Daily Fantasy Baseball News and Notes | First Pitch Podcast 3/28/26

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What's up, fantasy managers. Welcome back to another episode of the first pitch podcast brought to you by PitcherList.com.

My name is Jake Crumpler and I'll be your host for this edition of the podcast.

You can follow me on socials at Jake Crumpler.

And you can find all of my work at crumpler baseball.com.

Let's dive into everything baseball related from Friday, March 27th.

We keep marching along on opening weekend.

Let's start things off as always with the transactions, injuries, news and notes from around the league kicking things off with the bad news.

As Altfield or Mickey Moniac was placed on the 10-day IEL with a right ring finger sprain.

Moniac is unlikely to miss more than the minimum time though I would not be surprised.

This is already the second blow to the Rockies Outfield core after Zach Vene was placed on the IEL to open the season.

Jake McCarthy, Brenton Doyle and Jordan Beck will remain the starting Altfield group for the Rockies as Moniac was set to be the club's designated hitter.

Eduardo Julianne DH in the Rockies opening day.

So expect him to continue to see time at DH capture Braxton, Fulford was recalled for the miners in a corresponding move and with three catchers now on the active roster.

Fulford and utility man Ryan Ritter are likely to see time at DH and in the outfield respectively against left handed pitchers putting one of Julian or rookie TJ Rumpfield into some sort of a platoon with Braxton.

Next we have really pitcher Carlos Vargas was placed on the 15-day IEL with a right latch strain.

The move is retroactive to March 24th but Vargas will likely need more than the minimum two weeks to return to the active roster.

Vargas is a solid metal reliever and a deep mariners bullpen.

So this isn't a huge fantasy relevant move.

Maybe in deep holds leagues, Cole Wilcox was recalled for the miners in a corresponding move and will provide depth in relief for the Mariners in terms of transactions.

The extensions keep coming as starting pitcher Shane Boz signed a five year 68 million dollar extension with the Baltimore Orioles.

Boz was acquired via trade from the raise this off season and was set to become a free agent after the 2028 season.

So this extension wasn't really necessary for the Orioles but definitely cool to see them not only invest in their players but also for Boz to be able to capitalize on the potential that he has right now.

Boz, Samuel Bessio and Peter Alonzo are the only Orioles signed to long term deals in Baltimore but the club is finally investing in its players.

And in terms of news, the financial details on Nico Horner's six year extension or disclosed Horner will get $141 million over the next six years and will have a no trade cause with the Cubs.

And lastly outfielder Christopher Morrell was scratched from the Marlins lineup ahead of their opening day matchup against the Rockies.

Morrell is dealing with an oblique strain and will undergo further testing depending on the severity of the strain.

Morrell could require an IEL stint that might last a few weeks considering oblique strains usually take a while to recover from.

With the news of prospect corner infielder Davison Daly Santos being recalled today, Morrell is almost assuredly headed to the injured list.

Daly Santos had a 40 homer minor league season in 2024 but struggled to an 84 WRC plus at AAA last year.

He could see every day playing time at first base but it's more likely that Graham Polly comes off the bench to cover the hot corner which would shift Connor Norby across the diamond to first base with Daly Santos replacing Polly.

And swapping positions with Norby versus left handed pitchers plenty of power potential for Davis and Daly Santos but not somebody you need to target in standard leagues.

Now we can look at some notable performances from Friday a day in which in which we had a short slate of eight games will started off with our hitters leading off with second basement Alex Freeland who helped the Dodgers to win against the Diamondbacks going two for three with two runs a double home run and an RBI.

Just what the Dodgers need another great player. Oh, I couldn't be happier. Freeland Freeland's home run went 413 feet at 105 miles per hour and he's a top 10 prospect for the Dodgers made a brief debut last year but he's getting a legit shot this year on the strong side of a second base platoon with Miguel Rojas.

Freeland will have to keep up performances like this one if he wants to ward off high sound Kim from getting the call up from the minors and replacing him.

Freeland's standout tool is his plate discipline which makes him a target in points leagues, especially in a Dodgers lineup where batting ninth means getting driven in by the likes of Shohei Otani, Kyle Tucker, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.

The Dodgers lineup which hitter should be a significant producer of runs when in the lineup versus righties and he could show off some power and speed after hitting 18 homers and stealing 19 bases between AAA and the majors last year that's Alex Freeland of the Dodgers.

Next we have outfielder Josh Lowe who helped the Astros to win in Houston going to help the Angels to win in Houston.

Lowe went two for four with a run, a double, a home run and three runs batted in.

Lowe went 374 feet at 101 miles per hour and Lowe was acquired from the race over the off season in one of the many 13 trades that they had in the previous off season.

The Angels only had to give up lefty reliever Brock Burke and minor league starter Chris Carter to acquire Lowe and that's because he's a high risk, high upside addition for the Angels which is a ball cup club full of players fitting that high risk, high upside profile.

Lowe broke out in 2023 batting 292 with 20 homers and 32 stolen bases but he struggled with injuries and strikeouts over the past two years batting just 230 with 21 homers and 43 stolen bases combined in those two in 214 games combined in those seasons.

The power and speed potential is clearly still possessed by low and it's just about him staying healthy and keeping that strikeout rate below 25% strikeout percentage starts to stabilize around 100 played appearances.

So keep an eye on Lowe and make your final decision on his worthiness around early May for now he's on the strong side of a right field platoon and should only be relevant in 15 team five outfield or outfielder leagues.

He's fringy in anything shallower than that.

And lastly we've got second baseman Cole Young who helped the Mariners to win against the Guardians going one for three with a run a home run and three runs batted in.

Young's homer went 367 feet at 99 miles per hour and he was pretty underwhelming underwhelming in his half season debut last year batting just 211 with four homers and one steal in 77 games for the Mariners.

Young was a top three prospect for the club but his calling card was defense and plate discipline attributes that don't usually translate to fantasy stardom on the strong side of a second base platoon with Ryan Bliss.

Young will be more valuable in points leagues because of that plate discipline but you'll have to make significant strides at the plate to really enter the fantasy consciousness.

Young is a guy who topped out at 11 homers and 23 stolen bases throughout his minor league career.

The one intriguing data point I see was a 140 mile per hour max exit velocity from last year which hints at a player capable of putting up an 800 OPS at some point in his career.

There was some study I read over the off season about how players that eclipse I think it was 11 or 112 mile per hour max exit velocity make up the bulk of players that put up 800 OPS season so that is something that.

That portends future success for coal young still just 22 years old and calling a pictures park home in Seattle we may have to wait a few years for that season to come but don't count out coal young just yet we also saw catcher Shayland gliers hit two homeruns going three for four.

As he did all he could but the a's lost to the blue chase he did hit a game tying home run in the ninth inning we also saw chased a lot or go deep for the third time already this season after going deep twice on opening day in his major league debut his regular season debut to a lot of went deep again going one for four in that one pretty incredible but Guardian still lost in Seattle and we also saw Mike trout go three for four with a run at home run an RBI and a walk he's off to an incredible start this season he's already stolen base.

This was a second home run already got four walks he's been looking like vintage Mike trout and lastly Aaron judge and John Carlo stand and went back to back for the first home runs of the year against the giants on Friday but if you'd like more information on some notable hitting performances from Friday check out the daily batters box article over on pitch list calm.

Now we'll head to the mounted check out some notable starting pitching performances opening with Kevin gozman who helped the blue jays to win against the a's tossing six innings allowing just one hit and one run walking nobody while punching out 11 he induced 17 whiffs with 34% CSW across 83 pitches and he led baseball with those 17 whiffs and 34% CSW earning gozman the golden goal he also set a franchise record for most opening day strikeouts by a blue jays pitcher with 11 the previous record was nine.

done by both the legendary and late Roy holiday and Esteban loiza gozman success is pretty predictable if he has good separation between his four seamer and his splitter and avoids the heart of the plate he's going to have a great night and that's exactly what we saw here four seamer's generally set upstairs inducing seven whiffs and 29% CSW while his splitter was cooking landing below the zone and generating 10 whiffs and 44% CSW command will be gozman's biggest roadblock to success this year.

as he's a few pitch pitchers you're really relying on both of those pitches to be pinpoint and I think he was a bit lucky to get away with a lot of the fastballs he left over the plate here he went five for five on outs and balls and play on the heater despite four of those five balls being hard hits and he missed up with about five splitters in this one and his lone hit that he allowed was a home run by the aforementioned shayland gliers that came on a splitter that he couldn't get down I don't think we'll see the same heights gozman has reached before with like 30

plus percent strikeout rates where he's flirting with a top 15 pitcher but he's not someone will ever be considering dropping I'd love to see gozman figure that slider out to give him just one more weapon but with the best splitter in baseball and a dope heater at 95 miles per hour we don't need to worry and it's an easy auto start versus the Rockies for gozman next.

Now we've got Sandy Alcantra who helped the marlins to win against the Rockies tossing seven shut out and he's allowing four hits and two walks while striking out five he induced 11 whiffs with 30% CSW across 73 pitches and Sandy got the year off to a great start after struggling through last season he was ultra efficient in this one completing seven frames and the fewest pitches by a Marlin since Annabelle Sanchez in 2007.

Sandy success last year was defined by his change up feel and he was feeling it in this one landing it under the zone for six whiffs and 50% CSW as his most used offering Sandy induced a ton of weak contact as well going five out of six outs on balls and play with a sinker and I think being another year removed from Tommy John surgery will help Sandy improve his command and I think he was unlucky last year and will benefit from an improved Marlin's defense this year.

We also have to talk about the alteration with which he's entered the season Sandy's now throwing a new sweeper having ditched the curve he threw 18% of the time last year the sweeper was thrown 16% of the time in this one and should be used as a whiff pitch to write ease and to steal strikes against lefties.

However, Sandy struggled to control it in this one earning strikes on just 50% of his sweepers with just one whiff and one called strike for 17% CSW.

So the sweeper doesn't look like the answer for Sandy, but I do love to see him making attempts to get more whiffs and avoid the balls and play that put him in the same category as a Logan web from regardless are on the lower end of the story on a ground ball pitchers heavily reliant on their defense to turn balls and play into outs it's a risky with play as usual for guys like that but I don't think we'll be dropping Sandy at any point this year and we're definitely starting him against another week lineup versus the white socks next.

And lastly we've got Michael King who did all he could but the Padres lost to the Tigers he tossed five scoreless innings long just one hit walking for and striking out six he induced 14 whiffs with 34% CSW across 82 pitches and King was one of the best pitchers in baseball as soon as he moved to the Padres in 2024 but he didn't look the same after returning from injury in the second half of last year.

He wasn't able to nail down his command in spring either making him a risky pitcher to draft and I'm not sure he's quelled our our concerns quite yet despite five one hit innings in his first start of the year King's sinker put in work with four whiffs and 39% CSW on Friday but it was the only pitch he was able to consistently throw for strikes as his change up and sweeper combined for six whiffs and 28% CSW but they earned strikes on only 46 and 53% of the time respectively.

King's four seamer did hold a 70% strike rate with four whiffs but it wasn't a pitch he was using to get ahead and counts but rather one that was saved as a put away pitch upstairs and two strike counts I think the heavy reliance on the sinker for King to earn strikes has concerns that are twofold not only will that force King to live in the zone more often with that pitch likely leading to more hard hits and a higher whip but I think King's inability to earn consistent strikes with his secondaries will likely lead to an inflated walk rate.

And that was the main reason why we saw the four walks yesterday. The thing is we're trying to determine if King can reclaim the ceiling that made him a top 15 starter in 2024 not if he's someone we're sending to the waiver wire anytime soon so we have to be ultra critical when it comes to analyzing King the stuff is still there but the command is not and I want to see King for it with 60% strike rates on his secondaries before I buy into him being a top 30 starter this season King's next start in Fenway is a little scary and that's what I'm going to say.

That should be a litmus test for what we can expect this season but if you'd like a breakdown of all of the starts from Friday give the plus pitch podcast to listen and check out next daily SP roundup over on pitcherless calm.

Now we'll head to the bullpen and check out the relievers that got saves and the closures that pitched outside the safe situations or blew their saves starting with the former David bed now recorded his first save of the year for the Yankees with a hitless 9th Pete Fairbanks pitch day scoreless 9th for his first save as a Marlin.

Kenley Jansen struck out the side in order for his first save as a Detroit tire he is closing in on Lee Smith and lastly Edwin Diaz recorded his first save as a Dodger and that took a hitless 9th to get there.

In terms of closures to pitch outside of safe situations or blow their saves Ryan Walker recorded one out in the eighth inning down by three it was awkward usage and Walker put two men on and got one strike out before being removed.

I don't know if this is like a new manager thing from Tony Vittello where he's trying to figure out how to use the bullpen or if he just wanted to get Ryan Walker work because they will play on Saturday but then the Giants will be off on Sunday so using him on back to back days will be fine.

It's just not ideal this early in the season Jeff Hoffman struck out four batters but he served up a game tying Homer to Shea Langleers to blow his first save of the season however the blue jays walked it off in the bottom half to earn Hoffman his first win of the season.

Justin Sterner was the one to serve up that walkoff to the blue jays he pitched the ninth in a tie game but he allowed three hits to take his first loss the usage here suggests that he is the top man that he is the leg up over Scott Barlow and Hogan Harris who pitched the sixth seventh and eighth but Sterner's performance does leave the door open for one of those two or Mark Ladder Jr. to get the next save opportunity.

Jordan Romano pitched a perfect ninth with a four run lead but don't worry the angels tacked on an insurance run in the top in the top half to ruin Romano save opportunity so he was lined up to get a save before that and lastly Andres Munoz pitched a scoreless ninth up by four looks like the Mariners were trying to lock in the first win of the season but if you'd like more information on relief pictures check out Rick Graham's daily articles about relief pictures over on pictureless calm.

And before you look forward to today's games we're going to take a quick break.

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We'll look forward to Saturday March 28th a day in which we'll have a full slate our first full slate while 15 games on Saturday my match up of the day is Jacob DeGrom versus aerononola two veterans one of them in ace aeronola trying to recover the ASTOM that he once had it should be a great match up here.

DeGrom versus Nola in terms of probable starters we've got nine guys in the auto starts here including DeGrom and Nola we've also got Brian Wu versus the Guardians Tyler Glass now versus the Diamondbacks and a URI Perez versus

the Rockies are probably starts to your has three guys and that's where we'll find our streamer of the day in Joey Cantio in Seattle Cantio finds his his success with incredible extension well over seven feet.

He throws like 90 miles per hour but it gets on you fast when he's extending that far to the plate.

So we're just hoping that he has good command here good feel of his change up and he should be able to take advantage of the great ballpark pitching there.

I'd also keep an eye out for Chad Patrick versus the White Sox it's a weak lineup and Patrick's pretty decent with the cutter sinker and for seemer and change up we'd like to see some improvements here most notably.

Just you know finding a better with pitch versus righties finding something that will allow him to avoid throwing that for seemer because it gets absolutely crushed but he should be fine against the White Sox on Saturday in terms of hitter suggestions I got a lot for you.

I did target Paul Goldschmidt and Ryan McMahon versus Tyler Molly in Oracle Park Goldie has batted 379 with three homers and a 1234 OPS and 29 at bats against Molly and McMahon has batted 313 with two homers and an 1188 OPS and 16 at bats against Molly I'd also target Cardinals hitters versus Joe Boyle in Bush Stadium.

Boyle is somebody with incredible stuff just absolutely no control he's got a career 4.9 a year and a 14.3% walk rate for his career so Cardinals hitters versus Joe Boyle might have a lot of success at least just getting walks.

I'd also target Michael Bush Pete Crow Armstrong and Nico Horner versus Miles Mika loss in a wriggly field this will be Mika losses debut for the Nationals but the Cubs are very familiar with the former Cardinals picture Michael Bush is batted 400 with three homers and a 1438 OPS and 15 at bats against Mika loss.

Most notably PCA has batted 778 with five homeruns and a 3334 OPS in 9 at bats against Mika loss that's insane go get PCA wherever you can in those like daily streamer things and Nico Horner has batted 359 with a homer and an 879 OPS in 39 at bats against Mika loss.

We're going to keep going Colton Couser and Gunnar Henderson versus Taj Bradley in Oriole Park Taj Bradley somebody with not great control either so these guys should be able to take advantage they've also done well against them against him in his career.

They have both batted 400 with one homer and an 1100 OPS Couser has done it in 10 at bats while Henderson has done it in 20 at bats versus Taj Bradley.

I'd also target Jock Peterson versus Aaron Nola in Citizens Bank Park Peterson is batted 304 with a homer and an 882 OPS in 23 at bats against Nola for his career.

I'd also look at Ellie Dela Cruz Spencer steer and a Eugenio Suarez versus Sonny Gray in a great American ballpark Ellie is batted 455 with a homer in a 1773 OPS in 11 at bats versus Gray.

Steer is batted 444 with two homers and a 1611 OPS in 9 at bats against Gray and Suarez is batted 538 with two homers and a 1615 OPS in 13 at bats against Gray.

I pretty much target anyone in this game given the location in Cincinnati.

We'll see Brady Singer pitching for the Reds in that one.

Second to last one here at Target Astros hitters versus read debtmers in Diken Park.

It's a right handed heavy lineup for the Astros debtmers is a lefty.

Obviously he's also not an established starter.

So I don't expect this to be a great start.

So I want to be targeting righty hitting Astros and last they'll target Freddie Freeman and Teosker Hernandez versus Eduardo Rodriguez in Dodger Stadium.

Freddie has batted 533 with a one homer and a 1489 OPS in 15 at bats against Rodriguez and Teosker is batted 385 with three homers and a 1293 OPS in 26 at bats against Rodriguez.

Now we can close things out with our relievers to watch.

Jordan Romano is our first pitcher to pitch on back to back days are our first closer for that matter.

So expect Drew Pomeran's to get a save opportunity if one arises for the angels on Saturday and because we have very few relievers going back to back days.

Here's some bullpen's to keep an eye on for Saturday for Tampa Bay is Griffin Jack's going to be used as the closer in Kansas City as Carlos is Davis injured.

How fast is he throwing for the A's who gets the ninth.

We saw Justin Cerner, but is this time Scott Barlow, Hogan Harris or Mark Lider Jr. for the Texas Rangers. Are we going to see Robert Garcia or Chris Martin close out that one for the Nationals who gets ninth Clayton Beater, Cole Henry, who's going to be for the Brewers.

Are we going to see Avenue Rebe or Trevor McGill get the ninth inning in that one and lastly the St. Louis Cardinals.

Is it still Ryan Stannick to close our or does Riley O'Brien or Jojo Romero get a shot to close out again.

But that'll do it for today's episode of the first pitch podcast. Make sure to head on over to pitcherless.com to check out all the great articles and features we have on the site.

Sign up for PL plus or PL pro to gain access to the discord and to support the pitcherless staff.

You can follow me on socials at Jake Crumpler tune into YouTube tomorrow and every day for a new installment of the podcast and make sure to enjoy the day as we are blessed with another day of baseball.

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