Hope everyone had a fantastic Passover, Easter and April Fools Day! I know I did as I pulled off a fantastic April Fools joke over at Fangraphs. Speaking of April Fools Day pranks, did you hear about the one where the Dodgers and Brewers were close to a Matt Kemp for Ryan Braun swap? That one was funny.

We know the Howard Bender had a great Easter as he celebrated Peepapalooza. For those of you that don’t know, that is when Howard embarks on a journey of self discovery in which he sees how many Peeps he can eat in a 24 hour period on Easter. How his doctors have not discovered diabetes is beyond me.

On to baseball…

Bullpen Pandemonium

Keynan Middleton came in of relief of closer Blake Parker after Parker was unable to close out a four-out save against the A’s The Angels closing season was a bit muddled coming into the season with Cam Bedrosian and Parker seemingly fighting for the role, but now Middleton has been inserted into the fray. Shallower league players should avoid this mess if possible, but deeper league players may want to take a shot on Middleton in case he can wrestle the job away.

Things That Make You Go “Hmmmm…”

With one series in the books at home for the Diamondbacks and their new humidor, we have a little data to look at. Through three games, there have been 9 home runs at Chase Field this season for 3.0 homer per game average. Last year at chase field there were 215 home runs hit at Chase Field for 2.62 homer per game average. This is still a small sample, so don’t draw too many conclusions, but this is something to watch as the season goes on.

Yulieski Gurriel is scheduled to return to the Astros on Tuesday after a five game suspension. Gurriel was suspended for inappropriate gestures during the World Series. He is also recovering from a hand injury, but was not placed on the DL to start the year, likely to avoid him having to miss more games. He should be good to place in your weekly lineups this week.

Delino DeShields was placed on the 10-Day DL with a broken hamate bone. He will likely miss the next 4-6 six weeks with the injury. While hamate injuries can sap power from players, DeShields is coveted for his speed, so he should be ok once he returns. Carlos Tocci and Drew Robinson will likely profit the most from his absence. Tocci can swipe bags as well, making him the perfect replacement in AL Only formats. Robinson has multi-positional eligibility and could get the majority of the work, but doesn’t have a standout fantasy tool to make him interesting outside of AL Only.

As of 9:19pm PST, Howard Bender had eaten 106 Peeps. No one has heard from him since…

"An interesting effort but not a keeper. 106 and feeling rejuvenated...sort of."

 

Michael Conforto is traveling with the Mets to New York for their upcoming series versus the Phillies. He is first eligible to come off of the disabled list as of Thursday and appears to be on track to do so. Conforto had offseason surgery and was supposed to miss at least the first month of the season, but has crushed that timetable in a good way. In weekly leagues, he may not be worth activating as he would only have three games left in the week including a matchup versus ace Stephen Strasburg, but in daily formats, he should be good to go.

Shohei Ohtani got his first Major League win and quality start after throwing 6 innings and giving up three runs to the A’s. All three runs came via a Matt Chapman homer, but that wasn’t the only mistake he made. Ohtani had issues with sequencing and leaving pitches in the zone, but the stuff was excellent when he placed it right. The sequencing will come with time and working with his catchers and pitching coaches. This should be somewhat encouraging in terms of a Major League debut.

What We’ll Be Watching Today

– Jameson Taillon makes his season debut. He lost a lot of last season due to testicular cancer, but amazingly came back and pitched well down the stretch. He went too low in my opinion this draft season, but is at worst someone to root for. In the same game, we get to see Lance Lynn make his Twins debut.

– Miles Mikolas make his official return to Major League Baseball after spending time in exile in Japan. He had an up and down spring training, but was fantastic in pro ball in Japan, so we should get a nice snapshot of what he can do versus a Brewers potent offense in homer happy Miller Park.

– Bartolo Colon makes his 529th Major League start with 12 organization. Baseball is better with Bartolo.

– Where is Trea Turner batting? He has hit 5th or 6th in the lineup in all three of his games this year. This could be very frustrating for fantasy owners if he hits that low all season.

– Will Howard show up for work today? Did he survive the Peepapalooza?!? Will I be fired for including this in my article? More answers tomorrow!

– Baseball. Lots of baseball.