Roto Riteup: May 14th, 2012

Did you have a stupendous Mother’s Day? Probably not, since you’re likely a dude who didn’t buy the right kind of flowers.

• Heading into Sunday’s game against the Seattle Mariners, Andy Pettitte was owned in 19% of Yahoo! leagues, 14% of ESPN leagues, and a whopping 47% of CBS leagues. After facing the Mariners and throwing a perfect game (I’m writing this before the game starts, so I’m just playing the odds), he’s going to be much more widely owned. If you want a pitcher who’s relatively fun to root for and could grab you some wins, Pettitte is a pretty good option. He’s not going to rack up gaudy strikeout totals, but he should be solid nonetheless.

• Wilson Ramos has suffered a torn ACL, and he will likely miss the remainder of the 2012 season. Jesus Flores will likely take over for Ramos, and he hasn’t been an exciting fantasy option since 2009. If you’re looking for an easy replacement in NL-only leagues, you may as well go after Flores and see what he has left in the tank.

• Brad Lincoln has been dominating hitters out of the bullpen, but he’s being asked to return to the rotation to take the place of the injured Erik Bedard. Lincoln has a somewhat exciting fastball-curveball combo platter, but he’s had trouble using it to put away big league hitters. If you have been utilizing Lincoln as a reliever, you’ll want to be careful keeping him in the lineup against tougher competition.

• Lance Berkman has returned to the Cardinals, but Matt Carpenter has not yet been sent down to the minors. Carpenter will likely stay in the majors due to his ability to spell both David Freese and Berkman, as well as his ability to provide a left-handed bat off the bench.

For those of you who play daily fantasy games like FanGraphs: The Game, or just like to stream players, here are a couple matchups you may be able to exploit.

A Pitcher for Today: Christian Friedrich at SFG
Friedrich has all the tools to be a very good pitcher, and pitching away from his home ballpark should help his numbers. Give him a go, partly because it’s fun to root for the young guys.

A Pitcher for Tomorrow: Paul Maholm at STL
Maholm has won four straight, and while that doesn’t really mean anything, it’s a fun fact to put here. He’s also not a terrible pitcher.

A Hitter for Today: The Milwaukee Brewers at NYM (Miguel Batista)
Batista isn’t very good, and he could get absolutely hammered. Look to utilize hitters from Milwaukee whenever possible today.