clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Roto Roundup: Giancarlo Stanton, Nolan Arenado, Brian Dozier, and others

Ray offers his thoughts on some of the top fantasy performers from Saturday's roto action, including Nolan Arenado, Brian Dozier, Giancarlo Stanton's injury and others.

By Ray Guilfoyle

If you buy something from an SB Nation link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

FanDuel: SB Nation One Day Fantasy Leagues

Many of you play in season-long leagues, while more and more of you are playing one day fantasy leagues. If you like the action of the one day leagues, make sure you join the FanDuel/SB Nation one day fantasy baseball leagues. All you need to do is click on the link below and join a league.

FanDuel/SB Nation One Day Fantasy League

  • Leagues start at 7pm every evening
  • It is only $5 to enter, and the top 4,378 win cash
  • Top prize of $10,000
  • Click the link above to learn more and get started
  • On most days, our own Tim Finnegan (@TimFinn521 on Twitter) offers his picks for your daily FanDuel rosters. His articles post at 6am daily.

Giancarlo Stanton out 4-6 weeks

When you swing the bat as hard as Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton does, you are bound to strike out, and hit the ball real hard quite a bit as well. Stanton tends to do a lot of both, as he has hit some of the longest and hardest home runs in the game this year. Sometimes swinging the bat that hard can lead to injury to an oblique, wrist or hand. On Saturday morning, we learned that Stanton broke the hamate bone in his left wrist and will be out of action for 4-6 weeks.

This injury happens to many hitters and some, like Danny Espinosa and Dustin Pedroia to name a few, can play through the injury, but reports indicate Stanton's injury caused an enormous amount of swelling. He will have surgery to remove the bone. Outfielder Ichiro Suzuki will replace Stanton as the Marlins starting right fielder while he is out.

This injury, and their disappointing record, could result in the Marlins being sellers at the trade deadline.

For more on Stanton's injury and the impact on the Marlins, make sure you check out FIsh Stripes, SB Nation's Marlins fan site.

Nolan Arenado: Top fantasy third baseman?

Coming into the season, I ranked Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson as my #1 fantasy third baseman for 2015 drafts. So far, he has performed well at the plate this season, but there are two third baseman having better seasons that Donaldson. One is Reds third baseman Todd Frazier. The other is Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado.

On Friday night, Arenado went 2-5 with 2 home runs, 2 runs scored and 4 RBI in the Rockies 8-6 win over the Giants. On Saturday, he went 1-4 with a run scored and an RBI in the Rockies loss to the Giants, raising his season slash line to .290-.323-.612 with 22 home runs, 47 runs scored and 66 RBI in just 71 games. He has already exceeded his 2014 season totals for home runs and RBI, and is on pace to hit 48 home runs and drive in 140 runs. Arenado is building on his power breakout from his injury-shortened 2014 season. His 36% hard hit rate ranks in the top 35 in baseball, and the hard hits, along with more fly balls, are showing up in his power numbers thus far in 2015. His .324 ISO and .614 slugging percentage ranks fourth in baseball right now.

After hitting 3 home runs with 13 RBI in April, Arenado has hit 9 home runs in May and 10 home runs in June, driving in 22 and 29 runs respectively. He certainly can't keep up this pace, but my projection of 25 home runs and 90 RBI will prove to be very conservative by the end of the season.

Remember when Arenado was still a prospect and people questioned how much power he would have?

For more on Arenado and the Rockies, make sure you check out Purple Row, SB Nation's Rockies fan site.

Roto Roundup

Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen had a very slow start to the 2015 season, hitting just .194 in April, but he returned to form as he has hit over .330 in May and June. On Saturday, McCutchen was hit in the left elbow by a Julio Teheran pitch and was removed from the game. Hopefully the elbow injury isn't serious and he can return in the next day or two. McCutchen is having another very McCutchen-like season in 2015, hitting .295-.384-.490 with 9 home runs, 40 runs scored, 44 RBI and 4 stolen bases, but is on pace for just 20 home runs and 9 stolen bases this season, a drop from his 2014 totals. It was reported after the game that x-rays on his elbow came back negative, so he may miss a game or two.

Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner is having a terrific season in 2015, and this tweet from Bill Shaikin from the Los Angeles Times tells you how well he is performing at the plate this season:

Turner currently ranks 5th among all third baseman with a 2.8 fWAR ahead of Matt Carpenter, Kris Bryant, Evan Longoria and Kyle Seager. On Saturday, Turner went 2-4 with a home run and an RBI, raising his slash line to .320-.392-.584 with 11 home runs and 36 RBI.

With both Hunter Pence and Nori Aoki on the disabled list, the Giants are moving first baseman Brandon Belt to left field, catcher Buster Posey to first base, and giving the every day catcher duties to rookie Andrew Susac. Susac batted fifth in the Giants lineup on Saturday, going 2-4 with 3 RBI and is now hitting .288-.367-.463 with 2 home runs, 11 runs scored and 8 RBI in 90 plate appearances. He figures to play at least 4-5 times per week going forward, and should provide owners a solid batting average and decent power. He is owned in less than 1% of leagues right now, and he should be owned in all NL only and deeper mixed leagues.

Coming into the season, some that Twins second baseman Brian Dozier could not repeat his 2014 stat line where he hit .242 with 23 home runs, scored 110 runs , drove in 71 runs and stole 21 bases. Dozier has proved his critics wrong the last two seasons, and is doing the same in 2015. Yesterday, he went 2-3 with a walk in the Twins 5-2 win over the Brewers, raising his slash line to .272-.348-.534 with 15 home runs, 57 runs scored, 37 RBI and 7 stolen bases.He is on pace to exceed his 2014 breakout season, as ESPN projects him to hit 33 home runs, score 125 runs and steal 15 bases. He is hitting for more power this season, as his .264 ISO and .534 slugging percentage indicate. He is hitting more fly balls this season and making harder contact (33% HH% vs 28% HH% in 2014) as well.

Fantasy Rundown

If you are looking for more fantasy baseball or football coverage, look no further than Fantasy Rundown, which provides links to all of the best fantasy content on the internet.