Roto Riteup: March 24, 2014

Welcome to the first Monday edition of the 2014 Roto Riteup. I was hanging out with my nearly five-year-old cousin, so I asked him to write up an introduction for today’s edition.

“You should say something nice. You should write everything is awesome. Kung-Fu Panda. You should write Po. You should write something on wrestling.”

On today’s agenda:
1. Jurickson Profar out 3 months
2. Joe Kelly as fifth starter, dream ruiner
3. Tanner Roark vs Jenrry Mejia

Jurickson Profar out 3 months
Profar has been diagnosed with a torn right shoulder, and he will require surgery. Profar is scheduled to miss 10-12 weeks, which is making the Rangers decision to trade Ian Kinsler look a little sad. Profar wasn’t good last year, but he’s still super young and possesses incredible potential. With Profar out, this could be the opening for prospect Rougned Odor. Odor has already been re-assigned to minor league camp, but the Rangers will now have to consider bringing him back up to the majors. If he’s up in the bigs, Odor should provide owners with a decent batting average and a few steals, but nothing worth breaking the bank over.

Joe Kelly as fifth starter, dream ruiner
The Cardinals have decided that Kelly shall be their fifth starter, relegating the electric Carlos Martinez to the eighth inning. Kelly has thrown nearly 180 innings as a starter over the past couple years, posting a boring 4.09 FIP but more impressive 3.03 ERA. As a ground ball specialist, Kelly’s upside is pretty limited in fantasy leagues, unless you’re playing in a SABR format.

Martinez is going to pave the way for closer Trevor Rosenthal, and it’s disappointing the Red Birds aren’t allowing the young right-hander to head down to the minors to continue to work as a starter. I am now officially concerned that we will never see Martinez receive a sustained chance to work as a big league starter, which is a true shame.

Tanner Roark vs Jenrry Mejia
I caught a few innings of the Mets and Nationals game yesterday before the basketball games got started. Despite suffering through a bunion, Mejia pitched pretty well against the Nationals. He doesn’t look like the electric starter we thought we were getting a few years ago, but he sat in the high-80s (according to the television gun, which shant be trusted in the spring) and showed decent command. Odds are Mejia is going back to the minors to start the year, and even if he did start in the majors, it wouldn’t be prudent to expect him to stay healthy for more than a month or two.

Roark also looked solid, allowing just one run in over five innings. Roark showed off his full arsenal of mediocre stuff, generally trying to keep his fastball down in the zone. Roark isn’t an exciting fantasy player, but I do believe he’s a real-life asset worthy of a rotation spot. The Nationals haven’t decided between Roark and Taylor Jordan, but both have the ability to pitch in the back end of an MLB rotation.