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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 - 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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Monday, April 19
Paul DeJong dances on Washington with a couple of dingers while breaking the slate; Joe Musgrove doesn't no-hit Milwaukee but puts up a career-high 13-K mark
The Cardinals aren't out there throwing firework-parties nightly this season with an even 8-8 record, but taking on the lowly Nationals yesterday they snatched a W thanks in good part to DeJong's offensive explosion. Five visits to the plate and just a couple of hits is all PDJ needed to lead Monday's fantasy slate with 38 FP. You read that right. A couple of hits (and a walk) were good for DeJong, who launched those two balls past the fences for 5 RBI and the most total bases of every hitter on the day.
In sunny San Diego, Joe Musgrove made headlines once more after doing so exactly 10 days ago when he no-hit Texas in the very own Arlington. This one wasn't that great, I know, as Musgrove couldn't even help the Padres get another W, but oh boy was it a day for Joe. Mus pitched 7 innings and allowed a couple of (solo) homers but in his 96-pitch workload he also stroke out 13 (!) batters, a career-high, and something only Jacob deGrom (x2) and Tyler Glasnow have topped this season with 14 SO each.
- I tend to celebrate players and great performances in my columns, but I just can't pass on Boston's molly-whopping of Lucas Giolito yesterday. Giolito got absolutely rocked and tossed the ball 54 times... in 1 IP to 13 (!) different batters. Bonkers. He allowed 8 hits that turned into 8 runs, handed a couple of walks, and surrendered 2 homers on top of that. No wonder he was the worst P of the day with more (less?) than twice the FP of second-worst Joe Ross. Yikes.
- Getting back to our good vibes, Milly got the W with a Brandon Woodruff performance good enough for the no. 2 best fantasy tally of the day, making the SD-MIL game the best when it came to pitching on Monday. Woodruff was bad in giving up walks with 3 but he limited the Padres to just 1 hit in 95 pitches while putting up 7 SO.
- Paul DeJong was unconsciously efficient when he made contact, but Paul DeJong is kind of a known asset. Outfielders Justin Williams and Adolis Garcia, not that much with 30 or fewer MLB games each. Similarly good performances by the two of them reaching 21 FP on the day, which made them top-10 players on the hitting side of things. Williams did it to the tune of a 2-for-3 with a couple of runs, and a sweet homer; while Adolis put up a 2-for-4 with another bomb. Not the greatest of slash-lines on the season for these two, but they keep growing.
- In a day in which only DeJong went for 3+ R and topped the leaderboard with 5 RBI, it was Adam Eaton of all men who ranked second in the latter with 3 RBI himself going 2-for-4 on the day in a team-putrid outing against Boston. Those RBI were good and all, but Tim Anderson was the actual bright White Sox light on Monday going 3-for-4 with a double and securing himself two bonus-bags with 2 SB.
- Do you know who did the most of his chances? Tyrone Taylor, that's who. One at-bat, one hit, one homer. Only one RBI as there were no other players on base, but let's not ask for the impossible here, folks. It'll take more than a game to believe in Taylor, who only has 6 PA in 4 GP, so let him marinate for a minute.
- Pitchers yet-to-reach 11 IP on the season excelling on Monday's slate of games: Rays' Josh Fleming, who added 5.1 IP more to his prior 5 IP to make it 10.1 on the year. Fleming put up 20+ FP on a day in which he threw an efficient 65 pitches (71% of them strikes), stroke out 3, and went home with no runs to his name on just a couple of hits. That 0.87 ERA on the year can't look much better if you ask me--sample size apart.
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