Roto Riteup: September 26, 2012

Since I linked to a My Little Pony video earlier in the month, and just yesterday I posted a link to a Calvin and Hobbes related things, I figured why not combine the two? Here is a lovely crossover from someone who is much more talented than myself.

• I’m okay with writing about Jon Jay twice in a one week span if you are. Jay went 2-for-5 in yesterday’s win over the Houston Astros and he even stole a base to boot. He just keeps hitting. He is owned in 53% of ESPN leagues now but still just 25% of Yahoo! leagues. We’re all aware of the different computations each site uses to calculate ownership, but Jay should be owned in 80% of all leagues by now.

• At this point I’ve given up trying to comprehend how A.J. Pierzynski is hitting all of these home runs. He hit his 27th long ball of the year yesterday and now has nine more home runs than his previous single season high. His ISO now stands at an incredible .230; almost 70 points higher than his previous best season. Writing this off as an aberration is the route that I’m going to take with this 35-year old catcher.

• While we’re on the note of unexpected 27 home run seasons from a catcher, we should discuss Wilin Rosario too. Just the same as Pierzynski, Rosario hit a home run yesterday that brings him withing three of the much hallowed 30 home run plateau. For the differences in ages, the two catchers are having remarkably similar seasons. A.J. is hitting .278/.323/.508 and Wilin is posting a .276/.318/.545 line. The fact that Rosario has a similar line and the exact same number of home runs in almost 100 less plate appearances will make me strongly consider drafting Rosario next year. Normally I punt catcher, but if my league mates are on the fence about Rosario and let him drop a few extra rounds, I might snag him.

• Looking ahead to next season a bit, Justin Smoak has been fantastic thus far this month. At the time of writing, Smoak just powered his second home run of the game yesterday. His .378 BABIP is surely assisting him, but his plate discipline his helping him as well. He has eight walks against just nine strikeouts in 65 PA’s. Smoak also has four home runs and four doubles, good for eight total extra-base hits. The eight XBH ties his monthly high this year and he last did it back in May. Obvously, now Smoak has an excellent shot at setting a new monthly high. I haven’t looked closely at his swing just yet — I’ll leave that to the .gif and scouting masters — but from what the numbers are showing, Smoak is making progress.

• David Price pitched a complete game with 13 strikeouts. Anyone else regret trading him away this year? Anyone? Bueller? On the other hand, Anibal Sanchez also threw a complete game, but his was of the shutout variety and he tallied 10 strikeouts. I don’t regret trading for Sanchez to start the year. His strikeout rate fell back down, but his walk rate has also decreased, barring an epic disaster it will be the third straight year of a lower BB% for Sanchez.

• Zack Greinke was another pitcher to fan 13 opposing batters, but he lasted just five innings in the process. He threw 110 total pitches and left the game after allowing seven hits but just one (earned) run. He lowered his ERA to 3.42 and raised his K/9 to 8.65 with the outing. Fast forward to next spring and it will be curious to see where Greinke places on the draft boards. Outside of 2009, his results just haven’t matched his stuff.

• Excuse me while I resist the urge to write another blurb about Domonic Brown hitting another home run.

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: Aaron Harang at SD
Decent pitcher in a spacious park? Yep!

A Pitcher for Tomorrow: Doug Fister vs KC
Is there any question yet that Fister isn’t a legitimate starter and not just an illusion of SafeCo?

A Hitter for Today: Yoenis Cespedes at TEX (Martin Perez)
I like Cespy to hit his 22nd home run of the year in a favorable match up in a favorable park.