Pirates (Martin Perez, LHP) @ Marlins (AJ Puk, LHP)
Yankees (Carlos Rodon, LHP) @ Astros (Cristian Javier, RHP)
Rockies (Cal Quantrill, RHP) @ D-backs (Merrill Kelly, RHP)
Guardians (Logan Allen, LHP) @ Athletics (Ross Stripling, RHP)
Giants (Kyle Harrison, LHP) @ Padres (Joe Musgrove, RHP)
Red Sox (Nick Pivetta, RHP) @ Mariners (George Kirby, RHP)
Cardinals (Zack Thompson, LHP) @ Dodgers (Bobby Miller, RHP)
Good morning! One slate of baseball is now behind us. I hope you had an enjoyable Opening Day, and a profitable one if fortunate favored you. In my post yesterday, I deemed the Rockies to be “irresponsible” for what they were doing in their rotation this season. I think I was perhaps too kind. An absolute bludgeoning took place last night in Phoenix Arizona, and we’re likely to see another beat down today. Cal Quantrill, god speed buddy.
I had a winning night thanks to a win in the Grand Slam, a winner take all contest that I unfortunately had to knock my good pal Chipsy out of first to win. My winning lineup contained 5 D-backs, with Tarik Skubal at pitcher. The onslaught meta has begun.
Or has it?
In the main slate – a 40k prize pool contest – first place was chopped among three victors with three unique lineups using three different constructions!
Hey, there’s Chipsy again. Good night to be heavy on the D-backs I suppose.
I found it very amusing that things broke this way, as it gave a chance to highlight the number of ways someone can win a contest in baseball. It’s not often you see one, let alone two lineups take first with a batter + opposing pitcher in them. I think both of these users would tell you they won’t be doing that on purpose in the future if they can help it. My point is, a team full of one offs, and two teams with different stacking constructions got home and that is why my portfolio will contain the construction diversity that it does.
Let’s get into some lists.
Pitching Preferences
- Merrill Kelly
- George Kirby
- Bobby Miller
- Logan Allen
- Joe Musgrove
- Nick Pivetta
- Kyle Harrison
Favorite Teams
- Dodgers
- D-backs
- Yankees
- Pirates
- Guardians
- Astros
We’ve got a very nice seven game slate today. We can focus a bit less on trying to cover all of our bases and more on favorite plays, which makes for an enjoyable draft experience. Once again, Dodgers and D-backs are screaming in our faces as the best plays. Zack Thompson is an ok lefty, but that will leave you wildly overmatched when your opponent is the LA Dodgers. For the D-backs, they get Cal Quantrill. Another lefty, who could at one time be described as decent, has not been decent in recent form. He will be food for this Arizona team.
Cristian Javier will be facing the Yankees today in Houston, and I will be very interested to see how he looks today. His range of outcomes are quite wide, I would not be surprised to see him go 6 strong with 8 Ks or leave before the 4th inning ends with bumps and bruises. His 2023 season left me scorned, but I’m not closing the door on Javier for dailies just yet. But for today, I will be building some Yankees stacks.
The same can be said for Carlos Rodon on the other side of this game, although his story is a bit different. Returning from injury in 2023, he looked anything but himself. He has since had a healthy Spring with some flashes of good velo, so it’s hard to know what to expect from him today. The Astros being the Astros, however, will lead me to some stacks of them against a pitcher I need to see in order to believe is truly back.
I am once again building Pirates stacks. You can join me if you’d like. Hayes, Davis, and McCutchen will always be a part of my portfolio against LHP. Get used to hearing that get touted. The Pirates are starting Martin Perez today, and while I don’t think he’s good, I don’t fear the fish enough to take them against him. If I was to build Marlins stacks, it would be with Burger and De La Cruz. Jazz is probably worth throwing in there too sometimes, but I won’t be doing it much.
Best of luck today! Thank you to everyone who read yesterday’s post and is here today. A little blown away at the traffic generated from yesterday and hope this is enjoyable, useful, or just providing some form of value to you as a reader. Thanks for all of the support. There will be a stream on the BadgeBros channel for our YouTube members at a time TBD.
Nez
Take Sheet 