Roto Riteup: May 31, 2015
Today’s Roto Riteup is written by that other guy.
On today’s agenda:
1. Khris Davis out with torn meniscus
2. Various news and notes
3. Streaming Pitcher Options
Khris Davis out with torn meniscus
Davis had to leave the Brewers blowout loss against the Diamondbacks after tearing up his knee and will require surgery. Depending on the type of surgery, it’s entirely possible that Davis is effectively done for the remainder of the season; however, there’s also the chance that Davis will be able to return near the start of August.
Prior to an injury, Davis had hit .322 with 4 homers and six other extra-base hits since May 7th. Gerardo Parra — a more than capable starter — will take most of his ABs, and should be an easy starter in NL-only and deeper standard leagues.
Various news and notes
Dallas Keuchel had one hell of an outing yesterday, striking out 11 White Sox(s?) to drop his ERA to 1.76. Keuchel is still getting a little bit of BABIP luck, but he genuinely does induce weak or awkward contact, so you have to alter expectations. The strikeouts aren’t usually there, but he’s still an easy starter, even in 10-team leagues.
Yasiel Puig could finally be on the path to returning to the majors, with Don Mattingly saying the outfielder could start a rehab assignment near the end of next week. Puig’s been sidelined for more than a month with a hamstring issue, and Andre Ethier has filled in nicely in his absence.
Brandon Morrow will have a rehab outing Tuesday in Double-A on his way back from a shoulder issue. Morrow looked solid before heading to the DL, and he should be regaining his rotation spot once he’s built up some stamina.
Aaron Sanchez walked three batters over five innings yesterday, bringing his season K/BB ratio to 39/37. Sanchez is proving what some (i.e. me) have thought all along: he’s easily best suited for the bullpen and will have too many command issues to be a viable starter. The Blue Jays don’t have much depth, though, so he’ll stick in the rotation for now.
Streaming Pitcher Options
If you enjoy streaming pitchers, tune into the Roto Riteup for recommendations each and every day.
A pitcher for today: Adam Warren at OAK (Jesse Chavez)
Though he faces off against another good pitcher, Warren will be able to take advantage of Oakland’s lineup.
A pitcher for tomorrow: Alex Colome at LAA (Garrett Richards)
Colome will have the platoon advantage, as Kole Calhoun is the only real LHH of note in the Angels lineup.
Zach is the creator and co-author of RotoGraphs' Roto Riteup series, and RotoGraphs' second-longest tenured writer. You can follow him on twitter.
Is Chad Bettis for real? In a deep league is he worth throwing money at? I see that his curveball and changeup have had good whiff rates this month. Velocity mediocre at a little over 92, but not terrible. Four pitches he uses regularly.
I guess if you bench him selectively for home games, with that curveball he could be useful in deep or NL only leagues. How much break will he lose with that curveball at Coors? It’s ~ 20%, right?
I don’t like starting anyone in Coors, but he’s worth a look in deep leagues, sure. I want to watch his start against the Giants before I’m confident in saying what he is just yet.
There will be some stuff on Bettis tomorrow, I can now say!
ROS Morrow, Corbin or Moore?
Moore has the most upside, but carries heavy risk since his control was bad before Tommy John and could be awful when he comes back. I would monitor his rehab starts and see what his command looks like.
Corbin has lower upside than Moore, but probably will be safer in terms of his command. He’s less exciting than Moore, but easily could have better numbers between the two the ROS.
Morrow is a streamer until proven otherwise. He simply can’t stay healthy enough to invest much in and he probably isn’t someone you want to trust outside pitcher parks until he proves his velocity and shoulder are sound.
I’d go Moore, Corbin, Morrow. Morrow is Morrow-he’s always had flashes of talent, but has never really put it together. I’d stream him against weaker teams though.
No link to a clip from The Other Guys? 5/10
There’s been a lot of takes on what’s going wrong with Mike Fiers. I checked his heat map (specifically vs. RHB) and it looks to my untrained eye like he has really moved away from pitching inside in comparison to his 2014 heat map. His red&dark red zones have shifted an entire quadrant toward the middle/outer half of the plate.
Did I interpret the 2 heat map graphs correctly? If so, I think this could be the primary source of Fiers “hard-hit” problem. There’s also reason to expect this all goes back to the Stanton incident.
Marginal NL only team to begin with…
Lose Matt Adams and Khris Davis this week. Oh, and Strasburg.
Guess I’ll get ready for football.
Thinking about trading Kershaw and Jhonny Peralta for Bumgarner, Hanley, and Hamilton. No category needs, but like the OF depth. Who wins the trade?
The Hamilton / Hanley side, easily.