Roto Riteup: July 2, 2013
Here’s to hoping everyone had a lovely Canada Day yesterday. The lingering question is what exactly does one do on Canada Day?
On today’s agenda:
1. Bad news for Brett Lawrie
2. Third time’s the charm: Adam Eaton edition
3. Trevor Cahill to the disabled list
Bad news for Brett Lawrie
Speaking of Canada, there is good news regarding Brett Lawrie. He should be healthly enough to be activated from the disabled list in the coming days. The bad news is that he will remain in the minors after being activated. The idea is that some time in the minors will allow Lawrie’s bat to heat up. Lawrie’s .209/.268/.374 line in 153 plate appearances is a far cry from what roto owners had hoped for back in March. In shallower re-draft leagues (e.g. 10-team mixed), dropping Lawrie would be acceptable. For 12-team or deeper, Lawrie should be held and stashed on the bench.
Third time’s the charm: Adam Eaton edition
After trumpeting Adam Eaton two separate times already, once again the present author is ready to make himself silly by putting stock into Eaton. Though he’s suffered two setbacks in his rehabing, Eaton is still a tantalizing fantasy option due to his doubles power, speed on the bases, and on-base prowess. Currently DHing, the Arizona Diamondbacks are hopeful that Eaton can play the outfield as soon as Saturday. Given the nature of elbow injuries, hitting and throwing normally in the same game will be a big step for Eaton.
The D-backs outfield is awfully crowed, even after Gerardo Parra may have to miss time after a brutal diving play in the outfield. Thankfully the club believes that Parra doesn’t have a concussion, however he is almost assuredly going to take a day or two off. Despite questionable amounts of playing time, Eaton will have value as a pinch hitter and pinch runner. He is still a couple of weeks away from being activated, but if you are looking for great rate stats plus steals, stashing Eaton now makes sense. Eaton is is available in 73% of Yahoo! leagues, 96% of ESPN leagues, though just 53% of CBS formats.
Trevor Cahill to the disabled list
In other Diamondbacks news, yesterday Trevor Cahill hit the 15-day DL with a right hip contusion. With a 4.66 ERA and a career high 14.9% HR/FB rate, perhaps some time off is just what the doctor ordered. Both April and May went very well for Cahill, but the wheels fell off in June. Through six June starts, Cahill posted a 9.85 ERA/6.34 FIP/4.26 xFIP and didn’t pitch past the sixth inning. A potential injury can surely cause pitching numbers to go awry, Cahill’s .393 June BABIP is probably responsible for his brutal month.
Possibly the leading candidates to take Cahill’s rotation spot is Tyler Skaggs, though D-backs manager Kirk Gibson didn’t commit to Skaggs just yet. Another name in contention is right-hander Charles Brewer. With plenty of time until Cahill’s spot rolls around again, the D-backs won’t need to feel rushed. For now, Skaggs seems to be the safer bet to start Friday for Arizona, but that is still speculation.
You can catch David spouting off about baseball, soccer, esports and other things by following him on twitter, @davidwiers.
Who is a better stash in a 12 team roto league – Lawrie, arod, or eaton? Looking for the potentially best overall player…
I still kept Eaton despite his the uncertainty of his playing time. Depends on your need of positional needs, I suppose.
Lawrie for me. I feel like Eaton is all but certain to eventually undergo surgery and A-Rod at best is simply average now. As frustrating as Lawrie is, the potential/upside of him getting right in AAA and coming up and hitting the ball well for the last month or two of the season is too tempting.
Eaton, and it’s not even close.
If Eaton can make it through the test of playing OF again, hitting, running and throwing, without incident and get to the majors in the next 2 or 3 weeks I do think he has the edge. That being said, given how the rehab has gone so far, that is far from a certainty. I think Lawrie might be the “safer” choice for the rest of this season – who also posseses great upside. Eaton might offer better average and speed, but Lawrie still offers speed but more pop.
I would keep Lawrie. He will never reach his pre-draft hype #’s, but he is serviceable at a very weak 3B position.
RoS I’ll take Eaton. His steals and AVG/OBP should be the best in that group. Eaton may lack some RBIs and homers that Arod and Lawrie can do, but I still love Eaton.
Rickie Weeks seems to be upticking, any thoughts?
Drafted him, cut him, picked him back up. But I’m still ambivalent and haven’t committed. He’s gone back to getting enough PAs to qualify for the 2B leaderboard. Last 14 days of ISO and wOBA have him no. 2 on that board, without a dubious BABIP. Still, the thing that factors into rostering him is if you can afford a half-time starter — his home/road split is awful (.377 wOBA vs .251).
I touched on Weeks about three weeks ago and I still like him as a bounceback guy. He isn’t as bad as he started and he isn’t a good as his June (.355/.429/.677). For a middle infielder, he’s a great play. I wouldn’t be thrilled for him to be my starting second baseman, but he is serviceable there.
Canada Day? Come on man, we dress in our favorite Mountie costume, rope moose and drink a few Molsons, eh!
I assumed it would be similar to Poutine Day, but with more maple syrup.
Having Lawrie in the write up today is odd for two reasons. First, the story about the Jays not rushing him back and sending him down after he’s activated broke last week (that article is from the 28th and it was reported before that). And second, Lawrie hasn’t played in a rehab game since playing back to back days on the 26th and 27th in A+, and the Internet, as far as I can tell, is silent as to why. Is the ankle still hurting? Inquiring minds want to know.
I’ve received quite a few inquires on Lawrie over the past week. Rather than dedicate a full article to him, I felt as though a quick hit via Roto Riteup would be best.
I’m trying to listen to you guys, I swear.
Man, my comment sounded really whiny. Sorry about that. I am curious why there has been no talk anywhere about Lowrie being pulled from his rehab, although I see that there have been two rain outs for Dunadin since the 27th. Maybe they wanted to rest him a couple days after his first couple games and the weather just hasn’t been good since (being Florida and all).
No worries. Internet comments get a bad rap for the most part (though there are occasional tactless jerks) and I try to address every comment or question.
I don’t know enough about the Jays organization to really speak fully here, but it seems as though they’re playing this Lawrie injury awfully close to their chest. No news on him in almost a week? Not promoting him to get playing time elsewhere after rainouts? Curious to me.
Carl Crawford hit the waiver wire recently in my league and it looks like he may be activated soon. How do you see him comparing to Coco Crisp ROS?
They’ll be very close in RBIs, steals, runs and homers with Crawford getting a slight edge in average. Both should hit leadoff for their respective clubs too. I think playing in the AL will help Crisp with his counting numbers just enough to give him the nod though.
I advocated selling high on him just a couple of weeks ago, but when compared to Crawford, I still like Crisp. He certainly has an extensive injury history himself, but Crisp feels safer to me here. I suppose if you could guarantee 270 PA’s rest of season for both of them I’d take Crawford though.
Thanks Dave,
I’ll probably just stash him and try to swing a trade. Plus I think it would be funny if I have Kemp, Puig and Crawford in my OF (plus A Jones and A Gordon).
Trade thoughts on Votto+Harvey vs. Chris Davis+Hamels? Which side does RG favor?
id go with Votto + Harvey.
Are you a playoff bound team? If so Harvey may get shut down when it really matters. If you are a bubble team I would go Harvey and Votto.
Currently in 1st place by 2 games. 12 team H2H. Also concerned about Harvey’s innings cap.
I’d prefer Votto and Harvey. Even with the innings cap, assuming this isn’t a keeper league, you can drop Harvey and find pitching for the final three or for weeks.
So is it fish or cut bait time with Yovanni Gallardo? He’s been a pitching albatross for my team so far and it now appears that his recent stretch of good outings has proven to be the exception rather than the rule this season. And with the way my league is, I won’t be able to find any takers for this piece of hot garbage.
How deep is the league? If it’s a standard 12-team, dropping him would a little premature, but understandable. If it is a deep league, you’ll want to hang on to him. 10-team? Yeah, I’d drop him.
10 team 25-man rosters, but it is fairly active and informed. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone picked him up and gave him a chance to turn things around. I may give him one last chance to right the ship again against the Mets on Saturday.
Is your bench deep enough to stash him? If so, that would be a nice middle ground. Of the 25-man rosters, how many are active? Probably something like 9 hitters and 8 pitchers? I’d either stash him on the bench or let him go.
10 active batters, 9 active pitchers (3 SP, 3 RP, 3 free spots). So 6 bench spots which I currently have split 4 spare pitchers, 2 spare batters. Though I did get rid of Keuchel to bring Price back from the DL. (and I’m glad to see Price pitching like the Price of old, even if it’s against Houston)