Roto Riteup: August 25, 2015

Today’s Roto Riteup was written while re-watching Before Sunrise. I love the director, Richard Linklater, but even I can admit that he gets a bit spacey with his dialogue from time to time. Still, the entire Before Trilogy is pretty great.

On today’s agenda:
1. David Wright returns
2. Welington Castillo homers again
3. Quick Marcus Stroman update
4. Streaming Pitching Options

David Wright returns
After suffering from spinal stenosis and being limited to a mere eight games this season prior to Monday, Wright found himself back in the big leagues where he promptly homered in his first plate appearance. The third baseman went 2-for-5 with a walk from the cleanup spot, coming around to score three times. That he returned to such a great spot in the lineup is a good sign, and my initial fears about Wright’s power returning appear, at least for one game, to be eased. His overall power has waned in recent seasons — Wright’s ISO has been over .200 once since 2011 and his HR/FB has been higher than 15 percent once since 2009 (arbitrary points of distinction, but rough estimates to what I consider solid power) — and now at age-32, I have to wonder just how much is left in the tank for him.

Welington Castillo homers again
The third team is the charm, because why not hit his 17th home run of the year and 15th (!) with the Diamondbacks? Castillo has blasted home runs in back-to-back (warning language, RIP Meek Mill) games and according to ESPN’s Hit Tracker Online, only four of his home runs have been “just enough” versus 13 “plenty of distance” homers. His average fly ball distance of 301.12 feet this year ranks 24th in baseball, 17 feet more than his fly balls last season. Castillo’s 92.8 average hit exit velocity ranks in the top 30, and his 42.3 percent Hard% contact rate ranks third highest among 265 hitters with at least 250 plate appearances this season. I’m unable to call this sort of home run streak sustainable (seriously, who could keep hitting home runs like this?), but he is certainly crushing the ball. Somehow he’s still available in 45 percent of CBS leagues as well as more than 70 percent of Yahoo! or ESPN formats.

Quick Marcus Stroman update
The 24-year-old righty threw a three inning, 40-pitch simulated game on Monday and felt great afterwards. Given he was expected to miss the entire season after knee surgery in March, this his a pretty big step for Stroman. He’s slated to toss another simulated game Saturday, then will likely report to a minor league team for some rehab starts. No word on how the Blue Jays would use a healthy Stroman, be it as a starter or reliever, though he holds more fantasy value if he’s taking the hill as part of the rotation — assuming he doesn’t close. If you happen to have room on the disabled list for him, I’d stash him now. Stroman can be picked up in more than 75 percent of CBS settings and over 90 percent of both ESPN and Yahoo! leagues.

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Streaming Pitching Options
If you enjoy streaming pitchers or play DFS, tune into the Roto Riteup for recommendations each and every day.

A pitcher for today: Ervin Santana at TB (Nate Karns)
Santana will be a pitcher friendly park and the Rays offense ranks 29th in wOBA and 24th in wRC+ versus right-handed pitchers. He’s free to stream in half of the CBS leagues, 70 percent of Yahoo! settings and more than 80 percent of ESPN formats.

A pitcher for tomorrow: Jerad Eickhoff vs NYM (Bartolo Colon)
Despite Wright back in the lineup, I’m still not particularly worried about the Mets offense. Eickhoff is available in more than 95 percent of the three major leagues.