• All right, home work time. Here is a must read article by Tom Verducci from SI on Tommy John surgeries. A key point for fantasy baseball owners is this:

But in a sport in which 24.2 percent of players on Opening Day rosters grew up in Latin America, only one of the 20 Tommy John patients came from there (Detroit reliever Bruce Rondon, of Venezuela).

“Latin American pitchers are allowed to grow into their velocity,” said one international scouting director. “It’s a common story to sign a guy throwing 84, 85 [mph] who eventually winds up throwing in the 90s. Michael Pineda is one. You’re looking for someone with a good, athletic body who can throw the ball around the plate and has a feel for spinning the ball. The velocity comes in time, with training and better nutrition and physical growth. Here? The statistics don’t lie. We need to look elsewhere around the world to learn a better way. It’s time.”

Young American kids throwing hard for long time may be a major factor in tearing their UCL.

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Agenda

1. What not to do
2. DFS picks
3. Friday picks
4. Table

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Anybody had enough rainouts (and snow-outs) yet? Yeah, me too, but hopefully it provided a bit of opportunity in daily leagues for those of you who set their lineups at the very last minute. Those who can’t were likely burned.

If you do have to set your lineup early, DailyBaseballData is always a valuable resource. But guess what? Today it shows zero games with more than a 10 percent chance of rain. So let’s baseball, weather free.

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This morning’s Roto Riteup lacks the Thursday staple of arbitrary endpoints, simply because they’re not as much fun with only a few weeks to dive into.

On today’s agenda:
1. Nick Franklin arrives in Seattle
2. Joe Kelly hurt
3. What Zach expects from George Spring
4. James Jones up in Seattle…for now
5. The Funky Five

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On Mondays I write about daily fantasy strategy. On Wednesdays I’m supposed to write about closers. To be frank, I enjoy the topic I have been assigned for Mondays much, much more. I despise chasing saves (as I discussed a couple of weeks ago), and the guys doing the Bullpen Report really have relievers covered. But a commenter on one of my recent daily fantasy strategy posts asked me a question that involved both daily fantasy strategy and closers. The commenter wanted to know how viable it is to use closers in daily contests.

Closers are usually the cheapest players available in daily contests. In today’s contests on Draftstreet, the 34 cheapest players are relievers and only 2 relievers have a price tag above $3,000 when the average salary of all non-relievers is just over $6,000. The obvious reason is that relievers are the only players that we don’t know whether they’ll play before their game starts. That uncertainty drives the price down and is why I’ve ignored using closers to this point. But I may have been doing it wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

Agenda

1. Observations from yesterday
2. DFS stacks
3. For the normal guys
4. Three guesses

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Jesse Chavez has been mentioned a lot on Fangraphs lately. Wiers mentioned him in the Roto Riteup yesterday. Cistulli dug a little deeper, and even added a few gifs later on in the day. Chavez’s start has been impressive, but I want to shed some light on Oakland’s rotation as a whole. The Athletics lost Jarrod Parker in spring training. A.J. Griffin will be back eventually, but his timetable is still a little uncertain. All told, the Athletics had to replace two pitchers that were firmly slotted into their Opening Day rotation. They’ve done that, and then some.

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Agenda

1. Know your strengths
2. DFS stackables
3. Wednesday Picks
4. A Table

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April 15 is one of my favorite days of the year. And not because it’s tax day. It’s Jackie Robinson Day. It’s the day our sport comes together to honor Mr. Robinson and his magnificent achievements. Without his sacrifice and perseverance the game we love wouldn’t be nearly as special as it is today. So, today when you’re enjoying the game, think a little bit about Mr. Robinson.

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Agenda

1. DFS is not for everyone
2. Today’s stacks
3. Tomorrow’s traditional plays
4. An entirely unexpected table

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