Life is hard. It comes with a lot of tough decisions and a lot of tough questions that don’t have easy answers. We are humans, and we will make mistakes, and we should forgive ourselves for those. I’ve been dealing with a lot of this philosophical life stuff recently, and it’s been difficult.

I’m talking, of course, about Brad Miller, and it seems I’m not alone, as the baseball community remains puzzled by an important visceral question: is Brad Miller any good?
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A former first rounder and college quarterback, Kyle Parker has finally been called up to the Colorado Rockies. Parker seemed like he was going to get an opportunity to start at first base this year before the Rockies signed Justin Morneau to man the position.
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The Oakland Athletics indirectly piqued the interest of astute fantasy owners – and Mike Podhorzer – with the preseason news that they planned to slot John Jaso at DH regularly in order to help him to maintain his health. Naturally, this carried other implications, the primary of which is that right-handed-hitting catcher Derek Norris appeared to be in line for a spike in playing time.

The A’s seemed to dash hopes of fantasy owners in deep leagues, but only briefly. By the end of spring training, they’d elected to go with Daric Barton at first base and to relegate Brandon Moss to DH. That arrangement meant more time behind the plate for Jaso and less time for Norris, period, initially. Barton failed to impress at the dish after less than a month and a half, so he and his plus mitt were designated for assignment. Thus, the excitement about Norris was on again.

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Agenda

1. Studs or Duds
2. Daily DFS
3. Wednesday Picks
4. Table

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I couldn’t get to all the position players where my rank was significantly different than the consensus, and mostly because there are so many dang outfielders. So Tonto, let’s jump on it.

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After yesterday’s somewhat abbreviated slate of eleven games, we’re back at full strength today. Fifteen games, and outside of the midwest, the weather looks great. The following games might have some weather issues; listed in chance of precipitation from most likely to least likely: San Francisco at Chicago (AL) [40%], Kansas City – Detroit [30%], and Cincinnati – Pittsburgh [30%]. There are a couple more games that have a 20% of precipitation, but those forecasts typically don’t end up ruining much of anything. I’m not purposely avoiding any game today, except for maybe San Francisco at Chicago; that game does have some nice matchups, though, if you’re willing to roster the players involved.

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Hard to believe we’re already in the second half of June, but as the bats heat up — and the injuries pile up — finding quality arms off the scrap heap can be a challenge. Fortunately, we have two NL-only candidates this week who offer intriguing upside and offer help for those looking to plug rotation holes.
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Today is the next installing of my updated Pod’s Picks, comparing my rank versus the other three RotoGraphers. We’re now up to the second basemen, of which the consensus rankings published two weeks ago can be found here. I’ll generally only consider those second basemen that I ranked within the top 20 for the bullish category and those the rest of the crew ranked in the top 20 for the bearish category.

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Professor Pony is out selling himself on the street-corner to fuel his figurine habit, so you’re left with me in today’s Roto Riteup.

On today’s agenda:
1. Kyle Parker gets the call
2. Matt Wieters meets Tommy John
3. A Bronson Arroyo Milestone
4. The Fixed Five

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We just finished ranking week (find them easily on the right-hand nav bar), and since I’m apparently a masochist, I’m going to jump right back in and examine where I was different from the consensus. We’ll do as many positions as possible today — I’ll focus on those players that are most differently positioned in my rankings — before checking out the pitchers.

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