Roto Riteup: June 20, 2012

Today’s Roto Riteup includes somewhat of a rant about the Rockies. You should rant in the comments, too, to make me feel better.

• Jim Tracy is almost single-handedly killing fantasy owners with his ridiculousness. The Rockies’ manager announced yesterday that the team would be rolling with a four-man rotation, but that’s not necessarily the weirdest part. No, the weirdest part is that Tracy will be limiting his starters to 75 pitches an outing while the four-man is in effect, likely meaning most of them will not pitch more than five innings. Now, there has been plenty of debate about whether pitchers nowadays are being babied, and whether or not starters could stay healthy and effective if part of a four-man rotation, but that doesn’t mean the Rockies need to half-ass it if they really want to try something different. Even though Colorado has the likes of Guillermo Moscoso, Matt Belisle and the recently demoted Jeremy Guthrie in their bullpen, the relievers are still going to be strung out, especially if one the starters struggles early and can’t make it through four or five innings of work. Back to fantasy land: the reason Tracy is “almost” killing owners is because no one owns a starting pitcher from Colorado. They all suck the big one this year. If anyone owned one of the team’s starters, they’d be pretty pissed, though.

• One player Colorado’s move helps: the previously mentioned Matt Belisle. Belisle has been an outstanding reliever for the past three seasons, and while his last start came in 2009, he has the ability to throw multiple innings at a time. A reliever putting up good numbers while throwing more innings is always a good thing for fantasy owners, especially those in head-to-head leagues without innings limits.

• In news outside of Denver, Jeremy Hellickson is headed to the DL, and Chris Archer is being recalled to take his place. Hellickson is on the DL due to shoulder fatigue, though he feels no pain or discomfort, which is great for his owners. Archer is only going to be in the bigs a short time, and odds are he’ll end up sliding to the bullpen in the long-run due to serious control issues, but he’s going to rack up strikeouts at the major league level regardless of how many innings he pitches each game. Grab him in deeper AL-only leagues if you’re looking for a start or two with the upside for big Ks.

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: Francisco Liriano at PIT
Liriano has control problems and could kill your WHIP, but I doubt he gives up a homer, and he should be able to rack up some strikeouts.

A Pitcher for Tomorrow: Daisuke Matsuzaka vs MIA
There’s a limited slate of games, and Dice-K comes with some reward, but he’s not without great risk. Take the day off if you can.

A Hitter for Today: Matt Adams at DET (Rick Porcello)
Don’t ask me why, because I have no clue.