Roto Riteup: August 16, 2017
Found him:
Presley, Elvis pic.twitter.com/elvuwXk8Ic
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) August 16, 2017
On the Agenda:
1. Kind of Ridiculous Trade Speculation…
2. MLB’s Most Eligible Second Baseman
3. Various News and Notes
4. Streaming Pitcher Options
Kind of Ridiculous Trade Speculation…
According to Jon Heyman of FanRag, the Tigers and Astros are in talks about a potential trade that would send Justin Verlander to Houston. Verlander has cleared revocable waivers, but would have to sign off on any deal that would be made due to his no-trade clause. The Astros are in need of a starter given the recent woes and injury trouble of Lance McCullers, but are unlikely to want to take on the entirety of Verlander’s remaining deal. Given that, it seems unlikely that a deal will be reached without shipping some major prospects to Detroit.
Giancarlo Stanton has cleared revocable waivers without being claimed according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo. There have been numerous reports of teams being interested in the MLB home run leader, but with 295 million dollars due to him over the next ten years and the team being up for sale, it seems unlikely that Stanton will be moved anytime soon.
MLB’s Most Eligible Second Baseman
According to multiple commenters on my last two Roto Riteups, Anthony Rizzo has gained eligibility at second base this week in ESPN, CBS, and Yahoo. Putting aside the fact that this is fairly ridiculous, it poses an interesting question about where Rizzo ranks rest of the season at the position and heading into 2018 if he can muster enough games to hold the eligibility for it.
Rizzo is hitting .262/.384/.504 with 27 home runs and seven stolen bases and currently ranks 10th on ESPN’s player rater at second base. Personally I would rank him 4th moving forward for this season and next behind Jose Altuve, Dee Gordon, and Jose Ramirez.
Various News and Notes
The Pittsburgh Pirates placed Gregory Polanco on the 10-day DL with a hamstring injury. Polanco has had a disappointing, injury riddled season, hitting .255/.311/.407 with ten home runs and eight stolen bases. This injury likely ends the month for him and may drive down his cost for next season.
Joe Panik has been placed on the 7-day DL with a concussion after getting hit in the face with a throw to the plate:
Hunter Pence drives in a run, but Joe Panik takes a hit to the face sliding into home and exits the game. pic.twitter.com/FvNd5OkDWO
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) August 14, 2017
It’s unfortunate for fantasy owners as Panik was starting to heat up after a slow season. Over the course of the month of August Panik was hitting .342/.419/.447. Panik is mostly an empty average player and can be dropped in most mixed league formats.
Andrew Benintendi left Tuesday’s game after being hit in the knee with a pitch. Following the game, manager John Farrell stated that he was hopeful Benintendi would be ok to play on Wednesday. Consider him day-to-day at this time.
Streaming Pitcher Options
A pitcher for today: Ubaldo Jimenez vs. SEA
Over his last four starts, Ubaldo has a 2.63 ERA with 12 strikeouts per nine innings. He gets the struggling Mariners who have lost five of the last six.
A pitcher for tomorrow: NONE
I was tempted to take Edwin Jackson at home, but I can’t pull the trigger.
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.
Edwin Jackson is death incarnate to fantasy owners.
Isn’t he pitching in SD and not at home? slightly less deadly?
…I guess….? Still wouldn’t chance him though, even in a 20+ team league
I don’t know about the others, but Rizzo is now locked in to 2B eligibility in yahoo next year, as he’s made 10 appearances.
Standard formats are 20 game eligibility. I’ve got SS eligibility in Yahoo.
So in some formats, are the eligibility requirements for carrying over more stringent than the in-season ones?
Yes, typically in-season requirements are half of preseason ones. So, in ESPN (which is standard) it takes 10 games in season to gain eligibility, but 20 games from the previous season to have it in the beginning of a season.
There is a high chance Rizzo won’t make it to 20 games played at 2B as the Rizzo shift was actually abandoned for nearly 2 months. It seemed like Maddon just had a field day for being creative on Monday as he also tried a 4-man outfield as noted by the Joey Votto article. Unknown yet if the shift will continue next year to even make the possibility of gaining the eligibility again a factor in his draft prices for 2018.
The Mariners won yesterday. Also, Jose Ramirez has been pretty awful since the ASB, any concerns?
Fixed. And I am not worried, just a little slump.
Hey Justin thanks for the shoutout on Friday’s pod haha. What can I say, Eli is my spirit animal.
LOL! Eli is a polarizing guy, but I love the dude.
Not quite on Rizzo’s level obviously, but the Pads have been playing Yangervis Solarte at SS quite a bit lately – 6 starts, 8 games total. That makes him SS eligible in formats with a 5 start min (like Yahoo). Just looking at ROS projections, his wOBA would slot in 11th at SS (well, 12th but all 3 projection systems still list Desmond as a SS. There can’t be any formats where he still has SS eligibility since he hasn’t played there since 2015).
He routinely bats 4th for the Pads and he’s become a solid (if uninspiring) bat over the last 2 years or so, really starting mid-season 2015. I would be more enthused if the rest of his teammates didn’t suck so bad. Very possible that the guy will hit a little and still not produce a whole lot of R or RBI and he doesn’t hit HR or steal bases.
Still, if you’re in a real bind, he’s not a bad option at SS. . . .
The eligibility would really make him an excellent bench bat more than anything – which has a ton of value in h2h formats at those positions.
Jose Ramirez has been great. However, I’m skeptical you don’t really suggest taking him ahead of Rizzo in next years draft. I call BS
Same goes for Dee!
Any thoughts on Jared weaver’s retirement? I thought he should’ve retired before the start of last season in all honesty.