Welcome to another weekend edition of the fantasy baseball recap. Not that anyone expected it anyway, but no one is going to break the 1988 Baltimore Orioles record of consecutive losses to begin a season. Supposedly, during that stretch, President Ronald Reagan called Frank Robinson (the Orioles manager) to console him. He told he him he had had times like Robinson had experienced. Robinson politely disagreed and told the president he didn’t know what he was talking about.

The Atlanta Braves and Minnesota Twins both got off the ground with victories on Friday night. From here, it gets interesting for both franchises. The Braves are obviously not trying that hard to contend, but the Twins had postseason aspirations coming into the season. They can still get there, but they will need to mount a positive streak at some point.

If you read anything…

The Adam Laroche scandal dominated the news in Chicago in the preseason. Some thought that Chris Sale would have a hangover from taking on the point in that controversy. Instead, he is now 3-0 with a 2.35 ERA. He has arguably been the best pitcher in the American League over the last three or four seasons. So, his start doesn’t qualify as a surprise. However, he does deserve the lead on this night after throwing nine shutout innings with nine strikeouts and only two hits allowed.

We could have expected…

Dallas Keuchel won the 2015 Cy Young Award on the strength of a 15-0 record at home last season. For those able to do the math, that made him 5-8 on the road. He wasn’t a bad pitcher on the road and coming into the night, he was 1-1 with a 3.55 ERA. Both of those starts came on the road. That was typical of his 2015 road performance. He pitched eight scoreless innings at Minute Maid Park tonight. It looks like a Keuchel home start might be a bankable play for daily fantasy baseball players.

But We didn’t see this coming

The Mariners have been a seemingly perennial disappointment for the last several seasons. Every year they are a trendy pick to win the AL West and every year something happens to get in the way. They’ve had some disappointing performances so far, but Chris Iannetta isn’t one of them. The .231 career hitter is hitting .320 on the season with two home runs and five RBI. No, it doesn’t make him an MVP or even all-star candidate, but it does give them a deeper lineup than they’ve had in years.

Save Opportunities

• Luke Gregerson (converted)
• Aroyds Vizcaino (converted)
• Jeurys Familia (converted)
• Craig Kimbrel (converted)
• Kevin Jepsen (converted)

Injury News

Friday night did not bring any significant news on the injury front in terms of new injuries, but a trio of important arms are all inching their way back to the regular lineup. Lance McCullers second rehab outing was pushed back because it was deemed that he hadn’t recovered enough from the first outing. He likely will pitch at least two or three more times before coming back to the Astros. The Angels veteran lefty, C.J. Wilson, is further away from returning to action. He has yet to appear in a live game since landing on the disabled list. Henderson Alvarez of the Athletics could see action in a game fairly soon. All three should be in uniform by June at the latest.

Other News

The Texas Rangers finally pulled the trigger on an extension for third baseman Adrian Beltre. Beltre will get two more seasons and 36 million dollars. More importantly, it means he will retire as a Ranger and prospect Joey Gallo will not be breaking into the lineup as a third baseman. This means he could become earmarked for left field or he could become trade bait.