Which Hitters Have Seen and Hit the Best Pitching?
Rates & Barrels: A show about Baseball
The Athletic
4.7 • 875 Ratings
🗓️ 22 May 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s Fantasy Friday, and with trade season heating up, fantasy managers are getting antsy to make moves. Eno and DVR break down which hitters have faced the nastiest stuff so far this season — and which ones have still managed to thrive. Plus, the guys discuss the risk-reward proposition of paying up for Colt Emerson in redraft leagues, before taking a closer look at the struggles of two key Royals bats: Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez.
Rundown:
0:35 Allergy Season is Trade Season! Time to Wheel and Deal
6:40 Strength of Schedule: Which Hitters Have Hit the Best Stuff?
10:08 Opportunity to Buy? Which Hitters Have *Seen* The Best Stuff?
14:20 Salvador Perez’s Struggles: A Familiar Start After Early 2025 Slump?
22:36 Colt Emerson Outlook: Bidding Big Where Available?
27:37 A Hitter Toss-Up: Luis García Jr. vs. Nolan Gorman
32:12 Catcher Injuries: A Few Replacements to Consider
36:40 Vinnie Pasquantino’s Poor Start: What’s Happening Here?
41:46 Good Projections vs. Bad Results: When Do You Pass on Projections?
47:55 Pitchers of Interest: Troy Melton & Jared Jones, A Few Streamers
Some big name hitters are struggling and the pitchers they’ve faced may explain why:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7298365
Follow DVR on Bluesky: @DVR.bsky.social
Follow Eno on Bluesky: @enosarris.bsky.social
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Hosts: Derek VanRiper & Eno Sarris
Editor: Jason Potere
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today on Rates and Barrels, it is trade season in Keeper Leagues, Dynasty Leagues, and Redraft Leagues. |
| 0:06.6 | Who's faced the best stuff this year and who's hit the best stuff well? |
| 0:12.1 | Does that create some buy low and trade opportunities? |
| 0:15.5 | It's Fantasy Friday. Let's go. |
| 0:28.4 | Welcome to Rates and Barrels. |
| 0:30.5 | It's Friday, May 22nd. |
| 0:33.1 | Got a long weekend coming up here in the States. |
| 0:34.9 | Derek Van Riper, Enoceris. |
| 0:37.0 | You know what the long weekend means for Memorial Day? |
| 0:42.2 | It means people are getting itchy to make trades in their fantasy baseball leagues. |
| 0:44.8 | I'm seeing more deals getting done. |
| 0:46.1 | I'm getting more emails. |
| 0:50.6 | I'm getting more trade spam over the last week or so because this is the time of year. |
| 0:54.1 | Everyone gets that urge to get something done. |
| 0:56.3 | It's 50 plus games into the season. |
| 0:58.7 | Weaknesses feel like true weaknesses. |
| 1:02.5 | Seasons in some cases for Keeper in Dynasty leagues, maybe feel lost. |
| 1:03.8 | You want to start playing for the future. |
| 1:07.1 | You want to get the best available pieces to do better next year. |
| 1:13.3 | All of that happens like clockwork during the final week of May, year in and year out. |
| 1:18.2 | Yeah, it's a, it's an exciting time. I guess everybody also gets an extra day on the weekend or maybe look at their teams and inspect them. I will definitely be doing that at some point between |
| 1:25.3 | games on the couch. And, you know, it is interesting to think that, |
... |
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