Roto Riteup: April 20, 2013
One can imagine that today’s date, April 20, is probably a big deal in the San Francisco Giants clubhouse. After all, today is Brandon Belt’s birthday.
On today’s agenda:
1. Brett Anderson leaves after the first inning
2. What to make of Wandy Rodriguez
3. Two homers each for two New York Mets
4. Jhoulys Chacin’s season to date (and potential injury)
Brett Anderson leaves after the first inning
It wasn’t the four runs that he gave up in the first inning, but a reported ankle sprain that took Anderson out the game yesterday. That makes for his past 6.1 innings combining for 11 runs and three homers. Even with these recent struggles, his 3.75 xFIP would be a career worst. If only he could stay healthy and perform to his talent level for a full season. For now, there is no word on just how long Anderson may or may not be out. Injuries are a part of fantasy baseball, but few players have had the injury struggles of Anderson. It is something that fantasy owners have come to expect with him, but that does not lessen the frustration.
What to make of Wandy Rodriguez
Through three starts Wandy Rodriguez sports a 0.56 ERA and has two wins to go with it. He has an 11:1 K/BB ratio to support that ERA, however small sample size issues abound. Furthermore, Wandy’s .119 BABIP is on borrowed time. He is yet to give up a home run as well, yet another statistic that is sure to change. His low SwStr% won’t support a high strikeout rate for much longer either.
If the reader plays in an active trade league (read: a non boring league) then grab Wandy and try to build a package around him. His ZiPS rest-of-season projection is still somewhat valuable for his ERA, but don’t expect Wandy’s current luck to continue. Despite the early evidence, he is still a stream/spot start candidate in standard sized mixed leagues. For the author’s taste, a grab-and-trade would be the preferred method here. Wandy is owned in two-thirds of CBS leagues, but 45% of Yahoo! and just 30% of ESPN formats.
Two homers each for two New York Mets
Both Ike Davis and Lucas Duda cracked two home runs each yesterday. This brings Duda’s total up to five long balls on the year to go with his stellar 11:12 K/BB ratio. Maybe Eno was just a year early on his Duda love. Duda can be found on the waiver wire of over 90% of both Yahoo! and ESPN leagues and almost half of CBS formats. While hitting like this, don’t let Duda sit on the waiver wire. Duda is the lone Mets outfielder who’s playing time isn’t a question and now he is showing his ability to hit for power. Grab him where if available.
Presumably not wanting to be outshone, Ike Davis planted two pitches in the bleachers as well. Davis hasn’t had the same early season success as Duda, however he is owned in a much higher percentage of leagues. Davis had a woeful first half of the season last year but he blasted 20 second half home runs to catch the eye of fantasy owners everywhere. Both Duda and Davis figure to continue to tap into their power as the season progresses. One could do worse to own both.
Jhoulys Chacin’s season to date (and potential injury)
Chacin was working on a shutout through 6.1 innings when he was pulled from yesterday’s game. He is initially being diagnosed with oblique pain and one can see Chacin visibly wince on his 100th pitch (score one for arbitrary pitch count believers) and is due for further testing and diagnosis today. Chacin had been the Rockies’ best starter to date. Keep a watchful eye on our very own Jeff Zimmerman’s MASH Report for the latest update on Chacin plus other injured MLBers. If the apparent injury is relatively small, one could grab Chacin and cross the proverbial fingers. Chacin is owned in about half of each of the three major fantasy sites.
You can catch David spouting off about baseball, soccer, esports and other things by following him on twitter, @davidwiers.
I know, I know, small sample size, but good lord Brett “Mr. Glass” Anderson has a 65% ground ball rate and a 23% hr/FB rate. Talk about pitching to extremes.
Yep, the home run has really hurt him this year. He has always been a GB% heavy pitcher, but his BABIP is 20 points higher than his career norm (again, 3 starts, so no real alarms) but BABIP doesn’t include the three hits that left the park.
Like you said, extremes.
Well, looks like Straily gets the call. I was hoping the guy dropped him when he was sent down, but he never did. I play in 15 teamer.
Was this tweeted out or otherwised announced? I haven’t seen anything official, but if was, I’ll happily edit.
Swing% stabilizes at 50 PA.
Duda has 53 PA and 29% Swing% (lowest in MLB, min. 40 PA).
Does this have any predictive power of a breakout season?
That is a great question! Are you looking for the R or R^2? If I find time this weekend I can run a regression on the past 10 years or so on this.
Is it time to drop Porcello for Smyly?
Whoa. You must play in a deep league to own Porcello in the first place. There aren’t better options available than just Porcello or Smyly?
I hate to be this guy, but that’s an annoying response, David. Porcello and Smyly are both owned in my league. People play in deep leagues. That’s probably why they’re on this site and not ESPN. Otherwise they’d just read Matthew Berry’s articles in which he tells you about this girl he once dated, then tells you he “loves” Justin Verlander but “hates” James Shields this year “just ’cause”. Know your audience.
That’s an interesting angle you’ve taken there SB.
As for the know your audience line, I just laughed. Thanks for the input.
Hey, you can take the feedback or not. Clearly you’re opting to not. Keep doing your thing, I guess. But if someone’s asking you if they should drop Porcello for Smyly, it’s probably safe to assume they play in a deep league and that it’s not going to be all that helpful if you come back with the “Whoa, no better options? How deep is your league, bro?!” response. I guess at the end of the day this is a free site, so who cares. Peace, David Wiers.
Criticism is welcomed. I’ve been writing online for years now, so I’ve made my fair share of mistakes. Just the other day I had a massive typo go public for multiple hours. Took it in stride. Veiled shots and passive aggressiveness is something I don’t need to worry about though.
Appreciate the feedback. I like to address every comment. If you’ve read the RR or my writing here or elsewhere, you should know that. But no worries. It’s all good. Stick around and keep reading.
Fair enough. I apologize, David Wiers. And I commend you for addressing every comment. I’ll be back. Love the site. To the guy who asked if he should drop Porcello for Smyly, the answer is yes (in my opinion). Porcello is not good. Smyly is good. He’ll have that 5th starter spot sooner than later, and in the meantime he’ll help your ratios, K’s, and might even nab you a few rogue wins. On the other hand, Porcello will wreck your staff. But he does have great bone structure.
Crack an IPA and forget about it. Unless you don’t like IPA’s. Then we have a whole slew of issues to work out.
But yes, if it is between Porcello or Smyly, I’d take Syly too. I wanted to work in a Moneyball “not selling jeans” comment on your bone structure line, but I got nothing. It’s 1 am. I’m tired.
I am most definitely an IPA man. I will crack a Lagunitas to you, then another to my former boy Porcello, who’s undoubtedly already looking forward to next Spring Training. And then I will gaze upon Roberto Hernandez’s surprisingly high SwStr% and dream about the fantasy glory that tomorrow may bring.
My (very last, d’oh) SweetWater 420 IPA is a nod to you good sir.
Good timing with that
What to do with Justin Masterson? Given his career struggles against left-handers, should I sell high on him? What kind of offensive return I should be looking at? I need 3B since I have none after my starting 3B went on DL and options in FA are Kepp and Donaldson.
Oof. You could try Rendon now that he got the call, but that would be a temporary fix.
If you have some managers in your league who aren’t too saber inclined, you could probably sell Masterson still relatively high. His 1.67 ERA is a total illusion, but maybe if you push “no, really, he is great again! It’s 2011 all over again!” line then you could work on a trade.
Masterson went largely undrafted in mixed leagues, so to find a good third basemen for him will probably require you to sweeten the deal with FAAB or a second player. For a strictly 1-for-1 deal, I would say the the best you could hope for is Marco Scutaro. If it isn’t a keeper league, you try to buy low on Pedro Alvarez.
apparently scutaro has no 3b eligibility at espn. i think I will give rendon a try for now.
I have same feelings about justin. I want to trade him asap. If I can get a speedy player in return, that would be great.