Roto Riteup: June 20, 2013
If one were to criticize the bespectacled author for spending time with family before leaving town instead of developing a kick-butt Roto Riteup, the same handsome author would be forced to shove his boot up your ever so tender booty-hole.
On today’s agenda:
1. The next big-time Mets rotation arm
2. Mark Appel is officially an Astro
3. Fun with arbitrary endpoints
The next big-time Mets rotation arm
With Zack Wheeler now firmly planted in the Mets’ rotation, it’s important (or at least fun) to see what could be next in New York.
In the pipeline is Noah Syndergaard, whom the Mets acquired from the Blue Jays in the R.A. Dickey trade. Syndegaard is currently pitching for the Meteorological High-A affiliate, and his results have been good. Syndegaard is certainly no Wheeler nor Harvey, but he’s got a chance to be an exciting MLB starter in his own right. At this point, I’d say Syndegaard is likely to stay in the minors until mid-2015 for the sake of his service time, but there’s a chance he develops nicely and comes up late next year.
Also in the pipeline is Rafael Montero. The right-hander was pretty well unknown and under appreciated heading into 2012, but his dominant results despite a lack of size. Montero’s stuff isn’t bad, but it’s not something scouts rave about. However, Montero has some superb command and can easily be envisioned as a mid-rotation starter. Currently in triple-A, Montero should be up next season around the Super-Two deadline.
Mark Appel is officially an Astro
After turning down the Pirates last year, Appel has signed for below slot with the Astros. Appel has pitches and an approach that are major league ready, and the right-hander could be up as soon as next season’s Super-Two deadline.
Fun with arbitrary endpoints
An often weekly look at players and what they’ve done in a completely biased amount of time. All stats are through Tuesday’s white hot game action.
• Dillon Gee, last four starts: 29.1 IP, 32 K, 4 BB, 3 HR, 71% strikes; 1.53 ERA
• Todd Frazier, last 15 games: .291/.371/.491 (.342 BABIP); 3 HR, 22.6 K%
• Jacoby Ellsbury, last 12 games: .321/.379/.453 (.362 BABIP); 10 SB, 10.0 K%
• Joe Blanton, last four starts: 26.2 IP, 33 K, 3 BB, 7 HR; 4.39 ERA, 0-4 record
• Danny Farquhar, last six appearances: 8 IP, 11 K, 3 BB, 1 HR; 5.63 ERA, .412 BABIP
It should be professed that the author is a fan of Farquhar’s cutter and two-seam fastball, and believes the right-hander could be a great bullpen arm if he were to stop trying to throw four-seamers by batters.
Zach is the creator and co-author of RotoGraphs' Roto Riteup series, and RotoGraphs' second-longest tenured writer. You can follow him on twitter.
In the pipeline is Noah Syndergaard, whom the Blue Jays acquired in the R.A. Dickey trade
You’ll want to switch that sentence around a touch
Danny Farquhar…I just think of Shrek whenever I hear his name.
Just thinking the same thing… and all those size jokes! hah!
Random question. What are your thoughts on greinke going forward? Chris cwik ranked him pretty highly in the recent June pitcher tiers but his peripherals and advanced metrics and velocity are horrible so far. Is he a buy low candidate? Would you go for him or price rest of season?
Check out Greinke’s Home/Away split. That’s where something looks way, way off (his anxiety issues?). I’ll start him at home, bench him on the road, and see what happens up to the All-Star break.
Oh please
“In the pipeline is Noah Syndergaard, whom the Blue Jays acquired in the R.A. Dickey trade. Syndegaard is currently pitching for the Meteorological High-A affiliate, and his results have been good.”
Sanders! Off the Syrup!
Speaking of which, there should be a new weekly column: “RotoGraphs: Intervention,” where rotographs staff gather together to break each other’s horrible, life-altering addictions to incredibly awful players.
I still love Vin Mazzaro.
If that’s wrong, I don’t want to be right.
I didn’t know the Blue Jays traded for Syndergaard in the R.A. Dickey trade?
Scouts are already saying that Syndergaard has just as good of stuff as Harvey and Wheeler not he’s no Harvey or Wheeler!! Are you a scout or have you watched film of Syndergaard or seen him in person because if you had you
wouldn’t have made such a dumb statement!! He hasn’t pitched long enough in
the minors to know for sure either way but if scouts are already talking
about his stuff being in the same class with Harvey AND Wheeler I’m guessing
you are wrong!!
Not sure if serious
Say “Harvey and Wheeler” and “Harvey or Wheeler” one more time.
Kick-butt? What is this, church school?
Old habit of not cursing before the jump.
Is trading Puig for D Fister selling high enough?
Goodness, no.
With Puig aim for the moon, the love is irrational. Try Justin or Max instead of Doug in that rotation man.
I laughed at the notion of getting Verlander for Puig, but Verlander has sucked lately! What’s up with that? Where’s the Fangraphs article on ‘What’s wrong with Verlander?’
Searching for Verlander on Fangraphs brings you to an article from May 13, 2008 asking the same question based on an awful start to that season after the previous season was really good. Kinda thought that was funny, but we need a new version to tell us what the frack is going on now!
I’d say we don’t need that article. Nothing is wrong with him. FIP, xFIP, k/9, pitch mix, and plate discipline numbers are all in line with or better than career numbers. His FB velocity is down a couple ticks, but that’s about it, and we’ve seen that before with him too.
No.
Any news on Jordy Mercer, is he a pickup in a very deep OPS league? Seems to have some power, and I read somewhere that he’s going to get the bulk of the time in Pittsburgh at SS
Trade question? I’m in 12 team, 100 player roster dynasty league. My pitching is suspect and was wondering if Nick Castellanos for Allen Webster seems like a good trade to make? He has offered to throw in toles, any thoughts??
I need a little more HR and RBI production, but am limited because I have Cobb not in a DL spot.
Would Frazier make more sense than Dunn? Who has more upside ROS? Both are fairly hot right now.
Forgot to mention, I’d have to dump Pettite or D. Holland.