Rates & Barrels - Opening Day Reactions and Waiver Options

Episode Date: March 31, 2023

DVR and Al look at some actionable news items from opening day, including IL stints for Justin Verlander, Max Fried and Ryan Pepiot, and they consider players worth pursuing on the waiver wire, such as Elehuris Montero, Clarke Schmidt and Hunter Gaddis. Rundown 0:34 A new approach to the waivers show 1:40 Opening day lineup Implications 31:37 Injury news impacting waiver options 35:42 Other pitching options on waivers 42:33 Which teams should we stream pitchers against? 47:12 Two-start pitchers to stream 55:53 Opening day bullpen observations Follow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRiper Follow Al on Twitter: @almelchiorBB e-mail: [e-mail] Subscribe to The Athletic at $1/month for the first year: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Subscribe to the Rates & Barrels YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RatesBarrels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Derek and Ryper here with Al Belkior. Our first waiver show of the season for the two of us. I know you and Eno talked about waiver players last week. There were injuries last week. That was the case again this week because of all the transactions that happened leading into opening day. I wanted to say that this year's waiver show, we did one in the athletic fantasy baseball show feed for the last few seasons.

And we're bringing a lot of those concepts, a lot of that structure over, but this is a more of a conversation just about the players people are interested in heading into the weekend. So it's not necessarily just a waiver show. I don't think we're going to get into the nitty gritty with how much fab you should bid on every player throughout the entire show. I think situations are so different that providing that sort of broad analysis that tries to thread the needle for everyone actually doesn't help that much.

So it's really more of just trying to figure out what players' new roles might mean, what injury information might actually mean as far as holding versus cutting a player, and trying to give people a better sense of how they want to manage their roster. Giving true advice that can help a larger number of people. That is our goal here. So we're going to aspire to that. If you have feedback, ideas for this new format, new air quotes format, ratesandbarrels at gmail.com. And I'm sure we'll have Eno with us on some Fridays. He's in Brooklyn. I had the opening night party at Other Hab Brewery. So that was awesome to see the pictures of that on Twitter. It looked like a really great time. So let's get going here, Al. Let's start the show today by taking a look at some opening day lineups that really caught our eyes.

The Cardinals had two players in the lineup on opening day in places that I wouldn't necessarily have expected if we went back to January. And some of this is my fault, and some of it might just be an actual surprise. So I want to talk first about Brendan Donovan. And Brendan Donovan's an interesting player because he let off in the opener against the Blue Jays. He's a left-handed hitter. He plays all over the place. So he qualifies in a lot of different positions. Depends on your league rules as far as how many he actually qualifies at. He's going to play second base primarily, I think, this season.

But depending on injuries and what happens, could move around some more. But leading off in this lineup, and he's got the skills to do it, could actually lead to a lot more value. And on top of that, we saw a couple of very hard-hit balls from Brendan Donovan in the opener, which is something he didn't have last season. The quality of the contact he was making

wasn't very good. So this is a good broad question focused on one guy. When do you start to change your mind about a player's core skills? One game is never really enough to completely do that, but you can't ignore it when you see a big process change, right? Because on the hitting side, there's got to be something that is similar to a pitcher showing a new pitch. And I think hitting a ball harder than you hit one the previous year might be something in that vein

as far as something to really kind of move the needle for us? Well, that's an interesting question, DVR. And so the first thing I did, since we're talking about a hitter here, was I pulled up Donovan's fan graphs page and thought, okay, the one thing that would change my mind in one game or a series would be what's the max exit velocity. And he now has a new career high, max exit velocity. So right away, that tells me something. There's also a little bit of confirmation bias for me because there were reports of Donovan

hitting the ball harder in the spring and during spring training. So I didn't really pay that much mind because for the most part, that's what I do with spring training stats. Pretty much ignore them. But to see that he's already hit a ball harder in game one of 2023 than he did in all of 2022, that combined with the previous reports,

that's... Game changer might be a little bit of an exaggeration, but it's definitely got my attention. I mean, the thing is that Donovan's already in all the deeper leagues and some of the medium you know, medium to shallow ones, too. So I'm not sure how actionable this is. But, you know, I guess for like my shallowest league where Donovan would still be available, I'm watching real closely this weekend. Yeah, I think some of the 10 team leagues out there where he might pop as someone who's available on the wire.

It makes sense to consider picking him up if he's going to hold that leadoff spot, at least against righties for this Cardinals club. They're going to put plenty of runs on the board. He's a great catalyst atop the lineup, has what I would describe as non-zero speed, and has seemingly a little bit more power. I'm curious to know where that came from, whether that was some bat-fitting stuff like his teammate Paul Goldschmidt has done or other types of training. I mean, we know a lot of teammates up and down that roster

have made some adjustments between, you know, Arenado, Goldschmidt, Lars Neupahr. Maybe Brendan Donovan has a story like that that he's about to unfold for us here in 2023. Yeah, no, that actually, you bring up Paul Goldschmidt, and that reminded me of quite a few years back, you know, when he was with Arizona. I talked to him briefly during the All-Star break.

And at this point, it's long enough ago, DVR, that I don't remember what the specific thing was. But I do remember him talking about how guys on the Diamondbacks all kind of shared what they were doing and what was helping them. So I'm sure there's something similar probably going on on every team. But yeah, maybe the good hitting is contagious through the sharing of information. It helps when the guys on the top of the roster are ones making adjustments too. I mean, I imagine when you see superstars who are on the wrong side of 30 making adjustments, it helps you as a young player realize, hey, this actually could help me. This works. This matters. This is something I should be doing. At the very least, Donovan has always shown a lot of patience at the plate, an ability to temper whiffs, under 20% strikeout rate everywhere.

He's played as a pro in the Cardinals system, so a nice, solid skill set that could actually chip in a little bit more power than we expected going into draft season way back in the late part of the fall. Again, that's where my draft season began, it's late fall. Some people, it's spring, that's fine to each their own. The other player I want to talk about in this lineup is Nolan Gorman. Gorman, I think, was a little bit forgotten about throughout draft season because of the hype surrounding Jordan Walker, which was absolutely deserved. But I mean, you think about this time last year, the excitement that I had for Nolan

Gorman was very real. I thought he was going to be a steady source of power. I thought he was going to be perhaps the primary option at second base, or at least rotating through second base and DH with Albert Pujols a year ago. I'm curious to know what your expectations are for Nolan Gorman. We saw the big K rate last year, 32.9%. That's not a surprise based on what he did throughout his time as a prospect. He's been very young for the level everywhere he's played. So in what types of leagues would you be thinking about Gorman as we get to our second fab of the season on Sunday? I'm looking at 12 teamers, even though I think he's really under-rostered. What to me is interesting about Gorman, actually, I'm going to just take a brief moment here, DVR,

just because you would go back to something you said much earlier about how, you know, we're not going to talk about how much fab you need to spend on players, but that is what I'm going to do every week in the waiver wire column. And Gorman is somebody I wrote about in that column. So it's some athletic synergy here,

but getting back to Gorman. So his roster rate is really low. It's lower than Isak Paredes. I'm trying to remember. There was another second baseman that I include in the column as a comparison. But I mean, there's a number of second base eligible players that are more rostered than Gorman is.

And that was understandable because it wasn't clear until late in spring training that he was probably going to be getting a lot of playing time. So it wasn't just a mere fact of him getting overshadowed by Jordan Walker. It was myself included. I think a lot of people thinking, well, with Jordan Walker making the roster and probably playing every day, where is there room for Nolan Gorman? But it looks like there is going to be room. And so there definitely needs to be an adjustment.

it looks like there is going to be room. And so there definitely needs to be an adjustment. And I think 12 teamers, it's not a given, but I think if you're not happy with who you wound up at second base, I waited a lot for second base in my draft. So if that was you, I think Gorman is a viable candidate. Yeah, and I think the fab advice I will throw out there

is kind of a bit of blanket advice that could be pretty helpful. I tend to be pretty aggressive in the first few weeks because you have a much longer period of time for the players you pick up now to potentially help you. And I think this is just one of those chaotic times of year where unsettled spots become settled very quickly. Players perform, they seize an opportunity, it's theirs for a much longer period of time. It's like the small sample either of spring or the first few weeks of the regular season does something. You know, and I talked about this a bit yesterday.

Did the spring training of Jordan Walker by itself put him on the opening day roster? Of course not. There were other factors prior to that. But what happens is I think you get to the first couple weeks of the season, a guy stands out, is doing a lot of things really well. The front office, the manager sit down and say hey we got to keep playing this guy nolan gorman has the traits necessary to do that and

part of the reason i believe in nolan gorman right now is when i look at this cardinal's depth chart you start looking at all these lefties they have both donovan and nolan gorman are lefties which makes you think okay who are the righties on the bench that could actually play with those guys uh taylor modder and then that's pretty much it as far as infielders go right now. Everybody else, unless they're going to shift guys around through the DH spot from the outfield mix and take away a little time that way,

I think Nolan Gorman gets a pretty good opportunity here as the DH. Alec Burleson hits from the same side, so I guess they could also use Burleson to take away his playing time. But there's a world in which Nolan Gorman delivers on that potential maybe a year later than some people expected.

And cheap power may be very difficult to come by on the wire. In a game where speed is up and batting averages are up, you may actually need a little bit of power to come in from the waiver wire. And Nolan Gorman certainly has always offered that as he's moved through the cardinal system i want to go to colorado next where a former cardinal

eliris montero was slotted into the fifth spot in the order it was a righty lefty matchup for him so maybe this is just something it's going to be something to be real careful with when we're looking at lineups throughout the first series pitching matchups could be the kind of thing that kind of throw us off as far as lineup construction and actual role. And you might see two lefties in three games in a series, and then you get to your fab on Sunday, and you think someone has a larger role than they do. So be very mindful of that as you're watching things play out here over the next couple of days. But I do think when you look at the Rockies, the loss of Brendan Rodgers and moving Ryan McMahon over to second base, which is what the Rockies had in their opening day lineup, that does create a path for

Montero, another younger player, to really carve out a larger share of playing time than some people would have expected. There is swing and miss in this profile, but when he connects, he hits the ball very hard. And being in Colorado, hitting the ball very hard, some very good things can happen. So similar question I want to ask you for Gorman. Where are you thinking about Eliris Montero as someone that might be able to help you with some pop? Well, not 12-team league. So I realize it's different positions, Gorman and Montero. But yeah, I do think there's a lower power ceiling even with Montero playing

in core. So, and like you said, there's the same potential for a high strikeout rate, but yeah, enough power there. And also I think enough of a possibility that maybe he does bring the strikeout rate down because they were lower in the minor leagues. So for now, I don't think you have to, you know, try to beat out the crowd to get into your 12 team. I think you can wait a week or two and see, see how it goes. But definitely 15 teamers. I would, I would be wanting Montero. And he's somebody too, that I kind of overlooked in drafts because for whatever reason, I was sort of assuming Mike Moustakis would be maybe the starter,

and that does not appear to be the case now. Well, that's where I think we've got to see what happens in the next couple of days, though, because if they want to play Moustakis at third, maybe they're just going to sit Moustakis against lefties, and then Montero moves around. But I do think as a younger player that can help them, Montero's going to get chances. Moustakis can move around a little bit between third base, DH. We've seen him play second base in the past. I don't think the Colorado Rockies are going to do that with him. But the other thing about Montero, I'm with you on the possibility of his K rate coming down. We see this a lot with young players. They get promoted to a new level, strikeout rate jumps up, they repeat that level to begin the next season, or even over the course of the full season they spend there, K-rate actually does get better as they get used to that level of competition. So if you look back at the previous minor league work from Montero, you will see that kind of improvement. You'll see a guy that when

he went back to AA after the lost pandemic season, he struck out only 23.7% of the time and he walked almost twice as much as he did during his debut at that level back in 2019. He got up to AAA, did a good job managing strikeouts there. I know that was a PCL situation, so you got to take that with the appropriate grain of salt. But I do think there's at least a good enough player here where I would actually make him a contingency bid in 12-team leagues if I was looking for help at third base, because I think you could find surplus playing time from him in the weeks ahead. But the Rockies, oh man, Al, they're a team that I still don't want to watch.

They're not the least watchable team in the big leagues, but opening day win aside, they are pretty low on my viewing priority list, I realized as I was shuffling around through games on opening day. Let's take a trip over to D.C. Another hitter, one that we were excited about a few years ago, Dominic Smith. He was hitting cleanup against a left-handed starter. That was a matchup against Max Fried. It says a lot about the state of the Nationals in 2023 that Dominic Smith was in that spot against a lefty, but I'm actually kind of excited because for a lot of the time that Dominic Smith was on the big league roster for the Mets, there was always somebody trying to take away his share of playing time. Yeah, it's a much better situation. I'm sort of of two minds

about, I don't get a vote, so not that it matters, but sort of of two minds about whether this is a good or a bad development because I'm not excited enough about Smith with, with the nationals to be looking at him in like, you know, 12 team leagues. But, you know, if you've got them in a 15 team league, maybe the batting average, almost certainly the batting average is going to get watered down. And it's not like, well, you're going to plug, you know, plug in somebody off of waivers who maybe has similar power potential. So the deeper you go, maybe, you know, we're,

we're better off with him just, you know, sticking to the strengths and facing only righties. But again, that's all just you know, that that's just conjecture. Cause we don't, we don't get a vote. So maybe in another thing too, that I think you alluded to in our notes is that just maybe the fact of playing every day is something that's going to help him out because he's never truly had that opportunity before. Yeah, health's been a part of that. The Mets, of course, tried to play him kind of out of position. He's really a good first

baseman and they were playing him in the outfield. Of course, Universal DH came along and opened up a little more playing time, but it just never seemed like an ideal fit in part because Pete Alonso is Pete Alonso. And I think now Smith can just go out there, play almost every day, if not every day, and maybe pile up a surprising number of RBIs and maybe pop 20 home runs. I think it's going to come down to health. I think the other part of his game that's always intrigued me is I think the hit tool is solid. So I don't think he's as much of a batting average liability, especially as we saw in 2022. He wasn't very healthy last year, but even going back to the 2021 season, I didn't think Dominic Smith was going to be a 244 hitter over a big side platoon role for a full season. I thought he'd be a little bit better than that. So I would not be surprised if he ended up being useful in a

larger number of leagues over the course of this season. Similar theme here, a guy that we've seen in the past with a little bit of value. The excitement really faded after what happened a year ago. Robbie Grossman, who ended up being a solution for the Rangers in their corner outfield spots. We have spent the better part of two years trying to put free agents, most specifically, I think, Michael Conforto on the Texas Rangers roster. And Robbie Grossman's getting that opportunity. And I think back to 2021, some of the stories I've seen about him, Cody Stavenhagen, who covers the Tigers for the Athletic,

had a story about Grossman and some of the adjustments he made to his swing that enabled him to really have a breakout season where he had some power and speed unexpectedly. I think that was in 2021. Yeah, 23 homers and 20 steals that year. He's always had pretty good on-base skills. I'm curious to know what your interest level is with Robbie Grossman joining this improving Rangers lineup. It's still at 15 teams. I have a little bit of skepticism for that 2021 season because it is such an outlier, and then he regressed back last year. But

he's definitely somebody to watch and especially in this environment where somebody who stole 20 steals two seasons ago, maybe he's a candidate to steal a little bit more this year. So that alone, if he's getting regular playing time, is pretty intriguing. Yeah, I think 15-teamers are probably the ideal league size for Grossman right now. Might be the kind of guy that in the right week of pitching matchups, he could stream him in something a little more shallow, but I don't know. He does have to be moving on the base pass a lot to become 12-team relevant again, but I think he was someone I'd sort of dismissed,

and I don't see immediate pressure for playing time. I think they have some prospects that could be up later in the year if Grossman struggles, but I think as the roster is built right now, he might actually play a bit more than I expected him to. That 2020 season is not that far behind us in the rearview mirror. Another outfielder I want to talk about with you is Jose Siri. I know there were people excited about Jose Siri in the fantasy community. Rob DiPietro, DeadpoolHitter on Twitter has a great podcast. He was all over Siri early on during draft season and the stat cast numbers on Jose Siri are ridiculous.

When you look at the stat cast page and just look at the sliders, really easy to see why a team like the Rays would have been interested in Siri. You start looking at some of the core skills. The play discipline just simply has not been very good. You understand then why he's not an obvious player to build around.

But he homered on opening day. He's stuck in the number nine spot in the lineup. I think his defense might actually drive his playing time on a regular basis. Because as it appears right now, I think Jose Siri is the best defensive option for the Rays in center field. Now, I think Jose Siri is the best defensive option for the Rays in center field. And given what they did with Kevin Kiermaier in recent years, that makes me think they really prioritize the glove in that position. I just wonder what this means for someone like Josh Lowe, who has spent a lot of time at AAA, has showed a ton of power and speed at that level, and just hasn't had that long window of playing time at the big league level yet. Well, I think for a low, it probably does depend on how well Siri does. Because I'm agreeing with you, DVR,

that the way that the Rays have set up the roster, it does seem like they want to give Siri every opportunity to just have this job in center field. And he does kind of, I didn't think about that, but he does kind of fit that Kiermaier mold a little bit in terms of fantasy steals are, are definitely his, you know, the most attractive part of the stat line,

but there's, there's a little bit of power there. There's also a lot of swing and miss too. So I think the one thing that has made me, you know, even look at him in drafts is, is figuring that he probably does have quite a bit of playing time. And so he can rack up steals,

but I do feel like they, they come at a cost. And for that reason, I have not rostered him yet this year. Yeah, it's been tough for me to find spots for Siri in the past. You look at some of the flashes we've seen despite the strikeout rate. I think the what could go right, like who's a player with plate skills like this who's been very prominent in fantasy, the pie in the sky sort of ceiling maybe Adelise Garcia is that sort of a fair like hey

he keeps playing and when he connects he hits the ball hard and that's what he does when he gets on base even though it's not as often as you'd like he takes off because he's a burner that's a good player it's okay if the underlying if the underlying path to how he does it doesn't negatively impact his playing time because the defense keeps that afloat. This is how overlooked players emerge. I'm warming up to Jose Siri. I've got to make a decision in the next 48 hours in leagues where he's available if he deserves a spot in some of the 12-team leagues out there where he might be available. I think in most 15s, at least most competitive 15s, there was already somebody out there willing to take the flyer, but he was someone I've been skeptical of in the past, and the more I watch him, the more I look into the profile, the more I'm starting to see the good side of Jose Siri.

We did have a question from Jin Ho on Twitter looking at fifth outfield spot options, so this kind of gives you an idea of just how much you like Siri compared to some similar options, Al Siri versus Brandon Marsh, TJ Friedel, Trent Grisham, and one of his teammates, Manuel Margo.

If you're choosing one of those players to be your regular option as your fifth outfielder right now, who would you actually want to use? What's, which is telling just to get back to Siri for one second, he would rank last in that list for me. So I think I would probably, it's pretty close among the other four.

I think I would go Marsh because I think that there is some more power upside with him playing in Philadelphia. And I definitely like the steals and run production upside for him. Yeah, that's tough. I guess I'm going to ask you about Grisham. I know Eno was starting to draft Grisham because he was a good value.

Are you, and this was as a fifth or sixth outfielder, it wasn't as like a must-have sort of player. Yeah. Are you kind of taking the worst of Trentrent grisham and the best we've seen from trent grisham and mashing that together to come up with your your projection or your expectation or are you putting a little more weight on what we just saw in 2022 and being very cautious about relying on him too much given that the padres are clearly an all-in sort of team that you know unless they decide that they don't have anyone else that can really play center field well,

they could really continue to chip away at his playing time. It's the latter. Yeah, I do worry because of where the Padres are at in terms of being competitive and that the more recent part of the trend for Grisham has been more negative. So maybe it's not smart. Maybe it's not fair. But that's, for me, why I would rather have Marsh than him, just because of the recency bias.

Yeah. I think, for me, if I had to choose one, I'm with you. It's Marsh first. I think I might be Siri over both Friedelel and Grisham and probably Margot. I like Margot as a real-life player. I like Margot in mono leagues, in mixed leagues. I think he's just one of those guys that he's good enough to play, but you're always looking for someone that can do more, who has a ceiling.

I think we sort of have this nice steady Eddie sort of level from Manuel Margot. And this early in the season especially, I tend to err a little more on the ceiling side if I feel like I can afford to do that. So Marsh just ahead of Siri for me. Siri at the bottom of the list for Al. So unfortunately, I don't know if we gave Jin Ho a clear

try this, but I think we both like Brandon Marsh. So probably no problem if he decides to go that route instead best western made booking our family beach vacation a breeze and it felt a little Come on, kids. Back to the hotel room. Good night, kids. Good night, Mama. Life's a trip. Make the most of it at Best Western.

Treat yourself to Tim's new Fudge Brownie Lattes. Made with freshly ground espresso beans, frothy steamed or ice-chilled milk, and topped with marble chocolate curls. Now that's music to our ears. Available hot or iced only at Tim's. A couple other bats of note here real quick. Kyle Lewis, healthy this spring, had a prominent spot in the lineup on opening night for the D-backs. That was against the lefty, Julio Urias. I'm curious if you are turning back the clock a few years and thinking about Kyle Lewis as an option this weekend. Yeah, well, I worry that he is on the lesser side of the platoon, but I also, and I will just fully admit here, DVR,

I didn't actually read the article, but I saw a headline or a quote and then just didn't have time to go back and read it. I should probably find it. But the quote was something to the effect of Kyle Lewis saying he's not trying to turn back the clock. He's trying to figure out who he is now. What's the new role or the new version of Kyle Lewis? So yeah, I should probably go back and read that because I just sort of assumed it was more of a role player just given how

deep the Diamondbacks roster is. I think given how left-handed they are across that group of outfielders, you would assume against right-handed starters we'd see, I mean, Corbin Carroll's an everyday guy, so that's one spot. Jake McCarthy's going to play against righties until he gives the Diamondbacks a reason not to play him against righties. Alec Thomas, I think, would still be a priority option

against righties as well, and they could DH Gurriel. If they do that, then Lewis doesn't have a spot. So as long as everyone's healthy, I think this is more of an odd man out situation, probably more of an NL-only kind of player for now, as opposed to someone that we're trying to pick up in mixed leagues. You're playing in a really deep keeper or dynasty league, a 20-team league, where anybody with a pulse starts to become interesting, and you can sort of wait it out with someone like Lewis on your bench.

I do think the tools have always been interesting enough where, now that he's healthy again, maybe you could go ahead and stash him away in a format like that and end up getting a run later on when someone's hurt where he actually does play a bit more than expected. I want to ask you about the Astros situation at second base. We saw Mauricio Dubon get the nod on opening day.

Is he the answer or is he just the guy that started because from Ravel does started that game and as an extreme ground baller, maybe they want to put their best defensive option on the field at second base instead of someone like David Hensley. Yeah, well, you were you were a step ahead of me. You were playing chess and I was playing checkers because I wrote about Dubon in the waiver wire column in part because I just thought, oh, OK, Dubon's, it looks like he's going to be the starter. And again, figuring that, okay, this is a signal that they want to prioritize the defense.

But yeah, maybe that's not the case. I didn't think about the fact that with a fly ball pitcher out there, Jose Urquidy out there, it's going to be a different thing. So that'll be interesting to watch. But if Dubon does get a string of starts early on here, I think you got to look back to the first couple of years with the Giants where he hit 274. In fact, in both seasons,

identical batting averages. And he's got a profile with some speed and spraying the ball around where that seems like a realistic expectation for him. And in that lineup, especially turning the lineup around, if he gets on base and scores some runs, I think he's somebody maybe not necessarily this weekend, but see what the playing time is over the weekend and certainly into next week. Check that out because I think Dubon

is kind of a sneaky play in deeper leagues. I think for me, I'm more likely to avoid the situation if it's Dubon, and I'm actually more likely to take a chance if it's Hensley. I think the reason for it, there's kind of like a case that you can definitely make for Dubon. A couple of smart teams have been on him and trying to find a role for him and giving him a chance. And I think he's just more of like a versatile, can play all over the infield, play a little bit of outfield, fits a big league roster well and finds playing time because of it. I don't know if we're seeing any sort of underlying skills growth that I can believe in. It's been parts of four seasons, so it's just under 750 career plate appearances at the big league level for Mauricio Dubon.

3.2% barrel rate, only a 28.7% hard hit rate. So it's not like he's hitting the ball hard and not lifting it. He's just not doing either of those things, and that becomes a problem. So I think if we go through this weekend and we only see Hensley once, I'm probably just passing on the Houston second base situation,

at least for this week. If we see Hensley's next couple of games and it is the Valdez thing where they just wanted the guy that they trusted defensively out there behind their ground ball machine, I might sneak a couple of Sunday bids in on Hensley where available. I think there are some links that were his UT only. So it's a little bit tricky to get him into your lineup. If that's something that you're trying to do, I believe we had one more hitter situation, two more hitting situations to get to before we flip the switch over to pitchers. Blake Sable got the start in left field against Garrett Cole on opening day. That's a tough assignment for a Rule 5 pick. He is catcher eligible though, so I think if you're in a very deep league with two catchers and Sable is out there,

you might be surprised because he has a little bit of versatility. He may play more than some of the other second catcher guys on the wire. And there are some kind of interesting skills in that profile as well. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I certainly was rooting for him. I mean, probably a lot of folks are rooting for the rule five guys, the underdogs, but there is an intriguing skill set there. And the fact that he'll have catcher eligibility. There's been power at every level, really from high A up through AAA and some good plate skills. So I don't know how well that's going to translate. And he's obviously got the home park working against him.

But for a second catcher, it's kind of exciting and and he's uh he's stolen some bases too yeah the guy that sort of opened this spot up for opening day is mitch hanager being on the il if hanager were there that's the guy that would be in the lineup instead of sable so he's gonna have to do something with this short window where hanager's out if he wants to continue to play. The other thing that makes him kind of interesting for those deep leagues is the second catcher. He's a lefty. Both Joey Bart and Roberto Perez are righties, but I think with Bart and Perez, you would need one of those guys to get hurt or you'd need like Bart to get optioned if Sable was going to catch enough with Hanager healthy to remain relevant. So it could be some short-term glue though for you in deeper leagues. Again, kind of fits more on that keeper dynasty

mold if you've got a really deep league and just an open spot where you're trying to stash someone who might find playing time later on you got g1 bay featured in the waiver wire column and cheap speed it's hard to find so i imagine that was a big part of what brought you to bay yeah yeah very cheap very speedy already two bases. I think the only two steals person from opening day, and there were a whole lot of steals. And, you know, it's really kind of unseemly to take a victory lap after opening day. But I'm going to do it because I wrote about him in the last athletic fantasy roundtable in terms of like the deep sleeper that I was looking for. And I got him in your league DVR. So, you know, I'll be now looking, you know, in a little bit shallower,

not 12 team yet, but in the 15 teams this weekend, because I wasn't sure what the playing time was, but even with the split, and this was, I think what I actually wrote in the round table piece, that even as a part timer, he can also play outfield in addition to second base. I think he could have that John Birdie kind of appeal and give you maybe 20 stolen bases and 300, 350 plate appearances. And if you look at that Pirates roster,

I don't see what's keeping him from getting that many. Yeah, I think they've got every incentive to play younger players right now as quickly as they can to figure out if they're a part of the long-term future or not. And that's probably what's going to open up a lot of opportunities for Bay here in the short term. Moving on to pitching, we had some injuries coming out of opening day. We had a Justin Verlander IL placement due to what is apparently a very minor shoulder injury. I sort of believe that to be the case. The Mets have pretty good pitching depth. So instead of having just one of David Peterson or Tyler McGill in the rotation to begin the year, both are in the rotation to begin the year, at least temporarily. That would, to me, be a little

bit of an ongoing competition, though it seems like the Mets have Peterson in that front spot because McGill was not a part of the roster after spring training actually ended. So he's actually back up temporarily, it seems, to hold that spot. And then we saw Max Freed with a hamstring injury. At the time I wrote the note, likely headed to the IL. He's going to miss at least one start. Suffered a hamstring strain on opening day. The internal replacements here, probably Ian Anderson or Bryce Elder.

I'm curious if you have any interest in either of them because Atlanta's already kind of reaching into its starting rotation depth to begin the season. Yeah, yeah. And because, yeah, because Dodd is already up. And of the two, I have a little bit more interest in Ian Anderson. Last year didn't go really well for him,

but he was great in 2021, or at least very good, I should say. So I have some hope that at some point, Anderson will get back to that level. And now maybe at least he has the opportunity to get a few starts in. So I'm still thinking very deep leagues though for Anderson because probably the timetable,

hopefully, somebody who has freed on a few teams, hopefully that timetable is a short one. Yeah, and seeing Jared Schuster getting opportunities, things have changed a lot for Ian Anderson. It's going to take some time, I think, for him to work his way back into the good graces of the Atlanta front office to the point where he's a viable every fifth day option again.

So I'm not as excited about Ian Anderson right now as I was even two years ago. And I'm surprised it fell apart this quickly. I think Eno put up some caution lights when it was happening, and I kind of said, yeah, those are nice caution lights, but he's not going to completely fall apart. And unfortunately for Ian Anderson, that's kind of how it's played out from an opportunity perspective.

Ryan Pepeo, who was going to get a chance in the Dodgers rotation to begin the season, lands on the aisle with an oblique injury. I feel bad for the guys that are getting that chance really for the first time. I know Pepeo was up a little bit last year, but this was going to be maybe a handful of starts to start the year that could have propelled him to a larger role. With Pepeo, the question we've always had in this podcast is, will he throw enough strikes to remain a starter? Will the control be good enough for Ryan Pepeo to be a number four starter with strikeout upside?

Because that's the kind of skill set that he brings, maybe even more of a ceiling than that. An oblique injury could be particularly problematic because it's usually not just one minimum stint on the IL. It could usually be a bit longer than that. But it does open the door for Michael Grove and a couple of, I think, pretty good matchups with a home start against the Rockies and a road start against Arizona. Yeah, they're good matchups.

And I think that's really essential for Grove. Statistically, he's actually, I sort of think of him being in the same bucket with Pepeo because there's definitely a big home run risk there. And he has had some walk issues in the past, although not really a big problem at AAA last year. So I would proceed with caution with Grove, but I think in a 15-teamer, if you were really inclined to go find a two-start pitcher, I think with those matchups, he's actually one of the better deep league options. Yeah, I like Grove a little bit too. I think part of this comes back to organizational trust. I think teams like the Dodgers are good about putting guys in a position to succeed with their game planning. Also, not necessarily going to be overexposed against the lineup. So if he turns the lineup over a couple times and they think it's better to just go to the bullpen, they'll just do it. They're not going to put him out there in a spot where they feel like he's going to possibly get rocked either side. I think that kind of ups my tolerance for pitchers who haven't really done a lot at the big league level. We've got another one of those coming up here in just a few minutes who I think could surprise some people because he's not really considered a top prospect.

But let's talk quickly about Kyle Muller coming off of a nice debut. I mean, he had to go up against Shohei Otani. The A's getting the opener at home on Thursday night. Muller, he wasn't dominant from a swing and miss perspective, Al. And I think when you look at the Enos pitching model and you start kind of breaking down what's happened in the brief time that he's been in the big leagues, it's been pretty rough for him. All that time, of course, came previously with Atlanta. Muller, to me, looks more like if he were on a better team, a back-end starter that we would stream in certain spots. And I think he fortunately landed in a spot where you can use him at home a ton.

I mean, this is an improved Angels lineup. So to go in there and pitch well, even if it's not an overpowering arsenal, I think Muller showed us that maybe he will be one of those guys that can stick in this rotation consistently throughout the season, right? Think about maybe Cole Irvin and what he was doing a year ago in the Oakland rotation. Muller maybe has that sort of appeal. If you were leaning on Cole Irvin last season, you might find yourself using Kyle Muller for those home starts more often than some of us would have expected. And I would expect Muller to be a better strikeout pitcher than Irvin has been. So I think he's got that going for him. Like you said,

he's got the park going for him. He didn't have really a great Cactus League performance. So this is really super encouraging. I was kind of surprised to see him get the opening day nod. So this was good to see, like you said, at a pretty good level of competition. And yeah, I would actually, I don't know at this point yet how much I'm going to bid, but he will certainly be in my 15 team bids this weekend. The pitch that I thought looked pretty good, looks a possible out pitch is the curve ball. I think that's Kyle Mueller's best pitch by far. It does have to locate everything else consistently. Can't really get away with a lot of mistakes.

He's that kind of pitcher. Some of the numbers we saw at triple a, if you're expecting that you might be expecting too much, but yeah, I think the Cole Irvin strikeout rate from last year would probably be lower than what I would project for Kyle Mueller as we look forward here in 2023. But I think a lot of people were kind of clowning on the A's for Muller being their opening night starter. And it's nice to see him come through with a good performance.

Al, I think one of the most discussed pitchers on Rates and Barrels and the Athletic Fantasy Baseball podcast over these last few years, you say Kikuchi had a really nice start late in spring training, getting an opportunity yet again in the back of the Blue Jays rotation. What, if anything, is different with Kikuchi this time around? Tell me how it could actually work out and if you think it's a good idea to pick him up in a league where you might be trying to round out the bottom of your rotation. I think you need to have a different person sharing the show with you to really answer that question because I avoided him throughout all the drafts. I just, in that environment now, if we swapped him out with Kyle Muller, if he were in Oakland,

if he were back in Seattle, a whole different story. But to have a pitcher who is prone to fly balls, prone to home runs, pitching half the games in Toronto, I need to see probably a solid April from him. At which point, of course, it's too late. And I'm willing to be wrong because I don't want to take the risk. Yeah. By the time you react to a month, he's gone in just about every kind of league and maybe a 10 team league. He'd still be out there on the wire, but I think anything that's kind of like a mid-sized league, it's not going to take much for people to start to fall in love with him again because of the expectations he had coming over from Japan a few years ago. I'm holding off. I

just wanted to throw it out there to you, see if there was something I was maybe missing with Kikuchi. So if you see it, let us know on Twitter. I'd love to have more insight as to what could be different. I've thought a few times that he's figured it out. I'm not falling for that trap again. Let's talk about a couple of Yankee starters getting opportunities because of all the injuries that piled up on that team to this point. Clark Schmidt, who I think is rostered in most mid-sized mixed leagues, is more for 12-team leagues and more shallow formats than that. Is he good enough to stick in that rotation, to maybe out-pitch Domingo Hermann and keep this job long-term? I think that's the longer-range question we're looking at with Clark Schmidt,

beyond whatever his shorter-term streaming and match-up-based appeal might be in those more shallow formats where he's still available. The only thing, as far as I was concerned, uh, during drafts to, to not like about Clark Schmidt was just being worried about job security and especially, you know, this Yankees organization where they've been so loathe to, uh, aggressively promote, uh, prospects. And, you know, at this point it would not be aggressive, but you know, I was very surprised to see Anthony Volpe get the opening day nod. But no, I think that the time has come for Schmidt

and with the injuries that they have, he's going to get his opportunity to show that he belongs. I mean, it's a great skill set. And I think he's ready for 12-teamers. Yeah, I think so too. I think the stuff's always been good. It's been a lot of injuries that have slowed him down throughout his time moving through the Yankees system. The bullpen roll last year helped keep the innings down quite a bit too. So if you look at him throughout the first half of this season, I would not be surprised if he

actually holds a spot between the Rodon injury, the Severino injury, Montas not pitching at all this season. They have a clear need. And if he pitches well, I think it's ultimately a spot he can hold on to. Domingo Herman also looks good in the model by comparison. So that could be a decision that eventually comes to pass for the Yankees if everyone gets back to full health. In the meantime, they also have Johnny Brito filling in. And I just wonder, is this another example of the Yankees taking a guy who's not necessarily a highly regarded prospect? He's a prospect, but he's just not like a top 100 guy. Are they going to come through with someone that we haven't talked a lot about, haven't heard a lot about outside of Yankees prospect circles? Is this going to be more than a temporary useful sort of option or what are you doing with Brito sight unseen?

I mean, to me, he would just be for AL only because I don't think he's going to be up for that long. And, you know, he's not somebody that we've really talked about. I mean, you and I did the prospect show once a week last year, and he was not somebody that, you know, we ever saw fit to talk about, which is, you know, not to say that maybe that was, you know, a bad on us, but I just haven't, you know, seen a whole lot of discussion on, on Brito and, um, you know, not a great strikeout rate. It's a, it's a, you know, obviously a tough park to pitch in. So, uh, I, yeah, I'm not sure. I just think there are better options for, for 15am or even a little bit deeper in your mixed leagues.

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So Johnny Brito actually opens the door to a bigger question that I've got for you. Always important to think about this, and it changes over the course of the season because key players get hurt, key players come back from injuries. Sometimes we're just too high or too low on teams, and we have to change course based on what we're actually seeing. But who are some of the teams you're targeting for streaming to begin the season? So streaming, if anyone doesn't know, is just finding the matchups that you want to throw pitchers against from the waiver wire because the offense is just so bad, so far below average,

you just feel that the pitcher can come through and give you a positive contribution, even if their own skills are maybe average or slightly below. That's more or less what streaming is for anyone who's not familiar. Because Brito kind of fits into this bucket. We don't really know how good he is. We haven't seen him at the big league level yet it

might be a temporary opportunity it's a home start in the tough park you mentioned Yankee Stadium of course one of the most difficult places to pitch but it's against the Giants team that at least on paper doesn't really scare me at all even with Mitch Hanager in the lineup and Mitch Hanager is on the IL right now. So are the Giants among the teams that you are pretty comfortable streaming players against, so long as you see what look like at least decent skills from the pitcher you're streaming with? Well, this is kind of a funny question to me because one of the pitchers to stream this weekend in 12-teamers that I wrote about in the column was Michael Kopech, and he starts off at home against the Giants.

And then the second start is at Pittsburgh. And, you know, looking at that, I think most people would agree that the Pirates start is definitely the more favorable one. But I thought this was actually I had written this, I think, just before the Yankees-Giants game on opening day. So obviously the Giants didn't look good there. But I thought I could see this lineup doing some damage in a park like Guaranteed Rate Field. A lot of lefties. It's a great power park for left-handed hitters. So I think, yeah, I think maybe at home that lineup is going to be a little suspect.

I could definitely see streaming against the Giants at home, that lineup's going to be a little suspect. I could definitely see streaming against the Giants at home. But at Coors, at Guaranteed Rate Field, any of the better hitters parks in Cincinnati, Philadelphia, I could see that Giants team hitting a lot of bombs and scoring some runs. So no, for me, they're not, you know, down by, you know, Rockies on the road and the pirates. And I would say I would still include the Marlins, even though I think they have a better offense this year. The Tigers, those and the A's, of course, I'd say those are the teams that I will, you know, consistently

from week to week stream against. And I don't know if I said the Royals, but definitely the Royals too. Yeah. So streaming for me is kind of like imagining two lines where you have pitcher quality and then opponent quality and where the lines intersect, that's where you're comfortable going ahead and making the play. And I would say that you would need better skills from that pitcher in question to use them against the Giants, but the Giants are kind of at that upper bound, like the highest quality team that I'm seeking out their schedule every week

to look. I think when you look at them, you know, Jock Peterson, the power hitter he is at this stage, he's a hitter to fear. Sure. Michael Conforto should be one of those guys too. After that though, without Hanager, it's kind of just like, it's okay. It's a passable mix and match sort of lineup. I think it's one you can pick on with some of your slightly more skilled options for streaming. They're not a layup. You're not throwing anybody and everybody against them. Those types of teams, Oakland, Oakland for sure.

That Oakland lineup is brutal right now. Yeah, I know they pulled out that win on opening night, and that was fun to watch. We're surprised by what's happening perspective. I don't think that's going to be something they can do very often. I think this is like a 55 or 60 win team with the way that lineup is built right now. Rockies outside of Coors, kind of always a streaming target in recent years. The Pirates anywhere and everywhere. The Reds, I would say at least on the road and probably kind of like the San Francisco effect where it's like a decent streamer in Great American Ballpark, I'd still probably trust to go in there and actually pitch well against their lineup right now.

Tigers, Royals, I think you stream against them, especially, oh man, at Comerica. It's such a cavernous ballpark. Giants, who I mentioned, and then the Nationals too. I mean, I know we talked about Dominic Smith earlier, and I could see Jamer Candelario having a decent year with all the playing time, warming up to Joey Manessis, as I said on yesterday's show. But that's a Washington team that you should be picking on frequently as you look at their matchups in the weeks ahead. You had a couple other names on here for two-star weeks.

You mentioned Kopech before, you know, Giants and Pirates. Cutter Crawford, Pirates and Tigers. That's a golden two-start weeks. You mentioned Kopech before, you know, Giants and Pirates. Cutter Crawford, Pirates and Tigers, that's a golden two-start. I mean, it might be two starts and then goodbye as far as most rosters go, but I think that's a chance I'd be willing to take. Matthew Boyd, probably more of a two-start guy

for 10 and 12 team league since he's probably rostered in 15s, but he's got the Astros and the Red Sox. That one, I don't know. That's almost like a two start week that I'm cautious about using. I'm looking at my other matchups really carefully before I let that happen because that could be a lot of damage. But Houston a little short-handed, of course, with that Altuve injury. Brantley down right now, so maybe they're not quite as tough as they are when they're at full strength. Kyle Bradish is on the two start pitcher list for

you this week at Texas, home against the Yankees. Are strength. Kyle Bradish is on the two-start pitcher list for you this week at Texas, home against the Yankees. Are you in on Bradish based on some of the things we've seen from him over the course of the spring? Well, I like Bradish, and I talked a lot about him during the spring, but no, I'm not up for that two-step. I would much rather go with Boyd. Granted, there we are talking about 10 and 12 teams exclusively,

whereas Bradish, maybe he's available to 15 teamers, probably not very many. So I think with Bradish, you're probably also comparing him against the likes of Boyd or Kopech or some of the other names that you mentioned. And I'll pass on those matchups. Yeah. And a 15 teamer, you may have to take starts, the two start weeks from guys like Boyd and and Bradish where you're not overjoyed by the matchups, but your next best option might just project a lot less than a two-start pitcher does. That's a really tough call that a lot of people might have to make. Ruanzi Contreras at Boston, home against the White Sox. Reasonably tough matchups for him, but I like the skills enough where I think I'm airing at least this time of year on the side of playing Ruanzi Contreras, at least in those deeper leagues. I'm more interested in him than Bradish

for this coming week, to be sure. Yeah. Yeah. Each of those pitchers has one on the road and one at home too. I'd love to see two home starts for guys like that. That would be enough to kind of put it over the edge. Johnny Cueto, any interest in him? He's got the twins at home and the Mets on the road. Not really, although good parks for both. And if I'm going to look at Cueto at all, it's got to be a home start or a park like Citi Field. So if he's out there in 15-teamers, I'm looking at him. Minimal bid, though, for sure.

Yeah, bottom of the list, contingency sort of bid probably for him. Drew Smiley, who I think comes up on every waiver show we ever do at cincinnati same thing always always has two starts mysteriously i don't know what's going on with the schedule 48 starts last year by my count yes at cincinnati home against the rangers i'd probably that's exactly the line for like who would you throw at the reds at great american ballpark at in like a 14 or a 15 team league? Yes, Drew Smiley is that guy when the second start is a home start against the Rangers. Rangers are fine. They're kind of an average, maybe even a tick above average.

But I think if I'm looking for volume, I'm in on Drew Smiley. Kind of right on that borderline though. So a frustrating group of two-start pitchers, which is often the case early in the season, just because of the way the schedule works with the back-end guys getting those first cracks at the two starts. A couple other names to throw at you that are not two-start pitchers, which is often the case early in the season, just because of the way the schedule works with the back-end guys getting those first cracks at the two starts. A couple other names to throw at you that are not two-start pitchers. It sounds like you like Johan Oviedo just a little bit. He's got the SPARP eligibility for anybody who's out there in those situations, but getting a chance in this Pirates rotation. So what do you see from Oviedo, who actually finished the season

on a pretty high note last year for the Pirates? Yeah, yeah. Finished well. Could be a decent strikeout pitcher in a good park. The two big strikes against him. One is nothing he can control, which is that Pirates office, that offense that we both, you know, kind of distan just a moment ago. And then the other thing is just pretty consistently high walk rates. So I'd certainly like to see that come down. I'm not,

I don't have his page open here, but I seem to recall that he's got a positive trend of first pitch strikes over each of his seasons. So if that continues and I'm not just making this up, then, you know, that's pretty intriguing. Cause if you're talking about somebody who's,

you know, sort of in the neighborhood of a strikeout per inning, who's not, you know, at least has like a decent walk rate and probably isn't giving up too many home runs. That's those head-to-head leagues where there's a dedicated RP slot that, you know, that makes them a pretty, pretty nice option there. pretty nice option there. I got one other guy to think about. I like Oviedo a little bit for deeper leagues. 15 team and deeper, I think, is where I'm focusing on him. I don't think I'm necessarily thinking about him as a 12-team streamer at this point, but Hunter Gaddis getting a chance to fill in in the Guardians rotation, and maybe you're frustrated if you are someone like me trying to roster the more highly regarded prospects in that Cleveland system. A lot of pitching on the way in Cleveland,

as has been the case for a long time, but Gattis getting this first opportunity. I was looking at the Fangraph scouting report. They had him sitting 90-93, topping out at 96, but a future value 40 guy, a really good changeup, and everything else kind of just okay, kind of questionable command potentially as well. Are you interested in Hunter Gattis in sort of the same vein as we talked about with Michael Grove earlier, where it's like, well, yeah, it's Cleveland.

They know what they're doing with pitching developments. They get the benefit of the doubt. If they think Hunter Gattis is a better option than some of the more highly regarded prospects right now, and they're a team that wants to play meaningful games in October, maybe we should trust Hunter Gattis too. play meaningful games in October, maybe we should trust Hunter Gattis too. I like that comparison with Grove because of the organizations, as you mentioned, because of the just the profile, the statistical profile. I may like Gattis a little better. He was up briefly late last year and he did not fare well at all, but he is somebody who's been able to get a lot of strikeouts in the minors. Very, very low ground ball, right? So you'd have to tread very carefully with him. But just go back to our discussion about Brito on the Yankees.

That's the thing is, you know, there are a number of these because there were so many injuries the last couple of days. You know, we have these last-minute replacements. And if we're looking at them as a group with Brito included, I'd much rather take my chances with Gattis to be sure. But again, you'd have to be very cautious about it. Be a deep league option. You just have to be cautious about where to start them.

Now, if you're stashing Guardians pitchers, just saw Tanner Bibby headed to AAA. Gavin Williams actually going back to AA. So perhaps those assignments give us a little bit of a clue as to who would get the chance first between those two guys. Yeah. And also just to go back to gas for a second, because we will get to see Gattis tonight, Friday night in Seattle. So that's one of those potentially really good landing spots. And if that goes well, I would definitely be putting in a couple extra dollars to have them pitch for me in Oakland next week. Yeah. I'm with you. I like that we get a peek at a lot of these players ahead of time. Brito is another one of those guys, goes on Sunday. It's nice to see what he does, what the stuff really looks like.

How's the command? Does he look comfortable? All of those factors that we're looking for are worth thinking about. I was surprised to see Ryan Weathers pop up on Roto-Wire's projected starters grid. He's taking the place of Joe Musgrove right now. What I'm looking for for him is if anything's different in his arsenal there just weren't enough pitches in that arsenal for weathers to be an effective starter when he debuted back in 2020 so if we see a viable third pitch we see an uptick in velocity i might be intrigued by him but to my knowledge

those things have not happened yet so i'm going to have to keep digging over the course the next 48 hours if i'm going to throw him out there any sort of deep league, but we're talking probably NL-only leagues at best for Ryan Weathers at this point. We did have a question from Steve on Twitter. Just wanted our thoughts on Edward Cabrera, maybe a guy that hasn't necessarily popped in the model. In many leagues, he's not necessarily a waiver guy, but he's sort of a tricky player in a 10-team league, especially. There's tons of ceiling. There always has been a lot of arm injuries for him coming up through the Marlins system, but the stuff is electric, Al.

So what are your expectations for Cabrera, and do you think he is rosterable in some of those more shallow formats that are out there? I really don't just because in those leagues, you have so many options, and so to take a chance on a guy who's always had really high walk rates, it's that sort of thing in a shallow enough league

that it's going to make him not really hit the bar to be better than the other pitchers that you could get off a waiver. So 12 team, I'm even a little bit iffy, but again, like you said, he's rostered widely enough that you'd be lucky actually to have Cabrera on your waivers and 12 team.

And I think he's worth, worth the speculative bid there, but now I'm not ready to take the dive and anything shallower. Now we will get more games, of course, to see how these bullpens keep playing out. But if you bullpen things that caught my eye from opening day, we did see Daniel Bard open the year on the injured list.

He came out and said it's due to a bout with anxiety. So just all the best to him as he tries to get healthy and seek some treatment here in the near future. We'll see what happens with that Rockies pen in the next few days. I did see someone add Denelson Lemaitre in our league that we play in together. We have Thursday Night Fab in our keeper league we play in. I think with Lemaitre, I saw him pitch the seventh inning. He followed German Marquez in that game.

He was first out of the pen. So that gives me a sense that maybe he's a little more in the second or third chair as far as possible replacements for Bard go. So keep an eye on that over the weekend. We'll see if the Rockies can generate another save opportunity or high leverage opportunity to tip their hand with that bullpen. It's not really a bullpen I fish in a lot anyway, so I'm not necessarily looking there as much as I'm looking everywhere else. I did think Michael Fulmer looked

really good for the Cubs. Stuffed numbers this spring also look good, so if you're in a shallow league where he's still out there, I think Fulmer is a priority add this weekend. I know in just about any sort of deeper competitive league he was speculated on, but it looks like he could be a very nice option, nice pickup for the Cubs. Rondo Lopez gave up a long home run to Jordan Alvarez, but did convert a save opportunity, was hitting triple digits with the fastball. Slider looked pretty good too

at times. It's just a little inconsistent with the command. The good news here relative to the bullpen, though, is that Liam Hendricks was on the 15-day IL to begin the season, so his treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma seems to be progressing very well. Hopefully things continue in that direction, but we do know for now, at least it appears, Ronaldo Lopez has the upper hand for save opportunities in Hendricks' absence. Jose Leclerc is the guy in Texas. There was some doubt as to whether it might be Jonathan Hernandez.

That is a bullpen, though, where I would be, if possible, holding on to the alternatives just a little bit longer, more because of Leclerc's injury history than because of his skills. He misses plenty of bats. I think Jose Leclerc is good. I don't have a question about that. I just have some questions about whether or not he's actually going to hold up physically. Yeah, no, I think that's very good advice.

And I think Hernandez would be the main reliever there to target. And as far as the White Sox are concerned with Lopez getting the first save, I still think that they could get spread around. I think he actually is probably the best option that they've got right now. But it might be a good time to, if you have the room to stash Hendricks and he's available, think he actually is probably the best option that they've got right now but um you know might be a good time to if you have the room to stash hendrix and he's available um i think that'd be a good move now rather than you know wait until uh we get a more defined timetable for him a couple of top 10 closers had bumpy outings in their 2023 debuts ryan helsley had a blown save against the

blue jays in the season opener i don't think there's anything actionable in this case or in the one where Felix Batista converted despite some trouble and some traffic in that outing against the Red Sox. The Rays tipped their hand at least for one day as Colin Poche, Jason Adam, Pete Fairbanks going 7th, 8th, and 9th inning behind Shane McClanahan as part of a combined shutout in their opener against the Tigers. So I think if you were in on Fairbanks especially, you might be really happy. We know they like to mix and match a lot. Adam does look like a legitimate number two sort of guy that could get saves even if it is some kind of timeshare. Kyle Finnegan struggled to close things out in Washington. It was a non-save situation. Hunter Harvey had the eight. I thought that was kind of the more interesting part of that box score where maybe he's truly the next guy up. And because Finnegan doesn't have a particularly long track record in that high leverage role, if he falters, maybe we see that former top prospect in Harvey emerge to be a viable ninth inning option for the rebuilding

Nationals. The other one that caught my eye, Al Oakland, they went Domingo Acevedo, Trevor May, and then Danny Jimenez in that late comeback win over the eye, Al Oakland. They went Domingo Acevedo, Trevor May, and then Danny Jimenez in that late comeback win over the Angels in their opener. They were trailing until I think it was the eighth inning when they pulled ahead. So I don't know if they were using May trying to keep it close and if it's really a committee situation, but just wanted to throw it out there as one of those unsettled situations that probably is going to take a few weeks to really know for sure what's going on.

Yeah, I sort of interpreted it the way that you just did that. It was more of a get Trevor May in the high leverage situation. I would still expect him to, if not be the sole closer, be the top one. Maybe it's even stretched to say primary. But again, there may be so few saves to spread around there that it's not worth dissecting too much. I think we're going to get two guys that have eight to 12 saves and one or two more that have like four. That's what I'm expecting from the A's this year.

I expect pain and frustration. And I think A's fans, as I say all the time, they deserve a lot better. And shout out to whoever made the Shea Bangleers banner that was hanging up at the Oakland Coliseum. Hopefully we'll see that on a t-shirt very soon. We are going to wrap things up for this episode of Rates and Barrels.

You can find Al on Twitter at almelkyrbb. If you want to read Al's waiver column, ads and drops is up. Theathletic.com slash rates and barrels gets you in the door. $1 a month for the first, I think it's the first six months. Could be the first year. I should probably double check that before I record next time. But it gets you in the door at a very low price. Gets you all the things we're writing about over the course of the season.

Gets you Al's stuff. Gets you Eno's stuff. Gets you all the great real baseball coverage plus other sports as well. You can find me on Twitter at Derek Van Riper. That's going to do it for this episode of Rates and Barrels. We're back with you on Monday. Thank you.