Hunter x Homer

Hunter Goodman (COL): 3-4, 2 HR, 4 R, 3 RBI, BB.

The Rockies enjoyed their night at the most hitter-friendly stadium at sea level yesterday. Goodman was DHing with Brett Sullivan behind the plate, who also had a big night. Facing Brandon Williamson, the Rockies got off to a fast start, with a Brenton Doyle double and walks from Goodman and Willi Castro in the first before Sullivan cleared the bases with a double. It only got worse for the Reds, as Goodman added 412 and 415-foot home runs in the 5th and 7th innings. By the time the 9th inning rolled around, the Rockies were up 8-0 before tacking on 5 bonus runs off Jose Trevino, who was supposed to be giving Tyler Stephenson a day off behind the plate instead of throwing to him. Goodman added a single off Trevino in the process, leaving him with three hits and a walk in his 5 plate appearances. All four of Goodman’s batted balls left the bat going at least 102 MPH.

Goodman is off to an excellent start to the season. He’s slashing .269/.345/.587, an improvement on last year’s .278/.323/.520 line. Combined with offenses generally being down in April relative to the rest of the season, Goodman’s wRC+ is up to 140 from a 118 last year. He’s doing so by leaning on his excellent power rather than showing much improvement in the weaker parts of his profile. Goodman is swinging the bat a bit harder than he has in the past. He’s also elevating even more, increasing his average launch angle from 16.5 and 17.3 degrees in 2024 and 2025 to 24.2 degrees this year. The increased launch angle has led Goodman to hit a career-high 75.4 percent of balls in the air. Over 40% of his batted balls are pulled in the air, second in MLB to a surprising Andrew Benintendi.

The only downside to Goodman’s approach this season is that it should eventually lower his batting average. Flyballs are the worst type of batted ball for BABIP, so the increase in launch angle should lead to a lower BABIP over the course of the season. Goodman hasn’t done anything to improve on his strikeout issues as well. He’s chasing at a career-high rate and swinging less often, and making less contact, in the zone. He’s still hitting the ball extremely hard when he makes contact, but you should expect some batting average regression closer to .230 or .240 instead of the strong .278 he put up last year.

Let’s see how the rest of the hitters did Wednesday.

 

Curtis Mead (WSN): 4-5, 2B, HR, 4 R, 2 RBI.

While Travis Bazzana is the most-hyped young Australian in the bigs, Mead is enjoying a mini-breakout to start the season as well. Apropos of his hometown, Mead has been a fringe player over the last three seasons in the majors. This year, Mead is getting a little more run at first and second for the Nationals. He’s not a strict platoon partner, with 37 PAs vs lefties and 33 vs righties. Last night, Mead and the Nats teed off on a couple of Mets lefties, scoring 13 runs off the tandem of David Peterson and Sean Manaea. Mead ended a triple short of the cycle, including a 9th inning home run off righty Carl Edwards Jr., Jr. Mead has cut his strikeout rate and improved his walk rate to start 2026. With some improvement in a .213 BABIP and continued opportunity, he could be a solid piece with MI and CI eligibility in deeper leagues.

Matt Shaw (CHC): 3-4, 2B, HR, 2 R, RBI.

Shaw’s most important hit of the day was an 8th inning solo home run off Jason Adam to give the Cubs a 5-3 lead in a game they ended up winning 5-4. While the ball left the bat at 101 MPH, he skied it 41 degrees to left field. The defensively-challenged Nick Castellanos nearly made the catch, but the ball and the game were just out of reach. Shaw has had a strong start to the season by making more consistently solid contact. He’s chasing a bit more, but has cut his soft contact rate by about 7 percentage points. The biggest issue for Shaw is going to be playing time; he’s only started 3 of the Cubs’ last six games, and he’s definitely not going to win a job from anyone at his main positions. For now, he’s the first guy off the bench and a short-sided platoon partner for Moisés Ballesteros.

Juan Soto (NYM): 3-5, 2B, HR, R, RBI.

Soto doubled in the first and hit a solo home run in the third inning to bring the Mets within one run of the Nats. That was the last meaningful half-inning for the Mets lineup last night as the Nationals put up 7 in the top of the 4th. Soto singled in the 5th, then had two long fly outs in the 7th and 9th innings. All five of Soto’s batted balls on the night were hit between 97.7 and 105.9 MPH. Soto’s showed his customarily excellent plate discipline since returning from the IL. While the dreams of 40 steal seasons may have departed with Antoan Richardson, El Verdad is still the four category stud we expected him to be.

Liam Hicks (MIA): 1-2, HR, R, RBI, 2 BB.

The Liam Hicks scorcher continues, with Hicks crushing a middle-middle four-seamer from Tyler Glasnow to deep right field for his 7th home run of the year. Hicks isn’t blessed with extreme (or even above average) bat speed or power, but when you’re making contact on 99.2% of your swings in the zone, good things happen. In the top of the 6th, Glasnow intentionally walked Hicks with a runner on third and one out. I’m not sure you can count on this to continue – his zone contact would be an MLB record – but it’s one of the cooler stories of the season so far.

Esteury Ruiz (MIA): 2-4, HR, R, RBI, SB.

Ruiz provided much of the remaining offense for Miami, as they beat the Dodgers 3-2. Esteury’s home run was on a 95 MPH four-seamer up and away from Glasnow which he managed to pull to left field. Ruiz has hit 16 home runs in two minor league seasons, so he’s not an absolute zero in terms of power, but you’re really here for the speed. He has two steals in his first 25 plate appearances across AAA and the majors this year, well below his recent averages. That’s mostly due to the fact that he had an awful start to the season in AAA with a 34 wRC+ in his 5 games there. Right now Ruiz is in the short side of a platoon; he’s not a very good major leaguer, but the game is exceptionally fantasy friendly if he gets the chance to play more often.

Matt Olson (ATL): 2-4, HR, R, 2 RBI.

Olson frustrated me, and many other Tarik Skubal owners, by hitting his first walk-off homer with Atlanta off Kenley Jansen and costing Skubal and the Tigers the win. He scorched a line drive to right-center at 105 MPH to end the game. His home run was actually his softest hit ball on the night, with a 108.9 MPH groundout in the first inning and a 111.5 MPH single in the fourth inning. Like the rest of his teammates, Olson is off to a scorching start to the season as the Braves threaten to wrap up the division by June. Everything looks pretty standard for Olson at this stage with maybe one exception being a half a mile increase in his bat speed. That hasn’t shown up in his batted ball data, though, with his exit velos in line with the rest of his career. He is pulling the ball in the air 5 percentage points more often than he did last year, back in line with his career norms.

Ivan Herrera (STL): 2-4, 2B, 2 R, RBI, BB.

Herrera had two hits and a walk as the Cardinals beat the Pirates 5-4. The walk came on an ABS challenge – Herrera is second in MLB in net runs generated by ABS challenges. The most important part of this game is that Herrera was catching again, giving him 18 starts at DH and 12 at catcher on the season. If he isn’t catcher eligible in your league yet, he should be soon and will slot in as another excellent option behind the plate. Herrera’s contact was soft yesterday, but he’s maintained excellent plate discipline on the season. His .268 BABIP and .276 xBA both suggest that his .248 batting average should regress positively as we move further into the season.

Ernie Clement (TOR): 1-5, HR, R, 2 RBI.

I love Ernie Clement for deeper fantasy leagues, and what an unusual night for him. Clement absolutely robbed Andruw Monasterio of a single up the middle in the top of the fourth, then hit his first homer of the year in the bottom half of the inning. None of the rest of his balls in play fell for hits, but the Blue Jays didn’t need anything more. Depending on your league settings, Clement could have eligibility at every infield position. With his outstanding contact skills and spot in the Blue Jays lineup, he’s the ultimate roster fixer in deep leagues.

 

Photo by Dustin Bradford/Icon Sportswire | Featured image by Ethan Kaplan (@djfreddie10.bsky.social on Blue Sky and @EthanMKaplanImages on Instagram)