A Try at a Day's Preview of Games

[DOUGHBOYS]

If BJ Upton gets traded to the Tigers, Justin Verlander will be playing with three Upton's.
Today, Verlander faces a crappy looking White Sox team (sorry, Mike).
He'll be facing the most oft-traded pitcher who has never been traded during his Major league career in Jose Quintana.
Quintana is wanted by most other Major League teams, but none want to pay the price the Nats did for Adam Eaton.
The Chi/Sox, spoiled by that deal, are happy to wait for another like it. Time is on their side.
Quintana was a fav among NFBC drafters, but now that the season is upon us, how does he get Wins?
His defense is well below average and once Abreu and Frazier are passed in the lineup, there are few real threats to the scoreboard.
The White Sox would be doing Quintana and his owners a solid by trading him as early as possible. Until then, Wins may be tough.

The Yanks play the Rays.
I heard the Rays set an attendance record on Opening Day.
Kind of shot their wad with vans and busing from the old folks homes. Now, the regular fans come back and they can continue their usual Bridge Game as the Rays play.
Is their a worse looking venue from a tv perspective?

Colorado at Milwaukee-
Voice Mail- "Hey Dan, Jonathon Gray looks great, doesn't he? I mean, Man, he is just mowing them down!"

2nd Voice Mail- "Hey Dan, never mind about that first call."

Actually, the Rockies and Brewers are a lot alike. A lot of hitting pieces. Most taken high in drafts.
Their starting pitching? Ugh.
Their relief pitching? Ugh'er

Cleveland at Texas-
In a knife fight, anybody can win. It just takes one swipe.
Still, we think the more experienced, skilled participant will win.
Carlos Carrasco vs. Martin Perez tonight.
The real story here may be Carrasco's health. His owners will be looking to see if Carrasco can throw six innings without looking like ...well, Martin Perez.

Seattle at Houston-
Lance McCullers may have more potential than most Big League pitchers.
BUT, he has never fully displayed it.
So far, he has only gotten the first two letters of the word in his draft pick spot.
McCullers has been a po pick leading up to this year. Maybe this year, he finds his 'tential'

Chicago at St Louis-
Arrieta vs. Wainwright.
Talk about two different pitchers. Wainwright was a quick upper-draft pick from the get-go of his career.
Arrieta found his stride late.
And it looks like Arrieta is in a 'showcase' year in terms of his contract.
The Cubs lack of interest in re-signing him dropped him down a bit on my draft lists.
It may be because Arrieta asked for the moon, but it also may be that the Cubs think that he is on the downside.
Either way, this is the game to watch tonight.

SF- ARI
Paul Goldschmidt stole 30 bases and dropped in leagues this year. He dropped on my list too.
I saw a bit of Joey Votto in Goldschmidt last year. Willing to take a walk and not having a full swing with two strikes.
In real baseball, commendable, for fantasy, a demerit.

Angels-A's
There should be a rivalry, right?
There should be. But there isn't.
When these two teams play, east coasters don't find out the score till the next morning,,,or never.
Either works.
They only want to know 'What did Trout do?'

San Diego vs. the Dodgers-
Quietly. Very quietly, the Padres have built themselves, what possibly could be, the worst team in baseball this year.
They started off this series with Chacin and they will end this series with Weaver.
And it doesn't matter if its Jered, Jeff, or Doc Weaver, the results will be the same.
This Padres team has absolutely nothing to hang its hat on.
The offense is being 'carried' by two rookies in Renfroe and Margot with Wil Myers in between.
The starting pitching, horrible,
The relief pitching, horribler.
They gave up 14 runs yesterday, consider any opponents total under seven runs as a victory in and of itself.
'Prayers for the Padres' is their motto this year.

An edit-
Lets try and pick the fantasy player of the Game also:

DET-CWS- JaCoby Jones. Clearly cheating as the game is now in the sixth inning.

NYY-TAM- I'll go with Greg Bird. His at bats were ominously quiet in the first game.

COL-MIL- Trevor Story continues some of the best April splits in history.

CLE-TEX- Edwin Encarnacion. Martin Perez brings a knife to a gunfight.

SEA-HOU- I believe that McCullers shows Seattle who is boss, the first time through the lineup. Then, Robinson Cano takes the game into his own hands. Cano is 6-14 (all singles) off McCullers.

CHI-STL- This Cubs team hits over ,300 vs. Wainwright. I don't think he'll last past the fifth inning. It'll be Rizzo and Contreras doing the heavy damage.

SF-ARI- Johnny Cueto, without two homers, does what Madison Bumgarner could not do, Win.

LL-OAK- Matt Joyce and Marcus Semien combine to make Shoemaker's return from a beaning, another beaning.

SD-LAD- Pick a Dodger, almost any Dodger. If pressed, I'll go Logan Forsythe.

[Yah Mule]

Great Verlander line.

No matter how good or bad the White Sox are, they have always refused to win for Quintana.

[Bronx Yankees]

The Padres' pitching staff may be one of the worst ever assembled. Indeed, I can't remember a worse starting rotation to enter a season. It used to be that the pitcher-friendly park would give Padre pitchers a bump up for fantasy purposes. That bump up is not nearly enough this year to make any Padre starter even remotely interesting.

Mike

[Deadheadz]

.
You didn't tell us there'd be a Home Run Derby between Castellanos and Jones.
Amazing!

[DOUGHBOYS]

An alarming stat for those with a lot of shares of Quintana...
Going back to last September, Quintana has given up at least six runs in three of his last seven starts....

Quintana is only human.
He wants to have a chance to win. He wants a chance to be on a team that is building, not dismantling.
Maybe, just maybe, time is not on the White Sox side.
Quintana may be worth just a bit less each time toeing the mound for a losing team.
It should be interesting to see how this story plays out.

[rkulaski]

As I'm sure everyone predicted , the Dodgers beat the Padres 11-1. Yasmani Grandal, everyone's favorite catcher to draft in the 9th round, homered 2 more times and... oh wait.... SD won 4-0 behind 8 shutout innings from Clayton Richard. Of course they did and we all saw that one coming. I'm sure nobody played any dodgers in dfs Tuesday night and started Clayton.