Roto Riteup: June 30, 2016

The Giants are conceding their right to a designated hitter and letting Madison Bumgarner bat today. Bumgarner is a great hitter by pitching standards, but he’s also only slashing .175/.261/.350 on the season (a 69 wRC+), with a 47 wRC+ over 470 career plate appearances. The Giants will hit a worse player, but that’s entirely OK. More goes into such decisions, like keeping your ace happy and, you know, having some fun.

Madison Bumgarner just mashed 10 home runs in BP tonight. Let’s do this pitcher’s home run derby, please. pic.twitter.com/IGTcDvkvAS

— JakeKring-Schreifels (@jakeks19) June 30, 2016

Fun bad decisions > Boring good decisions.

On the agenda:
1. Home-Road splits
2. Various News and Notes
3. Streaming Pitcher Options

Home-Road splits
Two weeks ago, we compared how team offenses were performing against left-handed and right-handed pitchers, noting that, for example, the Padres are fine against southpaws and woeful against righties, or that the Pirates strike out far more against left-handed pitchers. We also took a quick look at isolated slugging differences at home and on the road, which I wanted to double back to today.

At an overall offensive performance level, there’s something serious going on in The Land, and Philadelphia may need to move. Not surprisingly, teams like the Rockies and Yankees are rendered somewhat punchless on the road.

Team	Home ISO	Home wRC+	Away ISO	Away wRC+	ISO Dif	wRC+ Dif
Indians	0.179	123	0.169	84	0.010	39
Royals	0.152	108	0.120	84	0.032	24
Yankees	0.172	97	0.114	75	0.058	22
Giants	0.124	112	0.151	95	-0.027	17
Pirates	0.144	113	0.151	96	-0.007	17
Rockies	0.226	105	0.162	88	0.064	17
Tigers	0.179	112	0.170	97	0.009	15
Brewers	0.171	96	0.131	84	0.040	12
Blue Jays	0.186	108	0.191	100	-0.005	8
Twins	0.155	92	0.159	84	-0.004	8
Angels	0.137	101	0.141	94	-0.004	7
Rangers	0.162	98	0.166	91	-0.004	7
Dodgers	0.157	91	0.139	85	0.018	6
White Sox	0.163	91	0.142	86	0.021	5
Mariners	0.175	109	0.175	105	0.000	4
Padres	0.144	90	0.153	86	-0.009	4
Orioles	0.198	113	0.203	110	-0.005	3
Red Sox	0.177	116	0.183	113	-0.006	3
Reds	0.178	83	0.151	80	0.027	3
Braves	0.094	72	0.108	71	-0.014	1
Mets	0.154	92	0.176	91	-0.022	1
Astros	0.182	100	0.164	100	0.018	0
Nationals	0.158	97	0.184	100	-0.026	-3
Cubs	0.171	105	0.184	113	-0.013	-8
Cardinals	0.173	104	0.199	115	-0.026	-11
Diamondbacks	0.175	93	0.164	105	0.011	-12
Rays	0.171	91	0.203	106	-0.032	-15
Athletics	0.139	82	0.158	99	-0.019	-17
Marlins	0.137	88	0.135	105	0.002	-17
Phillies	0.123	59	0.159	91	-0.036	-32

What I found interesting, if maybe not all that significant, is that some teams have shown a major difference in strikeout rate depending on their location. I suppose it makes sense, based on sightlines or general home-team advantage, for a team to strikeout less at home (the average team’s strikeout rate drops 1.1 percentage points), but the Twins and Orioles have oddly extreme differences. This, despite both of those teams being roughly average in terms of the home-field bump to the offense.

Team	Home BB%	Home K%	Away BB%	Away K%	BB Dif	K Dif
Diamondbacks	7.4%	24.3%	7.7%	21.6%	-0.3%	2.7%
Rays	7.7%	26.1%	8.4%	23.4%	-0.7%	2.7%
Phillies	7.0%	22.9%	6.2%	20.7%	0.8%	2.2%
Astros	10.9%	25.2%	9.7%	23.2%	1.2%	2.0%
Reds	7.0%	23.0%	7.1%	22.3%	-0.1%	0.7%
Blue Jays	9.8%	21.4%	9.7%	20.9%	0.1%	0.5%
Mets	9.4%	23.9%	7.7%	23.5%	1.7%	0.4%
Giants	10.0%	16.9%	8.3%	16.6%	1.7%	0.3%
Braves	7.7%	20.3%	7.1%	20.5%	0.6%	-0.2%
Mariners	8.5%	19.5%	7.5%	19.8%	1.0%	-0.3%
Angels	8.1%	15.7%	7.0%	16.1%	1.1%	-0.4%
Cubs	12.1%	21.6%	10.2%	22.0%	1.9%	-0.4%
Marlins	7.6%	19.4%	7.2%	20.1%	0.4%	-0.7%
White Sox	8.9%	21.1%	7.2%	21.9%	1.7%	-0.8%
Yankees	8.9%	17.8%	6.6%	18.8%	2.3%	-1.0%
Dodgers	8.6%	19.8%	8.8%	20.9%	-0.2%	-1.1%
Padres	7.3%	23.3%	7.0%	24.5%	0.3%	-1.2%
Athletics	6.3%	17.0%	7.1%	18.5%	-0.8%	-1.5%
Cardinals	8.3%	19.0%	8.9%	20.7%	-0.6%	-1.7%
Tigers	8.4%	21.2%	7.1%	22.9%	1.3%	-1.7%
Brewers	10.3%	24.7%	9.6%	26.5%	0.7%	-1.8%
Rangers	8.0%	18.1%	6.0%	20.1%	2.0%	-2.0%
Red Sox	9.8%	17.4%	8.1%	19.4%	1.7%	-2.0%
Nationals	10.1%	18.5%	8.5%	21.2%	1.6%	-2.7%
Indians	9.8%	18.8%	7.2%	22.0%	2.6%	-3.2%
Royals	6.5%	17.4%	5.7%	21.2%	0.8%	-3.8%
Pirates	9.2%	19.3%	7.7%	23.4%	1.5%	-4.1%
Rockies	9.4%	18.1%	6.9%	22.6%	2.5%	-4.5%
Orioles	8.6%	20.1%	7.4%	25.0%	1.2%	-4.9%
Twins	7.7%	20.0%	8.1%	25.9%	-0.4%	-5.9%

Just something to ponder, and perhaps worth greater study (it’s something Eno and I discussed before the season and could maybe use the input of catchers).

Various News and Notes
Updating a few items from yesterday: Joe Panik will, in fact, hit the DL with a concussion, nearly two weeks after the initial incident of contact. Symptoms flared up after a few days of passing tests, and his case serves as a warning that even the much-improved protocol leaves players at the risk of playing undiagnosed, though there’s no obvious, immediate solution. Oh, and please bury the term “mild concussion.” Lorenzo Cain is also off to the DL with a hamstring strain, just the latest tough injury for the Royals. Brett Eibner got the call from Triple-A and has a nice power-speed combo if he can make enough contact at this level.

More injuries: Yasiel Puig left Wednesday’s game with a knee contusion but isn’t expected to miss time. Billy Hamilton, meanwhile, took a ball in the face on what ended up being an inside-the-park home run from Anthony Rizzo. Considering he just returned from a DL stint for a concussion, another shot to the head is a serious concern for Hamilton (and he’s going through the league’s protocol).

The Nationals signed Mat Latos to a minor-league deal. Even pitching in the NL East, you’ll want to tread carefully if he ever gets a call. But hey, if James Shields (one run over 6.2 innings) can get it together for a night, maybe there’s hope. Someone should tell David Price (four runs over 6.1), who is starting to sound frustrated with his season, calling his performance “unacceptable.” The man who has the awesome “If you don’t like it, pitch better” mantra/life advice in his locker can do just that, and it’s worth noting he had strung together eight strong starts in a row before his two most recent flare-ups.

After throwing eight shutout innings with seven strikeouts yesterday, Junior Guerra owns a 3.25 ERA and 3.69 FIP, with nearly a three-to-one strikeout-to-walk ratio. Junior Guerra is 16-percent owned.

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

A pitcher for today: Wei-Yin Chen @ Atl (Mike Folynewicz)
It’s been a minute since I’ve gotten to pick on the Braves in this space, and I really started to miss that 71 wRC+. Wei-Yin Chen’s ownership is a little higher than I’d like to recommend at 49 percent, but on somewhat of a thin day, he gets the nod. If you need to go a little deeper, A.J. Griffin (26-percent owned and just now settling in after years on the DL) draws a sputtering Yankees lineup that’s struggled to do much damage against righties.

A pitcher for tomorrow: Nathan Eovaldi @ SD (Colin Rea)
The Yankees’ offense sputtering has drawn all the headlines, but their starting rotation has also somewhat quietly been sub-par to start the year. Among those guilty is Nathan Eovaldi, who owns a 5.19 ERA backed by a 4.87 FIP and a 3.86 xFIP. Even though Eovaldi’s consistently under-performed relative to defense-independent stats, he’s also never had the home run issues he’s currently having. Petco should help, and his 20-percent strikeout rate should play up against a Padres offense that ranks in the bottom six overall and in the top five for strikeout rate.