It’s an exciting day in New York. Young Mets’ prospect Rafael Montero is making his major league debut. Due to the fact that it’s his debut, he has no data in the chart below. I have no scouting chops whatsoever, but I’ll do my best to give you a little introduction to Mr. Montero.

Montero has put up quality numbers everywhere he has pitched. His numbers haven’t been quite as gawdy this season, but don’t worry too much. Las Vegas – and the PCL in general – is a terrible place to pitch.

Fangaphs’ own Marc Hulet wrote the following about Montero earlier this year:

The Scouting Report: Montero is a rare Latin prospect who has a high ceiling despite being a late bloomer and not signing until he was 20 years old. His strengths as a pitcher are his above-average command and control, which help all three of his pitches play up. He possesses a low-90s fastball, slider and changeup. He needs to stay on top of his pitches more and try to create more of a downward plane.

There you have it. Montero should be fun to watch, especially if he’s able to command his fastball well. I’m not using him today, thanks to the Yankee Stadium effect, but he could be a nice cheap play going forward.

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It’s tough to say San Diego Padres’ pitcher Andrew Cashner is breaking out. After posting a 3.09 ERA, and a 3.35 FIP, over 175 innings in 2013, Cashner had officially arrived. On top of that, his second half success hinted that there was even more in the tank. If there was one complaint about Cashner’s game, it was that his strikeout rate as a reliever failed to translate in a starting role. He’s put some of those concerns to rest in 2014. Through nine starts, Cashner’s posted a 2.67 ERA, with an equally respectable 2.81 FIP. He’s also managed to pull his strikeout rate into an acceptable area. It can’t be called a breakout, but it’s definitely another step forward in his development.

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It’s another truly deep dive in this week’s waiver wire adventure. Since I’ve been asked several times, the deep league edition of the weekly waiver wire is typically meant for Mono league owners. Or perhaps if you play in a 20-team mixed league, you could use these recommendations as well.

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Here’s to hoping that you, the warm-blooded Roto Riteup reader, have a better ability to stay cool in 75-degree temperatures than this fair-skinned Dutchman.

On today’s agenda:
1. Jose Fernandez needs Tommy John
2. Big Boppers back from DL
3. Kevin Gausman to start today
4. Omar Infante finally goes to DL
5. The Frisky Five

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A few quick updates from Monday:

• Addison Reed blew his second save on the year and now holds a 1-3 record and is 11/13 on save chances. Kirk Gibson squashed any closer controversy rumors but the fact remains that Reed has not pitched well this year. The Diamondbacks gave up some value in a trade for Reed so he should have a long leash but a 5.03 ERA and 5.49 FIP certainly isn’t pretty. Reed is actually striking out more guys (26.7%)  and walking fewer batters  (4.7%) than last year but the long ball has killed him. A 21.4% HR/FB ratio isn’t sustainable but Reed allows many balls fly through the air with a mere 32% career ground ball rate. I’ll take Gibson at his word and not sound the alarm on Reed but Brad Ziegler is someone to take a look at.

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Episode 118

The latest episode of The Sleeper and the Bust is now live! Jason Collette and Eno Sarris discuss potential pitchers to target based on pitch whiff rates, power surgers who may be on the way down, and the recent fantasy news.

As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us any fantasy questions you have that we may answer on our next episode.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via the feed.

Thanks to Ian Miller aka Teen Archer, for the new intro music. Approximately 58 minutes of joyous analysis.  

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It’s very sad. The man that threw the most curveballs in baseball (with the highest whiff rate among curveballs) is now hurt. It’s almost like there’s been work on the subject.

But Jose Fernandez is gone. You can’t have him back, not this year. So it’s time to hit the wire. And let’s use some whiff rates to see what we can find. I’ll just look for surprising league-leading pitches in each category. One standout pitch might be enough for you right now, especially if it comes with some other surprises once we jump in.

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Once a hitter displays a skill, he owns it.

That can be one of the hardest axioms to remember in fantasy baseball, as down seasons or exceptionally cold stretches make us turn our backs on a player for good. Never is that harder than when the matter of skill ownership gets clouded even further by the process of aging – a skill is owned, sure, but it can also erode over time.

Given those factors, I understand the trepidation in buying into 35-year-old Jimmy Rollins coming off of perhaps the worst season of his career, one in which his home run total dropped to just six in 666 plate appearances, his strikeout rate continued inching higher and his isolated slugging all but fell off the face of the earth. But Rollins’ early-2014 resurgence is worth examining for several reasons.
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Moving to the National League from the American League is always a boost, as is moving from a park like US Celullar to Turner Field. To boot, having the Atlanta Braves defense behind him, most notably Andrelton Simmons and Jason Heyward, should give Floyd’s numbers a bit of a boost as well.
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It’s not unusual to find several unexpected names among the top fantasy producers at a position nearly a quarter of the way into a particular season. Because they’re unforeseen, they aren’t necessarily among your league’s most owned players.

At some point, though, some antsy owner will have begun to question his loyalty to a player he drafted when the season-to-date performance of a player he didn’t is still rated higher in his league’s free-agent list. Even though at some point in the near future, regression to the means of both players would seem likelier than not to benefit him, ignoring signs of changes in their baseline performance and reliability.

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