Roto Riteup: March 31, 2013
Ladies and gentlemen, today is the day that the games matters. Make sure you set your lineups and to start keeping track of your innings or games started limits.
On today’s agenda:
1. Collin Cowgill as the New York Mets’ starting center fielder
2. A Texas Ranger gets the green light on the base path
3.The Arizona Diamondbacks finally choose their fifth starter
Collin Cowgill to be the Mets center fielders
He may not have gotten much attention early on, but Cowgill has earned himself some playing time as the center fielder for the Mets. While not a world burner, he did have two seasons of 25+ stolen bases in the upper minors. The various projections systems don’t see much in him for steals, but I would take the over on them. A season where he hits .260 and brings 25 stolen bases along the way is a rosterable player in almost any format. After all, those number are essentially what Cameron Maybin brought to the table last season, though expectations were certainly different. For a waiver wire pickup, Cowgill has a lot of upside. He should be available in virtually all ESPN and Yahoo! formats.
2. Leonys Martin will be running this year
Manager Ron Washington told a group of reporters that he is “we were turning him [Martin] loose.” Although Washington didn’t commit to naming Martin as the center fielder, Martin is the likely answer there, but a platoon situation involving him and Craig Gentry hasn’t been ruled out. Even if the it does become a platoon situation, Martin, being left-handed, figures to get the most time there. Add in the fact that the coaching staff has expressed distinct desire to see him run more, expect some good stolen base numbers. Martin could swing plenty of runs scored with that Texas offense, add in those coming steals and you have yourself a player who transforms from a waiver wire pick up to a great sleeper pick. Combined between Yahoo! and ESPN, Martin is owned in just 3% of fantasy formats. Go ahead and grab him.
3. Patrick Corbin wins the Diamondbacks final rotation spot
In the wake of a trade (Trevor Bauer), plenty of speculation, and two top prospect being sent down to the minors (Randall Delgado and Tyler Skaggs), the Diamondbacks are finally moving forward with Patrick Corbin as their fifth starter. Really all four pitchers can be justifiably owned in deeper mixed leagues, but for now of course, Corbin offers the most value. All that aside, I still view Corbin as more of a stream candidate than a true fixture in fantasy leagues. If you play in a 14-team NL-only format., then sure, grab and hold on to him. Assuming that isn’t the case, keep track of him and stream him as needed.
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Watched Corbin’s last spring start Friday night, and he was looking pretty sharp with good zip on his fastball (sitting 92-94), which is a couple ticks higher than last year. He might be a sneaky player, especially if you are thin on SPs.
I haven’t heard anything about his fastball. I’ll have to look into that further. Thanks for the heads up.
Would you recommend rostering Martin over his teammate, David Murphy?
Murphy is a fixture out in LF. It all boils down to needs. If you want more steals, take Martin. I suppose it wouldn’t shock me to see Murphy go 15-15 this season, but I just really like Martin to surprise with the SB total. He’ll get thrown out some, so if you play in an Ottoneu SABR points league, I’d probably lean Murphy. For 5×5 it’s close, but I’ll take Martin. In my AL OF Rankings, I had Murphy in the last group. Martin will probably rate a tick above that now.
We should all know how this works by now. Murphy won’t be playing full time by the end of the year and Gentry will eat into Martin’s playtime as well. They will get enough starts to be rosterable but don’t expect either of these guys to be in the 155 game club, they will be more like 135-145 games. Much better plays in daily lineups than weekly.
Just saw that Jose Fernandez will start in the rotation. What sort of value does he offer?
From High-A to the majors? And he only had 55 innings in High-A? I’ll pass on Fernandez for now. No need to burn a top waiver wire pick or any significant amount of your FAAB just to grab him.
I think you’re grossly underestimating his potential impact…he is worth a spot in any 12 team mixed league. This kid’s immense upside makes him much more appealing than your average #5 starter. I guess time will tell.
Ryan, your average #5 starter isn’t anything more than a stream candidate in a mixed league so you haven’t exactly set the bar at a reasonable spot for value…especially considering he’ll only throw 150-170 innings max and will be shut down at some point.
Big potential. 150 innings cap. Wins may be hard to come by, but a K per inning and a sub 3 era is very possible. Snap him up!
Sub-3.00 ERA? I’ll take the over there. Thinking of adding him but gotta be reasonable.
Sub three ERA seems awfully far fetched in my opinion. Pitching is hard. Pitching to the best hitters on the face the planet is even harder. I’m expecting some turbulence for Fernandez.
Depends on your league, I guess. If you are playing in a format that lets you churn the bottom 5% of your roster pretty easily, this is exactly the kind of guy I am picking up ASAP.
Corbin will be a fixture in active lineups for 10 and 12 team NL leagues. Decent pitching, and hitting for that matter, is much more shallow than most NL-leagers are used to this year.
I suppose if the rosters are deep enough then Corbin makes sense on them, but if it is just 25 man rosters, I’d let him go to someone else.
I’m not really one to spend a lot of pitching though, so I’m used to streaming more.
What does this Cowgill news mean for Valdespin?
it’s a real punch in the dick
Valdespin could still see the occasional start in the outfield or even at second, but for the most part this pushes him beyond almost any fantasy value.
damn, at least he was only the second to last pick overall.
oh yeah, also, my league uses stupid yahoo rules, so I couldn’t draft gyorko (or anyone who hadn’t been on a 40 man roster yet), but is he worth using my 2nd highest waiver priority? or should I hold onto it? Only have Prado/Alvarez/Valdespin covering my 2b/3b slots at the moment
Yeah, I think Gyroko is worth it, assuming you need MI/3B help. I would put in a claim, hope to get him, then maybe try and flip him if it is a redraft league. Thanks to Harper and Trout, suddenly people have warped perceptions on rookie expectations.
Use this to your advantage.
What to make of the Jose Fernandez promotion? Will it be for the full season (assuming sufficient performance level)?
I think it is silly. If people want to burn their top waiver priority/FAAB on him, let them. Dude hasn’t even pitched in Double-A yet.
He won’t be on any of my teams this year.
I don’t know if it is silly or not. He has put up great numbers everywhere, including this spring. He seems to have the stuff, and stuff plays. The safe play is to keep an eye on a start, or two and see how Fernandez pitches, but if you think someone else in your league may jump on him then I think you pull the trigger now. Upper 90’s, with good command is a combination that should work on any level. For me it’s a decision between holding Iwakuma, or getting Hernandez. I like Iwakuma a lot, but I’m picking up Hernandez.
Pineda sure transitioned well to MLB under exact same circumstances?
So, Valdespin is still in Lastings-ville-gatory?