Yesterday’s biggest news was what was going on in Stephen Strasburg’s pants, which is usually just news to a select group of people, notably his wife and doctors.

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I’m happy with today’s Roto Riteup, but what matters is whether you are or not.

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Did you have a stupendous Mother’s Day? Probably not, since you’re likely a dude who didn’t buy the right kind of flowers.

• Heading into Sunday’s game against the Seattle Mariners, Andy Pettitte was owned in 19% of Yahoo! leagues, 14% of ESPN leagues, and a whopping 47% of CBS leagues. After facing the Mariners and throwing a perfect game (I’m writing this before the game starts, so I’m just playing the odds), he’s going to be much more widely owned. If you want a pitcher who’s relatively fun to root for and could grab you some wins, Pettitte is a pretty good option. He’s not going to rack up gaudy strikeout totals, but he should be solid nonetheless.

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Today’s Roto Riteup will touch on a very temporary closer situation in Pittsburgh as well as several tips on hot hitters.

• Yesterday news broke that Joel Hanrahan has been placed on the bereavement list due to the death of his grandmother. We send our best thoughts and regards to Hanrahan and his family during this difficult time. However, with a full slate of three games this weekend against the visiting Houston Astros, baseball must go on. One can expect Juan Cruz or Jason Grilli to be the two main choices to enter any potential save situation. Although Pirates manager Clint Hurdle did not officially say who it would be, Cruz does already have a pair of saves on the year from when Hanrahan missed a few games with hamstring tightness. Cruz currently sports a 9% ownership rating in Yahoo! and a mere 3% in ESPN leagues. On the other hand, Grilli is the current setup man, leads the team in holds and boasts an impressive 16.5 K/9. Grilli is owned in 3% of Yahoo! and 0.0% of ESPN leagues. If forced, I would say pick up Cruz if you are desperate for saves. Based on gmLI alone (a dangerous thing to do, as each situation is different, but I digress), Hurdle seems to go with Cruz more, so I’ll say pick up Cruz if you are desperate for saves. Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s Roto Riteup is all about pitchers, and not ones filled with adult beverages.

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I worked extra hours yesterday, so be prepared for the ride of your life in today’s Roto Riteup.

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Today’s Roto Riteup is a little “rambly.” Or is it “rambley?” The internet has failed to answer my question.

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Each of today’s notes mentions the AL Central in one way or another. FanGraphs’ base is clearly middle america. Clearly.

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Today’s Roto Riteup consists of nothing but closer news.

• If you haven’t yet heard the news or read Dave Cameron’s post from last night, Mariano Rivera tore the ACL in his right knee while shagging fly balls in batting practice. Dave notes several candidates to continue to close, so I refer you over there for his insight. My two cents is that Rafael Soriano and then Dave Robertson get the first cracks at any save opportunities. Given the nature of the injury, it is safe to drop Rivera and replace him with either one of those guys, but I’d recommend going with Soriano first.

• Heath Bell was unavailable for last night’s game. Assuming that this unavailability was due to Bell pitching for three straight days and not a sign of a major change, then this isn’t a big deal. However, given Bell’s poor season to date (three blown saves, an ERA that almost touches 12.00 and almost twice as many walks as strike outs) it is prudent to take notice of any bullpen news in Miami. Rather than go with Steve Cishek as I predicted, Ozzie Guillen chose to go with Edward Mujica instead. Mujica managed to pitch around the lone base runner he allowed in his sole frame and got the save. With Guillen apparently trusting Mujica more than he trusts Cishek, I would pick up Mujicia in any league that he is available in.

• Filed under “Things That Probably Shouldn’t Surprise You At All”, Chicago Cubs manager Sale Sveum is rightfully upset over Carlos Marmol’s struggles thus far. Of course Marmol has never been shy to surrender a walk, but his current BB/9 of 9.35 shames his poor career BB/9 of 5.94. To put his current control issues in perspective: if you took away every hit that Marmol has allowed this year, his WHIP would still above 1.00. Now, there was an Ian Stewart error in the 9th inning of last night’s game, but Marmol still failed to get a single batter out of the five that he faced. Despite the desire to rearrange his bullpen, Sveum doesn’t have very many tools to do so. The Cub that currently has the most holds this year is Rafael Dolis, he of the 2.35 career K/9 and 5.1% SwStr% career numbers. Small sample size aside, Dolis does not possess the stereotypical closer “stuff.” The most reasonable solution to me is to go with Shawn Camp in the short term and hope that Marmol can get his walks back down from the stratosphere. Read the rest of this entry »

If you described today’s Roto Riteup as “meaty,” that would be fine with me.

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