Roto Riteup: June 1, 2017
Many of you don’t know this, but I made on to the field at an Astros game:
SWEEEEP!#AstrosWin 17-6! 40 runs scored this series! 22 wins in May! Seven straight! Win streak! pic.twitter.com/G6ARSSCUuo
— Houston Astros (@astros) May 31, 2017
On the Agenda:
1. Fun with Small Samples! (Hitter Edition)
2. Various News and Notes
3. Streaming Pitcher Options
Fun with Small Samples!
Justin Bour led the Majors in home runs in the month of May with 11! Logan Morrison led the AL with 10. Bour’s ISO was .385 and Morrison’s was .374 which only trailed Mike Trout’s ISO at .500!
Three players stole double digit bases in the Month of May: Billy Hamilton (18), Dee Gordon (12), and Cameron Maybin (10). Jean Segura was caught stealing 6 times in May. Only 12 players in MLB had 6 or more steals in the month.
The highest hard contact %s during the month May were Justin Bour (54.9%) and Michael Conforto (54.3%). The highest soft contact %s were Jonathan Villar (32.3%), Jarrod Dyson (31.7%), and Hunter Renfroe (29.7%).
The highest BABIPs in May were Aaron Judge (.473), Miguel Sano (.473), and Ben Gamel (.460). The lowest were Kyle Schwarber (.094), Anthony Rizzo (.165), and Kole Calhoun (.178).
Giancarlo Stanton led the Majors in average exit velocity in the month of May at 104.5 miles per hour. He was followed by Joc Pederson (104.1 mph) and Manny Machado (103.8 mph).
Various News and Notes
Bryce Harper’s suspension has been reduced to three games. Originally Harper was supposed to lose four games, but he gets one back here. He began serving the suspension on Wednesday night.
Welington Castillo was placed on the 10-day DL with a testicular injury. He was struck in the groin with a foul tip during tuesday’s game and had to be taken to the emergency room. In spite of the fact Castillo is on his second DL stint this season, he has played well for the Orioles. It has yet to be determined how long this injury will keep him out for. See, I did that blurb without a single joke!
Mallex Smith has been recalled by the Rays. While Smith doesn’t offer the fantasy upside many thought he would not that long ago, he does have the opportunity to be a cheap source of stolen bases in deeper formats.
Streaming Pitcher Options
A pitcher for today: Jharel Cotton @ Cle
There are only seven pitchers that qualify for this on Thursday: CC Sabathia, Wade Miley, Jharel Cotton, Yovani Gallardo, Jeff Locke, Alex Meyer and Adalberto Mejia. Not a fantastic list so give me this guy with the best pitch in Cotton and highest upside in one start.
A pitcher for tomorrow: Jimmy Nelson vs LAD
Nelson is coming off the best start of his career and has been solid this year at home with a 3.60 ERA and 36 strike outs in 35 innings.
Justin is the co-host on The Sleeper and The Bust Podcast and writes for Rotographs covering the Roto Riteup as well as other periodic articles. In addition to his work at Rotographs, Justin is the lead fantasy writer/analyst and co-owner for FriendswithFantasyBenefits.com, and the owner of The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational. He is also a certified addiction treatment counselor. Follow Justin on Twitter @JustinMasonFWFB.
Not to be too picky, but Jimmy Nelson is a righty.
Haha, maybe he just wanted to point out that the Dodgers struggle against lefties.
That’s not picky at all. Just a brain fart. Thank you.
Cant delete own comments on here?
That Mallex Smith analysis looks awfully close to to (in my opinion lazy and wrong) Mallex Smith analysis on Rotoworld….
He was nearly a .300 hitter in his minor league career and he stole 88 bases in 2014!! 88!! Not like 20 or 30. 88. And 64 the year before. He can take a BB sometimes too, and has a comparable OBP % to Billy Hamilton.
Why doesnt this guy get more respect as a potential top of the line, R/AVG solid contributor and elite, not just “maybe cheap source of steals” SB potential guy? Maybe not this year, fine, but for AL-only and keeper leagues?
First, I assume he is owned in the majority of AL only leagues. Secondly, with Rasmus back, where does he play? Sure, he has had big steal seasons in the minors, but so have lots of guys. You can’t steal if you’re not in the lineup. If he had everyday playing time or even platoon ABs, he could threaten for 30-40 steals. I just don’t see that happening until whether we know if the Rays are selling at the deadline or not.
As far as the quality and source of the analysis. If you are going to hint at a plagiarism charge, you should come with some actually facts. If you don’t like my analysis or think it’s “lazy”, then I disagree, but I have no problem with your opinion. I take issue to someone even hinting at the idea that I would rip someone else off. And if you read the blurb on Rotoworld, the only thing we really have in common is that he was recalled, which is common knowledge.
Rotoworld’s blurb:
Rays recalled OF Mallex Smith from Triple-A Durham.
Smith played in eight games early in the season before being sidelined by a hamstring strain. In 22 at-bats prior to the injury, he had picked up six hits and stolen three bases. In a larger sample size, the 24-year-old outfielder hit .238/.316/.365 in 72 games last season. While Smith does chip in with the stolen base — he swiped 16 last season — there is no real fantasy upside, here.
Posted above:
Mallex Smith has been recalled by the Rays. While Smith doesn’t offer the fantasy upside many thought he would not that long ago, he does have the opportunity to be a cheap source of stolen bases in deeper formats.
Analysis:
Okay fine–“being recalled by the Rays” and “recalled from Triple-A Durham” isn’t an issue.
Rotoworld uses statistics–including putting down 6/22 = .272 like that is terrible or something, and making 3 sbs in 22abs not sound impressive at all (22abs/3sbs=300ab/40sbs)–which ok, not needed to report something in the riteup, but the frustration here is toward them, putting down good stats and only mentioning a players first cup of coffee at the expense of his minor league stats and possible projections. Small sample sizes being used to label him “lacking upside” is not a fair practice.
Here’s the beef that caused me to word it the way I did:
“While Smith does chip in with the stolen base — he swiped 16 last season — there is no real fantasy upside, here.”
and
“While Smith doesn’t offer the fantasy upside many thought he would not that long ago, he does have the opportunity to be a cheap source of stolen bases in deeper formats.”
is the same basic message, reworded. Perhaps (or even likely) unintentionally. We only have so many sources to look at when Googling player news.
I find it interesting when Kleinschmidt did stuff this like, people ran out of her town (and I commented negatively at times too, although moreso over the blatantly wrong things which isn’t really the case here), but in this case, people rush to the defense.
It’s annoying that 2 sources seemed to look at a player and report to the fantasy community that relies on them for information that Smith “doesnt have upside”. That’s not what I expect from these sources. If someone steals all those bases and has other skills to support that skill, either say that or don’t write something that damages a players reputation in fantasy!
I am sorry if the “plagiarism” drop was too harsh. That wasn’t really what was the focus of my comment although I see now it seems like that. What I really wanted to accomplish was a more thorough look at a player getting disregarded with statements that I don’t think fit the picture fairly.
The similarities are not suspicious at all in terms of plagiarism. Of course steals are going to be mentioned. And it’s really common to opinionate whether or not a young player has upside – and to use that exact word – when he’s called up from the minors. It looks like 2 analysts don’t think he has much upside; it’s not such an out-there opinion to raise any flags (even though you disagree with it).
Maybe Mallex Smith is a marginal enough prospect that there isn’t much for fantasy writers to say except: 1) he was called up 2) he can run 3) he can’t do much else.
You need a lot more than this to question the writer’s integrity because I think all that we learned is that these guys can pull up his B-R page and lack of top prospect pedigree and independently reach the same reasonable conclusion.
I don’t understand why people are breaking your balls, who do they think you are, Wellin**** CONNECTION RESET BY PEER ****
Allegations of plagiarism are very, very serious. You don’t drop them lightly – and you never drop them with no evidence. There’s not a single clause that’s the same between the writers in this instance. This is offensive.
I’ll be, and have been, as vocal of a critic at even the hint of plagiarism but I’m not seeing it. This isn’t a situation where an author is blatantly copying professionally published scouting information, it is Mallex Smith. Anyone who has watched Mallex Smith play for 5 minutes knows what he does and what his fantasy value is.
How many possible ways are there to say “fast guy who can’t hit and has little fantasy value was recalled but if you’re desperate for steals ¯_(ツ)_/¯ you could do worse.”
That would be like needing to cite a source after saying Aaron Judge is big. No kidding.
Next time someone tells me water is wet I need a damn source. I’m tired of people plagiarizing everything.
Impressive restraint with the Castillo news.
Seriously! I probably rewrote that blurb 4 or 5 times.
Disclaimer – I could be wrong about this… But I am pretty sure the Wellington Castillo injury occurred on a foul ball, not on a foul tip. No? If Castillo caught the ball, he deserves a medal.
I’m looking for video but you maybe right. I’m glad you didn’t get testy over it. I’ll show myself out.
and you were doing so well too…