Roto Riteup: May 31, 2018

With the first overall pick of the 2018 MLB Draft, the Detroit Tigers select:

Not surprisingly, other teams had interest in the Rally Goose:

 

On the Agenda:

1. A Winker Goodbye

2. Various News and Notes

3. Streaming Pitchers

 

A Winker Goodbye

Jesse Winker appears to be the ā€œodd man outā€ of the Reds outfield rotation, according to manager Jim Riggleman. The Reds had been experimenting rotating Winker with Billy Hamilton, Adam Duvall, and Scott Schebler. Both Duvall and Schebler rewarded the reds with home runs yesterday as well. Winker never had a great fantasy profile and was highly overrated in fantasy circles due to his prospect pedigree. He can be dropped in virtually all league formats.

 

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Various News and Notes

According to false early reports, Alex Reyes was removed from his season debut versus the Brewers. Reyes pitched four scoreless innings and there was a velocity drop, but it appears to be nothing more than fatigue. He gets the Marlins in his next start.

According to Jamal Collier, Adam Eaton will begin a minor league rehab assignment on Friday. Eaton is not eligible to return to the Nationals until June 8th, which means he will get a lease 7-8 days on the assignment to get ready for Major League game action. It will be interesting to see what happens with the Nationals outfield when Eaton returns. Juan Soto is hitting .375 since making his MLB debut and led off for the Nationals for the first time yesterday.

Rhys Hoskins was placed on the 10-Day DL with a fractured jaw. Originally, Hoskins was considered day-to-day after lacerating his lip, but this has ā€œescalated quickly.ā€ There is no current timetable for his return as the team and player debate whether or not he will get surgery.

Kenta Maeda was placed on the 10-Day DL with hip strain. Maeda was pulled from his last start on Tuesday with the injury and while there is no current timetable for his return. it is serious enough that the Dodgers will shut him down for a bit. Dennis Santana was recalled from AAA to replace him on the roster and he could replace Maeda in the rotation if he is not needed out of the bullpen in the meantime.

 

Streaming Pitchers Options

A pitcher for today: Shane Bieber @ MIN

Bieber is set to make his MLB debut on Thursday versus the Twins after an impressive run in AAA this year.

A pitcher for tomorrow: None

Hail Mary Options: Chris Stratton vs PHI and Frankie Montas @ KC

Stratton is a playable option in deeper formats IF Buster Posey is catching. Montas is a risky play because despite the numbers, he struggled mightily with his command in his first start of the season.





Justin is the co-host on The Sleeper and The Bust Podcast and writes for Rotographs covering the Roto Riteup as well as other periodic articles. In addition to his work at Rotographs, Justin is the lead fantasy writer/analyst and co-owner for FriendswithFantasyBenefits.com, and the owner of The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational. He is also a certified addiction treatment counselor. Follow Justin on Twitter @JustinMasonFWFB.

17 Comments
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JimMember since 2016
8 years ago

Eaton will return to CF and Taylor will be the fourth outfielder.

brood550
8 years ago

Can’t even pick up Bieber on ESPN. Their player pool is too shallow…

francis_soyer
8 years ago
Reply to  brood550

He’s there now.

brood550
8 years ago
Reply to  francis_soyer

Yeah, after first game of the day already started. Whooo, still going to miss today’s start. ESPN is the worst at managing the player pool.

hebrewMember since 2016
8 years ago

Fuck the ESPN platform. Bieber isn’t even available, and when I emailed to complain, they told me that their “general rule” was to not add a player until 24 hours after his first MLB start. What in the actual fuck

brood550
8 years ago
Reply to  hebrew

Seriously?!?!? That’s messed up. They have plenty of AAA players in their pool. Michael Kopech is available… Hell Vlad JR at AA is available. Seems to be typical ESPN where hype gets you listed. Still wondering why Forrest Whitley and Bo Bichette aren’t available…

Pirates HurdlesMember since 2024
8 years ago
Reply to  hebrew

If you are at all serious about fantasy baseball, you really should be playing on Fantrax. By far the most complete, customizable interface, player pool and great customer support.

brood550
8 years ago

The player pool of Fantrax is far superior to ESPN. But Fantrax is absolutely the worst if a guy randomly comes off the DL prior to a late game without notice. You accumulate 0 stats for the day. If ESPN would just deepen their pool and always list the time of the first game of the day it would be stout. We had an issue in our ESPN league on 4/16/2018 because of the early game of Boston vs Baltimore cancelled the night before with an 11am central start time. So people were trying to make roster moves with no idea a game was already scheduled to start so all moves were pushed back to 4/17/2018.

Pirates HurdlesMember since 2024
8 years ago
Reply to  brood550

Huh? Fantrax is super fast with updating DL status compared to the others and you can set up the league to allow subs up to 5 min before 1st pitch of each player’s game that day.

brood550
8 years ago

Tried it. Hated how loose the lineup rules are and the fact you can have an illegal lineup and accumulate 0 points. Yes, I have seen several times where the dl isn’t updated until the guy is officially activated. Which can be right before a 10pm game thus screwing you out of any points you’d have accumulated all day.

alang3131982Member since 2016
8 years ago

Thoughts on Jon Gray in a deep keeper?

Ben Blott
8 years ago
Reply to  alang3131982

Fip is a full 2 runs lower than era => hold.

ArmadilloFury
8 years ago
Reply to  Ben Blott

That’s more due to Coors than bad luck. For his career, Gray’s FIP is 1.21 runs lower than ERA (4.62 era vs 3.41 FIP). Coors has much higher BABIP and lower LOB% than MLB overall.

DarthSader9Member since 2025
8 years ago

Been offered Kershaw for Quintana and Pham in a 14 team league with shallow offense (3 OF, 2 Util, 1 C, no CI/MI). Pretty deep at OF/UTIL (Betts, Yelich, Pham, Brantley, Acuna, Soto, Ian Happ, Domingo Santana all on the roster). Pitching is generally harder to come by in season.

Kershaw enough of an upgrade over Quintana ROS to justify moving Pham?

brood550
8 years ago
Reply to  DarthSader9

I’d do that. But maybe you want to gauge the potential to add a closer or another piece of value to the Kershaw side. But as long as you’re comfortable with his health. I’d do that one.

Ben Blott
8 years ago

I’m streaming LeBlanc vs a putrid Rangers offense.

MoateMember since 2022
8 years ago

So about Alex Reyes…