Roto Riteup — Presented by DraftKings: July 21, 2014

Watching Matt Adams doing the baseline dance with Dee Gordon yesterday brought this morning’s Roto Riteup author immense and unexplainable joy.

On today’s agenda:
1. A Fun & Sexy Comparison
2. Jon Niese activated
3. Carlos Martinez struggles with control
4. The Federalist Five

A Fun & Sexy Comparison

Exhibit A: 103.2 IP, 89 K, 6 BB, 5 HR; 2.34 ERA
Exhibit B: 103.2 IP, 83 K, 8 BB, 11 HR; 2.95 ERA

You may have been able to guess that Exhibit A is Cliff Lee from his stint in Seattle during the 2010 season, in what was an excellent and absolutely dominant performance. Lee continued to be awesome in Texas, but not quite as awesome thanks to a smaller ballpark.

Exhibit B is what has happened so far this year for one of the major’s best pitchers. Other than the extra dingers, he’s been nearly as good as Lee was. The pitcher represented by Exhibit B is none other than Hisashi Iwakuma, a current Mariner. Kuma may not be Cliff Lee or Felix Hernandez, but hot damn he’s been special this year after dealing with a hand injury at the beginning of the season.

Jon Niese activated
The New York Mets have activated Niese from the DL, where he’s been since the first week of the month. Despite a downtick in velocity, Niese was excellent to start the year, posting an ERA below 3.00 over 103 full innings of work. Sure, Niese has had some problems getting hitters to swing and miss this year, but he’s kept the walks down and the ball on the ground, which is generally how the left-hander earns his success.

Niese will start today in Seattle against the Mariners, and they should be a great test of what he’s got to offer. The Mariners don’t have much in the way of hitting from the right side, so Niese should have an excellent chance to exploit the platoon advantage and feast on weaker righties.

Carlos Martinez struggles with control
Martinez has a shit-ton of potential, but outings like yesterday remind us why he’s still an unfinished product and was left in the bullpen out of Spring Training. Before last night’s start against the Dodgers, Martinez had thrown over 28 innings as a starter this year, striking out 29 and walking 14, ending up with an ERA over 4.00. Martinez added another four innings yesterday with five strikeouts and two walks.

Martinez looked excellent the first time through the order against the Dodgers, but then he allowed some unlucky hits and unwound, eventually plunking Hanley Ramirez in the shoulder with a super-hard fastball. Martinez hasn’t gotten deep into ballgames yet thanks to some inefficient outings and a pitch count, and he may not have a starting job soon if Michael Wacha returns and Shelby Miller remains in the bullpen.

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The Federalist Five

SP: Wily Peralta | $6,700 | vCIN
SP: Jon Niese | $7,200 | @SEA
C: Brian McCann | $3,700 | vTEX (Miles Mikolas)
3B: Miguel Cabrera | $6,000 | @ARZ (Vidal Nuno)
OF: Jayson Werth | $5,000 | @COL (Franklin Morales)

Two cheaper SP options give you money to spend elsewhere, so put it to use with Miggy and Werth.

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