Roto Riteup: March 28, 2023

by
March 28, 2023

The Roto Riteup is back for another season!

 

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. 

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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:

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

Brice Turnag made the Opening Day roster for the Brewers.

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.”





 

Justin is the co-host on The Sleeper and The Bust Podcast and writes for Rotographs covering the Roto Riteup as well as other periodic articles. In addition to his work at Rotographs, Justin is the lead fantasy writer/analyst and co-owner for FriendswithFantasyBenefits.com, and the owner of The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational. He is also a certified addiction treatment counselor. Follow Justin on Twitter @JustinMasonFWFB.

9 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
WebsMember since 2020
3 years ago

Brice Turang: cliche machine.

3
MikeInNJ
3 years ago
Reply to  Webs

C’mon, he’s so fine! Turang! Turang! Turang! 🙂

Last edited 3 years ago by MikeInNJ
3
tranquilohijoMember since 2026
3 years ago

ahahahahahaha yes!

0
GreggMember since 2020
3 years ago

WE ARE BACK BABY!

0
alang3131982Member since 2016
3 years ago

I am notoriously bad at finding things — but is there a recent bullpen report and/or rankings of RPs/closers somewhere? I check Paul’s bookmarked ranks and they go back to last year….

thanks for all the good content!

0
RammbergMember since 2019
3 years ago
Reply to  alang3131982

The new rankings are now on this hard-to-find page: https://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy-tools/rankings/expert

1
RammbergMember since 2019
3 years ago
Reply to  Rammberg

And by “hard-to-find” I just mean that it’s under the “fantasy” tab instead of under “blogs” like all the other Rotographs content.

0
alang3131982Member since 2016
3 years ago
Reply to  Rammberg

Ha. no worries. Im sure if it was right on the home page id miss it as well. Really appreciate it!

0
CapricaCity
3 years ago

Congrats to Justin Mason on the Lawr Michaels Award! I remember when he was just some guy who chatted with Paul Sporer – before he became the newest pillar of the fantasy community. In a few more years he’ll be such a big celebrity we’ll read news stories about his skiing accidents and probably see his divorce play out on TV. Somebody has to be the hugely successful face of fantasy baseball, and why not Justin? I’ve enjoyed the Sleeper and the Bust Episodes and he seems like a pretty decent guy. Although, at this point I think we can we can all fairly say he’s gotten enough credit for the Cedric Mullins call.

1