Roto Riteup: September 13, 2012

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September 13, 2012

Today’s Roto Riteup was written on location.

• Unofficial crowdsourcing question: how much would you pay for Ben Revere next year? Revere is a tiny little man who can hardly get the ball out of the infield, but he manages to hit for a nice average a steal a ton of bases. When you add in his defense, the Twins are pretty much forced to run him out there every day. Could we have the second coming of Juan Pierre on our hands here?

• Want to know why you should target pitchers that don’t walk many guys? The best ERA with men on base this year belongs to David Price, and it’s a whopping 4.84. Keep in mind that this takes place even with a .268 wOBA in those situations, because guys can get moved along and score while outs are being recorded. Free passes are bad.

• When it comes to linear weights leagues, Starlin Castro is one heck of a cruel mistress. Castro hits for a high average, but doesn’t walk. He collects extra base hits, but not enough to make up for the lack of walks. He steals bases, but he also gets thrown out a ton. Don’t forget that Castro is still only 22 years old, people.

• No matter how many good players change leagues, NL pitchers will also have an edge of their counterparts in the AL. Trading a couple of plate appearances each game against Clayton Richard and his 54.3% K% for a couple against David Ortiz and his .422 wOBA makes a big difference, especially over the course of the season. It means extra strikeouts and easier outs, though it does also increase the chances of a pitcher getting injured. Things are going to get reach interesting next year when interleague play goes all year round, as AL starters will be able to claim a small boost and NL starters are going to drop a tiny bit.

For those of you who play daily fantasy games like FanGraphs: The Game, or just like to stream players, here are a couple matchups you may be able to exploit.

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A Pitcher for Today: Tyler Cloyd at HOU
There’s a pretty good chance you throw the ball harder than Cloyd, but he’s been effective in the bigs nonetheless.

A Pitcher for Tomorrow: Bronson Arroyo at MIA
It may not be pretty, but Arroyo will pick up a win despite giving up a massive homer to Giancarlo Stanton.

A Hitter for Today: Eric Thames at TOR (Henderson Alvarez)
Thames returns to the place he once called home, and there he shall compile a couple of hits. Michael Saunders is also a great option if he’s affordable.





 

Zach is the creator and co-author of RotoGraphs' Roto Riteup series, and RotoGraphs' second-longest tenured writer. You can follow him on twitter.

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Matt
13 years ago

There isn’t going to be much more interleague play next year, it’s just spread out. There were 252 interleague games this year (18 per team for the AL, 16 per team for the NL). In 2013 that number is going up to 20 games per team in both leagues.

We’re talking about at an average of less than one additional interleague start per pitcher. It won’t move the needle.

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