In no surprise here, Stephen Strasburg has been named the Washington Nationals Opening Day starter with Max Scherzer ready, but not 100% ready for the responsibilities. This will be his fourth Opening Day start and is coming off of a 3.60 ERA in 2016.  During the offseason, he decided to pitch from the stretch no matter what the scenario is on base.

“I’m not trying to reinvent myself,” Strasburg said to The Washington Post. “But I’m trying to simplify things as much as I can.”

Doubtful this messes with his value or changes any mentality surrounding his ADP rating.

On the Agenda

1. New York Matz
2. Kipnis almost ready
3. Extensions with Lucroy

New York Matz

Uh oh.

Mike Puma reported Steve Matz will not be making his next scheduled start due to “irritation in his left elbow.”

The team is stressing he doesn’t have any structural damage, but at this point, during the spring training months, the precautionary measures are taken to an extreme. And I totally support that, because the Mets care what I think.

It’s also a bit worrisome considering the 25-year-old had surgery last October to remove a bone spur and is one of many pitchers to undergo Tommy John surgery.

He has a career 8.73 K/9 ratio and tossed a 3.40 ERA with the Mets last season.

He will not undergo an MRI but will play catch Monday to see if any additional steps need to be taken.

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The Opening Day starters are beginning to be named which means we are super close to Opening Day and that makes us really happy. So far we have Jose Quintana starting for the White Sox, Marco Estrada for the Blue Jays, Edinson Volquez for the Marlins, and so on.

Official: Bob Melvin announced A’s will have Kendall Graveman starting on the bump for Opening Day

— Jessica Kleinschmidt (@KleinschmidtJD) March 23, 2017

On the Agenda

1. Carlos Ro-done…not so much
2. J.D. Martinez
3. D-No

Carlos Ro-done…not so much

Okay, before you start hopping on the worry bus, at this moment in time it’s just an MRI on his biceps and it came back clean.

Carlos Rodon was scratched during Friday’s start according to Dan Hayes.

The good news so far is that the Sox “don’t seem to think he has any structural damage,” but the bad news means he could miss his first couple of starts (or maybe not after some reports say otherwise) after already anticipating a bigger workload for the 24-year-old who has a 200 ADP rating.

Rodon finished his 2016 campaign tossing a 4.04 ERA with a 9.16 K/9 Ratio in 165 innings.

J.D. Martinez

We already knew J.D. Martinez’s Opening Day status was in question, but now it’s official.

The Detroit outfielder is now out for 3-4 weeks after being diagnosed with a “sprained Lisfranc ligament in his right food,” according to Chris McCosky.

He’s coming off of an abbreviated season playing in just 120 games when he battled injury so it seems like Deja Vu all over again for the former All-Star.

Steven Moya is looking like the starter in right field at the moment. Eric Longenhagen scribed about Moya who is listed as a top-19 prospect in the system saying he “is still on this list, but the clock is ticking on the bat-to-ball skills.”

D-No

The “No” has nothing to do with his playing abilities or anything like that.

Derek Norris is signing with the Rays according to Yahoo Sports’ Tim Brown. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times adds is a “straight one-year contract.”

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Last year was my first attempt at bold predictions, and it didn’t go very well. I was happy about a couple of my calls (namely Hendricks and Story) but overall I was undone by injuries and some bone-headed hot takes. I’m not sure this year will be any different, but let’s see what my crystal ball shows for 2017:

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A couple of weeks ago I checked in on some hitting performances in the spring. This go round, I’m going to turn my attention to pitching. I don’t believe spring training stats carry much weight in fantasy evaluations, and that’s even more true for pitchers. Often times pitchers will speak of working on a weak pitch or trying to regain feel for a secondary offering. With that in mind, I wouldn’t advise freaking out if a pitcher is getting knocked around. Still, a good spring from a pitcher coming back from an injury or fighting for a rotation spot can be viewed as a plus. Read the rest of this entry »

Today, we begin a look at the Top 10 prospects for 2017 in each of the six leagues. The lists have been created by blending potential playing time, MLB-readiness and overall skill to take a stab at predicting the most valuable rookies for the coming season.

Top 10 Prospects for 2017: NL East

1. Dansby Swanson, SS, Atlanta: The former first overall pick of the 2015 amateur draft needed just 127 games of minor league seasoning to earn a shot at the Majors with the Braves. His first 38 games in the Majors produced close to one win in value. The 23-year-old infielder hit more than .300 but he struck out almost once per game and his .383 BABIP is likely going to normalize. He’ll play everyday for the Braves in 2017 but expect an up-and-down year. When the dust settles, I could see 10-15 home runs and a similar number of steals to go with a .270 batting average.

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This is the part where I mention the World Baseball Classic and hope someone cares. Even if you don’t, that was fun to watch and that’s all I am going to say about that.

On the Agenda

1. Hunter Renfroe is the real deal
2. Odubel HR-era
3. Luis Valbuena

Hunter Renfroe is the real deal

Padres outfielder Hunter Renfroe made a smooth transition from Triple-A to the bigs after slashing a .306/.336/.557 with 30 bombs and 105 RBI’s. He came from a hitter’s league and was able to remain dominant in the few games he played after his promotion: four home runs in 11 games for the Padres.

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Both Eduardo Nunez and Marcus Semien put together useful fantasy seasons a year ago. From my perspective, as a long term Semien owner in a dynasty format, I was waiting on this type of year from Semien for some time. Nunez was a bit more of a surprise, specifically on the raw numbers side of things rather than on his rate stats. In this day and age, 40 stolen bases is elite, which is why Nunez is being drafted as a top 12 shortstop as of the writing of this article.
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It’s time again for all of us to do our 10 Bold Prediction articles. So here are mine:

1. Robbie Ray finishes as a top-10 starter in the NL

I’m on the hype train for Ray, who is currently going off the board as the No. 57 starter in NFBC drafts around 214th overall. The slider is legit, he was much harder to hit in the second half (.313 wOBA against) than the first (.347), he can induce grounders (45.7 percent) and I fully believe throwing to Jeff Mathis will help him quite a bit. The sky’s the limit here.

2. Joe Panik bounces back, finishes as a top-10 top-15 NFBC second baseman Read the rest of this entry »

Chat transcript is below!

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This is the first bold predictions I’ve ever made public! Which is scary, for you, and I get all ten right. Just kidding. I’m a Mets fan, so I’ll get my Mets homer related ones out of the way first:

1: Steven Matz will be a top 10 starting pitcher

I believe from a combination of his velocity (94-95), his stuff (very nasty), competitive drive (off the charts), and cheat codes (he’s left handed) he can sustain some of the weakest batted ball contact in the game. Now tack on his command (6% walk rate) and strikeout rate (23%) and you have a guy with legitimate ace potential.

I’m using xStats to judge his batted ball value. He kept batters to an expected .231/.278/.363 slash line in 2016, with an xOBA of .268.

Amongst pitchers with at least 100 IP last season, Matz ranked 12th according to xOBA behind Clayton Kershaw, Jose Fernandez, Rich Hill, Noah Syndergaard, Kyle Hendricks, Jameson Taillon, Madison Bumgarner, Corey Kluber, Justin Verlander, Jon Lester, and Max Scherzer.

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