Roto Riteup: June 11th, 2012

Today marks my fourth Roto Riteup in a row! Only 52 more and I tie DiMaggio. Don’t worry, Zach Sanders will be back tomorrow and we’ll be back to the first half/second half platoon situation.

• Ubaldo Jimenez pitched one of his better games so far this season yesterday afternoon. He lasted seven innings while striking out seven and didn’t allow a walk. Over his past three starts and 19 2/3 innings, he has only allowed five walks. It’s possible that he has turned a corner and is ready to put his miserable start of the season behind him. If you are a fellow Ubaldo owner then you know how frustrating he has been so far. I wouldn’t make him an automatic start just yet but I would probably start him this week against the Pirates. With a 58% ownership rate in Yahoo! and just 47% in ESPN, Jimenez could be an ideal stream option this week.

• Against all reason (other than small sample size), Andy Pettitte is currently sporting the highest K/9 of his major league career. After last night’s six inning, eight strikeout affair his K/9 now stands a fantastic 8.64. His 1.94 BB/9 is almost a full walk below his career norm too. His fastball might only be sitting in the mid to high 80’s but Pettitte is still pitching fantastically. He’s owned in just 57% of Yahoo! leagues but over 80% of ESPN formats. I’m still worried about the stress a full season will have upon him, but for now, he looks like a great stream or even own option. Act according to what you need in your league.

• Pettitte wasn’t the only reason the Yankees won last night; Russell Martin popped a pair of homers to account for most of the Yankee scoring. He now has eight home runs on the year to go along with his typically above average on-base average. He may only hit .250, but if you happen to play in an OBP league, Martin is one of those sneaky useful players. He’s available in 70% of Yahoo! leagues and 90% of ESPN leagues.

• After being hyped up as a starter when Derek Holland’s injury put the Texas Ranger’s rotation in jeopardy, Alexi Ogando is now the one in need of help. He started for the first time this season yesterday at the San Francisco Giants but he lasted only three innings. It wasn’t a short outing due to ineffectiveness, but due to injury. In fact, Ogando actually had a perfect nine-up-nine-down before he was forced to leave the game with a groin injury. The injury didn’t even come while he was pitching, but while running to first after laying down a bunt. I’ll let you form your own conclusions about pitchers hitting and running the bases… Ogando is to undergo an MRI today to discover the severity of the injury, but a stint on the disabled list has not yet been ruled out. In his own words, Ogando said “Right now, it feels pretty bad.” I might scoop him up off of the waiver wire but I wouldn’t go trading for him just yet. It was assumed that he would be moving back to the bullpen upon Holland’s return or Oswalt’s debut. Again, if he’s out there and available and the injury isn’t too severe, I’d snap 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: Garrett Richards at LAD
With only four games going today it was pretty slim pickings. Richards is a pretty extreme fly ball guy, but with Trout out there running down everything in the outfield, I’m not too worried.

A Pitcher for Tomorrow: Max Scherzer at CHC
Scherzer has a very good SwStr% and a fantastic K%. The Cubs are almost in the bottom 10 (rank 11) in terms of worst team SwStr%. I think Scherzer fans at least eight.

A Hitter for Today: Jose Reyes vs BOS (Josh Beckett)
Never known for his ability to control the running game, I think that when Reyes gets on he will be able to run rampant.