A Search for Acuña's Missing Power, Strength of Schedule & Waiver Targets
Rates & Barrels: A show about Baseball
The Athletic
4.7 • 873 Ratings
🗓️ 2 May 2024
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Eno and DVR discuss several news items including a trip to the IL for Grayson Rodriguez, the return of two other Baltimore starters, more knee trouble for Byron Buxton, and several rehabbing pitchers. Plus, they examine the missing power from Ronald Acuña Jr. this season, strength of schedule considerations, and several players to consider as waiver-wire targets as the weekend approaches.
Rundown
4:53 News & Notes: Grayson Rodriguez, John Means, Byron Buxton
12:48 Suspensions & Rehab Updates: Shane Baz, Taj Bradley & Walker Buehler
20:11 Ronald Acuña Jr.'s Currently Missing Power
25:13 Factors to Consider in Strength of Schedule
30:52 Fluctuations in Lineup Quality Due to Absences
35:08 Toughest Stuff+ Faced This Season
41:57 Project Prospect: Tyler Black, Jordan Beck, Jackson Jobe, Paul Skenes & Heston Kjerstad
57:24 Weekend Waiver Preview: Wenceel Pérez, Nick Senzel, Jacob Young & Pitching Darts/Matchup Plays
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Follow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRiper
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | He's having a blinder. He's clipped the post. He's looking formidable. Then... |
| 0:09.0 | His game might be over, but yours isn't. |
| 0:14.0 | With Betfair's safe sob, your bet simply rolls onto the player coming on. |
| 0:18.0 | Playing a different league with BetFair. |
| 0:24.6 | Balladon selected leagues and markets only applies to singles, multiples and bet-builder bets on qualified player outcome selections does not apply to odds, boosts, |
| 0:27.6 | season, exclusions apply 18 here with you on this episode. |
| 0:54.9 | We dig into some news and notes from around the league. We have injury updates. We have a |
| 0:59.6 | lingering question that a few folks have been asking in Discord. I think Braves fans have wondered |
| 1:04.5 | a bit about it. Where is the power for Ronald Lacuna Jr. this season? We'll dig into that. |
| 1:10.0 | We've got some project prospect as well, |
| 1:11.9 | thanks to a few recent debuts. We've got Paul Skeen's watch in full effect. We'll talk about |
| 1:16.8 | his latest outing at AAA. And we've got a few weekend waiver preview names to discuss later on in this |
| 1:23.8 | episode. If you haven't joined already, join the Discord. You can do that using the link |
| 1:28.4 | in the show description. Eno, how's it going for you on this Thursday? That's going good. Got a piece |
| 1:34.0 | up about Sunny Gray and his evolution of his pitches. That was kind of fun to write because |
| 1:40.7 | he's thrown a lot of different breaking balls. |
| 1:49.3 | And in order to even talk about them, you kind of have to call it things that he doesn't call them, you know, like, he's like, he's been famously said like, oh, it's not a sweeper. |
| 1:53.4 | It's a slider. |
| 1:54.0 | Well, I have to differentiate it from your other slider. |
| 1:58.9 | So let's call it a sweeper. |
| 2:01.7 | I guess maybe in his head it's a little bit more slider and cutter. |
| 2:05.9 | So, you know, but it does sweep a lot. |
... |
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