Roto Riteup: July 6, 2012

The hope for today’s Roto Riteup was to link to a funny clip from the movie Friday. Unfortunately, I had forgotten how very graphic that movie’s language can get. Alas, I have no hilarious link for you to wake up to. Just baseball.

• Shortstops and Middle Infield help is something that I’m always on the prowl for. Consequently, I keep close tabs on most MI eligible players. Over the past week, Ruben Tejada has a .480/.519/.560 line. The man is so hot that his flames are on fire. He doesn’t offer much (read: any whatsoever) home run power, but while he is hitting like that, the lack of power is fine. With a seasonal .405 BABIP, I don’t expect this kind of line to keep up, but he is absolutely worth rostering in the short term. I’ve picked him up as a stream candidate in a couple deep leagues. If you’re in a 12-team mixed, I’d do the same. Maybe even 10-team mixed. His Yahoo! ownership rate is down at 10% and his ESPN rate is even worst at 6%.

• If you need help from the hot corner, then I humbly suggest taking a long look at Todd Frazier. Although Scott Rolen is still listed as the starting third basemen for the Reds and probably won’t need to hit the DL, Frazier makes for a solid backup. Rolen hasn’t played in a week, and I figure he’ll probably be eased back into action. Frazier has come on strongly in the past week, hitting .300/.391/.550 in Rolen’s place. If you play in weekly leagues, I’d take Frazier of Rolen for this coming week. Frazier should be available in just about every league out there, same for Rolen when he is healthy. It’s good to keep Frazier on your watch list though, as Rolen has a healthy list of being unhealthy, not having reached 600 plate appearances in a season since 2003.

• Rajai Davis is still doing what he does best: steal bases. He has three in the past seven days and according to ZiPS, he will steal 18 more the rest of the season. I’d actually take the over on that, as ZiPS projects only 200 PA the rest of the season for him. His ownership is still down at 15% in Yahoo! formats and just 25% in ESPN leagues.

• For my NL-only readers, maybe you’ve noticed Justin Ruggiano, or maybe you haven’t. Regardless if anyone has taken note, Ruggiano has been killing the ball since he was traded from the Astros organization (separate from the Carlos Lee trade). He was immediately called up post-trade and has been raking ever since. For the year (all of 84 PA’s), Ruggiano is hitting at a crisp .400/.475/.786 pace. Already 30 years old, he is no spring chicken anymore. That’s okay though. He has previously shown his ability to crush minor league pitching, only to appear over matched against big league pitchers in three separate instances. With a BABIP near .450 I fully expect his numbers to regress, but he did post four straight years of .370+ BABIP in Triple-A. For a six foot plus, 200 pound plus player, that is pretty impressive. He’s available in over 90% of both Yahoo! and ESPN leagues.

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: Tommy Milone vs SEA
It’s against Seattle. Oakland is no offensive juggernaut, but I like Milone today.

A Pitcher for Tomorrow: Doug Fister vs KC
I’m not a huge Fister believer, but his xFIP is almost a run and a half better than his ERA.

A Hitter for Today: Delmon Young vs KC (Jonathan Sanchez)
As much as I rip on Young, he actually does hit left-handed pitching pretty well. Combine that with the fact that Sanchez is pretty awful, and you have yourself a nice and cheap OF for the day.