R.A. Dickey, Toronto Blue Jays - R.A. Dickey pitched like it was 2012 Saturday against the Yankees, giving up zero runs and five hits over 6.2 innings. He struck out six Yankee hitters en-route to his first victory of 2014 in an excellent rebound performance after he was hit hard by the Rays opening day. His command improved drastically (6 walks on OD and 1 Saturday) and he also kept the ball on the ground with seven groundouts compared to six fly outs. Dickey has an excellent chance to be a great value being drafted on average in the 17th round as he won't be the pitcher he was in '12, but he will be better than he was last season. His next two scheduled starts are at Baltimore and Minnesota who are hitting .218 and .250 respectively in 2014 so there is a strong likelihood we could see two more solid starts from Dickey in the next week.
Michael Pineda, New York Yankees - It was a long awaited debut for Michael Pineda with the Yankees and he made it worth the wait with six strong innings allowing just one run. He struck out five batters and walked none, but was out dueled by R.A. Dickey and went home the tough luck loser. Pineda threw 58 of his 83 pitches for strikes. A very promising sign for both the Yankees and fantasy owners was that he was routinely hitting 95 MPH on the stadium radar gun which is slightly down from his 2009 rookie campaign but still impressive after missing so much time with his shoulder surgery. His next start is likely to come at home against the defending champion Red Sox who are eighth in the major in hitting coming into Saturday. Pineda is worth an add to fantasy teams based on his upside, but expectations should be tempered until we see what he does against a good offense his next start out.
Tyler Skaggs, Los Angeles Angels - Tyler Skaggs proved something that fantasy owners already probably planned on for the 2014 season: Start whoever is pitching against the Astros. Sometimes the Astros will hit, because there are talented players on the roster, but more often than not they are going to be a great source of K's and wins for your starting pitchers. Skaggs was masterful Saturday allowing just four hits in eight innings with a single run coming across to score. He threw 63 of 92 pitches for strikes helping him tally up five strikeouts. Skaggs struggled with some command issues in a solid spring, but put them behind him in his first time on the mound this year. His next start looks to come against the Mets, so Skaggs is a great pickup option for next week.
Matt Joyce, Tampa Bay Rays - Matt Joyce has hit the ball extremely well over the first week of the season (.538/.611/.923) and launched his first homer of the season Saturday. Joyce has been a sneaky source of power over his career with a poor batting average. Through 2011-13, his lowest number of homers and RBI came in 2012 with 17 and 55 season. This makes for an excellent value for a guy that is probably available in most leagues that are not super deep. His lowest ISO in the majors came in 2012 with a .184 in 2013. He is a career .250 hitter and can provide a solid 15-20 homers with a potential for more if he plays a full 150-155 games, consider giving Joyce a look while he is on this hot streak and as a solid power source for a 4th or 5th outfielder for the rest of the season.
Torii Hunter, Detroit Tigers - Torii Hunter is proving in 2014 that he can still play driving in five runs and launching his second homer of the year Saturday. He has had an excellent start to the year hitting second in front of arguably the best hitter in baseball Miguel Cabrera. Through his pitches seen through four games, 66.7% of them are fastballs and Hunter has a contact rate of 90.9% on pitches inside the zone. For his career, Hunter has a 52.5 wFB (Runs above average on fastballs) and has an 86.4% Z-Contact so as long as pitchers keep throwing him fastballs in the zone (Thanks in part to his protection in Cabrera) he will continue to put up excellent numbers despite his age.
Josh Sperry - @jsperry1991
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