I’m sure everyone saw the two home runs Bryce Harper hit today, but I don’t care; he looked great. Even though both pitches were in the middle of the zone, they were both breaking balls, which makes them more impressive.
Ryan Ludwick dislocated and separated his right shoulder sliding into third base. Chris Heisey came into the game to replace him. If Ludwick is hurt for an extended period of time Heisey could be a sneaky play. Heisey’s never been given a shot at consistent playing time and I don’t know why. He has a ton of pop and could provide cheap power.
Carlos Marmol and John Axford looked bad today. Marmol got pulled after facing four hitters and giving up a run and putting the tying run on base. Kyuji Fujikawa got the final out and the save today. If he’s available in your league, go get him. Axford gave a two-out home run to Dexter Fowler in the 9th. Axford’s big problem is the lack of control of his secondary pitches. If this continues hitters will sit dead red on his fastball and outings like yesterday will happen more times than not. I dropped Axford 12 spots in my closer rankings. Both pitchers are on the hot seat, but they may not be the closer three weeks from now.
The two best pitching performances came from Clayton Kershaw and Jeff Samardzija. Kershaw was efficient, methodical and had all his pitches working. For five innings or so Samardzija retired every batter he faced via a strikeout or weak contact.
Based on yesterday’s game with Texas and Houston I’ve concluded I’m going to stream pitchers who pitch against Houston because they’re going to strikeout a lot. Matt Harrison, a ground ball pitcher, had a career high 9 strikeouts.
Even though the Royals lost, the biggest fantasy news for the Royals was Kelvin Herrera, not Aaron Crow, pitched the 9th inning. Herrera is the reliever next in line if something were to happen to Greg Holland.
Am I overreacting to CC Sabathia’s start? Yes and no. His fastball sat 88-89, which is three mph lower than where he sat last year. Remember, he’s coming off elbow surgery and only made two starts in Spring Training so I wouldn’t jump to conclusions about the drop in velocity. He was also loose with his command too. However, he was facing a good lineup (against lefties) in the Red Sox and had a bad defense behind him. I don’t own Sabathia in any leagues but if you own him, you have to keep him.
