Wednesday’s Roto Roundup: The Debut of Pedro Alvarez

This article was originally posted by Jason Hunt over at Fake Teams

After much discussion as to when he would appear, Pedro Alvarez was summoned to the Majors late on Tuesday, and made his debut against the White Sox on Wednesday. He went 0 for 2 with a run scored, a walk, and a strikeout. Clearly, the Pirates didn't bring him up to have him play only a few days a week, so he's going to be playing a majority of the games. I would say that I don't think it is impossible that he could be a top-15 3B from now through the end of the season.

Player A/B for today:

Player A: 5 wins, 89 K, 3.67 ERA, 1.18 WHIP
Player B: 4 wins, 88 K, 3.61 ERA, 1.29 WHIP

Well, Player A pitched yesterday and recorded his 5th victory. That pitcher: Ryan Dempster. Player B has been struggling a bit this season, but odds are that you'd rather have him when I tell you that he is Felix Hernandez. Dempster quietly, nearly every year seems to be a very solid starter for fantasy.

Bit of a scary moment in San Francisco yesterday, as Tim Lincecum ended his day by being hit with a batted ball off of his shoulder in the 6th inning. He was most likely going to be pulled after that inning regardless, as he was already at 114 pitches, but it is something to be at least monitored for his next start.

It is looking more and more like the old Vernon Wells is back to stay, as he hit his 16th home run of the season last night against the Padres. I had honestly left him for dead before the season, and he clearly is going to be one of my missed calls on my rankings. He is now hitting .282 with 42 RBI to go with the homeruns.

Not sure if I should read too much into this, but in a 6-1 loss yesterday, Trevor Hoffman pitched the 9th inning. Granted that it was still a low-leverage situation, and the Brewers had no real good opportunities to get back into the game, but Hoffman did get through the inning without a hitch, and I have to believe that the Brewers want to get him back into the closer's role when he is confident enough to take it.

Well, Livan Hernandez owners finally got the Livan everyone else was expecting to show up. 8 earned runs and 6 walks over 6 2/3 innings last night against the Tigers. I don't think he'll be that bad the rest of the season, but I think this may well signal the end of the sub-3 ERA that he has been posting to this point.

Dustin Pedroia looks like he may be starting to heat up after slumping for a majority of the season to this point. He homered, scored 2 runs, drove in 2 runs, and stole a base yesterday in the Red Sox' victory. I own him in one league where I had thought I would have gotten a bit more out of him to this point, and hopefully this is the start of a very nice hot streak for Pedroia.

Neftali Feliz recorded his 17th save of the season for the Rangers yesterday. When they elevated him into the closers' role, I figured that at some point he would cough up a really big one and the Rangers would put either Frank Francisco or Chris Ray back into the role. At this point, he looks well on his way to winning the AL Rookie of the Year award and even potentially an All-Star appearance. Long term, I'm not sure which way they should continue to develop him at this point, as his stuff has closer written all over it.

Scott Baker struck out 12 over 7 shutout innings and a victory last night. A very nice performance, and someone who has been a bit unlucky this season to this point (4.81 ERA vs. 4.19 FIP) generally point to a buying opportunity. Now, he's probably still only a spot starter in 10-team leagues, but he's someone I would target in any leagues deeper than that.