This is a glorious time of year for sports fans: baseball is now in full swing, the NBA playoffs have begun, and the NFL draft is just over a week away. I’m glad to see you’re using some of your sporting allotment on this morning’s Roto Riteup.
On today’s agenda:
1. Nelson Cruz suffers third-degree burns
2. Justin Verlander still on the shelf
3. James Paxton struggles
4. Streaming Pitcher Options
After watching Sugar Ray Marimon give up a game-winning home run to Josh Donaldson Saturday, Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez hinted that he’d lean towards using Jason Grilli in tie games on the road, instead of waiting to protect a lead that may never materialize. We didn’t get a chance to see that in action today, but Grilli did notch his sixth save. Cody Martin got the nod over a suddenly struggling Jim Johnson to set up Grilli. It would have been Johnson’s third appearance in three days, so maybe there’s nothing to read into here, but giving up two earned on both Friday and Saturday doesn’t garner much confidence. Interestingly, he had identical lines both nights, Friday he earned a hold, Saturday a blown save. Maybe monitor this early in the week, and see what Gonzalez does with his pen if you’re holding Johnson.
Weekly update:
• First release of 2015 data.
• I combined some of the categories and found some stabilization points with the details in this article.
Pitchers’ Approach Attacking Hitters
Robert Arthur at Baseball Prospectus has shown pitchers will change their approach depending on the hitter’s talent level. Here is a complete list of the number of fastballs (including sinkers) thrown to each hitter of the past two years divided into half seasons. Also the number of pitches in the strike by half season is included along with the fastball percentage in the strike zone.
Episode 219
The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live!
In this episode, Paul Sporer and Jason Collette discuss a bunch of different players with no real unifying theme this time around: Nelson Cruz, Danny Salazar, Brandon McCarthy, Chris Carter, Steven Souza, Carlo Rodon, and Alex Rodriguez as well as several other guys currently battling injuries.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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This morning’s Roto Riteup author, despite holding a place in his heart for other sports, was unaware that the NBA Playoffs started yesterday.
On today’s agenda:
1. Denard Span to return today
2. “Aces” were rolling on Saturday
3. Early season struggles
4. Streaming Pitcher Options
Well, we took a bit of a bath through the first part of week one, but I like to think there were some better candidates this time around. Have a peek, and let us know what you think in the comments.
Here are the totals through half of the first week:
0-1 record
6.88 ERA
4.2 K/9
1.6 K/BB
1.41 WHIP
Sheesh. It can only get better.
Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses.:
LHP Jon Niese – 6.4% ESPN/9% Y! – v. ATL (.311), @NYY (.311) Read the rest of this entry »
Did you know that the area between Double Rainbows is called Alexander’s band? This Roto Riteup author would guess that Alexander plays the clarinet.
On today’s agenda:
1. Bartolo Colon moves to 3-0
2. Danny Salazar to stay in bigs
3. Alcides Escobar may miss a day or three
4. Streaming Pitcher Options
Agenda
Brian Schlitter entered in the seventh and proceeded to strike out Wil Myers on three pitches, culminating with a beautiful two-seamer diving at the knees to freeze Myers and end the inning. Unfortunately for the Cubs, Sam Holbrook didn’t share the assessment of the 32,138 people who had way worse seats than him, and he called the salvo a ball. After fist pumps from Welington Castillo and a belated one from Schlitter, they realized they had one more pitch to throw. It was a thigh-high offering that Myers deposited over the ivy in center field, giving the Padres a lead that Dale Thayer, Joaquin Benoit, and Craig Kimbrel weren’t going to relinquish.
I will continue to implement player grading on the scouting scales of 20-80. I will use Kiley McDaniels scale he discussed in this article.
| Grade | Hitter | Starting Pitcher | Relief Pitcher | WAR |
| 80 | Top 1-2 | #1 Starter | —- | 7 |
| 75 | Top 2-3 | #1 | —- | 6 |
| 70 | Top 5 | #1/2 | —- | 5 |
| 65 | All-Star | #2/3 | —- | 4 |
| 60 | Plus | #3 | High Closer | 3 |
| 55 | Above Avg | #3/4 | Mid Closer | 2.5 |
| 50 | Avg Regular | #4 | Low CL/High SU | 2 |
| 45 | Platoon/Util | #5 | Low Setup | 1.5 |
| 40 | Bench | Swing/Spot SP | Middle RP | 1 |
| 35 | Emergency Call-Up | Emergency Call-Up | Emergency Call-Up | 0 |
| 30 | *Organizational | *Organizational | *Organizational | -1 |
I will give a value for where I think the pitcher could currently fit in on the average team (CV=current value) and where they could end up (FV=future value). I am sure I will disagree with some grades from others, but I am only looking at one game.
Note: If I say a pitch moves 11-5, it is from the pitcher’s perspective.
Chris Heston (CV: 55, FV: 60)
4/13 vs Rockies
Game Thoughts
• Man I expected less. The 27-year-old righty was not ranked here at FanGraphs, but in the 2015 Baseball America Handbook says he is “… without any pitch that grades out as even average.” The biggest key from the BA book is the mention of his 86-89 mph fastball in 2013 (45 grade) and 2015 (40 grade). Also it mentions his change and curve. Not much is the same now.
Read the rest of this entry »