Today’s Roto Riteup leaves you in the able hands of Professor Pony for the weekend.
On today’s agenda:
1. Masahiro Tanaka hits the DL
2. Derek Holland to rehab after break
3. Tom Wilhelmsen to start today
4. Fun with arbitrary endpoints
5. The Faviformed Five
An quick Bullpen Report return since writing after a Boston-to-Ann Arbor trek is not high on my list of desires this evening. Good news? At least I got to listen to a lot of Gameday Audio of the White Sox pen imploding…
• Robin Ventura is going to have to answer some interesting questions. After Chris Sale cruised against the now-punchless Red Sox (who started five rookie position players in a game before August for the first time since 1952 according to their radio broadcast) for exactly 7 2/3 innings, the White Sox skipper lifted his ace lefty with a runner on third. Jake Petricka (the closer du jour for Ventura’s squad) face four batters and retired none of them, allowing three hits and a walk. Javy Guerra did stop the bleeding by retiring Mike Carp with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position, but the former Dodger closer ran into more trouble in the ninth, hitting Mookie Betts before allowing a game-tying double to Daniel Nava and a game-winning single to Brock Holt. None of the hits either reliever gave up were particularly cheap, either, so this wasn’t a “death by BABIP” situation, but just bad relief pitching.
Agenda
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I don’t like to recommend to stash players too often. The deeper the league, the more such a move is beneficial, however. Each of these pitchers will have taken different paths to his major league recall. The first is a more exciting option, in my opinion, the second likely a bit safer of a bet. Both are still pretty exciting.
Park factors are not made equal across all days. Yes, Coors Field is Coors Field every damn day of the week, but different ballparks play differently depending on the temperature and wind.
That’s why it’s not always enough to simply rely on general park factors, useful as they may be, from our Guts pages. Park factors generally take about three years to stabilize, and so how parks perform in specific conditions is something we may never get reliable samples on, since we’re splitting that data even thinner.
ParkFactors.com can be a big help in this regard, crunching the numbers for us and giving us a quick indicator of how a park may play on the day. There’s also DailyBaseballData, which gives you all the raw material for you to make your own decisions (not to mention hour-by-hour forecast information).
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White Sox rookie Jose Abreu may have already cemented his status as the best free-agent signing from the past offseason. Through his first 77 games, Abreu has flashed elite power skills, clubbing 27 home runs. Entering the year, there were legitimate questions surrounding whether Abreu could produce in the majors. While he hasn’t completely eradicated those doubts yet, it’s clear the league will have to adjustments in order to slow him down.
Today’s Roto Riteup knows how to split wood like a real man, not just a pretend one.
On today’s agenda:
1. Three starters to the DL
2. Francisco Liriano to return
3. James Paxton to throw 50 pitches Saturday
4. The Fragmented Five
• Aroldis Chapman allowed two baserunners but also struck two guys out en route to his 18th save of the year in game one against the Cubs today. Chapman’s ERA is higher than some of the other top tier relievers this year but he’s actually quietly having his best year yet. In 25.2 innings Chapman has 49 stirkeouts. His BB% (8.6) is the lowest it’s ever been since 2012 (8.3%) and his K% is an absurd 50.5 %. That’s right, Aroldis is now striking out over half of the batters he faces with an average fastball velocity of 100 mph. No joke. Unsurprisingly his FIP and xFIP are tremendous at 0.85 and 1.04 respectively. Chapman doesn’t register ground balls at an elite rate, but with so few bats even making contact, even less makes great contact. There’s not much else to say here, we all know he’s among the league’s best, if not the best and ranks in the top three fantasy relievers at the worst.
Episode 139
The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is now live! Eno Sarris and Nicholas Minnix discuss the Chicago Cubs’ new rotation members, including Kyle Hendricks; Shane Greene; what Jake Peavy might look like in a St. Louis Cardinals uni; and a series of requested topics, comprised of Clay Buchholz, Dallas Keuchel’s updated outlook, Charlie Morton, Anibal Sanchez’s disappearing K’s, Jimmy Nelson, Michael Wacha, Shelby Miller, Andrew Heaney, Chase Headley, Xander Bogaerts, and J.J. Hardy’s empty batting average.
As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment with fantasy questions so that we may answer them on our next episode.
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Jed Lowrie has had a solid start to July, hitting .296 over seven games and showing a few signs of rounding back into form. It’s been but a week, though, and there are still some troubling signs in Lowrie’s profile. Namely, Lowrie’s power seems to be missing, and that would mark the continuation of a multi-season trend of declining slugging ability.
To be clear, Lowrie has still been 20th in shortstop value, speaking to the importance of his run production and the general terribleness of the position. His positional flexibility helps some, too, but as a player who has never looked a threat to hit .275 consistently, Lowrie’s value hinges a good deal on his ability to clear the fence.
And again, that’s not happening, with just four home runs to date and a career-low isolated slugging of .109.
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