Roto Riteup: June 22, 2015

As Mr. Sanders was traveling yesterday, he bribed me with some peanut butter M&M’s to take today’s Roto Riteup. Obviously the PB kind are the best M&M’s; they’re easy 6.0 candy above replacement. For what it’s worth, I think Pez are replacement level candy.

On today’s agenda:
1. Buying Jose Quintana
2. Marlon Byrd’s Power
3. Streaming Pitching Options

Buying Jose Quintana
After holding Rangers to a pair of runs over seven innings, gathering five strikeouts along the way, Quintana has posted 11 quality starts in 14 chances. The QS is far from perfect, but the 26-year-old does own a 73:26 strikeout to walk ratio in 87.1 innings pitched. Quintana’s 3.92 ERA isn’t particularly noteworthy, nor is his 3.69 FIP, however I’m still picking him up in my standard leagues. Prior to yesterday’s outing Quintana owned a 10 percent swinging strike rate, the best single season mark of his career. According to Brooks Baseball, Quintana has increased his curveball usage, a trend that has continued for three consecutive seasons. Assuming the higher frequency of the curve is a conscious choice by the White Sox, I think Quintana can keep some of the SwStr% gains. With only three wins and a rather “meh” ERA this season, it appears as some owners have lost faith in him. As a refresher, from 2012-2014 among starters with at least 300 innings pitched, Quintana’s 3.55 ERA ranks 41st out of 121 pitchers. His 3.55 FIP rates slightly better at 35th in that group. Despite the track record, Quintana can be picked up in over 50 percent of ESPN leagues and 40 percent of Yahoo! formats but just 23 percent of CBS leagues.

Marlon Byrd’s power
Since being activated from the 15-day disabled list on Friday, Byrd has four hits in three games, with one going for a home run. His batting average and on-base percentage won’t win him any awards, however even at age-37, Byrd can launch some dingers. With 11 long balls in 196 plate appearances already plus ZiPS and Steamer projecting 15 and nine home runs respectively, Byrd is an ideal source of cheap power. He’s hit mostly fifth or sixth in the lineup thus far, behind OBP machine Joey Votto and solid OBP guys in Todd Frazier and Jay Bruce. With three batters reaching base at above average clips, Byrd is placed in an ideal position for his power to translate to RBIs. One can find him free to pick up in over 65 percent of Yahoo! and CBS settings as well as over 85 percent of ESPN formats.

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Streaming Pitching Options
If you enjoy streaming pitchers, tune into the Roto Riteup for recommendations each and every day.

A pitcher for today: Tommy Milone vs CWS (John Danks)
The White Sox rate last in league as per wRC+ against southpaws. Milone doesn’t miss a ton of bats, yet I still like him to post a solid outing at home today. He’s owned in just 24 percent of CBS formats and less than 10 percent of Yahoo! and ESPN leagues.

A pitcher for tomorrow: CC Sabathia vs PHI (Sean O’Sullivan)
Sabathia’s 5.31 ERA isn’t pretty, however his 8.02 K/9 and 1.63 BB/9 are more than solid. The Phillies have hit below league average when facing a left-hander and I like him to pick up the win. One can stream CC in over half of CBS leagues and over 80 percent of ESPN and Yahoo! settings.