Roto Riteup — Presented by DraftKings: April 14, 2014

It’s the beginning of the third matchup in Head-to-Head leagues, where dreams are broken. Hopefully today’s Roto Riteup

Today’s Agenda
1. Alex Cobb hits the DL
2. The Rays’ rotation spots
3. Aaron Harang still going strong
4. The Daily Five

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Alex Cobb hits the DL
The Rays’ starter is going to miss at least a month with an oblique strain, and he could end up missing up to six or eight weeks with the injury. If you watch the highlights of Cobb’s start, he seemed to show some sort of discomfort starting out with the first batter he faced, yet he pitched through the rest of the start in typical dominant fashion. Thankfully this isn’t a shoulder or elbow problem, but it’s still nasty and will be hell on fantasy owners who were banking on his production.

The Rays’ rotation spots
Before Cobb hurt himself, the Rays were already trying out Cesar Ramos as a rotation member, but he got hit around a little bit by the Reds yesterday and doesn’t have much of a track record of success as a starter. Erik Bedard is coming to the rotation to replace Cobb, but we all know how brittle he is, and he wasn’t exactly great last year in Houston. Pitching in Tampa with a good defense behind him will help Bedard out quite a bit, but he’s still not going to be relevant for most of you, outside of maybe daily fantasy games.

Aaron Harang still going strong
Harang may be my new favorite pitcher to follow, because this is just getting ridiculous. Harang hurled six strong innings against the Nationals yesterday, striking out five while only walking one. While the Nationals were without Ryan Zimmerman and Denard Span, Washington still has a solid offense, so it’s not like Harang just plowed through a cupcake. Harang now has an ERA and WHIP under one in three starts, averaging almost a strikeout per inning. Where was this in Seattle last year?


The Daily Five

SP – Jesse Chavez, $6,900
The third cheapest starter available today, I was impressed with Chavez when I watched him pitch against Seattle. Going to Los Angeles to face the Angels won’t be easy, but he should pull through nicely.

SP – Jordan Zimmermann, $9,800
Zimm may have struggled during his last outing, but he’s in Miami against the Marlins today.

C – Derek Norris, $3,800
Norris should be good for at least a walk against Hector Santiago, if not an extra base hit.

3B – David Wright, $4,400
Wright is pretty cheap and he gets to square off against Josh Collmenter in Arizona.

OF – Alex Rios, $4,000
Rios gets Roenis Ellias in Texas.

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Zach is the creator and co-author of RotoGraphs' Roto Riteup series, and RotoGraphs' second-longest tenured writer. You can follow him on twitter.

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Emcee Peepants
9 years ago

Harang’s velocity is up over a MPH on all his pitches and roughly matches what he had during his most successful Reds years. Maybe that’s all he needed to be “back”. Although he does have an 86% strand rate and .191 BABIP right now, so it’s hard to tell.

I picked him up in one league after his second start and am considering benching Shelby Miller (and his 2 starts against good offenses) for him this week. Thoughts?

FeslenR
9 years ago
Reply to  Emcee Peepants

sure, why not. Maybe the continuing trend of excellent Braves’ pitching coaches does their magic on also-rans and potential studs.