Roto Riteup: July 8, 2012

Today’s Roto Riteup is like a nice cup of yogurt (not that disgusting Greek yogurt. Gross). It’s good in the morning, good in the afternoon and good for you.

• In sharp contrast to Masterson’s blowup two days ago, Ubaldo Jimenez pitched excellent last night. Ubaldo lasted six innings and struck out eight, matching a season high. Perhaps even more importantly, he gave up only a single walk. Over the past month, Ubaldo has a 3.24 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP. That’s well worth owning in my book. My faith in him still isn’t as high as it was preseason, but he deserves to be owned in more than 66% of Yahoo! and 58% of ESPN leagues. He is better than most stream candidates, but is still a spot starter in my opinion. If he’s available then go ahead and pick him up, just watch his match-ups carefully.

 • Another pitcher who more people should be picking up is Dillon Gee. After last night’s eight inning outing Gee’s strikeout rate is 7.96 K/9 and his walk rate has been lowered to 2.38 BB/9. His ERA and FIP isn’t anything pretty yet, but he gets a high percentage of swinging strikes and his ground ball rate is over 50%. If you’re looking for a second half sleeper of a starter, Gee could be your man. He is available in almost 80% of Yahoo! leagues and almost 90% of ESPN formats.

• If you’re looking for someone who has quietly come on in past month or so, look no further than Erick Aybar. His seasonal line is still a mess thanks to a combined .223 batting average in March, April and May but for the past 30 days Aybar has turned things around. A .398 BABIP for a month can do wonderful things for a batters line though. Since the beginning of June, Aybar’s triple slash is .366/.390/.527. Clearly unsustainable, but worth noticing nonetheless. Going forward from this is the question, and I suspect that he will hit close to his ZiPS for the rest of the year. If you pick him up, I’d look to sell high on him. Maybe you can convince a naive league mate that his “turnaround” is for real.

• Over the past 30 days Carlos Quentin is hitting .192. You should go and pick him up. Why? Because his OBP over that time frame was .364 and his BABIP was a mere .210. Now, make no mistake: Quentin is no true talent .300 BABIP guy, but .210 is far too low for even him. Despite the putrid past 30 days in the AVG department, Quentin is still a valuable hitter. His seasonal wRC+ is 162 and his walk rate is the highest of his career. The fact that he is frequently getting HBP also boosts his OBP. I had to look it up, but a HBP in a Yahoo! league counts for a hitters OBP, but not against a pitcher’s WHIP (but it will count against a pitcher’s ERA). Go figure. Whatever the case may be, Quentin’s value in an OBP league is clearly higher than his value in a standard 5×5, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be owned. His ZiPS rest of season line is pretty uninspiring, but a lot of that seems to be due to his injury history more than actual performance. His career wRC+ is 120, and if he hits at that mark for the rest of the season I’ll be disappointed. I expect pretty good things to come from him. His ownership rate in ESPN is 68% and his Yahoo! rate is even lower, at 50%. If he’s available, I’d pick him up.

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: Wei-Yin Chen at LAA
Chen generates an above average amount of swinging strikes and is a fly-ball pitcher. Not much to dislike in Angels Stadium.

A Pitcher for Tomorrow: If only there were games
Count me among those who don’t really A. Like the format of the All-Star game and B. don’t like the fact that it decides home field advantage.

A Hitter for Today: A.J. Ellis at ARI (Trevor Bauer)
Bauer is a pretty wild thrower and Ellis loves to take walks and get on base.