Over time, I find I just become more and more impressed with the Rangers management (of the non-Ron Washington variety). After getting one of the worst third strike calls I’ve seen the other day, I managed to catch the end of Joe Nathan’s one run save appearance last night, and boy did he look dominant. At the time I didn’t understand that signing. However, Nathan regained his elite status last year, and watching him last night, it seems his slider has as much movement and sharp bite as ever, even if his velocity is slightly down. I’d move Nathan back into that ‘elite’ closer tier for good going forward.

After starting the season off really slowly, Yoenis Cespedes continued a nice 3-game stretch, finally belting his third homer of the season. This goes the same for guys like Jason Heyward as well: do not worry about a slow start in such an absurdly small sample for preseason studs. Cespedes and Heyward are still the players we thought they were—they just happen to be going through the slumps all players go through right at the beginning of the year. Patience, people.

Are you f***king kidding me Chris Davis? The dude hit his sixth homer of the season last night, and I am starting to believe—not in 40 or 50 homers, really, but 35+? I think that could happen. He’s finally hitting breaking pitches, and the entire league already knows Davis can crush a fastball.

Doug Fister finally put together a relatively dominant start, allowing eight hits, one walk, one earned run and striking out 5 in eight innings of work against the Blue Jays. Fister has struggled with his control so far in the year, so it was nice to see him go back to the pin-point accuracy guy he’s been for the last two years. I’ve always been a Fister guy, and if his owner is still worried about him in your league, now is the time to buy low.

Happy birthday to one of my favorite players, Mariners starting pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma! Hisashi turned 32 today. He has yet to walk a batter through 2 starts this season, and appears poised for a breakout year using a really solid, diverse arsenal of stuff combined with fantastic veteran sequencing. I’m a fan.

DraftKings.com Team of the Day

Today, I’m playing the MLB $5 Double-Up! contest. The entire $225 prize pool is guaranteed no matter the number of entrants, check it out!

Yu Darvish | P | Rangers | $12,200 – We all saw what he did against the Astros lineup… The Mariners are definitely a step up from Houston, but are they really a big step up? Huge upside potential here.

 Shelby Miller | P | Cardinals | $5,000 – I needed to save money with my second pitcher, and out of the $5,000 guys, Shelby has by far the most upside going against a slightly battered and Aramis Ramirez-less Brewers lineup. I’ll roll the dice.

Carlos Santana | C | Indians | $4,100 – Does really well in daily formats because of his high walk rate—for that cheap going against Jose Quintana, Santana seems like a very solid play.

Brandon Moss | 1B | Athletics | $4,300 – Originally had Albert Pujols here but had to save money, I think Moss is a solid fallback. Max Scherzer is a good pitcher, but Moss is a lefty and he does much better power-wise against righties, so there’s solid HR and RBI potential in this start. 

Matt Carpenter | 2B | Cardinals | $3,900 – Off to a hot start, he’s making great contact and commanding the strike zone. I’m not scared of Kyle Lohse. 

Manny Machado | 3B | Orioles | $3,300 – C.C. Sabathia is good, but he’s lost 1-2 MPH on almost all of his pitches, and he looks to be fallible. For the money, I’ll gamble on Machado in the O’s deep lineup.

Jed Lowrie | SS | Athletics | $3,700 – I’ve watched a ton of A’s games so far and Lowrie just looks good to me. When healthy he’s got a ton of power, and while the average will come down I think the power pace could be legit. 

Gerrardo Parra | OF | Diamondbacks | $3,900 – Kubel is supposed to be coming off the bench tomorrow as he recovers from an injury, and in his absence Parra has been putting up phenomenal stats. Had to save some money here.

 Adam Jones | OF | Orioles | $4,700 – On fire, I honestly just want to be there for the ride with this guy.

 Bryce Harper | OF | Nationals | $4,900 – Basically the same reasoning as on Adam Jones, except there’s also the added bonus of getting to watch Bryce Harper with an invested interest… which is nearly invaluable.