Roto Riteup: Monday, August 15th, 2011
– After missing two and a half weeks with a strained oblique, Brian McCann was back in the Braves lineup on Sunday. The 27-year old catcher was having his best offensive season since 2008, blasting 18 homers and hitting over .300 in under 400 trips to the plate. If his oblique is truly healed, he should continue to be an elite catcher over the rest of the 2011 campaign. If you play in a shallow league, make sure to check to see if someone was stupid enough to dump McCann from their roster when he went on the DL.
– In other injury news, Rickie Weeks is on his way back from an ankle sprain, and could be ready for a rehab stint within the next ten days.
– Despite his best power display as a pro, Logan Morrison is on his way to the minor leagues thanks to a .249 batting average and potential problems behind the scenes. Morrison had missed some of his off field appearances for one reason for another, and there’s a pretty good chance this minor league stint is a way of punishing him. To be fair to everyone involved, I doubt the Fish would send LoMo to the minors if he were hitting better, but when we combine mediocre hitting with off field problems, their decision is understandable. I wouldn’t do it, but hey, I’m not running an organization. At this point, you may want to hold on to LoMo for a week to see if things cool off, but if they don’t it will be okay to drop LoMo is standard leagues if he’s on your roster, and he may even be worth dropping in all but the deepest OBP leagues if you can’t afford a spare roster spot.
– I beg of you, please don’t freak out about Mariano Rivera. He’s still throwing in the 90s, so I wouldn’t worry about a few bad outings.
A Pitcher For Today: Ivan Nova at KC
Nova put up strong starts against the Orioles and White Sox, and it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which he doesn’t pick up a win against Felipe Paulino and the Royals.
A Pitcher For Tomorrow: Jonathon Niese at SDP
Niese is nothing spectacular, but getting him in Petco should result in a W and six or more strikeouts. I’m taking that chance if I’m streaming.
PickSix Lock of the Day: Robinson Cano ($49.50) at KC (Felipe Paulino)
Cano may not be in the friendly confines of Yankee Stadium, but he might have a field day against Paulino.
Prediction: 2-4, 2 2B; 13 points
Past Predictions: 8 players, $105.75, 43.2 pts
Zach is the creator and co-author of RotoGraphs' Roto Riteup series, and RotoGraphs' second-longest tenured writer. You can follow him on twitter.
AJ Burnett vs Paulino today
MLB.com lied to me. They should be ashamed of themselves.