Singing “Jung Hoo” to Stevie Wonder’s Jungle Fever.
I got Jung Hoo fever,
She got Jung Hoo fever,
We’ve got Jung Hoo fever, we’re in love.
She’s gone Korean boy crazy, I’ve gone Korean boy crazy–
[the Cancel Police take a batter ram to the door, charge in and drag me away] It’s okay! Stop! Please! Let me explain! My podcast host is Korean! He gives me cover! Yesterday, Jung Hoo Lee (2-for-3, 4 RBIs, hitting .352) hit his 2nd and 3rd homer, and his 1.130 OPS is currently third in the majors. I have massive FOMO. I got FOMO Fever, she got FOMO Fever! This is worse than in high school when I was the one person in our friend group not invited to Julie’s birthday party. I didn’t want to go anyway! But it would’ve been nice to be invited! I did want to draft Jung Hoo Lee and his draft price was reasonable, and I just didn’t pull the trigger in enough leagues. It’s super early still, but if Jung Hoo is healthy, he looks like an easy top 20 outfielder. Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:
Jordan Hicks – 4 IP, 7 ER, ERA at 5.87. This was an easy bench to avoid, so do you hold it against him? I prolly wouldn’t, though Streamonator hates his next one and I wouldn’t trust him there either.
Clarke Schmidt – Aiming to return on Tuesday or Wednesday. In related news, Marcus Stroman hit the IL. Yankees first tried to see if Stroman would listen to Jimmy Conway and walk down the alley to look at some furs.
Will Warren – 5 IP. 2 ER, 4 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 5.14. He goes from pitching in Yankee Stadium on Saturday to pitching in Big Stein this week, where he was pitching last year, when he had a 5.91 ERA, to answer the age-old: Can you go home again and do you want to?
Jazz Chisholm Jr. – 1-for-4 and his 5th homer, hitting .169. Thought he retired after opening weekend, so that’s nice to see.
Richard Fitts – Hit the IL with a pectoral strain. Damn, Dick’s at half-mast.
Garrett Crochet – 7 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 1 hit, 1 walk, 11 Ks, ERA at 1.38. Treated his former team, the White Sux, worse than his former team treats the game of baseball.
Trevor Story – 3-for-4, 3 RBIs and his 3rd homer, hitting .308. Sucks that my Magic 8 Ball says he won’t make it out of April healthy.
Masyn Winn – Hit the IL with back inflammation. Early on the preseason season sleepers have taken some hits — Winn’s back, Robles’s shoulder, Vientos’s amnesia about how to hit.
Simeon Woods Richardson – 5 IP, 1 ER, 5 hits, zero walks, 5 Ks, ERA at 4.30. Has a 9.8 K/9, 3.1 BB/9 through 14 2/3 IP, so still early, but I’m keeping my monocle on him if he can figure out his command. Streamonator was also less hateful about Sunday’s start, and hates his next.
Brooks Lee – 1-for-3, 1 RBI as he was activated from the IL, i.e., he wrote on the IL, “Brooks wuz here,” and returned to polite society. Not a big fan of Lee. His projections (from others) looks like 12/5/.250 in 100 games. That’s Boring Lee bleh.
Edouard Julien – 1-for-4 and his 1st homer, as he hit leadoff. Too bad Baldelli never keeps his lineup the same for more than one game. Can’t argue with a 4-11 record, I guess.
Byron Buxton – 2-for-4, 2 runs and his 3rd homer, 2nd homer in three games, hitting .192. The Bux stops somewhere [motions over the fence] there.
Jackson Jobe – 6 IP, 0 ER, 3 baserunners, 2 Ks, ERA at 3.00. Guy keeps me perplexed. Think about another pitcher with nasty stuff. They have what? A 9+ K/9? 10? Jobe’s is 5.4! Who is he, Mike Leake? You have one job, Jobe, and it’s be better than this. Streamonator doesn’t like his next, and I wouldn’t mess with him in shallower leagues.
Casey Mize – 5 2/3 IP, 4 ER, 7 hits, zero walks, 3 Ks, ERA at 2.60. Meh, but it’s one meh. Will reevaluate next time if it’s back-to-back mehs.
Spencer Torkelson – 1-for-4 and his 5th homer, hitting .309, and 2nd homer in two games. Out Torkel’ing on an excursion into Breakout City.
Alejandro Kirk – 2-for-4, 2 RBIs and his 1st homer, and 1st homer since 2023. Or maybe just feels that way.
Jose Berrios – 5 IP, 4 ER, 8 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 5.16. Now that you don’t trust him again, he’ll rattle off two to three good starts, and, when you trust him again, he’ll destroy your ratios. Rinse, repeat.
Tomoyuki Sugano – 4 2/3 IP, 3 ER, 8 hits, 2 walks, zero Ks, ERA at 3.86. More like Tomoyawnstipating.
Cade Povich – 4 2/3 IP, 2 ER, ERA at 3.60. We need to lower the number of innings for a win to four.
Tyler O’Neill – 1-for-5 and his 2nd homer. Nice, thought he might be waiting until 2026 Opening Day.
Ryan Mountcastle – 2-for-4, 2 runs and his 1st homer, hitting .271, as he batted 8th. BBC’s own, Mountcastle! Catch up on past seasons on BritBox.
Matthew Liberatore – 6 IP, 0 ER, 4 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 3.93. Are you tossing and turning? Trouble sleeping? Can I suggest Liberatore? Side effects include: Massive runs in previous years which scares the crap out of you. Hence the runs. This year he’s rocking pristine command and a 1.90 FIP. FIP’s kinda silly, but that’s silly good. Could see giving him a chance in 12-team mixed leagues and deeper.
Jordan Walker – 2-for-4, 2 RBIs and his 2nd homer. He should have 45 homers by May, if he’d just elevate!
Willson Contreras – 2-for-4, 2 runs, 2 RBIs and 1st homer, hitting .158. “Hey, would you mind helping me push this body into the water to distract these killer sharks–Hold up! He moved! Willson is alive!”
Cal Raleigh – 1-for-3, 2 RBIs and his 5th homer, and 3rd homer in three straight, i.e., Baby got back-to-back-to-back.
Ben Williamson – Called up by the M’s to possibly face lefties and have me start a Petition dot org for MLB managers to stop platooning out righties vs. righties. Williamson could be a .280 hitter with 30 steals, and they’re going to start Mastrobuoni? Forget mixed leagues, I can’t even say Mastrobuoni aloud in mixed company.
Logan Gilbert – 5 IP, 1 ER. 4 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 2.38 vs. Nathan Eovaldi – 5 IP, 2 ER, 5 hits, zero walks, 3 Ks, ERA at 2.55. This matchup was billed as, “Gilbert and Sullivaldi.”
Dustin Harris – 1-for-3 and his 1st homer. He was recalled the other day, and that at least makes one of us, because I didn’t know who he was. He was called up after hitting .184 in Triple-A. So that’s the secret!
J.T. Ginn – 5 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 6 Ks vs. his former team. Actually looked pretty solid, but can I get past how he sounds like a character actor? To be determined, let me do a rewatch of Sling Blade.
Luis Severino – 5 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 7 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 4.01 vs. his former team. Or maybe the Mets were starring in an episode of This Is Your Life.
Kodai Senga – 7 IP, 0 ER, 6 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 1.06. Seems all the way back to pre-2024 Senga. Or rather, Sega commercial voice, “SENGA!”
Drew Rasmussen – 5 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 0.60. Matthew Boyd and Rasmussen having a “Could be an ace if he can throw more than 75IP” off.
Joe Boyle – 5 IP, 0 ER, 0 hits, 2 walks, 7 Ks as he took the ball for the first time. Hope he brings it back! Boyle’s stuff is incredibly nasty, but he has zero command. I look at a lot of player pages, and he’s the first one I’ve seen with 20 grade command. Did Daniel Cabrera birth him? Fine in AL-Only, but I can’t in mixed leagues.
Yandy Diaz – 1-for-4, 2 runs and his 2nd homer, hitting .210. Yandy and Jordan Walker on the Olympic anthill demo team.
Junior Caminero – 2-for-4, 2 runs, 3 RBIs and his 3rd homer, and 2nd homer in as many games. Go on a Chourio-like scorcher, please.
AJ Smith-Shawver – Optioned to the minors to make room for Spencer Strider, who will start on Wednesday. Hoping ASS left the Shroud of Touki at the dry cleaner for Grant Holmes.
Chris Sale – 4 1/3 IP, 3 ER, ERA at 6.63. Being out on Burnes, Sale and deGrom this year hasn’t hurt so far. Then again, Hunter Greene’s been the only good starter, and I was out on him, so [raspberries lips]
CJ Abrams – Hit the IL with a hip flexor strain. Weird flexor, but ok. This should give more playing time to Rosario. Amed to that! If you’re in an NL-Only league, at least.
Sandy Alcantara – 5 2/3 IP, 4 ER, 9 baserunners, 1 K, ERA at 4.70. I’d say that’s never gonna get him traded off the Marlins, but have you seen the Yankees’ rotation?
Matt Mervis – 1-for-2, 3 RBIs and his 5th homer, 3rd homer in three games, and 3rd homer I’ve been sonavabenched with on Mervis. There might not be a hotter schmotato in baseball.
Andrew Abbott – 5 IP, 1 ER, 4 baserunners, 5 Ks, as he was activated from the IL. Splash of refresher into your cocktail. He’s a high K guy in the minors and hasn’t approached that in the majors. Super middling results so far in his career. Hey Abbott (!!!) has promise, but where are the results? I don’t know. Third base!
Hunter Greene – 7 IP, 0 ER, 2 hits, 1 walk, 8 Ks, ERA at 0.98. There he is! The one great starter! Say hello to you mother for me!
Henry Davis – 0-for-3 as he was recalled from Triple-A. At one point, Hank Dave was considered a top prospect, I think, but it’s been so long I half think I might’ve made that up in my head.
Cole Ragans – 7 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 4 hits, zero walks, 10 Ks, ERA at 2.28 vs. Ben Lively – 6 IP, 4 ER, 9 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 4.87. This matchup was billed as, “An extremely lively pitcher and some guy named Lively.”
Luis L. Ortiz – 5 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 1 hit, 2 walks, 10 Ks, ERA at 6.06. Ladies won’t be the only one that loves LL Ortiz if he’s doing that. Looks to be throwing his change more, basically a nonexistent pitch previously, and slider less with pretty similar velocities. Could be that he figured out a pitch mix that works for him. Wouldn’t be the first pitcher to go into the Cleveland Starting Pitcher Factory and cook up something delicious. Prolly a monocle in shallower leagues, but if he pitches this well again, he’s going to be a grab everywhere quickly. I’m intrigued, y’all!
Trevor Megill – 1/3 IP, 3 ER, ERA at 5.79, as he got bombed out on Saturday. I checked his player news after the outing and it said, “Recently underwent an MRI on his knee.” Oh…[falling like Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo]…kay.
William Contreras – 2-for-4, 2 RBIs and his 3rd homer. Elias Sports Bureau said, “This is the 1st time the Contreras brothers homered on the same day since the last time.”
Kyle Hart – 6 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, zero walks, 4 Ks, ERA at 5.40. Not to be a little baby saying foul-mouthed baby things, but where was this freakin’ start when I freakin’ started him the week before?
Michael King – 9 IP, 0 ER, 2 hits, 1 walk, 8 Ks, ERA at 2.42. King, indeed. But also: The Rockies didn’t score one run all weekend.
Adael Amador – 0-for-3 as he was recalled. You might be thinking, as I was, they wouldn’t call up a prospect to not play him, then I remembered it was the Rockies. They have Kyle Farmer, I mean, c’mon! Here’s Itch, “A switch-hitter at 6’0” 200 lbs, Amador got his first look at the show this season but couldn’t find his footing, slashing .171/.194/.200 in 36 plate appearances. Could’ve probably predicted as much considering he wasn’t thriving in Double-A, where he ended the season slashing .230/.343/.376 with 14 home runs and 35 stolen bases. The fantasy appeal is clear, and there’s plenty of upside in the frame given his solid plate skills from both sides. Just might take a while for him to settle into his true skill level at the top level. Grey’s skill level is toilet.” What? Amador is incredibly exciting for NL-Only and unrosterable in mixed, until we see more playing time.
Chase Dollander – 5 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 5 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 5.06. Solid start for the rookie, but you’re hoping for these type of starts and benching every time he’s at home? That’s getting a meh from me, dawg.
Hayden Wesneski – 6 IP, 3 ER, 5 hits, zero walks, 10 Ks, ERA at 4.00. 21:3 K:BB on the season and me constantly mentioning him should have him off your radars and onto your teams.
Isaac Paredes – 1-for-4, 3 RBIs and his 3rd homer, and 3rd homer in three games. It’s a delight when a guy realizes he’s a pull hitter in a stadium that has a fence about 275 feet away on his pull side.
Jorge Soler – 2-for-4 and his 4th homer. That’s George Sun to you!
Nolan Schanuel – 2-for-4 and his 2nd homer, and 2nd homer in as many games. Taylor Ward (1-for-5) hit his 5th homer, and 2nd homer in as many games, and four homers since Thursday. That’s Taylor and Schanuel with the double knock, but no knock-offs from Schanuel/Taylor.
Roki Sasaki – 5 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 3.29. Dodgers lost this game 16-0 for a ticker shock that had me wheeling myself into The Pitt and asking for Noah Wylie.
Michael Busch – 2-for-4 and his 3rd homer, and 2nd homer in two games, hitting .315. Only person not hitting on the Cubs is Miguel Amaya, but Carson Kelly has a wrist issue so maybe Amaya starts. Who is this update for? Me! I have Amaya in a deep league! Leave me alone!
Pete Crow-Armstrong – 3-for-4, and his 1st and 2nd homer. Thank you to whoever it was that just dropped him. He needed it, but better yet, we needed it.
Justin Steele – Will undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery. I’m going to refrain from shaking my damn head (rfsmdh) and not point out I wrote in my rankings, “Steele did have some elbow tendinitis in September, so that’s a reason for some concern, and why he’s ranked down here,” and I’m not going to say that’s me quoting me. I’m not going to ask why didn’t he just have the stupid surgery last year when the problem first occurred. Not going to do any of this because I’m an adult!
