Roto Riteup: May 24, 2021

A fantasy baseball story in two parts:

The Rays: pic.twitter.com/F0lxd3ZIFD

— Justin Mason (@JustinMasonFWFB) May 21, 2021

On the Agenda: 

1. Trade!!!
2. COVID Issues
3. Quick Hits
4. Various News and Notes
5. Streaming Pitchers

Trade!!!

The Brewers acquired Willy Adames and Trevor Richards from the Rays for J.P. Feyereisen and Drew Rasmussen. This trade came out of nowhere, but it makes a lot of sense for both teams. The Brewers get an everyday shortstop that is still fairly young and the Rays bolster their bullpen and clear room for their amazing depth in the infield. The Rays brought up Taylor Walls, who should slot in as an everyday player until they are ready to bring up Wander Franco and/or Vidal Brujan. Walls has a very nice hit tool and some speed, but the real interesting players for fantasy are Franco and Brujan, but we likely have some time before they are up. 

COVID Issues

Kendall Graveman was placed on the IL with an undisclosed issue. This sounds like a COVID issue, but it may just be vaccine side effects. Rafael Montero would be the next man up if Gravemen misses substantial time. 

Quick Hits

Franmil Reyes was placed on the 10-Day IL with an oblique strain. He is expected to miss 5-7 weeks. 

Kenta Maeda was placed on the 10-Day IL with a groin strain. There is no timetable for his return. 

Victor Robles was placed on the 10-Day IL with an ankle sprain. The Nationals attempted to see if he could improve enough not to hit the IL. It sounds like he may not miss a ton of time, so he should be reserved in all formats. 

Willson Contreras is day-to-day after taking a pitch off of his wrist. Apparently the Cubs were afraid that he may have broken a bone, but it sounds like he may have avoided serious injury. 

Various News and Notes

Austin Riley went 2-for-4 with two home runs in the victory over the Pirates. Riley has been a different hitter this season, swinging out of the zone a lot less, making more contact overall, and walking at an 11% rate. He is getting extremely lucky with a .421 BABIP and a .263 xBA, but considering he has never hit above .239 at the Major League level, .260 would be a welcome average for a power hitter like him. 

Casey Mize threw 6.1 innings, allowing one earned run on three hits and a walk while striking out six. Mize has quietly taken a very nice step forward this season and has been really impressive over his last five starts. I love his stuff, but I don’t know that he will ever be a fantasy ace, but he should be rostered in all formats and currently he is still available in more than 35% of leagues in places like CBS, ESPN, and Yahoo. 

Anthony DeSclacfani was rocked, allowing 10 runs on nine hits and three walks in the loss to the Dodgers. He struggled in the zone and that led to a lot of hard contact. When he worked outside of the zone he was fine. I think this is just a bump in the road, so I wouldn’t worry a ton about him moving forward and if people drop him because of this, I would swoop on him. His next start is against the Dodgers again, so you may want to sit him for that one. 

Cody Poteet threw seven scoreless innings versus the Mets, He only allowed three hits and did not walk a batter in the outing. Poteet has four average to above average pitches that he uses and good command, but nothing he does is overpowering. He was helped out by a Mets lineup that featured Jonathan Villar leading off, Cameron Maybin hitting fifth and Sleeper and the Bust favorite name Johneshy Fargas. He likely won’t stick in the rotation long term, but he can be an interesting streamer in good matchups like this. 

Streaming Pitchers (Under 50% in CBS)

Pitcher for Today: Austin Gomber at NYM

Gomber is coming off of two nice starts against San Diego and now has a really nice matchup in New York against a Mets team that is really depleted. Obviously there is risk considering he has been bombed a few times on the road, but there is nice upside too.

High Risk Options: David Peterson vs COL, Matt Shoemaker vs DAL

Pitcher for Tomorrow: Vince Velasquez at MIA

VV has been good, but there is always a risk he turns back into the pumpkins we have seen in the past. 

High Risk Options: Dean Kremer at MIN, Garrett Richards vs ATL, Brad Keller at TB, Matt Peacock vs SF

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.