Marlins shortstop Miguel Rojas hit .700 in the first weekend of the season in Philadelphia, so it was little surprise when he found his way onto the ESPN Fantasy most-added list. Then again, Rojas and any teammates on the list will be leaving it soon because no Marlins baseball will be played this week. With 17 members of the Marlins traveling party having already tested positive for the coronavirus, including Rojas and several players who played a role in the weekend series, MLB announced Tuesday it has postponed the team's games through Sunday. After that, who knows?
Let us separate the important news from the fantasy side of things, if you don't mind. Health comes first here, for players, organization members and families, all of us. We recognize that. However, this is a fantasy baseball column and providing information to fantasy managers, even at a considerably lesser level of importance, matters a bit as well. The Marlins, not exactly loaded with fantasy options to start with, cannot help your fantasy teams this week, and it is mere guesswork about two weeks from now, so in daily formats -- well, unless it is speedy Jonathan Villar -- move on.
Sandy Alcantara, winner of Miami's opening game and slated to start twice this week, will not do so. He also tested positive for the virus, so the most-added starting pitcher in ESPN leagues needs to leave that list because he will not thrive over two outings next week, either. Get someone else. Rojas, outfielder Corey Dickerson and first baseman Jesus Aguilar, who homered twice over the weekend, are on the most-added list, for now, joining Alcantara and closer Brandon Kintzler, saver of their two wins. Move on!
Why is Villar special? Well, he and Brian Anderson are the lone Marlins rostered in more than half of ESPN's leagues, but Villar is the one who played in all 162 games last season for Baltimore -- and he hit 24 home runs and stole 40 bases, earning him a top-10 showing among all hitters on the Player Rater. Only two players stole more bases than Villar, and they combined for only 15 home runs. Villar was a seventh-round selection in ESPN average live drafts. Keep him rostered. Everyone else? Well, as noted in Tuesday's fantasy baseball pickups column, there are plenty of players playing this week worth adding.
The Phillies, unlucky to be Miami's opponent Sunday and thus restricted from playing baseball until Friday, are in a different situation. For now, nobody on the team has tested positive and, again, the Phillies are on the schedule to play this weekend. The Marlins and Nationals are not. The Phillies boast seven hitters and three pitchers rostered in at least two-thirds of ESPN leagues. Keep 'em around, but obviously pay attention to the news. Nobody knows if MLB can complete its season, but let us be hopeful. By the way, do not assume the Marlins, Phillies, Yankees and Orioles get to make these games up. Doubleheaders on the few off days they have seem unlikely. Prepare accordingly.
Random thoughts
• Great to see Anthony Rendon debut for the Angels when perhaps, in an ordinary season, he would have served a full injured-list stint. He homered, he drew a pair of walks and all is awesome again. Hope you were patient, but honestly, who was dumping Anthony Rendon? The Angels lost Andrelton Simmons to an ankle injury and David Fletcher, hitting .556, should continue to lead off and play shortstop, in case you were worried about playing time. He hit a legit .290 last season and is already up to 73% rostered in ESPN leagues. I agree with it, especially when he scores myriad runs with Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani and Rendon following him in the order.
• Is it odd that my biggest fantasy take from the Dodgers-Astros game has nothing to do with Joe Kelly, his funny faces and deliberately errant pitching, but rather the fact that Astros manager Dusty Baker pinch-hit for prospect Kyle Tucker against a lefty? So frustrating. Tucker hit lefties in the minors! He hit everyone! Anyway, I can only ponder what numbers Tucker would produce hitting fifth regularly for the Royals or Orioles. Oh well. Tucker is on the most-dropped list and while that feels wrong, if Baker is going to do this for two months, perhaps it is not wrong.
• Fantasy managers can easily move on from injured Cardinals right-hander Miles Mikolas (forearm surgery), barely rostered to start with in fantasy due to the lack of strikeout potential, but I think current closer Kwang-Hyun Kim might move to the rotation and cede the ninth inning to Giovanny Gallegos, who just came off the injured list. Feels like something the Cardinals would do, seeing the Carlos Martinez situation. Martinez looked awful Tuesday, albeit versus a top lineup, so perhaps he ends up closing. Good luck predicting this one.
• Some big league team is going to end up with dumped Atlanta right-hander Mike Foltynewicz any minute now and fantasy managers are going to get excited because they know the name and he was an "All-Star" in 2018. Awesome! Mikolas was also an All-Star that season. So were Jon Lester (do not add him), Jeremy Jeffress and J.A. Happ. Foltynewicz could not regularly crack 90 mph with his fastball on Monday. I doubt it changes with another organization. Folty is on the most-dropped list, but still rostered in nearly half of leagues. Add Toronto's Nate Pearson ... like now! He debuts Wednesday and I don't care how he does. Add him now. Get Aaron Civale and Zach Plesac, too. Cleveland obviously knows what it is doing when it comes to pitching.
• While I'm at it, can we just forget about saves? Tampa Bay's Nick Anderson is not a closer. Oliver Drake is. ... Kirby Yates and Taylor Rogers ceded saves to others on Tuesday and we have no reason why. ... We think Nick Burdi is the Pittsburgh closer, but it's not like we had great evidence until Tuesday, and it would be nice to see him get the next chance or two as well. Did it really take the ordinary Kyle Crick heading to the injured list to make that happen? ... Brad Hand is Cleveland's closer -- and with that rotation and lineup, he could lead the majors in saves -- but right-hander Cam Hill sure looks like next in line. He saved the second game of the doubleheader instead of James Karinchak, who pitched in Game 1, but Hill has minor league saves to his credit, too.