Roto Riteup: May 29, 2026

Fooled the play-by-play man, but he didn’t fool us!

On the Agenda: 

1. Quick Hits
2. Various News and Notes
3. Streaming Pitchers

Quick Hits

Pittsburgh’s Jared Jones is ready to make his season debut today against the Twins. Jones last pitched in the majors as a 22-year-old in 2024, his only major league season. Carmen Mlodzinski will be moving to the bullpen.

San Francisco Giants ace Logan Webb will be activated today, ahead of a start against the Rockies in Colorado. Webb is 4-2 with a 51:15 K:BB and 4.37 ERA in 10 career starts (57.2 innings) at Coors Field.

Teoscar Hernández was placed on the 10-Day IL with a hamstring injury. In his place, the Dodgers promoted first baseman Ryan Ward, who hit 70 homers in the minors over the last couple of seasons.

The Pirates demoted promising rookie outfielder Esmerlyn Valdez on Thursday. Valdez went 2-for-16 with nine strikeouts. Both hits were home runs. Minor-league Swiss Army knife Tyler Callihan was promoted in a corresponding move.

Max Scherzer will begin a rehab assignment on Sunday. He will throw between 45 and 60 pitches in the first one and will need multiple rehab outings.

Various News and Notes

Spencer Arrighetti had another strong outing on Thursday. He threw 94 pitches (55 for strikes) over six innings, allowing three hits, one run (a Josh Jung HR), one walk, and three strikeouts, bringing his ERA down to 1.34. Arrighetti is 7-1 in 8 starts.

Nathan Eovaldi got in trouble early in that contest. He gave up a leadoff bomb to Jeremy Peña, walked Yordan Alvarez, then gave up a two-run shot to Isaac Paredes.

Ronald Acuña Jr. had a super sized combo meal, with cheese: a grand slam and two stolen bases.

It was his second career home run at Fenway Park. He hit the first one on May 26, 2018, his rookie season. Yesterday was his 12th career game there.

Teammate Austin Riley went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts, raising his strikeout rate from 29% to 30%. Riley’s K rate has hovered in the 24-25% range. Last season, it was 28.6%. It reminded me of Neal Page and Dell Griffin in Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

"YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!"
"He says we're going the wrong way."
"That's ridiculous. How does he know where we're going?" pic.twitter.com/IcNkY5C5Am

— C. Raymond Martin (@S0CIAL_PIRANHA) March 11, 2019

RIP, John Candy, the legend.

The latest example of regression continuing to regress in polar opposite directions was the two starters in the Twins-White Sox tilt. Chicago’s Davis Martin threw another quality start (6 IP – 2 H – 1 ER – 2 BB – 5 K), to lower his ERA down to 2.00 and improve his record to 8-1. In a spot start, Simeon Woods Richardson served up five earned runs in 2.2 innings. No one has an ERA worse than Woods Richardson among pitchers with at least 10 starts this season (7.74 in 12). Among pitchers with at least nine starts, SWR’s ERA is sandwiched between two Rockies: Kyle Freeland (8.08 in 9) and Michael Lorenzen (7.21 in 12).

Streaming Pitchers (Under 50% in Yahoo)

Pitchers for Today: Stephen Kolek, KC (16%) at TEX

He will have to get by on guile, deception and sequencing mastery because Kolek doesn’t have amazing stuff. Kolek sure does know how to pitch and continues to prove it, most recently, firing a CGSO against the Mariners. The Rangers are still without their two best hitters (Corey Seager, Wyatt Langford) and are among the league’s worst in most offensive categories.

Other Pitchers: Troy Melton, DET (21%) at CWS

Pitchers for Tomorrow: Christian Scott, NYM (13%) vs. MIA

Scott has 15 career starts and has yet to secure a victory. He hopes to remedy that in start no. 16 today. Scott is still far from the MLB record of consecutive starts without a win (28), shared by Oakland A’s Matt Keough (September 6, 1978 – August 8, 1979) and lefty Jo-Jo Reyes (June 13, 2008 – May 25, 2011). Granted, Reyes only made five starts for the Braves in 2009 and 2010. Perhaps someone in the comments will correct me, but I’ve spent an hour looking to find a pitcher who has started his career with more games without a SP win than Scott and can’t find anyone. So, is it a MLB record, or am I exhausted because it’s late at night, or am I just bad at researching?

Other Pitchers: Andre Pallante, STL (10%) vs. CHC

He rarely helps much in strikeouts, but he has occasional starts where he limits damage. Pallante has allowed just two earned runs with one walk and 10 strikeouts over his last two starts.