Roto Riteup: August 18, 2012

Did you know that the Pacific Northwest is capable of producing indoor temperatures north of 90 degrees? Because that what today’s Roto Riteup author had to go through.

• Brett Lawrie is set to return to the majors on Tuesday after completing a rehab stint over the weekend. Lawrie has missed the past few weeks after straining his oblique. Lawrie was having a good — but not great — season before he injured himself on August 4th. Adeiny Hecavarria has been filling in at third, but his bat has absolutely sucked.

• Ryan Dempster will be missing his next start for what is being called “personal reasons.” While Dempster has struggled since coming to the AL, but here’s hoping everything is all right with his life so he can come back and prove he can pitch in Texas.

• Jameson Taillon is going to get a taste of Double-A before the season is over, as the Pirates promoted him yesterday afternoon. Taillon hasn’t been great in Single-A, but he’s okay, and there hasn’t been any negative reports about his stuff. Challenging Taillon is probably the right move, and fantasy owners should be getting excited.

• Like Logan Morrison, Victor Martinez has been ruled out for the rest of the year.

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: Jason Vargas vs MIN
Vargas has been on fire recently, and he’s always good at Safeco.

A Pitcher for Tomorrow: Jaime Garcia vs PIT
Jaime may be available, as he’s been on the DL.

A Hitter for Today: Giancarlo Stanton at COL (Tyler Chatwood)
Boom goes the dynamite.