Roto Riteup: April 13, 2015
Did you know that unlike most animals, bears walk flat-footed like humans? The Roto Riteup is here for your daily bear fact needs. Also baseball, I guess.
On today’s agenda:
1. Felix Hernandez comes up lame
2. A minor setback for Michael Saunders
3. Clay Buchholz struggles, still looks sexy
4. Streaming Pitcher Options
Felix Hernandez comes up lame
Facing the Oakland A’s yesterday, our lord and savior King Felix was a bit gimpy, and was pulled from the game after the fifth inning with what is being called a tight quad. Felix was elevating pitches and wasn’t particularly sharp, so despite lobbying to stay in the contest, the Mariners were right to remove their ace from the contest. Felix is expected to make his next start Saturday against Texas, which should be a prime chance for him to get back on track.
A minor setback for Michael Saunders
Making his way back from a freak knee injury, Saunders couldn’t complete a rehab appearance yesterday due to tightness in his hamstring, and now he’ll stay away from games for the next few days as he attempts to build up strength in his lower half. Saunders was one of my sleeper picks this offseason, and hopefully he’s got his yearly injury out of the way early and can have a healthy rest of the season. Saunders is likely at least a week away from returning to the big league club, and he may be eased into his role in right field.
Clay Buchholz struggles, still looks sexy
The Red Sox starter didn’t perform particularly well last night, giving up six earned before he had even recorded three outs. Buchholz bounced back to perform decently over his next could innings before giving up a few more runs, but by then it was like trying to polish a meaty bear turd. While the results may not have been there, it’s still easy to see why the Red Sox — and many, many others — thought the right-hander could be a legitimate ace. Buchholz’s fastballs were dancing, his curveball was dipping, and his changeup had some beautiful fade to it; but the whole is less than the sum of the parts. Buchholz was excellent in his first start, but it was against Philly, which is hardly a real baseball team. Buchholz still looks like he’ll have an ERA around 4.00 this year, delivering both sparkling starts and awful outings.
Streaming Pitcher Options
If you enjoy streaming pitchers, tune into the Roto Riteup for recommendations each and every day.
A pitcher for today: Mike Leake at CHC (Jon Lester)
Many scheduled starters for Monday have yet to be revealed, but Leake is starting away from GABP, and that is at least interesting.
A pitcher for tomorrow: Odrisamer Despaigne vs ARZ (Jeremy Hellickson)
O-drizzle faces a mediocre Diamondbacks offense in spacious Petco Park. Yes, I would like some of that action, please.
Zach is the creator and co-author of RotoGraphs' Roto Riteup series, and RotoGraphs' second-longest tenured writer. You can follow him on twitter.
How about Alex Guerrero last night for the Dodgers? 3-for-5 with a homer and 4 RBIs … should he be snagged in mixed leagues? Wanna pounce if now is the time, seems like he’s the type of guy you’d ave to speculate on a bit – couple more nice games and he’ll be unavailable in many leagues I’d assume.
The only problem I see with him is playing time. Rollins and Kendrick have SS and 2B locked up and once Uribe is healthy again he would at least start some of the time over Guerrero. If he continues to rake I could see him taking over Uribe, but right now I’m just not sure they have a spot open enough for him to get enough AB’s to make a big impact on Fantasy teams.
Bear Facts!
Did you know that bears can run up to 40 MPH, fast enough to catch a running horse? Golly! Usain can only hit 27 MPH.
April 13 shall henceforth in perpetuity be known as Bear Facts day!
is a midwestern new englander the most racist regional alignment of american possible?
Right? Stereotypes suck, way to call them out pudie!
I’m from the Midwest and live in New England, an area of the US that includes large populations of American Black Bears, who ironically can also be cinnamon bears, light brown bears, and white bears.
I know who’s not racist: black bears!
Bear Facts!
FYI: Uehara is expected to come off the DL today
Black bears are coming back in a lot of places.
Our family owns property in Lycoming County PA (home to the great Mike Mussina) and numerous black bears have been spotted on the property over the last 15 years.
One tenant complained that a black bear was eating his St. Bernard’s dog food while they were gone for work, lol. They’ve also been spotted in the Northern Va. suburbs, not from from Washington D.C.
And yes, they aren’t racists! It’s best to give them a lot of room if you encounter one on a trail.
*not far from*
Also, in non-bear related comments, I’m big on streaming Despaigne tomorrow as well. Did he really throw an Ephuus pitch 6 times during his last appearance or has the computer gone wonky? I get my pitch F/X data from Texasleaguers.com.
I bet – there’s a lot of big parks in the middle of the state. My uncle-in-law has a house on the MA VT border and they get bears enough that they keep an old pan and a spoon on the porch.
Bear Facts! If a bear approaches you they get spooked by unnatural noises easily so bang a pan if you can!
Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if Odrasimer did throw 6 eephuses. If you haven’t had a chance to see him pitch you should, he’s a freak. Full arsenal of funky junk delivered all herky jerky.
Schoop has been very useful everytime I’ve had him benched, meanwhile Alcantara has done next to nothing and my ‘proven’ vets have left the lumber in the dugout.
Quick MR question: Betancourt’s return legit? 3 perfect IP and 4 K’s, do you think he’ll come up with enough HLD’s to have value?
Ha! Left this on the wrong post, feel like an idiot.