Here's something new for this year. With the weekend waiver wire article now in Chris Towers' capable hands, I have a chance to react to weekend happenings in a way that's not so waiver wire-focused. Players with high availability in CBS Sports leagues aren't the only ones doing things, after all, and the scope of Fantasy Baseball analysis goes beyond whether or not to add a player.
So I'm doing a stockwatch instead. Will there be some overlap with Chris' waiver wire article? Sure, for the players who most deserve it. But I'd like the majority of those featured here to be different from those featured there so that you get to read about more players.
Not every bad performance is enough to lower a player's stock just like not every good performance is enough to raise a player's stock, and part of my responsibility here is to avoid overreactions. Sure, Aaron Nola and Bailey Ober were terrible this weekend, but I don't actually think less of them as pitchers for it. Meanwhile, if I do go so far as to say a player's stock has changed, it may not necessarily be by a huge amount.
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It's probably best not to overdefine it, so let's just get to the meat. Here are eight players who I think saw a genuine change in value this weekend.
Stock Up
Yoshinobu Yamamoto followed a shaky spring with a disastrous big-league debut March 21 in South Korea, giving up five runs in just an inning of work as his trademark command completely abandoned him. Whether the culprit was nerves or the disruption created by the Dodgers' travel schedule, Yamamoto showed it was just a one-time thing, breezing through five innings in his second career start Saturday. He walked none and needed only 68 pitches, delivering a 13.2 percent swinging-strike rate. Whatever insecurity you may have felt about drafting him as your ace should be next to nothing now.
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Jack Flaherty's successful spring training carried over to his season debut Sunday with six strong innings at the White Sox. His strikeouts, walks and swinging strikes were all impressive enough, but his average fastball velocity was up only 0.4 mph from a year ago, which was less than we were seeing this spring. Of course, his slider was up 1.2 mph, and his curveball was up 2.3 mph. He was also pitching in 47-degree weather, which isn't so conducive to throwing hard. Bottom line is that there's even more reason to believe Flaherty is poised for his best seasons since 2019, when he placed fourth in NL Cy Young voting. If he's still available in your league, you'll want to remedy that now.
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Most of the hype surrounding Jared Jones this spring had to do with his velocity, which makes for a nice headline, but he had less than a strikeout per inning and more walks than ideal. I was intrigued, but not entirely sold and would have stopped short of calling him must-add. His debut Saturday changed that. Not only did he strike out 10 Marlins but he also registered 22 swinging strikes, including 10 on his slider and 11 on his fastball. And the velocity was as advertised, peaking at 99.9 mph. It's a limited arsenal but an electric one capable of missing the bats needed to make Jones a Fantasy asset. If you have to choose between him and Flaherty, you take Flaherty, but you really need to be adding both.
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Other than Mookie Betts -- whose Fantasy stock has no room to improve, realistically -- there's been no hotter hitter to open the season than Lourdes Gurriel, whose 10 RBI are tied with Betts for the most in baseball. The 30-year-old has tended to run hot and cold, and it's likely we're just catching him on the right side of streaky right now. So why do I say stock up? Well, he entered the year as a fringe roster guy, particularly for three-outfielder leagues, capable of deliver 25 homers but modest numbers otherwise, so if he came in on the wrong side of streaky, you might be moving on pretty quickly. Prepare to settle in now, though,
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The upside to Royce Lewis' torn quadriceps (if it's not too ghoulish to say so) is that it opens a lineup spot for Willi Castro, who swiped 33 bases as a part-time utility player last year. He's expected to start there for the next two months, provided he doesn't blow it, and could be such a big contributor in that one category that he needs to be rostered in all Rotisserie leagues. Judging by his 26 percent roster rate, he's not yet. True, his hitting is nothing to write home about, but it's not unreasonable to suggest he could make a similar impact to Esteury Ruiz over the next two months, only with third base eligibility in addition to outfield.
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Stock Down
The Tigers have registered two saves already, but neither by Alex Lange, who led the team in saves last year and was presumed to be the closer coming into this year. In fact, he wasn't even a consideration for either save chance. His one appearance this year came in the seventh inning of a game, and he walked three while recording just one out. Both save chances went to fellow right-hander Jason Foley instead, and while the Tigers also have a couple lefties who they could use for saves, it doesn't seem like Lange is high enough in the pecking order. He was erratic all of last year and seems to have lost the trust of manager A.J. Hinch, in which case he should probably be dropped in most leagues.
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Rangers manager Bruce Bochy hesitated to anoint Jose Leclerc the closer even though he was nails during the team's World Series run last year. Now, it seems like Bochy's skepticism was warranted. Through two appearances, Leclerc has issued five walks and surrendered five runs. He's no stranger to control lapses and will probably overcome this one in due time, but seeing as Bochy wasn't totally sold in the first place and now has a viable closing alternative in David Robertson, Leclerc is probably on thin ice. It's not a drop situation, at least not in leagues where saves are scarce, but you may want a contingency plan.
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Michael King's struggles in the season-opening South Korea series were easy enough to dismiss given the all-around strangeness of the situation, but you could argue his stateside debut was even worse. He issued seven walks in four innings Sunday against the Giants, and his velocity was down 2 mph across the board. King doesn't have much of a track record as a starter, having moved there late last season and mostly worked shorter outings, and he wasn't known for his durability as a reliever. He says he's searching for his mechanics right now -- and he may well be -- but he hasn't proven enough in this role to have an infinitely long leash. We're not to the point of dropping him yet, but we'll need to see real progress in his next turn or two.
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