Roto Riteup: August 4, 2012
I still haven’t quite developed the joke regarding David Weirs and ponies, so you’ll just have to check back and read tomorrow’s Roto Riteup to see if I’ve made progress.
• Joe Blanton has been doing pretty nice things in Philadelphia, and now he’ll be doing them in Los Angeles. The Dodgers acquired the right-hander yesterday, and Blanton will be filling the spot currently occupied by Stephen Fife. Blanton’s only problem this year has been the home run ball, and while Dodger Stadium plays the same against lefties, getting out of Citizens Bank Park will do him a world of good. Blanton will now get to play the Padres, Rockies, and Giants instead of the Braves and Nationals, so that’s also a big-time plus. Unfortunately, this move only factors into his ROS value, as Blanton will become a free agent at season’s end.
• Kyle Kendrick will be starting games for the Phillies in Blanton’s absence, and he’s less exciting than watching paint dry, why is pretty darn boring, if you didn’t know.
• Kurt Suzuki has had a pretty miserable season at the dish, but the Nationals still saw fit to acquire him in a trade with the Athletics. Suzuki will likely be the starting catcher in Washington, at least until Wilson Ramos returns sometime next season. Suzuki’s numbers should improve due to the change in league and the change in ballparks, but he’s still going to be a poor fantasy option, even in NL-only leagues.
• Stepping up for the A’s will be Derek Norris and George Kottaras. Both players have typical Oakland profiles (power and BBs), but from opposite sides of the plate. I would venture a guess that Norris will be playing most days, but Kotteras will get a share of PAs against right-handed pitchers.
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: Paul Maholm vs HOU
Maholm will be making his first start for the Braves, and the Astros will make his transition easy as pie.
A Pitcher for Tomorrow: Matt Harvey at SDP
He’s young, he throws hard, and he’s in San Diego. Woah, boy, that’s exciting.
A Hitter for Today: Travis Snider at CIN (Mike Leake)
Betting on Snider in Cincy is a nice chance to take.
Zach is the creator and co-author of RotoGraphs' Roto Riteup series, and RotoGraphs' second-longest tenured writer. You can follow him on twitter.
Funny, the Dodgers have an even worse wRC+ than all of those teams. Not to mention that the Rockies have scored the 8th most runs in the majors this year. While he’s pitched well at Dodger Stadium, he hasn’t pitched well against Colorado. I’m not too high on him facing them regardless.
This brings up one more interesting question though: Can we get team splits? I was trying to look up how the Rockies have performed at Dodger Stadium, but have no clue where to even look for that kind of information.
It’s easy to get the home/away splits for the Rockies. In short, they’re the most productive offense in the majors at home, and the least productive offense in the majors away from home. Literally. They’ve scored 322 runs at home, more than any other team at home in baseball, and they’ve scored 173 runs on the road, less than any other team on the road in baseball.
You should almost never start a pitcher at Coors, but you should almost never fail to start a pitcher at home against them. Though there a couple teams with worse road records, but no one who scores less.
I knew that the splits would look like that, but I was looking for team performance at Dodger Stadium (on Yahoo! this is included as part of a players splits). The parks that Blanton has faced the Rockies in were both bandboxes, so Dodger Stadium is an upgrade, but in the small sample he’s provided us with, he’s been absolutely owned by the Rockies. The information that I was really hoping for was historical data for the team and home runs at Dodger stadium.
While it wouldn’t be perfect, looking back three years or so would provide a good deal of information on how well they have performed there and offer us a glimpse as to what we might see when Blanton squares off against the Rockies for the fourth time in his career.