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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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Tuesday, April 20
The Yankees are back (?) but sadly for the Empire all of Tampa Bay, Baltimore, and Boston (facing Toronto) get their W on a day in which New York can't cut much distance... and the Oakland Athletics prove they definitely don't know how to lose a game after pulling off (their 9th and) 10 wins in a row!
Let's start with the real good news: Oakland is cruising, this is the A's world, and we're just living in it. The Athletics have won 10 in a row, sit atop the AL West with an 11-7 record tied for first with the Mariners, and they have absolutely flipped the script after starting the year 1-7. Uh, oh, flex on the competition. Nothing surprising to find them on the W column on Tuesday, as both Sean Manaea and Jesus Luzardo started in the Minny doubleheader and both finished in the top-6 fantasy leaderboard. That's some pitching right there.
As for the Yankees... cold world, I guess. With all AL East teams on yesterday's slate, the only saving grace for the Yanks was to find Toronto and Boston going against each other with only one potential winner. The Yanks finally won a game after losing five straight prior to that, and they're still sitting at the bottom of the division in a season that, honestly, can only get better for them. No Yankee was really bright, with Gio Urshela the lone one getting a top-75 fantasy performance yesterday. Ugh.
- You read that last sentence above right. Urshela went 2-for-3 while manning the third bag, and went the distance once for 6 TB on the day. The problem, though, is that the bomb was a single-run hit that only put a tick on the board. If Urshela is going to be the Yankees' savior, they better start praying.
- What about Miggy Rojas and his 4-for-4 with a triple, a walk, and an RBI? Not the best of games out there, as Rojas fell 10 FP short of the no. 1 hitter of the day (Jose Abreu) and the Marlins dropped the game against Baltimore, but quite a nice outing to keep up with his great start to the season as Rojas is boasting a .327 BA to go with a nice .403 OBP.
- Julio Urias can pitch. That's all I know and need to. 88 pitches are all Urias needed to deal with 23 batters through his 7 IP yesterday against Seattle in a 1-0 low-scoring affair between the two no. 1 teams (by the record, no tiebreaks considered) in the West divisions of their respective leagues. Urias was sublime handing 11 Ks, allowing just 1 H, and going home with no runs to his name while just surrendering 1 BB. Kid's been meh with his 2.81 ERA through 25.2 IP so far this year, though, ranking just 13th in ERA among the 16 pitchers with at least 24 IP in 2021. That being said, he has yet to lose a game with a 3-0 W-L record as a starter.
- Adam Wainwright was one of the true values of the day thanks to his 29.5 FP, good for the fourth-most in Tuesday's slate. The game wasn't incredible and St. Louis could get away with the W, but Adam finished with 10 Ks while giving up a lone run on 5 H and 1 BB. Too bad one of those bats connected for a homer...
- Nightmare of a day for Zach Plesac starting for the Indians and putting together a putrid 5 IP, 92 (!!!) pitches outing in which he allowed 6 ER on 7 hits while K'ing just 4 and surrendering 2 HR. Only Hyu-Jin Ryu and Matt Harvey gave up more hits (8 each), and the latter still snatched the W for the Orioles. No luck for Plesac (1-3), who couldn't get that W and sits at a laughable 6.75 ERA to start the year with 18.2 IP already written in his log.
- Shout-out to new Athletic Elvis Andrus for his couple of bag-thefts yesterday, the lone player to snatch more than a couple of steals on Tuesday. I guess you can't have it all, though, as Andrus is slashing .136/.185/.371 to start the year...
- Fun exercise of the day: three players reached 30+ FP yesterday, but who did it better? Jose Abreu finished 3-for-4 with 2 HR, 3 R, and 3 RBI without striking out. Buster Posey repeated all of that, only with 2 RBI instead. Mitch Moreland did the same, only with just 2 R but 3 RBI and 1 BB... yet he struck out once. Tough call, though the algorithm tells us that Abreu won the day with his 35 DKFP.
- Remember the Adolis Garcia, the Rangers' great of yesterday's slate? Well, not so much today with an 0-for-2, a couple of walks... and 2 SO while getting caught stealing once. More like F-dolis Garcia.
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