Francisco Liriano (ESPN: 13 percent owned; Yahoo!: 29 percent owned)

Explaining Liriano’s season to date comes down to two numbers: 1.024 and 0.923. If they were both WHIPs, the difference would be between good and excellent and he wouldn’t really be fit for a waiver wire column since his ownership would be pretty close to 100 percent. The second figure is indeed a WHIP, Liriano’s since his return from the bullpen on May 30 to be precise. The first, on the other hand, is the OPS he allowed over his first six starts of the season. Read the rest of this entry »

Injuries and or ineffectiveness always leads to lots of turnover in starting rotations. Since new pitchers are always getting an opportunity to perform, there seems to be an endless stream of guys to consider picking up, especially in deep leagues. Here are a couple of the pitchers who have either just returned to the Majors or are getting their first taste.

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Today’s Roto Riteup is my fourth of the week, so you get four bullet points to celebrate the occasion. Celebrate good times, come on!

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• Matt Capps served up a two-run blast in the ninth frame of a non-save situation to Martin Maldanado of the Milwaukee Brewers last Friday, and hasn’t pitched since. The long ball was the fourth allowed by Capps this season — giving the Brew Crew a 5-3 victory over the Twinkies — and dealt the veteran righty his fourth loss of 2012. Since the loss, Capps has been sidelined with shoulder inflammation but is expected to return to action this Thursday or Friday. In the meantime, manager Ron Gardenhire suggested Glen Perkins and Jared Burton could each see an opportunity to close out games based on matchups. Despite the aforementioned loss, Capps has been pretty reliable for the Twins in save situations, nailing down 14-of-15 chances with a 5.00 K/BB.
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Today, I am looking at some possible 2B options for owners in deeper leagues. The following players are owned in less than 10% of the leagues at ESPN and Yahoo!.

Ownership percentages are ESPN and then Yahoo!.

Ryan Theriot (9%, 7%) – Theriot is just not a talented 2B and it really doesn’t matter. He is getting regular playing time (started 19 of the last 21 games at 2B for the Giants) and is hitting at the top of lineup (#2 hole in 19 of the last 20 games). Both “attributes” will help him to generated plenty of opportunities to score and drive in Runs. He just needs to take advantage of the opportunities.

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The Washington Nationals have been on a roll, and at 38-27, they stand atop the National League East by three games. They’ve done it largely on the backs of their starting rotation, who own the best ERA and FIP in baseball at 2.97 and 3.16, respectively. Because of their success, a certain star third baseman has been able to rather quietly attempt to work through his struggles.

But at some point in the season, the Washington Nationals are going to very much need Ryan Zimmerman to start resembling any close approximation to his former self if they’re going to be serious about winning their division. And right now, Zimmerman looks absolutely lost at the plate.

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Sifting through your waiver wire can be a daunting task at this time of year.  I mean, let’s face it…unless your league has such a limited bench or no DL spots to use, the majority of guys left out on the wire are there for a reason.  Some can’t hit, some can’t run, some don’t play regularly, whatever their faults may be, the bottom line is that they are sitting there because no one else wants them.  And very few of them have the ability to stay in your lineup on any kind of permanent basis if you do happen to grab one.  So rather than just arbitrarily find you a moderately warm body to insert into your lineup for some indeterminable amount of time, let’s talk about two guys whose current performance and presence on the wire make them a hot topic amongst emails received over the past two weeks. Read the rest of this entry »

Conclusions first: Those who drafted Zack Greinke didn’t do so to have him sitting on their bench for half of his starts. Those who have invested either the draft pick or the talent it would take in order to get him via trade, should be getting the full value out of him and starting him every time the Brewers give him the ball, because even when he’s not pitching well, he’s still seldom that far below average. His two worst starts of the season happen to have come on the road: His 3.2 IP, 8 ER effort in Chicago and his 2.1 IP, 7 ER shelling at the hands of the Diamondbacks were both aberrations even for his road struggles. While he hasn’t set the world alight in his other sojourns away from Milwaukee, he’s hardly pitched the Brewers out of those games.

Still…it’s unusual that Greinke has been so much worse on the road than he has been at Miller Park, right? Read the rest of this entry »

It’s official: this is the most boring deep league waiver wire to date. The combined age of the recommended players is an elderly 71. <cliché>But these guys still have some gas left in the tank!</cliché>

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Today’s Roto Riteup includes somewhat of a rant about the Rockies. You should rant in the comments, too, to make me feel better.

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