Roto Riteup: July 31, 2015

Don’t worry faithful Roto Riteup readers, Zach Sanders will return to his normal duties tomorrow. Anyways, there wasn’t any public backlash about not covering the trades in yesterday’s RR — other than one of my friends being cruel enough to call me the Edwin Jackson of FanGraphs — so today we continue with normal programming.

On today’s agenda:
1. Curtis Granderson keeps hitting
2. Michael Pineda placed on disabled list
3. Streaming Pitching Options

Curtis Granderson keeps hitting
The 34-year-old outfielder is in the midst of a bounce-back season in the wake of a pair of disappointing years. After yesterday’s 2-for-4 with a walk, he is now hitting .255/.350/.440 with 16 home runs, good for a 125 wRC+. He’s consistently hit leadoff all season, granted for a sub-par offense behind him, and has even been more efficient in his running game as Granderson should break double digit steals for the first time since 2013. With a 36.6 percent Hard% contact rate ranking in the top-25 in baseball among qualified hitters as well as a 13 percent Soft% contact also rating in the top-25, he’s been smashing the ball and not reliant on seeing eye grounders or flares behind second base. Granderson is already owned in 85 percent of CBS leagues however both ESPN and Yahoo! trail at just 66 and 52 percent respectively.

Michael Pineda placed on disabled list
Citing a right flexor forearm strain, the Yankees moved Pineda to the 15-day DL yesterday. As the linked article notes, the right-hander first felt discomfort after throwing his normal bullpen on Tuesday, with a precautionary MRI revealing the strain. At least there isn’t ligament damage, so count on Pineda resting for at least a week before being reevaluated. In the meantime — and this is my own speculation — it’s possible we could see Luis Severino at some point. The 21-year-old righty cruised through Double-A already and currently owns a 1.91 ERA (and 2.53 FIP) with a 2.94 strikeout to walk ratio in Triple-A, and that was before his 10 strikeout performance yesterday. If Severino does get the nod, our own Kiley McDaniel rated the lefty as the Yankees top prospect heading into this year. With CC Sabathia hospitalized due to dehydration after yesterday’s game, the Yanks may find themselves needing to replace two starters. If that’s the case, I’d expect Servino to be get the call.

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

A pitcher for today: Nathan Eovaldi at CWS (Carlos Rodon)
Well, Happ blew up in my face and on the mound yesterday, but I like Eovaldi to provide a bounce back. The Southsiders haven’t hit right-handers very well, and I like Eovaldi to post a good number of strikeouts against them. He’s free to stream in 45 percent of CBS leagues as well as over 70 percent of ESPN or Yahoo! formats.

A pitcher for tomorrow: Aaron Nola vs ATL (Matthew Wisler)
I’m cheating a bit here, as Nola is already owned in more than 65 percent of CBS leagues. Still, one can find him available in over half of the ESPN formats and 75 percent of ESPN Yahoo! settings. I love Nola’s stuff, and while the Braves don’t whiff very often, they aren’t a particularly strong offense against righties either.