Braves (Max Fired, LHP) @ Pirates (Quinn Priester, RHP)
Astros (Cristian Javier, RHP) @ Orioles (Jack Flaherty, RHP)
Royals (Jordan Lyles, RHP) @ Red Sox (Nick Pivetta, RHP)
Cubs (Kyle Hendricks, RHP) @ Mets (David Peterson, LHP)
Blue Jays (Kevin Gausman, RHP) @ Guardians (Logan Allen, LHP)
Yankees (Luis Severino, RHP) @ White Sox (Mike Clevinger, RHP)
Giants (Ryan Walker, RHP) @ Angels (Shohei Ohtani, RHP)
Dodgers (Bobby Miller, RHP) @ D-backs (Merrill Kelly, RHP)
Padres (Yu Darvish, RHP) @ Mariners (Emerson Hancock, RHP)

Pitching Preferences

• Kevin Gausman
• Yu Darvish
• Max Fried
• Logan Allen
• Kyle Hendricks
• Nick Pivetta
• Bobby Miller

Favorite Teams

• Braves
• Orioles
• Red Sox
• Yankees
• Astros
• Cubs
• Dodgers

Good afternoon! Happy hump day. It’s been an interesting week of baseball. I’m sweating my borderline best ball advancers profusely as we close out the regular season this week, as I anxiously await the first round payments to repurpose into more BBM and WW drafts. It’s good for the economy. Hurts nobody!

Yesterday there was a lot of offense. I was so very much looking forward to Endy Rodriguez being a part of the Pirates offensive output, but he unfortunately did not crack the starting lineup as Mitch Keller needed his boy Jason Delay behind the dish. I’m significantly less bullish about the Pirates against Max Fried, so I won’t spend much more time talking about them in this post. But just know I’m going back to the Endy well a few times today to make up for money I should’ve won last night.

The pitching options today don’t necessarily move me. There are obvious tiers to all of the starters today, and if I could have it my way I’d be overweight on Gausman without sacrificing too much ceiling for my bats, but that doesn’t seem ideal today.

The Braves take on Quinn Priester of the Pirates. Ronald Acuna Jr took a pitch to the elbow (guard) yesterday, and you would’ve thought he was hit with a 120 MPH ball to an unprotected area of the body. He got x-rays, they came back negative. I expect him to play, possibly at DH today. The real story here is Quinn Priester though. He’s not good, folks.

He doesn’t throw hard, he sports a 1.78 WHIP, doesn’t strike guys out, and has an ERA over 8 with an xFIP over 5. There’s simply nothing redeeming about QP, unfortunately for Pirates fans. Until he adds velocity or a sinker, he’s going to get shelled. Insert the Atlanta Braves! They’re rocking an implied run total of 6 today. I would take that “higher” today.

Next up on “Pitchers who are Food for opposing bats” is Cristian Javier. In his last seven starts, Javier has only record 18 outs once. He has given up less than 3 runs once (2 ER @ Oakland, lol), and has walked 12.7% of batters during this span. He’s pitching poorly, folks! And the Orioles are good. Orioles against a RHP at home is always on the menu, and it’s something I’m very excited to get to today.

Lastly, our boy Jordan Lyles is facing the Red Sox at Fenway Park today. Mandatory posting of this meme is required any time I mention Jordan Lyles.

He is unfortunately cooked food today against the Sox and their slew of lefty sticks today. This could be the Jordan Lyles masterclass that comes out every few months, but I am not counting on that today. Give me all the Red Sox, especially Masataka Yoshida, whose ADP is an insulting 28.3 today.

Best of luck, friends. Check out the Badge Bros YouTube channel for a team by team breakdown at 3PM CT. Thank you!
Nez