Kenta Maeda tossed a gem on Tuesday but was outdueled by Alcantara. Over five innings Maeda struck out nine batters and allowed just a single run, a solo shot to Avsail Garcia. His swing and miss numbers in this outing were truly a marvel. He posted a 39% CSW for the game is almost 10% above the typical league average and he generated a 43% whiff rate in the game. His slider was especially great, getting 12 whiffs on 19 swings. Across the board his velocity was up on all of his offerings, a pleasant sign for someone who's dealt with injuries over the years. He did leave the game with a trainer though but reports after said that it was just fatigue and he should be good for his next start.
Hayden Wesneski allowed six hits over 4.2 innings for the Reds, striking out four and allowing three runs. He did a phenomenal job of showcasing a variety of pitches, using four offerings over 20% of the time. His sweeper, four-seam fastball, and sinker were all over 20% last season, but the cutter jumping up over 20% is a new development. Wesneski had a solid debut for the Cubs last season, striking out exactly one batter per inning with a 2.18 ERA and 0.94 WHIP. I'm intrigued more by Wesneski now that he's using the cutter a bit more instead of quite so much of the sweeper. Both pitches had over a 30% whiff rate last season and the cutter can make for harder offering that still has movement in a similar style.
Brian Anderson has gotten off to a flying start in Milwaukee, hitting two homers and driving in six runs on Tuesday pushing his season totals to four homers and 10 RBI. It's been a few seasons, but we've seen Anderson post some extremely friendly fantasy numbers in year prior in Miami, hit 20 homers in 2019 and posting averages around the .260 mark and now he's in a significantly better hitters park for him. He's going to be the everyday third baseman for a while now that Luis Urias is injured. Since we're all reacting to small samples at this point in the season, I'm 100% going to look at waiver wires tonight to see where Anderson might be available.
Jorge Mateo went 2-for-4 at the plate with his second homerun of the season, and now he's posting a 1.417 OPS through the first five games of the season. Out of all the teams to take advantage of the pickoff rules, the Orioles are leading the league in stolen bases and he has swiped four bags already. All four came in the first two games of the season, swiping a pair in both games. Mateo doesn't have batted ball data that jumps off the page in prior seasons but the speed has always been something that he's had in his back pocket, which makes him even more valuable this year than in years past.
AJ Minter got the first crack at the 9th inning for the Braves as they finally had a save chance on Tuesday. He tossed a clean ninth inning against the Cardinals with a strikeout. He's started his 2023 campaign with three clean innings and a pair of strikeouts. Minter took the step into an elite reliever last season with a 2.06 ERA over 70 innings and 94 strikeouts. As long as he hold onto the closer's spot in Atlanta he's going to be one of the most valuable relief arms out there, and in saves+holds leagues he entered the league as on of the elite arms.
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