Roto Riteup: March 28, 2023

The Roto Riteup is back for another season!

Nestor Cortes is making sure ALL of us are ready to pick up the pace. pic.twitter.com/KTt9BWiZCs

— MLB (@MLB) March 27, 2023

 

Man, I love these commercials. 

 

On the Agenda: 

1. Sleeper and the Bust DK Contest
2. Closer Chaos
3. Quick Hits
4. Various News and Notes
5. Streaming Pitchers

 

Sleeper and the Bust DK Contest

On most Tuesday’s and Friday’s and some other days, Paul Sporer and I will be doing a $5 draftkings game for anyone that is interested. Typically, I don’t do Thursday contests, but with it being Opening Day, I thought it would be fun. 

 

Closer Chaos

Rowan Wick was sent to AAA on Monday. This clears up a little of the confusion in the Cubs bullpen leaving Michael Fulmer and Brad Boxberger as the top options for saves. Fulmer appears to be the front runner at the moment, but more information will be gathered as the season begins. 

 

Quick Hits

Triston McKenzie was diagnosed with a muscle strain in his teres major muscle. He is expected to miss 6-8 weeks and won’t begin throwing for at least two weeks. 

Kyle Wright was placed on the IL by the Braves on Monday. This opens the door for both Jared Schuster and Dylan Dodd in the Braves rotation. Both Dodd and Schuster have been impressive in spring and could be nice early season streamers in most formats. 

Jared Walsh and Max Stassi will begin the season on the IL. This is good news for Logan O’Hoppe who is a top prospect that seemed to be ticketed for the minors in spite of a good spring. O’Hoppe hit .283/.416/.544 with 26 home runs and seven stolen bases between the Phillies and Angels AA teams. He has a nice hit tool with good power that should play regularly for the Angels. He is a nice high risk gamble as a C2 in all formats. 

Grayson Rodriguez was demoted to AAA on Monday. This is a bit surprising because it was expected that he would make the rotation out of spring training. Unfortunately, he did not perform very well. He should be up pretty quickly though as the results didn’t match the stuff he showed:

This spring, Grayson Rodriguez had basically the same Stuff+ number as Sandy Alcantara. Better than Hunter Greene. https://t.co/7XpTpHZ1La

— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) March 28, 2023

If he is dropped in your league, scoop him up!

Brice Turnag made the Opening Day roster for the Brewers.

“Do you want to play Opening Day?”
“Absolutely.”

The moment Brice Turang found out he’s heading to the Big Leagues 👏#ThisIsMyCrew | @BRiCEcTuRANG pic.twitter.com/8AZrNVTYtR

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) March 27, 2023

Turang hit 13 home runs and stole 34 bases in AAA last season, but he doesn’t necessarily profile as a fantasy star. He is more likely to be a very good accumulator whose calling card is defense which allows him to rack up stats. He should be rostered in most formats in case he over performs his projected output.

 

 

Streaming Pitchers (Under 50% in CBS)

Pitcher for Opening Day: Eduardo Rodriguez at TB

Rodriguez has pitched well in Spring Training and was widely thought of as a top 50 starter prior to his disappointing 2022 season. I am betting on a bounceback. 

High Risk Options: Mitch Keller at CIN, Kyle Gibson at BOS. 

 

Pitcher for Friday: David Peterson at MIA

Peterson gets the Marlins in Miami which is a nice way to kick off the season. 

High Risk Options: Nick Martinez vs COL 

 

For those of you that would like to see how these picks play out, I have a doc I put together to track the stats from the recommended pitchers. It does not include the “High Risk Options.”