Happy Easter! I’m currently watching a bunny and a hot dog run along the outfield warning track in the Guardians and Mariners game. Pretty typical afternoon, minus the bunny.
The eggs that interest me most at the moment are the zeros I’m watching Tanner Bibee post in his Triple-A debut. My favorite part was the fifth inning, when Bibee gave up two bloop hits to open the frame but closed it out without giving an inch or breaking a sweat. He cruised through five shutout innings on 78 pitches.
Tigers C Jake Rogers hit six home runs in 38 games in 2021 but lost 2022 to injury. He’s back with two home runs in four games this year. The best thing about Rogers is he’s a great defender, so as long as he’s hitting, he’ll log his fair share of starts behind the plate, especially considering Eric Haase can play the outfield.
Cubs OF Brennen Davis hit a long home run to center-right field on Thursday night. Looked like his old self in the moment. Few players offer the list-bounce potential of Davis if he’s 100 percent. The Cubs have a lot of outfielders for 2023, but these things tend to work themselves out in the medium term.
Angels RHP Jo Adell has five home runs, nine strikeouts and seven walks through his first eight games of the Triple-A season. He spent some of the off-season with Driveline and boosted his already-plus bat speed. If he can better employ his hand speed to improve his pitch selection, we could see some variation on the Adell we’ve always wanted.
White Sox 2B Lenyn Sosa has two strikeouts and two walks through six Triple-A games, slashing .429/.500/.810. Elvis Andrus played well in 2022 but bottomed out the two years before that. Sosa doesn’t have that physicality factor that gets a guy much attention on his prospect path, but he can pick his pitches and find the barrel. He’ll be 23 all season, and whether it’s this year or not, he’s got plenty of time to age into a real opportunity.
Red Sox SS David Hamilton is hitting .462 with four stolen bases and one home run. At a glance, he figures to have a window to sneak into the big leagues before Trevor Story and/or Adalberto Mondesi return. No time like the present. He’d be an immediate asset in the speed-powered paradigm.
Mariners OF Lazaro Montes is a free agent in the Highlander Dynasty Invitational, and I think that makes sense. The league is geared toward the near term, especially at the beginning of the year, so even though it’s a 20-team league with 40-man rosters, Montes is on the fringe. If he’s floating around in a free agent pool of yours, I’d scoop him out if I could fit him. If he’s still striking out 35 percent of the time, you can probably drop him and store him in free agency. If he manages to open the season making more contact, everyone is going to want him.
The Brewers shut down Tyrone Taylor’s rehab after he experienced a setback, so Joey Wiemer’s here to stay as long as he can play, and frankly, he looks great.
Pirates OF Travis Swaggerty is playing well in Triple-A (.292/.346/.586) after playing extremely well in spring training. Jack Suwinski is stretched in center field, and he’s been on the bench quite a bit. Swaggerty isn’t going to set the world on fire, but he’s a lefty with speed and power.
In his 17th start at Double-A, Guardians RHP Gavin Williams came roaring out of the gate with nine strikeouts in 4.1 shutout innings. He posted a 2.31 ERA and 1.00 WHIP in 70 innings at the level last year. He’ll be in Triple-A (and/or the majors) soon.
Athletics 1B OF Ryan Noda might already be locked into the lineup, maybe even the two spot, at least as long as he’s slugging .647 with a .350 on base percentage.
Mariners right handers Bryan Woo, Emerson Hancock and Taylor Dollard all might’ve sat up in their chairs a little when the news of Robbie Ray’s arm injury came across the wire. Dollard especially feels like a sneaky redraft play in deep leagues. He only went two innings in his first Triple-A start, so he’s not likely to be an option soon.
I added Dodgers OF James Outman in a 12-team league that starts only three outfielders. That happened fast.
C Francisco Alvarez is up with the Mets after hitting two home runs in four Triple-A games. Omar Narvaez is out for a couple months, so Alvarez should have plenty of time to find his footing in a time-share with Tomas Nido.
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