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Diamondbacks 1B Tim Tawa (25, AAA) had three walks, three home runs, two steals and zero strikeouts in his first four games, a monster start in all of our Triple-A fantasy leagues. Have to take his Salt Lake outcomes with a grain of . . . skepticism . . . but Tawa has produced throughout his career, which you kind of have to do to make your way as a 5’11” utility type, and the organization has enough confidence in him to use him at the keystone in Ketel Marte’s absence. If he hits, they might try to find room for him off the bench. 

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Guardians 1B Kyle Manzardo is at 0.4 WAR already thanks to a double, triple, homer and walk in his five plate appearances. Seems high for a day’s work, but that’s a good day. I still think they should’ve held onto Naylor, but it’ll sting slightly less if Manzardo becomes a capital-g Guy. 

Tigers OF Ryan Kreidler appears to be Detroit’s short term solution for center field while Wenceel Perez takes “at least a month” to convalesce. Bad backs can linger, as you probably know, dear reader, so Kreidler might have quite a bit of runway in front of him if he performs. On the other hand, the club traded for Brewer Hicklen Saturday, and he stole 44 bases last season, so we should keep an eye on him, too. 

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Astros OF Cam Smith has officially made the opening day roster after a slow speculative leak broke that news across a couple days. Wasn’t rocket surgery. Smith is making the Houston brass look pretty good given the context, and he’s earned it on the field. Fun story to follow. I suppose there’s a chance he can slump his way back to the minors, but I’m betting against that, envisioning something like .265 with 25-ish home runs. 

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Guardians 2B Juan Brito lost out in his bid for the second base job despite going five for his last ten at bats with zero strikeouts and two home runs. Tyler Freeman has been electric this spring, and though he’s been playing outfield this year after coming up as an infielder, he could probably slide back to the dirt if that’s his path to playing time. Gabriel Arias continues to exist and might be the opening day starter. I have never seen what Cleveland sees in him, but that’s irrelevant. Perhaps Cleveland will recall Brito at the first signs of distress at the keystone, but I’m not encouraged right now. 

UPDATE: Freeman has been traded to Colorado for Nolan Jones.  Unclear if this means anything to Brito’s chances, or if the Guardians are simply pursuing their quest to get Gabriel Arias as much playing time as possible.

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I got pretty excited to have baseball with my morning coffee this week. Sure, I’ve been watching a lot of “baseball” already, but spring training rings pretty hollow compared to the real thing. Even without Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers defeated the Cubs with ease. I don’t want to alarm anyone, but Los Angeles might be a problem this season. 

Rangers RHP Jack Leiter is throwing hard this spring and kicking his change up like all the cool kids are doing these days, and he’s finally getting some results after a pro career peppered by unexpected struggles. He’s all but locked up a spot in the season-opening rotation and could hold it all season if he can keep the ball in the strike zone and generate better outcomes than the 8.83 ERA he posted in 35.2 MLB innings last season. 

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I’m not sure what qualifies as bold anymore, but I know I want to write things that help readers find value in their leagues. Here’s a link to my bold predictions from last year in which I say Elly De La Cruz will have a 30/50 season. It’s easy enough to say this now, but at that time, much of the fantasy world was in doubt, including Razzball’s fearless leader, as he mentions in his recent Draft Champions Draft Recap: I Choo-Choo Cruz You. I have to lean into the Elly call because a lot of those predictions were not good. I thought Anthony Rendon would watch “The Fan” and start hitting somehow, for instance. Gonna try and do a little better this year. 

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Nationals OF Robert Hassell III is slashing .400/.447/.600 with a 15.8 percent strikeout rate and 174 wRC+ through 35 spring plate appearances. He’s been playing a lot of center field and might push Jacob Young, who has a 60 wRC+ through 26 PAs, for the opening day gig. Hassell III has been something of a . . . problem since he came over in the Juan Soto trade, just in terms of on-field outcomes, so there’s a vibes component to this decision. Would feel pretty good for everyone in the front office if Hassell III broke camp and played well early. 

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Yankees RHP Will Warren should break camp in the major league rotation following injuries to Luis Gil and Gerrit Cole, joining Clarke Schmidt and Marcus Stroman to form a trio that’s good enough to keep the team in games. Warren struggled in 2024 but has been excellent this spring, striking out 11 batters and allowing one run and a 0.50 WHIP across eight innings. Stuff is not an issue here; he features two fastballs along with a plus slider and changeup, following the side-to-side pitching path paved in part by Clarke Schmidt. 

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Until yesterday, Cubs 3B Matt Shaw has been one of those strange cases where a rookie could be acquired in redraft leagues for very little currency, relative to his skillset and opportunity. This discount can be attributed to the relatively recent clearout of Cubs’ third base options and the fact that Shaw has been injured and hadn’t played this spring. During Tuesday’s game, however, Shaw looked 100 percent, smoking an easy looking single to the opposite field in his first at bat and stroking another single in his second. On the bases that second time, he got a good read off the bat and sprinted to score from first base only to run into Michael Busch at third base when Busch pulled up after rounding third and retreated in spring training style. I mention the sprint because Shaw is clearly feeling good and pushing to make the team. 

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Here’s a link to my write up of the American League version of this league: 

In that article, I discuss my approach to this league: specifically, that I try to get money spent in smart places early, sit through the middle, and battle it out for every dollar in the end game. That’s kind of my general approach in auctions but especially in this one because the money is twice as fake here. Once you’re full at 2B, SS, MI and U, you cannot nominate or bid on a middle infielder. Oh and something I forgot to mention last time is the reserve draft. The auction only covers the starting lineups, then we switch to a seven-round reserve draft to close out the night. This creates something of a false auction that leaves value pools commensurate to the depth at each position. 

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Orelvis Martinez hit a homer. I have a hard time believing he won’t be part of that infield this year. I know wins and losses matter, but giving 900 plate appearances to Ernie Clement and Davis Schneider is not a viable long term approach, and with Vlad potentially on the way out, the team needs to look toward its next wave. 

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