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.