Roto Riteup: June 4, 2013
A happy birthday to Darin Erstad. The present author will fondly remember the Fire Joe Morgan glossary description of you. The funny thing is, looking back at Erstad’s career, his stats read much better than one would have guessed. Also of note, happy birthday to Bar Refaeli. No explanation necessary.
On today’s agenda:
1. The Los Angeles Dodgers outfield
2. The early bird gets the Wheeler
3. A shake up in Milwaukee
4. Joe Blanton shows up
The Los Angeles Dodgers outfield
Yesterday the Dodgers placed Carl Crawford on the 15-day disabled list with a left hamstring strain. Even before that move was announced, the club called up prospect Yasiel Puig to start in right field and bat lead off. The outfield for yesterday’s game consisted of Puig in right, Andre Ethier in center, and Scott Van Slyke manning left field. It remains to be seen whether the Dodgers feel comfortable placing Puig in the center — he does have four games there this season in Double-A — but given they normally trot out Matt Kemp and are using Ethier there now, maybe center field defense isn’t high on their list of priorities. Rimshot. Of course, Puig is the hot pick up right now as he is already owned in 40% of ESPN leagues, 50% of Yahoo! leagues, and 75% of CBS formats.
The early bid gets the Wheeler
A quick reminder that the New York Mets will (allegedly) be calling up Zack Wheeler for a start — and likely for good — next weekend against the Chicago Cubs. Wheeler’s Triple-A manager, Wally Backman, claims that Wheeler is ready. The Mets are keeping an eye on Wheeler’s service time, as keeping him from becoming a Super Two is almost assuredly a high priority. With the playing time cut off so close, a smart business move is the most likely real cause for him not already being in the rotation. His current 1.23 HR/9 rate raises an eyebrow, however six of his eight home runs allowed have come at home at Las Vegas, a notoriously hitter friendly park. If your bench allows, grabbing Wheeler now before the masses are aware of his call up would be a very good move.
A shake up in Milwaukee
The Milwaukee Brewers underwent a major roster change by trading for Juan Francisco, sending Mike Fiers down to Triple-A, releasing Alex Gonzalez, and calling up second baseman Scooter Gennett. The official word is that Weeks and Gennett will form a platoon at second base in a classic left-handed/right-handed split. Weeks has a 101 wRC+ career mark against fellow righties, however he has struggled thus far and has only managed a 42 wRC+ against same handed pitching this season. Given that the majority of starters — not to mention pitchers in general — are right-handed, picking up Gennett now makes sense for anyone looking for middle infield help. At the time of writing, Gennett wasn’t even eligible to be owned in Yahoo! leagues and his ownership in ESPN and CBS formats combined for a 2% ownership rate.
Though currently sitting behind Yuniesky Betancourt on the depth chart, Juan Francisco was brought specifically to “bring some pop” to first base. Still without a specific timetable for Corey Hart’s return, expect Francisco to see plenty of playing time for now. He’ll post a brutal strikeout rate but his power is legit. For those home run starved teams, Francisco can provide a glimmer of hope.
Joe Blanton shows up
After making a preseason prediction for him to finish in the top 50 of 5×5 leagues for a starting pitchers, Joe Blanton has finally made the author look smart. Or, at least slightly less dumb. After last night’s eight innings and 11 strikeouts, Blanton appears back on track to repeat what he has done for the past two years: a decent amount of strikeouts and almost no walks. Though he did serve up a long ball, for once he didn’t have ducks on the pond at the time.
Blanton’s HR/FB% and BABIP should continue and regress, and perhaps now, from this point onward he will be a top 50 starter (but probably not). His SwStr% is league average for a starter and both his O-Swing% and Swing% are better than an average starter. Blanton has had a spot on the bench for some time in many of the author’s leagues and hopefully this start was a sign of things to come. Granted yesterday’s gem came against the lowly Houston Astros, Blanton’s overall 2013 isn’t nearly as bad as his ERA would suggest. Blanton is available in over 90% of CBS, ESPN, and Yahoo! leagues.
You can catch David spouting off about baseball, soccer, esports and other things by following him on twitter, @davidwiers.
Definitely going to be on the look out for wheeler.
Was offered Starling Marte/Homer Bailey for my E.Cabrera/Peavy. I have Reyes on the DL and Hardy/Gregorious on my Bench and my OF really needs help. Is giving up Peavy worth it though?
No, I don’t like this deal for you. You’re giving up too much in the steals and strikeouts. With Hardy and Reyes on your bench/DL, swing a trade using one of those guys to bolster your outfield.
Man, I have to completely disagree. I think Marte may have a few less steals than E.Cab, but is the significantly more valuable player overall – and E.Cab is soon to be completely expendable for you in a few weeks.
Plus, Bailey’s peripherals don’t make his performance thus far look like a mirage. I think his 9.0 K/9 is, more or less, here to stay – and it’s only a notch below Peavy’s 9.16 K/9 (which is his highest mark since 2009 and does look a bit inflated). I take the younger pitcher with the better offense and less of an injury history there, too.
I would take this deal in a heartbeat.
There is way more OF depth than SS depth. He is rolling with four SS eligible players and would be trading the second best one.
Peavy and Bailey are essentially a wash and then you’re trading a commodity that is short on supply and high on demand for an outfielder who is going to have similar numbers to a shortstop, plus maybe 10 homers.
That just doesn’t get it done for me. I still think selling/dangling Hardy as a 30 home run potential player or Reyes as a bounceback guy makes more sense.
And as Peavy leaves with an injury, I feel I should have been more emphatic on the health point. It was just coming into last year when there were questions of if he would ever be able to stay healthy again.
Hard to find 30-40 steal guys for the shortstop position. I would hold onto Cabrera and Peavy. I agree with Wiers.