Oh, What A Tangled Webb We Weave…On A Good Friday For Baseball

I was excited when Truss messaged me yesterday and asked if I’d be willing to step in for Dan Pants to do the Daily Notes this weekend. Don’t get me wrong, I love writing up the Top 100 Starting Pitchers each week, but doing the rundown of a full Friday slate is pretty awesome too.

Then, when I checked out the matchups last night, my excitement rivalled what I can only imagine to be aptly compared to the exuberance of a youngster waking up to a basket full of chocolate eggs, bubble wands, and lightly pastel colored “fancy clothes” tomorrow morning. 

A Bryan Woo/Bowden Francis matchup? Let’s just say, I sent this to Truss last night when I saw who was throwing in the Mariners/Blue Jays game…

When you see that one of your favorite pitchers faces your favorite team, the healthiest response is giddiness.

Yoshi Yamamoto at Jacob deGrom? Oh boy!

Logan Webb and … uh … Tyler Anderson? The ALL-STAR?

Well, last night San Francisco’s ace RHP posted an impressive line: 6 IP, ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 12 Ks. That brings his ERA down to 2.40. The strikeout total now ties Webb for third spot overall with Yoshi Yamamoto (37). Oh, and somehow Webb lost the game. Wait, what?

Shout out to Walter Scott for penning this gem about last night’s late tilt..

“Oh, what a tangled Webb we weave, when first we face a practice squad who is easy to deceive”. Or something like that. Even Los Angeles fans will admit it. This Angels’ lineup has more of a 2015 all-star team vibe than an up-and-coming, promise-filled team vibe. 

Hey, at least Zach Neto is back.

Fans can also take solace in knowing that even if Shohei were still on the team, he wouldn’t have been able to help. He and his wife are welcoming a baby unicorn into the world, and Shohei is out on paternity leave. (We’ll get to Tyler Anderson later)

What kind of other Easter treats do we have from the 15 games that went down on the Goodest of Fridays? 

Here’s what else I saw in fantasy baseball Friday night…

Corbin Burnes – 6 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks, ERA at 4.64. The line isn’t all that bad, until you see the three strikeouts and the absence of a W. Burnes has yet to record his first victory of the year, has recorded 17 Ks, and allowed 21 hits in 21.1 IP. He hasn’t been all that stingy with the walks either (9 BBs). He’ll be pushed down in Monday’s Top 100 Starting Pitchers list.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. – 2-for-5, 3 RBIs, and his 4th homer. The Lourdes’ (ball) is risen…and dropped 416 feet on the other side of the LF wall at Wrigley Field.

Eugenio Suarez – 1-for-5, 4 RBIs, 6th homer. Mix a meatball with a bit of grand salami, and you get a Hodge Podge of bullpen chaos from the Cubs.

Carson Kelly – 2-for-4, 5 RBIs, 5th and 6th homers. K-E-L-L-Why? Because he’s the second-best catcher on the Player Rater, that’s why. Just like we all predicted in March. 

Ian Happ – 3-for-5, 4 RBIs, and his 2nd homer. Happ-y Easter, indeed! This game was brought to you by the Grand Slam. Don’t forget to tip your Denny’s server. 

Kyle Tucker – 3-for-5, 2 RBIs, and his 6th homer. Just a two-run home run? Weak sauce. FUN FACT! The 16 (combined) runs scored in the 8th inning were the most in one inning in Wrigley Field history. 

Jackson Jobe – 5 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, ERA at 2.70. Talk about the Jackson 5. Jobe needs just three more wins to get there in the win column, too (2-0). 

Cole Ragans – 4 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 8 Ks. ERA at 3.58. Ragans’ first hiccup of the year, and it wasn’t even that bad. Unless you count giving up a home run to a utility infielder named after the Toy Story kid (Andy Ibanez) as ‘bad’.

Bobby Witt Jr. – 2-for-5, 2 R, 6th SB. Last year’s AL batting champ keeps rolling with a .313 AVG and a solid .885 OPS. 

Riley Greene – 2-for-3, 2 R, 1 RBI (8). Not to get you too Riled up, but in staying festive during 4/20 week, the Greenes have been hot.

Luis L. Ortiz – 5 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 3 BB. ERA at 5.48. LL with a Cool 8 strikeouts and his second win in as many starts. 18 Ks in his last 10.2 IP.

Bo Naylor – 3-for-5, 3 RBIs, and his 2nd homer. A three-hit night means a big boost to the average…unless you’re a catcher. Canada’s favorite little brother backstop hammered his average up to .214.

Oneil Cruz – 1-for-5, 2 R, 1 RBI, 5th homer. A Cruz missile to lead off the game! It wasn’t quite the 442-footer from Thursday night, but that’s now three straight games Oneil has homered in.

Emmanuel Clase – 0.1 IP, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 3rd save. Getting one out in a game usually isn’t a big deal, but Clase recording a save and chipping a tiny sliver off those inflated ratios is great news to those of us who selected him at cost in draft season. Hitting 100 MPH was also a good sign.

Zack Wheeler – 7 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 13 Ks. Wheeler has 41 strikeouts in 31.1 innings. I’m tempted to move him up to the SP1 spot on Monday’s list, and I don’t think there’s much of an argument to make against it if I do.

Sandy Alcantara – 2 IP, 6 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 1 K. 10 ER in his last 10.2 IP. He has two strikeouts in his last two starts. Total. Ouch. I am not tempted to move him up to the SP1 spot on Monday’s list.

Bryce Harper – 1-for-3, 2 RBIs, and his 5th homer. Bryce’s bomb in the beginning bothered Alcantara enough to make this Sandy castle collapse. Eh? No? Ya, I’ll work on it.

Carlos Rodon – 6 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 4 BBs, 9 Ks and Drew Rasmussen – 5.2 IP, ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 7 Ks. This matchup was the evil twin to MarmoFavorites Bryan Woo vs. Bowden Francis. Both of these guys had a great night, even without the villainous matching goatees. The walks aren’t great, but everything else was solid.

Paul Goldschmidt – 3-for-4, R. Goldy proudly repping the .373 AVG, proving that the old folks can still rock out on a Friday night…as long as they’re in bed by 9:30 PM.

Jazz Chisholm – 0-for-4. 2 Ks. At least he didn’t get kicked out of this one and tweet how brutal the umpires were. Small victories.

Andrew Abbott – 6 IP, ER, 2 H, BB, 11 Ks. If I covered that name and casually mentioned that Spencer Strider is back…well, people would lose their ever-loving minds. The only thing better than the strikeouts is Abbott’s equally impressive lip foliage. The RHP has won both starts since his return from rotator cuff soreness. He’s also struck out 16 in 11 IP.

Cade Povich – 3.1 IP, 7 ER, 6 H, 5 BB, 4 Ks, 3 HR allowed. Abbott and Povich sound like a “Who’s On First?” skit took a bad turn when someone showed up with a surprise paternity test. Looking at those two lines, I bet you can guess who the daddy was. 

Elly De La Cruz – 1-for-5, 3 RBIs, and his 4th homer. The three strikeouts aren’t great, but the counting stats are there. Now, if only I could find someone to give my fantasy team some steals.

Cedric Mullins – 1-for-4, 1 RBI, 5th homer as he batted fifth. Cedric is quickly answering some questions about who should (or shouldn’t) lose playing time in that Baltimore outfield. 

Bryan Woo – 7 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 Ks. ERA at 3.12. When you can mix a 98 MPH fastball and sinker in with a low 80s changeup and sweeper, it’ll be a tough night for any opponent. That being said, Woo the MarmoManCrush lost to…

Bowden Francis – 6 IP,  ER, 5 H, BB, 5 Ks. ERA at 3.13. It might not have been as impressive a pitching duel as the NYY/TB one, but the Jays and Ms played a similar version of small ball last night. One solo home run (Tellez) was all Seattle could score. Two sacrifice flies (Alan Roden and Anthony Santander) and an RBI single (Alejandro Kirk) were enough for Toronto to get its 11th win of the year.

David Peterson – 5.1 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 9 Ks. ERA at 3.27. He looked great, other than allowing back-to-back hard hits in the 6th inning from Willson Contreras and Nolan Arenado.

Pete Alonso – 1-for-2, 2 BB, and his first triple. Yes. You read that right. I haven’t seen a polar bear this aggressive since I watched Season One of LOST with my eldest son.

I haven't seen a polar bear this aggressive since the first season of LOST.

— MarmosDad (Matt) (@marmosdad.bsky.social) 2025-04-19T03:28:53.484Z

Francisco Lindor – 1-for-5, Walkoff Home Run (2). Leave it to Lindor to deliver on the biggest chocolate weekend of the year.

Brendan Donovan – 2-for-4, 3 R, RBI, and his 3rd homer. More like Brendan Dong-ovan!

Hunter Dobbins – 6 IP, ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks. Dobbins might not be a free elf, but he’s looking like a good stash if your deeper league has a few open bench spots (Boston planned to send him down after yesterday’s game to open a roster spot for Liam Hendriks).

Trevor Story – 3-for-4, 3 R, 6 RBI, and his 4th and 5th homers. “Noooow here’s a little story…all about how…Martin Perez got flipped, turned upside down…”

Andrew Benintendi – 1-for-3, 2 R, RBI, and his 3rd home run. The road to boring counting stats is paved with Beninten-tions.

Michael Harris II – 2-for-4, 2 RBIs, SB (3). MH2 with RBI2 and SB3 sounds like a pretty dope 90s hip-hop DJ set.

Griffin Jax – 0.1 IP, 4 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, K, HLD (5). ERA at 11.25. So a guy gives up 4 ER, records one out, and still notches a hold. Yep. I know the rule, but this still seems wrong.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto – 7 IP, 0 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 10 Ks. ERA at 0.93. We were treated to more than a couple of good pitching matchups last night, and the LAD/TEX one didn’t disappoint. My SP7 on the Top 100 list sits 3rd overall in the 2025 strikeout race with 38 Ks. 

Jacob deGrom – 7 IP, ER, 3 H, BB, 7 Ks. ERA at 3.32. DeGrom bounced back after two rough starts. I joked last week that any start he makes means at least he’s not injured, but this was a big matchup, and he looked a lot like the old deGrom last night.

Tommy Edman – 3-for-4, 2 R, RBI, and his 7th homer. 7 HR, 15 RBI, .288 AVG (total) from the Dodgers’ top offensive threat? Ya, that makes sense. Wait. Not that Tommy Edman. Really?

Ryan Gusto – 5 IP, 2 ER, 9 H, 0 BB, 2 K. ERA at 3.18. The RHP has won two of his last three starts and got a mention from yours truly last Monday that you can read here. He gave up his fair share of hits and didn’t wow with strikeouts, but MC Gusto walking no one is much better than seeing the end of that line with a CB4…er, BB 4. 

Luis Arraez – 3-for-5, 2 RBIs, and his 3rd homer. Your batting average insulator is hitting cool .294 and adding a touch of bonus power. 

Cam Smith – 2-for-4, 2 H, 4 RBIs, and his 2nd and 3rd homers. Please Cammer, don’t hurt ’em!

That’s all three big flies in the last week for Cam Smith, one of the candidates from my “2025 Obsession” list this Spring. I’d say he’s heating up, but I don’t want to jinx anything.

Freddy Peralta – 5 IP, 0 ER, 7 H, BB, 5 Ks. ERA at 1.91. One of a few starters who picked up their second win last night. Peralta’s 97 MPH fastball and 90 MPH changeup were on all night. It’s probably better and more festive to show you a graphic.

It’s a FreddyEgg for your bunny basket!

Brice Turang – 1-for-3, 3 R, SB (5). Who rang for runs and steals? And a .313 AVG to boot? 

Tyler Anderson – 6 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks. ERA at 2.08. I said it above with Abbott, but if I posted this line and said it was Spencer Strider’s first game back…? People would probably be happy to see it. I’ve never been a fan of Tyler Anderson, as it always feels like the other shoe will drop at some point and we’ll be digging out of a ratio hole for a month. But it didn’t happen last year, and it hasn’t happened yet in 2025.

Jo Adell – 3-for-3, 0 Ks. AVG up to .235! Of course, I have to end with Jo Adell. My bold prediction from last year was that Jo would hit 15 HR and steal 15 bases, and I could hear the guffaws all the way up through the icy winds that swirl around Canada. To be fair, I also predicted that he’d somehow manage to hit .260, so I did not quit while I was ahead. The average was way off, but Jo did go 20/15 last year! If he can put together a few more 3-for-3 nights? Well,  that really would be an Easter miracle now, wouldn’t it?

 

That’s all for this week! I hope you enjoyed it!  Drop some comments in the chat if you’ve got any comments or questions about the performances from last night. 

 

Don’t forget to leave some green cookies on the fireplace mantle for Snoop Dogg tonight, too! And be sure to come back and see me on Monday when the newest Top 100 Starting Pitchers list drops, all polished up with revisions and rankings changes! Have a great Easter weekend!

Follow me @marmosdad on Twitter/X and Bluesky @marmosdad.bsky.social