Roto Riteup: September 7, 2016

If you weren’t in full September/pennant baseball mode yet, Yankees-Blue Jays last night likely got you there. A weird, fun, long, back-and-forth game with high stakes that ended on this:

As much as that stings from my perspective – the Jays are tied with the Red Sox atop the AL East and just a game up on Baltimore – it was a heck of a game, and felt like a pace-setter for the next three or four weeks. Giddy up.

On the agenda:
1. Big returns
2. Various News and Notes
3. Streaming Pitcher Options

Big returns
Finally, we get a fun news day instead of the usual injury stuff. A pair of huge names are returning this week, giving you a nice boost for the fantasy stretch run.

Assuming you didn’t drop Giancarlo Stanton, that is. Once ruled out for the season, Stanton has been activated from the DL well ahead of schedule. At the time of his injury, it would have been justifiable for some to drop him if roster constraints were tight in a redraft league, because again, he was expected to be done. Instead, he’s back in a pinch-hitting capacity immediately and will work the rest of the way back to health while swinging a bat in meaningful plate appearances. While Stanton struggled by his own lofty standards earlier in the year, he still managed 25 home runs and a 118 wRC+ in 104 appearances. If someone dropped him in your league, grab him.

Also returning is Stephen Strasburg, who I assume nobody dropped. He draws the start against the Braves today, his first appearance since Aug. 17, when he got hammered by the Rockies in the worst start of his career. It would seem the elbow soreness he was dealing with has subsided, and he’ll now try to work his way back into form ahead of the postseason. “Worst” is a weird descriptor for a pitcher of Strasburg’s caliber, but he presently owns the worst ERA of his career at 3.59 despite a 30.4-percent strikeout rate. If I’m betting, it’s that the ERA finishes lower than last year’s 3.46.

Various News and Notes
Brian Dozier may think his barrage of home runs don’t mean anything if the team isn’t winning, but that’s not stopping him from hitting them. He smacked another on Tuesday, tying the AL record for second basemen with his 39th of the year, good for second in the majors. He’s two back of Mark Trumbo for the league lead and four back of Davey Johnson’s record for second basemen. Considering he’s hit nine in the last eight games, those leaders should be a little concerned. Here’s more on Dozier from Scott Strandberg last week.

As far as home runs go, the first of Dansby Swanson’s career may have been more fun than an of Dozier’s. The Braves rookie shortstop touched ‘em all without the ball leaving the park, chugging around the bases on a fly ball that got a fortuitous bounce off the center-field fence. His first minor-league home run was also an inside-the-park job. Dude has wheels.

Still on home runs, the Rangers recalled Joey Gallo to help push to an AL West title. He’s up to stay now, and the Rangers will hope he can do better than the one hit (a home run) he managed in 16 plate appearances earlier this year. There’s not a ton left for Gallo to show at the Triple-A level if you assume the strikeout rate is just never going to come down, so it’s high time to see if he can run into some pitches at the next level.

Despite suffering from back pain and generally poor performance, James Shields isn’t shutting things down. He’ll remain in the rotation, even though the brief glimpse of hope he showed in July has emphatically been extinguished. The 34-year-old owns a 6.07 ERA over 151.1 innings with peripherals that aren’t any more flattering, easily the worst season of his career and one that threatens to make him borderline fantasy irrelevant in 2017.

Brandon Guyer eats crickets. Hey, same.

Streaming Pitcher Options
If you enjoy streaming pitchers or play DFS, tune into the Roto Riteup for recommendations each and every day.

A pitcher for today: Mike Montgomery @ MIL (Matt Garza)
Still a little unsure what to make of Alex Meyer for the rest of 2016, I’ll eschew the zero-percent ownership option here and tap Mike Montgomery, who you can still find in 88 percent of leagues. Montgomery and his 2.80 ERA over 83.2 innings as a swingman draw the Brewers, the league’s most strikeout-friendly team and an offense that’s posted a 90 wRC+ over the last month and ranks as average against lefties. I’d understand concern about streaming a swingman with a large FIP-ERA gap at Miller Park, but Montgomery keeps the ball on the ground and has kept his strikeout rate around 20 percent as a starter.

A pitcher for tomorrow: A.J. Cole vs PHI (Alec Asher)
It’s quite the day on the hill Thursday, with only seven games total, two TBA spots penciled in as starters, and still seven pitchers expected to throw with 20-percent ownership or less. Eno Sarris warned you off of Alex Cobb optimism this week, and with a few other iffy options, the pick here is A.J. Cole. He draws a Phillies opponent that has been consistently underwhelming at the dish (30th in overall wRC+, 27th over the last month, and 30th over the last two weeks). The 24-year-old Cole is just five-percent owned, and while his Triple-A season was somewhat middling, he’s flashed an ability to miss some bats through three starts in the majors. There’s risk here given the fly-ball rate, but it’s reasonable.