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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.
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- Fantasy baseball BvP matchups data (Batter vs. Pitcher)
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- Who should I start? Fantasy baseball player comparisons
- Fantasy baseball closer depth charts, bullpens, saves
- Fantasy Baseball live scoreboard, daily leaderboards
Friday, April 23
The Padres find no opponent in the Dodgers for the second day in a row while Jacob deGrom has a game for the ages and destroys Friday's fantasy leaderboard
Addressing the elephant in the room first: are the Padres getting a betting understanding of the Dodgers' game and in a position to win the season series against the LA club? That's what we've seen in their last couple of outings, as the Padres lost last week's series but are already up 2-0 in this week's one with two more to go. And San Diego can very well thank the exploit of Friday's best hitter Fernando Tatis Jr., who put up a nice 3-for-5, 2HR, 2R, 3RBI performance with just one strikeout to help SD oust the Dodgers.
Let's get to the real, important, actually near-impossible news of the day now, though: Mr. Jacob deGrom had a career-high night facing the Washington Nationals yesterday, and only his 2H allowed threw a little bit of shade into his performance. To wit: complete-game shutout to the tune of 9IP in which deGrom struck out 15 (!!!) batters of the 29 he saw, gave up no walks at all, and obviously earned no runs while tossing the ball 109 times for 84 strike calls (77%). Good for a 58 FP score that was almost twice what no. 2 pitcher Yu Darvish (30.35 FP) got starting for the Padres. Not bad, indeed.
- Speaking of Darvish, you know how it went for the Padres in their second win in two days against the Dodgers. All in all, 7IP for Yu who is now sitting at a 2.27 ERA after 5 GP and 31.2 innings on the year. Although Darvish allowed 4H and handed 3BB to the Dodgers he still limited the damage with just 1ER while striking out 9. Not the smoothest of outings, but the W got home.
- Kinda surprising night by Andrew Heaney, who starting for the Angels couldn't get the W but struck out 10 (only one to do so along with deGrom and Tyler Glasnow on Friday) while only allowing 1ER on 2H, no walks issued. The ERA is definitely not top-of-the-class these days at 4.35, but if Heaney can keep this kind of game up he'll improve it in no time.
- Don't look now, but what if Adolis Garcia is for real? Another game for Adolis, this time against the White Sox, and another top-10 finish with a 32 FP score thanks to a 2-for-5 day in which both hits came via homers that accounted for 4RBI for the Rangers in a losing effort. The OPS is now slightly above the 1.000-mark through 43PA, and the wRC+ is sublime at 177 on the year.
- You like it when it happens, and you love it when Yermin Mercedes is the one pulling it off: 4-for-4 night for the early-season sensation, who hit all balls thrown his way for 3 singles and 1 double while driving 3RBI in. The line is insane 67PA into his rookie season at a monster .429/.463/.698. Sixth-highest OPS league-wide among players with at least 50PA.
- Brett Anderson started for the Brewers, put the first Cubs' batter out... and then got injured after giving up three hits in a day in which all he could do was throw 11 pitches to three hitters. Not that his replacement Josh Lindblom improved on that short performance, finishing the day pitching 3.2IP, giving up the second-most hits on the slate with 9H, surrendering 8ER, 3BB, and 3HR, and opening a free way the first base three times to his foes via 3BB... Ugh.
- Detroit's freshman Casey Mize was good to kick the season off as he posted back-to-back games of 4+IP with 5 or fewer H and only 1ER total... but he's gotten rocked after that in his last two including yesterday's game to forget: 4.2IP in which he allowed 7H (same as in his prior outing), 2HR among them, to go with 3BB, 6ER, and just 1K to make up for it. Not the best of days for the youngun.
- Ronald Acuna Jr. came back for the Braves and it is not that things could have been much worse for him against Arizona. Atlanta got the W, sure, but Acuna went 0-for-4 without striking out. A line full of zeroes for Ronny, who otherwise has had a mighty start to the season posting up a 1.294 OPS and a 235 wRC+ mark through 76 PA. I guess it can only get better for him after this 0 FP dud.
- For fantasy purposes, Acuna's full-zero-line and Eugenio Suarez's one were pretty much the same: respective 0 FP on their days. But Suarez struck out 4 of the 5 times he went to the plate and went 0-for-5 against St. Louis. Suarez is rostered in 95% of Yahoo leagues (no joke) but he's started the year batting .157/.277/.343 with a putrid wRC+ of 72 in 83PA. Of the 44 players with at least 80PA on the season, Suarez has the fourth-lowest wRC+ and OPS. Ugh.
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