Roto Riteup: August 28, 2016

Today’s Roto Riteup is brought to you by Warner Brother’s original motion picture Suicide Squad; Suicide Squad, it’s like a good movie but worse.

On the agenda:
1. Various News and Notes
2. Streaming Pitcher Options

Various News and Notes
After missing a month due to injury, Gerrit Cole came back and put together a string of solid outings, but his last four have been somewhat disastrous, but now we may know why. An MRI revealed no ligament damage in his elbow, and the thought is that he could be dealing with a lovely bone spur in the joint. Cole will be examined further today — presumably with an X-ray to try to see the spur — and we’ll know about his status for the rest of the season within a day or two.

Since re-joining the big league club at the end of June, Mike Foltynewicz has been a decent starter. In 69-plus nice innings, Folty has struck out 61 to 21 walks, but 10 homers have pushed his ERA above 4.50 in that stretch. Four of those homers came in his second start back, so additional filtering lowers his ERA to 4.30 over 60-plus innings of work. His FIP is almost arun lower, with his xFIP sitting in between, so there’s a chance we could be looking at an ERA in the upper-3s going forward. Many — including myself — have called for Folty to be moved to the bullpen in the past, but it appears the Braves’ patience has paid off and they’ve found themselves a mid-rotation arm for the next few years.

Hernan Perez continues to impress, hitting two homers last night against the Pirates. The former Tigers farmhand is flashing power for the first time in his career, and has an outside chance of being a 20-20 guy in just four months of big league work. The hype train is going to hit Perez hard next offseason, but there will also be plenty of pundits pushing against his improbable outburst. Off the top of this author’s head, expect something like a .265 average with 14 homers and 24 steals if he plays a full season in 2017, but know he has shown the capacity for more.

---

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

A pitcher for today: Lucas Giolito vs COL (Chad Bettis)
Have some fun with the young fire-baller.

A pitcher for tomorrow: Dan Straily at LAA (Matt Shoemaker)
Dealin’ Dan hasn’t allowed three earned in a start since July 8.