Agenda

1. An Informal Poll
2. Today’s Picks
3. Tomorrow’s Selections
4. Un Table

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I’m not sure how your roto teams are doing, but I’ve had a rough start so far. I own multiple shares of: Miguel Cabrera, Edwin Encarnacion, Brad Miller, Jason Heyward, Danny Salazar, and Aaron Hill. I also recently lost Chris Sale from two teams. So, thankfully Edwin and Miggy have began to come around otherwise this week would have given me a whole lot of sadness. It can’t all be bad though, right? Andrew Cashner has been very good. Kluber was lights out yesterday. Lance Lynn has quietly been very good. So it appears better days are on the horizon. Hopefully better days are on their way for you too, if your squads have limped out of the gate.

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Something strange is happening in Tampa Bay. Matt Joyce is hitting in the month of April. Using monthly splits for analysis is a fool’s play, but throughout his career, May has been Joyce’s month to shine. Apparently, someone removed the month of April from his 2014 calendar because Joyce is off to a terrific start this season.

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Today’s Roto Riteup was written on laundry day as well as immediately after I stubbed my toe on the corner of the dryer. Just as my childhood mentor Rocko said, laundry day is a very dangerous day.

On today’s agenda:
1. Miguel Montero: cleanup hitter?
2. James Loney’s value
3. A bounce back start for Corey Kluber
4. The Daily Five

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-Welp, Daisuke Matsuzaka earned a save today — the first of his career — in a 1-2-3 top of the ninth-inning for the Metropolitans. Glad I didn’t make the “I’ll eat my hat bet” with Dice-K never earning a save, like I almost did last evening. Not sure how well I’d digest a brim. Anywho, Matsuzaka needed just 15 to pitches to retire Allen Craig, Daniel Descalso and Peter Bourjos to give the Mets a 4-1 victory over the Cardinals in Flushing. He now owns a 1.69 ERA (2.16 xFIP) in 5.1 innings on the hill. But don’t go racing to the waiver wire to put in your claims just yet, Kyle Farnsworth is still the go-to man for Terry Collins in save situations, thankfully. It’s just nice to know that the skipper considers Matsuzaka a sturdy backup just in case Farnsworth is unable to go, for whatever reason. Please pass the Tums.

–Jonathan Broxton notched his fourth save of the season as the Reds sunk the Pirates, 2-1. The burly right-hander needed just twelve pitches to seal the deal in a clean inning of work in the bottom half of the ninth. Broxton is doing a fair job of keeping the closer’s chair warm for Aroldis Chapman, who is slated to toss another live bullpen session this weekend in Atlanta. This time, Chapman will go without the screen, then head off to a rehab assignment if all goes well. Seems like a speedy recovery for what appeared to be a disastrous injury. It’s unlikely that you can pry Chapman from his fake owners if they’ve been waiting on him this long, but hey, maybe it’s worth a shot?

–Addison Reed made quick work of the Cubs in the home half of the ninth-inning today. The former crosstown rival fanned Mike Olt, then induced a Welington Castillo pop out and a groundout off the bat of Ryan Kalish on just ten pitches to clinch his fifth save of the young season. Reed is now 5-of-6 on the season in save chances with a 3.27 ERA (3.61 xFIP) and a 26% K%.

–Glen Perkins picked up his fifth save of the year in a 9-7 Twinkies victory over the Rays. Perkins has two strikeouts in five of his nine appearances. Not bad. Joe Nathan walked one, but struck out two en route to his fourth save of the season. As I noted in earlier versions of the Bullpen Report, Nathan’s velocity and ability to induce swings-and-misses are down a tick in the early part of ‘14. Hopefully those numbers creep back up as the season wears on. Huston Street surrendered a leadoff double to Bryce Harper, but escaped a bit of a jam to grab his eighth save of the season.

Lots of yelling and screaming on the Twitter machine regarding Ernesto Frieri’s status in the Angels’ bullpen. His last five appearances have been awful. He’s surrendered six runs on twelve hits in three-and-two-thirds. Some think he won’t hold down the ninth in the near future. And some think whoever said that is just crazy. If you’re not sure what to think but are chasing saves, Joe Smith seems to be the “just in case” add in Anaheim.

Closer Grid:

[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]

Or…Where Does the 70/30 Split Go?

You’ve heard fantasy analysts refer to the 70/30 Hitter-Pitcher split during draft season. In most league formats, it’s common to allocate 70 percent of your auction budget to hitters. They’re more stable as assets and harder to replace in-season. Two months from now, a top 25 RoS starting pitcher will be on your waiver wire (identifying who is the larger challenge). You probably won’t find a top 10 third baseman. There are other reasons to allocate more budget to hitters than pitchers. For the purposes of today’s discussion, let’s just agree that the 70/30 split is a). a thing and b). a valid process.

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These things happen every year. Last Thursday, I wrote about my renewed roto affinity for Edinson Volquez and how the Pittsburgh Pirates seemed to be rescuing him. (Jeff Sullivan did a better job of quantifying some of the real improvements in the wild northpaw’s game a day later.)

It’s fun when the subjects of comeback stories are useful fantasy players as well. Your opponents are waiting for what they perceive as overdue corrections to burn you. You’re wondering how much longer you should ride this wave of unbelievable fortune. Bartolo Colon is texting these dudes to welcome them to the club.

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• Chris Sale finally went on the disabled list after years of people saying he would be an injury risk. He is expected to only miss the minimum 15 days. Looking at his last game data, he had no injury indications. Since he is on the White Sox and they have a great history of minimizing injuries, I see the trip a small inconvenience for better health as the season goes on.

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It was brought to my attention last week that I have yet to discuss bullpen arms with both starting and relief pitcher eligibility. So, here we go.

Many fantasy baseball championships are won on draft day. But others are able to raise a flag with shrewd waiver wire moves and smoothly navigating their league’s settings to identify certain loopholes they can use to their advantage.

In some league variations, owners are have a fixed number of starting and relief roster spots to fill each-and-every day, so identifying lesser-owned hurlers with dual eligibility could be more valuable than most imagine. With that said, here is a short list of arms that said owners could slot into either their starting or relief roster spots in an attempt to gain an advantage in needed categories.

All ownership percentages reflect Yahoo! leagues.
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I should just stop there. On the one hand everyone will rightly scream sample size horrors as I attempt to type any further and on the other hand I have the lifelong goal of using “What in the Sam Hill” in a post title accomplished. The bucket list needs updating.

But set aside the sample for a moment, and just gaze in wonder at Miguel Cabrera’s line to start the season in 2014: .236/.295/.403. Cabrera has 17 hits over almost 80 plate appearances. More than half of them are singles, only two have left the park, and he has ten runs batted in. At this point in 2013, Cabrera was hitting .370/.438/.511 with five doubles, a triple, two home runs and 23 RBI. And as ridiculous as that looks, he really only got better from there.

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