Tigers (Casey Mize, RHP) @ Mets (Adrian Houser, RHP)
Rockies (Kyle Freeland, LHP) @ Cubs (Javier Assad, RHP)
Braves (Reynaldo Lopez, RHP) @ White Sox (Garrett Crochet, LHP)
Blue Jays (Jose Berrios, RHP) @ Astros (Framber Valdez, LHP)
Red Sox (Brayan Bello, RHP) @ Athletics (Alex Wood, LHP)
Guardians (Shane Bieber, RHP) @ Mariners (Luis Castillo, RHP)
Cardinals (Miles Mikolas, RHP) @ Padres (Yu Darvish, RHP)
Yankees (Nestor Cortes, LHP) @ D-backs (Zac Gallen, RHP)
Giants (Logan Webb, RHP) @ Dodgers (TBD)
Good morning! It is Tuesday, but feels like a Monday or a Thursday in the baseball streets as some teams are getting scheduled rest after playing five or four games straight to start the season. The Pirates will remain undefeated for yet another calendar day after taking care of business yesterday. They’re awesome and real.
Last night, Kyle Tucker and Yainer Diaz smashed the slate. We also saw some dominant pitching performances from Tanner Houck and Sean Manaea, and a no-hitter from Ronel Blanco! Therefore, as long as you had one of these three, you were good. The case most slates will be something like this, where even when you have a no-hitter, SP needs multiple factors in place to truly separate on a given slate. It starts with the SP themselves having a great performance. The second most important factor is everyone else failing. This is obviously tough, but it will happen now and again, though not the most likely outcome. I love pitching and I love to analyze it, unfortunately it will not factor in much when it comes to drafting SP, but evaluations can be helpful in identify offenses to target. See last night with Bowden Francis – we had a decent read on his pitch mix not being ideal, and he was indeed shelled by a daunting Astros lineup. Anyhow – let’s get to today!
Favorite Teams
- Braves
- Cubs
- Padres
- Tigers
- D-backs
- Mets
- Dodgers
- Astros
Pitching Preferences
- Luis Castillo
- Shane Bieber
- Zac Gallen
- Logan Webb
- Brayan Bello
- Framber Valdez
We’ve got ourselves an interesting landscape today. There’s a lot of good offenses facing good pitching, with some lesser teams facing meh pitching. It’s going to be difficult to dissect stacks to target today, for me at least.
Let’s start with the Dodgers. They’re facing my son Logan Webb, and I’m not going to be drafting them with a smile on my face, but I will have some Dodgers today. Rarely will there be a slate that we are off Dodgers that isn’t weather related, and I’m not advocating for an LA fade here tonight. Just that it’s a tough opponent in Webb.
The Braves take on Garrett Crochet, who had one hell of a debut against Detroit. The problem is, he faces the Braves today. The outcome of this start will cause large ripples within the fantasy community. If he dominates this lineup, he will be revered and highly sought after for the rest of the season. If he is crushed, well, I will still hold out hope. Unfortunately for Garrett, I’m going to be drafting lots of Braves right handed bats today. Prove me wrong if you are truly him, but I will be funneling to Atlanta today.
The Cubs are going to be one of my highest owned stacks today. I think if you are in a time crunch today, setting up your ranks that primarily have you drafting Cubs is viable today. Kyle Freeland’s first start was not a fluke. He has been this bad for a long time. It’s a sad situation in Colorado and the road gets a little bit longer today. Cubs right handed bats should feast today.
As of writing this we don’t have a starter for the Dodgers, but the Giants lineup isn’t too strong so I’m not really sweating it.
Reynaldo Lopez is making a start for Atlanta today, his first since 2022 (where he made one start, and 60 relief appearances). The Braves are a very smart organization, and we should be on high alert with this Reynaldo start. He has kept an ERA below 3.50 the last three seasons, and still rocks a 98 MPH four seam, paired with a slider. I think stacking White Sox today makes sense at a relatively light clip, as I’m not convinced Reynaldo will become a bonafide starter just because he’s with the Braves. We will monitor this start because I’m intrigued, but I’m not fading the White Sox today entirely. Their lineup is still respectable.
Good luck to all today. Here’s hoping the contests will fill so we can keep increasing the prize pools!
Nez
Take Sheet 