Roto Riteup: August 5, 2012

Today’s Roto Riteup has truth and statistics. I’ll leave the lies to someone else.

• Emilio Bonifacio is headed back to the DL after re-injuring his left thumb on Friday evening. Sadly, Boni hurt himself in the ninth inning, and it looks like he could miss the rest of the season. Injuries like these are tricky, but don’t expect Bonifacio to make it back this year when assembling your roster for the stretch run.

• They may not be the Bronx Bombers of old, but it’s still impressive when an opposing pitcher throws a two-hitter on their home turf. Felix Hernandez did just that yesterday afternoon, striking out six in the process. Felix truly is the King, and if he ever gets some run support, he will be the top fantasy starter out there.

• Did you know that over the past thirty days, Francisco Liriano leads all pitchers in strikeouts? I bet you didn’t know that, and I bet you also didn’t know that he is second in K% over that time.

Want some facts on Daniel Straily’s debut? Well too bad, I’m going to give you some anyway.

• Straily went six innings against the Blue Jays on Friday evening, striking out five and walking one while allowing one member of Canada’s team to cross home plate.

• Straily induced 13 swing-and-misses, five of which came on his changeup, which he only threw 20 of. In case you didn’t know, that’s pretty good.

• Straily threw all but one of his changeups against left-handers, and a vast majority of his sliders against right-handers, which is an excellent strategy.

• This isn’t from his start, but it’s still cool: Straily’s K/9 in Double-A was 11.39, and his K/9 at Triple-A was 11.38. His BB/9 was only 0.05 apart between the two levels. Oh, and don’t quote his K% and BB%. That would ruin the point.

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: Matt Harvey at SDP
He’s young, he throws hard, and he’s in San Diego. Woah, boy, that’s exciting.

A Pitcher for Tomorrow: Travis Wood at SDP
It’s hard not to pick on Petco, especially with a homer-prone starter like Travis Wood.

A Hitter for Today: Mitch Moreland at KCR (Luke Hochevar)
Hochevar has trouble against lefties, and outside of Josh Hamilton, Moreland’s the best chance for Texas to take advantage.