Roto Riteup: April 12, 2024
Play of the year so far.
This catch from Ali Newland of @LSUSoftball is top-notch. 👏
🎥: @ESPNpic.twitter.com/2DqYveFsfd
— MLB (@MLB) April 11, 2024
On the Agenda:
- Sleeper and the Bust DK Contest
- Quick Hits
- Various News and Notes
- Streaming Pitchers
Sleeper and the Bust DK Contest
On most Tuesday’s and Friday’s and some other days, Paul Sporer and I will be doing a $5 draftkings game for anyone that is interested.
Quick Hits
Brent Rooker was placed on the IL with an abdominal strain. There is no timetable for his return.
Brandon Lowe is expected to be placed on the IL with an oblique strain. The strain is considered minor, but he will likely miss about a month.
Various News and Notes
Hunter Brown threw just two-thirds of an inning allowing nine runs on 11 hits and one walk while not striking out any hitters in the loss to the Royals.
Most hits allowed in a game by a pitcher (starter or reliever) who pitched less than one full inning in all of MLB history:
Hunter Brown, 11 hits today 🤯
Carlos Frias, 10 hits in a 2014 game
6 guys with 9
26 guys with 8
115 guys with 7pic.twitter.com/W9TNN5p7Iu— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) April 11, 2024
This was an ugly outing as Brown could not command anything on Thursday and he ate a lot of runs before the Astros could replace him. Even before this outing, Brown was struggling tremendously and now he has a pretty rough schedule with the Braves next and then the Cubs and in Colorado after that. He is droppable in 10 and 12-team leagues.
JP Sears threw 6.1 scoreless innings versus the Rangers, allowing one hit and three walks while striking out five in the victory Thursday.
JP Sears 2Ks in the 1st. pic.twitter.com/PWn38aruf5
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 11, 2024
Sears was fantastic, throwing all of his pitches 30% of the time or more while getting a 56% whiff rate on the fastball and a 46% CSW on the sweeper. Sears has always had intriguing arm talent, but being stuck on the A’s means he can’t win many games. He is still a deep league team streamer, but someone you should keep an eye on in shallower formats as a streamer.
Colton Cowser went 3-for-5 with two home runs in the victory over the Red Sox.
COLTON COWSER HAVE A SERIES.
His 2nd HR of the night but this one to RF pic.twitter.com/dsVVWlIQAV
— Alex Fast (@AlexFast8) April 12, 2024
Cowser made the team out of camp, but didn’t play much in the first series. That has changed with Austin Hays struggling. He was dropped in quite a few leagues after that opening series, but this is a top 10 prospect in baseball and there is clearly a ton of upside. He should be rostered in all formats.
Streaming Pitchers (Under 50% in CBS)
Pitcher for Today: Paul Blackburn vs WAS
You won’t get many strikeouts, but Blackburn has pitched well and Washington is not very good.
High Risk Options: Steven Matz at ARI, Jordan Wicks at SEA, Keaton Winn at TB, Ryan Feltner at TOR, Jake Irvin at OAK
Pitcher for Tomorrow: Alex Marsh at NYM
Marsh has looked better with his new pitch and gets a mediocre Mets lineup.
High Risk Options: Griffin Canning at BOS, Max Meyer at ATL, Joe Boyle vs WAS.
Justin is the co-host on The Sleeper and The Bust Podcast and writes for Rotographs covering the Roto Riteup as well as other periodic articles. In addition to his work at Rotographs, Justin is the lead fantasy writer/analyst and co-owner for FriendswithFantasyBenefits.com, and the owner of The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational. He is also a certified addiction treatment counselor. Follow Justin on Twitter @JustinMasonFWFB.
Alec* Marsh
Great stuff as always.
It’s great looking at your track record picking SP streamers. You pick well early in the season but then can struggle in the summer months, but this makes sense as bats gets better when the weather heats up and the good, under the radar SPs are all mostly snatched up by then as well. Good stuff. Makes me wonder about roto SP strategy. Maybe we should all be streaming aggressively in April/May to build up a solid ratio base.
Yeah, I’ve thought about this too, as pitchers are supposed to be ahead of batter in the spring and then of course have much more mileage on their arms in the fall.
“Cowser…is a top 10 prospect in baseball.”
This was news to me and I am unable to find any list with Cowser in the top 10. In fact he is not in the top 100 on The Board. He is listed as a 45 FV prospect. His statcast line in the early going is all over the map. Even with yesterday’s outburst his xSLG is at .366.
All that being said, he looks great at the plate, he is red hot, and he might be breaking out so if you wait on him he will probably be gone.
I just can’t buy in to Cowser. I look at his minor league stats and see a decent prospect, not a really good one. He is on fire so give him credit but I’m betting he won’t have more than average at best stats when the year ends.
Maybe he actually meant top 10 from the O’s farm… though “clearly a ton of upside” would suggest more than just that I suppose. Cowser did seem to rank higher at some points last year though probably not approaching top 10 overall… unlike Evan Carter, who was probably somewhat similar (other than being substantially younger) before reaching and raking in MLB late last year, for instance…
Not suggesting I’d consider him Carter’s equal of course given the age diff even before Carter’s (albeit brief) success so far in MLB.
Any idea what TB is doing in terms of pitching today?
I think it is a bullpen game today. “Walkthepack” is starting. Walking the pack by the way is not a good thing.