Tuesday’s Roto Roundup: Break Up The Padres!

The Padres have clearly been the surprise of the season to this point, leading the NL West behind excellent pitching. Last night was no exception, as Mat Latos went 7 strong innings and struck out 8 Rays. For the year, Latos is now sporting a 2.93 ERA, a 0.95 WHIP, and 79 strikeouts. As we go through our midseason rankings, I am inclined to believe he could very well end up in my top 25 starting pitchers for the remainder of the season.

Heath Bell also recorded his 18th save of the season yesterday. I drafted Mike Adams in one league as a late hedge on some saves, expecting the Padres to fall out of the race and move Heath Bell for prospects, and plug Adams into the closer's role. Adams has provided some nice numbers, but if I am still needing a saves hedge, it may be time to look elsewhere.

My thoughts about Matt Holliday, Alex Rodriguez, and others after the jump...

Wade Davis had another rough start, not making it through 5 innings and walking 5 while doing so. It was his 7th loss in his last 9 starts, and his 4th in a row. I am guessing that he will be given 1 or 2 more starts, but if he doesn't show improvement he could return to AAA and Jeremy Hellickson could be recalled. The race is too tight in the AL East for the Rays to wait to make the change for too long.

The ageless wonder Jamie Moyer went 8 innings of 1 run ball yesterday, striking out 5 and only allowing 3 earned runs. To me, Moyer is essentially like knuckleballers R.A. Dickey and Tim Wakefield. He's going to have some really good days, and there are some days that are going to make you want to pull out your hair. Today was a good day.

Apparently, Matt Holliday really enjoys hitting in front of Albert Pujols. He went 3 for 5 with 2 runs, 2 runs batted in, and a homerun yesterday. He has now raised his batting average to .308 to go with 11 homeruns, 35 runs batted in, 42 runs scored, and 6 steals on the year.I think he still has a chance to finish with 30-100, but it's probably an outside chance at best at the moment.

Hanley Ramirez doesn't appear to be suffering any ill effects from the hamstring tweak that he suffered over the weekend, as he went 3-4 with 3 RBI and a stolen base yesterday. No concerns here for me.

Roy Oswalt took his 9th loss of the season yesterday, but pitched well. He went 7 innings and only allowed 2 earned runs. However, this was the 3rd time he's faced (and lost) to Giants' ace Tim Lincecum. I think Oswalt is going to get traded somewhere before the deadline, and I think he's going to be a very nice acquisition for the team.

Tommy Hanson didn't have a particularly good day. 11 outs, no strikeouts, 9 earned runs, and 14 baserunners. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.

Justin Verlander didn't fare a lot better, but wasn't nearly as bad off as Hanson, giving up 5 earned runs and 8 base runners on only 8 outs. At least 2 of them were strikeouts. I'm wondering what would have happened after that if there hadn't been a rain delay and Verlander lifted at this point.

Casey McGehee is really having a very good season. He qualifies at 2B and 3B in Yahoo leagues, and is now hitting .273 with 12 HR and 50 RBI. I am going to have to seriously look at him for a top-10 spot at both positions in my midseason rankings, because he looks just as good this season as he did last season.

Alex Rodriguez hit his 9th homer of the season yesterday, and is clearly not providing the value his owners were hoping for. Interestingly, his HR/FB% is only at 10.5%, compared to a career rate of 23.1%. There may be a slight buy low opportunity here, as he does already have 48 RBI. I think he could still get to 30-100 if he starts to progress toward his career numbers.