Roto Riteup: April 20, 2022
I know this is satire, but I wanted it to be true so bad.
The Angels radio broadcast believed this completely satirical tweet pic.twitter.com/giJWZ0unYk
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) April 20, 2022
On the Agenda:
- COVID Issues
- Closer Chaos
- Quick Hits
- Various News and Notes
- Streaming Pitchers
COVID Issues
The Red Sox placed Jonathan Arauz and Christian Vazquez in the COVID IL on Tuesday. They joined Kevin Plawecki who was placed on the COVID IL yesterday. This is a situation to monitor as we just saw a breakout in Oakland.
Luis Torrens was placed on the COVID IL. Torrens Mitch Haniger who was placed on the COVID IL recently as well. It is unclear whether he tested positive or just had symptoms.
Closer Chaos
Garrett Whitlock pitched a scoreless ninth for the Red Sox to nail down the save against the Blue Jays on Tuesday. This was surprising as Whitlock has been stretching out to potentially be a starter at some point, so to see him come in for a one-inning save wasn’t expected. If he does become the closer, he would be a top 10 closer moving forward.
Quick Hits
Alex Cobb was removed from his start on Tuesday after injuring his groin on this play:
Here is the best angle I saw of the #Giants Alex Cobb injury. It appears to be a groin injury as he gabs at it after breaking for 1B. pic.twitter.com/GgW7gOg7EK
— Mike Kurland (@Mike_Kurland) April 19, 2022
He was placed on the IL following the game before the second half of the Giants doubleheader. There is no timetable for his return.
Jonathan India was placed on the IL retroactive to April 16th. The Reds had tried to see if India could avoid the Il with his hamstring injury, but was unable to do so. He hopefully shouldn’t be out long.
Mike Moustakas was placed on the IL with a biceps strain. There is no timetable for his return.
Avisail Garcia left the game on Tuesday with an upset stomach. The disappearance was a bit suspicious, but it is good to hear that he isn’t hurt.
Didi Gregorius left Tuesday’s game with a hand injury after being hit with a pitch. X-rays were negative following the game. Consider him day-to-day for now.
Tyler Stephenson was forced out of Tuesday’s game after this play:
Luke Voit laid some solid contact on Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson pic.twitter.com/JkYKwZBnu8
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) April 20, 2022
Stephenson is now in concussion protocol and likely could hit the concussion IL. Luke Voit, could also be punished by the league for the dirty slide. I would expect the Reds to go after Voit if he is in the lineup, so don’t be surprised if the Padres sit him for the series finale on Wednesday.
Various News and Notes
Madison Bumgarner threw five innings, allowing two unearned runs on four walks and two hits while striking out five in the loss to the Nationals.
Madison Bumgarner in the snow rocking no sleeves… country boys just different yall pic.twitter.com/W0C55my9jW
— Baseball Doesn't Exist (@BaseballDoesnt) April 19, 2022
Bumgarner was a tough luck loser in this one, but he has looked good so far this season. What has really improved has been his ability to command within the zone which has not been the case since his ATV accident a few years ago. He is definitely worth streaming in nice matchups moving forward and may be viable in deeper formats as someone you keep on your roster.
Jesus Luzardo threw 4.1 innings, allowing five runs (four earned) on seven hits and two walks while striking out three.
Jesús Luzardo, Dirty 87mph Breaking Ball. ✝️🦎 pic.twitter.com/2A7MX2tzjw
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 19, 2022
This is the Luzardo we saw a lot in Oakland. He was nasty in the first inning, registering two strikeouts to start the game. After that, Luzardo struggled with his fastball command in the zone and as the contest went on, he struggled to control his breaking stuff as well. Luzardo has a ton of talent, but it is hard to know what will get him from plate appearance to plate appearance, much less from start to start.
Gerrit Cole threw 1.2 innings versus the Tigers. Allowing two runs on one hit and five walks while striking out three.
Gerrit Cole's 3 1st inning Ks. pic.twitter.com/aR5viaMHmd
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 19, 2022
Cole fell apart in the second inning and clearly could not command anything. He now has a 6.35 ERA and is clearly struggling with grip. Things will hopefully improve as the weather heats up, but this is super concerning.
Streaming Pitchers (Under 50% in CBS)
Pitcher for Today: Miles Mikolas at MIA
Mikolas has looked good early in the year and has a nice matchup in a good Marlins park.
High Risk Options: Chris Paddack at KC, Dane Dunning at SEA, Daniel Lynch vs MIN, Daulton Jeffries vs BAL, Erick Fedde vs ARI.
Pitcher for Tomorrow: Paul Blackburn vs BAL
Blackburn has looked great with his added velocity this year and gets a bad Orioles lineup at home.
High Risk Options: Taylor Hearn at SEA, Erick Fedde vs ARI, Tyler Wells at OAK.
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.
Great write up Justin.
Actually asking, not pontificating — was Voit’s slide that bad? He stayed on the baseline. Stephenson stuck his head in the way. Not sure what he was supposed to do there. I guess the arms look weird, but looks to me like he was trying to cushion the blow.
Sucks that Stephenson is hurt, but genuinely not sure what else Voit is supposed to do there, particularly as he doesn’t know when the ball is arriving.
Diehard Reds fan (who is close to dying these days): There’s nothing dirty about the slide. Just an unfortunate play between two big bodies.
Might want to watch that slide again by Voit. Nothing dirty about it. Tommy Pham just wants an excuse to stay in San Diego #redjumpsuitbois
Yeah, I agree. Voit is sliding for the plate. The catcher sticks his head in the way. Nothing intention on Voit’s part except getting to the plate.
I edited the sentence to remove the use of “illegal.” It was a legal slide. I stand by my belief that it was dirty.
That’s what I was going to say. The catcher moves directly into the runner’s path, and Voit has no way to even know the ball is coming.
Came here to say the same thing. I’m not sure what the author is seeing here. Voit is trying to slide into home, and the catcher blocks his path. Voit is mostly using his own arms to protect his own face.
Not sure what you all are watching. ESPN has 4 different views of it and it is pretty obvious what he did. The ball beat him by 5 feet, he could clearly see the catcher already had the ball (he was lunging in to tag him), and you can see him bring both hands/arms directly down on top of Stevenson’s head. In the “old days”, sure, but not when there are rules to try to protect the catcher. A guy doesn’t end up in concussion protocol because a runner “accidentally” brought both hands down to slam his head down.
It’s a collision, it’s not pleasant, but it’s not inherently dirty. Suggesting that bc he’s in concussion protocol it’s automatically dirty is just completely wrong. Major overreaction to the slide. It wasn’t dirty or illegal.
The slam to his head was not a collision.
Even if he was intentionally pushing his head, I don’t recall anything in the Posey Rule or any others that disallows hand to head contact on such a play. Since the ball was thrown into the runner’s path, the collision was legal.
Voit’s arms are an instinctive reaction to protect his own face. If he does nothing there he’s about to get clocked right in the chin, in which case he’s the one taking the blow to the head. If that happens and Voit gets concussed (a decently likely outcome if Voit just facetanks it, as first he’s going to take the blow to the face and then his head is going to bounce off the ground) do we say it was a dirty play by Stephenson? No. It was an instinctive play between two big dudes that happens in a fraction of a second. Sometimes people just get hurt.
Personal survey of 5 or so New York sports fans plus NY sports radio shows Cole approval ratings hovering in the “Pavano-Irabu” zone. Margin of error is zero.
Dont share barstool crap
Disappointed to see a link to Barstool.
Do better.
Who cares?
I doubt Voit sits today and regardless the Reds have another series with the Padres later in the year.
I don’t see that as a dirty slide. He goes to the base, and Stephenson has to lean over to get back which unfortunately puts his head directly the in path. Voit has no idea where the ball is or when it’s arriving, the throw comes from directly behind him. Sometimes these things just happen.
My opinion doesn’t matter, but the Reds used a replay challenge to ask if Voit’s slide was illegal and the umpires said no. So now MLB is going to reverse that and impose punishment? Seems highly unlikely.
Breaking the in-game rules and outside punishment aren’t always dependent on each other. You call yell obscenities at the umpire to get ejected and fined, but that doesn’t affect the current status of the game itself. Heck, even charging the mound won’t cause the next batter to be charged with an automatic strike or anything like that.
So while I don’t believe they will, MLB could still fine Voit for a dirty slide despite being a legal slide.
Like everyone else has written, looked to my eyes like the catcher was outside the baseline to handle the throw and lunging back in to make a tag, while the runner was inside the baseline and as far from the catcher as he could be an still reach the plate.