Oh hello, Razzball reader. How’s the view from your bunker? I have to say I chose an excellent shade of cement-gray, myself. My HAM radio tells me we’re expecting some baseball soon. Hope the hazmat suits they’re surely wearing don’t affect overall athleticism. Joking aside, this is an entirely different baseball landscape. The NL has added the DH. Extra innings will see a runner start on second base. Teams have admitted they aren’t really sure how they’ll get through nine innings of pitching. That opens up two interesting angles for us creative thinkers. Wins are going to be very random and shift to a large amount relievers. So you save chasers are going to be in a great position for win chasing. Get your WAGNOF on. Also, NL players that may not have seen as many at-bats obviously just got a boost. Not only the poor-fielding power hitters but their slick-fielding compliments that now get into the lineup more often. Let’s tackle it all.
- If we’re looking for the most likely relievers to get win opps look to forward-thinking teams like the Rays, A’s, and Twins.
- After Nick Anderson, the Rays bullpen is stocked. Deigo Castillo and Jose Alvarado get the most attention but don’t sleep on guys like Colin Poche and Brendan McKay.
- The Twins will look to avoid back to back days for Rogers when possible. Trevor May, Tyler Duffy, and Sergio Romo all have a chance to get high leverage looks as Rogers righty compliments.
- The other place to target is questionable staffs. The pitchers that don’t have the clout to go deeper will be getting a quick hook. The Giants, Brewers, and Padres could all monkey their starters around.
- San Fran has zero reliable starters. Like, actually, none. They do have a bunch of potential starters, though. There’s a good chance the team uses a split game system for at least some of their days each week.
- After Brandon Woodruff, we have so little idea what the Brewers rotation will be. I’m going to keep an eye on multi-inning guys from their pen like Freddy Peralta, Brent Suter, and Corbin Burnes.
- Is their a team with more equations than the Rockies? They can use Daniel Murphy and Sam Hilliard at DH, opening time for Ryan McMahon and Garrett Hampson in the field. They can also give Charlie Blackmon and David Dahl days off from the outfield. They may be the biggest winners in the new DH rule. Then again, this could all be one more tool team management uses to crush our souls.
- The Reds look pretty smart for overloading on OFs. Nicholas Castellanos is probably the guy that sees the most DH ABs but Nick Senzel is the real winner in all this. The shutdown allowed him to heal more and he can now get days off from fielding at DH. That they sent Aristides Aquino to their scrub camp says a good amount about their designs on playing time.
- We should get an accelerated timeline on the Cardinals Dylan Carlson now. He was likely making the team anyway but may not have started every day. Bump him up your board. More than you likely think you should.
- The Braves have two natural DHs in Austin Riley and Adam Duvall. With them out of the outfield Ender Inciarte should play way more. If he can get on base he’d be a potential steals silver mine.
