Roto Riteup: May 16, 2023

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May 16, 2023

Got to look out for that sniper at Yankee Stadium:

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. 

 

Closer Chaos

Trevor May will resume a minor league rehab assignment on Tuesday. May is likely to get back into the closer conversation for the A’s once he is activated. Right now Zach Jackson has been in the role, but May is the highest paid reliever on the team and the A’s would likely want to try and recoup some value from him at the trade deadline. 

 

Quick Hits

TJ Friedl was placed on the IL with an oblique injury. Typically these injuries take 4-6 weeks to recover from but this seems like it may not take that long as the Reds were trying to see if he could avoid the IL entirely. Matt McLain was called up to take Friedl’s spot on the roster. 

Anthony Rendon was placed on the IL with a groin strain. There is no timetable for his return. Livan Soto was recalled to take Rendon’s spot on the roster. 

Luke Voit was placed on the IL with a neck strain. There is no timetable for his return. Brandon Woodruff was moved to the 60-Day IL and Darin Ruf 러프 was signed in corresponding moves. 

CJ Cron was placed on the IL with back spasms. He is expected to not do any baseball activities for at least two weeks, so it sounds like he could miss upwards of a month. Michael Toglia was recalled to take his spot on the roster. 

Cody Bellinger left Monday’s game with an ankle injury after this catch:

He sounded hopeful after the game that the injury was not serious. Consider him day-to-day for now.

Joc Pederson was placed on the IL with a hand contusion. Mike Yastremzki was activated to take his spot on the roster.

Christian Yelich left Monday’s game with back tightness. Consider him day-to-day for now, but this is concerning with his back history.

Manny Machado left Monday’s game with a hand injury after being hit by a pitch.

X-rays were negative, so it appears he has avoided serious injury. Consider him day-to-day at this time.

 

Various News and Notes
CJ Abrams went 2-for-4 with a home run in the victory over the Mets on Monday.

Abrams has quietly been pretty good so far this season, hitting .258/.305/.417 with four home runs and five stolen bases. He is hitting towards the bottom of the lineup, but he has been hot this month, hitting .326 this month and making elite zone contact. There is a ton of talent in the bat, but he will be capped a bit if he can’t move up the lineup.

Jack Flaherty threw seven scoreless innings versus the Brewers, allowing just three hits and two walks while striking out 10 in the victory on Monday.

Well, this is frustrating in a good way. Flaherty has been awful all season, but he finally looked like the guy that was a top 25 pitcher a few years ago. His velocity on the fastball and slider were up one mile per hour and he had a 35% whiff rate overall. Maybe it was just a good game, but this is very encouraging. He does have a start versus the Dodgers this weekend, so I am not willing to risk him against the best team in the National League.

Michael Wacha threw seven scoreless innings versus the Royals, allowing one hit and a walk while striking out 11 in the victory on Monday.

Wacha was fantastic, getting a 40% whiff rate on his changeup. The 11 strikeouts were surprising as he had an 18.6% strikeout rate coming into the game. Wacha is not someone you can trust start-to-start, but he clearly still has something left in the tank and can be a valuable streamer in deeper formats.

Brenton Doyle went 3-for-4 with two home runs in the victory over the Reds on Monday.

Doyle had been struggling at the plate recently, so this was a nice rebound game. He has shown nice speed with six stolen bases, but the contact issues because of his swing and miss may mean he is more of a AAAA player than a Major Leaguer.

Matt McLain went 1-for-3 in his Major League debut on Monday versus the Rockies.

McLain was great in AAA, hitting .348/.474/.710 with 12 home runs and 10 stolen bases. What was really intriguing is that the Reds hit him second in the lineup. He has decent power and really nice speed, but there is a question about playing time for him moving forward. If he can get the at bats, he could be a really nice player in Cincy’s tiny ballpark.

 

Streaming Pitchers (Under 50% in CBS)

Pitcher for Today: Luis Ortiz at DET

Ortiz looked good in his first start and now gets a bad Detroit team. 

High Risk Options: Dane Dunning vs ATL, Brady Singer at SD, Dean Kremer vs LAA, Michael Lorenzen vs PIT, Yonny Chirinos at NYM. 

 

Pitcher for Tomorrow:  None

Some really enticing high risk options, but none that I feel super good about. 

High Risk Options: Mike Clevinger vs CLE, Brayan Bello vs SEA, Kyle Bradish vs LAA, Rich Hill at DET, Ryne Nelson at OAK, Peyton Battenfield at CHW. 

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 my 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.

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mvrd
11 months ago

Re: McLain “He has decent power and really nice speed, but there is a question about playing time for him moving forward”

There is? Did they call him up to bench him for Newman? Barrero, who has had a ton of chances already and done nothing with them? Who are they sitting him for if he’s hitting?

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