What to know for Fantasy Baseball Week 3: Joey Votto's new approach, early DL stints ending, and league-wide trends

Beware of teams only scheduled for five games in a week. Chris Towers takes a look ahead at Week 3 of the Fantasy Baseball season.

It's hard to stare at an 0-2 record and feel good about yourself, but it isn't the end of the world. Trust me. You don't want to overreact and mess up a good team that is under-performing, and, who knows, maybe Week 3 (April 17-23) could be the week it all turns around -- if you know what to look for. 

Giants and Rockies play five games

It's never good to see players on your team heading into a week with fewer matchups than everyone else. In this case, it's set to be two fewer scheduled games than about half the league because 14 teams are set for seven games in Week 3.

Big names like Carlos Gonzalez, Charlie Blackmon and Nolan Arenado should probably still be in your starting lineup, but it's hard to say beyond that. The teams do get a weekend series at Coors, which could lead to plenty of offense, but as we've seen with a revamped Rockies' rotation, that is by no means a sure thing. The Giants don't exactly have a ton of must-start Fantasy options beyond Buster Posey either, and Posey might be limited this week, so there aren't many viable options here.

5 games: COL, SF
6 games: BAL, CHC, CHW, CIN, DET, KC, LAD, MIA, NYM, NYY, PHI, PIT, TOR, WAS
7 games: ARI, ATL, BOS, CLE, HOU, LAA, MIL, MIN, OAK, SD, SEA, STL, TB, TEX 

Early DL stints could end 

This new 10-day disabled list is going to take some getting used to. In the cases of Trea Turner, Matt Kemp and Jean Segura, hamstring injuries that initially sounded like they may have been day-to-day issues ultimately landed them on the shelf, which makes sense. If a player is going to miss four-to-five days, at a minimum, as a result of their injury, you might as well just put them on the DL and get the extra roster spot.

While it might make sense for MLB teams to use the new shorter DL this way, it's certainly caused some headaches for Fantasy players. The first round of DL occupants are eligible to come back this week, but you've got some tough decisions ahead of you in Week 3, with the statuses of Turner, Kemp and Segura all up in the air.

Buster Posey is supposedly feeling better while recovering from his concussion, and given the protocol you have to go through to return from that type of issue should give you plenty of warning as to when he will be available. He will be eligible to return from the DL in time for this week's games, but if he isn't cleared by Monday, go ahead and leave him inactive.

Jorge Soler and J.D. Martinez are coming back from injuries that extend back to the spring, but both could be on rehab assignments this week. Either could be back at some point during Week 3, but neither makes much sense as a starting option.  

Radar gun readings 

Because MLB's Statcast tracker doesn't record pitch velocity from the same point as the PITCHf/x system, we've spent the first couple of weeks of the season trying to make sense of what we're seeing out here. The overall gist is that pitch velocity tends to be coming in around 1 MPH higher under the new tracking service than in the past, without taking into account the existing differences between parks that have been there for a while.

FanGraphs.com has been trying to re-calibrate pitch velocity data to account for the new information, which you can read here. According to their data, breakout candidates James Paxton, Taijuan Walker and Danny Duffy have all been among the biggest velocity losers from last season to this, which isn't a great sign. Of course, the results for both Duffy and Paxton especially have been fine, so it's hard to worry too much, especially when neither was starting in the majors last April.

Which reminds me: It's always better to judge April-to-April velocity, when available. Velocity tends to tick up as the season goes on, peaking in the summer months before trailing off for most pitchers in September. Don't be alarmed yet.

Watching league-wide trends 

Here are some things I'm keeping an eye on:

• The Brewers are the most strikeout prone team in baseball at 29.9 percent
  
• The Reds and Red Sox are on the other end at 16.4 and 16.0 percent.
  
• The Diamondbacks and Reds have both stolen 11 bases while being caught twice, making them the most aggressive teams on the base paths
  
• League-wide flyball rate has ticked up yet again, to 36.1 percent, as batters continue to embrace the flyball revolution. 
  
• League-wide walk rate and strikeout rates are both up, which combined with the flyball surge continue the trend toward three true outcomes baseball. The trend toward more homers from last season certainly appears to be continuing.  

Joey Votto keeps hacking 

Votto was a bit less selective last season, as he swing at 42.1 percent of all pitches thrown his way. This was his highest rate since 2011, and a pretty substantial increase on his career-low 37.4 percent swing rate in 2015. He is blowing that rate out of the water so far, swinging at 51.9 percent of pitches in the early going. This has mostly been a result of an increased aggressiveness on pitches inside of the strike zone, where his swing rate has jumped to a career-high 83.1 percent, but it hasn't yet led to much in the way of results.

Votto is hitting just .171/.237/.400 in the first nine games of the season, with a paltry 84.7 MPH average exit velocity. Votto's track record is so long that there is almost no reason to worry, and it is worth noting that his swing rate ticked upward last season, including one nine-game stretch where he was even more aggressive than he has been so far -- he hit .395/.410/.579 during that nine-game stretch.

Votto is a cerebral hitter, so this almost certainly isn't an accident, or the result of random chance. Whether it will turn into a productive change remains to be seen, but it would probably be pretty foolish to bet against him.

Breakout pitchers with something to prove 

• Vince Velasquez has given up three homers in his first two starts, two of which have come with two strikes. He isn't far off, but consistency remains an issue at this point in his career
  
• Matt Shoemaker hasn't thrown his splitter as often in the early going, maybe because he has already given up two homers with the pitch. Or, maybe he's given up two homers with it because it isn't as effective, and that's why he's throwing it less. Either way, we've seen how Shoemaker has to pitch to succeed in the majors, and he isn't doing it right now.
  
• It shouldn't be much of a surprise that Zack Wheeler hasn't exactly been sharp so far, however with a hard innings cap around 120 coming, he might not have enough upside to wait on as he gets back up to speed after missing two full seasons.
  
• The ERA isn't pretty, but there's a lot to like about what Sean Manaea has done so far, starting with a 19.1 percent swinging strike rate. If someone in your league is worried, now is a good time to make a buy-low offer.
  
• As with Manaea, Kenta Maeda is racking up swinging strikes as a rate that doesn't quite match his ugly ERA. Viewed by many as a pitcher without much upside, Maeda might not be a bad buy-low target too, especially with an apparent bump in velocity serving as the wind in his sails.
  

Can Byron Buxton pull out of his slide? 

Buxton went 1 for 5 with only two strikeouts Thursday after being dropped to the No. 9 spot in the order, which is actually counts as a win at this point. Buxton only swung through four sliders, giving him an 18.2 percent swinging strike rate that actually stands as an improvement on his season to date. Things have not gone well for Buxton so far.

It's hard to make sense of just how wrong things have gone, in fact. We've seen him struggle in the majors before, but Buxton is now nine games into a season in which he has struck out more often than he hasn't, and has only one more hit than infield flyball.

A player with less pedigree might be on the verge of a demotion, but at this point, the Twins probably just need to let Buxton try to work out his issues against major leaguers given how much success he has had in the minors already. The question Fantasy players have to ask themselves is whether he has earned that kind of opportunity. I don't see how you can even consider him a starting option, but I still have trouble outright dropping Buxton given how much potential I still think he has as a power-speed threat. But we're getting close to the point where even potential can't save you.