MLB Daily Notes - April 1
A daily automated report of what happened yesterday in Major League Baseball, along with other recent trends and further analysis
The Daily Notes are the flagship resource of MLB Data Warehouse. Every morning, Jon breaks down the current goings on in the fantasy baseball world, and an automated daily report gets you up to date on key stats and trends. Become a paid subscriber at MLB Data Warehouse to get this unlocked in your inbox every morning!
MLB DW UPDATES
THE APP SHOULD NO LONGER ASK FOR YOUR PASSWORD EVERY TIME. It will cache it for up to 48 hours (at a device level). So that will be nice.
I’m beginning to put all of the Google Sheet resources which are updated daily into one massive sheet. I’m not sure why I didn’t do that before, but it’s time. The link to that is in the Resource Glossary and I’ll drop it here below the paywall.
MLB DW PRO members: I’m still working on making the prop betting stuff a lot easier to view and use. A new google sheet link has been added to your resource glossary. That one just looks at my projection and compares it to the betting lines to make it a bit easier if you want to see what lines the projections like the most.
We have made it ONE WEEK into the season. There has been a regular season game played on each of the seven week days now. And new parts of the automated notes below have started working today, so there’s more stuff there!
Not a ton of time for notes writing today. I’ve been fighting with the prospects dashboard and trying to get the app to not ask for a password, and there’s a bunch of baseball that starts at noon! But let’s hit some important players to know.
JOSE FERNANDEZ
This is a Diamondbacks hitting prospect. He was not in Tim’s Top 150.
Just a .769 OPS in the minors with pretty average home run and speed numbers. But he jumped on the scene last night with two homers. Based on the minor league numbers and the fact that he wasn’t a top-150 for us, I’d leave him alone.
PITCHER NOTES
Bubba Chandler had no command. A 47% Ball% led to SIX walks. Yikes! He was effectively wild, you could say, with no hits allowed and one unearned run. But that’s not a good sign at all. He threw the fastball 74% of the time and it was a ball 42% of the time. And some of them were not close at all. After a high walk rate in the spring, there is plenty of cause for concern. The good news is that his stuff is so, so good, that he’ll immediately be a stud if he does get the control under wraps.
Shohei Ohtani threw six innings. It wasn’t the most impressive (12.6% SwStr%, 47.1% Strike%, three walks), but six scoreless on 87 pitches.
Brandon Woodrfuff threw 67 pitches with a bad 11.9% SwStr%, but he struck out six with no walks. He’ll probably build up to 90-100 pitches in the next 2-3 outings. We’ll see how long the arm can hold up, but he’s pretty much must-start when he’s on the hill.
Shane McClanahan got back onto the bump in a regular season game. Good to see him back, but an 8.9% SwStr% with a 37% Ball% showed some of that RUST. The fastball averaged 95.4, a couple of ticks down from his prime, but 95.5 from the left hand is enough. I’d say it was mostly a discouraging start if you were thinking McClanahan would be mostly his former self, but he’s not fully built up and I’m sure he’s a bit reserved right now just to make sure the health holds up.
Jose Soriano and Max Fried had their second scoreless outings of the year. Fried now has 13.1 scoreless innings (21% K%, 4.2% BB%) and Soriano has a dozen scoreless (24.4% K%, 13.3% BB%). I still only view Soriano as a “cross your fingers” streamer. But yeah, a 64% GB% with a .265 xwOBA allowed shows you how tough he is to go for extra bases against.
Max Scherzer qualbanged with 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 4 SO, 1 BB against the Rockies. Just a 9.6% SwStr% with a poor 21.7% CSW%. But he’s still out there doing it! And it shows you that yes, we’re streaming against the Rockies confidently again this year, at least when they’re away from Coors.
Casey Mize is going to try to suck us back in. 15 whiffs, a 16.1% SwStr%, and a 9:2 K:BB in six innings. Great start, but he can do that. He’s a guy with a bad four-seamer and a good splitter. That’s the kind of guy that has some really good outings surrounded by mostly mediocre to bad ones.
Hunter Brown, bro! Another poor 10.3% SwStr%, but look - eight more strikeouts. He’s a rule-beater, I guess. And now he’s up to a 39.5% K% in these two starts with a 2.30 JA ERA. But only 19 whiffs and a 39% Ball%… I still can’t get fully behind it. If he puts this same stuff in my face three more times I’ll back off, I promise.