Roto Riteup: July 13, 2013
In anticipation of the Chicago meet up, the present author is getting acclimated to the local tastes via the Half Acre Brewing Company.
On today’s agenda:
1. Brett Lawrie, second baseman?
2. Welcome back, Jedd Gyorko
3. Jarred Cosart’s debut
Brett Lawrie, second baseman?
The latest chapter of the saga known as Brett Lawrie’s 2013 season has taken yet another twist. While the Toronto Blue Jays didn’t openly state that Lawrie will return and see time and second base, they did allude to the possibility of it happening. We do know that Lawrie has been playing second base in the minors and will probably continue to do so until promoted. If Lawrie comes back and gains second base/middle infield eligibility, that will increase his value both this and next year. He’s been disappointing from an offensive standpoint this season, however slotting him in your 2B/MI spot for the rest of the season and all of next year could help ease the frustration.
Welcome back, Jedd Gyorko
While waiting for Lawrie to gain MI eligibility, one can plug in Jedd Gyorko. Yesterday Gyroko was activated from the disabled list and started at second base. Prior to hitting the DL Gyroko was hitting a solid .282/.341/.461 with eight home runs. The power shouldn’t be too surprising — even given his home park — as he hit 30 home runs last year across Double and Triple-A. He also hit 25 dingers between High-A and Double-A in 2011, so his power isn’t a new development.
Gyorko is currently available in 50% of both ESPN and Yahoo! leagues, though just 20% of CBS formats. As good as Jed Gyorko has been and despite Jed Lowrie being an Oakland Athletic, this will always be my favorite Jed.
Jarred Cosart’s debut
Yesterday Jarred Cosart made his major league debut and did so in dominant fashion. He lasted until the seventh inning before surrendering a hit and finished with eight innings of shut out ball. He only manged two strikeouts — while allowing a trio of walks — and four whiffs on the day. While he was already sent down — most likely to keep him on regular rest as well as to maintain the 10-day minimum — Cosart could very well be back on in the majors on July 23.
True, his minor league walk rates are less than ideal, but Cosart is a fairly highly touted pitching prospect. He should be a fixture in the Houston rotation for the rest of the year — or at least until they cap his innings — and he’ll offer a reasonable strikeout rate. Walks and wins will be too many and too few respectively, so Cosart is more of a deep league/keeper league player for now. If he shows an improvement in his command and control, Cosart could be fantasy relevant in standard 12-team mixed leagues yes this season, but don’t hold your breath. Of course Cosart is just 23-years-old and has time to develop. He could be a solid sleeper pick for 2014.
Bonus: Aaron Hicks has an absolute cannon.
You can catch David spouting off about baseball, soccer, esports and other things by following him on twitter, @davidwiers.
With Jeremy Hefner having yet another solid start last night, would you consider dropping Kyle Loshe for him or should I stick with the relative steadiness of Loshe?
I think yeah, I’d go with Hefner at this point.
yup. I would.
Wrong again fangraphs. Jed Clampett is the all-time leading Jed, by both traditional and advanced metrics
Ooh, good answer. I’ll still stick with President Bartlet though. I love(d) The West Wing.
The esteemed Keith Law in a recent chat questioned the idea of moving an already injury-prone Lawrie to 2B.
I question if the offense gained by being able to have guys like Davis, Izturis and Derosa in the lineup more offsets the defense lost by putting Lawrie at second.
I didn’t see that, but is the reasoning that third basemen get injured more? Is that even true?
I didn’t see it either, but based just on the parent comment, I would assume the thinking is that moving him to an unfamiliar infield position increases injury risk by taking him out of his comfort zone. And maybe by exposing him to takeout slides at 2b?
Ah, yes, I misread it. My bad!
Yeah – Law’s comments was in Thursday’s chat.
That Hicks throw though…
I saw a lot of people tweeting about it as it happened, so I had to check it out. Did not disappoint.
The thing I liked was how he suckered the 3B coach & Wells into going by not picking it up any faster than necessary. Looked to me like he was baiting him, anyway. Now we know who the Twins bring to the mound in the 16th inning, anyway.
I don’t know if he meant to over-run the ball, but once he did, yeah, I think he tricked Wells. I think that if he fields it cleanly off the wall, Wells doesn’t even try for third.
Who would you rather have ROS, Lawrie or Aramis Rameriez? Lawrie is sitting on my waiver wire and while Aramis isn expect out long, I just have zero confidence his knee is going to get right without surgery.
I’d rather have Lawrie. I’m in the position as you when it comes to doubting Ramirez’s knees.
I watched Hicks in high school throwing at dodger stadium in the championship and he was consistently in the mid 90’s so that arm doesn’t surprise me at all. He has a cannon.
Was Cosart really that dominant? Didn’t he only have like 4 swinging strikes? Seems like a luck-driven performance — something a Fangraphs article should have delved into deeper rather than drive the “dominant rookie performance” narrative. I really like these articles as they’re timely and generally have decent intel, but I think the ball was dropped on the Cosart analysis.
Well, I did mention his strikeouts and whiff…and also warned 12-team mixed leaguers to look elsewhere.
I tried to make it clear that while he was good for a start, there are better options available. Guess I wasn’t clear on that.