Today I’d like to just give an update on my team and my thinking and logic that went into my roster moves in the last week. A key component of fantasy baseball that I continue to harp on is having a strategy and purpose with everything I do in fantasy. There should never be any wasted transactions or wasted money, and the honest truth is that I see it all the time from people in all of my leagues. Without naming anyone or being too specific, it’s always very apparent to me when someone doesn’t have a true plan and their roster looks like a complete mess to me. There are very easy ways to clean up your roster and be efficient in building the most valuable and functional roster that you can. In my article today I’m going to share a bit more about this and tie it into my roster construction and moves I continue to make as well. It may have been a bit of foreshadowing as I reviewed my last post, where I talked about having Neto as a replacement depth piece if anyone on my team got hurt. Unfortunately, that did happen as Tommy Edman re-aggravated his ankle injury that plagued him much of last season. It happened towards the beginning of the week, where he ended up only playing one game all week and went on the injured list as well. It looks like a minor injury though, and it’s still great to have the option to start Neto, who continues to look like a true breakout candidate this season. He is now leading off for the Angels, which is great news and makes him that much more valuable in a points league with the sheer volume of at bats leadoff hitters accrue. Through only 15 games, Neto already has 4 home runs and 5 steals while batting 0.288 with an excellent 0.576 slugging percentage.

One of the recurring thoughts I kept going back to in the last few days in observing my league is that you never want to be in a position where you feel trapped with a player or a situation you don’t want where you feel stuck. The reality is that you still have the option to drop most players within reason. For example, I’d never roster two catchers unless it was the most extreme case where I could have both of the top two catchers or something. Even in that scenario I would be trying to trade one of them at all times, and if I truly couldn’t get anyone to buy there’s a real chance I may just drop one. I say this because in most circumstances if a good catcher who’s better than what I have becomes available I will normally just make the swap and not think twice about the catcher I’m dropping if I know it’s an upgrade. It’s important to know that in a one catcher points league the catcher position is very unique and needs to be viewed in an entirely different light than a normal roster spot. It would never be efficient or economical to keep a 2nd catcher on your team unless you are freely stashing them in an injured list spot. I’ll never understand upgrading at catcher and hanging onto anything else you have at the position. I say this after I traded Contreras away to someone and they’ve still kept the two other catchers they have on their roster. This is exactly what I’m talking about. Having a surplus at catcher is not a power position and is only tying someone down in that spot. For example, when I see that I’m only going to trade for one of those catchers if I’m giving up next to nothing. The reality is that I didn’t want either of his catchers which is why they weren’t included in the deal. I know it can be risky and most people wouldn’t be willing to trade out of that power position at catcher where they clearly have the best one. With what was available on the waiver wire, I decided I was happy with the potential alternatives. The reality was also that I was having a hard time doing any trade where someone didn’t want Contreras in return for an elite hitter. I was able to add JT Realmuto for $1 and am very pleased with that. He is definitely a safe pick for consistency, but I know what I’m getting while he has shown signs of life at the plate as well, hitting two home runs in the last week. He also bats in a good lineup and good lineup context is always a plus as well. In my next article on Thursday I’ll give an in-depth review of the two trades I did in the last week for Mookie Betts and Julio Rodriguez and give a proper explanation for the deals. For today I want to focus on some free agent starting pitching pickups that I’m excited about and what went into the decision-making process.

Grant Holmes

To quickly run through it, the pitchers I added over the last two days in fab were Cade Horton, Colin Rea, Lucas Giolito, Grant Holmes, and Ben Casparius. Each I added for their own specific reason, and I’d like to start by pointing out Grant Holmes who you may remember was originally on my team after draft day. I had needed to drop him last week, but after a trade opened up some roster spots for me I wanted to add him back after an impressive start against the Dodgers. I had gotten impatient, as Holmes was yet to display the things this season that made me like him last season and target him going into the season. His swinging strike rate was no longer elite and he had no feel for his slider or curveball. I watched this start, and he finally looked like the pitcher from last season. The curveball still hasn’t shown up in the way last season, but his dominance of the Dodgers gave me more optimism for him than I previously had this season. He had a career high 9 strikeouts in the start, giving up 2 earned runs in 6 innings, allowing 4 hits and 2 walks. I’ll be honest that the walks have frustrated me this season and drive me nuts, as he’s yet to walk less than 2 in any start this season. He never had walk issues last year, with a respectable 5.3% walk rate, but it’s more than doubled this season up to 13.6%. I never like a high walk rate, but there are other things I really like about Holmes, including the fact he pitches for a good team and is allowed to throw 100 pitches each start. I think he can get the walks back under control if he gets back in a good rhythm the way he displayed in 2024. I bid $4 on Holmes, as I was impressed with his start against the Dodgers and really like the team context for Holmes. I view him as a pretty safe pitcher to roster and start.

Cade Horton 

Now looking at Cade Horton, he’s a top pitching prospect for the Cubs who may get a chance to make his debut later this week or over the weekend. He’s really been rolling at Triple A, including an efficient outing on Sunday where he went 6 innings, allowing 2 hits, 1 earned run, a walk, with 5 strikeouts on only 78 pitches. I didn’t even have plans to add him until last night, after I watched Shota Imanaga strain his hamstring for the Cubs trying to cover first base. While it was really unfortunate to see Imanage get injured after the Cubs have already lost Justin Steele for the season, it opens up a potential opportunity for Horton. He already lines up to pitch on the same day as his return through the rotation since both pitched yesterday, and Horton has been in a nice groove that’s worthy of giving him a shot in the majors. I know that it was unlikely anyone else was going to try to add Horton, I still bid $4 to get him just because I wanted to make sure I got him. The easy math is that’s 4% of my budget but was 20% of the $20 I had remaining. It’s no guarantee Horton gets his shot this week, but it’s only a matter of time as the Cubs need pitching help, and he’s likely to start if Imanaga has to go on the injured list.

Colin Rea

I added Colin Rea of the Cubs as a pure streaming option, but it’s actually for next week and not this week. The best way to make good two-start starting pitcher pickups is to pick them up before they are even listed as two-start pitchers on CBS. He’s a player I bid $0 to add, as I wasn;t concerned about anyone else trying to add him. It can give you a clear advantage and edge when you find other ways outside the two-start list on CBS each week to get ahead and notice a nice two-start option before everyone else does. There are a few ways to do this, and I use either roster resource on fangraphs, or pull up a pitcher on my fantasy app where I can easily look at the upcoming schedule. They don’t always match though, and in that case roster resource is actually the more accurate of the two. Very rarely is that wrong, and I was able to see on Friday Rea would be facing the Marlins next Monday on the 12th. For me this is a dream streaming scenario, where Rea gets the Marlins and White Sox, two of the easiest pitching matchups while also pitching in front of an elite Cubs lineup and sure handed defense. Rea is nothing special or anything to get excited about to be honest, but he’s likely to come through in a spot like this.

Lucas Giolito

Giolito is the classic pickup you make for a guy coming off a serious injury and seeing what you may have. It’s a bit of a wild card move, but he displayed some encouraging things that I liked in his debut, so I thought he was worth a shot. The main thing I wanted to see was his fastball velocity, which looked pretty good and in line with his velocity in 2021 when he was at his best. He averaged 93.3 on the fastball but maxed out at 96.0 which is great to see. From watching this start, I don’t think the slider is what it used to be, but maybe that can return in time as he stacks up starts and gets stronger and more comfortable. Even without that, his fastball and changeup alone are good enough to succeed with, and for not pitching in a major league game since 2023 I was pretty impressed with his command. The one concern I have is that he pitches for the Red Sox and Fenway can be a tough place to pitch, but it’s not a total deal breaker. There is still a path to success for Giolito, and it was also a nice time to add him as he gets two somewhat favorable starts this week, facing an underachieving Rangers lineup at home and the Royals on the road in a great pitchers park.

Ben Casparius

This was a true pick-up out of left field, but I really like a lot of what Casparius brings to the table, and I have a history of liking these types of players before they even really become starting pitchers. He hasn’t actually made a true start yet for the Dodgers, but he’s been very good this season and is getting a shot with all the starting pitcher injuries the Dodgers have. While he hasn’t started yet, he’s been stretched out more with each outing, throwing 54 pitches in his last appearance on April 27th. As he’s lasted longer in games he continues to pitch well, so I decided to add him. He is either going to start today in a good matchup facing the Marlins or follow an opener, and I’m happy to use him in either scenario. It’s a better win chance if he follows an opener, but if he’s efficient enough he can go 5 innings on his own. This is a low-risk spot in a pitcher-friendly park in Miami against a weak offense and I’m excited to see how it turns out. So far this season, Casparius has a 23:3 strikeout to walk ratio in 21.2 innings with a 2.91 ERA and 0.92 WHIP, with an elite 14.7% swinging strike rate so far. For context the league average is 11.3%, and his rate is in the 89th percentile.