Roto Riteup — Presented By DraftKings: April 27, 2014

Tomorrow is the 14th anniversary of New Found Glory’s From the Screen to Your Stero album. As the title would suggest, the album was covers of well known songs from films. My favorite track is probably “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough“, though “My Heart Will Go On” is pretty great too.

On today’s agenda:
1. Thoughts on Derek Norris‘ hot start
2. Chris Davis to the 15-day disabled list
3. The Daily Five

Thoughts on Derek Norris’ hot start
Anyone can look amazing during a 53 plate appearance stint, it just so happens Norris is hitting like crazy for the first 53 PA’s of the year. After yesterday’s 2-for-3 game Norris is hitting a cool .362/.434/.553 and is the owner of a .395 BABIP. To say “small sample size” seems obvious, however I don’t think we can chalk up the entirety of his great start to only batted ball fortune. Norris struggled against same-handed pitchers last year, and while it is far too early to claim he’s “figured it all out” the early signs look like he’s handling right-handed pitchers much better. He had 17 hits against righties last season and he’s already cracked 10 hits against them this year.

For his career Norris owns a rather unflattering 24.2% strikeout rate, however this season he has struck out just 13.2% of the time. Given what we know about stabilization points, we are looking at his swing and strikeout rate being a reliable indicator (of note: the different PA thresholds for strikeout rate, 60 PA and 150. The latest study was in 2012 and so I will go with that). Norris’ new approach and leg kick could be paying off already. Between CBS, ESPN and Yahoo! leagues Norris’ highest ownership rate is 9%. If you find yourself scrambling with Devin Mesoraco or Russell Martin hitting the DL, grab Norris. He’s managed to cut down his overall swing rate a hair and his strikeout rate in half. It’s all about the process, but the results have been good too.

Chris Davis to the 15-day disabled list
A slow start to the 2014 season just got slower for Davis as he’ll land on the DL at some point today. An MRI showed a left oblique strain to a degree where the Baltimore Orioles didn’t want to risk anything worsening. Davis hopes to continue traveling with the team, though formal details have yet to be released. As a temporary fill-in on your fantasy teams, Juan Francisco and his power — and of course his strikeout rate — should be available in most leagues. Francisco will probably continue to see a good amount of playing time with Adam Lind on the disabled list.

The Daily Five
Starting Pitcher: Johnny Cueto —$11,700
A big chunk of the budget is going towards a pitcher who is average a strikeout per inning and is facing a team in the Atlanta Braves that owns the second highest strikeout rate in baseball.

Starting Pitcher: Tommy Milone — $6,200
Partly a budget pick to make up for Cueto, partly because he’s facing the Houston Astros.

Infielder: Jimmy Rollins — $4,000
I still like Brandon McCarthy and his 3.43 xFIP, but it is hard to pass on J-Roll in Arizona. Rollins has already hit half as many homers as all of last year and is on pace for nearly 30 steals.

Outfielder: Torii Hunter — $4,100
Hunter is a good hitter on a team stacked with good hitters. Kyle Gibson could be in for a long day…or a short one, if he doesn’t make it out of the fourth inning.

Other Hitter: Angel Pagan — $3,600
Pagan keeps hitting and Danny Salazar is beginning to worry me with his velocity drop.

Remaining Budget: $20,400

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