ITP 153 - Opening Day Reactions & Predictions

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Hello and welcome to the in the Penn Podcast, a podcast about relievers, part of the Pitcher

List Podcast Network.

My name is Jake Crumpler.

And as always, I'm joined by Pitcher List's full pen expert, Rick Graham.

Rick, it is opening day.

We had opening night, last night, but today we are recording on Thursday in the middle of

the Diamondbacks Dodgers game right now, but now you've been enjoying opening day thus

far.

Yeah.

I mean, so far it's been, it's been good.

It's, you know, I don't understand why, like, every team isn't playing today.

Right.

Kind of weird that, like, some teams don't play until tomorrow.

Or at least 14 games with the Giants and Yankees taking the day off?

Sure.

They could get the day off, but yeah, like, why?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know why there's some teams that aren't playing at all today.

It's interesting.

But yeah, it's still been nice.

It's been the nice spread, I guess, since 1 o'clock Eastern.

We've had, you know, so we've had games that met scheme as a debacle in the first poor

Paul schemes.

Oh, my.

Feel bad for him having to deal with O'Neill Crews in the center field, but it was rough.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Lively Dunn's going to be not, Lively Dunn's probably going to be talking about O'Neill

Crews behind his back, that's Pitcher.

Yeah.

He's probably going to request a trade by the end of the week.

So, no, I did all or O'Neill both, no, I mean, but yeah, it's been, it's been a good,

so opening day is always, it feels, maybe it's baseball is just baseball, but it feels

like opening day.

There's always like some unexpected wild thing is going on, like chase my, my, my draft

just like, right?

And Mizorowski deep before he strikes out 11 of them.

Yeah.

I mean, just, you know, things, just weird, weird opening day happenings, but yeah, so

far it's been good.

And we have what we have one game going on now, we got the Dodgers, they're currently

down to the time of acts, probably no one expected.

But yeah, looking forward to once we get into the full swing of things this weekend as

well, get everyone playing on Saturday, I'm guessing everyone's playing our, the first

week or two.

It's always weird with the schedule scheduling, but yeah, that's just good to have baseball

back.

Yeah.

I don't know when the first day that we have all of the teams playing, yeah, it is really

weird.

I was, I just assumed we'd have 14 games today, but we obviously do not just 11.

Let's see Friday, there's going to be eight games, Saturday, 15, there we go.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Cool.

I mean, we're lucky to have a sport where you can have so many games every single day

and usually a way to watch it.

They're making it harder and harder to watch, putting opening night on Netflix last night

we've had two games thus far on Peacock.

So luckily, it's like, you know, if your mom has Netflix and like your girlfriend's mom

has Peacock, you have access to all the games, but yeah, it gets pretty difficult to watch

everything, thanks MLB, but hopefully someday in the future we'll just have like one place

where all the games are and it'll be really nice.

But nonetheless, it was, yeah, really fun to watch opening day.

So happy to have baseball back and there is plenty of stuff to talk about when it comes

to relief pitchers, not only from the news of which relief pitchers did and did not make

their teams opening day rosters, but also just based on opening day performance.

We have, you know, guys that are already giving us a scare, guys that are sort of indicating

our offseason leanings and then also on top of that, you have surprise guys that are coming

out and emerging possibly as their teams closer.

So we're going to talk about all of that and then we'll also focus on our predictions

for the 2026 campaign.

I don't think it's too late to do the predictions.

I mean, we're going to do it last week, but yeah, you don't want that everybody's complaining

about those first look NFBC drafts.

Have you been seeing people complaining about that?

Yeah, I mean, one day of one game.

Yeah, I mean, it's so weird to draft after, I think they were drafting last night and

this morning after the Yankees Giants game.

So while, you know, you won't get bogged down by that Logan Web start, you're missing

out on the max freed start.

I don't know.

Weird, but I think the way it works is that you can, you think the way it works is that

you set your roster basically today.

So you can take web out of your lineup to get rid of that start today, but do they plan

to the same overall as people that don't have that option?

I think so.

I think so.

I'm not sure.

I don't know if that's how TGFBI works, but I know, yeah, I knew this last year because

there was an issue last year.

It was at the, maybe it was like the Japan series kind of made things.

That was like the first look was the Japan series.

So it's a little bit different now that it's just one day before opening day, but yeah,

I think the cases you can just kind of, you can take web out of your lineup for the

week and it won't count, but you can also, yeah, that's what I'm pretty sure that's

what it is.

So if you had someone who, I'm trying to think of who had, who surprised

recently played well last night, you can put them in your lineup today and get the points

for it.

Right.

I think that's how it works.

Yeah, it's a weird, it's a weird thing.

I don't know.

It doesn't seem fair, but hey, we're sort of using that as we're doing our predictions

today.

We got our first look and I don't think those are going to affect much of anything,

but maybe a little bit.

I made my predictions on Tuesday.

So I haven't changed much from Tuesday, so I'll be making mine on the spot.

So I feel like I have a pretty strong convictions.

But let's get right into the news and notes from this past week.

Obviously, we had a lot of the sort of transactional injuries that were done over the past week.

They're sort of just functional based on, we knew these guys were injured already, but

they were, as a formality, that's the word I was looking for, they were placed on the

injured list.

We had some guys that were a little bit more surprising, more surprising than others.

So let's run through a list of guys that are officially placed on the I.L.

We got Kegan Aiken, Andrew Kittridge, Edwin Usetta, Jimmy Garcia, Hunter Gattis, Josh

Hader, and Yaldale Sontos and Bennett Sousa.

I think for me, I knew all those guys were injured except for Aiken and Gattis going

into those.

I knew Gattis was injured.

I didn't know if he was going to be taken out.

And Aiken was a bit of a surprise to me, a little bit less consequential than Gattis.

What's your take on this group?

Yeah, I think Aiken is just like a PFP practice.

He heard his growing or something the other day and yeah, that kind of came from out of

nowhere.

Yeah, the rest of them, we mostly talked about, yeah, Gattis was kind of a game time decision,

but he never was able, he wasn't able to make it back into any spring training games.

So that was the kind of obvious one once we got to late last week.

And I thought Deilo Santos was like, I thought he might have a chance to make the roster

for the Astros.

I don't know what happened there, but then I thought he pitched in a spring training game

last week, but maybe they're just giving him some extra rest.

That whole Astros pull pen man is like, they cannot afford to do that.

They can't afford one more injury.

I don't know what they'll end up doing.

So yeah, it sounds like Hader.

I don't know if it's good news or not, but like he threw again, they're saying he's feeling

okay, but they're saying that he won't be able to face live hitters until mid April,

which it's like three weeks away.

That's not really anytime soon.

So if he's not facing hitters until mid April, probably looking at an early May, the earliest

he might be back.

That's what I would think.

So yeah, that's, I was hoping it might be a little bit shorter, but they're really just

trying to take things easy with him, I guess, which makes sense.

But yeah, that's that's now a full month we're going to miss Hader.

So yeah, well, you're, you're hoping that he comes back sooner.

I know you have him in a couple of the leagues that we're in together.

So I know you are banking on that quick Hader return.

Some other guys that were placed on the aisle, I'll save the most notable one for last,

but we have guys like Ben Joyce, Robert Stevenson, aging mentor.

Those guys were all formalities.

A Ryan Kirkering, I don't think I realized he was injured, nor did I realize order Hodge

was injured.

Any info on those two?

I think we talked about both at least Hodge.

I know Kirkering made a spring training appearance last week, but again, he's still a little

bit behind.

I think he got a hamstring injury and his stuff hasn't looked, has not been up to par when

he's been throwing.

So yeah, probably going to take a little bit of time there for him to come back, but you

should be back in April.

Hodge, I think it's something with his arm.

I forget.

It's probably going to be a while for him.

Yeah, the rest of the, I mean, Stevenson, we don't really, I don't know if we know

on Stevenson yet, but the last time we heard an update on him, it was not good.

Ben Joyce apparently.

There's been, every update for Ben Joyce so far has been interesting.

It's been good.

It's been positive.

So back to throw an interesting wrinkle into the angel situation when he returns.

Right.

Yeah.

But I still, I am not going to believe, I don't, I won't, until we see 50 plus settings

from him.

Like, again, I just, I don't, he's just not a guy who's able to stay healthy given his,

be able to throw like throwing 104 miles per hour the way he does, it just doesn't, it's

just not working.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, while we're on the angel's bullpen, we might as well not bury the lead Kirby Yates

was placed on the 15 day IL.

If I remember correctly, it was a leg injury knee.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

So 39 year olds.

Exactly.

Yeah.

39 year olds knee injuries, man.

That's what Ryan Presley, like pretty much ended up Ryan Presley's career.

Although more serious with Presley, he had like surgeries and whatnot, but I don't know

how, how bad this is with the Yates, but it's, you know, I mean, anything at that age

can, can just linger, like I, I know my, my knee hurt all the time now.

But I have to do, I run every week, I have to do like lunges all the time.

Otherwise, my knees hurt so bad and I'm only 28.

Yeah.

I mean, knees are, are tricky and like just the pain to deal with.

So yeah, it seems like it's, I mean, it came from out of nowhere, like there is not

even, I don't know, just no news on it, no, even the pointy writers were like surprised,

like they did not know about this until they made the official transaction and put them

on the IL.

So yeah, very, very consequential for, for fantasy though, because I know Yates was being

drafted almost universally as the angels closer as it became more and more clear that

Robert Stevenson wasn't going to factor into this bullpen, as you mentioned, Stevenson

to the 60 day IL.

So we might not even see him pitch this year at all, but with Yates on the IL, I think

that opened it back up again and it opened up the conversation for who's going to be the

closer.

We'll definitely talk about this more later.

But the likes of John Romano and Drew Pomeran's were immediately thrust out there.

And I think we saw a lot of transactions made in daily transaction leagues trying to capitalize

on that.

So the last few guys we had, AJ Puck and Justin Martinez, bruised our graderol, Brock

Stewart, Evan Phillips, those guys were all formalities.

Jason Adam though, I think there was a slight chance he might have made the opening day

roster, but I think I'll take it easy on him so he should be back in like the first two

weeks.

Yeah, again, he's another guy who was able to make it into a spring game.

So that usually means that he's, you know, minimum stint away from returning.

But yeah, that's, that's good to see him.

I mean, not that the podries need any more, any bullpen help, but still, you know, someone

that they would want to have back there, you know, the Dodgers guys, I don't know, they

they're tough.

Even when they give like dates and timelines, like I don't even at this point, it doesn't

even like phase me because it's usually not accurate.

So I like it's usually whatever they say, like add like an extra week or two, maybe four.

So yeah, we'll, we'll see on the on that tree of Dodgers guys, but they're probably not

that close.

Yeah.

Well, Andy Pahas just hit a three run home round to take the lead.

Oh, Pahas.

Okay.

Let's go.

Yeah.

Not too much.

Let's show.

I do have him on a teams, but yeah, we'd rather see the Dodgers lose.

Oh, well.

Oh, well.

Sorry, Zach Allen.

Okay.

Well, that's basically all the transactions that are going on.

So let's, let's jump into the season.

Let's talk about opening day, but first we're going to take a quick break here on in the

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And we're back, Jake Crumpler here with Rick Graham discussing relief pictures.

We just ran through the transactions injuries from the past week.

Now we're going to talk about some opening date reactions.

We're going to look at the relievers that pitched on Thursday, Wednesday and Thursday.

I guess Wednesday wasn't very consequential.

We saw Brent Hedrick and Camilla devolved pitch for the Yankees.

I think most notably for the Giants, they were down by like seven, but Caleb Killing

and got a chance.

And he looked pretty decent.

What's your take on the possibility of him sort of breaking out?

This was a guy that was a former top starting pitching prospect for the Giants traded to

the Cubs for Chris Bryant back in 2021, has now made his way all the way back to the Giants

and is looking pretty solid out of the pen.

Yeah, I mean, definitely parked my ears up seeing, seeing his performance last night.

And then looking at, yeah, like once watching it, I'm like, okay, I like, I, I, I didn't

see what he did the spring.

Really, I heard he is having a good spring, then, yeah, seeing him throwing 98, looking

at the player card.

Okay, this checks out.

He's got a plus stuff locations weren't terrible, terrible.

There's something to work with here for sure and a bullpen that really lacks just like

good stuff in that bullpen, like that, that's a guy, especially with Paguero, like that's

a guy who can take advantage of, I mean, right now you have Walker and Eric Miller in

the top, you know, in a set up or closer roles and I mean, Jose Buto might be the, like,

the third guy in that group, but I think Killian's better than him and probably can move

quickly into that role.

So yeah, as long as he's healthy, I'm really intrigued by him, at least now for holds

leagues and possibly, and who knows, we'll see how Ryan Walker fairs, I mean, Killian,

Killian stuff last night, there's very closer-esque stuff there.

There's something that to keep an eye on, even in pretty much every league, because

yeah, he looked at electric last night, probably of all the relievers who threw, he probably

looked like had the best, you know, stuff wise, at least, he looked the best.

Right, up there with Devol for sure, Killian has a 98-mile-power four-seamer with 17 inches

of vert at 6.8 feet of extension and then he's got a hammer curveball at 83 miles per

hour and a ton of movement on that pitch as well.

So if he can control it, there's plenty of potential from Killian, but today, I guess

we can just run through all the games as quickly as we can sort of.

Pittsburgh, you mentioned, Paul Schienz sort of got crushed in the first inning, so the

bullpen there was relied upon heavily and unfortunately, both of our breakout candidates

there allowed a pair of runs, Mason Montgomery walked three across four outs while striking

out two, he allowed two runs and Justin Lawrence allowed two runs on two hits and I think

Carson Benjus first, oh, he allowed two home runs, both of his hits, Carson Benj and Francisco

Alvarez both took Justin Lawrence deep and then we did see Dennis Santana pitch at the

end of that game down by four, I don't know why, but I guess everybody's getting far off

I think.

They're off the mark.

Yeah, use everyone's situations.

Yeah, they threw everyone, they threw Soto in there too, no one particularly looked

great.

Soto probably looked the best, I guess, but a Matt's and gave up two runs I think in there

after Montgomery and yeah, just kind of a messy day for the pirates overall.

Yeah, I mean Montgomery's command wasn't great is, you know, A plus stuff, F location that's

going to be him, I mean, I would, you know, you would think that at some point he can

make a adjustment there, but yeah, it's, it's, I don't know, it's day one, so I'm not,

it's, you can't, especially with bullpen guys, like I wouldn't put, so I wouldn't take too

much away from one day, especially an opening day.

Agreed, agreed, but unfortunate to see those guys get off to a rough start, I mean that's

going to be a theme across today, the guys that we were sort of in on having a rough opening

days.

Let's move to the White Sox Brewers games, the Brewers blew out the White Sox 14 to two,

not much notable in the Brewers bullpen.

We saw both Aaron Ashby and Diel Hall pitch, they looked pretty solid on the White Sox side,

though Jordan Leisure pitched the eighth inning down by 13.

So he got some work, he was solid, though, I don't think that should be any indicator

of how this bullpen is going to be used throughout the season, but if anything, it's like, you

know, a more confidence that Sir Anthony Dominguez is the White Sox Closer.

Yeah, I mean, we, they've been pretty, you know, adamant about Sir Anthony being the

Closer.

I don't know why they flew Leisure, Grant Taylor didn't pitch in this game, right?

I haven't looked at this one, so out of hand, I didn't, I just know Jordan, Jordan Hicks

did not pitch well, and that's, that's, I shouldn't laugh, but that's not a surprise, it's

like I, as a Red Sox fan, I guess, thank you for taking him, despite us, despite Boston

spending, you know, taking most of the money on in that.

So yeah, I don't know, I, yeah, I want to pretty too much into this.

I guess Ash be look good early on.

I think he's a tough guy and holds Lee, he's still very useful, but just the way that

they're willing to bring him in early or have him star, it's tough for him to get consistent

holds, but he's always going to be a pretty good ratio guy and strikeouts will be there

as well.

Yeah, I think he's, he's really good in points leagues because of that weird role where he's

still going to be good.

I, I think you maximize that potential in points leagues as long as, as long as he's

not starting because I know our points league has a game start limit, which makes openers

just awful.

So you got to be a little bit careful with those guys.

All right, let's look at the other Chicago team.

We saw the Nationals beat the Cubs, 10 to 4 in Chicago, interestingly enough in the

Nationals bullpen, Clayton Beater pitched the eighth inning, not surprisingly, he walked

two batters, but he didn't allow any hits.

He didn't allow any runs, but definitely was not being deployed as the closer.

I don't think we can really read into that as suggesting of how this bullpen's going

to be used, but I think it was interesting, though, that Beater came in.

Yeah, I was trying to find if there's any read on it, like I know Ciano Perez came

in in the ninth.

I don't know if he was warming up to come in the ninth no matter what, or because they

were up, they were up four runs in the eighth, not a safe situation, but opening day, you

might treat it like a safe situation.

So I wasn't sure the speculation was that Cole Henry was going to get the ninth, but

I don't know if he was warming up or if it was always going to be Perez.

And I mean, Perez had a good spring for them.

He's not a good, doesn't have a great fastball from the left side, but he has two good breaking

balls.

I think this is just going to be a committee probably for the foreseeable future.

I think Beater pitching the eighth tonight doesn't hurt today, doesn't really, yeah, I'm

not breeding too much into it.

I still, I guess if I have to roster anyone here, I think he's still the guy.

It's like, I don't love it because of the walk, the command issues, but I'll take a chance

on his stuff and being able to find some tweak where he can, you know, shore up that

command at some point, but yeah, it's not a ideal situation.

All right.

Let's move on to the twins and Orioles, the Orioles one, two to one.

And the twins did deploy Taylor Rogers in the ninth inning for the eighth inning down

by one.

So I, that, that's sort of promising, but I think more notably, everybody was raving

about Ryan Hellsley.

He was throwing the ball over 100 miles per hour.

He looked absolutely dominant as he struck out three batters to record his first save of

the season.

That's got to definitely increase your confidence in Hellsley after the way he ended last year

with the meds.

Yeah.

He looked good.

He looked good as the last couple spring outing, so not too, too surprised.

Yeah.

I think with Rogers, that's an interesting spot like being, being down a run in the bottom

of the eighth inning on the road.

That could be where you bring in your closer, especially, I don't know, did they have a day

off tomorrow, especially that makes sense?

And he was pitching into the middle of the order.

I think he had Gunner and Alonzo in there.

So yeah, I don't know, it's, it's an interesting use of Taylor Rogers, but I'm still he's just

not someone I want any part of at this point and he's, yeah, twins are off tomorrow.

Sorry.

Yeah.

Okay.

So, yeah, that he might that might be a little bit of a read into him being the favorite

to close out games there, but I don't know, I will get to that team in a little bit.

I don't think he's going to be the long term answer there.

Okay.

Let's move on to the Red Sox versus the Reds, the Red Sox one, three nothing in Cincinnati.

And Araldis Chapman got a save.

They went just in Slate and Garrett Whitlock, Araldis Chapman, seven, eight, nine.

I saw Todd Zola tweeting a little bit, Doomsday like about Araldis Chapman, because he didn't

strike anybody.

Yeah, he's like, here comes the regression, I was like a classic Todd.

That's a good one.

But Araldis Chapman did end up getting the same.

Yeah.

I could not tell.

I mean.

That's positive.

You know, you know, a tweet is good when it's supposed to be sarcastic and you just can't

tell.

Yeah.

I mean, the rest, I mean, the bullpen look, I mean, that's how the Red Sox bullpen is going.

It's going to be Slate and Whitlock Chapman.

One of the clear bullpen reads this off season.

I think it was good to see Slate and have an outing, a clean outing, because he's the

one link in there that's a little shaky after last year.

But he looked good.

I mean, I'm not, yeah, I'm not concerned about Chapman.

The strikeouts probably will be down this year.

His Velo has been down.

I don't know, you know, I don't think he's going to be sitting like 100 or 99 plus anymore,

which is fine.

He'll still be, he'll still be really good.

Maybe not just the, you know, that strike at rate probably comes down a little bit, but

nothing to worry about here.

On the other side of that too, I think they had Ashcraft throw, they had Connor Phillips

throw.

They were down one in the ninth and Phillips through the ninth and he was like an inch

away from getting out of the ninth without allowing a run and then Roman Anthony challenged

a strike call, strike three call with two outs, got it overturned, walked, and then

I think Trevor's story had a single the next, yeah, anyway, they ended up scoring after

that.

So one of those challenges that actually had some sort of, you know, relevant result

as a consequence.

So yeah, I think, you know, still interesting to see Ashcraft and Phillips throw in close,

you know, one run, one run, one run games, I think that's, that's a good sign, especially

for Phillips.

So good sign if they have some trust in him already.

The angels also won three nothing we hinted at this bullpen usage.

They took down the Astros.

I think the only thing interesting out of the Astros bullpen, AJ Blueball looked pretty

solid, but he's one of those guys where he's a swingman right now.

You don't know if he's going to be a starter or reliever, same with like Ben Brown and

Chicago.

These were the guys Rick and I were talking about before we hit record.

But on the angel side, we got to see exactly how this bullpen is going to be used with Kirby

Aids and Robert Stevenson and Ben Joyce on the injured list.

Maybe not exactly, is that Jose Urania that pitched this up?

No, I thought it was to it first, so I saw that.

It's a Walbert.

Walbert.

He's actually pretty cool.

Yeah.

And he throws a hundred.

I don't, I came from out of absolutely nowhere.

And I think I've figured I wish one.

One of the angels beat riders was like, when he came in, he's like, we might see Urania

pitch the rest of this game, pitch the last three innings just because he's being there

wanting him to be stretched out to be a starter.

He's not really, he's another one of these angels pitching prospects that they don't

know.

They just have weird roles for and I hope they don't ruin Urania, but yeah, I was expecting

you to see him Bachman in that spot, or they ended up having cheese, still, still Seth

come in and bail him out.

But then yeah, they went Pomeran's in Romano and they ate the ninth, so that's pretty

interesting.

I don't, I, again, one game, I don't know, you know, you can take it two ways.

You can say they had Pomeran's pitch to the middle of the order against the lefty and

they gave Romano the bottom of that order, which was Nick Allen and Jake Myers, which

it's nice.

It's a nice soft landing for Romano at least.

But Romano did look pretty, pretty, the stuff looked better than I thought it was.

The stuff looked better than it had in most of the spring.

Command was not great, but we'll take that, we'll still take that, you know, save from

him in the first outing, but I'm not so sure that it was matchup based with him and

Pomeran's still.

Yeah.

So that's definitely something to consider and it makes sense, given their lefty and a

righty, you might see a bit of a closing platoon there.

That said, are you picking up Jordan Romano everywhere if he's still in your league?

Um, yeah, I don't, I don't know, I still, I'm still very hesitant just, um, like again,

you looked better, you looked okay, I guess, yeah, I guess in a 12 teamer, if it depends

on who you're drawing, like that's the thing is like you're, you know, so close to draft

to your draft where maybe you have a guy you're willing to drop right now, but if you don't

or if you've already, you know, picked up guys that are more interesting after, you know,

dial everyone hit the IL and then you're able to make moves.

Um, yeah, I don't, you'd have to be, you know, if you're desperate for saves, if it's

a roto, yeah, you're probably taking a chance in Romano, definitely in a head to head,

like 12 teamer, I don't know if I would, I don't know if I would prioritize Romano.

Like, would you, in a, in a head to head, would you rather have Romano or like Adrian

Morrowome?

Probably Romano, because you're gonna, I think those guys like Morrowome, you, those, they

typically end up on the, yeah, you can probably pick them up at some point.

Um, and yeah, I'll, I'll take a chance in Romano early, so yeah, it's, he, right it out,

you know, bogus rule, let's see what happens.

Um, but yeah, it's, I don't feel, I don't know, he looked okay today and it was a good

start, but I'm not totally, you know, bought back in, yeah, I mean, I was, I was really

excited. I was like, bought, fully bought in.

And then I looked at his metrics from the game and I was not blown away because this is,

this is a guy who used to throw 96, 97 and it looked incredible because he had like seven

and a half feet of extension, he was, yeah, he was going crazy.

Last year with the struggles, he was down to 95, 96, which is, you know, not, not crazy,

but any dip in Velo is always concerning, especially when it comes with gigantic struggles

like that. Now he's throwing 94, 95, which is another step down, you're, from the levels

of last year, he's still got the elite extension, 7.4 feet.

He has improved the IVB on his four seamer, the, the, but that can come from throwing slower.

I was, yeah, and that 20 inches from today, I, that's probably the high point for him

because that's not, I, that wasn't where he was at the spring.

That's obscene, though, 20 is crazy.

I know it is. And that's what's, you know, it's helping his fastball grade for the day,

but I mean, if that's where he lives, that's, that will play, that will be okay.

I just, yeah, I think you're going to have, there's going to be some headaches here.

And if you look at the, you know, just the chart, he threw, you know,

couldn't really throw his slider for a strike.

No, I mean, if you, did you watch the outing?

Yeah. He was like, he was trying to pinpoint the fastball and he couldn't do it.

Yeah, it was, it was, yeah, he didn't look very comfortable.

I don't know. I'm, I shouldn't, like, it was, it was a good outing.

We'll take it from a fantasy standpoint, but there are, it's not like, oh, Romano's back.

It's just, you know, be, exactly, be careful here.

Just, yeah, yeah.

Proceeding, don't, don't blow a hundred dollars of fat.

Remember, Luke, I just, like, Luke Jackson's an easy one from last year to remember the, like,

I always remember Julian Maryweather.

That, yeah, a couple of years ago, that was always.

And the blue jays, like, I think it was three, three, four years ago.

Now, this is when Romano was hurt and Maryweather said, yeah, so, mm-hmm.

Yeah. Good point. Good point.

All right. So the angels bolt and definitely notable.

Right now, let's keep it moving.

We saw the Tigers beat the Padres eight to two in San Diego.

Will Vest pitched in that one?

He pitched the ninth inning up by six.

And the Padres saved all their notable relievers.

I don't think we're reading too much into this one.

I don't think the Tigers are playing tomorrow.

They are playing tomorrow.

So, um, yeah, Vest, throw Vest, probably not the closer.

Well, we, yeah, we, I think we knew that, uh, but, yeah, I don't know why.

I mean, they threw Holt into, um, yeah, we'll see tomorrow.

They'll definitely, they'll have at least have Kenley and Finnegan in the eighth and ninth, um,

okay. Well, yeah, I mean, we saw some, we saw gradually throw for the Padres.

He's cool. Um, he's cool.

Yeah, but there's no, no real high leverage guys through on this game.

I said, Vest, who, yeah, I don't know, this wanted to protect the sixth run lead, I guess.

Yeah. Yeah. All right.

Let's move over to one of the more exciting games of the day.

The Cardinals beat the raise nine to seven in St. Louis.

This had an insane sixth inning in which the race scored six runs in the top half to take

the lead. It was tied one to one, entering that inning and the Cardinals roared back with eight

more in the bottom half that inning.

So 14 runs came across in the sixth inning alone.

And I think most notably, the raise were using like their best relievers.

They started that inning with E and C more and he became the first pitcher ever to allow five

or more earned runs without recording it out on opening day, not, not the claim to

fame you want. And then they went into Garrett Clevenger who struggled and then Griffin

Jackson came in and gave up the big home run to Alec Burleson to give them the lead.

It was a little bit disastrous. Yeah, um, this whole entire game.

I just didn't think we need to start with that.

This, I would throw out any of the bullpen usage from this game as far as like what you're

thinking moving forward. I, I think it was just one of those, it's just the, the, the

raise because of what Seymour did that they, they forced to bring in Clevenger and then

what Clevenger did, they were forced to bring in jacks and it just snowballed. Um, and

that's not where either one of those guys should be pitching or will typically be pitching.

Um, I think, and I was like, when they brought jacks and like, where the, how are they

even going to get through the next three innings here? Like, uh, if they, if they do hold

on to the lead, um, but that's, yeah, that's the raise they'll, they'll bring their best

reliever in the six inning. If they need to stop the bleeding and they tried that and

it didn't work, um, which, yeah, everyone's mad at Griffin jacks now because whatever,

you know, it's, it's, yeah, it's, it's not a good start. It was a good pitch, though.

Yeah, he like, he dotted the inside edge with 90, with a 99 mile per hour fastball and

burles in just beat him. It's, um, bad luck. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not worried about Griffin jacks

at all or the fact that he gave up a home run or the, the usage, but that, that will have,

I mean, we were never, uh, not just us, but like other, you know, this other people have been

touting Griffin jacks. It's like, no, I don't think any of us were under the impression that he

was going to only pitch the ninth like, like, if, if, if, if, if, uh, Seymour gets through that

six inning, I think we see Baker, Clevver, Jer, Jacks, like normal and that's, you know, it,

it would be a completely, completely different situation. Um, so yeah, I'm, I'm not overreacting

in Tampa Bay. I don't think I'm going to overreact yet in St. Louis, how they, how things worked

out there because, um, they went, uh, Matt Sponson in the fifth heel out three runs and Justin

Brule, Chris Roycroft and then Jojo Romero, Riley O'Brien combined to pitch the seventh and eighth

and then Ryan Stannick pitched a hitless ninth inning. He did walk three batters. He was throwing

a hundred miles per hour, but, um, the command is not there for Ryan Stannick. However, he did get

to save. That's going to immediately set off alarm bells for fantasy managers. Yeah, if he is

someone that you are rostering, um, just don't watch, he's a guy you can't, well, you can't watch

any of his save chances. You don't, that's not going to be a fun time for you. Um, but, yeah, I,

I was, I, it's probably, it's not good news for Sponson. Uh, the usage was not, you know,

the usage and the results and probably not going to help, um, him. I think he's maybe one guy

that if you did draft him and just standard leagues, you probably can move on from, um, now the seventh,

eighth ninth with Romero, uh, O'Brien, Stannick, I, I want to, I don't know, I don't exactly know

what the broadcaster said from the Cardinals TV. Um, but it did sound like he, like the, the plan

was that this might actually have been the plan with Stannick being the ninth guy and O'Brien and

Romero just facing whichever, if facing lefties or righties depending on the order in the eighth or

seventh inning. I got that impression too. Yeah. So I, I mean, I, yeah, maybe this is, I, and I,

I can't believe it's happening already. Um, but yeah, I, I thought, you know, and I, my, if I

were to pick a closer there, what, this is how I would have had the bullpen work, um, which is

usually not how it actually does work out. So that's why I'm surprised. Um, but yeah, I, I, I mean,

Stannick used, we, clear, clear, clear what he was trying to do, locating as fast while at the

top of the zone, he just couldn't find the top of the zone and was missing way up. Um, so let's

small adjustment could work out there. But again, this is Ryan Stannick, who's, this, he's been like

teetering, you know, we always used to talk about like Joe Kelly being like this great stuff guy,

but just like the results were never there. And like, that's kind of who Stannick is. Now he's

like that guy now. It's just Ryan Stannick probably soon to be Mason Montgomery, which will kill me.

But, um, it's, yeah, I, I, I don't know. I'm, I'm kind of excited for Stannick, but at the same time,

very nervous, um, because yeah, there's, there's just not a good track record there.

Right. All right. Yeah. No, I mean, definitely interesting. If I'm, if I'm in a 15 team,

rutta league, like all those TGFBI leagues, I'm, I'm probably looking at Ryan Stannick. It's

going to be a little bit of a headache, but saves or saves. This is a good question from today,

like Romano or Stannick, who are you picking up? Uh, I have more faith in Romano. It's Romano.

I have more faith in Romano, I think. Um, yeah. And I think that comes from the competition.

That's currently there. Yeah. Um, but I, I don't know. I do see how they're both similar.

That's probably the safe. That's probably the best the, the, the correct answer. But like, yeah,

the part of me just sees like Stannick stuff and like, I don't know. I don't know.

Um, his, his stuff is better. It's just, I don't, yeah, I don't know who you guys better command.

But with Riley O'Brien and Jojo Romano there, it just feels like, I don't know, like he's not

going to hold it on, hold on to it for that long, where Romano's got, I don't think Kirby Yates

returning or, or Drupal brands being present or Ben Joyce returning from injury is going to knock

him out. If he gets like, if he's solid through his first like five saves or something, I don't

think they're going to take him out of that role. I think Kurt Suzuki, somebody that's going to

want to rely on the, uh, the veteran who's done it before. Yeah. Dance a tough one. But yeah,

you're probably, I think that's probably the right answer to go for Mono over Stannick, Romano

over Stannick. It's, it's close for sure. Yeah. Yeah. The last game that has been completed thus far,

as I mentioned, we are in the middle of the Dodgers Diamondbacks games. It's currently the bottom of

the sixth inning, Ryan Thompson has just entered the ballgame and the Guardians and Mariners game

is in the top of the first. So we won't get a chance to see how these turn out though.

I think we missed the Phillies game, but that was the last one. This is the last one is the Rangers

versus Phillies. Phillies 153 in Philadelphia. No notable Rangers, relievers, pitch, Carter Bomler,

Roll Five, Jeff Pick got a chance. He's got a cool curveball. But on the, he's pretty, he's

pretty interesting in a, in a light Rangers bullpen. But on the Phillies side, Kyle Bacchus struggled

in the ninth inning, which necessitated Yon DeRan to come in and get the final two outs. He did

so to record his first save of the season. Yeah. I had the bailout back as, and it was

getting a little questionable there where I wasn't sure if they were going to bring a man. It kind

of took him a while to get DeRan going. But yeah, I, he looked fine. It's always tough with

those situations like when you're not expecting the pitch and then you gotta get up and get going,

get hot real quick to come in and get two outs. So yeah, I don't think we didn't get to see how

they would get the ball to, to, to ran, which is kind of what I'm interested in if they go

Alvarado. Like this is what the pecking order is there. But yeah, it's, it's, we'll, we'll probably

see that over the weekend, I'd imagine. So this is probably going to be our only day where we

react to like every single game because as a weekly podcast, it'll be, we're going to be looking

at from a higher level. But definitely tune into the first pitch podcast. I'll be reacting to

bullpen stuff every single day when I'm recording. So give that a listen. But now we can discuss

our predictions for the 2026 campaign. But first, let's take another break here on in the pen.

We're back, Jay Crumpler here with Rick Graham discussing relief pictures. Let's predict,

let's make some big predictions for 2026. We do this every year. We've done a lot of like

predicting the relievers of the year, whoever's going to have the most saves on the season,

that kind of stuff. So let's go through some stuff. We've got 21 questions to answer.

There are some teams that have unclear bullpen's right now. So we're going to try to predict

who's going to a finish with the highest Yahoo player ranking. And B, who's going to record the

most saves for that bullpen. So let's start in the American league with the Chicago white socks.

Rick, who do you think is going to have the highest finish on the Yahoo player rankings for a

standard? Yeah, so this is one where they might be a difference. Because I do think Rant Taylor is

probably the best play like going to finish the year as the more useful head-to-head Yahoo fantasy

asset. Agreed. But I don't think he's going to lead the team in saves. I think it will still be

serant. The need of Mingus. They paid him to do that. They're what they've been talking about him,

and pretty much only in that role. Even if something does happen with Mingus, they'll probably

go to leisure first as the fallback option. Sure, Grant Taylor will get a handful of saves and

some wins. And he's going to pitch hopefully 80 plus innings, which is why I think he could be

the better player at the end of the day, more useful asset. And Mingus is probably going to have

a whip around 130, 140, which won't help. But he'll probably have the most saves.

So yeah, I think that's on the, I'm on the same page there. I think Grant Taylor is going to

finish higher on the player rate or I have him in the staff league right now. So I am expecting a

lot of strikeouts, a good year A and whip, maybe a couple saves and some wins. And I think that's

going to outpace seranthani, Dominguez. But I do think Dominguez is probably locked into the

night inning. So he will record more saves for the white socks. Let's stick in the AL central

and discuss a notable bullpen in the Kansas City Royals. Who do you think is going to finish with

the highest Yahoo player rateer? And is that different from the guy who's going to finish with the

most saves? I hate, I don't know, I shouldn't say, hey, I don't like anyone in this bullpen,

particularly. It's really hard to pick someone because everyone is just like declining.

So I, I'm going to say Matt Strom for both, I guess. I think he might be able to just, you know,

squeeze out another good year. But yeah, I, like, I mean, I don't know, I honestly don't understand

the Carlos test of his thing. And I, it's really weird to me that there's no,

because the team not worried still. Are they serious? He came out and was throwing 89 again

those last outing, just laboring, just looking. He's not healthy. I don't know

how they're not seeing that or what the, what is going on? Because like, he needs to get an MRI

probably. So I just can't, I don't think, yes, someone's not our best of his. So moving past him,

Earthsegs Velo continues to drop. You know, I kind of, maybe Nick Mears has something left. Like,

it's between him and Strom for me, but I guess Strom being the veteran. They have Daniel Lynch there

as another lefty that they can rely on. So they don't technically need Strom to be like the

sole lefty for the, for the left hand of pockets. But yeah, this bullpen, I saw, I forget what

account someone tweeted out like a bullpen rankings and they had the royals as the worst rated bullpen.

That same morning, I was thinking like, you know, what the nationals probably aren't the worst

bullpen. Like, I think it might be the, like, it's probably the royals realistically at this point.

There's everyone's just on a steep decline there. And they traded Johnson bullpen.

Got to be pretty good if they, if they don't even want to hold on to Griff McGarry.

Yeah, I know. That's annoying. But they're, like, I see there are, there is interest, there's

some interesting pieces in the nationals bullpen. It's just no, no one you know. But like, I get,

all right, don't necessarily get what they're doing. But I, I see what their plan might be. Yeah.

So like, the royals is just like, I don't know, just names of declining relievers.

Yeah, that's kind of sad. I think I'm on the same page, though, with Matt Stromtube. I wanted it to be

Lucas Ersegg. I took him in a barf league. But that's only because I think it's because he's a

right-hander. And I would feel more confident in him being the closer just, you know, because the

the stereotypes when it comes to the closers. But Matt Stromt has been the best reliever in this bullpen

for the last like four years. I know this is first year in this bullpen, but he's been the best

reliever amongst this bunch for the last few years. And so that's the one that makes the most sense

for me. I think, you know, regardless if he doesn't finish with the most saves, I think he'll probably

finish atop the Yahoo player-rater. But yeah, I mean, how long is Carlos' stuff is going to last

throwing 89 miles per hour? If he comes out tomorrow throwing 97, just like,

he's the greatest prank of all time. I mean, that's what I'm, I'm kind of like,

that might happen, but at the same time, I don't see how that can. I mean, what if he's just throwing

bullpen on the side where he is throwing like 95, 96 and just going out there and I don't know,

maybe it is a prank. Well, we'll see. I hope we see us to this pitch, but I don't know how

they can put him out there in the ninth inning throwing 89. I don't, and just laboring through

that. It's just they don't, like, are the rows really going to do that? That's, that's not, I don't

know. I think as it is as her, and he's probably just trying to tough it out and like, pitch through it.

But it's clear, like someone needs to step in and be like, hey, dude, like, please go get like your

arm looked at because this isn't right. This isn't you. It's really weird. You don't see this.

You really never see this. And it's, it's like, it's so concerning given he was already the number one

guy that's like, he's going to have huge regression. You should be drafting him just because he had

80 saves the last two years. It's, it's just so clear that a step is just going to struggle this

year. But hey, we may be eating our words. We've, we've done that enough with a couple different

guys before. And with Carlos, instead of his last year. All right. Let's wrap up this

ale central talk and discuss the twins. Who finishes the top, the Yahoo player, Rader, and who has

the most saves? And is that the same guy? Um, I'll say it's the same guy. I don't, again,

I don't feel great about this bullpen either. But Colson's, I'm going to go off. I think there's

a chance. Yeah. We suit Taylor Rogers get the first couple saves. But there's, I just, I don't see

way he finishes the year in the role. Um, I guess the sands, maybe he's like, if the twins fall

out of contention, he could be a guy that they also like, they traded their whole bullpen last year.

And I didn't expect them to trade Louis Varlin. So maybe sands is a guy that they would trade this

deadline, or at the deadline here. Um, but that's the only guy right now who they've kind of talked

about as being he's in some sort of high leverage role for them. They, they, they, they feel confident

with him. So I, I think he's the next man up, if not just sharing the role right now. So

think sands could take that role and keep it at least for the rest of the year. I like Eric orzy

a lot. But I think that's more of a long shot. That was my bull prediction, bull prediction is that

orzy will finish the, will be the closer by the end of the year. But that's a bull prediction.

That's not an actual, um, realistic prediction. Those are different, right? Those aren't. Yeah. Yeah.

It's not an expectation. Right. Right now. Yeah. That was betting money. Yeah. I would. Yeah.

Well, I think I'm going to go more to the, the way things are looking right now. I think I'm

going to stick with Taylor Rogers. Uh, I just have the most confidence in him. Nothing about calls sands

really turns me off. Yeah. It doesn't get me excited. So I, I don't think he's somebody that's going to

like, like force twins hand and force himself into that role. Uh, Rogers is also somebody that

has experience as a Clutter. Who's the, who's the twins manager right now? I know they got a new one.

Um, the former Pirates man and shit and Derek Shelton. Okay. Yeah. Well, they,

they had David Bednar. So I don't know. Yeah. I'll just stick with Taylor Rogers. He also

doesn't excite me, but he is somebody that's been a closer in the past. Like, like, even he's shown

that his floor is not that he's like last year, three, three, eight year a 24% strikeout rate. Not

awful. Not incredible. But that's like one of the best relievers in this bullpen. Um, because it's

just not spectacular. So I'll just stick with the chalk response here on the twin. So one more

AL central bullpen, the Detroit Tigers. We've got Kenley Janssen, Will Vest, Kalfen, again,

vying for that closer role. Who do you think finishes atop the Yahoo player rating? Who has the

most saves? I think Janssen is going to have the most saves. I still think that. Um, but the

between, yeah, player rankings, um, that might be close. Um, I will, I'll, I'll say something

different here. I'll say Finnegan finishes as the highest rated Yahoo, uh, head to head player

here. But I think Janssen still leads this team and saves. I, I know they kind of toyed with the

committee thing when they signed Janssen and Finnegan, then they kind of backed away from it and said

that Janssen was going to be the guy. And I still think Janssen is the guy most of the time. Most of

the time. But I think Finnegan will get maybe double digit saves there, probably, um, has a

chance to have better ratios too. And, um, overall, just more straightouts as well. So,

and yeah, Janssen at this point in his career could definitely miss some time as well. So, yeah,

I'll say Finnegan, I like what he did last year in Detroit when he moved there, uh, moved over there

and yeah, you should be pretty solid for them in full year. I think I'm leaning the same way,

but I'll just go with Janssen as both the saves leader and Yahoo player rating leader. I could

definitely see him sort of platooning with Finnegan. He's, uh, Finnegan's a splitter guy. So,

you'd expect him to have a little bit of reverse splits. Yep. Yep. So, you could really have a

natural platoon there with, uh, Finnegan. And I think all your analysis is, is very sound, but

I think Janssen will, will be solid enough that he's just going to be, uh, slightly better than Finnegan

on the Yahoo player rating. So let's move over to the AL West and talk about the A's. This is probably

the most difficult predict bullpen, maybe right up there with the nationals. Uh, it's really

anybody's game right now. Who do you think Rick? Who's gonna, who's gonna lead this bullpen in

saves and, uh, Yahoo player rating? Is the whoever leads this team in saves going to have more than

12 saves is a better question. Uh, wow. I'm gonna, I was so like the second half last year after

they traded Miller, it was like you, there was nobody that stood out. I mean, Hogan Harris was

there, but it's, it's hard to pin down. I want Elvis Alvarado to figure things out and be a

closer here. I just don't know. I, I can't realistically predict that. So I'm gonna say Hogan Harris

because he's the lefty there and they have so many, they have a bunch of right-handed options,

but like, at least Harris is the lefty there. We know for left-handed pockets, he's going to be the

guy, uh, for righties, it's who knows, Barlow, Mark Glider, maybe Sterner gets back in there,

Alvarado. Um, some of the other younger guys, but yeah, I think Harris is the, the, the guy there

for me. And I think he's solid enough where he's probably going to finish the highest ranked player

as well. I just, I don't know if it's going to be really useful either way though. It's,

I don't feel great about rostering him, but I don't feel terrible about it either. I feel

better about rostering him than Taylor Rogers at this point, I think. Yeah, I, uh, this one's

a hard one. I want it to be Justin Sterner. I've, uh, drafted him in a couple of leagues thus far,

but I don't think it's going to be him. I'm going to go with Mark Glider Jr. I think because he's

one of those guys that's got to change up. He's not going right. I think he's going to be somebody

that is going to be able to face both righties and lefties. And I think that gives him the, the leg

up over the rest of the guys because he's not going to be, you know, save for an inning in which

there's a bunch of lefties are safe for an inning when there's a bunch of righties. I think they'll

just use him whenever and I think that'll lead to him getting the most saves. But yeah, I mean,

it's, it's anybody's ballgame right now. Let's, uh, let's go to another bullpen that we've talked

a lot about today already. The angels, who do you think is going to have the most saves and who

leads in the eight, the Yahoo player rator? I'm still, I stick in with Drew Palmer and I don't,

I know, Romano got the first Romano got the first save there. Um, but in, yeah, it wasn't,

it gave me some hope that Romano can continue to have some success there. Um, but I still like,

uh, promarands look good today as well. I, I think, yeah, the one thing is like, do you really want

him in the ninth inning against three righties? I don't, I don't know. He's just a fastball curveball guy.

That said, I mean, he doesn't have terrible splits against righties. I, I, I think he could,

he'd be fine and they have two lefties in that bullpen outside of him as well. So I'm going to

stick with promarands and even when guys get healthy, I think even when before Yates got hurt,

I was kind of leaning pomerans as well because I didn't trust Yates anymore. You had been

mentioning him for sure. Yeah, it's kind of been, I don't know, just the, I feel safer with him

than the, the alternatives, I guess. Mm hmm. Yeah. Uh, it's a hard one. I think pomerans is

better than Romano, but I'm going to use recency bias and go with Jordan Romano. I think, uh,

just the fact that it seems like he's got the role right now. He's had success in the past. I

don't think the angels are a team that are going to trade at the deadline. We saw last year,

they like acquired Luis Garcia and Andrew Chafin when they were like way out of it. So they'll

stick with them. Yeah. They'll, they'll, they'll do anything that's going to add some

middling veteran who's probably, yeah. So yeah. All right. Let's wrap up the AL West with the

Texas Rangers. It's, I wouldn't say anybody's ballgame right now, but it's down to two guys. We

thought it was Robert Garcia. And then at the last moment, Skip Schumacher was like, hey,

but Chris Martin could close and I don't think so. But what do you think, Rick? Who's going to,

who's going to have the most saves? I still think this is Garcia. This is going to be the best,

best guy in this bullpen for saves and just overall. I really like Carter Bomler. It's just,

it's so rare and I would have to go like, I don't know, who's the last like rule five guy to have

like double digit saves in a year. I don't know. Whitlock and Slate and we're probably close.

Yeah. I mean, but I don't think say that saves. They were very good relievers. I think this,

Slate was getting saves, wasn't he? Well, let's see, let's see. Let's see. His first year,

two saves. Nevermind. Yeah. That's, I mean, situations different though. Like this Ranger's

bullpen doesn't have anyone. Yeah. So Bomler with his stuff. I mean, yeah, maybe he works, works

his way into the role. It at least gives me some someone to be excited about in this bullpen.

Because even if Garcia, I'm not like super excited. I think he's a very good reliever. Just not like

not a guy I wouldn't want closing on my team if I had the, if I could, you know, have a choice.

So put it at Chris Martin. I no idea what we're going to get from Chris Martin this year. So.

Yeah. I think I'm on the same page as well. I think

walking Soria 2007 was a real five pick of the Royals. He had seven days. Yes, he was. Wow.

Okay. Yeah. That was way back in the day. So what a, what a fine by the Royals there. Yeah.

229 saves for his career walking. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty cool. I'm going in Robert Garcia as well.

I've drafted him in a couple of places. I just don't think Chris Martin's going to close.

Though I do want to say dark horse, Kumar Rocker. Yeah. He's just not going to,

it's not going to work in the rotation. They're not going to send him back down. And I think he's

just going to be in close next year. I think that's next year. I think they finally give, give up the

well, who knows? We just like we're talking about like Ben Brown. They have Cubs haven't given up

on him as a starter. But like, you know, teams just don't give up on guys as starters. So. But

yeah, Rocker probably belongs there. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the, the Rangers are sort of a year away

from having some really interesting guys in that bullpen. I mean, I think he's still only 25.

Teodo is probably going to pitch in the majors next year, probably this year. So we'll see,

we'll see. But yeah, Robert Garcia for the Rangers right now. Let's head into the national league and

talk about probably the most difficult to predict bullpen. And that's the nationals. Who do you think

has the most saves and who do you think is the player-rater leader?

I'm going to. Yeah. I'm going to say beater still. I'm just, I know I'm wrong, but I'm going to say

because I just want to believe. Yeah. I want to believe that he that the the new nationals

organization can can get him get him right, get him going the right direction. You know, I do,

I kind of like Cole Henry a little bit. I definitely like him more than I did, you know,

looking at him in October. And I'd really like Gus Varlin and Andre Grinillo to some, to some

point as well. But I think Varlin's the dark horse there and Henry's probably a safe setup option.

But yeah, beater for me is the guy just stuff wise. There's no one. Now that Grif McGarry's not

there. There's really no one that can touch beater from a stuff metric point, you know, look at this,

look at this cash from Jordan Waller. It's playing left field. Yeah. Are they playing the replay for

you? Oh, yeah. Crazy. Crazy. He just robbed Freddie Freeman of extra bases slamming into the wall.

Yeah, they moved him to the outfield after getting aeronauto and Predomo breaking out. But hey,

maybe, maybe that'll work for him. I know he was never like a big defensive guy, but he's,

he's fast. So I think he could be pretty decent in the outfield. Nationals bullpen.

This is a tough one. I think this is one of the ones where we see a different guy leading in

saves than who leads the Yahoo player rater. I think, but I don't know who. I think maybe like,

I don't know how much I believe in this like Brad Lord being like the being the Yahoo player rater

leader and then like Clayton Beater leading in saves. I just think the thing with Beater is he's

going to walk too many guys who his whips going to be all out of whack. And I think that's sometimes

not factored in enough and that will hold down his Yahoo player rater. But then Brad Lord's going to

be one of those volume relievers who also has some starts. And I think, you know, it's going to be

decent enough and get some wins that maybe he's in there. It's going to be something like that.

In my opinion, we're just some some random dude is going to surpass Cedar because his whips

going to be so bad, but he's going to have like 15 saves that it's going to be enough.

I don't think we should probably shouldn't sleep on Cional Perez either. He looked pretty good

the spring. And he was in the ninth inning today. And like, yeah, I mean, that who knows that

could be a guy who ends up leading them. But yeah, really, really deep leagues are I know only,

I think Cional Perez is kind of on the radar now. All right. Yeah. They're in 96, 97 with the

fastball. It's, we'll see. We will see how that works out. All right. Let's move forward into the

NL Central. We've got the Pittsburgh pirates who you got.

Man, you know, I don't want to do it, but I will say Santana leads this team and saves, but I'm

still I got to put me some Montgomery on here. I just, I mean, I still believe I'm going to

believe at least for one more year, you know, I'm going to buy into the Montgomery.

Just being able to figure out his command at some point this year and eventually taking over

the closer role. But I think Santana will get enough saves at least in the first half that he

probably finishes with the most on the team. But yeah, I mean, I don't know if Santana and so

it'll do split that role at least for the beginning half that maybe maybe by the end of the year,

Montgomery does have the most saves by default because no one, no one really gets a ton.

It's really been becoming more of a messy situation than I think we had thought.

But that being said, Dennis Santana has not looked good in spring. Didn't really look great today.

His stuff is just kind of managed. I mean, he's never had a good fastball, but even his,

his slider is kind of taking a step back too. So I don't know, I don't, I don't love Santana.

I don't love soda because he's all over the place, but so is Montgomery.

Montgomery just has a little bit more upside than soda at this point that I'll take a chance on that

if I have to. Yeah, I think I'm on the same page. Santana is going to lead this team in saves,

but I'm going to go Justin Lawrence over Montgomery. I got to stick with my guy. I think he's going

to have a higher Yahoo player rateer for sure. But yeah, I think Dennis Santana just racks up

enough saves. He probably gets traded at the deadline if not. He loses the role at some point,

but he should get the majority of the saves this season. The St. Louis Cardinals,

we got Raleigh O'Brien, Jojo Romero, Matt Sponson, Ryan Stannick. How do you think this one shakes out?

I still think Stannick here, or I don't know, I've been on between O'Brien's Stannick,

I bounced back and forth, but I think Stannick is going to lead the team in saves, and probably,

I guess we'll say he has the highest player rateer as well. Again, don't love it. I just think

O'Brien doesn't do, I think O'Brien might have a high whip while also not striking out guys,

and the ERA might be fine, but if he's not getting a ton of saves, I don't, yeah, he doesn't do much

for me, or for your team if he's not closing out games. I'm going to go with Stannick, and yeah,

maybe today's usage is for real, maybe that's how they're going to play it, and I totally get the

approach from the Cardinals standpoint if that's how they do it. Let's go with Stannick. It's

going to be a bumpy ride, but it should be fun, at least until August when they trade them.

Right, yeah, that's the way that I'm leaning, because I would say Ryan Stannick for saves,

and I'm leaning, sort of, Jojo Romero for Yahoo Player Rader. I just think I don't have a lot of

faith in Jojo Romero, but there was a couple of years ago when he looked a lot stronger than he

does now, a lot more overwhelming, and I think he's going to voucher some saves as the top left

in that bullpen. He's still somebody that they're going to use in the eighth and seventh and eighth,

so I feel like his ability to produce good ratios is probably going to be better than Ryan Stannick.

I wouldn't be surprised if Stannick holds on to the role with a high 3-ZRA. That usually doesn't

play well in the Yahoo Player Rader though. That's a good point. Yeah, once that ERA gets up there

in the whip too, because he's going to walk people, so that whip's not going to be great either.

All right, let's talk about a couple of NOS teams before we wrap it up with a few teams that we

didn't get to earlier. Let's start with the Diamondbacks. I know where you're leaning on this one.

Yeah, I'm going to stick with C-Wall. It sounds like finally Tori LeVulo came out and said that C-Wall

is his closer today, which is we kind of knew it, but now we have some confirmation.

They have the only question again is when AJ Puck returns, does he, you know, what says role

going to be, but we'll do with that when it happens, because you never know. Guys, coming back from

Tommy John, even though he was an internal brace that doesn't necessarily make it a smoother

return. So yeah, if Puck returns in early June, maybe he could come back and take over the role,

but yeah, I feel more comfortable guessing C-Walled here as the Diamondbacks really

were of the year, essentially. Sure. Yeah, I think I'm leaning the same way with Paul C-Walled,

but I could definitely see a world where Puck comes back and just absolutely dominates again,

but, you know, coming back from Tommy John's surgery, it's a little bit scary, and I think they're

not going to push him too much, so I don't think he's going to really have a chance to overwhelm,

though. I wouldn't be surprised if Puck ends up atop the who play raider for Diamondbacks

Relievers. The other bullpen we'll talk about here is the Colorado Rockies. Is that one we even

want to talk about? No, I get what we should because they're a team. So yeah, I don't really

trust Vodnic. I don't know, Vodnic has like decent stuff there. I just, I don't know, the only guy,

I kind of like is Mahia here. I think I don't want Mahia as my only, the only guy I'm willing to,

you know, kind of gamble on in the deepest of deep leagues, so I'll say one Mahia.

I was also leaning one Mahia, but just the way that the Rockies are sort of run, I know they've got

different management there and stuff. I just think they're just going to try to stick with Vodnic

as long as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if like Zach Agnes ends up with the most. Yeah,

you look good with the springs. Yeah, but I'll go Victor Vodnic. So all right, we got just a few more.

So let's go to the Tampa Bay race who has the most saves and who finishes atop the player raider.

I think we're both in the same page here with Jack's, but I don't know, especially after today,

I feel like it's worth just reiterating that. I think, you know, Jack's is still going to be at

the end of the day. He's going to have the most saves and I think it's, yeah, I'm pretty easy to,

they say that he's going to have the, you know, be the highest raider player at the end of the day as

well. So I'm going to go with Jack's for both. I will also go with Jack's as well. He's somebody I was

trying to draft everywhere. So a bit scary to see this on opening day, but I don't think my confidence

has changed at all. In Houston, by long driven, Jack's for sure. In Houston for the Astros,

who do you got with Josh Hader on the IL and Brian and Brady looking to be the team's closer?

Yeah, I mean, I was going to say Hader, but now like with the news today that he's not going to,

it might be, you know, may, until we see him. I still think I'm going to say Hader for both,

especially because I am also concerned about Brian and Brady. So I'll go Hader and I hope

that he's okay. I hope this is like just a really bad spring stuff wise and, you know, performance wise,

like results wise, weren't great. I don't know, but he's kind of been a slow starter before. So

I'm hoping that's all it is, but not great if you have, if you have a Brady and just want to get

saves from him in April, because he doesn't look quite ready yet. Yeah.

Yeah. That has me leaning Josh Hader as the lead for saves, but I think I'll go,

Obreu, a top-to-player Raider, just because he's going to be able to rack up more strikeouts

throughout the season than Hader, just by being healthy, but I feel like Hader's going to,

if he's healthy, he's going to be the closer. So if he's around for even four months compared

to Obreu's to us, the closer he should have more saves. The second to last team we'll talk about is

the Atlanta Braves, right? So a Glacias versus Robert Suarez, who you got?

I'm still, I don't know. Glacias look pretty good this spring. I'm still going to say Suarez,

though. I just think that's what the team is expecting and what that's what the team wants. So

like the first sign of trouble for a Glacias, I think he gets kind of bounced out of that role.

You probably, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up being traded,

depending on how the rest of that bullpen looks, if they find other options there.

Because yeah, it's going to be weird if they remove him from the role and then just put him in

a set-up role after how long he's been the closer there. But yeah, I'm going to say Suarez

for both. I think he's the better pitcher right now at the stage of their career.

And the Braves know that. Yeah, I agree. I will say Robert Suarez for saves, but I'm going to go

Dylan Lee for Yahoo. Yeah, I think just because he's a lefty, he's going to get those

vulture saves when both the Glacias and Suarez have pitched. He got two saves last year.

I think he's going to strike out more batters than those guys. And I think there's going to be

breakout year for Dylan Lee. He's not going to be the closer, but I think he will

atop the Yahoo player radar for Braves relievers. And lastly, we've got the Milwaukee Brewers.

Who you got between Abner Rebe and Trevor McGill?

I know that Pat Murphy is refusing to name a closer there, but I think based on

the last week of spring usage, I think it's kind of, he's kind of played, you know,

showed his cards a little bit, and I think it's Trevor McGill who's going to start the year as

the closer. And as long as he's healthy, he should remain the closer for the whole year. So

yeah, I'm going to go from McGill here. But yeah, I mean, Rebe is still there. This is one,

I almost like, there's a chance that both these guys end up as like top 100 players in Yahoo.

Just how good both of them are. So it's a very interesting situation if you're in a head-to-head,

you know, Yahoo type Lee, because yeah, you probably still want to roster both. But

Rebe was going so high in draft, so I don't know. That was my only issue.

Yeah, well, to make it interesting, I'll go with Rebe for both. I think it's either going to be

really close or Trevor McGill gets injured and Rebe just has the job from there on out. So

we'll see how that goes. Now we'll look at some groupings of closures that were drafted

near each other and choose which ones going to provide the most value, which one's going to

top Yahoo player rate amongst this group. So the first grouping we've got,

Andres Munoz, Cade Smith, Yohan Duran, David Bednar, or all this Chapman and Devon Williams, who you got.

I'm going to go, yeah, I bounced back and forth between the two guys here of Cade Smith and

Devon Williams, but I really like Cade Smith. I'm going to go with Cade Smith.

Just as long as he's healthy, he should be the best value of that group going between

was a Pix55 and 85. So yeah, I'll go Cade Smith. But Devon Williams is like a very good value,

just because he's the last of that group. Right. Right. I think like based on rankings,

I would also have Cade Smith above them. I hate choosing the same guy though here. So I think

I think if we're going Yahoo player rateer, I'm going to go Yohan Duran, where he doesn't have

to strike out enough guys. His ratios are going to carry him. Yeah. And that was also a situation

where, you know, I liked Cade Smith more in drafts because he was going later than guys like

Duran and Munoz. I think it's pretty negligible if you're like putting them all next to each other

who you're going to pick. I probably like Cade Smith a little bit more, but keep it interesting.

I'll go with Duran Duran. Our other grouping we'll look at is we're going between Pix130

and 160. We got Ryan Hensley, Emilio Pagan, Jeff Hoffman, Pete Fairbanks, Daniel Palencia,

and Trevor McGill, who you got? So I had Palencia here. I'm going to stick with Palencia,

but Ryan Hensley did look really good today. I'm really torn between Hensley and Palencia.

I'll go Palencia for this because that's who I currently have. I have him one spot ahead of

Hensley. You looked awesome in the WBCs throwing a splitter a little bit more, just kind of intriguing.

But yeah, I guess with both of them, there's a little bit of like a health concern and just like

durability concern, but I know. Hugo Palencia. Okay. I was also going between those two guys,

so I was just going to take you everywhere to pick. So I will take Ryan Hensley. He looked

incredible today. All right. Now we will pick our American and National League

Reliever of the Year. So Rick, who you got for the Mariano Rivera American League Reliever of

the Year Award in 2026? You know, it's kind of after today. I don't know if I could say it,

but I'd riff in jacks. I mean, just not a great star, but I, so did they base this award?

I should probably look into this. Is it based on saves mostly? Or is it based on like, you know,

Eurea whip generally, they're choosing a guy who's a closer. Yeah. So maybe not jacks.

They can be anyone. I'm sure I know. I wanted to be I wanted to be riffing jacks, but probably

the smarter money would be on like Kate Smith. So I'm gonna say Kate Smith. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. I also want Kate Smith. I think I think I'm also gonna go Kate Smith. I think that makes

the most sense. I would love to make it more interesting, but no, that's, I mean, it's like him or

Andres Munoz. I mean, at this point, it's really, if you're talking about saves and like just,

like consistency, those are the two that stick out in the A L, right? I mean, maybe you can throw

Jacks too. Yeah, or jacks if he does get the saves and you probably, if he doesn't get like 40,

30, 40 saves, it probably have to have like really elite ratios, like compared to those other guys.

Watch it be like, John Romano. That would be funny. I know. Oh, man. All right. Ryan

Sannick's gonna get it in the NL. All right. That would be crazy. Yeah. Who you got for the Trevor

Hoffman National League really breathed the award for 2026. Um, the guy we haven't talked about.

And that's Mason Miller. That's that's like the one that as long as he's healthy, like, yeah,

he's gonna get that award. Yeah, he, I don't know. I'm like, so excited about what he can do.

The NL, the NL is competition. Yeah, the NL is a little bit better, a little bit deeper,

especially. Do Ron, Edwin Diaz, Paul Seewald,

Paul Enzia. Yeah. There's plenty. Devon Williams there. Yeah.

Plenty of guys. Um, I think, I think Mason Miller is definitely obvious choice. I'll go.

No, I can't choose a Dodger. I was thinking about Edwin Diaz. Give me Mason Miller too.

Yeah. Boo. I can't pick a Dodger. Uh, you know, give me, uh, give me on Deuron.

All right. Well, I, I think that one could, could work out. I, just him being out of Minnesota

for a full season, I feel like maybe he'll get like 45 saves or something crazy and have really

solid ratios. Um, okay. And now for the most fun pick, who is going to lead baseball in

saves for 2026? This one's always really interesting because it's not necessarily the best

reliever. Because if you look, right, if you look at the last couple of years, it's like Carlos

always a Robert Suarez. It's, it's, it's never the top reliever because Edwin Diaz was incredible last

year. He had 28 saves for the, uh, so it's not necessarily who's going to be the best reliever.

Who is going to lead baseball in saves next year for you this year? Yeah. It's going to be

someone weird, isn't it? Um, you know what? I mean, I'll go with someone who's done it before

two years. I was going to Ryan Helsley because I feel like, you know, some of these situations,

you might see different, you know, I think Helsley's just like the locked in ninth inning guy.

Like there's no, he's on the team. He's like, I almost wanted to say Pete Fairbanks because

that's kind of a weird one. But I can see the Marlins, you know, being a little bit different and

going with foe Shay in the ninth every now and then because that's how they, they manage things.

So I'll say Helsley, I think he's just going to get a ton of chances there.

And the Orioles should be winning enough games. It's a pretty good spot for him to get 40 plus saves.

Yeah. I sort of want to go like Daniel Palencia, but I think just the injury risk is something

that's going to scare me away from picking that you want to do on his somebody that I think is good,

but I picked him a lot already. Um, I think, I think I like,

um,

give me, give me Jeff Hoffman. Okay. Wow. That would be yeah. Okay.

I just, there's, there's, he's got the thing with that is the blue jays are going to win a lot of

games. I think the bullpen is good enough that they're going to hand him a lot of leads. And as

long as he's not giving up long balls every other pitch, I think it's, it's going to be solid. He had

33 saves last year and it wasn't like a spectacularly year. I think, you know, seven more is definitely

doable for him, especially if the, the bullpen is used more traditionally or same as last year.

I think power Rogers will help that bullpen sort of feel a little bit more calm with all the young

arms they have. Yeah. That's for sure. Yeah. As long as he, yeah, I just, we'll see if they,

they just want to use him in that role and just trust him as the ninth and a guy only. But yeah,

that that could be, there's definitely going to be chances there. There's going to be saves there.

I could also see like David Bednar makes a lot of sense too. Yeah. I have my experience with him,

but yeah, I think he'll get, yeah, he'll be the guy there. Yeah. For sure. All right. Well,

that will do it for our opening day reactions and 2026 predictions. It's been a great podcast,

great first day of the season. Excited for the rest of the season. We'll be here every single

week talking about relief pictures, giving you all the analysis you can hope for and more,

probably more than you could ask for. But Rick, why don't you go ahead and plug your

socials and let everybody know what you're working on this year. Yeah. You can find me on social

media at I am a gram working on. Yeah. So this year, you know, I a little bit different

with reliever stuff. I'll have all my rankings will come out on Thursday this year. And then

every day I will be putting out a roundup and a streamer similar to what Nick does with starters.

So yeah, tomorrow will be the first, you know, look at like, you know, going through every,

like kind of like we did, you know, going through every reliever that pitch yesterday or today.

And just breaking down there. They're outing and what it looks like for them moving forward.

And then the streamer will be, you know, that's the fun. That's like with the bullpen chart and

seeing usage, tracking usage, seeing who's available that day. There's, you know, obviously tomorrow.

Everyone's pretty much available. But moving forward, that'll be a very useful tool for

those looking to stream saves and wins. You know, if you want to vulture wins, that's definitely

something you can use as well. If you could get that out before I record first pitch,

so just be all right. So helpful.

You record first pitch. All right. It's on the West Coast. Yeah. Like midnight.

We'll talk on the clock. Yeah. Yeah. You can follow me on socials at Jake Crumbler. You can

follow the pod at in the pen pod. You can find all of my work at crumblerbaseball.com.

You can catch me on the first pitch podcast pretty much daily. I won't be doing the weekends.

I will be doing this weekend to allow my cohost to get into the swing of things. But you'll

see me four days a week on the first pitch podcast. I'm also going to be doing some starting

pitching stuff, still finalizing that. But definitely look out for that over the weekends

moving forward. But that will do it for this episode. Number 153 of the in the pen podcast.

We'll talk to you all next week.

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