Roto Riteup: May 10, 2021

Sometimes the truth hurts

MLB trying to “improve” baseball pic.twitter.com/yHmAq9QnOq

— Justin Mason (@JustinMasonFWFB) May 9, 2021

On the Agenda: 

1. Closer Chaos
2. Quick Hits
3. Various News and Notes
4. Streaming Pitchers

 

Closer Chaos

Shane Greene was signed to a one year contract by the Atlanta Braves. Greene is coming off of very good seasons in 2020 and 2019, so it was surprising it took this long for him to find a team. He could work his way into closing at some point, but for now he is likely just bullpen depth. 

 

Quick Hits

Colin Moran was placed on the 10-Day IL with a groin injury. There is no current timetable for his return. 

Kevin Kiermaier was placed on the IL with a wrist spring. There is no current timetable for his return. 

Jacob deGrom left Sunday’s start with side soreness. deGrom had just returned from the IL so this is a bot concerning. He reportedly pulled himself while he was warming up for the sixth inning as a precaution. Consider him day to day for now. 

Kohei Arihara was placed on the IL with a finger injury. The injury is not considered serious and will hopefully just be a minimum stay on the IL. 

 

Various News and Notes

Kyle Tucker went 2-for-3 with a home run in the victory over the Blue Jays. Tucker now has six home runs and two stolen bases, but he is hitting just .188/.258/.393. However, Tucker has been extremely unlucky. He has a .172 BABIP and a .283 xBA and an almost 10% barrel rate. I don’t know that you can buy low on him at this point, but even paying market value should return a profit. 

Cole Irvin threw six innings allowing three earned runs on four hits and a walk while striking out three. Irvin was coming off of a really hot stretch where he had thrown 25.1 innings over his previous four starts, allowing just four runs and striking out 29. The strikeouts were puzzling as he is a sub 10% swinging strike rate kind of pitcher and he typically relies on good command to get a lot of weaker contact. This outing is more indicative of what to expect from Irvin moving forward. 

Shane McClanahan threw four innings versus the A’s, allowing three earned runs on four hits and two walks while striking out five. I couldn’t care less about the stat line. He was still hitting 98-99 during the outing with nice movement from the left hand side. I was mostly intrigued that he was allowed to go 80 pitches in a four inning start. My biggest fear with McClanahan was that the Rays would be very conservative which limits his win potential. However, it appears like they will continue to build him up towards 100 pitches a start which will increase his upside tremendously. 

 

Streaming Pitchers (Under 50% in CBS)

Pitcher for Today: None

High Risk Options: Luis Garcia vs LAA, Martin Perez at BAL, Mitch Keller vs CIN

 

Pitcher for Tomorrow: Adbert Alzolay at CLE

Alzolay has looked good in his last few starts and has a nice matchup versus a struggling Cleveland offense. 

High Risk Options: Jeff Hoffman at PIT, Logan Webb vs TEX.

 

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” but I may add them at some point.