Happy Ronald Acuna day everyone! The baseball season creeps along through its first month, and I’m back again with a look at the most added and dropped players across all ottoneu leagues over the last week. Without further ado, let’s get started:

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Has the switch been flipped in St. Louis?

On Sunday, Mike Matheny brought Bud Norris in for the eighth inning with a 6-2 lead against the Reds. Greg Holland pitched the ninth, but by that point, the Cardinals had expanded their lead to seven runs. On Tuesday night, Matheny sent a clearer signal that he may be close to re-installing Holland as his closer. He called on Holland to pitch the top of the ninth inning in 5-5 game with the Mets, and he responded with a perfect inning.
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If a current FantasyDraft user were to send me a referral, I would greatly appreciate it. Well, you may greatly appreciate it too. (MISSION COMPLETE)

AGENDA

1. TDG Invitational
2. Weather Reports
3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
4. SaberSim Says…
5. Is This The Year?

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Who wants to join me under the sea, exploring the deep depths of the free agent waters?

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I throw 60 mph. I knew I could be an MLB player.

58 MPH.

You think you could hit this pitch? pic.twitter.com/hP5hb3vylP

— MLB (@MLB) April 25, 2018

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Monday night’s Marlins/Dodgers game in LA garnered a lot of attention, as it was the season debut and first ever start for Dodgers uber-prospect Walker Buehler, but his less-heralded counterpart put up six strong innings for the Marlins, too. Jarlin Garcia actually bumped his ERA up with a 6 IP/1 ER outing as he now sits at a 1.00 ERA through 27 innings. He opened the season with six one-hit innings of relief in that Cubs/Marlins 17-inning epic on March 30th, the second day of the season.

He allowed a pair of runs in another extended relief outing, this time four innings at Philly. The Marlins installed him in the rotation after that and he’s netted some insane results: one run on five hits and eight walks with 12 strikeouts in 17 innings of work. Obviously, we know the 1.00 ERA and 0.81 WHIP won’t sustain. But does he have the skills to remain fantasy relevant even as his 99% LOB and .121 BABIP regress?

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Mitch Haniger

No one seemed to be targeting Mitch Haniger this draft season with a final NFBC average draft position (ADP) of 219. I picked him up in Tout Wars for $2 in the end game. He seemed to be a player in which owners settled for but didn’t necessarily want. Times have quickly changed as Haniger belted his 8th home run of the season last night and is 8th on ESPN’s player rater. While some regression is possible, most of his early results are sustainable.

Besides the home runs, the 27-year-old outfielder hasn’t been “lucky” to start the season even though his slash line is .324/.395/.716. His .314 BABIP is under his career make of .319. While both his walk (10%) and strikeout (20%) rate have improved, they are each with 2% points of his career numbers.

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Here’s today’s chat transcript, including a bunch of questions about whether or not you should use Shohei Ohtani tonight.

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Here in the final week of April, sample sizes are starting to build up, but there is still a lot of statistical weirdness out there. Just in the walk rate leaderboard alone there are some confounding data for fantasy owners to ponder. Jose Quintana and Michael Wacha with double digit rates? Vince Velasquez among the lowest one-fourth? It’s like I hardly know these guys.
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With so many bullpens remaining clouded due to slow starts or poor performance, Cleveland’s blueprint went according to plan closing out the Orioles on Monday night. Andrew Miller worked two-thirds of an inning giving up a hit and striking out one. Then Cody Allen entered to strikeout the side en route to his fourth save of the season.

Oddest save of the night goes to Chris Beck of the White Sox. He worked 2.2 innings allowing six hits and two earned runs with a strikeout. It’s the first save of his career and it feels dirty.

Not to be overlooked, Cincinnati dusted off Raisel Iglesias using him to retire the last four batters with a strikeout for his third save of the year. Although the Reds prefer to use Iglesias in a more traditional closer role in one inning appearances, two of his three saves required him to record four outs. It’s a shaky bridge getting to him, so perhaps the team realizes a non-traditional role like last year will be necessary.

Keynan Middleton worked for the third straight day notching his sixth save. He did allow a lead-off single and a walk, but recovered with two strikeouts and a walk-off umpire review resulting in a caught stealing. Middleton’s been solid as the Angels closer. It will be interesting to see who gets the save chance Tuesday with Blake Wood landing on the disabled list.

No more speculation on who backs up Kenley Jansen. The Dodgers closer received Monday night off with his velocity starting to bounce back. Enter Josh Fields who worked a scoreless ninth giving up a hit but no other damage for his first save this season. Another arm to track in this bullpen, Tony Cingrani. Cingrani’s pitched 8.1 innings so far with 15 strikeouts, no walks, a 64 percent ground ball rate and a minuscule 0.48 WHIP.

Bounce back performance by Hunter Strickland who recorded his fourth save giving up a walk with two strikeouts against the Nationals. There’s reports about Mark Melancon starting a throwing program, however, until he starts a rehab assignment, there’s no timetable for his return.

Quick Hits: It’s only April and the Texas bullpen’s in shambles. Over the last four games, the Rangers relievers have allowed 18 runs in 14 innings, yielded a home run in each of these contests, 25 hits, nine walks, a blown save and three losses. Keep tabs on Blake Treinen who’s been used heavily to start the season. According to the television crew last night, Treinen was not available for the save. Fortunately, the Rangers bullpen made it possible for him to rest. Marlins reliever Tayron Guerrero lit up the radar gun in Los Angeles. He’s turned in five straight scoreless outings with 13 strikeouts, five walks and two hits allowed in 5.1 innings of work. Speaking of Marlins, Kyle Barraclough took the loss giving up two hits and the go ahead run to the Dodgers in the eighth inning.