Roto Riteup April 1, 2017

Happy April Fools Day for those of you who observe.

Tyler Glasnow was named the fifth starter for the Pirates and he had a roller coaster of a spring. His last couple of starts were solid, though. In two outings he pitched eight innings allowing nine hits, three walks, one home run, and striking out 14.

He has the velocity in his primary pitches, but when it comes to his secondary they are pretty hit or miss. No pun intended. Maybe a little pun intended. He struggles with some confidence in his changeup as well.

His minor league numbers were stellar. In Triple-A he tossed a 1.87 ERA with a 1.174 WHIP. Following his promotion, those numbers changed obviously. A 4.24 ERA with 24 strikeouts in 23.1 innings.

On the Agenda

1. Cain he do this?
2. Injury Bug Brantley
3. Will Rendon Play?

Can he do this?

Matt Cain is officially the fifth starter for the Giants which kind of bums me out because I was pretty excited to watch Ty Blach in action, but that can be on the next RR.

Anyways…

Cain in 2017 will not be the same guy the baseball world once grew accustomed to. He’s not going to be a guy to accumulate a ton of strikeouts, but his home run to fly ball ratio sits at 15-percent and it continues to increase. Batters were not only hitting him more in 2016, but they were hitting the ball further than ever off of the 32-year-OLD.

That is in caps for a reason.

Injury Bug Brantley

A slow start during spring turned out to benefit Michael Brantley which is a similar approach Sean Doolittle took, so it seems to be successful. He will be on the Opening Day roster for the Indians.

He will have resting days during the season, and the fact that he’s a target for injuries could make some nervous.

He only played in 11 games last season, but in 2015 Brantley faired well. He had a 10.1-percent walk rate with a .310/.379/.480 line and swiped 15 bags.

He’s definitely not fantasy trade bait and I’m not too excited knowing he’s going to get a lot of rest days.

http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/mixing-fantasy-reality-tout-wars-miller-brantley/

Will Rendon Play?

Some of us have a fear of commitment and Nationals manager Dusty Baker takes that to another level by not committing to whether or not third baseman Anthony Rendon will get the start on Opening Day. Rendon and his leg are doing “so-so” after fouling a ball recently bounced off his leg.

“So-so” is not an answer we want to hear, but with the lack of a promising answer, it kind of makes me want to sit Rendon if I have him filling up any spot on my lineup.

For a third baseman, the power is certainly there, but he needs more contact if we want to 100-percent put him in the category of top guys at the corner.

Don’t expect him to start on the DL, but we should have a more concrete answer in the near future.