Roto Riteup: April 10th, 2012

Today’s Roto Riteup is one where I can guarantee with 100% certainty that my pick’s team for The Game won’t get four-hit by Barry Zito.

• Andy Pettitte threw 32 pitches for the Yankees’ single A affiliate in Tampa Bay yesterday. According to the report, he threw 26 for strikes. He lasted 3 innings and allowed one run and two hits in his outing. Unfortunately there is no mention of his velocity in this instance. The last report I could find had him topping out at 88 mph. Given that he averaged 89 for the past few years, to see him top out below his previous average is concerning. If nothing else, maybe Pettitte can be a stream option as the season moves on. We’ll be sure to keep you up to date.

• If by chance you play in an OBP league, Daric Barton is now the starting first-baseman in Oakland. He could be worth a shot in Ottoneu FanGraphs Points formats too, but that is the extent of his fantasy relevancy. If you’re in a 12 team mixed 5×5, feel free to move right along here. Barton’s OBP skills translate directly from his 14.2 career walk percentage. The A’s lineup is uninspiring for the most part, so don’t expect many runs or RBI’s. As always with Barton, any extra base hits he generates are a rare bonus.

• Sticking with not-quite-relevant A’s fantasy candidates, the Athletics’ official twitter just announced that Joey Devine will be having elbow surgery on his throwing arm. Despite Grant Balfour being named the closer, some speculated that Devine could garner the occasional save this year. That is quite clearly no longer the case. The surgery is to be done by Dr. James Andrews tomorrow afternoon.

For all of you playing FanGraphs: The Game, I offer you some advice in the form of pitchers to play.

A Pitcher For Today: Trevor Cahill (ARI) @ SD
Cahill’s ability to induce grounders, career rate of 53.3%, is always a good thing to have in a starter. True, Cahill has been snake bit by the home run, but pitching in Petco should help prevent those fly balls from clearing any fences. The Padres struck out the highest percentage of any team in 2011, so Cahill should produce a few extra K’s for you as well.

A Pitcher For Tomorrow: Cory Luebke (SD) vs ARI
Luebke will be squaring off against another rather swing happy club in Arizona. Though the win can’t be known, Luebke will almost certainly rack up the strikeouts for you.

A Hitter For Today: Anyone on the Red Sox vs TOR
Kyle Drabek is scheduled to start and the last time he faced this Boston team he gave up 8 (yes. eight) runs in four innings pitched. Single game sample size and all, for his career Drabek has 60 walks to 63 strikeouts. Going against a patient (and powerful) team like Boston does not bode well for him.