The first Sunday of the MLB season brings with it a nice eight-game slate on both sites to choose from on this Easter Sunday. If the first three days have been any indication, we’re in for another wild and interesting day of baseball in which it’s going to be key to hit on a value guy or two in the lineups to really get up those leaderboards and into the money.
Let’s see who those value guys are for today’s slate.
DraftKings
Bruce Zimmermann, SP BAL ($6,700) - Zimmermann pitched his way into the rotation in spring training and looked good doing it. He’s got some nice movement on his pitches and we’ve already seen the Red Sox order struggle against a LHP, see John Means , this year. Last year Boston had the seventh-highest K-rate against southpaws and was only middle-of-the-road offensively in terms of average and wOBA and BABIP. This price makes him a good option for an SP2 in your builds.
Jay Bruce , 1B NYY ($2,700) - Bruce looked good in getting his first hit with the Yankees yesterday and he’ll be hitting in the five-spot of the lineup on Sunday. He’ll face TJ Zeuch as a spot starter for the Jays and Zeuch didn’t fare well against LHH’s last year, though in limited innings, allowing a .400 BAA, .470 wOBA, and well over 1.000 OPS. That’s a recipe for a short porch homer in Yankee Stadium and Bruce is far too cheap to be ignored in this one.
FanDuel
Brady Singer , SP KC ($7,500) - Singer was an unsung starter last year for the Royals as he put together a very steady and solid season in KC. He finished spring with five shutout innings against Cleveland and racked up a 20:5 K:BB ratio in 17 innings down in Arizona. Texas’ offense was a league-worst in terms of WAR last year at -0.2 and ranked second-to-last in wOBA against RHP’s at a lowly .284 mark while striking out 25.3-percent of the time. He should be more than adequate as your lone starter on FD at this price.
Dansby Swanson , SS ATL ($2,900) - Swanson has done very well against Zach Eflin in his time in the NL East, going 5-for-11 with a homer and two RBI off the Phillies’ righty and better than .580 wOBA. Off of RHP’s last year, Swanson posted a nearly .400 wOBA with ten home runs putting him just behind Ronald Acuña Jr. , Freddie Freeman , and Marcell Ozuna , with that type of pop. If we’re getting that type of power but at a lower price with a good history against Eflin, why not take the savings? Oh and did I mention the wind is blowing out at Citizens Bank Park?
Both Sites
Tyler O’Neill, OF STL ($3,600 DK, $3,000 FD) - The Cardinals and Reds got into a good ol’ fashion kerfuffle yesterday and with the Cardinals up and down start to the year, it might be enough to put a charge in the Cards’ bats. As if they’ll need that much charge facing Jeff Hoffman who spent the last few years in Colorado and now gets to pitch in Great American Small Park which is basically the same thing as Coors. O’Neill didn’t make a ton of contact against RHP’s last year, a .177 AVG shows that, but when he did they went far with seven homers off of them, tied with Nolan Arenado for most in today’s lineup based on last year. He’s a boom-or-bust play, literally, but if he goes yard, the value is there.
Victor Reyes , OF DET ($2,700 DK, $2,400 FD) - The Tigers’ offense has been surprising so far this year and now they get to face the buzzy Aaron Civale on the bump on Sunday. Here’s the thing though, Civale was hit pretty well by RHHs last year and was up and down in spring training working on a new delivery and a new grip on the changeup. He faced this Tigers team once last year and it didn’t exactly go smoothly for him. Reyes, for his part, is 2-for-5 off of Civale and posted a respectable .295 wOBA off of RHP’s last year and if the switch-hitter chooses to hit right-handed on Sunday, Civale allowed a .397 wOBA to RHH’s last year.
Michael A. Taylor, OF KC ($2,600 DK, $2,500 FD) - How hot has this guy been to start the year? Seriously, talk about benefiting from a change of scenery as he’s hit two homers, stolen a bag, and had a two-run double yesterday as well. This begs the question: Why is he still this cheap? I mean really. He should be batting second in the lineup and is facing Jordan Lyles who wasn’t exactly a shutdown pitcher last year.
Jorge Polanco , 2B MIN ($3,200 DK, $2,600 FD) - This one is for the risk takers as he hasn’t exactly been hitting to start the year, though last night’s game no one hit. Polanco will have the handedness advantage over Adrian Houser today and against RHPs last year, Polanco did ok with a .265 wOBA. The advantage comes in the form of Houser being housed (see what I did there) but lefty hitters last year hit to the tune of a .336 BAA, nearly 1.000 OPS against, and a .412 wOBA. It’s also not a bad idea to get a piece of a game that was a dueling no-no contest the day before as the bats are looking to make contact today.
Player News
Tanner Gordon will start the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader against the Tigers.
Gordon will take the ball for Thursday’s nightcap at Coors Field and is not a recommended streaming option for fantasy purposes. The 27-year-old righty finished last year with a calamitous 8.65 ERA across eight starts for the Rockies.
Zach Eflin (lat) will return this weekend to start against the Angels.
Eflin got through Wednesday’s bullpen session without any issues and has been cleared to take the ball this weekend against the Angels. The 31-year-old righty has been out since early April recovering from a low-grade lat strain. He’s worthy of a roster spot in deeper mixed leagues, even if he doesn’t offer astronomical strikeout upside.
Wilmer Flores went 3-for-4 and knocked in his 33rd run of the season in the Giants’ 3-1 defeat of the Cubs on Wednesday.
The early home barrage is long over, but Flores is still fourth in the league in RBI, even as his .737 OPS puts him 200-500 points behind the three guys above him (Pete Alonso, Teoscar Hernández and Aaron Judge). After 37 games this season, he’s almost halfway to his career high of 71 RBI, which he achieved in 151 games in 2022.
Robbie Ray pitched six innings of one-run ball Wednesday to beat the Cubs and move to 5-0.
He fanned five and walked two. Ray’s strikeout, walk and exit velocity numbers this season are all worse than his career marks, yet here he is 5-0 with a 2.84 ERA. He’s definitely a sell-high candidate, but it is entirely possible his peripherals will improve and that he’ll remain a fine starter going forward. Pitching in San Francisco definitely helps with the home run ball, which is one big thing working in his favor. He’s set to face the Diamondbacks next time out.
Ryan Walker rebounded from Tuesday’s poor showing to pitch a scoreless ninth with a two-run lead Wednesday versus the Cubs.
Walker didn’t blow a save last night, but he might as well have in giving up two runs in the ninth (Erik Miller replaced him and got the blown save for allowing one of Walker’s runners to score). Despite that, the Giants went with their typical arrangement today, and Camilo Doval, Tyler Rogers and Walker turned in scoreless seventh, eighth and ninth innings respectively. Walker’s perfect frame came without a strikeout. His K rate currently stands at 25%, well down from last year’s mark of 32%.
Ben Brown fanned nine but took his third loss after allowing three runs in five innings Wednesday against the Giants.
Brown issued two walks. Those led off the first and fourth innings, and the Giants went to score all three of their runs in those innings. Brown wasn’t hit hard, and the nine strikeouts were great. He just put himself into bad spots with those walks, and now he’ll take a 3-3 record and a 4.95 ERA into his next start, a favorable home matchup against the Marlins. He’ll be a streaming option in that one.