Baseball is here and owners around the world are starting to get into the season early. Starting now every week owners can look forward to a weekly update that will give owners some good spot start options, two start pitchers, favorable matchups both offense and pitching, injury updates, and more!
Two Start Pitchers
Texas Rangers-Yovani Gallardo: Oakland A’s (Away) and Houston Astros (Home)
Detroit Tigers- David Price: Minnesota Twins (Home) and Cleveland Indians (Away)
Tampa Bay Rays- Chris Archer and Nate Karns: Baltimore Orioles (Home) and Miami Marlins (Away)
Chicago Cubs- Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta: St. Louis Cardinals (Home) and Colorado Rockies (Away)
Atlanta Braves- Julio Teheran and Alex Wood: Miami Marlins (Away) and New York Mets (Home)
Seattle Mariners- Felix Hernandez: Los Angeles Angels (Home) and Oakland A’s (Away)
Washington Nationals- Max Scherzer: New York Mets (Home) and Philadelphia Phillies (Away)
Houston Astros- Dallas Keuchel: Cleveland Indians (Home) and Texas Rangers (Away)
New York Yankees- Masahiro Tanaka: Toronto Blue Jays (Home) and Boston Red Sox (Home)
Toronto Blue Jays- Drew Hutchinson: New York Yankees (Away) and Baltimore Orioles (Away)
New York Mets- Bartolo Colon: Washington Nationals (Away) and Atlanta Braves (Away)
Maimi Marlins- Henderson Alvarez: Atlanta Braves (Home) and Tampa Bay Rays (Home)
Pittsburg Pirates- Francisco Liriano: Cincinnati Reds (Away) and Milwaukee Brewers (Away)
For Yovani Gallardo Oakland is a better place to pitch but at the same time is likely a better hitting team than the Astros will be. Given that it may be best to pass on Gallardo for both games since its best not to trust an 11.3% HR/FB rate in places like Texas.
Jon Lester is a fantasy stud but be warned that going to Colorado is not a great fit for anyone and he is not exception. This kind of game is going to drive owners nuts so early in the season since owners cannot pass on a two start pitcher but pitching in Colorado is just not fun. Lester could do just fine in the end but it should be something owners should decide game day.
Chris Archer is a young stud in fantasy and will definitely be a must start by the seasons end. On the flip side Nathan Karns has upside but not too much and unless owners are desperate this early for another start look somewhere else. Dallas Keuchel was a solid pitcher in 2014 and has a very tough two starts. Worth the starts and should be just fine in Texas who has been weakened by injuries.
Matchup Notes
David Price may not have as easy of a time in Minnesota as people would expect. From 2012 to 2014 the team has hit .260/.324/.710 while striking out 20.2% of the time and walking 8.2% of the time. As a team they also have a ISO of .125 and a BABIP of .313 so overall the team is not as easy to get out versus LHP.
Traditionally a slow starter Adam LaRoche will have to go against the young fire baller Yordano Ventura. LaRoche has a career .224/.318/.401 with a ISO of .176 in the first two months of the season so it could be a good idea to have a backup plan if early struggles show up again.
Giancarlo Stanton will need to focus a little harder versus Braves pitchers Julio Teheran on April 6th and Alex Wood on April 7th. Versus Teheran Stanton only has a .095/.240/.286 slash line in 21 AB’s. In his career versus Wood Stanton has 16 AB’s with a slash line of .125/.125/.375 with 1 home run and only 2 RBI’s.
The Los Angeles Angels have not faired well in limited time against James Paxton and will have to face him again on April 7th. In 73 AB’s the team is hitting .167/.244/.282 with 22 strikeouts. This could be a good game to pick up Paxton and give him a spot start especially since it is a home game.
The New York Mets could have a strong night on April 8th going against Washington Nationals pitcher Jordan Zimmermann. The Mets have had great success against Zimmermann hitting .275/.316/.410 but Zimmermann has limited the team to only 5 home runs and has struck out 38 batters. Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy has had particular success hitting .320/.333/.600 versus Zimmermann in 50 AB’s and has half the home runs (3) that Zimmermann has given up to the Mets.
Toronto Blue Jays rookies Daniel Norris and Aaron Sanchez get to make their big league debuts on April 9th and April 11th. While neither have pitched in the majors this year the teams they have to face could say a lot about what kind of pitchers they can be. Norris will face off against C.C. Sabathia and the New York Yankees and Sanchez will have to face off against the Baltimore Orioles, who have not announced their pitcher for that day. It could be worth pitching Norris against the Yankees but the Orioles are a nasty team for Sanchez to debut against so owners may want to consider holding off.
The Washington Nationals are going to have a field day April 10th-12th when Gio Gonzalez, Doug Fister, and Max Scherzer get to face off against the weak lineup of the Philadelphia Phillies. While it is not likely none of these pitchers are available in most 10 team leagues it is worth bringing up these match ups because they are all in Philly. Owners should not worry too much and feel free to start all three with little worries.
Taijuan Walker makes his debut against the Oakland A’s on April 11th and it is in Oakland. Owners will remember how good Walkers spring numbers were and as a reminder that was spring. Owners should make a judgment call on Walker but he has extreme talent and should do well against Oakland.
Injuries
Here are all the players on the DL as of 4/5/2015. Every month we will look at team injuries and if they are major injuries there will be an update made.
LA Angels: Josh Hamilton (15-day), Cory Rasmus (15-day), Garrett Richards (15-day), Tyler Skaggs (Out for Season)
Houston Astros: Josh Fields (15-day), Brett Oberholtzer (15-day), Brett Peacock (15-day)
Oakland Athletics: Coco Crisp (15-day), Sean Doolittle (15-day), Nathan Freimen (15-day), A.J. Griffin (60-day), Sean Nolin (15-day), Jarrod Parker (15-day), Josh Reddick (15-day), Taylor Thompson (60-day)
Toronto Blue Jays: Maicer Izturis (15-day), Michael Saunders (15-day), Marcus Stroman (Out for Season)
Atlanta Braves: Mike Minor (15-day), Josh Outman (DTD), Shae Simmon (Out for Season), Joseph Terdoslavich (15-day), Daniel Winkler (60-day)
Milwaukee Brewers: Jim Henderson (15-day)
St. Louis Cardinals: Jaime Garcia (15-day), Thomas Pham (15-day)
Chicago Cubs: Dallas Beeler (15-day), Chris Denorfia (15-day), Jacob Turner (15-day), Tsuyoshi Wada (15-day)
Arizona Diamondbacks: Bronson Arroyo (15-day), Patrick Corbin (15-day), Oscar Hernandez (15-day), David Hernandez (15-day), Matthew Stites (15-day)
LA Dodgers: Brandon Beachy (60-day), Kenley Jensen (15-day), Brandon League (15-day), Hyun-Jin Ryu (15-day), Chirs Withrow (15-day)
San Francisco Giants: Erik Cordier (15-day), Travis Ishikawa (15-day), Hunter Pence (15-day)
Cleveland Indians: Gavin Floyd (60-day), Nick Swisher (15-day), Josh Tomlin (15-day), Zachary Walters (15-day)
Seattle Mariners: Edgar Olmos (15-day), Christopher Taylor (15-day)
Miami Marlins: Aaron Crow (Out for Season), Jose Fernandez (15-day)
New York Mets: Vic Black (15-day), Josh Edgin (15-day), Daniel Murphy (15-day), Bobby Parnell (15-day), Zack Wheeler (Out for Season)
Washington Nationals: Erik Davis (15-day), Casey Jenssen (15-day), Nate McLouth (15-day), Anthony Rendon (15-day), Denard Span (15-day), Jayson Werth (15-day)
Baltimore Orioles: J.J. Hardy (15-day), David Lough (15-day), Jimmey Paredes (15-day), Matt Wieters (15-day)
San Diego Padres: Tim Federowicz (60-day), Josh Johnson (15-day), Cory Luebke (15-day), Melvin Upton (15-day)
Philadelphia Phillies: Chad Billingsley (15-day), Domonic Brown (15-day), Mario Hollands (60-day), Cliff Lee (60-day), Jonathan Pettibone (15-day)
Pittsburg Pirates: Brandon Cumpton (Out for Season), Jeff Decker (15-day), Charlie Morton (15-day), Justin Sellers (15-day), Chris Stewart (15-day)
Texas Rangers: Lisaberto Bonilla (15-day), Yu Darvish (Out for Season), Kyuji Fujikawa (15-day), Matt Harrison (15-day), Martin Perez (60-day), Jurickson Profar (Out for Season), Antoan Richardson (60-day), Tanner Scheppers (15-day)
Tampa Bay Rays: Alex Cobb (15-day), Alexander Colome (15-day), Nick Franklin (15-day), Jake McGee (15-day), Matt Moore (60-day), Drew Smyly (15-day)
Boston Red Sox: Edwin Escobar (15-day), Joe Kelly (15-day), Koji Uehara (15-day), Christian Vazquez (Out for Season)
Cincinnati Reds: Homer Bailey (15-day), Jason Bourgeois (60-day), Sean Marshall (60-day)
Colorado Rockies: Tyler Chatwood (60-day), Jorge De La Rosa (15-day), David Hale (15-day)
Kansas City Royals: Time Collins (Out for Season), Luke Hochevar (15-day), Kris Medlen (60-day)
Detroit Tigers: Bruce Rondon (15-day), Justin Verlander (DTD)
Minnesota Twins: NA
Chicago White Sox: Nate Jones (60-day), Jacob Petricka (15-day), Chris Sale (15-day), Eric Surkamp (15-day)
New York Yankees: Chris Capuano (15-day), Ivan Nova (15-day), Jose Pirela (7-day), Brendan Ryan (15-day)
