Roto Riteup: August 10, 2012

Sticking with the food theme for now, today’s Roto Riteup is like a ham-and-cheese Lunchable. You’re giddy to have a Lunchable (the Riteup), but kind of let down that it isn’t the pepperoni pizza kind (Sanders). At least the ham-and-cheese kind (me) still comes with a fun sized candy bar!

• My old pitching frenemy Ubaldo Jimenez is back. He had an excellent outing yesterday and fanned 10 batters, but only lasted six innings and gave up three runs. His seasonal numbers are still brutal and his last five starts are a microcosm of his season: some awfulness, some excellence. At this point, it’s really anyone’s guess as to where the pinwheel of good Ubaldo/bad Ubaldo will land. If you’re a risk taker (i.e. chronic gambler) then go ahead and pick him up for the rest of the season. I for one will be leaving him alone. I’ve picked him up and dropped him more than my my old phone that broke because I dropped it too much. If you’re a risk taker, Ubaldo should be free to grab in 60% of ESPN formats and 50% of Yahoo! leagues.

• Over the past seven games, Zack Cozart is 10-32 including a pair of homers. He is up to 13 dingers on the year and his ZiPS calls for five more. That projection of five more home runs ties him for fifth most among shortstops. He hits left-handed much better than righties, but his home park is very cozy for right-handed hitters. Great American has a RHB home run index of 145. Even with that, Cozart has a a very even 6/7 home/away homer split. Given that he’s shown power on the road, one can reasonably expect more power than the projected five homers. Cozart is owned in less than 30% of both ESPN and Yahoo! leagues, so he shouldn’t be too difficult to add. I’d go ahead and add him.

• After missing a month to the disabled list, Giancarlo Stanton crushed two home runs in a 4-5 performance on Wednesday, just his second game back. He had the day off yesterday and figures to get a bit more rest than what an owner could normally expect. If someone will give you 75 cents on the dollar for him (and assuming it is a redraft league) you can make a very rewarding trade.

• Both Jason Kubel and Michael Morse blasted two home runs apiece last night. They’re both owned in over 80% of each major fantasy site, but could both make for strong trade targets. Morse has the kind of raw power that could lead him to having a 12 home run month. Kubel plays in an excellent hitters park and is on pace to smack more than 30 homers.

For those of you who play daily fantasy games like FanGraphs: The Game, or just like to stream players, here are a couple matchups you may be able to exploit.

A Pitcher for Today: Brandon McCarthy at CWS
Normally I’m not a fan of trotting out pitchers coming off of an injury (who would be?), but I am such a McCarthy fanboy. More than that, he’s an excellent pitcher when healthy and is owned in less than half of both ESPN and Yahoo! formats. Perfect stream candidate.

A Pitcher for Tomorrow: Ricky Nolasco vs LAD
My feelings on Nolasco are almost as emotionally scaring has my feelings on Ubaldo. This is more with the fact that the Marlins are facing Joe “I give up tons of homers” Blanton and him facing Stanton than anything else.

A Hitter for Today: Joey Votto Todd Frazier at CHC (Justin Germano)
Since I misread the Votto injury update, we’ll go with Frazier here. I really just wanted to type the name “Germano” and attempt to pronounce it like “hermano.” Sidenote: Apologies for the terrible video and sound quality. Crappy Arrested Development is better than no Arrested Development!