Roto Riteup — Presented By DraftKings: May 11, 2014

Happy Mother’s Day from everyone here at RotoGraphs, FanGraphs and even NotGraphs. Call your mom right now. Me? I’ll just yell up the stairs at my mom.

On today’s agenda:
1. Welcome back, Chase Headley
2. Rickie Weeks: not a left fielder
3. Thoughts on Erik Bedard
4. The Daily Five

Welcome back, Chase Headley
The San Diego Padres activated Headley prior to yesterday’s game and he paid immediate dividends. Headley launched a three run homer and drew a pair of walks in five plate appearances. Even after last night’s big game, he is hitting a very modest .192/.272/.354. No small part of the issue is Headley’s .220 BABIP, a mark over 100 points below his .333 career average. I’m not expecting Headly to repeat his fantastic 2012 season, but 12-15 home runs with double digit steals isn’t unrealistic. With health on his side Headley makes for a solid third base contributor in standard mixed leagues and can be picked up in over 50% of both ESPN and Yahoo! leagues as well as 40% of CBS formats.

Rickie Weeks: not a left fielder
Milwaukee Brewers manager Ron Roenicke approached Weeks about potentially seeing time in the outfield, but Weeks apparently shot the notion down. Currently on the short side of a platoon at second base, Weeks is hitting .282/.349/.308 on the year with just one of 11 hits going for extra bases. Not including yesterday’s 2-for-4 performance, Weeks was 3-for-3 with a walk in his past four plate appearances (all as a pinch hitter) going back to May 1. With such sporadic playing time it is hard to imagine Weeks getting into a groove, let alone providing enough value to justify a roster spot on your fantasy squad. Had Weeks been willing to move to the outfield then between OF, 2B and PH roles he could have seen enough action to own in deeper leagues. With Khris Davis struggling out of  the gate and now into May, it is possible Weeks changes his mind and he begins to see action in the outfield. Until then, Weeks is best left alone in standard 12-team mixed leagues.

Thoughts on Erik Bedard
In the footsteps of his previous two starts, Bedard once again lasted more than five innings while allowing one run or less. He didn’t dominate in yesterday’s six shutout innings against the Cleveland Indians, as he did allow three walks on the day, but he was rewarded with his second win of the season. It took Bedard 101 pitches to go six innings and he generated just eight whiffs, striking out four, and lowered both his ERA and FIP to 3.338 on the year. His 5.35  xFIP isn’t nearly as friendly mostly because Bedard owns a 14:17 BB/K ratio and is yet to surrender a home run in 26.2 innings. His 0.00% HR/FB rate is bound to change, especially when considering his 28.6% ground ball rate. I’d expect one (or more) of those fly balls to leave the yard sooner rather than later. As one would expect, Bedard ranks in the top 20 of starting pitchers for highest fly ball rate. Unless Bedard tones down the walks while adding a few strikeouts, he won’t be even be fringe-fantasy relevant for much longer. Obviously five starts is a tiny sample size but I suggest steering clear of Bedard until we see his peripheral numbers rise a bit.

The Daily Five
Starting Pitcher: Cole Hamels — $8,200
Despite an ugly 7.02 ERA, Hamels should fare just fine against the New York Mets today. The Mets have the fourth highest strikeout rate in baseball against southpaws at 25.2% on the year.

Starting Pitcher: Drew Hutchison — $8,100
Hutch faces off against the Los Angeles Angels. Yes, LAA hits right-handed pitching pretty well, I trust Hutchison and his 11% SwStr% to miss bats and have a quality outing.

Infielder: Brian McCann — $3,500
No doubt McCann has had some bad luck in the BABIP department (.216 is rough) but his power is intact. He is on the road in a very home run friendly park for lefty batters and McCann is facing off against an opposite-handed pitcher in Matt Garza.

Outfielder: Jason Heyward — $3,800
Heyward has a great price plus the platoon advantage against Edwin Jackson.

Other hitter: Josh Donaldson — $4,100
Another great value pick that also goes up against an opposite-handed pitcher in Gio Gonzalez.

Remaining budget: $22,300

This post, covering one of the leading sites for daily fantasy, is sponsored and made possible by the generous support of DraftKings. FanGraphs maintains complete editorial control of the postings, and brings you these posts in a continued desire to provide the best analytical information on the latest in baseball.