Roto Riteup: May 2, 2017

The Roto Riteup reminds you that baseball is more important than your phone:

He who hesitates is lost. pic.twitter.com/OHoEwfCsla

— MLB (@MLB) May 2, 2017

 

On the Agenda:

1. Fun with Small Samples! (Pitcher Edition)

2. Various News and Notes

3. Streaming Pitcher Options

Fun with Small Samples!

We are a month into the season and it is time to look at some small sample leaderboards!

Chris Sale leads Major League baseball with 52 strikeouts.

Greg Holland is leading the Majors with 11 saves. He has a vesting option for $15 million in 2018 once he reaches 30 games finished.

Marcus Stroman and Ivan Nova are tied with the most complete games pitched.

Dallas Keuchel leads MLB with 44.2 innings pitched and 5 wins.

Aroldis Chapman has the highest fastball velocity for pitchers and Syndergaard has the highest for qualified starters, which is not shocking. However, with Thor on the shelf, Luis Severino is second among qualified in fastball velocity.

Not cool, @LuisSeverino94. #Filthy pic.twitter.com/RrrILbiftH

— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) May 2, 2017

RA Dickey has the slowest fastball in the Majors at 82.8 mph, just barely edging out Jered Weaver at 84.4.

 

Various News and Notes

Noah Syndergaard has been diagnosed with a partial tear of his lat muscle and is out indefinitely. This is unfortunate news for fantasy owners and they should most likely expect him to be out for through the All-Star break.

Sonny Gray has been activated from the disabled list and will make his season debut today. Gray was awful last season in an injury plagued year, but reportedly looked good in two rehab starts. When healthy, Gray was a fringe top 25 starter and could return to form. However, he lacks the upside of most top tier guys due to limit strikeout potential.

Tyler Skaggs was placed on the 10-day DL with a Grade 2 oblique strain and is expected to miss 10-12 weeks. He reportedly received a platelet-rich plasma injection (snake-oil) aimed at helping speed up the healing process. Garrett Richards did the same thing for his injured elbow and that has worked out fantastically.

Britton is expected to come off of the DL today. Brad Brach has been great in his absence and should kept as a handcuff in most formats at least initially. While the forearm issue Britton had been dealing with appears to be a thing of the past, it is better to be safe than sorry. Brach would be a top 10 closer potentially if Britton were to return to the DL.

Brandon Crawford is on pace to return to the Giants once first eligible this Friday. Crawford has been one of the lone bright spots for the Giants this season, which makes the author very sad.

 

Streaming Pitcher Options

A pitcher for today: Alex Wood vs SF

In his last start, which was against the Giants, Wood fired 6 scoreless innings with five strikeouts and only one walk. The Giants have only gotten worse since.

A pitcher for tomorrow: Nick Martinez @ HOU

This one could blow up in my face, but Martinez has looked good filling in for AJ Griffin and I will roll the dice in deeper formats. Probably best reserved for AL Only or a GPP.