The Baseball Buffet for 4/6/2025

Issue #237

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 10th day of the season included a a full (15) slate of games:

• CHW 2, DET 7 - After hitting two HR on Friday, Kerry Carpenter hit another on Saturday. Spencer Torkelson hit his second HR of the season, and Tigers starter Reese Olson pitched fairly well (6 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 5 K).

• HOU 1, MIN 6 - Jose Altuve hit a leadoff HR off Bailey Ober, but then Ober settled in and didn’t allow any other runs across 4 IP. Jose Miranda hit a 3-run HR, his first homer of the year.

• SDP 1, CHC 7 - Matthew Boyd pitched well (6 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 5 K) and Dansby Swanson and Carson Kelly each hit HR.

• NYY 10, PIT 4 - I noted yesterday that NYY CF Trent Grisham was 3-3 with a HR in his career against PIT lefty Bailey Falter. Small sample, but Grisham is a left-handed batter with reverse splits (hits LHP better than RHP), so I suggested he might be one to watch for a HR again. Well, he went and hit two HR, both off of Falter! Beyond him, every other Yankees hitter got at least one hit, for a total of 14 hits generating their 10 runs.

• AZ 3, WAS 4 - Eduardo Rodriguez struck out 12 in only 5 innings, but also let up 4 runs, while Mitchell Parker only let up one run in 6 innings of work.

• LAD 3, PHI 1 - The Dodgers weren’t about to lose two in a row. Roki Sasaki had a short but fine outing (4 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 4 K), and Kike Hernandez and Michael Conforto homered off Aaron Nola to drive in all three Dodgers runs.

• BAL 8, KCR 1 - Tomoyuki Sugano pitched well (5.1 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 4 K) in his second major league start, and the Orioles connected for 12 hits off Michael Wacha and three Royals relievers. The lone run for Kansas City came from Bobby Witt Jr.’s first HR of the year.

• TBR 4, TEX 6 - In the first inning Taj Bradley let up a leadoff HR to Marcus Semien, and another to Jake Burger too. But Jacon deGrom wasn’t his usually dominating self, so the Rays came back to tie it largely driven by HR from Brandon Lowe and Jonathan Aranda. In the bottom of the seventh though Wyatt Langford his a two-run HR and that would end up being decisive, along with Luke Jackson securing his major-league leading fifth save.

• CIN 11, MIL 7 - Over five innings Brewers starter Elvin Rodriguez let up 7 ER and 8 hits, with four of them being HR to Blake Dunn, TJ Friedl, Christian Encarnacio-Strand, and Jose Trevino.

• TOR 2, NYM 3 - Chris Bassitt pitched well (6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K), but the Jays’ pen allowed three runs in the 8th and 9th. Mets DH Jesse Winker had an interesting game, going 3-4 with a double and two triples. A player having two triples in a game is somewhat rare—these days, it happens 5-10 times a year. But Winker in particular doesn’t hit many triples—before today, he only had 3 in 2,791 career plate appearances. And certainly having two triples and a double in the same game is more rare—it had only happened 30 times since 2000, and 100 times since 1948.

• MIA 4, ATL 0 - Cal Quantrill pitched well (5 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 4 K) and 1B Matt Mervis provided the Marlins’ offense with a 3-5 day and 2 homers. The surprising start to the season for both teams continues, as the Marlins are 5-4 and the Braves are 1-8.

• ATH 7, COL 4 - Brent Rooker hit his fourth HR of the year, Shea Langeliers hit his third HR. and Mason Miller locked down the ninth for his third save.

• SEA 1, SFG 4 - Jung Hoo Lee and Matt Chapman provided most of the offense, with each hitting two doubles. Robbie Ray was a bit wild (6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 2 K), but got the win while Ryan Walker notched his third save of the year.

• CLE 4, LAA 10 - Carlos Santana and Bo Naylor each had their first HR of the year, but the Angels hit Guardians starter Tanner Bibee pretty hard (4 IP, 8 H, 7 ER, 4 K) including four HR from Luis Rengifo, Jorge Soler, Mike Trout, and Logan O’Hoppe.

• STL vs. BOS - Postponed, with double-header scheduled for today

Today’s Trivia Question (new feature!!)

Jesse Winker just increased his career triples total by 66% in one game, so is rapidly moving up the leaderboard! In honor of that, who is the active leader in career triples? (Answer at the bottom.)

• Ketel Marte

• Starling Marte

• Andrew McCutchen

• Amed Rosario

• Mike Trout

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

• TEX 3B Josh Jung

• NYY SP Clarke Schmidt

• HOU SP Lance McCullers Jr.

🤕 Placed on the IL

• AZ 2B Ketel Marte - 10-day IL

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 6…

• 1973: The first DH. The Yankee’s Ron Blomberg, facing Boston's Luis Tiant, becomes the first official designated hitter in the major leagues. Blomberg walks with the bases loaded his first time up and ended the day 1-for-3 in a 15-5 loss to the Red Sox.

• 1977: The birth of the Mariners. The Seattle Mariners make their debut, losing to Frank Tanana and the Angels 7-0.

• 1992: Jack Morris sets a record. Toronto's Jack Morris sets a record with his 13th consecutive Opening Day start. He pitched a complete game, defeating his old team the Tigers‚ 4 - 2.

• 2020: Hall of Famer Al Kaline died at age 85. Al Kaline led the AL with a .340 average and 200 hits in his second full season in 1955—at the age of 20. An All-Star in 15 seasons for the Tigers, he also won 10 OF Gold Gloves. He retired with 3,007 hits, 399 HR, a .297/.376/.480 slash line, and 134 OPS+.

🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys🎉

• Mickey Cochrane (1903) is a Hall of Fame Catcher who had a relatively short, but very impactful career. He won AL MVP awards in both 1928 and 1934, and overall received at least some MVP consideration in 10 of his 11 full seasons. His retired with an impressive career slash line of .320/.419/.478 and a 129 OPS+.

• Ernie Lombardi (1908) is a Hall of Fame Catcher who had his best seasons with the Reds. He was an All-Star seven times, and took home the NL MVP Award in 1938 after leading the league with a .342 average with 19 HR and 95 RBI. He retired with a .306/.358/.460 slash line and 126 OPS+.

• Bert Blyleven (1951) is a Hall of Famer with 3,701 strikeouts, a 3.31 ERA, and 118 ERA+ over 22 seasons. He was only an All-Star twice, but received Cy Young Award votes in four seasons.

• Joe Williams (1886) is a Hall of Famer and considered one of the all-time greatest pitchers of the Negro Leagues. He only played in major leagues for four seasons, late in his career (3.51 ERA in 53 known games). But in 17 other seasons in Black baseball he posted a 2.24 ERA in over 1,000 IP (according to baseball-reference.com).

• Bret Boone (1969) is a three-time All-Star and won four Gold Glove Awards at 2B. He had 20+ HR six times, with highs of 37 HR and 141 RBI in 2001, and 35 HR and 117 RBI in 2003.

Today’s Matchups

We again have a full slate today (15), so there are lots of possibilities. Some games that jump out to me are:

• CHW vs. DET involves Tigers rookie prospect Jackson Jobe facing the White Sox, which sounds like a relatively easy assignment except the matchup is with veteran lefty Martín Pérez who pitched great in his first game of the year.

• LAD vs. PHI is the third game of this series between two good teams, and features, Tyler Glasnow against Cristopher Sanchez.

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:

• ARI Eugenio Suárez, only 7-27 but with 4 HR vs. WAS Trevor Williams (if he is the starter, TBD as of this writing)

• STL Nolan Arenado, 7-15 with 2 HR and a double, and 0 K, vs. BOS Sean Newcomb

• CLE Jose Ramirez, small sample but is 3-6 with a HR and a double vs. LAA Tyler Anderson

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:

• ATL Marcell Ozuna, 9-22, with two doubles vs. MIA Sandy Alcantara

• BAL Cedric Mullins, small sample but is 4-9 with a HR and three doubles vs. Kris Bubic

Who is streaking?

These are players on active hit streaks and who for this reason might also be interesting picks to get a hit today:

• 9 - MIL Brice Turang

• 9 - ATH Jacob Wilson

• 8 - SFG Heliot Ramos

• 8 - MIL Jackson Chourio

• 7 - BOS Alex Bregman

• 7 - STL Nolan Arenado

• 7 - SEA Victor Robles

• 7 - CHW Brooks Baldwin

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:

• ATL Austin Riley, 6-32 (.188) with 14 K vs. MIA Sandy Alcantara

• ATL Matt Olson, 2-18 with 6 K vs. MIA Sandy Alcantara

• PHI Kyle Schwarber, 2-11 with 7 K vs. LAD Tyler Glasnow

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 the games today!⚾

Today’s Trivia Answer

On the active triples leaderboard, Starling Marte is currently one ahead (55) of Mike Trout (54). Next are Andrew McCutchen (50), Amed Rosario (46), and Ketel Marte (43). Jesse Winker is the triples leader (2) so far in 2025, because of the two he hit yesterday.

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