MLB Player News

Jobe retired four in a row before walking Tyler O’Neill and giving up a homer to Heston Kjerstad. It has sounded like he’s been particularly impressive so far in camp, and his chances of landing a rotation spot have increased with Alex Cobb out. Still, the Tigers have a whole lot of options there.

No real surprises here as the biggest shockwave from Toronto came earlier on Sunday when the club announced that prospect Alan Roden made the season-opening roster over Addison Barger, who was subsequently shipped to Triple-A Buffalo.

Betts missed both games in Tokyo with an illness that caused him to leave Japan early. He’s playing shortstop and batting second tonight.

Freeman couldn’t go in Tokyo, but if he’s fine for exhibition games now, he must have improved considerably. Freeman was absent Tuesday and Wednesday because of soreness in his left ribcage area.

Holliday is 8-for-19 in his last six games, pushing him up to .333/.407/.458 for the spring. He’s also 5-for-7 stealing bases, and if he remains aggressive there, it’d do wonders for his fantasy value.

Morton is due to start the Orioles’ second game on Friday, so this was just a brief tuneup for him. He pitched only eight innings this spring, as his recent turns didn’t come in games. The runs today were the first he’d allowed, though.

That’s a good way to close out what had been an ugly spring. Kremer still winds up with a 7.27 ERA after giving up six homers in 17 1/3 innings. His fantasy value should be limited to AL-only leagues.

All four of Strider’s outs came via the K, but he did give up two hits, including a homer, and a walk. Strider, who is making his way back from elbow surgery, will be placed on the 15-day injured list this week and then make a few minor league starts to get stretched out. He should be back in the Braves rotation before the end of April.

Martini has somehow beaten out top prospect Zac Veen for a spot on Colorado’s season-opening roster. The 34-year-old journeyman is a perfectly serviceable emergency stopgap option, but it’s puzzling that the Rockies are going to roll with him over Veen, which is putting it mildly. He batted .212 with five homers in 52 games last year for the Reds. Martini can be safely ignored in all fantasy formats with the exception of deeper NL-only leagues.

The Rockies continue to make completely baffling roster decisions. Their latest masterpiece involves the combination of jettisoning Nolan Jones to Cleveland at the absolute nadir of his trade value before shipping one of their top prospects in Veen to Triple-A instead of letting him play everyday in the majors. It’ll be Jordan Beck opening the year in right field with journeyman Nick Martini in left field. You can’t make this stuff up, seriously.

Stott would be a No. 2 hitter for more than a few teams, but he’s set to bat eighth for the Phillies and he’ll probably do a fair amount of sitting against lefties. He should offer mixed-league value anyway, but because of his situation, maybe not as much as his current ADP suggests.