Roto Riteup: May 25, 2015

I hope you are not reading this Roto Riteup as soon as it’s published, because you should be sleeping in and preparing for libations on this American holiday.

On today’s agenda:
1. Taijuan Walker’s struggles
2. Fun with arbitrary endpoints
3. Various news and notes
4. Streaming Pitcher Options

Taijuan Walker’s struggles
Walker gave up four runs in less than six innings of work against the Blue Jays yesterday and lowered his ERA. Walker now has an ERA of 7.33 on the year, allowing a 1.67 homers every nine innings.

Walker’s cutter/slider still looks like a weapon, but it’s the lone bright spot in his arsenal. He doesn’t trust his curveball, his changeup/splitter is fringy at best, allowing hitters to sit on his fastball. Walker’s four-seamer is a good pitch, but when hitters can comfortably look for it, it’s hard to be impressive. To make things worse, his fastball command isn’t great, so it can often just sit near the middle of the zone, allowing hitters to tee off.

Walker was a different pitcher this spring; his command was solid and his changeup was a real MLB pitch. Since he’s been in the bigs over parts of three seasons now, it’s easy to forget that Walker is still in his age-22 season. If the Mariners had another easy option for the rotation, Walker would have been in the minors by now; but, with Hisashi Iwakuma on the DL, there’s no one sitting in AAA just waiting to be promoted. The best option is Mike Montgomery, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s up early next month to make his MLB debut.

Fun with arbitrary endpoints
All stats are through Saturday and for the last 30 days

Josh Reddick: 119 PA, .305/.387/.533; 5 HR, 24 RBI, 11.8% K%
Andre Ethier: 91 PA, .316/.407/.544; 4 HR, 13.2% K%
Logan Forsythe: 107 PA, .299/.355/.474; 2 HR, 14% K%
Denard Span: 101 PA, .315/.356/.511; 3 HR, 3 SB

Various news and notes
Rays outfielder Steven Souza hurt his wrist while attempting to run through Professor Pony’s husband, Stephen Vogt, and will need an MRI today to ensure he is free of serious damage. Souza had an x-ray done yesterday that came back clean.

Carlos Frias was absolutely destroyed by the Padres yesterday, giving up 10 runs on 14 hits in four innings. Frias did not record a strikeout and walked two batters. Frias’ lack of a breaking ball will hurt him sometimes, because if he’s not commanding, there’s nothing to keep hitters off his fastball.

Yasmani Grandal appears to be ready to come off the concussion DL when eligible this week. Grandal will be in the minors serving as the DH to keep his bat hot during his rehab assignment.


Streaming Pitcher Options
If you enjoy streaming pitchers, tune into the Roto Riteup for recommendations each and every day.

A pitcher for today: David Phelps at PIT (Charlie Morton)
Phelps is far more likely than Morton to pitch well enough to pick up a win, and a struggling Pirates lineup should make things easier on him.

A pitcher for tomorrow: Clay Buchholz at MIN (Mike Pelfrey)
Buchholz will have some room for error in Target Field.





Zach is the creator and co-author of RotoGraphs' Roto Riteup series, and RotoGraphs' second-longest tenured writer. You can follow him on twitter.

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Mike W.
8 years ago

Zach, any thoughts on Rusney Castillo the rest of the year? Is he someone who you see being a big fantasy asset or do you think the adjustment to the Majors will highlight any holes he has in his swing and the production will be pretty modest?

Mike W.
8 years ago
Reply to  Zach Sanders

Interesting, thanks for the reply. In a vacuum, do you see him being more valuable going forward than Jimmy Paredes, Christian Yelich or Gregory Polanco? All those guys profile somewhat similarly, with Paredes seeming to have the least amount of speed, Polanco the slightest power and Yelich just being god awful all around right now