It was “fauxpening” day today as six teams played three games on the Sunday before opening day and I was pumped to say the least. The first game of the season featured the Yankees against the Rays and it was primed to be a great welcome to season. Except when it wasn’t as Masahiro Tanaka elected to not show up after not allowing a single ER in Spring Training, giving any exciting owners a line of 2.2 IP, 7 ER, 8 Hits, 2 BBs, 3 Ks. Holy Blegh that is horrendous. If you tuned in for today’s live stream, I mentioned before the game started how Tanaka is dangerously close to becoming Jerad Eickhoff. I guess Tanaka heard me say Schmerad Eickhoff, Jerad’s half-brother who hung up his cleats to win the love of his high-school sweetheart. Don’t do anything silly, it’s just one outing, and if some owner suddenly wants to get rid of Masahiro, you best find a way to take advantage of that value.
Let’s see how every other SP did yesterday:
Madison Bumgarner – 7.0 IP, 3 ER, 6 Hits, 0 BBs, 11 Ks. Aces gonna ace. Aces also gonna go yard twice and lead the majors in HRs but no one cares about that in fantasy baseball as they don’t count. LOOK AT THIS GUY, HE HAS TWO HOME RUNS AS A PITCHER! See? No one cares.
Carlos Martinez – 7.1 IP, 0 ER, 6 Hits, 0 BBs, 10 Ks. Aces also gonna ace. Funny story, I elected to put Martinez over Tanaka in my updated version of The List, pretty easy to make that call now, right? Also, I talked about Martinez’s Changeup in his pre-season ranking and tonight he elected not only to throw a bunch against left-handers, but also against right-handers. That should get you very, very excited.
Chris Archer – 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 7 Hits, 1 BBs, 5 Ks. Even though the strikeouts weren’t as plentiful as we want from Archer, we will take this and be very happy. He also sprinkled in a decent amount of Changeups to left-handers, which is great to see, but I really want to see that transformation like Martinez is making where Archer is comfortable throwing the pitch at any time to any batter. But for now, we all just laugh at the fact that Brooks Baseball had him down for just one slow ball today. Yeah, okay buddy.
Jon Lester – 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 7 Hits, 2 BBs, 7 Ks. It wasn’t pretty and that WHIP isn’t ideal, but the rest is solid and get used to this. Lester isn’t going to wow you, but he’ll be consistently pretty dang good for you.
Zack Greinke – 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 Hits, 2 BBs, 4 Ks. Greinke’s pitch count went north in a hurry, which is the only reason why he didn’t last six or even seven frames today. The Greinkster impressed me today, showing excellent Slider command while ramping it up to 94+ on occasion to rid us of any thought that he was lacking velocity. If I were doing another edition of The List tomorrow – I’m still tempted to do so – I’d be hard pressed not to slide Greinke back into the Top 25. Not saying I would, but heavy consideration would be had.
Today’s Streamer
Ervin Santana vs. Kansas City Royals – He’s under in under 30% of leagues, this counts, right? If you need to go deeper like Leo, Scott Feldman against the Phils isn’t so bad, though I really hate trusting him. On that note, streaming at this point in the year just isn’t a great idea. We don’t have much data on opposing teams and in roto leagues you’re just setting yourself up for disaster. I can under H2H leagues if you really feel far behind your opponent for starts and need those extra numbers, and points are a different story all together. Still don’t like the idea of streaming so early but if you must, then you must.
Tomorrow’s Streamer
Tyler Anderson vs. Milwaukee Brewers – Can’t say I love this one a whole lot – I think the Brewers might actually be a decent offense this year – but Anderson can keep the ball in the park and showed signs of non-suckage a good amount last year. Wow Nick, what an endorsement. Hey, there are only eight games on Tuesday and they are all #2 starters!
Day After Tomorrow’s Streamer
Lance Lynn vs. Chicago Cubs – I feel like this one is cheating since he should be owned in over 20% of ESPN leagues (and Hisashi Iwakuma is owned well over 50%…people man. PEOPLE.), and there is some risk given it’s the Cubs, but I like Lynn a lot this year and he should be owned in 12 teamers.
Game of the Day
Corey Kluber vs. Yu Darvish – Two Top 10 pitchers that should feature plenty of strikeouts. All over my face please.