Roto Riteup — Presented By DraftKings: September 28, 2014

Welcome to the final scheduled day of the regular season. Best of luck to all teams fighting for the division title or at least a wild card berth. It should be a grand day for baseball.

On today’s agenda:
1. Rusney Castillo is flashing his tools
2. Thoughts on Daniel Nava
3. The daily five

Rusney Castillo is flashing his tools
After hitting home runs in back-to-back games on Thursday and Friday, Castillo stole his third bag of the year yesterday. He actually nabbed on Friday as well and is yet to be caught stealing. Castillo only has 36 plate appearances to his name at the big league level, however he’s showing signs of what made him such a coveted item. Said is what lead the Boston Red Sox to ink him to a seven-year, $72.5 million contract. His power is legit but his speed will probably be his greatest fantasy asset. I’m expecting big things from the Cuban in future seasons.

Thoughts on Daniel Nava
Another Boston outfielder, Nava has played mostly both corner outfield positions as well as a handful of first base appearances. Nava managed to put a rocky start of the season behind him — hitting .238/.330/.310 in 191 first half PAs — to post an impressive .302/.364/.411 line in the second half. A .291 vs .371 gap in BABIP between his pre and post-All Star break numbers certainly help drive his triple slash. That said, his overall .337 BABIP on the season is close to his .333 career mark. I don’t expect Nava to keep hitting .300, but he should be good for a .270+ average with a strong mid .340+ on-base percentage in future seasons as Nava owns a 9.7% career walk rate.

While he doesn’t offer much in the way of power or speed, Nava’s rate stats, particularly against right-handed pitchers, shouldn’t be overlooked. In 1109 PAs against righties he’s posted a .294/.386/.430 line, good for a 127 wRC+. The issue with Nava going forward appears to be playing time. With Castillo or Shane Victorino in center and Yoenis Cespedes and Allen Craig looking for playing time in the corners, Nava may be relegated to fourth outfielder status. It may not be as bad as it sounds given Victorino and Cespedes’ injury history, but if you draft Nava, you’ll have to keep a particularly close eye on the Red Sox lineup each day.

The daily five
Starting pitcher: David Price — $12,300
Price is up against the Minnesota Twins in order to clinch the AL Central. Given Minnesota’s middle-of-the-pack 101 wRC+ versus southpaws plus their 21.5% strikeout rate, I expect Price to have a big day.

Starting pitcher: Bartolo Colon — $8,200
If Colon lasts just 3.2 innings he’ll reach the 200 IP mark for the first time since 2005. He’s facing the Houston Astros and their 21st ranked 91 wRC+ against righties. Houston’s 24.1% K rate is the highest in baseball against righties.

Infielder: Hanley Ramirez — $4,400
The Los Angeles Dodgers own the best wRC+ in baseball when facing a righty. I think they’ll paste Christian Bergman and Hanley should deal quite a bit of the damage.

Outfielder: Jarrod Dyson — $2,700
My love for Dyson should be known by now and today he will be up against the rookie right-hander Chris Bassitt.

Other hitter: Scooter Gennett — $3,000
Assuming he starts today while dealing with a quadriceps issue, Gennett holds the platoon advantage over Jacob Turner.

Remaining budget: $19,400

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