Roto Riteup: May 29, 2013
Today’s Roto Riteup lacks a certain pizzazz, but makes up for it in hustle and grit.
On today’s agenda:
1. Wacha Wacha
2. Carlos Zambrano stops in at Single-A
3. Brandon Morrow has a sore forearm
4. Brett Lawrie has a boo-boo
Wacha Wacha
After passing him over for earlier promotions, the Cardinals are bringing pitching prospect Michael Wacha to the big leagues. Wacha will start Thursday’s game against the Kansas City Royals despite posting subpar results in Triple-A. While he technically hasn’t, Wacha has pretty much skipped all other forms of minor league ball on his way to AAA, pitching a grand total of 21 innings before seeing his promotion in 2013. While Wacha may not have ceiling of a Taijuan Walker or a Zack Wheeler, he should have the stuff to stick in the middle of big league rotations for years to come. Wacha is interesting in standard mixed leagues because of the ballpark he plays in, but he’s certainly worth an add in NL-only leagues.
Carlos Zambrano stops in at Single-A
The Phillies signed Zambrano a couple weeks back and is set to make tune-up starts in the minor leagues. Zambrano was flat out awful for the Marlins last year, and even though he’s a mere 31 years old, this will likely be his last chance to make a big league roster. There’s no need to pick Zambrano up before he makes a couple starts, and if you’re watching him to determine his viability, pay attention to his command, not his velocity.
Brandon Morrow has a sore forearm
While he’s supposed to make his next start, Morrow’s forearm injury is more than just a wee bit concerning. Morrow has been injured a bunch in the past, including some pertaining to the forearm, so this injury is nothing new. Morrow hasn’t been dominant like he was in 2012, or like he was in a different fashion in 2013, so perhaps some time sitting in the corner by himself could be for the best. Keep an eye on Morrow’s status over the next couple of days, especially to see if his velocity returns during his next start.
Brett Lawrie has a boo-boo
Speaking of injured, flightless Blue Jays, Lawrie missed yesterday’s game after spraining his ankle the night before. Lawrie is hitting a paltry .209/.268/.374 on the year, and the young third baseman is having serious trouble avoiding strikeouts. Lawrie was once a fantasy ubermensch, but now he’s looking more like sauerkraut.
Zach is the creator and co-author of RotoGraphs' Roto Riteup series, and RotoGraphs' second-longest tenured writer. You can follow him on twitter.
In a standard 5×5 weekly league, how would you rank the following: Jacoby Ellsbury, Nick Swisher, Shane Victorino, Austin Jackson?
Ellsbury, Jackson, Swisher Victorino
Is there any chance Jarrod Parker is back given his last 3 (and kind of 4) starts?
What do you make of Eric Chavez? He’s out floating on my waiver wire, I know he cant really hit lefties, but Aaron Hill doesnt appear close to coming back so as long as he can stay healthy the playing time should continue to be solid enough. Worth adding to replace the back-to-earth Mitch Moreland?
short term add he is good. he is on the good side of the platoon split (plays vs righties). Just needed health, and for once in a very long time, appears to have that.
doesn’t hurt to take a flier on Parker.
Oh, I’ve held on to him throughout this while mess haha.
Yes, to me he’s been largely the same guy that he was last year in terms of stuff & he’s made headway in the right direction of late in terms of results. If he’s available, I would be hard pressed to think of other likely waiver types with his kind of talent.
I’m not sure if anyone saw this, but in the beginning of the year he was tensing up his upper back during the game. Kinda like it was bothering him. Then he had the neck issue. I kinda think that was the issue. Just armchair physician here and my two cents. LOL
What percentage of remaining FAAB should go on Wacha in a keeper?
Out of $100? If you’re a believer in him long term I’d probably empty out as much as prudent assuming most frontline prospects are already owned & 2013 draftees are dealt with after the year. $70 maybe?
same settings…how much for gausman?
I was shocked by the high amount but then I realized there are two types of FAAB.
One is with weekly adds, continuous waivers. $70 would be ridiculous here.
The second must be daily adds where not many people are on waivers
I am never drafting another Blue Jay again.
/has Reyes, Lawrie, and Morrow
//drinks
You’ve got to monitor the exchange rate. 1st round Canadian currently equals 4th round American. Slide scale appropriately.
I was offered Rosario and Bruce for my Sandoval and Sal Perez.
12 team keeper, Roto w/ obp & Slg. I could use the catcher upgrade and Sandoval doesn’t always inspire confidence(curious about your thoughts on Sandoval going forward).
However I’m pretty set at OF w/ Harper, Crawford, A. Jones, and Ellsbury.
I have Moustakas Riding the pine and Gyorko as my 2b. (Also have A. Hill on the DL)
I’m thinking of countering by asking for kipnis and Rosario. I would go with Gyorko & Moustakas at 3d and shop Hill.
1) what do you think of the current offer?
2) does my suggested counter scenario seem like a reasonable plan?
Ryan
Renton, WA
I’d take that in a heartbeat. Bruce has the highest offensive upside of the group and Rosario > Perez from a fantasy standpoint.
I’m not a big fan of Jay Bruce…but if you can take the avg hit may as well go for it. That trade would essentially be trading avg for homers, eh? Kipnis seems like a great buy, but maybe a little late as far as a buy low. I got nothing against Sandoval…seems like a pretty good third baseman if you factor in his inevitable time missed to the DL.
Question for the people: In a league in which you can keep your keepers as long as you want, would you EVER trade Mike Trout?
It’s a 12-team mixed league that uses OBP and TB instead of average and HR’s, and each team keeps 5 players a year. The last place team wants to send basically anyone good on his team over to me for Trout.
Unless you are getting someone like CarGo or Adam Jones plus more and the guy you’re trading with has no idea what he’s doing then you could conceivably win the trade in the long run. I don’t like giving away the best player in a particular trade however and trading Trout is doing just that.
Yeah, it would probably be something like Carlos Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmermann & a high end – in terms of talent -keeper flier (Trevor Rosenthal, Wil Myers, Julio Teheran, etc) that would get the conversation started.
The initial offer is Bourn, Holliday, Travis Wood, and Jerry Weaver, and I’m sure he would tweak it to my liking.
Given that I am in 3rd at the moment, I am likely to reject. But I was kind of curious about the question in general.
That’s a terrible offer
there’s no way you trade Trout when only the top 60 players are being kept. The only chance I see is if the rest of your keepers are horrible and I would still need 2 top 10-15 hitters plus some more to even think about it.
Nothing on Gausman’s terrible start yesterday? I guess I’ll just bench him and wait for him to right the ship. Or get sent down.
Archer (would appear to be on the way up) or Wacha the better end of roster flier in a “keep up to 5 guys” league.
Should I be dropping Victor Martinez for Grandal in a 10-team mixed H2H league using Ottoneu points?
Lawrie has been DL’d now.
In an OPS unrestricted keeper league who would you rather have, Didi Gregorius or Nolan Arenado?
do i drop locke for wacha?
anyone>?