I usually do these Rundowns on the Brick Wall on Monday, but sometimes I feel it on Sunday, and this is one of those times. The rest of the week you can find these Rundowns on the Patreon. I do them all season. Here is the Sunday Morning Dynasty Baseball Rundown (3/30/25):

CLICK HERE TO JOIN MY PATREON FOR TONS OF EXCLUSIVE CONTENT ALL SEASON, INCLUDING:
-DYNASTY RUNDOWNS AND MONTHLY DYNASTY & PROSPECTS RANKINGS UPDATES ALL SEASON
-TOP 1,000 2025 DYNASTY BASEBALL RANKS
-TOP 500 2025 DYNASTY BASEBALL PROSPECT RANKS
-TOP 146 2025 FYPD RANKS
-2025 FYPD Target & Strategy Guide
-POSITION BY POSITION TARGETS
-OBP TOP 400 2025 DYNASTY BASEBALL RANKS
-PREDICTING THE TOP 50 2026 PROSPECTS RANKS
–ALL IN ONE RANKINGS SPREADSHEET
–TOP 10 2026 FYPD RANKINGS
-HALP’S DYNASTY BASEBALL PODCAST

Kristian Campbell – BOS, 2B/OF, 22.3 – And this is why I fought every urge in my body to not overreact to spring. I felt the pull too. The questions were coming left and right. And my answer remained the same. I’m not going to rejuggle my entire rankings based on who was having the best spring. The Sox weren’t fazed by the bad spring either, putting Campbell on the Opening Day roster. And it didn’t take long for our patience to pay off. Campbell had his coming out party yesterday. utterly obliterating his first MLB homer at 112.2 MPH with an 80.4 MPH swing. He tacked on a 106.3 MPH double too, finishing the day 2 for 3 with a walk. He currently has a 75.3 MPH bat speed on 16 swings, which would put him into the elite range. He’s the real deal.

Matt Shaw – CHC, 3B/2B/SS, 23.4/Gage Workman – CHC, SS/3B, 25.5 – Workman stole a start at 3B after Shaw’s slow start to the season hah, which was my concern, but he went 0 for 2 with 2 K’s, and then Shaw replaced him and leg kicked his way into his first big league homer with a 76.6 MPH swing. That leg kick though. My goodness. I mean, I love me the little men leg kick, but maybe a little too much man ha. Either way, what a fun weekend of baseball so far.

Jesus Luzardo – PHI, LHP, 27.6 – The first weekend of baseball has been nothing short of a Brick Wall Target Festival. Luzardo was my #1 bounce back target call, and boy did he bounce back in his first start, going 5 IP with 5 hits, 2 ER, and a 11/2 K/BB vs. WAS. The fastball velocity is all the way back up to a fully healthy 96.9 MPH, and the slider and sweeper were absolutely devastating with a 78% and 71% whiff% respectively. The changeup dominated too with a 33% whiff% and 85.7 MPH EV. Everything straight dominated. Also off to a damn good start on that long shot bet lead the league in strikeouts. We’re off and running baby …

 Jordan Westburg – BAL, 2B/3B, 26.1 – Even targets from Christmas Past are working double time. Westburg wasn’t done after the 2024 breakout, he’s coming for the next level 2025 breakout now, cranking two homers at 109.7 MPH off Max Scherzer and 105.7 MPH off Chad Green. That’s 3 homers in 3 games. Everything’s coming up Brick on Opening Weekend. What’s next, you’re going to tell me this is the year Zac Veen breaks out too?

Jose Soriano – LAA, RHP, 26.6 – Don’t kill the messenger! I don’t want to victory lap this much after 3 games either! hah … what am I supposed to do though? Target Soriano opened his season with a shutout, going 7 IP with 2 hits, 0 ER, and a 5/2 K/BB vs. CHW. Granted, I could probably shutout the White Sox, but still. The sinker sat 96.6 MPH and while he didn’t get a ton of whiffs with a 16% whiff% overall, he was a weak contact machine with a 83.7 MPH EV against. Again, was he really a weak contact machine, or were the White Sox hitters a weak contact machine? I’m not victory lapping this. This feels more like the White Sox than anything Soriano did. Montgomery and Teel (who homered for the 2nd straight game yesterday at Triple-A) can’t get here fast enough.

Bo Bichette – TOR, SS, 27.1 – We need a Target palate cleanser. Non Target Bichette is showing signs the big spring was legit after going 4 for 4 yesterday with a 110.5 MPH double 104.7 MPH double, 102.4 MPH single and 86.6 MPH single. But the most important thing is that the bat speed is up in the early going with an above average 72.1 MPH swing speed on 22 swings. It sat a 70.1 in 2023 and 70.4 in 2024. All signs point to a legit bounce for Bichette.

Victor Scott – STL, OF, 24.2 – Non Target Victor Scott went 2 for 4 with 2 steals. Nice to see him get on the board after his hot spring too. He has potential to lead the majors in steals.

Ryan Bliss – SEA, 2B/SS, 25.4/Otto Lopez – MIA, 2B, 26.4 – – But Scott isn’t the only contender off and running, Target (! ha) Bliss got on his horse again too for his 2nd steal of the season, finishing the day 1 for 4. And Target Otto might be gunning for a full blown breakout at this point. He nabbed his first bag of the season after homering on Friday. But more impressively, he clocked in with another big day at the dish, going 3 for 5, highlighted by a 109.9 MPH single. That’s a new career high.

New York Yankees Bats – Like, literally the bats. One of the most interesting stories of the early season is the MIT physicist who reshaped the Yankees bats to put more wood in the barrel. And after hitting 9 homers yesterday as a team, the story is blowing up. Seems wild that it took 150 years for somebody to figure this out. I mean, I just assumed this would have been tried before. Or that it was illegal. But I guess not. At least not yet. This is just fun to follow. Would have been nice if Dominguez got one too though. He had no homers. Did he not get the bat?

Nick Kurtz – OAK, 1B, 22.1 – Cam Smith damn near sucked the hype away from every other FYPD player after his insane spring. But Kurtz is now out to put some respect back on his name at Triple-A after decimating his first spring homer at 108.8 MPH. He’s now 4 for 9 with 0 K’s, 2 BB, 2 doubles, and a homer. I would say he’s ready.

Spencer Arrighetti – HOU, RHP, 25.2 – 6 IP, 1 hit, 1 ER, 5/2 K/BB vs. NYM. The fastball sat 94.3 MPH and put up a 21% whiff%. But it was the secondaries that really impressed with the curve, cutter, sweeper and changeup putting up a 50%, 44%, 60% and 33% whiff% respectively. It led to an elite 35% whiff%. This is exactly what we wanted to see out of Arrighetti. He’s about to go full breakout in 2025.

Zack Littell – TBR, RHP, 29.6 – The Rodney Dangerfield of pitchers, Littell just can’t get no respect no matter how well he pitches. Coming off a strong 2024, absolutely nobody cared about him again in 2025, but he made them notice yesterday, going 6 IP with 4 hits, 1 ER, and a 7/1 K/BB. Granted it came against road Rockies, but still. The splitter absolutely dominated with 6 of 12 whiffs, and the heavily used slider was awesome too with a 86.7 MPH EV against and 28% whiff%. He’s not flashy, but he gets the job done, and he’s not going anywhere. Just a really solid pitcher.

Walker Buehler – BOS, RHP, 30.8 – Buehler was one of my top pitcher fades this off-season, not buying into the name value, and his first outing doesn’t make me like him any more than I did, going 4.1 IP with 7 hits, 4 ER, and a 3/0 K/BB vs. TEX. The velocity is all the way down to 93 MPH on the fastball, and while the sweeper, changeup and curve missed bats, it still resulted in a below average 21% whiff% overall. I closed out his Top 1,000 blurb by writing, “His stuff really isn’t all that standout anymore, and is arguably below average. He’s an aging, banged up pitcher with decent stuff and continually declining whiff rates. I’m out at his current price.” It was just more of the same yesterday.

Matt McLain – CIN, 2B/SS, 25.8 – Little Matty McLain got himself a repaired shoulder, and it looked just fine yesterday, blasting off for his first homer off Justin Verlander at 99.8 MPH. Not exactly a statement shot, but it would have been a homer in 29 of 30 ballparks, so it’s not just a Cincy cheapie. He currently has a 98.5 MPH EV in 6 batted balls. I would say he’s healthy.

Christian Encarnacion-Strand – CIN, 1B, 25.4 – Speaking of healthy Reds, Strand is so back, getting ahold of his first homer of the season as well with a 103.5 MPH shot. He also tacked on a 102.7 MPH single. The bat speed is up to 74.4 MPH on the season, which is double plus range. I was lukewarm on him this off-season, and that was clearly a mistake. Thankfully I still have him on a rookie contract in my 12 team league back when I did believe in him. Dynasty is weird like that. So I’ll take it ha.

Keibert Ruiz – WAS, C, 26.8 – It sure feels like Ruiz is about the have his breakout season. He lifted off again for his 2nd homer of the season on a 101.6 MPH shot off Jesus Luzardo. The 67.4 MPH bat speed is still slow, giving me some pause on how real it is, but at the least, a bounce back season is in order after a down 2024. And he has an 18 homer season under his belt already in 2023.

Maikel Garcia – KCR, 3B/2B, 25.1 – Talk about Ghosts of Target past. I’m not going to fall for this one again. Garcia is off to another hot start after cracking his first homer of the year at 103.8 MPH. He also tacked on a 107.3 MPH single. Those were the two hardest hit balls of the day. I thought the breakout was coming last year after his hot start, but it wasn’t to be, so forgive me for waiting a bit longer on this one this year. I still like the profile a lot (speed, hard hit, contact), but he still has a negative 12.2 degree launch, and he needs to raise that launch for a true sustained homer breakout.

Spencer Schwellenbach – ATL, RHP, 24.10 – Last year in these here Dynasty Rundowns I was pumping Schwellenbach as a 5 alarm target when his ERA was over 5. This year, I’m not sure there is much left to say other than he is an ace, and he went out and kept proving it yesterday, going 6 IP with 1 hit, 0 ER, and a 4/1 K/BB vs. SDP. The fastball sat 96.5 MPH, and he went to his excellent splitter even more than last year, making it his most used pitch with a 30% whiff%. He used a 6 pitch mix to notch an above average 26% whiff% and 87.2 MPH EV against. Last year was the time to pounce. It’s too late now.

Gavin Williams – CLE, RHP, 25.8 – 5 IP, 4 hits, 2 ER, 2/1 K/BB vs. KCR … solid outing. The fastball sat 97.5 MPH, which is good. But it only resulted in a 17% whiff% overall. We’re going to need to see much better than that before thinking a true explosion is coming.

Griffin Canning – NYM, RHP, 28.11 – 5.2 IP, 4 hits, 2 ER, 4/2 K/BB vs. HOU. The fastball sat 93.7 MPH and got zero whiffs. The heavily used slider got hit hard with a 91.5 MPH EV and didn’t miss a ton of bats (25% whiff%). The change also got hit hard with a 91.1 MPH EV. It resulted in a 91.1 MPH EV against with a 24% whiff%. All together, you have to say it was a solid outing, but I’m still treading carefully here.

 Jeremy Pena – HOU, SS, 27.6 – Pena is coming for those power gains after he jacked out his 1st homer of the year with a literal laser beam at 106.7 MPH off Griffin Canning. His launch is up to 20.8 degrees in the early going. Still early, but that is a big jump from 7.5 degrees. If he can even maintain some of that, it won’t be hard to take advantage of those Crawford boxes.

Kameron Misner – TBR, OF, 27.3 – Last off-season, I named Misner a deep league target as the next Luke Raley-like Rays late career breakout. He didn’t make my Top 1,000 this year because I just didn’t see the path to playing time, but with Lowe out, he has one now, and he’s taking advantage. He homered on Friday as a pinch hitter, and then he got the start yesterday and went 2 for 4 with a 103.7 MPH single and 99 MPH single. This a 6’4”, 218 pound uber athlete who jacked 17 homers with 30 steals at Triple-A in 2024. This is the exact type of late career breakout that the Rays love. Like Raley, it’s going to come with a lot of strikeouts and a likely platoon role, but he’s really interesting to me. You know I love my huge human beings who are also great athletes.

Junior Caminero – TBR, 3B, 21.9 – 84.8 MPH. 83.3 MPH. 81.5 MPH. 81.2 MPH. Those were the 4 fastest swings of the game. This guy just swings different. It resulted in a 3 for 5 day. He’s just impressive.

Oneil Cruz – PIT, OF/SS, 26.6 – 4 walks and another 2 for 2 day on the bases, giving him 1 homer and 4 steals in 3 games. Oh no, what is this man about to do this year

Roki Sasaki – LAD, RHP, 23.5 – Oh boy. Sasaki deserves to have the Bottom of the Rundown all to himself. He got blown up, going 1.2 IP with 3 hits, 2 ER, and a 2/4 K/BB vs. DET. The fastball was down 1 MPH from his first shaky outing in Japan at 96.1 MPH, and that’s way down from where he was sitting in his prime. The splitter and slider still missed a ton of bats, which is definitely good news (50% and 40%, respectively), but what the hell happened to his control? This man had a career 5.6% BB% in Japan. I don’t think I want to answer that question. It’s the answer I didn’t want to give when I predicted Sasaki would be back on the 2026 Top 50 Prospects Rankings. Let’s just hope it’s nerves/jitters/adjustment period. That’s all we can do.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN MY PATREON FOR TONS OF EXCLUSIVE CONTENT ALL SEASON, INCLUDING:
-DYNASTY RUNDOWNS AND MONTHLY DYNASTY & PROSPECTS RANKINGS UPDATES ALL SEASON
-TOP 1,000 2025 DYNASTY BASEBALL RANKS
-TOP 500 2025 DYNASTY BASEBALL PROSPECT RANKS
-TOP 146 2025 FYPD RANKS
-2025 FYPD Target & Strategy Guide
-POSITION BY POSITION TARGETS
-OBP TOP 400 2025 DYNASTY BASEBALL RANKS
-PREDICTING THE TOP 50 2026 PROSPECTS RANKS
–ALL IN ONE RANKINGS SPREADSHEET
–TOP 10 2026 FYPD RANKINGS
-HALP’S DYNASTY BASEBALL PODCAST

By Michael Halpern (@MichaelCHalpern)
Email: michaelhalpern@imaginarybrickwall.com
Twitter: Imaginary Brick Wall (@DynastyHalp)
Blue Sky: Dynasty Halp (@ImaginaryBrickWall)