Roto Riteup: September 21, 2012

Today’s Roto Riteup is dedicated to that awkward moment (that happens to me at least five times a day) when all of your co-workers are asking you for fantasy football advice, and you say only write about baseball.

• Even before last night’s excellent 3-for4 game with a steal, Carlos Gomez has been turning it on as of late. His past week’s worth of games has him hitting at a .294 clip with two steals. He is up to 35 steals on the year, but has just 66 runs to show for them. His poor OBP is what really drives down his stolen base opportunities, and his walk rate his lowest since his 2008 season. For the short term, Gomez has the speed that can help push you to winning the stolen base category and thus he deserves to be owned. He is available in about half of all ESPN leagues and over 60% of Yahoo! leagues.

• Another NL outfielder that might be worth a look is Jon Jay. Jay’s seasonal line is now sitting at .308/.382/.399, and while his slugging leaves much to be desired, his average and on-base skills are hard to argue with. He hasn’t been shy about running as of late, but his effectiveness is in question. His past six attempts have ended in three stolen bases and three caught stealing. Despite his poor rate recently, he still seems to have the green light, thus making him a possible waiver wire pick up. He is floating on the wire in 47% of ESPN leagues and 75% of Yahoo! leagues.

• In keeping with the NL outfield trend in an attempt to balance out my usual AL outfield thoughts, we have Starling Marte as another speed option. He stole a pair of bases yesterday — bringing up to nine on the year — and he recorded two hits and a walk as well. Including yesterday’s performance, Marte has five stolen bases against two caught stealing in his past seven games. His speed shouldn’t be in question, as he has more triples (five) than home runs (four) thus far. The same was the case for Marte in Triple-A this season as well. He SB/CS ratio still needs work, but for now he is running; and that is all fantasy owners are looking for. You can grab Marte in 92% of both Yahoo! and ESPN formats.

• The Panda hit two home runs and drove in four in a 2-for-4 effort yesterday. All told, brings him up to 11 on the season with 57 runs and RBI’s. No doubt this has been a disappointing and injury marred season for Pablo Sandoval, but perhaps a late September push is in order. His rest-of-season ZiPS projection calls for a .300 average with six runs and six RBI’s. Assuming he is healthy, that is easily attainable for him.

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.

A Pitcher for Today: Hisashi Iwakuma vs TEX
Risky play here as Iwakuma faces Texas, but his ability plus his home park should help this stream candidate considerably.

A Pitcher for Tomorrow: Brandon Morrow at TB
I just love Morrow’s stuff.

A Hitter for Today: The Cardinals lineup at CHC (Chris Volstad)
To be particular, I really like Matt Holliday, Allen Craig, David Freese and Carlos Beltran.