Roto Roundup: Jon Gray, Alex Dickerson, Gerrit Cole and others

My personal Twitter account

I have been meaning to add a personal Twitter account for awhile and last night I finally decided to create one. You can find my personal Twitter account at @RotoRay_LAD. I will be free to tweet about many subjects, but the focus will be on fantasy baseball, and the teams I cheer for. In addition, I may tweet about current events, the stock market, politics, beer among other subjects.

Please give me a follow if you are up to it.

Time to pick up Alex Dickerson?

The Padres traded outfielder Melvin Upton Jr. to the Blue Jays for a low A pitcher Hansel Rodriguez. On the surface, this is a good trade for the Blue Jays, as they are in win-now mode, while the Padres are in a rebuild.

The trade opened up an outfield spot for Alex Dickerson, a 26 year old outfielder who was hitting .382-.425-.622 with 10 home runs, 50 runs scored and 51 RBI in 240 Triple A plate appearances before his call up about a month ago. Since his call up, Dickerson has shown his bat deserves a chance in the big leagues, and he has been on a power surge this week. On Wednesday, Dickerson went 1-4 with a solo home run in the Padres 8-4 win over the Blue Jays. Dickerson has now homered in four straight games, and is hitting .286-.326-.571 with 6 home runs, 17 runs scored, 14 RBI and 2 stolen bases in 89 plate appearances.

Dickerson is playing left field and batting clean up for the Padres, and it appears he will be seeing plenty of playing time as Padres GM A.J. Preller stated that outfield prospects Manuel Margot and Hunter Renfroe will be September call ups at this point in time. That could change in the next few weeks, but Dickerson is a solid add in deeper mixed leagues and NL only leagues right now.

Roto Roundup

I have written about Rockies young starter Jon Gray quite a bit this season, and for good reason. Gray, as I have written before, is an emerging ace. Yeah, I know it is tough to accept the fact that he pitches in Coors Field, but he has pitched well at home, and has pitched well in a few of the best hitters parks on the road as well. Last night, Gray limited the Orioles to one run on 5 hits, 2 walks and 3 strikeouts in 7 innings in the Rockies win in Camden Yards. The win moved his record to 7-4 with a 3.94 ERA, 3.80 FIP, a solid 1.15 WHIP and a 114-35 strikeout to walk rate in 109.2 innings. Since the end of April, Gray has given up two runs or less in 12 of his 17 starts, and appears to be pitching better and better as each month passes. His ERA has dropped in each of the last three months and his underlying skills indicate he will continue pitching like an ace. You just have to deal with the occasional Coors Field blow up. He is owned in just 40% of leagues right now, so grab him if you are in need of an undervalued starter.

The Marlins are giving the Mets a run for the second wild card spot in the National League, and one of the reasons has been the pitching of young starter Adam Conley. On Wednesday, Conley shut out the Phillies on 8 hits while walking 3 and striking out 6 in 6.2 innings in the Marlins 11-1 win. The win moved his record to 7-5 with a 3.38 ERA, 3.79 FIP, 1.30 WHIP and a 112-47 strikeout to walk rate in 117.1 innings. Over his last eight starts, Conley has given up two runs or fewer in seven of the eight starts, lowering his ERA from 4.13 to 3.38. After a rough May, Conley has pitched very well over the last two months, reducing his walk rate, which had been a problem earlier in the season, while maintaining a solid strikeout rate. If he can continue to limit the free pass, he could take a step up and enter the Top 40 starter conversation.

Two Pirates who have been disappointments this season had big nights at the plate, and on the mound last night. Outfielder Andrew Mccutchen, who has struggled for a good part of the season, went 3-5 with a home run, 2 runs scored and 4 RBI in the Pirates 10-1 win over the Mariners. He is enduring the worst year of his career, hitting .246-.317-.418 with 15 home runs, 56 runs scored, 42 RBI and just 3 stolen bases in 8 attempts. To put his season in perspective, after putting up an fWAR of 5 or better in each of the last five seasons, he has put up an fWAR of 0.6 thus far. So yeah, he is having the worst year of his career, and one has to wonder if he is playing with an injury, as I don’t think age has caught up to him this fast.

His teammate Gerrit Cole has been a bit of a disappointment this season as well, but his talents were on display last night, as he threw a complete game, limiting the Mariners to just one run on 3 hits, no walks and 6 strikeouts in the Pirates 10-1 win. He is now 6-6 with a very good 2.78 ERA, 2.88 FIP, 1.25 WHIP and a 73-23 strikeout to walk rate in 87.1 innings. His strikeout and walk rates are headed in the wrong direction this season, as is his WHIP, but he still has time to right the ship over the last two months of the season.

One of the bigger surprises this seasons has been Tigers rookie starter Michael Fulmer. Fulmer came over to Detroit in the Yoenis Cespedes trade last July, one of Dave Dombrowski’s last trades before leaving for Boston. The trade turned out to be a win-win for both teams as Cespedes helped the Mets get to the World Series, while Fulmer is breaking out in his rookie season. Last night, he limited the Red Sox to 3 runs on 7 hits, no walks and 3 strikeouts in 7.2 innings in the Tigers 4-3 win. He did not figured in the decision, but is 9-2 with a 2.50 ERA, 3.69 FIP, 1.09 WHIP and a 84-30 strikeout to walk rate in 97.1 innings. He has limited opponents to two runs or less in 11 of his 16 starts this season, and is showing the skill set to be a future ace in the Tigers rotation.