see a bounce back season from him.
Obviously, tough matchup against the Dodgers to not a soft landing spot.
Let's just set the bar at can he not get destroyed on opening day?
Yeah, can he get, we'll take a three-run quality start for sure.
And then can Kate Cavali give us any reason to hope that the Nationals might not be a disaster as a pitching staff?
I think he's kind of the only one who has a chance to have some hope.
So we'd like to see some stuff from him.
him. On the position player side of things, Chris, we were talking beforehand. There were three that
really stood out. What position does Kevin McGonigle play? Where does he bat in the lineup?
Does ESOC Paratus play here on opening day? We know that Jeremy Pena will be active. He'll be
in the lineup there. And where does Sal Stewart play? Where does he bat in the lineup? Those are,
I think, three big ones that we're watching here on opening day. Yeah, at times Kevin McGonigal this
spring, there were a couple starts where they basically had the opening day lineup in. He was
hitting first or second. So I would be surprised if he's,
attending first or second on opening day, but that would be a big sign of what they expect if they were batting him that high early on.
And then obviously, wouldn't mind seeing the first of five starts at third base.
I don't know.
It's not clear if he's going to be a third baseman or a shortstop full time for them, but wouldn't mind to get an early start on some third base eligibility for Kevin McGonigal.
I drafted him in a couple spots where it'd be nice to have.
South Stewart, they were talking about, you know, batting him cleanup for this team and moving
Ehayuhania Suarez down to fifth, so that'd be a big deal.
And then, you know, with the Astros, yeah, is Issaq Pradis in there?
Wouldn't mind getting Yordaun Alvarez started on his outfield eligibility quest as well.
So those are definitely a couple to watch for sure.
And with bullpens, I feel like we haven't had this many bullpens in flux heading into opening day, but here we are, man.
all going tomorrow.
I don't know.
Because there's only, what, 10 games tomorrow?
Maybe the 10 teams that aren't playing all have settled bullpens
because it feels like more than half the teams,
or at least half the teams playing tomorrow,
are up in the air with their bullpens entering opening day.
It's Pirates.
There was a report that Dennis Santana is not going to be the go-to closer.
I'm skeptical of that, but, you know, it's something to watch.
Gregory Soto has a little bit of closing experience.
The Diamondbacks, I don't know if you actually want Paul Seawald or Kevin Ginkle,
but there's some uncertainty there.
The Nationals, kind of a similar thing.
Do you actually want Clayton Beater?
I'm not sure.
Rangers, not sure what to expect there.
They've got Robert Garcia, I always say Robert Suarez.
Robert Garcia, Chris Martin, a couple of other guys.
Twins, again, I just don't know if you actually want the twins closer,
but maybe we'll find out who that is, the Angels.
Jordan Romano or Drew Pomerans with Kirby Yates on the IL.
The Cardinals, Riley O'Brien, Jojo Romero, Matt Sonson, a lot of options there.
The raise, I think we think Griffin Jacks is the most likely, but it's probably going to be a committee
and could really be interesting if they don't go with Griffin Jacks.
And then the Brewers.
That Abney Uribe, Trevor McGill, we didn't really get any indication from the brewers about what they were planning on doing.
So that'll be interesting to see if they get a save opportunity.
And I think that's probably the most important of all, too,
because they're a really good team,
and that could be a big saves total for whoever is the closer on that team.
And they're both really talented.
Yeah, elite relievers.
Yeah, it's, you know, McGill and Arribe,
they're both really good last year.
McGill has more of the injury history,
Abner Arebe, more of the closer down the stretch.
So up in the air right now,
but a really good team,
and we'd like to find out soon who the closer is there for the Milwaukee Brewers.
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Bye-bye.