Roto Riteup — Presented By DraftKings: April 15, 2014

Today’s Roto Riteup is being written while snow falls outside my window. Baseball has started and there is snow on the ground; I’m not very happy about this weather.

On today’s agenda:
1. Jesse Chavez is a useful starter
2. Dan Uggla is the roulette wheel of rotoball
3. The Daily Five

 Jesse Chavez is a useful starter
In three starts this year Chavez is the owner of a 1.35 ERA and a 2.28 xFIP. Sure, a .255 BABIP will help anyone, however Chavez has also racked up a 9.90 K/9 and a minuscule 0.90 BB/9. He’s squared off against the Seattle Mariners — not exactly an offensive powerhouse and he shut down the Minnesota Twins, a team that has scored the fourth most runs in baseball prior to yesterday’s games. Last night Chavez mostly silenced the Los Angeles Angels by holding them to one run in seven innings and striking out nine. He induced 13 swinging strikes and didn’t allow a walk. Chavez worked for 100 pitches with 77 of them going for strikes and went to his cutter early and often. BrooksBaseball.net has him throwing 47 cutters and just 20 four-seamers/fastballs. Like last year, he is going to his curveball frequently as well, tossing 21 of them last night. His repertoire is varied and thus far he’s shown the ability to throw strikes.

Though he is still winless on the year, the wins should come as long as he continues to limit the walks and generate a decent amount of strikeouts. The A’s have a solid offense and with a strong defense and a deep bullpen. Once he leaves a game with a lead the win should come. He makes for a great stream option in 12-team mixed leagues or in deeper leagues he is worth a roster spot and should be used as a spot starter for favorable matchups and home games. Chavez is available to be grabbed in over 75% of both ESPN and Yahoo! formats as well as over 30% of CBS leagues.

Dan Uggla is the roulette wheel of rotoball
By now we know what to expect from Dan Uggla. The strikeouts will be there, as will the walks and he’ll pop some dingers from time to time. Like a roulette wheel, the odds aren’t favorable you’ll enjoy the outcome by playing Uggla, but every once in awhile you’ll hit big. Last night was one of those “18 red” hits you can brag to your friends about. Uggla cracked a pair of home runs yesterday, one of which was the game winning grand slam. Is he someone you want to play everyday? No, but if you do play him, sometimes you’ll get lucky. Despite his double digit walk rate he still isn’t a great play in on-base percentage leagues as his batted ball type and strikeout rate prevent his batting average to ever climb to a decent level. He’s a starting middle infield eligible player with good pop but terrible rate stats and he doesn’t steal. Put it all together and you get his 42% ownership rate in CBS as his highest ownership rate by a factor of three. If you happen to be starting Uggla on a regular basis, I wish you the best of luck.

The Daily Five
Starting Pitcher: Yordano Ventura — $7,500
Ventura is a delight to watch. The Houston Astros offense is not.

Starting Pitcher: Phil Hughes — $6,600
Hughes at his spacious home park at night in the cold weather means his flyball tendencies shouldn’t hurt him too much.

Infielder: Prince Fielder — $4,200
The Texas Rangers are playing host to the Seattle Mariners and Blake Beavan. RotoGraphs very own Michael Barr’s evaluation of Beavan is fantastic.

Outfielder: Carlos Gomez — $5,200
Shelby Miller has struggled and hasn’t been himself for some time now and Gomez is crushing the ball.

Other Hitter: Alex Rios — $3,900
I’m doubling down on the Rangers putting a hurt on Beavan here.

Remaining Budget: $22,600

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