AL West Fantasy News: Astros tab Gregerson as closer over Giles
Opening day is finally here! Here's the fantasy news and advice for the AL West.
Houston Astros
In a surprising move, the Astros have named Luke Gregerson their closer over Ken Giles. Gregerson has shown he's plenty capable in the past (31 saves last year) and he'll be the single hottest free agent addition this week. Vegas has the Astros season win total at 85.5, so Gregerson is going to have plenty of chances to rack up saves.
Giles is still worth holding on to for now with the hope that Gregerson stumbles out of the gate. Despite the demotion, Giles still has a career ERA of 1.56 with 151 strikeouts in 115 innings. He struggled in Spring Training, but unlike the Astros, I'm willing to trust the much larger sample size.
Although Opening Day was rained out, it appears the Astros are going to platoon Marwin Gonzalez and Tyler White and bat them late in the lineup.
Hinch said this will be the lineup tomorrow as well pic.twitter.com/676XZyJ58l
— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) April 4, 2016
Neither player is worth owning, as A.J. Reed is almost certainly coming up for their jobs in May. He's worth a stash in deeper leagues.
Oakland A's
Beware of the platoon in Oakland. Even some of their better position players, like Josh Reddick, will likely start the season on the pine with the A's facing the White Sox and their lefty-heavy staff.
Seattle Mariners
According to Jim Caple, Felix Hernandez is making his ninth Opening Day start and his ERA in those starts is 1.49, the lowest in the live ball era of the 31 pitchers with eight Opening Day starts.
Felix also owned the Rangers last year, so if you're looking for a DFS starter, it might not be a bad idea to go with the King in a matchup a lot of people will naturally avoid because of Texas's bats.
Texas Rangers
I don't know if Adrian Beltre can keep up this level of play at his age, but playing for a contract hasn't hurt him in the past.
Delino DeShields is batting leadoff for the Rangers, and shouldn't be ignored as a fantasy option. As a 22-year-old, he turned in a .344 OBP and 25 stolen bases. If you have a need for speed (and runs), DeShields can help.
Los Angeles Angels
I don't know if "having the flu" is code word for "we don't want this guy to get hurt in a worthless spring training finale", but Mike Trout is over the flu and ready to go against the Cubbies.
First baseman Ji-Man Choi made the Angels 25-man roster. That would appear to signal that the Angels plan on playing Albert Pujols mostly as a DH, which is good news for C.J. Cron, who hit 16 HR in 378 AB's. He's a cheap source of power and one of my favorite sleepers in deep leagues.
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