Roto Riteup — Presented By DraftKings: May 17, 2014

Today’s Roto Riteup was written while I pondered whether or not I want to eventually purchase Halo 5: Guardians. I have some very fond memories of Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2.

On today’s agenda:
1. Thoughts on the Colorado Rockies outfield
2. Trevor Bauer to the majors
3. Josh Reddick’s big day
4. Quick hit on Alex Meyer
5. The Daily Five

Thoughts on the Colorado Rockies outfield
Thus far Stubbs has started eight of 14 possible games in May as well as appearing as a pinch hitter three other times for the Rockies. With the outfield logjam currently consisting of Carlos Gonzalez as a staple in left field plus Corey Dickerson, Charlie Blackmon and soon to be Michael Cuddyer all vying for playing time, to see Stubbs get so many plate appearances is of note. His .500 BABIP at home won’t last forever, however neither will his .200 BABIP on the road. His strikeouts are still a touch high and his walk rate is a bit low, but he has shown a slight improvement in the K% area this year. Stubbs has also trimmed his swinging strike rate down below 10%, much better than his 11.3% career average. Though Stubbs’ walk rates may be questionable it is hard to argue his speed upside. He grabbed two bags in yesterday’s game and now has four steals opn the year against zero caught stealing.

Of the Dickerson, Blackmon, Cuddyer and Stubbs options, Stubbs has the lowest power upside but only he and Blackmon have a realistic shot at 20+ steals. If Stubbs can grab a few more PA’s here and there we could see him have the short side of a platoon in center field. Add in the inevitable CarGo DL stint and Stubbs could find himself with a decent amount of playing time. Blackmon seems to have the most secure playing time (other than CarGo), but he could find himself on the bench when facing a tough left-handed starter. For now I would rank the Rockies outfield in terms of PA priority as CarGo, Cuddyer, Blackmon, Stubbs, then Dickerson.

Trevor Bauer to the majors
With the Cleveland Indians promoting Bauer, they first had to send Danny Salazar back to Triple-A. Citing an inconsistent breaking ball as well as a declined use of his changeup, manager Terry Francona expressed he expects Salazar to be back in the majors after refining his craft. The brilliant and talented Nicholas Minnix wrote about Bauer just a few weeks ago here at RotoGraphs. Not much has changed other than Bauer allowing just 14 walks in 46 innings while striking out 44 batters in the International League. Let us hope Bauer has put his control issues behind him for good. Bauer is owned in 64% of CBS leagues already but his 22% ownership rate at Yahoo! and 1% ESPN rate are quite low. I’d grab Bauer now but sit him against the Tigers.

Josh Reddick’s big day
Just because Reddick’s current .236/.297/.386 line is underwhelming doesn’t mean he can’t contribute in deeper leagues. Yesterday he cracked his third and fourth home runs of the year and is up to 18 RBIs and 18 runs on the year. He should be platooned fairly strictly on your fantasy team — just like in real life — but his power is legit and he hits in a solid lineup. His seasonal line is very “meh” but he has nine hits in his past seven games, including three home runs and a triple. I’ve touched on Reddick somewhat recently and I still like him to have a mini-bounce back season along the lines of 20+ home runs and a respectable RBI count in the mid 70’s.

Quick hit on Alex Meyer
Minnesota Twins assistant general manager Rob Antony said the club is prepared to have Alex Meyer on a limited pitch count. The Twins appear to prefer moving Meyer to the bullpen for a spell rather than shutting him down completely. Meyer’s 10.93 K/9 in Triple-A is great, though his 4.69 BB/9 isn’t so great. With no need to push Meyer to the big leagues before he is ready, don’t expect to see much value out of him in standard redraft leagues this year.

The Daily Five
Starting Pitcher: Scott Kazmir — $10,500
Kazmir faces his old team in the Cleveland Indians, a team that has the lowest team wRC+ (72) against left-handed pitchers in baseball.

Starting Pitcher: Rick Porcello — $8,700
The Boston Red Sox have been held to a 93 wRC+ by right-handed pitchers this year. We’ll hope Porcello gets plenty of weak grounders today.

Infielder: Manny Machado — $3,800
Machado has the platoon advantage over Danny Duffy.

Outfielder: Seth Smith — $4,600
Smith in Coors Field against a right-handed pitcher? Sounds good to me.

Other hitter: Mike Trout — $5,800
I mean, it’s Mike Trout. He has the platoon advantage here and is great regardless.

Remaining budget: $16,600

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