There will not be a Roto Roundup on Sunday as I am attending a concert outside of Philadelphia on Saturday night and it will be a late night. I will be back at it for Monday's Roundup.
I made an appearance on the Fantasy Baseball Roundtable show hosted by Fantasy Pros911's Patrick DiCaprio on Wednesday night. Also on the show were FanGraph's Mike Podhorzer and Albert Lang from Fantasy Pros911 You can listen to the show here. We discussed a variety of topics including the All Star game, Ricky Nolasco, Fernando Rodney, Justin Upton and others.
Midseason Position Rankings
Just a heads up, some of the writers and I are working on our consensus Midseason Position Rankings for the rest of the season, along with write ups for each position, and will begin posting them next Monday. We will post our rankings according to the following schedule. I have made a change in the schedule:
Monday 7/15: Catcher
Wednesday 7/17: First Base
Friday 7/19: Second Base
Monday 7/22: Third Base
Tuesday 7/23: Shortstop
Thursday 7/25: Outfield
Friday 7/26: Starting Pitchers
Fake Teams Podcast, Episode 17: Liquid Courage
Andrew and Zack discuss Josh Hamilton, Raul Ibanez and some recent call ups Danny Salazar, Sonny Gray, Jarred Cosart and others. You can listen to the podcast in two ways:
Jarred Cosart dominates Rays in his major league debut
The Astros called up pitching prospect Jarred Cosart on Friday and he dominated the Rays in his first major league start. Prior to his call up, Cosart had made 17 starts in AAA, going 7-4 with a 3.19 ERA, 3.61 FIP, 1.33 WHIP and a 93-50 strikeout to walk rate in 93 innings. He obviously needs to work on his command, but so do so many other young starters.
Cosart shut out the Rays for 8 innings, giving up just 2 hits, walking 3 and striking out 2 to win his first major league start. He had a no-hitter going for 6.1 innings before giving up a hit to Ben Zobrist. He will more than likely get sent back down to the minors after the start with the All Star break beginning Monday.
For more on Cosart's solid big league debut, make sure you check out Crawfish Boxes, SB Nation's Astros fan site.
Stephen Strasburg struggles
Prior to Friday night's start, Nationals aces Stephen Strasburg had given up two runs or less in eight of his last nine starts, including one run or less in seven straight starts between May 4th and June 27th. But, over his last two starts, he has given up 11 runs on 12 hits and 6 walks over 8 innings, including last night's two inning effort where he gave up 7 runs on 5 hits, 4 walks and2 strikeouts. Strasburg is now 5-6 with a 2.99 ERA, 1.13 WHIP and a 109-37 strikeout to walk rate in 108.1 innings.
For me, Strasburg has dropped a bit in my rankings as his strikeout rate has dropped from 11.13 batters per inning to 9.06 batters per nine, yet his ground ball rate is up from 44% last season to 51% this season. The trade off there is nice, but his owners would certainly prefer more strikeouts.
For more on Strasburg's terrible start last night, make sure you check out Federal Baseball, SB Nation's National's fan site.
Round'em Up
The Marlins traded Hanley Ramirez to the Dodgers last summer and in return they received young starter Nathan Eovaldi. Eovaldi started the season on the DL with a shoulder injury, but since his return he has pitched very well, and could be the Marlins #2 starter behind ace Jose Fernandez. Last night, Eovaldi gave up three runs in the first inning, but shut out the Nationals over the next five innings. He gave up 3 runs on 3 hits, 4 walks and 5 strikeouts to earn his second win of the season. He is now 2-0 with a 2.93 ERA, 4.02 FIP, 1.04 WHIP and a 18-13 K-BB rate in 30.2 innings. He has gone at least six innings and given up three runs or less in each of his five starts thus far.
Indians starter Corey Kluber shutout the Royals over 7.2 innings last night, giving up just 3 hits, walking 3 and striking out 8. Kluber has been a pleasant surprise for the Indians this season, and is now 7-5 with a 3.88 ERA, 1.24 WHIP and 94-22 K-BB rate in 95 innings. He has given up 3 runs or less in 10 of his 15 starts this season. Kluber is a sneaky play if you are looking for a starter to provide you some strikeouts and he is owned in just 17% of ESPN leagues right now.
Orioles first baseman Chris Davis just keeps on hitting long balls. Davis hit his 35th home run of the season last night, going 2-4 with a HR, 2 runs and 2 RBI and is now hitting .313-.390-.702 with 35 HRs, 66 runs and 88 RBI, and is on pace to hit 60 HRs and drive in 152 runs. He has to be a shoo-in to hit 50 home runs at this point, and I wish all the writers questioning whether he is on PEDs would stop. The guy hit 35 home runs last season, and it isn't like he doesn't have excellent power.
Pirates third baseman Pedro Alvarez was added as a participant to the MLB Home Run derby earlier this week and last night he showed he belonged as he smacked his 24th home run of the season in the Pirates 3-2 extra inning win over the Mets. Alvarez went 1-5 with the home run and 2 RBI and two strikeouts, but is having his best season as a big leaguer thus far. He is now hitting .253-.313-.525 with 24 HRs, 29 runs and 62 RBI, and is on pace for 43 HRs and 110 RBI, which would be career highs in both categories.
More from Fake Teams:
- MLB Futures Game: The Players
- A Cautionary Tale: Danny Salazar
- Around the League: A.L.
- Low Level Prospect Review: Lucas Giolito, RHP, Washington Nationals
- Baez Remorse: Make sure you know what you're getting with the Cubs "shortstop" prospect
- Fake Teams Podcast Episode 17: Liquid Courage
- Streamer Report: Weekend Pitching Streamers
- Waiting in the Wings: Henry Urrutia