Roto Riteup — Presented by DraftKings: June 11, 2014

Hi. It’s Wednesday. This is the Roto Riteup. I sort of like your face.

On today’s agenda:
1. Mat Latos to debut Saturday
2. Joey Votto returns
3. On Cody Asche and Maikel Franco
4. The Feral Five

Mat Latos to debut Saturday
After missing most of the first-half of 2014, Latos is finally ready to join the Reds and contribute to his fantasy owners. Latos had injury issues to his elbow, calf, knee, and left phalange, but outside of his relationship with the Reds’ organization, everything is fine and dandy now. Even after moving from San Diego to Cincy, Latos has never had an ERA of 3.50 or higher in his four full big league seasons, a trend he’ll hope to continue through 2014. There’s virtually no chance that the right-hander is available in your league, but hey, might as well check.

Joey Votto returns
Stick with the Reds, the Canadian first baseman returned to action yesterday after missing 25 games with a quad strain. Even as he’s continued to be a top-notch real-life player, Votto’s power decline since 2011 has been frustrating for owners not lucky enough to employ an OBP format. Even if he doesn’t lift the ball out of the ballpark, Votto will still provide owners with plenty of hits, and he could even be a great contributor in runs and RBI if he teammates step up around him.

On Cody Asche and Maikel Franco
Coming into the 2014 season, it’s disgusting to say that certain folks would be rooting for Asche to get hurt sometime near the middle of the season so that Franco could get a shot in the bigs, but it’s probably not far off. Franco was a hot name to man the hot corner for Philly, even more so in fantasy circles due to his mediocre defense and low walk rates, but he’s struggled to do anything of value in Triple-A this year, albeit at age 21. Asche, on the other hand, has hit well in the majors, coming in with a 113 wRC+ before he went on the Disabled List late last month. Asche will return from the DL sometime next week, and I would implore everyone to take a look and see if there is room for him on your team. No one is breathing down his neck to steal ABs anymore.

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The Feral Five
SP: Chris Young | $6,300 | vNYY
SP: Wily Peralta | $7,200 | @NYM
C: Alex Avila | $3,300 | @CWS (Andre Rienzo)
1B: Allen Craig | $4,300 | @TB (Erik Bedard)
OF: Shin-Soo Choo | $4,300 | vMIA (Jacob Turner)

A pretty economical group that can produce results. If you’re squeamish around Chris Young, nut up, bro, and enjoy the ride.

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