Roto Riteup: April 4th, 2012

by
April 4, 2012

Pitching, pitching, pitching! That’s the focus of today’s Roto Riteup.

–  We talked a little bit about the closer situation in Boston earlier this week, but now things have gotten more complicated. Andrew Bailey is going to have surgery on his thumb, and there’s a good chance he now misses half the season or more. Whoever is name his replacement will have solid value throughout the season, whether it be Mark Melancon or Alfredo Aceves.

–  Ross Detweiler has won a job in the Washington Nationals’ rotation, sending John Lannan to the minor leagues. Lannan is under contract for $5 million this season, so the Nationals must feel strongly that Detweiler is a superior rotation option. Detweiler was once an interesting prospect, but his major league results are entirely unspectacular. Even deep NL-only owners should ignore Detweiler.

–  Rays’ closer Kyle Farnsworth may have to start the season on the disabled list due to an elbow injury. Farnsworth was forced to miss time during the latter part of 2011 with elbow problems, so there is a little reason for concerns. Farnsworth looked like a great reliever over the last couple of years, and it’d be a shame if he can’t stay healthy while the Rays push for the World Series. Joel Peralta is likely to slide into the ninth inning role, and while it would be a surprise to see Fernando Rodney pitch in the ninth inning, it certainly isn’t out of the question.

A Pitcher For Today/Tomorrow
During the season, you’ll be finding recommendations for starters you could stream for the day after the notes, but this being spring training, I’m going to assume you aren’t playing some strange high-stakes spring fantasy game.

FanGraphs: The Game
Normally, this part of the Riteup will highlight both a pitcher and a hitter you should consider utilizing for FanGraphs: The Game.

You Aren't a FanGraphs Member
It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.
We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.
2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.
9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.

If you have anything in particular you’d like to see in this year’s Roto Riteup, please say so in the comments. Feedback is appreciated.





 

Zach is the creator and co-author of RotoGraphs' Roto Riteup series, and RotoGraphs' second-longest tenured writer. You can follow him on twitter.

5 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
hi
13 years ago

Yeah I agree on joel peralta. Most dumb mangers would make rodney the closer because he has “done it before” but i dont think so with madden. peralta also has 14ks and 2 walks this spring and pitched to a .9 whip last season. rodney will have a worse whip than peralta in 2012 even if u take away all the hits fernando rodney gives up… (aka at least a walk an inning for rodney, no control bum with a fastball).

-1