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Welcome to the RotoBaller MLB Recap. In this feature, we will highlight a few key fantasy baseball takeaways from the games played during last night's slates. These viewpoints can be both positive and negative and will hopefully help to provide insight into different roster moves you should consider making based on trends and statistical nuggets from around the Show.
Fantasy baseball has a lot of moving pieces with all the different scoring settings that are possible to play under, so I will always do my best to spotlight where players gain or lose value in certain game types. For the sake of simplicity and consistency, every time I mention Fantasy Points in these articles I will be using DraftKings' scoring system, which goes as follows: 3*1B + 5*2B + 8*3B + 10*HR + 2*RBI + 2*R + 2*BB + 2*HBP + 5*SB for hitters, and 2.25*IP + 2*SO + 4*W + 2.5*CG + 2.5*CGSO + 5*NH - 2*ER - 0.6*H - 0.6*BB - 0.6*HB.
Without further ado, let's get right into the latest slate of games from the 2021 season and try to figure out how to take advantage of what we saw transpire.
Be sure to check all of our fantasy baseball lineup tools and weekly lineup resources:- Fantasy baseball injury reports
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- Daily MLB starting lineups for fantasy baseball
- Fantasy baseball BvP matchups data (Batter vs. Pitcher)
- Fantasy baseball PvB matchups data (Pitcher vs. Batter)
- Who should I start? Fantasy baseball player comparisons
- Fantasy baseball closer depth charts, bullpens, saves
- Fantasy Baseball live scoreboard, daily leaderboards
Thursday, April 22
With all eyes locked into the Dodgers vs. Padres demolition derby, it is the DBacks and Reds who put on a true offensive combining for 25R in 10 innings of baseball. Also, because you want to know about it: yes, the Padres evened the season series to a 2-2 entering Friday
With both Arizona and Cincy topping 10 runs each, it makes sense to find the two leaders of the slate in the lineups of these two squads: David Peralta finished with a monster 45 FP and he was followed by Jesse Winker and his 34 FP on the day. The next-best players, Rafael Devers and Mitch Haniger, tied for no. 3 with 24 FP each, already 10+ below the other two.
On the headliner of the night and most important game of the slate, the Dodgers and Padres collided for the fourth time this season to kick off their weekend series, and it was a tight one that saw San Diego get the W. Walker Buehler was fantastic, truth be told, but he couldn't do enough to keep the LA up top while his starting-counterpart Ryan Weathers didn't fall much short of the former's exploits and although he didn't end up with the W he still prevented the Dodgers from scoring a single run on him.
- Getting back to the best hitters of the day: Peralta's 45 FP came from a sweet 5-for-6 performance in which he just fell a double short of hitting for the cycle. The vet racked up 7 RBI to go with 2 R all by himself, no strikeouts, and 10 total bases against Cincy.
- On the other end of the innings taking place in that matchup, Jesse Winker put on another great outing with a lower 2-for-4 to which he added 2 BB in a day that saw him lift two tosses for homers. Not bad, indeed, though the couple of K he ate hurt what could have been an even sweeter game for him.
- Although both Ryan Weathers and Cristian Javier pitched 5 IP and faced 20 batters each, Javier was the one racking up the most FP on the day thanks to his 9 K compared to Weather's 6 K. Javier surrendered 3 H to Weathers' 1, none allowed a single ER, and Javier added a W to his season record. Nothing to hate from those two, who are at 1.32 (Javier) and 0.59 (Weathers) ERA marks on 13.2 and 15.1 IP so far this season.
- With no pitchers reaching 10 K on the day, it was Walker Buehler and Cristian Javier who led that leaderboard racking up 9 K each. On the other end of it was Jose Urena, who even on 7 IP and 89 tosses he just K'd a couple of batters while handing a free base via a walk.
- Shout out to the Red Sox for their bag-stealing prowess. Alex Verdugo was the lone player to snatch a couple of steals while Devers added another one against Seattle. And that wasn't even the best part: both hitters finished as top-7 plays on the day going 2-for-5 (Verdugo with a single and a triple, Devers with a single and a homer).
- Ridiculous game by Joey Votto, who even on a 3-K night was still able to rank as the 11th-best hitter thanks to his 2-for-6 with a homer, 2 R scored, and 1 RBI line. Votto has been rather average this season with a .756 OPS and a 104 wRC+ mark so far through 79 PA.
- The Angels needed all of 2.2 IP from Alex Cobb to send him packing to the dugout. Cobb was atrocious and surrendered 6 H to Houston earning 4 ER on his short (still reaching 79 pitches, though) outing while conceding 3 BB on top of that and even closing his line with 1 HBP. Damn.
- Closing on "bad" news, Mike Trout left the field early after being hit in the elbow by Cristian Javier, but it seemed not to be that "bad" and more of a precautionary move by the Angels as he was able to remain on the field for a while before getting off of it. More concerning: Miguel Sano hitting the 10-day IL and Evan Longoria leaving yesterday's game with a tight left hamstring.
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