Roto Riteup: May 30, 2015
Rather than subject you to a yet another weekend of coverage exclusively from that other guy, for a change of pace, today’s Roto Riteup was written with love.
On today’s agenda:
1. Bad news for Stephen Strasburg
2. Alex Rios to return today
3. Streaming Pitching Options
Bad news for Stephen Strasburg
The nightmare of a 2015 season continues for the 26-year-old. Entering yesterday’s game he was the owner of a 6.50 ERA — though his 3.66 xFIP and 3.65 SIERA tell a different tale — and then he failed to record more than three outs before leaving with an injury. He tossed one-plus innings before exiting the game after a brief mound visit. Strasburg’s fastball velocity touched 97 according to Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post and from the available footage, a clear injury didn’t show itself. As the Post article notes, Strasburg did exit a start on May 5 due to back stiffness so here is to hoping this injury isn’t more serious. For those looking to buy-low on Stras, you may want to retract or cancel your offers until more word breaks on this.
Alex Rios to return today
The Kansas City outfield will look to get an offensive boost as the club welcomes back Rios. As stellar as the outfield defense has been, their bats have rated basically league average to this point. Rios projects to be in line with what the Royal’s outfielders have accomplished to date, but I’m personally higher on him than that. I like his doubles power, particularly in Kauffman. Last season the Royal’s field was tied for the seventh highest doubles park factor, but the stadium was league average for right-handed doubles. From 2012-2014 Rios rated tied at 23rd for most doubles in baseball with 100 and I expect him to be able to post a 30 doubles pace once again. While the Paulo Orlando triples ride was fun, he’s come back down to earth in recent weeks. Count on Rios getting the majority of the playing time in right field as well as the occasional spell at designated hitter to help keep him fresh. Prior to his injury he batted in the lower third of the lineup, but if his gap power plays to the park the way I believe it will, Rios could get moved up. He’s already owned in nearly 80 percent of CBS formats however Rios can be picked up in more than 35 percent of both ESPN and Yahoo! leagues.
Streaming Pitching Options
If you enjoy streaming pitchers, tune into the Roto Riteup for recommendations each and every day.
A pitcher for today: Tom Koehler at NYM (Jon Niese)
Koehler has pitched well in his past two starts and the Mets have been less than stellar against right-handers thus far. As a team their collective 82 wRC+ versus righties comes in ranked at 27th in baseball. Koehler is widely available as his highest ownership rate among the three major fantasy sites is 16 percent in CBS leagues.
A pitcher for tomorrow: Chase Anderson at MIL (Ty Wagner)
I’m still aboard the Chase hype train. He’s up against a rather light-hitting Brewers lineup today and can be picked up in more than 45 percent of CBS leagues and over 75 percent of Yahoo! or ESPN formats.
You can catch David spouting off about baseball, soccer, esports and other things by following him on twitter, @davidwiers.
It’s an undisclosed lat injury for Strasburg. Unclear if he’ll need a DL stint.
And now I can’t find where I read that…
In any case, it wasn’t thought to be serious, although I’m sure we’ll learn more soon.
When the initial “word” is that a pitcher’s injury “is not thought to be serious,” it seems that is merely the start of an inevitable spiral of less positive official statements.
It often starts with “minor twinge, not expected to hit the DL,” then goes to “scheduled for a precautionary MRI, but it is expected to be fine,” then “MRI indicated a possible fraying of [name the tendon,” then “going for a second opinion from Dr. James Andrews,” to “injured tendon, but he is expected to be able to pitch through it,” to (inevitably) “scheduled for TJ surgery, and is expected to miss 12 to 18 months.”
I wish teams would start with the worst case scenario, and then hit us with a more positive final diagnosis just to switch it up.
Any concerns regarding Rios and him suffering a hand injury? I know this was a broken pinkie, but last year in Texas his terrible production was blamed on a nagging thumb injury. Maybe the pinkie is less important than the thumb when hitting, I don’t know, but does that raise any red flags about him for you?
some, not sure if Alex’s power returns this season. He’ll still have speed, of course.
Not too much from me, no.
I still think he’ll do pretty well this year.
Before the Stras injury (and after, if it’s not serious), how would you rank Stras, Cano, and Tulo as buy-low, bounce-back candidates? I have two of them, and was considering flipping one for another.
Tulo, Stras, Cano seems fairly obvious. Tulo’s still playing half his games at Coors and I’m always going with Rockies players because of that. I think Cano’s on the downswing of his career, and even though you expect some bounce back, I don’t think he’s going to have great EOS numbers.
Tulowitzki’s 4-for-4 with 2 HR outing last night is at least encouraging.
ZIPS and Steamer still project him to be fantastic the rest of the year.
As a Tulowitzki owner, I am not selling. But if you can pick him up while his value is temporarily depressed, you should do so.
Thanks, that’s what I was thinking. Wonder what Cano could return… I’m not confident in a recovery at all.
Tulo > Stras > a lot > Cano
Tulo will bounce back, as long as he’s healthy, he should be fine.
This is the last year I own Cano, I think he will turn it around and be solid the rest of the year, but the warning signs are real and the guy is clearly on the downside of his career. Couple that with a bad offensive home park and he is someone I will look to avoid in next years drafts.
What do you think about offering Lorenzo Cain for Tulo?
As a Tulo owner, I would be insulted by that offer.
I like what I’m seeing from Cain, but you’d have to add more.
Hey Dave,
I too have had my eye on Rios and I’m wondering where you would slot him in a 10-team Roto league with TB and OBP?
I have kind an OF glut that I’m not really sure what to do with. Brantley, Mookie, JD Mart, CarGo, Yelich, CarGo, Aoki, Rusney. We only start 5 OF and my UTIL spot is perpetually home to Joey Votto.
If I want to keep 6 OF at most, which 6 should I keep in that league? And should Rios be one of them? I could add him pretty easily, I think.
Thanks a ton!
Do your two CarGo’s represent Carlos Gomez and Carlos Gonzalez? I’ll assume so.
Gomez, Brantley and JD seem straightforward. I still like Yelich a ton despite his poor OBP right now. After that, I’d probably take Carlos Gonzalez, then Rios, Castillo and Aoki.
If it’s a keeper league or dynasty, bump Castillo above Rios.
Whoops! Just the one CarGo and that would Carlos Gonzalez, not Gomez. That change things for you at all?
Gigglesnort. Koehler’s getting ripped by the Mets. 5ER through 4.
The pitfalls of strictly looking for widely available pitchers.
They tend to be widely available for a reason.
Hi David,
Tanner Roark or Chase Anderson ROS?
Thanks!
Not David, but I personally like Anderson rest of the season. Roark is not guaranteed a starting spot, and his peripheral numbers aren’t strong overall.
Agreed. Anderson for me by a good amount.
Doesn’t the Star injury give Roark more value? Is he a go for tomorrow?
*Stras
David, who do you like in a standard, mixed league at Second Base the ROS, Daniel Murphy or Logan Forsythe? Forsythe is intriguing to me since his ISO is way up this year and his BABIP is solid, but not crazy. He seems locked into a regular job at either Second or First now as well. Murphy gives the better batting average, but I’m not sure Forsythe won’t beat him out in every other category.
Forsythe by a Long Island Mile.
Met fan here, you have 0 offensive production from most of the Mets hitters. Murphy is struggling, sure he’ll pick it up but he isn’t coming anywhere close to previous years for the rest of the season unless dealt.
Give me Forsythe.
Looking for OF depth in a 6×6 H2H league and these are my options (I have no real category needs):
Colabello, Joyce, Burns, Eaton, Morrison, Rasmus, Beltran
Thinking about Joyce, Rasmus, and Morrison because I can spot-start them against RHP.
I like Eaton, Joyce and Beltran. Morrison, Burns then Colabello.
Just a cheerful reminder for Strasburg owners (I’m one, sigh!).
Strasburg left the game the other night because of neck spasms. Now the Washington papers are saying it may be a back or neck problem. Apparently his chiropractor didn’t fix things after all after the last visit.
2012: Nolan Reimold, after a hot start for the Orioles, develops neck spasms. It turns out to be a disc problem and he has neck surgery. A once promising player is essentially finished.
2014: Nick Markakis experiences neck spasms. He too requires surgery on his neck after the season.
Just saying.
at least it’s not an elbow/shoulder issue, you never know. I just dealt for Strasburg too, giving up fringe guys though. I was hoping he’d turn it around. Just stash him on the DL