Roto Riteup: June 3rd, 2012

According to the people who have too much time on their hands, June 3rd has been named national Repeat Day. Have no fear, I won’t repeat yesterday’s Roto Riteup.

• The experiment with Ichiro Suzuki batting third didn’t apparently didn’t impress Seattle Mariners manager Eric Wedge, so he moved Ichiro back to his customary lead off role for just the second time this year on Saturday. Ichiro immediately hit a home run in his first plate appearance. He also tacked on another solo shot in the third inning. I’ve touched on how Ichiro just isn’t the same elite player anymore, but he is still an above average player. Don’t expect this kind of power out of him regularly, but it is nice to see him contribute to the fantasy squad more than just steals for the first time in over a year.

• Another batting order outfield update is that David DeJesus hit third for the first time this season yesterday. Despite not having the customary power numbers one would expect from a 3-hole hitter, DeJesus is a career wOBA .339 hitter. With an above average walk rate and a below average strikeout percentage, DeJesus has a keen batting eye and excellent contact skills. His Contact% and Z-Contact% has always been significantly higher than average. I recommended to pick him up last week and I’m repeating those words today. Hey, it is Repeat Day after all. His Yahoo! ownership is still a paltry 7% and his ESPN rating isn’t much better at 11%. He popped a homer today and stole his first base of the year yesterday, so get in on the ground level with him.

• He may not have thrown a no-hitter, but R.A. Dickey did toss a complete game shutout last night. He scattered seven hits, didn’t allow a walk and struck out nine batters for the game. His 2.69 ERA and 3.31 FIP show that Dickey has quietly been one of the better pitchers in the National League. With each and every successful start he is getting picked up more and more, so if he still happens to be available I would pick him and stop streaming or spot starting him. He is rapidly becoming an automatic starter.

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: Tommy Hanson at WAS
The Nationals have the highest offensive SwStr% in baseball and Hanson gets swings at an above average rate. I think he’ll perform well today.

A Pitcher for Tomorrow: Jeff Samardzija at SF
Samardzija has been nothing sort of fantastic this year and by team wOBA, the Giants are a bottom 10 offense.

A Hitter for Today: Josh Willingham at CLE (Justin Masterson)
Compliant Pork draws a lot of walks. Masterson gives up a lot of walks. Advantage: Willingham.