For the past five-plus years, I’ve contributed The Week Ahead and Impact Report at Rotoworld. Those articles included a look at two-start pitchers, streamers, waiver pickups, and injuries. Many readers planned their week and FAAB deadlines around those articles, so my plan is to contribute something similar weekly throughout the 2023 season in this space.

If there’s something else you’d like to see, please let me know in the comments section.

 

Two Start Pitchers

American League

Strong Plays

Shane McClanahan: @BAL, @NYY

Dylan Cease: @KC, HOU

Tanner Bibee: DET, LAA

Lucas Giolito: @KC, HOU

Hunter Brown: @LAA, @CHW

Logan Gilbert: TEX, @DET

 

Decent Plays

Zach Eflin: @BAL, @NYY

Jon Gray: @SEA, @OAK

Nestor Cortes: OAK, TB

Kyle Gibson: TB, PIT

Louie Varland: SD, CHC

Andrew Heaney: @SEA, @OAK

Zack Greinke: CHW, @MIL

 

At Your Own Risk

JP Sears: @NYY, TEX

Clarke Schmidt: OAK, TB

Jordan Lyles: CHW, @MIL

Michael Lorenzen: @CLE, SEA

Drew Rucinski: @NYY, TEX

 

National League

Strong Plays

Zac Gallen: MIA, SF

Logan Webb: WAS, @ARI

Mitch Keller: COL, @BAL

Anthony DeSclafani: WAS, @ARI

Max Scherzer: @CIN, @WAS

 

 

Decent Plays

Marcus Stroman: STL, @MIN

Charlie Morton: BOS, @TOR

Miles Mikolas: @CHC, @BOS

Brandon Pfaadt: MIA, SF

Tony Gonsolin: @MIL, SD

Braxton Garrett: @ARI, CIN

 

At Your Own Risk

Michael Wacha: @MIN, @LAD

Kyle Freeland: @PIT, PHI

Jake Irvin: @SF, NYM

Luke Weaver: NYM, @MIA

 

Streamers

These are pitchers I’m considering as single-start streamers this week in a 12-15 team mixed league that are available in at least 50% of leagues.

American League

Jhony Brito: OAK (5/10)

Mike Clevinger: @KC (5/11)

Kyle Bradish: PIT (5/12)

 

National League

Antonio Senzatela: @PIT (5/10)

Rich Hill: COL (5/10)

Sean Manaea: WAS (5/10)

Tommy Henry: SF (5/11)

Adrian Houser: KC (5/14)

 

Player Notes

• The JJ Bleday-for-AJ Puk swap between Oakland and Miami is turning into one of the most interesting trades of the spring. Puk has emerged as the Marlins closer, while Bleday suddenly looks like a real player after struggling prior to this season. The former fourth overall pick in the draft, Bleday was called up to play regularly for the A’s after a great start to his season at Triple-A. There’s reason to believe he’s made real adjustments with his new organization, as well. Bleday struck out 27% of the time at Triple-A last season, but that rate was down to sub-13% in 119 plate appearances before he was promoted. His inability to make contact has been a huge culprit for his inability to hit for average, including a .228 batting average at Triple-A last season. There has never been a question that the 25-year-old had a power of an MLB corner outfielder, including 25 home runs between Triple-A and the majors last year. While I’m not quite ready to go all-in based on the still relatively small sample size, Bleday is an interesting flier in mixed leagues.
• Royals infielder Maikel Garcia appears to be another call-up worthy of attention. The undersized infielder has started off hot with the Royals, just as he did when he got called up in September. There was some trepidation with the bat after a slow start at Omaha, hitting only .242 in 112 plate appearances, but Garcia performed much better at that level in 186 plate appearances last season hitting .274-7-28 with 12 steals in 40 games. There are two other developments worth watching in his game. Garcia has been more patient this season (16 walks in 22 games at Triple-A, and the power has started to develop over the last year. He hit 11 home runs last season and carried that power surge into the Venezuelan Winter League, with four homers. Logically, there’s nothing standing in the way of Garcia seeing regular at-bats as the team’s third baseman the rest of the way, and his excellent base stealing skills give Garcia a high fantasy ceiling.
• Of course, Cubs first baseman Matt Mervis was the most anticipated prospect called up this week and for good reason based on what he’s done since the start of last season. The Duke alum hit .309-36-119 between three levels last season, and he’s picked up where he left off hitting .286-6-27 in only 112 plate appearances at Iowa. Eric Hosmer’s addition was clearly a stand-in for Mervis, who continues to show plus power and solid contact for a power hitter. The only major limitation worth watching is his spot in the batting order, hitting seventh in his first two games. It should also be noted that he’s probably not the best first base prospect to be promoted before the All-Star break, as Reds first base prospect Christian Encarnacion-Strand has been tearing the cover off the ball at Triple-A since returning from injury and should be up whenever the Reds have had enough of their current first base experiments.
• Bryce Miller is one of the more interesting FAAB pickups of the week, and his price is fluid with his first start against a real lineup (Houston) coming today after dominating Oakland in his debut. The hype about his fastball is real. It averaged 95 mph in his debut, and he threw the pitch 70% of the time. With the heavy usage and lack of great secondary stuff, the concern comes when he faces the league for the second time. Miller is an extreme flyball pitcher who struggled with the long ball in his four starts at Double-A earlier this season, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see some blowups and a highly variable ERA this season.
• Pierce Johnson remains the clear closer in Colorado despite the return of Daniel Bard. The Denver native has converted two saves this week and has continued to miss bats on command after missing most of last season in San Diego due to injury. He currently has a career-high 13.5 K/9. There are some red flags with a 5.4 BB/9 and home run issues, but the curveball-fastball combo is working just fine overall. Bard is easily the highest paid reliever in the Rox pen, but Bud Black has yet to use him in anything close to a high-leverage situation and it remains to be seen if that will change.
• During the offseason, I saw a lot of what I felt to be misguided speculation that groundball pitchers would be penalized by the lack of shifts. This idea came with an assumption that MLB would be using the same “dead” ball as last season, which was a very risky bet. It appears we’ve reverted back to something closer to the 2019 ball, and thus groundball pitchers have been a savior for many fantasy squads with a high floor and fewer blowups, as much of the Giants starting rotation can attest. That brings me to a pitcher coming back from injury and worth watching. Milwaukee groundball specialist Adrian Houser has a career 54% groundball grate that was much higher in 2020-2021 when he was pitching some of his best baseball. Houser doesn’t miss many bats, with a mediocre career 7.2 K/9, but his ability to provoke groundballs has made him a serviceable backend starting pitcher and someone worth watching if he looks strong in his season debut today.