The Atlanta Braves have a history of quality starting pitching, and that success has extended into recent years. By earned run average, their rotation has ranked among the top ten in baseball in each of the last four years, including a 3.75 ERA last season.
This spring, the starting rotation is already set with the only caveat being Brandon Beachy’s expected midseason return from Tommy John surgery.
The Yankee lineup is a bit of a mess. And that’s being nice. With Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson and Alex Rodriguez all ailing, guys like Juan Rivera and Brennan Boesch will start the season in a lineup that is usually one of the most formidable in the league. With Travis Hafner and Chris Stewart also figuring to see regular at-bats, this lineup is anything but formidable.
But this post is just about the infield, not the whole lineup.
Let’s start with the Teixeira injury. Teixeira was originally reported to be out with a strained wrist injury until sometime between the first and middle of May. But it now appears that Teixeira has a partially torn tendon sheath. This is the same injury Jose Bautista had last year that ended his season early. Teixeira’s injury is supposedly a bit different in that the tendon under the sheath is stable whereas Bautista had an unstable tendon, which is the reason Bautista’s injury required season-ending surgery.
If we could be sure Teixeira would be back sometime in May, he might still be worth drafting as your corner infielder. But with so much uncertainty about the timeline after this latest development concerning his injury, there’s probably too much risk to take on. However, if you play in a league with more than one DL slot, he might be worth stashing if he falls to the last couple rounds of your draft.
The Tampa Bay Rays last used a free-agent starter in 2002. Since then, the team has received incredible contributions strictly relying on homegrown talent. The streak may continue in 2013, as all five current starters came up through the Rays’ system. At the top, David Price, Jeremy Hellickson and Matt Moore have already proven themselves as strong fantasy contributors. There’s some uncertainty at the back-end, but given the Rays’ penchant for turning out quality contributors, every player should be on fantasy owners’ radar.
Last week, I began looking at which players my ranking differed most from compared to the staff consensus. Shortstop is a much better position this year when digging for sleepers than its middle infield counterpart, second base. That gives you the opportunity to bypass the top options and grab when of the late rounders with nice upside. For the shortstop bullish and bearish picks, I will once again only look at my top 18 for bullish and the consensus top 18 for the bearish group.
Monday’s Roto Riteup comes after the announcement of an All Questions Answered thread! Make sure to head over to receive my slightly above-average advice.
On today’s agenda:
1. Pitchers in the AL West
2. What to do with Kyle Lohse
3. Mark Teixeira’s Wrist
4. Cody Ross’ Calf
5. Selected Projections
Since we are getting dangerously close to draft day in most leagues, many of you readers will have some questions you’d like answered. In an effort to help, I am giving you a chance to get your questions answered today.
All reasonable questions posted in the comments by 9:00 PM EDT will be answered. What makes a question reasonable? Glad you asked.
Today’s Roto Riteup is an exercise in both self-gratification and audience appreciation.
On today’s agenda:
1. Aaron Hicks and Darin Mastroianni
2. Will Venable’s splits
3. Wil Myers goes to the minors
Welcome to Saturday’s Roto Riteup, where the numbers aren’t made up and the points do matter.
On today’s agenda:
1. Jedd Gyorko likely to start season in bigs
2. Zack Greinke could start season on DL
3. Jon Garland back in the bigs?
“Through early morning fog I see,
Visions of the things to be,
The pains that are withheld for me,
I realize and I can see,That suicide is painless,
It brings on many changes,
and I can take or leave it if I please”
-M*A*S*H Theme
While I’m not advocating or equating the aforementioned lyrics, it’s become pretty obvious that this will be a M*A*S*H unit which Mike Redmond will preside over. Three of the most ‘established’ players on whom Redmond would have liked to lean upon — relatively speaking — are either injured or questionable to start the season.
The Miami Marlins are quite obviously a different club in 2013 than they were at the close of 2012. Relative to their starting rotation, gone are Anibal Sanchez, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle (and, ahem, Carlos Zambrano) which opens up a number of opportunities for fresh blood. Whether any of that fresh blood is fit for fantasy or better suited for The Walking Dead is up to some debate. But there are certainly some interesting battles going on to round out the back end of this rather motley crew of arms.
