Roto Riteup: August 26, 2013

Today’s Roto Riteup welcomes readers into the last week of August.

On today’s agenda:
1. Roy Halladay returns, looks mediocre
2. Howie Kendrick still hurt, progressing slowly
3. Some Facts about Eric Stults
4. Dustin Ackley’s on fire

Roy Halladay returns, looks mediocre
In his return from a major shoulder injury, Halladay returned to the bigs yesterday. Halladay looked quite mediocre, and his velocity was not pretty. I’m not going to touch on Halladay much here, which is 100% because I have a fuller evaluation of the right-hander going up later today. So, look for that if you want to learn more.

Howie Kendrick still hurt, progressing slowly
Kendrick has been having a very good fantasy season at second base, but his year has been disrupted by a knee injury suffered when he collided with a teammate on August 5th. Almost a month later, Kendrick still isn’t running at full speed, and even his own manager has no idea when he’ll return. Knees are a pretty important part of the human body, and when they can nag their owner for a while. I’d like to think that Kendrick will be back for the last two or three weeks of the season, but after missing about a month, Kendrick still needs to go through a rehab assignment to test and regain confidence in the joint. After more rest and a rehab outing, there may just not be enough time in the year for Kendrick to rejoin his team. With Pujols already out, the Angels may be even more willing to tell Kendrick to sit on it and wait for 2014.

Some Facts about Eric Stults
• Stults is a bit of a journeyman, but he’s been a good starter for San Diego this year.
• Stults hasn’t allowed many homers despite a low GB%.
• Stults faced the Chicago Cubs on Saturday.
• The Chicago Cubs have some guys with power, like Nate Schierholtz and Anthony Rizzo.
• Cubs’ infielder Darwin Barney has hit a homer in less than 1% of his MLB plate appearances.
• Stults allowed a homer to Darwin Barney.

Dustin Ackley’s on fire
In his last 20 games heading into Sunday’s action, Ackley was hitting .315/.342/.425 with three walks and 14 Ks in 77 plate appearances. Sure, his BABIP is .390, but don’t dull my sparkle with your “facts.”