MLB Daily Notes - April 2
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!
SUBSCRIPTIONS ON SALE
Temporary discount on MLB DW memberships! We’ll call it an Easter special. Shout out to Christians. But I’ll give you this sale even if you’re not a Christian. That’s just the kind of guy I am.
Paid Sub Monthly:
$14.99$11.99Paid Sub Yearly:
$85$70MLB DW Pro:
$225$175
That’s 20% off of PRO. And that membership will get you the daily projections all season long.
If you’re upgrading to PRO, it should pro-rate your price so you’re not double-paying. Any issues with that, let me know.
A little bit of a DOWNER in the MLB world today with only three games on the schedule. That’s a buzz kill just one week into the season. But we do have the minor league schedule opening up. It’s opening day in AA, A+, and A ball.
And it’s the best minor league season of all time, because we get the full data this year. That’s a huge difference maker for dynasty league stuff, and we’ll be taking full advantage of it. Tim and I kicked off the in-season prospect content with a podcast yesterday.
The “Prospect Analysis” dashboard is running for paid subs. The link is in the Resource Glossary. You can see advanced stats on that one. Exit velos, pitch-level data, and so on and so forth. And it will be enhanced and improved as the season goes on. Dynasty people should be living in there, it will be a huge help for managing those teams.
There was a ton of MLB action yesterday. Lots of SP1’s got their second start. Some of the highlights, just in case you weren’t paying attention:
Kevin Gausman: 6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 10 SO, 0 BB
That brings him to a 21:0 K:BB through two outings. He has faced the Rockies and the Athletics, both at home, so that helps, but a 21:0 K:BB is not something many pitchers can do, regardless of matchup. It looks like Gausman is feeling just fine this year.
Gavin Williams: 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 10 SO, 3 BB
This was against the Dodgers. I would not have advised starting Williams in that spot, but hopefully some of you did. 85 pitches, 16 whiffs, an 18.8% SwStr%, and a pretty strong 35.3% Ball%. There are going to be ups and downs with the guy. Nothing is changing from what we thought about him before the season. His stuff is very good, he just doesn’t often have control of it. But when he does, he’ll turn in some big outings. The one thing we haven’t seen from him is much sinker usage (10%). That was the new pitch that showed up last year and seemed to help. But he’s back to mostly four-seamers (31%), curves (22%), cutters (20%), and sweepers (17%). But hey, that’s five pitches above double-digit usage. Maybe it’s right to just start him every time and take the good with the bad.
Matthew Boyd: 5.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 10 SO, 2 BB
Boyd has a 46% K% in his two starts. A 24.8% SwStr% and a 32.3% Ball%. But also a 17.6% Brl% allowed, so the JA ERA is all the way up at 0.74. There are still five starters holding onto a negative JA ERA (Gausman, Lauer, Soroka, Detmers, Woo). I’m not sure where the K parade is coming from with Boyd. This hasn’t been his game for a long time. I suppose facing the Nationals and Angels will help with that. Boyd is certainly a standard league pitcher, that much is clear so far. But he’s getting close to “sell high” territory. He’s rarely been able to stay healthy, and he’s certainly nowhere close to being this good.
Cam Schlittler: 6.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 7 SO, 0 BB
Schlittler’s big league career: 2.55 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 29% K%, 9% BB%, 13.6% SwStr%, 33.5% Ball%, 2.92 JA ERA. It would appear that he’s very good, and he’ll be knocking on the door of being called a top 25 SP pretty soon if he keeps this up.
Mike Burrows: 5 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 6 SO, 3 BB
A decent bounce-back after his tough first start. We said all winter that it’s a question about his fastball. The four-seamer (5% SwStr%) and sinker (5% SwStr%) haven’t been effective so far this year. In addition to poor strike-earning numbers, they’ve both been hit hard in these small samples. But he’s splitting the usage among them evenly, and that will help to set up that elite changeup, which has a 23% SwStr% and a .277 xwOBA on 39 pitches so far. Any improvement to one or both of these fastball variations will be huge for him - but, easier said than done.
Sandy Alcantara: 9 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 7 SO, 0 BB
He went right at the White Sox, and that seems to have been the right decision. Just a 26% Ball% yesterday with a .170 xwOBA allowed. That’s a recipe for elite efficiency, and that’s what we got. Some better offenses are going to get a piece of Sandy, but he’s back to filling up the zone with quality strikes.