Roto Riteup: August 17, 2018

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August 17, 2018

The Roto Riteup reminds you to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge.

On the Agenda:
1. Acuna Back in Action
2. Various News and Notes
3. Streaming Pitchers

Acuna Back in Action
There wasn’t a “Riteup” yesterday, but obviously things got a little crazy at the beginning of the Marlins-Braves game on Wednesday night. We all know what happened, so no need to re-visit the incident, but we did receive some good news on the Braves 19-year old phenom Ronald Acuna Jr. The Braves twitter account posted early yesterday morning that his CT scan results came back normal.


The Braves medical team had Acuna go through X-rays on Wednesday night that ended up being clean, but fans were still worried what might pop up on the CT scan. Fortunately for Acuna, the Braves, and baseball fans things were sound with his elbow. They were so good in fact, that he returned to the lineup on Thursday – going 1-for-4 with a strikeout. The five-game home run streak was snapped, but I’m sure everyone was happier with just seeing him out there playing.


As far as the status of Jose Urena, he was slapped with a six-game suspension and fined an undisclosed amount. As seen the day prior, Urena threw his fastest pitch to start a game EVER when he nailed Acuna (97.5 mph).


I’m not going to give my opinion on this (and let’s be honest, enough people have sounded off about it already), but let’s just say I agree with Urena receiving disciplinary action from the MLB. There’s also no fantasy analysis to give either. Urena has been a non-factor in the majority of formats and Acuna is a stud that will not be given away by most owners at this point. If you were going to buy him it would’ve been months ago. The most important part of all of this is he’s healthy.

 

Various News and Notes
This isn’t a fantasy nugget, but how about this triple play?


This was a pretty sweet tweet as well.

Giants starter Dereck Rodriguez was placed on the 10-day disabled list due to a hamstring strain. It is thought that he sustained the injury during the brawl between the Giants and Dodgers on Tuesday night.


Casey Kelly will start in his place. Kelly will be making his first major league start since, and registered a 4.78 ERA in Triple-A this season. There’s no timetable on Rodriguez as of now, but he’s been a top-10 starter over the last month, as well as jump into the top-40 for the season on the ESPN Player Rater. The strain is not considered serious (Grade 1), but fantasy owners will have to find a replacement in the meantime. Yasiel Puig was suspended two games due to the brawl.

Believe it or not, the Mets have scored a whopping 46 runs over the last two days, including a 24-spot against the Phillies during Game-1 of a double-header.


Crazy statistical performances were had by many, but the most notable were Amed Rosario out of the leadoff spot, Todd Frazier, Jose Bautista, Jose Reyes, Brandon Nimmo, Austin Jackson, Kevin Plawecki, and Michael Conforto. Literally everyone contributed during the three-game span, but it’s quite impressive nonetheless.

Tommy Pham returned from a fracture right foot and went 2-for-3 with a double, run, and RBI in the Rays 3-1 victory over the Yankees.


Pham missed literally two weeks from the ailment and looked no worse for wear in his return. Mixed league owners should implement him back into lineups and see what he can do the rest of the way. He seems motivated and poised to return to closer to 2017 form on a Rays team that’s starting to become exciting (I’m a Rays fan, I’m biased I know).

Nationals starter Joe Ross made his first rehab start in his return from a 13-month recovery from Tommy John surgery.


Keeper/dynasty league players should take notice of this and possibly scoop him up if he’s available. As far as redraft leagues for this season, he’s best snagged in deeper, NL-Only type formats for now. Command is always the last thing to come back when recovering from this, so he more than likely won’t have a big impact on things this season. In other Nationals starters news – Erick Fedde is set to start a rehab assignment on Monday (shoulder injury) and we got word that Stephen Strasburg is set to return to the rotation on Tuesday if his bullpen session on Saturday goes well.

The Pirates placed shortstop Jordy Mercer on the 10-day disabled list due to a left calf strain. While this isn’t notable news in itself, the Pirates promoted the now top-10 prospect in their organization – Kevin Newman (11th prior to the season starting according to Eric Longenhagen’s list – now minus Shane Baz and Austin Meadows). Newman hit .302/.350/.407 with 4 HR and 28 SB at Triple-A Indianapolis and figures to at least get some playing time moving forward (Adeiny Hechavarria will share shortstop duties). For now, mixed league owners should monitor the playing time allocation, but NL-Only players should grab him and see if he can net a few stolen bases in the process.

Nomar Mazara returned from a month-long bout with a sprained right thumb to go 1-for-3 with a two-run home run and a walk. The sad part of this was the demotion of Willie Calhoun – who posted a .275/.325/.391 line with 1 HR and 9 RBI over 69 AB since getting a shot. He’ll be back up in September, but he has some things he needs to work on before he’s fantasy relevant. I’m sure I’ll be recommending him as a waiver add sometime soon.

Yu Darvish is set to begin a rehab assignment on Sunday.


This comes after he threw a simulated game on Wednesday.


Darvish hasn’t pitched for the Cubs since May 20th due to elbow and triceps injuries, but he might actually be close to giving it a go late this month or early in September if he can string together some healthy appearances. His skills were slightly down from previous years in his eight-start cameo with the Cubs this season, but Chicago and fantasy owners will take what they can get from him the rest of the way. The Cubs don’t have an awesome schedule in late-August through September – facing teams like MIL, ATL, STL, WAS, PIT, and ARI. With that said, if you’re behind in strikeouts in a roto league, there are worse guys to try and grab in a trade.

Lourdes Gurriel and Yangervis Solarte have both started to ramp things up from their ankle/knee sprains and oblique injuries. Solarte is expected to sidelined for three weeks or more, with Gurriel returning earlier.

 

Streaming Pitchers
A Pitcher for Today: Jakob Junis at CWS
Yes, he’s allowed 10 ER in 11.2 IP against the White Sox this season (2 GS). Yes, six of those runs came via the long-ball. However, you have to have some faith that the White Sox rankings in RPG at home (4.02, 24th), wRC+ over the last month (90, 23rd) and K% over the last 30 days (28%, 30th) pour into their results against him.

Hail-Mary Option: Anthony DeSclafani vs SF
DeSclafani has allowed 3 ER or less in five of-his-last six and gone 7 IP or more in three of them. The Giants have a 78 wRC+ over the last 30 days (27th) and rank 29th in RPG on the road (3.7)

A Pitcher for Tomorrow: Brad Keller at CWS, Adam Plutko vs BAL
Keller went 6 IP and allowed 2 ER with 9 K against the Sox in his last outing against them. Same rules apply with him as they did with Junis.





 

Fantasy Baseball and Tampa Bay Rays enthusiast. Restaurant manager by day, fantasy analyst by night. Contributor to Rotographs, Baseball HQ, Fantasy Pros, and co-owner of Friends with Fantasy Benefits. Follow me @MikeWernerFWFB.

2 Comments
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Justinw303
6 years ago

Is “literally two weeks” the same as two weeks?

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Mike Werner
6 years ago
Reply to  Justinw303

I’m not sure. I’ll have to look it up.

1