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This season couldn’t have started much better for the Braves, at least to date. They are the only team that hasn’t yet lost a series (they did split one, though), they have baseball’s second-best record (behind the Dodgers, tied with the Padres), they’re top ten in both position player and pitching fWAR, and they’re top five in a bunch of other things like batting inputs and defensive value. Even though it’s early and a small sample could be responsible for pretty much anything, the only guy they’ll ultimately rely on that are struggling are Mike Yastrzemski. It’s baseball, and things can change on a dime at any time. But, right now, anyway, the Braves look pretty good. This recent series with the Guardians reminded me a lot of 2022-2023: broadly and wildly successful, but on the basis of smashing the ball rather than any kind of holistic, fundamental baseball excellence. In other words, booting balls and getting thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double doesn’t matter if you’re pummeling the opposing team at the plate.

All of this leaves the Braves’ lack of success in the ABS challenge system as incongruously jutting out from what’s going on with the team otherwise. This is self-evident both from watching the games, and from the data here: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/abs and here: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/abs-challenges.

I’ll be quick, but essentially, a few things jump out at me:

1. Yes, the Braves have been really bad so far.
2. However, the Braves have not been really bad at actually swinging strikeouts or walks as a result of challenges.
3. On top of that, where leverage is meaningful, the Braves are okay if not actually good at challenges, at least on a rate basis. They just don’t get these opportunities a lot… because they waste their challenges early on, where it doesn’t matter.

So, I’m not going to write out a long heuristic here (that’s your job), but I do think that whatever heuristic they implement, should they choose to do so, it should definitely include:

A) Only challenges that are relevant to a walk or strikeout, not other stuff futzing with the count; and

B) Only challenges in some semblance of leverage, i.e., tying or go-ahead run at the plate or on deck, and if a low-scoring game early, then not at all until the fourth inning or whatever.

There are of course more complicated and probably better heuristics, but these are also things the players need to remember in real-time. I’d love to say, “Only challenge in the first three innings if you’re 90 percent confident you’ll win” but the players are probably 90 percent confident every time they challenge, so that’s not helpful to anyone.

Anyway, have at it…

It would be difficult to assert that any road trip has gone worse for the Astros. It started with taking one of six games from two of the worst teams in baseball. It ended with a four game set against the division rival Mariners. It is not officially over even as you are reading this, but the damage has been done. The team has stumbled down the standings, three players have moved to the injured list, and one more was sent to Houston for tests on his arm and shoulder.

Three of those four injuries were pitching injuries. In that universe, the study belong takes on an entirely new context. All that being said, Joe Espada took on a ton of criticism last season with his willingness to send his relievers out there for multiple innings. In particular, some wondered if pitching Josh Hader in multiple innings multiple times played a direct impact in ending his season early. It may have been no coincidence that his very last outing was a two inning relief appearance.

If we were giving this a proper study then we would want to study all 30 teams or at least American League teams to determine how often this is happening. That kind of study might come later if this trend continues, but we are comparing the 2025 Astros with the 2026 Astros. In particular, we are looking at the number of multiple inning relief appearances and the numbers of those outings that wound up being scoreless outings. In other words, was it an effective strategy for Espada last season and has it been an effective strategy this season? For our purposes, we are looking at the top seven pitchers in games pitched from last season.

2025 Bullpen Usage

Obviously, any strategy has to be evaluated on two prongs. How effective is the strategy and does the strategy have any long-term lingering negative effects? The first question is an easier question to answer. If a team made it through more than 80 percent of their relief appearances (overall) with a no runs given up then that bullpen has probably done fairly well. People often have unrealistic expectations when it comes to the bullpen. If a pitcher pitches three games in a week and surrenders a run once then he has a 3.00 ERA if all of those are one inning outings. I think most people would take that from all of their relief pitchers and walk away happy.

So, if we are looking at relief pitching in that prism, then we would say that two out of every three outings should be a scoreless outing. That is in effect the break even point. So, as a team they were breaking even more than that on multiple inning outings. Of course, that can be defined as little as 1.1 innings pitched all the way through three or four innings.

This is why many Espada critics focus in on his handling of Hader. Beyond any physical problem, it wasn’t an effective strategy. For someone that was one of the most effective relievers through his injury, he was decidedly ineffective when asked to take the ball for a second inning. When we look at bullpen performance again (when we have more outings to level things out) we will primarily look at the number of scoreless outings a reliever has in comparison to the number out outings. Now, let’s take a look at the 2026 numbers.

2026 Bullpen Usage

I know what everyone is going to say. “But the lack of good starting pitching has put the Astros in a position to use more multiple inning relievers.” There is no denying that. In back to back games the starters made it through one inning and then one third of an inning. That is brutal and both of those pitchers might have come away with lengthy injuries. There is very little getting around that. The Astros may have the fewest quality starts in the league at this point of the season.

Still, the lab has always been a place where we can take our feelings and throw them into an empirical test. It feels like Espada frequently tries to get one more inning than he should from his relief pitchers. We’ve seen multiple outings where a reliever throws a clean inning or two clean innings, but that next inning is where things go awry. Of course, feelings don’t cash checks around these parts.

What does cash those checks are the actual numbers. Those multiple inning relief outings have been far less successful than they were last season. That is also probably because there have been too many of them and they are going on too long. Some of that can be helped and some of it can’t be. In our commentary on Friday, we talked about the staff stabilizing itself. Simply being able to go out there and throw five or six innings in a start would go a long way to do that.

General managers are made based on what percentage of their decisions that turn out favorably, Managers are made based on how they handle their pitching staff. Yes, decisions of who to sit and when are important. Yet, it is when to pitch certain guys and how long to pitch them that make most of the difference from day to day. The early going has been rough for both guys as both see their contracts run out. The season is long. Hope springs eternal. Throw in your euphemism here. As always, this will be something we track again as the season goes on.

The Orioles entered the year with plenty of public pessimism around their bullpen. Their newly-signed closer was coming off of the worst stretch in his career, they were already dealing with injuries to key members of the group, and much of the unit was unproven at the major league level. While the 2026 season is only two weeks old, and questions remain, there is also a lot to like about the relief corps that Mike Elias has assembled.

Across the board, the O’s bullpen ranks in the top half of the league in most statistics. They are 11th in fWAR (0.5), 11th in ERA (3.45), seventh in xERA (3.55), sixth in K/9 (10.05), and 14th in BB/9 (4.08). These aren’t elite numbers, but they represent perfectly fine performance. That wasn’t a guarantee given the construction of the unit.

Ryan Helsley has done well in the closer’s role, though there is room for improvement. He is 4-for-4 on save opportunities and has an ERA of 3.38. That famous fastball of his has looked good, averaging 98.5 mph, while the splitter he was working on throughout the spring hasn’t shown up too much yet. He does need to cut down on walks (6.75 BB/9), and his hard-hit rate is real bad (68.8%), but he has managed to survive those numbers so far. We should expect them to normalize at some point. He (hopefully) won’t have a .438 BABIP all season.

If the O’s do need to take the pressure off of Helsley at any point, it seems like they have three or four alternative ninth-inning candidates ready to go.

Rico Garcia snagged his first major league save during the White Sox series last week. The diminutive righty is yet to allow an earned run across 6.2 innings while striking out 10.80 per nine. His numbers aren’t fluky either. Take a gander at his Baseball Savant page. He is getting a ridiculous number of whiffs while also avoiding hard contact at an elite rate. At this moment, you could make an argument that he is the best reliever on the team.

Someone else in that conversation is Grant Wolfram. The lefty leads the bullpen in fWAR (0.3), K/9 (15.00), BB/9 (0.00), and FIP (0.81). All of this while having a bit of bad luck on balls in play (.462 BABIP). You can more easily poke holes in Wolfram’s performance. He isn’t getting as much weak contact or inducing whiffs as often as Garcia, but it has still been quite impressive.

Yennier Cano seems to be back at his all-star level from a couple of seasons ago. His slider has been largely sidelined in favor of a split-finger fastball, particularly against left-handed hitters, and it is working. He is yet to issue a walk and is striking out 10.38 per nine. Opposing hitters are almost exclusively pounding the ball into the ground against Cano. His 72.7% ground ball rate is among the league leaders early on. That is a recipe for success for the 32-year-old.

And let us not forget about Anthony Nunez. It looks like the Orioles have struck gold here, folks. The 24-year-old may have been the 26th man on the roster coming into Opening Day, only making the team due to a late spring injury to Keegan Akin. Well, he’s not going anywhere for a while. He is in the top 10 percent (or better) of pitchers in xERA (1.23), xBA (.137), average exit velocity (80.1 mph), and whiff rate (37.3%). His four-pitch mix is a real weapon out of the Orioles bullpen this year, but he feels like a rotation candidate at some point in his career.

Now, bullpens are volatile. These immaculate ERAs will not remain. Tough stretches are going to come. Each of these guys will have ups and downs throughout the season. But if they can get through the trials and tribulations, that would mean the Orioles have five stellar relievers that they can count on in close games. Not many teams can say that, and it would bode well for the team’s postseason ambitions.

This is before we even consider the sort of improvement that could come from other parts of the bullpen.

The Orioles IL is full of relievers. Akin, Andrew Kittredge, Dietrich Enns, and Yaramil Hiraldo will all be healthy again at some point. The expected impact of each varies, but they are all at least big league quality. Kittredge, in particular, is someone the team will be excited to get back. He has nearly a decade of experience, including a solid 31-game stint with the O’s a year ago and three trips to the postseason. That sort of guidance could be a crucial for this group.

On top of that, the club clearly believes in Tyler Wells’ ability to be a high-leverage reliever. They entered the year with him in a set-up role, but after giving up three runs across his first 2.1 innings of work, they backed off. More recently, manager Craig Albernaz has turned to him as a multi-inning option in the middle frames. So far, so good. Wells has given up just one run over his last seven innings. That has lowered his season ERA from 10.13 at the end of March to just 3.72 now.

Between Wells and Albert Suárez, the Orioles are also in the enviable position of having multiple pitchers in their bullpen that can reliably go beyond one inning of work. Both of them have starter backgrounds and were stretched out as such during the spring. That potentially allows them to step in as spot starters on occasion, or simply absorb innings if one of the normal starters has a shorter outing. Those sorts of efforts help to keep a bullpen fresh throughout a 162-game season.

There are nits to pick with the Orioles bullpen. And they are an area of team that will likely get an upgrade if the team is in the postseason conversation come July. But through two weeks, they are exceeding expectations and have the potential to be an unforeseen weapon for this squad.

Good morning.

Shawn McFarland writes that Skip Schumaker was satisfied to see the Texas Rangers reach base early and often in their win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday.

Jacob Gurvis writes that Jacob deGrom continued his career-long mastery of the Dodgers while earning his first win of the season in Sunday’s finale.

McFarland writes that in a tussle between living legends, Shohei Ohtani won a battle with a leadoff home run but deGrom won the war with a superlative outing in the victory.

Gurvis notes that deGrom and the rest of the Texas arms got an assist from catcher Danny Jansen with four successful ABS challenges in five challenges overall on Sunday.

McFarland writes that the struggles for reliever Chris Martin has thrown a wrench into the bullpen plans during the season’s first few weeks.

Will Leitch is the only person willing to say they like the Rangers’ new City Connect look as he bumps Texas up to No. 8 in the MLB dot com power rankings.

McFarland offers the latest on Wyatt Langford’s status after Langford sat out a second consecutive game with a mild quad strain.

And, the MLB Trade Rumors folks note that former long-time Ranger Martin Perez has been designated for assignment by Atlanta.

Try to remember the good times, ’teen.

Have a nice day!

Columbus Clippers 2, Worcester Red Sox 8

Clippers fall to 8-7

Travis Bazzana had one of his best games at Triple-A, going 2-for-3 with two doubles and a walk while Juan Benjamin went 2-for-4.

Kody Huff homered and Petey Halpin doubled.

On the pitching side of the equation, Trenton Denholm got tagged for seven runs on six hits with two walks and two strikeouts in 4.0 innings.

Daniel Espino again had a scoreless appearance, as did Will Dion and Tanner Burns.

Akron RubberDucks 2, Harrisburg Senators 9

RubberDucks fall to 5-4

It was a rough game for Akron both offensively and with pitching.

Alfonso Rosario was a bright spot, going 2-for-3 with a home run. Joe Lampe had the lone multi-hit game, going 2-for-4 with a double and a stolen base and Ralphy Velazquez reached base safely twice, going 1-for=3 with a walk, something Jose Devers also did.

Starting pitcher Dylan DeLucia again had a horrific outing, allowing four runs on three hits with two walks and one strikeouts without getting out of the first inning.

Zane Morehouse was the only pitcher who didn’t give up a run or allow an inherited runner to score.

Lake County Captains 7, Dayton Dragons 4

Captains improve to 4-5

Top Guardians 2025 MLB Draft Pick Jace LaViolette finally had his first big moment as a pro, blasting off for a three-run home run in the first inning, the first of hopefully many in his young career.

LaViolette still is a work in progress, as the bomb was his only hit of the day, going 1-for-4 with a walk and two more strikeouts. He’s batting .160 to begin his pro career with a grotesque 53.6% strikeout rate. He is going to have to get that under control before he makes any other progress.

Eight different Lake County players had hits in this game. Bennett Thompson also homered and walked as his extremely strong start to the 2026 season continues. Jaison Chourio went 1-for-3 with a double, a walk and a sacrifice fly.

Starting pitcher Franklin Gomez had another strong outing, allowing one run on two hits in 4.0 innings while striking out four and walking one. Michael Kennedy followed with 4.0 innings of piggyback relief, allowing three runs on three hits with five strikeouts and a walk. Two of his three hits allowed were home runs.

Izaak Martinez finished off the game with a 1-2-3 ninth inning to earn his first save of the season.

Hill City Howlers 5, Fredericksburg Nationals 2

Howlers improve to 6-3

The story of this game was the tremendous bounceback performance from Chase Mobley. After failing to get more than one out in his 2026 debut, he pitched 2.1 scoreless, hitless innings, striking out three and walking three on 49 pitches. Hopefully this is a sign of brighter things to come from him.

Miguel Flores followed with 2.2 scoreless innings of relief and Luke Fernandez closed out the win with 2.0 scoreless innings of one-hit ball with four strikeouts to earn the save.

Offensively, Anthony Martinez hit his first home run of the season, going 1-for-3 with a walk. Luis De La Cruz stayed hot, going 2-for-3 with a walk and two stolen bases while Dauri Fernandez singled and walked, although he got caught stealing twice. Yelferth Castillo also went 2-for-3 with a walk.

Juneiker Caceres and Robert Arias both reached base twice with a pair of walks apiece.

The team has seen Taijuan Walker struggle in first innings this season and is trying to find a solution to the issue. It could be simulating that first inning in the bullpen, it could be having him throw longer bullpens to begin the day. One solution seems to be the best one if they are indeed going to be trying something different.

Should the Phillies consider using an opener for Walker’s starts so long as he’s in the rotation? We know that the return of Zack Wheeler feels imminent, meaning Walker’s time in the rotation is probably short as it is. However, injuries happen and the team will want to keep him close by in case they need someone to jump into a rotation spot quickly. But they cannot continue to just let those starts get away so early, relying on an offense that thus far has been inconsistent at best. Maybe this more modern approach to beginning games is something the team should be considering.

All is not well in Yankee-land. After taking their first three series on the strength of a stifling rotation, they’ve scuttled, dropping two of three to the Athletics before getting swept by the Rays. They’ll get the chance to rebound this week against an Angels squad that finished worst in the AL West last year but has gotten off to a respectable 8-8 start. Let’s take a look at the likely pitching matchups for this mid-week set in the Bronx.

Monday: Will Warren vs. Yusei Kikuchi(7:05 pm ET)

After an encouraging rookie season last year, Will Warren has gotten off to a strong start. He’s yet to allow more than two runs through three outings, doing a better job of limiting free passes and hard contact. The right-hander has not surpassed 85 pitches in any of his starts, though, limiting him to more of a “five-and-dive” role than a workhorse. Last season, Warren posted a 3.31 ERA outside of his four worst starts, meaning it will be key to see if he’s able to sustain his early success over a longer sample size.

He’s lined up to face Yusei Kikuchi. The veteran was an All-Star in his first season with LA last year, making 33 starts while performing slightly above league-average. He’s gotten off to a rough start this year, allowing 11 runs through 14.2 innings. The southpaw’s metrics suggest he’s been unlucky, though, with an expected ERA of 3.77 which would be an improvement over last year. That’s because he’s inducing weaker contact while issuing fewer walks, a time-honored formula for success. Kikuchi threw 97 pitches his last time out, so expect him to shoulder a full starter’s workload as long as he’s effective.

Tuesday: Ryan Weathers vs. Reid Detmers(7:05 pm ET)

After two brief and uneven outings to begin his Yankees career, Ryan Weathers made a statement his last time out. Against a potent Athletics lineup, the former Marlin allowed just one run in eight innings, pitching around seven hits in a performance that showed the potential the Yankees saw when they acquired him this offseason. The biggest tweak the team made to Weathers’ profile was transforming his sinker, which he threw just 20 times last year, into his top secondary pitch. The results have not followed, as opponents have hit .421 against the pitch.

Weathers will oppose Reid Detmers. A former top prospect, Detmers struggled as a starter before finding success last year as a reliever. In a controversial move, the Angels transitioned him back to the rotation this season and the results have been mixed. A 6.2-inning scoreless outing against the Mariners was followed by a six-run drubbing at the hand of the A’s in which he only got one out in the fifth. Detmers has largely been a two-pitch pitcher so far this year, featuring a four-seamer which has gotten torched and a slider which has held opponents to a .167 batting average.

Wednesday: Luis Gil vs. Jack Kochanowicz(7:05 pm ET)

Luis Gil is the elephant in the Yankees’ room. After he took home Rookie of the Year honors in 2024, the team looked to have a rotation mainstay for years to come. But, after missing most of last year to injury, he wasn’t the same pitcher upon his return, with a fastball down more than a tick leading to plummeting strikeout and whiff rates. After failing to show enough to overtake Warren or Weathers in the spring, he was optioned to Triple-A out of camp, with the plan to utilize a four-man rotation until a fifth starter was needed. That need arose last Friday, and Gil did little to change the narrative around his decline, allowing three runs, three hits, and three walks in four innings while taking the loss against Tampa Bay.

While LA is yet to announce their starter for Wednesday, Jack Kochanowicz would be up next in their rotation. After serving as a black hole in the Angels’ rotation last year, posting a 6.81 ERA, he’s been much improved through three starts this season. The right-hander allowed a single run in 12.2 innings over his last two starts against the Mariners and Reds, both playoff teams from last year. Still, his 5.96 expected ERA indicates this may be a blip, as the 25-year-old is still allowing far more walks and recording far fewer punchouts than league average.

Thursday: Max Fried vs. TBD (1:35 pm ET)

After finishing fourth in AL Cy Young voting last year, Max Fried has been every bit as dominant through his first four starts in 2026. He allowed three runs his last time out against Tampa Bay but went eight innings while throwing just 94 pitches. The sinkerballer is yet to allow a home run and, as the only healthy one out of the team’s three aces, has been an anchor in the Yankees’ rotation once again.

After sending down George Klassen, the team’s number-four prospect who allowed seven runs in 4.2 innings through his first two MLB starts, it’s unclear who the Angels will send to the bump for Thursday’s series closer. Sam Aldegheri has big-league experience and is already on the 40-man, but his 10.80 ERA through three starts at Triple-A does not inspire confidence. LA may end up going with an opener approach this time through as they consider their long-term options.

Meet the Mets

This place is a message… and part of a system of messages… pay attention to it! Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture. This place is not a place of honor… no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here… nothing valued is here. What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger. Mets lost to the A’s, 1-0.

Choose your recap: Amazin’ Avenue, MLB.com, Newsday, New York Daily News, New York Post

Before Sunday’s loss, the Mets designated reliever Luis Garcia for assignment and called up another reliver, Joey Gerber, in his place.

Following the loss, the Mets called up Old Friend Tommy Pham, who joined the organization in the final days of March. For now, the corresponding move is unknown.

The Mets have a lot of concerns, but perhaps the most surprising and confounding are Francisco Lindor’s mental lapses.

Around the National League East

As the Sunday nightcap on NBC, the Braves and Chris Sale bludgeoned the Cleveland Guardians 13-1 to go along with 19 hits.

Jose Alvarado gave up a pair of runs to the Diamondbacks in the eighth inning and took the short side of the decision in the Phillies 4-3 loss to Arizona.

In a battle of former Cy Young Award winners, Sandy Alcantara and the Marlins lost to Tarik Skubal’s Tigers in an 8-2 contest.

After nine innings of back and forth battling, the Nationals finished their series with the Brewers by coming out ahead in an 8-6 slobberknocker.

Around Major League Baseball

Over the weekend, World Series winning second baseman and pennant-winning manager Phil Garner died at 76.

The Toronto Blue Jays placed George Springer on the injured list with a broken big toe and called up 2020 icon Eloy Jimenez in his place.

Jacob deGrom had an essentially flawless start on Sunday…except for Shohei Ohtani sending the first pitch he threw hundreds of feet away.

Tigers top prospect Kevin McGonigle hit the first home run of his major league career and it came against a former Cy Young in Sandy Alcantara.

The Brewers don’t know what the news on Christian Yelich’s injury status will be, but they do know for sure that it’s going to be bad.

Old Friend Max Kranick will be throwing for teams in Philadelphia this week in hopes of latching on with a team early enough in the season to make an impact.

This Date in Mets History

On this date 59 years ago, Tom Seaver made his big league debut in front of 5,005 fans.

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Major League Baseball Monday has 10 games on tap, and plenty of options to set your betting card.

That includes Ronald Acuna Jr., who is heating up after a slow start to the year, and that should continue as the Atlanta Braves host the Miami Marlins.

Read below for my favorite MLB player props for Monday, April 13.

Best MLB player props today

Player	Pick	Odds
Ronald Acuna Jr.	2+ total bases	+100
Shea Langeliers	2+ total bases	+100
Kyle Schwarber	1+ home runs	+210

Ronald Acuna Jr. 2+ total bases (+100)

Atlanta Braves star outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. has picked up hits in four straight games, and he’s showing serious pop.

Acuna has gone 6-for-18 (.333) in the last four, picking up his first homer of the season, along with a pair of doubles and a triple.

He’ll be facing Miami Marlins righty Eury Perez, who has an inflated 5.06 ERA out of the gate. Acuna has only faced him three times, but he’s gotten his money’s worth, reaching base all three times, with a home run, a double, and two runs batted in.

• Time: 7:15 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: Marlins.TV, BravesVsn

Shea Langeliers 2+ total bases (+100)

Shea Langeliers is swinging a hot bat for the Athletics, with hits in four of his last five games, including three multi-hit games.

He hasn’t homered in seven games, but he’s hitting the ball well (sitting in the Top 20% in expected slugging, average exit velocity, and barrel rate), with a couple of doubles during this hot stretch.

Langeliers will step in against Nahan Eovaldi, who has struggled to start the year for the Texas Rangers, sporting a robust 7.98 ERA. He’s allowed a long ball in each of his three starts.

• Time: 9:40 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: RSN, NBC Sports California

Kyle Schwarber to hit a home run (+210)

Kyle Schwarber had a pair of hits in the Philadelphia Phillies' series finale against Arizona, giving him hits in seven of 10 April games.

It’s a nice matchup for him on Monday when the Chicago Cubs come to town. Chicago right-hander Javier Assad has faced Schwarber five times and has yet to retire him, surrendering two hits and three walks.

Against righties, Schwarber is tied for seventh in the majors with a .688 slugging percentage and sixth with a 1.130 OPS, and he leads the majors in barrel rate while ranking among the elite in nearly every batted-ball metric. It’s a good spot for him to launch off Assad for the first time in his career.

• Time: 6:40 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: FS1

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The Guardians dropped their first series of 2026 in impressive fashion, losing by 12 runs.

Deborah has your recap here.

I guess we will see if Tanner Bibee can figure things out. All the regression his metrics pointed to this season hit last night. I also wonder if Kolby Allard will be replaced by Hunter Gaddis today. Not ideal to be on Sunday Night Baseball and fall flat, but today is another day as the Guardians head to St. Louis.

AROUND MLB:

The Twins and Tigers won, and the White Sox beat the Royals

Jesus Lafalaise started for Frisco, throwing four shutout innings, walking three and striking out three.

Marcos Torres was 3 for 5 with a pair of triples and a homer. Yolfran Castillo was 2 for 5 with a double and a stolen base. Dewar Torres was 2 for 4 with a double and a stolen base. Daniel Flames was 2 for 4 with a double.

Hickory box score

Hub City starter D.J. McCarty walked three and struck out two while allowing two runs in 3.1 IP. Joey Danielson struck out one in a scoreless inning.

Paxton Kling was 1 for 3 with a double and two walks. Yeison Morrobel was 1 for 3 with a double and a walk. Rafe Perich was 2 for 4 with a triple. Gleider Figuereo had a hit.

Hub City box score

David Davalillo started for Frisco and went five innings, striking out seven, giving up a homer, and allowing three runs. Bryan Magdaleno walked one in 1.1 scoreless innings.

Frainyer Chavez homered.

Frisco box score

Austin Gomber allowed eight runs and recorded four outs in his start for Round Rock. Pat Murphy struck out two and walked one in 2.2 IP, allowing one run. Emiliano Teodo walked one, struck out one and allowed a run in two innings. Marc Church went 1.2 IP, striking out two and allowing a pair of homers.

Justin Foscue was 2 for 5 with a walk. Michael Helman was 2 for 3 with two walks, a double and a homer. Aaron Zavala had a pair of hits.

Round Rock box score

Old friend Justin Turner signed with the Toros de Tijuana in the Mexican League, the team announced on Friday. The longtime Dodgers third baseman took to Instagram to talk about his new team as well, in both English and Spanish.

Turner, 41, played last season with the Chicago Cubs, for whom he hit .219/.288/.314 with a 71 wRC+ and three home runs in 80 games and 191 plate appearances. That ended a string of 11 consecutive seasons with at least a 116 wRC+, the first nine of which were with the Dodgers.

In 17 major league seasons thus far, the two-time All-Star Turner has 354 doubles, 201 home runs in 1,758 games, hitting .283/.360/.454 with a 125 wRC+ for the Baltimore Orioles, New York Mets, Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, Seattle Mariners, and Cubs.

The Toros begin their Mexican League schedule Friday on the road against Saltillo.

Links

Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic broke down all four at-bats by Andy Pages on Friday night, showing how well the Dodgers center fielder has progressed at the plate this season.

“I’m just trying to find the pitch that I can do the most damage on,” Pages told Ardaya. “It’s continuing my plan, and not changing it in the middle of the at-bat, and trying to wait for my pitch.”

Longtime major league infielder and manager Phil Garner died on Saturday night at age 76. The Associated Press has more.

Garner played 16 major league seasons, including the final three and a half months of the 1987 season with the Dodgers, then later managed another 15 years, including leading the Houston Astros to their first pennant in 2005.

As most of you know, I was lucky enough to be invited to attend Winter Warmup as a reporter. Last year, I used that experience to write several season previews. Due to the late start of the top 20 prospect series (caused by waiting for Brendan Donovan to be traded), my Winter Warmup stories have been pushed to now instead of at the beginning of spring training. Thus technically, these could also be called season previews, but there’s a good chance I write a couple of these after the season has already started. I’ll try to pick stories that are not outdated for the ones during the season.

Coming into the season, the infield looked fairly strong, the bullpen looked like it should be competent, and the starting rotation, well that took a bit more hoping, but each individual member was fully capable of being average or better and there’s a good amount of depth for when things went wrong. Average rotations have certainly been built on flimsier material.

Outfield though, that took some imagination. The kind of imagination that would get you labeled a homer who was incapable of looking at things objectively. Too much had to go right and nobody was a safe bet. There were only two sure starters and both gave you reason to doubt them. Victor Scott can’t hit and Jordan Walker can’t really do anything. As for that third spot, hope things don’t go too badly and pray Lars Nootbaar gets back quickly.

Two weeks into the season, the biggest homer in the world wouldn’t dare predict what Jordan Walker has done. It’s almost inconceivable, which is itself kind of a crazy thing to think for a man once considered a top 10 prospect in the game. Of course, he was capable of this. It just doesn’t usually happen after 1,000 plate appearances of failure. Obviously, that affected him.

“When you go into the MLB, you know there are gonna be struggles,” Walker said.  “I knew that as a rookie coming up.  I didn’t think everything was gonna go my way immediately and that it was always gonna go my way.  But it’s still tough to deal with.”

Walker began his journey to this point by starting at Driveline. Interestingly, Driveline seems to be getting all the credit (as judged by an MLB Network clip, which also erroneously seemed to suggest he’s now successful because of more consistent playing time), but if I’m hearing his quote correctly, he instituted his changes at a different sports performance facility.

“At the beginning of the season, I went Driveline and did the whole body analysis thing, how I move and I brought that program over to Cressey,” Walker said. “We took that Driveline program and I incorporated it to the movement and workouts at Cressey.”

I’m pretty sure he meant offseason, but he definitely did say season. If I were an actual reporter, I would contact Walker to clarify, but I don’t have his number and I’m not going to change a quote based on an assumption. It’s not the point anyway. He gave a special shout-out to Shane Olive and Max Rios at Cressey as people he worked closely with. He didn’t mention their last names, but they do have a website, so it wasn’t hard to find.

But they didn’t start from the vantage point of let’s increase the launch angle.

“To be honest, it was really how forward I was coming when I was hitting and what we learned is that when I’m hitting off my backside, I’m driving the ball in the gaps way more consistently,” Walker said. “I’m not rolling over, I’m not getting that topspin on the ball.  The focus is really how far back I’m onto my hip and how I’m hitting on my backside rather than me focusing on launch angle.”

Essentially, he doesn’t need to focus on launch angle. Launch angle is more of a consequence of smart, effective changes.

“If I’m moving correctly, then the launch angle and exit velo and driving it where I want to will come up with it,” Walker said.

That is certainly a sentiment that Nathan Church would agree with. Though in a different spot and with different expectations, his career did hang in the balance because of a concern about power. It’s just that his power was lacking in the minor leagues. He reached AA in 2024, but only managed a .106 ISO, which also happened to be his professional high at the time. After starting 2025 injured, he then suddenly had power en route to a surprise debut in the MLB.

“A lot of it is not really trying to put up power numbers to be honest,” Church said.  “A lot of it is just trying to get stronger in the gym and knowing how my body moves correctly is kind of the main thing.  The numbers kind of spoke for itself.  Put all the work in the gym and the training room and the cage kind of shows out in the field.”

I realize that Walker went to outside sources to improve his hitting, but the verbiage both use suggest the Cardinals are also preaching this. Both reference that if their body moves correctly, the power will naturally come. That cannot be a coincidence. Joshua Baez, in the organization since he was drafted in 2021, thinks the coaching has improved since he got here.

“It’s been going upwards every single year,” Baez said.  “They’re really involved with the players, they want to know about them, what they’re doing, their routine, to help them prepare for spring training and the season.”

And yes, if you’re good at math, if he is indeed correct about it being better every year, it means things were improving before Chaim Bloom even got there. Probably a consequence of him getting better instruction as he rose through the system, but I thought I’d point that out. But he did get more specific in how things are different now.

“It was just a more personalized program for me,” Baez said. “They know me better now, it was more about me and not so much comparing or saying ‘maybe this could work for you.’  Going by experience and just try to find things that will continue to make me better.”

Baez could commiserate with Walker on struggles, albeit he got a lot less attention for them. Nonetheless, he was a high draft pick, a somewhat highly rated prospect, and the road has probably been bumpier than he thought it would be.

“Going through the down times, yeah it definitely questions you,” Baez said. “Being drafted high, having all these expectations, then just hitting that brick wall, it just builds character.  I just found a way to get up and keep going every time.”

Is there a more character-building sport than baseball? My experience is on a far smaller scale and not specifically about baseball, but when I first came onto this blog, I spammed the fanpost section with recaps back when the fanpost was considered sacred and I got roasted here in the comments and I soon learned on Twitter and I was an 18-year-old trying to skip a few steps, so it wasn’t entirely unjustified, but it definitely hurt me.

But it was character-building. Didn’t matter who it was, I used to take criticism so personally. But after that, a random person on social media doesn’t affect me at all. So on the larger, more public scale that Baez and Walker had to deal with, I’m guessing it’s significantly easier to remain confident even when slumping after their struggles. And confidence is not seen in the advanced stats, but we’re all human and it’s going to affect play.

And to again relate to my own experience: that experience also made me a better writer and a better baseball fan. It’s why I bothered to learn about advanced analytics, which only made me love the sport more. Walker, who has previously been somewhat hesitant to change a swing he was comfortable with, became someone ready to make changes.

“He has had a better, more engaged and more communicative offseason than any than I think people can remember from him,” POBO Chaim Bloom said. “Obviously, the proof will be in the pudding.  But I’m encouraged by where his head is at in terms of understanding what the adjustments need to be for him to have consistent success at this level.”

Bloom followed that up with a quote that may have been scoffed at in spring training, especially in the middle of it, but seems like the most obvious statement ever given how Walker has started his season.

“You don’t have to squint to see why the upside is worth staying with him,” Bloom said.

What’s funny is that at the time he said that, some may have argued that you do actually have to squint. But you really don’t have to squint now. It’s smacking you right in the face.

“I still have the same mentality,” Walker said.  “I want to come here, I want to win a spot, and I want to have a crazy year.”

So far, so good.