Daily Fantasy Baseball News and Notes | First Pitch Podcast 3/29/26

Instagram Teen Accounts – Automatic Protections for teens

Instagram Teen Accounts have built-in content settings, now inspired by 13-plus movie ratings, and limits for hooking contact teens.

Plus, teens under 16 can't change these default safety settings without parental approval, so parents can help teens connect safely.

Instagram Teen Accounts – Automatic Protections for hooking contact teens and the content they can see.

Learn more at Instagram.com and slash teen accounts.

Learn more at Instagram Teen Accounts – Automatic Protections for teens

We're all on the same team – Comcast, proud partner of Team USA

We have the meat and participating armies for a limited time.

Live on TNT and HBO Max

News and notes from around the league kicking things off with the bad news as First Basement Christopher Morrell was officially placed on the 10-day IEL with an oblique strain.

They can usually take a while to heal, so Morrell is likely to miss more than the minimum time on the IEL with that oblique strain.

As expected, First Basement Davison Deilo Santos was recalled from the miners in a corresponding move.

He was a former top prospect for the Diamondbacks. He's moved to the Marlins now. He had a 40-homer minor league season in 2024.

But Deilo Santos struggled to an 84WRC Plus at Triple A last year. It's really just about avoiding the strikeouts for Deilo Santos.

As I predicted, Graham Polly took over at the corner for Connor Norby, who moved over to First Base to take over for Morrell.

This was against a right-handed pitcher. So, against left-handed pitchers, expect Norby to shift back to third base and for Deilo Santos to enter the lineup at first.

In other IEL placements, First Basement Andrew Vaughn was placed on the 10-day IEL with a fractured left-hand mate bone in his hand.

Vaughn will undergo surgery tomorrow on Monday and will miss the next four to six weeks.

It's a big blow to both Vaughn and the Brewers who were hoping to build off the success that Vaughn had after being traded to the club last year.

Catcher Jefferson Carroll was recalled from the minors in a corresponding move.

Carroll is the number 47 prospect in the MLB according to MLB pipeline. He's the number five catching prospect in baseball.

And he's the Brewers number one prospect with three catchers now on the roster, including starter William Contreras and Backup Gary Sanchez.

One of Sanchez or Carro is expected to be on the short side of a first base platoon with Jake Bauer's on the strong side directly replacing Andrew Vaughn and with Bauer's moving in from the outfield to the infield.

That means Brandon Lockridge and Blake Perkins will see extra playing time in the outfield for the Brewers.

In terms of transaction, we have a minor early season trade as third baseman Curtis Mead was traded by the white socks to the nationals in exchange for 20, 25, 6th round pick catcher Boston Smith.

Mead doesn't really have a spot in the nationals lineup as things currently stand, but he could replace Andres Chaparo as the bench lefty killer at some point in the future.

Mead was a former top prospect for the race, but he never really figured things out. So we'll see if he can figure something out with the nationals in terms of news starting pitcher Jacob DeGrom was scrapped from his schedule start yesterday due to neck stiffness stiffness.

Jacob Laths started in dead and he looked pretty solid pitching for hitless innings with three punch outs. DeGrom will be skipped this turn in the rotation, but the Rangers don't believe this is a serious issue.

So he should start again sometime next week fingers crossed and our last bit of news starting pitcher Zach Wheeler through 38 pitches across a trio of frames in a rehab start at triple a Wheeler's fastball sat 92 ounce power and topped out at 94.3 ounce power.

Wheeler is trending towards a season debut before the end of April super exciting.

Now we can take a look at our notable performances from Saturday at day in which we had our first full state of 15 games will start it off with our hitters leading off with chased a lot of who homered again.

That's the fourth time Delotter has homered in his in three games this season and Delotter became the second player ever with four homers in his first three career games joining Trevor story who did so back in 2016.

I mean Delotter's got to be rostered everywhere at this point. I'm not sure what to expect from from him this season, but it's been an incredible start to the 2026 campaign for the rookie chase Delotter and outfielder for the Guardians.

Munataka Murakami also has gotten off to a hot start this year. He homered for the second time in as many games these were the first two games of his MLB career and while the strikeout issues are still something we are going to worry about.

It's not something we're worrying about right now and we're seeing what the positive flip side to the strikeout issues with Murakami is he's got incredible power and we're probably going to see that all year.

There's a lot of people compared him to Joey Gallo in the off season before he signed and after he signed and that's probably likely, but you have to remember that Joey Gallo was somebody that was fantasy relevant because of his ability to hit a million homeruns.

Murakami could still hit a bunch of homeruns. He may still strike out a lot, but he's off to a hot start right now.

Murakami was also home for the second time in as many games, burgers batting fourth and how to down year in his first season in Texas last year, but I think he should bounce back this year with 30 plus home or power we've seen and do it before 34 homeruns a few years ago.

And batting average is something that Jake burger doesn't really drag you down with. He's a guy who's going to bat between 240 and 250.

So he's pretty decent. I think he should be rostered everywhere, especially because he's proving that the down year he had last year was actually more fluke than all the years in which he's proven to be able to hit more than 30 home runs.

And that Texas lineup is pretty dope batting fourth is going to provide burger plenty of RBI opportunities.

We've got all these guys. I know DeLotter's dope, but I think most notably right now outfielder Luke Rayley did all he could, but the Mariners lost versus the Guardian versus the Guardians.

Rayley went one for one with a run at home run tour of the eyes and a walk. He didn't start versus a left handed starting picture, but Rayley has now homered in each of the first three games this season.

And you're probably wondering whether Rayley needs to be picked up. And I think the short answer is no. The long answer is that Rayley's playing time is limited because of his platoon role, his home ballpark also limits his offense in Seattle.

And I think Rayley strikes out too much to be a consistent contributor outside of 15 team leagues. He's a guy who consistently strikes out at 30% or more.

He's seen a 22 homer 11 steel peak from Rayley back in 2024 when he batted 243, but that year expected batting average suggested that Rayley should have batted 220.

He hits the ball hard, but he's already put up a 30% strikeout rate this year, which suggests that he hasn't really changed that much.

And I can't wait till we get to around 100 played appearances with Rayley to really make that determination on whether or not he can bring that strikeout rate down.

But if he's striking out 30% of the time, but doing what he's been doing, I think he's somebody that's going to be 15 team relevant, but not somebody that enters the relevancy in standard leagues, because as we saw, the peak is like 20 homers, 10 steals, probably a batting average below 240, which is not ideal.

However, I don't blame you for wanting to ride the hot streak with Rayley. I just would not drop anyone good for him right now.

But if you'd like a breakdown of other notable hitting performances from Saturday, check out the daily batter's box article over on pitcherless.com.

Now we'll head to the mound and check out some notable starting pitching performances opening with Randy Vasquez, who helped the Padres to win against the Tigers.

He tossed six shutout innings, allowing just two hits and three walks while striking out eight. He induced 13 whiffs with 33% CSW across 91 pitches.

And Randy Vasquez went from a guy to completely right off after striking out less than 14% of batter's last year to an interesting deeply play after adding velocity over the off season and debuting it this spring.

Now Vasquez is entering standard league consciousness following his impressive first start of the season.

That velocity jump was still present as he sat two miles per hour up across his arsenal.

And that allowed Vasquez to avoid damage on his typically hitable heater while living in the zone for 85% strikes with fastball, pretty incredible, leading to six whiffs and 44% CSW.

Vasquez's curveball command wasn't exceptional, but it's turned into a proper hammer at 84 miles per hour.

And with 10 miles per hour between the curve and his heater, it was enough of a different look to induce a pair of whiffs for 31% CSW as his main secondary offering to left handed hitters.

Right handed hitters saw a bunch of sinkers and cutters that didn't have as much success as his four seamer did on the outer edge.

The cutter is the pitch that PLV stuff plus likes the most. However, they weren't commanded well. They returned 57% strikes, but the comp batter's off guard at 90 miles per hour to earn a trio of whiffs and 38% CSW while the sinker was just not really helpful earning just 50% strikes and one week ball in play.

I'm definitely exponentially more intrigued by Vasquez this year than I was last year, but I am concerned that his command wasn't spectacular here.

The four seamer was really the only pitch to earn consistent strikes and the four seamer's velocity dipped as the game wore on sitting 96 in the first before settling in at 93 by the sixth.

I think that hints at somebody that's going more all out early in the games to take advantage of that velocity that he has in the tank rather than sort of saving it for later being more consistent throughout the game because when he is more consistent throughout the game, he's pretty boring.

So maybe he's something that can be really solid. However, that's probably going to lead to a lot of careful Icarus starts where he enters the fifth or he enters the sixth and his velocity is down and he starts to get crushed after having a good three or four innings.

I still want to keep an eye on Randy Vasquez, but I wouldn't go all out and grab him, especially with Fenway on the horizon. I still think he somebody that could be worth a stream in the future that's Randy Vasquez.

Next we have Joe Boyle, who did all he could, but the raise lost in St. Louis, Boyle tossed six innings, allowing three hits and 200 runs, walking nobody while striking out for Hindus 10 with 31% CSW across 75 pitches.

And I suggested streaming hitters against Boyle on Saturday because of his lack of control and his inflated career, ERA nearing five runs and Boyle proved me wrong by walking nobody.

Did the race fix him or was this an anomaly? It's hard to be concrete with your determinations at this point in the season. It's just one start, but I do think the race did something here.

This was a guy who threw his four seamer in the zone, just 50% of the time for 58% strikes last year in this one 74% zone rate for 68% strikes on the four seamer from Joe Boyle.

His slider, a pitch that he's usually been able to throw for strikes, returned 73% strikes on Saturday, the two pitches combined for seven whiffs and 38% CSW.

Why is this such a big deal? Boyle has incredible stuff with a fastball that touches 100 miles per hour and a nasty slider, but he's always looked destined for the bullpen because of his lack of control.

Boyle's stuff is good enough to live in the zone, but he can't get it there. If this is a new trend where he can actually throw strikes consistently, he may actually take off this year and wait, it does not stop there.

Boyle has always thrown a splitter and the often unwieldy pitch wasn't effective against lefties here. However, he's added two new pitches, a sweeper and a sinker.

The sweeper was all over the place and thrown just eight times. He throws it a little bit slower than the slider, but the pitch returned two whiffs and 75% strikes, which is a good sign. However, the sinker is the one I'm really interested in for a guy just trying to throw strikes.

The pitch was thrown only to right-handed hitters and found the zone 70% of the time for 70% strikes, producing 30% CSW and two outs on balls and play.

That's huge for Boyle who's just looking to throw strikes and its movement profile, the sinker's movement profile fits better than his four-seamer which lost IVB, Vert and a mile-power of velocity from last year.

This new version of Boyle could actually work, but I want to seem to do it one more time before I go all the way in on Joe Boyle. He'll get the twins in Minnesota next.

Keep an eye on that start and stream him if you're brave enough to jump in this early.

And lastly, we've got Dylan Seese, who helped the Blue Jays to win versus the A's. He tossed five in a third innings, lying three hits and one and run, walking two while striking out 12 batters.

He used 24 whiffs with 43% CSW across 90 pitches, and that earned Seese the golden goal on Saturday as he led baseball with those 24 whiffs and 43% CSW.

This was Seese's first start as a Blue Jays. And honestly, this is who Joe Boyle is trying to be a guy without great control, getting by with an amazing fastball and slider.

Seese was on fire on Saturday with increased velocity on his heater, sitting 98, 99 miles per hour with the pitch.

But his slider was the star of the show inducing 15 whiffs with 55% CSW just incredible while his four-seamer had just a trio of whiffs and 29% CSW.

The change up that Seese debuted in spring wasn't great with just a 50% strike rate. However, it did find a trio of whiffs on just eight thrown.

And that sort of does give Seese another weapon versus left-handed hitters. And I'm excited to see what Seese can do in his new home in Toronto this year. He'll face his old ball club in Chicago in his next start.

But if you'd like a breakdown of every single start from Saturday, give the plus pitch podcast a listen and check out Nick's daily SP Roundup over on PitcherList.com.

Now we'll head to the bullpen and check out the relievers that got saves and the closers that pitched outside of save situations or blew their saves.

Starting with the former David Bednar recorded his second save with a squirtless ninth.

The bull stands recorded his first save with a hitless ninth Taylor Rogers did not pitch in this one. So we could see a traditional closing platoon between Cole Sands and Taylor Rogers in Minnesota, probably making neither of them fantasy relevant, which sucks.

Tyler Alexander recorded his first save. That's not who you expected to get the first save for the Rangers. Alexander worked around the zombie runner scoring in the 10th inning to get that save.

And to contextualize this one, Robert Garcia started the ninth inning with a three run lead. He got two outs surrendered a single and a walk and then was replaced by Chris Martin to attempt to get the final out then disaster struck as Jake Berger.

The aforementioned the home run hitting Jake Berger dropped a foul pop up that would have ended the game.

Then Martin surrendered a double and a single to allow the Phillies to tie the game. Garcia was credited with a hold while Martin was tagged with his first blown save, but he did earn the win after the Rangers took the lead in extra innings.

Pete Fairbanks recorded his second save with a perfect ninth Mason Miller pitched a hitless ninth for his first save of the year.

Edwin Diaz recorded his second save with a perfect ninth. And lastly, Connor Bragdon worked around two runs in the 10th for his first save of the season.

Cade Smith allowed one run in the ninth to blow his first save in this one, but he earned his first win when the Guardians took the lead in the 10th.

In terms of closures to pitch on outside of safe situations or blow their saves. We got a lot of them. Ryan Walker pitched a perfect ninth down by two.

The Giants are off on Sunday, so he was just trying to keep it close while getting some early work in. Ryan Stannick entered the game with two men on two men out and a three run lead and surrender two singles to allow the race to tie the game.

He then allowed the zombie runner to score in the 10th, but he came away with his first win when the Cardinals walked it off in the bottom half. That's Ryan Stannick.

On the other side, Griffin Jacks pitched that bottom half with a one run lead. He walked the first batter he faced and surrendered a sack but before J.J.

Weatherhole walked it off with a single Jacks took his first loss of the year. It's been a tough start to the season for him.

Cole Henry pitched a perfect eighth down by eight. And this is really no indication of who the Nats closer is. We're still waiting and watching.

Michael Kelly was given a shot at getting a four out save for the A's in Toronto, but he served up a game tying Homer to Alejandro Kirk to blow his first save.

Scott Barlow was given a chance to secure a save in the 10th after the A's took the lead, but he too blew his first save of the season.

The A's would go on to lose that one in 11 innings. Not great for the A's bowl pen right now. Who would have guessed?

You'll under and pitch the top of the 10th in the tie game and gave up two runs to take his first loss.

Emilio Pagan attempted a four out save, but served up a game tying Homer to William.

The A's would go on to win in 11 innings. Devon Williams pitched a scoreless 9th in the tie game that the Mets would go on to win in 11 innings.

On the other side, Dennis Santana pitched a hitless 9th in the tie game. The pirates would go on to lose in 11 innings.

Brian Abrayou allowed three runs and struck out three while pitching the 9th up by five. They're just trying to get him.

Mark there. So Anthony Dominguez pitched a scoreless 8th trailing by five runs. Abner Eurebe pitched a perfect 8th leading by five runs on the opposite side of that one.

Carlos Estevez. This is the big one. We were been waiting to see what Carlos Estevez was going to do after sitting down in velocity throughout the spring. We were very worried.

And he entered the 9th up by two and proceeded to allow six runs, including a walkoff Grand Slam 2 Dominic Smith.

I'm sure your first question is how did his velocity work and it was five miles per hour down on his fastball is I mean, I don't know what what they expected sending Carlos Estevez out there with a 91 mile per hour fastball.

This is a guy who we already expected to regress after being somebody who was just severely outperforming his ear asymmeters and then the royals exacerbated it by pulling in their fences at their home ballpark.

This was in Atlanta. So you can't even blame that here. But Carlos Estevez was due for massive regression here. And then the velocity and the park just makes it so much worse.

That'll lock in those Lucas Erseg and Matt Strong shares while you still can. Paul Seabald recorded the final out of the 8th after Juan Mario allowed a go ahead to run home run to the Dodgers.

And lastly, on just Munoz pitched the 10th in a tie game and served up three runs, including a home run to the aforementioned chased a lot of Munoz was tagged with his first loss of the season.

But if you like a breakdown of all the relievers from Saturday, check out Rick Graham's relief pitch around up over on pitcherless.com.

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

For a limited time, get one of these Jimmy John sandwiches Jimmy chips and a drink for only $8.99. Choose the fan favorite turkey Tom with all natural turkey or the Pepe with smoked ham and provolone.

$8.99 meal deal at Jimmy John's. Oh, that's good. Limited time at participating locations valid on turkey Tom and the Pepe eight inch home.

The includes chips and regular fountain beds, up charges apply on bottle beds premium sides and desserts, not valid with other offers tax add-ons extra.

And we're back. Now we can look forward to Sunday March 29th a day, which will have 12 games on the slate. My matchup of the day is Jesus Luzardo versus Mackenzie Gore to South Paws.

Luzardo has been using a sinker with more run in spring training and we're looking him. We're looking for him to use that more against right handed hitters to take the pressure off his foreseemer that gets absolutely crushed while McKenzie Gore will be making his first start for the Rangers excited to see what he can do in Texas.

In terms of probable starters, we've got three guys in the auto starts here, including Luzardo. We've also got Nolan McLean versus the pirates and show to Emanaga versus the nationals are probably starts here has eight guys and that's where we'll find our streamer of the day in Max Meyer versus the Rockies.

The Rockies lineup is very susceptible to sliders and that is Myers best pitch. So he should be able to excel here.

I'd also keep an eye out for Brandon Sprout versus the white socks he'll be making his brewers debut after being acquired over the offseason from the Metz Sprout has looked great with an expanded and improved arsenal throughout spring. So excited to see what he can do against a lowly white talks lineup.

I also keep an eye out for Stephen Mats and Dustin May as they square off against each other in St. Louis. Both of these guys are making their team.

They've used for the raise and cardinals respectively and they looked very solid this spring, both Stephen Mats and Dustin May.

In terms of hitter suggestions, I look at Orioles hitters versus Bailey Ober in Oriole Park until Ober recovers his velocity. This is a guy who's throwing like 89 miles per hour.

I think he's at risk of blowing up every single time he goes out there. So I want to target Orioles hitters there. I'd also look at Blue J's hitters versus Luis Morales in Rogers Center. Morales has terrible command and will walk batters.

And could give up some home runs to the Blue J's. I'd also look at red socks and reds hitters in Great American ballpark.

It's one of the best hitters ball parks in baseball. And we'll see a couple of young pitchers squaring off.

Connolly early versus wet louder. That should be a fun one to watch. But we could see some fireworks there. And lastly, a target Cubs hitters versus Jake Irvin in Wrigley field.

The win has been blowing out recently. Jake Irvin has a career 4.94 ERA. So Cubs hitters could take advantage of that.

Now we can close things out with our relievers to watch. Got to start it off with the obvious one. Lucas Ersegg and Matt Strom, Carlos Estevez looked awful on Saturday.

And I think one of these guys is going to be the first to get an opportunity at the closer role, unless Carlos Estevez can suddenly find five extra miles per hour on his fastball.

I'd also look at Mark Leiter Jr. or Justin Sterner after Hogan Harris and Scott Barlow both pitched back to back days for the A's.

On just Munoz has pitched back to back days as well. So I target Matt Brash for a Vulture save in Seattle. And lastly, Pete Fairbanks has pitched back to back days.

So Calvin Foshe is the most likely reliever to get a save for the Marlins. But that'll do it for today's episode of the first pitch podcast.

Make sure to head on over to picturelist.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 picture list 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 is we are blessed with another day of baseball.

Jimmy Johns is bringing big Greek energy and your taste buds are about to feel it.

Meet the new Greek and chicken heroes packed with juicy season meats and cool crisp veggies all wrapped in warm soft pizza or a crave worthy bite.

Feeling classic? Go Greek! Want to mix it up? Try the chicken hero. Either way, your lunch just leveled up.

Order online at jimmyjohns.com or on the app today. Oh, that's good.

And participating locations for a limited time while supplies last trademark and copyright 2026.

Jimmy Johns franchise or SPV LLC.