Sp. Arrighetti Looks Saucy With Extra Cheese

It’s rivalry weekend in Major League Baseball, and no one is more saucy than Houston Astros starter slash heartthrob Spencer Arrighetti, who says he never liked the Rangers, never has, and takes it all very personally. Well, okay! Tell us how you really feel, that’s how you fuel a fire, Spencer! Arrighetti backed it up proceeding to carry a no hitter into the eighth inning versus the hated Tejas Rangers. If you’re Choosin’ Texas, Ella Langely, I can tell you Houston is a better bet, and no one two-steps like Spencer! Arrighetti aka Pasta Fazool aka the Sp. Arrighetti monster, went 7.1 innings striking out five and walking four taking the no hit bid into the eighth inning before Justin Foscue ruined his fun. He lowered his ERA to 1.50 in the process. That’s good for second in the league!  His five wins is also tied for second. The 1.19 WHIP ain’t too shabby either. This guy was not on the opening day roster by the way. He’s now allowed two runs or less in six straight starts, and while Spence’s 35/21 K/BB is shaky you can’t argue with the results. They say it’s better to be lucky than good and no one has been luckier than Spencer Arrighetti this year. He’s rocking a 4.97 xERA, .243 xBA and a 85.5% LOB% which seems to suggest this miraculous start to the season could see some regression sooner than later. But with matchups with the Twins and another meeting with despised Texas Rangers on deck I’d like to think it could come later. Positive thinking! Whether he can keep it up or not you can’t argue that Arrighetti has been dealing so far this year and you can throw his Hard-Hit%, and xFIP and BABIP and all the terrible metrics at me you want, nerd! Big fact, this kid has the second best ERA in the league and is winning over 80% of his starts, he’s no impasta! You don’t need to use your noodle to see Sp. Arrighetti has been perfectly al dente! Fuggedaboutit!

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

Jack Leiter – 7.0 IP, 3 hits, ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 4th L. Leiter is putting out fires, dot, dot dot…with gasoline! Or Astros. That sounds dangerous. This may have been his best start of the year, and outside of a homer to Isaac Paredes, it was blemish free, every teenager’s dream. For as lucky as Arrighetti has been, Leiter has been that unlucky. It happens. Just ask my fantasy teams. Based on that 9.97 K/9 I still want in on some Jack, but after the Coors start next week.

Trey Yesavage – 6.0 IP, 4 hits, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K. Fat Jonah Hill Moneyball meme: This is Trey Yesavage. He’s got some of the filthiest stuff and prettiest ratios (1.40 ERA, 1.29 WHIP) in the league. His problem is his control limits his arsenal and efficiency, and can barely make it through five innings. Sometimes I like being wrong, however rare, but he didn’t have his best stuff Friday and was able to make his way through six. Yes! Savage! More please!

Shane Baz – 7.0 IP, 6 hits, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 5th L. This might be a best case scenario for Bazinga. Don’t blame me, I preferred Raj.

Daylen Lile – 3-for-4, HR (7), 2 RBI. May Daylen! He was almost your lede, but I figured he’s owned everywhere. A Daylen in the Lile, sucha classic Beatles song. I woke up and got out of bed, and see that Daylen went hard again, like third homer in two games hard. That Ringo Starr really was ahead of his time. That’s four in four days. No, not Beatles. Daylen Lile home runs. Kyle Schwarber who, right? Daylen was a sleeper as early or late as 2025. If you google “Daylen Lile sleeper” Razzball is one of the first results. You’re welcome. I didn’t write it, but I did tell you to google it just now. What does this mean? Well, it means he’s batting .458 in the past week with four homers, 10 RBI, and a steal and he might be more than just a hot little potato. He’s hitting .319 in May (15-47) with a 1.051 OPS. We predicted this would happen. Back in 2025. You can read all about it if you google “Daylen Lile sleeper” all the live Lile Daylen.

JJ Bleday – 3-for-5, 2 runs, RBI. Today was another good Bleday for JJ. Grey told you to BUY, and his hits run deep, so deep, putting pitchers hats to sleep. He’s hitting .346 in the past two weeks with 5 homers, 18 RBI and a steal. He’s a former top pick and all he does is get on base. You should add him everywhere right now.

Matt McLain – 2-for-3, HR (5), 3 RBI, SB (6). The slam & legs in Cleveland is served with pierogis, cause you need gas to hit balls like this. He’s also responsible for this gem, that basically saved the game, cause God knows none of the pitchers in the pen were up to the task of saving the game. The homer was his third in 10 days, and second in the past week, and he’s hitting .350 since Barry Larkin told him to tweak something. What’d he tweak!? I don’t care, keep tweaking!

Tejay Antone – 1.0 IP, 1 hit, ER, SV (1). For those speculating for saves in the Reds pen, Graham Ashcraft entered in the eighth (0.0 IP, 1 hit, 4 ER, 3 BB) and then exited in the eighth, four runs and zero outs later. Antone managed to hold down the win but barely, thanks to McLain’s heroics. I’d guess Santillan (1.0 IP, 1 hit, HOLD), who pitched the seventh gets another shot at the closer gig, but I’d let him do it on waivers for now. Or at least on your bench.

Tanner Bibee – 6.2 IP, 7 hits, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 0-6. I’m fairly confident I could also be 0-6 at this point in the year. It’s hard to believe he struck out nine Twinks last weekend after watching his fastball get destroyed last night. He does get an easier matchup in Detroit next weekend. Bibee steps.

Jose Ramirez – 3-for-4, RBI. Raised his slash to .220/.347/.381 with the three hit game. Well, we’re not talking about how underrated he is this year are we? Well, maybe I am! 18 steals! If you’re gonna bat .220, at least have 18 steals. I’m side-eyeing you so hard rn Gunnar. Only Nasim Nunez has more. He’s having the worst start to a season in ever and even though all the metrics say he will rebound he’s still the number one third baseman in fantasy! Talk about underrated! What a guy!

Jakob Marsee – 3-for-4, HR (3), SB (13). The slam & legs in St. Pete is served in a vat of freshly squeezed OJ, not from concentrate, or from concentrate, whichever one is good, I don’t remember. Marsee’s got two homers and three steals in the past week, now would be a good time to come alive. Also, if you’re gonna have a Sunshine state rivalry game maybe do it in Miami where there’ll actually be fans.

Cedric Mullins – 4-for-5, 3 runs, HR (3), SB (9). Ced’s slam & legs is served with soft-boiled eggs and Sanka on the sides to accommodate the seniors. Is that because he’s washed? No, it’s because he’s old.

Janson Junk – 5.2 IP, 10 hits, 7 ER, 3 BB, 4 K. I know it’s just his name is Junk and he’s been mostly okay but I just cannot bring myself to add this guy. He’s junk aka trash in my mind it’s a psychological thing. Same reason I could never own Homer Bailey. Janson gets the Braves next week. Pick him up if you hate yourself.

Joe Ryan – 6.0 IP, 4 hits, ER, BB, 7 K. Joe Ryan last win was on April 11th (ELEVEN). Since then he’s given up nine runs in 29.1 IP, with four quality starts. His WHIP is just a smidge over 1 and he gets the struggling Astros next week. Who wants to start the Joe Ryan trade pool? Is Dodgers too obvious?

Trevor Megill – 1.0 IP, K, SV (5). As an Abner Uribe (1.0 IP 1 hit, BB, K, HOLD) owner this hurt a bit but Uribe had every chance to take this job and could not. He just seems more comfortable as a set up guy? I know, I know angry commenter, he got a save on Monday but I think he blew his last save Wednesday and Mr. Manager is going to give Trevor the chance to win his job back and he may have done just that. If Megill was dropped change that.

Cam Schlittler – 6.2 IP, 2 hits, ER, 2 BB, 9 K, 6th win. Who needs Max Fried? Losing your Ace is rough sure, but Yanks might be in one of the best positions to handle a loss like this. So do not pity them. Schlittler is basically an Ace at this point, the nine Ks were a career high. The ratios (1.35 ERA and 0.78 WHIP) are Cy Young stuff and lead the league, as does his BAA, and he’s second in the AL in strikeouts with 68. Only one pitcher has a better ERA since Cam’s debut last year. Any guesses? It’s Skenes. And not to knock Skenes but his ERA has shown steady regression YoY: 1.96 ERA in 2024, 1.97 ERA in 2025 and 1.98 ERA in 2026. Don’t blame me for the numbers, the fact is, Cam’s arrow is trending up while Skenes’ is clearly on the decline.

Clay Holmes – 4.1 IP, 7 hits, 4 ER, 2 BB, 8 K. Sad news out of Queens. Yes, the Mets lost again but if you’re getting sad about that it’s gonna be a long summer. Clay Holmes took a 111 mph comebacker off the leg and fractured his fibula. You can watch it here if only to see all the tough guy points earned by Clay. At what point does he realize he broke his leg? Didn’t Charlie Morton pitch on a broken leg once? This is tough guy HoF stuff. This is Heated Rivalry, tough. A lot of middle aged men in the Bronx miss Clay Holmes real bad right now. He was so much better than Bednar, until he wasn’t. Well, Clay’s set to miss “quite some time” which is a real bummer for the Mets but I assume they’re used to those at this point. Maybe they can use this as motivation? For the leg!

Ben Rice – 3-for-5, 2 runs, HR (14), slashing .282/.349/.615 . Rice plates this one! Or bowls it? The Riceman cometh. Is that the best of Drake’s new albums or the worst? Three 3.5 star albums adds up to 10.5 stars! Drizzy you’re a genius!

Juan Soto – 1-for-3, HR (6). This was a shotski, too, Jimmy Fallon. Imagine the Yankees had a player like him.

Connelly Early- 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 6 K. Early to rise! I like Connie Early mostly because my team is so terrible and he gives me something to root for. He is likely a better real life pitcher than fantasy one as his FIP and xFIP all suggest some hard regression is incoming. He does get the Royals next week and I could see considering the prospect of maybe thinking about mulling over the possibility of contemplating whether or not I should review the option of potentially picking him up. I still don’t know for sure, though!

Spencer Strider – 5.1 IP, 3 hits, ER, 3 BB, 4 K. He struck out 280 batters in 2023. That’s a 4.8 K/BB. It saddens me a bit that we may never see that Strider again but he’s still got the best stache and best quads in baseball and the 2.45 ERA is nice too. Not as nice as the quads but we’ll take it.

Drake Baldwin – 2-for-4, HR (12). Three homers in the past week is almost as impressive as dropping three albums in one day. If you release 50 songs, one of them is gonna chart. That’s just math. Boy math. Drake math. Drake released more music in one day than Kendrick has in a decade. If this is a quantity over quality match, who’s really winning the battle? Exactly. As for Baldwin, you must be playing me in H2H fantasy! *Checks team* Yup!

Mickey Gasper – 2-for-5, RBI. He’s slashing .412/.444/.529 since being called up and has been DH’ing since the Red Sux have literally no other players that can hit baseballs. He’s only interesting because of his catcher eligibility and his mustache. But that is interesting!

Edward Cabrera – 4.2 IP, 3 hits, 3 ER, 3 BB, 2 K. EdCab couldn’t Lyft his team out of the Southside in this one. Surge pricing. He’s allowed eight homers in his past five starts. This is only going to get worse at Wrigley in the summertime. Sell if you still can.

Colson Montgomery – 2-for-4, HR (12). CoSoMoGo ties the game with this shot! This was actually a game, until it wasn’t. ChiSox pitching not quite there yet, as much as we want them to be. Still a lot to be excited about and Colson ranks first among shortstops in slugging, OPS and home runs since his debut. That includes BWJ, Gunnar, Lindo and yes, Dansby Swanson.

Miguel Vargas – 2-for-4, HR (10). Another game tying blast! This was quite the game wasn’t it! Gonna be a fun summer in Chitown. MV is hitting .429 with 3 homers in the past week! I’m seeing red! No, not the CityConnects, I’m talking about Vargas’ baseball savant page! The breakout is real!

Jarred Kelenic – 1-for-4, HR (1). Even Kelenic! 2021 me is swooning so hard right now. I know they lost by five and this is probably a few months premature but are the White Sox a wagon, y’all? Get Kyle Teel up here ASAP as possible!

Seiya Suzuki – 2-for-4, run, 2 RBI. In most honorable battle of Chicago, our North Samurai defeat South Samurai.

Ildemaro Vargas – 4-for-5, 2 runs, 2 RBI. So he’s not batting .400 anymore but he’s still hitting .320 in the past week. He can’t keep getting away with this!

Merrill Kelly – 9.0 IP, 4 hits, ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 3rd win. Merrill stars in the Kelly Wears Prada enroute to a complete game while everyone else at Coors is in tattered Fanatics. It’s a working a title.  I thought it was a sequel but this was actually the first complete game for the 37-year old Kelly and I’m jelly I left him on my bench. Oh, why do I do the things that I do? I question who I am as a person. Maybe it was his 7.62 ERA, or his 1.92 WHIP. Maybe it’s that the Rox barely strike out, or that the game was at Coors Field. Wait, stop. The last one, that was it. Coors Field. Kelly’s only hiccup was a solo shot to Hunter Goodman and he’s now got back to back wins allowing just 2 ER in 16.0 IP, albeit versus the Mets and Rockies. His previous three starts he allowed 19 runs so progress is progress. He won’t be on my bench for the Giants next week and as for the movie, as long as Anne Hathaway’s in it I’ll see it even if it’s a big piece of [expletive deleted].

Ryan Waldschmidt – 1-for-4, 2 RBI, SB (1). He was a BUY! All these rookie bats debuting this week but only one of them got enough hits for me to mention him! Way to go Ryan! You win Friday!

Bobby Witt Jr. – 2-for-5, RBI. He’s got an eight game hitting streak with four homers in that stretch. How are the Royals still so bad?

Jordan Walker – 3-for-5, HR (13), 2 RBI. BWJ or Walker who are you taking? Still Bobby, right? But it’s close, especially when Jordan does stuff like this.

Randy Vasquez – 6.0 IP, 4 hits, 3 K, 5th win, ERA at 2.68 versus Emerson Hancock – 6.0 IP, 5 hits, ER, BB, 6 K, 2nd L. The fans just really show up for this storied San Diego versus Seattle rivalry. You can just tell the vitriol in the air. Some real bad blood going back decades!

Mason Miller – 1.1 IP, 2 hits, 4 K, SV (14). Two hits? Lol. If I wanted a WHIP-killer I’d start Chris Paddack.

Nick Kurtz – 1-for-3, HR (8), 3 RBI. That’s three homers in three straight games! Including this one, yes please, that’s a bow and a Kurtzy. He’s got a 38 game on base streak which is two games from a record but I jinxed him two weeks ago so I will try not to again. All I’m saying is Big Amish churning out hits like butter.

Henry Bolte – 2-for-4, RBI. Another rook! Another BUY! I just can’t help myself. Be the lightning, be the Bolte!

Hogan Harris – 1.0 IP, 1 hit, K, SV (3). Jack Perkins blew another chance on Thursday that leaves Harris and Kuhnel (who pitched the sixth). Harris seems to be the most reliable but also the lefty so I can’t imagine any particular pitchers emerges with the role for now. Imagine the A’s are buyers at the deadline? Has that ever happened? Go get Aroldis Chapman!

Luis Arraez – 4-for-5, HR (1). He makes it look so Arra-EZ!

Andy Pages – 1-for-4, HR (10), 3 RBI. Pages leads the league in RBI with 38 like we all predicted would happen.

Max Muncy – 1-for-4, HR (12). Teoscar Hernandez also homered. Mad Muncy must love these Friday recaps because he insists on being mentioned every week. The Battle for Los Angeles started in the most obvious fashion, with a Dodger dubya. Remember when I thought the Angels might be a wagon? Lol, I was so young and naive then. April 2026. That seems like  so long ago. Mr. Manager Roberts loves these series’ because he doesn’t have to play any of his starters, and just lets his bench beat up on the Angels. I surprised Ohtani played, but at the very least he owes that much to his loyal Angel fan(s).

Braxton Ashcraft – 6.2 IP, 7 hits, 4 ER, 5 K. The immovable object that is Brax’s stuffs ran into the unstoppable force that is the Phillies offense right now, although they didn’t look overly impressive at a cold wet Fenway. The velo was there but he allowed a lot of hard contact, something I was not afforded much of in high school, but I wouldn’t hold this one against him. He should rebound next week in St Louis.

Gregory Soto – 1.0 IP, 2 hits, 2 ER, 2 BB, BS. Soto was brought in to the game in the eighth? Here’s your ray of hope Santana fans! Oh, wait he was brought to face the heart of the order, that means Mr. Manager trusts him. But he gave up 2 ER! Yeahhh, but was still able to escape the inning after getting Bohm Bohm Bia to fly out. Oh. Dennis Santana also gave up four hits, three runs and failed to record an out. Oh. So no ray of hope is what you’re saying? I’m saying you can probably drop Santana if you’re still holding him for some reason.

Justin Crawford – 2-for-5, SB (5). Two steals in five games, if he keeps doing this he’s interesting to me. He’s definitely a red button pusher though.

Aaron Nola – 3.2 IP, 6 hits, 6 ER, 3 BB, 2 K. Yinzers versus Jawns! Cheesesteaks vs Primanti Bros! Wawa vs Sheetz! This is what this weekend is all about, folks. It’s like Heated Rivalry with less kissing and more Tastykakes.

Brandon Lowe – 2-for-5, 2 HR (12). B-Lo not blow! B-Lo! Is he the best second baseman in fantasy? He’s cooled off a bit but his fourth homer in May was an absolute tank that’s still sailing in the river. Has to be 420+ feet. Also, man if that ain’t a pretty ballpark, but no, build me something cold and black and lifeless on the Vegas strip please. With unlimited vendors!! Back to B-Lo, look at the Pirates making smart offseason acquisitions. Lowe and O’Hearn have been vital to this team, and fantasy managers. These players could have been available to anyone and everyone who wanted to sign them. You know how I know? Because the Pirates signed them.

Kyle Schwarber – 3-for-5, 2 HR (20), 5 RBI. Speaking of twin tanks, the Pitt’s next trauma is dealing with the aftermath of multiple Schwarbombs striking the city after the Schwarber/Harper Hit Fest. Will multiple doctors with PTSD including one with autism and a crotchety nurse with a heart of gold be able to clock out on time? Or will they leave the hotties of the night shift to deal with it all? So Kyle Schwarber thinks its June I guess? That’s nine home runs in 8 games. Here’s the first. And here’s the second. Mmm. OK, Wawa wins. Better pretzels. Remember when he wasn’t leading the league in home runs? Me neither. That was like almost a week ago. He’s batting, .375 over the past week with 7 homers, 13 RBI and a steal. He’s also slugging 1.133. Sweet sassy molassy! It’s mid-May and he’s on pace for 70 bombs! The 8 homers in 8 games is the MLB record held by none other than Mr. Manager Don Mattingly. Maybe firing Topper was the right move? Don comes into the clubhouse and says, hey Kyle, hit more dingers, maybe, idk just a suggestch? I like to imagine that’s how it went. Schwarbs becomes the eighth player in history to reach 20 homers this quickly (45 games) and oh boy you should see the other names on this list (they’re very good). He has more home runs than seven teams have wins. I’d say maybe pitchers should intentionally walk the guy, but I enjoy watching this too much.

Thanks for reading! Questions? Problems? Complaints to management? Advice, small gifts or large bribes? Please leave it in the comments below. Join us next Saturday for another Friday recap as fantasy baseball continues next week, all week long!