The Baseball Buffet for 4/4/2025

Issue #235

What follows is 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].

⚾ Welcome! ⚾

The 8th day of the season included a a light slate of just 5 games:

• BOS 8, BAL 4 - Alex Bregman got things going with a HR in the first inning, and then hit two doubles later as well. Rookie Kristian Campbell and Triston Casas each hit two-run HR, while Cedric Mullins hit the lone longball for the Orioles.

• COL 1, PHI 3 - Kyle Schwarber hit his fourth HR of the year, and Taijuan Walker pitched well in his 2025 debut (6 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 4 K).

• HOU 5, MIN 2 - Christian Walker and Jeremy Peña hit homers for the Astros, Hunter Brown pitched well (6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K), and once again Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader came in to lock down the 8th and 9th innings. (Again, it feels like I might be saying that often this year.)

• AZ 7, NYY 9 - The Yankees scored 9 runs in less than four innings off D-Backs starter Merrill Kelly, powered by six extra-base hits, including HR from Aaron Judge, Trent Grisham, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. Arizona SS Geraldo Perdomo hit a grand slam off NYY reliever Ryan Yarbrough in the 7th, but it wouldn’t be enough.

• CIN 0, MIL 1 - I noted yesterday that Nestor Cortes really needed a strong bounce-back game after his disaster of an outing against his old teammates in NY. And he did just that, one-hitting the Reds through 6 innings, now allowing any runs and striking out 6. The Reds need to get their offense going, as they have now lost three in a row by a score of 1-0—only one other team (1960 Phillies) has done that since 1920.

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

• LAD RP Evan Phillips

• LAD SP Tony Gonsolin

🤕 Placed on the IL

• LAD 1B Freddie Freeman - 10-day IL (retroactive to March 31, right ankle sprain)

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 April 4…

• 1911: The birth of the MVP award. According to baseball-reference.com, “Automobile maker Hugh Chalmers introduces the concept of a Most Valuable Player in major league baseball. Chalmers announces that he will award a new car to the player in each league who is selected MVP by a vote of baseball writers.”

• 1948 – Old-timers foot race. According to baseball-reference.com, “Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack, who is 84 years old, challenges Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith, who is 78, to a foot race from home plate to first base. The contest ends in a photo finish tie.”

• 1974: Hank Aaron ties the Babe. Hank Aaron hits a three-run home run off Jack Billingham as the Braves lose to the Reds, 7-6. It is home run 714 for Aaron, tying him with Babe Ruth's career total.

• 1994: Three HR for Tuffy Rhodes on opening day. Cubs outfielder Karl “Tuffy” Rhodes, who hit three home runs in all of 1993, wallops three home runs off Mets starter Dwight Gooden on Opening Day at Wrigley Field.

• 1999: Hall of Famer Early Wynn died at age 79. Early Wynn won an even 300 games over a 23-year career with the Washington Senators, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox. He was an All-Star in six consecutive seasons (1955-60), won 20+ games five times, led the AL strikeouts twice, and ERA once.

• 2001: Hideo Nomo’s second no-no. Hideo Nomo hurls a 3-0 no-hitter on the road against the Baltimore Orioles in his Boston Red Sox debut. It is Nomo's second career no-hitter, making him the fourth pitcher in major league history to pitch one in both the National League and the American League (Jim Bunning, Nolan Ryan, and Cy Young).

🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys🎉

• Tris Speaker (1888) is a Hall of Famer who played mostly for the Red Sox and Indians. As a contemporary of Ty Cobb, he was only able to capture one AL batting title, even though his career average was .345. He was considered one of the greatest defensive CF of all time, had 436 SB, 222 triples, scored 1,882 runs, and is baseball’s all-time leader in doubles with 792.

• Scott Rolen (1975) is a Hall of Famer, seven-time All-Star, and eight-time Gold Glove Award winner at 3B. He was NL Rookie of the Year in 1997, the first of ten seasons that he hit 20+ HR, ending his career with 316 HR and 1,287 RBI.

• Gil Hodges (1924) is a Hall of Famer, eight-time All-Star, and won three Gold Glove Awards at 1B late in his career. He hit 20+ HR in 11 consecutive seasons, including six with 30+ HR. Over his career he hit 370 HR with 1,274 RBI and had a .273/.359/.487 slash line and 120 OPS+.

• Jim Fregosi (1942) was a six-time All-Star and Gold Glove Award winner at SS in 1967. He had a little power, hitting 15+ three times, and retired with a 113 OPS+. Somewhat infamously, he was acquired by the Mets after the 1971 season in a trade for Nolan Ryan and three other players—unfortunately, at only age 29 his best seasons were already behind him.

• Joe Vosmik (1910) played in the high-offense era of the 1930s, slashing .307/.369/.438 with a 104 OPS+. He scored 100+ runs and had 100+ RBI twice each, and put up his best overall numbers in 1935 for the Indians when he led the AL in hits with 216, doubles with 47, and triples with 20, in addition to hitting 10 HR with 110 RBI and a .348/.408/.537 slash line and 141 OPS+.

Today’s Matchups

We have a nearly full slate today (14), so there are lots of possibilities. Some games that jump out to me are:

• SDP vs. CHC features the undefeated Padres with Randy Vasquez who threw 6 shutout innings in his first game, up against Shota Imanaga making his third start after allowing only 3 H and 1 ER in 11 IP in his first two.

• NYY vs. PIT features what I think is an interesting pitching matchup in Max Fried vs. Mitch Keller.

• LAD vs. PHI is game one of a series involving two strong clubs, and the pitching matchup is Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Jesús Luzardo.

• MIA vs. ATL involves two young and seemingly up-and-coming pitchers in Max Meyer and Spencer Schwellenbach.

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:

• ATL Austin Riley, small sample but is 2-5 with a HR and a triple vs. Max Meyer

• BAL Jordan Westburg, small sample but is 2-4 with a HR and a triple vs. Seth Lugo

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:

• NYM Juan Soto, 8-15 with a HR, 2 doubles, and an impressive 12 walks vs. TOR Kevin Gausman (that is a .741 OBP!)

• PIT Ke’Bryan Hayes, 6-15 with only 2 K vs. NYY Max Fried

• NYY Cody Bellinger, 5-13 with 4 doubles and only 2 K vs. PIT Mitch Keller

• DET Colt Keith, small sample but is 4-6 with a HR vs. CHW Jonathan Cannon

Who is streaking?

Now that we’ve had more than a week of the regular season, I’ll start sharing out the top active hitting streaks each day. These are players who for this reason might also be interesting picks to get a hit today:

• 8 - LAD Will Smith

• 8 - LAD Tommy Edman

• 7 - SDP Jackson Merrill (up against the tough Shota Imanaga)

• 7 - MIL Brice Turang (but is 0-8 vs. Nick Martinez)

• 7 - ATH Jacob Wilson

• 7 - TOR Andrés Giménez

Who might struggle today?

Betting against any given player to not get a hit is tough, as guys in the starting lineup get at least one hit in a game more often than not. That said, here are some guys who clearly have struggled against their opposing SP today:

• SEA Mitch Garver, 1-17 with 11 K vs. SFG Justin Verlander

• SEA Cal Raleigh, 2-19 with 7 K vs. SFG Justin Verlander

• PIT Andrew McCutchen, 2-19 with 8 K vs. NYY Max Fried

• PIT Tommy Pham, 2-16 with 4 K vs. NYY Max Fried

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 Nine! ⚾

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