Welcome to Rates and barrels. It is Wednesday, April 28th, Derek Van Riper, here with Enoseres.

On this episode, we will talk about April risers, and looking at hitters and pitchers on this episode, plus we'll take a look at the closer carousel after one month, where we write about a few of these uncertain closer situations and what direction are some of

the current unsettled closer situations likely to go in the months ahead? So lots to get to

on this episode. You know, let's start off with the biggest April risers among hitters.

Jesse Winker, who was just outstanding.

Really every game so far this season, it feels like he's doing some damage.

Homer again last night against the Dodgers.

You could see, if you're watching us on YouTube, 94th percentile now in barrel rate this season,

and really just doing everything we kind of hope he

would do as a prospect now that he's healthy again atop that Cincinnati lineup. Yeah, and I don't,

I've talked about this before where like, uh, I fall for gradual progression, you know, and like,

I don't know if it, uh better than graduate like non-gradual progression

like we'll talk about someone later in this one that kind of took a huge leap forward and and

you know sometimes I struggle with that because I just feel like oh regression's coming even

even if I like what he's doing under the hood like there's regression coming but for Winker

it's like the barrel rate went up steadily over time.

The exit velocity went up steadily over time.

Max Xad Velo is actually dropped, but that's just, I think, a thing that happens as you age.

So basically, he's just gotten better at lifting the ball.

And I don't know that he's necessarily figured out how to face lefties.

I don't know that he was necessarily more terrible than other people.

But I think that just the way that Reds are constructed, they realize we kind of, we need

...