I am stubborn, but not so stubborn that I can’t admit a mistake. I wanted to watch Cole Ragans (6 1/3 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, 2 walks, 7 Ks, ERA at 1.46) and be honest with myself if I thought it was a mistake calling him overrated in the preseason. I didn’t want to watch yesterday’s game predisposed to hating him, and I don’t think I did. He looked completely fine. His change is nasty, but his location comes and goes. If his command is on, as it was through six, then he’s a solid number two for fantasy. He won’t get wins, and he’s not, say, Tyler Glasnow with the lights-out. He was on for 85 pitches yesterday and he still only recorded seven Ks. That’s totally fine! Is it an ace? I haven’t seen it yet. I still think he was overrated in the preseason, and if his command leaves him in a first inning of the next game, instead of the 7th, as it did yesterday, it’s not going to be good news. Am I being stubborn? Meh, maybe. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Maikel Garcia – 2-for-5 and a slam (3) and legs (1). He’s going to be in this Friday’s Buy, which is already available on Patreon.
Will Smith – 2/3 IP, 2 ER, ERA at 20.25, and his 1st blown save, moving his record to 0-2. At this point, I think the Royals closer could be either of the other two Will Smiths and they’d be better off.
Luis Rengifo – 1-for-3, 1 run as he hit leadoff, but left the game with lightheadedness. He felt woozy seeing his name in the lineup.
Patrick Sandoval – 5 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 6 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 6.14. Streamonator hates his next start, and, if my knowledge of Sandoval holds true from previous years, a solid start is a future indication of nothing.
Taylor Ward – 3-for-5, 2 runs, 2 RBIs and his 3rd homer. The Taylor Ward sleeper I wrote last year? Consider it for this year.
A.J. Puk – 4 IP, 2 ER, ERA at 9.00. Some good news today with A.J. Puk. A lot of you have wanted to pick up other players off waivers and have had a hard time finding room on your team. Well, A.J. Puk’s got your back!
Nick Pivetta – 5 IP, 0 ER, 6 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 0.82. Me and my boys from Boston at the Cask love Pivetta, but the A’ss have four guys in their lineup hitting under .120.
Kenley Jansen – 1 IP, 0 ER, ERA at 0.00 and his 2nd save. His velo is down to 89 MPH and he looks like hot garbage that’s in the glove compartment of a car parked on the sun.
Ross Stripling – 7 IP, 1 ER, 8 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 3.75. Went to see if the Streamonator liked Stripling and Streamonator said, “An A’ss pitcher? What are we doing here? Punting wins?” Streamonator with some ‘tude!
Aaron Judge – 2-for-4, 3 RBIs and his 1st homer. “Think I need to cut it up into at least 500 pieces before the body starts fitting into the wood chipper–Hold up! Judge moved! He’s alive!”
Alex Verdugo – 1-for-4, 2 RBIs and his 1st homer. His homers now equals chains he’s allowed to wear.
Carlos Rodon – 5 1/3 IP, 2 ER, 9 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 2.79. He tired super fast towards end of his start and his command went wee-wah when it was wah-wee most of the start. I’m not buying, but if you did, then you didn’t pay attention to me anyway, so what are we doing here?
Merrill Kelly – 7 IP, 2 ER, 6 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 1.98. If you see Rodon’s and Kelly’s starts vs. each other and think Rodon looked better, you might have Yankee Brain.
Blaze Alexander – 1-for-2 and his 1st homer. Fun fact! Blaze is also the name of everyone’s weed dealer.
Ketel Marte – 2-for-5 and his 1st homer. DBacks with Ketel and Blaze? They playing baseball or starting a VIP section in a Vegas club.
Zack Wheeler – 6 IP, 1 ER, 4 baserunners, 10 Ks, ERA at 0.75. See, compare this start to the Ragans start. Wheeler? He’s an ace. Great team (even if he was denied a victory), solid Ks and a nice track record.
Kyle Schwarber – 1-for-3 and his 2nd homer. Very smart to have your biggest home run threat hitting leadoff. Good, smart stuff.
Frankie Montas – 5 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 8 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 0.77. Philly’s weather (usually cloudy with a chance for cheesesteaks) was so foul I don’t want to put too much weight on anything, but Montas looked excellent yesterday, and all year so far.
Seiya Suzuki – 3-for-5, 4 RBIs, and his 2nd homer, 2nd in as many games. Seiya ball!
Tyler Glasnow – 6 IP, 3 ER, 6 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 2.20. What did I say about Glasnow being an ace? Well, he is, whether he was last night or not.
Shohei Ohtani – 2-for-4, 2 runs and his 1st homer. Someone had money on the over!
Miguel Rojas – 1-for-3, 2 RBIs and his 2nd homer. Damn, Miguel Rojas has twice as many homers as Ohtani.
Jorge Soler – 2-for-4, 2 runs and his 2nd homer, and 2nd in as many games. Old news, but it’s so funny that Dodger Stadium is now a launching pad with the humidor.
Cristian Javier – 5 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, 5 walks, 3 Ks, ERA at 0.00. He had how many walks vs. how many Ks? C’mon. Him being better than last year is the least believable Cristian narrative, and that’s carrying some weight.
Yordan Alvarez – 4-for-5, 3 RBIs and his 1st and 2nd homer. Captain Woo Cubano just wants to have fun!
Jeremy Pena – 2-for-4, 3 RBIs and his 2nd homer. No one was expecting this resurgence, huh? That’s not a coy question indicating I was. Seriously, no one was.
Jose Altuve – 1-for-4, 2 runs and his 3rd homer, and 2nd in as many games. One small step for man, one giant–Well, no, just the small step bit.
Kyle Higashioka – 1-for-4 and his 1st homer, this was after he threw out two Cards baserunners attempting steals, which is whatever, but get a load of this: Donovan was thrown out, then the next guy on base was Arenado, who is much slower, and they sent him too. What kind of stupid juice is Oli Marmol drinking?
Joe Musgrove – 6 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 6.28. Faced the Cards, and I don’t want to say they’re as bad as the worst teams in the league, but that lineup looks busted right now. Goldy might wanna go back to Driveline.
Mitch Keller – 5 1/3 IP, 4 ER, 10 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 6.55. Hardest guys to deal with are: They’re not awful like Puk so you can just drop them, but they’re also GETTING ON MY LAST NERVES. Sorry, had to bring out the caps. This was vs. the Gnats, and it should’ve been better, but, honestly, the line looks good compared to how bad he looked. Just 90 minutes of me pulling my hair out. And I have gorgeous hair! Hopefully the next start is better, otherwise we need to start making some tough decisions.
Jack Suwinski – 2-for-4, 2 runs, and his 1st homer. Batter, batter, Suwinski, batter!
Joey Gallo – 3-for-4 and his 1st homer. The homer was his first hit of the year, but he added two more hits so you couldn’t compare him to Anthony Rendon. Good call, Gallo!
George Kirby – 3 2/3 IP, 8 ER, ERA at 6.97. Went to look at FanGraphs for Kirby’s FIP in yesterday’s game and FanGraphs said, “Yeah, he was unlucky. So? Does that make you feel better or worse? Are you a big boy or a big baby?” All of that is kinda harsh, to be honest.
Logan Allen – 6 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 7 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 2.31. You get your biscuit and propers for not accidentally drafting the DBacks’ Logan Allen by mistake.
Brandon Lowe – Left yesterday’s game with injury. He joins the injured Josh Lowe and Nathaniel Lowe. Ah, so that’s what 3 Body Problem is about.
Josh Jung – Will be out until June/July now. Man, without bad luck, Jung would be luckless. Now give Ezequiel Duran some at-bats! It is very comical (to only me) that I drafted Ezequiel Duran and Luis Rengifo in a bunch of leagues, because they cover so many positions, and now they never play.
Nathan Eovaldi – 7 IP, 0 ER, 4 hits, 1 walk, 8 Ks, ERA at 1.38. Would be so boring. The boringiest of the boring. Drilling down into the boring and pulling out the most boringiest boring ever. But a fantasy team with Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha and Eovaldi would’ve been so cheap to acquire in drafts and solid. Eovaldi is a lot like his teammate Adolis Garcia. In drafts? People are, “Meh, they’re okay, I guess, but I think I’m going to go a different way.” Then, in season, “How do I acquire more of these types of players?”
Corey Seager – 2-for-5 and his 1st homer. Take a moment, and think back to you screaming in February about how Corey Seager should be dropped lower in the rankings because he might miss Opening Day. Do me a favor though, don’t think back to yourself in January screaming I had Seager ranked too low initially.
Aaron Civale – 6 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 8 Ks, ERA at 1.50. This game of Eovaldi vs. Civale was a joy to watch. We need more pitchers who sound Italian, who I have no idea if they are.
Alex Kirilloff – 4-for-4, 2 runs and a homer short of a cycle, which is prolly for the best since Kirilloff and cycle would likely lead to a 60-day IL.
Trevor Megill – Hurt his head after contracting food poisoning, feeling faint and falling back and hitting his head. The 7th inning stretch Bratwurst is a menace.
Joel Payamps – 1/3 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 10.80. Damn, if only Payamps went out to dinner last night with Megill.
Jackson Chourio – 1-for-4 and his 1st major league homer, as he hits leadoff. [elevates off the ground from my ecstasy for Chourio] Someone throw me a basketball, I could dunk right now!
Rhys Hoskins – 1-for-3 and his 2nd homer. Something I’m not sure I mentioned yet, but the weekend before the season when I was in Vegas, I put money on Hoskins to lead the majors in HRs. If you’re following, I bet Yelich to win NL MVP; Hoskins to lead majors in homers and Brewers to win the World Series. I’m basically Ippei if Bernie Brewer needed a translator.
