The Baseball Buffet for 3/31/2025

Issue #230

What follows is the third issue (I’m on a roll!) of a new feature for 2025 at Now Taking the Field. The goal with The Baseball Buffet series is to provide the best daily dose of relevant baseball info in a smart-brevity format (mostly short bullets, getting to the point, with quick analysis/insights.) Think of it like what baseball fans of a certain age would look forward to in their morning newspaper’s sports section each day! Let me know what you think of each issue… leave a comment on the post or send me an email at [email protected].

⚾ The season has begun! ⚾

Fourth day of the season included a robust slate of 13 games:

• PIT 2, MIA 3 - The Marlins take the series 3-1 with a third walk-off victory. Andrew McCutchen homered and new Bucco SP Andrew Heaney pitched well (5 IP, 4 H, 1 ER). But Max Meyer also did well (5.2 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 7 K) and the Pirates closer David Bednar continued to struggle, getting the loss in the ninth.

• PHI 1, WAS 5 - The Phillies had 8 hits but left 10 runners on base in the game, while starter Aaron Nola struck out 8 but allowed 5 ER in 5.1 IP, all from HR by Josh Bell and Nathaniel Lowe.

• MIL 3, NYY 12 - The story again was homers by the Bronx Bombers. They didn’t hit nine this time, but did have four: Jazz Chisholm (2), Aaron Judge, Ben Rice.

• BAL 1, TOR 3 - Chris Bassitt pitched well (6 IP, 8 H, 1 ER, 7 K) and three Toronto relievers held the early lead for the Jays.

• SFG 6, CIN 3 - Homers by Heliot Ramos and Matt Chapman, and strong relief work, helped the Giants take the series 2-1 over the Reds.

• COL 4, TBR 6 - Brandon Lowe hit his first HR of the year, Taj Bradley pitched well (6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 7 K, 0 BB), and Pete Fairbanks locked down his first save of 2025.

• BOS 2, TEX 3 - Jacob deGrom got his 2025 campaign off to a good start (5 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 6 K), and Wyatt Langford and Adolis Garcia provided solo HRs to help the Rangers take the four game series 3-1 against Boston.

• CLE 6, KCR 2 - Tanner Bibee pitched well (5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER) and the strong Guardians bullpen held the lead that three homers gave them (Kyle Manzardo, Gabriel Arias, and Daniel Schneemann).

• MIN 2, STL 9 - The Twins only managed five hits off of Andre Pallante (5 IP) and Steven Matz (4 IP), while Baily Ober was hit hard (2.2 IP, 8 H, 8 ER, 3 BB). Three Cardinals had homers: Victor Scott II, Pedro Pages, and Nolan Gorman.

• LAA 3, CHW 2 - After winning on opening day, the White Sox have lost their last two including this one after rookie CF Kyren Paris, hitting in the ninth spot in the Angels’ lineup, hit a solo HR in the top of the 8th to give them the lead.

• CHC 6, AZ 10 - Matt Boyd pitched well (5 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 5 K) and the Cubs’ had three HR from Dansby Swanson, Seiya Suzuki, and Kyle Tucker to give them a 6-2 lead. But then the D-Backs hit three doubles and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a HR giving them 8 runs in the bottom of the 8th.

• ATH 1, SEA 2 - Both starters pitched well, with JP Sears going 6.2 IP with 5 H, 2 ER, and 7 K, and Bryan Woo going 6 IP with 3 H, 1 ER, and 5 K. But the difference in the game was Julio Rodriguez’ two-run HR in the sixth.

• ATL 0, SDP 5 - Nick Pivetta (7 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 4 K), along with relievers Jason Adam and Jeremiah Estrada, managed to one-hit the dangerous Braves lineup, with only 7th hitter Orlando Arcia managing to get a single. Meanwhile the Padres had nine hits, five of them doubles, to secure the win—and the four-game sweep at home to start the season 4-0.

Who’s on the move?

In this section I won’t list 26th-man moves, or every time a team shuttles relievers back and forth to AAA to keep a stock of fresh arms in the bullpen. I’ll focus on the biggest, more impactful demotions, promotions, and injury list changes (for a full list, see all the latest MLB transactions).

➕ Starting Rehab Assignment

• HOU SP Lance McCullers Jr.

🤕 Placed on the IL

• TOR SP Max Scherzer - 15-day IL with right thumb inflammation

• TEX 3B Josh Jung - 10-day IL with neck spasms

• BAL SP Albert Suarez - 15-day IL with right shoulder inflammation

On this day in baseball history…

Here is what stands out to me for this day in baseball history (for a longer list, see the feature at the Baseball Almanac or the Bullpen feature at Baseball-Reference.com):

📅 On March 31…

• 1994: Michael Jordan plays in AA. Remember this? The Chicago White Sox assign NBA superstar Michael Jordan to the Double-A Birmingham Barons of the Southern League. He would only play one year, slashing .202/.290/.266 with 3 HR and 30 SB in 127 games.

• 1995: The long strike ends. According to baseball-reference.com, “The longest strike action in sports history ends—in a courtroom. U.S. District Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor grants an injunction forbidding owners from implementing new financial working conditions unilaterally in the wake of the impasse in negotiations. The court decides that conditions will revert to the old rules from the previous season. The owner will cave in and reach an agreement on that basis with the Players Association tomorrow. Because of the timing of the court order, 18 games will have to be trimmed from the major league schedule.”

• 1998: Two expansion team losses. Both the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks lose their first games. The Tigers beat the Devil Rays 11-6, and the Rockies beat the D-Backs 9-2.

• 2019: Turning a page. According to baseball-reference.com, “19-year-old Elvis Luciano becomes the first player born in the 21st century to appear in a major league game when he makes his debut for the Blue Jays against the Tigers. Never having pitched above Rookie-class before this season, he allows just one hit in 1 1/3 inning in a successful outing. This coincides with the last two players who were active in the previous century, Adrian Beltre and Bartolo Colon, both being out of the majors as a page has clearly turned.”

🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys🎉

• Mule Suttles (1901) is a Hall of Famer from the Negro Leagues, who according to the numbers at baseball-reference.com retired with 180 HR in 909 games, a .339/.410/.620 slash line and a 172 OPS+. He led his league in batting average twice, including in 1926 when he won the Triple Crown in the Negro National League with a league-leading 32 HR, 130 RBI, and .425 average in 89 games and 358 at-bats.

• Jack Stivetts (1868) was an old-time pitcher (1889-99), who tossed first for St Louis of the American Association and then mostly for Boston in the National League. He had 25+ wins four times, and retired with a 203-132 record, 3.74 ERA, and 120 ERA+.

• Carson Bigbee (1895) played his entire 11-year career with the Pirates, scored 100+ runs in both 1921 and 1922, and stole between 19-31 bases each year from 1917-1922.

• Bill Hallman (1867) was a 19th century player who scored 100+ runs each year from 1891-1894 and stole 20+ bases three times.

Today’s Matchups

A nearly full slate of games (14), so lots of possibilities:

• ATL vs. LAD is an intriguing one today. After a day off yesterday, the 5-0 Dodgers are back in action, hosting the Atlanta Braves who were supposed to be one of the few teams who could contend with LAD this year in the NL—but they were swept by the Padres and have started the year 0-4. The pitching matchup is ATL Grant Holmes vs. LAD Tyler Glasnow.

• TEX vs. CIN includes the 2025 debut of 25-year old Kumar Rocker, who had mixed results this spring but won a Rangers’ rotation spot in part due to injuries to other candidates. The Reds feature the regular season debut of Brady Singer, who pitched his first five seasons with the Royals.

• DET vs. SEA features two young pitching prospects in Jackson Jobe (22) for the Tigers and Emerson Hancock (25) for the Mariners. This is the first major league start for Jobe who was Detroit’s first round pick (3rd overall) in 2021. Hancock has started 15 games for Seattle the past two years, and was their first-round pick in 2020 (6th overall).

HR Watch

Predicting who might hit a HR on any given day is a challenge—especially early the season. But here are a few to consider based on opposing SP past performance:

• PHI Kyle Schwarber is 6-14 with 2 HR and a double vs. COL Germán Márquez.

• MIN Carlos Correa is 10-30 with 3 HR and 2 doubles vs. lefty CHW Martín Pérez (and Correa generally hits LHP better than RHP).

Hits Watch

If you play MLB’s Beat the Streak mobile game, or otherwise bet on/parlay players to collect hits, I’ll try to provide some good options in this section. Early in the season there aren’t any active streaks to report on yet, so in addition to the HR Watch guys listed above, here are some others to consider based on opposing SP past performance:

• SDP Luis Arraez, small sample but is 5-9 vs. CLE Luis Ortiz

• PIT Adam Frazier, small sample but is 5-10 vs. TBR Drew Rasmussen

• PHI Alec Bohm, small sample but is 5-8 with a HR vs. COL Germán Márquez

• PHI Nick Castellanos, small sample but is 4-10 with a HR and two doubles vs. COL Germán Márquez 

• BOS Rob Refsnyder, small sample but is 3-5 with a HR and a double vs. lefty BAL Cade Povich — and hitting lefties is Refsnyder’s specialty!

Once we get a few weeks into the season I’ll starting sharing out some starting pitchers to consider for strikeout totals (over/under bets), some teams that might explode offensively that day, and even some fun with NRFI (no-runs in the first inning bets). But these kinds of things are hard to judge early in the season until we see how teams and players are starting out the year.

⚾ Enjoy Day Five! ⚾

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