Leaderboard

The president of my company graduated from Auburn. He said their fans have circled the Akron game on their calendars and point it as a "program builder" since Akron has so much experience at the building process.

Fantasy Baseball Takeaways: Chris Bassitt rolling along Chris Bassitt has to be the best pitcher hardly anyone talks about, so let's talk about him. Bassitt threw seven bagels at the Rangers on Wednesday (3 H, 1 BB, 7 K), scoring his ninth win and taking his ERA down to 3.04. His WHIP is a tidy 1.03. If you rank all starting pitchers in banked 5x5 value, Bassitt comes in at 14th. Bassitt’s stuff doesn’t blow anyone away. His average fastball is a modest 93.2 mph. But he’s pushed his strikeout clip over one per inning, he still has elite control (2.28 BB/9), and he’s been pretty good at keeping the ball in the park. (If you subscribe to xFIP — and I don’t — he’s been too lucky with the homers. The xFIP stat says Bassitt should have a 3.89 ERA. Bassitt’s Savant-suggested ERA is more in line with my thinking, 3.20.) As you’d expect, Bassitt’s best foot comes at home, in roomy Oakland — 2.55 ERA, 0.93 WHIP. The ERA jumps almost a run on the road. The division probably turns into a wash; the Astros and Angels score plenty of runs, the Mariners and Rangers don’t. I suspect many fantasy managers drafted Bassitt as a support arm, but he’s a fantasy No. 3 at worst going forward.

@LZIp I like freshman LB Michael Snowden's quote tweet on that: I do appreciate the culture Arth & Co. are trying to build. If it takes hold it could be something we can all - the university and city - be sincerely proud of. But they've got to win.